DPxDC Afterlife, But It's A Bar

[discontinued, feel free to add on]

It was weird. Not wrong, alarming or dangerous type of weird. Not good or comforting either.

Just plain weird.

It all started a few days ago, on Wednesday, to be exact. On a rare occasion, Jason was patrolling outside of his territory ("cover for me, I have a date" my ass, Replacement), and he spotted something out of place. A neon green, almost toxic colored sign that read "Afterlife".

Honestly, who names a place like that? But judging by the placement and design, it was a bar, and Jason could almost appreciate the irony. Maybe it had a slogan along the lines of "our drinks will send you beyond the lines of life and death" or something. But at the same time, it could be interpreted as "alcohol can and will be the death of you," which, technically, is not the best PR campaign for a bar.

Jason decided to visit the place anyway. He was curious about the implied death joke, sue him.

Gotham’s Ghosts are an open secret. Outside the city, people think it’s a metaphor referring to how old the city is and the near-endless history carved into every corner.

Gothamites know better though. Some call it a joke, most refuse to say it out loud, but all respect Gotham and her Ghosts. She is a city that cares for and protects her own. Those who are hers never truly leave and those who are not can feel her desire that they do.

Out-of-town-ers tend to trip more, feel paranoid, always catch the red light and rain, and plenty other little things in Gotham that show they are unwanted by the city. The not a joke is that these are acts of her Ghosts, those who once walked her streets now working together to carry out her more subtle desires. The Bats and Birds are believed by some to be more powerful Ghosts, her elites, permitted to carry out more tangible tasks.

Truth is, the only thing Gothamites have wrong is the Bats and Birds. They’re helped by the ghosts who make bullets stray just right and keep their footsteps quieter than is possible. They have Gotham’s blessing and her Ghosts’ assistance, for they are hers and protectors of her others, but they do not yet hear her decrees.

So, when one Bird leaves Gotham, she frets and her Ghosts grow restless. When the news comes that only his corpse will return, they grieve with their knights, both hoping and fearing that their lost bird will join them.

Instead, he wakes up, he wanders, he leaves again (and oh Gotham, how she weeps to see him go, knowing how it had gone before, raining tears down on her people and sending her ghosts to make all feel the dread, if only that one might notice the danger of her missing bird, the danger of tragedy striking a second time.) Then! Then he returns. He returns strong and angry with a ghost of his own festering within but he is home and Gotham beams and her Ghosts all swarm to see him safe.

They aid him in his efforts to rid her of the Mad Clown, then show the Bat their displeasure when he harms Her Bird to stop those attempts. The Dark Knight hears his footsteps and feels his weight heavier than before, adapting as much as he can but only finding relief when he finally abandons his anger at Her Bird. Her ghosts gather around him in the night once more, but they decide amongst themselves that they will leave again if need be and far more choose to remain with the Returned Bird, rather than the Dark Knight.

Between their assistance to Gotham's favored and little tricks along the street, the City's Ghosts have a place to which they retreat. A place to refresh themselves and gather their strength before returning to the larger city. They have a bar where they go, formed by Gotham herself, her own Afterlife for her own Ghosts so that they need never leave her. It is a passable imitation of what they lost when they chose to stay and serve their City.

Gotham's Afterlife is too closely connected to the living Gotham, though, and garners attention from some of the living. Gotham is too deeply entwined with her people and struggles to keep this place of pride a secret from them, so calls to the Realms with a request of a gatekeeper. The Realms respond and send her their favored, a ghost who lives and is experienced in guarding the space between Ghosts and the Living. He becomes Gotham's only living Ghost, a caretaker of her Afterlife, and a friend to the other Ghosts. He even brings a few more who have worked alongside him before (an entertainer and her lover, who happily takes a position as the guard, a young couple who love to travel and take on the job of leading the bats and birds where they need to go, a cook who ensures the Ghosts all replenish themselves properly and regularly, and a worker who keeps additional watch over the warehouse district that desperately needs it. There are even more who flit in and out and Gotham and her Ghosts take to them all quite quickly.)

It is with time that this Gatekeeper and his friends become Gothamites in their own rights. It is also with time that Gotham's Ghosts share that the spirit in her Returned Bird's chest is slowly weakening with time, speeding up slightly when around other ghosts. It is with pride that Gotham learns her own Ghosts can rid him of this foreign influence.

Of course, the only reasonable course of action is to lead the Returned Bird to her Afterlife. Perhaps time with more Ghosts will speed up the process. Gotham has the Ghosts with her Returned Bird start leading him toward her Afterlife, night after night until he finally finds it. He doesn't go in, but he returns to study it, night after night. Then, finally, with enough prompting by the Ghosts, he approaches. He steps through the door, willingly entering himself into their world, allowing Gotham's Ghosts to finally reveal themselves to him.

And oh, what a reveal it is, to welcome the Returned Bird home at last. For even as he stands wary, Gotham beams with pride, her Ghosts all looking to the figure in the doorway, only some with recognition but all with respect for the Living soul who has earned Gotham's pride and the right to see their Afterlife, let alone walk in.

-=o0o=-

From the moment he steps over the threshold, Jason knows he's been drugged. He feels strangely calm, despite the unexplainable knowledge that he is being watched by everyone in the bar, a strangely full bar for a place nobody has gone in or out of, and the pits have quieted in a way he has never known since coming back to life. They're not gone, but for once he's only hearing overlapping whispers instead of the usual constant screaming in his skull.

All these strange people, clearly locals in how they carry themselves, make him feel like this is a sort of homecoming. Unwilling to draw too much attention or behave too strangely, he quickly moves on from the doorway and makes his way to the bar against the wall, settling onto a stool.

"Welcome to the Afterlife, how may I-woah! ...okay, hi, new guy... I'll be with you in a moment." The bartender, one of the few people in the bar who didn't look like he was going to a 'decades in history' themed party, had stark white hair, pale skin, and bright green eyes. They were glowing slightly, too, and his lips had a concerning green tint to them.

