Latest Posts by harmlessfroggi - Page 4
Part 6 of the batburger saga
———————————————————
64/64 bat burgers eaten and that wraps up the batburger saga! Can’t wait for exams to hit me over the head with a steel chair!
———————————————————
Jason never did find out where the burgers came from.
Dick can not in fact prove that Danny has done anything wrong ever in his (after) life. Not that Danny HAS done anything wrong (don’t worry about the prison breaks and the murders)
———————————————————
So I’m doing a villain storyline next so y’all are going to have to choose who you want to see next!
———————————————————
Master list lPart 5
DCxDP Prompt #5
For the bit(we’ll be cultists)
When Danny won the title of Ghost King, he wasn’t expecting some of his more ghostly attributes to seep over into his human form.
Or to be unable to control his powers like at all for a month or two after gaining his new title.
He’s still 14-15 though and has to be in Highschool to make sure his grades don’t fall any further. Even if he did just save the town with only his piers in his grade know about him.
It’s no surprise when he accidentally walks through a door after trying to open it only to find himself intangible or to start floating away with no way to control it and need one of his classmates to save him from floating into the stratosphere.
It’s all fine for a while, people help him. Those who used to bully him now lend a hand when he needs it. They aren’t kind about it but they aren’t shoving him into lockers anymore.
But that doesn’t last.
People start to notice the strange things that keep happening as his powers grow and become harder and harder to hide even with help. He had made an entire class take place on the ceiling one day. Another he made half the town float.
The Fenton parents and the GIW start working together to figure it out. It’s only a matter of time if no one does anything
So what is Danny, his friends and his class going to do to hide the real reason of what’s going on?
They pretend to be a cult. Full on cartoonishly cult like. The chanting, the robes, the sneaking out to an old building on the edge of town to have a ritual kind of cult. Playing off Danny’s fluctuating powers as the results of their work.
This gets the opposition to back off a bit. Not their circus not their monkeys. And the rituals release some of Danny’s pent up power.
Danny just had to lay in a circle, surrounded by the faces of friends and classmates while they chant and his powers gets released a little at a time.
It’s a great deal.
Until Danny is found out one day unable to use the cult as an excuse and has to bounce out of town. And the rest of his Casper High Class, ever committed to the bit, follow him since the GIW and the Fentons are laying waste to the town and it’s just not safe.
Where do they go?
To the Crime Capital of the world of course!
Gotham is the perfect place to continue the bit. Their ‘cult’ runs all the way to Gotham, looking out for one another and the such. Not because they care about each other, of course.
They all tell themselves that but there’s only so much chanting in ghost speak and Latin a frenemy relationship can take.
They are tight knit by time they settle in a collection of old buildings on the edge of Gotham. Danny’s powers are starting to settle, but he still has bad days. Those days the cult gathers and ‘performs a ritual’ but really they just have a little get together, sitting in a big room set up with a circle with Danny laying and meditating in the middle and chat in Latin or Ghost speak.
For the bit, they preform a fake ritual. Headed by Sam since she has all the knowledge on what cults do. For the bit, the give offerings to Danny in exchange for him protecting them both back in Amity and in Gotham. For the bit, they make it a monthly thing or as needed.
Sure Danny doesn’t realize he’s given each of his friends and classmates blessing from a literal King of Gods and Beings Beyond Human Comprehension.
It was for the bit.
What wasn’t for the bit was getting caught by the local furries.
Danny hadn’t had a ritual in a month, his powers were building up but he was stressed with work and school.
His cult of friends decided he needed a ritual and pseudo-kidnap him to sacrifice his own power to himself.
Don’t ask them, it just works.
Mid ‘ritual’ Danny is trapped in the circle while they keep his powers contained as it’s released. He could destroy the building if he so much as blinks. They are nearly through with it. Can return to the party after they’re done and he’s ‘normal’ again.
So when the Bat and Co. crash the ritual, right before the end. Danny can’t do anything while his classmates both defend him, each other, and those trying to finish the ritual.
It’s looking bad but the ritual finishes. Danny is freed from the circle and starts helping his friends defend themselves and escape. Of course, he knows what this looks like. And he knows that the Bats and Birds are just trying to keep their own city safe from a perceived threat.
So he apologizes to them while he takes down the Bats and Birds then absconds with his Cult&Co. hoping they would understand. No one was hurt and there was no loss on either side. Alls well ends well?
To the Bats and Birds.
They find a group of robed cultists that established themselves quickly and then they see the cult gather, having a party until another group come in dragging Adoption Bait behind them. They start the ritual. Bats and Co. think kid is getting sacrificed and step in. Only to be nearly fought off and the ritual to complete.
They then have to watch as some entity controls the kids body to fight them off. The kid looks terrified, apologizing while he is forced to fight for the cult.
Then they all get away.
(I have the flu, have this lil idea/drabble while I try not to die)
DcxDp idea. Lil plot bunny.
Talia is on a mission in Illinois when she finds a kid holding his own against a large group of much older guys with guns.
She can tell the kid isn’t trained but has great potential, but that’s not all she spots. The kid bares a sticking resemblance to her beloved and her very own son.
So she takes what is going to be hers. Better than the kid dying here and wasting that potential. Plus her own son(I’m thinking Dami is about the same age as Danny here) needs more social interaction.
This leads to her just snatching this kid, taking him home with her and raising him just as she would Damien.
Idk just can’t stop thinking about Talia looking at a little baby Danny fighting GIW and thinking that he is meant to be hers.
Okay, but what if Danny Fenton just stops aging? Like, he's forever 14. Now imagine that "I won't invite you to my birthday" becomes his go to threat to his friends and family when he's not in the mood and it slowly branches out to everyone. Just:
Danny, pouting and eepy: If you don't stop, I won't invite you to my birthday.
Some overpowered ghost: Why the fuck would I want to go to your birthday?
Pandora, CW, Frostbite, a now grown up Sam, Jazz, and Tucker: *Appears and breaks the stranger* YOU DARE????
Like, Danny is just forever a child and behaves like it, while the rest of the cast become more parental over time. So his childish threat cuts deep to his people and if not to his people, means his adult people are now on high alert for why their "baby" is upset. And don't misunderstand, childish doesn't mean naive or stupid. He's still an overpowered witty fucker that can problem solve better than most adults.
