Leafy's Place

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John Constantine had seen a lot of things in his life, things that would probably drive any other mortal insane. He liked to think he was well versed in anything that the supernatural and otherworldly could through at him.

He was not expecting Daniel James Fenton.

Constantine wasn’t looking forward to visiting his buffoon of a half brother in the first place, let alone in a town absolutely soaked in Death, but he’d relented and gone. He was regretting his decision more and more by the day.

Danny had sent off his internal otherworldly detector like a wildfire sets of a smoke alarm, loud and insistent. The problem was that Constantine had no idea why.

Sure Amity Park was absolutely liminal, and every single citizen set off his instincts just a bit, but Danny made them scream. Scream louder than demons had.

So what exactly was Danny Fenton?

John Constantine was going to find out, even if it killed him.

______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ _____

Danny’s ghost sense wasn’t the only attribute he gained regarding his instincts after the accident. Every ghost had sent off a little flare in his core along with his sense, but this was the first time his core had flared with no ghost sense to follow.

And of course it had done so with his half-uncle, John Constantine.

The guy reeked of death, but also of resurrection. And not just death and then being brought back, no; the man had gone through death multiple times.

He also stunk of sulfur and brimstone, Danny had known from lessons with Clockwork and Dora that scent in particular meant demonic presence.

But Constantine didn’t send off the right twist in his gut that would come with a demon, even a smaller one.

He didn’t feel like a sorcerer, either. No magical tension in the air due to his presence and there was no spark in Danny’s core that alerted of magic. But Constantine definitely had a magical touch to him.

Aka: Danny’s presence can accidentally make people liminal and thus give them powers:

Now Danny himself doesn’t really know this because back in Amity everyone is liminal to an extent; with Jazz, Tucker and Sam being the most liminal and (excluding Danny) most powerful humans in town. Jazz and his friends ecto contamination cans be easily explained by the fact that they were also who interacted with the portal the most (without protection) and the portal is an endless pool of radiating ecto. Danny does not realise that he himself also radiates out ectoplasm, ESPECIALLY through his emotions.

Danny is a stupidly powerful being by ghost standards (he may or may not be royalty too but that’s something for future fully dead Danny to figure out), but it’s not until Danny is out of Amity for the first time in Gotham for uni that he realises that his “human” form is wayyy less human then he thought. (Normal humans can’t accidentally rip doors off their hinges if they pull a bit too hard, and normal humans also tend to have a consistent amount of teeth). He’s a sweet boy sure, but he’s also terribly uncanny valley, and that makes making friends kinda hard.

Still, Danny adapts and everyone in Gotham kind of just assumes he’s a meta kid that’s *reeeeally* bad at hiding it.

Cue: Duke Thomas, Danny’s flatmate, the first person not to judge his appearance and thus his first out of Amity friend

See, the way dorms work in Gotham is a bit different from your average American university, rather than traditional dorms the uni just bought a bunch of old apartment buildings to put up their students: the more expensive the apartment the better the set-up.

Now Danny is by no means rich, but trying to explain to a roommate all his weird ghost bullshit? Yeah absolutely not. So he was willing to fork over some of his (read: Vlad’s) extra cash for a nicer room with some privacy. Danny and Duke don’t share a room but they *do* share a kitchen and a bathroom, and while they are in different majors, they tend to have classes at around the same time seeing as they’re both freshman, so they hangout a lot.

As for Duke on why he - the ward of a billionaire - would be staying in a random university dorm instead of a penthouse or at his rich person manor? Very simple: The Wayne family sleep schedule is an affront to God and Duke operates on regular normal human hours thank you very much. Campus housing just means he doesn’t have to deal with cars or house hunting ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

…or at least that’s how Duke explained things to Danny: and who was he to question the nicest guy this side of New Jersey?

Duke also introduced Danny to his family, half of whom apparently had ties to their uni? Weird.

There was Tim and Steph, both second and third years respectively. Danny got along with Steph like a house on fire right away with how much she reminded him of Ellie and her playful chaos. Meanwhile Danny was (according to Tim) the only one who really *got* what Tim was saying when he was 27 hours sleep deprived and rambling about whatever (Danny just figured Tim was autistic like his parents and needed the infodump space). The four of them started getting coffee and studying at a local cafe regularly.

There was also Jason and Damian, whom Danny saw less frequent but still relatively often. Jason was getting his masters part-time in Childhood Education and English Literature so he sometimes tutored Danny. Damian on the other hand, was in one of those “running start” programs at his high school to help kids get their associates degrees early by taking into university classes half the week. Damian was deeply intrigued by Danny’s “meta” dog and would sometimes request to see him. The two fought like cats and dogs normally but:

“For some reason, the only thing they can agree on is that you’re soothing… apparently..?” Duke said once, shaking his head in confusion.

Danny figured it was probably because his presence helped quell and filter whatever fucked up ectoplasm the two had been exposed to, but he wasn’t about to open /that/ can of worms. He figured Gotham was fucked enough they just got unlucky - besides! It was no big deal to filter out really and Danny could fix it! So if they liked his vibe more because of it, who cares?

Regardless, for some reason despite the Wayne’s popularity (and good looks) they apparently largely keeping to themselves, yet Danny had stumbled his way into being the exception. In fact the first time he met Dick (who was picking up Damian) he had been labeled ‘adoption bait’ immediately because: “-of how much my siblings all talk about you!”

Somehow, by the end of the first Semester, Danny had met almost the entire Wayne clan (save for Bruce himself). Barbra was typically on shift at the library whenever Jason and Danny would study there and would say ‘Hi’. Cass was Steph’s flatmate and would usually be there whenever Danny would come over if not occasionally join in on a cafe excursion. Dick often picked up Damian after class or occasionally would stop by to hangout with Tim or Jason. Danny had even bumped into Alfred once or twice when he would come to collect Duke for family weekends or dinners. Danny was such a regular around the Wayne’s that he often got asked on campus which one of them he was dating (“uhh? None?”), he even once got kidnapped by normal regular human criminals who thought he was Bruce’s newest ward!

