Chapter Text
They were after him. Everyone.
His parents want to run tests. The GIW wants to experiment and exterminate.
Their trackers pointed to him and any other ghost that had an emotion. Which really meant they pointed to the ghosts all the time, as ecto-entities are made of emotions and ectoplasm. Comprised of the thing that is being tracked.
Apparently, emotions in ecto-entities set off a slightly different frequency of ecto-energy that is just about always active. It shows up more easily than the other kind of energy that is emitted when a ghost is using any ability, which can be easily suppressed by anyone with the right focus.
Emotional ecto-energy? Supposedly always goes. As long as the ghost has emotions, which they always do, the tracker can track that, which it always will.
So where does that leave Danny?
On a bus. Building walls in his head as he tries to suppress everything and anything that wants any sort of hint of expression.
His ultimate goal is to leave the country. The Anti-Ecto Acts can't chase him across borders... hopefully. His current goal is to get to Gotham, where there is so much crime that no one cares about anything, and he can stow away on an international ship, or maybe just walk on board to get across the Atlantic.
Currently? On a bus. His go-bag is down at his feet, his hand is loosely gripping the strap of the duffel. He's got a good amount of cash from Sam, a few pairs of clothes, a bit of food, a water bottle, a first aid kit, and a Thermos. His head is resting on the cool window, and he's dazedly watching raindrops as they run past. He's not watching any one drop in particular, because that means becoming invested, even slightly, in its journey. And that becomes a trackable emotion for scanners.
He remembers his parents boasting about the new range technology for all their scanners.
"It can find something on the other side of the country! Isn't that amazing, Danno!?"
He almost wants to feel a bit fond of his dad's jubilance, but smothers the idea and throws it to the back of his mind where it will eventually wither and die.
He watches the raindrops on the window.
---
14 hours and 3 bus changes later, he sees Gotham in all of its smog-covered, dingy glory. The bus rolls into the city and stops at a gas station near the edge of everything. This is its only stop in Gotham, then it'll head south to Metropolis, so Danny gets off here. There are clear signs of drug use in the broken needles around the side of the building, dark brown stains that are right outside the dumpster that no one has bothered to clean up, and trash littered across the edges of the sidewalk no matter where he looks.
A small amount of pity tries to claw at the corners of his mind, but he ignores it and instead starts walking farther into the city, duffle-bag high on his shoulder.
He's managed to build tall icy walls in his mind. Anything resembling emotion is trapped inside, smothered, and quickly dies. It probably isn't healthy, but neither is dying at the hands of hunters. He isn't quite sure if he is bottling his emotions up or not, but he isn't planning to be in the country for the eventual emotional explosion anyway, so he carries on. At this point, he's just blank, empty. It's a bit hard to focus on things for very long, and if he let himself think about it, it would probably be because he intentionally isn't letting himself get interested in anything.
Danny walks alongside the highway he got off at toward the ocean, continuing in the general direction that the bus came from to continue east. To docks, or ships, or something to bring him across the Atlantic.
"Hey, kiddie, what are you doing all alone?" he hears from a passing alley.
It is still Gotham after all. The crime capital of the world. Danny continues walking.
"Don't just ignore me, c'mon, I'll walk you home, all safe and sound." ... And now the guy is following Danny.
He talks in a quiet breath so that he doesn't sigh in exasperation, and he doesn't glare in frustration, and he pushes both emotions far away from him. Put everything behind the walls. He almost checks out, but instead speeds up his pace.
"Hey," the guy grabs Danny's arm, stopping him, "look at me when I'm talking to you!"
Danny can't use his intangibility to phase out of the grip, as that would emit ecto-energy, which is everything he doesn't want, so instead he belatedly tries to tug out of the man's grip. The man's hand is tight around his arm.
"Woah, now! We're just having a friendly conversation." Danny actually looks at the guy for the first time and sees a literally rotten smile with disgusting yellow crooked teeth. Disgust wells up for a moment before getting squashed and discarded. Behind the wall. He feels some sort of physical sensation, shivering in his chest, but in only moments, it disappears, and the world gets slightly fuzzy for a second.
"Kiddie? Anybody home?" The guy waves his hand in front of Danny's face, and it takes a second for his eyes to lock onto the movement. "You brain-dead or something?" Danny doesn't answer. "Oh well. I'm gonna have fun with you."
He drags Danny toward the alley he came from, with Danny trying to tug away again, but the guy only gets a few feet before falling face-first to the ground when someone else jumps on top of him from a building.
"What a fuckin' creep." The new guy is wearing a leather jacket and a bright red full-face helmet. Danny looks at him for a second. Probably a vigilante. Gotham has a lot of those. The vigilante pulls out a gun and shoots the creep in the back of the knee. "Now he won't be getting anywhere."
Shock and a bit of fear claw at the walls, but both quickly wither as they too find their way behind his mental wall. He feels the shiver again, then just... nothing.
With no one currently impeding his progress, Danny turns to continue his progress toward the ocean.
"You okay?" The vigilante asks. "You got a place to go?"
When Danny doesn't answer, the vigilante pulls out a phone, types something, then starts walking beside him.
"Kid, you hear me?" He doesn't answer.
It seems at some point Danny decided, subconsciously, that he just wouldn't speak anymore. Now, consciously, he is deciding that it's probably a good thing because he is prone to puns, sarcasm, and quippy comebacks, all of which stem from his now illegal emotions. It'll be safer to just not say anything and not even interact with the chance of feeling something.
