Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Danny glanced around nervously. Sam and Tucker were whisper-fighting on either side of him, debating on whether or not Danny should join the fray. Wes was watching said fray and glancing back at him periodically. He had stopped trying to out Danny as Phantom not long ago, after witnessing a particularly brutal run-in with the GIW, but Danny wasn’t quite ready to trust Wes’s new-found discretion. Val was also carefully observing the fight, no doubt also debating if she should step in or not. Danny would rather she didn’t; the degrees of separation between Valerie Grey and the Red Huntress were already small. No one needed to be seeing Red outside of Amity Park.

No one needed to be seeing Phantom, either, for that matter.

But one or both of them might have to step in, anyway. Any hope Casper High’s junior class had of a relatively uneventful field trip to Washington DC was dashed (heh). What seemed to be a ghost (granted, one even the Amity Parkers hadn’t seen before) had started a public and destructive tussle with none other than Wonder Woman.

Teal hair clashed against sickly green skin, and red eyes flashed ominously as the unknown ghost grinned at the stoic Amazon. The grin did not sit right on her face, and Danny thought her movements looked oddly stilted. She was also hugging a wooden chest to her front with one arm, playing a very determined game of keep-away with Wonder Woman. Though the Justice League founder was holding her own, she couldn’t gain ground against an enemy she couldn't touch.

Danny winced as she caught an ecto-blast to the shoulder, her having chosen to take the blast so she could shield and evacuate a pedestrian who couldn’t move fast enough. Most of the Parkers winced too, close enough to hear a sizzle when the blast landed, but it seemed like the hero shook it off well enough.

Danny shuffled to the very back of the alley the Parkers were stuffed in, next to a coffee shop already crammed full of civilians fleeing the dangerous open street. Sam and Tucker instantly took notice, positioning themselves in front of him, assuming he would “go ghost”. Even Wes straightened up and stepped between Danny’s group and the rest, very pointedly not looking behind himself at them. Danny thought that was surprisingly sweet of him, but a full transformation wasn’t quite what he had in mind.

“Sam, can I have your handkerchief?” he asked, shimmying quickly out of his ratty sweatshirt.

“I- what?”

“Your frickin’ hanky, c’mon, Sam, quick!” Danny succeeded in shedding his outer layer and thrust it in Tucker’s direction. “Phantom can’t be seen outside Amity, so I gotta try something else and hope it works.”
“Dude, I don’t know if a hanky’s gonna keep your identity hidden,” Tucker pointed out, wadding up the sweatshirt into a ball and stuffing it in his bag.

“I gotta do something. She needed backup like a half hour ago.”

“This is a bad idea. This is DC, not Amity. There's cameras everywhere. You’ll be found out in a second,” Sam huffed and crossed her arms.

Just then, Wonder Woman was thrown hard into the pavement just outside of the Parkers’ alley, causing the class and chaperones to cringe and press as far back from the alley mouth as they could. To Wonder Woman’s credit, she jumped right back up, but Danny didn’t like how this was going. He crossed his fingers, took a deep breath, and went invisible.

********************************************************************************************************

Diana was in a tough spot. A strange meta(?) woman had stolen a chest from the Smithsonian’s archives, and was now causing as much havoc as she could while staying out of Diana’s grasp. One of her abilities was apparently density shifting, and that, combined with the intermittent invisibility, flight, and green skin, had Diana at first thinking this was a Martian. But the teal hair was odd, not to mention the caustic energy blasts she threw from her hands. She also seemed somewhat confused. She couldn’t seem to follow or hold a conversation for very long at all, and everything said to her was taken as a personal insult.

Diana had only been able to chase her. Punches, kicks, even her lasso all just went through the green woman. All she could do was desperately pull civilians out of the way, divert mayhem and debris where she could. Thankfully, the mystery woman did not seem interested in the people she sent scattering, simply taking childlike glee in the chaos she was causing.

Diana was attempting to herd the ghoulish woman away from what looked to be a school group and call the Justice League for back up at the same time, when she was grabbed by her burnt shoulder (ow) and thrown unceremoniously into the pavement. She jumped right back up, but the woman was already on her again. This time, Diana was thrown down the street. She desperately tried to get her flight under control before she hit one of the many monuments DC seemed to have at so many of their intersections.

Instead of the bronze statue of an old white man on a horse, she collided with a young man of flesh and blood. Help had arrived, though not from the League.

He let go of her easily when she lurched out of his arms. He was tall, very tall, and though his shoulders were broad, he had a distinct lack of the bulky musculature Kal or Bruce had. He wore threadbare jeans, falling-apart sneakers, and a t-shirt that was now cut into a tank top, the kind where the shirt was cut open from the armpit almost down to the bottom hem. He wore a black handkerchief over the bottom half of his face.

And he was covered in scars.

Before Diana could thank him, or ask him any questions (Where did you come from? Who are you? How can you fly-) he zipped away towards the green woman. For her part, the woman was not happy to see him. Her hair floated straight out from her head like she had been electrocuted in a cartoon, and her red red eyes glowed brighter than before. She shrieked wordlessly, teeth suddenly becoming fangs, as she gathered a new energy blast in her hands. This blast had a red, almost pulsing center that her previous attacks had lacked. Diana didn’t like the look of it.

“She can’t be touched! Watch out!” she yelled to the newcomer, as she flew after them both. He made an aborted movement, like he was going to acknowledge her warning, when the woman fired her energy blast. It was fast, the newcomer was already barrelling straight toward her, and Diana thought that even the Flash would have a hard time dodging it. But the newcomer didn't dodge. His eyes glowed a bright blue and his forearms also glowed that same blue as he brought them up in front of his face. The woman’s attack bounced harmlessly off the young man’s arms, and Diana got a quick look at icy bracers that looked an awful lot like her own bracelets.

“We need to get her away from civilians!” the young man (boy? He sounded very young) shouted to her, sounding strained. She shook herself free of her surprise.

“There’s an empty lot four blocks north of here. That will at least give us some room to maneuver.” He nodded, and they were off.

It quickly became apparent that whatever caused Diana to not be able to touch the woman, it did not apply to her new companion. She ignored how that gnawed at her pride, and yelled advice and direction where she could. For his part, the boy listened well, unless he saw something different from his vantage point, and then he would communicate that. Usually to tell her to move out of the way, which she didn’t like. To be fair, she couldn’t do much against this particular enemy anyway. And she’d take clear communication like this over Batman’s grunts and expectation of anticipated needs any day.

“See if you can get that chest away from her - She stole that from the Smithsonian earlier,” she called to the boy. He nodded and started trying to get close enough to grab said chest, while also dodging a thick flurry of energy blasts. Fortunately, the woman seemed to be tiring. Unfortunately, she was also getting desperate. Several small craters dotted the lot before the boy shot something small and sharp and blue at their opponent. It was clear his intent was to injure the woman’s hand to make her drop the chest, but she dodged and instead the knife(?) sunk into her bicep.

The scream she let out was harrowing. Glass shattered, street lights went out, and Diana herself was forced to the ground, covering her ears and gritting her teeth.

Her companion had no such problems. He lunged at the green woman, and the woman dived. Right before she hit the ground, a neon green pool of light opened up and swallowed her, disappearing before the boy could chase her through. He brought up his arms quick enough not to crash face first, but he still hit the ground. Hard.

It was quiet for a moment, before he groaned and rolled over, cursing quietly but impressively. Diana winced in sympathy, and went over to help him up. “Hello, there. Thank you for the assist,” she greeted, holding her hand out to help him up. He paused and looked at her assessing, before he accepted her help. Though that pointed towards a worrying level of distrust, she used the pause to get a good look at her surprise helper. His eyes were still glowing softly, a solid crystalline blue from lid to lid, no distinct pupil or sclera in sight. The bracers on his forearms glowed the same color, and seemed to be made of ice, though they were obviously styled after her own bracelets. What muscles he had were probably steel-cable strong, but she couldn’t help but think he looked underfed. And the scars, Hera help her- horrible, deep and ragged, burns, slices, tears, what looked like bullet holes…

“Well, she got away, so I don’t know how much help I was,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry I didn’t jump in sooner.”

She waved the apology off. She should have had it under control, she had faced far worse before. “Can I ask your name?” she asked, and watched her companion freeze up.

“I- I don’t- “ he stuttered, further cementing the idea that he was actually quite young. “Look, sorry, but I gotta go.” He was clearly anxious, already drifting effortlessly into the air.

“Wait! Could you at least- do you know who or what she was? What she wanted?” Diana raised a hand to stop him, but quickly put it down when he flinched. That wasn’t good.

“I- um- I really do gotta run, but I can meet you later tonight? Like one a.m.? I know that’s really late but…” The poor boy sounded ready to hyperventilate.

“Certainly. Is the Lincoln memorial a good place to meet?”

“Yeah! Yeah, that works,” he agreed readily. “Sorry again, I wasn’t able to get your chest from her.” He floated higher, clearly itching to go.

“I’m just glad to have had help corralling her. I’ll see you soon,” Diana soothed. He nodded and then… was gone. As if he had never existed.

“Huh,” she murmured as her League communicator started pinging, a stressed out Batman no doubt on the other end of the line.

Chapter Text

“Hello and good evening. At 6 pm this evening, Wonder Woman was seen battling what people believe to be either a martian or meta woman…” Danny stared at the tv screen as Wes and Tucker duked it out over who would take which bed. Danny would be sharing a bed with Tucker either way, and he really didn’t have much preference. The window and the door were equally vulnerable to intruders in his opinion, so one way or another, his back would have to be to an entrance. He didn’t care much for this hotel room. He didn’t care much for this whole scenario. 

“Authorities have not yet revealed what is known about the strange green woman…” He huffed, unimpressed. Tucker had warned him, but the absolute information blackout about ghosts outside of Amity Park still surprised him. 

“Do we know who Wonder Woman’s mysterious helper was?” All three of the room’s occupants went still. 

“We do not. None of the known heroes have come forward to claim him as one of theirs, and Wonder Woman has yet to make a statement.” Danny wished he had stayed put. He hadn’t wanted to do the hero thing outside of Amity, hadn’t wanted the attention. But there he was. On the 10 o'clock news.

And just as much as he hadn’t wanted the attention, he had also not been able to let Wonder Woman struggle alone. Not that he really helped in the end- the mystery ghost had gotten away. If Danny had just been a little bit faster-

“The internet is already calling him Wonder Boy-” Wes and Tucker scoffed in unison. He sent them a tired glare over his shoulder. 

“Well, Wonder Boy? What’s your next move?” Tucker inquired, dumping his toiletry bag on the bed closest to the window. Wes wrinkled his nose but didn’t say anything. Seemed like the bed arrangements were settled then. 

“Don’t fuckin call me that,” Danny groaned

“Yeah, try and keep your identity secret this time around,” Wes shot at them both, grabbing his own toiletry bag and heading toward the bathroom. “Brainstorm or whatever while I'm in the bathroom; I want plausible deniability.” Danny rolled his eyes. Still an annoying asshole, even when he’s on their side. 

“So?” Tucker prodded again as the door clicked closed. He gave Danny his full attention, and he winced under the weight of it. 

The Casper High junior class had been out to eat when the attack occurred, and then the whole ordeal had ended quickly enough that they could still attend the play they had previously been scheduled for. This meant that Danny, Sam and Tuck hadn’t had a chance to compare notes or come up with a game plan safely away from prying eyes and ears. “Lights Out” had already been called as well, the chaperones’ done with the class’s shit and their nerves absolutely fried. Sam was already trapped with Paulina, Star and Val in a hotel room down the hall.

“She didn’t think she was fighting a martian or meta. She asked me who or what she was.”

“She’s observant.”

“Yeah, she’s freaking observant, Tuck! She’s freaking Wonder Woman!” Danny sighed and ran a hand through his already messy hair. “I said I’d meet her later tonight, try and answer her questions.”

“Why?’ Tucker asked, incredulous. Why, indeed? Why hadn’t Danny gone invisible and dipped the second he got to his feet? Why did he offer to meet her?

“We need help from outside Amity,” he said quietly. “If I can make an alright impression on Wonder Woman, maybe she’ll vouch for me to the Justice League. If we can get them to listen about the GIW…”

Tucker nodded, thoughtful but frowning. “I know information about Amity is really well hidden, but from the League? What is the real chance they don’t know about us? People are allowed to leave, after all. If they already know and agree with the GIW… Danny this could be the same as painting a target on your back. For both the GIW and the Justice League. Your disguise is really thin this time around,” Tucker looked pained to be pointing all this out. He was well aware he sounded like Sam just then. 

“Well, this could be a chance to feel out what they know, then.” A beat of uncomfortable, worried silence, then “I know it isn’t much of a disguise, but I wasn’t gonna show up as Phantom.” Tucker sighed and nodded. Wonder Woman couldn’t even touch the mystery ghost, what was Danny supposed to do? Not get involved? Tucker rolled his eyes at the very thought. And Phantom being seen outside of his usual haunt would paint an even bigger, glowing green target on Danny.

“What exactly are you going to tell her?”

“...I’m going to answer her questions as best I can, without revealing too much about me personally.”

“Just winging it, huh?”

“Dude.”

“Whatever you think is best, Wonder Boy.”

“Shut up, Tucker.”

********************************************************************************************************

“Wonder Woman, report.” Diana raised her eyebrows, though Bruce wasn’t there to see her expression.

“An unknown woman stole a wooden box from the Greek History archives at the Smithsonian. The woman exhibits Martian-like powers and complexion, but I’m unsure if she’s actually a Martian. Once she had her hands on the chest, she became unfocused and aggressive. I was able to herd her out of the museum quickly, but she went toward the city instead of the Mall where I’d hoped to have more room to maneuver around her.” She spoke calmly into her communicator, bracing herself for a conversation with the Batman. Of course he had to be the one on monitor duty tonight. 

“When did the Boy come in?” Diana huffed audibly at his tone this time. He didn’t say anything in reply, but the silence did somehow seem vaguely apologetic.

“Not long after I chased her into the city,” she answered after a beat. “He appeared right after I took one of her energy beams to the shoulder and was thrown down the street. He caught me, and then helped me corral her to the nearest vacant lot. When I instructed him to try and retrieve the artifact, she somehow made a green portal and escaped.”

“What is his power set? Did he tell you a name?”

“No name, yet. He offered to meet me late tonight to answer what questions he could. He’s a nervous young man.” 

“But he stepped in,” Bruce’s voice inflected slightly, though Diana couldn’t quite read the mood behind it. 

“He did not seem surprised that he could touch the woman and I could not.”

Bruce made a thoughtful sound. “His power set?” he reminded her. 

“Flight, durability if not invulnerability. Invisibility and possibly density shifting to be able to counteract the woman’s - I also didn’t hear him fly when he first approached and when he left. He did not seem to be displacing air. Though that could have been teleportation, instead. And I believe he has ice powers. His eyes glowed blue, and the bracers he wore seemed to be made of ice. He also threw a knife made of the same ice at one point during the battle.” It was a wide and rather impressive array of powers, but what made Diana curious was the obvious battle experience. Where had he come from?

“Are you able to retrieve it?” Bruce asked with no small amount of interest.

“No, it was stuck in the woman’s arm when she escaped.”

“Hnn.” Disappointed Hum No. 6, Diana noted. Missed evidence.

“He has battle experience.” This got Interested Grunt No.3. Go on. “He is also very heavily scarred. I have to wonder if this is an overlooked hero whose rogue got away from him.” It was a shaky theory, with only subjective evidence, but that’s what her intuition told her. 

Bruce made a barely there humming noise and then there was a flurry of keystrokes. “There isn’t a single frame of camera footage where he’s in focus. Around his face is the worst. We may have to add some sort of illusion or distortion power to the list.”

“What about the woman? What do you think of her? If you have footage already, you have just as much information as I do.” The boy had tried to help. He wasn’t the one that should be under a bat-shaped microscope right now.

“Similarly to the boy, she is never in focus on camera. A similar power set, except for the energy blasts instead of cyrokinesis.” A beat, then, “Did he let her escape?”

“Batman!” Diana barked, affronted on the boy’s behalf. “He chased her hard enough he crashed into the ground almost face-first! He did not let her go anywhere.” She took a breath and softened her voice. “He offered answers with very little prompting, he just had somewhere he had to be. He only had a scarf over his face to hide his identity. He was not planning on fighting today, he probably had people around who would question his absence. You know as well as I that a secret identity is hard to maintain.”

Bruce sighed, but didn’t try to dissuade her. “I’ll see what I can find on your helper and the meta woman. What are your next steps?”

“A shower,” Diana answered bluntly. “And then I’ll go see the archivists and the curators over at the museum. Figuring out just what she stole will point us in the right direction. I think I’ll have time for a nap before I see my friend tonight.”

“I hope you’re right about him, Wonder Woman.”

“You’re being a pessimistic pain in the behind, again, Bruce.”

********************************************************************************************

Somewhere in the Infinite Realms:

She crashed at his feet in a crumpled heap, a warped version of gravity exerting its power over her for the first time since she died. She whimpered but grinned, green blood oozing from where her fangs had torn up her lips during her landing. She held the chest out to her master, who took it gleefully. 

Crazed laughter filled the room, and pulsing red eyes roaming greedily over their treasure. The pale man stepped over his … servant, and set his prize upon a waiting pedestal.

 “If this can trap Death Itself, then it can trap you, Phantom.”

Chapter Text

At 12:30, Danny shed his sweatshirt and donned the handkerchief once again. Wes was snoring away, but Tucker had stayed up with him. He was checking routes to the Lincoln Memorial, along with keeping an eye on the local news sites. 

“The internet is already obsessed with ‘Wonder Boy’,” Tucker murmured. “Your spookiness has stopped there from being any clear footage, but it’s not stopping the memes.” He smirked and turned his phone to show Danny. There was a blurry picture of Danny blocking the mystery ghost’s ecto-blast with his hastily conjured bracers, with the caption “random ass villains popping out of the woodwork” was over the woman and “equally random new hero that didn’t exist a second ago” was over Danny. Danny snorted and Tucker scrolled. Another meme, this time it was the picture of Umbrella Academy’s No.5 and Viktor passing each other in their vehicles. The text “wonder woman getting thrown down the block” was on Viktor’s picture, and ““wonder boy” being the only one able to touch the new rogue “ was on No.5’s. Tucker began to scroll again, but Danny turned away. The internet was doing its thing, and he had no bandwidth to worry about it.

“Raise a fuss if I’m not back in a couple hours,” Danny said, turning intangible and invisible. “I’ll message you if I’m going to be out longer.”

“You know I will,” Tucker agreed, staring worriedly at the last spot he saw his friend. “Safe flight.”

“Sleep some, if you can,” he told his oldest friend, knowing he wouldn’t. Danny floated out the window to the sound of Tuckers scoff. Team Phantom were no strangers to well-meaning hypocrisy.

The cool night air ruffled through his clothing when he dropped his intangibility on the other side of the window. He shivered reflexively, but it didn’t actually feel cold to him. Ice powers did that. The breeze actually felt really nice, and Danny considered carving out some time to fly without the hazmat suit. He was always in the damn thing, whether he was flying for pleasure or on his way to a fight that had started without him. When was the last time he flew just to fly, anyway? Danny instantly shut down that train of thought.

On his way to the memorial, he flew slowly over the wreckage left by that evening’s tussle. Emergency crews swarmed like ants, clearing away rubble so that at least the morning commute would be largely uninterrupted. His stomach clenched as he surveyed the destruction. If only he had been faster. If only he had better aim. If only…

A car horn abruptly brought him out of his spiraling thoughts. His palms were clammy and starting to have a tingling sensation. His normally slow heartbeat would easily keep up with an average human’s. Danny took a deep breath, held it, and then slowly let it out. He was ok. It was ok. He was ok. 

He was ok.

He was OK. 

He couldn’t afford to be anything else.

********************************************************************************************************

 Diana sat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, her back to the structure. On the one hand, the columns and the general architecture reminded her of home, but on the other… The American copy-cats still felt a little soulless, a little… haunted. Surrounded on all sides by the nationalism that was the U.S.’s seat of power, she could normally ignore it enough to get by. But during quiet moments it truly felt like the ghosts of marginalized peoples peered back at her from the shadows of these monuments. .She heaved a sigh and rubbed her eyes, elbows on her knees. Men’s world was corrupt, she knew this going in, and yet…And yet- Another tired sigh. 

 Diana looked up just as her communicator chirped its alarm for 1am. And right on time, a blue light appeared, glinting off the waters of the Reflecting Pool. It was odd, because at first Diana spotted the light on the water, the reflection visible before its source. The source was soon apparent though. Eyes and bracers still glowing arctic blue, the boy appeared, flying slowly towards her over the Pool. 

She stood to meet him, but didn’t join him in the air. He could keep the high “ground”; she wanted him to feel safe around her. But he came down to her anyway.

“Hello again,” She greeted warmly as he touched down.

“Hi,” he returned, sounding stiff and nervous. 

“Thank you for agreeing to see me,” she tried, noting his posture. He was poised almost on his toes, like he might fly away at the slightest sign of trouble. He had scanned the area meticulously as he approached, but now his eyes stayed pinned to her. His gaze was heavy, assessing. 

“No problem,” he murmured. Then words seemed to fail him, as he opened his mouth like he was about to say something more, but all that came out was a huff of breath. 

Diana smiled kindly. This poor kid was terrified, from her mere presence, the thought of getting in trouble with the Justice League, or from something else entirely, she wasn’t sure. But she could put in the effort to help him feel a little more comfortable. 

“Could I ask your name?”

The boy fidgeted, and then said,”I’m not comfortable sharing that yet.” Fair, Diana thought. 

“How about a call sign or hero name I can refer to you as?”

A long silence and then, “I… don’t have one of those. Yet.”

Diana smiled. “We could come up with one?”

“Anything but Wonder Boy, please,” the boy rushed to reply, what little of his face she could see going pink. “Not that being associated with you isn’t cool! I just…” he trailed off into silence, wincing.

“That is perfectly fine,” Diana said, her smile growing. “The League is very interested in where you came from, but we’re willing to gain your trust first.” The boy flinched, and then that weighted gaze was back. Silence. Well, there was the confirmation that he didn’t think much of the League, or at least would have preferred to stay off their radar. 

Diana cleared her throat, and pressed on. “Is there anything you’re able to tell me about tonight's attack?” The boy hummed, his attention turning inward to his thoughts. He had started hovering again, most likely as a response to stress. He also had his arms crossed defensively, almost curling up with his knees drifting closer to his chest and his shoulders near his ears. 

“I’ve never seen that woman in particular, but I know what she is,” he said eventually.

“You do?” Diana could’t keep the hope out of her voice. 

“Yeah, uh, a ghost. Or an Ectoplasmic Entity if you wanna get scientific about it.”

“A ghost?” Diana’s eyebrows bunched in confusion. “I… have met a ghost. But I could only see him because a magician that’s affiliated with the League had done something to make him visible. I didn’t know ghosts could be that powerful?” her voice lilted up in a question, looking to her new companion for answers. 

He rubbed a hand roughly from the back of his neck through his hair and let out a long breath. “There are ghosts like that, yeah. Shades. The lady from this evening… was not a shade. She must have been around a lot of ectoplasm when she died for her to be so powerful.”

“Ectoplasm?” Diana prompted.

The boy winced again. “There are some… papers… on it by the Dr.s Fenton, if you need a scientific explanation on what ecto is. But I gotta warn you that the Fentons… don’t like ghosts. They don’t even think they’re sentient. There’s a lot of… biased language in those papers. But they do get what ectoplasm is right!”

Diana frowned. That didn’t sound good. She’d have to hand off this information to Bruce- no! To Kal. Kal was an excellent investigative reporter, and if he ever ran into her new friend, he’d be less likely to scare him off than Bruce. 

“I know you said you’ve never seen her before, but do you have any idea what she wanted?” Diana decided to continue with her questions. Her companion was fidgety and scared, and she wanted to get at least partial answers before he inevitably bolted. 

“Well, she could’ve been attempting to get something she owned while alive, or something she’s obsessed with in death. But, she seemed a little…” he trailed off, eyebrows furrowed and thinking hard. “Most ghosts that are that active usually have their heads a little more together. She seemed really scatterbrained, even for a ghost. The way she moved was weird and jittery, though that might be because of however she died. She didn’t remember she could escape until it was her only option.” He paused again, and Diana could sense his deep frown even if she couldn’t see it. “I don’t want to assume mind control right away, but it’s a possibility.”

“Ghosts can be mind controlled?” Diana whispered, horrified. Not even safe in death…

“Unfortunately. Ghosts can also overshadow the living, so be careful before sending any Leaguers out to sniff around.” He suddenly seemed very stern. Diana was reminded of when Kal put on his ‘serious face’ while out as Superman. 

“I’ll pass on the warning,” she promised. Overshadowing sounded a lot like possession, and she suddenly had the thought that the evening could’ve gone much, much worse. “Is there anything else you're willing to tell me?”

Another long silence, and another piercing look, but then, “There is a… an Act. Legislation. Called the Anti-Ecto Act. I know that a lot of powerful ghosts can get destructive, but those are really outnumbered by the ghosts that want to float on by and do their own thing. But these acts… make it illegal for an ecto-entity just to exist. I had assumed the Justice League already knew but… if you don’t know what an ecto-entity is then…”

Diana felt her stomach sink. An Act. Against a whole class of beings. And the League didn’t know about it. “Yeah, you definitely didn’t know about it,” the boy observed, watching her face.

“How,” Diana stopped and cleared her throat, “How did you come to find out about all of this?”

He tilted his head at her, eyes suddenly searingly bright. And then, slowly, he became transparent. “The Acts apply to me,” he said, quiet and tired, just before he faded from view completely. “Get some rest, Wonder Woman. I gotta get going.” A quiet whoosh of air signaled that she was alone again.

Diana sat down, hard, feeling like ground had been ripped out from underneath her. The Acts applied to him. He was an ecto-entity. He was a ghost. 

Her new young friend was dead. 

Chapter Text

Diana sat tiredly at her spot in the Justice League conference room. It had been an already long night, and it wasn’t over yet. Her conversation with Wonder Boy (look, she didn’t have another name for him and she wasn’t about to call him the boy) kept playing on repeat in her head, particularly the last bit. And the scars. What hardships had he already faced? He was so skittish. Would the Justice League be able to help him at all, if he was truly already dead? He had answered some questions, sure, but now she had so many more. 

“Hey,” Kal sat down beside her, startling her out of her spiraling thoughts. “What’s going on?”

“I met a ghost tonight,” she said, turning to him to gauge his reaction. 

“A… ghost?”

“Two ghosts, in fact, but only one of them was friendly.” She leaned back in her chair, feeling the exhaustion start to really weigh on her. Kal’s expression was perplexed, but he didn’t get to ask more questions when Batman (who had been on the comms and eavesdropping on her conversation with Wonder Boy) stomped in. He started aggressively setting up for a powerpoint, hitting keys on the computer with more force than strictly necessary. Diana tipped her head and pointed at Bruce with her chin. “He’s most likely already investigating things, but I’d like for you to look into it, too, Kal,” she told her long-time friend. 

“Sure, but what is it exactly I’m looking into??” 

“The friendly ghost was a boy, about Kon’s or Red Robin’s age I would guess. If we talk to him again, I don’t want him to clam up because he’s…” here Diana looked at Bruce, only mildly contrite. 

“You don’t want B to scare him off,” Superman filled in the blank.

Diana nodded. “He’s very skittish. If Batman comes on too strong or interrogates him…”

Batman finished with the technology wrangling and sat down heavily on the other side of Kal. “It would be advantageous for you to do a secondary investigation, Superman. Use those investigative reporter skills you claim to have.” Kal made a mildly affronted noise. “It is likely that I’ll make him nervous, and with his density shifting, he would not stick around to answer my questions.”

“Why are we calling the new guy a ghost?” the Flash had arrived, bearing snacks as always. 

“Because he implied he was one,” Diana answered tiredly. While Flash had come around on the existence of the supernatural, she wasn’t really looking forward to getting past his instinctive skepticism. 

“We are meeting about the new Meta in DC, correct?” Martian Manhunter had arrived. 

“We are. Let’s hold all the questions for now, and wait for everyone to get here. It may take a bit, I called Constantine,” Batman told him, also leaning back and looking tired, much like Diana. Those who had already gathered groaned a bit at the thought of dealing with the flakey wizard, but ultimately agreed. 

About a half hour later (to most everyone’s annoyance) John Constantine portaled in, looking cranky, hungover, and mildly singed as always. “Well, I’m here, Bats. What’s so goddamn important that you called me in the middle of the night?”

“It was a little after 6am in London when I called you” Batman replied, exasperated.

“Precisely! The middle of the night!” John mourned dramatically, before dropping into a seat and looking at the “Big Three” expectantly. Batman sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose through his cowl, but stood.

“Earlier this evening, at about 6pm local time, an unidentified meta woman stole an Ancient Greek vessel from the archives of the Smithsonian Museum. This woman is seen to have density shifting, invisibility, and flight abilities, as well as being able to shoot some sort of energy blasts from her hands. She was also very durable, possibly invulnerable. Her abilities, along with her green skin, had us at first thinking she was a Martian or alien of some description. Later, it was suggested by an ally that she was a ghost, instead.” Several hands went up, but Batman raised his palm in a “wait” gesture, and went on. He clicked his presentation and several pictures of the incident appeared on the big screen. 

J’onn leaned forward. “I… do not think she is a Martian,” he said, openly perplexed. Murmurs went around the room at his assessment.

Constantine also leaned forward, practically laying on the table, but didn’t say anything. He was squinting at the pictures, a deep frown on his face. Batman took note, but didn’t bother him about it. Yet. 

“When she had gotten away from Wonder Woman and started causing mayhem in the streets, another meta appeared.” He clicked to the next slide, a closer cropped still of Diana’s helper.

“Was this the best footage you could get?” Hal, the Green Lantern on call, complained.

“Both metas may have illusion or distortion capabilities,” Batman replied curtly. He had tried to get better pictures, ok?? “The boy seems to have all the abilities that the woman has, with the exception that he had cyrokinesis instead of the energy blasts. He was able to engage with her, but she got away through a glowing green portal when he and Wonder Woman began closing in.” Both Bruce and Diana saw Constantine’s frown deepen, but let it go for the moment. 

“What made you think “ghosts”, though?” Flash asked.

“That brings us to why this meeting was called,” Batman nodded, and then gestured to Diana. Her turn.

