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thecabbagegirl · 1 month

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Northern Lights

I heard a voice that cried, “Balder the Beautiful is dead, is dead!”

Who knows what to call the lonely exhilaration of gazing out into a bright Northern sky? Who can name it?

Jill could: Northernness.

It was the same feeling that came to her at the teetering edge of a cliff at the end of the world. The same feeling as when she said her goodbyes to Puddleglum and Scrubb before they freed the prince. It was the same feeling that engulfed her now, sitting in the professor’s library with a volume of poetry before her.

The wild northern wastes were well named: utterly wild, perfectly desolate, and terribly Northern.

It was lonely there and often cold, but the sky was an endless whorl of gales and gray clouds. The stones were indigo under the pale winter sunlight, and at sunset they glowed a soft gold, as though lit from within. The gorges and moors lay before her, and Jill loved them for their vastness and their distance. Little grew in that country, but that which did was full of vigor. The grass was short and coarse. Every tree was victorious.

On a still, deep breathing winter night, Jill lay on her back beneath a covering sky. It seemed beautiful to her, rich and strong and glorious. Her eyes drank in the breadth of it until her tears began to blind her. Yet even then, she still couldn’t look away.

She felt bigger here in the wastes, like the landscape. Stronger, wider. The further she walked, the more she felt herself stretch out. One of these days, maybe, she would catch hold of herself at edge and tug, and Jill Pole would open up clear as the Northern sky.

And through the misty air passed the mournful cry of sunward sailing cranes.

The thing that surprised Jill most about the battle with the serpent was this: there wasn’t any yelling. Always, it seemed, whenever she read stories about people fighting with swords, the combatants would let loose some guttural yell before their blows fell. They would scream and writhe in pain as they died. They would shout instructions to their fellows, “Look out!” or “Hit him there!” But the whole affair with the serpent passed with very little noise.

The poison-green coil constricted around the prince; he raised his arms and got clear, struck the serpent hard, and then Scrubb and Puddleglum dispatched the creature with heavy, hacking blows. The monster died writhing, but not screaming. And then it was over.

The thing that surprised Jill most about the moments before battle was, of course, the noise. She could hear her own heartbeat in her ears. She couldn’t stop listening to her own breathing. Every footstep rang out like a gong, and any words exchanged rang with a kind of finality that made them sound louder than anything.

“You are of high courage,” Rilian told her when it was over.

Yet the thing in Jill’s chest just then didn’t feel like courage. It was a deep breath, a plunge, and a release. It was loud and quiet all at once, till she was standing, blinking in the night air as snowballs whizzed round her, and maybe that was something like courage after all.

And now, there was a stirring in her chest as she reread the words on the page. Sing no more / O ye bards of the North / Of Vikings and of Jarls! / Of the days of the Eld / preserve the freedom only / nor the deeds of blood!

She thought of grief. Of freedom.

The lonely ache in her belly grew stronger. She felt herself uplifted into the huge regions of sky that were just beyond those cliffs, weightless as the breath beneath her buoyed her up, further, further…

When she saw Caspian up close, Jill thought that he looked like the sort of person who was meant to live in a castle. A silly thought, perhaps, since she knew he was a king– only she wasn’t thinking of Cair Paravel. No, Jill was picturing the ruins of an old British castle she’d visited once on holiday. She still remembered how the stonework had loomed over her, all towering arches and crumbling walls. That was where Caspian seemed to belong. He had an air of ancient tragedy about him.

When Rilian disappeared, all things had wept but one. The serpent coiled beneath the earth and flicked its forked tongue, spewing poison.

Now, the king half rose to bless his son. He whispered a few words as he caressed Rilian’s cheek, words meant only for those beloved ears. Jill saw Caspian’s lips move and wondered what a man like that could possibly say, when time ran so short.

They laid him in his ship, with horse and harness, as on a funeral pyre. Odin placed a ring upon his finger, and whispered in his ear.

Jill furtively took Myths of the Northmen and held it up to the professor with a question in her eyes. She was still shy around him and Miss Plummer, though she wished she wasn’t.

“Would you like to take that with you?”

“...Please.”

It takes a certain kind of person to be exhilarated by the heights. You’ve got to love vastness more than you fear falling.

They walked to the train station with an autumn wind blowing hard, and though Jill couldn’t fathom why, she turned and saw Lucy grinning, fierce and joyful– grinning and reaching a hand out towards her friend.

Jill reached back and grabbed it. “What will you do, once we’re back in Narnia?” she asked.

The wind blew harder. The feeling of anticipation grew and grew, until it felt so big that she couldn’t dream of containing it. And there was Lucy, holding Jill’s hand and laughing like it was easy.

Preserve the freedom only, not the deeds of blood!

The second time Jill went to Narnia, she found herself not at its edge, but at its end.

