The White Flutterby

Buddy if anything is living in your blood (except for more parts of you) in detectable amounts then you have a serious microbial infection and need to go to the hospital.

Picture this: you are a Thing That Lives In The Ocean. Some kind of small multicellular animal a long time ago, before proper circulatory systems existed. “Wow,” you think, metaphorically, “it sure is difficult to diffuse chemicals across my whole body. Kinda puts a hard limit on the size and distance of what specialised organs I can have. Good thing I have all this water around me that’s the same salinity as my cells (they have to be that way so I don’t explode or shrivel up) so I can diffuse and filter chemicals with that.”

“Wait a minute,” you say a couple of generations later, because you’re not actually a small animal but an evolutionary process personified and simplified to the point of dangerous inaccuracy for the purposes of a Tumblr post, “instead of losing all these important chemicals to the water around me, how about I put it in tubes? I can keep MY water separate from the rest of the world’s water! Anything I want to keep goes in my water! Anything I don’t, I dump back into the outside water! I’m a genius! An unthinking natural trial-and-error process that’s a GENIUS!”

“Wow,” you think a great many generations later, “being able to have such control over such high concentrations of important chemicals is so great. Look how big I’m getting. I even have a special pump to move my seawater around, and these cool filter systems to keep the chemicals in it right, and that control and chemical concentration has let me grow so many energy-intensive, highly specialised organs! Being big is so hard. I need special cells just to carry my oxygen around now, to make sure my enormous, constantly-operating body has enough of it.”

At this point you are embodying a fish, and eventually, fish start straying into water with different pressures and salinity levels. (I mean, they do that since befor ehty’er fish, but… look, I’m trying to keep things simple here.) “What the FUCK,” you think. “My inside water is at a different salinity and pressure to the outside water?? How am I supposed to deal with that? I can’t have freshwater inside my seawater tubes! My cells have a set salinity and they would explode! I need to start beefing up my regulatory and filter systems so that my inside seawater STAYS SEAWATER OF THE CORRECT SALINITY even if the outside water is different! Fortunately, adding salt to my seawater is a lot easier than removing it, and I want to be saltier than this weird outside water.” At this point you beef up your liver and urinary systems to compensate for different salinities. (Note: the majority of fish, freshwater and saltwater, have a fairly narrow band of salinities they can live in. Every fish doesn’t get to deal with every level of salinity; they are evolved to regulate within specific bands.)

You also, at some point, go out on land. This is new and weird because you have to carry all of your water inside. “It’s a good thing I turned myself into a giant bag of seawater,” you think. “If I wasn’t carrying my seawater inside, how would I transport all these important chemicals between my organs and the environment?” As you specialise to live entirely outside of the water, you realise (once again) that it’s a lot easier to add salt to water than to remove it in great quantities. Drinking seawater in large amounts becomes toxic; your body isn’t specialised for removing that amount of salt. Instead, you drink freshwater, and add salts to that. The majority of your organs are, at this point, specialised for moving your seawater around, protecting it, adding stuff to it, or taking stuff out. You have turned yourself into an intelligent bag for carrying and regulating a small amount of imitation seawater, and its salinity (and your commitment to maintaining that salinity) is based entirely on the seawater that some early animals started to build tubes around a long time ago.

Because at some point, operating along lines of logic that worked out perfectly so far, you did decide to be a mammal.

A mammal is a machine for adapting to Circumstances. A mammal is a tremendously resilient all-terrain life-support system, with built-in heating, cooling, respiration, and incubators for reproduction. Mammals internalise everything (grudges, eggs) and furthermore are excessively, flamboyantly wet internally. Sure, everyone’s a bag of chemicals; but mammals slosh. Mammals took the concept of an internal ocean and took it in an unnecessarily splashy direction, added aftermarket mods and a climate-control system,

and just to show off, you leaned across the metaphorical gambling table and said: “my internal ocean is so good-“

“Bullshit,” said the shark, keeping it salty (ha)

“My internal ocean is so brilliantly resilient, more so than any of YOURS,” you said, holding their attention with a digit held aloft, “that for my next trick, I shall artistically recreate the ballad of evolution as a performance. I shall craft a complex chemical ballet depicting the origin of multicellular life - using some of my own material, of course-”

“Oh, ANYONE can lay an egg,” yodel the fish, and the ray adds: “ontogeny does NOT recapitulate phylogeny!!”

