#no beta wie die like danny

[flamingpudding]

DPxDC Family Week June 24 (Day 7)

Prompts: Distant Relatives | Engrave

A/N: This is what I believe some would call straight up crack :D

AO3 Link: DPxDC Family Week Contributions

How do you tell your great great great great great (how many greats do you add when the child is the x-generation after about… how many years again? Danny had lost count) grand nephew that the ghost king, he just summoned, with an old family heirloom is his granduncle of many generations?

"Batman. Why does the pendant you gave me summon the fucking Ghost King?" Danny heard a familiar man in a trench coat say next to his nephew (he decided he needed to keep it simple there were too many greats to count)

The batman grunted glaring at the man, Danny blinked finally recognising the guy.

"Aren't you the guy who sold like a tenth of your soul to Ellie's spouse? I am sure I also heard Lucifer complaining that Mammon got more parts of your soul than he has." Danny mused as he looked down at them in his eldritch form. Noting how his nephew tensed as he got past that pathetic wall of protection.

Honestly all the protective engravings he had gifted his nephew and nieces through out generations were a hundred times better. How else would a place like Gotham survive on only Lady Gotham as spiritual protection from ghosts of the Ghost Zone and his former rogues that still liked to mess with his children, nephews and nieces? At least Jazz's branch of the family was safe from them this way. He had baby proofed the entire town or better every town a part of his branch family lived in.

"So, trading game, why did you summon me?" He would have liked to stay hidden, you know? The branch family had long forgotten their relation to the Ghost King and Danny had easily accepted that. His own child of chaos had not so much and preferred to play with the earth family branch but that's besides the point. They had used the pendant to summon him, with his own personal engraving. Did that mean they remembered or did his son let something slip to his cousin?

"Trading game." Someone snorted and for the first time since he got summoned Danny noticed the audience around him. His eldritch form did the equivalent to stunt blinking as he straightened up and took count of the children of his nephew. Baby Ghost, Baby Menace, Baby Stalker and Baby Stabby were there.

A gasp left his lips. A Baby Ghost was sick! In a puff of greenish smoke his eldritch form was dismissed and he changed to his favorite 20 years old Phantom form, rushing past his nephew and trading game.

"You poor baby! I didn't realize you were this sick! If I had known I would have done something way sooner!" He fretted as he inspected one of his nephew's babies, hovering around the boy poking and prodding the little guy, well little to him anyway.

"Who are you calling a baby?! Get your fucking hands of me!" Danny only hummed, patting the baby's head, only a little sad that he couldn't look at his face as Baby Ghost was wearing his favorite red explosive helmet and was on duty.

But on second thought seeing their cute little uniforms live was way better than when he had watched them through his ice mirrors. "Don't worry little Red Hood. You will be feeling a whole lot better soon. Your Uncle Danny will make sure of it."

"The fuck?" The sick baby probably looked at Danny like he had gone insane and the ghost king could only laugh. Good had it been long since he interacted with the earth branch family let alone humans. Maybe he should start accompanying his youngest to his visits to earth.

"Constantine! I thought the sigils were supposed to contain him!" He heard his nephew grunt and Danny grinned over his shoulder at them.

"My little nephew. I granted you way better engravings than this pathetic wall of protection." As if to prove a point he flew around the babies, stopping by the youngest and pulling his sword from him. There were gasps of shock as well as complaints and he couldn't help the laugh as little Baby Stabby tried to lunge at him but got held back by the eldest Baby Menace. He just held the sword towards his nephew and trading game as he held his palm against it and let his power flow. Soon the sigils he had placed on the sword as a homecoming present to the youngest baby, when he started living with his nephew, started to appear, glowing and shining.

"You… you engraved your sigils on things the bats own?!" Disbelieve clearly coloring the trench coats' voice as the man paled. His nephew appeared to be close to start brooding like he had seen him do a couple of times through the ice mirrors. Danny returned the sword, huffing amused how little Robin instantly inspected the sword again, the engravings no longer visible.

"Of course I did. I promised my sister a long time ago that I would always protect her children. Though the engravings were certainly hard to hide from one of your babies."

"Sister? Babies?" Baby Stalker aka Red Robin aka little Tim asked and Danny coed. This baby always reminded him of his best friend Tucker and he was glad to have a technology adept child in the family again.

"Yes your great great great uh…" he stopped thinking how many greats he needed to add and ended up sighing compromising with: "...your grandmother many generations ago."

"How many of our things did you engrave?" His nephew finally grunted out, trench coat guy definitely looking like he was having an aneurysm by now.

"Don't remember, decorations, jewelry, toys, weapons, I think I even engraved your belt buckle." The ghost king shrugged, he honestly didn't. Ellie liked to joke that he was way too protective of the earth branch with the amount of protective engravings and sigils he had put up for them without them even knowing. She was still a little cross with them when they started forgetting about their ghostly part of the family after Jazz died.

There was a distinctive frustrated sigh and for a second Danny did feel bad for his nephew. Maybe he should not have just simply spewed everything but he couldn't hold himself back when he saw the sick baby. He was protective of his family, sue him. At least he hadn't given any of his nephews potential mates a shovel talk yet, not like he had with Ellie's spouse anyway. Jazz had banned him from using Fright Knight's Soul Shredder on humans after he had mentally scared and traumatized her first boyfriend with it. Apparently the guy had been too weak to handle it and lay sick in bed for a while after his return from the nightmare realm.

That reminded him! Turning around he flew up to the sick baby again who flinched back from his touch. He ignored that and only made a calming thrilling noise, calling out to the baby's sick core.

"Get the fuck away-"

Poor baby must be suffering badly from uncontrolled anger and ghostly intermittent explosive disorder. No wonder he hadn't developed any of his powers yet. That Disorder tended to be violent, especially the ghostly kind. Carefully letting his power wash over the baby, Danny coaxed out the little underdeveloped core. Usually he would make sure to do these kinds of things for any of his children, nieces and nephews in a safe environment but this was an exception. It was a sick baby core that would receive long lasting damage if not treated.

Gasp resounded as the tiny core came out of the baby's chest, not wasting any time Danny refresh the ectoplasm in it and removed the corrupted one. He then sent the core back into the baby's chest patting him where it sunk back into the body.

"There you go! Should be all good now!" A second after he said it Danny blinked at all the weapons that were pointed at him. He flinched a little as Baby Menace let electricity spark near him.

"WAIT THAT IS THE GHOST KING YOU IDIOTS!" Trading game screamed, apparently finally waking up from whatever stupor he had been in.

"So? He did something to Todd. Who knows what that was." Danny cooed, he knew Baby Stabby cared, his own youngest was similar in that way, just more chaotic in his display of affection, which also earned him his title. Little Damian was also the most intune with ghostly etiquette next to Baby Ghost, considering the reason for the nickname Danny gave him.

"And he can destroy entire dimensions! Do you guys want to doom us all?!" Trench coat countered very much insistent that the babies pull back their weapons.

Danny in return only huffed in annoyance and rolled his eyes. Like he would destroy the home of the earth branch. That man was talking rather rudely to them and he was also stopping him from bonding with his nephews' babies. "Buzz of trading game. This is a family matter and if the babies want to bond then we will bond."

After a moment of consideration he added. "Also don't talk to them like that. They are royalty and I will not have you disrespect them."

With a wave of his hand a green portal opened below the man swallowing him. Being nice Danny decided to drop the man off in his own home. He was the one that taught his nephew how to use the pendant again after all. But he wanted to be left alone with his family. Before his nephew or the babies could panic he smiled brightly and said. "Don't worry I sent him home to his house of mysteries or whatever he calls it. So we can have some family time! Besides, my In-law wouldn't be happy if I harmed his contract even if his soul is a trading game among the demons…"

They all shared a look and seemed to take the ghost king's words for it. Especially as litte Jason finally got out of his shock, patting at his own chest and mentioning that he indeed did feel better. Saying that there was no Pit Madness in his mind anymore, huh so that's what the Disorder got called on earth.

They instantly questioned Danny of what he did to which their ghostly uncle only smiled at the once sick baby without answering. He would have Frostbite to take a second look soon though, just to be safe.

"You mentioned us to be royalty?" The gruff voice his nephew put on when on duty resounded and a warm smile spread across the ghost kings face to the wonder of the bat-clan present.

"I thought that information got passed down through all the generations like the summoning pendant." The ghost king tilted his head. "You do know your part of the Infinite Realms Royalty right?"

"We… are royalty? For real?" One of the babies slowly asked and Danny grinned at them.

"Of course you are. In fact, the little Baby Ghost here-" He flew up to Jason, the once sick baby and placed his hands on the boy's shoulders. "Is the fifth in line should neither my children, nore Ellie or her children want to take over the throne when I don't want it anymore and don't feel like bothering on waiting for someone to beat me in a succession battle."

"Red Hood is? Shouldn't it be like Batman or Robin?" Little Tim asked and Danny sadly shook his head.

"By earth standards, sure. Not by Ghost Zone standards though. They don't have a core, it would be different if they develop a core after death but right now? It's baby Hood here who is in line."

"So… to sum it up." The oldest baby started packing his weapons away and Danny felt just a little bit disappointed but the youngest had his sword out. So maybe a bit of bonding would still happen now that the earth branche knew about their relationship again.

"B is a descendant of your sister which makes him royalty and in turn all his children, blood and adopted equally? And Red Hood is even in line for the throne of another dimension because he has, what you call a core?"

"Yup." Danny popped the 'p', he was about to explain more considering his nephew had adopted quite the stoic look and the babies did appear to become slowly a little too overwhelmed. When a red portal opened and his own son decided to join the family reunion.

"Dad! What is taking you so long? Aunt Ellie is sending me to fetch you cause she thinks you're skipping your meeting with the observants again!"

"KLARION?!" Baby Stalker shouted and Danny blinked. Oh right, his own baby boy liked to bond with his cousin's babies. When was the last time his baby boy visited earth? Oh the babies were taking on fighting stances. How sweet of them! Even his nephew was tensing up and looked ready to fight.

"Baby Spook, are you here to bond with your cousin's again?" Sue him, he couldn't help the excitement. His little chaos was the most interested in playing with his earth branch family compared to everyone else in the ghost branch, including Ellie's children. They liked to mess with entire dimensions though and nearly caused at least three wars in the last ten years. They had also inherited Ellie's ire in regards to the earth branch forgetting their existence. That's why his youngest son had taken it upon himself to teach and bond with the little ones here.

"Bond?" Little Tim questioned while his son sighed.

"Beings of the Infinite Realms bond via fighting. How else are we going to teach babies how to protect themselves and become stronger?" The Lord of Chaos explained in exasperation like he was talking to a toddler. Considering their age differences he kind of was, Danny mused.

"Hold on, does that mean all the times you spent attacking was…?"

"Me bonding with you babies, yes. My siblings as well as older cousins aren't interested so of course that leaves me, the heir and superior cousin, to take care of our earth bound family."

"Even when you messed with the watchtower?"

Klarion arched an eyebrow at Batman. "Just because you are the oldest among the earthly doesn't mean you're any less of a toddler."

"Klarion." Danny warned, his cousins might be babies by ghost terms but that didn't mean he could act all arrogantly with them. Danny might have spoiled the boy since he was his youngest child but he surely had raised him better than that.

"No bonding today, Dad, you do have a meeting scheduled." A sigh left his lips, he guessed it was time to return. The disappointment must have been written all over the ghost king's face as his son huffed in amusement. "Maybe next time, Dad. You can come alone… if you get away from the observants."

"Alright, alright." Agreeing, Danny flew over to the summoning cycle and picked up the pentant before floating to his nephew.

The boy took a step back from him but Danny just smiled and continued forward, placing the pendant around Batman's neck. "My calling card, little nephew. We don't exactly have phones in the Infinite Realms. So use that to call me any time, though now that you guys got reminded about your relation to me I will make sure to come visit more often and not just watch and protect you from the other side."

"See you later Amadillos"

"Bye Bye Baby Bats!"

With that he didn't leave his nephew and the babies time to respond as he opened a portal and he and his son returned to the Infinite Realms, where an angry Ellie was waiting for him. Oh boy…

Meanwhile the bat clan exchanged looks slowly digesting the information dump that had just happened. They had just wanted to have Constantine check on the engraving they had on a family heirloom that happened to be similar to one that was found on an ancient egyptian summon plate and had caused some rather dangerous events.

Who would have thought that the Ghost King himself would tell them that they were apparently related and royalty in another dimension?

"I am so going to rub it in Roy's face that I am Royalty." Red Hood broke the silence.

"I always knew I was of royal descent." Robin added holding himself even prouder than before.

"Am i the only one losing my shit here that B and Robin are apparently blood related to Klarion? Also… just a warning I am going to start digging into the Family tree now." Red Robin informed with a glint in his eyes hidden behind his mask. He was definitely not asking for permission to do so.

"The Ghost King kept calling us babies though." Nightwing sounded amused, watching at how his brothers were taking the news and wondered how the rest of the family would react.

While Batman on the other hand was brooding and appeared to be severely constipated, probably thinking of all the worst case scenarios and most likely trying to figure if he needed a contingency plan for their newly discovered interdimensional family or not.

John Constantine on the other hand awoke back in his home and let out a long and suffering groan with the new knowledge he gained. Apparently the ghost king's in-law had a contract with him and now he also couldn't even be rude to the bats anymore because they were royalty and he would be screwed and potentially risk his entire existence should the Ghost King take offense. He was fucked the next time he had to deal with the bat-clan again.

[flamingpudding]

Ouija Board Prompt Idea

A/N: A late night Idea that came to me instead of sleep and I wrote this down during lunch break

Danny was just in Gotham because the city spirit had asked him for assistance with a rather persistent unruly Ghost that didn't understand that this was her haunt and she did not want them there.

So when he got the notice he did his kingly duties and made sure the Ghost was no longer annoying Lady Gotham. He was the Ghost King but even he didn't want to anger a spirit as old as her. He had watched the spirit take a ghostly club and hit Clockwork the Ancient of Time with it without remorse the first time they were introduced. So yea, no messing with this one.

He had been about to portal back home when he felt a strange pull one that was close to when he got summoned but yet it didn't feel as demanding but more like a little kid pulling on his shirt hesitantly. So he checked it out…

… and came across a group of vigilantes investigating an occult side.

Invisible he watched them, curious. He used to do the teen hero stick too before the whole Ghost King business allowing him to get some semblance of a normal life with his rogues, might as well see how others to that hero stick. Besides the pull he felt appeared to come from that tall one wearing a red helmet something was up with that guy.

"Come on, ask the ghosts a question or are you too chicken to do it?"

"I will not participate in this nonsense, Red Hood."

"Come on guys it will be fun!"

"For whom? You, Spoiler?"

"RR aren't you curious?"

"We just gotta ask the board a question and if a ghost is around they will answer by moving it, right?"

"Ghosts don't exist."

Okay Danny was not taking personal offense here but he was a half ghost and he ruled the Ghost Zone filled with ecto-entities that could count as ghosts. So yes, ghosts existed. It was a simple decision then as he floated down invisible crouching next to board still invisible and out of the way from them.

Making sure he made a lot of scraping noises as he moved the small wooden piece on the board to 'YES'.

Someone yelped and someone else shrieked, though Danny wasn't sure if that was a shriek of excitement or not. He still grinned at their reactions.

"Did that just move to 'YES'! It did, didn't it!"

Yea okay that earlier was a shriek of excitement considering how that girl in purple was jumping around. Though the poor kid among them looked a little paler now, Danny decided to keep an eye on the kid to make sure he wasn't overdoing it.

