He/Him

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Part 1: Home for the First Time

Part 2: I Don’t Believe You Care

Part 3: Unhealthy Dependence

Part 4: Settling in

Part 5: Sibling Bonding

Part 6: Changing Perspective

Part 7: Good to Have a Home

Post Time-skip

Part 1: Years Later

Part 2: Day to Day

Part 3: Not Our Responsibility

Part 4: Trying to do it Right

Part 5: Discovery and Progress

Part 6: Emotional Progress

Part 7: Why Didn't You Tell Me

Part 8: Talk to Me

Part 9: Discovered to Soon

I just had a random shenanigans idea...

Now hear me out.

You know those murder mystery parties right? The ones where people get together, an actor plays dead, and the groups have to figure out who did it.

Well what if.

Danny takes a summer job as the body/actor of the victim for those parties and actually is commented on being the best 'very lifelike dead body' actor and hey at least his 'medical condition' (halfa) is finally being useful for something (besides you know, fighting ghosts) he can even go hours without moving (or breathing) once he's dead so he doesn't ruin the immersion for party goers.

Anyways, what if he gets a job for a rich people's party, you know something novelty for the wealthy to have fun with, maybe it's the Wayne's hosting a party or maybe someone else and they invite the Wayne's. And the company he works for sends him to Gotham. He gets there, helps set up the clues and the other actors, etc etc.

Then the guests start showing up, Danny acts like the star of the show he is and then the lights cut out, he screams (very realistically), and 'dies' before the lights come back on. As some players come up to inspect his body however he doesn't notice how some take his pulse and actually fully think he's dead.

For your DPxDMC AU, Danny would have the best mentors possible to learn to control the Ring of Rage, and possibly make it into a Devil Arm that is exclusively his.

Like how Dante gets Agni and Rudra, or the Cerberus staff. But Danny, wearing an edgy ring that maybe turns into big clawed gauntlets. (Like the Gore Magala Dual Blades from Monster Hunter, but instead of one solid gauntlet and purple, they're ecto green and made of fire, or maybe ice, and segmented for flexibility)

I can't stop thinking of Dante and Vergil teaching him to control the Ring's power, since it's fanon effect of heightening the user's anger would work similar to how they become much more aggressive in Devil Trigger, and later on Sin Devil Trigger.

Ooooo that does sound cool. I have played with an idea he gains agni and rudra as rings... mostly from accident and dante didnt want to hear them so lets danny deal with it. He broke tge case they were in, he fixes the problem uwu.

These are just the ones I see people egnore or forget the most often these ARE Canon

1. danny hates Christmas and even if he mellows out he will never love it and the idea he'd visit or even willingly be around his parents that time of year is stupid they are the reason he hates the Holliday

2. danny hates toast

3. danny wants to be an astronaut he's a star nerd (but can't become one after the accident for obvious reasons)

4. tucker and val are the only ones within our main cast that have a healthy normal family, Sam's parents are overprotective and hella pushy, and Danny's parents are also overprotective and VERY self absorbed/negligent

5. tucker is a furry

6. Sam's hair is most likely died (both her parents are blonde)

7. Danny has been tortured by both vlad and Val. Canonically, he is a torture victim

8. Danny is canonically attractive, described as "cute" and "handsome." he's an outcast not for his looks but because of his interests, friends, and his parents

9. Sam is new to town and most likely only met the beginning of that year it's also implied that they have known each other since 3rd grade (but she doesn't know things about him like him hateing Christmas so I'm going with she is new)

10. Danny is a people pleaser and an empath with low self-esteem

11. In Outsiders, Pov danny is seen as a delinquent,

12. Danny is a victim of grooming and sexual assault (spectra) he is also a stalking victim (vlad)

13. Danny didn't want to be a hero but stated, "I have the power to help, so it's my responsibility." If someone is screaming for help, I can't turn away"

14. Danny isn't expecting a thank you or people to like him he's doing this because it is the responsible and right thing to do

15. Danny's crush on Palina is short it lasts for a few episodes, and he gets over it quickly it's the hot, popular crush that we all go through as teens

16. He judges actions, not looks sticks up for the Lil guy/ distrusts authority

17. His sister is the most important person in his life

18. The Fentons have a torture dungeon under the basement

19. Danny is responsible for cleaning up his parents' experiments, the lab, and the portal, and has been for years (wtf)

20. Danny likes wordplay/puns, is a prankster, and is willing to steal and manipulate if a situation calls for it or as payback

21. Danny showers after gym only when everyone has left/is shy of his body (scars/trans headcanons go nuts)

22. Danny is constantly being taken advantage of by his ruges and friends and will egnore toxic behavior/crossed lines at times to keep the person happy and avoid conflict, especially if it's friends or family