And you’re like, “yeah no, it’s an artistic rendition, not a literal thing. Basically I’m going to take some cells and brew them up-“

“Like an egg.”

“Like an egg. An egg but internally.”

“Yeah,” said the viviparous reptile, “yeah, like, that can work really well. I’ve always said it’s the highest test of one’s chemical know-how. It’s a lot of work. And forget about support from your family - forget about support from your PHYLUM - all you get is criticism.”

“I’m gonna do it on purpose forever,” you said. “The highest chemical, thermoregulatory, immunological, everything-logical challenge. It’s gonna be my thing.”

“I’m with you,” said a viviparous fish, stoutly. “Representation.”

You kindly don’t point out, once again, that you’re planning to do this outside the ocean, in a range of temperatures; carrying the dividing cells in a perfect 37.5• solution of saline broth in all terrains, breathing oxygen in a complicated matter, you know, bit more difficult; but you need your allies.

“It’s solid,” says the coelacanth.

“But is it metal?” says the deep-vent organism.

“Oh, it’s metal. I will feed the young,” you say, magnificently, “on an echo of the mother ocean. The first rich feast of cellular matter, the first hunt for sustenance, the first bite they sip of our liquid planet-”

Everyone waits.

“Will be a blood byproduct. My own blood byproduct.”

Everyone looks uncomfortable.

“But,” a hagfish says carefully, “don’t you outdoorsy guys still need your blood?”

You cough and explain that if you stay wet enough internally and hydrate frequently, you should be able to produce enough blood byproduct to sustain your hellish new invention until they can eat your peers.

The outrage that follows includes questions like “is this some furry shit?” And: “milk has WATER in it?”

And you won the bet. “My inner ocean is such a perfect homage to the primordial soup that I can personally cook up an entire live hairy mammal in it. And then generate excess blood byproduct from my body and give it to the small mammal until it gets big.”

Qifrey is the type to be insanely flirty, but immediately becomes flustered as soon as you flirt back.

Now, with how sweet he acts, you would think his type of flirting would be saying how stunning you are or how much he loves you.

And while that's not necessarily wrong, his sweet words are always said whenever you're both in certain positions—ones that don't really match the innocent love you believed he had.

He'll whisper about how much he loves you while your back is pressed against the desk in his room, and one of his hands will be on your waist while the other seemingly traces seals with his finger on your thigh.

Other times, he'll come up behind you in the kitchen, pressing his chest to your back while he placed his hands over yours. He would kiss the back of your neck while asking how you were, and you could feel him smirk against your neck whenever you slightly stammered in your answer.

But if you want the roles to be reversed, respond to his touchiness. Lean into him, place your hands on his shoulders, slide a hand underneath the cloak he wears, kiss his neck or lips—doing any of that results in a once cocky Qifrey to practically melt in your hands.

Qifrey x Reader x Olruggio

Even a few days away from home can get you antsy, yet it’s not such a worry if they’re close by.

WC: 1k

A/N: it’s been awhile hahaha, still not sure if i’ll return to updating weekly but here’s something to munch on for now

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You toss and turn in the confines of your bed. The plush of the pillow does nothing to help lull yourself to sleep; the gruff material of the sheets prickle at your legs.

You’ve been making rounds at villages south of the atelier: restoring seals, delivering a couple of Olly’s commissions that he had no time to give himself, and noting down the other complaints that were outside of your expertise — most of which you thought were virtually impossible but you weren’t going to tell them that. Yes you can help purify their water; no you cannot make the forest less ominous. Seriously, did they think you could do everything? Whatever the case, the Knights of Moralis can handle that.

rafayel x reader

a/n: i bought these two necklace charms to associate w raf n decided to write a blurb about it :)

wc: 392

"cutie, you got a package!" 

"oh! it's two of the necklace charms i ordered! finally they're here... i've been waiting forever for them." 

rafayel sits beside you as you start to open up the package with scissors, clearly excited by what you'd purchased for yourself. he watches with warmth growing in his cheeks since you're always working and never buy yourself anything nice. sure he does most times when he feels you're in need of a treat or a surprise gift just because, but to see you spending your own hard-earned money on yourself made him proud. 

