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Danny was still in Gotham. But it's totally not his fault, he swears. He was just walking along the sidewalk humming a random toon when suddenly totally out of nowhere this white van screeched to a halt next to him and these guys in black masks jumped out of the car. They grabbed him, shoved a smelly bag over his head, and lifted him into the van where they tied his wrists together behind his back.
So you can see that it wasn't Danny’s fault. These guys kidnapped him, and what was he supposed to do, fight them? Nah, this was danny's time off, he’s not fighting anyone he doesn't want to.
Sure, Danny maybe he could have resisted at least a little or even gone intangible. But these guys probably worked really hard on their kidnapping plan, and who was Danny to ruin it for them? That wouldn’t be very nice at all.
Besides, Danny had gotten bored. And he was hungry.
“Hey, do you guys have any food?” he asked.
“What?” one of the kidnappers, Danny was going to call him Allen, said.
“Shut up!” another kidnapper barked. Danny would call him Maurice.
“But I’m hungry." Danny said. “And you owe me. I was about to go get myself some pizza or burgers or something. I’m not picky. Well, as long as it’s not toast.”
“Why not toast?” said the third guy from the driver's seat. He could be Chad.
“Becuase it sucks.” Danny responded shrugging. When there was no response, he continued. “So? Food?”
“Ummm…” Allen said. “We could stop by Batburger?”
“We aren’t going to Batburger!” Maurice said, exasperated. “We need to get the kid to the boss.”
“You don’t have to call him boss.” Chad said. “He’s not in charge of us.”
“Yeah. We’re goons for hire. We’re just doing a job for them.” Allen agreed.
Maurice made a muffled noise of exasperation, and Danny smirked, imagining the poor guy burying his face in his hands. “Let’s just get the Wayne kid to the drop off location.”
Danny frowned. Wayne? Was that some sort of insult? Or did he say ‘dang kid’? Whatever. Danny didn’t really care, he was just around for the ride. Literally.
He sighed. “Soooooooo….” He started, crossing his legs and trying to get more comfortable on the floor of the van. “Why did you invite me along on this lovely ride?”
There was silence for a moment before Allen cleared his throat. “We’re kidnapping you?” he asked, hesitantly.
“Yeah, but why?”
“We were hired to.” Chad said.
“So you just do this for a living?”
“Well not kidnapping. Usually we’re just bodyguards. You’re actually our first kidnapping.”
“Well congrats, dude! Is there like a bingo card of evil you’re working on filling out or something?”
“I’m not, but a lot of Goonian members are. Mr. Grumpy Pants over there will get a bingo when get this job done.”
“Stop telling him things!” Maurice exclaimed, embarrassment tinging his words.
“Chill, man. What does it matter?” Allen said.
“It’s the principle of the thing!”
“Um, guys?” Chad spoke up. “We’re here.”
“So why did you even choose to kidnap me? I’m no one special.”
“Ummm… You're a Wayne kid, you're dad’s rich.”
Dannny frowned. “No he’s not.”
“Yes he is.”
“No he's not.”
“Yes he is.”
“No he's not.”
“Look, kid, you can't fool us. We know your dad’s Bruce Wayne the billionaire. We were told where we could find you to pick you up.”
Danny frowned. “I have no idea who this Bruce Wayne is.” Danny sighed, if he was being honest with himself this was starting to get a bit boring. He was supposed to be having fun pretending to be a villain. Maybe an opportunity would come up when the kidnapping trio dropped him off.
Somewhere several miles away Tim Drake stood on the corner of two streets. He kept alternating between frowning and tapping his foot impatiently and pretending to be distracted by his phone. Where were those kidnappers? They'd been investigating a cult and gotten whispers that they wanted to kidnap someone famous. Jason had managed to sneak in one of his own goons as a spy. A job Tim wished he was doing instead of this, but he’d pulled the short straw so he was bait. He hated being bait. But if he was going to be bait the least the kidnappers could do was actually show up on time. He sighed.
Back in the van in front of one of Gotham's hundreds of lookalike abandoned warehouses on the edge of the city, really now why didn't the city do something about that? At least make them all look different, Danny sighed again.
“Alright then,” Allen said, "let's bring him inside.”
Danny heard the van door open and someone grabbed him and dragged him out of the van. At least they were gentle. Danny appreciated them for that. Maybe when he did his whole villain thing he wouldn't involve them. They were just doing their job afterall. He let them guide him into the warehouse where Danny could hear people shuffling around and talking to each other. The air smelled heavily of burning wax, and Danny realized what was probably happening. Under the bag over his head he smirked a smirk that was wrong on a human face. Unfortunately the bag was over his face so no one could appreciate it. Then he was tied to a chair, and the bag was finally removed.
A man in a hooded robe stood in front of him.
“Welcome.” Mr. cult man said.
“Did you get that outfit from a Halloween store?” Danny asked. “Becuase, seriously, the material looks pretty cheap.”
“Silence!”
“I just asked a question.” he grumbled.
“Silence!” Cult leader screeched even louder before huffing. ‘I’m sure you're wondering why you're here. I’m sure your terrified about might happen.”
“Not really,” Danny said, shrugging as best as he could while being tied to a chair. He frowned. How was he supposed to be dramatic if he was tied to a chair? He let the ropes fall away using intangibility, a very handy power when Danny remembered he had it. What? He had so many powers they were difficult to keep track of.