That incident ended with barely any trauma and like half the vigilantes in Gotham saving him (for some reason?) and him getting 3 days off class and a 2 week assignment extension, so overall a net positive for Danny.

(In case you were curious the vigilantes were: Signal (appropriate for daytime), Spoiler and Red Robin (not night time??), Redhood (not in crime alley???), and finally Robin (where was Batman????))

Regardless the first indication that something may have been upTM with the Waynes (and it may have been Danny’s fault) came shortly after Danny got back from Christmas break. Danny opened the door to his flat only for Duke’s attempt to greet him to be accompanied by a ghostly breath and glowing yellow eyes.

“Dude… what-“ “-I’M A META!!”

Duke had blurted it out so fast that Danny barely had time to register before Duke when into a lore drop on his meta abilities.

Danny didn’t even register that Duke’s power slip-up mirrored Danny’s early days of ghost-dol to a near-T

(Duke meanwhile was freaking out, his meta abilities always meant he saw things a bit differently but now Danny was glowing *extra* hard?? And the breath thing was new too??? The fuck?? He’d have to discuss with Bruce…)

Nevertheless, after an awkward but necessary conversation about Duke having powers (Pre-Danny mind you), Danny just figured it was a Duke thing and not a Danny one and quickly brushed it off, with but a small curse to his Fenton Luck for the jumpscare.

However weird incidence with the Wayne’s kept happening: he’d hand Steph a pen once only for it to shatter in the woman’s grip (much to her horror), or when he walk in to a room where Tim was crying watching an animal rescue video and almost immediately start tearing up himself (to Danny’s confusion), or when Barbra leaned forward to hand him a book only for her waist to slightly clip through the desk (without her notice).

The final straw came when he watched Cass physically materialise into the visible plane in front of the coffee gang’s table as everyone stared at her in stunned silence. Cass froze and after a second Tim murmured a soft “what the hell?” And Danny finally realised that maaaaybe this had more to do with him than he thought.

A brief check in with his senses and: Yep! All the Wayne clan had turned liminal! Whoops!

(He had kinda wondered if the Wayne clan was secretly all just metas that Bruce Wayne had collected after the Duke reveal but no: this was absolutely his fault)

Oh ancients how the *fuck* is he going to explain this one?! How do you accidentally explain to your friend group that you’re kind-of dead former vigilante??! Or that you made them kind-of part ghost through vibes alone??? Is he going to have to call a family meeting for a DIFFERENT family?!? How do you even DO that?!!?!!!

….Jazz is going to kill him.

Fuck his stupid baka life

————

(Slightly) MORE INFO:

What ghostly abilities I think each of the batfamily members get (OPEN TO CHANGE):

Duke: Ghost sense

Tim: Emotional projection

Steph: physical strength

Cass: Invisibility

Barbra: Intangibility

Damian: Empathy (especially animals)

Jason: Language comprehension

Dick: Levitation/floatation

The reason their powers manifest like that is a combination of Danny’s desires/perspective of them as well as their own personality. So like Danny wants to not have to hide things from Duke as his flatmate and Duke prides himself on his ability to see things others can’t so he gets ghost sense. Danny views Dick as a bubbly person constantly in motion while Dick loves flying so he gets levitation. Danny sees how much the Wayne’s respect/look up to Barbra and view her as untouchable force while Barbra (as Oracle) perceives herself as the unseen hand of the Bats so she gets intangibility, etc etc.

All of them get more minor versions of the others powers but not nearly to the same extent as their “specialisation” so to speak (I.E. Tim could make himself incredibly hard to notice but not necessarily get invisible like Cass, or Steph could get a vague feel for what being said in a foreign language without being able to textbook respond like Jason, etc.)

All in all it’s an absolute clusterfuck considering Danny has ZERO CLUE that the Wayne’s are the bats. The Bats meanwhile also have NO IDEA that their nice midwestern meta friend is an insanely powerful member of the undead. Bruce is loosing his shit, Danny may or may not be crying. Somewhere Clockwork is laughing.

Nightwings: Hold on, there's a civilian running around. Early twenties, black hair, super pale and kind of sickly lookin. He looks panicked, like hes looking for something or someone, I'm going to check in, in case its a child.

Nightwing: Excuse me sir, are you alright?

Danny, pressing a hand to his chest in pain: So-Someone broke into my-my appartment when I was at work and-and they left the door open, and now I can't find Mittens!

Red Robin, over comms: Seriously? All this drama over a cat?

Red Hood, over comms: Who actually names their cat "Mittens"?

Oracle, over comms: You two are so stupid.

Robin, over comms: I agree, shut up. This is serious, that poor animal could be injured.

Nightwing, helps Danny sit on a nearby bench: Hey its alright man. I'll have the others keep an eye out for her okay? What does your kitten look like.

Danny, releived: Mittens isn't a kitten, shes a puppy, really tiny girl. She's a Bully Kutta, and she's mostly white but has black unclipped ears and some black splotches- here I have a-a picture. *pulls out his phone with shakey hands and shows Nightwing a picture of Danny and Mittens in their new appartment, Mittens goes up past his hips*

Nightwing, stunned into silence: . . .

Red Robin, over comms: That is "tiny" to him?!

Robin, over comms: Stunning.

