Fuck it. I'm posting this in low quality, on a secondary blog, without the other comics I planned, because "jaxed off" has me in tears.
Aaaand... quality drop.
Tim and Danny are twins, Danny was given up for adoption by the Drakes when he was a baby and Tim was never told he has a brother.
After a reveal gone bad, Danny, Jazz, Sam and Tucker became thieves after closing the portal. They mainly target supernatural or cursed items. Their target, a necklace, is being held in a museum with their in being a private event to show off the piece before it's sent back to its owner.
The heist would've gone well if Tim hadn't also been in attendance.
------
'Lmao and here I thought you didn't want to be here'
It was a text from Dick.
Not exactly the strangest thing to happen when Tim was forced to attend an event.
He'd been benched after a mission resulted in a minor concussion. He'd personally been planning on going over his paperwork for Wayne Enterprises, but apparently that wasn't 'rest', instead he was sent off to be bored out of his mind at some art function. He didn't have time to prepare notes or even do any real research. But he still had Dick who had apparently been dragged along as his babysitter (And was fortunately interested in the items on display)
They'd been texting throughout the night. Dick fed him enough information to be mildly interested in topics of conversation, and when that failed the strange history of the main display. An old necklace that supposedly was connected to a string of deaths and all around misfortune.
So no, the text wasn't strange, but what was, was the photo attached. It was a picture of a man, grinning and chatting amicably with a woman whom he could barely make out as the collection's curator. His hair was longer than Tim's, tied neatly back to be clear of his glasses and to give clear view of the man's face.
Tim's face.
There was a clone at the event.
'can u get me another pic?'
Tim was now significantly more interested. Tim could identify the room they were in, housing the main display and it was about two rooms over from where he was currently hiding out. He could get there easily enough.
Dick sent him a thumbs up before replying with another, distinctly more uncomfortable photo of the man. He smiled awkwardly and Tim could finally get a better look at his face. Tim's brows scrunched together. A lichtenburg scar stretched up from beneath his collar and trailed along his jaw and in the light the man's eyes almost looked green.
He ran the photo through his facial recognition software, getting at least a few pings on himself before finally landing on Jonas Spencer, private security currently assigned to shadow one Morgan Deveraux. His history was solid, highschool records, even a spotty criminal history (points where he'd almost been arrested for bar fights) before he'd joined up with his firm.
So. not a clone. Probably.
Tim would still need to check it out. He pushed past a dark haired woman and entered the main show room. Dick, luckily had kept him in conversation but Jonas looked flighty, his eyes always drifting back to his charge.
Then he caught sight of Tim.
He froze. Staring at Tim for a moment before he tapped his ear- and what Tim assumed to be a comm. He made a move for Morgan, leaving Dick in the dust.
The lights flickered. Jonas reached for Megan, his hand wrapping around hers. Tim could've sworn his eyes darted upwards. Then there was a complete blackout. There was a clatter as a vent grate fell to the floor, shouts arose from the attendees.
Then the lights flickered back to life.
Jonas and Morgan had vanished, and so did the necklace as well as three other paintings.
Good news, its not a clone. Bad news, he might have a twin brother who is in a gang of thieves.
--
Daniel Fenton, or as his ID currently stated 'Jonas Spencer', wouldn't exactly call himself a thief- personally he was more of a collector. Or a curator, whatever the hell you might call a guy who grabs haunted and or cursed objects and dumps them in an alternate dimension.
And it wasn't exactly like he was normally the one stealing things either! That was mostly Sam, he'd done for a bit when they'd first started up (pushing his hands through the glass and taking a necklace with him, or making a painting completely invisible as he whisked it away) but then Sam started calling it 'cheating' and claimed 'his technique was lacking' and promptly took over his position.
(He didn't exactly mind, using his powers too often made his skin crawl. He may not have the GIW constantly hunting him, but he'd had enough run ins to make him sweat. He also didn't want to think about his parents.)
