#especially with languages

"The gorilla language, specifically the purple-backed gorilla dialect I know, uses a fluctuating ratio of gestures and sounds. Somewhere between, like, 75/25 and 85/15. The vocal aspect is used to emphasize." Danny began, nodding his head as he thought it out.

Damian frowned, but green fog floated around his head, showing that he was concentrating on what he was being told and not upset.

"So, a grunt after a gesture could mean it's a statement or fact. Like someone saying they ARE going to do something. A chirp after a gesture could mean a question, like COULD I do this? Unlike human languages, gorillas focus more on straightforward and simple communication. They don't really have any reason to stretch out what they want or need; they just need to make sure the other understands quickly and clearly."

"What, they don't sit around and talk about all the pretty flowers they saw?" Dr. Trynul cut in, rolling his eyes.

"They could," Danny hummed, ignoring the condescending aspect of the question, "they like talking to each other when they have nothing else to do, and they're smart and opinionated creatures. They like pretty things, I'm sure they do talk about pretty flowers or leaves they saw."

"Sure, and I bet they also tell each other about how they keep their fur clean and what mud makes them look bad."

Damian was glaring at the man, obviously getting fed up with the interruption. Danny would usually just ignore the man and slowly drive him crazy to the point he leaves Danny alone by acting oblivious, but Damian looked like he was ready to stab the guy. (Not like Danny would stop him if he did, but like, Danny, as the, for some reason, reasonable adult, should do something about it before that happens.)

Danny glanced at the woman leading them; she was too focused on her conversation with another scientist to be paying attention. Which was good, because what Danny was about to do and say would cause them a lot of problems.

He still wanted to gather more evidence for an air-tight case (Can't do that if other people wanted to look into it), but he could still use what he had right now.

"You know," Danny started, clasping his hands behind his back while keeping a straight face, "I wonder if your colleagues would like to know that you've been manipulating your research data."

Dr. Trynul whipped around and glared at him while Damian and his brothers slowed down in confusion and surprise.

Danny kept walking.

"How dare you accuse me of such scandalous actions? I should report-" he started, quickly speeding up to match Danny's pace.

"Three papers, released to the public and scientific community. Published under a well-known science journal and written by the one and only Dr. Jake M. Trynul." Danny started, glancing at the large glass tank to the left, where a few otters swam by, gleefully splashing around and having fun.

No one but the four people walking with him was paying attention to what he was saying.

"The connection between environmental factors and animal behavior, Gorillas and the effect humans have on them, and finally, your newest paper, the effects of human and gorilla relationships," Danny listed, ticking them off on his hand.

"I might not be a scientist, Dr. Trynul," Danny smiled, stopping and turning to look at the man, "but I do know how to read data and do the math myself. You have blatantly manipulated scientific data gathered by yourself and your team and falsified findings, all so you can trick others and, more specifically, your superiors into investing more money and resources into your research."

Tilting his head, Danny studied the man in front of him, who was flushed red in anger and clammy with nerves. Danny hadn't given any evidence that what he was saying was true yet, but the man still glanced around like someone was going to strip his license right then and there.

(Which was evidence enough if you asked Danny; no one got that nervous over baseless claims.)

"You might happen to remember that I had been allowed to help your team with researching and studying Delilah and her family. An opportunity that allowed me access to the team's whole process. Which meant I had access to the unedited and raw data that had been collected. Data, I might add, that I had been required to read through and help collect."

"I don't know how you've managed to do this with so many bright minds on your team, let alone get it past so many others, but I'd like to remind you, Dr. Trynul, that if this did get out, with all the evidence I do have, mind you, you'd be in some serious trouble. Not only would your license be revoked, but you'd face possible imprisonment. Fraud, especially on a federal level, is taken very seriously."

The man gaped at him, his mouth opening and closing for a few seconds before he settled on growling at Danny, "You're lying, you don't have anything. This is libel! I should get you arrested for defamation of character!"

"Oh, bless your heart," Danny held a hand over his chest and batted his eyes, watching as the man grew even more furious. One of the brothers, Dick maybe, choked and started coughing.

