I'm mainly making this so fast and posting it today because I want the time stamp for the first of the year. I've had the idea since I read some tumblr posts about Danny going on vacation to the DC universe to be a mad scientist and one about him being a Doctor Doofenshmirtz type character fighting against Agent P/Black Bat, but I didn't even make the document to try and make it a full story until today. Either way though, Happy New Year everyone and I hope this story is good enough that you can get a good laugh and enjoy the ride!
Danny liked to think that after his encounter with his potential future self, he had become a better person. More responsible, focused, and dedicated. He took his work as a hero more seriously, put more effort into mastering his powers and learning skills that would help him in life. He was more proactive in taking care of potential dangers before they could cause himself or anyone else any harm. He was being good.
Which was apparently a problem in and of itself according to Clockwork. Or at least, that's what Danny thought the personification of Time was hinting at when he grabbed Danny out of the air, chucked him into another dimension, and told him to 'Have fun and cause chaos'. Was this just the Ancient's way of telling Danny to take a vacation? Did he need Danny to cause chaos to prepare this world for something else? Maybe it was supposed to be a lesson about balancing duty with desire or something? Danny honestly didn't know, and honestly, he didn't care. He had been on his best behavior for ages and was more than ready to unleash his pent-up gremlin energy.
So he threw together a fun mad scientist outfit, nabbed some heavy-duty safety goggles, and raided a junkyard for parts in preparation for his first game.
Thanks to abusing his duplication he was ready to enact his plan by the next day, a feat that he didn't think the locals were as impressed about as he thought they should be. Or maybe some of them were and he just couldn't hear their praise over the sound of police sirens and the less appreciative people screaming their heads off as his Anti-Gravity Radiator's area of effect encompassed them and slowly pulled them off the ground.
Danny huffed under his breath, lazily using the larger objects caught in his new invention's grasp as platforms to jump around the city, dragging the device and the affected area with him as he drifted through the air. Honestly, you'd think that people would be more appreciative of his efforts! He was showing them all how much fun flying was! How freeing weightlessness was! And it wasn't like any of them were being thrown around or dropped to their deaths! His device came with built-in safety features that included a gradual strengthening of its effects the closer one was to the projector, so there wasn't even any shock when the Earth's gravity reclaimed them!
Clearly he wasn't the only one who needed to learn to cut loose and have some fun.
The aspiring gremlin's bemoaning was cut off when he felt… something enter the range of his admittingly subpar empathic abilities. If he was feeling things right, and wow that was a weird thing to think in the context of outside perception, someone was heading his way with an intense, single-minded focus that rivaled anything he had ever felt himself during his three-day DOOM binges. It was actually really impressive. And kinda scary. Oh look there's the source!
Danny couldn't fight the urge to yelp as the determined figure made their appearance, barely being able to twist himself out of the way of the flying kick that nearly hit him in the head. The sudden movement sending him spiraling head over heels, the lack of gravity working against him. Sure he could use his powers to righten himself, hell he could have used them to pull off the entire no gravity game he wanted to play, but that would be too easy! It would practically be cheating! His parents were able to cause as much chaos as a small country's entire military with their madness! How could he call himself a Mad Scientist worthy of the Fenton name if he couldn't do the same?
Luckily he was close enough to the ground, and the sidewalk, that he was able to grab one of the anchored streetlamps, bringing him to a stop. "That was uncalled for!" He yelled at his assailant, who he noticed was covered head to toe in what looked like black leather, a yellow outline of a bat the only splash of color on her body. Though he personally thought the cape was better than extra color, it was very dramatic.
The figure, her legs wrapped around the lamp on the other end of the street to keep he steady, crossed her arms and gave him a challenging, deadpan look. At least, that's what Danny was guessing it was supposed to be based off the feelings he was getting off her, the full face mask made it kind of hard to go by her actual expression.
"Yes it was!" Danny fired back, kicking off his lamppost to start drifting towards the newcomer, "You just jump in here out of nowhere with a kick aimed for my face without even introducing yourself! There are protocols to follow you know! Traditions!"
The woman's arms fell down to her sides and she tilted her head questioningly.
"Well," Danny began, "since you asked… wait," he held out his hands as he got closer to the woman, "I can't stop, you might want to just like, scootch to the side real quick." She did so, letting Danny hook his own feet on the light pole a few feet away from her new position. "Thanks." She gave him a nod. "Right, where was I?" The masked woman raised a single finger, "Yes! Thank you!" He nodded happily, "Tradition and protocols! First, there's the issuing of the challenge… which I kinda already did with all of this." He gestured around them at the floating debris and occasional panicking bystander, several of which were trying to train their phones on the two of them, no doubt recording their encounter.