DC had made many questionable choices regarding the Bats but also a lot of the time said choices are very funny. Christian priest Father Todd and vampire Nightwing who crushed Tim’s head like an overripe apple I do think of you often
Theatre kid in every universe
Tim, buddy, what do you mean you might had accidentally made a Love Child?!
Danny finds out that
1. He's a clonish 'love child' of two heroes
2. He was accidentally created during one of his donors mental break downs after losing his father and best friends (one of which was his other donor)
3. CW interfered before his creator realized what he made and pulled him out of that dimension because "it would had lead that world to true ruin if he found out at his state of mind. He's better now but it would had been the final straw for him should anything had happened to you in his care and given who he had to partner up with later... I did what I had to."
4. Due to Danny having a bad fall out with his parents after he told them about being Phantom (they didn't attack him... but they did disown him.) Danny is left adrift of what to do. He doesn't wanna bug Jazz, she's in college and dorming. Tuckers place has no room. Sam's parents would never let him stay. Vlad was a definitely a no go. And Dani (Ellie) last check in was near the Amazon rainforest.
5. Danny finds out some of his powers might not be as ghostly as he thought... it does explain the huge power boost some of his powers have compared to other ghosts.
6. He went to Clockwork... who proceeded to tell him the truth, smile his cryptic smile while saying "and now. Have fun this time around. I'll see you again in due time Daniel." Before yeeting him into a portal.
7. Danny woke up in his home dimension.... deaged to being five years old (the age he would be if he stayed and grew by now) (DC timeline is slower than DP in this)
8. He woke up apparently his creator's home city... during a Gala (Danny woke up in a garden, dazed and confused. His memories are fuzzy)... and wandered into the party... and apparently he looked like a perfect mix of his.. dads? Which catches A LOT of peoples attention.
9. Especially with Tim Drake-Wayne and Conner Kent-Luthor just announcing they're dating that very night.
10. Rumors and gossip of a random kid, who looks just like the recent happily announced couple, go flying quickly among the elite... and reaches certain ears before it gets to batfam and supers (I have a feeling they learned how to block out rumors and gossips during these events)
11. Those ears happen to be Lex Luthor and Ra's al Ghul (both who are there at the Gala just to annoy and unnerve the Bats and Supers)
12. By the time the rumors get to Tim and Conner, they find Danny almost getting taken away by one of those two.
Seventeen year old Damian Wayne is dragged to a business deal outside of Gotham (along with his father and Drake), mostly to keep up appearances that the family does work outside of Gotham, networking, and because Damian does need to learn the ropes of the company, he decides to head outside the meeting with the Manson family to get a breather (mainly cause the Manson's were annoying him fully, it was like they were trying to suck up towards Damian and trying to push their daughter on him but at the same time he caught them almost insulting and hostile towards him before they would stop and correct themselves) when out of the blue a three year old toddler with black hair comes running over with a cheerful "Daddy!" and latches onto his leg.
Damian is stunned in place but feels frozen when he hears a voice, older and almost identical to his own but he can detect a familiarity in it, a voice he only hears in his dreams nowadays say.
"Ellie, no! That's not me Starlight! I'm so sorry dude-"
When Damian turned his head towards the voice he's meet with an near identical face, granted there were some minor differences, but very, very familiar pair of striking blue eyes staring at him. Eyes that were somehow full of life, which shouldn't be possible because the last time he saw those eyes they had been dim and milked over years ago. The speaker had become startled at the his sudden turn and the words that he had been saying had quickly died out when he too took in Damian's features.
"D...Damian?..." the name came out so soft and small that Damian almost didn't hear it but he did.
And before Damian could stop himself, he spoke a name he hadn't dared utter in years.
"Danyal."
His twin looked like he had just seen a ghost, and Damian was sure he looked the same. And given the last time they had last saw each other it was no wonder they both looked like death warmed over them for a moment.
After all... Damian had failed to protect his brother, Danyal al Ghul all those years ago on a botched mission.
His bother who... wasn't dead.
His brother who was looking like he wanted to run but was keeping himself rooted in his spot.
His brother whose eyes were glancing downwards and seemed so nervous.
His brother who knew the little girl, Ellie, still hugging his legs.
His brother who had... responded and corrected her mix up when she had called Damian 'Daddy.'
And oh, she's looking up at him and making grabby hands wanting to be picked up and she has Danyal's eyes and his nose and-
Oh... Damian.... Damian's an uncle it seems.
I have no bones, just brain worms
Y’know those fics where Danny was the older, better brother who ran to protect Damian? What if Damian was the older, better brother, who, to protect his brother, sent Danny away?
I mean, what Talia are we using here? The one that watched her son whisk his brother away, or the one who’s so consumed by her father’s wants and preemptive grief that she missed it entirely?
Does Damian feel the safest place for Danny is as far away from him as possible? Does it ever get back to the rest of the bats? Have Damian and Talia had this conversation by candlelight, over who can know about Danny? No one, right? The tighter the circle, the safer he is.
But what about when Ra’s is dead? Is it considered too big a risk, to chance that Ra’s won’t somehow resurrect? Did Damian go to see Danny, and bring him home, and instead find a beaming pre-teen, with solid friends, a great sister, and loving parents? Did he leave Amity without even saying hi? Does he know Danny is Phantom? Has he decided that anyone even tangentially knowing of Danny is too much of a risk? Is Damian apart of the media blackout?
What would happen if he caught wind that someone found Danny? That they were planning an attack? What lengths would he go to, to protect his little brother?
dude im LISTENING! i love this subversion of popular fandom tropes
Witness Protection
There’s a dead guy in the alley and it’s not Danny.
Ok, technically there are two dead guys in the alley but honestly, Danny feels like they’re way past semantics.
Because, once again, there is a dead man in the alley.
Danny is fairly sure the guy’s been murdered. The bloody mess that is the guy's chest is a pretty good indicator, but the bloody knife that's still stuck in the guy’s guts is really what makes it for the teen.
Danny might be freaking out a little bit. Because, while he is used to dead people, they’re never this newly deceased, or for that matter, this gruesomely murdered.
Before his breath can quicken too much, Danny makes himself take a deep breath.
Say what you want about Danny, but he hasn’t spent his high-school career moonlighting as a teenage vigilante without learning a thing or two about staving off a panic attack. Feeling more calm, Danny focuses back on the issue at hand.
I should call the police, says something in the back of his head that sounds like Jazz.
If I call in the murder I’ll be on the suspect list, retorts some other part of his brain he’s choosing to call the Sam part.
