Wait For Me

AU where Danny doesn't know what his ghost form means, and is terrified of it.

When Danny had his accident, he managed to keep the full extent of his powers a secret from everyone. He knew it was irrational, but what if Sam and Tucker agreed with his mom and dad about ghosts after seeing his ghost form?

More importantly; how could he ever let Sam and Tucker know that when they'd egged him on, at least a part of him had died? Neither of them would ever forgive themselves for it.

However, suppressing such a huge part of himself resulted in more accidents, and he had to at least concede that he was a meta. A strong one.

The powers that got leaked were; intangibility, flight, ecto-blasts, frost breath, invisibility, and tactile telekinesis disguised as enhanced strength.

That was, naturally, huge. Those were some dangerous powers, and his mom and dad wanted to make sure he got all the help he could.

They signed him up for a Big Brother program run by the Justice League, to put him into contact with another super-powered hero to provide guidance. To help him get used to his powers.

Maybe take him on a few training runs.

Danny let it happen, and kept his ghost form a secret from his mentor as well. He knew that if he went full ghost, the powers he was already displaying would be magnified, and that terrified him.

Danny didn't use his ghost form at all if he could help it. He didn't like the concept of what it was, didn't like that it stripped him of his humanity, didn't like how it felt just as natural to him as his human form. What if he got stuck one day?

What if he used his powers so much, that he died for real?

The potential strength of his own powers scared him so much that his mentor spotted it, and Danny told a very abridged version of why he was so delicate with his own powers; that he'd gotten them from dying. That all of them were a form of death magic. That if he leaned too far into them, would he lose himself?

He didn't know.

He didn't want to find out.

He couldn't bring himself to tell his mentor about his ghost form, not wanting them to grieve a person still very much there.

His mentor, while not agreeing with fearing what was a part of him, did agree to take it slow with their trainings, so as not to overwhelm the fourteen year old.

But superheroes lead turbulent lives.

Danny and his mentor are on a training trip, and one of the mentors villains shows up. But the villain has a new tactic; they have a way to deflect all of Danny and his mentor's abilities.

Or at least the villain thinks they do.

Danny realizes that if he wants to get out of this alive, then ironically, he's going to have to die.

"...I have to win, right? No matter the cost." Danny mutters, dragging himself up.

"No. No, whatever you're about to do, don't!"

Danny ignores his mentor and, with a bright flash of light, lets the cool calm of death wash over him.

Danny goes ghost, in front of his mentor.

Danny's mentor just watched the kid under their watch get consumed by the powers he'd so feared.

Adult Tim learns he appearently has a time traveling, dimension hopping, clone son named Danny who keeps evading Red Hood and Damian and leading them on wild goose chases for fun.

After confirming he was not de aged and he had a solid alibi for the past four days and the blood they had managed to snag from the kid (don't ask how) showed signs of cloning shenanigans did they finally agree on what to do.

Which is why they had the kid tied up like a mummy sitting on the couch in one of Red Hoods safe houses trying to explain to this very sassy teen that they had no intentions to harm him and just wanted to keep him safe and give him a normal life.

This, however, made Danny panic and phase out of his bindings before throwing a smoke bomb on the ground and yelling, "I'M NOT GOING BACK TO SCHOOL!!!" in the same way people talk about prison before escaping.

Red Hood looked Red Robin directly in the eyes before saying, "That one is definitely yours."

Hey. Shakes you by the shoulders. DCxDP where Eobard Thawne is Danny’s cool distant “uncle” that he never sees but always sends in the coolest gifts for the holidays.

~

Danny had grown used to seeing people injured at a surprisingly young age.

He wasn’t injured on the regular, or witness to some sort of extraordinary amount of violence; his parents’ lab was just… very volatile, and they were unprofessionally lax on safety measures on the best of days.

As such, when he saw an unconscious, incredibly injured man wearing some sort of superhero suit in their backyard in the early hours of the morning (he had gotten up to get a glass of water when he heard a thump outside), he didn’t panic, as any young child should have in his situation.

No. Instead, Danny dragged the man inside (with considerable difficulty; despite how thin he was, he was heavy), treated his wounds as best he could (it’s difficult for a child younger than 10 to do stitches, you understand), put a blanket over the man, and went back to bed.

After losing a fight to the Flash and passing out in a random suburban lawn, the last thing Eobard was expecting to wake up to was a small child sitting on the floor in front of him, noisily eating a bowl of cereal.

(He had thought, maybe he would have been found by the Flash and brought to some Justice League holding cell. Or, found by a civilian, and brought to the police. Perhaps, in his feverish state, he had remembered the prison he ended up in from his time, with their brands and chemicals and torturous therapies.)

