Break the News
Vicki Vale had been in another major scandal recently, and her ingenious employers decided she needed to be out of Gotham while the heat cools down.
She thought this was going to be a nothing burger, investigating some billionaire who decided to became mayor of some small, middle of nowhere town for, “public pride” or whatever.
That was until an unknown child-hero saved her, than made her day.
Vicki Vale: Why haven’t you called the Justice League?
Danny: You don’t think we tried? We’re in the middle of nowhere, the Justice League is too busy for us, “small fry”.
(Mutters): even if we’ve fought off entire world invasions…
3K notes
·
View notes
Your Ancient History, Written In Wax
-
Danny knew he should have put better security around the Sarcophagus of Eternal Sleep. It wasn’t even Vlad who opened it this time! The fruitloop was too busy doing his actual mayor duties because for some godforsaken reason, the man got re-elected.
No, it wasn’t Vlad. And it wasn’t Fright Knight, either. Nor the Observants. Who opened the Sarcophagus, then? Danny didn’t have time to find out as Pariah Dark promptly tore open a hole in reality and hunting Danny down.
The battle was longer this time. He didn’t have the Ecto-Skeleton, as that was the first thing Pariah had destroyed. The halfa had grown a lot over the past few years, and learned some new tricks, but apparently sleeping in a magic ghost box meant that Pariah had absorbed a lot of power. The bigger ghost acted like a one-man army!
Amity Park was caught in the middle of the battle, but the residents made sure it went no further than that. Vlad and the Fentons made a barrier around the town to keep the destruction from leaking. Sam, Tucker, and Dani did crowd control while Danny faced the king head-on.
Their battle shook the Zone and pulled them wildly between the mortal plane and the afterlife. Sometimes, residents noticed a blow from Pariah transported them to the age of the dinosaurs, and Phantom’s Wail brought them to an unknown future. Then they were in a desert. Then a blazing forest. Then underwater. It went on like that, but no one dared step foot outside of Amity. They couldn’t risk being left behind.
It took ages to beat him, but eventually, Danny stood above the old ghost king, encasing his symbols of power in ice so they couldn’t be used again. He refused to claim the title for himself. Tired as he was, Danny handed the objects off to Clockwork for safe keeping and started repairing the damage Pariah had done to the town. The tear he’d made was too big to fix, for now, so no one bothered. They just welcomed their new ghostly neighbors with open arms and worked together to restore Amity Park.
Finally, the day came to bring down the barrier. People were gathered around the giant device the Fentons had built to sustain it. Danny had brought Clockwork to Amity, to double check that they had returned to the right time and dimension.
Clockwork assured everyone that they were in the right spot, and only a small amount of time had passed, so the Fentons gave the signal to drop the shield.
Very quickly did they discover that something was wrong. The air smelled different. The noise of the nearby city, Elmerton, was louder and more chaotic. Something was there that wasn’t before, and it put everyone on edge.
Clockwork smiled, made a remark about the town fitting in better than before, and disappearing before Danny could catch him.
Frantic, Danny had a few of his ghost buds stay behind to protect the town while he investigated.
He flew far and wide, steadily growing horrified at the changes the world had undergone. Heroes, villains, rampant crime and alien invasions. The Earth was unrecognizable. There were people moving around the stars like it was second nature and others raising dead gods like the apocalypse was coming. Magic and ectoplasm was everywhere, rather than following the ley lines like they were supposed to.
Danny returned to Amity.
The fight with Pariah had taken them through space and time. Somewhere along the way, they had changed the course of history so badly that this now felt like an alien world.
How was he supposed to fix this?
-
In the Watchtower, The Flash was wrapping up monitor duty while Impulse buzzed around him, a little more jittery than usual. The boy was talking a mile a minute, when alarms started blaring an alarming green. Flash had never seen this alarm before, and its crackling whine was grating on his ears.
Flash returned to the monitor, frantically clicking around to find the issue, but nothing was popping up. No major disasters, no invasions, no declarations of war. Nothing! What was causing the alarm?
Impulse swore and zipped to a window, pressing his face against it and staring down at Earth. “Fuck! It’s today isn’t it? I forgot!”
“What’s today?” Flash asked. He shot off a text to Batman, asking if it was an error. The big Bat said it wasn’t, and that he would be there soon.
“The arrival of Amity Park. I learned about this in school; the alarm always gives me headaches.”
Flash turned to his grandson, getting his attention. “Bart,” he stressed. “What are you talking about?”
