G

by Lazydaily

Bat fam and Danny phantom

2. 2

The BatBurgers in Gotham were to die (again) for.

They tasted so much better than Nasty Burger's.

And Nasty Burger's burgers were drool-worthy .

Danny was pretty sure he could never have any other burger again. He was going to have to come to Gotham every day just to get these ones.

Now at first, he had been skeptical.

After all, who wouldn't be of something called a 'Bat'Burger.

But after Batgirl pestering him for a minute, he broke.

One bite of that heavenly burgerness changed his mind. Now, he wanted more. He NEEDED more.

It was so good.

What the hell.

"What the actual hell," Danny murmured, staring at the burger with a mix of admiration and bafflement.

Red Robin smirked and took a bite of his own burger. "That's everyone's first reaction."

"This isn't just good, it's murdering my taste buds for anything else. What's in it?" Danny squinted his eyes as he inspected it. He could make out the average burger ingredients. Tomato, lettuce, cheese, etcetera.

The only thing he wasn't sure of was if the secret was in the burger or the sauce. Or both.

"We don't know," Batgirl sulked. "It's a trade secret, and apparently hand-written. Many have tried to get it, but none have succeeded yet."

Danny was pretty sure she meant she tried and failed spectacularly.

"It's precious," Black Bat commented.

The four of them were lounging on the roof of Bat Burger. After Danny had given a sample of ectoplasm to Batman, the famous duo went to join up with Nightwing for patrol while the other three decided to show Danny their favorite restaurant.

He was so glad they did. He currently had five more burgers next to him. Danny was used to eating more than average to keep up with his ghost metabolism.

"I'm gonna go buy some more to take to Amity with me."

Batgirl sat up abruptly. "Hell no!"

"You can't. BatBurgers are sacred to Gotham, and can never be served anywhere else," Red Robin explained more calmly, but just as firmly. "Eating them elsewhere ruins the sacredness."

"No."

Danny blinked. "Okay? By the way, why is Nightwing here? Isn't he Bludhaven's hero?"

"Yeah, but he's originally from Gotham, so he comes by every few weeks."

"What's your issue with him anyways?" Batgirl asked as she took a sip from her smoothie.

Danny grimaced. "That's private."

She looked like she wanted to push but one glance from Black Bat shut her up.

"Alright," she said begrudgingly. "When did you—" she paused then picked up carefully. "—become a ghost?"

"You can say 'died', it's fine. Just don't ask a ghost about how they died. They'll attack you. And I died two years ago." Danny munched on his Jokerized fries. Yum.

Red Robin stiffened. "That would make you fourteen to fifteen, right? If ghosts age, that is."

"Yeah. I'm a special ghost, though, so I'm not too sure if the others do."

"How—"

"—are you special?" Black Bat interrupted smoothly. Danny didn't actually know what Red Robin was going to ask, seeing as he just explained why he couldn't talk about his death.

"Can't tell you that either, sorry."

"Earlier, you mentioned that you protect people. Are you some kind of ghost-hero?"

"Yeah. I'm Phantom of Amity Park. Ghosts attack all the time, so I'm the one fighting them off."

"What about ghost hunters? Don't you have those?" Red Robin inquired, crumpling the burger wrapper to avoid getting any excess sauce that had fallen on the paper all over him.

Danny couldn't help it. He barked out a laugh. It wasn't a happy one. Bitterness laced his tone as he spoke. "The ghost hunters aren't very good. We have the Fentons, the GIW, and the Red Huntress. All the weaponry that the Fentons make do actually work, even if the names are stupid. Red Huntress used to be a ghostophobe, but she's opened up her mind more over the years. But the first two just want to capture and experiment on ghosts. There's no changing them," he sighed. "It's why I have to step in for the ghosts too. I protect both. If ghosts attack, I protect humans. If humans try to attack or capture ghosts, I protect ghosts."

Black Bat's face didn't reveal anything, but her tone was disturbed. "What kind of experiments?"

"Dissection, injections, electrocution, ectoplasm withdrawal, things like that. The GIW does even more painful things, though. I know because I've broken into their facilities on more than one occasion to free ghosts."

The three other heroes wore matching faces of repulsion.

Danny stood up and brushed the Gotham dust from his legs. "I think I'm good to go. We should hang out again."

"Obviously!" Batgirl gave a thumbs up. The other two agreed.

"Sorry about Robin," Red Robin offered. "He's not usually like that."

"Could've fooled me," Danny mumbled. "Ring of Rage, please open a portal to Amity."

The Ring purred and green mist gathered from seemingly nowhere. It became denser and denser until an area of the air glowed toxic green and spun into a spiral.

Making portals was the coolest thing EVER.

And also a very draining thing, but it was worth it .

He stepped one foot into it, mock-saluted, then fell completely in.

"I think this might go into my 'weirdest-things-that-happened-to-me-this-month' list," Steph said mildly.

"I can't believe ghosts are real," Tim muttered, gears turning in his head. "How does that even work? I'm immune to magic at this point, but the spirits of the dead?"

Cass patted his head.

"Get used to it, ex-boy wonder!" Steph laughed. "Phantom seemed pretty chill."

"But what's his problem with N?" Tim wondered. He knew his older brother was a thing of nightmares to his enemies, just like they all were, but to a ghost kid, that shouldn't be the case. "You could tell he was terrified. Demon Brat wasn't really helping."

Steph shrugged. "Who knows. And you can ask Robin later what his deal was."

Tim let out a puffed breath into the chilled Gotham air. "At least we got some useful information from him." Tim's expression shut off. "He died at around the same age Hood did."

Cass and Steph winced.

"Maybe that's why he looked excited when he mentioned Red Hood?"

"But how would he have known?"

Steph shrugged and didn't offer a response.

Tim guzzled down half a cup of steaming coffee straight from the machine. Then, he cataloged everything he learned tonight into its own folder in the Batcomputer.

He'd researched Amity Park, and nothing unusual came up. No paranormal sightings, no Phantom, and no ghost hunters were even documented. Everything about the town seemed completely normal.

But Tim knew better than to judge simply based on appearances.

There was something wrong with this town. The internet posts were filtered, as if someone was controlling what came in and out. He also found out that the GIW, while commonly called 'Guys in White,' was actually a government unit named the 'Ghost Investigation Ward.'

It looked like a visit to Amity Park in the near future was going to be necessary.

There was a quiet rumble from the cave's entrance, signaling that his two brothers and father had returned. Dick and Damian jumped out of the Batmobile and Bruce followed, cape swishing silently behind him. Dick and Bruce headed straight to the showers, but not before greeting him first. Damian walked towards him, handing the sample of ectoplasm over.

"Timothy."

"Hey, Demon."

His relationship with Damian had improved over the years. Now that Damian was sixteen, he'd mellowed out a lot. He wasn't nearly as high-strung and arrogant as he used to be, and even cracked jokes from time to time. Tim found himself enjoying his company more often than not.

That was why Tim found his behavior this night odd. Damian was usually more polite than that. Intimidating, but still polite.

"Gonna tell me why you were acting like the bratty ten-year old you used to be?" He raised an eyebrow.

Damian peeled his mask off his sweaty face and huffed. "I don't know what you are going on about."

"I think you do."

"There was something about him."

Tim raised his other eyebrow incredulously. "So you were, what, pulling his ghostly pigtails?"

Damian gave him a disgusted look. "Nothing like that , Timothy. I meant that something about him pissed me off."

"Do you know what it is?"

"Tt. No."

"He's not a bad guy. He was pretty chill for a ghost." Tim's lips twisted into a grin as he echoed the pun Steph had made earlier.

Damian rolled his eyes. "He's the only ghost we've met."

"Well, he's not going to be the last," Bruce commented from where he and Dick were exiting the shower room. Bruce was wearing a black turtleneck while Dick rocked a shades of blue Tie-Dye shirt. Damian began stripping his Robin suit (which had gone through a ridiculous number of upgrades over the past six years to make it look like a teenager's) and headed to shower. "According to Phantom, there are billions. Did you contact Constantine or Zatanna?"

