Halloween prompts no. 7
Danny, after the portals blew due to him doing something incredibly dangerous and stupid, landing him in the dc universe. More specifically, Gotham.
Tim might have jumped about a foot in the air when that bright light came crashing down into the alley next to him. He might be super smart and independent for his age, but he was still a very curious eight year old wandering Gotham alone at night. He crept into the alley to peek at the glowing boy groaning in the fresh crater. Tim was surprised by the boys age, he looked about the same age as himself if not a bit younger (he's a year younger) and Tim was amazed he was a hero, he didn't think they started that young.
After coming to, Phantom introduced himself to Tim and was very excited to meet and potentially befriend a human who wasn't afraid of him. Phantom convinces Tim to become vigilantes (though Tim insisted on masks) with him and learns that he can bestow some of his power to other people through jewelry. Cujo appears somewhere along the way and Jason gets added to the group after he saw them transform and wanted in.
Batman nearly has a stroke because he thinks he may have caused this by letting Dick be Robin and influencing the kids. When he asked if they were metas or aliens Phantom opened his mouth to answer but was cut off by Tim's alias blurting out, "Magical girls!" Because he was terrified Batman might try to exorcize Phantom or something.
This leads to the hilarious scenario where batman is doing research on "magical girls" and wondering why none of the three are-if fact-girls.
This is an unholy fusion between super frilly magical girls and Power Rangers so have fun.
Robin’s Egg by Calix aka @arzuera is just, such gloriously fun fic to read. I literally want to draw so many scenes from it, like sadlkjfaskd its just!! so cute!!! aaaaa ;33333
also a lil doodle for locket because my mind is so stuck on it and figuring it out, i mean its just ;) so thoughtful of timbo
Halloween prompts no. 10
The demons instructions had been clear. Infiltrate the house the new Lazarus pit had taken over and report back. They were six highly trained assasins. This should have been easy.
The city of "Amity Park" had randomly appeared in the woodlands of Illinois with no warning or reason. All the buildings were in ruin and looked like no one had lived there for years, yet no vegetation had reclaimed them. The house the pit was in was the most eerie thing however. A thick glowing ooze seeped from the darkened windows, metal supports jutted up from the top of the building from where they had supported something massive once upon a time. He was embarrassed to admit he just now realized that the entire city was completely silent. Even the animals that should be out this time of night were no where to be found. Odd.
The Lazarus House- as he'd taken to calling it- opened its front door as they approached. The long unnerving squeal from the henges truly set the horror movie tone. It felt like something inside was mocking them. Daring them to come inside. Entering they found the living room to be a completely ordinary, save for the fact that all the decor and electronics were decades out of date and the glowing green ooze was all over everything casting a dim grow on the entire space. There seemed to be writing on the walls made in the slime, but they had no idea what it meant. Thankfully their goggles were capable of both video and audio recording as well as establishing a live feed from which the Demons Head was no doubt currently watching.
They came across a door with glow in the dark star stickers and space shuttles on it, but the door wouldn't budge. Even using explosives on it didn't seem to phase it at all. They came across another door with the name Jasmine spelt across it and this door opened easily enough inside was a very feminine room loaded with pinks and lace save for the window which was just as blacked and ooze filled as the others and filled with a heavy sadness. The saw a laptop and made a note to retrieve it on thier way out.
It didn't take long after that for things to start going to crap. First, one of his team had mysteriously disappeared. Then one of the doors slammed shut immediately after one of them entered and he knew that the screams that followed would haunt him for the rest of his life. Things continued this way with thier team being picked off one by one until he was the only one left.
He sprinted down the stairs after his attempts at breaking one of the windows proved futile and would up in the basement, which turned out to be the location of the pit. The vibes this room gave off were comforting on the surface, but had an undercurrent of apprehension. Like someone was holding thier breath and waiting for something to happen. This place seemed to be a lab of some sort with metal walls, scientific equipment strewn about and a machine in the far wall making large gaping hole that sparked with electricity every so often. His focus snapped back to the pit once he realized there was something moving in it. His other assasins? No. It was a single figure and far too small.
A white haired child floated to the surface of the pit, glowing just as brightly as the waters themselves and his eyes were filled with that God awful green. Instead of enraged he seemed distracted, dazed-as if half caught in a dream. "No, you're not the one." He said blankly, no emotion evident in his voice.
And then everything was black.
Ras Al Ghul stared at the screen, contemplating. A child living in a Lazarus pit? How would that effect the body? Was this child perhaps created by the Lazarus pit? Was that why he could seemingly control it?
---
Red Robin looked at the house warily, then back at Jason who was refusing the leave the vehicle they have in. Jason had tried to stop him from leaving it as well but that didn't work out very well for him.
He swears the house welcomed him in. Every door his came across was shut tight and wouldn't budge no matter what he did. The only exceptions were the door to the pink room where he found and retrieved a laptop and the door that lead to the basement were the Pit was most likely to be. Finally resolving to go down there he stood on the stairs as the door slammed shut behind him.
Taking a steadying breath he walked down to investigate the obvious lab, starting with the large hole in the wall. He was careful not to go inside it and get shocked by the electricity sparking in it. He stuck a USB stick into one of the nearby machines and began downloading whatever information was on them when he hard something behind him.
Spinning around he saw nothing. Wandering over to the pit he reached down to collect a sample when a white gloved hand grabbed his wrist from the waters. A figure slowly emerged with white hair and familiar glowing green eyes, "Its you. You're the one from my visions."
Tim only had time to hold his breath as he was dragged under. The...pit creature held his wrists as his legs fused together and formed a tail that was then used to wrap around his own legs, keeping his pinned at the bottom of the pit. During his thrashing he looked over and saw another boy that looked exactly like the one that was drowning him but the outfit and hair was the opposite of the original. It was by staring into the black haired teens glassy blue eyes did he realize what he was looking at.
A corpse.
He was going to die. This guy was going to kill him. It was only after the panic left him along with his breath that the infamous calmness that came with drowning seeped in and he heard what the being had been saying to him, I'm so sorry. I never wanted this. At least I can teach you how to use your powers
Powers?
Yes, so many powers! Flight, intagibility, plasma blasts, telekinesis-
Red Robin wanted to listen more even if to only gain a better grasp on this things abilities but he was fading fast. He was dying.
Soon
Tim didn't know what that meant since he was very clearly dying and just before everything went black he felt a kiss be placed on his forehead.
Thank you
The next think he knew he was waking up to the worst pain he had ever felt in his life. He was being electrocuted. No, he wasn't being killed again he was being resuscitated. He gasped as he sat up hurriedly only to realize he was still in the pit. Oddly enough all the pit water was gone and he and that guys corpse were laying on the dry ground inside of it.
A pained groan from the teenager next to him made him switch gears. He was alive? The boy immediately apologized to him after he came to, but wouldn't say anything other than that he was sorry. He grabbed Tim's wrist and flew them out of the pit. It was then that he noticed all the goo was gone but he didn't have time to question it as the other teenager flew them up and through the ceiling and out the front door. They stood there for a moment, silent while Tim watched the other boy shiver. Probably in shock, he thought. This must have been traumatic for the guy, heck it was for him.
It was then that Jason charged at them, not ran, charged and punched the other guy in the face, "What did you do to him?!"
"I'm sorry!" The other guy cried from his place on the ground.
Red Hood aimed his gun, "What did you do?!"
Tim reached out intending to stop Hood from shooting someone when he noticed his gloves were white instead of black. His heart dropped when he looked down at himself. All his colors were changed. The blacks had become whites, his reds had become a pastel yellow. It reminded him too much of the being from the pit. "What?"
The teen appearently did something Hood didn't like and a shot was fired into his shoulder. The guy cried out before giving one last apology before telling them, "I'm sorry. I was fading. I needed the creation of another to heal myself." He then vanished, leaving Red Robin and Red Hood alone in front of a brick building that was slowly starting to crumble before thier eyes.
No, not just the building. All of them. The whole city was crumbling around them and they needed to get out. Now.
They raced out of there with Red Hood cursing the entire way. RR pouted about needing a charger to start up the laptop seing as it was the only thing they got out of that crapshow of a mission. Hopefully the USB wasn't destroyed and he could access it later though it outside connection he used as a failsafe. He needed to know what was happening, not only with that kid but now himself.
Halloween prompts no. 11
Something happens where Lazarus pits are opening up all over the world and no one knows whats going on or how to stop it.
Robin and Red Robin find a boy at a Lazarus Pit and watch from the shadows as the boy raises a hand and his eyes glow the same as those who carry the pit madness, the only difference was the sharp white light of his pupils. Within moments the Lazarus Pit seems to crumple in on itself but in reverse. The stones rising from within the pit and the glowing waters receding until there was no hint a pit was there in the first place.
Damian rushes in with his katana despite his brother telling him to stop and demands the boy explain. Instead he vanishes into thin air. The birds fight as the boy makes his unseen escape.
This continues with Lazarus Pits opening and just as mysteriously closing and the batfam/Justice League enter a race against the League of Assasins, the League of Shadows and the Chaos Lords, as well as many other factions who want to capture this child and learn his secrets.
After all, its clear that this boy knows far more about Lazarus than anyone has a right to, and perhaps even whats going on.
