My Permanent Hyperfixations

——

After he shoved Pariah Dark in his coffin shaped locker what what Danny hoped to be for all of eternity, the half unfortunately inherited all of Pariah’s responsibilities.

“What was it again? With great powers comes great responsibilities?” Danny let his head hit the table with an audible thunk. He’s in his “office,” the ghost zone’s approximation of where he might be able to do work seriously. The house- the extension of his haunt- had added the room right next to his bedroom. Danny had to lift all of the paperwork from Pariah’s castle (that’s now also a part of what’s considered Danny’s but he doesn’t think about that) and move it to his main haunt.

He prayed to the universe at large to let him off. Danny hated doing homework- science not withstanding because at least he understood that- let alone an asshole’s centuries worth of work. Danny bemoaned the fact that he was elected the King. He didn’t even defeat Pariah all by himself, so why couldn’t the others do it?!

Not because it's too powerful or anything like that.

No.

No, because while he can't hear it, apparently Ghostly Wail sounds like the screams of loved ones dying. It's his death scream, but it distorts when others hear it.

Instead of him, they hear their loved ones.

So no, he's not hiding it because of an 'Oh the darkness inside of me you wouldn't understand, this pain I bear' middle schooler syndrome thing, he's hiding it because that's really, really fucked up.

Until one day, he and another hero are in a trap.

The villain has accounted for everything, all of their powers or gadgets, except the Wail.

So.

Danny turns, looks at the other hero, and gives him an apologetic look.

AKA "Homeless-Danny-in-Gotham trope but he doesn't realize the Gotham Public Library is not as secure as Tucker's network. The Batfam are... concerned about Danny's search history." DPxDC prompt idea.

Okay, so I keep seeing tropes where Danny gets stuck in Gotham for whatever reason - Clockwork shenanigans, portal accidents, dimensional travel, etc - and immediately finds the Gotham Public Library. Which is great. But I give you this: Danny's best friend has an internet network more private than the Fortress of Solitude. Danny, Sam, and Tucker have practically admitted to war crimes via Tucker's secure line. So, it doesn't really cross Danny's mind that using the public internet at the library would be traceable.

Thus Barbara Gordon, otherwise known as Oracle, comes across several strange inquires during her periodical browser history checks.

Guest user: where is got ham

Guest user: where is gottham city

Guest user: gotham city nj to amity park il

Guest user: amity park il

Guest user: Link selected: r/AskReddit/missing-cities-in-america

Guest user: Link selected: r/AskReddit/What-To-Do-When-Flash-Changes-The-Timeline-And-My-City-No-Longer-Exists

Guest user: who is flash superhero

Guest user: Link selected: Wikipedia/Justice-League

Guest user: how to contact justice league about possible dimensional travel??

Guest user: how to undo dimensional travel diy wiki how

So... that's kind of suspicious. Barbara checks the cameras to find a black-haired and blue-eyed kid sitting at the computer that matches the IP address for the Google search history. Then rewinds the cameras, from the time the kid sat at the computer to the time to when he came in the library entrance; she picks through city surveillance footage until she sees the kid falling face-first through a Lazarus-green portal into an alley.

Welp.

Jazz: Pictures or it didn’t happen!

Danny explains the third generation war between the cheese and the hotdogs, telling her about a brutewurst spy among the masses inciting rebellion, but was caught and publicly executed, but there was something more brewing underneath.

Danny: Her royal cheesiness brought in a broccoli lover.

Jazz: No!

Danny: Yes, and she conspired not only to take over as Reagent but to Also end the war with a weapon so powerful the hotdogs and the asparagus had no choice but to concede.

Jazz: Not the asparagus! They just settled in and haven’t even established a hierarchy yet!

Danny, solemn: I know, the squash and tomatoes didn’t take kindly to their place in the vegetable drawer, they were taken captive and sold as replaceable warriors.

His tale gets interrupted.

Jason Todd: What the hxll are you two talking about?

The Fenton siblings look at each other: DND Campaign.

I feel like a food based dnd campaign would be a great cover if they want to talk about their favorite soap opera.

Danny: By the way, the eggs were slaughtered last night. Found their remains all over the fridge walls, detective ham believes it could only be the work of his arch nemesis, the sleeping turkey.

Jazz: Ham and Eggs, a classic pair. But sleeping turkey is too obvious of an answer, think he was framed?

Danny: Don’t know, sleeping turkey’s being detained as we speak and get this, the pineapple slices are advocating for sleeping turkey’s release.

Jazz: Suspicious…..

Ghost of a Getaway

Danny Fenton had no idea how he kept ending up in these kinds of situations. Seriously, he’d just wanted to cash a check. That was it. No ghosts. No Fenton gadgets. No life-or-death hijinks. Just a normal, painfully average trip to the bank to get some of that elusive thing called money.

And yet, here he was, sitting in a dark, room that smelled like permanent marker and suppressed judgment, with the Batman looming over him like a disappointed cryptid.

It had started, as these things usually did, with a gun.

Some twitchy guy in a ski mask had pulled a weapon on the poor teller, waving it around and screaming about money and something about needing it "for his iguana’s medical bills." Danny hadn’t really caught the specifics. What he had noticed was the guy’s finger tightening on the trigger a little too much for comfort.

So Danny did what any rational, non-powered teenage half-ghost would do.

He kicked the guy in the knee, punched him in the throat (thank you, Jazz’s self-defense classes), and body-slammed him into a conveniently located security desk. The weapon skidded across the floor, the bank patrons screamed in confusion, and Danny just sighed, already sensing that his day was going to be a disaster.

He didn’t mean for anyone to notice, but apparently, “average teenager disarming an armed robber using martial arts and excellent instincts” was suspicious enough to warrant Bat-level attention.

And now here he was.

Batman was pacing. Danny had mentally tuned him out five minutes ago.

“You moved with precision,” Batman was saying, voice gravelly and judgmental. “Too precise for someone without training. Who trained you?”

Danny stared blankly.

Batman leaned in. “Are you part of the League of Assassins?”

“…I’m sorry, the what now?”

“Do you have ties to Ra’s al Ghul?”

“Is that a skin condition or a salad?”

The Bat’s scowl deepened. Danny could tell this wasn’t going well. His ghost sense hadn’t even gone off once, and yet somehow this interrogation was more nerve-wracking than any ghost fight.

Then Danny’s eyes flicked over Batman’s shoulder.

Outside the one-way glass, framed perfectly in the narrow slit of the vented window, was a massive, winged blur of black flapping across the skyline.

An idea bloomed. A very stupid, very Danny idea.

He straightened in his seat and pointed just past Batman.

“LOOK! A MURDER!!”

Batman turned immediately, a Batarang flashing into his hand like some sort of judgmental ninja magician. His stance shifted, body coiled to strike.

Outside the window: crows. A lot of them. Swirling like feathered chaos.

Fun fact: a group of crows is called a murder.

Danny was already slipping through the shadows the moment Batman turned. Intangibility would’ve made it easier, but he had a point to prove. This was all human effort. Pure Fenton mischief.

By the time Batman whipped back around, batarang still clenched and eyes narrowed, the chair was empty. The room was empty.

There was no trace of the teenager who had been sitting there moments ago.

On the table, scrawled in a black Sharpie (liberated from the detective’s desk), were the words:

“Murder you very much. –D”

Batman stared at the writing.

Then at the window.

Then back at the writing.

He pressed a button on his cowl. “Oracle. Track the suspect. I’ve lost visual.”

Barbara’s voice came through, laced with disbelief. “You lost a teenager?”

“He used... a murder.”

“A murder?”

“Crows.”

“Oh my god. He pun’d his way out of your interrogation.”

“…He did.”

Danny, now several rooftops away and laughing to himself, pulled up his hoodie and slipped into the shadows.

“No one ever expects the pun,” he muttered proudly. “Batman included.”

He paused. “Though I’m pretty sure I just made Gotham’s Most Wanted… over bird wordplay.”

Danny: I managed this by just being widely disliked enough that nobody noticed or cared lmao.

Duke: Uh... But how did you explain the injuries?

Danny: Again, most people didn't notice or care. And most of the people who did were already in on my identity.

Danny: But I did end up accidentally convincing a few people that I was being abused.

Stephanie: Okay, but weren't you actually being abused?

Danny and co: *being chased by an unfortunately slightly competent GIW*

Danny, in human form: "Fuck it, I've killed before" *aims for lethal shots*

Danny is a homeless street rat laying low in Gotham when he notices that the local crime lord/anti-hero is suffering from ectoplasmic corruption. Danny is in-hiding but he can’t just let someone suffer when he could help. He comes up with a plan to help without revealing his nature as a half-ghost. He builds ecto-blasters for the Red Hood, calibrated to siphon off the corrupted ectoplasm.

Jason: "You are disgusting. That apartment is for my kid."

“This is sooo not fair!” Danny huffed while dramatically falling in his bed “it’s like no one around here ever watched a hero’s fight on TV. Every time I show up it’s either an emergency and I have to save Sam the Cat from a tree he climbed before the poor thing falls or the ghost hunters are going to be on scene already and start shooting on sight! I never get to do my evil villain monologue. Lord of the Flies, I only managed TWO evil laughs EVER! And one of those times my voice cracked in the middle, which sooo embarrassing! What’s the fun of being a supervillain if the heroes won’t even let me give a proper monologue” Danny pouted while turning to lay face down on his pillow.

