#space exploration! danny

[tired-chaos]

Don’t imagine Danny who just realized why he feels unfulfilled by saving Amity.

Don’t imagine him trying to psych himself up into telling Jazz, Sam, and Tucker.

Don’t imagine him getting the news that he’s the ghost king

Don’t imagine him realizing that he can’t explore the stars because the weight of that crown falls heavily on his shoulders.

Don’t imagine how heartbroken he would be every night that he was too exhausted to watch the stars.

But imagine the usual circumstances of the Justice League summoning the Ghost King, something about Darkseid.

Imagine how they would’ve been prepared to give souls to Pariah Dark only to see a sickly child ghost, in both senses of the word, in the summoning circle.

(Obsession neglect is the same as starvation for a ghost, after all.)

Imagine him being terrified that the Justice League found out about Dan only to realize that he’s needed to save the day. Again.

Imagine him realizing he’s in space and demanding that he gets to spend time there in exchange.

(Jazz had to drill self advocacy into him at some point.)

Imagine this tiny child, one that Dark swears is the King and millennias old, easily defeating Darkseid on his own because Darkseid is alive, and could never compare to Pariah or Dan.

Imagine the Justice League occasionally seeing this dead child floating outside the watchtower, occasionally doing outside repairs without being asked to.

Imagine the Justice League watching this child slowly get healthier everytime that he shows up to exist in the stars.

Maybe one day, they’ll even get to give him flowers, since Zatanna said that it’s a Ghost Culture Thing, and they want to be hospitable to this world endingly powerful royal.

Imagine how surprised Danny would be. He might even let it slip that he was never mourned, that no one noticed he died except the ones there to see it.

Imagine how heartbroken the leaguers would be, especially Bruce because his own kids have died and he couldn’t imagine them being unmourned.

Maybe, just maybe, imagine Danny getting a grave right beside Jason’s, with stars engraved on the tombstone.

Imagine how relieved Danny would be.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 235

“Mother, I have made a friend.” 

Now don’t get him wrong, Danny was delighted at the idea of Jordan making a friend, he really was. But the last three attempts had been borderline kidnappings, so he wasn’t entirely sure if he should be. Thankfully it doesn’t seem he’s kidnapped this one. Hopefully. 

Not that he wouldn’t be surprised if Dan managed to kidnap a tiny kryptonian, but the kid- Jon apparently- seemed happy enough to be there. Apparently his grandparents lived in the midwest too, and was happy enough to have someone to talk about it. 

Though um, maybe Danny should have checked to see if his parents knew where he’d gone, because he was not expecting a harried-looking superman to suddenly appear at his window. 

[emacrow]

Commander Johnson, I-I think I found what or who been stealing our extra spare material supplies

Astronaut Jennifer said in the com as she stared, standing stiff as a board if it weren't for the gravity of Mars making it difficult.

What she was staring at couldn't be human but yet so close and eldritchic- alien like as the inner part of her mind was screaming danger danger, That Is Not A Human Being, Run RUN RUN,HIDENOWHIDENOWNOWNOW

It's look like a adult, a very slim and very tall adult if it weren't for the fact that his skin was tanned with a bit of splash of starlights all over, wearing a suit made of galaxies covered in red Mars rocks, his hair was white, whiter then the clouds on earth, ears pointy and curled a bit as if it wa to shield or reflect to what its was hearing(but they has moved back in a aggressive manner thar remind her of snuffles when threaten) and eyes glows so ominously Neon Green with black instead of white surrounding the iris, splatter of star like freckles that looks like he almost has two pupils mixing into a slits like in each of them.

Teeths razor sharp and thick, as the thing looks like it was growling at her with his body arch over, hands with extra digits of long blacken claws like nails dig into the dirt, hiding all the stuff that the alien had stolen along with a lil head of another mar baby, it weren't for the fact there was no sounds in space, she would've been screaming float running back to her headquarters base.

She was only patrolling the part of the base where they were trying to grow plants in one of the green houses they painstaking made on Mar, but then she saw the glow of unnatural green slipping out of the sealed tight glass.

Curiosity took the best of her as she put on her suit and went to check at that spot is where she find what seem to be a native Mar creature and its baby hoarding all the missing stuffs that they had lost in the base, along with the missing robot, opportunity as the top of it's hoard pile in a makeshift hole(it's a Nest and she has enter this creatures domains) near a small pool full of of oddly frozen water that glowed luminous.

It was a stand off between her and the creature not moving an inch until Jennifer's coms responded back as she flinched, her heart dropping snd face paling dramatically when the creature's ear flick a bit as it heard the static electric device.

"J-J-J-Jennifer, do you copy? I repeat, Do you copy?!?" Commander Johnson spoke a bit frantic.

Unawared of the danger he had put Jennifer in when she flinched, the creature lunged, Jennifer scrambling to turn around and hop/run back into the safety of the base as fast as she could.

Like inspiration for @tinycoded360

[audliminal]

Survivability Bias Pt 7

Masterpost - Ao3

Danny’s on his morning run when he notices the buzzing in his pocket. He stops short, stepping off to the side of the path, so he’s not in anyone’s way. It’s odd, having a phone again. He’s long since buried his old phone in his backpack. It died weeks ago, and he doesn’t really see any point in trying to charge it, when it can’t fulfill it’s primary purpose. The new phone from Robin is clearly far more advanced. It’s weird, having to use a touch screen, and Danny really hasn’t fiddled with it much. He doesn’t really know who’s paying for the service, but he’d rather not test their patience with accidental charges. So he’s only messaged Robin, and only to respond, on the few occasions Robin has had follow-up questions. Now, he pulls the phone out of his pocket, wondering what Robin needs, but instead of a contact name, the text notification lists a number. 

Someone else is trying to call him.

Danny stares at the notification, fear condensing in the fathomless pit of his stomach. He’d known the phone was a risk when Robin had handed it to him. Had understood from the start that it was also a tool to track Danny. But there had been no reasonable way out of it; if Robin was going to make Danny exist, then he had to be able to contact him, for questions, or to let him know when his ID was ready. Sure, Superboy can listen for Danny’s voice, but he can’t exactly message Danny back without coming to meet him, and Robin undoubtedly doesn’t want to have to go through Superboy to talk to him anyways. So he’d accepted the phone, and he’d been careful not to go anywhere weird. 

What Danny hadn’t considered, is the notion that Robin might give the number to others. Or, worse, that others might be able to find it (a trail is a trail is a trail). Now, here’s the clear evidence otherwise. Alarms flare in Danny’s head as he reconsiders, counting all the ways in which this whole thing was a terrible idea. He doesn’t have friends to help him here. He doesn’t even have Vlad to fall back on. Anonymity was quite literally his only protection and he threw that away for, what, the chance that he might be able to go to space camp?

Something touches his arm, and Danny leaps back, weight falling onto his back foot and arms coming up as he glares at the person in front of him. But when he pauses to process, the only person in front of him is an old lady who he’s seen around plenty of times before. Great. This is a public space, and there’s other people here, and he just acted like he was gonna fight an old lady.

“I’m so sorry!” Danny exclaims, snapping his arms down. “I just-” Danny fumbles for a moment, trying to think of an explanation that doesn’t sound like an excuse.

“Oh, there is absolutely nothing to apologize for, dear.” The lady says with a smile, even as she takes a half step back. “I touched you without warning; your response to that is your own. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Oh...” Danny says. “Okay?” He frowns, trying to remember if he stumbled or something before he stopped. 

“Well, you looked at your phone and I thought you looked upset. So when you didn’t move after a minute, I thought you might have... well, I’ve seen that kind of reaction before, and it tends to not mean anything good.”

“Oh, that’s, um. That’s very nice of you.”

“Nothing of it dear! Now, I don’t want to pry into your business, but if you need an ear, or a hug, or just someone to sit with you for a moment...” She trails off. Danny blinks, and glances back at his phone.

“Um, I think- it’s fine. I probably need to go deal with this, but it’s nothing worth worrying about.” He plasters his best smile on as he says the last bit, and resolutely ignores the way her frown only deepens. “But I really appreciate the offer! I mean, really!” Danny takes one, then two steps back, then turns towards the entrance to the park, and sets off at a jog, calculating in his head.

It’s been about five minutes since his phone buzzed. Nothing’s happened yet, which means whatever situation probably isn’t hostile yet, so Danny presumably has some amount of time. And the first priority has to be keeping this poor town out of it, so the first thing he needs to do is get out of the town.

Luckily, Danny’s had a map of the best transformation spots building in his head since day one, so it’s a simple matter of running to the closest one, shifting, and then taking off under the cover of his invisibility. Once he gets some height, he starts scanning his surroundings for any odd activity, but everything in the town seems normal, so Danny refocuses, looking instead for a safe spot to deal with...whoever is after him now.

Five minutes later, Danny drops down onto an empty, overgrown lot, well away from anyone. The second his feet hit the ground, he looks down at the phone still in his hand. The unknown number is still there, staring him down from the notification screen. Danny takes a deep breath, and he swipes the phone open and begins to read.

Hey! I talked Robin into giving me your number so we could chat more easily! (it’s Superboy in case that isn’t clear)

Danny stares at the message, the dread in his stomach promptly evaporating, until all that’s left is a dense little nugget of embarrassment. Superboy. Who Danny knows and has talked to, and had been very friendly, and absolutely would have asked his friend Robin for Danny’s number. Because they’re at least sort-of-friends and that’s what friends do. They share their phone numbers and then send each other messages. And Danny reacted to a stupid message by panicking and fleeing the entire town like his phone was a bomb that he had to defuse in a desolate-ass field across from a shitty abandoned truck stop along an equally abandoned highway.

At least Superboy’s not here to see Danny look like a loser.

Hey! He quickly writes back. That’s a great idea, I’ll add you to my contacts :D

Danny hits send, then immediately takes off, heading back towards town. Maybe if he’s quick enough, nobody will catch that he left.

It’s kind of funny, in a way. Like, yeah Superboy had been acting friendly towards him from the beginning, but he hadn’t really thought about the other boy as being a potential friend or anything. There’s a part of him that feels guilty about it - that aches with the thought that he could be sending Superboy all the messages he would have sent to Sam and Tucker. He knows they’d call him an idiot if they could hear those thoughts, but the uncomfortable feeling doesn’t seem overly concerned with Danny’s attempts at rational thought.

He wishes they had come with him, even as he knows how unfair it would’ve been to ask. Their bond may be strong as hell (turns out half-dying in front of your friends makes for an unbreakable friendship), but his friends have families that love and care about them. Meanwhile, Danny’s family had always been a catastrophic mess. He’d always tried not to let himself think about it, but here in a different dimension, it’s easy to admit to himself how much it hurt to have his parents not realize he’d died.

They’d never even questioned it, not sought out a single further answer as to how the portal suddenly started working. Danny had spent weeks, falling through furniture and randomly going invisible, had suddenly started being targeted by their shitty home defense systems, and they’d never fucking noticed, because they’d been too excited that their beloved portal was finally working and now they could dig into their obsession all the more.

In retrospect, they should have realized Danny’s parents were ecto-contaminated far sooner. Even Box Ghost wasn’t that much of a freak for boxes.

“It’s fucking dumb,” Danny mutters, dropping down into an alley and transforming. “Fucking dead, and it’s a relief that they didn’t notice, because if my parents noticed anything about me, they’d only make my life fucking worse!” He punctuates the statement by kicking a half-crushed can as hard as he can, sending it flying directly at the wall. The clang echoes in the tight little alleyway, and again as it clatters to a stop a few feet away. He stands there, staring at the can for a moment, thinking about just letting himself cry. He imagines what would happen if he just collapsed onto the ground and started sobbing and never got up. It’s not like he has any responsibilities to get to, after all. Or, if he wanted, he could march back to the park and tell that nice lady that he’s not fine, and demand that hug she’d offered him. He’d feel dumb as hell, and it wouldn’t actually change anything, but he could.

He stoops down to pick up the can. Sam would want him to go recycle it. Superboy responds to his text with a goofy midair selfie.

* * *

Danny does not want to be doing math right now, so when his phone buzzes, he jumps at the opportunity to do literally anything else. Danny’s determined to do well in school this time around, and he’s willing to work for it, but trying to review and relearn everything  he should have over the last couple years sucks. Luckily he’s found some useful resources that he can refer back to when he inevitably discovers something else he should have learned, but preparedness is definitely better than playing catch-up. He’s only going to have two years worth of  high school grades, so each class is worth a lot more. Thinking about that, Danny kind of gets why Robin had offered to falsify his grades. He could only imagine how Jazz would’ve felt if her perfect GPA had been erased in Junior year.

But to Danny, the clean slate is already a boon. He’d quite literally scraped his way out of summer school by half of a percent this last year, and even though Junior Year had barely been underway when he’d fled, his grades had already been beyond recovery. And with no ghost attacks to contend with, Danny’s determined to prove he can get to college of his own accord.

Guess what! :D The message from Superboy says, when he opens it. It’s accompanied by a selfie, though it’s not taken in any of the rooms Danny’s seen in the many photos Superboy’s sent him.

Titan Tower’s been demolished and you’re all staying in Robin’s place for a week? Danny sends back immediately. He hopes that’s not actually the case, but Superboy’s always delighted whenever Danny sends him a snarky response, so he swallows the needle of anxiety. They’ve been texting for less than a week, but in that time, Superboy’s sent Danny dozens and dozens of messages. Solidly half of them are just random selfies, and the number that appear to be from inside their hero base has got to be some kind of a security problem, but Danny’s not about to challenge Superboy on it. It’s too reassuring, seeing the headquarters the teen heroes work from. Every selfie reveals more of the comfortable, spacious, and well-equipped base, and with every reveal, Danny feels a little more certain that they really aren’t being exploited.

