Most nights he slept in a ghost proof sleeping bag underneath Danny's bed to make sure he was safe from discovery whether the grown Fentons barged into the room in the middle of the night, or he went intangible in his sleep and phased through the floor and right into their laps. It was cozy, reminded him he wasn't in the Ghost Zone anymore. That was when he found it in himself to sleep at all.
So many nights he'd woken up with the intense fear that he was somewhere else, somewhere dark, and cramped and all alone, with that vicious laughter ringing in his ears. During the day he could ignore it easily enough, there was always something to keep him occupied. Nightmares were nothing new, he'd been having them since he'd found out what he was.
The questions haunted him, so many and none he had any guarantee of ever answering. How had it happened? Why had it happened. Who had done it. More importantly, who had he been waiting for, and why hadn't they shown up? Even without any memory of the event, without any images, or sounds but that laughter, the feelings left over when he woke up with his face smothered into his tear soaked pillow to muffle the screams told him enough. It hadn't been peaceful.
It was on nights like that, he knew he didn't want the answers.
This was one such night. He looked up at the flat surface above him, heard the steady breathing of the kid sleeping there. Like he'd done the night before, and the night before that, and many nights before that, he slid out from under the bed and opened the curtain. Under the pale moonlight the room became bright as day to what he assumed was already an unnatural night vision.
One last check to make sure the kid was asleep and he slipped out the window, carefully closing both it and the curtain behind him.
The air was crisp and clean, a cool night breeze feeing him of the clammy humidity of his little sleeping place. This darkness he could handle, the stars and moon, brightening up the quiet residential area. Too bad it wasn't what he craved.
The noise and bustle of a city that never slept, the smell of exhaust fumes from hundreds of cars filling his nostrils. Flying through the air with the freedom of knowing that someone would be there to pull him to safety were he to fall. A warm cup of coco after a hard nights work that left him with so much energy, yet kept him sleeping soundly the second his head touched the pillow.
These were all feelings that just barely tickled his consciousness, easy to ignore during the day when he was keeping an eye out for threats to the kid. Or at least they had been, until he'd agreed to go to that carnival with all of those clowns and that man who spoke like he knew him. Now even during the day he was haunted by those feelings, now tinged with loneliness and resentment.
That man who was still following him even now, bringing things to the surface he wanted to stay buried. A reminder that whatever he did, it wasn't good enough, that he didn't belong in the world. Didn't belong at that school with the kid and his friends, that they knew it too. He didn't blame them, it was a simple truth, and it was heartwarming that they tried at all.
So the boy they called Red, he couldn't call himself that anymore, wandered away from the quiet suburb and into the very center of the city of Amity Park. Here he could relax, it was familiar a small piece of home. The man was there again, hidden just out of sight. He was ignored and the boy searched out the hot dog stand he'd found on his previous excursions. They had chilidogs there, delicious, greasy, so hot they were almost hard to swallow.
While he walked he counted the little money he had, brushing aside his snowy bangs absent mindedly. A haircut really would be a good idea, that guy was right about Alfred… he tripped, his mind assaulted by the demonic laughter and a piercing headache. For a moment everything was so hot it burned, and he had to pull himself off the ground and stumble over to a street bench.
A few minutes later he could breathe again. He took out the money again and counted through it he'd have to get more or he'd have to choose before the haircut and chili-dog. Lowlifes selling things they shouldn't were hard to come by in this bright, clean city, but they weren't non-existent as his handful of remaining coins could attest to.
Food he didn't need won out over a haircut he sort of needed, and he ate it from the roof of the closest skyscraper he could find. Amity really was tiny for a city, at least compared to the blurry pictures that he woke with some nights. Still, the lights made for a great view.
He stood at the edge of the rooftop. If he fell, would he just wake up back in the Ghost Zone?
It didn't matter, crouched, coiling his muscles tightly, then sprang off the edge, his heart beat raced and for those few moments he could say that he really felt alive. It wasn't like he'd ever fallen before, he didn't need anyone to catch him. Ghosts couldn't have heartbeats, couldn't have the adrenaline rush that came with knowing that all it took to be a splat on the street was one wrong step.
