Part 1: The Incident
Clark had been having a normal day—or at least, as normal as any day could be when you were Superman. That was until he saw the kid lift a car.
It wasn’t a small car, either. A full-sized SUV, pinned beneath a collapsed traffic light, and the scrawny teenager had simply walked over and lifted it with about as much effort as someone lifting a grocery bag.
Clark barely contained his shock, watching as the kid set the car down gently and checked on the driver. The kid was calm, like this was a completely normal thing for him.
No one else seemed to react. Civilians were too distracted by the aftermath of the attack, and the other heroes who had arrived were already busy handling the damage. Clark, however, couldn't look away. He didn’t even hear the Flash talking at first, until the speedster nudged him.
“You okay, Big Blue?” Barry asked, smirking. “You’re staring.”
Clark blinked, finally snapping out of it. “Did you see that?”
Barry shrugged. “Yeah, kid’s strong. Good for him.”
Clark narrowed his eyes. “Strong like a Kryptonian.”
Barry’s smirk widened. “Huh. Well, when you put it that way…” He clapped Clark on the back and zipped off before he could press further.
Clark turned his attention back to the kid, who had already wandered off to help clear more debris.
Clark had questions.
*This happens before the watchtower scene in The Kryptonian Question. Not that they're directly connected they're more so different versions of each other*
Masterpost
Damian: This is bad
Jon: What is it?
Damian: I'm pretty sure the guy in the other soccer team was threatening me, but I didn't hear it because I was too busy staring at his thighs.
Jon: .....We're in different time zones, you know that? It's three in the morning for me here. When you call me at this time, it's ussually a emergency not a gossip session. I'm tried Damian, and I have class in the morning. I can't be a good exchange student if I'm falling asleep in class.
Damian: So? All my best work is at three am. Do better.
Jon: *sigh* Okay so the other guy is hot. What's his name?
Damian: Daniel Fenton. He's a foward. He's so attractive, I forget the human language when he speaks and only hear "Blah blah blah " but in a dreamy sigh kind of blah.
Jon: Uh-huh. And why was he threatening you?
Damian: I have no idea, I was too busy watching his lips move, and his thighs flexed as he stretched.
Jon: Right. Well, I'm sure once the soccer tournament is over you won't have to see him every again-
Damian: I think I asked his mother for his hand in marriage yesterday. I can't remember.
Jon: *Sigh* Of course you did.
Billy has a side gig. It’s something he’s recently cooked up as a way to get cash.
He’ll help ghosts pass on!
Now, granted, ghosts don’t carry cash, but! But, they can lead him to cash. Or food. Or safe shelter! Point is, it’s a very lucrative job. A job that Billy takes very seriously.
Female Ghost (FG):“Well, aren’t you just a dear?”
Billy: “Thank you, miss.” *takes out little notepad* “Now, can you tell me anything about yourself?”
FG: “Well, I was born in ‘09!”
Billy: “19?”
FG: “Yes, 1909. And I was a dancer when I was alive. The only thing I think I’ll need to pass on it for me to perform one last time.”
Billy: “I see, I see.” *scribbles down in notepad* “I’ll see what I can do, miss.”
Billy proceeded to get her a gig at a restaurant. It was safe to say she was floored when Billy corral her inside. She just thought the boy would gather a group of people and have her perform in front of them in the street. She didn’t think he’d get her anything professional!
Then there was a really fancy British guy. He’d been ran over by a train, and Billy could see his innards as he floated in front of him.
He wanted Billy to find a monocle. It left him digging for hours near a train track.
British Ghost (BG):“I believe it was a little further to the left.”
Billy: *digs around there*
BG: “Or was it the right…?”
Billy: *groans and digs over there*
BG: “Don’t groan at me. You are the one who decided to undertake this job, chap.”
It was three hours of searching until he found it. Thankfully, for all his trouble, the British man told him of a nice abandoned building that still had running water.
It was actually in the abandoned building that Billy got another job helping a ghost.
This time a ghost doggy.
Billy: “You want belly rubs?”
Ghost Dog: *barks and rolls over*
Billy: “Don’t mind if I do.” *tries to pet it but hands go through it*
It was through this that Billy went on an epic quest to find ectoplasm. He then dipped his hands in it and was able to eventually give the doggy belly rubs.
It passed on after giving a Billy a few licks on the cheek.
Billy didn’t get anything from the dog, but that was one of his favorite jobs ever.
They do not, in fact, tell him.
