#dannys land goon

[unfairguy]

Hi okay originally I was gonna wait till I had all the designs done first but decided to just post what I have now because I'm really loving the shitpost AU!

DANNY'S LAND

Hi the AU is called Danny's Land. It's basically a Dandy's World rip-off for more matured audiences (recommended 16+) with shitty humour. I'll give you the cast names as I make the designs (I'm not done yet...) but now now, here is who we have so far!

The man himself, Danny!

Gilbert, husband of Rodriguez (and the first design)

Rodriguez, husband of Gilbert

Rizz and Dick, one makes TikTok thirst traps (very cringe) and the other is an edgy asshole

Turd, absolute fucking menace

Shark Finn Soup, one of the "normal" ones

@rage-katz look it's your favourite

Goon and Craps, they're siblings

Shrimp Cocktail, he is a guy lol. He's always got sauce on his head

Bonus Shark Finn Soup doodle

FYI when I mentioned the mature audiences thing, that's for the show inside the AU!! .) idc how mature or immature you are actually but if you were in that universe then the show would be 16+

[rin-may-1103]

The Eyes of Death. Pt 2

Prev. | Master post | Next

"Robin!" Orcale cried through the coms, startling Damian as he ducked beneath a punch thrown his way. Growling, Damian Sparta kicked the goon before him, spun around, and throat-punched the last one standing.

"What?" he huffed, glancing around his area to see if he had missed something; Father was facing off against Penguin, Tim was taunting Mr. Freeze, and Jason was plowing his way through the rest of the goons down on the ground floor.

Gunshots flashed by and up toward the roof, drawing his attention.

Turning around, Damian watched as Dick jumped from the rafters and dropped two other goons with brutal precision, their guns clattering to the ground. That's four. He could still hear Steph and Cass fighting in the other room over the comms, which makes it six. (Seven if he counted Duke, who was at home resting after a long patrol) They were still up and fighting, which meant nothing was out of place.

"Your boyfriend wouldn't happen to be named Daniel Fenton, right?" Barbara's voice was strained. She practically begged him to correct her and prove she was mistaken.

Damian tensed up but rushed over to help down the goons surrounding Dick, his heart thundering away in his chest. "What happened?" he growled, drawing his katana when a goon quickly pulled a knife. The sound of metal against metal almost blocked her voice, but Damian could still make out what she said.

"He's been taken by some cultists, they're broadcasting everything. They're setting up the ritual right now; they cut his arm and are using his blood mixed with black paint to mark the ground. I'm pretty sure he's in shock, he barely reacted to the cut."

"Oh, shit!" Steph cursed, "not the boyfriend!"

"Where?" he grunted, parrying the knife away and kicking the guy over the railing. The man's scream cut out as his body hit the floor. "Robin!" Father hissed in anger, quickly tying up Penguin.

"He'll live!" Damian shouted back as he marched toward the door and reached for his grapple gun, "Oracle! Where is he?"

The others could finish up here without him, they had already dealt with what the two rouges had been planning. All that was left was to gather up the goons and hand everyone over to the GCPD. His boyfriend, who hadn't texted him to tell him he had gotten home safe because apparently he'd been kidnapped by cultists, was more important than beating the crap out of some lowly goons.

"The Financial District, warehouse seven on 4th street." she huffed, the sound of keys clicking as she sent him the live footage. Clicking the side of his mask, he was met with the sight of his boyfriend bound to a chair and glaring up at the camera. His blue eyes were filled with more annoyance than fear, but that didn't reassure Damian at all when the camera backed up and revealed Danny's heavily bleeding arm.

They must have cut an artery with how deep the wound looked. The only reason he wasn't already dead from blood loss was because of how tight the ropes were, it seemed.

"Shit," Damian hissed as he shot his grapple up at the building across the street, "make sure an ambulance is en route, Danny's going to need it. They must have cut through his radial artery if not both."

He could hear Dick hold back a gasp at his words but ignored it, as he flew toward the roof and started running. A loud thud landed behind him, followed by footsteps as Father's gruff voice echoed into his ear as they ran. "Jets on its way, it'll be faster than the car." Damian silently changed direction, continuing to jump roofs.

"I'm coming with," Dick demanded, landing a couple buildings behind them. Damian grunted in acknowledgment, not caring what they did. He needed to be there, he needed to be there thirty minutes ago; when he should have been walking Danny home like he asked him too.

"GOTHAM!" the person holding the camera shouted with a slip of paper in their other hand, allowing the camera a glimpse of the words. Danny's eyes narrowed even more, something like disbelief filling his eyes as the man continued talking, "Tonight, you shall join us as we summon the most powerful being in the world!"

"Danny looks so disappointed," Dick snorted, pulling out his own grapple at the sound of the jet approaching. Of course, Danny was disappointed, it was a waste of paper just to remember so little. Damian agreed but couldn't do anything other than huff at his brother's comment, most of his focus on watching the video.

Dick wrapped an arm around him, firing at the jet just as it rocketed overhead. They were launched into the air and dragged over buildings as the jet flew toward their destination. Father dangled across from them for a second before the three of them latched onto the rail under the jet designed for quick departure. They sat in silence as all three of them focused back on the video feed.

"Now," the leader shouted, coming into view as the cameraman backed up. Danny and the freshly painted circle were in full view, but so was the group of people off to the side. Damian recognized two of the people on the ground. Nancy and Wyatt, Danny's forcibly appointed college guides or "parents".

Damian remembers the day Danny had been introduced to them, spouting vitriol in anger about them being acephobic and how the college wouldn't allow him to switch guides. Nancy was crying, her mascara running down her face. Wyatt was deathly pale, all the blood bleeding away from his face as he watched the cultists in what looked like horrified guilt.

"Let us begin," the leader cheered, grabbing Danny's shoulders from behind him. Danny glanced worriedly at the group and then at the camera like he couldn't decide what he should focus on, subconsciously cringing away from the man behind him.

"Join me as we summon our lord and savior!" Danny narrowed his eyes in anticipation, "The great tyrant of the dead!" he now looked confused, "The embodiment of war and bloodshed!" back to worried, "The one named PARIAH DARK!" amused, because of course, his boyfriend would find the name amusing, "THE HORRIFIC GHOST KING!!!" now he was back to confused and worried.

The leader turned and walked back over to one of his followers, snatching an old book and opening it. Without any fanfare, the man began chanting, guiding his followers like he was the director of a twisted play.

"ten minutes," Father grunted, "Oracle, get everything you can on the ghost king. We need to know what we're about to run into. Call someone from Dark, we'll probably need their guide on how to deal with this."

Dick readjusted his grip, tightening his arm in reassurance as Danny's eyes glanced up and toward the rafters like he was looking for one of them. No, not like. He was looking for them; because Damian had promised him in the past that if he was ever in trouble, the bats would save him. And if not them then he would. Danny had rolled his eyes at the time, sarcastically calling him his hero. But he believed him because Damian had promised.

Damian growled as one of the cultists smashed a bowl on the ground, splattering Danny in what he had to assume was the blood and paint mixture Barbera had told him about earlier.

Damian watched as Danny glared at the black stains all over his front with disdain, trying to mutter something through the gag in his mouth the camera couldn't catch. "Is he seriously worried about his shirt?" Tim huffed over comms, the sound of police sirens growing louder.

"I would too if that's the only nice shirt I had," Steph grumbled before shouting something at someone.

"My boyfriend owns more than one shirt, Spoiler." Damian hissed.

"No offense, Damian," Steph laughed, "but your boyfriend looks like he crawled out of a dumpster after losing a fight against one of your raccoons."

"Oh, give him a break! The poor boy's just been kidnapped, of course, he looks bad." Barbera chided.

Damian went to respond but stopped to watch as another cultist stepped forward and tossed salt at Danny. Danny shook his head and glared at the cultist, only to be slapped in the face with another handful of salt for his efforts.

"That's one way to rub salt in the wound," Jason huffed, "make sure you kick that one in the dick for me."

"With pleasure," Damian grumbled, leaning back to try and see the warehouse they were heading toward. "Seven minutes," Father added, noticing how impatient Damian was starting to get.

they silently watched as the cultists continued chanting, Barbera occasionally telling them things she'd found. (She was having difficulty connecting with The Dark members, something about an unexpected mission off-world.)

Danny was starting to look tired, his face paler than usual (A hard feat, considering his boyfriend looked like a fresh corpse on a good day. If he didn't know any better, he would think his boyfriend had never spent a second in the sun his entire life.)

Suddenly, Danny started to cough, shaking his head, clenching his eyes closed in pain for a second before focusing back on the leader. "The blood loss is starting to catch up to him," Tim commented as Danny glanced up at the rafters again, "let the hospital know to have extra blood ready."

"Got it," Barbera agreed, still typing away. "No one's answering, I'm going to try Constantine, now."

"Two minutes," Father warned, getting ready to jump. Damian steadied himself, leaning forward to time his jump correctly. "Shit," Jason cursed, drawing Damian's attention back to the video in time to watch as a cultist raised a bloody blade into the air and slammed it into Danny's chest. "You need to get there, now!"

The cultist yanked out the knife and handed it to the leader, who was now standing in front of Danny. Danny's chest quickly stained red, his eyes wide in shock and horror.

"Take this lowly sacrifice as a sign of our eternal loyalty, and grace us with your presence! Your humble servants plead that your godly ears hear our prayers! Join us in this mortal realm and bequeath us your power and name to rectify the sins of our brethren!" the leader's voice echoed in the silent warehouse like a gunshot. but Damian couldn't hear a single word the man spoke as he watched Danny lean forward in pain, trying to grab at his chest.

His restrained hands pulled against the rope, causing more blood to leak from his wound, his eyes clenching shut as his left hand started glowing green. He suddenly started screaming, his voice strained like it was being ripped out of his throat, barely muffled by the gag.

A bright light flashed, spreading from where he'd been stabbed and crawling over his body. His skin turned gray, almost blue, like a body found out in a snowstorm. His hair started floating in an absent current like he was underwater. and his eyes started glowing a bright blue, growing brighter and brighter.

"NOW!" Father shouted, launching off the railing and gliding through the air. Damian didn't hesitate to follow, all his training allowing him to go on autopilot as he used his cape to guide his fall.

Danny slumped forward, his head hanging limp as the warehouse went deathly silent.

Twisting in the air, Damian aimed his grapple hook and fired. It latched onto the warehouse and tugged him forward, his fall turning into a swing as he rocketed toward the glass window. "Your Highness?" someone asked, their voices glitching in and out with the video feed.

Damian watched as the Danny in the video slowly lifted his head in time with the Danny he could see through the quickly approaching glass. Damian only had a split second to register that his boyfriend's eyes were no longer blue, but bright green before his feet smashed through the window and he was landing in a roll on the ground.

Immediately, the camera feed disappeared from his view, allowing him to focus on what was around him. Father crashed through the skylight, showering the cultists in glass as he landed on the other side of the room. Dick landed next to him, fluidly popping up from his roll.

"Shit!" someone shouted, "it's the bats!"

"run!" someone else yelled.

Damian lunged forward, burying his fist into the first cultist's face with a satisfying crunch. The warehouse flooded with loud screams and rapid movement.

"Dammit!" the leader cursed, dragging Damian's attention over to him. He had left the circle at some point, crazily looking around to try and find a quick exit.

Abandoning the cultists he was fighting, Damian quickly sprinted at the man. Unsheathing his katana, Damian attacked. The leader used the bloody knife to parry, scrambling back to get away. Damian growled, about to follow when his eyes landed on Danny's black and blood-stained face right behind the man.

Bright Lazarus green eyes stared back.

~

Danny's vision tilted, or was that just his head? It felt like he was in one of those twisty things NASA shoves their astronauts in under the claim of training for departure and reentry into Earth's atmosphere. or maybe it felt like a hundred pounds of soaked cotton balls shoved behind his eyes and lit on fire?

he couldn't tell, at this point, his head could be detached for all he knew. Wait, no. He's done that before, this feels nothing like that. So, he still had his head... but does his head still have a body???

He would glance down, but he's afraid he won't be able to lift his head again... Had he lifted his head? or had the world moved around him like it does in the realms? Where was he?

Danny's core pulsed in confusion as someone stepped over the circle, quickly followed by someone else. No one was supposed to enter unless a deal was about to be made. Had he made a deal?

Blinking, he focused his blurry vision as much as he could on the figure slowly approaching him. Had he already been looking at them? His vision tilted again, making his gut roll in nausea. A voice slowly broke through the static ringing in his ears, and his shirt suddenly pulled in frightened hands.

"Your Highness! these are the sinners I told you about!" the voice screeched, a pitch so out of the norm that Danny could only assume the voice belonged to a small fly-turned-eldritch little girl.

Wait a moment, that was his title? Your Highness? seriously? Was everyone going to be calling him that? He was the king; wasn't it supposed to be majesty??? He'll ask Dora later; now wasn't the time.

"Oh great ghost king!" the high-pitched voice cracked and lowered back to one he was starting to get familiar with, "Pariah Dark, lend me your power so I might defeat him!"

Did he seriously just call Danny, Pariah??? The man, the leader of the cult, Mr. totally-read-one-fake-ritual-book-when-he-was-a-teen-and-now-has-to-make-it-everyone's-problem, kneeled in front of Danny, his hands twisted into Danny's ruined shirt. The blurry figure froze, not moving now that Danny had broken eye contact to look down at the horrible man.

Danny might be completely out of it and have no idea what's going on anymore, (he was in so much pain, why was there so much pain? he wanted it to go away, why wasn't it going away?) but he's been trained for moments like this. He can't let anyone see him as weak, not when he has to protect the realms as is his kingly duty.

Clockwork thought it would be a good idea to drop him in the middle of a meeting with some demons right after Danny had pulled an all-nighter and fought three of his rouges. let's just say, Danny was not pleased with the old goat after that. On the other hand, every time he meets a new demon, they seem to respect him much more than before. (he's still not sure what he did to earn that, but whatever)

So, acting like nothing was wrong would be easy peasy.

Sitting up straight, like Dora taught, Danny gazed down at the man who had demanded his attention. He turned his jaw intangible, dropping the gag and allowing him to speak freely again, "why should I?" His voice was echoey, cold, and devoid of the usual emotion.

It was completely different than what it usually was. Like he was a completely different person. (He sounded like Dan) which caught Danny off guard, but he had to ignore it for now. Clockwork had said that Danny Phantom was different from King Phantom, maybe this is what he meant. (hopefully not, he hated sounding like Dan. Was this permanent? was he always going to sound like this???)

"Why?" the leader stumbled, letting go of Danny's shirt in surprise, "because I summoned you! I control you!"

He looked outraged like it was Danny's fault he was in this mess.

Snorting, Danny smirked at the man. "Why should I lend you my power when you haven't even gotten my name correct?" That was like common summoning courtesy 101, right? Frostbite said something like that... or was it Pandora? Wait... wasn't that the demon etiquette? What was the ghost-summoning etiquette then? Also, could he even lend his power to someone else??? like, demons could, but could Danny???

"Who cares!" the man snapped, picking up the knife he had dropped next to him and slashing it at Danny. He didn't even have to think as he instinctively turned his right arm intangible and snatched the man's wrist, clenching it tightly to make him drop it. He was not going to let the man stab him again, thank you very much.

his core grumbled in annoyance, scattering his thoughts for a moment. What was he doing? his arm burned like it had been shot with an ecto blast, but that wasn't right, it was cut by-

Oh, right. cultists. Gotta deal with that.

Fazing the ropes off, Danny carefully stood up. An almost silent whine drew his attention up; it was the fuzzy figure, or now that Danny could actually see a little easier, Robin. Huh, looks like the bats actually made it after all. A little late to the party, but oh well.

Wait...

Shit, he didn't need the Bats up in all of his business. Especially since everything the ritual did to him was recorded, the ghostly stuff included. (Was Damian watching? Did he think Danny was dead now? a normal person would have died right?) He'd have to clear up any misinterpretations later, right now he has to focus on gaslighting the Fuck out of Batman and his partners.

Maybe he won't even have to deal with the Justice League if he pulls this off.

ok, what do they think the situation is? A Cult recording themselves sacrificing some random dude, the dude gets stabbed in the chest (probably assumed dead, he'll have to fix that...), then some ghostly shit happens, and the dude has glowing eyes... which basically lines up with the socially accepted symptoms of possession.

Cool, cool, cool. Danny'll just act like he's possessing himself then. No need to make it weird. Or reveal that he's a halfa.

...

How the fuck was a ghost king, who for all intents and purposes, knows nothing about mortal life, supposed to act when possessing a random body????? does he call it his body?? vessel? homing beacon?

"-leas me this intance! I summoned you, you listen to me! ME! I summoned you. Therefore, you have to do as I say!" the leader's voice broke through Danny's thoughts, bringing him back to the present. Again. Man, he seriously needs to get his shit together. Maybe it was the blood loss, they had cut him pretty badly earlier...

Sighing, which hurt a lot actually... he should probably fix that. Mentally shrugging, Danny allowed his ectoplasm to heal his wounds, which in turn settled his core a lot more than he expected. Maybe he shouldn't suppress it so much in the future... OR he should, and just not allow himself to be used in other rituals. Yeah, that's probably it. Man, he's going to have to talk with Frostbite after this is all over.

"You know nothing of which you speak, mortal," Danny grumbled, turning slowly to examine the warehouse. The bats had been fast, or Danny was just really out of it, because not only were all the cultists knocked out but the other hostages were gone.

"I know enough!" the man screeched, hitting his free fist against Danny's arm in an attempt to get Danny to release him. The only thing that was going to do was leave a bruise. Robin growled almost silently in response, which was weird. Why would Robin be upset about this man hitting Danny? or was he more upset along the lines of believing the random "hostage" Danny is "possessing" being hurt?

Yeah, that was probably it. All right, time to act all Ghost Kingly or whatever. If he was about to do something stupid then Clockwork would intervene. Since he hasn't so far, Danny was taking this as the old man giving his permission to proceed.

"Stop bruising my new favorite vessel, or I'll show you why it's a bad idea to mess with the dead." Danny hissed, pulling the man up so they were eye to eye. (it wasn't that hard, considering Danny was short as fuck. Who knew dying would stunt your growth?)

The man leaned back, his eyes wide in fear. His face turned green, or was that just the light from Danny's eyes? how bright were they glowing???

Oh, right, old ghost king, you need to focus here Danny.

Rolling his eyes, Danny harshly (not as hard as he could have though, even if he wanted to punt the man into the sun) tossed the man out of the circle and toward Robin. Nightwing, who Danny had just noticed was also there, quickly rushed over and wrangled the man over to the pile of cultists and tied him up.

