Sometimes, the Demon Brat would look to his left, as if to start a conversation, or as if anticipating someone saying something, only to freeze. Just for a moment, a half second, because nobody was there, before looking away with painful expression.
Months later, Tim decided to stand there, just to see what would happen. The brat didn’t look at him once, and Tim found that curious, and odd.
Another odd thing about his new, murderous brother, is that he refuses to look into the mirror. That’s not true, exactly: he would look in the mirror for basics, for necessities.
Tim realized, months of observations later, that the brat didn’t look himself in the eyes.
Strange.
Tim had asked him, once, why he didn’t. As expected, all he got was a “It’s none of your business Drake.”
But that didn’t stop Tim from wondering. Tim is, if nothing else, curious to a fault and persistent to an illegal degree.
And so the strangeness would continue, and Tim would wonder.
The brat would look to his left, pause, and then look away. He would deftly avoid mirrors, and when asked why he would sneer and avoid those questions, too.
Until he didn’t.
Until he came back to the Cave battered and beaten, some dreary autumn day, the Demon Brat unusually sullen and quiet and off his game. He had sat through the lecture Bruce had given him, and sat through the quiet reaching out from Dick, and sat through the cajoling teasing meant to rile him up, to get him to say or do anything per the norm, with an unusual aplomb.
The brat apologized, said he was fine, and ignored the rest. He told Bruce he wouldn’t patrol tomorrow, and would stay home from school, because clearly he wasn’t feeling well.
It was like Damian wasn’t there, fully.
So when Tim saw that the brat’s door was open, the next day, he peeked in.
Of course he did.
And there the brat was, sitting in front of the full length mirror he usually had covered with a cloth when it wasn’t in use, reaching up and staring directly into his own reflection’s eyes.
“Demon Brat?” Tim asked, stepping in and concerned about the look in the other’s face. There was no answer.
“Damian. What’s wrong.” Tim stood behind the boy, watching as Damian touched the corner of his own reflection’s eye.
“The color’s wrong, Drake.” Damian finally said, matter of fact and almost broken, absent-minded.
“What?” Tim asked, trying to see what he was talking about. Nothing was wrong, nothing was changed. Damian met his eyes through the mirror for a long moment, but Tim didn’t understand.
“The color.” Damian reiterated, looking at his own reflection again.
“The color? Of what?” Tim and Damian were never close, not really, but he was starting to feel like something was slipping away, in this moment. Damian dropped his hand, and finally looked away.
Without answering, the boy got up and carefully draped a cloth over the mirror, ushering Tim out of his room silent as the dead.
“Leave me be for today, Drake.” Tim reached, opened his mouth to try and say something, because something was wrong, but what?
But Damian simply shut the door softly.
The sound of the lock engaging felt strangely, and utterly, final in a Manor full of lockpicking detectives.
Tim laid a hand on the door, and mourned.
The safety on his gun was turned back on with an inaudible click as Jason let the tension leak out of his body.
It wasn't often that someone broke into one of his safe houses, especially one that he hadn't used in a while, so seeing as some of his silent alarms went off he raced over ready to put a bullet in some wannabe robber or maybe a goon sent by another crime lord trying to start something.
Instead he found a prime bat adoption bait sitting in the living room floor, bare stomach pressed to the side of a ginormous egg. It didn't look like any egg hed ever seen either with midnight blue fuzz covering the whole thing. "Hey kid."
The kids head whipped around, startled by a strangers voice. "Who are you?" He asked incredulously, hugging the monster egg closer to himself, "How did you get in here? This place has some serious security."
Jason gave a short laugh, "Yeah, I know. I'm the one who put it there." He watched with mild amusement as the color drained from the kids face.
"You're the apartment owner? I thought he was supposed to be some big scary crime lord!"
"I'm not scary to you?" It wasn't uncommon for people to be intimidated by him. He was, as Steph put it, 'built like a fridge'.
The adoption bait stared into his eyes for a few torturously long seconds before simply saying, "No."
Huh.
"So, whats up with the egg?" He asked, trying to change the subject.
"Thats my line, Todd." A voice said from across the room. Both him and the little intruder snapped there attention to the window where Robin was perched. Jason fought back the urge to chastise the little bat for using his real name seeing as he was out of costume at the moment. After all he was here as Jason Todd, normalish civilian man who came to see why his house was broken into, not Red Hood. Jason almost wished with was some goon working for a big bad even if it would have meant his secret identity was busted, he would have been at least dealing with that instead of Damians inevitable animal custody battle with the kid. Speaking of which.
"Hey kid, whats your name?"
"Danny Fenton." The kid-Danny, tilted his head. "I think."
Robin raised an eyebrow, causing his mask to sift with it, "You think?"
Danny nodded, "Yeah. Got blasted with something a few weeks ago and I don't remember much before that." His grip on the egg had loosened a bit and Robin chose this as he time to strike. Bird boy tried to lift the egg up out of the intruders impromptu blanket nest, but seemed to have misjudged the weight of the egg that was as big as both children's torsos and Danny was swift to take back his egg.
