Chapter 1: A New Journey

-Summary-

Danny reveals himself to his parents, no PP, but his parents don't take it too well. They still love him but want to change him back to 'normal'. Danny has a fallout with his parents and when he runs out of his home Maddie chases after him and gets into a car accident and dies. Danny is distraught and Jack starts blaming Danny for Maddie's death. Jazz moves away unable to cope and drowns herself in her studies leaving Danny to live with an angry, and now mentally unstable Jack. Vlad also turns his back on Danny and the only one on his side anymore is Dani (but she's off who knows where).

Takes place in the DC world and Danny will have ties with Justice League as a minor hero. Danny and the Flash will have a special relationship as that's the first real hero Danny will meet and get to know.

-Start-

The travel to Central City wasn't far. The roads were mostly straight, the sun was shining rather a little too brightly, the birds sang their daily choruses in preparation for the day, and Danny got busy packing. He'd quickly given in a call to Sam and Tucker the week before that he would be leaving for the summer break. Usually any teenager would have found this extremely exciting but Danny was always wary. His hands hastily went through his father's ghostly inventions as he started packing. Despite the trembling of his fingers he made sure to not get a single tape out of place when he packed.

He had woken up at five in the morning to complete this task and he knew he had to have it done by seven. The work was meant to be easy but making sure the weapon parts were legally secured was actually a process. He had to mark every dismantled piece and put it away in an orderly fashion before wrapping it in something foamy or another. For a while he'd mused over inviting the box ghost to help him. He was after all the 'Box Ghost the ruler of boxes and the occasional bubble wrap!' That idea was shut down as quickly as it appeared. His father hated ghosts… and by extension him as well.

"Daniel!"

Danny tensed as he heard his name being called out. He could hardly even remember a time when his father called him Danny anymore. He couldn't blame him considering this was all his fault anyway. The basement door opened and Danny could only mentally sigh that he'd finished packing all the boxes. His father's angry scowl didn't change as he looked at his son and then back to the boxes.

"It seems you can get something done," he grunted reluctantly. "Go pack your clothes. If I see any of your teenager crap in my car I'm going to drag you by the string all the way to Central do you understand!"

"Yes," Danny replied instantly as he straightened a little.

His body relaxed as his father left the room. He'd told himself not two years ago that he would eventually stop feeling this way but it never happened. There was always this underlying sense of guilt like he had done something horribly wrong yet again. It almost made him wonder if he shouldn't have come to exist in the first place. He killed his mother and Jazz had left because of him. Of course his father had a reason to treat him like this. He deserved everything Jack dished out.

Danny allowed himself to use his ghostly strength to carry the large boxes to the Ford Falcon his father had bought. The Fenton Family Assault Vehicle had been replaced after Maddie had died. Jack just couldn't bear to drive the vehicle he and his wife had put so much time and energy into without her being next to him. Of course that meant Danny was also not allowed to take the front passenger seat either.

Thankfully the rest of the morning consisted of Jack ignoring his son and getting prepared to leave. Danny took this time to close down the ghost portal and take one rather long loathing glance at it again. Of course the source of all his problems was also his duty to maintain. Soon enough both men had gotten into the car and started driving. The trip had felt suffocating. Occasionally Danny would remember the last time he went on a convention with his family. That was before he'd lost his humanity. He sat at the back with Jazz, mostly arguing with her for the sake of it, while his mom and dad were up the front listening to old tunes and talking about scientific jargon. Now it felt empty.

Thankfully the trip was only around 3 hours, in which Danny mostly took to looking outside and letting his thoughts wander to school work. He'd taken to researching human and ghost biology in his spare time… which he had a lot of now because the ghost portal had proper precautions installed. Ghosts hardly came out and Vlad was out of his hair because now the older halfa also hated him. Why would he after he learnt Danny was the cause of his love's death?

