I Like The Idea Of Deified Batman, But I Also Thought 'hey, Wonder Woman Is A Demigoddess, She Would

I like the idea of deified Batman, but I also thought 'hey, Wonder Woman is a demigoddess, she would be perfect for that!' I think Raven could also work but I don't feel like I know her enough to write her yet.

So I've written a story about sick and tired Danny doing emergency mentor summoning and ending up with Diana. I mean, she had at least two proteges and I haven't heard a thing about her being awful at that so she is probably more than fitting for the role.

So, yeah, just. Danny and Diana. I hope I haven't messed up characterisation too badly.

Feel free to point out my mistakes, English isn't my first language so I'm trying to convince myself it's actually educational and I'm not wasting my time instead of learning to ✨most important exam in my life✨

Anyways...

***********

Danny was having a week, one of the worst weeks of his life at that. Vlad was being a creep again, Sam and Tucke had no-talk days, Jazz was pestering him about his grades and emotions, his parents created new weapons, upping the security system, ghosts were coming around like it was going out of style and on top of that, sleep deprivation finally took the tool of his immune system and he caught a cold. He was exhausted, he had a fever and he didn’t even have enough time to cry over it. He was desperate. He needed help like a normal human needed air.

He needed a mentor.

Someone who could teach him how to use his powers better, how to deescalate conflicts (this would be useful to him both as Phantom and Fenton), how to balance hero and civilian life, how to improve his PR, how to keep civilians safe during his fights, how to lower property damage, how to patch himself up…

Yeah, he needed one heck of a competent hero.

Good thing Ghost Zone was big and he recently borrowed an occult book from Sam. There had to be at least one ghost out there that could help him. His luck couldn’t be this bad. He just had to draw a good circle and think of the right offering. Would it be blood? He kind of didn’t want to deal with someone who required blood. But what else he had? Oh, right, Mom made a fudge earlier that day, there still has to be some left. Mom’s fudge was great, it should be enough. He just had to snatch it from the kitchen without getting too injured. Easy enough.

He returned from a successful hunt with half a batch of fudge, a knife, a few plates, and little nicks on his cheek and arm. He put it all down on the floor next to his bed. He opened the book, which was big enough to be used in self-defense, searching for a chapter about tools. He covered himself in the thickest blanket he owned. God, why was his room so cold?

He almost fell asleep three times while reading and even his energy drink had trouble keeping him awake. But he understood enough. Chalk was often used to make summoning but it wasn’t necessary. A tool used to write had to be infused with magic, whatever that meant and chalk was easiest. There was even contact info for the guy who had been selling this stuff. Danny just hoped that the ecto-contamination of his house infused itself with his pens enough for it to count. Shiver went down his spine s he fixed his blanket. He would kill for something warm to drink but he wasn’t willing to face the kitchen again. He considered wrapping himself in a comforter but chose against it. It would restrain his movement too much and he would like to not fall asleep before he finished. It would be really awkward to explain to his parents what he even tried to do if they found him like that.

Never mind, let’s get down to business. If it worked and if making a deal didn’t take too long, he could even catch four hours of sleep and that’s a treat. So with all the enthusiasm he could muster, he tore a page from the middle of his notebook and drew basic circle as accurately as he could manage. There a little problem appeared. He had to personalize his summoning but he didn’t have an exact person on mind, so it wasn’t like he could just slap their name and some titles on top. Thank god, Sam’s book came with a little rune dictionary and it seemed like his ghost side instinctually knew some of this stuff. He could make it.

He opened his pen and immediately wrote two symbols.

Hero. Mentor.

He bit the end of his marker. What else should he put?

Reliable. Kind. Patient. Safety. No harm from summoner and sumonee. Warrior. Diplomat…

Quite some time and over two dozen runes later by leaned back with a satisfied smile. This should be good enough. He really couldn’t think of another loophole he should look out for.

He put paper that was almost more blue than white on the floor next to fudge and rolled to get candles he borrowed from Jazz (without her knowledge but he planned to give it back) with matches. He didn’t trust any lighter in his house.

From there, it took only a few moments to set everything up. He started chanting, hoping against hope that this would work. However, it seemed to do work. When glow arose, he had passing thought that he should stand up and drop the blanket so he didn’t look pathetic, but choose against it after almost eating shit during the first try. Maybe his ghostly mentor would be more willing to guide him if he looked as miserable as he felt. It didn’t matter. The shine of the circle dimed, the figure of a high, muscled woman becoming clearer in a poorly lit room.

Danny was glad he was sitting because he wasn’t sure he could keep himself from scrambling and falling if he was up.

In the middle of his little, messy room, in all her Amazon warrior glory stood Wonder Woman.

*~*~*~*

Diana had quite honestly great week. There were no world-ending threats, villains in her city were quiet (which was suspicious but she liked her off time and wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the teeth), tasks at her civilian work were going smoothly and other members of the Justice League also didn’t have big problems, so their bi-weekly, mandatory meeting quickly devolved into a gossip session. It was so calm that even Bruce let himself be dragged into more unofficial conversation and shared a story of his kids’ most recent shenanigans.

Probably that’s the reason why the sudden hit of nausea and blurring vision caught her so off guard. Then world faded for no longer that single beat of heart. One moment, she was laughing at Clark’s parental struggles, sitting in a brightly lit, spacious room of Watchtower and next she was standing in a quiet, dark space in an unknown location. In front of her was a window, through which street lamps shone. There were other, less stable sources of light, which she quickly recognized as candles. As her eyes got used to darkness she was able to make out the shapes of things around her. It looked… innocent. Like a civilian bedroom. It took her way longer than she was willing to admit to realize that the shapeless bundle in front of her was a teenage boy covered in blanked, looking at her up and down with wide, glowing green eyes.

