Dive Deep into Creativity: Discover, Share, Inspire
"Danny!?"
"Danny!"
"Hey, hey, hey."
"Keep your eyes open for me."
"Come on Danny."
"Just focus on me."
"..."
"I promise everything will be alright."
The last thing Danny ever sees before everything goes black is the tears in his herald's ey...
-_- -_- -_-
"No!"
"Not again!"
-_- -_- -_-
"I can't... I can't lose him."
"Not like this."
"..."
"..."
"Say something! Anything!"
"Tell me how to fix this!"
"..."
-_- -_- -_-
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
-_- -_- -_-
"There's nothing you can do."
"You can let me do this! Let me take your place!"
"If you die here hundreds of thousands of lives will be changed forever. You'll never time travel. You'll never meet your friends."
"I don't c-" "You'll never meet me."
"I can make it work. I've time traveled before, rewritten fixed points."
"Not those times. Not one line."
"But..." Bart looks so lost as he desperately tries to figure out a plan but they were running out of time.
The handful of remaining heroes were scattered. They'd ignored all of the warnings, believed the worst kind of people and the League wasn't prepared for Pariah's reawakening to empower the moonlit world. No one was prepared for it, not when the monsters were already deep within the League pulling the strings from within and... This was… Without any warning Bart collapses, the nth metal bracelet he's always kept wrapped around his wrist sending a cold chill through his body as the familiar touch of Danny's magic engulfed the area.
"It's okay." Danny catches him before he can hit the floor, pulling him into one last bone crushing hug to hide his own tears. "It's not over for you. Clockwork... Clockwork promised everything would work out if I did this... He guaranteed it and he rarely gives me a straight answer so... So we'll... I guess we'll see each other again. You and me. The team. Heck, even the Justice League. You've got a whole new life ahead of you and..."
'I'm sorry if I'm not a part of it.' Is left unsaid as Danny keeps talking, nearly tripping over his words.
"And even if I'm not the same person anymore a part of me will always be there to watch you run." The bracelet glows softly with his promises, the runes that had protected him for years binding them together with his words and then Danny was shoving him back leaving Bart less than a fraction of a second to try and reach out for him before his entire world is swallowed by shadows and he's falling.
Bart Allen would live.
He'd have as many second chances as Danny could spare since Earth 63 was lost.
The moonlit world had decimated it, turning friends and family against each other but even now the Infinity Realms rumbled a challenging call. Their herald was gone for now but the king would fight, and continue fighting to the bitter end while Bart... Bart would... He'd...
"Time out."
Staring down at the young herald Clockwork smiled a little half smile as the ripple effects of their actions were already taking effect.
It might be a little different then he'd intended and he'd certainly bent a few rules in order to ensure his preferred outcome but the Ancient of Time was confident things would work out for the better.
"Now let's see if we can get it right this time."
It's nothing much but a part of an idea I had for Bart and Danny trying to survive/fix the DC vs. Vampire universe.
Danny's trying.
Bart keeps trying to reset everything but it isn't working. He changes a few things but nowhere near enough to stop what's going to happen until Clockwork finally steps in with a playbook that might work.
I don't know what it is with me always imagining the two of them traveling around apocalyptic worlds but Danny is Danny so he can't be turned into a vampire while Bart is his herald, he's essentially Danny's Fright Knight with an anti magic nth metal bracelet and a whole lot of blessings so he doesn't end up like the rest of his family.
"I just wish I could help him."
Tim sighed, tired eyes staring at the rows of monitors searching for any kind of change as he recalls the last thing he can remember Bart saying to him before everything went to hell when a barrier appeared around Central City cutting it off from the rest of the world. It had taken three days before anyone even realized what had happened and that was only after Barry returned from a mission in space and ran face first into the glowing green monstrosity trapping his friends inside some sort of otherworldly magical nonsense.
And it was kind of depressing that, that was all they knew after two months.
It was pure magic, old, ancient magic that had his friends living out the kind of picture perfect high school drama you'd find on tv and they only figured out that much after Cyborg accidentally picked up a weak signal being broadcast to anyone who got close enough.
That was the only real way anyone had to check up on everyone trapped inside and in a way Tim was kind of glad it was mainly focused on his friends and the meta kid Bart had been trying to introduce to everyone cause he had constant proof they were alive. Everyone else wasn't as lucky.
He was also mostly annoyed though cause the League couldn't even damage the stupid barrier anymore. They'd cracked it once, but that just seemed to annoy whatever was powering the thing because it spread out for miles in every direction in response to the Justice League's attempts at forcing open a door and ended up swallowing dozens of government agents and heroes who couldn't escape the danger zone in time.
"Any changes?"
"None." Like always.
He knew Dick was just as worried as he was about everyone trapped inside but the glowing green eyesore wasn't reacting to anything anymore.
Science didn't work.
Magic annoyed it.
They'd finally started looking into some of the more off world solutions that were available to them but so far nothing anyone tried seemed to affect it and he should know since he hasn't stopped monitoring the situation.
He's offered up rewards, called in every single favor he's ever been owed as Tim Drake and Red Robin and read up on everything magical he could get his hands on.
He's even hacked every government agency on the planet on the off chance there might have been a possible answer hidden away somewhere and was nowhere near as professional or gentle as he usually was while doing it. He was tired, worried and more than a little angry and didn’t care about how much damage he did to anyone's computer systems as he ripped even the slightest bit of information out of any server he came across taking anything and everything from Waller's own notes on the matter to research material from a rogue sect of the government calling themselves the GIW.
That had led him down a rabbit hole of government conspiracies and cover ups that would have normally kept him busy for weeks but he had passed on the worst of it to the rest of the League and focused on the handful of files they had on an off the books company called Fenton Works.
They apparently had a functional portal with more than enough power to punch a hole between dimensions so hopefully an investigation into them would keep him busy while they waited for a response from the Green Lanterns.
-_- -_- -_-
"You need to stop this Desiree."
"Why, Phantom and his paramour are happy aren't they?"
She already knew the answer since it was her magic warping such a large area and her grin only grew as she watched Undergrowth's little champion twitch at her words.
Because that was thing, Phantom was happy.
He was the happiest he's ever been in a very long time and well out of the way on a long overdue 'vacation'. So what if everyone was taking his absence as an excuse to run a little wild. Amity would survive. They always did. The avatar of the Speed Force didn't even seem to mind and Clockwork wasn't interfering with her latest wish either so she wasn't overstepping anywhere that really mattered since the Ancient of Time usually erased anyone who went too far with his favorite student.
He hadn't even popped in to deliver any of his usual threats when she overheard the little speedster's heartbroken wish so she banished the girl back to Amity Park without a second thought.
They couldn't force her to grant wishes anymore, not after Phantom went out of his way to help alter her curse and their constant whining was starting to get annoying.
If it wasn't Undergrowth's champion then it was the Pharaoh or Phantom's sister.
None of them could take the hint and leave well enough alone.
Cause, the thing is, she left more than enough wiggle room in the wish for Phantom to get free if he ever really wanted to get free and she wasn't sure he did.
Oh, on some level he was probably well aware of something being off but he was purposely ignoring that feeling.
He was happy in the world she shaped around him and his little speedster and Desiree wasn't about to ruin that for either of them.
She'd just head back to her lair if anyone tried.
No one could get to her there, not without wasting a lot of power so maybe she'd finally have a little piece and quit to enjoy her favorite show in peace.
It's not much but I wanted to try and think up a way for Danny to experience his very own version of WandaVision.
Essentially a sad Danny from any kind of reason really but for now I'm just blaming his entire life for this one and a desperately trying to be helpful Bart who has vague memories of a future with Danny get a starring role in a new life that was perfectly prepared just for them at the cost of pretty much everyone else.
I don't remember what it's called but there was a Disney movie about a superhero school so I'm kind of imagining that and a lot of really cheesy musical moments thrown in somewhere while everyone outside of the barrier is left worrying about their friends and family.
I know it's weird, but my mind just comes up with really weird ideas when I'm tired.
"I don't know. It's only forty dollars."
"Exactly."
Danny grumbled a little as he stared down at the phone squished between him and Bart.
"But there isn't even a picture or anything. Jazz always says those are scams."
"I know but it's so cheap."
"To cheap. Forty bucks for a ray gun sounds like a scam to me."
"What if it isn't though?"
"Alright. Alright. I'm gonna buy it." Danny grinned a little revealing a set of razor sharp canines as he confirmed the purchase. "Even if it is a scam it'll still be a fun little surprise when it arrives."
-_- -_- -_-
"Yes!"
Wally barely managed to duck out of the way as a massive blast of energy tore across the training room freezing the wall behind him. Massive spikes of ice erupting from the area of impact and coating nearly the entire wall in thick sheets of dense hoarfrost.
"It's a freeze ray!"
"I bet we could freeze a volcano with this thing."
Following the cheerful voices still chattering away Wally nearly had a heart attack when he noticed Bart and Danny playing around with a massive cryo-cannon of all things.
-_- -_- -_-
"How could you even afford something like this?" Wally raised a hand to cut off whatever excuse they might have while Dick looked over the cannon. "And don't tell me you bought it cause that thing probably cost thousands."