The thing about the Norse apocalypse is: it feels believable. It doesn’t reach beyond earth’s horizon to pull down hope beyond hope. It’s only the kind of courage that hopeless humans have: you are going to die, so you might as well die bravely.

They found the last king of Narnia bound to a tree. His eyes were faintly red from crying, and his wrists and ankles red from the coarseness of his fetters.

In the Norse myths, Loki broke free of his fetters at the end of the world. He escaped to the helm of a ship made from the fingernails of the dead.

The last king of Narnia fell forward onto the ground when Eustace cut his bonds. Jill crouched down beside him and watched as he rubbed feeling back into his legs. He wasn’t so much older than her, she thought. Jill was sixteen years old; the last king of Narnia could not be older than twenty-two.

In the myths, the gods were ancient, hewn from the bodies of giants old as the earth.

Jill put out a hand and helped the last king of Narnia to his feet. Not for the last time, she shivered. Something deep inside her (deeper than her chest, than her heart, than the marrow of her bones, deep as her soul, deeper) was singing an elegy and she didn’t know why, or how, or where it had come from. The king clutching her hand, who could have been her older brother, would have no heir.

Yet when he asked, “Will you come with me?” Jill could only smile.

“Of course,” she said. “It’s you we’ve come to help.”

And the voice forever cried, "Balder the Beautiful is dead, is dead!"

“This really is Narnia at last,” murmured Jill. The springtime wood had little in common with the wintry lands she had traveled the last time she was here– but it awakened the same feelings of Northernness in her chest.

They party may as well have been the only people in the world, for how isolated their little wooden path seemed. Yet it wasn’t lonely, really, cocooned in all that green with the wind in the leaves and the primroses nodding and blue of the sky peeking through above.

Jewel told stories about what ordinary life was like when there was peace here. As he spoke, Jill could almost hear the trees' voices speaking out of the living past, whispering, stay, stay. She was caught up to a great height, looking down across a rich, lovely plain full of woods and waters and cornfields, which spread away and away till it got thin and misty from distance.

“Oh Jewel–” Jill said with a dreamy sigh, “wouldn’t it be lovely if Narnia just went on and on– like what you say it has been?”

She needn’t be a queen, as Susan and Lucy had been, but Jill would’ve liked to stay. She would've liked it all to stay, if it could. She might have been a woodmaid in a place like this: with the turn of the seasons, the swaying trees, swords into plowshares. Oh, if only she could stay!

Ahead, the last king of Narnia was softly singing a marching song. Jill tilted her head back and let warm shafts of sun caress her face.

I saw the pallid corpse of the dead sun borne through the Northern sky.

“So,” said the last king of Narnia, “Narnia is no more.”

He tried to send them back. Jill shook her head. It was very loud and very quiet. “No, no, no, we won’t. I don’t care what you say. We’re going to stick by you whatever happens, aren’t we Eustace?”

They couldn’t go back anyway. Neither would they flee, not south across the mountains nor North into the great wide wastes. No, they would stay. They slept in a holly grove on the edge of ruin, waiting for the bonfires to light.

Jill slept fitfully, but in between she dreamed. She was high up in the air, buffeted by clouds and pierced by shafts of silver sunlight.

They all died, in the myths. Jill knew that. It seemed beautiful and brave when she read it in her book, tucked away safe in the Professor’s library. It was terrifying now– and yet it was beautiful and brave still.

The dogs came bounding up, every one of them, running up to the king and his men with their tails wagging. One of them leapt at Jill and licked her face, tongue roughly lapping up the sweat and tears that have dried on her cheeks.

“Show us how to help, show us how, how, how!” the dogs were barking, almost ebullient in their enthusiasm. Jill bit back a sob. How lovely, she thought. How terribly beautiful. How dreadfully brave.

So perish the old Gods!

The white rock gleamed like a moon in the darkness when Jill finally reached it. She ran back to it alone, her hands shaking, while her friends stayed forward with their gleaming swords and Jewel’s indigo horn.

The while rock gleamed like the moon. Jill’s first shot flew wide and landed in the soft grass. But she had another arrow on her string the next instant. It was speed that mattered, not aim. Speed, and turning aside when she cried, so as not to drip tears on her bowstring.

The white rock gleamed. In the myths, a wolf devoured the moon. Peter’s wolf, slain many thousand years ago in this world, opened his jaw wide and darkness fell over everything.

Her next arrow found its mark. After that, she lost track. She pulled, and she prayed that her hands kept still another minute.

The unique thing–maybe the appealing thing–about the Norse myths, was that they told men to serve gods who were admittedly fighting with their backs to the wall and would certainly be defeated in the end. Jill let loose another arrow, felt the white rock at her back, and she knew that the clawing fear–beauty–bravery deep in her gut was the same feeling that she felt on the heights. The same feeling, but a different face. You’ve got to love vastness more than you fear falling.