"Your vessel," Batman grunted, stepping up to stand next to Robin. (Danny wasn't sure when, but Robin had left the circle. Which meant they probably had someone with magic experience telling them what to do now.)

"Yes, mine," Danny huffed, slowly turning to study the broken windows. his head was killing him, like four migraines stuffed into one killing him...

Do they not know how to use a door? Like, how often do they break through windows? Like, sure, it probably saves them a few extra seconds during a fight, but seriously? Do they at least pay the owners back for the property damage?

"He's not yours," Robin hissed, unsheathing his katana. Batman rested his hand on his shoulder, likely to warn Robin from doing something stupid.

Lifting his brow, Danny glanced down at his body. Did Robin know him? Or was he really just that protective of the people in his city? Even though Danny wasn't technically a Gothamite? He remembered Damian telling him at one point that if he was ever in trouble, the bats would save him. Hmm, yeah, probably just very protective of the people in their city then.

Danny was the same way when he was Phantom; those tourists might not be native Amity Parkers, but they were his tourists. So back off, ghost number 700 of the week. Or something along those lines.

Yeah, that's probably it.

"He," oh wow, speaking about himself was so weird, "was used as a sacrifice to summon me, which makes him mine." Ignoring the fact that his body belonged to him beforehand because, again, this is his body, but you know, can't tell them that. Also, even if this was someone else's body, it'd technically be Danny's. Look, being the ghost king meant Danny owned a lot of weird things, one of those being literally anyone's dead body. (He refused to think about the fact that Pariah had technically owned his body.)

Glancing up, Danny watched as Batman tightened his grip on Robin's shoulder. "Release his body at once, you lowly demonic pit waste! His body-"

"OK!" Nightwing cut in, clapping his hands. "How about this," he glanced at Robin and then back at Danny, clearly nervous about Robin's outburst. Also, what the hell was pit waste? Like, obviously Robin was insulting him, but he could have at least used an insult Danny would understand.

Also, why was Robin insulting a supposedly all-powerful king of the dead? Wasn't he supposed to be one of the more rational vigilantes? Maybe he just got emotional when he thought he failed to protect someone? Which is completely understandable, Danny did not react well when he failed to keep someone safe.

"We apologize for any wrongdoing Robin's words have caused. You willingly go back to your realm, leave your vessel's body behind, and we" he gestured at himself and the other two, "don't get other magic users involved? how does that sound?"

"Is that a threat?" because seriously, that sounded exactly like a threat. Did they seriously not know how to talk to other dimensional beings? Shouldn't they, as Justice League members, know how to diplomatically converse with others? Especially ones that could kill them with a glance? (like, Danny obviously wouldn't do that, but come on!)

His core stuttered again, drawing his attention to the fact that Danny was running out of power to keep up whatever transformation he'd taken on. Which was weird because he's obviously not in his ghost form, so why was it so draining??? And there's plenty of ectoplasm in the air, so, like, this was just ridiculous.

"Whatever," Danny huffed, looking down to study the circle as Nightwing started waving his hands in denial. "I already healed the vessel, he'll technically live." He could feel the pull it had on his core, which meant he had no idea what would happen once it was broken. Would he feel the same things he felt earlier? or would it just be like letting go of someone's hand?

Man, he was too tired for this crap. He wanted to go home and sleep. maybe steel his boyfriend's hoodie and cuddle with Cujo.

You know what? Danny didn't care, he should just break the circle and act like nothing happened. Yep, that's the plan. Still, he should probably prepare for if something goes wrong, you know, like passing out.

Carefully, both because the world was still kind of spinning around him, and to keep the bats from reacting badly, Danny made his way to stand in front of the Vigilantes. They should have quick reflexes; if he passes out, they should be able to catch him, right?

Without warning, Danny dragged his shoe over the line and broke the circle. Immediately his core hissed and all of his energy disappeared. Crumpling forward, Danny barely processed the sight of Robin's panicked lunge to catch him before everything turned dark and his body felt on fire.

Next?

[letoasai]

Will work for food ~part 3

Part 2 ~ Master Post

Tim was beyond irritated. He could have been on a date. Okay, he wasn’t sure if they were dates but they could have been. Damn it. He’d continued to summon Phantom weekly and they’d gone to lunch every time. Pizza. Barbecue. An amazing ramen place. They went to a music festival and visited all the food vendors. 

Things had been going smoothly. He’d been learning more about the Infinite Realm and about Danny himself and was having a great time despite his meddling siblings trying to butt in at every turn. Dick was a repeat offender but Duke, Cass and even Damien had all attempted to ambush him. It was lucky Danny thought it was hilarious and helped Tim avoid them. 

The last two weeks had been a disaster though. He’d had a four day mission with his own team, and had to deal with his friends poking fun at him while trying not to get shot at. Superboy had vastly exaggerated his interaction with Danny to the others! 

By the time he’d gotten back to Gotham, he’d had a small backlog of cases to get through. It was really cutting into both his CEO work and his freaking lunches with a really cute guy who just so happened to be an immortal king of a realm. 

Just when he thought he’d have a little time in the next day or two, Scarecrow was back on his bullshit with his fear toxins. Hadn’t they just done this recently? How had he gotten out of Arkham so fast? 

Tim was woozy, having taken a breath of the toxins and gotten a swift injury to his leg in the process. He’d say it was luck that he already had an antidote on him to fear toxins, but they all carried one with them at all times. He wasn’t freaking out but he could have done without the lightheadedness. It always briefly had him wondering if he’d gotten a concussion, but it was just a side effect. Usually. 

“You good, babybird?” He heard Nightwings voice through comms. He probably thought he was whispering and had no idea how loud he actually was because of the chaos of the night. 

“Never better.” He grumbled, trying to shake off a chill while limping. There was no one around to see at the moment so it was fine. “I’m headed your way.” 

“Good, Scarecrows around here somewhere. Slippery nut job.” Nightwing said. 

“Pay attention.” Batman’s voice ran through their comms. “He divided us on purpose. This isn’t his usual pattern.” 

There was grumbling across the line, everyone having figured that out already but B wouldn’t be B if he didn’t state the obvious for them some nights. 

Tim grappled from one street to the next, hearing sirens far enough in the distance that they couldn’t have been for this. When he landed safely, he pressed his palms to his masked eyes. The throbbing in his head was so annoying, but the jack hammering of his heart was…something he probably shouldn’t ignore but he was. 

“Not a concussion, Red.” He muttered to himself. “Just a stupid sore leg and Scarecrow’s stupid toxins filtering out.” There was always the option that it was a new strain and his antidote didn’t work as well but he wasn’t hallucinating his worst fears so maybe not. 

Trying to shake off his limp, Tim wandered across a nearly empty parking lot. There were a few abandoned cars, most of them missing their tires and on blocks. He kept an ear out, listening for anything that didn’t belong but it was Gotham, and even in the dead of night there were noises. Traffic, generators, air conditioners, nocturnal animals. There was always ambient noise, the key was ignoring the background hums and focusing on the shuffling goons. The problem he was having now however, was the faint ringing in his ears. 

“Red?” Nightwing's voice drifted across comms again. “I don’t see you yet. Something happen?” 

“No i’m…” Tim swallowed, suddenly parched and feeling overall…bad. He tilted his head back to check his surroundings and realized he’d gone the wrong way. How disoriented was he? “Okay, i might not be okay.” 

“Red Robin?” Batman’s voice was calm but urgent. “Do you need backup.” 

Tim almost stumbled but caught himself. “I feel like shit. I think there was something new in the toxins my antidote didn’t take care of.” 

“Oh, how wonderful. You figured it out so quickly.” 

Tim tensed, whirling around to face Scarecrow. Tim hated to think he’d been snuck up on but the rogue was sitting on one of the ripped apart cars in the lot. 

“I’m coming to you!” Nightwing said firmly. “On my way!” 

Tim waved Scarecrow’s words away cockily and only just noticed the way he trembled. “You’re losing your touch. Not a single, horrifying hallucination.” 

The rogue just chuckled. “Oh no, tonight’s a bit of a tester. Something a little different.” 

“That right?” Fuck. 

“Oh indeed, you don't mind being a guinea pig, do you? This particular batch didn’t have the hallucinogens, no. What it is doing is creeping through your system, forcing your body to activate all too real symptoms of fear.” 

“Seems a little corny for you.” Tim said, knowing the others were listening carefully. 

“And you're shaking.” Scarecrow’s huge grin grew broader. “What else, little bird? Over heating? Or are you freezing? Heart pounding? Knees weak? Feeling a fresh wave of tears building? Do let me know. It’s for science.” 

Tim tsked. He wasn’t about to cry but his throat was tight. It was almost like he was having trouble taking in a breath. 

“Somehow, a gas that makes people sick is so much less impressive than your normal routine.” Tim said, his trembling getting worse, but he was positive he was being tracked by at least some of the others. He just had to stall until Nightwing got there. “A couple of phantom pains the best you could come up with?” 

That wasn’t his best quip but Scarecrow took the bait anyway. “Oh no, it’s very real. Your body might not know why it’s so panicked, but it’s pulling out all the stops. Who knows, maybe your heart could just stop.” 

The problem with a lot of Gotham rogues, was the fact that they were actually intelligent people. The man likely could have gone on and on, but he jumped up and moved onto the offensive. He had a pitchfork tonight, and no one could say the man was original. 

“Now just stay still!” 

Tim dodged, the pitchfork surprisingly leaving quite the hole in the concrete. It should have been a simple dance and disarm kind of fight, but Tim’s shaking just got worse, and his stomach started to hurt, and his heart really was trying to beat out of his chest. It really was like he was terrified, the chills of his body making him sweat. 

“No ever actually stays still when someone’s running at them like a lunatic.” Tim said, but the words were almost hard to get out. He wasn’t choking but his throat was so clogged. 

The sass cost him though, and he was hit in his already wounded leg. It sent him rolling across the parking lot and Scarecrow just laughed. 

“Oh, what fun. It’s a shame though, i really miss the screaming of my patients visually seeing their worst nightmare, i’ll have to combine them.” 

Tim legs nearly gave out from under him when he tried to get up. Injury and the damn shaking leaving him unstable. He’d had to stay crouching, pulling out his staff to dig into the ground in front of him to hold himself up. 

“Regardless of my fears, you’re not one of them.” Tim wheezed, wondering if the hallucinogens were actually kicking in when a mist appeared. It was a frigid kind of cold that left ice crystals on all nearby metals. 

“Oh, we’ll see, little bird. I have plenty for your entire family. In fact, i’d love to see what a second dose would do to you.”

“Nearly there.” Batman said, but there was a hiss to his tone that said he knew it wasn’t going to be a timely arrival. 

“This isn’t good…” Tim whispered, watching Scarecrow pull out a small canister, and he was too wobbling to put more distance between them.

With a laugh, Scarecrow hurled it towards him. “Don’t be afraid to inhale!” 

Tim jerked back using his bo-staff as a crutch to give him some kind of momentum but he watched as the canister exploded midair and…something was strange. The cloud of chemicals had been clear for one second before disappearing. There was no time to worry about how quickly it could have been caught on a breeze when even Scarecrow himself looked confused. 

“So fear is your niche.” 

Tim shuddered, eyes going wide as his head jerked towards the sound of the voice. The gentle reverb of the words slicing through him. His solace was that the ire he heard wasn’t directed at him.

Danny was there. Well, King Phantom was there, having appeared out of thin air. It was the first time Tim had seen that form in a while but his friend was just as hauntingly ethereal as Tim remembered. 

He dropped the canister, and Tim had at least a partial answer. Whatever had gone wrong with the toxins had been Phantom’s doing. 

The king stared down at Scarecrow, but Tim couldn’t see his face from where he now sat. “I know a thing or two about fear.” Danny whispered. 

“Impossible.” Scarecrow spat, puffing up like a cat. None of the Gotham rogues liked their plans being disturbed and by a newcomer no less. “What did you do?! Did you inhale my toxins!? Absorb them!? Fool! You’ll be their next victim! You won’t be so relaxed for long! Even Red Robin’s a terrified mess!” 

“Red Robin! Report!” Batman’s voice was firm in his ear. 

“Relaxed?” Phantom mused, deceivingly calm. He’d stiffened, head turning just a little as if checking on Tim, but he never truly took his attention off the rogue. “No, not relaxed. Angry. As delicious as your parlor tricks were, i take offense to finding you hovering like a predator over my friend.” 

He rose into the air a few feet, and only then did Tim realize that he had been standing instead of floating, well, he was floating now. 

Scarecrow just tsked, unaware of the power in front of him. “Meta? Alien? It doesn’t matter. That combination of chemicals-”

“Was delicious.” Danny repeated. 

Tim scooted away, his leg throbbing. “Phantom.” He muttered, finally answering Batman through strangled breaths. “Phantom’s here.”

“Regardless, the offering was not enough to pacify me.” Danny muttered, the black crown over his head spinning. 

Scarecrow actually began laughing, it started with a chuckle but then it grew into something loud and boisterous. “You’re barely more than a child, are you sure you’re ready for this? The hero game is crowded here in Gotham, and you don’t look like any bird or bat i’ve ever seen.” 

Tim watched the way Danny’s hood swayed to the side as he tilted his head. “I am no bird, nor am i a bat.” 

“I’m sure you’ve impressed your little friends with your meta abilities, but it means nothing in a city like this. Though i see you have your talents. How are you unaffected by my toxins?” 

Ice erupted from the ground, enguling Scarecrow’s legs an inch at a time, creeping up his body without a hint of warning. “You misunderstand.” Danny whispered. “I am not here for a conversation. I’m here for my friend, and to teach you that dabbling in fear is childsplay to a being like myself.” 

Tim couldn’t see… Danny was facing away from him but his galaxy cloak billowed out around him without even the slightest breeze. There were shadows…? Something? Tim couldn’t see though he tried. What he could see was Scarecrow, and even with his face covered, his body language betrayed his growing horror. 

“You can not frighten the dead.” Danny said, but in a voice that was decidedly not his own. 

Scarecrow started screaming, a desperate sound that had him thrashing in place, the ice now well around his chest. Tim didn’t know what the rogue was seeing but if scaring someone to death was really a thing… 

“Phantom.” Tim tried to raise his voice and had to close his eyes to shove away the sudden lightheadedness. He was shivering. “W..we good…?” 

Whatever was going on paused, and Danny seemed to reign himself in. The strange movement of his cloak stopped and Tim briefly made a mental note to ask Danny what kind of other forms he might have. 

Danny turned to him, looking normal, though he hadn’t seen his white hair in a while. “I forget sometimes…” He commented, voice even softer than usual. “The living are so fragile.” 

Scarecrow was still screaming, but his head was lulling back and he looked seconds away from passing out. He was held in place by the ice, and obviously wasn’t going anywhere. 

“Yeah, we’re like that.” Tim muttered, shoulders slumping now that the danger was taken care of, it didn’t stop the way his body twitched. His stomach hurt so bad. 

Danny landed by his side silently, a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright?” 

“Yeah. Leg’s a little messed up but it’ll heal. The… the toxins in my system are going to have to run their course, unless i can work out how to s..somehow come up with a new antidote before then. St..stupid…” 

Danny cocked his head to the side, wispy white hairs floating around his face. It was unfair how attractive he was. “Want me to eat it?” 

Tim heard a confused “Wut?” from his comm. Spoiler summing up that comment nicely. 

“I can absorb emotion. Because it can sustain us. I just think of it as a different way to eat.” Danny said. Tim breathed a sigh of relief that that half ghost had been around him long enough to know that he liked explanations when he didn’t understand something. 

“That’s w..why the fear toxins didn’t affect you.” 

“Mhmm.” Danny hummed. “Gotta get that recipe though. That was tasty. Frighty would love it. 

Tim sighed, feeling another wave of nausea and he…was pretty sure he was seeing colors he shouldn’t be. “You always leave m…me with more questions than answers. My s..symptoms aren’t emotional. Chem..chemically induced.” And fuck this was so embarrassing in front of the King of the Infinite Realm. 

Danny hummed, and if Tim wasn’t mistaken, he sounded amused. He leaned closer, fingers touching Tim’s face and all at once, he started to feel better. His shaking stopped almost immediately and he was left to assume that despite the chemicals he’d inhaled, Danny was still able to take them from him. Honestly, scientifically it made no sense whatsoever. 

At least his stomach didn’t hurt anymore. 

“What do i owe you for this one?” Tim asked with a weary smile. Other than a sore leg, the other symptoms seemed to disappear. 

“I got two separate fear meals. I’m good.” Danny chuckled, helping Tim to his feet only seconds before Batman and Nightwing arrived. 

Nightwing made a beeline for Tim, grabbing him in the tightest hug while Batman was instead looking Scarecrow over who had, in fact, passed out at some point. 

“Wing, watch it! Watch it! The leg!” 

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” Nightwing clung anyway. He then held a hand out to Danny. “Thank you so so much, your Majesty! Your timing is to die for!” 

Tim knew he was in trouble when Danny took Nightwings hand to shake, and his eyes lit up. “Wing…” Tim said in a warning tone that went unheard. 

“No big deal. Visiting Red Robin really lifts my spirits.” Danny said with a small grin, fangs a little larger than in his living form. 

Nightwing tipped his head back and laughed. “Yes!” 

“No…” Tim groaned, shoving away from his brother. 

“In all seriousness, i’m glad i came.” Danny said. “I wasn’t sure if you were trying to summon me or not so i thought i’d poke my head in and see.” 

“I…didn’t realize i did?” Tim muttered, checking his utility belt. “I do have the spell circle but…” 

Danny shrugged “Well you said ‘Phantom’ at some point. I thought it sounded a little different but well…i didn’t think it would hurt to double check. I’m glad i was able to help.” 

“We appreciate it, your Majesty.” Batman commented in a gruff tone. He very much did not appreciate it but couldn’t be mad about someone saving Tim when he wouldn’t have gotten there in time.“What exactly did you do? This ice is-” 

“Oh, right.” Phantom waved his hand flippantly and the ice disappeared. Scarecrow dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. “He’ll probably suffer nightmares for the next week but he’ll shake it off.” 

“I have… so many questions…” Tim repeated. 

Danny just looked at him fondly. “You always do.” 

“I’ll take him in.” Batman said. “Red Robin, return for medical treatment.” 

“I’m fine, B.” Tim said, but he was getting a look. “Grab whatever he has on him so we can make new antidotes.” 

Batman grunted, and it was possibly lucky that the rogue was already knocked out. 

“Hey, hey, King Phantom-” Nightwing began. 

“Just Phantom is fine.” 