So Danny keeps walking silently, already tuning out the vigilante.
It isn't until he realizes he's stopped with the vigilante kneeling in front of him with a waving hand that he tunes back into the world.
"Are you with me?" Danny stares at him blankly. His shoulder is being held in the vigilante's gloved hand. Danny tugs away, and unlike before, the man lets go immediately. "Are you okay?"
Danny starts walking again. The man follows again.
"Where are we going?"
...
"You know, you're kinda walking toward the bad part of town."
...
"Are you in shock?" The vigilante takes his wrist, but it doesn't hinder Danny's movements. "Nah, your pulse isn't racing… may be be a bit slow if anything…"
...
"Maybe you just can't speak?... Can you understand me? You can nod your head or something."
…
"Nothing? I'll shut up, I guess."
And they walk together in silence. No one else tries to jump him, but that is probably because of the vigilante. It doesn't matter though, he just has to get to some ship.
When Danny starts to hear water in the direction he is walking, he feels a slight burble of hope before he shuts it down. Walls. And then nothing.
At some point the already dreary environment becomes drearier. Danny is still walking in the direction of the water.
"Kid, we're coming up on Crime Alley. You sure this is where you wanna go?"
…
"You… don't seem like you're aware enough to walk through unscathed."
…
"Guess it's up to me to watch your back then."
…
The buildings on the right look especially worn down, and gunshots can be heard in the distance. But Danny isn't really planning on going into that neighborhood unless the sound of water brings him into that neighborhood, which it doesn't.
The vigilante keeps a vigilant (ha, wait, no. Walls. An almost physical shudder goes through his heart as he rejects another emotion. Then nothing.) eye on the decrepit places.
After a few road crossings, and a few more alleys passed, the road he is walking along starts to curve left. Danny hears water coming from both the right and the left, the right sounding more like the ocean, and he doesn't have to cross a highway, so he turns right toward the shore.
There's a few more buildings and he chooses to slip through an alley between two brick buildings, and then he sees a road, a bit of beach, and the ocean.
The ocean is… big. Awe-
No. Walls.
Nothing. Empty.
He turns away from the blue expanse. He doesn't see any docks. He's standing on the sand of the shore, and he doesn't quite remember crossing the road, but whatever. He starts walking along the shore to the right. The vigilante is still by his side. And they just trek along together.
"…You don't have a place to go," the vigilante finally says, "do you?"
…
"I know of a few shelters that are good." The vigilante pulls out a wallet from his utility belt. "And you won't have to worry about CPS." He holds out a piece of paper for Danny.
It takes a moment for it to register that the vigilante wants Danny to take the paper. He takes it, but doesn't look at it, just holds it in his hand as he walks. He doesn't need a shelter, he's gonna be on a boat in the near future.
"There's the place's names, addresses, and times of business," he continued, "They're all good, I made sure to vet them myself."
…
"You… didn't even look at it…"
Danny decides to space out again before he gets the idea to feel sorry or guilty or something.
Just… walking along. Trying to find some docks.
At some point sound reaches him again, and he sees the vigilante kneeling in front of him, holding the hand with the list.
"Hey, can you look at me?" he is saying, "That's it, you're doing good."
Danny blinks, refocuses, and walks around the vigilante.
"Kid…"
Just looking for some docks.
"Oh my god, seriously." Then the vigilante mutters something about brick walls and bees.
He walks in front of Danny again, and before Danny can just swerve around the man, the guy puts both hands on Danny's shoulders, and stops him.
"I'm gonna get you somewhere safe, okay?"
Danny just stares at him.
"And you gotta stay there, but you will be safe."
Danny decides he doesn't want to be a part of this conversation and pulls himself away to continue his trek, only to be scooped up and fireman-carried by the vigilante, duffel bag and all.
Danny takes a full second to comprehend what just happened before struggling. But as soon as his heart starts pumping with the harsh movement, he feels panic try to run it's way out of the Walls, so instead he falls limp.
Walls. Nothing. Empty.
Good.
Guess he can't move too much or adrenaline or something will kick in and make him feel something. Whatever, he can deal. He'll just leave when he gets set down. It's not like the vigilante can hold him forever.
Despite holding a whole other person on his shoulders, the vigilante pulls out a phone and calls someone.
"Hey, Candice. I got someone who you wanna meet. … Nah he's just a kid, but- … He's. Something special for sure. …" he laughs, "No, no. He just needs an actual safe place. And you know I don't trust the system. … You know I pay you right? I could double- … You. Do get overtime. … Well, then I gotta bash some heads in, but you can find a place right? … Yeah thanks. You're amazing Candice, truly don't know what I would have done without you. … yeah, yeah. … Bye." He hung up, and put the phone back in his pocket.
"So I got you a place."
…
"Well, not quite yet, you're still gonna have to go to one of the shelters for the night, but after that? You'll have a place."
…
"Not very talkative are you…"
…
"You still have-?" He grabs the list from Danny's hand, "You do. Alright," he holds up the list so that Danny can see the names clearly, somehow keeping Danny's head and the list steady enough to be legible. "Just pick any place from this list, and we go there."
Danny didn't want to go to any of the places, so he let his eyes blur.
"Kid?" Danny was bounced a bit. "If you don't pick, I will."
…
"Alright then. To Undertow's we go."
…
"You know?… I'm kinda worried for you, kid."
…