#liminal or halfa jason

[kreerain]

Fenton parents make an invention to reverse a ghost's evil impulses!" It actually brings a ghost's instincts forward. The effects last about two weeks.

The Fentons are in Gotham when they get the chance to use it on Phantom.

Good news: it happens near the Bats, so he's quickly rescued.

Bad news: baby ghost instinct wants parents and turned human to get reassurance. That did not happen and now Red Hood has a crying, keening teenager shaped leech.

[puppetmaster13u]

Another de-aged Danny au, but he's with Dan & Ellie & Jazz as well.

Jason has like just arrived back to Gotham, caused chaos in the underbelly due to well, 8 heads in a duffle bag, and is just starting his takeover of Crime Alley. It's going good, great even! And then he busts some sort of gang or smuggling ring run by people in white suits and there's... holy shit why do these four toddlers have Lazarus eyes?!

Is that a lab?! And Lazarus waters?! Jason might be a bit mad but he's not an asshole, he's not going to just leave these kids here to the streets. He can't just take them to the Batclan either, and as much as he begrudgingly trusts Talia, he sure as fuck doesn't trust Ras. Who knows what he'd do to four... what are they, pit-kids?

Now he's juggling his whole revenge-thing, running a criminal empire, taking over Gotham's underbelly, and being a single dad. At least the goonion seems to be down for helping, seeing as he's making Crime Alley safer...? .... Fuck he needs some proper sleep

[nerdpoe]

Jason likes to cook. Unfortunately, his new powers have something to say about that.

It started with turning intangible. Small things, really.

Randomly floating a few inches off the ground. Phasing a gun through his hand on patrol. Eyes glowing radioactive green.

Things he wouldn't bother bringing up to Bruce, Dick, or anyone else. They were small, he could handle them. Fuck it, with all the shit he came into contact with, getting powers wasn't a matter of 'maybe', it was a matter of 'when'.

But the most recent development.

His food...comes to life. He just got into a war with the leftovers, and they actually gave him stitches.

He has mild concerns that this means he could start the zombie apocalypse, but more immediate concerns that he'll have to eat takeout for the rest of his life.

[bet-on-me-13]

Danny was born as a Halfa

So! Jack and Maddie are a little More insane in this.

When studying Ghosts, they become convinced that the only way to defeat the Ghostly Threat is to make a Ghost of their own. One who will fight on their Side. And they do believe that a "Good Ghost" is Possible, but only if fused with a Human to balance out the "Inherent Evil".

So, when Maddie gets pregnant they take the opportunity to try and make one of these theoretical "Halfas" by testing on the Baby in the Womb.

Jazz if Born, and she is not a Halfa. She is merely an extremely Liminal Toddler, so Jack and Maddie consider the experiment a Failure. They raise Jazz as per usual, and then 2 years later Jack and Maddie try again.

They have Danny, and this time he is a True Halfa! They did it! Now all they have to do is turn the Baby into the perfect Weapon against Ghosts!

Danny is raised less like a Baby and more like a Weapon. His Parents still treat him well, and give him some amount of love, but there is never any doubt in his mind that his only purpose in Life is to be the perfect weapon against Ghosts.

The only person who really treats him like something more than a Weapon is Jazz, who likes to sneak into his Room and play with him when they parents are out of the House.

(Later addition: They also have Ellie as a Kid a few years later, but because they messed up the process she is not as Stable as Danny is. She is 4 years younger than he is)

Then, they day he had been preparing for his whole life comes. When he is 10, a Ghost manages to sneak through a Natural Portal into Amity Park, and the Fentons send him to go deal with it as his First Test Run.

But when he gets there, he doesn't find an Evil Ghost bent on killing everyone in town. He finds a Teenage Girl, with blue flaming Hair, crying to herself.

(Idk how long ago Ember died, so lets just assume she died around 6 years before Canon)

He doesn't attack immediately, and when the girl sees him she invites him to sit with her. Against his better judgement, he agrees and sits with her.

She talks to him for a bit, and eventually explained why she was crying. Apparently she only died a few weeks ago and had finally found her way back to the Living World, back home. But when she got there she found that nobody really cared about her Death.

She had died in a House Fire, and because she had spent her entire night waiting for her Boyfriend to show up for a Date, she was too tired to wake up in time to escape.

Her Parents had obviously mourned, but her supposed friends and her boyfriend had hardly cared. In fact, it turned out that her Boyfriend had stood her up because he was cheating on her. So she had run off into the Park and sat down to Cry about it, where Danny had found her.

And Danny is confused.

His entire life, he has heard that Ghosts are Non-Sentient Killing Machines. That they don't feel any emotion aside from Malice. That they aren't People.

But this Girl is as Human as anybody else he has ever known. Perhaps even More Human.

He decides to ignore The Fentons Orders, and lets her go back through the Portal she had come through.

When he gets Home, the Fentons are less than pleased. They are Livid in fact.

Their Perfect Weapon was a Failure after all! It's too much like a Ghost to ever side with the Humans! It's just another Spook!

And they know what to do with Spooks.

They lock him up in the Lab, and decide to cut him open Later to figure out what went wrong.

They'll be successful next time.

Thankfully, their jeers to Danny are heard by Jazz in the other Room, and she doesn't like this one bit. So that night, she takes Danny and Ellie with her and Runs away. They need to get out of Amity Park, out Illinois even. They run and run, sneaking onto Buses, hitchhiking, even jumping on Trains.

Eventually they end up in a place called Gotham City.

...

Ages at the end.

Jazz: 12

Danny: 10

Ellie: 6

[nelkcats]

Yetis to the rescue

After becoming a halfa Danny didn't realize how much he needed a medical checkup until he went to see Frostbite. It turns out that being a hybrid of two species leaves you vulnerable to both types of diseases.

Frostbite was shocked when Danny commented that he didn't have any of the ghost vaccines, but in his defense how was he supposed know that it was a necessity and that ghosts could get sick? Nobody informed him!

Despite following all medical advice and undergoing the process of multiple vaccinations in the same day; months later Danny was infected by a case of Ghost flu, this kind of flu was a little different: in ghosts it just destabilized their ectoplasm, but in his half normal human body it was causing a severe pulmonary obstructive reaction, he was just lucky he didn't need to breath.

Danny was severely ill for a couple of days, and without noticing it, the Ghost flu mutated inside his body; when he finally recovered by becoming immune, the entire city was infected with a severe case of flu, a very intense flu that sent people to the hospital and was extremely difficult to detect.

At first Danny was confused when Frostbite told him that the signs the Amity Parkers were showing was a Ghost flu infection because, wasn't it supposed to be a ghost disease? Frostbite explained worriedly that sometimes virus could evolve to infect other organisms if they have the chance.

At the end Danny and Frostbite had to do an emergency quarantine in Amity before the virus mutated from affecting liminals to becoming compatible with humans, while the Amity Parkers were reluctant to accept help at first, they realized their liminal status along with the small amount of ectoplasm they hold inside their body could save them with the help of a Yeti from Far Frozen.

When Danny heard reports of a concerned Amity Parker about an infection starting in Gotham he realized it might be too late, maybe it was time to unleash the Ghost yetis medic squad.

On the other side, Red Hood had been sick for a couple of days with an extremely persistent flu, to the point where he swore to hallucinate a Yeti outside his door.

[spacedace]

Reluctant War AU Part 2

Part One

...I ended up writing more for that Reluctant War AU...Like. Wrote this before work and started on part 3 with plans for part 4 more.

this was supposed to just be a brain worm what happened (also thank you @catastrophic-crow for the AU name <3 <3 <3 Also, also: welcome to the cult of Ancient of the Speedforce Elle! Membership includes nonsense, shenanigans and chaos haha)

-

Gotham had always been a place for ghosts.

Every corner haunted by death and tragedy.

Every street stained red at least once in its many years.

Every dark shadow holding the faint shadows and shades of the dead.

Gotham was, before all else, a grave yard.

Jason had known that his entire life. Every kid born and raised in the Alley did. Death came fast to Gotham’s streets. Especially for those the rest of the city turned its back on. He did his best to lighten the reaper’s load when it came to the people that called Crime Alley home. Well, mostly. He’d certainly added names to old Death’s list before, when the occasion called.

When the armies of the dead descended upon Gotham, the only surprise Jason could feel was that those white wearing pieces of shit had dared to try and hunker down in his city.

It was a sentiment shared by most of Gotham’s fine citizens. By the city itself - herself? Something to ask later, if there was a later - even if the impossible, living shadow that rose up out of Gotham’s many dark corners was anything to go by. He knew, almost instinctively, that the entity - skin of cracked pavement, mouth a bridge suspended too wide across the face, eyes of CCTV camera lenses and body built brick by grimy, bloody brick of the sharp skyline - was Gotham. Not a ghost but something bigger, greater. Something awfully, terribly alive in all its horrible, noble glory. His city, manifest in the shape almost human beneath the green glow of the torn apart sky above.