She shifted her weight and moved her head to let some of her hair fall on her face. She raised her hand to fix it, discretely turning on comm in the meantime.

The boy winced at that, pulled out of the shocked haze that just got him. He tried and failed to get up, twisted in the folds of his blanket. He tried again, this time slower and succeeding. He was short. No more than 5 feet 6 inches if she was guessing correctly.

“It’s not a kidnapping!” he whisper-yelled which was a concerning thing to say but was also relieving. The boy seemed honest and even more shocked at her appearance in his room than she was. It was promising.

“Alright, young man. Let’s say I believe you. Can you tell me where are we?” she asked with calm confidence. She shifted again to lower her face closer to the boy’s eye level.

“FentonWorks, Amity Park, Illinois, United States. First floor” he stated, voice hoarse. He moved under his blanket. Good thing he wanted to cooperate at least “I’m so sorry Miss Wonder Woman, ma’am. I didn’t know this could work on living people too. I’ll send you back, just give me a moment to find the right rune” he added, already picking big, old looking book from the floor. He sat back at an unmade bed, muttering something.

She could work with that.

However the comment about ‘living people’ was a little concerning. But first, she needed better light to asses her situation accurately.

“It’ll be easier with the light turned on” she proposed with a gentle smile. Boy raised his head to look at her with a slow, blank blink. Only after a moment, realization dawned on his face.

“Right sorry, sorry” he muttered, stumbling on his feet.

“We confirmed your location. He was right. We’re sending help. Give it ten minutes.” Bruce announced over the comm.

She tapped her bracelet once to let her teammates know she heard them but couldn’t talk and then did the same thing three times in rapid succession. She squinted her eyes when the boy turned on a lamp.

“What do you mean ‘no’?!” Bruce sounded exasperated. She ignored him instead looking around the messy room she was in and the boy who managed to summon her. He didn’t look well.

“Tell me, could you hold on to my lasso for the rest of our talk?” Of course, she could bind him with it without his consent but it always made things easier. Additionally, she had no idea what he was capable of. She better play it safe until she had a better grasp on the situation.

Boy was clearly hesitant (understandably so if he knew what her weapon did) but with a sigh far wearier than a person his age should manage, he outstretched his hand waiting for Golden Perfect.

“I dragged you all the way here, it’s only fair” He admitted still quiet, grabbing lasso before picking his book back up. He seemed adamant about getting her back.

"What is your name, young sorcerer?"

“Daniel Jack Fenton. Please call me Danny. I’m really not a sorcerer this is my first time summoning someone and I probably won’t do it again. I’m sorry for getting you here I really didn’t want it to happen” newly named Danny almost pleaded. Now that she could see him properly, she realized that he looked sickly. He was pale like dead other than an ill blush that graced his cheek accompanied by a bleeding cut, bugs under his (now mundanely blue), bloodshot, glazed, unfocused eyes were so dark they almost seemed to be bruised. He was shivering under his thick blanket despite how warm his room was even without it. He should be in bed with a warm drink, not summoning unknown entities. Diana was suddenly very glad she got dragged instead of something possibly hostile boy wouldn’t be able to stop.

“Thank you, Danny. I’m not mad at you, it’s clear you didn’t want me to get here in the first place. But you don’t look too good, how do you feel?”

She heard her teammates stop planning for a moment.

Boy for his part, looked at her absolutely baffled. His shock grew even stronger when he answered “Bad” against his will. He covered his mouth with wide eyes, lasso still twisted around his left palm.

She wanted to press a little more but she wasn’t Batman. She understood when interrogation was a bad idea.

“Alright. Why don’t you put your book down and go to rest then? My friends can be here in a few minutes.”

Boy stared at space vaguely around her head, clearly considering pros and cons, tempted to take her offer. However before he could answer, mist left his mouth in a way that was normally impossible in such warm room. Danny jumped on his feet, dropping his blanket in the process, ready to fight. His feet were too far from each other, raised hands positioned in a way that left his almost entire torso unprotected. His whole pose screamed lack of proper training. Diana tensed and readied herself too, promising herself to teach Danny some proper combat after everything was settled and he healed.

“Do you know what we will face?” she whispered but before she was answered sound of high high-powered laser gun erupted from the room under them and no longer than a blink later, at least a 7-foot-tall robot with a mohawk phased through ground.

“Skulker” Danny sighed “Can we do it another time? I’m kinda busy” he tried to quip, still quiet, vaguely gesturing towards her. She doubted that whoever it was would care that by was busy if they attacked him so sick and exhausted. On the other hand, her presence could be enough of a threat to make the assailant go away. Naïve, but she could understand this line of thought. She put her hand on her sword, trying to look both imposing and non-provocative.

The robot laughed in a surprisingly organic way. Danny prepared to jump.

“You’ll not trick me like that, Phantom!” the robot announced loud like a cannon “I, Skulker, the Greatest Hunter in the entire Ghost Zone will have your pelt in my lair. Today days of your running come to an end.”

That sounded really, really bad. League was aware of the existence of a hero called Phantom and was meaning to reach out but because he was amazingly effective but showed no interest in things outside of his city, it wasn’t too high on their list of priorities. However now, it turned out that said hero was fourteen years old, clearly an overwhelmed kid doing his best.

“What a shameful being you are to attack a child at a time like that.” Skulker looked at her with a studious gaze.

