Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

March 1st 2016 11am

-Metropolis -

Danny hummed a happy tune as he walked down the streets of Metropolis. The day was cool, the sun was bright, and hope seemed to hang in the air like a warm promise. People whispered and pointed at him, some taking pictures. Danny wasn’t paying it any attention, too distracted by the pamphlet unfolded in his hands like an old paper map. He wore a blue graphic T with the local hero’s insignia on it under an open white and blue plaid button up and some blue jeans.

He turned into an office building and ducked to get through the low doorframe. A young woman was sitting at the reception chewing some gum and scrolling on her phone. She looked up at him when the bell rung over the door and froze with wide eyes. Her gum bubble popped, shocking her to jump into motion. 

“Welcome to the Metropolis Inter-Galactic Immigration Center!” She said excitedly while pulling several stapled together pamphlets. “Please let me know if there’s anything you require assistance with!”

Danny gave her his friendliest grin. The one that mirrored his father’s.

“Thanks! I will.” Danny said with a happy smile.

He spent the next several hours going over everything with her. From temporary housing, to getting his citizenship, job placement opportunities, laws that protected him from experimentation from morally dubious government agencies (she gave him a wide-eyed look at that) and whatever else he could think up. She seemed surprised when he decided on an apartment and signed up for their job placement program. 

“Wait, you’re like….legit doing this?” She asked with wonder in her tone. 

“Of course!” Danny said with genuine enthusiasm. She looked at him with awe and then beamed at him.

“You’re a kryptonian so….flight, super strength, super speed, laser eyes, x-ray vision, and ice breath!” She filled out for him with a smile and a flourish of her pen. 

Danny was thankful that there was an alien species with a similar enough power set and appearance to himself that was already established. He didn’t actually feel like the government was entitled to knowing his full power-set anyway. Danny was familiar with adopting a “fake it ‘til you make it” attitude, and he could make some x-ray glasses if he ever really needed to anyway. Or contact lenses. Whichever. 

“Sounds great,” Danny said with a happy and relieved smile. 

She went into the back to finalize some things and came back with an ID card that had ‘Temporary’ in a blue bar at the top of it. It expired at the end of the year. Kind of like a work visa, but a little bit different. In the end Danny had an ID, an apartment, and an alien registration that the receptionist had kindly filled out for him. 

“It was an honor to meet you like this Mr. Fenton!” The receptionist said with a bow. 

“Oh, uh, just Danny is fine. Mr. Fenton was my father,” Danny rubbed the back of his head. The receptionist perked up with stars in her eyes. 

“Danny,” she said reverently, “please call me Angie then! I’ll see you next week for the job placement schedule!” 

“Next week then Miss Angie,” Danny said with a polite nod and left through the front door with the folder tucked under his arm. He glanced at his ID. 

Daniel Fenton

DOB: 6/14/79

Daniel did a double take at the age. How did she mistake 1990 for 1979? He didn’t seriously look that old did he!? He hadn’t paid any mind when he had told her his birthday and she’d laughed and said “oh, you” while typing up his ID information. 

“Do I seriously look forty?” Danny mumbled with a bit of internal anguish at his ID. He was twenty six dammit! A news van came whipping around the street corner with enough speed to glide on two wheels for a bit. It slammed on the breaks right in front of Danny and a brunette woman threw the side door open and jumped onto the street with a microphone in hand and a gleam in her eye. 

“What’s it like being the first alien to register for citizenship on earth!” She shouted while shoving the mic in his face. The camera man was one step behind her. 

“Uhhh,” Danny said with a deer-in-the-headlights look, “where did you come from?” He asked with wonder. She snatched his ID out of his hand, skimmed it, and whipped around with a victorious look to the camera man. 

“Hey!” Danny yelped and snatched it back. 

“You heard it here first folks! Daniel Fenton is the first alien to apply for an inter-galactic planetary visa-”

“You’re a very rude lady,” Danny said flatly and flew away while she continued to cover her story.  

March 1st 2016 1:30pm 

-Metropolis -

Danny eventually found his way to his apartment. He would need to get a phone soon, trying to navigate a big city manually was a bit ridiculous. After he opened a bank account though. He had a check from the Metropolis Inter-Galactic Immigration Center with enough money for him to be able to establish himself and get the basics. 

Inside the apartment was well furnished. Everything was sleek and stylish, with a cozy ambiance. There was an open floor plan living space; kitchen, living, and dining room. Then a hall with two bedrooms and a bathroom. 

He set the folder on the dining room table and opened it to sort through the things he would need on his way to the bank. Danny still had some errands to run, but he didn’t need to do that with all of his paperwork. 

March 1st 2016 6pm 

-A Mall in Metropolis -

All day news trucks had been following him around. The bank refused them access while he was opening an account, the electronics store barred the doors when he went in to get a phone and laptop, and the clothing store had a spunky clerk (a young man with riotous red curls) who refused to let some blond man in a blue suit through the doors. 

“You can’t stop me from-”

“Sir, this is a privately owned business.” The clerk cut him off. “Yes I can.” 

Danny chuckled from a wrack in the men’s section. 

“This isn’t over Fenton!” The blond news anchor shouted from the store’s entrance while pointing at him dramatically. His voice sounded like Nigel Thornberry’s. It was great. 

“Whatever you say, Scrooge McDuck!” Danny called back without looking up from the clothing wrack. He slid a shirt to the side and pulled out a different one. 

The man sputtered and his face turned a furious red. The spunky clerk laughed into his hand. 

“And you!” He hissed while pointing at the young clerk, “I’ll ruin you.” 

The spunky clerk’s breath hitched and Danny looked over at them discreetly. He grabbed the shirt and hung it over the other items hung over his arm and walked over to the spunky clerk. 

“Hey,” Danny said with a hand on his shoulder, “I’m ready to check out.” 

The clerk looked relieved and led him to the counter. The news anchor followed behind them with the camera in Danny’s face. 

