Tumgik
#the joker is a ghost in this au
emeraldsandamethyst · 8 months
Text
Inspired by this post by @nerdpoe thank you
AN: a whole new au. Danny is not the ghost king. He is running errands for the ancients. He is unaware but he's a baby ancient himself. The new ancient of space. Though he's not there yet.
Tim is going by Cardinal in this. Jason is still Red Hood, and also the prince that Danny is talking about. Jason and the bats have no idea he's a prince or what it means. I had originally planned on making this dead on main but now it might be dead tired. Unsure. If it is Tim is polyam and already dating Bernard for sure and maybe Kon too idk.
***
Tim, as Cardinal, landed on the rooftop across from the unknown potential rogue. They were glowing weakly and floating just off the gravel on the roof. Their hair was white and mid length. It moved more like smoke than hair. They were wearing a simple black suit with white gloves, boots and belt. They had no face covering.
"Oh, you're here! Awesome! You ready?" They asked cheerfully. He'd been expected. Or if not Cardinal then at least someone from The Colony.
Tim hummed noncommittally. The guy looked confused then disappointed.
"You don't know why you're here, do you?" The guy said, both his shoulders and floating hair drooping in disappointment. Curious.
"Why don't you tell me what you think I'm here for and we can compare notes." Tim said with bland politeness. He didn't do anything so stupid as relax, but he wasn't in the mood to fight. So de-escalate it was. Hopefully the unknown would agree.
"Right. Okay. At least you're definitely her knight so you're the right guy." He said, apparently to himself, then he straightened his posture and pulled out a scroll from somewhere, making it look like it came from his suit. "Ahem ahem." He actually said instead of clearing his throat. He began to read. "It has come to the attention of the Council of Ancients that one of our peoples is claiming their haunt in the Living world under false pretenses and with malicious intent beyond reasonable expectations of the Dead. 
"Recognizing the great disruption that the Living would experience at Our collective presence We, the Council of Ancients, send in our stead a champion, known to the living as Danny Phantom, to enforce Our decree. 
"It has been reported by the Dead victims that the Living have been unable to otherwise mitigate or contain or banish this criminal from their world. The wrongs done are so numerous and so horrific and the Victims so plentiful that We, The Council of Ancients, condemn this man, known to the Living as 'The Joker', to eternal imprisonment. This judgment is to be enforced forthwith. Once apprehend and safely contained We, The Council of Ancients, shall provide a means by which the Living can file their own grievances against The Joker to seek redress.
"Danny Phantom-" Danny stopped reciting and looked over at Cardinal with a disgruntled expression, "that's me. I'm Danny Phantom, I have to read it exactly." Then he went back to reading the document. "Danny Phantom is hereby charged to speak with the Ghost whose haunt has been so grossly violated and follow their demands that do not conflict with Realm law."
Danny waited, holding the scroll open for a few more moments before he offered it, rolled back up, to Tim.
"And that's why I'm here with you, by the way, Lady Gotham told me her knights and Prince would help me and you're her knight, so, yeah! That's why I'm here! Got my warrant and everything Mister Birdman, Sir!"
"... It's Cardinal, actually." Tim said. He took the glowing paper with some concern and opened it himself. The words were not in English or any other language Tim knew. Except as he looked the document translated itself into English.
This was, indeed, a very strange but official seeming document that could be called a warrant. Calling for the detainment of The Joker. In another dimension.
An excuse to get The Joker gone forever? Tim wanted to accept this right now, immediately. But Bruce would need more than a scroll from an unknown government and the words of their supposed representative as proof.
Tim breathed in for four, held it then exhaled for six. "How exactly am I to determine this is a legitimate warrant from a legitimate governing body with actual jurisdiction in Gotham, New Jersey, The United States of America, North America, Earth, third planet in the Sol system, the Milky Way and not some wackos with big ideas and more power than sense." 
"But, it is legit?" Danny Phantom looked confused, as if the concept of this situation being faked had never even occurred to him. Tim stared at him. Phantom stared back.
"Sure, okay, you're telling me it is. But how do I make sure you're actually who you say you are. Anyone can put on a costume and claim whatever they want. Doesn't make it true." Tim said with patience he didn't feel.
"Huh. Uh, I guess?" Phantom said, somehow looking even more confused now. "Um, usually your patron would be here to introduce us, well she is here but she's not able to be seen by the Living. Not even her knights. She's supposed to be able to show herself to you guys but can't because this The Joker guy is messing with her. Taking her power and junk.
"What?" Phantom's eyes lost focus, like he was communicating telepathically.  Since it was a total non sequitur Tim figured it likely was telepathy, or something like it.
Tim waited, mentally rifling through his memories to find ways to vet this guy that would satisfy Bruce. Because honestly? Tim was tempted to just let him go and watch what happened.
"Oh! Well, why isn't your prince here, Lady? That should make everything easy— wait, seriously? Of course not, that would be easy. How can they even function? Ugh."
"Excuse me? Who exactly is this prince that I'm supposedly following the orders of?" Tim interjected. He didn't need this unknown likely meta going off on irrelevant tangents. Definitely not now.
"It's- ugh. I'm not allowed to say anything? He's a dude that… you know." Danny flinched and hissed. He glared at nothing, sulking.
"Uh-huh." Tim said. "The prince of Gotham is 'a dude' that 'I know' right. Sure. I know Brucie Wayne is the media's prince of Gotham but he's not actually an actual prince. That's just hyperbole. We don't actually have royalty here."
"I'm from Ohio! Of course I know that's not your Lady's real prince!" Danny scoffed and looked offended. 
"Condolences on being Ohian."
"Oh come on! You're from New Jersey!"
"Your point?" Tim asked.
"Look. Just. I am trying to do my job and help you and your patron and your people." Danny snapped.
"And what do you need from me, exactly? You never actually explained. You just read me your warrant." Tim pointed out.
"Oh. Uh. Sorry Cardinal." Danny said, embarrassed. "I just need your okay for me to get him or for you to come with."
Tim hummed and thought. That was it? Tim technically didn't even need to go with him? Tim was, of course. He was much too untrusting to just let this stranger run off in Gotham unsupervised.
"Yeah alright. I'll escort you, don't run off."
"Aw yeah!" Phantom said, immediately flying off. He did at least come back and look embarrassed, staying close to Tim. "Um, sorry. Got excited. Lead the way Sir Cardinal!"
***
That's all I've got so far. Just kinda wrote this to get back into writing. No idea if I'm gonna continue it.
Thank you.
240 notes · View notes
zylev-blog · 4 months
Text
Danny has a new rogue. The man is going by the name of Freakshow, but most of the whispers he’s heard have labeled him as the Joker. The Joker pings as a liminal, so Danny has been trying to find him. Problem is, the Joker doesn’t stay in Amity Park. The man is mobile, and the more Danny leaves Amity Park, the more he’s hunted by the GIW. This makes it harder to hunt the man, but he knows that Joker is dangerous. Unstable.
And he really hates clowns.
He’s chasing the Joker through New Jersey when a red blur knocks into him and drags him away from the Joker. He has enough sense left to realize he’s being moved in superspeed before he’s head butting the man holding him and turning intangible out of his arms. He hears the man in red groan and hold his bleeding nose.
“Wait.” The man in red pants, “The Joker is dangerous.”
“I know he is.” Danny tells him, “That’s why I’m taking him down.”
“You’re not working with him?” A man in black asks.
“What? No!” He gestured to himself, “I don’t have this getup because of him, you know. I’m a dead kid. A ghost. He’s messing with the living while carrying traces of the dead, and that’s wrong, you know? Once you kill so many people, it offends the dead and we have to intervene. Once you pass that point, the dead takes your soul. He’s already on his way there.”
“You don’t look dead.” The man in black says while the man in red looks away from him.
“Yeah? And you look like a bat. You don’t have room to talk when you look like a furry.” He rolled his eyes.
“I’m Flash and this is Batman.” Flash introduced himself and his partner, “We and the Joker are from another dimension. We’re trying to take Joker down before he merges our dimensions and takes over both of them.”
“Ugh, not more interdimensional bullshit.” Danny swears. “You can call me Phantom, by the way.”
“You don’t seem suprised about this.” Batman prompts.
“Yknow, after the fifth attempt at interdimensional war you get used to it. This dimension has the most… uh, what did they call it? Oomph? I think it means like, this is the most powerful dimension out of all of them. It doesn’t take long for us to kick them back where they belong. But this Joker dude, he’s persistent.” Danny shrugged.
“I know Joker the best.” Batman told him.
“As long as Joker ends up back in his dimension before he merges ours.” He grimaced. “Been there done that once, it wasn’t pretty to undo. It nearly destroyed both of our dimensions, but some things aren’t supposed to be merged.”
“To work together, we need to know what you can do.” Flash glanced at Batman.
“Do you want a list?”
2K notes · View notes
Jason*tells to a new friend how he wants to kill the Joker*.
Danny*takes a sip then gives him the thermos*: Chill, dude. Just eat him.
Jason:..What have you got in your thermos, Danny?
Danny: Do not ask the question if you already know the answer. But it’s something with an ecto signature.
Jason:
Danny: Don’t be shy. I already had breakfast today.
~~~~
Batman: Suspiciously, no sign of the Joker.
Batman: What are you drinking, Hood?
Red Hood: Em..Soda?
Batman: Which flavor is it?
Red Hood *who can’t keep his mouth shut*: Sweet revenge.
3K notes · View notes
Text
Concept: inspired by @bluerosefox and they're work about danny demanding the jokers soul. I wanted to write the joker and Danny's interactions too.
Danny groaned as the next set of paperwork was slipped onto his desk.
Joker would soon croak.
He would slip on his own banana peel and fall down the stairs.
Gothem would celebrate that night with alcohol and music. The ghost zone would brace itself for the trial...
Honestly it was bound to happen. It wasn't that danny was surprised. But it would be a long drawn out case. When a human dies they become more of what they are after all.
It's like their souls are condensed to make up their ghostly form. As if their passions were their hearts.
For some that was amazing. Fiery passion can be useful in all sorts of situations, but for joker this would be a nightmare come true.
The ghost looked at him his eyes worried, almost teary.
"Should I alarm the Gothamites of the infinite realms."
Danny thought for a minute, let out a low hum, and thought some more.
He knew what he could do in theory.
If he was to judge the jokers soul in the room that he dies in, the ghost zone would be free from his wrath.
But if the joker defeated him in combat he shuddered at what that monster would do with all the power in the afterlife.
He didn't really think joker could take him down, but knowing others thought the same for him and his predecessor....
So Danny was left with one option.
"Call my knights," he commanded
The fright knight was captain. Head of the army and keeper of the soul shredder.
Danny only needed to borrow it, but when he explained the predicament the ghost dropped to his knees, the metal clang sound echoed through the office. The fright knight began to speak,
"You wish to spare me from looking into the eyes of evil, and I thank you my liege. But I can not and shall not send you alone to your second death."
Danny told him to rise to get off the dirty floor, but he continued.
"As captain of the guards my liege is only under my obligation to the knights under me."
Danny remembered the conversation that made that a possibility. That changed the priority of obligation completely and totally, hopefully for once and for all.
Danny hid a small smile and told him to get of the floor again
............
It didn't take long to find joker amoung the living. He was surrounded by weeping souls unable to move on.
Danny clutched his scale. A gift from clockwork, to a "good and fair king to continue to strive to be better."
Clockwork had, in the end taken up the role of advisor. As such he stood by Danny's right side, his captain to the left.
When they entered the room he was already dead.
The soul of the man was laughing hysterically.
He got louder when he spotted them.
Danny sighed and despite the noise tried to read him his rights.
He argued with each and every one in nonsensical logic.
The third time Danny slapped him across his ghostly face, leaving frostbite and cold crystals on his white cheek.
"I am not batman, I am death. I will not play as he does, I am the ghost king, death himself."
After the rights were read Danny peared into his soul, sticky and tar like, it made him feel ill. He put on the extra gauntlet brought and separated the dead from his deeds.
It felt like lifting a semi, and weighed him down about a foot.
The joker cackled with pride. Danny wondered if he didn't understand the gravity of the situation, or if he didn't care.
Then with the other hand he did the same to himself.
Both sets of deeds were set on the scale at the same time. Danny barely caught the peice of his own ghostly form.
The scale broke the table on its way down, jokers sludgelike, corrupted deeds stuck to it. The scale hadn't twitched once to the other side.
The knights went to pick up the piece of soul and put it back. It took three of them.
Danny put his deeds back were they belonged.
When everything was dead and done, joker was declared guilty and chained down, something he escaped out the window and around the block to avoid.
Danny took out the soul shredder.
It wasn't the fright knights job to play executioner.
Then the joker was blindfolded, he made this difficult via attempted biting, but once it was done, it was done.
Danny didn't ask for a last word.
He took the sword and swung as he had been taught. And as the jokers very soul was torn, the bells rang in Gotham for the first time in Years.
He didn't miss.
2K notes · View notes
starry-bi-sky · 8 months
Text
Childhood Friends Au: Jason
there's something burning in the empty room inside my head fill it up with doubt let it in, let it spread
When Jason gets Tim's text in the groupchat, he ignores it. And then a short series of buzzes distract him from a drug bust. It hasn't even been that long since he reconciled with the family, with Bruce. He thinks that perhaps he should have left it sooner.
He glances at it momentarily when the buzzing stops and he doesn't need to knock out more guys. He sees Tim's question dedicated towards him, and his response is instant, his thumbs flying over in response.
He doesn't care, he's trying to patrol.
(He does not have Danny's number in this phone, it's new. A model from this year rather than one from four years ago. He wants that old phone back. He hasn't even looked at their old letters yet.)
(Jason bets that they've been packed away in storage with the rest of his things. He doesn't want to visit the manor, but maybe he should. Just to find those letters again. He's not sure if he's allowed to.)
And then Tim says its Danny, and Jason flies up to the past texts to find the photo before he can think. And then there is Danny staring right at him again, with the same old smile on his face that he always aimed at people. Lopsided, Danny's favorite kind of smile.
