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Prompt idea: Danny has been attending Wayne family dinners for weeks now and he truly doesn’t know how he got this far
Danny has been without a home or a means to get food for a while because of either identity reveal gone bad or Dan timeline shenanigans. Either way he needs to eat. As a last ditch attempt Danny tries to attend/infiltrate a Wayne family dinner. He’s seen the Wayne kids around Gotham and he’s sure that he could look and act the part enough to get in the door and out with some bread rolls at least.
Was it his best idea? No.
But he sure as sugar ain’t firing on all cylinders rn.
And Bruce already has a gaggle of blue eyed, black haired children.
What’s one more?
Batfam of course notices immediately when a whole new kid shows up, grabs some miscellaneous pieces of food and then prattles off some excuse about “not being that hungry.” (Clearly a bald faced lie) And that they were “Going to the library to study for finals, bye Dad!”
1. No one skips out on family dinners. Even Jason was here.
2. Alfred sets the table for everyone ahead of time and the kid had no place to sit.
3. Nobody in this house studies anything beyond case files.
4. Nobody in this house calls Bruce Dad.
Danny thinks he is suffering from success. No matter where he is in Gotham someone picks him up and insists he’ll be late for family dinner which is unacceptable.
Alfred just wants to feed the boy.
The batkids are amused by his efforts to look as though he’s been here all along.
They'll sling an arm over his shoulder and complain how he needs to pick up his phone more as they lead him to the car back to the manor. Tell him its his turn to pick for game/movie night. Text him to cast a vote.
Alfred will pick him up after school and say it's his turn to help with the grocery shopping, that he gets to pick dinner that upcoming Friday, (and once alfred gets Danny's phone number) calls to say he 'forgot' to grab [xyz] and can he please pick it up on his way back home?
He's notified of family outings and forced to go. Danny doesn't really have any objections until the first gala of the season
Danny wasn't sure when there started being a spot for him at the table, but no one said anything, and maybe the old butler guy, Alfred, was having memory problems. (He didn't /act/ like he had memory problems.)
But Danny did his best to be invisible, and ate quickly, making appropriate noises when someone said something to him. He first noticed something unusual when "Dad" cleared his throat and the whole table went quiet.
The whole table /never/ goes quiet.
"I'd just like to remind everyone that annual Memorial Gala will be in three weeks. Everyone /will/ be attending, no excuses accepted. Our guest of honor needs all our support."
"Sure B."
"Of course father."
"Fine."
"I'll be there!"
Even Stephanie agreed without arguing that she wasn't really family. It was… strange. Especially since it seemed like some of them were trying not to laugh. But no one seemed to notice that Danny didn't say anything, so he took the win.
Shortly after that, Danny tried to slip out of the room with a muttered, "Test tomorrow."
Just as he reached the door, he heard Alfred behind him. "Young master," which was how the man addressed Danny, "I will be picking you up at three tomorrow for your fitting."
"Fitting?" Danny squeaked.
"Your suit fitting. For the gala."
"Oh. Yeah. Of- of course…"
Fuck.
---
They waited, carefully 'normal' until the front door closed behind Danny. Then the whole table burst out laughing.
"Did you see his face?"
"Wait til he learns who the guest of honor is."
Duke scratched the back of his head and looked around the table before looking down. "Um. Are you all sure we shouldn't just… talk to the guy?"
A resounding "Yes!" came from the rest of the batkids.
"He tried to prank us, we prank him back," Dick said.
Jason grunted agreement. "Rules of the family."
"And he is the one who showed up and announced that he's family now," Stephanie put in with an evil smile. "We're just… taking him at his word."
Tim finally put tablet down. "It's just a good thing he doesn't read the tabloids. They've been speculating on who the 'newest Wayne' is for weeks now."
"Vicky Vale?" Cass asked, concerned.
"I'll make sure Clark is at the gala," Bruce said, "He'll get the first official interview.
The Batfam so excited about new brother and pranking, they don't even realize how badly this could (and will) backfire. Not until Danny is bolting mid-Gala. The 'oh we fucked up' hits critical levels when even the combined efforts of Bats and Supers can't locate hide nor hair of Danny for more than a week.
Danny bolted because Vlad was there and saw him. And unfortunately he's as determined as always to make him his son and since now he doesn't have to worry about Maddie's reaction about anything he can just... Do whatever he wants to try to make him, like yeah he didn't think of her when the kidnapping and torture and cloning attempts happened but now it's even worse somehow.
Danny had seen Vlad, seen the predatory look in his eyes, and run without a single thought as to where he was going.
Playing house with the Wayne had bee fun, but it was time to move on.
He managed to dodge not only the Wayne, but the surprisingly fast reporter and the paparazzi. He tore through the alleys, stripping off the fancy suit jacket and preparing to shift into Phantom...when a blinding, sharp pain vibrated through his head, a smaller punch was felt on his back, and his blood started to feel like it was on fire.
It was done with enough force that he, as a halfa, found himself eating the disgusting Gotham asphalt. Not that he had time to dwell on that, given that he was trying to force himself to get up again.
But the pain was getting worse. This, for whatever reason, wasn't something he could brush off. He could feel his breathing getting labored, his strength draining from him with every second.
This wasn't like any normal hit to the head, if he didn't know any better he'd...oh. Shit. The blow to his back.
Blood Blossoms.
The last thing he saw as the world faded to black was a pair of immaculate dress shoes stopping in front of him.
~~~~~~
Danny had no idea how long Vlad had kept him isolated.
Apparently, Vlad was unable to secret Danny away in his private jet. This was a problem, because due to how much Blood Blossom poison the deranged man was pumping into Danny, he couldn't make Danny invisible or intangible, so the jet was the only way out.
He'd taken Danny to some...place. It was some abandoned apartment or something, but it was definitely condemned. When he'd left to arrange the flight home, he'd come back actually looking a frazzled.
A little scared.
His ranting had been hard for Danny to listen to through the pain of more Blood Blossom being injected under his skin, but he gathered that the general gist of the situation was this; Danny had run. When the gala had gotten itself together and the Wayne's had started looking for him, they'd discovered Vlad was gone.
Other Gala partiers had ratted Vlad out and said that he'd been staring at Danny nonstop all Gala, and that they thought Danny had only run when he'd realized Vlad was staring at him.
Which led to the most influential family in Gotham demanding the police force check Vlad's rooms for Danny.
Vlad's rooms had some sort of illegal contraband, Danny wasn't sure what, only that it wasn't illegal in Wisconsin? Honestly, he'd started fading out again at that point.
Basically; Vlad was a wanted man.
He couldn't go back to the hotel, he wouldn't just fucking leave Danny to sleep off the Blood Blossoms because of his creepy stalker nature, and couldn't get to his jet, because said jet was grounded.
...And being dismantled.
Something about illegal weapons of mass destruction.
Wait shit maybe that was what they'd found in Vlad's rooms as well. Then what had Vlad been saying was acceptable in Wisconsin-whatever. Didn't matter.
It didn't help their food situation that every single time Vlad even so much as peeked outside, one of the local vigilantes was, somehow, immediately on his ass. So Vlad could only leave invisible and intangible, but for some reason a lot of shops were warded against ghsots.
Oh, Vlad made sure he was fed; but only barely. After all, Vlad had to steal his own food now, and Vlad would always prioritize Vlad.
He hadn't even given Danny the gross mattress from the dilapidated bedroom; Danny was just confined to the floor next to the furnace he was chained to.
Every day Vlad grew more and more volatile, and every day Danny felt himself slipping more and more away.
He knew Vlad was using larger doses of Blood Blossoms.
He knew Vlad wasn't going to let him go.
After all, out of all the things in his room, the only thing Vlad had grabbed before the cops could was that fucking Blood Blossom poison. Extract. Whatever.
Danny had stopped counting the amount of time the sun rose and fell.
Stopped keeping track of how often he was dosed.
Stopped listening or even acknowledging that Vlad was ranting. Again.
He accepted he was going to die, for real, when he'd started vomiting blood.
Well, he accepted death right until he heard a soft thud from the building across from the one he was in.
He ignored it.
Then there was another one.
Raised voices.
One of them was heavily mechanized.
Oh. Wasn't. Wasn't one of the uh...vigilantes Vlad was so scared of the guy in the red mask or...something?
The gun vigilante.
The dude that was all 'don't touch kids rarg' or whatever.
...Actually that was exactly what Danny needed.
He took a moment to listen, trying to hear if Vlad was behind him, or in the apartment at all.
He wasn't.
Danny took as deep a breath as he was able to, braced himself, and shoved himself off the ground.
The chains to the radiator wouldn't let him stand up, or even look out the window, but one hand was free to slam against it with all his remaining strength.
To make sure it was something a vigilante wouldn't be able to ignore, he rubbed the blood off of his face with it to make sure it'd smear the window.
Unfortunately, he only managed to get three slams on the glass before his strength ran out and he slumped over again.
Fortunately, that appeared to have been enough.
~~~~~~
Three weeks.
It had been three weeks since some freak from Wisconsin had taken the newest member of his family. The one he had just decided to give another chance.
He'd like the new kid too.
Well, he'd liked fucking with him.
Same shit.
And the kid was gone.
Bab's hadn't been able to pull much on him; C average student, parents willingly gave over guardianship when Bruce contacted them, few friends.
Boring.
For some reason, Vlad fucking Masters had flown beneath their radar.
But once Babs did a little digging, it was really, really clear who, exactly, Danny had been running from.
Who had caught him.
Babs found the CCTV footage of Danny running into an alley, and Masters not even two steps behind. Seven minutes later, Masters left the alley with an unconscious Danny being dragged behind him, the suit jacket nowhere in sight.
Worse, she found a veritable mountain of complaints and police reports from Danny about Vlad Masters from when he'd been in Amity, all of them swept under the rug and archived in a system so old, the new files were corrupted upon being saved there.
It hadn't taken long to figure out how that had happened; Masters was into the occult.
Batman had walked in on the Commissioner, clearly possessed, trying to destroy evidence against Masters. Afterwards, everyone had been forced to wear anti-possession charms, courtesy of the JLD.
Jason was...well. He had gone past "livid" and ascended to the realm of "incandescent".
He was going to kill Masters the next time he saw him.
None of them knew why the man was so obsessed with Danny, or why Danny's parents had seemed almost desperate to pawn Danny off to someone else, but they knew that whatever that man was doing to their newest family member, it wasn't good.
He landed on a rooftop just outside of Crime Alley, taking a moment to collect himself.
He hadn't slept well the night before. None of them had.
Learning that one of the vials left behind in the jet was full of poison would do that.