"Take your time," Jason said, leaning against the bar with a nod that the bartender returned before darting through a door that seemed to lead into a kitchen. While he was gone, Jason took the chance to take another look around. The people here were varied, some looking like they'd just walked in off the street but most looking like they were stuck in time and had been for a century or more.

Jason hadn't seen anyone going in or out. They mostly looked like they'd been showing up and staying for a hundred years at least. Jason had tried reading Percy Jackson as a kid, and while it didn't hold his interest for long, he remembered some parts well enough not to like how this was looking.

"Here. Might not be what you were planning to order, but dude, you need it. I don't know what you've been up to but it left something rancid in your system." The bartender was back, skin flushed green and a crooked grin on his lips, doing nothing to hide the concern in his eyes. "I'm Phantom, by the way. Sorry about the wait."

"Call me Jason."

"Nice to meet you, Jason. You're gonna want to chug that, by the way. It's kinda gross, but what medicine tastes good?" Medicine? "Just trust me, it'll flush out all that grossness in your system. It'll make Gotham happy." The bartender, Danny, returned to tending the bar as if nothing was strange.

Jason had to get out of here. Fast.

Ra's al Ghul, caught in a rare moment of weakness, is being pulled apart piece by piece.

A pair of mad scientists, just the kind of deranged he would hire normally, had built weapons that were...far more effective on him than he'd anticipated. Also, he hadn't been there to fight them at all. They were a true unknown, coming out of nowhere equipped to deal with the Demon Head himself.

Ironically, from what they had started shouting, he wasn't who they were hunting.

He'd been knocked unconscious by what could only be described as pure dumb luck.

He woke up strapped to a table, as those selfsame scientists started peeling him apart with scalpels.

His torture is interrupted when a young boy walks into the basement, sees what his torturers are doing to him, and screams.

Then the boy pivots, and off the top of his head, creates a distraction to pull his parents away from trying to see how Ra's works.

It's admirable; someone so untrained able to think so quickly. It's clumsy; the equivalent of a child pointing at something and screaming as a distraction.

It's just what was required for the boy to remove his restraints and hand him...a vial of the purest Lazarus Water he's ever seen.

"You're already like, really liminal, so it shouldn't kill you, just heal you. But you need to drink it fast, before they come back!"

And like that, it clicks.

The mad scientists are hunting someone as 'liminal' as him. Their son's eyes are glowing green.

Normally, Ra's would drink the Lazarus Waters and slaughter the scientists and anyone they were allied with.

But.

This is a debt.

He'd been waiting for the two scientists to leave so he could free himself, but this boy had stepped in.

Now he owes the child.

He can tell just by looking at the boy that killing his parents is not going to be considered paying back the debt.

However.

This boy is in clear and present danger with those two lunatics about.

So.

As the adult, is it not Ra's responsibility to make sure the boy is safe, whether he wants it or not?

Instead of killing the scientist parents, he knocks the boy unconscious and takes him to Nanda Parbat.

After all, there is nowhere safer than under the Demon Head's protection.

Just to be sure, he adopts the boy as his grandchild.

Now nobody will dare to touch the little hero.

~~~~~~

Danny wakes up in an assassin compound so soaked in Ectoplasm that he can't phase through it, and the ectoplasm in question is so contaminated that it's making him sick, so he can't punch or blast through it either.

He's trapped in a gilded cage by a madman who's insisting that it's all "for Daniel's own good", and his only chance at escaping is telling the little kid, Damian, stories about Amity. Stories about his friends and family.

Stories that he can't make obvious are cries for help, but entertaining enough for a kid to pay attention to.

Stories that will, hopefully, make it to the kid's father.

Who is, apparently, the Goddamn Batman.

Somewhere along the way, the kid starts calling them brothers. It sounds like the kid believes it with his whole heart.

And Danny...Danny's too selfish to correct it.

He lets Damian believe that Danny is his older brother by blood.

~~~~~~

Damian has an older brother, hidden away in Nanda Parbat, who is sickly and weak, and to whom the Demon Head himself is indebted.

Damian has always thought that Danyal was in the best place for him; away from the unnamed hunters that Grandfather said stalked him outside of the compound.

Recently, though, Damian is. Rethinking this.

Why was Danyal so sickly? Why did he always look so sad and desperate?

Perhaps it is time to tell father of his sickly older brother who physically could never meet Grandfather and Mother's standards to meet the Bat.

I tried drawing Danny with dead mom hair style. No colors though

Sorry if it doesn't look good

Ancients, how long has he been stuck here? He lost track somewhere around the eighteen month mark, and that feels like it was a while ago. But it was the last mark he could remember. So even as his hair grows longer and he trains more and more with the assassins that run this place and gains more scars, one of which costing him his left eye, he tells himself it's just been eighteen months.

He's too weak in this place to keep up with the standards the assassins try and hold him to, though the madman that brought him here won't let them hurt him too badly. What made it worse was that, when he'd lost his eye, he'd been taken to a pool of contaminated ectoplasm and dunked in it.

It hadn't saved his eye. It had just made him weaker.

He couldn't go ghost, couldn't heal, or fly, or anything he used to be able to do. He almost felt completely human again, save for the constant ache of his core at being around so much contaminated ecto. It reminded him that he was far closer to the dead than the living.

The only upsides to his days were the letters he'd get from Damian every so often. He talked about his father ("our father," he said in the letters), of the training he was receiving. Of how his father cared for him in ways the assassins had not, and how he didn't care in the ways the assassins had.

Damian talked about the rouges he fought, calling them Joker and Scarecrow and Two Face and the like. It reminded Danny of when he'd been Phantom, when he'd been home in Amity.

He loved living through Damian's letters.