“Amazon. Your bunch is such a rare sight. Not as rare as halfa but-”

“LEAVE HER OUT OF THIS!” Danny screeched, talking the robot to the ground. Soon boy was thrown to the wall, not letting as much as a whimper at the impact. Even more, he tried to get up and continue fighting like all heroes tended to do. Hunter flew towards him with a low chuckle. Gods help her, she was not going to let him touch this child ever again.

She beat Skulker and tied him up before Danny managed to stand back up. It was nice to see pure awe in his eyes when he looked at his tied up rogue. It took even less time to trap this monster in one of the containment devices boy had lying around. She couldn’t get over its resemblance to an actual thermos, especially after the young hero used words–  

“Soup time”

As a catchphrase.

"Sorry, I'm usually better than that."

Obviously, he was sick and exhausted. 

"You did as well as you could"

There was the sound of footsteps on the other side of the door.

“Danny, honey, are you alright? I heard those ghost scums again, don’t worry Mom’ll be there in a second” the middle-aged woman said, getting closer. Diana looked around for a potential hiding spot. Neither she nor Danny (probably) wanted to explain her presence there.

“Sorry Mom, I was watching one of older fights and my headphones unplugged. I didn’t know it would wake you up, sorry”

“It’s alright sweetheart. Don’t stay up for too long, you have school tomorrow and tell us if you find anything on ghosts” Mrs. Fenton answered with a soft, motherly tone. If Danny wasn’t clearly too sick to function, it would be picture perfect family moment.” Especially on this Phantom scum, we need to get rid of him soon, people are starting to believe his manipulations” addition oozed with hatred, successfully destroying last bits of illusion. Diana almost winced. Danny didn’t suppress this instinct.

“It wasn’t Phantom’s”

“Alright. Good night Danny.”

“ ‘Night Mom”

As soon as they heard the door to presumably a woman’s bedroom closing, the boy turned to her with wide eyes.

“They don’t know and they are ghost hunters.”

Phantom was often called a ghost. Oh.

It just kept getting worse.

“They are a good parents and love both of their kids. I’m sure they’ll accept me I’m just not ready to have this talk.”

Diana nodded silently. She really didn’t know how to go about it, especially since she just saw that his parents weren’t really as good as he thought they were. Though it was nice that they weren’t bad enough to kill his hope for acceptance.

Only then did her eyes land on a paper sheet more ink blue than white that got her summoned. She got it from the ground and started reading. Her skills in this matter were a little rusted but she had spent far too much time learning this to ever forget. Her eyes widened just the slightest bit when she deciphered the two biggest symbols.

“You tried to summon help. A mentor” she whispered. It wasn’t really a question but Danny nodded anyway, eyes locked on the floor. All of a sudden, he looked embarrassed.

“I honestly hoped I’d just have to strike a deal with a heroic ghost, sorry it got you instead.”

Diana smiled.

“How about we meet next week when you’re healthier and well-rested and you tell me what help you need?”

Short DPXDC Prompts #926

There’s so many “Batfam/Justice League summons Danny” ideas out there. What if it was the other way around? Danny, desperate for a mentor and wisdom in defending his small town, summons a Being of Justice to help teach him how to be a vigilante.

i drew this because i. wanted to, i guess

Also sixth, because I forgot to mention it before. Not lighthearted, really. If your here for happy ending maybe don't read it.

With the power suppressors I wanted to go similar route as the one shot "16 hours" (or something like that you can find it on tumblr, plot summary: League contains Danny, they put him in the suppressors and he just drpps there unresponsive in agonising pain. It takes 16 hours for Bats to arrive and Red Ribin to clock it almost immediately). Basically, because Danny died and came back via ghost portal, his ghost side, i.e. his powers, is what keeps him alive. So when put in power suppressors, he starts dying all over again. You know, typical lighthearted headcannons.

Here I think, normally one suppressors wouldn't do much, maybe just tire him out a little. However at this point he is absolutely exhausted from running away from GIW for days without a moment to catch breath, so one suppressor contains his powers enough for him not to run away but just a single one is not enough to kill him or cause real pain. Though the whole GIW asset (wrists, ankles, neck, maybe some sort of muzzle) probably feels like the worst moment of his death itself. The most painful. The most hopeless. The moment when he wanted to scream the loudest, but no sounds came out of his dead mouth. For days, as he still somehow feels the cuts scientists make. And it ads up, and for some reason, he can't just pass out. Just barely conscious. Barely alive.

Hope you're doing alright, have a great rest of your day

# 17

The Justice League try to threaten Danny saying that if he dose not start talking then they will have to hand him over to thr GIW when Danny does not talk they tell him that there going to connect the GIW when they leave his cell and go to the camera they had there heart drop when they see Danny pull out a little vile and what look like a red flower be eaten when they run un they hear him say " I would rather die a second death then go back to the table." before pasting out

I don't cry when reading but damn, this was close

Dp x DC crossover prompt

Ok so I was watching rise of the guardians and whent oh I have an idea. So I've seen the prompts where danny gets stuck in the DC verse and his powers conform to DC logic. Well there, ghosts are invisible.

So let's put this together. Danny scared, hurt, and tired, gets yeeted to the DC verse by either running from ghost hunters or just getting lost in the ghost zone.

So danny hearing about this world haveing heros and deciding to try and track down the heros. Only for them to ignore him?? He trys to get their attention in his human form, no luck. He helpd multiple heros as phantom and they acted like he didnt exist.

So danny getting fed up flys up to their space base and walks straight into a big important meeting. But no matter how much he yells, crys, or pleads nobody bats an eye at him.

At this point a certain blond decides to finally show up to the meeting to see a kid breaking down in the conference room begging for help and his colleagues ignoring him. Constantine really needing a smoke before dealing with this situation.

