Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Understandably, Sam and Tucker were tired, the flight to Gotham City wasn't that long, only a little over two hours, but it was already getting dark when they left. They were all sitting in the back of a taxi, with Danny being the only one to still be wide awake in the middle while the other two were drifting off as they drove through Gotham traffic. 

It was hard to believe that they were staying, that it wasn't some kind of weird vacation. Though not many would ever consider going to Gotham to be any kind of vacation. 

Thankfully, along with about ten thousand dollars on a debit card, pulled straight from Sam's savings, her parents also set up a small private plane to take them there, letting the trio bring a lot of Fenton Works tech with them uncontested.

Convincing their parents was an arduous task to say the least about it, it took weeks for Sam and especially Tucker's parents to even consider it.

But they managed, the trio warned the ghosts in Amity Park about the incoming GIW and captured the ones who didn't leave willingly, only closing the Ghost Portal afterwards and made sure it would never open again. It felt...

It felt wrong. But there was nothing they could do, the massive increase in government funding to the organization had spurred them to arrive in full force, along with an update to the Anti-Ecto Acts. 

Guilt came to him from the fact that Sam and Tucker were liminal now. In hindsight, how couldn't they be? Constantly being around and fighting ghosts, being overshadowed by powerful ghosts and wielding powerful artifacts, even being in the Ghost Zone without hazmat suits. 'Ecto-Contaminated' people were far easier to catch than a ghost for a government agency, they had records. If designated as Liminals by the GIW, they would be effectively hunted wherever they go. All of them had to get out of there. 

Danny closed his eyes and leaned back, he thought back on his words to Clockwork, before the timeliness were compressed and the world at large forgot he was Phantom, "Not gonna lie, being accepted by my city after all this time has been amazing..." 

"But if anyone's gonna unite the Ghost Zone and the human realm, it's gotta be me. The new me."

"Even if that makes me a pariah again." 

He didn't think it would be this bad.

He didn't think he'd make his team pariahs with him. 

How could he do this to them?

The transport jostled to a stop, startling the other two. 

"Come on guys, we're here." Danny gently nudged Sam and Tucker, while glancing at the actually decent looking apartment building they were parked next to. 

As they got up, Sam sluggishly gave the driver a fifty as the boys got their luggage from the back. 

As he lifted his luggage up and out, Danny saw from the corner of his eye the door of the building opening. Jazz stepped outside, her smile wide and eyes flashing a small green glow in excitement. 

"Danny, Sam, Tucker!" Jazz ran at them and pulled them into a bear hug, with her opening her arms for Sam to join in a moment later. 

"Hi Jazz." Is about all that Danny could wheeze out with the crushing hug she was giving him. 

She let go just a little and looked them up and down, her eyes watery, "I missed you guys so much!" 

"We missed you too," Sam smirked, "Glad you weren't there though. It was stressful, to uh, say the least about it." 

Jazz's smile dropped slightly as her eyes darted around like always when talking about a touchy subject in the open, "You guys can tell me more once we're inside and dinner is on the way." 

She led them inside and quickly walked to the elevator to call it down, clearly eager to show them around.

Opening the door, Jazz stepped inside the apartment and felt around for a lightswitch. The trio following just behind stepped inside to see a mostly empty living room attached to a kitchenette that had just enough space for a table, a dark hallway leading to three more rooms. Several cardboard boxes, both empty and full were scattered around. 

"I uh, had to find a new apartment so we could all fit," Jazz stepped into the hallway and turned the lights on, "My room is the one at the end of the hallway, next to it on the right is the bathroom. Sam, your room is the second door on the right. Danny, you and Tucker are gonna have to share the room on the left side, sorry." 

Tucker and Danny looked at each other and shrugged, "That's ok, I don't imagine finding a four bedroom apartment on relative short notice was possible." 

Jazz muttered, "Not a nice one..." 

She raised her head back up, still smiling, "Anyway, go put your stuff down, and then you guys have tell me everything. I'll order us pizza."

Sam punched the air, "Nice! Veggie for me please?" 

Jazz nodded while getting her phone, "I remember Sam." 

"That'll be $30.55" 

Jazz passed him the money and took the pizza's in one hand at the same time. 

"Thank you." She said as she closed the door. 

"Pizza's here!" She called down the hallway as she passed it on her way to the kitchenette. 

It took less than a moment for all three of them to drop whatever they were doing and come out of their rooms. 

"Finally! Thought it would never get here." Tucker was first to grab a plate, and a slice. 

As Sam was last to get her own slice from the veggie pizza Jazz ordered, Jazz herself was slightly tense with some excitement.

"Soooooo... Anyone want to fill me in on the exact details of what happened back home?" She was giving a nervous smile, not wanting to bring down the mood but desperately wanting answers. 

Tucker tried to start explaining with a mouth full of pizza but was quickly shut down by Sam. 

"What Tucker is trying to say," She started for him, "Is that when he was hacking the usual GIW goonsquad patrolling the town, he found out they were getting reinforcements, and lots of them." 

The tech wiz swallowed his pizza to continue, "Yeah, and they weren't kidding! The town felt like it was under martial law just before we left." 

Danny nodded, "I managed to warn the nice ghosts in town and others in the portal before they arrived though, so most of them should be ok." 

Jazz's eyebrows furrowed, "Most of?" 

He grimaced, "We know they captured a few animal ghosts, or... Maybe they were blob ghosts?" 

Sam nodded sadly before continuing, "We couldn't really tell, they were just puddles on operating tables and inside test tubes by the time we snuck in, and just barely snuck in at that. Obviously we had to shut down the portal so none our usual ghosts got through and caught. Even with a warning, they'd be too..." 

"Stubborn." Jazz understood, it was a common trait among ghosts, even in her little brother. 

She finally grabbed a slice for herself, "So, how did you guys shut it down?" 

"Well first, we pressed the off button." Danny, Sam, and Jazz gave Tucker a look as he took another large bite with a smug-ass smirk on his face. 

"We also took the physical blueprints for the portal, and smarty-pants here corrupted the digital copies of them." Sam continued before taking another bite and motioning for Danny to pick up the story. 

He sighed, "I fried the portal. Used a few jumper cables and did my little Ghost Stinger trick." 

Jazz squinted, "And that did it in? Completely? Won't they just replace the burnt out parts?" 

Tucker spoke up now, his mouth free of pizza, "Nope! Because if that didn't destroy it, the fire that it caused did. We put dead batteries in the smoke detectors in the lab so your parents would just think that they forgot to replace them, we figured they would totally buy that." 

She nodded, they would.

"By the time Mom and Dad put out the fire, the portal was wasted. Everything inside of it was melted." Danny said, suddenly looking a little disinterested in his slice. 

"They didn't take it well, huh?" Jazz said, knowing that look on his face. 

"No..." Mom and Dad were devastated, so much research came after opening that portal, even if they didn't know the half of it. Frankly, he was just as bummed about destroying it as they were. 

Jazz leaned across the table slightly to put her hand on his shoulder, wishing to reasure him, "It was the right call." 

"I hope so." 

An awkward silence hung in the room as they ate. Only ending once Tucker cleared his throat and asked, "Sooooo Jazz, how has Gotham University been?" 

She perked up immediately, "Oh, it's been surprisingly great! Especially the psychology classes. So many interesting case studies!" 

Sam smirked, "You talk about anyone specific yet?" 

"Assuming you're talking about the 'rogues', the only one the class has begun to study is Mr. Harvey Dent."

Tucker quirked an eyebrow, "You mean Two-Face?" 

"No, I mean Mr. Harvey Dent. Psychiatrists should not encourage our patients psychosis. Honestly, the Two-Face name the media gives him doesn't help attempts to get him better." 

Sam passed Danny her pizza crusts as she got up from the table to wash her plate, "What makes you say that?" 

"Two-Face is the specific name of his other personality. The media loves to focus on the Two-Face name so much that it is honestly all anyone ever hears when talking about him. It definitely doesn't help to have a whole city acknowledge his other halves existance and make it harder for any psychiatrist so much as attempt to help him understand th-" 

"OK. Jazz, we get it. Encouraging his psycho-whatsit is bad." Tucker quickly interrupted before Jazz went on a rant. 

"I'm just saying, maybe the news should focus on some of the random acts of kindness he does too. It's always a fifty fifty whether or not he does something good or bad after all. Just a bit of positive attention might help." 

Danny gave her a look, "He's killed people Jazz. Little hard to portray him in a nice light after that." 

She scoffed, "Well... Maybe so, but at least he can probably be helped, not like that clown! I swear, I don't even think he's psychotic..." She muttered the last part under her breath. 

He grimaced while thinking of the clown prince of crime, "Ugh." 

"If only he was a ghost, right Danny?" Tucker said, a smirk on his face. 

Danny gave a dry chuckle, "Then I could kick his butt and throw him headfirst into the ghost zone. With any luck he'd end up in front of Walker." 

"He'd just get out anyway. Wasn't exactly hard for you," Sam dried her hands and grabbed a kitchen lighter from a drawer. 

The halfa gave her a look, "What's that for?" 

"Need it for some candles. I'd prefer to cleanse my room at least once before sleeping in a city as cursed as this one." 

Danny hesitated a moment before nodding, "You know, if you told me that in any other city I probably would've rolled my eyes, but now? I completely understand." 

"Good to know I'm not the only one," Tucker added as he took his own plate to the sink, "This place just... Feels different than home did, and Amity was haunted as shit." 

Jazz chuckled, "It's probably just homesickness. I was the same way when when I first got here." 

Finally, Danny cleaned up and washed his own plate and followed Tucker to their room. It wasn't much for now, just two unfolding bedframes with mattresses and two cheap, albiet wide plastic drawers for their clothes. It was pretty minimal for now, but both of them figured it was nothing they couldn't fix later. 

"Hey Danny, you mind opening the window? It's hot in here."

Danny nodded, though he himself didn't feel the same. Undoing the window lock, he opened it and let a cool breeze into the room. He leaned out the window for a moment, letting the night breeze blow against his face. As his eyes slowly opened to see the north beautiful and ugly architecture of Gotham, he saw something else in the distance.  

A small, ectoplasm green streak phasing through the building just across the street from them near the top floor. 

"Tucker. Tucker!" Danny waved over to Tucker, who quickly noticed and came running. 

"What?" He peaked over Danny's shoulder, not seeing anything. 

"Pass me the thermos!" Danny kept watching, wondering if it would come back out the other side.

Tucker reflexively snatched it from his bag before finally thinking out loud, "...Danny, what are we doing?" 

He looked back at him, a little lost for words, "What do you mean?" 

Tucker sighed, "We don't even have a portal to throw the ghost into. Plus, you don't even know if the ghost is doing something bad." 

Danny thought for a moment before countering, "Well 1, we don't know the ghost is doing something bad until I check it out. And 2, I could just beat up the ghost till they phase back into the Ghost Zone the hard way. They've done it before." 

"But... Didn't we come here to hide? Last thing we need is to lure the GIW here. Especially with the good thing Jazz has going on here." 

Danny was conflicted, hesitating for a long moment before taking a steadying breath and going ghost, "I have to help. If they don't need it, fine. But if they do... I have to."

