Chapter Text
Danny shuddered to think of how long it had been since he'd last had a completely enjoyable, uninterrupted day. This bright early-March Saturday morning had shaped up to be just that until his ghost sense had paused a heated battle on Doomed, tearing the boy away from his comfortable room and out into the sunshine. Yes, getting some vitamin D would benefit anyone, including half-dead teens; he merely wished it could be under better circumstances and after this round of Doomed had finished.
This particular ghost, a winged gorilla that could very well be one of Plasmius' creations, had decided to make a break for freedom rather than stay in Amity Park. The undead beast very nearly outran Danny Phantom despite its considerable size. He wondered, after cresting the Appalachians, just how long the ghost could keep up this speed because he was beginning to struggle himself.
Eventually, the gorilla and Danny broke through a thick cloud cover and descended into a large, dirty, oppressive coastal city. Most of its metropolitan area was contained on a central island with several bridges connecting it to peripheral neighborhoods and industrial zones. Regardless of the pervasive smog and somber atmosphere, Phantom found the city's cool air to be refreshing after his exhausting flight.
The ghost lost him when it made a beeline for a decrepit neighborhood at the south end of the island. Panting, Phantom took the opportunity to alight on top of a residential block and catch his breath. He peered out over the neighborhood looking for any sign of the gorilla. Upon spotting the incriminating green glow of a ghost in a nearby alley, Danny smirked victoriously and took off once more.
The gorilla was smart despite its animal appearance. It faked a right hook at the hero which Phantom easily dodged, but the ghost used its rotational momentum to extend its left wing and clothesline Danny behind it as it spun. Danny was knocked back but somersaulted back to his feet instead of tumbling to the ground.
"Hey, I didn't know I could do that!" he cheered, having amazed himself with such acrobatic abilities. His joy was, unfortunately, short-lived. "Oh crap-"
The gorilla had used Phantom's distraction to lunge at the boy with a ferocious roar and tackle him to the pavement, straddling his chest. The hero's wind was knocked out of him, and his transformation rings flickered momentarily around his waist. He nevertheless suppressed his core's cry of 'uncle' and resorbed the rings. Phantom had come this far and would be DAMNED if that winged gorilla beat him now.
Said ghost raised a fist to crush the boy's face. Danny, though, quickly went intangible and sunk into the pavement out of harm's way. The gorilla roared at the pain when its fist splintered the asphalt rather than Danny's skull.
Phantom then rocketed up through the ground and shoved himself full force into the beast's stomach, throwing it into a wall as he flew. As the ghost crumpled, Danny stood gripping his side when it cramped from the exertion.
"Alright, ghost. I'd say that's tag, you're it."
The beast stirred and raised itself to its feet once more. However, as it was moving very slowly, the halfa saw his opportunity. He reached for the thermos and uncapped it, aiming it at his difficult foe. As Danny pressed the activation button, the gorilla delivered a massive final blow to the boy's chest. He was propelled backwards, but the containment device's tractor beam locked onto its target as the boy sailed through the air. All at once, the ghost was contained, Danny lost his drive to stay in ghost mode, and the exhausted teen arced into a long-forgotten telephone box.
As he flew, Danny curled instinctively into a ball and braced for impact, but it never came. He stopped instead, frozen in mid-air, made a temporary prisoner of whatever power there was over him. And with a flash of light, the garbage-ridden alley disappeared.
"Recognized: Robin - B01."
"Hey KF, have you seen my DS? I can't find it anywhere."
A mouthful of chips delayed the reply. "Check between the sofa cushions."
"That's what I'm doing right now!" Robin snapped. Artemis and Aqualad watched from the kitchen as cushions went flying left and right. "Could you come help me look?"
"But I'm eating!"
Misery coloring his expression, Robin slumped into a defeated posture. "Aw come on, we all know you'll find it ten times faster."
"Ugh, fine, but you'll owe me."
Before Robin or the other two assembled team members could blink, a yellow blur had blasted through the room, and Robin's blemished DS now rested in his hand.
"Thanks. Where was it?"
"Under the coffee table. How about the next time you run off on a mission, you put it down first so it doesn't go flying?"
Robin chuckled nervously as he began straightening the furniture. "I'll try to remember."
Kid Flash woke his phone to check the time. "Hey when do Miss M and Supey get back from that school thing?"
"I dunno, I think they said an hour from now," Dick replied, finally reclining in a chair with his newly recovered DS.
"Recognized: Robin - B01."
