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The lab was chaotic and cramped with intern hopefuls and Danny was trying not to panic as he turned himself slightly intangible to avoid bumping into the kid carrying a large piece of sheet metal. The last step of the Wayne Enterprises intern selection process was apparently shoving them all in a lab with a bunch of materials, probably the leftovers from whatever the real labs used, and seeing what they came up with. They had three hours before someone, no one really knew who, but it was apparently somebody high up, came to judge their rudimentary inventions.
Danny didn’t actually need to breathe, but he took a deep breath anyway. The movement itself was still calming, which was probably a holdover from being fully alive. All of the intern hopefuls would say they needed this internship, but for Danny, it was actually true. He’d finally gotten up the courage to tell his parents about Phantom and to say they had taken it poorly was an understatement. Long story short, he’d been run out of Amity Park by his parents and the GIW, both of which had gotten some pretty good shots in before he’d managed to lose them.
The issue then was that his parents still had the Boomerang keyed into his ectosignature. No matter where he hid, it was only a matter of hours before he got hit with the stupid thing, and then his parents would arrive guns blazing and the GIW was just following the Fentons, only with bigger guns, if that was even possible. He’d run himself ragged before he finally got the idea to try to modify a version of the Specter Deflector to hide his ectosignature. It took more than a few tries and hiding out in too many sketchy-looking junkyards to get all the supplies, but eventually, he’d ended up with a watch that couldn’t tell time, but could create a field of interference about a six inches around his whole body that disrupted his ectosignature and kept the boomerang from finding him. That was the sweetest eight hours of sleep he’d ever had in his entire life.
When he woke up, he had no idea where he was. He’d bounced around a lot in his attempts to outrun his parents and was fairly certain that the chase had spanned several states at the least, but he hadn’t really been paying attention to where he was going, as long as it was away. He’d stayed huddled in somebody’s mostly abandoned barn for almost a whole day until he was absolutely certain that the Fenton’s weren’t coming and then just…followed whatever ectoplasm he could find. Outside of Amity Park, the ambient ectoplasm wasn’t nearly as strong, but he was going to need a lot to heal from all the damage he’d taken from both his parents and the GIW, so he just followed wherever it was strongest. He’d ended up in a few cemeteries before he finally found Gotham. It wasn’t great that it had so much ambient ectoplasm, since it meant that a lot of people had died here, but Danny wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He’d managed to steal a working burner phone and reached out to Tucker, Sam, and Jazz to tell them he was ok and ask Tucker to make him a fake ID. He’d come through as always, but Sam couldn’t send him any money without basically broadcasting to everyone where he was and the last thing Danny wanted was ectoweapons destroying half a city block in what was already the most dangerous city in the country. So, basically, he was on his own with no money, no housing, and no connections and did he mention Gotham was the most dangerous city in the country? How was he even supposed to survive? Or, well, half-survive at least?
The answer came a few weeks into his stay. He’d mostly been recuperating in supposedly empty warehouses, only venturing out to steal the medical supplies he needed. The problem with abandoned warehouses in Gotham, however, was that they weren’t always actually abandoned. More than once, he’d had to flee when his improvised shelters ended up a hotspot of either drug deals, shootouts or more. Even with his healing factor he was having difficulty recovering completely, no doubt thanks to the lack of rest and ectoplasm, not to mention the dust and whatever else was contaminating the warehouses and back alleys of Gotham.
It wasn’t sustainable, but it wasn’t like he had any other option. Or, at least, he thought he didn’t until he’d overheard some kids his age talking about applying for internships at Wayne Enterprises. Not only was it a paid internship, which was a rarity in and of itself, but apparently the company also had dorms that interns could stay in if they chose. All of a sudden, getting off the streets seemed less like a pipe dream and more like an actual possibility. Thankfully, Tuck had made sure his fake identity, Daniel Smith, had at least a few A’s on his last report card, and he’d grown up around his parents who, one, wouldn’t stop blathering about their inventions, and two, made things that would kill him if he didn’t figure out how to modify them. The hardest part of the application process had actually been stealing a decent outfit that didn’t have blood and ectoplasm stains on it so he wouldn’t get kicked out of the interview.
So now, once again, Danny’s survival depended on his ability to modify existing tech. Speaking of existing tech, there weren’t many materials left. At its root, this last step was a competition, so best materials had been claimed and hoarded within the first few minutes not only because kids wanted to use them, but also to make sure the other candidates couldn’t.
