Practice Your Skills
“You ever look at someone and wonder how hard it would be to get past their defenses and stab them.
Damian snapped his head to the side, looking at the young boy now standing beside him.
The boy put his hands up in front of him with a wince, “Not that I ever do that. Totally not, whaaaat???”
Damian huffed and turned back around to watch the gala participants.
“It’s just you kinda looked like you were contemplating the logistics of stabbing Mrs.Halterguild for squeezing your cheeks.”
Damian scowled. Then, after a moment’s beat, “It would not be very difficult. She is nearly blind in her left eye, I would be able to approach without repost.”
The kid hummed, turning back as well before motioning to another group to the far right, “What about Mr. Beckensmith, he’s a retired vet right?”
Damian rolled his eyes and scowled harder, “The man has only seen the battlefield of an office as he bribed his way from being fully enlisted and instead managed to pay for increasingly higher ranks and medals. He is a disgrace.”
The kid cocked his head to the side, looking suspicious for a second and then nodding with concession, “Fair enough, I bet I could get close enough too.”
Damian scoffed.
“What, don’t believe me?”
Damian leveled a doubtful glare at the civilian, making it clear by looking him up and down, “Hardly.”
The other smirked dangerously, “If I can get close enough to poke him and get away without being noticed, will you believe me?”
Damian narrowed his eyes but nodded succinctly and watched as the boy immediately took off, making a few loops around other people before finally backing up to Mr. Beckensmith and poking him on the opposite side as a group moved past.
Damian pursed his lips. Interesting. Certainly better than he would expect from an amateur. And an amateur civilian at that.
When the boy returns to his side Damian brushes off the asks of meaningless praise.
“Come on, I did it, now you have to go poke Mrs. Halterguild without getting caught.”
Damian sneers, “And why would I do that?”
“Because I don’t believe you either, the woman’s old but I bet she sees you and squeezes your cheeks again. Old ladies just have a sixth sense for that stuff you know.”
Damian nearly growls but sets off on his task. He makes sure to stay on her left side, but the woman turns at the last second, forcing Damian to use a passing waiter as cover to remain hidden and finally get close enough to poke her gaudy dress.
Then he sidles back up to the boy on the edges and provides his best ‘I am more capable than you’ scowl. The boy simply laughs and says, “Who’s next?”
They spend the night like that, choosing each other’s targets to attack non-lethally as though they were attempting to stab them, and Damian finds the gala going by in a significantly less tedious manner.
Right up until the boy laughs at him when he chooses a target. Only one bark of laughter escapes, but it is enough for Damian to consider stabbing him as well. If only with a butter knife.
Instead, Damian grinds his teeth and asks, “What is so different about Masters, do you really believe you would be unable to succeed?”
The other gives a breathless chuckle, “I’m pretty sure even you wouldn’t be able to successfully stab Vlad Masters,” The boy’s shoulders sag even as his jaw tightens with irritation, “He sees everything.”
Damian narrows his eyes. Something naws at the back of his brain but currently the critique of his capabilities takes precedence.
“I would be capable of stabbing Masters even without my favored sword,” Damian scowls and stands taller with annoyance.
“Sure you can, man,” At this, the boy quirks a sharp smile, “If you can actually get him, I’ll personally get you a magic sword,” he says with an air of amused indulgence. Like he thinks Damian is some insipid child saying he will find a fairy.
Damian grits his teeth and shakes the other’s hand, then immediately sets off after his target. How dare this civilian question him! He is the Son of the Bat, this is not even a challenge!
Damian growls as his approach is thwarted for the third time by the man turning in his direction and almost spotting him. How dare he! He will not fail!
Just as he reaches to jab the man in the side, already poised to make his escape, Masters whips around and clamps his fingers around Damian’s wrist with a vice grip.
“Really Daniel I thought we were over-“ Masters pauses, looking at Damian critically as he glares at the man’s offending hand, “You are not young Daniel.”
“Remove your hand from my person at once,” Damian growls.
Instead of listening to Damian’s very sensible directions, Masters tightens his grip and twists his arm, most likely in an attempt to hurt him.
“Now why is a child attempting to-“
Damian doesn’t wait to hear the rest of the man’s words, sliding a dagger into his other hand and swinging towards him, until that hand is caught mid-movement as well.
“Heh-Hey there!”
Damian snaps his head to the side just in time to see Grayson take his dagger and slide it into his pocket. He ignores the bark of laughter he hears from across the room.
Masters’ hand disappears from his arm suspiciously fast, “Mr. Wayne, what a pleasure!”
Damian looks over his other shoulder to see his father standing behind him, a thin smile on his face, “Vladimir!”
