Bruce Wayne hasn't spoken to his closest relatives in a very long time. So when his cousin Madeline Fenton Née Wayne calls and asks if her only son can stay with him despite having not seen each other for decades since they were children and his public reputation as a playboy with a soft spot for 'charity cases' ( Not that he would ever think of them like that ) just one month after the Amity Park fiasco he is reasonably suspicious. No responsible parent would just leave their child with practically strangers that have bad reputations.

( when had Maddie ever been a responsible trustworthy parent though? Danny doesn't know if their 'love' would extend to if he was a ghost their attention certainly never extended to his human self Danny's parents love him and his sister very much, but they are obsessed with ghosts so so much and to them their kids just aren't ghosts nor interested in hunting them )

Especially when a quick background search on the bat computer whilst 'catching up' shows that his nephew is the same kid that not only confronted Superman on world wide television and made Batman's instincts wary, but also practically commanded the town to kick out the Justice league before they could finish investigating and later unofficially negotiated a treaty with the town's local extra dimensional beings that Batman and thereby the league now acknowledge as ghosts due to Zatanna and Deadman among others. Batman had never wanted to strangle Superman so much.

( Especially since Batman also suspects he was the main fighting force behind the Ecto Act Laws being repealed which ultimately gave not only Batman but the Justice League and the world leaders a headache when ghosts started coming out of the town and wrecking havoc to the world's dismay, any attempts to contact the town for help was replied to with a big ridiculing smile "Help with what? Ghosts don't exist." And contact with the previous GIW agents revealed that the destroyed tech couldn't be rebuilt because they were stolen from the local ghost hunters in the first place )

Despite knowing that he was probably agreeing to something he would later regret he accepted to care for his nephew, if only because he had been meaning to call Madeline, or rather 'Maddie', in order to negotiate a contract with her company 'FentonWorks' in order to acquire ghost defense systems and refusing would make negotiations awkward knowing that his cousin had refused collaboration with all other companies that asked on the principle that ghosts don't exist.

( Even if the Fentons had refused to sign the petition to repeal the Anti Ecto Acts or acknowledge the Amity Park Treaty they didn't appreciate the league's reaction to their son's question they also hadn't asked Danny if he was okay afterward though, due to moping about the news, and later, the treaty )

In fact, the following negotiations to enter contract with Wayne industries to protect their son after he leaves the cities limits was surprisingly easy considering how much they had vehemently refused other companies. Too easy, his eyes narrowed as he tried to detect the reason from her words.

( The Fenton parents have repeatedly proven to be especially gullible to people they consider friends/family. They have also proven that they are stubbornly determined to see the good in them no matter how much they are taken advantage of. Especially when it comes to their children )

Finishing the call with the promise from him to have the legal team speak with them plus a free plane ticket for their son and a promise from them to send multiple ghost shields, weapons, and tech along with their blueprints before their son arrives in one week Bruce stood up from the monitor to head up the elevator to the manor. Alfred, his butler, will need to be informed along with his sons.

Dick Grayson, his eldest son and superhero alias Nightwing, is staying at the manor to help with his other sons, using Zeta beams to go to work and patrol his claimed city Bloodhaven.

( "Get down from the chandelier! For God's sake Dick you're an adult!" "Make me!" )

Jason Todd, his second son current alias Red Hood, had recently decided that he missed Alfred and agreed to be revealed as to have miraculously survived to the public after finding out from Alfred that Batman actually had tried to kill Joker, multiple times, and failed.

( "Old Man! You Goddamned MotherFucking Hypocritical ass-" )

Tim Drake, his third son current alias Red Robin, is managing the Wayne Industries technology R&D after having graduated from school early at the age of 15.

( "When was the last time you slept Tim, and what cup of coffee are you at?" *Sip* "48" "hours?" "Sure" *Sssiiip* " Young maste Tim awoke from his tranquilizer induced sleep 6 hours ago master Bruce )

Damian Wayne, 13 his youngest and only biological son current alias Robin, is about to start his freshman year of Highschool at Gotham academy after summer ends having refused to attend middle school.

( "Father, why must I attend this institution! My education is far more refined than these peasants'." "But you need to learn how to socialize Babybird" "Shut up Grayson!" )

His adopted daughter Casandra Wayne alias Orphan had decided to vacation with Barbara Gordon the chief of police's daughter and alias Batgirl during the summer, but should return before the summer ends.

( *sign language* "I don't care that they stole from your sweets stash! You manipulated your brothers into having a prank war that escalated into sabotaging each other's equipment! If I hadn't noticed someone could have died!" )

Just imagining them reacting to this news is painful enough, but now he actually has to tell them. Luckily enough for Bruce, if you'd call it that, it was actually time for dinner 10 minutes ago so they're all at the dining table waiting for him. Best to get it over with at once.

" How nice of you to join us, Master Bruce" Bruce winces internally at Alfred's tone.

" I was held up by a call from my cousin, Madeline." Everyone's eyes at the table sharpened at that.

" B, I didn't know you had relatives" Dick said in a patronizing tone, his eyes though were narrowed with suspicion.

" I concur, I was not informed of any other relatives by moth- anyone" Damian followed up but corrected himself in the sentence, his mother had been a sore topic for awhile and his grandfather a forbidden one. His eyes were narrowed but held some insecurities from another perceived lie.

" Yeah Old Man, who's the woman?" Jason had straightened from his previous position of leaning on the table, and Tim was silent but had temporarily lowered his tablet.

