A/N: I've had a great time working on this fic for the DPXDC Ghouls and Gangs 2024 Big Bang! I've also been super excited and very grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the amazing suzukiblu (on AO3), who made the art based on this story, and the awesome OtakuShadow205 (on AO3), who has been a great beta. Both of them have really made this work into what it is, and I don't think it would've been the same without them. This story has also been posted to my AO3 account under the username auagua.
This story starts after Jason has been released from medical in the Far Frozen, but there may be a prequel at some point...
Jason drummed his fingers irritably, creating a thumping sound against the slab of the coffee table. He glared at the pale, greasy-looking man standing opposite.
"What do you want, Johnny?" he asked. "Actually, let me put it this way…why are you here again?"
The ghost's oily, pale blond hair skimmed his shoulders as he put his hands up, smirking. "I don't know why you're being so rude, kid, I am the one that brought you to Frostbite. I could've left you to freeze in a snowdrift."
Jason scoffed. "You sicced Shadow on me when I was unconscious," his eyes narrowed. "...and I'm not a kid. I'm twenty-five!"
Johnny shrugged. "It's not my fault that you looked half-dead, and your core was rotting. Shadow loves rotten ecto, he's my little trash panda." At that, Shadow whacked the ghost with his tail and zoomed out of the room in a huff. "And I did take you to Frostbite after I realized that you aren't a shade. I hate to break it to you, but you're still a kid. The only person in the Ghost Zone younger than you is Phantom, and no one's seen him in ages."
"Whatever. You still didn't say why you're bothering me." Jason grumbled.
Johnny dropped his hands to the table, floating down to meet Jason's eyes. "I want to make a deal."
Jason's brow raised. "A deal? What could you possibly have that I want?"
"A way home," Johnny smirked. "Frostbite said that you're from Gotham. I'll help you get back home to Gotham, and you help me and Kitty find someone once we get there." Johnny bargained.
"How come you're only offering to help me get back to Gotham now? I've been stuck here for the past six weeks. And who do you want to find in Gotham anyway? You just called me a kid; how do you know that whoever you're looking for is still in the city?" Jason asked, voice full of skepticism.
"Frostbite needed to make sure that you didn't Fade first, that's why I waited. Anyway, Phantom usually isn't away from the Zone for that long, so he would've been your best bet at getting back." Johnny paused. "But no one has seen him in six weeks…which is, what, nearly a year on Earth? Something must've happened to the punk."
"If Phantom was my best bet, what are you?" Jason retorted.
Johnny grunted. "Look. Me and Kitty died together," Jason inhaled sharply. None of the ghosts that he had met here so far had uttered a word about their deaths. "We were from Gotham, way back then. Most ghosts don't remember a lot from Before. It's usually just…fragments. I know that it's been a long time. But we do wanna see if any of our family is still in the city. I had a little brother."
Jason felt a bit of sympathy for the ghost. "I can try to help you. But how are we going to actually get out of here?"
Johnny grinned. "The Infi-Map might not be real, but I do know two ghosts that could help us open a portal, Wulf and Cujo."
"The Infi-Map?" Jason asked. Johnny started to float towards the ceiling in uncharacteristic excitement.
"It's a legend, there's supposed to be a map hidden in the Zone that can take you to any time or place. No one knows where it is. If it's real, I'd bet that the yetis are hiding it, as mysterious as they are." Johnny explained.
"Yeah right, the yetis wouldn't tell me that I have to wait for Phantom to come if they have a magical map to the universe." Jason waved him off.
Johnny looked amused. "It's supposed to be a legend, Hood, and if it was with the yetis, you're a new halfa that no one had ever heard of before a few weeks ago, they wouldn't just give you a map to the universe." Jason flipped him off. "But I know for a fact that Wulf can open portals to Earth, if you can find him. He's on the run from Walker again."
"Who is Walker? And if Wulf is on the run, how are we going to find him? I was only just able to transform last week–also, why is his name Wulf?" Jason questioned.
"Walker is the most anal-retentive dickhead in the Ghost Zone. He likes to throw anyone he can find into his little prison if they break his made-up laws." Johnny sneered. "...and Wulf is a wolf. If we find Cujo, he could probably take us right to Wulf."
"Cujo? Don't tell me, he's a giant St. Bernard?" Jason asked dryly.
Johnny shrugged. "Close enough. We need Wulf, but we need to find Cujo first, so he can track him down."
"Even if we find Wulf, how are we going to convince him to open a portal to Earth?"
"Eh, I'm still working on that part. Maybe if we fuck up Walker's prison, that might throw his goons off of Wulf's tracks for a while. We'd be doing Wulf a favor." Johnny cajoled.