"Is Tim behind this?"
"We've talked about him buying his friends stuff but this is a little ridiculous."
"But I did buy it."
Danny held up his phone showing them his copy of the digital receipt and shipping number causing both of the older heroes to blue screen for a second.
"What?"
"Well, we bought it but Bart agreed I could use it more since he's a speedster." And neither one of them were actually listening to him which was rude.
Bart nudged his side while they were talking, well arguing about who to call in to try and find out more about the website and Danny quickly caught on to what he wanted as they both vanished, the pair quickly escaping with their cannon while Wally and Dick were still trying to process the fact someone was actually selling highly advanced tech for dirt cheap prices.
Neither boy really cared all that much about any of their complaints since they weren't exactly breaking any rules. They bought it. They even reserved a training room to test fire it and best of all nobody got hurt so they couldn't get in trouble.
Bart just had to talk with Max before anyone else could so they had somewhere to keep everything they planned on buying while deep within the Infinity Realms Technus was handling his new hobby, kind of obsession, not really side hustle since he doesn't care about money with a renewed sense of enthusiasm as another order came in. A custom order at that which made two hole orders now and it looked like they were interested in an oddly detailed police box for some reason.
I know it isn't a good prompt but I watched a short on YouTube about a rat gun and thought it was funny enough to try and come up with something. I can just imagine the two of them giving Wally and Dick grey hairs since they're gonna buy so many weird things from Technus just to see if he can actually build it only no one will ever believe them since nobody is gonna sell a war suit or air shoes for that cheap.
He wasn't spying or sneaking around or anything really. Well, not right now at least. Tim was only trying to look for Co-, Superboy. He was looking for Superboy for very heroic reasons that didn't involve a lunch date. It was a meeting. A really important meeting Superboy was running late for. That was his only intention for searching some of the more secluded parts of the Watchtower after Dick had mentioned seeing Conner helping out in one of the lower areas. Really, that was it, he truly didn't mean to witness what seemed to be a very private moment going on in one of the smaller garden areas that were rarely ever used.
However, as he saw the scene unfolding right in front of his eyes, he couldn't help but regard it with a little bit of curiosity.
Because Bart wasn't supposed to be up here. He'd been busy all day judging from some of the reports coming in but there he was, sitting on one of the benches and just watching the view of space with Phantom, the mysterious new hero that had recently appeared in Central a few months ago.
He was human or at the very least human adjacent with tech that was years ahead of everyone else on the planet and that was mostly guessing since he rarely used anything besides a few gadgets and his hoverboard that could easily break the sound barrier. Nobody knew if he had anything else or how advanced it all was since he refused to let anyone else touch his gear. Phantom even went out of his way to get patents to cover everything he used after too many people started annoying him about it.
B didn't like it. He didn't like the idea of one person having so many unknowns in their file but Bart had been the first to jump to Phantom's defence with the rest of his family and the Arrows joining in and quickly shutting down any sort of investigation.
Dinah had been ready to take a swing at Bruce over the issue and since then they'd gone out of their way to keep Phantom away from any and every member of the Bat family but here he was just talking with Bart who was quietly leaning against his side, his expression very, very different from normal. He didn't have his usual grin or an easy-going smile. Bart just... he looked so sleepy.
It was probably the first time Tim had seen it outside of the aftermath of an invasion or some major reality ending incident that left everyone completely drained but even then Bart always seemed to have a sort of bottomless energy like nothing could keep him down for long. But seeing him like this he just looked so relaxed, like he could fall asleep any second now.
Tim's racing thoughts were momentarily cut off when he watched on as Phantom pulled out a pocket watch of all things, the casing shimmering and the inside glowing a dark Lazarus green that almost had him rushing forward before he stopped himself, his finger hovering over one of the alarms as he continued to watch the pair.
He couldn't see what they were looking at from the way they were angled so he continued to watch on as Bart leaned more of his weight against Phantom's side looking like he was close to falling asleep.
They were chatting, mumbling in hushed words he couldn't place. He should know it though. Something inside him twitched at the alien like words they were sharing like an itch he couldn't scratch.
It sounded a bit otherworldly in nature maybe even a bit magical but still so soft with every small gesture Phantom and Bart made for each other. None of it was over the top but each movement was considerate of the other, eyes and hands lingered, their smiles growing just that bit sweeter the longer they talked and it intrigued Tim more and more the longer it went on and they got more comfortable.
With his hood pulled back and his mask off he could see a portion of Phantom's face and noticed the faint traces of worried lines on his forehead. He was prime adoption bait and a small part of Tim felt like he was being rude for spying on them like this, but another part which was huge and overpowering, desperately wanted to know everything they were hiding.
Phantom let out a sigh before he said something again, then Bart's shoulders shook the tiniest bit, a small laugh echoing across the garden before he finally took Phantom's hand interlocking their fingers together. Bart whispered something in whatever odd language they were using and Phantom responded with a low murmur. They stayed like that for a moment, conversing with soft voices that Tim couldn't hear anymore which was to be expected. Everyone knew B was recording everything up here in the Watchtower and with how far out of the way the two of them were it was clear nobody else was meant to overhear or even witness any of this at all.
Phantom released another long weary sigh and nodded at whatever Bart was whispering to him only a strong tug on his cape pulled him away before he could overhear anything else as Conner picked him off the ground and hurried down the hall away from the pair while quietly lecturing him about boundaries yet again.
It wasn't even his fault this time.
Add to it if you want but I just really like the idea of Danny and Bart surviving a messed up apocalyptic future together and meeting again in the past. Danny is playing up a Red Huntress/Hunter kind of role since he's putting a lot of miles between him and Amity Park and Bart is helping him hide since they know just about everything about each other after traveling around with Danny for so long when they were sorting out the whole messed up future/evil fusion problem. They handled it. It's not gonna happen anymore so they'd like to have an afternoon off every once in a while where Danny with some help from Clockwork can just block Bart's connection to the Speed Force and dampen both of their superhuman senses for a little bit so they can relax.
"Heard you've been making trouble in Star City."
"We finally get an hour together and you wanna talk about Green Arrow's delusional rants?" Jazz almost sounded offended but there was a small smile on her face as she takes a sip of her drink and Jason is just grinning as he recounts everything Roy shared.
"He's worried you're gonna overthrow the local gangs at the rate you're going."
"Oh, come on." She huffs genuinely amused. "I was only defending myself."
"I know but you should see some of the theories he's cooked up. The latest one Roy told me about is something about you being an Amazon."
And they share a laugh over it as they continue to catch up over a few burgers and some drinks.
This was nice.
Simple.
It was nearly perfect even.
Jason would never openly admit it. He'd never take the chance out of fear of someone, somewhere using it against him but Jazz had been one of the best things to walk into his life.
She was strong.
So sure of herself and just as kind.
It's why he did everything he could to get her out of Gotham.
She was too kind for Arkham.
Too good for his kind of life.
The monsters in there would twist her into something unimaginable if she stayed and Jason was way too attached by then to let her become another Harley Quinn.
Central would have been better but he could trust his contacts in Star City.
Roy would look out for her when he couldn't and he could enjoy these handful of quiet moments where they were just an ordinary couple on a date.
"I can handle mister narcissist. Out of the two of us you're the one who should be worried about."
"Ah, I'm fine."
Which was a lie. Gotham was even worse than usual lately.
"Yeah, until some idiot gets lucky."
Carefully brushing their hands together she runs her fingers over where the latest stitching were. It wasn't bad but he wasn't healing like he used to, the usual after effects of the pit were losing their effect so he'd lied and said he was in a car accident.
"You're changing the subject Jazz. What's going on with you?"
He watches her get up and walk over to the corner of the restaurant to put on some music, the old jukebox playing an even older song.
"I don't know. Maybe I'm just... tired of holding it all in." She looks over her shoulder with a smile. "Maybe you're a bad influence on me."
"Who. Me?"
He gets up to join her when she holds out her hand.
"You were always a bad influence on me."
"I've got a feeling you've had a bad girl hiding inside you long before we ever met."
"Maybe. I've made a lot of bad decisions. Dated the wrong men. Trusted the wrong people but it's what led me here."
They slowly dance for a while until they hear the bartender calling out. "Hey you! No dancing." He jerks his thumb to a sign behind him saying the same thing along with this is not a dancefloor and green floods his vision before Jazz is pulling him away.
"I guess it's time to call it a night."
"Maybe we can try a different bar tomorrow?"
She sounds so hopeful and he wants to say yes. He wants nothing more than to just stay here in this moment with her but he can't. Not yet.
"I'd love to but I've gotta head back soon."
"Another one of those mysterious secret missions you can't tell me about?"
"You know it."
"You know if you ever need my help."
"Nah." He can't pull her into his messed up world. He won't. "It's just our usual family drama."
Bruce was going off the rails again. Dick was angry and everyone else was scrambling like usual to keep everything running.
It'd all be sorted out in a couple of weeks at most. Either way this was going to be his last mission.