No advice from an imaginary Tuck though. Even in his own mind he can’t imagine a Tucker that hasn’t already passed out cold at the sight of a dead guy.
Which, fair. Danny is kinda considering the option, as he’s feeling a little faint himself. It is way past time he got out of here. At least he's figured out just how to do it.
Anonymous tips are a wonderful thing, made all the more wonderful by the presence of payphones in Gotham.Danny is officially handing this off to the proper authorities.
Boy is he glad he doesn’t have to be involved anymore.
A few streets over, a hooded figure rounds a corner, their breath coming fast as they clench their bloody fists agitadely. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone there, and yet. This is an unexpected setback.
The hooded figure leans back against the alley wall to catch their breath. Nothing to do about it but fix it. And as these things go, this is an easy mistake to fix. The face of the black-haired blue-eyed hurdle floats to the front of their mind.
It should be child’s play.
Hop Jon over (dp x dc)
"Hey mister, are you dead?" was the first thing Danny heard as he found his way back to consciousness. His body vehemently protested the move by alighting every single one of his nerve ending on fire and Danny groaned.
"Mister?"
Danny's ribs were killing him, or at least they felt like they were, and he would know. He cracked his eyes open to find a small boy crouching over him with his hands on his knees and his blue eyes wide in curiosity.
"Who-" Danny croaked.
"My name's Johnatan like grandpa, but everyone calls me Jon," the kid started babbling. "I live in Metropolis, do you know Metropolis? It's the biggest city in the world. My parents work there, they're reporters but now it's summer break so I'm with Grandma and Grandpa. You fell through the old barn from the sky. Are you an alien, like Superman?"
"Ugh," Danny said as he closed his eyes again.
"Mr. Alien, are you dead again now?"
"Yes," Danny said as he put his arm over his face, wishing he could just Not Exist.
"You're lying," the kid stated confidently. "Dead people don't talk."
"They do too," Danny mumbled as he raised his head off the floor to look at the kid properly.
"Do not!"
"Do too."
"I'm telling Grandma you're a liar," the kid sing-longed before bolting out of Danny's field of vision.
With a thud, Danny let his head fall back down. Welp, it wasn't like he was going anywhere, why not invite more people over to witness this absolute embarrassment.
Return to sender (dc x dp)
There was a box set right in front of his door. That was already pretty unusual, since Danny had just moved in, and and gotten done with boxes and he knew he hadn't had anything delivered here.
"Let's get you inside," Danny muttered as he got his key out of his pocket.
Unlocking the door, he picked it up and made his way in. He set the box down on the small kitchen table before grabbing a knife from the cabinet. He sat down and set to cutting the tape along the opening.
Peeling back the flaps, he took a peak at the contents only to be faced with a mound of yellow and black sparkly tissue paper, with a letter on top.
"What do we have here?" he muttered to himself, as he took the envelope out of the box.
Ripping it open, he got a small greeting card out. It had a yellow smiley face on it with the word "Smile!" printed above it. He flipped it open, and his eyes fixed on the printed text that said "Because today is your day!" Underneath it, written in chicken-scratch was written the following: "Looks like the bat has a new signal. At least mommy and daddy won't know how fast you replaced them!" it was signed with a simple J and yet another smiley face.
Danny frowned. "Weird."
Then, he peeled back the paper to find a taxidermied yellow-and-black bird Danny couldn't recognize, with its wings broken.
"This is definitely not mine," Danny said as he looked at the bird. Hopefully the real owner of this wasn't going to be too disappointed it had been this damaged in transit.
Danny took up the box to look at the delivery address, only to find that while this was for his apartment, the name of the receiver was marked as "Duke Marlon Thomas". It took one quick google search to find a phone number. Danny thanked whoever the sender was for including a middle name as it narrowed the search greatly. Dialling the number, Danny got up to get himself a glass of water. As he got the glass out, the line connected.
"Hello?" he heard a surprisingly young voice say. Well, assuming apparently made an ass of Danny. Maybe taxidermy really did appeal to all ages.
"Hi, my name's Danny. I think I got your package by accident."
"My package?" The guy on the other side asked, perplexdely.
"Yeah, a big box with a bird in it?" Danny answered. "Listen, man I'm sorry, I think the wings broke during transit, I swear it was already like that when I opened it-"
"What bird?" Now the guy sounded even more confused.
Well now, Danny was starting to get confused. "A taxidermied black-and-yellow bird?" Danny sounded out, then he grabbed the note and let his eyes go over it again. "There was a note too, I opened it, sorry about that." Danny winced, before trying for a joke to hopefully get the guy to soften up on him. "Whoever that J- friend is, he's got a weird sense of humour."
"J- friend?" the voice on the other side of the phone said. Guess, the joke hadn't gone over well, because his voice had gone tense.
"Yeah," Danny answered withholding a sigh, damn his curiosity. Opening other people' letters was not only a gross invasion of privacy but also a federal crime. Hopefully the guy wouldn't stay mad too long. "It was signed with the letter J and a smiley face."
"Whoever you are," said the guy, and the urgency in his voice had Danny straightening up. "You need to get out of here right now."
"What-?"
Just then, the door to Danny's apartment was blown open.
"I hope you're ready, birdie," a voice outside sounded, before a spindly man in a purple suit, green hair and sickly-looking skin walked in.
"Because you and me are going to have so much fun."
Fic idea number 4 (might actually be 3rd or 5th one idk)
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?"
I am trying to find a writing prompt from last year.
Basically Jason Todd teaching an online cooking class, that Danny Fenton is trying to learn from but keeps accidentally reanimating the ingredients and one day he forgets to turn off the microphone as he has to kill the reanimate fish. And Jason is then going to investigate what the heck fighting he just heard.
If anyone knows and has the link to it . Please repost it here. If not feel free to make up what you would think happens next here.
I think one of you guys reposted it. @arzuera @azulhood @bianca-hooks123 @dragonsrequiem @dcxdpdabbles @evilminji @fightmebissh @flamingpudding @hdgnj @hypewinter @im-totally-not-an-alien-2 @ourrechte-blog @starlightcat04 @stormikitty @zylev-blog
DPxDC What's the Big Deal with the Dead
TW, I guess: corpses and mild gore(?)
Due to his life circumstances, Danny is absolutely unfazed by the dead things. Be it a still barely warm body in the alleyway or a half-decomposed rat in the dumpster. He is just okay with them.