"Okay so a ghost is here?"

Maybe he should have bothered listening to Lady Gotham or Tucker more about the vigilantes of Gotham. Oh well no time better as this to learn. What did the girl call this boy again, RR? Danny wondered what that stood for.

He moved the piece around the board a little making sure they noticed before he spelled something out.

"N-O-S-H-I-T-S-H-E-R-L-O-C-K. No shit Sherlock. Ha! I like this ghost!" The tall one laughed, he believed the kid called him Red Hood earlier. Well the red helmet was a great testament to that sort of code name. Still he wondered about that weird feeling he got from the guy but pushed that aside for later.

"Well since there is a ghosts, what should we ask?"

"Maybe how old he is?"

"Think it rude to ask how he died?"

Danny rolled his eyes. Those were such mainstream questions.

"B-O-R-I-N-G, 1-6 , YES. Guys it looks like we are not were imaginativ."

"Well what do you suggest we ask then?"

"I don't know! Maybe he can show us a cool trick?"

"You know that reminds me of this game that's been out for a while, phasmophobia or something like that?"

Oh Danny knew this one! Tucker had told him about the game, he himself hadn't played it but he had watched his best friend do so, they had a lot of fun joking about how the ghosts were portrayed and the tools that were available to the players.

"So what? We ask the ghost to play Hide and Seek with us?"

"Let's cease this nonsense. This is not something we should mess with."

"Oh are you scared?"

He made a show of moving the wooden piece, doing his best not to snicker out loud as he moved the piece to count down from the number 9. Letting his own powers out a little to cause the already dim light to flicker and the room to cool down several degrees.

The reaction was instant once again. Though he didn't expect them to run for hiding spaces he definitely did not expect these people to pull out their weapons and position against each other's back like they were ready for a fight. Then again they were vigilantes

The poor kid among them looked even paler. Before his count down could reach 0 he decided to not scare the poor kid more. Pulling back his powers the room's temperature normalized and the lights stopped flickering. He moved the wooden piece knowing that at least one of them was watching it in anticipation.

"J-K-S-O-R-R-Y"

"I think the ghost just apologized to us?" The RR teenager said carefully and Danny couldn't help the sheepish smile even if they couldn't see it in his invisible state.

"You know about the game?"

He moved the piece to YES.

"So you thought it was fucking appropriated to scare us like that?"

He moved the piece around and placed it back to YES before spelling out sorry again. The vigilantes shared a look and Danny decided to spell out a question.

"L-I-T-T-L-E-G-U-Y-O-K-A-Y"

"Huh? Uh yea Robin is fine." They looked confused but Danny kept his eyes on the kid. Well the poor boy still looked very pale but he also appeared to try to put on a brave front, it nearly caused a chuckle to escape the halfa.

"Can you show yourself?"

"S-U-R-E"

Not like he was really going to show himself but this was going to be fun, he thanked the Ancients that he was taking lessons with Pandora on how to manipulate his own ectoplasm. He summoned a blob of it making sure he himself was still invisible as he let the green blob be visible, forming it and making it look like a blob ghost.

The reaction was once again instant. They yelled in the chaos all he caught sounded like 'Lazarus water! Moving Lazarus Water!' Before the pale kid, Robin they said, slashed at his ectoplasm blob with his katana, essentially doing nothing to the blob of ectoplasm. The sword just went through it and Danny still holding it confused just instinctively let it reform the shape he gave it.

Danny blinked, okay now he was definitely not showing himself. "This is no a ghost but a Pit Demon!"

From the corner of the eye he saw Lady Gotham appear in the room staring at him disapprovingly and holding that ghost club she had used on Clockwork.

"I can explain, really! I was just joking with them!" He stood holding his hands up to smooth the situation, the green blob fell to the ground splashing against the Ouija Board with a loud splat. His chances of not get hit like Clockwork by Lady Gotham were becoming slimmer.

"WHO SAID THAT?!"

Shit, he hadn't used ghost speech but said that out loud.

[flamingpudding]

The Ghost King is my Uncle Drabbles #2

A/N: Some more linked to a prompt week writing I did

>>Masterpost

Original this builds on: Link

Rowdy Cousin

Batman swore internally, from the outside he stoically sat in his chair and did nothing to indicate the absolute chaos that was going on in his mind. The Meeting rooms light flickered and the speakers once more started up loudly blaring a song all over the Watchtower. He was pretty sure one of his sons had told him once that playing that song was a meme.

"Someone do something about that kid! He is Rickrolling us!" Green Lantern screamed above the music.

"Constantine is already trying to do something." Superman's hands covering his sensitive ears as the music must sound to him even louder.

Batman very much only looped one thought in his head. -It's only for world ending purpose, I cannot use it right now.-

He had a responsibility to uphold, he was the patriarch of the earth branch family. This was not something that required him to use that. No he would not use it. He refused. This was not a world ending matter. Surely Constantine or anyone else of the Justice League Dark would solve this problem any second now.

The screens flicker and Batman did anything he could in his mind to not let his eye twitch even if no one would be able to see it. Cat videos were playing where second earlier statistics and observatory programs had been running.

No he would not, they could handle this problem no need to involve family.

The music stopped and some of his hero colleagues let out a relieved sigh only for a familiar laugh to echo through the watchtower and a new song starting to play. One that apparently counts all 100 dumb ways to die.

"Why is Klarion even targeting the watchtower like this?!" The Flash shouted over the lyrics before turning to him.

"Did one of your kids piss him off or something?!"

"No." At least not as far as he knew, though considering the recent discovery as well as the surprise visits his uncle had done lately he might have a guess why the witch boy was targeting them right now. Didn't mean he would elaborate this reason to the other heroes present.

Before Wonder Woman could comment John Constantine stormed in the room and slammed his hands down onto the table staring right at Batman with blood shot eyes. "Call him."

"Who?"

"Don't play fucking dumb bats. You know who I mean. This is not the witch brat alone. There is another entity and if you don't want the fucking watchtower crashing into earth you call him right now."

"Bats, he is not talking about who I think he is?" Superman carefully asked while the other heroes looked at him just as questionable.

He held his staring contest with Constantine a little longer before he grunted and reached into his utility belt pulling out a small bat-shaped pendant. A personalized upgraded calling card, his uncle had gifted to him as well as each of his children and extended family members.

This was not how he imagined a meeting in regards to his new discoveries and a possible sure fire contingency plan against world ending emergencies would go. He rubbed his thumb against the engraving waiting for a short moment for it to pulse, before tapping the pendant three times, paused and tapped it two more times. This was a non-emergency call, even if his colleagues might disagree.

He still thought they could very well handle this situation without the help of his uncle.

"BABY BAT, YOU CALLED THIS IS THE FIRST TIME YOU DID!"

The present heroes watched in stunned fashion how a white haired, 20 years old man stepped out of a green portal and instantly zoomed across the room to hug THE Batman around his head rubbing his cheek against the bat's cowl mindful of the pointy parts.

And Batman was letting the man do that only looking resigned.

"We agreed that I would only call on you with this pendant for emergencies."

The white haired man only hummed before his head turned sharply and green glowing eyes narrowed at Constantine, who visibly paled and took a step back standing straight and looking very much like he regretted what he had asked Batman to do. "Trading game is not being rude to you is he?"

The bat only grunted and the white haired man finally let go of him, humming as he took in his surroundings, eyes glinting in mischievously as he saw the flickering lights, animal videos on screen and heard the blaring music over the speaker. "When I okey-ed Klarion to go playing with his cousins I didn't think he would seek you two out. He had been talking about his older cousins starting another game of 'who's the better demon lord' in different dimensions. I thought he was joining their bet."

Wait did he say two? Batman grunted and the white haired guy chuckled. "I will be back in a second."

Not even the Flash could react as fast as the white haired man disappeared and reappeared with Klarion next to him. Clearly pulling on the witch boy's ear like a father would when their child had been naughty. The flickering lights and blaring of music over the speakers had stopped.

"Ow DAD what in the name of chaos are you doing here."

"Your Cousin called me. You are disturbing his work and risking them crashing into earth with Technus' help."

"YOU SNITCHED TO MY DAD?!"

"Hn."

"Technus get out of their network or I will lock you up on a Medieval Island for three decades."

As if the present heroes weren't confused enough a face appeared on one of the screens. Glaring at the white haired man. "You wouldn't dare."

"Watch me, if you stay in there any longer. I will also dig out the old thermos and soup you additionally for a decade or more."

The face on screen grumbled and the heroes nearly flinched back as a ghostly, green skinned man came out of it, looking every bit frustrated and annoyed. "I was just getting a good look at this modern technology, you have banned me from any big shot Industries…"

"We had that discussion 100 years ago, Technus. Back to the Ghost Zone." The white haired man commanded by opening a portal next to them with the wave of his hand and surprisingly, the green skinned guy listened.

"Sorry about this Baby Bat and Little Demi. Klarion will be grounded for a bit and re-educated in how to bond without risking potentially killing any bystanders. Oh and remember I will come by later for Baby Ghost to get his checkup with Frostbite!"

"Dad, please no grounding! Anything but that!"

"I am sure your Grandpa will be happy to have your help during your grounding."

"Dad! NO! I don't want to keep time in order! I live for chaos not order!"

The man was just smiling and completely ignoring Klarion's complains as he turned towards Batman and Wonder Woman, for reasons the hero's didn't understand.

"Well we will be on our way then Baby Bat, Little Demi!"

Batman grunted and the white haired man chuckled, leaving through the portal and dragging along a whining Klarion, who apparently was that man's son.

Just before the portal closed, the man stuck his head back out looking towards Wonder Woman with a mischievous smile. "Oh before I forget! Pops Clockwork sents his regards Little Demi . He doesn't want me saying this, but he is glad about the path you choose. Says you're set on a pretty good timeline!"

The head disappeared into the portal again and it finally closed. Wonder Woman was left blinking at the empty space, her mouth slightly open with the silent question of "What?"

"Bats, who was that?" The Flash was the first to break the silence that had followed as eyes turned to the dark knight.

"His Uncle." / "The Ghost King."

Superman and Constantine spoke at the same time. The JLD member flinched back as he looked at the glowering bat. Muttering something the man took his leave or rather escaped the room as quickly as possible as Batman kept glaring. Meanwhile Wonder Woman was slowly having a crisis of her own as suddenly family relations that had been hinted to her through Pandora made sense. "Clockwork... no, Titan Cronus? The Ghost King... Uncle Daniel?"

Chaos broke among the present heroes.

"WHAT UNCLE?!"

[flamingpudding]

The Ghost King is my Uncle Drabbles

A/N: The original this sorta ties too: Original One Shot

>>Masterpost

Shovel Talks

Constantine swore up a storm of course only mentally. It wasn't like he was going to voice any of his thoughts right now. Not when he was faced with the good damn Ghost King. All he wanted was to summon one of his contracted demons to gather some information and what did he get the fucking Ghost King.

"Trench coat! We meet again. You worked on your manners, I hope?"

"Of course your majesty." Well he didn't but he avoided the freaking bats like crazy.

"Well I gotta thank you. Well you and my In-Law that's busy and asked me to substitute for your call since we meet and before and so on." The Ghost King casually waved his hand in a dismissive manner before looking around with his eyes sparkling in recognition and it sent a shudder down Constantine's back. "You are giving me the perfect opportunity."

Did… did the Ghost King just pull out a green glowing sword from a fucking portal and why did he have that glint in his eyes? Constantine paled. Why did this have to happen to him?

"If you will excuse me for a moment. I need to look for a Kryptonian real quick. I will deal with your problem right after. Promise."

With that the Ghost King phased through the floor apparently in search of Superman who just happened to be in the watchtower today. Fuck. Constantine run out of the room in mild panic and pushed whoever was on communication aside as he dialed for the bats. The moment someone on their end pick up he didn't bother to explain anything and just shouted for one of them to get their fucking ass here as fast as possible or superman was going to be history!

Okay that might also have sent the people witnessing his panic into chaos but this was a fucking emergency.

It was only minutes later that Batman did indeed arrived together with Nightwing and Red Robin with the Zeta-Tube at the watchtower to bear witness to Superman getting cornered by the Ghost King with Constantine bound by echo-bindings for apparently having annoyed the Ghost King with his pleading to spare the Kryptonian.

"Now I am sure I don't have to repeat myself but, IF you ever hurt Baby Bat a fate way worse than the Soul Shredder and the Nightmare Realm will be the least of your problems. The last guy that hurt my family is still in there and I will gladly make you permanently join him."

A cough resounded and Danny turned his head, a bright smile on his face as he spotted his little nephew and two of the little babies.

"Baby Bat, Baby Menace and Baby Stalker! I will be done in a little bit!"

"Ghost Ki-"

"Uncle Danny."

Batman let out a suffering sigh as Nightwing and Red Robin snickered.

"Uncle Danny. Why are you threatening Superman?"

"Because Jazz forbade me to use the Soul Shredder on humans but Superman is not human so I am allowed to use it on him."

"Uncle Danny, why do you want to use the 'Soul Shredder'" -as a joke Nightwing used air quotes- "on the him in the first place?"

"Shovel talk."

Batman chocked and Red Robin spluttered as Nightwing had a hard time suppressing a laugh. Constantine and Superman gapped at the Ghost King.

"You… are threading him for shovel talk purposes? What even is the nightmare realm?"

"A place you don't want to be in. Very traumatic and perfect to externally punish anyone that hurts my family in any regard as long as I am allowed to dump them there."

There was an added barely hearable grumble of "I would have sent the Joker and Ra's in there long ago if Clockwork weren't such a stick in the mud about keeping the timeline straight and their roles and bla bla bla."

Red Robin did a double take. Did the Ghost King just admit that he would have liked to sent their rogues into a place that was most likely hell? Wait didn't he mention sending someone in there permanently earlier.

No one noticed Superman slowly inching away from the blade still pointed at him while the Ghost King's attention wasn't on him. Well the bats noticed but didn't react to it, deeming it safer for the Super.

"Uh you said you dumped someone permanently in there?" Red Robin tried to keep the attention on them.

"Well yea." The Ghost King casually shrugged, adjusting the blade so Superman could no longer inch away from him. "I looked away from the Ice Mirrors for a week and someone dared to hurt Moma Bat. Of course I was enraged and snatched that guy off the street to permanently drop him in there."

There was a beat of heavy silence. Batman under his cowl bluescreened especially with how casually Danny just admitted at having snatched up his parents murderer to punish the man. Well that explained why he never found the culprit.

"Now If you excuse me little Babies I am gonna finish this talk with the Kryptonian and make sure he knows what will happen if he hurts Baby Bat."

With this the Ghost King turned back to the rapidly paling Superman with a feral grin. The Birds sweat dropped as Batman was still not mentally present, his mind still working through the information.

"Think I would be able to borrow that sword?" Red Robin suddenly asked as Nightwing eyed Batman worringly. "He only said that Great Grandma forbade him to use it on humans. He never said we couldn't."

"Don't let Robin or Hood hear that." Nightwing said, even if he wanted to borrow it himself too. With B mentally still checked out he had to act as the responsible one. That wouldn't stop him from asking their Ghost Uncle later if he could borrow the sword anyway.

[flamingpudding]

Part 5 of Ghost Kid in Gotham

For those that ask, yes an AO3 link is in the works. I will post it once its ready. Also fair warning, I will be focusing on DPxDC Family Week now so I have no idea when the next part will be up.