Phantom’s armies arrived without warning as they had everywhere else, and their enemies poured out in unforgivably unmarred white suits to meet them. Horrible and garish against the Gotham streets. How they’d ever managed to slink by unnoticed while being so blatantly, clearly not of Gotham Jason wasn’t sure he’d ever know.

If either side thought this would be like the battles they fought before, they were mistaken.

Gotham was a place for Ghosts.

A place the dead piled up, lingered well beyond their deaths. A place where the rules were different from everywhere else in the world. Where crime was rampant and chaos reigned but at the end of the day people said their thanks that they were born to this hellhole and not so cursed to call anywhere else in the world home.

The dead came to fight

And Gotham, a thing so alive it was sickening to look upon, rose up to fight right along side them all.

The agents were ready and prepared for the incursion of the dead. It’d been two weeks since the first volley of attacks. Two weeks spent shoring up defenses and ramping up weapons and strategizing ways to kill what was already dead. They were, as best as they were able to be considering how endless the armies that came for them, prepared.

They weren’t prepared for Gotham.

Weren’t prepared for the city itself to rise up and take spectral, eldritch shape. Jagged building spire and shattered glass teeth bared in a snarl that spanned miles. Screaming rage in a voice made of gunfire and the concussive boom of explosions and the shrieks of a furious crowd.

Weren’t prepared for its people to ignore the gentle ushering of the dead trying to push them away to safety and instead press forward to fight shoulder to shoulder with the ghostly armies.

Weren’t prepared to have brick and bottles and trash and debris rain down upon them from the jeering living. Weren’t prepared for dirty faced children with hard eyes to light up rags stuffed into chipped beer bottles filled with gas and kerosene and throw them with more speed an accuracy than any professional baseball player. Weren’t ready for Gotham’s motley crew of terrifying Rogues to band together with the citizens they so often accosted and worried and bring down wave after wave of chaos and Goons.

Weren’t prepared for Red Hood to swap out his rubber bullets for the real deal and start mowing the fuckers in white down, his own crew at his back, the rest of the Outlaws on their way.

The Justice League was trying to find a peaceful resolution. Trying to play go between to the US Government and the infinite dead. Too wound up in US politics to side with the dead outright, too disgusted by what the American government had done to ever want to stand with them. All it had gotten them was spun wheels and confusion and the slow creeping realization that the time to try and play negotiators had well passed.

Red Hood wasn’t a member of the Justice League.

He had no obligation to try and find a way to talk things out.

What he had was a grave he’d dug his way out of, enough ammunition to arm a sizable country, and a burning need to make things right.

Gotham had always been a place for ghosts, and Jason had long accepted that he was one of them.

Haunting the streets he’d survived as a child, the city he protected as Robin, the family he’d loved and lost a thousand and one times before and after his death.

The sky cracked open above his home, and it was not an invading army that came rushing out but a native one. Friends, neighbors, strangers on the street you caught from the corner of your eye. The people of Gotham knew their own and fought for them. Only Gotham was allowed to fucked with Gotham and they’d been screwed over enough by the government themselves to know what side they were on.

He lifted his guns and fired, teeth bared in vicious satisfaction beneath his helmet as white was splattered bright red.

A hissing electric whine of a weapon, a flash of green from the edge of his vision.

“Down!”

He was thrown bodily to the cracked and ruined street beneath him, the body shielding him warm and living as one of the agent’s weapon fired a blast of energy right where he’d been a second before. He’d seen that same weapon reduce one of the raging dead to dripping green and screams of agony the dead should not be capable of making.

Before he could shove himself up and respond in kind, the body above him was in motion and the air above him cracking with the snapping-popping-roar of a gun of a much higher power than even what he had. The fucker in white that had shot at him dissolved into a mist of red viscera, body seizing and shuttering in the briefest moment it had before it was obliterated completely.

“Watch yourself.” He looked up - and up - and wondered at the lovely, fierce face he found staring down at him. “Even without shooting at them you’re Liminal enough to trip their sensors.”

She was tall enough to be an amazon, six inches in height on him at least. Body strong beneath the pitch black armor she work - as deep and dark as the depths of space, etched with starlight, a familiar crest upon her chest in the dizzying burst of a supernova - she held herself with confidence. Strands of hair the color of a warning sunrise escaped out from beneath the helm she wore, bright against her pale skin, warming the glass-sharp teal eyes that had pinned him in place.

The hand not holding the gun she’d just used to delete the asshole that had just tried to shoot him - a strange, impossible thing that made him taste lightning at the back of his throat to look at it - stretched out to help him up.

He accepted it.

Something pulsed to life in his chest. A piece forgotten where it’d been left behind, half buried in grave dirt and broken pieces of a casket he’d clawed his way out of. It burned like a hot coal in his chest, froze him with the same aching cold of a blizzard, crackled his nerves to life with lightning even as his brain popped and fried with the same sizzling energy.

On his feet, hair on end and body and Core pulsing with the need to fight, to rend and tear and scream for all done to him, his people, his home, he met the eyes of the woman before him. Her cool gaze softened, just a moment, just a second as she seemed to realize what had happened. Her hand, lighter than the armor she wore should allow it to be, tightened on his just a moment, mouth tilting from determined frown to soft understanding.

Gotham had always been a place for ghosts.

Jason had long accepted that he was one of them.

---

Part Three

[inkandarsenic]

My new favorite HC is that the Infinite Realms is Faerie. Danny died and is brought back by the magic of Faerie, making him more half Fae than he is half ghost. He’s been raised by the Fentons, though, who believe that Faerie is the Ghost Zone and that they’re ghost hunters, and so Danny, Sam and Tucker all just assume that he’s half ghost.

The Infinite Realms, however, are in fact infinite, and most of the ghosts Danny fights are in fact the spirits of humans who died in a place where the barrier between worlds was exceptionally thin, like ley line intersections or natural portals. They don’t realize that Danny isn’t actually half ghost because halfas are so rare. When Danny defeats Pariah Dark, he becomes King of the Infinite Realms (King of Faerie) after which his Fae qualities begin bleeding into his human half too. (Liminal Sam, Tucker and Jazz meaning they also start having Fae qualities? Team Phantom making everyone just slightly uncomfortable because they’re just a little too inhuman. Like uncanny valley vibes, they’re all just a bit off, but they’re just vibing completely oblivious to it. Ellie is like Puck from midsummer nights dream. Team Phantom eventually all becoming more Faerie than human through exposure and connection to Danny.)

If we go DPxDC on this, the liminal Batfam being just slightly off the way Sam Tucker and Jazz are, something people chalk up to them being bats, but Jason coming back more like Danny, a little more unsettling than the others.

The Speedforce being another corner of the Infinite Realms, and the Flash Family sometimes smile just a bit too wide, sometimes laugh just a bit too brightly, sometimes when people are around them as they run, they get the inexplicable urge to join in and never stop. (Flash Family being like the Wild Hunt or like the dancing until you die thing.)

The first time Team Phantom meets the Justice League + Constantine, everything in Constantine is screaming to stay as far away as possible from them, but the Flashes and Bats just completely disregard his warnings. The Kents and Diana also ignoring him because their nonhuman physiology means they don’t have that instinct to run. Damian thinks being around Team Phantom feels like being around the League.

[minty364]

DPXDC Prompt #69

Jason wasn’t sure how to feel about his current predicament. The glowing green dog was cute and all but he wasn’t sure where exactly it came from how it kept getting into his apartment and why he seemed to be able to find Jason whenever he wanted. One day the dog appeared whimpering and frantic as it pulled on Jason’s sleeve. Suddenly the dog grows in size and grabs Jason and drags him along,

Suddenly he’s outside a highly guarded facility while the dog seems to push him towards the facility whimpering slightly now in his puppy form. Jason calls for backup with Nightwing and Red Robin and the 3 raid the facility. They weren’t prepared to find the kid with white hair green glowing eyes and a weird collar that seemed like it was suppressing whatever was going on with the glowing kid.

Danny wasn’t having a fun time, the collar the GIW used kept him in his ghost form. He hadn’t heard his own heartbeat in months stuck in the facility and it was starting to worry he’d never hear it again. He noticed himself shrinking slightly after the first month they must have done something to mess with his biology or if it was the lack of food they wouldn’t waste on a pathetic ghost like him. He was just tired and wanted to not be strapped to a table and experimented on.

[turnipstewdios]

Half-Lives

Something is wrong with Jason Todd.

That's not new.

Someone having answers about why... that might be. Someone maybe being able to help... that definitely was.

Danny just hopes its not to late. -----------------------------------------------

First ever fanfic! Read on Ao3 here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48120073 ----------------------------------------------- Chapter 1/? Danny didn't think he liked Gotham.