Something old, something new. He's got piercings, and his eyes are as blue as they've ever been. He has an undercut, it looks self-done. It looks good. He looks tired.
Danny's good at hiding things from people, it comes with the purchase of being a street kid. But Jason can't have someone else's back without knowing the ins and outs of the person in question. Jason knows when Danny is tired, and Danny knows when he is too.
Before his death, whenever Danny came over he never missed a beat in telling Jason that he looked like shit. Were Bruce's fancy rich-people, cloud-made mattresses too soft for him? He can find him a moth-eaten street mat for him if he needs it. It'd be like the good old days.
(Jason wishes he could have told him he was Robin, but it wouldn't be safe.)
Jason had to see him with his own eyes, had to confirm with his own eyes just how much Danny had changed. It's just his luck -- if he has any left -- that he arrives to Bruce's dumb gala just as Danny steps out onto their once-shared, west-end balcony.
He drops down, something heavy in his throat, before he can properly think it through. Danny looks up before his feet even touch the ground, like he knew he was there. Jason wonders if he did. There is a cigarette in Danny's mouth. Something old. And something flashes in his eyes that Jason cannot place. Danny looks tense.
Jason feels like he's made a mistake.
In the end, watching Danny walk away feels a lot like Jason is losing something -- or is he missing something? Is it both? He wants to reach out, grab Danny's arm, but his feet are glued to the balcony floor. There are so many things he wants to say, but his tongue has glued itself to the roof of his mouth. Something has crawled into his mouth and died.
So much has been said with so little words. He wants to spin Danny around and ask him so many questions.
What do you mean you spoke to my ghost?
What do you mean I told you the Joker killed me?
What else have I told you?
The Fentons were right?
What happened while I was gone?
Why are you scarred? Where did those come from?
(He is not blind. He saw those silver lightning scars etched into his best friend's skin, saw that it disappeared under his sleeves. Danny did not have those the last time Jason saw him, the last time he was alive.)
(The sight of it makes him alight with murderous intent. He wants to take his best friend by the front of his shirt and shake him -- who did this to you? Who did it? Tell him, he will fix it.)
(But he can't. He doesn't. Doing that means revealing who he is. It means telling his best friend that he has been alive for the last five years and he did not tell him. It would mean telling his best friend that he did not want him to know.)
You're going to kill the Joker for me?
What have I missed?
What do I not know?
You look so tired.
But before he can even get his mouth to move, Danny is gone back inside. The door swinging open, music once muffled now blaring out for only a few seconds before Danny is slipped back inside.
And Jason is left on the balcony, alone, with more questions than he thought he would have. He stares at the broken cigarette on the ground, it feels like a metaphor for something. Jason can't figure out for his second life what it is.
Maybe it's not a metaphor at all, maybe the curtains are sometimes just blue. Maybe sometimes your best friend just tells a vigilante that he is going to murder someone; that he is going to avenge his best friend with his bare hands and feel no remorse for it.
It is what Jason wants Bruce to do, wants someone who loves him to do. But he's not sure if its something he wants Danny to do. Not when he has been living a normal life -- or as normal as it could be -- without hide nor tail knowledge of what Jason used to do, or what he does now.
What have I missed?
Danny. He's missed Danny. He didn't look into Amity Park out of fear of what he'll find; of what he might do. But now Jason thinks he might have to.
Danny has talked to his ghost. Danny is going to kill for him. He has that look in his eyes that Jason knows so familiar; the one where he needs Jason to play distractor while he stole something from the corner store. The one where he looks a kid five years his senior in the eyes and kicks him in the dick because he cornered him and Jason, itching for a fight.
There's a look so familiar in his eyes; the one of a boy that's set his mind to something and he is going to do it. He can't call it the eyes of a cornered animal, because Danny has never been cornered, not when he's been with Jason. He calls it the eyes of a boy about to do something he will never regret.
He watches him leave with the Vlad Masters guy. He hides atop the roof and eavesdrops. The paparazzi have since left now that it was much later in the night; they are not the bigger fish, even if they sometimes parade it to be.
"I thought I told you to make nice." Vlad Masters scowls as he walks to the other side of the sleek black limousine. "To not embarrass me."
Jason frowns at the way he talks. His fingers itch, and something old lurches in his chest: the same old protectiveness that he used to feel whenever he and Danny were about to get into a fight. And then, later, when they would stand inside Bruce's galas with people who couldn't care less if they breathed or died.
Danny scowls right back at him, all venom and bite, and leans against the side of the car. "I did make nice -- as nice as I could when you dragged me here."
Vlad Master rolls his eyes, huffing. Jason's frown only deepens. It's not easy to make Danny do anything he doesn't want to. His sister has tried, so have his parents, as well as his teachers. But Danny is wild and so is Jason. Rebellion and disobedience -- no, independence -- cut into them from the streets like its broken glass.
Jason doesn't remember Danny ever mentioning knowing a Vlad Masters. They must have met after Jason died, then. He doesn't like him. He's the same as all the other socialites in that party. There is a greed in his eyes that Jason knows rots down to the core of him.
"I thought you would enjoy being here, little badger." Masters tries, and his tone makes Jason ruffle. As does the nickname. Danny's scowl only ever deepens, his fingers curling to dig nails into his palms. He looks at Masters like he wants him to burst into flames. "You are friends of the Waynes, I thought you would like the little reunion."
"Whether I did or didn't is none of your business." Danny says. The door clicks open on Masters' side, as if they remembered that they were on the street rather than in the car. Masters climbs into the back, and Danny opens the door. He only reaches in though, and pulls out a old hoodie.
Danny pulls it over his head, and his vest and button-down are hidden underneath it. "Don't wait up you old fruitloop, there's someone here I need to see." And he slams the door shut with more force than necessary.
(Jason makes a mental note to look into Vlad Masters. Who is he to Danny. How did they meet? There is an old animosity between each other that Jason has never seen before. Not even when they were on the streets. Not to this extent.)
Jason's heart seizes up. Danny's reminder early surges to the front of his mind. Right. That's right. He's going to go see him. Jason. He is going to lay flowers on his grave. He remembers that Jason likes zinnias. There are no florists open this late at night, Jason thinks.
He follows Danny from the rooftops. Danny sticks close to the buildings, slipping in and out of shadows. Jason wants to know where he learned how to do that. Where did he learn how to move without a sound?
Five years is a long time to be away from someone, Jason thinks. Something that fills him with dread. Five years is a long, long time. He's afraid that it's been too long. Will he still know Danny like he used to, if he asks? And if he doesn't?
More, more, more. More questions than answers. More things that Jason doesn't know about someone he used know to like the back of his hand. It scares him, and he hates it.
(There is scarring on Danny's hand that Jason has never seen before. Maybe that's the metaphor he was missing before. Maybe there are still more.)
Danny moves like a ghost down Gotham's streets, his hands shoved into his pockets without a care in the world. It is confusing. It is concerning. It is proof that more things have changed than Jason likes.
Danny somehow finds a florist open at this time of night, and buys a bouquet. And like he told the Red Hood, he buys zinnias. Reds and yellows. For a moment, Jason thinks that Danny knows. He wonders if he does.
What would he have told him, if he was a ghost? He told him that the Joker killed him. Maybe that means he told Danny he was Robin too, like he always wanted to. But couldn't, because it wasn't safe, and it wasn't just his secret to tell?
Why has nothing changed, now that he was alive again?
"Did you know," Danny starts, when he sits down at Jason's grave with flowers slipping gently from his fingers, before the tombstone below. Jason is as close as he can without being seen, hiding like a ghost. "That red zinnias mean stead beating of a heart?" He smiles sardonically, "You picked quite the flower, Jay."
(There is an echoing in his ears, Danny's voice faint in the back of his mind. Ghosts can hear you when you speak to their grave, did you know? Jason can hear him better than he should.)
Jason knows the irony. Perhaps it's got double the meaning now, now that he's alive again. Danny doesn't know that though, sitting before his grave with flowers that symbolize a beating heart. Between the two of them, Jason thinks that the only heart here is Danny.
(Between the two of them, the only heart here is one that's made between the two of them.)
"Yellow zinnias," Danny continues, resting his chin in his hand, "mean daily remembrance." His smile tilts on the axis of his mouth, a wrinkle between his brows. He looks pained. Hurt. There is no comment made. Like it doesn't need to be said.
Jason thinks he can hear it anyways, and his heart twists like someone took it and twisted it like a rag, trying to drain the dirty water out of the cloth. He hurts.
I miss you. Is what he hears. Is what Danny doesn't say. Is what Jason knows he's thinking anyways.
I am right here. Is what Jason wants to say, but doesn't. He is right here. But his feet are grave-bound to the floor, and a part of him feels like he's clawing out his own grave again. But the dirt falling is endless and merciless. He can't get free.
He bites his tongue, a lump in his throat. Shame wells in his heart and Jason wants to shrink away from this. His feet are grave-bound to the floor.
"I'm sorry for not visiting sooner." Danny says, hand dropping out of his chin to pick at the ends of his sleeves. His smile fades into a frown. His voice wobbles. "I'm sorry, I don't have an excuse. I should have."
Please don't be. Jason thinks. He doesn't think he can be upset about it, not when Danny is laying yellow flowers on his grave that mean remembrance. i think of you daily. Not when Danny was going to kill the Joker for him.
Jason still doesn't know what to think of that. He still isn't sure if it's real or not.
"I went to one of Bruce's galas today." Danny says, and Jason knows. He saw him there. Danny smiles weakly. "I know, right? First time in five years. Vlad dragged me along, you remember him right?"
No, I don't. Jason thinks, and he feels a flutter of anxiety. A sense of impending doom. A choking dread. What else have I missed? He thinks again. Why doesn't he remember? Danny told him about Vlad, but it can only be from when he was a ghost. How long was he a ghost before he was revived? How often did he and Danny speak?
Jason doesn't like not knowing things, he doesn't like not knowing things about himself.
It would be so easy, a little voice whispers, to reveal himself now. To step forward and take his helmet off. To tell Danny that he was alive. To demand answers that only Danny could know.
But then what? When Danny inevitably asks his own questions? About how long Jason's been alive? Why he was dressed the way he was? Why he didn't say anything earlier, on the balcony?
(But he did say it earlier, when he offered Danny the cigarette and silently asked him for his thoughts.)
Jason is afraid of what Danny might think of him, if he tells him what he's done. About the blood on his hands and the bridges he's burned. What if telling him is just more gasoline on another bridge, with Danny holding the match? He stays silent. Fear is a powerful motivator. It's a powerful deterrent, too.
"The asshole blackmailed me into coming." Danny says, drawing his knees up to his chest. He looks disinterested. Annoyed, actually. Like what he is saying isn't sending alarm bells through Jason's mind. Like what he's saying doesn't concern him. "It's really dumb, actually."
He sighs, long and tired. There is grief etched into every line and pore in his face. "I could have handled it without even needing to come to the gala, I've done it before." He mutters when his eyes open. His fingers brush against the petals of the bouquet.
(And that only sends more alarm bells ringing in Jason's mind. Red lights blaring. Distress fills the cavity of his lungs. What has he missed?)
"I only agreed because I missed you," Danny says, "and Bruce. He invited me to come over sometime soon, to catch up. I agreed and I'm not sure why I did."
Jason didn't know that.
Danny continues talking. Jason listens in dutifully. He feels like a stranger imposing on his own grave. It's ridiculous. It makes sense. He feels like he should slink away and let Danny talk to his grave in peace. He cannot bring himself to move.
If he closes his eyes, he can pretend that he's sitting in front of him, like it's the good old days and they're back in Jason's room in the manor. Staying up late and trading stories back and forth. Sneaking out to the balcony and climbing onto rooftops they’re not supposed to go on. 
Jazz is getting her psychology degree. Him and Sam had a big fight a few years ago, but they’re better now. Tucker wants to start his own tech business. 
And on and on Danny goes, rambling about every little thing he can think of in the last five years since they last talked. He jumps back and forth between topics, when he remembers something he cuts to it. And then jumps back off to the next thought passing through his mind.
"I don't know what I want to do." Danny says, finally, after he exhausts every other topic to talk about. "I wanted to be an astronaut, but now I'm not so sure." His knees draw up to his chin, and he looks so sad. He looks nineteen. Small despite his size.
Were they really just nineteen, verging on twenty? Jason feels older among his years. Fourteen feels so far away.
Danny breathes in slowly, it's a sound that trembles. From where he stands, Jason sees Danny's eyes film over with tears. He makes a choked out sound that sounds like a terrible mix of a laugh and a sob.
"Where did you go?" He whispers. He tries to smile, and it is this pained, awful thing that drops within a second. Fingers clutch at his legs, diggings wrinkles into the fabric. "I know you're still here. Where did you go?"
There is no answer. Guilt is an animal with claws, and it burrows into Jason's heart to make itself home between the tendons. Tears slide from Danny's eyes down his cheeks. He still cries for him, five years later. Five years after. Jason feels worse.
"I haven't stopped looking for you." Danny continues, his voice cracks, and the words run over Jason's ears like water sliding off a duck's back. He doesn't hear it at first -- no, he doesn't understand it at first. And then when he does, he plunges his hands into the waters of his mind to drudge it back up.
You're looking for me? Do you know I'm alive?
It's another question to Jason's never-ending list.
"You might as well tell me where you are now." He smiles again; tries to. It wobbles, lips pulling back to show teeth as more tears spill over and carve red marks down Danny's face. "Or I'll find Cujo and sick him on you. He's gettin' real good at tracking things you know."
Jason doesn't know who Cujo is. But it sounds like a dog. He knows Danny's always wanted one, but their apartments would never allow it. It's not like his parents could afford one either.
There is a silence that hangs over them, with only the sound of the city around them. Danny seems to tremble more and more as each second passes, until finally a bubble pops. His smile drops, and so do his knees that were pressed into his chest.
