#So I could focus my limited supply of creative energy right now on my othe WIPs

[ailithnight]

Now that I have time to spare:

Ooh! I wonder where they're going? Gotham maybe? Though I can't imagine Bruce taking a virtual unknown to the manor/cave. He'd be too paranoid that this is all some kind of trick or trap. Danny has been oddly complacent. B is probably running all sorts of risk assessments in his head. Hard as it may be when the clone looks like an amalgamation of his kids, he has to consider the possibility that this clone is brainwashed into being some kind of spy or sleeper agent for CADMUS.

So maybe a safehouse in/around Gotham? That would make sense for Bruce wanting to keep the clone close both to keep an eye on and also hopefully help. Obviously if the clone isn't a threat, Bruce is taking him in. Although, with the way things are looking, he might have to fight Kon for that privilege. Kon has an undeniable bond to the new clone, both being CADMUS clones. But maybe Kon would think of Danny more like a brother? And leave the parenting to someone else? That makes sense I think.

OH! I just had a thought. I wonderful beautiful sadistic thought.

At some point or another, this "dream" takes a turn towards "nightmare". Maybe not anytime soon. In fact, at Atiya's pace, it feels like it would be several thousand words out at least. But it could/would eventually happen. Maybe Danny gets hurt. Maybe Skulker or someone finds him, recognizes Phantom's core even in the new body, and starts a fight. Or maybe he even gets caught again. By CADMUS (with power suppressors) or the GIW.

However it happens, "dream" turns "nightmare", and Danny is... conflicted? On the one hand, it seriously sucks that even in his dreams, Danny can't escape the pain. On the other, its still so much better than whatever the GIW is probably doing to his "real" body right now.

Because this is just a dream. It's just a dream. It can't actually hurt. This pain isn't real. All he has to do is wait it out. There's no need to fight it. Sooner or later this nightmare run its course and the dream will shift to the next fantasy. Danny wonders what it'll be. Another escape fantasy? Oh! There are heros here! Maybe the dream is just setting him up to be rescued! That sounds nice. All he has to do is let it happen. It'll be okay. It's not even real.

If this is after everyone else realizes that Danny is convinced this is a dream, we can watch them go into full panic mode knowing that Danny's condition is so delicate and he's unlikely to even try for self preservation.

If it's before though, if this is how they learn that Danny wholeheartedly believes this is all some fantasy to escape the torture he was previously enduring, boy are they gonna be blindsided by all the revelations there.

DP x DC Prompt/Plotbunny #6

After days? weeks? months? years? in this mercy-forsaken lab, Danny finds himself slipping; his core straining under the weight of what he's been subjected to. In a last ditch effort to save his fracturing soul, his brain simply stops processing the pain and allows his mind to escape into a waking dream.

Danny knows it's a dream. If he thinks about it; he can still hear, see, feel the scientists at work. He doesn't think about it; instead embraces whatever false world his mind decides to concoct for him.

.

Several states away, a young boy opens his eyes to the inside of a strange pod in an abandoned lab. Though he cannot see it yet, a strange metal tag dangles from his ear, stamped on one side with the word 'CADMUS' and on the other with 'R-13'.