So maybe their entire deal wasn't completely altruistic. When you've been on the run since seventeen and had decided that you, your best friends and your older sister are going to become international thieves, sometimes you have to steal things so that you can have an income. And sometimes stealing is fun.
Unluckily their current job wasn't recreational. They'd heard word of a haunted necklace, there was a string of bad luck connected to it. Mirrors shattering, injuries popping up only days after interacting with the piece, lights falling out from the ceiling. There'd also been a case of near death.
Very clearly the latest display piece was cursed meaning they needed to grab it before it was shipped back into it private collection in France. That meant a time crunch, meaning they wouldn't be fully prepared. It was fine- they'd stolen the dagger of Amon Ra when they had half a day to plan, so three should've been fine.
He and Jazz manned the floor, Jazz kept to grifting while Danny worked as support if things went sideways on any front. Jazz, currently wealthy socialite 'Morgan Devereaux', draped an arm around a politician as he guided her through the collection. Jazz shot him a glance telling him to stay back, keep monitoring the main floor with the necklace.
That was fine. He could do that. He approached the curator and complimented the piece, letting her tell him about the struggles she had getting it overseas let alone her conversations with the owner. Ok, so definitely cursed.
Danny felt eyes on his back, and from the corner of his eye he saw someone take a photo. Tall, dark hair and a bright smile.
Sam pointed out that it was a Wayne.
At that point Danny made an attempt to leave, if he was going to get into a fight we wasn't going to do it there. He'd be too close to the necklace for Sam to get in and grab it without attention being drawn to her too. But Grayson cornered him impressively fast. He asked Danny for a photo, claiming that he looked just like his brother. Danny relented.
Then Tucker chimed in that someone had ran his face. Fuck. Dick kept him in conversation but Danny was eyeing their escape roots. Sam warned that another was coming through the left entrance and that she'd already lifted his phone. Danny turned, preparing himself for confrontation.
Then Danny saw him, his doppelganger.
Grayson hadn't been lying. That thought was terrifying.
Danny sent two taps into his earpiece and made his way towards Jazz. They couldn't risk staying any longer. Danny didn't know if they'd been made or not but he wasn't taking chances. He nodded to Sam who went for the jewels as Tucker cut the lights. Jazz and Danny took a painting each.
Sam went for the vents and Danny and Jazz disappeared through the front door.
What if, as he gets older and the need to explain how he got in somewhere, or how he got something, or how he got out of something gets to be so abysmally frequent that he just decides: fuck it. I’m gonna be that guy. You know, that guy that just Knows Weird Shit. That guy that just Does Things because he’s a little feral.
Instead of risking his identity and/or getting shot at as Phantom he just...becomes the delinquent that breaks into random places just to see if he could. Just ‘cause he’s bored. If they coincide with Phantom’s activities? Well. Phantom’s a cool guy. Maybe he’s got taste.
He’ll break out some card tricks, do a little invisibility, make a little telekinesis happen--just cool little party tricks in the middle of the day. Break into locked closets just to ditch class purely because “fiddling with his magic tricks is better than class” (and totally not because he’s out there fighting ghosts, no sirree).
Practices incessantly during lunch hours. Starts trying to break out of handcuffs in math class. A little bit of a routine with escape artist tricks applied liberally to get out of English class. Tries to see if a teacher can catch him in the act. (They never can, and it only takes a couple months for it to be purely on his skill, and not with a little help from his powers).
Loudly proclaims he’s trying to hunt Phantom, but not to “rip him apart,” just to hang because Danny thinks he’s really neat.
Imagine that being Danny’s best fucking cover, cause at this point, whose gonna question why Danny is standing right where Phantom just disappeared to? Danny probably broke in just to stalk the poor ghost. Jesus. He’s been in weirder places for weirder reasons. He once pulled a rabbit out of some kid’s ear. His reason?
“I just thought the coin trick was so dull. Plus, you know, bunny ears? ...No? Too much of a stretch? Yeah I thought so too. Oh, well. Back to the drawing board I guess.”