Oracle: Found him. Daniel Fenton moved to Gotham with his Service Dog in Training, Mittens, two months ago. He works at Gotham's Space Museum, and writes Parnormal Fiction stories on the side, and he apprentantly visits Middle schools to do presentations. Mittens is 15months old and is set to graduate very soon. She has high praise from all her trainers, but it seems Danny's employers at the Museum are pushing against him bringing her to work once she graduates, Danny seems to be fighting with them about it a lot. Jerks.

Batman, over comms: What does he need her for?

Oracle, over comms: Heart problems, and mobility issues caused by an accident when he was a teenager, as well as Anxiety, and PTSD. A lot of his file is sealed because he was a minor when it happened, I can snoop more?

Batman, over comms: No, that amount is fine.

Nightwing: Well, the others know, and will keep an eye out for her. You're still shaking pretty bad, how about I see you home.

Danny: I appreciate it. I'm sorry for keeping you back, being a hero is- seems like an exhausting job.

Nightwing, joking: You speak from experience?

Danny, eyes distant: No, I was never a hero.

Robin, over comms: Mittens spotted near the Museum!

Nightwing: Hey, Robin said he spotted Mittens near the Museum.

Danny: She went looking for me, of course she did. If she won't go to Robin by name, have him call her "Vöttr", I'm the only one that ever calls her that, so it will catch her attention.

Nightwing, nodding: Robin call her Votter.

Red Robin, over comms: Old Norse?

Nightwing, eyebrow raised: Old Norse?

Danny, shrugging: Its a hobby.

Robin, over comms and sounding very excited: Target secure. . . . May I pet her?

Nightwing, snorts: Robin wants to know if he can pet her.

Danny, amused: As much as they want, as long as I get her back.

Robin, over comms: Understood, we will reconvene at Fenton's appartment.

Nightwing: Hah that kid. He said he'll meet us at your place if thats okay.

Danny: Sounds good, I'm just happy that I didn't loose her.

Blackbat, over comms: Sad, remorse, upset.

Red Robin, over comms: He does seem interesting.

Batman, over comms: Hmm.

The funny thing is, if Tim’s indirect killing counts, then Stephanie would also have a pretty high kill count (from inciting a gang war) XD

He jumps headfirst into romantic relationships often, and is quick to return the moment someone he previously dated implied they might be interested in a rerun. He meets a pretty lady that is fully capable of kicking his ass and suddenly his heart beats for her. Just as easily, he will fall for the next man that he finds his empathy reaching a little too far for.

It’s even easier with kids. He holds a baby, waiting for the baby’s parents to return from being checked over by medics, and he’s imagining them growing up, decorating their nursery in his mind, picking out colleges that’ll more suit different interests - if the baby wants to be a lawyer, then this school would be better; if a little artist in the making, then this other school is the best of the best. And it all goes through his head in the ten minutes that the parents are held up for. He saves a toddler from a burning building, and sees himself taking the kid for walks and building Legos with them. He finds a teenager in trouble, and he’s already imagining helping them with their homework.

Usually, it doesn’t go anywhere. He brings the kid somewhere safe, usually reuniting them with their parents, and then mopes about the loss of that potential future for a few days before it leaves his mind again.

But sometimes, sometimes, a child sticks in his mind. Dick was the first of those children, quickly brought into his custody but not quick enough.

Next was Tim, a bright little child that Bruce noticed before he’d ever adopted Jason. Tim was the first child Bruce had to learn restraint for, telling himself that he couldn’t monitor this little kid who looked at Bruce like he hung the stars in the sky. Still, he couldn’t help but to keep an eye on the little Drake during galas and gatherings. Tim was Bruce’s son before he was ever Robin, no matter what Bruce had said and done in his grief.

Jason was very quickly adopted, Bruce hadn’t even needed to use his hard won restraint for that one. The moment he’d seen those defiant blue eyes glaring at him in the darkness, he’d emotionally adopted the boy. Mentally adopted him shortly after, with the adoption papers filled out and turned in quickly after.

The only child Bruce would find himself counting when doing roll call only to be disappointed had barely been in Bruce’s presence for five minutes. The little boy Bruce found himself thinking often of, wondering how he was growing up, whether he was going to see the stars as an adult like he’d claimed, hoping Bruce might even see the little boy applying for Wayne Enterprise’s Aerospace division. Danny Fenton was a child that crossed Bruce’s mind often despite not being, on paper or by blood, Bruce’s child.

But to Bruce’s heart and mind? Danny should’ve grown up with him.

“Daddy!” Bruce looked down as a small weight hit his leg, stunned to see a small child there. “Look! Shtarsh!” A small lisp, as the child turned a gap-toothed grin up at Bruce. Bruce followed the little boy’s pointing finger, noting that there was indeed a display of stars, the infographics claiming a better way to fuel rockets was such-and-such method over the common-

Wait, had this child called him-?

“It sure is, bud,” Bruce agreed, kneeling down to be closer to even height with this… four-year-old? “But what are you doing over here by yourself?”

“Mommy d’ere,” the little boy pointed towards a woman in a teal… hazmat suit(?), focused intently on the display in front of her. In her hands was a leash that led down to an abandoned backpack.

Bruce’s face twitched at the fact that she hadn’t even noticed, and he didn’t know how long the child had been free of the backpack. Long enough for it to look like it’d been dragged from a different exhibit.

Bruce looked back at the little escape artist, “May I pick you up, chum?” The little boy’s eyes brightened, excited.

“Rocket!” He bounced a little on his toes, hands held up excitedly.

Bruce was disappointed, himself, that he had no clue what this boy was asking for, “Not right now, but maybe later.” Bruce was quick to tack on the last part as the boy deflated. Propping the little boy on his hip, he made his way over to ‘mommy.’ “Excuse me, ma’am- ma’am?” It took several calls, and even waving his hand in her eyesight, to get the woman’s attention - and Bruce’s displeasure with the woman steadily increased the longer it took. “You appear to have misplaced a budding astronaut.”

