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tumbling-darkling · 2 years ago

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“This genetic make-up is fascinating! It shifts and changes to match any kind of organic matter! Who knew a ghost could have such varying properties.”

The woman in teal was leaning over a table with microscopes, but Gar couldn’t see too much else from this angle other that clunky machines he couldn’t identify. Cyborg could probably have identified them, or even Red Robin. They both were smart like that where all they needed was a glance and they knew the entire history of something he had never heard of before.

He didn’t understand why they kept calling him a ghost, he was still alive, wasn’t he? Yeah there was that accident and the blood thing and getting a surprise alien donor, but he didn’t die. Right?

He wasn’t sure how much longer he was going to live though.

Typically, Gar was a very optimistic individual, you had to always see the better things in life so you could bury those darker things deep down and never think about them. He was optimistic when these two insane scientists got the drop on him, believing he could just shift into a T-Rex and break free of the restraints he found himself in. Only to find that he couldn’t shift.

The freeing feeling of shifting your skin seamlessly into something new, the shift in perspective and form, it was suddenly blocked. He couldn’t reach it, no matter how hard he tried to dig deep and get to it.

That was okay, because surely the titans would notice him missing! He hung out at the tower all the time, him missing for 24 hours would set off all kinds of alarms. Especially Red! He was always great at noticing when things were off.

Though as time dragged on, and these mad weirdos began to cut off fur, skin, and even pulling out samples of his bone, he was feeling his optimism wavering. They had to show up soon, right?

Then they two scientists showed up looking too eager, smiles wide and terrifying, scalpels in hand. Didn’t they have enough of their ‘samples’? What were they even planning to do with it all? He’s never been the interesting one of the titans, just a green kid who can shapeshift into animals. Green animals. He was already flawed in that aspect because he can’t really be stealthy as a bright green dog. Kory was an alien. Raven was half demon. Cyborg was fused with alien technology. And Red Robin had to be one of the smartest people in the world. Beast boy was just… beast boy. At best, a small time hero, at worst, just a boy who turns into beasts.

Just not that interesting compared to the others.

So why the interest in him? Why were these two so obsessed with calling him a ‘ghost’, cutting out pieces, and speaking like he was some mindless creature? Why couldn’t he shift? What were they going to do?

“Hey now, no need to look so excited while approaching me with sharp objects! I mean, you two probably have everything you could ever need from me, so why not just loosen these restraints and I’ll tell the titans to take it easy on you,” Gar bluffed, chuckling nervously as the woman in teal brought the scalpel close to his neck, the man in orange towering over him with a horrific toothy smile on his face.

If he survived, those goggles lens and white toothed smiles were going to haunt his dreams for the next few years.

“This one doesn’t beg as much as Phantom did before slipping free, another note we should write about the difference between these kinds of ghosts,” the woman hummed.

Gar swallowed nervously, “P-Phantom? Beg? Beg about what? What did you do to this Phantom guy?”

“Jack, be a dear and make sure he doesn’t squirm as much as phantom did, we want straight cuts.”

Firm hands pressed down on Gar’s shoulders, and he broke out in a sweat, “squirm? What- what are you-?”

Hot pain flared to life at his collarbone, an involuntary cry of pain escaping him as he flailed against the restraints, trying to pull away. But the hands were firm and the restraints were cold and tight, and he couldn’t do anything but scream as the pain so very slowly dragged itself down his chest. He wasn’t even aware of the tears on his cheeks as he screamed, or how both scientists would somewhat flinch as varying animalistic shrieks mixed in with his cries. His first stood on and, nails clawing against the table until they began to bleed, throwing his head back and forth but never able to pull away from that horrible dragging pain.

He must have passed out.

Because the next thing Gar remembered, he was trying to pry open his eyes at the sounds of yelling. Everything was blurry, his eyes and throat ached. There was flickering lights, a blurry teal and orange blob that made his hair and fur stand on end. His brain was being slow again, he couldn’t remember what was happening, but pain in his chest was causing him to squirm, a whimper escaping his lips as he tried glancing down to see the damage. He’s been shot before, maybe he got shot a few times on a mission?

Gar felt his blood run cold as he saw his chest.

Skin was pulled apart, his organs on display, his heart beating in his rib cage as his lungs began to inflate and deflate with his rapid breaths.

He looked like those biology frogs from high school.

He was one of those frogs.

He was opened up.

How was he alive?

He was an experiment. Peeled apart.

Just like a wild animal.

Darkness engulfed him again.

When he woke up again, he screamed.

“Whoa-! Whoa hey it’s okay!”