23. He has a staring habit

24. His ancestors were witch hunters that went under the name nightingale

25. Bloodblosoms (red roses) that are deadly to ghosts and by extention him

26. Danny is incredibly protective of his sister

27. Sam basically murdered danny with a smile on her face in the "what if I'd never met you episode"

28. Danny has an aunt from his Mums side who lives out in the country and owns a farm. Aunt Alicia

29. Danny is described as "taking after his mother" and "just like his mother"

30. The ghost zone is also known to as the infinite realms to the beings living there

31. Ghosts are dead people /pretty obvious/ but was forgotten/changed after s1 [because it was too dark] fanon saloution = multiple types of ghosts

Does anyone remember that episode of Justice League Unlimited where that guy invents time travel and originally just wants to use it to collect random stuff from history before his nagging wife and being caught in the Watchtower caused him to have a breakdown? Well that story got me thinking, what if Danny uses timeline correction missions from Clockwork as a way to start his own insane collection of rare and expensive things from history? And what if various immortals and magic users know that he's a collector?

Ancient Tomes of sacred arcane knowledge lost to time? Danny has five. Constantine is always trying to nab them.

The shattered remains of Caliburn? Both Shining Knight and Jason Blood have been trying to convince Danny to hand them over for centuries.

A jar of wine brewed by the Cult of Dionysus BEFORE he ascended to godhood? Hippolyta and Vandel Savage have offered Danny literal fortunes for it.

sorry not sorry

Invincible is the only hero show I have ever watched lol

A while back, like a long while, I mentioned how difficult it is for Danny Phantom to be crossed over with other universes besides DC Comics without having to massively downplay Danny due to his powerset and shown stats, or by putting him in of a non-combat oriented setting, thus negating his primary genre and the fact that he has powers. And I stand by that. However, recently I was encouraged to first explain why I think Danny can't fit into specific verses, and then try to find some ways around this issue and come up with ideas for how Danny Phantom can be in a crossover WITHOUT him breaking the tension of the other verse and without him being nerfed to Hell and back. So, after a bit of thought, here are some ideas for IPs other than DC Comics that I believe Danny Phantom can be crossed over with and how it can be done without breaking the story of the other verse or crippling Danny's showcased abilities.

Marvel Comics

Starting with an easy one here that is honestly just cheating since DC and Marvel have so many overlapping building blocks. The same reasons Danny can function in DC without breaking things are why he can work in Marvel. There are people with comparable or vastly superior stats, people who can counter his hax with gear or magic, and the way his powers work don't massively outmatch how the powers of Marvel work. Easy.

2. Invincible Comics

This one is slightly more difficult, but not by much. There are ways for various characters to get the tech or magical items needed to counter Danny's hax, and Danny's showcased, canonical stats are outclassed by the high-tier combatants, but once you get passed that, the issues start cropping up. Danny has durability negation and high-level mind control, two abilities that mean he can act as a hard counter to the biggest threats in the verse, the Viltrumites. They can't hurt him, he can kill them easily. It basically negates all the main tension from the primary threat. And even if you go to the secondary threats, like the Sequids, Danny still acts as a hard counter, since the threat from the Sequids originally came from their pure numbers, which Danny can overcome with ranged and AOE attacks, types of attack that no one outside of Rex-Plode and Atom-Eve has really shown (and Tek-Jacket, but they usually don't show up for fights for various reasons). This means Danny not only negates the threat of the Viltrumites-- none of whom would carry anti-ghost tech or use magic due to lacking knowledge of ghosts and their own pride-- and covers a type of combat that would have saved the heroes of the verse a LOT of pain if they had access to it.

So how does Danny work in Invincible without breaking the verse or nerfing him? Take advantage of the Ghost Zone being a separate dimension with its own threats that also come to Earth. Where was Danny when Omni-Man was wrecking Mark? He was stopping Aragon from overthrowing his sister to reclaim his crown and lead an army of ghostly knights against Earth in revenge for the humiliation Danny caused him. When Conquest showed up? He's freezing Undergrowth's vines before the plant ghost can take over Amity Park again. Whenever a big, very important fight happens, make it so Danny isn't there to be part of it. Have him show up for lesser fights, like the Flaxan invasions or the Sequid incidents and have him be a major part in containing the threat, maybe even have the Flaxans be the first to develop anti-ghost weapons outside of the Fentons and the GDA confiscates what they can to make their own, thus giving Danny a reason to distrust them like he does the GIW.

Danny would make any Invincible fights he took part in WAY easier for the heroes, so keep him out of the ones that NEED to happen and be close calls, and have him be a true asset in the ones he does take part in.