“There, there” Tucker patted his friends head in solidarity, “there’s still a lot of fun to be had anyway. Remember that time we raided the GIW’s HQ and put neon orange paint on their laundry soap? Their looks of despair and cussing for the month it took to replace their clothes was priceless!”

“… yeah, that was funny” Danny answered muffled by the pillow.

“Right! And besides it’s not your fault no one knows villain x hero etiquette around here.”

“Yeah, but it’s like they are singled me out!” Danny said turning his face around “every other ghost gets to do their monologue. Box Ghost starts to give a monologue and everyone just listens politely before fighting him! It can’t even be ‘cause I’m a halfa or they wouldn’t let Vlad do his evil speech. Moby Dick, even FREAKSHOW gets an uninterrupted evil speech and laugh, the guy isn’t even a ghost! Just some random creep with more time than sense” Danny groans.

“Being a villain means you don’t have to adhere to the conventional rules and can just do whatever though” Sam remarked from where she was laying on a nearby puff “I say let the heroes worry about being ‘polite’ and just do your thing” she gave her two cents.

“Yeeaah” Danny groaned long suffering “but what I wanna is to give my monologue. I got it all wrote out and memorized, even got my act down to a T in the mirror. It’s just… I worked so hard on it, I spent more time and effort in this than on all my lit homework from this entire year combined”

“That’s not something you should be proud of” Jazz remarked dryly from the open door as she passed the hallway.

“It just Frankensteins so much I don’t ever get the chance show it up!” Danny finished as if he was never interrupted in the first place.

“Sounds like it’s the heroes who are the problem-“

“As always” Sam interrupted Tucker’s musing.

“So… what if you tried another hero? One who would follow basic courtesy like letting you talk before the battle?”

At that Danny sat up to look at Tucker in interest “you mean like make another hero, like me and Cujo got Val to become Red Huntress?” He seemed to give it some thought before shaking his head “no, with Val it was a ‘right person at the right place’ kind of thing, I can’t just go around trashing people’s places and works to hope one of their kids takes up a cape and is more polite than the rest of the town heroes, that’d be rude.”

“Well yeah, but what if you just went up the territory of another hero? Like, you can swing by Gotham and put a ‘kick me sticker on one of the Waynes or something, that’s bound to get Batman’s attention and everyone says the guy is super polite and a great listener! All the goons and officers-“

“You just said the same thing twice” Danny chimed in and high-fived Sam.

“-who appear on interviews always talk about how the bat does everything in silence and how much attention he pays to details. The guy would be delighted to have a new villain in his city, I’m sure he is starved for new material as far as villain monologue goes.”

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Sam immediately shot down “Gotham is the most gothic city EVER! I will NOT, have either of you visiting it without me, so not until summer vacation, which will take forever!”

“GOTHAM IS ALSO THE SECOND MOST CRIME-INFESTED CITY ON THE COUNTRY AND I DON’T WANT MY BABY BROTHER WALKING AROUND THERE UNSUPERVISED!” Jazz shouted from her room across the wall.

“Oh yeah, that too I guess” Sam agreed.

“Fine, so not Gotham. Central City?” Tucker proposed.

“Are you crazy? The Flash is the fastest hero EVER-“

“That’s debatable-“

“It’s really not”

“He will not even give me time to open my mouth before we start to throw hands! Star city?”

“I mean, Green Arrow seems like a total Moby Dick, not sure he wouldn’t immediately start shooting. Cost City?” Sam countered and proposed.

“I mean… isn’t Green Lantern like a space cop?” Danny scrunched his nose “that’s like a super GIW, right?” The three thought for a second and shuddered at the image.

“Right… so moving on, how about Metropolis?” The three thought for a bit.

“I mean, Superman is an alien, right? I’d love to meet him!”

“Metropolis is supposed to be the unholy child of a Hallmark movie and a cartoon for little kids where everyone is polite and sweet and stuff, you can keep that to yourself and please do not include me on it.”

“The main villain there is Luthor, so no worries of stepping on another person’s toes. To heck with that guy, he puts paywalls on EVERYTHING.” Tucker grumbled.

“…” Jazz said nothing, which is close enough to agreement for them.

“So it’s decided, I’m going to Metropolis monologue to Superman!”

“Yeah, the Boy Scout won’t know what hit him!”

“… wait, do you think he was an actual Boy Scout when he was a kid? ‘Cause that’d be pretty cool”

“Nah, there weren’t boy scouts back when the old time heroes like him were kids”.

___________________\\_________________

Danny made good time to Metropolis. As a ghost he could turn intangible to avoid any air resistance or drag while also reducing his mass to zero. And, as he is creating his own propulsion by just thinking it, that means he could travel much faster than sound without worrying about causing problems for anyone. Really, his biggest issue is that if he goes too fast things get kinda blurry and it’s pretty easy to overshoot your target, so he had to stop to get his bearings and backtrack more than once, but he still made it to the city!

Upon arriving Danny took some time to go sightseeing as he likely wouldn’t get the chance during his fight. Took a few photos sat upside down upon the globe of the Daily Planet to put on his twitter, ate a hot dog, went intangible to Lex Luthor’s office and pantsied him right in the middle of a meeting, you know, normal tourist stuff. Feeling good about himself he decided to move to the harbor as it’s far away enough that his fight with Superman shouldn’t get in anybody’s way.

He then did some (unneeded) stretches and jumped a bit to loosen up, then did a few quick voice exercises he wrangled from Ember so his monologue would go perfect.

He was just about to kickstart his fight by doing the most heinous villain act of his entire career that would be sure to get Superman down ready to throw hands. He carefully picked the wrapping of his hot dog and was ready to throw it (on the street! Not the sea, he’s a villain, not a monster) when he heard a crash from behind him. He turned curiously to see the reason and- WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK!

If asked later, Danny would freely admit that this was the fastest he ever flew because that was Superman and that was a pregnant woman he was punching in the air, the heck-

He fortunately managed to cross the distance in no time and overshadowed Superman harder than he had ever overshadowed anyone before. Immediately upon entering the body he felt a foreign wave of terror slam into him with such an intensity that it almost made his vision wave before he gritted his teeth and forcibly threw it at his core to convert in more ecto. Now in control he wasted no time in flying up and scooping up pregnant lady gently.

“Oh man. Lord of the Flies, what! Who just- dude, yeah, pregnant woman scare me too since that bio class, but- What- Who does that! That’s- that’s messed up Sups. That’s a pregnant woman, dude you can’t just- the HELL!” Danny panicked while he felt the conscience of Superman in the back of his head gradually get his bearings with growing horror.

“Okay, okay, that’s- that’s not fine. She needs a medic and- Frankstein, this looks bad. I never saw someone’s guts before, but- okay, calm down Fenton, keep it together. A hospital is not fast enough I will just-“ now actively throwing his own anxiety and fear at his core on top of Superman to keep from panicking (too much) Danny took a deep breath and laid his hands on the woman’s side over her ribcage.

Being in Superman’s body is disorienting and frankly an experience Danny could do without. He was already used to holding back his own strength, but his was kinda a “mind over matter” deal with him being as strong as he could believe himself to be, Superman though… it was like there was no resistance whatsoever; air, flesh, bone, it all gave the same minimal resistance and if Danny wasn’t used to going intangible he was sure he would have already crushed this woman’s chest by pressing too far. His vision was all wrong going too far and under the skin with the flex of muscles he didn’t have and it was too loud and-

Deep breath. It’s… fine. Send the panic attack to core, we have no time for panic now. ‘Not the first time you had to get used to powers mid-emergency Fenton, keep yourself together!’. With a last deep breath Danny focused back in the pregnant lady on his arms. He never saw anyone’s inside before, but he could take his cues of what is around the bruised spots and that didn’t look right, her heart also seemed to be beating too slow from what he could hear and there was blood and-

“Right!” He took another deep breath “my vision is changing so much I might as well be blind and she is so close to death that no doctor would be fast enough to save her. That’s… fine, I’ve beaten worse odds. If Frostbite can be a doctor I can heal her. Let’s just… stitch her up… from the inside. That’s… fine”.

Without knowing well what to do Danny awkwardly sent some ectoplasm on the woman’s body and “felt” around organs until he came upon what felt like a misshaped closed fist growing and shrinking in uneven intervals, figuring that might be the heart he used his untrained telekinesis to press and pull it in a somewhat regular interval. Since his sight wouldn’t help him anyway with how it couldn’t choose what to look at nor how closely he closed his eyes and tried to block all his senses, focusing solely on his ectoplasm.

He felt a second kind of energy running through Superman’s body besides his own. One that was warm and strengthening for a lack of other words. In impulse he tried to divert some to join the flow of ecto going to the woman’s body, but it resisted being diverted, whatever it is it’s course was too rigid for it, different from his own free-flowing ectoplasm. Not willing to just give up Danny directed some of his own energy to “dip” on Superman’s and collect some before re-joining the flow, which… worked? Better than expected even as the heart he was forcibly pumping seemed to all but soak on the warmth infused ecto and start mending up.