Nope, comes the response. Then, a moment later, I’m at your new home! This is accompanied by another selfie, this one with an absolutely gorgeous framed print of the pillars of creation in the background. Danny straightens in his seat, as he stares at the message. He’d given Robin carte blanche when it came to furnishing his apartment. At the time  of their conversation, he’d been overwhelmed and didn’t want to think about anything like furniture, but now that he’s had time to think he’s been feeling a little regret about it. Danny’s used to living with stuff that other people have picked out, and the idea of having control over his furniture actually does seem like it could be cool. Still, he hadn’t felt strongly enough to say anything, afraid to risk disrupting whatever work Robin had already done. Besides, he’d assumed Robin would just give him the are minimum, and he could add stuff later, when he finally had the money.

Danny’s caught between desperate gratitude and guilt. The print in the photo is beautiful, and exactly the kind of thing Danny might have chosen, but he also knows how much quality prints like that cost. He hadn’t thought about it before, but furniture has got to be expensive too, even if it’s just the bare minimum. 

You still there, dude? Another text comes in and Danny moves to reply with shaking hands.

How much money are you guys spending on me?

The response isn’t immediate. Danny tries not to panic, but he can tell he’s going to fail. Instead, he shoves his stuff into his backpack as quickly as he can, holding his breath, because he absolutely can’t be trusted to stay quiet right now. He’s walking out the door to the library, when his phone finally buzzes again.

Okay so I sort of had to ask Robin why you would be worried about that, so like, sorry for the delay. There’s like a lot of gaps in my social knowledge? And I’ve never really had any control over what ppl do or don’t give me, so like. I didn’t realize that would upset you and I’m sorry? But also Robin literally said “not much, only a couple thousand” which is to say that I’m pretty sure he’s actually super rich and furnishing a home is literally peanuts to him.

Danny reads it, and then he reads it again, forcing himself to take deep breaths as he moves out of the doorway. Once he’s well away from anyone’s walking path, he lets himself collapse against the wall, sliding down until he’s curled up against the corner of the ground and wall.

It’s fine.

It’s gotta be fine. There is literally nothing in either of their behavior that has seemed even remotely cruel, and if Danny’s reading between the lines right, then Robin does this sort of thing to other people too, so it’s not even remotely about Danny. He doesn’t feel good about it, but logically it isn’t the level of problem that Danny is worried about. Danny can deal with the gross feelings. He can’t afford to do anything else, really.

After all, how the hell was gonna buy a bed? He has less than a hundred dollars to his name. Maybe he could afford it if he sold off the jewelry, but he absolutely couldn’t furnish a whole apartment. Besides, he literally asked for this. If he’s too stupid to realize the implications of asking for his apartment to be furnished, then that’s fully on him.

His phone buzzes in his pocket. He pulls it out, half on instinct, but really, what is ignoring Superboy going to accomplish?

Are you good? Do I need to find you? I haven’t gotten the hang of tracking heartbeats like Superman, but I can try? I like being your friend, please don’t let me fuck this up

Danny starts typing out a response. Deletes it. Tries again. He tries to lie and say he feels fine, but it just reminds him of the old lady’s expression the other day, and how she’d seemed more upset when he tried to brush his problems off. He takes another deep breath and tries to remember Jazz. They’d mostly avoided talking about Vlad. The whole thing was just so shitty and neither of them had the power to actually do anything, so they’d mostly pretended he didn’t exist, and Danny had done his best to play off the worst of his behavior. There had been one time, though. When Jazz had come home, upset about some conflict with a friend, and she had turned on him about it, lecturing him about boundaries and how important it is to tell people if you feel uncomfortable. She hadn’t explicitly said Vlad’s name but, well, who else could she have been talking about? So Danny forcibly gulps air down, and he tries to explain.

I’m not mad at you? Danny writes. I just - have a history with, like, gifts, and the idea of anyone spending much money on me makes me feel gross. Like in a ‘how is this gonna be held over me’ sort of way, y’know? He has to back up and rephrase a couple times, but eventually he feels like his response makes sense, so he hits send.

Crisis somewhat quelled, Danny gulps down another breath, and pushes himself back to his feet. There’s a mom nearby staring at him, though her kid seems focused on the book in their hands, so he mutters sorry, and starts heading down the street. 

Oh. Yeah, I think I get that. Superboy’s response is quicker this time. Can I, like, tell that to Robin? He might have an idea of how to make it not-a-gift?

Sure, Danny responds. I think I’m gonna go for a run, so if I don’t respond, don’t stress out.

* * *

When Danny finishes his run, he’s got a picture from Superboy of an absolutely adorable dog, and one single message from Robin that reads Don’t worry. Meet us at Emery Park at 5. We can discuss the logistics of it then. Robin’s absolutely tragic reassurance doesn’t really make him feel better, but it is sort of amusingly Robin-like, so at least there’s that. Danny has no intentions of trying to study now though, so instead he just wanders the park for a while, before slipping off to transform. When he comes back in his ghost form, he feels incredibly conspicuous and pretty much everyone seems to notice him. Mostly they just smile and nod in his direction, but one person actually comes up to him.

“Hey, uh. My sister was one of the people you saved last month, so like, thank you. She means a lot to me, and I don’t know what I would have done if she’d-” They cut themselves off with a choked noise, and they absolutely look like they’re about to start crying. Danny gets it; he knows full well what happened in the world where something happened to his sister, but he also has no idea how to reassure them.

“I’m very glad I was able to help,” Danny tries. “Um, how is your sister?” Good, that’s how to be empathetic, right?

“Ah, well you know. The smoke inhalation had her laid up for a bit, but honestly I think she was more upset about losing her home, you know? But she’s staying with me for now, so we’ll figure things out.”

“That’s good,” Danny nods. They’re not wrong; losing your home sucks. But this random person absolutely does not need to be subjected to Danny’s long list of misfortune. Luckily they take their leave after that, though whether it’s a result of Danny’s expression or their own emotions, he’s not sure.

Nobody else approaches him in the time it takes for Superboy to flip over his shoulder.

“Hey!” Superboy says, grinning as he lands in front of Danny. “Whatchu been up to?”

“Not much,” Danny says. “It’s really not been a productive day.”

“Shit, sorry.” Superboy winces.

“Nah, even before that, I was trying to review math, so like. Focus has been majorly my enemy, you know?”

“Ready to start school, then?” Robin asks from where he’s walked up to stand by Danny.

“Eh, probably not ever gonna be, so it might as well happen.”

“Right, well everything is ready, so if you’d like to adjourn to the apartment to discuss specifics?” Danny nods, and follows as they head off again.

Instead of walking, Robin pulls out a literal zip-line, and they quite literally take to the rooftops, all the way to a nice-looking brick building, not far from the center of town. Danny would wager that it’s within a ten minute walk of the library and the nearest grocery store, which is pretty sweet. Danny can even see little balconies along the front, as they approach which is pretty cool. so he might even get a view. Instead of heading to the front of the building, Robin drops down to street level, and Danny finds himself in a little parking garage when he follows.

“We’re less likely to get spotted this way,” Robin explains as he walks through the parking lot. “I’ll erase the security footage of us, but the less people know we came here, the safer your identity is.”

“Makes sense,” Danny says. “I can, um, make you guys invisible, but I’d have to be touching you to do it.”

“By all means.” Robin says, staring Danny down.

“Cool, um,” Danny glances over at Superboy, who nods, so he reaches out to grip their wrists carefully, and lets his invisibility wash over all three of them. He lets Robin lead them through the door, and up three flights of stairs. He stops in front of a door labelled 305, and a moment later, the door is open and the three of them are stepping inside. Danny drops his grip on them as the door closes, taking in the room around him.

Danny’s half-formulated fear of some fancy, swagged-out apartment that constantly reminds him of Robin’s generosity seems ridiculous in the face of the cozy, simply appointed living space in front of him. Instead of a table, there’s a small bar area built into the kitchen with a couple of comfortable-looking stools, and the couch in the living room looks comfortably worn, so Robin must have gotten it secondhand. The decorations aren’t extravagant either. The framed print Danny had seen earlier sits proudly on the wall behind the couch, but aside from that there’s only a couple minor decorations, and a lamp.

He turns to look back at Robin, who immediately steps forward and holds up a key ring.

“This key gets you into the building, this one is to your apartment, and this one is to your mailbox. There’s also a bike room in the parking garage we walked through. That’s what this last key is for, though I would advise still using a bike lock if you decide to get one.” He holds it out, after he finishes, and Danny nods, trying to commit each key to memory. After a moment, Robin continues.

“Your lease is in the folder on the counter, along with your personal documentation and a couple other things. As far as the funding of this is concerned, I took the slight liberty of forward-funding this with your theoretical payout for the assistance you provided during the train crash last month. So, if and when you decide to legally declare your hero identity, I’ll back-file the paperwork for that.”

“Oh,” Danny says. He looks around the room again, and then back at Robin. The internet had been entirely unclear if Robin had any powers, but Danny’s decided he’s got to be psychic. There’s no other way he could have planned this all out so perfectly. “Okay, that’s, um. That definitely works for me. Thank you so much.”

“You’ve gotta see your bedroom, though!” Superboy explains, grabbing Danny’s hand and pulling him down the hallway, and through the last door.

The bedroom that greets him is similarly balanced as the living area. The comforter alone makes Danny pause. As long as he can remember, he’d always secretly wanted a space-themed comforter, but he’d only ever seen the goofy ones made for little kids, but this comforter is decorated with an absolutely gorgeous cover; the star-spattered blue-black of outer space giving way at the bottom edge to a view of the earth itself, atmosphere pale against the onslaught of space. It’s gorgeous, and doesn’t make Danny feel childish at all. The wall behind the headboard is similarly impressive, with what has to be a composite print of high quality images of every major body in the galaxy, from the sun itself to the dwarf planet Pluto (Danny hadn’t been certain how to feel about that particular difference in classification when he’d first arrived, but he’s come around to it by now).

“Do you like it?” Superboy asks.

“It’s amazing,” Danny says. Stepping forward and falling onto his new bed. “I actually can’t believe this is all mine.”

“Your name’s the one on the lease,” Robin says. “Although please do let me know if you have a hard time making payments. I’m more than happy to assist, and if you need to make it a loan to feel comfortable, we work that out.”

“Yeah, okay.” Danny says, looking around the space again. He feels a lot less anxious just being in this space. Vlad would never have done anything like this. If he’d ever been inclined to get Danny an apartment, there would have been reminders of him everywhere. It’s not even like the kind of unwanted stuff Sam would throw at him and Tucker. This whole apartment really feels like it’s meant to be his.

“There’s also the beginnings of a wardrobe in the closet. Not much since I wasn’t certain of style preferences, but a few basics and a couple nice shirts for any job interviews and the like.”

“Oh,” Danny says. He really should think of better responses to what Robin says, but he keeps saying things Danny hadn’t even considered.

“Similarly, there’s some food essentials in the kitchen. We can always take anything you dislike to a food bank.” Robin continues, unhindered. “And the secondary bedroom is currently set up to be an office. Since you’re doing the school from home option, I decided it was worthwhile to set up a separate space for you to do that from. Separating work and relaxation spaces can go a long way to not going insane.”

“Oh.” Danny feels like a broken record.

“Furthermore, to head off any concerns, the laptop is one of my old ones that was sitting unused in storage. The planner, however, is new, and it is a gift.” Robin says, his mouth turning up into a slight smile. Keeping track of what you have to do is the most difficult part of online school, and the planner should help with that. Just don’t get caught up in trying to use it the right way. Whatever works best for you is the correct way.”

“Damn dude,” Superboy says, staring at his friend. “How are you gonna go and make school sound like it’s kinda fun?”

“If you’re interested, I could get you signed up as well.” Robin’s response comes immediately. 

“We should order pizza,” Danny says, flopping onto the couch. “Gotta hang out now before I get too busy with school.”

[mamawasatesttube]

it shouldve been ives........... man.......

[frivolous-pastel]

Since fandom loves giving Danny a Space Obsession, here's a quick tip:

Astrology is horoscopes and zodiac signs and reading the stars

Astronomy is math and science and studying the stars

If Danny wants his career to involve NASA or space-related technology, astronomy is what he would study in college

[fanatic564]

Au where instead of an astronaut Danny wants to be a marine biologist

[castrian-amore]

Stellata Notte(C’è finalmente la liberta)

By Castrian Amore on Ao3

Danny has been staring at the stars as long as he could remember. He couldn’t afford to get off the dying planet left in the crumbling city of Amity Park and one of the last human retention centers on earth. A place turned into a desolate landscape filled with nothing but sandstorms.

Danny wants to escape.

It’s a good thing Dick likes to look for Stars in the most random of places, and it’s an even better thing he knows how to fall properly.

(Aka- the Dystopian Space au I really wanted to write)

Gift fic for @nikki-pondtheauthor

2/? Chapters | 22,227 words

[tired-chaos]

We’ve all heard of Space Core Danny…

But what about Space Exploration Obsession Danny?

