Chapter Text
“Remember, we’re here to gather intel," Timothy Drake-Wayne murmurs to Damian al Ghul Wayne, hand on the younger brother’s shoulder. “Do not engage with the targets.”
Damian gives a firm nod of agreement, his hand absently moving to scoop up a glass of sparkling water from a passing server.
Standing on the other side of the reception hall, Danny sips from his glass and pretends to watch the crowd while he speaks with his mentor, “They’re here to scope us out.”
Vlad Masters nods once, a slight dip of his chin, having picked up the exchange with his own sensitive hearing. “Indeed. As we expected.” He swirls the whisky in his glass. “Why don’t you try to engage poor Damian?”
Danny snickers around the lip of his glass, lowering his eyes to hide the flash of mischievous green. “Gee, unkie, I’d’ve hoped to have a few dates before taking such a serious step in a relationship”
After three years, Vlad should’ve known to choose his words carefully. He realizes the double entendre too late and back peddles with exasperation. “You are not to date him, badger. Just set him off guard and distract him from his agenda.”
Danny sighs. “Unkie, you take the fun out of this.”
“And nothing too dramatic. Tonight is supposed to be about our announcement, hmm?” He raises a well-groomed eyebrow at Danny.
Danny rolls his eyes, but Vlad simply appears to ignore him, gaze casting over the guests assembled for the gala. Vlad’s attention has shifted towards picking out his own targets investors for Dalv Co.’s newest project announcement: pure, clean, consistent energy.
They’ve been working on this project all summer and Vlad finally figured out how to long-term stabilize the concentrated ectoplasm. The thinner the ectoplasm, the faster it decays outside of the Infinite Realms, and for this project, crystalized or goo form won’t do.
Unlike how his parents’ ecto-blasters fired energy off of a crystalized core of ectoplasm or how ecto-line is coated in sticky, gooey ectoplasm, E-Energy takes more after ecto-dejecto. The thin, liquid ectoplasm pacts a powerful punch. However, ecto-dejecto and E-Energy diverge where the dejecto has impurities from ambient ectoplasm and the core of E-Energy has been filtered to a purer concentration which is more powerful and runs more smoothly. This results in the down side of the concentrated ectoplasm being more unstable and prone to rotting.
Chemistry has never been Danny’s strong suit, but that’s why it’s important to have a partner to invent with because Vlad was able to figure out the right composition for the liquid ectoplasm. It’s an idea that Danny has been working on for a while now, tinkering with all of the mechanical parts from casing to motorized filter.
This is their night! Their time to celebrate their success! Even though Vlad is hogging the limelight of the presentation and announcement, Danny is trying not to be bitter about it because Vlad is better at public speaking… After all that work, there’s no way that they’re going to let a couple of Waynes screw it up for them.
“You have your task, I’m going to start networking,” Vlad says as he steps away to approach some other wealthy business person. “Ah, Mr. Smith, so good of you to join us for the first demonstration of E-Energy.”
Danny scoffs and turns away from Vlad’s schmoozing. He has a task to do, and the first step is to make himself bait.
He meanders the crowded grand hall, greeting guests and thanking them for coming. Yes, Dalv Co. does have a very good announcement for tonight. No, it is not another change in the management of their Research and Development department. Yes, guests tonight get the very first look of the new development project. No, while it was originally his idea, Danny has only been able to help a bit. Yes, it really will move the world towards a cleaner, brighter future.
Finally, the hairs on the back of Danny’s neck stand up as an invisible shroud of death brushes against his hidden aura. After going to the Gotham Private Academy of Young Scholars for the last three years, Danny is all too familiar with the one person that that shroud announces. He turns and meets the dull, golden eyes of his rival.
Ever since Danny and Vlad moved to Gotham; ever since Dalv Co. started climbing the ranks and Danny was officially named the heir, Danny and Damian have been compared. Which one has the higher test scores? Which one is better for improving their family’s company? Danny invented this but Damian donated that. Damian won this but Danny led that.