----
Danny keeps getting saved and saving these strange people. Mostly these ones in red black and yellow. Sometimes purple. Also they have muscles...Ancients. Sam had always joked that a good heart and muscles made him swoon, but he never knew he was this bad. How dare he. Getting back on track, he enters into a pseudo partnership with one of them as they work together to avoid Danny being captured and using weapons made from blood blossom plants to fight boss battles against the monsters the currupted Lazarus Pits spawn (or "Pit Bosses" as Jason calls them) Danny immediately closes the pit after the monster had been defeated and turned into goo.
Danny never explains himself. Who he is (other than his first name), whats happening, how is he connected to these events, how he's closing the pits, what are those things, nothing. Cue batfam member using thier detective training and gathering clues to discover the truth.
At the end of the journey they work together to fight an Ancient. A truly ancient being from Lazarus itself seeking to murder the prince and usurp his throne by drowning this world in the toxic energy of Lazarus and devouring the souls of all that passed, gaining the power necessary to rule.
They beat him of course and Danny slays him once and for all with a spear made from the stems and thorny vines of the blood blossom plant. Later, while everyone else is celebrating, Danny tries to sneak away and the batfam member follows him to a bus stop near the party. They can still faintly hear the people as they stand there under the streetlight.
"Where you really planning to leave without saying goodbye?"
"It would probably be for the best."
"And why is that?"
Cue love confession that tuggs at readers heartstrings and Danny confessing back only for Danny to reveal his Phantom form and tell them it could never work as Danny was a spirit of Lazarus, the prince himself, and it could never work between them as Danny had died years ago and left the living world and all his connections to it behind.
Phantom couldn't sustain himself in the living realms without the power of the Lazarus Pits everywhere as he would fade if he didn't return to his own reality. The batfam member couldn't come to Lazarus because the place was toxic to the living and they could never survive there.
They had to say goodbye.
A portal opens up behind Danny, making him seem to glow all the more and imprinting a scene of ethereal beauty into the batfam members mind forever. Then he was gone and they were left alone and hollow with the sounds of others joy not too far away.
Dick comes by soon after to ask what that light was only to see his little sibling staring blankly ahead and silently crying. Dick bundles them into his arms and they start sobbing, letting loose the most soul shattering sound big bird had ever heard.
The end.
Or is it?
Most of the people involved had been exposed to high levels of ecto radiation off and on throughout this adventure, and the batfam member can't help but think of what could have been. Couldn't help but think of the future they could have had together, the dumb quips Danny would make, the way his brow would furrow whenever he was worried about someone, the cute way he'd turn invisible when startled bad enough or-or!
The batfam watch uncomfortably as one of thier own falls apart, but its just heartbreak right? Little do they know the true essence of Lazarus isn't just life or death.
It's obsession
Halloween prompts no. 21
Phantom had died very young, a fact that both friend and foe mourned. It was unusual for an undead child as young as him to end up here, though his method of arrival as a toddler was likely to blame. His parents shouldn't have allowed thier children into the lab, even with custom fitted hasmat suits. They certainly shouldn't have taken thier eyes off of thier three year old to show his scared older sister the new inventions that would keep her safe.
He doesnt remember what he was thinking. He had saw the buttons inside the portal and decided to play with them. And then...there was a loud boom and pain everywhere. The zone wasn't all that bad at first. Sure, there were a lot of people fighting over him which since children were rare in the zone and unclaimed ones were much more so. This lead to him being very good at hiding and escaping.
Quickly he grew very powerful, so much so that he was taking out the likes of Undergrowth and Vortex by the time he was seven, but while the power made him feel safe and secure, it also isolated him as people were afraid of him. He was a halfa. An unknown. "The glitch" they called him, "an abomination" "deaths mistake" "unwanted by life and death alike" so many cruel things, yet he tried to not let it bother him too much. He often failed.
He was six, the first time he killed. A ghost named Skunker or something captured him for his "pelt" and Phantom escaped, setting all of Skunkers other prisoners free. Unfortunately Phantom was recaptured and the robot ghost set about trying to de-pelt him. It hurt and Danny screamed, causing his wail to manifest and destroyed skunkers mech suit and forcing the little gooball in the pilot seat to eject himself.
After that Skunker never stood a chance against Phantoms fury.
Phantom continued killing anyone that harmed him, such as that weird vampire wannabe and that dragon king guy. After many years of violence and destruction he began to dispise his afterlife and yearn for that faint memory of the sun.
At the age of fifteen he came up with a plan. One of his enemies had stolen some of an Ancients medalians, which gave the barer immunity from time manipulation and distortion. Phantom had shoved the medalian into his own chest after the other entity had dropped it so that he couldn't retrieve it. After the victory he kept it inside him for the added protection and so Clockwork couldn't see his future and meddle in his affairs anymore. He used this to his advantage.
He had located a portal door to the living realms. One where there were many people called "metas" that looked odd and had strange powers. He planned to use this as a cover when he moved in.
All he needed was to fake his End in one of the larger battles that would no doubt come.
----
Phantom stepped out into a small bricked place between two buildings. He lamented that the air wasn't nearly as "fresh" or "clean" as he would have liked, especially for his first taste of freedom, but the sun was shining so bright. He stood there for a solid few minutes just staring up at it through squinted eyes. A man in a red helmet that covered his entire head-face included-watched him warily but did nothing to stop him. Eventually he walked off to find a place to set up his new lair. This was so exciting! He was moving all around this crowded human place. Sure, the people were giving him strange looks, but he had been here for a whole two hours and not a single person had attacked him! He picked good!
He stopped in front of this building with many floors and went to investigate. The main entrance was blocked off with a bright yellow tape that had lettering on it. That didn't matter to him. He never learned how to read.
It was a small task to flood the building with his ice and energy. There were no humans to fight for this territory so all was well. Plus the collar around his neck changed his ecto signature so it didn't matter how much energy he used, no one would ever know he was the one here.
Phantom placed the purple door that lead him to this world against one of the walls and began removing the knobs. The interesting thing about the doors was that the worlds they lead to never had any natural portals to slip through, and by removing the knobs from them they can't be opened. So long as Phantom had the door and knobs no one from the Infinite Realms could get to him without making thier own portals and no portal maker would be able to portal to him with his ecto signature changed. It was brilliant!
Danny got to work on his lair, coating everything in ice and creating entire rooms and floors that were just solid ice but for the tight dark tunnels running through them leading to different places in the building. It was basically a maze.
Nodding to himself he went outside and created a balcony out of the ice. The thing was large and looked to be defying gravity, but still Phantom wasn't pleased with it. He wished for a large home, many children and a loving spouse. One of the things this fellow ghosts had talked about was "a large yard and picket fence." The balcony was large but he wasn't sure what classified as a "yard" not to mention he didn't know what a picket fence was. Hopefully it wasn't like the fences Walker had on his prisons, while it would be effective for corraling his potential children, it would look...distasteful...
Phantom tore himself away from those thoughts. Creating a flashy lair was the first step in telling others he was looking to settle down. Surely the large tower of shimmering ice would capture someone's attention.
His first guest entered through an open window on the third floor and Phantom flew down to meet them. They were friendly, if a bit wary of him. Understandable, no world is without danger after all. This man was strong, talented and funny. He wasn't bad looking either. The only real problem he had was that Nightwing was so much older than him and kept calling him a "kid" Phantom was both powerful enough to be considered an adult even before he reached the adult threshold of 13, a fact that he shared with the blue bird. The man looked shocked and tried to convince him to talk to a doctor. He didn't understand. He was perfectly healthy!
Irritated, he flew through he cieling and abandoned the conversation.
The second guest was a green woman with firey hair who was lounging on the balcony. She was inspecting the plants whos roots dug into the ice and fed off of the energy he gave them. He told her this when asked and she was just as confused by him as the blue bird man, but began teaching him about plants and thier various wonders. Phantom listened because back in the Infinite Realms knowledge was power and power was hoarded and kept away from others. If she was willing to give him knowledge so freely he would not turn her away.
His third guest was a younger boy named Robin who tried to kill him with a mortal blade. He responded by phasing the blade into the floor and pinning him to the wall. After a chat in which Robin demanded to know why he was there, Phantom responded with the truth. He left the violence of his home world behind hoping to turn over a new leaf. He wished to start a family and live here happily. Thankfully the child excepted this. Phantom also told him about the flashyness of the ice was a indication he was looking for a spouse and that entering was an indication that one was interested and Robin was too young for marriage
The boy grumbled about Phantom also being too young which Phantom found odd. That was three separate people who all claimed he was too young. Sure, this ye old tradition wasn't in common use anymore and ghosts rarely coupled nowadays but...was he really too young? What was the age of adulthood here?
Not for the first time he envied the other ghosts for thier knowledge. The Undead carry memory from thier first lives, which Phantom is lacking due to his own having been cut so short. Neverborne come into being with knowledge of both worlds and the Deathborne are born from two entities of death creating a child together. These beings are taught about both worlds from thier parents. Another thing Phantom lacks.
----
Meanwhile, the batfam are freaking out at this "undead" pit child that Jason is terrified of. They all feel the need to parent him and try to get him away from all this marriage talk. Maybe let himself be a kid.
After a few weeks they manage to get him to go out to places with them, with Red Robin being the most successful. Appearently the kid found the red coloring of Tim's suit to be "beautiful" and "nothing like the muting reds and pinks from the Infinite Realms" and they planned on putting a pin in that info for later.