Danny who got his Obsession because it was a mix of his two biggest interests at the time: Space and Mechanics

Danny who is just building increasingly larger models of space shuttles/rovers until they’re barely models anymore

Danny who feels a kinship with Oppy, who Just Knows what NASA and other space programs are achieving at any given time

Danny who knows when an astronaut or rover/satellite is in danger and has to stop himself from flying there at the speed of sound to help

Danny that just…floats through space sometimes, when everything gets too much

Maybe he floats by the watchtower, or he sees thanos coming

Just…Danny with a Space Exploration Obsession

Could also have some Ancient of Space and Progression Danny, if you want

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 225

Klarion is EXCITED. He's absolutely DELIGHTED even, unable to sit still as he flits from place to place. His baby cousin! Is! Visiting! Which OBVIOUSLY means he, as the older one, must make sure the main places are still standing so he can show his itty bitty baby cousin EVERYTHING! After all, he's never gotten to be the older one! He's always been the youngest in the family! But now he has an itty bitty toddler cousin- form recently shifted to match- to teach the ways of Chaos to! He's so EXCITED!

The League and heroes on the other hand, are Very concerned about Why the Witch Boy has been spotted in practically every major city in the US in the last few days. What is he planning?!

[nonbinaryphantom]

dani has so much character potential in relation to danny and the idea of identity like she already has a lot of similarities to him they share an interest in music and space so its sort of like how much of her person is because of danny and theres just so much u can do with that idea and no matter what she’s compared to danny she was made in his image. does your creator see you as your own person or as an extension of another? are you even a person at all or just a copy?

[letoasai]

The Youngest Ancient

An idea where the JL has gotten word from Green Lantern that a planet has been destroyed. That threat is headed for Earth. 

We could blame it on Darkseid despite the fact that i don’t actually know if that’s within his power set. Bad guy of your choice. Keeping it vague works too. 

Danny finding out that one of his planets is gone and he’s not having it. 

~~

They were short on time. Monumentally short on time. Usually everyone would look to Batman in a situation like this. It wasn’t like his numerous contingency plans were a secret. The problem was time and an overall lack of information about the coming threat. All that was clear was the fact that Earth was in danger. 

Not even a normal, run of the mill danger, but the planet bleeding out of existence kind of danger. Supposedly it could happen so fast that the citizens of Earth wouldn’t even know it had happened. 

“There’s always begging an Ancient for help.” Constantine muttered, lighting another cigarette. As many members of the League as possible had gathered but brainstorming could only get them so far. 

Multiple gazes snapped to him but it was Wonder Woman who spoke first. “You think petitioning the gods would be a wise course of action?” 

“Could be the only course of action.” Flash muttered though no one looked happy about it. 

“Nah, it’s a much crazier idea than that.” Constantine said flatly. “We’re not talking about any of those old hats we’re used to dealing with. I mean an Ancient. Their powers are next level stuff. Above the gods on the totem pole, if you will.” 

Batman’s eyes narrowed. “You want to bring in a complete unknown.” 

“I want the planet to fucking be in the same spot tomorrow, mate.” Constantine snapped back. They were out of time but he evidently had more practice at being reckless then the rest of the League. “Heard tales of a new baby Ancient. A likable kid that has many of the heavy hitters doting on `em. Word is the baby Ancient is rather agreeable. Makes deals. Likes to explore. That kind of thing.” 

“Baby Ancient.” Superman repeated, clearly hearing the oxymoron in that title. “How does that work?”

“Well they gotta come from somewhere, don’t they?” Constantine shrugged. He didn’t know and he wasn’t going to ask. 

“I’ve heard the same rumors.” Zatanna heaved a sigh, adding credence to Constantine’s claims. “Even if they can’t do anything themself, they might have enough pull with one of the other Ancients that can.” 

Flash clucked his tongue. “We literally have everything to lose if we don’t do something. If no one else has any other ideas then we need to give it a shot.” 

“How long do you need to prepare?” Batman asked, his frown obvious. He never fully liked ideas that he didn’t have a hand in.

Constantine sat up straighter, taking a pull from his cigarette and already looking exhausted. “Gimme an hour.” 

“I’ll help.” Zatanna said, already standing. 

“Forty minutes then.” 

~

The light of the summoning circle was hard to look at. It was like a mini supernova right in front of them. The colors would have been amazing to look at if anyone could have opened their eyes to see it. 

When it dimmed, leaving only a toxic looking green glow around the circle, a young boy floated in the center. His hair was white and flowed even in the tightly air controlled Watch tower. The freckles across his face seemed to glow just like his green eyes. 

He was cute, and couldn't have been more than fifteen. He wore a skintight black suit, calf high white boots, and had a strange looking thermos hanging off his belt. So this was a baby Ancient. He looked utterly perplexed. 

“Um…” He blinked, taking in every member of the Justice League slowly.

“Welcome to the Justice League Watch Tower.” Wonder Woman said, ever the diplomat. “We apologize for summoning you on such short notice.” 

“Oh. Okay.” He was still blinking owlishly before his eyes locked onto one of the windows that currently had a vast view of space. The boy all but purred at the sight. “You can call me Phantom. What do you want?” 

“You’re the new Ancient?” Constantine asked without as much tacked.

Phantom sighed, shifting to sit even as he floated. “So they tell me. I didn’t know there was going to be a superhero test.” 

“We summoned you to request assistance if you are able to give it.” Batman said, taking over. “A threat is coming to destroy the Earth and we don’t have much time. Is there something in particular you would want in payment?” 

“Besides souls.” Constantine muttered which subtly alarmed everyone within earshot. 

“Destroy…Earth?” Phantom repeated slowly, head tilting. It was slowly occurring to everyone that maybe a baby Ancient really was too young to deal with something like this. “Why?”

Green Lantern sighed, arms crossed. “I’m likely the cause. Earth is the home base for Lanterns in this sector. The previous planet destroyed was also a home base.” 

Phantom’s eyes jerked up, his full attention on Green Lantern. “Previous planet destroyed? Where?” He paused, “And when? I have been feeling a little off.” 

No one knew quite what to make of the strange comment, but Lantern continued anyway. “A planet in the neighboring sector, 2813. It has been eight days, and before long, that threat will be here.” 

“Is it possible you know of a way to prevent the destruction of Earth?” Wonder Woman asked, but Phantom seemed distracted. 

He removed his gloves and was looking at the back of his hands. When that didn’t seem to tell him what he wanted, he tugged on his sleeve, making the fabric go invisible in small sections so he could easily look at his skin beneath it without the cumbersome task of rolling his sleeves up. 

He was covered in glowing freckles, just like on his face, but one by one the League members took notice of the way they moved. Phantom would twist his arm one way and then another and each set of freckles would be replaced by a completely new set of glowing little spots. When that didn’t show him what he wanted, he kept looking, checking both arms first before moving down his chest slowly. 

The League could do nothing but watch the strangeness before them as their follow up questions went ignored. 

When he got to a spot under his ribs, Phantom screeched. “It’s gone!” 

“Phantom…?” 

Phantom looked out the Watch Tower window, his face morphing into one of fury. His eyes shined brightly and whatever he was looking for, he clearly found. 

“T̢̜̞̮ͭ̓ͫͦh̨̻̼͓͓̜ͭ̈͆ȃ̴̩ͅtͯ̚͏͇̮̖̙ ̡̭͎̝̟͇͙̏ͣ̑͛m̵̭͉͈̳̟͎͈̲̋̋o͈̮̫͓̪͔͐͠t͉̬̉͒̈́ͪ͠h͉̠̭͓̞͎̺͓ͥͥ͘e̅͗̔̿҉̞̪̺̮̗̜r͙̪̼͈̐̉͞ ̫̥̳̿̾͒͑͞f͔̟͈͍ͯ̊̏́ù̶̯̬̫͈͕c̲ͣ̓̿͠ͅk̦̘̖̭͕͉̹̥̈̍̈́ͤ͘e͚̬͗͡ͅr̛̤̩̺͂̃̇̉ͅ.”

To say the Justice League was surprised by the shift in the boys tone was an understatement. 

“Yeah, i’ll stop your threat.” Phantom growled, easily leaving the summoning circle. He shifted right through the wall and directly into space without a care. 

Silence filled the room, no one entirely sure what they’d done by summoning a baby Ancient. “So that happened.” Flash commented. “Are we still planning for doomsday?” 

“We’ll see…” Constantine muttered. “Though if that kid gets hurt, might be bad for the universe.” 

“Not what we wanted to hear, John.” Wonder Woman said, looking out the window. Nothing looked unusual to her. 

~

In an hour's time, Phantom returned just as distracted as he’d been when he’d left. He remained seated in the air as he held what looked like a cracked marble in his hands. It was surrounded by a mist, and inside sparked with many different colors. 

Phantom seemed to be sealing the crack, a smile on his face. 

Batman was the one to approach, and if he was anxious it was hard to tell. “Phantom.” He greeted cautiously. “You’re back.”

“Uh huh.” Phantom said, eyes glittering happily at the marble. “I got rid of your problem. Earth is safe.” 

“Got…rid of.” Batman repeated slowly, a tinge of disbelief in his voice. 

“So we’re good?” Flash asked. “Good work, kid.” 

“Yeah, he deserved it.” Phantom said, finally cradling the smooth marble in his palm. 

Constantine was still smoking, but his eyes were narrowed. “Do i wanna know what you’re doin’?”

Phantom beamed. “I got my planet back! It was a little broken but i fixed it.” 

“Your planet?” Green Lantern repeated, adrenaline hitting him. “The destroyed planet!?” 

“Yep.” Phantom looked pleased with himself. “Now i just gotta set it back in time eight days to get everyone back on track and i can put it back where it belongs.” 

“Put it…back.” Batman seemed to have trouble with the skill set of one teenager.” 

It was Superman who slid closer with a disarmingly charming smile. “May i ask what kind of Ancient you are. I admit i don’t know much about them.” 

Phantom perked up. “I’m the Ancient of Space!” He ignored Constantine’s groan from across the room. “I’m really glad you guys called me about this! It would have taken me a while to find a planet destroyed out of the natural timeline.” 

“And you have time abilities?” Wonder Woman asked softly. Time and Space was a heady combination. 

“Nope! But Clockwork does.” Phantom said. “He’ll do it for me.” 

“Will he?” The Flash stared. 

Phantom didn’t seem to notice the incredulous looks. As far as he was concerned, everyone was simply taking his explanations in stride. Tilting his head back his eyes shimmered with power. “Clockwork!” he called, voice reverberating oddly. No one missed Zatanna paling or Constantine cursing. No one had time to ask either before a tear appeared just to the right of Phantom. It split the very air apart in a green haze before a portal opened and a man floated out. Wrapped in a purple cloak, the man floated like Phantom did but had a ghostly tail instead of legs and off putting red eyes. 

He had a staff donned with clock gears and mechanisms that ticked in an unsettling way. No one needed an explanation, which was good because Constantine wasn’t going to give one. 

This was the Ancient of Time. They had two Ancients in the Watch Tower. 

Phantom didn’t seem bothered and held out his marble with a smile. “Fix!” he asked cheerfully. 

Clockwork turned from what appeared to be an adult man to an elderly man in the blink of an eye. “You know time is sensitive, Phantom. Not everything can be changed on a whim." 

Phantom’s smile lessened. He looked back and forth from Clockwork to the marble and back to Clockwork again. “I’ll cry. Swear to the Ancients, i’ll start crying.” 

The elderly Clockwork shifted back into the form of a young man. “Do you think tears will alter the timeline?” 

Batman smiled, almost. He knew a mischievous teen trying to get his way when he saw one. That theory proved correct when Phantom honestly did begin to sniffle, eyes becoming damp. 

“An asshole destroyed a piece of me.” Phantom said, lips wobbling. “I felt it. I didn’t feel good.” 

Clockwork’s form shifted again, this time into the form of a young child. He heaved a sigh, “If you start weeping you’ll summon the others.” 

Phantom nearly whimpered, holding out the marble still. Every member of the Justice League watched with bated breath. 

Clockwork crossed his arms. “How far back do you want it?” 

“Yay!” Phantom beamed immediately, impressing upon how young he must have been. “Eight days! Actually, maybe nine. That might be better for them. I’m sure the…Green Lantern…people… can explain that they lost little more than a week in order to be brought back. That’ll be fine, right?” 

Green Lantern was too stunned by the question to answer but it was fine since it seemed to be rhetorical coming from the young Ancient. 

Clockwork turned back into an adult and held his staff out over the marble Phantom held. There was no discernible change other than the hands on the staff’s clock face moving. Phantom was nearly bouncing in place which was interesting to see considering his feet weren’t on the floor. 

“Thank you, Clockwork!” Phantom said, looking delighted and completely missing the way Clockwork just sighed fondly. 

“Hurry along home before the yeti’s start to look for you.” Clockwork said in a fairly familiar tone. 

“Yes, yes.” Phantom said distractedly, tossing the marble up in the air where it disappeared. He tugged at his black suit right over his ribs and did the same invisibility trick again. He shifted twice until he found the patch of skin that held the group of freckles he wanted. 

No one was close enough to see for themselves, but Phantom crowed happily. “Good! It’s back where it’s supposed to be!” 

“It’s back?” Batman asked, a hint in his voice saying he had a hundred more questions. 

“Yep.” Phantom said. “It’s really annoying to me when someone destroys one of my stars or planets before their natural life cycles have worn out.” 

“Is that a map of the galaxy on your skin?” Wonder Woman asked, charmed by the constellation of freckles across his nose and under his pointed ears. 

“No.” Phantom said. “It’s a map of every universe on my skin. They overlap so sometimes i gotta hunt for the one i want a little.” 

“Every…” Superman sounded like he had the wind knocked out of him. 

“Come, Your Majesty.” Clockwork said, opening a shockingly green portal with his staff. “You’ve had your fun.” 

“Okay, okay.” Phantom mumbled. 

“Majesty?” Zatanna whispered, confusion coloring her tone. 