That is not to say he doesn't respect the dead, he does, but he respects the contents, not the package. He is polite and gentle with the shades of those recently passed away, he understands their burial preferences, and sometimes he helps the souls to either find their way to the afterlife or bring justice to the ones who murdered them, or anything else if they need it and he is able to do it.
Granted, he lives in Gotham, no one here is really that fazed by dead things, but what I'm trying to say is Danny lacks that first reaction kind of instinct, the disgust and repulsion and the horror that people feel when they see a dead body.
So, one night on patrol, one of the Bats, let's say Nightwing, finds him crouching beside a body. He can see the blood on the pavement and the bullet wound on the chest of said body, and this is yet another innocent life that has been taken, and he couldn't stop it, he was too late.
Meanwhile, Danny just turns his head towards him, waves, and goes, "s'up".
Bruce has to go off-world for something since he does not trust his children to not destroy Gotham while he is gone, he calls up his cousin to watch the kids. (Grown up) Danny shows up and has to wrangle his cousin’s children. Danny is full-on expected to be babysitting a bunch of little kids, he is surprised when most of them are adults.
Bruce's kids didn't expect to have a babysitter---they are not pleased. So they decide to make Danny's job 10x worse.
Danny wasn't originally going to butt into their patrols, but they're being annoying. So Danny messes with them on patrol.
(Alfred is on vacation and the thing Bruce has to deal with is short notice. Bruce did not want to cut Alfred’s vacation short)
Dc x Dp #38
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.
Dc x Dp #38
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.
After moving to Gotham and having to deal with a stressful job, Danny has started taking walks around the city as a way to destress.
Since he knows that he could get mugged, he just becomes intangible and invisible while listening to some loud music on his phone.
Unfortunately for him, his control on his Invisibility keeps slipping when he gets lost in his music, and the people of Gotham keep seeing a semi-translucent ghost man walking around at night aimlessly.
Some thugs think it’s just a meta with invisibility and try to mug him, but pass right through and he disappears completely. This convinces them that he is a ghost, since having both invisibility, and intangibility would be too big a coincidence. Not to mention he never reacts to them whatsoever.
The Bat’s get word that a Ghost has been stalking the streets of Gotham, and he looks scarily like Bruce Wayne from the little they have been able to see from him. Now Batman thinks his dad may have come back as a ghost.
Danny is oblivious to all of this. He just likes his nightly strolls.
Danny is literally Kryptonite
Sorry for the late post, holidays have been busy this year. Anyway, enjoy my newest dpxdc prompt!
The kryptonite didn’t work.
Batman is now running on… limited options.
Superman had been possessed again, but this time with an unknown. He is exhibiting signs of extreme degradation at this point, after the several hours of fighting. Justice League Dark have been unsuccessful with any long ranged spells, and whatever it is controlling Superman has not allowed them to get close.
The Flash is down, as is Wonder Woman. The remaining Supers started showing the effects of Kryptonite whenever they got in a radius of Superman, so they have been put on civilian rescue.
Things… are looking grim.
Suddenly, a black blur flies and slams into Superman, then straightens up to reveal a young, white haired teen, floating above Superman in a crater.
“Ya’ll are REALLY trying to make me look like a villain, aren’t yah?”
. . .
The fight lasts for thirty minutes, while the young hero(?) seems to stall him, keeping the fight within a one-mile radius, lessening the damage to the city. Well, as much as he can, at this point.
“Got it!” He yells suddenly, grabbing and throwing Superman to two other teenagers and… a dream catcher? A glowing green dream catcher.
Superman tumbles through it, and a green blobbed-shaped entity lifts off of him, and is immediately vacuumed into- a soup thermos, why not- by one of the other teenagers.
Just.
what?
anyone done this yet, or
DPXDC PROMPT
Danny and Danielle are sitting on opposite ends of a room full of people, with the only exit being the middle of a 10-foot high ceiling.
The Gotham rogue who captured them is getting increasingly irritated that their trap to move the walls closer isn't working while the Bats are getting closer.
when in metropolis ; a not fic
Quiet day in Metropolis with clean up almost complete from the latest alien attack where a scout group of warring aliens got spit out a black hole into the Milky Way and somehow honed in on Superman specifically to make his life worse.
Clark is enjoying a cup of coffee during a break, chilling on the roof while Lois texts him for help spelling words which he answers promptly because he’s a good husband.
He hears something strange. Something like… whirring? Buzzing? Like if bees were getting electrocuted on a dance floor next to a washing machine that’s breaking down mid-load.
‘Please No,’ thinks Clark, who doesn’t wanna do shit on his roof coffee break.
‘Lol Yes,’ says the universe and a section of the sky above Metropolis splits open. This gaping maw of dizzying green swirls and crackling electricity can only mean Bad News.
Clark is gone. Superman is in his place in 0.2 seconds. He sends one last text to Lois, correcting her spelling of catastrophe followed by a quick explanation of why he’s disappearing.
That explanation being gotta go check out the hole in the sky brb
CLARK???? she texts back but it’s too late. Clark’s gotta go.
He flies up to the area around the hole, which is large but has stopped growing. He can probably rule out the possibility of it trying to eat the city below him, but better to be safe than sorry.
Below him, Clark can hear people shouting in alarm, cars honking as people come to abrupt stops to stare up at the sky. There are multiple shutter sounds of photos being taken. When he glances down, he can spot Jimmy leaning almost all the way out of the window of the 13th floor of the Daily Planet, two seconds away from falling to his death. Luckily, behind him is Cat who is holding onto the back of his shirt, swearing up a storm as she tries to pull him back in before he breaks his own neck for a good shot of the hole in the sky.
He makes a little mental note to get her a nice pastry as thanks for saving Jimmy while he’s otherwise occupied. She could definitely use it, given how her week’s been going.
The hole makes more strange noises. Like it’s gurgling. Like someone’s stomach when they’re really, really hungry. It’s kinda gross, honestly. Clark backs away from it a bit, eyeing the hole warily.
Abruptly, the hole glows brighter, hisses, and spits out a boy.
Oh Shit, thinks Clark but he’s already moving, swooping down to catch the boy before he can plummet into Metropolis.
A quick look at his face tells him that this boy is Queasy to a dangerous degree and Clark quickly flies him just outside city limits and sets him gently onto the ground. Out of danger for now, and the hole closing up quietly and disappearing, gives Clark time to properly look at the boy and process what he’s seeing.
So. This kid is probably an alien, right?