"excited, huh?" 

"yeah! i had to wait for the site to restock these two charms i've wanted for a while and they finally did so i bought them together. even paid for extradited shipping and everything." 

"well good, you deserve nice things." 

you finally get the package open and shove your hand inside, grabbing for the plastic baggies. when you pull them out, you gasp a little at the craftsmanship. 

the two silver pendants shine with such talented craftsmanship that you giggle a little before turning and showing them to rafayel. 

"look! i got a purple gemstone one and a beta fish!" 

"aw, cutie, did you buy those cause they reminded you of me?" 

"mhm! oh they're gonna look so cute on my chain!!" 

raf chuckles, watching as you get up to grab one of your favorite chains and slip the two charms onto it, then come back as you're clasping it around your neck. 

"look! isn't it cute?" 

"it's adorable. compliments you well, just like me." 

"yeah, you do compliment me well. that's why i wanted to get myself something i could wear that would always be on me whenever we're apart." 

"cutie, you didn't need jewelry for that. you know i'm always with you. our souls are bound forever." 

"i know. but sometimes i just want something physical i can play with for comfort when you're not around, you know?" 

"i do." 

raf stands up from the table and wraps his arms around your waist, bending down to kiss the necklace that rests against your skin. 

"there. now i'll really be with you forever." 

your hands run up his shoulders and around his nape to pull him closer. 

"i already knew you were. but thank you for the kiss." 

"love you, cutie." 

This is now Part 0

Part 1

Okay so I was writing a dpxdc prompt (?), but I have noticed that is getting a bit too long so I want to left some sort of evidence of me starting it, sooo here you have a General framework of my idea (it is still way too long):

Danny was running away from the GIW and his parents after a bad reveal (or something like that, I don't know if the reveal occurred before or after he was caught).

He has been on the run for so long that he doesn't eve now were he is now but he hasn't seen any of them in a little while until earlier that night and now they are hot on his heels, no matter were he ran or how many corners he turned they just keep appearing.

....

After a while of that going on Danny finally managed to create some distance between them, but he needed to leave (temporarily) the back alleys and go trough the main street to a difference area of the city (and maybe leave the city itself) if he wants to lose them for real, even if just for the moment. But when he was just about to leave the back alley he was in, a figure appear right in front of him, blocking his path, Danny have turned invisible to avoid being seen so the figure didn't notice him but Danny certainly noticed that they were too close for him to avoid colliding with them without turning intangible or slowing down, and that wasn't an option right now, so he squishes a bit more of energy from his already stained core to turn intangible on top of being invisible, anyway it would only be a second so it should be all right... Right?...

(It was in fact not all right.)

Just when he was passing trough the person he feels a tug in his core and everything turns white, next thing he knows, he is stumbling forwards, looking in a completely different direction than before. While trying to regain his balance he looks down only to see his own body just laying there, he stares at it for what feels like forever, but couldn't been more than an instant when he hears the GIW and his parents the Fentons come in his direction and he starts running again, the more he ran the more he felt his core settling down in this  body.

This didn't felt like overshadowing someone at all, it feels more a kind to possessing an object but not quite... Which didn't make any sense! This was clearly a person, not an object! And what else could this be if not an overshadowing or possession!? (A transmigration or transference.)

His original body was damaged beyond what his healing factor could hope to repair, and the stress of keeping it in working conditions on top of everything else was starting to damage his core, if he continued overstraining it like that his core would break, making him reach his true death...

So when he passed trough a body that met all the requirements for a transference: a living soulless body without any trace of it ever having one to begin with and a constitution sufficiently similar to the original to fit his own soul within it? His core instinctively latched on to the body like a starving man to a piece of bread, bring the rest of his being with it.

A true halfa needs a living half to survive it doesn't matter if it's the original one or not... Yes, both parts can (technically) exist without the other but a ghost half without the living one is just waiting for it's time to run out, and a living half without the ghost one is only a soulless shellf.

Not that Danny knew any of that...

