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Chapter Text

2 weeks after the portal accident:

Danny was hungry and nothing seemed to satisfy it.

“Maybe being a half-ghost increases your metabolism,” Tucker suggested. “Kinda like the Flash. Have you seen the stats for how many calories the guy goes through to support his powers?”

Sam started tapping away on her phone. “The company who makes the Flash’s high calorie energy bars and shakes sells them to other metas and athletes who also have high metabolisms. They’re also used to treat eating disorders and cancer patients.” she said.

Danny leaned over her shoulder to look at the screen on her phone. He winced. “Those are kinda expensive.”

Tucker pointed at something on his own screen. “Says here the Wayne Foundation has some kind of program to help people in need pay for them.”

Sam waved them off as she selected a few options. “I can pay for it. We’ll feed you these for a couple weeks and see if it helps.”

With the wonders of wealth and express shipping the bars and shake powder arrived the next day. Danny tried the bars and found that they weren’t half bad. He had had protein bars off the shelf that were much worse. The shakes were another story. They were somehow the most satisfying and most un-satisfying thing he had ever tried. It was like having an itch and having someone scratch right next to it. So close and yet so far.

By the time a week and a half had passed Danny was hungrier than before. He felt like he was starving and was beginning to feel weak. He started getting migraines on an almost daily basis and was often dizzy. He was sleeping more and even fainted once. Regular food lost all taste to him but his sense of smell increased. It was pretty bad. Even his parents were starting to notice.

It was Sam who came up with the next hypothesis. “Your reaction to the shakes got me thinking of my pregnant cousin. She says pregnancy cravings are the body looking for a specific nutrient. Like, if she’s craving pickles that’s salt so she can eat salty pretzels instead. So we just have to figure out what your body is missing.”

Tucker pulled out his phone. “I’m looking up the nutrient values for those shakes and I’m making a chart. We can experiment till we find what it is you need.”

Danny nodded. “I’ll head to my parents lab and see if I can find any research on what ghosts feed on.”

Sam and Tucker looked at each other in concern before turning back to him. “Are you sure?” Tucker asked. “You haven’t been back in the lab since…”

“Since the accident,” Sam finished. “Are you sure you’re ready for that?”

Danny nodded resolutely. “I’m hungry enough that it’s starting to feel like life and death. I have to.”

“We’ll go with you,” Sam said.

“Yeah. Like hell are we letting you go back down there alone.” Tucker added.

Danny felt a faint humming in his chest where he felt his powers come from. He couldn’t have had better people to know his secret.

It took a few days to get the Doctors Fenton out of the lab for more than ten minutes. During that time Danny fainted two more times and started to have tremors in his hands. That combined with the fact that he was still phasing through things and he received a lifetime ban from handling any fragile objects at school. Things were dire. They needed answers yesterday.

“Wow. It’s way messier than the last time we were down here,” Sam said as they looked around.
Danny didn’t answer. He was staring at the blast doors for the portal like he was in a trance. Sam walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder in comfort. He startled, clearly having not noticed her. “You okay?” she asked.

He shook his head. Almost like a wet dog. “Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s get this over with.” he said.

They got to work. Danny was going through his mother’s laptop, Sam was reading the notes on a blob ghost they had caught, while Tucker was doing something with the main computer. They all worked in companionable silence for a bit. Sam realized after a while that her lab notes were referring to another set of notes somewhere and she went to go find them, thinking that she might find a notebook or something. She started poking through the lab. Moving piles of blueprints and half assembled inventions out of the way in her search.

It happened when she picked up a large flask with a cork in it. She had brought it close to her face, curious as to what was in it. She swirled the flask to get a better look and that was when it exploded in her face. Shards of sharp glass flew into the air. One particularly large piece of glass cut into her neck. She cried out. Blood seeped from the wound.

The boys spun around and the sound. “Sam!” Tucker yelled, jumping out of his seat.

Danny also jumped out of his seat. He ran over to where Sam had crumpled to the floor. Just before he reached her he stopped dead in his tracks. There was a smell in the air. It was… it smelled really good. His eyes snapped to the blood on her neck. His vision narrowed and tunneled till the only thing he could see was the rich, tantalizing, red.

Tucker turned to Danny. “Hey, where’s the first aid… kit. Danny?” Danny was standing stock still, eyes glowing red. Something about it sent shivers down Tucker’s spine. Tucker turned to Sam to ask her what was going on, only to see her staring blankly at Danny. She looked more like she was in a trance than Danny had just a little bit ago. Tucker whipped his head between the two of them, alarmed and confused.