He’s got white hair that’s moving around like he’s underwater. His eyes glow green, he’s semi-translucent, wearing a skin-tight hazmat suit with a symbol on it that looks like a D and P stuck together, and most importantly, Clark can’t hear any organs inside the kid’s body.
Like. None at all. No heart. No lungs. Not even any blood.
“You alright, kid?” Clark asks, because even if this kid is an alien, being spit out of a hole in the sky is probably upsetting for anyone.
The kid doesn’t answer because he looks green in the face, expression twisted up into a grimace, eyes slightly glazed over. “Mrph,” he manages to mumble out, then claps a hand over his mouth.
Alarmed, Clark moves to the side so he’s not about to get puked on, and rests a hand on the kid’s back. “Easy now, head between your knees and take deep breaths for me.”
The kid follows his instructions well, so he probably knows English. That’s good. Clark pats his back as the kid takes deep breaths that make his thin frame shudder. It’s a few minutes before he’s able to sit up, looking much more composed and less likely to hurl on anything that bothers him.
“Feeling alright now?” Clark asks.
The kid gives him a weak smile. “Yeah, thanks. That sucked. I’ve never felt so motion sick in my life.”
“Do you know what happened?”
“Not really? I got sucked into some kind of…. Ecto whirlpool, I think, but it kinda rattled my brain and I am having so much trouble focusing right now. Where am I?”
There’s a lot Clark wants to say to that, but he holds it back. He’s got a question to answer, after all. “We’re just outside Metropolis. A hole in the sky spit you out then closed right back up.”
“Metropolis?” the kid repeats doubtfully. “Isn’t that just calling this place ‘City City’?”
Clark has no idea how to respond to that.
The kid doesn’t care. He looks at Clark, properly takes him in, and tilts his head. “Nice costume?”
“...Thanks.”
He’s about to explain that he’s Superman™ and the costume helps people be less afraid of him when he arrives to help in disasters and other such situations but the kid has already moved on.
“I hope I can get enough signal to call my parents,” he mutters, pulling an old, clunky flip phone out of his chest. Clark blinks and tries very very hard not to react. “Nope. No signal. Oh well, my parents will come pick me up eventually. Sorry for crashing into you, and thanks for catching me!”
The kid gets up and flies away.
Clark quickly flies after him.
“Hey, kid!”
“It’s Danny!”
“Okay, Danny! Can you stop for a second?”
Danny stops and Clark floats in front of him. “Do you have someplace to stay while you wait for your parents? Any family friends are guardians around here?” It’s a long shot, since he really doubts someone that got spit out of a green hole in the sky has any connections on Earth, but he’d like to believe that something could be easily resolved for once in his life.
Clark should have punted his hopes out a window because Danny shakes his head. “Nah, I was just gonna fly around and pass the time until my parents get here.”
He bites back on the concerned question of what if your parents can’t come and you’re stuck here for the rest of your life?
Don’t freak the kid out Clark, that’s a terrible way to be a Responsible Adult.
“Why don’t you stick with me until your parents get you? It’s a dangerous world out there, especially to people who aren’t human.”
“...I am human.”
“Humans can’t fly like us Danny.”
“Well, what does that make you, then? A ghost?”
Why a ghost, of all things? What a strange comparison. Clark shakes his head. “No, I’m Kryptonian.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“I’m a refugee alien from the planet Krypton. One of the last of my kind.”
Danny Lights Up. Literally, he glows and gets really bright. “An alien!” he shouts, as if he, too, is not an alien.
This leads to a long back and forth where Danny shoots off questions about space and alien culture that Clark really isn’t fit to handle, having grown up on Earth, and Clark struggling to get the conversation back on track, which Danny doesn’t care for at all.
This is somehow more exhausting than a physical fight. Teenagers are stressful.
The impromptu Interrogation On Aliens comes to an end when Danny winces and puts a hand on his stomach.
Clark is on High Alert. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just hungry,” Danny says. Which is strange because as far as Clark knows, this kid doesn’t have a stomach. Or any other organs.
“Want me to buy you a sandwich?”
Danny squints at him. “I feel like I’m not supposed to accept food from strangers.”
“I don’t think you have a choice when everyone on this planet is a stranger to you.”
“Fair point. I’m in the mood for chicken wings. Know a good place for that?”
Clark and Danny get chicken wings. He’s sure social media must be having a field day from the amount of people snapping pictures of Superman babysitting an alien teenager. Lois is never gonna let him live this down.
In fact, when he focuses, he can hear her talking to Perry about where he is.
“Yeah, he really shouldn’t try new types of coffee,” she’s saying. “It really messes with his stomach. Smallville’s gonna be on that toilet for days.”
I Love My Wife, he tells himself firmly. I Love My Wife And I Am Not Stealing All Her Left Socks When I Get Home.
He is going to eat the pudding she’s been saving because, frankly, Clark deserves it more right now.
Chicken wings can only occupy Danny for so long. As soon as he’s had his fill, Danny’s up and flying around, eyes wide at the skyscrapers that make up Metropolis’s downtown area. He looks like any other tourist, if you take out the flying, glowing alien boy part.
Sighing, Clark follows along.
This is what Superman does. He saves the world and then babysits easily distracted teenager aliens.
He bets Batman never has to do this.
Batman has to raise gleefully destructive teenagers who like to wage psychological warfare on him to pass the time, so you know what? Clark’s happy to babysit Danny.
A few times, he hears a cry from help and grabs Danny to fly over. Danny is given strick instructions to stay in the air and not interfere while Clark helps people.
This means stopping a mugging, scaring off a group of low level gangsters who cornered a doctor on her day off, and stopping two car accidents.
Danny polite applauds him when he flies back up to join.
“You’re like a real superhero,” he says.
“I am a real superhero,” Clark replies.
It doesn’t matter, Danny’s moving on already.
Danny starts asking more and more questions about Metropolis. He’s fascinated by the big city, from the high rises of corporate hell to the gritty underbelly where gangs roam and weapons pass through too many hands. There are places all around being rebuilt after the last alien attack, and the hospital they pass by has a bunch of pictures of Superman, drawn in crayon by the children on that floor, all taped to the windows facing out so he can see them.
Clark is a grown man who’s seen a lot of shit. He’s died once. And come back. Been brainwashed too many times to count and stopped the end of the world multiple times. He can handle a lot.
But that does make him want to curl up and cry because it’s so sweet.
