#if anything alfred would be the first person that danny meets

[petite-phthora]

Shouldn’t have digital evidence when you have a family of hackers

[DP x DC fic]

[Love at first... murder? - part 14]

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Part 1

Ao3

---

Text in italics and in-between ' means it is said in sign language

'For example.'

If an entire scene is written in italics, that means that that scene is a flashback.

---

When Jason glances at where Danny and Ellie were, he sees nothing. He’s too relieved to really care much about how they got out of here so quickly.

He’ll ask Danny about it later.

Probably…

“Red Hood.”

“Bitch.” Is his response.

Jason is slightly disappointed, but entirely unsurprised, by the lack of reaction he gets.

“Who were they?”

“What were those civilians doing on the roof?”

“Where did they even go?”

“Just some informants for a case I’ve been working on.” Jason says, not giving anything about them away.

“Which case?”

“Did they attack you?”

“Yeah, who took a bite out of your arm? And more importantly, how did you taste?”

“Steph, I don’t think now’s the time—”

‘Medical assistance?’

Jason follows the Bats’ gazes towards his injured arm. He resists the urge to hide it and instead crosses his arms, trying to play it off.

“No, this is from… a cat.”

“A cat?”

“Yes. A stray cat. Bit me.”

“Tch. It’s obvious Todd is incompetent when it comes to caring for animals. For it to attack you like that you must have done quite poorly. What did you do to it?” Damien glares at him in an accusatory way.

“I didn’t do shit, Demon Brat. I was just scanning the street when it bit me outta nowhere.”

“Well, excuse me if I don’t believe you, Todd. You clearly must have cornered, threatened, or hurt it in some way for it to react—"

“Yeah, yeah.” Jason cuts him off and rolls his eyes, even though none of them can see it through the helmet. The energy is there.

“Animals hate me, and I can’t take care of them for shit. Now, can we move on to why you’re all here on my turf?” Jason stares them all down.

Before anyone else can speak up, Dick starts talking.

“Can’t an elder brother just visit his younger sibling every once in a while?” Dick asks with a totally innocent grin.

“No.”

Dick shrugs. “Worth a shot.”

“While we originally came here to interrogate you about your involvement in the disappearance of the Joker, these imbeciles wanted to use the encounter as a way to simultaneously confront you about your new… beloved” Damian says, gesturing towards the others sounding completely done and unimpressed.

‘Got them flowers?’

“So how was the dinner? And the observatory? Do they like the stars? What’s their name? Hobbies? Age? Appearance? Interests?”

“Are they hot?”

“Seeing as you picked up a bouquet of sweet peas in costume, and didn’t take a detour to your apartment or safehouse before your location started glitching, I have to ask. Are you dating a civilian as Red Hood?” Babs speaks up over the comms.

Tim stays suspiciously silent, not asking any questions. Jason cuts them all off.

“Where the hell did you even get this information from?”

“Tim snitched.”

“Drake mentioned it.”

“Tim.”

“Timmy told us.”

“Red Robin informed us about your outing.”

“I hacked some cams to see you pick up the flowers, but Tim was the one to say you were on a date at the time.”

Tim raises his finger and opens his mouth as if he’s about to speak up and defend himself. He then stops, seemingly considering something before dropping his hand back down and just shrugging.

“If you didn’t want anyone to know you shouldn’t have gone out as Red Hood when getting the flowers and taking them out to dinner.

“Besides, I tried to respect your privacy and redirect everyone somewhere else to keep them off your back. But they interrogated me, and I’m sorry.” He says, not sounding sorry at all. “It just… slipped out.”

“You didn’t try that hard—"

Tim shushes Steph and cuts her off.

“Besides! Babs also stalked you! Through the cameras! And, I didn’t say that much. I just told them you were on a date.”

Jason glares at them all through the visor of his helmet. Meanwhile, Dick crosses his arms and pouts.

“Yeah, Timbers—” “No real names.” “— wouldn’t tell us anything! He used his lack of sleep against us.”

---

“So Timmy, I need you to tell me everything. Pretty please?”

Tim raises his finger and opens his mouth as if he’s about to speak up. Then his eyes roll into the back of his head and he starts falling backward.

Dick yelps and manages to catch him before he falls onto the ground and hits his head.

“Damn it, Tim!” He whines. “Passing out like that should not have been the power move that it is.”

“He can fall asleep after this?!” Steph’s incredulous voice pipes up.

Dick’s gaze moves from Tim over to where Steph was previously half-dying due to Tim’s monstrosity of a drink. She’s standing by now, clutching the mug in a death grip. She’s twitching every now and again, her foot tapping the floor rapidly.

“Ehm, Steph? You okay?”

“Mhmm, think I’m having a stroke”

“Oh, that’s not good—”

Dick cuts himself off as Steph starts to stumble. He moves closer to catch her in case she falls as well, but luckily she manages to save herself from falling, clumsily moving to sit down on the floor instead.

Once seated, she lets her back hit the floor. She also lets go of the mug, letting it spill onto and roll around the floor of the cave.

“Y’know, I think I’m just gonna stay here for a bit. Maybe do some stalactite gazing. It’s riveting stuff, I tell you!”

Dick lets out a small sigh and nods a little.

“You do you, boo”

He gets a thumbs-up in response.

---

“Why are you actually here?” He cuts them off, already done with their bullshit. “Don’t start the bullshit about the ‘date’ again. Either talk business or leave.”

He privately notes the lack of green in his vision.

They all glance at each other before Batman steps forward and speaks up.

“What is your involvement in the disappearance of the Joker.”

“I don’t have anything to do with the Joker’s disappearance” Jason vehemently denies, arms still crossed.

“Are you sure about that?” Babs’ voice pipes up over the comms.

A hologram forms above Batman’s gauntlet computer. The hologram shows a picture of Jason in his Red Hood costume without his helmet grinning at the camera. He’s holding up the camera selfie style and seems to be in one of the alleys of Crime Alley.

The most intriguing part of the picture is the figure next to Jason on the ground. There, in clear view, lies the dead body of the Joker. His head seems to be caved in in a way that shows he most likely died on impact, hit by something that had a lot of force.

Jason pauses at the sight of one of his most precious keepsakes.

“Of course you hacked my phone” He scoffs, clearly unhappy.

Jason turns back to look at the Bats and watches their reactions to the revelation the Joker is most certainly dead. Dick seems to have some sort of weight lifted off of his shoulders. Cass doesn’t give anything away.

Damian is unimpressed, scoffing at the hologram and likely already mentally criticizing the technique. Steph seems to be more relaxed, “Damn, Jason, this totally looks like that one Grant Gustin next to the grave meme,” while Tim seems to be having some kind of world-shattering epiphany.

He then eyes Batman’s tense posture. Jason shifts slightly, getting ready to fight if it comes to it.

“Red Hood. Did you kill the Joker?” Batman grinds out slowly, pinning Jason with a soul-piercing stare. Jason carefully eyes Batman’s tightened fists before locking eyes with him again.

“No,” Jason answers honestly.

Jason and Batman are locked in a stare-down, neither speaking another word. The tense silence goes on for a few seconds before it’s broken by Dick casually putting his arm around Jason’s shoulders in a friendly gesture.

“Welp. Seems like he didn’t do it, B. If he says he didn’t, I believe him.” Dick speaks up.

Jason and Batman both untense a little, the moment broken. Jason lets out a small grumble and shrugs Dick’s arm off his shoulders. Dick lets him with a smile.

“Wait, so you just found his body dead in a ditch somewhere? I called it!” Steph pipes up.

She holds her hand up for a high-five. Cass gives her one.

Jason shrugs nonchalantly “You could say that.”

“You may not have killed him, but it’s clear you’re covering for the actual murderer. Who is it and why are you protecting them?” Batman asks, not letting it go.

“You may not believe me, B, but it was just a freak accident as far as I could tell.”

If you call a meta one-punching the Joker in self-defense a ‘freak accident’.

It’s not like Danny meant to do it. Ergo: accident.

“Nothing more, nothing less. I found him like that. All I did was get rid of the body and wipe some cams. Not that those would have been much helpful if let unwiped anyway.” He shrugs, unconcerned.

“Do you know what caused the files to become corrupted this way? I’ve seen corrupted files before, but this is something else…” Babs says over the comms, tone curious.

“Nah, they were like that even before I wiped them. Might have something to do with whatever took the fucker out. Don’t know though, and I don’t care.I’m just glad the city’s finally rid of that bastard.”

“Amen to that!”

Batman’s glare moves over from Jason to Tim, who meets his gaze headfirst and just gives him an unimpressed stare in return.

“You gotta be honest, B. There’s not really anyone gonna be missing him…”

“Now, if that’s all. I gotta go. I’ve got some work to do, cases to solve, groceries to buy. Y’know, not everyone has the freedom to walk around dressed as furries beating up bad guys 24/7. Some of us have a life.” Jason cuts in.

“And since when are you the one to have a life outside of being a vigilante?”

“Oh, you know, since somewhere around the time my gruesome murder was finally avenged,” Jason says sarcastically.

“Who knew that that would be something that would make it feel like a weight is lifted off of your shoulders and that it would finally bring some peace into your life?

“Let me know if you find the guy who did it, okay? Feel like this was a great service to the community and it deserves a nice reward. Might bake ‘em a cake or something. Maybe some cookies… ” Jason pretends to think.

“Where’s the body?” Batman asks, ignoring Jason’s sarcasm.

“And when are you going to introduce us to your new partner?” Dick chimes in as well.

“Not telling you, and never if I can help it. Now, goodbye.” Jason grinds out before leaving.

Jason turns and runs to the edge of the building, making his way over to the next building and leaving the Bats behind on the roof. As he gets farther away from the other vigilantes, the last thing he hears is Steph speaking up.

“Is it just me or did that conversation involve a lot less… green-eyed rage than I expected?”

Now, it’s time to plan that next date…

---

Taglist:

@i-always-say-yea @uraniumwizard @why-must-i-be-like-this @griffinthing @i23432i @imsotiredfanficlovertm

[ew-selfish-art]

My brain is unwilling to let go of Twin AU prompts. Sorry for the long post lmao.

Jazz and Jason are getting pretty serious in their relationship, and honestly, they’ve both been hesitant to introduce their family members to one another despite constantly talking about them. They’ve been dating since she started her doctoral studies at Gotham U and she’s about to defend her dissertation, so it really is about time. He saved her in her first week as the Red Hood and he immediately felt at home with her (something, something liminal), she runs into him the next day at a coffee shop and thanks him for taking the time to help her. 

Identities are obviously blown. Jason knows that her brother works in ‘politics’ and her younger sister is a travel blogger, and that the three of them don’t talk to her mad scientist parents anymore. Jazz knows that he came back from the dead, his adoptive family had a slew of issues in addition to their hero-complexes and that he would be prepared to kill for any one of his siblings. Their communication skills are top notch. 

But then came the issue of actually meeting the family. Like Jazz knows all of the drama between the siblings but could not pick them out of a line up, or more importantly, know who to talk to if an emergency situation came up. Jason agrees, that yeah, it would probably be for the best if he could at least identify her little brother and sister if they had to like, meet at hospital or something. 

So that was the plan. Invite just siblings over to their shared apartment, no parents and no fuss. (She even called Danny ahead of time to tell him not to portal straight into the apartment, he needed to walk in the door like a normal person. They could share Ghost King secrets later.) 

Tim arrives first, he’d been working a case nearby and Jazz & Jason live pretty close to a nice coffeeshop, so he stopped along the way. He’d done some creeping to figure out that she drinks Chai so he brought one for her. Creepy and yet, endearing. 

Ellie comes in second from the window, launching into a story about how annoying it was to find the place with all the gloom, didn’t this city have any respect for the dead? Tim doesn’t get it but Jason is laughing along so Tim files it away for later. 

Dick comes in with a shit ton of Pizza he panic ordered, a fruit bouquet and two bottles of wine from Bruce’s cellar. Duke came along with him, a large tupperware of Alfred’s cookies. 

Then Steph, Babs and Cass show up, immediately treating Jazz like family while also being hella suspicious about the whole thing. She notices them looking at her hands and Jazz explains that no, they weren’t doing this because Jason proposed. Steph and Cass are annoyed at Jason but tell Jazz she could do better if she wanted. Babs is happy they aren’t rushing into anything (she’s the only one besides Tim that knows how long they’ve been dating- this is just to throw out a red herring for the others)

Everyone is getting along and having a great time, Ellie being a natural entertainer along side Dick, everyone trying to tell embarrassing stories about Jason. Loud noises are coming from the hallway when they realize that neither Damian nor Danny had arrived. 

Rushing out the door, the boys are alternating putting each other into choke holds and arguing about not being clones. Danny keeps phasing out of Damian’s grip and Damian keeps pulling out more knives. The hallway looks like it had been blown up and the two are continuing to yell at one another about going to a family dinner. Jason and Jazz just stare at them from the doorway, and wouldn’t you know it, they look like fucking twins. 

Jazz grabs Danny, Jason grabs Damian, and everyone is fucking confused. Both sides of the family can confirm growing up with the twins, that neither are a clone. Ellie helpfully supplies that she’s the clone and that opens a whole other bag of chaos. 

Eventually they get everyone to sit down for dinner and the night gets weirder from there. 

[connorsbonez]

Stalkers and Cryptids

Meeting the Bat Family

1. Danny

Since him and Wes got together with Tim at the same-ish time, it was decided that they’d get introduced to the family one at a time before going together, and for some reason, Danny got chosen to be the first to go.

It went surprisingly well! The siblings loved him (at least, they think Damien does, maybe Danny will have to convince him through the means of Cujo) and it took Bruce a moment but he came around

Duke thought Tim managed to bring the personified sun into the house at first before realizing ‘oh, it’s a person’ and switched to ‘what the fuck is up with you’, pulling out some sunglasses before asking Danny who straight faced told Duke that he ate a lot of glow sticks as a kid.

Duke asked what they tasted like.

Cass and Danny stared at each other for five minutes before nodding and continuing on like nothing happened.

Steph and Danny had to be physically separated and it was agreed to never leave those two alone. No matter the circumstances. Tim is terrified and rightfully so.

So everything was going pretty great.

And then dinner happened.

Fenton Curse reared its ugly head in the form of Danny accidentally touching the chicken with his bare hands. He barely got in an apology before the chicken jolted upwards in vengeful fury and dragged everyone into a recreation of the Cold War. Food was splattered on everything and everyone, the table was flipped to the side in an effort to be used as a shield, screams of the damned as the chicken descended upon them with a large butcher knife, something was on fire, and Alfred was loading up his shotgun crouched behind the table with Danny on one side and Bruce on the other looking like he was astral projecting but not at the same time.

It was agreed that this dinner was never to be spoken of. Ever.

Danny wore gloves from now on when he came over for a meal of any kind.

Dick had to wear a hat for a bit after the chicken managed to take off some of his hair, leaving a bald spot (Steph tried to shave his head completely to ‘even it out’)

2. Wes

They waited two months before bringing Wes to the manor and after what happened with Danny, the family was a touch more wary. Dick jokingly(ish) asked if Wes would bring anything alive, he replied with ‘Not unless you pay me’ and didn’t elaborate further.

You’d think they’d calm down after interacting with Wes for a bit because it wasn’t like he was horrible, he meshed well with the others and they could find themselves genuinely liking Wes if not for a small little thing or two. It was going too well. Wes seemed to know how to interact with all of them, barely making any mistakes that came with interacting with new people, it was off putting to the vigilantes. (Except Tim, he didn’t notice a thing odd about it)

Along with the fact that the ginger seemed to sometimes ask very…interesting questions that made the others pause. Wes can’t help himself when it comes to knowing things about people that he’s talking too, he held off this long and now he can’t help but slide in a few questions and comments here and there…just to see if they notice.

Wes could acknowledge that he found it a little funny how much he was driving the Waynes up the wall.

Bruce kept staring at Tim, as if trying to telepathically get answers from him. Tim pretended not to notice his gaze.

Someone tried to give the shovel talk and Wes responded by saying their credit card information in a deadpan tone.

This visit also somehow managed to go to hell, this one didn’t even make it to dinner. The disaster kicked off with Wes and Damian, no one is quite sure what was said but it ended with an absolute cat fight, with Dick holding back Damian who had a bruise already blooming on his lower jaw and Jason holding back Wes who had a small knife lodged into his thigh and promptly bit Jason when he abruptly grabbed the ginger.

Jason later got checked for rabies.

Wes refused to give the knife back, having left with it still in his thigh. (Danny got it out and was unsurprised by the series of events when told.)

(Batman definitely went to their apartment later that night.)

3. Bernard

This wasn’t the first time he met the Wayne Family but it was the first time he’d be meeting them as Tim’s boyfriend instead of just friend.

So obviously the meeting went find, they already knew who Bernard was so it wasn’t a get to know you meeting but a shovel talk meeting + meeting the third boyfriend

Bernard was the only one really intimidated by the shovel talks

Most peaceful night, Bernard told some of his theories during dinner, including how Superman, Batman, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Lex Luther were in a polygamy relationship. Jason was dying (metaphorically this time) during dinner as well as the other siblings, Bruce not so much and Damian tried to act like he didn’t find it funny (Dick swears he did).

He was the only one Bruce didn’t feel the need to heavily research. (Because he already did that when he and Tim first became friends)

( I kinda hate this but whatever, it’s been in the drafts for far too long. )

[phantom-0-writer]

*standing menacingly at the door* i made u something

anyways lol. i had a lot of school work and was really busy freaking out and stress studying for a singular test that was 4 questions and would be over in like an hour and then i proceeded to cry about it in my car for various reasons.

but yk what that means!

time for our irregular and unscheduled update of

Gotham Academy's Mentorship Program

this episode featuring a fan favorite: Duke Thomas (aka The Signal - but thats kind of irrelevant for this)

you were supposed to read that like it was from a '90s sitcom and the off screen crowd cheers rly loudly.

some house keeping updates: this scene happens in the beginning of the school year (going by the american system should be september) danny meets damian (and upsurges tim on the same day) around midterm which is around october and then the stuff with jason and damian's drawing happens around december. i kinda accidentally burned the irl timeline for anything dc first scene so now im just gonna do whatever i want.

anyways with out further ado:

table of contents

scene 04: after school activities for normal kids

Duke stood around the corner of the classroom awkwardly, wondering if he had made the right call. Sure the bats and the birds had a plethora of hands on deck any time, but most of them specialized as night time heros. Not to say that they were incompetent or anything, they were some of the most skilled and innovative people Duke had ever had the pleasure of meeting. Sure if anything happened, they could handle it, at least until Duke could slip away and show up as the Signal- Alfred and Bruce had assured him so much. But Duke couldn’t slip the guilt of busying away more of his time to after school activities when he could be patrolling or studying instead, 

But Duke had wanted to do something outside of those things, which was specifically why he had made the difficult decision to join a few clubs and after school activities. He could use a break from being surrounded by people who worked the vigilante life-style just to remember how to be a normal civilian. Let himself take a break from constantly be consumed by one case or another, one disaster or another, not being able to do enough no matter how much he tried or how much time he spent patrolling. 

Duke needed to feel grounded, like his feet were on the ground and he could press the brakes and smell the fragrance of life. Even if the fragrance was a forgotten pile of dog s-

“Alright,” The instructor for their culinary club started with a weird German accent that sounded really fake. “I am Herman. You can call me Chef or Chef Herman or just Chef. I will not bore you all with the boring introductions, and let's head right into the cooking, yes. On this paper here I made the partners for all of you to cook with for the rest of the year. If you have problem with it then quit.” 

This Herman guy seemed like quite the character, and was definitely not helping any of Duke’s previous anxieties. Many of Duke’s clubmates seem to think so too, sending their friends various looks. But no one spoke out, and instead shuffled to the front to look at the singular sheet of paper that would assign them their partners. Duke finally made it to the front and saw that he was paired with a Daniel Fenton at Station 7. 

Crossing his fingers that Daniel had at least only a half-rotten personality, Duke made his way over to station 7. The station was already prepped with an assortment of ingredients and cooking equipment. Duke had already set his stuff down claiming the seat closer to the exit (in case) when a lanky kid comes over, “Uh, your Duke Thomas?” He asks hesitantly looking back at the front counter the partner assignment sheet was. 

It took Duke an awkward second longer to realize that this kid was probably his partner. “Oh yeah I am.” He laughed apologetically, “You must be Daniel.” 

“Danny’s fine.” The boy smiled, absentmindedly brushing his messy black hair out of his face, his glacier blue looking at the equipment. Duke couldn’t help but feel like there was something off about Danny. Not in Gotham’s usual psycho-maniac-out-to-terrorizer-the-city-and-kill-innocent-people kind of off, more in a he’s not in sync with the rest of the world off. While Chef Herman explained the general structure of various types of kitchen and kitchen hierarchy that Duke was already familiar with, Duke tried to get a read on him. 

Weird did not mean threat, after all many of the Justice League- heck even the local Wayne/Batclan were pretty weird- and they (usually) didn’t mean any harm. It wouldn’t be fair of Duke to jump the horse like that. 