Oh, it was easy enough for him to avoid getting mugged, or shot, or involved in whatever chaos was happening on a given night. Invisibility was a great way to stay out of trouble, so long as he was careful. Nothing like walking around a corner and literally disappearing to lose a tail. He tried not to use it too much though. Tried to make sure he didn't blip out of existence on camera or in front of witnesses, or do anything else that might get the wrong sort of attention. So the ever present threat of crime was stressful, in a nagging background noise sort of way, but he could live with it. Or, well. Not Live with it. 

Half-way live with it. But the weather in Gotham was horrible. It rained. A lot. Or drizzled. Or it was foggy. He’d thought that maybe the weather wouldn’t be so gloomy in the middle of Summer, but it was. Even worse. It was gloomy and hot. Heat wave or no heat wave, the city was way too warm for a place with this much cloud cover. All the rain and the mist was just making things unbearably humid. Even days when the clouds had cleared out for a bit, the smog was still there. Hanging around like a stuffy blanket, smothering the city. Choking out the sky. It was hard to see the stars in Gotham. Danny wished he could just fly up over the city, out of the fog and the haze. Just to hang in the clear air and stargaze. Lose himself in the star speckled universe and forget things for a while. But he couldn’t. That would be stupid. As much as he wanted to. As much as he felt like he needed to. 

He needed to stay low profile. Use his powers sparingly. Carefully. Gotham had quite a lot of natural ectoplasm. Not anywhere near as much as Amity, but… well. Amity. It was enough to hide his ecto-signature, so long as he didn't go overboard. A bit of invisibility or intangibility was fine. Stuff like that didn't use enough power to show up on ghost hunting equipment at anything but point blank range, and if someone got that close he was in trouble anyway. In theory, flying didn't use much power either, but he couldn’t risk it. Not above building height anyway. Who knew what kind of crazy radar or lidar or whatever was scanning Gotham’s airspace. Batman seemed paranoid like that.

 So he was stuck at ground level. Which, at the moment, meant lying in bed in his stuffy, dingy apartment, with his shirt sticking to his skin, and trying to figure out how to get a job. Thank God or the ancients or whoever was listening for Sam and Tuck. Without them, he wouldn’t be able to do that either. Wouldn’t be able to lay here on his cheap mattress and think about the awful weather, and the gloom, and how much he wanted to go flying. The apartment, and what little spending money he had at the moment, was from Sam. She’d apparently been setting aside money for years, building up an emergency fund in case something happened. She’d paid for the little apartment for a few months in advance, so he had some time to figure out what he was going to do next. The funds were going to run out eventually though, and he needed a way to make money on his own. Fortunately, he had ID, courtesy of Tucker. Very good, very fake ID, that absolutely did not say he was Danny Fenton from amity park. ID with just enough of a background and personal history attached to it to get him an apartment, and hopefully pass muster for a job interview. He also had a phone! A phone he could use to look for a job, and order food, and navigate through the labyrinth that was Gotham city without getting hopelessly lost. A phone that was subscribed to BATWATCH and the Gotham Emergency Alert System, so he could stay as far out of the way of the local vigilantes and their rogues as possible. A phone he didn't dare contact Sam or Tucker or Jazz with, in case someone was watching to see if he tried. He didn't know what he’d do without them.

  Without them, he probably wouldn’t have made it out of Amity Park at all. He didn't want to think about that. The weather wasn’t the only off putting thing about the city either. Something kept almost, but not quite triggering his ghost sense. Whatever it was, it was weak. Very weak. Barely even a buzz above the background noise of the city’s own ectoplasm. But whatever it was felt… wrong. Wrong in a subtle, crawling sort of way. 

He didn't want to think about that either. 

So. A job. He didn't qualify for a whole lot. Couldn’t go for anything fancy, or anything that would look too far into his background. Which meant he was probably stuck with manual labor, food service, or retail. Or… well. Crime. This was Gotham. But he wanted to avoid that unless he got really, really desperate. Manual labor was probably out. He was more than strong enough in theory, but unfortunately he looked like a twig. Most people would probably take one look at him and laugh him off. And if the skinny twink started lifting things like he had super strength, it would get him labeled as a meta at the very least. Or worse. He’d made a list of stores and restaurants near his apartment to look into. A few of them were hiring, but he wasn’t sure being a cashier or shelf stocker was such a good idea. The idea of spending his entire work day under a camera made him nervous. Cameras tended to glitch out around him. It would be fine for a few minutes at a time as long as he was in human form, but the longer he stayed in the frame the worse the system would bug out. Somebody would notice that they were only glitching around him eventually, especially if they kept having the same problem even when they were replaced. And if someone was looking for the distinctive kind of anomalies that ghosts tended to produce on film, he may as well just paint a target on his back. 

And someone was looking.

So. He needed a job that would keep him off camera as much as possible, that wouldn’t require lifting things he shouldn’t be able to, that didn't require any special skills or degrees, and that wouldn’t do too thorough of a background check. And that was legal. Hopefully. He was thinking of trying to do delivery. It had its own problems. For one thing, he didn't have a car. Or a bike. The bike he could get, he had enough money for that. But Gothem wasn’t the most cyclist friendly of places even if he could avoid getting it stolen. He could get around on his own fine, even without using his powers much. If he was willing to run rooftops, he could probably manage just as well if not better than any car could in the city traffic. But he didn't think that would go over well in a job interview. And there were other people running roofs in Gotham. People he’d really prefer to avoid. He hadn’t been able to think of much else he could do though. It was frustrating.

  He wanted to fly. He couldn’t risk it.

  Danny groaned. It was way too hot to be thinking about this tonight. He wanted to just roll over in bed and sleep, and leave worrying about the future for the morning or whenever he woke up, but it was too hot for that too. He had showered before bed, but he already felt sticky and unpleasant in the humid, slightly musty air of his tiny apartment. So he was left tossing and turning around trying to get comfortable on the crappy mattress, and trying NOT to think about why he had to be here at all. Which wasn’t working. He needed something to do. Lying here trying to sleep wasn’t doing him any good. It was just too warm.  

He needed a fan.

 He probably should have gotten one already to be honest. Danny just hadn't thought about it when he’d done the bare bones shopping for stuff to put in his apartment a few days ago. He did have money left over, and it’s not like it would be expensive, he could get one. Maybe there was somewhere close by that was open late enough to visit. Getting out of the apartment might clear his head, and it wasn’t like he had something better to do. He pulled out his phone. A quick google search showed a 24h CVS relatively close by. It would take him a while to get there on foot though. The mattress made a testy sound as Danny pulled himself off the floor, and then stood up and walked to the window. The low clouds outside were stained a muddy orange color by the city lights, but it wasn’t raining. The forecast had said it wouldn’t, but he wasn’t sure he trusted the weather report here yet. He looked up at the roof of the building next door. He hadn’t actually tested his theory about being able to move around faster above street level. He should probably give it a try to see if his delivery idea would even work. Checking BATWATCH showed no vigilante sightings so far, and there hadn’t been any emergency alerts tonight. He’d probably be fine going out roof running for a bit. He went to get his shoes.

_______________________________________

Patrol had been quiet. Oddly so. Jason didn’t like quiet. Quiet should be good. Quiet meant things were calm for once. Meant Red Hood didn't have to start breaking kneecaps to remind people that his turf was supposed to stay quiet. Crime alley was never what anyone would call peaceful, and it never stayed calm for long, but tonight had been unusually violence free. It made something in him itch. He wanted to think it was just the heat wave. It had hardly seemed to cool down at all the last few nights. The whole city had slowed down in the muggy heat, including the less upstanding citizens. Nobody wanted to be out dealing with this any more than necessary. But if there was anything that Jason had learned in all the time he’d spent in the city, it was that Gotham didn’t do quiet. He kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. But things were still going easier than usual. Most of the usual suspects were still in Arkham, (for now) the gangs were lying low, (for now) Batman was staying out of Jason's business, (for once) and everyone else was too damn miserable to bother making trouble. Jason hated it. He needed to do something. Needed to fight. Needed to move. Needed something to take his mind off Bruce, and the pit, and how damn quiet everything was being. He felt like that a lot, these days. Like he was trying to crawl out of his own skin. He could probably go on coms. Probably should go on coms. Ask if anyone else had found anything, or if they needed help. He could ask if Tim had made any progress on his case, or if Dick needed any help patrolling Bludhaven. He could just ask if someone wanted to get a burger with him. But somehow, he just... couldn't. Part of him just didn’t want to deal with them tonight. Not when he was already frustrated and cranky, and the pit was a whisper away from rousing. Not when they knew he was frustrated, and would be watching him from the corner of their eye the whole night, waiting for it to happen.

He didn’t think he could deal with that right now. Not with the way things had been going.

They probably didn’t have anything more interesting to do tonight than he did anyway. He did want that burger though. He had barely eaten before going out on his rounds, and that had been a while ago. And his gear was uncomfortably warm. He wanted a shower. Somewhat reluctantly, he started heading back towards his closest safehouse. No point in staying out just to be miserable. He might as well change into civies and go get something to eat. Jason grappled through the alley behind the place, dropped down onto the fire escape, and crawled in the window. He made sure to re-arm the traps and alarms behind him before moving deeper into the room though. He still felt on edge, and he wasn’t about to be careless, no matter how quiet it seemed.