He grabs his bag getting ready to leave when he feels a tug on his sleeve and Jazz is pulling him back into a kiss. It's the perfect way to end their night together.
Too perfect.
As they go their separate ways already planning their next date Jazz let's him go one last time not knowing that tonight would be the last night she'd ever see him again.
After Jason made it back to Gotham her texts went unanswered.
Phone calls were ignored.
Watching the news made it seem like everything that could go wrong was currently going wrong in Gotham so after two weeks of nothing but silence Jazz was in the middle of getting ready to book the first flight she could find when she suddenly felt a cold breeze drift through her apartment and between one second and the next Danny is floating there clinging to an exhausted Roy who drops down onto one of her couches looking utterly defeated.
Roy, Jason's best friend who is dressed up like Arsenal and they both look like they've just gone through hell. Their gear is busted and ripped with dried blood everywhere and she's just about to ask what's wrong, what happened, where's Jason when everything simply stops as she remembers the latest news coming out of Gotham.
Batman killed Red Hood.
It shouldn't... It was a lie.
It had to be a lie.
There were a thousand and one questions running through her mind as she stared down at the bloodied remains of Red Hood's shattered helmet in Danny's hands and every little thing she's tried to ignore until now clicks into place with a horrifying clarity.
It's been a while but I wanted to do something today and saw a short on YouTube that inspired this. It could either be the aftermath of Gotham War or Jason vs the Penguin but whatever you feel like could have caused it ends up so much worse.
'Absolutely not!'
'I'm just gonna talk with him!'
Following the quickly escalating shouts down to the Batcave Bruce found Dick and a heavily armed Tim at each other's throats while their siblings oh so helpfully egged them on.
They were arguing about Wally and their last universal saving mission for some reason and Tim had nearly every contingency he could think of to handle a speedster on him.
-nna talk, that's it!'
'Then you can leave the gear here!'
'What's going on?'
All of his children froze, finally realizing he was here before they started shouting over each other.
'You remem-'
'-ick's trying to-'
'Father Dr-'
'-ng crazy, just because the universe re-'
'Enough!'
'Now, can someone tell me what's going on or do I have to get Alfred?'
And Jason was happy enough to tell him. 'Replacement's pissed because we finally discovered a pretty big difference with the universe after the League hit the reset button.'
Multiple screens on the Batcomputer held information on new heroes, a Junior JLD and everything Tim could dig up on two individuals. The first one was Phantom, a new addition to the Titans and had a number of detailed conspiracy theories tracking his appearances through time while the other held the detailed background information of a recently graduated Daniel James Fenton. Tim had dug up everything from his kindergarten grades to... Oh... Oh no... That explains why they were arguing about Wally.
Most of Daniel's latest online post covered his move to Gotham, his new job offer working in their engineering department and his new boyfriend Bernard. Looking at it all made it painfully easy to piece together that... 'They stole my life!'
And Dick and Tim were arguing again but Bruce knew it wouldn't get too heated and focused his attention on the gathered information. It was easy to see that a number of encounters his kids (mainly his oldest three) should have had with the Titans were adjusted just enough to fit Phantom now and Tim's involvement with the Children of Dionysus had been shifted around to involve Daniel in this new universe.
'-e universe reset doesn't mean you can ruin their lives. Phantom seems like a good kid.'
'Dowd would have left you eventually.'
Dick had to hold Tim back from launching himself at Damien while Jason and Steph stood by egging the two of them on, but then Tim got that look in his eye when Duke brought up the idea of reintroducing himself and everyone noticed.
'No.'
'Come on. Tim, you don't need another restraining order.'
'But it didn't happen in this universe so it doesn't count.'
'It counts if we still remember it!'
But Tim wasn't listening, too busy changing out of all of his gear as a plan quickly started forming together in his mind.
Why waste time with Wally when he can just as easily win over the new couple while ignoring everything else he's learned from his friends.
He'd figure it out one mess at a time. After he won Bernard back he'd figure out the situation between Red Robin and Phantom.
-_- -_- -_-
Reading over the sticky note Danny couldn't help but wonder what Clockwork meant when he wrote 'Have Fun'.
Again, I blame my medication for this, but this came from a couple of different prompts about Tim, Bernard and Danny and I just sort of went with it. Basically the main roster of the League has to stop (Pick a threat) and end up resitting the universe again. The problem is they still remember the old universe so they spend a week or two looking up any big changes and a sleep deprived Tim starts believing he barely knows Bernard in this universe when he's actually dating him and Danny. He just hasn't dug deep enough to figure out his own connection.
It started off small at first. A robbery in Metropolis. A missing persons case in Gotham. An 'accident' in Amity Park. None of it connected. Nobody thought to connect them. It was just another case after all. There would always be another case so sometimes things slipped through the cracks. It happened.
Even heroes made mistakes after all.
They overlooked things.
But in the end they messed up and someone had to pay and someone did when Clark Kent heard his wife and son’s heartbeats vanish off the face of the earth during a somewhat quiet afternoon while he was handling a disaster in France.
He was the man of steel though, he could have made it. He should have made it but he was a second too late. His family was gone and Metropolis felt the fury of the old gods as a being made of wind and storms ripped its way free of an unseen portal cackling with mad laughter as it devastated the city.
It was another distraction though.
A massive distraction that drew the Justice League's attention away from the real prize as nightmares descended on Gotham like shadows. They morphed from the darkness slipping out through the cracks like ghosts and only Oracle saw the fight as they swarmed the youngest Robin, the Dark Knight's youngest son vanishing under an endless tide of nightmares as Nocturn took control of Gotham's nightlife.
More distractions followed as more and more of the old gods, Ancient beings long forgotten returned to Earth.
Storms raged.
The ground quaked.
Creatures of myth and legend were free to run wild as reports of everything from dragons to even yetis flooded the Watchtower.
In the end it was Diana who found their first and only clue when one of her mother's messengers appeared warning them of Themyscira's fate when a portal was opened for Undergrowth deep within the island's jungles. They fought. They fell. Then they were turned into mindless puppets bent to the monster's will as the sounds of war subsided into silence within a matter of days.
Her losses gave them a name.
Undergrowth, a creature of the green who cheered the being known as Clockwork while Constantine explained its origin.
He told them of Cronos, of the pieces of him that had formed into a new life deep within the endlessness of Infinity.
And Fate opened the way.
The first thing the gathered heroes saw was a massive clocktower surrounded by gears and pistons twisting in every direction as they spilled out into an endless void. Each tenth of a second, the hands on the clocktower click one step forward.
A single tooth on one of the smaller gears is easily the size of the Watchtower and no matter how far anyone looked there was no beginning or end to the clocktower.
There was nothing except the click, click, click of endless clocks as they stormed the Titan's lair.
Nothing stopped them.
There were no enemies or traps.
In fact the doors were left wide open as if welcoming the Justice League inside and they soon discovered why when Shazam found them. Superboy stood on a scale across from Luthor, the same with Robin and Waller. They were frozen in time, trapped in a single second of a moment while in the very middle of the massive room was a kid, easily Jon's double sleeping on a throne made out of the void of space but that wasn't what had him worried.
What worried him was the silence, the sudden nothingness in his mind as the voices of the gods empowering him faded away in the presence of the cloaked figure of Cronos suddenly standing beside the throne.
Even as the other heroes flooded into the room he couldn't hear anything besides a soft click, click, click as Superman was waved away forced into a loop of repetition that began and ended with his first step forward.
Green Lantern fell next, rapidly aged into an old man unable to match a Titan's will.
Then Constantine collapsed clutching an invisible wound on his chest. It was his contracts forcing him to obey while Fate eventually faded under time's cold embrace.
There were only a few heroes left when Flash made a move blitzing the throne only to suddenly lose his speed. The others simply glitched, like static on an old tv leaving only Shazam, J'onn and surprisingly Lois Lane standing in front of Cronos as he declared a game to decide Earth's continued existence.
'Convince each of them you're worth another chance and I'll restore everything.'
'Who's them?'
I don't really know what I was going with here. I was just listening to some of the songs from Epic and figured why not let an enraged Clockwork have some fun. I'm blaming Vlad for everything cause I can and he's done it before and caused a ton of problems for everyone else so I'm just picturing something he did or tried to do backfiring badly enough that Danny got seriously hurt so now everyone's gotta pay.
Buzz...
Buzz...
Buzz...
'Hel-' 'I told you I was okay mom, you need to stop texting me so much.' Danny? 'I'm still at the library near Nightingale Drive but I promise I'll be home soon.'
Dinah was out of her chair and hurrying towards the nearest teleporter before he could finish speaking and inadvertently startling a few nearby heroes as she pushed past them.
'Dinah?'
'Dinah, what's happening.' Oliver called out when he noticed her leaving.
'Danny, a kid I've been mentoring just called using one of the codewords we came up with for emergencies.' And it must have been bad if Danny was calling her this late at night but at least he was using the phone she got him so it only took a few seconds to pull up his location through the built in tracker.
Huh...
What in the world was Danny doing in Star City?
It didn't matter. Not right now. She'd ask later but for now she was busy punching in the right coordinates while Oliver ran to grab his own gear.
