#Danny is just flying around Gotham as Phantom like it's normal

[nelkcats]

Beans 🐾

As soon as Danny arrived in Gotham he noticed something very curious about it vigilantes: Although they were called "bats" and their leader seemed to be "Batman" they used toe beans on their costumes!

From what Danny could make out, they were used to reduce the impact when they fell from ceilings or high places. But it was still quite shocking to watch! Even though they all had different types of suits and sizes, they still seemed to include the beans!!

Honestly, Danny couldn't take Red Hood very seriously when he asked him who he was and pointed his adorable gloves at him (he looked like a kitten!!!), the halfa couldn't help but say aww to the bat-cat.

For their part, the bats had added toe beans under Selina's influence. They found them useful, although they seemed to be distracting the meta that recently settled in Gotham! How were they going to ask him questions if he was always imitating kittens and getting distracted when talking to them!?

[sonicman66]

Dum DpxDc idea time again

Beneath a cut for length, and tldr at the bottom.

A reveal gone well leads to the Fentons branching out in tech and reconsidering their 'rip the ghosts apart molecule by molecule' stance. They gain enough renown for their new approach, as well as people finally noticing how good their tech is when they're not focused on ghosts.

This is all fluff, of course, to provide an excuse to get the Fentons in Gotham.

Gotham starts to change within a day of the family arriving. The constant fog and overcast clears up a little, letting sunshine pierce through. The oppressive aura of fear, despair, and hopelessness lightens, and people smile a little bit more.

Meanwhile, Danny is sicker than a dog, feverish, coughing up nasty stuff and destroying it when he foes hack something up. He's enjoying his tour, despite his sickness, and everywhere he goes seems a little brighter.

He goes out one day as Phantom, just to see the sights, flying around invisibly. He's also searching for what's making him sick, bc the last thing he hocked up was glowing bright green, and that is definitely not normal.

He finds a goddamned lake of boiling, corrupted ecto beneath gotham and now his sickness makes sense. The damn stuff has been acting like ghost-pollen, making him sick!

So he flies down and purifies it, something which escalates his sickness to unexpected levels, and he barely makes it back to the hotel his family is staying at before collapsing.

Meanwhile, on the Bat's end of the situation, they're confused and Panicking, just a little bit. Gotham is improving, suspiciously so. Normal people wouldn't look this gift horse in the mouth, but Bat-Paranoia is powerful. They look into this phenomenon, and find that the improvement coincides with the arrival of the Fenton family, and each location experiencing the best conditions is one they had visited.

Then, Signal sees an invisible boy flying around, wearing a crown of frozen flames and a ring pulsing with righteous fury, and now he's got... a lead? Maybe?

Everything goes bananas when they find out that a teenager apparently dove into the Lazarus Pit and flew off after turning the entire thing into water. They have so many questions right now.

Tl;Dr: Fenton family goes to Gotham, and Danny acts as an ecto-filter, purifying the ambient ecto of the corruption that the Lazarus pit was putting out. This makes him sick, but improves Gotham greatly, leading to very sus bats.

[wandixx]

Ghost of fries and Hero of cookies part 2

All work words count: 14 593

Words in this part: 1 794

Summary of whole work: Duke wasn't expecting to wake up from his quick rooftop nap to some meta kid with fries. He also wasn't expecting kid to stay Or Danny asked Dani to stay safe while she was in Gotham. Where would she be safer than under the wing of local hero? And he looked like he needed bad day combo anyway

This part summary: Of new names and teasing

Beta read by @audhumla-sailor though English is second language for both of us, so proceed with this in mind. I also know all of the charaters through fics alone, so probably ooc. Stay catious if it's something you don't like

First part

Duke knew that Dani was in their agreed meeting point, he even vaguely knew where she was floating but not much more. She used her invisibility, which was weird since she knew it didn't work correctly on him. It was fifth time they met, of course they knew. 

"Hey Signal, remember how you said that I need a codename if we're going to hang out in future and that all my previous ideas were horrible names?" a disembodied girly voice asked. Duke smiled. Ever since he raised the idea, the girl would come up with ridiculous names to be called, proposing them with absolutely straight face. It was expected from someone who thought Dani Phantom was a good alias. It didn't make her ideas any less amusing.

"Of course I do. Whatcha got for me today?"

"Alright, since you don't let me be a name stealer, I decided to take a sheet from local nightlife's notebook–"

"You mean take a leaf from their book?" He was sure she was rolling her eyes on him, but it didn't stop him. No one could maim English language like that with him around.

"Whatever. I chose to steal their idea and became a bird. It's only fair since I can actually fly!"

"Can't exactly disagree. So, what did you get this time?"

"You'll like that, I promise. But now, I introduce to you…"

Duke got ready to shut down every Robin iteration and all Birdgirls he could think of.

"HOOPOE!" Dani yelled, popping back to the visible spectrum. She was covered in bright orange cape with weirdly shaped hood and flimsy mask "I even did some costume changes to fit the name better–" in all honesty, one, yeah, he wasn't blind he realized, two, he needed a moment to remember how these birds looked (his first thought was 'wait it's a thing?!'). But then he got it and yeah, those were funny little creatures, just like Dani. It fitted her "–so even if you don't like it, it doesn't matter," she added, sticking her tongue out.

Duke patted her on the head. He was there, he knew it mattered.

"It's a great name Hoopoe"

Dani visibly though probably unconsciously, relaxed. Her mouth curved into a proud grin and her aura brightened. Normal auras didn't do that. He got used to Dani surprising him like that sometimes.

"Of course it's great, I made it."

Duke chose to not remind her about almost two dozen times she came up with absolutely not great names or about the fact that technically she didn't quite make this one either. He wasn't in such a petty mood. Maybe in future if he needed blackmail.

Oh, it was such a Bat thing, wasn't it? He needed to spend some more time with his civilian to get it out of himself, he liked his ability to interact with normal people in a healthy way. 

*

"Wait, is your mask a paper?"

"What else could it be, titanium?"

"If you stop three muggings on the next three patrols each I'll get you a better one, okay?"

"Hey, my mask is perfectly fine"

"Yeah, but it can tear too easily. I can get you a mask that is more sturdy."

"Aha."

"It's the same material every Robin and Nightwing wear…"

"Don't care, my mask is flawless"

"..."

"Okay, better mask would be cool"

***

On the third patrol Dani joined, about a week and a half ago, they exchanged numbers. Duke knew how hard it was to come to terms with new powers on one's own and God strike him with a lightning or something if he ever lets anyone go through similar bullshit. Especially since she didn't seem to have anyone taking care of her. Girl her age shouldn't be able to hang out or respond to messages within ten minutes at any given time. Only twice she didn't do that, because she was on a celebrity hunt for autographs as she later explained. He would be teased endlessly if any Wayne or their associate learned about it, but he considered introducing Dani to Bruce. She needed help, okay?! He didn't inherit adoption tendencies.

But he hadn't done that, partially because he didn't want to scare Dani off and partially because of fear of teasing. And bet. Because of course in the meantime somehow there happened a bet. 

He smirked at the video Dani sent as a response to the hydration check. She was tossing a coin and playing an elimination game to pick one juice from eight drinks she had. Steph jumped over the back of the couch to join him. At the start she was in front of him so to do that she had to run around the furniture but such minor inconveniences couldn't even wish to stop her dramatics.

"You're smiling at your phone ergo you either text your secret girlfriend/boyfriend/enbyfriend or watch memes. Show me the memes," she demanded, nudging him in the arm. Duke chuckled.

"Wrong guess. I'm texting my sidekick," they agreed it would be a funny way to introduce Dani to people who asked. Duke tried his best at this whole having sidekick thing anyway. As well as he could without help from other Bats because of this damn bet.

Steph froze for a moment.

"Your what–"

"And the lucky winner is… an apple with mint juice! Damn I really hoped it would be lemonade,"  Dani from the video announced cheerfully before opening the bottle" Shame it didn't make it past semi-finals. Happy hydration break. I'm going on an autograph hunt so I may not respond for the next two hours or so. Wish me luck, bye~"

Duke paused the video before it replayed. He glanced at Steph who finally rebooted.

"How come you got a kid and I learned about it just now?"

“In my defense I'm like 60% sure you're the second person in the family to learn about her. Depends if Tim got his ‘I have to know everything, gotta check body cams’ paranoid spree in the last two weeks or not. There was no teasing from Babs or anyone else if I'm being honest and no lecture from B, so they have no idea.”

“First was Alfred?”

“First was Alfred. I still don't know how.”

“That's our grandtler for you. You are forgiven but you have to tell me everything about her,” Steph demanded excitedly. “And show me the photos''

Duke snorted.

“She goes by Hoopoe and is about Damian's age. She can tell you her real name when B inevitably finds out and tries to interrogate her.”

“What if Spoiler drops by during the day?”

“You can try but give it another week and a day, okay?”

“Why?”

“We have bet that I'll hide her from B for three weeks. Tomorrow is the end of the second week. We both know how he is, he'll have questions if you randomly show up during the day."

"Stakes?"

"Speedster worth of winners favorite Batburger meal, 2 quarts of chosen drink and cookies"

"Valid. I ain't snitch, but I want to know more. Is she a meta?”

"Yeah. Powers I know of are invisibility, intangibility, superspeed, enhanced hearing and flight. Probably more. I think she already had some training with it because she has quite amazing control over this stuff. Like, it comes naturally to her. But her hand to hand is atrocious."

"Are you jealous?"

"No."

"Omg, you totally are! Don't be, she is just a baby with a better idea of what's going on with her powers than you have with yours. There is nothing to be mad about Duke, it's okay Duke–"

"Keep going and I won't tell you anything about her," he dared, trying not to snort. 

"Sorry, sorry, you're doing great, please continue," she nudged his arm again "Don't be such softie, dude" He stared at her at the comment, disbelief clear on his face. Steph at least then looked a little ashamed "Okay, sorry. You're honestly doing far better than any of us would. Excluding Cass and Alfred."

"Excluding Cass and Alfred," he agreed easily enough.

"So, you think your kid has some training with her powers," she recalled eagerly.

"Yeah, probably from when she was helping her cousin. He is a hero in Amity Park, Illinois, his name is Phantom. It took very little digging even though Hoopoe does her best to stay mysterious. I swear this kid has no brain-mouth filter. But! I got my second shovel talk from her cousin!”

“The what?”

“After a week of hanging out with her, I got message on Signal’s twitter from Phantom that basically read as ‘I have nothing against you, really dude I’m a fan but here is list of my most powerful enemies, and let me tell you, there were some scarily powerful guys there, I won with all of them, if something bad happens to Hoopoe I can and will destroy you.’ After some research, yes, I think he could try and have considerable chance of success. Even if he didn’t fight would be painful enough to be a lesson. He and Hoopoe have the same powers and she worked with him for some time. She most likely learned then. She was called Dani Phantom, boy went by Danny Phantom then”

“Dear gods, their aliases were so horrible, who even let them go with it?! Are those their first names?!” Steph sounded genuinely offended by it.

“I don’t know,” Yeah, he knew, but he preferred to keep at least this secret to himself ”In boy's defense, because Hoopoe came much later,  he was fourteen and Amity went to shit really fast, so alias was probably not his first concern. And it’s much better than Invioso-bill, name he was given by the press. And he uses some intense gaslighting to make people believe it’s just Phantom now. And allegedly they’re both ghosts. Apparently ghosts don’t exactly have secret identity”

“You doubt it”

“You would too. She eats, she breathes and she is tangible by default. From what I know, ghosts don’t do that”

“They don’t, I checked. I went on a research spree when I first learned about Deadman. I just thought it was so cool you know. Ghosts being real and all,” Steph leaned towards him, almost vibrating with anticipation.

“Really?” he asked, knowing what he was getting into.

“Yeah, you see…”

And on she went, releasing expected infodump as if she waited for this opportunity ever since she first read about it.

********

Some additional name getting shenanigans

Signal: I won't call you Dani in the field

Dani: Why?

Signal: Ever heard of secret identity? Name is, like, half of it. Disguise is other half but it can be exchanged with lore. Superman made it work. Just make up enough lore for people to not question it.

Dani: Oh, okay *gremlin^2 mode activated*

Random they just rescued: And who are you little one?

Dani: *looking them dead in the eyes* I am clone of dead child hero, travelling around the world to find identity separated from my template befre mistakes made during my creation make me turn into puddle of primordal liquid and my conciousness fades forever

Random: *petrified* What?

Signal: *internally* I have miscalculated

Dani: Kid Signal

Signal: No.

Dani: It works in Central

Signal: We're not in Central

Dani: Signalgirl

Dani: I mean, Batgirl exists

Signal: No.

Dani: Monochromatic Signal. Y'know, Red Robin route?

Signal: ...

Signal: Just no. Don't make my name part of your name

Next part

Do you want to see some Hoopoe doodles I made? There were redesigns!!!

[robinsegghead]

Danny's Daycare Part 14

[Master List]

TW for implied/referenced sexual assault of a minor!!! as well as descriptions of a panic attack

So, maybe he’d been wrong- it wasn’t an impossibility! Duke had really thought Danny seemed like a nice, normal, completely not crazy guy who just wanted to do a good thing for people in need and- okay that last part still seemed true- but there was no way Danny didn’t have some screws loose. Duke had noticed the moment he met the guy that he was brighter than most people. Hell, Danny was brighter than most metas Duke had met, but he’d pushed that fact aside (with a few excedrin to help) and focused on his job.

The job part of his job, not the spying part Tim had assigned him. Duke really enjoyed helping out with the kids and spending more time with Mia and getting to know Danny was a plus. He was a really cool guy and knew a lot about space, science, and strangely enough- the politics behind a monarchy… Duke still couldn’t figure that one out really.

But all-in-all, Daniel Nightingale was a nice guy, an even nicer boss, and was just doing his best to use his astounding wealth in a way that benefitted everybody except himself. Seriously, Duke had seen the pictures Tim had taken of the guy's apartment when he broke-in he could stand to upgrade his stuff a bit. 

