Chapter Text
Sleep is a fickle thing, sometimes it's easy to find and hold on to. Sometimes it's deep and restful. Sometimes it's hot and painful. And sometimes it evades you no matter what ghost drugs you are hyped up on!
Fright Knight had dragged Danny to the Far Frozen and dropped him into Frostbite’s waiting paws. Frostbite made quick work of his armor and under suit so he could assess Danny's condition. His wounds were superficial and only needed cleaning and dressing, his broken ribs would be a pain for a while though.
After addressing his injuries Frostbite declared him “Too skinny” and prompted him to consume a giant bowl of nutritional Ecto mush. After eating, Frostbite offered him a few sleep aid options. The first few were reasonable, like they could light some incense that the Yetis used for hyper cubs, he could take the ghost equivalent of melatonin, they could put him down for a nap in the nursery with the sleeping cubs, or they could try Frostbit’s new experimental drug that has been working to put restless spirits to sleep.
The last few were borderline psychotic, one yeti suggested they find out how much force it took to knock him out, one suggested a mock fight until he passed out from exhaustion.
So logically he went with a combination of the first three, but after a few hours the cubs were waking and Danny had just laid there listening to the soft sleepy grunts and snores of the cubs. They were adorable and Danny could listen to them for the rest of his afterlife, they soothed a part of his core that was always restless. But Danny’s human mind kept its constant dialogue going despite how exhausted he was.
So Danny asked for the drugs, they helped but he wasn’t really asleep, just lingering in that half awake half asleep state that is more exhausting than anything else. He can feel himself starting to metabolize the drugs and wake up fully when his door is thrown open and a panicked Kitty is standing there looking apologetic and terrified. Danny sat up as fast as his still drugged body would let him.
Kitty flew the last couple of feet and kneeled down into a ball on the floor “Please, Please I’m sorry” she pleaded before Danny could get a word out “It’s Johnny! The GIW is chasing him!”
“What!” Danny’s obsession flared, burning off the rest of the drug “Why is he in the living realm! I told you guys to stay here” Danny swung his feet off the bed and pushed himself up staggering only a step before he was on the move. Kitty kept pace with him as he stormed through the Farfrozen’s tunnels.
“Our cores were hungry and we knew the demons were taken care of so we figured that if we were far enough from Amity it would be fine” Kitty was nearly sobbing when they reached the open tundra.
Danny reached out his core in search of Johnny’s familiar ecto-signature, reaching through the vale and using his duplicate to amplify his reach he found Jonny in Gotham, good the Bats had been against the Anti-Ecto-Acts so that should give him a few minutes to find his thermos and make a portal.
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All of the bats had rushed home after they heard what was happening but things had wrapped up by the time they reached Gotham. They had just enough time to de-stress and sleep before Oracle woke the house in the wee hours of the morning. Bruce and Tim made it down first followed quickly by Dick and Cass with the rest of the house piling in after them. Once everyone had their coms in Oracle started to brief them on the situation.
“ The GIW has been spotted chasing a ghost through Otisburg towards The Narrows” the Batcomputer blinked awake showing the ongoing chase. It was clear from the footage that the ghost wasn’t causing any damage while the GIW vans were crashing through anything that stood in their way. Thankfully the streets were nearly empty, only early birds and night owls milling about so there weren’t likely to be any casualties yet.
They watched only a second longer as the GIW vans crashed through storefronts and white coated men shot green tinted energy blasts that burned through asphalt and melted solid metal. Bruce pulled his cowl on and set his shoulders “ Mission objective, stop the GIW and detain them. Make contact with the ghost but wait to see if Phantom handles them” The bats flocked to their respective bikes and took to the city.
“Batman, be advised” Oracle's voice chirped over coms “Hood is offline and not responding, his suit temperature readings are high” Bruce got a pit in his stomach, they had noticed that when Jason went into a pit rage his temperature would rise. It had been a while since his last episode and he had been doing better at controlling them when he was in them. But for him to not be responding means he’s not in control right now.
“Hn, Avoid contact with Hood until we get the GIW taken care of, Nightwing and Orphan if Hood interferes try to calm him” Dick was the best at dealing with a pit raged Jason and Cass was a close second, it would help if they knew what set him off but they’ll work that out once the GIW is handled.
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It didn’t take long for them to catch up to the GIW and the Bats were quick to start disabling the vans. Batman was proud to see his kids use so many techniques to stop the speeding vans, Tire snares, small explosives, the old fashioned batarang to the tire, trip wires, and Red Robin grappling into a moving vehicle… Okay maybe he’s not so proud of that one.
The chase was over faster then it started, they had piles of agents in white suits yelling about injustice and laws. The ghost had stopped and was watching from a distance, he leaned on his bike with his arms crossed. Nightwing approached first, keeping his posture open and non threatening. Before he could ask if the ghost was okay the ghost’s head snapped to look behind himself, there Nightwing saw The Red Hood stalking up behind the ghost. Except that wasn’t Red Hood right now, the eerie green glow coming from under the hastily plastered on domino mask was proof enough that this was the pits.
