The darkness of Gotham was always a little darker than normal. It was something that was easily missed by those who have lived within the town for a while, but it was always there. Off to the side. Right on the edge of peripheral vision that made it so that a person would be on edge yet not know entirely why. However, it could be easily dismissed by those who are used to it, and for Damian who had faced far worse in his life... it was odd how... off Gotham seemed to be tonight.
Tonight had been pretty calm during his solo patrol (all things considered): stopped a couple of muggings, pet a stray puppy he had found in a side alley (he also had fed the pup as well with some treats he kept in a hidden pouch on his utility belt. Batman and the others didn't need to know about that or else the teasing would be endless. Thankfully, Alfred never commented on him taking extra treats when he went to give some to Titus.), prevented a drunk man from being squished by an oncoming vehicle, and lastly, stopped an attempted robbery of a small pawn shop.
Almost all of these instances had happened early on in his patrol, which had excited him because it had been a while since he was allowed out on patrol alone after the last incident... Yeah, he still didn't regret stabbing that child trafficker in the shoulder with his katana. Even if, the guy had already surrendered and was begging for his life. Bruce had said that he had been "excessive" and had been grounded for 2 months with no patrols then an additional month of supervised ones. The man had deserved at least that much suffering for all of the hell he had put the kids in his care into.
A sudden cold chill had the vigilante skidding to a stop atop one of the many Gothic buildings that Gotham was known for. It wasn't because of the weather nor was it a gradual change like most weather is like. When he had vaulted onto the current roof, it was as though Damian had hit a wall of frozen tundra. The chill made it feel as though it was going to snow at any moment. Yes, cold and heat spikes in cities were a thing depending on the district but this wasn't normal. As well as how on edge he had been feeling since this night began, maybe there truly was something more going on.
That was when he heard it.
A whine and a gasp.
As if someone was having trouble breathing.
Running to the edge of the roof, Damian looked down towards the alley where he had heard the noise come from only to have his eyebrows shoot up in surprise.
Towards the back of the alley was a kid, only a few years older than he was by the looks of it, clutching his torso as if his life depended on it as an eerie glowing green substance seeped out between the cracks. A green substance that looked oddly like Lazarus Pit water. Following the substance's trail, it looked as though the boy had maybe been attacked halfway down the alley and had dragged himself into his current position. A trail of the neon green substance led right to him.
Damian took another moment to look around for any signs of an assailant before using the fire escape to get down to the injured boy, only to see that this looked a lot more serious than it did from above. With the skill of years of experience as a League assassin, he crept up to the possible meta from above and assessed the situation. As Damian approached, an unending feeling of dread and death grew on the 11-year-old vigilante the closer he approached the other boy. It was unnerving and the closer Damian got the feeling of death grew.
He took in the boy from his perch on the fire escape a few feet above. The vigilante had been correct in his original assessment, the boy looked to be about 14 or 15 years of age. Lanky and skinny in a way that looked unhealthy but with the boy covering his torso the way he was, Damian couldn't tell if that was accurate or not. He wore a black hazmat suit with white gloves and boots that matched his wispy white hair. Though both were stained heavily with the green stuff. Upon closer inspection, the green substance wasn't the only thing that glowed... the boy's entire body did. However, it seemed to be flickering and fading as if it was struggling to remain present. Whoever this was clearly wasn't human but that didn't really matter at the moment.
And with this massive feeling of death that filled the alleyway... it was obvious what would probably happen next to the boy below him. When the boy hissed in another pained breath, Damian took that moment to hop down next to the teenager while ending in a crouch. "Who are you?" the youngest Robin growled out causing the boy in front of him to jump in surprise.
A wave of pain crashed through the injured teen and he let out a long groan until it subsided. Lazarus green eyes looked at Robin with guarded fear before relaxing a small bit when he seemed to recognize the hero uniform Damian wore. "Geez, dude... you almost scared me all the way to death..." the teen said before wincing when his chuckles did more harm than good. "I would ask who you are... but I think that is kind of obvious."
Damian arched an eyebrow but didn't say anything. Instead, he took the moment to assess the other child's injuries, and needless to say, it wasn't looking good. Even if, he managed to get the boy to a place to treat him, the odds he would die en route were too high.