Apparently this was one of those (very rare) times Duke was wrong. Because who in their RIGHT MIND catapults themselves onto a Gotham rogue (any rogue really, but Scarecrow was one of the worse to do this to) and starts beating the shit out of them? Not only that, but he’d spoken nonchalantly to the villain and hadn’t appeared even a bit concerned.

If all of that hadn’t convinced Duke that Danny was off his fucking rocker, the fact that a flying vigilante who glowed EXACTLY the same as Danny appeared out of no where, catching the fear toxin, and taking over on the Scarecrow beatdown would have. Duke had yet to mention to anyone that the vigilante and Danny glowed the same because what the actual hell could that mean? Maybe, if Duke had seen them separately, he might have thought they were the same person, but they were in the same room! At the same time! Everyone saw them simultaneously! 

Except apparently they hadn’t caught it on camera because Duke’s video feed had been conveniently cut off the moment the vigilante- who called himself Phantom- appeared.

Oh yeah- how could Duke forget that the vigilante had also admitted to being the Ghost King which (after sending an inquiry to John Constantine) had been confirmed. And Constantine had been pissed. Duke didn’t spend a lot of time around the JL let alone the JLD but even he knew Constantine being angry and frantic and worried all at once was a terrible sign. The (usually unreachable) man had demanded a meeting as soon as possible to go over their interaction with the ghost king and plan out next steps.

B didn’t take that too well.

After all of the kids had been sent home with their parents (who were notified that the daycare would be closed the next day), Danny had told Duke to take the following week off and not argue about it. Duke took his bike back to the manor and waited for the others to get back so they could debrief. 

Now Duke, Duke was known as the ‘easy’ kid. The kid that followed Bruce’s rules, in and out of costume, reported all injuries, gave detailed reports of every altercation, all around, a rule follower. This was not true. Sure, Duke reported his injuries- the small ones- and gave detailed reports- on things that didn’t matter- but Duke, like any other bird or bat, wasn’t a big fan of some of B’s rules. And something in him was telling him not to mention Danny and Phantom’s matching aura’s.

So he didn’t. He reported everything else, Tim grilled him about Phantom and Danny and their relation to each other which Duke insisted was non-existent, and eventually, they let him go to bed. But one of them wasn’t so easily convinced and it was the one who’d disappeared without a word after the altercation at the daycare and returned covered in blood.

Well- covered might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but Hood definitely had more blood on him than he’d had on him at the daycare. B had questioned him about that too, but Jason just mumbled something about a couple of muggers in his territory and refused to mention it further. Now, changed out of his bloody suit, Jason was leaning in Duke’s doorway with a question on his face.

“What is it?” Duke sighed, crawling under his covers and collapsing back into the bed. He’d been up early to do a quick patrol before work and was now regretting that decision.

Instead of responding, Duke heard the click and lock of the door and looked up to see what was happening. He and Jason were cool, Jason was a cool guy and Duke really looked up to him, but they didn’t hang out that much. They were on completely different schedules, with entirely opposite interests, and very little time. So Jason coming to see him was strange in his books.

Jason was standing in front of the now locked door and running a hand through his hair. “I need you to be one-hundred percent honest with me, Duke.” His voice was serious in a way that Duke hadn’t heard often, especially not directed at him.

“Okay..?” He straightened up, hoping Jason took that as him giving his full attention. “What’s up?”

“Did you… notice anything… about- about Phantom?” He asked nervously.

And damn wasn’t that a wild thought. He didn’t remember seeing Jason nervous before. “Notice anything like what?” Duke asked carefully. He still wasn’t sure he should admit to anyone that he thought Danny and Phantom were related somehow.

“You see like… auras or whatever, yeah?” Shit. Duke nodded. “You said before that mine reminds you of the pits. Neon green and kinda toxic, right?” He nodded again, slower this time. “What did you notice about Danny and Phantom?”

Duke opened his mouth to argue that their auras were nothing alike, but that wasn’t true now that he thought about it. Danny’s aura was bright like, brighter than looking into the sun, he was pretty sure his boss had noticed how often Duke avoided looking directly at him. But underneath how bright it was, there was a distinct green color and the feeling of electricity- which was different to Jason whose aura felt like heat and poison. 

“Duke?” Jason raised an eyebrow.

Shrugging, Duke went for a half truth. “They were both kinda green like yours if that’s what you mean.”

Jason pursed his lips in a way that told Duke he had expected that answer but didn’t like it. He sighed loudly, placing his hands on his hips. “Okay. Thanks.” He turned to leave, unlocking and opening the door.

“Why?” Duke questioned back.

His brother paused, halfway out of the room. “Just a hunch. Thanks again, kid, I’m glad you’re okay.”

Only after Jason left did Duke really question what all of that was about. What kind of hunch could Jason have had about Danny and Phantom’s auras? Was he using his own as an example or a comparison? Because, yeah, now that he thought about it, they were similar to Jason’s in color, and he hadn’t seen many people with that exact shade of green in their aura before, but it could have just been a coincidence, right?

Except, in what world would Jason come to Duke to inquire about something that specific and just happen to bump into a crazy coincidence like that? And thinking back on it, hadn’t Hood been trying to get the chance to speak to Danny for a bit after the attack? Duke didn’t count himself as one of the best detectives in the family, there were many people he thought were better than him by a long shot, but everything about this smelled fishy.

What could Jason possibly want with Danny and/or Phantom? Hadn’t B demanded that Jason hand over some card Phantom had given him only for Jason to refuse point blank? Damn, maybe if he wasn’t so tired he’d be able to think better. He’d read the reports tomorrow, now he just wanted to sleep.

~~~

Danny woke up to a weight on him. Actually, he woke up to three weights on him. One was pressed between him and the couch, partially draped over his chest and crushing his arm- it was completely numb at this point. The second was fully on his chest, splayed out across his body and jabbing a sharp elbow into his neck. The last weight was much lighter and almost comfortable, keeping his feet warm.

Opening his eyes, Danny found Miguel, Santi, and Curiosity all sleeping on him. Frowning, he tried to remember how they’d ended up curled up on- he looked around- Miguel and Santi’s couch. Miguel had made it pretty clear early on that he didn’t like much physical contact and even though Santi wasn’t as uncomfortable with it, Danny had mostly avoided it unless they initiated it.

Everything came back to him as he finally registered the crusty feeling in the corners of his eyes and remembered quietly crying while holding the boys and assuring them that they were safe in his arms. He’d expected them to eventually pull away, demand to know what he’d done to their dad, maybe get upset with him now that the threat had passed, something. 

He hadn’t expected them to curl up in his arms, cry their hearts out, and all fall asleep together. He was pretty sure they’d slept through the night which, for him, was a feat in and of itself, but to do so with two other people and a cat all crowded onto one small couch was impressive. (He was still most impressed by sleeping through the night, he felt more refreshed than he’d felt in a long time- since the night the boys had first moved in.)

Miguel stirred, rubbing the heel of his hand across his eyes to deal with the crustiness. His movement jostled Santi who groaned quietly and shifted to get away only to find the was no room to adjust, only open air. The younger boy would have fallen off the couch and landed on the floor if not for Danny’s strong arm wrapped around him which pulled him closer.

“Whu- ‘m awake.” Santi mumbled, burrowing his face into Danny’s chest in an attempt to change that fact.

“Move dumbass,” Miguel hissed. “Gotta pee.” He explained, pulling out of Danny’s arms and forcing his way past the two bodies that held him down. 

Santi didn’t move again, continuing to press his face into Danny to block out the light shining through the window. Danny gently rubbed his hand up and down the boys back in an attempt to stir him awake. The boy grumbled.

Chuckling, Danny shifted his own body. “C’mon kiddo, let me get up so I can make you guys breakfast.” Santi huffed, ignoring Danny’s pleas. “If you don’t get up I’ll halfta pick you up and take you with me.”

The boy ignored him, or maybe didn’t believe him, and Danny adjusted his body to scoop the boy into his arms and hoist him upwards. “Fine, here we go!” He laughed, feeling the boy jolt and wrap his arms around Danny’s neck tightly.

“What the fuck, Danny!” Santi shouted.

Danny kept laughing, carrying the boy to the kitchen. Depositing Santi on his usual kitchen stool, Danny opened the fridge in search of eggs. His eyes landed on an egg casserole with a note and felt himself grinning before he realized it.

Take care of yourself. -RH

Whether the ‘take care of yourself’ was aimed at him or the boys (probably the boys- and wasn’t that a sweet thought?), Danny didn’t care, Red Hood had brought them food after the horrible night they’d had and left a note of care. 

Someone cleared their throat and Danny pulled the casserole out of the fridge, placing the note on the counter where the boys could see it, and popping it into the oven. Miguel stood next to where Santi sat, eyeing the note and Danny.

“You’re in a good mood.” Miguel commented, taking the stool beside his brother and adding the sticky note to what seemed to be a small pile of other sticky notes.

Danny shrugged, pulling out a few plates and cups. “I slept well and don’t have to cook, what’s not to be in a good mood about?”

There was a long pause that Danny only realized was an awkward one when Santi spoke.

“What happened?”

And- okay, that was not how Danny thought they’d bring up what happened the night before. He honestly wasn’t sure how he thought they’d bring it up, but maybe after breakfast? Maybe when they left the apartment and noticed the blood staining the hallway carpets (he’d have to have that cleaned. He was lucky the neighbors had been out of town for the past week.). Not first thing in the morning!

Leaning against the counter opposite them, he exhaled. “How about you boys tell me what happened… and then I’ll tell you what happened when I got here? Is that okay?”

The boys shared looks before hesitantly nodding. Miguel spoke first. 

“A few days ago some… friendsa mine told me our… dad’d been released from jail and- and he’d come askin’ bout me an’ Santi. They didn’ tell ‘im nothin’ but he musta seen me somewhere an’ followed me home. That’s… tha’s why I been so…” He struggled with his words so Danny just nodded understandingly. It could be difficult to admit that you’d been angry or moody- he knew. “Yesterday I went ta get me and Santi some snacks from the convenience store down the street.”

He knew that the boys left the apartment when he was gone, it’d be cruel to tell them they couldn’t, but he was still slightly surprised to realize Miguel had gone out for something as simple as snacks and had been followed home by- by him.

“I got home an’ locked the door an’ gave Santi his snacks but… someone started bangin’ on the door. When I heard who it was I-” he looked at his hands in shame. “I pushed Santi in a closet and barricaded the door.”

Santi wrapped his arms around himself. “I didn’t like that.” He muttered. “He… he used ta do that a lot back… back home.”

Danny had to remind himself not to go all feral monster and hunt their so-called father down to rip his dick off and shove it down his throat. He should have done that last night but Hood had pulled him off.

(Hood had stopped him from murdering someone again- something he knew had bothered Danny more than he was willing to admit- and held him back until he’d come back to his senses. He wants to imagine he’d have stopped himself before it went to far but… let’s be honest, the man was going to be hospitalized for a long time. It should never have gotten that far. Even if he still wished he’d killed the monster.)

“If he-” Miguel shuddered. “If he got in I wasn’t gonna let ‘im get ta ya.” His voice was firm and reminded Danny that Miguel had been doing that for a long time. How long he wasn’t sure, but too long. “He started bangin’ on tha door, shoutin’ and trynna get in. I sat in fronta the door an’ made sure he couldn’t.”

Taking a deep breath again because Danny really wasn’t all that good at containing his rage, Danny offered Miguel a reassuring smile. “You did the best you could to protect your brother, Miguel, I’m proud of you. And you asked me for help, Santi, I’m proud of you.” Both boys looked at each other before looking away, eyes clearly confused and misty. 

“I was on my way home from work when I got Santi’s texts. I got upstairs as fast as I could and tried to get him to leave.” Danny started, recounting exactly what had happened as best he could. He’d been seeing a lot of red. “I threatened to call the cops but he… Well, he said some things that were unacceptable and I got angry. I… attacked him. Hood had to pull me off of him.”

Miguel’s eyes were wide. “I thought…” His voice was low, hesitant, scared. “I thought ‘e was hurtin’ you.”

Oh.

Oh.

Stepping forward, immediately regretting not clearing up any misunderstandings the night before, Danny looked both boys in the eyes to see fear. Not OF him, but FOR him. Fear that he’d been hurt by the man who’d hurt them.

“He didn’t touch me.” Danny breathed. “Didn’t get a single punch in. I thought… I- I was worried you’d be mad.” He admitted. “I-” He sucked in a breath. “I made a lot of excuses for my parents.” Avoiding their eyes, Danny pushed on. “For years, I told people things were fine at home, that my parents would…. That they’d never hurt me if they knew it was me they were hurting.

“But they did. And… and even after they’d hurt me beyond repair- almost killed me,” His eyes blurred and he blinked back the emotions. This wasn’t about him, he was just trying to show the boys he understood. “After everything they did, I made excuses. It took a long time to give up on them. So I was worried you’d be mad at me for hurting him. And I wouldn’t hold it against you if you were, I know what it’s like to have confusing feelings about your parents.” He finished, meeting their eyes.

Santi was the first to react, reaching his hand out and placing it on top of Danny’s. “I… I don’t know how I feel. But I know I’m glad you weren’t hurt.”

Following suit, Miguel hesitantly placed a hand on Danny’s and Santi’s. “I know how I feel.” His eyes were filled with anger and sadness and they perfectly mirrored Danny’s when he was seventeen. “‘M glad you were there. I- I don’t know what woulda happened if you’d been too late.”

“Well,” Danny let out a sigh of relief. “Luckily, we don’t have to think about that. I wasn’t too late,” (Yes you were.) “and Hood took care of it. Now we have to focus on moving forward and taking care of each other.”

~~~

“You don’t have to do that, Miguel.” Miguel heard Danny say from across the kitchen. Miguel shrugged, continuing to wash the breakfast dishes and lay them out to dry. “Aren’t boys your age supposed to avoid chores like the plague?” Danny muttered under his breath.

Snorting, Miguel dried his hands and faced him. Santi had been convinced to go take a nap shortly after finishing his food but even though Danny attempted to convince him to do the same, he refused. He was too jittery to even consider lying still and he saw things he didn’t want to every time he closed his eyes. So he’d stayed.