"Yeah. Zatanna's on the other side of the world, but Constantine's actually only a few towns over. He didn't seem too happy when we called him about a ghost situation and to come by tomorrow, though."

"He'll get over it. Did you find out why he's so scared of Dick?"

"Nope," Tim said, popping the p obnoxiously. "Let's ask him."

"I don't know!" the man in question wailed. "I just met the kid!"

"Maybe it's your overall Dickness," Tim smirked, not pulling any punches.

Dick glared at him.

"Where's Cass?" Bruce asked once he didn't find her anywhere in the cave.

"Asleep with Duke. The BatBurger combined with patrol made her tired."

Dick gaped in offense. "You guys went to Bat Burger without me and Dami?!"

"Yep."

Dick whined. Suddenly, there was a gleam in his eye that made Tim sit up straight. "No. Stop it. Whatever you're gonna do, don't even think about—"

"Oh, Timmy," Dick put a hand on his head like a Victorian lady. That was all the warning he got before Dick leaped. Tim attempted to valiantly fight him back, but ultimately failed.

Dick knocked him out of the chair and sprawled over him on the cold stone floor. "Dick," he wheezed. "Get off!"

Dick muffled him by shoving a hand over his mouth. "Hush, Baby Bird. Big Brother needs cuddles and hugs to help him recover from this ordeal."

Tim squawked indignantly and tried to bite his hand. Dick speedily removed his appendage and immobilized him.

Damian walked back in with a towel across his broadening shoulders. Tim figured he could swallow his pride if it meant being free of Dick. "Damian, help!"

The teenager snorted and strutted over. Tim foolishly thought he was going to aid him.

"Oof." The air was knocked out of his lungs when Damian fell on top of him, right besides Dick.

Dick let out a delighted cackle. "You're the best, Little D."

Damian smirked.

"Of course I am," he answered haughtily.

Tim struggled underneath them. After Damian hit his growth spurt, he shot up like one of Ivy's weeds and stood an inch shorter than Dick. They were both larger than him, much to Tim's grief and annoyance.

Damian was well on his way to reaching Bruce's height and weight while Tim was stuck at his 5'6.5" at twenty-two.

It was depressing. Especially since Tim used to tease Damian about his height all the time. Now, Damian relished taking jabs at Tim's height whenever he could.

"Let me go! I still have to do more research on Phantom!"

Dick rubbed his cheek on Tim's head affectionately. "No way."

"We're going to sleep, Timothy."

Tim pouted.

He was relieved Jason wasn't here. He doubted he could handle three one hundred-sixty pounds plus brothers using him as a mattress.

His chest grew warm as he watched Bruce smile at them.

It was probably the lack of oxygen.

Definitely.

The next morning found Bruce sipping coffee in Tim's office while his son worked on WE's latest projects. The Batcomputer was still running tests on Phantom's samples, so he was reading meticulously through Tim's compiled notes of him and doing more research himself.

He discovered that there were sightings of him from thousands of years ago, but from what Phantom had told Tim, he had only died two years prior, which meant that time travel was involved.

His past self would've scoffed at the notion of both ghosts and time travel, let alone both of them connected.

Of course, he would've scoffed at the thought of having one kid, never mind seven. (Steph and Barbara were halves, so Dick combined them into one child, much to his annoyance.)

Phantom had given them a lot more information that Bruce thought he would. It would've seemed reckless of him if Bruce hadn't seen the attentiveness in his body language and lower facial expressions.

Phantom knew exactly what he was doing.

But he genuinely seemed to not want to start a fight and intent on keeping things peaceful. So Bruce decided to push that away for now and focus on the ghost hunters that Phantom mentioned.

He hacked the GIW servers first.

As someone who could hack into the Pentagon in his sleep, and made his kids learn to hack by hacking it, this was a joke. He learned that the GIW stood for the Ghost Investigation Ward, but was more commonly known as the 'Guys in White.'

He had a bad feeling when he found a folder labeled 'Specimens.'

It was founded too. There were explicit details and pictures about the experiments that took place. He was mostly immune to gory scenes since he was Batman, but finding these kinds of experiments made something sick stir up in his stomach. His sharp inhale would've been unnoticeable to anyone not a bat.

But Tim was just a few feet away.

His crystal blue eyes darted up and narrowed on Bruce. "What is it?"

"Research and experiments," Bruce murmured absently, scrolling through and making sure not to miss a single detail.

"How bad are they?"

"A nine."

A nine was very gruesome. One of his regrets was that all of his vigilante children could set aside their feelings to look at a horrendous scene without flinching. Rarely any of them would give a number past seven.

Tim sucked in a harsh breath. Bruce pulled out a black flash drive and downloaded everything from the server. He googled the Fentons and pages upon pages popped up. There were numerous essays written, everything from Ghost obsessions to Shades were documented.

Bruce wasn't very sure if they were a hundred percent accurate, but they came pretty close. He checked their personal lives and found out that Jack and Madeline Fenton had two children.

Jasmine and Daniel Fenton.

When he saw Daniel's picture, Bruce's eyes widened.

Damian's face popped up.

Coincidences never happened in his line of work.

He was pretty sure he stopped breathing.

"B, you okay?" Tim's concerned voice restarted his brain.

"No," he croaked. "Look."

Tim hurriedly stood up and went to him. When he saw the person on the screen, his reaction was akin to Bruce's. "What the fu—"

"I'll track down Talia, and you tell your siblings," Bruce interrupted, his voice hoarse. "Find everything you can about the Fentons, and call them to Gotham. I need to see for myself if he's my son, or my son's clone."

Instead of going over to Tucker's, Danny texted them and went back to his house.

When he saw Jazz sitting on his bed, the epitome of tranquility, he thought of rethinking his decision.

But, somehow, she spotted him.

"Danny," she said calmly.

Far too calmly.

Danny winced. "Hi Jazzy…" he said weakly. That name was only used when he knew he was in too much trouble to talk his way out of. Why couldn't there be a ghost attack when he needed it?

"I've been sitting here for two and a half hours, wondering what the hell your text meant."

He bit his lip and looked away.

Jazz rubbed the bridge of her nose. "You can't just do that to me, Danny. You can't expect me to just be okay when you send a stupid text saying: 'Hey Jazz. I'm taking an impromptu trip to Gotham. Be back in an hour or three!' " she repeated in a faux jovial tone.

Danny winced even harder. "Sorry, Jazz."

"Danny, I get that weird things happen to you. You're a half-ghost. It's a given. But, you need to let me know what happens to you. I almost packed my bag and drove to Gotham myself when I got this. I know Mom and Dad don't care and don't know anything about what you do and what you are, but I do . I care so much that I make sure you get three meals a day, which you didn't today. I care so much that I help you buy new clothes. I care so much that I drive you to and from school. I care so much that I'd do anything for you."

Danny looked down at his feet in shame. "I'm so sorry, Jazz." he whispered.

She sighed. "I know. But you're going to be texting me every time something out of the ordinary happens. I can't sit here twiddling my thumbs and wondering what's going on. I'm the adult here, and I can't help you if I don't know anything."

"Okay," he said quietly. Jazz pulled him into a hug. Danny's height didn't make it awkward. He put his head on hers and clung to her like he used to when he was a kid.

"Now tell me what happened."

So he did.

He told her about the assassins.

He told her about Clockwork.

He told her about the Bats.

He told her about how annoying Robin was.

He told her about how drool-worthy a BatBurger was.

By the end of it, she was scraping her fingers across his hair, and he leaned into the contact.

"That wasn't what I expected, though I can't say I wasn't expecting the king part," she admitted.

Danny looked at her in surprise. "What?"

"I'm a huge nerd, Danny. You say it yourself. Of course I know the different ways kings can be chosen."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Danny asked, more curious than angry.

"Because I didn't want to make you panic if it was nothing."

"So," he started unsurely, "am I allowed to go to Gotham tomorrow?"

"Only if you sleep for more than twelve hours, then yes."

Danny grinned triumphantly then remembered the autographs. "I forgot to mention, but I got autographs from Batgirl, Black Bat, and Red Robin for you!"

"Really!" Jazz almost squealed, a complete one-eighty from before. Those three were her favorite heroes of all time, so there was no way that Danny forgot.

