Things were, in fact, not fine.

Patrol had been going great, a bit too great. They had gotten a little too sloppy and accidentally walked right into a turf war. With the three of them, it wasn't that hard to handle. The worst part was Danny's control over his visibility failing at just the right time for Dick to witness the sloppiest punch he has ever seen in his life. Alley toddlers quite literally threw better punches than whatever that was! Dick had immediately demanded the rest of the patrol would be combat training. They really needed to work on that more than improving Danny's power control.

But of course that couldn't just be their only issue.

Like agreed before he left to suit up, Dick had gone home with Batman after patrol. In part to get some supplies for training but also to go see Alfred after leaving the poor butler alone with Bruce for 3 days straight.

And lucky that he did.

As he was gathering supplies down in the Cave, Dick had seen a note that Bruce failed to talk to Selina yesterday since she wasn't home. He had planned to go in the morning to check again. He tried to call Selina's cell but she didn't pick up.

So here he was, racing across Gotham rooftops like a bird out of hell. Hoping he'll make it to the apartment before Batman did. By some miracle, their favorite window was left open, giving him an easy entry. "Selina?" He called out, trying to catch his breath while Shiro screamed at him. "Mama! Are you home?" Frantically he knocked on her bedroom door, worried about not seeing Danny in a pile of pillows and cats by the couch.

After what felt like an eternity, a very groggy Selina opened the bedroom door. "Honey? What's wrong?" She didn't hesitate to check him over for injuries, mind suddenly wide awake as she realized Dick showed up in his Robin suit from the night before. Had Dick even slept?

"Batman! Where is Danny? I didn't see him by the couch." Dick was zooming around the room, trying to find Danny in whatever spot was appropriate to look.

Selina grabbed him by the shoulders, forcing him to stop. "Dick, breathe. Tell me what happened, slowly."

Dick took a steading breath, the stress tremors in his arms subsiding slightly. "Batman is coming, here, now. He was supposed to talk to you last night but because you were out with us he couldn't. I tried to call you but you didn't pick up and, god, I really need to get Danny a phone, don't I. But I need to get him out of here before B gets here to talk to you." He wasn't sure how many words he jumbled together but there were still a few as his mind was racing.

Selina forced him to look up at her with a gentle nudge. "Dick, go pack the spare stuff from your bag and go back to the manor. If he asks, you say you forgot something for school. Danny is sleeping in the bathtub-don't ask. I'll go wake him up, you focus on the bag and the stuff Danny used." Dick nodded a few times, needing a minute to take it all in before he set off to pack the bag.

Selina quickly plugged in her phone and let it start up as she walked over to the bathroom, calling over Danny's favorite walking alarm clock. "Enjoy yourself, Nanaki." Right on cue, Nanaki rushed into the bathroom and started singing his favorite song for Danny. However the boy had managed to get in a position that made pretzels look straight, she didn't know and she also feared knowing how so it was best to just not even think about it.

"Oh my god, Nanaki, why." Danny whined as he tried to contort himself even more to escape from Nanaki's screaming.

"Danny, darling, we need you to wake up, preferably right now." She called out to him. With clear reluctance, she watched Danny untangle himself and sit up straight. Shiro hopped out from wherever he was hiding and ran out. Only a moment later, Shiro was screaming at Dick, probably winding up the poor boy even more.

"Wha- what is Dick doing here? Did I sleep in?" Danny stumbled out of the bathtub and followed the string of soft curses mixed with the melodic yowling of Shiro.

Selina and Nanaki followed him out, splitting off to go get dressed herself.

"Dick?"

At the call of his name, the boy looked up and immediately rushed over with a half open bag. "Good, you're dressed. Put your shoes on, we need to go, like 5 minutes ago." Dick shuffled past him as he went to look for the extra spare clothes he had smuggled over.

"Dick, what's going on? Why do we need to go?"

"Batman, coming here, we're leaving."

Suddenly wide awake, Danny helped with the rushed packing of things and grabbed his shoes. Forgoing putting them on in favor of grabbing his brother, Danny transformed and flew them a few blocks away to a little alley where they could catch their breath. Without a word, Dick rummaged through the bag and pulled out a special protein bar for Danny. A quick thanks and barely two bites and the bar was already fully gone. Maybe they really should talk to Alfred about getting Danny on a better diet because as it stands, he looks like he lost a noticeable amount of weight just over these past few days. And it's not like he had much more left to lose before he was a literal walking skeleton.

Dick's phone pinged from a newly received message, interrupting his train of thought.

Mama😽
He's here about Ivy, I'll keep him busy

He signed in relief, slumping slightly against the alley wall. "Made it out just in time, he's running up on leads about Ivy." With a slight huff he pushed himself off again and picked up the backpack. "She can keep him busy for as long as we need, but we should probably get going before too many people start coming outside."

"Going where?" Danny followed Dick's lead, staying invisible and only flying to make it across those big jumps this early in the morning.

"The manor. All the stuff is still there and we can get you some better food than that processed stuff." They were already a few blocks further by now, at this rate they'll get to the secret cave entrance in no time.

"Hold up. You just woke me up not even 10 minutes ago to get me away from B, and now you want me to go to the man's own home? Failing to see the logic here." A big jump across an intersection, Danny grabbed Dick so they could fly across invisibly. Despite his apparent protests, Danny still followed Dick without slowing down.

"One, he isn't there right now. That's the whole point, getting there while he is gone. The place is big enough that you can quite literally hang out wherever and he won't find you without cameras. You can even sleep in my bathtub if you want."

"Why the bathtub?"

"Says the kid sleeping in one this morning?"

"Fair point."