"Take the things to sector B-3. That's where our stalls going to be set-up. Don't show your face around. I don't want to have to explain a disgrace like you," Jack said coldly.

"Yes," Danny said instantly. It was always a quick simple answer. He couldn't find it in himself to actually talk to his father anymore. Thankfully no one noticed him as he went about setting the stall. People were rushing everywhere in preparation for the next day. It was meant to be a convention for inventions that would revolutionise the world. Despite what people thought Jack had the means and knowledge to further science. He had created a portal to another dimension after all.

"You'd think the most star labs would need was a particle accelerator to show world progression. Why do we need our own stall for the convention?" the scientist whined.

"This state of the art tech is way more important. Fission and fusion aside something that can in itself power a whole city is something to be far more excited about. And it's far more compact than a particle accelerator."

"They're never going to release those. Electrical companies and most of those suits sitting up high will probably destroy this in a day. It's all about the profit for them. I can't wait to see how much they care about profit when they let us all destroy the world with carbon emissions.

Danny was a little excited but had to hold himself back when he saw his father approaching. He looked back longingly at the scientists and wondered if maybe he could talk to them later. Of course it would be under the painful category of trying not to be caught by his father. He was meant to be a metaphorical ghost when they went out.

Jack opened started putting together his equipment when he found a missing piece. Danny flinched as he leaned further against the wall. He didn't think he had missed a piece but with his father's furious glance pointedly on him he was sure he was going to be in a hell of a lot of pain.

"Can't even fucking put a few pieces in a box eh? I'll deal with your pathetic ass when we go back to the apartment. Until then get out of my sight," he said in a dangerously low voice.

Danny felt like a stone had been lodged in his throat and phantom pain ran through his body. He bit down the fear scolding himself for failing before he quickly left. He didn't want to anger his father more and he knew deep down inside, that despite not deserving this respite; he would feel safer far away. He stalked out of the hall, digging his face further into his hoodie. He began walking down the busy street of Central City.

He made himself scarce as he sat in a café, twirling the hot coffee cup in his hand, forcing himself to burn a little at the constant contact. He knew that he shouldn't drink something that would make him jittery but he just couldn't help it. The idea of getting high on drugs seemed more beneficial but he didn't deserve any joy.

"You stare any more intently at that cup and you'll burn a hole in it," he heard a light voice joke.

The suddenness of the sentence directed at him made him jump. He visibly relaxed when he saw a twenty or so year old man with amber hair. He vaguely remembered Jazz's hair but quickly focused back on the cup. The cup was a far more pleasing thought.

"I hope you don't mind but I come here often and there are no seats around," the man apologised.

"Go ahead," Danny invited. He didn't mean for it but he sounded awfully rude with just those two words.

"The name's Barry Allen," the man introduced.

"Danny F-Foley," he replied quickly changing his last name. He didn't feel like he deserved the Fenton family name anymore.

"So, what are you doing hanging around in a stuffy café? Are you waiting for a girl?" Barry asked with a grin. He just loved meeting new people and something about this one seemed special. He always knew when someone was special. He'd seen quite a few meta-humans in his brief time as the Flash. He had expected a funny story, maybe something about a breakup, but he didn't expect the almost distraught look the boy's face when he asked the question.

"I… I guess I'm here for the convention STAR labs are inviting inventors for. Of course it's mostly my dad who does all the work! I'm just here for support," Danny explained unsurely. He knew he shouldn't really be talking to strangers all that much.

"You're here for a few days then? How about I show you around? I'm on break right now so I have a few hours to spare. Once you've dealt with the dead bodies they tend to stay buried."

"Sure," the halfa scoffed. Barry couldn't make out whether the kid had taken up his offer or was making fun of his comment on forensics. "I'm free most of the day until seven… my dad want's me back at the apartment by then."

