Chapter 31
"Alfred? You knew?" Dick's voice cracked as he heard Selina scream after Danny who undoubtably ran off. Big baby blue eyes stared up at wrinkly grey ones.
"Master Dick, please understand that this was for the better."
"Better for who? You know how hard we've been looking for him! If I had known where he was I-"
"Wouldn't have lost focus and nearly gotten shot leading to Master Bruce grounding you?"
"That's very uncalled for and you know it." Dick pouted as he started to walk back to his room to get dressed. He wasn't really angry at Alfred, they were right in keeping it secret until they got a better handle on everything. But why couldn't they just have let him know? He had been worried sick looking for his brother! He tried to look for Cujo too but nothing showed up, not even a singular camera glitch that he knows the little pup causes sometimes.
"And where do you think you're going, young master?" Alfred's tone didn't sound judging at all, more rhetorical if anything. Dick knew the man wouldn't stop him. He never had, not when it was important anyway.
"I'm going to look for my brother, and you are going to keep this quiet from Bruce." He could feel Alfred's look, the specific Alfred looktm when he raised one eyebrow and looked anything but impressed. If the circumstances were different he'd care enough to look at the man but right now he had a scared brother to find. "We both know you won't stop me, Alf. Might as well become even more of an accomplice after hiding Danny for who knows how long."
"How, pray tell, will you find the boy when he has the ability to avoid everything that would alert Batman of his whereabouts?"
Dick paused for a second, shoe halfway hanging off his foot. "I…I'll figure something out on the way there." He tugged on his shoe and quickly laced it up before walking past his pseudo-grandfather and making his way down to the Batcave. Luckily Batman was out and nowhere near Selina's place so that should give him enough leeway to get in and find Danny.
"If you do find the young master, please make sure he eats some of these." Alfred held out a small backpack that he got from who knows where.
"When, Alf. When, not if." Dick eyed him suspiciously while peeking inside. Speedster protein bars. Odd but fair. Danny was a meta now so probably needed extra calories or whatever. With a final look between the two, Dick got on his bike and raced off to Gotham. The moment he got out of the cave system, rain pelted down on him as thunder crashed all over. Whatever this storm was, it was strong and it was massive. He could see lightning hitting Wayne Tower off in the distance. Idly he praised Lucious for putting a lightning rod on the building to harvest the electricity produced during Gotham's storms. Yay for clean energy, one small positive thing about the hell that had been his week.
Once he got close enough inside the city limits, Dick checked his wrist computer. Right now Batman should be on the other side of Gotham unless Gordon asked for his help on something. Dick hoped it was the latter as he sped towards Crime Alley.
Trained eyes looked at every person he passed by, looking, hoping to see somebody that would match Danny's built. He really should have asked Selina for a description of what he was wearing but if Danny was really on the run again, he would probably ditch whatever made him recognizable.
He stopped at a small safehouse where he could store his bike. No sight of his brother yet but maybe he would have better luck up on the rooftops. It's where he would go too if people were looking for him. Rooftops move faster and have less camera coverage so it's easier to get around the city unnoticed.
Exactly why the Dynamic Duo preferred them as well.
Dick clutched the backpack close, making sure it was still secure on his back before climbing up the fire escape of the safehouse. He was about 4 blocks away from Crime Alley. 11 blocks from Selina's. He'd have to move fast if he wanted to have a decent shot of finding a meta in this weather but without the extra grip from his suit it made full sprints rather dangerous on the water soaked rooftops.
Still, Dick went as fast as he could, jumping or grappling faster than he should. As he landed on another rooftop, thunder and lightning crashed at the same time. He tried hard to not flinch but it was hard. Cold winds and freezing cold rain hammered down on him as he kept trying to look around. Every rumble of thunder shaking his bones. Every crack of lightning risking to be his last. Did his shoes even have insulators in case lightning hit the roof he was on?
Dick was struggling to focus. All this training and pride at how well he performed under pressure but none of it was enough right now. Panic started to set in as he looked around with absolutely no sign of anybody. Gotham was a big city and he knew well enough how easy it was to disappear without a tail on you.
Thunder filled the sky as lightning hit the rooftop next to where he was standing. On instinct, Dick yelped out and curled in on himself as electricity still hung heavy in the air. Breathing seemed to get harder as everything was so loud and overwhelming. He had no actual way of finding his brother. No way to contact anybody if he did. No way to call for help if he got hurt out here on his own. He couldn't help but let some of the tears fall that had been building in his eyes at the thought of yet again losing his brother when he got so close.
Faintly he felt a small pressure on his knee. A familiar presence.
Looking up from between his arms, Dick came face to face with a panicked looking Cujo.
Dick immediately reached out to the pup, grabbing him in a bearhug as thunder rumbled once more. The storm seemed to get even worse as the eye seemed to hover in place over the city. "Cujo!" He cried out as he rubbed his face in the soaked fur of the pup. He pulled away and held the green dog up to eye level. "Please, please say you know where he is." Dick pleaded with Cujo.
The pup seemed to understand the desperation he was in as he immediately started to struggle out of Dick's grasp. The moment he set down the pup, Cujo ran off to the edge of the rooftop. He looked back at Dick, barking furiously. A crash of thunder and lightning betrayed just how worried the pup was as well as for a second he grew into his hound form before shrinking again. Maybe he wasn't a fan of the storm either.
None the less, Dick scrambled to get up and follow the green dog. Cujo had yet to let him down before so he had faith in the pup. They made their way across rooftops as fast as humanly possible without risking slipping off. Cujo lead the way, shifting here and there as lighting got too close to either them or where they were heading. If it wasn't for the fact Cujo was in fact a glowing green dog, Dick would have lost sight of him long ago. Rain picked up harder, making visibility barely 15 feet as wind rushed all around him.