He took them out from his belt since he had yet to change back into his human form. Jazz took them enthusiastically and traced the edges of each symbol gently.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"

Danny laughed.

The next morning, Danny woke up with the smell of something burning and toxic singing his nostrils. He shot up and raced to the kitchen, worry gnawing his mind that something happened to Jazz.

But Jazz wasn't at the stove.

She was standing near the entrance and watching with her face completely shut off as their mother flitted around the kitchen. Judging from her uncombed hair, Jazz had probably woken up only seconds before him.

"Good morning, Dan-o, Jazzie-pants!" Jack exclaimed from where he was sitting and stuffing his face with fudge.

"Mom. Dad," Jazz replied evenly.

"Kids, you'll never believe this, but the Bruce Wayne was impressed with our work, and invited us to show off our weapons to him! Finally, all our hard work is being recognized!" Maddie beamed, teeth shining, and lavender eyes lighting up like the sun.

Well, this wasn't a coincidence.

Were the rumors of Mr. Wayne sponsoring Batman true? That wouldn't be very surprising. Batman needed to get his money from somewhere.

For a brief, horrifying moment, Danny thought that Batman had figured out his secret. Then, he remembered that his parents were ghost hunters and Batman probably wanted to take a look at their stuff for defense.

"When are we going?" Danny asked.

"By noon!"

He choked. That was way too soon!

"For how long?" Jazz questioned, looking much more put together, but no less frazzled by the news.

"A few days, but we might extend the trip because of the break, so eat up!" His mom held a plate in front of him and Jazz. Taking one look at the fizzing green-tinged waffles, they simultaneously declined and made an excuse to go to Danny's room.

"I think Batman's behind this," Danny said, shutting the door.

"That's obvious. There's no way someone like Bruce Wayne would want to meet Mom and Dad on a whim, especially not after you just met Batman."

"What do we do about it?"

Jazz shrugged. "We play along. He probably just wants to take a look at the ghost hunting weapons or the capture devices to report to Batman."

Danny wrinkled his nose, then remembered all the articles he, Tucker, and Sam had read and mocked about Bruce Wayne. "Wait. Are we even sure he'd do some of Batman's work for him? Providing money is one thing, but he seems like an airheaded playboy from what I've seen."

She thought for a moment before shrugging again. "There's a lot of speculation that Mr. Wayne's connected to Batman. Besides, he couldn't be running a billionaire company being an idiot."

"Isn't he a college dropout?" he raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Who's to say that he doesn't let other people run his business for him? Like Mr. Drake?"

"Do you know how business even works?" she asked, raising an eyebrow back at him, equally unimpressed. "The board can replace the CEO, even if they are a multibillion dollar co-company owner, if they see them unfit for the position. So obviously, he's smart enough to run it himself. Maybe Batman just trusts him?"

"Maybe," Danny said, sitting backwards on his chair, chest facing the chair back. "I'll give Sam and Tuck a heads up." He unplugged his charging phone. He opened the chatting app, and texted them.

Can we call?

Goth-Girl: Is everything okay?

Too Fine: Dude its 8:30. Wat do you want?

Just plz come on the call

Sam and Tucker's faces appeared on the screen. One looked irritable, the other slightly concerned.

"Dude, again, it's 8:30 in the friggin morning. What do you want?"

"Ignore him. He's being a grumpy baby. Is everything okay, Danny?"

"I'm going to Gotham."

"Seriously?!" Tucker sounded more alert now. "Why?!"

"I don't think it's anything bad. Mom and Dad were invited to discuss their inventions with Mr. Wayne. I'm pretty sure Batman's involved."

"That reminds me. Did you get the autographs?"

"Yep."

"Good. Make sure to give them to me before you leave."

"Are you sure Batman's involved with Wayne ?" Sam asked, lip curling in annoyance. She wasn't a fan of his ditziness and playboy tendencies, but was more tolerant of him compared to other rich company CEOs because of his tendency to forgo common pollution methods, and create ways to make the earth cleaner.

"We're pretty sure," Jazz inputted, leaning her head against his to look into the phone's camera. "Danny just met with Batman last night. The chances of it being a coincidence are slim to none."

"Makes sense," Tucker yawned.

"Sure. Can you guys look over Amity while I'm gone?"

"Of course we can."

"Of course we will," Tucker corrected. "We're more professional than the professionals."

Danny gave them a grateful smile. "Thanks guys."

"What are you going to do once you're there? Are you going to be Phantom at all?" Sam asked.

"I'm going to have to, whether I like it or not."

She frowned. "But will they let you in Gotham? Batman's pretty strict about metas in Gotham."

"I have to try. And I'm not a meta. Plus, I won't be able to survive not being Phantom if I stay for longer than a week without transforming. I almost died last time. And I can't not say anything to them, or they might see it as a hostile move, or whatever."

"Yeah, that wasn't pretty," Sam winced. "Do you have a way of convincing them?"

"Wait, wait, wait. When was 'last time'?" Tucker cut in loudly, smushing his face against his screen suspiciously. "How did I not know about this?"

"You were visiting your grandma. Anyways, I think I'll tell them a little of what I can do and go from there. I'm pretty good at this impromptu thing."

Sam couldn't disagree with that.

"Sounds like a solid plan, man." Tucker yawned again louder. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a beautiful bed calling my name."

"Thanks again."

Packing was less of a hassle than he thought it would be.

All Danny did was stuff a few pairs of pants and a variety of shirts and underclothes, a few creative ghost logoed hoodies along with a puffer jacket, since it would be suspicious for him not to have one during the middle of Winter (all folded neatly, of course, since Jazz would kill him otherwise), and he was ninety percent finished.

The other ten percent was left for a pair of Fenton Phones and half dozen plastic bottles of ectoplasm from his wall straight from the Zone.

It was noon when they all finished packing and hit the road. The Assault Vehicle was so full of anti-ghost technology that there was barely enough room for both Jazz and Danny. They ended up sharing the small bench by the window, and it was a thirteen hour drive, so Danny took that opportunity to nap with his head pillowed on Jazz's lap. She ran her slim fingers through his hair as their parents went on and on about what they would show Mr. Wayne.

Danny jerked awake and nearly let his transformation rings pass over him when the vehicle pulled over. At first, he thought a ghost had followed them. But then he realized that the only light coming through the window was only moonlight.

He relaxed and rubbed his eyes. Jazz had dozed off above him, and he could hear his dad's bear-like snores coming from the front.

"Mom, where are we?" Danny yawned.

"We're in Pennsylvania. Altoona, to be precise."

"What time is it?"

"Almost ten. We're stopping at this hotel before we start bright and early tomorrow!"

"'Mkay. Jazz, wake up."

"Wazzit?" Jazz's eyes fluttered open and she stretched her arms.

"We're staying in a hotel for the night."

"M'kay."

They made sure to check into two rooms. One for their parents, the other for Danny and Jazz.

Danny dumped his bag right next to his bed while Jazz put hers on the small wooden table. "I'm gonna go buy some snacks from the 7-Eleven across the hotel. You want anything?"

Jazz shook her head. "I'm going to get some more sleep. Be safe."

Danny grinned cockily. "I'm Phantom. Things need to be safe from me."

Jazz ruffled his hair and pulled the covers over her.

"Do you want me to let you know when I go to Gotham?"

"Nah. But if you're not back by morning, I'll find Batman myself and wring his neck."

Danny shivered. Even while sleepy, a concerned Jazz was a scary Jazz. "Kay."

Danny nibbled on a pocky stick as he dangled his legs while admiring the new boots from their hotel building's rooftop. He had already finished the ice cream, Takis, Cheetos, and the Chex Mix that he bought and had half a mind to dart back to the store and get a few more snacks. One benefit of being a half-ghost was that he could literally eat whatever he wanted, and he wouldn't gain a single pound. He burned through it too fast, and he made sure to abuse it to eat as much junk food as he could. It also made him hungrier too, though, so his proportions were a bit… bigger than most.

A movement in his peripheral vision distracted him.

He straightened. A feeling of deja vu made itself known as the hairs in the back of his neck stood up, sensing that something was wrong. Danny dropped the bag of snacks, and stood up, twirling around as he did.