“I feel in my bones,” said Poggin, “that we shall all, one by one, pass through that dark door before morning. I can think of a hundred deaths that I would rather have died.”

“It is indeed a grim door,” said Tirian. “It is more like a mouth.”

“Oh, can’t we do anything to stop it,” said Jill. Better to be dashed to the ground than it was to be devoured.

“Nay, fair friend,” said Jewel. “It may be for us the door to Aslan’s country and we sup at his table tonight.”

A hand tangled itself in her hair and started to pull. Jill braced herself hard, for a moment, until her strength gave out. She was standing on the edge of a high, Northern cliff. She took another step, and fell.

Perhaps when the moment comes, our bite will prove better than our howls. If not, we shall have to confess that two millennia of Christianity have not yet brought us to the level of the Stoics and Vikings. For the worst (according to the flesh) that a Christian need face is to die in Christ and rise in Christ; some were content to die, and not to rise, with Father Odin.

The world inside the stable was beautiful. It made Jill’s chest ache in all the loveliest ways.

Build it again, O ye bards, fairer than before!

#chronicles of narnia #jill pole #beautiful writing

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thecabbagegirl · 1 month

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Gallery of hermits with weird setups. (As shortlisted by Mumbo)

#hermitcraft 10

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thecabbagegirl · 1 month

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#hermitcraft 10

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thecabbagegirl · 3 months

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thecabbagegirl · 3 months

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You did say bet.

I think you should be paid for tumblring

bet

https://streamelements.com/zloyxp/tip

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thecabbagegirl · 3 months

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PART 3/3 Tim also on AO3 https://archiveofourown.org/works/53359585?view_full_work=true

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Tim was confused, tired and if it weren't for all the injuries he had that were radiating pain, he would be more than half convinced he was hallucinating.

Jason had been here. Jason had been Red Hood. Jason had beaten him up. Ouch his little fanboy heart. He would like to say it had been a fight, but Jason was clearly far more prepared for the encounter, and Tim was already tired from the mission the Titans had earlier in the day. He gave as good as he got at the beginning, and if Jason didn't have at least a broken rib, then Tim would eat his hat.

Not that Tim had a hat. Hemet. Red Hood left his helmet. That might have some DNA evidence so he could prove to Bruce that Red Hood had been here and was also Jason.

But Jason had said that Batman knew who he was, yeah maybe. Bruce was never happy unless he had treble checked every fact, and probably committed at least 2 privacy violations along the way though, so running the DNA was probably a good shout.

The issue, thought Tim, was how to actually get to the lab/medbay - he spared a moment to thank whoever designed the titans tower and put them on the same floor. That was up at least 3 flights of stairs, and if Conner hadn’t heard the ongoing fight he probably wasn’t in the tower at the moment to give him a lift.

Robin resigned himself to a lot of fussing, and pressed the bat emergency button on his watch. Sure he could crawl to the elevator, but he was going to have to talk to Batman about this eventually, and it might as well be now. He had tried to call out during the beatdown, but whatever Hood had done when he broke in had scrambled the communications. The emergency button may not work, but he’d give it a few minutes before he started crawling, to be sure. He’d just sit a moment, rest his head against the wall here, just for a couple of minutes, then he’d be ready to move…

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next thing Tim knew was seeing a vague figure crouching over him, dark blue V all across his chest. Dick looked very worried, huh, wonder why, had something happened to B?

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next, next thing was morning. Tim had clearly had his broken leg and various wounds tended to, and the beds next to him were also filled with Bart and Garfield. He sat up - had Jason also hurt the other titans? It sounded from what he was shouting during the fight, that it was only Tim he had a problem with.

“Morning sleepyhead”

“Cassie?”

“Don't worry Rob, apparently Hood only knocked out the other two, they’ll be fine, just sleeping in the medbay for convenience if they do have any side effects of being knocked out.

Batman is in the debrief room with Nightwing, apparently arguing, but you totally didn’t hear that from me.”

“I need to talk to Batman”.

Tim moved to get up but was immediately stopped by Cassie rushing forward.

“Absolutely not. NO you are staying in bed - you’ve got like 3 broken bones and a whole lot of sprains. You are staying there. I get that you have to report to the Bat, but he has working legs, so he can come in here. I'll go get him. Don’t. Move.”

Tim reluctantly moved his leg back onto the bed, much more slowly than before, as Cassie whirled out the door to get Batman and Nightwing. The faint sound of arguing stopped, and Tim could hear the three coming back.

…”No way, it happened in Titans tower, and to a Titan, it is absolutely Titan business, no way you’re kicking me out of the debrief. I want to know who hurt him!

Tim couldn’t hear what was said in response, but if he knew Bruce, it was along the lines of - stay out of it.

