Disclaimer: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No profit is being made. No copyright infringement is intended.
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Danny grunted in annoyance as his enhanced hearing picked someone moving around in his room upstairs. The rustling sounds of objects being shuffled around would have been impossible for a normal human to hear, but for Danny, they were as clear as day.
How many times had he told Jazz to stay out of his room? He swore that every time he left it, she would dart in there and begin colour arranging and alphabetising everything. She claimed that the messy state of his room drove her crazy, but as the bedroom of a teenage boy, it was unnatural for it to be as tidy as it always was.
The movement and shuffling coming from his room grew quicker as he ascended the stairs, already planning out his rant in his head. But then sound stopped, and Danny almost stopped as well. Jazz must have heard him coming up the stairs and was hoping that he hadn't heard her, she knew how much her OCD-like tendencies irritated him.
But then a grin crept across his face. Oh, this was going to be good.
He continued up the stairs, but instead of turning towards his bedroom, he headed for the nearby bathroom. He planned on pretending to grab something but noticed a smear of blood on his arm.
His arm had gotten grazed on the corner of an old brick building after this stupid bird ghost had ambushed him, almost knocking him out of the sky. The wound had not been severe and had long since healed thanks to his halfa healing powers, but the streak of blood had dried and clung to his skin.
He turned on the faucet and thrust his arm under the cold stream of water. If his Mom noticed blood on him, she would fret and want to know how he got hurt. And obviously, he couldn't tell her the truth. That would go over well. Danny imagined the conversation would go something like this.
"Hey Mom, I got cut while fighting a demonic bird ghost, even though I am terrified to death of ghosts and never go near them. Actually, that's a lie." Danny would say as his Mom stared at him in shock, probably holding one of those giant ecto weapons she always somehow seemed to have on her. "I fight ghosts all the time! By the way, I'm also a ghost myself, but please don't shoot me!"
His mom's response would be something like, "DIE YOU ECTOPLASMIC SCUM!"
That or she would pass out or not believe him. Probably the last option was the most likely. So yeah, that would go over well.
Danny turned the faucet off, his arm clean of the incriminating substance. He casually strolled down the stairs and out the front door. But then he ducked around the corner and suppressed a chuckle. This was going to be amazing.
He felt the rings form around his waist, and in a flash of light, he was Danny Phantom, ghost extraordinaire.
The first thing he did was duplicate himself. The duplicate grinned at him as the original Danny pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and handed it to him.
Danny smiled at the successful duplication. He hadn't grown an extra head in what seemed like forever, which was something he was happy about.
The duplicate disappeared into invisibility and Danny did the same. They flew up towards his room, carefully skirting the perimeter of the ghost alarms. He had managed to modify most of them, so they didn't react to his signature, but the machines were finicky and would sometimes go off despite his upgrades.
He carefully slipped through the wall, creeping forward with the stealth that only someone who has had years of experience in sneaking up on people could have. Well, and not being wholly bound to the laws of physics helps.
A figure was bent over, checking under the bed.
Jazz. Danny thought. This was going to be so funny,
His clone appeared right behind him, held the camera up and gave a thumbs up, and disappeared again.
As the figure began to straighten up, and Danny took his chance. Swooping down, he suddenly dropped his invisibility. "Booo!" He screamed in her face, only to step back right through the bed in shock. "Hey, you're not Jazz!"
The one who he had believed to be Jazz was now towering over him, and he did not seem amused. He hadn't even flinched at Danny's attempted scare. Danny's thoughts, however, were not occupied by this as another more important thought pushed its way out of his head and up his throat.
"Batman?!" Danny inhaled, more out of shock and habit than the actual need to. "Wait, why are you…" Danny stuttered, barely stopping himself from adding "In my room?" After a moment he weakly finished with "here?"
Batman raised an eyebrow, though whether it was at the sight of a glowing boy or the obvious pause in his sentence he wasn't sure.
