Jake woke up and yawned. He rubbed his face tiredly before blinking in surprise as he heard tapping of typing. He turned to see Danny still at his computer.
"Morning," Jake called to the halfa. Danny blinked in surprise and turned to Jake and gave him a smile.
"Morning, sleep well?" Danny greeted him.
"Yeah, actually. You did get any sleep?" Jake asked hopefully.
"Nope," Danny answered, trying not to feel annoyed by that.
"So you've been on your computer all night," Jake remarked, feeling sympathetic towards the halfa. Danny blinked before he realised he had a two hour gap in his memory. He shrugged it off, he probably just didn't notice that so much time passed while immersed in his ghost files.
"Yeah. I've only got ten more files to go through," Danny replied.
"You've been mashed," Spud mumbled in a vaguely heroic tone while he slept. Jake chuckled.
"Yeah, he's been talking about potatoes all night. Know what that's about or should we be concerned?" Danny commented, sparing the genius slacker a curious glance. Jake smirked.
"Spud has this whole dream world where he's a potato based hero. I think he's called Spudman. Don't worry, it's no more weird than normal," Jake explained. Danny nodded in understanding.
Jake stretched and got to his feet, peering over Danny's shoulder curiously as the halfa read a file on the Box Ghost. He snorted.
"You actually have a file on that guy," Jake laughed.
"I have a file on every ghost I meet. I even have one on Dani and myself," Danny admitted. Danny tapped a short comment at the bottom of the file to state that sightings have reduced since the disasteroid to not daily but more than once or twice a week. Jake blinked in surprise.
"You have a file on you?" Jake commented. Danny sighed.
"I made it after there was an incident with Desiree when I forgot everything and lost my powers. It's just in case I need help remembering certain things. All my files are password protected with a code that only Sam, Tucker and Jazz know. I haven't gotten around to explaining all this to my parents. They know I have files and I've shown them a few that they wanted or needed to see. But it's not important for them to have access to them all the time," Danny elaborated. Jake nodded. Danny clicked on to the next file which happened to be on Klemper while Jake left the room to use the bathroom. Thankfully there were plenty of spare toothbrushes in the cabinet that for some reason Jack stocked up on a couple of months ago.
Jazz met Jake in the hall on her way to Danny's room, she was a natural early-riser.
"Hey morning Jake," Jazz greeted him cheerfully. With the media off their backs and Danny back home, she had been able to recover from the stressful week and a half and she was back to her optimistic happy self.
"Morning Jazz," Jake returned with a smile. Jazz glanced at his appearance before offering him an apologetic smile.
"Sorry you don't have any spare clothes here. If you'd like we could go to the mall today and get you some," Jazz offered. Jake smirked but shook his head.
"Nah, it's fine. Me and Spud will probably be heading back to New York by tomorrow. Spud's story isn't gonna last long, especially if his parents actually look up the skateboard competition Spud lied about," Jake assured her honestly. Jake wasn't sure if he would be going back home but he could always stop by his house to grab some provisions before coming back. Jazz nodded slowly in understanding.
They arrived at Danny's door and Jazz sighed softly in disappointment. Danny's bed was unslept in.
"Hey little brother. You doing alright?" Jazz called warmly.
"Yeah. I'm fine Jazz. You?" Danny answered distractedly as he typed something on his computer. Jazz hummed in confirmation as she looked over Danny's shoulder to check what he was doing.
"You're still doing that?" Jazz remarked surprised.
"Hey, I've been meaning do to this for ages. I was putting it off because it's such a big job. I'm kind of disappointed that I got so much done. I have no idea what I'm gonna do all night tonight," Danny retorted with a soft sigh. Jazz glanced worriedly at her brother.
"I'm sure this is just temporary Danny. Hopefully this will cure itself before long, that or mom and dad will find a cure," Jazz offered gently. Danny hummed in uncertain agreement before opening his last file which happened to be on himself. He skimmed the file and made a note about the danger of trapping his powers in his body for extended periods of time before shutting his files and leant back with a bored sigh.
"Done," he announced. Jazz glanced at Spud worriedly as he started mumbling in his sleep again.
"Is he alright?" she inquired with concern.
"It's fine. That's completely normal," Jake assured her.
"I'll make breakfast. Hungry Danny?" Jazz decided. Danny frowned before shrugging.
"A bit," he informed her. Jazz nodded. Due to his elevated energy and no longer needing food other than for nutritional purposes, Jazz and Maddie had decided to cater to that in meals. That meant giving Danny small portions but making sure that everything his human body needed to function was present in any meal he actually ate. They had told Danny that he had to eat nutritious food whenever he did eat, which meant no junk food. That hadn't gone down well. Danny had argued that since he didn't need to eat much, then shouldn't he be allowed whatever he wanted but his sister and mother won the argument by pointing out that junk food didn't have what he needed. That and threatening him with extra chores since he no longer needed sleep.
Jake and Danny followed the red head downstairs to the kitchen where she made Danny a fruit smoothie packed with vitamins and minerals as well as a boiled egg and bread and butter. It was a large breakfast considering Danny's lack of appetite but it had everything he needed. Obediently Danny ate the meal, forcing himself to eat the entire meal. It was unlikely that he would want to eat again that day. Meanwhile Jazz and Jake had their own breakfast of boiled eggs and bread. By the time they had finished eating, Maddie, Jack and a number of Young Justice had joined them. Jimmy arrived twenty minutes later and Spud and Danielle ended up emerging from their sleep almost an hour later. A steady flow of conversation kept Danny occupied while everyone else ate, something he was grateful for since he had spent the whole night in silence, more or less alone despite Jake and Spud being in the room.
