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#And ghosts would probably visit Gotham
nelkcats · 8 months
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Transfers
Jim Gordon decided to offer his home to the students transferring from Casper High to Gotham Prep for a few months. Barbara wasn't too happy about it but Jim preferred that to having those kids end up in a dangerous place or worse, with Bruce Wayne (he meant well but frankly Jim would rather not risk another young vigilante). Besides, one of the transfers practically demanded a restraining order against the millionaires, the poor kid.
Honestly Jim didn't understand why the transfer program existed. Casper didn't know how dangerous Gotham was? Or didn't they care?, all he hoped was that he could keep them safe and that they wouldn't come back to their home too traumatized.
Of course, he had no way of knowing that the Casper's trio was more than ready for Gotham, with weapons disguised in their suitcases and a ghost hero about to enjoy an extended vacation after negotiating a deal with the ghosts.
Gotham wouldn't know who hit it.
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dcxdpdabbles · 3 months
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DC X DP Fanfic idea: It's all Fun and Games Kids!
Danny Fenton moves to Gotham.
He moved there not because his parents ran him out of the house. His dad was bawling and begging him to stay while his mother spent three full days writing up different graphs to show how much safer was by nearing by so they could protect him.
(It's not like he still lived with them. Danny had moved out to his own place in amity when he was twenty-five. Moving clear across state lines wasn't much of a difference in his eyes)
He moved there, not because the ectoplasm was high. Ectoplasm is everywhere on Earth, and quite frankly, Gotham's was as polluted as its water was. It made the air spicy.
He moved there not because he was offered an amazing job or a life-changing opportunity. Danny's full-time job was writing novels. They were all based on his adventures in the Ghost Zone -with changed names of course- and were a hit online. He also had all of the Ghost King's gold.
He moved there simply because Danny wanted to.
Something about the city called to him, in a way that said "Hey this could be your home." He visited once for a Humpty Dumpty concert and fell in love with the sights, the people, and the life of Gotham.
Now some people would accuse him of being mad. Those people probably had a rebellious teenage stage where they had done crazy things like sneak out of the house, underage drink, sleeping around, or smoke something.
Danny, when he was a teenager, was fighting for his life and the lives of the ungrateful townspeople.
He didn't get to his rebellious stage. He didn't get his rush of doing something stupid because he was young and thought himself bigger than life.
So here Danny is, living his life as he pleases to make up for it.
He doesn't have to sneak out of his house since he owns it, he rather not drink or smoke (would they even affect him? His healing factor has never been tested against it) and Danny would like to be emotionally attached if he decided to sleep with someone.
What then does a man with too much time, too much power, and not enough bad young person decisions do?
He flirts with Death.
Death just so happens to be Batman-shaped.
Now it's all fun and games. He knows he doesn't have a real chance with Batman- it's Batman. Way out of Danny's league.- but that doesn't mean he can allow himself to fall into stupid situations and be dramatically rescued by the crime fighter.
Now if only his kids weren't so good at their jobs.
"You really should be more careful, Mr. Fenton. This is the third time this week" Nightwing says while untieing him. Danny does his best not to pout at the other. He had been having fun finding the answers to the riddles.
He wasn't at all worried about the fact he was placed over a pool of burning chemicals. He had been tried to a chair that was carefully balanced on overlapping ropes. It wire would snap with each correct answer, until he would fall his demise unless they could outsmart the Riddler.
Danny had gotten five out of ten correct before Nightwing burst through the ceiling.
"I don't mind," Danny says rubbing his wrists. "Better me than someone innocent."
Nightwing's lips purse "You are innocent."
"Yes, but I hardly matter in the grand scheme of things." Danny waves his hand missing the look of distress on the hero's face. He looks around the darkness of the ceiling hoping to spot a certain crouching figure.
"Is Tall Dark and Daddy here with you?" He asks Nightwing when he fails to see him.
"Please don't call him that."
Danny shrugs, suppressing his smile. He twirls back around to Nightwing pulling out a piece of paper from his jean's pocket. "By the way, I found the other victims, hid them in the cellar, and drew a of map of Riddle's bombs for you. You're welcome."
Nightwing stares before carefully taking the map. He taps his ear twice, muttering in a code- for that may be English but sounded like gibberish that it can not be anything else but code- and only after he hears a voice respond back does the hero give a strained smile. "Thank you, Mr. Fenton. This helps a lot."
"You're welcome!" He repeats with a bright smile. It's so odd for his efforts to be appreciated. Odd but nice.
Danny waits for the other to do his Bat-trained disappearing act- sometimes he wonders if Gotham gave her Knights a form of invisibility- but the man remains.
He shuffles his feet uncomfortable and Danny's eyes light up. Oh! Another attempt to get him to stop flirting with his father. What fun~!
"Mr. Fenton.....last week Red Robin rescued you from the Joker. Do you remember?"
"Yes. Red Robin is a great kid."
"A kid....weird for you to call him that when he's only a few years younger than you." Nightwing starts but Danny holds up a hand.
"I'm older than you"
There is a tight frown on the other man's face now. "You are not."
"I am." Danny pulls out his wallet flashing his ID card. The downside to his Ghostly powers is that he seems to be aging at a slower rate- at least physically. His parents theorized that he would take two years instead of the one that his aging required. Not an accurate number but the closest they had especially since both his parents were late bloomers and had baby face.
While Danny might be thirty-eight he appeared to be no older than nineteen.
"Mr. Fenton I don't think you should be carrying a fake-"
"Stay away from my father Harlot!" Robin screeches falling down from the shadows above. He points a very sharp sword at Danny's neck, sneering the whole time. "He has better things to do than rescue a love-struck worthless fool!"
Danny, leans on the top of the sword, eyes drinking into Robin's slight flinch when it cuts his skin a little. This is it. The Rush he had been craving for.
"I don't mean to be kidnapped Robin honest. It just sort of happens in Gotham." He makes his voice and body innocent in a way even Orphan can not tell he is lying. He knows because Clockwork confirmed the last time they met that the girl read his body language just as he wanted her to.
The two ghosts met up regularly to watch his overly "sweet" eyes fluttering and cheerful "Oh Batman you rescued me~!" performances together for a good laugh.
"You lie! You plan for this to happen to try and seduce my Father!"
Huh. The kid was smarter then his foul mouth and snobby behavior looked. Still Danny only had to twist his face into confusion for Nightwing to step in. The other vigilantes pulled the scowling child away, scolding him for harassing frightened civilians.
It was fun to see but nothing beat making polite come-ons to Batman- nothing gross like catcalling but more of overly thankful and dreamy sighs. Maybe he should see what Two-face is up to?
Surely the man would take him hostage and Batman's many children would be too busy to save him thus leading the Dark Knight himself to come to his aid.
Or in a world where Danny Fenton decides that it would be hilarious if he took on a Brucie Wayne persona in Gotham. Complete with a Heart-eyes-it's-beefy-Batman mentality that tricks the Batfam into thinking he is a Himbo who has bad luck for always getting caught up in villain schemes for being at the wrong place and wrong time.
Also, the Bat kids make it their life goal to keep Bruce from rescuing Danny since they do not like watching Fenton flirt with their dad. Even if Bruce himself ignores the boy they can't really threaten him.
Danny Fenton isn't being malicious or anything. He's just a boy with a crush who doesn't know better.
Clockwork is cackling, recording his favorite parts of Danny's interactions with the Bats.
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DPXDC prompt ~ Honor to Us All ~ Gotham as one true the most haunted city edition
~~~~~
Instead of a welcoming banner in front of a city was an old column, so familiar to a boy, with a warning inscription:
"To outsiders mad enough to attack Gotham: You will be forced to understand that dead soldiers will also go into battle. And having risen to protect, they will be ready to perish all again, So no one of the living would die near them."
Danny smiled with love. 'I’m home, Mother.' Ghost whispered into the void. And Gotham answered.
~~~~
Danny: My Lady, I brought you the crown of Pariah Dark. And The Ring of Rage. They’re gifts to honor the Gotham family. Lady Gotham: The greatest gift and honor is having you on my side, child.
~~~~~
Danny Fenton was born in Gotham and lived here until his parents decided to move. The city didn’t accept them.
'When I die, I want to be one of the Gotham Knights.' Little Danny with pride and eagerly reported to his parents after visiting the Battle Glory of Gotham Museum on a school trip. This evening, Danny learned that not all his plans should be told to his parents.
Danny know his parents are crazy about ghosts. and that all ghosts are "bad". But obviously, the ghosts they talk about, and his, or rather Gotham's, ghosts are completely different creatures. The spirits of the defenders are those who, even in the darkest of times, make the shadows of the Gotham a protection to the citizens.
But that knowledge is his little secret for now. Because if he starts arguing he’ll be punished and he won’t be able to run off to the roof where he’s arranged to meet Robin. Robin’s cool! He works with one of the 'still-living' knights. And he knows more about the city than anyone. Danny doesn’t want to offend his friend.
~~~~~
Mr Lancer doesn’t understand why the lecturer about ghosts, Constantine, after seeing Danny, said something about the bloody gothamites and their inability to stay underground. It wasn’t nice at all. Mr Lancer doesn’t blame Mr Fenton for smiling at the man a little aggressive and viciously. Poor boy probably didn’t know how to respond to his behavior. Danny moved to Amity Park a long time ago and did not stand out at all. So what was this man’s problem?
Danny only half dies because Lady Gotham blessed him when he was a child. So when Danny sees snow-white hair and glowing green eyes in the mirror, he is not frightened but surprised that the Lady protected him even though he is not living in Gotham now.
~~~~~
Danny knows gothamites don’t consider that Gotham is a part of the USA. Even their Metropolis neighbors are just pathetic cowards, unable to withstand the hardships of life. No, really. Why the hell would they be patriots of the country that thinks they’re its dirty secret? This opinion is shared by old ones and children, rich ones and residents of Crime Alley, heroes and villains.
Danny loves Gotham. And he likes local jokes about how if one of their supervillains ever took power enough to threaten the government, he would be obliged to release them from that citizenship. Otherwise, he would be shamed and ridiculed by the inhabitants.
Phantom is not a villain. But for Gotham? For their common purpose? He is ready to pretend to be.