“You’re being rude,” Danny said bluntly to the man while holding his wallet, “and please don’t record me.”

“Why? Something to hide?” The news anchor said snidely. 

“Yeah, actually, my card details and pin number. Don’t want another incident like with my ID. So back off.” Danny said bluntly. When they didn’t motion to leave Danny sighed and handed his wallet to the clerk.

“You can run it as credit, right?” Danny asked. 

“Yes sir!” The clerk said. 

Danny turned to the two and led them out of the store. 

“So, Mr. Fenton-”

“I’m going to stop you right there,” Danny said, “this is blatant harassment. We do not follow people around and invade their personal space while shoving news cameras in their face. And we do not threaten to ‘ruin’ teenagers for not giving you your way. Am I understood?” Danny said firmly. 

“The people have the right to know-” 

“Where I buy my underwear? No, no they don’t.” Danny interrupted him shamelessly. “They’re not entitled to know my address, license number, or bank information either. For that matter. And you, sir, do not have the right to threaten shop clerks.” The mentioned clerk waived at Danny that he was done. 

“We’re done here.” Danny said with finality and flew over to grab his wallet, thank the clerk, sign the receipt, slip the guy a fifty for the trouble, and grab his purchase. He flew back out with his purchases and went home. 

March 1st 2016 9pm 

-Danny’s Apartment -

Danny got home with a tremendous sigh, kicking the door shut with his foot. He set his bags down by the table and went over to the couch, plopping down into it with exhaustion. 

“Well, today could have gone better,” Danny mumbled while clicking on the TV. 

The G. Gordon Godfrey show was on. The same man who had harassed the clerk (and Danny) at the shop was hosting it. The footage floating behind him was of Danny. 

“Please don’t record me,” 

“Why? Something to hide?” 

“Yeah, actually- so back off” You could barely tell where the footage had been clipped, and only if you already knew. 

“The people have a right to know-” 

“No, they don’t. We’re done here.” 

“Oh, that mother trucker,” Danny swore fiercely at the TV. 

 

“As you can see, per Superman himself! The Justice League DOES have something to hide! What have they been keeping secret from us?And-”

Danny turned off the TV and ran both hands down his face with a world weary sigh. He then paused and tilted his head to the side with furrowed brows. 

“Who the heck is Superman?” Danny asked. He got up and went over to the table, grabbing the new laptop out of a bag. He opened it up, pulled up a web browser, and stared at the ‘no internet connection’ message. He ran a hand down his face and then pulled out his new phone from it’s bag. 

It took him some time to set it up, but once he did he was able to pull up the web browser and do a quick search. 

His own face stared back at him. Wearing a costume with the same logo as the graphic tee he had been wearing all day. The local hero he hadn’t bothered looking into, too excited about his own things to bother with this world’s current events.

“Holy- wow okay. So this guy’s probably going to track me down and kick my butt.” Danny said as he began rapidly scrolling through videos and interviews and articles and-

He set the phone down and leaned back with a groan. 

“Dude, what the heck Clockwork!” Danny said to the ceiling. 

March 1st 2016 9:45pm 

-Ghost Zone -

Danny floated into Clockwork’s haunt with his arms crossed and an ecto camera at the ready.

“I want the time when I was in the clothing store today,” Danny demanded. 

“Your highness, this request can only be made for your personal haunt-”

“I declare that specific Earth as my haunt, now give me the time I spent in the clothing store.” Danny said. 

“…” Clockwork gave him a calculating look that gave Danny a bad feeling, and then smiled, “very well.” 

Danny gleefully recorded the actual events with his ecto camera, getting every one of Godfrey’s worst angles. 

March 1st 11pm

-Danny’s Apartment-

Danny typed away at his computer, converting and editing the video from his ecto camera. He created an account called ‘Full Disclosure’ by Daniel Fenton on the biggest video hosting website on this world and uploaded the video with malicious glee. 

The title he chose was “Daniel Fenton vs Scrooge McDuck”. The thumbnail was of Gordon Godfrey pointing from the entrance to the store at Danny who was looking at a shirt. You could see spit flying out of Godfrey’s mouth. 

He hit ‘upload’ and then sat back with a content smile. Rubbing his neck he looked at the clock. It read 12:30 am. Stretching, he made his way down the hall, took a shower, got dressed into some cozy PJ’s, and lay down in bed with a content smile.  

Chapter Text

March 2, 2016 1:00am

Hall of Justice

Catherine Cobert stood with crossed arms and tapped the fingers of one hand impatiently on her other elbow while she waited by the zeta-beam in The Hall of Justice. She checked her watch again and huffed at the late hour. Light and sound brought her attention to the illuminated contents of the tube and when Black Canary stepped out Catherine was quick to approach her. 

“Ve have a problem,” Catherine’s french accent was thick as they both walked down the hall to a conference room.

“The Gordon Godfrey show and this Daniel Fenton, I saw it.” Canary said. 

“Zat is an issues, yes. But I vas talking about ze Full Disclozure channel by zat impersonator of Zuperman.” Catherine said while handing a tablet over to Canary with the channel in question pulled up on the screen. 

“This is a rapid escalation,” Canary muttered under her breath. 

“Zat it is, it vould not surprize me if ze man did zis in an attempt to circumvent anysing ze League may do to him.” 

“Anyway for us to get this taken down?” Canary asked. 

“Mmm, no. It does not go against any of ze terms of service and iz not officially affiliated vis ze League.” 

Canary sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. The timing couldn’t have been more suspicious.  

“Of course it isn’t.” 

March 2, 2016 9:00am

Danny’s Apartment 

Danny woke up to a pleasantly cool room and birds in the trees outside his window exploding with chatter. He perked his head up and squinted out the window. There had to be at least twenty- no thirty little song birds out there. 

“Huh, nice.” Danny mumbled with a grin. He stretched and yawned and pulled his blankets to the side to get out of bed with a long stretch. 