Danny rifled through what was left. It wasn’t much, but he’d done more with less. Still, since they were technically allowed to use anything in the lab, he figured he might as well check the drawers and cabinets for anything that might give him an edge. So far, he’d found a couple tools and equipment that probably should have been cleared out before handing the lab over to a bunch of teenagers, but not enough to make him really stand out. Everyone here was talented and smart, he needed something special.
He checked another drawer and rifled through the junk inside. There were paperclips, a bunch of mismatched screws, a lead box, a few things of electrical tape…Danny froze, a smile slowly spreading across his face. Any tech scraps powerful enough to be kept in a lead box were almost guaranteed to be interesting enough to win him an internship.
The box itself was kinda boring besides being made of lead. It was about the size and shape of a ring box and didn’t have any designs or decorative elements. Danny made his way to the only empty workbench and opened the box. His eyes widened when he saw the ecto-green crystal sitting inside. It was slightly glowing, but not in any spectrum that a living person could see.
Danny had never seen crystallized ectoplasm before. He hadn’t even known ectoplasm could crystallize, but he felt a telltale hum in his core as he held the rock up to the light. On closer inspection, it wasn’t pure ectoplasm. It looked more like the crystal had been infused with ectoplasm somehow. Danny really hoped it had been done by a scientist, because for that to happen naturally, the rock would have had to be exposed to so much death…
He shook his head. There was no use worrying about that now. He had an internship to win. He put the crystal back in the box and grabbed some of the scraps, but then looked back at the box and frowned. There must be a reason that someone had put this crystal in a lead box. Ectoplasm released a trace amount of radiation that was unique to each ghost or ecto-infused object. That radiation signature was how his parents had managed to track him down so many times. He didn’t know exactly how infusing a crystal with ectoplasm would affect that radiation, but ectoplasm was weird and it was entirely possible that crystallizing the ectoplasm could make it toxic to humans. As a halfa, Danny would be immune, but the other candidates and the mystery big-wig coming to judge wouldn’t be. And if the crystal had been infused with ectoplasm because of a mass death event like he suspected, then anyone related to the incident might be negatively affected by the rock’s particular ectosignature. Danny looked around at the other people in the room. It didn’t look like the crystal was having any adverse effects on anyone, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Danny argued with himself for a short as he looked at the clock. His ecto-blocking bracelet felt heavy on his wrist. He remembered what he’d done to make it, so he could just knock one out really really quick, make sure it was set to block the ectosignature of the crystal, and then move on to his actual internship-winning invention. The way the crystals were formed would amplify any ectoplasmic power source, so he could probably get away with building even a basic blaster if he ran out of time. It would be fine. Probably.
He looked at the clock one last time and took another useless breath. Time to win an internship.
Conner walked into Tim’s CEO office at Wayne Enterprises right as he was putting away the last of his paperwork, “Hey, I’m almost ready, just let me put this away.”
Conner gave a sharp nod. Dick had insisted that Conner needed an excuse to get out of Mt. Justice and Tim needed an excuse to get out of his office and, since missions apparently didn’t count, he hadn’t left them alone until they’d agreed to a non-cape hang out. They’d probably end up at an arcade or something. At least Tim was between cases and didn’t have any pressing work matters that needed to get done.
“Mr. Drake-Wayne?” his secretary poked her head in. “The intern candidates are almost ready for you to take a look at their inventions. They’re working in lab 23B.”
“Oh, crap, was that today?” Tim looked at his watch. “Conner, I’m so sorry, I forgot that I was supposed to judge the intern finalists. If you want, you can tag along, but it’s mostly just gonna be a bunch of robots.”
“Sounds interesting.” Conner shrugged. “It’s not like we had any other plans. Lead the way.”
The secretary led them all the way down to the 28th floor. The lab was a flurry of activity until the kid closest to the door caught sight of Tim and nudged his neighbor, eyes wide at the sight of the CEO walking in. Within 30 seconds, the lab was dead silent and everyone was staring at them. Tim had to resist the urge to make sure there was nothing in his teeth.
“Hello everyone!” his secretary said cheerfully. “This is Timothy Drake-Wayne, co-CEO of Wayne Enterprises! He’ll be taking a first look at your work today before handing the final say over to our internship committee. If you’re not being seen, feel free to keep tinkering. Good luck everyone!”