Anyway! He does not have time to think about it right now, he needs to run, he needs to hide, he needs a secure place to lie down and figure out what to do now!

━━━━━ ◦ 💚𖤐🖤 ◦ ━━━━━

Somewhere else, a little bit earlier that same night...

Damian was running after the last one remaining clone of the latest batch send after him by his mother.

He has been running after it for the past 2 hours, (admittedly he lost sight of it at least twice in that time) not that it matters, he was about to catch the clone anyway.

'Was' being the key word. Because just when he was going to strike his shot, Birdarang in hand, a body- a corpse (it couldn't be anything but a corpse with the state it was in) appear out of thin air and fall through- Through the clone, making it stumble forward... What exactly was going on here?...

He views what must be own his confusion reflect on the clone's, and that confused expression didn't fit its face at all, neither did the one full of terror that followed soon after, and the way that it moves...Yes, it did show signs of combat experience and some sort of training but it was nothing like the league, so unlike any of his other clones...

It didn't seem a farce either. He wasn't sure as to why, but Damian could just feel that it wasn't an act...

Though if the group of oddly dressed people (possibly a new gang) that appear almost simultaneously with the clone's scape yelling about ghost running away, ecto-scum(?), putting someone to rest in peace, lost ecto-signatures and possessed bodies being left behind, give him any clue...

He was going to have to let the clone go for now and stay to investigate this at least until Oracle send someone else to take over it so he can go and catch the clone, or to be more precise ghost/meta with ghost like powers that was possesing his clone now; whoever they were and whateve they are, they seem to be a victim and they need help and it is his duty as a vigilante help, especially with them being inside his clone they are his problem to solve.

Constantine summons the Ghost King/King of the Infinite - as one does - to try to prevent some catastrophically world ending event or something, proceeds to offer his soul as collateral for this deal... and Danny laughs in his face.

Why would he want to complete a deal for a soul he already had?

But you know whose soul is actually worth this and then some? Batman's.

Constantine: I'd be willing to part with my-

Danny: Ha! Nah, I will take Batman's soul tho

Batman: ...

Damian, pouting because hes loosing an argument: Hmph *pulls out his brother's summoning*

Tim: Phantom is not a Summon Attack!

Keep in mind, my mentality for this au is that Danny's a super older brother(I'm thinking a half brother through Talia via artificial splicing or something), like he was 18 when Damian was born, and it was thanks to Danny that he had any semblance of a childhood. But Danny also kinda spoiled Damian, so while Damian still has league teachings, hes also used to Danny giving him whatever he wants, and being a bit babied by him(not infantilised, just doted on and spoiled).

Danny and Damian return to the Fenton’s house in silence, thinking about what Jazz had said. Once they’d settled down in Danny’s room, Danny asked, “Do we have a plan? Or, well, I don’t have a plan. Do you have plan? We’ve been messing with your family for a while now, but did you ever think about how we’d explain things?”

Damian frowned. “I must admit that I had not considered how we’d explain your life to them.”

Danny flopped back onto his bed. “Maybe we can just explain the truth about Dani? Jazz seemed to be the most worried about what are thinking happened with her creation, so we can start from there.”

“Perhaps we should start with Phantom first.”

“Ahh, that’s true. Maybe we should start with me knowing you as Robin and then the whole Phantom thing,” Danny suggested before he asking, “Who all are we going to tell anyway?”

“Grayson, Todd, Drake, Father, and Pennyworth all know that I have a niece. Cain and Brown left for Hong Kong soon after I introduced you. I doubt they are investigating you, and you have yet to meet Thomas so there is no need to bother with him. Because my family have failed in their attempts to locate you, their speculations are unlikely to be in the file they have on you.”

“Ok, so just 3 of your brothers, Mr. Wayne, and Mr. Alfred.”

Damian nodded. “They would probably also like to be able to investigate you properly.”

Danny heaved a deep breath. “Oh, fine, I’ll get Tuck to make an ecto compatible computer so they can actually get some information. I’ll even tell Technus to let them through the firewalls. I don’t know how much they’ll be able to figure out just from what’s online though.”

“They are competent. Once they have access, they will be able to draw conclusions that are at least close to reality.”

