I don't own Danny Phantom or the Justice League
Danny woke up the next day still sore from the inhibitors. While he still healed pretty fast, the inhibitors did slow the process. Groaning a little, Danny cleaned himself up again. As he was finishing a guard with a cart came up, he slid the bottom slot open and put a tray in. It wasn't much but after having his breakfast interrupted the other day and nothing after, he was pretty much starving.
With breakfast done, Danny started to think. 'What to do, what to do.' Normally Danny would have to just sit still and do nothing under threat of being strapped down while in between experiments. The GIW didn't want him doing anything that could potentially allow escape, things as simple as moving were considered threatening.
'Well I am in prison.' Danny thought a little amused, as he got down and started to do push ups. He wasn't able to do many though. With the inhibitors he didn't have his advanced strength and even if he did, it wouldn't have helped. The GIW kept him as weak as possible, his strength was down all around from inactivity. Now was as good a time as any to build it back, it just sucked doing so. From push ups to crunches to planks, and sit ups. Danny even tried to do some pull ups. It wasn't much, but it did work up quite the sweat.
Around what he guessed was noon, another guard came with more food.
"I'll take the tray." He said with a monotone. Danny gave him the tray without a word.
"In one hour you have free time. Do you want to go to the showers or the yard?" The guard questioned as he took the tray. Danny didn't really want to talk to the guard but didn't want to leave it up to fate.
So in his usual emotionless voice Danny said "Showers". The way it sounded coming from him would have caused most to shuter. No kid should have a voice like that, so gone, it was like he was dead. Lucky for the guard he was an old veteran of Arkham and held himself well. Giving a nod, he wrote it down on a piece of paper before moving on.
An hour later we find Danny being lead to a solo shower. From the looks of the guards there, he wasn't about to get any privacy. Though he was used to that, be it the GIW or prison, when locked up privacy was no longer an option.
Being escorted back to his cell, Danny was feeling pretty good. When they were one cell away from his a sudden loud laugh got his attention. Looking to his left he saw a blond woman with pigtails in the cell. She had a big grin on her face and waved at Danny.
"Hey it's you! Mr. Electric chair. How's it going?" She asked gleefully. Even if Danny had planned on answering her he couldn't. The guards quickly rushed him into his cell. As another yelled at the woman.
"Shut it Quinn!" And with that Danny was back in his cell. It was just then dawning on him that if he focused he couldn't hear outside of the cell. That was weird you could hear in but not out.
'Weird sound proofing.' He thought sitting down on the bed. He couldn't help it when his mind wandered to his mysterious neighbor. He didn't remember her being there earlier, must have just gotten in like him. 'Wonder why she seemed so… so happy.' Her happiness confused Danny, she was in prison for crying out loud. 'What ever, when did I start to care what others do. Besides she wouldn't have been able to hear me anyway.'
And with that Danny spent the rest of the day going over anything and everything his parents taught him before he was captured. It was one of the very few things that he still had that kept him sane and connected to his family. He went from math to science, and from science to ghost tech, and finally from ghost tech to the very little knowledge on psychology he had, that he picked up from his sister. While he didn't have much else to work with, he enjoyed it all the same.
Another guard came with dinner, and Danny couldn't complain. While he didn't have illusions of it lasting, he did let small joy form every now and again. Today was Danny's first good day in a long time. He just couldn't shake the feeling though that something was going to change that.
It was shortly after dinner, a guard came and got the tray. Just after that two more guards showed up, acumpitied by a large man dressed in all black. As soon as Danny saw him he knew his good mood was going to be ruined.
The top slot opened and the man spoke. "Phantom I presume." It wasn't a question.
Early in the morning Ms. Long was questioning her decision to try and get incontact with the Dark Knight, but he was the only one she could think of that wouldn't get caught up in the red tape Phantom was undoubtedly intanged in. After the incident with inmate Bronson she decided to try and analyze one of the spare inhibitors left by the government agency. She quickly realized that she was in over her head. While she knew what the inhibitor was, the technology behind it was almost completely different from what she was used too. They weren't kidding when they said they specially designed them for Phantom. It was then that she called commissioner Gordon, in hopes of talking with Batman. Gordon had gotten back to her by noon. Batman would meet with her at ten.