“After the fight, I asked him for information- His name, who the woman was, what she wanted. He was eager to leave, however, but offered to meet up late this evening. I had that meeting with him just an hour ago. He never revealed his name, citing his own safety. I asked for a call sign or hero moniker, but he did not have one. He also asked not to be saddled with ‘Wonder Boy’. He was very polite about it.” Several chuckles went around the room. About half of the assembled heroes had already seen the news headlines dubbing him as such. 

“When asked about the woman, he claimed he had never seen her before, but that she was a ghost. Or more scientifically, an ‘Ectoplasmic Entity’.” More murmurs. “He hypothesized that she was either searching for something that belonged to her in life, or she was now obsessed with in death. I, myself, did not find anything conclusive after talking with the curator. It was a chest, but it was empty and plain. The only interesting thing about it was that it was very old, from Mycenaean Greece.”

“He then gave me a very stern warning.” She turned to Superman briefly, “He actually reminded me of you, when you’re trying to warn civilians away from danger. He told me that ghosts are capable of ‘overshadowing’ people, and to be careful when sending any Leaguers to investigate.”

“That’s not good!” Flash said, many of the others nodding along, looking various stages of concerned. Constantine remained silent, now leaning back and looking grim. Diana had to forcibly refocus herself, itching to interrogate him on what he knew. 

“Oh, don’t worry. It gets worse,” she told Barry. “My new friend also told me about something called the Anti-Ecto Acts.” She glanced at Batman, raising her eyebrow in question. He nodded and took back over. 

“These Acts do actually exist, and are in direct conflict with the Meta Rights Protection Act.” The room erupted into shocked and concerned whispers. Batman clicked his presentation, and text appeared on screen with a specific paragraph highlighted. “Any being that is made of or contaminated with ectoplasm is to be turned over to the Ghostly Investigation Ward for containment and study, and if necessary, extermination.” 

Clark froze in his seat. Containment and study. Extermination. Suddenly, every single one of his old childhood fears came roaring back. Once upon a time, he wasn’t Superman. He was just a kid that was very, very different. He had worried, back then, that maybe there were scientists or other nefarious people out there. That they would love to strap him to a table and see exactly what made him tick. He sucked in a breath, realizing he had stopped breathing, and tuned back in to the pandemonium around him. 

“Quiet!” Diana roared, and everyone did as they were told, though there was some ticked off muttering from Hal’s direction. She sighed, and then said quietly, “My friend said these Acts applied to him. Insinuated that he thought that the Justice League already knew.” Silence, the heroes in attendance glancing at each other in horror. 

“No wonder he didn’t give you his name,” murmured Constantine. He was quiet, but Superman heard him. 

“Why do you say that?” He zeroed in on Constantine, his sudden and unwavering attention causing the man to flinch back a bit.

“Well,” he began uncomfortably, “names have power, especially when dealing with the supernatural. He thought we knew and were at least moderately ok with how… ectoplasmic entities… are being treated. Why would he share information that would enable any magic user on your payroll to find him, if not summon him directly? Even a hero name or call sign would have been enough for that.”

“So ecto-entities are of supernatural origin?” Batman pressed, equally laser focused on Constantine.

“I… probably.” Everyone groaned and Constantine scowled. “Look, I haven’t encountered these things often. Some people think they’re ghosts, others are convinced they’re demons. But they don’t come from Hell, or Heaven, or whereever the fuck else. The… theory is that they come from the Place In Between, the Infinite Realms. The glowing green portal supports that theory. Here’s the thing, though,” he shifted nervously in his seat. “They are dangerous. They’re powerful. If it weren’t for the Acts, I’d say leave it the hell alone and don’t go looking for him.” He sat back and crossed his arms, clearly done with saying his piece. 

Batman’s lips thinned, but he was otherwise stoic. “What else can you tell us about the Infinite Realms?” 

“Not a lot,” came the reply. “Green. Glowy. Full of powerful fuckers that aren’t usually friendly. They don’t care for people sticking their noses where they don’t belong.” Batman narrowed his eyes. Constantine wasn’t making eye contact, and was fidgeting slightly. Like he was guilty. Batman would poke at that latter, when there were less witnesses to see him and John act catty towards each other.

“Your friend is not colored like the woman,” J’onn pointed out to Diana. She shook her head in agreement. 

“Maybe he’s just contaminated with ectoplasm and not actually a ghost?” Barry put out, frowning thoughtfully. 

“I… don’t think that is the case,” Diana said quietly. The room hushed. “I know the footage doesn’t show it clearly, but he is… covered in scars. I honestly don’t know how any being could sustain such injuries and live.”

“Invulnerability?” Hal suggested hopefully.

“Then he wouldn’t have scars at all,” Clark gently rebuked, his mind on his own lack of scars. How sometimes he wished he had a few just to show what he’d endured. How that seemed like a foolish and self-centered wish now.

“We won’t know until we can talk to him again. Until then, we must focus on gathering what information we can on this Ghostly Investigation Ward and Ectoplasmic Entities, and then overturning the Anti-Ecto Acts,” Batman said, everyone nodding along in agreement. The meeting adjourned from there, but many of the heroes hung around. Some looked closer at Batman’s notes, or asked for more details from Wonder Woman. Every single one of them felt the guilt, the horror, of what they had missed.  

Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman watched as Constantine portaled out the second he could, still looking shifty. They’d be looking into that.

Chapter Text

John stumbled through his portal into the House of Mystery, still feeling the suspicious gazes of the Big Three on his back. He stood still for a moment once safely on the other side, sucking in a desperate breath. He let it go with a storm of expletives.

John hadn't heard a peep about the Infinite Realms in years, hadn't heard anything but whispers even before that. He had crossed paths with exactly one (1) occultist that had anything to do with them, and that guy had unnerved him. His creepy red eyes always seemed to burn at the mere mention of the Realms. 

They had shared drinks, an attempt by John to obtain at least a book recommendation out of the bastard. He did get a general "How not to Die Immediately", which really only amounted to "stay as far away as possible. If that's impossible, be very, very polite." That had certainly not helped him, as that advice applied to most supernatural beings.

"Leave the Realms Ghosts to me, Johnny," Isaac had said, fever-bright eyes glinting at him from across their pub table. "I have my ways of controlling them. Just make sure your Super Friends keep clear of them. We don't need a possessed Superman, do we?"

John had agreed, the very thought of Realms Ghosts taking control of the League making him go pale. And so, per Isaac's suggestion, he buried any information on the Infinite Realms- keeping it off the Justice League's radar.

When Amity Park had first started calling the League for help, he had gone to investigate himself. It was a godawful Hellmouth of a place, but luckily one of the local Realms Ghosts was a guardian spirit, and had adopted the town as his haunt. John had figured that this Phantom had things well in hand, so he went ahead and erased any records of calls from Amity Park before the Justice League had noticed. Eventually the calls had stopped coming, and John figured the fact that Amity Park was still standing meant he had been right. 

But he hadn’t anticipated the Anti-Ecto Acts.

If the US government decided to target - and therefore anger- Phantom, an entrance to one of the many Underworlds would go unguarded. All manner of Realms-flavored hell would break loose, and John was massively unprepared. 

John didn't know for sure if this Wonder Boy was indeed a Realms Ghost, but his glowing eyes and powers pointed towards yes, despite his healthy human complexion. He seemed about the same physical age as Phantom, and John desperately hoped they didn't know each other. One guardian spirit mad at him was plenty- he did not need another one. The Big Three was already sure to be on his ass about it.

John had long since lost Isaac's contact information (good riddance, creepy fucker), so that meant that some old fashioned research was in order. He groaned and trudged through the house, grabbing books as he went. Batman’s inevitable interrogation would be absolutely insufferable.

************************************************ 

By some miracle, Casper High’s juniors made it home safely. Danny definitely breathed easier once he was back within Amity Park city limits, but that could be because it was his haunt. He had honestly wondered if he could even leave Amity anymore, but Sam had pointed out to him that he wandered pretty far into the Ghost Zone on a regular basis. A school trip should be fine. 

And look how that had turned out. Danny sighed, sitting on top of the courthouse. While not a total bust, the fact that there was a random ghost attack right by where Danny was, on the one occasion that he was outside of his haunt - It bothered him. Yes, the mystery ghost obviously had a goal that didn’t have to do with him, but it was one hell of a coincidence. Danny rubbed his eyes, feeling a headache building up. 

Wonder Woman’s statement to the news hadn’t really helped his current headache. She had told the reporters that the Justice League was investigating the ‘meta’ woman and what she stole. There was no mention of the Anti-Ecto Acts or ghosts, but Danny told himself that the JL needed time to run their own investigation. It wasn’t that they were trying to keep it quiet. It wasn’t that the JL were working with the government and therefore on the GIW’s side. It wasn’t that. At least that’s what he kept trying to tell himself. 

Wonder Woman had also been asked about him. She had smiled at the camera, an odd mix of pride and concern, and said that he was a new acquaintance, and that she couldn’t have kept the destruction as low as it was without him. When asked his name, she told them that he didn’t have a call sign yet and that he had politely declined Wonder Boy. But then she said, mirth shining through, that “I would have been honored if he chose to take up that name.”

That had sent Danny reeling. He had watched the interview on his phone while on their way home. Sam had been worried someone would notice his reaction, as crammed in on the bus as they were. But no one had noticed the weirdo Fenton kid being a little more spacey than usual.

But really, how was he supposed to react to that? A founding member of the Justice League said they'd be honored to be associated with him. Him. All around fuck-up Danny Fenton. He hadn’t even been Phantom at the time! Phantom was at least marginally cooler!

Danny sighed again, bracing his elbows on his knees. He just wished meeting Wonder Woman had actually changed things. His parents were still working with the GIW, providing weapon schematics and research. Both parties were still running around town, posing danger to the living and dead alike. Ghosts were still coming through the portal near daily, hell bent on causing mischief. Protecting ghosts from their own questionable decisions was getting really old. 

And sometimes they came through just because they wanted his opinion on things happening in the Ghost Zone! He got pretty pissed when that happened. He went to the Zone weekly just for those ghosts- he expressly told them to wait in the Zone, the "living world" being too dangerous for them. He wasn’t even sure why he was held in such high esteem these days!

All to say- he met a hero, and it didn't change his situation at all. He was still sleepless and overwhelmed, working as protector and… advisor? diplomat? politician?? in the ghost zone, all while trying to get passable grades and keep the GIW and his parents off his back. His friends and sister could only help so much. It was all on him. No help with the ghostly heavy-hitters or the government. No backup. No anything.

"Phantom!"

Danny sighed one more time. There went his peaceful brooding session. "What do you want, Nutsy? Where's Trigger and Ziggy?" 

The green vulture sneered at him, but ultimately let the name pass. They answered to the names from Disney's Robin Hood and Jungle Book most days anyway. Danny had worn them down.

"You seen the boss recently?" Nutsy asked, managing to fidget while maintaining flight. 

Danny’s eyebrows climbed toward his hairline. Had he seen Vlad recently? Why would Vlad's minions ask him..? "Noooo. Why do you ask? Is everything ok?"

Nutsy mumbled something he couldn't hear, possibly something about ghost children and nosiness. Then he went invisible and flew away without so much as a by-your-leave. 

"Huh! Rude!" Danny called after him, but didn’t pursue. One the one hand, this was a classic Vlad trap, taking advantage of Danny’s willingness to help. On the other- it was sloppy if it was a trap. And Vlad had largely left him be, recently. Something was up.

And so Danny took off for home. Once there, he loaded up on ghost hunting equipment and turned around. Luckily, no one was home, otherwise it would have taken quite a while to sneak around his parents. He took off for Vlad's ridiculous castle, armed to the teeth. 

It was only a short flight, despite his destination being in the neighboring state. He really should have Tucker measure his flight speed again. It'd been a long time since they had tested his abilities.

When he got there, he double checked he was invisible and carefully phased through the front door. No alarms sounded, and no Fruitloops popped out to greet him. It was totally, completely silent. Danny floated uneasily throughout the mansion, checking every room. Nothing. 

Before he checked the lab, he dug out his cell phone and tried calling Vlad. While he didn't want to talk to him at all, he wanted to break into his lab even less. That place held some pretty awful memories. The phone rang and rang. No answer. Eventually, it went to voice-mail. Even worse, Danny could hear Vlad's phone go off somewhere in the lab. Danny hung up and that eerie silence descended again. 

Nothing for it then. He took a deep breath and carefully crept inside.

It looked like a bomb had gone off.

It was very clear to Danny that Vlad had gone down swinging- liquid ectoplasm flooded the floor, scorch marks covered the walls, and nearly every instrument in the lab was broken. Shattered. The portal wasn't just turned off, it was destroyed. The electrical components were melted into slag. Metal and glass was everywhere.

Danny had stopped breathing. Vlad was powerful and clever. Very few could boast about beating him, and Danny was only on that list half the time. This shouldn't have happened. This was bad.

Danny distantly noticed he was shaking. He wondered if he could ask Wonder Woman for help.

Chapter Text

Danny doesn't remember leaving Vlad's, but he must've booked it out of there, because the sun hadn't even gone down by the time he made it home. But his parents were home, and that didn't help his anxiety. 

He carefully flew into his room, stashing the ghost weaponry in the wall until he could sneak down to the armory to return it. A crash and raised voices sounded from the kitchen, and Danny jumped. He crept out of his room to the stairs and crouched, eavesdropping like he did when he was a little kid. 

It was his parents, not angry thankfully, but exceedingly excited. It sounded like his dad had broken the fridge door by accident, going for some celebratory fudge. Danny bit his finger, anxious. Had his parents gotten a lucky hit on Plasmius? No, the timing seemed wrong. The Fentons didn't have the time to drive to and from Wisconsin. Unless Vlad had been attacked while Danny was in DC? The vulture made it sound like he hadn’t seen Vlad in a while. And the ectoplasm flooding the floor had started to stink since it was no longer fresh from the Zone or being put through a filter.

Listening in longer told him that his parents were excited about a new project with the GIW, apparently with lots of funding and resources to go along with it. Danny moved his mildly bitten hand to his hair and tugged at the shaggy locks. That wasn’t good, far from it, but it also meant that his parents weren't behind Vlad's disappearance. Come to think of it, his parents probably wouldn't have left the lab to get Danny from school after the field trip, if Plasmius had been waiting for them on the lab table. The GIW probably didn't have him either. His parents worked so closely with them these days that they would've known about it. 

Unless this project was Vlad. Danny tugged on his hair again, the brief, sharp pain was mildly grounding. Danny just didn't have enough information. He could raid the local GIW building, but they had moved their main lab after the last raid. Not to mention, it was a tricky undertaking, flipping back and forth between Fenton and Phantom to get by the anti-ghost tech but making sure only Phantom was caught on camera.

Danny set his teeth against his knuckles again, trying to come up with a game plan. He wished, just as one of his growing fangs broke his skin, that he had someone to turn to. Someone that wasn't Vlad or his parents, who thought they knew what was best for him, but only knew what was best for themselves. Someone that wasn't Sam, Tucker or Val, who could hardly take care of themselves and already sacrificed too much trying to help him. Someone who was competent and kind, with some power to change things. 

It had been just a panicked, fleeting thought, but maybe he should contact Wonder Woman. Going to her and involving her in Amity Park business could expose his identity as both Fenton and Phantom, but… it was a risk he was willing to take at this point.

He couldn't handle the GIW alone. He'd rescued a couple of his rogues and countless blobs and ectopi from both his parents and the GIW. Had done so many raids on GIW labs throughout the state, wrecking equipment and stealing data. But they kept it up. Their funding seemed unending, as well as their determination.

The ghosts in the Zone wanted to send an army, to get rid of the GIW and remind mortals that you were supposed to venerate your dead. Danny had pleaded, actually begged, for time, for a chance to resolve things without shedding blood. But ectoplasmic blood had already been spilled, and it took all of Danny’s surprising influence to delay retaliation.

He had told Tucker, hadn’t he? That they needed help from outside of Amity. That they needed the Justice League. Vlad's disappearance only brought that fact into sharper focus. 

Mind made up, he darted back into his room. He grabbed his bookbag and dumped out the year's worth of crud and crumpled assignments. The school year had ended with the field trip, and he was grateful for the extra time to deal with this. He repacked his bag with a change of clothes, snacks, his toothbrush, and a hefty, well-stocked med kit. Then he went over the anti-ghost tech he had at his disposal. If he was going to approach Wonder Woman about ghost stuff, he wanted her to be well prepared. An ecto gun, a couple wrist-rays, a lipstick laser, and a specter-deflecter belt all went in the bag.

He had found that, recently, he could 'Mary Poppins' any bag or pocket that he owned. He had decided not to look at that ability too closely for now. 

Once he was packed, it was time to establish his alabi. He went around his room and messed it up strategically, making it look like he lived there rather than at his friend's places or the rooftops of Amity Park. He did this every couple days so things didn't get too dusty. 

A quick text to the 'Team Phantom' group chat made sure everyone knew that he was "staying at Tuck's" for the next couple days. This, of course, meant that he had to clue Tucker, Sam and Valerie into his plans. He explained that Vlad was missing, but didn’t go into detail. Val assured him that she would look out for the smaller, helpless ghosts while he was gone, under the guise of 'hunting' them. Sam and Tucker weren't thrilled, but agreed that they were in over their heads and Wonder Woman was their best option. They would keep an eye on his parents' and the GIW's movements in town, and call him if he was needed.

The evening passed slowly. Dinner was ecto-weenies and canned green beans. Again. Jack and Maddie did ask him how the field trip went, but were distracted again almost before he had finished his lukewarm statement about statues and classmates. Danny fell silent and wasn't asked again.

He missed Jazz. He hoped she was doing well at Stanford. She was staying the summer there, cramming in summer classes and a job. 

He had to wait until nearly 3 in the morning before his mother finally abandoned the lab and went to bed. He quickly put away the extra tech he had brought to Vlad's, and then slipped through the portal.

The immediate other side of the portal looked odd these days. A floating island hovered just to the right of the portal. On it was several large and comfy armchairs and sofas, a coffee table in the center of it all. A large, overflowing mailbox stood next to the armchair that Danny had claimed as his own. He was always behind in going through it. Danny didn't have an official office, but it had been suggested to him. 

Oddest of all, was the Fright Knight. After Pariah Dark's second defeat 2 years ago, the Halloween Spirit had been listless and depressed for a time, before inexplicably attaching himself to Danny. He could now be found, all hours of the day or night, in the little sitting area outside the portal. It was like he had appointed himself the security personnel for Danny’s little meeting area. 

"Hey, Frighty," Danny greeted him, feeding his Nightmare steed a sugar cube when she came up to nuzzle at his pockets. 

"Lord Phantom," the massive knight greeted him with a bow. Danny had long stopped trying to get Fright to be less formal. It was just how he was. He was also one of the ghosts that wanted to go to war with the Mortal World. Danny had expressly forbid him from going "living-side". The shocking bit was that Fright had listened to him, had even seemed touched when Danny explained it was as much for Fright's safety as it was for the mortals'. 

"Any emergencies?" Danny now asked him. He felt kinda bad for using the big guy as a secretary half the time, but the old knight had yet to complain. 

"No emergencies, per say. Clockwork did stop by and told me not to let even your friendliest sparring partners through. He said you'd be busy with something important." Danny’s shoulders sagged in relief. Clockwork would've Seen Danny’s trip to tell Fright to guard the portal more closely than normal. He didn’t leave any instructions that contradicted Danny’s plans. So why did he leave a message with Frighty? Danny thought it was a sign ol' Clocky approved. 

The Observants were probably kicking up a fuss again, so Clockwork probably couldn't meet him directly. Why and how Danny had become so influential that even the Observant Council couldn't easily dismiss him was a mystery. That dark future was long-averted, after all.

He had just… listened. Offered a few solutions. Helped out a few people. For Zone-wide issues, he went and asked the leaders he was on good terms with, like Frostbite, Pandora, and Dorothea. 

"He must agree with my plan, then," Danny said, for Fright's sake. "I'm going to see possible allies in the Mortal Realm, and will be away from Amity Park."

"Allies, my Lord? Will they truly go against the Ward?" He seemed deeply skeptical. Danny understood, but it was hard to hear the near-dismissal of what seemed to be his only hope.

"Well, that's what I'm going to figure out. At least one fairly powerful person seems to want to help," Danny added, thinking of Wonder Woman's concerned face. "I know I just got back, but could you continue to not let anyone through? That'd be a great help."

The Fright Knight bowed deeply, and his Nightmare extended a foreleg and dipped her head to copy her master. "I will do as you command." Danny shifted uncomfortably, but smiled in thanks all the same.

"Thank you. One more thing," Fright straightened up, giving Danny his full attention at his serious tone. "Plasmius has gone missing. I don't know why, or how, but I can't rule out the GIW," Fright's body language turned angry and Danny held up his hands, placating. "I can't say it's them for sure, either. If you could pass the message along when you turn people away from the portal, that'd be great. I don't want to cause panic, but- if this isn't the GIW, then it's a completely unknown and capable threat. I want people to be careful until this is resolved." Fright sighed, but bowed again and agreed. He wasn't particularly aggrieved, no one actually liked Vlad, but he was real tired of mortals' shit. 

"Thanks, Frighty," Danny said, genuinely thankful and so, so tired. He slipped back through the portal with one last pat on the Nightmare's nose. 

"It is my honor, my King," the Fright Knight returned, though nothing but the infinite expanse of the Zone heard him.

Chapter Text

“Hi,” came the hesitant greeting, and Bruce leaned forward, putting his elbows on the batcomputer’s console. He was going over the boy’s and Diana’s conversation one more time, just to make sure that he hadn’t missed anything. 

“Thank you for agreeing to see me," came Diana's voice. She was using the voice she used with scared children, so Bruce could infer that the boy's anxiety was visible.

"No problem." The words were quiet and oddly staticky. More static buzzed over the line in the ensuing pause. It made Bruce think of the common belief that ghosts could affect technology, radios and cameras in particular. He wondered if the static was another sign of the boy's nerves.

"Could I ask your name?"

"I'm not comfortable sharing that, yet." Yet. He wanted to. He wanted to trust. But he didn't, not yet.

"How about a call sign or a hero name I can refer to you as?"

More static, and then "I…don’t have one of those. Yet." Bruce frowned. That pause at the beginning niggled at him. Was he being honest, there? If he was lying, why would he conceal a moniker? But then he remembered Constantine’s explanation that names, even by-names, had a certain amount of power when it came to the supernatural. Bruce sighed and came to the reluctant conclusion that he, himself, would be just as, if not more, cryptic than the boy had been. 

"We could come up with one?" Bruce could hear the playfulness in Diana’s voice, and hoped that she had won the boy over, even just a little.

"Anything but Wonder Boy, please. Not that being associated with you isn’t cool! I just…" Bruce let himself smile at that. He sounded so much like his own kids trying to backpedal out of an awkward situation.

"That is perfectly fine. The League is very interested in where you came from, but we’re willing to win your trust first." The volume of the static spiked. At the time, Bruce had been concerned about the boy’s apparent dislike or distrust for the League. But now, after finding out about the GIW, Bruce couldn't blame him. 

"Is there anything else you're willing to tell me about tonight's attack?" Diana forged on after another awkward silence.

"I've never seen that woman in particular, but I know what she is." Cautious, so very cautious.

"You do?"

"Yeah, uh, a ghost. Or an Ectoplasmic Entity if you wanna get scientific about it." There was that odd mix of uncertainty and surety that teenagers had when they actually knew more than the adults around them, and wished they didn't have to speak up.

"A ghost? I…have met a ghost. But I could only see him because a magician that’s affiliated with the League had done something to make him visible. I didn’t know ghosts could be that powerful?" Bruce wished she hadn't revealed the presence of magic users on the League's roster to a potential supernatural being, but seeing as he wanted to win the boy's trust now, as well, he couldn't bring himself to be too bent out of shape about it. 

"There are ghosts like that, yeah. Shades. The lady from this evening…was not a shade. She must have been around a lot of ectoplasm when she died for her to be so powerful." Bruce wondered if there were classifications of ghosts, and where shades landed. What classification did the mystery woman fall under? Where did Wonder Boy fit in?

"Ectoplasm?"

"There are some…papers…on it by the Dr.s Fenton, if you need a scientific explanation on what ecto is. But I gotta warn you that the Fentons…don’t like ghosts. They don’t even think they’re sentient. There’s a lot of…biased language in those papers. But they do get what ectoplasm is right!" And hadn’t that just sent Bruce down a rabbit hole.

He dug up everything he could, though it was less than he'd like. The Fentons had been considered quacks in the scientific community up until a little under 3 years ago. Then they had suddenly signed a contract with a specialized agency that was a part of the US Department of Defense. Digging up their papers had been a chore, as they were behind several paywalls and heavily censored to boot. But Bruce had been able to glean some information- that ectoplasm was both an energy and a particle, a source of energy from just beyond the perceivable world. That could fit with Constantine’s 'Infinite Realms' theory, if the Realms really were the 'Place In Between'.

The boy had also been right about biased language. The Fentons were awful. The documentation of their experiments were the worst, describing clearly scared or panicked subjects as "purposefully trying to trick them (the Fentons) into feeling sympathy" and "clearly evil". Even as, in that very same paragraph, they described ecto-entities as "thoughtless masses of ectoplasm with a shape imprinted on them". And the worst part was that the government had taken them seriously. Seriously enough to create a whole investigation agency, called the Ghostly Investigation Ward. Seriously enough to pass the Anti-Ecto Acts. 

Bruce’s thoughts were forced to move on as Diana and the boy's conversation moved on. "I know you said you’ve never seen her before, but do you have any idea what she wanted?"

"Well, she could’ve been attempting to get something she owned while alive, or something she’s obsessed with in death. But she seemed a little… Most ghosts that are that active usually have their heads a little more together. She seemed really scatterbrained, even for a ghost. The way she moved was really weird and jittery, though that might be because of how she died. She didn’t remember she could escape until it was her only option. I didn’t want to assume mind control right away, but it’s a possibility." Bruce got several nuggets of information from that reply. Powerful, active ghosts were usually more coherent than the mystery woman had been, but that was not a hard-and-fast rule. The circumstances of a ghosts' death could affect how they looked or moved as a ghost. And, lastly, that the boy knew what mind control looked like. 

The woman’s clothes had been modern, and the stolen artifact was 3000, if not 4000 years old, as well as having been in the Smithsonian's archives for decades. Going with the boy’s theory, it would most likely be a post-death obsession. Or someone else was pulling her strings. Bruce knew what incomplete mind control looked like, unfortunately, and he had to agree with the boy. The mystery woman hadn't seemed fully in control of herself.

"Ghosts can be mind controlled?" Diana sounded horrified, and Bruce had to agree with the sentiment. 

"Unfortunately," the boy sounded far too tired and knowing. "Ghosts can also overshadow the living, so be careful before sending any Leaguers out to sniff around." Bruce had to agree that the boy sounded like Clark, there. Specifically when Clark got really intense about kids playing around farm equipment. That made Bruce think that the boy was very familiar with overshadowing and its effects, as well as cementing the notion that, as much as he distrusted the Justice League, he didn’t wish them any harm. 

"I'll pass on the warning. Is there anything else you're able to tell me?" A static-charged silence, then-

"There is…an Act. Legislation. Called the Anti-Ecto Acts. I know a lot of powerful ghosts can get destructive, but those are really outnumbered by the ghosts that want to float on by and do their own thing. But these Acts make it illegal for an ecto-entity just to exist. I had assumed the Justice League already knew, but…if you didn't know what an ecto-entity is, then… Yeah, you definitely didn’t know about it." No, they hadn't known, and it was a severe oversight on the League's part. Bruce felt sick about it.

“How,” Diana stopped and cleared her throat, “How did you come to find out about all of this?”

One more static-filled pause. “The Acts apply to me,” the boy said, quiet and tired, “Get some rest, Wonder Woman. I gotta get going.” Bruce stopped the recording and rubbed his eyes, sighing. 

It was an extraordinary act of hope, of courageous trust, just for this kid to meet and talk with Wonder Woman. As far as that kid knew, the Justice League knew about and condoned the capture and torture of his kind. Bruce, himself, didn't know if he could've done that if he was in the boy’s shoes. 

It was a shame that Diana had called "dibs" in that interview with the DC press. There was always more room at the manor, and, dead or alive, he'd fit right in with the rest of his kids. Ah, well. The boy and his kids could be "cousins". If he ever showed up again, of course. 

And just as he thought that-

"B, Wonder Woman's got a visitor on the Lincoln Memorial. Should I call her and let her know?" Barbara asked Bruce over the comms. She was ever vigilant behind her own computer screen, and had spied the boy reappearing on the memorial's security cameras. 

Bruce smiled. Wonder Boy was back, and had chosen to talk with Diana again. "Yes, alert Wonder Woman," he told Oracle. He would continue to work and investigate, so the boy’s trust would be rewarded.

Chapter Text

Diana didn't think she had moved this fast since the last time Darkseid started something. The speed at which she was up and in Wonder Woman garb after Oracle called her was astounding. 

She flew as fast as the magic of Hermes would carry her, but slowed down as she approached the memorial, not wanting to scare the boy. And there he was, still in threadbare clothes, on the roof this time. His eyes glowed like ice-blue beacons. He was clearly keeping a wary eye on his surroundings and spotted her quickly. His glow dimmed as she approached and she wondered if he had finely tuned control over his glow, or if it was instinctual. 

"Hello, again!" She let her delight at seeing him again show, a large grin taking over her face. He looked surprised, but crinkled his eyes to show he was smiling back from behind his mask. He was probably taken aback at such a warm greeting from one of the living, Diana thought, trying not to be bitter about it. 

"Hi!" He was more energetic, ever so slightly more comfortable than he was before. But he was clutching the strap of the bag he had with him this time, nerves still present. His bracers were also missing, giving Diana an unobstructed view of the scarred tissue of his forearms. "Sorry if I'm being a nuisance," he apologized, apparently just for his mere presence. Diana was having none of that.

"There is no need to apologize, I am pleased that you're here," Diana told him, offering her hand. He shook it, his grip firm but careful. His hands were cool, but not ice cold as she had half expected. 

"Awesome," he started, before taking an audible deep breath and squaring his shoulders. "I was wondering, did you or the Justice League look into what I told you the other day?" His gaze was intense, almost pleading.

Diana got the feeling that a lot rode on her response. "Yes. The Anti-Ecto Acts should never have passed, and the entire League was upset that it escaped our notice. We are currently running multiple investigations so we can get them taken down and the GIW disbanded as quickly as possible." 

The boy’s shoulders sagged and he pressed a hand to his face. "So the reason that the fact ghosts exist isn't splashed all over the news isn't because y'all agree with the government." That accent was similar and yet different from Kal’s. The fact that she was hearing it at all was probably due to this poor boy's stress. 

