I may have only got a few sentences written today during my break, but I am rather fond of them:

Speed Running Family, ch12.p2

masterpost, please no editing <3 I over did things thursday and am now ded. this part is short, but it's been ages it feels like so wanted to get y'all something

It takes a lot of convincing for the Justice League to agree to open the portal at the base. Danny’s not part of that conversation, not really. He’s there, but he stays wrapped up in Snowfall’s soft embrace and doesn’t really say much. Bart keeps his hand the whole time, even though Danny knows that being part through a ghost like that feels really weird.

Danny holds tight back.

!!WARNING: GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF POST-TORTURE SCENE AND BODY

“You know, that’s genuinely impressive. Gruesome as hell, but impressive.”

Roy didn’t even look over as he sighed, focused on searching through the laptop bag. “Stop ogling the dead body, it’s getting creepy.”

“I wasn’t ogling the corpse,” Jason said. He waved a hand towards the mutilated body. “I was ogling the execution of the torture. There was some real thought put into it. This isn’t like a regular mobster hit, there was no pulling teeth or anything. Every act here had a purpose.”

A nasty purpose.

The Titans had gotten themselves a bit of a reputation through the years. Cyborg likes to blame it on how they were all teen heroes when they started; all full of hubris and hormones. And the thing is, he’s not wrong.

But he’s also not right.

Nightwing was, and always would be in all the ways that really mattered, their leader. The Titans stood because of him. And he may have been Robin, but he was never a meek little bird, at least not since ‘Robin’ came after ‘Batman’. Nightwing was a terror, because he had to be. He had people that he loved and he would not let them fall, not again. Each Titan strived to meet the bar he set.

Which meant all of them were vicious.

They were a snake strike wrapped in a smile.

Oh, Danny absolutely knows about Red Hood before he shows up to the gym. He's not expecting to see Red Hood there, but 100% knows of Red Hood.

I don't see that scene being part of the story, since the start is what's already written, but Nickie might recount it for Valerie's sake during their manicure night?

Oh, yeeeeeeeeees. This is very tasty. Hum hum... lots of ways to play this. An obvious would be loss of the power bank that Amity is thank ls to how it is a haunting hot spot. He leave it, he leaves his power supply. Suddenly being Phantom is like being asemetic and in a constant flair up. He has ro hid that now. He has to protect Phantom.

But that has easy ways to be fixed and I do love a chronic condition (for fictional characters, far less fond of it for myself).

Bad!Fentons trying to save their son. Trying to cut away the diseased parts. Trying to cut away Phantom. And they do. Now Danny is running from his parents with the Crack core that was his his his--that is Phantom.

I think they would both be mesed up in that case though as they try to heal. But how can they? Danny is too human now to fix the hole inside him. Phantom is too human to heal like a ghost. He's still prone to being solid there real...but maybe... there's something under this city they came to. There's something under Gotham. Something that glows like hope and death all at once.

And then of course it could just be the ghost side that was ruined. Beaten and torn apart and angry claws ripped in and pulled--Pariah, the Observents, Clockwork. Phantom saying no to Clockwork and it's not... that's not... not the childnor baby or old man or mentor--was he ever a mentor or just using him like--

Phantom escapes, stumbles through a door and out a linen closet and down some stairs. He's in shreds. Parts ripped away. Gone. Choking on his own soul he turns back into Danny, because at least flesh and blood can be fixed.

It's a little more shocking for the Wayne's to find a bleeding child at the base of the foyer stairs. No alarms broken, but there is a child there and bleeding. They start considering dimension travel at the top of the 'how' list. Followed shortly by time travel.wrote

BANG!

A red flag emboldened with the word pops out the end of the gun.

The whole room seems to sag with an exhale of relief. But Bruce doesn’t. He still strains against the goons who are holding him back.

The Joker just shrugs, gun dangling limp from his fingers. “Ah, well, looks like all I have with me is a joke!” His face twisted into an awful sneer. “Problem is, doesn’t seem anyone is laughing!” He turns, a dramatic pivot that leaves his back to Danny.

Please, please, please, let him be done with Danny, Bruce silently pleads.

There’s a moment where he thinks it works.

Then the Joker snaps his fingers. The goons on either side of him raise their pistols. Danny jerks as a bullet hits his chest. The second bullet jerks him the other way. He curls in on himself, body bowed for a moment. But then he sweeps his hair back as he stands up straight. There’s a devil-may-care smirk on his lips. It’s the smile that Bruce fell for.

The Joker twists back with a growl. “Unload, boys!”

Bang-bang-bang—ten more shots ring out.

Danny jerks back with each of the shots, but there’s no blood. No wet red staining the new suit that he had let Bruce buy him. The pistols empty into Danny, but he doesn’t bleed.

The room holds its breath.

Danny shakes out his sleeves. Twelve bullet shells clink against the marble floor. He straightens his tie purposefully, and then in a flash has surged forward and socked the Joker.

