#that had not been my intention fjdj

[thebiggestfuckgiven]

okay i lied, i’ll have to divide it into three parts. im sorry, i think? nonetheless! we trek on, and i hope those still reading enjoy this semi-finale to this ridiculously long, supposed-to-have-just-been ficlet

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3.2 - Final Showdown

The ballroom threw itself into chaos. Attendees began screaming and shrieking as those green blobs started spilling out of what Tim knew was a portal. A portal to where? He had no clue, and no way to find out. Especially now, stuck in an emergency situation as a civilian. The worst thing to be stuck as for most bats. And in his own home of all places.

Tim’s mind set into overdrive as he assessed the situation while avoiding being trampled by the crowd.

They were running wherever they could, as far away as possible from the musician’s stage and the swirling portal above it. Most didn’t get far, though. Tim witnessed from behind a pillar as globs disappeared into people’s bodies. Just like Phantom had. Others were pulling at guests’ hair, pushing them to the ground or dragging them up to the chandelier, leaving them there to hang on for their life.

As far as Wayne Galas went, this one… was pretty bad, but not the worst. Tim held onto that.

Cutting through the clamor of panicked pleas and screams, Bruce-Phantom laughed deeply. Tim had his second phone out, going into the house’s security system. He should be able to get the doors open from here. If he activated the sprinklers, they could work as a good distraction.

A plan already formulating in his head, he got to work.

“Oh, come on,” Bruce-Phantom shouted into the microphone. “Isn’t this what you all wanted? A real party! We don’t even have to worry about the big bad bat crashing it, so have fun! And his little annoying fruit bats? We already have one less to worry about. Isn’t that right?” His voice darkened at this.

That’s when the lights went out.

A cold shard of fear crept its way into Tim’s heart against his will. The feeling caught him so off guard, his lungs spasmed and he found he couldn’t breathe. He knew what Phantom’s words meant. The ghost knew all about their alter egos, and he was going to do something about it, if he hasn’t already.

Were the others okay? Where were they?

The ice in his heart crackled outwards. The room was cold; getting colder by the minute. Everyone’s screams and cries only grew worse. He couldn’t stand it. Shit, he couldn’t move. Why was he so terrified? He’s been in worse situations, has had to deal with way bigger risks.

What was wrong with him? And what was taking them so long?

A dark chuckle reverberated impossibly throughout the loud room. Tim flinched, heart stuttering. Phantom had moved. He was close. Too close for Tim’s comfort.

Focus.

He went back to his phone, and in a few rapid but trembling clicks the sound of all the doors’ locks sliding open chorused in tune with someone’s gasping sobs. All at once, as Tim was feeling a chilling cold creeping over his shoulders, the doors swung open, the lights flickered back on, and the sprinklers went off.

Those who could took their chance. They ran straight for the doors, tumbling and sprinting while those possessed tried to hold a few of them back. Tim fought the urge to help them. He’s never fought someone possessed by a ghost before, but he could figure something out. Though, he’d have to do that regardless.

He heard the sound of claws lightly scraping against the stone pillar he hid behind, and that was all the warning he needed. Tim ducked, the breeze of Phantom’s full-bodied punch tickling his forehead.

BAM!

The room shook with the sound as he rolled away from Phantom. His whole body was trembling imperceptibly, a buzz under his skin, as he pushed himself up to his feet.

This isn’t normal, he’d kept telling himself. Standing this close to Phantom, still in Bruce’s body, he was finally inclined to believe it. He stared at the pillar, horrified.

A cloud of dust surrounded Bruce-Phantom. His arm hung heavily at his side, a fist coated in stone particles, and the cuts on his knuckles were healing already. There was a crater in the pillar now, about the size of his head. Tim met his eyes, glinting greed with satisfaction and the edge of his smile cutting into his cheeks.

Tim swallowed against the foreign ice-cold fear threatening to shut him down. He glanced at the guests that were still hanging up in the chandelier. There were still civilians around, but he couldn’t just let himself get killed.

“Mm, I can tell you an I are going to have fun,” he said, voice low and smug.

Reluctantly, he turned back to meet Bruce-Phantom’s eyes, ignoring how the familiarity of fighting someone he’s looked up to his whole life made his skin crawl.

Stalling it was, then.

“I gotta be honest,” he started, slowly moving back. “I’m not a fan of your idea of fun.”

Bruce-Phantom shrugged nonchalantly, waving a dismissive hand.

“Everyone’s a critic. But I just like doing whatever feels like me, you know?”

Tom opened his mouth to respond when Bruce-Phantom disappeared into thin air. He whipped his head around trying to search for any sign of him. There was a sudden cold spot behind him. Before he could even turn around, there was a voice by his ear.

“Boo.”

