"Rejected." "But, Milord, He Has Been Specifically Chosen To..." "Rejected. Goodbye."

Children of the Future

DP x DC Prompt

The Justice League has been tracking the movements of a person or group that's taking any CADMUS cloning tech. They need to track them down and put a stop to whatever plan they have.

When they eventually made it to the hideout they discovered, it was just one scientist who was a former CADMUS scientist, and he had already made clones with the DNA he had collected. The scientist didn't even try to put up a fight or anything. He was just happy to give the Clones to them and be put away (The scientist is one who believes that these clone children be the turning point in the world when they are older, he's happy that the Justice League found him first, and not his former colleagues).

All the clones are children, and they were raised as siblings and actual people by the scientist they apprehended. They even got to choose their own names.

The oldest clone is a girl who is the clone of Nightwing and Flash (Wally). She is smart, and the notes on her by the scientist said that she'll develop the speedster power in her teenage years. She named herself Jasmine, but prefers Jazz

The next clone was a boy who was cloned from Red Robin, Superboy, and their civilian boyfriend Bernard. The notes on him said that he'll get the strengths of a kryptonian that was raised on earth, and the mixture of the Lazarus Waters in his DNA had somehow negated his weakness to Kryptonite. He named himself Danny.

The next is another girl cloned from Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. The notes for her said that she'll have Poison Ivy's ability to control plants when she's a teenager. Her chosen name is Sam.

The next is a black boy cloned from Aqualad and Cyborg. In the notes, the boy is said to develop sand powers, unlike Kaldur, who has water and electricity related powers. His chosen name is Tucker.

The next is yet another girl cloned from John Stewart Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. The notes on her said that she's chosen to train in martial arts and is expected to be a good fighter by her teenage years. She chose Valerie as her name.

Amd finally, a boy who was cloned from Red Hood and Arsenal. While the notes on him said that he won't develop any powers, he is smart and has sharp eyes. He chose Wesley as his name.

Elsewhere, the Ghost of Time looks at the world his King and his fraid have been put in for their rebirth. They had all perished at the hands of the GIW and the Fentons, Dani was the only one to be saved, the GIW and the Fentons had her contained and were about to end her like the others, but Vlad, Dan, and the other Ghosts had overwhelmed them to save the Princess. Vlad will be the Regent for a while, with Dan as his personal guard. Fright Knight is always following his king by being in his shadow, intending to keep his oath to the Crown. While his King and his fraid will not remember their past lives, they will most definitely return to the Infinite Realms, but on much better terms than their first time.

Short DPXDC Prompts #569 (nice)

If Tucker knew that this train was going to be held hostage for one of Riddlers schemes he would have taken the bus instead.

One participant of the train had to solve the Riddlers puzzles before they would meet some flavor of gruesome end. The Bats were working on establishing a connection to the transit captives to help with the clues but so far no dice.

This’ll be easy. What could go wrong?

Tucker volunteers to solve the Riddlers puzzles.

VALENTINES EPISODE!:

Part 2 Part 1, Part 3

Who are you?

Dick was asked to pick up Damian from the dog park on his way home from Blud. When he wasn’t standing at the entrance Dick went in to go find him, stretch his legs and all. The last place he expected to find his baby brother was unconscious in the bushes. He had dark fresh bruises on his face, and Titus was nowhere in sight.

Whoever did this to his little brother will have hell to pay. That would have to come later though, the most important thing right now is getting Damian home.

Once he had the boy settled in the car he immediately calls Bruce as he starts to drive.

“Hello-“

“Bruce! Something happened at the park! I found Damian unconscious, bloody, and bruised in the bushes!” Dick struggled to hide the anger he was feeling right now. “Prep the medbay!”

Not even waiting to hear Bruce’s response he hangs up the call. Dick can’t handle a productive conversation right now, not when his brother lays silently in the backseat of his car.

It only took him a few more minutes to finally reach the manor, and when he did Bruce was already standing outside waiting for them. As soon as the car was stopped the back door was being thrown open, and Damian was being carried inside before being brought down to the cave.

Alfred, already down there, immediately went to work on patching the little boy up. At the same time Dick and Bruce discussed what the next steps will be.

About ten or so minutes pass, and in the middle of them talking another figure—and a dog—angrily enters the cave.

“Grayson!” Damian snarled, “because of you I had to call Drake to get me! What do you have to say for yourself!”