He doesn't say a thing, not with words anyways. He hunches over and hugs himself with nails that dig into his elbows, failing to stifle a years' old grief. Jason wants to flee, lest he breaks his word to himself and steps out to console and dry Danny's falling tears. It feels like a betrayal unto himself to only stand there and watch him drown in his grief.
Guilt is a thing with claws, and Jason leaves the cemetery with hatred eating his tongue. Danny deserves the privacy that a ghost cannot give him. Jason may no longer be a ghost, but he is still the next best thing. either way I'm left holding onto the shovel and rope digging in the dirt finding bones, finding ghosts
402 notes · View notes
bluemoonwolf17 · 5 months
Text
Holy Shit!? This got more attention than I thought it would. Lucifer Damn!! Anyway, as promised! Here is the second part of this shit show Part 1
Okay, Again, listen. At this point, I just like the idea that Danny knew the Bat kids before everythin' happened, okay?!
And cannon? Who's she? I don't know her.
Also!!! A little warin' at one point, it gets a little gory.
_______
While Danny and Alfred were catchin' up, plottin' is where a 12-year-old Dick Grayson came down the stairs to see if Bruce was back from his meetin' that ran too late for the kids likin'.
When the kid saw a giant man who looked like Bruce near his Dad Bruce, he might have blurted the first thin' that came to his tired mind, "Do I have another Dad that's a giant, or am I that tired?" Bruce groaned Alfred, hid a smile behind his hand, and Danny, full-on cackled.
Danny, after laughin', froze then whipped his head towards Bruce so fast that his neck cracked. Bruce flinched away from his Pa because of the look he got or the sound no one knew.
Danny stared at Bruce with a look that could freeze a man. Bruce gulped and sent a silent prayer to any Ancients that'll listen while he looked between Danny and Dick. He settled for Dick.
"Ah, no, chum, this is your grandfather, Daniel Nightingale-Wayne Pa. This is your Grandson Richard Grayson, although he prefers Dick," Bruce said to Dick, then turned to Danny at the last part.
It was quiet until Danny spoke up, "Bruce Thomas Nightingale-Wayne! You are in so much trouble, young man!" Every Bein' in the room flinched (Yes, even Alfred). Bruce nervously chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck.
Dick spoke up next. "Wait! I have another Grandpa!?" Danny sighed and looked at the kid. "Apparently so, kiddo. If you'd like, you can call me Pops or Papa" Dick had a bright smile on his face and launched himself towards Danny, yellin' out Papa with a gleeful giggle.
Danny just chuckled and hugged the kid back. "Y'know, I never expected that I would reunite with my son after years and then learn that I also have a grandson," Danny glared half-heartedly at Bruce.
After that fiasco, they moved to the kitchen. Danny made some of his famous hot cocoa and gave everyone a cup of it (Again, yes, even Alfred!) and just sat and talked until Dick was noddin' off into his empty cup of cocoa. Danny then told Bruce to take his kid upstairs and go to bed.
Bruce tried to fight about him goin' bed, sayin' he had work to do, but quickly shut up when Danny gave him a look. After that, Bruce bid Danny and Alfred goodnight.
Once the two were gone, Danny turned to Alfred and asked to know everthin' that happened, so Alfred and Danny stayed up late in the night. Alfred explained what happened while he was gone for almost four years without visitin' Danny almost went back to the realms to ice the Observents thoroughly once and for all, for keepin' Danny in the domains for so long.
After the talk, the two bid each other goodnight and went to bed. Over the next few weeks, Bruce got Grounded multiple times.
The cause of said groundings? 1) not tellin' Danny he was home 2) lettin' Dick be a vigilante Danny wasn't even that old when he became Phantom!
Dick was also not allowed to patrol on school nights anymore and was also to learn techniques from Danny to keep him safe after Danny knew he was a bit liminal. 
3) Scarin' him to complete death when he disappeared, yeah, he's not happy about that one, nor is he happy about how he portrays himself as a playboy. He does get it. He needs his "Brucie" persona and all, but still!
And finally, 4) this one is mainly Danny groundin' him from the Bat-Computer to get sleep. He still remembers how taxin' it was to have little to no rest in his teenage years and then go to school or just have to show his face. Yeah, it's not fun.
He also got to know Dick more. He learned about his parents and fears (he also may or may not have let Dick talk to his parents,) and he likes to call Dick Shootin' Star or Star. He knows that he prefers to be called Dick, but Danny just can't, and hey, he is his grandson, so of course he gonna give him a nickname.
This time, Danny spent most of his days in the dimension, and the only way he would go back to the realms is if Frostbite Clockwork or Pandora called him to the domains then and only then.
Danny did help a lot with Bruce and his terrible emotions. He could've sworn that Bruce wasn't that bad before he left. Yeah, Danny and feelings don't get along but damn.
Danny watched as Dick grew up into a good man and watched as Bruce bettered himself, and one day, Bruce came home with a nasty bruise. Danny just raised his eyebrow until Bruce told him the story, and then Danny was on the floor laughin'.
Then, a couple of days later, Bruce came home with the kid that did the bruise on him. Danny just snorted and welcomed Jason into the family. Then Jason learned that Bruce was Batman, Dick was Nightwing, and Danny was Phantom.
(Danny would help Batman every now and again, and Bruce and Dick didn't get into that huge fight, but he did still want to become Nightwing)
And you better believe that Jason got the same rules as Dick, and yes, he got a nickname, Danny, calls Jason Supernova. and Jason, in Danny's opinion, was sometimes more chaotic than Dick was.
Then, a few years later, Jason got takin' by the Joker. Danny was again at a meetin' in the realms, but this time, it was because Fenton's weapons were found in the domains.
Bruce knew he wouldn't get to his son on time, so he did the only thin' he could. He yelled and asked his dad to save Jason.
Danny heard his call and quickly got up with a growl. Every ghost in that room shielded themselves. They didn't want a repeat of the last time. Danny tore open a portal. When he got there, he yelled for the Joker to stop. Jason looked up and smiled. His Papa came, although the joy didn't last long. Joker screamed at Danny, sayin' that he had ruined his plan. Joker then turned to Jason and smiled.
Danny rushed forward to get Jason but wasn't fast enough. Danny screamed as the Joker brought down the crowbar. 
Danny, honest to the Ancients, couldn't tell you what happened next. One second, he was rushin' to get Jason then. The next thin' he knew, He was standin' over. The Joker said clown was on the ground lookin' up at Phantom.
Phantom heard his Son quietly cryin' for Jason. Phantom felt his anger skyrocket. Phantom felt his body shift to his more Eldritch form.
His teeth elongated, and his eyes shifted to glowin' pools of toxic green. His frame started to change into a four-armed bein' his skin took on a star-like appearance.
(I can't really explain it well, so I'll just put the thing that I took his look off. Also, it is considered Pompous-Pep. If you don't like it, then ignore it. I just like Danny's design, Space Monster Danny!
Although I have a slightly different idea. Instead of the blue and pink and bits of purple, he's full black with a bit of blue and purple swirlin' around, with toxic green eyes. And the stars tend to shift on his body)
"Joker, as the King of the dead, I know that everythin' must end and that everyone has a time when they die," Danny heaves a huge sigh. "But it does not mean that I'm okay with you killin' people, and even more so you've just. Killed. My. Grandson." The earth shakes when the last words are spoken.
"D-dad..." Bruce croaks out, Phantom. He tilts his head in acknowledgment that he Heard Batman Joker laugh. "Aww, does Batsy need his Daddy to fight his battles?" Bruce's eyes glowed a light green. "No, I don't, but I know when I need to back down, Joker," he growled.
Phantom Looked to Batman, and the man bowed his head. "This man has done terrible things, and I believe he can never be saved. You can do what you want with him," Phantom hummed.
He then turned to the Joker. "I do not prefer killin', but if you do survive this and go back to your ways, then I will have no choice but to kill you with my bear hands," Phantom's voice boomed.
The ghost then put one of his hands on the Joker's head. The man screamed and flailed. After a minute, he stopped, and Phantom let him go. Then, the man flopped bonelessly onto the ground. His face contorted into fear, and his eyes rolled back into his head.
Phantom sighed. He turned to Batman, and Robin, the boy, lay in Batman's arms. As he walked towards the two, his form shifted again. Back to his original, Bruce looked up as Danny kneeled. "W-what did you do him?" Bruce asked.
Danny growled. "All I did was put him through the same things that he has done to other people," He told his son in disgust for what he saw the Joker do. A small part of him wishes that the Joker lives so that he could kill the man.
Bruce looked down at his son. "Dad, can you make sure he's alright in the realms, and please tell him I'm sorry for not makin' it on time?" he asked Danny with tears threatenin' to fall.
Danny nodded his head. "I will make sure he is alright when I find him. I will tell you, I promise, Little Galaxy," he promised his son.
Bruce broke down after those words were said. Bruce hugged Jason and cried. Danny wrapped the two in his arms and cried with Bruce. Danny had failed again, he couldn't save Thomas and Martha, and now he couldn't save Jason.
The funeral was normal as any funeral could be, although Danny hoped he would never have to go through another one after his late partners. It was his first funeral and what he hoped was his last, but the Ancients weren't on his side, he supposed.
Danny still couldn't find Jason in any of the realms a few weeks after the disaster. He was gettin' upset that he couldn't find his grandson, and Bruce, Dick, and Alfred could tell.
One day, he came across an island just a short distance from Phantom's Keep. At this point, it's been two an half months since Jason's death, and one that little island was Jason, his grandson, his Supernova. When Jason saw Danny, he flung himself towards the man.
"PAPA!" Jason yelled after he was in Danny's arms. He bawled his eyes out. Danny joined him while sayin', "Oh, Supernova, I found you!" "I'm so sorry for not savin' you on time," "Your dad's sorry too," "Oh, I'm so glad you're okay!" and so on.
Danny was the first one to calm down. He managed to get Jason's sobs into hiccups Once the kid finally calmed down. He spoke, "Papa, what happened? I-I remember you lungin' towards and pain, then I just woke up here in the realms." he asked Danny.
Danny sighed. It seems that Jason doesn't fully remember his death. "...It was the Joker he- he Killed you, Jason..." the man whispered.
Jason froze the Joker...killed him? Is that why he woke up in the realms? Is he a ghost? If so, does that mean he'll never see his family again? Not his big brother, the goofball Dick. or Alfred's cookin' lessons, or Bruce's his Dad's hugs? His Papa's comfort. Will he never see his family again?
Jason knew he was spiralin’, but he couldn't stop.
Danny saw that Jason was spiralin’, so he quickly brought him into his body, curled around him, and tried to pull him out of his head. After a few minutes, it worked.
Danny had a feelin' what was goin' on in his Supernova's mind. "Yes Jason, your a...Ghost now, and I'm sorry for that, but it does not mean you never see the rest of the family again. I can always take you back, y'know" Danny smiled, tryin' to cheer up Jason.
Jason sighed with relief. Danny took that as a win in his books. The two just sat there and talked for a while, but somethin' was botherin' Jason the Joker. What happened to him? Did Bruce keep him alive like the other times? or is he dead?
Danny could tell that somethin' was on Jason's mind. "Alright, Supernova, what's up? I can tell there somethin' spinnin' in that head of yours. Jason flinched and alerted Danny.
"Whoa, whoa, what's wrong? Are you okay, Nova? Danny asked worriedly. Jason gulped. Here goes nothin', he thought, "U-um, the Joker...What happened to him?" Jason asked
Jason watched as his Papa's face darkened. "That man has been put through what he has done to his victims, although the fool bein' is in a coma has been since you died." Danny told Jason with hints of anger in his voice, "They also say that he will never wake up." Danny smirked. He hoped it'd stay that way, but he also didn't mind if he had to entirely kill him if the roach survived.
Jason laughed and asked, "Did Da-Bruce agree to that plan?" Danny smirked. Yes, he did indeed catch that slip. "Yes, he did, in fact. He gave me full permission to do what I wanted to the man." Jason's mouth dropped.
Bruce actually let someone die? Huh, he guesses that the rumors on Batman's refusin' to kill people were fake or somethin'. After that earth-shatterin’ information, Jason asked if he could see them. Danny smiled And got up. He tore open a portal and reached out his hand towards Jason.
Jason laughed gleefully and jumped on Danny's shoulders. Danny laughed with Jason. The two went into the portal and walked straight to the entry of the Manor.
Danny went back to human while Jason went invisible (No, Danny did not feel jealousy at all, no sir), and the two walked to the kitchen. Danny had a feelin' the three would be there. And the man was right Alfred was just puttin' a plate of cookies down when the two walked in. Both Bruce and Dick had a cup of tea in their hands.
Bruce and Dick looked like absolute shit, in Jason's opinion. Bruce, more than Dick and Alfred, looked like he aged twenty years. The three turned their heads when Danny walked in. The three noted that Danny looked happier than when he left. His eyes also looked a bit red.
"Is everythin' alright, Master Danny?" Alfred asked. Danny smiled his megawatt smile. Bruce sat up straighter. His Dad hadn't smiled like that since Jason died. Does that mean...?
"It's so much better than alright. Alfie!" he said. Danny then turned his head to his shoulder and tilted his head to the three. Dick and Alfred raised their eyebrows. Bruce stood up and looked at Danny with hope. Bruce then felt arms wrap around his torso. He then looked down and saw Jason appear.
Bruce looked to Danny for confirmation. Danny simply smiled. Bruce then quickly wrapped his arms around Jason. "Oh, Jason. I'm so so sorry, baby boy. I'm sorry that I couldn't save you." Bruce choked out. Dick quickly stood up with tears in his eyes. Alfred brought his hand up to his face.
Jason was also cryin'. "N-no, Dad, it's okay. Papa already explained everythin' to me." Bruce reached out for his Dad, and Danny complied. Danny also brought Dick and Alfred into the hug for the rest of the night. There was a pile of Waynes on the floor, huggin' and cryin'.