Deciding he should try to be friendly with him, Duke leaned over, “Is it just me or is Chef Herman’s accent totally fake?” he whispered. 

“Oh, Ancients,” Anciets? “I thought I was just going insane.” Danny sighed in relief with a small chuckle. There was a moment of silence between the two of them where no one said anything for longer than socially acceptable and Duke debated using his powers to see if he could find a clue or something. That seemed kinda invasive, though. 

When the Chef had started instructions on making today's recipe, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Danny helped Duke measure out the ingredients. “So,” Danny tried again, “What are you in for?” 

“What am I…” Duke repeated confused, 

Danny chuckled awkwardly, “Like why you joined the club.” 

Duke seriously needed to get his head in the present; this was getting embarrassing. “Oh.” He nodded in understanding, “I’ve always liked cooking,” Duke shrugged, “When I was little my parents and I would always cook together, and it was always one of my favorite things to do. And I’ve kinda always liked it, but I fell off of it for a while with school and stuff,” emphasis on the stuff “I thought joining a club could help me get back into it and get away from… everything.” That was a little more candid than Duke had planned on being with someone he had met quite literally a few minutes ago, but it felt good to have that out of his chest. The pleasant memories of his parents swimming in his mind. Mixing the dry ingredients, “Sorry that was kind of a lot.” Duke laughed genuinely this time. 

“Dude, no it’s actually so cool that you like to cook.” Danny said admiration was easy on his face, and Duke couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed. 

“What about you, then?” 

“Ugh,” He groaned jokingly, “You can’t seriously be asking for my lame ass reason after you pulled out the flashbacks.” Danny whined, letting the oven preheat like Chef told them to. 

“C’mon, it’s only fair.” Duke played along, already ahead of the other groups. 

Danny sighed, “Promise you won’t laugh.” 

“Okay, it can’t be that bad.” Duke could already feel the smile cracking on his face. 

“It is.” Danny drawlled, “So I live in the dorms right, and I got to pull some strings and room with one of my friends from back home this year. And well, let’s just say my family has a bit of a reputation for causing problems, and the kitchen definitely wasn’t an exception. One time my dad tried to make some soup for my mom because she got sick.” Duke nodded approvingly, that was a sweet gesture, “It was all fun and games until the bomb squad had to show up and long story short we had to move.” 

“You’re joking.” Duke gaped at the bizarre story, but at Danny’s solemn expression, Duke couldn’t help but be appalled, “A bomb squad over soup.”

“My parents were never really heavy on lab safety,” Danny added, as if that explained everything, “But I burn one pot of water and maybe make a few extra-crispy eggs, and suddenly its all ‘Danny you’re not allowed in the kitchen unless you start taking actual classes’ and ‘Danny that's a biohazard’.” 

“You burned a pot of water.” Duke echoed, Danny nodded innocently, “Water doesn’t burn.”

“Well, maybe you’re just not trying hard enough.” Danny sneered, trying to crack an egg on the corner of the bowl only for all the shell to fall in the bowl and the yolk on the counter. 

“Somehow, I don’t think that’s true.” Duke said, taking the bowl from him and expertly cracking an egg single handedly. Danny looked on in awe. “You said you live in the dorms?” Duke asked easily. 

“Oh yeah, all of the non-local scholarship kids have to.” 

Before Duke could respond, a girl from the station in front of them whips her head around, “You said you’re here on a scholarship?” She asked almost oppressively. 

Danny just as taken aback as Duke felt, “Uh, yeah.” 

“Me, too. Have you heard anything about the Mentorship Program here? Apparently we all have to join.” The girl’s partner was looking between Duke and Danny confused, but returned to their cooking uninterested. 

“Oh, yeah. They make us all join.” Danny nodded. 

“I heard from some of the older kids, that no one actually gets picked for that. It’s just like a weird formality thing.” The girl spoke animatedly, “What department are you in?” 

“Applied physics and engineering design.” The oven beeps that it was ready but no one moved. 

The girl seemed to deflate that answer, “Oh, I’m doing culinary science.” And with that solid conclusionary statement, she turned around and got back to her work station. 

Danny blinked, processing what just happened and slowly turning to look at Duke for proof that just happened. But the second the both of them met each other’s eyes, they burst into a fit of silent laughter. 

Bent vunuralably over the table, trying to catch their breath, they were accosted by Chef Hermon. “The two of you are having a comedy club, not a cooking club.” Chef crossed his arms at the edge of the table. Duke was pretty sure he was trying to sold them, but the fake accent was making it hard to tell. 

Danny cleared his throat and striated up, “Sorry, Sir.” He apologized quickly. 

“Chef.” Hermon peered at them, his hat looking comically large and lopsided on his head now that Duke was getting a closer look. 

“Sorry, Chef.” Duke amended, trying to keep his cool. 

“Yes, finish cooking your cookies.” He nodded satisfied, leaving their station. 

“Okay so,” Duke tried to recount what the last thing they did was, but one look at Danny trying desperately to hold in his laugh had ruined all of Duke’s efforts as well. Barely managing to get their cookies in the oven, over Chef’s fake german accent and floppy oversized chef’s hat. 

“So scholarship for applied physics and engineering design, huh.” Duke recounted from earlier, impressed. 

“Yeah…” Danny trailed off embarrassed, “It sounds kinda snotty.” 

“Dude. That’s literally one of the hardest departments to get into, and the scholarship is no sneeze either. There’s no doubt you worked your butt off to get that.” Duke assured Danny as they sat in their stools waiting for the cookies to finish. 

“Thanks,” Danny smiled sheepishly. They sat in a much more comfortable silence now before Danny spoke again, “What grade are you in by the way?” 

“I’m in 10th. General studies for now, but I was thinking of doing medicine. You?” 

“I could totally see you as a hot-shot doctor.” Danny nodded approvingly, “11th. Technically, I’m your upperclassman then.” 

“Technically?” Duke asked.

“I mean, how old are you?” 

“15.” Duke supplied confused. 

“Me too. I skipped a grade in elementary school, so we’re actually the same age.” Danny explained, sheepishly. 

“Dude, you're actually way smart.” Duke gaped in awe. 

“Hey medicine isn’t a day walk either.” Danny nudged his arm playfully, “I’m glad the mentorship thing is just for show, though. Now that we’re upperclassmen, y’know. I would not want my hands full with some random rich kid.” 

Duke laughed, “Yeah, that definitely sounds like a lot of work.” 

Easily unfolding the conversation into various topics and interests Duke found that he didn’t mind that the cookies were burnt. Or that Danny was definitely weird. But in a good way. Duke was glad they met and would get to hang out and cook with their weird not-German Chef every week. And if Danny and Duke exchanged numbers and planned to hangout outside of club activities, then well who was going to stop them.

[elizabethemerald]

5+1 Meeting the Nightingales

5 Times the Bat family met Jazz Nightingale and her son Danny, + 1 Time the Nightingales met the rest of the Batfamily

AO3

The first time Jason met Jazz and Danny he was actually dressed in civvies. He had run out of a few staples and knew at least one of his siblings would drop by unannounced hoping he would cook for them this weekend while Alfred was out of town, so he was in the little corner store in Crime Alley that always had the freshest fruit. Red Hood personally marked the place as off limits because it provided food for half the alley. 

As he searched the shelves for what he needed he was surprised to hear a midwest accent in the next aisle. It was rare enough that out of towners moved to Gotham, much less moved into Crime Alley. A quick glance, caught between the shelves, showed him exactly why this person had come to Gotham. 

In the next aisle was a tall red head, with a young child holding her hand. Jason would be a fool and a liar if he said she wasn’t beautiful, but it was clear she wouldn’t be in the mood for any flirting. Her flaming red hair was messily and crookedly cut short, like she had done it herself in a truckstop bathroom. She had a split lip and a black eye, and wore long sleeves that fully covered the rest of her body, and if they way she winced and flinched said anything, hid many more bruises. 

Even the little boy she had with her was covered in injuries. He had his own black eye, and what looked like a fucking handprint on his fucking throat. He also shook slightly and seemed terrified of being out in public if the comforting whispers of his mother were anything to go by. Jason’s rage at the kid’s injuries wasn’t helped by the fact that he looked like adoption bait. 

Jason had to force himself to leave as the green filled his vision. He doubted a mother and her toddler who recently escaped whatever hell they had come from would be receptive to a guy his height and size confronting them in the grocery store. More than that, he needed to get a firm handle on his anger before he spoke to them so he didn’t scare them off. They were in Red Hood’s turf now and they needed to know he would protect them. 

He found them later that week when he was out as Red Hood. He had already used his information network to find which apartment building they were living in and waited for them on a neighboring stoop in his armor and helmet. Still creepy, and he wouldn’t blame them at all for being afraid of him, but he had to at least offer them his protection. 

“Danny, we’ve only got a little farther to go, then we’ll be safe at home and we can have dinner, ok?” Jason would recognize that midwest accent anywhere. 

He kept his body loose and relaxed as they approached so he didn’t startle them. Little Danny looked like he was barely keeping on his feet, except his mom’s arms were full with bags. He gave her a small wave when she passed, still plenty of room between him and them, so they wouldn’t be afraid of him grabbing one of them. 

“It's not everyday someone new moves into the neighborhood.” Jason said, his voice coming out softer and monotone with his helmet’s modulator. 

The woman stiffened and put herself between him and Danny, not that Jason would ever allow a child to be hurt in his presence, but he didn’t begrudge her the action. He kept himself relaxed against the stairs. He waited a moment for her to reply, but didn’t hold his breath. 

“You’re in Crime Alley now, this is Red Hood turf.” Jason said. “I make sure people who live here are as safe as they can be. If anyone ever messes with you, or the little one, you tell me or one of my guys, and I’ll make sure they don’t do it again. And if you ever, ever need anything to make your stay safer or more comfortable, reach out. I take care of my own.” 

His message passed on, he looked away, willing to let her return to her home without any word from her. However his attention snapped back to the pair as Danny stepped away from his mother closer to him. He kneeled down to be at the kid’s level as Danny reached up towards his helmet. 

“Danny!” His mom hissed, panic in her voice, but that didn’t stop the kid from approaching. 

The kid tapped his hands on Jason’s Red Hood helmet curiously as he looked at him with wide eyes. Jason stayed absolutely still, though he could see the boy’s mother relaxing minutely. 

“You protect?” The kid said, nearly breaking Jason’s poor dead heart. 

“Yeah, buddy, I protect.” Jason said, even as something inside him seemed to sing. He slowly reached into one of the pockets on the front of his vest and pulled out a Wonder Woman sticker that he handed over to the kid. There wasn’t much Red Hood merch on the market, more’s the shame. 

Danny returned to his mom’s side to show her the sticker with a wide smile on his face. His mom shot him a small smile, clearly relieved to have her son back by her side. She also gave Jason a thoughtful look. 

“My name’s Jazz. Jazz Nightingale. Thanks for the welcome.” She said. 

Jason gave her a nod and let her go on her way. Maybe once she knew him better and trusted him more he would offer to help her carry her groceries, but for now he let her go with her son to her apartment and disappear within. 

.

Tim was crouching on a rooftop a month later the first time he saw Jazz and Danny. He didn’t know their names, all he knew was a mom and her kid were walking alone late at night in a bad part of town. He kept a silent watch over them from the top of a nearby building. It had been a slow night and the major players were all either in Arkham or licking their wounds and preparing for their next big show, so Tim felt he could forgive himself for paying extra attention to this one small family. 

He was worried because they were in Crime Alley, it was even riskier for the pair to be traveling, and it was risky for Tim to be here. While things were better with Jason and the family he still took offense any time any of the Bats wandered into his turf without his permission. He really wanted to get through tonight without getting shot, he didn’t think this calm would last and he needed to be ready to help the family when things inevitably went wrong. 

The small family moved quickly down the street, the mom keeping a close eye out. She actually noticed the first thug before even Tim with his height advantage did. The big guy, clearly not actually from the Alley, moved in front of them, forcing her to deviate course. Unfortunately she didn’t see the second thug Tim could see, who moved behind to close off her escape. They were herding her into a narrow alley where they could act unhindered. 

He prepared himself to swoop into the alley to intervene, except the little boy grabbed his mom’s hand and they both vanished before his eyes. He didn’t have any time to look for where they had vanished to, or to try other filters built into his domino when the two thugs entered the alley and loudly began exclaiming their confusion and annoyance that their quarry had vanished. Tim couldn’t find it in him to feel bad for them. 

Tim was just debating whether it would be worth it to still drop into the alley and remind the thugs about proper behavior or if he was just asking to get hurt now that the victim had escaped, when he heard the sound of a kicked can. The thugs were complaining too loudly to hear the noise, but Tim followed along the alley from the rooftop until he reached the other street. 

There he saw the pair reappear just as suddenly as they had disappeared. Except the boy collapsed down to his knees, almost dragging his mom down with him. She lifted him into her arms, and in a feat of strength that could only be from the adrenaline fueled desperation of a mother, ran down the street with him in her arms, seemingly desperate to get him home. 

Tim once again considered following to make sure they were home safe, or to investigate them more, but he could see some of Hood’s lieutenants down the street, they would make sure she was safe, and they were even more likely to take a shot at him than Jason was. He thinks the lieutenants had some kind of personal scoreboard on hitting members of the family. 

Instead of following, Tim leaned back and let his hand rise to his comm. 

“Confirming the presence of a new meta in Gotham.” He said, interrupting the family’s chatter. 

“Powers?” Bruce said, even his questions sounded like an order. 

“Short interval invisibility.” That was the only power that made sense with what he had seen. 

“Do one of us need to make contact?” Bruce asked. 

Make contact was such a polite way to refer to Bruce’s usual tactic. Research and investigate every possible connection a person had, lay their entire history bare. Anything that could be exploited by the criminal element of the city was brought to the forefront during a face to face confrontation. Then a list of contingencies in case they joined that criminal element, willingly or not. In theory it was all for the protection of the meta. With people like Scarecrow, Ivy, and Joker who were more than willing to use mind controlling or altering substances to get what they want, and the mobs and gangs who had much more violent methods of control or influence, it was easy to see how on paper, this was for the best for everyone. 

In practice however, it gave Batman a reputation for hating metas, and violently expelling them from his city. When the meta already had a desire to commit crimes, they just became a problem for some other hero, when they didn’t they became terrified that they would be beaten if they stayed. Duke had sat down each member of the family and coached how it looked and felt to him as a meta, and how to use better methods rather than a blanket hammer. He had tried multiple times to break Bruce of the habit, but even Alfred couldn’t break Bruce of his paranoia. 

“No. They made it less than sixty feet and almost collapsed. I don’t think they are a concern to the safety of the city.” Tim declared. 

Normally he was just as paranoid as Bruce, and just as quick to judge, but a kid desperately trying to protect his mother at the cost of his own health was no risk to the city. Any mob or criminal wouldn’t even get any use out of the kid’s abilities. There was no reason to turn someone’s life upside down for no reason. Especially when they were clearly living in Crime Alley for a reason. 

“Hm.” Tim could feel Bruce’s disapproval in his voice, but he wouldn’t voice it over the comms. “Description?” 

Tim rolled his eyes. And here was the worst part of his paranoia. He couldn’t trust his own family, so he was going to keep an eye on the family even if everyone else agreed not to bother them. Still it was better to give Bruce a little before he lost his mind and started stalking people, again. 

“Looked like a mom and child. Mom was tall with short red hair, kid looked like adoption bait and seemed sickly. They’re not a threat B.” 

“What the fuck are you doing so close to Crime Alley, Replacement?!” Jason’s voice interrupted before Bruce could demand further information. Tim started in surprise, he wasn’t even aware Jason was listening in. 

“Are these people known to you, Red Hood?” Bruce growled. 

“Yeah the fuck they are. They are under my protection and you will leave them the fuck alone or the next cape that crosses into my turf is going to get pumped full of holes!” Jason snapped into the comm before immediately dropping off the line. 

Tim wisely decided to move on and patrol another section of the city, he had no desire to get between Jason and Bruce when they were like this. 

.

There were a lot of strange things that were unique to Gotham that Duke had noticed. A single mom and her kid wouldn’t usually hold too much of his attention, except when they were connected to one of the other weird things. 

Ever since Duke’s powers developed, he started to notice small green blobs in the air. They didn’t let anyone get too close, and no one else seemed to notice them. And they were so rare at first that he had thought that it was just his powers tripping up, especially since he had never seen them outside of Gotham at first. It wasn’t until the first time he saw one outside of the city that he realized what they were, and where they came from. 

Ghosts. Or something like that. They formed in old battle grounds and cemeteries. When he joined the family he brought it up and they had an investigation that eventually required them bring in members of Justice League Dark. They were the energy of death, wrapped in the emotions of the dying, and operated solely on instinct. No intelligence to speak of. Not a threat, better to just ignore them, they had been told. 

Duke wasn’t certain he believed the dismissive tone of John Constantine who had to cast spells in order to even see the little green blobs. He didn’t watch the blobs form little swarms or schools, almost like fish, or the way they froze and shook when held by his spells then fled immediately once they were free. So he kept an eye on the little green blobs, and just like with any metas in the city kept any changes on them to himself. 

One day while he was watching over Gotham’s day shift from one of the local towers, he noticed that there was a larger than normal cloud of blobs about. He was worried that there had been a new serial killer around and that was why there were more blobs. Then a beacon split the sky, like the Bat signal an emerald beam of light flashed out from Robinson Park. 

None of the people reacted to the beacon, so Duke didn’t think there was a new supervillain attack, however all of the local blobs started to excitedly swim and fly towards the parks. It reminded him of the koi in Alfred’s pond following after Damian when he brought out the feed bag. Curious, but not too concerned, Duke followed the blobs into the park towards where the beacon had disappeared. 

Most of the blobs have disappeared, but a few are trailing behind by the time he gets to the park. They lead him to a sheltered area, hidden by enormous roots that Ivy had grown the  last time she was free, and safe there among the trees was a young woman with short cropped red hair, though it looked like her hair had grown out since Tim had last seen her and a little boy who would have looked right at home at the Wayne family dinner. He could only be the same meta kid that Jason was protecting that Bruce had been struggling to find any information on in the last four months. 

To Duke’s vision, the kid had a glowing green aura, which wasn’t so unusual, most metas had some kind of glowing aura, what was strange was that the kid’s aura almost seemed to be restrained. There were sections that were brighter and striated sections that were dimmer, like the bars on a cage. He hated to see a young kid in a cage, even if it was some kind of meta aura cage. 

Especially because the kid looked so happy. He was dancing and laughing with the blobs as they floated and swam around him. They darted in and out of the bright patches of his aura like ducks in a bird bath, Bruce could shove his uptight anti meta rules up his cape, this kid wasn’t causing any problems. 

Duke stepped a little closer into the clearing and the boy’s mom gasped and whirled around. She grabbed her son’s shoulders and held him tight, fear clear on her face. They looked like they were about to bolt, and even though he was a Bat he didn’t want to terrorize them. 

He leaned back against one of the trees and called a small ball of light to his hand. He tossed the ball hand to hand for a moment before he started on his usual routine to help kids feel more relaxed. He had gotten really good at yo-yoing once to win a bet with Dick and he started yoing the little light ball up and down, and making it walk the dog and other silly little tricks. 

The kid watched him with wide eyes before calling a little bit of green light to his hands and trying to recreate the tricks. Duke smiled and showed him the trick again slower, drawing the kid closer. His mom stayed close, keeping a wary eye on both him and her son. Duke smiled at both of them. 

“I know some of the other Bats aren’t chill with metas, but you don’t have to worry about me.” Duke said softly, still showing his tricks off. “I’m just like you, I’ve been where you are, I won’t let anyone hurt you, ok?” 

The kid smiled back at him, and kept trying to mimic Duke’s powers with his little green balls of light. Eventually the kid’s mom gave him a little smile too. 

“Thanks Signal, I appreciate what you do.” 

Duke shot her a wider smile and spent the next couple of minutes playing light tag with the kid until he had to leave. 

.

Cass and Steph met Jazz and Danny during a city wide riot six months later. A prison convoy from Arkham to Black Gate was interrupted, with all the prisoners getting free and fleeing into the city. Three bus loads of convicts decided to make the city into their personal playground. There were multiple fires spread across the city and the full extended Bat family was out trying to put out the fires, recapture the escapees, and protect the people of Gotham. 

The two Batgirls were working together in one of the worse hit neighborhoods. Cass as the best fighter in the family was quick to knock out and restrain those taking advantage of the trouble and the escapees. Steph was quick to comfort any victims and direct them towards the shelters set up across the city. They had both been fighting and flying across the city for hours and were exhausted, when they heard shouting from the next street over. 

“Quickly! Follow me!” A feminine voice shouted. 

“Hey, you bitch! I’m going to fuc-” 

*CLANG*

They glanced at each other then dashed across the roof and jumped over the alley onto the next building. Steph got to the far roof edge first to look down and see a tall redhead, with her hair tightly tied back away from her face, waving an elderly couple into the opposite alleyway. She had a green painted bat in her hand and there was an unconscious thug in the street. It didn’t take two vigilantes trained by the “World’s Greatest Detective” to piece together what had happened. They watched as the couple disappeared into the alleyway and were about to move on when they heard someone call out for them. 

