Danny was tired. He was so, so tired. His parents had dragged both him and Jazz down to Gotham for the week, and he was not happy about it. Something about a tech convention Vlad had bought them tickets to.
And since Danny was effectively out of the way for the week, Vlad had gone ham ‘n cheese with some of his more…delicate projects. Buying tickets for the convention was just his way of ensuring the Fentons would not be in Amity. And by extension, Phantom.
Well tough shit for Vlad; Phantom could fly and he could fly fast. Traveling back to Amity long enough to stop Vlad’s plans took a few hours round trip, but he’d done it. And now he was back in Gotham, wandering down the streets in a daze and completely unaware of his surroundings. He knew the convention went late into the night, so Danny still had several hours left before his parents returned to his hotel room.
Speaking of hotels, where was his? He’d text Jazz, but he dropped his phone somewhere over…Ohio? Maybe? It was literally all a blur, he couldn’t remember. Oh well, one less thing to get pickpocketed for.
So in Danny’s quest to find his hotel, or anywhere to rest, he wandered the streets and managed to attract quite the crowd. Tiny blob ghosts took up residence in his hair, making it stick up from all ends. Shades and wisps invisible to even Amity Parkers attached themselves to his clothes, clawed at his shadow. Whispered nonsense into his ears and blurred around him, making Danny’s form look unnatural even to the human eye.
Danny’s core constantly hummed, feeding the lost souls bits of ectoplasm. He did his best to project the feeling of safety. Of comfort. These spirits would be safe with him. Some of them stopped flickering. They calmed down, slowly curling around Danny like a thick fog and doing their best to match his core’s soothing tunes. It was hard, sure. These spirits and souls were the bottom of the barrel in ghost society. They barely had a core, never mind one strong enough for complex emotions.
But the thought was there, and Danny appreciated it.
Wandering the streets of Gotham took him to several places he wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Sometimes a shade would guide him off the beaten path, to a house or street or park. They’d whisper in his ears, more coherent this time, and tell their tales. Some spots were the locations of epic battles fought by the protectors of Gotham, the Bat and his family. Others were places where a more personal story took place. A few of the shades just wanted to share their story. To have one person listen, to know, they existed. Danny was happy to be that person.
Until he got hungry. Then he decided to put a pause on sightseeing and get something to eat. The shades became restless. Blob ghosts began a game of tag, zooming all around his body and sometimes hiding in his clothes. Danny made his core thrum harder, trying to impress his need for food onto the spirits of the dead. He tried to tell them to stay calm. Just because they could survive off of ectoplasm, doesn’t mean he could.
And while he was communicating with his new friends, Danny felt something tickle in his throat. Like his ghost sense was just barely going off. No blue mist exited his mouth, however, so he wrote it off as another shade passing by. Maybe one that would join the pile on his back. Danny continued on. He could smell burgers in the air. Hot and greasy fries. He could see the sign for Bat Burger just barely hidden two blocks down, maybe he could-
Danny stuttered to a halt. He’d just ran face first into a huge wall of emotions. There was another ghost nearby.
Danny sighed. His stomach growled, and his exhaustion was worse than ever. But he turned and just let his feet carry him to the source of the two angry cores screaming at each other. His tag-alongs were skittish, nervous about the proverbial pissing match they were about to walk in on. Danny trilled this time. They were safe. It was okay.
calm safety better no fighting you’re safe warm calm
Danny shimmied up a drain pipe. The ghosts were on a roof. Privately, he really didn’t feel like breaking up a cat fight between the dead, but it wasn’t anything new. At least they were above the street, less chances of being spotted by civilians. With a grunt and push of his arms, Danny hauled himself up over the edge of the roof. The emotions were worse up here. Angry voices overlapped with angry cores. One of them was straight up growling.
RAGE ANGER HOW COULD YOU HURT HURT HURT STAY AWAY ANGER
ANGER FIGHT FIGHT NO HELP HURT STAY AWAY
He was right, there were two ghosts. Maybe a third, but they were keeping themselves hidden really well. Striding forward, Danny let his feelings roll off him in waves. A headache was beginning to form.
“Please, none of that, now.” Danny, in his 5’4”, scrawny teenage glory, picked up the two ghost by the scruff of their necks. They were humanoid, but that didn’t stop him from treating the pair like mischievous kittens. “This is a civilian area; if you two want to duke it out, do it in the Zone.”
calm safety better no fighting you’re safe warm calm
The two ghosts had gone limp like putty in Danny’s grip. Their cores had quieted significantly. One of them started purring. Danny sighed, eyes half closed. If he was any more awake, he could have noticed how the pair’s cores were half baked at best. But he didn’t.
He also didn’t notice their company.
Shades chittered around his face. A few blob ghosts got curious and floated over to make nests in the new ghosts’ hair. Guess they found something more interesting than Danny.
One of the ghost started to shake. Danny frowned, and tried to push out more warm feelings. That just made them shake even more. Oh, must be an ectoplasm imbalance. Danny gently set the pair down, smoothing out their clothes. In doing so, he forced some of his own ectoplasm into their obviously starved cores. Have these ghosts never been to the Zone? That would explain their harsh reactions against each other. And while Gotham had lots of spirits, there was a distinct lack of clean ectoplasm floating around. Even Danny was starting to feel a little sick. Like he spent the past week breathing in secondhand smoke.