Danny starts comparing Metropolis to where he’s from. Clark listens carefully and tucks all that information away to pick through later.
Oddly enough, everything Danny describes sounds rather… midwestern. Very American.
When the sun starts to set, a whole chorus of gasps catch his attention. Clark whirls around to see what new crisis is occurring only to spot the green hole ripped into the sky appear once more.
Danny brightens and goes flying over.
Clark follows, Stressed As Fuck.
He has a dreadful vision of a whole horde of teenage aliens tumbling out of the hole trying to rescue Danny. And he’s gonna have to look after all of them. Lois better come up with a really good excuse for why he can’t come in the next few days.
It’s not a teenager that comes out of the hole, but a whole ass space ship.
“My parents are here!” Danny announces cheerfully as a small white vehicle that resembles a space shuttle drops out of the hole and hovers above Metropolis.
‘Please NO,’ Clark thinks despairingly.
The universe doesn’t have to say anything in response because Danny’s parents do it for him.
The top hatch of the ship pops open and a large man (bigger than Clark, who the hell is bigger than Superman™????) gets his whole upper body out and waves his arms in the air with a grin on his face. “Danny, my boy!” he bellows.
Danny wastes no time and zooms over to crash into the giant, who easily gathers him into a hug.
Clark floats over slowly, cautiously, testing the waters. He doesn’t need to because Danny’s already talking him up, but a little caution never hurt.
The giant man lets go of Danny, then disappears into the ship. He’s quickly replaced by a normal sized woman, pushing a pair of red tinted googles up her forehead. She also hugs Danny and Clark hears her say, “Well, at least we know the tracker works!”
He’s just. Not going to think about that. Thanks.
Then she asks more questions that he’d expect from a mother: what happened, are you okay, how are you feeling, did anyone try to hurt you, etc.
Danny assures her that he’s fine, he was just motion sick from being sucked into an ecto whirlpool and his head’s still a little fuzzy but that’s normal after he hits his head.
“Oh, honey, that sounds like a concussion,” the woman says.
“It’s fine, it barely hurt!”
“It’s still brain damage, Danny.”
“Oh yeaaaaaaaah.”
Then attention is suddenly on Clark and the sharp light in her eyes feels distinctly threatening. But her smile is warm as she extends a hand and Clark was raised with manners, okay, he has to return a handshake.
“Thank you for looking after my son,” she says, giving his hand a firm shake. “I’m Dr. Fenton.”
“Call me Superman, and no trouble at all, ma’am,” he replies. “I’m glad you were able to come pick him up.”
“Yes, Jack and I had prepared to face this possibility, so we knew just what to do when we lost track of Danny. Now that we’ve got this tunnel on the map, we can visit in the future, so if you ever need any help, call for the Fentons!” Then she looks down in the ship, yells, “Jack!” and a thick walkie-talkie looking device is tossed up into her waiting hand.
She gives it to Clark. He takes it to be polite.
“We have to get going now, but it’s nice to meet you!”
Danny floats into the ship. As in, he density shifts and just. Goes in through the wall. Good for him. Dr. Fenton ducks back down into the ship and the giant replaces her to give him a hearty pat on the shoulder.
“Give us a visit if you ever end up in our neck of the woods!” he says brightly. “Any friend of Danny’s is a friend of ours!”
Clark nods and that’s enough for the giant to duck back into the ship. A moment later, he sees all three of them waving to him from the cockpit, and then the ship turns and flies back into the hole in the sky, which closes up after them.
Clark looks at the device in his hand. He looks at the sun setting on Metropolis. He goes home. He deserves a nap.
Pudding first, though. Lois will forgive him if he tells her all about what happened.
And the next time Brianiac attacks, she’ll shout something into the walkie-talkie and a hole will rip open in the sky above Metropolis ten minutes later, dropping Danny and Dr. Fenton, dressed in some sort of cyberpunk astronaut suit armor, right on top of Brainic to help him finish up the fight much faster and with much less property destruction.
He gets them both a slice of Ma’s apple pie as thanks.
And as Midwesterners, they return a day later with some absolutely delicious fudge.
Clark is a man of honor. He gets to planning on what he’ll need to make the best berry tart this side of the Mississippi has ever seen to give to the Fentons.
All in all, life is pretty good in Metropolis.
“What the hell kind of name is Superman?” Sam asks.
Clark, in the middle of talking to Perry, sneezes so loudly half the office turns to stare at him.
Woooo pot pie casserole let's gooooo
Chapter 3: The Bat Strikes Back
previous/next Masterpost
Danny had almost convinced himself that the incident at the café had blown over.
Almost.
Then, on his way back to his dorm, he felt it—a prickle of awareness down his spine. The same feeling he got when ghosts were watching him. But there were no ghosts in Gotham.
So that left one option.
Batman.
Danny picked up his pace. The sooner he got inside, the better. He could already hear Jazz yelling at him in his head. You were supposed to AVOID attention, Danny!
Unfortunately, his paranoia was justified.
The moment he reached his dorm building, a shadow dropped from above, landing silently in his path.
Danny skidded to a stop.
“…Oh, come on,” he groaned.
Batman loomed over him, unreadable behind the cowl.
“You threw deodorant at Bruce Wayne,” he stated flatly.
Danny swallowed hard. “Uh. No, I didn’t?”
Batman held up the incriminating deodorant stick.
Danny sighed. “Okay, maybe I did. But in my defense, Jazz told me to!”
Batman did not move. “Why?”
“Because she’s convinced you both collect traumatized teenagers like trading cards!” Danny blurted out.
Silence.
Then Batman exhaled through his nose, the closest thing to amusement Danny had ever seen from Gotham’s vigilante.
“Go home, Fenton,” Batman said, voice dry. “And tell your sister I don’t adopt random teenagers.”
“…Sure.” Danny took a careful step back. Then another. Then he bolted inside his dorm and locked the door behind him.
He was so calling Jazz.
Chapter 2: Immediate Regrets
previous/next Masterpost
Danny had been in Gotham for exactly three days when the first incident happened.
To be fair, he wasn’t looking for trouble. He was just trying to enjoy his coffee in a small café near campus when he felt eyes on him. That alone wasn’t unusual—Gotham was full of shifty people. But when he glanced up, he saw a familiar figure sitting a few tables away, reading a newspaper.
Bruce. Freaking. Wayne.
Danny nearly choked on his drink.
Nope. No way. Jazz was going to murder him.
