Danny is adopted; Jack and Maddie just kinda found him one day and took him in.

Multiple years later, they notice he’s apparently started to develop powers without any clear cause (that they’re aware of).

And they remember about Superman’s backstory, and their brains connect the dots.

Clearly Danny must have been a lost alien kid, and his new powers are just that heritage finally kicking in!

So obviously as good parents they have to try to find other alien kids for him to connect with about his experiences!

Their running theory is that Danny is a mimic/shapeshifting type alien that copies the limits, abilities, and appearance of other sapient lifeforms. This is what allowed Danny to pass as human so well over the years!

But then the portal opened and their poor boy was exposed to ghosts! His alien biology, starved of the kind of biodiversity his species must be used to, mistook the ghosts for sapient lifeforms and began to mimic them too.

They hope that introducing Danny to other aliens will give his mimic instincts a much healthier outlet. Danny is a living boy after all, it can’t be good for him to imitate ghosts.

Make a wish for a corpse

So Sam has a maniacal plan to get back at the Justice league for not believing them when they needed help.

She submits a make a wish application for her dead friend Danny has a terrible illness that could cause his heart to stop at any moment, doctors believe he may only have a few weeks left to live.

All he wants is to meet Martian Manhunter and the Justice league. She stipulated that they should absolutely not tell him it’s a make a wish thing so it doesn’t remind him about what’s coming.

Danny bears no ill will towards the league and has no idea what’s going on. When he wins tickets to meet the Justice league he flips his shit

Fun fact: Danny has developed a sort of narcolepsy where he can and will fall asleep at random times so long as he feels safe and he’s incredibly hard to wake up.

Danny’s heart stops any time he falls asleep.

So Danny is having the time of his after life, he spent most of the afternoon with Martian Manhunter, whose also having the time of his life because it’s so rare that he’s the favorite hero, and now they’re all sitting down to eat.

They’re all talking and Danny starts to doze off and just passes out then and there.

Panic ensues and all the league members are traumatized by the child that just died right in front of them.

They’re all laughing with the kid, Danny, as he starts getting drowsy. His body gradually shuts down and his laughter gets softer. More distant. Theres confusion at first when the boy that had been nothing but excitement and giggles for the past half hour slumps over on his lunch. His laughter petering off before he lands face first onto his sandwich.

Martian Manhunter, who was sitting right next to him feels as his thoughts cease completely. That doesn’t happen when people sleep. That only happens when…

Oh.

Oh.

He shoots up to his feet the moment they cease. Superman not far behind with an expression that conveys his feeling of how sudden it felt. When the rhythmic too-slow beating of his heart just, stopped.

The other leavers present share confused glances at eachother trying to peace together what they were missing when J’onn falters from his upright posture and crumped back down. They see as he places a tender hand on the boys back.

The cafeteria is in complete silence now as more JL members catch on.

There are gasps, murmurs of no no. J’onn looks up at them all from where he still hadn’t moved since placing his hand on Danny’s back.

“He has,” there’s a beat before the words they had been dreading for the past couple seconds that felt like years hits them fully, “he has passed on.”

Ok. You asked for more angst in the reposts. Here it is.

Danny knows about his death narcolepsy ok? He knows it looks like he dies when he goes to sleep. So in order to prevent well meaning people from breaking his ribs doing CPR or god forbid electrocuting him with an AED, he has Do Not Resuscitate marked in his medical records and wears a DNR medical bracelet.

So. From the JL’s point of view a child that they’ve just spent bonding with died in their very midst. And they’re not allowed to try to save him. They’re forbidden from trying to bring him back. To them this child, so full of humor decided he wanted to go when it was his time to go and not look for second chances at prolonging his life.

Do they respect his wishes? They must. As heroes they cannot violate the law to perform non consented medical procedures. But they are heroes. How can they stand back and let a child die when they have a chance at saving him? Saving people is what they do. They can’t just ignore a victim just because the victim tells them to leave them behind.

Every hero has a different opinion. The ones in favor of respecting Danny’s agency try to fight off those who want to resuscitate him anyway.

I think Batman would start CPR no matter who stood in his way. Crossing boundaries is his bread and butter and on top of that Bruce has ✨Trauma✨. He’s probably having flashbacks of not being in time to save Jason. If you really wanna get angsty, maybe he even believes Danny IS Jason for a hot second.

