Chapter 8:

Danny met up with Sam and Tucker at the Nasty Burger. They were all a bit subdued knowing it was the last time the three of them would be together like this.

"Bruce said you both could come visit," Danny offered, hoping to cheer them up.

"That would be awesome!" Tucker cheered.

"Yeah, Danny, that would be great," Sam murmured pushing her fries around.

"Are you okay?" Danny asked. He wasn't the most observant person but he knew Sam well enough to tell when she was upset.

"I'm just going to miss you, Danny. I know this is a much better option than you going to Peru or having to live with Vlad. But it isn't going to be the same around here without you," Sam explained.

"I know. I'm going to miss you both too."

The thought of not being able to see his best friends every day almost had him considering living with Vlad. Sam and Tucker had been his constants for years. They'd been through everything with him: his accident, learning how to use his powers, and so much more. Without them he doubted he would have made it through some fights.

Not seeing them everyday was going to feel like missing a piece of himself. He was going to miss them more than he was going to miss his parents.

"I think you're both forgetting about modern technology. We can still hang out every day. We can play DOOM, watch movies, and do pretty much everything else we do together," Tucker reminded them both, attempting to cheer them both up.

"You're right. The only difference is that we won't physically be in the same place," Danny nodded.

"Exactly," Tucker grinned.

"I guess," Sam forced a smile.

"Besides we can—" Danny stopped midsentence when a wisp of blue smoke slipped past his lips.

The three of them froze.

"I thought you said you put all the ghosts back in the Zone?" Tucker frowned.

"I did," Danny groaned and dropped his head to the sticky Nasty Burger table.

"I don't see anything," Sam murmured.

"I'll go check," Danny stuffed the last of his burger in his mouth, and then made his way to the bathrooms.

In the bathroom he changed forms, turned intangible, and flew upwards through the building into the sky. Danny's now acidic green eyes scanned the surrounding area for any hint of ghostly activity. He didn't immediately see anything. But a flicker of inhuman green light had him diving towards the ground.

The moment he landed a green blur launched itself at Danny, knocking the halfa off of his feet.

"Cujo," Danny grumbled as he was covered with ectoplasm slobber. "I thought you were in the Ghost Zone. Did you dig your way out again?"

The green puppy yipped, his entire body wiggling in excitement. Danny got a firm grip of the ghost dog and held him away from his body.

Danny heaved a sigh. "We talked about this. You can't do that anymore. You need to stay in the Realm."

The puppy wilted, flashing large puppy dog eyes.

"I promise I'll come visit you as often as I can," Danny offered, feeling guilty.

Cujo perked up, barking happily.

"All right, little buddy, let's get you back to the Ghost Zone, and no more breaking out," holding tightly to the puppy, Danny rose back in to the air, and shot off to bring Cujo back to the Infinite Realm as quickly as possibly.

He wanted to be able to spend as much time as he could with his friends as he could.

/

"Hmm," Bruce stroked a hand across his jaw, and hit replay for the third time. The security camera feed was only a handful of minutes long but it was very informative.

After the incident in the Fenton's basement with the Box Ghost, Bruce knew the Amity Park ghosts deserved a second look. He had seen the Box Ghost and the Fenton's portal with his own eyes. Perhaps the Box Ghost could have been a hologram but the portal was certainly not a hoax. Bruce had felt the energy emanating from the swirling green depths. It had made him more than a little uneasy to learn that Danny had lived above a portal to an unknown dimension.

Bruce had wanted to ask Danny more about the ghosts but he restrained himself. The time with Danny had been to get to know him better not to grill him about the ghosts of Amity Park. Danny clearly knew quite a bit considering his brief interaction with the Box Ghost that Bruce had witnessed.

The looks exchanged between the pair spoke of familiarity. The Box Ghost had been afraid of Danny's sharp glare not Maddie and Jack. The blue ghost had followed Danny's nonverbal order to go back into the portal. But why?

The time for questioning Danny would come later when they were safely back in Gotham.

For now Bruce settled for gathering what information he could from other sources. He hacked into the local security cameras. So far he hadn't seen any 'ghostly' activity. Amity Park was just a quiet and surprisingly crime free little town.

