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In Danny’s defense, he couldn’t have predicted this happening.
Sure Jazz fussed over him about Halloween, lecturing him on the importance of safety and steering clear of dark alleyways, but nothing of the sort had ever happened in Amity, the town was such a tight community that kidnappings like that didn’t happen in their middle of nowhere town, they would have to go up north for that.
But Danny wasn’t in Amity anymore, he was in Gotham with Sam and Tucker for Halloween weekend. The Manson’s had so generously invited them to tag along to a Halloween party hosted by some rich socialite in Gotham, and who wouldn’t want to spend Halloween in the most gothic creepy city in America? His parents frankly jumped on the chance to have him out of the house so they could go Phantom hunting, and so he could build connections with excentric rich people who may be willing to fund their projects.
Jazz was the only one who minded, but with lots of convincing, he got away with spending the long weekend with his friends.
The party was kind of boring in all honesty, they spent maybe 10 minutes in their respective superhero costumes before getting bored.
Their costumes were amazing, funded by Sam’s parents who insisted that they were to look nice for a party like this. Sam was in a Raven costume, shrouded by a deep purple cape and hood proclaiming her as the most ‘kick-ass goth superhero’, Tucker was dressed like Green Lantern - shocking enough that he didn’t pick Cyborg or Batman - but was buzzing each time his green ring lit up and a little holographic fist he programmed would come to life, and Danny was Robin, the newest and most stabby one.
The costume seemed highly authentic, he had the newer suit, not the older… primary color explosion one. Everything about the suit seemed authentic, he could almost mistake the material for Kevlar (he doesn’t really wanna know how the Mansons got the material on such short notice and had it fitted to his size). The domino was a little scratchy and Danny knew he was gonna get an acne line across the bridge of his nose and surrounding his eyes, but it was all worth it when he saw the gadgets he got.
Sure Tucker had the ring he modified, and Sam had that weird loopy belt, but Danny had birdarangs and what he thinks are actual Katana’s! He hadn’t touched this many weapons since he first got adopted by his parents, and it was comforting to feel the weight of throwing stars in his hands.
“Dude, you’re so gonna get kidnapped,” Tucker said as the three ducked out of the party and headed to the main streets of Gotham, pillowcases they stole in hand ready to trick or treat. “Nu-uh.”
“Yu-huh, I mean dude it’s terrifying how much you look like Robin, if we get kidnapped by the Joker or something I’m gonna kill you.” Sam quipped, pulling down her hood, and ringing the doorbell of a brownstone for some candy.
“Can’t kill what’s already dead.” Danny snarked back, as a lady let out a shriek and all but threw a bowl of candy in his hands and darted back into her house.
“Huh.”
“Robin doesn’t smile,” Tucker said while shoveling candy into his pillowcase.
“He does, but it’s more like bearing his teeth.” Danny put down the bowl of candy and demonstrated, Tucker let out a shiver “Scary dude, the fangs are not helping your case.” Danny cackled as they went down the street.
“Yeah, real scary and intimidating.” Sam snickered, flicking the little skull that clasps Robin’s hood together. “Hey, do you think Robin likes My Chemical Romance?”
“Guys, stop I’m taking this as a personal attack, Robin’s my fav.” Danny groaned, taking a KitKat out of his case and biting into the whole thing.
“You’re a monster.” Tucker deadpanned, “Not even breaking it, absolutely despicable.”
“I swear Jazz pounded Halloween safety into your head, that could be poisoned.” Danny shrugged and ate the rest of the chocolatey goodness, wiping the melted parts off on his cape.
“Pretty sure poison wouldn’t kill me, probably?” Even if he wasn’t half dead he could handle most poisons, maybe not Gotham’s fabled Joker-Toxin, but definitely cyanide. He doesn’t really understand most of the semantics of being Phantom, it’s still relatively fresh, his death had happened near the middle of summer break and since then he’s been learning more and more about himself each day, so who knows if he could die again - if he did who knows if he’d actually stay ‘dead’.
“Point still stands man.” Tucker rolled his eyes.
“You guys go on ahead, lemme tie my shoes,” Danny grumbled down at the pointy boots he wore, at least they were comfortable.
“Ridiculous,” Sam mumbled good-naturedly and the two went ahead to the the next house over to get some more candy - hopefully Sam looked like Raven enough to get them more candy like how the last house mistook him for Robin.
Honestly, Danny should’ve taken more consideration into his costume, granted the whole reason he chose it was that Robin was his favorite vigilante (I mean, what kid who was a trained assassin wouldn’t love a katana-wielding hero) but he did look scarily a lot like the hero when the domino was on. He has some natural melanin that didn’t go away from his death, black straight hair, and he was the same height as the young hero.
