Ch.22: Appearances

Danny stared at himself in the bathroom mirror, tilting his head this way and that. In quiet contemplation, he wondered how he'd change things up. The grey jacket he'd had forever hung on his shoulders loosely. Black sweat-pants were dull and turning into a lighter shade of ebony on his legs.

All in all, he looked almost exactly like he did the first time he went to Area 51. The only exception was that that day he had worn jeans instead of old sweats.

Danny wondered how he was going to get permission to even buy new clothes. It wasn't exactly like he had a disguise to do so in. He's probably walk out onto the street and then- BAM! –he'd be squirming under a dozen soldiers, all of which were still trying to find him. Even after the video-chat with the Dark Knight, Olsen was still trying to drag his butt back to the apartment three floors above him.

Olsen really didn't like him… But he really didn't like Olsen either…

Danny sighed, turning his icy blue eyes to the laptop sitting on the coffee table. He couldn't see it but he knew the Dark-Net was up and running like never before.

Being restricted to an apartment because he didn't want to get caught by the government (again) left Danny with a lot of time to make new updates and create new sections of the Dark-Net that hadn't previously been thought off.

Danny knew he could easily go out any time and use his ghost powers to get around but it, honestly, just wasn't the same as walking outside and strolling down the streets.

The only time he talked to anyone was when he talked to Batman over video-chat at the end of the day. Danny tried to prolong his chats with the Dark Knight for as long as possible because most of his days were boring in an almost depressing way.

The teen had been able to get a hold of Sam and Tucker once, earlier in the week. The boy had tried contacting them a dozen times after but they had yet to pick up and talk to him again. It confused Danny since the one and only time he had talked to them, they were fine and relived. He had yet to find out where they went.

Danny sighed to himself before walking out of the bathroom and falling on the couch again. He dragged his laptop into his lap and began going through a mental checklist he had created for himself when he decided to check his systems.

It was the fifth time he did it that day.

Just as he was about to buy a pet off the American black market so he could have a buddy, there was a knock at his window. Danny immediately assumed it was Batman because the Dark Knight always crawled through his window and Danny had soon learned to keep it locked at all times because of Batman. As the teen got up, he grabbed his water bottle off the table. As he put the opening to his mouth and tilted his head up, Danny drew his curtains back to look out the window.

Then he promptly did a spit-take all over his nice, clean window and began coughing up a lung.

Sam beamed at him from behind the pane, waving her hand. Tucker had been waving beside her but Danny's reaction sent him into a fit of laughter, hand over his eyes and pointing at his friend's absolutely stunned face and reaction.

Danny's coughing fit calmed and, eyes wide, he wandered off to his puny kitchenette. He grabbed a towel, ventured back to the window, and wiped off all the water he had just spit all over it. He blatantly ignored his friends, whom both continued on with their greetings: Sam waving and Tucker laughing his butt off.

After throwing the towel in a cabinet to be soon forgotten, Danny walked back over, unlocked his window, and opened it. The two teens stuck there heads through and Sam sang a warm "Surprise~!"

Tucker's mocking laughter continued on.

"Is there a reason you two decided to suddenly show up at my window after not speaking to me for a week?" Danny asked, putting his hands on the sill, leaning forward, and looking down at his two friends' faces with an annoyed look.

"Sam wanted to make it a surprise." Tucker stated, shrugging as he called and wiped the tears from his eyes.

Sam beamed. "I also wanted to make you suffer."

"Why?"

Sam grabbed Danny's shirt and dragged him down to her level. "You almost got yourself killed, Boy! Why didn't you see the troops?! Why, Danny, why!?"

"She's been worried." Tucker commented, shrugging nonchalantly. The cocoa-skinned teen pulled himself fully through the window and landed roughly on the floor with a small thud. He quickly got up on his feet again, dusting himself off.

Danny pulled Sam fully through the window and then promptly dropped her on the floor. Sam glared up at him while Danny laughed. The ebony-haired girl grabbed his ankle and pulled hard. Danny yelped as he went down and landed on his side in front of the girl.

