Chapter Text
Original Post:
Ghost King AU Danny has inherited all contracts made with Pariah Dark but doesn’t know it until he finds himself pulling a bullet out of Bruce Wayne.
He was instantaneously summoned in Ghost King regalia to a shooting in progress. Luckily, he had taken Clockwork as his mentor and could bend time just enough to take a bullet out of someone and put it back into the gun it came from. He was as surprised as anyone else at the gala to have saved his life, but was trying to be casual about it to hide his panic. He jumped right to being annoyed about being all the way in New Jersey when he had a test tomorrow.
He stole the Joker’s wallet to pay for his coffee tomorrow morning and left him with the police. Pointedly not saying anything of who he was or why he was there.
Clockwork broke the news to him about his newfound inheritance. People were still able to make contracts with the ghost king when he was in the sarcophagus, but since Pariah couldn’t hold up his end of the bargain the contracts would be voided. Someone must have made a contract before Danny became king but only became relevant when the bullet was already in Bruce Wayne’s heart. They had to check the castle’s archives and found a solitary valid contract. A contract to preserve the life of one Bruce Wayne until his natural death. Paid for on completion with the eternal human soul of the signer.
Cue phantom sheepishly ringing the doorbell and asking to see Mr. Pennyworth about a Life Assurance policy he purchased.
<<<>>>
The Scene:
One minute he was two paragraphs away from finishing his book report and the next he was watching a bullet coming out of a man’s chest. Except that the bullet hole disappeared as if it wasn’t there to begin with. Danny realized that this was his doing, he was making the bullet fly back into the gun it came from. Ew, that was a clown. With a gun. Better get that away from him.
When Clockwork practiced this with him, they smashed a teapot to the floor and found the strings of time that pertained only to the teapot. No need to undo all the sweater when you missed the one stitch. Danny had teased him, asking if he made his own cloak. Clockwork gave him a cloak of his own for his birthday. It draped over him now, flowing over his arm as he took the gun from the shocked Joker.
Danny realized it was the Joker right when time started to act normally again.
He flinched as screaming resumed, and distantly recognized the angry shouts of goons holding their own guns to well dressed people. Calculating the risk, he stood still and let the room acclimate to the crowned and cloaked figure now floating in their midst. The Joker seemed to be making his own calculations or maybe trying to think of a pun.
A lull in the panic gave Danny the first blow, “Suprised Slappy?”
He didn’t let him get a word edgewise, “Didn’t have anything better to do today Bozo? Just had to start shit when I was busy didn’t you?”
Danny let his crown, now of ice not fire, drop the temperature of the room so sharply the next breath everyone took came out cloudy.
“I think you owe me an apology.”
Joker laughed, though not for as long as he usually did, “Kid you’re crazier than I am!”
Danny barely let the words leave his mouth before stepping into Joker’s body. Possession always felt uncomfortable but the Joker felt outright wrong.
“I the Joker totally and one hundred percent apologize for being such a buttface,” a snarl escaped him as the Joker fought back, Danny still had control of his limbs. He turned to the goons he saw , now guns pointing in the vicinity of their boss.
“Put those on the floor before I make you eat them.” Joker let out something closer to a bark this time. Danny could sense something closer to panic rising inside Joker’s body, but the goons did as they were told and the tension of the room started to give way as some partygoers started to run away and security was able to come in.
There was still a wide berth around Joker and Danny, so he turned back the way Joker was facing and looked at the man he saved. It was a tall man clutching a small child to his side. Danny hadn’t even seen the kid, the man must have been shielding him when he was shot. The man looked on the verge of a breakdown. The kid looked about ready to kill.
“I’m glad you’re ok, I won’t let him go until he’s in custody.” Joker nearly coughed something up trying to protest, “By the way, where are we? Like, state-wise?”
“New Jersey,” the little boy tisked as he said it, as if he was insulted Danny didn’t know. No need to worry about him then.
“C’mon Joker, you couldn’t have waited a couple days? I’ve got- stuff to do tomorrow.”
Danny started rummaging through Joker’s suit. A few playing cards and a grenade shaped like an old-timey bomb later he found his wallet.
“You are so paying for my coffee tomorrow you jerk. It’s going to be a long flight home.”
As security guards were replaced by suited police officers Danny finished emptying the Joker’s pockets and held his arms up for a honest-to-goodness straight jacket. The man and the kid were led away and Danny gave one last goodbye before leaving a spitting mad Joker behind.
Twenty bucks richer and a few states from home, Danny had all the time to question what the hell was going on.