And Danny. Poor, poor Danny who fell asleep because he felt so happy and safe. Gets a rude awakening of a large man looming over him while his chest hurts like hell. And if this is post bad reveal/vivisection? Danny panics and mistakes Batman for Jack Fenton. He starts screaming for his “dad” to stop, please don’t do this!

And then? I don’t know, maybe the JL think Batman performed necromancy to force the soul of his dead son into the corpse of the boy who just died in their care. He brought the wrong boy back to life against his will. It takes everyone’s help to separate Batman from the struggling boy and lock them in separate rooms.

Batman is contained because he very publicly lost it and defiled a corpse. Danny is contained because they don’t know what kind of entity a soul kidnapped from the afterlife and shoved into someone else’s corpse is and how it will behave.

Danny thinks the JL saw him die and revive and now are locking him up for being a half dead abomination.

The Man, The Myth, The Fanfic

dcxdp ficlet

When Danny first became Phantom he was desperate for guidance. He read every article and watched every video on every hero and vigilante known.

He started to fantasize about how Phantom and the wider hero community would meet. How they would help him, or see him in action and call him a hero. Ask him to team up.

He didn't realize others in his town were having the same fantasies about their local hero teaming up with the hot shots. (didn't realize he had become a heart throb)

Didn't realize that that meant there was fanfiction.

Fast forward a few years and he's a semi retired superhero living in Gotham or wherever, going to school trying to make ends meet. Normal person stuff.

He occasionally has to 'go ghost' to handle a wayward spirit or whatever but the world is pretty much past the need for him.

Justice League Dark occasionally hits him up for info or as an assist but it's unclear if they know Phantom and Fenton are the same person and it's far to late for Danny to ask at this point so he just goes with it.

Until JLD and The regular JL are working on something together and Danny gets called in as an expert.

Now, many, not all but many, of the other hero's are aware that there is fanfiction about them on the internet. The bat brood especially (if they are responsible for a fair bit of it-that was no one's business but theirs) was well aware of it. (and probably the Flashes)

So, they had come across these "Phantom teams up with the Justice League" fics over the years. They just assumed it was a meme character. An OC that had broken containment and become part of internet lore (especially since all the early versions were from the same few accounts with overlapping IP addresses).

And then 'Danny Phantom' himself floated in with the signature DP on his black hazmat suit.

They didn't realize it was him at first.

It had been YEARS since they'd read any fics with him in them. Tim had lost a whole ass spleen in that time.

So they introduced themselves and ignored the part of their brains that said they knew this guy. They figured they had met him as a civilian or when he was alive.

It was little things at first. A name drop here. A throw away line there. Details that seemed eerily familiar and all too foreign simultaneously.

Danny, for his part, still didn't know his classmates had written about him way back when. Had never drifted into those corners of the internet. Never had the time or a reason too. He was just happy to be able to help out the hero's he had spent so much of his life attempting to emulate.

And then one of his old rogues stopped by, demanding his attention.

They were easy to redirect.

Not even worth mentioning their appearance to Sam or Tucker later when they talked about their day/week.

Except. Their appearance and propensity for announcing their name and purpose for being there was specific enough to be remembered. Even years later by people who had only ever read angsty RPF self-insert versions written by teenagers.

Tim flagged it first, scrambled for his phone so he could pull up an old account and scroll back in his read history.

Barry wasn't far behind. (though he found the fics first). Then Cass.

While Danny was sending his frenemy home, his coworkers were busy having their world view upended. Because if Phantom was Real. And (at least one) of his foes was Real.

Then what else in those fics was real?

The alternate reality? Pirates only kids can see? Genies that take wishes too seriously? Government agents violating the MPA? The FENTONS!¿‽!‽ The whole town being taken to said alternate reality? Shrink rays? where was the line???

"Hey dude? Phantom?"

"hmm"

"Are you from Amity Park?"

"That is the name of my current haunt. Yes. uh...why?"

and then proceeded to be the most awkward and embarrassing few minutes of their lives as one came to the realization that there was fanfiction about him and his classmates (and his parents) and the others admitted to having read said stories in their free time.

OK, can I throw in some fan fiction? Writer Jason Todd

So Danny and Jason are the same age

Biggest difference is Jason was a fanfic fan and Danny wasn’t

And Jason fell so deep he was mainly looking for a wonder, woman and sometimes Batman and a lot of really stupid ones about the justice league members. He didn’t like because he thought it was funny.

