Chapter Text
Batman is not having a good day.
Batman is well-used to the depravity of the Joker’s tricks, but this is bad, even for him. Underneath a vat of bubbling acid, there are two clear glass containers. In one is Robin, looking supremely miffed to have gotten captured, and in the other is a civilian boy, perhaps fifteen or sixteen years of age. The part of his brain that isn’t trying to distract the Joker notes that the boy would fit in well with his own children, with his black hair and vivid blue eyes.
“I have trouble believing you’d set this up and then only give me the usual demands,” Batman tells the Joker, carefully avoiding looking at where Nightwing and Red Robin are dismantling the complicated wiring that controls the acid vat.
The Joker (predictably) laughs, waving the remote with two red buttons that he holds in one hand. The other hand has a gun trained on Batman, but that is the least of his concerns. “Oh, Batsy, do I need a reason to force you to make this choice? Why, just the other day I was thinking to myself-“
“Do it, no balls. You fuckin won't."
The Joker turns to the civilian boy, who gives them a feral smile that could pass as a snarl. Batman stares too, unsure if the horror he feels is hidden from his expression. While the Joker stares, Batman shakes his head, trying to signal how extremely terribly bad of an idea baiting the Joker is.
"Kiddo, do you have any idea-" the Joker starts, sounding marginally amused but mostly threatening.
The boy is still grinning, posture casual. "Everyone from Illinois knows Joker's just a bitch, anyways."
The Joker waggles the remote in the air. "Yeah, no. This is between me and the Bat, but I’m not going to tolerate that kind of cheek. Last chance, brat.”
Batman glances behind the hostages, but there’s been no signal that the acid vat trigger has been disabled. “Joker, are you really going to take the choice away from me? What about your master plan?” Batman says loudly, desperate to draw attention from the possibly suicidal boy. Does he think that Batman is in danger, with a single gun pointed at him? That he needs to try and save the heroes?
"You also don't know how to tell a joke, or how to take one.” The boy’s voice is clearly audible over Batman’s, and Batman despairs as the Joker’s posture goes stiff. They don’t have any more time, he has to-
Joker presses one of the red buttons, and the vat of acid pours into the civilian’s container. Batman (and his children) are forced to watch as the boy disappears, a sacrifice that wasn’t needed at all. As soon as the acid hits the glass, he’s completely gone.
This one is going to haunt him, Batman knows, although he’s more worried about the guilt Robin or the others may feel. Before he can take those feelings out on the Joker, a strange chill grips the room. There’s a shape forming, rising out of the acid, that solidifies from top to bottom, the outline of shoes gaining color just as they clear the container. The shape is that of a kid, white haired with eyes the sickly bright green of a Lazarus Pit.
He’s wearing the very same smile as the now dead civilian boy.
—————
OK, so Danny has not been as cautious about actions and consequences today as he normally might be, but in his defense, this isn’t actually his universe. He’d been in the Ghost Zone fighting Skulker (and winning, thanks) when a stray blast had knocked him through an unassuming door nearby.
At first, he’d assumed that he was in his own world, just another location, but after picking up a newspaper and reading A. the name of a major city he’d never heard of and B. stories about multiple superheroes that weren’t him, it’d become clear that he wasn’t in his own universe. One of the heroes might be able to help him get back (he hopes) but the first one he’d encountered had been a fellow kid and then they were both being subjected to knock-out gas suddenly enough that he’d forgotten to stop breathing.
After waking up in a glass container, things had gone very… comic-book-y. Threats of death, a superhero trying to stall for time, all that good stuff. The thing was, Danny was not in danger here.
And he really hated clowns.
And it’d suck if anything happened to the heroes, especially before they could help him get home. Danny did not want to wait until a portal opened naturally— he had a history essay due tomorrow that wasn’t even halfway done!
This brings us to now, where Danny has remembered that he doesn’t really need to care about his secret identity in this universe and feels he deserves to have a bit of fun. He lets his invisibility fade at a dramatically slow pace, wearing a smile that Sam and Tucker have described as unsettling.
Everyone’s faces are priceless, Danny wishes he had a camera. Letting his voice echo in a spooky manner, he looks at the Joker and says, “looks like you’ve killed me, I’m a ghost!” This is technically true, which makes it extra funny to Danny. “ Now what are you gonna threaten me with, dipshit?”
To his credit, the clown is pretty quick to recover and immediately tries to shoot him, which isn’t a problem since he’s still intangible. The hero darts forward silently and knocks the remote out of his hand, so Joker tries to shoot him too.
Danny cackles and flies to the side of the room, picking up one of his favorite improvised weapons. With it in hand, he swoops over the clown. “AND IT’S DANNY WITH THE STEEL CHAIR,” he yells in an excellent impression of a wrestling announcer as he does his best to give the clown as severe of a concussion he can without actually killing him.
The Joker crumples to the floor, unconscious.
The hero stares. The tinier hero in the other glass tube stares. Another two heroes come out from behind the contraption and stare.
Danny is having a great day, actually.