Carefully, telegraphing her every move, she put her hands on his shoulders in what she hoped was a comforting gesture. "No, that isn't the reason. We have missed a lot, and want to make sure we have as much information as possible so we don't mess up so badly again." To her astonishment, he leaned into her touch and didn't move away. 

"You don’t believe the GIW?" He asked again, as if her reply had been too good to be true. 

"We don't," she gave him the tiniest of shakes. "I don't. I believe that ghosts are dangerous, yes, but that they are people all the same, and that they deserve all the protections metas have. No one gets to take away their personhood, not the government and not the Justice League."

His glow faded further still, until none was left, eyes tear-filled and utterly human. He swallowed. Shivered as he took another deep breath. Looked up at her with the most pleading expression she had ever seen. Asked, voice scratchy and wobbly, "Can you help me?"

"I will. I swear on the land of my birth, of my mother and sisters, on Themyscira. I will help you," she swore to him.

The boy covered his face, shaking. Carefully, Diana reeled him closer, until she was hugging him. He leaned into her side hard, with most of his weight. He shook, but didn’t make a sound. Diana briefly wondered if he really was as dead as he implied. It didn't matter, ultimately. She cared regardless. 

Diana decided that the Lincoln Memorial was a little too public for what was shaping up to be an emotional conversation. It was incredibly early, but a few people were already starting to mill around. As hidden as they were up on the roof, Diana knew for a fact that the Bat Clan could see them via security and satellite cameras.

She gently nudged the boy once his shivers and died down, but kept an arm around his shoulders. "Shall we go get some breakfast? It is quite early. You can tell me how I can help on a full stomach." The boy's stomach rumbled at the mention of food, and his ears turned pink. She chuckled at him and gave him a gentle tug. "Come, let me show you my favorite breakfast place. They don’t mind if us Capes eat on the roof." 

She had to let him go so they could both fly, but he stuck close. She wondered when the last time he had received physical affection was. It couldn't have been recently, and the thought had her wanting to fight.

Soon enough, they both sat with several breakfast burritos each on the roof of a little mom-and-pop shop. It may not have been the tallest building, but it was a discreet spot. The owners of the shop were Greek immigrants, usually specializing in gyros and other greek food, but had recently expanded to breakfast food. They had a special fondness for Wonder Woman, probably because she spoke Greek with them. 

When Diana brought the boy in, they reacted as if he was their beloved local hero, heaping praise and food upon him. According to Yaya, he had saved Wonder Woman's behind that day, and therefore deserved the best food. Diana thought Yaya's and Papou's attention had a little more to do with how thin and scruffy the boy was. The boy had been shy, but polite, wide eyes betraying that this kindness was not commonplace for him. 

They ate in comfortable silence, back to back so the boy could eat without worrying about his face mask. He devoured his food enthusiastically before he sighed, crumpling his wrappers in his fist. He put his mask back on right before Diana put down her own food and turned around, giving him her full attention. 

"So the… particular reason I came to find you today." His fists were balled up and he was staring straight ahead.

"Yes?" Diana encouraged. 

Another shaky breath. "One of the… undead community has gone missing. I don't know for sure if it was the GIW, but I can't rule them out. He's fairly powerful, so his disappearance is really concerning. The ghosts are really pissed about the GIW already, and I don't know how much longer I can keep them from retaliating against the living."

Diana’s eyes widened. The League hadn't even considered that there could be wide-scale retaliation. No wonder the boy was especially concerned about the League's inaction, despite it only having been a couple of days. And why, in Hera's name, was it a teenager's responsibility?!

"I will alert the League that we must move more quickly. Are there leaders we can meet with, to assure them we are doing something to resolve this?" She put a hand on his shoulder, almost without thinking. He flinched, but quickly leaned into her touch again. 

"I can… arrange a meeting with at least one ambassador," he said, looking into the middle distance, brows furrowed. 

"That would be wonderful," Diana said, trying to be encouraging. "How can we help in regards to the disappearance?"

"If the Justice League can deal with the GIW, look for captives. That would go a long way in convincing the ghosts that you're addressing the problem." The boy seemed hesitant to ask this, like he was expecting to be told not to make such ridiculous demands. 

"Batman and his brood would be delighted to orchestrate a raid on those bastards, I'm sure of it. I may join, just to give them a piece of my mind," Diana assured her friend. "Is there a way to contact you? So we can organize the meeting with the ambassador?" 

He stared at her for a long moment, but his eyes were not narrowed. It was like he was amazed at the mere promise of help. What had happened to him, Diana wondered, for him to not expect a single shred of help, even when he asked for it?

The boy dug around in his bag, procuring a scrap of paper and a pen. He scribbled something, and then handed the scrap to Diana. "Draw this real big on the floor or a wall, and then say 'I call the Guardian, Chthon'." It'll be real green and glowy, but I should show up in a moment or two." It was a simple circle with a few mysterious, squiggly runes placed around it. "I would appreciate it if you kept that private. I don't know what your League magicians are like, but the ones I know are… exhausting to deal with."

"Chthon? Is that your name?" Diana asked, looking up from examining the summoning circle she had been gifted. 

"I figured I'd use it as a call sign. Does it sound weird?" 

"No, it fits you well," Diana told him, and gave him a quick side hug. The smallest of flinches, and then he settled against her side. "Thank you for trusting me with this. I will keep this secret," she said, as solemnly as an oath. 

"Well, if you think that's cool, I got a few more things for you!" He told her proudly, and started pulling things from his bag. Two wrist cuffs, a belt, what looked like a tube of lipstick, and a gun. All of the objects were silver with neon green accents. Diana looked on with wide eyes as Chthon talked her through the gadgets, what they did and how to use them. 

Eventually she had to stop him. "The Justice League has utterly failed to protect your people, and have yet to earn back trust. Why on earth are you giving me weapons made specifically against you?"

He considered her for a long moment, seeming to really think about his answer. "There are peaceful people and violent people. There are peaceful ghosts and violent ghosts." He thought for another moment before saying, "Ghosts, even nice ones, forget how squishy the living are, sometimes. Besides, you couldn't even touch the lady a couple days ago. I just want you to be prepared, that's all."

Diana still felt troubled, but accepted the weapons nonetheless. 

"Could you summon me in a couple days with updates, if there are any?" He asked, eyes worried and beseeching. 

"I will call you tomorrow evening, whether there are significant updates or not," she promised him. 

He smiled, eyes crinkling so much they were almost shut. "Thank you. I should get going, I have a long flight home. Thank you again for breakfast." Diana clasped his hand again.

"Alright. Fly safe, Chthon." She watched him rocket into the air and then start to head west before he went invisible again.

It was odd. Sometimes he refered to himself as one of the ghosts, but other times ghosts were "they". Other. And he said 'undead community', not the 'ghostly community'. It seemed her friend was still shrouded in mystery. She didn't know for sure if he was dead or alive, or what his role in this ghostly conflict was, but she did know that she would do her absolute best to help him. 

Chapter Text

Danny took the scenic route home. Things had gone really well! Wonder Woman had been amazing, buying him breakfast and taking him seriously. The hugs had been unexpected, to say the least, but Danny had felt so safe. Once upon a time, he had felt that safe with his parents, but not now. Not after they started working with the GIW. 

Those people were monsters. And Danny knew what monsters looked like. He could be one, sometimes.

He planned on heading straight to the Ghost Zone once he got back to Amity Park. He had a colossal task in front of him, if he wanted more than just ‘Lord Phantom’ to show up to that meeting with the Justice League. He’d make use of the overnight bag he had packed just in case, and stay a while in the Zone. Danny gave a fanged grin and let himself go tangible just to hear the shriek of him flying through the air at mach jesus. He could do it. People in the Zone listened, gave weight to what he had to say. He could convince a few to listen to the Justice League.

****************************************************************

Clark was fuming. As Diana and Bruce had suggested, they had split up the investigation since there was just so much to cover. Bruce got the GIW, Diana got the more immediate mysteries of the theft and the boy, and Clark, himself, got the scientists that had started this whole mess- the Fentons. He wasn’t sure he was the right person for this aspect of the investigation. Bruce had thought that he would be the right one to do the friendly, person-to-person interviews. Normally, Bruce would be right, but the Fentons and their complete disregard for ethics had Clark seeing red.

He sat heavily in his chair, nearly breaking it. He was back in the Justice League conference room, the only other person there so far being Barry. Clark tapped the file he had compiled on the conference table sharply to even out the papers. Barry glanced up from his own file at the sharp sound and winced at the expression that must have been on Clark’s face. Clark closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to beat back the red that he knew was flashing in his eyes. 

“That bad?” Diana had arrived, carrying a bag and a grim expression. 

“Worse,” he replied, remembering Jack Fenton’s cheerful and dismissive voice over the phone. “The Fentons are real pieces of work.”

Diana huffed, unimpressed with the Fenton’s general existence. “That was clear at a glance,” she grumbled, but held off questioning him until the meeting actually got started. 

Bruce strode in, a tablet in hand. His cape billowed and snapped, underlining the sour mood he seemed to be in. Clark wondered (once again) if Bruce was secretly a meta after all, and capable of some sort of telekinesis, for his cape to reflect his mood like that. 

Behind him came Constantine. Clark looked away from the magician, scowling but managing to keep his flashing eyes to himself. Let John get comfortable, let him believe that he hadn’t been found out yet. He’d get what was coming to him. 

Once the pertinent members had gathered, Batman called the Justice League to order. “We’re here to share what our separate investigations have turned up about the Ecto-Entity situation so far. Wonder Woman? I believe you have had another conversation with your friend?” Superman perked up, hoping for some good news.

Wonder Woman stood and plopped her bag on the table. It made a metal ‘clunk’. “I did talk to my friend again, just this morning. He had several pieces of information. First, he has chosen the call sign ‘Chthon’.” Batman immediately began tapping on his tablet, no doubt updating his file on the boy. “Second, he actually came to me for help.”

“That’s a good sign!” Flash enthused. Several others murmured in agreement.

Wonder Woman smiled, though it was strained. “Indeed it is. Chthon has a couple of problems that shouldn’t be a teenager's to solve, though it seems he is the one stepping up to do so. First and foremost, it sounds as if the Ghosts are at least somewhat organized, and want to retaliate against the living in general and the GIW in particular.” Green Lantern and Constantine started cursing, and the rest of the room went pale. “Chthon has made it sound,” Wonder Woman went on, “as if he was the one holding the Ghosts at bay. He said he could arrange a meeting with at least one ambassador, and if we could help with the second problem, it would go a long way in making sure things went peacefully.”

“What is the second problem?” Batman interrupted, and Wonder Woman sent him a mildly annoyed glance. 

“A member of what he termed the ‘undead community’ has apparently gone missing. Chthon has asked that we deal with the GIW, and rescue him and any other captives we may find.”

“We were planning on paying the GIW a visit soon, anyway. Did Chthon share any information on the missing person?”

“No. Though he was friendly with me, he was still unsure and careful. Half the reason he visited seemed to be that he needed reassurance. He was worried that since we had not yet revealed ghosts’ existence to the public, that we may be siding with the GIW.” Several exclamations of ‘No!’ and ‘Never!’ sounded throughout the room.

“He wants us to raid a government agency, to rescue a person he didn’t describe, when his people might attack us at any moment? This is a trap!” Constantine protested, eyeing Batman like he wasn’t reacting like he thought he should. 

“Wait your turn to present your findings, Constantine.” Everyone froze at Superman’s tone. It had been a while since anyone had heard the dark promise of distant thunder in his voice. Constantine quieted down, looking anxious and pale. 

“Here, proof he doesn’t want to double-cross us,” Wonder Woman said, and dumped out her bag on the table. A silver, segmented belt fell out, covered in glowing green electrical nodes. “Chthon provided me with a gadget he called the ‘Specter-Deflector’. He claimed that, while wearing this, I would be able to touch a ghost and that they would be unable to possess me.”

“That’s Fenton tech,” Superman blurted out, his concern for Chthon growing by the minute. He was in serious danger if he went within 50 miles of the Fentons. Murmurs broke out, most of the League probably thinking along the same lines. 

“You will inform us more about the Fentons during your turn?” Batman made the question sound like a statement. Superman nodded in agreement nonetheless. 

Constantine shifted in his seat, and Superman carefully didn’t look at him. Let him feel nervous, as long as he didn’t bolt. Clark would rake him over the coals soon enough. 

“Did he give you a way to contact him?” Batman continued, turning back to Wonder Woman.

“He did, though he asked that I keep it private,” Wonder Woman told him, squaring her shoulders in a way that told everyone in the room that she would, indeed, keep it private. “I plan to talk with him again tomorrow evening.”

“I would like to talk with him then, as well,” the Bat said, and Clark nudged Diana under the table. He’d like to be there, too. She nudged him back, and Clark took it to mean that he had a better chance of talking to Chthon than Bruce did. 

“Any progress on the stolen artifact?”

Wonder Woman shook her head, visibly frustrated. “Nothing new. It’s a plain wooden chest, no inscriptions or anything. The records say it was empty as well. It was dated back to the Mycenaean age, found in Arcadia. The only notable thing about it physically was its lack of decay or deterioration.”

Batman nodded and stood. Wonder Woman sat, understanding that it was his turn. 

“I looked into the Ghostly Investigation Ward, in particular. They are currently based in Illinois, though they have facilities in Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, and Missouri. They have many financial donors, including Lexcorp and several others. One of their first and largest donors is Vlad Masters of Dalv.co. Digging into Masters, I found that he’s an old college acquaintance of the Fentons, and started funding the GIW shortly after reconnecting with them roughly two years ago. 

“Their base of operations is currently in Iowa, though this is a recent development. There is an individual or group who has been conducting raids on the GIW almost since their inception, and they moved after the most recent one this past April. I suspect this individual or individuals to be ecto-entities, based on the limited information we could glean from hacking alone. Because of these previous raids, very little information is left on the servers we could gain access to.

“Red Robin and I are in the process of orchestrating our own infiltration. Our goals are to gain access to their internal closed servers and filing systems, figure out their agency’s structure and organization, and record their research before they have a chance to erase any evidence. I will gladly add possible extraction or rescue to our itinerary.” Superman thought Batman sounded frustrated, probably at the lack of progress on his front. And maybe a tad eager to screw the GIW over. 

“Kal? You’re up.” 

Superman stood, and turned so he was mostly addressing Batman, but also so he didn’t have to look at Constantine. He had to play it cool for one more minute. Batman was also stoic enough that he wouldn’t startle if his eyes acted up again.

“I focused on the Fentons and their research. Unfortunately, there’s not much more than we already knew in their published and uncensored work. I instead looked up the Fentons’ hometown in order to locate a phone book. They live in Amity Park, Illinois, known as the ‘Most Haunted Town in America’, but when I tried to look into that claim, everything was censored. I was lucky to come across their town, to be honest.” Batman shot him a look, but Superman pretended not to see it. What happened between an investigative reporter and the internet was private. B had installed a hefty anti-virus on his computer anyway, it was probably fine. 

“I was able to locate an old phone book, and the Fentons do still have their landline. Unfortunately," he muttered at the end. Wonder Woman in particular looked amused at that. “I spoke with Jack Fenton, who was more than happy to talk at me about ghosts and how evil they were. How they deserve to be torn apart, and I quote, ‘molecule by molecule’.” Everyone cringed in combinations of disgust and anger. “And among all this drivel, he tells me that he and many other citizens of Amity Park have called for the Justice League before.” Gasps. Batman looked murderous. Wonder Woman just looked intense. Clark finally turned to look at Constantine.

The man’s face was pale and he watched Clark with wide, anxious, guilty eyes. Clark narrowed his own. “So I took a look-see at our call records for the past few years, specifically from Illinois. And -sit tight, John, I’m not finished,” Clark had managed to keep his voice quiet, but definitely not friendly. The entire room eyed Superman as he continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted by Constantine moving like he was going to portal out. “And I found that every call from Amity Park had been marked ‘dealt with’ with a minimal, no-information report, or as a prank call. By John Constantine.”

The room descended into pandemonium.

*********************************************************************

Vladimir Masters was not having a good time. His wounds oozed, untreated, as he stood stalk still, not under his own power. He glared balefully at the bald figure in the high backed chair, unable to even lift a finger if the other did not deem it necessary. 

“Come now, Plasmius, don’t look at me like that!” he said, gleeful. “You know you would have been delighted to use this very trick. Don’t deny me the pleasure. Besides, you’ll be happily fighting your little nemesis soon. That’ll be fun, won’t it? And if you don’t manage to kill him, I’ll just keep him in the box after he’s through with you!”

Vlad shivered. It was all he could do on his own. 

Chapter Text

The Fright Knight had many thoughts and feelings about Lord Phantom. At first, it had mostly been annoyed fury; the whole debacle with his sword a blow to his pride.

But then Pariah had been awoken. In all honesty, Fright had been relieved when he had been imprisoned the first time. The first victims of a conquering dictator were always his own people, after all. Then Pariah was back and the memory of his rule had Fright wanting to run, but it wasn’t like he was living. Pariah had long ago bound Fright’s ectoplasm to himself, and the Fright Knight hadn’t been able to run, even though he wanted to. 

Then Lord Phantom had arrived in that ‘mech’ suit, with hard eyes and an astounding will. The battle nearly Ended him, but he prevailed in the end and slammed the lid of the Sarcophagus closed. That action sent a ripple throughout the Infinite Realms, and every servant bond to the old king snapped. 

Fright had been in awe. It made sense now! Of course he had ultimately lost against Phantom, he was capable of defeating Pariah. Except Phantom never claimed the crown. The throne was empty and Fright had no one to serve, the previously tethered part of himself was weak, and he felt vulnerable and directionless. He had been angry at first, that Phantom had rejected the crown, had run from his duty, when Fright himself had no choice but to serve. 

But the longer he watched the ghost boy, the more he realized that wasn’t quite the case. What he rejected was Pariah’s crown, Pariah’s ring, Pariah’s throne. Not the Infinite Realms, not the people here, and not Fright. 

Even when he was being a mouthy, ornery little shit, he was protecting people. Sometimes the living, sometimes the dead, but always those who could not protect themselves. 

And then he slowly started being active in the wider Realms community. He both advised and took advice from princesses, chiefs, warriors and Ancients. But he also listened to blobs, shades, and the freshly dead. When he crashed council meetings (and it didn’t really matter whose council) he always advocated for the betterment of the community, against those who would hoard power. He took ideas from the living world that hadn’t really permeated the old-fashioned and stubborn Realms yet, like nature conservation, person’s rights, and mental health, and introduced them to his allies. 

Then one day Fright had spotted him floating alone above his portal to Amity Park. He had a far away look in his eye as he looked out over the Realms. Above his head floated a crown seemingly made of blue, purple, and green light like the Aurora Borealis, and a cloak made of the void of the cosmos flowed from his shoulders. When Phantom spotted him, both items disappeared as if they had never been. 

It infuriated Fright that no one else acknowledged his new standing, but it seemed even Phantom was unaware of his status. At first, Fright had gone to Clockwork, probably Phantom’s most powerful ally, to ask why no one had acknowledged Phantom. The Ancient said that he was building his political base without the pressure of the monarchy, whether he knew that was what he was doing or not. It was better for the timeline, apparently, if Phantom didn’t realize his status for a while. 

From that day forward, Fright had stuck close to the True King, or at least close to the entrance to his haunt. Fright had taken it upon himself, he chose to serve Phantom.

So he was there at the portal when the GIW started getting smarter, when the ghost hunters started having better aim. Fright was there when Phantom came stumbling through his portal with refugees from the labs, sometimes more injured himself than the ghosts in his arms. He was there as Phantom tried to save everybody but himself. 

Fright hadn’t quite realized what being a Halfa meant for his king, until Lord Phantom’s most recent arrival, stripped of his usual hazmat suit. It was… humbling to see the Vanquisher of Pariah Dark in threadbare clothes, naught but a torn, sleeveless tunic on his back. Humbling to see the scars that covered most of his newly visible skin. His injuries haunted him like they would never haunt someone who was already fully dead. 

So to say that Fright was unimpressed with the current bullshittery this Observant was spewing would be an understatement. 

“One has to wonder if you really have the safety of the Infinite Realms and its citizens as a priority,” the Observant sneered. Apparently, seeking out living authority willing to aid in resolving this conflict peacefully was ‘reckless’ and ‘gave the enemy too much information’. Fright snarled audibly from his place behind Phantom’s right shoulder. The infernal eyeball flinched back, but didn’t spare Fright a glance otherwise. Luckily, Fright didn’t have to do anything drastic, because there were others in attendance that had the True King’s back. 

Queen Dorothea of the Medieval European Sector rose from her spot in Phantom’s cozy living room set up. “Lord Phantom has every right to call for this meeting! Isn’t it he who faces the worst the hunters have to offer on a regular basis!? Isn't it Phantom who comes back through that very portal, carrying in our stolen brethren, sometimes even his own enemies?! Cradling them and promising them safety?! Isn’t most of the blood shed in this conflict Phantom’s own?! To say he doesn’t care for the Infinite Realms’ citizens is a horrendous falsehood.” She was worked up enough that she was breathing out smoke. 

Frostbite, Chief of the Far Frozen, stood, steady and true to Lord Phantom’s left. “I agree with Queen Dorothea. I will attend the meeting that the Great One has proposed. It would do the Observant Council well to remember to whom we owe the Realms’ recent prosperity.” His statement ended on a growl that sounded like an approaching avalanche. 

Ancient Pandora, leader of the Ancient Greek Sector, did not stand but put one of her hands on Lord Phantom’s shoulder from her seat to his right. “I will also attend this meeting. A true leader knows when to advocate for peace, and that is what Lord Phantom is doing.” Lord Phantom looked mildly uncomfortable, but kept his shoulders squared and his expression firm. 

“Fighting between the living and the dead will only cause destruction on both sides of the Veil. Most living people aren’t even aware ghosts exist, let alone that there are hunters intent on harming them. The Justice League was horrified to learn of the GIW’s existence. They might even have enough power to pressure the American government into repealing the Anti-Ecto Acts and disband the GIW. This meeting could establish diplomacy between the realms, and prevent anything like the Acts from happening again.” Fright knew the young king was anxious, but he thought Phantom had spoken well. 

“Phantom has excellent foresight,” Clockwork put in from his position beside the Observants, and then said nothing more. He hadn’t spoken at all before this, and it looked as if he would not speak further. But it was enough. The Observants couldn’t really argue when the Master of Time said someone was on the right track. 

“Fine. But do not expect us to be there,” the spokesperson Observant huffed, and as one the whole group of them flew away, dragging Clockwork along with them. The Ancient gave a jaunty wave over his shoulder with a shiteating grin. 

Lord Phantom sat down with a sigh, but smiled at those still assembled. More than just Frostbite, Dora and Pandora were present. Leaders and busybodies from all over the Realms were assembled, watching with shrewd eyes. “Well, let's plan this meeting out some, yeah?” The young man suggested tiredly. Many nodded, and the meeting resumed, much smoother now that the Observants had left.

**********************************************

Batman stepped over the knocked out form of a GIW agent. Red Robin was already ahead of him, downloading data from a computer against the wall. They were in a laboratory, surrounded by glowing green ooze in various containers. Batman had long since released the captive ghosts, some of them fading from view immediately (hopefully not Fading forever), and some of them sticking around to say ‘thank you’ and assuring him they could get home safely, before flying away. But all of them had been harmed, imprisoned. If the GIW agents got a rougher handling because of it, well, no one would blame him. 

“Progress?” he asked his son. 

“We’ve got a lot of crap to look through. But look at this,” he pointed at the security footage he was watching while the download finished. “Looks like this Phantom is the one responsible for all the raids.”

Phantom. The protector of Amity Park. Oracle had managed to break past the firewalls surrounding the town’s online presence once Clark had dug up the Fenton’s hometown. That had led to multiple discoveries. The town’s ghost problem was rather worrying, but their ghost hunter problem was far worse. Both the Fenton’s and the GIW regularly put civilians in danger with their trigger-happy shenanigans, and the ghost that saved those civilians was almost always the very ghost being hunted. Phantom had been protecting Amity Park from the living and the dead alike since before the Anti-Ecto Acts even passed. 

While looking into Amity, Batman found himself looking into the high school on a hunch. And sure enough, on the bulletin board page of Casper High’s website, was information on the Junior class’s recent field trip to Washington DC. Which perfectly lined up with the appearance of the mystery woman and Chthon in DC. Looking through the class directory, Bruce found one Daniel Fenton. He was bundled up in an oversized sweater in the photo, and the photo was oddly blurry, like the camera just wouldn’t focus right. The dark messy hair looked just like Chthon’s, and he had piercing, arctic blue eyes. 

Batman had not shared that he had possibly found Chthon. He wanted to talk to the boy in person before he did anything, because Chthon was in a very precarious position. He was a Fenton, as in those Fentons. The boy with ghost powers was living under the same roof as ghost hunters. If the Fentons ran experiments that were similar to the GIW’s, then the boy was in extreme danger. 

And not only that, Batman thought as he watched the security footage of Phantom wrecking shop and flying away with several injured blobs, Phantom and Chthon may well be one in the same. He had compared the footage of Phantom fighting from several Amity Park social media accounts with the footage of Chthon in DC. Same build, same fighting style, same body language. His hair was a different color, yes, but it was messy the same way. And while Phantom glowed green instead of blue, he was known to have ice powers that changed his glow from green to blue. Also, Phantom seemed to have some sort of leadership role with the other ghosts in recent posts. That would line up with Chthon being able to “hold back” the ghosts’s plans of retaliation. 

Bruce understood why Chthon used a new appearance and callsign in DC - If Phantom was seen so far from his regular haunt at the same time and place as the Junior class, it would be easy to narrow down just who Phantom was. His secret identity was probably the only thing keeping him somewhat safe in a town infested with ghost hunters. 

“They’ve got back up coming in,” Nightwing’s voice came over the comm. 

“I’ve got 10 more seconds for this download and then we can split,” Red Robin replied. Ten seconds later several shadows slipped out of the facility and away towards Gotham, stolen data safely tucked away in a utility belt. 

**********************************************

Frederich Isaac Showenhower paced the floor of his hideout in the Ghost Zone. His spies in Amity Park said that Phantom had not been seen for several days - missing in action for a week, briefly seen, and then remaining unseen for another two. He was growing impatient. His newest toy was damaged during his acquisition, and he wouldn’t be able to meaningfully use his toy to bait Phantom if he expired from his damages. 

Sisyphus’s Box was a great trinket, and would be a great help in imprisoning Phantom. But controlling him… That was a tricky thing yet. Frederich had almost gotten it perfect with Plasmius, and with a few tweaks, the spell was nearing perfection. He just needed to trap Phantom long enough to try it out. 

“Boss.” One of his toys, the spy, appeared in front of him.

“What is it?” Frederich sneered. 

“Phantom has been seen back in Amity Park.”

Frederich screeched in delight. “Finally!! Oh Plazzy! It’s your time to shine!!” Plasmius looked up from his spot in the corner. He grinned back at his master, his grin a perfect copy of Frederich’s rather than his own.

Chapter Text

Danny hummed to himself, flying high and invisible. He was quite pleased- After the Observants had finally left, his meeting with the Realms leaders had gone quite well. Not only Pandora, Dorothea, and Frostbite, but a couple others had agreed to come as well; Fright Knight (who would follow him regardless), the Alpha of the Werewolf ghosts, called Adalwulf, and even Walker, who was concerned about properly punishing the guilty parties in all this. Walker and Adalwulf, Wulf's older brother, had to be carefully separated, but Danny had managed to keep the meeting productive.

It was currently late afternoon on the day Wonder Woman said she would summon him. He was out of the house and "at Sam's" in preparation. He was flying leisurely over the city park, waiting for the summons when his ghost sense went off. He frowned, looking around. No one should be able to get past Fright, and if they did, Fright would have sent a messenger blob. Blobs usually came right up to Danny like friendly dogs, but there were currently no ghosts in sight.

And then something hard collided with his cheek and he was sent sprawling to the ground, crashing into tree branches on the way down.

⚠️⚠️⚠️Gore and Blood from this point on!!!⚠️⚠️⚠️

Instinct and experience had Danny leaping away even before he came to a full stop, and he just barely managed to dodge a black gloved fist. Scampering back, Danny got a look at his attacker before having to dodge again. It was Plasmius, but he was… wrong, dirty, torn clothes, open wounds festering and oozing into his previously pristine white suit. Just like the mystery woman in DC, his movements were stilted and his crazed grin seemed somehow separate from the rest of his face. And his eyes… the lights were on but Vlad wasn't home.

Danny couldn't analyze him further. Just because he was injured and had a case of the jitters didn't mean he wasn't a formidable opponent. He was fast, and he hit hard. In fact, he was throwing himself at Danny recklessly, like he was determined to take him down even if it Ended him. Danny was completely unprepared- Vlad usually at least started out watchful and calculated. But now they were both flinging themselves through trees and into and out of the air, grappling and snarling.

Danny had never been the best at dodging, and Vlad had always been as quick as a viper. Vlad caught him, dug his claws into the meat of Danny’s shoulders, and lunged, fangs out and aimed for his throat. Danny twisted, one hand grabbing Vlad by the neck to keep his face away, and the other raking claws of his own over a nasty gash on Vlad's collar bone. Vlad reeled away, screeching wordlessly. Danny gagged; Vlad's injuries were festering, and rotten meat and ectoplasm was something Danny never wanted to smell again.

Vlad came at him again, like he couldn't feel or see the flaps of graying skin hanging off his front, demented smile still in place. Danny fully extended the claws on both his hands. He was usually the brass knuckles or naily-bat type, but he would use every weapon in his arsenal if it meant keeping this awful zombie version of Vlad from hurting those in his haunt.

Their fight dragged them across the park, and pretty soon they were crashing through the dense woods at the edge of town. Danny felt feral, almost crazed himself. He had to chase Plasmius out of his haunt, had to claw and snarl and run him out. Danny would make him leave, would make him stop.

Both of them were covered in scratches and gouges. Vlad was far worse off than Danny, puss and maggot filled injuries clawed open and exposed. But he did not relent, trying and now failing to match Danny blow for blow.

"VLAD! STOP!" He knew in the more logical, human part of his brain that something was up. Something other than Vlad was weird and wrong. His voice sounded both too deep and like a shriek at the same time, and miraculously, Vlad paused. For one hopeful second, Vlad's eyes were clear.

But then he shook his head and shot Danny a smile that he could only describe as fatalistic. "Please end it. He won't let me go 'til I've Faded." And then the eyes and grin that weren't his were back, and the fight was on again.