Something hard slammed into his back. Tim screamed in pain as the hit sent him flying onto one of the finger foods table. He fell hard, the ceramic plates shattering against his side before tumbling off the side and onto the floor. He groaned into the cold marble. He had a bruised kidney, for sure. Maybe ceramic shard in his arm and chest, but he couldn’t feel anything apart from the numbing pain in his lower back.

He bit back a curse. It’s no biggie, I’m fine. I’m just up against my lifelong mentor who’s being possessed by some kind of super ghost who knows all about us. In my civvies. It’s fine.

Footsteps approached the mess of broken plates and scattered food Tim was lying in.

Bruce-Phantom snickered.

“C’mon birdie boy, that all you got? It wasn’t nearly this easy to beat you the first time around. Then again, you had more years on you.”

“You hit pretty hard for a dead bitch,” Tim groaned out, decidedly ignoring Phantom’s words. He tucked the information away in a little archive in his mind instead. Later.

Bruce-Phantom barked a laugh, tilting his head back with the sound. The table creaked as he gripped the edge.

“We’re only just getting started,” he growled out. In one fluid motion he flipped the table and swung it across the room, where it crashed into the abandoned cello in a dissonant cacophony of strings.

Tim stared, wide-eyed and horrified, at the broken table, then back at Bruce-Phantom. Slowly, he lifted his hands in front of himself.

“Please,” he let out, measuring his words. Bruce-Phantom raised an eyebrow. “I don’t who or what you are, but please leave these people and my father out of it. They’re innocent. I’m sure we can talk about this like reasonable people.”

Bruce-Phantom went as if to roll his eyes, one hand on his hip, when he caught Tim’s glance to the chandelier. He followed the line of sight to the guests who were surprisingly still hanging on. As soon as he turned his back, Tim slipped his hand into one of the inside pockets of his suit jacket. Cold metal bit into the palm of his hand.

He swiftly slid it into his sleeve before Bruce-Phantom turned back to him. That grin of his cut into his cheeks once more like it was its own curated weapon. Or maybe it was just the teeth. Tim suppressed a shiver.

“Alright, birdie #3, I’ll play your game.”

Birdie #3… how much did he know?

Bruce-Phantom faced the horde of possessed ghosts and shouted something Tim can only describe as a jumbling mumble of consonants and slicing hisses. It grated painfully against his ears, scratching so much it nearly turned to static. Just as he was about to squint and jam his fingers into his ears, it stopped. Three separated from the horde, floating up to the chandelier where the guests were starting to scream at them.

Tim sat up in his knees, hands still in surrender.

“What are you doing? Leave them alone, they’re innocent!”

Although his surrender wasn’t close to genuine, his panic was true. Everything about this ‘Phantom’ was unpredictable. First he steals classified tech, then he works with the JL to help catch himself, and now he was here, creating a level of chaos at a Wayne Gala that’s usually reserved for Batman’s biggest rogues.

This entire break-in felt personal, more like a revenge plot than anything else. But Tim had no way of confirming that. Neither Bruce nor Batman had done anything to antagonize the ghost. He had no way, yet, to tell what Phantom would do next.

He could’ve commanded the possessed to kill those people first all Tim knew.

Bruce-Phantom glanced at him, eyes gleaming.

“You wanted a private conversation, didn’t you?”

He didn’t say another word, and neither did Tim. He watched, apprehension mounting within him, as the possessed brought the guests down from the chandelier and set them down in the middle of the room.

Throughout the whole painstaking process, Tim couldn’t stop thinking about his family and what the fuck was taking them so long in getting here.

He made eye contact with the terrified woman who, unlike her companions, hesitated once she was set down.

“Go,” Tim said firmly, pointing his chin at the door. She ran without another glance. The door slammed shut behind her, the sound echoing ominously throughout the room. Thirty possessed stood along the far wall like sentinels.

He was never leaving his room without comms again.

“Ready for the last fight of your life, birdie?”

“That’s just another Tuesday for me.”

Tim swung out his arm, his bo staff opening with a smooth click. He lunged and aimed for the throat.

————

Meanwhile en route to Wayne Manor…

————

Dick grunted in pain as his back slammed into tue side of the building, chest and suit burning from the blast he took. That was the third- THIRD -time he got sent flying into the same building. By a robot, no less! Seriously, what was a robot doing in Gotham of all places? Usually these were the kinds of villains Superman got.

“Nightwing, you okay?”

Spoiler perched herself on the corner of the roof he was on. He sent her a thumbs up.

“Never better,” he rasped before falling into a coughing fit.

“Yeah, you sound like a million bucks. Listen, Black Bat and Robin are distracting Robo-guy. Oracle’s trying to shut him down, but for some reason she can’t do it wirelessly. Catch.”