His feet touched down on someone's balcony and a second later he was soaring upwards again, flinging himself to the next rooftop, and the next, and the next.
An exhilarating laugh burst from his throat. When he was like this nothing bothered him, he flew and it felt like nothing, not even his shadow, could catch him.
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Valery walked through the dark city on her way home. Locking up the Nasty Burger got the best overtime, and the extra money would go a long way in making up for the times she was too busy to go to work. It wouldn't have taken so long if she hadn't dropped the keys down the drain just when she'd been about to leave though.
She could just picture her father, waiting worriedly by the door when he was supposed to be heading back to his own late night job. As she crossed the street to her apartment block, a shadow jumped from the roof, leaped across the streetlights like they were stepping stones, then began scaling the next. It stopped halfway up and somersaulted off the wall, flipping off a store sign and landing in front of her.
"Hey Val." Red said, a huge grin on his flushed face. "What're ya doing out so late, a ghost hold up?"
"Just one." She said as the boy mopped his clammy face with his sleeve. "And you? Phantom got you patrolling his haunt." Valery wasn't too surprised to see the young ghost around so late, she didn't know if ghosts even needed sleep, and if they did then this one was definitely nocturnal with how much he'd slept in class recently.
"The boss, nah." He leaned against a pole, catching his breath. "Long as I don't get myself killed, he doesn't care."
"Then what're you doing?" She asked, only now catching the mild smell of smoke wafting off him, the reference to dying only barely registering.
"Getting a snack, some exercise." He laughed. "Scared the pants off a cat burglar a while ago." He looked so relaxed, his hands shoved in his pockets while he spoke gain she noticed how much like a living boy he was. "Was climbing through a window when I hopped in front of him and fell through the fire escape. Proly thought a was the ghost of a… ya know I haven't seen ya around lately."
Apparently school didn't count, like he didn't want Fenton and his dorks knowing they knew each other. How he even knew the boy was still a mystery, but seeing as how the ghost portal was in the Fenton home, Phantom would have had to go through the house to bring Red through, and Red had to go through every time he went home. Fenton probably helped with getting them past his parents, maybe under coercion by the powerful ghost.
The ghost that was somehow controlling Red.
"Listen Red, did Tucker get you my message?" She asked.
"A message?" He cocked his head a little to the side.
Valery groaned. She knew she shouldn't have trusted that boy for something so important, he was just the only one Reds human friends she thought would hear her out.
"Yeah, we really need to talk, you see I've heard from someone who…" She began.
"Wait." Red suddenly looked very uncomfortable, his already pale skin going milk white, the ghostly aura shining through whatever he used to dampen it, wide red eyes narrowed at something behind her. "He's making a move." He gripped her shoulders. "Get inside." The he was scaling the building again, almost at the top in seconds.
Valery was going to call him back, this was no time for jokes, or ghostly weirdness, then there was a swishing sound and something hooked into the wall near the ghost. A shadow, black with just a hint of blue, was after Red. Both of them were gone before she could complete a thought. The thought she did complete was that Phantom knew what she'd been wanting to tell Red and had sent someone to stop her.
It didn't take long to banish those thoughts as ridiculous, but by that time she'd already changed into the Red Huntress and was chasing after them.
It took her a while to spot him darting across the rooftops, he somehow managed to blend into the shadows even with his bright red hoody and still move faster that anyone she'd ever seen. His pursuer was faster still, a man in a mask slowly gaining on the ghost.
"Here!" She steered towards the young ghost and reached an arm for him.
He leaped over the building edge landing behind her just as the man reached for him, she sped away as fast as she could.
"Who is that?" She asked, looking back at the man.
"I told you to go inside." He took her ecto blaster out of her holster and aimed it at the man.
"Is he overshadowed?"
"Nope." He fired off a few shots, some hitting the still running man, knocking him off balance. Her weapons only worked on ghosts, they couldn't hurt humans, but the blasts were enough of a distraction to slow the man down. Still he gained on them, Red swore and gave her back the blaster.