Danny couldn't contain him. He tried his best to restrain Vlad, but the older halfa wriggled out of his grip repeatedly, seemingly unconcerned with the chunks of flesh he left behind in Danny’s claws.

Vlad was stumbling now, fresh iridescent magenta blood dripping onto the grass. Danny easily dodged his next lunge despite being tired and sore himself. He darted in and knocked Vlad onto his back, the heels of his palms connecting solidly with Vlad's chest above his heart and core. Danny felt something crunch and shift under his hands, something ectoplasmic that absolutely should not crunch.

Vlad snarled and tried to get up, but Danny easily overpowered him now. He reached out to Vlad's chest again, extending his ghost sense to figure out what was wrong with him.

Danny nearly vomited again at what he found. Vlad's core was shattered, held together with pulsing red roots of magical power. There was no coming back from this, Danny instinctively knew. Vlad was already Ended, someone was just dragging out his Final Death, making his still-occupied corpse dance. It would be the merciful thing to-

Danny’s hand phased into Vlad's chest and-

His core crumbled into dust under Danny’s fingers.

Vlad smiled, gratitude clear, relief in his eyes, and breathed his last breath.

"What a show!!" Danny snapped his head around, his own core buzzing in his ears and heart in his throat. Someone he hadn’t seen in years stood at the treeline. Freakshow stood, bold as brass, a very familiar wooden chest tucked under one arm.

Danny tried to get to his feet, but he found that he was shaking too hard. Freakshow was free, he had to have been controlling Vlad, he didn’t want to be under his thumb again, fuck, please, help-!

"Now, now, kiddo, don't get up. I have a cushy spot where you can stay awhile," the bald bastard said, shifting to hold the chest in both hands. He opened the lid and-

It was like a maw, yawning wide and black. Danny felt like he was falling forward, a sick swoop to his stomach signaling more than just losing his balance. He lurched back, but he felt himself being drug forward, like the Fenton Thermos but much, much worse.

Danny fought it best he could, and just as he was losing his grip on the world around him (on the grass and dirt, on his sense of self, on Vlad's corpse), a different pull started up around his core. A summoning.

Danny lurched to his feet and tore himself out of the black clutches of the chest. He grabbed the magic of the summoning and threw himself into it, clawed his way through the cosmic door, and pulled it shut behind himself.

He looked up, panting. Wonder Woman stood above him, visibly startled. He looked down, saw that he was still in his Phantom getup, and he let his transformation sweep over him. He should be Chthon right now, Wonder Woman liked Chthon.

Green blood turned red but remained iridescent. Danny must have lost quite a lot of it, he realized as he toppled over, the world going dark.

"Chthon?! Chthon!!"

But at least he was with Wonder Woman, he thought. She wouldn't hurt him or turn him over to the GIW. He let himself pass out as she pulled him into her arms. He was safe.

Chapter Text

Diana still had the taste of dread lingering in the back of her throat, even now several hours after she summoned Chthon. She carefully adjusted the blanket over him and went back to carefully holding his clawed hand. The poor boy was covered in bandages - gouges and slices, whoever he had been running from clearly having claws too. Several of the wounds were deep and bled heavily. Luckily, they were on the Watchtower, and the room where the summoning took place was just a few doors down from the infirmary. Each wound got a thorough cleaning, everyone’s concern ratcheting up when they found maggots and rotted tissue under Chthon’s tough, curved nails. 

It had been one hell of a shock when the clawed, white gloved hands tore open a portal within the summoning circle, a white haired and heavily injured teenager tumbling out. He had immediately pulled closed the portal behind him, wild-eyed and frantic. She must have made a sound or moved subconsciously, because his head had whipped around towards her. She had been about to demand answers (Who are you? Where is my friend?) when a ring of light appeared around the boy. As it passed over him, Chthon had been revealed, white turning black, green turning blue. He had passed out, right into her arms. They way his glow had just gone out had her yelling for Bruce, who had been waiting with Kal in the hallway. 

So now there she was, waiting for Chthon to wake up, with more questions than ever. Bruce had answered some of them when she told him how Chthon’s appearance had been different upon arrival. Apparently, Chthon protected the very town the Fenton’s were from, Amity Park. Bruce had gotten past the town’s firewalls, and had tracked down her boy. First, as his civilian identity, then the white-haired hero known as Phantom. Worse, his civilian identity was Daniel Fenton, son of the Dr.’s Fenton. His own parents shot at him. Regularly. Clearly they didn’t know about his other identity, otherwise… None of his old scars or new wounds looked surgical. So that was something, at least. She brushed his hair from his face, trying to distract herself from such morbid thoughts. 

Chthon huffed a bit in his sleep, and then began to stir. Diana straightened up, ready to reassure him once he came to. A medical bay looked a lot like a lab, after all, and she didn’t want him to wake up scared. He blinked open his eyes, taking in the ceiling, then his bandages, then the bed in visible, growing alarm. Diana gave his hand a squeeze, and his eyes snapped to hers, an unsettling pinprick glow in the center of his wide black pupils. 

Diana pushed past her instinctual hesitance at that look. “You’re ok. You’re safe. You’re at the Watchtower, headquarters of the Justice League. You’re in our infirmary; you were very hurt when you arrived.” 

He blinked, blinked again, and then relaxed, giving her hand a gentle squeeze back. “I’m… safe?”

“Yes, you are safe,” she gladly repeated. She clasped his hand with both of hers, not wanting to crowd him but so, so glad he was awake.

“I’m… in the Justice League headquarters?”

“Yes. Batman and Superman wanted to meet you as well, but that can wait.”

Big eyes turned on her again, with a different sort of panic. “Batman?? And Superman?? Want to meet me??” 

“They can wait,” she said again, firmly. Then, teasingly, “What, didn’t think they would want to meet the hero of the Ghosts?” Chthon turned red and sputtered, and Diana just smiled and patted his hand. 

That brought his attention to his still-clawed fingers. “Oh, shit, sorry, uh, that’s not, um, very nice for me to have out,” he mumbled, still red-faced. Gradually, the claws, fangs, and pointed ears that differentiated him from a factory-settings human receded and disappeared. “Uh, thanks for bandaging me up? You didn’t have to, I generally heal a lot quicker than a normal human.”

“We absolutely had to. What kind of people would we be if we didn’t?” She gently rebuked him, giving his hand another little squeeze. “You deserve courtesy and kindness, Chthon.” He looked at her and he just seemed haggard. Sad and tired and too grateful for simple kindness. 

“Can I ask what happened?” Diana asked, wondering if it was too soon. But if she wanted to help, she needed to know. 

His expression was stiff and blank, and then crumpled. “I found him,” he murmured, sounding like he might burst into tears. He drew a deep breath, and he covered his face with his free hand, taking a moment. After a few deep, slow breaths, he turned to her again. “I guess we should call in Batman? And I guess Superman, too? There’s a lot to explain, better to get it all out at once.”

“If you’re sure,” Diana sounded hesitant, but used her comm to signal the other two that Chthon was awake. Danny was sure. If he had learned anything during his more political escapades in the Infinite Realms, was that one big meeting to get everyone on the same page was generally better than many smaller meetings where things could be misconstrued. 

Batman and Superman had known the moment that Chthon had woken, Superman with his super hearing and Batman with his constant surveillance, but both had waited for the ok from Wonder Woman. They tried to keep their entrance sedate and non threatening, but they still got an unsure, wide-eyed look from the boy. 

“Hello! Chthon, right?” Superman stepped forward first, giving the boy his friendliest smile and offering a hand to shake. Chthon took it, and gave a tired, lopsided smile in return.

“Yeah, that’s me. Good to meet you.” Let it be known, Danny thought in mild, over-tired giddiness, that he had manners, goddamnit. Holy hells, he was meeting Superman. And Batman!!

Batman stepped forward next, also shaking Chthon’s hand. “Your work in Amity Park is impressive,” he acknowledged. Suddenly, Chthon’s grip turned to steel. Not tight, per say, but unyielding, not letting go. 

“I was under the impression that the Justice League didn’t know about Amity Park?” His voice was quiet, downright cordial, but the unsettling, pinprick glow was back, so much worse than the lid-to-lid glow his eyes usually had. 

“We didn’t until recently. Yesterday, in fact, and I haven’t even shared all I have found with the rest of the League yet,” Batman said calmly, acting as if he hadn’t almost lost his hand when Chthon finally let go. 

“I see. Sorry.” He eyed the Dark Knight, equal parts contemplative and apprehensive. “What all have you found in Amity Park?”

Batman sat heavily in a nearby chair. Uncomfortable, as all hospital chairs were. He laid out all his cards on the table, recognizing that nothing short of that would get him the same from the boy. “I found that while you have a ghost problem, your ghost hunter problem is much worse. The Fenton’s and the GIW are guilty of several civil rights violations, as well as violations of the Meta Rights Protection Act. What we have found in our raid of the GIW’s current head facility indicates charges of kidnapping and abduction, assault, torture, manslaughter and murder.

“I will admit that I believe I have found your civilian identity, and had already connected Phantom with Chthon before you showed up today as Phantom. Your secrets are safe and will not be disclosed beyond restricted files in the Justice League database. They will never be public.”

Chthon looked hard at him, and Bruce resisted the urge to fidget. It was impressive, honestly, only Alfred and Diana could compete with such a look. 

“Who do you think I am?” 

“Daniel Fenton, son of the Dr.’s Fenton, junior at Casper High,” Batman answered, sure.

The boy sighed and scrubbed at his face, sounding worryingly defeated. “Yeah, that’s me,” he murmured quietly this time. 

Diana put a hand on his shoulder. “Do not worry, we will not send you back if you do not want to go.” He looked at her confusedly for a moment before his eyes went wide in panic. 

“I have to go back! If I’m not seen in the Ghost Zone soon the Ghosts are going to think Freakshow’s shit was the GIW! Fuck, they don’t know about Freakshow, I need to go warn-”

“Easy! Easy,” Wonder Woman had her hands on both his shoulders now. She caught and held his gaze, trying to impart some calm to him. “Tell us what is going on, and maybe we can help. You are not trapped here, you can leave and attend to your home, but it seems like something serious is happening, and we’d like to help.”

He grasped her arms and breathed deeply for a moment, before nodding, slumped and tired again. “There is a man called Freakshow, I think his real last name is Showenhower. A couple years ago he came through town with a circus. He was the ringmaster, and all the performers were ghosts. It turned out that his staff was a magical artifact that could mind control ghosts, and he was using it to command every ghost he came across. He liked to use ghosts to steal from jewelry stores and such, but me and some friends eventually stopped him. He’s caused some trouble since, but I thought he was in the custody of the GIW last I saw him, and his stupid mind control staff was destroyed. I thought I didn’t have to worry about him anymore…” Danny trailed off for a moment, remembering that smug, white-painted face. Ancients, how he hated that bastard. 

“It looks like it was Freakshow, not the GIW, that kidnapped Vlad. He must have figured out a new way to mind control ghosts, because that wasn’t… That wasn’t Vlad. Not really. His core was shattered, he couldn’t be healed, I had to. He was rotting from the inside out - I had to - to put him. Down. Out of his misery. I - I didn’t want -!” Danny was shaking, he noted distantly. He gulped down air, trying to steady himself. He couldn’t lose it in front of Batman. But Wonder Woman pulled him into one of her warm hugs and he just, couldn’t, for a while. 

Eventually, they got the full picture of what was happening in Amity Park. It took time, and a fair amount of tissues, but Chthon, Danny, got it all out. They didn’t get much about the political and social climate of the Infinite Realms, or the Ghost Zone as the boy sometimes called it, but they got enough to hopefully not offend anyone at the ambassador’s meeting. 

Danny eventually asked something that had the adults looking contrite. “Why didn’t you all know about Amity Park? I don’t think we were that well hidden?” It was Superman that took a deep breath and told the teen who was behind the Justice League’s inaction, and his reasoning for keeping the town’s plight secret.

Chthon was eerily still and his eyes burned green when he said, “I’d like to meet this Constantine.”

Chapter Text

With all of their new information, a game plan was formed. It was decided that Danny would do an interview, as Phantom, with a trusted reporter associated with the League. Superman would speak to government officials in the States, and Wonder Woman would speak to the UN, both representing the Justice League as a whole and strongly expressing their displeasure about the Acts. They were also going to ask a Green Lantern to release a statement about how many Oa laws the US government was breaking, to add that extra bit of pressure.

In the meantime, Batman and Co. would watch Amity Park from a distance to keep tabs on the Fentons and the GIW, and keep watch for Freakshow, should he turn up again. Danny would go back to Amity Park to reassure his friends and the ghosts, and set up a neutral place for the peace talks. He was given strict orders to return to DC if the ghost hunters got out of hand and also given a panic button in case Freakshow showed up and tried to use his weird box again. Diana was on call and would summon him away again at a moment's notice. 

But before Danny returned to Amity Park, the contingent of Justice League members attending the ambassadors’ meeting wanted to meet with him. Batman wanted to prepare for the Infinite Realms peace talks and get everyone on the same page. 

Wonder Woman held Danny’s hand while they sat in the Justice League's conference room, and though it made him feel like a little kid, Danny was absurdly grateful. Wonder Woman (Diana!) And Superman (Clark!) were talking quietly while they waited for one of the Green Lanterns, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman. Batman (no name given :( ) was elsewhere, apparently calling a magician called Zatanna and … Constantine.

Danny both did and didn't want to meet the man. He didn't know if he could keep it civil and he didn't want the rest of these big-name heroes to see him all… spooky. 

Danny was drawn out of his reverie by Diana absent-mindedly brushing her thumb over his knuckles. His knuckles were ground beef and scar tissue, but she didn't seem to mind. Danny, being a ghost and therefore an empath, could literally feel the kindness and care behind the gesture. If Wonder Woman stayed with him, he thought, then he could face the damn wizard without losing his cool (heh). Probably. 

Batman came sweeping in, a boy recognizable as Red Robin on his heels. The Dark Knight went straight to Clark and Diana, but Red Robin broke away and made a bee-line for Danny. 

"Hey, man," he greeted, sliding into the seat next to Danny. He stuck out his left hand to shake, so Danny didn't have to let go of Diana’s hand with his right. Danny shook it, giving the other hero his (at this point, signature) tired, lopsided smile.

"Hey! Red Robin, right?" Danny was a big kid, skinny and growing yet, yes, but it was definitely clear that he was going to be as tall, if not taller, than his father. His hand dwarfed the somewhat petite Red Robin’s. 

"That’s me," he agreed. "And you're…?" There was zero chance Batman’s apprentice/son didn't know who he was, so Danny figured he was asking which name he would like to use right now. 

"Phantom in Amity Park and the Infinite Realms, Chthon everywhere else. Danny, if we're just hanging out." He injected a little energy and warmth into his smile when mentioning his first name, and he could have sworn Red Robin turned just the slightest bit pink. It was hard to tell with the domino mask.

"Well, it's good to meet you. I was with B's raid on the GIW, and I've been looking over his shoulder while he's been investigating Amity Park. Your hero work is seriously impressive," Red Robin said, leaning back in his chair and sending an admiring look Danny’s way. It was Danny’s turn to blush a little bit. 

"I do what I can. Could've done with some more training, especially in the beginning," Danny said. 

"We can fix that. Once the present emergencies are taken care of, you are more than welcome to come to me and we can train," Diana said, having heard the boys' conversation.

"I'd love to," Danny told her, giving her hand a little squeeze.

"B's been thinking of training exercises for you since you showed up in DC, so don't hesitate to contact us either," Red Robin interjected. Danny looked sidelong at the Bat in question.

Batman nodded. "You are welcome in Gotham, though I ask that you leave any crime fighting to us."

"Sounds reasonable," Danny agreed, astonished he was welcome in Gotham at all. 

"Metropolis too! You're welcome to bother me anytime," Clark threw in, not wanting to be left out. 

Danny smiled at them. "I'll make sure to." Everyone wondered if he actually would, or if he was just agreeing to be nice.

The other heroes started trickling in after that, and Red Robin kept Danny distracted from his mounting anxiety by asking about school, and then space after he discovered Danny’s special interest. "We'll go to the observation deck after this. You'll love it," he assured him. Diana privately thought that was an excellent idea, remembering Danny’s reaction to finding out he was on a space station. She gave him a smile and a nod when he whipped around and stared at her beseechingly. 

Just then, a purple portal sprung into existence. It seemed that the rest of the heroes had expected it and weren’t alarmed, so Danny didn’t spring to his feet like he wanted to. The feel of unfamiliar magic was unsettling. Two figures walked out; a beautiful dark haired woman drug a rumpled blond man in by a painful looking grip on his elbow. The portal disappeared behind them.

“Zatanna, I see you were able to persuade him,” Batman greeted. 

“He’s under duress, but I got him here,” the dark haired woman replied, sounding distracted as she looked around. Her eyes widened when she spotted Danny, and she shot him a nervous smile and drug her companion to the far side of the table. The man Danny now knew as Constantine kept his gaze down, scowling, and let himself be towed around. Danny kept a tight grip on Diana’s hand and his own thigh to keep his sudden trembling under control. 

Batman cleared his throat and the meeting got started. “We have been joined by Chthon, also known as Phantom, the hero of Amity Park. He is the one that arranged the meeting with the Ghosts.”

Danny could not stop staring at Constantine, so he caught the man’s eyes when he looked up, startled, at the news that Chthon was Phantom. The wizard paled further, which was quite the feat, and resumed staring at the table in front of him. 

“So are you a ghost? You look alive to me,” Green Lantern started off with, gaining some admonishments in response. 

“You can’t just ask people if they’re ghosts, Hal!” Aquaman said, exasperated. 

Danny tried valiantly not to laugh, but lost. It didn’t help that Red Robin was chuckling too. Once he had gotten a hold of himself he replied. “Yes and no. I was in a lab accident in my parent’s lab a few years ago. I got hit with a lot of ectoplasm and a lot of electricity all at once, and it brought me back at the same moment it killed me. Zero out of ten, do not recommend. But now I can do this!” Danny let his transformation rings wash over him and listened to the whole room gasp. Diana didn’t let go of his hand. The magicians’ eyes were huge, filled with horror and awe. Superman looked pained. 

“So you are a ghost, but you’re… alive?”

“Eh.” Danny shrugged. “Think Schrodinger’s Cat.”

“But that’s not-”

“Shhhhhhhhh, I’m done taking questions about my state of being.” Danny transformed back into his human form. “Aren’t we supposed to be prepping for the ambassador meeting?” Most of the adults in the room were a little taken aback by the strong boundary, but Batman had an inkling. Phantom was capable of wrangling powerful intradimensional beings, a handful of League members would not be difficult. 

“Do we know who we will be meeting with?” Aquaman spoke up, eager to move past the faux pas. Everyone turned to look at Danny, and he sat up straight.

“I have confirmation from Frostbite, Chief of the Far Frozen; Pandora, Warrior Queen of the Ancient Greek Sector; Dorothea, Queen of the Medieval European Sector; Adalwulf, Alpha of the Wild Hunt; and Walker, warden of the Infinite Realms largest prison. All of them are pretty influential - Frostbite and Pandora are even on the Council of Ancients. The Fright Knight, one of the spirits of Halloween, will also be there as security personnel.” Green Lantern let out a long low whistle, and most everyone in the room looked some mixture of impressed and nervous.

“Friends in high places,” Red Robin muttered, nudging Danny with his shoulder. Danny gave him a rueful smile.

“Most of them I would count as friends, but Walker’s an asshole. I also don’t know Adalwulf super well. I know his little brother, but not him. But as long as no one from the Observant Council shows up- and they said they wouldn’t!- we should be fine.”

Diana gave him a little nudge. “Observant Council?”

Danny sighed and rubbed his face, but figured the Justice League had better know about their biggest opposition in the Zone. “A bunch of busy body bullies with eyes for faces and big, pretentious collars. They are primarily concerned with ensuring the ‘best timeline’ comes to pass. They claim that they only observe and never interfere, but in reality they have been governing the Infinite Realms alongside the Council of Ancients for a milenia. They’re known for being harsh and unfair, and their influence has been declining. They’re cranky about it, to say the least. I wouldn’t put it past them to use a conflict between the realms as a power grab.”

“Fuckin’ knew we should’ve stayed out of it,” came a quiet, slurred murmur from Constantine. Unfortunately for him, Danny possessed enhanced hearing. 

Superman’s (frankly impressive) verbal chastisement faded from Danny’s ears. Every muscle in his body locked up, and the temperature of the room plummeted 20 degrees. He carefully uncurled his fingers from around Diana’s hand, and patted it in relief when he saw that he hadn’t accidentally gouged her with his claws, which were back. He placed his hands on the table and stood slowly. His chair creaked ominously in the sudden silence. 

“‘Stayed out of it?’” Danny repeated, quiet as a breath and yet everyone heard him. “Staying out of it is what’s brought us to this point, Constantine.” His name was hissed like a curse. “You ‘staying out of it’ has given my home nothing but terror. Lawless ghosts harassing the living, then the fucking ghost hunters hunting, torturing and Ending weaker ghosts that can’t even defend themselves! Me and my friends have been shot at, kidnapped, tortured, you name it! I don’t have time to sleep or eat properly because my only back up are other teenagers that have NO powers and Minimal training! You ‘staying out of it’ CONDEMNED MY HOME.” Everything that wasn’t bolted down shook with the way his voice was reverberating by the end of his speech. His claws had poked holes in the tabletop and his fangs were showing, long and sharp. His eyes were glowing an angry, boiling green. A high pitched whine, or maybe it was a ringing, along with radio static was in everyone's ears. 

He startled hard and bore his teeth in a soundless snarl when Diana put a hand on his shoulder, but he didn’t lash out. She didn’t do anything else, just let him know she was there. He took a deep shuddering breath and turned toward Constantine again. The wizard was ash gray, staring at him in awe and horror. “If you had done your fucking job, had actually gotten me help, back up, a mentor, anything, I wouldn’t have been hit as often, captured as often. I could have slept more, eaten more, hung out with my friends more. Fucking gotten my homework done. Maybe some of the ghosts the GIW took would still exist. Maybe she would still be…” Danny had gotten quiet again, tearful, and he couldn’t quite get the last phrase out. He shook his head and continued. “Maybe Freakshow would have been detained properly the first time and Vlad wouldn't have…” His throat clogged with tears again, but his eyes remained bright and angry. The lights started to flicker.

“Mark my words, John Constantine, if you do not step up and make sure my home on both sides of the Veil are safe, I will collect every soul fragment I can see you’ve traded, and you will be beholden to me.”

Chapter Text

John sat with his head in his hands for a while after Phantom- Chthon, whoever- was led out by Wonder Woman and one of Batman’s brood. 

He was so, so fucked.

Not only was this Realms Ghost absurdly powerful, Death Magic as thick in the air as humidity in the swamp, even while he was in his muted, "human" guise, but he truly was as old as he looked. This wasn't a child-shaped entity, as he had assumed when he first looked into Amity Park. Phantom was truly a child. He wanted to hang out with his friends and get his homework done. Instead, he was struggling to maintain an Underworld portal, and it was all due to John foisting the responsibility onto the first person who offered to handle it. Clearly, Isaac, whoever and wherever he was, didn't actually have the Realms Ghosts "under control". 

And the thought of the red-eyed occultist brought up Batman’s debrief on the recent events in Amity. Phantom had called the enemy magician mind-contolling his acquaintance(? neighbor?) "Freakshow" and "Showenhower". The surname sounded uncomfortably familiar. Was Isaac's last name Showenhower? He couldn't remember for sure. Was John's complacency also indirectly responsible for the Ending of this Vlad guy?

John was damn lucky Phantom showed as much restraint as he had. There was more to his little tirade than non-magicians could perceive, like how the shadows in the room had become darker, how there had been so many eyes glaring out at him from that darkness. A circlet of light had flickered in and out of existence above Phantom’s head as he delivered his ultimatum. His power had been so thick in the air John had almost choked. 

John dealt with powerful supernatural entities on the regular and he could tell that despite his age, Phantom had authority. He absolutely had a chance of fulfilling his promise. Phantom could've smote him where he sat and not a single occultist or magician would feel all that sorry for him. He had not done his due diligence when dealing with a new, powerful supernatural entity. He had fucked around, and now John was going to find out. 

**********************************************

"So are the Infinite Realms largely matriarchal?" Diana asked. Danny had been excitedly telling her and Red Robin about the constellations and space objects he could see from the Watchtower's largest window, but Red Robin eventually had to leave, and Danny had trailed off into silence a while ago.

He turned to look at her, visibly pulling his attention back to the world around him. "Not really? Why do you ask?"

"There are two queens among the Infinite Realms delegation. I was just wondering if that's a regular occurrence there?"

Danny tilted his head, thinking about it. "A lot of the Realms are still patriarchal, but that's because a lot of dead folk tend to be traditional and set in their ways. It's more that the Realms are ruled by the strongest fighters. There's no right of succession when everyone's dead and eternal, so power and possessions get passed around through right of conquest."

"And Pandora?" Diana pressed. Danny smiled, seeing where her interest stemmed from. 

"One of the most fearsome women in all the Realms. She's been the default leader of the Ancient Greek Sector since its beginning. I think her Acropolis and Labyrinth formed around her, rather than her settling there. Frostbite says she was already Ancient when he was young. She's a wonderful friend to have, but Ancients help you if you ever piss her off."

"It's rumored that Pandora was once an Amazonian, like me and my sisters, before she was given charge of her Box. That was long before even my mother's time, though," Diana shared.

"I'd believe it! She’s nice to those she likes, but she's pretty ferocious too. Ellie liked her." Danny went quiet again, sorrow painting his features. 

"Ellie?" Diana inquired softly. 

"She was my… family. My sister. My daughter." That last word came out quiet and choked. His face twisted in old anguish.

"What happened to her?" Diana burned, mourned, for this boy that had already faced so much. A daughter? How? And she was gone already? It just wasn't fair.

"She wanted to help me free ghosts from the GIW. She went in without telling me. She got out but they landed a few shots and," he had to clear his throat to stay audible. "She destabilized. I was too late." He turned to Diana suddenly, grief written clearly across his face. "I'm the only one like me left. Dead and Alive." 

She didn’t have words. So she pulled Danny to a couch by the window, and held him. He curled up into a tight ball, head to his knees, and let her hold him. He was silent, like he always was when he cried. 

I'm the only one left, he said. She cried for him, and for Ellie, too.

**********************************************

Bruce sighed as leaned back in his chair at the Watchtower computer terminal. He was currently keeping an eye on Chthon and Wonder Woman on the observation deck via security cameras. He had overheard the entire conversation, and he, too, ached for the boy. But he had to stay careful, attentive.

It had been a wake up call when the temperature had dropped, when the lights flickered. Though Chthon didn't mean them harm, he was far from harmless. Bruce had been allowing himself to only see the overwhelmed child, but that same kid was also a being of dangerous power. Even more dangerous than Bruce could see with the naked eye, if Zatanna and Constantine could be believed. 

They had approached him, wide eyed, after Diana and Tim had led the visibly distraught boy away. Zatanna told him that "Death Magic" rolled off of Chthon in waves even when he was calm and at rest, and that it had been absolutely suffocating when he had been threatening Constantine. She warned him, saying Realms Ghosts were not known for their reason or willingness to hold back. The boy currently in their care was dangerous, and already exhibiting more restraint than they thought his species was capable of. If he snapped, they were sure he was more than capable of making his threat to Constantine sound like a mercy. 

But Bruce didn't know if he could take their warning at face value, despite Chthon's show of power. He was not any more aggressive than any human or meta his age. Hell, his own kids wouldn't have shown such restraint. Damian would've launched himself over the table, blades flying. Jason would probably have already committed several murders. Even Dick, if in Danny’s situation, probably would've had Constantine by the collar and feeling very, very sorry for himself. As it was, Tim had sent a mean, narrow-eyed look over his shoulder at the wizard as he led Danny out. Bruce had no doubt his third son was planning something embarrassing and incredibly inconvenient for the blonde magician. 

The magicians' warnings echoed the Fentons' prejudiced views just enough for Batman to see a pattern. Either there was something to it, and the Realms Ghosts weren't to be trusted, or the misconceptions and distrust just ran that deep and wide between the realms. All he could do at this point was watch, collect what information he could, and hope.

Chapter Text

Danny silently crept up the basement stairs, having just returned from the Ghost Zone- or rather the Infinite Realms. He really ought to start referring to the place with the name the actual citizens used, instead of the name ghost hunters had given it, he thought. 

News of Freakshow’s return had disturbed many members of his 'council'- the ghosts that dropped everything when he called to share information. Kitty and Johnny shared worried glances and kept a hold of each other's hands. Ember had clutched her guitar to herself, not really trying to hide how anxious she was. Wulf hadn’t wanted to leave Danny’s side, and only relented when the Fright Knight had told him that he would accompany Danny until Freakshow was caught. Danny didn't even fight Frighty on it, which told the others exactly how big of a threat the bastard was.

Even now, Danny could feel Fright slink through the portal behind him, and then dive through the floor to bypass his parents' security. Danny stopped being able to feel him so keenly after he left the family's property, but he could still determine his general direction. Danny wished this ability covered the entire town instead of just his house. Vlad wouldn't have taken him by surprise if it did. 

Danny stopped and leaned hard on the banister at the top of the stairs. Vlad was dead. Fully and completely gone. He swallowed hard, trying not to think about the sensation of Vlad's core crumbling beneath his hand. It had barely needed a brush of his fingertips. 

The sound of his parents bursting in the front door had Danny swallowing back bile and hurrying into the kitchen to look as innocent as possible. Danny needn't have bothered. They didn’t head through the kitchen to the lab, but went upstairs. He understood why when he heard his father wail, "Vladdie!" With no core to hold his ghostly form together, of course Vlad's corpse was in his human form. It must have been found while Danny was with the Justice League or in the Realms. Now he had to worry if his parents knew it was a ghost that had killed their old college buddy. 

"A mountain lion?! It was a ghost, it had to be!!" came his father's thundering voice from upstairs. Danny winced. That answered that question. 

He slipped out the front door as Jack began to bawl. He did not envy his mother the task of calming him down. 

"He could've fought off a mountain lion!" Jack wailed as Danny shut the door. Danny snorted a derisive laugh, and then immediately felt awful about it. Then the memory, the sensation-

Danny vomited into the bushes by the door's stoop. He couldn’t help it. The sensation of soft, rotting flesh tearing under his claws would probably haunt him for the rest of his half-life. 

He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and trudged past the property line and his parents' defenses. He felt an armored hand rest carefully on his shoulder. Danny let himself lean on Fright for a moment, rubbing his eyes like he had a headache. 