Tucker sighed, but he did have a small smirk on his face, "I was worried you'd say that. Just be discreet, please. One sighting of Phantom and the GIW will come running." 

"I'll be careful, I promise." Danny disappeared from Tucker's vision and phased through the wall. Flying straight to the room where he saw the ghost. 

He stopped short just a few inches from the outside wall, where he could see his breath for a moment. He leaned slowly over as his invisible face went through the wall, of course, it was dark, but as his eyes adjusted slightly he could see that he was peeking into a living room with a kitchenette much like their own. Pushing himself through the wall, he looked around for any hint of the ghost he saw. 

A quick, albiet hesitant, peak into the bathroom revealed the only place it could be in now: the bedroom. Danny slowly phased through the door, his fists balled up and his attention sharp, ready for anything. 

The sound of a strange sobbing came from a large bed in the center of an otherwise plain room. Directly above the writhing person in the bed was a single, rather plain looking ghost who's face he couldn't see yet, looming over them as it caressed their face with one hand and hovered their knife-like fingers over their lips. 

The person was asleep, but clearly in some horrible nightmare as the ghost tormented them, it reminded him of Spectra, feeding off of misery.

Not wanting to look at this a second longer, Danny lunged at the ghost and grabbed it by the shoulder and made it intangible with him as he flew up through the ceiling and made his way towards the roof. 

The ghost writhed in his hands as they flew through the building, it scratched from behind at Danny's hand, trying to make him release it. Only managing to get a good cut on his hand once they reached the rooftop. 

Danny pulled his hand back and zipped backwards, becoming visible as ectoplasm dripped from a small cut on his hand for a moment before healing over. 

Looking up, at the ghost he finally saw the face of it as it floated before him now. He felt his core hum louder as made a sudden realization.

"Why do you look like that clown?!" 

It was the spitting image of the Clown Prince of Crime. At least, the outline of him. It still looked like most animal and blob ghosts, like someone took raw ectoplasm and shaped it like clay into the Jokers shape. Danny knew it couldn't be his ghost, Joker was still alive and well, unfortunately. 

A horrifically high pitched laughter came from it, only to be silenced a second later as Danny punched it across the jaw. Ectoplasm splattered across the floor as he saw its jaw come half off as it bounced across the rooftop from the sheer force he hit it with. 

Danny got in closer to splatter it before ecto-blasts could get involved, hoping to end this before it becomes too flashy and noticeable. When it started laughing again, he rushed in to silence it once more, only for his fist to stop mere inches from it's face. 

Except it wasn't laughing. It tilted it's head at him, it's already high cheekbones rising higher, smiling harder despite it's lack of a bottom jaw.

A green shape passed by the roof. Then another, and another, again and again. Danny looked up as he saw about several dozen more exact copies of the Joker ghosts swoop down, the copy he was fighting joining them while he was distracted. All of them giggling. 

Like a school of fish, they swarmed around in the sky, going in and out of invisibility. A quiet, unnatural and deeply unsettling cacophony of laughing voices came from the collection. Danny felt like the wordless voices were worming their way into his head, giving him a headache as he looked at them with some concern. He was moved to act when he suddenly felt the urge to laugh, and was horrified the moment he even considered it. 

Danny charged, going right into the center of the swarm. His punches connected no matter where they went, several of the Joker ghosts were outright splattered, though Danny was getting scratched at for every punch he threw. His head was reeling from the laughing, trying hard not to use his more loud and obvious powers to deal with this. Again and again he swung wildly, hitting any and everything he could, making the swarm ever so slightly quieter with every one he took out. 

Eventually the swarm withdrew, going invisible as the the strange laughter lessens until it became a mere distant snicker. Danny floated down to the rooftop, covered in globs of ectoplasm. The roof being similarly coated in said globs. 

He wiped the bits off of himself as he went invisible and phased through the roof, down to the room he saw the ghost in. The second he was back inside the bedroom, he noticed the sobbing. They were still crying... Why? The ghost was gone. 

Danny got up close to them, finally getting a good look at the somehow still sleeping person, who was a definitely a man in his early twenties. He noticed the long scars on his cheeks, like the kinds you would see after a surgery. His mouth was seemingly forced into a smile, and now that he could hear better, Danny shivered involuntarily as he realized the sobbing occasionally, subtly switching to a pathetic, dry laugh and back to a sob at a moments notice. 

He had heard of people surviving Joker Venom before. The Gotham paramedics had a general cure for most Joker venom, what with the many different versions of it there were. While much less people died from it these nights, a not small collection of unlucky people were barely saved from it, and now had permanent scaring. 

Danny felt so much then. Angry at what it was doing. Concern that there was so many of them. Shame that the ghosts got away. And sad that chasing them away didn't even help. 

As he phased through the apartment wall and flew towards his sisters apartment to grab the thermos to suck up the remains, he muttered under his breath.

"I fucking hate clowns."

"Oracle, any contact from Constantine?"

"None B. He hasn't used the communicator you lent him. And the tracker you put on him is still at the apartment he rented, I imagine he found it." 

"Hn." 

Frustrating. Always so damn frustrating whenever he and magic gets involved. Bruce always felt a headache around the magical nonsense he could do little about himself. He loomed on top of a tall building, overlooking a busy street. Thankful at the least that it was a quiet patrol so far. 

"The magician did not explain why he came, correct?" Damian was sitting crisscross on the ledge, glancing slightly at Bruce but otherwise also looming over the city street with him. 

"Barely. He mentioned that something happened in Illinois and something else moved here. Claimed that he needed to investigate before saying anything definitive." Bruce doubted him, John had a bad habit of not saying everything he knew, usually not until it became a immediate problem.

Barbra chimed in, "It's barely been a day B. Let him investigate, we have other things to worry about."

Bruce noticed smoke whirl around his head, cigarette smoke. He turned, knowing full well who was there. 

John Constantine stood several feet away from them atop the roof, his lit cigarette making a trail of smoke unnaturally leading straight to Bruce. 

"Hey Bats, and bird. You particularly busy at the moment?" 

Bruce got closer before speaking, "No. Why?" 

The unkempt man took the cigarette out of his lips for a moment as he put his arms behind his head and yawned, "No reason. I just wanted to fill you in a bit more of you had any questions." 

"...Why?" He usually didn't elaborate so soon. Maybe he finally learned not to withhold details with him?

He shifted around, uncomfortable, "No reason, just... This investigation might drag on for a bit." 

Bruce withheld a sigh as again he asked, "Why?" 

John took a drag of his cigarette, "Not much to go on just yet. And it doesn't seem malicious, yet anyway."

Damian rolled his eyes and went next to where his father stood, "Get on with it." 

John scoffed, "You know, I liked the other Robin better. But fine. Anything specific you want to know Bats?" 

"What happened in Illinois? And where specifically?" Bruce wanted to keep this brief. 

John took another drag, this time exhaling the smoke through his nose, where it formed a small ball of smoke in the air. He moved next to Bruce and Damian so he could look with them. With a wave of his hand a a dim glow coming from the center of the smoke, it suddenly was like a screen as it showed a city. 

"Amity Park. A place where the veil is very thin, has been considered one of the most haunted places in the world about a few years now. Over that time, there have been several incursions and many attacks by Realms-Beings, or more colloquially known as 'Ghosts'." 

Damian raised an eyebrow under his domino mask but otherwise stayed quiet. Bruce himself had met Deadman, so it wasn't a hard pill to swallow. 

"While these attacks happened rather often, they also had a pleasant tendency to solve themselves. A few times now the JLD has prepared itself to deal with an incursion, only for us to be surprised the situation handled itself by the time we were done getting mobilized. From what we've seen, the place has somethin of a guardian spirit, and a right powerful one at that, considering some of these incidents." 

The smoke showed an image of the city overrun with massive vines that could have been considered megaflora.

"The spirit itself is know by the city as Phantom. We've only seen glimpses of him, as well as the blurry and staticy videos and images taken. But we've left him alone for the most part, even protector ghosts can be real territorial, didn't want to stir up trouble where there was none by buttin in on a ghost this powerful."

The smoke shifted to one such image, John was right, it was too obscure to see any normal defining details of the ghost as its body was like a shade, just the bright, glowing green eyes staring back at him from the darkness, as well as a white bit of what was definitely hair was notable.

"What changed?" Bruce said, a little annoyed by the his lack of any deeper investigation of Amity and it's apparent protector.

"Bout a week or two ago, the veil there hardened very noticeably. Very few ghosts were coming to and from their realm and ours, and while not necessarily a bad thing, rapid changes are concerning. Shortly after, a government organization came to Amity, with what is apparently proper ghost hunting tech. And I don't mean like the kind used on those fake TV shows where they try to get them to talk, I mean tech used for hunting ghosts." 

Bruce nodded, "So the Realms-Beings anticipated the coming danger and left. What about the organization? Do you have a name?" 

"They're called the GIW, also known as the Ghost Investigation Ward. Granted, they don't so much as investigate as they do try to blow'em away and ask questions later." The smoke zoomed in, showing large white vehicles patrolling with what looked like soldiers wearing full body white armor and glowing blue energy guns.

Bruce drunk in the details before asking, "What does this have to do with Gotham then?" 

"Not much admittedly. Most ghosts near Amity are in their realm, we think, and whatever stragglers are still there are currently being hunted by the GIW, so likely most of them will go home too at some point. However, we did notice a decent bit of ecto-energy coming this way on a little... 'Device' we have over at the JLD. Now, it might some collection of ghost stragglers, or it could even be GIW goons with some samples coming here to investigate, with the sudden lapse in activity in Amity, I imagine they're looking to prove their continued existance to the government." 

"Shouldn't you know? You said this device you possess can track their energy. Couldn't you have found it today?" Damian asked, his arms folded. 

John rubbed the back of his head, "Ain't the kinda thing you can carry around with you Birdy, plus, it's doesn't work that way. We use it to measure said ecto-energy shifting around the world. If more powerful Realms-Being or a decently large group of them travel, we can see them. Problem is, most larger cities have a large amount of energy from their own local ghosts, where everything kinda blends together into a hotspot." 

"So their signal is lost with the others." Bruce finished. 

John nodded before taking another drag, simultaneously swiping the smoke ball away with a hand. "I'll search around the hard way for whatever it is, most likely scenario it's just stragglers. Hopefully they behave and I don't have to send'em back the hard way." 

"What about the GIW, is the rest of the JLD looking into them?" Bruce asked, concerned about the human element, the existence of the GIW was concerning tk say the least about them. 

"Course we are Bats. Most of the us in the JLD aren't happy about their existance, the last thing we need is some government stooge pissing off beings even we barely understand. And that's a real possibility with how trigger happy this lot is." 

"Aaaaanyway, for now, don't worry so much. We'll take care of it, we always do. You deal with the normal problems here... Well, as normal as the problems in Gotham can be. Heh."

He put up an arm to wave at the two of them as he left, "See ya around Bats."