For some unknown reason, this child had found him, not recognized him as the monster he is (perhaps due to the boy’s age), and helped him—even if his healing factor would have fixed him eventually, having all his parts in the right order certainly sped up the process.

Usually he wouldn’t care for civilians. He’d killed enough that he’d lost count what felt like an eternity ago—and yet, somehow, he felt indebted to this boy. This boy, who had helped him so selflessly, who was so entirely clueless to the evil right in front of him.

This boy, who was all alone in an empty house, whose sister was away, whose parents had gone on a trip and left him behind.

(It didn’t matter the explanation the boy gave for it, Eobard’s mind whispered to itself regardless. Kin. Like calling to like.)

And so, he worked hard to free himself from this debt he had incurred.

He traveled through time, working his way into the family whilst posing as a distant relative. It was remarkably easy; the Fentons didn’t have an incredible memory of their relatives; all he had to do was forge a few papers and mention a few people and he was now “Uncle Eo”.

It was, however, taxing on the mind. These people were absurdly friendly, not to mention talkative. The effort had become a multi-year operation, popping in every now and then for large family gatherings and home visits.

It felt… nice, to be wanted for once. To be noticed in his absence for more than just his status.

To be liked.

He made sure to send the boy a gift on the right holidays, as well as on his birthdays. With his skillset, it wasn’t too difficult to follow him around and see what he liked and wanted. It also wasn’t difficult to spy in when he opened them, to ensure that he had done an acceptable job.

Of course, he couldn’t let this sort of thing cut into his time spent fighting the Flash, so he wasn’t too present. The last thing he wanted was to drag trouble into the boy’s life from his presence.

But then, it happened.

He found out that this boy, and the one known in his time as Phantom, were one and the same.

It was, as a historian, thrilling.

It was, as a villain, horrifying.

In all his travels, he had never intended to involve himself with that mysterious being which shadowed the Justice League. That ghost with the power, in some timelines, to bring about the end of all things.

Of course, he was also capable of doing that, but it isn’t exactly fun to meet someone who’s powers are a match for your own.

Especially if you couldn’t find it in yourself to end him, should he make himself your enemy.

Still, he had a debt to repay, and a boy to look after.

He delivered things to the boy’s room to help him; tactical gloves, a lightweight protective suit, weapons and equipment. All uncredited, since the boy seemed to value the idea of a secret identity.

He took it upon himself to shift the odds in his favor a few times, even; making faster-than-light adjustments to the boy and his combatants during fights to shift the odds in his favor.

Somewhere along the years, he had formed some sort of odd affection for the boy, if he was capable of doing so at all.

And so, when that ghost-boy sought his Uncle Eo out all the way in Central City, carved open and scarred, a distant look in his eyes, he took him in without a second thought.

He would protect this boy, who once had protected him.

I’ve read a lot and I mean a lot of Peter in Gotham fics and I’ve read the ones where Dick is Richard Parker and like one where Jason is Ben Parker. So I propose this, each Bat is someone that Peter knows/knew, even if it’s not a main character, they’re still someone that Peter can recognize even if only barley, EXCEPT for Bruce and Damian.

Dick- Richard Parker (obviously)

Jason- Ben Parker

Barbara- May Parker

Tim- Tony Stark (Peter has to resist the urge to call him Dad.)

Stephanie- I was thinking maybe an EMT, or nurse he remembers from his uncle’s shooting? Or maybe even Sue Storm??

Duke- Rhodey

Cassandra- Yuriko Watanabe maybe? I only sort of know her from the Spider-man ps4 game so.

The reason for Alfred/Bruce/Damian not being someone he knows/knew is because there’s no Gotham in his world so there’s no Bruce Wayne.

Tim Drake wakes up one day in a room he doesn't recognize with bandages wrapped around his throbbing head. He takes stock of his surroundings and realizes he's in bed with a man he doesn't recognize. He freaks out internally and lifts the covers find them both clothed in pajamas. Relieved, he tries to roll the other man off of him to escape, which was much harder than he first assumed it to be due to him just snuggling closer into Tim's shoulder and chest.

Tim eventually manages to escape the cuddle trap and investigates the house they were in. He finds his own wallet and is shocked when his id says he's 39 years old! His reflection in the mirror didn't look a day over 27! The last thing he remembered was fighting some of Riddlers goons and then nothing. No win, no loss no hit to the head, nothing. The memory just fades out. Did he have amnesia?

He found the other man's wallet near his own and opened it up. Oh boy, if he was shocked at his own id then he was absolutely floored by the id of one Daniel James Drake, not to mention the little marriage license tucked in behind it.

