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possuminabathtub · 16 days ago

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Spooky Scary Stem Majors - A light kidnapping & family dinner

a/n - This is a part of my Spooky Scary Stem Majors series, which is becoming less of a series and more of a collection of scenes and vague chapters, and probably won't turn into an actual fic but is fun to write anyways, so. It's mostly dp x dc, but also involves my oc Mel from another universe.

The Masterpost

Wordcount - 3.2k

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Mel wasn’t one easily caught off guard. In fact, she’d been frequently accused of hypervigilance, by both her therapist and all of her closest friends, among others. So being drugged and kidnapped by Gotham thugs was just plain embarrassing. She was sure she’d get around to being embarrassed when the heavy haze of the drugs wore off. Her power felt far away, slippery and out of reach, a buzzing swarm of bees that danced around her fingers as she tried weakly to grab them. She was in a chair, could feel the rough wood against her back, no that wasn’t right, because she wasn’t sitting. Was she? She could barely feel her body, much less determine if she was sitting up. She could definitely smell wood though, and fuel, like a gas station in the middle of a forest. A laugh bubbled up, turning quickly to spinning nausea. Her thoughts faded out as a wave of lightheadedness overtook her and her ears started ringing. Consciousness faded again, or at least drifted far away.

A shaft of light pierced through her eyelids, sending another wave of nausea washing over her before a cracking sound echoed through her skull and more light streamed in. Squeezing her eyes closed against the light, a thin groan escaped her before she clamped her teeth down on her tongue. A modulated voice said something that escaped her twisting, drug hazed reality, and she was moving, hauled upwards and thrown over a shoulder. Ignoring the way her thoughts scattered around her brain like sand, refusing to become coherent, she acted on instinct instead. Her limbs weren’t listening, so she cracked her eyes open enough to find the nearest chink in the kevlar armor, and sunk her teeth in with as much strength as she could muster. She didn’t break skin, but it hurt enough that the modulated voice barked out a curse, and a gloved hand came up to pry her jaw loose. “Jesus fuck, I’m trying to help you,” The modulated voice snapped as she cracked her eyes open again.

Red and black greeted her, a red helmet. Red Hood. She knew him. She loosened her jaw, ignoring the way threads of fabric stuck between her teeth. Damn, that would probably bruise later. A streetlight blinded her, and she shut her eyes again as the world spun and twisted. She couldn’t remember how she knew him, but as the drugs pulled her back under she couldn’t find a reason to care. The next time she came around enough to move, she found herself being hauled through a window. Failing to suppress the urge to dry heave, Hood shuddered as he quickly set her down on the couch. “‘M not gonna throw up on you,” She protested as he moved out of sight again. “Oh good, you’re awake again,” He said, setting a plastic trashcan in her lap as he moved back into sight. “Fucking hate gettting kidnapped,” She snarled, or tried to snarl, it came out pitful and drug slurred. She fucking hated drugs too. “Happen often?” Hood asked conversationally as she stared at the ceiling, watching the patterns her brain was conjuring swirl and dance. “Not in a while, got all scary n powerful, thought that’d fix it,” She mumbled, mesmerized by a blinking red light. “Fat lot of good that did me, one goddam tranq dart and ‘m back there.” Hood was silent for a while. Or it felt like a while, she couldn’t exactly trust that it wasn’t just a time stretched couple of seconds. She hated being on drugs, couldn’t be hypervigilant when you couldn’t trust your own brain. The red light on the ceiling blinked again. Maybe that was real. “Back where?” He finally asked, his voice no longer modulated.

“With the other girls, those stupid fucking warehouses and buildings and cities, concrete and fear and blood and rage and pain and and and,” Her brain stuttered, and she took her gaze off the red blinking ceiling, instead peering over at Hood, then beyond him. A few spirits clung to him, not out of malice, but pain, regret, longing, so much longing. “You have a lot of pain and rage,” She mused, still watching the shadow of one spirit hovering behind him, “And the same spirits as Jason, Danny said she’s a shade, but we’re not supposed to bring her up.” At this, Hood physically recoiled.