As they made their way across another rooftop, Cujo seemed to pick up pace a little. It was almost impossible to make out but as lightning illuminated the sky, Dick could see a figure off in the distance. Feeling reenergized with hope, he picked up the pace to try and match Cujo.
The closer they got, the more he could clearly see the figure. Whoever they were, they were clearly not a fan of the storm either. Nearly on beat with Cujo shifting forms, the figure would duck and almost slip. Perhaps that's why Cujo was so worried earlier?
As if luck was finally on his side, the figure slipped enough to take a second to get back up. Just enough time for Dick and Cujo to get close enough. Just close enough for Cujo to bark out and the figure to hear. Dick nearly lost his footing as the figure turned around to look at Cujo.
Bright white hair nearly covered up terrified green eyes that looked back at his as Dick sprinted to run towards his brother. "Danny!" He yelled out gleefully. Finally! Finally he found him! Dick's entire face became one big smile as he sprinted towards Danny.
That smile quickly faded as Danny almost tripped over himself while trying to get back up and keep running.
Confused, Dick followed him. Desperate to catch up he kept calling out his brother's name as he ignored safety precautions just for that little bit of extra speed. Only by the grace of the gods was Danny not just flying away or using any of his powers. It's the only reason Dick even stood a chance to catch up. "Danny! Wait!" He called out again, slipping on the slippery asphalt roof. He could feel he cut his hands as he tried to not fall while continuing to run.
Absolutely no way in hell was he going to give up now. Not when he was this close.
Giving it his all, Dick managed to slowly catch up to him. Cujo had run ahead to where Danny was and tried to block his way to very little avail. It only slowed him down enough that they were a rooftop or two apart now. Dick refused to give up, refused to let his brother slip out from between his fingers. Never again would he leave Danny alone. Never again would he let anybody separate them. Dick wasn't there for him and look at what happened. He had to make it up to Danny for failing him so badly.
Wind angrily rushed around him as rain was thrown in his face. Dick had no choice but to bring up an arm to shield his eyes as he kept running. "Danny, please!" Just one more rooftop. He was almost there. Just a little further
Dick jumped across, not even bothering to grapple as the rooftops should have been close enough.
Should have.
Dick felt his feet connect to the edge of the other roof.
He felt his feet slip off from the rain and lack of grip.
He watched as his brother disappeared from his view as he started to fall down.
He heard Cujo's bark echo as lightning cracked open the sky above.
It almost felt like everything started to slow down just before he felt something grab his hands. Dick looked up, blinking furiously as he looked up into surprised green eyes. Danny had caught him before he could hit the ground. His brother saved him.
Now it was his turn to save his brother.
Danny floated them back up on the roof where Cujo was waiting for them.
Both of them took a second to process what happened, catching their breaths. Dick had almost fallen, just like their parents, and hadn't even thought of using his grapple gun to escape. Danny had come back for him, even though he was trying to run away, and dragged him back to safety.
They stood there in relative silence, staring frozen at each other as neither of them dared to make the first move.
The world decided for them as a loud rumble of thunder and lighting came down on them again, causing both of them to flinch out of their statuesque stance. Danny seemed to be the first to recover as he slowly started taking a few steps back. Before he had a chance to run off again however, Dick's arm snapped forward and grabbed Danny by the wrist. He could feel that odd chilly sensation wash over for a second, the same one when Cujo helped him back when the reds attacked.
"Danny, please don't run again."
Danny looked back at him, almost scared of being close to him. "I…I can't. It's not safe." He tried to pull his hand back but Dick refused to let go, grabbing onto Danny with his other hand as well as lightning crackled again.
"Then let me make it safe. Let me protect you." Please.
Danny squeezed his eyes shut as he shook his head furiously. "You don't get it. I'm not safe." Dick felt the chill wave over him again as Danny tried to pull his hand away. Cujo pressed up against him and somehow that made the chill go away. Danny glanced down at Cujo, a soft and somewhat playful glare on his face. "Traitor." He whispered at the pup before looking up at Dick again.
"Danny," Dick tried to keep his voice steady, "if this is about the accident in Amity-"
Danny's eyes shot wide open as they glowed brighter. "You know about that?"
Dick could feel Danny starting to tremble a bit, naively hoping it's just from the freezing cold weather. "Of course I do. I've been trying to find you for weeks now but nobody would tell me anything." He took a risk, but pulled Danny closer so he'd be standing straight face to face instead of half twisted away. "I don't know exactly what happened but I know whatever it was, it won't change that you are my brother and that I love you."
Danny looked down, avoiding eye contact from both Dick and Cujo. "Even if it was my fault? I, well, not me-me, evil-me-from-the-future-me but still, you know?"
Dick had to blink a few times, trying to wrap his head around that sudden bit of information they hadn't found before. "What do you mean, evil future you?"
Danny shuffled his feet, looking like he'd rather run off again than have this conversation. "It's…A lot. But it was an evil me from 10 years into the future that did all that to make sure that version of me was inevitable."
Dick could barely believe what he was hearing. All of that happened and he had absolutely no clue any of it was going on? When was the last time he actually spoke to Danny before they stopped? How could he have let himself get so busy he didn't even notice Danny's life getting uprooted enough to have an evil future self?
"I have to make sure that doesn't happen. I need to change it, need to make enough changes so it won't be the same. You aren't safe with me until I know it won't happen, Dickie."
Danny sounded so small and broken, voice barely above what sounded like a whisper in this storm. Dick felt his heart break. Danny sounded exactly like those times when Uncle Barry came back from different time lines and saw horrors he didn't want to talk about. Those were the times they all had sleepovers together. Uncle Barry, Wally, Roy, him and sometimes even Bruce or Uncle Oliver would come too just to make sure the man was okay. Being close to loved ones helped recover better, so why didn't Danny come see him?
"But that was a different time line, no? Just one of the possibilities but nothing is ever guaranteed. I've seen and heard enough of that to know even the slightest thing can have big influences." Danny slightly lifted his head, searching for something in Dick's eyes to prove he's lying.