She barely even glanced at the little boy before negating his statement, “no I didn’t, he’s right-“ finally, she noticed the childless backpack, her head snapping back to Bruce, “Daniel James Fenton! I told you to stop taking your backpack off!”

“But- but shtarsh, mommy!” The little boy indignantly argued back with the woman, and Bruce had to quickly school his face to not smile at Daniel’s attitude.

“That doesn’t mean you can wander off, Danny,” the woman huffed, before reaching out to steal- retrieve her son from Bruce. “Thank you, sir.”

Throughout the rest of the convention, Bruce caught glimpses of the bright-eyed little boy with his mother and father, who was a man that Bruce could feasibly understand the young child confusing Bruce for… if he weren’t wearing an eye-piercing orange hazmat suit, and Bruce a tailored three-piece.

When it became clear that Bruce’s attachment to the little boy didn’t fade with time and distance the way it normally did, he allowed himself just one day in a year where he would indulge, letting himself use the resources available to him to check on the little boy. Last Bruce had seen, little Danny, who had just turned 14, - only a couple years older than Damian now that he thinks about it - was doing well in school and was on his way to becoming an astronaut.

So why…?

Why was his little boy standing before Batman in dirty, ripped up, bloody clothes and an unnatural green light in his otherwise dull eyes?

Jason formed a ghost when he died, that ghost is hanging out in the gz with phantom, but what they don't know? Back in Gotham, in his fallen body, a shard of his core was left, and that core shard collected just enough ambient ecto and ecto from the pit under Gotham leaching into the ground, to wake up, and then that now awakened body with a core shard in it, was dumped into the pits by the Loa, which mixed the ecto from Jason's ghost and emotions with the ecto of the pit, all of which was dirty, unfiltered, angry ecto, this made the shard go from a shard to a whole smol core, making the Jason that became hood a different Jason from the one who was Robin, because even though he has the memories his core/soul is technically a kid core made from that part of jaybins core/ecto and the pit ecto, but in a way similar to how Dani is technically Dani's kid cuz his ecto and dna were mixed with a lil of vlads ecto/dna,

So we have the scene, Danny and jaybin are chillin, hanging out, watching random celebrity news, when it's announced that Bruce Wayne's dead kid Jason Todd is actually not dead with whatever cover story they used, and they kinda just look at each other both confused cuz last they checked jaybin was still a ghost and very much hadn't reconnected with his family, let alone become the giant brick house of a living person who is apparently jason. So obviously they have to figure out how the hell there's apparently two jasons and one is alive. So they go to gotham.

"Little Prince," whispers the shadowy figure.

"Thief," accuses the skeletal woman.

"Pretender," whispers the echo in the Batcave memorial.

“Did she just write ‘yeti doctor’?”

Bruce’s head snaps up at Steph’s voice, looking once again at the letter on the screen. “Dear Mister Wayne,” it reads, and that is where normalcy ends. “Thank you so much for taking in Danny, I was so worried when he had to escape our parents.” Which is already an extremely worrying sentence. Made even more worrisome with the fact that there is no Danny currently residing in his manor.

His family is in chaos. Tim has three screens in front of him, ranting about living firewalls to Barbara, while Dick leans over his shoulder.

Alfred has lifted a thick three-ring binder out of the care package that this Jasmine Nightingale has sent them, and is flipping through it. Apparently this binder contains all of the medical, psychological, and cultural information needed to make sure that Danny’s species can thrive. Because the missing teen that should be in his manor is not human, but some sort of human/ghost hybrid.

“Father, I think this warrants an emergency meeting with the Justice League.” His youngest says. “There is currently a government agency hunting Cujo and Daniel, citing laws that directly counter the Meta Human Protection Acts. This cannot stand.” Cujo, the green glowing, 10 foot ghostdog that delivered the package and letter this morning by density shifting into the dining room during breakfast. Damian was of course attached.

“Uh, Alfred?” Duke starts form where he and Jason have been emptying the care package, “there’s a huge first aid kit here, but most of it is glowing.” Jason, of course, is turning the high tech laser pistols over in his hands, getting a feel for the handling and grip.

Bruce let’s his eyes skim over the letter again, his eyes catching on words like “Ghost King”, “Infinite Realms”, and “vivisection”. “I know it takes Danny a while to open up,” the letter reads, “so I’m beyond grateful that he feels safe enough with you.” Except he doesn’t, because Danny is not here. Somewhere out on the streets of Gotham is a half dead teenager, hurt and alone. And Bruce didn’t know. Didn’t know any of it until his sister sent him a care package, because apparently this kid has lied to his sister that he’s safe, that he found somewhere to stay.

He doesn’t notice the sudden hush behind him until Jason breaks it. “Is that fucking Lazarus Water?!” Bruce lowers his head back into his hands.

“I will prepare a room for the young master.” Alfred sniffs as his footsteps go towards the elevator. “I’m finding this kid.” Jason answers, leaving towards the lockers “Wait, Little Wing! I’m coming with!” Well, at least Dick can hopefully keep Jason in line. He prays to Rao this doesn’t mean he has to deal with a half-ghost, immensely powerful teen that struggles with Pit Rage.

Cujo is a good boy. Yeah on occasion he really isn't but with Phantom he is! Phantom is great. He loves his new owner.

Problem is his owner gets upset a lot and he doesn't really know how to fix that. He wants to make him happy, get him out more, at least out of bed. Though it doesn't work every time.

Wolf, a very big version of him told him that there was a blue guy. "A hope corgi" in his words that make people happy. Cujo growled because he wasn't trying to be replaced but Wolf said that Cujo could learn from Him.

That he could do.

