"Where do you think you're going, Daniel?"

Danny did not turn around, too afraid of what he would see. No one moved. Dick's shoulders were tense, as were Barbara's. Danny's eyes followed his brother's left hand slowly inch towards the utility belt secured around his waist. Both young heroes narrowed their eyes at the being that had spoken, both knowing enough to understand in what dangerous of a situation they were in.

"Why don't you turn around to look at me, boy."

Vlad's cold tone made it clear he was not asking him to do so, instead making it an order. Summoning all his courage, Danny carefully turned around to face the man from all his nightmares. He was floating above the ground, red and white cape flattering in a nonexistent wind behind him. There was a seemingly friendly smile on his face but the murderous gleam in the ghost's eyes told him there was no good in this man's intentions. The guy was insane and evil, Danny was sure, and he knew that was one of the worst combinations your opponent could have.

"Why so quiet? You know you need not be afraid of your father, Daniel."

"Father?" Dick mumbled behind him, so quiet that he would not have caught it without his slightly inhensed senses.

Vlad smirked and Danny knew he had heard it, too.

"Why, if it isn't the Boy Wonder and one of his partners," he taunted. "I wonder what Batman's companions are doing underneath Bruce Wayne's home... oh wait, Batman is Bruce Wayne."

It impressed Danny that neither Dick nor Barbara allowed their guards to be lowered despite someone just having found out who The Batman was. Still, Dick's voice held barely surpressed anger as he spoke.

"What do you want?" he demanded, ignoring the words of the specter before them.

"What is rightfully mine, of course."

The possessive glint in the man's blood red eyes almost made Danny feel like he was right. Almost.

"Nothing here belongs to you, creep!"

Barbara stepped out of the Zeta tube, standing beside Danny, who was grateful for the support but also afraid for his newfound friends. They did not have the slightest idea just what they were dealing with. Vlad chuckled darkly, looking Danny directly in the eyes.

"I am afraid you are wrong, Batgirl," he sneered. "There is nothing you can do. Daniel will come with me."

Dick shoved himself past Danny and stood in front of him protectively while Barbara readied herself to grab him and get him into the Zeta tube.

"Danny isn't going anywhere with you," Dick declared.

At the sight of the two heroes being hell bent on defending him, Vlad's expression darkened further. This was all his fault, Danny thought. He should have known this was not over and that Vlad would try to come and get him. He had put the people who had taken it upon themselves to care for him in danger by not telling anyone about what had happened. But then again he had not known his new guardian was The Batman and that he would have actually believed him had he told him there was an evil, psychopathic ghost after him. Still, this could possibly have been prevented. Instead, they were now standing here, with little to no chance of defeating Vlad, let alone defending themselves.

Maybe Danny should just go with him. There was a chance Vlad would not kill him and at least Dick and Barbara would be safe. As much as the man scared him, the thought of the two getting hurt scared him so much more.

"Oh, you think you can save him?" Vlad laughed coldly. "You should learn not to underestimate your opponent, children."

It all happened fast. Vlad's hand glowed pink and Danny reflexively took a defensive stance. Dick and Barbara noticed, too, but it was too quick for them to understand what exactly the ghost was doing. Just as the pink ray was about to hit them, a pair of white rings travelled up and down Danny's body and he transformed, barely putting up a green shield of ecto energy in time to deflect Vlad's attack.

"Danny?" Dick gasped, giving him a wide eyed look but quickly composing himself.

"Go!" he pressed out, having a hard time keeping his shield up while Vlad was attacking him almost full force.

"I'm not leaving you," Dick said determinedly and as much as it frustrated him, Danny felt relieved to know his brother would not abandon him after finding out he was not as normal as he had seemed.

Barbara nodded along and both took out their weapons. When an especially powerfull blast made contact with the glowing green shield, Danny was pushed back and the shield flickered out of existence. Dick immediately threw one of his birdarangs at Vlad but the older ghost used his intangibility to let it sail harmlessly through him. This was what Danny had feared. He doubted any of the weapons Dick and Barbara had with them would have an effect on the older halfa, making him basically impossible to defeat. Although, maybe if they had a weapon made for - what did they call them? - metahumans. Maybe one of those could be used against ghosts, too? Still, Vlad was much too powerful.