3. My Hero Academia

This one is harder. Yes Danny's stats are below the highest end characters, but he is above the vast majority in raw power, has far more abilities than anyone besides All For One, and the powers he does have work in ways that are just outright better than the versions we see in MHA. Most notably, one of the most impressive and combat capable Quirks we see is Permiation, which is so powerful and effective that the only way to defeat Mirio is to attack non-combatants and force Mirio to take the hits to save them. This wouldn't work with Danny because he can make those he touches intangible as well, so the trick Overhaul did with Eri wouldn't do shit. Not only that, but while Mirio's Permiation can work as the Ultimate Defense, it lacks Duability Negation due to how it's safety feature works, but Danny's intangibility doesn't have that issue, meaning he can bypass conventional durability and either mind control or kill people with ease. The only one who would be safe is All For One, who has some form of regeneration that MIGHT save him if Danny phased his heart out, and his messed-up mindscape with the hundreds of 'echos' that may make Danny's Overshadowing ineffective

So how does Danny work in this verse? Make Danny's time in this verse a job given to him by Clockwork. Danny can't solve the issues of this world, only ensure certain characters reach their peaks so THEY can fix the problems. No shooting Shigaraki at the USJ with a Ghost Ray to knock him out and arrest him, no sneaking into Overhaul's base and sneaking Eri out after destroying the Quirk Destroying Drug, and no showing up at All Might's Last Stand fight and sending a nuclear-level blast into All For One's face to remove his head. Instead, Danny is there to help train Deku in how to use the energy of One For All, to go to school to get proper combat training and emergency response skills, and spend time in a place where he isn't a freak. As for his powers, have Danny present himself as two people. There's 'Danny', a hero student who can project and manipulate energy, allowing him to have superstrength, flight, energy blasts, et cetra, and then there is 'Phantom', a vigilante or random criminal who can turn invisible and intangible. He has all his powers, he just doesn't use them all at once, instead giving each ID a powerset that lets them perform different functions.

4. Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss

Just have Danny's hax of durability and attack negation be negated by high level magic attacks. Adam, the Sins, Charlie, maybe Vox and Alistor, they can all hit him even when he goes intangible. Their magic system is fast paced and powerful enough to match or outmatch what Danny can throw around in canon, many characters can fly, and at least a few people have the raw stats that Danny can't just blitz them or one shot them with a single punch. Honestly, the downside to this crossover comes from how they are mostly political or relationship dramas and not combat-oriented, so unless you make Danny pretty OOC and break up some canon pairings, there isn't much for Danny to do outside of a few big events.

5. One Punch Man

what does this have to do with boiling your surgical tools? well look, the boiling water releases bubbles of steam which carries the malign influences up to heaven. you boil a knife, you send all the miasmic particles off with the steam to heaven. if you rinse the knife off in a bucket the water isn't hot enough, the particles go into the water and then right back on to the knife. you gotta boil it to get the particles all the way away. how can a tool or rag or a bed have miasmic particles on it when you can't smell them? humans have a lousy sense of smell. look at your dog on the hunt. are there no rabbits in the woods just because you can't smell them? we know that miasma is carried on the air, and is what makes stench so dangerous, and we know that humans can't smell worth a damn compared to dogs cats horses etc. a dog can smell if a rat died in a corner of the room last week. you can't. do you think licking the spot where the rat died is going to go well for you? luckily, what humans lack in snout we make up for in brains. we have extra brains where our sniffers should have been. God set that up for a reason.

and why does a rinse with wine spirits work? man, look how fast alcohol evaporates. my guess is that because wine contains a lot more vice than water, it evaporates a whole lot faster, in sort of an equal and opposite way that a rock falls faster than a feather. if you want the miasmic particles to get off there FAST, you dunk it in something that's going back to heaven at a gallop.

WARNING! SPOILERS FOR SHOW-ONLY PEOPLE! WEBCOMIC/MANGA INFO FOUND WITHIN!

Amai Mask HATES the Rank 2 A-Class hero, Phantom. Everyone knows this, but no one other than the idol himself knows why. Even Phantom himself can't think of any reason why the Rank 1 A-Class hero would dislike him. They never really worked together, and Phantom had never been popular enough to truly rival Amai Mask for the Rank 1 spot. He, and the entire Hero Association, were at a loss.

As for the reason Amai hated his fellow hero? It was because like him, Phantom had a 'true form' he could slip into to enhance his powers. Unlike Amai Mask's true form however, Phantom's transformation didn't reveal an abomination, a hideous monster that would send people running in fear. No, Phantom had the gaul to have a true form that was beautiful. Hair of purest white, skin a shining yet somehow healthy pale, and eyes that glowed like emerald stars. A stark contrast to Amai's disfigured skin, ratty hair, bulging eye, and disproportionate frame.

As powerful as Phantom could be as a fighter, the Hero Association tended to prefer to have him work search and rescue. Not only because he can phase through solid matter and extend this ability to those he touches, thus bypassing the time and risk to move debris, but also because his duplication allows for him to remain in constant contact with up to a dozen 'instances' of himself at once even in places where communications are down.

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: 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…..

Narrating the reanimated food is exactly what he’s doing. Their favorite soap opera is the fridge. They switched for an open window door where they (the reanimated food) can’t see them, but they (Danny and Jazz) can sit in front of the fridge with popcorn and just watch.