Not poison for a normal person, no. But for people contaminated with Ecto like Bruce, Damian, Danny, and even Jason himself?
Deadly.
And they had no idea what it was. It didn't ping off of anything. They'd sent a sample to Zatanna, but they hadn't heard back yet.
But that vial meant that, if Jason was being honest with himself, Danny had been dead for weeks.
Bruce wasn't saying it. Dick wasn't saying it. Babs wasn't saying it. Even Duke was keeping his hopes up.
But Jason, Damian, Tim, and Steph?
They knew.
A thud ripped him from his thought.
Seriously? He'd just left so he wouldn't have to continue this argument.
"Hood, please. We can't give up." Nightwing said, limping to a halt.
Idiot had pulled his knee.
"I'm not giving up, I'm being realistic." Jason sighed, mentally preparing himself for the same argument three nights in a row. "We need to start searching the bay or the rivers. Dumpsters too."
"You're treating him like he's dead!"
"Because he is!"
"You don't know that!"
There was a soft, almost unnoticeable slapping sound.
Normally, most people would ignore that.
Most people weren't Gotham Vigilantes.
Red Hood and Nightwing's heads turned, as one, to locate the source.
There was another soft slap, followed by the sound of something wet being dragged on glass.
Red Hood and Nightwing walked to the edge of the roof, looking at the condemned apartment complex that had been among the first they'd cleared.
There was one, final, almost silent slap.
That strange squeaking noise of a wet hand sliding against glass.
Nightwing's hand snapped out and he pointed at a window, one of the few with glass still in it.
Bloody handprints, and the hand in question was already sliding out of sight.
Shit.
They'd have to put a pin in arguing about whether or not Danny was alive; they had to do their jobs as vigilantes and save whoever needed their help in that room.
They didn't need to talk to do that.
They grappled so that they were against the wall, looking into the window. First things first, Red Hood surveyed the room itself.
No one was in there but whoever they needed to save.
"Danny?" Dick hissed, voice choked.
Jason froze.
No.
No way.
He looked down and focused through the dirty glass.
His newest brother's unconscious body lay beneath it, still in the same clothes he'd worn at the Gala, a small puddle of blood next to him on the floor as he was balanced precariously on an old furnace.
First things first: Jason's training clicked into place. He forced the window open and landed beside Danny in a crouch. Dick followed a moment later, but with Jason handling Danny, he swept the room for evidence, quick and impatient.
"Danny?" Jason asked sharply. He poked Danny's shoulder. "Danny!"
Danny made a weak, choked sound, too wet to be healthy. Then a wheeze, high and desperate - struggling for air despite Danny's markedly low respiration. Jason noted that most of the blood was caked around Danny's mouth, neck, and chest. If he wasn't choking on it, he was probably pretty close.
No clear injuries, and Danny had obviously dragged himself to the window to try and catch their attention. It was probably safe to move him. Jason turned him onto his side and contemplated the task that was treating the victim of an unknown poison.
He ground his knuckles against Danny's sternum, and Danny jerked with a garbled cry.
"Danny," Jason repeated clearly. "Do you know anything about the poison Masters used? Vlad?"
It seemed like a long shot, and it both was and wasn't. On the one hand, Danny had no known connections to anything weird, and no reason to know about anti-ecto poisons. On the other hand, there was clearly a lot they didn't know about the situation.
It was always the one inconsistency with Danny, the fact that he was ecto-infected to an extent that only Jason could compete with. How did an ordinary civilian get so infected? But it was so rarely apparent that inquiring further took a backseat to messing with him, seeing how many family events they could drag him into by playing along. Bruce was going to enroll him in school next.
But now, not knowing where that infection had come from, what secret they didn't yet know, might mean the difference between Danny's survival and his death.
Danny swallowed thickly a couple of times, brow furrowing. Collecting himself, looked like. Finally he croaked, "Bluh blossoms... 'ctophobic..." He swallowed again, struggling, and coughed. "C-corrosive."
First word was garbled, but they had most of a name. B. Blossoms. Oracle could work with that, or Zatanna could. Bluh, bluh- blood? Maybe it was all the mess in front of him, but it was the only match Jason could think of. Blood blossoms? Worth a shot.
He lifted a hand to his helmet. "Oracle, run a search for blood blossoms. B blossoms if nothing matches the first."
"On it. Batman and Black Bat are en route with a set of bolt cutters. No eyes on Masters at the moment. How's Brother Intruder doing?"
Jason snorted at the running joke and turned his attention back to Danny, brow furrowed. Danny was a mess; it wasn't just the blood. He obviously hadn't been allowed to move from this spot for weeks, not even to use a bathroom, and he'd lost a good bit of weight as well. When Jason pinched him, his skin stuck like that for a few seconds too long. He made a halfhearted murmur of protest without opening his eyes, curled in on himself like a bug.
Jason thought nonsensically of Danny sitting at their table and snatching every bit of food like he was stealing it.
"Kid needs food, water, and a bath, possibly not in that order," he said at last. "But not as much as he needs an antidote. Not sure he could handle anything but an IV line in this state."
"I'll call in Leslie."
In a rustle of fabric, Dick came and crouched across from Jason, looking down at Danny like an injured Bird. 'Course, Danny's puns and sly sense of humor had endeared him to Dick early on, and he'd been the second to insist on keeping him. (The first, oddly enough, was Alfred.)
"Find anything?" Jason asked.
"More poison," Dick said darkly, uncurling his hand to show Jason a few more vials of the foul stuff. "Not much else. This place is barren. Clearly not a planned retreat."
Jason considered. "Can I have one of those? For, uh, safekeeping."
Dick weighed the vials in his hand, then passed them all to Jason. Jason pocketed them. Even the close contact made him nauseous, the vials burning against his leg, but if he had his way, he wouldn't be holding onto them for long.
When he looked back up, Dick was regarding Danny's chains with a look of disdain and hatred. "If this is what he did to Danny when he was cornered, I'd hate to see what he'd do when he had Danny where he wanted him."
Jason grunted. Neither of them had any trouble imagining what kinds of things a weird old man might do with a kid he was obsessed with.
"Got something," Oracle said in his ear. Dick sat up. "Blood blossoms, nickname for a crossbred rose called the Witch Rose, used as a ward against evil spirits. Supposedly extinct, but we know how that goes. Unfortunately we'll need Zatanna if we want to know more. It's not supposed to be poisonous to humans."
"Any suggestions?" Dick asked grimly.
"He said it's corrosive? From that and our own tests, he should be dead already, which means he might have a healing factor. I say we take him back to the cave and put him on fluids. It might dilute the poison enough for him to fight it, especially if Masters has been dosing him repeatedly."
Dick paused, glancing down at Danny. "Are we operating off the assumption that he's not human now?" Danny huffed and whined in protest. It didn't do much to dissuade Jason from the idea.
"He could just be a meta," Oracle said fairly. "But there's something off here, and that might just be it."
Someone kicked the door in, making Dick and Jason both jump to their feet, getting between the door and Danny. But of course, it was just Bruce, flexing his bad mood. He'd taken the poison thing harder than anyone.
They'd just wanted to mess with the kid. If they'd known someone was after him, they'd've been a lot more careful.
Bruce went straight to Danny while Cass was still coming in the door, knelt down, and ran a hand through his hair.
"Hey," he rumbled softly, tilting Danny's head to try and meet his eyes. "It's okay. You're safe now."
Everything was muddled and hazy. Honestly, it had been for several doses now to some extent. But after expending so much energy slapping the window, then the last bit trying to answer the vigilantes' question, the muddled haze was rapidly deepening from rainy day to midnight fog.
Whenever people describe these kinds of situations, they always talk about 'black spots dancing in their vision' and 'limbs that felt like they weighed a thousand tons.' That's definitely not what Danny is experiencing here. Idly he wonders if everyone's just lying for the poetic prose, then briefly wonders if Mr. Lancer would be proud of him for remembering those terms. Because for Danny, there are no black spots. It's more like the world just starts going dim. It's kinda like that time a few years ago when Mom and Dad took him and Jazz camping in the path of a total solar eclipse so they could watch it. And his limbs aren't heavy. If anything they feel lighter. Light as air. Nonexistently weightless.
Everything is dim and blurry and floaty and it would almost be pleasant if the stupid Blood Blossom extract wasn't still burning it's way through his body. The... blue one? Danny thinks it's blue, but with how dim everything looks, he could be wrong. And he certainly can't think enough to try to recall vigilante names. So...
The probably blue one say something about Danny not being human. And that's scary. Danny doesn't know what they'll do with him if they think he's not human. So he tries to protest, but he can't find his tongue, so all that comes out is a huffy breath and a low whine. The effort to push out the noise makes a bubble of blood and bile start crawling up his throat. It'd probably come out faster if he had an energy left to cough or heave. Unfortunately, Danny is just going to have to lay here and let it slink up and out on it's own.
Something happens. Danny isn't quite sure what. It happens too fast for his stupid, sluggish brain to keep up with. He thinks there might have been a noise? Like someone slamming a door 6 rooms away. Then there's just a blur that might be movement from the vigilantes. And suddenly there's a figure there. Bigger and broader than Vlad; speaking in soft, deep tones while running a hand through Danny's dirty, matted hair.
Dad? No, Dad doesn't love him anymore. Not since Danny told him and mom the truth about Phantom. Mom cried that day. And Dad had looked so wounded telling Danny to leave, get out, just leave and never come back. So it shouldn't be Dad. Unless Dad changed his mind? Maybe Dad decided he could still love a ghost of his son. Or maybe he changed his mind about not being able to hurt one. Did it matter? Saved by vigilantes, saved by Dad, dead by Dad, dead by Vlad. Did it matter anymore? How much had Vlad given him in that last dose? Was it too much?
The room kept getting darker and now it was spinning too. Danny could vaguely see the outline of his hand where one of the vigilantes had put him in the recovery position, but he couldn't feel it. But he could feel the Blood Blossom extract, burning hotter and hotter with every pulse of his slowing, weakening heart. The bubble of blood and bile had finally made its way out of his esophagus, oozing out the corner of his barely parted lips with whatever meagre amount of saliva his body was still producing. Did any of it matter? Did any of it ever matter?
More things are happening but they don't matter. Danny can't tell what's going on anyway. Everything is dim and blurry and floaty and burning and aching. Danny is filthy and cold and hot and hungry and nauseous and exhausted. But there's a hand in his hair and a faint rumble that could be a voice in his ear and figure that might be Dad and something wrapped around him like a blanket. And Danny is exhausted. And none of it matters anyway.
Danny’s consciousness kept slipping out of his grasp like sand in a sieve. The only non poison addled part of his brain knew it was important for him to stay awake. That did not make it any easier.