"I know you're there, so come out!"

He honestly wasn't expecting that to work, but the tiny dart hurtling towards him made him believe otherwise.

He dodged it easily, then slipped in a defensive stance. The night below was lit up only by the street lights that lined the road.

Not that the darkness really bothered him. He could see every shape with sharp, thin outlines, and every detail in complete clarity. His vision was just as good as during the day, which meant it was a few times better than a person with twenty-twenty vision.

Another dart shot through the night, but Danny caught it between his thumb and index finger just as it was about to pierce his forehead.

He would've phased through it, if not for a tugging sensation in his gut that was telling him not to. Danny tried phasing the dart through his hand instead, and wasn't surprised when it didn't pass straight through. So either it was coated with ectoplasmic resin, or it was made of ecto-ranium. His guess was on the former since he felt no pain or drowsiness when it was on his palm.

"Are you another assassin?"

The black clothed figure that he expected to see gracefully appeared ten feet in front of him. His sword was still in his sheath, and he made no move to attack.

"Lady Talia wishes to speak with you."

Danny didn't let his surprise enter his face at the voice. "First of all, I don't know who that is, and second of all, the last time that someone wanted to 'speak with me,' they wanted to kill me. Give me one reason not to knock you out."

"The Demon Head is dangerous. Lady Talia wishes to speak with you," the assassin repeated.

Danny cracked his knuckles. "That isn't a reason," was all he said before he lunged. This dude was obviously trained well, so there was no way he could beat him in hand to hand. Not that it really mattered since ghost powers enhanced his strength enormously.

The assassin jumped back before Danny's fist could make more contact than just a graze to his abdomen, but a crack was still heard.

Damn, I'm stronger than I thought.

Or maybe not. He could lift a nineteen ton school bus with relative ease, so maybe he was underestimating himself.

Or was that the gravity nullification at work?

Eh, whatever.

Swinging both Dora's and Aragon's ten ton dragon butts totally counted as super strength.

He didn't let the assassin regain his breath as he shot off again, using his flight to enhance his speed before pulling back a significant amount of his power to crack the rest of the armor, and planting his fist on the assassin's cheek. Hearing the small hitch of breath, Danny grabbed the assassin's shoulders swiftly and dug his knee into his solar plexus, taking care to make sure it didn't leave a permanent injury while knocking him out.

"How did you even know where I was?"

The assassin predictably didn't answer.

"Alright, so I've got stalker assassins after me. Just your average Saturday, no biggie," he muttered under his breath. "Either they've got a tracker on me, or they're just following the Fenton Assault Vehicle." He didn't even have to think for the answer. It was definitely the latter. The thing stood out like a sore thumb.

Danny restrained the assassin with the same ghost ice handcuffs as he used on the previous one. While removing all the gear, which was similar, he noticed that this assassin had thin green lined golden metal cuffs latched onto his wrists.

"Is this dude a higher rank or something?" he wondered to himself. But this one hadn't tried as hard to kill him, so maybe not. But Danny hadn't really given him a chance to defend before pummeling him.

He checked his watch, and raised his brow when he realized it was 11:50. Might as well be early.

He wasn't sure if the 'here' Batman said to meet meant somewhere else in Gotham, but he figured he could start at the clock tower. If he didn't see them, he would make some kind of signal.

"Ring of Rage, please open a portal to Gotham's clock tower."

He jumped through, his head feeling compressed for a moment before he kneaded his fingers against his forehead. "Blegh. I'm never gonna be used to that."

Even before he finished his sentence, Batman was in front of him. "Phantom."

Danny nodded respectfully, pretending that his heart didn't nearly yeet itself out of his chest. "Batman."

"You're early."

"My sister always says, 'Be early, not late. And I've got a gift for you too." He dragged the assassin from behind him, and melted away the cuffs so Batman could click his own on. A twitch of the shadows notified him that more bats were watching, but he didn't point it out.

"Didn't expect this kid to be the bloody king of the Infinite Realms." Danny jumped, not expecting the British voice of a chain smoker to be behind Batman.

A middle-aged blonde man with one hand buried deep in a brown trench coat stepped around the bat-themed hero, and observed Danny closely. His unshaven jaw clenched thoughtfully as his blue eyes bore into Danny, as if analyzing his very soul. Then, he rolled his shoulders back, taking a drag from the cigarette dangling in his mouth.

"Infinite Realms?" Batman questioned, hauling the assassin up to lean within his sight range.

"Just another name for the Ghost Zone," Danny waved off. "Who are you, mister?"

"The name's John Constantine, and this arse told me to be here by sunset. Though I can see why he'd want to confirm. You sure as bloody hell don't look like the Ghost King."

"I didn't think I would be the Ghost King until yesterday," he admitted.

"But he's the real deal?"

"Yeah, he is. I've been hearing talks about a new king named Phantom. This kid's definitely a ghost, and his aura's strong. More stronger than most things I've seen." Constantine narrowed his eyes. "There's something else…c'mere lad," Constantine said, grabbing Danny's wrist and dragging him away from Batman.

"Woah, hey!" Danny flailed his arms around.

Batman stepped to follow, but a motion from Constantine stopped him. "Oi, stop right there, mate. I need to talk to him alone."

Batman hesitated, then nodded.

Constantine led him further to the clock tower's corner, under the cover of Gotham's dark shadows. He made sure none of the Gotham heroes were listening before releasing Danny and stepping back and staring him dead in the eye.

"How're you half human?"

"W-what! I'm not-I'm not half human! I'm a ghost!" he sputtered immediately. His mind was whirling. How did this guy find out what he was by just looking at him?! Who was this person?

"I can tell that you're only half a ghost. You're not possessing this body either, but you practically scream life and death."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he stubbornly denied.

"Blimey, shut your trap for one minute, and let me talk." Danny opened his mouth to argue, but the glare from Constantine made him snap it shut. "Brilliant. I would've exorcised you if you weren't who you said you were, but of course, you had to be legit. But you shouldn't even be possible. Your existence is contradictory. So how do you exist?"

"I still have no clue what you're talking about. I'm a ghost. Nothing human-like about me."

Constantine gave him a look.

"How did you figure it out?" he asked, slumping his shoulders as he gave up on the delusion that Constantine had no idea what he was talking about. He might as well explain than let Constantine come to his own conclusions. That never ended well for anyone.

Tonight was not a good night for attempted exorcism, thanks.

(The last time was painful enough.)

He received a wry smirk. "I'm a bloody occult detective. It's my job to know these things."

"Of course you're an occult detective. Why me?" Danny muttered, surprised when he heard a small snort from Constantine. "There are only three of us. We're called halfas."

"I heard the term floating around, but I never got around to finding out what it meant. Didn' picture it meaning a half-ghost, though."

He shrugged. "While the proper term is half-ghost, ghosts just use halfa more. There are actually technically only two of us, since the third is my clone."

Constantine's eyebrows flew up.

"It's a long story," Danny cut in when he saw the open mouth ready to ask.

"Bloody hell," he said under his breath. "Alright, keep going."

"We're made from an exposure to intense ectoplasmic energy, usually by man-made ghost portals. Basically what happens is that our DNA bonds with the ectoplasm, essentially half killing us, and half keeping us alive."

"Shit, kid."

"It's fine," Danny cleared his throat. "I got over it a while ago."

That was a load of crap, but Constantine didn't need to know that.

The deadpan he received told him that his words weren't believed in the slightest, but Constantine didn't mention it. "Who made the man-made portals? Any chance of this happening again?"

Danny pursed his lips. "My parents, and their... friend are actually the only ones who know how," he stated, hearing a curse from the man. "And I don't think so. Most people would die if they stepped in a portal. I just got lucky enough to have one foot come out of the grave. Besides, no one out of Amity even believes ghosts exist. Except you and the bats, I guess."

"It just keeps getting better and better," Constantine sighed. "A'ight. Come on."

Danny's head snapped up. "That's it? That's all you wanted?" he demanded, falling in step with Constantine back to Batman. He didn't even ask who Danny was under the ghostliness.