So Cujo goes to find this magical outlier. It takes a few tries. Man Cujo ran into so many humans, aliens and things with rings. But eventually he did find "Hope".

It wasn't easy to get his attention. Hope thought he was trying to attack him. As if he had never played before. Hope eventually realized that Cujo was a bit different.

Being different is good. Phantom says so. It had to be true.

"What can I help you with?" Cujo was very nervous, Hope was very kind and cute.

"My Phantom needs to be happy again. I wanna help him?"

Cujo had never met a friend so fast in his afterlife. Hope was so excited.

Danny used to be scared of ghosts. Hard not to when your parents constantly warn you how dangerous they are. It was comforting when his mom and dad would sit next to his bed at night telling him that if a ghost did try to hurt him they'd catch them and keep him safe.

Now he was a ghost and ghosts aren't so scary. They at alot like humans actully with wants and fears. He can't even remember why he thought they were scary.

Actually its humans who are kinda weird looking. They are so fleshy and oddly proportional. Their eyes are too small and dull. Then again Danny had trouble recognizing their faces now. They blur together most of the time.

What Danny didn't know was that he didn't remember what ghost used to look like in his human eyes. From twisted elongated necks that stretched from ceiling to floor, to hollow stretched black holes where their eyes would have been, to the rotted hanging jaws peeled of lips. Ghosts were a parody of normal anatomy, all twisted into horrid forms.

And their voices.

Their voices all sounded so familiar but strange, for a moment you wanted to listen and then you wanted to never hear it again.

He used to listen to them outside his window when he went to the countryside to visit relatives. He'd hear is grandfather tap on the glass.

"Danny you've gotten so big." he'd say "Why dont you come out and play with your Pop-pop? I can still throw a ball around."

Danny used to hide under the covers because he knew they just buried granddad a few days ago.

The thing's knarled black fingers would tap restlessly and get more insistent with each call. Its white pinprick pupils stared into his. Danny could only look at it paralyzed in fear.

Now Danny could play a few rounds with the old man and he couldn't understand how he didn't recognize his granddad.

Now he couldn't understand why people were so afraid of him. He was taking a bit of vaction/tour and whenever he transformed to do some light hero work people would run. Not just the bad guys but the citizens as well.

He didn't get it. Other heros around here didn't get that treatment. Was it because he was new?

at some point, Jason is invited to a dinner maybe undercover maybe as a way for some new villain to trap him, whatever. Everything is going well, the main course cones out, when Jason smells something. He knows no normal person would smell it, his senses had always been much stronger than that of a humans ever since he came back, but he knows he can smell something, under all the spices and seasonings added to the food, there was a familiar smell, but he couldn't place it at the second with all that was going on. When all the plates are handed out and he takes a bite, Jason knows. With it closer he can recognize the smell now, and he would know that taste anywhere, even if it was bathed in spices like this, how could he not. This meat was human. Even without the taste he could tell by the way he could feel his teeth grow sharper, his nails longer and harder like claws, his pupils retracting as they become more slit like as his senses become sharper at the taste of the flesh of his prey. He couldn't inform the bats of this, not unless he could find proof other than him knowing, and muster up a suitably horrified act at the realization, it wouldn't be very good for rebuilding family relationships for them to learn he eats people, after all.

If you want more info on that au I'll give it

Jason closes the eyes of the still warm body, a prayer to a god he isn't sure he still believes in layed upon the departing soul.

Clothing is carefully removed and folded into a waiting box. The corpse is scrubbed and hosed clean inside and out. After drying, a torch burns off the remaining body hair.

Incisions are swift and sure, organs freed and divided into different treatments. Some go in brines. Some are set aside for further cleaning.

Skin is removed in portions and layed out in salt.

Joints are dislocated and the body dismembered and deboned. The bones will be boiled for the collagen, dried, and powdered into fertilizer.

Jason finishes the initial processing pretty easily, humming as he locks up and makes his way to his main safe house, the prized bit of his prey in hand.

The brain has firmed up in the cold brine, the perfect texture for slicing. He heats up the frying pan and grabs his meal prep vegetable confetti and rice. The saved pint of blood finishes the meal.

Jason eats dinner alone, in the top apartment of an otherwise "condemned" building, savoring the flavor of fear in the flesh of his fallen prey.

..

There's something wrong in this house.

Tim's boyfriend is a quiet guy, Midwest nice, reminds him of Clark Kent.

But there's something off about him.

He's invited "Tim's Family" to dinner. It smells delicious. Too delicious.

Then he tastes it.

Fear. Prey.

At some point, the Batfam figures out just what they were eating and confront Danny.

Batman: *Growling deeply* Why? Why would you make us eat human flesh?

Danny: *tilts head, mildly confused* I was only trying to help you.

Nightwing: *Barely able to stop himself from puking a third time* Help us?! How could that possibly be helping us?!

Danny: *brows furrowed* I knew that you were slowly starving yourselves, better to help you than you end up attacking one of your friends.

Red Robin: *Barely holding himself together from the betrayal* Starving ourselves? We eat regularly! We wouldn’t have the strength to protect Gotham if we didn’t eat!

Danny: Hmm… I thought you knew but if you don’t… did you really think that flirting with Death as you do wouldn’t have any consequences? Some of you may not have truly died, but coming so close just once begins to change you, let alone how many times in your vigilante career. You are no longer quite human anymore. Of course your dietary requirements would change with the changes in your bodies.

Robin: *Points his sword at Danny* You say we are no longer human, but can you prove that? I don’t think you can, you-

Danny: *waves a hand to cut him off* Of course I can prove it. Your Red Hood already knows.

Batfam: *stiffens*

Batman: Hood? What is he talking about?