" Miss Madeline is Master Bruce's cousin on his uncle's side they briefly met as children and I do believe she lives in Amity Park with her husband and children. They have not been in contact since they were young though." Alfred informed them.

" Which begs the question of what they want now, right?" Dick asked and Bruce nodded.

" Madeline wanted to ask if her son could stay with me for a period of time, I agreed." Chaos was the best description to what next transpired as they angrily shouted.

" But Father-"

" Fuc-"

" eed more coffe-"

" New baby broth-"

" Quiet" Bruce ordered with a glare.

" Why'd you agree!" Jason yelled in the resulting quiet, never one to be ordered especially by him.

" You are all aware of the recent rise in ghost attacks due to the failed investigation of Amity Park, correct?"

" Yeah, what's that got to do with her?" Jason continued suspiciously.

" Nothing, except she's one of the only two experts in ghostly defense technology."

" Who's the other"

" Her husband"

" Shit" no other competitor means monopoly and Jason knows that Bruce would agree to a lot in order to gain that defense technology, that the 'a lot' comes in the form of a civilian kid when Bruce has weak spots towards children escapes no ones notice at the table. " Is it a trap?"

" Unknown, but after I agreed to take in their son they agreed to practically giving away their inventions and blueprints. They had previously refused all contracts regarding their technology with spite, that they gave them up so easily is weird in consideration."

" Did they say why they were throwing their son out?" Jason asked.

" Jason!" Dick reproached.

" What, it's true."

" They said he was having a tough time at school; however, their son Daniel Fenton was the one who kicked the league out of town." Eyes widened as they took in that information.

" Hold on, your nephew was the one who was holding the high tech device practically as a threat and convinced the town to make the Justice League leave!" Dick exclaimed.

" Yes, the 'high tech device' as you put it was much much later" as in ten minutes ago" confirmed to be a containment device for ghosts. Presumably, he had meant to release a ghost he caught personally judging by the state of his clothes to prove their existence, but something in him had stopped him from releasing it."

" Wait, he debated releasing a threat in the middle of a crowd!" Dick shouted.

" Obviously it couldn't have been that strong if it was captured by that coward Grayson" Damian scoffed.

( Elsewhere Danny sneezed as he was contemplating how much the destruction had toned down since the treaty. Only one or two buildings per day get destroyed! It used to be a building or two per ghost! Hopefully it's not a cold or a new power coming in )

" Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, huh old man. Probably thought he'd be saving them by revealing their existence, dumbass couldn't even go through with it" Jason laughed capitalizing on the fact that the kid's mother was a Wayne to insult Bruce.

( Another reality Danny sneezed. There are 32 ghosts in his thermos, that's somewhere in between another 32-64 buildings total. To release or not to release, eh won't be his problem if the justice league's in charge of getting them back )

" I definitely need more coffee for this." Tim looked down at the table to find his empty cup.

Meanwhile, Bruce sat down at his seat and started eating realizing his food was getting colder by the minute. It had been dinner when he interrupted after all.

" No matter how weak the ghost he caught was, it doesn't change the fact that he almost released it" Bruce continued, " While he stays here, we need to figure out what his goals are and if we have to stop them. We also need to figure out if he knows what happened to the town's previous hero Phantom."

" The one that hasn't been sighted since before the parade, would he know where he disappeared to?" Dick asked.

" The containment device that he used was too similar to Phantom's to be a coincidence. While talking to Madeline I discovered that Phantom apparently stole their inventions all the time, however I find it unlikely that a ghost managed to sneak into their lab often enough to take their equipment, let alone know how to use it. I suspect Daniel smuggled equipment to Phantom in return for the town's protection."

( In the Fenton's lab/basement a ghost party was currently occurring celebrating the news of Phantom 'retiring' and Danny taking notice threatened to leave them in the thermos until he left if they didn't break it up. Upstairs Jack obliviously ate fudge while Maddie cooked dinner-Illinois is in a different time zone after all- hotdogs were on the menu tonight and Danny had already prepped the guns to kill them with for when they mutate. )

" Is there a chance he is Phantom?" Tim asked looking up from the empty cup he'd been glaring at.

" No, I found surveillance footage of him and two other teens helping out Phantom to support my helpers theory. In fact, I think someone did something to Phantom the day of the Parade and it left Fenton desperate enough to almost open the device. I think there was someone behind the justice league not finding anything wrong with the town that day."

( Vlad Masters looked up from the papers he was working on and narrowed his eyes. "Someone is trying to uncover one of my schemes. I thought Daniel was taking a break, I must hurry to finish these before he leaves muahahaha!" )

" But if he was helping Phantom protect the town, doesn't that mean he's good?" Dick piped up.

" No, if anything it makes him look more suspicious. Even with Phantom missing, he managed to negotiate a treaty between Amity and the ghosts and decided to leave town immediately afterwards to stay with his billionaire uncle who has a penchant for adopting black-haired blue-eyed teens and is secretly batman" Jason stated.

" Well, we must prepare for young master Daniel's arrival then" Alfred spoke up and all eyes focused on Bruce's reply.

" Yes, he must not find out about our secret until we know what he wants. This will be difficult, he'll be here for at least a year if he doesn't reveal his intentions immediately."

" Bruce you couldn't keep the secret for a few weeks from me when I was nine" Dick replied in disbelief.

" Irrelevant"