Kid Flash and Robin both did double-takes at the sound of the zeta beam computer's electronic voice. "Wait, what?!" they cried in unison, with Artemis and Aqualad showing similar confusion.
As the quartet of protégés arrived at the zeta tube, the figure of a black-haired teen boy came flying out of the portal. He held himself in a ball and tumbled across the floor, gripping an object tightly to his chest as his legs flailed. He came to a stop on his stomach right at Robin and Kid Flash's feet.
The teen lay almost completely motionless for a few moments, his breathing the only sign of life. He finally stirred and moaned. "Ugh, what happened to the garbage smell? Not that I'm complaining..." the newcomer muttered as he laboriously got onto all-fours and coughed, panting heavily. He began to stand but only made it onto one knee before he froze at the sight of other people's legs next to him. His eyes darting left and right, the boy's head cautiously raised to see who was motionlessly observing him.
"Holy sh..." His voice died in his throat when he locked onto Robin. The Boy Wonder flinched; it would be like looking into a mirror if he were out of his domino mask. The boy unwittingly fell back as the heroes surrounded him with defensive battle stances. His face went from horror to awe in fractions of a second as he realized who they were, a maniacal fanboy grin splitting his face. "You...You're-"
"Dick Grayson?!" Kid Flash shouted disbelievingly. It had taken a few moments, but he'd finally placed the boy's appearance. "But-" He caught himself before speaking further but couldn't help looking to make sure Robin was indeed still standing next to him.
Robin was the definition of stoic, his face not showing any outward sign of emotion while he was looking at essentially a duplicate of himself. It was more than obvious to Kid Flash, though, that his friend's thoughts were racing.
"Who's Dick Grayson?" the kid finally replied, halfway between confusion and offense as he began to stand again. The tensing of every team member present discouraged him from standing fully. He instead raised his hands placatingly in surrender. In fact, he appeared just as mystified at his arrival in the cave as they were.
Robin frowned when this mystery kid's voice even sounded like his own. From the looks of everyone around him, they found something familiar about him as well. This was getting far too weird and close for comfort.
"Wait…" KF turned helplessly to his friend.
"Richard Grayson is the ward of billionaire Bruce Wayne," Robin replied automatically. He mentally reiterated the word 'clone,' the business with Roy Harper still fresh in his mind.
"Oh, that guy," the boy muttered pensively.
"Well, you're clearly not Dick Grayson, so who are you supposed to be?" Artemis demanded.
"Just some kid who got chased into an alley and shoved into an old phone box. Then physics went all weird, some lady with no emotion at all said 'Recognized: Robin-whatever,' and then there was a flash of light, and then boom, I'm here. Where, uh…where is here?"
"That is none of your concern," Aqualad responded levelly. "What is your concern is how you were able to get here."
"I dunno, dude. Like I said, I was just in an alley and I got thrown into a telephone booth. Can I stand up now?"
After a moment of consideration, Aqualad nodded and everyone slightly relaxed their postures. Robin extended a hand and pulled the boy to his feet, taking note of how they were precisely the same height and build. Their similarities did not escape Artemis and Aqualad's notice, either. Danny wilted under Robin's growing bat-glare-in-training.
"So again: what. is. your. name," Robin repeated.
"D-Danny?" the boy stuttered. "Uh, yeah, Danny."
"Are you sure?" Artemis asked drily.
"Yes, I'm sure!" Danny spat. "Of course I'm sure what my name is. YOU try keeping your cool in front of a group of heroes!"
"I do. Daily."
Danny glowered but focused his remaining energy on remaining upright instead of crafting a comeback.
"Danny what?" Robin continued.
"Fenton."
Robin glanced expectantly at the others, hoping for some sign of recognition on their faces. Apparently, no one else had heard of Danny Fenton either.
"So, you wanna explain to me how the heck I got here and why that computer lady thought I was you?" Danny asked, then he turned on Kid Flash. "And why you thought I was Dick Grayson?"
KF grinned sheepishly.
"Well, *Danny,*" Robin replied, "I can tell you that you were just teleported via zeta-beam from an alleyway in Gotham City-"
"So that's where I was…"
"-and brought to a Justice League location which you don't need to know anything more about. And he thought you look like Richard Grayson because you look almost identical."
"I do?" Danny suddenly reached for his pocket causing most of the teens to jump back into defensive positions. "Whoa, chill! I'm just getting my phone!" He slowly finished the movement and took out a smartphone which had clearly seen better days. Everyone relaxed, but Robin scrutinized the surprisingly harsh damage to the device which matched that of his own battle-scarred phone.