"Listen Val." He felt for something behind him, then tugged at his hoody. "This guy has nothing to do with ghosts. You see my boss, I'd appreciate you not saying anything 'bout it." She would have sworn his piercing red eyes had caught hers right though the visor.
She nodded and he gave her a small, grateful smile, then dived off her board and hit the ground running. He disappeared into the narrower, more shadowy alleys and the man went after. Valery spent almost an hour looking for them, then her cell rang and she knew she had to get home.
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Danny'd thought Red had just been really tired when he'd woken up and the ghost hadn't been sitting by the desk like usual. It wasn't like the ghost needed to shower or get dressed, and he always ate at school, so Danny hadn't thought to wake him up.
After breakfast, when the halfa had looked all around his yard and he still hadn't any sight of his friend he's rushed back upstairs and checked under his bed. Red wasn't there, Danny had pushed down his panic and gone into the basement to check all of the ghost containment equipment, still no young ghost.
His folks lacked the excitement that would have followed had they caught the ghost that'd gotten away at the lake house, they were fixated on some news report about a vigilante. There has to have been zero ghost activity for them to be interested in that.
He went ghost and flew invisibly to the school on the unlikely chance that Red had just wanted to get an early start. Sure enough he caught sight of the ghost at the school.
"Red!" Danny called, he landed in a storage closet and transformed back, he gripped the ghosts shoulders and shook him. "What are you doing!?"
Reds eyes were somewhere behind the halfa when he spoke. "Going to school." Red yawned.
"You can't just disappear like that." Danny half shouted, his worry turning to anger now that he knew the ghost was fine. "I almost thought my folks got you."
"Jeez, nothing happened, Boss. I went for a midnight walk and lost track of time" Red shrugged, sending a pointed look around the hallway, his way of telling Danny not to draw attention."I gotta get to my locker, seeya later"
"You were out all night?!" Danny reached out to stop the ghost, but he just twisted out of reach and walked on, waving without looking back. "Boss." Danny growled. He didn't follow after the ghost, calming himself down as he went to his own locker instead dangerous at night. If something had happened to Red, Danny might not have ever found out.
For all his fancy flips, Red wasn't a very powerful ghost, Skulker, Walker, even the GIW, any of them could have found the young ghost wandering around alone. It wasn't like he expected Red to check in before he went anywhere, he hardly ever had the ghost in his sights at school, but at least during the day any ghost activity would be breaking news. He'd know where to look if Red got taken.
Danny hadn't forgotten about the ectopusses trying to carry his friend off at the carnival. They'd nearly succeeded too.
"Why the long face?" Tucker asked, then carried on before Danny could answer. "Wait." He held a hand in front of the halfa. "Let me guess, it was the ghost."
"He snuck out in the middle of the night." Danny groaned, scrubbing a hand over his face. "He's like a…"
"You're the one who said you were going to release back into the wild when he could take care of himself." Tucker said. "He's gotta learn to take care of himself sometime."
"That's not funny Tuck." Danny sighed. "He could have gotten hurt."
"What going on now?" Sam asked, slinging backpack over her shoulder.
"Red's going through a rebellious phase." Tucker laughed.
Danny was about to object, it wasn't like the ghost had anyone to rebel against, when they got to class. Red was already by his desk, and asleep before school had even started. The halfa groaned and scrubbed a hand over his face.
There was no time for him to wake the ghost before the class started. Mister Lancer walked in and, as per usual, droned on about some poem with so many thees and thous that It was hard to even make sense of.
Surprisingly, the teacher was already halfway through with the lecture before he noticed that one of his students was sound asleep. He wouldn't have noticed at all if it weren't for Dash.
"Mister Lancer." The jock raised his hand. "Reed's sleeping in class again."
Lancer walked up to Red's desk and slammed his book down right next to the boys head. Red woke up instantly, a pencil in his hand , but didn't jump like the rest of the class had been expecting him to.
