Basically, Vlad's doing a favor for one of his creepy billionaire friends, and he's dragging Danny along with him. Something about said money-buddy needing help with a cloning project.
Danny, naturally, decides to be as inconsiderate as he possibly can, because fuck Vlad, and fuck Lex Luthor too.
He sneaks away and manages to phase through a few walls, accidentally finding Luthor's evil secret lair. Danny is...not surprised at all.
Instead of wasting time going 'oh noooooo how could this beeee', he gets to work on destroying as much as he can. While invisible, of course.
Then, naturally, he triggers an experimental weapon in one of the rooms.
It goes off.
Danny shrinks.
Danny looks in a mirror.
He looks like he's fucking ten. His clothes no longer fit, and Danny prioritizes finding something to wear that might fit. All he can find are weird white-gray jumpsuits, though. Fine. Whatever.
He's just finished putting it on when the door is punched out of it's frame, scaring Danny enough that he jumps a foot in the air and stays there.
An...older teen? Young adult? Superboy, right, he calls himself Superboy. The leather jacket one that should probably get the "boy" out of his name, not the actual kid.
Super(not)boy stares at Danny, eyes wide and mouth open.
Danny can smell trouble coming from a mile away, and he knows that whatever is about to happen, he wants no part of it.
"Uh, uh-Superma-?" Superboy starts, but Danny isn't having it.
"Fuck you!" Danny shouts, landing on the ground, throwing the nearest table, and tries to turn to phase through the wall behind him.
Except he doesn't, because the second he touches the ground he's grabbed and held in place by tactile telekinesis.
He would know what that feels like; he has tactile telekinesis. Tactile telekinesis that he's currently using to try to peel Superboy's sticky tactile telekinetic fingers off of him so he can go.
"Okay, maybe we should chill out," Superboy says, walking forward and trying to look nonthreatening.
"...Actually, that's a great idea," Danny concedes, abruptly freezing the floor beneath Superboy's feet.
Superboy floats to get off the ice, the telekinetic grip is released, and Danny uses that opportunity to...turn and run straight into Superman's chest.
Superman does not look happy. Superman is wearing the same look mom does when she finds out he failed a test.
Danny is, wisely, a little more scared of Superman than Superboy.
"I can explain," Danny starts.
"Start with where you learned that language," Superman advises, crossing his arms. "Clone or not, I will clean your mouth out with soap if I have to."
AKA "The Batfam unintentionally start giving ritual offerings to the Phantom. Danny, who's been mistaken as the Phantom of the Opera, is wondering why his hoodie pockets are full of tomato slices??" prompt idea!
Headcanon that Ghosts become more powerful the more people believe in them, kind of like deities. Danny's never really had to deal with the whole "ritualistic sacrifices to Bloody Mary" or "superstitious prayers against Davey Jones" because Phantom is a Hafta. Danny doesn't need people to believe in him or worship him.
So, he's never gotten a ritual offering before.
Which is why he's absolutely baffled when he shoves his hand into his hoodie pocket to grab his phone and feels something... squishy. And cold. Both Sam and Tucker scream as Danny jolts to his feet with a squeamish shriek. He damn near Goes Ghost as he tries to tear off his hoodie, regardless of the staring mall-walkers. Danny finally manages to fling the hoodie onto their table, scrambling to Sam and Tucker's sides, trying to breath through a panicked: "There'ssomethinginmypocket!!"
Sam carefully pokes around until she finds... squished tomato slices? They're oily and salted like a tomato caprese without the cheese. Which is an interesting choice for a snack. You'd think Danny would at least use a Ziplock bag or something?
("Ancients! Of course, I didn't put them there, Sam!")
Fast-forward a couple of weeks. Danny's going insane because why the hell are there tomatoes literally everywhere? Every couple of days (or hours, depending on the day), he finds different types of tomatoes all over the place. In bed when he wakes up. In his jean pockets at school. Even in the shower, he'll be blindly trying to find the shampoo bottle and come across a handful of grape tomatoes. He can't. Handle. It. Anymore. Danny's going to become the "Tomato Man" at school from how often he randomly pulls out tomatoes from his pockets. Like he needs another reason for Dash to mock him.