His father’s figure quickly obscures his vision, putting an arm over Masters’ shoulders in a way that clearly makes him irritated but forces him to follow as he is steered away.
“Dami, I thought we talked about the stabbing at formal events,” Grayson says through a strained smile as he looks over the crowd to make sure no else saw.
“Tt, it was merely a demonstration of my skills, he was in no real danger until he refused to release me. I simply sought to correct that mistake.”
Grayson pinchesthe bridge of his nose, “Demonstration for who, Dames? We all already know your skills.”
“Tt,” Damian scowls and turns away.
Instead of pushing it, Grayson simply sighs heavily, “Just stay out of trouble for the rest of the gala okay? We’re almost done.”
Damian scoffed and waited for Grayson to leave. Once he does, Damian finally looks over to where he had been lingering with the boy.
Gone.
Clearly he’d taken the cowards way out when he’d seen that Damian had been accosted by Masters.
Pitiful.
Damian spends the rest of the night scowling from the wall and looking serendipitously for a head of black hair and blue eyes unrelated to him.
Of course it’s not until they are actively leaving that Damian sees him and immediately splits off of from his family.
He approaches with irritation, preparing to grab the other by the shoulder when suddenly he turns around and blue eyes meet Damian’s green.
“You,” Damian sneers.
“Me,” The other shrugs. He has an amused smile on his face, though it was strained at the edges.
They stare in silence for a minute, before the other’s smile grows and sharpens once more, “I didn’t expect you to actually try to stab him, y’know,” A slight laugh escapes him, “Not that it was unwelcome by any means, but still, unexpected.”
Damian scowls again, glaring at this foolish civilian.
“Oh, I never introduced myself did I?!”
The boy exclaims and holds out a hand, smile dangerous, “Daniel Fenton. Or if we’re being technical,” a pause as Damian finally returns the gesture and finds his hand trapped, “Daniel Masters, a pleasure to meet you Damian.”
“Hurry up little badger,” A voice says beside them, and Damian notices that it is indeed Vladimir Masters.
The man approaches, placing a heavy hand on Fenton’s shoulder, making the boy go taut, and then they both step into a dark car, leaving Damian on the front steps.
Damian’s anger flares and he shoots a glare directly to the boy getting into the car. It dies the moment they meet eyes and Damian sees the fear hiding in the other’s eyes.
Fear that Damian is all too familiar with.
Fear that reminded Damian of himself. Reminded him of his own eyes when he’d been under his grandfather.
But why did Fenton look like that?
Had some minutes to think some thoughts about this.
I think Danny should get Damian a magic sword. Even though Damian didn't manage to catch Vlad. Danny should do it as a Thank You for trying to legitimately stab him and also for making the gala bearable for a few hours.
Obviously Vlad has Danny on a pretty tight leash in this, so I'm not sure how he would get a magic sword much less have the freedom to deliver it. But I think it would be a cool thing to have happen next. Give Damian even more questions and reasons to investigate. Especially if Damian catches on that Danny likely risked (and possibly received) punishment to give this gift. Make Damian wonder Danny would do that when Damian didn't even complete tge challenge.
To Danny it was just a gift. Something for the guy who’d made his evening one of the most bearable in months. A bit of appreciation for the kid who’d absolutely been about to actually stab dear old Vlad without hesitation.
And yeah, maybe delivering on the bet either way was a bit of a flex, too: one last extension of their competition. He’d seen the way the other kid’s eyes lit up at the prospect of a magic sword, even under the feigned disinterest. Seen the challenge in them too, the same disbelief that other kid had radiated at the outset of their little game. Well, Danny decided, he’d deliver. A lasting last word to stretch out that sense of something like connection just a bit longer.
Rising to meet that challenge had been… fun. That it had danced deniably close to the edge of showing a bit too much skill was just an added bonus.
Especially once they really got into it. Stabby Kid wasn’t exactly subtle either. Fun to know some of the kids of Gotham probably navigated a city full of rogues about as normally as some Amity Parkers.
Getting the gift and getting it to him was a bit tough, under the circumstances, but it was nice, for a minute, to have something to work towards again. Some goal he could try and accomplish behind Vlad’s back for the first time in… too long.
So, he sent off something cool, expecting nothing else to come of it, except that somewhere out there a rich kid with apparent blade skills would be supremely confused.
He grinned to himself. Totally worth the consequences.
————————
To Damian it’s a challenge, a call for help, a repayment in advance for Damian’s assistance. (And if he’s more correct about a couple of those things than Danny would admit even to himself? Well.)