Barry couldn't help but notice the slight quiver in the teen's voice when he mentioned his father. Thankfully he was able to get both of them out of the stuffy café and out into the streets. Walking around in a bustling city tended to make people forget their worries. When most of the people around them were scurrying around tiredly, excitedly, worriedly, it put things into perspective. It even made Barry realise after some time that he wasn't the only one with responsibilities and problems.

"So where are you from?"

"Amity Park, it's a small town in Illinoi."

Barry's interest peeked. "You mean the town that's supposedly haunted by ghosts and was reported to have disappeared for a day?"

The teen tensed at his words but relaxed just as quickly when it looked like he remembered something foul. "Yeah that's the town. I try not to think of the ghosts as being simply dead. There's a lot of science behind how they're formed and why a ghost in Amity Park might be completely different to a ghost created elsewhere."

"Shot away. Now I'm really interested."

Danny mulled over how he should start. After he'd started researching into ghosts himself he'd found them to be completely fascinating. Of course he approached them from a completely different perspective from his parents so he'd come to different conclusions. He liked to think he came from an objective perspective but even scientific minds gravitated towards their own biases.

"The popular idea is that all ghosts are the souls of the dead. Of course that's a completely false impression. It's mostly because media portrays ghosts that way. A true ghost is just a strong impression on ectoplasm. When you die it's not technically your soul that remains considering you'd then still be the same person but rather a very strong emotion you gave during your death. Of course there are other ghosts too, some formed by the collective belief of people, and some are even made by the ghostly inhabitants of the zone."

"That's fascinating-" Barry said before he was interrupted by sounds of mass panic.

He quickly ran to get a closer look, despite the protest of the boy next to him. It was Mirror Master and Barry really didn't want to get involved with him right now. He had thought that he'd taken care of the man's clearly criminal ways but relapses often occurred. The impulse to simply pop his ring and turn into the Flash was phenomenal but Barry held himself back because Danny was next to him. Unknown to Barry, Danny was thinking much the same thing.

"I think we should go/run!" both of them said at the same time.

Nodding a little unsurely the two did exactly that. Barry turned into Flash in the blink of an eye while Danny turned into Phantom. Flash being as fast as he was made it to the Mirror Master first.

"Evan McCulloch, I thought I put you on your reformed ways," Flash said light-heartedly, although there was an underlying threat which was mostly prevailed by cockiness.

"Flash-y, Flash-y, Flash, didn't your mother tell you that it's bad to trust the villain?" Evan laughed, his rough voice much darker than his predecessor's. Flash really found himself missing the old Mirror Master.

"Now why don't you release all those people you've trapped?" Barry tried. If reasoning didn't work then speed would.

"Well if all goes well then they'd be trapped in there forever and you'll be dead," Mirror Master laughed before he tried to shoot Barry with his gun. The Flash easily dodged the attack but began taking the man seriously when several consecutive shots were thrown at him. He was surprised when Evan didn't stop. The man had more charge than he'd previously remembered. Usually he would play the usual trick to trap Barry but it seemed right now he was more than happy to just barrage the Flash with his gun. Just before he was about to be hit a large green shield covered the shot.

A teen wearing what looked like a black and white HAZMAT suit had stepped in. Usually Barry would have chalked all that to meta-abilities but meta-abilities usually meant one thing… this kid was floating and he had no legs but instead something that looked like a tail. Toxic green eyes turned to his light blues and a melancholic smile perked the oddly familiar looking face.

"Nice to meet you Flash, I'm Phantom…"

Barry instantly recognised the name. He had briefly looked up other heroes around the world and there was only two that were highly rumoured. The Batman had been proven a hero just a while back and Barry had even helped him once. He'd also met the Green Arrow and the Green Lantern as well as a few other odd-balls here and there. It was a surprise that Phantom was real but really Barry was already used to the unexpected. What really mattered right now wasn't that a dead boy was helping him but rather he needed to stop Mirror Master before more people got hurt.