Suddenly Danny dashed forward, knelt down close to Sam, and FUCKING BIT HER ON THE NECK!

“OH MY GOD!” Tucker screeched at the top of his lungs. Because what the actual hell! Danny was a vampire now? For a solid ten seconds Tucker stared at his blood thirsty friend and his disturbingly limp friend in shock while doing absolutely nothing. Finally in a scramble he pulled out his phone.

“How long does a vampire drink?” he said into the phone. Some AI told him that a vampire could drain 15% of a human’s blood in only six and a half minutes. (this is a real statistic done by the University of Leicester btw) Tucker was no medic but that sounded like a lot. Quickly he activated his phone’s stopwatch. He figured that he had wasted maybe thirty seconds panicking. Two minutes of drinking sounded like a good amount if Danny didn’t stop on his own. God he hoped Danny stopped on his own. He didn't want to get between a vamp and his meal.

Tucker watched the numbers tick away. Anxiety eating away at him. He was breathing hard and sweat ran down his temples, despite him doing physically nothing.

When the stopwatch hit 1:30 he gently shook Danny by the shoulder. “Dude, that’s enough.” He didn’t stop and kept drinking. Tucker shook him harder. “Danny that’s enough. You’re going to hurt her if you don’t stop!” When he kept going he knew what he had to do. “Sorry about this man,” he muttered. And then Tucker kicked him in the balls.

Danny grunted in pain and immediately choked on the blood in his mouth. He fell to the ground and started coughing while grabbing his balls. Sam slumped to the ground right next to him. Motionless.

Tucker knelt next to her and started feeling for a pulse. He quickly realized that he had no idea how to look for a pulse and just gingerly placed his hand on Sam’s chest. Good. She still had a heartbeat at least. Only now did it occur to him to check and see if there was still an open wound on her neck. Gently he wiped at the blood. Noting that he could see. If Danny had healed her neck then that meant that he kept his victims alive right?

Movement from the corner of his eye drew his attention. Danny had gotten up and was crawling backwards away from them, a look of horror on his face. He looked like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to cry or to throw up. “You back with us man?” Tucker asked him, not moving from his spot next to Sam.

Danny started gasping. Guess he chose the cry option. “I… sob… I… is she?”

“Sam’s fine,” he reassured him. “I think she’s just knocked out is all.”

Danny started crying in earnest. He drew his knees into his chest and curled up into a ball. Absolute sobbing. Now Tucker was man enough to know that men are allowed to cry and show emotion, but he wasn’t quite comfortable enough to give hugs and comfort, so they just sat in silence. After a while Danny wore himself out with active crying and had reduced himself to sniffling.

“What if, what if she doesn’t wake up? What if I took too much?” Danny asked in a whisper.

Sam chose that moment to groan. “Don’t think we need to worry about that dude. Now come help me.” he said.

Danny looked down. “I doubt she wants me to touch her right now.”

In the end Tucker had to help Sam sit up on his own. She was a little disoriented at first and didn’t even remember what happened so he had to explain. Danny didn’t say anything, staring at the floor with tear tracks running down his face. Then Sam did something that honestly surprised Tucker. She scootched over to Danny, and ever so slowly wrapped him in a hug. Danny froze for just a moment before wrapping her tightly in return. “It’s okay,” was all she said.

Danny started softly crying again. Sam let him. “What am I going to do?” he asked quiet

Just then an alarm went off on Tucker’s phone. The Fentons were on their way back. Tucker stood up. “I’ll tell you what you’re going to do. You’re going to go get bleach to clean all this blood up before your parents get here. Then you both need to take a shower. You’re a mess.”

In a flurry they started cleaning the lab, barely making it upstairs before Jack and Maddie came through the door. Danny gave Sam a change of clothes and let her shower first. Contrary to what the boys expected she was in and out in only seven minutes. Danny’s own shower was much longer. Tucker decided to not question it.

When everyone was out and dressed they just sat in Danny’s room for a solid twenty minutes without saying a word to each other. Finally Tucker asked, “Did it at least work?”

“What?” Danny asked, clearly having been jerked out of his thoughts.

“Are you not hungry anymore?” he clarified.

Danny seemed to think it over for a minute. “Ya know what? I feel fine if you ignore my soul crushing existential dread.”

“Mood,” said Sam.

Danny tried to chuckle at that but it quickly died out. He sighed. “You guys should probably call the Justice League.”

“What?! Why?!” Sam sounded angry.

Danny wouldn’t look at them. “Because I’m dangerous and…”

Sam didn’t let him finish. “Yeah? So? Bodyguards are dangerous. Dogs can be dangerous. People with HIV used to be considered dangerous. That doesn’t mean that any of them deserve to be locked up.”