He didn't hear anything for a moment, it's not like he was expecting a goodbye but he did expect for Bats to get the last word in, he usually couldn't help himself. He turned around, seeing that the two of them were long gone without so much as a sound. Not even a shadow in the distance.

He smirked for a moment and mumbled, "Still wanna know how that big bloke does that."

Chapter Text

Danny, Tucker, and Sam walked through the streets of the Upper East Side, eating the breakfast they had bought from a little restaurant a few minutes ago. Jazz suggested they learn at least their immediate area for their first day here while she was at the library. 

Danny stayed between Sam and Tucker, leaning his head forward to whisper to them, "I don't get it..." 

Sam, first swallowing a bite of her vegan breakfast burrito, asked, "What?"

"The Joker ghosts! Why are there multiple if that clown is alive?" Danny half whispered half hissed the words out, admittedly, he was already itching to get back into ghost fighting as well as pissed for his failure from the other night.

Tucker hummed for a second and reached for his PDA with his free hand while taking a bite of the burrito in his other hand, "Maybe that weird theory has some truth to it." 

Sam turned to him, "Theory?" 

Nodding, he started to explain, "Everyone knows that Joker's like, died, several times now, though everyone says he just fakes his death. Buuuuuut, a dedicated bunch of people think the Joker thing is like a mantle, every time a Joker dies a new one takes the his place. So, you know, that might explain it?" 

Danny grimaced at the idea, "I refuse to believe there is that many people, even if they are fruitloops, who would be willing to wear a suit that tacky." 

Sam nodded, "Same. But seriously, these Jokers, how... Defined, were they?" 

Danny was about to speak before shutting up just long enough to let a person pass them by, "Not much. They just looked like raw ectoplasm in the shape of him." 

"Then I doubt a personality as big and twisted as the Joker's would turn into ghosts that plain, even if there are multiple. Ghosts are intrinsically tied to emotion, so maybe... These ghosts are manifestations of trauma, or maybe the peoples fear of him?" She sounded a little unsure as she went along.

Tucker however was nodding along now, a smirk on his face, "Considering everything he's done, how many people he did it too, and for how long... Maybe the shared emotion between, let's be honest, everyone in the city, maybe it made them?" 

Danny frowned, his thoughts going to the massive group that swarmed him the night before. There was at least over two hundred of them, and while they were nothing special, the fact that someone could terrorize a city that badly made him disgusted.

"Regardless, how should I track down the swarm?" 

Tucker put his PDA away and spoke quickly before diving back into his burrito, "The swarm seemed to bunch up and chase you down after you started harassing that one, just do that again." 

Sam leaned in closer to Danny, resting her head on his shoulder, mostly just to whisper to him as the walked past more people, "You're gonna have to take the swarm somewhere you can use your other, more noticable, powers." 

Danny sighed dejectedly, already knowing full where he'd need to go and all the filth he'd probably get on him, "Sewers it is then." 

Jason was antsy. How could he not be? It had been a month since Joker broke out of Arkham. 

Granted, he did that basically every other week, but now Jason was concerned, whatever he was planning was taking too long, Joker could do a lot in just a week, much less a month. Jason was never sure when the clown would come into Crime Alley to try and force another confrontation between him and Bruce. 

Three times now the Red Hood and Batman have almost come to blows while both tried to deal with the Joker in their own ways. Each time some new method to push the envelope a little farther. 

Jason put his hand through his hair to squeeze his own head in frustration. God the pir rage was strong today. He hated how he had hesitated those three times, how he could have just ended that pure evil bastard. If only he didn't always get to him first. 

All he had to do was get past Bruce and Joker's life was forfeit. He had three chances already to take it, and he couldn't.

Why? Why couldn't he just take the chance? 

He hated how weak he felt. He hated how that clown loved taunting him. He hated that Joker still hadn't paid for anything. He hated how this city never changed. He hated being so damn alone. 

Hate. Hate. Hate.

His phones ringtone startled him from his thoughts. Rubbing his eyes, he went for his phone and brought it up to his ear, ready for any news or excuse to blow off steam and get into a fight.

"What?" 

"Hey boss. We, uh, got a weird guy here at one of our warehouses who wants to talk to you?"

Jason furrowed his eyebrows, "About what?" 

"Says he needs to poke around the Alley for somethin and wanted permission so he wouldn't be bothered." 

He didn't like the sound of that, and he didn't think the people of the Alley would appreciate it either, "...Describe him." 

"Blonde, unshaven, wearing a trenchcoat. Honestly looks like one of 'em washed up detectives from a bad noir movie." 

Jason audibly sighed, he at least knew of this guy. Occasionally popping into Gotham to do some weird mystic shit, last time he got escorted through the Alley by Bruce to do something.

"Boss, I wouldn't have bothered calling for this weirdo if he didn't do something to Max, he's been speaking in rhymes for the past ten minutes now, the guy says he'll undo it when he speaks to you." 

Suppressing another groan, Jason grabbed his bag containing his helmet and said he'd be on his way. He barely locked his apartment door when he muttered, "Magical bullshit."

It took a minute to get there, mostly because he had to get there as Red Hood in the middle of the day, secret identities were a pain even if you were dead. He pulled up to the shoddy warehouse, noticing several of his guys trying to secretly watch him from the broken windows. He had to give them credit, if he didn't know how to look he wouldn't have noticed them. He only needed to shout once in order for his men to open the doors of the warehouse so he could drive his motorcycle inside. 

Getting off the bike, he could already see several goons surrounding Constantine, though they were putting on undaunted looks, they were occasionally looking back at one of them, he assumed Max. With a grunt, he motioned to a sideroom where they could talk alone, and John followed him into it, a bored expression on his face. Jason was almost insulted.

"You really needed me for this?" 

John shrugged, flicking his finished cigarette to the ground before taking out another and sparking it. 

"Got enough problems already without one of your boys threatening to put a hole in me as I plan to poke around Crime Alley tonight. Figured I'd just avoid the whole issue if I could since you own it and all." 

Jason advanced toward him, arms folded, "Poking around for what?" 

"Same as always, supernatural shite." 

"For Batman?"

He shook his head, "Nah. Just need to see if anythings wrong. Trust me, dear ol Bats ain't all that happy with me here, more than eager for me to be off once I'm done here." 

Jason gave a single, sarcastic laugh, "Something we both can actually agree on. Who knew?" 

John sighed, closing his eyes for a moment, "Look, just, let me poke around without me having to look down a gun barrel and I'll be out of your hair by the end of the night." 

Jason squinted under the helmet, "What are you looking for?" 

"Again, I believe that's none of your business. We have a deal or not?"

The crime lord folded his arms and thought about it as he grumbled to himself, "...Alright, fine. But! I'm coming with you, if anything is happening in my territory, I'll be damned if I don't know about it. Been slow around here anyway." 

John gave a dry laugh back, "People who follow me around do tend to get damned or are damned. But sure, I'll let you tag along. I'll come back here tonight at eight, be seeing you then." 

As they left the side room, the clearing of a third parties throat made both of them turn to the now open door to the side room they both stepped into, with Max, the goon stuck speaking in rhymes standing in the doorway. 

The man pointed angrily to his own throat, a weird looking marking on the side of it. Most likely avoiding speaking as to avoid the others continuing to make fun of him. 

"Ah, right. One moment." He took a long drag of his cigarette again as he walked up to the man. Licking his thumb, he simply smudged the marking, with it disappearing a moment later. 

Confused and a little grossed out, the goon said, "What, thats it!?" 

John chuckled as he walked out the door, "Yup. It's like, babies first curse." 

So far, the evening was pretty uneventful. He and Constantine had been walking around for about two hours now, and yet Jason still didn't have the slightest idea the sad trenchcoat man was looking for. 

Jason's arms were crossed as he leaned against the dilapidated wall of an abandoned building that John felt necessary to look inside of, "When you said, 'poking around' I didn't think that meant generally wandering around looking at stuff." 

John exhaled some weirdly moving smoke before talking, "True. But I wanted to come in to question a resident." 

"Resident? No one lives here, best you get here is the occasional squatter. And even they leave after spending a night." 

"Because it's haunted, right?" John looked back to Jason, a smirk on his face. 

"Yeah... How do you know that?" 

"Cause I didn't plan to talk to someone who lives here." 

With another long drag, John blew a smoke ring that grew larger as it traveled through the room. Only it didn't dissipate into the air, but still was getting larger and larger until it hit a wall. 

Jason's eyes widened as the yellowing wallpaper simply peeled off the wall. He could see the decaying wood underneath, and more importantly, the several bullets holes close to the ground. The smoke circle suddenly 'popped', the smoke now going down towards the ground, but as it moved Jason could see something. 

No, someone. 

A middle aged man was lying against the wall, his head slumped down. His body was gray and see-through, the wall still mostly visible behind him. He was the spitting image of a mobster, minus the coat and hat. His white shirt had several holes in it, each one matching perfectly to the holes in the wall behind him. Jason's hand tightened around the gun in his holster as the man put a hand on the wall, and begun to lift himself up. 

"Hate to break it too you lad, but you can't exactly shoot a ghost. At least, not with those guns." 

Stumbling slightly as he stood up, the mobster casted the magician a unimpressed glance as he put his hands on his back to stretch. 

"Hmph. You want something?" The man spoke, his voice echoing strangely across the room, like he was whispering in Jason's ear despite being in front of him. 

"Yeah, do you know of any other ghosts coming here recently? Gotham, I mean." 

The man shrugged and turned away, "I dunno... You got an extra smoke?" 

John just nodded as he reached for his smokes, getting one and putting it into the man's hand, before lighting it. The man smiled as he breathed in more smoke into his form, making him less and less see-through. 

"Mmmm. Not bad... But yeah, someone or someone's did arrive here, in Gotham. Heard about it through the grapevine, nothing but whispers though. Whoever they are, they haven't really done anything. That's all I know." 

John nodded, but was scowling a little,  disappointed with the information, "That all?" 

He shrugged once more and gave John a sly look, "...Do you have an extra extra smoke?" 

Grumbling, John gave him another one before, which the man promptly put into his pocket.

"Heh. Yeah, I remember now, a friend of mine knows they last felt the new presence heading towards Midtown. So at the very least, whoever the new arrivals are, they ain't here in Uptown."

With a sigh, John rubbed his temples, "Well, thank you for that, I suppose." 

Jason just watched as he left the room, before turning back to the man in front of him. He seemed confused for a moment before it became sympathy.

"You take care kid. And try and rest up. You seem sick." And like that he faded, his form disappearing completely, even the physical cigarette that he saw John give him didn't remain. 

"You coming?" Constantine yelled from the stairs, a little annoyed from the sound of it. 

As Jason walked out to the stairs, following John as he began to head toward the exit, he had so many questions.

"Was that a ghost?" He didn't quite believe what he was saying despite everything he just witnessed.  

"Yup." John said simply as he reached the next floor. 

"And you're... Ghost hunting?" 

"Yup." 

Jason half scoffed and half laughed, "Couldn't make this up if I tried. Since when do ghosts move?" 

And why was this so concerning to Bruce?

"Maybe he forgot to pay rent? Even old haunted mansions are expensive. Heh, maybe, he can rent a room from your Pa!" John chuckled while dodging the real question. 