“Right” thought Danny “I can do this” a determination that seemed to echo his host as he could feel a wave of decisiveness from him and what felt like him deliberately trying to pull himself back to be as unobtrusive as one could be on their own body.

Now with a route in mind Danny got to work, using his ecto “touch” to try to feel around the woman’s body from the inside and awkwardly make things work however felt right. When he felt a pool of what he assumed to be blood outside the veins he telekinetically scooped it up and pushed it back where he felt a burst or sliced vein before stitching it up with a thread of ecto he then solidified inside the body. Bone was pulled back in a form that felt right-ish, torn muscle awkwardly pressed back together, still-

“I can’t see!” He cried out “I can’t see what I’m doing, where things are how bad it is, how-!”

In the middle of his latest panic he felt a flash of determination from his host and a sudden focus razor-sharp and intense focusing on the eyes. It did nothing against his overshadowing, but the message was clear nonetheless.

“You want to control the eyes?” Danny asked dubiously “you are not gonna laser beam her down are you?” The presence recoiled aghast and then turned back to trying to control the eyes “this is a terrible idea”, but despite his best judgment Danny still relented and pulled back his control over the eyes, Superman immediately took over, opened them and did… something? Like pulling a muscle and relaxing another while focusing somehow into a certain depth and suddenly Danny could see the bones of the woman and the surrounding bits of muscle and organs consistently. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth he proceeded to direct his ecto to put those back in a somewhat right way, now with a lot more confidence and knowing better what he is doing.

On the on they went, looking for parts that seemed damaged and putting those back together, the ecto keeping things in place and the warmth making the body heal much faster, when they got to fixing the damage to it. The fetus in particular seemed to soak up on the warm ecto like a sponge to the point that Danny had to spend more time ensuring it hadn’t eaten up his previous work than actually fixing it. At many times Danny had to redo his earlier work now that he could see where he messed up, but gradually they got the woman’s body back in one piece that looked right-ish. In the end of the impromptu procedure Danny cautiously let go of the hold he had kept on her heart pumping it and it kept beating, albeit on a different rhythm than the one he guessed.

Finally, with a sigh of relief, Danny disentangled from Superman’s body, figuring the local would have a much better idea of the best hospital to take his former victim(?) than Danny. For a moment the three stood floating there without knowing what to do. At some point what looked like Wonder Woman and Green Lantern had flown to stand near them, but thankfully hadn’t interrupted. Now that he wasn’t actively blocking out outside stimuli to concentrate anymore he could even spy what looked to be Batman on the ground near what looked like the cross of a sports car and a tank “probably the Batmobile” he reasoned.

He could see Superman gearing up to say something, so he spoke first.

“Right” Danny clapped his hands in front of him “so, I did what I could, but I’m really not a medic, or a nurse, or - strictly speaking - good at biology, so… you should probably get her to a doctor asap. I would recommend mine, but he doesn’t really come to this dimension a lot, so-“

“Thank you” Superman cut him off quietly, a deep and sincere look of gratitude on his face “I was under the effect of Scarecrow’s fear gas, it almost made me kill her. I don’t know what I would have done if I- just… thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Today you were a true hero” at that Danny groaned.

“Not again” he whined “I already get that from miss Albrey for that time rescue her cat from a tree and from mister Smith for not letting his son be run through, and- not important. Look dude, I’m a supervillain, not a hero” Danny explained.

For some reason all the heroes, even Flash who had just arrived, looked baffled by this.

“But… you saved my wife? And… you just said you saved kids and cats, and… just… how come you think you are a villain?” Superman seemed to be genuinely confused by the concept despite him fighting villains every other day. Also, pregnant lady was Supes’ wife. Huh, good to know, but back to the matter at hand.

“Well, yeah? This was an innocent civilian woman you were beating the daylights out of like me ripping into Skulker, I couldn’t just… leave you to it? That’d be horrible! I’m a villain, not a monster, no matter what the GIW says and- wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.” Danny shakes his hands walking on air from one side to the other.

“GIW? Look son, I don’t know who that is, but you shouldn’t believe everything people say, especially if it’s about you. Nothing you just described sounds like a villain to me” The Man of Steel said to Danny’s indignation.

“Excuse me!” He turned pointed a finger at the startled alien “I will have you know that I’m a villain and a very cool one at that! I regularly raid bases of the government every time I hear about them having captured another person or ghost to experiment on! N-the scientists who opened a rift to the world of the dead in their basement so they can vivisect ghosts minding their own business call me the greatest menace their town has ever known!” Danny crossed his arms and filled his chest in pride.

“Al- right. So you are a… villain?” Superman said raising his hands placating.

“And a dang good one at that! I mean, a dang terrible one! Terrifying one? Well, I’m scarier than Box Ghost, so there!” Danny pointed triumphantly, before shaking his head in consternation and pouting “I had this whole monologue ready for months, about my evil plan, why I’m evil and stuff, but none of the heroes in my town stay still long enough for me to say it! I had come here so we could fight and I could finally get to give it, I had planned to litter in the street so we could fight and all… but now the moment is gone. And you should really take her to the hospital I think? I guess I can come back in a few days and we can have our epic showdown. How does Friday sound to you? This way I can stay up late-“

At that Danny seemed to realize something and looked up in alarm.

“Lord of the Flies!” All the heroes jumped “it’s almost my bedtime! Moby Dick, I’m going to be in so much trouble, oh no, oh no. Bye Sups, see you Friday, gotta go” and then he flew up at top speed back home. The baffled heroes still reeling from the surreal experience and with more questions than answers. Unnoticed by Danny a cameraman and reporter nearby had captured the entire conversation.

/////////////////////////////////////://////////////////////////////////////

In the aftermath Lois is (finally) taken to a hospital and makes a full recovery. Their baby (I’m tempted to have Clark and Lois name him Danny instead of Jon as thanks to Danny for saving him once they learn his name) is born healthy if somewhat liminar (your pick to what effect - if any - this has), Danny shows up later for his promised fight, he is received with a delicious homemade pie courtesy of Ma Kent and the heroes sit patiently to hear his entire monologue, which is great! They give him reason for his actions instead of fighting upon hearing his speech of how the anti-ecto acts are terrible and the GIW deserves having their bases messed up, which is less great. They then proceed to publicly claim he is a hero and the GIW are the actual villains, which is terrible! At least the anti-ecto acts were recognized as a blight that should never have been allowed to exist and scrapped, which, silver linings?

Now Tumblr, do Your Thing!

Danny: Eh… Uh, uh, there was the name thing!

Flash: Kiddo, I wouldn’t really say calling someone names is exactly villainous. Depending on the name and context it could be in poor taste, but-

Danny: Of course it’s not calling someone names! That’d be mean! No, it was my archenemy, a rival villain who used his powers to take over as mayor of my hometown. Anyway, he was getting on my nerves, what with all the kidnapping attempts and stuff. So I bribed a fellow villain I sometimes fight against to help me and got my friend Tu- eh… my friend Tech-Pharaoh onboard and we hacked into all the government databases. Now all systems say the guy’s name is Frootloop Masters and has always been. Best part? They put some kind of reverse firewall and no computer ever will let him change it back, it will even auto-correct whenever he puts his old name to his new one! His face when he found out was priceless, I keep a picture of it to lift my spirits anytime I feel down.

Tim Drake:… Phantom, I’d like to officially welcome you to the Young Justice League.

Danny: I’m sorry, wha-

Dick: What the hell Red! You can’t just randomly conscript him to your hero team!

Danny: Thank you! :D

Dick: Your whole deal is that you guys are sidekicks-

Tim: Rude!

Dick: -wanting to strike out on your own from time to time. Clearly Danny is going to join the Titans as we are the team of full-fledged, but young, heroes banding together.

Danny: Yeah, I am- I’m sorry, what!?

Tim: Okay, now your are just nitpicking and that’s just plain untrue. We have plenty of heroes who were never partners of others, Superboy for instance-

Danny: Hey! Time out! You guys did get that I’m a villain, right? As in, I should join a villain team if any?

Tim: Oh don’t worry, we are also a supervillain team on the side.

Dick: Yeah, us too. More than Tim’s even, one of our members is supposed to let her demon father conquer the world.

Tim: Excuse me! I’ll have you know that I was voted the “most likely to go rogue and take over the world” five years running!

Dick:… You’ve only been a proper hero for about a year or so.

Tim: Your point? Plus my team killed Santa, so there! We are the most evil out of the two.

Dick: Oh, spare me your-

Danny: WAIT! Back off, you guys killed Santa?!? SOLD. When do I start boss?

Flash:… what was this conversation just now?

Batman, calmly sipping his coffee and looking over some files: Robin Drama, just ignore it and hope you don’t get dragged in.