Over the followin' months, the Family was whole again. Jason decided to stay in the dimension with his family. And Jason learned how to copy Danny's ability to shift into his human form. It didn't work entirely, but it did help Jason look a bit more human, and it did get him out of his Robin costume.
Everyone was happy that Jason was no longer in the outfit he died in, and he was glad that no one in the family minded that he was a full ghost, unlike his Papa, that he'd never be warm again, or that sometimes he might be a little too inhuman.
About five months later, the Waynes learned that the Joker somehow survived what Danny did to him, but instead of showin' him that it was wrong to do what he did, he became worse than before the first encounter after he broke out. Bruce almost lost half his body.
Danny managed to save him by takin' the blow meant for Bruce. It took Danny a week to recover from what the Joker did. Danny lost the left side of his body and part of his face. Danny had to stay in his ghost form the whole time, or he would've died completely.
After the Joker hit Danny, the clown laughed and pointed to Batman and told him he'd be back after all. He had a score to settle, and the clown disappeared. Both Nightwing and Batman ran towards Phantom.
After Danny recovered, he noticed that Jason became angry. No, he was furious. He was afraid of what that meant for his Supernova, then a couple of days later, Jason went missin' the Bat-fam couldn't find him at all. Danny couldn't even feel him anymore.
One month later, Batman brought home a kid. The kid had to be no older than thirteen. Danny learned the kid's name was Timothy Jackson Drake. He preferred to go by Tim.
When Tim saw Danny, he asked to join the Bat fam. Danny raised an eyebrow at Bruce, and the man looked away and then explained what had happened. All anyone in the Manor could hear was Danny's absolute insane cacklin' amazin' feet since the Bat cave was several feet underground and considered soundproof.
After Danny calmed down, he asked, "Now, why in the realms would you ask me that question, Little Comet?" Bruce groaned. "He figured out our identities somehow and learned that I listen to you the most." Danny snorted.
"Well, yes, I do hope that you'll listen to your father, y'know," he sassed to his son. "And you," he turned to Tim."Why would you want to join us, and if you knew our identities, why haven't you told anyone?" Tim had his mouth on the ground.
"YOUR BATMAN'S DAD!? WAIT, I THOUGHT THAT HIS DAD DIED YEARS AGO!?" Bruce and Danny looked at each other, then Tim, then at each other again, and started laughin'. To say Tim was confused would be an understatement.
The two men then explained Wayne's history, leavin' out some. Parts since they have yet to know the kid fully, they also learned that Tim never learned Danny's identity out of the four. Danny was a bit smug that the kid never figured out who he was.
Tim also explained that he wanted to become the next Robin. Danny immediately said no. Tim was confused and a bit upset. He asked why not, and Danny told him that he did not want to lose another grandchild again. Tim tried to tell Danny that he would be okay and that he'd make sure he wouldn't die. (Tim totally ignored the Grandchild thin'.)
Danny flared up. Sayin' no again, Bruce put his hand on his Dad's shoulder. Danny calmed down, and a minute later, he sighed. He told Tim that, fine, he could become the next Robin BUT! After he said so and that, he was to get trainin' from all three of the members of the bat Family, and he was to have ground rules set after he became Robin, no if and or buts.
Although not totally happy with the arrangements, he excitedly agreed.
(So~ I just like the idea that Bruce immediately goes to Danny when he wants to adopt a new kid or if the kid wants to be a part of the activities after dark.
And Danny's the one to give the ground rules. Alfred agrees with this plan entirely. After all, Danny runs the realms in between realms and was once a teenage vigilante/town hero himself.
It also helps that Danny will sit down and talk with Alfred about certain things.)
The Joker was sited again a week later, and that's when Danny felt somethin' shift. It felt like anger and revenge. Danny knew what this was. A reverent was just born into this world.
Danny suspected that one day this might happen. He was hopin' that the ectoplasm in Gotham wouldn't be enough to do this. And the question, who was the soul who turned into a reverent?
After a couple of weeks with the Joker bein' more brutal than he used to be, Danny finally managed to trap him. While doin' so, he lost his left arm. Man, what's with Joker and takin' Danny's body parts? And another thin' why did the Joker not attack the city and only went after the Bats?
The Joker's laughin' brought Danny out of his mind. Danny raised a brow at the man. The Joker was held tightly by glowin' green chains on his wrists and ankles. Joker just smiled wider when he had Danny's attention on him.
Okay, no, seriously, was the man obsessed with him or his son? "My, my Phantom, I must say you look dreadfully terrible. Is it because I killed Robin? Your grandson? Is it how I bashed his head in?" He said in a mockin' tone.
Danny snapped. A chain wrapped itself around the Joker's neck and squeezed, cuttin' off the airflow to allow the Joker to breathe. Danny then got up into the Joker's face.
"You have no right to talk about my Grandson like that! And if you remember correctly, I gave you a warnin' if you survived," Danny hissed. "Enjoy hell or wherever you are placed in my realm, farewell Joker." The chains around the Joker's Neck got tighter. Danny pulled the chain with all his strength, rippin' the Joker's head off his body.
Blood splattered onto Danny's face as the body dropped to the ground, creatin' a puddle of blood along with it. Danny just stared at the man with no remorse. Danny will also later admit he felt great satisfaction that he got to rip off the Joker's head.
Danny sighed. He brought up his finger and snapped the body went up in flames while he put the joker's head into a bag. (Hehe, not sorry at all~)
Danny then went back to the Batcave. When he got there, he found Batman Nightwing and the new Robin. Even though little Comet was not allowed to be on any patrols, he was allowed to help in the Cave somewhat.
Bruce raised a brow at the bag. Danny nodded his head towards the med-bay with much confusion. Bruce walked to the med-bay, and Dick and Tim tried to follow the two men. Danny brought up a hand and told them to wait there. Both of the boys pouted at their Papa.
Danny showed Bruce the bag's contents when the two were in the med-bay bay. Danny heard Bruce gasp. He didn't see the look on his son's face since he turned away. He knew he would get angry again if he saw the Joker's head.
"...Dad?...What did he do? I've never seen you this mad before." Leave it to his son to figure out he was so mad that he decapitated the Joker. "He was mockin' on how he killed Jason, and I lost my temper," Danny stated. Bruce hummed.
Danny then felt a pair of arms wrap around him. He looked down and saw his son huggin' him. Bruce pushed his face into Danny's chest. "Thank you, Dad...Thank you so much. Bruce half laughed and sobbed. "I just wish Jason could see what his Grandfather did for him." Danny wrapped his arms around his son and rested his cheek on the top of Bruce's head.
"Yeah, Galaxy, me too...Me too." Danny held his son for a bit longer. Until Dick asked if the two were okay. Danny chuckled as he separated from Bruce and yelled back at the two that they were fine and would be out in a second. "So should I torch his head like I did the rest of his body, kiddo?" Danny asked.
Bruce smiled evilly. "Oh, please do, Dad...Also, do you know where he's goin' to go in the infinite realms?" He asked with a dangerous tone. Danny merely laughed and said yes, he does, and when he appears in the realms, he can have a go at the man.
Bruce chuckled darkly, then straightened up and calmed himself. Danny turned back to the bag and held his hand over it. "Burn bitch burn!" he said and lit the bag on fire. Danny had a pleased look on his face.
The two men left the med-bay and found Dick on his hand doin' a one-armed handstand and Tim in front of him laughin'. Both Danny and Bruce laughed at Dick and joined the two on the floor.
Later, when the Wayne's were havin' dinner, Danny felt somethin' would come in the near future. He couldn't figure out if it was good or bad. Only time will tell. And why did the omen feel so familiar?
~~~~~~~
Oh boy, this took a while. The last parts were also extremely satisfyin'. I don't like the Joker at all, so I had fun writin' that part.
And I can't promise that I'll continue this. I tried to get this as close to the comics, but there is too much lore. But if I do decide to continue this, I'll probably just skip to Jason's return and him learnin' that Taila lied to him and such.
Anyway, thank you for readin' this! I hope you enjoyed this idea that refused to leave my brain! Have a good day or night, wherever you are! 
284 notes · View notes
goldengirlgalaxy · 9 months
Text
You know how there's a whole thing about how DC superheroes die and get brought back a lot? Well, for DPxDC, how about this?
Every time a Justice League member gets resurrected, their ghost remains in the Ghost Zone.
So you'll have a member of the Justice League bite the bullet for whatever reason, they'll form as a ghost in the Ghost Zone. They'll make themselves comfortable, maybe they'll even becoming defenders of peaceful ghosts who have no experience fighting or no desire to fight. Maybe they'll find dead family members and re-establish their bonds. Maybe they'll find other dead members of the Justice League and make and undead branch of the Justice League. Maybe they'll meet Danny and either help teach him how to be a hero (if he's still young) or become a hero group supported by him (if he becomes the king).
And then, for whatever reason, someone found the magical amulet that can revive a person, they somehow developed 1-Ups for a limited time, the revival machine finally got a tune up, the hero gets revived. But the ghost doesn't leave the Ghost Zone. Because of this, the revived hero doesn't have any memories of their time in the afterlife. The ghost probably doesn't even notice something changed and that their old body is up and running again.
This all ends up coming to a head when the GIW decide to push the manhunt for Danny Phantom and all other ghosts, lying to the Justice League in order to convince them to help. They eventually decide to hunt down Danny and corner him, ready to capture him...
… And suddenly he's saved by a bunch of ghosts that look identical to them.
329 notes · View notes
justwannabecat · 1 year
Text
“The living don’t understand.” A voice hissed.
Jason looked around, on guard. He couldn’t see anything, and it sounded like it was everywhere at once. “Understand what?”
“Vengeance.” They said, stepping out of the shadows. “They believe that since we came back, there is nothing to avenge. It does not change the fact that we died. We will never be the same, always scarred, tortured by the thought of our deaths, and they do nothing!”
“What are you?” Jason asked, a hand carefully resting on his gun. “Why are you talking like-“
“Like I died?” A humorless grin split the creature’s lips, teeth too sharp to be normal peeking through. “I did. I died, and I came back, but just like you, not all of me returned. I thought I was fine, that I could move on, but they kept hurting me, and nobody cared, nobody stopped them!” The green eyes glowed just a little brighter. “So I stopped them.”
Jason swallowed. Now that he was looking closer, beyond the teeth and the claws and the glowing, the thing in front of him… it almost looked like a kid.
“Don’t you want to stop him?” It- He asked, tilting his head. “Don’t you want your vengeance? Don’t you want to rest?”
He did, he’s so tired he wants to move on but he can’t-
Jason snapped back to awareness with growing horror, the green leaving his vision. “What are you doing to me?!” He demanded, trying his best to keep the fear from his voice.
The thing in front of him clicked. “I am trying to help you move on. Nobody helped me, after all, and if I can help any souls move on and find peace in their afterlife, then why would I not?”
Move on? Find peace? Jason’s eyes widened in realization.
“Don’t worry, dear Revenant.” The ghost said, smiling at him. “I won’t leave. Not until you’re ready. Nobody deserves to be alone.”
691 notes · View notes
shower-phantom-ideas · 7 months
Text
Another DPXDC post for the first time
Yall remember winged danny? Yea me too the good ol days lads
But imagine Danny in Gothem cause hes either on the run from his family or the GIW you decide boys on the run and probably alone.
He gets picked up by the Waynes at some point and eventually he goes to have the “im not normal talk” but they all know. He is a meta or something. They have been waiting for him to be ready to tell them, if ever. They would accept him no matter what.
Except the time comes and he just “I have wings” and like everyone is shocked™️ Danny gets the idea hes about to be rejected and starts to fold in on himself and someone better snap out of it before the kid cries. Alfred is the one to speak first probably.
Just everyone so shocked but I mean it’s more a shock that they missed this instead of that Danny has wings. After that they fully accept him and apologise. Someone says the “we thought you were about to tell us about your powers!” Danny just has his own little moment before shouting “YOU GUYS KNOW I HAVE GHOST POWERS!?!?!!!?”
Anyway they move on and Danny hardly brings the wings up again but he does get seen around with them every once in a while. But eventually they find out hes not taking care of them as he should. It’s probably Duke who sees Danny with his messy wings and offers to help him.
Let Danny get help with self care ok. The Bats would all go nuts learning how to take care of Danny if he ever asks.
Now imagine the reverse of this and they all know he has wings but not that hes the High Ghost King Phantom.
194 notes · View notes
via-the-cryptid · 10 months
Text
now that Ellie has a superpsychic ghostie friend following her around, it’s time to get down to business: adoption time!
first off, I’ll remind y’all that the Riddler is not the only one hunting Ellie — he’s just the first to actually get ahold of her. the Joker is the one who started this whole mess, and the Joker is the next to catch her, and as you can imagine, that is Bad.
the first time he corners her, Ellie gets away. Ace is right behind her, ready to intervene if needed, to reach through the veil and show the Joker horrors like he’s never seen before, but Ellie’s turned invisible and phased straight through the wall before she gets the chance to. the Joker is left staring at an empty space, the cogs in his head turning as he starts to figure out just how Ellie’s evaded capture for this long. after all, how do you catch a target that can go right through your trap?
the answer is simple: you either take away their ability to do so, or you find a trap they can’t get out of. but there’s a third answer, and that’s the conclusion that the Joker reaches. if you want to stop your prey from escaping, give them a reason to comply.
because we all know about Ellie’s hero complex, don’t we? she met the Joker by punching him in the nose and then promptly running away, which means she has no idea what he’s actually like! she doesn’t know that he’s a psychotic fuck! but she’s about to find out!
and so begins the Joker’s plan.
step one: find something that his prey cares about. even when she’s running away, she never pushes civilian around, and sometimes even stops to help people out. she’s a heroic type, through and through, and there’s her weakness.
step two: utilize that weakness. captured civilians, a high-stakes situation. maybe he’s got a gun to their heads. maybe they’re hanging over a shark tank. maybe he’s got a toxin locked and loaded if she doesn’t show up quick enough. whatever it is, it’s bad enough for Ellie to comply.
step three: keep up the game. pick a hostage, any hostage, and bring them along as insurance. if his prey tries to leave, the hostage dies, simple as that.