Being alone with Danny had stopped being scary a while back, after the first time he had been in a closed room alone with the man and he hadn’t attempted anything. But sometimes he still grew nervous. Not nervous because he was worried Danny would do something bad to him, but nervous because… it had been so long since he’d been around someone he… he genuinely admired. Someone he wanted to impress.

“What do you mean?” He asked, twisting the towel in his damp hands. Danny looked up inquisitively so Miguel clarified. “Whatdya mean ‘Hood took care of it’?” He knew his voice betrayed some of his feelings, but he hoped Danny wasn’t worrying that Miguel was mad about how things had turned out again.

Swallowing, Danny cleared his throat. “I uh… I don’t know.” Miguel tilted his head and furrowed his brow in question. “That’s just what he said. He…” The man let out a shuddery breath. “He pulled me off- off of your… dad, and when I finally calmed down he was… in bad shape. He told me not to come into the apartment until I’d… uh- until I’d cleaned up-”

Miguel had been around fights long enough to know Danny was trying not to mention he’d been covered in blood. His dad’s blood.

“When I came back his body was gone and Hood said he’d taken care of things. He wasn’t- I don’t think I-” Danny pursed his lips and stopped talking.

Miguel had had a long time to think about his dad- three years to be exact, and he’d come to a conclusion a long time ago. He came to it after the first time he’d mugged someone for a few bucks in their wallet. He came to it again when he’d gone hungry for the third day in a row so Santi wouldn’t have to. The conclusion had been tattooed across his brain after his first John had left him unconscious and bleeding in an alley after going too far.

It was a conclusion he hadn’t told Santi he’d come to- his baby brother hadn’t experienced things like he had, he couldn’t be sure they would agree but- “Good riddance.” Miguel choked out.

Whipping his head up, Danny met his eyes, like he couldn’t believe what Miguel had said. So he said it again. If not to convince Danny he’d said it then to convince himself. “Good riddance. Dead or a hospitalized vegetable; good fucking riddance.”

“Miguel-”

“I didn’t understand why he let you call ‘im that.” Miguel continued, needing to get everything out in the open. Unable to stop speaking now that he’d started. “Santi. That’s what- tha’s what he called ‘im when beggin’ for forgiveness. When ‘e went ta jail, no one was allowed ta call ‘im that- nobody but me. An’ no one is allowed ta call me Mick- nobody but Santi. He used  ta call me that when ‘e- when…” He took a breath. 

Danny opened his mouth, likely to comfort Miguel, but he couldn't handle it right now. He needed to say this he needed to-

“I get it now.” He met Danny’s eyes. “Santi saw it immediately, maybe even from the moment you first found ‘im but I told ‘im he was- was wrong. I was the one who told ‘im to- to keep a distance, to never be alone with you. I didn’t trust you. I wanted to but- but I didn’t- couldn’t-” Miguel could tell he was rambling at this point, Danny had stood up and seemed to be getting closer, but he had to say what he had to say-

“You’re dad-shaped.”

Danny’s eyes went wide, his arms froze outstretched to meet Miguel’s shaking frame. There was surprise on his face and Miguel wondered if he’d read it all wrong but he needed to- he couldn’t remember the last time he’d said what he wanted to and he didn’t think he’d ever say it again if he didn’t now.

“Santi keeps sayin’ you’re dad-shaped but I was afraid you- you were dad-shaped and I liked you and I din’t wanna find out you were like him and I couldn’t- I needed someone to-'' Apparently, when saying all of the things you needed to say, breathing was really difficult. He hadn’t expected that, but he couldn’t seem to get air into his lungs. “I jus’ wanted- I- I jus’- please don’ make me a idiot-” Miguel begged, feeling two hands gently but firmly grab his upper arms.

Danny was saying something but he couldn’t hear- why couldn’t he hear anything? His chest kept jerking and his face was wet and he hadn’t felt emotions this strongly in so long why did he let them out they always resulted in beatings and things so much worse and why was his chest jerking? The ringing in his ears was so loud and he couldn’t take it anymore and when did he end up on the floor- who was holding him? He should be afraid- why wasn’t he afraid of whoever was holding him-

“-guel, you’re safe. I’m not going anywhere, I’m not going to hurt you. You’re safe Miguel. You’re safe with me. I’d never hurt you.” 

Hiccuping, Miguel buried his face in Danny’s oversized sweatshirt. It doubled as a way to dry his face which Miguel counted as a win and he tried to listen to Danny’s words.

“You’re doing so well, Miguel. Thank you for telling me- you’re so-” The man inhaled quickly. “Ancients, you’re so brave, Miguel.” He scoffed and Danny stilled momentarily before resuming his rocking. “I mean it kid. You’ve been through so much and your first instinct is still to always protect your brother. And that’s so brave. But I’m here to help with that now. I want you to feel safe enough with me to not only leave your brother with me, but to tell me how you’re feeling.

“Expressing your feelings is hard- I- I’m still really shit at it. But you? You just told me how you’re feeling and why and what you want and you trusted me with that and that’s-” he whistled. “You never fail to impress me, Miguel.”

Part of him wanted to repress the tears he felt threatening to pour over, he’d just started to calm down and dry his face, but God if he hadn’t been waiting for someone to say that to him. Sobs wracked his body and Miguel… he just let it happen. He- he was safe here. He was okay to show how scared he was- how scared he’d been, there was no one here who’d use his feelings against him. No one who would manipulate him into doing things he didn’t want or risk them doing those things to his brother. He was in the arms of someone who would protect him and his brother- someone who had. 

He’d sat on the floor just like this last night, crying for an entirely different reason, thinking the man who’d given them so much was being beaten the way he’d grown up being beaten by the very same man. He didn’t know if that man was dead or alive or if he’d ever wake up or walk again and he didn’t care- he didn’t- that man would never lay another finger on him or his brother and that was all thanks to Danny and Hood.

The man who’d taken them in and given them everything they could want or need and the man who’d dropped by every other night for the last two weeks to check in and leave food. Safe. He and Santiago, they were safe. And for the first time in as long as he could remember, they were safe- not because of Miguel, but because of two random adults who’d decided to protect them even at risk of their own safety. 

Huh.

It was a new feeling.

He liked it.

Prev. Next

[luxaofhesperides]

Ghostlights as college roommates and maybe some identity shenanigans thrown in would be so fun! Maybe dannys doing a little vigilante work on the side as well to up the secret identity mayhem

Danny would like to say his college career is going well. Gotham isn’t where he was expecting to pursue higher education, but the engineering scholarship he got through the Wayne Educational Foundation was just too good to turn down. It even covered the cost of an apartment! Although, the apartment is shared with another student who got a Wayne scholarship. 

Even with that, Danny lucked out and got a great roommate. Duke Thomas is chill, kind, respects Danny’s space and doesn’t throw wild parties or invite random people in at all hours of the day. He even joins Danny twice a week for study sessions!

Really, it would be the perfect college experience except for one thing: the ghosts.

Danny thought they’d stay in Amity Park. They had no reason to stray from the city where the portal was, and his parents are more than enough to keep most ghosts away. It took his friends, Jazz, and even Vlad to convince Danny that he wasn’t abandoning Amity Park and that the city wouldn’t fall while he took a few years to focus on himself. 

He worried right up until he got to GCU and walked the campus for the first time. Then he decided to enjoy the four years he had on the scholarship to get his degree and live his own life like a normal person.

To say he’s pissed about the ghosts is an understatement. 

The one thing he was looking forward to most is not being Phantom. Gotham is home to the Bats and they’re more than capable of handling everything in the city. It means there’s no need for him here and he can focus on school and enjoy going on invisible flights without worrying about being hunted down or having to fight a ghost. 

“Are you fucking kidding me,” he mutters under his breath as he feels the familiar chill race up his throat, A cold mist wafts out of his mouth, curling around his words, and Danny quickly ducks his head and hides it from sight. 

“Did you say something?” Duke asks, looking up from where he leans against the kitchen counter, squinting at a recipe on his phone. 

“Nah,” Danny lies. “Just stressing.” He gestures to the papers he has spread out on the dining table, then stands up. “I’m gonna take a walk. Maybe that’ll get my brain to work correctly tonight.”

“Got your phone on you?”

Danny reflexively drops a hand to his pocket, checking that his phone is where it’s supposed to be. It’s what Duke asks every single time Danny mentions going out, worried about Danny being unprepared for Gotham. It’s nice of him, though Danny does wish he can say that he’s survived a lot worse than a few muggers. 

“Got it.”

“Alright. I’ll try to work on dinner while you’re out.”

Danny nods and offers Duke a small wave before pulling his shoes on at the door. He grabs his keys and heads out, double checking that the door is locked behind him. 

Then he glances around the hallway, checking that the coast is clear, and pulls up the chill of awareness in his chest. Slowly, he breathes out, watching the blue mist waft out and lead towards the stairwell. 

“Wonder who it is this time,” he mutters to himself, going into the cold, concrete stairwell. It always feels a little off in there, as if he’s been removed from the rest of the world when the door closes behind him. His footsteps echo oddly in the space, so Danny chooses to fly instead, keeping his feet off the floor. 

A few flights down is when he sees her: pale and translucent, a faint blue glow around her. She’s a familiar face. Emilia is one of the first of Gotham’s ghosts he’s met, leading to the rather unpleasant realization that ghosts don’t only come from the Infinite Realms. There’s a strange sort of magic in the very foundations of Gotham that makes it the way it is, creating ghosts that are different enough from what he’s used to that it leaves him off balance. 

Gotham keeps her dead. Few get to pass on peacefully, and most have to wait until they grow weak and wither away, a second death, before they can be released from the living realm. The ghosts of Gotham are pale and weak, for the most part, and try to cling to him so grow stronger from his ectoplasm. 

Most want him to help them pass on, or give them a way into the Infinite Realms. Some want him to bring justice to their killers. Others want to kill him and take his ectoplasm for their own so they can continue their reign of terror in Gotham, unable to be stopped even in death. 

Emilia gives him warnings. It’s not always her, but she tends to be the one to draw him out of his apartment, pulling him into a vigilante lifestyle because he can’t bring himself to refuse anyone who asks for his help, and the dead in Gotham have no one else to ask.

“Danny,” she greets. “Nueve is out again. He’s going after the ghosts near Chantilly Street.”

“The sun isn’t even down yet,” Danny grumbles. Nueve, an old gang enforcer who died a few decades ago, cannibalizes other ghosts. It doesn’t destroy the other ghosts, not really, but it makes them feel pain when they shouldn’t be able to feel much at all. Taking their limited reserves of ectoplasm makes him momentarily stronger, and he uses that stolen strength to try to harm the living.

He’s been successful a few times. Danny makes sure to rip him apart as much as possible these days; he won’t be here forever, but he’s hoping that within his four years at GCU, he’ll be able to permanently stop Nueve.

Times like these, he misses having a Fenton Thermos with him. Though he’s not entirely sure it would work on Gotham’s ghosts with how different they are. 

Emilia follows him down the stairwell to the ground floor. Once there, Danny shoves his hand into the floor, taking out the backpack he’s hidden in it. He’s done this change of clothes so often he can do it in just a minute now, hiding his face and pulling on gloves beneath a large hoodie with old ectoplasm stains along the sleeves and hem. A gas mask is pulled on as well, covering the bottom half of his face, a necessary addition to his Ghost Work Outfit™ after he almost got caught in some Fear Gas during Scarecrow’s last attack. 

“Alright,” he says, “Lead the way.”

Emilia takes off through the wall and Danny hurries to follow, going invisible as he hits the streets. 

It’s still early evening, the sun not yet fully set. Plenty of people walk along the sidewalks and cars pass by endlessly, honking at each other as they try to go twenty above the speed limit. Danny does his best to avoid running into everyone, deftly dodging the reaching hands of a few ghosts who spot him as he sprints by. 

They only go a few blocks away from his apartment building, turning into a dead end alley where a group of teens (living, for once) are stuck with their backs to the wall, clinging to each other as they warily watch the man in front of them carelessly twirl a gun around his finger. 

The man makes a strange clicking noise in the back of his throat, and it takes Danny a moment to realize that he’s trying to talk. 

Still invisible, Danny sneaks around to stand in front of the teens, ready to bodily protect them. The man looks alive, and Danny see any ghosts around save for Emilia, standing at the mouth of the alley. There’s something strange about him; his movements seem just a little off, not quite as fluid as they should be. It’s not the movement of someone on drugs. It’s something that screams uncanny valley.

The gun’s handle drops solidly into the man’s palm. He makes another few clicks, then raising the gun to point at the teens.

“Bad idea, pal,” Danny says dropping his invisibility. The teens behind him startle, gasping and trying to press themselves further into the wall. 

The man’s eyes flash weakly and the pieces click into place in Danny’s mind. Nueve must have gotten strong enough to possess someone. That is… alarming, to say the least.

He rips the gun out of the man’s hand and tosses it aside. Then he pushes away the man’s arm when Nueve makes a clumsy attempt to punch him. With his chest left wide open and undefended, Danny takes the chance to shove his hand into the man’s chest, feeling for the familiar chill of a ghost. 

And then he wraps his fingers tight around it and pulls out Nueve, leaving the man to collapse. 

The teens behind him scream and Danny winces. 

Pulling out a faintly glowing human figure from someone’s physical body does not look good. It’s the best way to end a possession, but it does look alarmingly like he’s just ripped someone’s soul out of their body.

Keeping hold of Nueve’s ghost, Danny steps to the side. “You guys should go now. Take care.”

The teens don’t need any more prompting. They take off in a run, tripping over each other in their haste to get away.

Danny spares a glance to the man unconscious on the ground, but there’s nothing he can do with an angry ghost in his hands, so he has no choice but to leave him there as he flies up to a rooftop farther down the street. 

“How many times do we need to do this, Nueve?” he asks tiredly, shaking the ghost.

“These streets should be mine!” Nueve howls, trying to break free of Danny’s grasp. But he’s quickly growing weak, his energy fading, and Danny’s holding back his own ectoplasm as tightly as he can. “They may have killed me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still take what I’m owed!”