The trek to the kitchen was a lazy one. He didn’t have anywhere he needed to be today and he wasn’t currently employed or would be for a few more days at least. The week was his oyster. 

“Or was it ‘the world’?” Danny pondered aloud as he went through the motions of filling and starting the coffee pot. He hit the button and walked over to pour himself a bowl of cereal. 

While he waited for it to brew he sat down in front of the TV and ate breakfast. The TV flickered to life with the press of a button on an overly simple remote. There was a circle button in the center surrounded by an uplifted ring. All of which was unmarked. 

“…we have better remotes.” Danny informed the universe at large. 

“A viral video is bringing the credibility of the G. Gordon Godfrey show into question-”

Danny clicked the remote.

“-versus Scrooge McDuck, Scrooge McDuck referring to Gordon Godfrey of GBS News Network’s The G. Gordon Godfrey Show-”

Danny clicked the remote.

“-brings into question, what other lies has the GBS been feeding the American people?-”

Danny clicked the remote.

“-it’s a disgrace to reporting! Blatantly fabricating lies to incite the public-”

Danny clicked the remote.

“Scrooge McDuck!” The host wheezed and slammed his fist on the table. “I always said that guy was a prick!” 

Danny clicked the remote. 

“-the Justice League ‘as no comment at zis time, zank you.” A woman with black hair, green eyes, a prominent mole, and a French accent said to the news crew. The string of text under her said “Catherine Cobert Justice League Public Liaison, Hall of Justice”. 

Danny’s ear perked up when the coffee machine finished it’s last splutter. He stood with a pleased grin at the media attention he was getting and hummed while pouring himself a cup of coffee. 

“In other news. The Earth-Mars communications satellite is scheduled to launch March 19th of this year to facilitate friendly relations with our sister planet.” 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold up! Sister Planet? Earth-Mars communication!?” Danny exclaimed gleefully with rapt attention as he watched the news broadcast covering the story. 

Danny spent the rest of that day on his new laptop deep diving into all things martian on the internet. By the time dinner rolled around he had missed lunch and was still in his pajamas with a half pot of untouched cold coffee. 

March 2nd 12:30pm

Watchtower 

“March first ‘Superman’ took up a public identity as Daniel Fenton. He’s also managed to do quite a bit of damage to the reputation of the G. Gordon Godfrey show,” Captain Atom said as several screens popped up with social media photos of Daniel Fenton and the viral video that had turned the media into a buzzing hive. 

The JL had been caught on the back foot and was now trying to do damage control in the face of the current media storm. 

“Except Superman isn’t on earth right now, so that’s impossible,” Nightwing said with crossed arms. Superboy clenched his fists while staring at the screen of the man with Superman’s face. 

“Have we ruled out a clone?” Superboy asked. 

“Not yet,” Captain Atom said.

“Whoever our fraud is, he’s demonstrated the ability to fly at the very least. We can’t be certain he doesn’t have all of Superman’s powers. What’s more concerning is that he’s taken to the media. Made a channel and everything. In less than twelve hours he’s hit five hundred million views and half as many subscriptions. And the numbers aren’t projected to stop growing anytime soon.” Green Arrow said. 

“Right now our biggest worry is a potential character assassination of the Justice League,” Black Canary said. 

“But we can’t exactly tell the guy he’s not allowed to post personal videos on the internet,” Green Arrow leaned back in his chair and shrugged, “and there’s no where we’ve found where he’s actually declared himself to be Superman, and wearing a shirt with a superhero logo on it isn’t a crime.” 

“So he’s legally not impersonating Kal,” Superboy grumbled. 

“Yet. It’s a very thin technically, since he hasn’t said he wasn’t Superman either,” Captain Atom said, “or done anything to rectify the misunderstanding.” 

“I’ll go talk to him,” Superboy said firmly. 

“That’s probably a bad idea,” Green Arrow said. 

“Why?” 

“There’s a good chance that this is another Cadmus plant,” Black Canary said, “with Speedy it was ‘Join the Justice League’ but with this Fenton guy? Who’s to say it isn’t ‘dispose of Superman and replace him’?”

“And with no Superman to dispose of, he would have finished that parameter of his programming by default,” Nightwing finished. 

“This could also be a deliberate attempt to waste League resources, and distract us from some form of sabotage while we’re guarding the Earth-Mars Communications Project.” Green Arrow said grimly. 

“In any case we’re not in a position where we can afford another mind chip incident. We watch, and if Daniel Fenton fulfills a role as ‘Superman’ in Metropolis we engage, but not until after the Earth-Mars Communications Satellite is up. In the mean time we need a small team to gain information without tipping off Fenton. Just how close of a power match is he to Superman? Can he be reasoned with? Who planted him? Is he a Cadmus escapee?” Black Canary said. 

“What if he’s like, an alternate universe Supes?” Kid Flash asked while munching on a bag of chips. Everyone looked at him oddly. “What? It could happen!” 

“Could it?” Robin asked skeptically. 

“…Let’s just keep things in the realm of plausible for now. We can worry about fanciful theories after we extinguish all other possibilities.” Nightwing said diplomatically. 

“Oh, c’mon! Bart’s already an alternate future timeline speedster, why can’t we have an alternate reality super?” Wally said indignantly with crossed arms. 

“We appreciate the input Kid, but we should focus on eliminating more likely avenues first.” Green Arrow said. Kid Flash grumbled under his breath. 

March 3rd 6:16am

Metropolis

There was a hotdog stand that set up on the street outside Danny’s apartment in the early morning. Which seemed odd for a hotdog stand. But they had a bagel dog with a thick breakfast sausage and cheesy egg filling that looked amazing that he wanted to try. So, hotdogs for breakfast it is. Danny went out in a pair of pale blue and white pinstripe pajama pants, a white t-shirt, and a blue robe. 

The man gave him a wide eyed look and then beamed at Danny with a chuckle. 

