Chapter 9: Chapter 9
Summary:
After Danny's testing at the Watchtower, the trio goes to the Observation deck of the Watchtower. Danny gets a special visitor!
(accidentally posted the chapters in wrong order! they're fixed now, so you might have to reread the next one, so sorry!)
Notes:
I am going to try to reorder the chapters, as I posted them out of order! Oops! Thank you again for all of your support!
Chapter Text
Danny opened his eyes to the white ceiling above him. He could hear the slow beeping of a heart monitor. He lazily turned his head towards his dad. "Did I fall asleep?"
Jason brushed the black hair off of Danny's forehead. "Yeah, kiddo. You seemed pretty tired."
Danny frowned. Something wasn't right. OH! The heart thing was beeping. He wasn't in his hero form like Grandpa said he should be! He squeaked, "I'm sorry, Dad!" and quickly changed forms.
"Why are you sorry, squirt? You didn't do anything wrong."
"I was 'sposed to stay in my Phantom form up here. I forgot when I got tired."
"It's not a problem, kiddo. No one saw you, and Bats is keeping the video for this room private."
The beeping on the monitor stopped, when Danny had returned to his ghost form. After a few minutes, however, the silence turned into a squeal, and the staff on duty came running. The door to the room flew open and several people came in pushing carts and carrying things. Everyone stopped short when they saw Danny sitting up in bed holding his father's arm like a lifeline.
Jason's raised eyebrow could clearly be seen above his domino mask. "Is there a problem, gentlemen?"
"We, uh—the alarms. Did the kid disconnect them or something?" The on-duty doctor asked. The nurses were just looking at one another.
Danny giggled and shook his head. Jason's lip quirked up on the right side; he pointed to the very-much-still-attached wires on Danny's chest. "Care to guess again?"
Working with the Justice League had given the doctor a wide range of "weird" experiences in his medical practice. Even still, the sight of a young child with no detectable life-signs was unnerving to the man. He took a breath, grabbed his stethoscope, and marched towards the bed. "Meta, then?"
"Something like that, doc."
Danny's eyes grew wider with each step the doctor took. He scooted back in the bed until he hit the wall, pulling Jason's arm into an uncomfortable position. Hood looked back at his boy. "What's wrong kiddo?"
Tears filled Danny's eyes. He very quietly whispered. "Please don't let them hurt me…"
Red Hood was no stranger to rage, but the strength of the fury that hit him in that moment literally caused him to see red. His only tether to the world outside of his rampaging emotions was a small whimper coming from the young child next to him.
His chest heaved with the exertion of putting his emotions on the back burner and focusing on the more pressing issue: Danny's comfort. He blinked and sucked in a deep breath through his nose. "Back off, doc." He hissed.
The other man stopped in his tracks. His instincts were screaming for him to do something, but—not with The Red Hood, himself, standing in his way. The doctor opened his mouth and closed it again. "Did I do something wrong?" He finally managed.
Danny buried his face in Jason's back. A very muffled "white coat" made some things clear to the doctor immediately. Someone tried to experiment on this child…
"Everyone, clear the room!" It was obvious that the medical personnel in the room were more of a danger to the child than the lack of measurable vital signs. The doctor was not a stupid man; he quickly raised his hands and backed up slowly. "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise." He swallowed and took off his coat. "I just wanted to make sure that you were alright."
Danny blinked up at the man and sniffed. "I'm ok." A tiny tear made its way down the ghostly boy's face.
Jason turned his back to the doctor. "Hey, Squirt. Nobody's gonna ever hurt you like that, if I have anything to say about it."
"Promise?" The small voice sounded so hopeful.
"Promise, kiddo." Jason ruffled the boy's hair.
~~~~~~~~~
Half an hour later, two Bats and a little ghostling made their way down to the Observation Deck on the Watchtower. As soon as the elevator doors opened, Danny flew off in a flash towards the clear wall on the far side of the room. By the time Bruce and Jason caught up to Danny, the boy was pressed face-first against the transparent titanium medium, tracing the lines of the stars with his fingers.
Jason could hear his boy mumbling. "What'cha saying, champ?"
Danny leaned back and made a show of pointing to the individual stars. "This one is Vega, and that is Capella. Over there is Sirius, and that one is Betelgeuse!" His hair was waving wildly around his head, and his eyes were glowing bright. "There is Canopus, and Rigel, and Arcturus too!"
Jason laughed. "What about that one?" He pointed to a star that Danny hadn't mentioned yet.
"That's Achernar!"
Bruce shook his head. "How do you remember all those names?" His smile was wide.
"I LOVE SPACE!!!"
Danny spent the next forty-five minutes telling Bruce and Jason everything they never wanted to know about the solar system, our galaxy, and the relationship between the various other galaxies out there.
They were just getting ready to leave when the station alarms went off. "SPACE-TIME ANOLOMY DETECTED! SPACE-TIME ANOLOMY DETECTED! EVERYONE TO YOUR STATIONS!"
Bruce and Jason looked at each other for half a second. Jason turned back to Danny, who was looking around for the source of the voice. Jason pulled Danny into his arms, and together with Bruce headed towards the elevator.
Before they got half-way there, Danny started struggling with Jason. "Let me go! I wanna see!"