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Thrill and chirp brother

Tim sipped on his n-th cup of specially made Tim-brand-not-Alfred-approved coffee as he shuffled into the dinning room and sat down on the breakfast table. The moment he sat down he opened the laptop again and stared at its screen for a couple of seconds. The scan of the post-it note got nothing. None of the squiggles was recognised in any of the so far known languages. Hell he even ran it through the leagues recordings of interdimensional and interplanetary known languages. No hits so far. Right now he was running a picture recognition program to see if any of these had appeared before it was on 90% with nothing found so far.

Good he hoped this really was just a prank from Cass and Steph. Because if it wasn't, Bruce would go nuts and overly paranoid as well as up the entire Manors security system a third time this month. Sadly, despite his hope, Tim knew that it wasn't a prank.

A cough resounded behind him and Tim blinked two times before sighting, closing the laptop and pushing it only a couple of inches away from him as Alfred put a plate with his breakfast before him. Knowing Alfreds rules about work at the table he would better not touch it again for now.

"Replacement, you look like the dead walking. Did you even sleep last night?" He glared at his brother before he blinked taking in his surroundings before his eyes rested on little Danny.

Tim could see that all of them, despite barely knowing the kid for a couple of hours, had already become attached to Danny. It didn't help that they had discovered Lichtenberg scarring running up Danny's left arm all the way to where his heart was after the child had finally let Damien take care of him. Hell Tim wanted to know who would give a child, a once dead then revived one, scares like that. If Talia had let the kid go through some sort of experimentation…. Well Tim knew where the explosives were stored and by the looks of it he probably could count on Jason's as well as Dick's help to blow up a league facility.

Either way Damien had become very protective of the child. The scarring didn't help calming that protectiveness either. In fact he was pretty sure it steered it more in the rest of them too. Also the fact that Danny spat out glowing Lazarus Water once they managed to wrangle the kid off Jason last night wasn't calming down a different kind of worry anytime soon either. No, it was another factor next to the scarring that spoke for the League having experimented on the poor child. He probably should start investing more time into what sort of facilities the League had built or was using lately.

On a good note, thankfully Danny had let up on Jason after he spat out the green goop and thanks to the fact that he apparently recognised Damien, let said teenager manhandle -cough- take care of the little biter for the rest of the night. It also seemed like the little guys biting obsession with Jason had calmed down, for now. He didn't trust the calm, especially not with the way Danny was still focused on his second oldest brother. Though everyone except for the demon brat was still getting the hissing treatment. Considering his theory that the League probably used the revived child to experiment with Lazarus Water, it wasn't that much of a surprise. Anyone would be feral after being subjected to experiments.

Thankfully it looked that whatever Pit Madness had overcome the child last night was not reacting towards them. But as he watched Dick trying really hard not to pout at Damien who had Danny in his lap in a protective hold, he wondered how long that would hold. Jason sat as far away from Danny and Damien as he could, probably because of the way the child was watching him with glowing blue eyes while munching on whatever food Damien gave to the little biter.

He could also see the reason for Dick's pouting as the elder reached out to attempt to ruffle Danny's hair but the child instantly snapped his head in their eldest brother's direction, hissing, bearing his teeth and even snapping at the air until Dick withdrew said hand again. A pout very evidently on his face. Like a switch flipped the child's focus would then redirect to watching Jason like a hawk again and munching on the food the Demon brat gave him.

At least he was the bitey type that would hiss as warning and not the stabby kind without warning like Damien.

"Yo, anyone at home up there?"

Turning his focus back to his second oldest brother Tim glared at him once more. "If you have to know. Yes I did sleep last night."

"More than one hour?" Dick asked next and Tim refused to look at the eldest. He was not going to answer that. He had coffee, who needed sleep when you have coffee. Besides, he was a perfectly functioning human being even with minimal amounts of sleep. He had not face planted his breakfast for three days now.

"What got you so obsessed that you didn't sleep, Drake? Another case? Or did you try to find out more from the League in regards to Danyal's scars?"

"That too but mostly the post-it note." He finally answered after stewing a little longer under the stares of his siblings. "Neither our nor the JL's language recognition programs got a hit and right now I am running a picture recognition to see if there ever was any kind of writing like that found before but it ran up to 90% before I came down and hadn't found anything like that before. And-"

"Slow down there Timber. I thought that's just a prank from Cass and Steph?" Dick interrupted him and Tim suppressed a groan.

"It couldn't be. I wish it was but both of them weren't in the Manor last night and I don't think Duke would do something like this so-"

"Hold up." Jason cut in and Tim glowered at them for getting interrupted again.

"What do you mean no language recognition program got a hit?"

"It means that there is no languages to translate-"

"Why would you need that? Yea its cryptic as fuck but its clearly written out!"

"Jason what are you talking about?" He opened his laptop again, turning the screen so it was facing Jason. "These are squiggles! How is it readable?!"

"The fuck you talking about?! Don't tell me your sleep deprived mind doesn't know how to read anymore?"

"Jason what does it say in your eyes?" Dick carefully cut in before Tim could question the other any more.

"'The daylight knight will tell the truth with eyes that see the light'. See cryptic as fuck." The older gesticulated towards Tim's laptop screen while Damien raised an eyebrow at him.

"The what now, will tell what?" Dick asked confusedly while Tim turned the laptop back towards him noting down what Jason just said. He was confused as to why Jason was able to read the squiggles but at least that gave him some kind of hint about the post-it. Aside from adding more questions to the already growing pile.

Suddenly a thrilling noise echoed in the room and the four looked at Danny. The child's now green eyes were focused on Jason. Tim could see Damiens hold tightening and Dick tensing when they noticed the green. Danny repeated the same nose he made earlier, still intensely staring at Jason.

"Who the fuck is clockwork?"

The green fated and Danny made a similar noise to chirping, his head tilting in confusion.

"The fuck you mean you don't know? You just said that Clockwork wrote the note?!"

"Todd. Did you just understand the noise Danyal was making?"

Once again the three of them stared at Jason who looked at them confused. "You didn't?"

They shake their heads and Jason let out a frustrated groan as he sat back down his head in his hands. "What did you assholes hear just now?"

"Danyal made some kind of thrilling, then chirping noise."

"Well I heard him say that someone named Clockwork wrote the note and then he said all confused that he doesn't know who Clockwork is." He looked at them frustrated. "Why do I hear the kid speak and you guys don't. You're his fucking twin, right? Shouldn't you know what the brat is saying?"

Damien glowered at their brother offended but didn't retort anything. Tim did see a hint of frustration with their formerly youngest and he could guess. Damien was most likely frustrated about the fact that Jason understood his twin's noises and he didn't. The only thing stopping him from possibly hurling the breakfast knife at Jasons, was most likely his hold on Danny.

Tim also thought about the fact for a while until it suddenly hit him. He looked up and made eye contact with Dick who most likely came to the same conclusion. The two turned towards their siblings.

"The Lazarus Water." Tim carefully offered, watching Jason and Damien tensed slightly.

"What about it?" The second oldest scoffed, turning his attention towards them.

"That's what you two have in common. Both of you got revived and came back through a Lazarus Pit. You still have the Pit in your mind right? And Danny most likely also has a lot of it in his system. It even mixed with his DNA."

After a beat of silence Jason let out a hearty groan. "Fuck. So because of the Pit I understand thrill and chirps now? Just fucking great!"

"Probably can speak it too if you try. That would be pretty cute. Come on, say something in a chirp!" Leave it to Dick to try to lighten the mood, though the glare Jason sent the eldest did make Tim hide a chuckle. He had to admit imaging Jason talking in chirps was a funny image. Should his brother ever do that he would need to make sure to take a video for his black mail folder.

"I will fucking not!"

"Come on, don't you want to communicate properly with our little teethling here?"

"Fuck off Dick!"

"You have to try it Jaybird! For little teethling!"

"Richard." Damien warned but Tim could only snicker as he watched Dick reach out to pat the kids head carelessly, apparently not hearing the warning nor hissing as the elder was too engrossed in convincing Jason to talk in chirp.

Dick let out a shriek of pain.

"Ha! Not so fun getting bitten is it now?" Jason laughed gloating with the fact that for once he was not the biting target.

Tim winched the moment he saw Danny clamp down with his sharp teeth on Dick's hand. Damien was instantly scowling both of them but the little biter refused to let go. He saw Alfred approaching the three and instantly stood up from his chair with a warning on the tip of his tongue as the butler reached out towards Danny.

"Master Danyal." Stunned and frozen the four brothers watched how the butler fearlessly patted the child's head who only let out a small hiss in acknowledgement, teeth still digging into the eldest brother's hand. "I request you let go of Master Dick's hand. I fear it will not taste as well as this snack I have prepared for you."

In an instant Danny let go and chirped, turning his attention towards Alfred who was still patting the child's head without getting hissed at or being in risk of getting bitten. Damien even let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you Pennyworth."

Dick was now cradling his hand, pouting and mumbling something about unfairness at the three as Jason laughed. Tim too couldn't help but chuckle, of course Alfred somehow became an exception towards Danny's biteyness.

It was at that moment that Duke entered the room, took one look at them, blinked, rubbed his eyes and then turned around and left again muttering something about it being too bright and early for any of this.

[flamingpudding]

Part 3 of Ghost Kid in Gotham

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Feral brother of mine

When Damien first saw the video from Todd's helmet he only thought of his older brother as an imbecile that apparently couldn't handle children that was until Drake paused the video on the child's face before the video cut off.

Then Richard pointed out the similarities to Damien and of course his first thought was that his mother had made another clone again that they would need to dispose of. That was until he took a closer look at the image when Drake zoomed in. It was still blurry but Damien would recognise that face anywhere and in any state.

Despite his memory being faded it was the face of someone he never wanted to forget and would let freely hunt his dreams. Even if it was to recall the good times or even the bad times through nightmares. Freckles that mirrored constellations and scar by the ear from a training session when the others' dodging ability had not yet been up to par when they were five. Hair longer than his own and less tameable.

Danyal Al Ghul.

His twin that he killed at the age of eight when their grandfather forced them into a fight to death. This was not a simple clone of Damien himself and the teen was pretty sure that his mother must have lost it. Because what else then a clone of his own brother could this be, she probably must have preserved some of Danyal's DNA if not his entire body for this. He must also applaud her cruelty, for the clone was at the exact age his brother had died at.

He does not know why nor how his mother had managed to cause glowing Lazarus green eyes. None of his clones had ever shown these before but a part of him didn't want to know. It already made him sick enough to know that his mother would go so far as to clone Danyal.

All he wanted was to get rid of this cruel clone that wore his long dead brother's face. The knowledge of his brother was something Damien held dear. It was something that belonged to him only and the burden of his death was not something he ever wanted to share either. Besides what use would it be to his family to mourn a member they never would have gotten to meet.

Even as he glared at Todd, who had let loose the feral clone. He could not bring himself to tell them that this was most likely not just a simple clone of himself.

"Come on guys, there is a child running around the Bat Cave. You can fight later about how to safely keep the boy in check."

Clicking his tongue he turned away from his older siblings and drew out his katana. "<tt> I will get rid of that thing myself."

A thing, that was what it was. Damien didn't need his personal feelings or his memories of a twin that could smile brighter than the desert sun despite their pain, get in the way of his rationality. He could not allow this mockery of his twin brother to live on.

He went for the darker areas of the Cave knowing the league trained mind and he was in luck as he was the first to find the feral child hidden away in the area that lead to the medbay. By now the thing was even armed. Damien recognised the dagger as one of his training once, he probably had accidentally left it out of its casing after training right before patrol.

The ex-league prodigy did not give the clone time to react as he attacked without warning. Chasing it through the Bat Cave as it avoided his attacks yet made no move to attack him the way it had Todd. At times the way it dodged made Damien stutter slightly something that never happened before. He slashed at it, ignoring his siblings that shouted for him to stop from the side lines. Ignoring the flashes in his mind of a fight years ago that was similar yet so different.

"I will not let this mockery run free." He muttered pointing his blade as it hissed at him in return. What a feral thing it was, he waited for it to make the first move this time. Clones were not perfect, their forms were lacking, They might retain skills of their original but they rarely were the same let alone cable of thinking outside of what their creator, his mother wanted. He pointedly ignored anything he new about certain clones. They weren't created by his mother, therefore did not count in regards to his conclusion. Yet it was painful seeing this mockery of his dead brother appearing like a perfect copy.

The stance it held with the dagger, despite the feral hissing and movements, it was the exact same his brother had. Sword stances, like martial arts stances had a basic form, every wielder learned and then developed further into their own unique one with time. Danyal had one where he tended to hold the dagger or even swords backwards in his left hand while his right arm covered his empty side with a slight tilt to the back, always ready to reach for any weapon he would carry in hidden pockets on his back.

It was painful to see this clone, this thing mimicking his brother's stand this perfectly. Damien could only narrow his eyes in determination, or was it desperation by now? This was just one more reason to get rid of it. It just hurt even more when with a quick gaze towards the hand that held the dagger Damien also noticed a bad habit his brother had always retained and the league had also never been able to train out of him. It was a small habit, unnoticeable if you wouldn't look for it, yet dangerous to the sword / dagger wielder if they were inexperienced.

Danyal tended to let his thumb rest against the guard if the blade had one or against the blade itself even if it didn't have one. He knows that his twin used to have scaring on his thumb from this habit, especially from their early training years.

This thing was even imitating his brother's habit.

He wanted it gone. Rip it apart and present it to his mother with all the anger and grief it brought to him.

"Guys stop Damien now! That is not a clone!" He heard Drake yell from where the Batcomputer was but he didn't care. This was a clone, so he lunged at the it again. Ignoring how the clone had studied him like he had it. Ignoring how its stance had changed the longer they had watched each other and how that thing let its guard down all of a sudden.

"Damien! Stop!"

It dropped all defenses and Damien could only see that as his chance to deal the final blow to get rid of it. But what he didn't expect despite the dropped defenses was for the clone to also just drop the dagger, close its eyes and smile. The same smile that still hunted his nightmares. His mind flashed back to eight years ago.

"Demon brat! Calm the fuck down!"

The blade stopped inches from the same fatal placement that had killed his brother before. Drake and Richard were right behind him while Todd was by the clone's side gripping at the blade with his bare hands, most likely bleeding already.

"Why?" Damien uttered quietly, his eyes trained on the thing. Richard must have thought that his question had been directed towards them stopping him but that wasn't the case.

"Look Dami, how about listening to what Tim found out first before we decide what to do with that child?"

"Not you." He couldn't help but snap back at them as he withdrew his katana, hearing Todd mutter something about sharp blades and bandaids as well as several curses under his breath. His eyes stayed on the thing. "Why would you let me kill you? Why drop your defence ces? Why not dodge?"

The thing titled its head its glowing green eyes were trained on Damien and he noticed how they flickered into a blue that was so familiar yet so different with the way they glowed. It made chirping noises before it whispered something.

"ahbak, Dami"

Damien froze for a moment there at the quiet words the thing had whispered. How was he supposed to react now? Was this even a clone, no he knew this was a clone. There was no way Danyal was alive let alone still eight years old. He had killed his own brother, he had held him in his own arms as Danyal took his final breath, smiling at him and uttering the same words he had just heard again after so many years.

Even if Danyal had survived somehow then he should be the same age as him. Not the age he had died at. Besides, their grandfather would have never allowed them to use the pits to revive his twin.

"FUCK!"

