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"Dad."
"I am not your father, ghostling- and you cannot attempt to use that to take my sword."
"… Mom!"
"Oh Realms help me, No-"
So Danny finally got on JLD's radar, but not because of summoning, or ghost attacks, or anything like that.
No, he got noticed by pure accident, walking on the streets.
Why? Well it might have something to do with the baker's dozen of Ancients level curses wafting off of him.
Seriously this guy should not be remotely alive and kicking, what the fuck? Nocturne's mark alone would have sent him into unwaking slumber why is he up and around buying groceries???
...
In other words, Danny traded a bunch of claims with his ghostly friends and foes, intentionally or otherwise. Some of those are good natured, some not quite. But at the worse those just cause minor inconveniences. To him, that is.
Our beloved ghost boy might have failed to realize the ghosts are actually eldritch gods to the rest of the world... And he is half of one too.
Lovely prompt by @stealingyourbones in her long prompts list, in which Danny Phantom meets the Rogues of Central City! This will have multiple parts, I just haven't written them yet.
Disclaimer: I know very little about Captain Cold and Mirror Master despite having watched some of the Flash. The general vibe I get from Flash is that Flash just really cares about his rogues as evidenced by how he talks to them and doesn't immediately one-shot them like I'm pretty sure he could do. And that Captain Cold is a snarky asshole that just wants to steal things and follow his plans as planned? Tbh, the whole mini-arc/episode with him just felt like Snart was trying to coordinate the world's riskiest group project. He was so done by the end lmao
"Huh. That's new."
Danny hovered an inch off of the ground, having just been spat out by swirling green portal. He was going to have to get back to the Zone later to hot potato Skulker through a couple of portals in revenge. He had a math exam he had to study for, dammit.
Danny sighed. Might as well see what's happening. The portals rarely lead somewhere boring, and Danny was bored. He floated further in, form going intangible and invisible as he passed through thick but insulated marble walls. See, Jazz? He could totally plan ahead. He's also learning that he could probably rob a bank easily, but Danny would never.
"Never been spat out in a bank before," he hummed, eyes flickering on the numerous forms of cowering people in the lobby. The goons scattered about don't see him, but it would take another ghost to even detect his presence so it was to be expected. He moved further in with little hindrance and soon touched down onto polished floor behind two incredibly suspicious individuals.
"What-cha do-ing?"
The two figures, currently and obviously robbing a bank, whirled around in surprise. Their respective weapons whirred to a start before they stopped, baffled by the meta teen standing there with his white hair waving about and innocent look pasted all over his face.
Leonard Snart knew instinctively that the kid was so full of shit. He'd bet his entire plan on the fact that the kid knew exactly what kind of shit he was stirring. Still, Snart was guilty of a lot of things but direct child-endangerment wasn't ever one of them.
"How'd you get in here, kid?" Mirror Master raised his laser pistol, ready to distract and divert the kid with threats of violence- which Snart glared at him for- or with his hall of mirrors that he'd run to.
Danny shrugged. "I walked. If you guys didn't want me here, you should have guarded the place better."
"They were supposed to," Snart drawled. He cased the kid. Teen. The kid had a weird halo effect, that seemed to draw the eyes to the stylized letter on his hazmat suit. The kid was young. Meta. Non-hostile. "You trying to stop us?"
Danny shook his head. "Nah. Came from the Ghost Zone so 's really non'a my business. I was just being nosy."
Snart gave a curt nod and nudged Mirror Master back into cracking the security measures.
Mirror Master scoffed. "What the hell is a ghost zone?"
"I mean, it's pretty self explanatory, right? It's a zone where ghosts live. Hence, you know, Ghost Zone." Danny did a little jazz hands (oh, yeah, he was definitely gonna get Jazz to make that joke sooner or later) for emphasis.
Snart paused for the slightest bit before continuing with his task. Did ghosts exist?
"...Did the Flash send you here, kid?"
"I'm not a kid," Danny scowled, walking right up to them. He got enough of that from his own Rogues, thank you. "And what's a Flash?"
"The Flash, kid." Mirror Master corrected, shoving monitors and PC's and expensive looking office chairs into... a mirror dimension? Danny shrugged and rolled with it.
"Who's that? Your boss?"
"Local superhero, not our boss. You're not from here," Snart quickly deduced as a small smile wormed onto his face from successfully cracking the security without setting off an alarm. They'd have ten minutes before the system cycles the access codes again and flags the fraudulent ones. That should be enough time.
"Superhero? Are they fast? Actually, where is here?" Danny glanced around at the now bare security office like the Flash would show up.
The guy in green and yellow took everything not nailed down to the ground. Danny respected that, even if he kind of wanted to stop the robbery. But he's not really supposed to interfere. That would be uber rude, since it looked like the guy in the fur jacket seemed like he had planned everything precisely.
"You're in Central City, kid. Did you take a wrong turn trying to get to Keystone or something?" Green-yellow guy snorted.
"Gonna be real honest with you, I've got no idea where that is. What state are we in?" Danny followed as the pair rushed to the safe doors. He could offer to phase them through but no matter how flexible Danny's morals have become over the years, he was going to draw a line at actively helping a person commit crime.
"Kansas. Do you teleport? Are you a teleporting meta?" Snart asked, eyes intense as he both glared at Danny and pressed an ear to the safe door.
"Nah, I wish I could teleport. Getting to school would be so much faster. Kansas? Huh, I've never been."
"How lost are you, kid?" Mirror Master incredulously paused from robbing the packages that were delivered to the bank.
Danny shrugged. "Oh, I'm Danny. Who are you guys?"
"Captain Cold. That's Mirror Master."
Danny shifted as the safe clicks open. "So, uh, are you guys the villains here?"
Captain Cold shot him a weird look. "We're actively robbing a bank, kid. That should be obvious."
"Also, you're acting real calm for a kid speaking to two of Fawcett's best super-villains." Mirror Master chimed in, laser-ing off locks on deposit boxes and shoving cash and stuff into his mirror dimension.
Danny padded in after them. "Eh, you haven't shot at me- not even on sight- yet, which is more than I can say for law enforcement, so you're pretty chill in my book."
Captain Cold snorted, pointedly taking his freeze gun and breaking off a large manual lock. "I believe it's my job to be the chill one. Plus, we don't kill. The Flash would be up our... business if we did. It's not worth the trouble."
"You can say ass. I've heard worse."
"Not from me, kid."
Danny hadn't had that kind of consideration from anyone in a long time. Even if it's a bit... mother-hennish, the halfa couldn't find it in him to be annoyed. "Ah, okay. Well, you also haven't kidnapped me or tried to stop me from following you, so..."
Mirror Master shoved a giant painting into his dimension. "You haven't tried to stop us; it'd be weird trying to stop you."
"Makes sense."
"Heh. You're alright, kid. Though... who's kidnapping you?"
"My fruit loop of a godfather. It's a thing," Danny avoided the searching gaze like a pro.
"Hold this." Captain Cold said suddenly, giving Danny a massive dufflebag.
"Wait, what?"
Captain Cold began stuffing the bag with cash and once the money in the vicinity (not that much) went in, he said "Go look around. Having another person in here is a risk so you might as well make up for it."
Danny's calling it. Captain Cold was full of shit. The guy's a big softie. Danny smiled sheepishly and agreed. Danny circled the place, pointing out expensive looking stuff- "for fun" and not because they were nice to him- when he felt the tell-tale zaps of an anomaly in Clockwork's domain.
"Move!" He shouted at the two villains, both of whom dove out of the way. Instinctively, Danny threw out his gloved hands and iced the floors, instincts bristling at the incoming danger. His jaw dropped as a blur encountered the ice and went ass over tea kettle onto the floor, unable to stop its own momentum.
"Oh shit!" Danny uttered, eyes wide as the blur slammed into the opposite- reinforced- wall with a pained shout. The stopped person was wearing red, with a lighting bolt motif all over their uniforms. That implied speed. Speed implied "The Flash." Danny knew a hero when he saw one and he just iced him. Shit.
"What-" The Flash groaned. Mirror Master and Captain Cold gaped.
"OhmyancientsI'msosorrygottagobye!" Danny shouted.
"Hey, wait, kid-!" Captain Cold shouted. Danny ignored him, going invisible in a panic and sank into the ground, mortified. After thirty seconds of self-hatred, he zoomed out and away. Danny held his head in his hands as he flew back to where Amity was...
Only to stare down at the empty plots of land where his city was supposed to be. Danny shoved a hand into his chest and pulled out his phone.
[No results for Amity Park. Did you mean "Amity Arkham"?]
"What."
Any research he did after that only turned up a Jasmine Fellona, a budding neurobiologist in her field, and other people that were adjacent to the people Danny knew. But nothing, nothing from Amity Park.
"Oh, yeah, we're definitely not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy."
---
As the Flash stood around to keep an eye on the hand-cuffed villains, he couldn't help but ask.
"So, uh, Snart. Did you... get a kid?"
"What." Snart asked, incredibly done with this shit.
"You know. Snart junior? With the ice and everything?" Flash gestured at the un-melting ice that covered the floor leading into the safe. "I mean, I'm not thrilled you're pulling your kid into a life of crime..."
"No."
"Wait, you had a kid and didn't tell me?" Mirror Master asked, mildly offended. "That was your kid? No wonder no one shot at him!"
"He's not my kid." Snart gave Flash the stink-eye. "And don't you have a couple of baby sidekicks running around?"
"C'mon dude, you're so obviously fond of him. It's okay, you don't have to hide it." Flash avoided the topic... in a flash.