Danny send a row of his own green spheres of energy towards him, most of which Vlad deflected with his own shield, while those who managed to hit their target barely pushed the man back, however leaving slightly glowing burn marks on his white suit. Vlad growled and shot forward, intending to tackle Danny, who managed to dodge. But of course it would not be so easy. Vlad swiftly turned, sending two more ecto-beams towards Dick and Barabara. Standing closer to Barbara at the moment, Danny managed to deflect the blast with a small shield. Dick tried to move but was not fast enough and the blast still managed to graze his left arm.

Seeing this, Danny was fuelled with a fresh wave of hartred for the older half-ghost. After causing the death of his parents and sister, he now dared to hurt his brother, too? Danny was not going to let that happen again. Faster than the two humans could comprehend, Danny lunged at Vlad, catching him off guard and hitting him in the stomach. Vlad, not having expected such an attack, was too late to correctly defend himself of the concentrated ecto-blast that followed and crashed into ground. Danny did not know how this was possible. Vlad was so much stronger than him, yet he had somehow managed to get to him this much.

He had no time to further think about it, knowing they had to leave now while they had the chance. Vlad was not going to let himself be caught off guard again. Locking eyes with his brother, he nodded and they both hurried to the zeta tube, Danny pulling Barbara with him. They were all inside when Vlad was standing again, eyes ablaze with anger and determination. Thankfully, the coordinates were already typed in and the last thing Danny saw before he was encased in a golden light was a furious Vlad Plasmius glaring after them.

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

They soon came tumbling out of a very similar telephone booth - zeta tube - but their surroundings had changed drastically. Instead of the dark, wide cave they had fought in, they were now looking at a room with large windows on all sides and - of course - a giant computer screen. Unlike the last time though, they were not alone. Waiting for them were a man in blue with a red cape, a blonde woman in black, and Batman.

The three young teenagers quickly picked themselves up and stood before the League members, Danny appearing much less confident than the others. On top of the "OMG I'm in the Justice League HQ" part, there was also the part of him still being in his ghost form. He was so doomed. Dick looked like he was about to explain when Batman turned his back to them and started walking sown a hallway.

"Follow me," he growled and for a moment Danny forgot that this was Bruce.

Both of them being the same person at the same time made so much sense and no sense at all. And while Danny was slightly disappointed that this had been kept secret from him, he had to remind himself that he was no better, keeping his own secret to himself. They seemed to reach Batman's desired destination when said man turned another corner and entered the first room to the left. It did not take long for Danny to realize they were in some sort of super high-tech infirmary. Everyone entered, the woman in black - Danny knew he had at least seen a picture of her before, but could not remember her name - going last, closing the door behind her.

"Robin," Batman said.

Dick seemed to understand as he went to sit down on one of the white cots, already taking off his glove. Danny had nearly forgotten that his brother had gotten injured during their confrontation with Vlad. Batman immediately started addressing his protégé's arm and for a short while no one talked. All Danny wanted to do right now was disappear under the cold stares of the older heroes. At least they were safe from Vlad for now... right?

"What about you two?" the woman asked, looking at Barbara and Danny. "Did you get hurt?"

They both shook their heads. Danny didn't trust his voice at the moment.
The questions and thoughts about everything were spinning through his mind like a swarm of disoriented bees, threatening to make his head explode should he not let them out soon. But he knew he had to wait. He supposed if anyone needed to answer some questions first, it was him.

"Who are you?" Superman - yes, Danny recognized the famous hero, thank you very much - demanded.

Danny had expected Batman to ask, but perhaps the man already knew the answer to that question. Danny was unsure how to respond. Should he say his real name? Should he just transform? Give a vague answer? He glanced in Dick's direction and they locked eyes. His brother must have picked up on his conflicting thoughts and nodded encouragingly, tapping on his mask with a finger. Danny let his eyes move over all the occupants of the room and took a deep breath. Then he transformed back into his human form, causing the older heroes' eyes to widen.