“Yeah man,” Tucker piped in. “Besides, if they do anything they’ll give you a hero mentor or something.”

Sam snorted. “And before you know it you’ll be dressed in tights fighting crime.”

Tucker started laughing. “Imagine how bad things would be if you had worn the first hazmat suit your parents designed? You would have had no choice but to become a hero.” When Danny had refused to wear the skintight monstrosity that was the first hazmat suit, the Fenton parents had designed a new one that looked like jeans and a hoody. The boots,gloves, and gas mask were still pretty bad but at least Danny had been willing to wear it when he went into the portal. Tucker fully credited that hazmat suit to Danny’s partial survival. (Sam had made no secret that she was jealous of Danny’s parents being willing to concede on the subject so readily.)

Tucker stopped laughing and pulled out his phone and turned the screen to Danny. “If we’re going to call anybody, it's the discord for this meta support group I found.”

Danny frowned. “I’m not a meta tuck, I’m a monster.”

Sam grabbed a pillow and began to beat Danny with it. “Stop. calling. Yourself. A. Monster. Got it?”

“Ow. Ow Ok.” he cried out.

Sam held up the pillow threateningly. “I mean it Danny. You’re not a monster any more than a tiger is. You just happen to be an obligate bloodivore.”

Tucker rolled his rolly chair closer to try and grab the pillow. “Pretty sure that’s not the term for it.” he said. After a brief wrestling match for the pillow Tucker brought up the support group again. After nearly a half hour of debate they finally convinced Danny to sign up. Helped him make a profile and everything. There was a brief hiccup when they hit the secret identity waiver but after reading it it seemed reasonable.

A few days later he got accepted and Danny sent his first message.

Bloodivore: does this discord accept vampires?

furnitureLord: that sound super dope

Beholdthekragle: Dope?
Who says that anymore?
But yes
Vampires count as a meta ig

Breadborn: i dunno
Being undead might be considered a medical conidtion

Bloodivore: thats what i said

Glowstick: seems legit to me
as long as you dont go rouge

Bloodivore: I almost did.
Attacked one of my friends.
She okay thoguh
My other friend found this discord and made me join

furnitureLord: Glad your friend is okay
How long ago were you turned?

Bloodivore: about a month ago
It s been hard hiding it from my parents

Beholdthekragle: im hiding my powers from my parents too
I get it

Glowstick: youre in the right place dude

Vampirequeen: oh shit
Does this mean i need to change my name?

Bloodivore: keep it
Im not offended

Vampirequeen: yay

Danny spent the next week or so getting to know people on the server. He learned that Glowstick was a new hero in Gotham, furnitureLord was a dad, and Vampirequeen sold custom pet art. When he told them of his mental breakdown they all understood and shared their own stories of getting their powers. It made him feel less alone.

Two weeks after he attacked Sam Danny was forced to admit that he was hungry and he drank from Tucker in a much more controlled setting. Two weeks after that his friends noticed the signs of hunger again.

“This means you waited too long. Next time you’re feeding once a week.” Tucker declared.

Sam agreed with Tucker. “Also, I tried to buy expired blood for you to drink from a blood bank. Turns out that stuff is super regulated and hard to get a hold of. Something about supervillains and ethics.” she said.

“Well I can’t keep drinking from you guys. You’ll get anemic or something." Danny said. The amount of research he had done in the past few weeks was revealed by the fact that he even knew what anemic was. “I have an idea though. One of the guys on the discord suggested that I find a bunch of poor people and pay them for their blood. Sam, would you be my sponsor or something?”

Sam pulled a face. “You’ll have to reveal your identity to do that. You sure you’re okay with that?” By now Danny had made his debut as a hero.

Danny brightened. “On the contrary, this is the perfect cover. Phantom can be a ghost, Fenton can be a vampire, and no one will ever suspect that I can be both.”

Tucker grinned. “I like it. Anything ghostly that you do at school will get written off as vampire powers. It’s genius.” Tucker opened his laptop. “Now I’m assuming you’d rather drink from people who are the same age as you, so I’m going through the school records to find students whose families are struggling.”

Sam leaned over his laptop to look. “Make sure to screen out any super religious families. They might rat us out to hunters.”

Tucker nodded. “Gotcha. Atheist only. ‘Cept for maybe Superman’s cult.”