"Dude, even I've come up with better plans than that." Jason laughed as he moved towards the door. "I have training, but maybe you can come up with a better plan in the meantime."
"Oh, fuck off!" Johnny flipped him off. Chuckling, Jason simply walked through the door of the sitting room with the possibility of returning home burnt into his mind.
The training arena of the Far Frozen was a palatial structure that loomed over the residential district. The walls were made of thick blocks of ice like every other building in the small city, but the architects of the Far Frozen had outdone themselves on the training arena. Intricate patterns of vines and flowers were delicately engraved into the building's entablature. Dozens of shallow, broad steps led up to the portico, taxing Jason as he climbed.
The main entrance was framed with smooth, crystalline columns that sparkled, reflecting watery blue-green light in all directions. The portico was at least twenty-five feet tall, easily dwarfing Jason as he burrowed more deeply into the thick wool coat he had been gifted with after his discharge from the realm's hospital.
Everything in Avalfirn, the city hidden deep within the realm of the Far Frozen, was built to the scale of the average Yeti. From the shallow stairs that would take humans several strides to cross to sofas the size of a California King bed, it made Jason feel as if he were a child again: small amongst the lumbering adults. It didn't help that all of the ghosts Jason had encountered were probably centuries old–according to Johnny, Jason was the youngest being in the Ghost Zone at the moment. With the pervasive cold, the deep green skies, Avalfirn felt like an icy Wonderland.
As he walked through the ornate double doors, Jason idly wondered why the yetis even bothered with doors. After all, they were ghosts. The doors led to an even taller rotunda, with ornate skylights filtering light into the hall and glittering stone panels engraved with illustrations of folk tales and heroes. The far side of the room had a few sets of doors. Jason went through to the locker room. With brutal efficiency, he changed into a slimmer training coat and heavy boots. He'd been training almost constantly for the past several weeks, but he'd only just recently been able to transform into his ghost form and could barely hold it. Until he was able to maintain it, Jason had to dress carefully for the cold. Fluffy snow crunched beneath his boots as he meandered out to the arena.
The arena always reminded Jason of an open-air ice rink; the center made of slick ice, bracketed by stands that could fit hundreds of yetis. Today, Jason and Frostbite were the only two souls for miles around, his footsteps echoing loudly as he carefully eased his way towards the center. The first day of training had been a disaster; Jason, who hadn't been on ice since Wayne Manor was still his permanent address, had fallen on his ass no less than thirty times. Now, four weeks later, he was able to manage only one fall per session.
As he reached Frostbite, he reached for the subtle pulsing sensation in his core, pulling at it to initiate his transformation. After a minute, two white rings of light wobbled over him. His outfit changed to an inverse of his Red Hood uniform, a pitch-black leather jacket over white armor emblazoned with a neon green bat symbol. His trousers were also white, with neon green holsters and accents. A snow-white domino covered his bright green eyes. Jason kind of hated the costume. At first, he'd been worried that his ghost form would be a permanent reminder of his premature death: short, teenaged, and dressed in the tattered Robin suit he'd died in. That his ghost form looked like the man he now was relieved him, but the inverse of his current uniform sans helmet, was eye-watering.
Dressed like this, any idiot with even half-decent vision could spot him from a mile away, and he looked a little bit like a Ghostbuster. His hair was a bright green, marked with a patch of black in the front, floating around as if he were underwater. Jason's skin was a warm tan, marred by several razor-thin scars, lightly glowing green, that made him look as if ectoplasm was about to leak through at any minute. The delicate scars spiderwebbed across his face, neck, chest, and arms, tracing the damage the Joker had once wrought upon his body. Little jolts of energy flit across his scars, electricity crackling down to his fingers and toes.
Frostbite was patiently waiting for Jason at the center of the arena. The yeti was at least eight feet tall and broad, with thick white fur and wicked sharp antlers. Most of his left arm was actually an intricate glass prosthesis. Jason privately wondered if the bones embedded in the ice were real. Frostbite wore a stately dark blue cloak and matching kilt, which was topped with an intricate, bejeweled golden belt.
Voice echoing with joy and excitement, Frostbite bellowed, "Ah, Red Hood, you're able to transform more quickly now! We may be able to test out your ectoblasts today!"
Jason scoffed, skeptical. "I can barely stay invisible for five minutes Frosty; I don't think I'll be able to shoot lasers from my hands just yet."
Frostbite was not perturbed in the slightest. "It is the effort that counts, young halfa! Even if you can only produce a mere spark, or nothing at all, the practice is worth it." he said encouragingly.