What he doesn’t count on, however, is step four: the prey has backup.
151 notes · View notes
jadedwolf18-blog · 1 year
Text
Jokes on you
Felt a little angsty today. Not sure how often I’ll get to this as I really want to try finishing Mini Phantom Invasion before moving onto a new story line.
🤍🖤💚💙💚🖤🤍
Tucked behind the curtain, a child giggled then laughed as the man on stage glance at him. He didn’t know why but if he didn’t laugh, the man would hit him. So, he laughed to escape the pain and the loneliness. If he giggled and laughed or even smiled, then the pain wouldn’t come and the man payed attention to him.
The boy remembered, there was a time, when he didn’t have to smile all the time but that was a long time ago. He still had a caretaker then… he didn’t know where she went and didn’t ask. They had moved then to. The apartment was smaller and the window in his room was cracked. 
That’s when he started to smile all the time. The man didn’t let him call him ‘dad’ anymore since then. The man would come home angry all the time and if he didn’t laugh at his jokes the man would hit him.
So, he laughed and smile and giggled. Even when he wanted to cry and scream and shout.
*****
Danny shot awake as their head bumped against the glass of the bus window. Blinking, they placed their head in their hands as they huffed a laugh. It had been awhile since they’d thought of that man.Glancing out the window from the corner of their eye, they watch as familiar yet long forgotten streets flashed by. 
It had been years since they’d last stepped foot in Gotham, with good reason… But something was here in the city. The tugging at their core, that had been there since the beginning, had grown in strength. It had gotten to the point that whenever they transformed, lately, it would cause them physical pain. It was worrying enough to make them giggle when ever they felt it. Which was NOT a welcome returning habit but they were learning to accept themself and this, unfortunately, was apart of them. No matter how much they wished it weren’t and they could forget it all. 
A giggle slipped past their lips as they took in the buildings and caught site of bright red graffiti. They didn’t know why their core led them back here but they were not happy to be back in this broken city.
*****
@connorsbonez
@currant-owo
@persephoneblackrose
507 notes · View notes
mortiferumsomnum · 2 years
Text
Soup Kitchens and Runaway Ghosts (Part 3)
*throws idea-fic at you guys* THANK YOU FOR LIKING THIS!!!! ASLDGKHSALKDGHLAKSDGH
Part 1, Part 2
****
When your boss tells you to come to Apartment 304 in Schnapp Avenue along the Upper West Side of Gotham, you don’t question it. You especially don’t question the grocery list that your boss listed down for you, neither do you question the need for fluffy blankets, pillows and paper bags.
You have to gather up the things in a box, get into your (stolen) car, and drive to your second location.
It’s just something you do.
The less questions you ask, the less you have to deny. That’s what Bill had learned in his life as a professional henchman.
However, after a long career of being a henchman, none had ever compared to the experience of working under the Red Hood. Sure, the guy threatens you with his guns, and shoots and misses your feet as a joke, but the man had been changing the lower-class neighborhood for better with all the control he has in the Gotham Underworld.
Bill never had to fear for his life, either. He didn’t have to worry about living a new day, and he didn’t have to worry about what wacky idea his boss had just cooked up. Now, all he worried is what kind of soup they’ll be making for the next day at the soup kitchen, and what new recipe the Red Hood’s favorite person, Jason, was going to teach them.
Honestly, Bill didn’t feel like a henchman at all. Maybe a butler-in-training, even if there was no hope for him being employed as a butler.
(In the future, Bill would fondly look back at this moment as he serves tea to a graying Alfred, who is relaxing in his bed as Jason... well, Master Jason, retold his semi-mundane day to his grandfather.)
Finally, he arrives.
*****
- ‘Congratulations! You killed someone! But not just someone! It’s multiple people!’ a voice in Tim’s head laughs. It sounds like a mix between murder-hungry Jason and that lunatic Joker. 
- There had been a time before he killed someone. Well, he thought he killed him. Johnny Warlock. Although in the end, the guy was actually alive the whole time, Tim remembers punching the guy’s fake until he couldn’t hear the fake’s grunts, until he couldn’t hear the fake’s heartbeats. Warlock hurt Spoiler, hurt Steph who he was in love with that time; he broke her leg and made her scream. He was so beat up over being a murderer, it took a while to get over it. (Source: Robin #123, Die Screaming, Boy Wonder!)
- It also doesn’t help that he even met a future version of himself who killed everyone, donned in a fucking Batsuit and acting like going far and killing your enemies was the norm. To be fair, in this future, every single teen titan were killing and taking things too far, but there is nothing more frightening than knowing that you have the potential to kill so efficiently without remorse. (Source: Teen Titans vol. 4 #17-19, Teen Titans of Tomorrow; Robin Today, Batman Tomorrow; Running Out of Time)
- Now, he killed people. On accident. Fuck.
- Before heading to the apartment, he decided to head to the scene, staking out in a shadowed area while observing what was going on. It wasn’t good. There were police everywhere. Jim Gordon was talking with a bunch of... investigators? Wait, they’re not Gotham-based investigators.
- He threw a tiny drone into the air, letting it catch wind before controlling it to fly closer to where the investigators were, planting a few bugs onto them and turning up the volume in his installed listening device. He was too far to lip-read. (I’d like people to know that in this au, he has some bugs on every officer in Gotham.)
- “Look,” that was Jim Gordon’s voice, “I get that you want to take over investigating this case, but I’m not handing it to you. You don’t understand the going-ons in this city. Red Hood is a crime-lord, yes. But this situation looks like the Red Hood was being chased for things not related to crime. Excessive how these ‘government based agents’ took to chasin’ after a single rogue without a single thought of avoiding civilians. It was the Red Hood leadin’ them to a civilian-less road, from how it looks like, rather than being chased into an environment where they could go all out. They didn’t hesitate to run-down a civilian, much less avoid children or seniors. In comparison to Red Hood who took great care to staying off of civilian roads and within GCPD territory.”
- “I don’t trust any of ‘ya folks who say yer from the government to keep my city safe.”
- “Like you have been keeping it safe for all the years you’ve been Commissioner?” one of the investigators scoffed. “Letting caped vigilantes beat up bad guys, and receiving weekly break-outs while your officers do nothing but sit pretty in their car with a gun?”
- Tim bristled. Jim Gordon is the only person who’s trying to do anything to make sure Gotham citizens stay safe, trying his best to weed out all the corrupt officers no matter how slow it had been going. Things ARE getting better. It’s not like Jim likes relying on vigilantes, either. The only time he relies on the Bat is when there is No Other Option. But he has mutual respect with all the Bats.
- Commissioner Gordon only raises an unimpressed brow, which looks so much like Barbara’s. “You’re still not getting it,” he said, turning around and doing a great impression of Batman walking away like a badass, letting his long coat billow in the wind. Unlike the Bats, however, he doesn’t disappear from sight and only enters his car, driving away.
- The investigators start talking to themselves. Here’s what Tim gathers: 35 men had been killed from his little accidental murder. (Breathe in, Tim. You can brood about it later...) They weren’t just chasing after Red Hood, but they were also after a ‘Daniel Fenton’ and an ‘unauthorized clone’ possibly made from Daniel’s genes. This ‘Daniel’ also can’t be brought back to his home, because his parents have also teamed up with them.
- They confirmed Jason’s claims about these people hunting down ghosts. But Tim finds out from them how they not only aim to hunt them down, they aim for complete extermination. It’s ‘Daniel’s’ parents who wants to conduct experiments, given that any findings will be reported to these people. 
- There’s... there’s just no way these people are actually from the government. If ghosts were real and the government were involved... wouldn’t that mean that there are actual laws on how ghosts are treated and dealt with?
- “Make sure to report to the boss about how much we need to spend to catch these ghosts.” Tim almost growls, clenching his fists. Because not only were they talking about getting rid of ghosts, but including the extermination of his definitely-not-but-totally-is-brother. He can’t let this happen. 
- Once these investigators were done talking, they went into their own car. Tim made sure that his bugs wouldn’t be tracked for at least the next 3 days. Then, he opened his comms to a private link to Oracle.
- “O, I need you to search something. Ectobiology laws.”
- “...What?”
- “Laws on how ghosts are dealt with.”
- “Tim... I... fine.”
- After a few moments, Oracle cursed. “This can’t be real. There are actual laws on--- Tim, how did you find out about this? Does Bruce know about this? What the actual--”
- “I don’t think even Harvey Dent knows about this, and he was an attorney. What did it say?”
- “In summary? It’s all ‘kill on sight’ for any ghost. They’re making reforms for some of them, though. None of them good. It mostly involves research.”
- “Are there any research on ghosts?”
- “That are not just narrative reports from Ghost Hunters? Yeah, from Madeline and Jack Fenton. They’ve written so many of them, they’re probably the only scientific source. Ectoplasm... it seems to be similar to the Lazarus Pits...”
- Tim pursed his lips. He doesn’t know how much Jason wants to share about Daniel and the clone. “O, these people want to catch Jason. He has the same ecto-signature as the ghosts that they seem to like tracking down.” He needs to update his safe-house to avoid Jason and his new wards from getting caught. But also, “We might want to see if Robin and Batman has some kind of ecto-signature on them... Maybe even Dick from how much time he spends with them. I’ll try to nab some of the gadgets from these vans and see if we can turn them into our own tech. 
- “You do that. I’ll update Batman on what’s going on.”
- Tim cuts the line off and sighs. His body suddenly feels heavy, and it’s not because of anything physical. It was a weight in his mind that refuses to lighten, only growing heavier and heavier. 
- But he remembers what he told Barbara, and he remembers that Jason is waiting for him with hot chocolate in the safe-house he needs to upgrade.
- He pushes his body forward. It’s probably thanks to his training that his body is able to do exactly he needs to do, staying out of the people’s eyes while snatching the tech before it could be loaded in some government trailer. his head felt foggy, and he couldn’t feel his hands and legs. But his body was moving. And the next thing he knows, he’s already changed out of his costume, headed to Jason on foot.
***
- The Doctor, Theodore “Teddy” Sturgeon (HEH. I named him after some author. Have you read To Marry Medusa? don’t remember much of the plot, but damn I remember loving it!), checked over Danny again. 
- Everything was healed. The vivisection and blaster wounds have healed into scars. Other parts of his body also showed some light scars, but the most dangerous ones have been healed.
- He sighed, rubbed a hand down in his face, and took a spare pillow. Then, he screamed into it.
- The smell of chocolate wafted around the apartment, making him feel nauseous, so he laid on the cold floor. Which, of course, made his nausea worse. 
- “Hey, Doctor Teddy! Do you want some hot chocolate?”
- No. Maybe some soup. But Teddy was too nauseous to talk. So, he only groaned back.
- “I’ll take that as a yes!”
- Of course groaning was a mistake.
- The Red Hood, who was now dressed like a civilian named Jason, came back inside with two mugs. He handed one of the mugs to Dani, who took it with a smile. Everyone in the room could tell how shaky her hands were, and that’s why ‘Jason’ led Dani to one of the smaller couches for her to sit down on.
- Then, Jason sat down at another couch and sipped from his own mug. Thank you Mr. Red Hood for thinking he was pathetic enough to not have any of his own hot chocolate.
- That was when there was a knock on the door. The Red Hood laid his mug on the wooden table that was also in the room, before getting up to answer the door, Dani doing the same thing and running right after him.
- [And I’d like everyone to know that Dani is smol. Like, she reaches until Jason’s hips smol.]
- He heard Dani gasp. “IT’S BILL!!!”
- He heard the Red Hood sigh. “Timmers, why are you burritoed and carried by my best chef?”
- “Hrrrrnnngggg...”
- “I’m not... I’m not that good, man.”
- Huh... that last voice sounds familiar. Doctor Teddy took a great effort to stand up, groaning and feeling his knees click. Then, finally, the people came back in, with Jason heading straight to the kitchen with a paper bag... probably full of groceries, and...
- “Oh, shit, Bill??”
- “Teddy??”
- Dani blinked at the both of them, sitting back down at the small couch while picking up her mug. “The two of you know each other?”
- Know each other? They used to work under the same bosses during the first Robin’s earlier years! Teddy was trying to get his degree while also getting paid doing all the easy stuff, y’know, like bandaging other henchmen up?? He was there when Bill had lost two of his femurs to Batman. He’s the one who brought him to Dr. Thompkins’ hospital.
- During those years, both he and Bill were so desperate to make a living, they refused to see exactly how deep in crime the both of them were getting. By the time the third Robin came into the picture, they drifted apart... well, it’s not like the two of them were close in the first place, but whichever boss Teddy was with, Bill was there too. It just felt weird not seeing the other whenever they were working under a new boss.
- Teddy got his degree, tried practicing in legal stuff, got too sentimental with some patients, and got arrested for doing unauthorized surgeries on people who definitely needed them. After being released, there was no hospital willing to accept him anymore... that’s when the Red Hood recruited him... and the rest was history.
- Bill chuckled. “Small world, huh?” he said. Then, gesturing to Danny with his chin, he smiled at Teddy. “Looks like we’re going back to old times, eh?”
- Teddy, who no longer felt the effects of nausea, only nodded. “Yeah,” he said, smiling back. Then, he gestured to the kid that Bill was carrying over his shoulder. “Does he need help?”
- Bill shook his head. “Nah. The kid just needs a cup of Jason’s hot chocolate. He looks like he’s been under the influence of Scarecrow’s fear toxin.”
- Teddy winced. “Yeah, okay,” he said, stepping aside so that Bill could place the kid wrapped in a fluffy blanket on the small couch the Red Hood was sitting on earlier. 
- Teddy squinted. “Is that... Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne?????”
- Bill nodded.
- Oh shit... he knew that the Red Hood, Jason, looked familiar. Does that mean that his name is actually, truthfully Jason?? THE Jason Peter Todd-Wayne??? Second adopted son of Bruce Wayne who died????? No... no... maybe they just look alike. And have the same name. Or the Red Hood chose that name specifically because he LOOKS like Jason.
