The red hoodie

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The Batman sat in his cave sifting through reports that he’d been ignoring for too long. Too focused on the Joker and the repercussions of what the mad man had done. The criminals of Gotham had been getting bold with the Batman’s reduced presence on the streets.
Of too the side, slumped over a desk with an entirely different set of reports slept Nightwing. Alfred had probably slipped something in his coffee when he’d refused to take a break. Batman was tempted to cover the ex-Robin with a blanket, or carry him to bed as he’d done when the boy had been much smaller. He hesitated by his wards side, but kept walking.
There were criminals who would have to be scared off from causing more trouble for a while. There were more important things to be done than dealing with scum like them. His son needed him, and he’d put his morals first long enough. If a few broken bones were needed to keep criminals off the streets for a little longer than he'd break every none in Blackgate.
There were more important things that needed to be dealt with.
***
Samantha Manson grumbled as she half crawled her way to her bedroom window. The feint green glow shining through the heavy drapes were all the indication she needed of who’d come to her house at such a late hour. According to her clock it had been only two hours since she’d gotten to sleep.
“Whatever it is had better be pretty good after you’ve practically ignored us for the past two weeks.” She flung aside her curtain, recoiling at the sight of the bell-topped hat. After a moment she caught sight of Danny behind the ghost boy.
Her friend tapped the glass and after a minute of her not moving, fazed through the glass. He laid the ghost on her bed, the sleeping ghost. She breathed a sigh of relief and opened her mouth to speak. Danny held a finger to his lips, pointing at the ghost. She dragged her friend to her bathroom, and shut the door.
“How did he get out of the Ghost-Zone? Did he learn how to fly? What else can he do, What had he done?” She asked in a loud whisper.
“Relax, Sam. He hasn’t done anything, I brought him out. I just need your help hiding him.” He said waving his arms around.
“You want to hide him here?” She asked, her heart beating a little faster, mind already coming up with a million reasons why that was a bad idea.
“No, nothing like that. I was just thinking, he doesn’t really act much like a ghost, does he?” He opened the door a little to point at the sleeping ghost other boy.
“That doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous Danny.” She said with her hands on her hips.
“I know, I know, but that’s not what I was getting at. He’s probably more scared of us than we should be of him. He’s just a kid Sam.” He said.
“We’re just kids, and look at we do, you especially.” She pointed out.
“We’re not a few months old Sam. Maybe the ghostly craziness only comes with age.” Danny ran a hand through his snowy white hair. “Maybe if he had someone taking care of him he won’t get that way. I think the Ghost-Zone was starting to get to him.”
San sighed. There was no changing his mind when Danny had that look in his eyes. “If you don’t want me to hide him, then what is it you want me to do?”
“Oh right, well, like I was saying, compared to all the others, he’s not very ghostly. The only things about him that aren’t normal are his outfit, and his skin, even that’s not as glowey as usual.”
There was a tinkling sound in the room, and when they check checked on the boy, they found that he’d rolled over and knocked his hat off the bed.
“When did you ever see a ghost sleep?” Danny asked.
“So what, you want me to give him a make over.” She pinched the bridge of her nose and turned to get herself a glass of water. Too much stress, too early.
“Between you me and Tucker I was hoping we’d at least be able to come up with something.” He said. “I was gonna go talk to him in the morning, you know how hard it is to get him up.”
“Okay, say you manage to disguise the kid, then what. You cant hide him in your house with all the anti ghost things installed there.” She asked, tapping a nail against her glass.
“I live in my house, we’ll figure something out.” A smirk flashed across his face before he turned and gave her his best puppy eyes. “Come on Sam, look at him, I couldn’t just leave him there all by himself. He could have gotten hurt.”
“He’s a ghost, Danny, it’s where he’s supposed to be. Did you think that maybe not being there could hurt him? If it’s true that he’s so young, are you sure he’s stable, what if he melts or something?” She asked, determined to iron out every aspect of her friends plan.
“I’ll take him back if anything looks like it’s going to go wrong.” Danny said confidently, but he looked a little uncomfortable now. “You know, he pretty much saved my life when I first met him. I can’t leave him all alone.”
“Do you really think you can take care of a ghost Danny? It’s not exactly a puppy.” Sam asked.
“Sure I can, no problem.” He said.
“Even if your parents find him?” She really didn’t like seeing her friend so unsure of himself, but she didn’t want him hurt even more later. The look on his face made her want to take it back and tell him that things would work out, but she knew she had to keep going. “One of the main reasons they’re interested in Phantom is that he’s so human like. You said yourself that this one is too, but unlike you he cant protect himself from them.”