"Clockwork showed you?"
Dick shook his head. "No idea who that is, but I, ah, know some people who had their fair share of multiverse madness going on. Do you remember any key points? Maybe I can help change them? If you'll let me." He didn't want to sound too hopeful but it was hard not to when everything was literally within his grasp.
Danny looked unsure for a second, looking down at Cujo again who yipped softly. "Amity was a main point, but that already happened. Going to a family friend was another." Danny sneered at the mention of the person. Maybe not as friendly as that title would suggest.
"But you didn't, did you? You went to Waller instead." Dick realized. Is that how he ended up in Belle Rêve? For crimes he didn't commit? To escape from a future he didn't want? Wouldn't that already be enough divergence to prevent whatever would trigger that specific outcome?
"I…don't know." Danny answered as Dick had unknowingly spoken out loud on accident. "He did something that made everything escalate but I don't know when exactly in those 10 years that happened."
Dick's brows furrowed as he tried. There's only 9 more years left but Danny should have changed it enough already if Belle Rêve was never in the other time line. If he wasn't in Belle Rêve, M'gann and Connor would never have run into him and they'd never have found out about him. "I get you're worried, and for good reasons too. But from what I know, it should have changed enough already to not happen. If you want, we could go home and I could call-"
"NO!" Danny yelled out as he finally managed to rip his arm out of Dick's grasp. "They're still dead! They're dead and it's my fault! I wasn't strong enough to protect them and now their deaths are on my hands."
"Danny, that isn't fair!" Dick tried to make a grab for him again only for Danny to jump just out of reach. "You were outnumbered against an older you! The League should have been there, fuck they might have been if the entire town wasn't under a fucking radio block! None of what happened was your fault. If you want somebody to blame, blame whoever was cutting all signals coming from Amity!"
Danny froze at Dick's outburst, tears slowly welling in his eyes as he seemed to connect dots Dick wasn't aware of. "You? You never got any of our calls?" Dick shook his head. "But, we tried to often. All this time, I was on my own for nothing?" Tears started to slowly fall as Danny kept talking.
Dick slowly reached out again, gingerly holding onto Danny's hand as he fought to keep his own tears at bay. "You don't have to be alone anymore, Danny. Let me help you. Let me be there for you. Whatever that future was that you saw, we can stop it together. I know we can."
"But what about Batman? He's pretty clear on the no metas thing and he works for the government and, and I… wouldn't want to ruin your career for associating with a criminal." Danny's voice trembled as he whispered out those words.
"What Batman doesn't know won't harm him. I'll make sure he won't find out." Dick half grinned. He could give Bruce a taste of his own horrendous communication skills. That'll…probably not teach the man to talk about things more but at least it would feel like fair karma. It also felt like a chip off his shoulder to know Danny already seemed to know about Robin. "Plus I don't think many would care. Catwoman is basically part of the family and Penguin is like that one weird uncle nobody likes to talk about. But if anybody tried to protest, I'd fight the entire League if I have to. I'm not letting some idiots get in between us ever again, Danny. I swear on our parents graves I won't."
Dick held out his pinkie, ready to promise it even if it seemed childish. But pinkie promises in their family were always holy and nobody ever broke one unless it was by outside forces. He waited, hoping Danny remembered and would believe him enough to agree.
Danny stared at Dick's outstretched finger for a few heartbeats. Slowly, with a trembling and hesitant hand, he locked his finger in Dick's. A small sob escaped his throat as tears started to freely fall down. Brotherly instinct took over as Dick grabbed him in a tight embrace, hiding his own tears in Danny's shoulder.
Finally, it seemed, he could finally start moving forward with his life again. With both their lives, together this time. No dumb CPS idiots keeping them apart again. Hell he'd convince Selina to adopt Danny if necessary but Danny was never leaving again.
Their knees buckled out from under them as the storm decided to remind them it was still there. Cujo grew into hound form, trying to block both of them from the onslaught of rain as they slowly let out all the tears and sorrow they'd been holding back.
After a while, sobs gave way for little wet giggles as Cujo constantly tried to lick their tears away.
"We really should head back inside somewhere."
Danny broke away from the hug as he reached up to give Cujo some chest scratches. "Do you think Selina would let me back inside?"
Dick chuckled a bit, also petting Cujo. "So long as the cats won't maim us for smelling like wet dog we should be fine. Though she'll definitely force us to shower before we're allowed to touch anything."
Danny frog blinked at his brother for a few seconds. "Is that why she made me shower? I swear I wasn't that dirty."
Dick laughed as he helped Danny up on his feet again. "She isn't particularly the fondest of dogs, no. There's a reason she isn't Dogwoman."
"Wait, Selina is Catwoman?"
Chapter 32: Intermediate 15
They stood across from an all too familiar window. The heads of two certain cats poking out from the bottom, silently staring at them.
Dick squeezed their interlaced hands tighter. "Are you ready?"
Danny took a deep breath, not breaking his staring contest with the cats. He was already emotionally drained from explaining everything to Dick on their walk back, but there was one last thing he had to do tonight. "Not really." A low whine sounded from behind them, Cujo crouching down impatiently as he guarded the boys. Sighing, the halfa was the first to step forward, dragging Dick with him as he flew them across the alley. Going intangible to let the rain drops fall off, he phased them inside the apartment.
"I'm never going to get used to that feeling, am I?" Dick remarked before a symphony of various angry cats made their annoyance known. Shiro and Nanaki in particular as they screamed at their boys. Nanaki was already halfway clawing up Danny's leg before the boy finally lifted up the screaming cat. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. You can stop now, thank you." He deadpanned as Nanaki purposely pawed at his face.
Dick wasn't doing any better as Shiro had already crawled up onto his shoulders to loudly complain straight into his ears. "Wow, Shiro. Hello to you too, I guess." He cringed as his hearing was being violated. "I see you met them already." He jokingly remarked as Danny was struggling to keep Nanaki's paws off his mouth.