I think it's lovely idea. Of anyone wants, my asks are open

please can we do inbox trick-or-treating this year. can we make that a thing on tumblr. please please please please please

So I finally did a thing. Or two things? One and a half? I wrote one story with two endings. One sad and one happy, obviously. Happy one is still angst, obviously. We need to keep balance, like Danny, y'know.

My only source of knowledge about both dc and dp are fanfics from # dp x dc, so chances of ooc things happening are quite high. I hope against hope it didn't happened, but you know, proceed with caution.

Anyway between *********** is a sad version with some description of Danny being in pain and dyin so if it's not fo you, don't read it, your mental well-being needs to be taken care of too, and between *********** Is a happy one.

Hope you'll like it @lizz-blizt and op. May my English keep englishing correctly through this journey.

***********

Barry Allen, more commonly known as a hero Flash, usually hated being stuck at monitor duty. It was the most boring type of job he could imagine he would do as superhero but unfortunately as the fastest man alive he had to do it pretty often. After all, if he sees something bad happening he has the biggest chance to get here on time. Plus his rogues weren't absolute assholes and sometimes he managed to ask them not to pull God only knows which crazy scheme when he wasn't around. He was able to attend the majority of his protégés parent-teacher meetings. ON TIME!

Nevermind. Though, this time monitor duty it was a little better. Mostly because he legally could do something more than looking at multiple camera feeds from everywhere all at once. To be more specific, Flash had to go through some research papers they got with they current person of interest. Papers described ghosts/ecto-entities which made him snort with amusement (he wasn't sure which term was actually correct and it was at least a little annoying). However, at first he was just surprised that he, well know sceptic, was chosen to do this job. Turned out his teammates just thought he will understand the most from this scientific splatter. The more he read, the more he felt like word scientific shouldn't be in this sentence without prefix pseudo. Other than obvious problems (ghosts aren't real) something in these articles just rubbed him the wrong way. Especially when he learned that it was just tip of the iceberg. Batman and his flock found it after a bit of hacking. They needed some more time to actually gain access to forbidden files but just the fact that GIW had something to hide was enough to raise suspicions.

He finished document written in some sad parody of scientific language and looked at the camera feed from interrogation room. One of the friendliest ones.

Daniel Fenton, age 14, was found fighting some (alleged) government agents on the outskirts of Fawcett City. When heroes arrived at the scene, half of the agents had already been unconscious or badly injured. Rest was doing their best to contain teenager, who fought like a feral animal, bitting, scratching, screaming, tossing himself from place to place, without any technic or plan. He was just desperate to not be caught again. When Wonder Woman used her lasso on him, he kept struggling until agents in white were out of sight. They were surprised that lasso worked. Apparently, as agents told them, boy wasn't human but dangerous, powerful ghost disgusting as one. When asked if the ghost possessed the boy, agents denied. Heroes had even more suspicions after this statement. They knew some ghosts. They weren't capable of making human disguises.

Boy was probably a meta. That was the reason heroes refused to let him go with alleged agents and took him to one of Justice League's secret bases. Still, he could be dangerous, so they locked one of power suppressors, as agents gave them four, on boy's ankle. When they tried putting more, he reacted like he was in pain. They didn't want to torture him, just make sure he didn't lash out at them using whatever powers he had. Bruises on his wrists, ankles and neck clearly showed that his previous captors had different priorities.

At the moment, League knew Daniel was meta that, as they were told, run away from highly restricted prison. They weren't to keen on giving him back but also didn't know what he did to end up in such place. Maybe it was justified. They needed answers.

That's why young Fenton sat on uncomfortable chair, in fresh clothes from one of teenage heroes, with one power suppressor on his ankle, interrogated by Superman and Wonder Woman. J'onn was on some mission and couldn't assist with his mind reading abilities. They didn't want to bring M'gnn into it yet.

Boy sat still like a marble statue, probably dissociating. He was like this since he had been taken away from dudes in white. All they knew about him they learned either from alleged agents or from his documents that Batman managed quickly to access when he had successfully run facial recognition scan on him. Heroes weren't going to question how he did that. They didn't want to know and had more important things on their plate. The boy himself.

Sometimes Flash wasn't sure if he was even breathing.

"If you don't answer we will have to return you to the GIW. Please tell us what happened. Why were you there?" Diana asked calmly but firmly. It was fake, hollow threat. Whoever they were, dudes in white were far too suspicions to give them boy back. Not that the boy knew about it. Daniel winced at the mention of organisation but it was so brief, even speedster doubted he really saw it.

No, he knew, he saw it.

Boy heard them and understood what they were talking about but still remained silent.

They didn't cuff him to the chair or something. He probably wasn't criminal. Just some unlucky kid.

"If you were held there unjustly, we will help you, just tell us what happened."

Boy still refused to talk, staring blankly at some point on a wall in front of him.

Barry opened new file to read. He had felt he wasn't going to like this one.

He didn't.

Apparently ghosts couldn't feel pain. That was clearly a lie, even if heroes hadn't known any ghosts, they had heard how boy screamed when one lucky laser beam got him. They had seen how he hugged injured arm to his chest, quickly wiped tears of pain flowing down his face. He didn't use this arm through rest of the battle. He was punching, kicking, bitting but his left arm wasn't used once. When he accidentally or purposely moved it too harshly, his face always winced in pain.

Ghost also didn't have feelings. They were great at mimicking them to appeal to humans but weren't capable of them on their own.

That was also big fat lie if Flash ever read one.