Whatever could scare a child with access to such weapons, and to the skills ‘Danny’ had demonstrated, must be serious. Why else would he have devised such a test of Damian’s skills at the gala if not to determine whether he could be of assistance? Clearly, whoever he was, he had read the room well to single Damian out.
Well, now Damian is armed, he was always dangerous, and he does not intend to leave this challenge unanswered.
————————
Vlad has no idea that, by instigating an attempted stabbing, he’s about to bring down the entire bat clan on his head.
Okay listen tho
Damian failed
He does not deserve a magic sword, and delivery on that would be a pain in the ass
You know what he gets for trying?
A magic shank
One Danny makes himself, magics with his own ecto and what little he can recall that Pandora taught him before Vlad barred him from the Zone
And okay, it’s not a traditional shank, but it turns out trying to sharpen his tooth brush took fucking forever and then Vlad noticed, and weirdly it was easier to get his hands on an actual pocket knife
That means it has a metal blade though, and that takes to the runes much better than plastic, so it’s a win in the end
And a pocket knife folds up nice and small, easy for Danny to snag spare change to cover and send a small envelope back to Gotham with just the knife and a note
Maybe the note is a bit much, but Damian did fail
“No swords for you buddy, better luck next time - Undefeated Danny”
And if Damian could easily hide the pocket knife for the next Gotham gala and stab Vlad with something that’d actually do some damage, ghost form or not?
Danny’s maybe hoping no big brothers swoop to the rescue next time
It’s almost worth Vlad’s punishment for laughing and setting Damian up in the first place
**
Damian’s confused at first, by receiving a letter at all and then at the pocket knife, but he knows exactly where it’s from
Clearly it’s a taunt, and a poor one; the knife cannot be magical
Except it only reflects green light, and when he leaves it in the cave with the blade open and heads upstairs, he sees the glow from the elevator
Danny got him a fucking magic knife
Clearly this is related to Vlad’s uncanny ability to detect his presence; if Danny is so well versed in magic, the man controlling him must be too
(Dami doesn’t put ghosts together until one of JLDark swear a blue streak at him for bringing the knife to the watchtower to analyse)
Damian’s Magic Consolation Shank is a fantastic mental image.
Love the idea that he brings it to the Watchtower and pulls it out to analyze only for any JLDark members present to scramble backwards like “Where TF did you get a Ghost Knife?!?”
It would be especially funny if the JLDark members like, backtracked the ectoplasm to figure out which ghost empowered it only to find that it was Phantom, the Protector/Embodiment of Balance, who is (seemingly, mind you) an ancient that has no previous history of empowering anything besides the Fenton tech (which was more personal use). So now it’s painting an even more concerning picture since this kid who has enough favor with Phantom to get such a weapon but is still living in fear.
Just, the whole panic of
“Ghost weapon?!”
“GHOST WEAPON EMPOWERED BY THE ANCIENT, PHANTOM, WHO FAMOUSLY DOESN’T DO THAT?!”
“THE KID WHO GOT THE WEAPON IS LIVING IN CONSTANT FEAR DESPITE SEEMING TO HAVE THAT MUCH FAVOR WITH PHANTOM?!”
It just escalates into the JLD thinking that there’s a ticking time bomb esc scenario going on (and technically, there probably is, but not in the way that they’re thinking) between Vlad Masters, Daniel “Danny” Fenton, and Phantom.
JLD tries to (politely) summon the ancient, Phantom, to see if he can tell them what the heck is going on here. No one here has dealt with him personally before, but all the accounts of him seem to indicate he’d want to help the kid.
What they get back is the summoning equivalent of the “the number you are trying to reach has been disconnected” message.
For Phantom. The Protector of Balance.
NOW they are convinced some apocalyptic-level crisis is brewing in the middle of Wisconsin.
(Also, if this became a full plot, I think it would be really fun if it all came full circle: if the knife weren’t actually used much, he keeps it on him but hidden, so Vlad doesn’t even know it exists.
Shenanigans and plot happen, rescue attempts are undertaken, Danny and Damian work together to fix whatever it is Vlad did and/or is holding over him.
In a climactic moment, the two of them are fighting Vlad. Vlad is distracted by Danny, monologuing about how he never learns, etc., clearly convinced he’s about to win. Which is exactly when Damian, not actually fully disarmed, sneaks up behind Vlad and finally stabs him right where he’d tried to poke him during the gala. The knife, being a ghost knife, actually manages to do damage, and the two of them are able to incapacitate him.
As the two of them catch their breaths, Damian looks Danny dead in the eye:
Damian: “You owe me a magic sword.”