"Can someone arrest me right now so these idiots can be removed from my vicinity?" Snart snarked to the approaching officer, jerking his head to point at the beaming Flash.
"You and me both, buddy," Officer West sighed.
---
One trip to the zone and a stressful conversation with Clockwork later, Danny was found in his keep, smacking his ghost head into the ghost wall of his ghost keep. Danny would unleash a Wail if it didn't have the nasty habit of bringing everything around him.
Apparently, he got "Amity'd," a process which meant Amity spat him out like an over chewed dog bone and refused to take him back.
"That doesn't even make sense! I left there a bunch of times! And came back!"
"The city has decided that it was your time to leave, Danny." Clockwork spared a wane smile for the curled up boy-king.
"I have people to protect there! My entire life! My haunt!" Danny yelled, breaths that he didn't technically need coming shorter and shorter. The neon green of the Zone whirled in and out of his vision in a dizzying shudder of anxiety and incoming panic.
"It wasn't your haunt, I'm afraid. The city nurtured you as a young spirit- thus shared her haunt- and has decided that it was time for you to... leave the nest, so to speak."
That stopped Danny's panic in its tracks. "Are you telling me she NightVale-d me? Some kind of involuntary coming-of-age bs?"
If he weren't on the edge of hysterical laughter, Danny would take a moment and proudly say to Mr. Lancer that he had paid attention in class.
"...Yes."
"Fuck." Danny dropped his head down in despair. His head made a loud thunk. The bag of cash he'd accidently made away with sat innocently at his feet. Further proof that it wasn't some nightmare he'd wake up from anytime soon.
---
Danny slumped over the desk, exhausted. Technus had lent him a ghostly hand and hacked into government data bases to re-establish his social security number and all the other dumb bits and bobs that he needed to establish his identity because Amity was an actual ghost town. Ghost to reality, ghost to real life. Ancients, Amity even had their own data network, which he couldn't access outside of Amity itself. This meant that Danny couldn't even call anyone. Ugh.
"I gotta find a place to live," he mumbled to himself. Danny, despite knowing that he needed to do things, did not move for another ten minutes.
Then, as his phone alarm went off, buzzing on the table. Like... Clockwork... Danny sat up straight and wiped all traces of wallowing self pity off his face. The people in the library- students- gave him solemn nods of solidarity. Danny nodded back and left the library.
He wandered around Fawcett City, somewhere Clockwork had recommended he stayed. With Clockwork, recommendations tended to be life-important (plot-important?) orders. Danny liked the place, really. It gave off the weird and settled "what-the-fuck,-Box-Ghost-did-you-have-to-destroy-the-mall?" vibes Amity constantly gave off after the ghosts started coming through. He thought he even saw a talking tiger! Awesome.
"Hey, are you new here?"
Danny looked down. His reflection stared back at him.
Did he have another kid? Did someone clone him again? Ancients curse you, Vlad!
"Uh- yeah."
"Oh. Do you need help getting around? I was born and raised here all my life, so I can totally do that!"
Oh thank the Ancients, this wasn't another Dani. Just a weirdly similar looking kid.
"You know I'm a stranger, right?"
"I don't think anyone helping Nanny Mae pick up her oranges would hurt kids," the kid said archly, but with a grin so like Dani, it made Danny miss his younger sister.
"Okay, you got me there. But still."
The kid sighed. "I know how to be safe, thanks. I'm Billy!"
"Danny. Nice to meet you."
"Okay, Danny, where you off to?"
"I'm actually trying to find a place that'll be cheap to rent." He's sixteen, but Danny could totally pass as eighteen. "I'm thinking about moving to Fawcett. It's nice here, with all the ambient magic and stuff."
This got him a wide-eyed look. "Do you use magic?"
"Something like that."
"Cool."
Danny took in the considering glint in Billy's eyes and decided that it was future!Danny's problem. Present!Danny was currently occupied with trying to stay off the streets. That giant bag of cash he'd accidently absconded with would be helpful and Danny felt kind of bad... but his growling stomach had chased that away quickly.
"This way!"
Danny shrugged his wavering morality off and followed the kid, shouldering his new and stolen duffle bag. If anything happened, he could just go ghost. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing that's happened in this city, Danny made sure to check.
"Have you been by the zoo?" Billy began to rattle off his favorite details about the Fawcett city zoo as he wove around the city.
Danny didn't think he'd actually have to go ghost.
"Not yet, actually. Is it true that there's a talking tiger there?"
"Yeah! Tawky Tawny! He's my friend!"
"Awesome."
Heroes at the watchtower: Why are they staring at each other? I hope they get along..
14-year-old Danny in his adult ghost king form:
14-year-old Billy in his adult Shazam form:
The sound of John Constantine’s incredulous voice entered the meeting room before his body did. “Fight an Infinite Realms ghost? Are you insane?! Do you want to get us killed?”
Zatanna spun and almost snarled at him. “What would you have us do then, Constantine? Maybe you’re okay with sacrificing people sometimes, be we’re the heroes. We can’t just let it keep wreaking havoc. There’s no reported deaths yet, but we don’t know how long that’ll last.”
He leaned against the wall nonchalantly and lit a cigarette. “Well, what’s it yelling about?”
“What?”
He took a long drag before continuing. “Realms ghosts– they’re basically immune to our magic, but they’re easy marks if you know how to deal with ‘em. They all have some sort of Obsession. Just work with that and they’re remarkably simple to manipulate.” His voice turned to a grumble, “Doesn’t mean they can’t be a huge pain in the fucking ass sometimes though.”
Tapping some ash off his cigarette, he looked straight back into the room again. “So… what’re they yelling about?”
When the Justice League set up a meeting with the new Ghost King, they had expected him to be a powerful, imposing figure. So when they entered and saw a gangly teenager wearing the crown, they assumed that he must have been chosen to be an easily manipulated puppet figurehead while things were actually being run by others.
And, to be fair, Danny is relying a lot on the advice of the other ghosts. He’s still very much young and inexperienced, especially compared to the older ghosts. But he’s definitely not their puppet, nor is he by any means weak.
Which means that the JL’s assumption can lead to some rather significant misinterpretations of things down the line…
~
Okay hear me out!
We have all talked about how Jason gets pit rage because of the Lazarus waters being gross ecto, or how his obssession is the Joker and needing to kill him and a bunch of other things,
Yes?
With me so far?
Okay!
Let me give that a twist,
That Pit Rage Jason feels is hunger, specifically a ghosts hunger.
Jason came back from the dead not fully, he's a starving ghost with a malnourished proto-core, until he properly eats it will stay weak and hungry.
How does the Joker fit in all this?
Easy, With the lack of good ecto for Jason to feed and stabilize from the next best option is his murderer.
Consuming that who killed you is very nourishing for a new ghost.
So Jason getting angry with the bats and others when they tell him not to kill the Joker or actively prevent him from even getting near him is like putting all his favourite foods right in front of him and then taking it away from him,
Each time getting worse for Jason, only getting hungrier and hungrier each time it happens.
How would you feel if you were starving and people kept offering you food and then pulling it away before you could eat it?
Confused?
Desperate?
Anger?
It doesn't count as cannibalism if you're not the same
~
Jason biting the bars of his holding cell like a dog
Dick: "Is it just me or where his teeth always that sharp?"
~
Oracle: "I lost sight of the Joker!"
Jason hunched over with glowing green eyes while drooling: "No worries he's nearby I can smell him."
Other Bats listening on the comms: " ...What the hell do you mean smell ! Are you drooling ?!"
~
Bats: "Wow Jason sure is getting creative trying to get the Joker!"
Jason:
~
Check tags for some funny extras
~
Just an Idea
Using this prompt
Danny is sure that if it wasn't for his ghost side, he would have already died from malnutrition. Vlad, the monster he is, doesn't allow him to eat any meal without human meat. It's not that he isn't allowed vegetables, fruits, and animal byproducts, but every meal has human meat somehow. Vlad watches him with piercing eyes while he eats, making sure he doesn't avoid the meat.
He's gone days without eating just to avoid it, but eventually, he does have to eat. He has eaten human meat! He wonders if this is why Dan decided to renounce his human side.
Future Vlad had told him that Dan wanted to get rid of his ghost side due to his grief, but maybe Dan thought he would feel better about eating humans if he were a complete ghost. Danny could understand that, but he now knows it wouldn't work...
The Infinite Realms are full of different species, and the act of eating another species that's able to coexist with you in a society feels just as horrendous as cannibalism. Was finding this out what drove Dan mad?
He isn't getting much nutrition when he does eat either, not with him vomiting at least half the times he does. Not that Vlad cares about that;
"Ectoplasm will take care of your body while you stubbornness dies. I do think it would be easier for you if you just stopped being ridiculous and eat."
Ectoplasm and water are the only things he has free access too, and Danny hates how grateful he is for at least having that.
As if things couldn't be worse, he's also been forced to cook the meat. When he started learning how to cook with Tucker's mom, he never, never, would have imagined he would be using his abilities for this. He has grown numb to butchering human corpses…
Corpses are a frequent view in the kitchen. He's scared one day he'll recognize the face of one of them. Vlad knows it and uses to control him, telling him that if he doesn't behave, their next meal might be Tucker or Sam. He hates to admit how docile he's grown.
He hasn't seen Tucker, Sam, or anyone since the explosion in the lab took his family. Vlad doesn't allow him to leave the mansion for anything besides galas. He has him collared like a dog to prevent him from leaving. Except, his collar is a shock bracelet charged with blood blossoms that would inject into his wrist if he tries to escape.
