Name is Sean

where after a few centuries of boredom, Danny gets a sudden influx of college student worshippers but it's not too worrying since all the offerings he's gotten so far are just different snacks ranging from crackers to a full bowl of mac n cheese. Without any other options, he goes to the only halfa he knows who had finally settle down from dimension travelling to studying in a dimension where she knows the people wouldn't need an extra helping hands of a hero.

King Danny "get me out off paperwork" Phantom: Heya Dani, do you know if something happened that resulted in mass worshipping?

Danielle "I built a shrine of my brother in the empty storage closet of my dorm building to see if it would work" Phantom: gee golly I have no clue on what could have happened to result in that

Words tend to spread really fast especially when it comes to tired students who has nothing else to lose. Besides, after leaving a a potato chip on the creepy looking shrine in the storage room and feeling a strange wave of calm/relaxed/focus and passing that paper you've been struggling with for the whole year, who wouldn't keep doing it and leave even more snacks.

Next thing you know there'll be a creepy little shrine piled with snacks on top of it in empty storage rooms of different college and universities. Eventually the students find out what to call their entity of calm after one claimed to left their notebook in the storage only to find a little scribble that says Phantom in that slightly glowing and possibly toxic green ink.

---------------------------------

In hindsight, Tim should have probably stayed at home and rest after staying up all night finishing a paper due the day after tomorrow but Bruce had asked if he wanted to tag along the JL meeting with the JLD because of... whatever it was Bruce mentioned so who in their right mind would say no to that. So now here he was half listening to the banter meeting about some eldritch entity that could be a threat to humanity and what offering should they provide to complete the summoning. Of course after hearing a familiar name of his preferred deity of submitting papers on time, the delirious boy never even registered what he said.

Tim "barely conscious on his 11th cup of Pedro Pascal's Starbucks order" Drake: Phantom?? give 'em poptart... green flavour...

My own idea is that it’s all the same, up until the part on Tim, it changes to this: Tim isn’t there and the school accidentally become Phantoms first cult, one day Poison Ivy or someone attacks the school and Danny goes CRAZY, no one, NO ONE, attacks the kids that give him snacks! He’s fought Undergrowth and he won, he can beat Poison Ivy (who survived the same chemicals that killed Undergrowth). The school is cheering because they recognise the guy from the picture in the 4th floor bathroom who they give stuff from the vending machine in return for good grades, Phantom flies down to them because why not and looks at the astronomy stuff written on the board

He helps them with all their homework even of it means calling in other ghosts, knocks them out the minute they get into bed (the insomniacs love him), tells people if their crushes like them back, he makes sure non of them slip when stuff freezes over in winter, he makes it snow when it’s too hot in summer, he uses ecto to turn trans people to their correct gender, and in return they give him junk food. Even when people graduate, if their parents don’t show up or aren’t supportive Danny’ll be there cheering them on, he makes sure no one messes with his students, a few even go on to open bakeries or restaurants and give him everything that doesn’t sell and occasionally freshly baked treats if they need extra help/luck, no one who’s not a student at this one particular school knows about this, and every rouge is scared of that school, what goes on in it’s halls? (Parties dedicated to their patron god that’s what, you know he can stick 20 cups on his tail?)

Wait, but combine the two.

Tim: oh yeah, he likes stuff like X, X, and/or X

Constantine: why do you know what the ghost king likes?

Tim: ghost king???? The guy we hold parties for and who lets us pass our exams is the ghost king?!?!?!?!?

Constantine: you must be thinking of someone else! High King Phantom of--

where after a few centuries of boredom, Danny gets a sudden influx of college student worshippers but it's not too worrying since all the offerings he's gotten so far are just different snacks ranging from crackers to a full bowl of mac n cheese. Without any other options, he goes to the only halfa he knows who had finally settle down from dimension travelling to studying in a dimension where she knows the people wouldn't need an extra helping hands of a hero.

King Danny "get me out off paperwork" Phantom: Heya Dani, do you know if something happened that resulted in mass worshipping?