Danny’s nose wrinkled, “Some things won’t look good to they’ll still have plenty of questions.”

“Your sister could help you determine what and how many questions you want to answer. Drake and Father especially can get quite… invasive when their investigating.”

Danny sat up. “Oh right! Let’s sick Jazz on them! She’ll keep things reasonable! Plus, this way we can still have some fun watching them freak out periodically. Just, you know, about things that actually happened.”

Damian scoffed, “They will probably do that regardless.”

“Sweet! Plus this way, I get to watch them freak out in person!”

Damian regarded his twin with a raised brow. “I thought you felt bad about taking this little prank of ours too far?”

Danny crossed his arms. “Just because we gave them reason to worry, doesn’t mean they aren’t fruit loops. Besides, Jazz said that I should worry them over things that actually happened rather than whatever their imaginations can think of, so it must be ok.”

Damian was quite certain that Jasmine had not meant for Danny to take her words quite so literally. He was quite pleased that Danny would likely spending more time in Gotham and (according to Danny) messing with older siblings was a younger siblings’ prerogative so he decided to leave it alone.

+++++

Tim, Dick, Jason, Bruce, and Alfred were down in the batcave having their nightly discussion on the progress in their investigations on Danny when they all simultaneously got a message for Damian. Tim pulled it up on his computer and it simply said: Danny and his sister will be visiting this Saturday for brunch. We have some things to discuss with all of you.

About 3 weeks after Damian first introduced Danny to the rest of the Waynes, they decided to go visit Jazz at her college. Danny portalled into the space under her bed and made sure the coast was clear before fully emerging from the portal. He phased out from under Jazz’s bed to find her studying on her own. Damian, not having intangibility, had to climb out from under her bed the normal way, though Danny was always impressed by how silently he could do things like this. Once Damian was properly on his feet again, Danny cleared his throat.

Jazz, well used to her little brother popping in at random, nonchalantly finished reading the paragraph she was on before marking her place and turning around. She quickly swept Danny into a hug. “Danny! How’ve you been? Everything fine back in Amity?”

When she caught sight Damian, she shot him a smile. “It’s good to see you again Damian. How have things been in Gotham.”

Damian nodded in greeting. “Things are well in Gotham. There have been no major jail breaks recently.”

“Things are fine in Amity too,” Danny added, extricating himself from Jazz’s hold, “the ghosts have been sticking to the rules, so things have been pretty calm recently. Speaking of Gotham though, I finally got introduced to Damian’s family.”

Jazz grinned at that. She’d been wanting for Danny to meet his biological father. Their parents knew all about Phantom now, but in her opinion the larger Danny’s support system was, the better. Besides, Danny had not been very good at hiding the fact that Damian wore a cape. If Damian’s family was who she suspected, then they’d be able to help Danny in ways that her family couldn’t. “Finally! Tell me all about it!”

Danny eagerly recounted the last month to her, with Damian interjecting here and there with how his family reacted. Jazz was amused at first, (of course Danny would turn his introduction to Damian’s family into a prank, the little troll) but as they went on, she began getting concerned. It sounded like Dick and Jason, at the very least, hadn’t started their investigations in earnest until after Damian hinted at Dani’s existence. She knew that Danny probably hadn’t thought through all the implications of the little tidbits that he and Damian dropped, but at this point, it seemed a cruel.

Danny squinted at her. “What’s with that look on your face?”

Jazz sighed. “I think you took your prank too far, Danny.”

“What? Why do you say that? Everything we’ve said is true. They’re the ones driving themselves crazy trying to find me. Damian told them that I’m safe and everything.”

Jazz took her baby brother by the shoulders and sat him on her bed, gesturing for Damian to do the same and pulling her desk chair around so she could sit in front of them. “Danny, Damian, if Dani showed up one day with a baby, said she hadn’t wanted to make a baby but she’d take care of it. Said the man who’d forced the creation of a baby was taken care of and then disappeared so you weren’t able to find her, how would you react?”