Tim was nearly 40 and married. Wth happened?!

Once Daniel wakes he shows to be very loving and affectionate. Also he makes the best coffee Tim has ever had (possibly why he married him) and gives him some pain medicine after checking his bandages. Daniel, or Danny as he preferred to be called, kissed his forehead and informed him of Bruce potentially coming over for dinner tonight to check in on him.

Tim is a little caught up staring at thier wedding photos. Dick was crying into a handkerchief in the background of a few and Bruce was even caught dabbing his eye in one while a young redhead he didn't know, probly Dannys relative, patted his arm.

Tim is pretty shook and isn't even sure if any of this is real. It seemed too good to be true.

Peter Parker meets batfam fics are funny to me because I think it’s bold of y’all to assume the batfam wouldn’t take one look at Peter, decide “oh that’s just a tim who still holds childhood innocence and wonder” and adopt him straight on the spot

Peter: *in Gotham for the first time* oh my gosh! *snaps photos* these buildings are so interesting! Bruce: *watching wearily* interesting? This thing is crumbling. Peter: exactly. Very good photo opportunities. Bruce: hmm.

Peter: *scarfing down the batburger Jason bought him* this is really good! Haha I just wish I had a coffee to go with it, I have a lot of studying to do tonight. Jason: *eyes narrow under helmet* coffee? Peter: *completely blazing past* so anyway are you like, the Friendly Neighborhood Crime Lord or—

Peter: *goes on long-winded chemistry rant* Damian: *staring* it’s like . . . . Jason: *leaning over to Damian* yeah. It’s like reading a translated book where everything is just slightly off but still similar enough to make you squint Damian: that is not the analogy I would have chosen, but okay Jason: hey as long as it continues to be chemistry and not technology. One of those I can handle moderately well. The other still sounds like gibberish. Damian: *raises brow* Jason: okay, yeah, I have no clue what he’s saying

they just bring Peter to the manor one day and are like “hey Tim, here’s your twin from another universe. Corrupt him with coffee addiction, murderous tendencies or general jadedness and we’ll announce Red Robin is going to finally address the copyright infringement allegations against that burger franchise”

Batfam Eldritch Horror

AKA "inspired by that one post about Danny being a flerken and living with the Batfam" idea! Except he looks pants-shitting, "oh dear god, what is that" terrifying.

I just love slightly feral animal-like Danny in a... shape. It's not immediately identifiable as a cat or dog, maybe he has a few too many legs that kind of look like a tail at one point? And when he skitters up walls like a particularly small dog-sized tarantula, it's terrifying enough to make seasoned criminals squeal.

Let's imagine Danny had some sort of accident with a portal and was Wizard-of-Oz'd into Gotham, a literal hellmouth of a city with so many curses that it'd make John Constantine start to sweat. And this city also has... weird Ecto. (In my brain, there's a connection between the Lazarus Pit and ectoplasm, like pit waters are the sewers of ectoplasm or something.) It's enough for Danny to still exist but he can't seem to stay human-shaped. It's better than being a Blob Ghost, but not by much. His fur-scales-feathers-skin-something look dark as the midnight sky.

And who should stumble on this weird-looking Thing aside from Damian, secret animal-whisperer and passionate Pokemon collector? Damian, who known what a scared feral animal looks like and who can coax it into his arms? It doesn't matter that Danny has maybe five or six limbs. He can make himself slightly smaller at will (not in a Magical-Girl-Transformation way, mind you. When he changes shape, there's the distinct snap of bones breaking and wet, fleshy sounds of his organs, muscles, ligaments, tendons, everything shifting).

Damian has literally been trained by the League of Assassins under the Demon Head. He's likely seen more people's insides than an ER surgeon; he's killed more than enough people in incredibly grotesque and violent ways to be totally unphased by Danny changing shapes. Maybe he'll actually be sort of touched, a bit pleased, that his new Thing pet would change itself so violently so Damian could hold it.

What would Damian name it? He's outwardly violent and aggressive towards others, but pretty passionate and heartfelt once he cares for someone. Alfred the Cat comes to mind. So maybe Damian takes one look at this supposedly scary Thing and thinks, "It looks like Father."

As in, Dark as Night? A shadow inspiring fear amongst criminals? Spoken about in whispers, sometimes laughed off as a joke but still cautiously reverent, just in case?

Danny's new name is Batman.

Of course, this causes some confusion when Damian comes home to Wayne Manor and says, "Batman and I will retire to my room." In front of Bruce, who naturally and kind-of-correctly assumes his son picked up another animal while on patrol. Bruce had a hard time explaining this to a very concerned Dick, who was holding up a wooden stake and a bible (Dick totally wasn't going to kill Bruce if he turned out to be a vampire but it's always good to be prepared!), after Damian apparently made a wayward comment that "Batman refuses to eat anything besides raw meat."