A deep breath and a shake later, Danny went invisible and took to the air. "Let's find a place for this shindig," he said tiredly. Fright followed him without a word, but stayed close to him as they flew. 

Danny wanted to hold this meeting on this side of the Veil, but he also wanted his people to be comfortable. Ideally, he wanted a cemetery or a graveyard. All of the burial grounds within city limits were out. A lot of the members of the Justice League were Not Subtle, and to be honest, neither were the ghosts. They didn't need the GIW breathing down their necks before they even got started. 

There were about five different tiny cemeteries within 30 miles of Amity Park. They were extremely small, some of them only a half acre. None of them had any new burials since the 1910's. They had served tiny towns that no longer existed, swallowed by time and cornfields. 

Danny eventually settled on the second largest of these. It was the only cemetery with enough trees and shrubbery to hide the attendees from the road, while also having enough ambient ectoplasm to obscure the ghosts' ecto-signatures, should there be ghost hunters out and about. It was remote enough to be on a gravel road, and Danny trusted the country folk to leave well enough alone if they saw something spooky. 

The only reason Danny had hesitated to choose that location was because Ellie's headstone was there. At the very back, hidden unless you knew where to look, was the rock Danny had chosen as her memorial. Almost a year ago now, Danny had used a chisel made out of his ice and his dad's hammer to engrave it.

"Danielle 'Ellie' Phantom 

Starlight and Hope"

He had guessed the best he could at her "birth" date. She had only been around for 10 months. She would have roasted the crap out of him for the corny epithet, but that's what she had been to him. Starlight and hope. 

He spent some time at her stone before he decided what to do for the evening. He regretted her Ending every day, felt responsible for it. He had told her not to go out on her own, that Amity Park was more dangerous than when she had last visited. But her Obsession had been Freedom, and she knew there were ghosts trapped in a lab, like she had been. She was physically only 12, and emotionally much younger than that. She had all of Danny’s impulsivity, and none of his hard-learned regulation techniques. She had gone in, but not come out in one piece. By the time Danny found her, she was already mostly destabilized. The ecto-dejecto hadn't worked. She melted, then dissolved to nothing but ambient ectoplasm, right there in his arms. 

Amity Park locals still talked about the storm that had raged that night, and likely would for years to come. Danny had howled and screamed at the sky, his power visible as green lightening constantly flashing around him. He had then gone catatonic for over a week, and the rain did not let up until he roused himself. 

Danny was no longer careful with all humans. If he maimed a GIW agent, he didn’t really care. The only reason he didn't kill them was that would bring him too close to becoming Dan, and he didn't want to ruin the world that Ellie loved to explore so much. 

"Are you beating the shit out of Vlad in the Long After, Starling?" He asked the gray boulder, running his hand lovingly over the rounded top.

He sent a message with the location (and the coordinates, just in case) of the chosen cemetery to Diana, and then got his sweatshirt to roll into a pillow from his worn-out backpack. He'd stay the night with Ellie. He didn't want to go home.

As Danny curled up in the grass, half under a bush, the Fright Knight took up his position as guard. Unknown to Danny, many other ghosts, mostly of animals that had lived and died in his haunt, also gathered to guard their King as he slept.

Chapter Text

Diana would admit to being nervous, if anyone asked. Luckily, no one did, though Kal probably didn’t need to. Kal stood with her, also waiting for the rest of the Justice League delegation to arrive. He also seemed somewhat nervous, fidgeting with the cape of his nicest Superman suit. 

She had also given her Wonder Woman gear a shine-up. It had been something productive to do while she waited by her comm, worried she’d need to summon Danny out of Freakshow’s clutches again. It had taken everything in her to let the boy go back to Amity Park alone. Despite all the assurances that Batman and co were watching, the panic button, and Danny’s own promises of letting his ghostly allies watch his back, Diana was still concerned for him. He slept in the same house as mad scientists bent on his destruction. She hadn’t been able to rest in the day and a half since she watched him fly toward his burdens. 

J’onn and Hal were due to arrive any moment, and Arthur, Zatanna, and Bruce would arrive in the batplane in about five minutes. It had been decided that Constantine probably shouldn’t attend. She had Kal had flown ahead to make sure the barren field Bruce planned to land in was secure. 

The cemetery where they were to meet Danny and the Ghostly delegation was about a half mile down the gravel road. From her vantage point, she could see occasional white, blue, or green lights flicker amongst the copse of trees that marked the burial ground. 

Dear gods, she didn’t want to fuck this up for Danny. What if this meeting wasn’t enough? What if it went bad? Would Danny have somewhere to go? Would the ghosts turn on him, angry that he set up the meeting in the first place? She had been on intergalactic missions with less pressure than this meeting. 

“Hey,” Kal approached from behind her, and she jumped. “Easy. Everything’s going to be okay,” her friend tried to reassure her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“I hope so,” she sighed, and then she perked up as Kal turned his head to the east, cocking his head like a listening dog. The batplane was approaching. 

There was a crackle from the comm in Kal’s ear. “The field is clear. Go ahead and land, B,” he said. A black shadow descended from the dark blue sky, no louder than any regular traffic that might pass. The batplane made a mechanical whirr as the landing gear extended, and the figures of Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern landed just as the plane did. The hatch opened when the thing finally fell silent, and the rest of the delegation tumbled out, looking around apprehensively. Diana couldn’t really blame them - late evening in the country was spooky if you weren’t used to it. And they were here specifically to meet unhappy ghosts. 

“Does everyone have their belts?” Batman asked. Zatanna muttered something like “fricking magi-tech” but nodded along with the others. Bruce had replicated the Fenton’s “specter-deflector” design, but had made his version unassuming, blending into everyone’s uniforms. Diana was glad she hadn’t shown the League the rest of the gadgets Danny had given her. Bruce was liable to go into an unknown situation armed to the teeth, and that would not send the correct message for what they were trying to accomplish. Diana herself had considered not wearing hers. She trusted Danny. But ultimately, she didn’t know the other ghosts, and didn’t want to get possessed if things went horribly. 

“Shall we? If we start walking now, we’ll be right on time,” Kal suggested, stepping out onto the road.

“Why are we walking, again? We could have flown in a lot closer?” Hal complained.

“It’s more polite to approach from the ground. We’re not exactly in the right, here,” Kal rebuked him. There was some grumbling, but they all walked out of the field onto the gravel. 

Crickets, far-off traffic and the gravel crunching under their feet were the only sounds. It was a clear but moonless night, and though the stars shone as bright as Diana ever saw them in modern times, the ground was dark, swamped with shadows. 

They had been walking for a few moments when Diana saw them - a shadow paced up the road towards them, featureless except for two searing, arctic blue eyes. What seemed to be the shadow of a dog stayed at the first shadow’s heels. Diana knew those eyes.

“Chthon!” she called, just as her companions seemingly noticed the figure for the first time. Everyone but her stopped, stiff and wide-eyed, staring at the black shadows approaching them. Diana ignored Bruce’s hissed “Wonder Woman!” and jogged forward, a relieved smile on her face. 

Just as she knew he would, Danny called and waved back. “Wonder Woman!” He jogged forward as well, until he met her in the middle of the road. He became more visible as he got closer, no longer a solid black shape. But it was still hard to tell where he ended and the shadows began. She greeted him with a bear hug, and he returned it wholeheartedly. He nearly lifted her clean off her feet!

Their reunion was interrupted by a whine and a bark, and then an impatient paw from Danny’s shadowy canine companion. “Down, Cujo! Sit!” Danny commanded. He ran a hand over the dog, and with a shower of static a green rottweiler became mostly visible. Like his master, shadows continued to cling to him. “Sorry about him, he’s very attached to me.” 

Diana offered the dog her hand to sniff, before giving him a few pets. He didn’t feel any different from a regular dog. He didn’t act any different, either, she noted as Cujo made happy grunts at having his ears scratched.

 “It’s fine. He seems like a good boy,” Diana reassured him. Cujo yipped and pranced around at hearing one of his favorite phrases, and then scampered over to the rest of the group to investigate. He was well received, all but Zatanna eager to pet the puppy. Batman even had dog treats in his utility belt. Cujo was very pleased with the offering. 

“Hello! I didn’t think we’d see you until we got to the cemetery,” Superman greeted the boy, clapping a friendly hand on Danny’s shoulder.

“Walking up on a group of ghosts can be pretty nerve-wracking. I thought I’d escort you in” Danny said, friendly but leaning out of Clark’s touch. 

“We appreciate it! You were spooky enough just walking up the road,” Aquaman said, offering his hand.

Danny shook it, smiling. “Well, I am half ghost. I can’t help being spooky sometimes. Especially at a crossroads at night.” He gestured to the intersection about 50 yards down the road behind them. Most of them chuckled slightly, but Zatanna only huffed nervously. “Shall we?” Danny asked, pointing back over his shoulder with his thumb. 

“We shall,” Diana agreed, linking her arm with his. He beamed at her, and the whole group set off again.

The closer they got to the cemetery, the deeper the shadows got. Mist hung low in the ditches and around fences. The League members were struck by just how quiet it was, even the insects going gradually silent. Danny (and by extension, Diana) seemed perfectly at ease. Cujo was bounding around everyone’s legs, intangible so he didn’t trip anyone up.

As they approached the entrance to the cemetery, a large figure materialized and stepped out toward them. This figure was dressed as a medieval knight, the plume of his helmet and his cloak made of purple fire. He was easily seven feet tall, and just seemed angry. It took everything in the Justice League delegation not to go into fight mode.

“Frighty! I have people I want to introduce you to!” Danny greeted the knight, not concerned at all. 

The knight bowed. “I would be pleased to meet them, but we have an emergency, my Lord,” the big ghost said, sounding grave. 

“What kind of emergency?” The switch from ‘Danny’ to ‘Phantom’ was visible. The boy straightened up, faint glow going from blue to green. His face became stern and sharp. 

The knight kept his head bowed, as though he was concerned about Phantom’s reaction. “The Observants are here,” he said, tense. The Leaguers gave each other concerned looks. Weren’t the Observants the ghosts that didn’t like humans? Something about possibly using the current unrest to grab power?

“How many of them?” Phantom seemed to digest the news quickly, and was already asking for details. 

“Four.”

“Is Clockwork with them?”

“He is.”

Phantom blew out a long breath, then cursed. “They told us not to expect them, and we didn’t,” he grumbled, looking like he would like to cuss some more but was restraining himself. 

“Should we continue?” Wonder Woman asked, concerned.

“They’d twist it as you refusing to meet with them, and then we’d have a bigger problem,” Phantom said, frowning. “At least Clock’s with them.” He turned to the rest of the Leaguers behind him. “I’m sure you can handle yourselves, but don’t let them talk over you. Stay close to me, though.” They all gave various mumbles of agreement. 

Phantom took a deep, bracing breath, and then gestured towards the knight. “Before we go in, I’d like to introduce you to the Fright Knight, Spirit of Halloween, bearer of the sword Soul Shredder, and my good friend. He’s our security personnel for tonight.” The knight dipped his head in greeting, but didn’t say anything, glowing green eyes betraying nothing. The Leaguers greeted him politely, introducing themselves. None but Wonder Woman got another polite nod. 

“Okay, let's go,” Phantom said after they had all taken a turn, trying and failing not to look apprehensive. Diana gave his arm a squeeze, and he patted her hand in response. He led the whole group up the cemetery driveway, the Fright Knight bringing up the rear. 

He led them straight to the back of the cemetery, where a long table and chairs were set up strategically amongst the trees separating the burial ground from the cornfield beyond it. Already around the table were large, glowing beings, waiting for the newcomers. 

Diana was in awe. There was a huge yeti, covered in gleaming white fur and sporting an arm made of ice, a large werewolf looking dangerous in a three-piece suit, and a giant four-armed woman looking serene and majestic in Grecian garb. There was also a blonde woman in a circlet and an elegant medieval dress, and a skull-faced man in a white suit and fedora. All of these beings were on one side of the table, and on the other side were four tall green beings in high collared cloaks, and indeed, they all only had one giant eyeball for a face. At the head of the table was a purple cloaked figure with a timepiece staff, who seemed to be observing, but not a part of, the tangible tension at the table. 

At their approach, the yeti stood and beamed. “Great One! You’ve returned with your friends! Come! Introduce us,” he boomed. Danny gave his mentor and friend a wan smile and stepped forward. 

“Let me introduce to you, esteemed Spirits, these guardians from the living world. They are members of the Justice League, and wish to help us stop the ghost hunters and the GIW.” Phantom said with a slight bow, using the slightly flowery language that permeated the courts of the dead, hoping for the best impression possible. The Justice League members took their que and took turns introducing themselves again, this time a little more formal and mentioning why they were chosen for this mission. Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman as leadership in the League, Green Lantern for his connection to the Oa, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter as other “non-humans” who had to deal with human government, and Zatanna as one of their supernatural experts. Diana thought the yeti and the two ghostly women seemed pleased.

Phantom stepped forward again to introduce the ghosts. “This is Pandora, Ancient and Warrior Queen of the Ancient Greek Sector. Then we have Clockwork, Ancient and Master of-” he abruptly cut off, shooting an annoyed look the cloaked ghost’s way. He simply smiled serenely back at Danny. Phantom huffed and continued on. “This is Frostbite, Ancient and Chief of the Far Frozen. Her Majesty Queen Dorothea, Queen of the Medieval European Sector. Alpha Adalwulf, Chief of the Wild Hunt Pack, and Walker, Warden of the Infinite Realms’ highest security prison. We are also unexpectedly joined today,” here Phantom paused and eyed the Observants, “by representatives from the Observant Council.” Somehow, even the humans could tell that the Observants were sneering at the boy. Batman noticed the Fright Knight surreptitiously position himself behind the Observants. 

“Is the Fright Knight beneath your notice, Phantom?” one of the eyeballs drawled.

“My Lord introduced me at the gate,” the big ghost rumbled, and the Observants visibly startled, and glared back at the knight. 

“Must you sulk around back there?!” an Observant snarled. 

“I am guarding the perimeter,” he said, and didn’t move, staring down the unpleasant eyeball. The Observants let it go, but remained visibly uncomfortable. 

“So, tell us,” Frostbite leaned forward, looking ridiculously large seated at the human sized table. “Why has the situation with the Ghostly Investigation Ward progressed to this point?”

Batman took the lead. “Unfortunately, a member of Justice League Dark who is not with us today, made the executive decision to keep the rest of the League uninformed. His main concern was that ill-meaning ghosts would overshadow the members of the league sent to investigate.” Here, Phantom sent a hard look at Walker. The ghost studiously did not look at him. “However, he did not monitor the situation, and presumed that between another occultist and Phantom, the situation was taken care of.” A pause and then, “We have, however, received enough calls from Amity Park to consider our inaction negligence. We have plans in place to eradicate the GIW and the Anti-Ecto Acts, and have come to share them with you.”

Adalwulf leaned forward and growled at the living attendees, in Esperanto if Batman wasn’t mistaken. Pandora translated for him. “Who is the one who left us to the ghost hunters’ mercy?”

The Leaguers hesitated, glancing at each other, but Phantom spoke up. “I know who he is, Apha Adalwulf. I will take care of him.” Phantom was back to being a solid black shadow with glowing eyes, roiling green instead of still blue. He was still furious at the mere mention of the wizard, but he wasn’t about to let him get torn apart by werewolves. Not before he got a piece. The sleek werewolf seemed appeased by this.

“How many souls were Ended by those bastards?! I want that man’s soul in my prison for a milenia!” Walker slammed the table with his hand. The werewolf sneered at his outburst.

Phantom leaned over the table to face the imposing ghost. “27 blobs, 13 ectopi, and many injuries, but only one core. Remember who gave up her after-life for that to be the case.” There was a beat of terrible, cold silence. “I will take care of him,” Phantom said and leaned back again. Walker backed down. 

The Leaguers shot wide-eyed glances at each other. Phantom wasn’t someone you messed with, apparently. 

“Someone must pay for the suffering our people have been put through,” came the syrupy sweet voice of one of the Observants. “How will you pay reparations? We must insist - a soul for a soul, suffering for suffering. It does not have to be your occultist…” It reached a long, knobby hand toward Batman, the nearest Leaguer. The Dark Knight found, to his horror, that he suddenly couldn’t move. 

“I paid.” Phantom was suddenly in front of Batman, holding the Observant's wrist in a tight grip. He had growled low, a sound that could’ve come from a bear, not a boy. “If you are not trying for peace, you should leave. Observe from somewhere else.” Gravity seemed so strong, the weight of the atmosphere nearly driving everyone but the Ancients to the ground. A circle of light blinked into and then out of existence above Phantom's head. 

The moment was broken when the infernal eyeball jerked back. It huffed, tugged its cloak around itself, and stormed off, its companions hurrying along with it. They picked up speed when they realized they were being ‘escorted’ by the Fright Knight right behind them. The identical group blinked out of visibility when they exited the cemetery. The tension eased as Fright returned to the table. 

With the biggest trouble-makers gone, the meeting was actually productive. The Leaguers gladly shared their plans on how they were going to take down the GIW, and the Ghostly leaders paid attention and asked intelligent questions. Except for the never-happy Walker, the ghosts were appeased. Various interviews were also suggested with trusted journalists, the hope that making ghosts less of an unknown would mitigate fear, and something like the GIW wouldn’t happen again. The suggestion wasn’t completely well received, Adalwulf and Dorothea were uneasy at the thought of losing their protective secrecy. Aquaman sympathized. Clockwork, who had mostly just watched, also reminded them all that some things the living were not meant to know. There were still places where no one quite agreed about the best way to go about things, but by the end of the night, the living and the dead were exchanging handshakes and promises to communicate more. 

Phantom, relaxed and no longer a black cut-out, was standing with Wonder Woman as things were winding down, when Pandora approached. “Greetings, Lord Phantom, Wonder Woman. I was wondering if I could go pay my respects?” She aimed this at Danny. 

Frostbite heard and perked up. “I would like to as well, if I could, Great One,” he rumbled, giving the boy a sad smile. 

“Sure, let's go see her,” Danny nodded. He turned to Diana, melancholy but relaxed. “You’re welcome to come. We’re going to see Ellie’s memorial.”

“As long as I’m not intruding,” Diana said. Danny shook his head and linked his arm in hers again, and led the small group to the other corner of the cemetery. There he showed them the little hand carved stone. 10 months old. Starlight and Hope. Oh, but Diana ached for him. They took turns telling the little girl of the meeting they just had, of how they were preventing an incident like her Ending from happening again. 

Pandora took her a little to the side and told her that Ellie had been a clone made by an enemy of Danny’s. She had been about 12 years old physically. Danny should have been Ellie’s brother, but since no one else would or could, Danny had acted as her parent. She told Diana of the Storm that had raged the night Ellie died. 

“Lord Phantom has more power and influence than even he knows, but here on the mortal side of the Veil, he is vulnerable. Those parents of his will End him one day. But he is still half living, and cannot exist more than a few days at a time on our side. Can I ask you, Sister, to look out for him? Take him in if necessary?” Pandora clasped Diana’s hands in hers, looking down at her beseechingly. 

“I want to, if he lets me,” Diana told her.

The Ancient Ghost sighed and patted her hand. “That’s the question, isn’t it? Whether he will let anyone help.”

Chapter Text

“So what’s with the ‘my Lord’ thing?” Green Lantern asked. They were still sitting at the table in the cemetery, waiting for Chthon, Wonder Woman, Queen Pandora and Chief Frostbite to return from paying their respects. The sister/daughter’s memorial must be located here, Batman thought. He couldn’t imagine holding a Justice League meeting in the cemetery Jason’s grave was in, and he didn’t know how Phantom had been able to cope throughout the discussions. But maybe that was why he had stomped out any discord during the meeting so aggressively. Though that could be the best way to deal with ghosts, for all Bruce knew. 

The boy had honestly scared him at times, but he had been very grateful when Phantom had stepped between him and the Observant. He had a lot to mull over. 

Queen Dorothea, Alpha Adalwulf, and the mysterious Clockwork also lingered, seemingly happy to be socializing. Walker had tipped his hat to the women and left as soon as the official meeting was over. The Fright Knight also remained, but he was situated closer to the group paying their respects.

“Oh! A couple years ago, he and a dear friend of his helped me overthrow my brother. He was an awful tyrant of a lizard, and loved nothing more than the misery of others. I knighted the both of them, so they have titles in the Infinite Realms,” the queen told them all happily. “It’s a wonder he didn’t tell you, but he does always seem oddly embarrassed of his influence in the Realms.”

Adalwulf spoke up next, and Clockwork translated for him. “Phantom is also a friend of my pack. He freed my younger brother from wrongful imprisonment in Walker’s facility. He has spoken to many councils to overturn outdated and unfair laws. Many in the Infinite Realms call him Lord out of respect, even though he holds only Amity Park as territory and nothing in the Realms.”

Zatanna whistled, then said, “He’s a Big Deal, huh?” She had finally relaxed some about half way through the meeting. 

Superman nodded in agreement, a thoughtful look on his face. “And Chief Frostbite called him ‘Great One’, right?”

“Lord Phantom once defeated a Great Evil and shoved him back in his grave. For this, Frostbite and his people, and many others, hold the young man in extremely high esteem. Aren’t you lucky, mortals, that one of our greatest Guardian Spirits loves the living world so much?” Clockwork said, his ever-shifting face giving away almost no emotion. 

“We are very lucky. He seems wise for one his age,” J’onn answered him with his own calm, almost-emotionless gaze. 

The mysterious ghost smiled wide. “He is.” He was proud, Bruce realized.

“So tell us!” the younger queen leaned forward again. “How did you all meet Lord Phantom? He was very vague on the details, and with that awful Freakshow on the loose, he’s been very tense. No one really wanted to press him for details.” Superman, friendly man that he was, gladly launched into the story of how Phantom had saved Wonder Woman from a ghost she was ill prepared to deal with. It made for a great distraction while they waited for the other group to come back. It also gave Batman time to speak with the Fright Knight.

The large armored ghost watched the mortal’s approach, neither aggressive nor welcoming. Batman stopped a few feet away, well outside of his personal space. “I have information regarding Lord Phantom’s safety.” he stated plainly. He had kept an eye on the knight the entire evening, and Batman was sure that Fright’s main concern was the boy’s safety. Everything in his body language and location throughout the meeting screamed it. 

The Fright Knight tilted his head, staring him down. “State it.”

“I have been monitoring Amity Park since Freakshow’s attack, and I have recovered footage of him just outside the city park. He arrived carried through a green, temporary portal by another ghost. This may be a simple teleportation spell, but the green color made me think it may lead through or into the Infinite Realms.”

Fright narrowed his eyes and tilted his head the other way. “Describe the ghost to me.” Batman did so. Then Fright asked exactly, in excruciating detail, what the portal looked like. Batman told him. Eventually, the dead knight peered down at the living knight and asked, “Why are you helping my Lord? You have moments where you’re terrified of him, of all of us. I can tell.” 

Bruce took a moment, but eventually said, “He didn’t give up on us.” Maybe that response didn’t make the most sense, but it was the most honest one he had. And it must have been the right one, because something in the big ghost softened. 

“He didn’t give up on us, either,” Fright murmured, like they were sharing a secret. 

They stood in quiet comradery for a moment, before Batman’s curiosity got the better of him. “Was that a crown above his head when he growled at the Observants?”

The Fright Knight’s eyes crinkled in such a way that Batman knew he was smiling. “He once defeated a Great Evil,” he said, and wouldn’t say any more. 

****************************************************

“You feel concerned about something,” Danny said, looking over to the woman he was walking arm-in-arm with. They were sedately following Frostbite and Pandora back to the main group across the graveyard. 

“I am. You can feel that?” DIana looked back, meeting his eyes. They were almost eye level, Danny just an inch or so shorter than her. She had a feeling that with some regular food and rest, he might surpass her one day. 

He smiled tiredly. “Ghosts are beings of emotion. So, yeah, especially when there’s physical contact-” Danny gestured with the arm not linked with Diana’s. She got the idea, and also noted that he must be exhausted. “Is there a problem?” he asked, not letting her distract him from his original question. 

She sighed. “I worry about your living arrangements. Amity Park is still going to be swarming with ghost hunters for at least a few days, if not weeks. Changing laws doesn’t usually lead to immediate changes in behavior. And you live with, I mean, your parents…” She trailed off. “I worry.” She said softly. She so wanted to squeeze his arm or hug him or something, but in reality they had only met a couple of times, and she didn’t want him to feel cornered or pressured. 

They walked a few more feet in silence, before he gave her arm a gentle squeeze. “I know why you’re worried,” he said in a low voice. 

Her heart felt like a stone. If even he acknowledged his lack of safety, even if not directly, then how bad was it at home? “You are not just welcome in DC, you are welcome in my home.” She gently tugged him to a stop so she could look him in the eye without distraction. She needed him to know, to understand. “If you ever need a safe place to stay, my home is open to you.”

Danny was nearly overwhelmed by her emotions. The amount of earnest worry, care, almost desperation, it all had him wanting to let go of her arm, it was so much. But at the same time, he didn’t want to. Here was an adult who knew his most damning secrets, who genuinely wanted to help, to keep him safe. He hadn’t felt that in a long time, at least not from a grown-up. He’d had to be that grown-up for almost three years now. And she couldn’t lie about her intentions, not with his empathic abilities and their linked arms. She wasn’t about to pull a Vlad. 

He put his other hand on her arm too, basically hugging her arm. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He looked her in the eye. “Promise.”

“Good.” She said, holding his arm as well. They resumed walking, leaning their shoulders against each other. 

*******************************************

Phantom escorted them back up the gravel road to the batplane, accompanied by both Cujo and the Fright Knight. He had expressed worry about the Observants trying something on their way back, and the anxiety would not leave him alone unless he went up the road with them. He and Wonder Woman were still arm-in-arm, though they were more subdued than before the meeting. 

None of the assembled heroes wanted to leave him in Amity Park, but it was his haunt. The portal was here, his friends were here. He waved them off with a tired smile. He would meet with reporter Lois Lane and Superman tomorrow, and give his first big interview. They would finally start the process of getting rid of the GIW. If they retaliated, took out their anger on the ghosts that refused to leave the living realm, then Phantom had to be there. He couldn’t leave. Not yet.

He had work still to do.

Chapter Text

No matter what Dick said, Tim was not a fan boy. He couldn't deny a little crush, but Chthon’s first impression was, well, impressive. He wasn’t any older than Tim, but he was able to approach the Justice League like he was an equal. He had showcased both incredible power and incredible restraint. Tim thought he could be forgiven for finding the half-ghost a little attractive. But according to his siblings, he was approaching simp territory. 

Tim wanted it known that it wasn't simping if the guy really was that amazing. Almost three years (without a reliable mentor, no less!) and there were only a handful of human casualties. There weren't many ghostly casualties either, according to Bruce’s notes from the ambassador’s meeting. 

Tim had been dredging up footage of Phantom’s fights since they broke through Amity Park's firewalls, and they were brutal. Phantom should have died several times over in the early days, frequently eating concrete during a fight only to pop up later that same day and go at it again. It was clear that Phantom learned from every scuffle. It took a particular brand of crackhead courage to throw oneself to the wolves repeatedly, but Phantom clearly came out the other side the strongest ghost in town. His most recent footage looked nothing like the early days. Half the time it looked like he was sparing with his rogues for fun, rather than scrapping for his afterlife. 

And that was the outright fighting! His espionage skills were nothing to scoff at either. It took a lot of effort to repeatedly find, infiltrate, and steal from a government organization, all without ever being traced back to his civilian identity. He had nearly crippled the GIW several times, they just always got enough funding to get set back up and running again. 

His leadership skills, his confidence, his absolute 'do not fuck with me, you will lose' aura he had had with Constantine… it was all just very attractive. And he was a space nerd! He was already tall, rough and handsome, but he was cute and smart too!

OK, so maybe Tim was simping a little. It wasn’t his fault he had a competence kink, ok!?

He was currently going over Lois Lane's article on Phantom and Amity Park's ghosts that had just come out that morning, before he added it to his personal file on Chthon/Phantom. It was brilliant, as Lois's articles usually were. She carefully went over what ectoplasmic ghosts were- a soul so bonded with ectoplasm, and so resistant to the thought of dying that they became a new being at their death. She systematically shot down the awful, biased claims of the GIW and Fentons. She did her research and laid out all the signs of both sentience and sapience, and showed how all but the most floaty of blobs showed those signs.

Her interview with Phantom was clear and sympathetically written. His point of view of all the chaos in Amity Park, the framing, the mind control, and his mistakes in the early days. How he was coping with protecting a town that didn't even want him there, yet relied on him so heavily. She showed him as cautious but friendly, stern but caring. 

Lastly, Lois went into the Anti-Ecto Acts and the GIW. She went over the definition of ectoplasm, and how it could be easily twisted to pertain to anyone the government so pleased. She revealed some of the heinous things the GIW had at least attempted, information carefully provided by Clark and Bruce. And then to really drive it all home, she told the story of little Ellie Phantom. How she was just trying to help, to free her imprisoned brethren without the help of her parental figure. How the GIW heartlessly shot her down, and what they would have done to her if Phantom hadn't arrived. How Phantom lost her.

Tim had a feeling that when he checked the internet in a few hours, there would be legions of outraged people making their displeasure known. Many associated their local heroes with their sense of home and identity- seeing a community largely shun its hero was likely to set a lot of people off.

Tim himself was … displeased, to say the least. Of course he was upset with the bigots in Amity Park- there was even a clip of Phantom getting spit on by a living civilian he had pulled from a burning building. What the actual fuck!? But Tim's ire was also directed at John Constantine. If he had just informed the League that Amity Park needed to be looked into- he didn’t even have to do any of the work himself, just pass on the info- then the Anti-Ecto Acts would never have passed. Ellie Phantom would still be zipping around causing problems for her older counterpart. 

If any one of his siblings died for so senseless a reason, he'd rain hell down on the parties responsible. But Chthon bit back that impulse, considered his people's (both of them) safety first. Tim could only assume a titanium-strength sense of others' fragility held him in check.

Tim narrowed his eyes and switched his focus for the time being. It was time to figure out just what he would do to Constantine. Chthon deserved a little revenge. 

**********************************************

Diana was right to be worried, Danny thought. He was currently shut in his room, poised to leap out the window at a seconds notice. 

His parents were pissed. Interestingly enough, it wasn't his father that was loud this time, but his mother. Jack was probably in a state of shock. Maddie, however, was yelling herself hoarse. Apparently Lois Lane was clearly biased, brainwashed or overshadowed by Phantom. She wasn't even a scientist, what did she know about what made a being sapient or not? 

Danny thought that Lois Lane-Kent was a nice woman. Tenacious, but for all the right reasons. She had a righteousness to her that reminded him of Sam, but was much more finely honed. 