Tucker cackled at the two before he was pulled back onto the floor beside the two. He glared at Sam and Danny's grinning faces.

The ebony-haired boy got up first and asked the two below him. "Alright, now that we got our little rivalry over and done with, how the heck did you find me? Only Batsy knows where I am and I'm pretty sure you guys haven't talked to him in awhile."

"We knew you were in Gotham." Tucker stated, also getting up from the ground with his female friend. "We just didn't know where in Gotham."

"And finding you was a pain." Sam commented, shaking her head.

"I'm me. What do you expect?" Danny asked sarcastically, grinning at the thought of his friends not being able to find him.

Tucker stuck his tongue out and said "Anyways… I had to do some serious tracking over the Dark-Net to find where you were holed up because when I hacked into the government, apparently they just lost you. And the only one who knows where you were was…"

"Batman." Sam said, shrugging in a way that said she knew that would have been the answer anyways.

Danny made a face. "He's Bats. If you think you can hide from him, you're in for a big surprise, buddy."

"We know." Tucker and Sam stated together. Danny grinned while he got up and got his drink, taking another sip.

"So~… Have you done anything recently?" Tucker asked curiously.

Danny grimaced. "I've done nothing. Nope. Nada. Zilch."

Sam slapped a hand to Danny's forehead, sporting a worried look while the boy gave her an irritated glance. "Are you ok? You don't just do nothing. Oh my gosh, are you even Danny?"

The teen in question shoved Sam's hand away and stated "Yes, I'm Danny, you brain-dead corpse."

Sam and Tucker smiled at each other relieved.

"He's still Danny." Tucker commented, making Sam laugh under her breath.

Danny glared at them, not amused in the slightest. "I probably would've done something more productive with my time if I had been allowed to go outside. I can't do that without possibly getting mauled by a bunch of US troops."

"You could always go outside dressed as a girl again." Tucker stated, giggling and quickly dodging to the side and out of the way of a lamp Danny had thrown at him.

Sam snorted, laughing as well and taking cover with Tucker.

"We agreed never to talk about that again!" Danny yelled, pointing at his two friends who had ducked behind his counter.

Sam and Tucker peeked over the counter, grinning, and the girl said "No, you made us agree to never speak of it against our will. That doesn't count."

Danny slapped a hand over his face and groaned. His two friends gave him a thumbs up.

Sam stood up and strode over to Danny's small bedroom. She rummaged through his stuff, making her two guy friends look at each other out of the corner of their eyes questioningly. Sam strolled out of the boy's bedroom again and dumped a change of clothes in his arms before shoving a grey and black beanie over his head and eyes. Danny slipped the hat from his blue eyes while Sam pointed to the bathroom. The ebony-haired boy rolled his eyes before trudging off to do as told.

Tucker just snorted at the whole ordeal.

Danny walked back out of the bathroom after changing into a pair of dark-washed jeans, a white t-shirt, and a black jacket over the whole thing with some black boots. The beanie was still over his head and pulled down over his ears. He gave his friend a questioning look.

"Alright. Let's go out." Sam said and she headed for the door. Tucker stumbled after her, not ready for her to give a command so quickly.

Danny stared after the two, stunned. "Are you nuts?!"

Sam peeked back into the room and stated "No. All it takes is a little wardrobe change and a new accessory to throw anybody off someone else's trail. One time, someone was chasing me and all I did was shrug off my jacket, tie it around my waist, and put on some shades. Idiots ran right past me."

Danny looked at himself and asked "Are you sure about this?"

"Yep." Sam said, popping the 'p'. "Just keep your head mostly down in a non-suspicious way and you'll go places."

"And by places, you mean jail?"

Tucker stuck his head back in as well and whined "Come on, Danny. If you get caught, you'll just sneak out again anyways. It's not like it's too big of a problem for you."

Danny shrugged before following his two friends out of the apartment. He made sure to keep his head down near the cameras but made a show of having fun with his two friends for the video-feed. They walked out onto the open sidewalk and turned down the street, heading for the mall.