“Guess even aliens get hungry, huh?” The big jolly fellow said. 

“Yessir,” Danny said while pulling out the cash he’d stuffed in his pocket on the way out the door. A loud boom filled the sky and Danny and the man both looked up. 

There was a plane on fire and falling through the sky. Danny’s eyes widened with surprise and then he sped off through the air to catch up to it. The wind whipped through his hair and he internally cursed his slower fly speed in human form. 

Not that he wouldn’t be able to catch a plane outside of his ghost form, but Phantom was a faster flyer than Fenton. It had to do with aerodynamics. No mass and all that. Not that it was a significant difference and only affected how fast he got there by a couple of seconds. But in the heat of the moment it felt significant to Danny.  

When he reached the plane it was feet away from the tops of the nearest high rise buildings. Danny put his hands under the hull and made the whole thing intangible before pushing up to lift it up and away. People were screaming inside until Danny tilted to the side and aimed for the field of a local nearby park. 

He slowly lessened the speed of the craft, and then gently drifted it down into the park. Park goers gave him a wide berth and Danny dropped the intangibility. His hands sunk into the hull once he did. The upside to intangibility is that it balanced the pressure he put on the things he was touching evenly, so when it was dropped the metal of the hull groaned from having too much weight distributed to panels that weren’t designed to hold it. 

As gently as he could he set the large vehicle down and stepped out from under it. The motor was still burning and he blew on it to freeze it. He flew up and pulled the door off. 

“Is everyone alright?” Danny asked as he stepped in. 

“Superman!” A kid squealed and ran down the isle towards Danny. He had a little black haired plush doll with a red cape in his hands. 

“Jace!” A woman called out towards the tyke. 

“Hey there, buddy!” Danny said while lifting him into the air. The kid began squealing and babbling and showing off his doll proudly. Danny nodded along with a smile and carried him back down the isle to his mother. 

“Yours?” Danny asked while offering the tyke to her.

“Yes, thank you,” The woman accepted her toddler back. 

“Mommy, mommy, look, look!” 

“Yes, I see,” she said calmly. 

“Does anyone need assistance?” Danny raised his voice over the muttering passengers. 

“Over here!” A young man stood and raised his hand. Danny drifted down the aisle quickly to the young man and a panting elderly woman who was clutching her chest. 

“I’ll get her to the nearest hospital,” Danny promised while picking the woman up. 

“Thank you,” the young man who was sitting next to her said gratefully. The sound of firetrucks rang out in the distance. 

Danny flew off with the woman to a hospital a few blocks away and left her in the hands of the ER there. 

When he returned to the plane the Metropolis Fire Department was already on scene. Danny flew over to the person giving orders and waved. 

“How can I help?” Danny asked. The man looked relieved to see him. 

Chapter Text

March 3rd 3pm

Street Outside Danny’s apartment

Danny finally got that bagel dog from the little stand outside his apartment complex. He noticed the open hours on the cart ‘6am-1pm’ and he gave the man a teary eyed look.

“Did you stay open for me?” Danny asked, touched. 

“Sure did! Figured you’d be famished by the time you got back home for lunch.” The man said with a cheerful grin and an abashed blush. 

“That’s so nice,” Danny said while accepting the bagel dog, “thank you.” He meant it. He really, really did. Amity Park would never.  

“Hopefully you have time to change out of those pajamas,” the stall keeper said while packing up his stall. Danny gave him an abashed grin and rubbed the back of his head.

“Yeah- thanks again!” Danny went back to his apartment with a skip in his step and beelined to the TV and the coffee table to enjoy his bagel dog there. 

“Superman? More like Super Pajama Man-” That stupid G. Godfrey show was on. 

Danny frowned fiercely and changed the channel. He really hated that guy. He took the first bite of his bagel dog and lit up. The cheesy egg filling surrounding the sausage had bits of potato in it. 

“This is so good!” Danny savored the warm food filling his empty stomach. 

March 3rd 4:30pm

Danny’s Apartment

Danny had changed into jeans and a graphic tee and gotten the mail. He looked over the mountain of mail on his table with a distressed look. He had several letters from lawyers about property damage, and several more lawyers offering to represent him. Several children’s birthday party requests, employment offers from big tech corporations, and a package that had an ecto contaminated crystal in it. Which was neat. No return address though. 

“Dorothea maybe?” He wondered while holding the crystal aloft. She would sometimes send him random trinkets from the ghost zone. It wasn’t cursed, so it wouldn’t harm humans, just an ecto crystal. Like a memento from home. He bet that if he put it in the fridge that he could make ecto weenies. 

“That’s really thoughtful of her,” Danny said with a small grin. He put it in the fridge next to the fudge. Ecto really had been the secret to dad’s recipe. 

Next was the official looking mail with court addresses attached. Danny sighed the sigh a man burdened by courtly stress. He prepared himself for a long day of paperwork and phone calls. 

March 3rd 5:30pm

Watchtower

The communication line for Justice League Dark began wailing. Black Lightning picked it up. 

“Zatanna.” Black Lightning acknowledged. 

“We got a major problem mate.” John Constantine’s voice came over the comms instead. 

“What’s the situation?” 

“Nah, we’re coming to you. We need to have this little chat face-to-face. And call everyone you can. Deadman, Zatanna, and Dr. Fate are comin’ up with me.” Constantine hung up. 

“Great.” Black Lightning said flatly into the silence. He began making calls. 

March 3rd 7:30pm

Hall of Justice

“What’s all this about?” Nightwing asked as he walked over from the zet-beam. 

“Some infini-king of Dread has set up shop on planet.” Kid Flash said between bites of nachos. Artemis would have smacked him upside the head for that. A pity she was retired.  

“I’m sorry- what?” 

“The Infinite King of Dread declared our planet to be his haunt on the Last Moon two days ago.” Dr. Fate informed them solemnly. 