Dick was flabbergasted with what he saw in front of him, but it also provided clarity to the situation.

The boy in the bush looked exactly like Damian, yes. But the clothes he was wearing was nothing his brother would ever wear. He had old scars that didn’t match up.

Looking towards the med bay he had only one thought.

Who was the boy he found, and why did he look like Damian?

the funniest part about merlin is the fact that he’s even around for most of the show. like what the fuck is he doing there. no other person with a personal servant is tailed like arthur is. and yet nobody fucking blinks an eye at his presence.

like there are at least three separate occasions where the plot for an episode is uther sending arthur on a super secret confidential mission with the fate of the kingdom at stake, and they have a whole conversation like ‘i need you to understand the importance of the secrecy of this mission.’ ‘understood father, i will take only my most trusted men.’ ‘no arthur, you and YOU ALONE must go.’ ‘i understand.’ and then it cuts to the super secret mission and fucking merlin is just there. like. road trip with my best buddy. what a view. love this horse. like ARTHUR?

everyone always forgets he exists the second a fight happens, too. every goddamn time the knights go on a short patrol that god forbid merlin not tag along for they get attacked by bandits or whatever and merlin doesn’t even carry a fucking sword and after the fight arthur always turns around and merlin is just kinda standing there in the middle of the fight picking at a hang nail. nobody considers it wild that he’s there for all of this. the one time he actually bothered taking a sword off a dead guy to defend himself with arthur saw him holding it and he mocked it like ‘lol the fuck are you of all people gonna do with that’ THEY FULLY EXPECT HIM TO JUST STAND AND WAIT FOR THE FIGHT TO END

Family Dinners - dpxdc

"Holy shit, you're Bruce Wayne!" Danny gaped, jabbing a finger at the man sitting at the head of the table.

The bustling dining room goes silent as everyone turns to look at him.

"Danny, who did you think was going to be here?" Tim asks, disbelief plain in his voice and Danny feels his face flush red.

"Sorry, I, uh, I guess I just never put it together. Tim Drake-Wayne. Wayne Manor. It, uh, makes sense now." He laughs sheepishly and scrubs at his neck before slumping back down into his chair.

"Well," Tim says with an indulgent sigh, "at least I know you're not just friends with me for my connections."

"Yeah, I'm really sorry, I just never thought about it, I guess."

Danny sinks lower as everyone around him laughs. Come to dinner, he said, the food is the best, he said, ignore the family, he said. Danny really wishes he'd listened to Tim and just ignored them—almost as much as he's regretting accepting the offer in the first place—but... he's having dinner with Batman.

Ancients, that's so weird!

The last time he saw Batman was in the future and, suffice it to say, it was not going well. There hadn't really been time for family dinners there.

Wait. Family dinners?

He peers around the table, openly gawking at everyone as it all clicks into place.

"Everything alright, Danny? Now realising who everyone else is?" Tim asks with a roll of his eyes.

"Uh... something like that..." Danny mumbles as everyone laughs again.

From further down the table, the smallest Wayne scoffs and clicks his tongue.

"I thought you said he was smart, Drake?"

"So, you all do it, too, then?" he asks, ignoring the jibe. Danny's only a little bit jealous as he thinks of how much easier they must have it, how much easier it'd be if his family had been on his side, too. "You all work together?"

"Nah," Dick says from across the table with a brilliant grin. "Tim's the only one that works with Bruce, we all have different jobs. I'm a police officer in Bludhaven."

"Disgusting." Danny blurts out without thinking—because seriously, what kind of self-respecting vigilante would also be a police officer?—before clapping a hand over his mouth. "Sorry."

The whole table laughs again, the loudest being the blonde girl a few spaces down from Dick. Look, Danny wasn't really paying attention to names when they were all paraded in front of him. Dick only gets remembered because his name is a joke.

Come on, Danny, recover!

"That's, uh, not what I meant, though."

"Oh?" Dick asks, cocking his head slightly to the side. Is it Danny's imagination or does his smile tense slightly?

"Yeah, I mean like, you know, in costume. It must make it so much easier to have everyone together like this."

"Costume? What do you mean?"

Yeah, Danny's not imagining it, everyone tenses up at that. It's really only now that he's realising that this probably isn't how he should bring up that he knows about their... night time activities. In fact, he probably shouldn't be bringing it up at all.

"Uuhhh..." Danny looks wildly around the table as he continues making his stupid noise. Think, think, think! There must be a way out of this!