“Don’t worry, ‘m not in your head,” She tried reassuring him blearily, “You can just tell a lot about someone by the things that follow them.”

He peeled his domino mask off, and she absently wondered why Jason had even been wearing one. Danny’s literature loving older brother didn’t seem like the dress up type. It took a long several moments for the dots to connect, and she hummed thoughtfully, tilting her head at him.

“Yeah, you’re high as a kite,” Jason said with a half chuckle, starting to peel his kevlar armor off.

“‘M not happy about it either,” She said, trying to manifest a scowl but failing miserably if the amused expression of Jason’s was anything to go off of.

“You wouldn’t be, Danny mentioned you’re a control freak,” He said, starting to unholster guns and knives and all sorts of weapons and lay them out on the table. “Don’t worry, you fit right in with the rest of the family.”

“I don’t need a family.” She said firmly, and Jason just shrugged.

“Danny already half dragged you into it, I don’t think you have a choice at this point.”

“No.” She repeated. “Absolutely not. I’m getting my degree. Not getting dragged into another squad of child soldiers.”

“Another?” He arched an eyebrow and she resumed staring back up at the ceiling and hoping the world would stop spinning soon.

“Why is the ceiling watching me?” She narrowed her eyes at the blinking red light on the ceiling, paranoia making her bones itch. “

“That, is the smoke detector,” Jason said with barely restrained humor. She rolled her eyes, and immediately regretted the action as her stomach and brain both flipped and twisted.

“Is not,” She protested with a scowl, “‘s watching me. Hate being watched. Makes me itchy and crawly. ‘Specially when that shit is in your brain, and wants… fuck, what did they even want? World domination? Total eradication? Weird creepy cohabitation? Honestly wasn’t clear,” She babbled, frowning to herself.

“The ceiling is not watching you, pinky promise,” He offered out a degloved hand with his pinky outstretched. She went to feebly swat it away, but her hand passed through his like smoke. Staring at her hand, she felt herself go weightless for a split second before she sunk halfway through the couch. “Shit, you’re glitching.” Jason barked in surprise, “Is that new for you?”

A giggle escaped her before she could cage it in, and she tried to move her hand through the couch only to hit the cushion uselessly. “Old problem actually,” She said thoughtlessly, then groaned, “If I can’t control it you should avoid touching or phasing through me, or me phasing through you, whatever, just keep your distance,” She let her head fall back against the couch cushions, far less bothered by the situation than Jason seemed to be. As much as she hated drugs, the nice side effect was she wasn’t entirely conscious of just how fucked their situation was.

“Why? What the hell would happen?” He asked, eyeing her warily.

She lolled her head to the side to look over at him again. “You ever microwaved a grape?” His face paled and she sighed, “Okay bad comparison, that’s on me. You ever seen matter instantaneously inhabit the same space where other matter already is? Shit gets fucked and pushed out of the way and too much pressure in the wrong place and okay just listen to me, it’s just no bueno, capiche?”

“Got it,” He backed up a few steps, “Wait so,” He glanced at where her torso and part of her legs were still halfway through the couch.

“Honestly don’t think about it too much and it gets a little easier,”

He was silent for a long few moments, stepping out of sight again. Her headache was getting worse. A few moments later he returned with a plastic cup of water, holding it out to her. Thankfully, her hand didn’t phase through it as she went to grab it, just shook wickedly as she held it, just staring at it.

“You got a straw?” She asked, “I just,” she held up the shaking cup, “can’t uh, deal with water on my face or up my nose or anything. You get half-drowned a few times and suddenly you can’t stand the water, crazy how that happens.” Why had she said that? Jason didn’t seem to react, just grabbed a straw from the kitchen and dropped it into the cup before dropping himself heavily into the chair across the room.

“If I were a worse person I’d be asking you questions,” He said, clearly conflicted as she sipped on the water.

“I would.” She tilted her head to the side, straw forgotten against her lips, watching him run a hand over his face.

“We all make terrible choices, for those we care about.” Mel turned her gaze to watch the lights dance outside the window, “I assume this is about protecting your family, your city, your people. Sometimes we have to sacrifice, to make a better place for them, and sometimes we destroy ourselves in the process, and sometimes it doesn’t even matter, sometimes we’re the only ones left, and we’ve destroyed it all, and we don’t even have our morals anymore, and we just have to hope, to know, that we’ve done what we could, for them.”