~ A ghost can bring his city ~ Great honor in one way ~
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Gothamites remember that the child of mad scientists was the only person Boy Wonder was willing to call a friend. They remember how boys' laughter was heard from rooftops and from alleys on particularly dark nights. And they know whose restless spirit has returned to mourn the death of the second Robin.
The boy’s parents must be fools. Many outsiders are. They call their blessing a curse. People die in Gotham. And not all of them come back. Residents know that these ones are chosen by Lady Gotham herself.
The public enemy of Amity Park number 1? What nonsense. He is not theirs anything! In Gotham they will accept the Phantom as a guard, as a silent shadow, as a villain or a hero. In any kind. Because he belongs here. He should be part of their dance between life and death. He should be amidst dark alleys and acid rains, gliding between fear and laughter in the air.
Even local villains experience strange yearning. Like something’s wrong. Like a piece of a puzzle that’s lost. Therefore, the local abandoned observatory is empty, and none of them is in a hurry to call it their territory. Because it will be in demand, it will be loved and needed. It’s only a matter of time.
Let the spirit of Gotham guide you home, child. Dead gothamite is still gothamite. Which means there will always be a place for you.
~~~~~
When Danny first enters his favorite cafe in his Phantom form and with a wound on his leg, he doesn’t expect a cleaning lady to yell at him immediately for the blood on the floor. With a mop in his hands and with already bandaged leg, Danny feels as if all his worries had gone. They are not afraid of him. Of course. No one in Gotham would avoid him because of glowing eyes and sharp teeth. And that’s nice.
The waitress throws a tray of food on a table next to him: Welcome dinner for the wandering son of the alley. Red Hood said it's your usual order. He’ll be waiting for you on the gargoyle. You should know which one.
~~~~
If parents listened to his childhood stories about good ghosts, they would know that the Phantom is not special. He is not an anomaly of ghost nature and not a mistake. He is one of many who always were and will be defenders of the city. Danny stands in front of the costume that he admired years ago. He's ready to take another shift at work. The remains of his colleagues can rest quietly this night. Lady will wake them only when in dire need.
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kettlefire · 7 months
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Booo-merang Trouble DP x DC Idea
Okay but leeching off the idea that Jason gives off an ecto-signature, and I probably saw a post about this somewhere. I just for the love of me can't find it. If anyone knows it, please link it so I can credit!:
Jason isn't even on patrol, he's visiting the manor. His chilling, eating away at lunch. He doesn't come to the manor often, but he always needs a dose of his crazy family every once in a while. There's no way he'd stay away from Alred's cookies for long.
Then boom, something shatters the window behind him. On instinct, Jason moves. Taking cover and trying to get a sight of the situation. Of the perceived attack. However, before Jason could do much a heavy object rams into his chest before landing on the ground before him. It doesn't really hurt, nothing compared to his prior injuries.
A boomerang. A glowing green and silver boomerang laid on the ground before him. Jason's a million and one ways confused as he stared at the device. His hands carefully picking it up, and looking over the softly beeping device.
Jason thinks maybe it's a bomb, but something in his gut says otherwise. He can think of a million different things it could be. Maybe one of the rogues got a hold of their DNA, and it tracked them. Maybe it's going to expel a gas any moment, an attack on the Waynes rather than their vigilante personas.
Except it's none of that. The beeping stops and suddenly a robotic voice sounds from the boomerang.
"Ghost located, prepare for your end ghoul."
Jason tenses once again at the clear threat in those words. His gaze scans around the kitchen, still crouched behind the kitchen counter. Except nothing happens.
Except for a voice ringing out from the boomerang once again. This time, this time it's not a robot. It's a clear record of a young woman speaking. Her voice filled with fear, concern, and urgency.
"Okay, this should work right? You know what, that doesn't matter. No one but you should have a signature. Beside's Tucker thinks he set this up to go to you only. So Danny, you should be hearing this..."
Jason only finds himself more confused. The urgency in this girl's voice was enough to keep his nerves on edge. It sounded important, but Jason had no clue who these people are. Who these names could be refering to.
"Danny... Things here aren't doing to good. Look, I know why you left. You have every reason to. What mom and dad did... It's unforgivable and I don't expect you to come back. But, thing is..."
There's a lull in the recording. The distant sound of soft chatting. If Jason strained his ears, he could somewhat pick of the sound of another woman and man.
"Everyone thinks Phantom is dead. Which I would think is a good thing, but it's not. Danny, the GIW is on a rampage now that you aren't here. Mom and dad are on their side..."
Jason made the conclusion that the speaker was this Danny's sister. The message was intended for him, yet it somehow landed in Jason's lap.
"They have everyone locked up in the school... Radars to see if anyone has a signature, and if they do... They separate them from everyone else."
Jason's brows furrowed, finally pulling himself to a stand. He placed the boomerang on the kitchen counter. Leaning forward as he took in the words.
"We don't know what they are doing. Sam, Tucker, and Valerie... We're all hiding. We'll have the highest signatures, and... Listen Danny..."
Jason had a growing pit in his gut. He knew something wasn't right. These people were in danger. It didn't matter he didn't know about what, or who the GIW was, but these people needed help.
"... We need you. We need Phantom, baby bro. I'm sorry, I know you're still recovering. We can handle things here, but please. Please tell me you're still alive, you're in Gotham right? Tell me you're safe, and you're healing and still kicking Danny."
Jason swallowed, placing his hands flat on the kitchen counter. He needed to get this down to the cave. Have the computer tracked where it came from. But Jason couldn't move, not at the sound of pure desperation in this woman's voice.
"I just need to know you at least made it out of this nightmare. I don't care how you do it, just please let me know things are okay... They have... They have Vlad, Danny. Things are complicated, and I hate to put this on you... But Amity needs Phantom..."
The recorded suddenly broke into static, but Jason thinks he got enough of what he needed. Amity. The place these people were was called Amity. It gave him a lead, something for them to work with.
"Da... We... Help... They..."
Jason could hear the woman's voice breaking through the static. He gripped the boomerang, turning on his heels and heading towards the cave.
"Sam... Mom... Tech... I..."
Every broken word only fueled Jason's own urgency. Jason felt a strange urge, a connection. Something that told him he had to help. They needed to help. The boomerang found him, and that had to mean something.
"... I love you, Danny..."
Those four words were the clearest compared to rhe rest of it. It made Jason's heart seize, and he took a breath. He was going to help.
It didn't matter if Jason didn't know these people. If they weren't from Gotham. This was important, and something told Jason he needed to find this Danny.
Danny would be the only one that would know that to do. If Jason manages to rewind the recording, he was certain Bruce would be equally on board.
That voice, the emotions that dripped from it. It gave the sense that this wasn't just life or death. This was a world ending problem.
And Jason would be damned if he ignored it.
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flamingpudding · 10 months
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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.
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haveihitanerve · 10 days
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“I’m human!” Batman protests when one of the JL members looks at him in shock after he survives a mission that technically should've been able to kill Superman.
“I’m human!” Nightwing argues to his fellow Young Justice members after completely a quadruple backflip twirl and knocked out three guards when not even Kori can do that. 
“I’m human!” Red Hood complains to one of his generals after they accuse him of being a ghost and/or zombie. (in all fairness to them he did die)
“I’m human!” Red Robin mutters to the Teen Titans after pulling four all nighters and surviving off of only three packets of sugar and eighty cups of coffee for seven weeks. 
“I’m human!” Robin insists to his Mother during one of their monthly visits, despite the fact that he arrived with several stab wounds and what is probably a concussion that should have landed him in the hospital but he still walks straight. 
“I’m human!” Orphan signs to the concerned police officer after he just watched her rip a mans shin out with only her fingernails. (he is fine. Orphan doesn't kill)
“I’m human!” Spoiler dismisses the other heroes(vigilantes) looks, seconds after having beat up eight goons with nothing more than a textbook, while telling each one a joke and hitting them in the face if they didn't laugh, laughing at each one she told, and having just landed a triple backflip onto a trashcan.
“I’m human!” Barbara assures her father at their weekly coffee meeting, although she did roll up with Scarecrow fear toxin wafting from her hair, Gothams harbor water covering her wheels. 
No, Batfamily, you are not human. Not anymore. That is a technically and you should not die on that hill. (you will not, despite the fact that a real human would) You were born human, and even that isn't scientifically provable.
"I'm a meta." Duke admits, the only reasonable one in the batfamily willing to admit he's different, although no less crazy.
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the-witchhunter · 1 year
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DP x DC Tattoos and Crimelords
Just this idea I had that’s kind of cute
Jason doesn’t feel comfortable in his body, in his own skin. He hasn’t since he came back to life. It’s something he just had to deal with while working on his plans, but now that the dust has settled and he’s actually living a life again, it weighs on him. 
the thing that bothers him the most is the autopsy scar
So despite what he knows Bruce would say, he wants a tattoo. A mark he can choose, to reclaim his body as his own. Sure, it’s a very distinctive mark that could connect his civilian identity with his night life, but his armor covers almost all of his skin. If someone can see his body like that, he is probably already not in a good situation.
Danny is a tattoo artist. His hero days are long behind him, and having barely scraped through high school because of the ghosts, he didn’t have a lot of options. He spent some time traveling with Dani, backpacking across the world, moving from one grand adventure to the next. They had gone to the convention on a whim. Danny had been amazed at the artwork and skill of the tattoo artists there. There was something so beautiful about it all, beyond just the artwork. He could see the love of the craft these artists shared, and the joy and pride their clients had to be wearing their art. 
Danny wanted that to be him.
Danny managed to snag an apprenticeship with one of the artists there. He was a Gotham native and if Danny wanted to learn from him, Danny needed to live n Gotham. So Danny did. Dani, parted ways with him, still not done with her journey, but she promised to visit.
That was a few years ago, now Danny was happy where he was in his (half)life. Covered in ink with his own shop. 
And then an absolute tank of a man walked in by the name of Jason, wanting his first tattoo.
or
Danny became a tattoo artist and Jason decides to get some ink in an effort to reclaim his body. As Jason’s collection of tattoos grows, something grows between him and his artist. Is it friendship, or something more?
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evilminji · 9 months
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Ya'll remember The Clench?
The ebola varient unleashed on Gotham that kills in 12 hours, by the Order of St Dunham?