Like I said DND campaign is a great cover for it.

After she was saved from Destabilization, Ellie gained a nifty new power. She can Melt on command and move around freely, which is just a really fun power, even if she is a bit weaker when she uses it .

But one day, she gets really badly hurt. Like, Really Hurt. Let's say the GIW got a lucky shot and managed to capture her, and experimented on her for a week before she managed to escape.

She can't keep her Human Form stable anymore, but her Goop Form is good enough for now. All she needs to do is find an Ectoplasm Rich Environment and try to heal up the best she can. Hopefully Danny will find her after she misses her monthly Visit.

She ends up in Gotham while searching for a place to heal, but the GIW is hot on her tail.

She needs a place to hide, and the only way she can think of is to overshadow somebody and pretend to be them while the GIW passes her by.

So she jumps into the nearest person she can find, a girl close to her age jumping across Rooftops.

But since she was in her weaker Goop Form, she can't enter a person without their permission. So she slides up to the person in Goop Form, jumps on her Back, and telepathically asks her for help, begging for permission to hide in her for a bit.

The girl she tried to overshadow was Cassandra Cain.

After some begging, Cass agrees and Ellie sinks into her. Again, she can't fully Overshadow her, so she's basically a passenger until Cass decides to give her some control.

The GIW passes by them, and Ellie tries to leave Cass only to realize that she can't. Since Cass was exposed to the Lazarus Pits, she is has a weird Biology, and since Ellie already had a Wierd Biology being a Halfa Clone as a Pile of Goop, they somehow can't leave eachother.

Cass gets a new Roommate, but instead of sharing an apartment, its her body. It's honestly not that bad, Ellie can give her some of her old powers and she can still communicate by making a Goop Head come out of Cass's shoulder.

They get along really well too, Ellie can ways be there for Cass whenever she needs somebody to talk to, and Cass is the Supportive Older Sister who helps Ellie talk about her feelings.

The Bat Fam also doesn't know. They figure that this will probably be fixed soon enough, so there's no real reason to tell her Family. They do find out after a few weeks however.

Cass accidently uses Ellie's powers in front of one of her brothers, which causes them to tell Bat's which means the entire family knows by the end of the day.

Cass has to explain the situation and introduces her new little sister. "This is Ellie. She's a Meta who escapes a secret Government Organization and asked for my help to hide from them by hiding in my Body. Unfortunately, we can't split up because her powers reacted strangely to the Lazarus in my blood. She is now my sister. You are not going to make her leave, I will not let you."

It takes a while, but the Bat Fam ends up accepting her. They do end up looking into that "Secret Government Organization" though, and find that they have been experiencing Raids by an army of Ghosts for the last few weeks.

"Oh right, I missed my monthly visit to my brother." Says Ellie from Cass's shoulder. "He must be looking for me, no biggie."

So the idea is that after they find Danny and convince him to stop his one man war (So the justice league can do their jobs), they start looking into why Ellie is latched on to Cass more specifically. Eventually, after some oddly suspicious symptoms show up, they find that Ellie did sucessfully start regrowing her body. As a embryo.

Danny: “We always joked that you were technically my daughter, but it was weird that you were physically two years younger than me. I guess now it wouldn’t be as weird.”

Cass: “Co-parents?”

The press would go nuts!

Cass: No murder!

Danny: But he hurt you!

Cass: No murder! You can't protect me from jail!

Alfred. That's who. He takes Danny in hand as well. Puts those instincts to good work.

Alfred: Master Danny. Come with me to the kitchen. You should learn to cook. It will help you keep Miss Cass healthy.

And you KNOW Ellie was all "!!!!! OH SHIT!" Etc at first? Like? She was ABSOLUTELY cool with stay a symbiote? Finding a way to separate and taking shots like she'd always done for the rest of time.

Bodily autonomy and consent are HUGE for the Phantoms. They are GHOSTS and furthermore, Ellie is a clone. He whole creation was Vlad stealing Danny's choices and then watching her brothers MELT.

Cass has been nothing but loving and super cool about all this! And now her Weird Ghostie Goo Powers and whatever the fuck a "Lazarus" is, are combining to high jack Cass' body to make her a BABY FACTORY!? OH HELL NO! Get rid of it!

She was probably hysterical. Nearly crying. A big ball of guilt and self loathing and distress.

And Cass? Is just quietly considering things. Ellie is right. It IS her body. And while she's calming Ellie down? She's thinking about what SHE wants.

Focus on the fact you're getting a grandchild Bruce. Focus on the baby! Focus on the fact the baby will have Martian like powers. .. And we are back to anxiety. Alfred! I need Xanax!

And yeah. It will be a great way to explore self perception. And relationships. And family bonds, how they form. How they are chosen. It's gonna be great!