“Hey! Down here!” The red head shouted, waving up at them. “I need your help!” 

While they had just seen she could handle a thug by herself they still swooped down to meet her on the street level. Up close they could both see just how fit she was. She was easily as tall as an Amazon and built like a gymnast. Her muscular arms were on display in her short sleeve shirt. Cass couldn’t help a raised eyebrow at how Steph checked out her body up and down, her girlfriend was so predictable in her tastes. 

“We’ve got several injured inside, they need more care than I can provide and Danny told me that there is a big crowd of thugs heading our way, I don’t think I can keep them all out on my own.” 

With the name Danny, they now knew this woman was the mysterious Jazz. Duke had told them about his encounter with the mother and child in their Bruce-free chat. After that Tim and Jason had weighed in, though they both insisted, and Duke agreed that they weren’t a threat and should be left alone. None of the bat kids felt that the small family deserved to have Batman haunting their lives. 

Jazz led the two into the alley and past a broken door into one of the buildings. They found most of the surrounding neighbors sheltering there. There were older folks, people who were sick or injured and a bunch of the local street kids all huddled together. Steph immediately put her in progress nursing degree to use to start treating those who were injured while Cass stayed near the door with Jazz. 

“Here’s more” A young voice called right before Danny the meta boy swooped in, hovering a few feet off the ground, a couple of street kids followed right behind him. Jazz opened her arms and the little boy flew into her embrace. Cass was relieved to see Jazz checking over Danny for injuries but she was surprised the incredibly protective mother let her son out of her sight during the crisis. 

“Are there any more people in danger?” Jazz asked, her voice tight, but her little boy shook his head. “Ok, I want you to stay here.”

“But bad guys coming!” Danny protested, his eyes glowing green. He looked like he wanted to float out of her arms, but she kept a tight hold on him. 

“That’s why I need you to stay here. You need to protect Spoiler, OK?” Jazz said, gesturing to where Steph was wrapping a bleeding wound. “She’s helping the hurt people and you have to keep her safe!” 

Danny gave as serious a nod as a toddler could. Steph waved the little boy over and he floated through the air to her side. Cass arched an eyebrow as Jazz’s shoulders dropped in relief. Apparently the little kid was doing much better than Jason, Tim or Duke reported. Though she was surprised his powers had developed so quickly, going from barely able to maintain invisibility for a block to effortlessly floating in the air. 

However before either Batgirl could question that interaction the sound of approaching shouting drew their attention. Jazz and Cass stepped out of the hiding hole and snuck to the mouth of the alley. The escaped convicts had apparently assembled something of a mob as they pushed through the city. The two women could possibly stay hidden and let the riot go past, but Cass itched at the idea of letting these criminals go. If anyone was harmed by them after she let them go, that guilt would eat at her. 

Jazz looked the crowd over closely, then turned to give Cass a careful look over. Cass could see Jazz examining her just as Cass often did to others. Eventually Jazz nodded and marched to the mouth of the alley, smacking her bat against a drain pipe. 

“Hey you fucks!” She shouted, catching the attention of the mob. “Why don’t you try me on for size?” 

Cass grinned under her mask, and she could feel an almost magnetic pull towards Jazz. She examined the approaching thugs with keen eyes, and could see how they all focused on Jazz and ignored her. She presumed Jazz was also some kind of meta, though still not worth bringing Batman’s particular brand of invasive investigations into her life. 

Jazz funneled the mob into the narrow mouth of the alley so they could only approach her two or three at a time. Cass stayed right behind her, ensuring no one could catch her backside. She thinned the numbers with precise Batarangs and bolos and stepped forward to cover if Jazz tripped or needed a moment to catch her breath. 

Cass examined Jazz’s fight style using her own unique skill with reading body language as the two worked their way through the mob. Her fighting style was an eclectic mix. She had the foundations of someone who was trained by an expert, though most of the improvements on that foundation seemed to be largely self taught. What was the most interesting was the roughness of a self-taught fighter was polished into a style that almost matched that of the Amazons of Themyscira. 

The two women finished knocking out the last thug, leaving the pile unconscious and groaning. They turned to see Danny smiling at his mom, and Steph smiling for a completely different reason. Cass rolled her eyes at her girlfriend, before giving her a small nod. Danny flew to Jazz’s arms and gave her a tight hug. Steph walked up as well and threw her arm over Cass’s shoulder. 

“Hey, my girlfriend and I saw you from across the bar, and we really liked your vibe.” Steph said, with a coy smile. 

“Are you really flirting with me in costume?” Jazz asked, though she didn’t seem to mind. 

“Yeah, is it working?” 

Jazz gave them both a searching look, including running her eyes up and down their costumed forms. Cass noticed a red blush climb up Jazz’s cheeks to slightly pointed ears with a grin. Finally she hitched Danny up higher in her arms and gave them a nod. 

“You have to know that Danny’s safety and happiness are always going to be my top priority.” When both of the bats nodded she continued. “But if you want to try…

.

Batman finally met the two metas more than a full year after they had arrived in Gotham. He knew multiple of his children had met them and were for some reason purposely keeping their whereabouts and information from him. He had searched for them on his own, but with the vague descriptions and his own children obfuscating the case, they just weren’t a high enough priority, though he hated having an unknown meta with unknown abilities in his city. 

However when he found out that Orphan and Spoiler were apparently meeting the mom for clandestine rendezvous, the metas rose sharpley on his priority list. He still couldn't convince any of his children to tell him about them. 

Red Robin had stayed stubbornly silent, even the threat of benching him did nothing except ensure he slept at his Nest for two weeks. Red Hood had threatened to go back to trying to kill the Bats if Bruce tried to push him. Signal had been furious, perhaps even angrier than Hood, when Bruce mentioned them to him. 

“You claim this city as yours but it doesn't actually belong to you.” Signal had snapped. “It belongs to the people, and they deserve to live their lives without your interrogations.”

That left Batman no choice but to go behind their backs and search on his own. Trackers placed on their gear were ineffective and attempting to hack into the family group chat was only marginally less so. He tripped one of Oracle's alarms and got shut out immediately. No doubt any information was then immediately purged, and they had treated him with suspicion after that, ensuring he had to do the leg-work the more intensive way. 

He had gone back to when Red Robin first reported the sighting of the pair of metas. He had followed Red’s patrol on cams and with the tracking data until he found the suspects on the street cameras. There were fewer cameras in Crime Alley, but eventually he was able to create a pattern from the pair’s movements and sightings on the cameras that did exist. Then he meticulously hacked into the records of the apartments in the Alley. He found a few other criminals hiding in Hood’s territory and flagged them in his system to ensure he could keep an eye on them. He did eventually find a pair who had moved in during a time that matched up with the profile he had created. 

Then he did what he did best. He dug and he dug. 

He found the Nightingales, Jasmine and Daniel. He determined quickly that their surname was falsified. He dug further and found a Jasmine Fenton who matched the profile he had created. He found it highly suspicious that Jasmine had a brother named Daniel who had been declared dead right before they had arrived in Gotham and no history of a pregnancy that could have resulted in her son. In a world with time travel, invading aliens and metas attacking in the city streets, a simple de-aging wasn’t that farfetched. 

When he dug further into the Fentons he knew his suspicions were correct. The elder Fentons would have easily fit in with the rogues of Gotham. They were clearly mad-scientists, though their studies did inform him of a new threat to keep an eye on, and plenty of weapons to use as contingencies. Though they favored guns and blasters more than Batman thought was appropriate. 

In one of their reports Batman was able to determine exactly where Daniel the younger had come from, and what exactly he was. An experiment on their own son deaged him and Jasmine took her brother and ran, claiming him as her son as they started their new life in Batman’s city. 

If the elder Fentons were correct about even half the powers the two metas could have at their disposal then they were currently two of the biggest threats in Gotham, especially since they were manipulating his kids. 

He compiled the information into a folio to give to the two most affected by Jasmine's manipulations, Orphan and Spoiler. He held them back after a long patrol when he knew their aggression against his arguments would be at its lowest. They were both exhausted, still in their uniforms. 

Orphan refused to take the folio he tried to hand her. She just stared at him, her full face mask hiding any possible micro expressions. Spoiler took both folios from him and he thought for once she would be the voice of reason, except she then turned and tossed both of the folios into the dark abyss that bordered that section of the cave. 

They left him standing there and by the time he entered the Manor proper they had departed. Batman stayed up late into the morning furious and on edge that the metas had managed to coax away his best fighter. Even with all of his contingencies he didn't believe he could defeat Orphan in a fight. Batman knew he would have to confront the threats personally and that he wouldn't be able to count on any assistance from his children. 

The first thing he needed to do was ensure his kids, especially Orphan and Spoiler, wouldn’t be able to stop him. So he gave them orders that sent them all over the city, each would be busy until long after the metas were out of his city. Next on his list was to have the proper preparations. He used a series of shell companies to order a Fenton Ghost Collar which should contain Daniel’s powers. Just like he always carried Kryptonite on him as a worst case solution against Superman, he prepared a nuclear option, a single button primed to send a report to the Ghost Investigation Ward, to ensure that the threats would leave. 

With all of the other Bats scattered to the winds, Batman silently slipped into the window in one of the bedrooms of the meta’s apartment. He landed next to a child’s bed and quickly slipped the collar from his belt; he needed to contain the meta threat before the kid could wake up. Just as he reached down, the door to the room burst open and Jasmine rushed in. 

“Get away from him!” She shouted, a green glowing bat in her hand. 

Batman stood between her and her supposed son, he hadn’t expected her to be able to hear him enter, but he would still get his point across. 

“Hello Ms. Nightingale. Or should I say Ms. Fenton.” He growled at her. “You and your son are not welcome in my city.” 

He watched her face pale in fear before she tightened her grip on the bat. 

“You may be Bruce Wayne but even you don’t own the whole city.” 

Batman let his eyes widen slightly. Of course she had manipulated Orphan and Spoiler into giving up the family’s secret identities, he should have realized, but two could play that game. He flicked the button into view. 

“If I press this button, an automatic notification will be sent to the GIW bringing them here. You remember them right?” He was pleased to see her grip on the bat slacken as she stepped back, her breaths coming faster in her panic. 

“You- you wouldn’t.” She took another breathless step back, almost falling against the boy’s bedroom wall. “They would come for everyone, Hood, Cass, Steph, there are so many people who would be in danger.” What was she talking about? His kids weren’t ghosts. “How could you support an organization that wants to commit genocide against an entire parallel realm?”

What. 

“Oh daddy bats focusing too much on a perceived threat and ignoring the obvious implications. Who could have guessed?” 

Batman spun on his heel to see Spoiler stepping out from the closet, Orphan right behind her. In Spoiler’s arms was none other than the meta, Daniel. He completed his turn to see the sleeping child in the bed melt away to nothing. 

“Danny!” Jasmine ran to her son and scooped him up in her arms, Orphan immediately stepped in front of her, putting herself between the Batman and the metas. 

“Do you think we’re stupid, Bruce?” Spoiler continued. “Do you think we didn’t see your stupid plan to try and confront Jazz and drive her out of the city a mile away?” 

“She is controlling your mind.” Batman growled out, furious that his greatest secret was out in the open being bandied around. 

“No she is not.” Batman wasn’t sure he could be more surprised when Martian Manhunter floated through the wall. “Neither of the Nightingales are exhibiting any form of mental manipulation I recognize.” 

“Yeah, Bats, for someone who always likes to pretend to be the smartest in the room, you really stuck your dick in it this time.” John Constantine said as he walked into the room. 

“We called back up. And unlike you we actually listened to the experts.” Spoiler continued as Batman scowled more and more. “At this moment, Babs and Tim are scrubbing your files of everything related to Jazz and Danny.” 

Orphan stepped forward and signed aggressively. “We will protect Jazz and Danny, even from you.”

Batman looked around, surrounded on all sides by people who should be his allies, his subordinates, his soldiers and he did something rash. He pressed the button still in his hand. 

He knew he shouldn't have even as soon as he pressed it. There were facts here he hadn't been aware of. He knew he could get tunnel vision before a perceived threat and this many people couldn't all be controlled. 

Batman knew he had made an irreparable mistake as Jasmine wailed in despair and Orphan and Spoiler both stepped up as if to stop him. He knew it as Martian Manhunter flinched and Constantine scowled. He looked down at the button he had so carefully created, the nuclear option, and felt shame and guilt curl inside him. 

“You really are predictable, B.” The heavily modulated voice of Red Hood was heard as the man himself climbed into the room from the window. “Oracle wiped that thing out as soon as you had created it, we won’t let those scum get called here.” 

Jasmine sobbed in relief, holding Daniel tight to her chest. Oracle and Spoiler wrapped her their arms, Daniel happily babbling to the three women, now that they were relieved. Red Hood pressed forward, pushing Batman back away from the small family. Constantine and Manhunter approached as well. 

“Come on Bats, let’s have a conversation on the Watchtower. Wonder Woman and the Boyscout have some words for you on knowing about an organization like this and not bringing up to League attention.” Constantine muttered as the two escorted him from the room. 

Batman glanced back at the metas, at Jasmine and Daniel, at the tears in her eyes and the way he held onto her as tightly as he could, at the loving way Steph looked at them and the glare in Cass’s eye directed at himself. He let the others lead him away without a fuss. 

.

Jazz reflected on the chaotic last year and a half as she walked up the long drive to the manor that loomed down over her. In the past 18 months so much had happened. Her parents had caught Danny mid transformation and attacked him. She had managed to escape the basement with a heavily injured and rapidly shrinking Danny. They had run from the GIW, moving constantly until they found themselves in the most crime ridden city in the US if not the world, Gotham. 

She had been terrified and basically alone in the city, with only Danny who was now for whatever reason an actual toddler. He didn’t remember anything from before, and his powers were wildly out of control and hurt him to use them. She felt the only place she could feel safe with Danny was in Crime Alley, where no one would rat them out to government goons. 

Running into Red Hood had been a miracle, a terrifying miracle but a miracle nonetheless. He offered her protection and what help he could provide. When Jazz saw a few GIW agents sniffing around, she told one of Hood’s lieutenants and the Red Hood Gang targeted the agents with extreme prejudice whenever they were sighted in the city. For once she felt like she could actually relax and focus on raising Danny. 

The rest of the vigilantes in the city were strange. She was passingly aware of one of the Robins keeping an eye on her as she made her way through the city on occasion. It seemed like most of the rest avoided Red Hood’s territory, which was a relief. She didn’t need anyone else aware of what Danny could do. 

Meeting Signal had been nice. He was kind and had played with Danny and showed him some training exercises to help him practice his powers in a safe way. If he assumed incorrectly that Danny was a meta instead of a ghost, then that wasn’t her business. By that point, Danny’s powers were starting to recover, and he was finally healed from what Jack and Maddie had done to him, though he didn’t return to his previous age. 

Jazz had been in the midst of a panic attack while Danny napped, terrified that she wouldn’t be a good enough mother for her brother, when time had frozen around her. Clockwork himself appeared. She wanted to rage at the Time Ghost, she wanted to scream and hit him and see how he enjoyed experiencing everything Danny had gone through at the hands of her former parents. It was the palpable grief in his expression that stayed her hand. He mourned Danny’s loss, and the childhood Jazz had sacrificed not once but twice to raise him. 

Clockwork said that Observants had bound him and prevented him from interfering and it had taken until now to be able to assist. He couldn’t undo what had happened to Danny without him experiencing all the pain afresh. But the two of them could take this as an opportunity. He had every confidence in Jazz’s ability to raise Danny to his full potential. As King. His full potential as High King of Ghosts. 

Jazz politely asked to schedule another Time-Out for that evening to freak out properly about that. 

As the person raising Phantom, even if Danny couldn’t take on his ghost form at this time, that gave Jazz power and privileges. She was effectively the Queen Regent until Danny was able to take the crown for his own. She couldn’t make too many decrees as Regent, other than for the protection of the King, nor could she be challenged for the crown. 

The first decree she made as Regent was for the Observant Council to be punished for their interference, which allowed the King to come to harm. Fright Knight personally oversaw their punishment; his fury at the harm to his King was extraordinary. Eventually they would be able to return to their duties, monitoring the time stream and recording the history of the cosmos, their ability to restrain Clockwork significantly reduced. 

The spectral crown that now hovered invisibly over her head as a sign of her Regency granted her some additional benefits as well. The crown had its own aura of pure ectoplasm, allowing Danny to heal faster and for his powers to recover almost back to what they were, which presented its own challenges considering he was still a child. Fortunately as Regent she was able to restrain his more explosive powers, like his Wail, though she promised him that she would allow him to protect her if he needed to. 

The flood of pure ectoplasm also enhanced Jazz’s own liminal powers and abilities. She was stronger, faster and had enhanced senses. Not quite Superman level, but well above any baseline human. Which certainly helped when she needed to defend herself. Her latent empathic abilities were now incredibly powerful, she could read the intentions and emotions of those around her as well as manipulate them to a degree, either drawing their attention to her, or forcing them to ignore her, both of which were very useful for a Queen Regent with a young king. 

In addition to healing Danny and boosting Jazz’s powers, it also seemed to filter the ambient ectoplasm in the air, which led to Red Hood’s territory feeling a lot less bitter and angry. Honestly the whole city of Gotham seemed less smog filled and hostile after a few months of living there as Regent. Once Danny was older she would have to investigate why that was, she presumed a city like this was cursed up to the sky scrapers, and maybe the crown helped clear some of those curses out? 

If Jazz was being honest with herself, running into Cass and Steph in costume as Orphan and Spoiler, had been a life saver, an absolute life saver. They saved not just her life but Danny’s as well. 

Of course, on the day of the riot Stephanie’s help with the injured folks they had recovered was invaluable. And Cass’s help with fighting the rioters saved her very directly, though she always could have called on Fright Knight to take care of things. 

She would have much rather sheltered in their little apartment until the riot was over. The problem was that along with Danny’s reemerging powers, came his reemerging obsessions. She had painted the ceiling for the whole apartment with different space themes, including an accurate map of the night sky. She had borrowed almost every book in the Gotham Library on space at some point and had them reserved months out. 

However his protection obsession was more difficult to sate. She managed to focus it most of the time toward him keeping her safe, but during the riot so many people were in danger and hurting that it would have torn him apart to ignore all the calls for help he could feel. Just like he could feel the exact positions of the stars day or night, he could feel every person who needed help around them. 

Jazz had mobilized as well as she was able. She ordered the local blob ghosts to find her a place where she could bring people who were hurt or in danger and ordered Fright Knight to follow Danny invisibly as he sought out the people to bring to the safe house. Unfortunately, despite her skills with patching Danny back together after fights, she was still only one person and couldn't treat those Danny brought to her and keep them safe at the same time, so the two bats showing up was a huge relief. 

Their help after the riot was what made them lifesavers and she didn’t mean just the dates, though they were nice. She hadn’t expected the two very attractive heroes to flirt with her, any more than she expected to take them up on it, but it was nice to have someone in the city who had her back. Of course the dates and… dates… were very nice. Especially the… dates… with both Cass and Steph at the same time. That was an especially mind-blowing night the first time. 

Predicting and intercepting Bruce’s paranoia had been a huge help, delaying him in his pursuit of her and Danny. And then when they couldn’t delay him any more, they were there to stop him from hurting Danny. She had been furious at first that they hadn’t told her about convincing her son to create a sleeping clone to distract Bruce, but they had taken her words when they first met as Law. Danny’s safety and happiness was her first priority, even over her own mental health. 

With the two girls and Cass’s siblings working together they stopped anything bad from happening that night. Then they set to work. A reporter from Metropolis, Lois Lane, started releasing articles roasting the GIW and the lawmakers that allowed the law through. Jack and Maddie were arrested and their designs and weapons seized by the Justice League. Young Justice and the Teen Titans made a competition of hunting down the GIW agents once the laws were revoked. So far YJ had the lead, but the Titans were planning a raid on a GIW facility that would even the score. 

Jazz had even been able to make a deal in the following month as Regent with Constantine that had him and the other JL magic users going after Vlad. He was arrested and tried for his crimes against Danny, bound to his human form and unable to create duplicates. Then he was tried for his even more numerous corporate crimes. In the end he was imprisoned, penniless and destitute. Once Danny was King he would have the authority to collect the various pieces of the Laughing Magicians soul so he wouldn’t spend eternity getting torn apart. 

Now with the ghost hunters taken care of, and the ghosts safe once again, it was time to meet the rest of Cass’s family. She had Danny on her hip as she walked up to the massive manor, and Jazz couldn’t help but feel trepidation. This was more than meeting her girlfriends’ family, which would have been scary enough on its own. This was meeting her girlfriends’ family and that family was the defenders of the city. The defenders who had worked to make her and Danny so much safer than they had been basically… ever. Certainly safer than they had been growing up under the roof of Fentonworks. 

