Children Of The Future

Behind the Scenes

Someone hacked Cyborg’s memory. Because of this, and the fact that both Cyborg and Marvel hang around each other a lot, people were greeted with one of the most beloved heroes acting like an average person, because whoever hacked him also posted all the footage online. It was only footage of Marvel too so Billy’s wondering if Sivana’s behind this.

The video starts with Cap and Cyborg walking down a hallway in the Watchtower. They’re about to pass a door when they suddenly hear:

Female Voice: “Like, Captain Marvel? Beautiful man. Just beautiful.”

Cyborg and Marvel: *stop walking*

Marvel: *looks over to him and has a disgusted face*

When the hero who said that saw this clip, the embarrassment they felt was astronomical. Speaking of embarrassment:

*another clip*

Cyborg: *talking*

Marvel: *also talking but pauses mid conversation and his hand moves to his heart and he deadass looks like he’s having a heart attack*

Cyborg: “What the fuck. Are you okay?”

Marvel: *takes an extremely deep breath* “Yeah. Yeah, I’m find. You just reminded me of something cringe I did and like 2019.”

Cyborg: “What could you have possibly done that could lead to you experiencing heart pain when you remember it?”

Marvel: “Don’t even worry about it.”

Cyborg: “I feel like I have to worry because what was that??”

Yeah… All the fans are speculating now. Speaking of speculating, there’s another clip that left fans worrying:

Cyborg: *walking to the kitchen when he suddenly stops because he can hear Marvel and Supes talking*

Marvel: “He is such a prick.” *full southern accent*

Supes: “I know, right? I honestly don’t know what to make of him.” *also full southern accent*

Marvel: “Hey-” *says something in Kryptonian*

Supes: *starts to laugh but then stops himself* “Now that’s just mean.”

Marvel: “It’s true though isn’t it?”

Like a Day after the video was Released…

Interviewer: “Supergirl Supergirl! Can you translate this for us?”

Supergirl: “Huh, what?”

Interviewer: *shows video clip about the two speaking in Kryptonian*

Supergirl: *does the same thing as her cousin which is laugh and stop herself* “Nothing, don’t worry about it.”

Witness Protection

There’s a dead guy in the alley and it’s not Danny. 

Ok, technically there are two dead guys in the alley but honestly, Danny feels like they’re way past semantics.

Because, once again, there is a dead man in the alley. 

Danny is fairly sure the guy’s been murdered. The bloody mess that is the guy's chest is a pretty good indicator, but the bloody knife that's still stuck in the guy’s guts is really what makes it for the teen.

Danny might be freaking out a little bit. Because, while he is used to dead people, they’re never this newly deceased, or for that matter, this gruesomely murdered.

Before his breath can quicken too much, Danny makes himself take a deep breath. 

Say what you want about Danny, but he hasn’t spent his high-school career moonlighting as a teenage vigilante without learning a thing or two about staving off a panic attack. Feeling more calm, Danny focuses back on the issue at hand.

I should call the police, says something in the back of his head that sounds like Jazz.

If I call in the murder I’ll be on the suspect list, retorts some other part of his brain he’s choosing to call the Sam part.

No advice from an imaginary Tuck though. Even in his own mind he can’t imagine a Tucker that hasn’t already passed out cold at the sight of a dead guy. 

Which, fair. Danny is kinda considering the option, as he’s feeling a little faint himself. It is way past time he got out of here. At least he's figured out just how to do it.

Anonymous tips are a wonderful thing, made all the more wonderful by the presence of payphones in Gotham.Danny is officially handing this off to the proper authorities.

Boy is he glad he doesn’t have to be involved anymore.

A few streets over, a hooded figure rounds a corner, their breath coming fast  as they clench their bloody fists agitadely. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone there, and yet. This is an unexpected setback.

The hooded figure leans back against the alley wall to catch their breath. Nothing to do about it but fix it. And as these things go, this is an easy mistake to fix. The face of the black-haired blue-eyed hurdle floats to the front of their mind. 

It should be child’s play.