They instead make it a game of "Get down, Mr. President!" and dogpile him from perceived threats. Threats like the toaster. Or Dash Baxter. Or Mr. Lancer. A stray cat that walked out of an alley. A fight with Skulker.
A bird.
The worst bit is, even the GIW and his parents have stopped attacking those specific ghosts, because it's far more interesting that beings that mimic human behavior have picked up a childs game to mimic.
So he'll be home, at the kitchen, and with an almighty cry of "GET DOWN MR. PRESIDENT" one of the three ghosts will launch themselves over him dramatically.
There is not escape.
The security system in his house has been programmed to ignore them.
His parents love the opportunity to talk to a ghost, and are starting to go back on their "all ghosts are evil" thing.
So I love when Danny eats odd things in front of others. Like kryptonite or the one time he ate a blouse glow and spit out the core cause it got too fat and the blob ghost was a happy little guy afterwards but anyways..
I had this thought while neglecting sleep
Lex Luther points are kryptonite dagger or whatever at Danny thinking that he’s found Superman son is about to threaten Superman with his life. Superman is obviously tense and feels slightly guilty at being relieved that that is not his son, but he is gonna do everything he can to save the boy.
While this intense monologue is happening Danny just like “this knife smells really good” and just crunches into it. Big bites, leaving Lex Luther and Superman stunned.
Danny,“You got any more of this egg man?”
Lex Luther stop computing, staring at Danny eating the kryptonite in his hands like he handed him a chocolate bar.
Danny going to Gotham and being mistaken for one of the Wayne children and just rolling with it. Better yet, he uses it to try and help the ghosts.
Reporter: Mr. Wayne! Can you tell us what Wayne Industries is working on now?
Danny: Wayne Industries is currently working to annul the law that was currently enacted by the GIW.
The Waynes are all at home, curiously wondering which one of them was the one on tv, and what exactly could this act be.
found my new passion: putting merthur into random meme pics
Jason has started giving online cooking classes for free for a bit of fun relaxing community service thing. It goes real well, but there's this one student who one time out of two, closes the camera half-way through and sometimes leaves all together.
Now, Jason's not gonna be offended or anything, he gets it, but he's curious. Is the guy maybe shy because his dishes don't turn out right? Or is it just that he's really unlucky and keeps getting called away? Anyways, one day the guy is clearly going for the close camera button again, but it somehow doesn't work without the guy noticing.
Jason himself doesn't noticse at first but then he looks up from the sauce he's making and sees a green glowing fish trying to maim the guy who's fending it off with a knife. After that, the whole class is treated to a very intense battle between the zombie fish and the guy that looks epic and probably sounds like a warzone.
Finally, the guy manages to skewer the fish to the cutting board and trap it there, still struggling. As if noticing the silence from Jason (who's stopped everything to gawk like all the other students), the guy looks to the computer. Then his eyes grow wide as he realizes they can still see him. He flushes bright red before scrambling for the computer and then his camera feed is gone.
Jason is left reeling, "what the hell was that?"
The Justice League has been dealing with matters related to the Undead recently. And JLD could barely handle the undead. That is until Constantine had called in a favor from someone he knew. A young man in a black trench coat with a skeleton following him everywhere, that skeleton had a burned headband on it.
The young man is a necromancer, and he is very good at handling the matters of the undead. He just has a bit of disdain for the Justice League and keeps to himself whenever he is around any Justice League member. The only person he seems to trust is Constantine, as he doesn't even interact with the rest of the JLD members. The young man had told them that he's only helping because he owed Constantine quite a few favors, and once Constantine used up all those favors on helping the Justice League, he's done with them, which means he'll leave the Justice League and Justice League Dark to deal with the undead.
Danny's life was as good as it could get. His parents had accepted him as Phantom, Clockwork assured Danny that he doesn't have to be the Ghost King just yet, his grades are steadily rising, and he is scheduling fights with his Ghostly Rogues.
That is until the GIW had shown up again. They were in the process of isolating Amity when the entire city fought back against them.
There were a few casualties, which mostly consisted of people Danny is close to. His parents, Jazz, Sam, Tucker, Valerie, Dash, Mr. Lancer and Star had perished during the struggle, and only those close to Danny hadn't become Ghosts. There wasn't enough to recover from them. Danny only has a few things to remember them by. His mom's Goggles, his dad's fudge recipe, Sam's bracelet, Tucker's PDA, and Valerie's earrings. Jazz was the only one to be buried, as she still had a body that wasn't vaporized.