It took a full minute for everyone to go back to their projects, which was fully twice as long as it had taken for them to abandon their projects to gawk at them in the first place. Tim put his best business-professional smile on his face and Conner, of course, kept his business-professional scowl as they walked over to the closest workbench. The projects were interesting, of course, but nothing he hadn’t seen or done himself by the age of twelve. So, basically, basic internship projects. He’d grabbed a clipboard and was giving each one a rough rating, but mostly gave whatever notes had had verbally. Sure, the internship committee had technically asked for his input, but they were more than capable of choosing the best candidates themselves. His presence was mostly required to make sure their actual final decisions had some weight in an attempt to avoid the inevitable parent complaints by all of Bruce’s “friends” who thought their kid was the best thing since sliced bread. Annoying, sure, but an essential hoop to jump through when dealing with Gotham’s elite.
They’d seen over a dozen projects when Conner tapped on his shoulder and pointed to the next table over, “Is one of your brothers applying for an internship?”
Tim wasn’t sure if Conner was trying to make a joke or not, but the kid was definitely Bruce Wayne adoption bait if he’d ever seen it. Black hair, blue eyes, and working with single-minded determination on what looked to be some sort of sci-fi looking gun.
Tim sighed, “Not that I don’t love my brothers, but I really don’t think I’m in the market for a new one right now. Let’s get this over with.”
The kid didn’t react to their approach until Conner cleared his throat. The kid didn’t startle or flinch, but he did put down the screwdriver he’d been working with, “Um, hi. Danny Smith. Mr. Drake-Wayne?”
“Just Tim is fine.” They shook hands and Tim absentmindedly noticed his hands were cold. He’d have to wear gloves to survive work in the batcave, so that was one point against Bruce adopting him. “This is my friend Conner. I hope you don’t mind him seeing your invention as well?”
“Not a problem.” Danny grabbed his invention from the table. “Is it ok if we move to one of the testing rooms? I haven’t had a lot of time for troubleshooting and don’t want to risk ruining anybody else’s projects.”
Tim nodded and gestured for Danny and Conner to follow him. They went through an insulated door to one of the concrete rooms the scientists always used when they were afraid of blowing something up. “Is this alright?”
“Yep.” Danny looked around. “Nothing to destroy in here. So do I just show you what it does, or…?”
Tim shrugged, “Sure, also, if you want to explain some of your thought process, that might help us make a more complete decision.”
“Ok.” Danny reached for something in his pocket. “So, when I was trying to figure out what to make, I was looking around for materials and found this. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be in an intern lab or not, but since we were allowed to use anything we could find...”
Tim’s eyes widened as he pulled out a familiar-style lead box, “Danny, wait…”
His arm reached out in an aborted motion to stop him, but before either he or Conner could even hope to interfere, Danny had opened the box. Conner stumbled as the influence of the kryptonite reached him, but it only lasted a moment before the box snapped shut again.
“Hmm.” Danny gave Conner an appraising look, the box of kryptonite still in his hand. “I was wondering why it was in a lead box. Here, put this on.”
He pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to Conner, who caught it deftly. He glared at Danny for a moment, eyes full of suspicion before he opened his fist so they could get a better look. It looked like a cross between a bracelet and a watch, but didn’t have any way to tell the time. It didn’t look threatening, but then again, the kid who’d made it was holding an untested experimental gun and a loaded box of kryptonite.
Conner looked at Tim, who shook his head, then turned to Danny, who shrugged, “Wear it or don’t, but if you’re not going to, then I’m going to have to ask you to step outside while we test my invention. The last thing we want is for you to get sick.”
Tim frowned. It was basically either wear the mystery bracelet that might be a trap, or leave Tim alone with an unknown threat. There were no good answers here. Conner glared at Danny for a long moment before aggressively strapping the bracelet to his wrist, maintaining eye contact the whole time. As soon as the mystery bracelet was securely strapped to Conner’s wrist, Danny hesitated a moment before opening the box again. Tim lunged forward to close it, only to be stopped by a hand on his shoulder.
Tim whipped around, “Conner, what are you…?”
“I’m ok.” Conner looked at him with wide eyes. “I’m ok.”
Tim froze as he realized that Conner was telling the truth. He wasn’t stumbling or faint at all, it was like the kryptonite wasn’t even there. Tim glanced over at Danny, wondering if he’d closed the box when they hadn’t been looking, but no, the kryptonite was still there, as green and ominous as ever, yet Tim wasn’t affected.
Danny’s shoulders slumped in relief, “Good. I wasn’t actually sure that would work, I originally designed to keep trace radiation in, not out, but it works by basically making a small scrambling field around your body, so I figured it’d work in either direction. But you’re ok? You’re not feeling any effects?”