Can... can Limnals even GET sick? I remember a fantastic book where the Charade was broken for mythical races SPECIFICALLY because a massive plague broke out... and they were left standing there, completely fine, going (o.o ) ( o.o) "uuuuuuh, we can explain". Because they just? Weren't effected.
We KNOW Ectoplasm don't play around. It is ACTIVELY and VICIOUSLY hostile to anything that harms it. Corrosive af.
Once incorporated into a living system... why WOULDN'T it take over for the immune system? It's BETTER at going completely Scorched Earth on any invading microorganisms or diseases, regardless of origin. With the sole exception being Ghost diseases.
So Dash, Wes, Sam, or whomever is visiting? Passing through? STUDYING at GCU? They would be suddenly surrounded by panicked humans who are bursting into body horror symptoms all while they stand there like? :T
Just 👉👈 I... I can explain... Officer Batman, sir... 🥺
Granted, it's probably AFTER hours spent helping people, covered in UNSPEAKABLE bodily fluid gore. And Amity Certified Nerds already on the other line because.. Well Shit, guess I have to fake my death now. This was KINDA NOTICEABLE and I DO Not wanna end up in some lab somewhere, for "The Greater Good(tm)".
Like? They aren't even a DOCTOR, man. They are a reporter. A cop. A fashion house designer. Maaybe a an eco-terrorist (Sam, No! D:<) (Sam, YES! >:D). But? Weird plague unleashing Murder Cults are sorta a... EVERYBODY problem. So guess this what they're doing today!
Man... FUCK Gotham.
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starry-bi-sky · 9 months
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Part SEVEN of "Clone Danny"
Red Robin, Danny recognizes, steps away from him as he sits up. "My name is Phantom," he signs, blinking the exhaustion out of his eyes. (From Red Robin's perspective, it looks like he has no eyes. There lacks his signature green glow.) "I'm not a gang member, just an out-of-town vigilante."
Red Robin frowns at him, an uncertain grip on the bō in his other hand. "Phantom?" He repeats, no lacking amount of suspicion in his voice. "How can I believe that?"
Right. Yeah, okay, that's fair. Danny shrugs at him, and slumps against the wall. "Google search?" He gestures, he's been out in the daytime before and he's seen the news articles about him.
Red's eyes narrow at him and Danny simply draws his knees up and faceplants into them, half-listening to Red's murmurs into his comm while also trying to get some extra-shut eye.
("Oracle, can you pull up anything on a vigilante named Phantom? The guy here is claiming to be one." Tim says.
"On it."
"Is this Phantom wearing a white mask?" Bruce asks, his voice gruff like an aftershock. "There's a vigilante who shares the same name, but he resides in Illinois."
"Is this guy from that Amity city you visited ages ago?" Says Tim, before shaking his head. "Don't answer that. Yes, he's wearing some freaky mask. I said it reminded me of Hood's helmet for a reason."
"I've got something," Oracle interrupts, "Bats' right. as usual. The Phantom of Amity Park, not much stuff of this guy but he's only been out for over a year. Apparently, his rogues' gallery consists of ghosts."
"Oh great.")
"Look tell the Batman that I'm sorry for trespassing on his turf," He signs irritably when Red Robin eventually starts talking to (re: interrogating) him again. "It's not like I want to be here."
"How did you get in Gotham anyways?" Red Robin questions, batman was on his way to help deal with the situation but Tim doubted he wouldn't get caught up on the way with dealing with petty crime. "Your turf is nearly a thousand miles away from here."
"Two words." Danny deadpans, "Teleport ghost." (Red Robin winces sympathetically.) "I'm keeping this bastard in the thermos for a month for this alone."
(Danny was ignoring the slow-choking anxiety growing in his lungs over how he was gonna get home. He never takes his phone when he goes out, the risk of breaking it was too high. He had no way of contacting anyone to get him home.)
(He swallows the growing lump in his throat, and buries the feeling in the back of his mind.)
"Thermos?"
Danny unclips his Fenton Phantom Thermos off from his belt loop and shows it to Red Robin. "My ghost-catching device," He says with one hand, tilting it carefully for Red to inspect. "I wish I could say I made it, but its a FentonWorks invention."
(He wasn't sure if it was a smart idea to say who it belonged to, but saying it wasn't his probably loosened up any tracks on him, right?)
"Do you work with these Fentons, then?" Red asks, and something dark and shadowy flickers from the corner of Danny's eye. He glances over, and sees nothing, and his hackles raise.
(Either that was Batman, or a ghost, or Danny's mind playing tricks on him. He couldn't feel his ghost sense building in his throat, so he decided it was either the latter of the former.)
Danny snorts, quiet and gruff. "No." He clips his thermos to his belt again, stifling a smile on his face. "The Fentons hate me actually, I prevent them from catching ghosts themselves. Their son gives me their tech."
He had a cover story, so he might as well stick with it, right?
Batman shows up at that moment, appearing atop the little roof where the door is, and giving Danny a heart attack when he speaks in his low, rumbly voice like thunder rolling in, "Why would they hate you for that?"
Danny shoots up to his feet with a startled yell in his throat, clutching his chest as he whirls around and looks up. He nearly runs into Red Robin, and signs a few choice swears at the Bat.
"wow you're scarier in person, asshole."
"you didn't answer my question."
"Of course I didn't, you scared me." and Danny takes a trembling step back when the Batman jumps down and lands on the roof in front of him. He's faced ghosts before, but somehow the living is always scarier.
"But, um, the reason is a bit.. complicated, I guess." He says, fingers beginning to shake as his adrenaline wears off. God is he tired. He wants to go home. "The Fentons are the local ghost hunters and local crazies. I don't know if I can call them mad scientists because they're harmless to the living."
"But they're extremely anti-ghost. I've heard from their son multiple times the very unethical things they would do to ghosts if they got their hands on one."
Danny 'talks' a little more before calling it quits, even telling Batman that he can't tell him more without putting his identity at risk.
Plus, its getting harder and harder to hide his bone-deep exhaustion and his growing fear of being stranded in the most dangerous city in America with no way home.
"I would love to tell you more, believe me I'm dying to." Danny signs, shaky sarcasm dripping from his fingers. His hands are visibly trembling and he's withholding a slowly growing panic attack. "But I would like nothing more than to figure out a way to get home."
"Do you have no one to contact?"
"Sort of. But only one of them could probably come get me and get me back to Amity by sunrise. And I have no phone."
That one person being Ellie.
=====
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 4.5 (Dani interlude) Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 7.5 (Dan Interlude) Part 8
Taglist: @the-navistar-carol @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @gin2212 @youracearocroatneighbour @luckybyrdrobyn @deeplyconfusedbear @epilepticnerd @beautifulmomenttodrawblank @sara0055 @blusunkhild @letmesayfuxk (?) @latheevening226 @tkiesai @rosedasy @meira-3919
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wandixx · 2 months
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Ghost of fries and Hero of cookies
All work words count: 14 593
Words in this part: 2 224
Summary of whole work: Duke wasn't expecting to wake up from his quick rooftop nap to some meta kid with fries. He also wasn't expecting kid to stay Or Danny asked Dani to stay safe while she was in Gotham. Where would she be safer than under the wing of local hero? And he looked like he needed bad day combo anyway
This part summary: First meeting and training discussions Beta read by @audhumla-sailor though English is second language for both of us, so proceed with this in mind. I also know all of the charaters through fics alone, so probably ooc. Stay catious if it's something you don't like
Duke was running out of fumes to run on. Last few days would be exhausting if it was just vigilante or just civilian stuff but no, he had to have it both. Because of Arkham break out he had been called in three nights in a row, not for a whole patrol but he couldn't exactly sleep it of during the day like others did, especially not in a week when every teacher decided they need to have test or quiz or what not. Naps meant he wasn't as sleep deprived as he could be but he needed far more. But he couldn't because crime in Gotham never sleeps so he had normal patrol to finish and there were about two ours left.
Would something bad happen if he just stopped for a moment and laid on a roof? Ten up to fifteen minutes. It was a slow day too...
Yeah, no, he deserved a moment to rest and if something disastrous was to happen in the meantime he would shame other Bats for not giving him enough time to sleep.
It certainly said something that he found gravel covering this roof to be quite comfortable. He set a timer for ten minutes and let himself close his eyes.
When loud screech of timer jolted him awake, he was suddenly fully aware that he wasn't alone anymore. He sat up a little too quickly.
"Oh, you're awake," white haired girl around Damian's age chimed, sitting cross legged just few feets away from him. She wore something that could only be described as an unholy mix of lab safety hazmat and skintight workout jumpsuit, white and black. When had Gotham gotten a new vigilante? "Good, I just returned from snack hunt," she added, gesturing at a big textile bag lying next to her. Duke didn't have enough brainpower to do anything more than ask.
"What?"
Girl shrugged, take out from BatBurger in her hand.
"You look like you have a bad day if not few days, so I've got you my cousin's bad day combo or at least closest thing I could. BatBurger burger isn't as good as NastyBurger but you certainly have better fries," as she spoke, second take out bag, 1 quart bottle of energy drink, juice bottle of same size and pack of convenience store brownies joined greasy paper bag sealed with a sticker.
"Is your cousin a speedster?" Excuse Duke, it was a totally valid question, he saw with his bare eyes both Wally West and Bart Allen when they visited Manor. Noone else would be able to stomach the amount of food they inhaled during their stays.
"Nah, we're not that fast or that hungry. Though I think I may get closer to speed of sound," So, clearly a meta if white hair and weir aura that let his eyes rest weren't enough indication "My cousin when he has bad few days he often forgets to eat so this combo has to help with there too. But I'll steal your fries of course."
Duke was not going to look gift horse in teeth, so he grabbed one bag and tore it open. There was classic combo with bigger fries and NightWings inside.
"Thank you..." he trailed off, hoping that girl would take a clue and introduce herself but she didn't. She just drowned her fries in ketchup and started munching. She had her own juice.
"My cousin always said that each part of this combo has different purpose," she explained instead, slightly muffled because of fries in her mouth, "This" she gestured towards fast food meal "is to sooth your stomach. This "she tapped energy drink "is to sooth your brain and kick it back online. This "she raised bottle of juice, "is to sooth your taste buds because energy drinks are war crime against them and this "she nudged brownies "is to sooth your heart because Ancients damn it, this day is awful and you deserve it. At least that's what he told me when I had day bad enough to deserve that," she shrugged, licking ketchup of her finger. Suddenly she froze "You aren't allergic, are you?