He wasn't there, but he saw the fight on camera feed from Batman's cowl and few city cams. He saw how terrified boy was.

Daniel was capable of feeling pain. He was capable of being scared. Whatever dudes in white had told them was now under big question mark but at the moment only Barry knew about it.

He once again looked at the view from interrogation room.

Clark and Diana already left. Their attempts to get boy to speak were fruitless.

Daniel wasn't sitting anymore. Instead, he was searching the room, clearly panicking, looking for ways to get out. His moves were barely controlled as if he was too tired to do it but did anyway. Boy was hyperventilating, his limbs were shaking. Even if there was a mundane way to break out of the room, he wouldn't be able to escape. If there even was lock to pick or something, and he somehow had tools to do it, he wouldn't be able to. It was surprising, his legs were even able to support his weight. Too low to be healthy for a boy his height and age as if there was not enough concerning thing about the boy. He was running arm first into the door, as if trying to forcefully break out.

Barry wasn't scared that Daniel would somehow escape from the room. Each one of them had been thoroughly tested by every hero associated with League before it was put into use. Superman with his strength couldn't even dent its walls, Martian Manhunter couldn't phase out, no magical nor mundane ways worked to escape. Every single one of them tried. Each bat, each arrow, each Flash, each Supes, Captain Marvel, Auquaman, Aqualad, Wonder Woman, Black Canary, every JLD member, literally everyone played escape-room-but-with-super-powers-magic-and-sick-ass-tech and failed for at least two hours before they used it to contain anyone.

Hero observed as Fenton slowly realised it too and sunk on the floor. He hadn't once looked at the hidden camera, so it was safe to assume he didn't know about his audience. Even if Flash believed GIW earlier, he would stop then. There was no one to put up show for. Boy clearly felt caged, endangered, terrified and couldn't hide it anymore.

Barry saw how boy pulled his hair so hard he probably nearly torn them out. He saw how the kid (dear gods it was just a kid) slowly, barely regained control over his too fast, too shallow breathing, wiped his face from fat tears still flowing from his eyes and pulled himself to sit on chair again. He winced in pain when he accidentally put too much weight on his still injured but now bandaged arm. For some time, he just sat there, taking deep breaths, as if he was gaining courage to do something. Once again, Barry felt he wasn't going to like that.

"Hey Jazz, Sam, Tuck" boy said gently to the empty room, his voice harsh from previous screaming. It was the first time Flash heard him actually talking. From what little they learned about him before bats focused on hacking GIW, Jazz was probably his older sister, Jasmine, Sam and Tuck, were his only friends, Samantha Manson and Tucker Foley. They all died in some accident few months prior.

"Do you think dead ghosts go to the same place as the people who moved on?"

This question got Flash to jump on his feet.

"Maybe I will meet Ellie again"

Boy tucking something out of his pocket, something he quickly recognised as blood blossom, one of ghosts weakness, got hero to run.

He nearly fell from the whiplash when he stopped in front of the interrogation room. His hands moved too fast to be seen when he was going through all safety procedures to open the door. He bounced, waiting for it to slide apart wide enough to get inside. Too slow, it was way too slow.

Boy looked him in the eyes with a smirk, holding flower in front of his face. Nothing other than his mouth was backing this cheerful expression.

"I would rather die second death than go back to this table" he announced.

And then he pressed it to release a red vapour.

His face flinched in pain.

Doors finally opened. Flash run to the boy.

It was one of the few times, when Fastest Man Alive was too slow.

He was inches away when boy had put flower in his mouth and swallowed it.

When hero hit his chest to make him spit, it was too late.

Burning flower already started to affect him, full realisation of what he had done, showing at his face as he started to cough. Boy was choking on his own blood, flowing from burnt lungs, burnt stomach and ignited throat.

Flash tried using some first aid techniques used in normal choking cases but it was useless now. Blood blossom had caught its victim and it wasn't giving it up.

Boy was crying again.

"I don't want to die again." he begged quietly between coughs." Please."

And all Barry could do was to look at this pleading child, so scared of death yet horrified of life they promised even more.

He screamed over his comm for someone to prepare place in med bay and medical team as he caught the boy and flipped him over his shoulder to make it easier to for him to choke as hero run as fast as he could to the med bay.

The moment he arrived, the moment doctor looked, and they locked his eyes on Barry's face they knew it was too late.

All they could do was to observe child dying in agonising pain, wailing between coughs, until he felt silent, tears flowing, body trembling violently, burning lungs fighting for every breath, holding hero's hand in loosening grip, as if it was last thing connecting him to the life.

Before he died he managed to whisper "Please give me a grave." and then after a moment:

"I just wanted to see stars once more" before his eyes couldn't see ever again. Before he couldn't fight for next shallow breath ever again. Before his body gone numb and wouldn't move ever again.

And they all just stayed there looking at this too small, fragile, tortured body of a child who was scared to live more than he feared Death herself.

Nobody moved for almost five minutes.

Doctor gently closed his eyes and filled death report.

That's when his commes erupted.

"We got hold on hidden GIW files" Batman announced, his voice dark as always.

"You won't gonna like it. I only briefly looked at summaries but there is some fucking horrifying shit." It would be surprising that Dick's voice matched tone of his mentor if they were in any other circumstances.

"Language"

"B. If there is ever time and place for language, it's right fucking now." Protégé bickered back.

"Daniel Fenton committed suicide via poisoning" Flash interrupted, fighting words coming out of his mouth and commes returned to blissful silence for a moment. "I wasn't fast enough to stop him or get him necessary help."

Boy's body slowly turned into ashes. After all blood blossom burned.