I really love both BabyGhost!Danny and GhostKing!Danny. Especially together. Especially if it is a crossover. Just. Outsiders, who don't know the situation, are told that The King of The Infinity is an infant. Like;

Random Ghost/Gossiper: Oh, yeah. Pariah Dark. Nah. We got a new king. King Phantom, the Infant King.

Random Crossover Gossiper: Infant King...?

Random Ghost/Gossiper: Yeah, He's a baby.

Random Crossover Gossiper: I thought the king only changed through trial by combat. And that Pariah Dark Was so powerful that even with a coup, they could only seal him in an eternal slumber?

Random Ghost/Gossiper: Oh, Yeah. It does. Some idiot woke Pariah Dark up, and King Phantom won.

Random Crossover Gossiper: But he's a baby?

Random Ghost/Gossiper: The Babbiest

Random Crossover Gossiper: ????

DPxDC What's the Big Deal with the Dead

TW, I guess: corpses and mild gore(?)

Due to his life circumstances, Danny is absolutely unfazed by the dead things. Be it a still barely warm body in the alleyway or a half-decomposed rat in the dumpster. He is just okay with them.

That is not to say he doesn't respect the dead, he does, but he respects the contents, not the package. He is polite and gentle with the shades of those recently passed away, he understands their burial preferences, and sometimes he helps the souls to either find their way to the afterlife or bring justice to the ones who murdered them, or anything else if they need it and he is able to do it.

Granted, he lives in Gotham, no one here is really that fazed by dead things, but what I'm trying to say is Danny lacks that first reaction kind of instinct, the disgust and repulsion and the horror that people feel when they see a dead body.

So, one night on patrol, one of the Bats, let's say Nightwing, finds him crouching beside a body. He can see the blood on the pavement and the bullet wound on the chest of said body, and this is yet another innocent life that has been taken, and he couldn't stop it, he was too late.

Meanwhile, Danny just turns his head towards him, waves, and goes, "s'up".

DC x DP Prompt (2)

Danny becomes a dreamwalker, and gains another complicated relationship.

It was no secret that Danny had a rocky and awkward relationship with his rogue gallery, especially after his coronation to become the Ghost King. Imagine the faces his enemies made when they learned that baby half-ghost they used to brawl with was now the Eternal Majesty and effectively their boss.

That was mostly how Danny, in a display of abuse of authority, made Nocturn agreed to help him enter a specific person's dream. More specifically, the dream of one Timothy Drake-Wayne.

It all started when Danny got his scholarship to Gotham University after finishing high school. Finally leaving his ghost-fighting life in Amity Park behind, although he still had to fulfill his duty as the Ghost King.

In his first year at Gotham U, he met none other than the Tim Drake - local celebrity, son of billionaire, genius - as his classmate.

Here's the thing, Danny made Tim extremely sleepy for some reasons.

For one, the air around Danny was chill. Unlike the biting cold of winters, this felt more like the cooling of an air conditioner on a summer day. Which made thing way too comfortable, his body just kept dozing off whenever this strange boy was around, like an animal ready for hibernation.

For two, being the Ghost King meant that Danny had the traces of all the Ancients on him. Including Nocturn's trace as the Ancient of Dream, which induced sleep. This was usually unnoticeable when you were awake, but if you were someone who overworked themselves to the limit of consciousness and survived purely of caffein and energy drinks like Tim did, it got much more effective.

So from Tim's perspectice, Danny was just one big sleep-inducing spell. And this was really ticking him off. He kept falling asleep in the middle of classes, or when he needed to concentrate on a vital case during study time. It was almost impossible to focus when Danny was around, everything was just so relaxing.

The batfam was overjoyed thinking that Tim had finally fixed his broken sleeping habits. In reality, this just made Tim even more paranoid and drank even more caffein than before.

Danny, being someone who had listened to Jazz's rants about the effect of lack of sleep on the mind for all his youth, immediately recognized Tim's worsening symtomps when he saw them. Strangely, whenever he approached Tim to give some advice, the boy just paled and skedaddled away as if he'd seen a ghost (hehe).

So, in true Danny's fashion, he asked Nocturn for help putting a poor classmate to proper sleep. He even manifested himself as the Ghost King in Tim's dream to ease the boy through the process.