For now they needed to focus on rehabilitating this feral child who has lived like a wild animal most of his (after?)life.
Just: Danny never walking as Phantom so when he transforms into his human form he falls on his face cause he doesn't know how to walk.
Phantom doesn't like his human form because he has "constant pain in his stomach area" and they discovered that Phantom hadn't eaten anything at all in the twelve years he's been in the Infinite Realms
Alfred and Bruce teaching him to shower, brush his teeth, and other basic things that he never had to do before as a ghost. Dick and Tim are right behind him with a camera for all of it and are making a "baby book" of all his firsts. They even convince Jason to help teach him to read.
Danny eventually stops flirting with people and tells the family he's happy being a child instead of a father. Dick cries and hugs him.
Halloween prompts no. 23
Au where when danny left the portal his friends noticed his white hasmat suit was missing from his human form but both his cloths and suit remained on his ghost form, puzzling them. They never found out what happened to it, but decided it didn't matter.
----
A large jewel was on display at one of the highest security museums in Gotham, one said to be cursed and causes terrible misfortune to anyone who dares touch it. But Selina Kyle was no coward and had nine lives to back her up, meow~
The notorious cat-burglar managed to fight off Batman long enough to grab the jewel, but the moment she opened her mouth to taunt him a large green portal opened up above them and something fell out of it before it snapped shut as suddenly as it appeared.
They both stared in shock at the form of a fourteen year old boy lying unconscious on the floor between them. Catwoman made a run for it while Batman called an ambulance. The boy wasn't breathing. After doing CPR the boy began to breath again but did not wake up. He took a blood sample in hopes of tracking down any family members this kid may have had and watching over him as he was loaded into the vehicle.
What he never could have guessed was that the child was his. Well, his and Selinas. The only real problem was that Selina had no memory of being pregnant and wasn't missing any time. She also showed no signs of mental tampering but the blood sample held no indication of cloning or genetic engineering. Hmm.
Stranger still the kid would flatline multiple times throughout the day and night without any clear cause and his heart would randomly start beating again several minutes later. The amount of times his death had been "called" was unheard of. No one knew what to make of it.
Still, when he told the family they were confused and intrigued. They all wanted to go meet thier brother even if he wasn't awake. Damian seemed a bit off, but was reassured by the knowledge this kid was about a year younger than him.
Halloween prompts no. 24.5
Danny needed a place to live.
The Wayne manor had more rooms than anyone could know what to do with.
Had Danny been sneaking in to the Wayne manor uncaught for a three months now? Yep. Had he had a little fifteenth birthday party for himself with a cupcake and a candle in his new room? Yep. Was he proud of his appearent stealth? Yep.
Did he expect the butler to walk in on him in the middle of phasing his backpack back out of the wall?
Nope. Absolutely not.
The butler eased out of his look of shock like a veteran of wild shenanigans and bullcrappery, "May I inquire the reason for your visit?"
Danny, who was a panicking just blurted out, "I live here now!"
They just kinda stared at eachother before the butler laughed a little. "Alright then. Dinner will be served in two hours. Don't be late."
And with that he was gone. Danny groaned about his big mouth and decided to commit. Dinner was awkward and the butler, Alfred, made him introduce himself and he did so with a little wave.
Damian attempted to murder him with throwing knives which Danny caught and proclaimed were his now. The family all watched on as Danny wound Damian up and kept taking more weapons from him. Little bat looked like he was on the verge of either flying over the table at the teen or just having a stroke.
Steph and Tim were switching between asking questions and being menaces to society.
Jason was making quips at other people and being oddly friendly.
Duke was staring at danny with a look of horror for half the diner before awkwardly deciding to be friendly and hope whatever this thing was didn't bite
He and Dick were already workshopping puns together at the table in front of everybody. A fact no one but them enjoyed.
Bruce was asking vague questions to try to figure out what this kids deal was and how exactly he got past all the security.
Cass had successfully taught him a bit of ASL and they seemed to get along well enough. Especially once stealth was brought up. Turns out Danny likes to sneak around and he had almost been caught multiple times in the three months he'd been living here. All the family went silent.
"Did you say three months?!"
The whole family (sans Damian) works together both to get Danny to stay so they can get answers to questions and try to peace together wth is happening.
At first they thing Danny is going to freeload off of him only to discover he only came home right before the curfew Bruce set for him and heads out first thing in the morning. He usually only used the manor to sleep and shower.
It was Steph who found him first. He was handing out flyers as part of one of his many side jobs. Turns out he spent most of his time working.
He somehow managed to get Jason to help him buy a fridge. Danny paid for it entirely by himself, he just needed Jason to sign a piece of paper since he was a legal adult and Danny very much wasn't. Jason asked why the kid wanted such a huge fridge and he wasn't prepared for him to say he "wanted to stay out of the way as much as possible"
HELLO I AM HERE WITH FANART OF CONNER CARRYING HIS NEW BABY KITTEN who just wont stop trying to become a ghost :(
110% inspired by this AMAZING fic by @playedcrowd5610 about danny getting stuck in his human form with the team, and since everyone believes he's been miraculously revived they're being uber overprotective trying to prevent danny from dying again lolll
Halloween prompt no. 31 (part 6)
Gotham Knights au where the bats crash at a safe house and hear noises coming from the cabinet above the stove. Sneaking up to it they fling it open to find a very startled child around 4 or 5 years of age eating cereal out of the box.
Dick recovered first,"So uh, whatcha doin' there?"
The kid hugged the box to his chest, almost as if he was afraid they'd take it away from him before giving a muttered, "...nothing..."
Tim got between Jason and the kid, blocking the view of the larger man and giving him the chance to put away the gun he had drawn without the kid noticing it. "Dont worry kid." He said softly, "We won't take it away. You must have been pretty hungry, huh? Is that why you broke in?"
"Kinda?"
It was Jason's turn to ask a question, "Well why are you in there then?"
"I wanted to see my daddy."
The three looked at eachother before Dick, barely holding back laughter asked, "Who's your daddy?"
The kid didn't think twice before pointing at Tim, "I'm Danny and I'm your clone!" Tim bluescreened in response.
Adult Tim learns he appearently has a time traveling, dimension hopping, clone son named Danny who keeps evading Red Hood and Damian and leading them on wild goose chases for fun.
After confirming he was not de aged and he had a solid alibi for the past four days and the blood they had managed to snag from the kid (don't ask how) showed signs of cloning shenanigans did they finally agree on what to do.
Which is why they had the kid tied up like a mummy sitting on the couch in one of Red Hoods safe houses trying to explain to this very sassy teen that they had no intentions to harm him and just wanted to keep him safe and give him a normal life.
This, however, made Danny panic and phase out of his bindings before throwing a smoke bomb on the ground and yelling, "I'M NOT GOING BACK TO SCHOOL!!!" in the same way people talk about prison before escaping.
Red Hood looked Red Robin directly in the eyes before saying, "That one is definitely yours."
The safety on his gun was turned back on with an inaudible click as Jason let the tension leak out of his body.
It wasn't often that someone broke into one of his safe houses, especially one that he hadn't used in a while, so seeing as some of his silent alarms went off he raced over ready to put a bullet in some wannabe robber or maybe a goon sent by another crime lord trying to start something.
Instead he found a prime bat adoption bait sitting in the living room floor, bare stomach pressed to the side of a ginormous egg. It didn't look like any egg hed ever seen either with midnight blue fuzz covering the whole thing. "Hey kid."
The kids head whipped around, startled by a strangers voice. "Who are you?" He asked incredulously, hugging the monster egg closer to himself, "How did you get in here? This place has some serious security."
Jason gave a short laugh, "Yeah, I know. I'm the one who put it there." He watched with mild amusement as the color drained from the kids face.
"You're the apartment owner? I thought he was supposed to be some big scary crime lord!"
"I'm not scary to you?" It wasn't uncommon for people to be intimidated by him. He was, as Steph put it, 'built like a fridge'.
The adoption bait stared into his eyes for a few torturously long seconds before simply saying, "No."
Huh.
"So, whats up with the egg?" He asked, trying to change the subject.
"Thats my line, Todd." A voice said from across the room. Both him and the little intruder snapped there attention to the window where Robin was perched. Jason fought back the urge to chastise the little bat for using his real name seeing as he was out of costume at the moment. After all he was here as Jason Todd, normalish civilian man who came to see why his house was broken into, not Red Hood. Jason almost wished with was some goon working for a big bad even if it would have meant his secret identity was busted, he would have been at least dealing with that instead of Damians inevitable animal custody battle with the kid. Speaking of which.
"Hey kid, whats your name?"
"Danny Fenton." The kid-Danny, tilted his head. "I think."
Robin raised an eyebrow, causing his mask to sift with it, "You think?"
Danny nodded, "Yeah. Got blasted with something a few weeks ago and I don't remember much before that." His grip on the egg had loosened a bit and Robin chose this as he time to strike. Bird boy tried to lift the egg up out of the intruders impromptu blanket nest, but seemed to have misjudged the weight of the egg that was as big as both children's torsos and Danny was swift to take back his egg.
"What do you think you're doing?! Thats mine!" Egg dad hissed.
"Tt. I will be better able to care for the creature. You should just hand it over now. Do you even know whats in there?"
"No! Neither do you!"