They had sequestered themselves in Nasty Burger's most out of the way booth, they being Danny, Lois, and Superman. Or rather Clark Kent, reporter from the Daily Planet. Danny had been absolutely boggled that Clark only used glasses and slouchy clothes and posture as a disguise, but upon second thought realized that white hair and slouching clothes and posture were all he had. Danny had decided not to throw stones in a glass house, and instead resolved to ask Clark for tips next he saw him. He was clearly doing something right if he was working with invasive reporters all day and then going home with his secret identity intact. 'Mostly intact,' he thought, thinking of Lois's hyphenated last name. 'Reporter associated with the League' indeed!

It only took a day, and then not only the Daily Planet, but many, many other news outlets published Mrs. Lane-Kent's article.

Sam, Tucker and Valerie had all messaged him repeatedly that morning. Sam and Val thought he could've been more assertive. Tucker was keeping him up to date on the internet's reaction, almost all of it in his favor. Danny was just thrilled he had gone through with it. 

Danny was also messaging with Diana. She had just told him an emergency Congress meeting had been called, and that they had requested to speak to a representative from the Justice League. This was very, very good news, but Danny was a little more preoccupied with the reactions a little closer to home.

BANG

Namely his parents. 

Danny listened to his parents climb the stairs and realized that one of them must have hit the stairwell wall. He'd bet good money that it was his mother, since she was still half-yelling in her agitation. 

"We'll have to get the prototype out of the GIW’s lab before the big wigs in DC shut them down. We can't let all our work go to waste! They'll see! When Phantom shows his true colors, we'll have the weapon that'll take him out, once and for all! Bastards!!" Danny heard his father try to calm Maddie, but she just started ranting again. As they headed to their bedroom, he heard her continue to rant about how evil Phantom was. 

And Danny remembered the give of skin and muscle under his claws, the crunch of bone and crystalized ectoplasm. Remembered the sweet stench of rot and death. Knew he had fangs to go with the claws, knew that he was more shadow than boy on his worse days. He remembered the grief and the rage. So in one little corner of his heart, Danny agreed he was exactly as monstrous as his parents thought he was. 

But he didn’t have to deal with this alone.

From Danny:

Can I stay with you tonight? Parents are pissed about the article and it's hard to listen to

From Diana:

Of course! Should I summon you?

From Danny:

Yes pls!

Chapter Text

“Have you eaten?”

“Um, no. Not yet.” Danny had admittedly had some Nasty Burger earlier in the evening, but he had been interrupted by some out of town ghost hunters wandering in with an EMF detector. Mrs. Lane-Kent’s article may have only been published that morning, but by noon, Amity was swamped with new, amateur ghost ‘hunters’. Enthusiasts would be a better word than ‘hunter’, but Danny didn’t appreciate the interruption regardless.

And then he had to go home to make an appearance for his parents. He knew there was nothing in the kitchen that wasn’t ecto-contaminated, so he didn’t bother asking his parents for food. Superheroing took a lot of energy, however, so if Diana was offering him food, he was going to take it.

“I was just going to order some Indian, is that all right?” Diana was in sweatpants and a t-shirt, but she managed to make the garments look elegant. Her hair was pulled into a loose braid at the base of her neck. She seemed vulnerable to Danny, vulnerable yet secure.

“Indian sounds good. Do they have coconut curry?”

“They do! Do you have a spice preference?”

“Uh, mild. I know my limits,” Danny joked.

Diana smiled. “Have a seat and make yourself at home. I’ll give them a call and get our food ordered.”

Danny looked around while Diana was on the phone. The apartment was cozy, but a little sparse. Interesting tchotchkes decorated the shelves, but everything was a little dusty. Danny wasn’t judging. It looked like Diana had a full-time job as well as her hero work - of course she wasn’t overly concerned with dusting.

Danny settled on the couch and examined some Grecian style pottery on the coffee table. He wondered how and why she had it. He was realizing that he didn’t know much about her, really.

Just then Diana finished her call. “It should be here in about 20 minutes!” she told him happily, and plopped herself a little further down the couch.

There was a beat of silence where they smiled tiredly at each other, and then Diana tried to ask delicately, “Awkward at home?”

Danny snorted. “You could say that. I don’t think Mom’s quit cussing Mrs. Lane out yet. There was a lot of calling Phantom evil. Apparently, I overshadowed Mrs. Lane to get that article published. There was something about getting their latest project out of the GIW lab to point at m- Phantom.” Danny relayed this all with a mild and annoyed ‘whatcha gonna do?’ type attitude. His friends generally reacted with tired sympathy or played along with a sarcastic quip, but Diana looked horrified.

“Danny,” she began cautiously, putting a hand on his shoulder, “it genuinely sounds like you are in immediate danger from your parents.”

Danny wanted to shrug her hand off and deny, deny, deny. But she was right, wasn’t she? Even if his parents did love him (and they did, they did -the bonding camping trips, the hugs, the loud words of affirmation), they hated ghosts more. Hated Phantom more. At best, they would try to separate his human and ghost halves, try to fix him. There was no fixing him, he knew. He’d either end up an empty human husk, or End completely.

“I…” he opened his mouth but no real words came out.

“You don’t have to stay there,” Diana said softly.

“But then who will keep the ghosts and hunters away from each other? And I need ready access to the portal, or build a new secure one and shut the old one down,” Danny protested. He couldn’t leave for good. He couldn’t.

Diana radiated both sorrow and understanding. “You have the Justice League to back you up now, you know? We can help with the hunters, at least. And with building a new portal. You don’t have to go it alone. And you deserve to be in a place that treats you well.” She took his face in both her hands at the last statement, making sure he looked at her. He looked as if he might be tearing up. “Are you truly attached to Amity Park, or is it a sense of obligation?” He just looked at her, wide eyed and troubled, before gently pushing against her hands to look away. She let go, something in her chest aching.

A few minutes of awkward silence passed before Danny spoke again. “If I hadn’t gone poking around the portal, I never would have gotten zapped, and it never would have worked. All the ghost shit in Amity Park is my fault. So I should be the one to clean it up.” His voice was slightly hoarse.

“No,” Diana said, conviction in every line of her body. She took his hands in her own and Danny looked at her, perplexed. “The fault lies with your parents for building the damn thing in the first place. For not having proper lab safety and for not being actual parents and supervising you in the lab. It is all due to their bias and negligence, and you are the one paying the price.”

Danny just stared at her a while, clutching her hands. He couldn’t quite- he couldn’t just- could he?

“I’d… have to start establishing a new haunt before I completely abandon the old one,” he said slowly.

“Is DC an acceptable place for a haunt?” She was so hopeful, Danny thought. She genuinely wanted him around.

Danny didn’t know the ins and outs of DC’s supernatural scene. He hadn’t had the time to snoop the last time he was here. But, “Yeah, I could probably settle here.” Her hope bloomed brighter through the empathic connection, and she pulled him over into a half-hug against her side.

“I’d love it if you did.” And he believed her.

“Now, tell me about this ‘project’ your parents have in the GIW labs.”

********************************************************

Clark was having a little bit of an internal melt down. He had only tagged along to Danny’s interview as extra security (though he did end up posing a few questions of his own), but he had been totally unprepared for the story of Ellie Phantom, and how truly shitty the living adults of Amity Park treated their hero.

Ellie had shot her template, betrayed him, when they first met. The very thing Clark had been afraid Conner would do in the beginning. But Danny hadn’t held her responsible. Had seen her creator, her captor, as the one in the wrong. And hadn’t that been the case with Conner, too?

Danny had instantly accepted Ellie as family, loved and defended her before they had even broken out of her creator’s lab. Danny had gone off on a tangent during the interview, regaling the Kents with Ellie’s accomplishments. The first time she flew at a certain speed. The first time she pulled a prank on “her uncle Tucker”. How she had just started developing telekinesis.

The first time she accidentally called Danny “Dad”, just weeks before she was gone forever.

At the time, Lois had murmured that she didn’t know how Danny hadn’t gone on a rampage. Danny had gazed at them both sadly, so full of love and grief with no place to go. “I will never destroy the place she loved to explore so much.” He had said.

Clark had wanted to cry. Lois did cry, a little, once they had left. They both hugged Conner for longer than the teen was comfortable with when they saw him at home. Clark even took Conner aside to apologize (again, always again, and again and again until Clark made up for how he treated his son at first).

Conner was weirded out, understandably, until Clark told him the story. They were better, now, after time and therapy. So Conner hugged him back, and then went to go hug Jon. Because dear god. Fuck. Now he needed to go snuggle his baby brother like Clark had needed to snuggle him.

The entire family of Supers watched the fallout of the article carefully, and while the majority of the country seemed to be in full support of Phantom, there was an amount of people who doubled down on their biases. Conner was spitting mad, and had called up Tim. Clark had no doubt that the younger heroes were plotting something, but he decided it was none of his business.

Clark himself was just as mad as his son, hence him trying to keep his meltdown internal. Luckily, Congress had just requested an emergency meeting with the Justice League, and Clark now had a target to express his displeasure to. Time to put the fear of Krypton in some government lackeys.

Chapter Text

Agent S-d was having a very bad day. A string of bad days, really. 

First, Phantom breached city limits and went to talk to a reporter. Not any reporter, either, but Pulitzer Prize winner Lois Lane. That article was chock full of dangerous misinformation about ghosts, trying to convince the public that they were just people of a different species rather than the monsters they were. (Lane had outlined the signs of sapience perfectly, didn’t most ghosts tick every box?) That had been three days ago. Now the general public was not only aware of the GIW, but actively against them. Most of the adults in Amity Park still nodded respectfully to the agents in passing, but the younger the resident, the more likely they would outright heckle the GIW. No one outside of Illinois seemed to support them, either. More of the agency’s financial supporters were withdrawing their support every day. This made the higher-ups very anxious, and snappy with the agents further down the alphabet. 

By the evening after the article had dropped, every GIW transport vehicle in Amity Park was vandalized, and everytime it was cleaned up the eggs and spray paint would be back within the hour. Somehow. Agent S-d was unfortunately the poor schmuck left to clean up the vans. He was also the one that was the first to encounter the Fenton’s the day previous. 

Madeline Fenton was terrifying. You'd think it would be the big guy, her husband, but no. She was definitely the leader in that relationship. (Why were they working with such people? What was the Research Division doing??)

So the Fentons had retrieved their ray, despite high ranking agents (up to and including Agent A-a!) trying to tell them no. This, of course, was blamed on Agent S-d as he had been the first to meet them at the gate. 

Agent S-d would like to see Agent A-a try and stop the Fentons in person. He'd get popcorn and everything. 

That same day, one of the Green Lanterns had also released a statement. The US government had always been on rather thin ice with the Oa, but the Anti-Ecto Acts were really testing their limits. If they were not overturned, the Oa would get involved. 

And now, to cap it all off, there was a whole team of FBI agents on their doorstep. Accompanied by Wonder Woman. 

This was bad.

************************************************

Danny watched as Wonder Woman entered the local GIW headquarters with yet more government types. It made him nervous, though logically he knew she was in very little danger. The little voice in the back of his mind would not give up, though. Is she safe? Can she shake off an ecto-gun blast? Do they currently have bazookas? Can I get to her if she needs help?... on and on it went every second she was in that hellish facility. 

Yesterday, he had snuck back in the house after a quick (really, how fast could he fly these days??) flight home. Only to find his parents working themselves up over the Green Lanterns' new statement. They had departed for the GIW lab to retrieve their project shortly thereafter. 

Maybe Diana’s worry about his parents was rubbing off on him, but a chill had gone down his spine at the mere thought of being under the same roof as whatever the project was. After calling Diana to update her, he had headed over to Sam's house to hide in one of her family's many unused guest rooms. Grandma Ida always managed to find him, but she never ratted him out to her son and daughter in law, or even her granddaughter if he needed the space. 

Diana had of course been worried sick, and had decided to come to Amity Park herself and accompany the official government investigation into the GIW. She wanted to make sure they didn't miss anything or let their fellow government agents off easy. None of the government lackeys dared to tell her no. 

If she could lead them to the project that wasn’t there, then to the Fenton’s doorstep, maybe she could get Danny out of there sooner than previously planned. Warrants to search their house were still pending, but if there was probable cause, Diana hoped to be able to spirit Danny away immediately. 

Despite having been briefed by both Danny and Bruce about what she would find, Diana was still unprepared for the horrors in the GIW lab.

************************************************

Frederich cursed as he pushed into one of his safehouses on the living side of the Veil. Somehow, Phantom had shaken off the pull of Sisyphus’s Box and teleported elsewhere. He hadn’t even known he could do that. He had disposed of his spy for that little oversight. 

Then there were the skeleton ghosts. There wasn't much to them, almost as single minded as his most broken-in toys, but they couldn't be brought under his control. He had of course tried when a group of them stumbled across his hideout, but it was almost like they weren't quite ghosts as he knew them. They would need a different formula, but Freakshow didn't have the time, as they had turned and run off. 

Frederich soon learned what their purpose was. The Fright Knight himself, along with several squads of skeleton soldiers were soon seen headed straight for his hidey hole. Frederich had managed to escape, but most of his toys had to be left behind. 

So now he was in the living realm again, going over his options. He had just sat down when there was an angry pounding on the door. 

"Fuck off! No one's home!" He said, ready to blast this fool with a horrendous amount of Realms flavored death magic.

Instead, the door was blown off its hinges, flying across the room and knocking Frederich to the ground in the process. In the doorway slouched a middle-aged blonde man with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He wore a tan trenchcoat and his squinting eyes were lit up with hellfire.

"Hullo, there, Isaac. Long time, no see."

Chapter Text

Wonder Woman wanted to tear these “agents” limb from limb. She wanted to cry, and vomit. She wanted to hug Danny and never let go. She felt numb, yet her heart was beating fairly hard.

She had gone through each and every lab in this facility, staying until she knew their purpose. Until she knew for sure what was done there. Body parts suspended in jars. Records of cruel torture. Plans for more. She wanted to use the edge of her shield to bash these bastards’ heads in.

The fact that she could see the evidence of Danny’s presence here made things worse. He had gotten caught by this facility once. There was a record of it. He had managed to free himself, but not before he was hurt. The video image of fresh burns from the ecto-guns would stay with her for the rest of her life. And then there was the damage from Phantom’s raids that had yet to be fixed. Her boy’s fingerprints were all over this place.

She had stalked the halls, glaring down every white suit she came across. She peered over the shoulders of the FBI agents, making sure they were recording everything. She got the feeling that they understood the implicit threat of her checking up after them later.

She was currently standing in the laboratory that had, up until recently, held the Fenton’s weapon. She was not any sort of engineer, so she could not read the GIW’s copies of the weapon plans well. But she didn’t need to know how it worked to know what it did. There was a video of a test done just the previous week, the day Danny had flown back to DC to talk to her, in fact, done to a helpless blob ghost. At first, the ray seemed to shoot like a regular ecto-gun, but after the shot, the wound on the ghost seemed to gape open. Black lines spidered out from the wound, and then the poor thing crumbled to smoke along those black lines.

She knew this weapon was meant for Danny. For that brave, strong boy with Atlas’s weight on his shoulders.

She wanted blood.

Just then her comm went off. It was a message from Danny, who was waiting anxiously for her outside the gates. Her stomach dropped to her boots.

His parents were tracking him.

************************************

“Yeah, see you soon. Okay, love you too, Mom.” Danny said into his phone, heart beating in his throat. His parents were using the Boo-merang to find him. They were finally acknowledging that it worked on him, that there was something to it. They knew he wasn’t at Sam’s, like he said, but his mom hadn’t sounded mad at him. She sounded… syrupy sweet. Assurances that they weren’t mad, just sit tight, sweetie, we’ll come get you. We don’t want you wandering around when no one will even raise the alarm when a ghost attacks, you know?

Danny had matched her tone, sugary sweet, love you mom, see you soon!

Danny hung up, and noticed almost absently that his hands were shaking. No way in hell was he trusting that tone from Maddie.

Fright Knight was in the Realms, tracking down a lead on Freakshow. Danny didn’t have anyone else with him because he had felt safe with Wonder Woman around earlier, but she was deep in the bowels of the GIW facility keeping the FBI on track. He sent a quick message to her anyway, telling her he was heading into the neighboring woods, where the Fentons wouldn’t be able to maneuver very easily. The GAV could probably take out a few trees, but not quicker than Danny could fly through them.

Danny took off. The Boo-merang sped after him.

************************************

Diana only growled, “The Fenton’s,” to a startled agent before she all but ran out the door. She had finished her tour of the facility. She knew enough she could call them on it if anyone tried sweeping anything under the rug. Danny needed her Now.

He was not where she left him, crouching invisible in a tree just beyond the facility gate. Her heart beat hard in her ears.

Then she heard a vehicle, a big one, pull a hard turn just up the road. She ran out onto the gravel and caught a glimpse of the vehicle. She recognized it from Kal’s report on the Fenton’s and their tech. The Ghost Assault Vehicle. It tore into the woods, uprooting smaller trees and ricocheting off larger ones.

She leapt into the air and flew as fast as she could after them, but she could not track Danny like the Fenton’s apparently could. She didn’t know where he had gone. So she stalked the GAV, staying close to the path of wreckage but remaining unseen.

There was a loud beeping, like a radar, from inside the GAV. It took a wild turn, tearing up more trees, and then Danny came into view. Danny sat on the ground, looked dazed, bleeding from a head wound. The GAV came to a sliding halt, and the Dr.’s Fenton hopped out armed and pointing their weapons at their own son.

“Danny, sweetie, you’re ecto-contaminated. Please be a good boy and come with us. We’ll fix you up and everything will go back to normal,” His mother sweet-talked him. She seemed… unstable. His father followed his wife’s lead, but slower, with a worried frown. He still pointed his ecto-gun at Danny all the same though.

“I don’t think so.” Wonder Woman said, darting in and planting herself in front of Danny. She stared down the barrel of Madeline Fenton’s ecto-gun. It was the very ray she had developed in the GIW labs. She knew intimately what it did and still pointed it at her own son. Did she have any idea how it affected humans? Did she even care?

“Dr. 's Madeline and Jackson Fenton, put down your weapons.” Instead they were trained on her, aim steady.

“No,” Maddie hissed, “One of those monsters has my boy. I will not let it have him! Get out of the way!”

Jack hesitated. “Maddie, sweetie-”

“I’VE READ HIS ECTO LEVELS FROM THE BOOMERANG! HE’S EITHER BEING OVERSHADOWED OR HE’S DEAD AND A MONSTER IS PUPPETING MY BOY’S CORPSE! LET ME FREE MY SON.” Maddie's shriek left a ringing in the ensuing silence.

Diana took a breath in, trying to quell the rage shaking through her. Danny didn't deserve to see his mother beat bloody, no matter how much she wanted to. “Danny, once we get back to town, go pack a bag. You aren’t safe in this household.” She had barely finished her sentence when Maddie snarled and fired.

Her shield, forged on Themyscira and blessed with magic like the rest of her armor, barely held. It dented inward, becoming almost unbearably hot. But it held. Wonder Woman grit her teeth and bore it, shielding her boy. Danny was up now, right behind her, hand light on her back. Ready to grab her and fly away, or jump in and be her back up, she was unsure which. But he was unfit to do either, she could feel him wobbling slightly. Probably a concussion from that head wound.

Jack didn’t fire. He was making eye-contact with his son over Diana’s shoulder. And he lowered his weapon.

Maddie was not done. When her ray didn’t work like she wanted it to, she threw herself at Wonder Woman with a wild screech. For any other person, this would be a death sentence. Madeline Fenton’s 9th degree black belt was no joke. But this was Wonder Woman, and Maddie was thrown into the dirt before she ever connected with her target. Shortly thereafter, she was restrained with the handcuffs Batman had given Diana for citizen arrests.

The seething, verbal abuse didn’t stop. Diana wished she would. Danny was watching, a sad, lost look in his unfocused eyes. Jack didn’t put up a fight, letting himself be cuffed. He seemed confused, and worried. He rarely took his eyes off his son.

Diana called the local police as well as the contingent of FBI agents she had arrived with. The Fentons would soon officially be in custody. From there, CPS was also called. She was getting Danny out of there, just as she had hoped. She just wished it hadn’t come to this.

*****************************

John limped heavily down an empty alleyway, blood dripping down the side of his face. Showenhower was a slippery cuss, and so were the two Realms Ghosts he had with him. John had held his own, but as a general rule, when you pitted a cheap bastard against a cheap bastard, no one won. At least John had a better grasp of how Showenhower operated, now. And Phantom might still be pleased with his prize, even if it wasn’t Isaac himself. John hoped, at least.

Constantine portaled up to the Watchtower once he felt sufficiently out-of-sight. He needed some medical assistance.

Chapter Text

Things had been moving so fast, but now time had ground to an awful crawl. Danny sat next to Wonder Woman in Amity Park’s police station, contemplating how things had gotten to this point. While he had believed that the Justice League in general, and Diana in particular wanted to get him away from the Fentons, privately he hadn’t believed it would actually happen. And certainly not this suddenly.

But Mom had freaking lost it and Dad hadn’t even tried to stop her. Danny supposed, a little hysterically, that it was a good thing Diana had been around to save his ass when Maddie snapped. But it was embarrassing that Wonder Woman had seen them at their worst, and mortifying that a mere boo-merang had blindsided him. He had defeated Pariah Dark! And Nocturne and Overgrowth and freaking Vlad. It was downright shameful that a couple of second-rate ghost hunters with an ecto-tracker had managed to give him a momentary concussion.

To make things worse, he was leaving his haunt far too prematurely. The metaphysical ‘roots’ he had put down in Amity were not easily pulled up. Not to mention, his parent’s portal was still operational. He Could Not leave it unguarded.

Danny had already given his statement to the police, saying that his parents had convinced themselves that he was a ghost, and had reacted accordingly. He then demonstrated he was not, in fact, a ghost by letting them take his pulse. Nerves and a little ectoplasmic manipulation had his heartbeat ticking along at a perfectly normal, living human pace.

He had then been shuffled off to speak with a social worker. Mrs. Watkins was a kind and friendly woman, but she asked extremely uncomfortable questions. Questions like, ‘What is your house like?’, ‘What chores do you have?’, ‘Are your parents attentive to your needs?’, ‘Have your parents hurt you before?’, and all the mortifying awful questions that spidered off from those.

Danny surprised himself and answered as truthfully as he could. He didn’t tell her about dying, about his ghostly status or being Phantom or Chthon, but everything else spilled forth. Maybe it was because his parents were already caught, in custody, and he wouldn’t be returning to their care. Maybe it was because Vlad was Dead & Gone, and he could no longer hold any sort of twisted control over Danny. Maybe he was finally being heard, and he wasn’t going to let anything but the truth be told.

It was more than enough. He’d been told he would be escorted to FentonWorks to pack a bag, and then he would spend a night in local foster care. They’d figure out what to do with him in the morning; they didn’t say, but it was pretty heavily implied.

Wonder Woman had spoken up then. She was currently staring down the local law enforcement with distaste clear on her features. She told them, repeatedly and on no uncertain terms, that she would be the one to escort Danny home, and then take him to a Justice League affiliated foster home. Danny tuned out their progressively weaker protests about ‘due process’. Who could really say ‘no’ to Wonder Woman? Certainly not Amity County’s finest, especially when the GIW were technically still around and the town was crawling with ghost hunting extremists.

Danny had his head in his hands and his elbows on his knees, wondering if Jazz had heard about all of this yet, when Diana put her hand on his shoulder. He started hard, head whipping up and around.

“Hey, it's just me. Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” Diana said gently.

“It's okay,” Danny said, giving her a weak smile. “What’s the plan?”

Diana huffed in exasperation at the local police. “They have finally agreed that I will take you to get your things, and then escort you to the League foster,” she said with false airiness. She then grumbled, “It took a call from one of B’s lawyers, but they agreed.” Danny huffed back at her, half amused and half annoyed on her behalf.

“Shall we go?” She asked gently.

He felt stupid for it, but Danny froze. Leaving the police station, leaving behind his parents in the holding cells, to go pack his things made it real. He was really going to cut ties with them.

Diana still had her hand on his shoulder, so her emotions were clear to him. Care for him and also sorrow, regret, and ferocious protectiveness. He leaned hard into the point of contact before nodding and pushing to his feet.

Since when did he hesitate before leaping? ‘Snip, snip,’ he thought savagely in his mother’s and her weapon’s direction.

“Yeah, let's go.”

*******************************************************

Diana wasn’t sure what she had been expecting of the Fenton residence, but it wasn’t this. The entryway and living room were mostly bare and dusty, as if no one lived there or if they had, they had up and left ages ago. What was breaking this illusion were the gaping holes in the walls. Wires and mysterious weaponry hung from drywall wounds like mechanical innards. The house was silent, save for an electrical buzz.

Danny eased himself through the door, watchful but not seeming particularly scared. Diana supposed that the trap filled house was simply an obstacle course to him, considering all he had gone through. But nothing triggered at his entry, and he slunk silently up the stairs. Diana followed him, and the stairs creaked and groaned under her feet. He led her to a door with sticky glow-in-the-dark stars, childish drawings of space and rockets, and a caution tape lined sign with Danny’s name on it. He paused, reaching out and touching one of the drawings, before shaking his head and going through the door.

The space theme continued inside. There were clues that Danny had once been supported, model rockets and science fair trophies. But there were other signs too. Diana thought her boy could’ve used a bigger bed. A twin didn’t really cut it for someone his size. And he was growing, yet! The clothes he was now throwing around were all threadbare and ill fitting. And then he pulled out a massive first aid kit from… somewhere. The case was bloodstained, red and green.

“I’m going to call Jazz, and then Sam and Tuck, to update them while I pack,” Danny told her, gesturing with his phone.

Diana nodded. “Do you mind if I look around?” she asked. This was his home after all, even if he was in the process of cutting ties.

“Go ahead, just be careful. I doubt you’d trigger any of my parents’ traps, but this place is a bit of a minefield.” Danny waved her off. Diana slipped out the door as Danny started dialing with a deep, bracing breath.

Diana heard him greet his sister before she focused on the rest of the house. The upstairs was just as dusty as the living room. Jazmine’s door handle was dusty and untouched, but the bathroom and the master bedroom had signs of habitation. She glanced in the master bedroom and saw discarded jumpsuits with green bloodstains, and remnants of weapons or experiments on every available flat surface.

The bathroom was clean. Unnaturally so. Diana wondered if Danny cleaned it so thoroughly in order to hide the evidence of him patching himself up. The faint smell of bleach turned her stomach.

She carefully tread back to the stairwell, pausing on her way to hear Danny tell his sister that he felt safe with Wonder Woman, that he would be ok. That he’d call Jazz when he knew where he would be landing. Diana’s chest felt tight as she listened to her boy sound calm and reassuring, when just a little while ago he’d looked so lost.

She continued down the stairs, giving him privacy. The stairwell had a fist shaped hole, but it also had a few treasures. Family photos were framed and hung on the wall, though none seemed newer than Danny’s middle school days. She spent some time gazing at the ones of her boy as a baby and toddler. He was visibly energetic and loving, even in these still pictures. The change from nurtured child to neglected teen had to have torn at him, she thought. ‘I have him now,’ she thought, ‘He will never be neglected again.’ She sneered at a picture of Maddie and moved on down the stairs and through the eerie living room.

The kitchen, at least, was visibly lived in, if messy. She peeked in the fridge out of curiosity, and quickly slammed it shut. The sausages were moving.

She was going to leave that alone.

The entrance to the basement was in the back of the house, close to the back door out to the backyard. The basement entrance was lined in caution tape, and had a sign dubbing it the “Lab”. Diana’s heart beat erratically in her chest, but she carefully slipped through the door anyway.The electrical humming was stronger here. The stairs descended into darkness, deeper than usual for a residential space, suspicious green stains glowing dimly on the metal. Diana had never been more spooked by basement in her life.

She crept down the stairs anyway. Some insistent part of her had to see it. The place her boy had died.

It was very similar to the labs she had already seen earlier that day in the GIW base. Gray-silver metal and glowing green ectoplasm in glass containers. Weapons parts strewn over almost every surface, and awful, rotting, wet specimens on the rest.

There was a table in the middle of the lab. It had restraints on it. It was covered in green bloodstains.

Diana couldn’t hear anything but the rushing of blood in her ears.

Eventually she tore her eyes away from the horror in the middle of the room, and almost visibly startled when she finally noticed the portal.

It loomed. It was dark and inert, and all the more menacing for it. The top of it arched several feet above her head, its heavy metal doors shut tight.

She couldn’t help but picture it. The Danny from the most recent of the stairwell photos, short and thin but so, so bright. He wouldn't have been much taller than most of the portal's control panels, back then. There was a dark, empty cavern behind those heavy doors, the floor treacherous with unorganized wires. A switch where it shouldn’t be.

Suddenly the ever-present hum of electricity was too loud, buzzing and painful on her eardrums. How much power did it take to forcefully rip a hole into the fabric of the Realms? How much power to not only tear it open, but keep it open? Keep it stable?

How many volts ripped through him?

Suddenly a hand was on her shoulder, and she yelped and spun around. “Sorry! Sorry!” It was Danny. Diana drew in deep breaths, suddenly finding herself on the verge of tears.

“I should have waited and asked you if I could come down here,” she rasped after a moment, her hands on his shoulders, wanting desperately to draw him into a hug.

“It’s okay. I told you you could look around,” he murmured back. He gently nudged her so he could step further into the room. His eyes fell on the table, and he winced before turning back to Diana. “Are you okay?” he asked her, looking, concerned, into her eyes.

“I.. will be. I can’t help but envision the hardship you’ve faced in this space.”

Danny looked thoughtful. “I’ve also goofed off a lot in here,” he pointed out. “And the portal,” here he turned to face said structure, an almost bittersweet look on his face, “has led to some fantastic adventures. And there’s people I care about on the other side.” Danny glanced sideways at her and found her still to be fighting back tears. He smiled sadly, with understanding (and wonder at the fact that she cared so deeply, but she didn’t know that) and offered her a hug, lifting his arms.

She gratefully took it, holding him tight. “You shouldn’t have to comfort me, I apologize,” she said when she pulled away. He shrugged and smiled, but otherwise didn’t seem to know how to respond to that.

In the end, Danny sent a blob ghost messenger through the portal to Fright Knight. The portal would be permanently shut down. Danny would work on creating a new one elsewhere, but in the meantime, could not risk the Infinite Realms and the Living Realms safety by leaving the old one turned on. The hair on Diana’s arms stood on end when Danny opened the portal an inch to let the blob through. The eerie, swirling green was a siren’s song and a dire omen. Danny half belonged to that green, and the thought unsettled her.