Ten hours later Ms. Long was waiting outside Arkham for the Dark Knight. Just as her watch showed ten, she felt a presence behind her. Controlling her body she turned and faced the imposing man. This wasn't the first time she had come face to face with him. If she had learned anything from their previous meetings, it was that there was a thin line that separated him, and everyone else in Arkham. She was never really sure how she felt about that.
Straightening a little Ms. Long spoke. "I have a new inmate. He's around sixteen years old and was originally hear by a government agency. He has inhibitor collars that make him like a walking electric chair, and all we know about him is that he's called Phantom and that he has scars that would suggest experimentation. I was hoping you could look into him for me." She finished pulling out a file, she had learned to keep things as short as possible when dealing with the Dark Knight.
"Do you happen to have one of the inhibitors?" Batman questioned taking the file, causing Ms. Long to reach into her bag and pull a spear out. After taking the inhibitor he left, he had work to do after all. After the meeting Ms. Long went home for some greatly need rest.
The next morning she found a note on her desk. It had the bat symbol on it, apparently the bat wanted a face to face with Phantom. She wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not. Batman wasn't known for his gentle side, and one of her many's jobs as warden was making sure the inmates didn't get hurt, however impossible that seemed. She had to call commissioner Gordon by noon with her decision.
It wasn't easy but at noon, Ms. Long had made her decision. She would let him see Phantom, but it would be under some conditions, and he'd have to agree to all of them. Otherwise she wouldn't allow it. She wanted to know about Phantom but she wasn't about to throw caution to the wind.
First he had to come at dinner time, she wasn't going to have him running around her asylum at four in the morning. Second he was going to be accompanied by two of her guards. Third, they would have the talk at Phantom's cell, that way they would have a reinforced door between them. Finally he would wear a comlink that went directly to her so she could hear everything, and tell him when his time was up.
After calling Gordon with her conditions, all that was left to do wait. Dinner came by pretty fast for Ms. Long, Miss Quinzel had started another fight with some of the inmates. It was some time after lunch, and some things were said. Honestly if she was in Miss Quinzel's shoes she would have socked them also, but this was a prison and order had to be kept. Dealing with her mess took up most of her after noon.
Ms. Long had almost forgotten about the meeting when she looked up from her desk and found Batman standing in front of her.
"After noon." She greeted, getting a slight nod in response.
"Before I let you go see him, I was hoping you could fill me in on what you've found so far." Ms. Long stated wanting all the information she could get.
Batman stared at her for a minute, presumably trying to decide on what to tell her. She knew he would never tell her everything, but he would tell her something. And if it came from him, it was sure to be the truth.
Taking a breath in Batman began. "I've only got one lead. An old newspaper from about two years ago. It mentions a vigilante with the name, Inviso Bill. The vigilante has similar enough looks to phantom that the facial recognition software matched their faces."
To Ms. Long's credit, she didn't show the surprise she was feeling. For the Batman to come up with so little was unheard of.
"As for the inhibitors, they are made of a strange technology. They don't seem to have a power source, so I can only assume they are forcefully powered by him." Batman continued, as Ms. Long frowned at the news.
"Also as far as I can tell, they can't be turn down. It seems to be a fail safe to prevent tampering." Batman said with distaste.
"I'll have to have them removed then." Ms. Long said thinking out loud.
"I'm afraid you can't. At least not yet." Batman said, causing Ms. Long to gesture for him to continue. "I figured that if the power had a fail safe the release would too. The inhibitors each need a pass code to unlock. If you try and guess, break, or hack it, it will shock the wearer. I'm working on a program to hack them without setting them off, with the one you gave me."
"Well when you finish it let me know. As for now you can go see him." Ms. Long said reaching into her desk and pulling out an earpiece. Batman stuck out his hand and took it.
Gesturing to the door Ms. Long continued. "The two guards in the hall will take you to his cell. Just remember, when I say your done, your done. Understand?" Ms. Long questioned daring him to say otherwise. A nod was all she received, but it was good enough.