After breakfast, Maddie, Jack and Jimmy disappeared down to the lab to return to their research for a cure for Danny's condition. Tucker and Sam arrived at the house an hour later. Jake and Spud said their farewells and walked to the train station to head back to New York, but Jake promised to come back that evening. He was still bothered by that magical surge of power during the press conference and he wanted to have a word with his grandfather and Fu dog before dismissing it. Zatanna and Miss Martian were able to change their clothes with ease, and Zatanna was kind enough to conjure a change of clothes for the rest of her team. It had taken a lot of debating that morning for them to decide to change out of their costumes in order to stay incognito during their stay in Amity Park. Zatanna was kind enough to conjure a change of clothes for Jimmy also, much to the boy genius's relief. Aqualad told Tucker, Jimmy, Jazz and Danny's parents his name and asked to be called Kaldur and Miss Martian revealed her Martian name, M'gann. Danny, Danielle, Jake and Sam had already known their names due to their time together the previous year.
Kid Flash decided against taking an undercover name and just told them to call him Wally. Superboy was more than happy to reveal his name being Conner, having a lot of respect for Danny and even told Danny of Superman's acceptance of him and adoption of the clone as his brother. Zatanna and Artemis saw no point in revealing that their hero names were also their actual names. Robin, as usual refused to say his name and Rocket decided against telling the others hers, at least for now.
Deciding that they should try and look for clues about what the magical surge was the previous day, the large group of teens agreed to split into three teams and go around the town. Danielle, Danny, M'gann, Sam and Robin were one team. Tucker, Wally, Zatanna and Artemis were the second, and Kaldur, Jazz, Conner and Rocket were the third team. Tucker and Zatanna wanted to check around the Town Hall more and so their team went that way. It was decided to keep Danny out of the public eye as much as possible so they decided his team should check around the docks and the quieter parts of town. That left Jazz's team to check out the more built up areas and the park. They agreed to meet back up at Fenton Works in three hours' time.
Halfway into their second hour, they still hadn't found any clues as to what that magical surge had been. Zatanna and Jake had spoken the previous night about what that surge could have been and Jake offered to go to his grandfather to get his thoughts on the situation and maybe even a protective amulet for Danny as he seemed to be the target. But she was starting to regret not having Jake around to consult with. Jazz's team had no luck either. Kaldur, with his background in Atlantean magic, knew what to look for but he saw no signs of magic anywhere. Danny's team had the least hope of finding anything but Robin watched Danny closely for any signs of discomfort and M'gann kept her mind open for any suspicious thoughts or psychic disturbances.
Suddenly Danny gasped and a stream of blue mist erupted from his lips. His ghost sense. Sam frowned worriedly at the sight. No one was happy with Danny fighting ghosts with his condition, but they all knew that they couldn't stop him. Danny instantly changed into his ghost form and Danielle followed him. Danny jumped into the air and scanned the area. A missile appeared out of nowhere and Danny dodged it. He was faster than normal but they all knew it was because of his elevated energy levels. Danielle scrambled out of the way and Danny shot the missile with a ghost ray to prevent any property damage and to protect M'gann, Robin and Sam below them, putting a shield around them simultaneously. Danny blinked. He felt so sure of himself. He shouldn't feel this comfortable fighting in his condition. It was almost like this wasn't his first fight since getting the collar off. He shrugged the odd feeling away and turned towards the source of the missile.
Skulker looked stunned. Danny had never been this powerful before. His ghost sense had a wider range too. He hadn't been ready to attack but he couldn't run away after Danny sensed him. Danny scowled at the hunter and folded his arms.
"Rookie mistake?" Danny asked, slightly surprised that Skulker had been so hasty. He usually didn't sense the hunter until Skulker was ready for him.
"How did you get so powerful whelp?" Skulker retorted in surprise, ignoring Danny's taunt. Danny smirked.
"That's for me to know and you to never find out," Danny answered. Maybe this elevated energy thing wasn't so bad after all. Danielle drifted back towards Sam, Robin and M'gann. She, like the others, could see that Danny was fully in control and didn't need back-up for now.
Unexpectedly Danny charged forward at Skulker and kicked the ghost powerfully. Danny caught the ghost before Skulker could crash through the roof of a warehouse nearby with his telekinesis. He then fired a ghost ice blast at the ground and created a solid block that he slammed Skulker into before leaving the ghost dazed on the cracked ice, leaving the pavement below intact. Danny reached for his thermos, somehow he felt compelled to bring one with him at all times. He sucked the ghost inside and landed beside the ice and put a hand on it. His eyes pulsed blue and green simultaneously and he melted the ice, leaving a puddle of cold water behind, the only sign of the ghost fight. Danny clipped the thermos to his belt and changed back to human. He turned to the others, all four of them were shocked by Danny. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"Guess having my energy elevated is good for fighting ghosts," he commented, breaking the stunned silence. The four others nodded numbly.
"We… we should keep going," Robin managed and Danielle changed back to human as the team resuming patrolling the warehouses at the docks.
So everyone's still clueless but Danny is having some odd thoughts and compulsions due to his orders from Klarion.
What do you guys think? Is the elevated energy a good or bad thing? A lot stronger but unable to sleep and severely reduced appetite. Or… is there more going on than we can see?
Let me know what you guys think of the story.
Until the next chapter.