“Dude, you’re dead. There’s nothing here for you. Move on.”

“You don’t get to speak on this, outsider. You think a freak like you has an say over us? You can’t stop us. You don’t even know what’s coming.”

Danny squints at him. “What, are you planning a heist or something? With your gang of dead people too weak to lift a piece of paper?”

“We’re not all dead. We’ve got living folk helping us and we’ll be taking you out first when we hit the streets.”

“Good luck with that,” Danny says flatly, “Begone with you.” 

Without giving Nueve a chance to say another word, he rips Nueve’s head off his body. His ghost wavers, then dissipates like smoke, fading away. 

Another side effect of whatever it is Gotham does to her dead: their ghost forms are remarkably fragile and it takes only a bit of strength to tear them to shreds, giving him some peace before they reform again. It won’t stop Nueve from striking out again, gathering enough strength until he’s able to possess some other unfortunate soul, but Danny’s bought himself some time to figure out what the hell was he talking about?

There are living folk involved with whatever he’s planning. It’s probably another gang, maybe someone with magic who is able to see ghosts? Which is not great. Danny doesn’t know much about magic; even when facing ghosts who used magic or magical artifacts, his go to method of dealing with them is to start throwing hands like there’s no tomorrow.

Well.

It’s a problem for later.

For now, Danny needs to get back to his apartment and work on his calculus homework. Hopefully he can finish it before he gets frustrated enough that he gives up and lies face down on the floor until Duke manhandles him onto the couch, where he’s less of a tripping hazard.

He’s just about to get back to street level when his Fenton Luck strikes again and he hears someone land on the roof, just a few feet behind him.

“Hey there, stranger,” the Signal says. “You know, we run into each other so often it feels rude not to introduce ourselves. Why don’t you go first?”

Danny turns to face the daylight vigilante, standing with his arms crossed as if that would make him look any more approachable. He’s been popping up wherever Danny’s out dealing with ghosts, which is very not great for Danny’s plans to have a peaceful, normal college life. 

Biting his tongue, Danny gives the Signal a quick two fingered salute, then goes intangible and drops down through the building. His invisibility sweeps over him and then he’s running through the streets, hoping it’s enough to keep the Signal from following him to his apartment.

He skids to a stop in the stairwell, dropping his intangibility just in time to crash into the wall. Panting, Danny waits for a tense minute to see if he’s been followed. 

When the door to the stairwell remains closed, he lets out a slow breath, then pulls off all the pieces of his Ghost Work Outfit, shoving it back into his bag. He takes a moment to fix his hair, messy from the hood, then shoves the bag back into the floor, safely hidden from curious eyes. 

Then he very casually walks up the stairs to the fifth floor and walks down the hallway to his apartment. His keys clang together when he opens the door, and Duke usually hears it when it does, but just in case, Danny calls out, “I’m back!”

He’s learned to announce himself after a few late night walks almost ended with him tackled to the floor when Duke thought someone was breaking in.

Duke doesn’t respond as he toes off his shoes. The stillness in the apartment feels off, as if the world is holding its breath. Cautiously, Danny walks in, trying to find his roommate.

He’s not in the kitchen. The living room is empty. Duke’s bedroom door is open and he’s not in there either. 

Something cold lodges itself in his chest. 

“Duke?” he tries again, looking over their apartment again for any sign of struggle, or something terrible happening, or even a mess that Duke needed more supplies to clean up. 

There’s nothing. The apartment is as it’s always been, just with an empty space where Duke should be.

Worried, Danny stands in the middle of the hallway, trying to figure out what he should do next. It’s because he’s standing so still, surrounded by silence, that he hears it: a light thud outside the window. 

Danny turns and he can swear he sees something large moving outside the window, disappearing from sight just as Danny takes a step into Duke’s room to check on it. He rushes to the window and pushes it open, looking down at the street, then side to side, and finally up to the last three floors of the building.

Nothing’s there.

Slowly, Danny pulls his head back inside, closing and locking the window. “Must be my imagination,” he says, trying to convince himself it’s not a big deal. 

He leaves Duke’s room and begins pacing down the hall, anxiety building steadily in him. 

His phones in his hand before he can think his actions through, Duke’s contact pulled up on the screen. He should call. He should make sure Duke is okay, but Danny hesitates. Is this something to be freaked out over? Would Duke thing he’s clingy and nervous and a bothersome roommate? He doesn’t want to risk Duke asking for a new roommate next year when the lease renews.

But he’s worried. It’s Gotham and Danny just dealt with a violent, murderous ghost threatening him. Duke can deal with a stressed out, worried Danny if it means he’s alive.

He hits the call button before he can talk himself out of it. It rings on and on and on until Danny starts to panic about having to find Duke’s ghost to avenge his murder. 

The front door is thrown open so suddenly and so loudly, Danny jumps and his phone clatters to the floor. 

“Danny! Hey!” Duke says with a bright smile, trying to catch his breath. He’s still holding onto the doorknob, slightly hunched over as he pants for breath. “I didn’t expect you back so soon.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah! Yeah, I’m totally fine.”

“Where were you?”

Duke straightens up and closes the door, kicking off his shoes. “Oh, just… out. Shopping. For dinner.”

Danny looks over his empty hands doubtfully. “No luck finding what you needed?”

“Nope!”

“What did you need? Maybe I can go to a different store and get it for you.”

“You don’t need to!” Duke says. “I just needed… tomatoes?”

Danny blinks at him. “We have tomatoes. Did you not know we had tomatoes in the fridge?”

“Oh, do we? Good to know.”

There’s something very weird about this conversation, but Danny doesn’t pry. Duke is weird sometimes, but it’s fine because he kindly ignores some of Danny’s oddities that come from being a halfa and a semi-retired hero. 

“Do you… maybe wanna sit down? Catch your breath? I can make dinner tonight if you want.”

Duke waves a hand in the air. “No, no, it’s fine. I got this. Anyways, how was your walk?”

He definitely shouldn’t talk about the cannibal ghost and his threats to take out Danny with his gang. “It was nice. Very quiet. You know, for Gotham.” He punctuates this with an awkward thumbs up and immediately regrets it, but it’s already done so he commits to it.

“Cool! Great. Just wondering, did you see anything weird?”

“Depends on what you’re asking about?”

“Just some guy wearing black with a hood covering his face. He’s been active in this neighborhood and I saw some people talk about him online. Apparently he just appears out of thin air.”

Danny tries not to wince. That’s him, alright. Gotham’s newest neighborhood menace. “I don’t think so, but there’s a lot of people in Gotham that were all black and walk around with their hood up.”

“True,” Duke concedes. “Well, just be careful when you go out, alright?”

“I always am.” He gives Duke the same two fingered salute he gave the Signal. Duke stares at him for a moment, eyes dark and almost dangerous, then he smiles and walks into the kitchen. 

“Wanna make dinner with me? I think we can figure out this recipe together. Unless you need to do your homework.”

“It can wait!” Danny hurries to join Duke, grateful for an excuse to push off calculus a little longer. He understands what he’s doing in the class, there’s just… so much work. He doesn’t even want to think about the tests. The tests make everyone cry.

“Alright, let’s get to it, then!”

“You’re in charge, chef,” Danny says, laughingly, and bumps against Duke’s side. He expects a light shove in return, something Sam and Tucker always did, but Duke goes tense instead, letting out a sharp breath that Danny is all too familiar with. “Wait, why are you hurt? What happened?!”

He goes to lift up Duke’s shirt to inspect his shirt, see the damage for himself, but Duke smoothly moves out of the way, grabbing Danny’s wrists and stopping him in his tracks. “I’m fine, Danny. I just got hit. Lightly. Minor bruising, really.”

Danny looks at him doubtfully, then wrenches a wrist free to lift up his shirt before he can move again.

Minor bruising is not how Danny would describe the blues and purples that decorate Duke’s entire side. He can see the outline of Duke’s ribs through the bruising. “How is this being lightly bruised? What hit you?”

“A car?”

“A car?!”

Duke winces, then pulls his shirt down. “I’m fine, Danny, really. It was just from a car that didn’t want to stop at a red light. I stopped another person from being hit, but the car got me pretty solidly. You know how bad Gotham drivers are.”

“Sit down!” Danny says, pulling Duke out of the kitchen. “I don’t understand how you’re still standing. I’ll get some ice, and I’ll handle dinner. You just stay there and stop pushing yourself for no reason.”

“Playing nurse for me now?”

“If I have to.”

“Would you wear a nurse costume for me, too?” Duke jokes.

Danny looks him dead in the eye and says, “If I have to. Would that make you follow my instructions? A tight little nurse dress?”

Duke sputters, cheeks darkening, and looks away. Danny grins, victorious, and darts back to the kitchen to grab an ice pack from the fridge. 

“Maybe I’ll wear one for you anyways, once you’re all healed up. Only if you’re good, though.”

“Danny, you’re killing me here.”

“Better me than a car.”

Duke laughs and takes the ice pack, pressing it against his side carefully. “Oh, for sure. Thanks, Danny.”

“Hey, what are roommates for?” Danny shares a warm smile with Duke, then pats his shoulder and heads back to the kitchen to start making a simple pasta dinner. 

Life in Gotham is weird and stressful and full of ghosts and heroes who won’t leave him alone. But it’s not all that bad, really. He’s happy with how he’s doing in college, and he’s beyond lucky to have Duke as a roommate. So long as Duke never finds out about his halfa status, then he’s sure they’ll be able to last all four years rooming together.

He just needs to keep a secret. 

Shouldn’t be too hard, right?

[rayzay]

A lot of spelling mistakes, the plot is all over the place ngl.

Keep in mind English is not my first language!

Danny was immortal, he couldn't die. Well, he couldn't die by old age. His human form won't die naturally and it won't age either.

So, when all of his family, friends and just quite everyone he knew died, he was left alone. But his family and his two best friends still haven't moved on, Danny was their unfinished business. So, like a good normal family, they decided to haunt Danny! Which is cute, but also can be seen as something horrifying if you don't know the context.

So, 85 years later, Danny still changes last name everytime he needs to (so about every 4 years), jumping from foster family to foster family. He moved to state to state, never staying in the same state for too long.

And in 85 years, a lot has happened.

Here's what changed with the world :

Superheroes and metahumans/non-humans are way way more accepted in society.

A lot of big city appeared such as, Gotham and Blüdhaven in Jersey, Central City in Missouri, Metropolis in Illinois, Amnesty Bay in Maine, Blue Valley in Nevada, Coast City in California, Dakota City in well...Dakota. Fawcett City, Star City..etc..etc..

All of these have also something particular, they're home to a hero and said hero works for the JL, known as the Justice League.

Danny wasn't really interested in hero-ing anymore, after all, there was people literally paid by the government to do that, so why would he do charity work? Of course he'll help if there's a catastrophe, but he'll just help the civilians get to safety, that's all.

Life kind of sucked for Danny. He couldn't get attached by people too much because he'll know he's going to outlive all of them, so why even bother trying?

Danny needed to find a new place to stay, preferably a big city, and in a state he didn't appear this year.

Danny decides to pick Metropolis, it's one of the safest option after all, Superman does his work pretty well, and casualties and crimes rate are really really low there..plus, Sam kept pestering him asking him to meet Lois Lane. (Danny needed to do an essay about journalism for some reason, and he stumbled across Lois Lane Wikipedia page, she was quite the character.)

Sam instantly took a liking to her, she's everything she aspires to be.

Tucker, him, seemed interested in Lex corp, not in a “Oh, I'm so so fan of him!” kind of way, but more in a “His technology is one of the best in the world, he could easily rival against WE.” kind of way.

His parents and Jazz were guiding him, telling him what to not do, and what to do, sometimes they argue, sometimes they stay quiet, sometimes Danny tune them out, can't blame him honestly, if a psychologist was always nagging me, telling me what to say, and doing some unnecessary rant about whoever's is talking to Danny body language I would want to tune them out too.

But they're mostly trying their best..and Danny can't blame them for that.

His parents always did a “ability checkup test ” and it's basically Danny just flying around, shooting his blasts, doing a ectoplasm shield, duplicating...just testing all of his powers to see if they're all okay.

Which, they always are but his parents keep pushing him to do it, and he always agree just to make them shut up.

Danny found a new ability, something he deemed impossible to do, he can fly, he has his strength, his speed, his stamina and his reflexes but, with his human form.

But everything else that works with ectoplasm or his ghost core he didn't have.

So he was basically a less powerful version of him, which, sucks, but it's kinda cool.

His family were ecstatic and so was he! Plain old Danny could be more..but no, he has to stay low. Otherwise he's going to get found by Vlad, or worse.

Danny does something, extremely stupid, but fun for him.

He decides to fly in Metropolis, but just high enough so no one could see him! Even though Danny has the same powers when he's Danny Phantom, it's different, it's weird, he has his core to help him concentrate, hearing the frost in there soothe his nerves, and help him get focused.

But, it's different, he has his slow beating of his heart, which is quiet, really really quiet, it's drowning against the noises of the city

He can't focus he can't focus he can't-

Danny starts falling, which is okay because he can just turn into Danny Phantom and easily get out of this shitty situation, but noo, Danny had, and still has the shittiest luck ever.

Superman catch him, of fucking course.

[piedpiperart]

Phantom in Gotham 8

Chapter 7

Once Danny made it to his room tonight, all of the excitement for the day drained out of him. Looking at the bedside clock he could see it was 12:30am, and sighed. Danny went and sat on the bed, which was probably the softest thing he’d ever sat on in his life. He patted the comforter, marveling in the bat-themed bedspread. He wondered if everyone in Gotham had bat-themed stuff decorating their house. The rest of the room was sparsely decorated, but Danny could see a change of clothes folded on the dresser among the empty desk, side table, and adjacent bathroom. 