Much to their amusement, they walked right past a couple of troops, who looked right at them and waved halfway to their destination.

As they got to Gotham City Mall, they walked in and joined the throng of people in the large structure: teens hanging out for the day with their friends, older women catching up with their old buddies, parents watching their kids as they walked around, and the occasional loner who sat reading on a bench or people-watching from their spot.

The three teens, blending in with all the other high-school seniors, went to the nearest shop so Danny could get a new 'disguise' for the time being.

After deciding on a dark blue t-shirt with a black vest over and black jeans, the three teens bought the outfit with a couple of others like it before they went off to pig out in the food court. There they caught up on what the others has missed in the last month, as they all had been busy doing their own thing: Danny trying to escape jail, Sam fretting over her friend, and Tucker attempting to bribe officials into letting his buddy walk free without success.

Sam and Tucker were captivated and amused by the story of Area 51. Even though everyone in the underworld pretty much knew it existed because of a wonderful something called hacking, someone had yet to find schematics for the complex or what they did there. The government was, at least, smart enough not to record that stuff on computers or put it on a hack-able server.

Danny also told them about his supposed "reform" he had to do. He told his friends that the government sucked at making sure he didn't do anything illegal and that Batman was receiving more progress by simply standing next to him sometimes, when he decided to watch Danny quietly. The teen said he hadn't really changed sides yet, standing in the middle as an anti-hero, and he had yet to figure out if he could make a total reform.

Sam and Tucker shrugged uneasily, not too sure themselves about Danny's fate.

After they finished eating, the three went off and went to random stores for the fun of it. It wasn't everyday they got out of the house for something other than a job or a weekly catch up on work statuses and such. For once, they were just a bunch of normal teens who were being a bunch of idiots. They even paid Tucker to ride the carousel in the huge mall.

The cocoa-skinned boy chose the llama seat and flipped his friends off as he went around in a circle over and over again.

Tucker was thoroughly yelled at by all the moms watching from the sidelines.

Then Danny decided to be typical Danny and he and his friends broke into the mall's control room, knocking the guards out and throwing them in a storage closet.

As they shut the door, Danny pondered something.

"What?" Sam asked.

"You know… I never said sorry to Area 51's janitor for destroying his closet."

Tucker snorted before Danny shrugged and they moved on.

Falling into the main control's seat, Danny cracked his knuckles before looking over the controls. He pressed the intercom button and the three watched as everyone looked around, ready to hear whatever announcement was about to be made.

Looking over the security cameras, Danny stopped on one of the groups of teens and zoomed in on them. Leaning over into the mic, he said "You there."

They watched as the teens looked every which way, as well as all the other occupants of the mall.

"No. You. Right there." Danny stated, smiling as people continued to look around confused. Sam and Tucker cracked up behind him. Danny sent them a questioning look over his shoulder and Tucker pointed to one of the teens wearing a red shirt. Danny leaned forward, a bit more towards the microphone and said "Red shirt. Flaming skull thingy. Jeans."

The boy's friends looked at the teen with wide eyes while the boy looked around wildly.

Danny continued on, saying "Skull Boy. …would you join my army of the undead?"

Sam and Tucker laughed behind their hands behind him while the boy slumped, completely and utterly confused.

Danny laid on his couch, content to just watch TV for the time being. It was eleven o'clock at night and he had yet to go to bed. For the moment, he was happy just watching a bunch of cop shows like Stalker, Person of Interest, and Criminal Minds while he lounged around.

Sam and Tucker had left just a bit earlier, as they had rented a room because it had taken a few days after getting to Gotham to find Danny and they refused to sleep in a refrigerator box under one of the underpasses. They were getting their money's worth from that motel (ignoring the fact the money was stolen and all…).

As one of the repeats started up, Danny picked up his laptop and set it in his lap, over the blanket he had draped around him. He pressed a code sequence before the laptop began to automatically call someone.