This escalated when Tim accidentally developed a crush on Danny in his dreams and was now concerned if he had just developed a crush on a supernatural being in his dream. Or if he had just developed a crush on a figment of his imagination (he couldn't decide which was worse).

Danny was completely unaware of this and patted himself on the back for helping someone while Tim had a crisis.

That's MY Mom!!!

This was not at all even the fifth time that Danny Fenton had been kidnapped, but usually it was just Vlad kidnapping him so he had never really needed to be all that concerned about it. The thing was that since he had gone with his sister on her small journey to look at colleges. It had been going fairly well, Jazz was pretty excited. Even better Dan and Dani had opted to join them and make it a Family Road Trip. He was so happy to spend time with his children and sister away from Amity Park that he could admit he got complacent.

Things might have been fine if he hadn't been taken by a group of weirdos with makeup caked on and thus unable to slip away without revealing himself. He was quite annoyed, especially with the cheap clown knockoff that he was at least 99% sure wasn't even licensed to be clowning. He was obnoxious and talked a lot about bats, games, and making everyone smile despite clearly having no talent. Danny could have probably waited this guy out, but it seemed his children noticed his sudden absence before this idiot wrapped up whatever stupid show he was trying to put on. Danny couldn't transform or use his powers while they were recording as his existence was still illegal.

Danny really didn't have to worry about exposing himself though, his two wild natured clone children had not taken his kidnapping well and even less so the recording. Dani's ability to create portals for travel had been utilized to transport herself and Dan, already fully transformed, to his location thanks to their familial soul bond. Dan was all fury and fire as he tore through the portal and practically mauled the clown like a feral badger.

"DON'T TOUCH MY MOM!!" Dan shrieked in a somewhat trauma induced haze.

Danny could almost taste his fear. Dan had already violently and suddenly lost one family, it had taken him so long to allow himself to form new familial bonds and build what he had with Jazz, Dani, and Danny himself. Sure the direction of those bonds had been unexpected, but he had been more than happy to accept the new bond not just between he and Dan but Dani as well whole heartedly. Danny hated to see his sweet son so distraught.

"Tear his soul out! Rip it up!" Dani shouted, just as violently angry and shaken as her physically younger but mentally older brother.

Dani had been just as violent in tearing through the group of thugs that had been present. There were only about seven of them and a few tried to shoot the two ghost children, but obviously you can't shoot a ghost without the right equipment. Dani was fast and Dan was merciless.

"Wait! Wait stop!" Danny shouted suddenly, desperately trying to stop their decent into what he knew would be a painfully dark path for them.

"But he hurt you! They stole you from us!" Dani flinched a little her tone a little miserable as she yanked the ropes from his body setting him free.

"He deserves to be ripped apart molecule by molecule!" Dan snarled slamming the clown's mangled body into the concrete floor of the warehouse.

"Come here, you don't need to ruin your whole life over one no-name thug with zero taste and his little brainless pets." Danny spoke softly to them and held out his arms.

Dan grit his teeth his eyes flaring red as he dropped the shattered clown. He rushed into Danny's arms, Dani also throwing herself into the hug. Danny could feel Dan and Dani feeling out their bond to ensure his health and mood, he resonated all his love and adoration to his children, grateful for their presence. Dan's breath shuddered and Dani sniffled a little, Danny kissed each of their foreheads gently.

"It's alright my starlights. I'm still here, I won't leave you." Danny spoke to them softly. "C'mon, let's get out of here before the cops come to try and dissect you for being illegal."

The two nodded and all three went invisible before vanishing from the warehouse completely. Of course the bats arrived only a moment later.

To be honest. DCxDP where the reason Danny meets the bats is Ace the Bat-hound

Like, just think about it for a second. Danny is in Gotham for college, or maybe he just moved out to find a city where having mad scientist parents isn’t actually that unusual.

He can see ghosts.

The ghosts know this.

Now he’s getting harassed left and right by spirits trying to get closure. Fine, whatever, most of them are a one-and-done type deal, and the amount of ghosts trying to get his help steadily decreases.

Except for this one very stubborn dog.