Whole League was mourning child their failed even though he was so close to them.

And then they started to read and learn things. About GIW experiments. About Anti-Ecto Acts. About Fentons. About Amity Park as a whole. About Phantom. Dear Gods, this was child hero, alone against his struggles, who for his work, sweat and blood got nothing but hell.

He would fit right into team of teen heroes. He could grow so much with them. They could grow so much with him.

Instead, he was treated like a frog in biology classes.

Dick was right. It was some fucking horrifying shit.

They give boy proper burial in secret hero cemetery. They looked for the place with the best view on the night sky. They dismantled GIW and laws that backed these sick people up. They acknowledge young undead hero and put up memorial for him. Memorial like ones Flash remembered from alternative timelines, put up for the greatest of them all.

But it was too late.

Few inches too late.

***********

Don't worry, Danny got to again meet Ellie, who destabilised, and Jazz, Sam and Tucker who died in crossfire during ghost vs GIW confrontation.

Or maybe not. Maybe memories are all that remained after them :)

***********

Barry Allen, more commonly known as a hero Flash, usually hated being stuck at monitor duty. It was the most boring type of job he could imagine he would do as superhero but unfortunately as the fastest man alive he had to do it pretty often. After all, if he sees something bad happening he has the biggest chance to get here on time. Plus his rogues weren't absolute assholes and sometimes he managed to ask them not to pull God only knows which crazy scheme when he wasn't around. He was able to attend the majority of his protégés parent-teacher meetings. ON TIME!

Nevermind. Though, this time monitor duty it was a little better. Mostly because he legally could do something more than looking at multiple camera feeds from everywhere all at once. To be more specific, Flash had to go through some research papers they got with they current person of interest. Papers described ghosts/ecto-entities which made him snort with amusement (he wasn't sure which term was actually correct and it was at least a little annoying). However, at first he was just surprised that he, well know sceptic, was chosen to do this job. Turned out his teammates just thought he will understand the most from this scientific splatter. The more he read, the more he felt like word scientific shouldn't be in this sentence without prefix pseudo. Other than obvious problems (ghosts aren't real) something in these articles just rubbed him the wrong way. Especially when he learned that it was just tip of the iceberg. Batman and his flock found it after a bit of hacking. They needed some more time to actually gain access to forbidden files but just the fact that GIW had something to hide was enough to raise suspicions.

He finished document written in some sad parody of scientific language and looked at the camera feed from interrogation room. One of the friendliest ones.

Daniel Fenton, age 14, was found fighting some (alleged) government agents on the outskirts of Fawcett City. When heroes arrived at the scene, half of the agents had already been unconscious or badly injured. Rest was doing their best to contain teenager, who fought like a feral animal, bitting, scratching, screaming, tossing himself from place to place, without any technic or plan. He was just desperate to not be caught again. When Wonder Woman used her lasso on him, he kept struggling until agents in white were out of sight. They were surprised that lasso worked. Apparently, as agents told them, boy wasn't human but dangerous, powerful ghost disgusting as one. When asked if the ghost possessed the boy, agents denied. Heroes had even more suspicions after this statement. They knew some ghosts. They weren't capable of making human disguises.

Boy was probably a meta. That was the reason heroes refused to let him go with alleged agents and took him to one of Justice League's secret bases. Still, he could be dangerous, so they locked one of power suppressors, as agents gave them four, on boy's ankle. When they tried putting more, he reacted like he was in pain. They didn't want to torture him, just make sure he didn't lash out at them using whatever powers he had. Bruises on his wrists, ankles and neck clearly showed that his previous captors had different priorities.

At the moment, League knew Daniel was meta that, as they were told, run away from highly restricted prison. They weren't to keen on giving him back but also didn't know what he did to end up in such place. Maybe it was justified. They needed answers.

That's why young Fenton sat on uncomfortable chair, in fresh clothes from one of teenage heroes, with one power suppressor on his ankle, interrogated by Superman and Wonder Woman. J'onn was on some mission and couldn't assist with his mind reading abilities. They didn't want to bring M'gnn into it yet.

Boy sat still like a marble statue, probably dissociating. He was like this since he had been taken away from dudes in white. All they knew about him they learned either from alleged agents or from his documents that Batman managed quickly to access when he had successfully run facial recognition scan on him. Heroes weren't going to question how he did that. They didn't want to know and had more important things on their plate. The boy himself.

Sometimes Flash wasn't sure if he was even breathing.

"If you don't answer we will have to return you to the GIW. Please tell us what happened. Why were you there?" Diana asked calmly but firmly. It was fake, hollow threat. Whoever they were, dudes in white were far too suspicions to give them boy back. Not that the boy knew about it. Daniel winced at the mention of organisation but it was so brief, even speedster doubted he really saw it.

No, he knew, he saw it.

Boy heard them and understood what they were talking about but still remained silent.

They didn't cuff him to the chair or something. He probably wasn't criminal. Just some unlucky kid.

"If you were held there unjustly, we will help you, just tell us what happened."

Boy still refused to talk, staring blankly at some point on a wall in front of him.

Barry opened new file to read. He had felt he wasn't going to like this one.

He didn't.

Apparently ghosts couldn't feel pain. That was clearly a lie, even if heroes hadn't known any ghosts, they had heard how boy screamed when one lucky laser beam got him. They had seen how he hugged injured arm to his chest, quickly wiped tears of pain flowing down his face. He didn't use this arm through rest of the battle. He was punching, kicking, bitting but his left arm wasn't used once. When he accidentally or purposely moved it too harshly, his face always winced in pain.