His little brother (he couldn't bring himself to think of Damian any other way, after all this time), spoke of other siblings. Adopted by his father over the years. Victims of tragedy, or neglect, wanting more than anything to make a difference, change the world so that no one was hurt like they were. And if not the world, then just that one city.

The only name of them that he recognized was Todd. He'd been at the compound during Danny's stay, but they'd never seen each other. Danny had only heard of his training, how well he was doing. Apparently he and Damian had known each other during their time here, and were still close in Gotham.

Danny was glad he had people to talk to out there.

But his most recent letter was concerning. It left Danny tossing and turning in his cot for days.

Damian had told his father, had told the Batman, about him.

Of how he was sick.

Of how he was weak.

Those did not bother Danny. They were true statements, after all. He'd forgotten the feeling of strength that came with being healthy, let alone what it felt like to float weightless in the air, looking at the stars. Oh, how he missed the stars.

No, what worried him was that the Bat was coming. He was coming for Danny. He hoped it would be to sneak him out, somehow. He knew it was a foolish hope, no one could manage to sneak into Nanda Parbat let alone back out again.

~~~~~~

It irked Bruce to no end that Damian had convinced him that he'd be a necessary part of the rescue operation. But he didn't know precisely where Daniel was being kept like Damian did, nor would he be a truly comforting presence like his youngest would. No, he needed Damian here. Which was terrifying because he was flying them both back to where the boy had been raised and trained.

What if the League saw him coming? What if he fell and Damian was left stranded in that place? Worse, what if he made it out and Damian didn't?

He shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind as they arrived, landing the plane out of direct sight of the compound and opting to sneak it. It would be better if he managed to get his son out without attracting the attention of hundreds of trained assassins.

He allowed Damian to lead the way once they got inside, running silently through stone halls and going deeper into the compound. Daniel was close to the center, a place Damian seemed to think was a high honor.

It was close to Ra's, which meant it would be well guarded. An easy way to keep a prisoner from wandering about while convincing them that they were an honored guest.

The door they finally arrived at was ornate, decorated with white and green designs. There was an air of staleness around it, as if the sickness of the room's inhabitant had spread to the hall outside. The whole compound was silent, but here it was even more so, the kind of silence that left your ears ringing, searching for some kind of input that must be there because nothing natural was this quiet.

Damian opened the door to a dark room, a figure curled up on the bed beneath plush blankets. A desk sat in one corner, covered in sketches of people that Bruce couldn't make out. Next to the bed was a cane.

"Brother. Daniel, wake up," Damian whispered, nudging the figure on the bed. There was a groan and a shifting of blankets and...

God, what had they done to him?

Danny's face was scarred on his left side. Not from blades or poisons, but electricity. Lichtenberg scars traced around his left eye and down his neck, and Bruce saw the way the scars trailed down to his hands as he reached for his brother.

"Dami, Akhi, is that you?"

"Yes, Daniel. I'm here. And I brought Father with me." Bruce did his best to hide his horror and outrage as his son, who he hadn't known existed three weeks ago, turned to him. His left eye was clouded over, a faint scar in comparison to the electrical ones crossing over it and making clear what had happened to him.

"Oh, he-" whatever Daniel was going to say was cut off by a coughing fit strong enough that he doubled over. Bruce was there in a moment, steadying his son as he tried to regain his breath over the next few minutes.

"It's nice to meet you. Damian's told me a lot about... about you, and what you do. But... why are you here?" he said between gasped breaths. Whatever illness Daniel had, it was a wonder he'd lasted this long in the League. They were not known to tolerate weakness.

"To get you out of here. You're sick, Daniel, and you need proper medical care and a better environment than this to recover." Daniel just nodded, moving to pull himself out of bed. He grabbed the cane, pulling himself to stand and moving to gather the sketches on his desk.

"Okay. If you think you can get me out of here then... then I'll go with you."

They made their way out, much more slowly this time to keep Daniel from pushing himself. Every step seemed like it exhausted him, and when they paused to let him catch his breath Bruce couldn't help but notice the way he winced when he moved. Eventually he offered to carry him, which Daniel seemed grateful to take him up on.

They managed to make it to the jet before alarms were raised, thankfully. Now they just needed to get home. Then Bruce could work on getting his son the help he needed. Damian was chatting to his older brother, filling him in on his life since coming to Wayne manor, what it was like to be Robin, the menagerie of pets he'd collected, and of course what his siblings were like.

"Richard will likely be the most annoying about meeting you. Cassandra and Brown will be much more restrained in their enthusiasm. Todd and Drake will likely try to interrogate you for some reason or another, but it is simply to ensure you are of no threat to the family. Thomas will meet you later, as he patrols during the day."

"They sound like a... a fun bunch. I can't wait to meet them."

"They're all quite excited to meet you too, Daniel. I promise, they aren't as bad as Dami makes them out to be," Bruce said.

"Please, call me Danny." Bruce looked over his shoulder at his sons. Damian was clinging to Danny's hand and sitting as close to him as possible. Danny, for his part, looked exhausted, but was trying to smile nonetheless.

"Of course. Now, you should get some rest. It's a long flight back to Gotham, and you could definitely use the sleep."

Danny nodded, squeezing Damian's hands before closing his eyes and letting his head rest against the seat. It wasn't long before he was out, and Damian followed not long after.

Going a little bit back, but what if Danny was Tim's twin that the drakes gave away at birth cause they only needed one heir. That would definitely increase Ra's obsession over both of the boys. Perhaps Ra's would boast about Danny like a trophy that he won.

Once Damian makes the connection between Tim and Danny, it may haunt or fuel Damian's drive to save Danny. Like there is a healthy version of my brother. If he can be healthy then so can mine. I must bring him here. He'd definitely get better here cause there's a healthy version of him. Or allow Damian to give Danny the experience he once told to a younger Damian, back when they were in the LOA together.