Immediately Jason's mood soured, grabbing John by the collar, he turned him around to face him. John just pathetically looked down at the cigarette that fell out of his mouth when he was grabbed. 

"How do you know that?" He asked, in a low, threatening tone that he usually used when he was interrogating someone. 

Constantine put his hands up in surrender, "Easy there Red. Bats gave me the full scoop some time after you came back." 

"Why?" He grabbed his collar with the other hand now, making sure he couldn't wiggle away. 

"After he figured out what happened to ya, he confided in me and Zatanna. He knew the Lazarus Pit changed you-" 

"And he thought he could fix his mistake, huh?" Jason sneered while letting John go with a shove. 

"He thought the influence of the Lazarus Waters is what was making you this way." 

"And what did you tell him?" 

"The truth. That while it certainly made you more... Extreme. It didn't make your every decision. Everything you did is because you chose it, always has been. I'm sure you can imagine how he took it." John said, pulling out one of the few cigarettes he had left and lighting it up, meanwhile stomping the old one out.

Badly, Jason thought, desperate for a way to save his son without doing what was necessary.

Jason breathed deeply, controling himself once more, "At least someone gets that." 

John nodded sadly, "Despite the darkness and brooding, he's such an optimist."

The awkward silence between the two of them made both uncomfortable, at least before the screaming started happened. 

Danny was flying about a good two stories high than the average Gotham building, searching for any sign of the Joker ghosts he saw the other day. 

No luck. 

Danny pressed on the Fenton Phone earpiece, "Tucker, Sam, any ideas where I should look? I haven't had any luck so far finding one of the clowns." 

"Hmm. Let me look something up." Tucker mumbled into his piece as Danny could vaguely hear the noisy clicking of a computer. 

"According to this, Joker used to have an old lair over in Amusement Isle." 

Sam helped by looking at a map on her phone, "Danny, is the Sprang River in front of you?" 

"Uhhhhh, where's that?" 

"The river immediately north of the apartment, between Midtown and Uptown." 

"...Yyyyyyeah, I see it." He shrugged, not entirely sure. 

"Go past it and keep going straight until you reach the end, it's a carnival so you can't really miss it." 

"Got it." 

Flying steady and invisible, he stayed at a low speed to actually look over the city to look for any of the Joker ghosts. Still seeing nothing, he just continued his flight casually across the Sprang River until he reached the Bowery. 

On the wind, he swore he could hear a distant pop, it reminded him of a firework popping. He shrugged and kept flying, it was a big city, either it was a gun or an actual firework he just missed. Though as the minutes ticked by as he looked for the ghosts, he heard distance police sirens and ambulances getting louder.

Tucker was rapidly clicking, something clearly getting his attention online, "Fuuuuuck. Danny, an explosion just happened in Crime Alley." 

"Woah what?!" He immediately flew forward while getting higher up to overlook it, distantly, he could barely make out a green cloud of gas rising from the ground. He felt his ghose sense go off as he exhaled frosty air. It all was coming from a building, he could barely see through the smoke, seeing the Joker and his crazed men preparing things as they worked under the cover of the gas. A defense for a base, he could see more and more cars driving in, each one piling out with more of the Jokers goons. 

"I just got the warning. It says that the Joker detonated a bomb or something very loud, and that they aren't sure if it's Joker Venom or not, they are advising people get away from the area as quick as possible." 

In the time it took the brief explanation that Tucker gave him, Danny had already surveyed the area and the civilians. Before getting too close to the ground, he could barely see the Joker Ghosts covering the area, invisible to normal civilians but not completely to him. 

They were chasing the fleeing people, desperate to get away from the green gas who didn't know they were even there, like manifestations of their fear. The air was teaming with them, just invisibly laughing at them, grabbing at them, tripping them. 

He could hear distant tire screeching and gunshots, Red Hood's goons were putting up a fight at least. Flying around at high speeds, he eventually saw where most of the action was happening. 

In the street, an enormous gunfight was happening between the Red Hood Gang and Joker's crew were having it out. Danny flinched repeatedly as he saw multiple people get gunned down, falling limply to the floor. 

Despite the better training, the Red Hood's crew didn't have the numbers that the clown did. Danny could see the ghosts tormenting them, taunting them, screwing them over in little ways that slowly added up real quick. With the Joker Vemon gas slowly advancing, the gas masked wearing goons were slowly pushing the Red Hood Gang back. 

Danny's eyes however were drawn to the massive swarm of them circling the infamous bosses themselves. Jokers were all around him like a protective swarm, while the Red Hood's were circling him like sharks. 

He couldn't do much about the Joker, not without risking him showing his powers in a large place, and not to mention even if he did help and knock Jokers men out, he'd be getting them executed. And even then, as a rule, he tried not to fight normal people, they were so fragile. 

Still though, the ghosts were tipping the scales in the clowns favor. 

"Hey guys, just a heads up. There's like, two or three times as many of these clowns than last time." Most of which he could see taking up the air around the head clown himself.

"That's pretty bad. Tucker, will the sewers be deep enough for Danny to go all out?" 

A few clicking sounds later, Tucker finally said, "It's deeper than the sewers in Amity Park, but a stray ecto-blast might make the ground shake a bit overhead." 

Danny groaned, "I'd end up hitting the walls anyway, my blasts would punch right through them." 

"Small earthquakes are rather noticeable," Sam thought deeply, "Your ice powers are pretty quiet." 

"True. Ugh, I'm gonna have too spend a while making sure they all get shattered." 

He flew straight down, going into a dive as he aimed for the ghosts around Red Hood. Grabbing two of them by the tail in each hand, he dragged them around through the air, like a balloon being blown around by a strong wind as he turned sharply towards the Joker's swarm of ghosts. 

He stifled a laugh as he looked back at the ghosts he was holding. They looked like the inflatable tube men in front of car dealerships. The swarm in front of Joker was looking at him now, writhing around in the air like a living cloud. 

Still going at the speed he had dived at, he crashed through the living, or rather, unliving  shield around the Joker. 

Turning around to look, he could see the swarm was especially riled up now, their snarling, smiling faces now bunching up now. The smile on his own face disappearing when he looked at the Joker himself, standing underneath his swarm, looking curiously at the glowing green specks of ectoplasm now on his coat. 

Looking up, he could see the ghosts, still barely invisible to the humans, he could see one of the ghosts dripping ectoplasm from its face. 

"Ssssshit!" Danny hissed through his teeth while turning around, racing to the nearest manhole cover and phasing through it. 

Quickly creating a light in his hands to brighten up the darkness around him, he looked over his shoulder to see the manhole cover get blown in, crashing into the water below. A tide of them surged into the sewers, becoming entirely visible as their collective ectoplasm lit up the darkness. 

Danny kept going, needing to make sure all of them were in the sewers before he began to use his powers. Itherwise they might flee again. Weak or not, a wall of ghosts was kinda intimidating, especially if he could have used all of his powers here.

They surged forward, crushing one another against the walls and ground in the sheer effort to reach Danny first. Their hands leaving claw marks and making sparks against the walls as they barreled toward him like a train. 

"That has to be enough." Surely all of them were in the sewers now. 

Danny pushed himself further, getting a notable distance away from them before he turned in the air. Now facing them, he stared down the wall of literal clowns charging him, his eyes shining blue as the air around him grew colder. 

A lightly blue ecto-energy overcame his body as he charged his very being with the freezing temperature  of his core, the walls around him freezing over as the ghosts got closer to him. With both fists extended, he took a long and deep breath and smiled.

"This'll be so cathartic." 

He charged, the aura of freezing cold around him coating the sewers tunnel he flew in. The ghosts never got to change their expressions from that malicious smirk to a horrified look before they froze, with Danny a second later coming though at top speed to smash through them. 

It was like drilling himself through rock, every ghost was shattered into pieces as Danny flew through them. Again and again he reduced the clowns to green and icy blue chunks. 

Finally, he got through the last of it. Slowing down, he turned toward the ghosts. The sheer amount of their remains was enough that he would have had to climb over it if he was human. 

Once he checked for any stragglers, he tapped his Fenton Phone, "Gotta say, that was the most fun I've had in a while." 

Tucker chuckled, "Don't think anyone could complain about getting to smash the clown prince of crimes face in a few hundred times." 

Sam smirked, "Ha, true! Danny, you good to come home now?" 

He sighed, "Yeah, I'll be back soon. I just gotta smash a few of the larger pieces so they dissolve properly." 

"Good, because once you get back, you are explaining everything." 

Danny flinched, his sister did not sound happy. 

"Whats wrong Red? Don't you want to kill me? I'm right over here~!"

That damn gas kept advancing, forcing him and his men back as Joker's advanced. He fought for every inch they lost, managing to put a bullet in between the eyes of more than a few of the Jokers goons. 

He couldn't deny that he was sweating now though, several times they had managed to graze him, one of them even managed to hit him, granted, that one hit his armor. 

There was a sudden cry from clown, one of surprise. Jason quirked an eyebrow, confused. 

Was Bruce here? 

"Ugh! What the- Is this venom? Bane, you here? What's the big idea with screwing up my suit, I don't do spots, I do stripes!" He yelled indignantly as he tried wiping them off. 

Peaking out from behind cover, Jason could see that on the clowns face and suit were little specs of a glowing green liquid that seemed to drip onto him.

Jason knew what it was. Intimately. 

How was it here? Where did those little drops come from? Why does it look thicker than the waters usually do? 

Thoughts raced in his mind before he realized something, the gas was lightening up. Jason knew Bruce and his little family must have stopped the gas' source. 

Joker noticed it a moment later too, "Really? Really?! Ugh, this just isn't my night." 

"You don't say!?" Jason said as he lept out once more, just barely close enough to get a new angle on him and his goons. He could see Joker perfectly hiding the corner of an alley. 

The ones closest to him were first to fall, Jason putting a bullet through their heads before they could shoot back. Just putting one bullet into the bastards leg was enough to sooth the pit rage, if only for a moment. 

The gas was just about on him, and before he could go just far enough to kill that clown, a hand pulled him away. 

Turning on his heel, the pit rage furious, he saw one of his men standing there, a younger one, with a fearful look on his face. 

It took a long moment to calm down, trying his hardest to not let the pit rage hurt the young man in front of him. 

He would never get the chance to as a playing card wizzed passed Jason's head, scratching his helmet and slicing into the young man's throat as it traveled. 

Jason immediately caught the man as he fell, dropping his guns in the process. As he set him down, his hand pressed firmly against the wound, he felt the warm blood on his hands as he yelled for one of his men to help him. Craving his head to look at the Joker, he could see the clown looked terribly bored. 

"Ugh. Well great, I was hoping to stall you long enough for Batsy to get here. Would have been so much more interesting~"

A dragging sound stopped Jason before he could grab at one of his fallen guns, he saw one of Jokers goons approach, holding a tire iron. 

"Oh goodie! Well, it's no crowbar, but it'll do! Start b-" 

The goon hit the clown across the face, knocking out a tooth. 

"Ughhh! What the hell are you doin-" Another hit, this time in the gut. 