He thought Vlad was bluffing and tried escaping once. His whole body felt like it was burning up in flames, and he wasn't able to move for a week. Vlad told him that next time, the dose would keep him in bed for a month. He hasn't tried escaping since.
He's still talking with them through chat. He doesn't know if Vlad knows, but he doesn't think he does; he told him his phone exploded with the lab. But he can't tell them anything. How could he? How is he supposed to tell them he has cooked humans? That he has eaten humans? That he has grown somewhat numb to it? He can't, and then he feels like he can't talk about anything else that is happening.
Today, as he serves the entrance dish to the first guests Vlad has had since he took Danny in, he forces a fake smile on his face. Inside, he feels a wave of nausea and dread as intense as the first time he was forced to eat human meat. The grotesque irony of presenting this dish, knowing what it contains, twists his stomach and makes his hands tremble ever so slightly.
They don't know. They have no idea that they're being served their own species. They don't know, and Danny is the one forced to make them eat their own kind.
The appetizer is a vegetable-based soup with barely any traces of meat, but the main dish features a full human fillet. The guilt and revulsion claw at his insides, nearly choking him. He has to at least stop them from eating that. He needs to get them out of here somehow. And maybe, just maybe, it’s time to try and put a stop to everything else. He can’t let this atrocity continue.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Tim didn't feel comfortable listening to Masters talk about how good the food would be, while Masters' heir served the appetizer with the fakest smile Tim had ever seen. The teen looked so clearly uncomfortable and scared around his guardian that it was hard to resist the urge to grab the boy and leave.
Masters had praised his godson’s cooking during the gala last week, all the while keeping a hand possessively on the teen’s shoulder. Tim didn't like how controlling it seemed, nor how the grip tightened when the teen mumbled quietly about his name being Danny. It was difficult to witness the entire interaction, especially as the teen appeared to fall into a state of complete dissociation afterward.
They were already planning to investigate Masters due to the suspicious nature of all his contracts, but after the gala, they had to shift their focus to helping the teen. They were fortunate that Masters had granted them easy access to his mansion with the invitation to try Danny's cooking.
They couldn't all go to Masters's and leave Gotham behind, so at the dinner, it was just Bruce, Cass, and Tim. Jason was also in the city because he refused to stay away from an obvious abuse case, but he wasn't allowed at the dinner. He would have attacked Masters just from seeing Danny’s uncomfortable stance under his hand during their greeting.
Masters had insisted that Danny serve the food since he had made it, and now Danny stood beside him, serving him the last plate of soup. Danny stumbled for a moment, and before Tim knew it, he was bathed in soup. Tim blinked, surprised at how the soup wasn’t as hot as he had expected, given the steam rising from the other plates.
"Daniel! What the hell are you doing!?"
Vlad exclaimed, standing up from his place, and the teen beside Tim paled.
“I—I am so sorry!” Danny apologized, using napkins to help clean off the soup, his hands slightly trembling. “Did you get burned?”
"No, no, don't worry about it. I'm okay."
"It isn't okay. Daniel, you ruined Mr. Drake's clothes!"
"Sorry... Let's- I think I have clothes that could fit you... So you could change?"
Oh, so that was why his soup wasn’t hot. Danny had poured it on him deliberately; he was trying to get him alone. Despite how scared Danny looked, it seems he still clung to the hope of escaping. Tim felt a surge of relief and determination. He was glad to see that Danny was looking for a way out, and this chance could be their opportunity to devise a plan.
"Thanks, I would appreciate that." he said as he stood from his sit. He saw how Masters was opening his mouth to say something, but Tim didn't want to risk loosing the opportunity. "Please, don't worry about it Masters, accidents happen, we'll be back in a moment."
Tim locked eyes with Bruce for just a second, a barely noticeable nod telling him Bruce trusted him to do this right. He then followed Danny through the mansion’s halls and up the stairs, noting that Danny’s bedroom was on the top floor. Danny kept his arms crossed, trying to make himself appear smaller.
"I'm really sorry Mr. Drake. I should have been more careful."
"It's okay really, and please, just call me Tim."
"Oh, um, thanks, but Vlad doesn't like nicknames... would- would it be okay to use Timothy instead?"
“… Yeah, sure.” It seemed Vlad controlled the way Danny was allowed to speak. “Would you mind if I call you Danny then?” Tim asked. He had been mentally referring to him as Danny since the gala and wanted to match that with his spoken words.
Danny shrank farther into himself, and Tim was about to retract his suggestion, but then a small smile appeared on Danny's face and he turned to look at Tim.
"Yeah, I would like that." Danny said in a hushed toned, and a hint of fears in his eyes. Like he was afraid to accept the suggestion.
Tim wondered if Masters had punished Danny for mumbling his preferred name at the gala. However, before he could dwell further on the types of punishments Masters might have used, Danny's eyes widened.
"Ancients, you even have soup on your hair-"
Despite Tim’s attempts to reassure him that everything was okay, Danny continued to apologize throughout the journey to his bedroom. Lamenting how foolish it had been to let the plate slip, and how he should have known better.
Danny’s constant self-reproach made Tim question whether he had misjudged the situation. Maybe it had been a genuine mistake. In theory, it wouldn't matter, because he got to talk alone with Danny either way, but he liked thinking that Danny was reaching out for their help.
Once in Danny's bedroom, Danny beelined to his closet to give Tim a change of clothes. Tim took the opportunity to look around. Danny's room was… impersonal. It was sophisticated and extravagant, like a room that would be featured in a magazine. Tim was sure Danny hadn't decided on the decor. He was surprised to see the bedroom had a large balcony connected to it. Maybe Masters trusted it was high enough for Danny not to attempt escaping through it?
"Would this outfit work for you?"
Danny was holding a suit similar to the one Masters had worn at a previous gala. Now that Tim paid attention to Danny's outfit, he noticed that Danny's clothes today were almost a smaller version of what Masters was wearing, with just enough differences to not be immediately recognized as the same. Thinking back to last weeks gala, their outfits were also similar. To what extent was Masters controlling Danny's life?
"Um... if you don't like it I can grab another one..."
Tim blinked, realizing he had just stared silently at Danny while he offered him the clothes.
"No, sorry, got lost in thoughts, I'm okay using those."
"Okay, I'm glad. Again, sorry for..." Danny motioned to Tims clothes "You can change in my bathroom over there." He pointed to a door beside the bed. "Maybe also take a shower?" Danny got a towel from his closet and offered it to Tim.
"Yeah a shower would be good." Tim said, taking clothes and the towel and entering the bathroom.
He'll talk with Danny once he was changed into clean clothes. If only to calm Danny's guilt about the incident.
Danny's bathroom was spacious, with a jacuzzi bathtub, a separate shower, and one of those popular bidet toilets. From an outside perspective it must look like Danny has anything he could want, but Tim knows better than anyone that money doesn't guaranty a good household. It's sad knowing that any CPS agent that did decide to look into this, would be easily push away by Masters money.
Once Tim had showered and changed clothes, he prepared to go back to the bedroom to talk to Danny, but before he did, a green glow from the corner of his eye caught his attention. Tim sucked a breath when he saw what it was. A syringe with traces of Lazarus waters and blood sat beside the sink.
"Timothy? Everything okay in there? Did the clothes don't fit?"
Tim took a photo of the syringe and sent it to the group chat with the caption, "We may have to add experimentation to Danny's abuse." After taking a sample, he decided to leave the syringe behind, considering the possibility that Masters might use the same syringe more than once and notice its disappearance. He really hoped to get Danny out of there that same day, but if they couldn't, he didn't want to make things more difficult for him.
"Everything is okay! I'll be out in a second."
Tim took one last look around while picking up his dirty clothes, just in case he found anything else. When he left the bathroom, Danny was waiting for him, shifting nervously from side to side. It was time to talk to him.
"Danny, look, I wanted to talk-"
"Ah, let me take your clothes! I'll make sure to clean them and get them back to you!" Danny interrupted him, grabbing his arm and shaking his head with a pleading look.
Tim looked incredulous at Danny for a second, before he realized what was happening and mouthed. "Your bedroom is bugged." He hadn't meant it as a question but Danny had nodded anyway. It was fucked up, Danny couldn't even talk confidently in his own bedroom?
"Right, thank you Danny. I would appreciate that. Perhaps we could take the opportunity to meet again in the future."
Danny gave him the look an adult might give a naive child when talking about an unreachable fantasy, and Tim couldn't help but frown at it. Did Danny believe that even seeing them again was too out of reach?
"That would be great, I'll talk with Vlad about the possibility."
Tim was going to say something else to try to reassure Danny that they would be able to meet, but Danny just handed him two pieces of paper. One was unfolded with text on it, and the other was folded into a small square, smaller than his pinky. He read the unfolded paper first.
- Don't eat anymore of the food. Pretend to have some sort of family emergency and leave, please. Read the other paper when you're far away. -
Tim looked at Danny with questioning wide eyes, but Danny just gave him another pleading look. Tim took a deep breath and took a photo to the paper and sent it to the group chat.
"Oh common, aren't you a little old to ask your guardian about every little meet up you have?" (Would you leave with us?)
Danny gives a nervous chuckle.
"Maybe, but after my family, Vlad tends to be really protective, you know?" He said while pointing to his bracelet.
Tim hadn't noticed how tick the bracelet was before. It was metallic, with a red liquid line in the middle.