Sighing again, Danny laid back on the bad, plopping onto the covers. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do now. It would be suspicious for him to leave now, considering the manor had pretty good security and no normal kid would be able to get out undetected. Danny frowned, besides, he couldn’t do that to Alfred. He shivered just picturing the disappointed look the old man would give him if he was caught sneaking out. Plus, he couldn’t leave before making sure Alfred and Damian would be okay in the blizzard. Weather like this could be unpredictable, Danny thought, eyeing the old rickety ceiling of the manor. 

Danny was staying, at least for now, he thought. It would be easier to pass the time until morning if he could sleep, Danny mused. He’d grown tired of figuring out what his ghostly sleep-schedule would be, so he figured it was easier to go without sleep until he passed out rather than lying awake in bed for hours without sleeping. He kind of wished he had a book to pass the time. Maybe he’d explore the manor, Danny mused, pushing himself up to standing. He listened for a minute for anyone making noise, glancing around for cameras. After finding nothing, he closed his eyes, whispering,”Going Ghost,” As the ever familiar white rings formed around his waist, traveling up and down to reveal his ghost form. The familiar feeling of cold death washed over him, and he stretched. Silently, he looked around again, and upon hearing and seeing nothing new, he turned invisible and intangible, and zoomed up and out of the roof. 

Danny whooped as he looped around the skies, happy to finally be able to stretch his wings after such a stressful day. He briefly thought about going to grab his stuff from the Pizzeria, but dismissed it for being too suspicious. At least he had his phone with him, he mused. Danny busied himself with checking out the neighborhood, a little in awe at how much snow was piled up, and still falling. Phantom laughed, holding his hand out to catch some snowflakes. 

Ever since the Accident, winter had become Danny’s favorite season. With the development of his ice powers, he wasn’t too surprised, seeing his core was more relaxed in the cold. Being out in the snow like this felt like a breath of fresh air to Danny, and after about an hour of flying he finally returned to the Manor. He stopped by his room first just to check if anyone came by to check on him, but found the door to still be locked. 

Unsure of where to go next, Danny picked a random direction before floating down the hallway. He refrained from going into any rooms on the off chance he’d find someone’s bedroom, so he just followed the hallways. Danny’s eyes widened when he came across a ballroom, and wondered just how big the mansion was. Did Vlad’s castle have a ballroom? Danny thought. He couldn’t remember, but he thought a ballroom would be perfect for a castle like his to have. Danny hung around a bit more before continuing on, this time coming across a pool. “Woah,”Danny whispered. It was huge, but even more exciting was the giant pile of pool floaties in the corner. After a minute of convincing himself to leave the floaties alone, Danny sat on the edge of the pool, sticking his ghostly boots in the water and marveling how the water moved with him invisible.

Absently, Danny wondered if this would show up on any cameras in the pool house, but continued to entertain himself by turning intangible and not a few times while staying invisible. Danny let out a breath. After getting nabbed by Red Hood, he had been more than a little stressed about what this meant for him going forward. Obviously he knew the most likely scenario would be for the Waynes to call CPS. Even if Hood and Alfred mentioned other options, he really didn’t want to be stuck in someone else's house. For one, they’d probably look into his background, and two, take him to a doctor of some sort to make sure he didn’t get any diseases from staying in an abandoned restaurant for a few months. Danny shivered, but not from the chilly pool water. If they found out he was… less than human, or even just a very sick child, it would make his whole situation worse. 

Danny floated up absently, hanging in the middle of the room for a bit. Red Hood was confusing to him. He hadn’t known a whole lot about the guy before meeting him as Phantom and getting rid of his grumpy ectoplasm. It was certainly a coincidence that Hood managed to find Danny, but he figured the man kept track of all the stuff that went down in his territory. Danny tilted his head, agreeing that if he were the vigilante and found a homeless teenager about to be swarmed by a blizzard, he’d do the same thing. 

Either way, Danny was pretty sure Red Hood didn’t know Danny and Phantom were the same. Still, it was nerve-wracking for him to meet the same person in both forms, especially one who now knew about halfas and ghosts. Danny’d regret telling him, but he knew how scary it could be to have your body change because of ectoplasm and not know anything about why or what’s going on. His core hummed happily at the reminder of Phantom helping the older vigilante. Yeah, he mused, it was the right thing to do. 

Danny hovered through some walls, and eventually stopped at what looked like a giant library. Delighted, Danny flew over to the shelves, skimming over the covers. It looked like he was in the rom com section, so he perused a bit until he found a mystery novel section. Danny read some covers before reaching out, only to snatch his hand back. He didn’t know if there were any cameras throughout the library, and floating books would be weird. Even weirder if the book ended up in Danny’s room. He sighed, before perking up. He strode back to his room, making note of how to get back to the library. 

Transforming back to his human form as soon as he reached his room, Danny turned to the door. Easing it open, he peeked out into the hall. Upon seeing empty hallways, he creeped down to the library, which was actually a long ways from his own room. He put a bit of ghostliness into his steps to make them silent, and a smile lit up his face when he managed to open the door to the library. Looking around again he tiptoed his way to the mystery section and picked out the one that caught his eye, ‘Name of the Star’. Danny made his way to the couch by the entrance with the book, and settled down to read. He smirked at the description when he read it was about a girl who could see ghosts. 

Hours later, around 5:30, Danny set the book down on a side table, eager to return to it later but unsure if he’d be able to take it to his room. He traversed back to his room with a pep in his step. It had been a long time since he’d been able to cook with Jazz, so he was looking forward to helping Alfred prepare meals. He wondered how many people lived in the manor, and how many they’d be cooking for. 

Danny shrugged, slipping into his room and putting on the clothes left out for him. They were similar to his regular outfits, with slightly baggy jeans and a plain gray t-shirt. It fit surprisingly well, and Danny wondered if someone his age lived in the manor. No way were the clothes belonging to Damian, since the kid was a few inches shorter than Danny. Shrugging, he made his way to the kitchen. 

Danny hoped he would get to make pancakes. 

Chapter 9

[phantoms-lair]

Ok Merry Christmas but may I ask about your Batfam Danny's take on Christmas when he gets to spend it with the Kent's now? No fighting about Santa Claus and all that and in fact Clark loves Christmas and believes in Santa not to mention that Santa clause does exist in the DCU. He even goes to give a lump of coal of Darkseid each year. So just was curious if he enjoys the holiday now that he can spend it with loving peaceful people.

"Clark, we need to talk about Christmas this year."

Under normal circumstances, Clark was always willing to talk about Christmas, but there was a weight in his mother's voice and a serious look in his father's eyes that made him think this wasn't going to be a fun conversation.

"We were worried that this being the first holiday experience in his new situation would be hard for him. But we got a letter from his older sister-" John looked back at Martha. "Danny has a history of rather severe seasonal depression. She asked us to keep Christmas lowkey this year, which we were happy to do but-" "Danny figured out what we were doing and was against it. Apparently he's been made to feel that making his being upset around Christmas known was being unfair to everyone around him and that he was obligated to bottle it up and put on a happy face." The was no attempt to hide the anger in John's voice. He could think of no worse lesson to teach a struggling teenager. "He also desperately wants Ellie to have the best first Christmas possible, so she doesnt 'turn out like him'."

Clark pinched his nose. "So if we go big it reenforces to Danny that he needs to hide his discomfort for the image of a happy family. If we go lowkey he'll probably feel miserable anyway because he'll feel guilty about 'ruining' Dani's first Christmas."

"We've been trying to find a happy medium. We think we have an idea, but wanted to run it by you before we asked Bruce." "Bruce?" asked Clark. "Danny was his before he was ours. And Wayne Manor has offers a chance for extravagance and intimacy all at once." His mother explained. "The parlor will probably be decorated to the nines, but outside the family he already knows there won't be any new people. And he's already familiar with the manor and it's many hidey holes so he can escape if it gets to be too much." "Or even go flying. He's trying to stay hidden as Phantom in Smallville so no one makes the connection again, but people know about Phantom in Gotham." John added.

"It lets you be give Ellie as magical a Christmas as possible, but gives Danny opportunities to duck out." Clark summarized. Bruce would agree, he knew. As much as he knew Bruce had given him up for Danny's own peace of mind, Clark also knew once Bruce got attached he bonded hard. He'd changed Federal Law and eliminated a branch of the Government for Danny. Christmas was a given.

"And we will make sure he knows as long as he eats full meals and gets enough sleep, he's not obligated to take part in any of it." John assured. "We're also going to talk about seasonal depression with Ellie. She needs to understand what's going on with him and not grow up thinking the way to treat someone with seasonal depression is to shove Christmas down their throat until they embrace it."

This was going to be delicate, they all knew it. But whatever they could do, they would. It was for family.

[avaritia-apotheosis]

Phantom Children Ch. 7

Massive thanks to my awesome betas for this chapter!

In Which: A Story is Given to the Locked Room

AO3 | Prologue | 6 | [ 7 ] | 8

DICK DOESN’T REALLY KNOW WHAT TO FEEL. Surprised, maybe? Though he really isn’t all that shocked. Not that the revelation of another Wayne kid isn’t surprising, it’s just that—well…

Bruce has a tendency to attract foolhardy kids with a strong sense of justice and a willingness to harp on Batman until he gives them wings and teaches them how to fly. It’s the way of the world. The sky is blue, the sun sets in the west, and little Robin-hopefuls flock to Batman like ducklings to their big, brooding, mother duck. (That most of them are black haired and blue-eyed with some sort of traumatic backstory is a coincidence. Probably. The universe is just weird that way.)

And Bruce, bleeding heart that he is despite all the steel walls and nuclear spike fields he placed around it, always had a soft spot for children. It’s what people don’t get when they call Robins and Batgirls, former or current, child soldiers. They think that Batman picks these children up from gutter alleys and unfortunate homes, breaking and reshaping them into crusaders for his war against crime.

(What most don’t get is that the easiest way to gain ‘favorite child’ status in the Wayne household is to just stay home and live the most normal life possible. All of them—with the exception of Damian and Cass—chose this life. And even those two chose to stick with it, even when Bruce was more than happy to give them a way out.)

Dick was one of the first to stand at Batman’s side. The original. The ‘golden boy’ as Jason always put it. He’d been there so early in Batman’s career that, years later, it’s nearly inconceivable to imagine Batman without his Robin. He’s been there for Bruce’s soaring highs, his crushing lows, his mundane middles, just as Bruce has been there for him. Sure, they’ve had their fights, but Dick had always settled himself with the knowledge that he was one of the few people that knew everything about Bruce Wayne.

But this . This nursery—no, this memorial . This monument that spoke of a life that could have, should have, would have been, is something that predates Robin’s existence. A story, a memory that had hurt Bruce so badly that he would rather hide it away than breathe even a word of its existence.

Until now. Until Bruce had no choice but to rip the wound open once more.

“Bruce. I—what’s going on?”

“Perhaps,” Alfred interjected. “Perhaps it may be best to take this to the cave. Such a story should be told once.”

Bruce laughed, a broken, shuddering thing. “What is there to tell? I was naive with a heart too open and full of longing. I let myself hope, and I let myself get crushed . I picked myself up, moved on, end of story.”

Alfred raised an imperious brow. “As you are the one who always insisted on detailed reports, I do hope your summary to the boys downstairs would have a little more detail.” His face softened as he placed a comforting hand on Bruce’s shoulder. “What recent information that has been passed to us paints a worrisome picture, given what little you have shared, but know that this time you are not alone to deal with this matter. Regardless of what you do, the rest of the family is involved by proxy."

Bruce seemed to release some of the tension in his shoulders at that. “Yes. Of course. Dick, why don’t you see if Tim is back yet. I don’t want to explain this more than once, if possible. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

“Yeah. Yeah, sure, I’ll get right on that.”

“And, Dick?”

“Yeah?”

Bruce’s gaze was intense. “How is Damian doing?”

He remembered the way Damian sunk deeper into the chair, hands clasping and unclasping at air. The white of his cast hanging limply as Damian’s legs could just barely brush against the cave floor. Dick swallowed a lump in his throat. “I don’t know. But I do know that he could really use his father right about now.”

Bruce gave a shaky nod and Dick left.

_______

Everyone has heard this tale before.

His boys have learned about the birth of Batman, of how a boy lost his parents in an alley at the age of eight. How at 14 he took to the study of criminology to an almost religious fervor. He took and aced every AP test, graduated high school at 16, headed off to get a college degree, then disappeared off the face of the earth.

Batman may have been born kneeling in the shadows of a dirty alley, but it was on the streets abroad where Batman grew up. Learning and studying and fighting until he knew what made the criminal underworld tick, how to escape almost every type of restraints, how to solve a murder with only the smallest of clues. He trained under a demon and met his daughter. When their ideas of justice clashed with each other, he tried to leave, they tried to stop him, and he set their base on ablaze.

He returned to Gotham the prodigal son, the favored prince, the charming socialite. Bruce Wayne took his place at the center of Gotham’s solar system, shining and bright and unbelievably foolish. Batman put on a cowl and learned the shadows of Gotham’s streets, and built himself up to be a symbol of fear and justice. Soon, he acquired a Robin to temper that darkness. To bring a light of hope, to instill a sense of peace— something more than vengeance and the night.

The rest is history.

Here is the part of the story that Bruce had omitted:

Early in his career as Batman, a man named Quayin had plans to steal a weather modifying US satellite. This, and certain other events, led to Bruce and Ra’s al Ghul crossing paths—and working on the same side. The details of that mission, in the long run. do not matter. Not anymore. What’s important is that accompanying him is his daughter, Talia al Ghul. She was as deadly as she was beautiful—and Talia was very, very beautiful.

It was a whirlwind romance. A storm of passion. Gotham’s Bruce Wayne and socialite Miranda Tate. * Batman and the Daughter of the Demon. The tempest reached its peak on that fateful day in the gardens of Wayne Manor. The hot summer sun and buzzing insects fading away as she pulled him aside and said “Beloved, I am with child. I am pregnant.” **

Bruce was caught unawares by the news. Stared dumbfounded at her until his brain caught up with his ears and he felt such unbridled joy bubbling in his chest. He laughed, clear and bright. He held her tight against him as if she held the world in her hands—because she did . Talia held his world within her and Bruce vowed to protect it with every fiber of his being. He called Alfred immediately to tell him the news and started arranging for discreet interior decorators and shipments for everything they needed for a nursery.