I can just imagine Bruce, Danny, and possibly Tim working on so many (too many) contingency plans. Just collectively thinking up any and all risks and then how to handle those risks. Is this unhealthy? According to Alfred, yes. Will they continue? What Alfred doesn’t know (he knows, they know he knows, they’re just pretending that he doesn’t know) won’t hurt him.

The Justice League have to be warned about their tendencies. Danny won't prepare for self defence. But give him someone else he needs to protect? Oh boy.... (Oddly enough once he learned about the threat of Joker, the clown disappeared How strange)

Bruce: Jason, I can't believe you weaponised Danny like that!

Jason: .... Don't know what you mean B? What did he do?

Bruce: The Joker has gone missing!

Jason: Well. That sounds more like a blessing to be honest B. And anyway. Are we SURE it's another ploy of the clowns anyway??

I want one, where they HATE and try to KILL EACH OTHER. Where they're extremely fucked up in their relationship with one another, but can't kill the other because Taila hoped that they could get along.

They spew poison at each other, inflict pain on each other as easy as BREATHING and would leave the other while heavily injured while saying that they could take care of themselves.

I want them to be near mortal-enemies wrapped up in the bodies of two highly-competent and powerful 14 year olds who cannot give a fuck about each other, has a fleeting thought of killing the other on the best of days but doesn't because of their dear mommy Taila.

Then force them to interact with each other after a long period of separation. I don't give a flying FUCK how you manage to do it, perhaps Danny has to run because his parents vivisected him, perhaps the Nasty Burger explosion couldn't be reversed because Clockwork said no and Danny is torn or perhaps Vlad brings him to Gotham for a gala (either redeemed or not redeemed Vlad), etc, etc.

Force these two children who fucking HATE each other under the same roof, make them interact, make them watch each other interact and make comments about it. Maybe even make an unstable Danny try and KILL Damian, but is stopped by the batfam, or maybe make it that Danny can't even bring himself to kill Damian because he's (discounting Talia) the only family he has left.

Maybe even (if you go the Nasty Burger/Dead Fenton fam au) make Danny hate Bruce Wayne's fucking GUTS because this man is trying to replace his dead father (even though Bruce IS his biological father) and hates him even MORE because he looks so similar to Jack's face that he's literally torn whenever he sees him. Make it that he never stays in the same room as Bruce whenever he's not in mask, make it that he tells Bruce TO HIS FACE that he hates the man for trying to replace his dead FUCKING dad and that he will NEVER accept him as one, biologically related or not.

Maybe even make him not like the batfam either just for the fact that they associate with both Bruce and Damian.

(I just remembered about that one post I saw, but BOY is this ramble gonna get even WORSE for dear old Danny. Though this part isn't really necessary could just read the on top bit lol)

Maybe they even find a way to take away his ghost side, and Bruce (With or without Talia) say that it's for the best for him, and Danny? Danny just fucking BREAKS. DOWN. He's full-on crying and screaming at Bruce and maybe has to be held back by the other batkids or not, or maybe he's just fulling on trying to hit Bruce and Bruce either dodges or just takes it.

Saying how fucking DARE he take away his ghost side, that was apart of him and he had NO FUCKING RIGHT to take away something so precious from him. Then Bruce could say that he doesn't need powers, he could be fully if not even more capable as a human.

And Danny just goes "You don't even get it, do you?" And Danny just cries harder because technically that was one the LAST things linking him to his parents. His DEAD parents. Sure, the accident was his fault, but phantom was created because of their portal, in their lab, in their basement.

Even worse if the reveal went RIGHT and they starting accepting how he was half ghost and trying to change their views on ghosts as a whole, only to die. Then, for some guy to just, take away something like that from him?

Maybe Danny would even say that, rip into him about how that was one of the only things linking him to his parents and even if it wasn't he didn't have the fucking right to decide what to do with HIS body.

"You never had to fucking worry about your parents not accepting you, I did. They still loved me regardless, they tried to change for me. But you wouldn't even know what that feels like, would you, you stupid fucking rich boy."

[idk why I typed that part out but just role with it.]

Maybe Bruce tries to sympathize with Danny about his parents, but Danny just doesn't have any fucks left to give about Bruce's life, or anyone else life in Bruce's life at all and just shuts it down or steamrolls over it. At the end of it all Danny is just a crying, shivering wreck and stares down Bruce with eyes full of HATE that tells Bruce one step closer, and he would KILL him.

Maybe then Damian (Either walks in or was there the entire time.) insults Danny over his weakness and depending on his ghost form or something, and Danny just sees fucking RED and jumps on him. No care that he's no longer half ghost, so that he means he could die more easily, no care to anyone else in that room, no care that Talia wanted both of them to get along and not kill each other.

He tries to kill Damian.

He fails miserably, of course, but he still tries. Then tries again and a fucking gain.

Then after all that he just, doesn't come out of his room, or tries to escape and leave Gotham every chance he gets. He never gets far, but he keeps trying, and he never opens up to anyone in the batfam, not even Alfred.