Nightwing was positively giddy. “What do you say to four a.m. waffles? I know you ate the fear or whatever but you deserve a proper thank you meal.” 

There was something so boyishly charming about the way Danny smiled. His constellation freckles even seemed to twinkle. “As long as they don’t bite back. I’d like that.” 

“Concerning.” Tim hummed, testing his weight on his leg. It wasn’t broken but he wouldn’t be grappling anywhere else tonight.

“Great!” Nightwing said, tapping his own comm. “Spoiler will meet us there!” 

Danny glanced at Tim. “Do uh.. You go…” He gestured to them. “Dressed like this?” 

“All the time.” 

“Okay then.” Danny said, and the only adjustment he made was to reach up above him and grab his crown. It disappeared from view. 

“So many questions.” Tim heaved a sigh. “I guess breakfast would be nice. We haven’t done breakfast yet.” 

Danny nodded once. “At least i feel like i earned it this time. You’ve just been treating me so much lately.” He sounded as close to shy as Tim had ever heard and it was killing him. 

Ugh, now he was doing the death puns… 

“You don’t have to earn your food with us.” Tim said softly. 

“RR is right, you know?” Nightwing beamed. “You should totally get him to bring you home one night, Phantom. Best home cooking you’ve ever had.” 

Danny hummed, “It’s a low bar, but that could be…nice.” 

“We’ll discuss it over waffles!” Nightwing just…decided. 

Tim shook his head, not sure how he felt about these two getting along but Danny was smiling and Tim was a sucker for those smiles. 

“Alright.” Tim said, stifling a yawn. “My leg is stiff so one of you is gonna have to help me get there, but let’s go eat.” 

Danny’s green eyes just glowed with mirth. “No problem.”

[o0sleepingdead0o]

Prepared for Anything Pt. 3

Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, MasterPost

What was with Danny’s luck and fires? He wondered as he searched a warehouse he’d come across for survivors. He’d been flying home(invisibly of course) when a nearby building had exploded. Flames licked at the grease spattered floor and ate at old crates, but the biggest issue was the smoke. It billowed thickly like the smog that filled Gotham’s skies, and impeded even Danny’s enhanced vision. He could taste the ash in the air. He knew there were people here. He heard someone coughing and the sound of fighting going on ahead. 

He forged onward, dashing towards the sounds, and the layers of smoke lessened enough for Danny to see what was taking place.

The first thing he noticed was the scuffle. About a dozen of what were clearly henchmen fired guns and grappled with. . .

Danny sighed.

More vigilantes.

One wore purple and had long, blonde hair. The other wore black with gold accents, and a mask covered her face. Both sides of the fight wore rebreathers.

The second thing Danny noticed was the red vigilante with bandoliers across his chest, bound with chains, and hanging by the ceiling. He hung over a vat of boiling oil that was alit with flames.

. . .

. . .

What was this? Some scene from a childrens’ cartoon?

Danny hurried forward, egged on by the lung Red was hacking up, one who very much was not wearing a rebreather.

Danny pointed a finger at the chain suspending the poor vigilante, and shot a small ecto-blast from the tip. The chain broke.

The vigilante screamed as he fell towards the boiling vat and Danny leapt to intercept him mid-air.

“Huu—“ The vigilante huffed at the impact, Danny’s shoes squealing as he landed and skidded to a halt.

The red guy wheezed. “Thanks.”

“Sure. Couldn’t just leave you hanging around, now could I?” Danny grinned.

Tim groaned.

Danny didn’t think the vigilante had room to complain.

Immediately, they were beset by attackers.

“Oop.” Danny dodged a bullet, shifting only the needed inch to avoid it. “Hey! Watch it! I’ve got cargo!”

“Carg—?!” The vigilante tried, only to hack again. He sounded offended. Danny didn’t really care.

A few goons were closing in on them from all sides, and Danny found it highly annoying that they were interfering with his mission to get this damsel in distress outside to fresh air. It wouldn’t take too long to knock ‘em out, but still.

One of the lackeys raised his weapon and Danny prepared to—

Flying in from the left came a foot, clocking the man in the jaw. Danny watched a small and lithe black figure move like she was the manifestation of violent, deadly grace itself. Danny was in awe as she took the man out, gliding and dancing as if it was all she breathed and all she lived. Her movements were efficient and so quick, Danny could barely catch the motions taking out the next three men after.  She tore through them like they were nothing. They fell at her feet as if they were insignificant gnats, as if one look was enough from the goddess of death over here to kill them.

She turned to Danny when she’d cleared his immediate attackers, and he stared at her, mouth slightly agape. His heart fluttered.

“That was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. . .” Danny muttered mostly to himself. He could watch her do that over and over and over again and never get tired of it. It was captivating.

The black vigilante went still for a moment, her eyes seeming to lock with his through her mask, before motioning for him to flee.

“Right.” Danny dashed past her, lugging the red one in a bridal carry. A fireman’s carry would probably be hard on his lungs.

“Wh—at w—s tha—t?!” The red one coughed up. Danny couldn’t tell if he was laughing at him or judging him. Or both.

“Shush.”

Danny blew through the nearest doors of the warehouse to meet fresh air and sucked in a deep breath. The smoke didn’t bother him, but this was still nice. He distanced himself from the warehouse quickly, worried about wasting time and risking this dude’s life. Or health. Danny had no idea how bad the smoke inhalation was. Pretty bad, he was guessing.

Danny laid him down in some alley. Mechanical whirring announced who had arrived. Danny looked up as the purple and black vigilantes dropped down from the roofs.

Danny’s eyes briefly glanced over Purple to rest on Black.

“Oh, hey. That was quick.”

The purple one shrugged. “We were almost done any—where did that come from?”

Danny uncoiled the tube to the oxygen tank and mask, fixing it over the baffled face of Red.

“Huh?” Danny fiddled with the knob on the tank and Red took deep breaths.

“You just have an oxygen tank on you at all times?” The purple one laughed.

“You don’t?” Danny countered. He tried not to smirk as Purple choked on her laugh.

“I was joking!”

Danny shrugged.

“Good job.” Black complimented and Danny’s heart palpitated. Her voice was so soft and gentle and the most melodious thing he’s ever heard.

“Yeah, thanks, I mean, no problem, just passing by, I'm in burning buildings all the time, wasn't any trouble." Danny rambled as he went back to fumbling with the knobs.

"Wait, what?" Red croaked.

Purple took in a long breath, as if hit with some amazing bit of realization.

Danny abruptly stood where he’d been sitting on the ground next to Red.

“Here. These are for you.” Danny thrust his hand out to Black, holding a bouquet of exotic, beautiful flowers, native to the Infinite Realms, and at least six times the size of his head.

Purple nearly seized back. “What the—?! Where are these things coming from?!”

Danny had received a multitude of bouquets for his coronation and he was suddenly very glad that he’d frozen them in time to decorate his keep with. Jazz had insisted it would brighten up the place.

“Ah, well, you never know when you might need a professionally done, extravagant bouquet of exotic wildflowers to present to your rescuer. You were my knight in shining. . .whatever kinda armour that is. . .”

Purple’s jaw went slack. Black seemed to pause before shrugging lightly and looking away, curling a little into herself as if embarrassed. Her body language said she was still happy, though. She carefully took the bouquet from him.

Danny was gonna die again. The butterflies were going to mutate and burst out of his stomach.

“Oh my gosh! Stop flirting over my dying body!” Red interrupted.

Danny spluttered. “I am not—“

“You totally are!!” Purple cackled as if this was the most entertainment she’s had in weeks.

Danny ignored her. “Anyway, can I have your name?” He asked Black.

“Wait. . .”Purple tried to get herself under control. “You don’t know who we are?”

Danny shrugged. “I’m, uh. . .from outta town.”

“Well, that was kinda obvious.” Red said.

“Orphan.” Black gestured to herself.

Danny paused. He blinked. Alright, that was. . .that was some oddly personal information to go straight to, but okay.

“I’m. . .sorry for your loss.”

Purple guffawed and slapped a hand over her mouth. Red hacked up another lung. He was gonna run out soon.

Black shook ever so subtly with her own laughter and Danny nearly melted.

“No. Name.” She gestured to herself. “Orphan.”

“It’s her vigilante name.” Purple was still laughing.

“Ah. . .yes. . .right.” Danny blushed. “My name’s Danny. It’s nice to meet y'all.” His words implied he spoke to all of them, but he looked only at Orphan.

“Yeah, I’m lucky you were there to grab me. I don’t know how that chain broke.” Red said from where he’d sat up from the ground. Danny’s lips pursed. He honestly kept forgetting about him.

Purple took a steadying breath, warding off the laughter still treading her words. “We should probably get him some medical attention.”

“Psh, I’m fine.”

“I thought you said you were dying?” Danny asked.

“That was like, ten seconds ago, I’m fine now.”

“Yeah, about as fine as a chain smoker with a drinking problem. Have you heard yourself? It’s like you swallowed a sword and gave it a good swishing around down there.” Purple retorted.

Red scoffed.

Danny backed out of the alley, flashing Orphan a smile before disappearing.

<><><><>

“What happened to all your food?!”

Danny came home to Jason(AKA Red Hood. {The wacky ectoplasm kinda made it obvious. Danny was working on that}) peering into his fridge judgementally as if it was an a affront to his person. “I loaded it up just a couple days ago!”

Danny reached past his friend to grab the orange juice and poured himself a glass. He went to sit at the counter. “I ate it all. Duh.”

“There was a week’s worth in there!” Jason gestured indignantly at the empty fridge, staring at Danny.

Danny took a long sip of his juice, keeping eye contact with Jason all the while. When his thirst was parched, he set the cup down with a quiet clink. He leaned his elbows on the counter to hold his face. 

“Obviously not, because I ate it all.”

Jason pinched his nose and sighed before letting the fridge door drift closed. He poured the kettle he must’ve boiled earlier into a prepared mug.

Danny stared down at his half-emptied glass. “I think I’m in love.” He murmured thoughtfully into it.

The tea bag bobbing in Jason’s mug paused, before continuing. “Oh?”

“Yeah.” Danny sighed, mournfully. He wondered if Orphan would care if he was half-dead or from another dimension. Would he meet her again? He really, really hoped so. “I met her in a burning building.”

“. . .What?”

“Yeah, what an amazing coincidence, right?”

“That’s not—“

“She was so cool.”

“. . .kaaay?”

How did Danny get her attention? He couldn’t just show up wherever she was vigilante-ing, could he? He didn’t want her to feel like he was stalking her.

Danny shuddered and made a face. Ugh. Ew.

No. He needed to find another way.

A small smile wound it’s way over his lips as an idea came to him.

“What’s her name?” Jason asked.

“Umm, you’ve probably heard of her. She said her name was Orphan.”

Jason choked on his tea.

[ghostlyglimmer]

The Fun Zone Part 1

You can find more chapters here

Summary:

Danny Fenton’s part-time job at The Fun Zone—a chaotic arcade and entertainment center that’s secretly a gang front—was going great until a certain vigilante stormed in to shut the place down.

Danny Fenton leaned against the register at The Fun Zone, his eyes half-lidded with the bored expression of someone who had already been on shift for far too long. The arcade’s lights flickered with their usual neon brilliance, and the sound of pinball machines, whirring go-karts, and kids screaming in the indoor playground provided a steady background cacophony. It was chaos incarnate, but Danny didn’t mind. The job paid surprisingly well for a Gotham gig, and it let him afford textbooks and a halfway decent apartment.

That, of course, didn’t make up for the downsides—namely, the fact that the place was a gang front. Danny had figured it out about two days in. The suspicious packages delivered after hours, the shady clientele that frequented the private lounge, and the way his manager, “Big Sal,” always seemed to have armed goons lurking nearby. None of it really phased him. As long as he kept his head down, he didn’t see any reason to care.

But apparently, the local vigilantes did.

“Hey, kid,” a gravelly voice startled Danny out of his stupor. He looked up to see the Red Hood himself looming over the counter, his arsenal on full display. Guns, knives, and explosives hung from his tactical gear, his crimson helmet reflecting the pulsing lights of the arcade.

Danny blinked. “Welcome to The Fun Zone. Can I get you a family pack for laser tag, or are you just here to threaten the boss?”

Red Hood’s head tilted slightly, his helmet hiding what Danny assumed was either a glare or the equivalent of a facepalm. “You know this place is run by a gang, right?”

“Yeah,” Danny deadpanned. “And they pay me twenty bucks an hour plus tips. Do you want to buy tokens or not?”

Hood seemed taken aback, the air of intimidation slipping just a little. “Do you even care that they’re criminals?”

“As long as they don’t ask me to do crime, I’m good. Rent’s expensive, man.”

Before Hood could respond, the double doors to the bowling alley burst open, and in stormed Big Sal, flanked by his usual goons. Sal was a mountain of a man, with slicked-back hair and a perpetual sneer that seemed permanently etched into his face. His eyes narrowed as they landed on Hood.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the Red Hood,” Sal growled. “You’ve been poking around my turf for weeks. You think you can just walk in here?”

Hood drew a pistol in response. “I don’t think. I act.”

The goons raised their weapons, and Sal barked out orders, but before the situation could escalate further, Danny loudly cleared his throat.

“Hey!” he said, waving a hand lazily. “Can you guys not do this in front of the register? I just mopped over here.”

Both Sal and Hood turned to stare at him.

“What?” Danny shrugged. “If there’s going to be a shootout, at least take it to the parking lot. I’m not cleaning up blood.”

Hood’s shoulders shook with what might have been a laugh, though his voice remained gruff. “You’re way too calm about this.”

“First week on the job, I had to break up a fight between two dads who got into a brawl over mini-golf,” Danny replied flatly. “This? This is Tuesday.”

Hood holstered his pistol, much to Sal’s visible annoyance. “You’re a weird kid, you know that?”

“Thanks,” Danny said. “So, if you take over this place, do I still get to keep my job?”

Sal sputtered indignantly. “You little—”

“You shut up,” Hood snapped, leveling a finger at the gang boss before turning back to Danny. “If I take over, yeah, you can keep your job. Might even give you a raise for putting up with this crap.”

“Cool,” Danny said, as though he hadn’t just witnessed a life-or-death standoff. “Want a soda while you’re here? Employee discount means I can get it for like, fifty cents.”

Hood stared at him for a long moment before shaking his head. “I’m starting to think you’re the most dangerous person here.”

Danny smirked. “Nah, I’m just good at customer service.”

As Hood turned back to deal with Sal, Danny leaned against the counter again, sipping a soda he’d poured for himself.

The standoff between Red Hood and Big Sal continued, the tension thick enough to cut with a knife. Danny, however, remained entirely unfazed, sipping his soda and watching the drama unfold as if it were a reality TV show. His coworkers, who had been hiding behind various attractions, occasionally peeked out to catch glimpses of the action. None of them seemed inclined to intervene. Not that Danny blamed them—this was well above their pay grade.

Big Sal, realizing that Red Hood wasn’t going to back down, snarled and gestured to his goons. “You think you can just walk in here and take what’s mine? This is my turf, Hood!”

Hood’s voice was calm but laced with menace. “Not anymore, it’s not. You’ve been running weapons and drugs through this place for months. The Fun Zone’s under new management now. So, unless you want to end up in Arkham—or worse—you’ll walk out of here while you still can.”

Sal bared his teeth, but before he could respond, one of his goons hesitated and took a step back. “Uh, boss? Maybe we should listen. It’s… it’s Red Hood.”

Sal shot the man a glare that could curdle milk. “Coward.”

Hood tilted his head toward the exit. “Smart guy. He should take you with him.”

The goon glanced nervously at Sal, then at Hood, and bolted toward the doors. A few others followed, their loyalty clearly not strong enough to stick around for what was about to happen.

Danny watched the exodus with mild amusement. “Wow, Sal. You really inspire loyalty, huh?”

“Shut up, kid!” Sal barked, his face red with anger. “You’re on thin ice.”

Danny raised his hands in mock surrender. “Just saying. If I were you, I’d consider an employee morale retreat or something.”

Hood let out a low chuckle, his guns still trained on Sal. “You’ve got guts, kid. I’ll give you that.”

Danny replied with a shrug. “So, what’s the plan here, Hood? Are you shutting this place down, or do I need to update my résumé?”

Hood’s answer was interrupted by a sudden crash from the go-kart track. Everyone turned to see a group of kids who had somehow bypassed the barricades and were now gleefully racing around, oblivious to the standoff happening mere feet away.

“Seriously?” Hood muttered, lowering his weapons slightly. “This place is chaos.”

“Welcome to The Fun Zone,” Danny said with a wry smile. “Where the games never stop, even during a hostile takeover.”

Hood let out a heavy sigh, clearly debating whether this was worth his time. Finally, he holstered his weapons and gestured for Sal to leave. “You’ve got 24 hours to pack up and get out. If I see you here after that, you won’t be walking out.”

Sal opened his mouth to argue but thought better of it. He stormed out, slamming the doors behind him, leaving Hood, Danny, and a scattering of terrified employees behind.

Hood turned back to Danny. “You still want to work here?”

Danny shrugged. “Depends. You hiring?”

Hood stared at him for a moment before shaking his head in disbelief. “You’ve got nerve, kid. Fine. You’re hired—you get a fat raise and fewer shady dealings. Just… try not to question too much about what happens in the backroom.”

“Cool,” Danny said, finishing his soda. “Do I get a new uniform, or do I keep the one with the mustard stains?”

Hood sighed again, rubbing his temples. “I’m already regretting this.”

Danny grinned. “Welcome to management, boss.”

[stealingyourbones]

Prompt Idea: Danny has plot armor.

To start off, Danny’s whole family knows he’s Phantom, and they had to run from Amity because of the GIW. They wind up in Gotham because that’s the one place that The Government doesn’t really mess with.

The reason behind Danny’s plot armor is that in this world, Danny became incredibly overprotective of his friends and family in order to make sure he doesn’t wind up as Dan, ironically making the chance of that happening much greater than before.

In order to prevent this, Clockwork gives Danny and his family a blessing. It works like this.

Imagine you rolled a dice. To Clockwork, there are now 6+ possible alternate timelines that can ensue. Clockwork’s blessing allows those possible timelines to be restricted to only one or two, all of them good for the Fenton family.

In effect, it was like plot armor. Scarecrow attacks a library with Jazz inside? Oh, looks like her parents need her to pick up Danny early, or she drank too much water and needs to go to the bathroom, which just so happens to have a window just in reach that she can escape from.

Maddy needs to get a job? Well, Jazz’s university needs a new chemistry professor (last one was kidnapped by a rogue) and they’re in a bit of a rush so they’ll skip looking for a teaching certificate. No one cares anyways, it’s Gotham.