Hood: …

Nightwing: Hood? Please…

Danny is trying to lay low in the DCU. Then he gets kidnapped for his own summoning, along with a bunch of other people, and volunteers himself as a sacrifice to avoid anyone actually dying. His bad luck means the summoning was legit. He doesn’t really transform, but his eyes glow bright green, his hair has white glowing spots, and there is a spark around him. That's when people he has by now identified as this universe’s heroes/vigilantes finally arrive.

Now, Danny really doesn’t want to deal with questions in either form, but he is also basically homeless. So he figures out a way to maybe fall under these heroes’/vigilantes’ jurisdiction for a while without having to answer any questions:

He pretends to have complete amnesia.

"Then why can he still remember his name?"

"Because he didn't give his name. That's a while different level of fae consent. It's probably the only thing that saved him."

"Would that extend to the rest of our world? It could explain why there's no documentation proving he exists."

"It's definitely likely. They would have tried to erase all traces of his identity, to tie him further into the fae realm."

Continuation of this post.

Danny led them further into the dark, musty manor, into an area without windows where they had to pull out flashlights and a spell to fight the gloom. Danny reached into the wall and pulled something, thankfully the mechanism was fully manual and the lack of electricity didn't stop the hidden door from creaking slowly open.

Danny zips around the massive dark aquarium with a net carefully snatching up all sorts of colourful marine life before going up and gently depositing them in smaller tanks that Sam prepared.

"You do realise this is extremely illegal, right?"

"Taking these poor endangered fish from their homes is extremely illegal. We're righting a wrong here Danny, and you still owe me one"

Danny sighs and goes back down but keeps talking.

"I just don't want to be accused of stealing again"

"Tucker got us covered, we'll be fine. You just keep fishing Danny, I think we're almost done. "

Danny carefully goes through the dark depths of the aquarium again and it's then that he sees a much bigger shape dart away from him.

Sam said this entire thing was filled with poached endangered marine wildlife so everything in it needs to be retrieved. Aka, Danny goes in pursuit.

It takes some doing but eventually Danny gets a hold of it and it's worryingly little girl shaped.

He holds the little girl in front of him and just kinda looks for a second at this squirmy child that can apparently breathe underwater.

"Sam! Sam, holy Fffffffuudge"

"What!? What??"

"There is a baby in the aquarium!" He holds up the squealing little red head who has apparently decided what's happening now is funny actually.

"A baby!?"

"In the aquarium!" He points down at the water.

"Why is there a baby in the aquarium!!?"

"How am I supposed to know?! Maybe these weirdos accidentally fished up one of Aquaman's people?"

"Oh my god, we need to bring her back!"

"How the ff-frick-" the little girl giggles and goes, "Fik!" Making Danny wince,  "-are we supposed to do that, I don't know where Atlantis is at Sam"

"Call the justice league?"

"Didn't they disband again not too long ago?"

"... shit, you're right"

Danny rushes to cover the little girls ears while hissing, "language" and Sam slaps a hand over her mouth.

"Sorry..."

Danny floats in a circle above the water bouncing the child who seems fascinated with his glowing white hair, "Okay, okay, here's an idea. Jazz has her drivers license. We'll do an impromptu road trip to the east coast"

"... yeah, sounds good, let's go"

Sam holds the little girl as Danny stacks up all the tanks filled with fish and they quickly leave the premises.

"Can I just say I love you hair little miss, Naturally dark red? if only I was that lucky."

The now empty tank is surrounded by a gaggle of awkwardly shifting henchmen.

The gang has learned what a one year old eats, and how to change diapers.

They've also learned that there are a bunch of crazies out there that want  to steal a baby atlantean.

By now Jazz has fought a guy who called himself Black Manta in the new and improved Fenton exoskeleton. That battle involved a lot of lazers going in various directions.

"I thought Aquaman was an idiot to entrust her protection to a group of teenagers. But I'm starting to see his logic. You lot prepare yourselves, next time it won't be so easy"

And he'd been gone before they could correct his assumptions.

Then there was the swamp witch that Sam Out magicked with her own plant abilities.

"Curse you children, that royal blood will be mine!"

"Is she talking about me?"

"I really doubt it Tuck..."

Now they've finally reached the east coast and some big crustacean looking guy got sand guardianed by Tucker. Aka he's stuck up to his neck in the sand of the beach.

"You're only delaying the inevitable! Ocean master will have the child!"

The group just looks at him rather annoyed. 

Great, that means some other asshole is going to show up any moment now.

…

“Anyone any ideas about how we’re gonna find a legendary underwater city to bring the little girl back to her parents?” Sam asks while checking over the fish tanks in the back of their vehicle.

“This would have been so much easier if we could contact Aquaman directly somehow… do they have wifi underwater?” Tucker frowns at his PDA, “do they need social media down there?”

“Careful Tuck, I’ve read that Aquaman gets agitated at those kinds of questions,” Danny carefully lets the little girl play with the sand, making sure not to take his eyes off her after Jazz harshly told him to make sure to not let her eat any of it.

“Babies will put anything in their mouths Danny, be careful!”

Jazz reappears after locking the vehicle down, that thing isn’t going anywhere, not with the anti-ghost defenses active. they are also quite good against car robbers.

“So no brilliant ideas on how to get her back to her parents just yet?”

“It’s really annoying how we keep coming across or getting tracked down by weirdo’s and we still have no idea how to reach her parents…”

Jazz holds her hands out to Danny who hands the girl over to his sister.

“Okay, in that case-”Starts Sam, “we’ll just load all these fish onto the Manson family yacht that’s docked a little over there, and we focus on getting the fish home first.”

“Maybe a helpful atlantean will come to see what we’re doing and we can ask for directions.”

The group agrees to this plan of action and gets to work.