It’s exhilarating. It’s exhausting. It challenges Danny to be better, do better, and achieve more. Vlad certainly pushes him, but with this, it’s on Danny’s terms mostly. Though, the damn media, they could certainly lay off sometimes.
With all the head-butting, Danny and Damian mostly avoided each other at school, but their senior year in particular is trying to challenge them with basically half of their classes being together. Now they are on the same mathletes team and they even have to sit together in AP physics! Not that it is specifically fun to get under Damian’s skin.
“Daniel.” Damian blinks, his eyes almost flashing with irritation. A pale, clear brown that seems to turn golden when hit just right by the lights
“Damian,” Danny says stiffly.
They fall silent as they watch each other.
Danny’s eyes flick over Damian’s crisp, black suit, snapping from detail to detail. The crushed velvet looks incredibly expensive when compared to Danny’s cashmere suit. Damian is wearing an emerald green silk Chinese Tang shirt under his Western style suit jacket. The homage to his heritage is tasteful and suits (haha) him well. No doubt, the golden threads of the embroidered dragons on the Tang shirt are real gold, just like the multiple rings, bracelets, and earrings that adorn Damian. Stuffy, stuck-up, rich fruitloop.
Damian’s gaze is more methodical, more purposeful than Danny’s. His eyes go down to Danny’s shoes and then back up to meet Danny’s eyes, noticing every line and thread. Danny wears a deep blue silk dress shirt with a pale blue bow-tie and shiny blue leather shoes. Instead of gold, Danny wears silver for his cuff-links, his earrings are two silver hoops with three sapphire studs, and (as always) his metal circlet bracelet. Danny draws himself up to his full height, not giving into the temptation to fidget.
He tries to tough it out, to not waver under Damian’s power play, but Danny can’t stand long pauses and Damian knows it, always using it to his advantage. Danny breaks the silence.“Here to scope out your daddy’s competition?”
His eyebrow twitches ever so slightly. “You know very well that my father turned over the company to my brother years ago-“
“Still his name on the building,” Danny mutters.
“-And we were the ones put on the guest list,” Damian sniffs, tilting his head to look down his nose (it’s surprisingly effective despite Danny having several inches on Damian’s height).
“Hm, I guess Vlad just wanted you to see how Dalv Co. is going to leave Wayne Enterprises behind in the clean energy race.”
“And tell me how, exactly, is Dalv Co. going to manage such a feat when its scientists and management have been a revolving door of turnover?”
Danny swirls the juice in his glass before dramatically downing the rest as if it were a shot. “You’re not special Dames, you’ll have to wait till the demonstration to find out.”
Damian scoffs and turns on his heel, disappearing into the crowd. Danny chuckles as he leaves the main gala, honestly surprised that Damian didn’t rip his head off this time for the nickname.
It’s time to split himself and patrol the halls until he catches Timothy or Damian snooping.
Sure enough, not thirty minutes later, mimic #5 catches sight of Damian moving down a hall that is off-limits to guests.
Danny pulls himself back together just ahead of where Damian will run into him. He can’t help the gleeful smirk that pulls over his lips as Damian pretends to not startle while turning the corner to find Danny. “You can’t sneak a peek at my science project, but I’ll tutor you if you want.”
Damian narrows his eyes. “I do not require your help, Masters.”
Danny grits his teeth. He knows that Damian is just trying to push his buttons. He knows that Damian is only using the name to highlight their rivalry. Wayne VS Masters. All the ways they’ve been made to compete and be placed opposite of each other over the last three years.
“Fenton. Remember?” Even though Damian is just going to get Danny’s last name wrong again on purpose in class on Monday, he’ll still correct him. Uncle Vlad is great for taking him in, but Danny refuses to fully take the last name. He won’t be separated from Jazz too. “But that’s right, you don’t care to remember little details.”
“Tt. I am quite detail oriented.”