Phantom whipped back around to look at her with a sheepish grin. “Ah, yeah. I’m the King of the infinite Realm. Let me know if anyone else messes with one of my planets! Bye now.” 

The Ancients departed and Constantine started wheezing. 

“I take it no one knew the baby Ancient was a king?” Flash asked, a very startled silence taking over the Watch Tower. 

~~

I know i originally said that the planet had been destroyed but that somehow turned into it being eaten or absorbed or something so Danny got it back. 

I really just wanted Danny to find a missing planet on his skin and freaking out over it. 

Feel free to take this idea, though i’m sure something like it exists already. ^__^

Master List

[stealingyourbones]

Danny has no idea how Sam convinced Tucker and himself to go urban exploring in this creepy old office building that belonged to a local newspaper that went bankrupt sometime in the 90s and yet here they were, flashlights in hand, walking up the dusty unkept stairs to reach what used to be an office space on the top floor.

Danny also has no idea what happened after he and his friends opened the staircase door into the decrepit and run down office space and started to wander around, looking at old nicknacks and and abandoned technology left at office spaces, when suddenly he heard a cracking sound and all of them were suddenly falling as the old buildings floor gave way to the trios weight.

———

Jimmy Olsen doesn’t really register what happened. One moment he was talking to Clark about the front page worthy photo he took yesterday on Intergangs illegal weapon trade, and the next a horrible cracking sound was heard. Before Jimmy even registered what the cause of the noise was, Clark already had his arms around the photographer, tackling him out of the way of crumbling concrete and ceiling panels and,,, teenagers?

The entire Daily Planet Office were staring in shock and surprise at the three teenagers who were somehow not gravely injured from the fall, instead just groaning in annoyance like they accidentally rolled off of a bed mid sleep instead of falling 50 feet through the Daily Planet’s vaulted ceilings and onto the tiled floor.

[somnoir]

Gotham's newest Crime Lord - part 3

Part 2 | Masterpost

"You know your way around the city." Dan commented, eyes narrowed once he realizes that Kitty and Johnny adapted a little too well to Gotham. Going to places even he didn't know existed, exploring and giving them intel he never realized was relevant. They knew history of Gotham in a way a local would. 

Johnny shrugged, turning back to Kitty who welcomed Ember with a bright smile. The two were squealing, talking about how they were going to help mess with Firefly after burning down a well-loved studio down town. 

For Dan, he wasn't going to intrude too much on his former rogues but... "You're from Gotham. Both of you." 

Johnny twitched, watching as Shadow moved to play with Elle in the air. 

"Yeah, we’re not too sure if our folks are still kickin’, but Kitty and me took off after they flipped over our thing. This place still gives me the heebie-jeebies, but hey, you guys are here. Gotham’s cool these days with all the furries and rogues runnin’ around." Johnny laughed, his cocky nature still burning bright, even when he looked almost melancholic at the memory of this place. 

No ghost was truly comfortable in their hometown, whether they died there or not. This was where they were born, where their lives began. 

"I see..." Dan mumbled, glancing to the space where Danny was usually in. His younger brother was off doing kingly duties again, slumped by work and the Observants pestering him about shit. 

There's a quiet knock on his door and Jeremy was poking his head into the room again. The ghosts didn't even care, continuing to be visible and floating around. Discomfort and a bit of fear was clear on the man's face but he turned to Dante with as much courage as he could muster. 

"Boss, we've got a lead on the missing kids." 

Ah, yes. The recent disappearances of children. He doesn't know where they go, what happens to them. All he knows is that children were picked of the streets and never to be seen again. 

"Someone's been takin' kids?" Kitty grimaced, not minding how Jeremy shuddered. "Dan, dear, darling! Send me and Johnny. We know this city better than Batman and his little birdies."

Again, Dan sighed. "Gimme a minute, Kitty. Not enough information." He grunts, turning to Jeremy to hand him the report. 

"Anything else?"

"Well... About the Bats..."

"They snoopin' around again?" 

"Trynna sniff out Phantom." Jeremy shrugs. "Red Hood's been pretty active. Heard he's been wonderin' about Phantom not visitin' the kids last week." 

"Thanks Jeremy. Tell Marigold I said hi." 

"Will do, boss!" 

Once Jeremy left, the other ghosts were swarming Dan like bees. Their eyes glittering with anticipation, excitement, and vengeance. It felt strange for them to pay attention, to follow him. Danny's always felt like the better leader, struggling and suffering in the role yet rising above it all. That was why he was the king now. 

"Alright, let's get to work. Most of these kids have one thing in common. Their skills. Flexible, acrobatic, and have some sort of combat training. Usually in self defence." Dan plugged in the USB into his laptop, projecting the screen on to the tv. "The latest disappearance is Layla Smithson. Fourteen. Gymnast and was sent to take taekwondo classes by her parents. Before that was Evan Chavez. Another gymnast but was also known to get into multiple fights."

"So whoever is takin' the kiddies, they go after the ones with pretty good skills." Ember hummed, turning to Kitty and then nudging her. "You've got anything to say about that?" 

"Well... Maybe." Johnny shrugs too. 

"Ooh! What about that nursery rhyme every Gothamites gets to listen. Y'know. About the court."

Dan frowned. "What court?" 

"The court of owls!" Kitty grinned, "Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowy perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word of them or they'll send the Talon for your head." 

"Who the fuck uses that kind of shit for a nursery rhyme?" Dan scowled, but considered the possibility. "Any idea if they're real."

"Very." Johnny warned, "When Kitty and I died, we came back here a couple of times. Explored the place and tried to dig up secrets that would have killed us if we were livin'. One of 'em was the court. A secret society of a bunch off rich bastards."

"Johnny," Dan warned, knowing that something was still being kept from him. 

"There's another thing..." Johnny hesitated but Kitty took his hand and continued. 

Kitty grimaced, "The Court of Owls has a bunch of soldiers. They got this chemical they use on people, turnin’ ‘em into their own assassins. From what me and Johnny dug up a while back, these assassins were trained when they were kids. They call 'em Talons."

Dan wanted to yell, scream. Burn down the cursed with it's cursed bricks. Fuck. Fuck. Was the world always so shitty? 

"You're telling me... There's an entire secret society that uses chemicals to turn children into assassins?" 

Children.... Fucking children. They were weaponizing kids!

Ancients, he might just commit mass genocide again. 

"Alright. Alright. We leave the living people out of this. The court? Their talons? I want all of you prepared. I'm gonna contact Danny to drag Skulker and Wulf's asses here immediately."

Elle grinned, "GRAB AMORPHO TOO! We're gonna need his help if we want to dismantle the court."

The office is vacated quickly, with Elle dragging Ember and Kitty for girl time and Johnny runs off with shadow. Dan is left alone, frustrated at the new information before he does his best to summon his brother, the very annoyed ghost king that appears before him in full royal regalia. 

"A bit busy, Dan. Still tryin' to fight the laughing magician to help with getting rid of the Anti-Ecto Acts. Constantine is running around trying to destroy the GIW now." 

Dan snorted. He knew about John Constantine. The crazy motherfucker who's soul fragments were scattered around and Danny had to deal with the paperwork and mission to collect them all. 

"I know, yeah, sorry. I get that's important. But we've got a situation here."

"What would that be?"

"Secret society of rich fruitloops that are worse than Vlad. They're kidnapping children and making them into brainless assassins."

Immediately, the room grows colder than the far frozen. Danny's eyes are as green as they could ever be, but his pupils were an icy blue that would have made Frostbite shudder. 

"What do you need?"

"Skulker, Wulf, and Amorpho." 

"I'll send them on your way. They'll be here within 3 hours." Danny sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "I'll finish up things on my end to help."

"Sure thing, twerp."

"Fuck you." Fondly. 

"Fuck you too." Affectionately.

"OH! Your revenant was looking for you." 

"THE SEXY RED HOOD WAS LOOKING FOR ME?!" 

It was an entire week of silence. Of Wraith not doing anything at all. Even the rogues felt apprehensive to act on anything after Wraith's new subordinates started popping up to pester them. The reports were the same. Distorted footage, meta-human abilities, and a ridiculous amount of chaos. 

Apparently, Two face has waged war on one of them, named Ember. Riddler was also ready to throw hands with Specter. And then Harley and Ivy were hunting down a couple names Kitty and Johnny 13. Why they were named that, none of them knew. But considering Wraith and Phantom's titles, the entire group was Ghost themed. The majority of Gotham have taken to calling them the Ghosts. 

But then...

"Bruce... Get a look at this." Barbara's voice shook, horrified as she stared at the screen. Majority of the family was already in the cave, preparing to patrol once more. But their eyes were drawn to the screen. They all froze, struggling to fathom what the fuck was it they were looking. 

"Holy shit." 

Everyone was frozen, staring at the clear, untampered screen. 

Bruce sucked in a deep breath, reading the bloody message written on the wall of... He couldn't recognize it properly. "Farewell to the Court of Owls that once watched from their shadowy perch. Their talons covered in the blood of children they once purge. Farewell to their judge, the parliament says goodbye. To Talons, to owls, the ghosts says hi." 

And right beside the message was the hanging body of what Bruce recognized was the Judge of the Court of Owls. 

The Court of was in ruins. 

"Holy shit. HOLY SHIT!" Tim screeched, almost stumbling as he stared at the morbid message. "The Wraith and his ghosts took out the fucking court."

There was a loud rev of an engine, momentarily dragging their attention to Jason who was hurriedly getting of his bike and taking of his helmet. "Fuck, you've already seen it."

"You saw it in real life?! Where the fuck is that? The location is distorted but the entire thing is being broadcasted to the entirety of Gotham." 

"There are two of 'em. That one's on the clocktower."

Barbara snapped her head towards him, "MY clocktower?!" 

"Sorry 'bour that Barbie. But it got the job done for them, all of Gotham know about the court now."

Bruce grimaced, "And the other location?" 

"Arkham... The Talon is the one being hanged up there. The message is shorter: Bye-Bye owls. Shouldn't have messed with the dead." Jason clicked his tongue, "That's either about the fact that the court has been messing with the dead or it's cause Wraith's group is called the Ghosts." 

Jason shook his head, knowing for the fact that he'd have to track down Phantom soon. His eyes turned towards Dick, who stared at the screen as if a burden was just freed from him. Jason thinks it has. 

They had found out about the Court a little while ago, then found out about Dick's situation with them. How the circus he grew up in was one of the facilities that groomed Talons. How Dick was supposed to be recruited as one when his parents died. 

"Dick?" Jason murmured, gently taking Dick's hand. The other man jolted, his domino mask hiding whatever emotions there was in his eyes. 

"Little Wing..." 

"C'mon. Let's go grab some of Alfred's cookies. The rest of the family can deal with this." Jason quickly hurried his older brother out the cave, urging him to change our of his suit. 

Dick, once again, feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders, struggled to understand that his nightmare that was the Court was finally dead. Most likely slaughtered by the hands of a new crime lord, a rogue that seemed desperate to keep children safe. He held the tea tightly, closing his eyes as Jason sat opposite to him. 

The court was dead. 

Talon was dead. 

"I'm gonna go look for Phantom in a bit." Jason hummed, trying to appear comforting to Dick. 

And the image of the Judge of the court's body hanging from the clocktower flashes in his head again. 

"Jason." Dick whispered, "Get me a meeting with Wraith."

"What?" Jason blinked, "Dickie, no. Wraith might seem like a pretty nice guy with how he's protecting the kids, but he's still..." He paused, "He's still like me." 

"I need to meet him, Jaybird. I need to confirm that the Court is gone for good. He's the only one who can do that for me." 

"Why would Phantom even let you meet him?"

Dick frowned, sucking in a deep breath before taking Jason's hands. 

"Tell him that Nightwing was supposed to be a Talon."

Part 4 | Masterpost

[evilminji]

Been Watching Weird Fruit Explorer(?)... and I just...

W-Who let Bored Danny have BooTube?

Sorry, YOU-Tube. He has TWO Apps now. BooTube is bigger. Way more random, yet... somehow more niche? Meh. It's what happens when you get billions of billions of people who all have their own Obsessions to rant over, on a site.

Ember's channel is pretty lit, tho, ngl.

He stopped using YOU-Tube almost overnight. Too many ads, weird algorithmic pushiness. No thanks. It was too small and too "trying to take my money". You know?

Buuuuut? See.... TUCKER is the Tech guy.

Coding and that sort of stuff. HE does hands on work. You want a toaster? He can MAKE you a toaster! With LAZERS! Runs off The Goo! But a program? Eeeeeeeh? Hit it with hammer maybe? Monkey make fire? Hit with stick? Blergh.

Yeah, he can SORTA push through.

But he suuuucks.

And like... he had a headache, okay? His project had just, quiet literally, exploded in his face. So when he looked at his phone? All the apps were blobs. He clicked the one that LOOKED kinda right. Shoved his arm in his phone and brute forced a channel set up.

He figured he could ramble about Space!

It's not like he cared is anyone LISTENS or not! It's a "for him" thing, you know? Like a diary. But more... putting on a ☆~show~☆?

So he rambles from the floor of his Lair's Lab, crashs and wails in the distance, green sky occasionally visible as he lazily floats by windows. Dropping... juuuust past human knowledge understanding of Space. Talking like he's STUDYING somewhere. Referencing PAPERS no human will ever be able to find.

But a few they WILL.

Some of which, are currently? Only half written.

But then? Oh YEAH... he should eat! You know... Sam keeps bringing him fruits and veggies and stuff from her internship at that Botanical Lair. Stuff never seen before of Earth. Or hasn't been seen in centuries.

Again, like, a FEW that? Randomly? Have???