The teen fought back another chuckle at Robin's stiff expression. "Danny Phantom... Danny or Phantom is fine. Thankfully, your presence already answers my next question..." His need to completely hide his identity was lost about half a year ago. The glow of the teen diminished even further as he was sent into a terrible coughing fit. When he recovered, he eyed the young vigilante with a small pained smile. "I'm in Gotham, right?"
"Yes, why are you here..?" Damian asked before dropping from his crouched position to sit across from Danny. Making sure to give the hurt teen some space because there was one other thing that was strong other than the feeling of death.
It was fear.
And this kid was terrified if the ambient aura was anything to go off of.
Though despite it, Danny was doing a good job of not showing it on his face. The white-haired teen looked at him curiously before shrugging it off. "Honestly? I'm not entirely sure how I even got here..." A sad look overtook the brief brightness in his eyes and Damian knew there was a story there but Danny didn't seem to want to elaborate. "The whole journey to this point was a blur... I just had to... get away..." Another horrible coughing fit cut the teen off and Robin quickly closed the gap between them to catch him from falling over. Only to jump back to give Danny space again when the fit abated.
Danny arched his brow curiously at how Robin (who was known for being unnecessarily violent and seemed to lack in noticing certain social cues) seemed to be treating him as if he was some injured stray cat that he had found in the alley and was trying to coax out.
It was slightly demeaning considering how strong he normally was... but also a little amusing.
"Well, it looks like you succeeded. I didn't find any signs of an assailant nearby." The teen nodded his head at what Robin said and seemed to relax a little more. "So... what kind of meta are you?"
This got a bark of laughter out of Danny that he immediately regretted as he clutched his sides harder in pain. "Oh, I'm not a meta though," he stated with a mischievous smirk once the pain calmed back down to a more tolerable level.
"How are you not...?" Robin cocked his head at Danny in confusion while gesturing wildly to the boy's body in front of him. "You glow and are bleeding green stuff!"
Danny was having a hard time not laughing again and he felt as though Robin was going to put him fully in the grave at this rate because of how much he kept aggravating his wounds. "Simple. I'm a ghost."
Damian's eyes widened in shock for a good moment before a myriad of emotions flitted across the 11-year-old's face before it settled on a look of uncomfortable concern. "I believe that to be partially true... However, with the massive aura of Death that is coming off of you, I'm more surprised that you are still here at all."
"You can feel that?"
"Yes, though it is unnerving how strong the feeling is here without a pit being involved."
The injured teen looked confused at Robin once more but shrugged it off again. Though he was slightly alarmed how Robin was able to decipher the half-truth with the only context being 'aura of Death' coming off of him. It was a bit unnerving how fast he figured that out. Not wanting to out his halfa status immediately after meeting the kid, Danny decided to play it off a bit. "Well... you are right but I hope you don't mind if I don't go into too much detail at the moment. I kinda need to piece myself back together-" When another coughing fit wracked Danny's body, his arms flew up to his mouth to stop the bile and ectoplasm coming out and spraying everywhere. Which meant that his torso was in full view.
After the fit died down, Danny looked to Robin to see that the vigilante's face had paled to the point that he could rival Danny's in a pale contest. He followed Robin's gaze and quickly wrapped his arms around his upper body so that the kid in front of him no longer could see the ghastly sight.
"Were those... was that... were you VIVISECTED?!" Damian practically yelled at the end causing Danny to give him a shushing motion. The last thing the ghost boy needed was the people who were hunting him or someone new to join them in the alley. There was no way that he could get away again. Not with how bad his current state of being was in. Damian was standing now and he looked absolutely furious. "Was that why you had to get away? Was someone experimenting on you? When you said you had to piece yourself back together I didn't think you meant literally!"
Ah, if only the vigilante wasn't so upset (though his emotions were justified), Danny probably would have laughed again. "It's okay... I'll be fine... I tend to heal quick."
Robin's eye twitched and he really wanted to say something else but for the moment he held back. "Tt. Tell me who did this to you. No living thing deserves to go through something like that and laugh it off like it's no big deal."
"Ah~ but I'm not living. I'mma spooky ghostie."
The eye twitch returned before Damian heaved a heavy exaggerated sigh. "And I thought we established that ghostliness isn't the only thing at play here, hm?"
"Touche."