 Talking the damn helmet off felt wonderful. Peeling off his gear and climbing into a cold shower felt even better. He stood there for a while, letting the water cool him off, and tried not to think about anything in particular. It didn't work all that well. 

Eventually, he managed to shut off the water, and dragged himself out of the shower to grab some fresh clothes. He did feel better now that he was clean and somewhat cool, but he still felt restless. He needed a distraction. And that burger. Jason sat down on the lumpy couch, and started lacing up his boots. It might be nice to go for a ride. Something icy cold ran up his spine. One of his alarms beeped. There was someone on the roof. 

That wasn’t necessarily concerning. Lots of people could be found on the roofs in Gotham. Especially in the Bowery and Crime Alley. They were often safer than the streets, and plenty of folks used them to get around, especially the kids. And this building was almost empty, except for him. It was unlikely someone was attempting to break in. There were other reasons someone might be up there though. His building was higher than most in the area. 

There had been... problems, before. 

He checked his cameras. There was a young, scrawny looking guy with black hair standing near the edge of the roof, overlooking the street. Not encouraging.

Jason shivered again, feeling cold for a moment, in spite of the hot night air

He got up and headed for the stairs. _______________________________________ Running across the roofs felt nice. Nicer than slowly stewing in his room anyway. It felt nice enough that after a while, Danny had kind of stopped keeping track of where he was. He thought he was still going in the general direction of the CVS, but he wasn't sure exactly where he was relative to it. That was fine. He didn’t mind exploring, and the air out here was a bit fresher and cooler than it had been inside. He wanted to wander for a while. He’d never actually done this kind of free-running before. Amity park hadn’t been big or dense enough for it. It was kind of neat. He’d been trying to see how much he could do without using any of his powers to help. So far, it was hard enough that he had worked up a light sweat, and complicated enough to keep his mind off other things. He paused for a bit to catch his breath on a building that stuck up a few stories above the surrounding roofs. It had a view down one of the busier streets in the area, and he took a minute to look out over the city. 

There were so many lights here. Way, way more than there had been back home. Streetlights and traffic lights and lights from the buildings. Cars and businesses and apartments, and the looming constellations of the towers downtown. Yet somehow, the city still felt darker than it should have. Gloom and shadows clinging to the space between lights like it was trying to snuff them out. It was pretty. In a slightly ominous, chilling kind of way. He shivered a bit. It almost looked like stars. “You ok up here buddy?”

Danny almost jumped out of his skin. It took a moment of concentration to make sure he actually came back down from said jump, instead of floating off the roof, and a moment longer to realize the embarrassingly high pitched yelping noise that he'd just heard had come from him. “Woah woah sorry!! I didn't mean to scare you!” Said the very concerned sounding man on the roof behind him. The man who had just snuck up on him. On Danny. The half ghost with super hearing. How the hell “Good God warn a guy! You scared the life outta me!” Danny sucked in a deep breath as he turned to look back across the roof, and oh dear lord he’s built like a tank pleasedontthrowmeoffthebuilding No one that big should be that sneaky. It went against several laws of nature. And possibly physics. The dude looked like he might be taller than Da- than Jack Fenton, and almost as buff. And kinda hot. And surprisingly contrite looking. “Sorry.” The guy winced a little, raising his hands slightly. “Bad habit. I wasn’t trying to sneak up on you.” He shuffled his feet a bit while Danny tried to get his heart rate back down to normal levels, (well, normal for him) and Danny caught him glancing down at something behind him. “What are you doing up here man?” “Ah, sorry! I can leave! I didn't mean to trespass or anything I was just… I needed to get out of my apartment and it was cooler out here and it seemed safer up here than down on the streets” And Danny was rambling. Great. He was probably trespassing on this dude’s roof, he sounded like a lunatic, and he was pretty sure that was a gun hiding under his shirt. “I wasn’t trying to cause any trouble!” Tank-Man waved him off. “Hey no, no it’s ok. Lots of people use the roofs in the alley. It’s more common than you’d think.” (The Alley. Danny had wandered into Crime Alley. he was on a roof with an armed guy in Crime Alley.) He didn't really look like he was gonna shoot him though. In fact he looked very concerned. “So you’re just out for some air? No other reason?” And he kept glancing behind Danny, and… oh. Yeah. He was standing on the edge of the roof, on the tallest building in the area. Shit. “Oh, no. Nothing, nothing’s wrong. Well, I mean there’s plenty wrong but nothing like…” he should just step away from the edge. Yeah. “Sorry. Wasn’t thinking about how that looked.”  He took a few steps towards the middle of the roof. “I just, needed to get out and stop thinking about stuff for a while.” Tank-guy relaxed a bit, and Danny did too. “Yeah, I hear ya. Couldn’t sleep?” “Too hot. No AC and I don’t have a fan yet.” “Oof, yeah. Rough.” He looked Danny over for a second. “You new in the area? You don’t sound like you’re from Gotham.” Danny answered without thinking about it to hard. He had a tuft of bright white hair. Oddly familiar white hair. “Yeah, just moved in a few days ago.” “Ah, bad timing then. Heat’s been brutal this week.” He looked sympathetic. “It’s not normally this bad” Oh shoot, he'd been starring. “Well, that’s nice to hear.” Danny looked back out over the city, hoping that he wasn’t coming across as awkward as he felt. There was a brief pause. Mission failed. Way to go Danny. “Where’ you from?” Shit. That was not on Danny’s list of safe small talk. “Uh, I moved from out of state. Nowhere important.” Please don’t ask. No luck. The guy looked even more curious now. “Why’d you move to Gotham ?”“I, uh…” Danny faltered. “It… seemed like a change of pace.” He got an incredulous look and a chuckle for that. “Change of pace.” he almost looked impressed. “Yeah that’s a change all right.” Yeah Danny probably deserved that. “I just… I needed to get away from… stuff back home.” A lot of stuff back home. Stuff he’d been trying not to think about. “I was looking for a fresh start.” The roof went quiet for a moment. When Danny glanced back over at the guy, he found him watching him. He had pretty eyes. For a moment, he looked uncomfortably analytical, like he was figuring Danny out. Then he just looked kind of sad. “Yeah. I guess it’s good for that.” Danny’s stomach growled. Loudly. The guy’s eyebrows went up, and Danny felt like he might have died of embarrassment if it hadn't already been too late for that. 

“Sorry.” He was apologizing a lot, wasn’t he? “I forgot dinner.” He had technically forgotten lunch too. And breakfast. He didn't actually need to eat as often as most people, and it was easy to ignore hunger for a while when he was busy. It tended to sneak up on him.

There had been other things on his mind for the last few days. 

… “You want a burger?” “Uh” Very articulate Danny. “What?” “A burger. I missed dinner too. There’s a place down the street.” Ok wait. Time out. Going somewhere with the hot dude who had snuck up on him on a roof was not in the plan tonight. He was hungry though. Danny hesitated. His stomach growled again. Roof Guy looked amused. Danny let out a breath. Might as well just roll with it. “Sure. Why not.” Took another breath, and held out a hand. “My name’s Danny, by the way” Roof guy smiled, and shook it. “Jason.” _______________________________________ Jason quietly opened the access door to the roof, and stepped out into the muggy night air. 

The possible intruder was standing on the edge nearest the street, looking concerningly melancholy. He did a quick threat assessment. Small. He had a surprising amount of muscle for looking so thin, but probably not physically a match for Jason in a fight. No weapons he could see. Looked about Jason’s age, with short, unruly black hair. Dressed in worn jeans and a NASA t-shirt that looked like it had seen better days. Looked like he’d seen better days in general. Definitely didn't look like a burglar. “You ok up here buddy?”

And the guy on the roof very nearly fell off the roof, and Jason flinched and tensed to lunge forward and catch him. “Woah woah sorry!! I didn't mean to scare you!” He must be more off his game tonight than he thought! He should know better than to startle somebody like that. Bruce had taught them better He had been trained to make noise around civilians, especially ones who were standing on the edge of roofs, Jason!!! “Good God warn a guy! You scared the life outta me!” The man, who had fortunately not fallen off the roof, pulled in a deep breath and turned to look nervously at Jason. Up close, he looked even scrawnier. Like a light breeze could pick him up and blow him away. He also looked like he hadn't slept in a week. It wasn’t quite Tim levels of bad, but there were still dark circles under his eyes.