Gar immediately focused on the new voice, kicking away and feeling his back hit something soft yet firm. He could make out a blur of black hair and blue eyes, blinking rapidly and whispering out, “Rob?” before his brain was able to start functioning.

That didn’t *sound* like Tim.

When his eyes finally stopped being blurry, he finally was able to focus on the person across from him who was holding up their hands with a concerned look on their face, “no, I’m Danny. How are you feeling? What do you remember?”

Gar blinked slowly, looking to Danny who was now very clearly NOT Tim, those eyes were too crystal blue and he had this scent that reminded Gar of Tim’s older brother… the biggest one. He glanced around the room, noting the peeling wallpaper, dingy couch, think windows, and underlying smell of smog and damp rock. Was he in Gotham?

That’s when his memories decided to flood back starting with-…

Gar looked down to his chest, hands snapping up and tearing the blanket off of him. White bandages greeted him, neatly wrapped around his chest, spots of red beginning to bleed through in a horrifying shape. He pulled the blanket back up, covering the shape as he tried to shake the images of his own open chest out of his head. A lot easier said than done as his breathing picked up and he could feel his features shifting to match the fear.

“Whoa-! Whoa careful, I have no idea if those stitches will stay in if you shift,” Danny reached forward, and Gar couldn’t help but flinch away with a snarl.

Danny, snapped his hand away, and guilt immediately took over Gar’s fear, his grip on the blanket barely loosening. “S-Sorry-, I just…”

“Hey, don’t apologize to me, you’re in a new place after dealing with… that,” Danny shrugged. “I have some painkillers if it hurts, I know that it tends to burn like a bitch when I moved too much.”

“I… wait-, did… did this…” Gar gestured to his chest without looking at it he couldn’t look at it not without seeing-. “… happen to you?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Danny simply brushed off, “I’m sorry I wasn’t there earlier, they’ve been making it harder to find them and I didn’t suspect anything when they were quiet but then I heard that a Titan was missing… then I found out it was YOU who was missing and drew a conclusion that the Fenton’s must have grabbed you thinking you were a ghost or ghost adjacent since you are… well green.”

Gar blinked slowly, “what… is with everyone calling me a ghost? What happened?!”

Danny signed, “well, the Fenton’s have been setting sights on… people they suspect are ghosts. They are blinded by biased beliefs, and the ghosts they deal with are made up of glowing green goo called ectoplasm. They must have seen you and your green looks and assumed it was ectoplasm based even if you don’t glow. I found out, tried to find you as fast as I could but… I arrived too late…” Danny sighed, a hand rubbing the back of his neck as he refused to meet Gar’s eyes. “I managed to destroy everything, especially the samples they took from you, and I brought you back to my apartment to patch you up. It was the safest place I could think of at the moment… though maybe I should have brought you back to the Titans. They are still frantically looking for you… shit, maybe we should call them? Get actually medical professionals to help you out? I’m a street first aid kind of guy.”

“You… saved me?” Gar simply put together.

Danny glanced up at him in surprise, before looking away, guilt clear on his face, “not fast enough, they- they fucking did to you what they did to me-… I should have been faster, I could have stopped it. I just… I never thought they would… to someone else…”

Gar took in the guilty look, the regret, the pain and suffering, then put on a grin, “hey, you got me out of there! We’re in Gotham, right?” He tapped his own nose as Danny glanced at him in surprise, “I’ve been here enough to recognize the smell of damp gargoyles, I have a friend who lives here who introduced me to some pretty great pizza for a place that is riddled with crime and rain. Plus, he can pay as payback for being slower than you.”

Gar knew there was a lot that he was going to need to talk about, to think about, to fully consider… but for now maybe he could push it all to the back of his mind and distract himself with pizza and possibly a new friend.

Saved from vivisection fic but it’s not Danny who gets saved, it’s Batman / one of the batkids.

Fenton parents move to Gotham to hunt the superhero “ghosts” and by some miracle manage to catch one of them. They start cutting batwhoever open and are very fascinated by the “red ectoplasm.” Batwhoever can’t get free and is naturally very scared and starts screaming.

Danny busts in and finds this scene and immediately hatches a plan to lure the Fenton parents away with a duplicate Phantom. He stitches up batwhoever and gets them out via fire escape. He’s very traumatized and guilty cuz he feels responsible.

Batwhoever is very concerned about this nice kid with the mad scientist parents who knows how to stitch human flesh.

I don’t see why this’d have to be specific to Batman, I’m just not sure which other DC characters the Fentons could feasibly get the drop on. Maybe the teen titans?

Also AU of this AU where Danny had been vivisected at some point in the past and Fentons still didn’t know he was Phantom, and part of the reason they moved to Gotham was to possibly help him with whatever mental break he had.

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