The words 'Calling: Batsy' flashed across the screen repeatedly.

Danny waited four rings before the Dark Knight answered and looked at the clock. "You were pushing it today, weren't you?"

"I went out and got back a few hours ago. And there was a special on TV so I kinda wanted to watch that instead of talk to you." Danny practically insulted, shrugging casually.

Batman rolled his eyes before saying "I heard about your little excursion to the mall…"

"You did?"

"Yes… The news is having a field day berating the poor security guards that were locked in a closet by a couple of teenagers who asked people publically if they had unicorns, heard voices, or if some of them were high because, and your words were, 'dang, you look like you've been smoking some crack, man'." Batman stated dryly, tilting his head to the side ever so slightly.

Danny smiled. "Good times, right there."

Batman rolled his eyes and said "Olsen wants your head on a pike."

"Did you tell him it was me?!"

"I didn't have to tell him. He heard the recordings and recognized the way you insulted some people as the way you insult him."

Danny hummed. "Do I insult him that much?"

Batman stared dryly at the teen. "Yes."

"Good." Danny commented, giving a sarcastic thumbs up.

Batman sighed, long and loud with his hand over his face. "I'm going to assume the other two with you were Sam and Tucker."

"Yeppers. They tracked me down and we had a blast." Danny responded, smiling at the wonderful memories they had made that day.

It had been wonderful for them, anyways.

"Outstanding." Batman commented.

Danny grinned. "Yeah. Well since you know how my day went, I'm-a gonna go now. TV to watch and sleep to catch up on and all."

Batman nodded before saying "Talk to you tomorrow."

"Talk to you then." Danny responded before he hung up and shut his laptop. He placed it on his desk and leaned back, snuggling into his blanket contently and smiling at the TV like a school-boy seeing a pretty girl for the first time ever.

Wonderfulness, right? *sarcasm implied* You guys are just gonna love me next chapter.

Thanks to these people for favoriting and/or following: ZeAwsumOtaku.

Reviews:

KuriMaster: Danny is Danny so... XD

Eirena Gaia: Sleep. Seriously. Glad you enjoyed, that general is weird! XD Hope you feel better soon!

KainVixenheim: Pay him and he will. XD That's pleasant.

Anime Hotty Lover. 18: XD I know what you're talking about. He can be that way a lot, don't you think?

Scheffelman: Trust me. I know.

Astroshadow: Danny? Behave? That's hilarious. XD

Sarra Torrens: He definitely needs a big, old Gibb slap. :D

H. H. Xia: Danny's messed up that way. Not much we can do about it. XD

Guest of Honor: Yeah, well, when you have a crafty child in your hands, you go a little crazy when making sure he's still there. XD

Roselin: XD I'm-a so happy you enjoyed~! I love making people smile and laugh!

Shadow: I don't know if I'm going to have Clockwork show up physically. We'll have to see. XD Probably from a sailor's family, right? I surpassed your expectations? ...SWEET!

YumiStar: I think we're all with Danny on this one! XD

Chicaalterego: I loved the idea but I've done so many dimension-hopping things, it's becoming a pain to write. Go ahead and knock yourself out with your own stories though! XD

Angela: Ok, that's painful. But glad I could make your day!

Ninuhuju: That does suck. Your DJ sucks. Sorry bout that.

Bibbledoo: The Robins were mentioned (briefly) back in ch.4. So they're here, we just don't see them. I actually despise poetry cause I suck at it. *.*

ZeAwsumOtaku: XD Aw, thanks so much dude! That means a ton to me! And the Robins were mentioned very briefly back in ch.4 but I don't think I'm gonna put them in. *shrugs* But so happy you're enjoying!

Grava: You don't say... XD

The Keeper of Worlds: ...irony...

HalfaWitchPsychicGirl: XD Aw, glad I could lift your spirits! Makes me so happy to make others happy!

SweetyKinz: DUDE. YOUR REVIIEWS ALWAYS FRIKKIN MAKE MY DAY. ALWAYS. *hugs you tightly*