-_- -_- -_-
It didn't take long to find him. The kid, Dinah's boy was hiding in a coffee shop a few blocks away from the library he was using for his cover story so Oliver stayed back for now and watched from his hiding spot on a nearby rooftop as Dinah hurried into the shop playing up the role of a worried mom.
She was good at it.
Nobody gave her a second glance as she pulled the kid into a hug while muttering soft reassurance that doubled as codewords. He knew some of it meant danger and alone but he was too far away to make anything else out and Dinah angled the kid in a way that kept him and anyone else watching from reading their lips.
And he got it.
He really did.
From his bloodshot eyes to the sway in his every other step it was obvious from just a glance that the kid was dead on his feet. He'd more than likely been running for a while now and was one soft breeze away from collapsing so the last thing he needed was a complete stranger coming out of nowhere and questioning him but that still left Oliver with a dozen different questions as he listened to Roy going over everything they could dig up on such short notice which wasn't much.
It looked like somebody had gone through a lot of trouble to erase Amity Park's existence but a few things managed to get through like news covering the Fenton's home being raided by the government and Vlad Masters' very public, very messy custody battle with the older sister. Both of them were seen accusing each other of everything and anything, screaming insults and overly creative threats, and on more than one occasion the police had to pull Jasmine off of Masters who kept paying her bail but there was nothing explaining the hows or whys behind everything going on.
I know it isn't much but I just had the thought of Danny's parents getting arrested for whatever reason really but I'm going with their change of heart after a reveal gone right for this prompt. They shut everything down and stop making weapons that can actually hurt magical beings and a lot of influential people don't like that leading to a police raid while Jazz is away and forcing Danny to reach out to Dinah who could be his anything really from one of those online therapists to a godmother who tries to help him figure out his powers.
'Twenty five dollars.' Floating a little over his shoulder Jon leans in closer to whisper something to Danny who quickly nodded his head in agreement. ' Forty dollars and some burgers.'
Hal stole a quick glance at the others to try and get some help, but Clark was enjoying himself and wasn't about to do anything to discourage his kid while Arthur seemed content to wait. The others weren't so polite though. Barry couldn't meet his gaze while Oliver was trying his best not to laugh at the situation they were in as he was forced to try and buy a set of lantern rings off of Superboy's new friend.
He didn't believe it when it was first called in but they were forced to take it more seriously after Guy tried taking them by force only to end up making an embarrassingly long flight back from Pluto when the kids tricked him into flying into a portal. Lessons were off the table too for obvious reasons after that disaster of a first meeting and only got worse after Superboy called his dad on them and threatened to get Robin involved but that many rings in one place was just asking for trouble and he still didn't know how the kid managed to qualify for even half of them.
Cause there was a lot. The most concerning one was the outdated red lantern ring hanging off a chain around his neck. He'd apparently got it off a guy after a pretty nasty fight (with Superman adding he wasn't lying after Guy called Danny a liar) along with a set of yellow rings a friend of his liked collecting (which raised so many questions neither kid felt like answering) and a violet star sapphire ring he'd won in a game of cards somehow. It didn't matter if it was his sister's ex's on again off again girlfriend, nobody should be able to toss away a ring so carelessly and none of Danny's vague half answers were anywhere close to explaining why the rings just didn't fly off in search of new wielders.
Hal was about to make a counter offer, hoping to avoid having to pay forty bucks a ring when the teleporters went off and Robin came striding out with a look that spelled doom for every lanterns bank account.
I don't even know where this came from but I thought about it and figured why not so here. I like the idea of Jon and Danny being friends and getting into trouble whenever Damian's busy being the stabby Robin and the three of them are well aware of the fact that Danny has more lantern rings than he knows what to do with so Hal can try and buy a few of them if he has enough money.
'Umm..... Wha-' 'Shhhh.' Glaring at an amused looking Kon, Tim was shushed again by yet another Titan when he tried to bring up the civilian in the tower who was currently using his favorite pillow and some of their better blankets. Bart was even in there curled up next to him and judging by the occasional snoring sounds Gar was somewhere under the mountain of blankets probably in one of his dog forms or something small enough not to get knocked off the hoverboard they were all sleeping on which was just great.
There was a civilian he didn't recognize. Tech he didn't know anything about and another mystery to hide from the rest of his family because the kid looked like a mini Bruce and he didn't need the headache of another Damian trying to kill him.
'Who is he?' Tim outright bat glared when Cassie tried shushing him.
'Oh, you're no fun. That's Danny.' Not Daniel or Danyal or some other haughty name that meant he'd have to worry about some stupid League indoctrinated holier than though birth right nonsense.
'He's a friend of Bart's who started taking over a few of the nighttime patrols in Central.'
I know it's not much of a prompt but for this I'm just imagining the Fentons moving to stay under the radar after everything with the portal, Vlad and the GIW pushing things but Danny is still Danny and he tries to help people. There isn't a lot he can do in Central but he could take a bit of the pressure off the speedsters and again with his friends help and his parents skills it wouldn't take much for them to come up with a working hoverboard. He can't run around as Phantom anyway, not yet so Danny reinvents himself slightly (kind of Phantom two steps to the left) makes some new friends through Bart and Wally and unintentionally gives a majority of the bat family issues cause Jack looks a lot like Bruce Wayne.
Standing in the very center of the abandoned road Danny carefully pulls a stack of aged envelopes out of his bag, the dozens (Sixty four in total) of unsent letters were carefully bound with string and rubber bands and he hesitates for a second, his gaze lingering on the most recent one still left unsent before he sets it down in a bowl in front of him. He doesn't have much time. If he waits for too long then Jazz was bound to notice him missing and with the idea of her or anyone else noticing and trying to stop him Danny strikes a match and sets the bowl of ingredients on fire like he was taught.
Nothing would stop him. Not when they were running out of options.
'I, Daniel James Fenton, heir to Infinity and student of Hope and Time summon the fates. The three who are one. The one who is three. Show yourself to me Hecate.'
He calls for them like Pandora taught him to, his power cracking the ground around him and after a while they appear, in-between the roar of thunder and a bright flash of light. Each one is a different part of the same being. All three of them were wearing the faces of someone he knew and a stranger and in the privacy of this moment far away from everyone who ever knew him Danny averts his eyes, his head dipping slightly in acknowledgement. He can be polite when the situation calls for it.
'Daniel.' The youngest one wearing his sister's face smiles at him nearly drawing closer before the roar of thunder stops her advance. 'It's been so long.'
'Too long'
'This is the first time he's called us sister.'
'But not the last.' The middle one disguised as his mom doesn't need the same warning as the first but she crotches down to stare at him eye to eye. It's painful to look at but he knows it's not real. 'You look so thin Danny. Are you eating? Are you hungry?'
'He is, but not for food. Look at him. He wants something.' The last one cuts in. She's wearing the face of a stranger but his core knows her. Deep down some part of him recognizes this woman and her dismissive tone and he hates her.
She wasn't wrong though.
'I need answers and Clockwork told me to ask you.'
They all smile at that, large abnormal smiles but after dealing with the supernatural for so long it doesn't bother him so he holds out the small package meant as a gift to gain their help.
The middle one comes close enough to take it while the first cheerfully tells him.
'You can ask us three questions little prince.'
And the stranger finishes with 'But you'll only get one answer from each of us.'
'So think about your questions Danny.'
'Think carefully.'
Alright, nobody told him they worked like this but he's worked with worse before so for his first question he tells them. 'I want to know about my parents.'
He needs to know if they'll even be willing to help them out.
The above is more of a late night thought but basically an adopted Danny calls up the fates as a work around to things Clockwork can't do because of the Observers being annoying.
In between one moment and the next reality quakes and for the briefest of moments Jason finds himself standing in the remnants of a destroyed Star City. He knows it's not real, that it's just some magical mumbo jumbo overlaying memory magic nonsense bleeding into their timeline but he can smell the smoke in the air from the fires and hear her tired laughter as the static filled image of a red haired woman sits down beside him. He knows her or at least this version of him does as they talk about the little suicide run they were planning in order to hopefully end things for good and Jason can feel how tired his alternate self is as he takes a seat on the ground beside her. It's all a rush of emotions and faint memories that were getting harder and harder to ignore before he's suddenly back on the Watchtower with every other available hero the League could call in stuck arguing about these stupid visions affecting heroes and villains all over the globe if some of Ra's latest movements were any indication. His men were searching everywhere for answers while others like Luthor were making more subtle inquiries. The only upside to all of this was the reactions coming out of Arkham but that didn't mean he wanted to be up here with the League nearly at each other's throats.
With everything he's managing to piece together through a couple of brief check-ins with Dickie and the girls he could see why B wanted answers.
As morbid as it sounded Dick and the others were a few of the lucky ones who were able to be pulled out of their memories faster since they were at ground zero when the Watchtower was pulled out of orbit. The quicker you died the quicker it was over but neither of them were as lucky.