"It's what I wanted, so it's what I asked," the man said dryly, sneaking a piece of paper into Danny's hands. "You need me, you give me a bell, understand?"

"Uh, yeah. Can you not tell Batman?"

"Brilliant. Why?"

"People have a hard time believing ghosts exist. The less people that know that it's possible for halfas exist, the better," he answered. Danny also didn't want anyone else to know. It was his secret, and Jazz's, Sam's, Tucker's safety came first.

Batman appeared to be listening to something, but snapped his head at them when they came near. "What were you two talking about?"

"None of your business, you arse."

Danny let out a small relieved breath.

"What goes on in Gotham is my business."

"Yeah? Well this isn't your business, so sod off."

To Danny's surprise, Batman nodded, albeit reluctantly.

A thought lit up in his head as he looked up and met Batman's gaze. "Is it alright if I stay in Gotham for a few days? You won't even notice me, I swear, and I don't really have much of a choice."

"No."

"Please?" Danny asked, adopting a begging tone. "I don't really have much of a choice, since I don't want to keep teleporting back to Amity and draining my energy. Being a limp noodle isn't really on my to-do list for the next week."

"Let 'im stay," Constantine threw in, breathing out a wisp of smoke. "No reason not to."

"I won't have metas in my city."

"I'm not a meta, though. I'm a ghost." Honestly, he'd tried. If he couldn't get Batman to agree, he'd just turn invisible while going out as Phantom. Death the second wasn't something he wanted to experience any time soon.

Wait, if he died, would he just turn into a full ghost? Would anything else actually happen? Could he even die at all?

Constantine's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "I'll vouch for him."

Danny couldn't help his gape.

"Give me the reason." At least that was a step above a flat out 'no.'

He rubbed his neck. "About that… I kind of can't, since it's personal, but I can guarantee that I won't harm anyone. Heck, I'm a hero too. Hurting innocents goes against everything I stand for."

"You—" Batman paused, then continued. "I need to discuss it over with my associates."

Danny shrugged. "I don't mind. Just don't take until morning to talk it over. I have somewhere to be then."

Batman was gone the second he blinked.

"I think we should let him stay," Tim said, fiddling with a Birdarang.

Bruce grunted. "We don't know how trustworthy he is yet."

"Constantine vouched for him," he responded.

"I agree with Red. Besides, it's just a few days, B," Dick inputted.

"Father is right. We would be putting ourselves in an uncertain situation with an unknown."

"I'm with B and Damian. We don't know much about him. For all we know, he could be lying about everything he's told us," Barbara's voice crackled in their ears.

"You just don't like him, Robin. He's a hero too, and the ghost king. We need to try and establish good relations," Tim said stubbornly.

"We should take his offer," Steph twisted a blonde lock with her finger. "He looks like a decent kid. Besides, and he's around Robin's age. I'm not underestimating him, but from the way he acts, I doubt he has as much fighting experience as any of us. Even Duke, who's a baby compared to the rest of us."

"I can't even disagree with that," Duke's tired voice groaned from the comm.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" Dick questioned, concerned older brother seeping into this tone.

"Babs woke me up."

"We can assume that he can turn invisible, intangible, fly, and has other powers. He's dangerous," Bruce stated. Tim couldn't disagree with that but…

"B, we deal with aliens, magic, metas, and a bunch of other stuff that I'm not even going to name. If we couldn't handle a ghost, we'd be pathetic," he countered. "Besides, he's only been a ghost for two years. And we could simultaneously keep an eye on him and on Ra's and the League."

"I'm taking Tim's side. Now, just hurry up already. Some of us are daytime vigilantes who don't go frolicking around the city like vampires in the dark."

"Be quiet, Thomas."

"Names, Robin."

Damian rolled his eyes. "Apologies, Father."

"But how has he gained so much power in only two years?" Barbara asked, and they all quieted for a second. That was the question that they had all been asking themselves since yesterday, but couldn't find the answer to. "There's something off about him."

"He's nice." None of them flinched. They were used to not hearing Cass moving around.

"It's five versus three. We win," Steph insisted.

Bruce conceded. "If this backfires, you five are taking care of it."

"Great! Now, who's telling Hood, cuz I'm not it!" Steph exclaimed, cackling as the rooftop dissolved into chaos. 'Not it!' was exclaimed loudly as everyone half-screamed.

"Why?" She almost felt bad, but Bruce's exasperated voice just made it funnier.

"I live to torture you."

It was more about the competition than Jason himself. And Bats thrived to win at all costs.

The last voice she heard was slightly shrill, but one hundred percent male.

"Oh, Reeedddd, you're it."

"DAMMIT NOOOOO!"

"We have come to a concession," Batman announced as he grappled back to the tower's roof. The other bats were right behind him, except for Nightwing, much to his relief.

"Yeah?" Danny tried not to sound too hopeful.

Pacing for the past twenty minutes, nervously wondering whether they would agree or not hadn't been a fun experience. Constantine had engaged in a conversation with him, and even told him a few stories before ultimately wishing him luck, and going who knew where. His nerves were still going haywire.

He'd also discovered his new unconscious nervous habit of rubbing the skull of his ring.

"We've decided to let you stay. But we'll be watching you carefully."

"Understandable," Danny agreed. It made sense, after all. Heck, he'd probably do the same if some hero came into Amity.

The assassin was still completely out. Danny had discovered that before he'd left, Batman had injected a sedative into him that would keep him under for a few more hours, so Danny wasn't really worried about him.

"When the assassins attack again, I expect you to inform us. The leader of the League of Assassins, Ra's al Ghul, is undoubtedly coming, so we'll be confronting him. You will not be. We know how to fight him. You don't."

Danny shook his head fervently. "No. Way. This Ra's guy is after me. I'm going to be fighting him with you. I've fought strong enemies. I've fought the freakin' former Ghost King. My main baddie is a few times stronger than me. Hell, the strongest guy I've fought was from an alternate future who killed every hero and razed the world alone . I. Can. Help," he punctuated stubbornly, taking a deep breath, remembering how terrifying it was to fight his alternate-self.

The bats exchanged looks, and even Batman had a troubled slant on his mouth.

"Is there any risk of him again?"

It didn't take a genius to know who he was talking about.

"I doubt it, but for everyone's sake, I hope I'm right," he shivered. "I know you guys are big league heroes, and everything, but trust me, he's too hard to take on alone. I only beat him because I got a new power that I shouldn't have had."

There was a small silence on the rooftop as Danny shook off his memories.

"Are all ghosts the souls of the dead?" Batman asked, changing the subject.

"No."

That seemed to startle Robin. "No?"

But Batman nodded, as if they had expected that to be Danny's response. Red Robin tilted his head akin to the bird in his name.

"The term 'ghost' is actually subjective. 'Ghost' isn't exactly the correct word for my kind, but it's the closest you'll get. The actual word is a bunch of garbled sounds in Ghost Speak that no human can pronounce, so we just go with ghost. Ghosts are actually ectoplasmic entities, not just souls of the dead. There are Shades, for example, which are small creatures that exist via concentrated ectoplasm. They're everywhere, but the human eye can't see them. They're harmless, though."

"Fascinating," Black Bat said. Red Robin looked like he was memorizing every word coming out of Danny's mouth.

"What are you going to do with him?" Danny nodded at the assassin. "And what did you do with the dude from yesterday?"

"That's for us to know, and you to never figure out," Batgirl said brightly.

He felt for the energy inside him, and wasn't surprised when it was low. It wasn't as low as yesterday, though, since he'd eaten a few snacks before coming.

But he was still pretty freaking hungry.

"Right… want to get a few BatBurgers again?"

"Wake up Danny."

Danny pulled the comforter of his hotel bed with a groan.

He cracked an eye open. "Whaaatt?"

"We're getting ready to leave. C'mon."

Danny groaned even louder and sat up. He arched his spine and rubbed his slightly hungry stomach.

"How long were you out?"

"Not too long actually. Just a couple hours. I met this dude named John Constantine, and we got BatBurgers again."

"You really like them huh?" A contemplative look crossed her face. "Maybe you can take me there when we reach Gotham. How about for dinner?"