"Introductions later, Mirror Master now," Flash replied quickly as he grabbed the teen and ran past the beams of light that threatened to trap him in the mirror reality. He certainly wasn't looking forward to being stuck in one of those again.

Barry ran towards Evan. He was surprised that he didn't make a move to shoot at him this time. He vaguely heard Phantom scream his name behind him before he realised he had just run into a mirror trap. McCulloch wasn't there it was just an impression of him talking. What really was there was a bomb and Barry cursed his inability to turn back in time.

Danny flew as quickly as he could towards the Flash and grabbed him. He turned both of them intangible just in time before the bomb exploded. The mirrors had shattered and people were returning to the real world. Barry just stood there, a relieved and contemplative sigh escaping his lips. Near death experiences never lost its scare.

"That was close," Phantom said as he huffed his silvery hair out of his face in an oddly teenage like gesture.

"He was serious about wanting to kill me," Barry mumbled before turning to the teen, although technically a ghost could be any age and he guessed they looked the same throughout time. "Phantom was it? It's good to meet another hero although I didn't think rumours of your existence were true."

"Yeah there's this ridiculous comic running around about me that's made people believe I was just imagined by some crazy old man with too much time in his hands," Danny defended. "Enough about me, you're the Flash. I never thought I'd ever be able to meet a hero!"

Danny was honestly really excited. Before his life had taken a turn for the worst he had idolised and practically worshiped these other heroes. They had been at it far longer than he had and they all had something uniquely amazing about them. Flash was up there but really Danny loved Superman a lot more. He'd based most of his image of Superman and took to Flash's famous quips. Recently it seemed all the snarky remarks had slowly lost its flavour. Even if Sam and Tucker move him a step forward everything else seemed to drag him two steps back.

"Well it's always nice to meet another hero. I mostly help out the Green Lantern when he comes around but you know if you need help just give me a call," the Flash said as he threw a little communication device towards the ghost boy. Danny caught it and couldn't help but smile widely. Are you really a ghost?" Barry asked curiously.

"Yeah but I only became one about three years ago, and people think that death's the end of it," Danny answered shaking his head at the thought. He was honestly beginning to float up and down in excitement. His first hero encounter! The sudden high instantly plummeted when he remembered Barry. "Oh I need to go! Someone's waiting for me!"

"Man I can't believe I forgot!" the Flash groaned as well as he thought of Danny.

Both heroes separated and changed back into their alter egos. Soon they gravitated towards the crowd that had surrounded the cops and paramedics. Reporters were busily taking interviews with the police to see the latest news on the Flash and the mystery hero that had joined him. Thankfully for Barry he was a rather tall man and it wasn't hard to find the unusually small teen.

"Danny, I'm so glad you're safe. I can't believe we lost each other in the mess," Barry lied. He hated lying but it was a necessary evil.

"Um, yeah don't worry too much about it. It was worth it to see the Flash," Danny replied with a wide smile.

Barry was happy to see the depressed teen lighten up a little. Danny reminded him of himself after his mother had been murdered and his father was framed. He always had that same look of a desperate sort of grief.

"Do you want to go check out the rest of the city? I'm working in forensics so maybe if you want I can show you around the lab," Barry offered.

"You're a scientist!" Danny said in excitement. Danny found himself extremely interested in science. His whole family gravitated towards the field and even Jazz found herself dabbling in it before she got into psychology. Recently Danny had gotten involved in bio-chemistry. He had found it useful to study more about his own physiology.

The rest of the day Danny spent with Barry. He soon found himself grinning most of the way, his problems from the morning alleviating as he explored Barry's work. It was amazing to see how the meta-humans around Central effected Barry's work and how the forensic scientist had to come up with some innovative on the spot solutions to finding the criminal.

"Take mini-you over sometime again," one of Barry's co-workers called out.