Jason couldn't place it, but, something was different. The goons eyes from behind the gas mask was hard to see, the dark glass obscuring it somewhat. 

But he could almost swear they were red. Entirely red. 

The goon threw away the tire iron, and for a moment just stood over him. Several more of them walked up behind the first goon. 

The eyes were the same. 

No funny quips or jokes left the clowns lips, just grunts of pain as the goons began to viciously beat him. 

One ripped at his hair while another wailed on his chest, listening to the breaking of ribs. One took malicious glee on bending his fingers back one by one until they could bend no longer and broke. One was simply kicking him in the crotch. 

This was weird. It was wrong. It was beautiful.

More and more joined in, doing some new horrific torment until the first one walked around to be behind the Jokers head as he laid down on his back. The others drew away from the clown for a moment. 

With a slow move, he drew back the gas mask to look at the clown. 

Giggling could be heard from him, but it was like a sob as well. 

Barely, he could hear the whisper from the man. 

"I am Jacob Ash. I do this for all of us. For all you have done. All you have done it to." 

"Let me put a smile on your face." 

With a forceful motion, the goon had put his hands into the clowns mouth, gripping his upper and lower jaw.

With great strength, he slowly, steadily, and oh so painfully opened the Jokers mouth farther than it could go, and that was already very far. 

As he witnessed the spoken of smile forming on the clowns face, Jason saw a shadow above. 

Batman, running across the rooftops, safe from the gas. The rest of the family right behind him.  

With a quick grab, he put on a gas mask of his own that covered his exposed mouth and nose before grappling to the ground. 

"Enough!" 

The leader of the bunch seemed to tilt his head, before suddenly ripping out the Jokers bottom jaw with impossible strength for a normal human to possess. 

Bruce was rushing in when the others got in his path, removing their gas masks as well, now they both could see that something about them was different. 

Then, like that it was gone. The red glow in their eye disappeared and sudden horror replaced the blank expressions. Their eyes bulged as they began to laugh, falling over and clutching at their stomachs. 

Only the goon that started it was left. 

Staring right at Batman, he simply said, "You failed us. We did it for you."

And like that, something switched in his face and now suddenly he was laughing himself to death. 

John had helped a little with the situation above, saving a few kids, and the odd homeless guy. He really tired to stick to dealing with supernatural problems. But after the gas stopped rolling in, did he actually feel something. 

It was a mere hunch, but a spell made it more than that. Once again the smoke from his cigarette leading him the way towards whatever it was that he felt. 

After noticing a missing manhole cover, he quickly went down and discovered that the tunnel he was in was very, very cold, and of course, quickly dissolving bits of ghost. Picking up a piece, he could feel the ice itself unmoved by his body heat. 

"Well, ain't this interesting..." 

Chapter Text

Tim was tired. He usually was but he never let that stop him, despite the others, and especially Alfred's, chiding. 

But for now, that was nowhere to be seen as the family was rather quiet. Bruce took what data he could from the corpses of the Joker and his betrayers before leaving the scene. 

Tim was still pouring over it all, though Babs was helping too, pouring over what information they had over the few cameras in the alley, she admittedly couldn't do much with what little she got. He also had a feeling she was looking for a good camera to watch Joker's final moments, even if she'd never admit it to herself.

Dick was waiting for the autopsy reports to be done so he could sneak a picture of them for Tim. Though most likely they'd be not all that helpful. 

Looking down at the piece of purple cloth, the little piece of Joker's pinstripe suit with a single green, glowing speck in the middle of it. Bruce had taken it while inspecting the clowns body. 

Looking over pictures taken of the corpse, he saw that Joker had these little specks of glowing green. At first, he though that it was some tainted version of Venom, which would explain the bizarre strength of the goons and why they would suddenly turn on their boss, but the pictures of the scene showed that they didn't have those specks on them either. 

Of the glowing green liquids he knew though, there was only one other possible option. Problem was, the Lazarus Waters were magic, so testing would just make the Batcomputer freak out. Despite this, there was something that he did know. 

This substance was at least different in Lazarus Water in its consistency, it was thicker, more slime-like. 

He wasn't sure what to draw from that. 

Tim sighed and leaned back in the chair as he looked at the file he made for this, how empty it was, full of the most basic information. 

"Tim." 

Turning, he saw Bruce walking towards him, his cowl down as it was almost morning. 

"Hey B. You find anything else?" Tim asked, almost desperately as he wanted at least something substantial. 

"I talked to Jason." 

Tim stopped himself from being surprised, any subject surrounding Jason was tense, he remembered several times Dick and Bruce were yelling at each other over just that. 

"Oh. How did that go?" 

Bruce exhaled through his nose, "Poorly. Ultimately, he didn't see much more than I did. However, he did mention the... Substance. Joker was surprised by it, though he never saw how it got onto him. It is Lazarus Water, Jason claimed he could... Feel it." 

Tim quickly wrote it down into the file, wiping his face with a hand to peel his eyes open, Alfred had given him decaf. 

"What have you learned?" Bruce stepped forward, eyes on the open file. 

With a sigh, he started, "Well, based on the evidence we have, I found that the Lazarus Water on him, based on the placement on it on his suit as well as in his hair, dripped onto him from above. I still don't know where it came from, the lack of cameras in the Alley leaves Babs with very little ways to help. However-" 

Tim pulled up a video taken from a distant Red Hood gang affiliate business, it recorded the gunfight, but it was all very distant while at a low resolution. 

Zooming in, Tim showed the footage of what appeared to be the Lazarus Water, dripping down from what seemed like thin air, though the footage seemed to have a subtle distortion. They couldn't see it actually landing on the Joker from this angle, but that was irrelevant. 

"That's about as clear as Babs could get it."

Bruce narrowed his eyes at the screen, searching for anything else that could be gleamed from it. 

He was startled out of his focus when he heard a new voice coming from on his communicator, "Hey Bats, hello? This thing on?" 

Suppressing a groan, he put on the cowl and touched his temple, "I can here you fine J-. Agent J."

Tim, listening in because John was speaking on the line meant for everyone, could hear the man scoff on the other end. He was pretty sure the others were listening in too. 

"Agent J, really? Ugh, nevermind it. I've learned a few things tonight if you want to hear em." 

Bruce moved over to the Batcomputer and switched to the file for John's case. Tim looked from Bruce to the computer with captured attention as he read the file. 

...Ghosts? John Constantine was here about ghosts? He looked over what details he could find, seeing the names 'Amity Park', and 'Phantom'. Oh, he was so doing an all nighter to research these. 

"Go ahead." 

"Right, so, earlier yesterday evening, I was being escorted around Park Row, or uh, Crime Alley as you lot call it," He chuckled, slightly incredulous at the name, "And during my investigation, I made a few discover-" 

Tim saw Bruce furrow his brows, "You were there yesterday? Were you there during the attack?" 

"Yeah, I was. I helped out the people where I could but I just figured I'd leave the clown to you lot." 

"Who escorted you?" Bruce's mood was getting more foul every moment. 

"Red Hood. We made a deal, I could poke around his part of the city without getting harassed by his men and he'd come with to be a little chaperone." 

Bruce ground his teeth, hissing the next words out, "If you required an escort, I could ha-" 

"I'd rather not get involved with your family drama by making you two interact. You gonna let me tell you what I found now?" 

Bruce clenched his fists hard before taking a deep breath. 

"Hn." 

Tim could hear wry smirk in his voice, "Taking that as a yes. Anyway, I found that after the attack, I had stumbled across an open sewer hole, just had a feeling, you know?" 

Tim heard the sound of Constantine's lighter, "I actually found a whole lotta ice down there, broken up into a million itty bitty pieces." 

Tim raised an eyebrow and mouthed the word 'Freeze' to Bruce, who didn't respond, "I assume there was something special about it?" 

"Well for one, the ice didn't melt from any heat source. And two, a certain glowing green liquid was leaking from those shattered pieces, before dissolving and then evaporating anyway." 

Tim's tired eyes widened, he put up a hand to his own communicator to speak, "Do you mean the Lazarus Waters? Like the one we found on Joker?" 

"Close, but no. That ain't Lazarus Water, it was ectoplasm." 

"Like Ghostbusters?" Dick had joined in the conversation, though the background noise sounded like he was fighting some punks. 

Bruce quickly typed into the file, 'Ectoplasm similar to Lazarus Waters'. 

"Like ghosts, lad. A shite-load of weaker ones just frozen and shattered to pieces." 

"Ghosts aren't real." Babs stated. 

Dick laughed for a moment, the sounds of fighting in the background over, "People used to say the same thing about aliens, and yet, somehow, I think a certain girl I know might disagree."

Babs scoffed, "OK, well... A planet with other lifeforms in the universe is far more probable than ghosts." 

John chuckled loudly for a brief moment, before coming down and saying, "Oh, ghosts are very real. Considering I interrogated one last night." 

Tim cleared his throat, "Brushing over that whole mess of questions, your sure that it was the same?" 

"I didn't get a close look at the clowns body, but I'm assuming you found a glowing green slime-like substance on him?" 

"Yes." Bruce answered for him. 

"Then yeah, I'm sure." 

Tim briefly took the computer from Bruce, pulling up both files side by side, "You know the connection?" 

"I think so, most of the ghost's here in Gotham aren't strong enough to do something like this."

Tim perked up, "I'm guessing Amity Park does?" 

"Yep! And, only one powerful ghost from that town is reported to be capable of that little trick. Care'ta take a guess at who?" 

Bruce looked at the screen, quickly adding to both files, "Phantom." 

"Exactly." 

Babs cleared her throat, "Anyone want to elaborate?" 

"Second that." Dick added.

"The protector spirit of Amity Park is known as Phantom," Bruce quickly explained over the comms, "He defended the town from other ghosts who attacked." 

Tim had quickly retrieved his phone, doing research on it while Bruce had the computer, "How have I never heard about actual ghost attacks?" 

Constantine sighed, "Some government stooges have the town in a media blackout. What little gets out looks especially fake, because it's supposed too." 

"Governme-" 

"We're getting off topic," Bruce interrupted, "I was under the impression that Amity Park was Phantom's territory." 

"It is, which is why it's real concerning that he's here. If the GIW are bad enough now to make a realms-being strong as him leave his haunt, then they are more of a problem than we initially thought." 

Bruce turned to Tim before he could ask, "The Ghost Investigation Ward." 

He turned back to the computer, updating the files while asking a question that had formed in his mind, "Is Phantom responsible for killing the Joker?" 

"I don't think so, can you describe what exactly happened to him? Like I said, I only caught a glimpse once the police arrived." He recalled the large amount of police keeping people back, everyone wanting to see if Joker was finally dead.

"His own men turned on him. They brutalized him before I arrived, killing him only when I moved to intervene, then they killed themselves by removing their gas masks... They also said... That I failed them." 

A long pause happened for a second, before they all heard the snapping of fingers from John's comm, "That's it! That- Wow, that explains a lot really." 

Dick cleared his throat, "You gonna fill us in or?" 

"Right, course. So, um," He paused, looking for the best way to explain it, " That clown has killed a lot of people, yeah? He's someone this whole city hates and fears. So why hasn't he been killed?" 

