Buzz...
Buzz...
Buzz...
'Hel-' 'I told you I was okay mom, you need to stop texting me so much.' Danny? 'I'm still at the library near Nightingale Drive but I promise I'll be home soon.'
Dinah was out of her chair and hurrying towards the nearest teleporter before he could finish speaking and inadvertently startling a few nearby heroes as she pushed past them.
'Dinah?'
'Dinah, what's happening.' Oliver called out when he noticed her leaving.
'Danny, a kid I've been mentoring just called using one of the codewords we came up with for emergencies.' And it must have been bad if Danny was calling her this late at night but at least he was using the phone she got him so it only took a few seconds to pull up his location through the built in tracker.
Huh...
What in the world was Danny doing in Star City?
It didn't matter. Not right now. She'd ask later but for now she was busy punching in the right coordinates while Oliver ran to grab his own gear.
-_- -_- -_-
It didn't take long to find him. The kid, Dinah's boy was hiding in a coffee shop a few blocks away from the library he was using for his cover story so Oliver stayed back for now and watched from his hiding spot on a nearby rooftop as Dinah hurried into the shop playing up the role of a worried mom.
She was good at it.
Nobody gave her a second glance as she pulled the kid into a hug while muttering soft reassurance that doubled as codewords. He knew some of it meant danger and alone but he was too far away to make anything else out and Dinah angled the kid in a way that kept him and anyone else watching from reading their lips.
And he got it.
He really did.
From his bloodshot eyes to the sway in his every other step it was obvious from just a glance that the kid was dead on his feet. He'd more than likely been running for a while now and was one soft breeze away from collapsing so the last thing he needed was a complete stranger coming out of nowhere and questioning him but that still left Oliver with a dozen different questions as he listened to Roy going over everything they could dig up on such short notice which wasn't much.
It looked like somebody had gone through a lot of trouble to erase Amity Park's existence but a few things managed to get through like news covering the Fenton's home being raided by the government and Vlad Masters' very public, very messy custody battle with the older sister. Both of them were seen accusing each other of everything and anything, screaming insults and overly creative threats, and on more than one occasion the police had to pull Jasmine off of Masters who kept paying her bail but there was nothing explaining the hows or whys behind everything going on.
I know it isn't much but I just had the thought of Danny's parents getting arrested for whatever reason really but I'm going with their change of heart after a reveal gone right for this prompt. They shut everything down and stop making weapons that can actually hurt magical beings and a lot of influential people don't like that leading to a police raid while Jazz is away and forcing Danny to reach out to Dinah who could be his anything really from one of those online therapists to a godmother who tries to help him figure out his powers.
so my apartment building got a notice board to post fire alarm tests and maintenance announcements and such. the building is pretty well-maintained, so we rarely get notices. the board is big and grey and to think it would be empty like that 99% of the time was a bland boring sin i just couldn't bear, so i vandalized the corner of its empty canvas with a teeny tiny Guy
and within a few days, there was a sudden addition from my one of my neighbors along with a Bunch of thumbtacks. this was an unexpected, but welcome surprise!
well there was still so much space, i figured i'd add another crumb to the art hoard. i'd been playing genshin that day so i drew my favorite grandpa
and like clockwork, new art manifested!! this person is gonna grow to be a great artist i know it. the detail in those stones? hell yeah that's cool.
we're two weeks into it. more neighbors have joined in with their artwork. who knew there were so many artists in my building?? we're onto somethin great here i just know it.
Chrissy and I were talking about solo leveling but from the perspective of all the world powers that have to deal with the existence of the human catastrophe that is Jinwoo Sung The Shadow Monarch. And we came to the conclusion that these world powers would eventually realize that their best hope of tracking Jinwoo is 21 year old Jinho Yoo's instagram account
"Danny!?"
"Danny!"
"Hey, hey, hey."
"Keep your eyes open for me."
"Come on Danny."
"Just focus on me."
"..."
"I promise everything will be alright."
The last thing Danny ever sees before everything goes black is the tears in his herald's ey...
-_- -_- -_-
"No!"
"Not again!"
-_- -_- -_-
"I can't... I can't lose him."
"Not like this."
"..."
"..."
"Say something! Anything!"
"Tell me how to fix this!"
"..."
-_- -_- -_-
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
-_- -_- -_-
"There's nothing you can do."
"You can let me do this! Let me take your place!"
"If you die here hundreds of thousands of lives will be changed forever. You'll never time travel. You'll never meet your friends."
"I don't c-" "You'll never meet me."
"I can make it work. I've time traveled before, rewritten fixed points."
"Not those times. Not one line."
"But..." Bart looks so lost as he desperately tries to figure out a plan but they were running out of time.