Danny then sent something akin to an EMP pulse through the house, destroying his parent’s database and wiping their computer systems, demonstrating why the GIW had a hard time retaining digital records. This also ensured that only the physical inventions had the risk of falling into the wrong hands, and not their research. The Justice League was, supposedly, being entrusted with confiscating any stray inventions.

His last act in the house, after he had packed his bags and another bag of a few of Jazz’s childhood things, was to shut down the portal. He sent ice through the ground, shearing through cables and wire. Ice crystal spires tore through every vital interface. The doors were froze shut, never to open again.

There were some consequences. The neighborhood was rather suddenly without power, and Danny himself felt unsettled, core whirring and ectoplasm churning. ‘Snip, snip, indeed,’ he thought sardonically.

But even though it was painful, Danny felt lighter than he had in a long time. He shot into the air after Diana effortlessly, both of them having decided to fly back to DC under the cover of night. He was actually looking forward to the future instead of dreading it, he realized. He gave a sudden ‘Whoop’ of excitement and shot past Wonder Woman, goading her into a game of tag.

About 20 minutes after they left, before anyone unwanted could creep into the FentonWorks lab to see what they could find, a fire broke out in the lab. It was quick and it burned hot, and by the time the fire department got there, the Fenton residence was doomed. By morning, it was nothing but a heaping pile of rubble and twisted metal. No one ever figured out how it got started, but Tucker Foley had a button, and Danny Phantom planned ahead when sufficiently motivated. And both were ruthless. No one would use the Fentons' work against the people they cared for again if they had any say in it.

Chapter Text

From Jazzy-Pants:

How are you settling in?

From Atlas:

So far so good. Odd but nothing truly alarming yet

From Jazzy-Pants:

Odd how?

From Atlas:

One of dcs spirits paid me a visit…

⚠draft saved

Danny sighed, wondering how he should describe his encounter with the Spirit-of-Place. THey had rolled in late, around midnight, and he had promptly crashed in the guest room Diana showed him. But he had been woken up just after 3 am by a shadowy cat climbing in his window, setting off his ghost sense. 

The Demon Cat of the Capitol was an unnerving being, belonging to both the Omen and Village Spirit categories of Realm’s Being. The black feline was constantly shifting size and physical age, much like Clockwork, and had large lantern eyes that varied in color depending on what angle the light hit their tapetum lucidum. They had spoken with a shockingly deep voice, with a way of speaking that implied that if they had ever been alive and human, they would have been of African American descent. 

“Hail Cthon the Guardian,” the Being had rumbled, sly but warm, as they wrapped their tail daintily around their paws. “And hail Phantom, Vanquisher of the Tyrant King.” It was a bit of a slight, to address him first as the new alias rather than the Title Earned and Bled For. But Danny gladly let it slide, seeing it as the Demon Cat calling out the name that more concerned them and their territory first. Cthon the Guardian was the one setting up shop in D.C. after all. 

“Hail the Spirit-of-Place of the District of Columbia,” Danny had returned mildly, noting that the Being perked their ears forward and seemed to shrink into a more delicate form than the huge tom cat shape they had been wearing just a moment before. “Forgive me for moving onto your territory before asking. I thought I had more time before things got bad in my hometown, I hadn’t anticipated moving quite so suddenly.” 

“Yes, it's all anyone has been talking about; the tragic, undead hero being targeted by not only the government, but their own citizens,” the Being said in such a way that Danny genuinely could not tell if they were being sympathetic or disdainful. He decided to play it straight; that always threw Fae types for a bit of a loop. Not that they didn’t usually recover quickly, but spaghetti and walls and all that. 

And it did throw them. The Demon Cat (or DC as they asked to be called) seemed gobsmacked that Danny was here because he was with his assigned guardian. That he was under age, not considered an adult, a child and not just Child-Shaped like they were Cat-Shaped. The stories of his staggering power and influence had reached even the earth-bound spirits, surely he had to be a mature Realms Ghost???

🖋edit

From Atlas:

DCs spirit of place visited at ass o clock last night

From Atlas:

They seemed appalled that phantom was “just a kit”

From Jazzy-Pants:

I think anyone halfway decent would be appalled that it fell to a kid to protect Amity Park.

From Jazzy-Pants:

I’m sorry I wasn’t more help

From Atlas:

Dont be

Danny sipped his coffee, leaning on the balcony of Diana’s apartment to watch the sunrise. He wanted to put Jazz’s guilt on the backburner for a while. Right then it was peaceful. The early hustle of the morning commute was just starting to pick up. 

His phone buzzed again.

Jazzy-Pants:

I didn’t realize mom and dad were this far gone. I’m sorry, I should have listened to you. 

Danny tucked his phone away without answering and scrubbed his face with a sigh. He felt a little… resentful of feeling the need to comfort her. She had tried her best, she really had, but she hadn’t always been a help. When it was just the four Fentons in that house, she had relentlessly urged him to tell their parents about Phantom and his hero career. She believed that open communication would solve all their problems. She had been convinced that if Danny would just spill the beans, get it out in the open, her family could heal and be whole again. She didn’t see how much worse it got when she went off to college.

She had been completely blindsided by what had actually happened. She had been staunch in her belief of their love and care. She hadn’t thought her parents were truly capable of harming their only son. And maybe her parents weren’t, but Danny’s were. 

It wasn’t that Jazz wanted to hurt Danny, quite the opposite, but she didn’t understand. She had never quite grasped that they were loved differently. 

“Brooding so early in the morning?” Diana joined him on the little balcony, coffee cup in her own hand.

Danny jumped, but smiled over his shoulder at her. “Jazz was just texting me. All this is really sudden for her.”

Diana sidled up to the balcony and leaned on it like Danny was doing. “Was she… aware of how bad it had gotten?”

Danny was quiet, sipping on his coffee before quietly saying, “It was like she had very specific blinders on when it came to them.” Diana leaned her shoulder into his. Empathy and care, gladness that he was here, leaked through the empathic bond. He leaned his shoulder against hers as well. 

They stood in silence for a while, enjoying their warm drinks in the cool morning air. Eventually, it started reaching summer temperatures and the road noise became a little too much, and they both headed inside.

“I had just gotten some news before I joined you outside,” Diana began. Danny perked up from where he was refilling his mug. “The Fenton residence burned down in the night.” She peered over at him, gauging his reaction. 

“Really?” His eyebrows shot up and he paused what he was doing, wide eyes watching her and waiting for more information. “Glad I grabbed Jazz’s documents and stuff.” She had Bearbert and her most important possessions with her already, since she had mostly moved out when she had gone off to college. He had grabbed her birth certificate and other such important documentation, as well as a couple scrapbooks she had left behind. Honestly, he had grabbed more of her stuff than his. He had been unsure what was important to her. He no longer ascribed much value to physical possessions. Between the constant danger teaching him what was truly important and the yearning to up and disappear, Stuff no longer felt that important. 

Diana had insisted on bringing a fair amount of his things, though. That was nice of her. Danny supposed that he was glad to have a few of his model rockets and science fair medals with him. She had also grabbed a lot of pictures off the walls, mostly of him, but a few of him and Jazz. None with Maddie in them. 

Diana watched him with sharp eyes. “Do you know how that could have happened?” 

Danny leaned against the counter, trying for nonchalant. “No one in town really cared for the local whack job scientists. It could have been anyone with a match and a grudge.” He kept his breathing even and his hands steady, looking off to the side as if he were thinking and then back at Diana. 

She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, just a little bit, but dropped the subject. What did she care that FentonWorks had burned down (probably by Danny)? She might have leveled the place herself, if she was in his shoes. If Batman asked, she wouldn’t say anymore than Danny had. She wished Danny would just tell her though. But trust took time.

“I have the day off to help get you settled. I was thinking we could go get you some clothes that fit, and maybe a few things for your room. What do you think?” Diana said.

“You don’t have to-”

“But I want to. It will be a chance to show you around, as well.”

Danny scratched the back of his neck and smiled bashfully. “Ok, sure.”

“We will also go to the Watchtower this afternoon. Constantine has some information on Showenhower, and Batman wants your measurements for a proper armored suit.”

“Huh, sure.” Danny didn’t really want to see the wizard again, but if he had dirt on Freakshow, he wanted to know. And actual superhero armor sounded nice. His hazmat suit had been too small for a long time, even if it stretched and warped with him. It was also crumbling apart in places. “Sounds good.”

*********************************************

He shot at his boy.

He shot at his only son. 

His brave, wonderful, boy. No wonder he ran.

Maddie was pacing her holding cell, yelling at the officers, demanding a lawyer. Jack just sat quietly in the corner of his. 

Hurt him in so many ways, over and over and over and over and over…

His baby boy who was going to reach the stars one day. Who was kind and selfless. He actually paid attention to what was needed, how to help people. His wonderful, brave, bright boy. He’d hurt him. On purpose.

He shot at his baby boy.

He shot at his boy.

He shot at him.

Chapter Text

Tim hovered near the zeta tubes on the Watchtower, nearly vibrating in place with excitement. Chthon was due to arrive with Wonder Woman at any minute, and he had been dying (ha!) to talk to him. Maybe Tim was a touch loopy from lack of sleep, but he had operated under much worse conditions before. He was moderately sure he wouldn’t embarrass himself in front of the ghostly hero.

While he had been tempted to wreck Constantine’s life, he ultimately decided to follow Chthon’s lead when it came to him. Bruce had reminded him that Phantom had assured his fellow ghosts that he had plans for the wizard. Tim didn’t want to get in the way of that, but if he could help…

The ectophobes in Amity Park (and in smaller pockets around the country) had also enraged Kon and the rest of the Team, but Tim had reminded them that these were still the people Phantom sacrificed a lot to protect. They had better involve him if they wanted to do anything… mischievous. Not that Tim didn’t also want to do something about them, but he knew that those people’s minds would never change.

The project he had thrown himself into since the last time he had seen Chthon last was actually designing a new suit for him. Batman had overseen the project, but had mostly left him to it. He had studied his fighting style, what obstacles he seemed to encounter the most, and carefully planned out the armor and stretchy kevlar-like fabric. He had a couple different designs for Chthon to look over, both for his Phantom and Chthon personas. Tim was eager for Chthon to see what he had prepared.

“I don’t see why I have to be here to tell him myself! He hates my guts and you can pass everything on just fine,” came a voice from down the hall. It faded when the speaker walked into the conference room, probably with Batman. Tim clicked his tongue disapprovingly. He was mildly worried about what would happen when Phantom came face-to-face with Constantine, but he was also here for the chaos.

Finally the zeta-tube lit up and an automated voice announced Wonder Woman and Chthon. The two tall, black haired heroes stepped out and grinned at him, and Tim had to catch his breath a little bit. Wonder Woman was of course gorgeous and intimidating as always, but Chthon (in Tim’s humble opinion) was more striking. He was all lethal grace, thinly veiled in charming crooked grins and scarring.

“Hey Red,” Chthon said, smiling like he was both pleased and surprised to see him. Tim smiled a little helplessly. His siblings were right, he was in so much trouble.

“Hey Chthon, good to see you,” he said, reaching out to clasp his hand. Don’t be weird, Tim, it's just a handshake, he told himself. The ghostly hero grasped his hand readily, seemingly not thinking much of it beyond being glad to see him. “Hi, Wonder Woman,” he tacked on, as not to be rude. The Amazonian returned his greeting cheerfully, an all too knowing glint in her eye.

“Is Constantine here?” Phantom asked (and it was Phantom right then, eyes flashing green and the air just a tad more charged than before).

Tim grimaced in sympathy and nodded. “Yeah, he’s in the conference room with B. He didn’t sound happy to be here.”

“Yeah, well I’m not happy to see him either,” Chthon grumbled, taking a deep breath and visibly trying to shake the tension out of his shoulders. Wonder Woman put a supporting hand on his shoulder and he shot her a grateful smile. Tim was a little envious of how visibly open and caring they were with each other, but brushed it off. Danny deserved it, judging by the police report about the Fenton’s, filed just yesterday.

“Let’s go get whatever Constantine’s problem is over with, and then we can do more fun stuff,” Red Robin said, nudging Chthon along toward the conference room.

“Fun? Like what?” Chthon asked, arching an amused eyebrow at him. Tim didn’t know if Chthon knew how flirty he just came across, but Tim’s stomach fluttered all the same.

“Batman let me take the lead in designing a new suit for you. I’ve got a few designs, and I want to know what you think of them,” Red Robin said, smiling and excited. Tim didn’t know it, but Danny came to the conclusion just then that Red Robin had the most gorgeous smile he had ever seen.

“That’s awesome! My old suit’s basically falling apart. It’s been too small for ages,” Chthon confided.

They reached the conference room just then, and Chthon took another deep, bracing breath and let a hard but mostly expressionless mask fall over his face. “Ready?” Red Robin asked, waiting for Chthon to nod stiffly before pushing open the door.

Inside it was just Batman and Constantine, but that wasn’t what Chthon stopped to stare at, every part of him suddenly painfully tense. On the table, innocently sitting well out of anyone's reach (probably intentionally, Red Robin thought) was an old wooden chest. Chthon burst into motion, sweeping the chest up and conjuring chains of ice to wrap the seemingly harmless object in. He linked the ends of the chain together, making it a tight, endless loop around the chest, before blowing out a breath and sending a glare at both of the men in the room. “A little warning about this thing would have been nice,” he growled, eyes glinting green once more.

Batman nodded his head, but otherwise didn’t apologize, as Red Robin knew he wouldn’t. “Constantine was able to track down Showenhower when he entered the Living Realm yesterday. He was able to retrieve the chest, but did not manage to capture him.”

“Oh?” Chthon crossed his arms and leaned against the conference table, keeping himself between the chest and everyone else in the room. He peered over at the wizard, and raised an eyebrow, waiting for Constantine to speak for himself.

Red Robin noticed that Constantine looked beat up. He had a bandage over his right eyebrow, and the whole right side of his face was one giant bruise. He also seemed sober and anxious, chewing on a toothpick, likely to suppress the urge to smoke.

“I’ve been scrying for him since the meeting last week. I was able to find him when he popped up in the Living Realm yesterday,” Constantine said, looking distinctly uncomfortable, but answering since he hadn’t been immediately set upon by a pissed off Guardian Spirit.

Chthon looked thoughtful, even as kept his mildly glowing eyes pinned to the magician. “Fright Knight wasn’t with me yesterday because he was following a lead on Freakshow in the Infinite Realms. He must have chased him out.”

“Must have,” Constantine agreed, trying not to shift under Chthon’s gaze. “So I found him, and I tried to bring him in, but he had a couple ghost’s with him, probably under mind control. I may have underestimated him a bit…” Chthon looked unimpressed. “But I got that bloody box for ya. To, you know, start to make up for this whole mess.” He scratched his stubbled jaw, and glanced at the ground, no doubt wishing for a drink.

A muscle in Chthon’s jaw twitched, and his crossed arms flexed. Tim was suddenly mildly distracted, but he refocused when Chthon spoke. “It’s a start,” he ground out.

****************

The meeting with Constantine was blessedly short, going over Freakshow’s likely next moves and how Constantine might go about catching him. The wizard was grumpy, saying he could catch the bastard this time, now that he didn’t have the element of surprise with his ghost slaves. The whole room had glanced at his bruised face in doubt, but Constantine was insistent. Once the worst of his swelling had gone down (must not be just his face, Red Robin thought) he would go and track down Freakshow again.

Chthon allowed the chest to go in a heavily secured storage room on the Watchtower, but Red Robin had the feeling it would not stay there. He had seen another police report from Amity Park this morning, after all. Chthon didn’t seem the type to leave loose threads. (Tim thought that was kind of hot.)

Red Robin eagerly pulled out his tablet when the wizard left. “Let me show you what I have,” He said excitedly, waving his tablet at the ghostly hero. Wonder Woman and Batman had gone to secure the chest in the “Cursed Objects” storage room, which was layered with so much security that it needed two people from the founding seven League members to get into. Red Robin and Chthon could probably get it out again, no problem.

Chthon took the tablet from him gently, grinning at his enthusiasm. His gentleness reminded Tim of Superman for some odd reason. Maybe it had something to do with how cautiously Clark moved through the world, keeping his strength in check. Tim thought Chthon might have similar challenges.

Chthon flipped through the designs, intrigued and asking all sorts of questions about the stretchy kevlar fabric Batman had invented. He had an engineer's mind, so the invisible mechanics of this new suit were fascinating to him. Tim suddenly desperately wanted to get Chthon in a lab with him (as long as such a space didn’t make him uncomfortable. He certainly had enough bad experiences in labs).

Eventually, Chthon pointed out his favorite. It was mostly black, reminiscent of the Nightwing suit, but was sleeveless. There were forearm guards, Red Robin having noticed he used his forearms to protect his face a lot. He also tried to keep the guards slim, so Chthon could use his ice to make bracers again if he wanted, and it wouldn’t get too bulky. There were thin strips of arctic blue as accents, and two figures on the center of the chest. χθ, the first two letters of Chthon’s new hero name in Greek. χθόνιος, Chthonic, of or beneath the earth. Of the land of the dead.

“Instead of blue, could we do the accents in a white or glow in the dark fabric? That way I can make it glow whatever color I’m glowing at the moment,” he suggested.

“Sure, but I was under the impression you wanted to keep Chthon and Phantom separate?”

“Yeah, but it’s not quite as important now that I’m not living in Amity Park. Phantom sightings might become few and far between. And a few changes can go a long way. I could wear a black compression shirt underneath to hide my scars, as Phantom. And I’m planning on wearing a face mask as Chthon. I can conjure a cape too, so Phantom gets to be fancy,” he said with a laugh and a wink in Red Robin’s directions.

Tim’s brain scrambled a bit, but he was able to articulate a reply without making a fool out of himself. (A wink should not have him all flustered!) “What about the letters on the chest? Should we get rid of them?”

“Nah, I like them. I can have a patch to put over them when I’m out as Phantom.” Chthon had a soft look on his face as he gazed at the Greek letters. “The Greek ties me to Diana, and I don’t mind that.”

Tim went impossibly soft at his quiet, grateful tone. Whatever Danny wanted, Danny would get. He’d make sure of it.

Chapter Text

Danny sat on the floor of his new room in Diana Prince’s apartment, staring off into nothing. He had just finished sticking glow in the dark stars to the ceiling, and had sat down to rest after craning his neck back for over an hour. But now that he was resting, the worry and spiraling thoughts crept back in. 

DC had a different ectoplasmic make up than Amity Park, and that would have to lead to some lifestyle changes. In Amity, Danny could just exist and his (admittedly vast) energy reserves would stay topped off. Amity had been haunted well before the Fentons even got there, though it had been a lot more subtle. Between the city sitting on ley lines, the Veil being naturally thin there besides, and then the Fenton’s addition of a stable (and mostly open) portal, Danny had been all but swimming in pure ectoplasm directly from the Realms. 

While the living were largely unaffected, it did affect those that had a close relationship with death, either those that dealt with the dead and dying a lot, or had technically died and been brought back. They were a little stronger, a little wilder, and just a little psychic to various effects. Danny, of course, needed the stuff like air since his accident. Staying in Amity, he hadn’t had to think about it. But here in DC, he had to be more careful. 

There was ectoplasm here. Every place people gathered was awash in ectoplasm, but it was contaminated, for lack of better word. The ectoplasm given off by sentient beings was imbued with emotions and experiences, and thus made the ethereal substance’s structure weaker. From what Danny remembered of Frostbite’s lectures, since the Infinite Realms were the boundaries of the Living Realm; when mortals interacted with the world, especially the magical, liminal, or even just emotional, (the literal boundaries of their perceived world,) they pulled ectoplasm through the boundaries of the Realms and into the Living Realm. But it was contaminated in the process. 

This was not a deal breaker, Danny could still use this ectoplasm, it would just take a lot longer to be back at full power if he exhausted himself. The core, the only “organ” most ghosts had, was not only responsible for keeping a ghost’s shape, a gravitational center for their mass to move around, but also for filtering ectoplasm from their environment, and circulating it through a ghost’s body. Ectoplasm was the sustenance a ghost needed to manifest. In a sense, “dirty” or “Mortal” ectoplasm was like junk food. It had a lot of “flavor”, but not a lot of nutritional value. 

Danny couldn't tell if it was the sub-par ectoplasm or just the rollercoaster the last few days had been, but he was tired. Which had his anxiety up. What if he had to fight and he didn’t react in time? What if he ran out of energy and couldn’t recover? What if, what if, what if …

Danny thunked his head back into the wall he was leaning up against. This was Wonder Woman’s city, he didn’t have to fight. (She had needed his help the first time he was in town.) She was fully capable. The Justice League was dealing with the GIW and the Anti-Ecto Laws. (Why hadn’t they caught it earlier? He’s been struggling for 3 years) Once they knew what was going on, they acted quickly. 

He couldn't think about his parents right now. He didn’t have the bandwidth. And Amity Park was fine. Sam, Tucker, and Valerie had it under control now that the portal was permanently closed. They’d contact him if something came up.

He didn't want to think about Vlad either, but the horrific vision of his still-walking, rotting corpse haunted him. 

And Freakshow was still out there! Magic and mortal ectoplasm poured off the Laughing Magician, and his formidable reputation preceded him, but Danny wasn’t sure Constantine could capture the Ringmaster alone. His busted up face didn’t inspire confidence, but his fury and indignation could go a long way. Fury, indignation, and terror. (Once Freakshow was dealt with, what would Constantine do with all that unrest and Terror?) Danny’s eyes sharpened but remained in the middle distance, thinking. Maybe he should make good on that threat…

At least he was getting a new suit. That was one bright spot. He’d be glad to get rid of the old hazmat, another snip snip moment he was looking forward to. He really liked the new design Red Robin had come up with, too. (what if they put trackers in it? What if they hide anti-ecto tech and switch it on while he’s wearing it? What if this isn’t out of the goodness of their hearts…) Danny shook his head forcefully. He wanted to trust his newfound allies. He really, really did. 

He didn’t really think Red Robin would put secret anti-ecto tech in his suit. Red was… Red very obviously had a crush, though maybe it wasn’t as obvious to someone without empathic powers. When they had first met at the JL meeting right after Vlad’s death, Danny had caught an… interesting amount of admiration. He hadn’t paid it any mind, as he had been thoroughly distracted by Constantine. 

This time, Red’s handshake had told him more than just “admiration”. It was there, but he had also been excited, nervous, and a fluttery emotion that Danny often encountered at school, though not usually directed at himself. He knew the “tastes” of love; platonic, familial, and even romantic (though that last one was directed at other people, never him). This fizzy emotion was not that, but what Danny figured to be a crush, or puppy love. Infatuation. And oh, boy, Red Robin was definitely infatuated. 

Which was a lot of pressure, honestly. That was Red Robin, possibly the smartest Robin to date, raised and trained by the Batman of all people. He had an extensive hero career under his belt, and he was no older than Danny! It was intimidating to be held in such high regard by the guy so quickly.

But Danny had also liked the attention. So maybe he flirted, just a little. Snuck in a few comments and a wink. (a wink, dear Ancients, that was so cheesy.) Red’s smile was downright gorgeous, and the way his neck and ears went pink when he blushed was adorable. 

But he wasn’t sure it was a good idea. He didn’t want to fall from the pedestal Red had seemingly put him on. Did he even know he was empathic? There were secrets that no one could keep from Danny, not if they were broadcasted through feelings they could not help. That seemed like something the Bats would like to be aware of. 

Danny sighed and let his head thunk back on the wall gently. Red had been really clever while designing his suit. He would probably have a lot of ideas about making an ectoplasm filter. Ecto-technology had always been Danny’s parent’s thing, and he was hesitant to start a project of his own. He had modified his parent’s tech, sure, but never started a project from scratch. Working on a filter with Red would give them a chance to actually get to know each other, and maybe the hero’s crush would calm down a little. Or turn from infatuation to disdain. That happened to Danny a couple times. It would be good to get that over with. 

******************************

Diana peered at Danny with concern. She had stuck her head in his room to ask what he wanted for dinner, and found him sitting on the floor with a thousand yard stare. He was not breathing, and so, so pale. He didn't look very alive at all.

“Danny? Are you okay?” she called gently. His eyes snapped to hers, but it was a couple heartbeats before he remembered to breathe, becoming more lifelike in increments. She breathed a silent sigh of relief when his cheeks flushed pink, hoping he didn't notice. 

“Hey,” she called in a soft voice, and slowly approached to sit beside him. She curled forward and rested her cheek on her knees, to peak under his messy hair and meet his eyes. Danny had bowed his head in apparent embarrassment. Or maybe fatigue, she thought as she took in his expression.

She took a moment to consider her words. “We can talk about anything, or nothing at all. I can see that you’re hurting, and I’d like to help. Just tell me what you need.” She offered her hand, a show of support since he seemed to take comfort in touch, at least from her. It had momentarily slipped her mind that his empathic abilities were heightened by touch. She just wanted him to feel better. 

He silently reached out and held her hand, but didn’t otherwise move or speak. After a few moments he met her eyes, studying her. It brought to mind every other time he had been silent and watchful of her. Each time it happened, it was right before he decided to trust her. So she held still, too, and didn’t press. She just smoothed her thumb over his rough knuckles and waited. 

“The ectoplasm’s different here.” Diana felt her expression change to worry, but waited for him to continue. “It’s going to be harder to be… lively. At least until I manage to make a filter.”

“Do we need to go back to Amity Park?” she asked, concerned.

“No!” Danny tensed up, looking like he would rather do anything else. “That’s not what-” Danny silenced himself, looking frustrated. Diana kept quiet, keeping her hold on his hand. She did her best to keep her expression open and empathetic. He would tell her, he was just finding the words. 

“It shouldn’t be a problem to make a filter. I’m just saying that until it's made, and even sometimes afterwards, sometimes… sometimes I’m not going to seem all that alive. Like, I need you to realize that I’m dead. I died. It happened and I can’t act like it didn’t. I’m going to be ghostly and undead sometimes. I can’t hide it completely, not at… here. I don’t want to have to hide it from you.” 

And she wouldn’t lie to herself. That bothered her. Children should be lively and rosy cheeked. Danny was right there; talking, loving, breathing and growing. He was alive!

She took a deep breath and let the emotional gut reaction pass. Of course he shouldn’t pretend like he hadn’t been Changed. It had been a Death, horrible and painful, and he shouldn’t have to act like it never happened. She wanted him to thrive, but it would look different for him than others. He was Danny, but he was also Phantom. He was Chthon, of the Land of the Dead. He was just as dead as he was alive. 

“Smack me with a newspaper if you catch me being dismayed at your being undead.” Danny jerked at what he must view as an uncharacteristic statement, staring at her with wide eyes. 

“This is your home now, as much as you wish it to be. You should not have to be so cautious here. And I have promised to care for you. It is my job to make sure you are comfortable and safe, body and mind. You hiding who and what you are in what is supposed to be a safe place will not accomplish that.”

“But I also can’t say that I won’t slip up sometimes. I was raised to never speak of the land of the dead, or its residents. I have since disregarded a fair amount of what my mother said, but that doesn’t mean I won’t mess up.” She paused and met his eyes again. He was staring back, hanging on her every word. “I just hope you will forgive me when it happens.” She smiled. “So smack me with a newspaper or the like and I’ll shape up.”

Danny chuckled, and leaned against her shoulder. She smiled, pleased. But the look of him earlier still bothered her.

“Were you okay, when I first came in? Or were you just resting and being… dead?”

 He squeezed her hand, giving her that tired, lopsided smile. “I’m fine, promise. Tired and anxious, definitely. But I’m physically fine. I’m not even healing from anything. A good night’s sleep, and I’ll be right as rain.”

She smiled at the phrase she often heard from Kal, but the anxiety bit concerned her. “Is there anything you want to talk about?” 

He grimaced, no doubt having tried to smile, and shook his head. “It's… everything.” He shrugged, evidently having run out of words. He’d get it all out eventually. She had to be patient and continually show him that he could trust her. 

They sat in companionable silence for a moment, then, “Hungry? I originally came to ask what you wanted for dinner.” 

He looked at her with big, beseeching eyes. “Can we get pizza?”

“Sure,” she said, and smiled when he beamed at her.

They would be okay.

Chapter Text

Morning arrived with a glorious distraction. The Anti-Ecto Acts were being repealed in record time, due in large part to Superman’s extremely displeased address to Congress, which was televised. He never yelled, but that probably made it worse for the politicians in the room. Danny was rather impressed, and took mental notes. He himself had addressed a few courts and councils, and it was not easy. Danny was always trying to absorb tips and tricks whenever he saw an adult doing it better. 

Diana watched with him between getting ready for work, often grumbling about the more corrupt officials Superman was facing. She seemed to have caught on to the fact that Danny’s attention was on learning from her coworker and friend, so she did her best to tell him about the current representatives, what they wanted and how best to handle one of their ilk. 

Not only were the Acts repealed, the Ghostly Investigation Ward was ordered to disband. Legally, the GIW were no more. Danny went about the rest of his day with a bounce to his step. 

At Diana’s suggestion, Danny went out and explored as Chthon while Diana was at work. 

The experience was a revelation. 

Not a single person screamed in fear at the sight of him. No one spat or called him a filthy ghost. No one ran from him. Instead, most were delighted to spot him, despite his mask and general “bad boy” appearance. So he flew along, more and more thrilled to have made the move to DC. He stopped frequently, collecting cats from trees, escorting the elderly across the street, and stopping to chat and help with just about anyone who flagged him down. 

There were a few moments when his core ached, when he thought about telling Ellie all about this new city. But she would want him to explore, to have fun. He did the best he could for her, and generally stuck his nose in everything. Even if he couldn't actually tell her about his travels, he would gather information and experiences like he could. It hurt, but it hurt a little less to explore like she would have.

The city loved him. Both #Chthon and #WonderBoy was trending on the internet, pictures he had goodnaturedly posed for getting ridiculous amounts of views. There was even a short video of the current Wonder Girl seemingly introducing herself. Both heroes had been high in the air, so the video only had wind and traffic noise, but the meeting seemed to go amicably. The two teens had started a game of tag with an incredible amount of unnecessary aerial acrobatics involved, at least, and the city took that to mean they were friends now. 

At the end of the day, with Cassie's encouragement (New Friend!!!), Danny reached out to the Gotham heroes. Explaining to Batman what an ecto-filter was and why he needed one was a mildly nerve-wracking experience. Especially since the only real reason for telling him was to ask if Red Robin could work with him on one. It felt a lot like asking someone's dad if his friend could come out and play. And maybe that wasn’t too far from the truth! Even if the crush didn't work out, they could be friends. 