"Because people are afrai-" Barbra started. 

"No! I mean, why haven't his victims killed him? There has been a lot of them, surely a good number of them became ghosts. Even if they were weak, with numbers that wouldn't matter." 

Babs continued, "Huh... That is a good question, I suppose, if ghosts are real, then it doesn't make much sense doesn't it?"

"It doesn't, until you think about what the destroyed ghosts in the sewers were." 

Bruce leaned in, "What were they?" 

"They were Joker's ghosts!" 

...

"You lost me." Barbra folded her arms, taking a break trying to get through the media blackout of Amity Park, she'd made some good progress already. 

"Same." Tim didn't understand. 

He loudly groaned and from what Tim could tell, actually switch the cigarette in his mouth to his hands to speak clearer, "Ghosts are incredibly emotion based, they feed on it, they are it. So, by that logic, if the Joker has tormented this city for so long and so terribly, the the sheer emotions surround him are that of fear. Not all ghosts used to be people, some are embodiments of certain things or even emotions. They were his shield against retribution made by the people of Gotham. They fed on the terror he made, and with nigh everyone in the city to feed from, they had good reason to protect him." 

And obvious connection was made all around, though only Tim confirmed it, "So the goons who killed him were..." 

"Some of his victims, yeah. Possessing the bodies of his goons to finally get revenge. With his unknown ghostly protectors gone, they saw their chance." 

"And the ectoplasm on Joker?" Tim added, curious how that got there. 

"Most likely Phantom attacked one of the clowns ghosts, to get them to chase him into the sewers. Hm. He must've been trying to keep this quiet..."

And awkward silence hung in the air, Tim guessed that John expected Bruce to chime in now. 

"...If it means anything, I don't think Phantom did this knowing what would happen. More likely he just wanted to help the victims the ghost's fed on."

Tim glanced at Bruce, though he saw him acting stoic, he could see the complex feelings on his face, but couldn't draw a conclusion about how he felt. 

"...I'm gonna keep looking for Phantom, I have a lot of questions for him," John yawned, "See you around Ba-"

Bruce's expression hardened, "We will be getting directly involved." 

The response was immediate, "What? No no no, you just let me worry about Phan-" 

"Phantom has directly affected my city, we will investigate Amity Park ourselves, including the GIW. You continue to focus on finding Phantom." 

John seemed about ready to start up an argument, Tim could hear practically hear him puffing himself up before he gave a long, frustrated, resigned groan, "Uuuuuuugggggh! Fine. I know better than to try and dissuade you once you have your mind set. All I ask is not to go looking for Phantom by yourself, and that you don't physically go to Amity Park, do your fancy computer shite here." 

John sighed, rubbing his eyes and looking at the clock in his apartment, "Get some sleep ya? It's four in the morning." 

The comm was shut off with an audible click, letting silence hang in the air for a long moment. Eventually, Barbra was the first to clear her throat. 

"So B, you want to explain the GIW?" 

Bruce sighed and motioned Tim to get out of the chair for the computer, sitting down himself, he began to organize the entirety of the information they had just recieved. 

"I'll have a full report of everything that Con- Agent J, shared with me for the whole family to be briefed on tomorrow." 

Some menial arguing later, he finally managed to leave the cave and get Tim to go sleep, it was easier with the coffee switch thanks to Alfred. Barbra and Dick went offline next, but not him, not after tonight. 

He wasn't surprised that they blamed him, he didn't blame them for what they did, he didn't blame Phantom for what he unknowingly did either. 

But this was about the GIW, about the Anti-Ecto Acts. Bruce had already done some research of his own, and while he didn't know the finer deatils of the acts, he had already planned to bring the family into the investigation after learning of them. Learning who was possessing the goons only galvanized him to pursue it with even more intensity.

Every death, every person he failed to save. Every time he was too late, every time he had failed to  protect someone. How many of those people were ghosts now? What were they like now?

What would the GIW do if they got their hands on them?

No. Never again.

He failed to protect them once, and he'd sooner tear down the GIW with his bare hands than fail them a second time. 

He had to protect his city, his people. Be it from the living or the dead.

Danny's face was in his hands.

News of the Joker's death spread like wildfire. Though it only really began with the report this afternoon, where police commissioner Gordon officially announced they had confirmed the Jokers death, and that they actually had his body in their custody. 

That last bit was the linchpin, every other time Joker was said to be dead, the police didn't have the body, he was missing or presumed dead. But if they had it... 

Then he really was gone.

People were celebrating it, finally that evil monster was gone. Everyone wanted details, and when the police didn't give them any, they started making their own rumors. 

Jazz took a seat next to Danny on the couch, he was hunched forward watching the news covering people in the street celebrating the Clown Prince of Crime's death. Sam and Tucker were near him but decided to let Jazz speak first, she was the expert, after all. 

It was easy to piece together what happened. Of course those ghosts were why that clown was still alive for so long. Of course that's why they hadn't gotten their revenge. 

Jazz glanced at him, seeing his blank expression as he watched people celebrate. Regardless of if he meant to do it, and regardless of how much the Joker deserved it, he did play a role in getting someone killed. Someone living.

It was hard not to feel like it was his fault. Everything was always his fault back home. 

He wasn't sure how he felt. 

"Danny? Are you ok?" 

"...I don't know."

He quickly shook himself, "I-I mean, I know he deserved it for everything he's done but I..." 

"You feel like you killed him?" She asked while scooting closer to him. 

"...Yeah." 

Jazz did a fake scoff, "Well, that's silly." 

Danny looked at her, "What?" 

"That's silly." 

Danny's eyebrows furrowed, a little anger rose in his voice as he spoke, "How is that silly?" 

Utterly unfazed, Jazz continued, "Because you were just helping the victims, the living ones, I mean. Even if you knew what would happen, would that have changed anything? Would you have just let those ghosts continue to torment people?" 

Danny raised a hand and opened his mouth for a retort, but he couldn't find one. He had to help, he couldn't have just left it alone.

He gave a sad smirk, "You... Have a point."

Jazz pulled him into a hug, "I know. Now, stop feeling sad over the ultimate fruitloop. I won't stand for you feeling guilty over him when he got everything he deserved from the people who deserved to do it to him the most." 

Danny was smiling fully now, "Alright alright. I guess... That it was pretty fitting, considering who wasted him."

Sam piped up, "Oh, a hundred percent, dude has committed mass murder like, a dozen times now." 

Tucker nodded, "My plan for cheering you up was going over a list of crimes he did in detail. Trust us, that guy was actually pure evil."

Danny just smirked and motioned for then to join in the hug, which they quickly did. He'd be lying if his core didn't love this. 

That is, until he realized something.

"Uhhhh. Guys? What about Batman?" 

The three of them leaned back out of the hug to look at him quizzicly. 

Tucker tilted his head, "What do you mean?" 

"I mean the 'Worlds Greatest Detective'. I just accidentally got the Joker wasted, what if he figures it out?" 

Jazz scoffed, "Danny, I don't think ghosts are exactly Batman's expertise." 

Sam made a doubtful expression at that, "Eeeeeeehhh, maybe so but he's with the Justice League, I'm pretty sure some of them know actual magic." 

Danny looked surprised, "Oh... Well that too, I just meant now we have to hide from someone actually competent." 

The other three all exchanged worried looks at that realization. Jazz in particular had her lips pursed. 

"Ah... Shit." 

Bruce was still at the Batcomputer, though now he was standing up as to stop himself from falling asleep. 

Distantly, he could hear the footsteps of his approaching children minus one, though that was probably just Cass. 

"Hey B," he turned to see all of them following behind Steph, jogging to get to him faster, "Whats going on? I overheard someone say 'ghost'? We have a ghost themed rogue now?" 

Oracle's logo appeared on one of the side screens of the Batcomputer, "Nope. We have actual ghosts now." 

Seeing Steph speechless, Bruce nodded and added, "Constantine is here." 

A look of realization came over her before she just nodded at that information, "Sounds about right. Hey Duke, you think your 'ghost vision' can detect real ghosts?" 

As he walked up with everyone else, Duke just shrugged, "If it can, I've never seen one with it." 

Dick smirked, "Your both not having a hard time believing this." 

Steph shrugged, "When the sad trenchcoat man gets involved, it's easier to throw out everything you thought you knew than trying to deny it until it hits you in the face." 

Cass nodded sagely before turning to Bruce and signing, "Speaking of: Trenchcoat man report?"

"Right," Bruce cleared his throat as he pressed a key and brought up a the file." 

"Two days ago, Constantine came to me and told me of something the JLD noticed." 

He showed a picture of a city with a sign in view, 'Amity Park, A Nice Place to Live!'

"Amity Park, a city that has been subject to ghost attacks, otherwise known as realms-beings, for three years. According to Constantine, the veil is thin there, allowing ghosts to cross over fully and wreak havoc on the city." 

He showed pictures of the destructive aftermath of the attacks, the city overgrown with dead plants, large holes in concrete, walls and in the ground. 

"The JLD never stepped in, due to the protector of Amity Park, a protector spirit known as Phantom stopping the attacks." 

"The JLD did not wish to cause a incident with a realms-being as powerful as Phantom by intruding on his territory. However, this changed recently, the veil reportedly thickened in Amity Park, with most of the realms-beings ceasing to move to and from their realm and ours." 

He moved on to show pictures of government looking agents wearing white suits. 

"Immediately after this drop in activity, the GIW, or Ghost Investigation Ward mobilized a large force into Amity Park. Despite their namesake, they are geared towards hunting and experimenting on ghosts." 

Duke flinched, they sounded all too much like Meta traffickers to him. 

"Unfortunately, the ghosts are technically not protected under the Meta Protection Act, and even worse, the GIW has its own laws backing them, known as the Anti-Ecto Acts. Giving them gull immunity to treat them however they deem necessary." 

The majority of the room scowled at that, they knew all too well what that could only mean. 

"How the hell has this slipped by all of us? Shouldn't the JLD be preventing exactly this?" Dick spoke up, sounding rather peeved.

"The GIW originally had a small fraction of the budget they have now when they first began. The activity in Amity Park increased their funding slowly over the course of these years, with a massive increase coming only recently."

He cleared his throat, "While the GIW were moving into Amity, JLD caught something moving out the day before Joker died. The same night his death happened, Constantine was nearby and discovered the frozen and shattered remains of a swarm of weaker ghosts within the sewers." 

Bruce took out a vial that John had delivered to him that evening, and showed everyone the glowing green liquid inside of it. 

Damian's eyes went wide at the sight, it wasn't hard to understand why. 

"Thats-!" 

"Ectoplasm. It is the substance that ghosts are made of. According to Constantine, there are differences between them and the waters, though he has yet to inform me of them." 

Damian narrowed his eyes, but otherwise said nothing. Glancing at him, Tim could see that he was in deep thought over such strange information. What did the similarity mean?

"Only one ghost in Amity Park that was reported to have ice powers and is free, that being Phantom. Constantine speculated how things must be in Amity Park with the GIW for a protector spirit to abandon its territory." 

