mischievous fraise

Her apartment in Gotham was too quiet.

And it wasn’t supposed to be. Danny should have been here by now, tripping over his duffel bag, making some dumb joke to break the tension, asking if the landlord would notice if he installed an ecto-filter in the kitchen sink. She had a grocery list written on the counter in his handwriting. His toothbrush was already in the guest bathroom.

He’d been days away from moving in when the Guys in White found him.

Jazz had replayed the moment in her head a thousand times. The static-filled phone call from Tucker, Sam’s voice breaking in the background, and then… nothing. The GIW had taken him. Her parents in their eternal blindness had handed him over. As if he were just a test subject. As if he weren’t their son.

Her knuckles whitened around the chipped mug she was holding. The coffee had gone cold hours ago, but she couldn’t bring herself to let go, not when it was the only thing grounding her in the moment.

She’d spent hours trying to think rationally, trying to find an angle to save Danny. But the Guys in White were government-sanctioned; she couldn’t appeal to the law. Every trail Tucker tried to follow ended in firewalls thicker than anything he’d ever seen. Sam had almost been caught twice trying to gather physical intel and Jazz… Jazz had go after every crumb that showed the minimal chance of bringing him back.. Every friend, every contact. Every desperate, useless idea.

Until now.

She hadn’t meant to look at the TV. It had just… been there. White noise in the background. Another pointless news about Gotham’s elite. Charity galas, scandals and the golden billionaire family that somehow managed to stay mostly intact.

Wayne Enterprises was unveiling something at a hospital fundraiser when the camera panned across the family. Bruce Wayne, stoic and reserved, Dick Grayson with that impossible charm; Tim Drake standing a little too close to champagne tower and beside them…

Jazz’s heart stopped.

The boy next to Bruce was scowling, arms crossed, chin tilted upward in a familiar defiance. His green eyes glinted sharply under the camera lights. The resemblance hit her like a physical blow.

It was Danny. But… no. Not Danny.

But so, so close.

Her mind stuttered, caught between recognition and disbelief. The boy looked sharper around the edges, but that face. Those eyes. The same haunted irises she’d seen looking back at her across a dozen childhood photos.

And then it clicked. Damian.

The twin brother Danny talked non-stop when he was adopted.

She remembered the stories Danny had told her when it was just the two of them, about the old life he'd been told to forget, a life he'd never get back because he'd failed, because he hadn't been strong enough. The stories about his brother, a brother he'd never get the chance to see again, but she could hear in his words how much he loved him and how much the distance hurt him.

Jazz also remembered a particular story, whispered in the night, about how they were called, in a literal translation of the words, Sons of the Bat.

And if the boy on the screen with her brother's face was standing beside Bruce Wayne…

Jazz stared at the TV until her pulse steadied into something sharp and certain.

Bruce Wayne was Batman.

And Batman was Danny’s father.

So I’ve watched the Next to Normal proshot probably around twenty times now and I had an idea….

Damian was born a twin. A twin he never told his family in Gotham about. Partly because he didn’t want to put his Father through the emotions of realizing he’d lost another child. Partly out of his own selfish desire to have something: His twin was his reflection and his opposite, more defiant, more kind. And weaker. When his twin’s health issues became apparent when they were. Danny was quickly disposed.

So there he is, with an anti-ecto collar stuck on his neck in the middle of Star City while Prometheus is rampaging, darting between toppling buildings.

When he sees a little girl.

So he does what he do; he darts in and barely manages to get her cleared away from the building as it collapses.

From there it's a blur of clutching the little girl to him, cursing his lack of powers, and dodging nonstop.

When all is said and done, Red fucking Arrow (sans an arm what the hell) slams into him to hug the little girl.

Okay. Apparently Danny has successfully saved a heroes daughter; fantastic. Time to run before the GIW track his stupid collar down and collect him.

New Problem; Green Arrow was there when he turned to run, hand already outstretched as the other hero tugs at Danny's lovely neck accessory.

But Danny knows he's well and truly fucked. The Justice League clearly agrees with the anti-ecto acts, clearly work with the government, and will obviously turn him in.

So he begs.

Danny doesn't have the best spatial awareness, you'd think he would given his bout as a vigilante, but his rogues all had the convenient ability of setting off his ghost sense and letting him know when to turn on his awareness.

So when he was taken in by Bruce Wayne in Gotham, far away from any ghosts or portals, he just didn't have any reason to be on guard. It worked well for him since his vigilante days were over and he could put all his focus on school again.

But you see, when he was first taken in, it was just him and his foster brother Tim staying at the manor.