“Says the one getting ‘lost’ to find the bathroom. That was going to be your excuse, right?”
Damian narrows his eyes as Danny emphasizes his words with air quotes.
“Actually, you know what, it would be really funny, follow me.” Danny pretends to change his mind as he turns on his heel and leads the way down the hall. It’s time to put on a show, make Damian forget Drake’s instructions by falling hook, line, and sinker for Danny’s bait. “Uncle Vlad’s office is this way, west wing and third floor.”
When Damian doesn’t move, Danny calls over his shoulder, “Chop chop, we don't have all night. Vlad needs some recreation every now and then, and rearranging his office is always funny.”
Finally, Damian starts to follow Danny, eyes narrowed and cautious.
“He gets all red in the face and mutters a lot while putting stuff back in place. It gives me a chance to get back at him,” Danny babbles as they walk. Damian is always prickly and paranoid, so the best way to sell any kind of story is to weave in the partial truths.
“For all his drabbles about ‘Danny, I took you in, you’re like a son to me, I want you to take over the company and continue my work,’” Danny deepens his voice to mock Vlad. “He doesn’t give me that much insight into the actual company.
“Okay sure, he lets me tinker and takes my ideas seriously; like E-Energy. There were even some security adjustments he let me add to the main company building! But, like, if I’m supposed to be an heir,” he fakes a gag on the word, “I need to know more about running a company.” Danny may look childish compared to Damian’s poise, but being underestimated right now is going to give Damian false security while falling into Danny’s trap.
Danny throws Damian a bright smile while he picks the lock to Vlad’s office. “Ta da!” He says cheerily as he breaks the lock and swings the door open. (He used the needle from his tie pin to let out a small ecto-blast in the lock. Vlad’s sensors will be tripped and his cameras will see them, but it’s whatever.)
Damian’s eyebrow twitches in annoyance. “I will not be doing your dirty work.”
“Nope!” Danny agrees. He beelines to Vlad’s desk and starts ruffling the papers around. “You’re participating in my dirty work.”
Damian watches Danny flit around and then ultimately seems to decide that he better find some intel before Danny makes an utter mess of the place.
Over the next several minutes, Danny switches around the folders in the filing cabinet, rearranges the knickknacks, licks some of the mints in the candy jar before putting them back, and even makes some faces and rude gestures at the hidden cameras. Damian keeps to his own task of searching for information while he rolls his eyes and huffs at Danny’s antics.
Danny is in the middle of rearranging another one of the bookshelves when his phone chimes. He looks down and turns the alarm off while unceremoniously sweeping a bunch of books onto the floor. “Right-O, the demonstration is gonna start in a few minutes. You finish up here and meet me downstairs. Let me know if you find anything.”
“Wait- You can’t just-“ Damian’s head snaps up from where he’s been trying to sort through Danny’s mess.
“Byeeee!” Danny slips out the door and sing-songs over his shoulder, “Best of luck! Hope you find all the details.”
He returns to the grand hall and joins the throng of people meandering onto the patio that leads to the court yard. It’s almost time for Vlad’s first presentation of E-Energy after enticing his preferred investors for the first portion of the night. He knows that Damian won’t find anything and he was being honest; it’s going to be funny when Vlad finds his office a wreck (except this time he can’t blame it solely on Danny). Anything relating to the tinkering and experimenting that Vlad and Danny do is either in the basement lab or in the castle in the Infinite Realms. Danny first started the schematics for E-Energy downstairs and then Vlad finalized the design in the Realms.
He picks up another drink, choosing a much brighter one this time. It’s a thick and vivid two toned blue and red something. It’s supposed to be stirred and is probably very alcoholic (the employee from the catering company they hired certainly frowned when Danny took it) but he isn’t going to drink it.
Vlad is on the raised platform next to the modified back-up generator, making a speech about the current issues of renewable energy. Solar panels are damaged easily and don’t work without sun. Windmills are killing birds and are an eyesore on the landscape. Nuclear energy produces waste that is difficult to dispose of and causes disasters when the reactors explode.