Danny laughed as Barry stuttered in shock. While the older man was embarrassed, Danny was more than happy to be compared to someone as kind as Barry. He didn't think someone would care enough to spend some time with him. Even Sam and Tucker only bothered when they knew it was ghost related or they'd just go back to study. He couldn't blame them considering even he did that these days what with the workload becoming unbearable. So it felt really nice when someone just hung out with him.

"Hey do you want to come over for dinner? My wife makes some mean lasagne," Barry asked.

"Su-" Danny began before he noticed the time. His smile turned into a heavy frown and Barry felt like he'd lost all the progress he made. "I have to go now if I want to get to my father in time," Danny apologised, giving a weak smile.

"Are you sure? I'm sure he won't mind if we ring him up and ask nicely," Barry asked.

"No! I mean- that's not really necessary," Danny replied too quickly.

"Well then I'll drop by your stall tomorrow. It's the one next to the STAR labs stall right… around B-2 if I'm correct," Barry asked.

"Nah, that's ok I'm sure you have work to do," Danny shut down before a smile spread across his face. "Plus now I can call you whenever," he said happily as he took out his phone.

Barry and Danny exchanged number and separated. An increasing sense of dread seemed to linger around Danny. He had forced himself to forget throughout most of the day because he was having so much fun, but now it seemed to hit him like a brick. Not only had he helped out the Flash but someone must have caught it on camera or on their phone. It would be on the news and that would be enough to make Jack furious. He had already angered his father and now he had made it ten times worse for himself. If the Flash wasn't about to be hit he would never have jumped in to help but… he didn't regret it. He didn't regret the day because he felt hope like he had never felt before.

Slowly but surely Danny made his way to the apartment he was staying at for the night. His hands trembled as he put the keys in and opened the door. His steps made no sound but he could hear his heart hammer in his chest as the thought of his father sent chills of fear down his spine. Jack was sitting at the couch with the TV turned on. Danny gulped as the image of Phantom was shown helping Flash. Jack turned the TV off after a painstakingly slow moment before he turned his furious gaze towards his son.

Danny stood his spot looking at the floor in fear. Jack walked up to him and after standing still for a second backhanded his face. The sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed through the silent room.

"Do you think you should be helping out real heroes? You couldn't even help out your own mother. You killed her and yet you think you can play the hero?" Jack asked in a low voice. "Answer me!" he shouted as he punched Danny to the ground.

"I-I shouldn't have," Danny apologised as he looked away. The pain was bearable considering he was used to being hit from all his enemies and now his father. What really hurt were the words.

Jack narrowed his eyes. "You haven't yet learnt your lesson," he growled before taking out the modified spectre deflector. Danny looked at the device in horror and tried to run away when Jack caught him and forced it around his son's neck. Danny screamed in agony as he felt his ghostly side electrocuted.

"Look at you. You've become so pathetic that it even affects your 'human form'. You're not even human anymore are you? Maddie would have been so disappointed. Of course she died disappointed in you and instead of making it up to her you kill her!" Jack growled as he kicked his son. Danny curled up against the wall as Jack continuously kicked him and the spectre deflector burnt his neck.

"Say it!"

"I-I'm sorry! I'm a monster. I'm a monster!" Danny cried out in desperation. His own words stinging more than the pain inflicted onto him.

After hearing his son cry out for mercy Jack finally relinquished his assault. He turned the spectre deflector off before leaving his son and taking a bottle of whisky. Danny sobbed on the floor as he curled in on himself.

He really was just a monster

-End-

Hey guys, Curry-llama here. Sorry for starting a new story when I've got another one to complete. This idea would just not get out of my head and I just knew I had to write it despite exams being on the way. It was like the time I had the sudden urge to write a Sherlock Holmes Fanfiction. Anyway there's going to be some abuse in it and some foul language once in a while. I don't swear for the sake of it so don't worry too much. People will only swear when the situation calls for it. Other than that there will be abuse and such but Danny really won't be standing for it much longer… I think. XD I haven't really planned this story out so don't judge.