“This is sooo not fair!” Danny huffed while dramatically falling in his bed “it’s like no one around here ever watched a hero’s fight on TV. Every time I show up it’s either an emergency and I have to save Sam the Cat from a tree he climbed before the poor thing falls or the ghost hunters are going to be on scene already and start shooting on sight! I never get to do my evil villain monologue. Lord of the Flies, I only managed TWO evil laughs EVER! And one of those times my voice cracked in the middle, which sooo embarrassing! What’s the fun of being a supervillain if the heroes won’t even let me give a proper monologue” Danny pouted while turning to lay face down on his pillow.

“There, there” Tucker patted his friends head in solidarity, “there’s still a lot of fun to be had anyway. Remember that time we raided the GIW’s HQ and put neon orange paint on their laundry soap? Their looks of despair and cussing for the month it took to replace their clothes was priceless!”

“… yeah, that was funny” Danny answered muffled by the pillow.

“Right! And besides it’s not your fault no one knows villain x hero etiquette around here.”

“Yeah, but it’s like they are singled me out!” Danny said turning his face around “every other ghost gets to do their monologue. Box Ghost starts to give a monologue and everyone just listens politely before fighting him! It can’t even be ‘cause I’m a halfa or they wouldn’t let Vlad do his evil speech. Moby Dick, even FREAKSHOW gets an uninterrupted evil speech and laugh, the guy isn’t even a ghost! Just some random creep with more time than sense” Danny groans.

“Being a villain means you don’t have to adhere to the conventional rules and can just do whatever though” Sam remarked from where she was laying on a nearby puff “I say let the heroes worry about being ‘polite’ and just do your thing” she gave her two cents.

“Yeeaah” Danny groaned long suffering “but what I wanna is to give my monologue. I got it all wrote out and memorized, even got my act down to a T in the mirror. It’s just… I worked so hard on it, I spent more time and effort in this than on all my lit homework from this entire year combined”

“That’s not something you should be proud of” Jazz remarked dryly from the open door as she passed the hallway.

“It just Frankensteins so much I don’t ever get the chance show it up!” Danny finished as if he was never interrupted in the first place.

“Sounds like it’s the heroes who are the problem-“

“As always” Sam interrupted Tucker’s musing.

“So… what if you tried another hero? One who would follow basic courtesy like letting you talk before the battle?”

At that Danny sat up to look at Tucker in interest “you mean like make another hero, like me and Cujo got Val to become Red Huntress?” He seemed to give it some thought before shaking his head “no, with Val it was a ‘right person at the right place’ kind of thing, I can’t just go around trashing people’s places and works to hope one of their kids takes up a cape and is more polite than the rest of the town heroes, that’d be rude.”

“Well yeah, but what if you just went up the territory of another hero? Like, you can swing by Gotham and put a ‘kick me sticker on one of the Waynes or something, that’s bound to get Batman’s attention and everyone says the guy is super polite and a great listener! All the goons and officers-“

“You just said the same thing twice” Danny chimed in and high-fived Sam.

“-who appear on interviews always talk about how the bat does everything in silence and how much attention he pays to details. The guy would be delighted to have a new villain in his city, I’m sure he is starved for new material as far as villain monologue goes.”

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Sam immediately shot down “Gotham is the most gothic city EVER! I will NOT, have either of you visiting it without me, so not until summer vacation, which will take forever!”

“GOTHAM IS ALSO THE SECOND MOST CRIME-INFESTED CITY ON THE COUNTRY AND I DON’T WANT MY BABY BROTHER WALKING AROUND THERE UNSUPERVISED!” Jazz shouted from her room across the wall.

“Oh yeah, that too I guess” Sam agreed.

“Fine, so not Gotham. Central City?” Tucker proposed.

“Are you crazy? The Flash is the fastest hero EVER-“

“That’s debatable-“

“It’s really not”

“He will not even give me time to open my mouth before we start to throw hands! Star city?”

“I mean, Green Arrow seems like a total Moby Dick, not sure he wouldn’t immediately start shooting. Cost City?” Sam countered and proposed.

“I mean… isn’t Green Lantern like a space cop?” Danny scrunched his nose “that’s like a super GIW, right?” The three thought for a second and shuddered at the image.

“Right… so moving on, how about Metropolis?” The three thought for a bit.

“I mean, Superman is an alien, right? I’d love to meet him!”

“Metropolis is supposed to be the unholy child of a Hallmark movie and a cartoon for little kids where everyone is polite and sweet and stuff, you can keep that to yourself and please do not include me on it.”

“The main villain there is Luthor, so no worries of stepping on another person’s toes. To heck with that guy, he puts paywalls on EVERYTHING.” Tucker grumbled.

“…” Jazz said nothing, which is close enough to agreement for them.

“So it’s decided, I’m going to Metropolis monologue to Superman!”

“Yeah, the Boy Scout won’t know what hit him!”

“… wait, do you think he was an actual Boy Scout when he was a kid? ‘Cause that’d be pretty cool”

“Nah, there weren’t boy scouts back when the old time heroes like him were kids”.

___________________\\_________________

Danny made good time to Metropolis. As a ghost he could turn intangible to avoid any air resistance or drag while also reducing his mass to zero. And, as he is creating his own propulsion by just thinking it, that means he could travel much faster than sound without worrying about causing problems for anyone. Really, his biggest issue is that if he goes too fast things get kinda blurry and it’s pretty easy to overshoot your target, so he had to stop to get his bearings and backtrack more than once, but he still made it to the city!

Upon arriving Danny took some time to go sightseeing as he likely wouldn’t get the chance during his fight. Took a few photos sat upside down upon the globe of the Daily Planet to put on his twitter, ate a hot dog, went intangible to Lex Luthor’s office and pantsied him right in the middle of a meeting, you know, normal tourist stuff. Feeling good about himself he decided to move to the harbor as it’s far away enough that his fight with Superman shouldn’t get in anybody’s way.

He then did some (unneeded) stretches and jumped a bit to loosen up, then did a few quick voice exercises he wrangled from Ember so his monologue would go perfect.

He was just about to kickstart his fight by doing the most heinous villain act of his entire career that would be sure to get Superman down ready to throw hands. He carefully picked the wrapping of his hot dog and was ready to throw it (on the street! Not the sea, he’s a villain, not a monster) when he heard a crash from behind him. He turned curiously to see the reason and- WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK!

If asked later, Danny would freely admit that this was the fastest he ever flew because that was Superman and that was a pregnant woman he was punching in the air, the heck-

He fortunately managed to cross the distance in no time and overshadowed Superman harder than he had ever overshadowed anyone before. Immediately upon entering the body he felt a foreign wave of terror slam into him with such an intensity that it almost made his vision wave before he gritted his teeth and forcibly threw it at his core to convert in more ecto. Now in control he wasted no time in flying up and scooping up pregnant lady gently.

“Oh man. Lord of the Flies, what! Who just- dude, yeah, pregnant woman scare me too since that bio class, but- What- Who does that! That’s- that’s messed up Sups. That’s a pregnant woman, dude you can’t just- the HELL!” Danny panicked while he felt the conscience of Superman in the back of his head gradually get his bearings with growing horror.

“Okay, okay, that’s- that’s not fine. She needs a medic and- Frankstein, this looks bad. I never saw someone’s guts before, but- okay, calm down Fenton, keep it together. A hospital is not fast enough I will just-“ now actively throwing his own anxiety and fear at his core on top of Superman to keep from panicking (too much) Danny took a deep breath and laid his hands on the woman’s side over her ribcage.

Being in Superman’s body is disorienting and frankly an experience Danny could do without. He was already used to holding back his own strength, but his was kinda a “mind over matter” deal with him being as strong as he could believe himself to be, Superman though… it was like there was no resistance whatsoever; air, flesh, bone, it all gave the same minimal resistance and if Danny wasn’t used to going intangible he was sure he would have already crushed this woman’s chest by pressing too far. His vision was all wrong going too far and under the skin with the flex of muscles he didn’t have and it was too loud and-

Deep breath. It’s… fine. Send the panic attack to core, we have no time for panic now. ‘Not the first time you had to get used to powers mid-emergency Fenton, keep yourself together!’. With a last deep breath Danny focused back in the pregnant lady on his arms. He never saw anyone’s inside before, but he could take his cues of what is around the bruised spots and that didn’t look right, her heart also seemed to be beating too slow from what he could hear and there was blood and-

“Right!” He took another deep breath “my vision is changing so much I might as well be blind and she is so close to death that no doctor would be fast enough to save her. That’s… fine, I’ve beaten worse odds. If Frostbite can be a doctor I can heal her. Let’s just… stitch her up… from the inside. That’s… fine”.

Without knowing well what to do Danny awkwardly sent some ectoplasm on the woman’s body and “felt” around organs until he came upon what felt like a misshaped closed fist growing and shrinking in uneven intervals, figuring that might be the heart he used his untrained telekinesis to press and pull it in a somewhat regular interval. Since his sight wouldn’t help him anyway with how it couldn’t choose what to look at nor how closely he closed his eyes and tried to block all his senses, focusing solely on his ectoplasm.

He felt a second kind of energy running through Superman’s body besides his own. One that was warm and strengthening for a lack of other words. In impulse he tried to divert some to join the flow of ecto going to the woman’s body, but it resisted being diverted, whatever it is it’s course was too rigid for it, different from his own free-flowing ectoplasm. Not willing to just give up Danny directed some of his own energy to “dip” on Superman’s and collect some before re-joining the flow, which… worked? Better than expected even as the heart he was forcibly pumping seemed to all but soak on the warmth infused ecto and start mending up.