He tried looking for Dani and Vlad but learned from Technus that they were captured and ended by the GIW. Now, the only person he has to lean on is his "Uncle" Constantine.
Constantine has helped Danny many times during his first years as Phantom. That's why Danny owes Constantine so many favors. He had tried to call help from the Justice League whenever Constantine wasn't around, but he was just brushed off. Hence why he doesn't like helping the Justice League's undead problems. He had also asked Technus to put his information and anything else related to him under lock and key. He doesn't want the Justice League to access and have files of his information. He's got Jazz's skeleton with him because he's taken up the role of Ghost King, and it came with Pariah's ability to raise a skeleton army if need be, but he only uses it on Jazz and other nearby buried bodies to help him deal with undead that aren't Ghosts. He also doesn't want to show his Ghostly half to the Justice League.
He's gotten quite good at hiding his mental presence from the Martians on the Justice League, but some of his emotions and thoughts slipped through. Now, the Justice League is being annoying to him by trying to apologize to him for whatever it is they did to him so they could still rely on him for any undead related issues.
Danny makes a small mistake that spirals out of control three years later. It starts on a fateful day while working in Clockwork's Tower, covering for the Time Lord. He had pushed for the man to take a break after hearing he hadn't been on vacation since the death of dinosaurs.
It was also recommended by Frostbite. Apparently, the stress of his job was causing Clockwork to lose grip on his age shift. Much like a human grinding their teeth in sleep due to stress, Clockwork's core was rapidly shifting him through his ages, causing aches along his core. When Danny met him, the way he went from child to middle-aged man and finally old adult was just physical proof of Clockwork's stress.
His shifting got under control after they defeated Dan, but that didn't mean his muscles had a chance to relax. He was a little better off the second time Danny saw Clockwork, but when Danny asked if he could return to his parent's college days, Clockwork's form quickly started shifting again.
Danny felt horrible about it, but he was fine taking over for the ghost to relax on vacation. It wasn't even that hard. All he had to do was watch the various timelines and record large catastrophes and bursts of hope. He also had to watch hourglasses that indicated the natural flow of time in multiple worlds. Sometimes, the sand would get stuck, so he would need to stir it with a large spoon, careful to not let anything else touch the golden shine of the time sands.
It helped that the Tower was semi-sentient. It overheard him making up lies about what he was doing on a call with his parents. Danny had told his parents that this summer, he was going away to work as a summer camp counselor, while Clockwork had selected a timeline that was moving at a different speed.
One month in Danny's home dimension was a hundred years in the one Clockwork was relaxing in. When Danny's school started again, his friend would have a lovely four hundred years to enjoy. Of course, this was a tiny break for a being like Clockwork, but Danny promised to take over every summer until he graduated.
The Tower had created a room that looked a lot like a log cabin whenever his parents attempted to video call. It even created a paycheck with actual funds directly deposited into his teen account that his parents had access to.
Their doubts about Danny lying vanished when "Camp Kronos" placed a rather generous amount of money under his name. His dad was even proud of Danny going out of his way to earn his own money. It's been a long time since his Dad sounded like that when talking about his accomplishments.
Clockwork had told him the Tower spoke to him mentally because it was his Haunt, but since Danny was only Haunt sitting, he was directed to a chalkboard that the Tower could use to write messages to him. That's how he knew it was the Tower's doing that his cover was safe back home.
Danny thanked the Tower by cleaning it from top to bottom. When he asked it what its name and pronouns were, the Tower requested to be called "it" and to stop using a capital T when referring to it.
Danny tries, but he still mentally changes tower into Tower since that is its name in his head. The tiles shake in irritation whenever he accidentally says it out loud.
Besides that, the Tower didn't really interact with him. Danny made his own food, did his own laundry, and did his work. There was never a clock in and clock out; the only time he wasn't attending the timelines was when he took short breaks to sleep, eat, bathe, and clean.
But the only time he wasn't watching the time was when he was asleep, and that was because of Tower. It somehow found a way to throw the timelines in his face whenever possible.
He did enjoy using the large tub to soak in bubbles, but Tower shifted the bubbles to reflect different scenes of the timelines he was watching, causing them to flout like the tower was blowing bubbles while Danny sat in the water. If it went that far to ensure that Danny was constantly working, he could see why Clockwork had such a hard time with the core shifting.
Then, one day, while soaking, he closed his eyes, ignoring the shifting tiles and the slight rumbling of the walls as Tower grumbled. He told it that he was taking a short break and it could wait until he was done. He would rest his eyes, no matter how important it was for him to watch.