"Danny?"
The pair froze up as they heard Selina call out from somewhere in the apartment. In an instant Dick watched Danny's features shift from black and blue to white and green. He wasn't even sure if Danny was aware of the shift happening as his brother froze up like a deer in headlights. After what felt like forever, Selina entered the main living area, looking like she had been crying since their call ended. She rushed over to where they were standing, coming to a stop just a few steps away from them. Danny looked away, unable to look her in her make-up stained eyes. Dick awkwardly moved Shiro into his arms and shifted his weight away from Danny to let the other two have their moment.
"Danny?" She repeated, a soft tremble in her voice.
Danny kept staring at the floor, finding a particularly interesting scratch mark to focus on. "I," he started, trying to find his voice. "I'm sorry." Just a remarkable piece of art this scratch was, truly. He'd have to look for more. "For running away like that, I mean." Danny made the mistake of glancing up, even for just a split second. The moment their eyes locked, it was like they got knocked out of their trance by force.
One second Selina was in the middle of the room, the next she was holding onto Danny tightly. "You have nothing to apologize for, darling. I should have told you who I was talking to." She hushed, nuzzling her cheek into his damp hair.
"But I-"
"Have the right to know who I discuss your health with when you had asked for privacy. That was a mistake on my part, I should have asked you about it first."
Before either could say anything, Nanaki screamed out from between them, not so kindly reminding them that the feline was still in Danny's arms. Selina chuckled as she stood up slightly to wipe away a stray tear. Smiling over at Dick, she unwrapped an arm from Danny to pull Dick and Shiro into the hug as well. "I'm just happy you boys are safe. That is all that matters at the moment." She softly nuzzled into Dick's hair while tucking away a few black strands from Danny's.
"Well," she wrinkled her nose, "that and getting you two into a shower before the whole place smells like wet dog." At that, they all had a good laugh as both Shiro and Nanaki took their chance to escape from the smell as well. All too soon, however, Selina sobered up again, looking over Danny with a sad smile. "If you still want to stay, that is." Baby blue eyes locked into emerald green ones as Danny peaked out from under his bangs.
"Am I still allowed to?"
Selina's smile brightened as she cupped his cheeks with a gentle touch. "You are always welcome here, darling, that will never change."
After some more screaming from Nanaki and Shiro, both boys ended up showered and in clean clothes. Not too long after they got comfortable on the couch, the boys fell asleep in a heap of boys and cats.
Come morning, the air was slightly tense. The odd combination of nostalgic familiarity of eating breakfast together contrasting the uncertainty of their years of separation. Well, that, and the fact that Dick was entranced by his once very competent brother failing to eat cereal. He kept watching as Danny struggled to bring his spoon to his mouth. "Do you…need any help?" He asked tentatively, not really sure if asking was a boundary he would accidentally cross. Luckily for him, it seemed, Danny looked only mildly uncomfortable.
"It's just," He sighed deeply as he let the spoon clatter in the bowl. "Taking some time to get used to, again."
"Again?"
Danny shifted in his chair to cross his legs underneath him, a tell they both have for when they're uncomfortable. "The first time was a disaster for weeks before I could control it all. But now…I haven't really had to be the one in control of it for a while, you know?" As if his body was trying to prove a point, his arm suddenly disappeared from view and nearly caused him to hit his head on the table as his intangibility acted up again. With a huff, Danny straightened up again.
Dick hummed, taking in the information. Danny had been in Belle Rêve with inhibitors for a good year. Unnecessary habits become redundant and forgotten extremely fast when you don't need it anymore, especially after such a long time. It would make sense if he had issues controlling his powers again after being used to a device doing that for him. "Maybe it's like handstands." He accidentally mused out loud.
"What."
"You know, like when you don't do it for a while, it gets a little disorienting to be upside down for a long time even though we both know you used to be able to live upside down and be perfectly fine. Maybe you just need to practice doing it on purpose to make it a habit again?"
"Respectfully, I don't think it's been working all too well." Danny answered with a chuckle, starting up the battle with the spoon yet again.
Dick waited until Danny managed a proper bite before taking one himself. "Well, yeah." He paused to swallow, "You can't get better at being upside down by staying right side up. You need to want to be upside down to get better at being upside down. If you're used to being tangible, you'll need to practice being intangible first before it gets easier again."
Danny paused mid failed attempted bite, looking at Dick as if he had grown a second head. Dick tucked his legs underneath him as he glanced over to Selina who was making some tea on the stove. Selina laughed at his helpless look, turning back to the kettle. "Don't look at me, honey, I barely understood a word of what you were saying."
Dick looked back over to where Danny was sitting. Was being the keyword as his brother had disappeared from sight. "Aaahhhhmmm…" He leaned over to check if maybe Danny had fallen through the chair but still he found no trace of the other black haired boy. That was until there was a sudden thud that shook the entire table.
"Ah hah mhm!" Danny hummed with a mouth full of milk and cereal from underneath the table, his fists popping out through the top as he cheered. Now visible again, he popped his head up from underneath with a big grin. "I did it!" At Dick's confused stare, Danny added, "You said practice being upside down, sooo," He dragged out as he climbed back into the chair with a bounce to his moves causing pieces of cereal to fall to the ground. "I figured, why not just turn the bottom of the bowl intangible instead of keeping me tangible." He happily continued chewing on the remainder of his mouthful as Selina stared at the cereal massacre underneath the table. A small glance to Danny's bowl confirmed that the entire contents was either in Danny's mouth, hair or on the floor.
But, progress is progress.
Especially when said progress was seeing Danny act more like the brother Dick knew and remembered instead of the skittish boy who did his best to run away from him.
For the rest of the day and the day after, they practiced together to get Danny's powers back under relative control. At least what they had dubbed the base 3. Flying still seemed to be an instinctual thing but was apparently very important to consciously do while also trying to be intangible. Who would have thought. By the second evening, they had gotten far enough that Danny wasn't falling through the floor or furniture at random times anymore.