"Shock bracelet?" He mouthed.
Danny nodded and then mouthed, "if I scape, it poisons me."
Tim pales a bit at that. They had underestimated how dangerous Masters was.
He motioned to his phone and took a photo of the bracelet after Danny nodded and sent to the group chat with the caption: "Shock bracelet with the capacity of poisoning Danny. We won't be able to get him out right now."
"We should probably go back with the others now."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Group chat
Coffee is my life: *Photo of the syringe*
Coffee is my life: We may have to add experimentation to Danny's abuse.
Death boy walking: Fuck!
Death boy walking: @ Adoption addict, we have to get the kid out of there now!
Bones? What bones?: Bruce is entertaining Masters with Cass at the moment little wing.
Bones? What bones?: I doubt he'll read this.
The blood son: There's no way that buffoon has any relation with grandfather. He's company does not follow any of the leagues morals.
Light & shadow: Maybe he found another Lazarus pit?
Light & shadow: They're supposedly naturally formed right? It shouldn't be that crazy for someone out of the league to have one.
Computer genius: It might not even be Lazarus waters. The tone is slightly off.
The blood son: It is possible that it is a different variation of dionesium.
Death boy walking: Who cares? He's injecting the kid with that thing!
Not Bruces kid: Hate to say it but the zombie is right, we can find what exactly when Danny is safe.
Coffee is my life: *Photo of paper with text*
Light & shadow: ????
Light & shadow: Is the food poisoned!?
Computer genius: Already told Bruce through comms to not eat anymore food.
Computer genius: If the food is poison it hasn't affected them yet.
Light & shadow: Do you guys have a way to deal with the poison there?
Bones? What bones?: Don't worry Bruce doesn't go anywhere without the poison antidote kit.
Death boy walking: Of course he doesn't. The paranoid bastard.
The blood son: It isn't paranoia if the danger is real Todd.
Computer genius: I'll call Bruce in 10 to pretend a family emergency.
Death boy walking: You are NOT going without Danny!
Bones? What bones?: Any possibility on taking Danny with you @ Coffee is my life?
Coffee is my life: *Photo of bracelet*
Coffee is my life: Shock bracelet with the capacity of poisoning Danny. We won't be able to get him out right now.
Not Bruces kid: WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTF
Not Bruces kid: Wasn't this a low stakes rescue???
Not Bruces kid: Why is this man coming up with plans in the big villain category?
Light & shadow: I'm scared of whatever is in "the other paper" that Danny gave Tim says.
Light & shadow: Wouldn't be surprised if Masters was connected with a trafficking ring.
Bones? What bones?: @ Death boy walking?
Bones? What bones?: You're too silent...
Bones? What bones?: Remember you won't be able to barge in without putting Danny in danger.
Death boy walking: I ALREADY KNOW THAT DICKFACE.
The blood son: Tt, don't be so surprise by the warning Todd.
The blood son: Your past actions have prove it necessary.
Death boy walking: Shut the fuck up demon brat. You're not one to talk.
... The blood son is writing ...
Light & shadow: Everyone have had their outburst of bad decisions.
Light & shadow: Can we go back to Danny?
Light & shadow: How likely do you think it is that he's a meta?
Light & shadow: Because, I think it's pretty high.
Not Bruces kid: Did you see something strange in him on the gala?
Light & shadow: No, but the bracelet are pretty similar to the meta-suppressors collars I've seen in the past.
Computer genius: I'm calling Bruce right now.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
There’s something wrong. Ever since that accident with his parents’ new device, Danny can’t transform into his ghost form.
Heck, he can’t even his powers at all. Not even the ghost sense.
Even with access to his parents’ ghost hunting devices (which have helpfully (if inexplicably) stopped targeting him), can he really protect Amity Park like this?
………
There’s something wrong. Ever since that accident with his parents’ new device, Phantom can’t transform into his human form.
And to make things worse, he has no idea where he is, either. He’s never heard of “Gotham City” before, nor has he been able to find Amity Park on any of the maps he stole borrowed unofficially from the library.
He might have better luck going on a computer, but they’re currently locked down for the night and he wouldn’t exactly blend in during the day. Even with invisibility, someone could still notice his actions on the computer.
He could maybe overshadow someone to use as a disguise, but that could bring attention to him too, even if he tries to make it quick.
The last thing he needs is ghost hunters after his head. Sure, he’d probably win, but it’d waste time and there’s no reason to risk it in a situation like this.
He’s already waiting for the other shoe to drop and some ghost to come at him for entering their haunt unannounced. A city with emotions as heavy as this must surely have some ghosts. (right?)
Well, no matter what, he has to pick a course of action soon. He can’t afford to leave his haunt Amity Park unprotected for too long. The mere thought of his haunt home at risk while he wasn’t there to help burned at his core.
He shoved the anxious feelings down and forced his form to stabilize. His emotions were running higher than normal here, but he could control himself.
He was fine. He would find Amity Park. He would get back. He would.
He had to.
His obsession couldn’t take any other outcome.
Danny decides to take a year after high school to travel like Ellie, except instead of earth he packs a speeder he himself updated and leaves earth.
On his adventures in space he finds out earth wasn't the only planet out there with life and how common deep space travel is for those other species.
On his first trip to a space port he meets an alien with a green ring that makes constructs of emotion and works essentially as a peace keeper among the stars.
Out in the isolated expanse of void between planets he meets another lone traveler, a small alien who resembles a starfish by the name of Jarro.
He find a planet that is ALIVE in a way he never knew planets could be and spends a bit of his time sharing stories with them before moving on.
All around he is glad he took this trip and regrets he promised to return to earth so soon. He stops once again at another space port to get directions to Earth, giving his thanks before flying back into the void this time in the direction of home.
When he arrives things are different then he remembers, there are satelites far bigger and more advanced then he has ever seen surrounding the planet. Beneath the clouds the continents don't look quite right, like they have a subtly different shape then he remembered.
He shakes his head, he's been gone a year he probably just forgot what the continents looked like. Heck with all the aliens and the advancements he's seen out in the universe it wouldn't be hard to believe there has been some contact while he has been gone and the satelites were alien made!
When he gets down to the surface where Amity should be all that he finds is endless emptiness of undeveloped land, Danny takes back to the sky assuming he landed in the wrong place and flies around to find something familiar.
But there isn't anything familiar, Amity park is gone and after hours of panicked flying he finds himself no longer alone in the air. Surprised he takes a fighting pose which the figure follows suit, the man looked human and wore a skin tight suit like Danny. Only instead of black and white, it was red and blue.
The man introduces himself as Superman as if Danny should recognize him and at this point he is feeling a lot less sure he has the right planet…
It wasn’t supposed to be a secret.
If you died while with the league, you will no longer be acknowledged to have existed, especially if you died during a mission. A disappointment will not be remembered.
The bats and birds don’t like speaking about the people they have lost, so they don’t. If someone ask about the dead, they will tell the person they don’t talk about that.
So how was Damian supposed to know that he should have told his father about his dead brother?
Danny was sitting in the living room watching a live Justice League fight. The fight was big enough that danny thought the camera was way to close to the fight. Then Fright Knight phases into the room through the floor.
Fright knight: My liege
Danny: Fright knight what is it?
Fright knight: I wish vengeance against my abusive father.
Danny: I can understand that, But who?
Fright knight points to the tv showing the justice League fighting a figure in all black armor with glowing red eyes.
Fright knight: My father Ares, greek god of war.
Danny: Wait that make you Pho-
Fright knight: DO NOT SAY THAT NAME!
Danny: ....
Fright knight: I apologize for yelling.
Danny: its fine i understand. You must hate him quite alot.
Fright knight: More than you hate Plasmius.
Danny: Are you sure about that?
Fight knight: Yes
Danny: So you have a brother. The god of... Panic?
Fright knight: He is the god of dread, also the royal assassin.
Danny: i have assassins?!?
Fright knight: ...
Danny: Right... If you want to fight your father you're gonna have to work with the Justice League, and not kill anyone.
Fright knight: You do not desire the head of the god of war?
Danny: Eww no. I dont want to kill a god and i dont want war with Olympus. I dont want to fight Zeus.
Fright knight: But you have already beaten Zeus. He disguised his form and called himself Vortex.
Danny: ...what... Well i may be able to beat him, but there are too many women who are important to me. You know how Zeus is.
Fright knight: Ah indeed. You are wise. ... thank you.
Danny: for what?
Fright knight: It is nice to be reminded that you are not a war hungry tyrant. You care for others. It is refreshing. It is good.
Danny: *blushing* yeah yeah. It looks like you're late.
Fright knight looks at the TV to see the Justice League have already beaten Ares and the Villains.
Fright knight: I wish to go meet and congratulate my aunt on her victory!
Danny: remember to be polite.
Fright knight: i also wish to go to Gotham.
Danny: No
Fright knight: To stab a Clown and a Scarecrow.
Danny: ... Be quick and don't get caught. If anyone catches you you're on your own.
Tim Danny knew he would go far for family but it wasn't until now that he realized how far he literally would go.
Danny looked at the positive pregnancy test on the bathroom counter and tried to stop his tears both the joyful tears and the ones of anger.
He hates Vlad now more than ever for how he never decided to stabilize Dani. Even now that Danny is no longer Danny Vlad’s mistakes will still come back to bite him.
Dani's decision to help Danny figure out what was going on ended up with her almost dying. Her core would have been destroyed if Danny had been a second later.
Everyone's pretending things are back to normal.