“Right” thought Danny “I can do this” a determination that seemed to echo his host as he could feel a wave of decisiveness from him and what felt like him deliberately trying to pull himself back to be as unobtrusive as one could be on their own body.

Now with a route in mind Danny got to work, using his ecto “touch” to try to feel around the woman’s body from the inside and awkwardly make things work however felt right. When he felt a pool of what he assumed to be blood outside the veins he telekinetically scooped it up and pushed it back where he felt a burst or sliced vein before stitching it up with a thread of ecto he then solidified inside the body. Bone was pulled back in a form that felt right-ish, torn muscle awkwardly pressed back together, still-

“I can’t see!” He cried out “I can’t see what I’m doing, where things are how bad it is, how-!”

In the middle of his latest panic he felt a flash of determination from his host and a sudden focus razor-sharp and intense focusing on the eyes. It did nothing against his overshadowing, but the message was clear nonetheless.

“You want to control the eyes?” Danny asked dubiously “you are not gonna laser beam her down are you?” The presence recoiled aghast and then turned back to trying to control the eyes “this is a terrible idea”, but despite his best judgment Danny still relented and pulled back his control over the eyes, Superman immediately took over, opened them and did… something? Like pulling a muscle and relaxing another while focusing somehow into a certain depth and suddenly Danny could see the bones of the woman and the surrounding bits of muscle and organs consistently. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth he proceeded to direct his ecto to put those back in a somewhat right way, now with a lot more confidence and knowing better what he is doing.

On the on they went, looking for parts that seemed damaged and putting those back together, the ecto keeping things in place and the warmth making the body heal much faster, when they got to fixing the damage to it. The fetus in particular seemed to soak up on the warm ecto like a sponge to the point that Danny had to spend more time ensuring it hadn’t eaten up his previous work than actually fixing it. At many times Danny had to redo his earlier work now that he could see where he messed up, but gradually they got the woman’s body back in one piece that looked right-ish. In the end of the impromptu procedure Danny cautiously let go of the hold he had kept on her heart pumping it and it kept beating, albeit on a different rhythm than the one he guessed.

Finally, with a sigh of relief, Danny disentangled from Superman’s body, figuring the local would have a much better idea of the best hospital to take his former victim(?) than Danny. For a moment the three stood floating there without knowing what to do. At some point what looked like Wonder Woman and Green Lantern had flown to stand near them, but thankfully hadn’t interrupted. Now that he wasn’t actively blocking out outside stimuli to concentrate anymore he could even spy what looked to be Batman on the ground near what looked like the cross of a sports car and a tank “probably the Batmobile” he reasoned.

He could see Superman gearing up to say something, so he spoke first.

“Right” Danny clapped his hands in front of him “so, I did what I could, but I’m really not a medic, or a nurse, or - strictly speaking - good at biology, so… you should probably get her to a doctor asap. I would recommend mine, but he doesn’t really come to this dimension a lot, so-“

“Thank you” Superman cut him off quietly, a deep and sincere look of gratitude on his face “I was under the effect of Scarecrow’s fear gas, it almost made me kill her. I don’t know what I would have done if I- just… thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Today you were a true hero” at that Danny groaned.

“Not again” he whined “I already get that from miss Albrey for that time rescue her cat from a tree and from mister Smith for not letting his son be run through, and- not important. Look dude, I’m a supervillain, not a hero” Danny explained.

For some reason all the heroes, even Flash who had just arrived, looked baffled by this.

“But… you saved my wife? And… you just said you saved kids and cats, and… just… how come you think you are a villain?” Superman seemed to be genuinely confused by the concept despite him fighting villains every other day. Also, pregnant lady was Supes’ wife. Huh, good to know, but back to the matter at hand.

“Well, yeah? This was an innocent civilian woman you were beating the daylights out of like me ripping into Skulker, I couldn’t just… leave you to it? That’d be horrible! I’m a villain, not a monster, no matter what the GIW says and- wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.” Danny shakes his hands walking on air from one side to the other.

“GIW? Look son, I don’t know who that is, but you shouldn’t believe everything people say, especially if it’s about you. Nothing you just described sounds like a villain to me” The Man of Steel said to Danny’s indignation.

“Excuse me!” He turned pointed a finger at the startled alien “I will have you know that I’m a villain and a very cool one at that! I regularly raid bases of the government every time I hear about them having captured another person or ghost to experiment on! N-the scientists who opened a rift to the world of the dead in their basement so they can vivisect ghosts minding their own business call me the greatest menace their town has ever known!” Danny crossed his arms and filled his chest in pride.

“Al- right. So you are a… villain?” Superman said raising his hands placating.

“And a dang good one at that! I mean, a dang terrible one! Terrifying one? Well, I’m scarier than Box Ghost, so there!” Danny pointed triumphantly, before shaking his head in consternation and pouting “I had this whole monologue ready for months, about my evil plan, why I’m evil and stuff, but none of the heroes in my town stay still long enough for me to say it! I had come here so we could fight and I could finally get to give it, I had planned to litter in the street so we could fight and all… but now the moment is gone. And you should really take her to the hospital I think? I guess I can come back in a few days and we can have our epic showdown. How does Friday sound to you? This way I can stay up late-“

At that Danny seemed to realize something and looked up in alarm.

“Lord of the Flies!” All the heroes jumped “it’s almost my bedtime! Moby Dick, I’m going to be in so much trouble, oh no, oh no. Bye Sups, see you Friday, gotta go” and then he flew up at top speed back home. The baffled heroes still reeling from the surreal experience and with more questions than answers. Unnoticed by Danny a cameraman and reporter nearby had captured the entire conversation.

/////////////////////////////////////://////////////////////////////////////

In the aftermath Lois is (finally) taken to a hospital and makes a full recovery. Their baby (I’m tempted to have Clark and Lois name him Danny instead of Jon as thanks to Danny for saving him once they learn his name) is born healthy if somewhat liminar (your pick to what effect - if any - this has), Danny shows up later for his promised fight, he is received with a delicious homemade pie courtesy of Ma Kent and the heroes sit patiently to hear his entire monologue, which is great! They give him reason for his actions instead of fighting upon hearing his speech of how the anti-ecto acts are terrible and the GIW deserves having their bases messed up, which is less great. They then proceed to publicly claim he is a hero and the GIW are the actual villains, which is terrible! At least the anti-ecto acts were recognized as a blight that should never have been allowed to exist and scrapped, which, silver linings?

Now Tumblr, do Your Thing!

Danny: Eh… Uh, uh, there was the name thing!

Flash: Kiddo, I wouldn’t really say calling someone names is exactly villainous. Depending on the name and context it could be in poor taste, but-

Danny: Of course it’s not calling someone names! That’d be mean! No, it was my archenemy, a rival villain who used his powers to take over as mayor of my hometown. Anyway, he was getting on my nerves, what with all the kidnapping attempts and stuff. So I bribed a fellow villain I sometimes fight against to help me and got my friend Tu- eh… my friend Tech-Pharaoh onboard and we hacked into all the government databases. Now all systems say the guy’s name is Frootloop Masters and has always been. Best part? They put some kind of reverse firewall and no computer ever will let him change it back, it will even auto-correct whenever he puts his old name to his new one! His face when he found out was priceless, I keep a picture of it to lift my spirits anytime I feel down.

Tim Drake:… Phantom, I’d like to officially welcome you to the Young Justice League.

Danny: I’m sorry, wha-

Dick: What the hell Red! You can’t just randomly conscript him to your hero team!

Danny: Thank you! :D

Dick: Your whole deal is that you guys are sidekicks-

Tim: Rude!

Dick: -wanting to strike out on your own from time to time. Clearly Danny is going to join the Titans as we are the team of full-fledged, but young, heroes banding together.

Danny: Yeah, I am- I’m sorry, what!?

Tim: Okay, now your are just nitpicking and that’s just plain untrue. We have plenty of heroes who were never partners of others, Superboy for instance-

Danny: Hey! Time out! You guys did get that I’m a villain, right? As in, I should join a villain team if any?

Tim: Oh don’t worry, we are also a supervillain team on the side.

Dick: Yeah, us too. More than Tim’s even, one of our members is supposed to let her demon father conquer the world.

Tim: Excuse me! I’ll have you know that I was voted the “most likely to go rogue and take over the world” five years running!

Dick:… You’ve only been a proper hero for about a year or so.

Tim: Your point? Plus my team killed Santa, so there! We are the most evil out of the two.

Dick: Oh, spare me your-

Danny: WAIT! Back off, you guys killed Santa?!? SOLD. When do I start boss?

Flash:… what was this conversation just now?

Batman, calmly sipping his coffee and looking over some files: Robin Drama, just ignore it and hope you don’t get dragged in.