"Mister Reed." Lancer said in his usual lecturing voice. "I know the poetry of the eighteenth century might seem a little dull to you, but they will make up a large part of you grade this semester."
Red peered down at the book cover and shrugged, handing it back to the teacher. "Meh, I prefer Edward Young." His disinterested gaze was on Lancer only long enough for the lecture to begin anew, then Red looked out the window and barely moved for the rest of the period, like he was sleeping with his eyes open.
Danny wanted to question the ghost about what he'd been doing the night before, but as the rest of the students filed out, Lancer called Red to stay behind. Not long ago and it had been Danny being held back by Lancer almost every day. That hadn't happened in a while.
The ghost showed up to math class ten minutes late, gave the teacher a pass and took a seat near the back. He was asleep minutes later. Danny caught a grin from Valery when she noticed, instead of saying anything, the girl just lifted up her notebook, blocking the teacher's view of the ghost.
By lunch Red had disappeared. Whatever illness he'd put down so teachers allowed him to wear the hoody in class really gave him a lot of leeway, and Danny was given a few extra homework sheets to bring his friend. He hadn't been staying much longer than that for days.
"Man, you need to stop worrying so much." Tucker said, shaking his head. "Let's go catch a movie, get your mind off it, you in Sam?"
"I don't think…" Danny began.
"If you smother him he'll just blow up at you again." Sam said. "A monster movie's just what you need.
So after school, instead of going home the three of them went to a weekday showing of a B rate horror movie. The effects were awful, the acting was awful, and the plot made no sense. It was the most relaxed Danny had been in months.
"Next time, we gotta sneak into the unrated version." Tucker was saying excitedly, his mouth full of left over popcorn while they wandered the crowded mall afterwards.
"Yeah." Sam said. "Next weekend's the new Dead Teacher."
"That's out already." Tucker groaned. "Aw, man, how'd we miss the opening night?"
"I heard they actually show the maggots in the Dead Teacher's face." Danny said. "Imagine the Lancer nightmares we're going to have afterwards." He laughed.
"I'll bet he loves when those movies come out." Tucker said. "How many more kids finish their homework?"
"Not you." Sam laughed, and at Tucker's indignant expression, so did Danny.
"I do mine more often that you." Tucker threw a handful of popcorn at his friends, a grin still on his face.
They stepped outside, and almost right away Danny's ghost sense went off. "Like clockwork." Danny groaned, anytime he was doing something normal a ghost just had to show up and mess ruin it. Danny ducked behind a display and went ghost. He went behind the building, Sam and Tucker not far away.
"There he is." The ghost chuckled madly. He looked like a glowing, orange cross between a human and a hyena. "You the one, the one making such a fuss in the Ghost Zone. Oscar heard about and wanted to see for himself, yes he did."
"Tell Oscar to come back tomorrow." Danny's hands lit up warningly, taking a stance in front of his friends.
The ghost just threw back his head and laughed some more, ghostly hyenas appearing behind him. "Oscar sees you now." The hyenas approached, all growling menacingly. Danny counted five of them. "He wants to see the other one too. Where is the other one, they said he would see?" He bent forward, looking for something behind Danny. The ghost was looking for Red as well.
"Nevermind." He snapped his fingers and two of the hyenas took off running past Danny, their giggles fading out. "Oscars pets will bring it, they will and he will see them together."
Danny tried to run after the hyenas, but the ghost sicked the rest of them on he and his friends.
"Danny." Sam and Tucker called at once.
He pulled them off the ground and tried to fly them away, but the ghosts flew afted him, yipping and howling all the while. He had to get them to safety before he could even think of fighting off their attackers.
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Jason was leaping from building to building, barely visible to the people going about their business below. If they'd been in Gotham, Bruce would have had a fit, flaunting skills in broad daylight without good cause was just risking their secret identities for nothing.
This wasn't Gotham, and Bruce was literally a world away.
Dick followed stealthily after the boy, doing his best to keep out of sight. He knew Red could spot him though, even if only briefly when he had to leave cover to keep moving. The boy looked back uneasily, catching a glimpse of the ex-Robin. Dick wanted to laugh, it was like playing both tag and hide 'n seek at the same time, being quiet was a big part of winning.