"No way, champ. We need to get you to safety, so that the others can do their jobs." His grip got tighter as Danny fought with him to get loose.
"ANOMOLY LOCATED ON OBSERVATION DECK ONE! PLEASE PROCEED TO THE EMERGENCY EXIT!"
"FUCK!" Jason turned to the side and headed for the secondary exit.
There was a strange ripping sound, and Danny knew what that meant. He completely phased through Jason's arms to get free. If he had temporarily forgotten he could do that—well, no one was asking, and Danny wasn't telling. The boy floated above the reach of his guardians, looking for the portal that had opened in the room.
Jason and Bruce had a split-second of horror as something very large, and very green knocked Danny out of the air and pinned him to the ground. Their horror turned to confusion at Danny's response. "Cujo! Cut it out boy! I'm okay! Look I'm okay! Who's a good boy?!"
An absolutely huge glowing dog was standing over the young ghostling, giving wide-tongued puppy kisses to the boy. "Ew! Gross! Dog slobber!" Danny was giggling and nuzzling into the dog's fur.
Batman was the first to regain his composure. "Phantom, would you like to introduce us to your friend?"
Danny pushed the dog's muzzle away and sat up. His head didn't even reach the dog's underbelly. The boy's hand went to the back of his neck and he gave a half-laugh. "Um…"
Something clicked for Jason. "Danny, is this the 'Cujo' you've been telling us about?"
Danny's grin lit up the space under the dog. "Yeah. Dad, Grandpa, this is my sort-of dog, Cujo."
Bruce took a deep calming breath. "Explain 'sort-of,' please."
"Well, I saved him from some ghost hunters a long time ago, and I'm pretty sure I'm his person now. He finds me and comes to me to play and stuff." Danny's gaze slowly lifted from his dad's feet.
Suddenly, there were multiple Leaguers in the room. They had arrived through an alternate entrance. "What's this?" One of the guys dressed in all green, with a glowing green ring and mask pointed at the dog.
Danny flew between them. "Back off of my dog!" His eyes were glowing as bright as Hal Jordan's ring.
"Danny, they are just worried about safety. Very few entities can just teleport on to the Station."
A tiny foot stomped on the floor. "Well, they can go away! Cujo can go anywhere he wants to, and he can always find me. I won't let them take him away." A low growl punctuated his words. The dog hovered behind Danny, and it did not look happy.
"Everyone, let's just calm down. Phantom, we can we just talk about his for a bit? We need to know how he got through our security, so that we can make sure that bad people can't get up here like that too." Superman has hunched down to Danny's level for the last sentence. He held out his hand, palm up.
Danny buried his face in the familiar scent of Cujo's fur. Could he trust Superman? Should he trust Superman? The dog seemed to think so, because he took two steps forward and gently sniffed the Kryptonian's hand.
"There now, you big boy. No one's going to hurt you or Danny here. We are friends—right Danny?"
Danny sighed. "Yeah…Cujo, heel." The dog returned to his side. "Down, boy. Down." He pointed to the floor in front of him.
The adults in the room were completely dumfounded by the effect of Danny's command. The giant green, monster-dog rapidly shrunk until it was only as high as Danny's knees. It looked like a puppy. A glowing, green puppy.
Danny scooped the dog into his arms and turned to his dad. "Can we go home now? I wanna to show Cujo my room and stuff. Since I'm so small, he's probably gonna stay around to protect me. He does that."
Batman looked at Red Hood. Red Hood looked at Batman and shrugged. The Batdad turned his head to look at the rest of the League who had responded to the "emergency." "Well, I guess that's that. I will be returning to my base. I will forward all necessary information to the mainframe as soon as I get it. We'll follow up on this later." He cocked his head towards Danny. "He needs to go home. I have a feeling that this is going to be a very interesting night."
Murmurs of assent went around the room. Danny picked up Cujo. "Good boy!" He ran his fingers through the dog's hair.
Jason picked up Danny and the surprisingly light animal. He glanced at the Leaguers and went for the elevators.
"Wait!" Someone shouted. "You need to tell us what's going on here!"
Jason didn't turn back, but Bruce looked at the unsettled people in front of him. "I said, I will forward you all the information as soon as I get it."
He looked at the League in annoyance. "I don't think a tin can in space is the best place for trying to get information out of an animal that can apparently go anywhere—and is big enough to tear this place apart—especially if he's got any of the strange powers Phantom has."
No one said a word. Proverbial crickets chirped until Batman spoke up. "Hn. I'm glad we all agree, then. I should have a preliminary report within a day. NO ONE is to talk about this on Earth. I need to stress the importance of that. We will discuss the reasons why at tomorrow night's meeting."
"Aw, man! Another meeting?" The Bat-glare sent his way shut the Flash up without anything being said.
Bruce turned on his heels and made his way to the door where Jason and Danny were currently cuddling the bright green canine. "Let's go home." His voice was weary. "I suppose you want him to stay with us?"
"Can he? Please? He's a good protector, and he can get me out of trouble fast, and if I get lost, he can always find me! He's a good boy!"
Damn those big twinkling eyes! Bruce shook his head. "Of course, chu…I mean, kiddo."
Danny was side-eying him for the almost-slip. "There will be rules, however. We'll discuss those later. For now, let's get you home."
Needless to say, it turned out to be quite the interesting night.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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