"Um, my name is Daniel. Fenton. And I am, um, I'm Robin's... brother."

The woman in black looked between Robin and him and lastly to Batman. While Superman looked like he had been slapped in the face. Then he seemed to remember something as he narrowed his eyes at Danny in a very much suspicious way.

"You are a meta?" he asked and to Danny it felt like it would be a bad thing to say yes, so instead he chose to simply say the truth.

"I'm... a halfa."

He knew the term was probably not very famous outside of the ghost zone, but it was the best fitting for his unique species.

"A halfa?" Batman inquired.

Danny fidgeted with his shirt sleeves and tried to look anywhere but at the other heroes.

"It means I'm half human and half... um, ghost," he explained awkwardly and he was not surprised by the disbelief he encountered right away.

"Ghosts don't exist," Batman said, his emotionless voice daring Danny to disagree.

Danny shook his head.

"They're real! I can prove it! Ghosts can go through stuff, right? Watch this."

He turned intangible and walked right through one of the infirmary beds. Superman's expression told Danny he was the easiest to convince, but Batman's opinion could not be wavered so easily.

"Martian Manhunter can density shift. This does not prove the existence of ghosts," he argued.

Danny frowned, thinking. What else could he do?

"What about invisibility?" he offered.

"Martians can also use camouflage. You could be a martian trying to convince us of being someone else." Batman narrowed his eyes. "Is your name even really Daniel Fenton?"

Danny did not know what to do. Why were a martian's powers so similiar to a ghost's? He had never heard much about them in Amity Park. While he was a space fanatic, he had always assumed the guy just called himself Martian Manhunter because he was green. Most reports and many scientists did not believe there was life on Mars, so Danny had not, either. He decided to ignore the question of his identity. Also, had Batman not let his DNA be compared to Dick's?

"Um... flight then?"

Dick shook his head at him. Danny guessed he'd had to do something else. But was there anything else that people connected to ghosts that he could do? He knew now that ghosts were quite a bit different from what people believed they were. Not all ghosts were dead people, either. But maybe he could at least prove that he was not a martian? Would they believe him being Danny Fenton then?

"Okay. Look, ghosts aren't what most think they are. There's more we can do."

He held up his hand and it lit up with green energy. He let his eyes glow brighter along with it for emphasis. It seemed to work.

"Fine. You're not martian then," Superman concluded.

"I'm half-ghost," Danny added.

"I saw the video feed from the cave," Batman said. "The one who attacked you, is he the same as you?"

Danny dropped the energy and his hand and eyes returned to their normal glow. He bit his lip, not knowing whether he should reveal Vlad. Sure, he hated the man. But if he found out he woukd surely want to kill him even more. Finally feeling to intimidated by the older heroes - one of them was in charge of him now after all - he gave in. Might as well be honest now, these were the good guys.

"Yeah. He's the only one like me," he revealed.

"There are no other... halfas?"

Danny shook his head.

"There's many other ghosts out there, but no other halfas," he confirmed. "At least as far as I know," he added as and afterthought.

"Do you know why he attacked you? Do you know who he is?" the woman asked.

Danny quickly looked at Dick, silently pleading him not to say anything about the 'father' comment. But he did not answer.

"Daniel? Do you know this being?"

Danny swallowed hard and then looked Batman in the eyes.

"He's the one who killed my family."

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °
I do not own Danny Phantom or any of its characters. Neither do I own Young Justice or any of the DC Universe characters.

Hello my dear readers! Yes, you have just read a new chapter of ILIOG. This is not a hoax.

And yes, I should really work on Knowing Family... Well. One at a time, right? Should've thought of that when I decided to start a second story. 😅

At least I didn't leave you at another horrible cliffhanger again. Two in a row seemed to take a toll on you guys. Do you know how many "I hate you so much right now"s I got?

Hope you liked it

FaHa :D