Jack needs something to do? Well, besides hunting ghosts, he’d always wanted to open a food truck! With Jazzy making sure nothings contaminated and some (slightly modified) recipes from the Ghost Zone, he can finally chase his dream in a big city with his Phantom Food Vehicle! He wonders what some of those shady men came up to him for, or that odd stout fella in the tux.

(The Phantom Food Truck has become a recent cryptid in Gotham. Except it’s not a cryptid, because everyone’s seen the video of the truck hurtling down the street like it’s chasing down the devil, cop cars and vigilantes alike on its tail. And yet, no one could find it. Not even the Bats. That’s about when everyone gave up. When they learned that you don’t find it, the Phantom Food Truck finds you.)

As for Danny? He’s entirely unaware of this, to focused on keeping his head down. It works, for a while. Before fate came knocking in the form of a wicked smile, as if there solely to ruin his day.

The Joker wasn’t having a good day either. He started out having a jolly old time, joker toxin gassing a small high school, making sure to leave macabre presents for his dear Batsy, and then what happens? This random kid just starts running around, helping students, saving teachers, what’s he gonna do next huh? Save a cat from a tree?

What’s worse, his useless henchmen couldn’t even land a hit on the kid! He swears, Bill doesn’t even seem to be trying.

Whatever, they managed to corner the brat, looked like he was standing in front of some other children. So Joker lines the shot, and he fires.

The gun jams.

Alrighty, he takes one from a random mook, and he shoots again.

The gun jams.

No one’s moving at this point. Where there was once dread and tension in the air, there’s just confusion. So Joker points the gun at a goon, pulls the trigger, the shot goes off.

He turns back to the Robin-ish looking twink, and he pulls the trigger.

The gun jams.

And as he starts walking towards the kid to just kill it himself, he wakes up in the Arkham hospital wing with his last memory of the encounter being him slipping on the glowing green contents of some weird looking thermos that the kid had thrown earlier in the fight. What the FUCK was that.

Clockwork doesn’t even care how pissed the Observers are any more, this is hilarious.

it's to the point of ridiculousness that the Bats have an entire file on Danny and they think he's a meta with a luck ability and nothing else.

[luxaofhesperides]

Danny accidentally appearing out of Duke's shadow. And doing it purposely every time after that. ; requested by @kyrianclawraith! (deviated from your original prompt a bit, sorry! the ghostlights brainworms got away from me)

Traveling through shadows has become second nature for Duke after using them so extensively over the years. He even uses them as a civilian, hopping between shadows when he’s running late to class so he doesn’t have to stress out over traffic. 

Not even Batman’s scoldings can stop him from making it on time to his classes. Risks need to be taken for the sake of his education!

The shadows are comforting. They hide him from sight, get him to where he needs to go, and gives him the alone time he needs when he’s been around people for too long and desperately needs some quiet to recharge. Duke would say that he’s well versed in the shadows at this point, no longer stumbling out into the light.

Even with all his practice and confidence, he still can’t prepare himself for tripping over someone in the shadows while he’s trying to escape some of The Riddler’s goons. 

They both go tumbling out of the shadows, landing in a corner hidden by storage shelves. The poor tripping hazard of a person is under him, groaning lightly as he reaches up to press a hand to the back of his head, where he hit the concrete floor. 

“Oh, shit,” Duke whispers, “I’m so sorry. What are you doing here? How are you here?”

“I was hiding,” the guy hisses back at him. “I wanted to get out of the rain and dozed off and when I woke up, guns were being shot! I was up in the rafters, so excuse me for thinking no one would find me up there!”

Another gunshot rings out, alarmingly close to where they are.

Duke curses under his breath, then picks up the guy and hauls him over his shoulder. “Time to go!” And then he’s disappearing into the shadows again, following the line of them outside the warehouse and down the street. 

As soon as they’re safely away from the goons, Duke steps out of the shadows and carefully sets the civilian back onto his feet.

“So sorry about that,” he says, “But I need to get back and deal with them. Stay safe!”

He’s gone before the civilian can say anything else, and though it’s embarrassing that he tripped over someone while shadow hopping, at least it ended relatively well. It’s not like it’ll happen again.

Duke, sweet, naive Duke, doesn’t think much of the civilian again. He’s a busy guy with a busy life! Lots of things to do! Lots of embarrassing moments to keep secret from the other Bats! No one has mentioned it at all, so he thinks he’s safe from being teased about it.

That is, up until he’s training with Dick and a hand pops up out of his shadow.

“Um,” Dick says, backflipping away from Duke’s punch. He lowers his escrima sticks and squints at the space behind Duke. “Are you… trying something new with your powers?”

“...No? I’m not using my powers right now.”

Dick looks more and more alarmed. He won’t look away from the space behind Duke, and it’s making him nervous. He doesn't want to look, but he knows he has to. 

Steeling himself, Duke takes a deep breath, then turns slightly to see what’s behind him.

Nothing. 

His gaze goes down, and he sees a pale hand sticking out of his shadow, moving back and forth. It then comes out some more, up to the elbow, and the hand pats the ground Duke’s shadow lays on, a stiff mat perfect for sparring.

Behind him, Dick turns on his escrima sticks, the electricity crackling through the air.

The hand disappears for a moment. 

Then two hands appear and grab the ground, hauling up a body from Duke’s shadow.

Duke is very well versed in shadows. He travels through them almost daily. He thinks he would know if there was some strange netherworld hidden in the shadows where other beings could pop out of shadows like portals. This is alarming, to say the least.

“Don’t move, Duke,” Dick warns, creeping closer, ready to attack.

A head pops out of his shadow. Whatever it is glows and their white hair moves softly as if underwater. They’re facing away from him, so he can’t see their face, but he can see the black, skin-tight suit their wearing as they float up from his shadow, no longer needing their hands to pull themself out. 

“Huh,” they say, looking up at the ceiling.

Dick grabs Duke’s arm and pulls him back, shielding him with his body. “Who are you?” he demands, voice cold. 

The creature/person startles and whips around to stare at them with wide green eyes. His gaze darts down to the electrified escrima sticks, then back up again, visibly nervous.

“Um, hi! Sorry, I didn’t know anyone would be here. Wherever this is.”

“How did you get here?”

“I was practicing a new portalling method. I found a ghost to teach me how to move through shadows, since my usual portals are very bright and noticeable. Not great when you’re trying to be stealthy! I did not mean to end up here.”

Duke stares at him. “You came out of my shadow.”

“Sorry,” the guy repeats. Then he squints at Duke. “Hey, didn’t you save me the other day? From the warehouse?”

It’s been a while since Duke’s saved anyone from a warehouse. Criminals and goons have moved on to condemned apartment complexes and the back rooms of bars. The only person he’s saved is the tripping hazard…

“Man, what is up with you and getting caught in my shadows?”

“This is your fault!” the guy insists. “I associate shadows too strongly with you! That’s why I’m here! Probably. I don’t actually know how this works.”

“You don’t know how it works but you did it anyways.”

“It sounds bad when you say it like that.” The guy floats down to the ground and offers Duke a hand. “I’m Phantom, by the way! Figured I should introduce myself because this will happen again.”

Duke considers introducing himself as the Signal, but Danny is looking directly at his bare face, so it’s lost cause. Talk about an unexpected security breach. “Duke. You looked a little different when we first met.”

“Yeah, that was my human form. This is my ghost form.” A watch on his wrist, some clunky looking thing that looks like it came from the early 2000s, beeps and Phantom frowns at it. “Shoot, I need to go. I’ll see you later!” And he dives right back into Duke’s shadow, disappearing.

Duke blinks at the empty space where Phantom used to be, still reeling from the shock of it. He’s so busy processing the last few minutes that he doesn’t hear the escrima sticks turn off until Dick is dropping a heavy arm around his shoulders, holding him in place. There’s a smile on his face, but it’s not happy; it’s a warning that he’s at his limit and is barely hanging on to niceties.

“So,” he says as Duke cringes, “Looks like we need to have a talk about the things you’ve been hiding from us, Duke.”

He can’t do anything but resign himself to his fate.

After that conversation, he’s instructed to let them know when Phantom pops up. Which is fine until he realizes that Phantom really did mean it when he said that it’ll happen again. 

Phantom pops up constantly. Most of the time, Duke is lucky enough to be at home, or in the Manor, or in the Batcave away from the public where no one will freak out about a glowing boy popping out of his shadow. Sometimes, he’s in the middle of the street as a civilian and has to sprint away, ducking into the first empty alley he can find in order to climb up onto the rooftop where no one will see him.

It’s stressful and confusing and he wishes he could be more upset about it, but Phantom is fun. He’s funny and charming and tells the craziest stories about ghost fights that Duke can’t help but hang onto every word.

He dutifully updates his Phantom Log, noting each time he’s portaled through Duke’s shadow, any information he’s revealed, and an injury count after Duke noticed a concerning pattern of Phantom often showing up after he’s been in a fight.

Duke begins to get a feel for when Phantom is about to show up. A shiver runs down his spine and his awareness of the shadows around him grows. Sometimes, he could swear he could feel something tear apart in his shadow. He feels it then, a tear that stitches itself up almost instantly, a ripple in the shadow, before that familiar hand pops up again and Duke grabs hold of it to haul Phantom out into his bedroom. 

He is, once again injured. There’s a large gash running down the length of his other arm, bleeding a toxic, glowing green. 

“Dude,” Duke says, unable to keep the judgment out of his voice.

“You should see the other guy,” Phantom snorts. “I slammed him through five streets, then ripped his limbs off.

“Dude…”

“Just to be clear, they weren’t his real limbs. He has a robot suit he uses like a body because he’s like a tiny little bean.”

“Yeah, I don’t know how to take that. Anyways, have you still not figured out how to open portals that aren’t connected to my shadow?”

Phantom shrugs. “Nope. And I’m not really trying to figure it out. I like hanging out with you. Plus, it’s nice to see a friendly face after a fight.”

“Can’t you like, go home and have your family take care of you first.”

“Uh, better not,” Phantom laughs nervously. “They’d probably kill me for real if they saw me like this.”

Duke quietly notes to himself to add that statement to the Alarming Things Phantom Says list. 

“Does it… bother you? Me always coming to you?” There’s a smallness to his voice, a fragility that makes Duke want to beat himself up for making Phantom feel like that.

“No! No, I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t keeping you from anyone else.”

Phantom brightens. “Oh! Well, no need to worry about that. No one’s worried, back home. They know I disappear sometimes.”

��Another concerning thing. Duke is considering bribing Phantom into staying in Gotham forever, living in his shadow, just so he can take care of him. Just to be sure Phantom’s safe. “Is there anything I can do for you?” he asks, eyes flickering down to Phantom’s bleeding wound.

Phantom futilely tries to hide the wound with a hand. The green blood leaks out from between his fingers, and he applies more pressure to the wound with a faint wince. “Nope! All good here. I’ll heal in no time, honest.”

“Then, do you want to just hang out? I really don’t know why you’d chose to keep coming to me.”

“You’re good company, dude. Very chill. Very fun. And you’re a hero! That’s so cool. Why wouldn’t I keep coming back?”

Duke shrugs, not sure how to put his insecurities into words. He’s already starting to get the Bat-specific inability to communicate emotions, which is definitely a problem. He’ll need to spend time with other people to be normal again. 

As if sensing that Duke’s mood is falling, Phantom launches into another tale, complaining about people who bother him, teachers who are terrible at teaching, having snark-fights with the embodiment of Time itself, and so on. He always has the craziest stories, and he tells them so casually that Duke has to second guess himself, wondering if he’s overreacting when he’s shocked by what Phantom tells him. 

He starts telling his own stories as well, mostly fun civilian interactions he’s had since they last spoke, villain fights, the ever changing theories on the ‘Who is Batman Sleeping With Now?’ shared document all the other Bats have. By the time an hour passes, Phantom’s arm is fully healed and he’s flying in lazy circles above Duke.

His watch beeps again in the middle of him recounting the insane drama happening at his school. Phantom sighs and sinks back to the floor, hovering just above Duke’s shadow.

“Thanks for letting me stay,” he says, voice warm.

Duke shrugs. “You’re good company. I like when you visit.”

A slow, soft smile spreads across Phantom’s cheeks, making him glow even brighter. “Sweet talker,” he accuses fondly, then flies in for a quick, tight hug. He pulls back before Duke can reciprocate, and salutes him with a cheeky, “See you soon!” and is gone, flying into Duke’s shadow before he can respond.

Shaking his head fondly, Duke falls back against his bed.

Despite how unconventional their friendship is, he is glad Phantom keeps coming back. He hopes he’ll get to see Phantom’s human form again.

…And get more used to the horror movie scene that is Phantom clawing his way out of his shadow. No matter how many times he sees it, the sight still makes him jump.

Not that he’s ever going to admit that.

If Phantom thinks he’s cool, he’s going to do whatever he can to keep that impression from changing. It’s only reasonable, really.

(“Shut up, Dick,” he says later when he recounts this encounter with Phantom. Dick just keeps laughing, endlessly amused that Duke got ‘jumpscared into a crush’ as he phrased it. That’s definitely not what happened.

Next time, he’s definitely convincing Phantom to scare Dick with him. 

Revenge will be his.) . . .

[send me ghostlights prompts! one day left before they close on 11/17]

[totally-here]

Post Gotham war Jason and post GIW Danny scrap

Jason is laying on the ground. He can hear water running to his right and can see his parachute tangled in trees overhead. 

The explosion must have sent him farther away than he hoped. His back hurts from the landing after he disconnected from the parachute. His hands are still shaking from residual adrenaline that in turn makes his throat constrict in fear. 

Fucking Bruce. Of all the things he could’ve done to break their cycle. 

Because that’s what it was, wasn’t it? A never ending cycle of them fighting over morality, making up, then fighting again without any real progress being made. The Joker’s still kicking in one way or another, and Jason still doesn’t talk with his family much outside of vigilante activities. 

And now he won’t even be able to go out as Red Hood, because his own fucking adrenaline will immobilise him with fear. 

Jason never should have tried to work with Selina. He’s self-aware enough to admit that. It was stupid, trying to mess up her operation from the inside after realizing just what she was setting up the goon workforce for, even if it wasn’t her intention. She was only letting him work with her to shove it into Bruce’s face, anyway. 

Because that’s all Jason will ever be to them. Batman’s biggest mistake. A Robin turned corpse turned mass murderer. Like he hasn’t been actively not killing people for at least a year now. Hasn’t shot a gun in months. 

And yet here Jason is, trying to tell if his ribs are broken without moving. His ears are ringing faintly from the collision with the meteor and then the explosion at the observatory. 

He ditched his comm to Oracle and the rest of the bats earlier, and the batwing is one with the wreckage now. But there are cameras everywhere in Gotham. They would see he got out, and probably send someone to pick him up. Maybe. 

Jason doesn’t know if he can stomach looking at his family right now. Not when he can still feel the effects of whatever Bruce stuck in him in the back of his throat, in the back of his mind. It’s like he’s been flayed out, all his scars and weaknesses on display. 

“Hey man, you okay?” A man steps into Jason’s vision. Around his age, if not younger. His eyes that verge on the edge of uncannily blue have deep eye bags, like he hasn’t slept in weeks. He looks at Jason like one would a particularly uninteresting bug. Jason shivers.

It takes a few tries for Jason not to swallow his words. As it is, he still slurs on the swear. “Just fucking peachy.” 

The guy raises an eyebrow, looking very doubtful. He looks Jason up and down, then sighs. He rights himself from leaning over and runs a hand through his long black hair with white streaks in it. It’s choppily cut, and not in a tasteful way. It’s like a five year old found scissors for the first time. It’s annoying how it actually works for the guy. 

“I have a first aid kit in my truck, wait here,” He orders, then walks off to the left. Jason turns his head to watch him. There is a small white truck parked to the side of a road that no cars are passing through. The guy opens the back door and digs around, then emerges with a white box. 

He kneels on the grass next to Jason and slowly reaches out to help him sit up, narrating as he does. “I’m gonna lean you against the tree so that I can get a better angle for your forehead.” He does that, and Jason realizes that yeah, his forehead is bleeding. Maybe he snagged it on a branch on the way down, or maybe it was debris. “I’m going to disinfect it, brace for the sting, I guess.” 

It does sting, but Jason doesn’t flinch away. It’s not the exhaustion from the back to back panic attacks that’s calming him. He knows what that exhaustion should feel like, this is not it. As the guy gently washes off the blood from Jason’s forehead with wipes and presses bandaids onto it, he feels like he’s being enveloped in a warm hug. 

“Why do I feel safe with you?” It stumbles out before he can stop it. The guy doesn’t stop inspecting Jason’s arms for cuts to answer. Only when he finds traces of burns to wrap against infection does he say anything. Jason’s too warm for a November night. 

“Well. There are two options. Either you’re concussed, or you’ve died before.” Jason takes in a sharp breath, but the guy doesn’t seem to notice. “Oh, three, I guess. Since it could be both.”

“I don’t feel concussed," Jason says. And he doesn’t. Maybe slightly dehydrated, but his head doesn’t hurt and he’s not nauseous at all. The slight slurring is just because he’s tired, probably. 

The guy hums, leaning back to check his handiwork. There’s bandaids on Jason’s forehead and bandages along his arms. He closes the first-aid kit with a snap and stands to his full height. His face is haloed by the full moon behind him. His eyes reflect in the light. “Guess it’s option two, then. I was leaning towards that, anyway. Once Deads tend to have that effect on me, and you do give off Realms Touched vibes.”

The guy offers a hand, and Jason stares at it for a moment before taking it. It’s like touching an ice cube. “I don’t know what that means.”

The guy pulls him up easily, despite being built like a broad-shouldered twig and at least five inches shorter than Jason. Probably a meta, then. Or maybe magic. The guy lets go of Jason’s hand to run a hand through his hair again. The motion brings attention to the layer of scar tissue around his left eye. Likely scarred over in the past month or so. 

“Yeah, my bad. Should’ve assumed. Um, short version: I have what amounts to a biological need to help peop-” He stops, purses his lips, then starts again. “To help the undead. And that stretches over to you, I guess.”

“And the Realms Touched thing?”

He shrugs, not looking at Jason’s eyes, but up at his hair. At the white streak sticking out against the black. “Let me guess, you had an encounter with some green not-quite-liquid stuff sometime after you died?” Jason nods once, slowly. “Yeah, that’d do it. The green stuff’s from the Infinite Realms, and doing stuff with it kinda marks you for people with an eye for it.”