“… It stopped being Gotham business when it left Gotham. Three of my teammates were knocked out by that guy!”

Tim looked directly at Cassie, as the three came into the medbay. “I'm sorry Wondergirl, this is a secret identity thing, would you mind…”

“For Pete's sake! You Bats and your secret identities. Fine! But you better explain later Robin, I'll hold you to that. Or Else”. Cassie frowned and left the room still pointing at Tim.

“Robin, report.”

“Last night I was writing up the report from the fight downtown against Mumbo, and Red Hood entered the debrief room, there was no warning about a break in, but given his identity - I don’t know that his codes were ever replaced- it’s possible there was no warning to sound.”

Batman didn't respond to the identity question, but given that Tim has worked with him long enough to know his tells, he still wasn't sold on the Hood is Jason thing. Nightwing rolled his eyes. “We’ll get back to that - since he left his helmet behind we’re running DNA now”.

“So Hood accused me of being his ‘replacement’ and started to attack me, (wearing a robin costume by the way, so that's gonna be in my nightmares now), but as we fought we made a lot of noise, so I assume he had already knocked out Impulse and Beast Boy prior to that. We found down the corridor, and he knocked me down the stairs, which broke my leg.

He wasn’t aiming to kill though. He kept calling me a replacement and saying that Batman didn't learn his lesson last time, so now another robin was going to die”. He stood over me ready to hit me again - with fists. He had his guns, he could have shot me at any point but didn't. He wasn't aiming to kill.

His words and actions don't line up, he was saying it was Batman’s fault I was getting hurt, then changed to saying it was my fault I took robin, then said he was going to kill me, but made no action to do so.

Ok stick with me, this is the weird bit. He stood over me ready to hit me again, but there was a camera flash, and there was suddenly a meta hovering in the air. Like weightless, and with a camera. He pushed Jason..”

“Hood”.

“He pushed Hood back against the wall, and Hood's eyes went bright green, the whole eye, sclera, iris and pupil, almost luminescent, He yelled, but it didn't sound human. Then the meta disappeared inside Hood, like phased into him. Then Hood flew through the wall and was gone.

Oh the meta said “ I'll bring him back when he’s calmed down”.

Nightwing and Batman exchanged looks. Nightwing sat at the foot of Tims bed on a chair there, and said. “So Hood phased through the wall, and didn’t just like, walk away, or…”

“come on Dick - why would I hallucinate a meta i’d never seen before? If I was going to hallucinate someone saving me it would be you or B!”

“Point, but still you’ve got to understand how that looks? Absolutely no signs of anyone else there, and we can’t check the cameras because hood knocked them out.”

“Look , whoever the meta was he said he’d bring hood back here after he’d calmed down. We should be on the watch for that.”

“.. and we definitely will, but maybe it would be safer for you, who is already injured, to go back to Gotham, and rest in the cave.”

“No-way are you sending me back! Besides, Jason knows how to get in the cave! That's not any safer than here!”

“Hood’s identity is not confirmed” interjected Batman.

Tim and Dick both turned at the same time “Come on B” sounded in unison, until both looked at each other with a small grin, and Dick continued. “We ran the DNA twice, and he admitted it, how is that not confirmed?”

“Jason is dead.”

Tim joined in, “why are you so determined not to believe it?”

“This is not how Jason would act”.

“Yeah but that glowy green eye thing - isn't that a side effect of the lazarus pit?”

“Wait what” Nightwing swung back to gape at Tim, “how do you know about that?”

“Read the file about the league of assassins on the batcomputer”.

“That file is classified,” added batman.

“And I know all your passwords, problem?”

Nightwing looked thoughtful now. “It would be just like the league B, to resurrect your son and try to turn him against you, sounds just like Ra’s style. It would explain how little wing is so different”

“It is far more likely that someone else is impersonating him, and took a sample of his DNA to put in the helmet and trick us”!

“But” added Tim “Impersonating him wouldn’t let them know the access codes.”

“Enough of this. We will stay around the tower till this afternoon, then we will arrange your transport back to the cave.”

“What if the meta comes back?”

“Nightwing will remain here for the next couple of days, then return to Bludhaven”.

“Oh, will he!” Dick was winding up to shout at Batman again “It's not like he’s an adult who can make his own decisions or anything!”

Before another argument could start between the two, a glowing green portal appeared in the medbay. Immediately Nightwing stopped talking and moved between Tim and the portal, his escrima sticks out and buzzing.

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The portal was swirling green, with purple flashes occasionally in the swirl. It was almost hypnotic, in the same way as the old window player music colour visualisations were. The same meta as the night before popped his head through the portal and looked around.

“Hey! You’re bat guy! Ya’know Mom and Dad are convinced you’re a ghost. We had to talk them out of spending last summer in Gotham to investigate, man that was annoying! Who wants to go to Gotham on holiday? - Well Sam, but that's beside the point”.