It just keeps showing up and leading him to crime scenes! He doesn’t know how many “anonymous tips” he can call in to the cops before they trace his phone! And this dog, this incredibly good boy, will not stop trying to help the city. He’s never met anyone with such a strong sense of justice, let alone a dog. Can dogs even have a moral compass?

And so Danny just accepts the fact that Ace isn’t going anywhere and becomes his reluctant sidekick/dedicated medium. He leans into the whole thing, dressing up in a mix of traditional magic-user attire and accessories that pay homage to the ghost dog.

He becomes somewhat well known. The psychopomp detective following around the shadowy figure of a German Shepard? That’s unusual! That’s weird! I mean, it’s not the weirdest thing in Gotham, sure, but he’s a new vigilante and he’s got a ghost dog that people can only see when it’s around him. Someone’s gonna notice.

Damian, as Robin, is the first to reach out to him.

Ace doesn’t know Damian but he does know a Robin, and while this isn’t his Robin, he’s still friendlier than usual. Danny’s panicking because oh god the bats are here and also is this kid gonna steal my ghost dog, Damian is absolutely delighted by Ace, and Ace is just happy to see a Robin again.

Damian decides that the psychopomp isn’t a danger to anyone, and there’s no reason to put this encounter into his reports, really, and perhaps Danny can help with some of his cases in the future.

Danny is sweating bullets because Damian basically tells him that he’ll keep him secret as long as he gets to play with Ace. Ace is happy that he’s finally getting some bat affiliated crime-fighting assistance.

And so, Danny is now both Ace AND Damian’s reluctant assistant. At least whenever he’s in trouble, he can always call a middle schooler to help him.

(Is Robin even in school? He’s out patrolling damn near every night, and he stays out late as hell. Does he have a bedtime? He should.)

Eventually it gets to the point where Damian is going over to Danny’s house. When he first sees it, he has a damn bitch you live like this moment, to which Danny responds that not everyone has the money to afford a nice place. Damian counters that he could at least take the time to clean up, and Danny replies that he’s working, going to school, and being a vigilante assistant to a ghost dog, something’s got to give.

Danny nearly has a heart attack when he checks his bank account the next day and sees that someone transferred him 10,000 dollars.

And so they get into a routine. Danny and Damian fight crime with Ace at night, and occasionally Damian stops by during the day to play with Ace and have Danny help with his homework.

(Damian is smart enough to do it on his own, but some of the instructions are written incredibly confusingly, and he would never admit to needing help to his family. Danny is just glad that the kid is in school and cares about his education, blissfully unaware that he’s basically emotionally adopted him.)

Damian is used to being in Danny’s company.

Eventually, when going over a case with the family, Damian absentmindedly remarks that he’ll have to ask Danny about some of the clues that they might be missing. Nightwing asks who he means and Damian makes a face like he just swallowed a lemon.

Cue shitstorm.

Who is “Danny?” Why is Damian willing to ask for help from anyone, much less someone outside of the family? Does he know who Damian is? Has Damian been compromised? What the hell is going on?

Damian now has to explain that Danny is the psychopomp with the ghost dog who he might have met hunted down while on patrol and conveniently not mentioned, but he’s not a bad person, really, and he lets him play with Ace, and he’s been quite helpful on certain cases due to his ability to talk to ghosts.

Bruce insists that the family meet Danny. Damian, hoping that he won’t just skip town the second he hears the news, relents.

Danny is surprisingly eager to meet the bats, considering his earlier fears.

Damian, blissfully unaware of what’s coming, sets a time and place to meet.

Once everyone is there, he gives Bruce the earful of a lifetime.

Robin is in middle school! Danny knows that there’s no way to stop the boy from going on patrol, but you could at least shift his schedule so he gets enough sleep on school nights! Does the Bat even know where he is half the time?! (No) And why isn’t he comfortable asking his family for help with both cases and homework? Did they ever even notice how much time he was spending at Danny’s house? If Danny was a bad person, he could have seriously hurt the poor boy! Shame on you!