He's just a kid who lost everything he worked so hard for, everything he tried to hide from his biological mother and her assassin league who tried to keep whatever he had left. Now that kid is fueled by nothing but pure, revolting hatred for the people who took even that from him.

Basically like Dark Danny, but way more powerless and fully human.

Danny no longer has Emotion. No Anger, no Sadness, no Hate. But he also no longer has Happiness, Joy, Love, he feels absolutely nothing anymore.

Amd that's arguably so much more dangerous.

Danny no longer has context for what he is and isn't supposed to do. He knows that he wants to kill Batman, but he doesn't understand why.

And unfortunately for Bruce, he doesn't care enough about anything to figure it out or change his mind.

Danny becomes a Soulless (literally) Killing Machine. He doesn't Fear Death, he doesn't feel Pain, he doesn't hesitate because hesitating requires conflict and conflict requires emotion. Danny is completely and utterly logical in his approach.

His objective is to kill Batman. That is really his only purpose in life anymore, and nothing else.

And imagine how Mentally Broken Bruce would be afterwards?

He just wanted to reconnect with his son, who hated him for no reason. And he saw a convenient explanation when he heard about Danny' Ghost Half.

He thought, "Ghosts are Beings of Pure Emotion, Danny is too Emotional, Danny has a Ghost Half, so the Ghost Half must be making him too Emotional."

And he tried to "Fix" him.

And it worked, now Danny isn't emotional. At all.

He turned his own son into a Killing Machine with no emotions, robbed him of his very humanity, just because he couldn't reconcile the fact that he didn't like him.

He couldn't let Danny grieve, he tried to immediately replace Danny's father as if blood relation had ever mattered in the slightest. And he had broken him.

AKA "Phantom is considered one of the more friendly and 'human-like' being in the Infinite Realms; when he's brought in to advise on a case for the Justice League, they quickly realize that may be an overstatement." DPxDC prompt with slightly Eldritch!Danny

The JLD, including Constantine and Zatanna, assure Superman that Phantom isn't a threat. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman were advised beforehand that Infinite Realms citizens have... quirks. Among which could include mild mind manipulation.

("Auditory and visual hallucinations, projecting emotions." Zatanna explains the effects neutrally, "It isn't always intentional or malicious, so it's important to be vigilant of your mental state. Ground yourself and don't focus too much on anything you see or hear."

"'Else you'll go bloody mad." Constantine chimes in cheekily.

Zatanna shoots him a dirty look before continuing, "...possibly. Phantom hasn't hurt a human before but, as I said, best to be vigilant."

"Won't help if he possesses you, though."

"John.")

Superman wishes he'd listened. Or, rather, hadn't listened. Phantom seemed fairly normal when he'd first arrived through the summoning circle - white hair floating serenely around his young face, hazmat suit loose on his body, skin pale but not deathly blue like he'd expected. He introduced himself cheerfully, said he was excited to work with superheroes, and they started the meeting.

And then the whispers start. Superman only noticed it at first when Phantom spoke for longer periods of time - like a polyphonic overtone, the deeper baritone humming along only microseconds after each word as if a belated echo. When he focuses harder on it, the words don't seem to align with what Phantom is saying exactly - it's almost another language, not English but not not English. A chill makes its way down Clark's spine. It reminds him of the corn fields as a kid, standing at the edge of the uncut stalks and hearing animals moving inside. The field sways and damp humidity sticks Clark's t-shirt collar to the back of his neck. When he looks up, he sees the clouds churning with a murky green - a distant tornado siren starts screaming and he swears he hears Ma's trembling voice telling him to get in the basement now, and Pa trying to herd the chickens in the barn quick as he can.

Then hard, jabbing pressure on his thigh. He blinks and he's at the Watchtower with Wonder Woman and Flash staring at him, as if waiting for his response. He realizes that his hands are shaking, he's sweating, and his heart his beating faster than normal. Batman's fingers are gripping his thigh with a grounding pressure that would deeply bruise any normal man.

"I believe it best we halt our meeting for today. Flash will provide the meeting notes momentarily; please review and plan to discuss further next week." Batman sets his tablet on the table without moving his hand from Superman's thigh, keeping him grounded as he remembers how to breathe properly.

Flash, meanwhile, is stupefied. Sure, he hadn't really been paying attention to the meeting since he was multitasking between typing out everything being said and reviewing his own case file. (He might've also been playing Subway Surfers. But that's between him, his tablet history, and Batman who probably stalks the entire League's data history.) But seeing Big Blue go pale and shaky over the last three hours was... concerning, to say the least. He's invincible. What could possibly shake him up so bad?