Damian’s face screwed up as the thought caused him to reach for a sword that wasn’t there. Danny thought about Dani, who had a habit of not contacting him for months at a time, and had a sudden realization. He gaped. “But I’m a guy! There’s no way that they think-“

“I think that’s exactly what they think, Danny,” Jazz cut in, voice stern, “They have spent the last couple years of their lives facing the worst that Gotham had to throw at them. They’ve also been in regular contact with aliens and magic. To them, anything is possible. I don’t think Dick and Jason were even seriously investigating you until you two gave them a reason to be worried that Damian’s at times skewed sense of what counts as safe had caused him to downplay a potentially very serious situation.”

Danny looked down at his lap and Damian had a consternated look on his face.

Jazz softened a little. “Pranks are supposed to be fun, Danny. It’s a balance between messing with people and making sure that they aren’t actually harmed. You guys might be having fun watching them frantically try to track you down, but they’re probably genuinely very worried about you. They are certainly in the wrong for trying to investigate you in a way that would violate your privacy, but they haven’t succeeded. I may want to talk to them about respecting personal boundaries, but at a certain point, they had good reason to be concerned.”

Danny looked up at her, looking a little lost. “So, what should we do now?”

“Introduce yourself to them, properly. Secret identity and all. Maybe introduce them to Dani too. Tell them about the cloning and about Vlad. They’ll probably still be freaked out, but knowing the truth will at least stop them from imagining whatever horrible things they think might’ve happened to you.”

Danny and Damian both nodded. Jazz pulled Danny in for another hug. “I think that even once you explain some things, there are still plenty of worrying things about your life for you to freak them out with. But I think you should at least have them freak out over things that are real rather than driving them crazy with worry from not knowing.”

After they’d fought off a pack of ghost krakens and ferried the ship into the Ghost Zone, they split what remained of the treasure with Hai Zei Gui (the Chinese ghost pirate). That done, Danny brought Damian back to Gotham. Since Damian had assured his father that Danny would be dropping by sometimes now that he’d been introduced to the family, the twins decided that they’d spend some time together in Gotham. They emerged out of Damian’s room and went down to the kitchen where Alfred was cooking diner.

“Pennyworth, has father returned from his business trip?” Damian asked.

“Not quite yet, though he should be here later tonight.” Alfred said as he turned to them. He blinked. “Master Danny, I hadn’t realized that you were visiting.”

Danny grinned. “Hi Alfred! I just got here. Damian said we should at least say hey to his family members, so here we are!”

Alfred glanced at the clock. “ I believe that the other young masters are all together in Master Jason’s apartment at the moment. There’s still a some time before dinner and Master Bruce’s return so you could go spend time with them. Make sure that they come home in time for dinner.”

“Understood,” Damian gave a sharp nod and then left in the direction of the garage. Danny gave Alfred a cheerful wave before following. Damian considered his options in the rather extensive garage before giving Danny his spare helmet and leading him to a neat row of motorcycles. “We shall go and check on their investigation.”

Danny’s eyes gleamed. “And drop more tidbits?”

Damian shrugged. “Perhaps, if you wish to. Otherwise you can consider it as a chance to get to know my brothers.”

“Sweet!”

+++++

Damian used his key to get into the safe house with Danny casually strolling in behind him. They stopped short as they took in the scene before them. There were papers scattered everywhere. Dick was frantically typing on his computer, muttering darkly to himself and beside him Jason was apparently doing breathing exercises, eyes flickering green for brief flashes of time.

Danny felt his ghost sense go off, but decided to ignore it for now. Instead, he silently approached the corner of the room where Tim was rearranging things on a cork board and muttering to himself.

“Does this actually help you?” He asked, squinting at the cluttered board.

Tim jumped a foot into the air, turning and unsubtly blocking Danny’s view of the board with his body. “Danny! What are you doing here?”

Danny shrugged. “Visiting a Damian. He said that I should get to know you guys at least a little bit.” Saying that, he turned to his twin. “I know you said they aren’t fruitloops, but this,” he gestured to the room at large, “is definitely fruit loop behavior.”

“Fruit loop behavior?” Tim asked.

“You know,” Danny casually gestured at the air like what he was saying was just common sense. “Rich and using resources to obsessively investigate one person. If any of you decide to kidnap someone close to me to force them into some sort of perfect family fantasy, then I don’t care what Damian says. I’m not coming to visit him in Gotham again. One fruit loop in my life is more than enough for me.”

