Chapter Text
Danny was thoroughly exhausted. Ever since he died, he could never seem to catch a break. At all. Even as a 20 year old civilian, life wanted to punch him in the face- repeatedly. Sure, he may have been stealing from labs at night (Wayne industries included) but they had tons of money for replacements! Look, ghost hunting without using his ghost powers was tough, especially when the entirety of the Fenton labs went up in flames. The only thing he had on him when he left was a blaster and a thermos, not enough for the jobs he was trying to accomplish. He really wasn’t a criminal! It was all for the greater good! He swears it! Heroes break the law to save people all the time, how is he any different? (They’re not fugitives with entire government branches after them).
Still, he didn’t want to leave Gotham just because the Bats were getting closer on his tail. He was doing so well at not using his powers, even learned how to lock pick so he avoided walking through walls! Sam would 100% be proud of him and his hard work at fucking over large corporations and unethical research.
Anyways, his little Bat problem is what led to his current situation, moving apartments into Crime alley, specifically Red Hood’s territory. When he first got to Gotham and accidentally hobbled inside he immediately ‘Noped’ right out of there. First off, the vibes were retched. Second, he knew a warning sign in aura if he ever saw one, and the border between uptown Gotham and this was blaring red lights and sirens screaming “ STAY OUT ”, and Danny knew how to listen to directions like that. Sadly, now he was left with no choice.
Batman had been patrolling around where he lives a little too much recently. Normally, the clan would take turns patrolling certain areas at certain times for safety, but not recently. Danny knew they were catching onto him. His ghostliness messed with cameras when he let his aura loose, but it didn’t erase the fact that the footage existed. He knew they didn’t have a clear picture of him or his abilities, but they knew he existed and knew he was a phantom thief, and that was enough. Danny no longer questioned their titles as ‘best detectives in the world’. After all, they were giving him a run for his money.
Moving to Crime Alley was indeed the best option, though. Danny had analyzed the bats and their movements ever since he moved here a year ago at 19. He knew that after Red Hood had his whole war with them, they backed off of the area and the haunt finally settled as the vigilante’s territory. Now, a few years after that, the bats left the area alone except for special circumstances during major events. That meant that the safest option for the halfa right now, was to walk into the lion’s den and pray he wasn’t hungry.
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Danny had worked his ass off ensuring no one would question whether or not he was a human. It was to the point that his ghost half was desperate for some reprieve. He had to eventually go ghost, but not yet. He hadn’t finished building the device he needed to test the levels of ectoplasm he or the city omits. He had gotten the idea for this new mission a few months ago, hence the start of the heists. He knew that after he had closed the portals, there were still ghosts of all levels in the human world. They had no way of returning or going to the ghost zone now, so Danny set off to personally help all of them do so.
His current works in progresses were the ecto-signature locator, the ecto-level reader, and an improved thermos that didn’t feel so unpleasant to ghosts. He didn’t know when another portal would be up and running, including the one he was inevitably going to make. He had tried using the natural portals, but they weren’t stable enough for him to use. It was honestly such a headache. Natural portals had a variable of locations and time lapses. He didn’t know if the portal would close right behind him if he went in, and that meant that he could never use them but ghosts not tethered to the human world could. The problem there is that most ghosts outside of Amity Park hadn’t ever been to the infinite realms, so that meant they all were tethered to the human world. Once Danny was properly equipped he had to start going around and severing these relationships before the GIW could catch wind of these ghosts existing.
It was a severe pain in his ghostly behind that’s for sure, but what can ya do? You know? Danny had finished packing up all of his normal stuff, the only thing was to carefully wrap and cover his stolen goods in clothing and such. By the next day he had completely finished. The halfa had to move during the morning and very secretively. Night was off limits, they’d suspect him right away. Unless he used his powers to fly back and forth invisibly, but that could be a bit troublesome. The GIW had a base just outside of Gotham, how that slipped past the Bat’s eyes was honestly commendable. They hadn’t come into the city for fear of the vigilantes residing in it (they gained some brain after all), but that’d change the second they felt Phantom.
Danny sighed as he moved all of his boxes to the bottom floor. Currently his entire building is empty. The apartment complex was next to a few businesses so most of the people residing inside worked there. That meant that Danny had the whole place to himself during their work hours. Moving the boxes into his car without anyone seeing was a bit difficult. He had stacked the boxes as high as he could and held them in one hand, making them invisible, then placed a small bag in the crook of his elbow. To everyone else he was just holding a handbag weirdly. Doing it like this and holding in his aura as much as possible wouldn’t tick off the Bats. It was still time consuming though. Luckily the amount of cameras downtown was less than where he currently was. The place he chose to live in had very few, meaning he could move in without any use of his powers.