"First of all," Danny started, holding up a finger, "libel is written defamation. Slander is oral defamation. Second of all, you can't get me arrested for defamation. You'd have to provide evidence that I had intended to cause you or the public harm. And file the case in a state that deals with criminal libel, which I just explained doesn't apply here."

"Third of all," Danny crossed his arms, lifting an eyebrow, "I've been collecting evidence for months now. The only reason you're not being interrogated by the authorities and your superiors is that I've been busy with other things. So, I suggest you pack your stuff, go home, and evaluate your life. Because I'm definitely going to be submitting my evidence after today."

Well, not right away.

Like he said earlier, Danny wanted to collect more evidence. Like, sure, what he had now would definitely get the man in trouble, but Danny wanted air-tight.

Turning away, Danny started walking in the direction their temporary guide had disappeared. Damian and his brothers took a moment but quickly started following.

"Holy shit," Tim breathed, glancing back at the seething man. "Do you actually have the evidence, or were you making that up to scare him?"

"I actually have the evidence, but it's back home, so it'll take 'while before I can actually submit it," Danny admitted. Now that that was taken care of, he could get back to what he was actually here for.

"Alright, 'nough about him. Y'all wanted to hear about Delilah and the language." Danny clapped his hands, turning his head to look at the three. The two older brothers looked like they'd rather continue questioning him, purple orbs zipping around their wide eyes, but Damian practically lit up in yellow light, all confusion and glee (?) from before disappearing.

"You said they liked talking when they have nothing else to do, do they not typically like to converse?" Damian asked, an almost unnoticeable skip now in his step.

"That's the thing, they talk all the time. They use a more elaborate and obviouse dialect when bored and a more straightforward and instinctual one when busy. It's fascinating." Danny smiled, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Oh, there you guys are!" their temporary guide cuts in, "I thought I lost you guys! Come on, Delilah is just up ahead. She's going to be so excited to see you, Danny."

Danny smiled, picking up his pace when Damian (not rushed, because the kid seemed way too formal to do something as 'childish' as running) caught up to her side.

Glancing back, the two brothers were nowhere in sight.

That was two hours ago, and now here he was, standing in the middle of Gotham City Zoo at 8 in the morning. No one had noticed them yet, which Danny was greatly appreciative of; he had not been ready for this.

Sure, Mr. Bruce had said he invited all the scientists, but this? This was not what he was expecting.

He was expecting maybe one or two scientists to be standing around, watching Delilah and her family as some rich kid hounded them for answers. They were scientists, surely, they had better things to do than attend some rich kid's birthday party.

But no.

All of them were here.

All. Of. Them.

What the hell had Mr. Bruce paid them?

The whole scientific team was in attendance, and right in the middle of them was the birthday boy. His voice was drowned out by the scientists, all hungrily trying to force their knowledge into his brain. The kid didn't seem to mind, happily nodding his head and turning to pay attention whenever someone else started speaking.

Oh dear ancients, what had Danny agreed to?

Suddenly, an older boy (slightly younger or the same age as Danny, it seemed) approached the group and turned the birthday boy to look in their direction. Danny's poor, overstimulated, enhanced hearing instantly zeroed in on what they were saying, a pool of dread settling in his stomach.

"Look, Damian. Bruce is back with that dude you wanted to meet." Danny wasn't even offended by it; he was LITERALLY just Some Dude.

Immediately, the kid's green eyes lit up in excitement as they settled on Danny and the kid's father. The boy promptly shoved past the other scientist and marched over to them, mouth somehow set into a scowl even though Danny could feel the kid's excitement increase tenfold.

The older boy easily followed behind in amusement.

Before the kid could open his mouth, Danny felt the air shift next to him. It wasn't a ghost; they wouldn't have been so obvious, and his sense hadn't gone off, so human then. (He should have heard them earlier, but with how loud it was? Danny wasn't too worried about how he had missed the person.) Which means, Danny shouldn't react, obviously, or people would start asking questions.

Keeping himself from tensing up (and not allowing his eyes or any micro muscles to react), Danny focused on acting completely human and preventing his body from reacting on instinct. (Humans don't hiss at unwanted invasion of space.)

