Avoiding Past And Future

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October 16

Danny woke up gasping breathlessly. He tried to breathe, force air through his lungs but it was like the organ just refused to expand. There was a stabbing pain in his chest that nearly overwhelmed all his senses.

His body ached everywhere, in part because a very panicked Cujo was standing right on his stomach. The pup looked beyond frightened as he struggled to hold onto one form. Switching wildly between his pup and hound form, Cujo licked at his face. His claws accidentally scratched through his clothes, the delicate puppy claws turning into almost talon like claws as he seemed to accidentally switch again. Danny groaned, unable to tell if he felt wet and sticky from sweat or ghost dog drool.

A soft grunt next to him alerted him that he wasn't as alone as he first thought. Sitting up, he saw Dick waking up too. Cujo jumped slightly, nearly tripping as he unexpectantly shifted between forms again. Now licking Dick's face, he noted he didn't have his glasses on anymore. Come to think of it, Danny also didn't have a mask on. Looking around, he noted the familiar barren room they were in.

Huh, he didn't remember going for a nap together in Dick's room at Mount Justice.

Memories rushed back like he got hit by a mental freight train. The aliens, Aqualad, Superboy, the explosion.

He scrambled up, untangling his hand from Dick's as he tried to look for injuries. Dick freaked out too, more so over the fact Danny nearly face planted into him as a wave of dizziness overtook his brother.

Unable to find the words, Danny could only make some strangled noises of panic as he checked underneath his brother's hoodie and through his hair. Pulling off some sticky electrodes from his temple, he just had to make sure everything was okay. Somehow there weren't any injuries, even though Danny knew there was a cut right behind his hairline that Dick had tried to hide.

Waking up enough to remember what happened himself, Dick, too, fearfully checked over Danny. Starting with the compression bandage that had disappeared. Did the blast burn it away? Where did the open wounds go? Danny's temperature was also not quite where it should be. Ignoring the slimy feeling of Cujo's drool, he felt only slightly cold to the touch. Since when was he running a fever? Had he been sick before?

They couldn't think too long over it as Cujo rapid fire shifted before finally settling again and stepped right on Dick's leg with his full hound sized weight. With the grace of a rodeo bull, the panicked pup pushed them both down again. Tail wagging wildly and slamming into the wall, it's speed and height changing so much it nearly looked like a helicopter. Dick was surprised there wasn't a hole yet, or that he hadn't broke his tail. Small wines escaped the pups throat as he pawed at Danny's chest.

Danny reached up, careful with his arm as he still expected it to suddenly start hurting again. Without the compression bandage on there, his arm felt naked. "I'm okay, boy. We're okay. Somehow." He glanced over to Dick who nodded as well. Unease was clear on both their faces. Nothing made sense, especially not with Cujo around.

Cujo knew better.

Cujo knew Mount Justice wasn't a safe place for him to come over with Wolf around. If the wolf mutant could smell ghost dog on Danny, he'd definitely go insane over the actual ghost dog being here. Cujo wouldn't come unless there was danger. Something bad enough that it spooked him.

What could have possibly happened for Cujo to show up now?

Danny was certain the aliens had gotten him. He tried, secretly, to call on Cujo. The pup had always seemed to have a sixth sense for when Danny was in trouble. Lately he seemed to have gotten one for Dick as well. Yet, he never got a response or even the feeling Cujo was around.