He couldn't have them close for more than a minute, but that was all the mistake needed. At that time, one of the bubbles' timelines shifted because someone in it was being an idiot and messing with time, and it started to glow with new times and forming.
Sand that Danny accidentally touched when the bubble popped right on his nose. Tower was throwing a fit, shaking everything like an earthquake as the sand fell into the soap water.
He blinked open his eyes, startled, and much to his horror, came face to face with the sand, forming a miniature window into that timeline. A human teenager was staring right back at him, jaw dropped with a healthy building flush rising on his cheeks, as the time sand danced around his eyes, though he seemed unable to look away from Danny.
Windows were often granted to specific individuals favored by Clockwork, causing them to become Seers. It was not a common blessing because, more often than not, mortals could not handle future knowledge.
Even ghosts long dead struggle with the power. The only reason Danny was able to cover for Clockwork was because his brain was both dead and alive at the same time. Madness cause time couldn't touch him because, technically, he was already crazy.
Tower shook again, the stone groaning under its disapproval as Danny became uncomfortable, aware that the only thing protecting his dignity was the white foam low on his stomach. With a yelp, he sank further into the water, his hands covering his important bits out of habit, and he waved his hand to close the window.
The teenager moved his mouth in a silent plea, but he vanished in a swirl as quickly as he appeared. It was only a few seconds. Not even ten. Surely nothing could come from that?
A mistake he pushed to the back of his mind.
Surely, not paying attention for just a tiny amount of time could not have caused anything to be too bad.
_____________________________________________________________
"Hey dude? You okay?"
"I just....I just saw an angel...."
"What?"
"An angel. He warned me....showed me....I have to tell Mr.Wayne!"
"Wait! Where are you going!? Tell Mr. Wayne what?!"
"His son is going to die next week!"
"What!?"
"Jason Todd! The angel showed me! I have to warn them!"
_____________________________________________________________
Tower didn't tell on him, and Danny didn't bring it up. Clockwork returned in mid-adult form when the summer ended, looking far more relaxed and no longer shifting forms so rapidly.
He apparently spent four hundred years on a small paradise island, sipping coconut and dancing with locals who thought him a god. He hugged Danny, another large bonus for his paycheck, and sent him on his way.
The following summer, Danny completely forgot about the little accident and never bothered to check on that timeline. Clockwork was unaware there was a major shift in it, so he assumed that the world was moving as it should, though he complained that he had to unclog it a lot more because of a Seer who often opened too many Windows.
It was a testament to how much he needed that vacation for Clockwork to forget he never chose that Seer, despite the young human proving he had the will to handle his visions.
\Danny never realized that Seer was the same teenager he saw back then until one day three years later when Seer was an established fortune teller working as a consultant with some hero society and had used some of the said heroes to try and contact Clockwork.
"Danny." Clockwork started watching the young human set up an altar. "Why is a human attempting to use himself as a virgin sacrifice for me?"
"Ummmm"
"Danny, why does my Haunt claim you gave him the Sight."
"Well....."
"Danny why is Timothy Jackson Drake, who fated to be the third Robin in this time line, now a mere consultant who use his power of Sight for money gain? He's not a hero, did you know that? He merely lives next door to one of that world's greatest heroes and is obsessed with finding his Angel"
"I may have....made a mistake when I was fourteen."
"Danny," Clockwork's faux-friendly tone grew sharper as his form shifted from the three stages of age. "What did you do?"
"I can fix it!"
"How."
"I'll....enter that timeline and set it on the right path? I can answer his summons and convince him to become a hero with the Bats?"
Tower shook as if laughing at him.
"How." The hiss that came from the Time god was almost incomprehensible, with the amount of rage crammed into one syllable
"I'll-I can-Honey pot him!" Danny whimpered, cowering under the withering death glare Clockwork was aiming at him. "I can convince him that being a vigilante is cool and hot, so he'll be Red Robin, and the timeline can be saved?"
Clockwork's eyes darken. "You better not fail me. Send him away, Haunt"
Tower- the traitor- moved instantly. It shifted its stones to drag Danny to Red Robin's cluttered hourglass. It flung him in before he could protest, using Danny to unclog it. He is nearly down in the sinking sand, scrambling for purpose before he falls flat on his bum, and the sand vanishes.
A soft gasp has him looking up. Standing before him is the Seer Tim Drake, who looks beyond happy.
"It's you! My Angel!"