He immediately looked away, gripping his cup like it was a lifeline. Okay, play it cool. Maybe he’s not actually looking at you. Maybe he just happens to be here.
He risked another glance.
Bruce Wayne was definitely looking at him.
Danny’s fight-or-flight instincts kicked in, and he reached for the creepstick in his pocket. Jazz told me to use it. She told me to hit him with it and run. But I can’t just assault a billionaire in broad daylight, right?
Then Bruce got up.
Danny panicked.
In one swift motion, he pulled out the deodorant stick and chucked it at Bruce Wayne’s head before bolting out the café door.
Behind him, he heard an elegant but startled, “What the—?” followed by the solid thunk of deodorant bouncing off the man’s skull.
Danny did not stop running.
Meanwhile, inside the café, Bruce blinked in surprise, rubbing the spot where he’d been hit. The deodorant stick lay innocently on the floor, rolling to a stop near his shoe.
He slowly picked it up, turning it over in his hands.
“…Huh.”
Bruce Wayne was many things—billionaire, businessman, Gotham’s most eligible bachelor—but above all else, he was Batman. And Batman did not ignore suspicious behavior.
Bruce smiled faintly to himself, already forming a plan.
Time to investigate.
Chapter 1: Disguise or Die
next Masterpost
Danny Fenton had survived a lot in his short eighteen years of life. Ghost attacks, interdimensional chaos, and Vlad’s relentless attempts at forced mentorship. But nothing—absolutely nothing—compared to the force of nature that was Jazz when she was in overprotective big sister mode.
Which is how he found himself sitting on a stool in the bathroom, a towel draped around his shoulders, while Jazz aggressively dyed his hair.
“Ow! Jazz, you’re gonna rip my scalp off!” Danny complained as she ran the dye through his hair with the same level of intensity she used when analyzing psychological case studies.
“Oh hush, I barely tugged,” Jazz dismissed, not even pausing. “You’re the one who decided to go to Gotham for college, Danny. The place where Bruce Wayne lives. The place where Batman prowls. You think I’m going to just let you waltz in there looking like prime adoption material?”
Danny groaned, slumping in his seat. “I think you’re being ridiculous. Batman or Bruce Wayne isn’t just gonna ‘adopt’ me, Jazz.”
Jazz scoffed. “You are a short, scrappy, traumatized teenager with a hero complex. You are exactly his type.”
“I am not short,” Danny muttered, crossing his arms. “And besides, I don’t look anything like a Gotham kid.”
“Exactly! Which is why you’re now a redhead,” Jazz said cheerfully. “I even got you purple contacts to match. You’ll look like my twin, which means the Waynes will hopefully assume you’re already taken.”
Danny gave her an incredulous look through the mirror. “You do realize that’s not how adoption works, right?”
“Batman doesn’t play by the rules,” Jazz said seriously. “He sees an unclaimed stray, he swoops in. We are not taking chances.”
Danny sighed. “Fine. Whatever. If it makes you feel better, I’ll wear the disguise.”
Jazz nodded, satisfied, before holding up a small stick. “Also, take this.”
Danny blinked at it. “Uh… is that a creepstick?”
“Yup! If you see Bruce Wayne or Batman, hit him with it and run.”
“…Are you serious?”
“Completely.”
Danny rubbed his face. “I can’t believe my sister is making me carry around a weaponized stick of deodorant to defend myself from rich people.”
Jazz patted his shoulder. “It’s for your own good, Danny.”
He had a bad feeling about all of this.
Phantom of the Manor
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.)
Fountain of Youth
dcxdp ficlet pt 1
Phantom wasn't aging. Danny didnt notice at first. Didn't notice for a long time. Phantom didn't exactly use bathrooms or shower or stop to sign autographs, things that would put him in front of an image of himself.
Fenton however, did keep aging. And since he did pass mirriors and get his picture taken, he didn't have reason to suspect anything was amiss. He was aging. He was alive.
He moved out. Went to college. Graduated. Saved some lives. Got recruited by the Justice League. Things were going great.
And then one of Batmans proteges stopped by. Danny wasn't sure which one. He didn't really keep up with that kind of thing. But they started chatting with him. Danny figured that they just didn't talk to a lot of adult heros and wanted someone to show off too. So, Danny did what he did when Jazz or Tucker's kids started and made a show of being impressed by their stories. It seemed to work, but it was weird, they weren't treating him like a hero or weird uncle or something. More like one of their team mates. Asking questions about how he got onto the Justice League proper and not an affiliate team. Lamenting that they were relegated to sidekick work and not allowed to be a hero in their own right. Danny tried to reassure them. Consol them that Batman obviously valued their input. Then the kid started flirting with him. Danny tried to set boundries. Make it clear that he wasn't intrested. Being at least a decade older than them and all.
And then the kid asked him out.
Danny turned the kid down as politely as he could. Which led to a baffling few minutes of being shouted at and accused of...well he wasn't sure what exactly. And then them storming off.
"Are you alright?" Danny blinked at Superman. and when did Superman get there?
"uh. ya. why?" Superman tilted his head and gestured to the door.
"Oh, superhearing. Right. Guess I can't ask you to pretend that you didn't hear that?" Superman continued to stare at him. "Clockwork, I hate it when you do that. You remind me of my sister. She used to look at me like that. When we were kids. before I you know...died and all. Augh. Stop it. I feel like I'm 14 again and getting caught breaking curfew. I'm fine Supes. Really. I just feel bad for the kid and wish I knew what I did to earn the outburst. Like, I get I'm down with the kids and all. But come on. I'm what 10-15 years older than them? and dead? what did they think I was going to say? and why is it my fault? I was just trying to be nice to the kid."
"Son, and I don't mean to be insensitive, but perhaps it has something to do with your appearance?"
"?"
"In that you look. What I mean is that you appear- your face resembles-" The man stuttered, trying to figure out how to say what he knew was a taboo for ghosts.
"Come on Supes, just spit it out already. I rescued your cousin from the Phantom Realm and its unspeakable horrors, I think we're past getting upset over the occasional minor cultural insesitivity."
"When was the last time you saw yourself Phantom?"
"Whaddaya mean?" Danny cocked his head to the side, confused, he looked in mirrors all the time! like last night when he was fixing his hair before meeting up with some coworkers for drinks.
"When was the last time you, Phantom, looked in a mirror?" when was the last time he looked in the mirror AS Phantom, Supes meant. Careful with his identity as always. Those that knew knew his only REAL protection was everyone thinking ghosts could only ever be dead. And knowledge that one could be both was closely gaurded, even amongst the wider superhero community.