Truly he should’ve forebode something like this happening.
“Robin? What are you doing?” Danny looked up at the shadows from the alleyway in front of him, then looked around to see who the voice could be talking to, then when he realized there was no one he pointed to himself while standing up.
“Well?” The shadow stepped forward, and– holy shit was that Batman?!
Why was Batman addressing Danny ?
“Um.” A bit dumbly he raised his pillowcase of candy, and Batman peered in the bag as if bracing for something to pop out, only to find a large sum of candy.
“Where did you get that?” Batman frowned, seemingly concerned as to why his stab-happy Robin had a bag of candy.
“I stole it from baby.” Danny deadpanned, and when Batman seemed to open his mouth for a lecture he corrected himself sighing, “It’s Halloween, I knocked on a door?”
“Robin, you shouldn’t take candy from strangers, you’re who I least expected to go over with this. What if there was Joker toxin in it?” Danny frowned trying to remember if the Joker was out of Arkham, he doubted it, Jazz wouldn’t’ve let him go to Gotham if that were the case.
“Joker’s in Arkham,” Danny said matter of factly - why was he going along with this?? - “Besides he doesn’t have many gangs over here, they’re mostly on the other side of the city, so his toxin would have likely hitten over there than here, where he doesn’t have many distributors” Danny defended, somewhat grateful for Jazz’s drilling of gang and rouge territories of Gotham, they were currently in Catwoman’s turf and most don’t wanna mess with her.
Batman sighed… fondly? The small quirk of his lips was unsettling, this is probably how everyone who he smiled at in his Robin costume felt.
“We’re going to have to have Angent A look over your candy, come along now, we’ll take the batmobile.” And like an obedient little duckling, Danny trailed behind Batman, with no clue as to why he was abandoning his friends to follow Batman.
Oh, Sam was gonna kill him, and Jazz will probably get ahold of his ghostly form and kill him again.
But they were already in front of the batmobile, and who could blame him if he wanted to sit inside? Tucker would maim him if Danny had the opportunity and didn’t take it.
And now they were driving to the Batcave, great, when should he break the news he wasn’t Robin? He asked himself while fiddling with the apple carplay the batmobile had with no issue from Batman, he clicked an MCR album and hit play, gauging for Batman’s reaction, who acted like nothing was out of the ordinary.
Robin does listen to MCR!
That thought was enough to make him distracted, the Batcave came surprisingly quickly into view, wasn’t this some sort of breach in security? If Danny was any more nefarious or attentive he probably could’ve figured out the route they were taking, and probably deducing Batman’s secret identity from there.
But he wasn’t nefarious or attentive, so Batman was lucky this time.
Danny hopped off the batmobile a second after Batman did, keeping his head down as he rummaged through his haul of candy.
“Woah, bitty bat actually acted like a kid for once and went trick or treating.” A voice said teasingly, well mockingly , from where the batcomputer was (Tucker would probably die happy if he saw it) It was Red Robin, Danny held a small scowl. He didn’t particularly like Red Robin, he had an online beef with Tim Drake-Wayne (Tucker's massive celeb crush) and due to the loyalty of his friend, he found himself disliking him for no other reason than Tucker hates him too.
Besides his cowl was kind of ugly.
But he wasn’t wearing a cowl, he was completely bare-faced, and Tim Drake-Wayne, holy shit this dude’s a genius at keeping his identity a secret, beefing with yourself online? Maybe he should try that.
“Oh, fuck.” Danny muttered, looking over at Batman who was very much Bruce Wayne.
The revving of a motorcycle caught the attention of everyone in the cave, eyes briefly darting over to Red Hood who had a very peeved-off Robin holding onto his back.
“B, you forgot something on a roof.” Red Hood snarked, parking his bike as both heroes hopped off.
“No, I didn’t.”
“Oh, fuck Jazz is gonna kill me.” Danny reiterated this time everyone’s eyes flew towards him, jumping back and forth between him and the real Robin. Who was tense and ready for a fight.
“Not before I do it first clone.” He spat out, charging forward with a sword in hand. Danny let his instincts take over, and hopped out of the way of his blade, drawing his own, blocking every hit Robin sent his way.
“Dude!” Danny growled out, parrying a blunt strike, and kicking Robin in the stomach - he just kicked Robin in the stomach!! - The others in the room were tense and ready to step in.