In those jumbled memories him and Bruce were the only two left after Gotham went up in flames since Phantom went after them first and there were still a few lingering effects clinging to that since he could still remember what the older version of himself felt. It was somewhat muted now but some of it was still there and if he focused hard enough Jason could still see the makeshift doctor's office in his mind. He could feel the phantom pain and see her flowing red hair. She seemed so relieved to find him alive and he wanted his own answers but Impulse was in the wind.
The little speedster was gone before anyone could really recover from the sudden onslaught of memories and while Bruce was doing everything he could to figure out a plan of sorts the others weren't as lucky with Superman stuck bouncing between the moments of his own brutal death and worrying about his family's safety. Whoever or whatever Phantom was, he knew exactly where to hurt them with Jon nearly losing it in public after being forced to live through the memories of his mom dying and the man of steel's own death at the hands of some magical Martian whatever.
Wonder Woman seemed the most put together out of everyone but even she was kind of twitchy, her had never leaving the pummel of her sword as Zatara went over what he could piece together on his own since the bulk of JLD was still out of commission.
His own daughter was comatose from the magical backlash of whatever this was while Constantine was just missing, his home a mess of overturned books and hurried scribbles which left them on the back foot for now since the only solid lead anyone had was Impulse and Young Justice was closing ranks around their missing speedster.
With JLD in shambles and Ra's on the move Replacement was running his own investigation into whatever was going on and shutting everyone else out of his systems after the first attempt at locating Impulse through his tracker backfired horribly.
I blame my cough medicine and a love for Fallout for whatever this is turning into but I felt like adding onto Run a little. I wouldn't even begin to know how to explain it but I just have this image in my head of Bart and Danny in a Fallout like world but the whole memory thing could be anything really. I just like the idea of reality shifting to the left just enough that Bart suddenly remembers details about his past he'd forgotten thanks to time travel/reality resetting and he suddenly remembers Danny while the rest of his team remember bits and pieces of their missing teammate Phantom. Everyone else just gets doomsday memories cause I really don't care and mostly think it's funny so I'm either blaming this on the gauntlet from the movie or Clockwork but anyone could add something else if they want.
It's been months since they started traveling together, wandering, running from everything. It wasn't hard to figure out who Danny was. He didn't keep secrets, easily revealing the mark of the old god that sent him here and Bart wasn't about to turn down a friend especially when it's been forever since either one of them has seen anyone friendly so they were stuck together.
Travel buddies. Best friends. Apocalypse pals. He'd come up with a new one every day if he could but after spending so long trying to find a way back to the past their time had finally ran out.
Because Phantom was here. He's here and Danny's too injured to fight anymore after taking a blow for him during their last fight, always trying to save him even when Bart feels like he doesn't deserve it half the time only now it's Bart's turn to save Danny so he takes off running. It's what he's always done. He's good at it. He's the best and only speedster left alive leaving him with power to burn, the Speed Force surging through him as he takes off with a barely conscious Danny in his arms.
Phantom wants him, hasn't stopped hunting Danny since the day he's set his eyes on him and for as fast as he is Phantom is somehow keeping up. He's always a step behind, never fast enough for a solo speedster so Bart forces himself to go faster. He keeps running. He circles the planet in an instant hiding Danny in the ruins of Coast City seconds before he sucker punches Phantom from behind and repeats the process over and over again never noticing the clockwork like mark Danny gave him slowly clicking to life, the gears inside the necklace starting to move and tick with every close call and near miss and it isn't long before he's off again with Danny in his arms and death close behind them enraged after all his taunting.
Phantom is beyond furious but he's legs are about to collapse. He's never gone this fast before and Bart doesn't know how long he can keep it up so he has to pick a place for their last stand and races into the heart of Gotham towards the downed Watchtower. There's still enough of it left over that they can pull something off if they're lucky and they have to be lucky cause there's no going back anymore. There's so much blood, too much but Danny's still trying to force himself to his feet, the remnants of Gotham surging towards his call when Phantom finally catches up to them and... And... A.....
Bart blinks blindly at the floor. Everything hurt. His head feels like he's gone ten rounds with Doomsday and as he slowly gets up he notices dozens of other heroes in similar positions across the cafeteria of the Watchtower, all of them mumbling about the end of the world, in pain from migraines or rattled after reliving the memories of their deaths but Bart's only focus in that moment was his memories of Danny.
The up above is just something I thought up while bored and maybe, kind of sick so enjoy I guess. Add to it or tell me it's stupid, I probably won't notice until I'm feeling better.
It was... It was always just a fight but the last one between Jason and Bruce had been one of their worst and things only escalated after he accused Jason of having something to do with the Joker's disappearance.
It was another thing to hold against him. Another excuse to keep the Red Hood at arms length but Barbara knows Jason wasn't anywhere near Gotham when the clown went missing. Bruce checked. Tim double checked, but she knows because it wasn't like Jason was even trying to hide from any of them.
He was just traveling.
At first it was with the rest of the Outlaws for a bit and on and off after for a while afterwards with the rest of his team joining up at different points along his trip across the country.
He'd spent weeks spent on the road from New York to Pennsylvania before anyone even noticed the Joker was gone, then took a detour down to Atlanta and through Kentucky. The weekend after that was spent traveling between Michigan and Toronto and a surprising sighting in Kansas which was one of the only stops she still didn't understand since he'd have to be traveling all night just to get to that small town he'd been spotted in and Jason didn't seem to be in any hurry.
A part of her had been tempted to call Kara and see if she'd look into the matter for her but cases kept piling up and they got busy. If it wasn't the usual villain of the day causing trouble then it was the power vacuum left behind by the still missing Joker or one the guys getting into trouble. So she left it alone.
Jason didn't seem like he was in any trouble. He'd come back sooner or later. He always came back. Except he didn't. Weeks turned into months, then a full year passed them by as sightings of the Red Hood grew less and less frequent and it was only a preemptive notification she sat up so long ago that reminded her of Jason's absence as she stares down at the computer monitor playing a few seconds of footage displaying a small crowd of people, the Outlaws, some of Young Justice and the Titans along with a few other people who were cheering him on as he slipped a ring on some red haired woman's finger. The context was clear enough but she didn't find out more about the what and why until later that night when Roy sent out an update to the rest of the Titans claiming dibs on being the best man.
The above is just something that I cobbled together after reading a few Jason leaves Gotham fics and the thought of Jazz killing the Joker for (insert reasons) so my mind kind of jumped to Jason living out his best Cinderella moment, chasing after, flirting (along with getting threatened by a pair of overprotective parents) and road tripping with his team while trying to find the woman who lost her bloody baseball bat. After they meet he's just doubling down on everything with the intent of marrying her, Jazz getting her own little road trip, telling Jason where they're going next or even making a game out of if he can find her at the next stop on the Fenton family supernatural hunting/cataloging road trip cause I know they love talking about ghost but the image of Jack and Maddie fighting Bigfoot is amazing.
And the Fentons are happy for the two of them. At least he wasn't another Johnny. They had Tucker check just to be sure while everyone else just kind of assumes the rest of the bat family already knew when it was actually a mix of (we're super busy right now) and (maybe things will be a little peaceful if we give Jason some space) leaving Bruce trying to play catch up and depending on if he's reformed having to outdo Vlad who is already paying for everything.
If you've seen The Sandman episode A Hope in Hell then you already know what I'm talking about but what if when the Justice League tries to summon the Ghost King for any number of reasons only they get Clockwork instead who forces them (or any hero really but I'm thinking of one of the Flashes or maybe Wonder Woman since Constantine has his own game planned for him) to play his favorite game, the oldest game and they have to win or else. He could genuinely be angry, I actually want to see a furious Clockwork more than ready to undo the very existence of the planet for daring to summon his protege but I can kind of see him messing around a little and playing up the whole titan of time, father of Zeus thing with the heroes as payback for messing around with the timelines so much.
It doesn't matter either way. What the Justice League wants isn't worth mentioning since Clockwork erased it from existence with barely a fraction of effort.
The biggest concern that has the entirety of Young Justice worried is the fact that the only person who got a free pass during that mess of a summoning was Bart and nobody can figure out why. Clockwork was more than willing to end the man of steel. He despised the other heroes and seemed annoyed at the sight of so many speedsters gathered together but after surveying the meeting room they used for the summoning he looked surprised then a little amused at the sight of Young Justice, smiling at Bart like he was genuinely happy to see him back there with the rest of his team. There wasn't even any mention of erasing his existence or anything as colorful as the threat against Constantine which was just rude. He could be a threat if he wanted (even if he kind of puffed up like an angry kitten when Clockwork started treating him like he was one of his grandsons) but he doesn't know (can't remember) that all of the Ancients and at least a dozen different pantheons have him on a very short list of people the Ghost King would gladly end the multiverse for after everything his past self/alternate did during the whole Dan problem. In Clockwork's eyes Bart has more than earned a free pass across the wider multiverse.
Cause, the thing is, the rest of the heroes might have died fighting for the world but the Bart from the darker timeline, the one who helped Danny traverse a literal apocalypse and pointed out way too many holes in Vlad's little monologue died saving Danny's life when Dan was trying to mess with the timeline which meant he unknowingly has the Ghost King's blessing and anything and everything on the more darker side of the supernatural can see the enormous 'Do Not Approach' sign that was basically Danny's mark (a necklace, pen, invisible magic whatever or something small he keeps on him without knowing why) claiming Bart as off limits.