The handful of remaining heroes were scattered. They'd ignored all of the warnings, believed the worst kind of people and the League wasn't prepared for Pariah's reawakening to empower the moonlit world. No one was prepared for it, not when the monsters were already deep within the League pulling the strings from within and... This was… Without any warning Bart collapses, the nth metal bracelet he's always kept wrapped around his wrist sending a cold chill through his body as the familiar touch of Danny's magic engulfed the area.
"It's okay." Danny catches him before he can hit the floor, pulling him into one last bone crushing hug to hide his own tears. "It's not over for you. Clockwork... Clockwork promised everything would work out if I did this... He guaranteed it and he rarely gives me a straight answer so... So we'll... I guess we'll see each other again. You and me. The team. Heck, even the Justice League. You've got a whole new life ahead of you and..."
'I'm sorry if I'm not a part of it.' Is left unsaid as Danny keeps talking, nearly tripping over his words.
"And even if I'm not the same person anymore a part of me will always be there to watch you run." The bracelet glows softly with his promises, the runes that had protected him for years binding them together with his words and then Danny was shoving him back leaving Bart less than a fraction of a second to try and reach out for him before his entire world is swallowed by shadows and he's falling.
Bart Allen would live.
He'd have as many second chances as Danny could spare since Earth 63 was lost.
The moonlit world had decimated it, turning friends and family against each other but even now the Infinity Realms rumbled a challenging call. Their herald was gone for now but the king would fight, and continue fighting to the bitter end while Bart... Bart would... He'd...
"Time out."
Staring down at the young herald Clockwork smiled a little half smile as the ripple effects of their actions were already taking effect.
It might be a little different then he'd intended and he'd certainly bent a few rules in order to ensure his preferred outcome but the Ancient of Time was confident things would work out for the better.
"Now let's see if we can get it right this time."
It's nothing much but a part of an idea I had for Bart and Danny trying to survive/fix the DC vs. Vampire universe.
Danny's trying.
Bart keeps trying to reset everything but it isn't working. He changes a few things but nowhere near enough to stop what's going to happen until Clockwork finally steps in with a playbook that might work.
I don't know what it is with me always imagining the two of them traveling around apocalyptic worlds but Danny is Danny so he can't be turned into a vampire while Bart is his herald, he's essentially Danny's Fright Knight with an anti magic nth metal bracelet and a whole lot of blessings so he doesn't end up like the rest of his family.
It's been months since they started traveling together, wandering, running from everything. It wasn't hard to figure out who Danny was. He didn't keep secrets, easily revealing the mark of the old god that sent him here and Bart wasn't about to turn down a friend especially when it's been forever since either one of them has seen anyone friendly so they were stuck together.
Travel buddies. Best friends. Apocalypse pals. He'd come up with a new one every day if he could but after spending so long trying to find a way back to the past their time had finally ran out.
Because Phantom was here. He's here and Danny's too injured to fight anymore after taking a blow for him during their last fight, always trying to save him even when Bart feels like he doesn't deserve it half the time only now it's Bart's turn to save Danny so he takes off running. It's what he's always done. He's good at it. He's the best and only speedster left alive leaving him with power to burn, the Speed Force surging through him as he takes off with a barely conscious Danny in his arms.
Phantom wants him, hasn't stopped hunting Danny since the day he's set his eyes on him and for as fast as he is Phantom is somehow keeping up. He's always a step behind, never fast enough for a solo speedster so Bart forces himself to go faster. He keeps running. He circles the planet in an instant hiding Danny in the ruins of Coast City seconds before he sucker punches Phantom from behind and repeats the process over and over again never noticing the clockwork like mark Danny gave him slowly clicking to life, the gears inside the necklace starting to move and tick with every close call and near miss and it isn't long before he's off again with Danny in his arms and death close behind them enraged after all his taunting.
Phantom is beyond furious but he's legs are about to collapse. He's never gone this fast before and Bart doesn't know how long he can keep it up so he has to pick a place for their last stand and races into the heart of Gotham towards the downed Watchtower. There's still enough of it left over that they can pull something off if they're lucky and they have to be lucky cause there's no going back anymore. There's so much blood, too much but Danny's still trying to force himself to his feet, the remnants of Gotham surging towards his call when Phantom finally catches up to them and... And... A.....
Bart blinks blindly at the floor. Everything hurt. His head feels like he's gone ten rounds with Doomsday and as he slowly gets up he notices dozens of other heroes in similar positions across the cafeteria of the Watchtower, all of them mumbling about the end of the world, in pain from migraines or rattled after reliving the memories of their deaths but Bart's only focus in that moment was his memories of Danny.
The up above is just something I thought up while bored and maybe, kind of sick so enjoy I guess. Add to it or tell me it's stupid, I probably won't notice until I'm feeling better.