Damian facepalmed at how nonchalant Danny was being about this whole situation. The teen was laying on a filthy alley floor behind a dumpster in Gotham. Bleeding out from several horrible wounds that riddled his entire body and those didn't include the fact that the entire inside of his torso had been in full view due to the teen not holding the skin pieces in place for a moment. Yet, he was laughing and treating it as though he was just on a nightly stroll in Gotham. "Is there anything I can do to help? We can get a hold of the Justice league or-"
"No! No, no, no! No, Justice League! Everything will be fine, I just need to-" The ghost boy was cut off as his entire being fluctuated violently. Silent screams escaped as waves of pain shot through his body for several moments until it seemed to stabilize. However, the already fading glow was practically nonexistent and it looked like Danny didn't have much more time either. Truly unparalleled fear then replaced the snark that had once been the dominant feature on the ghost boy's face. His breathing picked up as he began to hyperventilate and Robin snapped his fingers to get Danny's attention.
"Hey, hey. Look at me. Take a moment and breathe." Damian said as he started doing breath counts with Danny until it seemed like he had calmed down a bit. "Tell me what happened. What is going on?"
The ghost boy looked fearfully at Robin and then at his surroundings before settling on Robin again. He let out a bitter and pained laugh as what appeared to be tears trailed from his eyes. After taking a moment, Danny leveled a look so serious at Robin that it would have impressed his father. "What I'm about to tell you... is completely confidential. No one is supposed to know about this and if it gets out a lot of people could be seriously hurt in the future... similar to how I was. Promise me. Promise me that this won't get out to anyone including Batman."
Damian nodded his head but kept the fact, that depending on what it was... it may have to reach his father anyway, to himself. That was something he didn't have to deal with at the moment.
Taking a deep shaky sigh, Danny rested his head fully again the brick wall behind him and closed his eyes. "You see... there are two main parts to a ghost. The ectoplasm that makes up the body and their core... A ghost's core is... well everything. Brain, heart, personality, memories... Everything that makes a ghost is in that core. Ghosts can take a lot of hits because of this. If they get hurt bad enough then the core will generate more ectoplasm to heal the damage. However, in extreme cases, that isn't enough. The ghost will lose their form as they go inside their core to heal... and I..." Danny's voice was beginning to shake now as well. "Robin. I don't know how much longer I can keep up this form. But if I go into my core then... the most valuable and vulnerable part of myself will just be... out here. For anyone to take or use."
"I don't know how long I will be in there. It could be a couple of days... it could be a few months. Who knows? Regardless of how long, I will have no say in what happens to me while I am in there..." Danny stated as he opened his eyes again and looked right at Robin. "You asked if you could help?" When Robin nodded in response, Danny continued. "Then... when I go into my core... can you take it to a safe place? Somewhere NO ONE knows about and honestly... no one should even know about me! At all."
"That's...." Damian narrowed his eyes. "That's a lot of faith you are giving a total stranger."
Danny laughed bitterly before giving Robin a smile. "Yeah, but I don't really have a lot of options. It's either beg the Gotham vigilante to hide me or be forced to sit here in this alleyway until someone finds me. Then who knows where I will end up during the time that I am asleep. So, please... Can you hide me somewhere safe? And not tell anyone about this? I can pay you back later somehow but I just need this one thing."
Damian looks over the injured and scared teen and nods his head. The relief is immediate as Danny flashed Robin one of the sunniest smiles he had ever seen on a person. "Anything else you need to tell me before you rest?"
The ghost boy shook his head and closed his eyes again. "No... Thanks, Robin." With that said, Danny's form began to fluctuate at a much more fervent pace as a bright light broke through his chest and consumed his entire body. Robin covered his eyes as he was blinded by the sudden flash and when he looked back, as the light dimmed, all that remained of Danny was an orb. It rested on the alley floor. Shining and ethereal with a mystic blue color that looked natural but it still felt like it would be something that wouldn't occur in this plane of existence.
Taking a couple of cautious steps forward, Damian knelt and gently picked up the orb and held it in his palm. It was cool to the touch, as though someone had stuck it in the freezer for a while for some reason. Careful not to drop or harm it, he put the orb in one of the more secure and sturdy pockets on his utility belt.
Once the core was secure, he stood up and grappled up to the roof of the nearest building to resume his patrol. Thoughts on how to hide the core without anyone noticing or finding it was put to the back of Damian's mind as he traversed his way through Gotham. The chill in the air was gone. The aura of death was gone. Even the unnerving edge that Gotham had about it all night seemed to have recessed to its normal. Something horrible had happened that night. That much was certain and Damian couldn't wait to find out just who he got to stab in the shoulder this time for causing it.