"I dunno, probably right after the accident I guess? There were posters and stuff with my face on them for awhile, but they just kept using the same three pics. I don't really stick around for photo ops. My aura started messing with tech like a year? after I died, so it didn't really matter if I did anyway. and with the whole #1 enemy thing, it wouldn't have been safe too." Danny scratched his head, thinking hard about when he had seen seen himself last. He remembered the first time. fresh out of the portal. Before they realized he had died. Before they realized he could still live. The shock of white hair where it should have been stark black. Those green eyes, wide with panic and glowing like someone had poured Diphenyl oxalate into them and mixed it with a fluorescent dye solution.
"Phantom," Superman said firmly. Not so loud that he would panic, but loud enough that he could cut through the sudden spiral he saw his collegue falling into. The reason why you weren't supposed to bring up things related to a ghosts death. Especially ones that died violently. Especially those that died as children.
Danny blinked and took a deep, uneeded, breath. "It's ok. I'm ok. Just. What about my appearence?"
"Phantom..."
"Kal."
Marzipan Boy part 1
Tim shot a quick message to Tam, letting her know that he would be busy for a while, and then he shoved his headphones on and pushed the button to darken the windows of his office.
Tam thought he was taking a nap, and encouraged his daily hour of “dark time”.
Tim was NOT taking a nap, he was watching the love of his life play video games (sue him, he might doze off once or twice during the stream, but it wasn’t on purpose.)
“Good afternoon, gamers. It’s NightenGames here, and I have not had enough coffee.”
Chuckling at the semi-regular intro, Tim took a sip of his dark roast and settled back into his desk chair.
“Today we’re playing Elder Ring- My friend PharaohTuck finally finished setting up my mods.”
Tim wasn’t entirely sure what exactly the mods NightenGames used did, but apparently they were necessary for him to play. The Yeddit threads were full of speculation- from control mods meant for metahumans/aliens, to cheats to make the games easier.
Very few fans believed that one- Nighten died too many times to be cheating with his mods.
“Ooooh, what a fancy character creator! Alright, folks- who should we mock this time? I’m seeing a lot of votes for Lex Luthor in the chat, a few for Bruce Wayne- which, let me remind you, I’ve already done both Wayne and Luthor in the last month, so they’re out.”
This was why Tim had originally followed NightenGames- the streamer would pick a rich person and then pretend to be them for the entire stream, as if they were playing the game. Yeddit had checked- most of the quotes Nighten used were straight from public videos of the target.
“Tim Drake, huh? CEO of Wayne Industries? Isn’t he, like, the same age as me? I dunno, guys- like, nepo baby for suresies, but…”
Tim startled at the sound of his own name, and swooned a little at the way it rang out in Nighten’s rich baritone.
“You’re right, BarleyWater32, I have not picked on Tim Drake yet. In my defense… I have no defense. He’s hot and I’d smash. Don’t want to spoil my minuscule chances, right? Right. Anyways. Oh! Oliver Queen, I can do him. Well, not DO him, but- make me shut up.”
Blinking at his computer, Tim couldn’t help but flush at the knowledge that his internet crush thought he was “hot and would smash”.
Tim would smash too, honestly. He’d done his research. Daniel ‘Danny’ Nightengale was VERY attractive behind the virtual avatars he used.
“Let me pull up Ollie-boy’s avatar- ah ha! Can’t miss that mustache anywhere.”
The avatar finally popped up in the video- Nighten didn’t usually have one up until the chat had chosen a victim, even if he did have a standard avatar for after he was done gaming.
If he had to pick, Tim liked the avatar for Queen the best. He wore a silly pair of green sunglasses, and his matching green mustache twirled far beyond his face- the real Oliver would never, but the mockery was funny.
“Ahem. Yes. Hello. My name is Ollie Queen and I’m richer than anyone else in this city. Let’s get this bread!”
Elder Ring went well- through some chance Nighten picked an archery build for his run through, which Tim thought was quite ironic- and the stream went on for a whole hour before Nighten switched to his standard avatar.
“Okay, folks, I’m going to shut down now- and Tim Drake? If you’re watching? DM me.”
Nighten chuckled a little, like he’d made an impossible request, but Tim was vibrating in his seat, reaching for his phone to DM the streamer.
The video ended abruptly, and Tim’s autotimer on the darkened windows ran out.
Tam was standing expectantly outside of the door, smiling serenely in- but her arms were full of folders that she undoubtedly need signatures on.
With a sigh, Tim took off his headphones, dropped his cell on his desk, and waved her in. Work waited for no man.
~~~
“Danny, are you sure you don’t want me to make you an avatar for one Tim Drake?”
“Positive, Tuck.”
Tucker pouted and draped himself over the back of the couch, leaning his head into Danny’s space as he worked on his essay.
“It would give you an excuse to watch videos of your cruuuuush!”
Danny felt his face go hot, and he shoved Tucker’s face away from his ear.
“Get off, man. I have to finish this paper before midnight.”
His friend stood straight, presumably looking at the clock on the oven.
“Oof, bro.”
10:30PM wasn’t a great time to be writing an essay. Danny knew he should have done it earlier, but, well. He had to film and edit a video for his second channel. UTube wasn’t earning him money yet, but hopefully soon?
Who was he kidding? He would probably have to go back to Vlad for money soon, and he hated the thought of it.
It was hard enough to live in this ramshackle Gotham apartment with both Tucker and Sam, keep up with UTube and streaming, and get through school, without having to cater to Vlad’s whims on top of it.
Sam had only promised to help with his portion of rent for two years, and he was almost hitting that deadline. He hated taking advantage of her guilt for getting him killed in the first place, but she had insisted, even if she couldn’t sustain it for their whole college career.
Danny groaned and turned his attention back to his paper.
11:15 rolled around, and Danny finished checking his paper for mistakes before sending it in. He shut his laptop, planning to brush his teeth before crashing out on the couch.
Tucker had already gone to bed, and Sam was out on an internship trip for the week, so he didn’t have to worry too much about being disturbed after he fell asleep.
His phone chimed with a donation notification and he lazily opened the message.
Tucker came running out of his and Sam’s bedroom, wrapped in a bathrobe and wielding a Creep Stick at Danny’s resulting screech.
“TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS? FROM TIMOTHY DRAKE-WAYNE?”
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.