Tim on the other hand would freeze. All of those only years he spent alone, yearning for acknowledgement. That could have all been prevented had his parents not decided they only wanted one child. He could have grown up with a brother.

Damian slammed into Tim's room.

This was unusual for multiple reasons; first, Damian usually tried to be quieter when entering someone else's domain. Second, Tim did not live in Wayne Manor, and on top of that was currently in a safehouse.

That no one was supposed to know about.

"Uhhh..." Tim said, trying to find out what to say at the same time as what to do.

But Damian did not appear to be out for blood.

"Drake."

"No, that was a very badly thought out hero name, I don't use it anymo-"

"Timothy."

Tim froze.

Oh no.

Oh shit.

"Who died?" Tim hissed, launching to his feet.

"No one, I....are you well?" Damian said haltingly, eyes searching Tim for...something.

"What, like physically or mentally? One of those has a lot of different answers." Tim tried to joke, buying time while he tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

"Physically. Do you suffer from routine sickness? Did your parents seek out a cure for a rare disease when you were younger?" Damian asked, getting more and more intense as he walked further into the room, circling Tim and inspecting him.

"Uhh...I had the Clench? Other than that, no. What's-"

"Are you prone to sickness in general? A weak immune system, perhaps?"

"I...well, I don't have a spleen, but I've never really been prone to getting sick. Damian what is going on?"

But Damian stilled, barely breathing.

"You do not have a spleen and I have never seen you ill."

"I take pretty good care of myself, actually? I'm on top of it."

"Then it is not an illness, and is instead a shackle."

Tim blinked, still lost but starting to put some pieces together.

"Wait, is there like, a clone of me trapped somewhere?"

"I must leave; I need to tell father."

"Damian, wait!"

Tim took too long to grab for Damian, and Damian was long gone by the time he managed to stumble out of the safehouse.

Oh no, poor Damian. Just that one realization.

“It’s not an illness.”

Damian remembers how his brother used to be able to walk around. He used to keep up in training, in fact he was Damian's primary instructor. And if he really concentrates, he can faintly remember nights before Danny was forbidden from seeing Damian at night and before guards were posted outside his door. Of nights pressed to a larger man’s chest as he rushes through the halls of Nanda Parbat. Of a calm voice telling him to be quiet as they snuck around and attempted to climb walls….almost as if….they were trying to get away from something.

“It’s not an Illness.”

Damian remembers how his brother would slowly get weaker over the years. Soon he couldn’t spar for as long or needed more breaks. Then he wasn’t as fast and his reflexes dulled. He eventually stopped sparring at all. Danny just remained on the side and shouted pointers to Damain, then his visits from his quarters grew limited until he couldn’t leave his room at all and Damian had to come to him in his final year at the League Base.

“It’s not an illness.”

Domain always wondered why his brother was so wary of Ra’s when the man would only sing his praises. Surly it couldn’t be fear of being cast aside or failing. Danny didn’t even go on missions. (Why wasn’t he allowed on missions. Why had he never seen Danny leave the base?) He knew his brother was skilled. Danny absolutely refused to allow Damian to participate in the rituals taking place at the Lazarus pits. Something about him being too young? Is that what his mother said when he asked her? Damian can’t remember. It was one of the few times his brother actually fought fellow league members for that right. (One of the few times Damian saw a glimpse of the man who saved the demon head’s life.) Damian only ever caught a glimpse of the pits, once during Todd’s resurrection. Even then he didn’t stay long. Danny was always protective like that. But why

Like why his brother would always check Damian’s food before letting him eat. Or always made sure he was the one doing medical on Damain’s wounds.

Damian felt sick as those memories he always thought of sweetly as just his brother fussing over him now had a potentially darker meaning,

Damian knew Danny and Ra’s often had private chats together in the center of Nanda Parabat. Where the heart of the biggest Lazarus pits were located. The most honorable place. He always thought Danny seemed just a little more tired after those talks alone. A little more pale. His eye bags just slightly darker. But he always assumed that was because talks with the demon head were draining and he obviously didn’t enjoy them. But then again…why was he so reluctant when they should have been a great honor? (Why could Danny never refuse them? Wasn't he an honored guest?)

Oh god. All this time.

It wasn’t an illness.

His brother was poisoned.

Mr. Lancer, after witnesses the GIW start to devolve into committing literal war crimes, decides to kidnap his students to seek shelter in a different city.

He's not an idiot; he knows all of his students fall under the anti-ecto acts. He knows that the GIW have just been watching.

He knows that they're done waiting.

So he arranges a field trip, gets the class to Metropolis, and on the ferry ride over to Gotham?

He commandeers the ship.

He can't trust the American government, he knows that.

But there's another government fairly close by; one who's literal leader absolutely would not hesitate to jump in if he heard that children were being kidnapped and civilians were in danger.

He's taking the kids into Aquaman's waters, and hopefully the King of the Seas will be willing to grant Asylum.

@simplestoryteller

He covertly discussed this with their parents and guardians via a parent teacher nights AND coded language in the permission slips.

The Fentons were hesitant, as the sea is notoriously haunted, but eventually agreed, with the caveat that they be allowed to send some self-defense devices along. Just in case. Literally, they disguised the gadgets as a briefcase.

Unfortunately, no one thought about the fact that harbor ferries aren't designed for oceanic travel. Or the fact that they are going to be hijacking a boat in between two cities patrolled by the Justice League's big three.

Good news! They have a case of Fenton tech, which has way more weapons than necessary, and a Fenton (or two if you have Jazz be chaperone) and the ability to make say a rocket engine out of random household objects, or less than necessary parts of a ferry, is generic somehow.

Superman coming down on the ship, only for the Gothamites on board to shoo him away.