"I could ask you the same thing." Batman calmly replied. Danny chuckled awkwardly, thinking of an excuse.
"Ghost stuff?" Danny finally replied, and he knew it sounded more like he was asking a question that answering one. Brilliant.
"Ghost stuff." Batman deadpanned.
"Yup."
Before Danny knew it a pair of handcuffs restricted his wrists. "I'm taking you in for questioning."
"Hey!" Danny, phasing out of the handcuffs. "No need for that, I wasn't even doing anything."
"You are trespassing on private property, and you just screamed 'BOOO' in my face." Batman pointed out, and Danny huffed indignantly. "You're one to speak; you're transpassing too."
Technically, Danny wasn't transpassing at all as it was, in fact, his room. But there was no way he was going to tell Batman that.
Danny faltered under the stern look he received. He could feel the superhero's gaze analysing him. For some reason, he felt as though he had been caught stealing from the cookie jar. So this was the famous bat-glare?
Danny understood why this guy made some of the most hardened criminals in the world to break into a cold sweat the moment he walked into a room. He was intimidating, very intimidating.
"Well then." Danny really didn't want to pick a fight with THE Batman. It was something that was pretty high on any sane person's "What not to do" list. He nervously spoke. "I'll just let you get back to snooping in… this random kid's room. Have fun."
Danny took off, bolting for it, but he felt a firm grip grab onto his leg. He struggled for a moment, before remembering the easiest way to escape the Bat's incredibly firm grip. He turned intangible, passing right through the hand and the wall of the bedroom and into the open air.
To Danny's surprise, Batman didn't even try and follow him. Why had the hero of Gotham been snooping in his room anyway?
Danny touched down on a nearby rooftop to rest and ponder the situation. Phantom couldn't exactly go back to his house while the Batman was there snooping around. Fenton technically could, but while Danny was curious, he honestly didn't want to attract the attention of the "World's Greatest Detective" in any form, not with a secret identity to protect.
Yep, a detective snooping around his house for whatever reason was the last thing Danny needed.
A tap on the shoulder caused Danny to nearly jump out of his skin. He let out a sigh of relief as he realised it was just the duplicate, and that Batman had not followed him after all.
"What's so funny?" Danny asked the duplicate who, trying and failing to hold back another chuckle, waved the phone where the original Danny could see it. "No way."
Sure enough in the camera roll, there was an image, taken right at the moment of the attempted scare. Danny zoomed in on Batman's face.
"Wow, I don't think he was impressed by your jump scare." Danny number 2 chuckled.
Danny had one thing to say. The man had sure mastered the deadpan. The man. The BATman. Who had been in his house. Danny's own home. He paused as it finally sank in. The Batman, the creature of shadows, the night stalker, was in Amity. Not only that, but he had been in Danny's room.
"Oh my gosh." Danny breathed as it finally sank in. "The freaking Batman was in my house."
"Took you this long to figure that out, genius?" The Danny duplicate joked, and Danny playfully glared back. "You better hope I'm a genius, considering we're the same person.
The two merged into one and Danny resumed his flight. Batman, in his house. He couldn't wait to tell Sam and Tucker.
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Author's Note
Hey guys, it's me again. Thanks for reading this little oneshot, and sorry that it is so short.I have been reluctant to post this because with how busy my life is at the moment, I didn't want to commit to a huge story (I hate it when stories are abandoned, so I would hate to fall behind on my updating schedule or have the same thing that happened with MLIAC happen here.) But I have had this sitting on my computer for a while and figured that there was no harm posting it as a one-shot.
I actually have a few ideas for where this could go, if I decided to continue it. Yes, maybe, sometime in the future, I might expand on this. Explain why Batman was snooping in Danny's room. I actually have some ideas for this arc. Another large part of my reluctance is that it has been such a long time since I watched this series, and I am a bit worried that my memory has faded a bit too much. If I do decide to continue this, I should probably find time to rewatch it.
Thanks for reading, and have a nice day!