"No, I'm not," he confessed bewildered.
"Good"
For a long moment they sat in silence, devouring food the little girl brought. Duke distantly wondered if this was how night shift spent their snack breaks. It felt nice.
He was finishing his part of brownies when girl spoke up again.
"Do you feel better now?"
"Yeah" he was a little surprised to realize that it was true. He'll have to note down what she put in this 'bad day combo'. "Thank you"
"Don't mention it," she shrugged with general gesture of dismissal, "You're one of my cousin's favorite heroes because you're vaguely his age and handle Gotham alone during the day and I quote, "she did honest to God air quotes at that" 'As only hero in Amity-' which is a lie by the way, Val is doing great and even if he suddenly got problem with how she feels about his alter ego, he still has Sam and Tuck even if they're usually more of moral support. And I helped when I visited, so no, he isn't only one. Anyway as he said 'As only hero in Amity, my heart goes out for anyone who deals with this type of bullshit so Dani if you absolutely have to prank heroes, leave them out of it, especially Signal, he can't be older than Jazz, he doesn't need any more mess to handle.' All aliens and lanterns are also off limits because he is a space nerd. But you aren't space related so I'm like 80% percent sure he has celebrity crush on you," she slurped more juice, unbothered.
Duke was thankful he wasn't swallowing anything because for sure she would choke. He took split second to consider addressing... this whole situation and choose not to. He was not ready to be anyone's celebrity crush.
"Your name is Danny?" he asked instead.
"Dani" she corrected" with an I"
"Ok. It's nice to meet you Dani-with-an-I," She giggled, nodding her head slightly.
"It's nice to meet you too Signal"
Duke stood up, stretching a little. Dani joined him after hastily putting all the trash in her bag. She was a little higher than expected.
"I have to get back to my patrol"
"Cool," she drifted back a bit, making him realize that she was floating a few inches above the ground. She fixed her bag on her arm.
"Hey, can I hang out a little bit more? My cousin will go green out of jealousy when I tell him," she added with a mischievous smirk but Duke could tell there was more to it. He took a moment to consider it, which apparently made girl nervous "I can be invisible the whole time, like before," she offered, disappearing in the meantime. He could still tell where she was, because of her heat signature and other waves she excluded but for regular people she would be no different than surrounding air.
"Yeah, you can hang around and you don't have to be invisible. Just don't get in my way when I have to actually do some fighting."
She popped back to visible spectrum and pouted like Damian whenever he got benched.
"I can fight, y'know? I stopped mugging on a snack run."
It was ten god damn minutes, how could she get so much food and stop mugging in such a short time?!
Oh, right, superspeed. Still, impressive.
"I haven't seen it-" he started, channeling all Dick-trying-to-wrangle-Damian-into-socially-acceptable-activity energy he could muster "-so I don't know how you fight or even what powers do you have. If we tried to fight together we would trip over each other" It was a bare faced lie, Bat training made sure of that but he knew for fact that if he said anything else, the girl would be mad and probably did her own thing.
Was that what Bruce thought about all of them?
Oh no.
Dani still looked displeased but after a moment of consideration she nodded with a defeated sigh.
Suddenly she straightened like she got struck by lightning and whipped around.
"Wha-"
She just shushed, raising finger to her mouth. Duke did indeed quietened.
"I have enhanced hearing," she whispered "There is a mugging somewhere this way."
"Let's go then," he shot his grapple, waving his other hand at Dani to come with him before he jumped off the roof. He heard the girl giggle as she flew right after him.
"After this you'll show me the coolest gargoyles, okay? Sam asked for photos"
"Okay"
It seemed that the end of this patrol wouldn't be as bad as the start was. Hopefully.
And afterwards he was going to lock himself in his room until sky falls down or he was well rested.
Yeah, that was a good plan.
********
"Hey kid," Signal started, dropping from fire escape to cuff weirdo in clown mask who Dani just fought. He did it deliberately slowly to show her how to do it like he always did. She choose to not be to annoyed at being called kid again and noted to herself to come up with good codename later. All her previous ideas apparently weren't cutting it and she couldn't keep going by Dani because reasons.
"Yes?"
"Who gave you a combat training?" he asked getting up from a crouch and gesturing towards roof. So it's going to be longer talk, okay.
"My cousin," well, Flashes in Central taught her some stuff but it was more rescue and reassure type of deal not punch and kick, Sam tried to get her through basics of psychological warfare in activism, Tucker sweared he would teach her some programming and hacking but never got around to it, Jazz did some emotional training and Val offered to teach her Red Huntress skills when she got back, but yeah, all in all, Danny was the one to show her how to punch people. Even though it was more of 'shit we have to fight, observe maybe, idk' most of the time. She picked some tricks from Vlad too now that she thought about it, not that she planned to give him any credit for it, like, ever. "Why?"
"I have a bone to pick with him," vigilante announced, melting with the shadows. Dani sped as much as she could to beat him to the roof. She was competitive spirit like that.
Unfortunately he was first. She made another note to herself (she was so going to forget them in next five to ten minutes) to train her speed a bit more. She got tips from the guy with the title of The Fastest Man Alive for crying out loud, she shouldn't loose with the person who technically doesn't even have superspeed!
Signal sat cross legged on the gravel and tossed her a healthy granola bar. He kept doing it for some reason.
"I'm sorry to break it to you, but almost everything in your fighting technique is horrible. Your cousin did shitty job as a teacher" he started in warm slightly teasing tone. Dani felt attacked anyway.
"It's not like he has any sort of training either," she started, trying to sound nonchalant, rolling her eyes. "Cut him some slack," She bit a snack in attempt to cover her furry. It had chocolate and raspberries, was quite tasty and she was kinda hungry anyway. She wasn't sure she wanted to know how Signal knew it though "Everything he learned is from the trial and error by crashing through a few walls. Quite hard to care about 'technique'. I at least got his mistakes to learn from so don't you dare to speak about him like that!" alright, she lost it, she can admit it. But, Signal might be cool and Danny may or may not like him (she hoped he didn't, Val was much better option) but Gotham's hero had no right to say anything bad about her template. He didn't know anything. He didn't understand.
Signal looked like he was going to say something so she put her ghostly vocal cords to use and growled.
Don't-harm-family/will-fight/ protect-mine/don't-you-dare
She didn't stop to consider how unlikely it was for him to understand her. She crossed her hands on her chest, glaring.
Turned out, growl was enough of the warning. He carefully picked his next words.
"Sorry, it's not the way I should've phrase it," he started, his mouth doing the thing it did when people were embarrassed with themselves but in an uncomfortable, a bit angry way. He understood his mistake, good. She calmed her glare a bit. "I wasn't aware of you circumstances. If you want, I can show you some tricks, Batman is very throughout with his training"
"No, thank you, I'm good" she was still mad. So mad. And she was not pouting.
"Of course you're good but you can be better, more efficient."
"No." Whatever Signal would propose to her, she wouldn't agree. He said mean things about Danny not even a minute before. She couldn't let him have it on a principle!
"I'll give you a cookie after every training," he pleaded "The homemade, tasty one"
Well, that changed things. A lot of things.
"Yes please!"
He apologized anyway.
********************
Second part
I know democratic winner in poll for now is "publish all at once" and believe me, I respect democracy, especially now that I finally have rights to do things, but Tumblr wouldn't let me. Too long or something. So, it'll be in parts, sorry guys. I'll try to post all of the parts this weekend though (or one each day, I'll see).
Yes, I didn't have a name for this fic until five minutes ago, how did you know? It's quite alright though, I think. If you have better idea I may reconsider
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nelkcats · 1 year
Text
The Banshee, a JL mystery
A foreign case was being discussed by the Justice League, in general it was not bad, just rare.
It began a couple of months ago, a tourist had come to Star City, but he did not visit the city, he did not even register, he just pop out of nowhere, went to the cemetery, and apparently the cameras recorded him placing flowers in all the tombs and talking with the air or with some of the people engraved in the stones, they were not sure of it.
The strange thing was that the cameras around him were always corrupted, they needed the JLD to even stabilize the image, and ¿was that not worrying? They assumed that something supernatural was following him, the boy looked strictly human, but even the trackers that they tried to put were damaged around him.
Unfortunate for the entire league, although they had the guy features, the image was not clear enough for facial recognition.
The corrupted sound of the camaras sounded like a wail, or a cry, Constantine commented it remembered him to a banshee, so they started to call him "The Banshee" even if Zatanna told them Banshee were strictly women, it stayed.
The wave of visits continued, the boy went through Central City, Metropolis, Washington, Gotham, but it was later where something relevant happened again.
Jason was visiting his own grave when he noticed the boy, he tells, he cared because the young man seemed disconsolate looking at the graves, even yearning if that had some sense.
"Did you know him?" It may be the case of B, but it still had him intrigued. Also, the guy was looking at his grave, he felt like he have the right to ask.
"No, but you could say I already did" the boy sighed, stroking the stone of the tomb "I would also like it-..." Danny stopped, he should not be telling his problems to the owner of the tomb "Ah, no matter, it's good to know he was loved"
Jelousy, the reason why Danny visited the cemeteries was to calm himself, surrounded by what he wants but can not occur, to cry as no one cried for him, Clockwork always said that a part of him died at the moment nobody pay attention to his death, and ¿wasn't that funny?
"¿How do you know?" If someone asked Jason, he would affirm that it was uncomfortable to talk about himself as if he was still dead, but he couldn't do anything about it now.
"Well, he's buried and has a proper resting place, they keep bringing him flowers even though the inside of his grave is empty, you can see the recently removed earth; Many of the dead don't have that luxury, their bodies left somewhere, the missing people were never given a proper burial, I don't know man, ghosts can't build their own graves ¿you know?" He was probably ranting and he knew it, but Danny was tired, he wanted that too, and it was such a stupid rule not to be able to give himself his own resting place, but he wasn't going to burden Jazz, Sam, or Tucker with giving him a funeral.
It was the reason he did this, why he visited cemeteries, laid flowers and talked to the resident ghosts, he wanted to know the feeling, wanted to know what he had lost, wanted to be mourned too.