“No.” Conner flexed his hands. “I have no idea how, but I feel fine.”
Danny gave Conner an odd look, “I’m sorry, by the way.”
Both Tim and Conner froze, “Why?”
“In order for ectoplasm to infuse into a solid object like this crystal, it has to be surrounded by a lot of death.” Danny smiled sadly. “The only explanation I can think of for why it affected you so badly is that you must be related to the people who died. I know that it doesn’t mean much, I don’t know you or anything, but I’m sorry for what happened.”
Conner opened and closed his mouth a few times, “I, uh, wasn’t there.”
Danny gave that same sad smile, “That doesn't make it hurt any less.”
Conner nodded, “Are you able to make more of those bracelets? Like, maybe three?”
“I don’t see why not.” Danny said. “How about I give you five? Don’t worry, I can see in your friend’s eyes that he wants to tinker with it, so I may as well give you a couple to tear apart.” He turned to Tim. “If you’re going to be working with ectoplasm in any form, including weak ones like this crystal, then you’re going to need to read up on the anti-ecto acts and make sure you’re not accidentally making a strong enough ecto-signature for the guys in white to track you. Believe me, that wouldn’t be good for anyone.”
It was like he was speaking another language. Tim was going to look up half the words he was using just to understand, not to mention categorizing his threat level.
“Alright then!” Danny clapped his hands together. “Let’s show you the actual invention.”
Oh yeah, they’d forgotten about that.
“Hey Clark.” Conner really hoped this prank didn’t backfire. “How are you doing?”
“Uh, fine?” Clark looked at him oddly and put down the paper he was reading. “What brings you for a visit?”
“Clark, don’t even start.” Lois rolled her eyes. “Of course we’re happy to have you for dinner, Conner, it’s been too long since Clark’s invited you over anyway. Jon! Get in here and help set the table!”
“I’m happy to help too.” Conner offered.
“I got it!” Jon sped into the room, plates already in hand. “Hey Conner. How are you?”
“Pretty good. Also, I brought you a present.” Conner tossed him one of the bracelets that Danny had given him. “Put it on!”
Jon grinned and put the bracelet on, “Cool! It’s not even my birthday!”
Clark looked intensely at the bracelet and Conner could tell he was inspecting it with x-ray vision. “...why?”
Lois gave him a stern look, “Clark…”
“It’s ok, I got you one too.” Conner handed Clark a bracelet, then held up his own wrist. “I thought we already had matching symbols, we may as well have matching accessories as well.”
Clark stared at him suspiciously for another long moment before sighing and putting on the bracelet. Lois immediately grinned, “Ah, look at my boys, all matching and stuff! So cute!”
“They’re not just cute, they’re cool!” Jon held up his wrist so she could see. “Look, they’ve got this cool, like, technopunk vibe!”
As casually as he could, Conner reached into his pocket, took out the chunk of kryptonite he’d brought with him and started tossing it up in the air and catching it like it was a tennis ball, “Yeah, I thought they were pretty cool too.”
The room froze.
“Conner.” Clark’s eyes were the size of dinner plates as they tracked the rock through the air. “What is that?”
“Oh this? It’s exactly what you think it is.” Conner tried to make his voice sound nonchalant. “It’s kryptonite.”
“No…?” Jon couldn’t take his eyes off the rock either. “It can’t be. We’d all be super weak right now and you definitely wouldn’t be just holding it like that.”
“It’s the bracelets.” Conner snatched the rock from the air again and held it out to Jon. “One of Tim’s interns somehow got his hands on a chunk of kryptonite and invented a bracelet that blocks its effects.”
“That’s impossible.” Clark said quickly. “If something like that could be invented, Bruce would have already figured it out.”
Conner raised one eyebrow. “You wanna take off your bracelet and find out.”
Clark narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but slowly unlatched the bracelet from his wrist and put it down on the table, then stepped back, stumbling and crashing to the floor as he got out of the device’s range and the kryptonite took effect. Lois ran to grab the bracelet and put it back on his wrist.
“The intern explained it as a sort of death radiation that soaked into the rocks when Krypton was destroyed, so he was able to just block the signature somehow” Conner shrugged. “Tim already pulled them apart to make sure they were safe and didn’t have trackers or anything and the kid didn’t seem to have any ulterior motives. It’s just a bracelet.”
“A bracelet that blocks kryptonite.” Clack said breathlessly.
“Well,” Lois laughed, “there go Bruce’s contingency plans!”