“This is sooo not fair!” Danny huffed while dramatically falling in his bed “it’s like no one around here ever watched a hero’s fight on TV. Every time I show up it’s either an emergency and I have to save Sam the Cat from a tree he climbed before the poor thing falls or the ghost hunters are going to be on scene already and start shooting on sight! I never get to do my evil villain monologue. Lord of the Flies, I only managed TWO evil laughs EVER! And one of those times my voice cracked in the middle, which sooo embarrassing! What’s the fun of being a supervillain if the heroes won’t even let me give a proper monologue” Danny pouted while turning to lay face down on his pillow.

“There, there” Tucker patted his friends head in solidarity, “there’s still a lot of fun to be had anyway. Remember that time we raided the GIW’s HQ and put neon orange paint on their laundry soap? Their looks of despair and cussing for the month it took to replace their clothes was priceless!”

“… yeah, that was funny” Danny answered muffled by the pillow.

“Right! And besides it’s not your fault no one knows villain x hero etiquette around here.”

“Yeah, but it’s like they are singled me out!” Danny said turning his face around “every other ghost gets to do their monologue. Box Ghost starts to give a monologue and everyone just listens politely before fighting him! It can’t even be ‘cause I’m a halfa or they wouldn’t let Vlad do his evil speech. Moby Dick, even FREAKSHOW gets an uninterrupted evil speech and laugh, the guy isn’t even a ghost! Just some random creep with more time than sense” Danny groans.

“Being a villain means you don’t have to adhere to the conventional rules and can just do whatever though” Sam remarked from where she was laying on a nearby puff “I say let the heroes worry about being ‘polite’ and just do your thing” she gave her two cents.

“Yeeaah” Danny groaned long suffering “but what I wanna is to give my monologue. I got it all wrote out and memorized, even got my act down to a T in the mirror. It’s just… I worked so hard on it, I spent more time and effort in this than on all my lit homework from this entire year combined”

“That’s not something you should be proud of” Jazz remarked dryly from the open door as she passed the hallway.

“It just Frankensteins so much I don’t ever get the chance show it up!” Danny finished as if he was never interrupted in the first place.

“Sounds like it’s the heroes who are the problem-“

“As always” Sam interrupted Tucker’s musing.

“So… what if you tried another hero? One who would follow basic courtesy like letting you talk before the battle?”

At that Danny sat up to look at Tucker in interest “you mean like make another hero, like me and Cujo got Val to become Red Huntress?” He seemed to give it some thought before shaking his head “no, with Val it was a ‘right person at the right place’ kind of thing, I can’t just go around trashing people’s places and works to hope one of their kids takes up a cape and is more polite than the rest of the town heroes, that’d be rude.”

“Well yeah, but what if you just went up the territory of another hero? Like, you can swing by Gotham and put a ‘kick me sticker on one of the Waynes or something, that’s bound to get Batman’s attention and everyone says the guy is super polite and a great listener! All the goons and officers-“

“You just said the same thing twice” Danny chimed in and high-fived Sam.

“-who appear on interviews always talk about how the bat does everything in silence and how much attention he pays to details. The guy would be delighted to have a new villain in his city, I’m sure he is starved for new material as far as villain monologue goes.”

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Sam immediately shot down “Gotham is the most gothic city EVER! I will NOT, have either of you visiting it without me, so not until summer vacation, which will take forever!”

“GOTHAM IS ALSO THE SECOND MOST CRIME-INFESTED CITY ON THE COUNTRY AND I DON’T WANT MY BABY BROTHER WALKING AROUND THERE UNSUPERVISED!” Jazz shouted from her room across the wall.

“Oh yeah, that too I guess” Sam agreed.

“Fine, so not Gotham. Central City?” Tucker proposed.

“Are you crazy? The Flash is the fastest hero EVER-“

“That’s debatable-“

“It’s really not”

“He will not even give me time to open my mouth before we start to throw hands! Star city?”

“I mean, Green Arrow seems like a total Moby Dick, not sure he wouldn’t immediately start shooting. Cost City?” Sam countered and proposed.

“I mean… isn’t Green Lantern like a space cop?” Danny scrunched his nose “that’s like a super GIW, right?” The three thought for a second and shuddered at the image.

“Right… so moving on, how about Metropolis?” The three thought for a bit.

“I mean, Superman is an alien, right? I’d love to meet him!”

“Metropolis is supposed to be the unholy child of a Hallmark movie and a cartoon for little kids where everyone is polite and sweet and stuff, you can keep that to yourself and please do not include me on it.”

“The main villain there is Luthor, so no worries of stepping on another person’s toes. To heck with that guy, he puts paywalls on EVERYTHING.” Tucker grumbled.

“…” Jazz said nothing, which is close enough to agreement for them.

“So it’s decided, I’m going to Metropolis monologue to Superman!”

“Yeah, the Boy Scout won’t know what hit him!”

“… wait, do you think he was an actual Boy Scout when he was a kid? ‘Cause that’d be pretty cool”

“Nah, there weren’t boy scouts back when the old time heroes like him were kids”.

___________________\\_________________

Danny made good time to Metropolis. As a ghost he could turn intangible to avoid any air resistance or drag while also reducing his mass to zero. And, as he is creating his own propulsion by just thinking it, that means he could travel much faster than sound without worrying about causing problems for anyone. Really, his biggest issue is that if he goes too fast things get kinda blurry and it’s pretty easy to overshoot your target, so he had to stop to get his bearings and backtrack more than once, but he still made it to the city!

Upon arriving Danny took some time to go sightseeing as he likely wouldn’t get the chance during his fight. Took a few photos sat upside down upon the globe of the Daily Planet to put on his twitter, ate a hot dog, went intangible to Lex Luthor’s office and pantsied him right in the middle of a meeting, you know, normal tourist stuff. Feeling good about himself he decided to move to the harbor as it’s far away enough that his fight with Superman shouldn’t get in anybody’s way.

He then did some (unneeded) stretches and jumped a bit to loosen up, then did a few quick voice exercises he wrangled from Ember so his monologue would go perfect.

He was just about to kickstart his fight by doing the most heinous villain act of his entire career that would be sure to get Superman down ready to throw hands. He carefully picked the wrapping of his hot dog and was ready to throw it (on the street! Not the sea, he’s a villain, not a monster) when he heard a crash from behind him. He turned curiously to see the reason and- WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK!

If asked later, Danny would freely admit that this was the fastest he ever flew because that was Superman and that was a pregnant woman he was punching in the air, the heck-

He fortunately managed to cross the distance in no time and overshadowed Superman harder than he had ever overshadowed anyone before. Immediately upon entering the body he felt a foreign wave of terror slam into him with such an intensity that it almost made his vision wave before he gritted his teeth and forcibly threw it at his core to convert in more ecto. Now in control he wasted no time in flying up and scooping up pregnant lady gently.

“Oh man. Lord of the Flies, what! Who just- dude, yeah, pregnant woman scare me too since that bio class, but- What- Who does that! That’s- that’s messed up Sups. That’s a pregnant woman, dude you can’t just- the HELL!” Danny panicked while he felt the conscience of Superman in the back of his head gradually get his bearings with growing horror.

“Okay, okay, that’s- that’s not fine. She needs a medic and- Frankstein, this looks bad. I never saw someone’s guts before, but- okay, calm down Fenton, keep it together. A hospital is not fast enough I will just-“ now actively throwing his own anxiety and fear at his core on top of Superman to keep from panicking (too much) Danny took a deep breath and laid his hands on the woman’s side over her ribcage.

Being in Superman’s body is disorienting and frankly an experience Danny could do without. He was already used to holding back his own strength, but his was kinda a “mind over matter” deal with him being as strong as he could believe himself to be, Superman though… it was like there was no resistance whatsoever; air, flesh, bone, it all gave the same minimal resistance and if Danny wasn’t used to going intangible he was sure he would have already crushed this woman’s chest by pressing too far. His vision was all wrong going too far and under the skin with the flex of muscles he didn’t have and it was too loud and-

Deep breath. It’s… fine. Send the panic attack to core, we have no time for panic now. ‘Not the first time you had to get used to powers mid-emergency Fenton, keep yourself together!’. With a last deep breath Danny focused back in the pregnant lady on his arms. He never saw anyone’s inside before, but he could take his cues of what is around the bruised spots and that didn’t look right, her heart also seemed to be beating too slow from what he could hear and there was blood and-

“Right!” He took another deep breath “my vision is changing so much I might as well be blind and she is so close to death that no doctor would be fast enough to save her. That’s… fine, I’ve beaten worse odds. If Frostbite can be a doctor I can heal her. Let’s just… stitch her up… from the inside. That’s… fine”.

Without knowing well what to do Danny awkwardly sent some ectoplasm on the woman’s body and “felt” around organs until he came upon what felt like a misshaped closed fist growing and shrinking in uneven intervals, figuring that might be the heart he used his untrained telekinesis to press and pull it in a somewhat regular interval. Since his sight wouldn’t help him anyway with how it couldn’t choose what to look at nor how closely he closed his eyes and tried to block all his senses, focusing solely on his ectoplasm.

He felt a second kind of energy running through Superman’s body besides his own. One that was warm and strengthening for a lack of other words. In impulse he tried to divert some to join the flow of ecto going to the woman’s body, but it resisted being diverted, whatever it is it’s course was too rigid for it, different from his own free-flowing ectoplasm. Not willing to just give up Danny directed some of his own energy to “dip” on Superman’s and collect some before re-joining the flow, which… worked? Better than expected even as the heart he was forcibly pumping seemed to all but soak on the warmth infused ecto and start mending up.