"Danny?" Tim asks, looking concerned.

"Oh, Ancients, this isn't how I wanted it to go at all," he mutters, slipping even further into his chair. He's almost on the floor now and he so, so wishes it could just swallow him up.

His real first meeting with Batman was meant to be cool! He had planned to be Phantom, maybe save them from a tight spot, prove his worth as a mysterious and powerful ally as thanks for the help Batman gave him in the future.

"Danny, what are you talking about?" Tim starts tugging on his sleeve in an attempt to pull him back up from his pit of despair.

Eventually, Danny relents and sits up straighter, hiding his face in his hands and whining all the while.

"I'm sorry, I just didn't expect him to be here and it threw me off so now I look stupid and it's so embarrassing!" he wails, flailing his arms wide. "Why wouldn't you warn me that Batman was your adopted dad, Tim? Couldn't you have let me know?"

"I'm sorry, what? Danny are you alright? There's no way Bruce can be Batman, look at him!"

"Yeah," the blonde girl laughs from the bottom of the table, "look at him! That's a wet noodle of a man! Batman can actually do things, B is incapable of pretty much everything."

"Thank you, Stephanie," Bruce sighs, massaging his forehead.

It's... Those are the first words Danny's heard Batman say since everything went down and it's enough to knock him out of his embarrassment.

It's really good to hear his voice again. Especially now, when it's strong and healthy and full of personality—even if that personality is little more than a tired father right now—far better than how it had been, at the end.

Danny sits up, back straight, and grins. He's got this. He remembers it perfectly. Some people count sheep to fall asleep, Danny repeats his mantra to be certain that he'll never forget it.

"Gamma alpha upsilon tau iota mu epsilon, 42, 63, 28, 1 colon 65 dash 9."

Once again, the whole table falls into silence.

"Holy shit..." breathes the other D name (Duke? Danny's pretty sure he's Signal) from opposite Stephanie. "Isn't that...?"

"The time travelling code." The littlest Wayne says stiffly. "We have met in the future?"

"That's not just the time travelling code, Dami." Dick says, looking between Danny and Bruce. "That's the family time travelling code."

Danny's grin freezes in place.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"1 colon 65 dash 9." Dick explains, still flicking between him and Bruce. "It means you've been adopted into the family and we should all treat you as such, no questions asked."

"Tell you what, I'm about to ask a question." Danny says, dumbstruck. "You just told me it was a code to identify time travellers, not anything about being adopted! What the hell, B?"

Bruce looks about as shellshocked as Danny feels.

"We must have been close," he says finally, after opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water a few times.

"No! Not that close!" Danny reels back, taking a deep breath ready to refute it all, but... "Well, I mean, you found me when I first got stuck, and you helped me get better despite being... And then we fought together against the, uh, bad guy, before he, um, he... before you couldn't."

An uncomfortable beat passes while they all pick up on what Danny tried so hard not to say.

"So, you're not from the future, then, you travelled there and came back?" Tim asks, breaking the tension and leaning forward with a glint in his eye.

"Yeah, it was a whole end of the world thing, but don't worry about it," Danny says with a hand wave, "It's all kosher now, won't ever happen."

"What did happen?"

"Seriously, don't worry about it, we cool."

"How long in the future was it?"

"About ten years? You were pretty spry for an old man, B," Danny laughs, wishing they'd get off the topic of what happened and get back to the adoption bit.

Everyone shares degrees of a cautious smile as they relax out of the shock, and Dick—whose grin is the biggest—says, "No wonder you got the family code, you're already riffing on him like one of us. How long were you there for?"

"A week, before I managed to get back to my present and stop him then."

"A week? Jeez, B, that has to set some kind of record, seriously."

"Oh!" Danny says, sitting bolt upright and blinking in surprise before pointing at Dick and bouncing in his seat. "You're Nightwing!"

"What?"

"That's exactly what Nightwing said when Batman told me the code! Makes so much more sense now."

Dick laughs and claps his hands, delighted.

"You were not formally adopted?" The grumpy small one—Dami?—asks, his face pinched.

"I didn't even know I was informally adopted."

"And your parents? Are they alive or dead?"

"Damian, stop—"

"They were dead in the future, but they're alive now." Danny says, looking down. He fiddles with the tablecloth, twisting the fabric around his fingers as he fights down the pang of sadness that he always feels when he thinks of them now. He forces a bright smile on his face and hopes it doesn’t look too strained. "I just, uh, can't talk to them much, anymore."