To add on to the lantern core being older Danny through time nonsense this scene from adventure time came to mind, where Charlie merged with her older self to obtain her wisdom without living to achieve it.
change it to Danny & older Danny and its a fun concept
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey134z2Z31U
Okay so this might be nothing, but I've been thinking about it.
So, DC × DP world, yeah?
Phantom isn't really a big time hero yet, he's still focused on Amity, but he's being scouted for the Justice League, and he notices something.
Is... is Green Lantern firing ecto-blasts? Because those really look like ecto-blasts.
It takes him a while to actually get close enough to confirm, but yeah, those are definitely ecto-blasts, but Green Lantern isn't dead. Also, there's a whole group of them, so what gives? Are they using ecto-weapons? How? Why? They seem convinced it's some kind of alien tech, but Danny KNOWS what ecto-blasts look and feel like.
Obviously, he has questions. But as a minor hero like him, you can't just go up to a founder of the Justice League and start asking questions like that.
But, he can do a bit of his own research, right? The Watchtower has some files he can access, and the rundown on the Lantern Corp seems... familiar. Energy blasts and powers fueled by strong emotion, that's definitely ectoplasm. It can form shapes, act partially intangible or not, all things Danny has seen in the Ghost Zone.
Okay. But there's other Lantern Corps, different colours. But Danny knows that Ectoplasm can take different shapes and colours, he's definitely encountered pink before, and his own ghost powers sometimes show up as blue. So if the different emotions corrospond to the different colours, it would make sense.
The rings are powered from something in space, he knows that. He's not sure WHAT, he doesn't have access to those files, but he knows the rings need to recharge from it. If it's something like his parent's tech, than maybe it needs to re-up the ectoplasm every once in a while, like a phone battery.
So, Danny is 99% sure that Green Lantern uses ectoplasm, but what can he do about that? What should he do? Green Lantern is a senior hero and might not even listen, and would that even matter? It's not like not knowing has caused problems, but still, knowing something GL doesn't is making Danny anxious.
And for a while, he doesn't do anything. He goes on missions, he protects his town, he goes to college. It isn't until a massive threat sweeps across the earth that he finally does something.
The Lantern Corp is down. All of their rings are drained, they don't have time to charge them, but the League only just figured out how to stop the threat, and the Lanterns would be the best way to do it. They're all arguing in the Watchtower, trying to decide who to send in instead, when Danny finally blurts out "I can recharge the rings!"
Everyone goes a bit quiet, then start yelling all at once at him. He only manages to get them to listen by yelling over all of them again to be quiet.
Eventually, he explains, and watches as Green Lantern goes from disbelief, to bafflement, to determination. The rest of the Justice League seems equally surprised when Danny channels some ectoplasm into the ring, and it starts glowing again.
They defeat the threat, with the Green Lantern Corp and Danny fighting side by side. It's the biggest role he's had in one of these fights, and he's nervous, but when they all get back to the Watchtower for the debrief, he gets a pat on the back by Green Lantern, and a nod from Batman.
Some idiots thought they could steal Jazz bag, in brought daylight. She Handel's it with grace, she beats the three guys up.
But now for some reason everybody thinks she's the ex-Batgirl.
Danny's looks do not help her case. Since some people think he could be an ex-Robin.
Batman knows he has to do something, otherwise it could get to dangerous for this siblings. He and his family are really worried for these two.
Dani breathed heavily as panic began to set in. She wasn't sure how Joker had managed to get ahold of an ectogun, but she'd been hit pretty hard and it burned. She was exhausted, hurt, and scared. He cackled as he got closer to her, lifting the gun to aim at her face.
"Mama!" She squeezed her eyes shut tight, she really hadn't meant to say that in particular, but the fear, desperation, and wish was real and soul deep.
The temperature dropped so suddenly and so steeply that it almost froze the Joker's lungs in his chest, a dome of ice springing around Dani to protect her from the blast of the gun as his fingers reflexively curled in the cold. Dani was about as shocked as Joker was when green tore into the fabric of reality and Danny pulled his way through. Joker was moving sluggishly, choking on his own breath as his throat fought not to freeze over in the deadly chill. He couldn't move fast enough to dodge or fight back when a thin gloved hand snapped out and snatched him up by the neck.