Jason knew Robin couldn't refute that so he chose now to step in, "Where did that thing even come from?
He watched as Dannys scowl turned into a beaming smile as he told them about how he was hiding behind a dumpster for warmth when this egg just fell out of the sky and with quick thinking, managed to catch it with a bed of ruined pillows from a recent villian attack. "So you can't take my dragon egg away. I'm the only reason it didn't become a failed street omelet." Danny held his hands on his hips while giving Robin a smug look.
Before the demon brat could say anything or, more likely, try to wipe that smirk off the other kids face, a new person swooped in through the window. "You think its a dragon egg?"
The kid seemed unbothered by the Batman questioning him and just replied with, "Yeah! Look how big it is! Its gotta be a dragon!"
Bruce looked like he was about to have an aneurysm, "You found a large egg of an unknown, potentially supernatural creature and decided to incubate it?"
"Yeah!"
Jason decided he liked this kid.
Danny had been following...ok, stalking his bio dad for a while now. He didn't have anywhere to go after Amity blew up and Clockwork just came out of no where almost a week after the initial incident to pretty much say, "Hey! You're adopted! Also you're a clone baby! This is the name and main alias of your parent and here's how you get to your home dimension!" Then he was gone.
Ancients.
Again, its not like he had anywhere to go and he had nothing better to do. So following around his fourteen year old father (his original?) and his scary bat mentor around a gross crime filled city at night seemed better than nothing. It felt kinda wierd calling him dad in his head but at the same time he didn't want to call him anything else. His inner Jazz said it might be his subconscious grasping for any safe or familial connections it can find, but whatever. He'll call him dad. Who will ever know?
He knows Clockwork told him not to interfere with any of the battles here. He was only ever meant to be a fly on the wall (actually he wasn't even supposed to be here but the old stopwatch couldn't really stop him) but it was so frustrating to see this Red Hood guy appear one day and start hurting his dad and not being able to do anything without exposing himself.
But nothing prepared him for the new Robin.
He hated the new Robin. He had everything Danny ever wanted and he chose to treat his family like that? The anger he felt towards RH was nothing compared to what he felt towards the new little bird. Damian would look around whenever he was alone, likely feeling they eyes on him from Phantoms intense glare. Good. He wanted the kid to know he was unwelcome.
Danny may have died at eight and become a superhero, but that didn't mean he couldn't hate another child vigilante if he was given enough reason to. Danny stopped aging after the explosion that ruined his afterlife and his inner Jazz had a lot of theories about that but in reality he knew why.
He had been waiting.
He knew the bats were mortal and one day Batman would be too old to fight and Robin -now Red Robin- would need a protégé of his own, right? Then he'd pop in and reveal himself as Tim Drakes long lost clone son and everything would be perfect.
Damian didn't just put a wrench in those plans. He ruined them entirely! If Batman is replaced by Damian than Red Robin will likely always be a sidekick.
And sidekicks don't need sidekicks of thier own.
So Phantom made it his afterlifes mission to make Damians stay in Gotham as miserable as possible to make him leave. He would make sure Damian would go back to whereever he came from at the first available opportunity, even if he had to possess the whole city to do it.
----
Danny took cover with some other kids in a nearby clothing store. The riddler was one of Batmans common rogues and was dangerous. He and the others watched in horror as a third party, likely a gang of some kind that didn't appreciate a hero battle on thier turf, stupidly fired a freaking rocket launcher at the two of them. The projectile missed the mark by a large margin and hit a nearby business tower, sending rubble and debris down of the two fighters. Riddler was quickly pinned while Batman eventually got pinned after a few really cool evasive maneuvers. Red Robin went to assist while Robin went to fight the gang members. A lucky shot from one of the gang members got RR in the leg, sending him down momentarily.
Danny managed to rally the other kids to help dig Batman and Riddler out from where they were trapped by stealing a bunch of black hoodies for them to wear and ripping up a black shirt for them to wear as blindfolds. They could see out of them just fine, but it would hide thier identities from all parties.
Together they rescued the pair and Danny silently rejoiced at helping Red Robin limp away and treat his wound at a safer location. As much as he wanted to let this interaction last, he knew he had to bouce once RR started asking him questions.
Phantom later looked at himself in the reflection of a piece of building material. He had been told before that a ghosts appearance could change based on significant events in thier afterlives. Seeing his former symbol on his chest had disappeared and the smooth crisp edges of the black blindfold that had materialized on his face he knew what had happened. And he knew he would do anything to be with his father again.
His efforts to get rid of Damian intensified.
Danny had been following...ok, stalking his bio dad for a while now. He didn't have anywhere to go after Amity blew up and Clockwork just came out of no where almost a week after the initial incident to pretty much say, "Hey! You're adopted! Also you're a clone baby! This is the name and main alias of your parent and here's how you get to your home dimension!" Then he was gone.
Ancients.
Again, its not like he had anywhere to go and he had nothing better to do. So following around his fourteen year old father (his original?) and his scary bat mentor around a gross crime filled city at night seemed better than nothing. It felt kinda wierd calling him dad in his head but at the same time he didn't want to call him anything else. His inner Jazz said it might be his subconscious grasping for any safe or familial connections it can find, but whatever. He'll call him dad. Who will ever know?
He knows Clockwork told him not to interfere with any of the battles here. He was only ever meant to be a fly on the wall (actually he wasn't even supposed to be here but the old stopwatch couldn't really stop him) but it was so frustrating to see this Red Hood guy appear one day and start hurting his dad and not being able to do anything without exposing himself.
But nothing prepared him for the new Robin.
He hated the new Robin. He had everything Danny ever wanted and he chose to treat his family like that? The anger he felt towards RH was nothing compared to what he felt towards the new little bird. Damian would look around whenever he was alone, likely feeling they eyes on him from Phantoms intense glare. Good. He wanted the kid to know he was unwelcome.
Danny may have died at eight and become a superhero, but that didn't mean he couldn't hate another child vigilante if he was given enough reason to. Danny stopped aging after the explosion that ruined his afterlife and his inner Jazz had a lot of theories about that but in reality he knew why.
He had been waiting.
He knew the bats were mortal and one day Batman would be too old to fight and Robin -now Red Robin- would need a protégé of his own, right? Then he'd pop in and reveal himself as Tim Drakes long lost clone son and everything would be perfect.
Damian didn't just put a wrench in those plans. He ruined them entirely! If Batman is replaced by Damian than Red Robin will likely always be a sidekick.
And sidekicks don't need sidekicks of thier own.
So Phantom made it his afterlifes mission to make Damians stay in Gotham as miserable as possible to make him leave. He would make sure Damian would go back to whereever he came from at the first available opportunity, even if he had to possess the whole city to do it.
----
Danny took cover with some other kids in a nearby clothing store. The riddler was one of Batmans common rogues and was dangerous. He and the others watched in horror as a third party, likely a gang of some kind that didn't appreciate a hero battle on thier turf, stupidly fired a freaking rocket launcher at the two of them. The projectile missed the mark by a large margin and hit a nearby business tower, sending rubble and debris down of the two fighters. Riddler was quickly pinned while Batman eventually got pinned after a few really cool evasive maneuvers. Red Robin went to assist while Robin went to fight the gang members. A lucky shot from one of the gang members got RR in the leg, sending him down momentarily.
Danny managed to rally the other kids to help dig Batman and Riddler out from where they were trapped by stealing a bunch of black hoodies for them to wear and ripping up a black shirt for them to wear as blindfolds. They could see out of them just fine, but it would hide thier identities from all parties.
Together they rescued the pair and Danny silently rejoiced at helping Red Robin limp away and treat his wound at a safer location. As much as he wanted to let this interaction last, he knew he had to bouce once RR started asking him questions.
Phantom later looked at himself in the reflection of a piece of building material. He had been told before that a ghosts appearance could change based on significant events in thier afterlives. Seeing his former symbol on his chest had disappeared and the smooth crisp edges of the black blindfold that had materialized on his face he knew what had happened. And he knew he would do anything to be with his father again.
His efforts to get rid of Damian intensified.
Pandora was right, taking baths out in the wilderness was great! He could see the stars and point out the constellations as he scrubbed himself and practiced his singing where no one could hear him. This did not stop him from wearing swim trunks, so hess a litte paranoid. Sue him.
Pandora had been very clear about going deep into the wilderness where no one could hear him sing, because if they heard the siren song of a halfa and fled they would be haunted by it forever or until he himself tracked them down and sang a song strong enough to free them.
Ancients she knew him so well.
He had been minding his own business playing in the water with his multitude of floating duck candles, a purchase he begged Sam for when he was drugged out of his mind after a very devastating injury, and practicing one of the songs Pandora put on the "study list" called The Fairy King. If he didn't know any better he would think she was making fun of him.
He scrubbed his arm with a washcloth as he sung watching as the ducks floated around in the little super hero costumes Tucker had 3d printed for them. "Huh. It almost looks like they're dancing."
A light bulb went off in his head. He began practicing with his telekinesis as he sang, making the ducks dance together in little twists and twirls. He doesn't think he's ever had this much fun in a bath before honestly.