Danny knows that it’s a bunch of bullshit that the fossil fuel companies peddle against clean energy, but investors want to be told that they are making the best choice. They like a shiny label that says NEW and they want to make loads more money off of anything that seems reliable enough to gamble on.
“But E-Energy is different!” Vlad announces as he holds up a green and white sci-fi-ish power cell, no larger than his own forearm (so sue Danny for his design, he can’t yet give up his parents’ aesthetic). “This energy is Dalv Co.’s own special compound that-“
Danny tunes Vlad out as he uses scientific buzz words to talk around the fact that the power cells are charged with ectoplasm. If he pays attention too much then he might just get irritated enough to storm up there and take over. Vlad may have made the energy transfer process perfect, but it was Danny’s project first, god dammit.
In hindsight, his task to distract Damian is probably, actually, really for Danny to distract himself from Vlad’s attention hogging. Fine. If Vlad wants Danny to direct his energy away from the presentation and onto Damian, then Danny can certainly double down.
Deep breaths. Danny should be proud of himself. Be happy. E-Energy is going to make leaps and bounds in the clean energy movement.
If ectoplasm can make up all the space between realms and power ghosts for centuries, then surely it can power a few houses. The power cells are fairly easy to make and they can be “recharged” by being refilled. The kicker was figuring out how to keep the concentrated, pure liquid ectoplasm stable for a long time outside of the realms. Once they start making more, the cost will become a lot more reasonable. Right now, it does cost a lot to make one cell, and that’s aside from the cost of the special built generator. It did take some time to figure out how to turn goo-energy into liquid then into electrical-energy and the integration of the system into existing buildings depends on how up-to-date the wiring- Oh there’s Damian.
Danny’s eyes zero in on the youngest Wayne. He steps out of a side entrance of the mansion to rejoin the crowd while making some vague gestures across the audience to Timothy. Danny knows that Damian didn’t find anything, so now it’s time to taunt him.
He sidles up behind Damian at the outdoor canapé and dessert table. “So? How big of a mess did you make?” Mess of the office or mess of his mission? Damian doesn’t know that Danny knows.
Damien side eyes him while picking through the vegetarian options. “Fenton. I was not looking for you.”
“Nope! I was looking for you.” Danny raises an eyebrow. “Okay, so you ready to admit that you’re here to spy for your daddy?”
Damian grits his teeth. “I am here to see Vlad Masters’ presentation.”
Danny flaps his free hand to mimic talking. “‘Blah blah blah, I made this and it’s the best so give me money and I’ll make more so I can better power Gotham.’ That about sums it up.”
“And how, exactly, does E-Energy run?” Damian turns to give Danny his full attention. “What is the chemical compound? How is it made, with what resources, and how is it disposed of? Are you aware of Dalv Co.’s increasing CO2 footprint?”
“And didn’t you find those answers in Vlad’s office?” Danny studies the drink, shoving his free hand in his pocket. “Oh that’s right, you wouldn’t’ve.”
Damian dares a step forward, the shroud of death that surrounds him prickling up against Danny’s aura. “Masters, you may have something to hide, but-“
“Hide?” Danny scoffs. “No durr. Like we wouldn’t try to protect ourselves from someone sneaking around like some kind of creepy assassin.”
“‘Creepy assassin’?” Damian’s indignant hiss nearly covers it, but Danny’s sensitive hearing picks up the way that Timothy mutters, “Keep it together Damian.” They must have some kind of subtle com unit because Timothy is on the other side of the courtyard. Danny could flare his aura to fry it with static…
Danny hums and tilts his head, smirking. He reaches forward with a clawed hand of his aura, grating through the death shroud that hangs over Damian. “That’s right, now calm down and scuttle back to your handler. I bet your daddy will make everything better for you.” He turns on his heel, ripping a hole in that shroud as he leaves. The bait is set.