- But that makes no sense! The Red Hood shoots anyone who disrespects the dead. He’d be a hypocrite if he wasn’t... Jason...
- Red Hood, who might also actually be known as Jason, walked into the room with a tray carrying three mugs. He handed one to Bill, then one to Timothy, who accepted it with a tired thank you, and then a mug towards Teddy. Upon accepting it (and no, Teddy did not squeak while he thanked him! *sobs* he didn’t!!), Teddy realizes that his mug was filled with good ol’ chicken soup.
- Okay, whatever. You don’t throw under the bus someone who feeds you well. Taking a sip, he inwardly cried at how good it was.
- “So, the kid sleeping on the couch is your brother?” Bill decided to ask, taking a seat on a chair he dragged from the kitchen.
- “Yeah... kinda... but we like thinking we’re siblings!”
- “Hm... how long has he been out?” Bill asked. 
- Here, the small girl seemed to become smaller. Her face turned sad, and it broke Teddy’s heart because no small child is supposed to look that sad. The Red Hood... Jason patted the girl’s back to comfort her.
- “He’s been out even before she took me to check on him, Bill,” said Jason. “He’s also never woke up when the Red Hood brought him over to Doc.”
- Oh, ohhhhhh, so we’re keeping Jason and the Red Hood being the same person a secret? Okay, yeah, Teddy could do that. Wait, he called him Doc, and only Doc. He doesn’t want Bill to misunderstand that he’s being legal in his Doctor stuff. He’s as much in crime as Bill probably is.
- But he doesn’t have time to point that out, because Timothy Drake-Wayne grunted, bringing out from his blanket a plastic bag full of tech, looking a bit more lively now that he’s drunk the hot chocolate.
- “Is everyone in this room in the know about who’s chasing after... the kids?” he was looking at Jason for confirmation, who nodded.
- “The official story,” said Timothy, “is that the ‘Government Investigation Ward’ or GIW is after the Red Hood, due to his constitution being similar to that of a ghost.”
- Bill blinked. “I’m sorry... what?”
- Timothy ignored him. “Ghost is just a general term for anything that has ectoplasm. The real story is that they’re after the kids AND Red Hood, because all three of them have ectoplasmic components in their body.”
- Bill looked to Teddy with a question in his eyes. Ectoplasm? his gaze seemed to ask. 
- “When I was treating Danny over here, he had some green substance in his blood,” he explained. “It both enhanced his healing and the infection, so his body was literally at war on the inside.” Turning his gaze to Timothy, he confirmed, “That green substance must be what you’re calling ectoplasm, right?”
- Timothy nodded. “It is. I don’t know the full description of what this ectoplasm does, but it seems that all three seem to naturally create ectoplasm in their bodies.”
- “When the Red Hood said to the Bats that the GIW seemed to follow him due to what he was, it mostly meant that the GIW was following them through their ectobiological signatures.” Timothy then shook the plastic to make all of their attention point to it. “The tech in this plastic bag? I took it directly from the vans before they were retrieved by the government. Once I figure out how they managed to sense ectoplasm with these things, I’m going to upgrade the security measures in this room... and then to the new safehouse we’re going to move into.”
- Bill whistled. “I knew that the Waynes were probably sponsoring the Bats behind the scenes, but to be the ones personally making their gadgets? That’s amazing.”
- Doc suddenly put the pieces together... techy... Timothy Drake-Wayne being Jason Todd-Wayne’s step-brother...
- Oh shit. That’s Red Robin, isn’t he?!?????
- “You okay, Doctor Teddy?? You’re looking a bit pale over there...” said Dani with worry on her face.
- “I’m... I’m fine.” NO I’M NOT!!! “I’m just... processing that the government... is using the people’s taxes to chase after people who are very clearly alive....”
- Dani snorted. “You don’t know the half of it! But, yeah! This IS where all the taxes are going. That’s why a whole bunch of people where me and Danny came from commit tax fraud!”
- Jason huffed. “Danny and I, Dani.”
- Dani gave Jason the stink-eye. 
- Jason then pointed a thumb to the kitchen while looking at Timothy. “The dining table is clean. You could do your stuff there. There’s also extra hot chocolate on the stove.”
- Timothy gave a small thanks. But before Timothy could pass Jason, Jason took him by the shoulders and whispered into his ears that the Doctor couldn’t hear.
(”Thanks, Tim... I’ll chat with you later, yeah?”
Tim shrugged. “Or we don’t have to talk about it.”
Jason pats his shoulder. “Whatever makes you comfortable...” What else would Dick say, Jason wondered. Then, he added, “Just know that I’m here to listen when you do wanna talk.” Because there’s no fucking way he’s letting Bruce talk to Tim about what happened.
Tim was quiet, eyes shining under the dim light of the living room. “Yeah... thanks.
Nailed it.)
- Timothy then briskly disappeared into the kitchen.
***
- The investigators, who are actually known as Operative J and Operative K, using the aliases John Jones and Keith Keys, stopped their car in front of Wayne Manor, their gadget blinking and beeping softly as they stood in front of the gates. “Two ectoplasmic signatures here, over,” Operative J, John Jones, said into his comms.
- Operatives L, M and N were in front of Arkham Asylum, their own gadgets beeping softly. “One in Arkham, over.”
- Operative O, who was staking out in Schnapp Avenue, put his binoculars down. “Three in Schnapp Avenue: Daniel, the clone and an unknown man. Apartme----”
- Operative O wasn’t able to complete his report, because he was thrown into a wall, wheezing as he slid down.
- Then, he felt an electric shock to his neck, putting him to unconsciousness.
- “Operative O. Operative O, respond!”
- The Operative’s comms were crushed. Then, Operative O received another electric shock, frying any trackers he may have on his body that may lead the other government freaks to his location.
- Nightwing turned on his own comms. “O. Message Hood and Red Robin. Tell them that their location has been compromised.”
- “On it.”
- Nightwing then walked up to the unconscious Operative, picking him up by the back of his collar, and dragging him out of the rooftop. Some interrogations were in order.
****
Taglist (holy fuck there’s a lot of you *wheeze* I’m stopping the requests for tags cuz *gestures*): @203moonysello @crimsonfreakshow @quirky-gardener @ultimatebluff @8000fangirl @ashoutinthedarkness @lady-time-lord- @deathssilentapproach-blog @slytherindemonqueen @akikoyuii @ depressed-bitchy-demon @ crazylittlemunchkin @ angelheartgamer @ spicyramenstuff @ cat-in-a-fedora @ kawaiikenna @ scaehime @ kotaleartzu @ blankliferain @ xarexraven @ roseunivers999 @ mysticalcomputerdetective @ icedoverdestiny @ mlpizza @ rhyme-is-sublime @ yurijay @ distractedducky @ rosiea184 @ tinybrie @ absol-01-blog @ crystaldrops20 @ emilytopaz @ ae-vixrose
****
<<PREVIOUS (Masterlist) NEXT>>
#ASLDGHASLGDKHLGHASLG NIGHTWING MY BELOVED AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH#dc x dp#dp x dc#bill the professional henchman#tim drake#barbara gordon#jim gordon#jason todd#dani fenton#danny fenton#danny phantom#dick grayson#DAMNNNNNN THIS GOT LONG HAHAHAHAHAHAHA#Danny needs to wake up soon cuz he's missing out on all the suffering#It would be so funny if Harvey Dent knew about the Ecto-laws but didn't bother too much on it because he didn't believe in ghosts#Yes the one ectoplasmic signature is Joker in Arkham#I REMEMBER SEEING A POST ABOUT JOKER HAVING ECTOPLASM TOO AND I REALLY LOVE THOSE POSTS#Maybe it's best if Danny stayed asleep bc he'll easily be able to defeat the joker#I really want to make a Tim Drake villain origin story in this au. I am SO gonna make Tim spiral in this.#It’s not even funny. I WANT JOKER JUNIOR DAMMIT. I NEED MORE JOKER JUNIOR CONTENT!#HOW JOKER JUNIOR WOULD BE FORMED IN THIS AU. Like Joker somehow manages to convince the GIW to put him among their ranks.#BUT we'll see how this story flows cuz like Joker Junior would be a whole different story from this#...nah. I'm keeping Joker Junior. I JUST NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW *EVIL LAUGH*#Anyways if I keep Joker Junior Jason will be in for a whole lot of hurt#Because even if I'm not that good at imagery and shit I REALLY want Jason to gain Danny and Dani only to lose Tim#Is it going to be like in Batman beyond where instead of killing batman joker has JJ try to kill Jason instead?#And Jason has to watch how Tim who in this au hates the idea of killing who became scared of killing after his accidental murder#he watches Tim murder Joker who laughs loudly because FINALLY the FUNNIEST JOKE HAD BEEN MADE#HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA YESSSSSSS YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS#but we'll see if joker junior fits this storyline (*sobs* i really hope it does)
845 notes · View notes
hailkingphantom · 2 years
Text
dp x dc
Joker club
After met Phantom Jason saw a lot of things
Lots of impossible things
But this. This. Have the fuckin crown
"IN THE GHOST ZONE THERE IS A JOKER CLUB!!!" He scream in rage at the thought of people liking, adoring, the joker "The Joker?, the only one who I know" he asks, his rage mixing with incredulity
"You said like it was a club to adore the clown" danny said, that's stop his rage
"It's not?" He asks and danny look at him like he was the most stupid person in the galaxy
" dah" he said "It's a club of people who dislike the joker, who hate him"
He stare at his teen friend and asks " How?"
"The joker has killed so many people, the real question is ¿Why wouldn't be ghost that hate him?" Danny said like it was obvious (and now that he think about it, it is) "Thet meet every week and argue the bests forms to make him suffer when he become in a ghost"
"He could become a ghost!?"
"Nop" he relax "he definitively will become a ghost" Danny said like it was a fact
"Then, WHY ARE YOU THAT CALM?!?!!!"
"Jay,  Did you forget who I am?" Danny said " I'm the fuckin ghost king"
"When he become in a ghost he'll fall in my domain" he said with a dark laugh " And I'll can do W̷̨̬̋h̸̢̛̗͈̹̙̀̔͋͌͑͒̆̓͠a̵͓̞͓̲͇͔̪̹̋̅̂͑̆͛̄ṱ̵͌̋͒ẻ̴̛̻͉̌̄̏ͅv̴̧̰͈̳̝̬́̂̽͘ê̸͕͕̹͓̣̤̪͚̟̯̈́r̸̥̦̯͊̀̂̇ ̵̙̓͛́İ̵̖̘̳̖̺̰̊͑̉͝ ̷̩̘̻̦̗̺͚͛ͅw̶̛͔̥̥̍́̊̊̄̀͑͠ả̸̳n̶̺̮̪̈́͐̓͐̊̽̏͋̍͜͜ͅṭ̶͕̗̗̰̲͓̙͌̂͜͝ "
A dark smile spread across the face of the young king
He can feel his own smile growing at the thought.
"Then, How can I enter to that club?"
906 notes · View notes
starry-bi-sky · 8 months
Text
Childhood Friends Au: Danny's in Gotham Again
when the wool is off your eyes you'll stop counting sheep at night cause you'll eat your fill of them during the daytime
A few weeks after Danny’s visit to Gotham, he buys an apartment in the city. It’s this little thing, a studio apartment on the same street he grew up in. In Crime Alley. When he tells his parents, they protest heavily. They don’t think it's safe. They think he should reconsider. There were plenty of apartments and places to live somewhere else. And what about college? 
Danny doesn’t think he’ll go to college. He isn’t sure what he wants to do, now that being an astronaut is off the table. It’d be a waste of money to go without a goal in mind, he thinks. He says he’ll take a gap year and apply at one of the community colleges funded by the Wayne Corporation, possibly. It just wasn’t in the cards right now. 
“If things get tough,” He says at dinner that night, “then I can talk to the Waynes. I’m friends with the family, remember?” He ended up getting Bruce’s number in his phone again before he left, and in the process got Tim’s as well. They don’t talk much, Danny isn’t sure what to say. But he sends Tim memes whenever he comes across one and thinks he’ll like. Tim sends memes back in return.   
His parents do remember. They remember. They also remember the horrified shriek that echoed through the house when Danny learned of Jason’s passing. They remember running up the stairs and bursting into their son’s room and finding him sobbing into his bed, curled up like a little kid, like he was in pain. He lost his voice that day, stuck between screaming out his grief and sobbing it. 
They’re still not sure if they should let him go. 
In the end, Danny wins them out, and he lets them help him search for an apartment. They take a break from their lab work to help search for cheap furniture to buy. They may have more money than when they were in Gotham, but that frugal part of you never fully goes away. They all agree that they don’t want Danny to be seen carrying in nice-looking furniture when he moves in. 
He ends up with a basic furniture set, all mismatched, and in the warm summer of June, his parents rent out a u-haul and drive him down to Gotham to move in. They meet the landlord when they arrive, a skinny and frail old man with wispy white hair and a wrinkled face. He gives Danny the keys and tells him what apartment number he is, and then he leaves. 
His parents help him move in. They help him carry his heavy furniture up to the second floor, where his apartment is. Danny isn’t sure if he wants them to help. His mom and dad are strong, but they are getting old, closer to their fifties now that their children are grown. His dad’s hair is slowly beginning to thin, and rather than the white eating at the sides of his head, it now streaks through his hair like salt-and-pepper. His mom’s hair is graying out too, and there are more lines in their faces than he remembers there being. 
When he voices his concerns, his mom laughs spiritedly and says that they may be getting old, but they are still as spry as when they were in their twenties. Danny isn’t sure if he believes them or not. He can see his dad struggle a bit when they return to get his bed frame, and they have to take a break before they go back down for the rest of their things. 
Five years ago, his dad could do this without breaking a sweat. It forces a heavy thing in the back of Danny’s throat. (He is less afraid of his own death than he is of his loved ones, and while he has always felt rocky with his parents, he still loves them more than anything else.) 