Danielle "I built a shrine of my brother in the empty storage closet of my dorm building to see if it would work" Phantom: gee golly I have no clue on what could have happened to result in that

Words tend to spread really fast especially when it comes to tired students who has nothing else to lose. Besides, after leaving a a potato chip on the creepy looking shrine in the storage room and feeling a strange wave of calm/relaxed/focus and passing that paper you've been struggling with for the whole year, who wouldn't keep doing it and leave even more snacks.

Next thing you know there'll be a creepy little shrine piled with snacks on top of it in empty storage rooms of different college and universities. Eventually the students find out what to call their entity of calm after one claimed to left their notebook in the storage only to find a little scribble that says Phantom in that slightly glowing and possibly toxic green ink.

---------------------------------

In hindsight, Tim should have probably stayed at home and rest after staying up all night finishing a paper due the day after tomorrow but Bruce had asked if he wanted to tag along the JL meeting with the JLD because of... whatever it was Bruce mentioned so who in their right mind would say no to that. So now here he was half listening to the banter meeting about some eldritch entity that could be a threat to humanity and what offering should they provide to complete the summoning. Of course after hearing a familiar name of his preferred deity of submitting papers on time, the delirious boy never even registered what he said.

Tim "barely conscious on his 11th cup of Pedro Pascal's Starbucks order" Drake: Phantom?? give 'em poptart... green flavour...

Later

That is something Danny has even more experience with, and Tim gets visited by a frantically fussing eldritch protection spirit the next time he visits the shrine.

He had barely put down the cookie (Alfred's chocolate-chip and cranberries) when Danny simply whisks him away to somewhere they can talk in private. Then they have a very serious discussion about the reality and special hardships of being a teenage hero.

Tim is mildly said confused and somewhat alarmed at having his civilian and hero identities linked like this, but after he catch on to Danny's somewhat garbled story about being a high-school age hero he starts to understand where Phantom comes from - even if he mistakenly gets the impression that Phantom was a teenage hero before his death.

The idea that Phantom is the ghost of a teenage hero - a hero who died young and who now is determined to make sure others don't suffer his fate, is a motivation Tim can understand. He imagines he would do the same if he ended up in that situation, no matter how tragic the circumstances are. Which just serves to even more firmly place Phantom in the 'friendly entity' category in Tim's mind.

Meanwhile Danny gets Tim to promise to ask him for help if he or other teenage heroes are in trouble, and Phantom switches over to being a Patron for both Tired Students and Young Heroes before the conversation is even over with.

Tim spreads the word about this protective former hero spirit that's willing to help to his friends. They appreciates the study help, but especially tends to ask for sleep free from nightmares, which is hard to come by for many heroes.

(Danny had to turn to Nocturne to learn how to grant this, but the Ancient of Dreams folded rather quickly when a determined Phantom showed up and asked for lessons - the dream ghost knew better than to stand between a powerful Protection spirit and its charges).

Soon a small shrine to Phantom was put up in Titan Tower and it became a routine for people to leave a small snack there while asking for minor help.

Though... Jason had to say? Being dragged to the afterlife for a health check? Was not one of the things he thought would happen. Being told he was now considered liminal? And sort of ghostly now? Made so much sense. The lack of new pit rage episodes? Yeah he's now a follower. He's just not going to say anything.

Danny then went to secretly check over the rest of the heroes. And uh. Yeah that's a lot of corrupted Ecto huh... Well that's very much a him job. Bruce doesn't know how to feel about the fact that all the Lazarus pits are gone now. Well. All but his. Which is now... Very different. Still works the same. But it's less... Angry? When Tim casually drops that his patron spirit did this? He would like to meet him please!

Cue MASSIVE FUCK OFF ELDRITCH HORROR appearing over the school

Goons: 😱☠️

Students:🫵😧

Batman, who showed up like 10 seconds after danny: 🦇🙄

Danny: O̷h̴ ̴H̴e̴l̸l̷o̴ ̵B̷a̷t̴m̴a̸n̴ ̵I̷ ̸a̸p̵o̴l̴o̷g̷i̵z̶e̸ ̴f̸o̷r̷ ̶i̵n̸t̶r̷u̸d̴i̴n̶g̶ ̷u̵p̶o̶n̷ ̸y̸o̸u̶r̵ ̵h̵a̴u̵n̵t̶ ̷b̵u̸t̴ ̷m̷y̴ ̸s̸t̵u̷d̴e̴n̷t̷ ̷c̶u̴l̵t̶ ̶c̸a̸l̴l̶e̶d̷ ̴f̶o̵r̸ ̴m̷e̷.̸ ̷I̷ ̵w̶i̵l̵l̵ ̶n̵o̴t̸ ̵o̵v̵e̶r̸s̶t̸a̸y̶ ̷m̵y̵ ̸w̶e̴l̶c̶o̶m̵e̸.̴ ̸

Batman: Your… student cult.