He was also eyeing Jason like he was afraid he was gonna tackle him. Not an unreasonable assumption in Crime Alley.“Sorry.” Jason said. He raised his hands a bit and tried to look relatively non-threatening. “Bad habit. I wasn’t trying to sneak up on you.” He was still standing way, way too close to the edge of the roof for Jason’s comfort. “Ah, sorry! I can leave!” The stranger started stammering. “I didn't mean to trespass or anything I was just… I needed to get out of my apartment and it was cooler out here and it seemed safer up here than down on the streets. I wasn’t trying to cause any trouble!” “Hey no, no it’s ok. Lots of people use the roofs in the alley. It’s more common than you’d think.” It was. Just not on his roof. Climbing up here from the nearby buildings was a bit out of the way for someone just getting around. “So you’re just out for some air? No other reason?” He didn’t seem like he was here to do something drastic, but he still wanted to get him a bit farther from the edge. He still looked nervous, but the question seemed to confuse him a bit. Then he seemed to realize where Jason had been looking, and he suddenly looked alarmed instead. “Oh, no. Nothing, nothing’s wrong. Well, I mean” He paused a bit, and looked worryingly strained. “There's plenty wrong but nothing like… Sorry. Wasn’t thinking about how that looked.”  He finally took a few hurried steps away from the edge, looking like he was trying to reassure Jason that he wasn’t gonna fall, or jump, off.  “I just, needed to get out and stop thinking about stuff for a while.” And wow, yeah, he looked tired. “Yeah, I hear ya.” Jason could relate. He’d just been looking for a distraction, any distraction, to avoid thinking about his own problems. Looks like he’d found one. “Couldn’t sleep?” Roof man sagged a bit, somehow looking even more miserable. “Too hot. No AC and I don’t have a fan yet.” “Oof, yeah. Rough.” Jason had been slowly melting all day and he had a fan.

He took a moment to look the stranger over. He didn't think he’d ever seen him before, but something about him seemed oddly familiar. Some faint feeling of de'javu. Maybe it was the hair and the eyes, which, yeah. They were blue. Oh boy. He didn’t seem like he was familiar with the area though. There was something about his accent… “You new in the area?” He guessed. “You don’t sound like you’re from Gotham.” “Yeah, just moved in a few days ago.” “Ah, bad timing then. Heat’s been brutal this week. It’s not normally this bad.” And Jason was going on about the weather now, because he was clearly a master of small talk. “Well, that’s nice to hear.” The guy looked away awkwardly. Great. “Where’ you from?” That was a bad question, apparently. He was looking nervous again. “Uh, I moved from out of state.” His feet shuffled on the roof gravel. “Nowhere important.” Sounded like he was a ways from home. Maybe even from a small town. That had to be one hell of a culture shock, moving to any big city, let alone this one. “Why’d you move to Gotham ?”

“I, uh…” He seemed unsure how to answer that. “It… seemed like a change of pace.” “Change of pace.” Gotham? Really? “Yeah that’s a change all right.” 

A wry look crossed the guy’s face at that. But then it shifted again, and he was looking back out over the city. “I just…” He stopped. Gathered himself for a moment. “ I needed to get away from… stuff back home. I was looking for a fresh start.” He sounded so, so tired. A fresh start. Yeah, Gotham could be that, if you were tough enough to survive here. Lots of people who came to Gotham were running from something. “Yeah. I guess it’s good for that.”

He wondered what this kid was running from. God. A scrawny, black haired, blue eyed kid down on his luck, with a mysterious past. He could never let Bruce see him, he'd be adopted on the spot. The stranger’s stomach growled. Jason raised his eyebrows, and the guys ears turned red. He smiled sheepishly, and chuckled. “Sorry. I forgot dinner.” That was… concerning. He didn't look like he should be missing meals. Well. Jason had been hungry. “You want a burger?” “Uh” He looked startled for a second. It was kind of cute “What?” “A burger. I missed dinner too. There’s a place down the street.” His stomach growled a second time, and the ears went even redder. Definitely cute.

Jason watched him debate something for a moment, and then his expression turned wry again. “Sure. Why not.” He turned fully towards Jason, and held out a hand. “My name’s Danny, by the way” He grinned, and shook it “Jason.” Danny’s hand was Ice cold.

[psychologeek]

In a server discussion about Cores (J's core especially) and ghost-powers, I got inspired:

Jason's most important memories and self are related to his tech/fix-up abilities (stilling the bat wheels, hit by a crowbar, etc).

I present to you - Jason's technocore.

...

But that's just about his powers, isn't it?

There's something to say about Jason building his helmet, over and over again. About his symbol being an artifact of protection.

About rebuilding himself, over and over.

About spending hours with magnified glass and burnt fingers, trying to get to the right point. To make it strong as possible.

Something to say about dedicating yourself to a purpose, to a symbol, spending blood, sweat and tears.

A promise: I won't be hurt again

(I won't let them hurt you).

Just think about young J, looking for SOMETHING to do during his training. Something to fill that void, that ache he can't reach. Think about him making his own core from scratch and tears and broken hopes.

(Thrive)

Tldr:

Jason's helmet as his core. Power: Techno.

He's got in improving low-tech gizmos, making things work, even when they seem broken

(Something something about second chances)

[poke-me-with-a-stick]

I just had the wildest thought. So, blob ghosts, right? There are a lot of ways people describe their purpose, from a food source to feeder fish. But what if they are beings made from ectoplasm, that give off ectoplasm. Like, they way we describe Danny giving off ambient ecto, what if they do the same?

But let's not stop there. Combind this with the au where Lazerus pits are like a drug to ghosts. What do we get? That's right, blob ghosts that can get other ghosts high.

Can you just imaging the batfam not hearing from Jason for a few days, assume the worst, and break into his apartment. Only to find an extremely calm and relaxed and maybe blissed-out Red Hood, a giggly black-haired teenager, and a slew of green blobs lazing around the duo.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 174

Despite what people complain and snark about, Bruce does in fact have contingency plans for pretty much everything. And while he doesn’t have an exact contingency for Jason apparently accidentally kidnapping the apparently prince of the Realms- some infinite space where the dead resided according to Zatanna and Constantine, he’ll have an existential crisis about it later thanks- he did have one for his kids accidentally kidnapping someone. 

He just doesn’t think that exact plan will work in this case, seeing as that plan had to do with civilians and not very large kings that could obliterate the entire world with a hand wave, nevermind the fact that they have so many armies. Not to mention what is apparently both the king’s second-in-command and brother. 

Well, if none of his usual contingencies won’t work and Constantine’s attempts at making a deal isn’t working, nor is the other’s attempts to talk the two down, then it’s plan Z time. Seduction it is. 

[bet-on-me-13]

The New Gotham Rogue, Keeper Pt.1

So! When Danny was killed by the Portal, he was tossed into the Realms and the Portal collapsed behind him. All that was left was a small Spiral shaped Crack in Reality hanging in the Air, and a crater where the Portal had originally opened.

His Family and Friends assumed he was vaporized by the malfunctioning Portal and mourned his death, and Danny himself thought he was just Flat Out Killed by the Portal and became a normal Ghost.

Danny was stuck in the Ghost Zone for over a Month, coming to terms with his own Death, before something happened. The Portal Re-opened itself temporarily.

When Danny found it Open, he was Elated! He could finally go back home, explain what had happened to his Parents, maybe even find a way to live in the Human World as a Ghost!

Unfortunately, he wasn't the first one to find the Portal. Lunch Lady had reached it about an Hour before he did, and had begun attacking the students at his old school for changing the Lunch Menu she had concocted in her life.

Danny rushed to stop her, and eventually managed to beat her. Unfortunately, his Parents showed up and started attacking him too. Even after he explained that he was Danny, that he was their Son, they didn't stop. In fact, they got even more aggressive, saying that their son was dead and that he was just another Spook.

In the end, Danny had to run back into the Ghost Zone to escape his parents, dragging Lunch Lady with him.

After that, he decided that he had to become a Guardian of the Portal whenever it randomly Opened, to keep both the Humans and the Ghosts safe.

For over a year, he stopped almost every Ghost that attempted to pass through the Portal, fighting them back or stalling them until the Portal closed again. There were a few incidents where they managed to get passed him, like when Undergrowth mind controlled his old friend Sam, or when Hotep-Ra reawakened Tuckers memories from his pasts lives, but most of the time he had it under control.

Of course not all of them had to get past him, Natural Portals still existed after all, but every time they got to the Human Realm he would find them and drag them back.

Unfortunately, being the one thing standing between the Ghosts and the opportunity to fulfill their Obsessions earned him a lot of resentment.

Everybody he met hated him. He was seen as a Villain in the Zone, the one who prevented everybody from fulfilling their Purpose at every pass.

Danny was not in a good head space about it.

His mind was buckling under the pressure of it all. His duties as the Guardian of the Portal, the hatred the Denizens of the Realms held for him, the lonliness eating away at his Sanity, it was all too much. He felt his psyche cracking ever so slightly every day that passed like this.

It got better for a time in the 2nd year of his Afterlife. He had managed to befriend a few Ghosts, mainly the Leaders of certain Kingdoms who saw the necessity of his action, as well as a few others.