He could hear the muffled sounds of his vigilante saviors. He could tell they were growing more frantic but he couldn’t decipher any words. That’s not good. Even maybe-Dad seemed stressed. Danny wished he could offer a comforting word or reassuring pat on the arm but his tongue was a useless piece of fluff in his mouth and his arms were so heavy. That wasn’t good either.
Jason watched in horror as Danny was cradled limply by Bruce while blood trickled out of his mouth.
He was going to kill him.
Dick tried and failed to keep his voice calm “Danny?!? Danny please don’t got to sleep okay? You have to stay awake!”
Jason was going to kill Vlad. He’s sure of it.
Bruce was stock still for a moment.
“Jason?” He asked.
He was going to kill him.
“What?”
“The chains” Bruce was terribly quiet with his request.
Jason obliged, breaking them with the same speed and efficiency that he was planning for Masters.
Bruce stood with Danny in his arms and started towards the Batmobile. Cass followed just as somberly holding one of Danny’s near lifeless hands.
“Do we have any more information on blood blossoms oracle?” Dick said now following Bruce and Cass.
Jason knows he should follow them. He knows that he’ll want to be there when Danny wakes up.
But those vials of poison were burning a hole in his soul.
“Nightwing hold on.” Jason tossed one of the vials to him.
He caught it with a quizzical look on his face.
“For testing. I… need to go do something.”
Nightwing knew.
“Hood. Please. Right now we need to make sure Danny is okay.”
It was Jason’s turn to keep watch. He quietly approached Damian who was currently holding a silent vigil in an armchair across from Danny’s bed. It had been two days. Forty eight hours of the kid’s unconscious body being hooked up to monitors. His heart rate was low. So was his temperature. Whether or not that was the because of the poison or something to do with the supposed healing factor he had was beyond him. It clearly wasn’t enough to fully flush the poison out of his system. At least he was stable.
Bruce and Tim were the only ones who did not take a shift watching Danny. They were working around the clock to try and find an antidote to this poison. They only stopped to patrol in order to keep up appearances. Then Dick took over trying to find any information.
Damian stretched as he left then paused.
“… you will tell me if there is any news right Todd?”
“…yeah. I will.”
“…thank you.”
Jason settled into his post.
“This is the quickest I think I’ve seen Robin warm up to someone!”
Jason remembered Dick’s comment on one patrol or another.
“I think he found his boldness amusing.” Dick mused.
Jason notes how Danny’s blankets have been straightened out carefully and Titus has been sent to sit at the foot of his bed.
Jason really was going to kill Vlad.
Tim returned with urgency to the bat computer. Looking to Dick as they traded places for the day. He was met with a forlorn shake of the head. Nothing.
Ugh.
Tim hates this. This was the part of the job he supposedly excelled at. But for three days! Three days and no headway.
He was brought out of his research loop by the ding of the sample analyzer.
Tim looked at it slowly and vacantly as if moving too quickly would scare the lead away.
“Tim?”
Bruce did not receive an answer. Tim was engrossed in the readings. They had taken two samples of Danny’s blood. One immediately after he was brought back home, another a day later.
“This is… is it?”
It looks as if his blood is comprised of blood of normal human composition, something that looks like Lazarus water but more concentrated? And of course the offending poison. The second sample was more concerning. The levels of the poison were slightly lower while the other levels were significantly lower. Leaving a mixture that looked more like Lazarus water than the initial sample.
It was clear that he needed more of the concentrated Lazarus water and he had lost too much blood. He was fighting the poison but was far too weakened by the prolonged torture.
“He needs a blood transfusion.” Bruce said looking over Tim’s shoulder.
“What’s his type?”
Bruce squinted. Never a good sign.
“O negative.”
Great. The one with the lowest amount of recipient compatibilities.
“Are any of us a match?” Tim looked into the medical files of all the family members.
“Jason.”
Bruce had all of his kids’ blood types memorized but Jason’s always made him the most nervous. It was unfortunately fitting, it gave him the least amount of options to get out of a bad situation.
“Did you retest his blood since the uh, changes he’s gone through?”
“…No.”
Jason sat in burning silence. The only thing that broke through it was the slightly labored breathing of the kid.
He hates this. Having nothing to do. Just sitting there waiting for something to happen. It’s the worst.
“Todd?”
Jason’s head snapped up to look at Damian.
“Aren’t you supposed to be on patrol?”
“Father has gotten a lead. You are needed in the bat cave. I will watch in your stead.”
Jason didn’t wait to fully get the reason why. Finally something he can do.
Everything was explained. Of course he and Danny would have the same blood types. And of course Jason would have given him his left kidney if he had to.
He sat down. “My left arm’s an easier stick.” Jason said as Alfred prepared what was necessary for the transfusion. His comment did raise an eyebrow from the older gentleman.
“The league of assassins ran a lot of tests. I-”
“Did you see any of the results?” Tim interrupted prompting a moment of palpable silence.
“… no Tim. I wasn’t really in it for most of the time I was there.”
“Oh.”
“…”
“Hmm” Bruce said quietly staring at Jason’s blood sample
“What?”
“Its just-”
“FATHER!”
Damian was shouting from his post.
“Jason stay there. Alfred, don’t stop.”
Tim followed Bruce up to where the call came from.
“He’s…melting!”
It was true. He was melting. Danny’s extremities were melting, slowly slumping into a pool of green goo. Why was he melting?
There was no time answer those questions. The results of Jason’s blood didn’t matter anymore either. Bruce had to do something. The transfusion, It was their best bet and they were out of time.
“Alfred!”
“Right here sir!”
As luckily as one could consider it, Danny’s arms were still intact enough to have a successful transfusion.
Five vans peeled into view, rocketing around the curved road fast enough that they visibly tilted through the turn. They all bristled with weaponry.
Cass felt her lips press into a faint line. She glanced at Dannybaby: scared. I knew it. Here they are.
They didn’t have to talk about it. The three adults stepped out and put their backs to ring Danny, facing outwards to the threat.
“Shoot the racks,” she commanded. The mounted weapons. She didn’t like that. She pulled out a batarang herself and squinted to find her aim. The construction? Sloppy. Exposed wires. Weakness.
A gun cocked. “Aye aye, captain.” Jason hefted a gun in each hand and started shooting as the vans screeched to a stop in a circle around them. Bang! Sparks flew where he hit. Cass and Dickiebird did the same with quieter precision, slicing wires and leaving projectiles sticking into the metal monstrosities. Electricity sparked. Just in time: machines whined as they were powered on. One gave out with a huge bang! The van attached to it jolted as the machine punched a huge dent into the roof. White smoke floated away, clouding the nighttime scene with a chemical stink.
“Whoa,” Danny breathed.
She felt a twinge of satisfaction.
Jason hit the last set-up with a bang! Bang! Then his foot scuffed across the pavement to knock against Danny’s. Check, you’re here, you’re safe, you’re little.
“They’ll come out!” Danny warned.
He was right. Doors clicked unlocked all around them and men in white suits piled out, futuristic looking guns aimed at the little group.
She felt a twinge of disbelief. “Can’t shoot,” Cass said. No way. So dumb. They were in a circle. Friendly fire, new concept to losers??
They shot. She hit the ground in a roll and trusted that everyone else would. They did. She turned her head to see that one agent was down from friendly fire. There was no blood as he was lifted off his feet and blasted backwards against the van he came out of.
“Ghost scum!” howled one of the suits.
“We knew it!”
The victory in their voices set her blood boiling. Cass launched herself to the closest opponent and took him down with a nasty hit. She whirled on the next one, two mean hits. Go, go, clear the area! She heard feet scuffling and weapons whining as they fired, fired, fired on the boys.
She took number 4 down as the smoke was starting to clear. She heard a pained oof from the center, where Jason and Dickiebird were blocking Danny.
“Jason!” Danny said. He sounded very young. “Oh, shit.” Cass cast a frantic glance over at his posture and sucked in a breath even as she bulleted towards the next opponent. Determined. I have to do this. Here we go!
No, no!
Jason was down. Dickiebird was darting between Jason and the man actively firing. Danny was pale. He opened his mouth. He put his palms out. He flashbanged.
She blinked away stars and slammed a man’s head into a van before he could aim at her. Slam, slam, drop. She stole another glance. Danny was- Danny had white hair now and he was flashing green light at their enemies. Hm. She couldn’t afford to watch. Cass bared her teeth, angry.
Air sizzled: GIW firing wildly. Guns fired: Jason was still conscious. Danny yelped: what?
Cass didn’t dare look more. She moved faster than Batman could ever, brutally taking down these criminals with disdainful ease. They had nothing but numbers and lasers.
Green shot past her vision. She traced it back: Danny! Her eyes went wide. Wow. He had some kind of organic blast, like Starfire. Very useful!
It wasn’t enough. Danny screamed. She heard him hit the ground. Sizzling.
She howled, wordless with fury. She tackled the next agent and cracked his head against the pavement. Only two more. She flung a batarang down the barrel aimed at her and then yanked the weapon away to brutally jab the air out of the agent’s diaphragm. Cass tossed it at him as he fell. Solid thunk. It hit his head.
The last man tried to say something, white teeth flashing in the gloom. Her ears were closed to it. The only language she spoke right now was violence. She used it to get him down and wrench him into zip ties. She could hear Dickiebird talking his soothing sounds at Danny baby. Cass wanted to go there. Cass wanted to soothe him. She wanted to see his hurts.
But she had to secure the area. She rushed around to the groaning and crying men she had put down. She immobilized them. The foolish ones tried to get up as she approached. The smart one (and there was only one) held his hands out, eyes wide in the night. He talked at her. Beseeching, reasoning, she just doesn’t understand. You’re like me. Not like them.
Cass snarled. She understood just fine. She pressed his face into the ground harshly, fingers digging into his jaw. “Shut up,” she gritted out. She left him with effort, ignoring the mean impulse to smack him.
All the boys were on the ground. There was no blood. Eyes open. Not dead.
Something in her gun unclenched.
Dickiebird looked up at her from where he was supporting Jason, sitting halfway with a grimace as he holstered his guns. Hands shaking. “He’ll be fine!” Danny pressed his body against Jason like he was trying to absorb his body heat. His hair was black again and his eyes looked tired. “He, uh, it’s shock,” Dannybaby babbled. She knelt to rub at his back, silently encouraging the explanation. “They basically zapped his ecto, stopped circulation. It should start up again in a few minutes and he’ll feel fine.”
“Get off,” Jason grunted. He shoved at Dickiebird. Weak. “I feel fine.”
Lie.