In only two days they were once again meeting at Sam’s house where Danny was introduced to identical twins, Brittany and Brianna from the girls soccer team. Their little brother had cancer and the medical bills were stacking up. Danny was actually a little uncomfortable knowing their sob story but he still listened to be polite. But he pointedly did not ask how much they were being paid. He could only assume that Sam was being generous. New people were added to the roster till Danny had a grand total of seven people to drink from (including Sam and Tucker).

At about the same time he was finally getting comfortable and good at being Phantom thanks to the advice and guidance from Glowstick. (Glowstick was the only one from the discord who knew he was both vampire, ghost, and a hero)

Things were finally beginning to look up.

Which was when his parents announced a road trip for their college reunion…

Chapter Text

Fun fact, 99% of metas are just regular people. Only a very small percentage went on to become rogues or heroes. Heroes in particular are actually the outlier. Duke knew this. So it surprised him when the new meta/vampire from his Discord chose to become a hero for his small town.

Bloodivore: it was an accident
The lunch lady ghost kidnapped my friend
What else was i suppose to do?

Glowstick: idk most people call someone else to take charge
Now that person in usually me
And you apparenty

The instant it became clear that Bloodivore was set on being a hero, Duke had blasted his way into the guys dms. Doling out advice and tips like his life depended on it. (because it kinda did)

Glowstick: you need to establish a really clear distinction between your hero persona and your civilian persona
Extreme case think if brucie wayne was batman
No one would ever suspect

Bloodivore: what if i keprt one persona a ghost and the other a vampire
I could get away with so much shit in school if people just assumed in was vampire shit
Kinda how like brucee wayne funding the justice legue is the worst kept secret
Yor right he totally could be batman and no one would ever guess

Glowstick: now youre getting it
Ill give you 50 bucks if you start carrying an umbrella to school with no explalnation

Duke also encouraged him to set up a twitter and instagram for his heroic persona. The sooner he got the public on his side the better. Duke obviously began following him immediately and sent the handle to other teenage heroes who had accounts.

@Phantom Spooktacular
Any other heroes out there have a guy in the chair who sort of tripped and fell into the position?
#technus #ITsupport

@RedRobin
Can confirm. This is how all tech guys happen

@Green and Vegan
I don’t have a tech guy. The tech guy distribution system skipped me

@SpoilerforLife
Confirmed. Tech guys are cats

@Phantom Spooktacular
I can’t support a pet. He’s gonna have to be an outdoor cat and be feral
#catdad

@Signal
All tech guys are feral
Make sure you get him vaccinated

Then someone from Phantom’s local high school posted a drawing of a cat in front of a computer. Apparently his tech guy loved it and was sad that he couldn’t make it his profile pic without being suspicious. That was until Damian saw it, made a much higher quality version, and posted it on his instagram. Computer cats became viral for a few weeks and he was able to use one without drawing too much attention.

Now Duke was careful and never revealed to the batfamily that Bloodivore and Phantom were the same person. Whenever he talked about him he was sure to refer to him as Phantom when he mentioned his hero persona and he only called him Bloodivore the one time he mentioned him as a vampire. He figured he should play along with his separation of ghost and vampire. That resolve was weakened however when Phantom met Vlad Masters.

Bloodivore: do you have a nemesis?
Do all heroes have a nemesis?
I think i have a menesis

Glowstick: theres actually a tier suystem for villiams and rouges
Its based on things like property damage number of people affected and such
Why do you think thus guys your nemesis?

Bloodivore: he wants to kill my dad marry my mom and make me his son
In that order
Tried to make me renounce my dad
Offered to train me
Hes been a half ghost slash vampire for 20 yers
And now were balckmailing eachother with secret identities

Glowstick: if your blackmailing eachother with secret identities shoul you be telling me?
Also you know theres a / button right

Bloodivore: i only promised to knot tell my parents
Never said anything about my friends

Glowstick: word
Give me his info and ill make a profile foor him on the batcomputer
See what comes up

Duke did indeed make a profile for Vlad Masters on the computer. That was when he discovered that Vlad Masters already had a profile for highly suspicious business dealings. Dude had a billion dollar company that other people practically gave him. Apparently he would just walk into meetings and the opposing CEO would just sign over their own company for pennies. Bruce even had a note saying “may use mind control, never meet alone.”

After some deliberation with Bloodivore, who didn’t want it to be common knowledge that half ghosts existed, they decided to mark Masters as a vampire who produced small amounts of ectoplasm. (Bloodivore was fairly sure that there was a more correct term for what they were but had no idea what that was) He also made a note that weapons made by Fenton Works would work on him in the contingencies file.

Over the next week bits and pieces of the story between Bloodivore and Masters came through his messages.