"Anyway, nice to meet you Nosaj Ddot, be a little grateful for what you have, ¿okay? I know some who would kill for it" he smiled ruefully, starting to pick up his basket of flowers, he had already made his rounds anyway. It was probably time to go back to Amity Park.
"¿Nosaj? What are you talking about-" but the boy was already gone, disappeared into thin air, his communications re-established at the same moment that he noticed his damaged tracker right next to the grave, a short circuit.
"The banshee ¿uh?, he sure is an interesting guy, maybe the League is really onto something this time."
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nerdpoe · 9 months
Text
In the Shadow of Speculation Part 1
Part 2, Ao3
Daniel Nightingale, ex Fenton, moves to Gotham for a fresh start. It's next to his friends, it's so very different from Amity Park, and Lady Gotham has promised her Knights will protect him. The world as he knew it has changed, and no longer has a place as a combat hero. Not when he's more likely to flinch than to dodge, not when the sight of a knife is enough to force him back to a time and a place he never wanted to see again. In an attempt to adapt, Danny turns to being a specialized hero-medic; his sole focus is helping and evacuating, not fighting. Except that no one told him Death Energy had the same reading to Geiger counters as gamma radiation. It isn't, but apparently Geiger counters can't tell the difference.
Danny Nightingale plopped down on his new couch, taking a moment to breathe in that new apartment smell. It was a pleasant, three bedroom apartment in a relatively nice area of Gotham. 
Well, nice for ghosts. Specifically, the sheer amount of emotions around the place, both past and present, made it an ideal spot for a healing ghost to situate himself.
Danny felt that the more important point was that he finally had a place to himself. 
He was tired of everyone coddling him, acting like he was going to break if he was even touched wrong. But luckily, Gotham was so far away from any kind of city his family would want to visit that he was free to dodge their nannying.
When he had woken up from the…Accident, it was to a political shitstorm; the Infinite Realms had been gearing up for war, and surprisingly Dan had been the only thing stopping them. The negotiations between dimensions had been a nightmare, especially with the sheer amount of effort it took to keep the Justice League’s nose out of his business, but it had been worth it.
Ghosts were considered sapient entities, were acknowledged to be from essentially a different country/dimension, and the ghosts that lived on Earth and had been negatively affected by the laws that were in place were entitled to compensation for the violation to their persons.
Added bonus, Danny could stay.
The first place he had chosen had been Gotham; it was close to Sam and Tucker, and had just the right dosage of occult to meet Frostbite’s strict ecto-therapy regimen.
That, and Lady Gotham had extended an invitation.
The move had been insane, for multiple reasons.
Vlad had insisted on coming along, something about verifying that Danny wasn’t about to live in a hovel. 
Vlad actually caring-in his own way-was still so weird to Danny.
But at least it had been entertaining; every single time Vlad had stepped out of the car to get something from the gas stations, he kept getting mugged.
Another headache was the fact that, on moving day alone, there were three separate rogue attacks, and traffic had backed up so badly Danny was almost convinced to blow his cover and just fucking fly to his new place.
Which would be the last thing Dan needed-someone with his powers cropping up in a city on the other side of the country. Dan had enough on his plate with his whole…thing he’d decided on doing; the world as a whole declaring that his natural born nemesis was opposite sides of the country would throw a wrench in his rehabilitation.
The man had enough problems.
Like Danny had enough problems, but strangely only when Vlad was around. 
The car Vlad had been driving had hit every single pothole and broken both axles, and overall Danny had the sense that Vlad should probably have never set foot in the city.
Honestly, the absolute second Vlad had left the move had gone much smoother.
Like, Danny had still had to pay the movers extra for the rogue attacks, vicinity to crimes (thanks Vlad for getting mugged so often that the muggers just started taking clothing items), and traffic; but after his Godfather had left it had been done in about two hours flat.
Did he still have to unbox his belongings? Yes. Was he going to do that at that particular moment?
Danny flopped sideways and brought his cell phone up to his face.
No. No, he was not.
He was going to take a breather, fall asleep on his new couch, read the news and watch some random memes, and enjoy his Restitution Money.
Danny had only been scrolling on his phone for two minutes when he fell asleep.
~~~~~~
Danny woke up to the sounds of muffled screams.
“Well that’s never good,” He muttered as he tried to roll over. He landed on the floor instead.
Right.
He hadn’t put the bed together yet.
Groaning, Danny pushed himself up for the purpose of hunting down where he’d put his poptarts. Only once he’d opened a box and started digging through it did he realize that the muffled screams were not coming from his definitely dead phone.
They were coming from outside.
Danny tripped over his feet as he bolted for the window, pressing his face against the glass as he stared down at the streets in disbelief.
The streets were filled with a green, noxious gas. People collapsed onto the ground only to scream and claw at their own faces. Some were attacking others, and anyone who left to assist had gas masks on.
Not that the masks did much good, considering the citizens who had been dosed would freak out and rip it off of them.
Batman and Red Hood were on scene, but they were so focused on cornering and catching the freak in the scarecrow costume that the only one able to assist the civilians was Robin. Unfortunately, as well trained as Robin was, there were too many.
Robin was doing the best he could, Danny could see that, but he was clearly over-burdened and needed assistance. 
Danny…was appalled. This was the most ineffective rogue fight he’d ever witnessed.
When he’d been in charge of Amity, his citizens had only rarely been caught in the crossfire, and he never had a casualty. But here was one of the Big Leaguers and his cohorts, and they couldn’t arrange for the civilians to be treated or get to safety.
Danny, with no means to protect himself and unsure of how the gas would effect him, a halfa, could only watch from the window of his sixth story apartment.
Twenty minutes.
It had taken Batman and Red Hood twenty minutes to take down Scarecrow.
Danny had watched the whole thing.
Twenty minutes, thirty-two injured, nine dead, twelve critically injured.
And Danny, tied by the red tape of bureaucracy and his own trauma, hadn’t been able to do anything.
~~~~~~
A day later, full of unpacking and getting his apartment set up while he ignored the sounds of the emergency workers outside his window, Danny couldn’t stop seeing the attack.
There was so much room for improvement, but Batman apparently didn’t have anyone specifically trained in only defense and evacuation.
Danny had been so, so lucky for Sam and Tucker and Jazz. They had tag-teamed it; one of them would help him fight, the other two would evacuate civilians.
Batman was good at what he did, Danny could not deny that.
But there was room for improvement that was just…there. It was right there. 
Danny couldn’t offer his services as Phantom. He couldn’t. He just…every time he thought about donning his old hero moniker, he’d start remembering.
If he started remembering, he became useless until he was able to remember that he was still alive.
And being a combatant, in and of itself, was highly…dissatisfying. 
No sleep, constant injuries, threat of exposure hanging over his head; Danny’d had enough in high school. He had a whole life separate from that, in a city so big and problematic that just donating used clothes was enough to save someone’s life.
He was doing better. He could finally sleep without nightmares, people reaching out to touch him didn’t make him flinch, and he was away from a town of people who had made his childhood a living hell even before he’d had the Accident.
He refused to ask Dan to step in; the man was needed where he was, and Danny couldn’t drag away a teacher from his students.
Ellie was in college, and Danny wasn’t about to interrupt her education to drag her into the vigilante lifestyle she never even showed real interest in.
On top of his many, many other reasons for just not wanting to get into fights anymore.
Instead he took his frustrations out on kneading the dough on his counter.
His phone buzzed.
      Ellie       Omggggggggggg I don’t know what’s so hard???       Just bully Dan into doing it!
Danny snorted and allowed his hands to go intangible, the dough stuck to his fingers sliding back onto the counter, before he touched his phone to reply.
      Danny       Omggggggggg I literally can’t do that       P sure ur the only one who can bully him       He’s a pushover but only 4 u
He set his phone down and continued stress-baking. Ellie would take a bit to respond, since she wasn’t even supposed to have her phone on her at work.
But apparently Ellie had decided that she did not care.
      Ellie       Lies and slander       He’s scared of me I just know it       Also imma kill my customers
      Danny       Don’t commit murder        Diplomatic immunity only goes so far       I don’t need an inter-dimensional incident
      Danny       Ellie?       Ellie no       Don’t actually kill a human
      Ellie       This dude won’t get off my call       He’s so annoying danny I gotta       I       I’m gonna do a ring
      Danny       Ellie NO
      Ellie       Ellie yes brb
Ellie stopped responding after that, and Danny groaned.
She was absolutely going to cause an inter-dimensional incident.
~~~~~~
Ellie was going to cause an inter-dimensional incident.
But it wasn’t her fault!
The stupid caller-Kent or whatever-was being a total ass!
“Sir,” she tried, one last time, “I cannot assist you with this matter. Either you let me transfer you to someone who can, or I’m going to crawl through this phone and kick your ass.”
“Tt. Even if you were a meta capable of such a feat, I highly doubt you could best me in combat.”
“I warned you.”
Ellie let her form fall away, distantly hearing the screams of her coworkers, and traveled through the phone connection.
Her arm burst from the cell phones ear piece and clocked someone across the face. Then she let the rest of herself crawl through, as eldritch as she could make it without actually driving anyone insane.
There was a scream of terror on her right, but she only had eyes for the tanned asshole in front of her with the bloody nose.
Then she let loose on him.
Surprisingly, he managed to block most of her attacks once he came to his senses.
Most of them.
She just started cheating after that and phasing through his hands to connect to his body.
There was a brief moment where the terrified one to her right tried to intervene, but both she and the Kevin kicked him in the face with a joint “Stay out of this!”.
He stayed out of it.
After fifteen minutes of rough-housing, which was what it had definitely turned into, Ellie wiped the blood away from her nose and held out her hand to the man she was sitting on.
“That was a nice fight; the names Ellie.”
The man paused, hesitated…and shook her hand.
“It was admirable. I am Damian.”
“Um…” Ellie and Damian both turned to look at the other man in the room, a blue eyed black haired carbon copy of her brother almost. But like, younger.
“I’m Jon. You kick pretty hard!”
“Thanks! Well I am definitely fired. What was the real reason for calling, anyways?”
Damian sat up and forced Ellie to fall off of him, his face slowly turning red.