Danny made another ice ball. It was the only thing that was currently stopping the child from crying. She was ill, with something, likely a human thing too, but they didn't know what it was, and Frostbite hadn't been able to get them quick results, they had tried letting ehr slash around, keeping her diet well roudned.

but she was sick, and there was no getting around that.

so hey started shift, Jazz's singing lasted abotu an hour before she got fussy again, Sam and Tucker had, combined, lasted all fo twenty minutes.

Danny was still gong strong at three hours.

"Can't we just call the Justice League?" he muttered, watching their charge suck on the mini globe of ice.

________________________________________________ "My king, my queen!" "Aqualad, why did you call us?" "I believe we may have information on the whereabouts of the princess." that caught their attention.

"Where?" Mera hissed.

"Well, there is satalite footage of Black Manta fighting some-sort of exo-suit in this area of the east coast." he stood in fornt of a screen manned by Red-Robin, who was reveiwing footage while looking utterly exhausted,Authur didn't undersatnd how Bruce could work his childrne this hard, or place expectation on them that made them work this hard, but he wasn't one to judge. Aqualad continued" we managed to find a part of the footage where the vehicle is in veiw. Red's been tracking it-" "Somewhere on North Carolina's coast."

"...they are somewhere in North Carolina."

"thank you Red Robin." "no prob."

"Are we there yet?" Danny said already regretting speaking. He was still healing from the recent fight against the Ocean man guy combined with his extended use of his powers and he was drained.

"We should go south!" Sam protested cradling the now sleeping atlantian in her arms. "Are you serious Gotham is just a few states away!" Tucker said on his new mobile phone after his PDA died on him again.

This was going on for three hours now after the Mason yacht was blown up. Jazz wasn't much help and the child's sickness was getting worse. Heck they didn't have the money to bring her to the hospital and what would they say? 'Hey we found Aquamans child and the child is sick and we don't know what to do?' Yeah not the best option.

"Ok!" Danny said breaking the tension and most likely a rib. "Ok we are all currently in... very deep horse dung right now but we can't fight like this. Yes there are people after us. Yes we aren't at Atlantis. Yes we aren't that good at taking care of kids but we can't just allow all of that to cloud our reasoning."

Sam and Tucker calming down just looked defeated. Out of all of them Danny somehow suffered the most damage from the most recent fight. And Danny as of most days like these was right. The air once filled anger seemed almost depressing.

Sighing Danny turns to Tucker. "What's the lastest news story?" Tucker closes the map and opens up the news app. "Let's see uh lot's of stories... Uh oh. oh crap-" "Language." Danny hissed. "Sorry, but the news about the Justice League disbandment pretty old news appearently also apparently temporary... And looks like our digital foot print wasn't very discreet." "What do you mean 'temporary'? "

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

Arthur was at his wits end how was four teens and a baby that hard to locate? He knew that surface searching wasn't like under water searching, his people had no real jurisdiction on land. But the Justice League had all hands on deck for this thing. And they were still spread thin as it is.

"I went to the last place the 5 were seen." Aqualad said coming in exhausted. "The local residents testimonies should help with finding her. " "Put... put it on screen."

The data did not lie the 5 were heading towards Atlantis just they were constantly getting stopped by villains who were trying to get his daughter.

"The data suggests they're heading south." Red Robin says sipping on his latest cappuccino. "No, they are going north." Aquaman says flatly. "He's right the latest finding suggests-" Aqualad says pulling a photo on screen. "They tried just GOING to Atlantis. But there's a destroyed boat in their way." "Not the right time for jokes dude."

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

"Dude what flight goes to Atlantis?" Danny asks "Malaysia flight 370 if I remember correctly. " Tucker said before Danny smacked him upside the head. "I saw the meme Tuc not funny people died."

Jazz in her ecto suit is surrounded by the ones she's taken out, currently holding up the one in charge, "you better start taking or I'll keep swinging."

She's giving him her best 'I'm disappointed in you' face.

The guy himself however is looking like he's about to throw up any moment now. Probably from all the swinging around she's already done to him.

"I'm simply following orders..."

"That's not good enough." She holds him up a little higher and the guy starts scrabbling at her armor clad arm.

"They say- they said, the one who controls the princess controls the king and the one who controls the king... Its- listen, listen just- please put me down."

Parts of the lake are frozen and even though that makes for a strange sight overall the lake itself now seems deceptively peaceful. That's until about five other men get thrown out of the water and land painfully onto land after which a rather angry looking Danny wades through the water and gradually walks onto the shore. With of course a happily giggling little girl in on his arm.

Tucker turns to him and asks, "What took you so long?"

"She's great at hide and seek, and there was a lot of kicked up muck down there helping her out."

Sam grins, she remembers what a hassle it was to get her out of the aquarium in the first place, "She looks better." Sam notes.

"It might be that Aqualady over here just needs to be in water more..." Danny sheepishly runs a hand through his hair.

"That would explain why we initially found her in the aquarium." Their relaxed musing is interrupted by a shout.

"What are you doing! you traitor! Are you betraying your own kind and actually giving in to this land dweller's demands!?"

"I would like my insides to remain inside!"

The other rogue Atlantean gets up enough to throw some kind of crystal at Jazz. The others react instantly and jump to push her out of the way while she's still holding the other guy. In a flash of light all of them vanish.

"You stupid idiot, now the princess is gone too!"

"Well at least I-"

A sudden rustling is followed by a green bloodhound running out of the bushes, he sniffs the air before saying, "Oh c'mon, You have got to be kidding me..."

Next thing the rogue Atlanteans know several other titans emerge out of the bush, some more elegantly than others. Raven closes her eyes in concentration, "I sense traces of teleportation magic."

"Yeah they were here literally a second ago, the scent I was following just vanished." Gar keeps snuffling around over the ground until he's at the exact spot team Phantom just stood.