He waited for the person to act, and not even a second after processing all of this, someone threw their arm around Danny's shoulders and pulled him close to their side, their voice bright and cheerful.

"Damian! Look who Bruce dragged in!"

Danny turned his head to glance at the man, who had black hair and blue eyes. This wasn't a surprise, considering almost all the kids Bruce adopted had the same features. So which one was this? One of the older ones, obviously, hmmm. Slim frame, but still muscular. perfect for swimming or gymnastics.

So, that would logically mean this was Dick Grayson, the oldest?

"Tch," Damian scowled even more, "release him, Grayson."

Bingo. Danny had been correct then. And that was one heck of a scowl. How did the kid do that? Danny could feel he was happy at the sight of the older boy, but somehow, he looked like he'd rather be eating snails than deal with the man.

Maybe he should introduce him to Sam; she'd love to learn how to do that.

"Alright! Alright!" Grayson chuckled. Wait, what was Danny supposed to call him? Dick or Grayson? Richard? "I'm just trying to be nice."

He turned to face Danny, releasing him from his grasp, his smile almost blinding, "Hi there! My name is Dick. Yes, that is my name. No, I'm not joking. It's nice to meet you. What's your name?"

Danny blinked, then carefully shook the man's hand. The last thing he needed was to crush his bones, because Danny had been overwhelmed by everything.

Man, he should have stayed home; anything would have been better than this. Even listening to Dash ramble about his crush on Phantom would have-

Oh, shit, they're all looking at him now. "Uh, my name's Danny. Danny Fenton."

"Danny! Nice. So, what did you do to be invited?" Dick asked, resting his hands in his pockets and lifting a brow. And wasn't that the question of the hour? Mr. Bruce had walked away a while ago, so Danny would have to deal with this himself, it seems.

Damian rolled his eyes but looked intrigued as well.

"Uh, Mr. Bruce," This got an immediate reaction from all three of them; their eyes widening in surprise and maybe a hint of glee, "invited me. something about how Damian wanted to learn how to speak with Delilah."

"Really?" asked the other boy, Tim, was it? "You can actually speak with them?"

"Tch, of course not, Drake. The purple-backed gorillas do not have a spoken language; they use their body movements to communicate. Daniel, here is the only person in the world to figure out how to communicate with them."

"Don't call me that," Danny cut in, wincing when they turned to look at him, "my name's Danny, not Daniel."

"Isn't Danny a nickname for Daniel?" Damian asked, his brows furrowed and mists of red curled around his ears, "I do not call people by their nicknames; it creates a false familiar connection."

"Usually," Danny conceded, "but my name isn't Daniel. My parents chose Danny; it's not a nickname. And if you really don't want to call me that, then you can use my last name. It shouldn't be a problem considering I'm the only Fenton here."

"Oh," Damian blinked, the red evaporated, and he thought about it for a second, "Danny, it is then."

The other two shared a glance, golden yellow and sky blue sparking around them, clearly surprised for whatever reason. Sighing, Danny held up a thumb in agreement. The kid could call him whatever he wanted, just not Daniel. Anything but Daniel. (Ancients forbid if he gets called Dan.)

"Anyway, like you were saying. Delilah speaks with her body movements, but there is a vocal part. It's a little like sign language and that one native whistle language combined, but instead of just using your hands, facial movements, and whistles to communicate, you have to use your whole body. All at once."

Danny then rubbed his neck, "And I'm sure someone else would be able to speak with her if they just paid attention. It's not that hard."

"Not that hard?" Dick asked, glancing in the direction the gorillas were, "How long did it take you to figure out her language then?"

"Oh," Danny blinked, then shrugged, "like, two hours. Like I said, it's really not that hard, you just have to watch her talk for a while."

"Two hours?!" Tim, Danny's pretty sure his name was Tim, gaped, staring at Danny like he was nuts. Which, Danny didn't appreciate, by the way. "It only took you two hours to figure it out?"

Danny wasn't sure if he should feel offended or amused...