Danny: I̸ ̶d̸o̴ ̵n̶o̸t̸ ̴k̵n̴o̵w̶ ̴h̷o̶w̵ ̵t̸h̶i̶s̸ ̵h̴a̶p̸p̸e̵n̴e̷d̸.̸ ̵I̷ ̴w̷a̴s̴ ̴t̴o̸o̷ ̸b̶u̷s̴y̷ ̵b̵e̶i̶n̸g̷ ̸d̴e̷a̶d̶ ̷f̸o̸r̴ ̸c̶o̶l̴l̶e̵g̶e̵.̶ ̵T̴h̵e̸y̸ ̶f̷e̸e̵d̵ ̷m̴e̴ ̸g̸r̵e̶e̸n̷,̵ ̴I̴ ̸g̴r̴a̸n̸t̵ ̸p̷e̵a̸c̵e̸ ̴o̶f̸ ̷m̸i̵n̵d̷.̷ ̸I̸ ̶l̷o̴v̸e̶ ̷t̵h̸e̴m̷.̵ ̷B̷u̶t̵ ̴I̶ ̶a̸m̷ ̶m̶uc̷h̵ ̴m̶o̶r̸e̸ ̵s̴u̷i̶t̶e̵d̸ ̴f̵o̴r̸ ̶t̴h̷i̶s̴.̵ ̶

Batman: For… this?

Danny, growing teeth as they speak, approaching the joker with Intent: Ĭ̷̜̖͚͙̞̥͔̤̘͎̩̻̲̱̎̉͛̾́͠ ̸̨̨̧̨̧̦̮͖̖̳͓͙̜̩̤͕̞̓̓̿̈̏̾̌̎̈́̈́̚͘̕̕H̸̺͈͍̟̟̲̱͖̖̜͕́̆́͜A̸̲͕̯̬̭̿̋͊̃͌̈̆͘͜T̴̟̼̲̖̰̻̪͑́̾͜E̶͕͈͖͉̿̽ͅ ̴̧̨̛̯̭̘͙̟̜̤̦̬͌̓̃̓̈́̉̽̿̋͗̌́͋̉̈́̕C̵̳̣̭͎̝̦̘̟̺̬͈͇̼̹̖̘̥̆̂̏̾͋͘L̴̡̹̦̠̗̮̰̝̦̼̤͔̥̤̳͗̄̃́̔̚O̴̗̦̲͈̎͂W̷̘͑̏̇̿̍̄̅̇͜N̷͉̎̄̈S̵̡̛͕̦̳̥̝̺̤̆̈́͋͊͌̿̈́̓͘̚͝͝

(Plain danny text 1: Oh, hello batman. I apologize for intruding upon your haunt, but my student cult called for me. I will not overstay my welcome.

2: I do not know how this happened. I was too busy being dead for college. But, they feed me green, I grant peace of mind. I love them. But I am much more suited for this.

-

CRUNCH!

Danny swallows the Joker in one go, the dumbest clown tastes like shit and cruelty, but he's gone now, Danny's students are safe, so he gives a little wave and-

RIIIIIIP!

There is now a whole in the fabric of space. Fuck portals, this shits is literally terrifying.

Danny steps through and closes it behind him.

.

.

.

C: What the FUCK is that

RR: Its a shrine to Phantom :3 he helps me get good grades :3

C: Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope I am OUT

where after a few centuries of boredom, Danny gets a sudden influx of college student worshippers but it's not too worrying since all the offerings he's gotten so far are just different snacks ranging from crackers to a full bowl of mac n cheese. Without any other options, he goes to the only halfa he knows who had finally settle down from dimension travelling to studying in a dimension where she knows the people wouldn't need an extra helping hands of a hero.