"Where are they," growls Tempest while Nightwing has a hand on his chest. Meanwhile Donna and Starfire lift the busted car out of the lake.

"I bet our lord is absolutely losing it by now isn't he," is the only sneering reply he gets though. Dick has to use a lot more force to keep Garth back and he looks over at Donna who is already running their way.

Roy mutters to Gar, "does he want to have his teeth kicked in orrr...?"

Gar shifts into a bear, shrugs, and makes a 'idunno' noise. He'll gladly help Garth with the kicking though.

"I can trace the magic, Tempest." Raven's hands start glowing. And Garth finally let's himself get pushed back by his teammates muttering a soft apology to them that's tinged with frustration.

Dick takes him aside, "Garth I don't want to do this, but if you can't keep your head cool-"

"No, I'm fine, just," he pinches the bridge of his nose, "they were so close, that's all, I'm..." a long exhale.

"Raven is tracing them, we'll know soon. Take a moment, we'll handle these idiots."

Sam glares at the rogue Atlantean (who is sweating bullets while sitting on the ground.) And bounces little Andrina in her arms.

Jazz is a little off to the side calling her parents "Hey mom, dad, uhm.. just wondering, how much pressure can the Fenton ecto-exo-skeleton handle? ... yeah- like water pressure... uhuh, oh okay, hm? Oh, no, just curious you know, no reason. Hmhm... Danny is with his friends right now so he can't come to the phone, sorry. I'll tell him to call you guys back later, yeah. Okay. Love you too bye."

She hangs up and walks to Danny who is busy freezing a layer of impenetrable ice outside of his ecto shield bubble. Right now the bubble is the only thing keeping them from drowning and getting crushed under an ungodly amount of water.

"Mom told me that their trip got extended, so I guess that's something we won't have to worry about for a while longer. You doing okay Danny?"

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm just thinking about how I'm gonna get you guys out of here safely..."

"Well, I'll be fine in the suit apparently, it's made so I can bust ghosts even down in the marina trench." She says mimicking their dad's enthusiasm.

"What."

"Let's not think about it too hard."

Danny pauses anyway and then says, "...Seas' haunted"

Jazz does a fake gasp, "The Flying Dutchman."

"I'll get you Davy Jones!"

Tucker is busy fiddling with his phone in the meantime, "Okay so I'm done trying to triangulate exactly where we are on my phone and... we are very, very deep."

"Yeah no kidding, I could have told you that... but where deep." Sam sets the little girl down who finds the nearest sandy puddle to splash in.

"That's harder to say..." Tucker's phone simply can't get a good signal from any satellite for that kind of stuff what with them being this deep, and he wouldn't be surprised if more magical stuff is messing things up as well. The little girl holds a handful of watery sea sand near Tucker and the water just quickly glides out of it leaving desert dry sand in her hands instead, she giggles.

"Maybe our new friend can shed some light?"

Their 'new friend' would much rather just stay ignored.

His eyes glide over the four teens, fully aware what they are capable of now.

Sea plants are already curling around Sam's ankles unprompted, a good chunk of Jazz's suit is still keeping her protected and he's seen how smoothly and quickly the rest of it can latch back on to her again. Water seems to recoil from Tucker as more and more bone dry sand surrounds him and the impromptu ice dome is handling incredible amounts of water pressure without so much as a groan or a creak.

Yeah he knows he's out of his league here, the princess is incredibly well protected, as expected from their king really. He should have known better, they all should've.

"We're somewhere between the city Tritonis and Xebel."

Suddenly Andy gets fussy and for a moment the guy thinks he's fucked up until Jazz picks the little girl up and takes a little pot of mashed fruit for babies out of her bag.

"So that's not really as helpful as you might think it is, appreciate the clear answers though, Go on," Sam urges. In the background Tucker goes, "so there are like a bunch of cities down here then?" to which Danny responds with a, "Not now Tuck."

"Uh, this was meant as a pick up point, get the princess and-" "No you misunderstand, what I meant-" "Sam I think he's been living his entire life underwater, he might not know the names we use for parts of the oceans." "…hrm, maybe a map would help, Tucker can you pull up a map on your phone?"

Before they can put that plan into action however the icy walls around them rumbles as something latches onto the it, a something that looks like a big mechanical manta ray. It starts drilling into the ice wall with what appears to be some kind of laser powered apparatus.

Now Danny probably could just reinforce his ice and just not let them through… However~

I know it's a massive cliche. But how likely is it that Black Manta's sub would have Aquaman's number saved. For gloating and threatening reasons.

Tuck is fucking about with the buttons after they kicked the bastard out of his own ship. Clicks this one button and suddenly he has an angry Aquaman on the screen. Who stops and stares in confusion. Danny and Sam shove Tucker to one side so they can show off the baby.

Mera and Arthur just slumpmfor a moment. Their baby is ok. They now know exactly what to track to find her and these heroic teens. They can take their baby home soon. Hopefully without any other ambushes happening between the meet up.

Dan is very grumpy. He’s not pouting, despite what the others would claim, he’s brooding. How many times were they going to get de-aged?! And this time they were all clones! He did not sign up for reincarnation, nor for getting turned into a literal baby. 

He doesn’t care if this world has heroes or villains or whatever, he’s going to bite the next person to pick him up. Happily if it’s one of the scientists currently scrambling around as alarms go off. 

J'onn: Hello little reincarnations. Would you prefer I tell the rest? Or are you hoping to keep that a secret?

Dan:*string of profanities that would make Constantine proud*

Jazz: We have full telepathy! Yes! Fantastic!!!

And of course Uncle takes primary custody! Powers can be hard to control for babies! They need Uncle to help them! Which means she gets all the babies cuddles and none for Robin! Kon is allowed, clone solidarity and such.