"Damian," Dick warns, "1 colon 65 dash 9. Treat them as family, no questions asked."

"This is Damian treating him as family, the little turd has no manners." Tim scoffs, rolling his eyes, but he gently bumps shoulders with Danny to knock him out of his funk. Danny can't help but send him a watery smile.

"I have the most exemplary manners, Drake, unlike some people." Damian spits, crossing his arms with a pout. "I was merely ascertaining his status to see how he could possibly fit into the family."

"I know this is all a bit sudden, Danny," Bruce smiles, ignoring Damian and reaching out to lay a warm hand on his arm, "for all of us. But if I felt strongly enough to give you that code after spending a week with you in the future, then you are more than welcome in this family, if you so choose it. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we'd like to get to know you a bit more."

"I know a threat when I hear it, Bruce." Danny snorts. "But, yeah, I get it. I'm sorry this is all so weird, it really wasn't how I wanted to find you again, but... I'm glad I did."

"So are we, Danny." Dick says, with a warm smile. "And formally or not, 1 colon 65 dash 9 means you're family. Welcome to the fun house! No take backs or refunds, sorry. You're stuck with us."

Phantom Manor

Danny had been through a lot. He’d been half-killed in a lab accident, gained ghost powers, and then been chased through the multiverse by a government that would’ve loved to dissect him like a frog in eighth-grade biology. So when the portal spat him out into this dimension—one packed with capes, cowls, metas, and aliens—he figured he’d finally caught a break.

No GIW agents. No Fenton parents shouting about ectoplasmic anomalies. No Skulker showing up to hunt him down in the middle of English class. Just... peace.

Well, almost.

The major snag? He was homeless. Again.

No ID, no money, and the last place he tried to haunt had been a warehouse with exactly three raccoons who did not appreciate his presence. He couldn’t go back to school, didn’t know how to get a job, and sleeping on rooftops got old fast, even for a ghost boy.

That was when Danny heard the most ridiculously useful rumor ever: Billionaire Bruce Wayne had a habit of adopting black-haired, blue-eyed children like it was a competitive sport.

And Danny? Well, he had black hair and blue eyes... at least half the time.

Good enough for government work.

So one night, in the dead of moonlight, Danny phased through the locked gates, passed the high-tech security system, and slipped straight into Wayne Manor. The place was huge, quiet, and oddly comfortable despite its bat-themed overtones. He didn’t even try to sneak around like a spy—he just floated through until he found an empty bedroom with a made bed, thick curtains, and a view of the garden.

He claimed it.

No one said anything.

So Danny just... stayed.

Danny didn’t mean to con anyone. It’s just that no one noticed him. He figured maybe there were already so many black-haired, blue-eyed kids around here that adding one more didn’t even make a blip on the radar. And since Jack and Maddie Fenton may not have taught their kids about interdimensional politics, they did make sure their kids had proper manners.

So, the first time he ate in the massive kitchen, he washed the dishes afterward. Alfred showed up just as Danny was drying the last fork, his sharp eyes watching from the doorway.

“...I see Master Grayson’s taste in midnight snacks has rubbed off on someone,” Alfred remarked.

Danny froze. “Uh—yeah. Sorry. Just thought I’d clean up after myself.”

The butler narrowed his eyes. Then nodded. “A rare instinct in this household. Continue.”

And from then on, it became a routine.

Danny helped in the kitchen. He helped clean the manor. He weeded the garden (phasing out any actual creepy-crawlies). He carried laundry baskets. He repaired a broken picture frame. When one of the Batmobiles needed a patch-up job on a fin, Danny phased into the engine and fixed it from the inside out while humming along to an old Ghostbusters theme remix.

Alfred was absolutely delighted with the newest, polite, respectful, and hard-working “Wayne.” Even if he had no earthly clue when exactly this young man had joined the family.

It took a few weeks before anyone realized something was off.

“Alfred,” Bruce said over breakfast one morning, “why is there an unfamiliar teenage boy pressure-washing the back patio with what looks like... green plasma?”

Alfred sipped his tea without looking up. “That’s Master Daniel. He’s been most helpful.”

“…We don’t have a Master Daniel.”

Alfred finally looked up, deadpan. “Master Bruce, I have tolerated you bringing home orphans like stray cats in the rain. The boy helps clean. He gardens. He fixed the coffee machine. I will not be chasing him out. Adopt him, give him a room, or be quiet about it.”