Danny now has to figure out ways to hide this and how exactly he's going to tell anyone. The obvious answer is to not tell anyone and go into hiding, but after everything that happened someone's going to come look which means Danny is going to have to hide in plain sight.
Sometimes Danny regrets trying to help because in the end all it got him his throat slit, his entire identity ripped away and assassination attempts in his own home. Danny has no idea why he thought it would be any different now that Bruce is back.
Jason is barely civil with the family.
Dick has left the second he no longer has to be Batman.
Stephanie has joined Cass and Hong Kong.
Barbara is only talking to people when she's on Oracle Duty.
Damien is one bad Mission away from trying to kill him again.
That's not even mentioning Bruce who is just living in ignorance that everything has not gone awry.
Denial is a strong thing.
Danny doesn't even know why they agree to this. well they do know but they don't know why they didn't talk it out first.
they'd gotten quite good at getting all the logistics before they do something rash but they'll always be a Fenton running head first. All they want is for Dani to be safe after everything that happened; they are all secondary to Dani's well-being.
Danny forgot how unconditional love felt they are not going to lose the one person who cared about them
Ghost are dragons.
Except.
Danny gets dropped into the DC universe, how I don't know nor care really to figure out, in dragon form and the first person he runs into happens to be one Billy Batson.
Who adopts him.
Kinda tried to hide his Shazam thing at first, something about a secret identity but it didn't work out too well so Danny just knows he's Shazam but doesn't care.
Danny has never come out of dragon form before.
Danny is a tiny dragon.
Billy has a sense of humor.
So does Danny.
Shenanigans.
Inspired by this prompt
Clockwork suggests to Danny, who's been the king of the infinite realms for 6 years now, that he should take sometime off in a mortal realm. He doesn't feel like going back to his own dimension (you choose the reason), so Clockwork suggest another dimension where he thinks Danny might have fun.
Danny investigates the dimension, and finds it is a dimension where some humans, who are called meta-humans, develop powers, mostly during their childhood. Danny knows how tiring and alienating it is to grow with powers that one have to hide. He wishes to give this kids a safe space to experiment with their powers, but not as a weapon, just as part of themself.
He chooses to create a dance academy, because dancing is something in which you use your body and express yourself. It would be an excellent way to encourage this kids to use their powers while enjoying themself. He decides to open the dance academy in Gotham, were it seems metas may feel more pressure to keep themself hidden. With his ability to see and feel the differences in soul it's easy to identify metas, so he starts scouting kids for the academy.
Of course convincing the kids that it's just a a dance academy that wants to create a save space for metas, instead is of a trafficking ring, is difficult. But once he gets the first couple kids in, slowly more come too.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Bruce is worried about the new possible meta gang that it's forming on Gotham, and sends Duke undercover.
It's hasn't been long since Duke joined the bats, and this is his first official undercover mission. He's excited at the start, feeling proud that he's been trusted with an independent job, but then he finds out that the "gang" it's just a dance academy. He's a little disappointed, thinking that this job is more of a probation thing than anything, since there isn't anything suspicious.
The bats tell him to stay in the dance academy, because maybe the dance thing is just a cover up and they'll reveal their real motives when he's actually accepted in the group. And Duke takes it as them wanting him to have a meta support system. See? He's learning to understand how the bats show love to each other!
Duke finds himself enjoying being in a dance group. It's a lot of fun. Danny it's fantastic, he has a lot of powers and isn't scare to show them. Which makes everyone in the group feel so much safer to use their own.
Danny encourages them to integrate their powers in their dance. It's freeing. Their powers are treated as a normal part of them, and not as this exotic ability that has to be controlled. It's such a safe space that all of them have gotten used to using their powers for day to day stuff when in the dance studio. It all feels so casual because no one bats an eye to it. There's no talk about how they should try to do things "normally," or limit their use of their power.
Danny: "Why would you? That's your normal, and this place is safe for you to just be you."
Duke realizes a bit late that the bats were actually suspicious of the group, and that his placement there wasn't really a probation. He's glad to know he was actually trusted with a job, but, he had really thought that every time they had asked about his day with the group was because they were interested in how he was doing. That they were showing love and interest in him in that evasive ways the bats did, and it kinda suck to know it wasn't the case. It also meant that he had to confront their family in their clear meta-discrimination.
"Would you have been so suspicious if it wasn't a meta group? No. Other than them all being metas there wasn't anything off. No proof of fights, no proof of robberies, no proof of trafficking, nothing.
There's no proof of anything other than a group of teens dancing, and you know that because you checked it out before sending me.
Like, I don't blame you for checking it, I'm not naive, but you were so sure it was a gang, just because they were metas. That's fucked up guys."
Something inspired by this post and this song.
Danny blinked as everything around him seemed to pause. Mist escaping past his lips and he looked at the still branch outside of the window.
Hands rested over his shoulders. "My dearest child." Clockwork's spoke from behind him, and Danny stilled. "Won't you join? We can get you out this little predicament binding you by human law."
"No." Danny huffed, resolutely staring out of the window. "I don't want to. You made me try so hard to avoid my bad future, and now you just want me to do something like that?"
"My dear boy," Clockwork flew in front of him, cupping Danny's face in gentle hands. "Your alternate future destroyed this world and as such, the Observants wanted you dead. It would have been unfair for you to be killed for a mere possible future."
Danny scoffed. "You only interfered because you saw a future with me with at your side." Danny scowled, wanting to pull back from Clockwork's hands but found that he couldn't. He scowled a bit more at his body's betrayal, sinking into the touch instead of pulling away.
"I will not lie to you, I had indeed interfered because of such." Clockwork slowly rubbed comforting circles on the boy's cheeks. "But also because you are my child, even if you were then, you would have been eventually. It is a parent's duty to protect their child, is it not?"
Danny wanted to refute that. But the memories of his parent's death at the hands of the GIW for him caused the words to be stuck in his throat. The images of both their and his sister and friend's bodies caused his vision to blur.
He choked down the tears.
"My poor child," Clockwork rested his forehead against Danny's own, a comforting gesture. "To have faced such cruelty at human hands, and for your own human donor to deny you your grief." Clockwork smiled. "Just let us help you, come to our side and we shall make it all go away."
Danny stayed silent for a moment, a small part of himself feeling guilty over wanting Clockwork's touch but a larger part wanting it anyway. "No." Danny breathed out harshly. "They don't deserve to die just because of that."
They don't.
If he says it enough, it'll stay true.
No matter what happens.
Clockwork leaned back, hands falling from his face and Danny had to force himself not to follow the touch as Clockwork circled behind him.
"I am willing to ask as many times as it takes, for you will join us eventually." Danny hated the certainty in the ghost's tone, but couldn't help but push his head into the hand that patted his head. "A piece of advice, however. War is not as patient as I am."
And with those parting words, Clockwork disappeared. Time resuming at once with Danny still sat on his bed. He flopped onto his back, head hitting the pillows as he turned on his side. He stared at his hands silently, before turning one palm up as ice danced up from his palm, slowly taking shape into lifelike versions of his family.
Alive and happy.
A small smile grew on his face he watched. Fighting against living food that Danny had once disliked.
What he wouldn't give to have it all back.
A knock broke him from his starring, and the ice collapsed in his hand.
"Master Danny?" Alfred's voice came from the other side of the door, causing Danny to frown. "Would you be joining us for lunch?"
Danny wanted to say no. He didn't want to interact with anyone in this stupid family.
Danny hated how he couldn't say no without one of them making it into some kind of problem.
So what if he hasn't eaten in a few days? He would live.
Danny sighed, standing up from his bed and silently staring at the door before he got up. He stared at the bracelet on his wrist for a moment as he grabbed onto the doorknob, the one that limited his power extremely, and opened the door.
He stared up at the pleasantly surprised expression on the butler's face, before looking away as he started to lead him towards the kitchen.
DPXDC prompt: There’s an alien invasion incoming and the justice league are all up in arms to defeat them. Once they break into the mothership, however, they discover that the aliens were already beaten up and there’s this ghostly child cackling in the control room. It’s Danny and he is Obsession-drunk and having an absolute blast exploring every nook and cranny of the ship, dismantling it to see how the machines work, driving it around, chatting a hundred miles per hour to the definitely-concussed and groaning alien commander, and just zooming fro and fro with eyes dilated so hard there’s only a tiny ring of green in his eyes, lost in the feral serotonin sauce
Bonus points if the justice league calm Danny down by having him fanboy over Martian Manhunter, and then in the end, Danny goes “I’m gonna stick with you now! No takebacks!” and adopts J’onn into the Fenton family, now J’onn has two midwestern folks to hang out with for the holidays (the Kents from that Christmas special and now the Fentons)
"You don't have a grave."
"I do not have one. Yet."
"...how did it happen?"
"....My parents had created a portal to the Ghost Zone. It malfunctioned. That tends to happen with their experiments... this one was more of an oversight." Danny recalled, Constantine could hear the melancholy in his voice. "I went in and accidently pressed the on button. Let it to them to have the on and off switch in said portal!"
Danny laughed at the memory before wincing at the pain he went through. "Yeah... it was rather painful."
"Did your body disintegrate?"
"Nope! I'm half alive, half dead. My molecules got rearranged. My human half still ages, alibet at a slower rate. My ghost half on the other hand...."
"How old are you?"
"86, but I look like I'm in the mid-twenties in my human form."
".... you know what. I don't want to know."
"I have two kids and five grandchildren!"
