Dead Man's Diner Pt5

Dead Man's Diner pt5

Danny groggily propped himself up as he heard the loud bang of his door being thrown open

"DANIEL VLADIMIR FENTON!"

Blinking a few times to get the sleep out of his eyes, Danny glared at Tucker, "Middle name? Really?" He hated it, so very much, hated that he thought it was cool when he was a kid, and hated it so much more after the portal incident, it wasn't enough for his parents to have Vlad be his godfather, Danny's middle name had to be that fruitloops as well.

Damn his parents for being such caring friends.

Tucker met Danny's glare as he crossed his arms in the doorway into Danny's room

He would cut an intimidating figure if Danny didn't know him, suit and tie perfectly pressed with a PDA held in one hand.

"I know you said that you got the Bats at the diner place thingy you are working at now last night, but did you have to call them out? Red Robin and Oracle have been trying to track you for the last 5 hours, I have had to summon Technus in the WE employee bathrooms! Thank God Mr Wayne included baby changing stations in each stall or I would have had to carve a sigil into the fucking wall! And I think *he* bricked the Batcomputor!" Tucker screeched as he paced the clear area of Danny's messy room

Scrubbing at his eyes, Danny sat up fully, more awake than he was a minute ago, "S-sorry? Didn't really think about them being sore bitches about it, I tagged them like once and set it online, they probably get hundreds of tags an hour. How was is supposed to know that they would read it?"

Tucker snarled, holding out his PDA for Danny to see "Not just Nightwing and Red Robin, half the God damn Young Justice team, The Titans are all over Nightwing, and all the rest of the bats are laughing their asses off! Look!"

<@Superboy_(the_hot_one)

[@not-that-red-robin.real wow Rob, if I knew u were broke I would have have asked Lexie to give u some cash]

<@Beep-Beep!_(official-Impluse)

[ @not-that-red-robin.real that's not very lit fam Gucci of u RR not very rizztastic and definitely isn't skibidi

@living-legend(Yes_that_wondergirl)

<@not-that-red-robin.real for fucking shame Red Themyscira has laws for bitches like you comere I am gonna cut off your thumbs.

Letting out a laugh, Danny was grinning as he scrolled through to Nightwings part.

<@theonetrueblueborg

[@.realwing: it's giving "my daddys rich and will take the bill" wing]

<@veggiemonster

[@.realwing: bro

:BRO

:Broooooooooooo]

<@Goth (Taylor's version)

[@.realwing: shame.]

Danny was full on laughing now, ad from what he could see through tears, so was Tucker, standing up with a weaze, "O-oh my Ancients....ugh t-that is just great"

Letting out a few more chuckles, Danny handded the PDA over to his friend, "I am sorry about getting the Bats aware of me, but I am not sorry for calling them toxic thinks."

Tucker sighed, running his forehead but still had a smile on his face, "You do know #NightwingsAssIsCancelled is trending right now?"

Danny couldn't hold back the cackle that shot through him at that.

---

Tim held his head in his hands, above him was his laptop, cycling through rebooting and then crashing, it had been five minutes so far, and if the last cycle had told him anything it would be up to that for another five minutes.

Groaning, Tim dragged himself up, he hadn't slept much last night, spending most of it trying (and failing) to get any information on the employee of Big C's, Danny nolastname he could find.

That was part of the problem, anytime he got even a smidgen close, it was like someone bitchsmacked him away. Even Babs was having trouble, she got a single thing before getting locked out of her own systems with baby shark playing on loop through her speakers.

He didn't know what to feel, humiliated that he was being actively cock blocked for information or excited since this is the first time in a while something was so difficult! The bear fact that he was being blocked so hard meant that there was something to block with this kid!

Stumbling down to the dining room, Tim didnt spare the table of his family a glance until he had gotten the pre-made cup of coffee from Alfred, letting the bitter drink wake him fully.

Finally turning to the family at large, he saw Bruce doing his best impression of a stone statue (Normal Damian was openingly glaring at him (slightly less normal), Dick was face down in a bowl of cereal (vaugly normal) and Cass was giggling while putting clips and sparkling things into Dicks hair (okay back to normal again)

Sitting in his spot across from Damian, Tim sighed, which seemed to be enough for Damian to go off on him.

"Are we paupers Drake? Has the CEO position at WE pay so little? And what of your own company? I was unaware that Drake Industries has fallen on such hard times!" Damians words rolled out like a lazy river, smooth and uncaringly cold.

"Oh my God, I am already planning on going back tonight and settling the fucking tab Dami, lay off it." Getting the expected "language" statement from both Bruce and Alfred, Tim drained his coffee cup, not so slamming it down but close to it before Damian could respond.

Eyes shooting to Bruce he huffed, "Meeting. Vlad Masters. One ish hours away."