Thomas, for a boy. Martha for a girl. He swore that very day that it would be the happiest baby in the world. **

And then—

And then…

As Ra’s and Bruce planned their next move to stop Quayin from initiating a war between America and the USSR, Talia collapsed.

Talia collapsed and the baby was just…

Gone.

And suddenly Talia wanted nothing to do with him. Told Bruce to leave her alone, that their relationship would never be the same.

His child was gone .

By the time the rogue satellite was recovered, Quayin defeated, and all loose ends tied up, the nursery was fully furnished. Bruce took one look at it and then turned away. Locked the door and hid the key god-knows-where.

His child was gone.

Batman continued to work.

There was no use for an empty nursery.

--------

End Notes:

The story I'm using for the circumstances surrounding Danny's birth is basically a modified version of what happens in Batman: Son of the Demon. Modified so that people knew that Bruce Wayne and Miranda Tate were a couple and to give enough time for a nursery to be built along with the rest of the events of that comic.

*Miranda Tate is the name Tahlia al Ghul went by in 'The Dark Knight Rises'

**These lines are taken from Batman: Son of the Demon

[bitch-i-migth-be]

Crash Course | Chapter 07:Is This The Real Chaos? Is This Just Fantasy?

Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman,  

Relationships: Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton

Characters: Danny Fenton, Jazz Fenton, Clockwork (briefly)

Words: 2′053

Tags:  Sibling bonding, Shenanigans, Swearing,

Summary: He swore his sister was trying to make him go into cardiac arrest - considering his halfa status that was quite the accomplishment-

But there was no other explanation to his sister’s stubbornness, and if he knew her at all there was just no talking her down from interning at goddam Arkham.

A/N: If this seems like a mad scramble is because it is. They are on a Time. Limit. People. (This is mostly dialogue. And self-indulgent af. Beware.)

THIS IS ON AO3, IF ANYONE WOULD PREFER TO READ THERE. LOVE COMmENTs  so if u have anything to say IwillBeReallyHappyYesThankU

CHAPTERS: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7, 8 ,9, 10, 11, 12

-.-.-.-

First of all, research on the circle of hell on earth, because you can't go to war without some fucking research, he had learned that the hard way.

You can’t plan for shit if you don’t have good info.

Confiable sources are key.

They needed to sort this out. ASAP.

If his sister. Would. Just. Cooperate.

“You raised me constantly telling me that information is your best weapon & shield and now you are telling me to chill?? The Fuck, Jazz. ”

“I’m not telling you we should Stop, Danny” Jazz explained, waving her hands around to illustrate her point. “I’m just telling you we should slow down. If the FBI Man catch onto this-”

“How do you know it's a man?”

“Dan. It's just a meme.”

“It could be an asexual alien working for the government behind this screen and you would never know-! ”

“Fine! What if the asexual alien government worker caught us-?”

“They are not going to catch anything, Jazz.” Danny retorted, waving at the cameras above the computers “See? I put tape on the cameras.” 

His sister gave him an unimpressed stare. 

“And I have Tucker as back-up. I’m not an idiot.”

“It’s been sixteen years, brother.” Jazz sassed back, “And I’m still not sure about that-” She dodged her brother’s sloppy try at slapping with a yelp and threw back her own sloppy bitch slap.  

Things dissolved quickly into a slap fight from there. 

And that was it [for the underpaid asexual alien worker.]

 -.-.-.-

 They would need Travel Plans™.

They lived in bump fuck nowhere Illinois and they had to get to Gotham. Jazz’s scholarship covered bus tickets. His scholarship didn’t because it was still a new thing on the G.A. and normally only the Gothamites bothered to risk applying because they were already in the city. 

Extreme measures must be taken.

“Are you seriously flying all the way to-?” 

“Jazz, please.”

“But-”

“Jazz!” Danny whined.

“Okay! Ok!”

 -.-.-.-

 Living arrangements. What’s better than picking the sweet, sweet home?

“We don’t have to pick, Danny. That’s what the dorms are for.”

“Where are we putting all the Ghost Tech?”

“...In rental storage?”

“Safe rental storage? On Loony Town??”

“...”

“And with what money?”

“If we don’t have enough for rental storage, what makes you think we can afford anything else apart from the dorms? ”

“...You got me there.”

“Hmm...”

“...”

“...So. We can get back to this later, or-?”

“Yes, please.”

 -.-.-.-

 “Did you know that Gotham was declared ‘no man’s land’ some years ago?”

“Our entire town got dragged to the depths of purgatory Danny.”

“Calling the realms purgatory is not exactly-”

“Pur-ga-to-ry, Danny.” 

Danny huffed.  

“Fine”

 -.-.-.-

 “I recognize looking up information on the richest man in Gotham might be useful, somehow, but don’t you think looking up the man’s children would be a bit stalkerish?”

“They are rich. You can’t trust rich people.”

“Danny, whatever post-traumatic stress disorder and trust issues Vlad has caused you-”

“Jazz that’s not it and you know-”

“-can be properly acknowledged if we-”

“Ok, fine! I won’t look them up!”

“Thank you.”

 -.-.-.-

 The number of heroes working in Loony town had been rising in the last years. Considering the amount of shit going on in the place, it was only logical. There was plenty of demand.

And there had always been Batman, which was the first one and worrying enough all on itself. himself. 

Then again they had to deal with a psychotic clown throwing parties in the middle of Loony City so maybe they would be distracted enough to notice some cold spots. Hopefully.

Either way, Danny was not going to Gotham to play the hero role. He was going to take care of his sister and help her figure out a way to deal with the ghost zone better. Because dealing with ghosts was one thing, but humans? Humans were a whole other bag of worms that, if possible, he wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole

Gotham had enough heroes running around, they could deal with their city and Danny would focus on his sister.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. 

 -.-.-.-

 Human treats.

Ugh. 

He had little experience dealing with living human threats. Jazz assured him it would be similar on the core, but it was easier said than done. 

As long as the Gothamites let them alone, it would be fine.

But he would not only need to worry about the citizens, he would have to worry about the freaking threats in the asylum. He would have to make some scouting when they got there and decide on a game plan.

He really hoped Gotham wasn’t an attractive place for natural portals, because that goddamn place would be haunted to hell and back by now if the city had anywhere near the same concentration of ectoplasm Amity Park had. There were just so many, many things that had gone down in that place. 

 -.-.-.-

 “-And hear this, it says and I quote ‘many millenniums ago, an evil warlock was buried alive beneath what would one day become the central island of Gotham-”

“Please, stop.”

“But It’s a goddamn island Jazz, what if they blow up the bridges again-!”

“Oh, for the love of God-”

 -.-.-.-

 “Oh my god, I forgot about Ellie.”

“Danny-”

“How the fuck could I forget about Ellie-?!”

“Could you calm down-?”

“She is practically my goddamn daughter-!”

“Well, considering you let your barely-one-year-old ‘daughter’ travel the world unsupervised It’s not really that surprising-”

“Jazz, you are not helping!!”

“Don’t get me wrong, I know she is quite the capable little hellion, and Vlad was the one who made her so-”

His sister had gone suddenly quiet, exchanging her —unsuccessful— attempts at calming him down for staring blankly into one of the walls of the room. Danny didn’t know what caused this reaction, and he didn’t care, as long as she kept quiet and just let him-

“D-Does that make Vlad the mom?” Jazz whispered weakly with all the air of someone who had just gotten a horrifying revelation.

Danny choked with his own tongue. 

“JAZZ!!”

 -.-.-.-

 So, packing. 

What really are essentials anymore, really?

“I mean the modified thermos will take care of most of our things. The only part of the packing that was worrying me was the ghost tech, and, well-”

“That’s why you asked Iris for a bag, right?”

“...”

“Danny?” 

“No. I wanted to reverse engineer it.”

“How are you even going to reverse engineer that thing? It’s like a magicky ghost bag of wonders, I can’t even-”

“That’s for you to see and for me to keel over.“

“...I really hope you know that’s not how the phrase goes.”

 -.-.-.-

 Spes Ultima Dea

‘Hope is the last thing to die’

That was the inscription carved on the jewelry box. Judging by the greek design it was probably Pandora’s doing, though the snowflakes mixed in with the flowers, leaves, and swirling lines carved along in the wood showed that Frostbite had contributed to the ‘packaging’ as well. At least this one didn’t have a bright green fanged skull on the lid. 

Or contain all the world’s evils. 

Jazz, who had been silently cursing him for a while now, dropped her moody mutterings when she saw him grab the box. So now they were going through the jewelry together. 

“So what’s up with the ghost jewelry then?”

“These are the replacements for Pariah’s old artifacts.“

“The what-?” Jazz made a double-take.

“I told you about this Jazz, the Observants wanted me to wear the damn things. I didn’t want to. Bla Bla Bla.” He drawled on in a bored voice.

“Yeah, but I thought you just had refused to wear them.”

“God, I wish.” Danny sighed “We had to compromise.”

“Ok. So which ones-? She asked looking over his shoulder to the wood box with golden details on his hands.

“Well, this one is from the Far Frozen, they took care of the crown.” He said, showing her a pair of silvery wrap around earrings “The letter said they called them ‘Winter’s Song’” Danny finished with a hum on his voice.

“And these ones are from the Acropolis, which got the ring” He continued, grabbing two matching silvery bracelets from the box. Jazz made grabby hands at them and Danny passed them over. “Their name is-” Danny paused, pursing his lips and reaching for the letter on the bed to read the name again. 

“-’The call of Elpis.’” He finally revealed, at Jazz’s raised eyebrow he continued.  “Don’t ask me, there is nothing in here explaining and I have no idea.”  

“Course you don’t”

“Hey!” He protested, but Jazz just continued examining the silver pieces. Danny deflated and joined her on the examination. 

“Don’t know why they made them pairs, or if they are even silver but-” 

“They are beautiful.” she finished.

He hummed in agreement

“Is that a cornucopia-?” Jazz asked, bringing one of the bracelets closer to her face. 

“A what”

“It has a legend, the cornucopia was supposed to be a source of endless food and drinks-”

“Couldn’t they have sent us the original then-?”

Jazz glared

“I’m just saying-!”

“It’s a symbol of abundance, Danny.” She berated him “They are giving you their best wishes.”

Danny would have said that wishes didn’t feed him, but he was not in the mood to risk it. 

“What about the others?” Jazz asked, referring to the other pieces that were still in the jewelry box.

“I suppose you could say they are protective charms, of a sort. Those are for the both of us. Mostly for you, tho. You are going to need them.”

Jazz accepted the answer, and thought to herself that she should have seen something like this coming from Danny, he had been worried about her since she shared her college plans after all.  

What she wasn’t quite accepting was the lack of explanation on the names of her brother’s last new piece of jewelry. 

She grabbed her phone from the nightstand and started browsing for answers.

The name just had to have some sort of meaning-

Oh

She looked up from her phone to send a long look at her brother, whose tongue was poking out of the corner of his mouth while fighting with the clasp of one of the bracelets. She smiled fondly.

Pandora's hope, uh?

 -.-.-.-

 “Do you think Batman is a Vampire, tho?”

Jazz rolled her eyes. Aaaand he ruined it.

“Do I look like I care?”

 -.-.-.-

 Danny was seated on his desk chair, glaring fiercely into the void.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to glare the nether gods into striking me down."

"Danny." Jazz sighed from her place on his bed. Hearing her brother say that was- This was unbelievable. "I'm not finishing all the work alone."

“I know. Is just-” He halted mid-sentence to purse his lips. A slight air of defeat entering his already slouched posture.

“Just what?”

"We could have used clockwork's help" The redhead raised an eyebrow at the response. 

"Could we? I mean normally it takes a Long Time to just find his tower. And that's because it's you searching for it. No one would find him otherwise. Except for the Observants, they can do it faster, but I don’t think you are desperate enough. Would it be worth it tho-?

"No. Not like that." Danny interrupted her, not breaking his glare but voice in a complete deadpan. "We completely forgot about his gift."

His sister blinked a pair of times. Considering. And then her eyes got progressively bigger as she connected the dots. 

"The time medallions" She gasped in realization. 

Clockwork's time medallions. 

The pair of time medallions he had gifted to her brother on his last deathday. 

The ones that clockwork had refused to say what they were for but had probably been gifted to Danny with this exact purpose in mind.

Jazz groaned, facepalming and letting herself fall onto the bed to curl into a ball of red hair and utter defeat. 

Danny, who hadn't moved an inch since the beginning of the conversation just groaned back in sympathy.

She rolled over onto her back and started to glare into the void too.

"I feel like ClockWork is laughing his ass off right now."

 -.-.-.-

 He was.

-.-.-.-

ENDNOTES:

Why would asexual aliens be the best option to be The FBI man?? 'Cause they are not interested in your dirty. Just the juicy, juicy human gossip. -.-.-.-

Ellie is coming, people. Everything will be fine.

-.-.-.-

I already wrote part of the Batfam, the Fenton siblings, and Vlad's meeting plus some extra guests.

As in, that’s not their first time meeting because they had already met individually(I haven’t written all) before that scene.

BUT this one is with EVERYONE there. The first time all of them are in the SAME place, at the SAME time. and I’M JUST- laughing my ass off? This is going to be chaotic.

Angst who? Not this time Satan.

-.-.-.-

So Elpis for the greek and to pass a fast one by oblivious Danny, and then when I searched "Call of hope" for the giggles google said it was a Christian organization and I was like: Brah

The other one is "Winter's Song". I wonder WHY

Hope and Winter, I like the sound of that. Can beat the shit out of rage and fire any day.

I will describe them both in detail later because it just seemed awkward to put such a meticulous examination when Danny just grabbed the things to put them on so he wouldn’t lose them or something. Which he can’t. But that’s for later.

Also, I got bored.

-.-.-.-

Clockwork is just vibing on his tower by this point.

The Timelord deserves some fruity cocktails and some Hawaiian leis for dealing with the Bald-Voldemort's-cousins-eye-heads.