Danny, laughing breathlessly: “Took you long enough.”)
Oh I love all of that, every bit-
JLD’s just absolute panic that something blocked the message and that it had to do with whatever is going on in Wisconsin cause that’s the only possible location that Phantom could’ve last been in due to the weapon.
The level of identity and absurd skill shenanigans, Danny & Damian team up to secretly fix the problem that is keeping Danny under Vladms thumb.
The story coming full circle with the “You owe me a magic sword.” and “Took you long enough.” JUST MAKES ME GO ALL GIDDY-
- I just love that it goes from a suspicious encounter to an all hands on deck to prevent a possible crisis from pouring out of Wisconsin. Vlad going from a ‘suspicious person, keep eye on’ to ‘possibly about to start an apocalypse’ is going to be jarring to the heroes who’ve met him (Arrow Fam and Bat Fam mostly) because the most suspicion that they had on him was possible theft, and hilarious for the readers cause, yeah Vlad would cause an apocalyptic crisis (he’s done it before) but he’s not presently doing that exactly (could reasonably escalate to that in a bad ending though).
Just a wonderful circle of misunderstandings, escalation, and Vlad getting what he deserves, especially with getting absolutely shanked by someone he probably wrote off as a non-threat for being purely human.
Maybe as a consequence of becoming an ancient Danny was made vulnerable in some new way that Vlad was able to take advantage of? I've never seen the show so take this with a grain of salt but I'm thinking a la the personification of dream being bound in the Sandman show?
His knowledge of Halfas would make him the most capable of managing some sort of binding magic that might do something like force Danny to listen to him or stay near him or sm. It would be a good way to explain why Ancient of Balance (and maybe space and protection please? (✿˵◕ᵕ◕) ) Danny wouldn't just fucking wreck Vlads ass which might be hard to explain if it was just a matter of Vlad threatening his friends or gaining custody after him parents dying.
It would also be a perfect explanation for why the summoning spell for Phantom didn't work. Because he's already bound to someone else.
OOOOOOOOOOO
This tags and everything you’ve put down are lovely!
Also, YES YES YES! I like your thought process. I think Danny could be like, the Ancient of Heroes and Space while being the embodiment of Balance (as his ghost half was immediately born within a portal, which we don’t see for the only two other Halfas. Vlad had a slow process and Ellie had no process. Danny could literally be straight up claimed by the Infinite Realms and Living World equally). We also know that there’s a relic that can mind control ghosts/ecto-entities, so we can build off of that and say Vlad got a relic similar but not exactly like it. Like, if Danny goes against an order, then it acts similar to a shock collar (except instead of a shock, it does either something like draining his powers or something worse than a shock) type of thing maybe, and a relic affecting someone’s power would probs mess up a summoning? Add on some blackmail and Vlad’s able to prevent Danny from fighting back in a human way as well!
Also, yeah, the JLD are freaking out most likely over The Balance not being able to be summoned, that’s like, bad bad news, especially because it didn’t feel like a rejection of the summons, it was a full on “this number can’t be reached at this time, try again later” (like improbably-luminescent said earlier), which has much worse connotations than a simple summoning rejection.
(MAGIC SHANK!)
Also, everyone will feel a shiver of dread upon learning that 1- Danny made a way-too-powerful magic sword and 2- gave it to Damian “Stabby Robin” Wayne Al Ghul of all people
I fucking love all of this.
So this is a bit crack-ish and probably out of character for Damian but...
JLD: OMG Phantom made a magic sword and gave it to the Stabby Robin.
JLD, panicking all over again: Okay Stabby Robin, what did Phantom enchant your new toy with?
Damian, embracing the legacy of Robins being little shits: The Power of Friendship.
Vlad already has a taser thing that zaps ghost powers - the Plasmius Maximus. Maybe he rigged it into a shock collar that goes off if Danny tries to disobey, attack him, or escape?
Also, I'd assume Something Bad happened to Danny's family (probably the Nasty Burger explosion)? Otherwise, they'd level Vlad's mansion to get Danny back. Can't just be a reveal gone wrong, or they'd be out to get Danny *and* Vlad.
I feel like the artifact could also involve some ghost equivilant of a baby leash. like he cant actualy CLAIM Danny as his fraid without danny's consent due to his new ancient status. but the leash is more of a forced bond thing like the observants have done to clockwork?
It's not anywhere near as powerful as the spell on clockworks binding, but works on Danny specificlly because while having the status of an ancient, he still is only a child ghost age wise. And basicaly getting 'grounded' from the realms prevents him from asking his friends for help plus vlad has the tech to prevent any of them from getting near him in the first place.