"That's impossible," someone scoffed, dragging all of their attention to an approaching scientist. "It takes upwards of three months to multiple years of hard work to even understand human sign language, let alone animal gestures. You couldn't have learned it in just two hours."

Danny rolled his eyes. He remembered this guy. Dr. Trynul or whatever; he absolutely refused to believe Danny the last time they talked. He was a real stick in the mud if Danny had ever seen one.

"Danny Fenton is listed as the only person in the world to have the ability to communicate with the gorillas. It even says as much in the scientific papers your group released last month." Damian huffed, narrowing his eyes at the man. Danny smiled at the fact that the kid automatically used his correct name.

Dr. Trynul rolled his eyes, "I requested they leave that false information out, but Mertil absolutely refused to listen to reason."

"And it's a good thing she didn't," another researcher cut in. Danny remembered her from the very first time he had to talk with the scientist involved with Delilah. Real stern, but a nice lady.

"This young man can communicate with them just like he would if he were one of them. I've seen it with my own eyes," she then turned to the group, a small smile growing on her face.

"Danny, it's so good to see you again! Delilah has been just such a sweetheart, and her baby is just the cutest thing in the world. You have to come and see them again."

Danny rubbed the back of his neck and smiled back, "Sure, Oh!" He turned back to Damian, "Maybe I can introduce you to them if you haven't already?"

The boy nodded his head, his excitement rolling off of him in yellow swirls. Turning back, Danny nodded his head with a small smile, "Please, lead the way."

"I get it," Danny quickly cut in. He did not want to get stuck listening to Mr. Wayne try and fail to 'fix' his self-perceived mistake. "But I still don't really understand why you want me there..." and why there was such short notice.

Like, sure, the kid's a fan of Danny or whatever (He was still trying to wrap his mind around that one), but would the kid actually want Danny at his party? Wouldn't that be like... he didn't know, weird? To just have this random guy from Illinois show up?

"Right!" Mr. Wayne coughed, scratching his face in embarrassment. "Once I learned that the purple back gorillas would be in Gotham, I suggested we have his birthday party at the zoo. He had been so interested in learning about them, I thought it would be perfect. He agreed."

Mr. Wayne leaned back, his tea still going untouched, "He had told me he wanted to know everything he could about their species. So, I invited all the scientists working with the gorillas to the party so he could talk to them."

Danny nodded in understanding when Mr. Wayne glanced at him, even if Danny thought that that was the most fruitloop way he could have gone about it.

Then again, Danny's pretty sure all billionaires were fruit loops... So, he's not that surprised.

Mr. Wayne smiled, looking more comfortable now, "The moment he learned about them, he was obsessed. Started digging into their history and anything he could get his hands on."

"After some digging, he discovered that you basically saved their species. He immediately declared that he must meet you at all costs. Something about needing to know their language?" Mr. Wayne trailed off, looking at Danny as if to see if he knew what his son meant.

Which Danny did.

If the kid was looking at Danny, specifically so he could learn the language, then that meant he had read that stupid paper released recently.

The scientists who had dedicated themselves to studying Delilah had printed one claiming that the purpleback Gorilla language was apparently hard to learn. (Even if Danny had been able to understand it pretty easily and told them so.)

They had, without his permission, listed Danny as the only person fluent in it so far. Which, now that Danny thought about it, was kinda rude. They hadn't asked to put his name in there, and now look at him! being visited by Fruitloops, looking for him to be at their son's birthday parties.

Anyway.

So, if the kid, Damian, read the paper, he must have concluded it would be easier to learn the language from someone who was already 'fluent' than to try to teach himself. (Something Danny can't blame the kid for, but still.)

"KIDS!" Dad's voice bellowed from downstairs, making Mr. Wayne startle and turn to glance down the hall. "IT WORKS! IT WORKS!"

...

"So, when do we need to leave?" Danny asked, all previous paranoia and reservations thrown out the window. The sooner he could get out of the house, the better.

Mr. Wayne slowly turned back, his brows furrowed in confusion. "We, uh, we'd have to leave in," he glanced down at his watch, his eyes widening a little, "an hour. I have to leave in an hour."