Masters had his own stash of bagged blood, which was apparently hard to get a hold of, and he had offered some to Bloodivore, which he had turned down
He had his own creepy lab complete with his own portal
He could make duplicates and lots of other tricks that Bloodivore couldn’t do
He had a minion/mercenary who also happened to be a regular rogue. (This rouge had not been the one to give away his identity so honor among thieves or some shit)
And more importantly
He was obsessed with Bloodivore’s mother

Glowstick: no no this is a good thing

Bloodivore: in what world is this a goo thing?

Glowstick: it means he can be manipulated
Do you have any idae how many of batmans villains we maniplulate into letting us win?
Its all about the mind games

Bloodivore: screw mind games

Duke’s phone went off. He checked it to see a new post on Twitter.

@Phantom Spooktacular
Screw mind games. Give me something I can punch any day over mind games

@Phantom Spooktacular
On a similar note I now have beef with an old man vampire

@Nightwing in Bludhaven
Been there. What is it with creepy old men having obsessions with teen heroes?

@Captain Marvel Shazam
Not sure if it counts but I first met one of my villains when I was ten

@Raven Offical
@Captain Marvel Shazam It counts. Still a creepy old man

@Red Robin of Gotham
Me too. And I mean that in every way

@Phantom Spooktacular
@Red Robin of Gotham Eww gross. I hope he never goes down that line

Duke grimaced. Yeah, for Bloodivore’s sake he hoped so too.

It was a few Shabbat dinners later when Duke found another thing to teach Bloodivore. Tim was telling a story about WE. “I’m just really glad that I read the initial contracts before we had anyone sign them. The secretaries at that law firm are clearly being exploited for sex and didn’t think anything of it when they included that clause.”

“I disagree,” Jason said, cutting into his food with a poise that did not match his career. “Any working girl with a job like that is going to know what they can and cannot get away with. My bet is they were going to trap you with accusations.”

A lightbulb went off in Duke’s head. “Hey Tim?” he cut in. “Hypothetically, if there was a vampire who had regular people where he paid them to drink their blood, he should definitely have some kind of contract with them right?”

It said something about the family that no one blinked an eye at the odd question. Tim nodded. “Oh for sure,” he said.

Bruce leaned forward. “Does this have anything to do with the updated file on Vlad Masters?” he asked.

“Ooh, I remember you mentioning him. Newly turned vampire on your meta discord right?” Dick interrupted.

Duke nodded. “Master’s tried to recruit him, yeah. Anyway, kid’s got a system with a wealthy sponsor and some, I dunno if I can call them thralls but thralls I guess. But to my knowledge he doesn’t have any kind of contract with them.”

Damian pulled out one of his daggers to slice open a roll. “I would suggest that when you help him write his contracts that he only drink when there is a witness, so as to avoid accusations like the ones that Drake narrowly avoided.”

Duke winced a little at that. The brat didn’t even know that Bloodivores venom knocked out his victims for a good ten minutes and he still came up with that. But now that he thought about it? Yeah. Someone with bad intentions could easily take advantage of the situation if one of the thralls happened to be a pretty girl. He should definitely warn him about that.

Bloodivore: HOW DID THAT NEVER AOCCUR TO ME?????

Glowstick: i dunno man. Your pretty new at this
Even your sponser friend is new at this
Shes the same agge as you right?

Bloodivore: were both 14
And i know some guys in my class who would def do that in my shoes

Glowstick:
I fight guys everyday like that

Bloodivore: now that i thiink about it i dont think ive drunk friom any of the girls alone
Theres always been somebody there
Ive drunk from some of the guys alone though
Is that bad?

Glowstick: its not AS bad
Im giving you a contact for a justice leg laweyr who works with metas
Batman gave it to me
They can help you with your new contracts

Bloodivore: youre a lifesaver
But does this mean that batman will know who i am?

Glowstick: meh
He prob already knows
Dont worry about it

Bloodivore: oh i will
but thakns anyway

A few more weeks passed. Duke was now teaching Phantom to build case files for his rogues. (This was made slightly difficult because their main mode of communication was still Discord but they made it work.) It was one day as they were arguing over whether Box Ghost should be even included at all when Duke had an epiphany.

Shit was he a mentor?

Did he become a mentor by accident?

Is this how Batman felt?

Shit!

Duke simmered in his newfound title for a couple weeks before accepting that yeah, he might be a mentor now. He thought about going to Bruce for advice. He knew logically that Bruce was a much better mentor now than when he started with Dick. It was a lot like that meme he saw of how the eldest child is treated vs the youngest. Bruce had a lot more experience now than when he started, and Duke didn’t want to make any of the same mistakes. On the other hand, Duke was beginning to suspect that Bruce didn’t actually know that Bloodivore the vampire and Phantom the ghost hero were the same person, and he wanted to keep it that way. He wasn’t sure what to do.