Bruce's eyes shot to Alfred who only raised a brow at the two and Bruce stiffened "We can speak later in my Study Tim, eat something other than coffee and we can go do that." Getting a nod from Alfred, Bruce seemed to deflate with a sigh.

Grumbling, Tim picked at the plate of food Alfred placed in front of him, before forcing himself to eat, he would need energy more than coffee.

After managing to finish half his plate, Tim stood, "Come on, I need yo clue you in to somethings I was researching last night B..."

---

Bruce stayed silent as he sat down in his office, a tablet on his lap as he went through the test results once again.

"...are you saying me and Dick had Lazarus water laden food last night?" Tim said with frigid calmness

Biting back the urge to clam up and try and keep his son from worrying, Bruce nodded, "Trace amounts yes, I am unsure of its origins, the samples I was able to pull were much more pure than we are used to. How are you feeling?"

He watched as Tim held his face in his hands, massaging his temples before speaking, "Fine really? A little tired, appetite isn't there but that's normal...been feeling a strange sensation in my side but that is just likely phantom pain."

Noting everything down, Bruce nodded slowly, "Dick mentioned that he was still full feeling after a night's sleep and that some old wounds were feeling strange, I can only assume you are feeling your splenectomy scar?"

Sighing at Tim's agreement, Bruce noted a few more things down, making holding the last line to ask Damian if he had any knowledge on eating food effected by the pits, and another one not to tell Jason about this all in case it triggers something in him

"Putting that aside, B, what about Masters? Vladco makes medical stuff right? Shady business practices?" Bruce gave a grunt, switching the tabs on his pad to show him thr information on Vladimir Masters.

"Age 48, male, standing 6'1, weighs about 180, doctorate in theoretical quantum mechanics, had a lab incident preparing for a theise that left him hospitalized for some time, after he recovered and graduated is when his suspected criminal activities began, since then he has had several business owners simply sign their lively hoods to him...I suspect he is Meta with some sort of mind control abilities, the lab accident would make sense in awakening his Mets gene."

Bruce spoke as he handed the tablet over to Tim, "He sponsors several scientists with various types of study, two that stick out are Doctors Fenton and CADMUS."

Tim pulled a face as he followed along through the tabs of research "CADMUS? Really? So we are looking at some Midwestern millionaire that is totally not a supervillian in the making...what's up with the Fentons?" Handing the tablet back Tim flopped down into the chair opposite to Bruce.

"I am trying to figure that out, so far I know they went to school with Masters, and were there with him during the lab accident, the continual funding Masters is giving them makes me suspect they are just as involved in what ever Masters is to to..." Bruce was going to continue when there was a knock on the study door, and Alfred poked his head in.

"If you wish to be on time to your meeting, I would suggest Master Timothy get dressed now so you both might be in the car while I drive it to Wanye Towers."

Bruce frowned, but nodded, giving time a small smirk as the teen begins to realize he is just in a winkled t shirt that Bruce was 95% sure was Conners, and a pair of shorts that Bruce was very sure were Barts.

YOU!!! I HAVE FINALLY FOUND YOU!!! OMG I SEEN ONE OF YOUR STORIES BUT COULDN'T FIND IT CAUSE MY PHONE GLITCHED BUT NOW I HAS FOUND IT!!!!

ME??? DHAKGTFHSKIFMSHDIFBEPS I am glad you were able to find me and that you liked my stories!!

DPxDC Summoning Failed Successfully

Imagine a warehouse. Imagine a bunch of cultists in dark robes with all the candles, daggers, ancient books, and chanting. Now add Danny.

Only not as the summoned being, no. As a sacrifice.

He is sitting down, tied to a chair, in the middle of the summoning circle, looking as bored and deadpan as he can possibly be. The cultists are chanting, and he frowns, listening to their chants for a moment.

"Hey, is that Latin?" He questions, but to no avail, "You know you're not actually using those words correctly, right?"

"Keep quiet, child!" One of the cultists snaps. Danny leans back in his chair and shrugs.

"I'm just saying, you ain't summoning shit with wrong grammar," he huffs, seemingly absolutely nonchalant about the whole thing. Oracle, who is watching the whole ordeal through the surveillance cameras, raises her eyebrows. Red Robin and Robin are already en route to the building the cultists chose for their extracurricular activities, but now she almost wants to watch this a bit longer.

Gothamites are pretty used to all kinds of shitshows, but this boy is from out of town. She checked him through facial recognition. Daniel Fenton, a transfer student from Amity Park, Illinois.

A few more cultists stop chanting and turn to Danny.

"Do you know Latin?" One of them asks, and the boy makes a half-nod, making a thoughtful face.