"Leave them alone, this is clearly their first crime and they're doing their best!"

Even the Metropolis peeps being like

"Yeah something isn't right and I'm sensing some background lore; I really wanna see where this is going. They seem pleasant enough."

"No, no! Wait! He can PUSH! You know Aquaman right? Which direction are we supposed to be sailing? Also, If I call my boss, could you tell him I'm being held hostage and not to fire me? No one argues with superman!"

"Ooooh, he has a point"/"Hadn't thought of that."/"Good point." S from various directions as well as nodding from several older Metropolitans.

Clark is offered a travel smack and a place to sit amongst the class. Eyebrow raised, he politely thanks them, takes the snack, and sits down. De-escalation is the name of the game, after all.

Sooooo, why the hostage taking? He casually asks. As he watches a high school class trying their best to practice their basic Atlantian and argue over who should introduce the class.

They've recruited a college student. He, ALSO, wishes to move to Atlantis now. If that's on the table. His fellow Gothamites do not seem suprised.

The “college student” is actually Kaldur who was on his way to visit Dick.

Kaldur is having so much fun listening to the land dwellers try to speak Atlantean. Most of it sounds like a mix of baby talk and the equivalent of a cockney accent. The only one with any talent in the language is the boy who can pass for one of Dicks brothers who is apparently trying to build a rocket engine out of a dishwasher and duck tape. Sure the kid speaks Atlantan like his great grandfather, complete with centuries old slang, but he is doing better than the other humans.

At least Kaldur thinks they are humans. Do normal human eyes glow in the dark?

not definitive, but thorough, if writers need reference tagging the cross over i'm into the most right now, as i feel it might help those writers who don't know where to look and have limited sources for their writing. (cartoons, movies and shows don't dive deep. usually)

I love this? I need this? This is so useful and should have more notes? I got into DC a year ago through the DPxDC Crossover and am still so uninformed about DC lore. So this video is like- my new favorite thing omg

It’s been a couple days since my last post so here’s something I was able to scrounge up in my free time :D please bear with me, I had no time to edit or reread

—————

Damian knew something was up with his tour guide the moment he saw him.

It was a mandatory class field trip to Gotham Observatory, one Damian had wanted to sit out but was forced to attend by his father. Something about him needing ‘normal childhood experiences’.

He couldn’t place his finger on what exactly was wrong with the guy, but something about this Dr. Fenton guy stood out to him.

The guy definitely wasn’t a native Gothamite, for one. He had a massive grin on his face, and basically oozed midwestern friendliness. If that didn’t give it away, the guy hadn’t even noticed when Damian snatched his wallet and phone! Sure, he was stealthy enough that no average citizen should notice him, but it had been 10 full minutes and Fenton hadn’t even thought to check his pockets! Any native gothamite checks theirs every 10 minutes at least, it was common sense.

He waited until Fenton was thoroughly distracted explaining something to one of his duller classmates before going through the items.

A quick glance over the wallet revealed very little. Inside was a credit card, some receipts for BatBurger, a blockbuster card (why did he still have this?), and an ID. It seemed legit, the only thing that stood out was that his eyes were listed as blue on the ID, but this Danny guy clearly had green eyes last he checked.

The phone was unlike any model he had seen. It seemed to be made of some dense metal with how much it weighed. On the back was a logo for some company called ‘Fenton Works’. Not a common last name, he’d have to look further into this.

Slipping the phone back into Fenton’s pocket, he almost got caught when Fenton suddenly stepped back to show some kids a panel about Mars. He decided to just toss the wallet on the ground, knowing this guy would simply think his wallet fell out.

He walked over to the teacher, already compiling everything he knew about Dr Fenton in his mind. A quick excuse of having to use the restroom and Damian was unsupervised. He quickly pulled out his own phone and began googling for companies called Fenton Works. Nothing.

“Look into this when you have a moment. There’s a tech company called Fenton Works that, to my knowledge, works with phones. If you uncover anything regarding them, please forward the files to me” he texts Oracle before switching to Google.

Looking up Dr. Fenton’s name revealed nothing of use either. The man has social media, no mentions in the news, not even a single site mentioning his name.

Returning to the group, he took a closer glance at the man’s eyes. They were definitely green. Actually… he swears he’s seen that shade of green somewhere.

Oh.

Oh.

He was going to have to look further into this Fenton guy when he got back to the cave. Father would want to know immediately about the potential league spy.

JL:Whatcha got there kiddos?

YJ: ....Smoothies

While Cassie is carrying de-aged 7 year oldJazz properly, Kon has deaged 8 year old Dan in a football carry who is gnawing on his arm, Tim has a giggling deaged 6 year old Danny slung over his shoulder and Bart is giving 5 year old Dani a piggy back as they all walk out of the YJ plane.

Just the YJ crew deciding to coparent the deaged Fentons.

Oh my gosh, yeeeeassssssssssss. Imagine, okay imagine the bafflement that they have for this situation. Just.

Batmans over here like: oh SHIT it's genetic....

It comes outs as :hrn...

Diana is just watching like: ishould have expected this.. Red Robin is their leader.

And Clark is just: *internally*...am I a grandpa now? *externally* aw, bring the kids over for dinner, kon!

That would be fucking hilarious. Imagine the shenanigans

And with 5, 6, 7, and 8 year olds, they’re smarter than people think. Especially if the Fenton sibs still got memories or at least skills from when they were older.

Tiny Jazz takes one look at Red Robin and says “You better not be taking us in to replace a broken parent-child relationship. It won’t work and you’ll just be sad… or angry.”

“I’m angry! We can both be angry!” Tiny Dan says this with a grin and Tiny Danny’s groaning next to him.

“You’re not angry, Dan. You don’t have people feelings.”

Meanwhile Tiny Ellie’s eyes are glowing green and she’s fully focused on Batman’s cape, which seems very dark and shadowy and like it would have the perfect chill. If Bart wasn’t piggy-backing her, she would’ve already given in to the temptation of the void.