And I'm giving them to him.

Can you see him watching the siblings scrambling all over the place?? All flowered up??? Laughing at these silly children?? and taking little sips of his Fruity Vodka Party Punch???

I can. It's quite a sight.

-.-.-.-

In the Latin American DC fandom, they call Damian ‘Bolita de Odio’ which translates to ‘tiny ball of hate’ but it sounds so cute on Spanish ‘bolita’ adhfkfhkadsljfladsk I love it when they call him that, it makes me squeal.

You can literally search on google: ‘bolita de odio’. And you will get Damian. This is so fuckin’ ridiculous and I love it.

Same with Jason but they call him: 'Palancas locas' which is 'crazy crowbars' because of- you know, how he died.

-.-.-.-

If you are interested. A list of almost confirmed main & background ships for this fic. Just in case it's a deal-breaker? :L

Jazz/Jason [JJ Elizabeth for the win]

Kitty/Ember [Queens]

Harley/Ivy [The Ultimate Queens] (Ember would murder me for this if she found a way to break the fourth wall, *chuckles* ‘I’m in danger.jpg’)

Cass/Kicking ass [Edit: got an Idea now! :D But: Spoilers so hush-hush]

Bruce/Selina [Not leaving their lives for the other? what? Who is leaving a part of themselves behind? no one, that’s who. Don’t worry pals, Alfred and the fam got this.]

Dick/Kori [There was a moment there when I thought about Babs/Dick BUT the sibling feels overcame me. One of my favorite ships, when I was a small little bean, were these two in Teen titans (2003) so we are going with 2003 Starfire for this :3 (But, I suppose if you like the other design better you have the right to visualize her like that. Whatever makes you happy *kissy face*)

SO we are going with Babs and Dick as best friends, and Babs teasing the shit out of Dick because Batman never taught him how to deal with girls and those first years with Starfire were a shitshow. I’m going to pretend they NEVER had anything sneaky going on for the fic’s sake and what I want to pull off here.]

Tim/Coffee pot [I don’t know about Tim, yet. Give me ideas or I Will be shipping him with the coffee pot.) edit: you know what- no. I thought about something better. Never mind this-]

Danny/Coffee pot [Just kidding, you know it’s Damian :) :) :) *Twodudessittinginahottube*]

There are other ships. BUT I’m not sure if I’m going platonic or romantic with some of them- also, I don’t want to tag those yet because where would be the surprises? the drama? the out of nowhere feels?? where? so, yeah.

(I’m also thinking about shipping Vlad with a Certain Someone. The man deserves to move on. (In this fic in particular. I mean THIS fic. Ha can stay in space in Canon))

You have been warned. -.-.-.-

Have you seen Dick’s & Kori’s little girl??? My fucking heart can’t take this.

[damianwaynerocks]

Ghosts in Gotham

Danny Phantom / DC Comics

Dedicated To: @lexosaurus​

Summary: The Batfamily has been through their fair share of the supernatural. That’s why they originally weren’t worried whenever ghosts started showing up in Gotham City. Until one day, something happens; Batman is captured and taken into the Ghost Zone. With no way to go in there themselves, with no way to fight the ghosts inside, the bats decide to call the person who can; Danny Phantom. Together, Danny takes Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown and Damian Wayne into the Ghost Zone before the Batman is lost forever.

Word Count: 2744

A/N: Yes, I did put a Ben 10 villain in here. Sue me.

Masterlist

Chapter 4

__

"Fenton, do you have any twos?"

"Go fish."

Damian grumbled something in Arabic as he picked up a card from the pile.

"I feel like that was a bad word."

"You would be correct."

Danny turned to Stephanie. "Steph, you got any fours?" he asked. Stephanie huffed as she handed him a four of hearts, and Danny grinned victoriously as he took two fours and laid them on the ground.

Seeing as they had a two-hour trip to get to the prison, the four had set the Speeder on autopilot and decided to play a card game. Usually, the Infi-map would have their trip being two seconds, but something was wrong with it, so it was much slower than usual.

"Yo Timbers, you have any kings?" Danny asked the oldest boy. Tim smirked and shook his head.

"Go fish, Ghost Child," he replied. Tim had found it hilarious that Skulker referred to Danny as 'Ghost Child,' and had taken up calling him that as well. He turned to Damian. "You got any twos, Demon Spawn?"

If looks could kill, Tim would be six feet under. Damian threw the card at his older brother, whose eyes gleamed as he laid the twos down by his side. "Danny, you have any... sixes?"

"Yes, sir, I do," Danny chirped as he handed over the card. Tim turned back to Damian.

"You have any threes?"

"No, Drake, I do not," Damian said with a proud smile, "Suck on that." Danny and Stephanie clapped.

"You're learning slang!" they said simultaneously. Damian rolled his eyes, before looking at Stephanie.

"Brown, hand me your sevens," he ordered and smiled proudly as she gave him the cards. "Uno!" he shouted.

"Wrong game, dude," Danny said, "But good effort!"

"So, Danny," Stephanie said, "Why do you call Future-You 'Dark Danny' when you could call him something that isn't cringey like 'Dan?'

"'Dan?'" Danny echoed, "That sounds so... normal. Like can you imagine newscast being like, 'the world is ending, and soon we will all be slaves to Dan.'"

"It sounds much better than Dark Danny," Damian piped up as he took a card from Tim. "That sounds like a roller coaster ride at Six Flags."

"The gremlin's right," Tim agreed. Danny glared at them.

"I'm feeling so attacked right now, guys, and I'll have you know that my girlfriend came up with that name."

"You," Damian said derisively, "Have a girlfriend?" Tim rolled his eyes.

"Damian, yes, you knew that. Samantha Manson, you've literally met her parents at a gala one time," he paused, "Did you not pay attention at all when we were reading Danny's file?"

"I only cared about his abilities as Phantom," Damian replied as Danny exclaimed, "I have a file!?" simultaneously.

"Uh, duh," Stephanie answered, "You think we'd tell you the greatest secret ever if we didn't run a background check first?"

"So you guys know I died, then?" Danny asked nervously, scared of what they'd think. Yeah, sure they knew he was half ghost, but would they think it was weird that he was technically dead? That he wasn't technically fully human?

"Yeah," Stephanie answered as though it was obvious. Danny blinked.

"And... you don't care?"

"You believe you are the only one who has died before?" Damian rolled his eyes, "You are not as special as you think, Fenton. Get over yourself.”

Danny's jaw dropped. "Wait, you've died before?"

"Damian and I both have!" Stephanie said before Damian could reply. "We call ourselves the Dead Robins Club. Jason's in it too. Dick wants to be in it, but we won't let him because he only faked his death, he didn't actually die."

Danny's eyes lit up. "Can I join!?"

"You are not a Robin," Damian pointed out, "So no, you cannot." At Danny's frown, he sighed, and added, "But if you are going to be a child about it, perhaps we could speak to Todd and see if you could be an honorary member."

"Hey, we have like, thirty minutes left till we get there," Tim spoke up, "So let's go over the plan again."

Danny cleared his throat. "Right. So I'll be the distraction. I'll fly in there and cause a ruckus, and distract Walker so you three can get in and find Wulf."

"And because we're humans, we can just walk through things," Tim added, "And I get the collar off of Wulf, and we rescue you."

"There are so many holes in this place," Damian pointed out, "What if Wulf does not trust us? What if Drake cannot get the collar off?"

"Well, that'd suck," Danny replied, "But I trust him, don't worry. The only part that should be difficult is getting me out. Totally do-able, just difficult. But I've done it twice, so we should be fine."

"Yeah, we got this!" Stephanie cracked her knuckles with a grin. "We've succeeded on missions that had way lower odds than this," she paused, "Hey Danny, this Walker guy wants to keep order in the Ghost Zone, right? What are the chances he'd help us?"

"Like two percent," Danny answered, running a hand through his hair, "And even if he does believe us, he'd lock us up here and go after Dark Dan- I'm sorry, Dan," he rolled his eyes at his friends' pointed looks, "by himself, and he doesn't know how he works. This is our best bet."

"Don't worry, we've got this!" Tim promised, "I've broken Jason out of jail before, I'm basically an expert at this."

Thirty minutes later, they had arrived. The four jumped out of the Speeder, Danny pushing a button inside that turned it intangible before he got out. He turned to his friends. "So," he said, "You guys ready?" At their nod, they began.

Danny flew into the air, over the barbed fence. "Hey Walker!" he yelled, "Look at me! I'm a distraction!" He shot a barrage of ecto-blasts into the sky, lighting up the prison in lazarus-green flashes in a similar fashion to fireworks on the Fourth of July.

He grinned as he saw ghosts in police-like uniforms swarming out of the entrance and heading towards him. He rushed towards them, his eyes lighting up as he shot a beam of ecto-energy at the guards, blasting them aside.

A few guards lifted their blasters to their shoulders and fired. Danny did a backflip in the air, contorting his body around the shots before sending back some of his own. This continued for a while, Danny darted in and out of their ranks. He was smiling widely as he lifted both of his hands above his head, a large ball of ecto-energy crackling in them. "You ready for this!?" he shouted as he prepared to throw the massive fireball. "Yippee ki yay, moth-" he was cut off as a net was shot at him, enveloping Danny and sending him crashing to the ground. He groaned as he looked up, and wasn't the least bit surprised to see who had caught him.

A large ghost in a snow-white trench coat with a face of the same color was sneering at him. "Well well well, if it isn't Danny Phantom," Walker smirked, "Causing a ruckus outside my prison? That's against the rules."

_

"This way," Tim said quietly as he led Damian and Stephanie into the compound. Well, Tim wasn't truly the one leading. Cujo was in front of them, nose to the ground, intent on sniffing out Wulf.

Damian and Stephanie had their backs to one another, the former using the latter to guide him as he was facing the rear, watching for anything trying to sneak up on them. "The Ghost Zone reminds me of the Lazarus Pit," he muttered to himself, "And Phantom's hair is white from it, just like Todd's streak. I wonder..." he stopped talking as Stephanie came to a sudden halt.

They pressed themselves against the wall as six guards marched past, hauling a chained Danny behind them. He was glaring defiantly at Walker, seemingly mocking his stern words, showing no fear.

"I think we're good," Tim whispered as they passed, "Now let's-" he was cut off as he leaned harder against the wall and fell right through it, dragging Stephanie and Damian with him.

"Crap," Stephanie huffed, rubbing her head. "Did you forget that we're like the ghosts here? We can phase through everything here." She frowned as Cujo jumped into her lap, licking her face. He seemed to have phased through with them. "And I guess Cujo can too."

"Red Robin, if only your memory was as strong as your grip," Damian snapped, using Tim's hero name, "Then perhaps we would have found Wulf by now."

"Hey, I'm following the same dog as you," Tim retorted, "Now come on, let's go. The sooner we get out of here, the better."

Cujo yapped as he turned to the right. He dashed in that direction, seemingly having picked up Wulf's scent again. The Gothamites followed him through the prison. They reached a pair of sliding doors below a sign that read 'Dangerous Prisoners' above it.

"Sounds like our guy," Stephanie said. Tim nodded in agreement as they stepped through the doors, phasing through them.

All three of them shivered, a chill running up their spine as terror possessed them. None of them voiced it to the others, but they all got the sense that they were near something that was positively evil.

Cujo, however, didn't seem to mind. Or, if he did, he didn't show it either. He pranced down the hallway, looking over his shoulder and barking at the heroes to follow him. They did so, walking slowly and looking both ways.

They were all more terrified than they had ever been in their lives.

Cujo stopped, wagging his tail with his tongue lolling, in front of a cell. He barked again as he waited for Damian, Tim, and Stephanie to catch up to him.

Wulf was massive. He appeared to be a humanoid-wolf hybrid with a green undertone and a silver collar. He snarled, his hackles rising as the three stood in front of him.

"My name is Red Robin," Tim began, "And this is Robin and Batgirl. We're friends of Danny Phantom."

"Friends of... Dan-knee?" Wulf asked gruffly, his teeth bared. Tim nodded.

"Yeah. He sent us here to break you out," Tim took a hesitant step forward, "But first I have to get that collar off of you. Can I do that?"

Wulf slowly nodded and watched Tim phase through the bars of his cell with narrowed eyes. He flinched as Tim pulled out a small device from his utility belt and set it on the collar. A holographic screen and keyboard appeared above his gauntlet. Tim typing something on the keyboard, and with a blink of the device, the collar fell off.

Wulf rose to his full height, towering over Tim. The latter stood up straight. "Danny has been captured," he said, "Will you help us free him?"

Wulf looked at him and grunted. He turned intangible and phased out of his cell with Tim close behind.

"Fantastic," Damian said with a nod, "Now, let us go find Phantom." The five began to leave but stopped dead in their tracks as a terrifying voice spoke.

"Humans!" the voice hissed.

The Bats turned around to see a terrifying ghost. It had a purple cloak with a spindly tan and black striped body and one glowing purple eye and the same collar that was on Wulf around his neck. The ghost narrowed his single eye as he spoke.

"You are freeing this oaf but not me?" the ghost snarled, "You are leaving me to rot? Me? Zs'Skayr? The High Ecto-Lord of Anur Transyl?"

Wulf snarled as the others were frozen in fear. Something was wrong about this Zs'Skayr. Batgirl, Robin, and Red Robin were heroes. They'd fought with the Justice Leauge. They'd gone toe to toe with Joker.

But Zs'Skayr?

They couldn't explain it, but this being was absolutely horrifying.

"Who are you?" Damian was the first to speak up, shaking like a scared dog being brought outside for the first time. Zs'Skayr's eye flashed.

"I am Zs'Skayr!" he roared, "The most terrifying being in the universe! Arch enemy to the Omnitrix!" he met Damian's eyes. "I am the one who can break you free. I can save your friend and destroy this cursed prison."

"We can't let you that," Tim croaked, "Absolutely not."

Zs'Skayr's eye did not leave Damian's. He cocked his head. "There is a darkness in you, child," he hissed, "One you are trying to overcome. Do not fight it! I can give you all the power you could ever desire!"