Until tonight.

The program he'd set up alerted him from the other case he was working on. Bruce had quickly pulled open the video. He watched the short interaction between the being with the galaxy like skin, and the small, glowing green dog. Unfortunately there wasn't any audio, and it was difficult to read the being's lips. The basic gist seemed to be that the dark purple humanoid figure was scolding the glowing green puppy.

Bruce tried to follow the figure when they took off into the air with the glowing green dog tucked beneath one arm but Amity Park didn't possess enough working security cameras to determine where they ended up.

The ghosts of Amity Park were real. If they were actually ghosts. Now that he was aware the beings were real, Bruce was questioning just what they were. The being with the dark purple skin, glowing white hair, and Lazarus Pit green eyes was humanoid. But their facial features and coloration were decidedly inhuman. It reminded Bruce of old tales of dark fae creatures.

Bruce sent the clip to the Cave for analysis, and Dick was going to send it to Zatanna. They needed advice on what exactly the being he just witnessed was. Was it alien or supernatural?

He didn't have to wait long for a response.

"Hey, B," Dick appeared on his screen. The background clearly indicating he was in the Cave.

"What did Zatanna say about the clip?" Bruce answered.

Dick seemed strangely hesitant. "Uh, well, nothing."

"Nothing?" Bruce growled.

"Yeah, the clip you sent us was completely distorted. I had Tim look at it, and he couldn't clear it up. So I didn't send it to her," Dick answered.

"Distorted?" Bruce scowled, and quickly replayed his own clip.

The security camera feed wasn't the best quality but they'd certainly dealt with worse footage. Bruce had even cleaned it up before sending it to Dick. The video was pretty clear to Bruce. Had it been corrupted during the transfer? Bruce sent the video again, taking care to send it through a more secure line.

"How about now?" Bruce questioned.

"Still blurry," Dick reported.

Bruce tried again, feeling a twinge of frustration. "And now?"

"Still nothing, B. I don't know why you're trying so hard. It's clearly a fake. Tim said so while he was trying to clean up the first one. None of the Amity Park stuff is real anyway. It's all a hoax," Dick dismissed.

Bruce was about to growl out in anger but managed to stop himself at the last moment. Dick was never dismissive. He was always the one most likely to listen, and be open to different possibilities.

Something wasn't right. Bruce's mind drifted to the League's unanimous decision not to investigate Amity Park's allegations. They hardly ever voted unanimously about anything. Someone was always bound to disagree with someone else's opinion. They were never so dismissive about people telling them they were in danger. No matter how outlandish the claims from the people of Amity Park one of them should have investigated the town.

The citizens of an entire town had claimed to be haunted and even pulled in to another dimension. Certainly that should have warranted one of them coming to check in.

So why hadn't they?

Why had they ignored the repeated calls for help?

Bruce reminded himself it was because they didn't have any evidence, and what they did have was clearly fabricated. But the sheer amount of reports from multiple sources should have warranted a check in.

So again why didn't they?

Bruce knew there was something more going on here. No matter how much he didn't want to he put in a call to Constantine. The man always took forever to respond since he was either on a bender or locked up in his house. Batman didn't like working with him either, and only ever did so grudgingly. But he needed the man's knowledge of the supernatural. There were forces going on here beyond Bruce's knowledge.

Amity Park was quiet for the rest of the night. There wasn't any other 'ghostly' activity or at least nothing that the limited security cameras were able to pick up.

The next morning Bruce was up early. There was still no response from Constantine. He packed his weekend bag in the rental car, and headed over to the local café to bring some coffee and pastries to the Fenton household.

Bruce was waiting for his order when a familiar voice greeted him.

"Why Bruce Wayne, what brings you to my humble little corner of the world?"

Bruce turned to look at Vladimir Masters. The tall, lean man was staring at him with a cold, shrewd expression. He wore an expensive suit for being in such a small little café this early in the morning.