Danny’s apartment is exactly as he would have expected it to be: shabby and worn through. The entire room smells like stale cigarette smoke and weed, nicotine stains the wall with poorly covered bullet holes, and stains in the carpet that are a color he can’t discern. The fridge has a broken light and when he tries to turn on the gas stove, it click-click-clicks before lighting, fire fwooshing out while the smell of gas fills the air. There’s rat droppings in the cupboards and the closet-like bathroom is just as bad. 
The ghostly part of him can sense the heavy stench of death in the room; people have died in this room. People have died in every room of this building, he thinks. They have died on the streets outside and in the alleys squeezed between them. He can feel it like a heavy fog in the air. 
It is painfully nostalgic, a bittersweet feeling in his chest that he grimaces to. 
When the last box is placed in his apartment, his parents offer to help unpack. They are hesitant to leave and Danny knows it, although he doesn’t know if it’s from empty nest syndrome or because it's Gotham. He thinks it might be both. He is their youngest child finally leaving home to a city known for its danger. 
“Are you sure you don’t want us to stay behind, sweetie?” His mother asks, a frown she tries to hide settled in the creases of her face. She fiddles with her hands, a nervous habit Danny has since noticed when she feels truly unsure and doesn’t need to hide it. Hesitancy looms over her like a heavy cloud. 
His dad jumps in hastily, splaying his hands and smiling painfully wide to hide the glistening in his eyes. “You’re mother’s right! We can help you get everything set up, champ. I could probably do something with that stove of yours to make it faster!” He says, his voice still booming like it always does even if there’s a stumble in his words. 
It makes his heart squeeze, knowing just how much they care. It was hard last summer, telling him that he was the Phantom. Terrifying, actually. They couldn’t comprehend it. He hadn’t felt his heart beat that fast in years when he stood in front of them at the kitchen table and told them he was a halfa, begging them to believe that ghosts weren’t inherently evil. 
His parents were people of science, however, and after much, much shock, they slowly came to terms with it. How could they not? The evidence was right in front of them. Their son was dead-alive, alive-dead. Somewhere stuck in the between. The tears they shed that night could fill a river, moving from the kitchen to the living room as Danny explains how he died. 
(When Danny tells them that he died after a week Jason did, his mom and dad look horrified. His mom covers her mouth when he adds that it was his idea to go inside it, his dad looks ashy pale, gripping his pant legs so tight that his knuckles turn white. There is a conclusion coming to their minds that he can tell they don’t like.) 
(“You’ve always hated our inventions, Danny.” Mom says in a hushed voice, and Danny winces at the wording, sinking into the back of the cushions in shame. He never thought that his parents noticed. Mom quickly grabs his arm, “No, no, there’s nothing to be ashamed of Danny. We were… perhaps too careless with our inventions, too enthusiastic. You had every right to hate the things we made when they had a tendency to… to malfunction.”) 
(Malfunction is a delicate way of putting it, when Danny remembers every time they had to evacuate their old apartment complex because whatever half-baked creation his parents made inevitably blew up into ash and smoke. There were soot marks permanently stained into the ceiling.) 
(Her hand slides down and grabs his, and she cups it in both of her hands, squeezing tightly. He forces himself to look up, and there is a look like her heart breaking when he looks into his mother’s eyes. “You’ve always avoided the lab after we moved, Danny. And you had every right to, so why on Earth did you ever think about going into the portal?”)
(Danny struggles to come up with an adequate answer, a way to verbalize what came over him that day five years ago. The answer is there, hanging in the air like a knot in a noose. He opens his mouth, and then closes it.)
(Finally, with a tongue made of lead, he shrugs lamely and looks away. “I didn’t know there was an on button inside it.” He mumbles, and despite being the truth it feels like a lie. But that is the truth. He didn’t know there was an on button inside it. So he didn’t care what happened.)
(Something dulls in mom’s eyes, like she thought of something else that Danny hadn’t said. Her eyes shimmer, and she squeezes them shut, breathing in so deep that it shakes. And then she pulls him into a hug, a hand burying into his hair and pressing him close. “It must have hurt so much, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.”)
(It is something that Danny doesn’t expect her to say, like missing the last step of the stairs. It startles him so much he laughs this short, bark of a thing. He feels his dad press against his back and wrap his big arms around them, his nose pushed into his hair.) 
(Because yeah. Yeah, it did hurt. It hurt more than anything else he’s ever felt before. It had torn him apart and sewn him back together again, only to rinse and repeat. The pain was nothing he ever spoke to Sam or Tucker about, and it was something they never brought up. No, that’s not true. If they ever brought it up, Tucker would call it a zap. As if Danny only experienced a mild static shock. Like it was painless. It’s a pretty lie that Danny lets him and Sam believe.)
(His eyes sting and water immediately wobbles into his vision, coming up with such a force that he doesn’t even need to blink before it spills over. “Yeah.” He forces out, voice unexpectedly rough and cracking. “Yeah, it- it hurt. A lot.”)
He tells them about fighting the Lunch Lady a month later. He tells them about finding Jason. It comes spilling out like a waterfall. “I found him, mom.” He says, holding onto her tight while she keeps him tucked under his chin like a little kid. The secret of Jason being Robin stays hidden under his tongue, it is not his secret to tell. Not his identity to expose. He grips her tighter. “I found him, mom. Right there in the Ghost Zone, and he was my Jason. He wasn’t an echo or a— an imprint of him.”
Mom is silent; quiet and attentive, and so is dad, who rubs his large hands up and down Danny’s spine in an attempt to soothe him. It only works a little. Danny breathes in like a gasp as the urge to cry overcomes him again. He always avoids talking about Jason, his grief is like a never-healing scab that can be picked off at any time. It is ingrained into his core. 
“And then I lost him.” He forces out, a sob layering under his words that he chokes on and swallows. The hand on his back stills, and he can feel mom and dad breathe in like a question. He turns his head and pushes it into mom’s shoulder. “He disappeared, mom. Just— just gone.”
“And he didn’t move on.” He says, voice snarling like teeth biting before his mom can ask, because he knows that’s what she was going to ask. It’s what Sam and Tucker asked when he came to them in tears hours after he found Jason gone. It’s what Jazz said when he finally told her about it. It’s what every one of his ghosts asked when he told them about it and begged for their help. 
Danny grits his teeth and tries not to dig his nails into mom’s clothes as a fresh wave of tears run down his face. “His haunt is still there. If Jason really moved on it would have disappeared with him. That’s how it works. But it’s still in the zone, so Jason’s out there I just don’t know where.” 
(Sam once asks him why Danny didn’t just move on from it a year after Jason’s disappearance. She asked him why he didn’t give it up. Danny nearly saw red, and nearly bit her head off for it. It was incomprehensible to him to just stop looking for Jason, to give up. Not when he was out in the zone somewhere. Because he had to be in the zone.)
(Danny once tried to take Jason through the portal with him, and much like what happened to Kitty, it didn’t work. Jason was too tied to the ghost zone to leave.) 
(Some bonds are just unbreakable, he thinks. Bonds forged through blood and time and trust, and when you’re on the streets of Gotham, you hoard what little trust you have in someone like a dragon with its gold. It is scarcely given and fiercely kept.) 
“I’ve been looking for him.” Danny whispers when talking becomes too hard for him, when it runs the risk of him crying. “When- when I’m not fighting ghosts or, or in school or with my friends, I’ve been looking for him.” He has explored the Ghost Zone in every reach he can. He has met so many people. He’s met the ghosts of aliens from planets in every corner of the galaxy. He has met gods or god-like beings and their disciples. 
He’s met famous scholars and writers (he’s gotten the autographs of all of Jason’s favorite writers). He has found entire cities that have so much life in it that it's been permanently etched into the ghost zone, like a mirror version of itself. 
He’s visited the ghostly vision of Gotham so many times, and he avoids the imprint of Wayne Manor like the plague. There are ghostly newspapers that he reads. There are the ghosts of Martha and Thomas Wayne in many of them. 
Jason’s haunt connects to Wayne Manor, but it is also the street they grew up in. It is a small brick building with a door that leads to Jason’s room. A ghost knows when someone enters their haunt, it alerts them like a doorbell in the back of their mind. A foreign ecto-signature in a place drenched in your own. 
Danny visits it every time he goes into the Ghost Zone. It’s always his first stop. 
He tells his parents all of it. He tells them of the ghosts he’s met, of the places he’s seen. And when he feels brave, he tells them about Rath and the terror that his future self brings him. He keeps some details hidden, the ones that he can afford to keep without muddling up the story. 
(Rath is a tall, spindly thing, like a funhouse mirror version of Danny himself. He has arms that are much too long and legs that are much too tall, with skinny fingers that extend into claws.He wears his suit the same as Danny does, with it partially undone and the sleeves wrapped around his waist.)
(There is a black hole in his chest that is much bigger than Danny’s own. It takes up his chest cavity and drips the same, viscous black liquid as the tears falling from his eyes. Danny never forgets his voice; a scraping, quiet thing like he’s screamed himself hoarse. Rath has a voice like goosebumps, and it haunts Danny like a bump in the night.) 
Danny speaks and speaks and speaks until he can’t think of anything else to speak of. He is tired and sad, and it feels like his heart has been ripped out and rubbed raw again. And yet, he also feels so much better. Like a long heavy weight has been taken off his chest. 
Yeah, last summer was hard. His parents walked on eggshells around him, and they forced themselves to unlearn their bias of ghosts. It was more than Danny could have ever dreamed of, and when they felt ready for it, they asked him more about the ghost zone.
He smiles sadly at his dad, “I think fixing the stove can be a priority another time, dad.” He says, watching him wilt and his smile fall. Jack Fenton was always so good at making himself look like a kicked puppy. “I can handle unpacking by myself, I promise.” 
His parents still look so unsure, like they want to argue. Danny watches his mom purse her lips tightly, confliction running across her face like a datastream. She takes dad’s hand, squeezing their fingers together despite the droop in her shoulders. 
“Oh, alright then, I suppose.” She relents, her hand placing on Jack’s arm. “I guess we could go, we’re just going to miss you so much, Danny.” 
Tears seem to have won over his dad, and Jack Fenton sniffs back before he can cry properly. “Our little boy, all grown up.” He says, voice wobbling. It makes Danny laugh, and it makes his heart pang. His smile grows impossibly wider and so much fonder. “You’ve become such a kind, wonderful young man, Danno. We’re so proud of you.” 
Danny laughs again, and it cracks. “You’re gonna make me cry, dad.” (He feels a welling of guilt in his gut that he ignores — he doesn’t feel like a kind man. He doesn’t feel like a good one either. Not with what he plans to do.) 
His father holds out his arms in hopefulness, “One last hug for your old man before we head out?” He asks, mustering up a smile on his face. 
Danny barrels into him, nearly knocking his dad over with an oomph. He’s as tall as him now, but he still feels little in his bear hugs. With arms wrapping around his middle, Danny hugs his father tight and breathes him in one last time. 
“Careful there, Danno.” He laughs, patting Danny’s back roughly. “You’ll break my ribs with that ghostly strength of yours!” But he holds on just as tight.
Out of spite, Danny bends back and lifts him off his feet, laughing when Jack tenses up and nearly scrambles out of surprise. His mom laughs with him, stepping back to give them room for the few seconds that dad is in the air. 
When it’s his mom’s turn, Danny has to hunch to hug her. Something bittersweet to him as she plants a kiss on his forehead and says that he’ll always be her baby. “Even if you do have that horrid smoking habit.” She adds on with a disapproving eyebrow raise. 
Danny turns red in embarrassment, and walks them back to the GAV. Gothamites of all kinds slow to stop and boggle at the monstrous, road-illegal thing that is parallel-parked next to the curbside. In the past, Danny would have died with mortification to be seen with it. Now it just makes him laugh. Before he goes back into the apartment building, he buys a newspaper from a nearby convenience store.  
The first thing he does when he gets back up to his room is one: make a mental note to buy a bicycle chain lock for the door. The locks jiggle and there are splinters along the side that show signs of it being broken into in the past. The second thing he does is pull his cigarettes out of his pocket and light one. 
Danny starts to unpack with a cigarette hanging from his mouth, placing the newspaper he bought onto the counter. He has a cheap loveseat that he pushes off to the side, and he moves the boxes into the kitchen. It’s a matter of organization that Danny has to think about before he does anything. 
It’s as he’s pushing the sofa up against the wall facing the windows that his phone rings a familiar tune: Sam. The phone is fished out before he can think about it and when he stares down at the screen, he realizes it's a facetime call. 
He presses answer and walks over to prop his phone up onto the counter. The smiling faces of Sam and Tucker greet him, rather than just Sam. Immediately, Danny grins. “Hey Danny.” Sam greets, smiling a dark-painted lazy thing. From the background it looks like they’re in Tucker’s room. Sam is in Tucker’s desk chair, and Tucker is behind her, leaning against it. “Have you moved in yet?” 
Danny pulls the cigarette from his mouth and huffs, a cloud of smoke following his breath. “Yeah! It’s a shithole.” He grins lopsidedly, and his feet carry him off to the side to allow Sam and Tucker view of his apartment. He lets thirty seconds pass, allowing the both of them to really see the rest of the room. And then he steps back into frame. 
Sam and Tucker both look like they’re trying not to look judgemental, like they’re trying to hide a grimace that Danny sees anyway with the small turns at the corner of their mouths. He grins wider, mirth filling his lungs. “I know, it looks awful doesn’t it?”
“It’s— it’s not so bad.” Sam says with a strain in her voice, a forced smile on her face that tries to be reassuring. Tucker nods along readily, and he looks just as unsure as Sam does. Danny stifles laughter behind his teeth. 
“No, no, it looks bad,” He takes a drag of his cigarette, shaking his head. “You can say it, I won’t get offended. It’s a fucking apartment in crime alley. Of course it looks bad.” 