“Right” thought Danny “I can do this” a determination that seemed to echo his host as he could feel a wave of decisiveness from him and what felt like him deliberately trying to pull himself back to be as unobtrusive as one could be on their own body.

Now with a route in mind Danny got to work, using his ecto “touch” to try to feel around the woman’s body from the inside and awkwardly make things work however felt right. When he felt a pool of what he assumed to be blood outside the veins he telekinetically scooped it up and pushed it back where he felt a burst or sliced vein before stitching it up with a thread of ecto he then solidified inside the body. Bone was pulled back in a form that felt right-ish, torn muscle awkwardly pressed back together, still-

“I can’t see!” He cried out “I can’t see what I’m doing, where things are how bad it is, how-!”

In the middle of his latest panic he felt a flash of determination from his host and a sudden focus razor-sharp and intense focusing on the eyes. It did nothing against his overshadowing, but the message was clear nonetheless.

“You want to control the eyes?” Danny asked dubiously “you are not gonna laser beam her down are you?” The presence recoiled aghast and then turned back to trying to control the eyes “this is a terrible idea”, but despite his best judgment Danny still relented and pulled back his control over the eyes, Superman immediately took over, opened them and did… something? Like pulling a muscle and relaxing another while focusing somehow into a certain depth and suddenly Danny could see the bones of the woman and the surrounding bits of muscle and organs consistently. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth he proceeded to direct his ecto to put those back in a somewhat right way, now with a lot more confidence and knowing better what he is doing.

On the on they went, looking for parts that seemed damaged and putting those back together, the ecto keeping things in place and the warmth making the body heal much faster, when they got to fixing the damage to it. The fetus in particular seemed to soak up on the warm ecto like a sponge to the point that Danny had to spend more time ensuring it hadn’t eaten up his previous work than actually fixing it. At many times Danny had to redo his earlier work now that he could see where he messed up, but gradually they got the woman’s body back in one piece that looked right-ish. In the end of the impromptu procedure Danny cautiously let go of the hold he had kept on her heart pumping it and it kept beating, albeit on a different rhythm than the one he guessed.

Finally, with a sigh of relief, Danny disentangled from Superman’s body, figuring the local would have a much better idea of the best hospital to take his former victim(?) than Danny. For a moment the three stood floating there without knowing what to do. At some point what looked like Wonder Woman and Green Lantern had flown to stand near them, but thankfully hadn’t interrupted. Now that he wasn’t actively blocking out outside stimuli to concentrate anymore he could even spy what looked to be Batman on the ground near what looked like the cross of a sports car and a tank “probably the Batmobile” he reasoned.

He could see Superman gearing up to say something, so he spoke first.

“Right” Danny clapped his hands in front of him “so, I did what I could, but I’m really not a medic, or a nurse, or - strictly speaking - good at biology, so… you should probably get her to a doctor asap. I would recommend mine, but he doesn’t really come to this dimension a lot, so-“

“Thank you” Superman cut him off quietly, a deep and sincere look of gratitude on his face “I was under the effect of Scarecrow’s fear gas, it almost made me kill her. I don’t know what I would have done if I- just… thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Today you were a true hero” at that Danny groaned.

“Not again” he whined “I already get that from miss Albrey for that time rescue her cat from a tree and from mister Smith for not letting his son be run through, and- not important. Look dude, I’m a supervillain, not a hero” Danny explained.

For some reason all the heroes, even Flash who had just arrived, looked baffled by this.

“But… you saved my wife? And… you just said you saved kids and cats, and… just… how come you think you are a villain?” Superman seemed to be genuinely confused by the concept despite him fighting villains every other day. Also, pregnant lady was Supes’ wife. Huh, good to know, but back to the matter at hand.

“Well, yeah? This was an innocent civilian woman you were beating the daylights out of like me ripping into Skulker, I couldn’t just… leave you to it? That’d be horrible! I’m a villain, not a monster, no matter what the GIW says and- wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.” Danny shakes his hands walking on air from one side to the other.

“GIW? Look son, I don’t know who that is, but you shouldn’t believe everything people say, especially if it’s about you. Nothing you just described sounds like a villain to me” The Man of Steel said to Danny’s indignation.

“Excuse me!” He turned pointed a finger at the startled alien “I will have you know that I’m a villain and a very cool one at that! I regularly raid bases of the government every time I hear about them having captured another person or ghost to experiment on! N-the scientists who opened a rift to the world of the dead in their basement so they can vivisect ghosts minding their own business call me the greatest menace their town has ever known!” Danny crossed his arms and filled his chest in pride.

“Al- right. So you are a… villain?” Superman said raising his hands placating.

“And a dang good one at that! I mean, a dang terrible one! Terrifying one? Well, I’m scarier than Box Ghost, so there!” Danny pointed triumphantly, before shaking his head in consternation and pouting “I had this whole monologue ready for months, about my evil plan, why I’m evil and stuff, but none of the heroes in my town stay still long enough for me to say it! I had come here so we could fight and I could finally get to give it, I had planned to litter in the street so we could fight and all… but now the moment is gone. And you should really take her to the hospital I think? I guess I can come back in a few days and we can have our epic showdown. How does Friday sound to you? This way I can stay up late-“

At that Danny seemed to realize something and looked up in alarm.

“Lord of the Flies!” All the heroes jumped “it’s almost my bedtime! Moby Dick, I’m going to be in so much trouble, oh no, oh no. Bye Sups, see you Friday, gotta go” and then he flew up at top speed back home. The baffled heroes still reeling from the surreal experience and with more questions than answers. Unnoticed by Danny a cameraman and reporter nearby had captured the entire conversation.

/////////////////////////////////////://////////////////////////////////////

In the aftermath Lois is (finally) taken to a hospital and makes a full recovery. Their baby (I’m tempted to have Clark and Lois name him Danny instead of Jon as thanks to Danny for saving him once they learn his name) is born healthy if somewhat liminar (your pick to what effect - if any - this has), Danny shows up later for his promised fight, he is received with a delicious homemade pie courtesy of Ma Kent and the heroes sit patiently to hear his entire monologue, which is great! They give him reason for his actions instead of fighting upon hearing his speech of how the anti-ecto acts are terrible and the GIW deserves having their bases messed up, which is less great. They then proceed to publicly claim he is a hero and the GIW are the actual villains, which is terrible! At least the anti-ecto acts were recognized as a blight that should never have been allowed to exist and scrapped, which, silver linings?

Now Tumblr, do Your Thing!

Bruce was shocked as he stared at the morning paper in his hand. Right there on the front cover was Damian at a restaurant holding hands with a boy sitting across from him. A headline reading: "Youngest Wayne spotted on romantic date! Who exactly is this mystery boy?"

That was the exact question that Bruce wanted to know as well. When did Damian do this? Why didn't he tell him he was dating someone? Did he tell anyone? Surely Dick knew about this.

Before he can continue his internal questioning though Damian himself is walking into the dinning room. Bruce stays silent as he watches his son take a seat at the table. Unsure of how he should address the elephant in the room.

Luckily, it wasn't him who had to open that line of dialogue. As he hears the manor door's being thrown open and Dink himself is rushing in with a wide grin on his face. "Dami! You have to tell me everything! When did you meet this boy? How did you meet this boy? What's his name? When -"

"Grayson! I assure you I have nothing to tell as I do not know what you are even speaking about."

Dink upon hearing this doesn't even blink twice before he is taking the paper out of Bruce's hands and showing Damian the front page. This is where Bruce expects some kind of blow up honestly. Which is why it surprises him when Damian instead doesn’t even furrow his brow.

A bit chilly out, isn't it?

kind of gory? Not in a violent way.

Danny felt cold.

Not his core cold, or winter cold, more like a “walking around without clothes cold”.

Skulker was right, at the end.

He got his pelt, and now…

Well, Danny was walking around without skin. Hence, the cold.

He wasn’t really worried, it would grow back like his missing organs did when the GIW emptied him out.

Long story short, Skulker was a bitch, he should probably find a way to stop dripping with blood (and possibly a coat) and try to figure out where he ended up after taking the wrong portal while escaping.

He was doing well at this point, he thought. The city he was in was gloomy and humid, which was nice since he was starting to dry out pretty fast.

————————————————————————

“What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck-“

Jason stared at the walking flayed guy who was taking a nice stroll around the block.

Every step he took left a matching bloody print, and he could see every single fiber of the muscles tense and relax.

The more he stared at it, the more he hated it.

He immediately reached for the coms.

“I fucking hate it, what the fuck-“

He heard the others connecting.

“Hood, everything alright?”

“Fuck no, oh my god, I’m not gonna be able to sleep anymore, that’s the most fucked up shit I ever saw my entire life, what the fuck”

“Hood, report. What’s going on?” 

“OH MY GOD!” Everybody heard Oracle almost shout from the coms “That’s ugh- I’m gonna throw up, that- ugh-”

“Right?!”

“Hood! Report right now!”