Damian gulped, clenching his fists and staring Zs'Skayr right back. "I do not need your power," he said stiffly, "And I do not need your help."

"Let us go," Wulf interrupted, putting a paw on Damian's shoulder. "Need help Danny."

Damian nodded, and with another glance at the Hellish being, they left.

_

Danny closed his eyes in pain at Walker's punch, but refused to fall. He looked up with a gleam in his eyes.

"That's really the best you got?" Danny scoffed, "You're losing your touch! You've known me for two years and that's all you can do?"

"Just tell me why you're here, kid," Walker replied. Danny groaned.

"I already did!"

"You think I'm stupid enough to believe some lie about time travel?"

"I mean, yeah, I think you're pretty stupid," Danny replied, "But I'm not lying!"

"Sure you aren't, kid."

Danny gave the ghost a blank stare. "You know, Walker, you seem to have trust issues. That sometimes stems from trauma. Do you want to talk about it?"

Walker narrowed his eyes before punching Danny in the face. The boy turned back to him and laughed.

"I've fought Pariah Dark, Fright Knight, and you multiple times and you think a measly punch is gonna shut me up?"

He was stalling. Danny just had to keep it up until his friends could get the cuffs off of him, and he could freeze Walker.

Speaking of freezing, Danny froze as he slowly shut his eyes and sighed, "I've gotta say, though, you might not be the only one who can be stupid," In a ring of light, Danny transformed back into a human, and phased out of the cuffs with ease.

"Ha!" he yelled, "In your face!" He shifted back into his ghost form and grinned as his hands lit up in blue light. "You know, I hate to just run out on you like this, but I gotta go." With a flash of light, Danny thrust his hands in front of him, and a bolt of ice shot from his palms. Walker screamed as his body was encased in ice.

Danny shook his head as he floated to the ground. "Now, where oh where are my friends?"

"Right here, my guy!" At the sound of Stephanie's voice, Danny turned around to see his friends, with Wulf close behind. Danny's face lit up.

"Wulf!" he shouted with glee, "I've missed you, buddy!"

"Miss you too," Wulf replied.

"Let's get out of here," Tim said, "Before they realize you and Wulf have escaped."

A red flashing light lit up above them. Damian sucked in his teeth. "Too late."

Danny waved his hand. "Come on, let's go!" With that, the group dashed forward, phasing through the wall.

They skidded to a halt as they were faced with ten guards. They swung their batons. "Freeze!" one of them yelled.

Danny shrugged. "If you say so," he blasted them with a wave of ice, freezing the guards. Tim grinned.

"Nice one, Phantom," he praised as they continued forward, tucking a rolling above the frozen ghosts with ease.

They phased through another wall, Wulf leading them forward. Two guards appeared in front of them, but Wulf swatted them aside with ease. Phasing through another wall, they were outside.

They were almost to the Speeder. Danny looked behind him and saw an army of guards swarming out of the doors of the prison. Danny skidded to a halt in the air and turned around. He blasted the group with ice, freezing half of them. The other half, though, they kept coming.

Danny turned back around, phasing into the Speeder where the others were already seated. "Come on, Tim, let's go!" he urged, looking outside the window as he spoke. Tim pushed a button on the control panel, and the vessel rose into the air and, with sonic boom behind them, shot into the air and away from the prison.

[gearsforyears]

I always loved the relationship between Danny and Dani, and I love the fics where she was much younger than the show portrayed her to be. The Dad!Danny fics make me so happy ;w; In turn, when watching Young Justice, I was so angry towards Superman and most of the League for acting so aloof around Conner Kent? He was in an impossible situation he couldn’t control, so I had a bit of a more angry Danny chewing out the team about it.

It was well known that Danny Phantom was one of the strongest members of the Justice League, as his powers rivalled that of Superman’s. He was a ghost, the first ghost superhero on Earth, and the Human Zone was glad to have him fighting for them. Phantom was reclusive towards the public, not liking press for fear of misinformation, as has happened to him before. Phantom was, however, very open to his team, and although he didn’t outright tell his life (afterlife?) story, but he answered questions honestly and openly.

One thing that the team didn’t know, was that Phantom had any family members on Earth.

Of course, they knew he had a strange relation with some adults on the living realm (all coming from his home town, Amity Park). Phantom’s strange, almost sibling-like, relationship with Gotham’s lead psychiatrist had always made the young adult happier. His friendships with Samantha Manson, a leading botanist, and Tucker Foley, a technology millionaire, had constantly had the few housing their ghost hero. Other than those three, the Justice League had just assumed that Danny had died a long time ago with no family to speak of.

That was, until they were interrupted during a conference.

Phantom was acting a bit disinterested as Batman was talking about resolving some sort of conflict with the press (Danny didn’t see what the big deal was. It was one construction site. It could’ve been so much worse). His form was hovering slightly above the chair as he sat next to Superman, who was offering different ways to soothe the PR problem. Phantom curled a lip and sneered a bit, “Why are people getting so butthurt about this? We’ve done worse damage before.”

“Yes, but this was to the construction site of a hospital, Danny,” Superman sighed, trying to make the ghost see the reason for this. He wondered how long ago Danny must’ve died to not see the point in an infirmary, “Phantom, the city needs a hospital because-”

A light hiss passed through the ghost’s lips, “Supes, I know what a hospital is, I’m just wondering why the city is angry. I mean, it was still in construction. It’s not like they couldn’t just start over; and besides, the city has three hospitals already.” Phantom sighed. He kicked a foot on his chair, taking advantage of the lack of gravity he seemed to possess, and flipped himself upside down, “Can’t we just help the city build it?”

Flash’s eyebrows raised slightly at the ghost’s position, but nodded, “I mean, if we helped with the construction, we could do the work in half the time.”

“That’s a nice proposition,” Batman nodded gruffly, his voice low, “When should I tell the-” A whirling sound cut him off, and all the Leaguers looked around warily, many slipping into battle stances. Phantom, in particular, had the oddest reaction. His head tilted to the side, his ears perked up a bit, as if he was trying to pinpoint the location.

And then the mist came from his mouth. Everyone knew that that sign meant a ghost attack was about to occur, and even Danny flipped himself back to his normal attack position, his hands glowing green. The sound grew louder and louder, before a radioactive green spark , the same color as Phantom’s glowing eyes, appeared above the large table. A portal was opening-!

And then a black and white blur charged towards Phantom, barreling him over onto the floor. The team all held their weapons respectively, some just holding their fists, at the sight of the flustered ghost, who’s hair was flying in every direction possible. The most surprising addition to the ghost, however, was the…. Smaller ghost hugging him?

“Daddy! You wouldn’t believe how much me and Wulf have been learning from Frostbite!” A small girl smiled widely, showing small canines and two dimples on her cheeks, similar to Danny’s, “I learned how to make portals just like you!”

A hushed silence fell over the Leaguers as they heard the child shout ‘daddy’. She looked to be barely seven, white hair in a loose ponytail and glowing green eyes. Their shock at the child seemed palpable, as if Phantom could touch the suspense and tension filling the air. But Danny knew that Danielle would feel worried if he did not give her a proper response, “That’s great, sweetheart! Does that mean Wulf is nearby?”

“Nope!” She grinned again, and on closer observation, a few of her teeth were missing, “I wanted to see you and Aunt Jazz and Sam and Tuck by myself.” A cheek puffed out, almost like she was offended that he thought otherwise.

“That’s very dangerous, Ellie. What if a stray ghost saw you? You know how most feel about me and you, pumpkin.” He kissed her lightly on the forehead, his mood lifted from seeing his ‘daughter’, “But I am always happy to see my little girl.”

She giggled before looking away from her ‘father’, seeing all of the heroes. Her face instantly lit up a bright green in embarrassment, seemingly ashamed for interrupting… whatever they were doing beforehand. Superman opened his mouth to ask something, but Flash beat everyone, and spoke first, “So… ghosts can have kids. Who knew?”

The League was then greeted by two blushing ghosts. Phantom buried his face in Danielle’s hair, not wanting to look at his team, “It’s… not that simple, Barry.”

Phantom took a few seconds simply to collect his thoughts by murmuring to his daughter small terms of endearment, and it seemed to calm him down before he looked up and spoke, “I’d uh, like you all to meet someone very close to me.”

A clearing of his throat later, and he smiled shakily up at the superheroes, “This is Danielle, or Ellie, as we all call her. She’s my child.” Ellie smiled up at everyone as her father spoke, “I can explain the whole thing later, but for now, I’m, uh, going to show her to Jazz.” He seemed to be using the excuse as a cop-out, and was met with small glares from everyone.

Superman wasn’t impressed with his answer, “Danny, I thought you didn’t have any family relations anymore.”

“Technically, you never asked.” Danny blushed again, “Of course I have living family. Ellie’s just very much more closely related to me than others…” He cleared his throat once more, “Ellie dear, these are some of my teammates. You know some, remember? They were on the news a while back.”

Her eyes lit up and she smiled shyly, “Yeah! I remember the rope-lady with my name!”

“Her name is Diana, not Danielle, but yeah, Wonder Woman’s here.” He gestured to the woman, who tentatively waved at the small, beaming girl who seemed to love the attention from her way too much.

Flash held his hands up, “Woah, so are we not going to address that Casper here lied about his family? And that apparently he has a daughter he never thought to tell us about?”

“It is a bit suspicious, Danny,” Superman mused, a hand rubbing his chin.

Wonder Woman raised an eyebrow, “Where is the mother?” “Is she a ghost like you?”

“How can something dead make life?”

“Why haven’t you told us?!”

“Stop it!” Danielle shouted, holding herself closely to the chest of her father to block out all the noises from others, “I’m not daddy’s real daughter anyway… “

Danny rolled his eyes as everyone became completely confused at the small, quiet statement from the child, but went to comfort his daughter, “Now, baby girl, you know that you’re my little ice flower, no matter how we are related, yes?”

“Yeah, I know, dad.” She murmured as Phantom reached over and brushed her white locks from off her shoulders. Danielle looked over at the heroes before whispering over to her father, “Daddy, I think you should tell them about what Uncle Vlad did.”

Batman’s interest piqued, “Vlad, as in your archnemesis-turned-ally Vlad?”

Danny seemed to flinch, remembering that the heroes were in the room watching them, “Y-yeah, that Vlad.” He was silent for a moment, not wanting to continue with the conversation. Danny knew it would come up eventually, but figured he’d have more time to prepare himself for this day, “Maybe you should leave as I tell them, Ellie. Aunt Jazz is seven streets north and two buildings left, alright?”

Most of the team seemed appalled at the thought of him leaving her alone to try and find the psychiatrist, but realized she had flight just as Phantom did. She nodded before giving him a big kiss on the cheek and floating away as she waved goodbye to everyone.

Phantom smiled wistfully at the small girl before turning his gaze to the league members. He opened his mouth, and then closed it. He repeated this process a few times to no avail before finally sitting down in his chair with his snowy hair being the only part of him visible. Wonder Woman tilted her, questioning him, “Phantom, why have you wanted to keep your daughter a secret from us? We are a team.”

A glowing green eye met her before it lazily circled the room, landing on Superman, “Clark. Do you remember CADMUS? And Project Kr?”

Superman’s eyes widened, and he seemed to be uncomfortable with him mentioning it, “Yes, I remember. Are you saying that… Danielle is…”

“Yeah,” Phantom murmured, tugging on a piece of his hair, “You guys all look so uncomfortable when you speak of clones, and I understand. But you all, with the exceptions of Black Canary, Red Tornado, and occasionally Batman, had treated Connor as if he was… beneath you. Like because he was a clone, he wasn’t worth as much as a human or kryptonian because he wasn’t the original.”

He looked up, watching the shocked expressions on his team’s faces, but looked away to watch his much more interested boots instead, “You could imagine my surprise as a fourteen-year-old that my enemy had tried to clone me,  but couldn’t get the chromosomes right, or the aging right. Vlad had created a baby girl out of my DNA.”

Silence stayed in the air as they waited patiently for Phantom to continue. He took another shaky breath before trying to speak again, “It… It was so hard trying to raise a child while trying to save the city everyday, you know?” He gave a light chuckle, but it didn’t do anything to lighten the mood. He gave a deep sigh and continued with the same unnatural calmness he seemed to always possess, “She acts… nothing like me. I wasn’t as loud as her as a child, I was definitely more scared of everything around me. She’s so brave, and different, and unique. Danielle is her own person, and she’s amazing.”

He looked up, fierce determination in his eyes, as if daring anyone to question him, “After seeing the indifference from everyone toward Connor, I knew I would never wish to tell you about Danielle. You would do only the same to her, and no one gets to hurt my baby girl.”

Wonder Woman leaned over a bit, resting a hand on the younger one’s arm, “You know if we knew the situation, we wouldn’t have-”

“But you would!” He shouted, actually practically roared. His eyes glowed even brighter, and his canines a bit more pronounced. It was a frightening yet small display of power that kept everyone uneasy, “You’ve seen how Connor acts. Defensive, unsure of himself, scared. And yet, you treat him as if that should happen to him, as if it was his fault to even exist. Of course I wouldn’t tell any of you! After seeing it, I was so disgusted that I contemplated leaving this team for good!”

Superman swallowed, suddenly not wanting to have the conversation about his clone. It was strangely invasive, and personal to have this sudden attack on the league from their ally, their friend. Suddenly, Phantom’s attachment to Superboy made much more sense. “If I had told you about Ellie, you would’ve thought I was crazy for raising her. And in turn, if she were to ever visit her father, you would’ve treated her the exact same way as you treat Connor. Think of the effects that would have on a small six-year-old? She would’ve been so hurt that her so-called heroes would never like her because of how she was born, something that she had no control over!”

The other hero who was actually cloned successfully frowned and opened his mouth, ready to speak, but Phantom held up a hand, “Nah, I’m out. Going to hang out with my kid until I can calm down enough to talk to you guys again.” He floated upwards, his eyes not really focusing on anyone, before pausing, “Black Canary, Red Tornado, Bats? If you want to join, I’ll be at Jazz’s.” And he was gone.

The team had a lot to talk about.