Ghost also didn't have feelings. They were great at mimicking them to appeal to humans but weren't capable of them on their own.

That was also big fat lie if Flash ever read one.

He wasn't there, but he saw the fight on camera feed from Batman's cowl and few city cams. He saw how terrified boy was.

Daniel was capable of feeling pain. He was capable of being scared. Whatever dudes in white had told them was now under big question mark but at the moment only Barry knew about it.

He once again looked at the view from interrogation room.

Clark and Diana already left. Their attempts to get boy to speak were fruitless.

Daniel wasn't sitting anymore. Instead, he was searching the room, clearly panicking, looking for ways to get out. His moves were barely controlled as if he was too tired to do it but did anyway. Boy was hyperventilating, his limbs were shaking. Even if there was a mundane way to break out of the room, he wouldn't be able to escape. If there even was lock to pick or something, and he somehow had tools to do it, he wouldn't be able to. It was surprising, his legs were even able to support his weight. Too low to be healthy for a boy his height and age as if there was not enough concerning thing about the boy. He was running arm first into the door, as if trying to forcefully break out.

Barry wasn't scared that Daniel would somehow escape from the room. Each one of them had been thoroughly tested by every hero associated with League before it was put into use. Superman with his strength couldn't even dent its walls, Martian Manhunter couldn't phase out, no magical nor mundane ways worked to escape. Every single one of them tried. Each bat, each arrow, each Flash, each Supes, Captain Marvel, Auquaman, Aqualad, Wonder Woman, Black Canary, every JLD member, literally everyone played escape-room-but-with-super-powers-magic-and-sick-ass-tech and failed for at least two hours before they used it to contain anyone.

Hero observed as Fenton slowly realised it too and sunk on the floor. He hadn't once looked at the hidden camera, so it was safe to assume he didn't know about his audience. Even if Flash believed GIW earlier, he would stop then. There was no one to put up show for. Boy clearly felt caged, endangered, terrified and couldn't hide it anymore.

Barry saw how boy pulled his hair so hard he probably nearly torn them out. He saw how the kid (dear gods it was just a kid) slowly, barely regained control over his too fast, too shallow breathing, wiped his face from fat tears still flowing from his eyes and pulled himself to sit on chair again. He winced in pain when he accidentally put too much weight on his still injured but now bandaged arm. For some time, he just sat there, taking deep breaths, as if he was gaining courage to do something. Once again, Barry felt he wasn't going to like that.

"Hey Jazz, Sam, Tuck" boy said gently to the empty room, his voice harsh from previous screaming. It was the first time Flash heard him actually talking. From what little they learned about him before bats focused on hacking GIW, Jazz was probably his older sister, Jasmine, Sam and Tuck, were his only friends, Samantha Manson and Tucker Foley. They all died in some accident few months prior.

"Do you think dead ghosts go to the same place as the people who moved on?"

This question got Flash to jump on his feet.

"Maybe I will meet Ellie again"

Boy tucking something out of his pocket, something he quickly recognised as blood blossom, one of ghosts weakness, got hero to run.

He nearly fell from the whiplash when he stopped in front of the interrogation room. His hands moved too fast to be seen when he was going through all safety procedures to open the door. He bounced, waiting for it to slide apart wide enough to get inside. Too slow, it was way too slow.

Boy looked him in the eyes with a smirk, holding flower in front of his face. Nothing other than his mouth was backing this cheerful expression.

"I would rather die second death than go back to this table" he announced.

And then he pressed it to release a red vapour.

His face flinched in pain.

Doors finally opened. Flash run to the boy.

It was in times like this when Flash was thankful for his accident. Times when thanks to his speed he saved life hanging on a single hair. Times when he yanked red, smelly flower out of hands of desperate teenage ghost's hands just before he could do something else with it.

For a moment Daniel just stared in shock at his now empty hand. Then he stared at the hero in front of him, barely keeping himself from hugging this wronged child. Then back at his hands. And finally his eyes locked at the flower itself now laying sadly at the opposite side of the room. As far, as it could be.

Daniel let out stuttered breath.

"Why did you stop me?" he whispered, unable to say anything louder. Flash didn't known if he was accusing him or just curious "I wouldn't change my mind. I prefer to vanish forever in horrible agony than to return to them. It at least would last shorter."

"We won't give you back to them." He explained. They didn't actually talk about it, but he was sure after this, every single member of the Justice League would agree with him.

"Wonder Woman said something else. And I don't know she seems to have a lot of authority."

"We won't give you back to them." Hero repeated. "I'm sure she will back me up on this. She is after justice. Whatever happened to you, wasn't just and shouldn't happen to anyone let alone a child."

Boy laughed broken, cheerless cackle.

"Yet, it did. And now I'm here. As a villain, who fought against a good government. As a mindless, manipulative ghost disguised as Daniel Jack Fenton, age 14, son of two well known and respected ectobiologists and engineers and failing brother of a wonderful older sister, who could change a world if not for ghost attack that took her too early." Boy was rightfully hurt and bitter.

"I'm a freak, a spook, a rare speciment, a nuisance. A menace, a creepy little boy with creepy little powers. A boy whose dog destroyed a life of a wonderful girl who from wealth fallen so hard she had to start to work in fast food joint. A failure. An unknown. A threat." He continued. Flash flashed (pun intended) him warm smile.

"We hadn't seen you like that." Hero started gently." All we had seen a terrified, injured boy running away and fighting with people who held him captive. We saw boy who was constantly dehumanised same way few of our colleagues were in the past. We saw suspicious dudes shooting at the boy who was dead on his feet but kept fighting, desperate to live. We saw someone who needed our help, and we tried to provide it. And I saw boy so scared of life he lived, he was ready to choose death over it."