The last straw was when Danny was Full Ghost and felt something... itchy in his suit. He knew before he saw it. Danny tentatively pulled the sleeve of his suit open, silently praying that it wasn't what he thought it was, and- yeah. There's V-8 smeared from his goddamn elbow to wrist. He had to fight with tomato juice in his suit for several hours. And that's it; Danny literally can't take it anymore. He goes to Frostbite, begging the Yeti to help him with his Tomato Problem.
Only to be told he's receiving offerings. Which are apparently incredibly sacred and should be appreciated. (It'd be easier to appreciate if it was, like, cash or something. Maybe a Nintendo Switch. Instead, his patrons are worshipping him by offering... tomatoes. Great.)
So, clearly, the only option is to go straight to the source (i.e., his patrons) and tell them to Fucking Stop Giving Me Tomatoes. The next time he feels something weighty in his pocket (gross!), he follows the thready connection of his worshippers through a portal.
And Danny steps out in his full Ghost Regalia (because clearly they're worshipping Phantom, right? So Danny can't exactly show up in ripped jeans and his favorite NASA hoodie). The family sits at a dinner table... which is a little weird, since he'd expected an altar or something. But even weirder is the beady, predatory that look borderline-violent staring at him from everybody at the table. There's an uncomfortable silence more tense than dinners at Vlad's mansion.
Then, Danny carefully scoops out the soupy, baked grape tomatoes from his pocket and dumps them on the table. He doesn't wait for them to question it, just points to the tomatoes and says, "I appreciate the offerings, really, but it's gotta stop. It's gross. I have to wash tomato juice out of my clothes every day. If you're gonna leave an offering, no. More. Tomatoes. Please."
The oldest man seems jolted out of his stupor.
"Excuse me, but could you please explain why you've come to our home?" The man asks cordially. (As if Danny couldn't see him carefully gripping his steak knife like a throwing dart. And that's just rude, honestly. Danny was invited.)
"Uh, I'm Phantom? You literally give me offerings every day. Again, I appreciate it, I never thought I'd have diehard fans, but I don't even really like tomatoes. I mean, they're fine in salsa and stuff, but even I won't eat pocket-tomatoes."
"I believe there may be a misunderstanding. We don't worship a deity named Phantom nor have we left any offerings." The oldest says. He seems like he's about to continue when one of the black-haired adults interrupts him with a nervous, "Uh, B? About that..."
So. Yeah. It turns out Dick Grayson and Jason Todd forced the family to watch Phantom of the Opera, which spawned the joke of offering any food they don't like (i.e., tomatoes) to "the Phantom" (i.e., their trashcan). More than half the family doesn't like tomatoes and Alfred uses it as a punishment for breaking something, overworking, etc. They'd gotten pretty sneaky about scraping their leftovers into the bin but had gotten into a habit of saying "this one's for the Phantom, a treat for the Phantom," or something incredibly stupid like that.
Danny's just... a little relieved, honestly? Because he's literally fifteen and wouldn't really know what to do with followers if he had them. Plus, now he doesn't have to worry about waking up with tomatoes in his bed or making excuses for all his tomato-hoarding while at school. (Which was not necessarily the right thing to mention to Bruce "Serial Adopter" Wayne. Practically the whole table turned to stare at Bruce when Danny mentioned he's apparently an underage deity, waiting for Bruce to sweep in with a well-executed, "Well, it's getting late. Why don't you stay the night?" Because Bruce apparently can't help himself from collecting another black-haired, blue-eyed kid.)
Danny being half dead he obviously looks like a corpse. Pale grey-ish skin, no life behind his eyes, it's an inconvenience at best. Everyone he meets tells him he looks like a walking corpse. And then he moves to Metropolis, everyone looked at him like he was a zombie. Some people asking him if he was okay and some even calling an ambulance.