Bruce blinked. “...Fair.”

Meanwhile, Danny was just glad he hadn’t been blasted with a Batarang on sight.

He had a bed, food, quiet (well, relatively), and access to the Wayne library’s wi-fi. He was pretty sure Damian glared at him more than necessary and that Jason kept trying to figure out if Danny was secretly a zombie, but otherwise?

He was kind of fitting in.

At least until someone walked in on him halfway intangible while reaching through the fridge for leftover pie.

“…Master Daniel,” Alfred said from behind him, entirely unshaken. “If you are going to help with the silverware later, do remember to phase after you wash your hands.”

Danny, still half inside the fridge, stared.

“…Yes, sir.”

And thus, somehow, without anyone signing a single form or asking too many questions, Danny Fenton became the most ghostly Wayne sibling yet.

And honestly?

He was kinda cool with that.

DPxDC Prompt #17

There is a room Danny's Keep he set up shortly after defeating Pariah Dark. It became necessary when the broader magical community realized Pariah had be defeated and therefore a new King took his throne. Danny found himself briefly bombarded with waves of attempted summonings.

Which, the summonings themselves, wouldn't have been so bad. Turns out people can't just drag the King of Ghosts to themselves on a whim. Danny has to actively accept a summoning to get pulled to it. And if he just decides "No," the pull and whispers go away. No problem there.

No, the problem is the offerings. And sacrifices. The things that people put in the circle as payment for even attempting to summon him. Like having to put a quarter in the payphone just to listen to it ring and ring and ring as the person on the other end of the call doesn't pick up. Since the summoning magic regarded these things as belonging to Danny even if he rejected the summons, they usually ended up just materializing in front of him if he didn't go to them.

Which, okay. It was funny that time he got to end a fight with Vlad very fast when a whole gold bar materialized and dropped on his head. And the food was nice sometimes when it was late and everywhere was closed and his parents had left samples in the fridge to contaminate everything into animation again. But the goat head dropping from the ceiling onto his desk during on of Lancer's English tests was not appreciated. Even if it did get the test rescheduled and the whole school shut down for a few days to investigate the "potentially satanic activity."

So, yeah, it was a bit of a problem. Fortunately, it was a problem with a relatively simple solution. Danny set up an inbox. With a bit of help from Tucker and Pandora, and a couple tips from Clockwork; all summoning offerings and sacrifices would now go straight to the dedicated room in the Keep.

And! As a special touch, the summoners would also get a chipper, automated voice saying, "The Ghost King you are trying to summon has more important things to do than answer you right now. Please leave a message in the circle with your name, date, location, contact information, and reason for summoning. The Ghost King will get back to you at his earliest convenience." Sam's stupid fancy girl gala voice had been perfect for that little message.

It was the perfect solution. Danny no longer had to deal with randomly materializing offerings putting his secret identity at risk. Pariah's skeletons, who had been antsy for something to do now that they were no longer bent under the thumb of a cruel tyrant, were instructed to take care of all the offerings; making sure everything was always cleaned up and put away. And all Danny had to do was stop by periodically to check in and "Officially respond" -ie, write a fuck off note- to the summoning messages (Clockwork's insistence).

A perfect solution. Up until Danny checked in one day to find the skellies pampering a whole ass boy. No. Not just any boy. Danny recognizes that costume.

"Why is Robin here?"

Younger Years Pt. 11

Masterlist

Summary: Damian gets temp de-aged to 6yrs old; cue him asking where his twin is. This is how everyone finds out about Danny's existence. Word Count: 1936

Everyone is still on edge from learning that Jason had been taken as well. After a bit of investigating though it seems Jason was actually taken a couple days before any of them knew anything. Which was an even bigger hit to his Father's already cracking emotional state. Especially since a day has already passed, and no helpful information about where Jason or Danyal are being kept has been found. 

Damian luckily doesn't have to be subject to it as Bruce is currently at the Watchtower having an emergency meeting regarding the GIW and the Anti-Ecto Acts. He had originally demanded that he be included in the discussion, but was quickly persuaded against it when given the task of investigating Danyal's friends and family. 

In hopes of figuring out why the GIW actually took Danyal. His friends have given them something to work with, but now they need to figure out the true story.

