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Danny got back from a trip to the Infinite Realms and felt vibrating in his torso.
Oh, he was getting an alert on his phone.
Turning his hand intangible, he stuck it into his torso and felt around for a moment before he found his phone and pulled it out. Looks like there was a meeting for the Justice League.
Danny, of course, got a League communicator when he formally became a member (after the League helped get rid of the GIW and Anti-Ecto Acts). And while he’d helped tinker with the communicators so they wouldn’t be affected by ghosts, he wasn’t sure what would happen if he phased it into his body like he did with everything else he deemed important. So he’d linked the alerts for the communicator to his phone since he usually kept the phone in his body somewhere while he’d regularly forget his communicator.
Sue him, he was a busy guy. He’d only officially been the Ghost King for like a year and it was still completely chaotic. Pariah did absolutely NO paperwork.
Hell, he hadn’t even known he’d be the new king until he was 16 and they started prepping for his coronation once he turned 18. That had caused an interesting conversation with Clockwork.
Danny put his phone back into his chest, flew up to his room to grab the actual communicator to answer, and then headed to the Watchtower.
~~~~
Clark was concerned.
He’d gotten into the habit of using his x-ray vision to check on his co-workers within the League to make sure they were alright. It’d started because Bruce in particular was not forthcoming about his own injuries with very few exceptions. It was practically second nature for Clark to quickly check each member of the JL when they crossed paths or when they were having a meeting just to make sure there was nothing pressing in regards to their injuries. Bruce at least had Alfred in Gotham who never let him get out of a check-up.
And this habit extended to their newest addition, Phantom. The ghost vigilante and royal had joined a few months ago. Constantine had first suggested they approach Phantom about joining after hearing about him through his supernatural contacts. During the interview, he’d been wearing the Crown of Fire and had other royal regalia on, which he’d said wasn’t his choice but something his advisor told him would make a good first impression. Clark wasn’t sure if the weird shapes inside his body were related to that or not, so he didn’t mention it. It also would be very invasive to be asked something like that and he didn’t want Phantom to dislike him.
Phantom had joined, and Clark noticed that the shapes were always present when he’d instinctively check for injuries (he also wasn’t sure why the ghost had bones and organs and was so confused by that), but they would change both how they looked and where they were and Clark could for the life of him figure out what they were. His x-ray vision let him see that something was there but not what it was and if it seemingly overlapping with Phantom’s internal organs was a problem.
That was what was concerning him. He’d mentioned it to Bruce and he’d taken Clark’s concerns seriously and ended up calling a meeting. He didn’t say it was about Danny, but Clark knew it was. He didn’t need B to call a meeting about it though.
At least it wasn’t the entire JL that would be at the meeting.
~~~~
Danny arrived at the Watchtower and made his way into the meeting room. It didn’t seem to be one of their big meetings.
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Constantine, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Flash were all present besides Danny. He guessed Aquaman had other matters to attend to since he was usually at meetings that involved the other founders but wasn’t here right now.
Danny floated over to a seat and floated down to land sitting in it. Everybody quieted as Batman cleared his throat to start the meeting.
“This meeting has been called after Superman raised some concerns with me recently about something,” he started, voice deep and growly as always. “Phantom,” Batman said, looking over at Danny and startling him a bit. This was about him?! “Superman has brought up concerns that it seems you have multiple objects within your body that appear to overlap with bones and internal organs and he’s concerned that this may be detrimental to your health. Do you know what he’s talking about?”
Danny bluescreened. Fuck. He’d forgotten there was somebody that had x-ray vision on the JL and it honestly made sense that he’d constantly check each teammate to make sure they were ok. He hadn’t been on many missions with them just yet but from what he’d already seen, Batman would hide injuries and play them off even more than Danny did (which was wildly concerning). He just hadn’t thought about the stuff he phased into his body being seen because of that. This was going to be interesting to explain. Especially with Constantine gaping like a ghost fish on the other side of the table as he looked at Danny.