Jason who’s been gushing about Jazz: oh and her younger brother killed the entire justice league in an alternate timeline. Don’t worry he fixed it. I wanna invite him over for dinner because I think him and Tim would nerd out together. But he’s embarrassed and think you’ll hate him but technically he hasn’t killed anyone in this timeline so hey, already better start than me! He didn’t even come back from the dead insane either!
Bruce: excuse me what
Jason: so just can you be a little less broody, I’m hoping if you like him, then it’ll give me some brownie points for trying to kill him when we first met because he was in my haunt
Bruce: wait hold-
Jason: and now whenever I’m hanging out with Jazz he always glares at me when I take her out and bring her back home and hey, if he starts dating Timbers then he won’t be there to glare at me all the time
Bruce: may I speak-
Jason: and I like I just really want him to like me because I want to do this the, well not right, but the more traditional way and ask permission for Jazz’s hand in the eternal realms of forever but I have a feeling if I ask him now he’d have me beheaded by the court
Bruce: Jason this is the first time I’ve seen you in a month calm-
Jason: and I just would rather not be a beheaded entity. I can’t be the red hood without a head to put the hood onto!
Bruce grabbing his shoulders: JASON!
Jason:…
Bruce: I love you son but what the fuck
Steph stared at the beat-up, probably homeless, kid that was currently raiding her fridge from the doorway of her apartment.
That wasn't there before.
The kid looked up and they made eye contact. They entered a stare-down, neither speaking a word. After a while, the silence gets broken by the kid.
"This place sucks."
Which, rude.
The kid then closes the fridge, one of her juice boxes in hand, and takes a seat on her couch. Her couch, which is now getting covered in blood because the kid's still injured...
---
Steph has sent a picture to the group chat.
In it, she has her arm around the shoulders of a heavily injured black-haired blue-eyed kid who looks heavily disgruntled and like he might bite her, while Steph herself is full-on grinning at the camera.
The caption reads "im pulling a bruce ✌️😘"
Several people are typing...
[Tags/TW: Trans!Danny, implied SA(false), implied grooming(platonic), de-aged Danielle, de-aged Dan, stabilization pod, destabilized clones, neglectful but well meaning Fenton Parents, BAMF Jazz, platonic yandere Vlad, horrific misunderstandings, manipulative Vlad, emotional manipulation, misunderstandings, eavesdropping, OCs for plot reasons, ghost bonding through violence, Parentification of both Jazz and Danny]
"Listen here you crooked son of a bitch; I've had it up to here with your lying, scheming bullshit! I told you that if you cheat again and brought your problems to my door then we were through!" Danny shouted a little louder than he meant to. He was just so angry. "Now that man and his whole family are homeless!"
"No! Daniel wait! It isn't what you think it is I was just-" Vlad tried to make excuses for going back on his promise and cheating yet another business rival out of their entire fortune.
"Do you think I'm stupid!? You think I don't know what you're up to!? All of a sudden a flock of new sycophants appears and you start throwing money at me again?! We have children Vlad! What kind of example are you setting for them when you go around lying and scheming your way through your job?" Danny scolded him harshly, long fed up with being lied to and allowing Vlad chance after chance to change his ways.
"It's just networking! It is a legitimate part of my job!" Vlad started to sweat hoping against hope that Danny had not caught onto his real scheme.
"Oh and I suppose Rubella is also just a part of your job is she?" Danny gave him no mercy however, instantly outing the ghost that had been helping him scheme for a kingdom that made up a good portion of the Infinite Realms and would have guaranteed him a spot on the High Council.
Vlad sucked a sharp breath in through his teeth, "How did you-"
"Did you really think I wouldn't find out!? Do you think no one talks?! That everyone is just going to turn a blind eye to you because you can throw around pointless trinkets? You better go back and cover your tracks Vlad because I'm done!" Danny pointed accusingly at Vlad.
Vlad tried again, "Now Daniel be reasonable. Think of the children-"
"I am thinking of my children! I'm the only one that is apparently! You promised me after Dan that you would change! That you would go to therapy and actually work on yourself and now this!? Does our family mean nothing to you!? It's been five years of this Vlad! I am exhausted! I can't deal with this anymore and I need to do what's best for my kids." Danny threw his arm out sharply, waving him off.
"No! You need me! How will you afford to feed them? What about their schooling? Surely you-" Vlad panicked his eyes flashing red briefly.
"No Vlad we don't need you, we wanted you here but now you've been sneaking around plotting all kinds of nefarious shit that could mean the end of us and it did! Now I'm ending this." Danny snarled his hair raising like an angry cat, "I gave you a thousand chances because my Dad thinks you're his best friend and I didn't want to upset him! I've covered for you more times than I can count! My parents still think that Dani and Dan are an accident; a mistake that I made and not one of your bullshit schemes to keep me chained to you! I let them think that because I didn't want to break my dad's heart. But you test the limits of my patience and forgiveness constantly and I'm done with it."
"Daniel you are being completely unreasonably and irrational. They are my children too, you can't just cut me out like this!" Vlad protested again.
"Oh yeah? Just watch me!" Danny shouted launching himself at Vlad and starting off the physical altercation. Vlad did not hesitate to meet him blow for blow however.
Just next door Jason, Dan, and Dani had been eating popcorn and listening through the paper thin walls. They were all three absolutely riveted by the confrontation taking place. Though only Dan and Dani had the full context of what was actually being discussed and Jason was getting angrier the longer he listened.
"You tell him Danny, don't let that bitch walk all over you." Jason muttered.
"Bitch." Dan and Dani crowed together in agreement, Jason hissed and scrunched his nose.
"Shit, wait, don't say that. Your Ma'll be pissed I taught you that." Jason scolded gently, Dan and Dani giggled.
The abrupt sound of fighting had Jason tensing however and he stood up quickly, Dan and Dani under each arm. The only thing that kept him from storming over and kicking Vlad's ass was the two small kids under his arms. He set them down on the couch quickly and pulled up his phone to call one of his siblings, he didn't even really check which one before he was calling.
[Jason? What's up?] It was Babs, she sounded confused and given it was barely four in the afternoon made sense.
"Hey Babs, Fenton confronted Masters and the discussion turned physical. Can you send someone to break it up? I'm watching his kids for him in the meantime and I don't want to leave them alone to go break them up." Jason explained.
"Mom will get him! Mommy is way stronger than daddy." Dani informed him decisively and loudly. Dan nodded along with absolute faith, Jason wished he had the same kind of faith.
"Danny is like a hundred pounds soaking wet, I'm sending backup." Jason replied flatly. Dani huffed and Dan mimicked her both of them sitting on his couch with arms crossed.
[Don't worry, I'll send someone trustworthy to break up the fight and throw Masters out. We can set a restraining order in motion.] Babs offered.
"Restraining orders only ever serve to escalate the situation. Maybe hold off on that until we can talk it out with Fenton." Jason refuted with a frown.
[Alright, we can at least get him locked in the drunk tank for the night.] Babs replied.
"Thanks Babs." Jason sighed, Danny hadn't screamed for help yet and the fight was still going strong so at least it seemed he was holding his own against the larger man.
Get in the Water prompt Storm alternate version Animatic Fanart
There was a spell, Constantine had explained after his own trip to the afterlife. Something to contain Danyal's soul long enough to resolve his unfinished business, to keep him still and away from the influences of his fellow dead. And if that didn't work, Constantine continued, then there were ways to force a spirit to rest. It was better for a ghost to move on by themselves, but if there was no other choice...
Damian hoped Danyal would choose to rest on his own. That he'd let him explain, finally.
Danyal had been weak. Strong in a fight, but too weak to kill, and that infuriated Damian. But he was scared more than he was angry. Because that weakness would get Danyal killed, could get Damian killed, could get the League killed. Even the newest recruits had a stronger desire to kill than Danyal.
He was the weakest link in the chain. And while their mother had taught them to be ruthless, Danyal had remained limp with mercy.
They needed Danyal's body. It would be Danyal's tie to the earth, Constantine explained as he joined them on the Batplane. The souls of the dead don't often linger on the mortal plain. The magician had speculated that the only reason Danyal had managed to manifest in the waters below Gotham was because of Damian's presence, but his remains would keep him stable this side of life for however long it took to heal his soul.
But was that even possible?
"I don't know, kid," Constantine admitted during the plane ride. "Wish I had a better answer for you, but... Your brother is a siren now. And from the sound of it? He really wants you dead."
"Then why didn't he kill me?" Damian argued. "He had hours to do it... or minutes..." The time he spent in that green world felt longer than the ten minutes Father couldn't find him, but... "He had me in his grasp and let me go. Doesn't that mean he didn't want to-"
"Have you ever heard the phrase 'Playing with your food?'" Constantine asked instead. "Sirens aren't known for letting their prey go. If we're out here, its because he wants us here."
They--Damian, Father, Constantine, Grayson, and Todd--landed in Nanda Parbat after a few hours. There was a crypt inside for members of the Al Ghul family who didn't use the Lazarus Pits. It was there Danyal's body was entombed. They would have to steal it.
And it was unfortunate that Constantine got them caught within five minutes of entry.
Damian glared daggers at the man as they were led towards the Lazarus Pit. Constantine shrugged. "What? I don't want assassins chasing after me because of some light grave robbing! Besides, we need to explain the situation anyway-"
"And what, precisely, needs to be explained?" asked a woman from inside the chamber. The heroes were pushed inside, only to see Talia Al Ghul standing where her father should have been. The Lazarus Pit hissed and boiled behind her, casing the cave in a ghoulish light.
Damian could hear laughing.