----
Red Robin and Nightwing were sneaking through the foliage looking for a supervillians secret base when they heard it. The sound of a full symphony playing live off in the distance. They nodded at eachother before heading in the direction the sound was coming from. They were almost on top of it when they heard the singing begin,
"When the house is still i can hear his song, beckoning me out into the ga-ar-den" the boys froze, this didn't sound anything like thier villain, they turned back to the noise edging closer, "his lullaby- promises sweet- escaaape"
Nothing could have prepared them for what they saw once they parted the underbrush, a glowing white haired teenager was standing in chest deep water, haloed by the moon behind, offering them an ethereal scene "He says, 'come my drifting flower i will hold you tight. Listen to the chime of stars and moo-oonlight-'"
The teen lifted up a floating ducky that was dressed like Red Robin in one hand and placed the other of his chest as he continued singing, "take my hand-and feel here- my heaart"
Red Robin turned beat red and Nightwing moved to give him a comforting pat on the shoulder only to have a twig snap underneath his boot. The guy whirled around and locked eyes with Nightwing for only a moment before screaming and falling backwards into the water. Bubbles rose to the surface of the pond only for a few seconds before they vanished all together.
It felt like a spell was broken and the two vigilantes just stood there for a second before nightwing jumped in to save a possibly drowning teen. No matter how hard he searched he couldn't find any proof that the guy was ever even there, save for the duck candles (?) that Red Robin had already finished collecting from around the pond.
RR didn't seem surprised that the guy had vanished and was examining the ducks. More specifically the bottoms. Dick went to see what was going on only for his younger brother to show him the bottom of the Nightwing duck.
There, in messy handwriting, was the ducks name: Duckwing
Dick laughed and started going through the ducks names, Quack-Hood, Bat-Bill, Red-Drake (which was kinda concerning and brought up the question of whether or not this guy knew any of thier identities) and funniest of all, a Robin one with a little plastic katana simply named Stabby.
----
Danny hid his face in his pillow after accidentally teleporting home. This was awful.
He waited until the heat in his face disappeared before taking a few deep breaths and thinking about how he was going to handle this. He obviously needed to track down the two Gotham vigilantes (what were they doing out there?) and break the spell on them before they become obsessed with him.
Then he remembered his ducks, "Aw man. What are the chances they didn't take my ducks?" Teleporting back to the pond after a full hour of being away showed a dark and duckless pond, much to his disappointment.
Now he added "recue the ducks" to his mental checklist.
Unbeknownst to him the vigilantes weren't the only ones to hear his song...
Theres a new mom and pop coffee shop in Gotham that's doing pretty well. The place has a casual playful vibe but it only ever has one employee, which has lead to it having a bit of a urban myth status.
He's there through all the opening hours and no one ever sees him come or go, only the lights switching off and the teen disappearing.
It probably doesn't help that the shop has a ghost themed name.
His name tag reads, "Nightingale" and he always has a polite smile, but the few who dare to act out in his shop notice his eyes flash a particular shade of green and are suddenly overcome with the feeling that they're being stared down by a large apex predator and a sickening sense of dread.
Needless to say people behave in his shop.
Whats more is that his store shows up on county records just fine, but if you try to look into anything your computer glitches out and you can't find anything. Obviously "Nightingale" can't be the owner, he looks only 15. Some say he's a vampire, others say he's a zombie like Red Hood.
Tim doesn't care what he is because the first time he entered at night as Red Robin the guy immediately started making a coffee were he could see, made it exactly how he liked it and gave it to him before he even had the chance to order. Then he refused his money, saying it was on the house.
None of the people waiting in line argued or were upset and Tim was unsure if that was because he was a well known Gotham vigilante or it Nightingales reputation protected him.
Either way the coffee was delicious.
Tim didn't know how to feel when he found out his family was investigating the "possible runaway" who worked at the coffee shop.
Danny was weak. Amity had been destroyed because of his failure to act and it had hit his obsession hard. The other ghosts jumped on him exploiting his moment of weakness and while he was able to defeat them he was left with very little power left.
He was dying.
Again.
Danny had to choke back a sob. He was alone, scared, and in pain in an unfamiliar dimension in an unfamiliar city that had a smell bad enough to make raccoons turn thier noses away. He needed to find a way to feed his obsession and fast.
It was at that moment a very obviously drugged and hurt Red Robin came falling out of the sky and landed with a thud before him and promptly passed out.
Danny could work with this.
Dragging the other teen as far as he could (which wasn't far in the halfas sorry state) he settled down with the supposed hero on the front step of a boarded up store and rested the guys head in Dannys lap. Taking a deep breath he pulled out one of his parents weapons that he had personally modified. A laser gun that if turned up to the highest setting would be a death ray and at the lowest would be powerful enough to blast someone down a few city blocks. Anyone who tries anything would be in for a world of pain.
Unfortunately there were a lot of people who saw the downed bird being protected by a frail kid with what looked like a toy gun and came walking up with crowbars and bats, intending to get revenge only to find out that it was very much not a toy.
The most annoying ones were these wierd people who Just. Would. Not. Give. Up.
The one with a blue bird on his chest had almost convinced him that he was the heros friend, up until he let slip that his brother, Red Hood had tried to murder him. He got blasted away after that.
Red Hood didn't even get down from the rooftop before Danny blasted him. He had so much bad ghost vibes that Danny could feel exactly where he was even five miles away. Hood didn't understand why he couldn't sneak up on this kid.
Batman gets the "on sight" treatment and Danny is convinced he's a supervillian.
The Joker gets vaporized in front of the batfam, whose jaws are on the floor, except for Jason who's cheering. (Jason later throws a party) Everyone who has a bat logo on them gets blasted. No one can get close and nothing they do can get the kid away. Its only when Robin appears before the kid that Danny visibly relaxes. When Robin asks how he knew he was Red Robins ally Danny pointed out the matching colors.
Robin did not understand the logic behind it but was happy to get the civilian that had been giving them so much grief to a hospital and drag RR to the med Bay to see why he hadn't woken up yet. But no, it was not meant to be. Danny revealed he was not human and that his injuries were more severe than they first appeared, which said a lot because his white shirt looked mostly brownish red at this point.
Anyway, Danny was a supernatural entity who protected people and fed off of them, creating a mutually beneficial situation. The people he protected turned on him seeking knowledge about his biology via the "science and a knife" method and he barely escaped. Danny is so weak now that if he let's Red Robin go Danny would quickly die, but if he doesn't let Red Robin go, he won't wake up. So naturally Danny is too terrified of dying to let RR go and as a consequence Tim is getting the best sleep of his life
"Do you require assistance?" Phantom perked up at the mans voice. Red Robin was the guy multiple ghosts had recommended to him even though he was still alive. Okay, so they kinda did it in a half joking manner, but Phantom was desperate!
The nine year old came out from the shadows and could immediately feel the man in front of him cataloging everything about his appearance. Wierd. But he had dealt with Weirder. Besides, he was glowing, so he guessed the human had a right to be curious. "I heard you were really good with machines."
Red Robin looked somewhat tense, like he was ready to fight if need be. Why does everyone wanna fight him? He's nine!
Phantom quickly brought out a little silver sphere with an OwO face from his bag and quickly began speaking, "This is my friend Livvi, she started acting wierd a while back and I haven't been able to fix her."
To his credit, Red didn't attack him. He just looked gobsmacked. "You came out to Gotham, in the middle of the night and tracked down a vigilante to ask for tech support?"
"Livvi is different!" He fumed, "She's my friend!"
A sigh escaped from the mans lips and Phantom looked up to see him pinching the bridge of his nose, "Okay, you're probably not going to go away until I fix her. Just promise me you'll try to be safer."
Phantom hummed as if contemplating, "I'll try."
With that, the vigilante took Livvi from him and began working on her from the blanket Phantom had laid out. Red Robin began to look more and more curious about Livvi as he worked on her. He even took out one of Livvis ectoplasm powerbanks to examine it more thoroughly. "Can you explain to me what problems she's been having?"
The kid bit his lower lip, clearly worried about the little robot, "Shes having trouble maintaining flight and producing shields. Her speech sometimes comes out glitch or warped despite me not finding anything wrong with her voice box or programming. A few times she's just turned off mid flight and dropped."
The man looked thoughtful for a few seconds before asking, "Have you ever heard of the Lazarus Pit?"
"I've heard of Lazarus, but I don't know what it is. I've only ever heard of it in passing. Why?" The ghost was genuinely confused by the change in topic
"Can I text a friend about this?"
"I don't see why not. The more help Livvi gets the faster she'll get better right?" The bird wasted no time activating his coms and whispering into it telling some unknown people about "an unknown glowing meta child with futuristic tech that runs on Lazarus water"
Within the next ten minutes a guy dressed as a bat landed on the rooftop alongside a boy around his age dressed like a trafic light and scowling as if he had just been told that he was grounded from ever having ice cream again. The big goth dude introduced himself as batman and offered him a lollipop. "I'm not supposed to take candy from strangers." Phantom said seriously, "Unless its Halloween."
Batman...well he didn't smile exactly but he didn't seem angry. "Do you know where you're parents are?"
"No. But thats okay. They don't like me."
Batman maintained a cool pokerface, "why don't they like you?"
"I don't remember. I think I knew when I was older-"
"Older?" The other boy interrupted, "Is this not your true age?"
Phantom pouted at him, any hopes he had of making a friend he didn't construct himself were flung out the window, "Yeah, but I don't remember it. Appearently I ate a time god and lost six-ish years from absorbing his powers."