Nightwing is mortified that Damian didn’t trust him enough to tell him about any of this. Red Hood is laughing his ass off, because yeah Danny is making good points but he’s also chewing out the literal Batman. Tim is recording the whole thing. Steph is delighted by the absolute gall of this Danger Twink™️, and already planning to add him to several groupchats. Damian is more embarrassed than he’s ever been in his entire life.

You, he points to Nightwing, did your academic life feel supported when you were a Robin? Nightwing is too stunned to speak. Red Hood, eternal shit-stirrer, says that oh, we all prioritized patrol over our education, that’s just how it is. Red Robin actually dropped out of high school to avoid distractions, did you know that?

Danny honest-to-god shrieks at this.

He finishes his angry rant and leaves, everyone too stunned to stop him.

And as it turns out, Tim wasn’t the only person recording the whole thing.

The entire internet is blowing up with Psychopomp The Danger Twink™️’s rant. People are taking sides. Things are getting messy. Red Hood literally admitting on-camera to previously being a Robin is somehow not the main focus here.

Eventually someone connects some dots from the video, as well as stories circling the internet about the psychopomp. A ghost dog named Ace, who is the literal only reason that the psychopomp is fighting crime at all, which seems incredibly fond of Nightwing and Robin.

A crime-fighting dog who wants constant attention from both the current and original Robin.

Oh my god, Ace the Bat-hound died and became a crime-fighting ghost.

And, somehow, that’s still not the strangest thing going on in Gotham.

Cupid

DeadTired Prompt:

Danny had not planned to be kidnapped while out on a simple grocery run, but here he is! Tied up in a random warehouse as the bad guys work in a make-shift lab across the room.

While he would have gladly just phased through the ropes, and disappeared, that wasn’t really an option with the other hostages sitting right next to him.

The only thing he could do right now is wait, and hope one of the Gotham vigilantes comes before Danny has no choice but to intervene. He’s not going to let anyone in here get hurt on his watch.

So far the kidnappers have given no insight into what they're making, or planning to do with them. Which does surprise him since he thought that was a requirement to bring a villian.

Luckily, a vigilante, Red Robin, shows up before they can complete whatever they’re making. What’s not so lucky though is when Red Robin is fighting the bad guys one of them throws the liquid they were working on directly in the vigilante’s face.

Stumbling back Red puts a hand over his face in an effort to wipe the liquid away, and when he looks up makes direct eye contact with Danny. Even with the white lenses he can feel the eyes borrow into him.

By this time a few of the other vigilantes are here fighting the rest of the bad guys while Red Robin starts making his way towards Danny; never for a second looking away. Even ignoring the concerned calls from his teammates.

Red Robin is now standing directly in front of him, and almost seems to be holding himself back from reaching a hand out, “I’m in love you.”

And the only thing Danny can think to himself is that he did not sign up for some love potion bullshit.

DP x DC prompt:

A youtube channel called Spooky Gotham, secretly run by Danny as a fun little hobby.

The channel heavily features cutesy sheet ghosts and cartoon bats in the thumbnails, but the videos themselves display how fucking unnerving a city like Gotham is.

The most viewed video is recorded on a smartphone, and is about eighteen minutes long. It shows an utterly abandoned downtown city street, completely silent except for the distant sound of sirens, a slight wind buffeting the phone's mic, and an automated voice repeating that the city is under total lockdown due to an Arkham breakout.

It's unclear if the video takes place at night, or if it's just that dark downtown due to the abundance of skyscrapers and smog. Most of the street lamps are out, but some illuminate empty cars with their doors still open, shopping bags full of crushed purchases left behind by their owners, and the occasional abandoned shoe.

There are bullet casings in the gutters, and the person recording the video pauses long enough to focus on a batarang partially embedded in a brick wall, suggesting a violent conflict ended not too long before the start of the video. Despite this, there is very little actual damage to the street or store fronts.

Despite the low level of other sounds in the video, and that the person recording is walking through a street full of clutter, there are no footsteps heard the entire time. It ends with a muffled "Oh shit," and the camera focusing on the distant shape of a figure in black and red emerging from the mouth of an alleyway.

Other videos are shorter.

Two minutes of footage in a dark alley, the focus a pair of featureless white eyes peering down at the camera, as though from atop a wall.