Then one day a new magic user came to Gotham. Well, it wasn’t the magic user themselves who was the problem, but rather the demon who was parading around in their body like a meat puppet. It looked like a classic case of a summoning gone wrong. The demon was having a blast, he apparently only really wanted to do sex, drugs, and rock n roll. Unfortunately the batclan were obligated to put a stop to them. Constantine was called and in the meantime they kept tabs on what the demon was doing until the magician could get there.

Everything was going fine until the demon noticed them and fired a poisoned dart at Spoiler.

“Constantine, report,” Batman barked in the batcave med bay. To someone who didn’t know him Bruce was being an asshole, to his kids and Alfred however they could tell that he was swimming in anxiety and worry (though he was still being an asshole). Stephanie had a raging fever, and her fingers, toes, and ears were starting to turn blackish red. She was delirious and they suspected that she was having hallucinations. Her heart rate and oxygen levels were also doing interesting things according to Alfred. Things seemed pretty dire.

Constantine was chewing on a cigarette, clearly wishing he could smoke. “It’s a fucking blood curse is was it is. If we let this run long enough she’ll turn into a demon herself with no memory of who she was before. Only thing we’ll be able to do by then is put her down.”

“That’s not happening!” Tim growled out. Duke wasn’t sure what Tim and Steph were or if there was even a label that applied to them. Platonic soulmates maybe?

“What are our options?” Batman asked. He still hadn’t taken off the cowl and Duke suspected it was so that he could hide his emotions better.

Constantine inhaled through his still unlit cigarette. “Okay so this is a long shot. But maybe, big maybe, a total and complete blood transfusion should do the trick. Every drop of her blood needs to be replaced with new blood. With any luck the curse will clear out of her system that way.”

Duke watched as a lightbulb went off over Tim’s head. And he means that literally, his aura actually brightened. Time looked at him for a moment with a look of hope on his face before turning back to Constantine. “What if, hypothetically, we knew a friendly, non-violent vampire and got them to drink her blood. Would that work?”

Constantine actually inhaled his cigarette and had a massive coughing fit. He spat the ruined cigarette on the ground and looked at them all as if they were crazy. “Are you all mad? You know of a vampire and didn’t call me sooner?”

“We know of two actually,” Duke said. “A newly turned one and an older one that we’re investigating.”

Constantine took a moment to visibly collect himself with a beathing exercise. “Now before I answer you insane question I need you to answer one of mine. Do you know how this vampire was turned? Was he sired by another vampire?”

Everyone turned to Duke. He panicked a little and told a mostly truth. “Mad scientist tried to make a portal to the afterlife.”

“Blood hell,” whispered the magician. He pulled out a flask and took a long drink. How he managed to ignore Batman’s glare was beyond him. “Alright. It sounds like you’ve got a Realms vampire. They’ve got some traditional name that I can’t pronounce. They’re supposed to be only created in rituals. We’re in a mighty lot of trouble if they can be created with technology now.”

“But could one of them remove the blood curse?” Batman asked curtly.

The magician nodded. “Yeah. That should work. A Realms vampire would be immune to that kind of curse so it shouldn’t hurt them or anything.”

Batman turned to face Duke with a snap of his cape. Oh he was really worked up if he wasn’t putting in the effort to keep his cape silent. “Put the coordinates into the Batplane. We leave in twenty minutes.” Then with another snap of his cape he turned to perform the pre-flight checks.

Duke pulled out his phone to warn Bloodivore. Looks like it was time to meet irl.

Chapter Text

“Sam no.”

“Sam yes.”

“Where did you even get holy water? You’re jewish.” Danny folded up the umbrella that he now carried everywhere as they stepped inside FentonWorks. His parents were never around when he left for school nor when he returned so they had yet to notice his new habit.

“On my family trip to Chicago over the weekend. And would you relax? We’ll just put some on your arm like an allergy test. It’ll be fine.” she said.

“That, or you burn to a crisp like Nosferatu.” Tucker said. They had recently discovered that Danny now sunburned very easily (in human form anyway). Turning the umbrella from a joke to a necessity and requiring a fake doctor's note for PE. As Danny’s best friend Tucker was obligated to make at least one joke an hour. Too soon they were in Danny’s room. First Danny took off his NASA tshirt, then he took off the long sleeve SPF shirt he wore under it. He held out his arm to Sam who pulled out a small bottle of water. They all watched in trepidation as she slowly spilled some water over his arm.