“I feel drained,” he admitted. “But fine. Just weak. I can stand.” He struggled to stand, biting his lip. He swayed only slightly. “Man,” he cursed under his breath. Jason cast an unhappy look at the 14 agents groaning on the ground, on their bellies like the worms they were with hands ziptied at their backs. “Not my best showing.”
“Next time, you could dodge,” Dickiebird suggested lightly.
“You’re lucky it got him and not you,” Danny snapped. “Didn’t you see that guy go flying?”
Tense. Dickiebird paused. Smile. Soothe. “I’m only teasing,” he said. “It’s fine, Danny.”
“None of this is fine!” Cass swiveled her head to make sweltering eye contact with the scumbag who was cutting in. He was bold, for someone with his cheek digging into the rocks and cement. “By the authority of the US Government, you are required to submit these ecto-entities for testing and capture into our custody. Release us, or face dire consequences!”
Cass looked at him. She felt hate. Disdain. You’re nothing, you’re a worm to me.
“They’re telling the truth,” Danny whispered. “It’s, uh, it’s legal.” He looked haunted. He rubbed at his chest: some memory of sharp pain.
Dickiebird snorted and slung an arm over Danny’s narrow shoulders. “Maybe by US laws, but Oa has jurisdiction that supersedes. This was a clear case of assault.” He gave an unpleasant smile. Big brother. Big angry. Guard dog at the door. “I’ll make a call.”
The next minutes felt very long. Cass pressed Danny’s face into her shoulder so that he didn’t have to make eye contact with the fallen agents. She stroked his hair with her free hand, boiling inside with fury.
Dickiebird called. A Green Lantern answered: coming.
They waited. Jason said he felt better. His body said: mostly better. But strange. They ignored the threats and complaints from the GIW men on the ground.
Hal Jordan came, with one more Green Lantern that Cass didn’t know. He gathered up prisoners in a green veil. He talked with Dickiebird. He nodded, and left.
“I wanna go home,” Danny said quietly. “But I think that we need to get Jason to my doctor. He’s really not right. It’s… It might be time sensitive.”
I'm so obsessed with canon Mr. Lancer. He's a gamer. He dresses in drag. He's fat with lots of body hair. He has a vanity plate of his own last name. He was Casper High's first male cheerleader. He's committed tax fraud
The only acceptable trans Tim headcanon would be Tim introducing himself to the batfam as a boy from the get-go with such confidence that no one questions him. Then, his first solo case as Robin is investigating the disappearance of Jack and Janet Drake's "daughter," so he pretends to have a twin sister by forging a bunch of documents and photoshopping family pictures. He then fabricates evidence of her death, committing multiple crimes in the process, and holds a fake funeral at the end. Because if his previous name is dead to him, he's gonna kill it the Tim Drake way
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Danny Fenton loves his parents.
he does, really! sure, he cringes when they tell him about their newest project, he chuckles under his breath when someone at school pokes fun at their latest failed attempt at catching Phantom, whatever. Danny Fenton loves his parents.
Sam is at a gala in Gotham, bored out of her mind. She’s snuck away from the main area. Hiding out in an alcove she’s complaining to Tuck and Danny through her earpiece. They start taking about the latest weapon Danny’s making for her. She’s getting a scythe that can be concealed as a charm on her bracelet.
(This kind of bracelet but instead of mundane charms it’s like one of those pocket multi-tools but in bracelet form that can resize each charm)
Damian also sneaks away from the gala and to the same alcove, Sam is hiding in. When he hears what's being said, he hides in the shadows.
Sam senses someone near her but doesn't even stop her conversation and continues talking about the design of her scythe. Whoever it is, she wants to freak them out.
Sam: So Danny, my scythe has to be like this:
(The scythe from RUBY, I am not about to describe this sorry, switch the red to black and the black to deep purple)
Sam: Mostly black with purple accents.
Damian: *internally* A weapon of that caliber, I have to learn everything.
Sam: My new charm will be so sweet.
Damian: *internally* Tt just a charm.
Sam: *continuing* My rents won't even know it's another weapon and not just a new charm. Ghosts won't know what hit them. No one knows I'm armed to the teeth they just see a gothic charm bracelet. Your tech is the best.
Sam is fiddling with her bracelet and pulls off a knife charm. It resizes into a small pocket knife she uses to pick her nails. Damian zeros in on it. Damian impulsively steps into the alcove.
Damian: you have weapons that resize? I would like to purchase them.
Sam clocks all his hidden weapons.
Sam: Hmm yeah alright kid. All your weapons are easy to spot. Good for a beginner but having them in plain sight fools everyone.
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This was not supposed to be this long. It just kept getting longer, just kept going. I found a cut-off point eventually, but there may actually be a part 3 to what was supposed to be a very short little piece. Whoops. (part 1)
Jason never had the time to be concerned about his words when he was young. Neither did anyone else around him. His dad couldn’t be bothered with anything to do with him, and Jason would have been surprised if Willis actually knew what his words were. His mother was more confused by them then anything else, and even then that was only in her rarer sober moments.
Then Jason moved in with Bruce. Dick wasn’t around much when he lived in the Manor. He had just started tolerating him when Jason had died. Dick probably knew what the words were, but they had never discussed it with each other, and Jason couldn’t begin to guess what his opinion was on them back then.
Bruce used to entertain his fantasies of trying to think up different scenarios his words could be said in, both of them trying to make the funniest good outcome. It became a game they played when bored on stakeouts, obviously keeping the contents of the words private while playing. To be fair, there were a lot of good and funny scenarios. But they lived in Gotham, and Jason had experienced enough of the world, even at that young age, that he understood the likeliness of a bad scenario.
And then he died. And he didn’t think about his words for a very long time. Too busy training and plotting. Busy coming back to Gotham, enacting his plans and building a criminal empire. He barely remembered them himself until he was back in Gotham, operating as the Red Hood, with a trail of bodies behind him.
Assassin training, heads in a duffel bag, counts of arson, and leader of a gang, Jason was not the same kid he used to be. There were few scenarios in which his words could be said that he couldn’t come to understand. And he was at a point in his life where he could find room for a soulmate again. He was settled, secure as the anti-hero of Crime Alley, tenuous agreement with the Bats and all. He had even been by the Manor to have tea with Alfred.
Arkham breakouts were old hat to everyone in Gotham. Citizens bunkering down, and Bats readying themselves to round up whoever made it out this time. However, this was the first Arkham breakout since his plan with Bruce and the Joker failed. The first since his agreement with the Bats to use non-lethal means. When Jason heard that it was the Joker that had broken out, he planned to kill him, truce be damned.
The Bats could probably deduce that, it was too soon into the truce for any real change to have been made. And this was the Joker. So now it was a race to see who could get to him first.
Luckily (in this instance), Jason’s base is much closer to Arkham than the Bats. So while they are all stuck driving in from the better parts of town, Jason is already chasing the Joker down alleys.
Joker is laughing, practically skipping away as if this is a game, and Jason almost loses him as he turns a corner he didn’t see. Jason can hear the Joker laughing, starting to speak. Probably to taunt him again. Then the sound cuts off with a choke and a thud.
Jason turns the corner to see Joker laid out flat, nose bleeding and neck at a funny ankle. A choked breath escapes him, and he looks around to see a man leaning against the alley wall.
The man’s hands are shaking, breaths choppy, and there's a bit of blood on his right hand.
Jason takes a deep breath, which causes the man to look at him out of the corner of his eye. Jason takes in the scene again. And then again, hardly daring to hope even with the evidence in front of him.
“Is he dead?” Jason asks softly. The man turns to face him, and Jason takes a glove off and slowly, hesitantly, checks the Joker’s pulse.
“Look, in my defense…” The man trails off, looking to the heavens for a moment. “I really fucking hate clowns.”
Jason, hope fully settled in as the Joker remains still and lifeless on the ground, pulse non-existent against his fingertips, almost laughs. Then his brain does a record scratch. Rewind. Replays the words ‘Look, in my defense’ over again, head shooting up to look at the man who just killed the Joker.
Jason takes his other glove off, standing. He takes a step towards the man, pushing up his sleeve. The man seems nervous at his advance, watching him warily until Jason uncovers the words on his arm. The cover falls to the ground behind him as he takes another step forward.
The man’s eyes light up in realization, and he also rushes to push up his sleeve. One more step forward and they are right in front of each other. Arms held up, brushing together as they show each other their marks.
Left forearms pressed together in the space in front of them, one reading ‘Is he dead?’ and the other “Look, in my defense.’.
The man laughs and Jason takes in the sound of it, the happiness in his eyes as he looks up at him. Jason slowly reaches up to remove his helmet, domino still on underneath it, and lets it fall to the alley floor as well.
“You’re amazing.” Jason breaths out, hand reaching up to cup the stranger’s, his soulmate’s cheek. “You have no idea what you’ve just done for me.”
“Little bit of manslaughter.” He laughs. “Didn’t think it would be received this well.”
Jason smiles in response. “I would worship you for this, if you’d let me. I will never stop thanking you.”
“Oh.” The man gasps, breath hitching. Jason, one hand still on his cheek, thumb stroking underneath his eye, places his other hand on the man’s waist and backs him up to the alley wall. Deliberately slowly, watching the man as he takes a deep breath, licks his lips, and lets himself be moved.
“Tell me your name and I’ll start right now.” Jason whispers.
“Danny.” The word is breathy and low, only heard due to Jason’s close proximity.
“Danny.” Jason repeats his name like an anthem and a prayer. Prepared to give his life for this man already. And then kisses him, pressing his lips to his softly, reverently. Wanting to hold this moment forever.
Look, I don't know if you can tell, but I really like soulmate AUs, okay. Also, writing something exactly 500 words is more annoying than I thought it would be, but was a fun experiment.
Lightly inspired by this post.
Edit: there is a part 2 now!
Danny's parents were never concerned about the words on Danny’s wrist. Given their occupation, they thought Danny would meet someone while studying, or perhaps even lecturing on ghosts, or maybe as part of some other job in the future. Jazz has always been concerned about the words on Danny’s wrist. This is probably the normal reaction, given most people do not surround themselves with the dead.
Danny himself was concerned about it for a while. But then he died. The amount of death surrounding him at all times, what with his parents’ study of ghosts, practically tripled after that. And suddenly the words ‘Is he dead?’ were a lot less concerning. Because in his life, oftentimes the answer was yes.
Not that he was always around dead bodies or anything. But the company he kept did include a large amount of ghosts and other ectoplasmic beings, that while they were not dead, weren’t technically alive either.
So, Danny moved on with his life as normal. He knew what his words were, but was never actively listening for them. For a few years there he was barely hanging on to sanity, battling ghosts and trying to graduate high school.