There was a beat silence, then: "You ate a time god?!" Red Robin looked horrifed
"In my defense, I have no memory of what was happening at the time. All I know is that the place i used to live is in ruins and I'm dead."
Bruce Wayne is used to ransom calls. They happen often enough despite his children's training, though it doesn't help that they sometimes purposely get themselves captured to later mock the kidnappers but he digressed.
This call was different. "We have Tim Drakes children" what did that even mean? Did they kidnap some random infants with black wisps of hair and blue eyes and just hope that Tim miiight have had a night of indiscretion in the last year or so to be concerned about?
Spoiler was the first on scene, actively teasing Red Robin about the whole fiasco. He swears they couldn't possibly be his and this had to be a scam of some kind. They had been assessing the situation from the rafters of the warehouse when another guy who looked like prime Batman Adoption Bait stormed the place and beat the crap out of the guys before zooming over to the infants.
The pair nodded at eachother and leaped down from the rafters and landed behind the man. He whirled around, holding the kids protectively to his chest, careful to support thier heads.
They asked him to confirm if he's the father which he did so readily. Red Robin got a wierd feeling though and asked to get a swab for testing, just to be sure.
The guy refused. That wasn't overly suspicious but the defensive way he acted was. Were these not his children? The bats chose to try a different tactic and asked him to wait for the police to arrive so they could confirm he was the twins father.
He ran.
Danny was having one of the worst days of his afterlife, and trust him, he's had some rough days. Being chased through Gotham at night by its local terrifying vigilantes while trying not to drop or harm the babies was hard, especially since he was trying to hide his powers. But really, what was he supposed to do?
He can't exactly just say "a ghost with genie powers overheard my mom wish for grandbabies from me and granted that wish but screwed us by making the other half of the babies DNA that of some random rich guy from another reality?" Cause thats going to go over soooo well.
Why do they care so much anyway? He doubts they're going to make the guy pay child support, not that Danny needs it. Then again its probably better to stay in this world where no one knows who he is and his children are safer...from his parents OSHA violations if nothing else.
Vlad couldn't enter this universe cause he couldn't get past the "source wall" whatever that was, but Danny and his babies had no problems so meh.
The bats had him cornered and hiding invisibly inside an abandoned arcade (why were so many places in this city abandoned???) the bats kept combing through the place looking for him. He knew they were about ready to give up looking for him when one of the babies sneezed.
The next thing he knew the littlest bat, Robin was right next to him, "Found you." Then he was knocked out.
Danny keeps getting summoned to Gotham of all places but it keeps happening at night while he's wearing his Red Robin Pajamas. Worse. He's getting summoned as Fenton.
The first time it happened Danny appeared in the summoning circle started and looked around to see Gothams vigilantes standing over some very knocked out cultists. He locks eyes with Red Robin and makes a face. "Well, this is embarrassing."
The problem is that this keeps happening. The forth time it happened he had been in the middle of brushing his teeth. He accused the bats of doing this on purpose before breaking the circle again and sending himself back. Each time Danny is summoned he's wearing a completely different set of RR pajamas. No one even knew there were that many variations of it.
Steph made a bet that "Tim's simp" probably has a RR themed bed. They found out when the kid gets summoned while asleep in bed. Tough luck for her, Dannys bed was star/constellation themed. The bats takes his fingerprints and DNA while he's out cold and find out who he is.
Danny, on the run from the GIW decides to take shelter in Gotham because if the GIW have any sense they'd never set foot in there.
Even if Batman and the JL agree with thier opinion on ecto entities (as evidenced by their lack of speaking out against the anti-ecto acts) Batman was notoriously territorial and would have issue with a wildly incompetent government organization throwing missiles around his city all willy-nilly.
With that being said it was probably best for Danny to wear a disguise. Sure, they didn't know Fenton and Phantom were the same person yet but Danny Fenton suddenly turning up in Gotham after going missing in Amity is certainly going to raise some eyebrows regardless of the necklace he had that jammed his ecto-signature and made him untrackable.
Danny started off by going blond. Its something he's always wanted to do and now with ghostly shape-shifting powers he doesn't even have to worry about frying his hair or dying his eyebrows to match. After that all he needed to do was part his hair down the middle, add a lip ring or two and maybe a bit of make up.
Danny stared at himself in the mirror. He looked like a completely different person.
A completely different and very attractive person. He looked good. The newly blond man threw on a green jacket and went out to explore the town. He did not expect to literally bump into the Tim Drake. The Wayne adoptee just stood there mouth opening and closing comically. Did he offend him? Crap. He had promised Jazz he would stay off of the radar of the Waynes and the bats specifically and here he was angering one of them.
Danny decided to book it before it became a scene, ignoring the lovestruck Tim's crys for him to wait.
Back at his apartment Danny quickly changed his look to red hair tied back into a two inch low ponytail, green eyes and freckles that unbeknownst to anyone else was made up from the lesser known constellations.
The coffee at this Cafe smelled amazing! Too bad Danny wouldn't get to try it because the next this he knew freaking Red Hood was behind him asking to talk. Our favorite ghost boy wouldn't be embarrassed to admit he let out a small squeek before bolting out the door yelling, "I'm not even a criminal!"
It took Jason a few seconds to process that the guy he had tried to flirt with ran away in terror. Crap.
Day three and four were blissfully Wayne and bat free, though he did find out that Tim Drake and Red Hood were looking for his two false identities. Joy.
Day five he met the stabby Robin who very valiantly beat up two people who had been following him. Danny didn't even notice he was being followed and thanked the bird for saving him. Danny, who was shape-shifted into a very pretty girl at the moment, offered to buy him something to eat as a thank you. "Danielle" insisted and Robin allowed it. Danielle never noticed the slight pink on Damians cheeks as they went over to one of Damians favorite restaurants.
Day seven he had went out as blondie and got confronted by some girl named Barbara. She was nice and managed to convince him to come to a Cafe with her. He told her his name was David and he ran away from his parents with the help of one of his friends family members and that he was Jewish, which was true...except for the David part. He learned that if you wanna keep your story straight keeping to almost truths was your best bet. She in turn told him about Tim and how he's a friend of hers-uh oh- and that he's been looking all over for him.
Danny-David- tells her he's sorry but he didn't mean to offend Tim and doesn't want any trouble before laying down enough money to cover his half of the bill and the tip and booking it out of there
This repeats with most of the family trying to flirt with him or adopt him into the family when he's out as Danny.
Bruce Wayne approached Danny when he was waiting to board an elevator, "Hel-" was all the billionaire could get out before Danny cut him off "Hell no." And then he just got in the elevator and pressed the close doors button and was gone again.
Danny was tired. It had been a week since he fell into this crazy dimention full of people with superpowers. It was tough learning to survive with nothing but the clothes on his back and a thermos that was thankfully empty of ghosts but he managed. Oh, did he mention he hadn't slept more than five hours since then?
Needless to say Dannys tolerance for shenanigans has been thoroughly depleted, so when one of the local vigilantes, Red Robin came flying in through the new hole in the ceiling of the abandoned apartment he had been squatting in he was done.
He looked over at the knocked out hero lying on the bed next to him and after checking his pulse and confirming he was alright he angrily grumbled, "I am not dealing with this." before wrapping another blanket around the sleeping bird and tucking him in. Danny then crawled back into bed and rolled over, content to pretend this didn't happen and hope Mr. Burger Joint would be gone in the morning.
Red Hood watched all this go down from aforementioned hole in the ceiling that he had made when fighting his brother and decided he liked this kid.
For his guts if nothing else.
Next thing Danny knows the guy was not in the crappy apartment. Unfortunately neither is he. Getting up and exploring the new and non crappy apartment he come face to helmet with Red Hood.
That can't be good.
Vlad accidentally outed both of them publicly and Danny was forced to flee into the Ghost Zone while his former rogues destroy the portals and leave Vlad stranded in the mess he made.
Clockwork shows up only to dramatically tell Danny that "This chapter of your life has ended. It is time for you to begin anew." He also warned Danny that he would no longer be able to help him in the new world he would be inhabitanting and wished him luck.
Luck was something he clearly did not receive since he landed smack in the middle of Gotham.
Through a bright green portal.
At night.
As a very glowy Phantom.
In the middle of a very busy road.
People were staring at him from inside thier cars, some were trying to put thier cars in reverse to quietly get away some were filming him with thier phones or trying at least trying to. He is a ghost after all.
Some melodramatic person screamed and suddenly there was some type of demon swooping down to Phantom. It was at this point that Danny thought, Screw this. I'm out. Before turning invisible and flying away.
Except...the demon was following him. Black wings like a bat were flared as the thing followed Danny across the city. It took almost an hour to lose its trail and hes certain the only reason he managed to do that was by leading the thing into the sewers and phasing back up above ground while he was out of sight.
Danny took this opportunity to invisibly phase into a boarded up shop and transform from Phantom to Fenton then phase out invisibly and bolt. He needed to be more careful of cameras this time around. Amity may not have had a bunch but this city was infested with them. After a few failed mugging attempts from some people on the streets he thinks he knows why.
He spent his entire day exploring Gotham and swiping food. He felt bad about it but with no legal identity and no way to earn money in a non-criminal way he was kinda tight on options. Eventually dusk came and, not knowing if that bat demon thing could sense him or if it liked to snack on lost little ghosties, he began somewhat frantically looking for somewhere to hide for the night.