“This is a summoning right?” he said, ignoring everyone's gasps of alarm as he brought his hands in front of himself. “I mean it's pretty obvious, what with the pentagram drawn in red and the candles. Honestly all you cult people are the same. Where the creativity where’s the passions?” he asked as he paced around the interior of the pentagram waving his arms dramatically. He turned to face the cult leader, hands on his hips. “Seriously Gerald? I expected better of you.”
Gerald spluttered ‘That’s not my name? My name’s Ben?” he paused abruptly. “And what are you doing standing up!” he screeched.
Danny rolled his eyes. “I was tired of being tied up.”
“Tie him down!” Ben screeched and the three guys Danny thought had been his kidnappers (they were the only ones not dressed in cheap halloween grim reaper robes) came forward.
“Hey, kid, you need to stay seated.” Chad whispered.
Danny sighed and let himself be tied up again.
The leader cleared his throat. Danny was still going to call him Gerald.
“Now, like I was saying. We’ve brought you here for a great purpose!” he said magnanimously, gesturing around himself. “We are going to summon the Ghost King, and he will remake the world. No longer will the few rich lord over us with their wealth and fame and perfect smiles and perfect hair.” he scowled.
The other cult members who’d lined up around the circle muttered their agreement.
“And don’t forget their nice cars!” one called.
“And all the dates they get!”
“And the free time!”
“And the shoes!”
“Yes!” Gerald continued. “It’s not right! But when we summon the Ghost King he will fix things and make them as they're meant to be. With us ordinary people on top! We will be the ones with fame and nice smiles and big houses and enough money to fill a swimming pool and drown in!”
Cheers echoed from the other cult members.
Danny gazed over at the back wall where his three kidnappers were standing eating popcorn. Danny wished he had popcorn.
He turned to Gerald. Well you're in luck. I know just how to summon the Ghost King.” He stood up again and stepped out of the circle, taking Gerald's arm and leading him to the chair. The poor confused man followed. “If you’ll just sit there we can start.” Danny said, stepping out of the circle after tying Gerald up.
“Wait a minute!” Gerald said. “You're the sacrifice! The Ghost King needs a host body and who better than a member of the rich snobs who rule this city!” He grunted struggling with the bonds.
“I’ve told you,” Danny said, “I’m not rich. I’m not even from here.”
“Rob get me out of these ropes!” Gerald screeched, ignoring Danny.
A man scrambled forward and started to untie him
“And the rest of you!” Gerald screeched again. “Grab him!”
“Stop!” Danny said, and the cult members stopped. “I am your leader!”
They looked at each other confused
“No, I am!” Gerald shouted.
“Then why are you the one tied to the chair? Hmmmm?” Danny asked, crossing his arms. “Now,” Danny continued, “Rob get over here.” he said in his most commanding evil villain boss voice. Rob scrambled over.
“Get me out!" Gerald screeched. Danny ignored him.
“Now we can begin the summoning!”
Just then the sky lights broke and vigilantes dropped in.
Danny frowned. Why did so many places have sky lights? Did the city do it on purpose to let the furrys in?”
“Stop.” Catman said.
“Batman!” Gerald screeched. “This Wayne kid is insane! He tied me to this chair!”
Danny chose not to point out that Gerald had tied Danny to the chair first. Instead he just cackled. “Mwahahahahhahahahhahahhaaaaa”
“No one will stop me from summoning the Ghost King!”
Catmiester frowned at him. “What are you doing?”
“I am summoning the Ghost King. Come on get your listening ears one. I already said I'm summoning what I’m doing. What's the point of having big ears if you still can't hear good.” Danny grumbled.
“You don't have to do this.” Mr. Meowsers said, around them the other furry dressed up people were taking down the cult dressed up people.
“Uh, yes I do.” Danny said. “Because I want…” he trailed off, idly tapping his chin with a pencil he’d pulled out from a pocket dimension. He turned to Gerald. “What was it?
“Fame and glory and money and perfect teeth and all the girls to like you.” he grumbled.
“Yeah, that.”
“It’s just not fair!” Gerald continued, starting to cry. “I can't even get one girl to go on a date with me, but Bruce Wayne gets them all!”
“That sucks dude," Danny said. “I mean…” he cleared his throat. “Mwahahahahhahhahahhahahah, soon that won't be a problem because you'll serve as host for the Ghost King!”
Danny dodged something thrown at him. Was that a rope with weights at the end shaped like cats with batwings? What are those called? Bolas? Or is that the fancy feather scarf? Eh, whatever. He extended his ecto and let the lines of the pentagram glow green.
“I summon you!” he exclaimed.
There was a bright flash and then floating over Gerald's head was a blob ghost.
Everyone had frozen.
“Oh, great and mighty Ghost King, bring me fame and glory and perfect hair! Dethrone the evil rich people. We will feast on them because, seriously, eat the rich!” Danny said, ignoring that as Ghost King he was technically also rich.
The blob ghost chirped. Gerald screamed. Danny cackled.
The blob ghost flew to him. It chirped again.
Danny cackled. “Now with the Ghost King at my side I will rule the world…” he paused, “actually that would suck. Let me start over.” He cackled again. “Now with the Ghost King at my side no one will stop me from consuming copious amounts of caffeine! Mwahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahah!” he finished, turning himself and the little blob ghost invisible and flying up through the roof.
Now he really was going to leave the city, he thought to himself as he flew away, idly scratching the blob ghost on the head so that it purred and nestled in his hair.