“Ok, so, funny story. I actually phase things into my body to keep them safe and out of the way but also easily accessible. I tend to forget my things a lot.”
They all just stared at him.
“So the mass in your torso next to your stomach?” Superman asked. Danny turned his hand intangible and reached in, concerning everybody present. He pulled out his cell phone.
“My cell phone. I’ve broken more than I can count and this takes care of that problem.”
“The one next to your left kidney?”
“My keys.”
“How does that not affect you?”
“Ok, so, my organs are not impeded by them and neither are my bones. Phasing things into my body doesn’t really affect them or me because ghost physics are strange. Because the organs and bones are part of me it just doesn’t cause issues? I’ve never really thought about it more than the fact that it makes things convenient. How do you think I have extra things on hand when not all of them are collapsible?”
“Phantom, we work with Spooky,” Green Lantern said, crossing his arms. “He has nearly everything in that belt of his. We just assumed you had something like that.”
“Ok, that’s fair,” Danny acquiesced. It was quiet for a moment.
“Mate,” Constantine said, finally speaking up and breaking out of his stupor, “why the bloody hell do you have organs and bones? The only ghosts that typically have those are Neverborns and we’ve established already that you’re not a Neverborn.”
Oh fuck. Well, the secret identity that even Batman didn’t know was nice while it lasted. At least the JL members wouldn’t tell others.
“Heh, funny story, I’m not exactly a normal ghost,” Danny answered, rubbing the back of his neck.
“The bloody hell does that even mean?”
“I’m actually not a full ghost.”
There was silence. For a couple minutes. Danny was tempted to look around and see if Clockwork was in the room and had frozen time.
“What do you mean ‘not a full ghost’? We were not aware that there was anything besides full ghosts,” Wonder Woman asked. That was fair.
“I’m something called a ‘halfa’. I’m half-ghost and half-human. Half-dead and half-alive. It’s not something that’s common or known about by more than a few people.”
He was met with silence again. Flash was the one to break the silence this time.
“It was hard enough to believe that ghosts existed in the first place,” he said, leaning forward a bit, “but you want us to believe that some ghosts are even fully ghosts?”
Danny blinked at him. “I’m literally living proof of that. Just like I’m proof that ghosts exist.”
They all looked at him some more. He just sighed before transforming to his human self. Any eyes he could see, without a cowl or domino, in the way widened. Constantine looked like he was close to panicking, though Danny wasn’t sure what the reason would be this time.
“This proof enough?” he asked, looking at Flash, who just looked over at Superman. Superman looked shocked.
“Your heart… it’s beating,” he said, that same shock present in his voice. Danny shrugged.
“Yeah, it is. I mean, it beats in ghost form too but very slowly and it acts like a backup to my core more than anything. The sound of my core in ghost form also overpowers any weak sound my heart would be making anyways so for all intents and purposes it’s like it stops.” Danny turned to look at Flash again, who just nodded this time.
“You’re telling me,” Constantine started, in the perpetual state of shock he’d been in for this entire thing, “that the bloody High King of the Infinite Realms isn’t even a full ghost? How old were you when you even became king, since you can apparently age!”
“So I didn’t actually get crowned until I was 18, but I technically won the title at 14.”
“You won the title? You fucking beat Pariah bloody Dark at 14?!”
Constantine looked like he was either going to rip out his hair or pass out. Or both.
“Uh, yeah? I mean, I was super exhausted and injured afterwards but yeah. I mean, somebody had to take care of him and I was the most qualified.”
There was some silence after that.
“Ok, so now that we’ve established that I’m not in any danger from the things I’ve phased into my body, can I go now?” Danny asked, looking at Batman.
“You can but before you do I’d like you to update your files so we know how to help you medically and anything else important since we now know of your halfa status,” Batman stated. Danny just sighed and nodded.