Go mess with any other hero if you want, but this speedster, this little guy right here who has Clockwork treating him like a grandson has the Ghost King's blessing, the only blessing he's ever given out, permission to race across the crossroads of Infinity and the protection of a lot of powerful eldritch gods.
You know the thing about ghosts and their obsessions, well what about Walker's obsession? He'd have to be going crazy with so many villains breaking into, breaking out of or just attacking supposedly state of the art prisons like Belle Reve and Arkham. From what I've seen and read the majority of the supervillains treat any kind of sentence longer than a week like a joke so I can imagine Walker growing more and more angry about it until he finally snaps. His obsession forces him to do something and he does. His first step is forcing some of the other ghost to help him improve things. He's learned his lesson after dealing with Danny so he gives them no other option but to help him and they do cause they can tell his obsession is controlling him and right now Walker wants a prison that can hold anything and everything. It doesn't matter who it is, he wants a prison capable of restoring order and with all of the different ghosts currently under his control or still on the run after Danny's jailbreak he knows who to get in order to make it happen.
Next is the easier part where he grows as big as possible, probably even a little eldritch cause he's beyond furious with so many rule breakers getting away with anything they feel like and he simply drags every major prison holding supervillains through a portal deep into his part of the Ghost Zone. He's not playing around this time. His men are raiding hideouts and hitting bases all over the country. Nobody sees it coming, the heroes aren't given any time to react and the villains never even get a chance to get away from their 'rightfully deserved judgement' since Walker is doing what he did in Amity Park but on a much larger scale. He will restore order by any means necessary.
Danny is kind of on the fence about the whole issue while everyone outside of Amity Park is freaking out about Arkham getting dragged into hell (from their perspective).
I mean with everything his parents can do and Danny being Danny he's gotta have some engineering skills and since he's in love with everything space related I can kind of imagine him building his own base on the moon. He'd just need a little help to get started but with his parents skills, Tucker's tech and a little extra from Sam's allowance it slowly starts to come together piece by piece and the Justice League has no idea what to do.
Cause he's obviously in love with their orbiting watchtower but it's not his and he knows better than to just invade someone else's haunt/territory without an invite so Danny settles for admiring it as he flies back and fourth with thousands of pounds worth of equipment.
And the Justice League is sort of stumped cause there's a kid making multiple trips to the moon nearly every weekend but what can they really do. He's not hurting anybody. He isn't breaking any laws either but his 'friends' who are easily the size of the moon are giving every magic user on Earth a heart attack.
Governments are calling. People are worried about another invasion. Amity Park doesn't care and nobody in the know wants to ruin Danny's fun.
Meanwhile Danny is having the time of his life building a base the size of his hometown. It helps with his obsession and sort of evens him out which is good for everyone so he doesn't see the problem with calling in a few favors from Undergrowth and Vortex in order to make his little corner of the moon habitable for his friends and family.
I've read countless prompts and fics talking about how the Anti-Ecto Acts affect Danny, Dani, Dan, the heroes, etc, but what if it was just a random bunch of people coming up with a work around in order to finally get rid of a lot the supervillains that were protected by the law.
Like Ben (I don't know why I came up with Ben for this) and a couple of his friends start talking about how certain supervillains can get away with just about anything only to get a few months in prison when one of them brings up the Fentons who are one step away from being mad scientists. Anybody who ever went to school with them is bound to bring them up at least once but they get brought up and eventually everyone ends up joking about how many heroes have 'come back from the dead' since the everyday civilian would probably think they were on a vacation or doing some sort of undercover work whenever they aren't seen out in public for a while. Ben adds on to the idea by bringing up how many supervillains have come back from the dead and it kind of snowballs from there until it finally gets to the dumbest idea any of them have ever had.
How would you kill a ghost, zombie, whatever?
What would someone like the Joker even be considered since he's apparently died on a number of different occasions and is somehow so insane nobody can give him the death penalty. Wait... What was that about the Fentons... Their research... Huh??? Let me see that for a second... That could work... It could actually work. We just have to word it the right way, maybe make up a couple of things to make it sound scary but it could work.
It doesn't even have to be about the Joker. With the number of enemies Luthor has you can't tell me there isn't at least one rich person willing to jump on the chance of legally having a way to get rid of him for good. Cause he's faked his death before, been dying only to transfer his consciousness into a clone body and probably pulled off even more crazy things I don't know about and this insane idea might be just the thing they'd need to finally get rid of him since he'd no longer have any rights if the Anti-Ecto Acts pass.
But then they start hearing about a supposed ghost kid and what's this about a hunter in a mech suit and a biker with a sentient shadow. Obviously he's just a meta. The mech suit guy simply had way too much time on his hands and the biker has to be magic. Just look at the baby hero and his rogue gallery roughing each other up but the Fentons are screaming about ghosts again, they're even on the local news now so we have to double down on everything if we want this to work. Quick, grab a couple of guys and go act like Team Rocket until we've handled things over here. You're O, that's Q. He can be Z if he wants. I don't really care who does what just shove the alien squid whatever back into the portal before a Green Lantern shows up complaining about some sort of space law we've probably broke then go around telling everyone you destroyed it or something. They can't prove we didn't.
Remember, we're supposed to be the 'bad guys' people.
Thanks to an overprotective Fright Knight shadowing him all the time Danny has a reputation similar to Alastor (The Radio Demon). Now Danny isn't aware of any of it since the only reason he's even visiting Gotham is to check in on Jazz and maybe drop off some of their dad's fudge but it's still Gotham and Fright Knight is working overtime after realizing there were way too many threats to the young prince/king gathered in a single city but back to the Radio Demon part of the prompt.
Danny gets clocked as something odd from the very beginning but nobody really cares. He's just another meta, a nobody that was easily dismissed until some of the local criminals operating around Jazz's apartment vanished. That one mugger who thought about going after Danny is just gone. The pickpocket who thought he was an easy target is nowhere to be found and it just kind of snowballs from there with little things adding up over time until finally rumors start flying around about a supervillain going missing. I'm using Scarecrow as an example but it could be anybody really with one or two rumors joking about the new meta being behind all of the disappearances since a street kid swears they saw Danny getting gassed during one of Scarecrow's attacks. Then Bane goes missing too and there're even more rumors about Danny being involved somehow and it only gets worse when he's seen talking with Mr. Freeze just hours before the man and his wife disappear. The street kids start thinking he's something supernatural. The thugs and goons swear Danny's some sort of demon. The working girls share stories about how a simple deal with him could change your life. The supervillains are slowly growing terrified because if you're unlucky enough to hear it then sometimes late at night when he's out for a walk an old TV or a nearby car radio will suddenly broadcast the sounds of someone screaming.
Danny isn't aware of any of it though because he's listening to music during his walks and other than helping a few people here and there he hasn't really had to go ghost for anything whenever he's visiting Jazz. Fright Knight is the one going around tagging any sort of potential threat with Soul Shredder and even he's baffled about some random radio being able to tap into his pocket dimension for a few seconds every other night.
I've had this weird idea for a while now after reading so many Danny and or Jazz move to Gotham fics so here it is for everyone else to ponder. Jazz gets caught up in one of Joker's many rampages and gets really hurt. Maybe she's in a coma or gets bad burns from the clown's acid or even dies but Jack and Maddie get the worst news of their lives and not wanting to disturb Danny who's finally in a good point in his life (I'm imagining him working in Star City for this) they gear up to hunt down the Joker. They find him. Doesn't matter if it means busting into Arkham or jumping him in one of his bases but they find him and have the Joker tucked away somewhere very private before any of the Bats know what is happening. Jack, Jack doesn't know what to do. He's angry. He's beyond angry but he doesn't know what to do now that they have him. Maddie doesn't have that problem. In her eyes the Joker is worse than a ghost or any other supernatural being they might have hunted in the past. He's not even human to her, never was so with all the knowledge on how to tear someone apart she reenacts the scene from an old movie called Law Abiding Citizen.
Ok, so I've seen a few things that say Bruce Wayne and Sam Manson are Jewish. And I've seen a couple of things about Jewish traditions that say that they leave small stones on graves of loved ones, something about anchoing souls. And there's this one fic, I can't remember what it was or who wrote it, that had Sam placing small stones on Danny sometimes, just because.
I had this thought. Since Danny and Jason aren't dead, what if their loved ones made them weighted blankets, with those stones instead of beads/rice/what-have-you in regular weighted blankets.
Those blankets quickly become their favorite. It's soothing on an instinctual level. Sleeping with those blankets is the best sleep they've ever had. No nightmares. Just happy, sleeping, ghost purrs. Because those blankets are full of love and recognition of loss and ghosts appreciate that recognition of loss from the living, need it.
It's why Ember wants to hear her name, why Skulker and Technus shout their names and titles. They want to be recognized.