Intentionally or not Todd's outcry had ripped him out of his thoughts by a rather pathetic yowl of pain. It was like a switch had been flipped in the clone's mind as his brother had reached out to probably detain it again. The moment Todd had touched him, the thing had bitten into his hand before letting go, hissing and running away from them once more.

But instead of running after that thing Damien stood frozen in place, his mind still racing. He could feel Richard's hands on his shoulders, grounding the teenager with the warmth they provided. "You okay there Baby Bird? You seem rather out of it suddenly."

"<tt> I am fine." His only offered answer, ignoring the worried looks he was getting as he moved to wipe Todd's blood off his blade. He needed a distraction before his mind became any more chaotic and unreasonable. "What did Drake find out?"

"Right… you sure you want to hear that right now?" Giving Richard an unimpressed stare, the oldest sighed looking over towards Drake.

"Well I got good news and probably bad news." Side eyeing his brother Damien kept silent waiting for him to continue.

"I can safely say that the child is not a clone. His DNA does not 100% match yours. It differs too much but - and this is where it's probably bad news - it matches with you to 45%, with a matching to Bruce to about 50%, same with Talia. If I run a paternity test I am sure it would be a hit for Bruce and Talia."

Damien swallowed taking in that information, knowing what it meant. Was he horrified? Yes. Did it also awaken a strange sort of hope? Also, Yes.

"But there was a third compartment of the child's DNA structure which was impossible to test. It could even corrupt DNA samples if not taken apart from the rest. It probably has something to do with the green specs I found in his blood too. So I ran a substance analysis and - you probably won't like this - but it got a hit from a substance we have recorded in our database."

"What substance?" Damien knew, he just knew he wouldn't like the next words Drake would say. He could feel Richard squeezing his shoulder as if to help him keep stable.

"Lazarus Water. It matched with what we have recorded from the Lazarus Pits."

"Drake, are you telling me that after eight years, my mother who apparently had preserved my dead twin brother's body, dropped said body into the Lazarus Pits to revive him and then drop him off with Todd of all people?"

"Yes, wait… dead twin brother's body?"

[flamingpudding]

Part 4 of Ghost Kid in Gotham

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How to catch a baby brother

Richard 'Dick' Greyson had a problem. It wasn't a nuclear level of problem but it also wasn't a paper cut level of problem either. Because apparently he had a baby brother no one in their family but Damien knew about. Granted Damien had confessed that said baby brother was dead and had supposedly died eight years ago.

The explanation that Talia had apparently pulled another Jason was not helpful at all. According to Damien, in response to Tims findings, there was no other way for the twin to be alive other than Talia having preserved his body and then decided after eight years to drop it into the pits. Well lets just say his opinion on that woman if it was already down in the depth it certainly was now.

Which, considering the glowing Lazarus green eyes, could mean that there was now an eight years old child running loose in the Bat Cave with Pit Madness. Not just a simple feral eight years old that looked like perfect B adoption material and so happened to be blood related.

"Guys we need a plan. We can't just let our little teethling run loose."

"Richard, do not refer to my brother as little teethling." Dick only grinned. "Well the little biter needs a nickname and until I find something else fitting its teethling. Or do you have a better suggestion?"

Sweet little Baby Bird was now glowering at him. Oh protective were we, his little brothers definitely were the cutest. He was definitely going to tease sweet little Dami about this later once the first phase of new little brother crisis was over. For now they had to find the little guy first. The Cave wasn't exactly childproof.

"Let's use Jason as bait." Tim suddenly suggested causing the second oldest to grimace. "The little guy apparently likes biting him. We could use that as an advantage."

"Absolutely fucking not." Little Wing disagreed and Dick chuckled in good humor.

"Aw come on Little Wing, this is your chance to make a bond with our new baby before any of us can."

"For once I agree with Todd. Absolutely not, who knows where he has been. I will not have my brother become sick from biting him." He would have cooed at this, if Jason's face change from surprise at the agreement to a purely offended scowl wasn't so funny.

"Okay no biting bait. But we gotta draw out the little guy and calm his Pit Rage." If that feralness the kid displayed had even anything to do with Pit Rage.Considering the glowing eyes though he would think so. Dick eyed Jasons for a moment, he didn't seem to be affected at all nor had he said anything about the Pit being upset or feeling anything strange. So maybe the little guy wasn't suffering to an extrem from it? But he had apparently been brought back by a Lazarus Pit, so the likelihood with their experiences so far was slim.

"Well we gotta find a way to secure the little guy before B comes back or Alfie finds out." Jason mentioned still scowling at Damien. "By the way, I want to be here when you guys tell B about this. I wanna see his face and make fucking sure the little biter won't be turned into another kid soldier."

"Jason." He scowled, this was definitely not the right time for that sort of discussion but he had a point, they needed to find little… what had Damien said his name was? Wait did Damien even tell them the little guy's name? They all had just been using nicknames so far.

"Dami, what's the little teethling's name again?"

"I haven't told you yet." Ah okay so he didn't have a hole in his memory. "It's Danyal, but when we were younger he didn't like the way grandfather and our teachers called his name and insisted on being called informally as Danny."

"Okay right, so we better find little Danny and get everyone together to introduce-"

"Might I ask who this 'little Danny' is, Master Dick?"

He did not scream. But his heart rate shot up with Alfred just appearing behind him like that. Really sometimes Alfred could be as bad as Cass in the ways of sneaking up on people without them knowing.

"Alfred, hey hi what are you doing down here?" He was not nervous, no he wasn't. The way the butler narrowed his eyes at him did definitely not scare him at all, nope.

"I was informed that all of you returned uninjured." Though his eyes narrowed at Jason's hand that got cut earlier and his brother instantly tried to hide it behind his back when he noticed Alfreds eyes on him. "But the four of you, despite having returned to the Cave, have not come up yet. So I was merely checking on you, to make sure nothing was wrong after all."

He gulped. Really there was no way of ever hiding anything from Alfred.

"Jason brought a child to the Cave that we found out is Damien's twin that had died eight years ago but was brought back to life and is now feral and hiding somewhere in the cave."

At least it was Timber that blurred out everything they knew so far.

"His name is Danyal." Baby Bird added and the four of them waited for Alfred's reaction.

"I see. I will go prepare one of the rooms then and inform Master Bruce to return sooner from his meeting with the Justice League then. As well as prepare for a family dinner as soon as possible, I assume. Will my help be needed in finding young Master Danyal?"

"No worries Alfie, I think I have an idea on how to draw out the little shiiii-biter. You made cookies, right?" Jason at the last minute corrected his words because of the look and Dick couldn't help but snicker.

"I indeed did. If my help is not required then I will be on my way."

Giving them all one last look over, the Butler smiled before he turned to leave. Dick, Tim and Jason let out a sigh in relief once Alfred had left again to which Damien only eyed them strangely.

A little while later Jason went to get the cookies and came back with the plate and staring at a green post-it note. "Since when does Alfie stick green post-it notes with cryptic shit on plates?"

"What?" His brother only shrugged offering the note to him. Tim was looking over his shoulder at it and the two stared at the strange writing.

"I think Cass or Steph might be pulling a prank on us? These look just like random squiggles."

"Let's leave this for later and look for the little teethling." He passed the note to Tim, noticing the curiosity in his eyes. Oh boy, he probably should make sure his little brother gets some sleep instead of trying to encrypt whatever was written on that little note all night.

"Now everyone lets take a cookie, resist eating it and go hunt down our little teethling."

Damien narrowed his eyes on him. "I told you to stop calling Danyal that." The little baby bird still took a cookie though and marched away into the bat cave. They had separated wandering through the Bat Cave trying to cover as much ground as possible and by this point Dick was ready to call for Cass to join them, maybe even wake up Duke just so they would finally find the little kid.

That was until a familiar yowl of pain resounded in the Cave. The direction made Dicks stomach sink once he remembered just what was in the Cave in this direction. "Jason!"

Once he arrived there he feared for the worst. Jason avoided the area, because B had placed their Lazarus Pit there and his brother had often said that it was one of the reasons he didn't like coming to the Cave that much anymore let alone into this area of the Cave. To hear his brothers shout of pain from that area couldn't mean anything good.

Well that was until he got to the scene. Dick didn't know how long he stood there frozen but at some point he knew he took out his phone to take some photos of what was happening. Tim was already laughing and Dick was pretty sure that Babs was most likely recording this with one of the many cameras B had in the Cave.

Jason lay with his back on the ground, with one hand his brother was still holding the cookie waving it desperately before Danny's face who was biting down on the other arm sitting on the downed vigilante's chest. Little hands gripping onto the arm in an attempt to make sure no one was taking his chewtoy away from him. Meanwhile Damien was trying to lift the little biter off Jason by holding him with his hands under the kids armpits.

"You little shit! FUCK! Come on, here is the cookie! Take the fucking cookie! OUCH FUCKING HELL! How is he resisting Alfies cookies!"

"Danyal, No! You do not know where Todd was or how dirty he is. Let go of his arm this instant. We do not want you to get sick!"

"Hey!"

This was gold, Dick decided, and would go straight to the black mail as well as family memories folder.

[flamingpudding]

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

Follow up part: 2

Ghost kid in Gotham

The Beginning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TIME OUT

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

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

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

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

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

TIME IN

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

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

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

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

With her decision made, Lady Gothom made her move.

[flamingpudding]

Next part of Ghost Kid in Gotham

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Literal Ankle Biter

"Fuck!"

"Red Hood are you okay?

Jason let out a grunt as answer before a muttered "I am fucking fine." followed and he attempted to shut off the coms on his helmet again. This was the third time Oracle had decided to reactivate his coms and fuck did he not want to deal with his siblings in his ears right now.

"You little shit, why do you have such sharp teeth?!" So far no blood had been drawn by these sharp chompers. But he would probably have bite mark shaped bruises.

"Oracle put his video feed on the Batcomputer!" He heard one of his siblings over the coms, great that was the last thing he needed right now. Swiftly he turned off the coms again but he had no time to remove his helmet to chuck it into one of the dark corners of his apartment as sharp teeth lunged for his arm again.

He held up his gun and the sharp teeth chomped down around the barrel of his gun. He let out a fleeting chuckle as he spied a grimace on his small attacker's face. "Ha, not so fun chewing on metal is it now?"

"HOOD WHY THE FUCK IS THERE ARE CHILD CHEWING THE BARREL OF YOUR GUN?!"

Wow actual cursing from Dick that must really look bad to them.

"A CHILD IS DOING WHAT?!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP. The magazine is empty and there is no bullet left in it." He yelled back into the coms as he dropped the gun, and with that the child, to the floor to finally take off his helmet to throw it into the kitchen. His siblings in the Bat Cave can have some fun staring at his title flooring there.

Meanwhile he stared down at the kid that was staring back at him from the floor, the gun no longer between their teeth. The kid was staring at him the same way it had earlier sitting on the ground like a cat ready to pounce on their prey.

When he had first entered his apartment he had noted that it was way colder than it should be. At first he had thought his heater might have broken but then two Lazarus Pit green orbs stared back at him from the darkness of his room. His first instinct was, of course, to pull out his gun and aim it.

Then his brain kicked in with reasoning and he started cursing Nightwing over the coms accusing him of attempting to prank him. Because he was the only one coming close enough to his apartment on today's patrol to pull off a prank on him and not trigger all the alarms that were set up.

He will never admit to the little scream that came through the coms before shutting it off as he flicked his lights on and found a literal kid wearing an oversized Nasa shirt perched on his living room table staring at him like he was the intruder to his own apartment.

Before he could even ask a question, that feral kid pounced with their mouth wide open, sharp teeth glinting in the bad lighting of his apartment and ready to chomp down on any of his limbs. He had gotten a hold of the kid a couple of times but every time the kid somehow managed to slip out of his hold. Before attempting to gnaw on his arm or leg again.

Of course his grunts had alerted his siblings every fucking time Oracle had to switch on his coms when he switched them off on fucking purpose. Seriously he did not need for his siblings to hear or see him struggling agains a fucking child of all things. In his defence the kid was fucking feral and obviously wanted to make him its new chewtoy.

"Okay kid, we can do this the easy way or the hard way." He lifted both his hands letting his palms face the kid who of all things started hissing at him. What kind of child fucking hisses like a cat?! A fucking kid that pounces and attacks like a cat apparently.

Well there went his throw blanket as he swiftly ripped it apart and made the kid bite on that instead of his arm and tie the ripped off strip around the kids head. Once the kid was properly gagged with no choking danger, he wrapped the rest of the blanket around the kid so it wouldn't start thinking about using his hands and feet to fight instead of only its teeth.

"Don't glare at me like that. I gave you a choice." The kid was glaring daggers at him and he could only smugly smile down at them before he frowned.

Now that he finally got a better look at his small attacker, he noticed some things. For one there was the glaring fact that the kid looked way too much like the demon brat when he had been younger like a carbon copy. His first thought was that the kid was a fucking clone but so far any clone they came across was at least same age as the demon brat, that feral kid didn't look any older than seven or eight.

Second thing he noticed was that the kids' eyes flickered between the Lazarus green and a sky blue, both colors were glowing though. So was this a meta kid? Or considering the clone theory, a failed experiment the bitch Talia had dropped in a Lazarus Pit?

Then there was the fact that the Pit in his mind was strangely quiet and not the least bit aggressive or angry by the feral kids presence, no in fact the pit felt the calmest it ever had in a long time, even a little protective if he interpreted part of the silence correctly.

Who the fuck was that kid?

The sound of snapping teeth ripped him out of his thoughts and he stared down at the kid again just in time to pull his leg away from shape chompers. Somehow that feral brat had wiggled his way over to his legs and had also chewed his way through the makeshift gag that lay discarded at the kids former placement. "The fuck is wrong with you little shit?!"

--------

By the time Jason rolled with his bike into the Bat Cave, his siblings had fallen into a state of absolute chaos arguing back and forth, the footage from his helmet still playing on a part of the screen while a screen shot from the time the kid used his gun as chewtoy was taken and zoomed in to get a close up of the kids face.

Not that it helped considering the image was tat bit blurry but had enough quality that his siblings could see the kids similarities to the demon brat. Which probably was the cause for them arguing back and forth if that kid was a clone or some sort of experiment considering the age boy appeared to be.

"Jason?! What happened to the child?!" Of course it had to be Dick that noticed him first.

"Dropped him off the Wayne tower, what do you think?" He snarked back as he lifted the buritoed child that was aggressively gnawing on a gag made from bat wire. He rolled with his eyes at his siblings' gasps. Look they didn't have to deal with the kids biting or attemtping to bite them when they drove a fucking motorcycle. The wire was reassurance, after the kid managed to chew through at least three ropes, and two cloth made gags. The boy had razors as teeth and Jason had not been in the mood to risk crashing on his way to the Cave, okay?!

"Damn he does look like Damien but in small size." Tim mentioned as he got a little closer, curiosity getting the best of him before turning to the teenager in question. "Think it's a clone?"

"<tt> of course it is. Most likely a failed one Mother didn't dispose of for some reasons." Dick arched an eyebrow as Jeason just studied the youngest among them. The way the demon brat had said that felt wrong and by the way Dick was looking at the brat, he wasn't the only one that noticed.

"The fuck you want me to do with that little shit?" He was getting tired of holding up the kid like the boy was some prize he caught. Well he did catch that little biter in a way anyway.

Tim let out a shriek and jumped back from Jason and the kid, a syringe in his hand with a little blood drawn from the boy. The older could only raise an eyebrow as the younger gave the biter a wary look and shuffled back to create more distance. The kid still bound by blanket burrito on the other hand had managed to chew through fucking bat wire and was snapping and hissing in Tims direction eyes brightly growing green.