The guards lead him through a less direct root to solitary. The reason being they wanted to keep the bat out of the inmates' eyes. It didn't take much to throw everything into chaos at Arkham, and having the Batman there was like giving the inmates an open invitation to start something.
After a few minutes of walking they entered solitary and were greeted with silence. It seemed dinner was just ending. Walking down a few cells the guards stopped in front of one which Batman assumed to be the one holding Phantom.
Moving to it himself, he looked in and say a boy with raven black hair. Skinny almost like the Scarecrow, but with enough inhibitors that you'd think he was as strong as the Croc. Though his eyes were what stood out the most. Batman could tell that the boy did not like his presence.
Opening the top slot batman spoke "Phantom I presume."
The boy stared at him before giving a nod.
"I'd like to ask you a few questions." Phantom didn't respond. Suddenly Ms. Long's voice came over the ear piece.
"He hasn't said a word to anyone, unless the situation absolutely demanded it." Ms. Long said with a frown, as she watched with the security system cameras. She was doing her best to keep an eye on the bat for his entire visit, even if she couldn't be right there.
Batman gave no response to the comment. "First does the name Inviso Bill mean anything to you." Batman said searching for any sign that he did. The boy tensed at the name, though it didn't look to be out of fear or sadness.
Danny honestly hated that name. Though he couldn't deny that it did bring back some fond memories. He still chuckled at the thought of Sam and Tuck running around pretending to be him missing a face.
While it wasn't a bad memory, Danny didn't like where the questioning seemed to be going. If the first question was about his late past it would only get worse from there.
The boys mood seemed to have dropped, at first he had almost joy. Now though his face became dark.
"Well?" Batman asked knowing that he probably wasn't going to get an answer. And he was right, Danny decided the best way to get him to leave was to ignore him.
"Alright. How about the agency that held you. Can you give me anything on them?" The bat asked hoping that this would warrant a response.
It almost did, Danny honestly wouldn't have minded ratting on the GIW, but he was still unsure of who to trust. If this guy ended up telling them he said anything about them, well, he'd most likely actually lose his vocal cords.
The boy seemed to perk up at that, but it didn't last. He actually sat on his bed and turned away. They were getting nowhere and that was only the second question.
"Try getting his actual name." Ms. Long said through the ear piece.
"How about your name, your real name." Batman asked for a final try. There was only so much he could do in this situation, maybe in a proper interrogation room, but right now Ms. Long wouldn't allow it.
Danny just continued to ignore the guy. While his mood wasn't completely ruined, it had dropped. Not to mention who in their right mind would answer the questions of a man in a…, bat costume?
"It was worth a shot. Your not going to get him to talk, come back to my office for now." Ms. Long said through the ear piece. She was disappointed, but knowing the bat, he probably picked up on some things.
The man gave Danny one more once over before leaving with the guards. Danny's mood wasn't ruined but the questioning had gone over some pretty dangerous topics. All of which Danny didn't want to deal with. Suddenly feeling very tired, Danny drifted into a very restless sleep.
Back with Ms. Long, she was impatiently waiting for the bat to return. She didn't like how things turned out. Three questions in and it was obvious he wasn't going to talk. What did Phantom have to hide.
It was a few minutes later and Batman returned. Ms. Long didn't have to voice her questions as he already knew what she was going to ask.
"From what I can tell he has a connection with this Inviso Bill. Though in what way, I can't be sure. As for the the agency, they are definitely the ones to experiment on him. Just the moment of them got the most reaction out of him and I was asking who they were. And he either doesn't trust us or believes they will find out if he talks." Batman said piecing the evidence together.
"I'd say it's probably both. He may think we're working with them, though in a scene we are. It would also explain his refusal to give us his name." Ms. Long added, starting to understand his silence. "Which still leaves us with next to nothing to go on." She finished with a sigh, putting her hand over her eyes. She knew dealing with teens could be complicated but, this was a whole new level.
"As of now your right. Though when my program finishes, that very well may change." Batman said knowing they still had some cards to play. He would also have to look more into this Inviso Bill person, something told him that was an important piece to the puzzle.
Ms. Long was about to respond when she took her hand from her face only to not see the Bat anywhere. 'Stupid, rule number one. Never take your eyes off the Bat.' She berated herself in her head. Gordon had even told her that on the first day of her job. Giving off another sigh, Ms. Long got back to work. She had an Asylum to run after all.