They were in the middle of a calming meditation session when Dick's comms pinged. With a grunt, he went through his back-up backpack and fished out a spare hologlove. With a groan he let himself flop backwards into their little pillow fort. "It's B, he's asking if I'm coming on patrol tonight."
From her seat at the table, Selina laughed at him. "Come now, honey. You know well enough that Alfred made him send that as a warning that he'll be coming here if you don't."
Dick groaned loudly into a pillow. "But I don't want to! He handled Gotham alone for years before I showed up! We told Alfie where I am, he has no reason to come over and drag me out."
"Except for your responsibilities as Robin."
Dick chose to disregard Danny's comment for his own sake. He rolled over to glare at the floor as Nanaki wandered over, nuzzling into him while purring comfortingly. "Besides," he grumbled as he let Nanaki knead biscuits into his arm, "Danny's practice is more important."
"But if you don't, we'll get an angry Bat breaking in through the window." Danny cuddled a purring Shiro closer to his chest, softly resting his head on top of the feline's. The topic of talking to Bruce about Danny was one the trio had skillfully avoided the past two days. None of them thought it was a good idea for their own reasons.
Dick continued poking at his spare glove, outweighing the limited options he had. Until a marvelous idea emerged from his oh so genius brain. "What if," he looked through his spare bag, looking for a very particular item he knew had to be in there somewhere. "Aha!" He yelled out victoriously as he found his spare domino mask. "What if you just come with me on patrol?" He proudly grinned up to Danny who seemed to try and become one with Shiro's white fur.
Selina, noticing Danny's unease, spoke up on his behalf. "Honey, I don't think that would be a good idea. The plan was to avoid Batman, not run straight towards him." She wandered over and got comfortable in the space between the two with a particularly chunky tabby on her lap, ready to mediate if necessary.
Dick only smiled harder as he now also found the mask glue. "Exactly! B would be happy because I'd be out on patrol, and Danny can have some infield practice! It's a win-win!"
"I'm not sure if I would call that a win."
"He does have a good point, though." Selina hummed. Danny's head snapped up incredulously to look at her like she just stole his last chicken nugget. "I'm just saying, there is only so much useful practice you can get inside of an apartment, darling. Field training is just as important for situations outside of a controlled environment."
"I guess." Danny relented. "But wouldn't that just be asking for trouble? He would totally notice you're being followed at the slightest mistake." Danny curled back around Shiro, bringing them both into a levitating ball.
"Not really." Dick sat back up with a holomap of Gotham projecting from his glove. "Usually we only start together since, well, we drive over to the city from the Cave. After a few blocks, we split up to cover more ground. After the stunt with the Injustice League and with both Joker and Ivy locked up at the moment, it's bound to be relatively quiet for another day or so too. If anything, tonight would be the perfect time for field training before the usual creepy crawlies come out of their hiding spots." Dick slowly started scooting his way over with the supplies in one hand, and Nanaki supported by the other.
Danny watched him cautiously, every few scoots looking over to Selina who looked on amusedly. "And you're sure he won't notice?" Once Dick started getting relatively close, Danny floated down slightly but still used Shiro as a feline shield.
Dick shrugged nonchalantly as he maneuvered Nanaki back into his lap. "Alfie said he's still working on figuring out who was behind the Injustice League and who that plant monster was that was controlling Ivy. He's got a few leads to track down that are on the planning for tonight so we," he wiggled his eyebrows with a grin, "would be on general patrol duty."
Danny sent one last helpless look over to Selina. With a smile she tried to reassure him. "If it helps put your mind at ease, I wouldn't mind going out for a little stretch myself." She emphasized the casual offer by stretching her arms out far above her head, lightly pulling her shoulder muscles loose.
Confronted with Dick gleefully inching closer and theCatwoman herself offering to come along too, Danny really didn't have a leg to stand on. At least Nanaki hadn't decided to bully him into it too so at least there was that.
Finally relenting, he floated down until he was fully back on the floor. Sensing the pending shenanigans, Nanaki and Shiro took their leave to get comfortable where Dick had been sitting before.
Dick paused, comically bringing up a hand to his chin while he thought about how to get the mask on Danny properly. "Okay, step one. Imma need you to be human for a sec." As requested, Danny's hair and eyes shifted back to his original colors. Unfortunately for Dick, that seemed to complicate things a bit as Danny's shaggy hair was now weighed down a whole lot more. Humming to himself, he messed around with Danny's bangs for a bit before giving up. "Mama can you come help please? I think I finally understand why Alfred makes me keep my hair shorter."
Selina chuckled softly as she made her way over to her boys. Standing on her knees behind Danny, she lifted up his bangs so Dick wouldn't accidentally glue them into the mask.
"Mama?" Danny confusedly asked, looking up at Selina who just gave him a soft forehead kiss. Dick hummed confusedly as he focused on putting the glue on the mask. "You called her mama." He elaborated.
Dick paused for a second, as if he hadn't even noticed the slip of the tongue. "Ah, well…" He stammered a bit, blowing on the mask glue until it became the right consistency.
"He has known me for longer, darling. But don't feel pressured to call me that too, just call me whatever you're most comfortable with." She supplied for him, taking the pressure off the slightly blushing bird.
Dick looked down a little, slightly uncomfortable and not really wanting to meet Danny's eyes even though he would need to to put the mask on him. "Mami and tati will never be replaced, but it's kinda nice to have something similar, you know." Shrugging softly, Dick finally braved to look up at his brother. Danny's face was twisted in confusion before his features softened with a soft hum and a gentle nod.
Taking that for what it is, Dick sat up on his knees as well, carefully making sure he got the mask in the right place. Oddly enough, it was quite a bit harder to glue a mask on somebody else than on himself but for a first time try, he was quite proud of himself. With a few presses on key points, Dick sat back down.