He sends the notes to the League's shared files but prints out a copy for Phantom. Do Infinite Realms beings use the internet? Who knows? Better safe than sorry, anyways. He catches the kid by the Zeta tubes talking to Zatanna and stands awkwardly off to the side for their conversation to finish, notes in a neat little folder with the official JL stamp on the front. He's idly playing with a corner of the folder when he catches the kid's reflection in the steel of the Zeta tube. It's not... unusual, exactly, but something looks off. He realizes that he's looking at the kid's shoulder in the reflection but the kid is facing the tube. Flash should be seeing the kid's face in the reflection, not his back and shoulder. Almost immediately, his stomach drops and a chill grips him.

He's unable to look away as the reflection starts to make sharp, jerking movements, bones seeming to crack as the reflection becomes taller. Skinner, wrong proportions. Its fingers are too long, spine protruding from its hunched back, something that almost looks like a horned crown on its head. Barry can't move. He can barely see Phantom in his peripheral vision, definitely not looking like whatever the hell is in his reflection, but his vision tunnels in on the way the reflection's head jerks. Jerks again, harder, and with a sickening crack, Barry sees its head turned towards him. He's frozen to the spot watching as the shadow-reflection-creature suddenly falls backwards on its hands and feet - head still turned unnaturally - and starts crawling like something out of a horror move. And Barry can't move. He's-

"A'ight there, mate?" The strong smell of cigarettes and a hand thumping him on the shoulder jars Flash out of his... daydream? Phantom is now waving goodbye to Zatanna, face open and friendly in his reflection, and Constantine thumps him on back again. Constantine chuckles in a way that's both condescending and sympathetic, "Got'a, did he? You and Underpants both. Should brush up on your meditation techniques or Spooky will go mental." Kindly, or maybe not, he snatches the League notes from Flash's trembling hands and flashes a snaggle-toothed grin before swaggering over to Phantom.

Phantom smiles and waves at Flash in thanks, who can only shakily wave back.

Danny wakes up to muffled voices of a whispered argument in another room. His hazy mind is noting that this is the warmest he has been in a while and that he is just coming out of a good sleep. Part of him just wants to sink back into the already fading dream he was having. But having spent 13 months running, hiding from Vlad and the bounty hunters the fruit loop hired to drag him back to that castle in Wisconsin he had learned not stick around.

Whispering means they think he is still asleep. Arguing means they are distracted. He doesn’t know who they are but the voices are vaguely familiar and that hasn’t been a good thing for him in over a year.

He turns invisible and intangible, diving down as most hunters expect ghosts to go up. There is a startled female yelp, “He vanished!”

Danny zipped through the floor below. His enhanced hearing heard deep male teen voice say that thermal sensors are picking up a moving cold spot. Danny silently cursed. Tech like that was always bad news. He tried to phase out a window but smacked against a magic ward on the building, giving him a painful shock and sapping some of his energy. To human eyes the magic shield would have looked like a shadow but Danny could see a purple tint to it. It was a passive ward that was placed on the outer walls and windows a while ago but seems to be refreshed weekly. It was designed to keep spirits from entering but in this case also keeping Danny from leaving. He would have to get out through an actual door.

He heard some running and an male dressed in traffic light colors shout they see him. He must have dropped his invisibility when he hit the ward. Danny flew off again going down another floor not stopping as the teen called, “Wait we just want to talk!”

The chase went on for what seemed like hours. Danny flying Dow halls and threw inner wall, up and down floors. Bumping into the warded outer walls occasionally as he searches for any exit. Each time he touched the ward it would hurt and drain more of his energy and it was getting harder to use his powers. He had for gone invisibility a while ago. And that meant the teens in the building could better track him and of course tried to call out to him. Asking him to stop, promising they wouldn’t hurt him, what was he afraid of, let them help him. Danny hasn’t fallen for tricks like those since a couple months after escaping Vlad. He wasn’t going to start now.

Danny had to stop for a breath after phasing through the last wall. His powers had almost given out half through and he would have been stuck. After a minute the dizziness faded and he looked up to se he was in a garage, with a door to the outside! It was only a electronic lock between him and freedom that Danny could easily hot wire to open. He didn’t waste a second with to think of hacking and ripped open the panel. He saw the wires he would need to cross after a few second and grabbed them. He stripped the ends and touched them together and the door began to open.

“Azarath Metrion Zinthos!”

Magic swirled around Danny stopping him in midair just as he had finally cleared the threshold out and pulled him back in.

He tries to keep his breathing normal, to not alert anyone who may possibly be in the room with him, and considers his situation.

When he woke up earlier, he remembered medical equipment and a medical cot. This time, he's a little curled up, scrunched against the arm of what is presumably a sofa.

Sofa? He subtly stretches his fingers, hidden and curled around his abdomen, and realizes he's not even restrained. He stretches his senses out, and there's not even a ward in the room he's in.

The only thing keeping him here is his presumed unconsciousness, the blanket they've swaddled around him loosely, and his captors nearby.

He can hear at least one person breathing in the room with him, and further back, two more in the room beyond. He keeps himself from tensing as he registers another person in the room behind him entering silent like a mouse.

"Hey, Rob." The one sitting by his side whispers with a deep, smooth voice.