King Danny "get me out off paperwork" Phantom: Heya Dani, do you know if something happened that resulted in mass worshipping?

Danielle "I built a shrine of my brother in the empty storage closet of my dorm building to see if it would work" Phantom: gee golly I have no clue on what could have happened to result in that

Words tend to spread really fast especially when it comes to tired students who has nothing else to lose. Besides, after leaving a a potato chip on the creepy looking shrine in the storage room and feeling a strange wave of calm/relaxed/focus and passing that paper you've been struggling with for the whole year, who wouldn't keep doing it and leave even more snacks.

Next thing you know there'll be a creepy little shrine piled with snacks on top of it in empty storage rooms of different college and universities. Eventually the students find out what to call their entity of calm after one claimed to left their notebook in the storage only to find a little scribble that says Phantom in that slightly glowing and possibly toxic green ink.

---------------------------------

In hindsight, Tim should have probably stayed at home and rest after staying up all night finishing a paper due the day after tomorrow but Bruce had asked if he wanted to tag along the JL meeting with the JLD because of... whatever it was Bruce mentioned so who in their right mind would say no to that. So now here he was half listening to the banter meeting about some eldritch entity that could be a threat to humanity and what offering should they provide to complete the summoning. Of course after hearing a familiar name of his preferred deity of submitting papers on time, the delirious boy never even registered what he said.

Tim "barely conscious on his 11th cup of Pedro Pascal's Starbucks order" Drake: Phantom?? give 'em poptart... green flavour...

Did Danny abuse the fact the GIW needed his parents tech. Yes of course. Danny not phantom seemed to be the trouble maker as of late. His parent threatened to withhold tech and blue prints from them if the GIW touched their kids.

Did he get caught breaking ember and boxy out of a government facility? yes. He expected the lecture he got.

The next jail break. It was not him. It was sam, Then the third. Also not him. That was Val… then it was Tucker. But not him.

The blame fell on him.

He did not expect to be shipped out of state. The GIW were happy to cover all costs. Even got him into a decent highschool. And had an apartment all arranged.

Gotham?

Not where he was expecting.

The assassination attempts. Also surprising.

Not so surprising. Tucker found out the GIW wanted to “silence” him. Offering a lot of money.

Danny's got it down to a science at this point. It barely takes him a week to get back home. (Except for the time the dimension he landed in was in the stone age, but we don't talk about that.)

Step 1 was easy enough, if involuntary. Now, step 2 is where it's all going wrong.

This dimension's language isn't one he speaks. That's fine, maybe adds a day or two to the search for parts, but the main problem is the people dressed in Halloween costumes, speaking like they're from a Shakespearean play who always find him and wreck his portal.

And it's not like he can just move to a different city, this one's soaked in ectoplasm. He'd have to spend a pretty fair amount of time searching for another place as saturated as this one.

Meanwhile, the Bats are not having a good time. Some League or League-adjacent member speaking a barely intelligible form of the League dialect keeps attempting to build some sort of weapon in Gotham, and refuses all communication in English.

So. Bruce discovers that Danny is his biological son.

How he finds out isn't important. What is important is that, when he does, Bruce just. takes him away.

*Typical trope stuff "that's his son, he's his father, therefore he should be with him" blah blah blah, pushes you off a cliff*.

The point is, Danny is no longer at Amity Park, he's now at Wayne Manor, where he belongs, with the rest of his kids.

There's just one little problem with that, which Bruce obviously didn't think of.

Danny is not a stray you find and take home. He's a person, with a life of his own before him. With family, friends, a community of people who would notice his sudden absence.

People who saw a stranger put the Fenton boy into a car and drive him out of town.

The police are called. Danny Fenton's abduction is reported. *Typical police investigation of the abduction of a Minor!*

All of which brings us to the main scene:

The police at the door of Wayne Manor, because Bruce the Idiot, kidnapped Danny without thinking of the consequences (or that the laws applied to him).

I’m imagining that Danny didn’t immediately fight back because he assumed it was Jack and just went along with it. It’s certainly something his dad might do. And if Bruce talks to him while driving about “family stuff”, that could support the ruse even further.

But then at some point his mind finally kicks into gear and he goes ‘Wait, what the fuck? That’s not my dad!’