Dick put his computer to the side and approached Danny. “We wouldn’t do any of that. We’re just worried about some of the things you said,” he explained, a pained look in his eyes.

Danny too another dubious look at Tim’s cork board. “Whatever. Damian will stop you if you take it too far I’m sure. Anyway, wrap up whatever you’re doing. Alfred said we should make sure that you guys get back to the Manor in time for dinner,” he made a show of looking around the room again before huffing and turning to leave, “I’m just gonna go wait outside. I’ll talk to you guys when you aren’t being visibly fruit loopy.”

The batboys blinked after him before scrambling to put their stuff away.

“Oi, demon brat, go keep him company. It’s probably not good for him to be out in Crime Alley on his own.” Jason said.

Once Damian had left, Dick and Jason exchanged a glance. Danny was disturbingly nonplussed to find his twin’s adoptive siblings investigating him. Along with his oddly specific description of what a ‘fruit loop’ is, they were just getting more concerned.

Bruce scrolled through the holographic display of his wrist computer, checking the files that first Tim, Dick, and Jason had made on Danny. As much as he wanted to be investigating himself, the day after Danny had been introduced to the family he’d been called for an intergalactic diplomatic mission, so he had to trust his son’s to handle the investigation. This was the first time since leaving earth that they’d gotten close enough to earth that his wrist computer could sync up with the files on the Batcomputer.

Clark looked over at him. “Something interesting?” he asked.

Bruce sighed. “Damian introduced the family to his twin brother last week.”

Clark blinked. “I didn’t know he had a twin.”

“Neither did we, but now Damian is doing his best to prevent us from investigating his twin.”

Clark shook his head. “No wonder you let me pilot the ship today. You wanted to check on the investigation notes as soon as we got close enough!”

“We are close enough to Earth that the files have been updated,” Bruce explains as he reads through Tim’s notes. “It doesn’t seem like they’ve had much luck in tracking him down though.”

Bruce frowned down at the map of Damian’s apparent tracker locations, mentally making a not on it and then moving on to the newest file. He read it and froze, then frantically opened the files that Dick and Jason had been making. It didn’t look like they’ve had anything concrete, but if what Damian had apparently told them was true….

He turned to Clark. “I will be skipping the debrief. I am needed in Gotham”

Clark nodded understandingly. “I hope I get to meet your new son soon.”

Batman grunted as he started typing on his wrist computer, doing what little investigation he could on it. “I hope so too, Kal, I hope so too.”

+++++

Damian looked down at the dark waters of the Pacific as Danny (in Phantom form)flew them. It might have been daytime back in Gotham, but it was night time here, a couple hundred miles off the coast of China. Danny had brought him here, in search of the sunken ship of some Chinese ghost pirate that he’d met in the zone.

He was unsure that a midnight dive into the Pacific, especially chasing after a random pirate ship. He had a rebreather and the Robin suit was insulated, but still. Besides, “How will we even find this sunken ship?”

Damian felt Danny’s intangibility wash over him as his brother let got of him and turned them so they were floating, looking up at the sky.

“I’m navigating by the stars. Trust me, I’ll be able to find it. We’re actually pretty close.”

Damian looked at the glittering stars overhead. He knew how to navigate by the stars but using them to find a ship that had sunk who knew how long ago seemed inadvisable.

The green glow of Danny’s eyes became brighter as cold air escaped his mouth. “Oh! I think it’s here!” Danny grinned as he looked at Damian, “Don’t worry Damian, stupider people than us have done this! It’ll be fun!”

“TT. And are those ‘stupider people’ ghosts?” He asked dryly.

Danny’s eyes shifted away, the waters below them apparently suddenly very interesting.

Damian rolled his eyes, but between Danny’s powers and his skills, even if things didn’t go according to Danny’s (incredibly slapdash) plan, they’d be able to handle it. He put his rebreather on. “Alright, what are we waiting for?”

Danny’s grin returned full force as he pitched them forward so they dove head first into the sea.

+++++

Tim saw a notification pop up on his screen. It was from the program he’d created to remotely activate and scan Damian’s location. He clicked onto it and felt like breaking something. What the heck was Damian doing in the Atlantic Ocean?