Danny was really, really good at finding hiding spots. Usually this wouldn't be a problem. The opposite really. But here it was.
Turns out most of the great hiding places Danny found (abandoned theaters, insides of clocktowers, the 13th floor of some wierd company towers that he heard were unused and had no way to access) they were already occupied. Either by thier wierd Owl cult, this wierd Robin cult or this wierd Bat cult, Danny has decided to avoid the heck out of the bat cult cause he was 90% certain the thing that chased him on his first night here was the bat monster they worshiped.
Also, that bird cult member in the back and blue kept trying to "adopt him" which he was pretty sure meant inducting into the cult, which is a solid no from him.
Appearently him just finding all of thier hideouts is either horrifying or just embarrassing to the members of the cults. One time he popped into another "bird nest" and came face to mask with Red Robin and Nightwing around when this first started. Everyone just stared at eachother in shock for a solid five seconds before RR began reaching for something and Danny bolted back the way he came (which weirdly enough was though a cabinet door)
RR inspected the dog sized hole in the back of the cabinet that the kid must have come through and realized it lead through the walls. Chilling.
In Dannys defence, his phone was left behind and he didn't even think about reading the newspaper past learning the current date. Still on him, but meh.
It was only supposed to be a simple mission. Red Robin and Nightwing were sent to investigate some magical ruins that might have a lead on one of thier shared cases. Kon had practically begged to come along since he and Tim hadn't seen eachother in a while. Nightwing didn't see a problem with it so off they went.
It was later that night when they were asleep in thier tents (Timm was forced to sleep via the power of kons puppy dog eyes) that something strange happened.
---
Phantom wobbled a bit in flight. He didn't know where or when he was. He had just escaped his parents after they saw Vlad transform and in a fit of rage, Vlad outed Danny too.
Vlad was killed pretty quickly. But Danny? They tried to "fix" Danny. It was only thanks to Jazz freeing him that he could bolt into the Ghost Zone and disappear. And bolt he did. He went so far so fast that he didn't even notice when he re-entered the living realms and just kept going.
Not wanting to make his situation worse, he decided to bed down for the night. His wounds weren't exactly healed but they were closed and that was what really mattered. He phased the blood out of his clothes as he silently approached a camp. Thier fire was out, properly drenched too. Danny had a thought to swipe some food but decided not to. Not out of morality, desperate times and all that, but because he physically couldn't muster up the energy to do anything more than curl up on the grass and pass out from exhaustion.
Needless to say when Tim wakes up the next morning and sees what appears to be a younger version of himself curled up outside he freaks out. He sneakily snags a sample and compared it to his own DNA and, suprise! Its a match. Aside from the obvious marks of cloning in his genetic structure and this odd unknown element sticking to it he was a perfect match for Tim Drake Wayne.
Nightwing woke up to find Tim standing over his unconscious mini and muttering about him being a dad. Dick was glad he packed that expensive coffee. They were all going to need it.
Kon was just excited to be an uncle.
Nightwing giggled at the post he found. He wasn't sure if it was real, but seeing as they live in a world of metas, gods and aliens surely anything was possible, right?
Still, a post on Chirper stating:
"Superpower mishap. My consciousness is stuck in cyberspace, please send help"
was kinda hilarious, even before he edited it to add:
"Not Batman. Do not send Batman."
And of course everyone on the internet is a troll which is why not only was Batman @'d a few million times but other members of the batfam were as well.
Baby bird was still trying to figure out how someone could get thier consciousness of all things stuck in cyberspace while Oracle was doing the digital equivalent of poking the poor data guy with a stick. Interesting times indeed.
Amnesiac Danny is wondering around the streets of Gotham and when Bruce comes across him, he thinks it's Jason; first as a hallucination and then after he manages to touch him, as some trick someone was trying to pull on him. Except… Danny even has the right clothes on! All muddy and dirty… Alas, when they check Jason's grave, there isn't anyone inside, leaving them with the wrong conclusion that Danny/Jason must have broken out of his grave.
DNA analysis is inconclusive. Every sample comes back as corrupted. Danny and Jason DO look the same and the similarities are convincingly enough to fool Alfred as well. Dick wasn't around too much, so at this point he also thinks Danny could be Jason.
Could, but the situation is… odd. Everyone is left standing wrong-footed. This Jason has no answers and all they have are a bunch of… hypothesis that they cannot test.
Even so, Bruce cannot help himself and tries to make Danny "remember". Eventually this leads to Danny thinking of himself as Jason, pointedly not thinking about how some things don't add up after he starts living in Wayne Manor.
And then enters Tim Drake, whose first act after being introduced is to say that Danny is a fake.
"Baba!"
Danny smiled as he toweled his hair dry. He loved hearing his little one yell from the living room of his-now thier- lair.
The circumstances of his conception were irrelevant. He loved his kiddo very much, hence the abundance of photo albums and home videos chalked full of his kid doing random stuff. The one with him in his high chair stuffing cheerios into his mouth is his favorite solely for the fact it caught him trying to stuff them up his nose a few times. Definitely something to show future dates when he's older.
His smile fell when he heard anothers voice. No one should have access to his lair. They were in the Infinite Realms for stars sake.
Rushing out of the bathroom in only his sweatpants he charged into the living room to find it filled with capes. More specifically different (largely in costume) versions of Tim Drake. Uh oh.
How did this happen?
"Baba!" He looked down at thier child who was smiling up at him from the arms of one of the younger Tims, showing off his brand new baby fang and bloody hand. Danny rushed into the kitchen to get some alcohol pads and some bravery badges, walking past the summoning circle he had on his wall and taking note of the tiny bloody handprints near the bottom of it.
Crap. That was meant to summon friends and family into the lair. His little star must have tried summoning his father.
After bandaging his kid up and kissing the area he smiled and said, "all better!" Which earned him a giggle from the one year old and an odd look from the child still holding him.
"Tim?" The vigilante looked startled, but Danny didn't give him a chance to recover, "How about you take the little one into the living room and wait with the others? I need to make myself decent before I come explain things."
The kid looked skeptical but agreed and left in that direction.
Danny made his way to his room, and after chasing out two teenage birds who somehow snuck past him into there, he finally got dressed and chased more out of his toddlers room before making it to the living room.
Feeling a room full of eyes on him he sighed and conjured more couches from the ectoplasm in his lair, ignoring some startled shouts as he sat down.
There were a lot of different Tims here. Three adults all in gear, one good two evil, about seven teens, three in gear while four in civvies. Two of the civilian ones were the boys he had caught snooping in his room for clues.
Lastly there were three boys, two in gear with one in a civilian outfit.
Thats a total of thirteen (13) Tims.
"Okay, to start off id like to apologize on behalf of my son. We didn't mean to summon any of you."
The Robin holding Danny son chimed in, "How did he summon us?"
"Kiddo is too small to properly pronounce things yet. Hence why his calling you "baba" instead of "papa"."
He ignored the surprised sounds and questions and just let that sink in before adding, "To clarify, no. None of you are actually the father."
Danny waited patiently for them to calm down and ignored more questions, "I was with an alternate version of you who turned out to be evil-ish and wanted to eliminate all superpowers from existence or something, a fact I didn't know at the time."
"Anyway, he purposely sabotaged my birth control to get me pregnant knowing I wouldn't abort. He did this knowing that when his plan started to come to fruition I'd be too far along to stop him. He had a counter to everything, even things we never told him about. I ended up having to sever the connection between this place- the Infinite Realms- and my home dimension, trapping him there with no way for him to get out and leaving me with no way to ever see my friends or family again. Questions?"
There were many.
Danny Fenton, Bernard Dowd, Kon-El, Stephanie Brown, and Tam Fox appear in a warehouse surrounded by demons.
Kon didn't hesitate to throw the first punch and the rest of the abductees were quick to follow suit. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the demons fell apart rather easily with is great for defeating them but not so great for trying to capture one to find out why they were summoned in the first place.
Once all the demons were gone they began talking amongst themselves to figure out what they all had in common, which it turned out they were all dating different versions of Tim Drake.
Danny asked the group who knew about the "feathers" thing and everyone raised thier hand. Okay, so they all knew. That should make things easier.
Bernard tried calling Tim but it only rang once, to which Danny reminded him that this world's Tim might not know who he is or even have the same number. Spooky then pulled out a flip phone with an ominous glowing green screen and made a call.
Tim could be heard on the other line asking him if he was okay and why he was using the emergency phone. Danny explained what he could and Tim promised to find a way to get to him. They said thier goodbyes and loves yous before hanging up.
Danny held up his phone, "Interdimentional phone calls, courtesy of my mad scientist parents." He then had to explain it wouldn't work for them because his phone was keyed into the dimension he came from and his Tim was using it to track them down, so even if he did have the means to recalibrate the signal it would be a bad idea right now.
The others weren't too happy with this but they understood.
They opened the door to the warehouse only to discover they were in a freaking desert. Crap. Out of the five of them only two could fly and none of them had enough supplies on them to travel the desert on foot but they couldn't stay here. Who knew how long it would take for his Tim to track them down. Flying was thier best bet but Danny, being the oldest would have to take two.
Danny shot his love a text warning him about the desert and to be prepared for that if it should be necessary. He got a text back a moment later acknowledging it and worrying over him. He felt so loved.