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Phantom had expected to portal in and pull Jonny’s stupid butt out of a sticky situation, This however was entertaining enough to let happen a little longer. Phantom watched as an irate revenant stalked closer to a cornered Jonny, dragging three of the bats along with him. He flew closer, noting that it looked like Jonny had been thrown through a wall or two. That would explain why they were in an old warehouse and why Shadow was cowering under Jonny. Phantom lounged in the air over Jonny and watched as the revenant wiggled free and landed a few quick hits on Jonny before the bats managed to grab him again.
Phantom giggled a little as he dropped his invisibility, still lounging in the air. Jonny balked, looking affronted “Don’t just sit there help me!” Jonny raised his hands to block the incoming blows as the revenant freed himself again.
“Nah, I think you deserve a good beat down for this.” Phantom said with a tinge of annoyance. “What were you thinking, leading the GIW into another ghost’s haunt like that? It's a damn good thing the bats were here or you could have gotten him killed!” he twisted in the air to get a better look at the revenant and, Oh that’s the Red Hood. Curiosity piqued Phantom reached out his energy and brushed it against Hood’s own. Phantom recoiled, not expecting the rancid feel of stagnant Ecto or the accompanying rage. Feeling his obsession flair again he quickly placed a barrier between Hood and Jonny. One hit from Hood could seriously harm Shadow, the lesser shade didn’t have the ability to circulate his own Ecto and was completely reliant on Jonny to maintain his form.
The bats pulled back when the barrier went up but before they could attempt to calm Hood a barrier was placed around them and they were forced back leaving Phantom and Hood standing face to face. Hood growled deep in his chest before launching himself at Phantom. The Bats watched in awe as Phantom traded blows with Hood, their fists meeting in the middle with little wisps of green and yellow when they parted. The constant stale mate seemed to enrage Hood more. He started throwing kicks but Phantom blocked those as well.
Jonny made his way over to the Bats and floated just above them, just as enthralled with the fight. Batman made his way to the ghost adjusting his posture to be more open. “ Do you know what’s happening?” He questioned.
Jonny looked away from the fight to give Batman a deadpan look “Something is wrong with your revenant, Phantoms the only one I know of that can filter and circulate that much Ecto in one sitting” he nodded back to the duo. Hood hadn’t managed to get Phantom to move even a step from where he started. Every kick and punch was parried with ease.
“Hn, is there anything we can do to help?” Worry and unease for his son’s wellbeing pushed him to take action but he trusted that Phantom was helping. Phantom hadn’t made a single move to hurt Hood, he just stood his ground and parried blows.
Jonny shook his head gesturing to the fight again “Phantom is exchanging Ecto with Hood. He pushes his clean Ecto in and pulls Hood’s stagnant Ecto out and into his own core to clean and circulate it”
“Tsk, Phantom hasn’t recovered from yesterday's fight he should not be awake let alone fighting Hood in his condition” Robin drew their attention to Phantom. Batman finally took a second to assess Phantom who was favoring his ribs, his glow was dimmer and the bags under his eyes made it clear that he hadn’t slept since the fight the day before.
“Hn”
The fight lasted a few minutes longer, Hood looking calmer and more exhausted by the second. They broke apart when Hood suddenly jumped back a few feet to catch his breath, He panted and wiped sweat from his face. Phantom lowered his stance before lightly grasping his ribs and allowing himself to pant a little as well. Phantom suddenly looked like he was going to be sick, a hand coming up to his mouth and the other wrapped around his chest.
Just as suddenly Hood moved too fast for anyone to stop him, Phantom didn’t have enough time to do more than raise his guard before he was thrown into a wall by one of Batman’s favorite kicks.
Batman is reminded of how small Jason was when he learned that move, too small to throw anyone back then.
Phantom groaned and curled around his ribs “That was a cheap shot” he whined
Hood stood there looking at his own out stretched leg like it betrayed him. He lowered it and made his way cautiously over to Phantom “Shit kid, I didn’t mean… I’m sorry, are you okay?” Hood lowered himself down, hesitating before slowly checking Phantom over.
“I feel awesome" Phantom squeaked, letting Hood unfold his curled form. When Hood got to the arm around his stomach Phantom bolted upright and seemed to flail around in his pocket dimension until he pulled out a small bucket that he proceeded to empty his core into. Hood just knelt there awkwardly rubbing circles into Phantom’s back while he heaved out the excess stagnant Ecto.
Jonny, having made his way over, knelt down next to Phantom and pressed a hand to the younger ghost's chest “We should get you to Frostbite” a nod from Phantom had the biker pulling the younger ghost up and guiding him away from Red Hood.
Once they were a few paces away Phantom raised his hand and summoned a portal. Before Jonny could guide them through Phantom stopped and looked over to the gathered bats, locking eyes with Batman and then Red Hood, Phantom seemed to consider something for a moment before nodding lightly “Come to Elmerton park one week from today, I’ll answer an many questions as I can” And then they were gone
With the ghosts gone everyone’s attention turned to Red Hood, Red Hood who was looking at his hands like he had never seen them before “Hood? You good little wing?” Nightwing moved to his brothers side
“Yeah, just… The pit rage is gone… but.. not?” He looked to Nightwing, his big brother, and then to Batman. And for the first time in years he could feel something other than rage towards them.