"If I see you near my baby again I'm hanging your internal organs from every treetop from here to California you fucking circus reject!" Danny spoke viciously, his voice doubled and echoing over itself. His eyes were glowing a bright toxic green, his white hair floating in an violent unseen breeze, and his face filled with a haunting and murderous hostility.
In his hand the delicate bones slowly fractured under the pressure as the Joker tried to claw the hand away, only succeeding in tearing at his own throat. Danny's hand could touch him it seemed but he could not touch Danny. He gradually stopped struggling his face going slack as he lost consciousness. The pain and cold at last too much for the clown to remain conscious. The cold dissipated slowly as Danny got his breathing under control, he tossed Joker aside violently before lowering the dome that protected Dani.
Dani looked up at him with wide tearful eyes, awed and relieved. Her sweet face scrunched in upset as she stood up quickly and threw herself into a tight hug, squeezing Danny's thin waist with all her might. Danny sighed with relief and smiled happily at her, hugging her with all the love in his heart.
"You called for me. I'm so glad I heard you call for me..." Danny admitted, he was a little shaky himself it seemed, just holding onto his little clone and assuring himself that she was okay. Dani groaned into his belly, her cheeks warming.
"You heard that?! Ugh..." She still refused to let Danny go despite the embarrassment. Danny chuckled a little with delight.
"I don't mind, I think I like it." Danny admitted with a wide grin. Dani groaned again and tried to squeeze him tighter.
"Spirit!" The skylight was shattered as a large, burly man in a red helmet broke his way in. The guy looked pretty worse for wear, clearly run ragged as he frantically took stock of the situation.
"Hood!" Dani at last pulled away a bit to look at the other vigilante.
She seemed happy to see him so though Danny had tensed at his entry he relaxed and allowed himself to smile in a bit of amused gratitude. It seemed that someone would have tried to save his Dani if he had not heard her. Red Hood looked over at her and seemed to do a double take as he noticed the nearly identical features between Phantom and Spirit. Hood at last noticed the unconscious Joker, blood still seeping sluggishly from his barely breathing mouth.
"Huh, good." Hood turned to look back at the ghosts for a moment unsure what to do clearly.
"You must be one of those bats my Spirit likes to play with!" Danny spoke cheerfully beaming happily at Red Hood who seemed a little taken aback.
"Phantom!" Dani hissed her cheeks flushed green. Danny floated them both over and held his hand out for a handshake his feet settled on the ground. He was much shorter than Red Hood and far less bulky.
"Thank you for always playing with my daughter and looking out for her," Danny said happily. "Isn't she just the cutest?"
"MOM YOU'RE EMBARRASSING ME!!" Dani shrieked tugging at the older boy finally just into adulthood, he wouldn't budge and Dani pulled at his arm desperately her little feet digging into the concrete floor and sliding as she kept trying to get him to leave.
"Oh Spirit, I'm just thanking your little friend for taking care of you." Danny teased with a little grin.
"You're humiliating me! I can never come to Gotham ever again!" Dani wailed frustratedly her face scrunched in a pout. "Hero-ing is serious business!"
"I know Sweetheart, it's very serious." Phantom turned to Red Hood again, who didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Phantom held out his hand for a shake. "Thank you for helping my Spirit with her very serious business, Misterrrr?"
"Red Hood, he/him." Hood offered accepting the hand and shaking it.
"Phantom! He/him, I'm Spirit's mama." Danny said proudly, Dani gave a wordless embarrassed scream again and gave up on pulling Phantom away. "I always worry when she wanders away, I'm glad she has good friends to look out for her."
"Uh, no problem." Hood was really at a loss in this situation, but Phantom had clearly fucked up the Joker in a bid to protect Spirit so he was good in his books.
What if....
Damien and Danyal Al Ghul are twins. Danyal takes heavily after Bruce but Damien is a perfect mix of their parents, and he came out of the artificial womb first, so Damien is decided to be the heir.