She took a deep breath and held onto Danny just a little tighter. Danny giggled and squirmed a little in her grasp and she set him on the ground before knocking on the door. The door opened immediately as Alfred had been waiting for them. 

“Grampy!” Danny squealed and ran forward to hug Alfred’s legs. He was still a little too young to understand the difference between a grandpa (Bruce) and a great-grandpa (Alfred) so he had given Cass’s grandfather that name. Fortunately Cass and Steph had already ensured that Bruce would be away from the Manor for the day. Jazz couldn’t help the blush that rose in her cheeks at Danny assuming her girlfriend’s grandfather was also his grandfather. Maybe one day. 

“Ah, hello young master.” Alfred said with a small smile. Cass had insisted that she and Danny meet Alfred before they met the rest of the family. Even though he tried to hide behind his mask of professionalism, Jazz could see that Alfred was deeply touched by Danny’s excitement. “And hello to you Ms. Jazz. Please come in, the family is waiting for you in the media room.” 

“Hello, Alfred.” Jazz said with a smile, as she followed him into the manor. Danny excitedly jogged alongside Alfred’s longer strides. He quickly out paced the older man as he took to the air, practically vibrating with excitement as he flew. 

“Cass!!” Danny screamed as he rocketed into the media room and tackled Jazz’s girlfriend. 

Cass had a brilliant smile that made Jazz’s heart race as she held Danny and peppered his head and cheeks with kisses. Jazz stepped up to her girlfriend and gave her a kiss on the cheek of her own. Steph jumped up out of her seat and ran to squeeze Jazz against Cass’s shoulder and both women turned and gave Jazz simultaneous cheek kisses while Danny laughed his little head off as his two favorite ladies and his mom were around him. 

“Well you two! Are you going to introduce us to your girlfriend?” A cheery voice called from one of the couches. 

The rest of her girlfriends’ family were scattered around the media room. Jazz recognized them all just by description. Dick was the one who had stood up and spoke out. Sitting on one of the couches was Jason, Red Hood, out of costume and shooting them a small smile. Tim who had watched over them and destroyed Bruce’s files on them. Damian scowled with his arms crossed even as he stepped up behind Dick to introduce himself next. Duke was there, once again playing with a little ball of light. Barbara turned her wheelchair around so she could smile at them as well. 

This was her girlfriends’ family, the protectors of Gotham City. Jazz smiled and wiped a few tears from her eyes at how happy she was and Danny was literally glowing with unrestrained joy.

Join me on my discord!

[tea-and-vodka]

DP x DC AU, Bruce/Danny (if someone knows the ship name *please tell me-*)

Side note: I'm using asterisks (*) to signify italics, because for some reason Tumblr is being annoying about those.

- - -

He never really told anyone about it. No one really remembered but him, Alfred, and the photos they had kept.

Bruce had a friend when he was younger, one who had lived on the streets before moving into the manor.

The two had been practically inseparable.

Yet, as they grew older, they knew that his friend needed to stay away from the cameras and stares that had started following Bruce like mosquitoes.

So, his friend left when they were in their late teenage years. They kept in contact of course, and the two visited. But when the youngest (at the time) Wayne began to get involved with less than legal activities in their twenties, he hid it from his friend.

The rate of their visits slowed down, until it came to a halt. They sent letters, of course, but seeing him in person meant danger. Potentially putting *him* in danger. And Bruce could not let that happen.

- - -

The Batkids all stare in varying levels of confusion, concern, and awe as Bruce becomes visibly flustered.

"Bruce, Darling, it is so nice to see you again!" The man, Danny, says, before kissing Bruce on the corners of his mouth. He holds the billionaire's face in his hands as he tilts his own head to the side, a soft and affectionate look on his face. "I have missed you and Alfred so much! How have you two been?"

Bruce stammers for a moment, not taking his eyes off of the taller man in front of him. "I've, um, been well, thank you. Uh-" He flicks his eyes over to his kids before returning them to Danny as he gestures to the gathered crowd in his entryway. "These are my children! Wo-would you like to meet them?" He blurts out quickly, a smile that he seemed to be desperately fighting on his face.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I want to meet them?" Danny says jovially, turning to the others.

As the man calmly walks over, Cass makes a few observations. His lithe, relatively short body not tense in the slightest, every step seeming purposeful yet not at all thought about, and his eyes flick over everyone in front of him like he's analyzing them. Seeing them like she sees people.

Still smiling, he opens his mouth to speak to all of them, when he freezes. The group tenses, watching as he doesn't take his eyes off of the second eldest brother as his smile falls.

With pain in his eyes, the older man simply breathes out an, "Oh."

Jason stared into Danny's eyes, something akin to grief beginning to show on his face.

"Oh, *Sweetheart.*" Danny said softly, stepping closer to the younger man. He carefully takes his face into one hand, holding him like he may break. "*I'm so sorry.*"

At that, Jason's face metaphorically crumples, tears spilling down his face as Danny feels his [*hurts tired scared angry tired hurts scared h e l p -*]. Danny's thumb rubs his cheek in an effort to soothe the young man, an understanding sadness on his face. In response, Jason lets out a small whimper as he tries to bury his face into the other's hand.

Gently, delicately, despite the sheer size of him, he pulls Jason close, practically curling around him like he's trying to shield him from the outside world. One hand rubs his back, the other curling into his hair as the Bat's face buries itself into his neck, muffling the sounds of sobbing. [*Safe together protect safe comfort soothe safe*]

As the Batfamily watched this happen, most were too caught off-guard and utterly dumbstruck to notice some unusual details.

Cass's eyes squint slightly in suspicion as Danny's toxic green ones close. Weren't those a nearly unnatural blue when she first saw him?

- - -

I'm sorry if this got repetitive; I don't usually beta anything I post!

Essentially, Danny senses Jason's ghostly-ness, and is like, "Who the heck hurt this baby?!" Immediately reaching out with the whole ghost-EM field-thing, Jason's whole world is flipped because he'd been subconsciously trying to reach out that way ever since he got back to Gotham, and had been getting increasingly distressed because no one was understanding what he was communicating.

A few years after he was brought into the manor, Danny had explained to Bruce and Alfred what he is, what happened in Amity Park, how he got deaged, etc., and they accepted him wholeheartedly. *Except*, he left out any and all mention of vigilantism / the bigger enemies that he fought, and went on to working on being the ghost king when he moved out. He doesn't know about the Batfam being the Bats and Birds, and they don't know about him being royalty, nor his vigilante past.

He and Bruce are both very intelligent dumbasses, and do not realize that they have romantic feelings for one another. Alfred is well aware. Is Bruce also dating someone else in this AU? Potentially! It is currently up to interpretation, since I have not thought about who would go well for this scenario. (Although, I do feel like Danny would have beef with Clark because of the whole Connor debacle. Maybe, behind the scenes, Danny adopted Connor, and now Danielle has a brother!)

Also, I'm tired of people being like, "Danny is short! He's only 5'7!" (/lh) It makes me feel short. In this, he is 5'4, and he does not care if this whole ass man is over six foot, he *will* do his best to curl around him and help him feel safe for the first time since he was a teen.

[anti-the-glitch-bitch]

To be or not to be (a blackmailer) part 4

The day had come, and Danny was extremely nervous. Through Tim, Danny had set up a day with Damian to come over and see his foster kittens. Damian was very adamant that Danny bring along any weapon he might have beside the rapier because "Daniel needs to show his proficiency with all weapons if he is to be assessed correctly." Tim made sure that Danny knew he didn't need to bring anything over but himself. Danny brought every weapon he had just in case.

Thankfully, Danny had enough experience with rich people that he was pretty much prepared for anything. Well, maybe not the mind-reading butler/grandfather. Seriously, that guy seemed to be everywhere and knew exactly what everyone wanted without anyone saying a word to him.

Damien immediately grabbed his hand (after taking Danny's duffle bag and shoving it at Tim) and took him to the barn where three separate groups of kittens were. Damien took great pride in telling Danny all about the kittens and their routines. Danny made sure to tell Damien that Dani would love to meet him as she is an avid animal lover too.

Damien wouldn't let him go back inside until he was introduced to every animal in the barn. Tim was threatening to tell Alfred about the opossum babies being kept in his room if they didn't go inside soon. Damien threatened to stab him in the leg if he tried.

Danny thought they sounded exactly like Dan and Dani now but didn't mention it to either of them.

Dinner was a chaotic thing that reminded Danny of home. He met Bruce, Cass, and Duke first. They'd already been there when dinner was called. Stephanie and Dick (seriously? Dick?) came charging in, all kicking and flailing limbs as they fought over who would meet the guy that immediately won Damien's approval. Jason was the last to come in, though Danny had felt him coming from a mile away. The stench of corrupted ectoplasm was overwhelming making Danny have to excuse himself for a moment while he collected himself.

(He was going to have to do something with Jason cause the guy had obviously died at some point, and Danny really hoped he knew that. He was absolutely going to have to talk to the guy alone because what if he didn't know? Omg, that would be an awkward conversation.)

When he came back everyone was devouring their food like it would disappear at any second. Steph tried to steal Damien's second roll, only for Damien to slice at her with a knife that came out of nowhere. Steph just laughed. Danny had a blast meeting everyone. Alfred made sure to give Danny a container of leftovers (including this absolutely amazingly giant piece of triple chocolate cake. It was truly a work of art and Alfred might be Danny's favorite person.)

After dinner, Damien challenged Danny to a duel, which piqued everyone's interest. Well, except for Bruce's, who tried to stop the fight but was outvoted.

After going outside and laying out all the weapons that had been in the duffle bag, Jason teased Danny about being more dangerous than the demon brat. Danny laughed and made an offhand comment about having to do rigorous training with Hippolyta.

Danny won 62% of the fights. Damien was highly impressed and claimed that Danny had faired far better than expected and that if Tim did not claim Danny soon, then Damien would, as Damien is the superior brother.

That made everyone laugh except for Tim, who glared at his younger brother.

Danny promised to come back but with a lot less weapons.

[wolfjackle-creates]

Ghost!Robin Part 9

First, Previous

I'm posting early this Wednesday! I've down time at work as I wait for the centrifuge to stop spinning my antibodies (48 minutes left of 2 hours). And I have plans after work. So it's either now or at 11 pm my time.

Story Summary: Danny was invited to dinner at Wayne Manor to meet Jazz's boyfriend and his family for the first time. He worked hard to make sure no ghost business would interrupt the evening. But when he arrived, all he could focus on was the ghost of the dead Robin that seemed to haunt Jason.

Word Count: 1.2k

----------

Jason’s voice was low and threatening. “It’s an ice duck made of Lazarus water.”

More alarming than his voice was the way his eyes glowed ecto-green and the fear-anger that filled the room.

Thank the ancients for Jazz, because he had no idea how to respond to that. She was the one who placed a hand on Jason’s arm and asked, “What’s Lazarus water?”

Meanwhile, Danny focused on sending out calm, no danger, safe feelings to counteract Jason’s projections.

It seemed to work slightly as Jason lowered his gun, but he didn’t put it away. “Just green, bubbling liquid that collects in pits and will kill the healthy but return the mortally wounded to life with a side dose of uncontrollable rage.” His eyes were glued to the duck in Danny’s hands.

That sounded like the opposite of good, Pariah curse it. “Jazz, why do your in-laws keep giving me more work to do?” Danny groaned as he mentally moved a few things around his to-do list.

He handed the duck to Robin who gave a thanks trill as he took it.

Danny continued, “And, Jason, can you tell me where these pits are so I can get rid of them? Sounds like there’s some leaks between the Infinite Realms and the moral realms that were never dealt with because Pariah was the worst.”

“Who is this ‘Pariah’ person?” asked Damian. “You have mentioned them before.”

Danny was going to reply when Alfred cleared his throat and the table went silent to look at him. “I understand there’s a lot of information everyone wants to know from our guests, however I believe it has been recognized that they wish us no harm. So perhaps we might allow them to at least taste the pie Master Jason and I worked hard on? We also have ice cream, Mr. Danny.”

Jazz took the excuse to tug on Jason’s arm. He hesitated a moment, still looking uncertainly at his ghost playing with the duck, but obediently sat down without saying anything more.

“I haven’t had ice cream in ages,” admitted Danny. “Haven’t even been on Earth for months my-time. Only been a few weeks Earth-time, though.” Taking his fork in hand, he tried a bite of the pie. It had at least four different types of fruit from what he could see—cherries, raspberries, strawberries, and peaches. It was amazing. Over the time they’d been talking, it had cooled slightly, but was still warm. “Holy shit, you two made this? It’s so good!” Without waiting for a response he took another bite. “Ancients, I miss Earth food when I’m gone so long. Jazz, can we get burgers tomorrow?”

“Of course, Danny. Has it really been that long for you? When was the last time you saw Sam and Tucker?”

Danny shrugged as he swallowed. “I’ve been out of contact with anyone for a month my-time. Grandpa had me on another planet doing time-stream stuff. But Sam and Tuck were with me in the Realms before that. We had about a week together and they saw me off.”

“I have so many questions based off that statement,” said Dick.

“I’m compiling a list, Dick,” said Tim from the other side of the table.

Alfred cleared his throat again and about half the table muttered a “sorry.”

“Now, Mr. Danny, for ice cream, I’ve made French vanilla and chocolate. Would you like to try one or both?”

“You made the ice cream? I don’t think I’ve ever had homemade ice cream before. Can I take some of both?”

“Of course. Master Jason, could you pass the ice cream to Mr. Danny?”

The wave of annoyance that radiated out of Jason told Danny exactly what he thought of that suggestion. Robin clucked his tongue in reproach. But out loud, Jason just said, “Of course.” He grabbed a covered bucket which must hold the ice cream and passed it to Jazz who gave it to Danny.

“Thanks, dead boyfriend number two!” With a grin, Danny sent back friends, gratitude, happiness to Jason. Just to be contrary.

Jason’s projections morphed into confusion, frustration.

Danny and Robin looked at each other and burst out laughing.

“Mind explaining what’s so funny to the class?” asked Jazz with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Rather than answer her directly, Danny spoke to Jason. “Hey, Jay, can I call you Jay? Well, we’re gonna be brothers-in-law so I’m gonna. You really need to work on controlling what emotions you’re projecting. Otherwise I might get hurt by how much you don’t trust me.” He pouted and played up the offense, but only held it for a second before opening the ice cream and giving himself a large scoop of each flavor. “Oh, Robin, you can eat the duck, by the way. Like a popsicle. Have dessert with us.”

“What do you mean projecting? And brothers-in-law?” demanded Jason.

Danny ignored him in favor of Robin who grinned widely and licked the head of the duck. Outwardly, he projected tasty, gratitude. To really push the point home, he popped the head of the duck in his mouth and used his now-free hands to sign something.

Dick translated, “He says it’s good.”

“Of course it is. He’s a baby ghost, needs his ecto!” Danny took a bite of ice cream.

Jazz cleared her throat and said in a conversational tone, “Danny, remember the conversation we had about spoilers?”

“Hmmm?” asked Danny around a spoonful of pie. It was so good.

“Spoilers, Danny. You’ve let some slip.”

“I have?” Danny thought back over the things he’d said recently and froze. “You and Jason aren’t engaged yet.”

Jazz closed her eyes and looked up. “No, Danny. We’re not.”

Danny flushed and rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry! Honest mistake. At least I haven’t told you how—”

Jazz slammed a hand over his mouth. “Don’t you dare, Daniel James! No spoilers!”

Danny grinned into her hand and licked her palm.

“Danny! Gross!” she cried as she pulled her hand away. “I know you have hand sanitizer in that bottomless pit of yours. Pass it over.”

As he was reaching into his bag, he noticed Robin had left his spot in front of Danny and moved until he was floating in front of Bruce where he seemed to be signing something. Cass stood up and took her plate, moving to sit next to Steph and Robin took her seat. The ghost smiled up at Bruce who looked back at him with a frown.

Danny sent out a pulse of concern, you okay?

Robin nodded. Happy, comfortable.

Ghosts couldn’t lie when they communicated with core-feelings, so Danny nodded and went back to searching for the hand sanitizer which he handed to Jazz.

Jason was back to staring at him, though. “Hey, Alfie? Can I ask Danny a question?”

Alfred let out a put-upon sigh. “You, and you alone”—he gave a look to everyone at the table—“may ask Mr. Danny a single question. All other questions must wait until Mr. Danny has finished his dessert and informs you he is willing to answer more of them.”

----------

Next

I just want to tell all of you how much I loved every comment demanding Danny get to eat his pie. You all really made my week.

Over the weekend, I shared a bit more of the fic where Danny and Tim were online childhood friends. Check it out if that's something you're interested in!

And I guess I didn't include line I shared as part of the tag game in this update. I'm trying to give myself more of a buffer in case I can't get as much writing done in the upcoming weeks, so the segments I share might by somewhat shorter.

Tag List Part 1

@addie-lover-of-stories, @justwannabecat, @gin2212, @amercurio, @regonold, @overtherose, @readerzj, @sjrose1216, @echoednonny, @deeterzz, @blu-lilac, @number-one-jew, @rowanaway-fromthisbs, @vythika96, @tired-yet-awaken, @themirrorghost, @emeraldcorpral, @all-mights-asscheeks, @darkhinauniverse, @blep-23, @phandomhyperfixationblog, @larkcoe1, @thegatorsgoose, @job-ross-the-second, @britcision, @lenacraft, @bubblemixer, @androgynouslordofescapism, @purefrickingspite, @leftmiraclechaos, @lizisipancardo, @starlight-sparks, @miraculousandmore, @gildedphoenix, @sometimesthingsfallapart, @letmesayfuxk, @phoenixcatch7, @skulld3mort-1fan, @abaowo, @dhampir-princess, @idkmrpianoman, @sarina-elais, @ballzfrog-blog, @undead-essence, @spookytragedyshark, @flyingpansaurus, @akintoabitch, @marivictal, @8-29pm, @justreadingthefanfics, @happybear135, @kisatamao, @spoopyspoony, @adorablechaos, @sara0055, @screamingtofillthevoid

[thekitsunesiren]

Alfred has been going to the Fenton family reunion for years even after the friend who initially invited him passed away.

Danny brings a new friend to the family reunion This friend is a new halfa named Jason.

Alfred enjoyed these days. While he enjoyed working for the Wayne family and treated Master Bruce and his children like his own, it was nice to simply get away from all of the madness once and a while. Even he didn't have that much patience.

So when he was mailed an invitation to the Fenton family reunion, he was shocked yet pleasantly surprised. The first person to invite him to the Fenton family reunion was Charles Fenton, an old friend of his and one of the older cousins of the Fenton family. The kind gesture ensured their friendship as they got to know the family he grew up with in the countryside.

Now, years later after his dear friend has passed and he was surely forgotten by the Fenton family, Alfred was surprised that an invitation was delivered to him at Wayne Manor. Well, why should he not go? Of course, Master Bruce and some of the young ones had some worries about the ordeal, but there was no need. Really, Master Bruce? A background check on the family won't be necessary. And no, Master Damian, he won't be need an escort. He doubted there was going to be any trouble in an simple outing.

It took some convincing, but Alfred was soon on his way to Amity Park, with the promise of contacting the family if anything were to happen. The arrival and travel to Amity was simple, as expected. And while he was surprised that the Fenton family had moved to a small town instead of the family cabin he remembered all those years ago. But things can change over the years, so he didn't think much of it.

Arriving to the Fenton house was easy as well. Though, he did find its interior design to be a bit.....interesting to say the least. The UFO on top of the build truly was a hazard. But the thought of it made him think that perhaps Master Tim or Master Damian would enjoy the decor, even for a little bit.

Alfred didn't even have to knock on the door before it was thrown open by a large man with a seemingly even larger grin on his face.

"Alfred! Good to see ya! It's so good that you came!" The man said excitedly, giving an equally excited handshake that left Alfred wondering if this man had some super strength or not. "It was nice to be invited, Jack." Alfred said once he gained his bearings, adjusting himself to look up at the tall male that he had only met once as a small infant. to think that this was the same man all those years ago was truly shocking. "Nonsense!" Jack laughed off, lifting a heavy hand and hitting Alfred on the back of it. "Uncle Charles was a great man," he said, demeanor changing completely as he spoke. "and if he saw you as a friend, then that means he saw you as family, and that's good enough for me." The words were enough to make Alfred smile, a familiar warm feeling flooding his chest at the openness of the man before him. It has been a while since he had heard such words from someone out of the Wayne family and it was greatly appreciated it.

But just like it was there, Jack's somber attitude was replaced with his seemingly normal happy go lucky one. "Well, come on in! We're just waiting on Danny boy and his friend and we can get started!" And just like that, Alfred was welcomed inside and was able to meet the rest of those who were there.

Jack's wife Maddie was a nice woman. Smart, kind and a protective streak to boot. She began to ask about Gotham and possible ghost sightings in the city, but Alfred assured her that while Gotham had many things, they didn't have ghosts. He thinks.