Steph grimaced, "Like, bad enough for us to abandon Gotham?" 

Bruce nodded, "The ghost's Phantom destroyed were a parasitic swarm made from the collective terror and emotions Joker inflicted on the population in Gotham. The swarm protected him from his victims, feeding off the emotions caused by his attacks. When Phantom destroyed them, the victims of the Joker possessed his goons and brutalized him, killing him before I could intervene." 

Looking at his children, he could see Damian, Duke, Cass and Steph were all looking lost. 

"Ghosts made of... Emotion?" Duke had a doubtful expression on his face. 

Bruce quickly explained, "Ghosts, or more accurately, realms-beings, aren't always dead people. Weaker ones can be made from powerful emotions, and the emotions of the number of people afraid of him were enough to create an swarm." 

"Tt. And the swarm protected their food source." Damian stated. 

"Tried too," Cass added, barely louder than a whisper. 

Bruce nodded, "Constantine is currently searching for Phantom, we will be helping him while doing research on Amity Park and what the GIW is doing there." 

"I'm actually a bit ahead of you B. I broke through the GIW's security last night, and did some basic research on the town. That being said..." 

The screen her logo was on changed to that of an image. It depicted a seemingly normal two storied house, though just above it was a massive metal dome that was wider than the house itself was, sensors, radar dishes, and even a small radio tower was on top of it. It was the definition of a mass scientists lair. Just underneath the massive structure was two signs saying: 'Fenton Works'. 

"I found something concerning." 

Dick scoffed, "I'm assuming that's a GIW base?" 

Babs smirked from behind the screen, "You'd be wrong. This is the home of the Amity Parks original ghost hunters, even before the attacks started happening, Jack and Madeline Fenton." 

"They're quacks, but they are essentially the pioneers of ecto-powered tech. GIW might be better now, but that was only after building themselves up on the Fenton's research." 

She switched over to a photo of the whole family, showing a giant man wearing an strange, orange hazmat suit with his wife wearing a similar blue one while their two children stood in front of them. 

"Whoa! Hey Tim, have you ever had a twin? Cause I think I found him." 

Tim scoffed, "He doesn't look that much like me." 

Cass tilted her head slightly, before turning to then to sign, "Has longer hair. Slightly shorter."

"...What, that's it?" Dick asked. 

"Not much." Cass quickly whispered. 

"Regardless, the Fentons are also responsible for pioneering anti-ghost weaponry, as well as publishing the numerous papers regarding ghosts lack of sentience and claiming they merely mimicked human behavior. The original groundwork for the Anti-Ecto Acts." 

The family collectively grimaced at that, though Damian broke the cold silence first, "So they are in league with the GIW?" 

"No, despite using their research, the GIW has multiple times publicly regarded the Fentons as incompetent and has tried to seize their tech. But a connection to them isn't why I'm concerned." 

Pulling up a camera feed of the Amity Park airport, the Batcomputer screen showed a group of three with luggage boarding a private plane.

"Daniel Fenton, Tucker Foley, and Sam Manson left Amity before the GIW rolled in. Anyone want to guess where they moved?" 

Bruce spoke first, "They came here?" 

"Yep." 

"Roughly the same time Phantom must have arrived, correct?" Tim asked, eyes focused. 

"Yep." 

"Manson... Isn't that one of the millionaire families we invite to our galas?" Dick's eyes were closed in thought. 

Damian nodded, "Indeed. I have met the Manson girl, we bonded after she asked me about our vegetarian options at the galas." 

"Bonded?" Duke said aloud. 

Steph jumped in, "They spent most of the party brooding in the corner together complaining about how they had to be there." 

"Dawwww, goth friends." Dick teased as he leaned towards Damian. 

"Tt. I am not a goth." 

Steph sniffled a laugh. 

"Regardless," Barbra interrupted again, this time with more emphasis, "The timing is very suspicious. The son of ghost hunters, just happening to move with his friends to Gotham to live with his sister, where his parents white whale is." 

"Elaborate." Bruce's eyes narrowed at those last words. 

"The Dr's Fenton have gone on record to label Amity's protecter as a menace, and has stated that they want nothing more than to, and I'm quoting here, 'rip him apart molecule by molecule'." 

Dick made a skeptical face, "Ok, horrifying, but is he a ghost hunter?" 

"I believe so. Shortly after the ghost attacks began, his rather impressive grades started to drop, and while I have no record of him actually fighting ghosts in broad daylight, I do have one recorded case where he and his classmates, armed to the teeth with anti-ghost tech, assaulted and actual force of multiple ghosts, with him as the leader, as the adults of the town were indisposed due to some ghost power." 

Tim crossed his arms, "Its not much, but it is suspicious regardless. Phantom may be in danger. His friends might be there helping him." 

Damian shrugged, "I doubt that. I cannot speak to Foley, but Manson is a staunch activist, I doubt she would agree with the Dr's Fenton close-minded stance on ghosts and their personhood." 

"What about the sister?" Duke pointed at the redhead hugging the trio on the sidewalk, taken from a camera across the street. 

"Jasmine Fenton... Nothing on her really, at least when it comes to ghosts."

Duke just stared at the picture, looking for what was bugging him so much, "Are any of them Meta?"

Barbra clicked her tongue, "They aren't documented as Meta. Why do you ask?" 

Duke shrugged and crossed his arms, "I dunno, something just seems... Weird with that image." 

Tim hummed, "Maybe it's the ecto-energy powered tech he's supposedly carrying?" 

Duke just shook his head and said, "Maybe..." 

"Investigating them seems the most important currently. Not only is he an threat to Phantom, but some of their tech could help, especially if we can get whatever they used to track Phantom." Tim mostly just really wanted to get his hands on some ecto-energy powered tech. 

Bruce turned back to the conputer to make a new file, "Agreed, we'll-." 

And warning flashed on the screen of the Batcomputer, showing a bank robbery in progress.

Dick sighed, "Sounds like our shifts just started." 

Bruce turned back to the Batcomputer, "Barbra, do you have the exact location of Jasmine Fenton's apartment?" 

A few clicking sounds could be heard for a brief moment, "I didn't, but I do now." 

"Cass, Tim," He turned to look at the two of them, "Stakeout the Fentons tonight, if they leave, get inside their apartment and see if they brought any anti-ghost weaponry with them, if they do, then that will confirm why they are here. Everyone else is on patrol tonight."

With a nod, the family broke up to start their little night shift patrolling. With Cass and Tim making their way towards the Upper East Side.

Chapter Text

Despite being so far from home, he could feel his core giving a low, calm hum in the moment. There was nothing like a horror movie night with everyone. 

Sam, currently half-asleep and resting her head on Danny's shoulder, her sleepiness was entirely unaffected by the screaming coming from the screen. 

Tucker seemed mostly distracted by his PDA, which was at this point a oversized phone with actual ghost tech powering it. It took bribing Technus to get it done, but it was worth it, or at least so he tells Danny.

Jazz was actually still watching the movie with him, almost entirely unmoved by the scariest of the movie. Granted, all of them were a little desensitized to horror movies after the scary stuff that actually happened to them, but she especially was unbothered. 

"Ugh, no you idiot, get outside." Jazz muttered, shaking her head at the final chase scene of the movie. 

Danny smirked, "Bet you she does the classic trip and can't get up thing." 

"She better not, she's the final girl because she's been shown to be very athle-" 

The final girl tripped. 

Jazz just extended both arms at the screen while looking at him with a look that simply said 'what the fuck?'

Danny chuckled, accidentally waking Sam up. She shook her head slightly as she woke up fully. 

"Wat? Wus goin on?" She mumbled, still tired. 

"The final girl is pissing off Jazz." 

"Hm. Nothing new then?" Sam rubbed her eyes and stretched. 

"She was the most competent person in the movie until right now. She's had plenty of things she could have used as weapons against this one dude!" 

Tucker chuckled for a moment and looked up from his PDA, "Not everyone has a mom with a black belt Jazz." 

"Still! You don't need a black belt to hit someone with something!" 

Danny just smirked and grabbed his bowl of popcorn, offering it to Sam first, who took a small handful herself before he did as well. 

Tim was mostly unimpressed if this Daniel kid was some competent ghost hunter. 

He and Cass had been watching them from another building, looking through the glass balcony door with their small, high-tech monoculars they kept in their belts, capable of taking high definition videos or pictures of whatever they were stakingout at the time. 

Effectively, a camcorder on crack. 

For a stakeout, it wasn't all that interesting, just a bunch of fellow young people watching a horror movie. Except for the weird tech that Foley guy was holding, that especially grabbed Tim's attention. 

It looked like a PDA, pretty weird that he was actually using old tech like that. Though on closer inspection, he could see that it was much higher tech than it appeared. It looked too new, like an actual tech company decided to overhaul the design and make it better. 

It was only an assumption, but he had a feeling it was Ecto-powered. He wouldn't be surprised if Daniel's parents gave his friend an upgrade. 

Cass glanced at Tim, seemingly already aware of his thoughts, "Not a weapon." 

Tim sighed, "It isn't. But it could be how they tracked Phantom, that thing is much more high-tech then it looks." 

Cass looked back at the group watching their horror movie, before looking back at Tim and saying, "Doesn't seem like they're going out."

Looking himself, he saw through the monocular that the movie had ended, with Daniel and his friends cleaning up the little area they had been watching movies. The sister however, walked towards the glass screen door and opened it, stepping onto the balcony for a moment. 

It was a dark, moonless night, so neither Cass nor Tim got down, they were rather far away and it was incredibly dark. It would have been incredibly unlikely for her to see them. 

Giving her a once over, Tim noted that she seemed agitated. Watching her closely, he saw her jump slightly before digging her pocket and pulling out her phone and putting it to her ear. 

Quickly, he dug into his utility belt and pulled out a small listening device, complete with a radar like dish. Quickly syncing it with his earpiece, he raised it up and pointed it at her. 

"-erything is fine mom, don't worry. Danny's been having fun here with his friends." 

The sound of shuffling could be heard from the other end, a man was speaking now, "Good to hear Jazzy-pants! Have you or Danny seen any ghos-" 

Cass saw Jazz roll her eyes, "No ghost talk! We agreed." 

"Of course Jazz," A woman was speaking now, "Sorry, your father's been curious about it since Gotham is... Well, Gotham." 

Tim nodded to himself, he couldn't disagree. 

"Haven't seen any. Promise." 

Cass put her monocular down, getting Tim's attention before signing, "Lying."

Tim made a mental note of that. Why would she be lying? Did the Dr's. Fenton not send Daniel to chase down Phantom? 

If she was lying, did that mean they, or at least she, have already seen Phantom?

"Well, that's a same. Though perhaps it's for the best," Her mother continued, "At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the GIW was listening in for anyone so much as mention ghost." 

The phone switched hands again, "Yeah! They tried to seize the portal from us the other day. Ha! I'm almost glad it failed, at least they didn't get their hands on it." 

Portal? What portal? There was no mention of a portal. 

Tim wracked his brain, Bruce mentioned that Constantine said the Veil was thin there till recently but...