"Carefully he bites."

"His eyes they…"

"Glow Lazarus green, yes."

Really did he need to state all the obvious things to his siblings.

"We should just get rid of that thing." Oh gee demon brats, solution to everything. Just get rid of it. Even if it was a clone, he was holding up a fucking kid here. He may kill but even he wouldn't step so low as to kill a fucking child just cause it would be convenient.

"Now, now let's just figure out if the kid is really a clone or maybe a Meta." Ever the peacemaker Dick tried as Jason and Damien glared at each other while Tim made his way to the Batcomputer to analyze the little bit of blood he had been able to withdraw before the kid started snapping at him. Suddenly the blanket in his grip felt lighter than it had before. Staring at the empty blanket burrito a curse escaped his lips alerting his other two siblings.

"Where did the child go?" Dick asked panicked but let out a yelp as something rushed past his feet deeper into the bat cave.

"You imbecile can't you even keep a child contained?"

"Shut the fuck up, the blanket burrito was secure enough to at least get here with that feral biter. I wanna see you try to not get fucking biten by the kid when driving a bike!"

"<tt>"

[flamingpudding]

Part 10 of Ghost Kid in Gotham

>>Masterpost >> AO3

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A/N: A little side information on why this part is so late.... this was originally entirely different. I planned something else but wanted to adjusted that to what I would learn from AGIT but my copy of the book did not arrive yet... soooo this ended up as Part 10 and the original part 10 will be 11 now I guess, we will see :D

A/N(2): Oh btw AO3 link is now out! So far 3 Parts were edited and posted there! I also recently learned that editing a post does not generate a notice. So I will start leaving a comment on the Masterpost whenever a new Part is up. That should hopefully notify anyone subscribed to the Masterpost!

No work at the dinner table

It was supposed to be a normal dinner. His siblings were supposed to just meet his twin brother. Get to meet him and help him enable a somewhat normal childhood with the second chance Damian was getting with Danyal. Yet here he was hugging, no clutching his brother closer to him as he stared at their father at the head of the table furthest away from the twins.

Danyal's entire attention was on the man. There was no adverse reaction like the last time but he knew by his brother's body language that he was entirely focused on their father. The moment the man had spoken their mothers name Damian had felt how Danyals entire demeanor had changed. It was obviously the league training. The way the boy sat up straighter and his shoulders tensed.

The dinner had started relatively well all things considered. Drake had set up a powerpoint with ground rules for how their siblings were supposed to approach and not crowd Danyal. Of course they barely listened once they got to see the boy and Brown was the first one to nearly get bitten by the young boy attempting to pinch his cheeks. Damian had scowled.

But he had also watched on with fondness as he reluctantly had let go of his brother. He knew he was developing an unhealthy clinginess. But could they blame him? He had believed his brother to be dead for eight year and now finally got im back. Damian believed that a little protectiveness was well in his rights.

Brown had no business in teasing him about his brotherly display. Though he did drone when his siblings started discussing who of the two was the 'evil' twin. Did they not know that both Danyal and him were known as Demon Twins in the league? Questioning who of the two was 'evil' was rather foolish and when he voiced these thoughts he had to hide more of his puzzlement as they laughed.

He felt his vindictiveness calm when Danyal bit Brown soon after and despite him not wanting his brother to literally bite them. At least he could trust that Brown would not cause his brother sickness if bitten, he did not believe the same in regards to his elder brothers.

All it all the dinner was shaping up to be quite fine that was until their father stormed in with Richard closely following him. Damian wasn't sure how to categorize the expressions they were making but he let his instincts take over as he scooped up Danyal in his arms and chose the seat furthest away from their father. But if he had to he would at least call the face Richard was making pensive.

He did notice from the corner of his eyes how Todd choose a seat close to them and radiated a rather protective aura while glaring at their father. The next words the man spoke was enough to calm down even the last bit of excitement their siblings had for meeting Danyal as they all soberly waited for what their father had to say.

"I have been able to reach Talia."

Which brought him to the current situation. He felt how the air tensed. His mother had always been a difficult topic for all of them and he could not blame them. She had a rather strange way of showing love especially with the strong influence grandfather used to have on her.

"Danyal is not supposed to be eight years old." Damian's eyes narrowed as his hold once more tightened on his brother. What did father mean by that? Of course Danyal was supposed to be the same age as Damian, but he had died and only gotten revived recently.

"Bruce, maybe we should…" Richard was interrupted by their father laying out a stack of papers. The man's eyes were hard, clearly unhappy with whatever his mother had done and Damian couldn't blame him for that. He himself still felt conflicted whenever he thought about his mother reviving his dead twin after eight years.

The youngest Wayne looked down at the twin in his arms. Noting how his brother's eyes flickered between blue and green as they were trained on their father.

"Danyal al Ghul died at the age of eight. Talia revived him shortly after he had died." His head snapped up. What?

"According to what Talia was willing to share. Danyal did not come back the same, unable to handle Danyal she had then placed him in an adoption Center in Chicago hiding any traces she could of his revival."

"What?" The whisper was out before he could stop it. Todd was glaring even more intensely at their father. Unspoken works of Danyal having gone through the same Pit Madness that Todd had were clearly there. Richard had moved to stand by Damian and Todd, a grounding hand placed on each of their shoulders as the information ran through all of their minds.

His twin hadn't been revived recently but eight years ago?

"With that information I traced it back as far as I was able to. A family with the name of Fenton adopted him and he lived with them for eight years until he was declared dead about a month ago by a governmental institution."

Their father finally took a seat looking right at him and his twin.

"When did you find Danyal?"

"Danny. He likes to be called Danny." Damian said more or less out of reflex, he would recognise if shock set it wouldn't he? He was trained that way. Richard was squeezing his shoulder and his brother was squirming in his arms.

"About four days ago. Kid appeared in my apartment out of nowhere. Thought Dickie was playing a prank on me."

Their father hned and Todd's words. "That still leaves a good three weeks of no information between Dan-ny's revival and his foster parents declaring him dead."

"A governmental institution declared him dead?" Drake questioned further. "Not the police? Was there even a search?"

"They searched for him for a week before he was declared dead." Richard was the one speaking up this time. At the imploring looks of their siblings the elder brother shrugged. "I looked through the reports Bruce had laying all over his office when I…. talked with him."

Clearly there was more to the 'talk' than his eldest brother was willing to say but Damian would question that later more. Right now his focus was his twin. "So something must have happened during that time that not only deaged my brother but also brought him to us. Mother did not have a hand in this this time?"

Their father shook his head no. "If I can believe her words. She left him alone knowing that once Danny regained his mind he would not seek out the league to keep you safe. Talia denies having anything to do with his relocating or dealing. But she did admit to having had someone occasionally check in on the boy but refused to say anything more on that matter."

Damian's hold tightened once more and his brother was obviously squirming in his hold now, wiggling to find a more comfortable position. He heard a chirp and his eyes looked down at the blue eyes of his brother staring up at him.

Something has happened to his brother to leave him in this state. For now he could ignore that his mother had withheld the information that his brother had been alive all these years. He could ignore the hurt he felt over it and he could ignore the fact that Danyal had not attempted to connect with him to protect Damian once more. He would focus on finding out what had been done to his brother and to ensure that he would be safe now.

His siblings were discussing something around him but he was not really listening as his focus was on his brother in his arms. This time he would get to be the one to protect him.

"Ahbak, Danny." He whispered to the boy looking at him with big blue eyes and he could feel Richard squeezing his shoulder once more as he buried his face in his twin's hair.

"Ahbak, Dami!" The child in his hands told him and Damian once more swore, he would find out what happened to his brother and he would protect him. Everything else he would deal with once he ensured his brother's safety.

"By the way, I have one burning question!" Brown suddenly piped up interrupting whatever discussions were going on and stared at the child and the teen that were supposed to be twins of the same age. Their serious discussion was forgotten as she broke the tension that had built up with her next words.

"Who is the older twin?"

The short silence spoke volumes as Danmian raised an eyebrow at his siblings and Danyal made another chirping noise.

"It's obviously Damian."

"But from what Damian told us I would think it's Danny."

"Did you see how feral he is? He is the youngest."

"But Damian said Danny was protective! That is the mark of an older sibling!"

"You shitting me? He's the younger."

"Older."

"Guys this sounds awfully a lot like the evil twin discussion from earlier…"

"Yea the little shit is the evil younger twin."

"No, the stabby one is the evil younger twin."

"You're biased, because he tried to kill you before."

"And you're biased because you're the favorite chewtoy."

All his siblings were imbeciles, even his twin brother with his recent habit of biting anyone that came too close was better behaved than them. He clicked his tongue, though he smiled fondly as down at his brother who suddenly had started to hiss at Brown for trying to pinch the boy's cheek to prove something. "<tt> Danyal was… is the older one between the two of us."

Also Damian could feel Pennyworth staring at them all from the passage door to the kitchen with high disapproval as he was ready to serve dinner but apparently refused to do so until father put away the stacks of reports in regards to his twin, that obviously broke the butlers no work at the table rule.

[flamingpudding]

Part 11 of Ghost Kid in Gotham

>>Masterpost >>AO3

<<1 Previous Next

One Step Closer

Casandra stared at the child hiding in the antic behind storage boxes. Her siblings were out on patrol and Bruce practically had to drag Damian out on it for once. She could see how their youngest was reluctant to leave his twin.

She couldn't say she understood but from his body language Cass could clearly see what she was able to understand. Damian was protective, worried, scared and loved. It wasn't much different from what he felt towards the rest of them yet it was highly amplified and not as subtitle as he usually made it seem.

It worried her. Should anything happen to Danny it would greatly hurt her youngest brother. That was why she had stayed back to help Alfred and Duke to look after their newest brother while everyone went out. Steph had wanted to stay too but Cass saw it and pushed her girlfriend towards the cave, shaking her head. Maybe next time.

Steph had too much energy and was too excited to stay with Danny. Damian probably knew it too. He had scowled when the louder ones of their siblings tried to volunteer. But Cass? She had seen it. Danny had stiffed once the child realized Damian was going to leave him for a short time.

Confused, protective, scared, defensive, worried.

She had wanted to tell their father to not force Damian on patrol, even if he had skipped it a lot lately in favor of staying with his twin. But when Alfred and Duke approached the boy as chosen watcher, he had calmed. He was still scared and defensive but also curious and nervous now.

Still she had stayed behind. Danny had still been scared and defensive.

Her worry was proven correct when not even after three minutes into the others leaving the little boy disappeared from their side. Danny was silent and knew what openings to use to slip away. But the way she didn't even sense it felt like more than just the league's training. It was like the little guy blinked out of existence. Duke had instantly used his ghost vision only to curse when he ran into a wall, again apparently.

Alfred had seemed rather amused and only gave them a knowing and amused smile. If Alfred wasn't panicked then Casandra wouldn't be either. The butler knew, so Danny wasn't in danger.

Still it had taken her some time and she was ready to call everyone back to help in the search for her newest brother but then she had seen him. It was only from the corner of her eye and once again Danny was very silent and didn't even make a single sound. She could have imagined seeing him but Cassandra trusted her instincts now.

Which led her to the current situation. She blinked as she moved to sit cross legged with a little distance in front of the child. Blue eyes were clearly watching her the moment she had entered his field of vision.

Defensive, scared, worried.

Smiling, she didn't move any closer at first. There was a green blob, a blob ghost according to her brothers, floating close to the child and some snacks laying around the boy, discarded wrapping papers and a stolen plate of Alfred's cookies. So that was why the butler had been amused, he knew Danny had taken them. A giggle wanted to bubble out but she suppressed it, opting to smile fondly.

"Cookies good?"

Her newest brother only tilted his head in confusion. She inched a little closer, stopping when Danny started to hiss slightly.

Defensive, protective, scared, confused.

Once the child stopped hissing she tried again, this time pointing at the cookie in Danny's hand. "Good?"

Defensive, confusion, realization.

Danny with wary eyes kept watching her as he broke the cookie in two and offered one half to the green blob that ate the piece in one go while Danny nibbled on it. His blue glowing eyes never left her. The boy continued eating the cookies like that, always sharing with that green blob while also keeping an eye on her.

Cass could only smile as she just sat there in silence. She had remembered to send Duke a text that she had found Danny but with that text she had also asked him to not come up here. There was no reason to unsettle her newest brother any more than needed.

Besides, she counted it as a win for her when after a while of silently enjoying each other's company and respecting Danny's boundaries, the boy himself slowly crawled closer to her. He wasn't touching her but he slid half a cookie over to Cass.

She wished she had taken a video of this. Just so that she could prove that Cass officially had one over her brothers now, except for Damian of course. Danny was close to her, not hissing and sharing one of the cookies the little biter had stolen. She would hold this over Dick for a long time.

Meanwhile in Amity Park…

"Where is the twerp?"

Suppressing a scream, Jazz whirled around and came face to face with Dan who stood behind her with his arms crossed in front of his chest. Glowing red eyes were glaring unblinkingly at her. It would be off putting if Jazz didn't know that there was an undertone of worry. She was alone and hadn't expected any of the others involved in the search to show up. Tucker and Sam were in school keeping up appearances and Ellie was following a ghost rumor two cities over to the west of Amity park.

Jazz looked over the other, taking in how unaffected the near mirror image of her brother looked. Dan had been mostly spared from the fallout in Amity, considering that he lived 90 percent of the time with Vlad with the other 10% spent in the ghost zone making friends with Fright Knight again and so far Dan had also avoided meeting their parents. Vlad, him and Ellie had been the last to hear of Danny's disappearance let alone his death announcement of their parents or rather from the GIW. It had been a month since that announcement and Jazz was honestly surprised that Dan hadn't shown up earlier. But Vlad had pulled back from Amity and who knew when their parents had informed him about Danny's 'death' if at all and the other man had only found out because he decided to visit now of all times.

Eitherway, the future version of her brother / time clone / cousin / second brother was now standing before her. "I know the twerp is not dead yet. And the old man is trying to get as much information out of Maddie and Jack as he can right now. So I decided to get information from you shits."

"Language Dan." Jazz corrected out of habit. She was amazed that Dan even found them but again Danny probably knew about this hidden room of Sam's Mansion, which they were now using as their debriefing room. Maps were laying everywhere as well as pinned to the walls. Some were marked red, places Ellie had already looked into and hadn't found any sign of Danny.

"We have been looking into a lot of towns with reported ghost sightings to try and find him but a lot of them came up with nothing. All fake with no real ghost appearances. Danny isn't dead, we know this because Ellie told us that the Ghost Zone would riot if he were, so-"

"Oh they wouldn't just be rioting. If humans killed or incapacitated the king this entire dimension would be done and over." Wasn't that reassuring to know, Jazz thought, her parents weren't just neglecting and too obsessed in their research. No, they and the GIW could be the cause of their entire Dimension dying if they ever got their hands on Danny again.

"The Fenton portal is closed, right? And I have asked Fright Knight to not let anyone slip through the old man's portal until I am back at the castle." Dan wasn't looking at her anymore but to the side a scowl clearly visible on his face. That was another mystery to Jazz, the Fenton portal one day shortly after Danny's disappearance and right before the death announcement stopped working. It just suddenly closed and no matter what her parents did, did not open again. "Don't know how long we can keep ghost idiots, that also want to go look for the twerp, in check. So you better hurry up and find him."

"Thank you, Dan." Jazz smiled fondly at her time double brother who only scowled and refused to make eye contact with her. "I am sure we will find Danny."

