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Danny had just taken his first gulp of coffee when Red Hood whipped one of his guns out of its holster and aimed it at him, causing Danny to freeze. The tension in the air, which had previously been rather low if noticeable, was now thick enough to be cut with a cosplay knife, with a faintly familiar taint to it.
"Who are you? Where'd you get that shit?" Red Hood growled.
Danny coughed slightly, fighting the urge to rub at the slight burning sensation in his throat. "The what? Do you mean my coffee creamer?" He looked at the container, a Fenton thermos cleverly disguised to look like a container of Delightful Irish creme coffee creamer and realized he'd probably seen the ectoplasm he'd poured into his coffee. Coffee creamer was usually cream colored, not green. Well, at least Jazz had thought to prepare him for this eventuality. "I mean, I know it's a bit weird dying my coffee creamer green, but it's like Percy Jackson and blue foods, alright? My mom makes food green all the time and I've been kinda home sick recently, so I figured why not."
"Cut the shit, that ain't coffee creamer and we both know it. Now. Who are you and where did you get it."
Wow, tough crowd, Danny thought. "But it is? I put it in my coffee, isn't that, like, the definition of a coffee creamer? And I'm pretty sure I told Tarzan over there my name is Danny back when I first picked him up," Danny pointed out. Why was Red Hood so certain the ectoplasm wasn't coffee creamer? With enough food dye, it was possible to get Irish creme coffee creamer to the exact shade of green that was ectoplasm in its purest form. He would know, he'd tested it with Sam after Jazz had suggested this exact response.
"Hood, why are you reacting like this to green coffee creamer? This isn't your usual MO, what's wrong?" Red Robin asked, removing the bag of thawing peas from his face and sitting up.
Red Hood shifted slightly, either in agitation or in preparation. Danny wasn't sure which it was, but he wasn't too keen to find out. "That shit isn't coffee creamer, dyed or otherwise. It's pure Lazarus waters, and the pit doesn't like it. Now, where the hell did you get pure Lazarus waters, Daniel Fenton? If that's even your real name."
"Excuse you, why wouldn't Daniel Fenton be my real name?" Danny knee jerk replied, thoughts racing as he pieced together everything he'd seen and learned in his five months living in Gotham. He wasn't exactly liking the picture it was painting. "Wait, hold up, you're saying it's not the color that isn't doing it for you, but the vibes?" Danny's hand went to his throat and the building sensation of burning in there, eyes widening in realization. "Tainted ectoplasm." The faint yet familiar taint in the tension between him and Red Hood, it was nearly the exact same flavor as the tainted ectoplasm all over Gotham, just significantly stronger. Normal ectoplasm tripping his ghost sense felt like exhaling around a breath mint, cool and minty. Tainted ectoplasm, in high enough quantities, tripped his ghost sense like acid reflux trying to disintegrate his throat. "You've died. Haven't you. Probably woke up in a pool of glowing green water at some point, likely have bouts of uncontrollable rage, probably killed or almost killed a bunch of people during at least one of those bouts, too, right?"
Both Reds tensed at Danny's deduction. "How the hell do you know that?" Red Hood asked, flicking the safety off on his gun.
Danny set his mug down on the table and eyed the two vigilantes carefully as he thought over his options. He sighed as he mentally shrugged and triggered his transformation. He flared the green of his eyes as the change settled. "Because I've been trying to find and purify all of those pools if I can, or destroy them if I can't."