He picks up something sharply purple, bright orange insides. Crisp crunch. He makes a face. And starts to ramble about it, distracted from Space. "Weirdly mushroom-y" he notes. "Kinda bubblegum sweet? But like... CHEAP bubblegum. Like it hits you all at once and is kinda chemically. But it disappears real fast? Huh. Spicy too..."

It's the first video on the Playlist. One of hundreds. Two of the green Lanterns RECONIZE that fruit ad HIGHLY toxic to humans, can't recognize what planet they're seeing. Or how this alien teen got himself on YouTube.

He seems... unaware of how incredibly famous he's become.

But his strange techno Pharoah friend has not. HE is both perfectly aware and apparently amused. Has taken to feeding him rare and hazardous flora and fauna, to see if it tastes good.

....there have been an alarming number of plants from dead planets.

And the comments the kid makes? Alarming as hell.

Sam's just pleased everybody's getting their greens. Danny's glad him n tuck get to hang and do "try weird foods and fuck around, bro time". They've made lazers! Talked about stuff! Debated why Martian Manhunter is THE superior Justice League member.

Danny understands. Wonder Woman is a BAMF. But he's biased, Tucker. He doesn't CARE if she has a sword and flowy, impressive locks! Shape-shifting telepath! From MARS!!! *imaginary mic drop*

And Tucker? Is conquering the YouTube scene with this charming, weird, relatable young alien. Who rambles about Space, debates nerd stuff, eats weird plants and describes them, and makes sci-fi technology! Theme? WHAT THEME? Phantom is a weird channel, man. You never know what you'll find!

And no one can get rid of it.

Believe them, governments have TRIED. Censorship? Not possible. Not without removing the whole SITE.

[castrian-amore]

Stellata Notte(C’è finalmente la libertà)

Dead Ass(Danny Fenton x Dick Grayson), DC x DP Fanfic, Incomplete, Space AU, ao3 link at the end

Fic for @nikki-pondtheauthor

Chapter 1: A Starry Night knows not the bending of will

Stellata Notte(C’è Finalmente la libertà)

Starry Night(There is finally freedom)

Danny had been staring at the stars for as long as he could remember. It had been in the quiet moments of himself and the stars where his event unfolded before him to get him to where he was today. It was where he also watched the world collapse around him in a fiery ball. He watched from the rooftop of his house as the satellite stations would shoot off rockets off their long since dying planet. He never knew what the greenery of Earth had been like before it. He also knew his parents were far too stubborn to leave and it wasn’t as if they had the money to leave anyway.

Danny had never not had the familiar feeling of a mask over his nose as he breathed in filtered air and coughed up a constant dust in his lungs anyways as there wasn’t enough clean air to go around and even the filters here were failing. It was said Earth would be unlivable soon anyways. The only reason they survived in their small town as long as they did was because it held one of the major space sports on the planet and it was here they welcomed species from all walks of life in their area turned desert. Apparently Amity park had once been surrounded by lush forests and a lake. It was very obviously not that anymore.

Danny and his family were smart. They ran a ship repair business and were smart about it. Jazz had saved up to get off world years ago, and Danny had pushed her to take herself and escape. She hadn’t been here for the accident that made him quit his high paying work at the docks. She hadn’t been here to see how he turned out now. Sitting with black hair and white at his roots as the hair grew in white now and had been for some years. His hair pulled out from his face and yet the fringe of his bangs constantly fell in front of his eyes.

He had a quiver to his hands and yet he could still pick pockets from others like there was no other business and besides he was a cripple wasn't he? Apparently the procedure he needed wasn’t that expensive off planet, but here? Here on Earth where supplies wore thin and the off planet travelers lessened every day?

Here it was impossible and so Danny had felt trapped since he became whatever the fuck he had been. He had watched his parents begin to wither and they would die soon and he knew it. Danny’s lungs were far too fucked up and if he couldn’t escape then he too would die, wouldn’t he? He felt as if there was so escape.

Was there an escape? Here he was sitting on the roof of the building with music playing on his small shitty speaker he made out of mixed matched parts here and there. He hummed along to it as he tapped his foot to the music laying on his back. He wore a dusty black cloak with the clear filters over his nose and mouth and the oxygen filter sitting clipped to his falling apart belt and his black trousers that were bound around his ankles with tight fabric as he had his shoes set off to the side. Feet on the gravel roof of the building as he pointed out the familiar constellations he was far too used to.

Nothing was going to change was it?

The same sky under the same crumbling moon. The main water supplies of the planet were drying up and leaving them with less and less. The planet was just about on its last leg and Danny was trying to decide how he was going to take it all. If he was going to die here, or try to get off the planet.

He wanted to shoot for the stars after all. No one had survived being inside of a warp core while it was turned on after all. Now Danny was met with constellations of far off systems dancing across his cheeks, and his skin permanently pale with even thinner and paler lines of lightning dancing across both his arms. He had been mutated and lord knows what would happen if people found out of not only his condition but how he had gotten like this. The unexplainable powers of who he was. The ability to manipulate gravity at his fingertips and control the energy that ran through him.

Danny was trying to stay positive but everyone had their limits, yeah? Danny felt as if he was reaching his. He sighs and stood up gently at the music and began to dance a smile coming across his face as he moved with precise movements and steps. Of course he did after all, what did he have to do when he wasn’t working on space ships with his parents. There wasn’t exactly access to the intergalactic media on the planet. The far reaches of the Intergalactic Protection Committee long since forgotten about Earth. More focused on their home planet of Krypton. More focused on their supposed Justice League than anything else.

Danny could give it to them for trying across their galaxies of planets and new inventions at every turn but yet here they were on Earth, on their dying planet. He sighs and smiles gently as he knew if anyone saw him he could get in trouble, especially with his hood down. He knew with every step the gravity around him shifted and moved as he took one step and then two as he floated above them and just danced.

Who would believe anyone in this day and age filled with the piracy and fear around every corner and the threats to peace by those all over the system. No one could be ree, really? Danny knew he would be wanted if anyone could find out what he could do. But would he? Would he really be free? Was this freedom? Was this dancing amongst the quiet stars and under the guise of the moon what they could call freedom on what remained of their planet?

Quiet hums and songs filling the silence of the city and the ever moving rockets of ships propelling upwards into the night sky providing a beautiful backdrop for anyone watching but maybe that was all in Danny’s head right?

Who could be watching him? Why would they be watching him? He was a nobody. He was a human all alone on a dying planet lightyears away from anything sustainable, maybe Mars would be close enough he could escape but he didn’t have a way to connect with the Martians and their intimate language of the mind, thankfully too many martians tended not to leave their planet. They apparently had tried to save the remains of Earth thousands of years ago but upon figuring they were not quite welcoming towards their people yet they were forced to ait and by the time everything came around it seemed impossible for them to do anything about it. To fix it.

The inclement weather and storms. The cities completely sank. The deep freezes, then the heat began to hit as the ozone of the Earth began to crumble and the sun's rays only got worse, because of course they did. Danny had seen the brightly lit photos of Earth eons ago. Pictures hung up on his wall in excitement that there were places like that. Places he didn’t have to wear a mask either. Places where he could run barefoot across actual grass and not just the eerie synthetic things they had in the gymnasium. There was such little color here what was there to do? The most color they saw was the night sky and setting and rising of the sun and that was Danny’s favorite part of the die despite his sleeping habits saying otherwise.

Arms raising above his head as he finally opened his eyes, finding himself almost 10 feet into the air and glowing as he breathed heavily. A deep blush found his cheeks as he calmed his breathing so he could lower himself down onto the ground. An accident as he landed and was quickly reminded why he used his powers so often, almost falling as he felt his knees wobble beneath him. Another response of him being inside the core. The radiation should have killed him. The power of a collapsing star in one second filling his body.

It mutated him and left him with too many injuries to count and yet he pushed through. Danny gave a sigh and grabbed for his cane, more like a crutch as he used it to stand on shaking legs, taking a long last look at the stars for the night.

No one expects the cripple to have powers.

No one expects him to be good at anything.

Everybody doubted him, looked down upon him, but he was just like everyone else. He was human and a living person. Not that that was what they saw when they looked at him. They saw a boy. A young man too injured to work. They didn’t see who he could be with the right treatment. They didn’t see the way he was able to move when he was alone. When he pulled on his powers of gravity manipulation to aid him in walking, but it would draw too many eyes if he did that too often wouldn’t it?

Too many days he spent wondering if maybe he’d be worth more to his parents if he did that. He gave a sigh and went for his room. Turning the speaker off as the hatch shut behind him and he slowly reached to turn off the filter on his hip and removed the mask over his nose. A harsh coughing came from his lips and he tried to ignore the blood on his lips as he wiped it away.

Was this all that Danny was left with?

Blood on his lips and breaking bones.

There had to be more to this life. There would be more to this life than just hiding behind a mask and a filter. He would see the stars. Even if it meant on his deathbed. He gave a sigh as he headed to bed knowing full well the pain he would have to endure tomorrow in the beating sun. Apparently there would be a new shipment of filters coming in and well, his parents would be working so that led him to go out to try and secure some, and they would almost definitely be over priced as all hell and he just prayed they would be able to afford them. But apparently they had stopped making the filters a while ago which cut their normal intake in half after a few years.

It left the lines long and the desperation longer. The air filled with an intensity as the people crowded around the merchant who sold them for their small almost forgotten town. He pulled his hood father over his head ignoring the stares he got from everyone as he leaned heavily on his crutch. He knew in actuality he needed to give up on his back ever coming back and taking up on the white all over but it didn’t seem like a feasible option and right now it looked kind of cool.

Danny joined the line with a frown taught on his face. He tried to be kind to everyone but there was something he noticed out of the corner of his eye. A new ship. A small group of 3 men gathered off to the side with respirators that were far too fancy for this world or the remnants of it. Danny almost pulled his cloak made out of tattered fabric tighter around his shoulders.

He adjusted his satchel set around his chest to make sure he wouldn’t drop it or any of the credit he had. It only took a few hours before he made it to the front of the line. Still more people behind him as he stood and looked up at the man. If he could he’d need 6, that would get him and his family through to the next two weeks until the next shipment arrived and maybe now they would let him run tests on better filters and better respirators than what they were using.

“How many?” The clerk chimed hand on her hip and free hand adjusting her shiny new reusable filter respirator. A respirator the people were desperate for. Desperate to climb the ranks enough to get off the fucking planet of big one of those, and one one lucky enough and with cash could do both.

Danny tried not to think about the fact that he was stuck here, more than likely.

“6,”he whispers out, couching off to the side.

“Alrighty, that’ll be 80creds.” Danny almost choked on his words then and there.

“Last time they were only 50!” Danny exclaims. Danny was putting every spare penny into a jar to get out of there and he was desperate.

“Now they’re 80. Do you want them or not?”She offered bluntly as Danny forked over the money, shoving his new filters in his bag and closing the top. He had enough to get a drink at the bar. Never been more glad to have a couple creds left over in a heartbeat.

He huffed pulling off his hood as he walked into the bar, the air hissing behind him as the next door opened. Danny reached up to pop the small respirator off his lips as he flicked the button on his processor to turn it off, hooking the mask to the side of it. He looked for his usual spot in the back corner of the bar,finding it occupied.

The 3 fuckers from earlier sitting there. One of them unsuccessfully tried to flirt. The one in blue with beautiful eyes and spikey hair looked up at him. A charismatic smile but Danny ignored them, picking a free spot at the bar until he felt the painfully familiar weight of his ex. The man reeked of alcohol.

“Fuck off,”He breathed brushing off the others arm in a heartbeat.

“Awww come on Danny babe,”the man’s words were slurring together.

“We could be like we were. Die together at least!”

“I’m not dying anywhere near you Dash,”Danny rolls his eyes.

“Come on! I’m the only one who’ll take you after your little whoopsie!” The man leans on the counter extremely intoxicated; he moves to brush a strand of hair out of Danny’s face and the man smacks his hand away.

“Oh? Is that so? Well I haven’t stooped so low that will sleep with a piece of shit like you ever again,”Danny hisses out. “Go away.” The man presses further trying to get closer to Danny and he shoves him away a second time but the drunken idiot keeps coming back.

“Woah, hey there you seem to very much so not be getting the hints bud,”the man who had taken his normal spot had stood up and placed himself in between Dash and him. The man crossed his arms and eyes narrowed at him.

“You don’t need to worry about yourself, we’re old friends. Right Danno,”Dash smirks and Danny wanted to puke in his mouth.

“As if Dash, fuck off.,”Danny rolls his eyes. “I just want a fucking drink.”

“And I just want off this planet but that ain’t happening sweets,”Dash smirks.

Danny shoves him away again. “Sheriff or not you’re still a piece of shit.”

Dash stumbles to regain himself and his composure, eyeing the group of them up for the moment. Danny turned to the figure.

“You didn’t have to do that, you know,”he sighs softly, looking up at the man. Danny’s soft green eyes finding the stranger’s gentle blue.

“Didn’t I? You seem to be the only one interested in us,”the man sits next to him, his smile unwavering. “New in town.”

“Exactly why I’m the only one interested,”he laughs softly. “Dalv Corp controls who goes in and out of the planet's atmosphere and we’re one of the few temporary ports still open.”

“Why is that anyways? Do you guys even ship anything off world anymore?”The man laughs as the bartender puts a drink down in front of him.

“Not really, it brings the question then of why are you here then?” Danny smirks as he orders his drink watching the man. The stranger.

“We had someone shoot out something on our ship and my dear old little brother can’t seem to fix it so we can’t leave.”

“Stuck here like the rest of us,”he chuckles softly.