Tim's new classmate was weird. He often wore oversized hoodies that wouldn't be alarming if the sleeves didn't sometimes slip up to reveal arms covered in bandages. There were also these deep bags under his eyes that somehow surpassed Tim's own. But more peculiar was his attendance. He was constantly coming to school late, only to dip out of class on frequent bathroom breaks. Given all of the evidence in front of him, Tim concludes his new classmate is also a new vigilante. One that he is dead set on mentoring.

Danny finally has enough of this rich kid, one who's holding onto his arm preventing him from leaving and keeps talking to him about stuff that he learnt the hard way years ago or doesn't apply to him anymore... and in the middle of Tim's spiel in the cafeteria just 'socks' him in the nose in public.

Now while everyone's watching he leans down to Tim who was knocked down and says quietly "my villains are closer to home then yours and if I followed your advice they'd have a reason to hurt me more, please just leave me alone".

Danny gets sent to the principals office and they manage to drag his parents in. The fentons have no problem believing danny did it on purpose and use it as an excuse to increase their tests on him to root out the evil infecting him.

Danny has a bad limp and can't use his dominate hand anymore when he finally comes back to class. His teacher doesn't seem to notice or care, (most likely being told hes sick by the fentons) he makes certain to never let tim come near him again.

Danny really hates gotham.

-

Tim on the other hand now has to explain his broken nose to the batfam and perform a proper investigation into dannys home life after alfred takes one look at dannys file and threatens punishment to all the involved bat members who didn't think to put child abuse on their bingo cards (most of the fam were sticking with the clone/adoption bait bingo card).

Tim gonna feel so guilty.

Not only did he gloss over the simplest, most obvious answer of abuse simply because it didn't explain all of Danny's odd behavior (abuse at home doesn't quite explain the frequent bathroom breaks and skipped classes).

Not only that, but he also actively made the situation worse. He put Danny in more danger by pushing the other to the breaking [punching] point, which got him in more trouble at home.

To see Danny walk into the classroom, late of course, after several days of suspension with a stuttering limp; to watch him switch frequently between trying to use his spasming dominate hand with a pained grimace or his unsteady nondominate one with slow scribbles; Tim had never before felt like such a failure of a hero. He didn't think it possible to ever feel like more of one in the future. He needs to help this kid. He needs him out of his home situation, like, a month ago.

And it's only going to be so much harder to make that happen now that Danny refuses to acknowledge or be within 12ft of Tim, especially alone. But Tim will figure it out. He has to.

Hello blood son of the bat!

Here is where we can introduce Damian. He will (probably) apologize on behalf of tim, while also insulting his abilities and intelligence, and offer to avenge/defend danny from him in the future, and might offer to have a stabby friend come visit danny in the night and then give him a small blade to protect himself until said stabby friend (i.e. himself) comes to spirit him away to prove himself as the more capable and better robin, as well as ensure the safety of ghost animals everywhere. The fact this gives him the chance to brag about saving danny before tim is a nice plus

Danny actually really likes the little Liminal dude. He's a good kid. A bit rough, overly formal, and very blunt; but passionate and fundamentally kind. Plus, he's the most Liminal person Danny's met in Gotham. His ghost half misses having Liminals around.

It's a bit strange that his human side knows he's several years younger, but his ghost side registers Damian as the older "ghost". But ignoring the weird mental gymnastics his brain goes through everytime they interact, trying to see Damian as both a baby and an elder; Danny really really like Damian.

Which is why as much as it pains him, lonely lonely Phantom is so so lonely, he has to push him away. Because he's too Liminal. Not Amity levels, but still ecto-contaminated enough to register. As much as Danny yearns for that ghostly connection, he can't embrace it. Damian is in danger just being in the same neighborhood as Danny's parents. And if they're willing to be so harsh with their own son, Danny shudders to imagine what they'd be willing to do trying to "cure" a stranger. The kid elder?? big ghost?? should be spared, protected, Protect?? protect?? protect me?? help?? from his parents' efforts.

So Danny just, needs to stop engaging with him. Ignore him and push him away until Damian gives up. It's for the best.

.

Damian is getting increasingly frustrated.

Drake's ridiculous classmate refuses to allow Damian to help him. He was receptive to Damian's first efforts to build trust and develop a working relation. But after about a week, he suddenly began shunning Damian. Now, while he does not avoid Damian as vehemently as he does Drake, Daniel still makes every possible attempt to refuse or cut short any interaction with him.

Hmm, perhaps it is time for Damian to step up his efforts. A home visit might be in order sometime soon.

Tags from @hypewinter

Eh, not really old. Just, y'know, older. At least, as far as my intent goes. Though now that you've got me thinking about it, it could be fun to explore Damian having an "old soul" as well.

Like, I'm thinking something along the lines of Damian has basically been Liminal since birth because of Lazarus Pit exposure (whether he was dipped or just by proximity is up to you).

So Damian's more ghostly side is or almost is as old as Damian. Depends on your timeline but around 10 is the common one I see for while Tim is still in school. Comparatively, Danny's ghostly side is at most a toddler. Again, ages and time frame dependent, but for him to be in school he'd still be between 14 and ~17, ergo his ghost side being somewhere between a few months and almost 4.

So, basically, even though it's not much older (especially by ghost standards), Damian's ghostliness is older enough that Danny's own ghostliness is like "Ah, yes. A Big Kid."

And since Damian, as a Liminal, initiated interaction with Danny with the intent to help him; Danny's own baby core, which he is actively ignoring right now, latched on to that like "Yes! Big Kid! Big Brother? Help, please! Lonely. Scared. Hurting. Help?"

Damian breaks into the Fenton's house. The security is laughable, would be even in a different city than Gotham. Another thing that speaks against the Fentons. It poses no challange for someone as well trained as Robin.

At first, he thinks the house might be empty, before he hears a faint sound from the basement. It sounds like a choked cry, barely a whimper.

Robin sticks to the shadows, staying hidden until he can confirm it is safe. He slips into the basement.