So now he is here sitting in the cave with Tim, Steph, Cass, and Dick going over what everyone has found so far. Duke is of course out doing his normal patrol, and keeping an eye out for any  movement from the GIW. 

“Danyal’s adoptive parents, Jack and Madeline Fenton, are ecto-scientists, inventors, and self-proclaimed ghost hunters. Their lives practically revolve around knowing everything ‘ghosts’ including how to get rid of them.” Damian is quick to start the conversation once everyone is settled. “Which does include Danyal based on his so-called ecto-levels.” 

“Do you think they could have done something to him on purpose; in the name of science and all that?" Steph immediately asks. The thought had crossed Damian's mind as well the more he read about the two. 

"Does that seem like something they would do? Making their son into the very thing they're hunting? What would be the point?" Dick counters with his own questions. A scowl on his face, clearly getting angry at the prospect, "To study him?"

“We’ve dealt with crazier and worse people before. With everything you know, do you really doubt that some parents would do something like that? It would give them the chance to monitor him through every stage of his transformation.” Tim has disgust on his face as he thinks about just how likely a situation like that would be. 

"The two said it was one of the parent’s experiments that caused his ecto-levels to rise." Cass reminds them all of Sam and Tucker's words. "That part was true." 

"Then what parts were lies?" Steph questions. 

"Alone." 

"Which doesn't disprove the theory that it was done on purpose." Dick says disappointedly at the fact. 

Steph cuts in immediately after him, "All this theory talks when it seems like his friends have all the answers, why aren't we just questioning them more about this?"

"Bruce, banned everyone from approaching them without him present." Tim flatley replies. 

Damian still couldn't believe his Father had done that; his anger towards that man only seems to be rising every day. He knows he could have gotten the answer they need from the two without any trouble. 

Batman went easy on them during that interrogation, and they all know it. 

“Let’s go ahead and move on to a different talking point than.”  Dick not so subtly redirects them to a different talking point. Knowing that if it continued Damian would not be able to hold himself back from interrogating them despite the order not to. “Does anyone else have any information they want to share?”

“Phantom, he’s a ghost hero that protects the town from other ghost’s attacks. The Fenton’s of course label him a menace, and have been attacking him since his first known appearance.” Tim announces as he pulls up a blurry photo of Phantom up on screen. 

While the image is distorted it is clear to see that the hero wears a black suit, and has pure white hair. What’s strange though is that Damian thinks the blurry figure almost looks familiar in a weird way. Like he’s seen it before. 

“So all ghosts can distort cameras then?” Steph stares curiously at the image. 

“Jason doesn’t do that though.” Cass notes, “Maybe the ecto-levels affect the cameras?”

“Which means Danyal’s levels are high enough to affect them.” Damian hates the implications of that. He doesn’t even want to think about what that could mean for Danyal’s health. If he loses his brother once more because of it, it might just break him. 

It would be cruel of the universe to give him the chance to have his twin back in life only for it to take him once again. 

Dick, who is always somehow aware of how he is feeling, looks towards him with worry. “Hey Dami, would you mind talking to me for a few minutes in the med bay area?” 

“Of course,” He knows that it is no use arguing right now, and honestly Damian isn’t sure he has the strength to right now,”lead the way, Richard.” 

The two stand and Dick waves off the others concerned glances. “You guys continue this; we’ll be back in a bit!” 

Silently, he follows Dick into the med bay watching as he closes the door behind them, efficiently separating them from the others. 

While sitting down on the cot Dick pats the spot on the bed beside him; a quiet offer to sit next to him. Damian almost refuses on principle, and probably would have in any other situation. Ever since finding Danyal in Gotham Damian has found himself not acting like himself.  He hates that he’s having these emotional outbursts. 

“Baby bat, I know everything has been crazy around here with everyone focusing on finding Danyal and Jason, but how are you feeling right now? How do you feel about … reuniting with Danyal?” Dick keeps his tone gentle and soft as he speaks. 

“Reuniting? I would be foolish to hope for that to describe what my meeting with Danyal will be like. At best it will be a brief acknowledgement of one another, and at worst a conflict.” 

“I’m sure that’s not true, Damian. It’ll definitely take some time for both of you, but I believe in the end you’ll both be able to heal from this together.” 

"Time is not always enough, sometimes you have to amputate to heal." He angrily retorts despite knowing that Dick is only trying to comfort him right now. "If that means by the end of this Danyal needs to never see me again then so be it. Just knowing that he is alive and well will have to be enough.” 