DC was amazing, and he was making new friends. Things were looking up!

**********************************************

Frederich limped around his new safehouse slowly. The legendary Laughing Magician had certainly lived up to his troublesome reputation. Frederich’s toys had done their job, but their injuries had cost them their afterlives. The loss of Sisyphus’s Box was also a huge setback. He himself hadn't managed to escape unscathed- a broken wrist, several broken ribs, a sprained ankle, a long gash down his face, and one of the nastiest curses Frederich had ever come across. He had sought the nearest hospital after he had escaped the other magician. Not that they could do anything about the curse, but he needed the mundane dealt with before the magical. 

It had been a pain to magically make the hospital staff treat, release and forget about him, but he had managed it. He needed to hide again as soon as possible. He had no doubt that Constantine had told his super friends all about their little tussle. 

He had flagged down a taxi, the driver a thankfully weak minded individual, and magically manipulated him into taking Frederich to the driver's own home. The poor bastard was single, with no one that would immediately miss him, so Frederich… made him useful. The taxi driver rotted away in the trunk of his own car, and his ghost served Frederich. He wasn't as strong as the Realms Ghosts Frederich previously had, but he would do for now. 

With his new toy’s assistance, Frederich had his new safe house warded to hell and back, including a special ward against scrying. Connie would have to work harder to find him next time. 

And there would be a next time. Frederich had seen the news, and knew the Justice League was now aware of the Infinite Realms and its denizens. They even sided with the bastardized death-forms! Foolish. They weren't any good at their jobs half the time; they didn’t deserve to be regarded as people. Frederich was above them, blessed with the magical talent and knowledge to make them bend to his will. 

So Frederich knew Constantine would try again. He just needed to be ready. 

As Frederich slowly and gingerly helped himself to the food in the poor taxi driver's kitchen, a sudden sound came from behind him. He whirled around, bringing up a shield and knocking back into the counter painfully at the same time. The shield was weak and flickering, but the three identical figures in his doorway didn't attack. 

“Be at ease, Frederich Isaac Showenhower. We are the Observants, and we have a proposition for you.”

Chapter Text

Danny was washing his face when the green sticky note appeared. One moment he was rinsing and there was no note, the next, he looked up and there was a note stuck to the mirror. He regarded it pensively as he patted his face dry. 

Clockwork only sent sticky notes when something was about to go down, and this one's message was particularly worrying and unhelpful.

I have been ordered to be silent.

Danny did not like the sound of that. He glared at the note as he brushed his teeth, trying to pick out all the subtext old Clocky expected him to pick up. Unnecessarily cryptic bastard, in Danny’s opinion, but he supposed he was fond of the crafty old sundial. 

Finished with his evening ablutions, he plucked the sticky note from the mirror and went to find Diana. She was working on her laptop while the news was on in the background, but she smiled and muted it when Danny entered the room. “What's up, Αστέρι?” She asked, giving him her full attention. 

Danny had to breathe past a sudden tightening in his chest. Her full attention, just like that. He only had to enter the room, didn't have to ask, and she was focused on him. He tried not to think of why that affected him so much. He cleared his throat awkwardly, then asked, “Uh, asteri?” 

To his astonishment, Wonder Woman got a little pink in the cheeks. “It means star in Greek,” Diana said quietly with a self conscious little smile. “I won't call you that if you don’t want me to. I just noticed your interest in astronomy and…” she trailed off and shrugged. 

Danny felt his grin spread slowly across his face and didn't try to stop it. “I don't mind it,” he said, sure his nonchalance was not fooling her any. Her smile lost its embarrassed tilt and she beamed at him, warm as the sun. 

He came over and flopped hard onto the couch next to her, letting himself take up as much room as he liked. Which was most of the couch, definitely getting into Diana’s space a bit. Not that she seemed to mind, as she reached over and ruffled his hair. 

“So. I have received a missive,” he began, holding up the mildly glowing green paper between his first two fingers. Diana looked inquisitive and Danny handed it over with only a momentary internal debate. “It's from Clockwork, one of the ghosts from the meeting. Remember him?”

Diana did indeed remember him. He had left an impression with his cryptic statements and ever-shifting face. The almost smirky tilt to his mouth and the jolly squeeze around his eyes always stayed the same, though. It gave her the impression that he knew some grand secret and was laughing a little at all those not in the know. It honestly set her on edge. “I do,” she confirmed, frowning unconsciously as she examined the note.

Danny noted her expression, and wondered at the root of it. Was it Clockwork himself, or the mention of a personal connection to the Realms? Or the note itself?

“How did he send it?” She asked, frowning a little more. Or she's worried about security, Danny amended his earlier thoughts.

“He just makes them appear in a place I'm sure to see them. This one popped up on the bathroom mirror,” he explained, almost apologetically.

“Magic,” she sighed, not looking pleased in the least. “I suppose he can pop in any time he likes, as well?” 

“I… guess he could,” Danny said slowly, grimacing in acknowledgement. She sighed but patted his head again. He felt resignation through the brief empathic link, though it wasn't directed at him. At the idea of Clockwork in general, if he had to guess. 

“Could you do that?” she asked suddenly.

“Do what? Be a cryptic pain in the butt? Sure, I'm great at it actually. It's great fun.”

“No, cheeky,” she chuckled. “Could you - teleport, I guess? Yourself or an object like a note?”

Danny opened his mouth to instantly refute it, but paused. Could he? Same-plane teleportation, never mind dimensional travel, was not an easy skill for any ghost to acquire. Some were lucky and blessed with the ability, like Cujo; while some learned and evolved into the skill, like Wulf. Not many could, in any case. 

But he could already manipulate space, couldn't he? He could make any pocket or bag as deep as he wanted, without even trying or thinking about it. 

“I think, maybe I could?” He sounded very unsure. “It'd take a lot of practice…” he muttered, mostly to himself. 

“Don’t hurt yourself,” Diana warned, not wanting him to go charging into some ill-fated experiment. 

Danny shook himself from his thoughts of theoretical wormhole travel and refocused on her. “I’ll be safe, promise,” he waved her off. 

“Please do.” She nudged his leg with her foot. This set off a minor nudging battle (a draw) before they settled down again, relaxed. 

“What do you think of this, though? You have more context for it than I do,” Diana prodded him, handing the sticky note back to him. 

Danny hummed, looking it over again. “The only beings that would dare order Clocks around are the Observants. They've supposedly got some sort of check-and-balance relationship? Makes sure neither gets too wacky, I guess. Not that it works- Clockwork does what he wants. He usually maneuvers around the eyeballs, anyway, if their goals don't line up. Plays along if they do.

“I think the Observants told him to be quiet. Probably told him not to talk to me or possibly to anyone in general. He's obviously not doing that.” Danny waved the note around to make the point. “The Observants are up to some shit. And they are against me.” His voice went quiet on his last statement, and Diana wondered if she was meant to hear that. 

“Danny, can I ask,” Diana began, but paused, unsure how to word her question. She didn't actually like the sound of Clockwork, the more she heard of him. And in order to figure out why he'd take Danny under his wing, Diana first needed to know who Danny was to Clockwork. 

Danny tried not to go stiff in trepidation. He's pretty sure he failed, but he attempted a careless ‘go-on’ gesture. Diana winced but took the plunge anyway. “Who are you in the Infinite Realms community?”

He tilted his head and frowned, wordlessly asking for her to elaborate. “You were the one who set up the ambassador’s meeting, and those in attendance don't just listen to you, they respect you. Chieftains, queens, Ancients… Who are you to them? What is your role? Your title?” 

Danny felt a cold chill slide down his spine at the word ‘title’. Diana posed a fair question, one that he himself mulled over some nights when he couldn’t sleep. 

There was only one feasible answer. One he had been actively trying to steer the Realms as a whole away from ever since he had the fleeting thought. ‘Use the government you already have!’ he tried to say via action. ‘Use what you built while he was locked away!’ But what they built was largely shit and unjust, so he tried to convey ‘You can build something better than this’. Because he wasn’t worthy. Wasn't capable. He couldn’t be the K-

“I'm not-” Danny nearly shouted, standing suddenly. He sucked in a breath, trying to force down the panic. Diana didn't deserve him lashing out at her. He squeezed his eyes shut as he forced his breathing into something approaching slow and steady. 

She quietly stood, but didn’t leave. Though the touch was gentle, and the emotion genuine, the feeling of concern screaming over the empathic link was overwhelming. He did his best not to twist out from under her touch and gently pushed her hand away. She got the message, thankfully, and didn’t try to touch him again. He kept his eyes squeezed shut as he spoke. “Everything is a lot, all of a sudden. Can I go to bed?” he all but murmured. 

“Of course,” she told him, just as quiet, still gentle and concerned.

He didn't look back at her as he almost ran out the door. If he had, he would have seen Diana standing, sad, alone and a little lost. 

Chapter Text

“So what happened with Wonder Woman?” Tim hesitantly asked, looking intently at the screen at his workstation. 

Chthon paused at his own workstation, his soldering tool hovering over a tricky bit of wiring. He carefully put it down, but didn’t look away from the innards of the new ecto-filter. “What do you mean?”

“Its just you two seemed really close the last time I saw you? And then earlier things seemed… awkward.” Tim’s hands were poised above his keyboard, pretending to still be mostly absorbed in writing the code for the computer bits of the new filter. 

Chthon was quiet for a long time, and Tim wondered if he should’ve kept his mouth shut. 

Things had been going so well, too! Tim had been both thrilled and embarrassed when Bruce had informed him that Chthon had reached out to him, requesting Red Robin specifically. The ribbing from his siblings (and Cassie, who had apparently been with Chthon but hadn’t deemed it necessary to give him Red’s personal contact information, the traitor) had been worth it. Chthon had been very impressed with the lab in the Watchtower, which Tim had updated to Bat-standards when their plans had been made. 

No, Nightwing, it was not just to impress Chthon, the equipment genuinely needed an upgrade. Chthon was used to scraps, home appliance innards and jerry-rigged tools anyway, he’d be impressed regardless. Nightwing had remained unconvinced. 

Red Robin had shown Chthon around the lab, noting which tools he had seemed excited about and which he was lukewarm about. Tim extrapolated that he would be just as at home in a mechanic’s shop as a lab, maybe more so since he hadn’t died and been possibly maimed in a garage. 

Then Chthon had pulled out his first draft of plans for the ecto filter (on actual printer paper, not a tablet! Hand drawn schematics!). His plans weren’t as detailed as they could be, and definitely had some spots where things needed to be figured out better, but were brilliant regardless. Ecto-tech was fascinating, and Chthon had an instinctive grasp on how it worked. He had explained that while he had modified plenty of his parents’ inventions, he had never started one on his own. TIm was nonetheless still impressed. 

With a few suggestions from Red to fill in the blanks, they had immediately gotten started. Thus far, they had managed the first rudimentary prototype, but had torn it apart to try again. The flow of ecto wasn’t going correctly, and the filter part wasn’t actually filtering enough ecto to be useful. Tim was currently working on a computer interface for the controls of the device, while Chthon fixed the flow problem. 

Tim had thought maybe it’d be safe to bring up Chthon and Wonder Woman’s stiff body language and avoidant glances from when they had first arrived. But from the way Chthon studiously wasn’t looking at him, maybe he didn’t feel comfortable talking about it. It was the first time they were really hanging out, to be fair. 

There were a few more moments of staticky silence before he replied. “You ever yell at Batman?” 

That was unexpected. “Yeah, regularly. He can get pretty overbearing. No one in our house really takes raised voices personally. God help you if you yell at Agent A, though. Did you and Diana have a fight?”

“I.. Not really,” Chthon answered, rubbing at the back of his neck. “She asked a pretty valid question and I overreacted.” 

Ahhh. Trauma. “That sucks,” Red said, aiming for consoling. “Can I ask what upset you about it? Or I can shut up!” he added quickly when Chthon’s shoulders hunched more than they already were. 

Chthon huffed and waved a hand, and fell silent again. He rested his chin in his hand and his elbow on the table, looking unseeing at his work. Tim had gone back to hesitatingly poking at his keyboard when he spoke again. 

“I’ve got…” Tim snapped his head up to listen attentively. “I have a lot of responsibilities in the Infinite Realms. Responsibilities that I never asked for, but since no one else ever bothered-” A growl had started up under his words before he cut himself off and took a few deep, measured breaths. “Because of other peoples’ mistakes and inaction I have a lot of people that look to me for ….” Chthon closed his eyes, his furrowed brows and tense mouth spoke of his heavy burden. He waved a hand again, trying to imply the words he could not speak. “Diana asked who I was to the people in the Infinite Realms, which, valid question! She was just trying to get the full picture. But I’m not… ready. To face it.” 

That sounded heavy. “I won’t say I’m not incredibly curious, but that sounds like a lot and I’ll do my best not to pry.” Chthon didn’t look at him, but he tilted his head a little in Red’s direction. “But I don’t think Diana’s really upset with you-”

“She’s upset.”

Red hissed out a breath through his teeth. He did not envy Chthon right now. “Did she say anything?”

“She didn’t need to. I’m empathic.”

Another beat of silence, and the knowledge that Chthon was probably fully aware of his little crush sunk into his brain. Red locked that thought away to panic about later. Chthon was being very cool about it, and Red didn’t need to make it more awkward than it already was. 

“Upset that you yelled and cut off the conversation, or upset that she brought up something painful?”

“Both.”

“As much as open communication is truly not my family’s specialty, I do think an apology and letting her know you’re not ready yet will probably clear things up. Wonder Woman’s pretty great like that.” 

Chthon nodded and scrubbed his face with a sigh. “I don’t think I’ll ever be ready. But you’re right. Thanks,” he said and shot Red a wan smile. 

Tim decided they needed a distraction. “Want to take a break from the filter? I have a draft for some lightsabers, but I’ve never been able to get them to work. Think we can make them work on ecto?” Red Robin tried. Chthon’s entire countenance changed immediately, and he bounced over to Red’s workstation. Tim smiled. Mission accomplished. 

**********************************************

“Hey Kal, could I ask you for some advice?” Diana spoke to the wind, knowing her friend would hear her. Though her hearing was far, far better than a normal human’s, it was not at Kal’s level, so her comm beeped with her friend’s reply. 

:Having coffee with Lois, join us?:

And so, Diana went to have coffee with the Kents while Danny (hopefully) had fun in the Watchtower lab with young Timothy. 

The Kent’s Metropolis apartment was cozy and welcoming, the living room done up in warm colors with patchwork quilts and tchotchkes from Ma and Pa Kent. Lois had gladly welcomed her in, ushering her to the worn but extremely comfortable couch. Kal had deposited a mug of coffee into her hands the moment she was settled. Diana sipped at it and sighed in appreciation. Kal had put in the perfect amount of cream and sugar. Her old friend knew her well. 

“So how’s Danny settling in?” Kal asked, settling in a huge, but equally worn armchair. 

Diana sighed. Straight to it, then. “Things were ok. He’s hesitant to ask for anything, I assume because he’s basically been self-sufficient for a while already. But he was trying, I could see it. He’d sit right next to me on the couch, crack jokes and tell me stories about his sister and his friends. He even let himself be vulnerable enough to tell me some about his… biology.” She paused to sip at her coffee again. This was hard. She felt like she had failed Danny somehow.

Lois hummed thoughtfully. “Were, as in past tense. Did something happen?”

Diana stared unseeingly into her mug, shoulders slumped. “The ghost Clockwork left Danny a note saying that Clockwork has been ordered to be silent. Danny extrapolated that it was the Observants that gave the order, that they are up to something, and that they are against Danny specifically. Danny came right to me, gave me all the information he had, but I… pushed.” 

“Pushed?” Kal had been quiet up until now, watching her with kind and concerned eyes. 

She sighed again, swirling the liquid in her mug for something to do with her hands. “I asked what his role in the community of the Infinite Realms was, so I could figure out why someone as slippery and probably powerful as Clockwork had taken to Danny. Danny did not react well to that question.” She paused to take another sip as Kal and Lois winced.

“How bad?” Kal asked, probably thinking of his own traumatized and unruly teenager. 

Diana was quiet for a moment. Thinking back on it made her chest hurt. No one told you that every little rejection from a child you cared for would be like a blade. “Not as bad as you’re probably thinking. He just stood up quickly, started to say ‘I’m not’ quite loudly, and then asked to go to bed early. He didn’t want to be touched, even though he usually takes comfort from physical affection. He hasn’t met my eyes or said much to me since.”

“Whatever his role is, he’s in denial about it. At least he wasn’t louder or more destructive about it?” Lois offered. 

“I’d almost prefer it if he was. He’s almost shut down. At least if he was loud and angry, I’d have a better idea of what was wrong and how to help.”

All three adults were quiet for a moment, acknowledging the difficulty of raising traumatized vigilante teens. 

“He once defeated a Great Evil…” Kal murmured thoughtfully after a while. Both the women made prompting noises at him, so he elaborated on his thoughts. “We were talking with the other Realms Ghosts while Diana and Danny were paying their respects to Ellie after the ambassadors’ meeting. I asked why Chief Frostbite called him Great One, and Clockwork said that Danny once put a ‘Great Evil’ back in its grave. I talked with Bruce right afterwards, too. He had gone to talk with the Fright Knight, and he had said something similar. Bruce had asked if that ring of light around Danny’s head was a crown of some sort, and the only answer he could drag out of him was ‘He once defeated a Great Evil’.” 

Diana straightened up in her seat, eyes widening slightly as she put together another piece of the puzzle. This time it was her turn to receive prompting noises. “After that JL meeting where Danny looked like he wanted to maul Constantine, Red Robin and I took him to the observation deck to calm him down. Danny shared some about the power structure of the Realms back then. Since everyone residing in the Realms is ‘dead and eternal’, as he put it, power and possessions often get passed around via right of conquest.”

“So whatever ‘Great Evil’ Danny defeated, all their problems are now Danny’s problems,” Lois surmised, stringing all their thoughts together. 

“That ring of light really did seem like a crown, and there seems to be numerous kingdoms within the Infinite Realms. Do you think Danny rules one of them now? Though Adalwulf said he’s called ‘Lord Phantom’ despite holding no territories in the Realms,” Kal thought out loud. 

“A good question for Danny, but I don’t think he’ll want to answer it. Like you said, Lois, he seems to be in denial,” Diana pointed out. “Not that I really blame him. If he truly is the new ruler of a kingdom, that is a lot of pressure that he surely isn’t trained for.” 

Deep sighs came from all three adults. The pressure this kid was under was intense, even for a vigilante. And that was before considering the thought of potential kingship!

“Well, at least we know he’s still with the person that can help him the most,” Kal said brightly. Diana stared at him, asking with her eyes how the hell he came to that conclusion when she felt next to useless in the face of her boy’s challenges. “You’re a princess, Diana. From a culture that values strength and combat skills, similar to his. Maybe you can connect to him that way, and he’ll open up.”

Lois reached over and patted her hand. “These things take time. Just be there for him when he’s ready.” Diana smiled wanly at the couple. She’d do her best.  

**********************************************

Danny had wanted to spend all day in the lab with Red Robin, but the Gothamite had previous commitments. At least Red had seemed disappointed to part ways too. That crush wasn’t going anywhere yet, but at least there were more friend-like emotions to support it now. They could definitely be friends. 

While they hadn’t finished the ectofilter, they had made good progress. They had, however, finished the lightsabers, and they were awesome. Danny couldn’t wait to spend more time in the lab with Red, and had even gotten his personal contact info to set up another time to hang out. Red had said he wanted to introduce Danny to the rest of ‘the Team’, and Danny was thrilled.

What he was less thrilled about was going home and talking to Diana. He knew he needed to. They couldn’t go on like this, and Danny already desperately missed the easy affection. 

He had grown up with big bear hugs and cheek kisses every day. Even when he no longer felt safe around his parents, he found that he still craved that type of attention. He was a touchy guy, hanging all over his friends and sister whenever they allowed it. Sure, he drew away for a while when his empathic powers first set in, but they actually made him more touchy in the long run. A quick shoulder touch, and he could sus out all sorts of things about people. It had saved his hide more than once. 

It was so easy with Diana, too. Or at least it had been until the previous evening. But that was on him, not her. She had asked a perfectly reasonable question. Danny was just a coward.

“Can we talk for a minute?” Diana asked softly when they got back to her apartment. Danny nodded and sat at the kitchen table, chest tight and palms tingling. “You’re not in trouble,” Diana tried to sooth him, sitting down and putting her hand near him on the table. She didn’t touch him, he hadn’t indicated she could again after he twisted out from under her hand last night. Danny took a deep breath, reached out and brushed the back of her hand with just his fingertips. 

care-concern-reassurance-hope

The concern was still loud, but it wasn’t drowning out everything else like it was before. Danny still pulled away again, but he at least looked her in the eye with a quirk of his lips like he was trying to smile. 

“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. I just want to make sure you know some things.” He looked at her warily, waiting with his shoulders up near his ears. 

“I went to talk with the Kents today, and with their help I was able to put together what might be bothering you.” He still watched her, still as a statue, waiting to hear what they had come up with. “Of course, we may be wrong, but between the ring of light around your head when you get serious, the other ghosts saying you defeated a great evil, and what you said about how power and possessions get passed around in the Realms, we came to the conclusion that you’re a leader, possibly of an entire kingdom in the Realms.” Diana was watching for Danny’s reaction, and winced. He had gone so, so pale and had stopped breathing entirely. Every muscle in his body seemed to be locked up tight. But he didn’t bolt. He didn’t run away. Didn’t say a thing. He just watched her. 

“I can’t say I know exactly what it's like, but I think I can relate. You see, my mother is the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta and my father is the king of the Greek Gods, Zeus. I am a princess and leader in my own right, and have been trained as such. I would be glad to share all of the knowledge I have. I want to give you all the support possible.” Yet more silent staring, but his shoulders had slowly relaxed. “I also would not be disappointed if you passed on the responsibility to someone you trust. Leadership is difficult, especially with a whole community and not just a team or group of friends. I would not think less of you.” 

Danny watched her for another moment, before looking away contemplatively. He was no longer rigid with anxiety, and breathing again, thank the gods, so she counted this conversation as a success even if he never talked back. She was just about to get up and see about dinner when he finally spoke.

“I don’t think I can.” 

Diana stopped and settled back in her chair, giving Danny her full attention. He was staring at his hands, which were clenched together in his lap. “No?” she asked softly.

“I never wanted the crown. I had no idea when I kicked that bastard's ass what ‘right of conquest’ was. I mean, I’m glad he no longer has that power, but I never sought it out.” Danny glanced at her to gauge her reaction so far. 

She gave him a soft and encouraging smile. “I didn’t think you would. You don’t seem the type.” 

Danny nodded. “I was just protecting my home,” he confirmed. “But now… I would pass the crown off if there was someone I could pass it to. But either they’re not qualified, already have so many responsibilities that they just couldn’t, or I don’t trust them any farther than I could throw them without powers, maybe even less. I’m just… the best option. Which is bad on sooo many levels.” With that, he put his elbows on the table and his head in his hands, looking about as stressed as Diana had ever seen him. 

Diana reached over to him again, though shied away from actually touching him. But Danny met her part way this time and held her hand. 

care-concern-parental love-pride-determination

Oh. oh. Danny closed his eyes against the sudden tears he could feel gathering. She loved him. She was proud of him. 

She ran her thumb over his scared up knuckles. “I will support you with everything I have. I promise, Αστέρι.” His grip on her hand tightened, and he buried his head in his other arm. 

“Thanks,” he murmured, sounding a little scratchy. She reached over with her other hand and smoothed down his hair. 

“You’re welcome, Danny.” 

After a few moments of far more comfortable silence, Diana asked, “So what is your kingdom like? Adalwulf has the werewolves, Frostbite has the yetis, Pandora has the ancient Greeks and Dorathea has the medieval western europeans. Who are your people?” 

Danny slowly raised his head and gave her a long look, a tired smirk playing about his mouth. “All of them,” he said.

“What?”

“Pariah Dark was the High King of the entire Infinite Realms.”

Diana took a moment to fully process that statement.

“WHAT??"

Chapter Text

“Who are your people?”

“All of them.”

The being currently known as Clockwork smiled, pride burning in his hollow chest. With Danny’s acknowledgement, his saying ‘these are my people’, something about the Infinite Realms relaxed. Expanded. Strengthened. The currents of the Realms wrapped around Clockwork, pleased and proud, just as he was.

He watched fondly through his ethereal screens as his grandson the boy made some sort of warm drink and placed the mug in his dumbfounded caretaker’s hand. Watching his caring nature in action, his thoughts wandered to the young man’s crown. Something unknown to all but the oldest Realms Being was that the Realm itself chose the current monarch’s crown and symbol. They were made to reflect each ruler’s goals and values. The Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage had been neon red warning signs, though Clockwork had been the only one old enough to know how it all worked, at the time. Pariah had made sure of that. 

His ascent had been so very bloody.

But Danny’s accoutrements… They told a very different story. Instead of a ring, there was a cloak of deepest black that held glimpses of nebulas and galaxies. Clockwork had once discretely ran a hand along it, and felt gravity in all directions but also eternal, steady burning. Clockwork thought even he, himself, would have a hard time wearing the Cloak of Protection. 

The crown had stagnated, but not settled. It had resembled the Northern Lights, before now. Beautiful, bright and passionate, yes, but the crown had still felt scattered and fleeting. Now… Now with Danny facing it, admitting to it, owning it, the Crown of the Horizon solidified, consolidated on his brow, a simple band of devouring black edged in blinding light. Clockwork couldn’t wait to see it in person. 

He leaned on his staff, watching wistfully as the two figures on his screen shared a hug. They would be ok. Diana of Themyscira was proving to be a competent and compassionate foster mother and mentor. She was exactly who the young King needed right now. 

******************************************

“Thank you for telling me. I’m here for you, always, Αστέρι.” 

Diana’s ‘goodnight’ rang in Danny’s head as he stretched out in bed that night. She had been well and truly rattled by the possibility he could be the king. (The High King.) But she had recovered well. Really, she had only gotten more determined to help him succeed, whatever he chose. Whatever he chose. If succeeding was passing off the crown to someone else, she would help him do it. If he chose differently… she would help. No matter what, she was going to teach him what she could. She promised, and he believed her. He believed her. Maybe that was why he wasn’t so scared anymore. He drifted off, truly feeling peaceful for the first time in a good while. 

He dreamt. 

He was flying through the Infinite Realms. The sky was black. Green, purple and magenta landscapes blurred together in a mind bending tangle. There was no light. Everything was made of light. Everything was dead. Everything hummed with life. He was utterly lost. He knew exactly where he was. 

Eventually, he found a core. The Core. The Heart of the Realms. A writhing mass of light, of the absence of light, and at the center- life devoured death devoured life devoured death devoured….

“KING,” whispered the Heart of the Realms. 

“We’ll see,” said Danny.

“RULER,” murmured the Realms.

“I’d rather not,” said Danny.

“PACIFIST,” said the Realms, almost thoughtfully.

“When I can be,” said Danny.

“GUARDIAN,” rumbled the Realms.

“I do my best,” said Danny. 

“LEADER,” insisted the Realms.

Danny drew breath like he was going to argue, but paused. He took stock; of all he was and all he wanted, and all he could do. And a weight like a favorite blanket draped over his shoulders, and his head felt like it was on fire, or being crushed, but he could bear it. It was his. 

He lifted his head, squared his shoulders, and met the Void, the Abyss, eye to eye. 

“Yes,” Danny said. 

 “KING!” cried the Realms, and it was a joyful sound. Like they really meant brother or friend. Like they meant protector or caretaker. Like they meant loved one.

**********************************************

“The… the High King? Of the entire Infinite Realms? Are you sure?” Clark asked, sounding rather faint. Now that she wasn’t about to succumb to her nerves all alone, Diana thought his reaction was pretty funny. 

They were in Gotham, at Bruce’s home, sequestered away in his office. Bruce himself sat frozen, staring vacantly at Diana, no doubt running through everything he knew about Danny with this new context. 

“Yes. He defeated Pariah Dark, previous king of the Infinite Realms, in one-on-one combat. The very Realms itself recognizes him, or so he tells me this morning. Other spirits certainly revere him. There was a spectral cat that had coffee with us just this morning that kept peppering Danny with questions about his plans for the Realms,” Diana patiently explained.

She had expected places like Gotham to have a Spirit attached to them, but not DC. Maybe she should have. Meeting the Demon Cat of the Capitol had certainly been an interesting experience, that was made up for with the sight of the somewhat transparent cat lapping up coffee out of Danny’s prefered mug. Danny had been quite exasperated. 

“We could’ve had far bigger problems if he had been even a fraction less peaceful,” Bruce said eventually. He looked rather pale. Diana could empathize.

“Indeed. We could’ve had war with the restless dead,” she said.

“It would’ve been a massacre,” Clark said faintly, thinking of some of the footage he’d seen of Danny’s most recent scuffles. Maybe he wasn’t quite as fast or strong as Superman, but it looked like he was very close. And strength mattered very little if your opponent could become intangible like Danny could. Just imagining an undead army with even a fraction of the power Danny had… Clark decided not to think about it too hard. Bruce was clearly having the same thoughts as him, but was thinking about those hypotheticals very, very hard. Considering his son was rather besotted with the young king, neither Diana or Clark could really blame him.  

“What I wanted to ask,” Diana began, breaking her friends out of their respective spirals, “is if you could both help me in mentoring Danny? He’s going to need all the advice he can get.”

“He’s not going to try and pass it off to someone more qualified?” Bruce asked, brows furrowed. 

“He’s thought about it, for a long time. Since the initial defeat, I’m sure. But last night, after he finally told me about it, and this morning - There’s a certain set to his shoulders. I think he’s going through with it,” Diana said quietly, so so proud and so so worried. 

“I don’t know how being Superman could possibly intersect with being a High King, but I’ll help any way I can,” Clark said readily. Bruce grunted but nodded, probably already putting together a list of things a political leader needed to know. 

“Thank you,” Diana said, glad she could rely on two of her oldest friends in the land of men. 

Unbeknown to Bruce, though he probably expected it, his office was bugged. Tim pressed his headphones to his ears, his eyes about the size of dinner plates. King, he thought on repeat, he’s the High King of the entire DIMENSION.

“There’s no way I have a chance…” he murmured to himself, listing sideways and letting himself flop onto his bed. Danny had far more to worry about than little ole Red Robin. Tim tried to tell his fool heart it was far too early to be breaking. They’d only met a few times, and got to hang out once. It was just a silly crush!

Try as he might, Tim couldn’t get the sinking feeling in his chest to go away that day.