Moment of truth. "Okay ghost boy, do your thing." He joked, checking around to make sure there weren't any cats too close by. They found out the hard way that outside of Nanaki and Shiro, the others absolutely hated it when Danny went into his full ghost form. With bated breath he watched the staticky rings pass over Danny's body, inverting everything he was wearing.
Just as he had hoped, the mask too had changed. The once black mask was now a stark white, perfectly blending in with Danny's hair. There was a strong green glow coming from behind the black lenses. With a few tweaks here and there he could have a new model ready for if Danny decided to actually come back full time.
But that were issues for later. This would do just fine, Danny would be just fine.
Chapter 33: Intermediate 16
Things were, in fact, not fine.
Patrol had been going great, a bit too great. They had gotten a little too sloppy and accidentally walked right into a turf war. With the three of them, it wasn't that hard to handle. The worst part was Danny's control over his visibility failing at just the right time for Dick to witness the sloppiest punch he has ever seen in his life. Alley toddlers quite literally threw better punches than whatever that was! Dick had immediately demanded the rest of the patrol would be combat training. They really needed to work on that more than improving Danny's power control.
But of course that couldn't just be their only issue.
Like agreed before he left to suit up, Dick had gone home with Batman after patrol. In part to get some supplies for training but also to go see Alfred after leaving the poor butler alone with Bruce for 3 days straight.
And lucky that he did.
As he was gathering supplies down in the Cave, Dick had seen a note that Bruce failed to talk to Selina yesterday since she wasn't home. He had planned to go in the morning to check again. He tried to call Selina's cell but she didn't pick up.
So here he was, racing across Gotham rooftops like a bird out of hell. Hoping he'll make it to the apartment before Batman did. By some miracle, their favorite window was left open, giving him an easy entry. "Selina?" He called out, trying to catch his breath while Shiro screamed at him. "Mama! Are you home?" Frantically he knocked on her bedroom door, worried about not seeing Danny in a pile of pillows and cats by the couch.
After what felt like an eternity, a very groggy Selina opened the bedroom door. "Honey? What's wrong?" She didn't hesitate to check him over for injuries, mind suddenly wide awake as she realized Dick showed up in his Robin suit from the night before. Had Dick even slept?
"Batman! Where is Danny? I didn't see him by the couch." Dick was zooming around the room, trying to find Danny in whatever spot was appropriate to look.
Selina grabbed him by the shoulders, forcing him to stop. "Dick, breathe. Tell me what happened, slowly."
Dick took a steading breath, the stress tremors in his arms subsiding slightly. "Batman is coming, here, now. He was supposed to talk to you last night but because you were out with us he couldn't. I tried to call you but you didn't pick up and, god, I really need to get Danny a phone, don't I. But I need to get him out of here before B gets here to talk to you." He wasn't sure how many words he jumbled together but there were still a few as his mind was racing.
Selina forced him to look up at her with a gentle nudge. "Dick, go pack the spare stuff from your bag and go back to the manor. If he asks, you say you forgot something for school. Danny is sleeping in the bathtub-don't ask. I'll go wake him up, you focus on the bag and the stuff Danny used." Dick nodded a few times, needing a minute to take it all in before he set off to pack the bag.
Selina quickly plugged in her phone and let it start up as she walked over to the bathroom, calling over Danny's favorite walking alarm clock. "Enjoy yourself, Nanaki." Right on cue, Nanaki rushed into the bathroom and started singing his favorite song for Danny. However the boy had managed to get in a position that made pretzels look straight, she didn't know and she also feared knowing how so it was best to just not even think about it.
"Oh my god, Nanaki, why." Danny whined as he tried to contort himself even more to escape from Nanaki's screaming.
"Danny, darling, we need you to wake up, preferably right now." She called out to him. With clear reluctance, she watched Danny untangle himself and sit up straight. Shiro hopped out from wherever he was hiding and ran out. Only a moment later, Shiro was screaming at Dick, probably winding up the poor boy even more.
"Wha- what is Dick doing here? Did I sleep in?" Danny stumbled out of the bathtub and followed the string of soft curses mixed with the melodic yowling of Shiro.
Selina and Nanaki followed him out, splitting off to go get dressed herself.
"Dick?"
At the call of his name, the boy looked up and immediately rushed over with a half open bag. "Good, you're dressed. Put your shoes on, we need to go, like 5 minutes ago." Dick shuffled past him as he went to look for the extra spare clothes he had smuggled over.
"Dick, what's going on? Why do we need to go?"
"Batman, coming here, we're leaving."
Suddenly wide awake, Danny helped with the rushed packing of things and grabbed his shoes. Forgoing putting them on in favor of grabbing his brother, Danny transformed and flew them a few blocks away to a little alley where they could catch their breath. Without a word, Dick rummaged through the bag and pulled out a special protein bar for Danny. A quick thanks and barely two bites and the bar was already fully gone. Maybe they really should talk to Alfred about getting Danny on a better diet because as it stands, he looks like he lost a noticeable amount of weight just over these past few days. And it's not like he had much more left to lose before he was a literal walking skeleton.
Dick's phone pinged from a newly received message, interrupting his train of thought.
Mama
He's here about Ivy, I'll keep him busy
He signed in relief, slumping slightly against the alley wall. "Made it out just in time, he's running up on leads about Ivy." With a slight huff he pushed himself off again and picked up the backpack. "She can keep him busy for as long as we need, but we should probably get going before too many people start coming outside."
"Going where?" Danny followed Dick's lead, staying invisible and only flying to make it across those big jumps this early in the morning.
"The manor. All the stuff is still there and we can get you some better food than that processed stuff." They were already a few blocks further by now, at this rate they'll get to the secret cave entrance in no time.