Just imagine, movie night at the manor. Some poor soul tries to playfully steal Jason's weighted blanket. Jason's eyes haven't been so bright since he emerged from the Lazarus Pits and he's snarling and growling to impress a dragon. Message received: don't touch the blanket.
2 ideas:
1st - Different Dead have Different "lifespans". I don't have to research for accuracy or realistic information so...
Also, baby ghosts Must Be Protected. How long is a Realms Being considered a baby? 3-1,000 years, give or take. Some other versions of dead aren't even considered babies! They just form/revive at peak.
So the Must Protect for baby ghosts is an impulse for all Realms Beings and Adjacent. This leads to some interesting found families with various lifespans.
Like how sometimes in nature animals with cross species adopt. Wolves will adopt humans, for example. I've read before about a kid growing up with dolphins or gazelle/deer.
So, for the dpxdc tag, Jason the Revanent Adopts Phantom the Halfa. Only, instead of recovering normally in his Haunt, Jason got stolen away and dumped in foreign nasty ectoplasm. So his core didn't grow right and his instincts are messed up. This is the Pit Rage.
So, now you've got 2 dumbasses because Halfas don't have the full set of instincts either. :D
2nd head cannon - How a ghost dies has an effect on how their core forms. Usually, it's not an issue, just has an impact on power levels, future abilities, weaknesses. But sometimes, it has a huge effect on the core itself.
Danny died in the formation of a portal to the Infinite Realms. He died by electricity and was revived by ectoplasm in an endless cycle of pain for seconds to minutes. His core formed and was destroyed in an endless cycle of reliving his death exactly as he died until he fell out of the portal.
He has severe core trauma from the moment he died and doesn't know how to find help. His instincts are buried under Death Trauma and Fear, because all he knows about ghosts is his parents' very biased opinions.
When the ghosts start coming through, he has No Context and plenty of fear. Other ghosts, given the context of what they learn about his life, through context clues or Vlad hiring them, should ask questions. 'This electric attack looks like it causes extra pain. Have you seen a doctor to make sure your core is fine?' 'Oh, your parents are hunting you too? Exactly how long have you been dead, that they don't know?' 'How you return us to the Realms, if your parents are hunting you?' 'I've seen you in your parents' lab when I've come through. Do you live there? While they're hunting you?!'
Because they don't, they have no right to complain about anything he does. Skulker and Technus, if I remember right, have both been hired by Vlad. The Vultures too. So, given gossip, all of Danny's regulars really should have suspicions.
Frostbite doesn't leave the Far Frozen, so he can be forgiven his ignorance. Somewhat. When helping with his ice powers, he probably checked on his core and saw how bad it was. And assumed he'd gotten help for it already. Because that's reasonable. But did he ask Danny, 'hey, your core is in bad shape. You're seeing someone about that right?'
SO! This is less of a full on prompt, and more of an opportunity.
I've been in this Fandom for over a year now and over that time I've seen so many little bits or lore and headcanons about the Ghost Zones Culture, but I've never seen a single post put them all together.
So, here I'll try to write down as many as I can think of, and anyone else can add their own Headcanons, or add to whatever I or someone else writes!
...
So! My personal Headcanon is that when a Ghost Passes on, it's a thing to be celebrated.
Ghosts are Immortal Beings, holding onto a desire or unfinished business that tethers them to the Mortal Plane. They live, because they are Unfulfilled, unable to accomplish the task that would allow them to Pass on, and be at peace with themselves.
So when a Ghost manages to fulfill their Obsession, manages to Pass On to the After? It's something to CELEBRATE!
Like when a Viking would die, you don't just mourn their death, you celebrate their Life! A Ghosts Passing On is much the same. When one of them manages it, there are parties across the Zone of people who knew them, or people who didn't but still want to celebrate! It's a Joyous thing when someone you know was able to find peace!
...
Ghosts socialize through Battle.
Ghosts are Immortal, Superpowered, and Stuck together for Centuries. They are going to fight, and they are going to love the thrill of it!
From the freshest of Newborns to the Oldest of Ancients, All Ghosts love the thrill of Battle. It's one of their defining traits! They have Centuries of nothing to do and energy to burn, and they devote it to the art of Combat!
And it's not just Brawls! Some Ghosts prefer to battle with Swords alone, others with their Fists and no Powers, others with their Powers and no Fists, there are entire communities of Ghosts who have specific Rules, or Customs for Combat!
In one part of the Zone, it may be common to Tackle any Ghost you see and instantly start to fight them, but in another? That would be seen as Rude, you need to throw down your glove in front of them to request a Battle!
Or in another section of the Zone you may be forced to battle without Weapons whatsoever, in another it may be Without Powers whatsoever, or with ONLY Powers!
The Fight Culture stretches far and wide, no two parts of the Zone are exactly the Same
...
Art is highly Valued.
Of course not all Ghosts are entirely focused on Battle, and even the ones that are like to focus on something else from time to time. Some of those Ghosts were Artists when they were Alive.
And they continued to make Art in Death. But this Art is Special, with all the Time in the World, a Ghost can spend Decades or even Centuries on their Magnum Opus! It would be their Life's Work, something they dedicated their entire Afterlives to!
So of course, it is respected. Ghosts know better than to ruin or destroy another Ghosts work or Art. Be it a Statue, a Painting, a Song, or a Theater Production.
...
I think that's Good for now, what do you think? Anything to add to the points I written down? Any entirely new points to add?
Go ahead!
So, Danny is Dick's younger brother. He was given up because he was born premature and had health issues. Dick didn't know or thought the baby didn't make it.
Fast forward, Dick is now Nightwing and Danny is Phantom. Danny is in Gotham, for whatever reason, and comes across someone who echos ectoplasm back at him, like a half formed core. It's familiar in a way he can't name.
That chemical that is used to make Talons, Dionesium, is a stabilizing force for halfas. Dick has trace amount in his system.
Danny, in trying to find this guy, keeps finding Talons, who are all ectoplasm starved halfas with injured cores. Danny quickly learns to be careful about them, so when Nightwing shows up, echoing ectoplasm, Danny treats him like a Feral cat.
Red Hood thinks this is hilarious until Danny does it to him too. (Per DC, the Lazarus Pits are impure Dionesium. Per fanon, the Lazarus Pits are rotten ectoplasm.) Danny doesn't know about that yet. All he knows, is he just found out he's not as alone as he thought and these two are even nice! Even if the one with a clearer core is very obviously sick with some kind of contamination.
Dcxdp Danny phantom and klarion are friends.
Danny as the ghost king who loves to prank loves teaching a younger appearance klarion all kinds of fun gags and tricks of magical nature. It's like the younger sibling he always wanted. And is a nice break from some of his royal duties. But things have been a little busier than usual they haven't gotten to really get out and have fun. Danny is 30 looks 20. Klarion is looking 14. But in the thousands for age.
Klarion is bored and upset. He wants time with Danny to himself. No interruption from clockwork or the eternal. Other ghosts. No one. It's not fair. He needs a plan to sneak Danny out of the infinite realm, hide him and not be the fall guy when they get caught. Because it's clockwork they will be caught it's the when. He needs someone else to do the summoning work. But who and how.
He lands on John Constantine. Clockwork doesn't like him much. And Danny inherited all the old kings claims. So he be able use that if things got dicey. And klarion is not a fan either of the jerk. To buddy buddy with nabou. So he has a fall guy to blame for the summoning. Just needs to setup a prank so good that John thinks he has no choice but to summon someone who could destroy the world.
Takes him a week to land on act like I'm gonna do it so he has to first. Easy. And he can brag to a bunch of villains to really drive the urgency. Perfect.
Plan worked like a charm. Maybe to good though. John got a bunch of heroes to help. No good no good. John is lieing to his super jerk friends. Klarion can see the seal. It will make Danny weaker and lock him to the jerk like a dog on a leash. Not to the artifact he said they could lock him away with. He's gotta fix this quick. He drops in the pawns he recruited to distract. While discreetly changing the ruin on the summoning without mucking it up so it doesn't work. All while fighting zantana, and racing the circle lighting up.
The summoning is completed. But something obviously went very very wrong. Klarion has teakle distract zantana while he goes over the summoning again to see what he shifted. Oopsie. The ruin for shrinking power turned to shrinking age. But thats ok. It can be fixed later. Maybe. Probably. He didn't get the teather changed before it set. But that's an easy fix by killing Constantine. But his friend is here. And now they can really play. So it's all good. Klarion is ecstatic. So much so teakle runs to him as he shrinks causing one of the supers to over swing on an attack on his familiar.
But Danny needs a minute. As he blinks wearily on his feet. Rubbing at his face. Ugh summoning. He hates summoning. And this had to be a strong one. Because he couldn't resist like most of them. Whatever once the brain fog clears he'll be good and can really give the jerks who did a real stern talking to. Or maybe he'll scare them. That sounds better. Standing infront of him is a blonde man looking like a dirty drunk cop dective from TV. Who is gapping at him as a cigarette burns on the ground at his feet. This guy has to be like a gaint too cause Danny has to really crane his head back to look up at his face. There is a bunch of commotion going on but he's to focuses on this weird feeling he has towards this weirdo. Who seems like he's confused. Maybe it was an accident. Whatever. Danny still isn't happy. He puts his hands on his hips. "Hey jerk face! What do you think your doing?" Then Danny's eyes went wide. "Oh by the ancients is that my voice! What's wrong with my voice!" Danny now clutched his throat before waving his arms wildly at the creepy man. "What did you to me you weirdo! I sound like a baby!"