Danny was on a field trip to the daily planet and he meets the tour guide Clark Kent. He shows the kids and teenagers around the building and Danny (not wanting to be there pretended to pass out) jazz (jazz tagged along) was freaking out. Clark listened in on his heartbeat and heard dead silence he started panicking so when jazz yelled "CLEAR" and Danny suddenly jolted awake it shocked him... he still couldn't hear his heart beat.
(time skip a few weeks later) Clark is still in shock and awe at what he saw and heard that day. He got the kids name... Danny Fenton.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
(im bad at writing ik this is my first time EVER writing a story)
Danny: So I may have did a bit of an oopsie daisy.
Jazz: … define a bit.
Danny: you know how you were telling me about the two main ways of conditioning?
Jazz: Yes?
Danny: And you remember how I said Pavlov’s dog sounded strangely familiar?
Jazz watching her brother pace: Danny?
Danny: Well, there’s this guy in my lit class who was very pretty and I heard he was vegan and you know that giant bag of vegan candy Sam sent?
Jazz: Please tell me you didn’t.
Danny: Not on purpose! You know how big that bag is! And I can’t just throw it way it’s good candy! So I just, kept giving him a couple pieces when I saw him! I didn’t even realize what I did until I passed him in the hall earlier and he nearly smiled at me and he never smiles!
Jazz: only you little brother.
Danny flopping on the floor dramatically: he just looked to the floor in confusion Jazz! Like visible confusion!
So! Danny works by Fae Rules, Names and all, but he has no idea about that because he was forced to run away from Home (and the Ghost portal) before his Ghostly Education could be completed.
He runs to Gotham and eventually gets a job at Starbucks, or some other Cafe.
He has to ask the question "Could I get your name please?" A LOT while working there. And unintentionally steals hundreds of Names by the end of his first day, much less a week or a month into his job.
One day, Constantine visits Gotham for a Meeting with Batman, but by the time he gets to the Meeting Point he has bigger issues to discuss.
"Why the hell does half of your City belong to a Fae Lord?!"
Danny, after running away moving to Gotham a few months ago begins making little commentary videos on a social media app.
It was fine and all with mostly friends viewing them up until his meta gene activated. He didn't even know he had a meta gene and kinda figured any of the ghost stuff he did as Phantom would have activated it if he did have one. Nope!
His newest video started out with him wearing a red beanie, "Hey guys! You know how I just moved to Gotham a few months ago? Well, turns out I have the meta gene!" He takes a moment to let that sink in before continuing, "Most people get there abilities or whatever through a lab accident or an explosion or something and end up with like telekinesis."
"I, however, am hated by the universe and got scratched by a cat," he then yanked off the beanie to reveal two large cat ears, "and turned into furry bait. On that note if you have any tips on how to avoid Catwoman please leave them in the comments section. For my sake."
Dick stared down at his phone in shock. He needed to show his siblings this
In the meantime Danny has to deal with his channels popularity skyrocketing. "This is not what I want to be remembered for."
Bonus points if Danny gets one of those FMK questions that are all bats and he responds with, "Kill? A bat? Listen, if I get put into a death match with a bat the only one dying here will be me. I cant even do a backflip, what makes you think I could even touch one of them???"
Red hood was on a stake out with Red Robin
Suddenly a guy around tims age just, comes up
And sticks his whole hand into red hoods chest
He pulls some green stuff out, let's it sizzle in his hand for a bit before sticking his hand into jasons chest again
Then he leaves with the words "that probably should feel better now"
Jason is freaking out over it but the pit madness is gone
And Tim is having a mental breakdown cause he found that hot and that's concerning
So, there’s this idea that Captain Marvel is the idealized form of Billy Batson, right? Like, the version of himself he aspires to be. The hero he wants to become. The face he wants the world to see-- strong, bright, safe, inspiring.
And, well… Captain Marvel looks a lot like C.C. Batson. His father. That’s Billy’s hero. That’s the face that makes him believe in good. The smile that gives him hope and faith in his dreams. With a few traces of his mom, like her eyelashes, her ears, nose
But… that can change. Right?