“Can you hear the caps when he says ‘last moon’, ‘cause I can hear the caps.” Wally whispered to Nightwing from behind his hand. 

“And then all-the-sudden today it flipped right around like opposite day and became the First Moon,” Constantine finished for him, “also no one noticed.” 

“With the exception of the magical communities of Earth.” Zatanna said. 

“Who’re all rightly losing their shite.” Constantine said. 

“Who’s the British guy?” Wally whispered to Nightwing. 

“John Constantine, occult detective.” Nightwing whispered back. 

“Oooooh,” Wally responded. 

“And what does this mean for us?” Hal Jordan asked. 

“Any number of things mate, few of them good and none of them insignificant.” Constantine replied. 

“What Mr. Constantine means to say is that this is going to have a wide reaching impact on the magical and spiritual powers of not just Earth but our entire galaxy and it’s relation to other galaxies in close proximity to us. The King of the Infinite Realm made this planet his seat of power. Which consequently put our planet front and center of the magical. Think of us as the galaxy’s centermost ley line intersect point.” Zatanna said. 

“That…doesn’t sound good.” Green Arrow mumbled.   

“It is neither good nor bad. It simply is.” Dr. Fate said. 

“Remind me again, order was also the dominion of tyranny wasn’t it?” Constantine asked blithely. 

“All things must come to order.” 

“We’re worried about a possible tyrant?” Black Canary interrupted them, bringing the meeting back on track. 

“Yes.” “There’s a bloody good chance of that.” “Time will tell.” 

“But the important part is how bloody powerful our King here is. We can’t fight it. Not with every hero, villain, civvie, and hobbyist banding together to fight him. He’s called the Infinite King of Dread for a reason. Anything that’s ever died and had the willfulness to remain falls under his authority.” 

“Great, zombie king. Love that.” Green Arrow replied flatly. Hal Jordan became tense at that. 

“Oh no mate. I wish. This is the freakin’ ghost king-spirit king-whatever you want to bloody call it. All spirit, can’t touch it but it can touch you, ancient powers embodying the very essence of nature and concepts like dreams and wishes. That. Bloody fuckin’ king.” 

Hal Jordan was even more tense now. 

“All that dies does not end.” Dr. Fate said solemnly. “Not all in The End has expired.” 

“What does that mean?” Wally whispered to Nightwing. Nightwing shrugged. 

“We talking about Darkest Night here?” Hal Jordan asked. 

“Is there anything we can do about this?” Captain Atom asked. 

“Be vigilant. Some enemies may come at us stronger than ever and the spirits are going to be empowered.” Zatanna said. 

“That which has lay dormant in long slumber will awake. Your technologies will falter. Nomads from the stars will take pilgrimage here. We may see the king. Or we may not. And the dead will rest no longer.” Dr. Fate said. 

“Well that’s not ominous at all.” Green Arrow muttered sourly to Black Canary.  

“Look out for the bloody death cults.” Constantine added on. “Especially the bloody space death cults. I’m not dealing that shite.” 

“Recognized Captain Marvel.” 

“…I’ll contact Oa.” Hal Jordan said. 

“Oa? What happened?” Captain Marvel asked. 

“Darkest Night.” Hal Jordan muttered to him on his way out. 

“Wait what?” 

“Infinite Undead Ooky Spooky King.” Wally supplied helpfully. 

“Oh yeah, that’s actually why I was late. A whole bunch of death cults decided to try and band together and- it’s not important. Anyway, what did I miss.” 

“I fuckin’ hate the bloody death cults.” Constantine swore while lighting a cigarette. The Flash let him get one good puff in before snatching it out of his hands and disposing of it. Constantine frowned. 

“No smoking in The Hall.” Flash said apologetically while patting him on the shoulder. 

“March first…” Nightwing muttered under his breath with his arms crossed and a hand on his chin. 

“What’s that?” Wally asked while some of the other Leaguers got into a heated argument a little further down in the room. Poor Zatanna looked a bit frazzled with all of their attention on her. Down side of being the most approachable person in a group dealing out bad news.

“Nothing. Just a thought.” 

March 4th 12pm 

Danny’s Apartment 

Danny frowned at the first bite of fudge. The flavor was completely off. Not like his dad’s ecto contaminated fudge at all. He picked up the glowing green crystal and inspected it with a frown. Sniffed it, licked it, took a bite out of it. 

It was tangy and spicy, flavored with something he couldn’t quite put his finger on, not like pure ecto at all. Definitely not something you’d put with fudge. Maybe Pho? Yeah, this would be great with curry too. As-is it was like a hot and sour rock candy.

Someone knocked on the door and Danny answered it. It was a gunman who was giving him a vicious grin. Danny stared down at him and popped the rest of the crystal in his mouth. The gunman’s face turned pale as Danny crunched the stone between his teeth and then swallowed. 

“Can I help you?” Danny asked with a bored frown. 

“I-uh-uh-no sir,” the man’s voice cracked at the end.

“Gun,” Danny held his hand out. The man shoved it at him, “now get out of here.” 

The man ran. Danny rolled his eyes and walked into his apartment. Two days in and he already had his first would be assassination. Or assault. Robbery? Eh, whatever.

He admired the gun. It had some sleek futuristic design and when Danny popped it open at the coffee table there was another green crystal inside. 

“Okay, so…not from Dora?” Danny said while holding the crystal up. He contemplated the way the natural green glow reacted with the sunlight coming in through the window to refract uniquely within the mirror like sharp edges of the stone. 

Maybe ectoplasm was more common in this dimension?

“….I’ll make curry tomorrow.” 

He put it in the fridge. Next to a packet of cream cheese. Mmm hot and sour cream cheese. He had some tortilla chips. Make some Thai nachos. Mandarin nachos? Was hot and sour soup with the little wonton thingies Thai or Mandarin?  