Father stepped forward. "Talia. Where's Ra's?" Grandfather was the biggest threat to their plan succeeding.
Mother... looked away, unable to meet his gaze. "I do not know. At the present moment... the Demon Head is missing."
You could hear a pin drop. "What do you mean?" Father demanded.
"It's as I said; he is missing. Yesterday, he was alone in the Pit, and hours later, no one could find him." She glanced behind her, at the waters, before looking back at them. "I had assumed he'd left to care for the League's interests. Now-" She tilted her chin up, looking down at them. "What exactly do you need to explain? What is so important that you break into my home to tell me?"
Stepping forward, Constantine explained. Mother looked grim as he spoke of Danyal, but did not interrupt. "We want to put his soul to rest. But for that, we need access to his body-"
"You dare ask for such a thing?" Mother snarled. "As if I even believe you. My son would never-"
"Your son?" Grayson snapped. "From the looks of it, you didn't care for either of your children!"
As the group descended into an argument, Damian heard laughter again, Danyal's high pitched giggle harmonizing with something deep and bone shaking. The Lazarus Pits loomed over him, beckoning him, whispering. Damian took a step towards it as his mother said, "I don't even have his body!"
"What?" Damian snapped at his mother, focusing back on the conversation. "But the crypts-"
"After your brother's murder, the Demon Head ordered for the culprit to be found. But they were never discovered." Because the culprit was Damian, he knew, and no one else ever learned about it. "I wanted to place him in the Pits immediately, but I was ordered to stay my hand until the murderer was caught. But..."
"He never was," Damian finished for her. "And then you put Danyal into the waters?"
"Yes." She closed her eyes. "And he never came back out. Even if it was too late, he'd still come back as the undead, but he never rose from the waters."
"Then this is entirely my fault."
"Finally," Danyal whispered in his ear, breath chilling his skin.
Damian did his best to ignore it. Danyal was haunting him. Danyal needed to be put to rest. If they couldn't do it Constantine's way, then they had to put him to rest another way.
Grayson looked troubled. "Robin, it's not your fault-"
"I'm the one who killed him," Damian confessed. Everyone stared at him. Grayson, horrified; Mother, blank; Father, betrayed. Damian continued, "I overheard you and Grandfather arranging a fight to the death, and I knew who would win. I couldn't... I couldn't allow Danyal to die without the Al Ghul name, in disgrace as the one who wasn't good enough. So I killed him, assassinated him, and now he's haunting me for revenge." Damian looked at the Pit. "So go ahead, Danyal."
"Damian, what are you saying?"
"Danyal wants revenge on the person who killed him; I'm giving it to him." Todd was staring at him. Damian might not be able to see past his helmet, but he could feel the respect coming off the man. "Danyal, I know you're here. Please come out." If he focused long enough, he could just making out wheezing breaths. "I can hear you, please-"
Father grabbed Damian by the shoulders. "Damian, listen to what you're saying! You're offering your life up for nothing!"
"B's right." Grayson placed a hand on his shoulder. "There's got to be another way. You don't have to do this!"
"Yes I do!" Damian ripped himself out of Nightwing's grip. "I'm the one who killed him! I'm the one at fault! My brother is suffering because of me, I have to save him-"
Stepping between them all, Mother slapped him across the face.
And the Pit's whispers fell silent.
Damian stared up at his mother, cheek throbbing with pain. She glared back. "Cease this behavior at once," she snapped. "There's no need to get so worked up over a ghost, of all thing-"
"T̴̯̃al̵̬͂ị̴̿a̵̮̕ ̵̼͐A̴̗̕l̷͈̆ ̴͚̓G̵͎̀h̷̻͒u̶̜͋l̴͍̀."
This time, everyone could hear Danyal's voice, filled with static and corrupted. Damian swallowed as his dead brother continued,
"D̸͕͠o̶̪̅ ̸͍̆ỹ̵̗ö̸̲ũ̸̧ ̶͖̚k̶̻͊ņ̸͐o̸̹̚ẘ̸̙w̷̛̹ḧ̸͚́o̷͉̅ ̵͈̑I̶̪̽ á̵̞m̶͙̂?̸̻͂"
The cavern shook as the Lazarus Pit bucked, a wave forming in the absolute center of the water. The wave rose, pillaring up above their head and brushing the ceiling. A cold wind rushed through the room and blew out the torches on the walls, leaving only embers and the occasional florescent behind. Damian braced himself for the waters to rush out and flood.
Instead, the water fell back into the pit, like it had never risen in the first place, leaving behind a lone figure in its wake.
"Danyal," Mother whispered.
And the dead boy glared back at her with pure contempt.
The meeting stops.
All heads turn towards the terrified looking teenage alien? Maybe? Who is hovering halfway in and halfway out of the ceiling.
"...Yes?" Captain Marvel ventures, looking unsure.
"Okay, so there's these deep sea divers who are completely like, pressure saturated? Or something? But their little capsule thing they live in is severed from the ship cuz of a hurricane. I can absolutely phase them out, but I don't really know what to do with them? Because like, I think humans explode if they experience rapid pressure changes? Will the human divers explode if I make them intangible? Or will they explode if I take them up and make them tangible? If I take them up and keep them intangible, will they still explode if turning intangible didn't make them explode in the first place? Sorry, I'm a little pressed for time and Google wasn't giving me answers."
The room is silent as the older heroes take this information in.
That. That is a very oddly specific question.
It also devolves into a massive debate on whether intangibility would count as a pressure change, whether or not humans really did explode, and what, exactly, happened to human bodies when they were made intangible.
Aquaman secrets the kid alien hero out of the meeting room to get the location so he can send his people to the divers.
So, Danny was effectively homeless.
His parents are dead, his sister is dead, his friends are dead. Hell, even Vlad, Vlad kicked the fucking bucket which, Danny genuinely never expected.
Vlad was supposed to be his nemesis, his main bad guy, the guy Danny's supposed to constantly pull everything out against just to win. Not to mention how significant his presence was.
A part of him assumed that Vlad would always be there and him not being there and knowing he won't be there ever again is... weird.
So you're probably asking, how exactly did this happen?
Well you see, the nasty burger exploded, for one thing. Then when he was under Vlad's care both of them got outed for being ghosts to the GIW, which was technically Danny's fault, since he did something extremely stupid.
Somehow they got caught, and life under the GIW was not great in the slightest. The constant experiments, the dehumanization (Sometimes Danny doesn't even register himself as human), the amount of times their feelings were utterly disregarded, and so, so much more.
The GIW found Vlad to be more dangerous than Danny, even if he lacked the raw power Danny had his intellect made him dangerous and for good reason. For it was because of said intellect that Danny managed to escape.
Vlad didn't manage to do the same.
Danny hated reliving that memory. Because Vlad was a villain, evil and self-serving, he shouldn't be sacrificing himself for his literal greatest enemy to escape in his stead (Not that Vlad would say Danny was his greatest, he would probably say it was the person who refused him to buy the packers). It was just, so utterly stupid and out of character for him.
So, Danny managed to escape, Vlad died. He couldn't even say anything about Dani because she got destabilized in front of him, in front of both of them actually. It hurt to watch and, he didn't quite know the specifics between Dani and Vlad anymore, but he thinks they were getting... better.
Not how it was when Dani was first created, but Vlad was working on mending it. Which, honestly, just makes everything worse.
Danny isn't powerless but it's a damn close thing. He's far weaker than he normally would be, and he's injured on top of that too boot, his powers can barely work and it's just so stupid.
So here he was, hiding out in some random sewer because he didn't want to take the risk of being on the surface and he hates the smell, but he'll take that over being experimented on again. So, Danny spends most of his time in the sewers of this place called Gotham, he even managed to make his own little area with a couch he stole and a few other appliances that were thrown out.
He lacked a Tv or laptop, but he found a yo-yo! Most of his time was spent practicing various tricks with his yo-yo.
It got boring fast. But it was really the only safe thing he could do when waiting for his powers to come back. At least he's a god at yo-yoing now.
It was while doing various tricks with it in some random sewer path, that a literal, goddamn crocodile-man just splashed up from sewer water and half-laid on the edge, since his lower body was still in the water.
Danny looked at his yo-yo, the crocodile, and then slowly stepped on over and gently poked the crocodile dude.
He made a sound, so he was alive!
Finally! Someone to appreciate his godly yo-yoing skills!
Jason Kicks down Dick’s apartment door with a duffle bag in hand: turns out it’s not going to work out with Danny.
Dick about to enjoy some Chinese: oh no I thought you were really into him.
Jason, sitting down with a huff: I am but it’s just not going to work out.
Dick: what happened jason?
Jason: I fucked up that’s what.
Jason: he kissed me.
Jason: and afterwards, I panicked
Jason: and, just exclaimed “golly!”
Dick, trying to not keep a straight face:…
Jason: I exclaimed it very loudly..
Dick: oh jason-
Jason clutching a pillow: I can’t step foot into crime alley again Dick, I’m going to have to burn my bridges, start over-
Dick, lightly chuckling: it’s not that bad-!
Jason, into the pillow: just put me back into my casket!!
Danny has a space core, in the beginning he thought he has an ice core, but it turns out that because he had been highly stressed since his death his core had been underdeveloped and only showed certain aspects to keep him healthy.
Years have passed his 14 birthday (death-day)
He was now 17 and had grown into his core which had revealed a lot about him.
For example, being the Ancient of space distorted his entire view of everything. After all space was everywhere and ever growing, expanding more and more.