"You'll love it!" Danny grinned enthusiastically. Jazz had an appreciation for good food, and he was certain that a BatBurger would hit her straight in the tastebuds.

"I'm sure."

"Batman's still scary as heck though. He disappears and reappears without you even knowing. And I'm the freaking ghost! I should be the one poofing in and out and scaring the crap out of people," he pouted.

"Just goes to show that there'll always be someone better," she said with a small tilt on her mouth, which was unmistakably a smirk.

Danny made an offended noise. "Why do you keep betraying me? Am I not worthy of your love?" he exclaimed, dramatically flopping on the bed again, clenching his heart in mock-pain.

Jazz smothered a smile. "The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies," she quoted solemnly.

"Oof."

"Oof, indeed. Now, c'mon, we're leaving."

Danny reluctantly stood up, and after a quick glare from Jazz, folded the comforters, and fixed the bedsheets before he went to get dressed. He splashed water on his face and brushed his teeth as fast as he could. Danny pulled on the black jeans and another ghost logoed hoodie before swinging his bag over his shoulder. Tugging on his boots, he and Jazz made their way down to the hotel lobby.

Danny scanned the entire lobby, turning back to Jazz when he didn't find the two obnoxious figures that were their parents.

"Mom and Dad already checked out. They're outside," she said, briskly walking through the doors. Danny jogged to catch up. He dug a hand in his bag and pulled out another pocky packet. He munched on them as they saw their parents talking animatedly inside the Ghost Assault Vehicle.

"There are so many things to show Mr. Wayne! What should we show first?!"

"Obviously the most useful things to catch ghosts, Jack," Maddie smiled as if nothing was wrong with her words. "Like the quatro-charged ecto gun! Or the billion percent Fenton stun gun! And let's not forget the Fenton immobilizer!"

Danny's core stuttered along with his heart. His gut twisted like someone had grabbed it and started squeezing it like a stress ball. Wind roared around his ears and he clenched his fingernails lengthened into his ghost claws, and he pressed hard enough that crescents carved into his palms. He could feel the warm trickle of red flowing steadily from them.

Because those were all lethal weapons.

All of them were capable of terminating a ghost forever. Anything from a Shade to fatally injuring someone like Fright Knight.

Danny's shiver had nothing to do with his winter chill around them.

His parents remained oblivious.

"We should talk about the Fenton Ghost Peeler 2.0!"

"The Repulsive Ghost Shield!"

"The tools that we've prepared for Phantom!"

Danny wanted to throw up.

Thank Ancients they didn't know about cores. That would make his life a million times harder than it already was. All the Shades and Ghosts that would be caught up in that madness would be too much for even him. He didn't want to see the guts of his fellow Ghosts, nor should they have to experience anything as horrifying as that.

"I'm sure you can discuss this among yourselves later," Jazz said icily. She wrapped an arm around Danny and guided him to the backseat.

"We're so sorry, Jazz. We're just so excited!" Maddie exclaimed unapologetically, rubbing her hands together. "This is the best thing that's happened to us in a long time!"

"Almost as good as when we finally caught Phantom!" Jack beamed, starting to whistle out a jolly tune as they pulled out of the parking lot and hit the highway again.

Danny shuddered violently.

That was the most horrifying day of his life. Even worse than Dan or Pariah Dark. He still had nightmares about being strapped to the lab table, unable to move and his parents leering widely as they held out tools to cut him open like a frog. Their eyes wide and holding a crazed and slightly maniacal visage.

Jazz managed to rescue him before anything happened, but the memory would remain etched inside the folds of his brain through his retinas forever.

He knew they loved him. But as Jazz once said, the people that love you can hurt you the most.

Jazz held him closer and he curled up against her. "Just four more months, Danny. Just four more months," she whispered softly. "And then we can leave."

Danny's whole body convulsed. His chest was compressing and bullets of sweat slicked his skin.

"Danny, do you hear me?"

He managed a nod.

"Good, good. Now, tell me about the Gotham vigilantes again."

Jazz rubbed her thumbs soothingly on his hands.

"Now?" he chuckled weakly, stroking the skull of the Ring of Rage. He was pretty sure he imagined the purr that resounded through him. "Well, Robin's a complete jerk. He's… rude and… stuck up. Black Bat's quiet. She's cool and doesn't… say much. Batgirl's fun. I still have to find time to play DOOM with her and Red Robin. He's great too. He's amazing, actually," Danny took in a huge gulp of air. His breathing had calmed and his voice grew steadier. "I think you'd get along with him. He's smart like you."

"Yeah? And what about Batman?"

"He's really… what's the word? Stoic? He's super stubborn. He's really distrustful too. I get why though. A city like Gotham's bound to have a ton of criminals and supervillains. Like, Red Robin told me about a place called Crime Alley when we were eating burgers. It's where Red Hood operates. Apparently it's actually called Park Row, but no one calls it that but a few people living in Bristol. It's where all the rich dudes live." His eyes lit up as he ignored his previous inner terror and twisted to face Jazz. "And get this! Red Hood's going to be back in a few days! I'm probably going to be able to meet him!"

She smiled at his excitement. "Good for you. Now, I spy with my little eye something purple."

"Purple?"

Danny doodled on a piece of paper he found stuffed in the back of the GAV. Multiple Bat logos were splayed out along with his own symbol.

They were almost at Gotham. Danny was anxious with a little sliver of excitement mixed in there. He hadn't mentioned anything about his family coming to meet Bruce Wayne in Gotham. Batman would make a few possible connections, and Danny didn't need that problem. It was obvious why he wanted them here anyways. With a little bit of luck, Danny might even be able to get out of Gotham by the end of the break without a single hitch.

He should know better than to be optimistic, but what the heck right?

"We're in Gotham!"

Danny glanced out the window. The city down below was extremely different than from above. Down here, the smog was even more potent. A few hundred feet were still visible, but every building, sidewalk, and structure was dulled by it. Dozens of gargoyles loomed on building corners, their faces twisted into various expressions ranging from fierce to distraught, looking like dark guardians.

The city truly lived up to the 'Goth' in its name.

A horn blared at them from the right. Then from the left. Another from in front. Others from all over the road. Cars were practically shoving past each other, driving not unlike his dad.

Reaching their hotel took thirty minutes even with all his dad's lunatic driving. They drove down into the underground parking lot and tried to find a good area to park.

"I think that spot's open," Danny pointed. It looked large enough to fit the GAV without squishing the other cars.

"Thanks, Dan-o!"

The second his dad shoved into the spot, Danny grabbed his bag, pushed the recently installed back door and slid out the GAV.

He stretched his stiff body as the rest of his family piled out.

Getting to the hotel room was straightforward from there. All they had to do was checkout, then head up the building.

Being in a five-star hotel was an experience.

There were two beds, both queen sized along with a pearl colored chaise next to the window with a view as beautiful as you could get from Gotham. A gray cashmere rug covered a large section of the floor and lamps were placed strategically to ensure soft light would be splashed across the room at night. A small potted plant stood proudly on top of a curved glass side table and a large TV hung on the wall in front of the beds

Danny toed out of his boots, placed his bag next to the right side of the bed facing the window and headed to the bathroom. When he came out, his parents were fussing over their clothes for their meeting with Bruce Wayne, and Jazz was connecting to the hotel's Wi-Fi. For once, they weren't going to meet someone in only their lab suits.

"I'm going out to explore," he said, buckling his boots back on.

"Have fun, Sweetie," Maddie answered absently, making sure there were no creases in her dress.

Jazz looked up. "Be safe and be back before dark. Don't wander too far and do you have your phone?"

Danny nodded. He slipped a room key into his pocket and shut the door behind him. He was kind of excited. He rarely went to any cities, or anywhere out of Amity, so this would be his first time in a major city.

With some hope, he might not even get mugged!

The second Danny stepped out of the hotel, the smell of dust and pollution burned his nostrils even worse than water ever would. He coughed and scrunched his nose, taking a few deep breaths to let himself get used to Gotham's scent.

It was disgusting. Zero out of ten, would not recommend.

As he adjusted, he noticed someone coming up to him. She was dressed in a black blazer and dark slacks with a microphone pointed towards him, and a cameraman by her side.