"And that's the reason you cuffed me? A scared little boy?"

"We couldn't let you run away, and we knew you would do it ASAP."

"Can you blame me?"

"No. Can you blame us?"

"We successful got hold on GIW hidden files." Batman interrupted.

"Kinda" boy said, none wiser to mile stone Bat just reached with his flock.

"You won't gonna like it. I only briefly looked at summaries but there is some fucking horrifying shit." It was surprising that Dick's voice matched typical tone of his mentor. It was really serious.

"Language"

"If there is ever time and place for language, it's right fucking now." Protégé bickered back.

"I mean, you threatened me to toss me back to the worst part of my life, and I am an ectiplasmic ghost, we don't appear after nice deaths. And my parents are..." Daniel cleared his throat "... were devoted ghost hunters."

"Daniel was held under other name, Phantom. We're looking what we can find under this name."

"Okay, I get it." Barry laughed light heartedly, rescheduling freak out about this kids apparent death fo later maybe never, but stopped as soon as Daniel started coughing. Right, blood blossom fumes were still around. He swept the boy to carry him like a back pack and took him out of the room, closing doors behind them.

He walked slowly. He didn't have to run anymore.

"Excuse me, mister Flash sir, what are you doing?" boy asked surprised. Oh, so when shocked, Daniel became extremely polite, interesting.

"Taking you out of there. It's not healthy to be in one room for so long. Especially when you turn it into gas chamber using deathly poison."

"Take him to one of the bedrooms." Bat commanded.

"Like anyone even cares about it." Daniel grunted, barely audibly.

"I do. I'm a hero, it's my duty to take care of civilians well-being."

"I don't think I count as a civilian anymore. For a year know I think. I'm not sure what day it is today though."

Gods, wasn't it horrible thing to just admit with a little shrug as all acknowledged.

"He is right. He was hero back in his home town. Amity Park, Illinois. Looking into that right now."

"Fellow hero then. We take care of each other too, you know? That's one of the reasons Justice League exists in the first place."

"Apparently he was self thought too." Dick admitted, slightly amazed."He did pretty great job for a kid without any proper training."

"I'm not really a hero. I was local menace, boy in over his head, a spook. Only biased people like my friends and sister ever called me that. And, as you probably know, I did pretty shitty job protecting them."

"Yeah, looking at the way news had portraited him, I can see why he thinks like that. Barry, tell him something nice ASAP."

"Names."

"Batman called you a hero too." Flash added offhandedly.

"WHAT?!" Daniel sprung like a clown in box toy, throwing out their centre of balance. Only years of training and practice allowed them not to fall. It was a close call though. Boy's yell still rang in his hurting ears." Oh, sorry." He corrected himself sheepishly." But seriously, what?"

Dick was laughing.

"He is listening to us over the commes. He just said you were a hero. I think we can trust his judgment."

He barely heard breathy "Yeah."

They remanded silent after that. Adrenaline from all the crazy things Daniel had been through the day was finally wearing off. At the time when Flash opened a door to one of the spare bedrooms for when exhausting mission ended to late, boy was sleeping, head laying on hero's shoulder. It was good, he clearly needed it.

As he was tucking young hero under thick blanket, he briefly hoped that he sleep would be restful, not disturbed by any nightmares.

Unfortunately he couldn't do anything about that, especially since Bat called him back on monitor duty. Though he also praised him for handling this whole Daniel's mess well. Barry was going to live on a high for a next two days or so.

With documentation of all the crazy things GIW had done, dismantling organisation and laws backing it up was quite easy and surprisingly quick. People didn't like grumpy but adorable teen walking around with vivisection scar and no amount of propaganda could change it.

Later Danny joined teen heroes team. As expected, everyone flourished thanks to this acquaintance. At the start it was kind of funny to as they exchanged stories, absolutely shocking each other.

If one of Vlad's labs got mysteriously destroyed somewhen around Danny's birthday, nobody was any wiser.

When same thing happened to remaining Cadmus lab around Connor's birthday, nobody commented on it too.

Things weren't good in Danny's life before, but they looked promising in the future.

***********

Some finishing thoughts

First things first, I really appreciate that you made it this far, I feel loved and rn thanks to you. If I lost myself in a maze of English grammar (why so many tenses? Why), please show me a proper way. If you have some writing tips, you can share them too. I'm not picky.

Second of all, I think they're not in Watchtower. Since some of the leaguers (majority of them, I think) can't just go out and chill in space, bringing unknown, potentially hostile and powerful, entity there is kinda stupid if I may say so myself. So it's some on-Earth base, but I know nothing about dc, so don't ask me which one.

Third of all, for the same reason, I have no idea in which teen hero team Phantom ends up, and that's the only reason why Dick isn't once referred to by his hero name. I just don't know if it would be Robin or Nightwing. If it's Young Justice with Tim, he is sleeping now, Alfred finally put him to bed after three all nighters, nobody even dares to think about waking him up.

Fourth of all, I sometimes (often) struggle with writing and conveying feelings even when my hands aren't tied up by foreign language and these stories are supposed to work mostly on feelings, so tell me how I did maybe? If you have time?

Fifth of all, thank you again and have a great day sunshine

# 17

The Justice League try to threaten Danny saying that if he dose not start talking then they will have to hand him over to thr GIW when Danny does not talk they tell him that there going to connect the GIW when they leave his cell and go to the camera they had there heart drop when they see Danny pull out a little vile and what look like a red flower be eaten when they run un they hear him say " I would rather die a second death then go back to the table." before pasting out