Next was their oldest child Jasmine. Jazz, as she said that she goes by. She seemed to be like a carbon copy of Maddie, though seemed to be more academic than her mother. Was it bad that he began to see a bit of the the younger Wayne family members in them the more he spent time with them?

Then two of the youngest friends were with them. Sam and Tucker. The girl sitting on the couch idly while scrolling on her phone while the boy tinkered with a device that he was unfamiliar with. The way it was shaped, Alfred doubted that it was a phone. A gaming system perhaps? Time went on as Alfred found himself waiting for the last family member while listening to the Fentons speak. They mostly spoke about their interest in hunting ghosts and the type of inventions they made, but it was the reaction of the conversations that made it interesting.

While Jack and Maddie went on about ghosts, Alfred couldn't help but notice the reactions of the three young ones that made him curious.

He watched as Jazz unconsciously grip the book she was reading as her parents talk about how ghosts were basically emotionless menaces to pray on those of the living. The way her eyes narrowed at the pages, Alfred doubted she was reading the book since the conversation started.

Sam and Tucker both reacted in similar ways as the conversation went on. Sam squeezed the phone so tight that her knuckles were turning white, and whatever device Tucker was messing with seemed to become a punching bag with the way he aggressively poked and stabbed at it the longer the conversation went on.

A part of Alfred knew that they were keeping to themselves for Alfred's sake, otherwise they probably would've left from the conversation. But another part of him believed that there was a more personal reason for the three to act in such a way. Perhaps spending all the time with paranoid detectives were rubbing off on him.

As the conversation went on, Alfred was sure the children were about the jump up and argue back, the door opened and announced possibly the missing guest of this reunion.

"There you are, Danny! What took you so long young man?" Maddie asked as she turned her focus to the boy who entered the house, causing Alfred to turn around and take a look as well.

If Alfred was being honest, he looked like a child Master Bruce would scoop up and adopt without a second thought. With black hair that was just short of above the young man's ears, blue eyes that seemed to spark with an unknown drive that made him even more curious. The clothes he wore seemed to just be a bit too big, but the butler was sure he caught sight of some muscle in the movement of the young man's arms as he moved to scratch the back of his neck.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Danny apologized weakly. "it's just a friend of mine didn't have a place to go and I decided to invite him too."

Stepping forward, he looked back and gave a look that Alfred was supposed to be encouraging to whoever was hesitant to coming inside.

The sound of heavy footsteps filled the house and Alfred found himself still with shock at who entered the house. It had been so long that he believed that he was dreaming. It couldn't be who he thought it was, could it?

"Master Jason?"

[jotaroslooseeyebrowhair]

(Un)dead beat dad (Chapter 2)

This is a long one, so be prepared :) part 1 chap 3

TW: ref to violence, surgical operations, gore, panic attacks, please tell me anything I missed :)

Alfred feels his personal phone vibrate in his pocket, he stopped dusting the already-clean dresser, lifting the phone to his face knowing that only a select few had his contact information. He stared at the number he had long since memorized for a second before opening the message.

XXX-XXX-XXXX: Alfie, I need help

XXX-XXX-XXXX: Is anyone else home right now

No, Master Jason, I’m afraid everyone is on patrol at the moment. :You

May I ask why? :You

XXX-XXX-XXXX: perfect

XXX-XXX-XXXX: could you grab some med supplies and meet me in the Batcave?

Alfred stared at the phone and sighed. Setting down the feather duster he was holding, he walks towards the grandfather clock and enters the Batcave. He feels another vibration in his pocket and reaches for his phone.

XXX-XXX-XXXX: could you not tell B? Or anyone else?

XXX-XXX-XXXX: please?

Of course, Master Jason. I Will have everything ready for you when you get here. :You

XXX-XXX-XXXX: your a lifesaver, Alfie

Unfortunately, I am well aware. :You

Alfred chuckled as he slipped the phone back into his pocket, continuing to gather more medical supplies for Jason. Alfred had finally finished setting up quite literally everything he could, when he heard Jason's bike come into the cave. It turned off and he could hear quick running footsteps toward himself. Alfred turned and walked until he could spot Jason, seeing him in his full red hood regalia (omitting) the mask. What really caught his attention, though, was the child in his arms, looking to be seven at the oldest. 

“Oh? You failed to mention we were having a guest.” Alfred said, quickly leading Jason toward the medical supplies. Once he turned the corner into the faux medical room though, he heard the sounds of struggle behind him. Alfred turned around, seeing the small boy thrashing in Jason's arms, trying to get away from the room. Jason immediately turned his back to the door and placed the child on the floor, softly talking to the child, words Alfred could not hear. The room clearly upset the child, so Alfred nearly closed the door, keeping it just barely open, but closed enough that the boy couldn’t see inside. 

Jason turned around and motioned to Alfred, “This, Danny, Is my grandfather I mentioned. His name is Alfred, he patches me up whenever I get hurt a little too bad.” The small boy had tear tracks on his eyes and darted them towards Alfred, scanning him, threat assessing. The boy was scared. Alfred put on his nicest smile and lowered himself to his knees like his grandson.

“Indeed. I have had to patch up the young master quite a few times. I have patched up others as well. I assume The young master brought you to me for medical attention?” Alfred said in a soft voice, he didn’t wish to scare the child after all. The boy simply nodded his head and scanned the rest of the cave. The boy looked at Jason and pursed his lips. “You clearly need attention but are unwilling to go into the medical bay. Would you prefer I tend to your wounds out here in the main cave instead?”

The boy looked to Jason, searching Jason's eyes. After seemingly finding what he was searching for, he turned his head back towards Alfred. Still gripping tightly onto Jason's shirt, the boy nodded his head. Jason turned his head slightly towards Alfred and smiled. Jason looked back down at the boy and smiled, talking to him softly again.

“Alfred's going to have to assess your injuries if that's okay with you? So he knows what to grab and what to leave?” Jason said in a soft voice. The boy stared at Alfred again for a moment, Alfred felt like something was staring at him. Judging him. Deciding whether he should live or die. Deciding whether he would spend eternity suffering or in paradise. Then suddenly, as if it was never there in the first place, the feeling was gone. Alfred simply smiled and got to his feet once again, slowly walking towards the two in front of him under the young boy's gaze. Alfred stopped just beside Jason and lowered himself to the floor again.

“Now, could I get a name, young sir?” Alfred said with a smile, internally frowning at the ever-growing stain of blood on the boy's shirt that was several sizes too big. The boy looked at the ground for a moment, glancing back at Jason for a moment once more before muttering under his breath, his voice so scratchy and quiet you can't hear him. “What was that? I couldn’t quite hear you,” Alfred said to the young boy.

The boy thought for a second, then lifted one of his hands and shakily signed out some letters. ‘D. A. N. N. Y.’ It was clear the boy hadn’t used sign much but knew enough to communicate. The other hand still tightly wound inside Jason's jacket.

Alfred smiled at him, “Alright then Master Danny, would it be alright if I removed your shirt and assessed your wounds?” The boy took a careful step back and looked at Jason again, tightening his hold on the masked man. Jason placed a careful hand on the kid's back and smiled. 

“I’ll be right here Danny, okay? And if you want to take a minute then we can stop and wait. We just want to make sure that you’re okay.” Jason said in a soft voice again. The boy closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He nodded and laid down on the ground on his back, tugging on Jason’s jacket and clenching his other hand tightly. Danny let out a small pained breath and stuck his empty arm up above his head. Alfred carefully lifted the boy's shirt from him, letting out a gasp as he saw what was causing all the blood, Jason's eyes flashing a violent green. The boy underneath him flinched at the gasp and opened his eyes, scanning the two adults above him in panic, letting go of Jason and using his legs to scoot himself back, one of his arms pushing him faster backward, the other holding his organs in. Danny’s breathing picked up as his pupils dilated, the temperature in the cave decreasing rapidly as frost formed underneath him.

Alfred was the one to recover first, lowering himself further and turning his hands up, showing he wasn’t a threat. He let a small smile on his face, speaking softly to the child in front of him, “It’s perfectly alright Master Danny. I apologize for reacting as I did, I was a little shocked. I mean no harm and simply want to help you,” Alfred said with a smile. 

Jason recovered next, seeing the scared child in front of him. Jason had closed his eyes while Alfred was talking to calm himself down. Jason looked at the kid in front of him, “It’s okay Danny, I promise you we won't hurt you,” Jason said with a smile. The boy in front of him was still rapidly breathing, and Jason thought about what he had learned in (elephant??) and looked at the boy again. “Okay, Danny, You’re having a panic attack and we’re gonna need you to calm down, right? Can you tell me five things you can see?” 

Danny looked like he was barely registering the words, Jason thought the boy wasn’t able to hear him until the boy’s eyes flipped around the cave, focusing on each thing for a second before flipping to the next. Jason. Alfred. Shirt. Bat. Floor. Jason smiled at the boy.

“Alright Danny, next, four things you can feel.” Jason said with a smile, scooting closer to Danny.

Danny had moved one of his arms, feeling around him. Floor. Pants. Hair. Blood.

“You’re doing amazing Danny, next, three things you can hear.” Jason scooted closer again.

Danny closed his eyes, focusing. Bats. Jason's Heartbeat. Computer beeping.

“Fantastic Danny, Two things you can smell.” Jason closed the distance but sat just to the side of Danny.

Danny kept his eyes closed but took a shaky breath, still recovering from the heavy breathing. Wet cave. Sweat.

“Good job Danny, now finally, one thing you can taste.” Jason carefully placed a hand on Danny’s shoulder. Danny flinched but it wasn’t as hard as it had been.

Danny took a second and bit down. Blood.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked at Jason, nodding his shaking head. Jason smiled down at him.

“It’s okay Danny. We don’t judge you and we won’t hurt you, I promise.” Jason told Danny. The small boy, however, still looked nervous, ready to bolt at the nearest sign of a threat. Jason glanced at Alfred and sighed. Jason reached down and pulled up his shirt, staring at Danny, “you know how I said Alfred helps me? He really does patch me up.” Jason lied, motioning to the large Y-shaped scar on his chest. Danny visibly relaxed, he was still definitely on edge, but hey, progress. Jason looked at the boy in front of him. “Would it be alright if we patched you up now?”

Danny looked at Alfred and nervously nodded his head.

“Master Danny, It seems I’ll have to sew you up. Do you know your tolerance for anesthesia?” Alfred calmly asked the boy. 

Danny nodded his head ‘yes’, but stopped for a moment. He shook his head ‘no’ and slowly signed with his free hand, ‘doesn’t work.’

“They don’t work on you?” Alfred asked Danny, who only shook his head again, “Do you know why, Master Danny?” Danny seemed to open his mouth for a moment, then nodded his head, glancing at the floor.

Jason took a moment to feel the temperature of the room around him. He straightened with a realization. The temperature drops. The green-red mixed blood. The stranger in his apartment. The boy agreeing to being a king. The vivisection dissection scar “Go on and get the stuff Alfie, I’ll hang back,” Jason smiled.

Alfred seemed to think for a split second, then stood up with a grunt and nodded his head. “As you wish, Master Jason.” Alfred said, walking towards the medical room.

Jason turned towards the small boy next to him, gently pushing the boy back onto the floor, taking off his jacket and folding it, placing it behind the kid's head. “You're a meta, aren’t you kid,” Jason said with a smile. Danny immediately stiffened and looked at Jason, his eyes flashing into slits for a moment, lip curling to show off the boy's sharp fangs.

Jason smiled sadly and flipped his hands up, showing he had no weapon, “I don’t have anything against meta’s okay? My brother’s a meta himself, and I’ve been on some great teams with them. I promise you Alfie doesn’t care either, and it won’t make us treat you any differently. You need help, that’s the focus here.” the boy visibly relaxed, still tense but not as much. At that moment Alfred walked out and towards them again.

“Alright Master Danny, First I must clean the wound and around it so I may see what I am doing.” Alfred said, clearly saying what he is doing before doing it so Danny would be less freaked out. 

Above him, Jason grabbed Danny's hand, squeezing it lightly once. Danny squeezed back. 

Alfred crouched down again, taking a wet rag from the bowl of water previously in his hands. He wrung out the towel and looked at Danny’s eyes for confirmation before carefully wiping Danny's chest. Alfred and Jason’s anger grew with every injury hidden by the blood, though Alfred was better at hiding it. Whenever Alfred got especially close to the bleeding dripping skin flaps, Danny squeezed his eyes tight and gripped Jason’s hand tighter. Alfred had to change the water in the bowl a few times, a horrible brown from the mixing of the green and red covering Danny.

Eventually, it was time for the stitches, but before he could get to that, he needed to staple the wound shut.

“Young master Danny, You are a meta, yes?” Alfred asked in a soft voice. Danny nervously nodded his head ‘yes’. “Alright then. Some meta’s cant use anesthetics, are you one of them?” Danny nodded again, “So I’m afraid I’ll have to stitch you up as-is, though first I will have to staple the wound shut.” another (albeit shaky) nod.

Alfred stood and grabbed a weird white tool from the medical room. He sat down on his knees and pinched Danny's skin together, glancing at Danny, “This will hurt, but I will takeit out once I get to stitches.” Alfred lowered the machine and squeezed the handle, a medical staple sliding through Danny’s skin and pulling it closed. Danny whimpered, squeezing his eyes shut and gabbing Jason's hand tighter. Jason placed his free hand on Danny’s shoulder in a comforting motion. Alfred lifted the machine once more and placed it at another section of the large messy cut on Danny’s chest, squeezing again. And again. And again, going up and pulling the skin together. Finally, when he was finished, Salty tears had formed On Danny’s face, rolling down into little puddles on the floor of the Batcave. Alfred sighed and placed the machine on a tray he grabbed earlier from the medical room. Alfred lifted a small white package and ripped it open, pulling the sutures from the small bag. Alfred pulled open another package containing a needle and started to thread the needle then stopped when Danny tugged on Alfred's sleeve, gaining the man's attention.

“Yes, young master Danny?” Alfred asked, stalling in his movements.

Danny lifted his hand and pointed to the thread, signing ‘Won’t work’. Alfred looked at him questioningly, Danny slowly pulled his hand away from Jason and reached into the pocket too far down his leg, and pulled out a spool of… Fishing line. 

“Fishing line?” Jason asked, confused.

Danny flushed, his hand's stilling as he thought up an excuse ‘will work’ Danny gestured to the line and pushed it towards Alfred, who took it happily.

“Ah, I see. Well then, I’ll get started right away, please alert me if anything is wrong.” Alfred smiled and sat himself down more comfortably on the floor of the Batcave. He laced the thread through the needle and placed it above the cuts, starting at Danny’s left collarbone. He looked up at Danny and caught his eyes.

Jason seemed to catch on, and nudged Danny slightly with his hand, silently holding it palm-up, Danny quickly grabbed it and lightly squeezed. Jason squeezed back. Alfred placed another machine in Jason’s free hand. “Use this to remove the staples as I stitch Danny’s chest closed.” Jason gulped, nodding. Jason carefully removed the first staple and the boy on the ground squeezed Jason's hand again, whimpering once more. Jason's heart lurches and the grip on his hand tightened. Jason looked away from the boy's face again and saw the needle in Danny’s chest. Jason dropped the used staple onto a small metal platter and brought the machine back up to Danny's chest, preparing to take out the next staple. Danny squeezed Jason's hand tight again with every staple removed, and with every stitch added. Really tight. Fuck. Jason might need to wrap his hand. This kid is definitely a meta. Alfred got down to the intersection of the three large cuts, he glanced up at Danny to check if he was okay, and Alfred's heart squeezed at the sight. The boy had his eyes screwed tightly shut and tears leaking out of them, whimpering at the pain. Alfred had to go faster. He started stitching from the start of the cut at the bottom of Danny's sternum, barely above his belly button, Jason taking out staples as they went up. This part seemed to be especially sensitive, Danny squeezing Jason's hand a bit tighter, and Jason swears he can feel his bones grinding but he won’t say anything. No, he can’t, not when the kid needs someone to be strong.

Alfred gets back to the top and lets out a sigh, tying off the suture. “Young Danny, I need to move to your other side in order to finish your stitches. If I may, Master Hood?” Alfred asked, looking at Jason. Jason needed a moment to think, before he stumbled, standing up and walking to Danny's other side. Danny was still holding Jason's hand tightly, and only let go when Jason grabbed Danny’s free one. Jason and Alfred sat down once more. 

“Only one more set of stitches, okay kid?” Jason said in a soft voice, smiling down at the kid next to him. The kid nodded his head shakily. Alfred inserted the needle again and Danny let out a shaky breath, more salty glowing tears silently flowing down his face. The silence was thick as ever, only the occasional breath sucked in from Danny when the stitches hit an overly sensitive spot. Alfred finally finished, tying off the last of the stitches, when Jason got an idea.

“You said that everyone else was on patrol, right?” Jason asked, looking up towards Alfred again. 

“Yes, master Hood. Everyone else is gone at the moment. Why do you ask?” Alfred questioned.

“I have an idea. Tell Dam- uh, Robin I’ll pay him back. Hey kid, will you be okay with Alfie if I run upstairs for a minute and grab something?” Jason looked to the child.

Danny glanced at Alfred and nodded. Jason moved to get up but Danny tugged him back down gently.

“I’ll be back right away, Danny, okay?” Jason asked. Danny looked nervous. Jason squeezed Danny’s hand slightly. Danny squeezed back. Jason flashed Danny a small smile and stood again, walking towards the entrance to the mansion, glancing back at Danny every few seconds. 

“Well, master Danny, I have two more things to do to help speed up the healing process. I need to add a drain for the excess fluid your body produces and a vacuum pump to help your wound heal faster, the pump will also prevent you from picking at your wound.” Alfred smiled, “First, I will add the drain sponge,” Alfred spoke as he worked, clearly saying what he was doing as to not alarm the boy while Jason was gone. “Then, I will add surgical tape on top and connect the tube. This will run to a small vacuum to suction up any of the excess fluids your body doesn't need.”

Danny clutched tightly onto his pants, counting in his head, happy that Alfred was saying everything aloud. Danny could feel the devices being added to him as Alfred spoke, so Danny didn’t need to worry much. Alfred finished with that and sat back.

“Okay master Danny, one last thing, a drain. This will remove some blood and other fluids from the inside. All I need to do is make a small incision-” Alfred was cut off by Danny’s eyes snapping open, wide and glowing Lazarus green. Danny started to sit up in a panic, groaning at the pain but nonetheless pushing himself backward again. “Master Danny, it is nothing to worry about, I assure you everything will be okay-” Alfred was cut off once again, this time by the sound of something hitting the floor. Jason was standing there, small-sized clothes at his feet as he stared at the Lazarus green eyes of the kid in front of him. A small “fuck” Made it’s way out of Jason as he stood there. Danny saw the look at started scrambling to get further back, knocking over various tools and materials as he did so, nearing the edge. 

“Kid- Danny, hey, it’s okay. Everything going to be fine.” Jason soothed, crouching down.

The boy sat his weight on his elbows as he looked furiously between the two adults in front of him. He tried to speak but only a wheezed cough of air came out, making him curl in on himself. Jason thought for a moment, then had an idea. A stupid, idiotic, dumbassed Idea, but an idea nonetheless. Jason furrowed his eyebrows together and thought about Batman. About the joker. About the rogues. About his mother. About who hurt the boy. About who hurt Danny and left him to rot.  Jason’s eyes flashed a violent green while the boy was looking his way. Danny visibly relaxed at the sight of the familiar green.

“What’s got you so worked up, kid?” Jason asked with an eerie calm in his voice, the green fading slowly. Danny looked nervous, scared even, directing his attention back at Alfred.

“The young master panicked when I mentioned adding a drainage tube to his wound. Specifically the,” Alfred lowered his voice and faced Jason, “Specifically the cutting part of the insertion.”

Jason made an ‘o’ shape with his mouth and grabbed the clothes at his feet.

“Well, Danny, I’ll be right here with you while you get the tube. And, you’ll get to see the clothes I brought once we’re finished with the tube.” Jason sat down next to Alfred.

‘Hurt? Again?’ Danny signed with wide eyes

Jason let out a soft sigh, “Yeah, it's gonna hurt, but if we don’t do this you could get hurt more in the long term. I promise you, Danny, I’ll be here with you the entire time.” Jason smiled at the boy. 

Danny looked between Jason and Alfred for a moment before slowly nodding and starting to scoot closer to the two. Jason stands up and carefully picks up Danny, walking him back to Alfred. Alfred let out a small exasperated sigh and smiled at the small boy.

“This will be fast, master Danny, no need to worry. The incision is barely 5 mm wide, very small,” Alfred said with a smile. He grabbed an anti-septic wipe and started wiping down a small portion of Danny’s abdomen, as Danny lifted an open palm towards Jason again. Jason happily took Danny’s hand. 