“AAAHHH! FUCK!” he screamed.

Sam instantly looked horrified. “I'm sorry I’m sorry I didn’t think it would actually work,” she babbled.

Tucker meanwhile dived for the discarded tshirt and began wiping the offending water from Danny’s arm. “Let’s treat this like a burn and get some running water over this.” Together they all hurried to the bathroom, thankful that Jazz wasn’t home. As his arm was held under the stream Sam apologized profusely. Danny was honestly a little surprised that she hadn’t started trying to defend herself or go into some kind of denial. It was one of the subtle ways she had changed since his accident. He was determined to keep her away from Jazz. She would love to psychoanalyze her.

Tucker on the other hand stayed true to form and started making jokes. “I suppose now would be a bad time to mention that vampires can’t stand garlic either. Should I get some garlic and rub that all over your arm too?”

Danny rolled his eyes. “You watched me eat a pizza and garlic knots last Friday.”

“Yeah, but what if a garlic allergy is slow to develop, like with you and the sun?” he replied.

“Garlic allergy won't be enough to stop me from eating the garlic knots from Little Papi’s"

“What about silver? I’m sure Sam has some silver spoons at her house.”

“That’s werewolves Tucker.” Sam said.

Tucker grinned. “So you're telling me that you don’t have a silver spoon in your backpack right now to test on Danny?”

“No,” she said way too fast and way too loud. Ah, there was the Sam he knew.

Tucker cackled. “Ha! You so totally do! I’ll bet you have garlic in there too!”

“Sam, go get the spoon,” Danny said suddenly.

“What?”

“Yeah, what?”

Danny was remembering something Glowstick had said. “We need to know what all my weaknesses are. I’d rather find out now than with something my parents test out. We can test it on my other arm. Get the spoon.”

Luckily for him, he ended the day with only one burn on his arm.

-----------------------------------------

“What happened to your arm?” Mikey asked in the boys locker room. Mikey was a fellow nerd, and was one of Danny’s… blood bags?… thralls? Whatever. He knew that Danny was a vampire so he could tell him the truth.

“We were testing to see if things like holy water and silver worked on me,” he said.

Mikey winced. “Ouch. Which one worked?”

“Holy water. Garlic doesn’t hurt and I can eat it if it’s cooked but when it’s raw it smells terrible and kinda gives me a headache.”

Mikey nodded. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure raw garlic smells terrible to everyone.”

The conversation ended after that and they finished getting ready for gym, not noticing that a certain track star and basketball player had overheard them.

---------------------------------------

“Danny, I messed up. Please don’t be mad at me.” Brittany pleaded. She had sat down at their lunch table a few days after Danny had fed on her for the second time. That time had been much more awkward because her mother had been present. Something about contracts and minors that the Justice League lawyer had been very adamant about.

Danny set down his chocolate milk. “It can’t be that bad,” he said, trying to placate her.

She breathed in between her teeth before saying quickly, “I told my boyfriend about you. About being a vampire. He saw you go into my house and got all suspicious of me cheating on him so I told him but he doesn’t believe me and he’s threatening to break up with me if I don’t tell him the truth and will you please prove it to him somehow?” She had her hands clasped in front of her.

Danny felt bad. He was technically responsible for this for his thrall. “I mean, I could turn invisible for him? I’m still practicing at turning into mist but I could try that? Or if he’s willing to wait till I feed off Brianna he could watch?”

Brittany brightened. “Thank you so much! I’ll go ask Brianna if she’ll do that,” then she got up and left.

“I’m glad she decided to ask you directly. You’re a sap for puppy eyes.” Sam said as she stabbed her tofu curry.

“Wait, you guys already knew?” Danny asked.

Tucker hummed an affirmative. “All of your blood bags have a group chat. You have your super special meta Discord. Let us have this.”

Danny supposed that was fair.

------------------------------------------

Rumors were starting to fly.

Danny had no problem with this as that had been his intent. It was actually kinda fun; revealing just enough to make people suspicious while acting like he was at least trying to hide it. He couldn’t imagine how stressful it would’ve been to try to hide his new powers completely. No, being semi-open about being a vampire had been the right choice. (even if he still had to hide it from his parents)

Someone had put a garlic wreath in his locker. The girls soccer team had invited him to all their games as their personal mascot. There was a random freshman girl who was uncomfortably obsessed with him and was stalking him. Paulina had even noticed him.