"Hold up. You just woke me up not even 10 minutes ago to get me away from B, and now you want me to go to the man's own home? Failing to see the logic here." A big jump across an intersection, Danny grabbed Dick so they could fly across invisibly. Despite his apparent protests, Danny still followed Dick without slowing down.
"One, he isn't there right now. That's the whole point, getting there while he is gone. The place is big enough that you can quite literally hang out wherever and he won't find you without cameras. You can even sleep in my bathtub if you want."
"Why the bathtub?"
"Says the kid sleeping in one this morning?"
"Fair point."
"Two, I need to ask Alfie something important about your food and stuff. He's really good with that kind of thing so we wouldn't need to go to an actual doctor you know."
"That does sound very tempting, yes."
Dick snorted as they made their way across another big intersection. Was it the most covert route? Absolutely not. But it was the fastest and right now he prioritized speed over stealth so long as he had Danny to turn them invisible in the high visibility areas. "Most importantly however, free unlimited homemade food when you ask nicely."
Dick had to hold back giggles as he suddenly felt himself lifted up, the increasingly recognizable cold wave of invisibility and intangibility washing over him. "You could have started with that." Danny's voice sounded from somewhere above him.
Before too long, with Dick's amazing navigation skills, they reached where he had parked his bike. "You didn't think I ran the whole way there, did you?" Dick laughed as a slightly embarrassed Danny hopped on behind him. Within seconds they were safely speeding down the streets and into the BatCave with just a touch of ghostly powers.
Trying to not make too much noise, Dick carefully parked the bike back in the hangar as Danny floated along invisibly. "Okay, we should be fine so long as we don't immediately run into-"
"I sure do hope you wouldn't be trying to avoid me, now would you, Master Dick."
Dick immediately spun around, trying to play it cool. "He-Hey, Alfie. Why would I ever want to avoid, ehe, you?" Mission failed successfully. With just the rise of the Brit's eyebrow, Dick knew he was done for. With a deep sigh and his head hung low, he gave up and got the introductions over with. "Alfie, this is Danny. Danny, this is Alfred."
"Oh my." Alfred gasped as Danny reappeared, letting himself turn fully human again. "Well, the resemblance is indeed uncanny. Oh, where are my manners? Welcome to the Wayne Manor, my dear boy. I must apologize for the lack of any refreshments, a certain young charge of mine had failed to mention I would be serving guests."
Danny immediately felt overwhelmed, letting himself be guided upstairs as Dick snickered behind him. "Oh, no sir. No need to go out of your way for me like that."
"Nonsense! You look beyond famished, it is the least I can do." Alfred led them straight towards the kitchen.
"Actually, Alfie. That's kind of why I brought him over. We, ah, we're gonna need a better meal plan that can handle training." Dick pulled out the previous meal plan that he had nabbed from Selina's, just in case. "Selina said that's what you were talking about before so I figured it would be better if you could actually get a better look at what you're dealing with here."
"And right you were, my boy." Alfred smiled, putting away the few supplies he had pulled out to focus on the more important task at hand. "Tell me, Master Daniel-"
"Danny, ah, I mean, I prefer Danny, if that's okay, sir."
Alfred smiled gently, not even upset by the interruption. He gestured for Danny to take a seat and went to sit next to him at the table. "My apologies, Master Danny. You may also call me Alfred, there is no need for any formalities." Danny raised an eyebrow with a smile but said nothing on it. "Now, what I would most want to focus on is that I already had Miss Kyle give you a special diet made for metas with high metabolisms. Yet, it does not seem to be enough. Is there something special about your specific abilities that would negate the extra nutrients?"
Danny thought for a second. Frostbite did try to explain it once but he hadn't really paid attention since he wasn't in control of his meals anyway. "I'm not totally sure but from what I remember, metas burn more when they use their abilities." He paused until he got two nods. "For me, I'm basically using them round the clock. One side of me, the human half, is constantly being attacked by the ecto in my veins. The, ah, the ghost stuff. But on the other hand, my ghost side is constantly repairing the damage." Danny had to look away as differing degrees of shock appeared on their faces. The wonders behind his enhanced senses and healing had that effect.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to just rush through it. "My abilities are also just instincts or accidents most of the time. Dick's been helping me with practice so that may also have just made it worse over all since falling back into old habits means more unintentional use. But if I don't use them, the access energy will just try to find a way to be used up and attack my human half even more."
Danny pulled up his sleeve, revealing the severely damaged inhibitors underneath. A few pieces of white hair falling in front of his eyes, eliciting a deep sigh from the boy. "Yeah. This is what I meant with accidental." He huffed at the strands with a humorless chuckle. "I'm not using my powers enough so the ghost half is bleeding into the human half. The opposite doesn't happen if I go full ghost though. The only time it can happen is by transforming back. I modified the inhibitors to be powered by my own energy but it still wasn't enough back there. Even less now."
A wrinkly hand covered his. Danny looked up at the blurry faces of Alfred and his brother, not noticing the tears that had started to form. "I promise you, Master Danny, that we will find a way to get you to a healthy state again. You have my word."
"There's a lot of scrap down in the Cave anyway." Dick added, coming over to hug Danny from the back. "We can make new, better collars until we found something that works. B won't even notice anything missing and I could always ask Lucius if he can order special stuff on the side for us."
Danny wiped at his face, not even sure if any tears had fallen. "You don't have to, I swear. Frostbite would probably know what to do but I don't know how to contact him. He's, ah I don't know how to explain this without sounding even more insane than I already do." He laughed both at himself and the overwhelming feeling of just such casual acceptance he never thought he would get. "He's a ghost doctor, well actually he is the chief of a yeti tribe but they specialize in medicine so, yeah. He came over when I was having…issues with a new power a few months back. He helped a lot but the only way I can think of talking to him would be sending Cujo."
"Cujo?"
"The dog you all said I was imagining." Dick pouted as he rested his head on top of Danny's, no actual malice in his tone.
Danny tilted his head up to look at Dick in surprise and slight alarm. "Cujo came here? When?"
