Chapter Text
Bruce entered the dining room to get breakfast, only to pause at seeing nearly all of his kids. It is rare for so many to actually be in the manor at the same time and he was glad to be able to spend time with them all. However spotting the mischief in most of their eyes alerted him, but he relaxed a little as he realizes that they are waiting for someone else.
Just as he opens his mouth to greet them all, a voice yells from elsewhere, "-NG HATE HIM."
Several of the kids grin as whatever their planned mischief grows, and Dick explains, "Tim is having a little trouble with his undercover assignment."
Bruce takes a second to recall what assignment. Justice League Dark, and more specifically John Constantine, had informed the normal League about an anomalous town called Amity Park. Tim was investigating it by posing as a high school student. So far he has reported that the town has been getting attacked regularly by ghosts with one acting as the town hero. However most of the town treats him as just another villain.
Both the normal League and Dark have talked about trying to offer him some support, and even possibly bringing him into one of the teen hero teams.
Jason, who normally avoids being at the manor unless specific people ask him or if he feels like bothering Bruce or Tim, speaks up, "He's declared a Mortal Enemy."
This causes Bruce to worry a little. Out of all his kids, including the one who is actively a Crime Lord, Tim is the closest to being a villain. He wonders if he should assign a guard just to make sure that the Mortal Enemy doesn't end up Mortally Wounded.
Damian remakrs, "It is simply Drake's incompetence which is causing the situation."
As Bruce opens his mouth to ask, Jason explains, "His enemy is another student at the school. The one who is most likely the town Hero."
Bruce sighs and mentally imagines something similar to the nuclear doomsday clock, though labeling it the Tim Villain Clock, and ticks it a little closer to Midnight.
Just as Cass opens her mouth to speak, a rarity on par with Jason being in the Manor, Tim barges in with his currently red hair. It was carefully dyed and bespelled to look natural.
As he storms in, he yells, "Daniel James Fenton!"
Danny has been having a lot of fun messing with Wesley Weston, prefers Wes and he/him, and so have his friends. Ever since the guy had moved in from Gotham, sent to live with his Aunt and Uncle for safety reasons, the kid has been as nosy as Lois Lane hot on a story.
It doesn't help that Danny accidentally transformed in front of him and turned the kid into a conspiracy theorist. At first he was worried about what he'll do, but it took a while before he started trying to out him as Phantom. Long enough that his friends were able to come up with plans.
When Wes did start telling people, luckily nobody was willing to believe that Danny the Loser was the Hero Phantom. Sam and Tucker have helped gaslight him and Danny has taken to trolling him in various ways.
He started with using a duplicate so he can be seen as both Danny and Phantom in the same place. This helped cement most people's belief that they are two separate people but Wes had already catalogued duplication as one of his powers. Later he let Wes see him capturing Phantom in the Fenton Thermos, dissipating it before it actually got sucked into the thermos, and the pretending to drink the ghost while making eye contact with the other teen.
Danny is pretty sure that last trick tipped Wes over an edge if the sheer look of rage and eye twitching was any indication. His trolling of the red haired teen, one that does look at least a little similar to him, has gotten a lot more intense as he's been using it as a distraction from his slow break up with Sam.
Vlad had arranged some actually competent ghost hunter to protect the city. Master's Blasters had even beaten Plasmius and humiliated the older halfa. During all that, Danny had pretended to lose his powers by recreating his accident. Sam had been pushing him to return to being a hero while he just wanted to try having a normal life. Every time he refused she just got madder at him.
When Plasmius took his revenge on the team by releasing a powerful ghost that had been sealed in an ectonurite rock, Danny finally had to step back up and transform into Phantom again. As it was some kind of eldritch being, when Danny beat it some kind of power transferred to him.
All the fighting with each other during that time, his and Sam's relationship was rocky. Jazz had already talked to him and helped him realize that they are better as friends. She promised to talk to Sam as well sometime soon.
Likely due to the break up, Ember has started to flirt more than fight with him. Danny is very tempted to go on some dates with her, Especially with Valentine's Day coming up as he doesn't want to be dealing with a break up during and end up hating the date almost as much as he hates Christmas.
After everyone had eaten, they start making their way down to the cave for Tim's latest report. Alfred doesn't allow cape work upstairs, which they had skirted the line already with talking about Danny.
As they walk, Jason approaches Cass and asks, "What were you about to say before Tim so rudely interrupted."
She signs, "Danny, Cute."
"Sounds like we might need to make a trip to Amity. To check up on things ourselves." Jason offers.
Once they were all down in the Batcave, Tim still fuming at all the teasing they did at breakfast began his report. The start is the usual recap about Amity Park and his undercover identity. During the week, unless he is needed for a Young Justice mission, he stays in Amity returning to Gotham on the weekends. He does this by flying to Chicago and using the Zeta tube there to travel directly to the cave.
Getting to his actual report he states, "I am sure that Daniel is messing with me. Nobody in the town is willing to believe that he is Phantom, and might be indicative of him having some wide ranging mind control powers. His friends, Sam and Tucker, are also working to countermand any efforts I have made in trying to reveal his deception."
Batman asks, "For what purposes are you trying to reveal his identity to the public?"
Tim pauses and thinks for a second before replying, "The Fenton's are the ones who created the portal that the ghosts are using to attack the city. Phantom causes nearly as much problems as the ghosts he fights. While he has occasionally saved the city, he uses his powers for his own purposes as often as he uses them to deal with other ghosts.
"It was made clear that competent ghost hunters can be utilized to deal with the problem. However, Phantom and his parents seem to want to drive them out so that they can be the ones getting the accolades for saving the town. This was proven with Master's Blasters who easily protected the town for a while until someone, likely Phantom, specifically released something too powerful for them to handle." He continues.
Bringing up images of a blurry fight, he states, "I was about to call in the League, specifically our magical heavy hitters like Captain Marvel and Dr. Fate, to deal with it when Phantom took it down, and absorbed its power. Clearly he allowed the others to fight it and weaken it enough for him to defeat and claim the being's strength."
Tim finishes by saying, "I am certain that he is masquerading as a Hero, something we've seen before, though what his end goal is I don't know. Usually the people who've done it were trying to replace or steal the powers of an existing one."
Batman grunts and nods at the logic but states, "We need more proof. Until you have it, back off from exposing his identity."
Tim reluctantly accepts the order and begins to close up his report with some general notes about the other goings on in the town. Batman notes that Black Bat was looking at the photos Tim had taken of Phantom and Danny like she was staring down a particularly chocolately dessert.
Something that only gets more intense when Tim remarks, "Daniel and Sam Manson seem to be in a slow motion train wreck of a break up. His sister Jazz has been playing damage control and trying to salvage their friendship."