Eventually, life calmed down. His parents, unfortunately, died in their own lab accident. Danny was in his senior year at the time, and Jazz took a semester off of college to help him graduate and get accepted at university himself. Then they shut the portal down and moved on from Amity Park.
Jazz went back to Yale. Danny, who did not make high enough grades for that, went to Gotham University. It was there that he discovered he actually really liked college. School was a lot easier when he wasn’t fighting for his life all the time, and this time he got to take classes he was actually interested in.
By the start of his second year, his life was looking up. He was majoring in mechanical engineering, and he loved all his science classes. He had a somewhat decent apartment, and was living without much worries on the money from selling his parents’ house. Gotham is not the best area, but it can be a really cheap place to live. And he didn’t see Sam, Tuck, or Jazz as often as any of them would like, but they were all happy where they were.
Which makes the current moment much more distressing than it would have been in his teenage years. As Danny looks at the now-dead body in front of him, then turns and presses his forehead into the alley wall. He’s seconds away from banging his head against it, but that would only give him a headache and would in no way help the current situation.
The vigilante standing across the alley, on the other side of the body, did not move for a solid minute upon rounding the corner onto the scene. Then he asks, in a voice distorted by tech, “Is he dead?”.
Imagine a ghost hunter or just someone who believes all ghosts are evil ranting on live about how bad ghosts are, and there phone is suddenly snatched into the air and Phantom flies away with the camera and goes “Shut up and let me show you something important” and then he puts the phone down in an unknown location, leaves, and comes back with a group of ghost blobs. He kneels down in front of the phone and starts listing their names and habits. Examples:
“This is Casper, Casper thinks first aid kits are edible. He is wrong and I keep finding bite marks on my first aid kit no matter where I hide it.”
“This is Raven, she likes to nap on me whenever she can and pick fights with orange cats.”
“This is Orbit, they’re convinced that I’m their child and treat me as such.”
If you know the videos of animals making their noises but almost sounds like human words? - That being said, if little Danny did that with is little mrrp's, what would would he try to say?
Im curious- Because I wouldnt know myself unless he tried <3
he can be a little e̵l̶d̵r̶i̸t̵c̸h̶. as a treat (:
After discovering weird energy readings coming from the Pit located underneath Gotham, Batman decides to check it out.
Arriving at the scene with Robin, the first thing they notice is not any escaped Arkham rogue or Assassin from the League like they had been expecting.
No, instead, next to the pit sits a random exhausted-looking guy. Next to him are studying materials which he seems to be working on, and he’s also holding a straw that’s dipped straight into the Pit, occasionally taking a sip.
Danny looked up when he saw two shadows begin to look over him. Seeing Batman and Robin? He let out a sigh. Dammit. He'd been hoping to not be disturbed. And it had to be by the Bat. Most paranoid person on the planet. Fucks sake. He waved vaguely and took a fortifying sip of the ecto. It was a little off. But his core could filter it, so whatever. He started to pack up his study supplies, once done he leaned back on his hands and raised an eyebrow at the vigilantes.
Danny: You just gonna stand an stare or what?
Batman had to take a moment. Because he knew the sorts of effects a Lazarus Pit would usually have. This teen? Was displaying none of them. He was actively drinking Lazarus water. Without being effected by them. This was something new. Unexpected. He didn't like this. He also didn't like the fact he had been spotted.
Danny: I have night vision. If you're wondering how I spotted you so quick. Look. I have midterms next week. Can we get this over with? Aerospace engineering and Astrophysics isn't an easy course load.
Batman made sure Robin stayed in the shadows behind him. As well as ensuring Oracle was recording and watching them. In case they needed back up. Then he allowed himself to step forward. They seemed un-threatening for now yes. He wouldn't risk getting too close either way.
Batman: What are you doing drinking Lazarus Waters?
Danny: Lazaru... Never heard it called THAT before. But sure. Lazarus Water. We call it ectoplasm in my neck of the woods. Due to an accident in my teens? I require it to survive. And if I'm low on energy? It acts like a boost. Like caffeine almost. So, heavy course load, much studying? This is helping me focus and not cry into my books.
Batman: Ectoplasm? As in, the anti Ecto acts we took care of last year?
Danny: Yup! That's the one! I mean, this Ecto is a bit different to what I'm used to? But my body filters the impurities so it's fine. If I couldn't it would be bad though.
Batman:... That makes you someone from Amity Park then? A 'Liminal'?
Danny: Yup. That's the one! You really do your research huh? So. Can I go back to studying now? Or do you have more questions my background check to get into Gotham U would explain?
Danny laughed as Batman tried to do his usual disappearance trick. Oh sure, for anyone purely baseline? He wouldn't have noticed. But Danny? Saw everything. Funny guy. At least he hadn't outed himself as Phantom. Just a Liminal. Like everyone his age to varying degrees in Amity. Heck, anyone Jazz's age and under. Kids seemed to bond to Ecto easier. Probably all the uncontrolled emotion.
---
Oracle began to search of there were any other Amity Park natives in Gotham. Finding only five it was easy to deduce who their oddity was. They were all part of the group who managed to break through the blackout to ask for help with the laws. Interesting.
Oracle: Well. I found our mystery. Daniel 'Danny'. J. Fenton. Here to study the courses he mentioned. Top of his class. Living with friends and his sisters. We should do a chem analysis of pure ectoplasm vs Lazarus water.
Batman:... Understood.
Oracle: I'll have a full report done soon. Be safe out there.
Robin: We should have Black Bat check the footage. I read no deceit in his body. She will be able to verify my thoughts.
Batman: Hm. Yes. What else did you notice?
Robin: He wasn't afraid. Totally assured that he was safe. He either believed you would not attack without reason. Or believed he could escape if you tried.
Batman: That was my read as well.
---
Danny flopped onto the sofa of his apartment and sighed. Sam and Ellie say on top of him, causing him to let out a grunt. Tucker and Jazz just laughed. The bastards. He turned intangible and floated through them. Making sure to make himself as cool as possible. Seeing them both shiver he grinned. Vengeance was his!
Tucker: What's got you so grumpy?
Danny: Batman interrupted me studying! And he found the ecto pool I told you about! So now every time one of us goes to fill up he's gonna bother us!!
Ellie: Eh. It's basically a vitamin for us. What's he gonna do? Make us starve?
Danny: Tch. I know! But it was so weird! Totally cute how he tried to Hide Robin from me though. In case I attacked or whatever. He literally shuffled the baby bird behind his cape. Then stood in front of him.
Jazz: Aww. That's kinda sweet. Anyway. What else did you find out?
Danny: Apparently, the ecto pool? Gets referred to as a Lazarus Pit. How pretentious is that!
Sam: Ohh. Spooky. Bet some magic user named them. Or some old rich guy.
Ellie: A rich old magic user?
Sam: Very true. Could be both!
Danny: I should probably just suck it up and build an Ecto condenser. So we can have it here. But I don't really want raw Ecto in the apartment.
Jazz: Hm. I agree. Not unless we get a lead lined storage box. No more food fights. It has been a blessing.
It has to have ghosts on it. If he's using a novelty straw? It needs to be ghost themed. Which? When looking back on the footage later? Will make Bruce twitch slightly. As half his kids giggle happily. Oh, of course a Liminal would use a ghost novelty straw to drink their ghost medication. *Deep sigh*.
But Danny "commit to the bit" Fenton doesn't care about practicality. The bit takes priority. Especially if he finds out how batsy reacted to the straw. He's definitely ordering more.
However the Fenton thermos he stores his 'to go' ecto in? Now that has ghost stickers on it.
The stickers glow in the dark if there's ecto inside
Danny gets the rest of them to do it as well. Any time one of the spots a Bat? They pull out and Ecto smoothie, stick in a straw. Then maintain uncomfortable eye contact while drinking. Bruce hates it. Tim and Steph? Are loving it. The Amity Parkers do nothing to hide this weirdness. All five of them have multiple ghost themed items. It's hilarious.
After midterms are over? Tim probably drops by their apartment. Just lands on the fire escape and knocks. Pulls out his chemical analysis of Lazarus Water vs Ecto and starts asking questions. Red Robin will not be denied this knowledge.
Danny would absolutely love to share he thoughts with Tim on the intricacies of Ectoplasm ans Ectobiology.
Tim would probably ask what it's like to be a Liminal and Danny would just say, "Uh, I don't know dude why are you asking me? Should you already know?"
"What do you mean?"
"That kid, Robin. Has he ever attacked you out of nowhere even when it seemed like he was in a good mood? And did he ever seem disappointed when you didn't fight back?"
"Yes..."
"Does he have a protective streak when it comes to his family and those he considers his?"
"Yes again."
"Does he like to hyperfixate on one specific thing, like a hobby or a skill, bordering on an, Obsession?"
"Wait a minute..."
"Yeah the Kid is definitely a High Level Liminal. Must have spent most of his life around Ectoplasm, or Lazarus Water, or whatever you want to call it. He's on the same level as I was when I was his age, and I grew up eating food that was so contaminated it literally came back to life."
"Wow. Uh, you think anyone else in our group is a Liminal without us knowing?"
"Well, it's not as strong as with the kid, but I can sense that you're slightly liminal yourself. If any of you guys have ever died before, then you should probably get some blood work done. It's not healthy for a Liminal to go without Ectoplasm for a while."
"Huh. Well that's news. What do withdrawl symptoms look like?"
"On the milder side, it's always hyperfixation. Staying up days in a row to complete a task, not listening when other tell you it's a bad idea, refusing to cha ge your mind. That sort of thing."
"...and the more extreme end?"
"Outright Aggressive episodes. They see anything and everything as an insult, Especially if it is related to their Death. Liminals are more emotional than baseline Humans, any hangup they had before they died or got contaminated will come back up again in spades. An Argument that never got resolved, an action they never got to take, any feelings of resentment will burst into the Open at the first provocation."
"Well, this is not what I was expecting to find out when I came to talk to you. I just wanted to talk shop with you."
"Eh, you always find out the most insane shit when you aren't expecting it. My little sister Ellie? She's a Clone of me that my Godfather made during a depressive episode, where he wanted to have a kid but didn't have a spouse. It was a Quite a Day when I found that out!
Tim rocking up with capsules he's already created for each family member based on the blood samples he tested. For everyone. ESPECIALLY Jason and Damian.
Danny has to get Jason and Damian Ecto safe straws and thermos. Jason's has his name in sparkly pink glitter. Damian's has his name in Nightwing blue. Both love their smoothie thermos. The entire bat family? Have a few weeks where they have to adjust to being healthy. Alfred nearly cried when Master Tim began to sleep properly! Master Bruce as well!