“It’s like-It’s like this guy, walking around without skin and-“

Hood looked down at it. It was looking back.

He can see the other plane about to t-bone them, and is fully prepared to...somehow fumble his way through an explanation as to why he disappeared and superman took his place, but the meta kid sitting next to him has a different idea.

The meta kid let's out a strangled shriek, grips the armrests of the seat, and the entire plane goes intangible.

Danny had been through a lot. He’d been half-killed in a lab accident, gained ghost powers, and then been chased through the multiverse by a government that would’ve loved to dissect him like a frog in eighth-grade biology. So when the portal spat him out into this dimension—one packed with capes, cowls, metas, and aliens—he figured he’d finally caught a break.

No GIW agents. No Fenton parents shouting about ectoplasmic anomalies. No Skulker showing up to hunt him down in the middle of English class. Just... peace.

Well, almost.

The major snag? He was homeless. Again.

No ID, no money, and the last place he tried to haunt had been a warehouse with exactly three raccoons who did not appreciate his presence. He couldn’t go back to school, didn’t know how to get a job, and sleeping on rooftops got old fast, even for a ghost boy.

That was when Danny heard the most ridiculously useful rumor ever: Billionaire Bruce Wayne had a habit of adopting black-haired, blue-eyed children like it was a competitive sport.

And Danny? Well, he had black hair and blue eyes... at least half the time.

Good enough for government work.

So one night, in the dead of moonlight, Danny phased through the locked gates, passed the high-tech security system, and slipped straight into Wayne Manor. The place was huge, quiet, and oddly comfortable despite its bat-themed overtones. He didn’t even try to sneak around like a spy—he just floated through until he found an empty bedroom with a made bed, thick curtains, and a view of the garden.

He claimed it.

No one said anything.

So Danny just... stayed.

Danny didn’t mean to con anyone. It’s just that no one noticed him. He figured maybe there were already so many black-haired, blue-eyed kids around here that adding one more didn’t even make a blip on the radar. And since Jack and Maddie Fenton may not have taught their kids about interdimensional politics, they did make sure their kids had proper manners.

So, the first time he ate in the massive kitchen, he washed the dishes afterward. Alfred showed up just as Danny was drying the last fork, his sharp eyes watching from the doorway.

“...I see Master Grayson’s taste in midnight snacks has rubbed off on someone,” Alfred remarked.

Danny froze. “Uh—yeah. Sorry. Just thought I’d clean up after myself.”

The butler narrowed his eyes. Then nodded. “A rare instinct in this household. Continue.”

And from then on, it became a routine.

Danny helped in the kitchen. He helped clean the manor. He weeded the garden (phasing out any actual creepy-crawlies). He carried laundry baskets. He repaired a broken picture frame. When one of the Batmobiles needed a patch-up job on a fin, Danny phased into the engine and fixed it from the inside out while humming along to an old Ghostbusters theme remix.

Alfred was absolutely delighted with the newest, polite, respectful, and hard-working “Wayne.” Even if he had no earthly clue when exactly this young man had joined the family.

It took a few weeks before anyone realized something was off.

“Alfred,” Bruce said over breakfast one morning, “why is there an unfamiliar teenage boy pressure-washing the back patio with what looks like... green plasma?”

Alfred sipped his tea without looking up. “That’s Master Daniel. He’s been most helpful.”

“…We don’t have a Master Daniel.”

Alfred finally looked up, deadpan. “Master Bruce, I have tolerated you bringing home orphans like stray cats in the rain. The boy helps clean. He gardens. He fixed the coffee machine. I will not be chasing him out. Adopt him, give him a room, or be quiet about it.”

Bruce blinked. “...Fair.”

Meanwhile, Danny was just glad he hadn’t been blasted with a Batarang on sight.

He had a bed, food, quiet (well, relatively), and access to the Wayne library’s wi-fi. He was pretty sure Damian glared at him more than necessary and that Jason kept trying to figure out if Danny was secretly a zombie, but otherwise?

He was kind of fitting in.

At least until someone walked in on him halfway intangible while reaching through the fridge for leftover pie.

“…Master Daniel,” Alfred said from behind him, entirely unshaken. “If you are going to help with the silverware later, do remember to phase after you wash your hands.”

Danny, still half inside the fridge, stared.

“…Yes, sir.”

And thus, somehow, without anyone signing a single form or asking too many questions, Danny Fenton became the most ghostly Wayne sibling yet.

And honestly?

AKA "Tim Drake is a little obsessive, possessive, and really, really likes his new boyfriend (Danny)" prompt idea!! No non-con, violence, or dead doves. Brief reference to human experimentation.

Inspired by this one post where Tim kept a methodical journal of Danny's resting pulse, body temperature, weaknesses, tracked him literally all the time, and Danny was like *heart-eyes*

I like the idea of Tim's idea of love being completely a bit skewed. He was neglected as a kid and craved attention, affection, being wanted; so, understandably, he assumes that's what other people want, too. He'd only had one boyfriend before. Kon was sarcastic, funny, and sweet, but even he couldn't handle Tim's... staring. The unblinking intensity in those eyes, the hundreds of pictures of himself on Tim's phone, somehow Tim knowing about Kon's conversations and experiences without having been there.

Needless to say, Tim and Kon's relationship ended with a harsh reiteration that most people need boundaries.

So, when Tim meets this very cute messy-haired boy at Gotham-U, he shoves down the instinctive urge to know everything. Mentally captures moments, memorizes them, instead of taking pictures. Shoves earbuds in to avoid listening in on Danny's conversations (oh, his name's Danny, which he overheard when the boy was speaking with the TA).

It's so hard not to obsess, though. Danny is... well, he's haunting. His crystalline eyes make Tim's heart stutter in his chest, chills rising along his arms; he swears there's this aura around Danny that's just utterly compelling. (Stop it, Tim, you'll scare him off.) But Tim can actually be a person sometimes, so he just asks, "Do you want to go out for coffee with me sometime?" And he's psyched when Danny says yes!! (He tries really, really hard not to memorize the fact that Danny likes hot oatmilk chai lattes, uses his left hand to hold his drink, and prefers not to use a coffee sleeve. Does Danny always hold his cups by the lid? Does he prefer- Tim stops himself.)

And Tim is a great boyfriend!! They go on dates (he doesn't avidly stare at the way Danny's eyes sparkle while at Gotham-U's planetarium). Tim learns Danny's favorite music the normal way (he doesn't hack into Danny's Spotify... although he's suddenly found himself listening to an artist named Ember). And Tim has a totally normal album of pictures of his boyfriend on his phone (his burner phone is a different matter entirely, but not even Batman himself could get it unlocked. Tim's got that phone sealed up tighter than the Fortress of Solitude).

Except Tim notices Danny becoming more withdrawn. More tired, dark bags under his eyes and stealing Tim's double espresso (he never does that, it's too bitter for him, why isn't he drinking his oatmilk latte?). Leaning his head on Tim's shoulder during lectures to take naps. And Tim's becoming more frantic the more lethargic Danny becomes.

Maybe he's more like Bruce "Contingency Plan" Wayne than he's willing to admit. Tim sets a hard boundary for himself: I'm just going to Google his symptoms. That's it.

He spends the next 42 hours obsessively researching Danny: hacks into his phone, downloads all his previous location history, texts, calls, background checks everybody Danny's been in contact with. Re-traces his steps down to the minute, finds all his Google searches, activates Danny's laptop webcam. He's determined to find out what's wrong with his boyfriend.

And because Tim is Red Robin, who literally became part of the Batfam because of his stalking tendencies and is one of the greatest detectives since Batman, he finds out. He finds out that Danny Fenton is one Phantom, a vigilante from Amity; finds obscure clips of newspapers mentioning a young boy's tragic death, discovers the GIW, uncovers classified information containing metahuman experimentation (let's say he doesn't quite know about Ghosts, but Metas are close enough).

Somehow, he makes a connection between ectoplasm and the Lazarus Pit (maybe not necessarily the right connection, but something-adjacent). After all, Jason was resurrected via "Evil Baja Blast" and Ra's al Ghul used it to make himself immortal. It would make sense that the GIW could sample Lazarus Pit water and use it to experiment on metahumans. So... Does Danny just need more Lazarus Pit water?

Cue Tim making use of the Drake and Wayne family wealth to literally overnight mason jars full of Lazarus water. Ra's al Ghul has no idea how it happened. He tests the reaction of Danny's DNA and the Lazarus water only to realize he was right. (Lazarus Pit waters are just excessively concentrated ambient ectoplasm, I guess?)

Tim does what any good boyfriend would do and spikes Danny's oatmilk lattes with Lazarus Pit water. And it helps. Danny is suddenly so much more energetic, there's that glittering shine to his eyes, and he looks so much healthier. Happier. Tim can't stop staring at him. If anything, he stares more, tries to memorize every angle of his boyfriend's face; he collects more candid pictures than before, always catching the gentle curl of Danny's lips when he's distracted; doesn't disengage the tracking apps or phone mirroring software.

He's just happy that his boyfriend is feeling better, more like himself. It's just a perk that Danny doesn't know about Tim's minor stalking tendencies.