To be honest. DCxDP where the reason Danny meets the bats is Ace the Bat-hound
Like, just think about it for a second. Danny is in Gotham for college, or maybe he just moved out to find a city where having mad scientist parents isnât actually that unusual.
Now heâs getting harassed left and right by spirits trying to get closure. Fine, whatever, most of them are a one-and-done type deal, and the amount of ghosts trying to get his help steadily decreases.
Except for this one very stubborn dog.
It just keeps showing up and leading him to crime scenes! He doesnât know how many âanonymous tipsâ he can call in to the cops before they trace his phone! And this dog, this incredibly good boy, will not stop trying to help the city. Heâs never met anyone with such a strong sense of justice, let alone a dog. Can dogs even have a moral compass?
And so Danny just accepts the fact that Ace isnât going anywhere and becomes his reluctant sidekick/dedicated medium. He leans into the whole thing, dressing up in a mix of traditional magic-user attire and accessories that pay homage to the ghost dog.
He becomes somewhat well known. The psychopomp detective following around the shadowy figure of a German Shepard? Thatâs unusual! Thatâs weird! I mean, itâs not the weirdest thing in Gotham, sure, but heâs a new vigilante and heâs got a ghost dog that people can only see when itâs around him. Someoneâs gonna notice.
Damian, as Robin, is the first to reach out to him.
Ace doesnât know Damian but he does know a Robin, and while this isnât his Robin, heâs still friendlier than usual. Dannyâs panicking because oh god the bats are here and also is this kid gonna steal my ghost dog, Damian is absolutely delighted by Ace, and Ace is just happy to see a Robin again.
Damian decides that the psychopomp isnât a danger to anyone, and thereâs no reason to put this encounter into his reports, really, and perhaps Danny can help with some of his cases in the future.
Danny is sweating bullets because Damian basically tells him that heâll keep him secret as long as he gets to play with Ace. Ace is happy that heâs finally getting some bat affiliated crime-fighting assistance.
And so, Danny is now both Ace AND Damianâs reluctant assistant. At least whenever heâs in trouble, he can always call a middle schooler to help him.
(Is Robin even in school? Heâs out patrolling damn near every night, and he stays out late as hell. Does he have a bedtime? He should.)
Eventually it gets to the point where Damian is going over to Dannyâs house. When he first sees it, he has a damn bitch you live like this moment, to which Danny responds that not everyone has the money to afford a nice place. Damian counters that he could at least take the time to clean up, and Danny replies that heâs working, going to school, and being a vigilante assistant to a ghost dog, somethingâs got to give.
Danny nearly has a heart attack when he checks his bank account the next day and sees that someone transferred him 10,000 dollars.
And so they get into a routine. Danny and Damian fight crime with Ace at night, and occasionally Damian stops by during the day to play with Ace and have Danny help with his homework.
(Damian is smart enough to do it on his own, but some of the instructions are written incredibly confusingly, and he would never admit to needing help to his family. Danny is just glad that the kid is in school and cares about his education, blissfully unaware that heâs basically emotionally adopted him.)
Damian is used to being in Dannyâs company.
Eventually, when going over a case with the family, Damian absentmindedly remarks that heâll have to ask Danny about some of the clues that they might be missing. Nightwing asks who he means and Damian makes a face like he just swallowed a lemon.
Who is âDanny?â Why is Damian willing to ask for help from anyone, much less someone outside of the family? Does he know who Damian is? Has Damian been compromised? What the hell is going on?
Damian now has to explain that Danny is the psychopomp with the ghost dog who he might have met hunted down while on patrol and conveniently not mentioned, but heâs not a bad person, really, and he lets him play with Ace, and heâs been quite helpful on certain cases due to his ability to talk to ghosts.
Bruce insists that the family meet Danny. Damian, hoping that he wonât just skip town the second he hears the news, relents.
Danny is surprisingly eager to meet the bats, considering his earlier fears.
Damian, blissfully unaware of whatâs coming, sets a time and place to meet.
Once everyone is there, he gives Bruce the earful of a lifetime.
Robin is in middle school! Danny knows that thereâs no way to stop the boy from going on patrol, but you could at least shift his schedule so he gets enough sleep on school nights! Does the Bat even know where he is half the time?! (No) And why isnât he comfortable asking his family for help with both cases and homework? Did they ever even notice how much time he was spending at Dannyâs house? If Danny was a bad person, he could have seriously hurt the poor boy! Shame on you!
Nightwing is mortified that Damian didnât trust him enough to tell him about any of this. Red Hood is laughing his ass off, because yeah Danny is making good points but heâs also chewing out the literal Batman. Tim is recording the whole thing. Steph is delighted by the absolute gall of this Danger Twinkâ˘ď¸, and already planning to add him to several groupchats. Damian is more embarrassed than heâs ever been in his entire life.
You, he points to Nightwing, did your academic life feel supported when you were a Robin? Nightwing is too stunned to speak. Red Hood, eternal shit-stirrer, says that oh, we all prioritized patrol over our education, thatâs just how it is. Red Robin actually dropped out of high school to avoid distractions, did you know that?
Danny honest-to-god shrieks at this.
He finishes his angry rant and leaves, everyone too stunned to stop him.
And as it turns out, Tim wasnât the only person recording the whole thing.
The entire internet is blowing up with Psychopomp The Danger Twinkâ˘ď¸âs rant. People are taking sides. Things are getting messy. Red Hood literally admitting on-camera to previously being a Robin is somehow not the main focus here.
Eventually someone connects some dots from the video, as well as stories circling the internet about the psychopomp. A ghost dog named Ace, who is the literal only reason that the psychopomp is fighting crime at all, which seems incredibly fond of Nightwing and Robin.
A crime-fighting dog who wants constant attention from both the current and original Robin.
Oh my god, Ace the Bat-hound died and became a crime-fighting ghost.
And, somehow, thatâs still not the strangest thing going on in Gotham.