“I didn’t realize that my dad’s card would get charged when I made an app store purchase,” Jon admitted quietly, “Damian was trying to annoy customer service into canceling the transaction so dad wouldn’t find out.”
Ellie wheezed from her spot on the ground, laughing harder when Damian turned and left the room in a huff.
“So…is that something you could go back and-?”
“You’re so fucked my dude.”
~~~~~~
Danny checked his care package while he waited for the Arkham guards to finish verifying his visitation rights.
Muffins? Check. Pretzels? Check. Cookies? Check. Donuts? Check. Fudge? No.
Danny still hadn’t been able to make himself use his father’s recipe.
He wasn’t sure when he would be able to.
It looked like when the guards had checked everything for escape tools they hadn’t eaten anything.
Danny felt strangely offended by that.
“Alright, you’re clear. Good luck.”
“Thanks,” Danny sighed, walking away from the last semblance of normalcy and into what could only be described as hell for the mentally stable.
Arkham was a place that radiated the pull to help, the pull to heal, but was overrun by lifetimes of grudges nothing short of burning the place down would ever be able to fix.
It was, unfortunately, the only place capable of holding his parents.
Who he could hear as they were led to the visitation rooms.
“Danny!” Maddie Fenton cried, attempting to throw herself at him. The chain that was held by her accompanying guards, however, yanked her back.
“Dann-o!” Jack cried as he was hauled through the other door, power-dampening cuffs active. He had far too many guards to attempt to launch forward; after he’d broken four walls, Arkham had stopped taking chances.
“Hey mom, hey dad,” Danny said weakly, placing the care package on the table, “Everything is even, so you should both get the same amount.”
“Aw, our baby boy is so considerate!” Maddie cooed, reaching forward and pinching Danny’s cheek before the guards could tug her back out of range.
“So, I just wanted to know how you guys were settling in-“
“Have you seen any ghosts in Gotham, Dann-o?”
Danny took a deep breath through his nose.
“It doesn’t matter if I did or did not, dad; they’re a protected species with rights now.”
“Oh, pish-posh,” Maddie laughed, already digging into the package and pulling out a pretzel, “So what if the government fell for their acting? You know, when we caught Phantom-“
“-When you caught Phantom, you nearly started an inter-dimensional war,” Danny cut in, hiding his shaking fists under the table.
Maddie leveled him with her most disappointed look, while Jack laughed merrily.
“Come on, Dann-o, you fell for it’s rambling too? Ah, well. We found out so much when it turned into that weird jewel-“
“-When you mortally wounded the King of an entire Dimension, almost forever scarring relations between this one and that one-“
“-Young man, we really are happy to see you, but if you’re just going to quote ghost propaganda at us-“
“-It isn’t propaganda, you guys just don’t listen-“
“-Dann-o, if you’re possessed by ectoplasmic scum, just blink twice-“
Danny stood up, chair clattering to the ground, and turned for the exit.
“…I’ll come again in two weeks. Please actually talk to your doctors and at least try to get better.”
He couldn’t do it. He thought he could, but he just. He couldn’t.
Every time they spoke about ghosts, he was back in the lab, strapped to a metal table, begging them to stop, refusing to turn human regardless of how hard his body fought to.
He wouldn’t allow it.
Not because he thought it would get worse, but because if he had turned human during their…experiments, he would have died.
Humans could not survive what had been done to him.
He ignored their yelling and made his way out of Arkham, dodging the pitying looks from the workers and guards.
He didn’t remember getting on the subway. He didn’t recall anything about his walk through Park Row.
He only came back to himself far after the sun had set, curled up in the bathtub, eyes dry and tired from watching the door.
~~~~~~
Jazz gently tapped Dan’s boots as she walked towards the kitchen, reminding him that shoes were not allowed on the coffee table.
The large man grumbled but acquiesced.
“So how are the kids?” Jazz asked over her shoulder, flipping the oven light on to check on the roast hidden inside.
“There’s a new upstart in Iowa, calls himself Jupiter. Can’t be older than nine, one of the biggest crybabies I’ve ever had to train.”
Jazz snorted.
“Are we basing this off of their first look at you, or just how they behave in general?”
Dan didn’t answer.
Jazz read between the lines and stifled a laugh.
Little Jupiter had definitely cried upon seeing Dan.
“Did you go see Lian, then?”
“Fuck yeah I saw Lian! She’s so big, no wonder I couldn’t find her in the Realms!”
Jazz listened to Dan wax poetic about Roy’s daughter, letting him get it off his chest. After Lian had died, Dan had been as inconsolable as was possible for the emotionally stunted man. He’d spent countless hours in the Infinite Realms, searching for her, only to return heartbroken that he couldn’t find her.
He was convinced she was so doused with ecto-contamination due to her exposure to him that she would absolutely become a ghost.
But when she’d passed, there hadn’t been a trace of one. No matter how hard he’d searched, he’d never found her.
Because apparently, she’d been alive.
“-Anyways, how’s the twerp doing?”
Jazz tuned back in.
“Sorry?”
“Little me. How’s he doin?”
“Danny’s as tall as you are, Dan.”
Dan appeared at her side and phased his hand through the oven to swipe some roast.
“Doesn’t matter, I’m older. He okay?”
Jazz shrugged.
“He’s…awake. Well enough to be on his own.”
“Fucked up he stays in the same town as Maddie and Jack.”
Jazz shrugged again, a little more helplessly.
“How he chooses to heal is up to him, Dan.”
“He shouldn’t be near them,” Dan growled, causing some of the silverware to vibrate.
Jazz tensed and mentally prepared herself for the exact same argument that had brought Dan to her doorstep.
“Dan-“
“A four year coma, Jazz.”
“-It’s his choice, Dan.”
“They made him retreat into his core.”
“I know.”
“He shouldn’t be anywhere near them!”
“I know!” Jazz shouted, whirling on him, shoulders heaving as she felt her eyes glare a bright luminescent green.
They stared at each other, until ultimately Jazz won again, and Dan looked away.
“I know,” Jazz said, quieter, pulling out her phone to check it one more time, “I know, but the world has changed so much since he went down, and if this is how he wants to explore it then I won’t stop him.”
An uncomfortable silence settled over them, until the oven let out an obnoxious tune. No one moved.
“…Roast is done,” Dan said helpfully.
Jazz ignored him, eyes on the screen of her phone.
“Hey.”
She reread what Danny had sent her.
“Hey, Jazz-”
“I need to talk to Danny,” she muttered, picking up the oven mitts and tossing them at Dan as she walked towards her bedroom.
After she shut the door quietly behind her, she called her little brother.
The phone didn’t even complete the first ring before he picked up.
“Danny, are you alright?” She knew that he knew going to see their parents had been a terrible idea, and pointing that out would do no one any good.
So instead she focused on him.
“I don’t think so,” Danny said, his voice much smaller than it had any right to be.
Jazz tamped down on her instinctive need to ask a million questions and sat down on her bed instead.
“That’s fine, Danny; it’s perfectly okay to not be okay. Do you need to me to talk?”
“Yes.”
So Jazz did.
@simplestoryteller @gildedphoenix
Prompts that inspired this entire piece one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Ages are as follows; Dan (31), Jazz (23), Danny (21), Tucker (21), Sam(21), Ellie (19) Bruce (48), Dick (33), Barbara (32), Jason (26), Cass (26), Tim (24), Steph (24), Duke (21), Damian (17) Clark (47), Lois (45), Conner (26), Jon (20) Alfred (Deceased/immortal)
I'm trying a different method of writing, so this will be a bit different. Mostly because for this particular story I'm world-building alongside it.
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flamingpudding · 9 months
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Summoning Gone Wrong
Ties to: Ouija Board Prompt and Ghost Hunting Vigilantes Part 1 / Part 2
A/N: Thanks to @lazy-alex for commenting the base idea in Ghost Hunting Vigilantes for Tim trying to do a summoning that just goes wrong~
Danny calmly sipped the ecto-tea and resisted eyeing the ghost club Lady Gotham had placed next to her as she also drank her tea with all the elegance the spirit possessed. The Ghost King was pretty sure she had placed it like that, in his view, on purpose. He just wasn't sure if it was as a warning or as a preparation since the last couple of times he had been in Gotham, she had felt the need of using it against him.
"I am very glad that you are finally looking into that matter, your highness." The spirit commented, placing the cup back onto the table and refilling it. "I wasn't sure if you had been made aware of it before, if I had known that the old beings had not mentioned it to you before I certainly would have sooner."
Danny nodded. "Yeah, about that. What are these Lazarus Pits anyway? Clockwork only told me to look out for the color green, which is not helpful. And Pandora started on an entire history lesson regarding Lazarus and I am pretty sure that has nothing to do with these Pits your 'knights' mentioned."
Lady Gotham chuckled amused with mirth in her eyes. "They are only known as Lazarus Pits in the human world, my king, not in the Infinite Realms."
"So what…" Danny couldn't finish his question as his ghost sense went off. He really wanted to slam his head into the table. It had been months since his senses went off like that and he hoped it was just Cujo who followed him or Fright Knight. But as no one appeared to interrupt them, he got ticked off because that meant it was one of his former rogues who was up to something. He excused himself from his discussion with Lady Gotham who appeared even more amused than before.
Whoever it was he would send them straight back to the Ghost Zone, they were interrupting some important kingly business here!
A little earlier not too far away from the ghostly discussion, by a recent regularly vigilante visited occult site, three vigilantes stood before a summoning cycle.
Red Robin was crouching by the circle, chalk in hand as he drew runes and symbols on the ground all according to one of his research papers that summed up all the information he had gathered. Including information he had obtained from the Justice League Dark, mainly Constantine since the man owned him and wouldn't just tell on him, behind Batman's back.
It had been weeks since their last encounter with the teenage ghost. He didn't want to admit it but Red Robin was getting worried about the ghost. Both times when they left they sounded like something was hunting or hurting them and last time there was even that green swirly thing they saw for a short moment right after they had heard the ghost say their goodbyes with an actual voice. Besides, that ghost was a mystery to them and Red Robin wasn't known to leave any sort of mystery they encountered unsolved.
"Should we really do this without B?" Nightwing asked, eyeing the strange symbols the youngest among them was drawing on the ground.