He'd almost moved to speak with Jason last night, but the boy had run into another of the city's resident heroes and gotten spooked. Dick had followed him, all night, and back to the school, hoping for a chance to say something, but just when Jason had been alone again he'd taken off running with none of the giddiness from before.
At first he's thought that maybe Jason was looking for a quiet place where he could confront his stalker, but even though many such places came by he just kept going, a challenging glint in his unnatural red eyes. It was a game of endurance then, if Dick wanted a chance to speak he'd have to outlast his little brother.
There was an echo of yipping, and Jason's attention was drawn from his next jump. As the boy turned to investigate, so did Dick, Jason did know the world better after all. Then something appeared behind a few meters behind him.
Before Dick could call out a warning, a glowing orange dog launched itself at his little brother. It's jaws clamped down hard on the boy's shoulder, tackling him into the gravel of a nearby rooftop.
Jason let out a shocked cry and tried to dislodge the beast with blows from one fist, the dog just bit down harder with an audible crunch. Jason's cry this time was softer now that he was ready for it, but no less sickening to his older brother's ears.
The other dog advanced but before it got anywhere near the boy, a pair of wingdings with pale, shimmering edges was lodged in its front legs, almost severing the limbs. Dick charged forward, throwing another wingding at the dog champing on his brother.
Jason had only been in its grip for a few seconds, but his left arm was hanging limply, sticky red blood dripping off his fingertips when he unsteadily got to his feet. He propped himself against the railings and pulled aside his red hoody to get a look at the wound. The fabric scratched and he hissed, looking at the mangled flesh near enough his neck that another inch would have been fatal.
"Little Wing!" Dick caught the boy before he could topple over the edge of the roof. Jason leaned in for a moment, his eyes, glazed over. Then he was aware again and pushing Dick away, stumbling back until he was steady on his feet.
"Creep." He spat, accusation in his eyes, one hand pressing on the wound to try and stem the blood flow. The red hoody camouflaged the blood, hiding how bad it really was but Dick had caught a glimpse of it and now came closer. "What did you do?"
Dick felt he should have guessed that Jason would blame something like this on him. After all they were both trained by someone so paranoid it was considered his superpower.
"Stand still." Dick took hold of the boys healthy shoulder and, with bandages ready to show his intent, he helped Jason unzip the hoody, revealing the torn checkered outfit underneath. Jason flinched at the sight of the little flask of cleaning alcohol, and bit down on a wad of fabric from his hoody when Dick poured the stinging liquid onto the wound.
It was a small comfort that Jason knew enough to trust Dick to take care of it. Somewhere he was still familiar with Dick as an ally. It only took a few seconds for Dick to have the wound cleaned and dressed, then hid the bandages under his hoody again and grabbed two of the new wing-dings and ran off.
"You're too hurt to help them." Dick tried to grab the injured boy.
Whatever pain or weakness Jason was feeling was over ridden with adrenaline and he ducked away from the man's reach. If he didn't know where he was going he put on a very convincing act. Dick retrieved the remaining wingdings and followed after, regretting that he was in casual wear, most of his gear was with his Nightwing suit.
Soon they came to a suspiciously empty park, the yipping and laughing of more glowing hyenas audible even a block away. Phantom was trying to fend off the dogs while protecting his two friends, who were firing at the dogs with wrist blasters.
Civilians present made the situation tricky, so Dick paused just across the street to come up with a plan. Jason, however, just charged strait into the fray, one wingding in his good hand and another in his mouth. One of the sharp weapons lopped made a shallow cut at the back of a dogs neck and kept going to lop off another's ear. Jason was too dizzy to aim properly, and stumbled when he made his landing, but managed to stay on his feet.
Phantom greeted the other boy with a relieved grin. Jason tried brandishing his remaining wind-ding like a knife, slashing at the dogs to keep them away from the civilians while Phantom tried to push them away. The wingding cut Jason's hand almost as much as his opponents.