He crumples to the floor in a pile of purple and green.

The goons pause and then run for it.

Danny is at Bruce’s side, holding his face as he searches for any damage. “Are you okay?”

“I think that’s my line,” Bruce says, his voice a desperate rasp. He presses his finger through a bullet hole in Danny’s suit. His finger meets flesh, whole and unblemished. “…how?”

Danny shrugs and smiles, a nervous thing that Bruce wants to sooth away with a kiss, so he does.

“Dick, no,” Wally hissed.

“Dick, yes.”

All of them turned to look at Raven in surprise. She just shrugged and gestured towards the new hero, Phantom. He was talking with Specter. She said something that made him throw his head back in laughter. It showed off his sharp teeth spectacularly.

“Someone needs to… what was the phrase for it?” Raven asked, head tilted. “Ah, ‘hit that’.”

“Raven,” Wally gasped, aghast.

She gestured again at Phantom. His his drifted away like smoke and his legs were less than solid. He felt like storm about to break.

“Yeah, no, I’m with Raven,” Gar said. His chin was perched on his hand as he watched Phantom with what was basically heart eyes. “Unless he’s into sharing?”

“Oh come on, you have to at least let me shoot my shot!” Dick whined. “You two already have your whole eldritch thing. Leave some for the rest of us.”

“Dick, no,” Wally said, again. “I’m just trying to keep you in one piece.”

Dick pressed his hands together with a little gesture. “Counterpoint: he makes falling apart seem so good.”

Wally just sighed and dropped his head onto the table with a thunk.

I've always said I'd warn you if something doesn't have a happy ending so, uh, cw: major character death, blood

“Come on, stay with me!” Jason bites the order out and pressed down harder on the wound that’s oozing green. It’s not warm, not like blood, but Jason knows that’s what it is all the same. If you hold enough people as they die, know how what blood feels like, and Jason has held himself as he died.

The green stains Phantom’s teeth as he grins. He doesn’t cough, maybe just because there’s no lungs for the blood to seep into. Phantom has never seemed breathless before; not after a fight or a screaming match or when Jason has pressed Phantom against an alleyway wall and kissed him senseless. (Not when Jason took Phantom to a safehouse that he burned the next day and fucked Phantom senseless.)

But now after being hit with those things that weren’t guns from the people in hazmat and white suits Phantom feel breathless.

“I said stay with me!”

“Sorry,” Phantom whispers. “Had more than my time living. I always knew Mom would be the one who does it, gets the shots in, you know? Hella a shot…”

His mother? What did… the smaller figure in the hazmat was Phantom’s mother? Jason—he shouldn’t be allowed to be surprised. His own mother sold him to Joker. Watched him be beat to death. Jason tightens his grip on Phantom. Blood oozes through his fingers. Phantom’s form starts to break apart.

It’s not like it’s when Phantom goes intangible purposefully. It’s… he’s breaking apart.

“Stay with me,” Jason chokes out.

Stay with me.

Let me know you, learn you, love you.

“I hate you! You fucking bastard just—”

“Sorry.”

“Please.”

The blood is thick against Jason’s fingers even after Phantom is gone.

Speed Running Family, ch12.p1

masterpost, I am... so migrained. pls no editing, I know there are issue

Danny is pacing like he’s a Speedster. Every so often his eyes dart to the tube that the other him is in. Bart winces even as he think of the person in the tank like that. It’s not fair, not to Danny or to this… this Phantom.

But Bart still keeps himself between Phantom and Danny.

That’s also not fair.

There’s someone running with them.

Someone else in the Speed Force.

It’s Bart who notices them first. He’s always been more sensitive to the Speed Force than Wally or Barry. Barry knows he’s the worst about it, what with constantly fighting against the idea of the supernatural, and even he notices this other being that’s running through time along side of them.

It’s hard not to once the fighting starts.

They’re a blur of black and white set against the vibrancy of the Speedsters. Set against the sea of agent white. Against red and green blood. Whoever they are, whatever they are, they aren’t afraid to draw blood, or to bleed. It’s a messy fight.

And then it’s over.

Everything ends so suddenly that Barry finds himself not only skidding to a stop but helping to stop the person that’s been running with them. They’re small; the size of Bart but frail in a way that Bart isn’t. And they’re thrashing in Barry’s arms.

“It’s okay,” Barry soothes. His words are soft, just between him and this kid—because it’s just a kid. A kid who’s splattered in red and green blood. “It’s okay. They’re down. They’re down and we’re going to hunt down all the others.”

The kid screams, though it’s an almost soundless noise, and then collapses like their strings are cut. Barry fumbles for a moment before he’s got the kid supported all the way. They’re sobbing now, their shoulders hiccuping with each one. It’s soundless too. Barry brushes fingers through the kid’s hair, even as he looks up in panic. In worry.

Bart fidgets. “Is… are they okay?”

“I don’t know,” Barry says honestly, “but we’ll help. We’ll help.”