Danny raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Hello, Mr. Wayne, Vicki Vale here, would you be willing to give me a quote or two for the Gotham Gazette?"

Danny looked around. Was one of the Waynes here? When he looked back, the two were giving him expectant looks. "Me?"

The reporter's smile tightened. "Yes, Mr. Wayne."

"I think you've got me confused for someone else," he said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "My name's Danny Fenton."

"I see. I'm so sorry for bothering you, Mr. Fenton," her eyes widening in shock. There was a glitter in her eye, and Danny instinctively knew there something big was going to happen.

It frustrated him that he didn't know what.

"Right. It's fine, so I'm just gonna…" he jutted his thumbs in a random direction and turned heel to practically flee.

"Wait, Mr. Fenton!" He sped up, pretended he didn't hear her, and shuffled his way through the crowd.

Luckily, being Phantom had taught him how to avoid reporters.

The good, the bad, and the ones in between.

But he noticed that people's eyes seemed to be drawn to him. The reporter's words rang clearly through his head. Did he really look like a Wayne that much? He knew he had black hair and blue eyes, which seemed a constant in that family, but he was pretty sure his face wasn't nearly as good looking as one of theirs.

He decided that he finally had enough when the seventh girl in a row tried to flirt with him after bumping into him unapologetically.

He ducked into a small clothing shop, keeping his head lowered. He walked through the aisles till he found the one that held hats, caps, and visors. Danny tilted his head as he tried to decide which one would best suit his outfits.

Red? Nah.

Neon Green? Stood out too much.

Purple? Nope.

Light blue? Too much like Vlad's ugly mug.

Black with a skull? Sure. It matched the Ring of Rage.

Sam would be so proud of him. He was finally embracing his—somewhat—inner goth.

Danny knew he shouldn't have come here.

He knew that coming to Gotham's bank was like asking to get attacked and shot at or kidnapped.

But no, his idiotic past self wanted to see what everyone on Twitter was talking about when they posted about how grand Gotham's City Bank was.

It was just his luck that the second he took off his cap, the kidnappers appeared out of thin air.

So now, here he was with a non-ecto gun pointed at his head in the back of a rusting white van.

He'd forgotten guns with bullets actually existed out of games. The traitorous part of his brain was intrigued and not for the first time he contemplated his death.

Was it really possible to die a second time? Or would he just die fully? Or not at all?

It was probably Tucker's fault that he was having such thoughts.

It was totally worth getting kidnapped, though. Gotham City Bank was beautiful, pristine, and oozing money. No wonder people tried to rob it every few days. Danny's inner-Tucker might've tried it for fun too if not for the fact that he was a superhero.

Oh well.

The gun's muzzle shoved up against his skull. Danny faked a hissed breath and added a dash of fear in his eyes as he stared straight up ahead.

"Call Wayne," the one who appeared to be the leader snarled with a lower Gotham accent dripping from his voice. "Tell him that we've got one of his boys. We're getting triple cash tonight."

What was wrong with these people? He looked nothing like a Wayne!

He would've noticed if he did.

Right?

Right.

"On it," one of the lackeys replied, dialing in a number.

"You've got the wrong guy." Danny was not impressed. "I'm not a Wayne. My name's Danny Fenton."

"Nice try," the leader said as they all jeered. "You've got black hair 'n blue eyes."

"Doesn't mean I'm a Wayne," Danny protested petulantly.

"That mean this ain't you?" Another guy pushed his phone into Danny's face.

A picture of the Wayne family was displayed on the luminescent screen. He barely recognized them since he didn't really keep up with celebrities that much. But when his eyes landed on one of the Waynes, he gaped at it.

Ancients .

There was a picture of him.

And he didn't remember taking it. Especially not with famous people like the Waynes .

There was a scowl on fake-him's face as he glared at the smirking man who stood a few inches shorter than him. Fake-him had shorter hair which was slicked back neatly, but otherwise looked exactly like him.

He couldn't get any words out of his mouth. It was like there was something shoved into his throat, preventing him from speaking.

Unfortunately, they all took his shock for acceptance.

Before he could say anything, though, the other man's phone was answered.

"Hello, who is this?" The voice that he assumed to be Bruce Wayne's came through.

"Wayne, we got one of your brats. If you want him back, wire five-hundred million to account number 9932-23-23d9 by four p.m or we start hurting him. And you wouldn't want that, would you?" The leader's voice was mockingly sweet. He held the phone in front of Danny again.

"Say hi to Daddy."

"Again, he's not my dad," Danny grumbled under his breath. Then, he widened his eyes, willed his eyes to become wet, and forced a degree of shakiness to his words. "I'm really sorry, Mr. Wayne. I don't know what's going on. These men dragged be from the bank and—mmff"

The third kidnapper covered his mouth tightly. Danny mentally snorted. He could break out of this even without using his ghost powers.

"That's enough outta you."

Mr. Wayne decided to speak up now. "Damian," he said soothingly. "We'll get you out of there. Just hold tight, okay."

Danny stared blankly at the phone.

…say what now?

He would've expected the man to recognize his own son's voice and realize that Danny was not this Damian person. Like, seriously, this little joke was starting to become more than a little ridiculous.

His original plan was to break himself out. But now he was kind of curious.

What was flippin' Bruce Wayne going to do?

The three kidnappers hung up and there was proven to be a fourth when the van lurched and started moving. Kidnapper #2 used black zip-ties to bind his wrists so hard that the thin plastic was digging into his flesh. Then, he did the same with Danny's ankles.

Danny wiggled before Kidnapper #3 caught his shoulder in a bruising grip. He was the largest out of the trio with bulging muscles and green tattoos snaking down his arms.

Ah, your typical criminal.

Again, Danny had totally forgotten that these kinds of people weren't just fiction.

The drive was quiet with the other two kidnappers lighting up cigarettes. Danny let out a harsh cough as smoke crawled its way to his lungs.

Kidnapper #2 smirked and leaned forward so that he was right in front of Danny, hooded eyes observing his own. He let out a smothering combination of nicotine and bad breath.

Danny's coughing turned into wheezing as he tried to get the sizzling sensation out of his body. His core thrummed as it absorbed the smoke out of his lungs.

He and Leader-dude sneered as they sat back and slouched into the tearing faux leather bench.

After another ten minutes, the van jerked to a stop. Leader-dude tightly tied a cloth to cover Danny's eyes and dragged him out.

Hah, not like a blindfold would stop his sight. He had X-ray vision, for crying out loud.

His feet crunched on the gravel and dirt. They were somewhere near Gotham harbor, judging by the salty oceanic smell with an undercurrent of garbage, along with the water in his peripheral vision.

A large warehouse came into view, and he was pushed along, then tied tightly to the metal chair bolted to the floor.

"The hell's this?" an additional voice behind him questioned harshly. "I told you to rob a bank, not bring back some hostage!"

"Boss," the apparently not leader guy said. "This ain't just any hostage. He's a Wayne ."

"In that case," the new voice, Boss, said, voice turning greedy, "you're forgiven, Miguel. But the next time you don't get me my money, I shouldn't have to tell you what'll happen."

"Understood, Boss," Miguel gulped.

Boredom crawled over Danny like a second skin, and he started humming under his breath. A kidnapper kicked his leg, hard enough to sprain it if he wasn't a halfa. But since it was, it was the equivalent of a mosquito bite.

"Quit it, kid. Unless you want us to encourage Wayne to hurry up delivering the money."

Danny just hummed louder. There was seriously nothing to do when you got kidnapped. What else was he supposed to do other than annoy the crap out of his kidnappers?

As much as he wanted to see what Mr. Wayne would do, he needed some fun.

He'd just get himself out in half an hour when Mr. Wayne didn't do anything after finding out that his son wasn't really the one kidnapped.

And also what was up with that?

Why did Damian Wayne (Danny was assuming that was his name) look exactly like him? Was it a coincidence?

But that couldn't be right.

Wait… crap, was Vlad involved again? Did Danny have to check to see if he had more clones hidden away?