A month later Bruce is acting more chill (still serious just less grumpy) with the justice league and actually smiled at some of their antics and the rest of the JL are left wondering who this shape shifter imposter could be, flash is wondering if his last time travel made the best or worse timeline. Meanwhile Bruce has just been taking his daily dose of supernatural antidepressants… and is feeling significantly better than he has since he was 8.
Clark and Diana absolutely drag him to one side to question him. Clark knows this is Bruce. They did all the scans for shape shifters. And he has the right heartbeat. So that leaves mind control, drugs, or Bruce deliberately fucking with the League. As his best friends? It is their job to find out which it is and support him.
Now, you can't just ask someone of they are being mind controlled. But they have contingencies in place for this. Codes to exchange. Bruce answered each code correctly. So they share a glance and nod. Drugs or fuckery. Bruce smirks, his contingency plans are useful. He shall emote smugly.
Clark: Bruce? Have you uh, been affected by any pollens? Gas attacks? Anything?
Bruce:... No. Death is apparently less binary then we believed. Death energy clings, even if you revive. Neglecting the.. Supernatural needs I didn't know I had? Was negatively affecting my health.
Diana: How did you learn this?
Bruce: Gotham is now home to several dozen 'Liminal' humans. They have been giving Red Robin the information.
Tim carefully titrates the doses for all the family. They're all so much happier and healthier now!
Then he starts working out doses for some of the Gotham villains as well. After all, those symptoms of ectoplasm deprivation match a good number of the weirder of Gotham’s villains too.
And remember that this is what happened to the Joker after he was put in a Lazarus pit:
It doesn’t last long at all, of course (it wasn’t a very good Lazarus pit), and you get the impression he really doesn’t want it to and that he prefers to be Like That, but it definitely implies that sufficient doses of ectoplasm do cause Joker to regret what he’s done.
It’s easy to enjoy thinking up ways to cruelly maim or kill the Joker if he is an unrepentant mass murdering arsehole. It becomes a whole new question if he is regretful, perhaps even remorseful, because it opens the possibility that he could repent. Would you still wish to deal a visceral and bloody retribution if the man you wish it on is no longer the same? Where does the rage go?
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"Great!" Danny says, clapping his hands together to get everyone's attention. The dinner table falls silent as everyone looks towards him. It's a full house today and, honestly, Danny's a little nervous. "I'm sure you're all wondering why I gathered you here today."
"It's dinnertime. In our house." Duke mutters, while doing a very bad job of concealing his yawn. He holds his fork poised over the braised beef, but, just like everyone else, still looks towards Danny before tucking in. It's intriguing enough to wait.
"Yeah, no one misses Alfie's dinner." Dick says, with a brilliant smile that Danny can't help but return.
"Precisely! What better time to talk to you all than when you're all actually here!"
"Wait, I thought you came round to work on our English essays?" Tim asks, blinking owlishly.
"I'm afraid I've lured you here under false pretences, Tim."
"This is where I live."
"I would still really appreciate help on that essay though, I mean, what the hell is Hamlet even about? I just don't get that old time-y language, like 'Hark! A ghost hath killed me!' - absolute rubbish, what does that even mean?"
"The ghost never kills anyone in Hamlet, he's there to tell Hamlet that he was murdered. Have you actually read it?"
"No, but it sounds like you have. Tim, I want this guy to help me with my essay instead. I know for a fact that you haven't read Hamlet, either."
"So? We don't need Jason, I've read the Sparknotes."
"Hi Jason, I'm Danny, pleasure to meet you, summarise Hamlet in three sentences or less."
"Am I auditioning to help you write your essays? I can't believe you’ve gone through your whole school life without reading it, it’s good!"
"Hamlet, along with a number of other classics, was banned in our house because it portrayed ghosts as intelligent and sympathetic beings rather than evil, animalistic beasts. I didn’t even get to see The Muppet's Christmas Carol until last year with Tim! But we're getting off topic. I—"
"No, no, please go back to that, because what the fu—"
"Boys, please." Bruce interrupts, looking to the world as if he wants to hang his head in his hands. "Danny, you were about to say something?"
"Oh, yeah, Mr. Wayne! Thanks!"
"Please, call me Bruce."
"Well, that very succinctly brings me to my point, because I'd actually really like to call you dad."
Nobody says a word. Nobody even blinks, all as shocked as the other, watching open-mouthed as Danny pulls his laptop out from beside his chair.
"Before you say anything, I've prepared a 69 slide PowerPoint presentation on why you, Bruce Wayne, should adopt me, Danny Last-Name-Pending. Please save your questions, comments, and verdict until the end, thank you."
"Well, Danny, that was an incredibly persuasive and almost scarily well-researched argument. Welcome to the family."
Bruce can't help the smile on his face as Danny whoops, jumping into the air with joy.
"Thanks, Dad, you're the best!"
Everyone claps and laughs and Bruce can feel his ears go warm as something like delight squirms in his belly. It's been a long time since any of his kids called him Dad. To hear it shouted so happily is something else entirely.
"When would you like to collect your things? I can send someone round to pick them up."
"Oh, don't worry about it! I have all of it here."
"But you just brought a bag?"
"Yeah! Well, technically, I've been homeless ever since my parents kicked me out. They didn't really give me enough time to pack anything, so all I have with me is my laptop, my spare phone, a change of clothes and the money my friend hid in one of the pockets."
"You're homeless?" Dick asks, his face scrunching up in concern. "Why wasn't this in the PowerPoint?"
"I didn't want you to call child services if you said no. Creepy Uncle Vlad would find me if I ever got put in the system and I didn't want to risk that. He once orchestrated a plane crash so that me and my bio-mom would be trapped with him for a week in a remote mountain lodge in an attempt to make her 'see the truth' about how they should be together and how we should be a family."
Again, there's complete silence at the table, where everyone just sits and processes. More than one of them look over to Cass, who nods her head. He's telling the truth.
"I hacked the school system so I could join without a guardian having to show up and sign my paperwork." Danny says, with an awkward grin.
Jason reaches over to pat him on the shoulder. "You're gonna fit in so well here, kid."
I'm just imagining Danny all light and confident as he merrily chatters about his pros. Oblivious (or at least feigning it) to the awkward tension in the room as he all but spells out that he knows the Wayne's biggest and most closely guarded secret. Then he gets to his con and pauses there for a long moment to make serious eye contact with everyone.
Then just moves right on, bouncing straight back to relaxed and chipper as he jumps into his next point about how Bruce won't need to worry about him getting kidnapped because Danny is very experienced in not letting that happen even in very public situations.
1. Absolutely love this, it's gold - Danny staring them all down, really hammering that point home, and then flipping straight back into his confident and happy presentation as easily as clicking the button for the next slide
2. Ur tags my friend ur tags!!!
Danny being so oblivious because that's just life for him and the Waynes watching on in dawning horror because what the actual hell has this child been through?? And he's smiling still??
"Danny, why is you having experience being kidnapped a good thing?"
"Please, no questions until the end, but I think you'll find that it states I have ample experience not being kidnapped, which is infinitely more valuable. You won't have to worry about me being held for ransom or hurt or anything like that because I am very difficult to capture."
For a second, Danny looks sheepish as he clicks onto the next slide. A large, three figure number counts down, rapidly cycling until it stops on the number 6. The first three figure number slowly materialises until the screen reads 6/137. Yes, the PowerPoint has animations, yes there are sound effects. Danny worked very hard on it.
"That being said, I have been successfully kidnapped and held against my will a grand total of six times, by several different people, entities, and organisations. No, Dick, I won't go into specifics—you have to be several levels higher in my friendship to unlock that particular trauma—but I will say that I escaped through my own skills, physical ability, and quick-thinking, all while keeping a smile on my face. You don't have to worry about me, as you can see my successful–to–failed escape ratio is very high. So, whether it's talking myself out of dangerous situations where propriety must be upheld, or physically fighting my way out, I'll be fine!"
"If anything, I'm going to worry about him more, now," Jason says, murmuring to the others so he doesn't get called out for interrupting him again.
Danny clicks onto the next slide, which has a blurry picture of him grinning and giving the camera a thumbs up. There's blood everywhere.
Alfred gets a half second glimpse of this title slide and, already knowing exactly how this is going to go, heads upstairs to begin setting up Danny's room. By the time Danny gets through all 69 slides, the room across from Damian's is freshened up and a couple things from Bruce's own astronomy phase when he was young have been pulled out. An old poster and an old but well cared for blanket with a Milky Way design.
Danny will, of course, have the chance to fill up the room with as much new Space paraphernalia as his heart desires. No doubt Bruce and several of Danny's soon to be big brothers are already planning the shopping spree. But even Bruce Wayne's money can't make the malls and shops be open this late at night. So that will have to wait at least until tomorrow. The things Alfred brings out of storage are to make Danny feel welcome and cared for tonight.
And it is exactly because of that intent that that poster and blanket become Danny's favorite things in the whole world.
This story is mostly inspired by Jaybirbie's prompt | Master post | Next?
"Hey, sweetheart?" Danny called, quickly jotting down the last sentence for his paper. He'd have to remember to go back and reread it and make sure he didn't trail off into another tangent. He swears he wasn't this bad at managing his ADHD back in Amity...
"Yes, Danny?" Damian asked, turning back from the door to face him as he scrolled further down the story he was reading. The familiar font of Gotham City's gazette blurred as a picture of Mr. Freeze and Penguin finally loaded. So that's what was going on. Danny should have known; the bats already dealt with the other usual rouges, and these two were next on the list.
"Can you walk with me? I just know Nancy and her boyfriend are out there, waiting. I really don't want to deal with them again... We could spend more time at my place? Tucker sent me another movie, and I'm unsure if I should watch it alone after last time." Danny pleaded, quickly shoving all of his papers into his bag. He'd deal with straightening them out later, it wasn't like his professors weren't used to his wrinkled essays at this point.
However, he should probably redo the blueprints for Workshop. Mr. Anthlow was a hardass, but nothing could compare to his anger when a student handed in wrinkled blueprints; he claimed he wasn't going to have another 'Tanner' incident on his watch, whatever the heck that meant.
He was not looking forward to whatever Nancy wanted to talk to him about, she looked excited. Which could only mean bad things for him; considering the last time she was excited, he ended up spending time with Bane of all people. And there was no way her boyfriend was just going to let Danny get away again.
Damian grimaces, finally looking up and away from his phone. "I'm sorry beloved..." he held up the device just in time to show an incoming text from his Father, "I promised Father I'd be home a while ago. And with what's happening down on-"
"It's ok, I'll just head out the back door," Danny cut in, seeing the start of guilt on his boyfriend's face. He knew how much Danny hated having to deal with those two, and the fact Damian hasn't been able to even introduce himself to them hasn't helped. With a smile, Danny scooped up his textbooks and made his way to stand in front of Damian, "They can't bother me if they don't see me!"