Five minutes of indistinct shapes moving through a glowing green mist, overlaid with the sound of a gas mask hissing.

Nine minutes of the person holding the camera surrounded by a crush of people, everyone moving hurriedly but wordlessly in the same direction, and an automated voice blaring directions in the background. It is interrupted by the occasional dull thund of distant exposions.

Four minutes of what looks to be the back of a green woman with red hair screaming wordlessly at someone off camera, roots and vines lashing at the surrounding buildings, and then suddenly dropping to the ground.

Twenty two seconds of the camera panning over the city from high above, fires silently raging in the streets, with a text overlay reading "Audio removed due to sensitive content."

Behind the scenes, Danny is rather proud of catching these moments on film! He has a lot more of the local vigilantes confronting him for entering dangerous areas, goons shooting at him, and shocked supervillains, but most of those aren't really "spooky," more "humiliating for getting spotted again." His biggest viewers are his friends and family back in Amity, and he really doesn't need to give them the idea that he's getting into trouble with the locals.

The rest of his viewers are other "horror" youtubers looking for inspiration, urbex enthusiasts, and what he suspects are the private accounts of the Bats.

He knows at least one of his viewers is Jonathan "The Scarecrow" Crane. The guy isn't subtle, and swings wildly between berating Danny for his silly aesthetic choices (the aforementioned sheet ghosts and cartoon bats), and praising him for the cognitive dissonance it causes. Talk about mixed messages...

DP x DC: Faster than Life, Part 2

Part 1

"Guys? I think we've got a situation?"

Barry wasn't sure what to make of the kid in front of him. He couldn't be older than 15 and he was glowing(?), which Barry knows, for sure, is not typical. The kid is also bleeding what appears to be green blood and he is definitely injured.

It was Cisco who replied first.

"What's going on Barry? I'm getting weird readings from the park you're at. They almost look like-" "Like the speed force readings? Yeah, definitely at least part of what's going on somehow. I've got a kid, possible metahuman, he's definitely injured and he just got dumped here by a Time Wraith." Barry started inching closer to the kid.

The kid didn't acknowledge his approach. Barry did a once over as he got nearer and noticed that the kid was still having trouble breathing. His arms were wrapped around his chest and torso in a protective stance, but Barry couldn't deny the kid looked like he'd probably collapse at any moment.

"Did you say a kid?" Ah, there was Caitlin finally. "Yep. Teenager, 15 at most. He's hurt, needs medical. I'm approaching now." "Barry if he's an unknown and a meta maybe you should wait for one of us to get to you. If he's injured he could lash out." Caitlin warned with a sense of urgency. "He's a hurt kid, guys. I'm not going to sit and wait while he possibly bleeds out in front of me. Prep the med bay, I'm going to try and bring him in." Barry finally got within reaching distance of the kid, crouching down so he wasn't hovering over the trembling body. "Hey kid, you alright?" Barry quietly called out. The boy froze. "Hey, hey, hey, it's alright. My name is Barry. You look like you could use some help right about now. I've got a couple friends who are super smart and can help get you patched up. What do you say?"

Barry slowly reached a hand about halfway between the two of them. He angled himself so that his posture was still friendly and open, but he would have an easier time catching the kid if he did pass out. "I promise, I just want to help you." Barry smiled. "Let me help you, kid." There was a moment of silence between them. Barry was beginning to wonder if the kid had dissociated or lost consciousness but remained upright somehow.

He was about to speak again when the kids head suddenly shot up.

Barry's gaze was met by wide, terrified, luminescent green eyes on a face much too young for this kind of clear terror and trauma. The kid was panicking, and a panicked meta is a potentially dangerous one even with the best of intentions. "Hey, whoa kid. It's alright. I swear I just want to help-"

The kid's head snapped around, eyes seeming to take in his surroundings, and Barry watched as his panic seemed to grow and grow the more he saw around him.

"Kid? Please, you need medical attention. Let me get you help. Please?" The head of shocking white hair that seemed to almost defy gravity and those glowing green eyes raced back to Barry in an instant. Barry held his breath, hoping he'd finally broken through to the kid who was now sitting in a puddle of steadily growing green. And without warning, the kid vanished.