A dog's jaws came close to the girl and Jason leaped in front of them shoving the wingding into its mouth, almost getting his arms bitten off in the process. Another dog charged at him and Phantom flew between it and his teammates, one arm flung out. The dog wound up crashing into a transparent shield.
Jason, now weaponless tried to fend off a dog from the other side, kicking it's muzzle away. Phantom was occupied with one that was on top of him, it's teeth snapping dangerously close to his face.
Dick threw a pair of real knives at Jason's feet and the boy wasted no time in putting them to use. Every time a dog went down they evaporated into wisps of orange smoke and a new one formed. To beat them the source had to be taken out.
That was easy enough for Dick to do, a glowing half-man stood laughing at the sidelines, just beyond the tree's and out of the boys' reach. Dick moved stealthily to the hysterical thing and crept up behind it.
The first sign it had of his presence was a punch to it's jaw from faintly glowing knuckle dusters. It went crashing into a nearby tree, and before it good get to it's feet got another punch, this time right in it's gut. It doubled over, clutching it's midsection in pain and crying out.
Dick smirked, whatever was said about Bruce, he worked really fast and his results couldn't be questioned.
He picked the scruffy dog-man by the front of its ratty shirt and slammed it into the tree again.
"You wanna tell me what you're doing?" Dick asked with a pleasant smile.
It was clear from the things face that he could tell Dick's mood was as far from pleasant as it could get. This was the thing that had hurt his Little Wing, and it would pay.
"Humans don't mess in Oscars affairs, no they don't." He choked out, Dick's free hand now tightening around it's neck.
"Don't get cute now." Dick sang, pressing a wing-ding against the monster's face, making a knick just deep enough to show he meant business. The hand around his throat was likely the true motivator though.
"Powerful ghost wants it." Oscar forced the words past the constriction in its throat. "Wanted to see the Phantom and take it to the ghost. Get power, get all power." The high-pitched voice was grating on Dick's nerves, but at least that was something.
Just past the trees, he heard Jason curse just past the trees and Dick tightened his hold on the man-dog.
"Call them off, all of them." He ordered.
Oscar nodded jerkily and the sounds of the dogs disappeared. Dick had no way of containing it, or stopping it from summoning more of those animals, so he swung his fist one more time and threw the disoriented monster at the kids who'd been fighting the dogs.
Before they thought to look for Dick he was already gone.
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After he'd gotten hold of those knives Red had torn through the hyenas like they were nothing. He'd held them off while Danny had flown Sam and Tucker away from the fight, and when the halfa had gotten back it was already over. Red, covered in mud and ectoplasm was holding Oscar down for Danny to trap into the thermos.
Danny wanted the first thing he said to be about Red disappearing at the worst times, he's brought him out of the Ghost Zone to keep him safe after all. But Danny was the one who'd nearly been torn apart by dogs while the only thing wrong with Red was some reddish mud caking his neck and hoody. If the young ghost had been with Danny, he might have gotten hurt at the onset of the fight.
"Where'd you get those?" Danny gestured at the shimmery edged knives Red was examining.
"A creep." Red was sitting on the ground, his back against a tree. "Sam and Tucker okay?"
"They're fine." Danny said. "We were gonna hit the arcade in a few minutes, wanna come."
Red shook his head. "Was gonna meet up Val, had something to tell me." He rested his head against the tree and smirked. "Give me a call if you get chased by any more Chihuahuas."
Danny punched Red's shoulder playfully and got up. "Maybe when you can control your intangibility. Seeya later."
"Later Boss." Red waved him off, and yawned.
Red had been all cleaned up when Danny saw him again, the only signs the ghost had even been in a fight the few tear in his hoody. That thing was starting to look pretty ratty, not that Red seemed to notice. The ghost was asleep hours before Danny, or so the halfa had thought.
It the middle of the night Danny was woken by a hand being pressed over his mouth. Before Danny had a chance to panic the intruder raised a hand to his own lips and pointed at the roof before jumping out the window. Danny checked under his bed for Red, but the ghost was gone.