He spotted a flash of movement and reacted instinctively. In his hand was something the size of an old ipod, except square and solid black. It hummed quietly, the vibration almost imperceptible.

“A gift? You shouldn’t have! Really.”

Spoiler rolled her eyes.

“Consider it an early—”

Bang!

They both turned around to the loud noise in time to see a car fly across 33rd street and crush a lamppost.

“Time’s up,” she said, getting her grappling hook out. “O will fill you in on the rest. Happy Birthday!”

Dick hopped back on his feet and walked to the same corner Spoiler jumped off. Below him was a semi-impressive sight that he didn’t think he’d ever see in Gotham. A twenty-foot tall Robot made out of a weird combination of spare parts and high tech blasted its way through the street.

Where its face would’ve been was instead a screen portraying an impossibly sickly green face with crooked teeth and, for some ungodly reason, sunglasses. Tonight could not be any weirder.

Dick tapped his comm.

“Hey, O, how’s it hanging?”

“Could be better,” she replied, her voice taught. There was an intense sound of clacking in the background.

“Any updates on the manor?”

Dick’s mind raced with thoughts as he observed the fight below, turning the square ipod thing in his hand over.

“Not yet. Cameras aren’t working, but Tim’s logged into the security. I’m 98% sure he’s the one who set the sprinklers off. Cops are on their way, but traffic from our robot friend is setting them back. Did Spoiler give you—”

“My birthday gift? Sure did,” he said easily, holding it up in front of him. “Though I gotta say, and ipod was not on my list this year.”

Oracle snorted at the comment.

“An ipod? God you’re old.”

“Hey! They’re not even that old! And they’re still a thing.”

The sound of furious keyboard clacking intensified in his ear.

“Mhm, sure. Don’t worry, though, I got you something better. This one is for our robot friend. The others will keep it distracted while you stick that near its processing unit which, if the infrared in your guys’ video is correct, should be behind its neck.”

Dick stretched his arms overhead and hid the ipod in one of the pockets lining his arm sleeve.

“Easy peasy. Any hints for that something better?”

“In your dreams, bird brain. I’ll keep you updated if I find anything else. Good luck.”

The comm went silent. Dick focused on the task at hand. He tried not to think about how Tim was faring in the manor, on his own. About how he was stuck with a powerful ghost who was currently possessing not only their father, but someone who was probably even more dangerous than said ghost.

They had no way of knowing what was going on in there, or of what Phantom’s plan was. His endgame. They had to get to Tim, but whenever any of them tried to break away, the Robot would blast them in the opposite direction.

He rolled his shoulders. They would get to the manor on time. But first, it was about time they put this thing out of commission. He took a running start before front flipping off the building and straight onto the robot’s back.

————

Also en route…

————

Zatanna was flying as fast as she could through the smog-ridden skies of Gotham city when she heard the voice that too easily haunted her dreams since she first heart it almost three days ago.

“I am Technus! Master of all things mechanical!”

“You have got to be kidding me.”

She didn’t think she’d ever hear that voice again— she’d been dreading the idea of it, honestly. The tech being was by far the most annoying and tedious villain she’s ever had the displeasure of fighting. Now it was here. In Gotham of all places.

She followed the source of that stupid voice to find an honest-to-god robot traipsing down a wrecked street. There was an insane amount of traffic in every direction, and four totaled cars. Possible casualties then.

Taking a closer look she spotted four figures zipping back and forth and onto the robot trying to take it down. They must’ve been on their way to the manor like her. Instantly, she understood what was going on. Technus was a distraction, tasked to keep them away from Phantom.

Zatanna frowned. Something wasn’t quite adding up. During her last encounter with Technus, his whole speech implied that Danny- Phantom -was the one who always ‘ruined his plots for technological world domination.’

If that was true, it didn’t make sense that he was protecting Phantom now. It’s possible Phantom struck a deal either way Technus in exchange for his help, but… Zatanna wasn’t too sure that was the case.

Watching as Black Bat took a green blast from Technus, Zatanna put the thoughts aside for later. She swooped down and grabbed Black Bat, moving her out of the way of another blast. She set them both down behind a mail box. The sharp, static noise of Technus’ laugh boomed loudly along with each destructive step he took.

He had loose strings tangled around each foot, and as soon as she wondered why she saw Robin shoot his grappling hook at the Robot’s left foot and tie it around a lamppost. From a low roof, Spoiler shot her own grappling hook at his right foot, tying it at a nearby fire escape.

This slowed him down for maybe thirty seconds, enough for Nightwing to start poking his electrified escrima sticks into every exposed wire-covered joint the robot had. At this, the robot’s face glitched in and out of the screen, but after a few seconds of this Technus only laughed louder. He blasted at the rope around his feet, making Robin and Spoiler fall back.