Danny searched for an image of Dick Grayson before opening the camera app to take a selfie. He then opened Photos and compared the two as the heroes crowded around him to watch.
Seeing it confirmed on the phone only served to unsettle Robin further. Here was a mysterious teenager who sounded like him, looked like him, and got past the zeta-beam's security measures with his. SECRET. identity.
"Oh my gosh…" Danny looked up at Robin. "That's so weird. There's no way we can be related though. I'm from the boring old Ohio and he's, like, Romanian or something."
'Romani,' Robin growled mentally.
"So if you're from Ohio, then what were you doing in a grimy back alley of Gotham?" Artemis asked accusingly.
"Getting some soup to go?" Kid Flash added, motioning to the forgotten thermos on the floor. Danny quickly picked it up and clutched it to his chest. "Hey, can I have some?" His teammates all stared at him incredulously. "What?! All these surprises made me hungry."
"No, not soup. That's just, uh, my lucky charm?" Danny replied. Robin's quirked eyebrow was all the confirmation he needed that no one was buying it. "Actually, speaking of food, do you happen to have a snack or something? I'm starving."
Everyone turned to Kid Flash. "Oh yeah, of COURSE you all look at me," he whined but dutifully zipped to the kitchen and returned with a granola bar and bottle of water. Danny accepted them gratefully and immediately chugged half the water.
"So, Danny, what threw you into the phone booth?" Robin asked.
"It was a…monster."
"What kind of monster?" Robin pressed.
Danny sighed. "You'll probably think I'm crazy."
"You said you accessed the most secure transportation network in the world by accident," Artemis said with a quirked eyebrow. "We already think you're crazy."
Danny shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Alright, you asked for it: do you believe in ghosts?"
Artemis tensed, remembering her Halloween with Zatanna. "What kind of ghost?" she asked with sudden interest.
"A gorilla with wings."
"A…gorilla."
"With wings, yeah. Normally our local hero takes care of it, but this one got away and grabbed me and took me to Gotham, I guess. I fought back and finally trapped him, but he knocked me into that phone booth as I got him."
"How did you trap him?"
"Um...in this," he replied defeatedly and held out the thermos. "It's a thermos, but it's built to hold ghosts, not soup. Yes, the design is stupid, but it works."
"So, a doppelgänger of Dick Grayson accidentally enters the zeta tube under Robin's call sign after trapping a flying gorilla in a soup thermos," Artemis drawled. "You sure seem on the level."
"Hey, you don't know my life," Danny snapped back before biting angrily into the granola bar.
"No," Artemis replied as she slowly crept into Danny's personal space. "I don't."
The boy flinched under her scrutinizing glare.
Robin rolled his eyes behind his mask, mentally agreeing that the alleged Danny Fenton needed investigating before anything sinister could happen. The aftershock of Roy's replacement clone still resonated with the entire team, after all.
"Look, this has been fun and all, but can I go home now?" Danny asked. Seemingly as an afterthought, he added, "My parents are probably looking for me."
Robin turned to Aqualad and asked, "What's the nearest zeta-beam to Ohio?"
"Green Lantern has one in Detroit?" the Atlantian suggested.
"That'll have to do. If we take you to Detroit, can you get home from there?" Robin asked Danny.
"Oh, yeah, sure thing." Danny seemed to glow with an inner smile at an unspoken joke.
"Great. I'll take you."
"You will?" he asked in surprise.
The Boy Wonder produced a black sack. "You're going to have a bag over your head so you don't learn another zeta-tube location, sooo...yeah."
"Oh." Danny frowned then looked around at the others. "Well, nice to meet you guys, I guess? Thanks for the snack." He briefly glanced between Robin and Kid Flash — who both felt self-conscious at being looked over — before shrugging and turning to Aqualad. "I hope you figure out the security whatever. Or I might just come say 'hi' again," he finished with a mischievous smile as he and Robin went to the zeta-beam.
Robin held out the sack so Danny could at least put it on himself. The teen sighed and obliged while Robin authorized a zeta beam guest pass for their unwitting intruder.
"Recognized: Robin - B01."
"I wonder which one of us it meant," Danny quipped as they transported to Detroit. Dick couldn't help but share his thought.
After being led in circles a few blocks away from wherever the beam's location had been, Robin stopped the pair and removed Danny's hood. They stood in an alley across the street from the art deco Guardian Building.