He didn't want to give anything away that the man might now have known already, so instead of going ghost, he crept up to the roof in his human form.
The man was sitting with his legs thrown over the edge of the roof and fiddling with small back that clinked when he moved it. He was wearing a black body suit with some blue accents and a bird on his chest. Danny's ghost sense didn't go off though, so he was human despite his clothes.
"What do you want?" Danny asked, trying to keep alert in case the man attacked.
"Not a fight." He turned to Danny with a smile on his face, it was the masked man who'd come through the Ghost Zone looking for his brother.
"Do you still need help with your brother, I can call my folks if you want." The halfa had a feeling this man hadn't come to see either Jack or Maddie Fenton.
"I've already found him." The man took something out of a compartment in his belt.
Danny went forward cautiously, to have a look at the pieces of paper. One was the picture he'd shown when he'd asked about his brother. The other was Red!
"Where is he?" Danny asked his eyes glowing a ghostly green. If this man wanted to use Red to make him look for…
The man started laughing, a light, cheerful sound that didn't carry any hint of mockery. And Danny's train of thought was derailed entirely.
"He just went on his nightly walk." The man said. "I figured you knew about those." He held the pictures to the halfa again. "Take another look."
Danny did, he studied both pictured under the ample light of all the ghost hunting equipment on the roof. Robin was grinning cheekily, leaning against a huge smirking man in a bat suit. Red was napping nestled between some rafters and a rooftop on the side of a skyscraper. Red was thinner, and paler, his didn't have those same short curls as the Robin.
But the rest… his face and the way Red stood when he was getting into a fight he knew he'd be winning… The most glaring difference, past the coloring and build. Red was a ghost. Danny's heart turned to ice, colder that when he was in ghost form even.
He looked up at the man's warm, open face. Danny said the first words he could think of.
"I'm so sorry." Danny stepped away. "I didn't know, if I did I would have…"
"I know." The man tucked the pictures away again. "He doesn't look like him, huh?"
Danny shook his head dumbfounded. He wasn't sure what to say. This man had really gone so far to find the little brother he'd lost. The young hero remembered a conversation he'd had on that same roof before. Just after Red had found out that he was a ghost. Danny had asked if there was anyone Red wanted to see, anyone who cared about him.
Red had said no, and all the while, this man was looking for him in the Ghost Zone.
"Do you know what happened to make him like this?" The man asked, bringing Danny out of his thoughts again. "Was there anyone nearby when you met him?"
"He doesn't remember." Danny said. "Does he know about you?" The man shook his head and Danny immediately went ghost. "I have to tell him, did you see where he went?"
"Not now!" The man was on his feet. At turned his confused look to the man, Red thought that he was all alone, that no one from his own life cared about him. If Danny kept this from him then what kind of friend was he?
"I tried." The man said. "At that carnival a while ago, our whole family's pretty paranoid and that just made it worse." His smile was sad now and he gestured for Danny to settle down. "He won't believe it without proof.
"So what did you come here for then?" Danny asked.
"I wanted to thank you for helping my Little Wing." The man grinned. "I know he can be a bit difficult sometimes. I also wanted you to give him this." He tossed Danny the bag he'd been messing with earlier. It was filled with some sharp bird shaped blades with familiar pale glowing edges and a smaller mask like the one he was wearing. "What you kids are doing is pretty dangerous, he knows how to use those. "These are for you and your friends." He gave Danny a pack of earpieces and a little box. "Communication is important in the field. I don't think he'd take it from me."
"Are you a family of ninjas or something?" Danny looked up from the gadgets only to see that the man was already gone.
Danny went back to bed, but he was still awake when Red, no when Robin came in through the window. His family was looking for him, the man in the bat suit had looked older, maybe a father. Who else, siblings, grandparents? Who else was waiting for the ghost boy to come home? That they wanted him even if he wasn't human anymore. How could they make him believe what his brother had tried to tell him.
Before he had fallen asleep, he came to the only answer that made any sense. To help Red in any meaningful way Danny had to make the ghost remember.