Mr. Wayne then frowned as he looked back up at Danny, "I just need your parents' permission, and you can come with me now, or I can arrange for another flight for you later tonight or early tomorrow?"

Danny did not want to find out how they were going to test their new machine, so he turned and cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "HEY MA! CAN I GO WITH MR. WAYNE TO HIS KID'S BIRTHDAY PARTY?!"

It was silent for a second, probably so she could actually process his question, before she shouted back, "SURE! JUST BE BACK BEFORE WE LEAVE FOR OUR TRIP!"

Oh, right. He completely forgot his parents had a trip planned for their anniversary. Something about a huge ghost or demon trap in Wyoming, they wanted to investigate.

"YOU'RE LEAVING TOMORROW, THOUGH!" Danny shouted back, "DAMIAN'S BIRTHDAY IS TOMORROW! I CAN'T GO IF I WANT TO BE BACK IN TIME!"

Silence, and then, "OH! UH, THEN JUST BE SAFE! TAKE YOUR BLASTERS WITH YOU!"

Danny blinked, then shrugged. He could do that.

Turning back, he found Mr. Wayne staring at the floor, his brows raised and furrowed in concerned confusion. Danny hadn't known someone could make a face like that, but seeing as Mom had finally gotten Mr. Lancer to curse in front of him last year, it wasn't that surprising to see.

"Let me pack my bag and then we can get going," Danny announced, standing up and grabbing his cup from the table, silently offering to take Mr. Wayne's as well. The man handed him his full cup and watched as Danny walked away. (Why would Mr. Wayne be paranoid about drinking tea? Had he been poisoned before? That happens to rich people, right?)

Well, at least Danny had already told the other ghosts to leave him alone for the rest of the week. They shouldn't get into too much trouble while he's gone.

Speaking of trouble, Mr. Wayne lived in Gotham, a place riddled with crime and violence.

Dumping the cups into the sink, Danny turned and rushed up the stairs. Unplugging his phone, he sent Sam and Tucker a text to let them know he wouldn't be in Amity for the rest of today and tomorrow. Neither of them was online, so he didn't worry about getting a response right away. He also let them know he'd keep them updated.

Once done with that, Danny turned to his closet and rummaged around until he found his old backpack. Pulling it out, he dumped the contents onto his desk and made quick work of packing his essentials. Clothes, phone chargers, wallet, and ectoplasm in case of emergencies. Mr. Wayne said he'd pay for the travel fair and hotel expenses, so Danny only needed to worry about food.

Glancing in the mirror, Danny finally noticed he was still dressed in his PJs. He took a second to debate whether he really cared enough to get dressed properly or not before shrugging. Mr. Wayne's already seen him in them, and they're comfy, no point in changing.

Zipping up his bag, Danny tossed it over his shoulder, shoved his keys into his pocket, and quickly ran downstairs. Mr. Wayne was walking around the room, studying a few of the leftover project pieces that his parents had left lying around. Thankfully, there wasn't anything that could be dangerous.

Man, Jazz was going to be so annoyed once she learned they hadn't been picking up after themselves. Again.

"Alright, Mr. Wayne. I'm ready when you are," Danny greeted, stepping into the room. The man turned to look at him, a strained smile on his face, "Just Bruce is fine."

"Alright, Mr. Bruce, then." Danny agreed, gesturing for the man to start making his way to the door.

Mr. Bruce heaved a sigh, shook his head in resignation, and turned to walk out the door. Danny turned to shout into the house one more time while digging his keys back out of his pocket, "BYE, MA, DAD! I'M LEAVING! HAVE FUN ON YOUR TRIP!"

Not waiting for a response, he closed the door and locked it. Hopefully, they'd remember to do the same when they left.

Turning around, he found Mr. Bruce studying him. Lifting his brow in confusion, Danny started making his way down the steps and over to Mr. Bruce's fancy car. Why the man had a fancy car when he said he'd be flying, Danny didn't know, but he's pretty sure it has something to do with keeping up his image or something.

Vlad did the same thing after all.