The safehouse was silent for a long few moments.

“Have you considered poetry?” He asked, only halfway joking.

“Mmmm, I’m more of a painter,” She replied, “Words always end up depressing and clunky and way too meaningful, color and shape just exist. Interpretation is on the observer, so it’s their problem if it depresses them.”

A snort escaped him just a moment before a knock sounded on the door.

“That should be Danny,” He said as he stood from his chair, but the door swung open before he could go open it, and several set of footsteps were distinct, Mel wondered if it was too late to go invisible and sink through the floor.

“Mellll,” Danny’s voice called through the apartment, safehouse, whatever, and she groaned in response, scowling at Jason. It was bad enough that she was drugged out of her mind around Jason, and Danny would’ve been a welcome comfort, but the rest of the batbrood was distinctly not.

She dragged herself out of the couch, forced her body kicking and screaming back to full tangibility, and kicked one foot up over the farther arm of the couch, then swung an arm up over the back, sprawling herself out across the entire space territorially, nobody else needed to even think about sitting on it. It was her space right now.

As Danny rushed in she bared her faintly sharpened fangs at him, but he wrapped his arms around her anyways and she reluctantly gave in, enjoying the physical contact while it lasted. He was cold, so blessedly cold, she wrapped her arms around him and rested her chin on his shoulder, letting her eyes fall closed.

“I gotta go grab your food now,” He said, a bit muffled, and she only snaked her arms tighter around him, locking her grip.

Even as he started to stand up again, she refused to let go, slipping halfway back into intangibility and only moving to settle against his back like a backpack, arms draped loosely around his neck and most of the rest intangible and floating, perfectly comfortable.

“What did they dose you with?” He mumbled to himself with a deep sigh, but she could sense that deep down he was just as content as she was.

“Dunno,” She replied, and he just shook his head as he started walking.

“Is she phased halfway through your back?!” Dick’s voice was appalled, and she almost cracked her eyes open to see his expression, but decided it wasn’t worth it

“She told me not to even get close when she accidentally phased halfway through the couch or I’d explode like a microwaved grape!” Jason added, somehow more insulted than concerned.

“Can’t kill what’s already dead,” He said, a non answer, and she heard a chorus of annoyed scoffing and muttering, “She’s full intangible, won’t hurt me,” He continued, “and if she does accidentally solidify, I’d just go intangible in response, easy fix. Besides, she’s clingy, you try to pry her off. She can’t do any real damage right now anyways,”

She mumbled a curse at him and considered biting his ear but didn’t want to expend the energy, so settled for mimicking him childishly.

“‘Can’t do any damage’, my ass, could pull your organs out if I timed it right,” Mel mumbled bitterly, cracking her eyes open and squinting at him.

“Sure you could,” He said sweetly, reaching up to pat her on the head. This time she did bite, snagging his index and middle finger with her teeth and clamping down enough to bruise but not to break skin. He went intangible and her teeth clacked together suddenly, turning into a halfhearted scowl. Danny just grinned at her.

“Please tell me she’s joking,” Dick said as Danny walked the both of them over to the bags of groceries on the counter.

“‘M not,” She said before her mixed up brain could catch up with her goddam mouth, “‘s messy,”

“Removal of internal organs isn’t the most efficient,” The tiny stabby one, Damian, agreed formally, “And typically far more messy than it is worth.”

“Didn’t have much other choice,” She snapped, and he arched an eyebrow at her. The kitchen was silent.

“Jay, you got a can opener?” Danny asked easily, and she closed her eyes again.

Tomato soup was quite possibly the best thing she’d ever eaten, Mel decided as she sat on the couch with the warm bowl in her hands. She’d returned to tangibility about twenty minutes ago, and had stolen somebody’s sweatshirt off the counter before slinking back into the living room while the sibling argued over cooking. They’d finally emerged with a dozen bowls of soup, settling down into spots across the living room to start eating.

“So, your first Gotham kidnapping,” Steph said conversationally.