“People like you?” Jason narrows his eyes, but it really does seem like this guy is telling the truth. That this is just some weird coincidence that the spooky guy (who cannot be local. Jason might have ditched the mask, vest, and gloves, but he still has his padded shirt with his symbol on it. No true Gothamite would dare to approach the Red Hood with medical supplies) just happened to stumble upon Jason. The complete blasé attitude he has toward the pits helps. A League devotee would be more reverent. 

The guy tilts his head to the side, his face scrunching. “Technically, yeah. I meant more, like, formal magic users. I’m… different?”

“What are you, then?” 

“It’s complicated?” As Jason’s unimpressed look, he tries again. “I’m, I’m kinda like a protector spirit and a psychopomp rolled into one? But, a psychopomp that’s not good at their job.”

Jason gets the feeling that that’s the best explanation he’s going to get out of this guy. He’s already shifting away, looking past the trees and at what’s probably Gotham proper.

“So I have a sense for dead things. ‘S actually why I ended up coming through here. Something that felt like a meal was coming here, but now it’s faded.” He points past Jason, and he follows his finger, moving to face the green smoke rising from the observatory, glowing in the night sky. “You know what happened?”

“Big fuckin’ meteor,” Jason mutters. The smoke is dispersing slowly but surely. A news helicopter is already buzzing around the observatory site. 

“Sure, why not?” The guy mutters back. His eyes flick to Jason before jutting a thumb backwards. “Welp, I’m gonna get back on the road. You need me to call someone for you or something?”

Jason thinks about it. He could call someone to pick him up, or check in with Rose. But. That would mean eventually going back into Gotham. Back into the fire. Back into a city that’s being overrun with thieves he had helped support. It’s not shame that stops him, but fear. 

Fear that if he goes back, it will just start the cycle again. That it’ll just take another form, but he’s just going to be stuck fighting. He’s always fighting, has always been fighting. If he goes back and he starts fighting again, it will never stop. Fear lodges into the back of his throat once again and Jason realizes that he might not be able to fight like that anymore. 

And standing outside of Gotham, seeing the smoke coming out of it color the same as the Pits that still haunt him, Jason thinks that maybe fear and fighting are all he has left. 

He wonders what would happen if he let himself lose those, too. 

“Actually, which way are you going?” Jason asks the guy, who squints at him.

“North.” 

“Sounds good.” Jason spins around and walks determinedly towards the guy’s truck. The guy stutters and hurries to catch up to him.

“Wait, what? You’re just gonna… come with me? Are you sure you’re not concussed?” He says, but stops at the driver’s side door and just watches as Jason slides into the passenger seat. 

Jason smiles at him, all teeth. “Come on, Charon. Aren’t psychopomps supposed to lead the dead to their next destination?”

The guy just looks at him for a moment, then opens the driver’s side and slides in. He glares at Jason, but it doesn’t feel like there’s any real dissatisfaction behind it. “You’re not dead now, and I told you I’m bad at my job.”

Jason shrugs and swings his feet onto the dashboard, ignoring the guy’s disgruntled and insulted look. “Then you’ll get some on the job training.”

“I’m on the run from the government. This isn’t going to be a fun adventure, dude.” 

That does make Jason pause. But he also knows the government. “What’d you do?”

He scoffs. “Exist. Fuckers think they’re entitled to my organs. For science, they said.”

A victim, it sounds like. Hell, maybe even a clone. Not likely to be a criminal. Jason shrugs and shimmies more into the seat, making a show of getting more comfortable. The guy frowns, then closes his door. 

“You know what? Fine, guess I’m doing this now. But we gotta set some ground rules for this roadtrip, okay?” He points at Jason with his left hand, leaning over a little in what could have been intimidating if he didn’t look dead on his feet. Jason recognised the faint lichtenberg scarring on his finger. Recently electrocuted, and badly. “First, get your dirty ass boots off of the dash.” Jason obliges. “Thank you. Second, seatbelts stay on. I know how I drive, and it is not good.”

He emphasizes his point by buckling himself in and glaring at Jason until he does the same. 

“Third, um, I don’t have a third one.” He drums his fingers on the steering wheel. “Oh, tell me a name I can call you. Yeah, that’s the third.”

“Jason. What’s yours?” He should have hesitated. All bat protocol for getting into unmasked situations with a stranger determines giving a fake name, and to not even think about anything close to real. But he doesn’t. It doesn’t matter. This guy clearly doesn’t know who Red Hood is, if he doesn’t recognise the symbol, so Jason doubts he’d recognise the first name of Bruce Wayne’s dead son, and then connect the dots. 

“Danny.” Danny starts the truck and pulls back onto the empty road. It must be two or three in the morning at this point. Maybe later. “Hope you have an enhanced ID, ‘cause we’re going to Canada.”

Jason, in fact, does. Not one that has his name on it, and it’s for New York, but the picture looks similar enough.

~~

So the original idea for this was they head to a cabin aunt alicia has in canada, but I got like 2000 words into this then realized i didn't have the motivation to continue, plus i wasn't confident about the characterization (i'll admit i read the gotham war event in a vacuum) so i just scrapped it. But!! I figure i would post it here in case someone else wants to take the idea and run with it :P

[clockwayswrites]

Totally didn't write Tim being confused.

WC:1174 Masterpost

“So are you going to want in on it?” Jason asked without looking over at Tim. If his brother wanted to follow after him on his mundane patrol, let him.

“You’d be okay with that?” Tim asked, unable (or not trying to) keep the surprise out of his voice.

Jason just shrugged, sure to exaggerate the motion to show through his armor. Tim had done him a favor with this research, Jason figured he earned a spot on the bust. Besides, Jason was… trying. He couldn’t make up for what he’d done to Tim, but he could try to be better now.

“Yes, sure,” Tim said in response to the shrug. “Just let me know when and I’ll make sure the others know to cover my route that night. Or nights, if you need help planning?”

Gut reaction was to growl at the offer of help planning, but Jason forced the sound back down into a noncommittal noise. He was better now. He didn’t need to do everything himself. His goons, and god he still didn’t like that name but whatever, proved that. Crime Alley was better because of them. “Maybe. Lemme look over your data first. I’ll let you know.”

“Right, sure, of course,” Tim said with an aborted flutter of his hand. “Just let me know.”

Fuck, Jason really should say yes, let Tim help. “Yeah, I will. Just need to go over what you’ve got, get my head around it, you know?”

Tim nodded. Some of his hair slipped out of the hair tie that he had it pulled back into. Jason thought it was good for the kid to be growing his hair out, getting out of that perfect corporate box he put himself into too much, but he didn’t know how to say that in a way that wouldn’t offend Tim or make him feel judged, so Jason kept quiet.

In the quiet it was very easy to hear a too familiar voice growl, “I said back off! I’m not interested!”

Jason sighed, the noise threatening through the modulation of the helmet, and turned to run over the roof tops towards the voice. He could feel rather than hear Tim change directions with him, ever the loyal shadow.

-

Tim perched on the edge of the roof that Jason was leaning over.

“Come on, my money’s good,” huffed some dude. He must have gotten out of his car to confront the sex worker who had turned him down. Which beyond being rude, no still meant no even if the person was a sex worker, it was clear the worker was done for the night. They were carrying two handfuls of plastic bags and Tim could smell the food from the roof.

“I said no, dude,” they said. “Go find someone working a corner if you need it that bad.”

“Yeah, they don’t have what you have,” the guy said. Then he did the stupidest thing he could have done and reached out while the sex worker pulled away.

Jason was already over the ledge of the roof before Tim had twitched. He landed with a purposeful crunch on the battered asphalt and had his gun drawn and pointed as the guy spun around.

“You new to the Alley?” Jason growled.

The guy (who looked two seconds away from pissing his pants) shook his head.

“Then you should know the rules,” Jason said. He stepped forward and pressed his gun against the guy’s temple.

Tim’s gaze flicked between Jason and the sex worker, who was looking on… fondly? Something else was going on here.

“I see you fucking with people like this again and you’ll lose something important, got it?”

“Got it,” the guy squeaked.

“Get out of here.”

The guy scrambled back to his car and took off with a squeal of tires. Tim jumped down silently while Jason holstered his gun and turned to the sex worker.

“Hood!” They said with a bright smile.

“Danny,” Jason growled. “What are you doing out here at this time of night?”

“Delivering some dinner to Nickie and the girls,” Danny said, holding up the plastic bags in his hands.

Jason’s fingers twitched like he wanted to run a hand over his helmet (or strangle the other). “Dressed like that?”

The worker, Danny, pouted and looked down at his outfit. There was a large sliver of stomach exposed between the bright green crop top with a pattern of cartoon ghosts, tiny black shorts with magenta details, and knee high black boots. Tim sort of thought the look worked for him in an eye searing way.

“Oh come on, I’m going to see Nickie. You know I have to dress right or she’ll drag me off to another makeover. I can’t take any more makeovers, Hood. And… don’t you think I look good?”

“Of course you look good,” Jason said.

Tim’s head whipped over to stare. He had to purposeful close his mouth before he caught flies.

Danny’s pout grew. “Then what’s the issue?”

“The issue is people are going to think you’re a hooker.”

Wasn’t he?

Danny rested a hand on his hip and raised a brow at Jason. “You say that like being a hooker is a bad thing. Do I need to tell the girls you said that?”

“You know what I mean!” Jason argued. “You just had a pushy John try to pick you up!”

“And I was handling him!”

Jason growled again and took a threatening step forward. Instead of being cowed by it, Danny stepped up into Jason’s space, basically pressing himself along Jason’s looming form. And then Danny stood up on his tip toes and pressed a kiss to Jason’s helmet, right where his mouth would be.

Tim could hear the dial up tone in his own mind.

What.

It only got louder when Jason sighed and just slumped, the fight going out of him.

“Danny…”

“I’m fine, Hood. Look, I’ll take the food to Nickie and stay with the girls until you can walk me home. Or your little shadow can.”

When Jason’s head jerked up to looked at Tim, he couldn’t help the instinct to raise his hands innocently.

Jason just grumbled and let his helmet drop onto Danny’s slim shoulder, which started shaking with laughter.

“Shut up,” Jason said.

“You forgot he was there, didn’t you?” Danny asked. He transferred all the food to one side so that he could run a hand over the helmet and down to Jason’s neck.

Jason letting someone touch him so casually, especially as Red Hood wasn’t helping Tim’s brain reboot.

“Red, get your ass over here,” Jason said.

Tim figured it was best to listen with whatever the fuck was going on here. He slipped out of the shadows while Danny turned around, tucked himself back into Jason’s arms, and smiled at Tim.

“Red, Danny. Danny, Red Robin, one of the Bats.”

“Hi,” Danny chirped cheerfully and held out his empty hand.

“Hello,” Tim said, shaking it mostly on instinct. What the fuck was going on here?

---

AN: Oh look! Another Bat finally meets Danny! Tim is so, so confused. I'm not feeling well at all, so I went back to the tried and true fic that I'm not writing. It's been a while since I haven't written it, hasn't it?

I no longer tag, but you can subscribe to the masterpost here.

[unfairguy]

“Goon will never be ballin”

Meanwhile Goon being SO much more ballin than the haters 😂😂😂

[too-much-tma-stuff]

What the Workers See

I wanted to write Hyena!Danny at work as Hood's second in command.

Hyena!Danny Masterpost

tw: physical abuse

Jason had been delighted when Danny had presented him the ideas for his Hyena costume, helping him sort out the details and reminding him to add armour. Danny had argued he’d heal anyways so there wasn’t any point, and surely the armour would make it less sexy! Jason had just rolled his eyes and reminded Danny that he was trying to keep his powers secret, and if Nightwing could look like that in his heavily armoured suit Danny would be fine. 

He had sighed and relented, asking for help to get some of the materials he would need, which Jason happily provided. Danny worked on it in their free time, and Jason watched with fascination as Danny’s nimble fingers and equally quick mind fingered out the construction and problem-solved any roadblocks. It was impressive, and when it got to the try on stage most of them ended with the suit on their bedroom floor by the end, Jason just loved it. He particularly loved the choice of the collar.

One rational corner of his mind mentioned he should probably talk to Danny about the power imbalance and the fact that Jason was definitely possessive and abusive. But the other half of his mind fucking purred at the sight of Danny in the collar and catsuit and that part won out, Jason didn’t mention it. 

When it was finally time to unveil Hyena Jason called a meeting of all his goons. The ones that worked for him consistently, not the villain hoppers or the temp workers, they’d find out eventually. If he called everyone who worked for him sometimes he’d need a fucking football field, this would do. As he knew they would they all came, gathering and mingling in the warehouse in front of the makeshift stage.

Jason hopped up onto it about ten minutes after the time he’d told everyone to be there, once he was sure everyone who was coming was here, and Danny was here. “I know you’re all nervous about why the fuck I called you all here. First off let me assure you it’s nothing bad and not a fucking scheme. I have an important introduction and an announcement.” He said and made a hand signal.

Danny, the dramatic bastard that he was dropped down from the rafters and landed on overly light feed on the stage. He grinned behind his muzzle and made a little ‘tada!’ motion that made Hood role his eyes fondly. 

“This is Hyena. He will be working with me from now on. If I am not here you take orders from him in my place, obey him like you would me.” He explained and Hyena gave a dramatic little bow and a cackling laugh. “Is that understood?”

“Yes Boss,” People chorused, looking a little nervous and curious about the new person still. Hyena would have to do some work earning their respect and trust but Jason knew that Danny was more then up for the task. 

---------

As the fighting wound down Jason looked over the damage. It wasn't to bad, but it was so fucking unnecessary, there shouldn't have Been another gang trying to operate out of his territory, under his fucking nose! Did they really think he wouldn't notice? They should have just left when he confronted them, not actually initiated a fight! Now they had bodies to deal with, of those who didn't run, and a bunch of injured people.

A loud whistle made Jason jump slightly before he glanced over to Hyena, who was taking charge. He beckoned a couple field medics forward and cupped his hands around his muzzle to yell over the crowed. 

"If You'd rather go to a real hospital clear out! you need stitches line up here, if you need a bone set, line up there," Hyena directed before glancing around as people straggled into lines. Not many left to go to a actual hospital, in Gotham people tended to be suspicious of doctors, and field medics got a Lot of practice.

"You two!" Danny pointed at two goons who jumped. "You're unhurt, I saw you hide when the fighting got bad. You carry anyone who can't wait in line to the front for emergency care, then we'll talk about reassigning you."

Jason hadn't noticed that, but he was usually too caught up in the fight once blood started to spill so that wasn't Overly surprising. He was grateful Danny had. 

The two singled out looked sheepish and started to obey Danny's commands, checking on those on the ground and either dragging the dead to one side or carrying the living over to Hyena and the other medics. Danny grabbed one of the first aid kits the medics had brought in, ignoring their disproving look, it faded quickly as Hyena started efficiently, and correctly tending to those who needed stitches.

Jason wasn't surprised, Danny had stitched Jason up more then once and he had always done a damn good job. Jason loved seeing Danny liked this, in his element, taking charge and taking care of people. It reminded Jason how much he loved Danny, and it was hot as hell. 

Jason approached Danny, who glanced up at Jason from the wound he was cleaning on a goons arm who was looking away from the blood looking a little green. "Hey Boo, are you hurt?" Danny asked. Jason could hear in his voice that he was smiling even though his muzzle his it.

"No, I'm perfectly fine," Jason assured, he was bruised but he wasn't bleeding anywhere and he could move all of his extremities. 

"Good, I'm glad you're okay. Now make yourself useful and go grab some more clean water," Danny directed him, focusing back on his work.

Jason laughed, if anyone else talked to him like that he'd probably blow a gasket, but Danny was allowed. Jason looped an arm around Danny's waist and leaned his forehead against the top of the other man's head for just a moment, wishing their masks weren't in the way so he could kiss Danny. Jason let go again almost immediately before Danny could start fussing at him for being in the way. 

"You got it Cub," Jason assured fondly, striding off to make himself useful as well.

--------

Unfortunately not every fight went well. They couldn’t win everything, and sometimes the people Hood was after got away. It was another fight, fucking Black Mask had tried to move in on Hood’s territory! Unusual for the cowardly little weasel, he had decided to come himself and join in the fight.

It was absolutely the perfect opportunity to kill the creep once and for all! And maybe Hood was a little too fixated on that, because he was on a fucking one frack mind trying to get to Mask. Hyena was covering his back, and giving orders while he wasn’t paying attention to what was going on, compensating for his tunnel vision though he didn’t notice that. 

What he certainly did notice was when Hyena yanked him back. Mask had called a retreat and was on his way out. Hood had been about to give chance into what was definitely a trap, or at the very least a bad idea to abandon his people and run into a gang of… however many people Mask had left, Jason had not been counting.

It wasn’t a smart thing to do to follow Mask, but that didn’t mean that Jason was fucking okay with Danny manhandling him! He was furious, he was consumed by green blood lust and obsession, and he absolutely would not see reason. 

Hyena was trying to say something but Jason didn’t hear what it was past the blood rushing in his ears. He swung around and struck Hyena hard sending him stumbling back, Jason could see a little blood from where the metal of the muzzle had cut Danny’s cheek under the force of Jason’s blow. 

“Hood,” Hyena pleaded, holding out his hands towards Jason. “Listen, you can’t-”

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do,” Jason snarled, advancing on Danny again, though at least he wasn’t still trying to follow Black Mask anymore. Danny didn’t shield his body when Jason punched him in the stomach clinging to his arm instead, forcing him to stay close and to pause. 

“We’re in public, people are watching,” Danny wheezed, big blue eyes fixed on Jason’s face. He recoiled when he saw tears gathering at the corners, Danny had never looked so… genuinely hurt when Jason had hit him before. But then again, he’s always done it in private before. 

Shit! They weren’t in private! 

Jason looked up and around them, at his people watching them with horror and shock. He saw judgment, anger and disgust there too and shame joined the uncomfortable roiling of emotion in his gut. “We’ll deal with your anger when we get home,” Danny said softly, letting go of Jason’s arm and resting his hands either side of Jason’s helmet instead, making him look back at Danny, focus on him. “I can handle this if you need to go calm down.”

“No, I’ll be fine,” Hood said, gently brushing his fingers over the bruise on Danny’s cheek. It wasn’t healing, he didn’t know why. Could Danny… stop himself from healing? Did he have that much control?

“Good,” Danny said, leaning in to Jason’s touch. “I’ll be fine. Let’s get this over with.” 

Jason nodded and the two of them separated and took control of the situation again, Danny starting to give orders regarding medical care as always, and Jason starting to direct repairs, and plans for retaliation against Mask.

Most of his goons seemed to snap out of their shock and start following orders on instinct, though Jason couldn’t help notice the worried looks that were being directed at Danny in particular. And it seemed Danny did too and was getting sick of it. 