Fast forward to now, Danny gets home from school to find not only Bruce waiting at the table for dinner, but a kid who looks surprisingly like Bruce??? The kid is small, rude and trying to be threatening in a way Danny doesn't really see as such, like the kid is like 8 how much could they really do???

Turns out a lot.

After Danny and Tim sat down and the introductions were made, Bruce filled them in on the situation that was Damian. Tim seemed to take it as a new puzzle, looking to Damian and Bruce periodically as if he could get answers simply by staring. Danny took it in stride, it isn't that unusually for a rich guy to have secret flings that result in children down the line.

Dinner was in full swing when it happened, there had been some bantering the entire time and many threats of bodily harm coming from Damian which weren't met with as many reprimands as Danny assumed it should. A distinct thunk sound was heard after a particularly harsh threat and Danny looked over to see a knife now embedded in Tim's chair where his head once was.

Before he could react, Bruce was standing with a sharp reprimand and Danny collided harshly with his chair as a new knife embedded itself in his shoulder. He cried out in shock, it has been over a year since his last ghost fight and honestly he forgot how much that hurts!

it's chapter two

DP x DC Prompt

There is a new teacher at Gotham Academy. Mr. Nightingale is someone who has a mostly clean record. The only stains on his record is being the son to two villains who have been put behind bars and being under a witness protection program to one Vlad Masters.

He was hired because Gotham Academy is in need of not only a Chemistry Teacher and an Engineering Teacher as well, so he will be paid double the amount of money because of him filling two roles.

The students of Gotham Academy are waiting to see if Mr. Nightingale will become a Rogue of Gotham or move on to following his parents' footsteps elsewhere with becoming a Villain to a different Hero.

What the students of Gotham Academy weren't expecting of Mr. Nightingale is that he's a pretty good guy. He's understanding of the students, doesn't give a lot of extra homework to do, and is always bringing snacks for hungry students, including vegan snacks for one Damian Wayne and other vegan students. The only anomaly to Mr. Nightingale is that he is constantly taking eyedrops every hour.

Danny is living pretty okay right now. His friends have moved out of Amity before him to pursue their dreams. They do keep in contact, but collage life keeps them busy. His parents were arrested by the Justice League, and the GIW was disbanded by the Justice League as well. Vlad couldn't get custody of Danny because of both Jazz and the Justice League listening to him about not wanting to be with Vlad. So he's living with his sister until he's old enough to live on his own.

Of course, Vlad wouldn't give up. He kept trying as Plasmius to get him to join the Fruitloop. As soon as Danny got his teaching license, something he wanted other than becoming an astronaut, he and Vlad had engaged in a battle that led to the Fruitloops Castle. The battle lasted a long time, both Halfa's badly hurt, but Danny most of all, as he may be the Prince of the Infinite Realms, but he doesn't have the Crown of Flames or the Ring of Rage to help him. His Ghost Half sustained a lot of damage, with the only injury that transferred to his human half was the burns to his eyes. This is how the Justice League found Danny in Vlad's Castle (as a human and not Phantom), Jazz had called the Justice League because Danny wasn't back yet. Now, he's got to take special eyedrops provided by Frostbite to help his human eyes heal and to help his Ghost Hlaf eyes heal as well.

Danny was talking to Sam and Tucker one day. He knew he was adopted but didn’t know anything about his birth parents. They had all tried to search between ghost attacks but hadn’t made any headway. Unfortunately Danny hadn’t been paying attention when he groaned out, “I wish I could learn who my bio parents are.”

Danny really thought he had struck the w word from his vocabulary. He realized his error when Desiree popped up and poofed him away after ‘granting his wish.’ Ending up in a fancy dining room with like 10 people staring at him startled, was even worse.

Danny growled. “Fudge! I said the Taboo!” He continued cursing (in book titles. No one could swear in Amity due to a previous w—h, it’s habit now). He was interrupted by one of them chuckling. “I’ve never heard anyone curse in book titles before, I’m stealing that.”

There was a sigh from a tired looking kid. “That honestly fits you.” Then the older looking man finally speaks up. “Can you tell us your name? And how you got here? What was that about a Taboo?”

Danny sighs. “I’m Danny. Can I get your names first so I know who I’m talking to?” After being introduced to the Waynes (not that Danny realizes who they are, he’s never been interested in celebrities unless it involves space), and the Butler Alfred insisting he sit down and eat (he was starving), Danny continues. “Anyway, the Taboo in our town is the w word. Say it and weird stuff happens. Like me disappearing from my home town to here. Where are we anyway?”