"Well, that's a silver lining I suppose," Jasmine said, smiling weakly, "They try anything else?" 

"Nah, they've mostly been ignoring us. Buncha jerks." 

Jazz chuckled at her father's childness, "Well, I'm glad to hear your two are also doing alright. You wanna talk to Danny?" 

With a small yell, her brother quickly came over and was handed the phone before walking back inside. He should have been able to hear the conversation clearly still, a loud static suddenly came from the device and into his ear, quickly, he shut it off. 

That kid had Ecto-tech, he was utterly sure of it, the phone itself must have been proofed against it somehow. He'd need that tech too. 

But as his lookalike walked away, he turned back to his sister. Her expression was suddenly hard, focused even. Cass could see her ears move slightly as she shifted her weight, her pupils shrinking, looking out into nothing in particular. She could see the hairs on her neck raising. 

And for a second, she looked at them.

It was especially dark where they were, with both of them far enough away that any noise they made not louder than a yell shouldn't have reached her through the loud ambient city noises. 

He didn't know how, but she was looking at them. 

Not in their direction. Not at the darkness they were hidden in. 

At them.

They both immediately ducked down behind the parapet, holding there for a long moment, hoping that she would think she just imagined it. He thought about it, he thought about how green her eyes were. 

...Wait. Her eyes were teal. An unusual color sure, but it was teal. 

Not toxic green. 

Not like Jason.

Slowly getting up, he peaked over the parapet, his monocular to his eye. Cass made no move to stop him, likely coming to the same conclusion herself. 

She was gone. The glass balcony door was shut and the curtains were closed. 

Fuck. 

"Alright, alright dad. I love you too. Talk to you later." He hung up the phone, turning around to go back towards the balcony and give it back when he saw Jazz quickly shut the door, lock it, and close the blinds. 

She was scared. 

"Whats wrong?" He quickly went up to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. 

"I think I saw people watching us." She almost whispered the words.

Guilt flashed in Danny's mind, he knew why they were here, why else would they be here?

"Where?" 

"Danny no-" 

"I should check it out Jazz. Where were they?" 

Jazz hesitated, but eventually sighed, knowing full well that he wasn't wrong, "They were on a taller building in the dark, in that direction," she pointed to where she had looked previously. 

Before Danny could even go ghost, Jazz grabbed him by the shoulders, "I'll prepare our go-bags. If you see that it's the GIW, just fly straight back to the car, and we'll be there ready to leave." 

With a nod, the glowing white rings appeared around him. With a running start, he went ghost and became intangible just as he was about to break through the glass. He could hear Jazz yelling for Tucker and Sam, no doubt telling them to grab whatever they needed. 

He was furious, mostly at himself. This was his fault. He led them here because he just had to get involved. 

Flying a bit higher than the buildings he looked over the rooftops invisibly. 

He expected GIW goons in their tacky white suits, or maybe even some inexperienced ghost hunters. He didn't expect to see vigilantes Red Robin and Black Bat swinging away and landing on another rooftop. 

Diving down, he quickly stopped right above them as they landed on the next rooftop. Seemingly content at the new location. 

He heard Red Robin speak first, "How did... She shouldn't have been able to do that." 

Being liminal affected people differently. For Jazz, it was mostly physical changes, she was enhanced slightly across the board. All ghosts had inhuman strength and senses, the latter especially helping her read people. 

Though he wasn't exactly excited if they were going to start calling her a meta. Any attention was bad, and he didn't feel like testing out of Batman really did have a 'no metas in Gotham' rule.

Red Robin put a finger to his temple, "Hey B, um. Bad news and good news. We uh, learned some interesting information without having to break in, but... The sister saw us."

Danny assumed B was Batman, he wanted to hear the response but the communication piece he was using was good, enhanced hearing it not, the tech made it unhearable from the outside.  

He couldn't get any closer either without glitching the crap out of it, so he just stayed back homing to get whatever he could from a one way conversation. 

A brief silence followed, before Red Robin said, "I don't know B, she just... Knew! She stared exactly at us. I think she's meta or... Maybe it might have something to do with her eyes. B, they were like Jason's."

Who was Jason? And... Eyes like Jazz? Was this guy liminal? 

Curses flew through his mind, liminals weren't common. The only ones he knew that existed were his sister and his friends, all of Amity Park may have been very minorly ecto-contaminated, but they weren't considered liminal. They didn't have enough exposure, not like Sam, Tucker, and Jazz did. 

If there was a liminal here then he couldn't have known about the new Anti-Ecto Act amendment regarding him. He was in danger, he could actually be disappeared. 

"I don't know B. I know it changed him but... Ok. I'll give you a briefing on our findings when we get back tonight, gives me time to theorize anyway." 

Letting go of his temple, he turned to Black Bat, "Back to our regular patrols, you want me to tag along or do you wanna go on your own?" 

Before she could respond, Danny put some distance between them, but he needed to risk talking to them, this Jason guy needed to know. 

He felt his core rumble, both in confliction, and on purpose as he added a distortion to his voice. He would keep the invisibility up, and while they probably wouldn't answer him, its not like they could know that Phantom was here, not even Batman had ecto-tech. 

"Who's Jason?" 

The two heroes jumped, though Red Robin jumped higher. Black Bat was somehow already looking in his direction. 

"Who's there?" Tim said, looking for anyone. 

Danny didn't answer. Not immediately, he was here for his own questions, not answer someone else's. 

A long silence hung in the air for a while, Danny moved to the other side of the building as he saw Black Bat slowly approach the direction he spoke from. 

"Who's Jason?" 

Both of them practically spun on their heel. He could see that they were a little freaked out. A distorted disembodied voice would speaking to you after obviously listening in on your conversation would usually do that. 

Red Robin opened his mouth to say something, then he closed it, hesitating for a moment before almost whispering, "...Phantom?"

They shouldn't have known that. They should not have known that! 

Danny took off, racing back towards the apartment. His hand went to his chest, the warm humming from earlier was nowhere to be found as now his core buzzed like a hive of hornets. 

Were they working with the GIW? Was the League working with the GIW? Were they looking for him?

He froze just before heading inside the apartment, steeling himself slightly, he began to do those deep breathing exercises that Jazz had taught him. Forcing his core settle down so he could think clearer. 

He thought about following them to whatever lair they had, not like they could have stopped him. But he knew that his sister and friends were probably hiding in her car waiting for him to return. 

"I can find them another night." He said, before diving into and downward the apartment complex before finally going into the underground parking lot. 

He bit the inside of his cheek when he saw them. The three of them just on complete edge and waiting for him to return. He quickly phased through the car and changed back. 

"Danny!" Sam hugged him when he appeared next to her in the middle seat. 

Jazz turned to look at him, hands still on the wheel, "Was it them? What took you so long?" 

"Yeah dude! You got us worried." Tucker lightly punched Danny in the arm, looking more concerned then angry. 

"I-I'm fine guys. It wasn't the GIW." He rubbed his arms. 

Jazz furrowed her brow, "Then who?" 

"Black Bat and Red Robin." He said, not making eye contact. 

All three of them visibly widened their eyes. A collective feeling of 'oh shit.'

Tucker leaned in, "Like, the vigilantes?" 

He nodded, "It gets worse." 

Jazz bit her lip, "Worse?" 

"I may or may not have asked them a question while invisible." 

Sam stumbled over half finished words before finally exclaiming, "Why?!" 

"They mentioned someone with eyes like Jazz's! Glowing green eyes. They mentioned his name was Jason."

Jazz's eyes glazed over in internal calculation, before she realized and rested her head on the steering wheel, "Ffffffffffffudge. I didn't think there were any other liminals." 

Danny cringed even more into the seat, "...It gets worse." 

Tucker gave a small, almost hysterical chuckle at that, "How?" 

"They know about Phantom. When I asked the question he just said it out loud like he knew, o-or suspected that it was me."

It somehow got even more tense in the car. They shouldn't know about Phantom. 

"But... How?" Sam ran a hand through her hair, holding her head for a moment. 

"So Batman knows that Phantom is here... You think the League does? Think they're working with GIW?" Tucker asked, rather grimly.

Danny shook his head, "I don't know! I ran before anything else happened!" 

Danny just took another steadying breath, "OK guys, just calm down. Tomorrow night, I'll just... Find one of them and follow them to whatever lair they have. Then I can figure out what they know." 

Jazz turned back to them, her eyes narrowed and focused, "No. First, we are finding that liminal they mentioned. If they know this liminal, either they are with the GIW and haven't actually found him yet, or they aren't with the GIW and they just... Happen to know someone like that. Either way, that means we need to warn this Jason before anyone else finds him." 

Danny raised a finger, about to try arguing with her before realizing that she was right. This guy was probably defenseless against the GIW should they come looking for him. 

Tucker hummed in thought, "I could use my PDA to try and locate him, it has a new scanner function that came with the upgrade. I'll just have to tweak the sensitivity a bit." 

Sam leaned forward, "We should do the searches in the day, that way we aren't bothered much by them much, they are mostly nighttime vigilantes." 

Jazz made a skeptical face, "I won't be able to help you for most of the day then. I'm taking summer classes, I can't help you guys look for most of the day." 

"I could just... Borrow the PDA with me at night to help me sear-" 

Tucker immediately gave him an intense stare, holding the PDA against his chest, "Nope. This is my baby." 

"I agree," Sam said, quickly adding, "Not because of what Tucker said, but if you're gonna convince this guy, it'll go over smoother if one of us is with you to show him that liminals are a thing." 

Danny gave a hesitant nod, "Fair." 

Jazz just sighed, "Ok. Just... Promise me you'll search the safer parts of the city first?" 

Tucker scoffed, "Safer parts?" 

She rolled her eyes, "Just don't go wandering into Crime Alley, or anywhere, really, at night. Now, can we please go back inside and sleep? I have a class at 7." 

Once it was getting closer to morning and even most criminals wouldn't start something, Tim had immediately went to the cave and got onto the computer. Compiling everything into the computer.

There was a portal, it was broken now. Jasmine Fenton lied to her parents about seeing a ghost (possibly Phantom). Jasmine Fenton possibly had some power. Jasmine Fenton had, for a moment, glowing green eyes just like Jason.

Phantom spoke to them. Rather close to where the potential threat was. 

And he wanted to know about Jason? 

Ectoplasm was nigh identical to Lazarus water. What was the connection? Did Phantom want to do something with Jason? 

Did he want to fight him? 

He was a protector spirit, but he recalled Bruce saying that ghosts were territorial. 

Did he view Jason as a threat? Or maybe he wanted to help him? 

Tim had no good solutions, no definitive answers. And it bugged him so much. 

He rubbed his tired eyes. He was just jumping to conclusions, he knew that. At least from what he saw or rather, heard, earlier that night, Phantom was just curious. For the moment at least.

Tim shook himself, noticing how droopy he was being. Damn that beautiful family and their concern for his health, hiding all of the coffee that wasn't decaf. 

Tim was gonna work until he fell asleep in this chair instead of heading to bed. Just out of spite more than anything, a lack of coffee wouldn't stop him!

Poor Bab's had a lot of research ahead of her when he was done with this report.