Jason frowned. "Yeah, but what halfa takes this long to transform? I'm still struggling to fly and walk through things."
"Well, there are only three other halfas, Red Hood, all of whom became so under different circumstances. The Great One told me that it took many Earth years for the halfa Plasmius to control his powers." Frostbite pointed out.
"Are you saying that it could take years for me to figure this shit out?!" Jason exclaimed.
Frostbite shook his great head. "No, I do not believe it will take years for you to use most of your powers, you've already made such great progress. Do not forget that you are still recovering from core poisoning; I had never seen such a severe case of it before," Frostbite paused. With a wave of his paw, several gleaming discs of ice manifested. With another gesture, the discs hovered a few feet above the ground, a short distance away from where the two ghosts stood. Frostbite made a gesture with his paws. "Now, here are a few targets that you can try to hit. To create an ectoblast, you reach for the energy inside of your core, the same that you use to transform, and direct a small amount towards your hands."
Jason nodded, twisting his body to aim at the discs. Inside, he tried his best to draw from the crackling energy running through his body. Stretching his fingers, fledgling green sparks began to materialize, but after a few long seconds, they started to dissipate. Jason dropped his hands in frustration.
"It's not working." Jason said through gritted teeth.
"Keep trying, young halfa!" Frostbite encouraged.
Jason shook his hands out before raising them again. Feeling silly, he stretched them out, palms flat and facing the targets. He focused on the electric feeling again. Brows furrowed, he focused on his hands. Sparks began to gather at his fingertips again, bright green and colliding as the beginnings of an energy beam began to form. Come on—just a little more, he thought.
In moments, Jason had fired off an ectoblast, which went careening off into the distance, clipping the outer edge of the left target as it went. The target was knocked to the ground with a third of its form burnt off. Jason stood there, jaw slack and hands still splayed out in front of him. Frostbite let out a whoop, startling him.
"See! I knew you could do it! Now try to aim at the others." Frostbite cheered.
"The others? It took me five minutes to clip the side of this one." Jason muttered under his breath. Ducra would've called me useless if she could see me now, he mused, before getting back into position. His next blast went wide, missing the target entirely.
After a few hours of practice, Jason had managed to destroy three rows worth of floating targets, with each one getting easier. When he'd destroyed the first three, he'd turned to Frostbite expectantly, the yeti simply waved and conjured six more ("So, now that I took those out, can I make shit out of ice?" "Red Hood, practice makes perfect ''). Panting, Jason made his way over to a bench and cast a glance over the arena again. Debris from the destroyed targets glistened against the snow-covered ground in the cool gray light, and the singed cloth of the rink's barriers flapped in the wind, damaged by stray ectoblasts.
Frostbite floated over to the side. "You've worked very hard today Red Hood, I truly believe that you will have completely recovered from the core poisoning by next month, and then your powers will stabilize." he said.
"Next month? Frosty, if it takes another month here for me to recover, I'd've been gone from earth for more than a year!" Jason exclaimed.
Frostbite raised his paws placatingly. "Either a month here, or a month on Earth would do, Red Hood. As long as you have access to enough pure ectoplasm, you will recover quickly."
Jason hummed. "You know, you can call me Red or Hood, you don't have to say the whole thing every single time." The yeti merely shrugged in acknowledgement, a serene smile on his face.
Jason took a deep breath before starting again. "Did you know that Johnny 13 is back?"
For a fleeting moment, all was silent in the arena, except for the howling of the wind. Sometimes, Jason wondered how the Far Frozen had snow, wind, and gray skies in the middle of an otherwise static green dimension. Each time Jason wondered about the workings of the Ghost Zone, he quickly remembered that the only common factor is chaos.
Frostbite spoke up. "Yes! I saw him earlier, he said that he wanted to see how you were after your accident." Frostbite paused at the pensive look on Jason's face. "Did something happen during your conversation with him?"
"Well," Jason started hesitantly. "He mentioned that he might know a way for us to get to Earth, since Phantom hasn't come back yet. He said this ghost called Wulf would be able to open a portal if we could find him and get him to help us out. He also mentioned something called an Infi-Map, but he said that nobody knows if it's real." Jason shrugged, not noticing the slight tension that came over Frostbite at the mention of the Infi-Map. Frostbite rubbed his chin with a giant paw, considering.
"Wulf is not a terrible option, if you can find him. He has a soft spot for the Great One, so he may be willing to look for him as well. The Great One's absence is unusual." Frostbite gestured at Jason as he took off towards the exit. "Come, let us speak to Johnny 13 about this plan of his."
Jason was startled but floated unsteadily after the yeti.