Danny could feel himself in his physical halfa body,
But at the same time he was watching people on the other side of the planet: laughing, dancing, celebrating, crying, being born, dying,mourning, and going about their day.
That was only on this Earth he could see every Earth that exists.
Earth was such a small part of space.
He could feel & see entire solar systems, galaxies, nebulae.
More & more
Just continuing to expand
Never ending
As he got older he could understand more his connection to everything.
Being able to help life be born on other planets
Moving moons towards planets
Creating star nurseries
Everything at his grasp
~
This would cause him to let his mind wander away from his physical form, which just looked like he was spaced out.
His human form slipping slightly when he does: freckles gaining a glow and moving to form different constellations, his hair moving like if it were weightless, and his eyes
Don't stare too long at his eyes
After all the eyes are the window to the soul
And his hold too much
(Look away)
~
Danny casually watches a meteor shower hundreds of light years away, spaced out: Ooh pretty!
The poor goon who taught he could mug a careless teen and stared at his eyes for too long: *Twitching on the ground foaming at the mouth*
~
Danny who hasn't blinked in a few minutes: "The pretty space station with heroes in it just made a full orbit on top of us again!"
Tim next to him who's just waiting in line for a cup of coffee or 3: *panicked side eyes him* Wh-What?
~
Batman: "We have to find who's taking out all these criminal."
Danny who looks like a Wayne kid therefore getting regularly kidnapped (or at least attempted), focusing on making a good star nursery: " Shhh! I'm concentrating"
Villain & his goons dropping like flies: "Mercy!"
~
Just an Idea
Danny is on a bit of a roadtrip. An accidental roadtrip and might be getting chased by some sort of assassins or whatever they were. Look, it’s not his fault, he was injured and out of it! How was he supposed to know that the Pits or whatever the people were yelling about were important. Or sapient.
Actually, he should like… “How do you even know how to drive if you’re like, thousands of years old??” That was not what he was going to ask his current roadtrip buddy, but maybe he had a concussion.
Ectoplasm-green eyes turned towards him from the road, framed by a mixture of black and white hair that shifted like his own. “You most likely don’t want to know the answer to that, actually.” Okay, but what if he did, huh?
“Okay, but where are we going, because I don’t think this is my dimension…”
They shrugged, their clothing shifting with the motion. Ha, ninja clothing for a sapient pool of ecto, or whatever it had been. “I am, not exactly familiar to things that were not known to those thrown into my blood, so we’re, I believe the saying is going in blind?”
“Oh. Okay. Y’know you’re kind of nice for an ecto-death pit thing.”
“... I am going to pretend I didn’t hear that, child.”
“Okay. I’m going to go to sleep because my head hurts.”
There was a boy walking towards the invading army.
There was a civilian child walking towards the invading army from the infinite realms lead by their tyrannical ruler. The Justice League tried to stop force their way through, save the boy.
Instead of that, however, they were blocked by multiple ghosts, all hellbent on not leaving them alone. Superman tried to get close to the kid? Piles upon piles of ghosts knocked him back. Wonder Woman? The same thing happened.
The thing was, that wasn't even the ground army who did it. But the ones in the sky.
So the kid was walking towards an entire army by himself. One hellbent on taking over Earth and have no qualms about ending the short life of a human boy.
Instead of watching a child die, a life they failed to save. Something else happened.
The army parted for him.
Just as Moses parted the Red Sea, the same happened with the ghosts. They made a clear-cut line for him to walk straight towards their king with no obstacle, even clearing the way of anything that could pose as one.
Again, the Justice League tried to go down to drag the boy away, only to again be denied by the ghosts flying through the sky. Only to stop chasing as soon as they retreated a certain distance.
The ghosts stood still, and only moved as they got close, unlike their previous acts of causing havoc and mayhem. So, the Justice League, as much as they didn't want too, stood still and watched.
The boy stood at a stop before the king, painfully tiny in comparison to the massive ghostly tyrant standing before him with his arms crossed.
"Yo, dad." The boy said, and the Justice League froze in shock.
===
"Yo, dad." Danny lifted a hand up in greeting, before dropping that hand to rub at his neck. "Funny seeing you here, I guess."
"Phantom..." Pariah Dark's voice was soft yet booming and seemed to echo throughout the battlefield. "We meet once again on the field of battle, come to challenge me again, little one? Without your armor, no less?" Pariah tilted his head to the side slightly, questioning.
"Oh that? Yea that got destroyed ages ago," Danny shrugged, as if not having it didn't bother him at all. "Parents couldn't exactly, you know, finish it. Plus, they had other things to work on, so they just decided to scrap the thing altogether." He put his hands in his pockets and shrugged again. "So, yea..."
Pariah looked the boy over, his eyes hardening and he clicked his tongue at what he saw.
"You come here, not with armor," Pariah began, strength in his voice and a fire (literally) in his eyes. "Nor a weapon, or a shield, and no allies of any kind-"
"Well those guys are there" Danny pointed behind him, straight at the Justice League.
"-Walk up to a hostile force with no gauge of their strength." But Pariah just barreled on as if the Justice League were an afterthought. "And face their leader and do not expect to come to harm!?" The Ghost King scowled, and the Justice League tensed.
But just tilted his head slightly. "Well, are you going to harm me?" He asked.
Pariah Dark blinked, then whispered. "I could, child. I could kill you." He put a strong emphasis on the word kill.
"You could," Danny nodded. "But are you going to hurt me?"
The Ghost King remained silent, but his gaze intensified.
Danny shrugged, this time with a smile. "See? You wouldn't hurt me so it's fine. Ya big softie."
Pariah's scowl intensified. "I am not soft, child."
"Oh really?" Danny leaned forward and his smile took on a more playful edge. "Then what's you're reason for visiting Earth, hmmmm?"
"To wage war and fight against this world's mightiest heroes." The Ghost King answered quickly.
"Annnnnnnd?"
The king remained silent for a moment and Danny stepped forwards before he face planted onto concrete. "C'mon, dad. Tell me the other reason you came here." Danny crossed his arms, mimicking the Ghost King's pose.
They stared each other in the eyes for a moment, before Pariah looked off the side with green dusting his cheeks. "You have not visited in 50 years, son..." He whispered, but everyone heard it.
"Hah! Knew you missed me!" Danny said shamelessly with a satisfied and smug smile.
"And your father forced me out of the realms because I upset him." Small embers started igniting themselves on the tips of the king's hair.
Silence echoed over the battlefield, before Danny burst out laughing. Pariah Dark's hair fully exploded into green fire as he reached a hand to cover his face. "Of course, alongside the shameless and cheekiness, you get Clockwork's sense of humor as well..."
The Ghost King, at least this very moment, seemed more and more like a tired dad than some fearsome, tyrannical Ghost King.
“Hey. Hey Tuck. Tucker. Tuck look. Look.”
Tucker looked over the edge of the screen lazily, the half interested words on his tongue dying as he let out a wheeze of laughter. “Oh my Ancient Sands, dude, how did you manage that?”
Danny had, for the last near year, been trying to mix shapeshifting, thank you Amorpho, with duplication. Something he’d apparently succeeded in today, if the massive fuck-you hydra standing before him was any indication. The very pleased looking, well did it count as a hydra if it had wings too?
“You need to show Sam. Oh my Sands we need to show Val too. And Wes. You did it dude!” He floated up to look at Danny, who did a little twirl to show off. He shook his head, flecks of gold and sand falling from his hair as he laughed.
“Do you think,” Danny lost it in laughter as several other heads echoed his words, from whichever the main him was. “Holy ancients that’s great- do, do you think we can make a dragon club? Hydras are totally dragons right? Do you think we could pull a Tiamat?”
He landed on a head, taking a selfie to add to the groupchat labeled Preparations. “Dude, we should, but let me send this to the others first… But I am so down.”
They can, in fact apparently, pull a Tiamat- with a little help from Princess Dora, practice in front of Frostbite in case something goes wrong, and some advice from Pandora on controlling extra limbs. Honestly, who is going to want to mess with Amity when there’s a giant dragon? And hey, maybe they can break the barrier now!
The heads for those wondering who I was thinking of for each lol And perhaps what they might all get ((1) Kwan, Pressurized Water) ((2) Wes, Sonic Blast) ((3) Sam, Poison Gas) ((4) Star, Plasma) ((5) Danny, Ice Breath) ((6) Paulina, Acid) ((7) Tucker, Electricity) ((8) Valerie, Fire Breath) ((9) Dash, Pressurized Wind)
Which isn't as bad as it sounds!
He finds universes on the verge of destruction, about to be destroyed by faulty timelines or world ending events that managed to effect the entire universe, and devours them.
One quick swallow, and they're a part of his core, separated from the dangers of the destabilizing event, safe and sound and guarded, and able to grow and thrive.
This is why multiversal travel is possible for some DC universes-because they're all in Danny's core.
To save them, he ate them.
Once they are absorbed into his core, his own nature helps shape them as they heal. He has hope, he is protective, and he is separate from the medium in which all universes are held, making his core less rigid to the rules of the Speedforce.
Of course, he also holds some bad apples that snuck their way in, but he can't really do anything about them. That's up to the residents of the universes those bad apples threaten. Danny already did all he could.
At least there's a universe for those heroes to try to save.
And when he sleeps, he gets to explore those universes within himself.
Unfortunately, the Justice League in one of those universes has heard of an ancient being that eats entire universes, and that's the extent of their knowledge about it.
They don't realize they've already been eaten, and that said being is protecting them.