Now it was time to talk to the others and figure out a plan of action.
Halloween prompts no 31 (part 4)
Red Robin sprung to awareness on a rooftop, the world around him frozen in place, "What the...?"
Don't panic a voice said from inside his head. "Oh yeah, nothing to panic about." He answered back.
Yeah, ok. Thats fair. The voice conceded, I guess I should explain?
"I'd prefer that, thanks."
Ok, so I was just traveling through dimensions and exploring space-time-
"You were what?!"
You wouldn't explore space-time if you could?
"Fair. Continue."
So anyway, I came across your dimension which was frozen in time. I kinda freaked out a bit when the time freeze tried to grab me too, but it couldn't and I shook it off.
"It couldn't? Any idea why?"
Okay, this is going to sound pretty strange, but my crazy evil alternate future self came back in time and tried to murder my loved ones but failed and decided placing a medalian that eliminates time shenanigans inside my chest was a great consolation prize. Probably to "ensure he exists in the future" or whatever. I try not to think about it.
RR took a deep breath and decided to unpack that later, "And the reason you crawled inside my head?"
Well, taking out the medalian would cause me to freeze before I could even give it to you so the next best thing was to overshadow you and act as a backseat driver.
"Overshadow?"
I'm a ghost. Think of it like diet possession. I'm in here but you have full control. Sorry about doing this without your consent.
Red blinked, unsure what to make of this situation, "Its fine? Anyway, any idea what we do now?" He asked, hoping the ghost might have a lead.
No clue. Other than trying to find the source of all this and put a stop to it. If you can make physical contact with something I can force my energy into it temporarily. It should allow whatever object you find to be unfrozen so long as you maintain contact.
"This is starting to sound like a video game."
Then let's get on with the tutorial!
Mm. Pain.
Project R au where Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake have a kinda sorta custody battle (more like argument) about who should take in Danny.
The twist? None of them want to take Danny in and are trying to force him onto the others. Each has valid reasons not to take Danny in, Jason is a crime lord, Dick has had paparazzi trailing him around lately, Tim is still a minor and can't take in anyone, ect. Theres a million reasons for each of them. Unfortunately no one realized Danny was overhearing all of this from another room.
Danny had spent so much time building his dads up in his mind, thinking that when he finally found them everything would be great. He never even considered his dads wouldn't want him. Heck, how was he supposed to know his dads were adopted brothers? He kinda understands how this was weird but...what about him? He didn't really have anywhere to go but...should he just leave?
Maybe that would be for the best...
Danny turned his face up toward the sky, letting Gothams rain poor down his face. His husband, Tim, had loved this city-to the point of dying for it while wearing a mask.
The court of owls had been cowardly, and honestly Danny should have expected that from a bunch of entitled rich people. Many of the bats were there taking down the courts lackeys but there wasn't any signs of the Talons, which made sense since they seemed to act oddly around Phantom and just kinda flopped onto the ground and bared thier necks to him. Wierd.
Everyone was fighting, so no one noticed the tip of a snipers rifle poking out of a crag in the cave walls until it was too late. A shot was fired.
And Tim was on the floor
Danny didn't remember much after that. He remembers Nightwing holding his little brother while Batman came to his side. He remembers the other bats running off to find the sniper and Danny just...stood there. He stared at Tims blood splatter and the gray matter all over the floor. The bullet had went through his head had killed him quickly but this didn't comfort him. The scene was so gruesome but he couldn't bring himself to look away as his vision was consumed by green.
The next time he became aware Nightwing was in front of him, asking him to turn himself in. Confused, he asked what he had done only to learn he had hunted down every Court of Owls member like a man possessed and torn them to shreds. No one was sure how Phantom knew who was a member or not especially while he was in that state, but it didn't change the face that Phantom had killed so many people.
Danny was horrified. How could he had done this? He had never experienced the pit rage before and never thought he would. But here he was having lost almost two weeks of time and gaining more blood on his hands than he knew what to do with.
So Danny, not wanting to argue or-ancients forbid- fight his family-in-law while everyone was grieving, agreed to turn himself in.
So he did.
He never agreed to stick around for an interrogation or a trial though. So he didn't.
The cops never even learned of his true identity before he took off but he knew it wasn't safe to stay in Gotham anymore. Heck, it probably wasn't safe to stay on Earth anymore with all the heroes that would be after him if the bats so much as asked. And there was no way he could go back to his own dimensions Earth either.
...but that didn't mean all Earths where out of the question.
---
Danny had finally gotten settled in this new dimension. Starting over was always hard but he had done it before. Grabbing a gig as a freelance translator and editor for a few publication companies was pretty easy when you knew what cards to play and what people to call. Plus, Danny was really good at making false identities and translating, so that helped a ton.
At night he would keep a look out his window, trying to spot the bats of this world, as as much as it hurt him to do so, he always delighted in seeing this worlds Tim running along the rooftops.
This went on for a while until Danny started getting nauseous and intense pain in his chest and abdomen. It was bad enough that he sniffed out this worlds Dr Thomkins pretty quickly and asked her to give him a check up.
Upon doing an ultrasound she found a strange sphere in his chest, which he assured her was normal, and an embryo growing in his abdomen which was very much not. Danny laid on the examination table for a solid few seconds and Dr. Tomkins was about to start rattling off his options to him before her patient started crying. "Oh thank the stars."
Danny explained that this was the child of his late husband who was murdered and he was very happy to have this baby. Sure, he had most of his personal affects (he had cleaned out his and Tims shared home and safe houses on his way out of the dimension, much to the absolue ire of the other bats) but this was a little living piece of his husband, which was something so much more.
But this also meant he had to leave again. This worlds Tim was just like the one that he lost and he had no doubt that some way, some how, Tim would find out about this child. Could he explain this in a way that was satisfactory? Could he handle Tim coming in and out of his home to visit "his" child as he would undoubtedly do? Could he stand to see the face of a man who looked like his husband, talked like his husband, and acted like his husband, but wasn't? No. He couldn't do that to himself. He couldn't do that to Tim. He refused to replace one Tim for another. That was so callus and shallow. He would never do something like that, grief or no grief. He was strong. He'd be strong for Tim.
He paid the doctor and thanked her profusely before leaving and going back to his apartment. He hadn't even unpacked most of his stuff before he was packing it all back up again. He needed to find a world where:
1. Tim was nothing like the Tim he had known and loved
2. Tim was not old enough to take custody of thier child if he ever found out
3. Batman was not around
4. Damian didn't exist. He was usually pretty cool with the little gremlin but he doesn't think he could listen to him insult Tim and not throttle a literal child.
5. It was not impossible to raise a child
The list could probably use some work but that was the gist of it for now.
-------
Danny had finally found his perfect Gotham after weeks or interdimentional travel and countless jumps. Well, perfect probably wasn't the right word for a place like Gotham but his point still stands.
He once again found himself sitting on the edge of a rooftop overlooking the city. He and his husband had liked to sit and chat in these kinds of places when patrol was slow. Now Danny was sitting alone in the rain in one of Tims old jackets reminiscing. Suddenly hearing a grapple line connect with the building startled him out of his thoughts.
Nightwing landed nearby and for a moment Danny thought he was here to insist Danny turns himself in again before he was reminded that this wasn't the same Nightwing and Danny hadn't committed any crimes here. Well. No violent ones at least. Forging a fake identity requires much criming as it turns out.
Nightwing approached him slowly and cautiously as if he expected Danny to bolt at any second. That wasn't comforting. "Hey," the big bird greeted calmly, "How about you step away from the edge? If there's something on your mind I'm sure we can talk it out, alright?"
Danny opened his mouth and then shut it again. Opening it again he blurted out, "I'm not gonna jump."
Looking doubtful, Nightwing gestured for him to come toward him and away from the edge, and if Nightwing were anyone other than a bat he would not have obliged as he did. Once Danny was safely away from falling to his doom the vigilante began asking questions.
After everything was answered and birdy was sure Danny was safe, he made a comment about the jacket and Danny told him it belonged to his late husband who past away recently. This led to Dick egging Danny on as he talked about his husband and grieved.
It was then that Danny showed Nightwing his baby bump and the vigilante was excited for him.
Somehow he and the various bats kept running into eachother around the city and one thing let to another. Before he knew it the bats where coming and going in his apartment to "check up on him"
This worlds Tim was still 16 and loved his role as Robin. He was grieving the loss of Bruce but...this version of Tim was different. Full of light. His smile was brighter and came more often. His humor wasn't as dark and...he was...smol. He began seeing this Tim more like his child than as an alternate version of his lover. Needless to say he planned on spoiling Robin rotten.
Everything seemed to be falling into place. He had a steady income, an apartment, some new friends, and was slowly unpacking.
It was smooth sailing up until his dead husband appeared in his apartment in the middle of the night staring him down with Lazarus green eyes. How had this happened? He was Tims husband and he made absolutely sure Tims body had been cremated (another thing the bats were mad about since Bruce and Tim were Jewish). Tim has specifically asked for cremation to avoid a situation like this where Ras got his creepy little hands on him.
But why would Ras send Tim here? How did Tim get here? How did Tim find him? Why did Tim show up in his apartment on random nights and then disappear into the city when he tried to ask him answers? Why did Tim barely speak? Was this a clone or the original?
Was this even real? Or was he finally losing his mind?