Nerd Paradise

The flames start to die down, and the team finally closes in on the vehicle; a third geared up firefighter stepping up with a crowbar and prying open the hood, as the hoseman switches the nozzle to a cone spray. Trusting the other firefighters to keep an eye on the rest of the car, the hoseman steps up to the hood, and uses the hose to completely drown the engine. White smoke, billows up, obscuring the air above the car, as all of that fire-energy gets redirected into evaporation.

The fire chokes and sputters, but the hoseman doesn’t stop until there’s no signs of fire anywhere, and even from this distance, Danny can tell that the car is straight-up flooded.

He never imagined he’d see a car looking like a sopping wet cat.

“Oh, dude, look!” Someone shouts, suddenly. Danny frowns, turning his head to look at the firefighter. Oddly, they’re not pointing at the car, though, they’re pointing up. Danny blinks, tilting his head up to see what they could possibly be looking at, all while other people begin to exclaim in shock and delight.

There, high above them, there’s a person hovering in the air. Danny frowns. Conner had said the whole live burn sounded cool, but he hadn’t said anything about coming to actually watch it. Granted, he may have just not caught that intention?

But then, he hadn’t asked Danny where it was happening or anything, plus they’d explicitly made plans to hang out next weekend, not today. And then there’s the fact that Conner has never shown up uninvited — not since that first meeting, when Danny was prepared for a full-out fight.

Conner’s here now, though; the bright blue-red-yellow of his uniform blatant against the half-clouded backdrop of the sky. Something’s off, though, because the dark of his usual jacket is missing, and as he gets closer, Danny realizes the pattern of the costume is wrong too.

Wait.

That’s not Conner.

Danny twitches.

That’s fucking Superman, because who else would it be, and oh god, of course he would be hunting Danny down, after what he did when Conner went awol, and now he’s found him; chased him all the way back to his home, his haunt, the only place he’s got left, and Danny has no way to stop what’s about to happen.

Danny feels his body blink out of existence.

It’s not even intentional, really; Superman is getting closer, and he’s got a terrible frown on his face and he’s staring directly at Danny, and Danny needs to be gone now, and his instincts respond to that need without thought, invisibility and intangibility washing over him like twin safety blankets.

The firefighting gear collapses around him, no longer held up by his physical form, triggering a new wave of shouts at his disappearance, but it doesn’t matter, because Superman’s still looking at him.

Somehow, even when he’s invisible and intangible – even though he’s not fucking breathing – Superman can still see Danny.

He can’t-

He has to get out of here.

Superman is right there, frown smeared across his face, brows furrowed, practically glaring at Danny, as if he’s completely immune to Danny’s powers, and with every second Danny stays frozen, he’s just getting closer, and it’s not fair, Danny’s so tired of fighting, he’s tired of fleeing, he just wants to go home, be home be safe.

Nothing is ever safe.

There’s nothing left but to flee. Danny pushes himself as far as his speed can carry, dashing through every building he can see, in the desperate hope that it might disrupt his trail even a little. The guilt flares in his chest, even as he cuts through people’s homes, the invasion of privacy blaring like a siren in his mind, but there’s nothing for it, because the second Danny even pauses to think, Superman will get him, and there’ll be nothing left.

Danny’s not stupid, he knows he has no chance of winning this fight.

He’s so fucking tired of fighting. So tired of wondering where the next curve ball is coming from, so tired of discovering all the novels ways his body can hurt.

Even now, with literally impossible distance and so many months of time as a bastion wall between himself and Amity Park, Danny can still feel the ache of hollow space in his chest. He remembers the oozing buzz of his ectoplasm, confused and destabilized by the efforts of the GIW; his body having forgotten the shape its supposed to take, struggling to reform itself.

Even worse, Danny recalls the numbness and jitters that come from electric shocks; never bad enough to damage or break anything, but still leaving his body out of sync. The way it felt like his entire nervous system had been shorted out and how it would take hours, or even days, for it to finally reset.

He can’t do that again.

He can’t.

Conner’s great, and so is Robin, and it’s so amazing that he almost sort of has friends here. Even more than that, it’s a miracle, the way he has a choice. The way he’s free to do what he wants, to make his own choices, to pick his own sacrifices.

He likes getting to say no.

He likes living here.

He wants to stay.

Danny blinks in confusion. At some point, he must’ve stopped fleeing; must’ve decided to hide. He doesn’t actually remember doing it, but he’s curled up in some heavily shaded copse of trees, so clearly it did happen. He can feel himself shivering, that painfully familiar buzzing twisting under his skin (for all that it even counts as skin). But beyond that, he feels warm.

Danny carefully unfurls himself. He clambers up and stumbles out of the copse of trees, finding himself in a very familiar park.

The library is just a block over from here. His apartment just a few blocks beyond that. His job, a couple streets over from there.

This is his home.

He doesn’t want to fight.

But he will, to protect this.

Danny launches himself skyward, twisting around and around, searching for any sign of his pursuer. Whatever happens, Danny knows this fight will be messy; there’s no reason to risk damage to the city, and hopefully Superman’s status as a hero means he’ll agree.

Danny doesn’t know what he’d do if Superman decided to use the city against him.

He hopes he doesn’t find out.

It’s funny; once he decides to fight, his fear evaporates. Maybe it’s cause he’s made his decision. Maybe it’s cause he knows how this will end. Jazz would probably say that it’s because he’s taking action.

The thought of Jazz aches. He hopes she’d be proud of him, for making it this far.

He hopes she’s safe.

Hell, maybe with him gone, she’s managed to fully escape Amity Park. Maybe she’s managed to start making good on all her crazy college plans, and maybe now she’s building that perfect life for herself that she’s always deserved.

He likes that thought. He clings to it; building it out like a castle in his mind; all the classes Jazz must be taking; the clubs she might have joined. Whatever happens when Superman arrives, Danny will be okay. His sister; his friends. They’d all done their absolute best by him; wasted so much of their time and energy trying to fix all the problems Danny caused. And when things had finally grown too broken, instead of just abandoning him like they should have, they’d worked so hard to give him this last chance; to send him away from Amity Park and all his festering mistakes.

If it doesn’t work out here, then it’s finally on Danny alone. And maybe that’s the best news of all.

Danny waits.

And he waits.

Around him, the skies of Concord are calm; clouds gather and shift, but they carry themselves past, without so much as hinting rain. The streets below him bustle with movement; all of the people he shares his home with, happily living their lives.

Somewhere down there, are the people he’d helped to save. He has to be grateful for that.

Maybe, whatever happens, it won’t be that bad. Maybe they’ll let him out to help sometimes. Maybe they’ll even let him work with Conner? If he’s good; if he cooperates; if he just lets them take him in. Maybe it would be better that way.

Tension escapes from Danny like a hissing pipe; all the fight draining from him just as quickly as the fear had before.

He’s alone.

If Superman were following him, surely he would be here by now.

Maybe. Just maybe, he’s safe.

Danny lets himself relax. He drifts down a little. Slips closer to the ground; closer to his home.

Then, a rush of air. Danny hears it, but he has no time to react, before something slams into his side; arms like steel wrapping around him, trapping his limbs against his side.