Zatanna felt a grip on her arm. She turned to Black Bat. Her mask was as cold and impassive as ever, but she was breathing hard and her suit was steaming. Eyes roaming down, Zatanna found the source. There was a circle of burning skin and melted kevlar on Black Bat’s side, near her ribs.

“Stay still,” Zatanna commanded. A spell was falling off her tongue in seconds.

Black Bat was shaking her head.

“Tim,” she rasped.

“I’ll make sure you guys get to him, but I need to heal you first.”

A soft yellow glow emanated from her palm. The light trickled down onto the burn, separating the fabric from the skin before mending the burn.

Black Bat shook her head again, fingertips digging into Zatanna’s forearm. She suppressed a wince. Black Bat must be in serious pain if she was being this expressive. Which was concerning. Technus’ blasts didn’t do much except pack a serious punch. They especially didn’t burn like this.

“Plan.”

“What?”

Black Bat took in a shaky breath as yellow light spilled further onto her burn.

“Oracle had a plan. It didn’t work. We… it’s different,” she said, struggling to find the right words.

Zatanna glanced back at the robot. She hadn’t fought Technus like this, but she wasn’t surprised that Oracle couldn’t shut the robot down. It wasn’t normal technology after all. Everything he used became him, as much as she was able to tell.

“I’m different, too. Did Oracle find a way into his systems?”

Black Bat nodded.

“Tell her to unload as many viruses as she can into them. The more annoying the better. While she’s doing that, tell Spoiler and Robin to pull their trick again, but make sure Nightwing backs off. What I’m going to do should be enough of a distraction to give you and him a chance to get away and go straight to the manor. I’ll be right behind you, got it?”

But Black Bat was already relaying the information through their comms. Zatanna’s spell wasn’t enough to get rid of the burn entirely, but it did ease down the pain and get rid of the melted fabric. It was all the bat needed to get back on her feet and to the nearest roof. Zatanna stayed where she was as it gave her enough cover from Technus’s shots, and was now firmly in his blindside.

From there on, things went as smoothly as they could. Technus made it obvious the moment Oracle started her ambush. Cat memes, shitty ads, and continuously opening windows overlapped over his face on screen as he started shouting ‘what is this’ and ‘no virus can hold down Technus, master of all things mechanical.’ His last straw, apparently, was when a twenty hour looped video of Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up popped up over a Destiel meme.

“NOOOO!”

“Now!”

From adjacent roofs, Spoiler and Robin shot their grappling hooks. Each one did a loop around the robot’s hip. As soon as their hooks stuck, they jumped off the roof and swung in circles around Technus’s legs, tangling them up worse and worse until he couldn’t move five feet without tripping.

“Foolish children! Mere rope and outdated memes cannot destroy Technus!”

“How about a magic touch?”

“You again!”

Zatanna shared that exact sentiment, but she was more than happy to decommission him a second time. Her magic rippled into every inch of her, sparking at her fingertips as she floated above the robot. His screen was still playing Rick Astley.

Pouring power into her words, she shouted the same spell she used against him the first time. It rendered technology useless, and with the overwhelming amount of viruses distracting him, Technus couldn’t spare a thought to defend against it.

Unlike their first fight, though, she followed this spell with a purifying one she had picked up from Constantine. This did the trick. The robot went slack in its spot, all its power sapped away. A green glow traveled through its body, accompanied by Technus’s anguished scream, until it got ejected through the robot’s head.

The green shape floated mid air for a second before it shot off into the sky, the scream quickly fading away.

That, she thought, worked a lot better than I expected it to.

She looked around her and not a single bat was to be found waiting among the wreckage. Good. They should be halfway to the manor now.

Zatanna followed after them, leaving the clean-up to the GPD.

sometimes you just gotta draw the king

DP X DC ghost king danny

What if Danny’s King Regalia always shows up in the dark? Danny can keep it invisible/unequip it, but it’s permanent in dark settings. Yet, it always shows back up in dark rooms etc.

except he has a really hard time figuring out if it is dark out or not because his vision is tinted green 100% of the time, and he has night vision anyway, so whenever the lights flickered in a room, and his crown was visible for a few seconds, and whatever hero he is with thinks they were seeing things, he just never notices

so danny’s a daylight hero, and avoids dark rooms with the JL because he thinks being a king isn’t a big deal. There are demigods and champions of magic, so what difference is a king? Or maybe he assumes they already knew or smthn, and he didn’t like the weird looks people used to give him when he left the crown visible, and the JL never seemed to care that he was (technically) ruler of infinite realms, only that he could save people, and stop world-ending threats

and, of course, they don’t actually know; cue misunderstandings.

art taglist: @i-amtransexual @badatgmrt