Alfred placed a piece of the tube into Jason's free hand and picked up a scalpel and held it above Danny’s stomach, clanging up to see Danny staring hard at Jason, squeezing his hand tightly. Alfred placed his hand on Danny's stomach to prepare him and lowered the scalpel into Danny's skin. Danny let out a deep drawn-out wine from his core and clenched his eyes tightly, squeezing Jason's hand again. Alfred let out a sad sigh and dragged the scalpel, just barely, and then lifted it away from the small cut. He set the scalpel back down on the tray, grabbing the tubing from Jason’s hand. Alfred inserted the tubing and slid it through until it was at the right spot, then grabbed a new needle and added more of the fishing line to it. He sewed the tubing into Danny's skin and attached a small bulb-looking plastic piece to the end. He sighed and looked up toward Danny to find more glowing tears running down Danny’s face, his lip tainted with red, Danny must have bit his lip when Alfred was inserting the tube.

“That is all, master Danny. I just need to wrap your chest in gauze, and then you will be finished.” Alfred said with a small smile. Danny sharply nodded his head, eyes still screwed shut. Alfred sighed, turning to Jason, “Could you lift up master Danny while I wrap his chest? I don’t wish to strain him.” 

Jason nodded his head, scooting around behind Danny and placing his hands below Danny's back, slowly lifting him up and placing the young boy’s torso on his lap. Jason looked down at the small boy, really looking at him. Jason motioned for Alfred to hand him one of the cleansing wipes from the tray Alfred had brought out earlier. Alfred handed it to him, and Jason started wiping away the dirt and blood on Danny’s face. The boy beneath him visibly relaxed when he realized it was Jason who was wiping his face. Jason carefully wiped down Danny’s face, noticing when Danny had flinched and to be careful around the boy's eyes and mouth. It took Jason three wipes when he finally got Danny’s face fully cleaned off. Jason had stilled once he finished. The boy looked just like a younger version of himself. The boy had slightly sunken-in cheeks, cuts and scrapes all over his face, and that look of pure desperation that etched itself into Jason’s bones years ago. It was right then, no definitely not earlier when the boy searched Jason's soul with his eyes and deemed Jason safe Jason realized this boy couldn’t, wouldn’t, go back to where he was before.

“Master Jason,” Alfred gained Jason's attention and that's when Jason realized that Alfred had somehow finished the gauze wrap around Danny’s chest. Danny opened his eyes, showing Jason the icy blue Jason saw in his own eyes. Jason sucked in a breath and looked up at Alfred, “A word, if I may?” Jason looked down at Danny for approval, and then slowly stood up, making sure Danny was comfortable on the ground. Jason walked around the corner out of sight of Danny and looked at Alfred.

“What's up, Alfie?” Jason asked.

“I don’t know where you found the boy, master Jason, but he cannot go back.” Alfred said in a stern voice Jason only heard when one of the family came home with an especially bad wound. Jason was angered at that comment, though.

“I know that Alfred. Obviously, no matter where he came from he isn’t going back.” Jason said in a huff of anger. He ran his hand through his hair and looked to the floor, each of them standing there in silence, until Alfred brought forth an idea.

“Maybe, master Bruce can take care of master Danny until further notice?” Alfred asked. 

Jason's head snapped up, “Absolutely not,” Jason snapped, “I will be taking care of Danny.”

“Master Jason,” Alfred started

“No, Alfred. I found the boy, I brought him here,” Jason said quickly, Alfred stood there looking as if Jason had cut him off. He had. Yet Jason continued, “I’m the one that sat by him while you stitched him up, I’m the one that held his hand while he cried, and I will be the one to take care of him.” Jason finished.

Alfred waited for a moment while Jason calmed down, “I was hoping you would say that master Jason. I fully support this decision, as it seems he has decided to trust you and you have already formed an attachment to him.”

“Oh…” Jason stood there for a moment, face flushed red with embarrassment, “I’m sorry for snapping at you like that Alfie,”

“No need to apologize master Jason. Protecting yourself and your child is what makes a good parent.” Jason bluescreened at the word parent, “Now, master Jason, I suggest you get your son into his new clothes and get him home. Shall we?” Alfred smiled as he turned Jason around and pushed him back to where the child was.

Key word: was.

Alfred and Jason immediately rushed forward, frantically looking around for where to find the boy, where could he have gone in such a short amount of time? They both rushed around, desperately trying to find the boy that was in the middle of the floor just moments ago. They each took off in different directions, searching for him. Jason was the one to find him, though. He was sitting against the display case of Jason's former robin costume. Jason walked closer to get a better look and saw the boy was falling asleep, fading in and out of consciousness. Jason walked closer to the boy and sat down in front of Danny, and in front of his old Robin costume. Jason cleared his throat, and said the boy's name, waking Danny.

“Hey Danny, what are you doing here? At this case?” Jason asked, nervous.

Danny looked at Jason sleepily, and opened his mouth to speak, but croaked out empty words instead. He furrowed his brows and lifted up his hands to sign, ‘familiar’.

Jason chuckled, “Yeah, pretty familiar to me too.” Danny smiled “Do you mind if I pick you up and bring you back to where we were before? I have some clothes more your size,” Jason said, Danny sleepily nodded his head and held his arms out. Jason chuckled and kneeled down, picking up Danny beneath his knees and shoulders in a bridal carry. 

Jason make his way back to where they were, seeing Alfred on his way, blushing when Alfred smiled sweetly at him. He wasn’t a dad! He just found a kid in need, and is taking care of him! There's nothing else going on, the kid is just under Jason's supervision until Jason can find a better place for him! No adoption going on here, no sir.

“Hey Danny, I grabbed these, they’ll still be a bit big on you but they’ll be better than the clothes you're wearing right now,” Jason said, bending down to grab the clothes with one of his hands, walking towards the bathroom Bruce built in the Batcave for when he went on one of his ‘staying down in the cave for three days straight’ escapades. Jason walked in and closed the door behind them, placing Danny down on the clean floors. 

“Hey kid I'm gonna change your clothes real fast, okay?” Jason asked, the kid sleepily nodded at Jason, still seconds away from falling asleep. Jason huffed out a laugh and unfolded the clothes the grabbed from Damian's room, the smallest he could find. Jason quickly switched out Danny’s clothes, careful to not disturb the bandages and other tubes sticking out of Danny’s chest and stomach. Jason grabbed Danny's old bloody clothes and tossed them into the trash, walking out of the bathroom with Danny carefully placed on his hip. Alfred approached Jason and Danny.

“Ready to go so soon, master Jason?” Alfred said with a smile.

“Yeah, I think we are. By the way Alfred,” Jason stared at Alfred with an intense shine in his eye, “Not a word, of this to B.” 

Alfred chuckled, “Yes, of course, master Jason. Young master Danny is a secret safe with me. However, If master Bruce figures it out on his own, I will not lie to him.”

“I wouldn’t ask that of you Alfred,” Jason said with a smile, then he thought for a second, “Well I would, but I would never expect you to uphold it.”

Alfred chuckled, “Of course. And, remember to change master Danny’s bandages daily, clean the tubes for his drainers, and massage his legs about every hour or so to make sure he doesn't lose circulation. Master Danny should make a full recovery in about 8 weeks. I am positive you will be able to care for him in that time.” Alfred said with a smile.

Jason smiled back at Alfred, walking over to his motorcycle. He stepped over the back and sat Danny in front of him, tucked tightly into his chest as he started his bike. Jason turned around and smiled at Alfred once more, and started the slow, careful ride back to his apartment.

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

How we feelin my roaches? Sorry for the late chapter but i passed all my classes! also happy holidays, the next chapter might be delayed too cause my grandma died two hours ago, but know the next chapter is being written! Anyways I hope you all cried <3

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Edit: there is a link to the next chapter at the top of this post so you can keep reading :)

[samgirl98]

Operators Are Standing By 1/1

Sequel to this

Danny pouted as his parents sped up to Wayne Manor in the Fenton Speeder.

He hadn’t planned on meeting his biological family anytime soon. Still, after they kept barging randomly into his house, school, during patrol…in the bathroom while he was showering at one point, he decided it’d be easier to meet with them at an allotted time.

It doesn’t mean he had to like it. He was sacrificing his Spring Vacation for this.

At least, this time around, his bio mother wouldn’t be there. (She’s the one that barged in while he was showering.)

Ancients, why did he have to be related to such fruit loops? He finally got rid of one to end up with eight new ones.

It didn’t help that he found out his bio mom is an assassin that comes from a cult that worships a deathless fruit loop (who is also Danny’s grandfather), his bio dad is a furry that fights criminals at night, and the rest of his adoptive siblings and twin brother put on spandex to fight criminals, too.

At least he knows where his heroic tendencies come from.

The only normal person in the family seemed to be Alfred.

Danny sighed. Why was he surprised? His adopted family were ghost hunters; he could die on command and fought ghosts to protect his town. Of course, his birth family was also gonna be weird.

“Okay, sweetie, we’re here. Now, remember, if you want to come home, call us, and we’ll fly here in the Fenton Speeder to pick you up. We love you, hun.”

“Thanks, mom.”

Danny exited the speeder and watched his parents fly away, leaving him behind with his luggage. One suitcase for the week he was staying in the Manor of Insanity.

As Alfred opened the door and welcomed him inside, Danny couldn’t help but feel he had forgotten something.

____

“Is this important,” Bruce asked, irritated.

His Justice League communicator had gone off, and if he had to deal with one of his co-workers doing something stupid again instead of getting to know his newest son, well, he’d take his glare up to 1000%.

“Sorry to bother you, Bats,” Constantine said without sounding sorry, “But it’s an all-hands-on-deck situation. There’s an asteroid made of Kryptonite heading this way, and we can’t think of any way to stop it except summoning the Ghost King. We need a tie-breaker since some of us decided to vote against it.”

Well, at least it was for something important.

____

“I’m so sorry, Danny. As soon as I deal with this emergency, I’ll be back to get to know you,” Bruce apologized as he put on his Batsuit. At least the Batcave looked cool.

“It’s fine,” Danny reassured the man, “Go save the world. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

Bruce nodded, got into some tube, and disappeared in a flash of light.

Well, he might as well see how the ectoshots were helping Jason.

____

“Your summoning is very important to us. Operators are standing by. Thank you for your patience.”

The cheery voice had been on repeat for the last two hours.

Bruce could be having dinner with his kids right now (even Jason was there.) Instead, he was stuck waiting for a Ghost King that was not answering. If Bruce didn’t have an image to maintain, he would be pulling his hair out.

“…Thank you for your patience.”

“Is there any way we could speed this along,” Diana asked, “That asteroid is going to land in less than 24 hours.”

How had they missed such a big thing hurtling toward the Earth in the first place? If they had caught it sooner, they could’ve devised some other plan instead of trying to summon the King of the Dead.

“Your summoning is very important to us…”

“There’s a more…forceful way to summon him, but I don’t think it would help getting him on our side.”

Bruce was a patient man. He had to be. Right now, though, he wanted to go home.

“Do it; the Earth can’t wait.”

____

Danny had been having fun with the Wayne kids. He had the best dinner he had ever had, got to have a pun off with Dick (to the horror of the rest of the siblings.), and even got to spar with them.

(Danny got to bond with his twin over weapons.)

At the moment, they were in the media room and were playing video games. Danny was starting to bond with his adopted siblings when he felt a tug in his chest.

One moment he was kicking ass in Mario Kart. The next, he was standing in front of a bunch of people in colorful costumes. Danny was wearing his Ghost King regalia.

(The Justice League saw a creature with too many rows of teeth, white hair flowing in the air, a crown of ice, and a body with too-long limbs.)

“Oh, come on, I was just about to beat them,” he whined.

A blond guy wearing a trench coat stepped out, “Your majesty, we called you here today to ask a favor. I am willing to give you my soul in exchange—”

“Yeah, let me stop you right there,” Danny said, “First of all, I don’t deal in souls. I’m the King of Ghosts; eventually, everyone ends up in my domain. Secondly, even if I did, I can tell you’ve already sold your soul a shit ton of times, you whore. Thirdly, I am very busy. Didn’t you hear the operator?”

“Your majesty, an asteroid is about to hit Earth. If the Earth is destroyed, so is the Infinite Realms. Isn’t there anything we can give you so you can destroy it,” British Trench Coat Dude asked.

“Wait, are we in space,” Danny asked as he looked out a window. He could see Earth from the window, “That is so cool.”

He turned to the dude, ignoring everyone else, “Let me come up here and stare at the Earth once a week, and you have a deal.”

“Deal,” he said without missing a beat.

“Constantine,” freaking Superman yelled, “You can’t promise to let an unknown come to our hidden base!”

“Oh, really, boy scout, because last I checked, you can’t hit this asteroid, so bugger off!”

“Great! Deal made? Let me get in more comfortable attire.”

Danny got into his Danny Phantom form. He heard a choking behind him and then his name, “Danny?!”

Danny turned to look at Batman. Aw, that’s what he forgot.

____

After Danny got rid of the asteroid, Bruce decided it was important to interrogate him in front of his coworkers.

(How did Danny forget Batman was part of the Justice League?)

“So the Ghost King is your kid. You sure know how to raise them, Batsy,” sad trench coat guy said.

Bruce ignored him.

“How could you forget to tell me you’re the Ghost King?”

“How could you forget I could enter the Ghost Zone to ask the Ghost King for help?” Danny countered.

There was silence between one of the Green Lanterns started laughing. They quieted when Bruce glared at him.

“Look, it’s not like I did it on purpose. When I got to the manor, I checked my checklist but hadn’t even put it down. Sometimes even I forget I’m the Ghost King,” he defended himself while crossing his arms.

“How did this even happen?”

“Evil Ghost King sucked my town into another dimension. I beat him in one-on-one combat, and the king is decided through right of conquest. Once I beat him, I was next in line, and here I am,” he said while finishing his explanation with jazz hands.

“That explains nothing,” Batman said, sounding a bit hysterical.

Danny rolled his eyes; he didn’t know how to make it clearer.

“Okay, but I still get to come up once a week, right?”

____

Everybody in the manor was frantic after Danny disappeared. They had tried getting hold of Bruce, but he hadn’t answered.

It wasn’t until Bruce showed up with Danny in the Batcave did everyone calm down.

Bruce ignored the questions from his other children and sat heavily on the chair by the Batcomputer. The man looked a bit broken.

“What happened to him,” Jason asked.

“Oh, he found out I’m the Ghost King.”

The bats in the cave screeched as everyone yelled, “YOU’RE THE WHAT?!”

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[disillusioneddanny]

Eloped in Space Part 6

Read part 5 here 

The days after Danny had moved into the manor had been strange to say the least. Dick couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that the man who had become like a father to him had turned into some love drunk dork. 

They were still slightly in their puppy love stage but Danny had managed to keep Bruce’s hands off of him long enough for Danny to decide that he was going to bond with each one of Bruce’s kids. He had apparently decided that the first one to do this was with Dick. Danny and Bruce had been back on Earth for about a month now as Danny settled into living in the manor and getting used to how everything ran. According to Damian, Duke, and Tim it was an interesting adjustment but they all seemed to enjoy having the man there.

“So,” Danny said, lacing his fingers together and resting his chin on them. They were currently at some random diner in Bludhaven, Danny insisting that he could come to Dick to see him. Something about making a point to make an effort in this familial relationship. He rested his elbows on the table and stared at Dick with those blue eyes that looked as though they had seen their fair share of trauma in the world and refused to let it get him down. “Tell me about your relationship with Bruce. Is he good to you? He’s not shitty or anything? You get plenty of love and affection from him?”

“Uh…no?” Dick said slowly, furrowing his brows. “Bruce is the most emotionally constipated person I know. I think you’re the only person I’ve ever seen him act like that with anyone before.”

Danny made a face and nodded. “I see. Well, just so you know, Bruce will be starting therapy next week. He will be going three times a week until his therapist decides he can go less. He’s also going to be starting some medicine to help with his depression,” Danny said with a small smile, tiredness shone in his eyes. 

“H-how did you get him to agree to that?” Dick asked, eyes wide in shock. Bruce? In therapy? What the actual fuck? What had Danny done to the man?

The Ghost King simply shrugged his shoulders. “My sister was a psychiatrist and took mental health very seriously. I myself see a therapist twice a month. It’s nice to have someone to talk to about all of the craziness that can happen in the world and in our existences. I told Bruce that if he wanted this relationship between the two of us to work he would need to be in some form of therapy. Then last week he met my sister and Jazz basically made him agree to meeting with her three times a week.”

“Wait, your sister? I thought you were like some immortal being, I didn’t realize you had a living family?” Dick asked, looking at the man who had declared himself his stepfather in confusion.

Danny grinned. “Yeah, Jazz died like two hundred years ago or something like that. She’s a ghost in my realm. Our parents both moved on, as did my friends that I grew up with. But Jazz decided that she had to be a pain in my life for eternity. Like I said, when she was alive she was a psychiatrist. And she’s insisting that she works with Bruce to make sure she’s okay.”

“Isn’t it like a breach of trust or something since she’s your sister?” Dick questioned, taking a sip of his soda. 

At this his stepfather’s face fell in annoyance. “Trust me, Jazz is a pain in the ass. She would never break Bruce’s trust and if anything she’ll just tell him anything he wants to know about my childhood or something. But, he’s going to be getting therapy and Jazz is going to start working on that emotional constipation ASAP.”

Dick smiled at the man. “Danny, you’re an amazing step dad. I can’t believe you got Bruce into therapy. Alfred has been trying to convince him since the guy was eight and nothing worked.”

Danny gave him a rueful smile and took a bite of his burger. “I love Bruce a lot, Dick. I’m going to make sure he’s taken care of, whether he likes it or not. I have been around for a very long time, Bruce is the first person I’ve ever loved like this. And because of that, I’m going to make sure he’s okay and isn’t hurting. Under that emotional constipation is a man who loves his family more than anything in this world. The entire time we were on that mission together, all he could talk about was how proud of you guys he was and how much he loved you all. It was very sweet.”

“How’d you do it? How’d you get past it?” Dick asked, looking at the man like he was his own personal hero. At this point he pretty much was. 

Danny just gave him a secretive smile, eyes shining. “I have my ways to get under people’s skin. I can also read people pretty well and knew just which buttons to push. It also didn’t help that from the moment I met Bruce he just looked at me like he either wanted to fuck me or whisk me away to protect me forever. He also had this look like he wanted to learn all of my secrets which was pretty fun. But we just got to know each other on that mission and the more I opened up about my life and after life the more he was willing to do the same.”

Dick took a bite of his own burger and smiled as he mulled over it. If Danny was able to successfully get Bruce in therapy to work on his problems and get the man to open up more, Dick would probably lose his ever loving mind. He couldn’t believe the changes he was seeing in Bruce but he was excited to see how it would go. 

“I think you’re going to be really good for him, Danny,” Dick said with a small smile. 

Danny beamed at him. “I think he’s going to be really good for me too,” he said quietly.

Read part seven here

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[ayamari-no-goshi]

Chasing Shadows (5)

AO3 -> First, last, next

Fandoms: Danny Phantom (DP) / DC universe

Summary:  THIS IS A CROSSOVER. As Bruce Wayne begins to slowly recover from the loss of his son, two separate mysteries open up old wounds. Who is the unknown leaving clues  hinting at a return to Gotham, and who is the phantom pretending to be  his lost son? Is it just a coincidence they’re active in Gotham at the  same time? Or are they connected?  

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, and questionable mental health

Parings: none

Notes: originally uploaded to AO3. Cross-posted to tumblr

After the trip to the graveyard, Bruce made plans with Alfred to remove the casket so it could be examined in the cave before heading to Arkham to talk to the Riddler. Nygma again denied knowing what happened to Jason’s body, even after having a couple of his fingers broken. Bruce believed him after that. He also didn’t recognize the wax covered pomegranate but was openly intrigued by it. Deciding it might be beneficial to let Nygma know this was the same person who sabotaged him months ago, he sat back and watched the man fume before offering his services to help.

Would it help in Bruce’s investigation into the “famous nobody”? Unlikely, but perhaps seeing the clues might jog something he heard or saw when he orchestrated the Hush plot that didn’t mean much to him at the time. He would bring photos of the clues to Nygma after he further examined the pomegranate.

After returning to the cave, Tim hesitantly checked on him before leaving him to his work. While he appreciated the concern, he didn’t want to be bothered for now.

The pomegranate ended up just being a simple pomegranate, but the wax preservation made it difficult to verify how old it was. However, he did discover the wax was made from Esparto.

While the plant found most of its modern use making paper and wax, Esparto was once heavily used to make ropes specifically for use on boats, and in parts of the Mediterranean, beekeepers would burn the plant to make the smoke needed to gather honey, honeycombs, and beeswax. Ropes and wax, more ties to the ancient epic.

Even the pomegranate had another tie to the story than he originally believed. In a few carvings of the Sirens, they were shown holding the fruit which signified their ties to death. This person did his research.

…

The next evening, he and Alfred removed the casket from the cemetery before he once again returned to Arkham. Nygma couldn’t hide how his features lit up when he reviewed the images of the clues from Nobody.

“While I wouldn’t have chosen such a subtle way of doing this, these are good,” he grudgingly admitted. “It’s interesting how this person keeps referencing life and death. Whoever your person is, he’s on his way back home and had been presumed dead, but you knew that already.”