Dick shrugged nonchalantly. "Started showing up here and there after the mission in Belle Rêve. He really did save my a-aahhhh me, he saved me a few times." Dick quickly corrected himself to avoid a scolding from Alfred.
"You must understand, you had not slept in days and there was no camera footage of anything except for you acting erratically."
"I know, Alfie, I don't blame you. If I didn't see him myself I wouldn't have believed it either, to be honest. Anyway, we got off track. How sure are you that Cujo could find Frostbite?"
Danny thought for a bit. Cujo was there when Frostbite first came over. So he does know him. But the Far Frozen is a large place and Cujo isn't particularly the fondest of the freezing weather over there. "He probably wouldn't like it but if we get him his favorite treats after, pretty likely I think. But I have no idea how long he would be gone for. The Realms are endless and the territory Frostbite is in has pretty extreme weather so tracking a scent would be near impossible. But Cujo has done the impossible so many times now I'm starting to think he doesn't know what that word means."
"Well then, I shall prepare a list of important information I require. In the meantime, what would you like to eat?"
Danny actually quite liked Alfred. Coming over to the Manor wasn't as scary as he had first thought it would be. The Englishman treated him like he had always been part of the family and for that Danny was very grateful. The man also had the coolest war stories that Dick got him to tell.
Of course the only reason he brought it up was so he could ask Alfred to supervise their training and help with his combat skills. At least Dick didn't joke about his 'wet newspaper stance' this time around. It was pretty cool, though. It felt more like just playing around than actual training yet somehow, they just kept praising him for picking up things rather fast. Even more after Dick had helped take off the broken inhibitors from around his wrists and ankles. They were too damaged to really function anymore so the only thing they were good for was to restrict some of his range of motion.
Danny also didn't have the heart to tell them his reflexes were supposed to be faster than the average human. The praises felt too nice to ruin.
"You know," Dick mused out loud. "There is a combat training scheduled for tomorrow at Mount Justice that I would have to go to. You could come along and watch if you want." Dick idly played with a batarang like it was a fidget spinner, stealing a few side glances at Danny as he practiced his throws.
Danny threw another one, missing the center of the target by an inch. "I don't know, Dick. You saw how horrible patrol went yesterday, and I don't think they'll enjoy having an outsider sit in on something like that." He threw another one, old muscle memory from when Dick had first explained how it worked years ago kicking in. The warm fuzzy feeling of memories from a happier time filling his chest while his head was running a mile a minute keeping up with the insane things Dick kept trying to drag him into.
"Well, that was because a gun literally went off right next to you. It was one little mistake. You wouldn't even have to do anything, just observing would be enough. Then you can see different fighting styles too and see what feels better for you."
"I don't know, Dick. Last time I was near your friends I didn't really leave the best impression." Danny finally hit dead center again. His fingers twitched to keep throwing stuff as dopamine rushed through him at the success.
"See, you won't need to worry about that. You can just stay invisible and nobody would notice you're there!"
"You're not letting this go until I agree, are you?"
"Nope." Dick smiled lopsidedly as he popped the P. Danny dramatically rolled his eyes, silently cursing how stubborn Dick could be sometimes. But he did have to admit that attending a training session would be beneficial.
Sighing deeply he put down the batarangs he was holding. "Okay fine. Say I would agree, how are you even sneaking me in. I'm not in your fancy system." He pointed towards the Zeta teleporter. Silently he also hoped he would never have to use it. Just seeing it on standby like that was already bringing back horrible memories that he would much rather forget.
Dick seemed to have forgotten about that tiny detail as he stopped messing with his own throwables. "Oh, shoot, yeah. I can't give you access either without B noticing I messed with the coding again."
"Again?" There was a story, a juicy one judging from the look on Alfred's face.
Dick grinned wildly and pulled up some videos on the main screen of the BatComputer. "Last time I changed their codes to personalized music." He pulled up a few with various reactions by the affected leaguers.
The first one was of Captain Marvel. He seemed pretty stressed out when the song Live While We're Young by One Direction started playing. The poor man was trying to find out where it was coming from and accidentally got teleported away again in his attempts to silent the song.
The next poor soul was Flash. The man just started dancing around and vibing to the song when Stand by Lenny Kravitz came through the speakers.
The one after was a wider shot of the Zeta bay. Before Superman even fully materialized, Waiting For Superman by Daughtry already started playing. As if they had been waiting exactly for this moment, Flash and Green Arrow burst out laughing and sang the entire song while Superman looked like he wanted to die. He probably had to deal with a lot of jokes from his colleagues.
Not even Aquaman had been spared. The Atlantean stood in utter confusion as Atlantis by Dr Rude played. Of course, Flash and Green Arrow had been waiting for him too. Flash played with the light switches while Green Arrow waved around two flares to really add to the rave vibe.
But the best would have to be Batman's. Dick had set it up so The Imperial March would play through the entire building. Each room had its own line of code so it would guarantee the song could play in full while Batman tried to shut it down.
The twins ended up in a mess of giggles at the end of it all. "So as you can see," Dick said between breaths, "He has a good reason for still keeping a close eye on anybody messing with the main code after that."
"Really, I couldn't imagine why they don't want their own soundtrack."
"I could always just hack the hangar door again and get in that way, which we totally don't do all the time Alfie, totally not." Dick lost himself in another fit of giggles at the disapproving stare Alfred gave. "Okay, seriously though. I can get you in. It's the getting there that's the problem. Alfred, which one of the planes would B be least likely to miss?"
"If it is a simple matter of transportation, you may use mine." Alfred pulled out his keyring and removed one Dick recognized to belong to one of Batman's original designs for the Batplane. Alfred chuckled as he handed over the key to the stunned boy. "What, did you really think Master Bruce is the only one who got to keep fancy toys?"
Dick giddily jumped up and embraced the older man. "Alfie, you're the best!"