March 5th 4am 

Danny’s Apartment 

Danny was sound asleep in his bed. Then his stomach started gurgling and Danny’s eyes shot open. He ran, farting all the way, to the bathroom. 

“Oh, gosh!” Danny wailed. Grotesque sounds and a foul odor filled his bathroom. He was in there for a couple hours. The rest of the day wasn’t much better.

March 6th 8am

Danny’s Apartment 

Dark bags were under his eyes and his pallor was sickly. He glared at the green rock in defiance and tossed it behind himself into the living room. He had to clean out the fridge now. Fiddlesticks. 

“Note to self, don’t eat rocks from strangers. Even if they do glow green.” Danny grumbled under his breath while filling a garbage bag with (no longer) perfectly good food. 

Once he finished he made himself a tentative pot of tea and swirled some honey in his cup. Then made his way to the TV to watch and maybe nap the day away. Grabbing the throw blanket on the way past Danny wrapped it around his shoulders and set his tea down on the coffee table. 

He clicked the remote and lay down on the couch, fluffing a soft throw pillow and stuffing it under his head. 

“In other news a Martian contingent has requested visas from the US Department of Extraterrestrial Immigration to perform a pilgrimage across the eastern coast of America. Experts are lauding Superman for paving the way by leading through example and applying for his own residency visa through the Metropolis Inter-Galactic Immigration Center earlier last week.” 

Danny’s eyes drooped closed as he watched the steam from his mug dance through the air and distort the news anchor’s face. 

March 6th 8pm 

Danny’s Apartment 

“-as if!” the person on TV shouted at the same time as a loud pounding knock on his front door. 

“Hua!” Danny jerked awake and flailed off the couch and onto the carpet with a dramatic ‘fwump’. “Ugh.” 

Another, more tentative, knock on the door. Danny made an unhappy noise in the back of his throat and got up clutching the blanket more tightly around his shoulders. He walked over and rested his burning head against the door. 

“Who is it?” Danny mumbled into the cool painted surface of the door. 

Chapter Text

March 6th 8pm

Danny’s apartment

“Who is it?” Danny asked from his place with his warm face pressed against the cool door. 

“Pizza delivery.” a woman’s voice replied. 

“…I ordered a pizza?” 

“Extra cheese for a Daniel F?”

“Oh. Yeah, that’s me.” Danny said as he opened the door. There was a pretty lady in one of those pencil skirt business suits holding a very large pizza box. Danny hadn’t known pizza came that big. Point goes to this universe. “You don’t look like a pizza delivery people.” Danny slurred tiredly while leaning heavily on the door frame. 

She stared at him with wide, surprised eyes. 

“What happened to you?” She demanded while shoving the pizza box into his arms. Danny leaned back and further hunched into the door frame. He peeked at the contents. 

It smelled amazing. 

“I got a bad cold.” Danny lied. 

“No you didn’t. Who are you?” She pushed past him and into the apartment. 

“Yeah, sure, please come in. Make yourself at home.” Danny drawled sarcastically after she breezed past him, pushing him out of the way of the door with little effort. He was too weak and achy to do much about it. 

He closed the door and followed her in with heavy footsteps. Danny glanced at the kitchen counter that was closer to the door and redirected himself there instead. He fell into a bar stool set in front of the kitchen island counter sloppily and dropped the pizza box there while he leaned over the counter for support. 

She was rifling through his stuff. But she wasn’t trying to shoot him so he wasn’t too concerned about it. Danny remained with his face pressed against the counter while he lifted the pizza box with one finger and slipped a piece out. The cheese pull would have been great if it didn’t get stuck in the cardboard when the lid fell back once it was unsupported. 

He took a bite. His eyes closed in bliss and he exhaled with a big contented ‘whoosh’. Hot cheese really makes everything better. Danny could feel himself melting further into the countertop. 

“Is this kryptonite!?” She called from the living room. 

“What’s crypto-night?” Danny asked before taking another large bite. 

There was a long silence where Danny finished the last of the slice with a third bite and she stared at him judgmentally. He couldn’t prove that’s what she was doing, but he could feel her stare from the living room to the kitchen. 

“How long has this been here?” She demanded. 

“How long has what been here?” Danny asked while dragging another piece of pizza out. She stomped over and slammed the ecto-crystal onto the counter. 

“This!” She said. She looked mad. Danny looped his arm around the pizza box and scooted it away from the rock. 

“Nooo. This is good pizza, keep the spicy rock away from it.” Danny lamented pitifully. 

“….That’s it, I’m taking you to the hospital.” 

Danny’s eyes widened and he dug his fingers into the marble of the counter like anchor points. 

“No hospitals!”

“Tch!” She whipped out her cellphone and called someone. 

“Lois, what’s up?” A man’s voice said. She had her phone on speaker. 

“He’s had kryptonite in his apartment.” Who Danny assumed was Lois told the person on the other line. 

“….I’ll be right there.” 

“And bring a lead box.” She said.

“A lead box?” Danny asked. “Why a lead box?” 

“It’s radioactive.” She said it slow like Danny was the biggest dumb this side of f*ck nowhere. 

“It’s radioactive!?” Danny wailed. “I ate that!” 

“You ate it? You ATE it?”

“He ate it?” the man on the other line asked sharply. 

“We’ll meet you outside,” Lois said and hung up. Danny removed his fingers from the marble, leaving behind four circle holes and some cracks where the brittle material gave way at the pressure. 

He’s not getting that deposit back. Probably should have phased his fingers into it instead. Oh well. It was a future Danny problem now.  

Lois grabbed him by the back of his robe and pulled him down off the stool. Danny clutched the pizza box to his chest as he went down and she started dragging him. Radioactive changed things a bit so he went with little protest. 

“Come on,” Lois said as she opened the front door and dragged Danny down the hall. 

“You’re a strong lady.” Danny said while bending his knee to make a quasi-shelf for the pizza as she drug him across the carpeted interior of the common hallway. He took another piece out. A neighbor opened their door and gave them a wide-eyed look as Lois drug him to the elevator. 