And Danny is having a great time!! Sure, Damian treats him like a pet, but he gets affectionate pats on the head, incredibly expensive steak, and a soft place to sleep. He awkwardly dragged several blankets from the living room to Damian's room to make a bed in the kid's closet. (Alfred watched from behind the couch as this six-legged hairy-ish catlike Thing determinedly waddled with three blankets in its mouth, occasionally tripping on its own legs. He went back to dusting the crown moulding silently. So, that's why Master Damian requested uncooked sirloin steak twelve times in last few days. Hm.)

So, the Batfam accept there is another Batman in the family. Except they haven't actually seen Danny (aside from Alfred and Damian).

Until Dick needs to talk to Damian and goes into the boy's room. But it's empty?? He could've sworn he heard somebody talking or something in here, but maybe not? He turns to leave and then hears it again: a soft kind of thump coming from Damian's armoire. A shit-eating grin spreads across his face as his Older Brother Instincts kick in. Jason used to hide in closets and try to scare Dick when he was little; Damian, despite being a child soldier and trained assassin, was still a little kid at heart, right? The kid's clearly hiding from Dick to scare him or something.

(Damian was in the Batcave, studiously typing "Google, what non-Earth animals reside in Gotham, please?" into the Batcomputer. I like to think that Damian uses the internet like a 85-year old man who thinks a Google employee personally replies to each question.)

So, Dick creeps forward and abruptly slams open the armoire doors!! Only to let out an unholy shriek of terror as Danny, who was taking a nap, frantically skitters out of the closet looking like a Frankenstein cat-dog with bat wings. He crawls under Damian's bed as Dick scrambles into the hallway.

The cat-dog-Thing is out of the bag now. Damian looks utterly deadpan as he explains that Batman is his pet and not to concern themselves with it; Bruce, Tim, Jason, and a white-faced Dick disagreed. They need to see it to make sure the Thing won't harm anybody, especially considering it's fucking living with them!! How do they know it won't try to eat them in their sleep??

"Batman does not eat raw human meat, Todd. Why are you concerned now? It has resided with us for two months now."

"Two months?" Dick nearly faints (again).

"Yes, Batman is very well-behaved, Master Dick." Alfred, who's been feeding Danny for the last two months and has seen all the little quirks the Thing has, offers a consoling half-smile.

Ultimately, the Batfam decide to keep Batman in exchange for scary dog privileges. They'll have to think of another name for Danny considering having two Batmans in Gotham would be pretty confusing (especially if one of them decided they did, in fact, like raw human flesh).

More half baked ideas idk what to do with

1. Danny is singing along to the instrumental version of a broadway musical song (I was thinking "the other side" from the greatest show on earth) in an old abandoned-ish theater he found while exploring the Infinite Realms.

He gets startled by a guy in a red domino mask when he starts singing the second person in the duet.

Danny: *surprised Pikachu face*

Danny: *Happily singing the duet with this guy with a red bat symbol on his chest. It probably means nothing. Probably*

Meanwhile RR watches from the shadows, recording everything for blackmail

2. Dick has been having a reoccurring nightmare about a boy who looks just like him wearing a white and black hazmat outfit.

The boy always screams in terror or pain as he falls into a Lazarus green void, hand outstretched as if he were reaching out for Dick to save him as he falls into oblivion. Then the large metal doors to an octagonal doorway slam shut, blocking Dicks view.

Dick wakes up in a cold sweat

3. Danny, as a civilian in Gotham, trusts his local vigilantes way too much. It may be a byproduct of him being a former vigilante himself, but if he has a problem he thinks a bat would like to know about, he tells them and is generally happy to vibe with them

Aka he leads Robin to injured/stuck animals that Danny himself -as a totally normal non-meta teen who totally has parents and a safe place to live- can't free/cure.

Hes an informant to Red Hood

Hes practically seducing Red Robin with new inventions

The Batgirls check up on him every so often for the tea and to raid his snacks

Oracle saw him using his powers and has decided to mentor him on the down low. They exchange favors often.

Ect.

Oh, and he's doing this all while "disguised" with an over-sized hoodie whose hood no one can see into the darkness of.

4. The League of Assassins think Danny is some type of god/miracle child and will do anything to get thier hands on him.

Danny thinks this would be fine if not for the stabby nature of the cult chasing him around. He doesn't want to be tortured for his sass. No thank you.