Eventually, he fell into writing and eventually he made friends with people

And then he found a weird online friend named

Number one fan of Phantom 1444

And he was a cool guy in our but he was really into his OC phantom anyway the two became pretty good friends and eventually became each other‘s beta readers

But Phantom was very popular for a while, and he eventually blew up even to the more wide range, a fanfic hero writers

Anyway, Jason eventually started to think he might be a real person and made a document and then his life started to go downhill stuff kept happening, but that document kept growing

And he was planning on telling me later once he had a proper living situation, but he died

Now enter Tim Drake robin enthusiast

Tim always liked fanfiction. He always read and wrote Batman and Robin.

And after Robin died a lot of sad stuff happened, but then Tim was Robin again and no one seemed to notice

And so one night when Tim had a particularly bad one, he decide to scroll through the Batman and Robin tag

And there was a story called ghost of Robin and Phantom

And it was all about Robin, the robin Tim replaced

Doing his own adventures with some OC and it made him cry because his robin got to keep on going on his adventures

That was the day Tim Drake decided he liked an OC

And think spiral

And spiraled some more

Anyway, Tim Drake is the second in command of the Danny Phantom fan club

So what was once a fan club made out of entirely Amity Parker’s is now half filled with non-Amity Parker mainly because of one known as Tim Drake and his really good fanfiction

This would be an amazing way for Red Hood to be found out.

Because Tim sees Phantom, who is apparently a real Ghost hero, talking down the Red Hood from a blind rage. Robin was the only one patrolling this area, technically wasn't actually supposed to be in Crime Alley because of the rogue currently threatening the specter with burning all his bacon if he didn't hand the guns back over.

"You really need to calm down, Hood. All that stress isn't good for your heart. You'll be in your second grave before long."

"You being an annoying little shit is what's going to kill me!" The modulated voice bellowed.

Phantom stuck his tongue out in response, blowing a raspberry.

"You're such a party pooper. Did you ever think of just hunting down the Joker? Getting revenge on your murderer would surely help a revenant like you find peace."

"I already told you! Either my dad or my brother need to avenge me! I need them to prove they cared! That I wasn't just a tool to be used and thrown away!"

"Sheesh. Can't you just do it yourself and get into family counseling?"

"I could. I could do that. But I want my dad to prove I meant more to him than the criminals he protects."

"Then ask him to do it? Duh."

The spirit dips in close and phases the helmet off Red Hood, getting a startled "Hey!" Before floating just out of reach again.

"Come on, birdy! You want to go out and be self destructive? Get the helmet. Or, you could go get some actual damn rest?"

"Fuck you!"

"Gladly! But that means you're going back inside and going to bed. Cause I'm not doing it on the street. Dumbass."

Tim watched as Phantom floated there, bickering at Jason like they were an old and married couple. Jason stomping back into his safe house with Phantom phasing into its wall.

~

Tim now has the perfect opportunity to make Jason like him.

And it started with kidnapping the Joker, when he busted out of Arkham, and dragging the psycho to the safe house he knew was being occupied. He also stopped on the way to get smoothies he knew Jason had once liked.

Knocking on the door lead to Jason visibly doing a double take while wearing the Red Hood helmet.

"Uh? Kid? What you got there?"

"A smoothie!" Tim cheered as he gestured with his own cup towards the cup holder with two more waiting. "I got you and your boyfriend some too." Then he lifted the hand holding an unconscious Joker. "And a gift! Didn't know if you wanted me to just give him to you to get rid of? Or if you wanted to watch me do it?"

"That's... actually kinda sweet."

"And family dinner night is tomorrow. Alfred would be really happy to see you there. I'll probably be in a holding cell, though. Or in Arkham."

"Why would you be in either place?"

"Cause I took the Joker with the intention of killing him. Batman will fire me. Especially since you're alive. So he doesn't need me anymore."

"That's fucked up. I just got a new brother and that bastard thinks you're somehow not good enough? Come in, I made shrimp scampi with scallops. You're staying with us."

"Thought you wanted to kill me?"

"That's just my anger issues because I came back from the dead wrong. And am a revenant. You're currently handing me my killer, and saying I don't even have to be the one that does it. You have a place at my table, even if you don't have one at the Bat's."

Tim might not have thought things through. But can you blame him? He not only found out that Jason, his Robin his hero was alive- do revenants count as living? Was back, but also that his OTP was true! His ship had sailed! Till Death do us Start was canon!

So yeah. Maybe he was a little manic with fanboy glee when he’d captured the Joker. And maybe he was starting to come down a little from that high.

(Mild gore and drowning and vomit below the cut. But uh, the Joker dies?)