He has no idea who this person really is or why they kidnapped him. Is he delusional and thinks Danny is his kid? Or is this “family” be a cult thing? Or could it be a euphemism for something else?

The Fentons found about Danny being Phantom and… it could have gone worse?

They don’t hate him. He’s not in any danger of being vivisected or having his adoption annulled. However, they’ve convinced themselves that he’s not actually a ghost; clearly he must be just a Meta with ghost-like powers and delusions of being dead!

So now he’s spending time in a psychiatric institute. Oh joy.

Well, at least they aren’t shooting at him?

…And of course this is when his twin brother Damian finds out he’s alive and comes to see him. While he’s in the looney bin.

Danny was quite done with the entirety of his current situation.

The alarms blarred loadly. A siren starts only to be cut off by manic laughter and screaming.

Like seriously. He could walk out of this place without ghost powers and the only reason he hasn't is because he needed to wait for Jazz to turn 18 and start the whole lawsuit process of child endangerment against their parents.

Which means she'll become his primary guardian because even without their home situation, who puts a 16 year old kid in arkham?

Sure the reason he is in Arkham is because it's the ONLY place that would lockup and put a meta restricting collar on a minor WITHOUT AN OFFICIAL DIAGNOSIS.

To his parents, his insanity was clear as day. Why wait for a doctor to tell them what they already know? Why bother testing to see if he has the meta gene at all?

So meta collar and Arkham. Not that the collar actually does anything because he's NOT A META.

Danny turned his head from staring at the ceilling to watch a group of guards charge by his OPEN cell door.

None of them stopped to close it and lock it again.

No ghost powers. 5 minutes tops.

He went back to staring at the ceilling.

The plan is two more weeks. Jazz will turn 18 in a week and get a small townhouse that will be fully paid off via Sam's grandma as a birthday present (Grandma Ida is the best and has apparently been down to get Danny out of his house even before Sam filled her in). The extra week will allow Jazz to move in and get that student job that's been itching to hire her for the past year which means by the time she submits the guardianship paperwork and lawsuit she'll be a working adult with a paid off house fully capable of taking on her little brother, especially compared to her parents.

In the meantime he needs to be a model intake patient (more like inmate because Arkham but who cares) so that his parents have absolutely nothing to use in defense of their choices.

The alarms stop ringing in his ears, the third breakout of this week is finally over. Clanging doors and complaintes can be heard down the hall.

Guess no major losses this time.

Danny turns on his side to watch his door.

Ancients, he hopes it's a Bat instead of a guard this time. He is desprate for some form of entertainment, and at this point, the entertainment from messing with his Bio dad's (and in turn his bio brother's) family sounds like the perfect time killer.

He waits.

As the figure steps into view Danny smiles a manic sort of smile, a glimpse of fangs showing for a brief moment.

Seems his brother has come to visit him in the loony bin.

GREAT.

Finally some prime entertainment.

"Of course you would end up here," he said, hiding his shaking hand by clutching the cell door harder. "How fitting. Farewell then, it is good to see you where you belong."

"Wait, no, hold up-"

Damian slammed the cell door shut, ignoring the yelling in his comm, and turned to walk away.

"Come on, you can't just walk away!"

"And yet, I am doing just that."

"Is this because of the shoe thing? I bet it's because of the shoe thing."

Damian paused.

Visions of shoes on fire, launched towards Grandfather's head, flashed through his mind. He shook off the memory with a shudder.

"I'd forgotten that actually," Damian said, turning back to the cell.

"...Forgotten what? Nothing happened. I was making shit up." Danyal rambled, backing away from the door.

Damian stopped in front of it, looked Danyal dead in the eyes (as well as he could through his mask), and punched himself in the face.

"Why?!"

"Oh dear," Damian said, ignoring the blood gushing out of his broken nose. "It appears that the Arkham Patient in cell...21, I believe? It appears that he is belligerent. How pitiful."

"You bitch."

"He will need a stronger cell."

"You vindictive بخيل خرق الناقة!"

"I will go inform the guards of this development."

Danyal shouted further curses at him, but Damian ignored him as he walked away.

First, he had to compartmentalize that his dead brother wasn't dead.