"Second! There are the introductions and declarations of intent!" The woman rolled her hand in a gesture for him to continue. "Thank you for asking! I am…" Danny paused. He hadn't actually considered what he was going to call himself in this world during his games. He was emulating his parents for this whole thing, but he didn't want to just go by 'Fenton', that seemed lazy, even lazier than changing his last name to 'Phantom' for his heroic alter ego. "I'm… Nightingale?" he looked at the faceless woman, "does that sound good?" She raised her hand flat with her palm facing the ground and shook it side to side in a 'so-so' gesture. Danny nodded, "I'll take it. And what's your name Miss Bat?"
The woman shook her head, "Shadow Bat?" Another shake of the head, "Lady Bat?" Still no, "Dark Bat?" she gave him another rolling hand, "Okay so I'm getting close… an adjective?" She shook her head. "A color then?" A nod, "Okay, and given the costume… Black Bat?" A more enthusiastic nod and a feeling of satisfaction answered his latest guess. "Okay! Black Bat! I'm guessing this is your haunt then?" Another shaking hand gesture, "Oh… Do… do we need to call someone first then? Like, are we trespassing or..?" Black Bat slowly looked around at the chaos caused by his machine, "Okay yeah, I'm trespassing, but I'm the one issuing the challenge! I don't want you to get in trouble for that if you aren't into it!"
A feeling of understanding radiated from the masked woman. Danny smiled and gave an enthusiastic nod, "So! Are we clear or is there a landlord or something?"
She gestured between the two of them and gave him a thumbs up, indicating that they were okay. "Awesome! Then Black Bat! Witness as I, the magnificent Nightingale, sow joyous chaos and confusion, wonderment and glee, freedom and insanity into the world with my latest invention! The…" fuck, he forgot to name his device, "the… uh… the Anti-Gravatron-inator!"
Black Bat gave him another thumbs up, this one radiating encouragement, just as she lashed out with her other hand, jabbing him in the face.
The force and shock of the impact caused Danny to let go of the post and sent him spinning through the air once more, this time with him covering his abused face with his hands. "FUCK!" he cried, "My nose!" he pulled his hands away, looking at his palms, "Oh good, no blood. I hate bleeding." He flashed Black Bat a wide smile, "Nice punch! Seriously, OW!" He pulled a newly made, holstered Fentonworks approved energy pistol from his thigh, his feet catching on another lamp post, "My turn!" He shot off a trio of bolts in her direction, all aimed for center mass.
The black clad woman lept off the post, her cape splaying out behind her as she flew threw the air in a perfect… he thinks it was called a jeté. Very grateful, very impressive, and very effective for getting well out of the way of his blasts. As were the next five leaps she took, each one propelling her across the street as he kept trying to train another proper shot. If he didn't know any better Danny would almost think she was dancing out of the way of his blasts! He was kinda jealous. Even with his ability to fly he had trouble moving like that.
"Okay," Danny admitted, still firing blasts of low-grade, lightly charged ectoplasm her way, "I'm impressed." He stopped firing, holding his gun up by his head, "But are you going to fight back or are you waiting for someone else? Because I'm starting to feel kinda mean."
Black Bat responded by grabing a broken brick out of the air and throwing it his way like a fastball, stopping the opposite force acting on her by grabbing onto a floating car's open door.
Danny yelped, jumping away in a far less graceful leap to avoid taking the projectile to his already abused face. "Thank you!" He cried, bringing his gun back to bear, "Now the fun can really start!"
An hour later saw the new villain known as Nightingale disappear from the world behind a building, his Anti-Gravatrion-Inator destroyed by Black Bat and his game at an end. It had been an amazing fight, full of bright lights, beautiful leaps, incredible throws, and all around spectacular showings of badassitude. It had been wonderful. Danny finally understood why his rogues kept butting into his haunt that first year! If so many of them hadn't been hellbent on killing him or taking over the world back then he might have learned to enjoy this sooner!
Not only that, but Black Bat had been an amazing sport, matching Danny blow for blow and never taking any of it too seriously. He kept it non-lethal and without the risk of too much bodily harm and she followed suit! Well, except for the fastball brick thing, but even that could be excused since she hadn't known his baster were non-lethal at that point. She matched his level of violence perfectly. Truly an ideal playmate.
He couldn't wait to see her again for his next game!
Sorry for the abrupt ending, it's getting late and I'm very tired. Don't expect any updates anytime soon, we all know I'm terrible at that.