With everyone either treated or being treated he hopped up on a random crate and glared over the room with narrowed eyes. “Of anyone has something to say then fucking say it!” He demanded in an angry hiss that still carried throughout the room. 

When nervous looks were shot Hood’s way he shrugged, spread his hands, and then gestured back at Hyena. Red Hood wasn’t going to interfere, so answer Hyena’s question. 

After a awkward moment one brave soul seemed to appoint themselves the spokesperson and shuffled forward, Danny’s eyes fixed on them, raising an eyebrow. 

“We’re just worried I guess? We all know the two of yous are together, and you know it’s not right for him to hit you right? We all saw the way that Harley was treated and I know you two-”

“We’re nothing like them,” Hyena cut in scowling. “And our relationship is none of your business. If I wanted to stop him I could, we do things the way that works for us. It’s not your place to question it, and I don’t want any of you fucking worrying about me. God forbid if I ever catch anyone pitying me I’ll show them exactly how big of a mistake they’re making. 

“And don’t you fucking judge Hood either. I told him he could do that. I started it. You should mind your own business,” He practically snarled. He hopped down from his makeshift soapbox and stalked passed all the goons without looking at them. “Let’s go home,” he said, grabbing Jason’s hand and leading him away. 

Jason was so grateful to Danny for defending him, and he had a feeling he owed his boyfriend some flowers and a very nice dinner for putting him in a position where he had to. 

[chrysanthemum9484]

DpXDc au where Danny by luck be it good or bad becomes the city spirit of Gotham.

He can leave the city and all but it hurts him due to unbelievable levels of homesickness. Being near the bats whenever he leaves helps a bit.

The bats and birds inherit some abilities which help with stealth, some slight increase in physical prowess, slight gliding and immortality level of healing factor in Gotham. Thankfully Constantine notices and explains it.

Danny always knows everything about Gotham. From people's personal history to their location and current activities.

Gotham is beyond cursed but what the bats are doing weakens the curses bit by bit. They are still a burden though.

Danny has conned the conman Constantine himself into keeping an eye on the curses too and to try remove any of them completely once they feel weak enough. No the bats and birds don't know. Yes they are beyond confused once the Joker out of the blue turns sane and gets put on death row.

Alfred somehow gets cursed into immorality and no one is touching that curse.

Unemployment percentage lowers and lowers slowly but steadily and at some point the batfam have no more goons and loons to fight. Red Hood's goons are registered as employed the very moment they get downgraded to street kid babysitters and worker ladies bodyguards because suddenly there are no more drugs shipped in Gotham.

So out of boredom the batfam annoyed Poison Ivy into creating a forest around half of Gotham, and a fruit and vegetable garden around the other half of Gotham and the most beautiful botanical garden in the center of Gotham.

That leads to lessening pollution, food prices and crime rate being half of what it used to be.

At this point the batfam are annoying their villains to find more legal ways to do what they want to do out of pure boredom. After all there is one theft tried a month at most, the villains have no goons, the Joker is dead and Ivy and Harley are happily tending to lord knows how many acres of land, there are no drug deals to take down, kids and ladies are safer than ever in Gotham and Tim is getting to sleep for 4 hours a day!

The bats create a show for the Riddler to host. He gets to ask all of his riddles and people are actually engaged and enjoying themselves!

Suddenly Red Robin invades Mr. Freeze's Lab, muttering about getting too much sleep and starts working on making a serum to save Nora Fries. And all Mr. Freeze can do is watch and wonder if Red Robin has lost his marbles as he effortlessly heals his wife.

Waylon Jones says 'fuck it' and joins Ivy and Harley and the gothamites slowly start treating him like a person.

Black mask hisses like a cat and leaves permanently with Danny chasing him out with an ecto-broom.

Danny helps Harvey Dent find healthier copying mechanisms.

Scarecrow moves to Amity Park and sets up shop there. Enough said.

And so on and so on.

Eventually Gotham becomes a gothic sunshine city and the batfam are bored to death aside from superhero club Things and Tim is complaining about having a regular human sleep schedule.

Danny is a happy little noodle man due to lack of curses weighting on him.

[robinsegghead]

Danny's Daycare Part 10

[Master List]

The coffee shop was one he’d been to before, though Jason wasn’t much of a coffee drinker. It had grown a lot in popularity recently and Jason vaguely remembered Tim saying something about coming here regularly. Putting in his order (a redeye- which was a normal amount of caffeine to drink Tim), Jason found a booth in the corner and sat down.

He was a bit early so he’d have to wait for Danny. He’d been surprised when he hadn’t gotten a text canceling their meeting after the night Danny and Miguel had had. Jason had almost texted Danny with an excuse to cancel just to make sure the man wasn’t pushing himself too hard but that felt a bit ridiculous.

Danny was a grown man, he could take care of himself just fine. If he didn’t want to cancel, he didn’t have to cancel.

Jason sipped his coffee and watched the entrance out of the corner of his eye. Danny arrived a couple of minutes late, his hair was sticking up in multiple directions like he’d just rolled out of bed, his shirt was inside out, and his jeans were wrinkled. Had he just woken up? 

Eyes landing on Jason, the man made his way to the table with a smile. “Sorry I’m late, I’m gonna grab a coffee and then I’ll join you.”

The barista at the front counter greeted him by name and they started chatting. Did they know each other? Was Danny a regular here as well? He waited for the man’s drink to be made (holy shit how many shots of espresso did they just put into his drink? That had to be a mistake) and thought about what he knew about the man.

He was somehow incredibly strong for his small build and short stature, probably a meta with super strength given his accidental murder of the Joker and easy take down of almost twenty-five men the night before- which. Jesus christ. Jason had learned some things about himself recently. Namely that he liked twinks who could easily pin him down or throw him around. 

Shaking his head, he dismissed those thoughts. Now was so not the time or place.

Danny ran a daycare and seemed to genuinely care about the kids he took care of, he’d taken in two street kids and was helping get them into school again, when Jason insinuated the kids weren’t worth the effort Danny almost snapped his head off, and the man went berserk when someone threatened ‘his’ kid last night.

He and his sister, Jazz Nightingale, had no other known family and their history was locked down behind an encrypted wall neither Tim nor Barbie were able to get through. Which was suspicious but… Jason hadn’t really cared much. He only knew Tim was looking into Danny because of last night.

Tim had blown up a bit when he realized Red Hood and Danny had met on a few occasions. Jason couldn’t exactly explain how they’d met and had instead dodged all of his questions before ditching him and the rest of the bats to go home and implode.

Why implode? Because Danny taking down a bunch of goons that had hurt his kid without holding back (once he’d learned they were child traffickers) was probably the hottest thing he’d seen since the very same guy killed Jason’s murderer. So. Yeah. He’d gone home and had a bit of a crisis thinking about how in under twelve hours he was supposed to meet with the guy to discuss tutoring ‘his kids’.

“Sorry about that.” Danny said, taking the seat across from Jason and startling him out of his thoughts. “Long night. Hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long.”

Jason shrugged. “I like to be early if I can help it so it’s not really your fault I waited.”

He grinned and Jason decided he was a big fan of Danny’s smile. “So you’re good at English?” 

Snorting, Jason nodded. “It was one of the only things I was good at in school.”

“It was my worst subject. My high school English teacher had it out for me- though,” Danny blushed and Jason forced himself to continue eye contact instead of noting how pink his cheeks had grown. “I did fall asleep in his class most days.”

“Looks like not getting enough sleep didn’t stop after high school.” Jason noted. The man had bags under his eyes that rivaled Tim’s. And ever since Tim and Conner got together he’d been sleeping a bit more- mostly because Connor made him, but still. 

Danny groaned and took a swig of his coffee. “There’s a reason my drink has seven shots in it. You know how much time running a daycare, taking care of two teenage boys, and helping my sister get her GED takes up? Talk about burning the candle at both ends. I might as well have thrown the candle into the fire.” He chuckled as if what he’d just said wasn’t insanely worrying.

Also, Jason was pretty sure Danny’s sister was already attending college- why would he be helping her get her GED if that were the case? 

“So what I’m hearing is, you’re desperate for someone to help?” Danny nodded reluctantly. “Well, I thrived in English throughout high school and still read regularly, but you should know, I never finished high school or got my GED. So, technically, I don’t have any qualifications.”

Why the hell did he say that? He could have forged qualifications if he needed to! What if Danny didn’t want somebody who’d never even graduated to teach his kids! What was he thinking-

“That doesn’t really matter to me. I almost didn’t graduate high school.” Oh? “And like I said, my younger sister is working on her GED at the moment. We’re both plenty smart, a degree doesn’t determine someone’s intelligence, just their situation.” Younger sister? Wasn’t Jazz older than him?

“That’s… good to hear.” Jason admitted.

Danny finished his drink- what the fuck was with this guy? “Do you mind me asking why you didn’t finish school? You don’t have to answer, just curious honestly.” 

Make up a lie- “I died.”

What the ever-loving fuck Jason Todd? Aren’t you supposed to be good at keeping secrets? Fucking fuck- not only will Danny not believe him, but he’ll probably rescind his offer of hiring Jason- which- well, he didn’t need the money. He just wanted the opportunity to get to know the guy. But with a mouth as big as his it’s a shock he’s hidden his secret identity as long as he has-

“Oh.” Danny furrowed his brows and stared at Jason seriously. “Okay, yeah, same.”

Wait- What? Did Danny think he was making a joke? But he seemed serious still, something about the way he was looking at Jason was different from before, like he understood, like he meant it when he said ‘same’. “...Same..?” Jason asked, cautiously.

Clearing his throat, Danny looked away. “Yeah. Although, dying wasn’t what almost stopped me from graduating,” he chuckled. “That was more…. Everything else going on. But, uh, yeah- weird conversation to have with someone I don’t really know but-”

“You’re saying you died? Like actually died?” Jason cut in, still not believing what he was hearing. There was literally nothing about Daniel Nightingale online, no records he’d been able to find since he’d first found him a month ago- shouldn’t there be hospital records if he died?

“Yeah, look, I don’t like to talk about it much but yes. I understand. I,” He hesitated, nervously picking at the skin around his fingernails while speaking. “I died. Fully dead, came back… wrong. Different. So I’m not too worried about whether you graduated or not, as long as you can teach the subject.”

Right. The reason they were both here. Not whatever the hell else that was just now (which Jason was one thousand percent looking into when he got home today). “What are you thinking?”

“I suck at everything English except speaking it. The boys need to learn about grammar, how to read and analyze something, how to write papers, essays, etc.” Danny stopped picking at his fingers. “They’ve been out of school for three years now so they have a lot to catch up on. Not only that, Miguel will be going into his senior year and Santiago will be starting freshman year.”

Jason nodded along. “Yeah I can teach all of that. I’ve helped a few of my younger siblings throughout the years, none of them are really great at the subject.”

“I’d obviously pay you. There’s two of them and I’m asking a lot, so name a price and I’ll make it happen.”

“Name a price?” Jason repeated. “You sure about that, doll?” He smirked at Danny’s surprised look. “I could be some schmuck down on his luck trying to take advantage of you right now and you say ‘name a price’?”

Shrugging, Danny rubbed his temple. Did he have a headache? “I mean, you probably couldn’t name a price I couldn’t meet but I guess, hows $150 an hour sound? Wait- should I double it because there’s two of them?” He looked at the ceiling contemplatively while Jason stared in shock. “Okay yeah, $300 an hour good?”

“That’s… way more than necessary.” Jason managed, taken completely off guard.

Danny, who seemed to get some confidence from Jason’s shocked state, leaned forward and smirked. “I can go higher if you’d like, darling. $500 an hour? $750?” He’d lowered his voice and raised an eyebrow. “Ah hell, might as well make it a solid $1,000, I am asking a lot of you, huh sweetheart?”

Where. Had. That. Come. From?

All Jason could think about was how incredibly sexy that confidence was. Jason swallowed, Danny’s eyes followed the action, slowly trailing back up his face and- had Jason imagined the way the man’s eyes paused over his lips? Had the cafe always been this warm? “$150 is plenty.” Jason finally managed.

Leaning back and returning to his former air of laid back and slightly frazzled, Danny smiled. “Sounds good! We usually work in the evenings and weekends, what days and times work for you?”

“Any time on Saturdays is fine, any time after twelve on Sunday’s is fine,” Alfred always gave him the disappointed look when Jason missed a brunch these days. “And week nights… I could probably do seven to nine? Not sure how often you need me to work with them though.”

Danny nodded, thoughtfully. “Two or three times a week would be good. The boys don’t have a lot to entertain them at the moment so they’re trying to get a bunch of the school stuff out of the way. The latest entrance exam for Gotham Academy is the first week of August so they have almost two months but well- that’s not much time. We’re trying to expedite it as much as possible.”

“What if they don’t get in?” Jason asked.

“Then I’ll homeschool them.” Danny shrugged. “I want them to get into Gotham Academy for the social aspects and-” he paused, looking at Jason seriously. “And because I want them to prove to themselves that they’re capable of it. They don’t think they can get in, but I know they can.”

Jason wondered what it would have been like, to have someone believe in him that much when he was younger. Bruce had… he’d done his best, and sometimes Jason thought if there had never been Batman, never been Robin, things would have probably been completely different. If even a fraction of Gotham cared about others the way Danny did, it would change completely.

“They’ll get into Gotham Academy, we’ll make sure of it.”

~~~

Who. The Fuck. Was Dani Nightingale?

Tim had been looking into Danny Nightingale for months- learning everything he could about the man and his past which was, admittedly, not a lot, but he knew a few things. Daniel Nightingale had a bachelor’s in bio chemistry, he was super wealthy, he liked helping people, and he had one sister. ONE. Jasmine (Jazz) Nightingale, a student at Gotham U and intern at Arkham Asylum. 

So why was there suddenly evidence of a second sister, one younger than Danny, whose name was ALSO Danny but with an ‘i’? Where did she come from? Who was she? Why did she look so much like Danny but neither looked like Jazz? 

And another thing? Why was the only thing proving her existence, a social security number, birth certificate, and driver’s license? Where were the social media posts? The email accounts? Literally anything?! She hadn’t existed yesterday, and today- BAM! She’s a whole real person! 

“Tim, I think it’s time for bed.” Connor suggested.

Shaking his head, Tim continued to stare at the exact same information he’d spent the last forty minutes staring at. “I don’t need sleep, I need answers.”

“I will drag you to bed.”

“Kon-”

“Nope, too slow.” Connor grabbed him around the waist and dragged him out of the cave to get his first proper night of sleep in almost a week.

~~~

The meeting with Jason had gone well and they’d settled on him coming over to tutor the boys on Monday’s, Wednesday’s, and Saturdays every week. The boys had asked him how it’d gone when he got home and he tried not to remember the way Jason had called him ‘doll’ or how Danny had snapped back, calling him ‘darling’ and ‘sweetheart’ and checking him out the entire time- what the fuck Danny? The man was looking for a job and Danny had openly checked him out and clearly made him uncomfortable- Jason probably called lots of people doll- it wasn’t flirtatious.

So no. He hadn’t told the boys much about the meeting. Just that Jason would be helping with English from here on out. They’d also talked about Miguel’s outburst. The boy had tried to apologize but Danny wasn’t having it. Everything the boys were doing was hard, and he knew that; they didn’t deserve to feel guilt over getting emotional through the hard days.

The difficult stuff was for Danny to shoulder.

They had pancakes for dinner and the boys spent the night in his place again. Miguel was clearly quite shaken by what had happened but wasn’t ready to discuss it. Life had gotten in the way recently, but he’d promised Miguel a cat, and he thought the kid might need it now more than ever.

Nightingale: Hey, would you be willing to teach a friend of mine about cats? 

Nightingale: … You changed my name again.

Dami: It is your name.

Dami: …You changed my name again.

‘Nightingale’ has changed ‘Nightingale’s’ name to ‘Danny’

‘Dami’ has changed ‘Dami’s’ name to ‘Damian’

Danny: Anyways- will you? I can pay you if you want

Damian: I do not need financial compensation. When were you hoping I could teach your friend?

Danny: As soon as possible? He’s had a rough couple of days and I think the cat will help him. He’s already shown a lot of responsibility towards them.

Damian: This is acceptable. Tomorrow after noon I am free.

Danny: You can come by anytime after noon! Thanks Dami!

Damian: I did not give you permission to call me that, Nightingale.

Danny: I didn’t give you permission to call me that, Dami.

Damian: Touche. 

It seemed they were at a stalemate. The boy didn’t text him back after that which was fine, he’d be coming over tomorrow and Danny could tease him then. Shooting a text to Damian with his home address, Danny paused. Had he ever texted Tim? 

Shit. He was such a bad friend. How long ago had that been anyways? A month? Ancients fuck- Putting in the number he’d hastily typed into an empty memo on his phone, Danny shot out a text.

Danny: Hey Tim, it’s Danny. Sorry it took so long to message, things have been crazy.

He hadn’t seen Tim at the coffee shop since the last time- he didn’t really have the time to go anymore- and wasn’t even sure if Tim really wanted to be his friend or had given Danny his number out of boredom or something. Although, didn’t he say he didn’t get much free time? Plus, it was kind of rude to have waited so long to text.

Collapsing into the couch with a sigh, Danny decided to stop overthinking things (easier said than done) and go to sleep intentionally for once. He’d just closed his eyes when he heard the sound of a window sliding open. Whoever thought it was a good idea to break into the ghost king’s apartment especially after one of his kids was kidnapped was crazy. Before he could get too angry he was met by the sight of Red Hood squeezing through the window with a plastic bag in one hand.

“Wh- you know what, I’m not gonna ask.” Danny rubbed a hand across his eyes.

Red Hood looked startled when he realized Danny was there. It’s his apartment, why wouldn’t Danny be there? “Uh, sorry, you’re usually not here when I bring food.”

“Usually not where? In my own apartment? In the apartment building that I own?” Danny snarked. “Sorry, that was rude.” He stood up feeling the blood rush to his head quickly. “To what do I owe the-” 

He wasn’t quite sure what had happened. One second he was looking at Hood while approaching him, he blinked, and then he was looking up at Hood. They were also much closer than they’d ever been aside from the time the vigilante had taken him home via grappling hook.

Blinking hard, Danny pulled away. “What just happened?”

“You blacked out. Are you okay?”

Danny rubbed the back of his head which usually hurt after his power naps but felt completely fine at the moment. “Yeah,” he sighed, pushing himself to stand up despite Hood’s attempted protest. “Just my body trying to take a power nap. Anyways, thanks for the food- you really don’t have to keep doing that.”