“For now, we’re trying to take it to the Fentons? Apparently they're desperate enough to take any ship that comes to them, and their pretty good mechanics over all, ever heard of them?” The stranger gives a smile seemingly trying to gauge the opinion of the Fentons off of him.

“They’re also backlogged as hell. They’re the only ship mechanics until you reach the New England ports. Are you willing to wait that long?”he hummed.

“Fuck…”the man breathed out and Danny laughs softly. “Luckily for you, I’m their son. Where’s your ship? I can take a look at it to see if it’s anything I can do.”

“They have a son?” The man smirks a little bit. “Well either way it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Dick.” The man holds out his hand for them to shake.

“Danny,”He smiles and takes it, giving him a firm handshake. “How’d you get shot?” He smirks as Dick leads his friends to move over close to them.

“Pirates,”Dick clarified. “Guess they were trying to board us and thought we’d be an easy target.”

“Mhm,”Danny didn’t believe that for a second. “Next question is why the fuck were all the way out here? Closest habitat planet is Mars and that’s a tad away but people go there for their ports and most of the Martians have moved off planet. They have mining colonies so why’d you crash here and not there?”

“Didn’t think our systems could handle it,”One of his friends Spoke up as he ran a hand through his hair a white streak placed in the front as he looked the Man up and down. Damn that man was built as fuck. What the fuck did he do?

“How about I just see what the damage is and if I can fix it. The issue is that you guys picked the most deserted fucking planet. Earth is nearly abandoned and transportation off the planet and getting around the planet are almost Impossible. Let alone getting supplies. The planets have been drained of anything of use and all supplies are rationed and limited. Getting parts is tricky as fuck,”Danny ran a hand through his hair with a heavy sigh.

“So can you even do anything if you figure out the problem,”the last of the 3 of them commented, his slightly longer hair pulled out of his face and Dick shot him a glare. He put his hands up in defense.”I’m asking the truth!”

“Ignore him, we appreciate anything you can do.” Dick gives a smile.

“Anyways before I walk off with two more stranger’s how about names?”Danny moves to stand up grabbing his crutch as he pulls his mask off of his belt undoing the temporarily wrapped cording.

“Big guy is Jason. The Smallest is Tim. They’re my siblings.”

“Nice to meet you,”Jason replied, giving a huff.

“Same to you two. I’m Danny Fenton, one of the only mechanics at this port. You guys got lucky, I know my shit.”

“Of the Fentons we heard about?”Tim clarified.

“One and only,”he vouched. “They’re backlogged for a bit but I tend to be free. They don’t like me working on ships anymore.”

“Can I ask what happened?”Dick asks as they enter the chamber hearing the hiss of the air lock before the next door to the outside opens. Of course they’re met with sand whipping up into their eyes and Danny reaches into his bag and pulls out a pair of goggles.

“Accident happened. Fucked up my legs,”he laughs softly. He motions towards the crutch he was heavily leaning on as they started forwards. The 3 of them pushed buttons by their ears on apparent ear pieces and he watched goggles form for them. Rich ass fuckers. If they were used to that they were not going to like how Danny was more than likely going to have to fix their ship.

One learned how to figure shit out with what you have and sometimes all you have is a couple old filters, and broken phasers you steal the batteries and plasma containers out of in order to cause the spark that starts your parents' hover car. What works right? It definitely shouldn’t be working. Not by any means, but fixing shit with reusable materials was a must on their planet.

“I just get in the way of most jobs even with my parents. I'm unable to work super fast,”he chuckles softly.

“Accident?”Jason asks with a frown.

“Mhm, accident,”he repeats, wanting to keep it as vague as he could. Strangers did not need to know the detailed aspects of his accident or the electricity running down his spine or the feelings of immense pain and heartbreak and death coming through him all at once as his molecules were rewritten at any point in time during the process. His cells changed at their very foundation during the event.

They did not need to know how much radiation he was unable to bear through those moments, almost expecting himself to unravel like a string of fine thread off a spool you let a cat play with. The less they know the better it would be and the safer they had to be over all because what was Danny supposed to do with a whole bunch of rich people just trying to get off planet.

“My next question is don’t most rich folk have ways they can get someone out to repair the ship if needed? Something like that at least?”

“Normally yeah but well.” Dick chuckled nervously

“We took it out for a joyride and are trying to not get caught,”Jason finished.

“Yeah okay that makes sense for how you look,”Danny chuckles as he lets them take the lead and lead him to the familiar landscapes of the shipyard where their ship was sitting docked. Fuck it was so beautiful with the wings on the edges and her shine in the dim lit sun as the dust storm continued to move over them. Danny pulled his hood further over his head. No matter what he was about to be stuck inside that ship for these people for a little while so maybe he could do something about that.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”Tim frowned a bit as Danny chuckled.

“You guys are rich. It’s not that hard to tell. You have retractable glasses, fancy oxygen masks and filters? You don’t have the same tubes that connect down to our filters like you do. We don’t have access to that kind of technology here and no one of anyone worth anything would come back to the cesspool of this planet. We’re here to hide smugglers and criminals and that’s it. This planet isn’t even deemed habitable enough to be a prison planet for the Federation.”

Dick looks around them. “I guess you’re right,”he chuckles and hits something as the hanger doors to the shit open and the stairs unfurl out and they walk aboard.

It was beautiful and sleek really and Danny felt as if he was too dirty to be here in the chaos of this ship. First off, this was a lot more spacious than he thought. It was for sure a running ship in how she was built and how her body type was. That was what he had noticed from the outside. He had noticed it was big enough to house multiple small separate cabins and this ship being as big as it was meant that they would have to get her fixed soon or they would take up and find pieces of her hull missing and tubes taken off and probably to be fond selling at the market by morning.

“I’ll tell you one thing for certain during this,”he sighs as they step inside. ‘Ya’ll need to fucking get off this planet and soon.”

“Why?” Tim frowned softly as he crossed his arms.

“Your ship is too much eye candy. It’ll attract the fucking scavengers who won’t hesitate to steal shit off your ship and I don’t mean break in or anything. I mean you will wake up with pieces of your hull missing and it could put the structural integrity of the ship at a major disadvantage for leaving the Earth’s atmosphere.”

“People do that?” Dick frowns and eyebrows furrowed.

'That's literally how I met our dad,’Jason smirks as he leaned against the wall. “I was trying to remove and take his left engine turbine.”

“The fucking turbine?!?” Danny exclaimed

“I was ambitious, what could I say,”Jason smirked as Danny let his head fall into his hands for the moment.

“Show me the damaged area here but I’ll probably have to work from the outside once the storm settles a bit too,”Danny pushes them as Dick motions for him to follow him. It was in the storage bay that they were able to enter the engine room and Danny was welcomed with the familiar tug and pull of his heart. The thing that always called to him from inside of any ship. Anything that held that much power and radiation called him like a beautiful song that he needed to listen to not matter what. As if he had no choice but to listen to her quiet thrumming and peaceful sounds as they entered the room. Danny fought the beautiful lights dancing around each other like it was trying to enthrall him.

The warp corp. She was beautiful and hollow and yet so filling as he stared momentarily into her depths like she was the most beautiful girl in the world. A quiet calling filled his soul, before he forced his eyes to look away and follow Dick once more.

Dick led him into the ship further past all of the chaos of the pipes and Danny’s eyes followed along, connecting the dots of what each one of them did and where they went. Danny was impressed a ship of this size was capable of just how much power seemed to be involved in it all. He took a deep breath and redirected his focus to what was in front of him. He then saw the issue. They entered another air locked door and Danny could see the very obvious issue. He could fix it but it would not be easy and it would more than likely take all night to manage as they worked without sleep because he would definitely need help gathering things and repairing this.

“I… can fix this, but i will need to make a list and we will need to collect a few things and one of those things I am not so sure we can find,”He rubs the back of his neck staring at the mass of disconnected wires and tubing and the anxiety filling his soul that there was always the chance he couldn’t fix it. One small thing and this ship could lose it’s warp capabilities entirely. The materials required to fix these kinds of ships that had multi-warp capabilities were insane. He had never actually had to work on one himself after all. They only ever got single-warp engines.

“You can?”Tim piped up from behind them curiously. “How?!”

“Carefully,”Danny sighs, looking at it as he walks closer to inspect it dodging the loose wiring as he pushes himself in between a few things to look at the further issues in detail. “You said you got it here but it was rough right? She handled into the port but then immediately seemed to lose all main power function and immediately resorted to battery backups?”

“Yeah, but, how did you know,”Dick frowns a little watching him.

“I know ships, what can I say,”Danny hums as he wriggles his way out of it and back in front of them his hood long since having fallen off and Danny rana hair through his messy hair. The white at his roots almost glowing in the dim blue lights of their section of the engine bay. “The main power cord is destroyed. And the impact of her landing severed the sliver of a connection you guys seemed to have. It’s a good design and I’m more familiar with single warp engines because well, I never got to go to school for this shit but--”

“You never went to school for this?” Tim verified looking at Dick seemingly giving him a wide eyed stare and the two having a quiet conversion between them as Danny continued.

“But I grew up around ships of all kinds. Never left the planet but I’ve seen and pulled some risky shit on many a ship to get them out of town. You guys are going to have to stop somewhere after you get out of here,’he laughs nervously.

“Yeah I’m sure we’ll be fine,”Jason laughs softly.

“I can get you guys off the planet and your ship will maybe be able to withstand one major warp jump to the nearest quadrant with a decent mechanic but I just don't think we have the materials available on the planet to withstand a multi-warp engine like this.” Danny motions around them. “I can redirect power and fix cords and connect dots here and there, but at the end of the day. This planet doesn’t have shit. So any and all things that I’ll be using will be bullshitted.”

“How did you know this engine was a multi-warp one?”Dick asks with a small smile finding his lips.

“I-uh,”Danny blushes. “Look, I can’t get off this planet but my sister sends me pictures and videos of all the ships she’s worked on with the Federation and all. I get blueprints, and she takes pictures of manuels because even if I can’t leave I love to learn and our intergalactic connectivity is super sketchy at best with our systems at my house. I only ever get to talk to her maybe once every 6 months you know?”

“But wait, okay, how did you recognize this engine as Multi-warp? You didn’t see her name or seemingly recognize the type of ship this is… so how did you know after only seeing about ¼ of her engine bay?” The man was pushing him to answer and so Danny took a deep breath.

“The material alone gave me my biggest clue,”he begins slowly placing a hand on a couple groupings of tubes carrying cooling gel within them. “Most modern and even old single-warp engines have the same material but this? This is military grade advantium. The same material the warp corp container has to be made out of to withstand the pressures and radiation within it. However, it’s not every tube.” He points to a small section of more cords.``Those are your standard krisvan lined cordings. Which means one of those things, this is just a military grade vessel that needs to be able to withstand a lot or it’s meant for something more.”

Danny walks over to the main door they entered this section too. “These doors though? Reinforced. You only need to do that as much as they are if there’s a lot at stake and multi-warp engines? Those are high risk, high stake engines where if you have one section explode and it’s not sectioned off properly it could destroy the entire engine in one go. It’s one of the highest death factors in multi-warp engines. Improper reinforcements.”

“And every cording and tube that goes in and out of the warp bay was also advatium. Your coolant housing was also showing signs of stress though, so I’m guessing this ship is used often enough you keep having to check the housing systems to make sure she never overheats. How many jumps can she normally do within 24 hours?”

Danny hums a little looking back at the boys. They all looked at him with wide eyes and Tim looked at Dick with almost Puppy Dog eyes.

‘No” Dick exclaimed looking at Tim who’s puppy dog eyes worsened. “No, Tim.”

“But--”

“No,”he hisses out and then turns to look at Danny giving a gentle smile. “Sorry, if we get you the things you need, how long will this take?”

“If I don’t stop? I could probably get it done in 12 hours,”Danny shrugs. “Take it you actually get everything I need.” Danny hisses as he realized. “If you can’t get everything I need then you’re fucked and better call that fucking speed dialed mechanic you probably have.”

“I’m normally the speed dialed mechanic,”Tim raised his hand. “I also designed this ship.”

Danny stopped and paused looking over at them all. “Look, I know i’m just some rando you just met on dying planet but ya’ll are fucking Waynes?!?!?1”

“I see you’ve heard of our father?” Dick mumbles almost nervously.

“Yeah, and no shit you fuckers need to get out of here. If the people of this place found out y'all are wayne you’ll actually be dead and this ship will be dissected.”

“It’s a prototype too,”Tim chuckles nervously.

“What’s she supposed to be capable of?”Danny asks, his eyebrows furrowing for the moment staring at them.

“Multi- warp capabilities and extreme stealth missions?”

“Stealth? What’s that entailed?” Danny moves to take off his satchel. He pulls off his cloak and begins to roll up his sleeves.

“Mirror capabilities of the surrounding surfaces so it blends in with surroundings signifying invisibility almost, then it also has under the radar capabilities. Being able to fly without being detected by radar.” Tim chuckles nervously as Danny looks over at the wires and then back at him.

“You can’t call for help can you?’He asks almost somberly.

Dick shook his head with a heavy sigh. “No we can’t. We were running a test mission on the under-the-radar mechanism when we reappeared; we were in fact attacked by pirates. Or something we aren’t sure but we managed to get the systems back online long enough for us to land, but now they won’t turn off.”

“And with the systems unable to turn off we’re unable to send out communications that far into space for someone to find us. Part of the reason the system works so well is because it blocks any and all radio signals normally used by the radars. That unfortunately includes transmission signals.”

“True silence in stealth,”Danny breathes out.

