A Ghostly Second Opinion (or: Frostbite Learns Regret)
Chief Frostbite had believed becoming the Great One’s healer would be simple.
The young halfa was powerful. He’d defeated Pariah Dark. Surely that meant fewer injuries, not more.
Danny showed up constantly — cracked ribs, burned ecto-scars, dislocated shoulders, concussions, half-healed stab wounds from experimental ghost weapons, once a chunk of rebar still embedded through his side like a decorative accessory.
Frostbite could heal ghosts.
Not living, breathing, breakable human teenagers who inconveniently possessed organs.
By the Ancients, the boy had organs.
He didn’t even know what half of them did.
When Danny came in wheezing and clutching his abdomen after a hunt gone sideways and Frostbite realized he had no idea where a human spleen went, he finally admitted defeat.
The Ghost Zone answered with Thomas and Martha Wayne.
Recently deceased. Human doctors. A surgeon and a nurse who had been hovering over Gotham ever since death, watching their son wage war on crime with no idea they were there.
When Frostbite offered them a village, protection, and a chance to help a hero?
The next time Danny arrived with a compound fracture poking cheerfully through his leg and ectoplasm dripping off his jacket, Thomas cracked his knuckles like it was another day at the hospital.
“Alright, son,” Thomas said warmly. “Let’s get you fixed up.”
Thirty minutes later Danny was patched, splinted, and stabilized better than Frostbite had ever managed.
“Kid,” Thomas laughed, “you get into trouble like a professional hero.”
Danny grinned weakly. “Kinda my job.”
“Oh?” Danny asked. “What does he do?”
Danny immediately started coughing so hard ectoplasm sprayed across the floor.
Martha calmly handed him a towel.
“That happens every time someone says it out loud,” she said.
From that day on, the Waynes refused to leave.
They brought snacks. Made Danny rest. Hovered like anxious parents whenever he so much as winced.
Eventually Martha tucked a blanket around him after a healing session.
“You’re far too skinny,” she muttered.
Thomas nodded gravely. “We’ll fix that.”
Weeks later, Batman nearly had a heart attack when a glowing teenager appeared in the Batcave.
“Uh,” Danny said cheerfully, “hi! You’re Batman, right? Cool. Quick question.”
Batman slowly raised a batarang.
“What should we get our mom for Mother’s Day?”
The silence that followed was historic, Readmore