A week went by from there and things seemed to be ok at the moment. Danny had gotten into a routine. Wake up and wash the nightmare from his face, eat breakfast, workout, shower, study, and finally "sleep" again. It was simple, but it was enjoyable, surprisingly. It was on the eighth day that Danny decided to see what the yard was like.
When lunch came around Danny told the guard "Yard" in the same dead voice he always used. If the guard was surprised he didn't show it. An hour later Danny is being lead down the hall by four armed guards, cuffs and all. They take a left instead of the right to the showers. As they walked Danny saw some bright light coming in through a door. It had been awhile since Danny had seen sunlight, when they had first he was brought to Arkham, it was late in the day and overcast.
When to door opened and Danny was lead through, he was a little disappointed by the three large brick walls surrounding him, with one behind him. The yard was a box with what Danny could only call, four separate cages about fifteen by fifteen feet. Solid metal floor and roof.
The guards lead Danny over to one of the cages, and let him in. After they uncuffed him. Inside Danny had a hoop and a basketball ball. 'Man this is almost like elementary school.' Danny thought picking up the ball. He wasn't sure what he was expecting but it wasn't this.
That's when the door to the yard opened again. Out came four more guards and the woman that was one cell over.
"Oooh, hey sparky!" She yelled upon seeing him. Half way through the week she had started to call his that, guess electric chair guy was to much of a mouth full. Danny just ignored her like always.
Once she was in her cage she walked over the the wall closest to mine.
"Aw, come on sparky. We finally have a chance to talk. Don't give me the cold shoulder!" She said rubbing her shoulders in a joking manner. Danny just turned away from her and shot toward the basket.
"Well if you wont talk, I will. The guards are always telling me to shut it, so this is the only time I get." Harley said annoyed at his silence. Danny didn't even look over at her.
"You know there's a rumor going around that your a cyborg, that's why there was so much electricity. You short circuited." Harley laughed. Danny sent her a glare her way for that one. She was making fun of the fact that he lit up like a painful Christmas tree.
"Oh, touchy are we? Well are you a cyborg or not? Harley questioned staring at the teen.
Feeling her eyes on him, Danny said in his usual dead voice. "Not." And went back to shooting. Harley though either ignored his voice or just didn't care cause she didn't even bat an eye.
"Wow! Look at that he does know more than two words. And here it thought you only knew how to say Let and Go." Harley joked with a laugh. "So if your not a cyborg, you must be a meta, right?"
"No." Danny said hoping that she'd get bored with him soon.
"Wait if your not a meta, does that mean your not human?" Harley asked confused.
"No." Danny said looking at her with a tired look. This was the most he had said to anyone in the longest of times. He didn't even know why he was answering her. Maybe cause it was something to do?
"Wait so you're human, not a meta, but have inhibitors, and your eyes glow green." Harley exclaimed confused. That got Danny attention though he tried not to show it. So someone else saw. It was fine that that guy had seen, most would think it was just the shock getting to his brain. Though if others had seen that could bring up questions or even answers he didn't want out. The less people knew about him the better. People can't use what they don't know against you. The GIW may of had a lot to work with but they didn't know everything.
Danny walked over to the walk and looked her in the eyes. "Who else saw?" He said in his ever dead voice.
"You really got to work on your people skills. As for who else, not really sure, not like I was watching everyone else's eyes." Harley said as if it was obvious, which it somewhat was. Danny just glared at her. "So what are you anyways?"
At this point Danny wasn't to happy and she was starting to really annoy him, so in a moment of smartassness. Danny said "Dead." Then walked over to the door. The guards watching the whole thing came over realizing he probably wanted to leave.
Harley after hearing his response started to laugh out loud. "Dead! Dead he says! Man you really are just as crazy as the rest of us!" She says in between burst of laughter.
As the guards lead Danny away Harley called out to him. "Hey Sparky, the names Harley by the way." Before breaking into more laughter.
'That was annoying.' Danny thought as the guards lead him away. He wasn't so sure if he would be going to the yard again anytime soon.