“Help, I’m being kidnapped by a madwoman.” Danny said flatly to the neighbor and took another bite of pizza. The neighbor gave him a baffled look. 

“He’s fine,” Lois said over her shoulder to the neighbor. The doors to the elevator dinged open and she drug Danny inside. The door closed on his foot, then opened and tried to close again, “really?” Lois asked him, unimpressed. 

Danny slowly drug his foot in and the doors closed. He lost his slipper though. 

“Aw,” Danny lamented and wiggled his toes. 

“How old are you?” Lois asked him with a raised brow. 

“Twenty seven,” Danny looked up and said. He’s sure his eye bags made him look fifty. 

“Uh-huh…you ate a glowing green rock because it looked pretty right? So I’m guessing you’re around two. Two and a half maybe.” 

Danny gave her a flat look and put the last part of his most recent pizza slice in his mouth. 

“Thaf’s a bif harsh.” He licked his fingers slowly, arms weak and tender enough to be obvious in his movements. 

“How long ago did you ingest it. That means eat.” 

“I know what ingest means! Geeze lady, you don’t hold back.” Danny grumbled. “Like two days ago.” 

“How are you still breathing right now?” Lois wondered. Danny stilled his lungs and stared at her with his dull panda eyes. 

“Who said I’m breathing.” The elevator dinged and the doors started to open. Danny’s hooded gaze was drawn to two young men running towards them. 

“Why does his heart sound like that!?” The one who (… looked like Danny? Whaaat?) said. “He’s not breathing!” 

The guy grabbed Danny in a princess carry and began sprinting. Where he was going Danny had no idea.

“The pizza,” Danny said softly to the box left behind on the ground. “Help, I’m being kidnapped by a madman.” Danny said softly to no one in particular. “Who has a vendetta against pizza.” 

“Are you high?” Not-Danny asked in a scandalized tone. 

Danny paused to ponder it. 

“…no?” Yeah, no, he was just deliriously tired. Feverish. Nothing too serious. “No.” he said more firmly. 

The cool wind felt nice on his face. Danny closed his eyes and relaxed. 

“Hey! Stay with me!” Not-Danny said. “Tch! Dammit!” 

The guy was seriously high strung. Danny relaxed with a rattling breath. His stomach turned and bubbled from the pizza and Danny paled.

Oh no. 

Not the tumbly rumblies. 

March 7th 11am

A Justice League vetted hospital somewhere

Danny woke up in a hospital bed with Not-Danny sitting in a chair near him. The guy sat bent in half with his head in his hands just slightly above his knees. The guy looked like someone killed his dog. Danny eyed him warily. 

“You good?” Danny rasped and then cleared his throat. The guy’s head shot up and he gave Danny a wild look. Danny shrunk back. Ew. Emotions. Keep them to yourself there stranger. 

“You’re awake.” The guy said on a breath like he was afraid to talk too loud and yep, nope. It was uncomfortable when his sister did it, he didn’t need this stranger carrying the torch here. Maybe Dani and Danny had more in common than he thought (he squashed down the pang of loss the thought brought with it). 

“Awake and right as rain!” Danny said brightly, desperate to make that dewy look this stranger was giving him go away. It got more dewy some how. 

“Well, this has been fun, but I have an appointment today at two. So I really need to get back to my apartment and get ready for that.” Danny moved to shimmy out of the bed. His stomach turned and he paused a little fearfully. That was not a happy tummy turn.

“You can’t leave!” the guy stood swiftly.

As much as Danny would love to argue…he was a little afraid to move right now. So he put the blanket back down and settled in slowly. 

“…right. So, I’m Danny. And you are?” Danny resigned himself to continuing the uncomfortable conversation with a smile. 

“Oh! Right, sorry. I’m Conner. Uh, Kon.” 

“Right. Cool. Why are you here?” Danny asked tentatively. He didn’t want to hurt the guy’s feelings but. Well. Usually only friends and family were allowed in patient rooms. 

“I- brought you here?” 

“And I appreciate that. But. I don’t know you? So why would you be in my hospital room while I sleep?” 

“Oh! Uhh. You’re right- I should- uh, give you your space.” Conner made several aborted motions with his hands and then settled for cringing in embarrassment and heading for the door. “I’m, uh, glad you’re okay,” he said over his shoulder and then he left. 

Danny stared at the doorframe for a time. 

“Well, that was weird.” Danny said to himself. He tired to move again. And felt a very worrying movement that had him immediately freeze. “…I need to make a phone call.” Danny decided with a nod. He’d just have to call and reschedule that job placement appointment with the Metropolis Inter-Galactic Immigration Center.

It didn’t take long for a man in a red and blue costume to come in along with a doctor in navy scrubs. 

“Hi there, I’m Atom, and this is Doctor Wells, we’d like to talk with you about your recent surgery.” 

“Surgery!?” Danny yelped, alarmed. His bowls did a flip-flop and he froze in terror of potential self-defecating public humiliation. 

“The surgery went well. Atom here removed the shards of kryptonite that had embedded themselves into the soft tissue of your small intestine.” Dr. Wells pulled out some imaging from a large envelope and pinned them to one of those light-up walls that Danny hadn’t noticed. “Your most recent images look good. Everything’s been cleared out and there’s no longer any kryptonite remaining in your system.” 

Danny was a bit hung up on ‘embedded in the soft tissue of your small intestine’ part but he tried to pay attention as they continued going over the specifics of his procedure. 

“Unfortunately we’ve concluded that you will not be making a full recovery.” Dr. Wells said. 

“I’m not!?” Danny asked with wide eyes. 

“We put you under yellow sun exposure therapy immediately after the surgery.” Atom said with a compassionate look to his gaze. “Unfortunately we’ve arrived at the conclusion that there was lasting damage to your tissues. We also noted that there’s some permanent blood contamination. Mr. Fenton. You’re not bullet proof anymore.” 