Unsurprisingly, Danny could feel the guilt grow and start to float around Damian as the boy glanced at his phone, the message tone sounding out again in warning.
Danny only met Damian's father once; it was just a simple shake of hands and sharing names before the man ran off, but it did leave an impression. The man felt tired and paranoid; like, to the point Danny kind of wanted to drag Jazz over and lock the two of them in a room, paranoid. (Danny wants to say he's never seen someone that paranoid, but he'd be lying. He looks in the mirror after all.)
The point is; Danny's only met the man once, but that was enough for him to know that the man would tear down the world if he thought for even a second that one of his kids was in danger. This meant, that if Damian didn't go and reassure his father that he was alive and safe within the next sixty or so seconds, then there was a possibility that there wouldn't be another date for at least another week.
And considering this "study date" was supposed to make up for the last one Damian had missed because of his Father? Yeah, Danny wasn't going to be happy if Damian got grounded or dragged into another 'surprise' family road trip because his father was convinced his children would be dead before the 'yearly' planned get-together in November.
They had a trip to the zoo planned for tomorrow, and Delilah was supposed to be allowed out with her kids. This would be Delilah's first public outing since her kids' birth. There's no way Danny was going to allow Damian to miss that. (he swears to the ancients, if there was a rouge attack he was going to kill someone, Dark Dan's future be damned.)
Lifting his heels off the ground so he could stand on his tiptoes, Danny snagged Damian's arm and pulled him down so he could kiss his cheek. "I'll get home safe, just focus on keeping your dad from going insane. We've got a date at the zoo tomorrow and we're not missing it even if your father becomes the next city rogue."
Damian wrapped his arms around Danny, trapping him in a hug as he sighed in fond frustration. "I promise I won't miss it, ok? I'll be there."
Danny rolled his eyes and pushed Damian back, dropping back to stand on the ground, "You better, 'cause hell hath no fury like a gorilla denied the chance to meet her human best friend's boyfriend."
Damian snorted, before looking away and pretending to cough. Danny moved his textbooks to rest more securely in one of his arms, so he could point at his boyfriend. "I'm not kidding, if I show up tomorrow and tell her all about my life and you're not there, she will break out and track you down. I won't stop her either, you'd deserve whatever she does to you."
"Alright, alright. I get it, and I already promised I'd be there didn't I?" Damian chuckled, raising his hands up in surrender. Which would have been cute if it wasn't for the fact that his phone went off again, this time in an insistent buzzing. His eldest brother's ringtone; which meant Damian was going to be busy for a while.
Cursing, Damian turned and answered, "I'm in the middle of something, this better be important Grayson," glancing back at Danny, he mouthed for him to wait a moment as his brother started talking.
Smiling, Danny shook his head, snatched Damian's jacket, and started making his way out the door. There was no way Damian would finish this phone call any time soon. Danny's learned not to wait after the last four times this happened. Damian turned back with betrayed eyes, but the urgent voice of his brother buzzing even louder held him back. Waving goodbye with a smile, Danny shut the door and started making his way down the hall.
He'd have to ask Damian what happened tomorrow, Grayson didn't usually call him, especially when he knew Damian was spending time with Danny. He said it had something to do with how it was sacrilege to interrupt time spent with a significant other. Danny had wanted to ask him more about it but hadn't gotten the chance when The Riddler crashed their spontaneous meeting.
Speaking of The Riddler, Danny's social science paper wasn't looking too hot right now. He'd have to block out a time for him to work on that at some point this week. He wasn't doing anything on Friday, well, besides his early morning classes. That should work...
"Hey, Danny!" someone called, pulling him out of his musing. Glancing up, Danny internally groaned when he noticed Nancy waving at him in sheer delight. Giving her a half-hearted wave, Danny sped up and continued making his way to the back of the library. If he was quick enough maybe he could-
To his dismay, Nancy's boyfriend stepped out from behind one of the shelves and latched onto his arm. Tightly.
Just great, this is exactly what he wanted to avoid. Curse his inability to pay attention when he got lost in thought. Damn ADHD. Blasted non-existent spatial awareness. This was what he got for relying on his ghost sense, he just knows it.
"She said hi, kind of rude of you to just keep walking, Kid." Wyatt huffed, roughly dragging Danny back and towards his girlfriend. Nancy smiled brightly as Wyatt let him go, allowing Nancy to weave her arm with Danny's and practically drag him toward the front of the building.
"There's this big party going on tonight, some Jr invited us. He said it was going to be a night to remember! You should totally come with us, Danny! My friend Shela said she was bringing her nerdy freshmen too! I just know you'd fit right in with them!" Nancy squealed excitedly, shaking Danny as they finally made it to the front doors.
One of the desk attendants rolled their eyes at them as Danny glanced over, hoping that Barbara might intervene. No such luck, she was nowhere in sight, probably off somewhere shelving books. So much for that plan.
"uh, thanks, but I already-" Danny tried, stopping when Nancy scoffed and yanked him out the door and into the frosty night. "Damn, it's cold!" Wyatt cursed, taking his jacket off and quickly handing it over to Nancy. She let go of Danny and pulled it on, then stared at Danny for a moment, "Put your coat on Danny, no way in hell am I letting my kid catch a cold!"
Rolling his eyes, Danny wrapped Damian's coat over his shoulders. He was too lazy to actually put it on, not when that meant handing his textbooks over. The last time he did that, Nancy got bored and started doodling all over them. (how she had managed to do that in the little time it took to put a hoodie on, Danny wasn't sure.)
"I just want to go home, Nancy. I'm not really a party person." Danny sighed, allowing Nancy to drag him down the dark streets. His apartment was in this general direction anyway. Nancy turned to her boyfriend with a huff, "Wyatt! make him come with us!"
"Let the nerd do what he wants, it's not like it affects us if he kicks the bucket all alone," Wyatt grumbled, rolling his eyes.
Ouch, but true. Please listen to your grumpy boyfriend, please listen to your grumpy boyfriend, please listen-
"But Shela said she was bringing Carly!" Nancy turned back to Danny, a pout clear on her face, "You two would be so cute together! she's nerdy just like you! And she's totally into all those murder mystery shows you watch!"
Damn it. Not this crap again.
"That's nice, Nancy, but I'm not interested. I already told you guys, I have a boyfriend," Danny sighed, trying to gently extract his arm from hers; for a human, Nancy sure had one heck of a grip.
"Yeah, right," Wyatt snorted, patting Danny's back, completely ignoring the fact that Danny was literally wearing someone else's jacket. "We'll believe you when you introduce us, until then. You're a virgin loser."
And there we go, people; the reason Danny wanted to crawl into the sewer and die whenever he saw these two. They were nice, don't get him wrong, but they were also stubborn idiots.
"Being a virgin has nothing to do with my relationship status, Wyatt. I'm ace. you've known this since the first time we talked." Danny grumbled, allowing Nancy to drag him down another street. He wasn't sure exactly where they were going now, but he was too tired to care at this point.
If these self-claimed 'Parents' of his wanted to drag him to this stupid party, then fine. Whatever. It's not like Danny had any other plans tonight anyway.
"Asexuality isn't a thing man," Wyatt huffed, speeding up so he could guide them in the right direction now that they were heading into a rougher patch of buildings. Danny could see the man was shivering, though trying to act tough in front of Nancy. Smirking, Danny sent a cold breeze his way. The man scowled up at the sky, cursing quietly.
"Yeah!" Nancy agreed, smiling brightly down at Danny without a care in the world. Like they didn't have this conversation every other week. "You just haven't met the right person yet, Danny! And I know how awkward it is to admit that you're staying celibate until marriage, but you don't have to hide it behind being ace."
Taking a deep breath, Danny closed his eyes and focused on not shouting out of frustration. The celibate comment was new, the acephobia, not so much. "Ok, first of all; Asexuality is a thing, which many people ARE. Literally, 1% of the world is ace. That's over 70 million people. Second of all, I'm not celibate, and I'm not sure if you even know what that means, considering you know I was raised Atheist."
"What does being an Atheist have to do with celibacy?" Nancy asked, tilting her head to look at him. Danny groaned, smacking his forehead against his textbooks. He was NOT going to explain this to them tonight.
"You know what, Nancy? It doesn't matter." Danny huffed, trying again to gently pry her hands off. He wanted to go home. He wanted to cuddle with his boyfriend. He wanted to go back to Amity. Maybe go to the realms and play with Cujo. He did NOT want to deal with these idiots.
Wyatt stopped walking and turned to face them, rolling his eyes as Nancy pouted at Danny. "Come on babe, let the loser go. He obviously doesn't appreciate your efforts."
"but who else is going to convince him to live a little? He's just going to go back to his apartment and sulk by himself!" Nancy cried, tightening her grip again.
"Who cares what the kid does, Nancy? let the dude die a virgin loser. Now let's go, we're already late as is."
"But I really want him to-," Nancy tried, cutting herself off, as both she and Danny spotted a cloaked person appear out of the shadows behind Wyatt.
Wyatt lifted his brow before slowly turning to see what the two of them were staring at. The cloaked figure suddenly whacked him over the head with a metal pole before he could fully turn around. Wyatt's body dropped to the ground with a heavy thump, making Nancy scream, "Wyatt!"
Shit, Danny stepped back, trying to pull Nancy with him as the cloak dude tossed the metal pole to the side with a loud clank. Which was confusing, why would he through away his weapon?
"Shut her up!" the cloak dude cried, bending down to grab Wyatt's arms. He better not be telling Danny to do that, because that would just be stupid and- Suddenly, a dozen more cloaked people flooded out of the darkness and surrounded them. That answered Danny's questions at least.
Danny tensed up as a couple of the people tried to grab onto him. Quickly pulling Nancy back, successfully this time, Danny glanced around to try and find an exit. He couldn't do anything crazy right now, not unless he wanted to give away his secret, but some self-defense should be fine.
Nancy suddenly let go of his arm and smacked one of the cloaked people in the face, "Don't you fucking dare touch me! Wyatt! Kid, get out of here!"
Danny turned to her in alarm, eyes wide in horror as she quickly disappeared into the cloaked crowd. Another cloaked person managed to latch onto Danny's shoulder, reminding him to focus on his situation. Quickly stepping back, he slammed into the man grabbing him, knocking his grip loose. Ducking under another attempt, Danny swung out his leg and tripped the dude into two others.
Twisting to try and make his way over to where he figured Nancy was, Danny dropped his textbooks and punched someone in the face. Damian's jacket was yanked off his shoulders, making him turn with a growl. Punching another person in the face, Danny lunged at the group.