Jason: No, no. You`re right. Except you`re a bird too, Timberly.

Tim: I mean....

Jason: And the only pig here is Dick. So, you know...

Tim, 48 hrs without sleep and still kind of angry about the whole Damian is now robin thing: You know what... you`re right too. Lets destroy him. Partners?

Yanno, "Yeet The Robin" is a valid, recurring battle tactic. For the Batfam, and variably for any team they are on.

The only thing dictating who gets thrown is who can throw who, so. Not only do none of them EVER grow out of using it, as the "Robin" in question, regardless of mantle or age or size (superpowered teammates!)...

It would be entirely Valid, to literally throw Jason at stuff. If he is awake aware and cooperating enough to at minimum recover and react properly before impact.

The main problem is how difficult it is for most of his smaller sibs to pick him up and toss him. (Cass probably can, somehow. Most others need some momentum manipulation to help or mechanical assistance. I'm sure if Jay cooperated he and Dick could figure out how to launch each other with minimal injury to themselves.)

I stand by claims that Yeet The Robin experience is why Jason could manage when chucked casually around by Artemis and Bizzarro. 🤣

Inside Gotham, Bruce and Jason throw Cass, Steph, Tim, and Damian. Outside of Gotham, all bats get thrown by their meta teammates.

There's a fic with this premise, but I can't find it.

I had to draw it. Angry birb Jason needed to be set free. Tim and Jason “get help”

@sc14-weirdo @momo-minomo

Look-alike

In recent years there is a charity look-alike competition based around the Wayne family, and at the end a big picture is taken with the family and the look-alikes standing next to each other. Now, the thing about this competition is that everyone jokes about it being a way for Bruce to scope out any black haired blue eyed children that he might want to adopt.

Danny entered as a joke, 100% not expecting for anything to come out of it. Sure he matched the signature look, but so did a hundred other people in Gotham. There was no reason for him to be picked out of everyone that applied. Of course that is what he thought before he was standing on stage next to his look-alike.

It gets even worse for Danny when everyone starts saying that he is the closest doppelganger they’ve ever seen, and questioning if the two are actually related to one another. These comments would be something he would just sweep under the rug, but now the whole Wayne family is looking at him with curious eyes.

Ingredients:

Danny is completely unrelated to Bruce.

Good Fenton Parents, after good reveal, so no emotional reason for adoption

No legal reasons either bc Danny is newly eighteen (contest rules specify adults only)

GiW disbanded, but Anti-Ecto acts are still in effect. So Danny is absolutely not allowing anyone to look at his DNA

Bruce asks as Bruce, backstage, pushes too hard, Danny protests too loudly, now they have the press on their hands.

Clark steps in to head off other reporters by implying this is his scoop, back off

Now Danny is freaking about pulitzer-winning reporter Clark Kent also being on his case

Bats try to get his DNA later, as Bats. Can't quite manage. Its like the hotel room is freaking haunted

Danny invisinbly swiping his own tooth- and hair- brushes, mugs and utensils, anything with DNA, right under Bats' noses

Vicky Vale goes to Amity Park, gets mercilessly bullied by the locals

Bruce tries to use Lawyers, it's somewhat effective

Clockwork assures Danny to let it play out

Danny is compelled to surrender DNA, under the pretext he might be a clone. Because clone rights are also nonexistent

Is proven to not be related, but then immediately arrested as an ecto-entity.

League says what? And takes custody of Danny until someone can explain why is the govt persecuting a meta under some obscure environmental law

Huge legal battle, Supreme Court, congressional hearings, the works (dear USians, have some trauma to work through? Civic power fantasy time! Go wild)

Meanwhile Danny hanging around on the Watchtower, doing his degree online, guilting any hero who wants to study his powers

In the end both ghost and clone rights are appended to meta protection act

Danny politely chatting with Batman while he's suing Bruce Wayne for damages

That last ingredient! Chef’s kiss. It makes the whole recipe.

Also consider some headlines:

Or

Or

Look-alike

In recent years there is a charity look-alike competition based around the Wayne family, and at the end a big picture is taken with the family and the look-alikes standing next to each other. Now, the thing about this competition is that everyone jokes about it being a way for Bruce to scope out any black haired blue eyed children that he might want to adopt.

Danny entered as a joke, 100% not expecting for anything to come out of it. Sure he matched the signature look, but so did a hundred other people in Gotham. There was no reason for him to be picked out of everyone that applied. Of course that is what he thought before he was standing on stage next to his look-alike.