"Tried the Booo-merang, yet?" The other only muttered, but he did glance at Jazz from the corner of his eyes.

Jazz let out a sigh, remembering how throwing that thing was one of the first things she did upon returning from college and hearing about Danny's disappearance. "We did but it only flew a couple of meters before falling to the ground. Tucker is tinkering with it, thinking that Danny might just be out of range for it."

She heard an inaudible grumble from the other and smiled sadly. The Booo-merang had always been a sure fire way to find Danny but now even that wasn't working for them. Sam was convinced that they must have brought Danny to another GIW-facility far away from Amity before or after they announced his disappearance, but Tucker refuted this with what he found when he hacked into them. But what he found made Tucker think that Danny might have initiated one of their backup plans, the fact that the Fenton portal was no longer working spoke for it but that the emergency kit they had prepared for this was still untouched spoke against it. Ellie hadn't said anything on that matter but Jazz knew the little girl was very worried, going so far to travel to every city ghost rumors appear in hopes that it's Danny they were talking about.

And now even Dan and Vlad seemed like they were starting to get involved.

A sigh escaped her once more as she turned around and looked sadly down at the map on the table. "Danny will… is… has to be on the run. Tucker doesn't think the GIW have him anymore. He had hacked into their database and nothing indicated that they still have him. But from what he found Danny must be heavily injured to the point , Tucker… he… he has seen pictures he refused to share. According to what he found from them, Danny just disappeared with injuries that would make escaping without help difficult, yet no one knows where he is."

"The twerp will be okay. Little shit is tougher than he looks. I should know that the best." Dan muttered and Jazz smiled saddly at the way the other attempted to comfort her. Then she noticed how Dan was eyeing a world map that was pinned to the wall, his red eyes strangely focused differently than they were before. Like he was remembering a long forgotten memory.

"Dan?"

"You remember, I… we… he…" Glowing red eyes closed in frustration before they looked back at Jazz. She knew that the other sometimes still had a hard time putting a line between Danny and himself, especially when it came to certain things like memories and everything before the split of their timelines. "Danny is adopted."

"What does that have to…?"

"You said he just disappeared according to the GIW Database? There might be something more to it. I am going to have to look into some old shit I… we, fuck, Danny probably hasn't thought about for years now."

Stunned Jazz watched how Dan changed into his ghost form that looked so different from Danny's, the form that used to scare her and hadn't changed much since he gained a human body. The ghost looked ready to fly away.

"Wait, Dan where are you going?!" She tried to stop him but just like her Danny when he got an impulsive idea, Dan wasn't going to listen. Instead the other only turned to her with a grim face.

"If you come across the old man, tell him I am going to look into an old asshole. There are a handful of people involved with me… fuck I mean him that could make the twerp disappear without a trace. These fuckers are worse then the GIW and we certainly don't need them getting involved now. As if killing us once wasn't enough…"

Jazz watched helplessly how Dan disappeared through the wall like he had appeared. With a worried look she glanced at the world map Dan had been looking at, unsure of what the other had seen or remembered because of it. Worry heavily stirred inside of her and she wanted to scream loudly infrustration. Once more her brother was keeping her out of the loop about something important and by the quiet mutter at the end she most likely wasn't supposed to hear, she knew it didn't mean anything good.

Once more Jazz sighed, swallowing her frustration and worry to pull out her phone, decided to tell the others with a quick message that Dan was now helping too and apparently following a different lead. A lead that if she interpreted everything Dan had said correctly, had something to do with Danny's life before he had been adopted and was connected to something highly dangerous.

The secure chat exploded with follow up questions, she couldn't answer and only left her to stare at the world map once more in worry and unsure on how to proceed from here.

[flamingpudding]

Part 9 of Ghost Kid in Gotham

>>Masterpost

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Pit Demons aren't pets, now stop biting!

Jason sighed as he pulled into the bat cave with his bike. This was the third day in a row now that he was coming back into the Manor now and most likely stayed over again. Steph and Cass were due back from her mission today and Jason knew Alfred was preparing for the Family dinner that was going to happen either today or tomorrow.

Depending if Dick could finally gets Bruce out of his office.

It didn't really matter to Jason though. He was just here to… well he didn't know either but he knew that he was trying to keep an eye out for the little biter. Even if he had to deal with Timber being frustratingly annoying with the whole ghost cult thing.

So what if he could read what they claim to be squiggles. Not that he could prove otherwise, because all he saw was perfectly readable letters. Thankfully he had gotten Tim off his back for some time as he went to deal with something in Crime Alley.

He checked the group chat and scowled.

Apparently the entire Manor was in a state of chaos and Demon Brat was dragging Duke around the entire manor to have him use ghost vision to find the little shit. Not that it was helping since the last update was from 15 minutes ago and apparently the light path Duke had followed ran into a wall.

He looked over to the Batcomputer to find Tim going through the security footage. The other hadn't even so much spared Jason a glance so far too focused on trying to find how the kid could have disappeared from Damian's room without any of them noticing. Alfred and Demon Brat had put down the kid for a nap in Damian's room despite having a room prepared for the little biter and when Damian checked on the kid after doing his school work he found the kid gone.

"Still nothing on the kid?"

"Nothing, it's like the kid vanished into thin air. Not even the sensors in Damian's room picked anything strange up that could hint at his disappearance."

"I still have bite marks, so he definitely was not a mass hallucination."

Tim glared at Jason and the elder only shrugged. It was probably a bit to soon for that kind of joke. But his brothers weren't the only ones worried.

He wasn't even sure if Bruce knew, considering the last he heard was Dick and the old man having a 'talk' again. Dick was probably leaving the search to them for the moment to deal with whatever problem B was having right now.

"Think someone kidnapped the kid?"

"No. Aside from us, and probably the LoA, no one should know about Danny. The League taking him back wouldn't make sense. Besides why would anyone attempt to kidnap him from the Wayne Manor of all places? Gotham's Kidnappers might be dumb but not that dumb."

Jason sagely nodded in agreement. There was something tugging at the back of his mind but he couldn't explain what. It was like on the first day he had brought the little biter to the batcave. Over his shoulder he glanced into the direction his mind -no, the pit was urging him to go.

The pit had been strangely quiet and subdued ever since he met the kid. Protective of the biter at times but he despite the way Timber had annoyed and pestered him previously, he had not felt his own annoyance swing over into that uncontrollable rage.

There was a suspicion, a working theory. Something he wasn't yet willing to share with the rest of the family, despite the fact that he was sure that they had also noticed. It was a glaring fact that he was staying with them in the Manor despite Bruce being there too.

But until there was more confirmation Jason wasn't going to mention any of his suspicions, not if they could possibly endanger a little kid.

Because if he was right then the little biter was brought back way different than him and could also have some Pit controlling powers. The way his own mental Pit reacted to the boy was most likely proof but also what the other had found out so far. Lazarus water was fucking affecting the kids DNA.

It didn't help that Replacement had mentioned a suspicion that the League had most likely experimented with the kid and the Lazarus water judging by the scars they had discovered.

Someone might have deemed the kid a failure at first or the kid had escaped and somehow found his way to Jason's apartment with him probably being the closest thing to what the kid was.

Maybe the kid could sense him the way he could with his Pit. Shaking his head out of these thoughts Jason focused back at the problem at hand.

"I will check with Alfie, see if he knows any more hiding spaces kids would love to use." He patted his younger brother's shoulder only getting a grumble as answer before turning and going towards the elevators.

But before he could enter he once more glanced at the direction the pit was urging him to go. Hesitating, he looked back towards Timber and then the elevator.

"Fuck it." He muttered and decided to trust that stupid pit instinct or whatever that was, though with a threat in his stomach that once more just like the first time when they had searched through the cave to find the kid, the pit was leading him towards the Lazarus Pit.

Once he realized where he was going he stopped. "I should just fucking get Replacement or Demon Brat to check there." Muttering to himself he stared at the direction he was heading towards. When he found the little shit there before the kid had jumped him, chomping down on his arms.

The kid had only led go of him after he spat out green fucking Lazarus Water. Like what the actual fuck? Jason had pushed that experience as far out of his mind as he could but he was remembering it now again. It had been worrisome but they had chalked that up to the kids' contamination.

But now? Now that the pit in his mind was urging him to go there again? He couldn't help but think that there was more to it. Maybe his own dip in the pit had something to do with the little shits obsession with him?

Letting out a sigh he was ready to turn on his heel and get one of the others to check this area when he suddenly heard childlike laughter. "You are shitting me…"

With a scowl he marched towards the Lazarus Pit only to stop in his tracks the moment it came into view.

The little biter was sitting on the ground by the Pit as green glowing blobby orbs floated around the boy. The boy was poking them saying something, he couldn't really hear from this distance and then laughed. There was a light in his blue eyes that Jason hadn't seen before, a happiness even. It would be a really cute image of the kid playing with some green blobby orbs, if these things weren't probably some sort of dangerous Pit Demons.

Fuck what was he going to do now? If they were dangerous and he startled them the little shit could end up in real danger. So far they hadn't noticed him.

Grumbling while keeping an eye on the laughing boy, he sent a quick message into the chat telling the others little biter was in the batcave by the Lazarus pit. He knew the moment Tim saw the message he would come running, same with Demon Brat.

Despite knowing that was not a cute moment but dangerous, he snapped a picture anyway. Just for the record and to make sure he wasn't hallucinating or something. Because the kid was actually laughing, not hissing, not blankly staring, glaring or watching one of them but actually laughing like a kid his age with a shine in his eyes he hadn't seen before.

Demon Brat can thank him later for that picture, if Jason decides to share it with the others that was.

Echoing steps could be heard behind him and just like he predicted his brothers came running. The kid's laughter instantly stopped when he heard it too and his head snapped towards Jason, eyeing him warily. One of his hands was still stretched out towards one of the blobs, probably to pet it, but had stopped midway.

It was weird how the blobs were also now turning towards him and sort of looked displeased? Were these demons upset that they made the kid stop showering them in affection?

"Danyal!" Damn were they fast if they wanted to. Rushing past him their formerly youngest kneeled by his younger twins side patting the kid down and checking them over. Jason narrowed his eyes. Did Damian not notice the green glowing orbs that were all around the kid?

"So he was here the entire time?!" Timber asked the moment he coughed up, baffled. "How did we miss that?"

"Hey Replacement?" He had to ask, like come on, he couldn't be the only one seeing these green blobby orbs floating around the little biter and now the Demon Brat.

"Do you see-"

"What are these green blobs?"

Duke appeared next to them, clearly worried. Well that at least spared him having to ask that himself. From the corner of his eyes he watched how Tim blinked confused then rubbed his eyes like he was noticing them for the first time.

"Are those?"

"Small Pit Demons." Demon Brat answered them casually, waving one of them away when it got too close to his face. "They used to be around Grandfather's Lazarus Pit all the time. They seem to appear where Pits are and are harmless if you leave them be."

"Wait, you know about them?"

"Of course. They usually stay out of sight but it was not unusual to get a glimpse of them every now and then. Danyal used to point them out when we were younger. I am surprised that none of you ever noticed them before."

"Demon Brat, are you fucking kidding me? We got literally Pid Demons in the Batcave?!" They had fucking Pit Demons in the Batcave because of the Lazarus Pit and the damned brat didn't bother to tell them? What the fuck?

"Blob Ghosts! Not Demons!" The little biter piped up and Jason turned to stare at the kid not quite in disbelief but really? That was what the kid cared about, what they called these things?

"I don't fucking care what they are called. They still come for the fucking pit"

"Uhm…" Oh right all they hear from the kid is chirping or thrilling noises.

"What did Danyal call them?"

"Blob Ghosts."

"Blob Ghosts…" Before he knew it Tim was gone, nose deep in the weird ghost cult book muttering something about a connection between the Pits and that cult. Was he seriously carrying that book around everywhere now?

"Dami, can we keep-"

"No." Where were Dick and Bruce or maybe even Alfred? He did not want to act as the responsible eldest here. Helping Demon Brat sneaking various animals into the Manor to annoy Bruce was one thing but keeping fucking Pit Demons? Hell normally he would be all for it but fuck did he not want to deal with anything that came for the fucking Pits. Nope, this was not his kind of deal.

Apparently the kid didn't like his instant refusal as all he heard was a hiss in warning, followed by the simple command of "Smother him!"

His vision was swarmed with green and not the kind of green that happens when Pit Rage took over. No it was the kind where a lot of green glowing blobby orbs decide to swarm you. He swatted at them like they were flies, sometimes it worked, sometimes he noticed how his hand would go right through them without effect.

"Get the fuck away from me!"

"Danyal!" He could hear Demon Brats scowling tone but he didn't know what it was about until a second later he felt a weight hitting his chest knocking him over.

"WHAT THE FUCK?! GET FUCKING OFF ME!"

There was another hiss and a pain, he was getting familiar with, bloosemed in his right forearm and in between the green blobs he got a glimps of the little shit biting down on is arm a-fucking-gain. Though the kids eyes were blue he could still see a green flickering in them.

"Oh for the love of… Danyal! I told you to stop biting them!"

"Shouldn't we be more concerned about the Pit Demons attacking Jason?"

"Todd will be fine as I said they are harmless. Danyal, I said get off him this instant or I will tell Pennyworth to withhold your snacks."

"I feel like priorities aren't set right here…"

Despite his doubts… Duke still took a picture of the chaos to share with the others later. Dick surely would get a good laugh out of whatever this was.

[flamingpudding]

Part 7 of Ghost Kid in Gotham

>>Masterpost

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A/N: Sorry what was supposed to be the next Part isn't ready. Blame my stress levels and work live... anyway instead I finished this up sorta last minute...

Interlude: A different perspective

Danny didn't know what was happening. His mind was foggy and he couldn't find a clear thought. He was crouching on a hard surface and high up, distantly through the fog of his mind he could hear voices he had gotten familiar with. He knew one of them belonged to his twin brother or at least who he believed his brother was.

This muddy mind was making it hard to focus as all his instincts went haywire, screaming at him from all sides when he jumped away from the new unknown, ready to defend himself. With his instincts screaming at him he crouched there watching the new, trying to figure out why his instincts were screaming while his mind was making it hard to find a single clear thought.

There were more to his instincts than he was used to, just like the day before. He could sense more than he knew should, his body remembered something new but his mind made it hard to focus on that. Yet he sensed a different energy around the new, the same he had sensed when he had woken up in an unknown place and got confronted by the icky one.

In that place the owner of the same energy, he was sensing from the new unknown, had been long gone and only left the trace there for Danny. It had unsettled him deeply and he, despite his hazy mind, had blacked out. He could sense it around his brother not as strongly. But it was there, like that presence had left an imprint on them, claiming them, it set him on edge.

It was the energy of something strong and protective. It was familiar but not. It could be dangerous but it felt more protective.

He had watched the man he sensed the same energy from. Unlike his brother the presence of that being was strong one the man. It didn't feel like a simple imprint. He was the haunts' protector. Someone Danny's instinct screamed at him to not mess with and to be cautious of. The haunt's owner had claimed that man as the protector.

His hazy mind couldn't understand what that meant but he still let his instincts take over.

Everything was unfamiliar. He had already been on edge waking up in someone's haunt and then getting faced with someone that gave him a very icky feeling. Considering he only felt the haunt's owner left traces he knew that they were allowing his stay but something felt off and Danny didn't know what.

The last he remembered was facing his twin on his grandfather's command in a fight and then there was green and his memory was jumpy and his head was starting to hurt everything he tried to remember more.