“Not much worse than my prior kidnappings, the meta-drugs were new, but points off for shoving me in a crate, that was just plain rude and basic. They still got the drop on me though, so final score of 5 outta 10,” She determined with a resolute nod.

“Not your first ever kidnapping then,” Tim mused, and Steph elbowed him.

“Not even close,” Mel replied as she dipped her grilled cheese into the soup.

“Gotham can usually be a special brand of awful that likes to surprise people,” Danny pointed out, and she hummed thoughtfully.

“Not nearly as weird as the last place I came from, promise, I’m used to some fucked up shit,” She said, and she could see the gathered Waynes varying expressions, from surprise to heavy skepticism. “Killer clown was new, but I did get turned into a human spy bug by a being that possessed some of my friends and trapped them in their minds, so,” She shrugged.

“That’s a new one,” Steph and few others mused, and Tim tilted his head to the side.

“Where are you from?” He asked, and she could see intelligence behind his eyes, scrutiny.

“Texas,” She answered easily through a mouthful of crumbs. Danny recoiled, turning to look at her, confused. “I unlearned the accent, but yeah, born ‘n raised Texan.” She let a little bit of an accent slip through, a mischievous grin tugging at the edge of her mouth as she chewed.

“This happened in Texas?” Tim asked skeptically.

“Oh no that happened in California,” She could just see the wheels turning in his brain.

“Mel please don’t break my brothers,” Danny asked halfheartedly.

“Me? Why I would never,” She pressed a hand to her chest and looked insulted by the accusation. He just rolled his eyes.

“Are you an alien?” Damian asked point blank, and if she’d been any more of a stable mind, she’d be annoyed, but she wasn’t, and hell meta-drugs took a while to wear off.

“Kid, we’ve been over this, ask me nicely and I might just tell you,” She replied, and the room went dead silent. She looked around, confused by their varying frozen expressions, until Jason burst out laughing, nearly choking on his grilled cheese.

“Ohhh, nooo, I didn’t know all of you were vigilantes,” She said dryly as it dawned on her, “I’m actually blind and your family is just normal rich people crazy, not the punch people in dark alleyways crazy.”

Danny actually did choke on his grilled cheese at that, coughing it up a moment later as the rest of the family stared at her.

“I can keep a secret, damn.” She said defensively, “I genuinely couldn’t care less.” She said with a wave of her hand, a lie, but they didn’t need to know that, “Child soldiership is your prerogative, unless it wasn’t your choice.” Her expression darkened considerably as it swept across them, and they all shook their heads. “Okay, well then we’re cool. You need to stay in school though,” She aimed her gaze at Damian.

“So Father tells me,” He retorted, “I do not see why, but I will continue to attend as needed.”

“Cause kids deserve to be kids, and school is important, mmkay? Some of us didn’t get even that much, don’t take it for granted.” She said before downing the rest of her soup and standing up. “And no I’m not an alien, I’m a demigod,” She walked into the kitchen to rinse her bowl out in the sink, listening to the eruption of whispers that followed her announcement.

Walking back into the living room, she picked her way back over to the couch and picked up her boots, dropping herself back onto her spot on the couch to start sliding her boots back on and lacing them up.

“You’re a demigod?” Jason finally asked over everyone’s whispering, and they quieted, “Like Wonder Woman?”

She finished lacing her other boot and looked across the room at him, settling a hand on Danny’s cold arm.

“I don’t know if the gods are the same in every universe, but yes, possibly,” With that, she stood up and dragged Danny into intangibility and invisibility, sinking the both of them through the floor and to the ground level of the building. Danny was cackling and she grinned at him.

“They’re gonna be so pissed,” He wheezed, nearly putting his flickering hand through a wall as he leaned over to stabilize himself. “I’ve told you how Tim gets with a puzzle,”

“Problem for future us,” She tossed over her shoulder, “Now come on, we’ve got class tomorrow.”

#dp x dc #dpxdc #danny phantom #batfam #Mel #my oc #oc #writing #fanfic #jason todd #red hood #the batfamily #danny fenton #tw drugs #tw drugged character #Spooky Scary Stem Majors

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