Sure enough, Danny hears a sharp in-take of breath before quick, firm footsteps sound behind him. A hand on his shoulder yanks him around to face Damian as the other hand balls into Danny’s shirt collar. “Listen here, you impertinent cretin, I-“
Several things happen in rapid succession and time seems to almost slow down (or maybe it’s Clockwork. He always has been rather fond of Danny).
Danny schools his features into a reaction of shock, not meaning to trip over his feet at the forced turn. He had accounted for most of this, so his arm goes wide and splashes that bright blue and red drink over the front of Damian’s Tang shirt.
What he had not accounted for was Damian’s strength and momentum or the terrible timing. One moment, Damian’s green silk shirt is getting covered in artificially colored fruit syrup and the next the lights go out.
Vlad is saying something about “watch how with one simple generator, we are able to power a whole mansion!”
The E-Energy generator rumbles to life, fluttering green before all the lights flick back on, almost brighter than before. The string lights hung across the courtyard like a roof had been almost hidden in the night air and now twinkle alongside the stars that manage to peak through Gotham’s hazy red smog.
Then, the momentum sends Damian and Danny crashing into the side of the champagne tower, the table lurching under their weight and the glasses tinkling together as the tower shakes before the table legs give out.
Vlad is many things and under the opulence, he is very cheap. He’ll penny pinch wherever he can. So, sure enough, the champagne tower rests on a card table that had been covered with a cloth.
The world turns as the boys fall, showered by golden champagne and crystal glasses that glitter in the twinkle of the string lights. They clatter and crash to the terracotta tiles, sparkling glass shards and droplets of champagne littering the ground around their sprawled forms.
There’s a moment of silence as all eyes on the patio turn to them. Most piercingly, are Vlad’s. He stands on the elevated terrace, one hand on the quietly rumbling generator. “Well… I was going to announce a toast with those glasses, but it seems my ward had other plans.” He tries to keep his voice light, but his tone rumbles with an undercurrent of thunder that Danny doesn’t miss.
Damian props himself up– half on top of Danny –and glares down. His eyes are bright gold in the light and amber champagne drips off of his dark hair. “You, Fenton, will not be hearing the end of this.”
Danny is slightly winded from the tumble. He sits up– pushing Damian off him –and blinks the champagne out of his eyes. He’s only half aware of the reporters’ flashing cameras. “Oops…”
There are hands lifting Damian up by the arms and off of the ruined table. “I’m very sorry, Mr. Masters, for my brother’s distraction. Wayne Enterprises will be happy to send a formal apology and compensation for the damage in the morning,” CEO Timothy Drake-Wayne’s voice sounds just as forcefully pleasant as Vlad’s.
“Your kindness is appreciated, but not necessary. I’m sure my ward is just as guilty for this charade. I’d offer to cover the dry cleaning, but I’m sure Wayne wouldn’t appreciate the insult.”
Timothy gives a curt nod. “Please continue with your evening, I’ll take my brother home immediately. I was hoping to invest, Wayne Enterprises will be in touch.” Then, more quietly, “let’s go, Damian.”
Vlad watches them leave before his eyes snap to Danny. “Get up, Daniel. Go get cleaned and ready for bed. It’s quite late for you.”
Danny grits his teeth, fisting his hands. He lets the pain from the glass shards in his palms cut through his welling anger. “Of course, Vlad. I’m sorry for the interruption. Please excuse me, everyone, I hope you have a pleasant rest of your evening.” His voice trembles only slightly. Given the circumstances, the guests will think he’s just embarrassed.
As he leaves, Danny hears Vlad regather the crowd. “I’m so sorry for my ward, you know how children are-“ Danny reigns in his hearing, not caring to know the rest of that statement. Stupid Vlad. He told Danny to do this stupid debacle.
That night, a Robin makes his patrol with cuts on his palms and a ghost haunts the Far Frozen ice lands.