Frostbite, Pandora, and Dorathea were the Pillars upholding his sanity for that period of time. He finally had friends (or at least people who didn't harbor nothing but distain for him). But unfortunately, it couldn't last forever. They had Kingdoms to run, People to Lead, and they couldn't spend all their free time entertaining his selfish whims his need to talk to someone, anyone at all, so he forced himself to stop bothering them so much (they didn't think any of that)

And Guarding the Portal took most of his time as well. His Rouges had started attacking him between it's Openings, hoping to gain control of the Portal while it was inactive so they had first dibs when it did open. Danny was getting run ragged trying to keep them all away.

Eventually, he reached his second Death Day. It didn't really feel like 2 years had passed, in fact it felt like much, much longer than that, but he knew in his Core that it was his 2nd Death Day. Also, whenever he peeked through the Portal, it seemed like 2 years ago passed in the Living World, so he just went with that.

On that day, he discovered something. During a battle with Plasmius, (who was still enraged at him for blowing up his own, stable Portal), he felt something strange. A familiarity that he had never noticed before, which happened when Plasmius briefly turned Human to avoid his attacks.

After the Battle, Danny decided to investigate that feeling. It was a weird sensation, like pressure built up in his Chest that he had never noticed until that moment with Plasmius, the first time he had ever seen him Transform in person.

After focusing on it for a while, Danny felt it getting stronger and stronger until it Burst with a flash of light. And suddenly he was Human again. He was Alive again.

It was another few minutes of testing this ability out before he finally stopped and took it all in. He was a Human. even if he was half Ghost.

He was Human.

He was Alive.

A thought struck him. Did this mean he could go back home? Back to his Family? His friends? Mom and Dad? Jazz? Sam and Tucker?

In an instant he was up and running to the still Open Portal. It hadn't closed since he had beaten Plasmius, as it it felt his desire to return to the Human World.

It actually might have, considering it was a part of him. Clockwork had explained it after the whole, Dan situation. When he had first formed, a piece of his newly formed Core had broken off and become the Core of the Portal instead. It gave him a connection that allowed him to better Guard the Portal, knowing when it was Open or if somebody had used it.

Stopping at the edge of the Opening, Danny thought about all the things he would be able to do again. Hug his Parents, eat Human Food, talk to his friends. Oh God, it had been so long since he had actually talked to another person. None of his Rouges had bothered reciprocating his Quips in almost a year now, so he barely ever had anybody to talk to. Even somebody proclaiming their eternal hatred for him would be better than the endless silence.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped through the Portal with Hope in his Heart.

On the other side, he found un unfamiliar room.

It was much cleaner than his Parents Lab, with all the different Inventions placed perfectly in neat workstations. Multiple work stations. Had his parents hired some neat freak assistants? Why were there so many Work Stations?

Honestly that wasn't even the most eye catching detail he noticed. There was something else, something more noticeable.

It was the fact that everything in the entire Lab was White.

He heard a series of footsteps approaching the Lab, and before he knew it, the room was filled with GIW Agents and Scientists, all pointing their Weapons at him.

He tried to call out to them, to tell them that it was okay, that he was Human. But all that came out was the static sound of Ghost Speak. Why did that happen? He wanted to use Human Language! Why was he only using Ghost Speak? Had he...had be really forgotten how to speak?

Did he really forget the one thing basic for almost every human? How? Sure it had been a while since he spoke it, but were 2 years of not speaking English really enough for him to forget everything?

But, it hadn't been just 2 years, had it? Time moved strangely in the Ghost Zone, and it definitely felt like longer. How long had it actually been? How long had he been Dead?

Stuck in his own mind, he never saw the barage of attacks coming his way.

...

Danny was stuck in that Lab for over 6 months.

He was kept in that same room he was captured in, constantly being cut open and pulled apart before being left overnight to heal himself.

He tried to explain that he was human in any way possible, but without being able to talk it was hard. He tried writing out in his own blood at once point, but they just cut him opened even more after that, trying to figure out how the "Mindless Ghost" had managed to imitate human writing.

They never listened to him screaming in pain. In their eyes it was just a random Ghost trying to trick them into thinking he could Feel.

Every time he screamed in pain, they would berate him. "You can't feel, shut up!" "You aren't human, stop taking that form!" "You are a Ghost! You can't feel scared, get up!" "You are just a mindless blob of Ectoplasm!" "You would kill everybody here if given the chance!" "You aren't Human!" "You aren't real!" "You're just a Monster!"

"You aren't Alive!"

Even through all that Torment, he didn't stop fighting. He knew he was Human, that he was alive. There was nothing that would ever change that. Or so he thought.

Then they brought his Parents in.

They had previously mentioned them, praising them for their technical skills and cheering the fact that they had sold them the Portal, even if it had not turned back in since he came through. Then, they decided to bring them in to study the Ghost who kept imitating their dead son.

When they first walked in, Danny felt a spark of hope. Maybe they would save him, maybe they would see that he was alive, that he was real.

But they didn't. They just kept on with the same experiments as before, yelling the same things, but it hurt so much more coming from them.

He didn't last long under their study. He broke, and he didn't think he would ever put himself back together again.

...

It was at the 6 Month Mark that something new happened. As it turns out neither his, nor the Portal's absense had gone unnoticed in the Zone.

In his time trapped in that Lab, he had used his connection to the Portal to keep it from opening, using every ounce of his Willpower to force it to stay closed, no matter how much it struggled under his control.

When he was finally Broken by his Parents, he lost his grip on the Portal, and that night it opened for the first time in Months.

The first one to find him was, coincidentally, the Lunch Lady. The first ever Ghost he guarded the Portal from.

What she saw when she floated into that Room would forever Scar her memories. Danny in his Ghost Form laying strapped to an Operation Table, his organs out in the Air, his ribs spread out like an Eagle. At the center of his Chest sat his Core, exposed for the whole world to see, showing off all the damage it had received since the Scientists first found it all those months ago.

He looked up at her, and his eyes told her all she needed to know. Run.

She fled back through the Portal, horror stricken across her face. Danny managed to shut it down again after that.

Apparently news of what she had seen seen had spread around the Realms. Even when the Portal was active, nobody came through. The few times anybody did poke their head through, they saw him and left screaming in Terror.

Danny knew they would never save him. He was their Enemy, the Villain in their story, they would never risk themselves trying to help him.

And honestly he didn't know if he wanted to he helped. This was all his Fault. He was the one to open the Portal, he was the one who Guarded it for all that time, he was the one who got himself into this mess.

One time, he felt the Familiar Aura of Pandora approaching the Portal, and forced it closed before she could reach it. Her head managed to get through for a moment, but when she looked at him with those pleading eyes, begging to let her help him, he closed them as tight as he could and shut the Portal Closed, pushing her Back into the Realms.

She was trying to save him. But she didn't deserve to get hurt trying to help a waste of space like him.

He needed to get the Portal away from the Lab. It was only a matter of time before he lost any ability to close the Portal at all, before the Scientists managed to find a way to keep it open and invade the Realms. He needed to get it away from them, if only to protect the Ghosts on the other side.

He needed to do his Job, to guard the Portal. From either Side.

...

It took another month of conserving his strength before he managed to break out of his Shackles. It took a bit if trial and error, but eventually he found a way to draw the Portal into himself to transport it away.

It was technically a piece of his Core after all, he just had to slot it back into Place.

After that, he had to find a way out of the Lab. The Scientist he found wandering outside his room didn't have any Overshadowing Protection at the time, so he managed to get halfway to the Exits before the alarms sounded.

Then it was a mad dash of fighting off Guards and dodging the Security System to get to the Door. He dropped the Body when he reached the Doors.

It didn't get any easier after escaping the Building, but after several hours of chasing he eventually lost them.

He kept running though. He couldn't keep the Portal within him forever, and he needed a safe place to let it out. Hours of running eventually led him to somewhere that might work.

Gotham City.

...

Cass wasn't entirely sure that she was making the right call in this, but Croc's Body Language seemed to suggest that he was being genuine in his intentions, so she kept on following him.

In the past few Months, there had been a string of incidents where Government Agents in White Suits had incited fights and shootouts while "investigating" a supposed escaped Superpowered Prisoner. They had justified themselves by saying that the civilians they were attacking were actually Extra Dimensional Monsters known as Ecto-Entities, also known as Ghosts.

Of course a simple blood test always disproved them, but they were relentless in their "investigation". She used air quotes because they were some of the most Incompetent and Dimwitted morons the team had ever encountered, which was saying something. The only semi-competent ones where the pair of Scientists who commanded them, but even they were borderline insane, constantly ranting about how Evil Ghosts were and how they wanted to pull them apart molecule by molecule.

Unfortunately, there was nothing her Dad could do about them. They were a legitimate Government Agency, no matter how incompetent, and they hadn't been lucky enough to actually do any damage in their multitude of fights, so her Dad couldn't really force them to leave.