“I won’t let anything happen to him, Sam. I’ll keep him near me so I can get him out right away if something does happen.” He was making an effort to be confident again.
“If you say so. Just be careful okay.” She walked back into her room, and began rifling through her closet. It had been so long since she’d looked for…there.
“What are you doing?” Danny asked.
“Hold on, I’ve almost got it,” She pulled a hoodie out the back of her closet. The thing was huge on her, so she’d never really worn it, only had it at all because it had been a gift. The actual hood was black with the rest being red. “This will hide him okay until for now.” She gave Danny the hoodie. “Tell me and Tucker tomorrow, okay.”
“Thanks Sam.” He said with that goofy smile that told her he was being completely sincere.
He held the hoodie under his arm and picked up the sleeping ghost, “I’ll see you tomorrow. Night Sam.”
She watched him fly off until he wasn’t in sight anymore, praying that nothing would go wrong.
***
The boy woke up, much to his surprise, in a bed. It was soft and warm, so different from the rocky ground he was used to that he was taken back. For a minute he remembered a bed, one even softer than this one, this thought he tried to hold onto for as long as he could before the headache pulled it away.
He heard movement near him and reluctantly opened his eyes, trying to prepare himself for what ever weirdness he’d gotten himself into as he cursed himself for falling asleep to begin with. The Danny had been talking about some dangerous equipment before, a chance to see it might have been useful later.
The room was light, and not tinted green, but actual yellow sunlight streaming in through a window. He stood and went to look out the window. Rows of houses, completely normal houses, with trees and fences and cars parked outside. There were some birds flying around, completely unlike the creepy kind he’d caught glimpses of before. Everything was normal.
He turned his attention to the room he was in. The bed, a computer sitting on a desk. Some NASA posters on the walls. There was a model of a rocket on one of the shelves. It was a kids room, a completely normal kids room. The only thing even remotely out of place was the rolled up sleeping bag in the corner. Just as he was starting to think the place he’d come from had been a dream, he heard a noise by the door, and a kid literally walked through it. With out opening the door, like he was a ghost, or an alien.
This boy had black hair, and his arms were full of packaged food, he looked up and, oh it was the kid. Just with a more normal color pallet and clothes. He wasn’t glowing anymore either.
“Oh you’re up.” Danny said. “Thanks for not going out and causing trouble or anything.” He dropped all the food on his bed. “I got some snacks so you don’t need to go looking if I’m not around.” He said with a smile. “Now that I’ll be away a lot, it’s just in case.” He added.
“Er, thanks.” The boy said distractedly.
“You okay?” Danny asked, “after yesterday and, well everything.”
“’M cool. This place is…” He waved his hand at the window.
“It’s pretty different compared to where you’re from huh? I’m sorry if it freaked you out.” Danny scratched the back of his head. “I was hoping we could go see Tucker today, but if you’re not feeling up to it, we can put it off for now.”
“No it’s fine, I wouldn’t mind seeing more of it, but uh, shouldn’t you be at school?” There hadn’t been any kids in the streets when he’d looked.
“Yeah, that’s where we were going. My friends are still grounded, so it’s the only place we can all meet to figure out what were going to do.” Danny lifted a big red hoodie and some jeans off the back of his chair. “You can wear these over your usual clothes if you’re still okay to go.”
“Why over this?” The boy asked.
“Er, you didn’t know?” Danny looked a little uncomfortable.
The boy shook his head making the bells jingle.
“Those clothes of yours probably don’t come off, kinda like your hat, you know.” Danny said.
“Great,” The boy deadpanned and picked at the fabric of his terrible clothes.
“I’ll wait for you out here okay, just knock softly when you’re done. My parents are still home.” Danny stepped through the closed door again, and the other boy was again hit by the feeling that he should have been more creeped out by that than he was.
He shook off the feeling and pulled on the clothes. The hoodie really was big. He pulled the black hood over the terrible hat, which he pushed a bit to the back of his head, it felt like it wasn’t there anymore at all. The boy ran a hand through his hair and found that he couldn’t feel the had at all, like it had disappeared altogether. Pulling down the hood to check was tempting, but he didn’t want to risk the hood coming back. Getting the baggy jeans over his pointy shoes wasn’t a problem either, but the blue fabric turned black.
The boy didn’t think he’d ever been picky about clothes, but he was glad to be out of those.
He taped softly on the door. This wouldn’t be so bad. At least there was no Mr. Ugly or any little blobs in sight. Dealing with some kids would be easy.

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