“You’re still a loser and will always be a loser. But you and your loser friends are invited to my house party this weekend. It’s at night so you can ditch the stupid umbrella and shirt.” Paulina flipped her hair in a way that made her look like she was in a shampoo commercial and stalked away. Meh, it wasn’t a date but Danny would take what he could get.

It was the day before Paulina’s party when the status quo changed permanently; whether this was good or bad depended on opinion.

Mikey had approached Danny in the locker room and had asked to borrow his fancy sunscreen that wouldn’t make you break out in pimples. They were doing the mile run today and both the boys would need to lather up. (Danny had a SPF shirt just for gym and wore track pants and a funky hat, so he only needed to do his face and hands)

It was after gym when Danny was walking back into the locker that he saw it. Dash and another football player he didn’t know the name of were picking on Mikey. Pushing him around and calling him names. Apparently they had found out about the fancy sunscreen and were calling him a girl. Now the smart thing to do in this situation would have been to say something to turn Dash’s attention to him instead. Danny could take a few hits way better than Mikey could. The not smart thing to do would be to become so angry that he grabbed Dash by the shirt and threw him across the locker room.

So of course that’s exactly what Danny did.

One would normally expect the room to be full of taunts and jeers at such a move, but instead it was silent. Danny would later learn that he had freakin hissed and bared his fangs at everyone. Eyes glowing bright green with a touch of red in them. “He’s one of mine,” he growled out in a distorted voice. “You can’t touch him.”

“What the fuck Fenton,” Dash spat out from the floor.

One of the track guys and a band geek stepped in between them. “Whoa there,” one of them said like he was trying to calm a horse.

“Let’s not start anything with the obviously supernatural creature.”

Mikey, being one of the only ones who wasn’t scared of Danny right now, walked over and placed his hand on his shoulder. “Hey, I’m fine. I’m not hurt. You can put away the teeth now.”

Just then the boys gym teacher walked in. “Something going on in What the hell?” He looked at Danny with a shocked face. Belatedly, Danny willed his eyes to dim. Now that the surge of adrenaline was over he was beginning to feel less angry and more stupid. Mr. Sampson surveyed the scene, turned to the track star and asked, “Did he bite anyone?”

It’s a shame that everyone was too worked up to appreciate how funny the locker room's reaction was to this question. Half the room shook their heads solemnly but with understanding while the other half had the most bewildered WTF faces going on.

“No sir,” said the track star.

Mr Sampson turned to Danny. “You going to bite anyone?”

Danny was finally calming down. “No sir. Well…” he pointed to Mikey, “Except for him, but not till later.” Once again, the reactions in the room would’ve been hilarious to anyone paying attention.

The rumors got much worse after this. (or better, depending on who you ask)

-----------------------------

Glowstick: Emergency
SOS
Red alert
Batman is comiing to pick you up
Be there in 90 min
We need you to drink someones blood

Can Danny just say that this is not what he expected out of his day. Giving in he had simply given his phone number to Glowstick and had him call him to fill him in on what on earth was going on. While he felt bad for Spoiler and wanted to help, a bigger part of him was filled with relief there was a word for what he was, even if no one could pronounce it. Something other than halfa which he was pretty sure was a slur.

Luckily it was the weekend so he was easily able to fake a sleepover with Tucker who was more than happy to play along as long as he got Red Robin’s and/or Tim Drake’s autograph. He called up Glowstick, no, Signal and arranged to meet them in the empty soccer field at school. A quick flight and a quick change back to mostly human and he was ready to be picked up. Finally at exactly ninety minutes the Batplane appeared over the soccer field. It was spooky and silent like an electric car but with more spikes. Danny was tempted to snap a photo for Sam and Tucker but was pretty sure that Batman would not approve.

The flight itself was weirdly intense. He really wanted to talk to Signal about being a hero but couldn’t with Batman listening in, so talk was limited to being a vampire only. He was in the middle of talking about having no idea where his fangs went when he wasn’t using them when Signal suddenly frowned at his phone.

“That’s weird. I made a tweet about ghost stories on my page but it’s not showing up.” he said.

Oh. Danny could solve this problem easy. “If you send it in Amity Park you have to change your VPN and turn off your gps to get anything to go through if you mention ghosts or Phantom. Otherwise it gets filtered and blocked.”

Signal looked at him. It was hard to tell what he was thinking with the mask. “I have to what?”

Danny nodded. “We figured it was something to do with the government and new heroes or something.”

Batman hit a button on the console and spun around in his pilots seat, which was apparently a swivel chair. “Tell me more about this censorship over Phantom.”

Danny had the vague feeling that he had done something wrong.