"Not fluently, but, like, it's a dead language, I felt kinda obligated to learn it. Just for the meme, you know?" He chuckles.

The cultists, judging by their confused silence, don't know. Barbara doesn't know what he's talking about, either. But she is almost curious now, so she taps Robin's and RR's comm lines:

"RR, Robin, when you arrive, don't jump into the scene," she asks.

"Understood," Tim answers immediately, but Damian, of course, demands explanations:

"Is there an obstacle?"

"Not really," Barbara humms, "The sacrifice is in the process of de-escalating the situation."

She can almost hear the questioning silence over the comm, but, thankfully, no one argues. Meanwhile, one of the cultists pipes up, voice full of doubt:

"So, you can... like, proofread our incantation?"

"Yeah, sure," Danny nods, apparently fine with being sacrificed, "Who you're trying to summon anyway?"

"Satan," that same cultist answers, and Danny laughs approvingly.

"Classic," he nods and smiles, "I'll give you this. The circle is mostly alright, so you don't need an incantation to summon the fucker, I have him on speed dial." And with that, he leans forward, screaming towards the floor: "Ey, Satan!"

Barbara must say the act was actually convincing, but he went a little overboard with it now. She reaches to tell both Robins to get in, but suddenly, a loud, booming voice reverberates through the building.

"The fuck do you want, kid?"

Cultists fall to their knees - it doesn't seem like an act of worship, more like their knees bucking. The whole circle dimly lights up in red, smoke raising from it.

"Do you see this shit, Oracle?" Red Robin questions, and she mhm's at him, not sure what else to say. If this is still an act or a trick, she must say it's a very good one. Although somehow she suspects it's not a trick. She's seen enough magic in her life to tell the difference.

"Do you want to come to Earth, be gay and do crimes?" Danny asks, almost mockingly.

"Fuck off."

The red light flickers and disappears, and Danny looks back up to cultists, grinning cheerfully.

"Welp, looks like he doesn't wanna," the kid concludes and stands up from his chair. Barbara hadn't seen when or how he got out of his bindings.

The cultists just watch him walk out of the circle in bewilderment.

"Pursue?" Robin's voice comes over the comms, and Barbara thinks for a moment.

"I get a feeling like that's a bad idea," Tim mutters over his line.

Barbara agrees.

Temples are built for gods. Knowing this a farmer builds a small temple to see what kind of god turns up.

Oh worm?

Inspired by @bluerosefox and their idea for tiny Tim and little baby man Danny.

This might become a series if yall like it.

Tim cupped his hands together as he softly blew on his freezing fingers before rubbing them together to try and warm up.

He was out later than he usually dared, up on top of an apartment building, it was a hot spot for Batman and Robin when they came to Old Gotham because of the easy to grapple corners and ledges, plus a fire escape that when from the roof to street level! A perfect place for the bats to swing by.

Checking the time on his scrappy little prepaid flip phone, he had learned better than to take his real phone with him, on the extremely rare occasion his mother checked his location, it had happened once while he was out, and golly did he get an ear full.

He winced as he watched double digits turn to singles, he had been out too long. Sighing the boy stood with resolute disappointment, he had wanted to snap at least a few pictures of Batman and Robin before he had to head home.

Stepping down onto the fire escape, Tim carefully climbed down, but still skip the steps to get down faster, a quick pat on his side made sure that his little bundle of gift cards were still in his pocket.

His parents saw if he spent over a set amount on their credit card, so he just added a few 25 dollar prepaid visa card on top of his grocery bill.

Jumping down from the last step, Tim smiled a bit as he imagined himself doing the tricks he saw Robin do, well, both Robins. The new one was a bit more clumsy, but boy did he make up for it with the grin on his face.

Humming a bit to himself, Tim walked through the ever busy streets of Gotham, sure people looked at the small 11 year old boy wearing a far to big back pack and just sneered at the obvious rich kid, but Tim knew how to protect himself!

He had a bb gun that had the orange tip painted and he was not afraid to wield it!

Stopping in front of a Batburger, Tiny Tim hummed a but before going in, he had wanted to see if there was a new Robin figurine in their Batkid meal box.

---

Danny groaned as he clutched his side, he didn't want to to look down at it, didn't want to see the green ichor leaking between his fingers and down onto the pavement below him

Revealing he was a ghost to his parents was never something he had wanted to do, but Vlad had forced his hand.

Somehow he knew about Dan, knee of the destruction and terror he brought and envied, wanted to see Danny turn out just like him.

His family was targeted, one thing after the other, from car bomb to a lab accident, he didn't stop.

Danny had run himself ragged trying to save them, but...it almost hadn't been enough, Plasmius himself had to come to end them after his plans were foiled.

And to protect those he cared about the most he transformed right in front of his parents.

Only they stopped firing on Plasmius and onto *him*.