He has seen many gory sights, not only as a vigilante but also in the league. It is different when the victim is someone he knows personaly, when he has been trying to save them for the past weeks. Something inside of him cries and rages, that is a Baby, they did this to a Baby.

Danny, never Daniel he has seen the boy flinch at the name, is lying on cuffed to a table. There are tubes coming out of his torso, pumping chemicals straight to his heart.

There is blood, with flecks of green, everywhere. Not all of it recent, actually, most of it looks old.

And Danny is looking at him with wide terrified eyes. "No. You can't be here. They could come back any minute. You need to run, please. They won't hold back on a stranger."

The mere idea that this is holding back makes Damian sick. Up close he can see better just what the Fentons have been doing. Danny's whole body is covered in wounds in various stages of healing. There are burns, neat surgical looking cuts, bruises some from restrains and few from some sort of blunt instrument, he can see half healed Lichtenberg scar. Danny is too thin, Damian can count all of his ribs without trouble, his spine juts out unnaturaly. Some of the bones look broken too, or at least not healed in the right position.

Damian wastes no time, the Baby is in danger, the Baby is hurt, the Baby is scared. It's up to Robin to protect him. He will not fail. He will not allow anything else to happen to the Baby. He needs to be fast, the Fentons might come back any moment now. He will protect His Baby from them and anyone else who might pose a threat.

Damian tears through the restrains with force he didn't know he had. Moves Danny into his arms as gently as he can without sacrificing speed. Danny is too light, he can carry him with no trouble at all.

Damian makes it out of the house not even second too late. Just as he grapples away, the Fentons enter the building.

Father better have paperwork ready, Damian is never letting go of His Baby now.

Damian just adopts a kid 5 years older than him. Lol.

Ooh! Does Jason also join? Like, he’s probbaly older than Danny but younger than Damian (or like the same age as Damian since some fics have Jason dipped in the pits when Damian was a baby) He’s probbaly spent a few years at least as liminal. I kinda like the idea of him being slightly younger than Damian so he doesn’t listen to Damian (kinda like a sibling only like 2 years older just like how he doesn’t listen to Dick) but he would be another big kid to Danny/older brother.

Jason can also ghost adopt Danny. As a treat.

But the rest of the Batfam need to be, just so baffled by this turn of events.

And in fact, when their ghost instincts calm down enough to step back and recount what's just happened through a human perspective, Jason and Damian should also be utterly bewildered.

Less so on Jason's side because Danny actually is a fair few years younger than him.

But everyone's looking at Damian like ??? He's older than you??? What do you mean your Baby??? And Damian is also like ??? I don't know??? and it's making him all frumpled.

If you haven't gotten your fill of angst already up to this point, this would be a good time to introduce/ramp up the Bat Paranoia. Make them start wondering if Danny is affecting Damian's and Jason's minds. Get them looking closer into the Fentons and their research and make them wonder if -discounting the extreme biases especially regarding these ecto-entities' sentience- there might be some nugget of truth to their claims that these beings are masters of psychological and emotional manipulation.

Perhaps Danny truly is sick. An infection? A contamination? A virus? A parasite? Whatever it is, perhaps the boy should be quarantined while they seek an effective and humane treatment. Obviously they'll do much better than what the Fenton's were doing to their son. Sick or not, he's still a boy. Just like Jason. Speaking of, he and Damian should also be quarantined separately from Danny since they've clearly been affected by whatever magic mind fuckery the sickness is causing.

Bruce takes his children’s safety very seriously and calls in the experts.

Constantine takes one look at Danny, quietly excuses himself, shuts the door behind him, and keys out a string of expletives that even Jason Blood has never even heard of.

Constantine returns and wearing a sheer veneer of calm and asks Bruce where the hell he found a baby ecto-entity and why it was so sickly.

More pain for you? You know you want it~.

.

Danny had been drifting in and out of, not consciousness per se, but awareness; trying to muster the Will to get away. He. He needs to. There was a reason! There was a reason he was avoiding the Liminal. It's. His parents. They're. They have his signature. They're probably already tracking him. And if they track him here, they'll find the other Liminals. The little big kid and the angry one and the quiet one. They'll find them and they'll hurt them and Danny can't let that happen so he needs to get away before his parents track him down.

But he's so tired. And his core aches to stay. To be cared for. Protected by the older proto-cores. But he can't. He's never been able to. He's never had that choice. He's the protector. He has to be. He can't let someone else get hurt for his mistakes.

Finally, his core relents. They've left him alone (they think he's sleeping, he let them think he's sleeping) while they talk to Mr. Tax Fraud in the other room. Now's his chance, maybe his only chance if these are actually the Bats like Tim's advice implied, to slip away. So he does. And it hurts. It feels like dying. Like breaking and splintering and shattering. But at least the other Liminals will be safe.

And maybe his parent's will go easier on him if he returns of his own volition. Maybe they'll realize it's still him, still Danny. Living, breathing Danny who loves them and wants them to be happy with him. A mindless, evil ghost wouldn't go back, right? A ghost wouldn't want them to cure him. But a human would. So Danny should. And if he does, maybe they'll look at him and start seeing their son again.

The Fentons are glad he came back. It saves them the trouble of having to chase him down.

Danny has a brief moment of hope that things will get better before his parents do everything to make sure he cant get away again.

my turn >:3c

It had been hours? days? weeks? since Danny had seen the sun. All he knew now was The Lab. After running away form the other Liminals, his parents had found him quickly. They had already been on their way, following his signature, and coming dangerously close to discovering the others.

Danny didn't regret running phantom wanted nothing more than to go back to Safety. The Others big brothers? big sister? would be safe now. It would be okay. It didn't matter what happened to him. As long as his parents stayed focused on him.

It didn't matter that the lab door now auto-locks and is electrified without the key.