Before he could ponder more on that thought, the room dimmed, before the lights flickered off completely. The kidnappers drew their guns, and clicked the safety off. They shuffled around as they stood up, prepared to, however terribly, defend themselves.

"Who's there?" Boss snarled, his gun waving through the air.

"You're worst nightmare," a mechanized voice replied before a series of kicks and punches unceremoniously rang in Danny's ears. Groans came from each of the kidnappers before silence.

Danny sat stiffly since whoever attacked was behind him. They probably wanted to kidnap him too.

Crap.

A surprisingly gentle gloved hand reached to untie the blindfold, and he blinked as his eyes readjusted from the dark X-ray vision to his normal vision. He felt the ropes falling off his torso and ankles as well.

"You okay, Dami?" the voice asked, tenderly petting his head.

His core did something Danny couldn't even make sense of. It thrummed happily, practically melting and doing somersaults at the same time, and a feeling of pure warmth branched out from it to his entire body.

Danny fought to keep his eyes from closing, but relished the contact for some reason.

Then the name the man had said registered in his head.

"Who's Dami?"

Instantly, the man was in front of him. His breath caught when a red helmet and leather jacket came into view, and his eyes widened in awe.

"Holy shit, you're Red Hood!"

"Damian, are you okay? Do you have a concussion?" The concerned tone took him off guard, but then he realized it wasn't for him.

"Again, I'm not this Damian person," he grumbled. "My name's Danny Fenton."

"…Danny… Fenton? "

"Yes, and you're like the nineteenth person to mistake me for this Damian person, and I've been in Gotham for a grand total of two hours," he huffed before a wide grin made its way to his face instead. "On another note, can I please get your autograph?!"

He thrusted a paper and pen from his pockets, which the pathetic kidnappers forgot to empty out, to the still slightly dazed Red Hood. "Yeah… sure, kid."

"Awesome!" he nearly squealed, then cleared his throat. He was talking to his hero. He was talking to freaking Red Hood!

His core was still sending out slightly gooey signals which were unlike anything he'd felt before.

"Right… I'll drop you off at the Commish's office."

"Are we going by grapple?!" The stars in his eyes came back at full force, and he aimed his lethal puppy eyes at Red Hood.

"Hell no," Red Hood answered faintly. He returned the paper, which Danny gingerly tucked away, and walked out of the warehouse with Danny following him like a duckling, before going to a dark corner that no one would take a look at, and pulling out a motorcycle.

Step aside, Johnny, this was the coolest damn motorcycle he'd ever seen .

He hooked a leg over it, and motioned Danny to follow. And follow Danny did, extremely enthusiastic about riding with his hero. He grinned brightly when they started moving as he savored the once in a lifetime thing that'd just been granted to him.

"Mr. Red Hood," Danny started, because he was polite, especially to the greatest hero in existence, "I never actually thought that I'd ever meet you, but I'm talking to you now, and it's the greatest thing ever!"

"First of all, there isn't any Mr. It's just Red Hood, or Hood," the man grunted, taking another left towards the city. "You're a… fan?"

Danny's grin grew wider. "Of course I am!"

"Didn't think I had many of those."

He scoffed, and Red Hood jerked slightly. "Please. I can guarantee that you're one of the most popular heroes, Red Hood."

"You sure about that, kid?"

"Of course I am," Danny answered haughtily. Red Hood's fanbase was huge , easily rivaling Batman's, and the online community loved him. He was one of Gotham's most known vigilantes, so it made sense that people knew about him.

"If you say so," he replied, a hint of doubt in his tone. "But are you really okay? You just got kidnapped."

Danny beamed at him. "Never been better," he chirped. Because, the freaking Red Hood was right in front of him, his core felt like taffy being stretched, he was talking to him, and did he mention that his core was literally sending out gooey signals?

Signals that made him feel safe, which was weird since he only felt that way with Jazz.

Besides, who cared about a little kidnapping when you fight ghosts everyday?

A few minutes later, they stopped in front of a multi-storied building with some kind of golden bird bisecting the word GCPD.

Gotham City Police Department.

Red Hood pressed two fingers where his ear would be on his helmet. "Yo, Commish, I stopped a kidnapping. I'm bringing the kid in."

He led Danny to the back of the building and brought out his grapple aimed at an open window. Danny took that as his cue to get on. Red Hood didn't even protest, instead letting him hang on like a baby koala.

The cold wind rushed past his face as the grapple ride ended too soon, and he found himself in the middle of a large hallway. No one even blinked that the Red Hood was just standing there with a kid just draped across his back. He removed himself from him and took a double take when the people just nodded respectfully at the hero, and even handed him a few snacks. Red Hood gave Danny one, and he munched on it quickly and gratefully.

Sometimes having an enhanced metabolism sucked.

Red Hood then led him down the hall all the way to an office which said 'James W Gordon,' and below it in smaller font, 'Commissioner of Police.'

Looking up, he saw a man with graying hair and rectangular glasses staring at him.

Danny waved at the man who he assumed was the commissioner. He saw his mouth open, and quickly said, "No, I'm not Damian Wayne, I'm Danny Fenton."

The mouth closed. Then opened again.

"Are you okay, son?"

"I'm fine. Not a scratch on me," he said, spreading his arms.

"Why didn't you call the police like you usually do, Hood?"

Red Hood shrugged, rolling his shoulders back. "I just got back when I saw him being nabbed in a white van. The kidnappers are in the blue warehouse by Gotham Harbor."

"Which blue one?"

"Thirty-seven."

The commissioner sighed, and quickly called someone, barking a few orders. "I sent some men to pick them up."

"I've got to get going, Commish. Bye, Danny. Stay safe" Red Hood waved, before disappearing out the window.

"Those bats, I swear," Mr. Gordon muttered, exasperated. "I'm Jim Gordon, the commissioner. Are your parents around, son?"

Danny barely heard over his excited screaming in his head that Red Hood had said his name, and waved to him. "Yeah…"

"Can you tell me their numbers?"

He rattled off Maddie's cell number while Mr. Gordon called them.

Maddie's voice came through, which he doubted he could've heard without his enhanced hearing. "Hi, who is this?"

"Hello, my name is Jim Gordon. I'm the commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department. I have Danny here with me and—"

"The Police?! What did Danny pull again?"

The commissioner paused. Then narrowed his eyes a little.

"Ma'am your son was—"

"I know Danny's a troubled child, always skipping school, and getting into fights, but I can't believe that he did something that made you arrest him! What did he do, shoplift again?"

Danny grit his teeth. The only reason he'd shoplifted was because a ghost would've attacked if he didn't get that item pronto. There wasn't any time to pay, so he thought he'd pay later, but it was just his luck that the cops were hanging around.

"No, Mrs. Fenton, he was kidnapped."

"Oh. Is he okay?" It should've hurt more from the lack of concern in her voice, but he just couldn't care anymore. He had a whole depression phase for a few months before, bizarrely, a bunch of ghosts dragged him around, trying to cheer him up. Now, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker were the only alive people that personally mattered to him.

Don't get him wrong, he still cared about innocents and heroes. He didn't care for their negative opinions, though.

"Yes. Mrs. Fenton—" Mr. Gordon stared as the line went dead. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, then Danny's phone came to life, blaring out Jazz's personalized ringtone.

"Danny! Are you okay?! Stay right there, I'm coming to pick you up!" Her concerned voice made him twitch his lips.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But how? You don't have your car with you, and you can't drive the GAV. I'll just get back on my own."

"Absolutely not!" Jazz burst out, and he winced, holding the phone away from his ear. "I'll walk there, or catch the bus, but you are not going by yourself, especially after you got kidnapped. Do you understand me, Daniel James Fenton?!"

"Yes, Jazz," he grumbled. Nevermind that he was a superhero, or anything.

"Who is that?" the commissioner asked, raising an eyebrow.

"My sister."

"Then can you please tell her that I'll be dropping you off instead? It isn't safe to wander Gotham alone."

He parroted the message to Jazz, who surprisingly agreed before hanging up.

A knock on the door startled him.

"Come in," Mr. Gordon called, eyeing the large blurred shape. The doorknob twisted, and Danny gawked as the Bruce Wayne himself entered the Police Commissioner's office.