Second, he had to get him back for faking his death.

Board: hmmmm no clearly you are at fault

Tim is still trying to stop around the media blackout that seems to exist everywhere in Amity park. Damian is calling his mother to yell at her for not telling him about his brother's continued existence. Bruce is torn between preparing adoption papers, suing the Fenton's for child endangerment, or just reclaiming his parental rights. Cass has taken to chill with his new brother whenever she's on patrol, mostly because no one else has noticed he left (let's say Arkham covered it up) and that's her new baby brother, she's not about to snitch on him.

Cant lose these @zealouswitchwerewolf and loving your idea:

At his hearing to determine wether he’ll be freed he puts on a distressed appearance - hasn’t let the bruise disappear in those couple of weeks - eyes sunken - hair lank - face grey as a corpse - and when he’s told he “won’t be leaving Arkham because of what Robin has testified, but maybe in a couple of months, as Bruce Wayne has taken interest in his case, he could be an out patient in Wayne’s care” he just goes, eyes watery trembling lips “I can’t - the cuffs have weakened me too much - I won’t make it that long, please just let me be with my sister” and just melts like candle wax in the seat as the first words of denial come at him; the panel sitting stunned - Bruce with his lawyer eyes bugging, white as a sheet - Jazz trying her best to put on a good show (Sam’s tutelage has helped but she’s not the best at acting)

A green post-it note appears out of nowhere covering the screen and forcing him to look around. There's no one else in the cave. He wonders where everyone went. Usually he can spot at least one of his siblings nearby, they're nowhere to be seen. Maybe he missed patrol again? He supposes it doesn't matter much, they'll just come get him if it's something important.

Danny has a protection obsession, most stuff agrees on that. And he defends people as phantom, but also day to day stuff. Telling a creepy guy to back of, walking a grandma across the street.

Crime ally is suspicious. He doesn't sell or do drugs. He doesn't start fights, he doesn't drink he isn't a creep, obviously he has something wrong with him.And so is their vigilante Red Hood doesn't believe for a second that he is clean. So they dig up his past.

They find out he's trans, he left this home at 17, ran like a bat out of hell, he changed his name and keeps tabs on one mysterious Vlad Master, and he has a kid named Ellie. So they try and figure out what's up with Vlad.

They come to the conclusion Vlad SA'd Danny and his parents covered it up. In a way it's true. So they stop digging they leave it alone. But now the entire ally knows, it's a kid running from an abuser, that's why he's here. So they all kinda adopted him.

Cause he has a future. He's in college on a scholarship, has dreams, is kind and helps out. So they protect him. He's like a mascot of crime ally, and really all of Gotham likes him.

And then Vlad comes to Gotham. So yes Jason did his digging, but so did the alley folks, and they've met Danny. Kind sweet Danny, Vlad gets mugged, and beaten blue and black, and he's a halfa. The GIW try and come too, and all it takes is seeing Danny look terrified and the alley is on their asses.

And Danny protects them too, in winter he takes kids/goons in, during Mr Freezes breakouts he heats the big abandoned Planet Fitness, cause it's crime alley and nobody can afford heat. Like a mutual protection.

Also Danny like the rest of the alley hates the other bats. like batman punched Mr. Smith a week ago, who cares that he was working from scarecrow? Batman still punched him! And robin, he's a little menace, and Nightwing he’s too happy.

Dpxdc

Danny hates Batman. It wasn’t because of the mess in Amity Park, nor because of the whole no meta in Gotham rule. No — Danny hates him because he is Bruce Wayne.

A decade ago, the Fenton parents were invited to an important event in Gotham, where they were supposed to promote some of their non-violent, non-ghost-related inventions. But Bruce Wayne, after looking into their research, thought they were trying to sell weapons — and found a way to destroy their reputation.

If it weren’t for some of their old patents, they would have ended up on the street. Not only did he make Danny’s parents cry, but he also tried to report them for abuse — when there wasn’t any.

When Danny was a child, he thought the whole ordeal had just been an unlucky series of events that Bruce Wayne caused by accident. So, while he didn’t like him, he didn’t hate him either — because Danny himself knew what it was like to make bad things happen by accident.

But when he was sixteen and discovered the true identities of the Justice League… he realized it hadn’t been an accident at all.