“Fuck off man, You’re the one's who kidnapped me, I am not your clone.” With each statement, Danny dug up all his old league training and tried his best to subdue his attacker. Robin for the most part seemed thrown off kilter that someone was mirroring his movements and fighting him with ease. Granted Danny was rusty with his lack of using weapons as Phantom, a broadsword doesn’t work on ghosts, now does it?
Katana’s were never his favorable weapon, much to his mother's disappointment, but Grandfather had taught him to adapt, and this was one of those instances of adapting.
Danny hopped up in the air and drop-kicked Robin with the soles of his boots, he put all his weight on his sternum, holding the blade to the tip of Robin’s nose once he fell.
Danny tore the domino off his face, “What the hell is wrong with you people? I get pretty much kidnapped by a furry in a bat suit, and you attack me?” He faced the rest of the vigilantes who all had various weapons pointed at him, there were more heroes in the Batcave than he initially clocked.
He was rolling in his own grave at his lack of awareness.
Robin twisted from under him and sent Danny tumbling off him, Robin pounced on top of him and tried wrestling him.
Nightwing and Orphan had to tear them apart from each other, Danny had a cut on his cheek but Robin had a busted lip and a bruised ego, so pretty much Danny won.
“He fights like Mother .” Robin spat, writhing in Nightwings grip.
“Looks like her too.” Red Robin commented, his whole body tense and poised to strike, it was an elegant pose and much like Lady Shiva.
Robin squinted at Danny’s face - or what he assumes is a squint from the way the domino narrows down at him - and absolutely starts acting like a feral animal, kicking and screaming, mostly in an incoherent smush of at least 5 languages.
It takes Red Robin and Nightwing to shut him up, gagging him with a part of his cape.
“Who are you? Who sent you?” Batman growls - well, the effect is kind of ruined when Danny’s seen this man's face all over Tiktok and Twitter, a compilation of every bimbo idiotic 'Brucie Wayne' comment he’s ever made pops into the forefront of his mind, and Danny resists the urge to laugh in the man’s face.
“I’m Danny, you, uh, kind of kidnapped me thinking I was Robin - but to be fair you wouldn’t be the first person tonight to think that.” Batman prowls on though.
“Did the league send you? Did Talia ?”
“Erm.” How articulate, thank you mouth to brain filter, “How do you know my Mother’s name? Oh jeez, did you kidnap me on purpose ? Dude, do you know how hard I tried to keep myself a secret?” Danny groans, going slack in Orphan’s grip, who seems sort of amused, and plops down on the floor face first.
“If I wasn’t already dead I would kill myself.”
Robin choked at that comment, he almost looked like he was about to cry, which made everyone in the cave freeze because Robin was crying.
He shoves himself off of Nightwings grip and claws the domino off his face, and yep that’s Danny’s face staring back at him.
Or, well, his brother's face. While they almost seem like it, Damian and Danyal were never identical. For one Damian had their mother’s jade eyes and Danny had their father's icy blue eyes (who their father was, that was a mystery). Also, Danny had always looked like Mother, he had her sharp nose and heart-shaped face, light freckles, pouty lips, and eye shape. Where Danny was all curves and points, Damian was square and had strong bold features - like those horrid untamed eyebrows, which were from no doubt their father.
He and Damian looked similar enough though to be mistaken as each other when on missions, or by the lady’s attending to them. And today seemed like one of those instances where they were mistaken for one another.
Danny launched himself at Damian and wrapped both arms and legs onto him like an octopus, they staggered for a moment before Damian hugged back just as fiercely.
“Okay, I forgive you for kidnapping me.” He said into the crook of his brother’s neck while Damian kept muttering about how he thought Danny was dead.
Danny looked up at Batman, gauging his reaction, he looked like he’d seen a ghost (heh) and was sucker-punched by it. Red Robin broke from his stupor first.
“Jeeze, do you collect a new kid every year B?”
“I don’t think it counts as collecting if he’s his biological father,” Spoiler commented from beside Orphan.
“What?!” Danny squawked, phasing through Damian accidentally and plopping down on the floor.
“Hn.” Was all Batman - Dad? Father? Bruce? - said, kind of swaying in place.
“Is it kidnapping if it’s your kinda sorta dad? I don’t think Jazz will kill me if that’s the case, maybe lightly maim.” Danny muttered.
“Who’s Jazz?” Damian asked, plopping himself next to Danny and attaching himself to his side. “My sister.” There’s a thud and Batman’s on the floor, looks like he fainted.
“And down goes Batsy.” Red Hood pokes him with his boot.
“Maybe I should’ve specified Jazz is my adopted sister, and not his .” Danny trails off, he really needs to contact her, he doubts Damian is ever gonna let him out of his sight for more than two seconds…