Bruce knew that his silence on the matter would be taken as an affirmative. “Does anything about this seem familiar?”

“No, but this is the person who took that important object from you.” The Riddler’s eyes drifted towards the door where there were guards within earshot to let him know why he phrased it that way. That was strangely courteous, but it didn’t improve Bruce’s mood. “Hush didn’t take my words about you at face value. He received a second confirmation from someone else. While I didn’t personally meet him, Hush is the only one who did, I know he’s the one who caused you to fall which set everything in motion. This person knows an awful lot about you. I’m almost jealous.”

He knew his cut line had been purposeful, but it was nice to have a confirmation on who it was. It specifically put him in crime alley where he had met Jason. Whoever the ‘famous nobody’ was, there was a connection to his son, but what was it? Why had gotten Clayface to take on the appearance of an adult Jason? Why had he taken him? Knowing he wouldn’t gain anything further from Nygma, he took his leave and ran his patrol for the evening.

When he returned home, the casket waited for him. The first thing he noted was how pristine it appeared. The son of the man who made his parents coffin had made the one for Jason. His craftmanship eclipsed the work of his father, but even with the skill, it should have shown signs of time, especially inside of it. But there was nothing there. After examining every inch of it, he couldn’t find traces of decay from Jason’s body. His son had never been in it.

He knew full well he buried his son, but whoever took him had the coffin replaced. With it being identical to the original, he knew someone had gotten the coffin maker to duplicate it. Due to the cost involved, whoever asked for it must have either a great personal wealth, or the more likely situation judging by what he knew of the unknown, good connections.

Although it was unlikely the craftsman would give him any information, he would still try to reach out as Bruce Wayne to see if he could give him any hint of who may have commissioned the replacement. Even if he decided to provide any information, it would still take time to get it.

It seemed as if the replacement occurred recently. Perhaps, just prior to the Hush plot. But if that was the case, why would Phantom have said Jason was missing for at least two years? His body language hadn’t suggested a lie, so he at least believed it. It was likely that’s what the ‘famous nobody’ told him.

Though, there was the possibility that the ‘nobody’ didn’t have the coffin replaced. Instead, he was just aware of it and wanted to bring it to Bruce’s attention. If that was the case, maybe Jason was missing longer than he wanted to admit.

He needed to take a step back and reevaluate everything. Firstly, he would need to review who might have ties to Jason outside their family. Because, if he understood the motivations of this ‘nobody’ correctly, everything he did centered around his son. If he could figure out who it might be, he would be able to return Jason home faster. But if he couldn’t, he knew he wouldn’t be able to locate him until he found the final clue, and he had no idea how long that would take.

…

Dick found out about Jason’s empty casket from Tim. Of course, Bruce wouldn’t tell him. Just like how he didn’t tell him that Jason died. But this time, Dick could see the grief. He knew this was something he wanted to handle on his own.

That didn’t mean Dick couldn’t put feelers out for information when he was in Gotham. That’s why he was currently stalking the shadows of Crime Alley. Sometimes the low levels chatted when they thought they weren’t in earshot.

But right now, the most interesting conversations were about someone new in the area. They didn’t know much about him other than he was slowly pushing the low-level thugs, traffickers, and drug dealers out of the area. They were calling him the Red Hood due to the red helmet he wore. While it wasn’t much, it did potentially match up with the unknown pulling the strings regarding the ‘famous nobody’ and even Phantom.

He didn’t seem to be present all the time in Gotham per what he’d gathered, but he seemed to be coming and going more frequently than he was. The criminals didn’t know anything about the man other than he seemed to work alone, and that he was well-trained. Once, he even heard someone mention he was just as stealthy as Batman as no one seemed to hear him coming. If that was true, it made him even more dangerous as few people could do that.

Eventually, he made his way to a warehouse on the edges of Crime Alley that a few thugs had reported seeing Phantom near recently. While it wasn’t the Unknown he wanted to find, if they could locate Phantom’s base of operations, it could lead them back to the other one.

Slipping into an open window, he carefully made his way around the upper perimeter of the building. At first, he didn’t catch sight of anyone, but as he moved towards the east side, he began hearing voices. They were indistinct at first, so he crept closer.

“… getting worse.” The strange voice with the echo could only belong to Phantom.

Dick took the chance to move a little faster in order to see the meta. He was floating near another large figure who was facing away from Dick. The unknown man had his shirt removed, and there seemed to be strange greenish markings on him. Were they tattoos?

If only he could get closer, but that would further risk him being spotted. For now, he just needed to wait and watch.

“They weren’t visible like this until after I faced the old man,” he explained as he rubbed his hand along his left arm, almost tenderly tracing what Dick could make out of the markings. So they weren’t tattoos? Or were they something more mystical?

He also noted the Unknown’s voice held a Gotham accent. But if Dick wasn’t mistaken, it also sounded a lot younger than he expected. Was this person only in their teens or early twenties? That would line up with someone who might have known Jason when he was still alive.

Phantom shifted so he looked like he was sitting in the air. “The last time that happened, was when you let Robin catch sight of you. Are you sure you want to continue this?” When the other man tensed in preparation to speak, Phantom held up his hands. “I know why you’re doing this. Heck, I even agree with you, why else would I be helping? But whatever that woman did to you did something to your body. You know it. I know it.”

So Phantom was working with this unknown, and he, at least, believed he was willingly doing so. That didn’t rule out he was tricked into believing that.

“I don’t recall ever mentioning that to you.” A clear warning crept into the unknown’s voice.

“Oh, the scary eyes.” Sarcasm dripped off of Phantom’s voice before it shifted to a more serious tone. “Look, I can sense it. Whatever it is, it’s similar enough to what prevented me from having a true death.” He angrily gestured at the man. “I’m worried it’s tipping your goals into a true obsession. You promised me the only people you’d hurt were criminals, and, if it came to it, Batman. You could have killed Robin with that stunt in the cemetery! He had nothing to do with what happened to you! And don’t get me started on what you pulled with Man-Bat! You didn’t warn me about that one because you know I would have tried to stop it, right?”

A flash of anger raced through Dick’s body. This man was the ‘famous nobody.’ The one who hurt took his brother’s body.

Phantom also suggested he was the one who hurt Tim. But Bruce had been absolutely certain that was Clayface. Was it possible they’d switched places sometime during the fight? The cowl footage of the fight did show the unknown bleeding at one point, and Bruce did loose track of him in a few frames. That would make sense with how he showed himself at that press conference. It also helped strengthen the claim that Tim briefly saw him when he was in civies.

What in the world was this man after? If he hadn’t altered his appearance, then he did look a great deal like Jason would have, if he ever had a chance to grow up. Though, he was a lot bigger than any of them would have expected. His brother was believed to have stunted growth due to malnutrition.

But Jason was dead. He knew that, but something in the back of his mind kept nagging at him. Could it be possible he was somehow back?

That didn’t make any sense. While Dick personally knew a few people who had come back from death, the miracles that gave them back their lives hadn’t touched his brother. Besides, what would Jason have gotten out of doing all of this? It also wouldn’t explain who or what Phantom was. The more he learned, the more confusing it got.

“I… I went too far with the kid.” Nobody’s voice sounded troubled as if he was confused with his actions. “It should have gone no further than the threat. I just needed to see how he’d react… I wanted to see if there was regret... pain… something.” He gave a humorless laugh as he grabbed his shirt off the nearby table and put it on.  

“Good,” Phantom gave a sharp nod, “as long as you’re aware of that.”

“I should give you the same warning.” When the meta jolted in surprise, Nobody gave a fond chuckle. Dick still couldn’t see his face. “Dove, you know how I feel about teen heroes, but I should have known that nature of yours would cause you to get directly involved in the fights. Even without all the ghostly bullshit you deal with, the feeling of stopping the bad guys and helping the innocent can be addicting.”

“Don’t call me that, and I’m being careful!”

“For now you are.” Nobody sighed as he ran his hand through his dark hair. “Look, don’t take any unnecessary risks. You’ve been a big help, and I don’t want to hear you walked into a trap. Even the best heroes fail eventually, and I still won’t be in the city full time for a while.”

“Can I at least get a warning of what you’re planning next time?”

“What? And ruin the surprise?” Nobody fingered a red helmet that was sitting near where his shirt had been for a moment before putting it on. “Besides, you never know when a little birdy is watching.” That statement seemed a little too pointed. Did he know?

“Head home, kid,” the man ruffled Phantom’s hair before gently shooing him.

After brushing his hands away, the teen smoothed his hair before sticking out his tongue. “Don’t call me that. You aren’t all that much older than me.”

“But I’m still older.” Even through the voice modulator of the helmet, Dick could hear Nobody’s playful tone. No matter what this man was, he seemed to have a genuine fondness for Phantom. “You’ve been doing a lot recently, so make sure you take time to rest. I don’t want to hear you were back on the streets tonight. You know I have ears everywhere.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t go dying again on whatever trip you’re taking.” With that, Phantom faded from view.

Dick quickly switched to the thermal and watched a cold form slip through the east wall. Sending a message to Tim, Babs, Steph, and Cass, he hoped one of them was close enough that they might be able to further track him.

But there was another abnormality on the thermal, Nobody. He was so cold it almost was as if he was a cooling corpse. How was this man alive? Was he even human?

Nobody, the Red Hood, glanced in his direction. Oh, he absolutely knew Dick was there. Crap. Well, the man was in a talkative mood, he might as well oblige.

“Nightwing,” the man greeted as Dick dropped down to the floor. He made no defensive move but with the helmet covering his head, it was difficult to gage any tells he might have regarding what he was planning.

“I’ve been hearing people calling you the Red Hood.” Dick remained on guard as he watched the man. Now that he was closer, he could verify the man was nearly as tall as Bruce and built similarly. He also wore several gun holsters, all of them filled. They knew he had some sort of firearms training, but they didn’t know the extent of it.

Hood shrugged. “Several people have used it throughout the years. What’s one more?”

“Right.” There was something about the way he phrased it that made Dick pause. Not many people were aware that the moniker had been used periodically throughout the years. “What’s Phantom to you? If you’re harming him…”

“Oh, have you developed a fondness for the little ghost? Does he remind you of the brother you lost?”

Ignoring the sting of his words, Dick grabbed his escrima sticks. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

“Nor does it answer mine,” Hood tilted his head slightly, “but I’ll indulge you. I have only asked him to help me place my clues when the occasion needed it. He took it upon himself to watch over you and the others. If I could, I’d stop him from getting involved with the costumes of Gotham, but I can’t do anything to stop a ghost’s obsessive nature other than redirect it.” He retrieved one of his handguns from its holster and pointed it at Dick. “Heed my warning, Nightwing. If you or the others let anything happen to him, there will be hell to pay. Even the dead can die again.”

Dick didn’t wait for Hood to pull the trigger. Instead, he bounced out of the line of fire and lunged at the man. Strangely, the man stayed on the defensive and pulled away as opposed to immediately fighting back. That changed when he leaped over the table his gear had previously been on and kicked it at him.

As he dodged and attempted to find Hood again, he felt something hard press into his back. He went still as he tried to gage the best way of escaping.

“I’m not interested in fighting you,” Hood told him. “My grievances are with Batman, and only Batman. You and the others don’t need to get into the crosshairs.”

He twisted in hopes he could knock the gun out of the man’s hand, but Hood seemed to be aware of what he’d try and pulled back just in time. “What do you want with him? And why, why would you take Jason?”

“I didn’t take the lost Robin,” he responded slowly, almost as if he was carefully choosing his words. “He was in that grave less than a year, but no one ever knew because no one bothered to visit.” He slipped a smoke bomb out of his utility belt and detonated it. “And for why I’m here… Ever think that sometimes the dead can’t rest until they’re fully avenged?”

Dick tried to switch back to the thermal to see where Hood went, but the smoke disoriented him enough to prevent more than catching his strange heat signature moving up into the rafters before disappearing. Nothing about what just happened made any sense to him. Red Hood, who had brutally dispatched some of the criminals in Crime Alley and purposely caused a fight between Batman and Man-Bat, hadn’t been interested in fighting and provided more questions than answers.

Had he taken Jason? Or did someone else did, and he was making an elaborate game out of their ignorance of the situation? While Bruce would want a report, Dick decided that he wanted to verify the timeline Hood suggested first. Calling Babs, he asked her to help him find any evidence that his brother had been missing for years longer than they ever expected.

…

In the month that followed Dick’s confrontation with the Red Hood, they made little progress in determining who he was. Bruce had retraced Jason’s life and anyone who he associated with before and after coming to the manor. Every person had been reliably accounted for, whether alive or dead.

Their best chance at identifying him, outside of questioning Phantom, lied in the strange markings on his body. They didn’t appear to be traditional tattoos. Judging by what Dick overheard, they were possibly a type of illness or even a curse. He had hoped to consult Zatanna at the next League meeting, but everything related to the Red Hood had temporarily been put on hold due to Tim’s exit.

Jack Drake, Tim’s father, discovered his son was the current Robin. Infuriated, he threated to expose everything Bruce and his immediate and extended family worked for over the years. Tim made the impossible decision to hang up the cape and go willingly with his father. As much as he missed the boy’s presence, Bruce couldn’t fault him.

Just as he was getting used to the idea of working primarily by himself again, Stephanie Brown broke into the Batcave. She’d been helping them as Spoiler for a while, but her skills were lacking but improving. However, she admittedly blindsided him when she showed up in a homemade costume which looked similar to Tim’s and demanded to become the new Robin. With some reservations, he agreed as long as she was willing to undergo better training.

For a while, it appeared she would be a great Robin, but after a nasty run in with Mr. Zsasz, a psychotic serial killer who had escaped Arkham, Bruce had second thoughts. The man attempted to take Stephanie as his next target, but she fought back and nearly killed him. While Bruce understood the need to protect herself, Stephanie had taken it too far. It was especially troubling after Bruce learned Phantom helped her escape, and she went back to incapacitate the criminal.

But the finally call came when she openly disobeyed his orders. Yes, she did so to help him, but she’d proven multiple times she wouldn’t follow instructions to the point it created more issues. He couldn’t trust her, and as a result, forbade her from donning the cape ever again. He should have known she wouldn’t listen to him.

----------------------------

odyssey clues:

Stop 8 was the island of the sirens. This one was a little trickier which is why there were 2 plants. Firstly, some carvings of the sirens depict them with pomegranates. Those are famously associated with death due to the myth of Hades and Persephone. But the Esparto has a neat connection too. Ancient cultures, including the Greeks, used the fibers to make boat ropes. Odysseus tied himself to the mast while they passed the island. It can also be used to max wax, which Odysseus' men put in their ears, but in some places, the fibers were used to make smoke for beekeepers to get honey, honeycombs, and beeswax.

[impyssadobsessions]

Batman was getting a better look at the thermos while Danny went to go 'water a tree' as he phrased it. He really needed to meet their parents... he felt like that was one thread that he had to see with his own eyes. With Vlad though, he knew he was a shady business person. He tried to pull one over on him once. Bruce had assumed he was drugged, but there was no evidence. All he remembered was shaking Vlad Masters' hand and then waking up in his office. Alfred and Jason (Before he died) looking at him with concern, asking if he was back. Since then, he refused to have any sort of business with Vlad. He kept an eye on him, anytime he had to go to a gala, he was attending at.

If Danny's parents were close to him, he wonder if they would abuse Danny's trust too. Perhaps they had. Jazz and Danny seemed adamant that they were caring. Maybe they weren't anything like Vlad... still it didn't settle well. “If you want to keep Danny's trust, you probably should apologize or do something Dick would say.” Tim leaning against the chair Batman sat on. “Cheese is their language, if his puns and smack talk are anything to go off of.” Batman made a grunt, as he picked up the battery to look over again. It only used up a little of the ectoplasm inside it, despite having kept a giant ghost blob together and heal up Danny. Tim sighed, “His parents aren't looking to good, are they?” “No.” “What are you going to do, if they don't pass the Bat test?” “...Depends. Danny and Jazz are aware, and seem to genuinely care for them. If they wish to stay with them, then..” “The whole, can't help if they don't want it, might apply?” “...” “Well, suppose nothing to do about it until we meet them first.” Tim shrugged, taking a glance at the door. Danny should be heading back, so he kept his voice low. “Though I got a theory on how Vlad and Danny became half-ghosts. Obviously not much to go on but bare with me.” Batman perked up, leaning towards Tim to show he was listening. “Ok, you know how Danny was hospitalized for electrical burns and hypothermia? He also mentioned electricity and ectoplasm turned him into a half-ghost.” Tim gave a pause, as he hopped topics. “-Okay, so his parents are scientist, that build ectoplasmic weapons from stuff like thermoses. I bet their lab is in their home, not only that... For them to have enough ectoplasm to build and power up their devices they would need to have access to a source.” “-The Ghost Zone is MADE of ectoplasm, filled with it. It has to be limitless to constantly feed and maintain life in it!” Batman pinched his chin as he took in each line Tim said. Trying to follow the web Tim piecing together. His eyes slowly widening, in realization. “I think they tried to do same thing in college. I think Danny and Vlad were caught in an accident related to a portal or some kind of access point to the ghost zone. Or if not some portal, maybe just from tinkering with heavy machinery that involved ectoplasm.. like a generator or-” “Wow, you got all that from snippets? One, teach me. Two, its impolite to talk behind someone's back.” Danny leaned in the doorway. Tim a nonverbal, 'oh'... at being caught. Batman was shocked at being sneaked up on. They didn't hear him at all. He quickly regain composure, “Sorry.-” “Don't.. I get it.” Danny sighed, “My parents made a portal. Didn't work at first. Me and my friends were being stupid teenagers and messed around with it. I took a look inside, ended up tripping and hitting a switch that was in it. Bright light. Molecules got all rearrange than Boo! Ghost.... Its my fault I'm like this, but unlike Vlad, my friends stuck around.” There they were, the missing pieces. They simmered over what they heard. Danny was obviously holding back on what exactly happened, and his posture made it clear, he was trying to mask how bad it was. But it cleared the air some. “Is now a bad time or?” Dick chimed in from the device, a sound of muffled curses in the background. “Report.” “Ok, good news! We found a way in-ow you bit me!” “Good! Because we ain't doing that shit- Tell Danny, he got to nip that sympathy shit in the butt! Can't feel bad for a bastard that constantly attacking you and your family! That's how you get-” “Bad news?” “Uh.. Its a vent that's too small-Jaybird!” “Robin went in it.” Cass took over the call, as they collectively muted Dick and Jason. Their voices could still be heard in the background. Batman grunted, not liking that his youngest was exploring alone- “And Jazz followed.” “...........what?!” Danny let out, clearly having over heard their conversation from across the room. Add super hearing to the list of powers. ----- Ow< '

It felt as if the vent went on for miles. It amusingly made her think of Alice in Wonderland, except she was following a Robin and not a rabbit. Though Vlad would make a good queen of hearts. Ancients knows he's dramatic enough.

They had to temporarily short out fans to get through parts of the vent. Jazz had never squeezed her body into tight spaces so much in her life. Well, those skinny leather pants she wore to an Ember's concert was a good second. On another tangent, following Robin, probably should have went on the list of things that she should have thought through more. But, She didn't feel right leaving Robin alone. Even if the boy obviously disliked her presence. A light appeared in front of them, signaling the end of their crawling. Damian was crawling faster, wanting to get out of the cramp space. He would have already been through the vent, if Jazz didn't get stuck every time they passed through a fan. He had to yank her free at least twice. Once at the vent opening, he peaked to see where it lead. It looked like a hallway, that was well lit. “See anything?” Jazz whispered. Damian huffed, as he started to remove the vent covering. He flinched as the cover fell, and a sound echo in the hall. They made no effort to move, waiting to hear if anyone was coming. Damian peaked his head out of the open vent, he didn't see any cameras and the hall was deathly silent. He cautiously crawled out of the vent, and crept in silence to the other side of the hall. He flinched as he heard the girl stumbling out of the vent. The sound echoing. He glared at her, as Jazz just rubbed the back of her head with an apologetic smile. If they get caught, he's blaming it on her. “If you insist on being loud, could you do so in the other direction!” Damian hissed. Jazz didn't seem to respond to his hiss, as she stood up to dust herself off. Instead she deflected with a question. “Which way do we go? It makes sense if this way would connect towards the tunnels.” “Tt.” Damian rolled his eyes, and then assessed the area. It was a long hallway. He didn't see windows or doors. He didn't like the vulnerability the long stretch gave, so he opted for the corner that was closer to them, but was in a different direction to where the girl had pointed. Even if the other way led to the tunnels, this option might provide more hiding spots. Robin didn't even motioned for Jazz to follow, but she did anyways. Staying irritatingly close, but at least she was quiet. The corner revealed another hallway with branching paths and doors, but a camera was visible. And.. busted? There were burnt marks around the ceiling. “Must have been Mom or Dad.... probably Mom.” Jazz whispered while she peered around the corner above of Damian. Damian didn't comment and just moved forward, taking each corner with caution. Jazz annoying following on his tail. Surprisingly, each hallway they took, the camera was shot out for them. Jazz felt nervous, the shots showed her parents were here, ALIVE. But the silence of the halls ate at her. She played with the end of her braid, trying to keep calm. Some of the doors they passed had labels, but they weren't written in English. Damian couldn't decipher what language they were. So he ignored them for now. He was hoping the rooms that he was more interested in would have large doors or entrances. Normally they did. “No body respects their elders. 2000 years old, and still flocking back and fourth. Back and fourth!-” A green vulture, with gray hair and a fez hat came into view as it appeared through the wall, floating slightly above them. Jazz and Damian froze, holding their breaths. Damian gripping his Anti-ghost roasting stick, but Jazz held her hand out telling him to wait. Damian glaring her way, as she kept her gaze up on the vulture. “Ah, I should have moved to the other side of the realm-” The vulture turned, making eye contact with Jazz and Damian. Damian lunged up to attack the ghost before it could react, making it squawk out in pain. Jazz scrambled onto her feet, grabbing Damian's wrist and running blindly in a direction away from the vulture. “Run!” “AACCCKK!! INTRUDER! INTRUDER ALERT!!!” They turned swiftly around the nearest corner, and kept running through double doors leading to a large garage.