Nightwing said, fairly faintly, “There’s a point?”.

The meta pointed to Nightwing and said “Yes, point is, I borrowed a guy from here yesterday, he was beating up another guy, anyway, we had a bit of a brawl to calm him down, and I'm here to drop him off”.

Batman stepped forward, “Who are you?”

“Don’t worry about it, where do you want the guy? All anger under control again, man was he mad! Woke up from his rage-fest and started quoting Shakespeare of all things, absolute dork.”

“Yep, that sounds like little wing alright” Dick murmured, as the meta ducked back in the portal and emerged carrying Jason, still in the robin costume, albeit a lot more ripped than when Tim had last seen it, and laid him on the nearest empty bed to the portal.

“Ok - do give me a shout if he needs another throw down, it's really quite cathartic.- I’m off”

And having said this, before any of the three could move, the meta disappeared back into the portal which shut behind him with a pop.

In the silence that followed, before Bruce almost ran to the bed Jason had been left on, Tim couldn’t help himself. “Told you he was real”.

dpxdc drossover not phantom planet complient, Jason attacks titans tower AU , good fenton parents - link to AO3 if you'ld rather read there https://archiveofourown.org/works/53359585

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Danny was flying over the bay in Jump city. The Fentons were on a road trip - Jazz was in the process of picking what college she wanted to attend, and since Phantom was no longer a secret from his parents, and he had passed his portal making test from Wulf, rather than have to fly, or drive around the country, he was making portals and visiting each college.

The downside of this was that the portals were a little wibbly wobbly with time. Hey - he only just passed the test - So sometimes the portals would drop them off in a location a few days before the open day (Fortunately for Jazz’s remaining sanity, he hadn’t yet arrived too late for an open day, but with four left to go there was still a chance).

Since mom and dad now knew about Phantom, They were taking the opportunity to drag the whole family around the country, to every college Jazz was looking at (and with neither time or travel being a concern, she was looking at A LOT), and having a few days around the town afterwards, seeing the local sights as well. So they were in Jump City for a few days before Jazz went to see UC Berkeley: and Danny couldn’t sleep.

Or at least that's what he told mum after persuading her he would be fine to go for a quick invisible flight before bed.

Invisible of course, because Jump city was home to the teen titans - a local group of teenage superheroes - and the last thing he needed was to be noticed by them. Not that he had anything against superheroes - technically he was one - but Amity had been under media blackout since before the titans were formed. It was only after Tucker had managed to crack the media blackout - and get a quick message out to the justice league helpline about the GIW and the Anti-Ecto- Acts, that Danny had even realised there were other teen heroes.

That had been a very hectic few weeks. The GIW were quickly disbanded, and it turned out the AEA which Danny had been so afraid of, were a load of bull! They never existed! As the Justice League explained, with the Meta Protection Acts so much in the public view, there was no way any Acts that labelled those with unusual powers as not sentient - was ever going to pass. It was just a lie the GIW put about to prevent Amity Parkers from asking for help.

The Justice League had also told mom and dad they had to permanently close the portal, or at least have much, much more security to prevent ghosts coming and going as much. They eventually agreed to this, with a lot of grumbling, and it was one of the reasons that Danny needed to learn to make portals so quickly. Mom and dad told the justice league that, as Amity Park had so many natural portals anyway - that opened up from time to time - they would need to open it occasionally to send the ‘visitors’ who came through the portal back home. But the justice league argued that should be the only reason to open the portal.

Dad kept arguing that how were they supposed to research ghosts (no longer for ripping them apart molecule by molecule - as learning about their son being Phantom had changed their ideas massively) - and how they interact with each other and the world - with the portal only open for emergencies. Until Mom sidled up beside him and whispered that “Danny can still open portals if needed dear” which shut dad up so quickly that the justice league member - John somebody - looked at him suspiciously - and then went outside for another smoke. Eventually it was settled, with mom volunteering to supply the justice league with some anti-ecto technology - particularly specter deflectors, because no-one wants an overshadowed superman.

Anyway, after all the portals and GIW were sorted, the Justice league made some noise about this Phantom ghost - and they needed to meet him and assess what to do. The public of Amity Park were (as always) mixed in reviews, but Valarie, who had already met up with the League when they arrived, as Red Huntress, said very publicly that “As the local hero of Amity, I will make sure he doesn’t bother the public”. Then, more quietly, to the league “... besides Phantom really only stops the other ghosts from causing trouble, and with the portal shut there should be less of that.” And finally, lying through her teeth, “If there’s any trouble, I'll call you guys in”.

The Constantine guy hung around for a few more days, but since there was no sign of Phantom, and the only ghost that came through a natural portal, was an animal ghost, that was easily souped by Red Huntress. Constantine watched as it was yeeted back into the Ghost Zone - and eventually left with only mild complaining.