Billy’s going to meet new people. He’s going to have new heroes in his life. New people to look up to. New versions of “who I want to be like.”
So one day, Marvel looks like a perfect blend of C.C. and Marilyn. And then, after a particularly emotional moment with John Constantine, he shows up at the Watchtower… with a different jawline.
His bone structure is slightly off. You wouldn’t notice unless you were really paying attention. But Bruce was. Bruce always is. He doesn’t say anything, just quietly writes it down with some suspicion of a possible shapeshifter.
And then, boom-- WHERE THE HELL ARE MARVEL’S DIMPLES?! They’re gone. Just gone. When he smiles, it’s a completely different smile. No dimples. There’s… are those canines? Slightly unhuman teeth and-- wait, Is that SUPERMAN’S smile? A perfect, radiant replica??
The next day, the dimples are back. Because Marvel caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and he missed them. Not consciously. He didn’t even realize it. But they’re back anyway.
It all happens unconsciously. And it changes from time to time.
One day he’s got feline eyes and sharp little teeth, a goofy yet oddly charming (and a little predatory) grin. That’s Tawky Tawny’s influence.
Another day, his eyes aren’t blue anymore, they’re green. Sharp. Focused. But also warm. You feel seen, and still, oddly… safe. (Catwoman likes Cap. She’s been nice to him ever since he introduced her to Tawny.)
Then-- No freaking way he’s BLONDE. (Thanks, Constantine.)
One day, his eyes are still blue, but now they’re icy. Almost crystal. Batman nearly has a heart attack because it’s his father’s eyes. His father’s eyebrows too. (Billy was just really happy with Bruce Waynbe since he donated a massive bunch of money to Fawcett’s homeless shelters.)
And then.. pointy ears. A different nose. (Kon.)
J’onn shares his special cookies with him one afternoon and now Marvel’s got a little green tint in his cheeks instead of red.
He never hides it. If someone asks, he just shrugs and goes, “Oh yeah, my features kinda shift based on people I admire? I guess. I don’t really notice until you guys point it out. I can’t control it.”
A lot of people think his tall, muscular body comes from Superman. But nope. It’s from Diana.
Billy sees her: tall, powerful, graceful, hair always a little wild but somehow perfect. Elegant. Commanding. He thinks she’s incredible. So he becomes tall, powerful, elegant. Hair that never moves out of place (but still has a charmingly messy style). All that’s missing is a little more confidence and posture.
And Flash? Flash nearly dies of happiness when Marvel shows up one day— with his awkward little half-smile.
To be honest. DCxDP where the reason Danny meets the bats is Ace the Bat-hound
Like, just think about it for a second. Danny is in Gotham for college, or maybe he just moved out to find a city where having mad scientist parents isn’t actually that unusual.
He can see ghosts.
The ghosts know this.
Now he’s getting harassed left and right by spirits trying to get closure. Fine, whatever, most of them are a one-and-done type deal, and the amount of ghosts trying to get his help steadily decreases.
Except for this one very stubborn dog.
It just keeps showing up and leading him to crime scenes! He doesn’t know how many “anonymous tips” he can call in to the cops before they trace his phone! And this dog, this incredibly good boy, will not stop trying to help the city. He’s never met anyone with such a strong sense of justice, let alone a dog. Can dogs even have a moral compass?
And so Danny just accepts the fact that Ace isn’t going anywhere and becomes his reluctant sidekick/dedicated medium. He leans into the whole thing, dressing up in a mix of traditional magic-user attire and accessories that pay homage to the ghost dog.
He becomes somewhat well known. The psychopomp detective following around the shadowy figure of a German Shepard? That’s unusual! That’s weird! I mean, it’s not the weirdest thing in Gotham, sure, but he’s a new vigilante and he’s got a ghost dog that people can only see when it’s around him. Someone’s gonna notice.
Damian, as Robin, is the first to reach out to him.