Sam remains silent, a rearing of her stubbornness showing itself. Tucker takes a different approach, and heaves a dramatic sigh of relief, slumping like a weight. “Okay, you’re right. It looks bad.” He frowns, “Sorry, man.” 
While Danny snorts, Sam sighs. “Yeah, it looks bad. What even are those stains?” She asks, and both she and Tucker lean closer in tandem to the screen, eyes squinting at the floor behind him. Danny glances at the floor, and shrugs. 
“Blood, probably.” He says, and while years in Amity Park have accustomed him to a clean environment, the desensitization of Gotham still remains. Tucker and Sam both make faces and lean away, as if the stain itself was capable of passing through to them. “Yeah, there are bullet holes in the walls.” 
“Are you sure it’s safe to be there?” Tucker asks, a furrow appearing between his brows. He adjusts his glasses and leans against the chair. Sam is frowning heavily, and Danny can already see her thinking up of a new way to fix the problem. 
“Oh, I never said this place was safe.” Danny tells him cheerily, taking a last hit of his cigarette before placing the dead stick onto the counter. He itches for another one. Instead he walks over to the shelf his parents brought in and starts moving it. “It’s Crime Alley, Tuck. Safe isn’t even in its vocabulary.” 
Tucker and Sam look like they’ve both swallowed a lemon.
“But it’s where I want to be right now.” He says, grunting quietly when the shelf is against the wall he wants it to be, near the short hallway leading to the front door. He can push it in front of it if someone tries to break in. “And Crime Alley’s apartments are the only ones I can really afford right now without mooching off my parents, and I’d rather not depend on them.” 
He can hear the disapproving hesitance from where he stands. And he ignores it. 
Danny walks back into frame, lifting up a box onto the counter. He hums lightly, fingers run over the tape keeping it shut. “Why do you even want to be in Gotham, Danny?” Sam asks, and she sounds genuinely perplexed. Danny stills. “I thought this place only had bad memories for you.” 
His blood turns cold, and like a dime being flipped his slow heartbeat fills his ears. “It does.” He replies automatically, before he can think. Shit, shit. He knows that Sam or Tucker would ask that question, and yet he still feels unprepared for it. His heart pulses quickly against his ribcage, knocking, asking him what he’s going to tell them that isn’t the truth. 
Danny stammers, “I mean— I just— I guess I felt nostalgic.” He says, and it sounds like a weak defense. He looks away, finding himself instinctively scratching his jaw. A new tick of his when he’s nervous. From the corner of his eye, he sees Sam and Tucker both narrow their eyes at him. 
He cannot tell them the real reason why he’s moved back to Gotham. He can’t tell them of the little secret and vow he told himself five years ago, the one that’s been left to fester and burn like an open wound close to his core. The one that, if he thinks too much about it, sends a searing hot electricity through him, filling him from crown to toe top-full of direst wrath.  
(Danny was always the angrier one in the duo of Jason and Danny. He was always the one with glass in his mouth, cutting his teeth and tongue so that he could spit blood at the world around them. His knuckles had more blood and bruises on it than skin, once upon a time. All because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He has grown from it, that fury has turned to a small simmering candle.) (But sometimes, sometimes it rears its head, and electricity will buzz under Danny’s skin. There is lightning before the thunder, the second before a fist pulled to punch lands, the spark before it becomes a blaze.) 
He stumbles over his words, and then sighs long and low, drooping his head. “I… was thinking that I can’t avoid this place forever.” He says, and the best lies always have the truth in it. Because it’s not a lie, not completely. But it’s not close enough to the truth either. “And that maybe if I came back, I’d be able to do something about those bad memories. Make them better or make it hurt less.” 
Like wool over their eyes, it fools Sam and Tucker. Their narrowed eyes soften, and Danny feels like a snake is in his lungs as they both adopt their own versions of gentleness on their faces. “Oh, Danny.” Sam breathes out, and the snake squeezes, “Of course, we understand.”
Tucker nods, smiling at him. “Yeah, bro, that’s really brave of you. I know it can’t be easy coming back.” He says, “Maybe you can reconnect with the Waynes again, you always thought well of Mister Wayne whenever you came back from visiting.”
Danny smiles weakly, the gesture cutting into his cheeks like a knife. Perhaps he could. He was still upset with Bruce for hiding Jason’s killer from him. But he doesn’t hate him. Maybe five years ago, he did, when the death of Jason was still fresh in his mind and freshly bleeding in his heart. Now he just doesn’t know what to think of him. He was Batman. Jason was Robin, and the Joker killed Robin. 
It would need to be something he’d have to speak to Bruce about in person, he thinks, in order to resolve it. To hear his judgment on it and make an opinion from there. Danny has learned in the last five years, much to Jazz’s smug delight, that talking to people about something he was upset about did make him feel better. 
The conversation slips on from there into something more light, more breathable. And while they talk, Danny unpacks. He sets up his bed in the corner of the room, adjacent to the windows, and unpacks his cheap TV and table stand. It’s directly across from the couch, in front of the windows. He puts up knicks and knacks he’s collected over the years on the shelves.
When he puts up the curtains, he notices that more than one frame jiggles loosely. Sam makes a comment on the musty stains permanently dyed into the glass, and Danny talks about getting something to fix the cracks. Gotham winters can get brutal, and even if he can withstand the cold, doesn’t mean everything else in his apartment can. 
“Oh, watch this.” He says halfway through unpacking, and pulls out a stick of thick white chalk from a box. “This is something I learned from Clockwork a while back; I think he knew I was going to move to Gotham.” He grins sillily, popping into the camera frame to show them. “I wonder how?” 
Sam rolls her eyes, smiling while Tucker huffs. “It’s not like he’s the Master of Time and can see all past, present, and future.” Tucker snarks. 
Danny hums lightly, curt like he isn’t sure he believes Tucker, and walks to a piece of bare wall not yet blocked by furniture. He starts to draw on it. The chalk shimmers with faint ectoplasm on the wall. 
“Uhh…” Tucker’s voice cuts through, “Are you sure you should be doing that? Won’t you get in trouble for that?”
“There are bullet holes in the plaster, Tucker.” Danny retorts dryly, arching his hand to make a big circle. “I don’t think the landlord is gonna care if I get washable chalk on his walls.” Inside the circle, he inscribes the symbols of the Infinite Realms. “I don’t think he’d be able to see it anyways, he was really old.” 
When he is done, Danny steps back to admire his work. It’s not bad, he thinks, for a lack of practice. He tosses the chalk off to the side, it lands on the couch and rolls back into the cushions. Ectoplasm heats under his hand, slowly glowing from his fingertips before stretching down the rest of his palm. 
Danny’s fingers press against the wall, into the center of the circle. The result is immediate, ectoplasm is siphoned off his hand and into the circle. It glows, and then swirls. He steps off to the side for Sam and Tucker to watch its transformation. The circle fills with a swirling pool of ectoplasm, like a smaller version of the basement portal, and then it warps and stretches. 
It fills out a rectangular shape, shifting like taffy being pulled this way and that, before settling into a solid shape. It solidifies, and instead of a wall there is a glowing purple door, warped in nature and seemingly shifting like a trick of the eyes. He can hear the gentle hum of the zone standing next to it, and can see the carving of the circle in the wood. 
He gestures dramatically, grinning from ear to ear. “Ta-da~” He sings, “A door to my haunt! For whenever I feel like visiting it.” He pats the wood, making a strange thunk-thunk sound. “And then watch this.” 
Danny touches the circle again, and the door twists and recedes like water going down a drain. The circle flashes bright green, and then fades into nothing on the wall, invisible to the naked eye. “I can hide it whenever I want! So if I ever invite someone over—” which he doubts, “—I won’t have to worry about them asking, ‘Hey Danny? Why is there a creepy fucking door in your studio apartment?’”
He gets a pair of laughs for his efforts, and Danny grins wider. 
Sam and Tucker have to end the call when Danny is nearly done unpacking, leaving him alone with only his thoughts and the Gotham ambience outside. There were only a few boxes left, and they promise to call him tomorrow. He tells them that they better keep that promise. 
The silence that follows after they leave feels somberly, as if the reality of moving in has finally set in and filled the air with its loneliness. With its change. Finally, Danny lets the strangeness of moving back to Gotham hit him when he reaches the last box, and he stops to take another smoke break to let it settle. 
It feels so strange to be back in Gotham, he thinks. He’s all grown up, or almost grown up. He can vote and pay taxes, but he doesn’t feel much older than he was at fourteen. There’s a disconnect that makes him feel sad. 
There are cars running outside, driving by. He can only catch glimpses of them, his apartment faces an alleyway. There are dogs barking in the distance, strays he bets. It’s already dark out, and he wonders if he looks out the window he would see the bat-signal shining through the night and staining the permanent cloud that hangs over Gotham. 
Bruce would be so disappointed if he learned the reason for Danny’s return to Gotham. But Danny’s not here for him. He’s here for someone far more important. And like that, the simmering anger that has tucked itself into the furthest corners of his heart starts slipping through. His heart has teeth, ready to strike and snarl and bite. 
He crushes the cigarette in his hand and throws it away. When he opens the last box, it is with hands that tremble and with a face of stone. With a delicateness he does not feel, he reaches in and pulls a corkboard from the box. On the corner frame is a small, near inconspicuous carving of another ghost rune. 
Danny hangs it up on an empty space on the wall, out of sight from the window. It’s plain, and he has nothing to pin to it. He presses the small rune on the corner, pushing ectoplasm into it. Unlike the door, it does not twist and warp and shape itself into something new. Instead it bursts into green flame, eating away at the board and revealing the same thing underneath it, just in dark blue-black-purple. 
Now this board, this board Danny has something to pin to it. The newspaper he bought earlier sits abandoned on the counter, and Danny unrolls it with something like viciousness in his chest. On the front page is an image of a damaged street, and above it is titled: “JOKER STRIKES AGAIN, 3 DEAD AND 27 INJURED”
Danny rips out the first page, he rips out every mention of him. His hands shake and threaten to crumple the paper as he turns back to the board, there is hot blood pounding in his ears. There is an impending sense of finally in his chest, like a setting sun giving the stage to a starless night. There is a stern set in his jaw, five years of festering rage rushing forth like a tidal wave, threatening to make his vision swim. 
It would be so easy, he thinks, to go out as Phantom right now and hunt the clown down. It would only take a night. All it would take is a night, and then he could sink his hands into the Joker’s chest and rip out his heart where he stood. It would be so easy. 
The thought alone forces Danny to stop as he is hit with another rush of fury, really making his head and vision swim. Thorny vines wrap around his throat, making it hard to breathe. He stares at a spot on the wall until the shaking passes. 
If he wants to be discreet about this, then he can’t do it now. Even if he wants to. He doesn’t want witnesses. He doesn’t want an audience. He made a mistake, telling Red Hood about his plan. He wasn’t sure what he was thinking. Perhaps he wasn’t thinking at all. But he can only hope that the Hood hasn’t mentioned it to Bruce. He knows it hasn’t been long since they started working together. He hopes that the Hood has already forgotten about it. 
He pins the newspaper clippings onto the black-blue-board, and stands back. It’s bare now, but it won’t be forever. 
He presses the circle again, and the pinboard reverts back to its original blank state. 
-----
Was I expecting to make a third part?? No. No I was not. I was also not expecting to make an entire google doc filled with summaries for short story ideas about this au that all tie into each other so that way if i DO continue this i have a skeleton pathway to follow rather than making everything up from scratch and potentially cornering myself
you can find this on ao3 or on tumblr 1 2 :)
#dp x dc#dpxdc#dp x dc crossover#danny fenton is not the ghost king#dpxdc crossover#childhood friends au#cw swearing#cw smoking#im calling them short stories bc if i call them chapters i might intimidate myself#fun fact every single chapter will have a crane wives lyric on it i am DETERMINED#i hope yall are subscribed to this on ao3 bc i almost didnt post this on tumblr#the fentons being good parents were a surprise to me too but also i never really planned on them being BAD parents#okay so they appear as negligent in the first post but we'll just call that a plothole#i had the idea that danny was the angrier one out of the duo earlier today and it felt like an epiphany#there's no guarantee of a next part but yk immm kinda hoping there is#on the docs the ending bullet point for this chapter was#'make it feel like a tv show where the seemingly inconspicuous and friendly character has something sinister up their sleeve'#WE know that danny's not inconspicuous in the least he's been thinking of this murder for the last five years. but nobody but red hood know#i had to come up with a in-story reason why danny doesnt kill the joker NOW but my out-of-story excuse is: there'd be no tension otherwise#its about the BUILD UP. Its about the RISING TENSION. Its about KNOWING that danny is planning to kill the Joker but you dont know WHEN#its about knowing that something is going to explode but never knowing when#i made the doc yesterday and spent my entire pluralism for educators class going thru the crane wives albums and looking up the lyrics and#matching them to the *checks doc* 18 short story prompts i have prepared#i am still missing one :((#its the tim and danny story and i have NOTHING PLANNED FOR THEM. i cant think of a thing for them to bond over :(( so i cant match a CW son#even DICK has a story and that was also a surprise#my favorite lines: He was always the one with glass in his mouth cutting his teeth and tongue so that he could spit blood at the world#aND danny slapping his door like a used car salesman and going 'now people wont ask why i have a creepy fucking door in my studio aptm :)'
237 notes · View notes
puppetmaster13u · 10 months
Text
DC AU Idea
Imagine if after coming back to life and being dunked in the Lazarus Pits, Jason can see ghosts. The pit rage is all the ghosts possessing him and trying to get revenge on their killers. A lot of them were killed by the joker and aren’t taking no for an answer, no matter who is in their way.  The only reason they don’t immediately do so is that they remember Robin, they remember Jason, and they don’t want to hurt him. It’s hard to remember that he’s alive again and cannot do the same things they can. 
Tumblr media
92 notes · View notes
tavtarnish · 1 year
Text
Tumblr media
Rugby Au that I've been chattering about
This looks way better on mobile icl
248 notes · View notes