Now Danny, why did Phantom not appear? Well, since the beginning of Phantom appearing, he really was only a hero to stop people getting hurt. He didn't want to be a hero. He just wanted to stop the ghosts coming through the portal. Since Val was there to deal with the Justice league, and they were now getting on fairly well because of Dani, she could be the ‘Hero of Amity Park’ and she had his number to give him a shout if needed. That way he could actually get his grade up high enough to have a chance of attending a decent college to be an astronaut.

So with that all sorted, and ghosts now more of an occasional thing than a day to day problem, he was able to leave Amity Park and actually go on holiday! Besides, if he got bored and wanted a fight, he could now portal to the GZ, grab a frenemy- and duke it out without any collateral damage. Frostbite and Clockwork had both said, one much more plainly than the other, that ghosts - particularly young ghosts like Danny, Dani, and even Vlad - who was young by ghost standards, would start to go a bit mad without regular enrichment. Apparently enrichment for ghosts was beating the stuffing out of each other.

This did explain why Vlad was so much of a fruitloop - being confined to a bed for many years, and then not having anyone he could brawl with - left him badly lopsided. It turned out that regularly punching him in the face was good for the both of them. Left him less mad, and was very, very cathartic for Danny. Vlad these days was still a fruitloop, but tended to leave humans out of it, and just kidnap Danny for various jigsaw-ish traps - with given that Danny could use his powers, was more like a fun escape room than anything more dangerous.

So, back to the evening flight in Jump City. Danny had carefully talked around Titans tower. He said he would make sure that the heroes wouldn’t see him - well he was invisible, so they wouldn’t. But he did want to see how the other side live, as it were. He wanted to see what these teen heroes were doing. If they were getting support from adult heroes, as Danny had desperately needed when he started, and now, thankfully had - but only after going through a ton of stuff alone. Well, not alone, but certainly without adult help.

But mainly to see what the inside of the tower looked like. And maybe take some pictures for Sam and Tucker - to prove he’d been there.

As Danny approached the tower, he didn't see anyone through the window in what he assumed was the common area, the lights were dim, it looked like the heroes were all in bed. Bit early for teens to be in bed, but maybe they had a big fight today, not like he follows the news or anything. Danny double checked he had a tight grip on his invisibility, and phased through the window.

He flew around the common room, poked his head into the kitchen, and started drifting down the corridor. He didn't really care for the common area, though it was quite big, and he took a snap to show Sam and Tucker, but what he was really looking for was a control room type thing. A briefing room? A round table? He wasn't quite sure, something Hero-y. He drifted down the hall, and stopped.

What was with that door?

It was an automatic sliding door, but it was stuck - open. It can't have detected him - he was still intangible. There was no movement to detect, the air was going through him. Like there was an electrical fault? Huh - broken door - fair enough, rough housing superheroes could defo break a door. Probably hadn't been fixed yet. He drifted through.

This level looked like bedrooms, probably some degree of privacy violation to peek, and he’s already entered without permission. Best leave that alone just in case, don't want to get an eyeful of something. Snooping in communal areas is fine. Like technically trespassing, but no-one really cares - looking in the bedroom is a lot weirder.

He phased down a couple of floors - Sick, training room. Taking photos for Tucker, man this place would make Dash weep with envy. Pretty much every fitness machine Danny had heard of, then like a dozen more. Big flat area in the middle for sparring? Probably. Most people can't just spar mid air afterall.

Danny jumped so much he went up to the floor above - that was a shout. Had someone seen him? No, his invisibility was still on. Now that he had noticed it, he could still hear the shouts, a few floors below - someone was having an argument. Best avoid that then.

Next was a sound of pain, unmistakable that was the sound someone made after being punched. Surely if it was a spar, that would stop now right? Except, Danny was on the gym floor. With the sparring area. And there was no-one there.

Danny drifted slightly closer to the sounds of what was now quite obviously a fight. Down a few levels, and his ghost sense went off. But then didn't. Like it started then changed its mind. Danny flew down to the fight entirely now - how on earth was a ghost in Jump City! He didn't even have a thermos on him, it was back in the hotel room. He was going to have to make a portal and yeet the ghost through! There was no way the heroes wouldn't notice a portal appearing in titans tower! This was going to completely blow his cover. Damn it!

Some Guy was wailing on some other guy. What? Danny doesn't know who these people are, for all he knows these guys both could be villains that broke in and then got in a disagreement. But the larger guy was setting off his ghost sense, and had glowing green eyes. And the smaller guy was definitely still a teen, so by process of elimination was probably one of the teen titans. Without thinking Danny lifted the phone he was holding and took a photo - the flash on the camera started the two into stopping for a moment.

Danny dropped his visibility and swooped in.