"What do you think you're doing?! Thats mine!" Egg dad hissed.
"Tt. I will be better able to care for the creature. You should just hand it over now. Do you even know whats in there?"
"No! Neither do you!"
Jason knew Robin couldn't refute that so he chose now to step in, "Where did that thing even come from?
He watched as Dannys scowl turned into a beaming smile as he told them about how he was hiding behind a dumpster for warmth when this egg just fell out of the sky and with quick thinking, managed to catch it with a bed of ruined pillows from a recent villian attack. "So you can't take my dragon egg away. I'm the only reason it didn't become a failed street omelet." Danny held his hands on his hips while giving Robin a smug look.
Before the demon brat could say anything or, more likely, try to wipe that smirk off the other kids face, a new person swooped in through the window. "You think its a dragon egg?"
The kid seemed unbothered by the Batman questioning him and just replied with, "Yeah! Look how big it is! Its gotta be a dragon!"
Bruce looked like he was about to have an aneurysm, "You found a large egg of an unknown, potentially supernatural creature and decided to incubate it?"
"Yeah!"
Jason decided he liked this kid.
Bruce as one of those parents who learns one thing about you and then assumes that is your whole personality
Bruce: Happy Birthday, Jason! Open your presents!
Jason: You got me tires. Again.
Bruce: You used to like tires :(
Jason: Yeah, when I was twelve. And I didnt even like them that much back then either!
Bruce: Should I take them back…
Jason: GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY FUCKING TIRES, BRUCIE.
He comes to in a strange room, completely alone and absolutely covered in blood and guts from an unknown donor that's lying on a stone slab positioned at the center of the room.
A mirror nearby tells him he’s a kid.
All of this and the nothing that comes from his head (no explanations, no memories, nothing that could help him explain what’s happened to him and who he is) would have made him panic… if he could feel panic, he thinks? But he feels weirdly disconnected from all these revelations. The only thing that makes him move is this tiny blob that gets on his face and begins to ask HIM questions.
He does not have answers, much to the blob’s disappointment. After that, he discovers that he’s good at following instructions. Tim turns out to be really good at commanding him what to do when all the anxiety and fear goes away.
Then, introductions and explanations. The blob says its name: Tim Drake. Apparently, he’s now inside his body after Tim was abducted by a group of terrorists from his home. When he asks what happened and why some terrorists are capable of placing him inside his body, Tim the Blob wavers for a moment and sheepishly admits that the group is not so much terrorists but a bunch of cultists. After all, they claimed they were summoning something tonight.
By deductive reasoning, they realize that he is that something. That's not as reassuring as they want that to be.
The real whiplash, however, comes to them when a couple comes into the room and introduces themselves by kneeling on the floor and declaring themselves his servants.
As they begin to give their version of the story, Tim whimpers and begins to cry. They don't seem to notice that. In fact, they ignore Tim's existance.
Perhaps they can't perceive him.
It soon becomes apparent that the couple are Tim’s parents and they are extremely pleased to have sacrificed their son.
[From The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #220]
Never forget that time Marc tried to invite Spider-Man out on a fancy date after they busted a crime ring and then was crushed that he got turned down.
ic: @batfam-stuff-posts-0
based on this post :))
Danny had a problem. If it was a big one, he couldn't tell yet but he was partially sure Clockwork was at fault for this. Or at least he wanted to blame his ghostly godparent who most likely just wanted to cause some chaos for entertainment with the pretext of helping Danny. Which was a very likely reason for why Danny had a problem right now.
As it was the former Fenton now Fenton-Wayne boy was pacing his room in the Manor trying to think what is next step should be, because as it was his 'new' family –Did new still apply if he was living with them for a little more than a year now? – knew him under three different Identities now. And to top it all off they were not aware that the three identities were all pretty much connected as one.
For one. His family, knew him as Danny, the space obsessed kid, who became a meta because of his ectobiology science obsessed parents and his teenager recklessness. A kid that was actually a genius if you gave him enough time for school and could make you anything out of a ancients be damed toaster. That was the Danny they mainly knew. The Kid they took in, let in on the family business and then chose, to the happiness of Alfred and dismay of some of his 'new' siblings, normal life over vigilante life.
Then they knew Phantom. A dead ghost hero that was helping the Justice League and Young Justice to help them deal with the aftermath of the huge fallout caused by the GIW, Guys in White or rather Ghost Investigation Ward. And while Danny didn't know he had apparently worked with nearly his entire family and that time he knew it now. Which was awkward because he had pretty much pestered one of his elder brothers about his condition until Red Hood, aka Jason, let Phantom help him. Ancient, things might get awkward if that secret is lifted. He had done a lot of things Batman, Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, Orphan and Robin had scowled him for. Thankfully they only thought of him as a dead teen hero and didn't know what a Halfa was. So they didn't make the connection, and he had yet to meet Signal, aka Duke as Phantom.