"Fuck him. If we get him involved we wouldn't be doing this at all." Red Hood added crossing his arms. "I am more surprised that its only us three this time. I would have bet that at least one of the others would have joined too."
"Baby Bat is out on a mission with B. Spoiler and Orphan are on a outer space mission and Signal has an exam tomorrow." Nightwing shrugged. "It's probably better form Robin not to be here. He was pretty spooked after the last two times."
"Ha! Spooked? The kid is dead set on Pit Demons trying to kill us."
"We can't comple-"
"Finished the writing." Red Robin cut in dusting his gloves from chalk, he was still kneeling on the ground as he turned to the older two vigilantes holding his hands out expectantly. "Nightwing, you brought the candles?"
The vigilante in question handed over a plastic back with the label of a gas station. Red Hood titled his head in question, indicating that he was raising an eye brow under his helmet. The elder only shrugged sheepishly as Red Robin stared at the colorful duck candles it contained.
"I forgot you asked me to buy some and went last minute to the late night open counter gas station. They only had these colorful duck candles."
"Well our fucking ghost has some Humor. Might work better for them then."
Red Robin only sighed but still placed the candles in the circle the way Constantine had described to him. "We will have to see if this will work."
He had made sure to also draw up a protective circle around the summoning one just like Zatana had instructed and Constantine had insisted he would need. Lighting up the candles he stepped back next to his brothers.
"So according to Constantine, we are now supposed to recite a summoning spell and think about the ghost we talked to before to call them back to us."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"So…" Red Robin distributed a piece of paper to each of his brothers. "We start on three."
"One…."
"Wait let me read that shit first!"
"Two…"
"Slow down, little bird."
"Three."
The three of them definitely were not in sync. Nightwing struggled with some of the words while Red Hood ended up mixing in some chosen curse words when he stumbled over a word. Red Robin even though he had practiced before still struggled with some of the words also but still all three managed to get through the incarnation.
They waited with their breaths held for something to happen but the seconds ticked by, with nothing happening. After three minutes Red Robin let out a sigh, deciding that this was a failure.
Just as he was about to step up to the circle to blow out the candles, a green swirling portal like the one he had briefly seen last time opened on the ground where the summoning circle was and a figure rose up from it. The figure was entirely dressed in white with black gloves, boots, belt and hat. Their skin was just as white as the clothes they were wearing and the being was staring back at them with completely green eyes, no irises or pupils. They stood firmly and straight in the summoning circle, arms crossed behind their back and by the way they were holding themself appeared like an authority figure.
"That doesn't look like a 16 years old ghost." Red Hood commented, his hand resting on his gun holder as he stared down their summon.
"Red, you did follow all the instructions right." Nightwing asked his hands, also moving to take out his escrima sticks, eying the being that was now looking at them in what he assumed was contempt.
"Yes, I did." Turning to their summon the vigilantes eyed it carefully. "Hi, sorry about the sudden summon. You obviously aren't the 16 years old ghost we had been talking to before. So uhm, you are free to go again? Unless you happen to know a 16 year old ghost that had been to Gotham at least two times now?"
The summoned being didn't look like they were going to answer, instead they took out a green glowing book that had 'RULES' written on it and leafed through the pages. Stopping when it apparently found a certain page. Their eyes focusing on the page then back at them. Still not grazing them with an answer. Red Robin however noticed how their inclined their head, for a short moment, over to Red Hood before turning back to the book and turning a couple of more pages.
He hadn't been the only one as he felt Nightwing tensing next to him too as well as heard the soft click of Red Hood removing the safety from his gun.
"Unauthorized summoning with out of date summoning methods. Interruption of security works. Unauthorized usage of corrupted ectoplasmic waste and apparent coverup of a human infected by corrupted ectoplasm." The being listed and the three couldn't help but feel reminded of a policeman listing crimes.
"I, Walker, reappointed Warden by his majesty the Ghost King and self appointed head chief of the security department of the Infinite Realms, hereby declare all of you under arrest for the previously listed offenses. Especially you, punk." The ghost called Walker pointed at Red Hood who in return pulled out his guns pointing them back at it. "You will be presented directly to our King. To think there would be a subject that failed to report back their existence."
"The fuck you wanna do? I ain't going anywhere." Red Hood scoffed, his distorted voice sounding challenging towards the ghost.
"Not to be rude but how can he report something he didn't even know about." Nightwing added eying the ghost as well as the protective barrier. The being hadn't made a move toward them yet and it should keep it contained but that didn't mean they just could let their guard down, not like he would let them take any of his brothers anywhere either. He took a step forward in case he needed to cover his younger siblings, protectiveness stirring in him. "RR, did Constantine or Zatana give you a spell to forcefully send them back?"
"Not exactly but they said destroying the summoning circle should send them back instantly." Red Robin mused after glancing at his notes for a brief moment. He didn't dare look away from that ghost for longer than needed. Normally he would be thrilled about having summoned a ghost and probably ask it a bunch of questions he had, ever since their first encounter with that 16 years old ghost left him with a tone of unanswered ones, but not with this one.
"Maybe we should-"
"WALKER! NOT AGAIN! BACK TO THE ZONE NOW!" A white haired 16 years old looking flying boy appeared through the wall without destroying it like he just phased in. The three vigilantes stared at the new presence that looked rather ticked off. The teenager had a cosmic with green flame outlined looking crown floating over their head and were wearing a jumpsuit with a logo that looked like a flaming D.
"Hey could that be our little ghost bastard?" Hood more or less stage-whispered over to Nightwing and Red Robin.
"Looks 16, maybe younger but not like what I imagined." Nightwing mused.
"Ghost Kid -ahem- your Highness, perfect Timing. I was just about to apprehend-"
"No." The teenager interrupted, arms crossed as he floated before the other ghost. "We went over this when I appointed you as the Warden again. Back. To. The. Zone."
"Did… did that other ghost call him 'highness' just now?" The more he got to learn about ghosts the more questions appeared to come up and Red Robin would definitely need answers for all of them.
"Your Highness, we need to-"
"Back now!" The teen repeated as he moved his left arm to point at a portal he opened especially for Walker. "Or do I have to get Lady Gotham to kick you out of her haunt herself?"
Red Robin watched how the two ghosts appeared to have a stare down before the white one closed his rule book and bowed before leaving. Well he would have left if he didn't smack right into the protective wall the vigilante had set up before the summoning. Good to know that Constantine's advice worked.
"Pff - cough -" The teenager covered his mouth, hiding a laugh behind a cough as he closed the portal he had opened and reopened it inside the barrier. The white ghost only sent them the most disgruntled and offended glare Red Robin had seen in a while before going through the portal the teen had opened.
Before either of the three could say anything the teenager let out a sigh and muttered something about having to deal with Walker being naggingly annoying about security and summonings later again. As if noticing them for the first time the boy glanced over at them and instantly stiffed and Red Robin definitely saw recognition in the boy's glowing green eyes. Could it be...?
"Shit." The teenager cursed. Yup, that's him.
"You are-"
"Sorry, no time for talking, gotta get back to Lady Gotham." They interrupted before continuing to ramble on. "You don't really want to make an old spirit with a ghost club wait. You guys better forget what you saw here. I would like Man In Black wipe your memory if I could but well for now please don't attempt summoning like that again? Summonings like that are outdated and barely work correctly for us ghosts. Demon summonings are a different matter but for ghosts this won't work correctly anymore or at least not since I got the stupid crown. You either end up with some random ghost or Walker trying to arrest humans. I soo have enough of getting him back from all the attempts of arresting humans that broke 'summoning rules'. Maybe I should have Fright Night arrest Walker for forcing his summon whenever he notices human summons… Anyway! Don't try again. Okay? Okay. Thanks and bye!"
The boy blinked out of existence before any of them could get a word in. The three vigilantes stared at the now empty spot. Red Robin had so many more additional questions now after having heard the presumed ghost teens ramble. So if the summons from the Justice League Dark were outdated then maybe he would need to find a more modern summoning? Also the teen had mentioned a Lady Gotham and Red Robin could only assume that that had to be their local city's spirit judging by the name.
"Well… we know now what our ghost boy looks like." Nightwing offered after some time and Red Hood scoffed.
"How the fuck was that boy a ghost? He looked more like a meta kid than a ghost."
"Well judging by the voice he definitely was the one that talked the last two times."
"So Demon Brat's Pit Demon theory is true?"
"He didn't lo-"
"I am going to try and summon this Lady Gotham next." Red Robin cut in as he turned on his heel, determined to get to the bottom of this ghost mystery even if he had to pester the JLD members for a while.
""What?""
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suppose-i-was-worm · 10 months
Text
By Virtue of Being a Frog
**it's not great, but here's my birthday fic for myself. Enjoy!**
Look, Danny wasn’t sure what happened. First he was just Danny, hanging out in Gotham on a school trip, and next thing he knew, he was a frog. Now, he didn’t know much about Gotham, but he figured frogs weren’t… common.
He could probably turn back- enchantments didn’t tend to stick on ghosts, but where was the fun in that? With a ribbit and a hop, Danny was off and away, fleeing with the rest of his be-frogged classmates. Except that his fleeing was with purpose. He wanted to get as far away as possible as fast as possible. He knew the class had been in the Diamond District- near a place called Robinson Park, and that Robinson Park was the last place any of them wanted to go.
So there he went. It wasn’t often he was able to get away from his classmates on school trips, so this was a prime opportunity. Even at the age of 18, he wasn’t really allowed to leave the group. But now, escaping in a city that had it’s own guardian ghost? Sign him the fuck up!
Danny dodged between feet, turning himself intangible a few times in order to not get squished, and soon the musty streets turned into lush grass. Croaking, he hopped further into the park- it was gorgeous, all overgrown and blooming. Sam would love it.
Part of Danny wanted to keep this gem in the heart of the darkest city in America to himself, though.
He heard some rustling in the foliage as he hopped through the jungle-like park, but paid it no mind. There was too much to see and to smell to worry about some wildlife.
Except for the frog thing. He’d forgotten about the frog thing.
An honest-to-Ancients hyena lunged out of the bushes and snatched him up. Danny croaked in surprise, feeling himself become dizzy as the canine beast started to shake him about.
It didn’t occur to him to drop the transformation, not until after a young man caught up to the hyena and made it drop him.