"Hurry! before the bats find us!" the supposed leader cried, making even more cloaked people surround Danny. There was no way a normal civilian would be able to fight their way out of this, so Danny would have to allow himself to be caught soon. Only after biting and scratching the fuck out of them though. Just because he had to let them catch him, doesn't mean he has to make it easy.
~30 min later
Danny stared at the leader as the man droned on and on about needing the right sacrifice for the ritual to work. Nancy and Wyatt grumbled behind him, agreements from the other kidnapped victims filling Danny's ears like bees.
"The sacrifice shall be the one who treads the veil between life and death, the one who's beloved by the spirits as their own! He shall be pale as a corpse, his body kissed by death many times throughout his life. His hair as black as the sky on a moonless night, cradled by the moon since birth." Mr. totally-read-one-fake-ritual-book-when-he-was-a-teen-and-now-has-to-make-it-everyone's-problem droned on dramatically, reverently dragging his finger down the old dusty tome's page,
"so Mr. Wayne?" Nancy huffed, pressing her back into Danny's side. Wyatt chuckled, shoving his foot into Danny's knee, "No, it's totally Mr. Drake he's talking about. Have you seen that dude's eyebags? they make him look like a ghost."
One of the strangers leaned over, rolling their eyes, "No, it's got to be Mr. Dent. The dude's literally half living half not."
"No, Two-Face is half insane, half burnt chicken. Ain't nothing about him going to please ghosts. He was a fucking lawyer, for Christ shake." another guy added.
"the dude said 'he' which crossed out half of y'all," Danny added, glancing at the group around him. The women blinked and then rolled their eyes; only in Gotham would they get kidnapped and not actually be needed.
"Assholes," Nancy huffed, she glanced over her shoulder and down at him, her face set into a frown, "You good, kid? you're like freezing cold."
"I'm fine," Danny huffed, focusing back on the leader. He could just feel the old magic rolling off the book; this was something dangerous, especially in this dipshit's hands. Ancients, he was going to have to do everything he could to keep the man from actually doing the ritual or mess it up if the bats didn't get here in time.
One of the cloaked people suddenly dragged a camera out from a side room, grumbling about networks and livestreams being shit. Huh, well that would definitely help provide their location to the bats. They must be really inexperienced cultists then...
"The sacrifice shall fall into our hands by fate's design. The sacrifice is here and waiting for what his whole life was meant for. Now-"
"Elder!" one of the other cloaked figures cried, waving their phone in the air in excitement. Dread quickly filled Danny's stomach.
"All the bats and birds are busy dealing with those scoundrels they call rouges! If we hurry, we can complete the ritual before they can interfere!"
"Perfect!" Mr. 'Elder', cheered, slamming the tome closed and handing it off to one of the others. "So?" Mr. Elder started, turning to face them with a sharp grin, "Who's it going to be?"
Danny glanced at the group behind him, all of them having gone silent as the cloaked group started pulling out their ritual things, one of which was a very blood-stained knife.
Mr. Elder started circling them, humming and hawing as he studied each one of them. He stopped next to Wyatt, studying him intently.
Quickly weighing his options, Danny straightened up and glared at the man, "I'll be your sacrifice."
Immediately Nancy leaned away from him with a gasp, Wyatt's foot dropping to the floor with a thud. "Danny, no!" Nancy hissed, turning her body so she could face him. Danny didn't glance at her, just continued glaring at the cultist. The cult leader laughed, "Well then. So it shall be! You heard the sacrifice, tie him to the chair!"
With everyone watching, all Danny could do was tense as four of the followers walked over and pulled him up. "No!" Nancy shouted, leaning over and grabbing onto him. Wyatt reached out to Nancy, wanting to pull her back. The men tensed up, ready to interfere. Quickly pulling back, Danny frowned at Nancy and Wyatt, "I'll be ok, just don't do anything stupid!"
They harshly pulled him up and away again, before Nancy could reply. And because he was already pissed off, he made it as difficult for them as possible as they dragged him to the wooden chair. The camera person focused the lens on them, recording it as they shoved him down to sit and wrapped a bloody rope around his limbs.
So much for thinking they were inexperienced... They've done this before, he knows now. How many times? He wasn't sure, but if he had any say in it after tonight, they'd never do it again.
Once he was securely tied to the chair and gagged, because Danny couldn't help himself but insult them, the cultist started preparing the ritual. Why they hadn't done so beforehand, Danny wasn't sure; that is until one of them sliced a deep gash into his right arm and collected his blood into a bowl.
With a grimace, Danny watched as they mixed his blood with black paint and started drawing a circle around him. The camera dude stepped closer and practically shoved the camera into his face. leaning back, Danny glanced between the camera and the people drawing with his blood.
Suddenly, his arm tingled with ectoplasm, making him panic for a second. he can't heal the wound! not with all the people around him and being recorded! Shit, what had Vlad done last time?? Uh, right! core smothering. He could just smother his core to stop his body from healing. Man, acting like a civilian was a pain in the ass.
Glaring up at the camera now that he wasn't as panicked, Danny watched as the dude stepped back, pulled out a paper, and started reading out loud. "GOTHAM! tonight you shall join us as we summon the most powerful being in the world!"
Did he seriously need the paper just to remember that?
The leader stepped forward when the circle was complete, "Now!" His voice echoed around the silent warehouse, startling the other kidnapped victims. The cameraman turned and focused on him, stepping out of the circle altogether. Danny watched the kidnapped people out of the corner of his eye, wanting to make sure they weren't hurt during this whole fiasco.
"Let us begin!" the leader cheered, suddenly gripping Danny's shoulders tightly. "Join me as we summon our lord and savior! The great tyrant of the dead! The embodiment of war and bloodshed! The one named PARIAH DARK! THE HORRIFIC GHOST KING!!!!"
Immediately, Danny was both completely terrified and amused. He had been worried that they were going to try and summon some great evil demon, not the fucking old tyrant. He could fight Pariah any day of the week.
No, what terrified him was the fact that because Danny won the right to the crown by defeating Pariah the first time, he had no idea what this summoning was going to do. Was it going to work like they wanted and summon Pariah? cool, great even. He can deal with that, might have to reveal his ghost powers if the fight got dirty, but nothing too bad.
or was it going to summon him because he was the king, and if so? how? Would that even work considering he's the sacrifice? would he just disappear and reappear? This could lead to a lot of questions Danny was NOT ready to answer. Gaslighting everyone here into believing he could fight Pariah as a 'meta' human would be easy, convincing everyone that he's not the ghost king or a ghost AFTER getting summoned; not so easy.
The leader released Danny from his grip as he walked over and snatched the tome from one of his followers. Snapping the book open, the man started chanting without warning, pointing at random people to notify them when it was their turn to start.
It was like watching a school play; all the student's doing as they were taught as their teacher directed from the side. Cultist A slammed the bowl of leftover blood on the ground, splattering the black remnants all over Danny and the circle. Which was gross, Danny was going to have to burn this shirt, because there was no way he was going to get this stain out. Cultist B tossed salt at Danny a few minutes later, smacking him in the face with the small white crystals. Shaking his head, Danny glared at him. Cultist B threw the salt again.
The leader's smile grew as he continued chanting.
Seven other cultists joined in the chanting, waving their hands up and down as their voices echoed around them. Danny glanced nervously around the warehouse, hoping he'd spot one of the bats. This was being broadcast, they should be on their way at the very least.
After another minute of looking, Danny glanced back at the other kidnapped victims. Nancy was balling her eyes out, burying herself into her boyfriend's chest. Wyatt was staring at him with wide eyes, clearly unsure about what to do. Probably feeling guilty because they both knew the leader was going to choose him. A few others were looking away, clearly fearing for his life. The rest watched on, trying to show him through their actions that they were there with him till the end. (whether he 'died' or not)
It was weird, but Danny had to give it to them; Gothmites were badass. He doubted anyone in Amity besides his friends would have been brave enough to watch what was happening. Even if they didn't know if he would live or not.
His core crackled, making him choke a little as he finally felt the pull of the summoning. Well, that's just great. Shaking his head, Danny tried to clear his throat. The summoning was making him feel weird and he did not appreciate it.
The chanting got louder as one of the people walked up to him, holding the knife in a white-knuckled grasp. Danny eyed it wearily, glancing between it and the rafters above. Where the hell were the bats when he needed them???
The cultist kneeled before him and raised the blade, slamming it down into his chest right as the leader stopped chanting; Danny gasped, more out of surprise than pain as he stared at the knife. The dude gave him no warning that he was going to stab him. Usually, cultists slit people's throats, right? What the fuck was up with stabbing him???
His blood slowly bubbled up and around the knife, slowly staining his shirt red. Yeah, there was no way in the realms he was going to be able to save this shirt now. Man, he had liked this one too.
He could hear Nancy's sobs turn to wails as the cultist yanked out the knife and handed it to the leader, who Danny just now noticed had joined them in the circle. His blood started gushing down his chest with every beat of his heart, again he held back his core. (what does he do now??? faint? scream? how do normal people react to getting stabbed?????)
"Take this lowly sacrifice as a sign of our eternal loyalty, and grace us with your presence! Your humble servants plead that your godly ears hear our prayers! Join us in this mortal realm and bequeath us your power and name to rectify the sins of our brethren!"
Ok, first of all Danny was no where near lowly you piece of fuck-
Danny's core pulsed, sending out nauseating pain up and down his spine. Gasping, Danny leaned as far forward as he could, trying in vain to grasp at his chest without using his powers. His core crackled, striking a blinding flash through his brain. The echoes of his death crawled up his left arm, waking the old dead nerves into firing signals at his brain.
Danny couldn't help himself, he screamed as the pain grew worse and worse. His thoughts turned hazy, his body cold as his core pulsed again. His heart stuttered and then froze, his core flooding his body with freezing ecto not a moment later. Absently, he could feel the wash of ectoplasm crawl over his body, changing his body minutely. He didn't transform, but he definitely looked more ghostly than human.
All the pain disappeared a moment later, allowing Danny to slump forward, his head hanging low and blocking his face from view. His chest did not rise in ragged breaths, nor did his fingers twitch with life. His mind was still sluggish and clouded with something, making it nearly impossible to think. Squeezing his eyes shut, Danny tried to focus.
"Your Highness?" someone asked, their voice too loud as it rang in Danny's ears. His core pulsed, another flood of ectoplasm flooding his body. His eyes slid open again, allowing him to see the green glow lighting up his chest and lap as he stared down at them.
Slowly, Danny lifted his head, his bright green gaze locking with the man in front of him.
Next?
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