He had however started looking into the missing Ghost Prisoner they were chasing. If he could just find it, they could get the GIW out of the City and be done with them.

Her Dad and Tim's investigation had led him to a few short reports from a couple of months ago, describing a Humanoid figure covering in a glowing green liquid stalking the streets one night before disappearing all of a sudden. There wasn't much to work with, but the Team kept on the investigation in the hopes that they could get rid of the GIW sooner rather than later.

Unfortunately Cass, Damian, and Jason were exempt from the investigation, because for whatever reason whenever they came anywhere near the GIW, they started attacking them.

They had argued that they could take care of themselves, but Bruce had been adamant that they stay out of it. Damian had eventually relented, trusting the orders of his Father. Jason had flat out refused, but said that he would stay out of it just as long as the GIW stayed out of Crime Alley.

Cass however? She didn't want to be left out! She had more than proven that she could take care of herself, but her Dad was still too paranoid to even let her out of the House. She decided that she would undergo her own Investigation, and prove to her Dad that he shouldn't have ousted her from the Case like that.

She decided to take a different approach to the Investigation. Her Family was still combing through reports from the previous few months to see if there were any more mentions of the Figure, but she thought of something else.

After looking at the randomly reported sightings of the Entity that her family had collected, she noticed something. They were all set near Farners Markets, Grocery Stores, Restaurants.

The Entity was looking for Food.

She didn't think extra-dimensional Entities would be eating the same food as other Humans, but then again these things are supposedly impressions of Human Emotion that remain after death. Maybe it held onto the same Habits?

She decided to follow that potential lead.

Tracking stolen food across Gotham was tricky, because so many people were stealing food to survive. But eventually she got down a Pattern. It would strike at nighttime, stealing only Canned Food, and the Camera's would be covered in static for his duration in the store. Curiously, it would also take a few containers of Fudge whenever the store had it.

It was very steady for a while, and eventually she found that her list of locations matched up to the sightings the others had gathered had from the past few months.

On the day she was about to reveal the results of her investigation to her Dad, something changed.

The GIW had a major shootout, where they reported that they had found and injured the Prisoner, but it had Escaped.

The reports of stolen food matching it's M.O. stopped coming in after that. She thought that her Lead had been lost, and was mentally cursing the GIW in her head for days, before an offhand comment from one of her brother's caught her attention.

"Croc was seen stealing Canned Food recently. Didn't think he ate anything but Meat, but I guess he got a taste for Chocolate Fudge."

So, she investigated the Lead and found that Croc had taken up stealing the same type of food as the Entity did.

Quickly, she looked up the maps of every store that had been hit, as well as the Sewer Systems, and looked at them side by side. They matched up. At every single location where the Entity had stolen it's food, there was a Major Sewer Line.

And each of those Sewer Lines were in Killer Croc's territory. Killer Croc was harboring the Entity, he was feeding it.

She had solved it! The Ghost Entity was living in the Sewers!

She almost got up and ran to tell her father the news right then and there, but she paused. There were still unanswered questions, questions she wanted to figure out before telling her Dad.

Why was Croc feeding the Entity?

What connection did they have?

Why was the Entity in the City in the first place if the GIW was there as well, looking for it?

She needed all the answers before presenting it to her dad. She wanted to cover all of her Bases if she was going to admit that she went against her Dad's orders, not wanting to anger him. (She knew he wouldn't be mad at her, but old fears die hard.)

It took a while to find a way to sneak out of the House, but she managed it eventually. She roped Alfred into covering for her, saying she just needed some fresh air after being stuck in the house for almost a Month. Which was actually true.

After that it was just a matter of scoping out the spot where she had predicted Croc would be first, and waited.

It took a few tries to get the right location, but eventually she managed to find him. Croc was wary of her at first, and when she mentioned the food matching the MO of somebody else she was tracking, he flipped out!

He wouldn't let her get a word in, not that he was speaking very much, but still.

He calmed down after a few minutes of her not fighting back. She convinced him that she just wanted to talk to the one she was Tracking, whoever he was, so she could ask them for help in getting the GIW out of the City. Which was technically the truth.

After a bit more convincing, he caved and told her to follow him, before descending into the Sewers.

She was thankful that Croc was one of the more reasonable of the Rouges, and that she had a good enough reputation that he managed to trust her.

So here she was, following Croc through his Territory under Gotham, about to meet this Ghost Entity she had been tracking for over a Month now.

After a long walk, they emerged into a relatively large Room. It seemed to be an abandoned Sewer Reservoir, one of those large Rooms you see on TV that's like a giant Whirpool that characters are always getting sucked into (she hadn't had much to do while stuck in the house okay? She had been watching a lot of TV recently), except it was completely Dry.

There were a few places around that were obviously set up like different rooms in a house. A bedroom, a kitchen, an old couch and a box TV set up in front of it, and so on. This seemed to be one of Crocs more lived-in homes, which spoke to the trust he was placing in her not revealing this place to the other Bats. She felt slightly honored at that thought.

He led her to a section of the Base slightly off to the side, a room that wasn't entirely visible from the Enterance.

He stopped her at the door and called into it. "Hey Keeper, there's someone here to see you."

Without waiting for a reply, he turned around and ushered her into the Room.

It looked like a typical Bedroom, an old wardrobe was set off to the side, one of the door having fallen off. Inside there weren't that many items, just a few shirts and some pants. Closer to the center of the room, there was a Table covered with various empty cans and utensils. On three walls there were various posters and drawing featuring stars and constellations, seemingly placed haphazardly around the room with no real pattern. Most importantly, there was a Bed in the Corner.

And on that bed, was the Entity she had been tracking. And he was just a Kid.

He looked just like a normal teenager, about the same age as her, but he had White Hair and Green Eyes. He was sitting in an upright position, probably having sat up to get a better look at his visitor, and she could see the mess of bandages on his body.

The freshest ones were obviously for the wounds that had gotten him put on bed rest, a strip of clean bandages covering his stomach, with a bulge above his lower left stomach showing where he had gotten shot by the GIW.

But the rest of them, the older ones, they covered his entire main body. The bandages where old and slightly dirty, but it was obvious they had been placed in a hurry.

She was so busy studying his wounds that she almost missed Croc introducing her.

"Orphan, this is Keeper. Keeper, this is Orphan." He told the boy, "She says she wants to help get rid of the GIW."

The boy merely glanced at her before directing his gaze to Croc. A static-like sound seemed to Emit from his form, like a Trill, but against all logic she seemed to understand what it meant.

Discontent. Wariness.

Croc seemed to understand it too, and said, "Keeper, she can help get rid of the GIW. Don't you want them gone?"

Another Static Trill. Uninterest. Indifferent. Resigned.

"You can't just give up like that! If you won't fight back for yourself, at least fight back for the sake of protecting the P-", he was cut off by a wave of Static.

Anger. Displeasure. Stop.

Croc stuttered a bit. "I-sorry Keeper, I didn't mean to- I-" He was cut off again.

Displeasure. Leave.

They got the hint. Leaving the room, and walking to the exit.

Cass made one final glance behind her, meeting his eyes through the open doorway. They were cold and lifeless voids, as if he had cut himself off from all emotion.

"Sorry 'bout this Orphan. Keeper needs help, but he doesn't think he deserves it." He told her as they walked back to the surface. "He's not in a good head space right now, hasn't been since me n' Grundy found him wandering the Sewers all those months ago."

She made a questioning sound, and he picked up her meaning quickly. "Grundy is out finding more space themed stuff for his Room. Said somethin' about needing to fill an Obsession, but can't really explain it more than that."

She nodded in understanding as they reached the Sewer Drain where they had first decended into his Territory. She climbed out, but gave a final goodbye to Croc as she left.

She pointed at herself, and said, "I. Come. Back. Soon."

He gave her a slight Nod, and she leaped away.

By the time she got back to her Room in the Manor, her mind was a raving.

She was dumbfounded. Cass had originally tracked him down to make sure her theory was right before reporting it to her Dad, so that the GIW would take him before leaving and not coming back. She was dead set on getting the GIW out of the City by turning whatever entity they were chasing in.

But every intention of reporting him had left her the moment she had seem him in person. He was just a kid, a teenager like her. He was so hurt he couldn't get out of his Bed, his body was covered in bandages from presumably previous encounters with the GIW, and he was resigned to his fate.

He didn't care if he lived or died. He was just fine with letting the GIW capture him and injure him again, but there was something he was protecting that made him keep going on.

She wanted to help him.

But it wasn't because she pitied him. It was because Keeper had such a familair expression on his face when she left. One she had seen in the mirror a thousand times before her Dad had taken her in. And she swore she wouldn't let another kid keep that same expression as long as she could help it.

But there was also something else. When he was talking to Croc, and Croc mentioned that she wanted to help get rid of the GIW, she saw something flicker in his eyes. Just for a moment.