The new left, taking the traces of the haunts owner with him.

"Danyal, please come down already."

He blinked, his mind became hazy and….

…why was he so high up?

Letting out a whine, he turned his gaze to the one that felt like his brother Dami.

"I still say we try using Jason as bait."

"I swear if you suggest that one more time…"

"Danyal?"

Gripping the edge of what he was on Danny rolled forward, flipping and landing on his feet, crouching on all four and tilting his head as he let out an amused chirp. This older version of his brother looked funny with his arms stretched out as if he wanted to catch him. The other two were making some funny faces too. Silly Dami, he thought, he should know that Danny was able to jump off of higher places.

"Danyal, do not do that again." His brother was scowling him now and he couldn't help the whine like chirp that left his throat. The taller of the other two, the one that made Danny's instincts go haywire and he liked to call the icky one in his mind, apparently found it funny and chuckled.

"Little shit says that wasn't even as high as the walls you used to jump off."

His brother scowled more but there was a softness, oh was he remembering that time their teacher kicked them off a 30 meter wall when they hesitated to jump? Danny remembered that time well. They were supposed to slide it down and then kick off at the last 5 meters and roll off the ground and end in a crouch ready to sprint off like they had practiced.

Dami had messed up the first time and landed face first in sand. Danny had too though he had just been a little bit more graceful with his landing, not by much considering instead of a crouch he ended up continuously rolling and ending flat on his back with a lot of sand in his gear.

"Well at least the little guy got down. Now…" The shorter of the other two suddenly pulled out the book again Danny had seen him holding earlier and turned back to the taller one. What had Dami called him again? "...I still need to know since when you were in a ghost cult."

"For fucks sake! I never was in a ghost cult!"

"Imbeciles." His brother muttered as he neared Danny and picked him up from his crouching position and carried him out of the room as he heard the other two starting up arguing again. That reminded Danny where had the other one gone? The one that kept trying to get past Danny's warnings?

"Let's go and look for Alfred, Danyal." Danny let out a chirp, forgetting his previous train of thoughts. He recognized that name! It belonged to the nice old man, the owner of this small haunt protected by the strong presence's big haunt. "I believe he must have returned now with some clothing more fitting for you."

Danny let out another whiney chirp. He liked his brother's hoodie though even if it was too big for him, it was nice and comfy way better than anything they had in the league. It seemed like this time this older version of his brother understood him and let out an amused huff.

"Danyal you can not keep wearing my clothes. That is unbecoming for someone of our status."

Well he didn't care he liked that hoodie besides Dami was the heir not him, grandfather had said so himself. He let out a questioning chirp, his memories were still muddled and jumpy. His instincts were screaming with an unfamiliarity he wasn't used to nor had been trained in also.

His mind started to make it hard to focus and Danny lay his head down on Dami's shoulder, like he used to when they sat on roofs after a particularly hard training session. Allowing his conciseness to drive in and out. Once more he voiced his question, even if all that came out was a questioning chirp his brother wouldn't understand without the tall icky one.

Where was grandfather? Why was this Dami older than the one in his hazy memories? Why did he feel like he had a whole new set of instincts that liked to go haywire and scream at him? And why did he feel like he was constantly forgetting something?

But more importantly, how was he alive when he had died for Dami?

[flamingpudding]

Part 8 of Ghost Kid in Gotham

>>Masterpost

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Ghost Cult Guides and Light Silhouettes

Duke had avoided the family drama that was brewing in the manor all day. In the morning he had been too tired to deal with the families usual drama when he had walked in on Dick having gotten bitten by a child that Damian appeared to take care and shined way to bright for him who had just gotten out of a sleepy daze, while Tim and Jason were laughing at the eldest expense.

Lunch he had the excuse by being in the library studying but now that it was dinner time he knew he couldn't avoid it any longer. It was time to see and face whatever craziness this family has gotten themselves into. He knew Bruce was home already but according to the group chat message from Dick the man had locked himself into his office and was brooding again.

The eldest made sure to tell them not to worry and that the reason would be explained by the family dinner Alfred was organizing and had invited everyone too. A must attend event and probably the reason why Dick was going to stay longer in Gotham than he had originally planned.

Well, that was going to be a whole other dinner to go through once everyone was available. For now, he was hopeful in for a nice and calm dinner.

Sitting down at the table he was sort of surprised to find that he was the only one there yet.

"Alfred?" He asked carefully as the butler placed down plates for the others. "Where are the others?"

"Master Jason is attempting to avoid Master Tim, who is very insistent in finding out Master Jason's connection to an occult. Master Damian is currently showing Master Danyal the barn, and Master Richard is still talking to Master Bruce."

Duke nodded. Okay, that's fine. Wait Danyal? Was that the kid he had gotten a bright glimpse of this morning? "Who is Danyal?"

Alfred only smiled softly and Duke couldn't help but wonder, not realizing that Alfred didn't answer his question at all as Jason made his entrance and unceremoniously plopped down in a chair by the end of the table looking like a mix between annoyed and tired.

"Jason! You did not just walk out on me like that! I need to know why you can read these occult sigils!"

Tim stormed in right after aggressively pointing at an open page in the book he was holding. So that was the occult thing Alfred mentioned. Looked like Tim had been pestering Jason all day about that considering how obsessed the other could become with cases.

"For the last time I have never been in a ghost cult!" For a second Duke wondered how many times 'last time' had been said considering the tired and frustrated look Jason was giving Tim. It was strange anyway to see Jason still in the manor if he was this frustrated with the other and Bruce was home too.

Their arguing was sort of amusing so Duke kept quiet and listened to them arguing, wondering how long it would take for them to notice him. Considering, Tim even took the seat right next to him. At least this way he could get a sneak peak of the book Tim was referencing here.

[...Ruler of the realm connecting the universes together supported by the ghosts of ancient time. The sigils covering the artifacts are what keeps their presence in our dimension. A circle created from chalk with the sigils spelling in our known language 'Oh Ruler of the other side, Soul of the old, Ancient of War, King of the Realms. I plead to you to hear my calling' will have a summoning success of 40% and sacrifices no longer… ]

Duke side eyed Tim and decided Steph was never to find out about that book. It was bad enough that whatever the other was working on had him reading a book like that. Duke didn't need Steph to read it and to decide that they all try one of the summoning the book apparently listed. Worst case Tim would go fully along with this in support of whatever he was working on. What did get him this obsessed with…. Duke eyed the book title… 'Ghost Cult 101 How to properly communicate with the other side'.

Yea, he did not want to get involved with that but knowing his luck he would anyway. Just as Duke looked away ready to focus his attention on something else, since the two arguing still hadn't noticed his presence, he had to cover his eyes as a freaking brightness entered his vision of the dining room that had him groaning.

"I need sunglasses." He muttered apparently loud enough for everyone to notice as he covered his eyes with his hands and desperately blinked at the darkness they provided.

"Dude you okay?"

"No."

"Danyal, wait!"

He heard someone chirp and for a second he wondered if the others were pulling a prank on him or making fun of him until he felt a small hand pulling on him. Carefully he peaked through his fingers and blinked.

The brightness was reduced and not as strong as it had been earlier. He looked at where a small hand was pulling on him and came face to face with a mini version of Damian with glowing green eyes and also noting the dimmed glow around the kid. Before he could even ask who that kid was, he noticed the light forming a silhouette behind the kid.

"What?" Unconsciously he patted the kids head as he stared at the light silhouette that definitely looked like the Damian he knew. The Silhouette sort of looked sheepish and seemed apologetic to him.

"Thomas?" / "Duke?" He ignored Tim and Damian too focused on the figure. Not even noticing how Damian was next to him looking every bit ready to pull the kid away, he was still patting uncousciously, eyeing him carefully. While Tim was closely observing them.

"How the hell is that kid not hissy with him? Or even attempting to bite him?!" Jason on the other hand complained loudly standing and leaning with his hands on the table.

"Duke, what do you see?"

Before he could even answer, the silhouette made a shushing sign and grinned before disappearing. The light it formed returned to the kid that blinked at him now with blue eyes and Duke blinked back at the kid stunned.

"Um, who is that kid?" He asked in return very confused by what he just saw turning to look at the others for answers. Ignoring that he did not answer Tim's question earlier. Whatever that was, it wanted him to stay quiet about it by the looks of it.

Duke would wait for an explanation of who that Damian look-a-like child was, before deciding if he should tell the others or not.

Suddenly he felt a sting on his fingers and he yelped attention returning to the boy he had been patting and finding the kid nibbling on his finger with sharp teeth giving him an annoyed look.

"Danyal! No, what did I tell you about biting others?" Damian was instantly by the kids' side taking them away from him and seating the boy on the other side of the table.

"What the fuck?! That wasn't even a full bite? Where is the hissing and biteyness?!"

"What?" Rubbing the finger that got nibbled at he stared at the others. "He bites?"

"Normally yes. Maybe he just finds Jason to be the tastier chewtow. We should test it out if he will bite you again." Tim seemed interested and amused at the same time as he studied the kid that now sat quietly on the opposite of Duke. The kids sole focus was now on Jason with a strange clint again, was the boy even blinking?

"Drake, stop wanting Danyal to bite others or suggest them as bait for my brother."

"Wait Brother?"

All three turned to him and Damian opened his mouth to say something as Dick entered the room looking exhausted but smiled when he saw them. Wasn't he supposed to just have a talk with Bruce? Did that art out into one of their famous fights?

"Oh hey Duke. Looks like you meet our youngest brother teethling Danny already!" The eldest walked over to them and reached out a hand to pat the kid sitting next to Damian. Duke watched with a sweat drop how the boy's head instantly turned to Dick hissing and bearing his teeth and snapping them in his direction and causing the oldest to pout.

"I guess I have." He slowly offered as an answer, still very much confused, knowing that he needed a little bit more of an explanation from them. He heard a sigh next to him and turned to Tim.

"You were asleep by then. But Jason got attacked by a child-"

"I did not."

"-last night and that child turned out to be Damian's brother."

"So Bruce has another blood child." Well that also explained why the kid looked so much like Damian and most likely also why Bruce wasn't here but, according to Dick, was brooding in his office.

"So is the kid a meta?" He tried to ask carefully but that was not very easy and considering the light show he had gotten earlier it was either that or the boy harbored some other big secret.

"Why do you ask?"

His eyes went to the boy that was still hissing at Dick sitting at the edge of his chair closest to Damian not paying any of them any attention at all it seemed.

"The kid glows or it had a pretty bright glow earlier now it's more dimmed. Easier on my eyes too." That was probably the safest to say, he still wasn't sure if he should tell them about the Damian look-a-like light silhouette.

"Well…" Tim started carefully, clearly looking for the right words.

"Danyal died when he was eight and apparently got revived and severely contaminated by Lazarus Water." Damian stared at him and Duke couldn't help but straighten under the stare and gulped. "Thomas, what did you see earlier?"

There was really no hiding anything from this family, well he didn't put that much effort into it either. He mentally apologized to the light silhouette as he glanced at the still hissing child before turning his attention to the others.

Not noticing the small flicker of green as Danny's eyes looked at him just as quickly before turning back to Dick and his offending hand that still tried to pat him.

"There was a light figure right behind the little guy. It looked exactly like Damian, though thinking about it now its hair had a different cut and they looked like they were wearing a hazmat suit with a logo on the front."

"Just to clarify. The spirit looked the same age as Damian?" Tim further questioned and Duke nodded.

"Do you think that could be a manifestation of Danny's actual age?" Dick asked withdrawing his hand from the boy who in turn finally stopped hissing turning his attention to the food that Alfred placed down before the child.

"His actual age?"

"As I said before, Thomas. Danyal died at the age of eight. That was eight years ago. If he had lived he would be the same age as me right now." The formerly youngest explained, his attention split between watching the child next to him and their discussion.

Duke gapped, ready to ask more but then Alfred placed a plate before him and smiled at them all, the kind of smile that had all of them stiffening.

"I believe further discussion in regards to Master Danyal's situation can wait until after dinner, yes?"

They all agreed and focused on the meal that had been prepared for them. Well Duke guessed any further questions he had, could wait until after dinner espacially with the way Alfred was making sure they ate.

[flamingpudding]

Part 6 of Ghost Kid in Gotham

>>Masterpost

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A dead but now revived Son

When Bruce returned home he did not know what he should have expected. Alfred had contacted him a day earlier. Insisting that he needed to finish up the case with the Justice League as soon as possible to return and giving him a rather strange warning.

Apparently there was a new family member Damian had failed to tell them about. The butler did not leave a lot or room for discussion about who or what Damian failed to tell them so Bruce did all he could and made it back before lunch.

Bruce had assumed that his youngest had once again smuggled in an animal that was there to stay but that did not explain the butler's insistence of him coming home as soon as possible. So color him surprised when he stood in the doorframe of the sitting room that became the main hang out room for the family and two of his children were currently holding a screaming match about whether or not the older of the two was part of a cult. Tim was even threatening Jason with some sort of book he had gotten via express mail looking ready to hit his second oldest across the face with it.

"Just admit that you are or were a part of a ghost cult!"

"The fuck you talking about replacement?! I have never been in a ghost cult!"

"Bullshit! The sigels in this book say otherwise!"

"What fucking sigels you asshole!"

"The ones in this book!"

"Wave that any close to my face and I will punch you!"

Looking toward the couch he found his oldest sitting next to his youngest holding out sweets and treats to a child Damian was keeping in his lap in a rather protective hold. The child, a little boy that didn't look older than seven or eight, was wearing an oversized hoodie he recognised as one of Damians. The boy did not appear really happy with his situation as the child kept hissing at his oldest and snapping his teeth. Damian scowled at Dick clearly also not happy with what he assumed were his elder son's attempts at getting the child to not hiss at him.

"Richard, I am warning you."

"Come on little teethling! How about this chocolate? Or do you like baked goods better?"

"Richard."

"Just one pat without biting Dami, please! He is not hissing as much as he did earlier! Should I juggle the cakes?"

"Danyal, how about we leave these idiots?" The child didn't even look up at his youngest but kept hissing at Dick who kept offering small cakes to the child.

He cleared his throat, gaining the attention of his children, just as Damian was about to get up and leave with the boy. It was interesting seeing them blink at him this owlishly whenever he joined them when they least expected his appearance. "Someone wants to explain to me why Damian has a child with him?"

"This child is Danyal." Damian stated, looking down at the boy whose eyes were now focused on him. They were a glowing sky blue and Bruce couldn't help but think that his son might have picked up a little Meta child he wanted to take care of.

He hm-ed stepping into the room and closer to his children. Noting how the child in his son's arms tensed, pupils blown wide. The kid was on high alert. Now that he also took a closer look at the small boy he noticed that he had similarities to Damian, was that the reason the kid seemed to have latched onto his youngest?

"A Meta?" He questioned as he slowly moved towards the clearly tense child. Considering all his sons being around, the child might be a rescue and with the way the little one watched his every move as the newcomer, possibly abused too. He would need the report from his sons to get a better understanding of the boy's circumstances.

"Not exactly…" Tim started and he looked over at his third eldest. He was hesitating with his explanation, why? Was there something else amiss with the child?

"B maybe you should wait and sit down over there. This will be a lot to take in." Dick added his eyes worriedly going to the child that had become strangely quiet and back to him. Bruce only hm-ed again, Dick was good with children but from what he had seen this child wasn't trusting his eldest.