Ace doesn’t know Damian but he does know a Robin, and while this isn’t his Robin, he’s still friendlier than usual. Danny’s panicking because oh god the bats are here and also is this kid gonna steal my ghost dog, Damian is absolutely delighted by Ace, and Ace is just happy to see a Robin again.
Damian decides that the psychopomp isn’t a danger to anyone, and there’s no reason to put this encounter into his reports, really, and perhaps Danny can help with some of his cases in the future.
Danny is sweating bullets because Damian basically tells him that he’ll keep him secret as long as he gets to play with Ace. Ace is happy that he’s finally getting some bat affiliated crime-fighting assistance.
And so, Danny is now both Ace AND Damian’s reluctant assistant. At least whenever he’s in trouble, he can always call a middle schooler to help him.
(Is Robin even in school? He’s out patrolling damn near every night, and he stays out late as hell. Does he have a bedtime? He should.)
Eventually it gets to the point where Damian is going over to Danny’s house. When he first sees it, he has a damn bitch you live like this moment, to which Danny responds that not everyone has the money to afford a nice place. Damian counters that he could at least take the time to clean up, and Danny replies that he’s working, going to school, and being a vigilante assistant to a ghost dog, something’s got to give.
Danny nearly has a heart attack when he checks his bank account the next day and sees that someone transferred him 10,000 dollars.
And so they get into a routine. Danny and Damian fight crime with Ace at night, and occasionally Damian stops by during the day to play with Ace and have Danny help with his homework.
(Damian is smart enough to do it on his own, but some of the instructions are written incredibly confusingly, and he would never admit to needing help to his family. Danny is just glad that the kid is in school and cares about his education, blissfully unaware that he’s basically emotionally adopted him.)
Damian is used to being in Danny’s company.
Eventually, when going over a case with the family, Damian absentmindedly remarks that he’ll have to ask Danny about some of the clues that they might be missing. Nightwing asks who he means and Damian makes a face like he just swallowed a lemon.
Cue shitstorm.
Who is “Danny?” Why is Damian willing to ask for help from anyone, much less someone outside of the family? Does he know who Damian is? Has Damian been compromised? What the hell is going on?
Damian now has to explain that Danny is the psychopomp with the ghost dog who he might have met hunted down while on patrol and conveniently not mentioned, but he’s not a bad person, really, and he lets him play with Ace, and he’s been quite helpful on certain cases due to his ability to talk to ghosts.
Bruce insists that the family meet Danny. Damian, hoping that he won’t just skip town the second he hears the news, relents.
Danny is surprisingly eager to meet the bats, considering his earlier fears.
Damian, blissfully unaware of what’s coming, sets a time and place to meet.
Once everyone is there, he gives Bruce the earful of a lifetime.
Robin is in middle school! Danny knows that there’s no way to stop the boy from going on patrol, but you could at least shift his schedule so he gets enough sleep on school nights! Does the Bat even know where he is half the time?! (No) And why isn’t he comfortable asking his family for help with both cases and homework? Did they ever even notice how much time he was spending at Danny’s house? If Danny was a bad person, he could have seriously hurt the poor boy! Shame on you!
Nightwing is mortified that Damian didn’t trust him enough to tell him about any of this. Red Hood is laughing his ass off, because yeah Danny is making good points but he’s also chewing out the literal Batman. Tim is recording the whole thing. Steph is delighted by the absolute gall of this Danger Twink™️, and already planning to add him to several groupchats. Damian is more embarrassed than he’s ever been in his entire life.
You, he points to Nightwing, did your academic life feel supported when you were a Robin? Nightwing is too stunned to speak. Red Hood, eternal shit-stirrer, says that oh, we all prioritized patrol over our education, that’s just how it is. Red Robin actually dropped out of high school to avoid distractions, did you know that?
Danny honest-to-god shrieks at this.
He finishes his angry rant and leaves, everyone too stunned to stop him.
And as it turns out, Tim wasn’t the only person recording the whole thing.
The entire internet is blowing up with Psychopomp The Danger Twink™️’s rant. People are taking sides. Things are getting messy. Red Hood literally admitting on-camera to previously being a Robin is somehow not the main focus here.