"Well, I don't know what to say, dude," Danny said with a hand rubbing his neck, breaking the tense silence which had oppressed them since leaving the cave. "Thanks for taking me *sort of* home?" He gestured weakly at their surroundings. "Sorry again about accidentally breaking into your top-secret base. And thanks for being so surprisingly cool about it. I know *I* probably wouldn't be," he finished with a chuckle.
"Hey, accidents happen. Consider it forgotten," Robin replied.
It was very much not forgotten.
As Danny turned to leave, Robin called, "Hey, wait!"
"Yeah?" Danny paused.
Robin tried to act slightly bashful and excited. "Can I take a photo with you?"
Danny contorted his face at Robin's sudden change of attitude. "With me? Why?!"
"You're the first person to ever get past zeta protocols. I think that's memorable enough to demand a souvenir." He quirked a half-smile to come off as friendly as possible.
"Wow, a superhero wants a photo with me? This is so cool!" Danny said to himself.
"I'm not a superhero, Danny. I don't have powers."
"Still..." The two boys smiled brightly as Robin took a selfie on his decoy phone.
"Well I wasn't going to ask, but could I get a photo too, then?" Danny asked with his own genuine smile. "My friends will NEVER believe me otherwise."
"Sure! Just don't tell them what you saw, or where the Gotham zeta-tube is."
"Of course!" Danny pulled out his own phone and the two once more smiled for the camera.
"Thanks, dude. Good luck fighting crime." He cringed and shook his head at how stupid and awkward that had sounded.
"Thanks. Stay whelmed." Robin shook his hand before walking away and weaving through the crowds. Danny stood staring after the hero.
' "Whelmed"?' Danny thought to himself.
As soon as Robin had disappeared, Danny jumped into action. He quickly found a quiet spot to transform and turned invisible as he began scanning the crowds from above. He had been taken prisoner enough times to have learned to memorize his movements when his vision is otherwise impaired. Robin must have thought he had been clever to do a figure-eight in Detroit's shadowy alleys before stopping two blocks northeast, but Danny had paid close attention. Sure enough, he found Robin jumping into an alcove obscured by a dumpster.
"Recognized: Robin - B01."
Danny quickly saved the location on his phone's map app before rocketing off home to Amity Park, texting Sam and Tucker to meet him at the Nasty Burger in about forty-five minutes.
When Robin returned to Mount Justice, everyone was waiting in the living area, including Megan and Connor who had returned from their school event. The former was in human form and scooping cookie dough onto a tray in the kitchen, while the latter lounged on the couches with Wally. All eyes immediately fell on Robin as he distractedly squeezed past Megan to grab a soda from the fridge. He then walked swiftly to the glass wall overlooking the hangar and took a long sip of his drink.
Robin would have been vibrating with energy had Batman not trained him to contain extreme emotion. Based on his behavior, conscious and subconscious, the boy who had (allegedly) accidentally broken into Mount Justice was completely oblivious to the situation and its implications. Danny appeared to be an exact copy of himself, whether that be by relation, cloning, or utter coincidence.
Kid Flash, the only other person in the cave who knew Robin's alter ego, had been flailing mentally. His best friend had essentially just met his own body double but could do nothing outwardly to react or investigate with the intensity his instinct mandated; doing so would only make the team more suspicious of his secret identity than they were already. Wally himself couldn't react, either, because he wasn't supposed to be privy to Robin's second identity.
"Hey Rob? You okay?" KF asked eagerly after a few moments of silence.
"No," Robin answered too quickly, revealing his barely-controlled agitation. He whipped around, his cape flaring dramatically. "How did a complete stranger get past the zeta tube's security? What was a kid doing in a back alley in the slums of Gotham? What is he hiding? Because there's clearly something. And most of all," he finished for the sake of his secret identity, "why is there a kid who looks and sounds exactly like Richard Grayson of all people, and how did he get to Mount Justice on my call sign using a hidden teleportation network?!"
"Those are all pertinent questions," Aqualad replied, "the answers to which I am sure you will find in due time."
"True. I'm off to the Batcave. See you all later." He bolted to the zeta-tube and left.
"Is nobody going to mention how that kid kinda looks and sounds like Robin too?" Artemis whispered to Wally. He was too sheepish to reply, the unspoken golden rule of heroism preventing him from outing another hero's identity to others. Though for Artemis, Robin's carefully maintained façade had begun to crumble.