Bruce was struck by a sudden thought. Why would a billionaire choose to be a mayor of such a small town? What did Vlad Masters, someone with ties to Lex Luthor, get out of such a thing? The thought had never before crossed his mind. Why had it never crossed his mind before?

Such an oversight was unacceptable. The realization only furthered his conviction that something was not right in Amity Park, and Vlad Masters had something to do with it.

"Some personal business," Bruce flashed his trademark vapid smile.

"Personal business? In Amity Park?"

It was easy for Bruce to see right through Vlad's falsely innocent inquiries.

"Yup," Bruce grinned. Two could play that game, and Bruce was thankful for the perception that his public persona wasn't very bright. It made it more plausible that Vlad's inquiry went right over his head. "It's certainly a unique little town."

"Yes, it is. I'm quite happy with it." There was a clear sense of possession in Vlad's tone. "However, I never thought I'd see you here."

"Hmm," Bruce hummed. "I'm leaving today actually. It was just a quick little weekend visit."

"Oh, that's too bad. I was going to suggest that we have lunch together," Vlad really needed to work on his cheerful smiles. They didn't reach his cool blue eyes.

"Wayne," the barista called.

Bruce was grateful for the excuse to get up and move away from the silver haired man. He grabbed the bag of pastries, and the tray of hot beverages. Bruce dropped a generous tip in the Tip Jar before turning to leave.

Vlad was still loitering in the café.

"That's quite a big bag of muffins," Vlad stated leadingly.

"It is," Bruce agreed cheerfully, smiling vapidly.

Vlad blinked slowly, his eyes narrowing. "You know I've never noticed it before but you remind me of someone."

"I do?" Bruce was well aware of how much Danny looked like him, and Masters was a close friend of the Fentons.

"Yes," the confusion was clear to see on the other man's face as he attempted to figure it out.

So Vlad wasn't aware of Bruce's connection to the Fentons just yet. The other billionaire was just here fishing for information.

"Oh, well, I have to go before these coffees get cold. Nice seeing you, Vlad," Bruce stepped around the Mayor of Amity Park, and made his way towards the exit.

"Goodbye, Bruce," Vlad's eyes followed him all the way to his rental car.

Bruce felt a strange sense of urgency as he drove towards Fenton Works. He wanted to get out of Amity Park and back to Gotham as soon as possible.

The Fentons were more subdued when he arrived. Danny hadn't exactly been talkative with him since meeting one another but he was completely withdrawn during their quick breakfast. Maddie and he carried the conversation with Jack occasionally interjecting with a fact about ghosts.

They drew out the breakfast for as long as they were able to. But eventually it was time to go. Danny grabbed his last small bag of personal items. Bruce stepped outside to give the Fentons privacy for their last goodbyes. They joined him several minutes later, and Bruce dutifully ignored the red-rimmed eyes.

"Call us if you need anything," Maddie waved as Danny walked down the front steps.

"I will," Danny agreed.

"Love you, Dan-o," Jack boomed.

"We love you, Danny," Maddie smiled brightly.

"Love you, too," Danny waved.

"I'll take good care of him," Bruce promised.

"We know," Maddie wiped away a stray tear.

They hugged again and said their last goodbye. Danny and Bruce climbed in to the rental car. The ride to the airport was silent. Bruce had raised enough teenagers to know to just let him be for the moment.

"I didn't ask you before but have you ever flown before?" Bruce asked as they climbed the stairs into the jet.

"Yeah, once or twice," Danny murmured. "My mom is actually a pilot."

"Oh, good, so you'll know what to expect," Bruce settled in to the comfy armchair.

Danny sat down in the chair beside him. "Yeah, but I've never been on a plane this nice."

Bruce chuckled. "Well, I hope you enjoy it."

Danny smiled, and glanced out the window.

Bruce felt relief at having Danny safe and secure with him, and on their way back to Gotham.

However, despite Bruce looking forward to going home he knew this trip would be the last bit of peace he had for a while. Adding Danny to the already volatile mix in Wayne Manor was sure to end in chaos. Then there was the mystery of Amity Park, and Vlad Masters that would need to be investigated.

Bruce could already feel a headache forming.