It gets even worse for Danny when everyone starts saying that he is the closest doppelganger they’ve ever seen, and questioning if the two are actually related to one another. These comments would be something he would just sweep under the rug, but now the whole Wayne family is looking at him with curious eyes.

I love Clark being the reigning champion of Bruce lookalikes. In that vein, I want Danny to absolutely not be related to them, but they have had enough surprises in their life that they gotta check. And boy does that open an entirely different can of worms.

Please let me do my job

Danny somehow manages to get a job working as a server during a gala event. The uniform sucks, but he wasn’t about to complain when he was desperate for any job right now. He had to flee from Amity after his parents discovered that he was Phantom with almost nothing, but the clothes on his back. So the uniform was definitely worth it with how much he was getting paid. 

What wasn’t worth it though was the amount of rich fruitloops that have approached him. Everytime he turned around someone was there and wanted to ask him questions. Asking things like why he was dressed as a server, and calling him by the name of Tim. It wasn't hard to figure out that everyone thought he was Tim Drake-Wayne. 

He knows that the Waynes are known for black hair and blue eyes, but for him to be getting this much attention for it is just getting ridiculous at this point. Danny would have just brushed it under the rug as it being a rich people are just weird thing. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Dick Grayson, the oldest Wayne child, had grabbed him coming out of the kitchen and into a secluded area. 

“Tim, what are you doing; why are you dressed as a server? Everyone here knows your face, now is not the time to be going undercover!” Dick whispers while looking for anyone that might be watching them. “Go change back into your normal clothes. Well talk about whatever this is back in the cave ok?” 

The fact that Tim Drake goes undercover was probably not something Danny was supposed to know. Also, did he say cave? As in the Bat-Cave? A rock settles in Danny stomach as he realizes that the Wayne's are the bats. Which is definitely not something he should know.

Before Danny can think of anything to say that will get him out of this situation without any problems a voice is already calling out, "Dick! What are you doing back here?"

The owner of the voice is of course none other than Tim Drake himself. This wasn’t going to end well Danny thought to himself as he watch Dick looked between himself and Tim.

How did this become his life.

“Hold this.” Danny took the last champagne flute off his tray, (given to him by another server oddly enough) and threw it back like a shot before handing it over to Dick.

“What-?”

Danny ignored the other’s spluttering and proceeded to use his now empty tray to beat himself over the head.

BANG BANG BANG

“Hey, stop! What are you doing!?”

“Trying to induce memory loss.” Danny replied.

BANG BANG-

Tim Drake ripped the tray out of Danny’s hands before another blow could connect but the momentum still had him almost punching himself in the face.

He looked at his hand considering. It wouldn’t be as effective as the tray and without using ghost strength but-

Dick grabbed both of Danny’s hands before he could follow through and keep hitting himself.

“That’s not necessary! I mean sure it’s embarrassing that I mistook you for my brother but hey, half the gala already did that! Besides it’s no secret I’m a bit of a dummy. You didn’t learn anything worth risking brain damage for!” Dick blathered in a tone learned right from Brucie Wayne.

“Right.” Danny looked suspiciously between Tim and Dick, their faces perfect masks of confused concern. Danny’s head began to pound. Well if they wanted to pretend nothing happened and ignore the fact he knew they were Bats then who was he to argue?

“Right.” Danny repeated. A bit of sweat dripped down his neck. “I’ll just get back to work then. May I have the tray back Mr. Drake?”

Tim frowned. “I don’t think you should be going back just yet. You could have hurt yourself. Let’s get you checked for a concussion first at least. Danny.” Tim said, after a glance at his name tag.

Danny sighed. It looked like Tim wasn’t going to let him go so easily as Dick was. He sighed again, his throat feeling oddly numb.

“Come along, let’s go to the kitchens. There’s ice and it should be quieter there.”

Let me get you alone to interrogate you Danny mentally translated. He closed his eyes against the spots in his vision. Whatever. The faster he got it over with the faster he could put this nonsense behind him.

“Fine.” Danny took a step in Tim’s direction only to stagger as if his legs had lost all structural integrity. The hallway tilted under his knees and the floral patterns of the carpet began to swirl into screaming faces.

“Huh.” Danny mumbled into the floor. Since when was his face on the floor? Was he one of the screaming faces now too? “I duh think dis a cu-cusion” he slurred.

The last thing he felt was Dick’s hands on his pulse as Tim said something about poison. Then Danny blacked out.