It didn't matter that his parents called him Danny less and less, and It more and more.

It didn't matter that he now had welded on shock cuffs and collar.

It didn't matter that he only had a thin blanket in his little corner cage.

it didn't matter.

It didn't matter.

As long as the others were safe. Safe. I am not safe

As long as he could protect them from Maddie and Jack. Protect. Protect me

As long as-

As long-

Please save me

Constantine and the bat family weren't having a good time.

They quickly realized Danny was missing and immediately began looking for him.

Danny's "reunion" with his "family" was filmed although processing to have a correct image was necessary.

During this time the Fenton laboratory/home was checked. They were gone…

Constantine began to develop follow-up spells… but without result. No matter their ectotec / antighost tec / Fenton tec. This blocked the ecto signal that Danny released

It took something unrelated to break the deadlock: A car accident

No matter where he lived, Jack drove the same way. Maddie had taken the driver's seat in Gotham But it was installed far, very far from a city center this time.

They had built their new house from 0 on this land that they have for a butcher of bread. The uncrowded place had a lot of bad rumors;

In short... it was ~PERFECT~ for them and their field of study

And the traffic was almost zero and their new playground was prone to getting stuck in the mud (among other things) and the current version of the GAV was not suitable. So they made a second custom "car", one that wouldn't really be made for driving on the road but perfect for here and of course runs ENTIRELY on ectoplasm~

The two had a good time, it was a good time for them to restore the place to their image. Except for shopping, they didn't leave the cursed place at all (according to the local small town)

Then Maddie got sick, nothing much, “just a little fever.” But Jack (very ectocontaminated) was really not used to his wife (just as contaminated) and decided to take her to town to be examined. Maddie didn't wake up while she was being transported

So a Jack Fenton + panicked + who took the wrong "car" + who hasn't driven in town for a long time = ...

There was an accident, a turn taken too quickly.

Of course Jack was fine, Maddie too, not even woken up by the accident, their car was barely scratched

The car in front was not so lucky, the entire family either died instantly or was in dire need of emergency care.

The entire accident was filmed

Jack didn't even realize what he had just done, still focused entirely on Maddie's "fever"

Everyone recognized the car and knew who it belonged to. It quickly went viral, with authorities visiting the house while Jack was examining Maddie. The house attacked them, again, it was filmed

Jack and Maddie had received roughly the same dose of radiation. But Jack was literally a heavyweight, he could take on a lot. Maddie, as warrior as she was, was not.

The doctors linked Maddie's temperature well, well above a low fever as well as other symptoms and analyzed it to a still unresolved medical case. The case of Vlad Master

Meanwhile the batplane was on its way

@lolottes your tag game is incredible!! Also if not everyone that lives in the same town as the Fentons know they have a son and then when they storm it finding this teenage boy who has obviously been abused in a sci-fi looking lab, they’re going to riot

I rather thought that they were setting the house on fire from the outside without even entering it with molokov cocktail.

Now it remains to be decided at what point in the fire the batplane arrives

Batman emerging from the flames holds a teenager so thin that, without his muscle contractions from his tears of relief, you would think he was dead. Still no one knows it's their sons, for the people of this small town, the most popular theory must be that it's a couple of kidnappers / tensioners / killers in addition to mad scientists who had to bury their other victims somewhere in their immense cursed land (maybe they started before even buying it, did I say that there were corpses of unclaimed murder victims found in this land? :D)

ho and as a bonus little thought: the survivors of the accident caused by jack find themselves in the same hospital emergency as maddie :D (it's a small town so only one small hospital)… the discomfort / little scandal if out of the operating room they must share a room and their visits a waiting room with them / jack

Suffice to say that the angry crowd knows where to go

Batman decides that Danny and getting him to the Watchtower for treatment (and keeping him out of U.S. laws) is his number one priority. He just sent a quick report by recording so that someone else could take care of the couple...

Batfam who followed the pending file: =) no bat monitoring ?~

parent Fenton VS angry crowd and batfam-batman???

Buuuuuuut~ I really like your version too!

The idea of Danny being found by an angry crowd who were here originally just to trash everything before burning it all down but who decide to take care of the boy who is in a pitiful state… and adopt it collectively ! Yum

The flames are just climbing high into the sky when a dark shape cuts across the blaze and a smaller, humanoid shape drops from the first mass into the inferno. The cheering crowd starts falling quiet in puzzlement staring at what some people are beginning to recognize as the Batplane. But Gotham is more than an hour away. What could possibly bring the Batman all the way out to their tiny community.

The answer comes, with a terror that sweeps through the crowd as information is quickly passed back from the front, when Batman sprints out of the burning house with a tiny bundle cradled to his chest. The kid is wounded, emaciated, coughing, and sobbing.

And they almost burned him alive.

DPxDC crossover but, instead of Danny being his ghostly-horror self, the justice league believe that he's just some guy.

Danny: *glowing eyes, sharp teeth, aura of eldritch being*

Villain: You're seeing this right?

Justice league: *turns around to find all the ghostly stuff gone* oh that's Danny *waves* hi Danny!

Villain: ...are you being serious right now?

It's not even that he's doing it on purpose, it's just anytime he does ghost things none of the heros are looking, and when they do have him in their sights he's just a normal person.

It probably wouldn't work for batman and his thousand cameras, but let's just say that it never got his attention cause no one in the league thought to mention it and the one time he did check it was just regular dude hours.

To the Justice league Danny is the humanist human to ever human.

Which is why they are so confused as to why this small branch of the government (mad scientist parents optional) is so sure he isn't.

Villain: COME GET YO DOG BITCH!

JL: Aw, Danny? He don’t bite!

Villain *witnessing cosmic horrors beyond their comprehension*: YES HE DO!