“I want to.” Hood said almost automatically. “What the hell do you mean by power nap? That was a fainting spell if I’ve ever seen one- and believe me, I have.”

Finding a place for the food in the fridge was easy considering Danny hadn’t exactly had time to go to the grocery store in the last few days. “You know- a power nap? When your body tries to overpower you into napping? Happens a lot.”

“Danny- what the- that is NOT normal- you should see a doctor or-”

“Awwww.” Danny chuckled. “The Red Hood is worried for me?” He teased.

The vigilante went silent for a moment, staring at Danny like he was an idiot. “Yes! Jesus fucking Christ man, passing out is not normal and you should most certainly see a doctor about it!”

“Nah, I’m fine.”

Red Hood put his hands on his hips and tilted his head. It was kind of adorable how put-off he seemed. “It’s not fine. How long has this been going on?”

Danny pretended to think about it. He didn’t have to. He knew the exact date he’d started having this issue. He wasn’t keen on telling the Red Hood that he was a baby who couldn’t handle a little murder. “I dunno- a while.”

“Give me an estimate.” Hood countered.

“How long’s it been since we met?” Danny asked (as if he didn’t have the date memorized or hadn’t recounted the events that led to him being casually acquainted with his favorite vigilante). “About that long. You know- after I killed someone?”

Hood froze, his body tense in a way Danny hadn’t personally seen before. “Oh.”

“Yeah oh.” Danny scoffed, closing the fridge and leaning against the counter for support. “Look, the Joker deserved to die and I don’t regret killing him. I couldn’t sleep for a couple of days because of it, but I didn’t regret it. And then… life got crazy. Vigilantes were breaking into my apartment, the daycare was getting busier, the Red Hood was leaving me meals,” he gave the vigilante a pointed look. “Suddenly I’d taken in a couple of teenage boys and also my younger sister all of whom need an education I’m not qualified to provide but am somehow the only one able to do it- it’s a lot, man.”

Hood nodded in understanding. “That is a lot. You don’t have any… friends or family who could help you? Parents?”

Danny’s face darkened. “No. Look, this isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with this. Basically all of high school I got zero sleep and was expected to keep up grades and protect the town- I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, about that. You wanna tell me how you were a teenage vigilante?”

Shaking his hand, Danny huffed. “You want my origin story? Man, I’m retired. And you’ve probably never even heard of me.”

Hood didn’t budge.

“I’ll tell you what- you take off the helmet, and I’ll tell you my origin story.” 

“Not gonna happen.” Hood responded quickly.

With a smug look, Danny crossed his arms. “That’s what I thought. Thanks for the food, the boys always appreciate it, but I think we’re done here.” He moved to show Hood out (through the window) but the man didn’t move, staring at Danny intently. “What?” He sighed.

Hood lifted his arms and though Danny’s danger sense didn’t go off, he worried he’d offended the man. Although he thought very highly of the vigilante, he didn’t really know much about him. But instead of losing his temper or pushing Danny for more, Hood unlatched his helmet.

Danny gasped slightly as the man pulled it away and revealed- a domino.

“Oh you sneaky motherfucker!” He barked out, laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. When he was done laughing, he took in the man’s face. His black hair was messy, probably from the helmet, some of his hair looked… white? But what he noticed the most was the scar on the side of his face. It was a J. Although Danny wasn’t always the best at putting things together, he could extrapolate who’d left that there without needing to ask.

He sucked in a breath. “Okay, I take it back, I think I’m actually going to start sleeping better now that that fucker’s dead.”

Hood pursed his lips. Danny tried not to look too closely at his lips but Ancients damn he was failing miserably. The man was hot. Danny liked men. He liked men so much.

The vigilante cleared his throat and Danny snapped out of it. “Sorry. I guess a deal is a deal. You want tea? Coffee? Something to eat? It’s kind of a long story.”

It seemed that Hood was going to refuse his offer but thought better of it. Maybe he noticed the way Danny’s voice shook a bit when he spoke or the haunted look he tried to cover up with a smile. “Tea would be great. Anything black.”

Nodding, Danny set to making them each a cup of tea immediately. He had a simple decaf black tea that he liked in the evenings and set to making them each a cup. “Milk? Sugar?” 

“A little of each.” Came the vigilantes' response. He sounded farther away than he had a moment ago and when Danny looked over to see why he found the man looking at pictures of him with his fraid. 

When the tea was ready he brought it to the couch and set the cups down. “Those are my friends.” He said, startling Hood out of his apparently deep thoughts. Even with the domino covering his eyes, Danny could tell the man was thinking deeply about something. 

Instead of asking whatever questions he had, the man picked up the mug meant for him and took a sip. “Thank you.”

Danny grabbed his own mug and sat on one side of the couch, Hood followed suit and sat on the other end. There was a lot of room between them. 

“Anyway,” Danny took a sip of his tea to put off telling the story a bit more. “My… parents, Jack and Maddie, are what you might call mad scientists.” He noted the way Hood tensed. “They had a fascination with ghosts and proving their existence and studying them. When I was a kid Jack and Maddie began constructing a portal to what they called ‘the Ghost Zone’. It took years. When they were done- it didn’t work.

“They were pissed, but my friends and I thought it looked pretty cool. So they dared me to go inside and take a picture. And- well- I wanted to look cool for my friends. So I went inside.” He paused, taking a sip. “Jack and Mddie are idiots and put a switch on the inside of the portal, and as a certified klutz, I tripped into it.”

Hood scrunched his brows together clearly tempted to interrupt but aware that he shouldn’t. It was cute. 

“I’d say the amount of electricity that went through my body was a few thousand volts. I died. ” He let that sink in for a moment, Hood’s lips had parted in shock. Danny held up his hand and showed Hood his lichtenberg scars. “I died but Jack and Maddie weren’t completely crazy. They were right about the ghost zone- although it’s called the Infinite Realms to those who actually inhabit it and while the portal opened through my body it was flooded with something called ectoplasm.

“Ectoplasm is part of ghosts. They need it to exist, they produce it, it’s like blood… kind of. So the electricity killed me but the ectoplasm tried to keep me alive and I ended up half dead… half alive. You with me so far?”

Hood ran a hand through his hair. “There’s... more?”

Danny laughed. “So much. But we won’t get into all of that.” Hood didn’t need to know about every rogue he’d fought, the fact that he’d become king of the Infinite Realms at fifteen, or what happened after high school…

“How old were you?” Hood asked like it was important.

He guessed it was. “Fourteen.” He managed.

Hood cursed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

 “With the portal open, ghosts thought it was fair game for them to come through. Ghosts- and keep in mind, ‘ghost’ is a really generalized term, there are different kinds. Anyways, ghosts socialize through fighting and sparring so when they showed up and started attacking… I felt responsible.

“So I kicked their butts and threw them back into the Infinite Realms. They kept coming back and I kept dealing with them. Jack and Maddie, ever intent on catching a ghost to study, chased me for years not knowing I was their son. At one point the government got involved, it was a whole thing, eventually I was able to prevent the ghosts from coming back without permission and retired. Ta-da.”

Hood licked his lips and Danny knew- he knew Hood was trying to understand what Danny had just said but holy fuck why did he have to lick his lips? “So… You… died? And you… came back… wrong?” 

Something about the way he asked it struck Danny as strange. It sounded like a phrase he’d said before, something maybe he’d… heard others say? It wasn’t offensive, just… strange. “I guess you could look at it that way. I don’t know if ‘wrong’ is the best way to put it, just… different. Despite what Jack and Maddie will tell you- I’m still the same guy I was before I died. Well- as much the same as you can be after experiencing something like that.”

“This is…” Danny nodded encouragingly as the man tried to digest what he’d learned. “Okay. So- sure. Ghosts. Why not? How did you… deal with them?”

Danny had pointedly ignored telling Hood about his ghost form- it felt… too personal. But he did feel a need to explain a bit to the man- the Avenger of the Dead. “When I came back I had… powers. Like ghosts. I mean, I’m half ghost so… I can do the things they can do plus some other stuff.”

“And that’s how you accidentally killed the clown? Super strength?”

“Something like that, yeah.”

Hood stood up and began pacing- something he’d clearly been itching to do for a while but had held off for Danny’s sake. “So… when you died and came back- did you- were there like… side effects?”

“Like what?” Danny tilted his head.

“Uncontrollable rage.”

It was a strange question. The same way Hood asking if he ‘came back wrong’ was strange. Like he was drawing from personal experience rather than asking about Danny specifically. “Hood.” Danny stood slowly, no need for another fainting spell at such a fragile moment. “Why do you ask?”

There was only a moment of hesitation before the vigilante answered. “Because I died and came back wrong too.” 

Oh. Okay. Danny had never had this conversation before. He had to admit, something felt a bit off about Hood when they first met- but everyone felt a bit off in Gotham. It was in the air, buried under the streets built atop graveyards, it was embedded in every building and plant and person. The city reeked of that different feeling. So he’d brushed it off and learned to tune it out.

“Danny?”

Right, he was in the middle of an important conversation. “Sorry, I’ve just never… uh… There aren’t many people like me. Can you… tell me more about how you came back?”

Hood tensed.

“Or not!” Danny shouted. “Sorry! Ancients, Danny.” He sighed. “Look, I never had uncontrollable rage- although… Well…” Did he really want to go there? But the look on Hood’s face- even covered by a domino- told him the man needed answers. And Danny might have them. “There’s a… different version of me that has some pretty bad anger issues.”

“A different version of you?”

“An evil future me. He’s still around… somewhere.” Danny feigned nonchalance. Truth be told he didn’t know exactly where Dan was- he’d left that to Clockwork to handle, but last he heard his future self was getting therapy which- that was hilarious actually. Danny hadn’t worked up the courage to ask Clockwork about him. Not once.

Hood shook his head. “This is… crazy. You’re telling me-” He cut off, his head turned to the side slightly as if listening to something. “Fuck. Okay. I have to go- Spoiler needs backup- we are not done talking. This is crazy and I have a million questions, Jesus Christ- ghosts!” He rambled, looking for his helmet and taking his leave without so much as a goodbye.

Well. 

That went…

It went. That’s for sure.

Prev. Next

[coolcoolcoolbutwtf]

Now presenting Danny the impy jester and his co henchmen joker junior!

Getting knocked down from the warehouse ceiling rafters and landing painfully face first on the very hard floor was decidedly not something Trixter, formerly known as Danny Fenton had ever wanted to experience again.

Hearing you boss's tiny duplicate kidnapped torture kinda son get thrown into the discarded pile of mattress with a loud "uff" was also something he didn't want to hear but for a entirely different reason. Joker didn't like failure.

Failure hurts. Well, his pre beating by way of concrete floor would probably be enough of a lesson until he got busted from juvi, again.

It's just his luck, the one time they fight at the back of an absolutely packed mattress store warehouse and he gets to land on the one spot on the concrete floor without any mattress or padding whatsoever!

Trixter groaned lifting his head from the floor up while using his right hand to lift his glove checking the time. The watch unlike Danny didn't groan while seeing the time. Didn't either when the feeling of blood slightly dripping to his lips started and definitely did not when his nose furiously started gushing.

Trixter did groan loudly when the realization came thundering back into focus.

Both of them, him and joker junior just lost, both of them failed at keeping Batman busy long enough while joker and Harley set up five streets away.

The boss always gets so mad whenever they fail at keeping the bat busy long enough and getting caught on top of that? He's always so pissed at having his goons busy busting his henchmen out from prison.

Won't be long now before that bat and his annoying sense of justice sends his black and white jester butt back to arkham's juvi for the mentally unstable, again. This would be the first time Junior got caught since joining the official joker 'family'.

Trixter shudders slightly his breathing forming clouds ears suddenly feeling cold from the wind. Wait, full stop, wind, cold wind? It's summer and it can't be that cold now and Mr. Freeze is locked up tight in Arkham since last week's ice sculpture incident so how?

Movement from the mattress pile junior landed in alerted Trixter to swirl his to the left. Missing when the glow from the floor below himself started to stretch into patterns the cold wind now making frost form on the walls and windows. Dark green symbols forming on every wall its green glow growing in intensity.

Batman's dark silhouette landed a few meters away from the pile of mattresses turning his head around alert.

Trixter sneaked his way over to the pile using just the tinyest amount of ghost power for help. Blood was still rapidly dripping from his nose when he started giving junior a rough shake. The tiny joker had apparently passed out when he landed or maybe Batman knocked him out. Whichever it was didn't matter what did matter was junior needing to wake up right now. Batman was distracted if they could just sneak away long enough for the joker and Harley to finish.

A loud ticking sound started to echo. Joker couldn't have set it off here right now could he!?

No that wasn't right. The sound was to clear the ticking sounded from right above them! But it being so close was impossible he would have heard it with his heightened senses and not to mention see it with how close it sounded. Ugh! Where was all this green light coming from! Wasn't it supposed to be a laughing gas bomb in the park? This sounded like a normal bomb timer not one of the joker's laughing ones!

The green glow became blinding Danny Trixter gripped junior Tim shoulder tighter. A muffled cry of a NO was echoed!

Trixter woke up to sand in his face and the burning heat of fire licking his back. The thick smell and feel of smoke hanging heavy and low in the air. Green dyed hair scruffed his chin. Danny sighed letting out a breath of relief he didn't know he was holding. Trixter turned his head confused looking over his shoulder back at a large building. Was it a warehouse on fire?

Where ware they? This Is not, can't be anywhere in Gotham. Sure a building aflame was a common enough site but. There is like sand everywhere, it's not like it's dirty no it's, fudge bread sticks are they in the desert?

Wait a moment. Flaming warehouse in a desert? Oh, oh fuck. That's just their luck, fuck. Trixter has heard enough bragging from the joker to know where they are. Those lights, green glow ugh this is just his fucking luck isn't it?

Danny had a history with "history time travel portals" e.i alternative universe travel.

"Squeak!" Trixter cursed he may have died before but he ain't taking any chances with Batman now. Trixter shock his head the cap and bells on his head cling-klanged loudly. Too loudly it appeared if the Batman pointy eared shaped figure in the short distance away quick motions was anything to go by.

Butter biscuits!

Trixter knew his jester demon thing disguise worked great in case of scaring people or tricking someone into believing he was an actual demon. Better demon than ghost but in this case he didn't think it would matter. Batman hadn't been scared, shocked, spooked or even very surprised

It was rather insulting actually.

An angry Batman could probably beat a half ghost and former Robin electrocute into a mini joker. Danny looked down quickly then up again, mini joker, joker just blew up Batmans Robin, junior currently looks like a mini copy of joker and Trixter a fucked up black and white Harley.

It's not like Trixter could even really explain! He wouldn't even have a chance to try explaining. Unless Batman knew cursed jester squeak's speak both junior and him were in for a world of trouble.

God, should he maybe try and make junior not look so joker-esk? Maybe try and smudge his makeup off? Yes definitely do that and hide the flower, wait just take the hole jacket!

Trixter could definitely hide most of juniors joker looking clothes in his chest cavity! His chest has a portal space in It, one of the reasons why joker even brings him out on heist! Trixter might even have some normal-ish clothes for a change or makeup remover.

"Jason! Jason is that you?" The shape was much more Batman shaped then before was approaching fast but with all the smoke it would be hard, was from the way Batman was calling out. Jason was that the name of the second Robin? Did Batman think Trixter was him? Danny looked back down to where his gloved hands were still smudging juniors makeup. His palm and fingers staind red from lipstick and pink from the white paint mixing. Tim Let out a loud groan.

"Jason!" The smoke was thick Batman couldn't see well but was steadily making his way towards them. Trixter fought himself. He could maybe fly away for a bit with junior but his only way of flying in this form required him to grow wings. He wouldn't be able to take them away without cutting them off. It hurts so bad but if Batman sees them. A twitch from junior made Trixter steal himself.

He.

"Jason?" Trixter looked up alarmed a squeak escaping him how was Batman so close!

[atopvisenyashill]

composite characters

alayaya + chataya (/septa lemore) - i’ve talked about this plenty, ros as a concept is fine it’s the execution that’s ass. my idea was to fold ros into the golden company storyline a season or so before tyrion so the audience is a little more invested in it (and so you have more time to explain it lmao) but you could fold her in somewhere else, that just makes the most sense to me as to what you would do with a sex worker turned spy for varys, and reduce the number of characters the audience has to care about (by also getting rid of lemore).

garlan + willias + mace (probably) - it pains me but i get downsizing on the named tyrells. however. i mean if u can get dame diana rigg to bite, in the words of meg cabot *kill the dad* and make willas the head of house tyrell, completely cut garlan so there’s 3 tyrell siblings (fuck u d&d). some of this depends on what happens in twow obviously but it’s fine.

nymeria + tyene + spotted sylva - listen arianne needs a consistent familiar face for the casuals. just cut tyene & have nymeria be in on the queenmaker plot (add some unnecessary action & have arianne spring her from jail if u want) THEN separate them once doran lets them in on the plotting.

beth cassel + jeyne poole - i mean you could do this a few ways imo you can have jeyne cassel stay behind in winterfell & feature her interacting with bran & rickon, go thru the hostage trauma circle with theon, and then gets pressed into being fake arya later in some big ooh ah reveal after she’s been missing a minute OR you could have jeyne cassel who goes with to king’s landing and basically has jeyne poole’s exact plot but she’s related to jory & rodrik too. “what about the lf betrayal plot” i mean he already killed ned & he’s got some shady stuff cooking re: sweetrobin, i think it’s fine if we juggle the moral responsibility of jeyne cassel completely onto the lannisters, boltons, and freys.

myranda royce + mya stone (/bronze yohn + nestor royce) - i think it’s more interesting if she’s alayne’s fellow noble bastard but is just like, a bit older and more jaded & sus about alayne but if you wanted to REALLY cut down on the characters in the Vale, you can have a noble heiress who, depending on how the Vale story shakes out, helps lead the Vale knights/is a stand in as The Vale Character, who is Alayne’s friend + its hard to get across the whole “all the men died & now like 65% of the north is down to daughters and widows ruling” thing but you could do that concept with a Myranda Royce who inherits control of the Royce forces because all the men are dead (again, depending on how the Vale story actually goes).

lyn corbray + lothar brune - tbh, i think u really only need two (2) old people, one (1) girliepop, and one (1) petyr goon for the vale story line to work. u just pick a girl, pick a goon, name anya waynwood & bronze yohn royce onscreen and just use extras for the other people it’s fine.

coldhands + benjen - listen to me. if coldhands’ identity is like, not important, and benjen isn’t out here doing anything that COMPLETELY precludes him from being coldhands, i think it’s fine to just make him coldhands. if coldhands is danny flint however you can bet your ass i’m figuring out how to work that lore into the goddamn show, benjen can suffer.

val + dalla - you can give jon angst about barking at mance’s fake widow or cut that whole thing completely, or straight up have dalla start off dead and aemon steelsong is like Freshly Born and being taken care of by mance’s sister in law. but the point is, you can combine them very easy and have like A Wildling Spearwife Composite jon is interacting with.

harwin + lem lemoncloak + tom o’ sevens - you have to have thoros & beric (…and LADY STONEHEART) but you can combine all the other dudes ie just do like a lem who can play the lute, imo if you’re writing a script & having lem know arya works, do it, but if it’s not coming out right, cut it (this is just like, self explanatory really, which is why this is what they do in the show, even tho they then….don’t do any of the later bwb plots with thoros & beric & the lute guy)

hizdahr + reznak - this is basically what the show does. i think you could cut reznak and have hizdahr be more book like too if you really want, but also, i think there's several ways you can handle the great masters as characters without having to have galazza, hizdahr, reznak, AND the shavepate, which is kind of a lot to keep track of for a casual audience.

dany's guards - okay so the thing is, obviously grey worm in the show is a composite but not just of the unsullied/slave characters, also of her khalasar and that is dumb. there should be one (1) unsullied, one (1) freeman, and one (1) bloodrider. the thing is i don't want to choose this alsjfd i love grey worm, red lamb, mossador, strong belwas (JUSTICE FOR STRONG BELWAS), rakharro (JUSTICE FOR RAKHARRO AND ELYES GABEL), i don't really know what backgrounds to go with, i think that depends on who shows up for casting really.

i don’t think you can decide which greyjoys to combine until you know their endgames to be honest, if EYE had been given this project i would have turned right to george and been like “you don’t have to tell me what happens to ANYONE ELSE but i NEED to know the fate of every individual greyjoy to make this work”

i think quentyn martell is the tom bombadil of asoiaf. i think he’s really interesting but i’m not really sure you can fit him into an adaptation without bringing the pacing to a screeching halt. i’m willing to be talked out of that stance tho.