“I see now, you two have never been to the Zone. My bad. Natural portals are hard to find, sometimes. For now, I recommend talking about your issues properly. Ghost-to-ghost. I know you’re territorial, but getting into constant arguments will put a strain on you eventually. Try asking around; the shades can teach you how to feed off emotions until a portal appears.” Danny sighed again. His fingers found their way into the ghosts’ hair, threading through like a mother comforting a child.
(Admittedly, Danny struggled to reach the taller one. Guy had to be around six feet.)
Danny hummed, out loud this time. “Now that you two have calmed down, I’m a little peckish myself. A few blobs seemed to have taken a liking to you two, so have fun with that. I hope to see you in the Zone later!” And with that, Danny pat their heads, and walked straight off the roof of the building. He had burgers to eat.
Jason was crying. He was crying. He was on a roof, somewhere in Gotham. There has been a villain attack earlier that day. Which villain? He doesn’t know. Couldn’t remember. He was doing cleanup around the Narrows and stumbled across most of the Batfamily.
He remembers getting angry. Tensions were still high from the fight, he got pissed Batman was so close to his territory. Even though he knew, Bruce knew, Jason did not want him anywhere near his part of town. Why were they there then? He doesn’t know.
He got into a fight with the demon brat. Why? Why were they fighting? He was so angry. Damian had drawn his sword, Jason had a hand on his gun. Batman and Nightwing were trying to calm them down. Tim had backed up, afraid. Of Jason? Cass was somewhere. It wasn’t physical, not yet. It was about to be. The pit was winding him up. Green was in his vision.
And then he got lifted up by his jacket, toes still touching the roof. And there was relief. The pit backed off. Retreated to the farthest point in his mind, taking the green rage with it. No pressure beat at his temples; Jason was calm. Damian dropped his sword, but Jason couldn’t hear it clatter against the onslaught of foreign emotions filling him.
calm safety better no fighting you’re safe warm calm
The feelings came from whoever was holding him. He was calm. Jason was safe. Damian started…purring? They were both limp and complacent. He’s be more concerned if Jason didn’t feel so warm. There was no pit banging at his thoughts, twisting his mind. There was no red hot anger swelling up and exploding. There was no pain and there was no risk. Tears poured from his eyes and he started shaking from silent sobs. He was safe.
He and Damian were set down, gently. As if he was precious crystal. Strong hands smoothed out the wrinkles from his jacket, and suddenly a hunger he’d never noticed disappeared. Jason realized someone was talking.
“-atural portals are hard to find, sometimes. For now, I recommend talking about your issues properly. Ghost-to-ghost. I know you’re territorial, but getting into constant arguments will put a strain on you eventually. Try asking around; the shades can teach you how to feed off emotions until a portal appears.” A sigh. Fingers worked their way through his hair, and it took everything in Jason not to collapse then and there. Where was this comfort when he’d woken up, digging himself out of his own grave? Where was this warmth when he made his first kill?
Someone hummed. Or were they already humming? “Now that you two have calmed down, I’m a little peckish myself. A few blobs seemed to have taken a liking to you two, so have fun with that. I hope to see you in the Zone later!” A hand quietly pat Jason’s head, and the person retreated.
This time, he really couldn’t stay standing. He fell to his knees, sucking in deep breaths. His helmet was next to him, ripped off soon after the argument started. The warmth was leaving. No, gone. Now he wanted to cry for another reason. Damian was next to him, curled in a little ball. He looked sleepy, with some light purring Jason hadn’t even known was possible.
“…Hood?” Oh yeah, there were other people on the roof. Cass had dropped in from somewhere, lightly scratching his back. A star struck look was on her face; Jason knew she must have felt something too.
“Red Hood.” Jason flinched at Batman’s voice. They stared at each other, and suddenly his tears dried up. Bruce had not been the one to give him this warmth. To scare away the pit.
Jason jolted into action. He bolted up, looking around wildly for the person, his savior?, who just brought him to his knees. Little green blobs were dislodged from his head, but Jason felt no need to remove them. He darted to the edge of the roof, where the voice had come and left from. There was no one in the street. Not a single soul.
Damian uncurled from his ball, blinking owlishly. The purring died down. “Father.” His voice was quiet. Jason returned to his previous spot and stood over the recovering boy. Something told him he had to protect. Cass too. Even though he was ready to put a bullet in this kid’s head five minutes ago, Jason had done a 180 and was ready to fistfight his own father rather than let him near Damian.
Someone hummed. Jason realized it was coming from him.
“Hood, back away. You two-“
“Are perfectly fine.” Jason growled. The pit returned, but his anger was on Batman this time. “In fact, we’re better than fine. You should be more focused on finding whoever was just up here, however.”
Time was already tapping away. “Cameras in the area can’t give us a clear shot. Something is blurring the person’s face; facial recognition is shot. All I can tell you was that unknown entity was of male stature. I’ll have to go over audio files and personal video feeds back at the cave for a clearer picture.”
“Tt.” Damian stood up, fluently, like a cat. (He purred like one, too.) “That doesn’t matter. Todd and I should have no issues picking him out against a crowd. Black Bat should come, too.”
Nightwing started. “But, we don’t know if they’re hostile! Whatever they did to you-they could do it again!”
“I agree with Nightwing.” Batman stalked to the edge of the roof. “I’m benching all three of you until this entity is found and contained. You’re officially compromised until further notice.”
“Like hell-“ Jason reared, but Batman was already gone. Nightwing paused before following.
Tim snapped his head up. “What?! Absolutely not-“ But Dick had already left.
Jason sent an eerie grin towards Red Robin. A grin that was a little too sharp, a little too feral. Cass and Dami mirrored him. “Oh this is going to be fun, Replacement.”