Now came the third identity, which totally did not happen by his choice. After all officially he hadn't accepted the throne yet and would only get it once he was dead dead not half dead. To bad ancient texts don't care about formalities. So when trouble hit the fan really hard the Justice League Dark had the bright Idea of getting some other worldly help. Which in other words was summoning the Ghost King. Oh boy, was it fun to learn that way that Danny could get summoned against his will. Clockwork did not give him that warning when he told him about the future of his afterlife. But best of all? Oh he doesn't get summoned as Phantom which would have made things maybe a bit easier, oh no. Life wasn't easy. He got someone's in some as a super weird black-green mass of a formless eltrich body with sharp teeth, claws and glowing green eyes with no pupils or irises. Hell Danny even scared himself when he saw his own reflection in a window and he didn't have a single idea how to change his form.
Let it be known that Danny acted then on purpose like he didn't know a single person in that room he had been summoned in right out of his bed and that he wasn't staring at his adoptive father like he needed help who interpreted his stare as the ghost king sizing him up. And Danny knows this because Dick had a good laugh about that at the dinner table with the rest of his siblings.
Now a smart person would probably come clean to his family and explain to them the three identities they knew him under and how they are connected.
To bad Danny wasn't 'smart' when it came to things like that. No in his panic and newfound awkwardness of the situation of what he had done on separate occasions with his identity as Phantom AND Ghost King, he decided to keep acting like he didn't knew them personally like the truely does. Really how hard could that be? Besides he liked the way his family threaten him now. He didn't want to get threaten differently because he was half dead, or a Ghost King. He liked that his family was treating him as plain old Danny who had an obsession with space and was their quirkily little brother with powers.
So that gave him even more incentive to keep the act up. Even if it was hard at times, especially if he got summoned out of nowhere. It would be easier if he could get a hang of the duplication power. He even had played with the thought of getting one of his ghost rogues to help but his family was perceptive. Maybe not perceptive enough to realise that all three identities were one and the same person but they would notice if Danny acted just slightly different or if Phantom was more of then usually. But somehow he still managed to keep it up.
But it was the hard way that he learned, Danny was bad at doing the 'talking' and realized that maybe Jazz was right and he was going to slip up one day causing huge misunderstandings like right now.
He stared down at Batman and Nightwing in his Ghost King form. Red Hood had his guns pulled on him, Wonder Woman and Superman looked like they where going to try to pull back Batman any second now while Nightwing, maybe at first was going to try to calm down the bat but Danny was pretty sure the eldest bat kid was now fiercely glaring at him too. He was also pretty sure the only reason he didn't see Red Robin or Robin threaten him too was because their super friends were somehow holding them back. For their own or his safety he doesn't know at the moment.
Because apparently the Bats did not fear fighting otherworldly beings to protect one of their own.
"What did you just say about Danny Fentons death?!" Batman grunted out and Danny just knew his adoptive father was glaring at him. Ancients Danny cursed his brain to mouth filter right now. As he had the collective hero scene before him staring at his Ghost King form. Would this be a good or bad moment to come completely clean or maybe he should find some kind of philosophical bullshit of 'All things death belong to him'....
A young villian who claims to be in love with one of the bats uses a magical cursed item/some kind of freaky tech to blast said bat and make them fall in love with them.
Things don't go as planned as Phantom is thrown into the mix by a ghost he had been trying to fight discretely in Gotham.
The bat falls in love with Phantom.
Problem is that the bat immediately goes full yandere/psyco and Phantom freaks out and flees. Danny can't run or hide forever but by the ancients, he's gonna try.
I understand the appeal of wanting every adult hero to instinctively adopt teenage Peter Parker, but can it really beat the hilarity of acknowledging that at 15 Peter was 5'10", unusually buff, went by a moniker with Man in it, wore a creepy full face mask, and had a tightly guarded secret identity and probably a Queens accent thick enough to have come out of a jello mold, and adult heroes reasonably responded to him by going, “Wow, this grown man is an immature asshole for no reason.”
Danny keeps getting summoned to Gotham of all places but it keeps happening at night while he's wearing his Red Robin Pajamas. Worse. He's getting summoned as Fenton.
The first time it happened Danny appeared in the summoning circle started and looked around to see Gothams vigilantes standing over some very knocked out cultists. He locks eyes with Red Robin and makes a face. "Well, this is embarrassing."
The problem is that this keeps happening. The forth time it happened he had been in the middle of brushing his teeth. He accused the bats of doing this on purpose before breaking the circle again and sending himself back. Each time Danny is summoned he's wearing a completely different set of RR pajamas. No one even knew there were that many variations of it.
Steph made a bet that "Tim's simp" probably has a RR themed bed. They found out when the kid gets summoned while asleep in bed. Tough luck for her, Dannys bed was star/constellation themed. The bats takes his fingerprints and DNA while he's out cold and find out who he is.