Growing up in the League is hard, but Damien excels in a way that Danyal doesn't, because for all the potential Danyal has, he hates the killing and there is a rebellious streak evident even as young as they are. A rebellious streak is a...very dangerous thing to have. Grandfather won't kill Danyal, for as ruthless as he is he doesn't kill his own lineage. But that is not to say that the additional "training" Danyal goes through is merciful.
Damien and Danyal love each other, not just as brothers but also in the way partners do when they don't even have to blink to anticipate the others actions in the midst of action. Which is why Damien, not even yet six, can see the way Danyal is being broken down under the burden of their joint legacy.
So many times, in so many of the universes in which he exists, Danyal Al Ghul is or is seemingly killed, of which is the catalyst for his escape from the League of Assassins, and his brother is left behind thinking him truly dead.
In this universe, when the Demon Twins are out on a training mission (an assassination of a target so easy it's beneath the League for anything other than the simplest of first training missions) a massive earthquake occurs.
They are alive at the end, but both their communication devices are beyond repair. Damien is more roughed up than Danyal at the end, but both are dirty and bloodied.
This is an unprecedented opportunity, of which Damien knows deep down he will never get again.
He loves his brother deeply, but Danyal is weak, always hesitating before the kill, hands shaking. Damien loves his brother and fighting side by side, but he values more the quiet moments when Danyal is looking at star maps and trying to match them up with the sky above their home or making snarky comments about their trainers under his breath. (After when they can't hear Damien doesn't laugh but Danyal always knows he agrees and is amused.)
Grandfather's and Mother's additional training to bring Danyal up to Damien's level is making Danyal go quiet and emotionless and Damien is selfish.
(Damien convinces his twin brother to leave the League of Assassins.)
Damien drags himself to the rendezvous point and returns home alone, reporting the target dead and his brother lost under rock in the quake, body unable to be recovered. He is colder, furious at the world and himself. He pushes and pushes and PUSHES himself. He is the last remaining of a set and he will prove himself perfect to carry the title of Heir perfectly and without reproach. He is more loyal day by day, the guilt his selfishness and betrayal of his family a deep sting he can't ignore.
Talia does search, but so many bodies were lost or unidentified inside mass graves. She grieves and then refocuses on her remaining son without looking back. Grandfather laments the loss, but cares little for the spare in the long run.
Meanwhile, Danyal hid himself long enough to sneak onto one of many transports filled with foreign aid. He is small and sneakier than any average stowaway, and remains undetected all the way to the US.
He doesn't go to Gotham to find his father, but picks a direction at random and leaves, until eventually he's picked up and put in the system. Bouncing around until one day, not long after he turns seven, the Dr.'s Fenton and their young daughter are visiting in their search to adopt their second child. (A combination of genetics and radiation from their earliest experiments in college leaving the pair with low fertility rates and very high risks if they ever did get pregnant. The two get procedures early on and adopt Jazz when she is still fairly young, but wait until she is a bit older before adopting again.)
Danyal Al Ghul had an older twin brother.
Daniel Fenton doesn't think he could handle having an older brother again, but an older sister is acceptable.
Danyal left to go full civilian, and when Damien had sent him off decided he would carry that knowledge to his grave if he must. He tells no one, and does not even mention ever having a twin when he goes to live with their Father in Gotham. If Mother did not tell Father of the deceased son, then neither will Damien.
Danyal Al Ghul is dead, and Damien will keep it that way.
.
.
.
.
(The greatest secret is this: The two have never lost contact. It is very easy, during a natural disaster, to steal a pair of burner phones, each with one number only on them and prepaid with enough stolen funds to last years. Danny smuggles his with him in one piece, Damien smuggles his in pieces, ready to be hidden and repaired when necessary. He checks it scarcely, but every few months is enough to make sure his twin is alive. When he goes to live with Father in Gotham, they communicate a bit more frequently. This remains his most fiercely protected secret.)
It wasn’t supposed to be a secret.