“And, time out. Ring ring ring, back to your corner meathead, he’s already down” He pulled the bigger guy away and pushed him back a few feet.

He got snarled at for his trouble - green glowing eyes, and angry to the point of non verbal. Overshadowed human maybe? Well, time for a real estate battle then. Danny phased into the big guy - he was an expert at kicking other ghosts out by now.

Except he couldn’t - because there was no ghost to kick out. The anger was all coming from the human - so a human full of ecto, and really cross about it, and trying to deal with it the way ghosts do - with a big fight. Except he’s fighting humans, who are nowhere near as durable as ghosts, so he’s just beating up a kid.

Ok - Danny is going to have to take over. He leans part way out of the guys, who roars again, and high fives the teen who just stood up.

“Tag, I'm in. I'll bring him back when he’s no longer incoherent with rage. Bye for now”

Danny then flew with the guy out through the side of the building to find a nice empty bit of land for a fight. He’d be back to the hotel late tonight, he hoped mom wasn't waiting up.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tim looked at the empty wall that Hood had just been kidnapped through.

“Did he just take a photo? That's My thing!”

#dc x dp #dc x dp crossover #danny phantom #tim drake #jason todd

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thecabbagegirl · 3 months

Text

PART 2- Jason (also on ao3)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53359585/chapters/135163618

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Jason was angry.

This wasn’t a new thing for Jason. He was angry a lot. One of his first memories was anger. Peering out of the bedroom, through a slightly cracked door, watching Willis hitting mom, and knowing to get in the way would make him more mad, and would make it worse for mom. The pure anger of a child first realising that life isn’t fair.

His anger was a lot less pure these days, no longer that quick burst of indignation, but a seething haze of green that covered every action, and twisted…

His anger was justified. He had been replaced. Not even 6 months in the ground and the big bad bat had dragged another child into the game. Had put him in the same damn suit that got the last one killed. Had sent him away from Gotham - alone, because Red Hood was around in Gotham, and he wanted the little robin away. Didn’t he remember? What happened last time a robin flew too far from the coop?

If he could forget so easily it was about time someone reminded him what happens to little birds off on their own. A pair of snapped wings should do it…

Tell me little birdie? Is it better with one or two?

No!

Anyway, that's why he was here, roaming the titans tower. He had come across a few Titans, but if there was one useful thing he had learned in the league, it was how to be quiet. Knocking them out was easy, and he left them where they fell. They wouldn’t wake up in time to stop him, and he was only here for the cuckoo.

It was mildly amusing to Jason, that the new birdie was the neighbour. Waiting. Biding his time till the second robin made a mistake, so he could creep in and take all that was Jasons. Steal his family, his dad, his big bird. Alfie…

Well not that he wanted those things anymore, he had moved on, didn't need them. But there was something poetic, that the usurper who had taken his life, was going to be made to take his death too.

That’s not what today is for. Today he’d live, just. Today was to remind the bat what happens when you don't look after your kids. To let him know it was Jason that did this. There would be another day.

As Jason approached the debrief room, the surroundings took on a hint of green. So close.

He pushed the door open.

“Hello, replacement”

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jason was dramatic.

This wasn’t a new thing for Jason, one of his first memories was his mom reading him ‘ The Little Princess’ and imagining himself as a princess lasted a few days. Until he was hit by a punch on the playground and remembered it was a lot easier to be a princess in a story than Gotham.

His Drama was a lot more tragic these days. He had replicated his robin costume. The one he died in. It was under his suit, ready for a dramatic reveal. He wanted the cuckoo to realise who it was that was hurting him. Making him suffer like Jason had.

The boy at the table looked confused, and looked at Jason's helmet. He sprung to his feet, hand going to his side to get his bo-staff.

“Red Hood. What brings you to the tower?”

“Revenge”

“Revenge for what? You’re the one that has been hurting Gotham. Heads in a duffle bag, really? That's going to cause so much unrest in Gotham. People will be hurt because of you. Stand down Hood. I'll take you out if I have to.”

“Haha, you could try, replacement. But you're years too early to try and take me out”

“I’m Robin, I take criminals out daily…”

Jason froze in his advance round the table, Tims words echoing I’m Robin. I’m robin look at you Jason, i’m better than you. I’m Robin now, I'm so much better than you.

Jason tore his red hood suit off, and revealed the costume beneath, in the same moment he took off the red helmet, and looked at Tim, seething.

“I. I was Robin, and I’ll show you what happens to bird who fly to far”

“Jason? You’re alive?”

“Daddy Bats didn’t tell you who Red Hood was? His mistake!”

Jason shot the staff - making it spin out, in the back of his mind he was quite impressed that Tim managed to hold onto it - but he was barely thinking past the green tinge now.

“Bruce knows?”

“DON'T SAY THAT NAME!