“Exactly, but here we are and I know vaguely how to fix this since I designed it but--”

“You know we don't have the time or resources to be able to do that,”Danny finishes Tim’s statement off as he begins to write a list handing it off to Jason. “Get these things. We’re really running against the clock then. What was the last known location you had pinged?”

“Just outside the JuLi solar system. We jumped here in a panic.”

“So on the outer rims of the galaxy at least but that’ll take days even if they make it to this solar system,”Danny hums a bit. “Tim, can I see your tools, or what you have at least?”

“Yeah let me go grab them,”Tim smiles as he walks off leaving the room with just Dick and Danny.

“Thanks,”Dick begins slowly. “We’re gonna pay you, you know. We’ll even double it if you need to be quiet about this whole situation.”

“Bold of you to assume I’m gonna try and rat you guys out,’he laughs. “This is the most exciting thing to happen to me since my accident.”

“Damn,”Dick smirks and laughs at himself. He moves down to lean against a pillar of metal. “Must be boring here.”

“I make do,”Danny shrugs. “I have a bit of music and I have the bar.”

“That doesn’t sound like a lot,”Dick admits. “You’ve really never left the planet?”

“Never,”Danny admits back to him looking down at his hands which he admittedly wrung around nervously. “Always wanted to though.”

“Why haven’t you?”Dick asks genuinely and Danny looks up at him and gives a sigh.

“My parents are engineers right? They spend their entire life barely able to feed us yet working their asses off constantly and never tell us anything. My sister gets a full ride into the federation academy and they send a ship here just to pick her up,”he laughs softly. “They shut my school down a year after that happened, and now there is no school. None public at least. It’s either you have the money to afford to get them off the planet or you’re probably not here in the first place.” Danny motions around him for the moment. “Playing with things like this is how I learned it all, and I had saved up so much ready to buy a ticket to Mars. Ready to work in their ports just so I could try to get amongst the crew somewhere on some ship so I could travel.”

“Then your accident?”Dick asks with a solemn smile and Danny laughs.

“Then my accident, and even after they took all my money for the care and continued to drain my parents dry they couldn’t fix my legs,”Danny gave a shrug for a moment.

“I forget places like this.. exist,”Dick leans his head back against the column.”Places so out of touch with the rest of the known universe.”

“Places dying because of Man’s need to take,”Danny clarified. “This planet has been mostly abandoned for years. Those of us still here are surviving.”

“But that’s not living,”Dick seemed almost frustrated. “How old are you?”

Danny gave a small smile to him. “25.”

“27,”Dick breathes out. “So close in age and yet I was given everything.”

“And what? Are you able to go back in time and make my life better?”Danny uses his crutch to poke him. “We just met my guy. Lighten up. It is what it is.” Danny gives a shrug as Tim comes back with a bag and Danny takes it being careful as he maneuvers it down to the ground and as he lowers himself. He couldn’t ignore the quiet longing looks Dick seemed to give him, like he wanted to help Danny but just couldn’t figure out how.

Dick pulls Tim aside as Danny watches them talk for the moment and Danny sighs softly scooching over to where the damaged areas were.

“Tim, can you clear the coolant lines and anything that could I don’t know, kill me,”Danny chuckled as he mumbled under his breath a quiet “again”.

“Yeah of course,”Tim moves to the wall, opening a small panel and seemingly disconnecting a few wires with a slow hum before walking back over. Danny sighs but looks at the damage and takes a deep breath as he dives into it. Working on removing the damaged wires and cording so he could cleanly replace anything. Jason brings him bits and pieces and Dick keeps reminding him about drinking water and Tim seemed quite entranced as he repaired the ship with nothing but determination and scraps.

Danny was convinced the three of them were something he had never seen before in how they held themselves. He knew Humanity was spread far and wide and there were several humanoid races like the kryptonians but with all they talked about and maintained in how they held themselves he had to wonder if they were human or just trying to remain looking humanoid as to not freak out Danny and his very human-body, mhm totally human body. Not fucked up at all. Maybe they were kryptonians or something? He didn’t know but did try to distract himself with the work in front of him as he stared at the blueprints he’d been given just to make sure it was all correct.

“So Tim, you designed this thing but you can’t fix it?”Danny asks as he stops for a moment as he turns around to look at him.

“I can create the concepts and I am an engineer and I can make small ships but I’m used to being handed everything I need if that makes sense? Normally I’m provided with the tools to make things successful so here when I’m put into a position to think outside the box…”

“You’re struggling to keep up?” Danny gives a small smile.

“Yeah, I am admittedly. Even the normal thing I could sub out for in case of a shortage or I’m working with limited resources I can’t find here so that leaves me to struggle to get what I actually need done. I needed help or I needed someone to help me secure safe alternatives and since we’re trying not to draw attention to ourselves bringing Barb along didn’t seem like the best option..”

“Barb?”Danny asks, snickering under his breath.

“Barbara is our AI that works and lives aboard this ship and well most of our ships. It’s an AI worked on by our friend Gordon and we’ve kinda gotten so used to her we bring her along with us everywhere. Now we can’t use her. It’s one of the biggest issues of this ship because we use a lot of AI’s in several different forms while aboard a smaller long haul vessel.”

“Wait wait wait, are you telling me this ship is not only secret spy ship with a multi-warp core AND has long haul capabilities? I’m sorry Tim? Do you need a husband? I have a hand! It could use a ring!”Danny exclaimed laughing as Tim goes bright red in the face.

“No no no no no!”Tim begins quickly. “I mean yes! She is a beast of a ship, hence my concern of getting her fixed here and not getting reported because not just any mechanic can work on a ship of her caliber!” Tim begins quietly.” But I -ah- I have a boyfriend.”

Jason walks into a room with a smirk and a cup in his hand. “Dick’s free,”He grins like a mad man and Dick turns bright red as well.

“Jason,”Dick threatened. “Don’t make me rat you out to your girlfriend!”

“I mean I’m open to open relationships too if that’s your speed Jason! I’m sure your girlfriend wouldn't mind me dating you and Dick right!”Danny teases as it was Jason’s turn to go red and Dick bounced off of Danny’s chaotic beginnings.

“I mean I’m okay if you’re fine with sharing Little Wing,”He smirks.

“You two are already insufferable,”Tim groans, getting up and walking past them. “How’s the dust storm?”

“Better I can see and move around just about fine now,”Jason and Tim were changing the topic.

“Can you believe these two? Just dusting us off like that,”Danny sighs softly.

“I know right? They’re just changing the topic so coarsely.”

“Oh god he also does puns,”Jason whispers out.

“See! I’m not that bad! Not like I’m going to drive you to in-sand-ity.” Danny smirks laughing as Tim grabs Jason's hand leading them out of the room.

“We’ll be back with more of the stuff you need,”Tim exclaims back at the two of them as Dick and Danny share quiet moments staring at each other before laughing softly.

“How much are tickets out of this place?”Dick asks as he stares at Danny from his spot, also sitting down. He had been keeping Danny company working on something on his tablet it seemed, filling out paperwork or something at the very least.

“Hmmm, passenger ships are hard to come by here, maybe once every 6 months?”Danny started. “So either you land very hard to get a spot on one of those or you charter a personal vessel. Kind of depends which way you want to take?”Danny shrugs.

“Say, chartering a personal vessel?”

“For a super shitty one it’s probably going to run you about maybe 856 credits. Tickets for the spots on the larger passenger ships run about 543.”

“And how much do you get paid?”

“Well I don’t get paid much at all,”he laughs. “But my parents and I try our best to split everything, but even when you cover the cost of bringing in shipments of things to fix ships, filters, food, that kind of stuff I don’t get much at the end of the day, and well my personal little amount is long gone.”

“Sorry for all my questions, I'm just trying to figure out how much is the average pay around here,”He laughs softly and moves to rub the back of his neck. “Hey have you eaten today? We have some snacks on board or I could make you something?”

“Nah don’t worry about me?”He laughs softly, moving to start again but finds Dick reaching out to stop him.

“Nuh uh, if you’re anything like Tim he forgets to eat especially when he’s working on something,”Dick gave Danny a gentle smile. “Come on?” He stands up and moves to help Danny up, handing him his crutch as he stands and they make their way to the kitchen which was bigger than anything he was used to. He was used to the living area and kitchen all squished into the same place at his parents house. Most of the house had been converted to bays long ago to work on the ships that came in and out of their home. The living space became a second thought for their work. Eyes always focused on the problem at hand. He wondered if he could get a call to Jazz soon.

He missed her.

Danny’s attention was brought back to reality as Dick offered the man a seat at their little table stepping off to go look at the food options.

“What are you craving? I have a bunch of sweet things, all of us tend to have a sweet tooth, but I also have veggies and some fresh produce to snack on from a variety of planets but admittedly mostly Krypton.” Danny took a second to try and realize he was saying coherent English.

“I have no idea what any of that is…”he whispers out sheepishly. Danny felt a small blush to his cheek.

“Right… dying planet,”dick begins slowly. “Have you ever had anything fresh? Any sweet treats or anything?”

Danny shook his head. “Ah, no? I think I may have had a few sweet things growing up but most of what we have here is freeze dried or pre portioned rations and especially now, it’s mostly the rations, and that’s only if you can afford them. Their prices go up every day.” Danny gives a small laugh. He doubted these Rich fuckers would know of the struggles of not having enough to eat.

“You’ve never… had anything sweet? Or fresh?”

“Uhhh, i Don’t think so. To be honest, fresh is kind of a bad omen word around here because we haven’t had anything fresh in so long it usually means things won’t last and doom is to follow. Everything here is regulated, Mr. Wayne.”

It may have been a small jab at the fact that they came from money and wouldn’t know the troubles of the outlying planets of the galaxy and the fact that he has read once that dying planets are often abandoned at some point and the remaining inhabitants are left to die. Danny read up on the fact and had accepted that he was likely within the final one or two generations of the planet left before the transports finally stopped coming and there would be no saviors for them.

Earth would be forgotten and the history along with it. Most of it at least. It would be taught how the Humans destroyed it and once they got into space the world fell beneath them even more and left the remaining inhabitants there to die and wither away with the very little water left and no food capable of growing. The rations are only being provided to them through a relief program by DALV corp to assist dying planets, yet DALV corp never made a move to actually get the remaining members off of the planets did they? Creatures of any nature could make their homes everywhere in space but yet trying to fix what the humans had done, and trying to help those living there?

Danny had been foolish when he was younger to hope that anything like that would happen, there was no saving earth, and there was no getting off the rock for people as injured as he was. Dick seemed to look down sheepishly in embarrassment rubbing his neck anxiously.

“I--I honestly have nothing to say to that you know?”Dick laughed nervously for the moment as he grabbed the two dishes and set one in front of himself and one in front of the other with a small smile as he grabbed two spoons and handed one to danny.

“What’s this?” Danny asks, looking at the weird white scooped substance in front of him. He poked it with a utensil a few times thinking for a moment as he frowned. He poked it with his finger and pulled his hand away in shock and surprise.

“This is called Ice cream,”Dick smirked. “I picked a plain flavor so it shouldn’t throw you off too much.”

“This is cold,”Danny whispers in surprise looking at Dick a mesmerizing look going across his face as he puts his finger into the ice cream eyes even wider when he pulls it out. “It’s cold!”

“Do you guys really not… have that many well regulated temperature spots? Fridges?” Dick was asking honestly. Another thing probably standard on most ships but to him? To him this was everything. Danny had never had this before. Dick handed him a napkin as Danny put some of it on his spoon and hesitated.

‘I mean we have lots and lots of fans and my folks and I are lucky we can go stand in the coolant storage rooms because those have to be kept cool and since we have one of the only working ones around we hold most of the emergency coolant not kept on ships,”Danny explains before taking a bite of the food and eyes going wide as he felt it melt in his mouth staring at Dick. It was creamy and soft and sweet and delicious and Danny had never tasted anything like this before. It was so good and in a way Danny didn’t have any other way to explain it than being on cloud nine.

“How is it?”Dick smirks softly at Danny as the man begins to shovel it into his mouth. “Good right, though you might want to slow down or--.” Dick suggested to the man before a sharp pain filled his mind and his eyes squeezed shut and hands immediately going up to his head and yet all he heard from Dick was a bright laugh and for a moment Danny thought Dick was poisoning him with some neurotoxin or something like that so that’s why his brain was hurting so bad.

“Or that’ll happen,”He chuckles. “Take your thumb and push it up against the roof of your mouth it’ll help it go away.” Danny sends him a glare knowing the man would know this would happen and not warn him! He knew they just met but damn! Though he obliged the man and did as he was told it in fact seemed to ruin whatever was causing that.

“What was that!”Danny exclaimed looking at him.

“That was called a brain freeze my new friend,”Dick smirks. “I don’t know the science of why it happens but it does happen when you eat or drink really cold things too fast, and don’t give me that look! I tried to warn you!”

“Not soon enough!” he teased back at the man.

“When does the sun set here?”Dick asked next, seemingly changing the tone of the conversation.

“Damn I’ve already been here most of the day… It’s technically winter but all of our seasons are pretty much the same now anyways. Apparently the seasons used to change dramatically but now the only thing that changes is when the sun goes down…”

Dick laughs softly. “So most of the day?”

“It means the suns going to set here in about a few hours or so,”Danny replies with a smile.

“Is the view of the stars here any good?”

“I mean I’ve never seen any bad view of our stars here if that’s what you’re asking,”Danny laughs.

“You have some constellations sewn onto your bag,”Dick pointed out softly and Danny blushed, realizing he was right. Danny had done that so long ago he had totally forgotten about that. He had done it bored one night on the roof because he wanted to make sure the bag was his own and he could have fun with it while he could. Not like he had great mobility otherwise, right?