Eventually someone connects some dots from the video, as well as stories circling the internet about the psychopomp. A ghost dog named Ace, who is the literal only reason that the psychopomp is fighting crime at all, which seems incredibly fond of Nightwing and Robin.
A crime-fighting dog who wants constant attention from both the current and original Robin.
Oh my god, Ace the Bat-hound died and became a crime-fighting ghost.
And, somehow, that’s still not the strangest thing going on in Gotham.
Danny doesn't know how long he's been trapped in this coffin the GIW put him in. His parents gave him to the GIW when they couldn't accept him being a Halfa.
He endured so many painful experiments by the hands of the GIW. He was then put into a cylindrical coffin that drains him of his powers. He can't see what's going on outside because the GIW put a casing over the glass in his coffin. He can't move either. Many things are keeping his limbs and mouth from moving. He can even feel them digging into his body and can feel them drain his ectoplasm for who know what. He probably wouldn't survive this long if he hadn't ascended to the throne for the Infinite Realms.
He can tell he's somewhere new, as he's begun to hear the voice of a woman trying to talk to him, he can't respond to the woman because of the muzzle on his mouth. And then his body couldn't handle anymore torture. His body morphed into the age his Ghostly half is, the age of a 6 year old boy, which causes his limbs and mouth to be freed, but it also causes him to collapse from where he was being held in the air by the things restricting his limbs(he didn't know that he was right-side up and was mostly out of it because of the low levels of ectoplasm he has).
Meanwhile, Tim is wondering why the power core he bought from a government agency is malfunctioning. It was bought for Wayne Enterprises. It was said to be the only power core capable of lasting years. And when it was opened up to see what's wrong, a young boy around the age of 5 wasn't what he expected to see inside the power core, with wounds on his limbs and mouth from the restraints and the muzzle inside the power core that could be seen.
Someone hacked Cyborg’s memory. Because of this, and the fact that both Cyborg and Marvel hang around each other a lot, people were greeted with one of the most beloved heroes acting like an average person, because whoever hacked him also posted all the footage online. It was only footage of Marvel too so Billy’s wondering if Sivana’s behind this.
The video starts with Cap and Cyborg walking down a hallway in the Watchtower. They’re about to pass a door when they suddenly hear:
Female Voice: “Like, Captain Marvel? Beautiful man. Just beautiful.”
Cyborg and Marvel: *stop walking*
Marvel: *looks over to him and has a disgusted face*
When the hero who said that saw this clip, the embarrassment they felt was astronomical. Speaking of embarrassment:
*another clip*
Cyborg: *talking*
Marvel: *also talking but pauses mid conversation and his hand moves to his heart and he deadass looks like he’s having a heart attack*
Cyborg: “What the fuck. Are you okay?”
Marvel: *takes an extremely deep breath* “Yeah. Yeah, I’m find. You just reminded me of something cringe I did and like 2019.”
Cyborg: “What could you have possibly done that could lead to you experiencing heart pain when you remember it?”
Marvel: “Don’t even worry about it.”
Cyborg: “I feel like I have to worry because what was that??”
Yeah… All the fans are speculating now. Speaking of speculating, there’s another clip that left fans worrying:
Cyborg: *walking to the kitchen when he suddenly stops because he can hear Marvel and Supes talking*
Marvel: “He is such a prick.” *full southern accent*
Supes: “I know, right? I honestly don’t know what to make of him.” *also full southern accent*
Marvel: “Hey-” *says something in Kryptonian*
Supes: *starts to laugh but then stops himself* “Now that’s just mean.”
Marvel: “It’s true though isn’t it?”
Like a Day after the video was Released…
Interviewer: “Supergirl Supergirl! Can you translate this for us?”
Supergirl: “Huh, what?”
Interviewer: *shows video clip about the two speaking in Kryptonian*
Supergirl: *does the same thing as her cousin which is laugh and stop herself* “Nothing, don’t worry about it.”