“But he loves you Jason, you’ve no idea how much he missed you!”

Jason yelled, but by now the green was surrounding him, and he couldn't tell what the words he yelled even were, the only thing he could do was attack, but given that was the plan already, he just carried on.

When Jason tried to remember the fight in the days and years that followed, all he remembered were snippets. Punching Tim smack in the jaw, getting a hit to the side from the bow staff that may have broken a rib. Running down a dark corridor following a cape. Pushing Tim so he fell down a flight of stairs. He didn't remember any words that had been said, and all the memories were difficult to remember. Like they were all suspended in lime jello.

The next thing he was aware of was standing over a fallen Tim, a flash of light that gave him pause, and an unknown voice.

“And, time out. Ring ring ring, back to your corner meathead, he’s already down”

How dare. How dare someone interrupt his revenge. No. He had taken out all the titans. He had checked, and thrice checked. NO he was so close.

Jason's vision was already as if he were swimming in chlorophyll, but the interruption made his anger so strong that his thoughts themselves descended into green. He roared, and gave himself over into neon viscous Rage.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jason was calm.

This wasn’t a new thing for Jason. One of his memories, from when he was a child, was when mom had had a bad trip, and he had to speak calmly, and softly, and get her to eat a little something before she went to sleep. A placid calm, when there was no use for anger, and what was needed was to be calm, and quiet, and a place of peace.

He couldn’t remember the last time he was this calm. He had learned patience in the league, or had it beaten into him, but that wasn't quite the same thing. You can be patient and angry. But it is hard to be calm and angry - not impossible, but something that was far more Dads’ style than Jasons.

He was flat on his back, in a barren empty plot of land, and if he looked up, he could see the stars trying to appear behind the light pollution of the city.

What city?

Where was he?

Where was Dad? Jason wanted a hug.

“You Ok there big guy? All plum tuckered out? Ready for a conversation with words rather than fists?”

Jason looked over. There was a kid, hovering in the air, and glowing - just slightly see through, somewhat other. Jason got the feeling he may just have had the stuffing kicked out of him by a teen meta.

Jason stumbled to his feet, feeling more tired than he had in years.

“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”

The meta kid looked really confused.

“Was that Shakespeare? Did you just stand up from the beatdown of your life and quote Shakespeare?”

Jason went to answer, but found his head growing dizzy, must have stood up too fast, and before he could answer that it was Frankenstein, actually, he had fallen to black. Regular black, with not a hint of green in sight.

dpxdc drossover not phantom planet complient, Jason attacks titans tower AU , good fenton parents - link to AO3 if you'ld rather read there https://archiveofourown.org/works/53359585

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Or at least that's what he told mum after persuading her he would be fine to go for a quick invisible flight before bed.

But mainly to see what the inside of the tower looked like. And maybe take some pictures for Sam and Tucker - to prove he’d been there.

What was with that door?

Danny dropped his visibility and swooped in.

“And, time out. Ring ring ring, back to your corner meathead, he’s already down” He pulled the bigger guy away and pushed him back a few feet.

Ok - Danny is going to have to take over. He leans part way out of the guys, who roars again, and high fives the teen who just stood up.

“Tag, I'm in. I'll bring him back when he’s no longer incoherent with rage. Bye for now”

Danny then flew with the guy out through the side of the building to find a nice empty bit of land for a fight. He’d be back to the hotel late tonight, he hoped mom wasn't waiting up.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tim looked at the empty wall that Hood had just been kidnapped through.

“Did he just take a photo? That's My thing!”

#dc x dp #dc x dp crossover #jason todd #danny phantom #tim drake #mine

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thecabbagegirl · 3 months

Text

dpxdc drossover not phantom planet complient, Jason attacks titans tower AU , good fenton parents - link to AO3 if you'ld rather read there https://archiveofourown.org/works/53359585

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

Or at least that's what he told mum after persuading her he would be fine to go for a quick invisible flight before bed.

But mainly to see what the inside of the tower looked like. And maybe take some pictures for Sam and Tucker - to prove he’d been there.

What was with that door?

Danny dropped his visibility and swooped in.

“And, time out. Ring ring ring, back to your corner meathead, he’s already down” He pulled the bigger guy away and pushed him back a few feet.

Ok - Danny is going to have to take over. He leans part way out of the guys, who roars again, and high fives the teen who just stood up.

“Tag, I'm in. I'll bring him back when he’s no longer incoherent with rage. Bye for now”

Danny then flew with the guy out through the side of the building to find a nice empty bit of land for a fight. He’d be back to the hotel late tonight, he hoped mom wasn't waiting up.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tim looked at the empty wall that Hood had just been kidnapped through.

“Did he just take a photo? That's My thing!”

#dc x dp crossover #dc x dp #danny phantom #jason todd #tim drake #mine

199 notes · View notes