And she might be wrong, but she thought she saw a flicker of Hope.

[kobol1]

Here's some cute Danny is Jazz's clone Au fluffiness. And if you want you can read this hc for some context. :D

It's the first mother's day since Jazz and Jason gained full custody of Danny and Ellie and Danny continues with his tradition of giving Jazz a mother's day card.

"Hey Jazz, happy mothers day! Here's your card because you're my MOM, uh I mean you're such a MOM!" Danny laughed nervously handing Jazz her card. His cheeks flushed green in embarrassment at his slip-up.

Jazz pulls her little brother into a bone-crushing hug. "Awwww Danny thank you."

"Uh um sorry about calling you mom, ah it's just my core recognizes your ecto-signature as a mother figure I guess." Danny mumbles in embarrassment to Jazz's shoulder.

"Oh sweetheart, of course, it does your made from me, you're my clone, I practically raised you and it probably doesn't help that I have full custody of you now and you don't have to say sorry." Jazz purrs happily as she shifts into her ghost half.

Danny follows suit and shifts into Phantom. Jazz pulls him up into the air with her laying on her back and Danny tucked against her side with his head laying over the spot where her core is, listening to her happy purrs.

Danny sighs and also lets out his happy purrs. "Uh, Jazz would it be okay if I called you mom?" "I mean uh when we are in our ghost halves, uh it just feels right in my core." Danny nervously rambles on.

Jazz lets out a happy chirp, her core filling with joy at Danny's question. "Yes of course you can call me mom Danny." Jazz answers carding her claws through his hair.

Danny relaxes with his eyes half closed. "It's just ever since you first transformed into your ghost half, I've had this instinct or feeling in my core and I didn't know what it was. And when we first learned that I was cloned from you it just clicked." Danny mumbles.

"Same here sweetheart. It just clicked together, it was like my core knew all along," Jazz replied.

Jazz starts humming a song that she would hum to Danny when he was younger. She looks down at him smiling.

Then there was the sound of a camera going off. Jazz and Danny both startle at the sound. Jason and Ellie are standing in the doorway to the living room. "Oops I thought I had turned off the shudder sound on my phone." Jason says.

Ellie goes to place the food they had left to go pick up on the dining room table. "Okay gramps you must be getting forgetful in your old age," Ellie says laughing at Jason.

"Gramps? Hey I'm not that old!" Jason replied

Ellie just sticks out her tongue at him.

Jazz and Danny both roll their eyes at them and float down to the table to join the two of them. Jazz couldn't have asked for a better mother's day then the one she was having right now.

Masterlist here for more of my writings.

[duskyashe]

NaNoWriMo Day #20

[masterlist] [part one]

=============‹«⟨··•|^^^|•··⟩»›=============

There wasn't outright panic. The League was too good for that, her father demanded nothing less. There were, however, a lot more frantic runners and assassins on guard. Somehow, someone had gotten through all their defenses, all their traps and trained sentries and her, and kidnapped the Demon Head's heir from right under their noses. And they had gotten away. No one even had any clue when the kidnapping had even happened; they hadn't discovered anything was wrong until breakfast, when Damian had failed to show after being summoned.

Talia Al Ghul stood in the eye of the deceptively calm storm that was the League of Assassins. One wrong move, one wrong breath, and everything she had worked for, everything she was, was liable to go up in flames. Her son was missing, and no one knew how it had happened. If she wasn't terrified for her own life, she'd have taken her fury at the sentries incompetence out on them already. It was their duty—

"Milady! The guest quarters are empty!"

No. He wouldn't. But he did, didn't he.

"Gather the troops, we're headed to Gotham," Talia snarled, stalking out of the chamber, barely hanging onto her temper by her fingertips.

I pray you're ready, beloved. Your son has declared war on the League.

=============‹«⟨··•|^^^|•··⟩»›=============

He tensed, stupidly, as soon as he woke up, more than half expecting pain to greet him. Instead, what greeted him was a poke to the face. Hard, but not painfully so. Screwing his face up in confusion, Jason opened his eyes, blinking furiously as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing. There was a kid staring at him. A mini B, with darker skin and green eyes perhaps, but Jason had seen the older family pictures, the ones from before Batman was ever even a pipedream. The kid in front of him, who was staring at him with wary curiosity, finger still extended as though to poke him again, looked exactly like B did at three years old.

"Who are you?" Jason rasped, confused. He knew Bruce didn't have a kid, so where— "Where-wait-what—" taking the room in, really taking the room in, told Jason two very important facts. One, he wasn't with the League anymore, and two, where he was looked like any other apartment bedroom he'd ever been in. Well, except for the strange looking medical equipment, of course. How do I know it's—?

The door behind the kid that he hadn't paid attention to opened, and a guy about Dickie's age walked in. He looked like a cross between Superman and Jason, which was something he'd never thought he'd ever have to think about. Tall, strong, one heck of a presence, but with messy, unkempt black hair, clear blue eyes with caution in them, and freckles lightly dusting his nose and cheeks. He also, Jason noted as he distractedly noticed the mini B hopped down to hug the guy, felt safe. His presence, while intimidating at first, felt like a cool summer breeze while lazing about the manor gardens, reading his favorite book while B sat nearby reading a newspaper. He felt like a guiding hand, a comforting hug, a protective shield—he just... He felt safe.

"Hey, there," the guy said with a small grin. "Glad to see you awake. My name's Danny, this little guy is Damian, you're in my apartment in Amity Park, Illinois." Bright blue briefly flared pit green and Jason felt his own eyes flash back. "And though we're trying to get in contact with your legal guardian so we can explain some things, cuz I am not going to be like Vlad about this, I just gotta say, well, I've waited a long time to say this. Welcome home, Jason. Welcome home."

=============‹«⟨··•|^^^|•··⟩»›=============

I DID IT! TWO PARTS OF A FIC WITHIN A CALENDAR WEEK! WITHIN DAYS OF EACH OTHER! AHHH THIS MUST BE A MIRACLE! *ahem* Sorry about that, I, ah, got carried away (⁠^⁠～⁠^⁠;⁠)⁠ゞ it's... Been awhile since I've done this, writing "chapters" of a fic and posting them as I write them, and it's been even longer since I've managed to do it within a week of each other... It's... Nice, in a way lol

This ficlet is dedicated to kyrianclawraith, whom I apparently cannot tag in this post, for giving me the motivation to actually write this continuation, like I'd been thinking about but not seriously considering yet. Thank you, friend, for your kind words! (⁠◠⁠‿⁠・⁠)⁠—⁠☆ You rock.

@draconicalvara, @fisticuffsatapplebees, @onyxlightdragon, and @sachabakkerr all asked to be tagged in the continuation, so here y'all go! Hope you liked it (⁠◠⁠‿⁠◕⁠)

Have a good morning/day/night!

[emeraldsandamethyst]

Rooftop Express (43888 words) by EmeraldsAndAmethyst

Chapters: 21/???

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 | incomplete

Fandom: DPxDC / DCxDP

Rating: Mature | Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Relationships: Dead on Main (Danny Fenton/Jason Todd), Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton, Danny Fenton & The Bat Family, Danny Fenton & Random Gothamites, Jason Todd & The Bat Family

Summary: Danny Fenton just wants to help his big sister be comfortable in Gotham. But he is getting so done with not being able to fly around freely. Danny tries to do things on the up and up but just progressively accidentally starts looking more and more like a new rogue trying to get set up. His parents must be retired super villains, which might not mean anything. But the rest of the evidence isn't very promising.

And then he finds a half-ghost no one knew anything about. Befriending him in the suit instead of out isn't helping his 'definitely not a super villain' case in the slightest.

Jay's Ghost Form by me (EmeraldsAndAmethyst)

Red Hood's New Symbol | Red Hood Gang Symbol | Red Hood Gang Stamp collaboration

Characters: Danny Fenton, Jazz Fenton, Damian Wayne, Tim Drake, Jason Todd, Pamela Isley, Harleen Quinzel, Original Characters

Additional Tags: Pre-Relationship, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Delivery Person Danny Fenton, Danny Fenton-centric, Trans Danny Fenton, Pining, Mutual Pining, Aged-Up Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, no beta we die like danny AND jason, Not Beta Read, Miscommunication, Family, Himbo Danny Fenton, Danny Fenton has ADHD, Incomplete, Humor, Slice of Life, Alternate Universe - Delivery Person, Alternate Universe, Crossover, Jason Todd is Undead, Halfa | Half-Ghosts (Danny Phantom), Halfa Jason Todd, Canon-Typical Violence, Minor Character Death, Guns, Danny Fenton Has Issues, Danny Fenton Has PTSD, Ain't no one neurotypical in here, Autistic Tim Drake, Everyone Has Issues, everyone has PTSD, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Gang Violence, Gangs, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Beginnings, Brother Feels, Brothers, Autistic Damian Wayne, Good Sibling Jason Todd, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Mutilation, Trans Jason Todd