—————

That night, everything changed.

Sixteen-year-old Danny Fenton had seen a lot of things since the accident that made him half-ghost. He’d fought creatures made of shadows, faced eldritch horrors, and even saved the world a couple of times. But none of that compared to the cold fury he felt when he connected the dots — when he realized Batman and Bruce Wayne were the same person.

The same man who ruined his parents’ careers.

The same man who’d called Child Protective Services on them, convinced they were abusing him.

The same man who smiled on camera, talking about charity and family values, while quietly dismantling others behind closed doors.

Danny had always thought Batman was supposed to be one of the good guys. A hero. Someone who protected the innocent.

But now all he could see was a hypocrite in a cape.

He didn’t tell anyone — not Sam, not Tucker, not even Jazz. He just… kept it inside, like a cold ember smoldering in his chest. Whenever the Justice League showed up on the news, he’d look away. Whenever Batman’s name was mentioned, his jaw would tighten.

And when he met the League in person for the first time, years later — when they came to Amity Park to “investigate an interdimensional anomaly” — Danny was calm.

Too calm.

Because he wasn’t that scared kid anymore.

He was Phantom.

"You know, there's a lot of people that talk about you. In the Infinite realms, I mean."

Batman, who was currently in the Justice League Watchtower going over the latest mission logs, let out an affirming grunt as he listened to Phantom's words.

The ghost had recently joined the league. And while mostly helping the JLD, he could often be found in the Watchtower simply stargazing.

Bruce knew that Phantom had contact with the dead. He informed the League that there are plenty of dead he could interact with in the mortal plane and the Infinite Realms. But this was the first time he's ever brought up the dead talking about one of them before.

"Yeah, there are plenty of them that hate your guts y'know. Like a lot of people. I'm pretty sure a lot of their obsessions were getting revenge on you in someway."

Bruce continued to type, not turning as he allowed the adolescent ghost talk. He wondered why he was bringing it up. Was it his own way of trying to warn him that a ghost is angry with him? With the League? That something was coming that he couldn't interfere with?

"One of them says hi, by the way. She said you knew her as 'Ace'?"

Silence. Bruce froze as the words settlted in. His fingers frozen against the keys of the computer that the keys his fingers rested on began to spam the same letters on the screen until they filled his vision. But his mind was elsewhere completely.

Ace. Ace. So many cases that involved children, all of which he remembered because he was most likely the last many have met. But Ace's case, her and the Royal Flush Gang, her being controlled by the Joker, being there in her final moments, all of that still rested in his mind like it was yesterday.

"Ace said that." Bruce said as he finally turned to face Phantom. His eyes searching and inquisitive despite being hidden behind his lenses. Even his voice, had a tad bit of curiosity in its usual flat tone.

Phantom grinned and flew around his Bruce's head in a lazy manner.

"Yeah! Though, she goes by Queenie in the Infinite Realms. Queen of Aces in her Kingdom of Cards. She managed to make her own haunt fairly quick too. A nice place. And she's doing good too. If she's not in her own little of her kingdom, she's playing with Youngblood. A Queen and pirate, she's got variety." Phantom laughed softly before floating in front of Bruce, his gaze soft as he smiled at him.

"She told me about what you did. About you being there for her before she passed. Said she was thankful to have one living friend before she passed." His grin turned mischievious. "She also said that if you ever need royal help, she'd be more than help you. She'd love to have the Dark Knight in her kingdom."

Bruce stood there, processing what he had learned in the short time span. Ace lived on in the Infinite Realms. She was living freely without anyone controlling her. She thought about him even after all this time.

There were many things that flowed through his mind as he processed the thought. He knew, from what Phantom explained, that the Infinite Realms were filled with beings who ran on high emotions and obsessions. In comparison to Ace, he knew that the girl was angry. Angry about being used. Angry about not having the normal childhood she had wanted. She may have seemed at peace at the end, but she must have held some of that emotion if she ended up in the Realms. It reminded Bruce of the thought he had of how many of him and his family could end up the same way.

"And she is...happy?"

Phantom blinked before his expression softened to one that looked like fondness and understanding.

"She is adjusting well and is doing good. Definitely has enough skills to take care of her. But I can always watch her, just in case."