If you died while with the league, you will no longer be acknowledged to have existed, especially if you died during a mission. A disappointment will not be remembered.
The bats and birds don’t like speaking about the people they have lost, so they don’t. If someone ask about the dead, they will tell the person they don’t talk about that.
So how was Damian supposed to know that he should have told his father about his dead brother?
Danny was sitting in the living room watching a live Justice League fight. The fight was big enough that danny thought the camera was way to close to the fight. Then Fright Knight phases into the room through the floor.
Fright knight: My liege
Danny: Fright knight what is it?
Fright knight: I wish vengeance against my abusive father.
Danny: I can understand that, But who?
Fright knight points to the tv showing the justice League fighting a figure in all black armor with glowing red eyes.
Fright knight: My father Ares, greek god of war.
Danny: Wait that make you Pho-
Fright knight: DO NOT SAY THAT NAME!
Danny: ....
Fright knight: I apologize for yelling.
Danny: its fine i understand. You must hate him quite alot.
Fright knight: More than you hate Plasmius.
Danny: Are you sure about that?
Fight knight: Yes
Danny: So you have a brother. The god of... Panic?
Fright knight: He is the god of dread, also the royal assassin.
Danny: i have assassins?!?
Fright knight: ...
Danny: Right... If you want to fight your father you're gonna have to work with the Justice League, and not kill anyone.
Fright knight: You do not desire the head of the god of war?
Danny: Eww no. I dont want to kill a god and i dont want war with Olympus. I dont want to fight Zeus.
Fright knight: But you have already beaten Zeus. He disguised his form and called himself Vortex.
Danny: ...what... Well i may be able to beat him, but there are too many women who are important to me. You know how Zeus is.
Fright knight: Ah indeed. You are wise. ... thank you.
Danny: for what?
Fright knight: It is nice to be reminded that you are not a war hungry tyrant. You care for others. It is refreshing. It is good.
Danny: *blushing* yeah yeah. It looks like you're late.
Fright knight looks at the TV to see the Justice League have already beaten Ares and the Villains.
Fright knight: I wish to go meet and congratulate my aunt on her victory!
Danny: remember to be polite.
Fright knight: i also wish to go to Gotham.
Danny: No
Fright knight: To stab a Clown and a Scarecrow.
Danny: ... Be quick and don't get caught. If anyone catches you you're on your own.
Simply put, she'd just read Frankenstein and there was a thunderstorm. She flew into the clouds and deliberately set out to get shocked by lightning.
It worked. It actually worked. Her Core went from something delicate and unsure of it's own alignment to having a Lightning Core. She wasn't thrilled that she shared that with Vlad, but hey! Now she only randomly got sick sometimes instead of all melty! Even then, she only gets sick if she runs out of juice, like a battery.
So she makes it a point to charge up her core as often as she can, and tornado season on the plains is a great way to find storms.
The Kents, watching a large storm roll in with clouds so heavy that they seemed to reach towards the ground, notice the figure of a small person darting in and out of them.
It happens again with the next one.
And the next.
It gets to the point where they ask Clark if he can find the strange meta that likes storms and invite them over for dinner, because they're starting to feel kind of like this is a neighbor now and Must Do the Polite Thing.
Following an accident, Danny wakes up in Gotham City in a DC universe. Lacking any forms of ID or possessions beyond the clothes on his back, he’s forced to commit some crimes to survive. Minor crimes, but still.
And then he gets caught.
During the court proceedings, they come to the mistaken conclusion that he’s a Meta suffering from some psychiatric issues such as Cotard’s Syndrome (a real rare condition where a person holds the delusional belief that they’re dead/don’t exist/etc).
Thus, between his “need for mental treatment” and the concerns about housing someone with his unique physical traits, he is sentenced to spend time in Arkham Asylum. He’s under pretty low security aside from the anti-Meta stuff and with has more freedoms than some other inmates, but it’s still not a great experience. Even at the best of times, Arkham is hardly a nice place.
Some of his fellow residents are decently chill all things considered, but lots very much aren’t.