By the time he was settled in, he had given himself a high five at another quest completed.
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Maybe he shouldn’t have started thieving this soon-
Currently, he was being chased to hell high waters by Red Hood and his two guns (Danny assumed were) affectionately named. To be fair, he didn’t even get to actually steal anything, so technically he wasn’t breaking the law. Sure, he broke into a VladCo. Lab and went rummaging through the computers using tuckers parting gift to him- but that didn’t make him a criminal . Honestly, he was offended, didn’t even get to trash the place as a ‘fuck you’ to Vlad. The man deserved it after the shit he pulled ever since Danny turned 14. The man had disappeared like his parents, and while it was concerning, Danny couldn’t help but be glad he was gone.
“Stop!”
A robotic voice called after him from a few feet behind. How Red Hood was so large and still this fast was beyond him. Nevermind the fact that he felt dead, but not. He wasn’t necessarily a halfa, but he did have that ‘totally died and didn’t revive right’ vibes to him that just gave him a chill.
Danny didn’t answer him, just continued running for his life and jumping between buildings. Maybe he did use his powers a bit to make landings easier and make up for his obvious lack of experience or skill, no one could call him out on it.
He had just wanted information on where the man had gone. While he was thankful for the somewhat peace, Vlad disappearing always meant bad news. Worse if he was in danger and caught by the GIW. There were reports of Vlad being seen at some of the Wayne Galas, but that was half a year ago, no word since. He’d hate to say it, but he was worried. Sure, he hated the man’s guts- he was a total fruitloop and only got worse over time, but he was the first halfa, and whether Danny admitted it or not he learned a lot from him. Sue him for being a little concerned, if not for Plasmius, then for himself. The GIW having any ghost was bad news for him. Live research only spelled bad news.
The lab was practically no help. The only thing the computers contained were some schematics for his equipment in the basement, but none of it was the real dangerous stuff like the portal or even cloning pods. Danny was still happy he got the chance to destroy the lab and all the tech in it, he loved Dani, but he didn’t think he could handle another clone dying or destabilizing. Dani was in the Ghost Zone, exploring and mapping out all of its locations. He didn’t know what he’d do if she got caught in the crossfires of this war.
Danny jumped from one roof to another, he had to keep to buildings close to each other. Unlike Red Hood, he didn’t have a grappling hook to bring him across streets. He didn’t want to alert Batman of his not-totally-human status. Best case scenario he thought he was a meta who could fly and would do his whole ‘no metas in Gotham’ spiel. Worst case scenario he figured out Danny was a powerful ghost who happened to be a fugitive from the government and would turn him in. From then on Danny didn’t know what they’d do to him, but he’d never tell them how to build the portal. That information died with him and him alone.
By the time he heard bullets going past him and a rubber one hitting him square in the shoulder, he knew he had to get gone. Danny had already ran past his new home, any farther and he’d have to use his powers way longer than normal. Slowly the two had gone up in height between buildings, by now if he fell off the side he’d get at least severely injured, but that height was nothing to his flight. Danny waited another minute before speeding up and widening the distance between them before ‘slipping’ and falling down the side of the building rather ungracefully.
By the time Red Hood caught up, Danny was gone.
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Danny hissed in pain as he held ice against his ribs. After ‘falling’ from the roof he had twisted his body and caught on to one of the emergency escape railings, but his torso hit against it quite painfully. He had quickly pulled himself up before swinging a little and propelling himself forward against the brick. The walls didn’t have much give to them, hard to hold onto, but Danny abused his super strength and gravity control and moved to the other side of the building as fast as he could.
Now, in the safety of his home, he was feeling all the sore spots from his little endeavor. If he was a ghost, he wouldn’t even break a sweat, let alone bruise, but alas he was as human as he could be after death. This whole instance just told the halfa that he needed to speed up plans. He didn’t know how much longer he could parade around using as little of his powers as possible. Invisibility had to be in use whenever he used any of his other abilities that could be seen, like flight or intangibility. Luckily, he could get away with the strength, agility, and endurance, but it was risky with the bats down his neck.
Maybe Danny could ghost proof his apartment from himself. After Danny makes the ecto-signature reader, he could try to make his apartment block out signals. Meaning if Danny went ghost, no one but him would know. Yeah, that was a thought for another day. Right now he just wanted to sleep and get to work tomorrow morning, college didn’t pay for itself.