Impulse barely glanced over his shoulder. Now that Flash was facing him, he could see a strong glow coming from Earth. “The first villain, first anti-villain, and the first hero,” he said anxiously. “They all protect the town of the original metas. They’re all here.”
“Here? Now??”
“Yeah? They weren’t before, but they are now. The first hero said there was time stuff involved, which was what inspired me to start practicing time travel in the first place.”
“I’m not following.”
“It’s okay. We should probably go welcome them before they tear apart Illinois, though. The history I remember says that some of them freaked and destroyed a chunk of the Midwest during a fight with each other.”
“WHAT?”
208 notes
·
View notes
The expectations from everyone around him had been too much. His sister and teachers wanted him to be a good student. His friends wanted him to be the perfect hero. The town wanted him to be everywhere, all at once. And his parents wanted him strapped down to a table.
Danny couldn't take it anymore. It was all just too much. So he left. He disappeared, covering his tracks and only leaving a note to let everyone know he was okay.
He traveled a while before he eventually encountered some heroes investigating an occult crime. All he did was give them a little hint and suddenly they were all over him. He had panicked for a second. Memories of his suffocating past came to him. But to Danny's surprise, these heroes were more worried about him than anything. Something about the knowledge he possessed being dangerous.
It actually felt a little nice being worried over like that and before he knew it, Danny found himself tagging along with these heroes. Apparently they were called the Justice League Dark and their whole schtick was investigating the occult.
Danny had thought he was over the whole hero thing, but he didn't mind helping the JLD. There where finally capable adults in his life who protected him. Who cared for him. They never expected him to balance two contradicting responsibilities. Nor did they expect him to be their main heavy hitter when facing a threat.
For the first time since he had turned on that stupid machine, Danny was allowed to be a kid again. He was allowed to be annoying, to ask a million questions (no matter how dumb) and most importantly, he was allowed to have fun.
Being a hero with the Justice League Dark never felt like the world ending pressure he was under back home. They had even told him he was welcome to quit anytime! Not that he wanted to.
Sure, Danny felt guilty about never contacting his friends and family and letting them know how he was doing. But he was scared. Scared that they might try some way to force him back home.
He could never go back to that place, he just couldn't. To do that would truly crush his soul.
516 notes
·
View notes
Leo finishes sending out the files of the finished design, finally done with the last thing on his to do list for the day. he gets up and stretches his legs, immediatley going to find you and your baby. it's still early enough in the spring where it's dark outside soon in the evening, and your house is full of cozy glowing soft lights. he walks through halls past stacks of books and carefully currated pieces of decor, past the dining room set it took you months to find and the chandelier he installed by hand. he walks past framed photos of you and him, both of you with your parents, of you pregnant, your wedding, your baby. he enters the living room, organized and lived in, to be met with you and your baby sitting together, watching tv. the couch is soft and squishy, and has just enough pillows and throw blankets. the lighting is soft, and a dvd of songs and nursery rhymes for babies plays melodically through the room. one hand rests on your face, the other holding baby, who plays with plush, brightly colored blocks as you watch. he's overcome with that feeling that can only be described as I actually made it. we made it. pride and joy and love swell in him as he watches you sing along to your baby, and tears prickle in the corners of his eyes. he just loves you so much. he walks further into the room around the toys scattered across the rug, and his eyes land on the kids books on the lower book shelves. you've both found that text books and stuffy old classics put baby to bed much faster than picture books; Leo's been reading the fundamentals of aerospace engineering, and you've gotten a few chapters into war and peace, and baby's never slept better. he sits next to you, sandwiching baby between you as the next song plays. you greet him with a kiss, one that lingers. he kisses baby on the forehead thinking about how precious they look in their sesame street onesie. he wraps an arm around you as a song about growing up big and strong plays. he looks back down at your baby, your baby, your little bundle of love and joy you made together. he thinks back to when you first came back from the hospital, your first time coming home as a family, how little baby was, barely fitting into newborn clothes.
"you really are getting so big, aren't you?" he asks your baby. he kisses them on the head again, and you recognize the emotion in his voice. you turn to look at him.
"it's so exciting, isn't it?" he looks at you, then back at your baby. there are so many birthdays to plan, so many play dates and bike lessons and pool days and snow days in your future, there's so much to look forward to in this life you've built together. he nods, agreeing with you.
"yeah. it really is."
104 notes
·
View notes