5. Danny finds a clone baby in a tube, and upon realizing it was braindead and had no soul he overshadowed the tiny body. He didn't really have much of a choice. He had taken massive damage in a fight against a monster in the IR and didn't really wanna find out how far his "die and resurrect self at will" powers went.

He did not expect to sleep for years and years in that tiny tube in that abandoned lab.

Aka one of Tims friends find a younger version of Tim sunning himself on a beach drinking lemonade

Jason is in civilian clothing absolutely plastered at a Crime Alley bar when Joker breaks out of Arkham, and while still drunk he abruptly decides he’s sick of all this dramatic bullshit and just. kills the Joker. tracks him down, kills him without any fanfare, and ditches. it was executed flawlessly, incredible really considering his intoxication levels at the time. he only slipped up a teeny-tiny amount.

because he got seen leaving the murder scene. in civilian clothing. and then got caught once more via a security camera as he was disappearing back into Crime Alley. and the bats fucking saw that footage.

Bruce Wayne, an emotional wreck, just found out that Jason is alive, apparently just murdered the Joker, and is now living alone in Crime Alley (and who knows in what conditions?! he’s legally dead, there’s no legal way for him to make money, his poor son might be homeless.) and for some reason he isn’t coming home. Bruce is in despair, getting worse the longer they can’t track Jason down. finally, at his wits end, he decides to ask the help of the one other vigilante figure that seems to know Crime Alley better than the bats, and that might have some less-savoury contacts that could be of better help tracking down a legally dead boy.

the Red Hood, struggling not to laugh hysterically in Batman’s face, has never been more excited to accept a job in his LIFE. he has no plans on how he’s going to fuck with Bruce just yet, but by god is he going to do something.

I think Duke should be immortal in the "cannot die" sense and Jason should be immortal in the "cannot stay dead" sense and that they should keep this a secret from everyone including each other. And then they should both get caught in a situation that Absolutely Should Kill Them Instantly, miraculously not die, and then be like:

Like Jason shields Duke from some massive explosion or something, and Duke is horrified because he thinks Jason just pointlessly sacrificed himself for someone who would've been fine anyway - only for Jason to very casually come back from the dead, look at a completely unscathed Duke Thomas, and go, "Hey, what the fuck."

And Duke should look at a freshly revived Jason Todd and be like, "Me what the fuck? No you what the fuck."

And they end up both agreeing to not say a word about this to the rest of the Bats. Which poses issues. Because here you have a pair of unhinged vigilante siblings that do not fear death, that additionally now know they don't have to fear each other's deaths either, both unwilling to give anything less than everything they have to do what they think is right (and/or what they really, really want to).

So. Some things that happen in consequence:

Duke throws Jason off a fifty-story building in pursuit of some shoplifting rich asshole that was caught on camera insulting Duke's favorite metal band and being a classist fuck about it. This does, incidentally, re-traumatize Nightwing, who was ten feet away and not prepared to see his little brother yeeted off the side of a building, no grapple in sight - but it also traumatizes the shoplifter when Jason lands right in front of him, grotesquely knits himself back together, and rises from the ground in a distinctly horrifying fashion just to beat the shit out of him. So Duke takes the win.

Jason shoots Duke in the head to get him to stop shining light in his eyes in the middle of a gunfight. He does stop, but only because Batman shows up out of nowhere, and now Duke gets to pretend to be grievously injured while Batman yells at Jason about "self-control" and "maturity" and "putting teammates at risk." Meanwhile Duke is playing up this horrible concussion that he doesn't even have. Jason is seething. (Duke gets checked out at Leslie's. They convince her to lie for them by appealing to her inner petty bitch.)

Jason gets his payback a few months later by poisoning himself at an undercover op and subsequently forcing Duke to drag his dead body around a mob-owned nightclub for like half an hour trying to convince seasoned criminals that this brick shithouse of a man sprawled awkwardly across his back is just... really wasted. Totally not a corpse.

Both Jason and Duke get caught in many, many, many explosions after that initial reveal, and it's always terrifying for the rest of the Bats. It gets to a point where Batman refuses to partner Duke and Jason together for literally anything, because they always act fucking insane. Big metal vehicle moving hundreds of miles an hour towards an unsuspecting civilian? That's okay! Jason will just throw Duke in front if it. Unknown, volatile substance potentially being used by a notorious serial killer to murder his victims? No lab testing required! Duke will just pour a whole pint of the stuff on Jason's bare arm to see how it reacts. Bomb that can't be disarmed? Why wait for backup when these two psychopaths can just grab the thing and jump into the harbor? Like, genuinely. The stress. Bruce is one particularly traumatic incident away from actually considering therapy.