“I am very disappointed in you, Bud. We have had this discussion before- if you continue to attack small wildlife every time Harley lets me visit with you, I will not visit again. Do you understand?”
The hyena yipped and bounded off into the foliage, and the young man knelt down to inspect Danny.
“My apologies, he gets excited. Why not come with me and I will get you patched up appropriately?”
There was something to the cadence of the man’s voice, the soft accent, and the emerald eyes that made Danny freeze up.
He allowed the man to scoop him up, and felt himself be carried away. Something in him said that this man was the safest option for him now or ever. The stress of the last hour finally took it’s toll, and Danny felt unconsciousness wash over him.
~~~
“It’s a frog, Damian.”
“What is your point? I found it injured and it has not woken up. Fix it.”
“I’m not a miracle worker!”
Danny woke to a heated conversation over his head. He was pleasantly moist, surrounded by soft things, and overall, fairly content. The safe man was still here, and still safe, and Danny felt better than he had for the last four years.
Or the last… thirteen? How long had it been since he’d been adopted?
“Timothy, please.”
There was a pause, and Danny cracked open one eye. He was nestled in a small damp towel, and the two voices were coming from above him.
“Hey, it just moved!”
Danny opened his eyes fully to look up at his savior. Getting a much closer look at the man forced a startled noise out of his tiny froggy body.
“It is scared, Timothy, back away.”
“You back away! You’re the one frowning down at him from point-blank range!”
Both men started to move away from Danny’s nest, so Danny croaked another protest.
His big brother’s face was looking down at him, older and alive, and even if it was a doppelganger or a dream, Danny wouldn’t let him get away. Not this time.
It finally dawned on him that he could transform back, so with a leap (assisted by some flight and minor intangibility), he sprung from the cardboard box and into the air, where he allowed the enchantment to slough off, landing feather-light on his feet.
He turned to find a sword and some sort of projectile weapon aimed at him.
“Oops.”
“Who are you, and how did you come here?”
Danny raised his hands quickly, his eyes darting around to look for possible exits. Sure, he knew he could just vanish, but even a decade after the fact, he couldn’t get rid of the habit.
“Uh, yeah, sorry about that. I was a frog? And now I’m not. Not that I was a frog to start with, I was visiting Gotham with my school and we were all suddenly frogs, and then there was a hyena so now I’m here? Wherever here is?”
The person who was not his brother put away the projectile.
“There was a magic user attack in the Diamond District yesterday- he was pretty passionate about amphibians.”
“The others who were affected returned to their normal state within three hours, Timothy. I do not understand why this one did not.”
Timothy shrugged, opening his mouth to answer, but the man who was not not Danny’s brother continued.
“Or why he looks like someone who ought to be dead.”
It was Danny’s turn to shrug.
“I mean, in all technicality, I am? But also, did you say it’s been a day? My friends must be worried. Can I… go?”
“You are what?”
Timothy was looking at him curiously, and maybe!Dami was glowering. Ah, familiar.
“Dead. Technically. Oh, wait, you gotta promise not to tell. The Anti-ecto Acts would have my hide on a stick.”
Probably!Dami grabbed Timothy by the arm and pulled him away from where Danny was standing, muttering something in a low voice.
Too bad, Danny had enhanced hearing. Thanks, death!
“I suspect this is a League plant. He looks too similar to- He looks familiar, and in only the way one of Talia’s ruses to kill me would.”
Damn, okay, upgrade from probably to definitely. Except… Damian had been the Demon’s Heir, he would never address their mother by her first name.
Danny chose to feign cluelessness when the two turned their attention back to him.
“What are you here for?”
With a shrug, Danny continued his charade.
“I’ve never understood that question. What are any of us here for? That’s like asking what a prisoner did to get jail time. Crimes.”
“You have come to commit crime?”
Whoops, here’s to forgetting that League trained assassins were generally literal.
“No, that’s how prisoners get jail time. I’m here to live fast, kick ass, and eat grass. Veganism isn’t a phase.”
Ancients, what was he saying? Time to make an exit- but he would be back. He couldn’t live without Damian now that he knew his brother was alive and no longer under Grandfather’s thumb.
“Anyways, I gotta jet- smell ya later!”
Before either of the other men could react, Danny turned intangible and invisible, sinking through the stone floor and zipping his way back to the hotel he was supposed to be in.
It didn’t sink in until after the lecture from his teacher.
“Wait, was that the Batcave?”
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azulhood · 7 months
Text
Johnny 13 accidentally gains a brother.
He didn't plan for this to happen, it just did!
He was visiting his hometown, hanging around crime alley when a street rat tried to steal his bike having not noticed him.
The kid was in the middle of trying to Hotwire his bike when he couldn't help but comment. "It's the other wire, that one sets the alarm off."
"Thanks." The kid replied distractedly letting go of the slightly glowing green wire and reaching for the faintly glowing red wire.
A quiet pause.
The kid slowly turned his head so that he was looking into Johnny's eyes. "This is your bike, ain't it?" The kid asked having realised he wasn't alone.
Johnny smiled with maybe one too many teeth but luckily the kid didn't seem phased "Yep."
The kid nodded as if it was just his luck. "Ya gonna beat me up?"
"Nah, it's not like I ain't Hotwire my own fair share." He wasn't worried that the kid would steal his bike, and if the kid managed to pull it off the bike would just return to him.
"Come on kid, let's get something to eat." The kid narrowed his eyes in suspicion as Johnny walked away, that's fine, it was the kid's choice if he followed or not.
Curiosity and hunger seemed to win out as the kid fell in step beside him.
Johnny found the nearest bat burger (they weren't around when he was alive and not something he'd ever really get used to) and got a family meal with money he had 'burrowed' from the residents of Amity Park.
"Why you doing this?" The kid questioned after devouring three burgers and starting on his fourth.
Johnny shrugged. "Just know what it's like to go hungry is all." He didn't really know, maybe it was because the kid reminded him of himself or maybe it was just Phantom was rubbing off on him.
It was time for them to go their separate ways once the meal was finished and the few leftovers hidden away.
His bike was right where he left it "hey, kid. What's your name?" Johnny asked as he started the ignition.
The kid stared right into his eyes, like he was weighing Johnny's worth. "Jason."
"Jason Todd" The kid said it slow, like each word was a mistake.
Jason Todd,huh? Johnny committed it to memory. "Name's Johnny, kid." He gave back. "I'll see you around."
----------------
After that it became a sort of habit to find the kid, buy him food and listen to whatever was happening in town, whenever he visited Gotham.
The other ghosts thought it was funny, one of them even jokingly said "welcome to parenthood."
But it didn't feel like Jason was his kid. It felt more like... Having a little brother.
Yeah, that was it.
One day Johnny rolled into Gotham with a crisp one hundred in his pocket, unknowingly donated by the Manson family, fullly intending on buying Jason some new clothes, probably a few books, and maybe a new lock pick set.
But he couldn't find him.
Johnny searched crime alley top to bottom, he checked the police headquarters, checked every bat burger, checked the docks.
He ignored the growing pit of worry that in his chest.
Johnny finally found Jason in a swanky mansion that was obviously owned by someone who could give plasmius a run for his money.
Jason, book worm that he was, was found sitting in the mansions library.
Really one of these days Johnny should introduce him to Ghostwriter, they'd get along great.
"Hey, kid."
Jason jumped and whatever book he was reading fell out of his hands.
He lit up once he saw who it was. "Johnny, you're here!" That excitement turned to fear and worry "You can't be here, what if you get caught?"
Johnny waved the kid's worry away. "Don't sweat it, nobody sees me if I don't want'em to." Then it was Johnny's turn to be concerned. "What happened, I couldn't find you in crime alley."
Jason's face went through a complicated range of emotions. "I got adopted by Bruce Wayne."
Johnny's eyes flashed, he knew the horror stories about adoption. "He treating you okay?" The man would never breathe again if he wasn't.
Seeing the possible murder scene, Jason eased his worries. "Yeah, he's fine, it's just a bit weird."
Homicide prevented for now.
Johnny took a seat across from the kid in a chair that was probably worth more then Johnny owned living or dead. "Alright, fill me in."
And Jason did.
Johnny learned about how he was caught stealing the wheels off the Batmobile (he couldn't tell if that was bravery or stupidity) by the Batman which somehow led to Bruce Wayne adopting him.
"I think his other kid doesn't like me much, but it ain't bad here." Jason said as he finished his story.
Johnny quietly nodded as he absorbed the information and thought about where to go from here.
He had planned on getting Jason a nice home (woulda offered his own haunt if the living could live in the ghost zone) preferably in Amity where he could meet everyone. (Kitty would love him)
Here Jason had the chance to never go hungry, get into good schools, always have what he needed.
This situation was...ideal.
Even if Johnny wasn't happy with it. "You happy here?" What mattered was that Jason was.
Jason visibly thought about it. "...Yeah...I am."
And the decision was made.
"You know you can come to me for anything, right? If you want to get out of here or just want someone to talk to." Johnny needed the kid to know that.
Jason rolled his eyes but replied. "Yeah, Johnny, I know."
So Johnny left reluctantly feeling like he was making a mistake somehow.
---------------
Johnny was fighting Phantom with Kitty when he felt it.
He felt Jason die.
And Johnny s c r e a m e d
–----------------
He nearly tore apart the ghost zone in his search for Jason's ghost.
There was no way that Jason didn't form a ghost with the amount of time exposed to Johnny's ectoplasmic self.
Kitty helped him search, everyone helped him search, even Phantom.
But he couldn't find his little brother.
----------------
Then he felt it.
He felt Jason come back to life.
He didn't know the details and he didn't care. All that mattered was that the kid was alive.
--------------
He tried to search the living realm for the kid, which would have been made a ton easier if the GIW wasn't shooting at him every ten minutes.
At some point he gave up looking and waited instead.
Jason would find his way home to Gotham at some point, all Johnny had to do was wait.
--------------
Johnny knew the second Jason stepped into the fair city of Gotham.
He broke many speeding limits and traffic laws on his way there but he didn't care.
Especially when he saw Jason on the streets, he looked different but Johnny would know that kid anywhere.
Johnny opened his mouth to call out.
But then Jason with him and his mouth snapped shut with a click.
There wasn't even a glimmer of recognition in Jason's eyes.
His brother didn't remember him.
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