"It a bloody fucking child."
"It's bad to cuss infront of kids Constantine." Someone else says outside the circle.
Danny's head snaps their direction. Danny's eyes widen as he puts his hand into view looking at himself panic taking over and he looks around at all these tall people looking at him or fighting. He opens his mouth to scream in fear or frustration he doesn't know till he hears a voice he recognizes.
"Don't wail, don't wail!" Danny closes his mouth and looks around for the source.
"Klarion?"
"Sorry my bad. I messed up change the circle so it wouldn't weaken you. And well oopsie " klarion rushed into the circle hugging little Danny tight. "But you are here. So now we can play." Klarion gasped as he pulled back from Danny. "I can be the big brother now!"
"Noooooo, klarion I was already a little brother. I wanted to be a big brother more." Danny whined. His white hair flopping over as he rolled his head in complaint.
"To bad. I'm the big brother now. We are gonna have so much fun. You just have to get rid of this looser so we can go do our thing." Klarion gestured towards Constantine.
You know those ones where Damian gets adopted by the Fentons? Other way round -> reveal gone wrong Danny gets adopted by Talia Al Ghul.
Danny, after a bad reveal that he loses his friends and sister to in order to escape (they sacrificed themselves for him (taking shots, misdirections)) is tired and low on Ecto. He's hungry and he's so so tired. He's flying which ever way the wind takes him, just a little guy in the sky. And oh, what's this? Some Good Soup™? It smells a bit funky, but that's just flavor.
Talia find Danny bleeding green whilst drinking from the pits. She's feeling maternal (sort of) and Damian has just been brought into the world, what's another son? ESPECIALLY a Lazarus child?
Danny wakes up after taking a nap in his spicy soup to a woman that is more of a mother than his own had ever been (which,, yikes) and he's pretty happy. So what if there are assassins trying to kill him and him brand new brother (literally, that kid is FRESH) it's fun. It's enrichment 🤸 he probably needs to learn how to fight normal humans anyway. Talia doesn't even get mad when he accidentally kills the ninjas!!
He's only there for a few months before he gets another new brother! This one's a little weird, but he's also hurt so that's okay! Danny will support his healing journey!!
Idea that Tim is The Reincarnation of Danny but Ras is The Reincarnation of Vlad. I think that Vlad would get his Memories Back when Danny is born. it'd be really funny for him just to devolve into a comically evil supervillain when everyone's like he is a deadly danger and he's just laughing as he realized that his Nemesis has been born.
I think Danny wouldn't get their memories back until a little bit after they've been Robin. It's their first near death experience and then they're like God damn it, can I never not be a vigilante.
While Danny's on a mission in his early days as robin. he run into the league of assassins and end up getting kidnapped. I just want Vlad to try and intimidate this new Robin while Danny just locks eyes with him and knows. Danny will be like, you are no longer a threat to me.
Danny uses the Lazarus pit to talk to Clockwork to get Bruce back but as far as anyone is concerned he just went to the League of Assassins. It's also really funny if no one notices that they have this rivalry until after Bruce's back. like in Cannon where Ras wants him to be his heir but instead it's just Danny and Vlad who have way too much history not to throw down the second day they see each other. Everyone expects swords and verbal sparring when in reality they see each other and instantly fist fight.
I just thought of this but I’m pretty sure I also made a similar prompt on my old blog, but Danny as a payback for all the shit Vlad has done to him, makes it seem like Dani is their biological child and he’s a deadbeat.
This backfires spectacularly because Danny forgets that he’s not very forthcoming with information on ghosts to the JL so they believe he’s actually a 14 yr old, a mature one but a 14 yr old nonetheless.
Really it’s more of an inside joke that got out of hand, as Vlad started to be less of a fruitloop. After Vlad got help on his obsession (turns out having an unhealthy obsession is actually really unhealthy for a ghost) he started to mend what little relationship he had with Dani. And as her other biological parent, Vlad also started mending their relationship.
Ofc with Sam and Tucker they gave him the thought that since Danny took care of Dani while Vlad was being insane, he should be getting “child support for the years he was being a deadbeat”.
Danny lorded this over Vlad for years, a joke that never fails to make Vlad angry. Danny had some brain cells to realize that it would look real weird to outsiders but he always could just pass it off as ghost shit. JL were not convinced, and after replaying everything Danny has said about Vlad, had incriminated him even more in the eyes of the JL.
While Danny went to have a dinner with Vlad and Dani (as per their agreement, as Dani wants both of her family to sit down with her) (they both don’t really mind but each dinner usually ends before a fight can break out) he gets stopped by a JL member, asking him to follow them to a meeting room.
Danny’s met with an intervention, where the JL want him to understand healthy relationships and that he shouldn’t be with a man who’s hurt him before. Danny is absolutely horrified and at the same time laughing so hard he goes intangible.
Deadserious au due to summoning him, 15 yr old Danny meets up with Ra's and 8 yr old Damian. This displaces him in time though.
After showing off his immense power, Baby Damian immediately gets a fat crush on Danny, but when demanding professing his love Danny’s response is “until you grow taller then me brat”.
Danny afterwards leaves back to his time, immediately finding out that this change led to Danny being chased after by the Wayne’s youngest. And even worse the baby he met now towered over him despite still being older.
Danny phantom idea where he gets summoned to dc by a cult, but the bat fam had already defeated the cult before the spell could work.
Until one of them accidentally starts it, leading to Danny thinking the cult that summoned him is the bat fam.
In the aftermath of a battle, Phantom, Batman, and Superman could be see talking between each other.
During a lull in the conversation a tiny girl comes running from underneath caution tape taped around the vicinity, holding a bouquet of marigolds between her small hands. She’s out of breath and seems to be embarrassed when she stands before the heroes, Batman reacts the quickest to the sudden encounter. Asking her about why shes here and what the problem is, he’s about to ask about her parents when she interrupts with “i have something for mister Phantom”.
Danny who had been only half listening was caught off guard, he looks at her and tries for a reassuring smile but his confusion must show through because she suddenly looks down shyly at her flowers.
“I heard from mommy that you put flowers on graves for people you like, ” she starts, “i don’t know where yours is though, so i got you flowers to put it wherever it is”. She’s obviously embarrassed about interrupting, but she says the words with a form of determination. Suddenly what seems to be her mother comes running from out of the crowd.
“I am so, so, sorry for Miya, i didn’t mean to loose sight of her, she slipped away, we’ll get out of your hair now. ” the woman says in a rush, gently tugging the child back from the slack jawed heroes. Danny can just make out her gently reprimanding the child for her behaviour when he suddenly steps forward. “Wait, wait, wait” he says quickly, crouching down to the child now hiding a bit behind the mother, “you got me flowers… so i can put them on my grave?” the tiny nod he gets from that has him smiling, “you wanted to put flowers on my grave?” is asked with excitement, gaining n even bigger nod in return.
He takes a small step forward, still crouched, and asks “are you alright with me hugging you?”, the nod lets him quickly move forward a spin the child around in a tight hug, laughing. He smiles brightly at the girl, holding her in his arms with enough space to make sure the flowers were safe, who is smiling back just as brightly. Danny laughs, “no ones ever given me flowers before! And you want them on my grave!” the actions have gained the attention of both civilians and other heroes, Danny could honestly care less though, someone wants to put flowers on his grave! Someone went through the effort of giving him flowers! He is so excited!
Both the mother, Superman, and Batman all look uncomfortable, “have you… never gotten. . ahem. . Flowers before?” Superman asks, “i mean, you look young so… have your parents never… ?”, the ending never gets finished but its definitely implied what he wants to really ask. Danny doesn’t care, its not exactly important, right?
He looks at the heroes and says cheerily “i don’t think my parents even know im dead!” before looking back at the child in his arms, not seeing all the shocked, pale faced staring( minus Batman, he never emotes, like, at all).
Eventually the kid has to leave due to dangerousness of the area, but not before a final hug and happy goodbye from Phantom after she hands the flowers to the undead hero. Danny says his goodbyes to the surrounding heroes, not understanding why they all look at him funny as he carries around the marigold bouquet before he flies off. He holds the flowers close to makes sure they dont get destroyed by the wind, but he cant help a few happy loops and twirls in his flight home.
The first ever flowers for his grave, how exciting!
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Ever since then the heroes and a few civilians make sure to give Phantom flowers each time they see him for his grave. Phantom is so excited people want to give him flowers each time a new set is given to him.
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wooooooo ok
i finally actually wrote something after so long, sorry for the long break between shit, stuff happened :/
sorry if there’s any big misspellings or anything like that in here, i had an idea and wanted it down as fast as possible and i fucking ran with it as far as i could lol
y’all can continue this if you want, i just thought this idea was so cute
have a good night/day/afternoon/life