Dick sighs sadly and tucks him into his side; he allows it for now. “I will follow your lead when it comes to Danyal, but I do want you to know that it’s ok to want a relationship with your twin. Talk to him, show him that this is something you’re willing to try and rebuild.” 

Damian doesn’t say anything in response right away to that. He wants to believe everything will work out, but he knows the truth. While his twin was considered the kinder of the two it does not mean that Danyal wasn’t just as stubborn when it came to holding a grudge. Forgiveness might not be something Danyal will ever bestow upon him. 

“I- I will try.” 

“That’s all you can do, kiddo.” 

No words are spoken after that; just the two sitting in comfortable silence. Eventually though they do stand to make their way back to the others. There is much that still needs to be discussed after all before patrol tonight. 

Walking back into the main area Damian expects to find everyone in the middle of a discussion. What he finds instead is the three of them completely silent as they look at three images displayed side by side. The first is of Danyal outside of the planetarium, the second being a still shot of when Danyal was taken, and the other an image of Phantom. 

The others notice their approach, and share nervous glances with one another. Just before he can question what has them all in a twist Damian finally notices the differences and similarities between all the images. 

Despite all the shots being blurry it is clear to see that Danyal, outside the planetarium, and Danyal, being taken out of the alley, have very big differences. Absolutely none of the colors are matching up together. The biggest outlier being the stark white that does in fact match up with Phantom though. 

The flash of green from the alley. They had all assumed that it must have come from one of the weapons the GIW agents were carrying, but could it have been something different?

Could- could Danyal be Phantom?

That wouldn't make any sense though Damian thinks to himself, and yet the more he stares at the screen the more he thinks it must be so. 

His father's orders be damned, he's going to go to Sam and Tucker, and get his answers. Which is exactly what he planned to do until he turned around and saw his father, still standing near the Zeta tube, analyzing the three images himself.

Based on the frown growing on his face he'd guess that his Father has also come to the same conclusion as him. 

"Father, I demand we go to Manson and Foley for proper answers now!" 

Instead of answering him though Bruce looks towards Tim, "Report." 

"Upon looking into the Amity Park hero, Phantom, we came across a blog by Wes Weston who claims that the hero is actually Daniel Fenton. Investigating this further we started to review all the footage of Danyal that we have." Tim gestures towards the screen. "That is when we noticed the color change from when he enters and exits the alley." 

"The blog, how much of their evidence holds true." 

"It's been sent to Babs, and is being investigated as we speak." 

"Hm." Finally, Bruce looks towards him. "Patrol starts in an hour, we'll go to them later tonight. For now let's-" 

Bruce would have continued to speak, but an incoming comms call from Signal takes over the batcomputer. Immediately taking action Cass answers the call, and opens up his cowl cam as he speaks. "GIW van spotted! In pursuit from the rooftops." 

Once the cameras live footage they all watch as Signal jumps from rooftop to rooftop as he follows the vehicle driving below. Based on the building Damian would guess that he was on the edge of Crime Alley. 

"Signal continue pursuit, but don't approach." Batman orders. 

"Copy." 

After another twenty minutes or so the van finally enters the empty parking lot for a frankly plain looking building. Damian would have thought an organization like this would be more showy. Which means that it was a deliberate choice to keep things hidden in plain sight. 

With the van now fully parked in front of the building doors Tim takes control of the camera, and zooms in. Even getting one confirmed identity of someone who works here could unlock them all. 

Two individuals dressed in white spet out of the driver and passenger seat. Their faces are clear on display. 

Then the back doors open as well; two individuals. 

A man and woman dressed in orange; with smiling, happy faces. 

Jack and Madeline Fenton. His brother’s adoptive parents. 

As Damian watches them both freely enter the building he knows one thing for sure. Danyal being taken was no accident, and he’d bet that his twin’s so-called friends Manson and Foley are involved somehow as well. 

He’s taking them all down.

Due to his unrelenting determination to keep his town safe, Danny is bestowed a green lantern ring. Which on one hand: Yay! He gets to explore space full time. But on the other hand: Ew! he's a space cop now.

He had to rectify this immediately or he would never hear the end of it from his ghost friends. Or his regular friends for that matter. Sayyy, it'd be a shame if he.... bent a few rules. Maybe even broke some of them every now and again. And it would surely be a tragedy if say.... random pranks started happening around Oa?