Rob doesn't answer the greeting, and only moves closer to Danny. It's hard to keep track of him, he's so light on his feet. The only thing giving him away is his heartbeat, which Danny keeps vigilant track of.

Even still, Danny flinches when a hand lightly touches his knee from where it's curled up in front of him.

"Hello. I know you're awake, and I want to make sure you know we mean you no harm. Can you....Do you feel comfortable enough to open your eyes?" This voice has a smooth tenor, soft like he's afraid of scaring Danny off. Again.

And Danny sees no point in pretending any longer, not when he can feel his powers still far and away from his grasp. His eyes flutter open, and Blue meets White for a long second. Somehow, even with the domino obscuring the other's eyes Danny can tell that this Rob is staring intently at him.

It makes him squirm inside, so he forces himself to take in his surroundings.

He's in some kind of living room. The blanket his mysterious captors have wrapped him in has an ugly floral pattern with green and white daisies.

Ironic.

Rob is still crouching slightly directly in front of him, and behind him past a large coffee table sits an Android--no, the being seems to have some organic matter--a Cyborg on a large blue armchair with a magazine on his lap. It has cars on it, from where he can see. The Cyborg is fiddling with something on his arm, but puts it down quickly enough when he sees Danny looking over. They smile at him, and that too makes him squirm.

A clatter to his left reveals another door, where a Green Humanoid and...that is definitely a magic user floating behind them, enter the room. There's a large TV screen on the wall opposite Danny playing some kind of racing movie.

"Hey! He woke up! You alright dude? Not gonna run off again are ya?" The Green one says, only to have the magic user smack them over the head for it.

Rob sighs, before straightening up and looking over towards the door behind Danny.

A second later, someone floats in and lands directly next to Robin with a wide beaming smile.

"How wonderful! You have awoken!" The pink-haired being claps their hands excitedly, even floating back up in their elation.

And that---that is Starfire. Starfire the Tamaranean. Starfire the Alien.

"Holy shit. You're Starfire." Danny's voice is raspy and he winces as his voice breaks.

Everyone perks up at that, and Danny shrinks into himself.

"I...I like space," he mumbles defensively against Rob--Robin's stare. "Aliens are cool, okay?"

He says it sotto voice, but clearly Robin and Starfire hear him as she squeals and twirls around.

"Oh yes, I am the Cool! I think you are the Cool as well, Strange Hero! We can be friends, yes?"

Danny looks up at her hopeful expression, and the only reason he doesn't immediately fold like wet tissue paper is the fact that they have for some reason decided to keep him here, and that he barely remembers what happened to get him here.

"...I don't know if I can be friends with people who won't let me leave." Danny is still trying to understand how he got here, and no amount of sad puppy dog eyes will make him forget what he's been through before.

Once burned, twice shy and all that.

"We're not keeping you here," Robin says, hands up palms down like hes trying to calm a scared animal. "We just wanted to ask you some questions after the Robot battle, but you were...extremely out of it, so we took you back to the Tower for some medical attention."

Danny tilts his head, thinking on that. He remembers the battle. He remembers seeing....seeing one of them almost grabbing up a little boy, and on the run or not Danny wasn't gonna let that happen. Especially when the boy looked like Tucker when he was that age.

He remembers being exhausted, remembers the haze of adrenaline taking over him. He thinks about how he hadn't had a chance to eat anything for a couple days, since his last run in with the vultures caused a 3 day long game of hide and seek.

He remembers thinking about skulker, and seeing Tucker, and yeah. He probably went under in a fighting fugue state.

He looks over the Titans, before letting his shoulders droop and feeling his cheeks warm up.

"Sorry. I remember now. What kind of questions did you have? I really can't stay, but I can probably answer a couple of questions at least." He looks around the room for a clock, and ends up seeing a little digital clock in the corner of the TV screen. He winces, seeing the date. He'd been out for a whole day.

"Maybe you should eat something first dude, I'm starving and I'm not the one whose been out cold for a whole day!" Beast boy says, bouncing up and heading towards the room behind him.

Raven grabs his arm before he can stray any farther, whilst Cyborg fiddles with his arm again--looking closer Danny can see a screen on it. Cool.

"Do you have any dietary restrictions?" Raven asks, heedless of Beast boys struggles to escape.

"I'm order pizza." Cyborg says immediately after. Danny looks at them, before looking at Robin and Starfire.

Robin crosses his arms, but nods his head encouragingly. Starfire floats up, hands together in a little pleading pose, clearly hoping for him to stay.

He sighs. Well. He does need the energy.

"As long as it doesn't fight back, anything is good." He rubs at his face.

Continuation of this post.

Danny led them further into the dark, musty manor, into an area without windows where they had to pull out flashlights and a spell to fight the gloom. Danny reached into the wall and pulled something, thankfully the mechanism was fully manual and the lack of electricity didn't stop the hidden door from creaking slowly open.