‘I was never bulletproof though?’ Danny’s worried thoughts immediately ground to a halt and were replaced by bafflement. 

“Oh,” Danny said half-heartedly. ‘What are these people talking about?’ he thought. 

“We still can’t be sure what other side effects there are so we’d like to keep you for observation.” Dr. Wells said. 

“Aah, no. Thank you. No thank you! I can observe myself. I’ll uh make an appointment with Frostbite just to be on the safe side.” Danny said with a nod. 

Atom and Doctor Wells shared a look. 

“Frostbite?” Atom asked. 

“My doctor. He’s a yeti from the Far Frozen. That’s what the yeti’s call their home. It’s on the icecap.” Danny said with a nod. Yup, it was totally on the icecap. Yessiree. 

Doctor Wells gave Atom a long look. Atom averted his eyes and coughed into his fist. 

“Right, we’ll just prepare a file for him on your care,” Atom said with a strained smile. Doctor Wells was still staring at him. One of those ‘you people are so damn weird’ stares. Danny didn’t know why he was directing it at Atom but it really wasn’t any of his business so he didn’t ask. 

“He’d appreciate that, thanks.” Danny said with a nod. 

“Well! With that all cleared away. We aren’t ready to discharge you quite yet. You’ll need at least another day to recover enough for us to be able to do so. In the meantime you’ll be on a liquid diet. Which I’ll be subscribing that you continue for the next week at the least, two weeks preferably. I’ll fill out a prescription for a specialized meal substitute that’ll work best for you.” Dr. Wells said while scribbling something down on a prescription pad.  

Danny nodded along. Another day and he should be able walk out of here without crapping himself. Huzzah. Lesson learned. Don’t eat spicy rocks that strangers send you anonymously in the mail. 

“With that I’ll leave you gentlemen to it,” Dr. Wells said. He nodded respectfully to them both and headed out the door. Atom waited for the door to shut and then gave Danny a no-nonsense look.

“You can’t go back to your apartment.” Atom said firmly.

“The heck I can’t.” Danny said firmly back. 

“It’s been compromised.” Atom reasoned. 

“That’s fine, I can punch the compromised.” Danny said belligerently. Atom pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“You had to have surgery. I just spent nine hours digging kryptonite shrapnel out of your insides.”  

“Yeah, because I ate a spicy rock. It had nothing to do with that gunman. Okay, maybe it had a little to do with that gunman, be he didn’t really do anything except run away in terror so…pretty sure I’m good.” 

“There’s a gunman now?” Atom asked flatly with crossed arms.

“…no?” Danny lied.

“Look Mr. Fenton. We definitely cannot send you back to an unsecured apartment with an active gunman when you’re in this condition. Especially with everyone thinking you’re Superman. He has a lot of dangerous enemies.” Atom said reasonably. 

“A well reasoned argument.” Danny acknowledged. “I respectfully decline-”

Atom stubbornly pushed on, “-Lois offered to house you at her place-”

“Who?” 

“…the woman who found you?” 

“Ah, yeah, the kidnapper. She lured me in with pizza.” 

Atom gave him a long stare. He politely didn’t comment.

“….Superboy would also love to have you.” 

“SuperBOY? There’s two of them?” Danny asked. 

“He’s the other clone.” 

“Aaah, right. The other clone. Other as in more than one?” 

“Well, there’s you-”

“Not a clone, just a doppelgänger.” Danny interrupted him. 

“…right.” Atom drawled.

“It’s a total coincidence.” 

“…..” Atom did not look like he believed Danny. Not one bit. 

“Really, I’m not a clone.” Danny crossed his arms and winced when his abdomen twinged. Atom waved a hand in the air and shook his head. 

“That’s not important. Look. We can get you in a hotel if you’re really insistent on not having anyone in your business. I get it. I wouldn’t want to have to entertain strangers after what you went through either. But you really can’t go back there. We’ll work out a new apartment in a different location and move your things over-”

“I’d rather move my own things,” Danny interrupted again. 

“That’s fine. But someone will go with you as a guard-”

“Not necessary.” 

Atom huffed in annoyance.

“I have some dangerous things in there that people shouldn’t touch.” Danny reasoned. “It’s best if I take care of them personally.” 

“..dangerous like whatever gave you that scar?” Atom hesitantly asked, taking Danny completely off guard. 

“Gave me what scar? Oh! Right. That scar. No, nothing like that- well. Kinda like that but not as big?”

Atom seemed unsure how to respond to that.

“How bad is the surgery going to scar?” Danny re-directed the conversation to safer topics. Atom didn’t call him out on it, for which Danny appreciated. 

“Scar? We didn’t cut into you.” 

“Uhhh, then how were you in my guts for nine hours digging out crypto-whatever?” 

“I shrunk, do you not know what kryptonite is?” Atom seemed all of the sudden very concerned. Or rather, more concerned than he already was.

“No?” 

“Pal, you can not go back alone.” 

If he thought circling back around and wearing Danny down would work then he was sorely mistaken. Danny had stubbornness issues on par with the best of them.  

“Watch me.” 

Atom ran both hands down his face and groaned. 

“How about this? I’ll go with you-”

Danny made a noise as though to interrupt him again. Atom raised his voice to talk over him.

“AND you can get rid of me when you’re able to throw me out yourself.” 

“Deal.” Danny didn’t even hesitate. Fully prepared to kick ass tomorrow. 

“Great. I’ll pick you up tomorrow around noon-ish. We’ll pick up your medication and I’ll bring some boxes and a couple friends to help move your stuff over to the new apartment.” 

“I don’t remember agreeing to friends.” 

“If you can throw me out, then we’ll wait outside with the truck to transport your stuff to the new apartment. I’ll even get all the paperwork and stuff done before your discharge tomorrow.” 

Danny gave him a look dripping with suspicion. 

“…fine.”