Maybe he should give it a try? So he crouched before Damian and the boy putting on the friendliest face he could muster. If this child was an abused meta case then the boy was surely scared, he could see it clearly now in the boy's eyes. The likelihood that he had probably latched onto his youngest because of their similarities for safety was now even more apparent.

"Hel-" He couldn't even finish his greeting before the child's eyes took on a glowing green color.

"Danyal!"

Suddenly the boy slipped out of Damian's hold and in what looked close to flying flipped over the couch onto his second oldest shoulders, using them as springboard to get onto one of the high shelves of the sitting room. Drawing back into the ceiling corner and making himself as small as possible. The entire time the child's glowing green eyes were on Bruce and his stomach sank at the familiarity of that color. His eyes, only for a split second, went over to Jason who glared at him, placing himself between Bruce and the shelve the boy jumped on.

"Father! What did you do?"

"I was only attempting to greet that child on eye-level so as not to further scare him."

"Yea sure." His second oldest scoffed. "You didn't want to judge if the kid was a dangerous unknown?"

"Jason."

"No Dick. The kid is fine with us, though still hissing and bitey but that was not a normal reaction. If I had to guess, the kid's Pit must have reacted to something with Bruce. The Biter stopped hissing the moment he noticed him. Look at the kids' eyes and tell me that's not true."

His eldest did look conflicted as his eyes went over to the kid on the high shelf silently staring down at them before looking back at him still crouching by the couch where he really had only attempted to greet the small child that had been in Damian's arms.

Standing up Bruce looked straight at his second oldest while still keeping the boy in his field of vision. "The child's Pit?"

Dick sighed covering his eyes with his right hand for a moment before looking back up at him again with determination. "That's why I wanted you to sit down and listen to us first. Danny is showing symptoms of being influenced by Lazarus Water. In addition Tim found that he not only has it in his system and blood but also influencing his DNA."

Bruce couldn't help his as his eyes narrowed at what his eldest son was saying. "The child, Danny you said, is like Jason?"

"Possible worse." Tim replied this time. "The way the Lazarus water influenced his DNA had nearly made it impossible to test it when we tried to see if Danny was a clone. I had to split and isolate it from his DNA to get clear results."

"A clone?"

Tim arched his eyebrow at Bruce judgingly. "You must have noticed how much he looks like Damian. We first thought the child was a Clone but turns out that's not the case. He-"

"Congratulations you have another supposedly dead son Talia revived via Lazarus Pit." Jason cut rudely not once looking away from Bruce as he waited for the man's reaction.

"JASON!"

"Just rip the bandaid off. Better to get his negative reaction out of the way now than later."

"That's not what I mean and you know it!"

"What…?" He barely said it loud enough for his children to hear. To say Bruce's brain short circuit was an understatement as the words supposedly dead son registered.

Dick sighted and Bruce felt his eldest son placing his hand on his shoulder but all Bruce could do was turn to look at where the child was still high up on the shelf staring at him and looking like he wanted to merge into the shadows of the ceiling corner while Damian tried to coax the child down again.

"Damian told us that Danny is his twin that had died eight years ago. We don't know yet why he is here nor how but Dami, who was the most convinced that Danny was a clone at first, is now insisting that this child is his revived brother. And we believe him, everything we found so far points to that conclusion too."

Bruce barely heard Dicks explanation over his own heart beat as he watched Damian and Danny. All he could think about was that he had failed another child. The child who was supposed to be Damians age had died too young and only to get revived eight years later? Why hadn't Damian told him anything about his brother? Why did the revived child need to appear for him to learn about his existence?

All but one of his sons' attention turned to the child on the shelf as now three of them tried to get the chil- no. Danny, Damian's twin who had died at the age of eight and had now been revived and had been kept a secret from him by his own son too, down from there.

"Danyal come down please. Father does not mean any harm."

"Great Bruce scared the little biter so much that he acts like a scared cat again."

"Just be happy he didn't instantly go to bite Bruce."

"I would have actually liked to see that happening."

"Would you imbecile shut up. Danyal, would a snack from Alfred help calm you down?"

"If Dickie didn't get him to stop hissing with treats why would he come down from up there for one?"

"Hey Jason, hold your arm up please?"

"The fuck you want replacement?"

"We are not using Todd as bait."

"Worth a shot."

"Fuck off, how about you hold your arm up."

"You're taller than me and have more reach."

"Oh now you're fine admitting you're short?"

"Shut up. Neither of you will be used as bait. Who knows what diseases either of you carry."

""HEY""

Turning around and wordlessly leaving the room Bruce decided he needed to find a way to contact Talia. He needed answers and that as soon as possible. He could not face Danny like this and his children seemed to have the situation handled for now.

As the man stormed out of the room, he did not notice the worried or judging side eyes of his children. Nor the green eyes that had never once stopped watching him as they turned blue appearing more confused than when they had been green. Jason on the other hand had noticed the change and couldn't help but wonder why the little biters Pit reacted this strongly towards Bruce when his own had been surprisingly quiet for the last couple of hours.

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

Meanwhile Illinois in a small hidden town…

"What do you mean template isn't here anymore?!"

"He disappeared. They say he died but I can't believe it. I don't believe it."

"You better! If he died the entire ghost zone would have rioted!"

"What?"

"Hello? Ghost King?"

"Right… But how do we find him?"

"Maybe we can track his ecto-signature?"

"We have to give it a shot. We need to find him before the GIW do."

[flamingpudding]

DPxDC Family Week June 19 (Day 2)

Prompt: Siblings | Play

A/N: All I gotta say is this was heavily inspired by Wayne Family Adventures. I think I focused more no the Play prompt than Siblings, either way please enjoy my Day 2 contribution :D

AO3 Link: DPxDC Family Week Contributions

Danny was in a tricky situation. He carefully checked his surroundings as he crouched behind a bookshelves to reload. The Meta Alliance was off the table. Duke got taken out by Dick. He had seen Damian hunting down Tim earlier, muttering something about using the same trick again despite his warning. Jason was still wandering the halls in search of him loudly offering Danny a new Alliance promising that he wouldn't be shot on sight. He had lost sight of Cass earlier but he knew Steph was hiding on the second floor waiting for Jason to take revenge.

When Dick had come to him and Jazz earlier that day Danny did not expect for the oldest Wayne to hand them each a paintball gun with a wide grin. Only for them to suggest taking part in a game they played every year called Assassin. It was apparently a secret from Bruce that only the children of Bruce Wayne aka Batman took part in.

He had been suspicious of it at first, Jazz and him had only joined the Family for a couple of months now and Dick had suggested they join the game as a bonding experience between siblings with the rest of the family. When Danny didn't let up on his suspicious staring he also offered that it was a way to train and test Danny's stealth against his new siblings.

Only partly convinced, at least in Danny's case, they had joined. The moment they entered the sitting room everyone else was in, Harper, last year's winner according to the others, decided to start with a special alliance to ease Jazz into the game. Only for her to get accidentally taken out. She had made the mistake of forming the alliance with all the girls including Jazz, without prior information that till then only Danny had been privileged to with how often his own sister had souped him. To Harper's credit, she didn't know about the bad aim his sister inherited from their dad. The girl alliance got pretty quickly dissolved then and the Fanton siblings formed a new one, since Danny knew best how bad of a shot Jazz was.

Though Danny additionally had the one with Duke until he got taken out. They honestly had thought that with their Meta-powers they could overwhelm the others. Hell they were a power duo on patrols, this should have been easy. That was until Dick got Duke and Duke in all the dramatic sibling fashion 'died' in a distracting way that made Dick and Danny laugh only for the Ghost to then escape.

"AH FUCK!" Looks like Jason got taken out now too from the sounds of it. Danny didn't stay to find out who took the revenant out. He went invisible and phased through the wall behind him and floated up a floor through it. Carefully to avoid Bruce as well as Alfred so that the two adults shouldn't grow suspicious. Suddenly there was rusting behind him and Danny turned around quickly. He was still invisible so aside from Duke no one should be able to see him right now.

"I know you're here Danny. Show yourself."

"You're wearing your mask with heat-vision?" The question came out before he could help himself as he stared at Tim. Both his hands raised as he held them up, showing that he meant no harm, his paintball gun in his right hand pointing at the ceiling for extra measures while Tim was grinning at him with his gun pointed at Danny.

"Your body temperature is lower than the average human one, especially when you use your powers. It's the easiest way to find you since it was decided that both you and Duke were allowed to use them."

"I see." Danny nodded along. "I take it, you want to take me out right now?"

"If you don't agree to my proposal. Help me take out Damian and Cass."

Danny hummed thinking about it for a second before he noticed movement from the corner of the hall. He grinned, shrugging with his shoulders. "I would but… sorry maybe next time!"

He let himself fall through the floor as Tim cried out, blue splotches on his back appearing. Danny barely missed getting shot too as he fell onto the first floor. An orange splatter left on the wall at the height his chest had been mere seconds ago. Cass standing at the end of the hall as they made one final eye contact before he completely disappeared from sight through the floor.

But he did not get a second of rest as he fell into one of the down stairs sitting rooms. The moment he was through the ceiling and made eye contact with a stunned but then grinning assailant. He flipped to the side barely dodging the colorful rounds shot at him and aimed his own gun. Ten shots, nine missing but the last one finally got his target's leg.

"Gotcha!" He cheered as he floated down grinning brightly at Dick.

"Not bad baby ghost. I didn't expect you and Jazz to be this good. Sure you guys didn't have formal training?" Inspecting his leg the elder smiled, happy at seeing Danny enjoying himself this freely. He still remembered the first month in which Danny barely spoke to anyone aside from his sister. Dick had been a bit worried when he asked the Fanton kids to join their game but he was glad that he did now. The Fantons had come a long way and it appeared that they finally saw the rest of the Waynes as siblings too.

"No, everything is self thought. Though, Jazz hitting Harper was totally an accident considering she had been aiming at-" Their phones buzzed and both each took their own out. Dick whistled. "Baby bird took out Steph. So now it's only you, Jazz, Dami and Cass left. Looks like this year's game will even be over before patrol starts."

"Did it take longer last year?"

Dick nodded. "It went right into patrol time. But maybe it's getting over faster this year because everyone is at the Manor." He didn't mention that he had specifically asked the others to not draw out the game too long. Despite the couple of months, Danny and Jazz were still new to Gotham and the family and they both didn't need distractions during patrol and support.

"Speaking of being at the Manor. Why hasn't Alfred said anything about the paint splatters yet? He is omnipresent, I thought he would be the first to notice." The halfa tilted his head in light confusion. Really with the way Alfred always knew what was going on in the Manor Danny had long since expected for the butler to gather them all to give them a stern talking about playing with paintball guns inside the building.

"It's fine as long as we clean up after ourselves." He raised an eyebrow and Dick rubbed his neck nervously. "And as long as we don't go overboard and damage anything permanently. Besides, sometimes Alfred even ends up joining in on these games to teach us a lesson or to get back at us for all the grief we gave him with injuries in the past."

Danny raised a suspicious eyebrow. "He… won't just do that this time, will he?"

"Nope, but we should clean up here before Bruce comes back. It also helps that most of us only shoot when we are sure that we will hit the others and not something else." Danny nodded, muttering an embarrassed 'sorry' remembering how he let more than one shot lose at his targets. Dick only chuckled, patting his head and offering a cloth piece to wipe the paint from the wall.

Once it was clean Danny gave a grinning Dick a little finger salute before going invisible again and leaving the room. There were only four players left. He wouldn't be able to find Cass but he could try and take out Daimien. Choosing to be as silent as possible Danny used his ghost powers to also float. He turned off his ghostly powers as he came across Bruce and Tim by the stairs. The man was asking Tim about the paint on his neck that he must have splattered there when Cass had taken him out earlier.

"Damian and I got into a disagreement when I passed his atelier earlier. He threw one of his paint brushes at me like a dart."

"Damian wouldn't just do that because of a simple disagreement. What sort of argument did you two get into this time, for it to art out like this?"

Danny frowned slightly. The others never had mentioned what would happen if Bruce found out. He hid his gun on his back under his hoodie.

"Hi Bruce, I think someone must have pissed him off at school. He threw one at me too, when I asked him what got him into a sour mood." Danny decided to add to the lie. Really the youngest stabbiness was a really nice trait that made these lies even more believable. Tim gave him a thumbs up for the support hidden from Bruce's eyes.

"Hello Danny. Maybe I should have a talk with Damian. I cannot have him bring another knife to school again." The man muttered with a sigh as he walked away from them. Tim and Danny grinned at each other before once again Danny saluted before making his way back to the second floor. He had a feeling that he would find Damian or Cass up there.

Hearing voices by the end of the hall where Damian's Atelier was, Danny decided to try and be sneaky. The door was only a gap wide open, he peaked into the room. It hadn't been long since he had meet Bruce with Tim by the stairs but apparently the man was quick with his actions. In the room were said man and the youngest Wayne, Bruce was apparently trying to get Damian to tell him why he was in a sour mood and hurl his paint brushes at his siblings.

Danny snickered, the man's back was to the door and he grinned the moment Damian noticed him peaking in by the door. He gave the youngest a little bit of a mocking wave with the addition of a wide grin as Damian scowled. Bruce apparently took it that Damian did not like the reinforced rule of no knives at school.

Still grinning the ghost boy pulled his gun from the back and aimed it through the door carefully so that Bruce wouldn't notice him. Damian was now flat out glaring deadly at him, daring him to do it in the presence of his father. Waiting for the right time Danny watched Bruce and when the man appeared to look at something at his side he fired a shot. Hitting the youngest square in the chest who quickly despite his deadly glare turned towards one of his unfinished pieces and grabbed some of his art supplies to explain that color splatter as a lapse of his own judgment and frustration of the topic they were discussing.

Danny definitely knew he would be paying for this action later. Damian wasn't as stabby with him like he was with others thanks to Danny's ghostly powers, but that only meant that the youngest was creative in other ways to get back at the halfa. Though right now it only mattered to Danny that he was able to get two of the bat-kids out of the game with no formal training. That grin was whiped of his face when he felt a short sting on his back and his head whipped around to see Cass behind him smiling brightly.

"Lacking situational awareness."

"Okay yea, that was my bad." Letting out a sight he admitted defeat as he in a bout of dramatic essence chose to lay flat on the ground only lifting his head a little to face an amused Cass. Taking out his phone he proceeded to text the group that he had taken out Damian but in return got taken out by Cass. Looks like Cass would be the winner this year, he commented into the chat.

"Finally found you Danny!" Looking up stunned as well as hearing shuffling towards the door from the Atelier Danny looked up to see Jazz standing by the end of the hall now her paintball gun aimed at Danny as Cass dived to the side away from him. Right, his sister was still in the game!

"Let me handle this!"

"Wait Jazz!"

Too late his sister fired multiple shots and in a feat the half ghost honestly thought impossible, the projectiles ricochet off of decorations, leaving small splatters of paint behind them everywhere. The door next to him opened and Danny stared wide eyes up at Bruce and Damian.

"What is going on-"

-splat-

At the end of the day Cass was declared the winner while Jazz was declared the honorary winner by being the first one to ever hit Bruce Wayne aka Batman square in the face with a paintball gun.

Though the siblings all got a stern talking to from the man for playing Assassin inside the Manor as well as Alfreds disappointed look™ that was followed by an amused smile whenever the butler side eyed Bruce. The smiles and looks all the siblings exchanged promised that next year's game would be filled with revenge plans. Maybe till then Jazz's aim would become better with the shooting classes Bruce decided to sign her up for with a knowing smile.