Damian squeezed himself between large boxes that were staked next to a small room that sat near the entrance of the garage. Jazz ran and slid herself under a truck, that had one side concealed by partially unloaded sacks of dehydrated chemicals. They sat with baited breath. Jazz peaking around the sacks and tires to get a good visual of the door, then shifting to include the direction Damian went. Damian kept to the shadows and listened for any noise. Alarms didn't blare nor could he hear that squawking vulture. It was quiet, unsettling so. He spared a moment to gain better aware of their surroundings, entry and exit points. There were many large crates that could be used to- could they be used to block ghost's line of sight. They would be able to go right through them. It would only give him a second, but any moment could be used as an advantage.

There were cars spaced out in the room, jeeps, trucks, and.... a strange armored vehicle. Was that the GAV Jazz mentioned? That meant... his view was blocked by the boxes and vehicles, but he could still see part of the sealed entrance to the tunnel. Appears that they ran into the right place. Controls must be in that room nearby. Jazz noticed the GAV right away, that be a good place to hide. She wonder if it be safe to move. Slowly she scooted herself out from under the truck, keeping low and crouched. She peered around boxes before shuffling to the GAV. It was unlocked. She turned towards the direction that she knew Damian hid in, and urged him to come, while climbing into the RV herself. Damian frowned, glaring daggers as he watched Jazz ushering him over. He debated on it, finding it foolish. However, her climbing back out of the RV to head his way, made him crawl out. Jazz felt relieved seeing Robin in view again, he didn't look happy at her, but she had her reasons. She knew the GAV be the obvious hiding spot, but it had equipment and was upgraded to keep ghosts out.. as long as they were in ghost form that is. Vlad would have to come in person. “You better have a good reason for this.” “I do. Hurry get inside.” They kept their voices low, Jazz getting in and locking the doors after Damian. “Welcome to the ghost assault vehicle. A normal ghost won't be able to make it in.” Jazz showed off the GAV. It didn't look to be in the of best shape, as everything was flung around inside of it. Still, technology wise it looked quite impressive. “Almost everything in this vehicle was made to hunt or capture ghosts.” Damian nodded as he picked up another ecto-blaster that laid on the floor of the GAV. He wondered if there was a sword in here. Jazz opened the cabinets and shuffled through strewn items. “Well, normally. Looks like Plasmius or my parents wiped some of it out.” She pulled out guns and scanners. The Fenton Finder, she held out and showed to Damian. “Locates ghosts near by. Though I would turn down the volume on it.” Damian held the device in his hands, looking it over. He had to admit, this would be worth having, since the ghosts could appear out of no where. Jazz kept pulling out equipment. Mumbling out there names as she pulled them out. “Bazooka... oo the grappler! That would have been handy earlier! Wrist rays... Thermos- never mind that ones got soup in it. Bleh, the Ghost gabber.. hmm” Damian furrowed his brows watching her pull out weapon after weapon. There was more guns than anything. A few were busted or low on fuel, but most were in tact. Was that a giant magnet? What was that used for? “I really need to keep the ghost peeler on me.” Jazz sighed as she couldn't find the Fenton Ghost Peeler. It was one of her favorites to use. “Ghost peeler?” Damian could only imagine a large potato peeler, one Alfred had him use. “Yea. It a hand held device that covers the user in anti-ghost armor. Also has a built in ray.” Damian didn't feel like that answered his question, as the name suggested peeling. “Let's get the usable weapons out of the GAV, so if Plasmius finds out the Gotham heroes are here, he can't hide them away..” She piled some into her arms. “Any suggestions?” “As high as possible.” Jazz looked out the windshield, with a hum. “The rafters?” Damian nodded with a smirk. “I think we can do that.”

[avaritia-apotheosis]

Phantom Children Ch. 6

Hi guys! I'm back <3 (also, I'm currently looking for alpha/beta readers for Phantom Children, so if you're interested, feel free to shoot me a message!)

In Which: Danny Attempts to get Answers, Bruce Learns, and Dick Finally Learns What's Inside the Door that Doesn't Exist

AO3 | Prologue | 5 | [ 6 ] | 7

DANNY IS KNOCKED DOWN three, four, eight times on the ice. Each time made his back ache, his bones bruised and tired, and his mind burning with embarrassment and a drive to lash out. But each time he gets back up. Each time he lasts a little bit longer against Talia.

The ice still shifts, cracks and rumbles with every wrong move. Danny learned to roll with it. Move on light feet but attack with a firm stance, gauge which parts of the ice are stable and which should be avoided. Multi-tasking has never been Danny’s strong suit, but he’s good at learning and learning quickly.

Talia corrected his form as much as she beat him down. Exploited every one of his openings until he learned to defend them and praised him whenever he managed to pull one over her. The League’s martial arts was the holy amalgamation between almost every single fighting style there is, mashed and refined to perfection to become almost unpredictable to the untrained. A vast improvement to Danny’s previous ‘fuck around and see what works’ brawling and had the added benefit of meshing together with his spontaneity.

“You are doing well, Daniel,” Talia said as she sheathed her sword, hand resting just above her hip. “You have improved greatly in such a short time, as I have expected.”

It takes every ounce of Danny’s superhuman energy to not collapse to his knees, his every breath a ragged shudder as he tries to get his breathing under control. “Still can’t beat you, though.”

“Very few can boast that feat.”

“I’m not exactly sure if that’s supposed to make me feel any better or not. Do I get my prize at least?”

Tahlia tossed her braid over one shoulder with a laugh. “Come, then, let us rest in the caves. The sun is to set soon and we must make camp before we freeze to death.”

“Hypothermia is so last season. I’m way too cool for that.”

He didn’t know whether to be disappointed that Tahlia didn’t react to his pun. It was pretty clever, in his opinion.

('Puns are the lowest form of comedy,' said mind-Jazz.

Says the one who named the Box Ghost the ‘Crate Creep.’

'That’s alliteration, not a pun.')

It was kind of pathetic that even his mind-version of Jazz was smarter than him.

“What would you like to know first?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Sarcasm dripped from Danny’s voice. He sheathed his sword and let it hang loose at his side. “Maybe how old this mysterious brother of mine is?” Ancients, his life was weird enough already, it wasn’t supposed to sound like the B-plot to a bad soap opera.

“Damian is younger than you by a little over four years. He will turn eleven this year.”

“Huh. Never been an older brother before.”

“Perhaps you might have been, if circumstances had been different.”

Cryptic. Great. Danny stepped over a particularly large crack in the ice and scampered over to solid ground. “You gotta give me more than that. What’s he like?”

“Prideful,” she said. “But skilled enough to warrant it. He was raised like a prince—as how you should have been.”

“And he lives with…our dad?”

“Yes. In America.” The cave was deep enough to shield them from the worst of the eventual mountain winds. Tahlia had already started building a campfire with equipment from her knapsack, embers eating away and growing into a steady flame. He sat down, legs crossed, beside the fire, hands tucked beneath his armpits.

He bit his lip, a question forming in his mind. “Do…do we have the same dad?”

Tahlia looked up at him. “Of course. Only your father has had the privilege of being called my beloved, and only he is worthy enough to have sired my children.”

Once night fell, it fell quickly. Blanketing as far as Danny could see from the mouth of the cave in a thick darkness. Snow fell from the skies in thick tufts and covered their footsteps.

“Does he—do they know about me?”

“No, they do not.”

“And you probably aren’t going to tell them anything about me, if you could help it.”

“That is very perceptive of you, habeebi.”

“You won’t tell me anything more about them, will you?”

“In due time, I will.”

Danny blew part of his fringe away from his face. Figures.

Despite the ever-present niggling at the back of his mind, Bruce had yet to see what was in the flash drive. The weeks since his strange meeting with Vlad Masters suddenly exploded with criminal activity with the recent breakout in Arkham and the brewings of another gang war in the shadows of Gotham’s paved streets. It was all hands-on deck. And Bruce, whether as Batman or Wayne, had always prioritized Gotham and its citizens over anything else.

The flash drive remained on his person despite the crisis, tucked away in one of the sturdier compartments of his utility belt to prevent the data inside from becoming damaged. Sometimes he found his hands gravitating towards it, fingers brushing against the button that would release the mystery from its confines before he realized what he was doing and steeled himself. Hands fisted to his side and attention forcibly directed elsewhere.

Eventually, the rogues were placed back into Arkham, and Gotham let out a shuddered breath of relief as it remained standing for another day.

Most of the family were out on a light patrol, cleaning up the remains of the breakout and helping where they can. Jason and Dick bickering over the comms whilst Barbara laughed in her clocktower.

(“It’s not that bad.”

"‘It’s not that bad’—shut the fuck up.” Jason spat. Bruce could hear him revving his bike. “You’re a fucking idiot, you know that? Certified Grade A idiot. B’s gonna kill you.”

He could hear Dick roll his eyes. “Sure, pile it all on, Jaybird. Blame the victim.”

"It was your fault.”

“It’s not my fault I didn’t see it there!”

"You tripped and got a concussion. From a stick. A. Stick.”

“Can we please just leave that out of the report?” Dick groaned. Barbara laughed. “Oh god.”

“Richard motherfucking John Grayson. I swear if you vomit on me then—”

“I’m not gonna vomit on you! You just turned the corner a little too fast. It’s nice to see you care though.”

"Fuck no, I just don’t wanna smell like regurgitated cereal.”)

Damian was benched from a patrol. Their last conflict with Poison Ivy ended with Damian sticking a bad landing and twisting his ankle. He dealt with it with as much grace as can be expected. Meaning that he spent the last few days sulking as he caught up on his missed schoolwork and shooting daggers at everyone else who came back from patrol.

Bruce flicked the flash drive open and plugged it into the computer. The flash drive contained only a single folder dated six months ago.

He clicked it, and a news headline popped up.

LOCAL TEEN DIES AFTER DRIVING OFF CLIFF

Beneath it, a picture. Blue eyes. Black hair. A familiar face.

Blood pounded in Bruce’s ears. He could hear nothing except a sharp gasp from Damian behind him.

When Dick and Jason arrived at the batcave, it was to an eerie silence. Not that it was usually loud, only that Bruce spent most of his free time down in the cave and Dick had come to expect hearing some signs of him around. Typing on keys, the clicking of a mouse, the heavy thuds of a fist meeting a punching bag or a training dummy, etcetera, etcetera. Or maybe even Alfred cleaning up around the cave, feeding the bats, or restocking their med bay.

(Dick, it turned out, didn’t have a concussion. Probably. Not a severe one anyway. What mattered most was that he managed to convince Jason to have dinner at the Manor. Alfred was making a tarte tatin for dessert tonight and those were absolutely to die for. )

One of Tim’s cases took him to the other side of Gotham. The only person in the cave was Damian, who was staring agape at the batcomputer.

“Why the hell is the demon spawn looking at old pictures of Bruce? We get it. They look alike.

“Uh, Dami? What’s up?”

Damian snapped his mouth shut. “I believe it might be best if you asked father that, Grayson.” Despite his clipped tone, there seemed to be little anger in his voice. His proud shoulders were hunched over on the chair, eyes trained on his lap.

He looked so small.

Damian clucked his tongue. “He’s upstairs, if you need him. So is Pennyworth.”

Dick shot a glance at Jason who raised his hands in mock surrender. “You’re up golden boy. Whatever the fuck the old man’s problem is this time, I’m not dealing with it.”

Dick sighed. “Fine.”

There was a door in Wayne Manor that didn’t exist.

When Dick was a child and recently adopted by Bruce Wayne, one of the first things he did was explore the manor. It’s the prerogative of every child that somehow found themselves in a large mansion—even more so given the castle-like exteriors of Wayne Manor. All castles have secret passages, and if the Batcave lay in the subterranean depths below, then surely the manor proper must have its own secrets.

Dick would tumble and cartwheel along the hallways, opening any and every single door he came across. A lot of them were just empty bedrooms or unused parlors and sitting rooms; the furniture covered by white sheets to keep the dust away. Alfred was probably magic, but even he can’t keep the entirety of the manor dust free.

The majority of the unused rooms were unlocked.

Except for one.

It was a room in the west wing, on the second floor. A couple doors down from where Bruce’s and Dick’s were. Why it was locked, Dick never found out. But he was curious since it was the only room on that floor that remained shut.

When he asked Alfred about it, the old butler only said that it was an unused storage room they preferred to keep locked just in case. When he asked Bruce about it, he’d be quick to change the subject. Usually something Batman related. Which, well, always worked, because it was Batman related. And Dick, young and spry and itching to fly under Batman’s wings, would quickly forget about that curious little mystery in favor of punching bad guys in the face and flipping over rooftops.

At some point that locked door quietly disappeared, leaving a blank expanse of wallpaper and a decorative vase where it once stood. It was never brought up again. And Dick slowly forgot that it was ever there in the first place.

Until now.

The wooden table and vase were shoved off to the side. Wallpaper sliced away to reveal the lines of a doorway. The door, covered in its faint damask wallpaper, was kicked open, the wood around the bolt splintered and cracked. He could hear voices—Alfred’s and Bruce’s—speaking softly on the other side.

He pressed his back against the wall and kept his breathing quiet.

“Three times, Alfred.” Bruce’s voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper. “Three times she’s done this to me.”

“Master Bruce…”

“I don’t—I don’t understand why—” Bruce choked, swallowing a shuddered breath. “Damian, I can understand. Jason, I can too. But…This? I—” Bruce suddenly quieted. Dick knew the jig was up.

He unlatched himself from the wall and slowly slid through the once-hidden-door, a hand kept on the frame. “Um. Hi, Bruce? Alfred?” The words fell flat, stilted. Dick winced as he said them. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but, uh…” He trailed off the second he registered what was in the room.

It was large, as so many rooms in the manor were. The room was covered in peeling green wallpaper with faded pictures of baby deer and owls and other woodland creatures prancing about. There was a dresser on one wall. A shelf filled with little picture books and stuffed animals on the other. A brown teddy bear had fallen on its face on one of the shelves.

In the middle—where Bruce was hunched over—was a crib. The wood streaked and aged with time, the beddings within pristine and untouched, if not dusty. Hanging overhead was a mobile with little animals dangling on a string.

“Worry not Master Dick. It is good that you are here since it will inevitably involve the rest of the family at some point.”

Dick nodded absentmindedly, trying to lock eyes with his guardian. “B? What’s—what’s going on?” Dick took one step deeper into the room. “The pictures in the cave. I thought they were you since they were too old to be Damian—” Bruce’s hands on the crib’s railing flinched.

Dick’s breath hitched.

“They’re…not your photos, are they.”

Bruce took a deep breath in, the lines of his shoulders tense. “No. They’re not.”

In their line of work, the answer could have been anything. Clones, magical doppelgangers, alternate universe counterparts, hell, even just someone’s genetic code being coincidentally similar to another person. But…this room, this nursery, pointed towards only one conclusion.

“Who is he, Bruce?”

Bruce angled his head towards Dick, unshed tears glimmering in his eyes. “He’s my son, Dick.

“He’s my son.”

[river-bottom-nightmare]

headcanon that damian’s eyes change color.

and no, not like “his eyes darkened with anger” or “they were a fresh spring color in the sunlight” no i mean his eyes actually change color.

When he was a baby, he was born with brown eyes, inherited from talia. they’re normal. unassuming. there’s not much hidden depth to them, people look at them and assume they’re a normal person’s eyes. ra’s was angry, predictably, because his grandson, the one whose body he was going to occupy, had eyes as dull as a common civilian. but talia stepped up and said “you fool. can you not see how this will help us all?” and it does. because people never expect damian to be as dangerous as he is. from birth to the end of his toddler years, people see an average child, which makes them all the more easier for him to slaughter.

then, damian was tossed in the lazarus pit. it was part of his training, mandated by ra’s. talia put him in there without a second argument, though gentler than she usually would be. the pain wracks his tiny body, and when he comes out, he feels dizzy and jumbled and angry. he doesn’t even what happened to his eyes until a couple days later. they’re a bright, acid green. like, danny phantom green. they radiate the unnatural. one look at those eyes and people instantly know something is not right with that child. it makes his ruthless grin even more terrifying. ra’s is pleased. talia tries to be pleased, and succeeds, somewhat. somewhere deep inside her, though, she’s terrified of her son, because while her viciousness as a child had stemmed from the constant training and need for approval from her father, damian seems to be this absolutely brutal on his own, because he liked it. she never did figure out his savageness stemmed from love for her.

when damian meets, then loses his father, his eyes are the same eerie bright green, though dulled, somewhat. bruce could never look him in the eyes. when dick becomes batman and makes damian his robin, he takes one look at damian’s eyes and declares that’s plain creepy. tim agrees. they’re straight up unsettling. at first, damian wears this as a badge of pride, showcasing how different he is from his siblings, how superior. over time, though, his eyes become just another thing separating him from them, another reminder of his heritage. dick still flinched ever time he looked damian in the eyes, and that cut damian deeper than he ever expected. over time, though, dick stopped flinching, and damian assumed he’d just grown used to it. it wasn’t until damian took a good look in the mirror that he realized his eyes had changed color. they no longer were the acid green pools of miniature lazarus pits, two seconds away from actually glowing. they had faded into a duller, almost brownish green. the same color as alfred’s tea leaves. and damian was happy, happy because now his eyes held a warmth to them, the same warmth that alfred left in everybody else. tim came back, with proof that bruce was alive, saw damian’s eyes, and sagged in relief. later that night, making sure damian couldn’t overhear, he went to dick and said “you did it. i don’t know how, but you broke his connection to the league.” and dick shook his head. “i didn’t break his connection to the league. i just made sure his connection to us was stronger.” (and if bruce now looked damian in the eyes while holding a conversation almost constantly, well, that was something damian would never admit to loving.)

and then came jon kent. damian knew from the moment he met him that jon kent was going to be somebody important. people called him stubborn? clearly they’d never met this one particular ten year old. on the outside, he seemed a picture perfect happy-go-lucky kid. damian wondered how nobody else saw the sheer determination behind his eyes, the blue being taken over by violet with rage. you would have to be a fool not to see the desire to prove himself, and how jon would do almost anything to accomplish that. and after kid amazo, after jon had cleared it with his parents after the move to go patrol with damian, they would sit on a roof and eat fast food during stakeouts and jon would talk about everything and nothing at all and damian could almost feel his eyes changing color.

but it didn’t happen until he was 22. there was a battle, a big one, and it had passed in a blur of days. of fighting and stitching up wounds and being constantly on edge. on the last day, damian had gotten hurt. there was a kryptonite spear. jon was busy helping another wounded hero off the ground. the answer was pretty simple. though, jon’s anguished scream when the blade lodged itself in damian’s torso hit a little harder than home. luckily that day the league was able to take out the bad guys for good, and jon stayed by damian’s side until it was certain he could pull through. and angry punch on the arm and a don’t ever do that to me again turned into a quiet i can’t see you get hurt like that turned into i couldn’t let you get hurt turned into damian ducking in and pressing his lips, once, softly and firmly against jon’s. afterwards, pulling back from jon, damian’s voice was unsteady, saying “this, jon, this is why i can’t let you get hurt.” jon stared at him for a minute, impassive (and boy did that scare damian because jon was rarely ever impassive) before saying “i get it. i understand. so i bet you can understand why i can’t let you get hurt” and dragged damain in for a kiss that was deep and passionate and sucked the soul right out of damian’s body. the next day, when damian was cleaning some of the cuts on his face, he spotted his eyes in the mirror. they had changed color again. from an earthy green-brown to a deep emerald. just like his second eye color, they were unnatural, unearthly. but these, these had hidden depths that damian loved. they were dark and mysterious and shone with hidden emotion. they danced the edge between mortal and not, between ordinary and captivating. and, if damian squinted at the mirror hard enough, he could see love woven through those emerald stones, as sure as the love in dick’s eyes, in jon’s.

and damian smiled. because he was pretty sure these eyes were going to stay a while.