Bruce slowly nodded, his expression blank except for the slight twitch of his lips at the words.

"Good," he said as he turned back to focus on the computer, "tell me more about her Haunt."

Tucker's PDA got destroyed during the latest ghost fight and Tucker begs Danny to help him replace it. Aka, getting the money together.

Danny thinks about it and gets an idea. He can just remember some lottery numbers (not the jackpot of course, for obvious reasons) and during a time mission from Clockwork get the money that way.

Tucker thinks its a great idea. So they go with that.

Sadly CW's time assignments are all over the place in terms of time periods so Danny ends up with with some strange cash.

And some other weird trinkets. (As long as its worth money, he doesn’t mind.)

Clockwork was planning to intervene and give Danny another lesson about messing with the past and the consequences... until he saw Danny ruin Vandal Savage's plans. Mess something up on accident for Ra's al Ghul. Make it so Morgaine le Fey wouldn't get her hands on an artifact. Redirect Circe's attention...

He decides to just let it be, whatever happens, happens.

And so eventually Danny has enough funds to help Tucker out and stops his shenanigans.

The consequences catch up to him when a few days later he opens the door to a sharply dressed man that he recognises. It's just that he recognises him from ancient Britain.

"...Mr. Blood?"

"Good day Daniel, I was wondering if you still have the little red book Nimue gave you? Also i would suggest something a bit stronger than a spectral shield considering the kinds of enemies you've made."

Dpxdc

Danny had always known exactly who his real father was. Talia made sure of that. From the beginning, she had tried to shape him with stories and expectations, polishing a particular image and holding it up like something sacred, something worth chasing. It was meant to make him crave approval. It was meant to work.

It never did.

Danny grew up immune to the myth. Whatever pull it was supposed to have simply slid off him, leaving nothing behind but mild irritation. When the time came to disappear—when he chose to let the world believe he was dead—he did so without hesitation and without regret. Ten years passed, and he didn’t miss a thing. He certainly didn’t miss his biological brother; pretending to care about that relationship would have required far more effort than Danny was ever willing to give.

The Batfamily’s reaction, unfortunately, was much less reasonable. When they finally uncovered his existence, they reacted as if they’d unearthed a tragedy instead of a deliberate choice. They wanted explanations. They wanted reconciliation. Most annoyingly, they wanted him to stay.

Danny decided to reward that concern with chaos.

With a perfectly straight face, he informed them that they weren’t late to the party—just late to one of them. He had a hundred of siblings, he explained, scattered across the globe. The way the room collectively froze was deeply satisfying. And it wasn’t even entirely a lie. Dani and Dan did travel a lot.

————————-

The cave went quiet in the way only the Batcave could—machines humming softly, screens glowing, everyone suddenly very still.

Bruce was the first to recover. “You’re saying you’ve been alive this whole time,” he said carefully, as if each word were a step across thin ice.

Danny, perched on the edge of a worktable he absolutely had not been invited to sit on, shrugged. “Alive is a strong word. Unbothered fits better.”

Jason let out a sharp laugh. “You faked your death for ten years.”

“Roughly.” Danny tilted his head, considering. “Could be eleven. Time gets fuzzy when no one’s breathing down your neck.”

Tim was already typing, eyes flicking between screens. “There’s no record of you after—”

“—after I stopped wanting one?” Danny finished pleasantly. “Yes. That was on purpose.”

Bruce’s jaw tightened. “You could have come to us.”

Danny smiled. It wasn’t wide. It wasn’t friendly. It was the kind of smile that suggested he’d heard that argument before and found it deeply unconvincing.

“Why?” he asked. “So I could be folded neatly into the family narrative? Tragic lost son, brought home at last?” He waved a hand. “I’ve already got plenty of those.”

That got their attention.

Dick blinked. “Plenty of… what?”

“Siblings.” Danny hopped down from the table and paced slowly, hands in his pockets. He looked far too relaxed for someone standing in front of Gotham’s most tightly wound vigilantes. “Brothers, sisters. A lot of them, actually.”

Tim froze. “How many is ‘a lot’?”

Danny tapped his chin, feigning thought. “Hard to say. A hundred, maybe?”