In the confusion Jazz had managed to capture Plasmius in a thermos, she tried to stop their parents from shooting Danny but...

They didn't see the son they raised anymore.

Just a filthy ghost that killed their son.

His core wailed in pain as he shuffled into an alleyway, his back pressing up against a wall as he tried to get his brain to think, he had known his parents loved him, but they very much did not love Phantom.

Holding back a pained whine as he slid down the wall and onto the ground, Danny looked up to the starless night sky, pollution had rotted the air, making it hard to see past the dim light of the moon.

He wanted the stars.

Why couldn't Clock Work send him to a place with stars to die?

Taking in a shaky breath the saccharine air, Danny let his head fall, finally looking at the chunk of himself that was missing, it was easily the size of his fist, he couldn't transform back into a human, or else he would simply bleed out.

He knew he shouldn't close his eyes, but he was just...so tired.

He knew what he needed to do but he didn't want to do it, his core let out a whimpering keen as he transformed again suppressing his thoughts and worries, shinking his body down to conserve ectoplasim, lessening his mind to his barest ghostly instincts to just get away from it all.

---

Tim swung his legs as he sat at the big booth all alone, slurping happily on his warm cup of hot coco he had splurged a bit sure but they came out with a new flavor!

He wondered how Nightwing felt about his supposed favorite drink, it didn't have much to do with him other than blue tinted whipped cream and hints of vanilla and carmel

Shaking his head, the boy hopped off the bench as his number was called by a bored teen that was working the late shift.

Grabbing his Batkid box in one hand and his shake in another, Tim said his thank yous as he walked through the door.

(his mother made sure he was a polite young man after all)

Deciding to find a nice place to eat before heading home, Tim set off into the night, swapping his drink between his hands to keep them warm.

Pausing for a moment as he crossed over an alleyway, Tim stilled and tried to listen again, hoping to hear what made him pause again.

That was a whimper alright, shuffling all his food into one hand, Tim fumbled for his flip phone before pulling it out and clicking on its meager flashlight.

He was pretty sure it was a kitten or something, he couldn't keep it, no matter how much he would love to have a friend over at his house, his father was allergic to nearly all of them and his mother thought Sphinx cats were ugly so it was a no go for Tim, but he could at least bring an injured kitten to a shelter.

Shining his phone into the dark alley way, green eyes welcomed him back.

"Ohhh boy, not...very much not a cat." Tim didnt know how to describe what he had stumbled upon, it couldn't be longer than a foot, it was kinda like snake with arms, human arms, and a human face, and with human hair.

It stared at Tim

Tim stared at It

It let out a soft, scared hiss.

Tim put his food down, took out a French fry and offered it to the little...thing.

That seemed to be enough for the little half shake half person...thing to slither over, grabbing the French fry with both of its hands and start to nibble on it.

Having never been told specifically *not* to touch things like this, Tim softly ran a finger over the little things head, cooing softly at the loud rumbling purr he got from it, "Oh your just a little guy..."

Giving it another frech frie after it finished the first, Tim looked around the alleyway to see if there were any other...things around, but only could see a faintly glowing puddle of goo, once again not specifically told not to touch it.

Tim touched the glowing goo. Tim being a curious 11 year old boy did what only an 11 year old boy would do when he finds a puddle of goo.

He put it in his mouth.

Tim did not like the taste of the goo.

"Blugh" was all he could saw as he scrambled over to his drink, taking a few long drags of his straw to get at the succulent, poorly nightwing themed drink.

There was a skittering snicker coming down from the little thing, which made Tim huff, "Should have known better, goo in Gotham is hardly good." That got another snicker.

Reaching down carefully, Tim softly stroked the long body of the little guy, transfixed on the feeling of both warmth and slick...scales? He didn't know, but up close he could see more of it, the little snake person thing had white bits, a blob of white thst looked kinda like a D on its chest, and pointed little ears as well.

His petting was rewarded with a purr that rumbled its whole body, but the purring stopped with a whimper as Tim's fingers brushed up against a not smooth side of the snake like body.

"Buddy...looks like you got hurt little guy..." Biting his lip, Tim thought about this...he wasn't told *not* to take home half snake half people before....

---

Danny knew two very important things.

Hand was good, felt nice on wiggle part.

And golden goodness that was given felt good in belly.

He wiggled and stretched in the very warm and comfy pocket he was placed in, the Hand was softly stroking his head, his ears were softly flapping as his core purred.

He could sense movement, and a slight shake of something else but couldn't tell what.

But he knew that Hand was warm and safe and didn't hurt.

And wasn't that all that was important?

Sorry I haven't posted today or yesterday yall! I have been a bit busy irl but the next post in Dead Man's Diner should be coming out sooner rather than later!