“Ready to head back down?”Danny smiles as he finishes his ice cream and Dick nods deciding to just take it with before he heads back down the stairs to engine bay working on it and keeping up nice quiet conversations with Dick who tried to keep up with all his talks of engines and spaceships and the different apparently older models that came through here a lot.

Tim and Jason stopping by to offer more parts and Tim sliding next to Danny to help him work for a bit as well for another few hours. It was nice and they all made quiet banter and eventually they got on the topic of partners and Danny laughed at their family.

Once again making him miss Jazz. It was nice to see them treat each other as family.

“What about you danny?”Jason smiles gently at the man. “Born and raised here, do you have any siblings?”

“I do actually,”Danny gives a sheepish smile. “I have my parents and my sister.”

“Oooo, A sister,”Jason nudged Dick playfully and the man rolled his eyes.

“She’s off planet though,”he laughs softly. “Got a scholarship through the federation and hasn’t looked back. Can’t blame her for getting out of this shit hole.”

“Do you still speak to her?”Dick asks with a small hum.

“Getting long distance messages like that are hard. Especially face times,”He admitted. “Most of our satellites are shot so it’s uncommon we get to talk or send anything else out. “

“When’s the last time you two spoke?”Tim spoke softer this time as Danny looked down at his hands which he was wringing in mild anxiety of it all.

“About 5 months ago I think?”He admits quietly. “I’m glad she got out of here though, but I do miss her. I didn’t even tell her about my accident so she has no idea why I haven’t left. I’ve been avoiding it for years.”

“Why haven’t you told her?”Tim pressed a little.

“Because she’d offer to pay my way off world to get treatment but where would that leave her? The fare is expensive and let alone getting me all the way to a medical treatment center? I don’t know the galaxies that well. I don’t know the stars except when I’m here staring at them.”

“She cares about you then if you know she’d be willing to do that,”Dick smiles. “I know because It’s something I’d do in a heartbeat for my siblings too.”

“And you parents?”Jason spoke up again.

“Engineers, that's for sure. The amount of times I’ll open our rations cabinet and find a can of oil or something in a radioactive container is not for the faint of heart. Don’t even get me started on the whole ‘our house is the garage’ thing they’ve got going on.”Danny laughs with a bright smile. “They let me work for them sometimes, and I try to help out when I can.”

“What’s your dream then?”Jason moves to lean against the wall.

“Right now? To leave here one day and see the stars and planets even if only for a few hours. If I get to be up there for a bit and explore for a day I think I can die happy,”Danny lets a wistful smile rest upon his face as he turns back to his work, missing a shared look from across the brother’s faces. Each of them fell into their own conversations and sibling rivalries for another bit before Dick tapped his shoulder another few hours later for them to take a break. The man handed him water, letting him finish it before Dick brought him to the top of the ship outside. Dick helped him for a moment as they sat atop the ship, the sun having set. Both of them having turned on their filters glad the sandstorm had left and while everything was covered in dust the stars were incredibly visible tonight and Danny could appreciate that as Dick smiles.

“So… stars? What are some of your local earth tales about them?”He grinned.

“Are you sure this is a conversation you wanna bring up?”Danny teases threateningly with a smile. “I could literally talk about this for hours and I’m pretty sure you want your ship fixed at some point. “

“Hmmm, okay fair then tell me about your favorite one?”He smiles gently.

“This one is really old, okay? You can’t blame me for any of the historical mistranslations that may have happened during the centuries or whatever.”Danny mildly threatened and the other put his hands up in defense.

“I cross my heart. I promise. I won’t judge,”he smiles.

“So a long time ago there were two brothers, only half siblings but brother’s nonetheless. One was named Civilization the other was named Pollution.”Danny began as he leaned back. “It’s that grouping of stars there.”

“Okay,”Dick smiles and looks over towards Danny.

“Civilization and Pollution were both created by man. Alas there were other Siblings created by the Earth, Drought and Famine. It said that when Man made Civilization and Pollution the two would always coincide with one another. A promise to each other to stay by each other's sides. They embarked on many journeys of exploration across space together and especially amongst men on earth they explored and went deep into the Earth itself to draw out all she had within her. Earth did not like that and told them to stop. She kept telling them to cease on their journey or she would seek retribution, and they did not listen so she sent her children after them. So Drought killed Civilization and in anger Pollution killed the remaining two siblings. Pollution begged and begged for Earth to bring back his sibling, even turning to man who was falling apart at the seams without Civilization there to keep them together. Earth shook her head and gave a sigh and sent off the rest of man into the stars claiming that was how Civilization would be reborn and if he wanted to follow she could allow him to follow him into the stars. So he did, and thus the constellations were born into the sky, the brothers there once again dancing while the broken rotting bodies of Drought and Famine brought bloodshed back to the land.”

“Wow that’s..”

“A lot right,”Danny laughs. “And that’s just one of many tales we have here.” Danny looked over at Dick who slowly sat up and Danny hadn’t realized how close Dick had gotten to him. Dick looked down on him with a gentle smile.

“Yeah no it’s a lot, that’s for sure. I think you deserve to see the stars Danny.”Dick comments almost as if it was an afterthought.

“Well, maybe one day right?”He smirks.

“I think it might be sooner than you think,”Dick smirks mischievously. Danny chuckling and rolling his eyes at the other.

“I wish, man, I wish.” Then something seemed to dawn on the other and Dick’s eyes widened for a moment before he stopped.

”Do they keep you informed enough out here about what’s going on outside of the planet?” Dick began slowly. “I know what Tim said earlier and I’m not going to contradict anything he said because what we told you earlier was the truth. This is a spy ship. This was a test mission, but it wasn’t pirates who attacked us.”

“Who attacked you then?”Danny’s eyebrows furrowed. He moved to sit up to look Dick seriously in the eyes.

“There’s a race that's pushed a war with the galactic federation for years. They’ve been getting under our skin and trying to break down the Federation from the inside and mostly the Kryptonians have been dealing with it fine but when the Federation hired Wayne enterprises to assist in weapons and ship designs? They seemingly took offense to that. It’s contract work. Nothing against either side, we think the entire situation is dumb.” Dick sounded frustrated almost.

“Okay, so what’s your point? There’s a new war brewing? You guys get caught in the crossfire?”Danny was almost hesitant to ask. Dick shifts his sitting position almost nervously as he looks over at Danny.

“Yes… and no.”Dick stopped for a moment thinking of how he wanted to phrase his next comment. Something he was afraid of saying out loud in fear it would be true and Danny had been forced to read a lot of interesting texts over the years about the stories of old and how they used to run their missions. Dots connecting in Danny’s mind.

“You think you were targeted…”Danny whispers out. “It’s-it’s just like I was reading about in this archived novel I read when I was younger! Somebody tries to take out the main family’s heirs, cause devastation and get the big family to pull out on the contract work!”

‘Yeah , that's pretty much the entire situation we’ve theorized right now," he laughs. “What we think at least. We’re sure things will calm down once the finality of the paperwork is complete but we just have to be more careful.”

“So wait… if your so-called ship isn’t pinging things right? That’s going to show up as a red flag within this port too, you know that right? I know Pings are an old school concept but they still use them here. The second they send out that report back to the nearest station of federation ships it can be hacked. I used to hack them all the time. Listening to those radios is like a piece of cake.”

Then it seemed to dawn on both of them.

Eyes finding each other for a moment as they stare in panic. There was a high chance that the ship was just waiting on the signal to the nearest station. That cut their real time in half, no wait... Danny thought he might be able to do it in 12 hours but that would mean the end of the day and the signal would have already been sent out a few hours before he had finished it. He looked at the clock on the wall. He had been working for 9 hours… That meant final pings for the evening on all the ships would be going out soon if not now and reported to the nearest federation station, and their ship wouldn’t ping.

“You guys still use the Ping system?!?!”Dick started.

“Shut up you guys have a bigger issue to deal with! And again DYING PLANET DICK.”Danny exclaimed before he paused and looked around them. “Fuck Tim and I have to get this ship moving now.” He whispers before they hurry back into the ship. Dick grabbing Danny by the waist and lifting him down with ease, not that Danny noticed it that much, not at all. Danny uses his powers just slightly to help him get into the engine bay faster as Dick was trying to explain the current situation.

“You use the PING SYSTEM?!?!?!”

“Shut up and help me finish this!”Danny yelled at Tim sternly and that seemed to shut him up as the nervousness rose. Jason going back up to keep an eye on the surrounding area and Dick going who knew where. It was on the ship for sure, probably prepping system vitals and checking everything else for take off.

“Tim, you guys need to get to a mechanic as soon as you get out of here okay?”Danny whispers to him as they finish the shoddy patch job. “I’m serious.”

“You don’t have to explain it to me..”Tim bites at the dried skin of his lips for the moment.

“I’m going to get off so you can leave. Get out of here, Jump. Get to safety all of you,”Danny whispers as they head up to the main deck and Danny moves to open the airlock to the outside.

“I think Dick might want to say goodbye, he gets attached,”Tim teases him softly.Danny rolls his eyes slipping on his mask hearing the very quiet hiss of it connecting and breathing in the only slightly ruined filter. Danny had his bag slung over his shoulder standing by the airlock.

Dick came down the hallway Tim had just gone into.

“You guys will only be able to make one jump, so make it count,”Danny started firmly.

“We will, we will! We’ll also be back, you know that right? We don’t have any coins on us and I know you said technology is iffy here and we have services to pay for,”he smiles gently.

“I would appreciate it,”he laughs. “Honestly, just get out of here. I’m not worried about it. I’ll get out of here eventually.” Danny gave a shrug and Dick gently grabbed his hand giving him a small squeeze.

“I promise I’ll be back.”

“Uh huh, that’s what they all say,”Danny gives a sad smile and starts his walk out the door giving a wave to them as he leaves leaning on his crutch starting to feel the pain coursing through his body now at the long working hours he pulled today and part of him didn’t even care he wasn’t getting paid immediately, or that he quietly wanted to make a jab at his sister for not coming back to see him. Part of him was just trying desperately to not be heartbroken or sad at the coming events he knew was going to happen. He stared at the ground intently as he walked away.

Maybe he had wanted to be their friend. Wanted to see them more and hang out with them. Maybe he wanted to actually stare at the stars and tell Dick more stories of Earth and what it was like living in its hellish expanse.

Maybe he wanted someone to explore space with. Someone to watch his back and maybe a group of friends he could finally come clean with about what he was made up of and what he could do in actuality. Maybe he could tell them the idea of why their ship was only going to last one more jump. He didn’t need to tell them he infused extra radiation energy into the pipes that would be picked up along the way. The excess radioactive energy that he could control and assign and tell how to function and when to function.

The radiation he put there so that their warp core wouldn’t explode from being overexerted.The radiation he put there in fear of their ship being unable to jump without the extra fuel to the engine. But who was he anyway? Who was he at the end of the day? He felt like a no one. He would be abandoned yet again, he always was.

He stopped in his tracks as he felt hot bright lights on him and heard yelling.

“HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM!” He looked up to see the local authority. The sheriff standing front and center. Dash. A dark smirk across his face and Danny knew in that moment he was fucked. If he wasn’t arrested Dash would make his life a living hell. Then he heard yelling from behind him. The Wayne ship had started up, but yelling with his hand out, was Dick.

“RUN!” He yelled. Danny stared at Dash and then back at Dick.

“Don’t do it Fenton!” He yelled. Danny could feel his leg already screaming at him but he didn’t care. He turned around and booked it. What he hadn’t expected was for them to actually shoot. A phaser blast coming to his right and causing him to scream as he hurried as quickly as he could with his crutch. Then he dropped his bag moving to go back but finding it was too dangerous as they were still shooting at him. Eyes wide with fear looking back at Dash, quietly pleading as he ran. Dick motioned him to go faster and he did.

He ran.

Faster. Faster. Forgetting his crutch and running with all he had. Deep labored breaths became worse as he felt a stinging at his side ignoring the pain and the tears welling in his eyes.

Why were they doing this? What did he do? Why was he being targeted? He--

Why? It was then he realized the ship was moving and going higher off the ground and Dick’s hand reached for him desperately and he heard a bang as his fingers grazed Dick’s hand, the man latching on. He saw another pair of hand grab Dick dragging them both into the ship, the airlock closing behind him desperately before they all fell back breathing heavily. Danny felt a searing pain at his side and he could feel the dust in his lungs as they all tried to breath and just calm down and slowly.

Danny stopped. He stared. Eyes focusing on Dick for a moment, then Jason’s. Then his hand.

He saw blood pouring from his side from nasty burns, his clothing torn and singed and he stared in a daze at his hand. Ears ringing. People were mouthing things to him that he couldn’t even register. Words. What words? He needed to concentrate right? Was that how this worked? Why did this all feel familiar? Why did this feel like dying all over again?

Wasn’t dying just once enough?

“Danny!”He hadn’t even realized he had collapsed Dick panicked, staring at him. “Hey, look at me. It’s going to be okay! It’s going to be fine!”

“What happened,”He breathed out tears streaking down his cheeks.

“Don’t worry about it, We’ll get you fixed up. Danny, hey look at me talk to me,”Dick wipes his tears away with his thumbs his hands a grounding pressure since he had pulled off danny’s mask throwing it somewhere out of the way. He gives Danny a wide reassuring smile.

“Danny, look at me? You have to stay with me, you want to know why? We’re in space,”He whispers and when he points to one of the windows the last thing Danny saw before he passed out was the stars.

The stars were welcoming him home.

And at least Danny got his finally wish right?

Fanfic located here on Archive of our Own