[wandixx]

Ghost of fries and Hero of cookies part 3

All work words count: 14 643

Words in this part: 3 056

Summary of whole work: Duke wasn't expecting to wake up from his quick rooftop nap to some meta kid with fries. He also wasn't expecting kid to stay

Or

Danny asked Dani to stay safe while she was in Gotham. Where would she be safer than under the wing of local hero? And he looked like he needed bad day combo anyway

This part summary: Joker goons are in for an orange surprise and Duke does not like it in the slightest

Beta read by @audhumla-sailor though English is second language for both of us, so proceed with this in mind. I also know all of the charaters through fics alone, so probably ooc. Stay catious if it's something you don't like

First part, Previous part

trigger warnings: gun violence, panic attacks, dissociation, mentions of Joker gas and what it doeas to people (tell me if i missed something, I'll add it)

Duke was having quite a good day. His schoolwork finally got lighter and up until now nothing notable happen on his patrol. Obviously, couldn’t have Gotham without at least one mugging and bank and corner shop robbery. About the last thing, if it was chain store he would conveniently arrive too late to stop it and just follow up to make sure cashier didn’t get fired. He used to be intimately close with hardships of getting necessary supplies like food or gas masks while corporate assholes were trying to suck people dry. But it was family business so he actually had to step in. He did mention secure way of getting resources to would be robbers though. All in all, not so bad, pretty good day. As for now, he was swinging on grapple to meet with Dani, armed with healthy snack Alfred demanded he took for her when he got texted on his Signal-work-phoneTM. It meant important business 90% of the time, so he stopped to check it out. Other 10% were memes from Dani that usually were worth it anyway.

Got it in one, Hoopoe texted. He opened chat expecting funny video or something instead to be greeted by:

Dani: Hey Signal

Dani: Peple aint spossedf t get out f Arkham

Dani: Amirite?

His stomach dropped. He wished it was hypothetical question but he knew better than to believe such fantasies. Things didn’t go so well in Gotham, especially not with Hoopoe.

You: Yeah, your right. What’s up?

You: You’re*

Dani: Nerd

Dani: Whatre you’re thots on clowns

Dani: ?

His stomach officially landed at his feet and decided it wasn’t enough dropping and ended up on a street below. Even if Joker was still locked up, his goons being active were bad news.

You: Where are you?

You: Hoopoe, where are you?

Dani: Clm dow I ned to chek

Dani: I have ni ieda

Dani: The box building rod

Dani: roof*

Dani: Warehouse?

Dani: That the wors

Dani: I think

You: There are over 1000 warehouses in Gotham

Dani: Idk wht yu want me totll yu

Dani: Therere other warehous arond?

You: Okay

You: Check corners for symbol and number

Back in the day everyone other than Bruce decided to take part in a challenge to count all of the warehouses in Gotham manually. They each got their sector and graffiti spray to mark counted buildings. Later it kinda turned into a way of identifying them. 

Dani: Red blb with too wite dots

Dani: #83

Okay, he wasn’t too far. He risked roof hopping and checking texts to make sure she didn’t try anything stu-

Dani: Im goin in

You: No!

You: Stay where you are!

You: Hoopoe!

You: Hoopoe!

Dani: Calm down worrywart

Dani: Jus wante ti get ab look

Dani: Invisible

Dani: M not dump

I doubt it

You entered building with Joker’s goons with no back-up or plan. It’s extremely dangerous

Dani: Yeah, yeah don care

Dani: 5 goons in clown masks

Dani: Maks idk wat of

Dani: Not northern hemisphere of sky for sure

Dani: Weird containter s

Dani: Ari smells funny

Dani: Giggly i guess

Dani: U prbl know better

You: Get out of there

You: NOW!

You: Try not breathing it in

Dani: K

Dani: Ill stop brething then

You: GET OUT!

Dani: K

Dani: Why so agressive

Because Duke knew what Joker gas could do to person. He knew how it took wonderful people (like his parents) and left shells wand shadows of who they used to be. Because every gas release left him with panic attack. Because he knew it was more dangerous than even some vigilantes thought it was.

You: Wait until I get there

Dani: K

He almost tripped with how much he tried to speed up.

Dani was actually vibrating when he arrived but stayed quiet. Good. If she breathed in some Joker gas it wasn’t working dose yet. Duke had deep feeling not even Alfred’s cookies would be enough to deter her from entering. Offering her a granola bar he sat at the edge of the roof with bone deep sigh. Girl took snack eagerly, bouncing around like puppy high on caffeine.

“How about we take a note of this happening and get going? Other Bats are better equipped to deal with this,” They weren’t but he didn’t want Dani anywhere near this mess. He himself didn’t want to be anywhere near it either.

Kid got deadly still, staring at him as if she could read his deepest secrets if she looked hard enough.

“They’re scaring you” she whispered with strong feeling but Duke had trouble reading what feeling was it. He put his face in his hands for a moment. How was he even supposed to answer that?

“Joker is one of the most dangerous people in Gotham and these guys are working for him. They have guns. Of course I’m a little scared”

Judging by the face Dani made, she wanted to call him out on his bullshit but thought better of it. She floated to sit next to him, swallowing granola in few bites.

“My friend Johnny mentioned him,” she started between chewing ”he said ‘bastard murdered my baby bro Jay and Jay knew his way in fight, stay away from him Dani’. Normally Johnny isn’t so careful”

“All more reasons to leave it for others!” Duke almost shouted, hope growing in his chest. Maybe he could steer her away from it!

“He also told me to hit him if I happen to meet him. He would owe me ‘big one’ then. Do you think I could get ‘small one’ for couple of goons?!”

“Hoopoe no!”

Girl looked thoughtful and after over two weeks of working together he learned to fear this expression.

“Whatever you’re thinking, no. I’ll buy you biggest fries, just leave this–” he waved vaguely at the warehouse hoping it would get message across “–whole mess alone” There was lump in his throat.

Dani haven’t abandon whatever thought got her like that and nodded to herself few time. She drifted around a bit, shifted under her way too long cloak and finally settled with a soft smile.

“You’re scared… Terrified. You’re terrified of them,” she started calmly, like she would talk to a victim if she actually knew how to do it ”It’s okay. It’s great. Fear is what keeps humans alive,” she nodded as if she recounted something from textbook properly in front of the class “But I’m not scared and I fought people much stronger than them and I’m even better now thanks to you. If you’re so terrified, it means they need to be dealt with and it needs to be done fast. It’s okay,” her grin from soft turned devilish “I was itching for some fun fight anyway”

“Dani-”

“It’ll be quick, I promise,” she said, serious again “Don’t worry,” she stood up, saluted and fell through the roof, all too fast to react or not miss it with a blink. Frankly, it caught Duke so off guard he couldn’t even move for a few seconds after the whole ordeal anyway. He threw himself down to the nearest window as soon as he regained control over his body. His heart was stuck in his throat.

Dani tackled first goon with delighted giggle right when he crashed inside. He checked if his mask was secure on reflexes he plummeted towards the ground, moving his body to land safely on top of the shelf. Warehouses were weird place to fight. Easy to get vantage point like Duke just did but was also hard in a way. Little space made it hard to use wider streaks, easy get backed into corner. Annoying more than anything.

Dani’s wrestling match was so attention grabbing that nobody even looked at Duke, despite his far from subtle arrival. He threw himself forward when he caught telltale shine of the gun in one of goons hands. It was dumb move when Dani was so close to his ally, but who he was to criticize Joker goon’s live choices. It didn’t take Signal long to understand he wouldn’t make it on time. He had to but there was no-

Two gunshots rang in rapid succession split second before Duke got to the goon and, with swiftness granted only by adrenaline and fury people got when someone their got hurt, knocked man out cold. Before body could hit the ground he spun around to see the damage because Dani still refused to wear any armor and from this close goon would have to be Storm Trooper to miss her. Because she was most likely bleeding heavily. What if they hit something instantly lethal?

He faced a fight right in time to see Dani jumping at another goon also openly wielding a gun. He wanted to yell at her but bullets were fired before he got a chance. He looked for blood dripping from her torso while dodging another man  barely taking his eyes off Dani.

“That wasn’t nice,” she sounded like she pouted! At being shot! “If I was anyone else I would be seriously hurt right now, you know?” her voice was somewhat off. Like it wasn’t quite made by her vocal cords but some awkward voice generator.

Before the appalled man could react, he got technically not too good right hook to the jaw. It was strong enough to make him unconscious and get quite loud creak out of his neck. Duke hoped Dani didn’t mess up the guy's spine. He was criminal but he didn’t deserve this type of treatment.

Duke focused back on his own fight when he made sure that girl wasn’t in immediate danger of dying. He dodged running goon again, who literally ran himself into the shelf because of that. Signal used his short confusion to hit him in the side of his neck, rendering the opponent unconscious. Okay, they made it, this was the last-

Another gunshot made his sped-up heart skip a beat. Lump in his throat suffocated him.

No, no, no, no, no-

“I shot you in the face!”

 He looked her way ready to see unmoving body and red decorating concrete floor.

“There was a good quip for- oh right” she started cheerfully, entirely unharmed, before her face twisted into something actually demonic.

“Y̶o̸u̵r̵ ̶p̵e̶s̴k̶y̵ ̴l̷i̷t̶t̸l̶e̸ ̵b̷u̸l̴l̴e̶t̷s̵ ̴w̸o̴n̵'̸t̵ ̵h̶u̵r̶t̸ ̸m̷e̶, ₥ØⱤ₮₳Ⱡ₴”

She laughed in distinctly Dani way, all bright and joyful while also so not like herself, distorted and echoey it mage hairs at the back of his neck stand.

Duke froze when goon fired again and there was no way she dodged it. There was not enough space. She had to get shot. She got shot and he did nothing to stop it. A child got hurt because of him-

He looked at but hadn’t quite seen how Dani knocked out last goon and flew up to him. He heard her voice but words were impossible to understand over rush of blood in his ears. He could tell she was laughing. They should get out. Dani mentioned giggly smell in the air. It had to mean Joker gas. They needed to be out yesterday.

He stumbled a bit, forcing his leg to cooperate, half caring, half dragging girl to the nearest exit point. Fact that he could touch her and didn’t feel any blood was grounding a bit.

“-gnal, Signal are you okay? Your heart is beating weird,” Dani asked, sounding a bit scared for the first time today. Duke’s brain felt too fuzzy to care “Signal, you’re freaking out, calm down, please”

Light assaulted their eyes the moment they were out. Before he got fully used to it, he set girl in front of him and detached her cape. She may have squawked at this action but he didn’t care. She was shot, he needed to check her for injuries.

She got shot, she got shot, she got shot-

“Signal what-” he was clearly freaking her out “Oh. You think I’m hurt. I told you I could handle it. I’m fine. Signal I’m really fine. I have intangibility, bullets can’t hurt me. I’m fine Signal”

Duke wanted to make sure. Adrenaline or simple wish to not worry him could make her ignore something. He couldn’t let her. He made her turn maybe a little to roughly.

He wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if she bled out.

She was actually fine.

Relief hit him so strong he crumbled against the wall, his mind finally succumbing to the haze. It was fine. It was all actually fine.

He may have heard some yelling.

Next thing he registered was something tad too warm, almost burning his palms. His gloves did their job of protection well though. There was a herbal smell. Melissa, he registered after a moment. It took him some more time to realize that the source of the smell was in his hands. He had scathingly hot cup of melissa in his hands. He stared at a little bit squashed paper again trying to get used to the light. He didn’t even realize he closed his eyes. Sound of the paper bag made him look up where Dani, still without her cape, crouched few feet away from him.

“You back?” she asked cautiously. Duke wasn’t sure how to answer. He was and he wasn’t. His mouth didn’t work anyway. He shrugged, mindful of the cup in his hands. Blanket, he didn’t even know he was wrapped in, fell from one of his shoulders.

“I don’t know what happened but Jazz likes this tea when she needs to calm down. Though she usually needs to drink it to make it work,” Dani rambled, gesturing widely “You’re still breathing kinda funny, can you slow down? It’s not good for humans to breathe so fast. It doesn’t let good stuff from air get in your blood and travel around your body and it’s not healthy. I know, Jazz told me and she is really smart. She wants to be this doctor who stabs brain back into working. She had this smart word for it… Neurosurgeon, I think it’s this one. She said breathing like that is not good for brain so slow down? In for four, out for four? I don’t know, Signal, just calm down?”

Right, he still was hyperventilating. Duke focused on his lungs, forcing them to expand, trying to match up Dani’s slightly gasping breaths.

He really was freaking her out, wasn’t he?

Melissa was almost lukewarm by the time he was back in his body enough to drink it. It was sweet, a bit too much for his taste.

“You good now?” Dani asked and Duke nodded. He was as good as he could at the moment “Great, I didn’t want to leave you for too long so I don’t have BatBurger. I got cookies though. And I can go get it now”

“Don’t,” he caught her arm and squeezed, not sure why he did it himself.

“Huh?”

“Don’t go anywhere”

“Sure. Wanna cookie? I have chocolate chips and healthy, wheat ones”

“Chocolate”

“Okay” she nodded and fixed blanket on his arms. It was comfy. If Duke was firing on all cylinders, he would wonder where she got it.

“Don’t ever do it again”

“What is it though?”

“Jumping into danger like that”

“Oh, really? It wasn’t that dangerous, they were normal humans”

“They had Joker gas and guns”

“Intangibility means I can ignore bullets Signal, don’t be such worrywart. It’s bad for your health. What’s Joker gas?”

Question and the whole statement felt so surreal that Duke couldn’t help but laugh, choked and hysterical as it was. She didn’t know what Joker gas was. Worrying about her getting shot was bad for his health. He just had a panic attack and was comforted by a ten years old girl with cookies and melissa. What the fuck?

“Hey!” Dani pouted “Don’t laugh like that! Jazz always says that you shouldn’t laugh when someone doesn’t know something, just explain it to them! Signal!” she whined but the damn broke he couldn’t rear his hysteria back in “Alright, I’m Googling it”

She did as Duke’s laughter winded down. He was almost calm when she deemed her research enough.

“Alright, this is some nasty shit”

This sentence startled him into full silence. Dani was ten, swearing wasn’t something she did, like, ever. He must’ve scared her a lot.

“I’m fine though. I didn’t breathe it in. Did you? This laughter sounded a bit worrying to be honest”

“I’m okay, I had gas mask. People sometime laugh to release tension”

“Oh”

“Yeah. But you were in the building with it and didn’t have gas mask”

“I wasn’t breathing”

“You were talking”

“Our fucked up biology, as Danny likes to put it, means that one doesn’t mean another. I just don’t use it often because humans find it uncanny and my throat gets itchy after some time”

Something in Duke wanted to argue more but it was squashed but utter exhaustion that crashed him.

“Alright”

They sat for a long moment.

“Are you ready to patrol now?”

Duke would laugh again if he had any energy left.

“I think we should end for today. I would be useless like that”

“Okay, valid. You go home I’ll fly around a bit”

“No. You’re going home too. I don’t have enough emotional energy to worry about you getting into some mess like this again”

They stared at each other for a long moment before Dani looked away with angry huff.

“Okay. You’re worse than Danny, you know?”

“I don’t care. Go home and stay safe”

“You sure you will be alright if I go now? I can walk or fly you somewhere, not home if you don't want me to but maybe somewhere closer?”

“I’ll be fine. I can call my brother. Just go please”

“Sure. See you tomorrow, Signal. You were really brave today”

“Thank you, Hoopoe” If she answered, he didn’t hear her. He fumbled with his comm to turn it on with still shaky hands. Finally he managed and called a pick up in the form of Jason. It was great to have older brother who always had time like that. Even if it meant a lot of unnecessary questions about what happened Duke wasn’t up to answering it yet and threats of serious violence on his enemies.

Duke couldn't force himself to let go of the orange blanket. It was grounding.

Though Alfred made him hot chocolate with marshmallows. He wouldn’t repeat today for that, but it certainly was nice accent.

*********

"Humouristic" summary of this part

Dani: Yo, there are goons here. Gonna investigate.

Duke: *quietly freaks out*

Random Joker's goons: *do normal goon things*

Dani: *attacks them* HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Duke: Is this what minor heart attack feels like?

Goons: *start shooting*

Duke: Is this what major heart attack feels like?

Dani: Dude, you good? Here, get some tea, cookies and blanket

*

Dani, few hours later, texting: Hey Signal, remeber to bring back my cape tmrw

Duke, internally: Wait, this is her cape?

Duke, also texting: Wanna better one? Like Spoiler has?

Dani, somehow conveing Ghost Speak via text: Don't you dare

Thank you for reading this <3

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