"Two, I need to ask Alfie something important about your food and stuff. He's really good with that kind of thing so we wouldn't need to go to an actual doctor you know."

"That does sound very tempting, yes."

Dick snorted as they made their way across another big intersection. Was it the most covert route? Absolutely not. But it was the fastest and right now he prioritized speed over stealth so long as he had Danny to turn them invisible in the high visibility areas. "Most importantly however, free unlimited homemade food when you ask nicely."

Dick had to hold back giggles as he suddenly felt himself lifted up, the increasingly recognizable cold wave of invisibility and intangibility washing over him. "You could have started with that." Danny's voice sounded from somewhere above him.

Before too long, with Dick's amazing navigation skills, they reached where he had parked his bike. "You didn't think I ran the whole way there, did you?" Dick laughed as a slightly embarrassed Danny hopped on behind him. Within seconds they were safely speeding down the streets and into the BatCave with just a touch of ghostly powers.

Trying to not make too much noise, Dick carefully parked the bike back in the hangar as Danny floated along invisibly. "Okay, we should be fine so long as we don't immediately run into-"

"I sure do hope you wouldn't be trying to avoid me, now would you, Master Dick."

Dick immediately spun around, trying to play it cool. "He-Hey, Alfie. Why would I ever want to avoid, ehe, you?" Mission failed successfully. With just the rise of the Brit's eyebrow, Dick knew he was done for. With a deep sigh and his head hung low, he gave up and got the introductions over with. "Alfie, this is Danny. Danny, this is Alfred."

"Oh my." Alfred gasped as Danny reappeared, letting himself turn fully human again. "Well, the resemblance is indeed uncanny. Oh, where are my manners? Welcome to the Wayne Manor, my dear boy. I must apologize for the lack of any refreshments, a certain young charge of mine had failed to mention I would be serving guests."

Danny immediately felt overwhelmed, letting himself be guided upstairs as Dick snickered behind him. "Oh, no sir. No need to go out of your way for me like that."

"Nonsense! You look beyond famished, it is the least I can do." Alfred led them straight towards the kitchen.

"Actually, Alfie. That's kind of why I brought him over. We, ah, we're gonna need a better meal plan that can handle training." Dick pulled out the previous meal plan that he had nabbed from Selina's, just in case. "Selina said that's what you were talking about before so I figured it would be better if you could actually get a better look at what you're dealing with here."

"And right you were, my boy." Alfred smiled, putting away the few supplies he had pulled out to focus on the more important task at hand. "Tell me, Master Daniel-"

"Danny, ah, I mean, I prefer Danny, if that's okay, sir."

Alfred smiled gently, not even upset by the interruption. He gestured for Danny to take a seat and went to sit next to him at the table. "My apologies, Master Danny. You may also call me Alfred, there is no need for any formalities." Danny raised an eyebrow with a smile but said nothing on it. "Now, what I would most want to focus on is that I already had Miss Kyle give you a special diet made for metas with high metabolisms. Yet, it does not seem to be enough. Is there something special about your specific abilities that would negate the extra nutrients?"

Danny thought for a second. Frostbite did try to explain it once but he hadn't really paid attention since he wasn't in control of his meals anyway. "I'm not totally sure but from what I remember, metas burn more when they use their abilities." He paused until he got two nods. "For me, I'm basically using them round the clock. One side of me, the human half, is constantly being attacked by the ecto in my veins. The, ah, the ghost stuff. But on the other hand, my ghost side is constantly repairing the damage." Danny had to look away as differing degrees of shock appeared on their faces. The wonders behind his enhanced senses and healing had that effect.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to just rush through it. "My abilities are also just instincts or accidents most of the time. Dick's been helping me with practice so that may also have just made it worse over all since falling back into old habits means more unintentional use. But if I don't use them, the access energy will just try to find a way to be used up and attack my human half even more."

Danny pulled up his sleeve, revealing the severely damaged inhibitors underneath. A few pieces of white hair falling in front of his eyes, eliciting a deep sigh from the boy. "Yeah. This is what I meant with accidental." He huffed at the strands with a humorless chuckle. "I'm not using my powers enough so the ghost half is bleeding into the human half. The opposite doesn't happen if I go full ghost though. The only time it can happen is by transforming back. I modified the inhibitors to be powered by my own energy but it still wasn't enough back there. Even less now."

A wrinkly hand covered his. Danny looked up at the blurry faces of Alfred and his brother, not noticing the tears that had started to form. "I promise you, Master Danny, that we will find a way to get you to a healthy state again. You have my word."

"There's a lot of scrap down in the Cave anyway." Dick added, coming over to hug Danny from the back. "We can make new, better collars until we found something that works. B won't even notice anything missing and I could always ask Lucius if he can order special stuff on the side for us."

Danny wiped at his face, not even sure if any tears had fallen. "You don't have to, I swear. Frostbite would probably know what to do but I don't know how to contact him. He's, ah I don't know how to explain this without sounding even more insane than I already do." He laughed both at himself and the overwhelming feeling of just such casual acceptance he never thought he would get. "He's a ghost doctor, well actually he is the chief of a yeti tribe but they specialize in medicine so, yeah. He came over when I was having...issues with a new power a few months back. He helped a lot but the only way I can think of talking to him would be sending Cujo."

"Cujo?"

"The dog you all said I was imagining." Dick pouted as he rested his head on top of Danny's, no actual malice in his tone.

Danny tilted his head up to look at Dick in surprise and slight alarm. "Cujo came here? When?"

Dick shrugged nonchalantly. "Started showing up here and there after the mission in Belle Rêve. He really did save my a-aahhhh me, he saved me a few times." Dick quickly corrected himself to avoid a scolding from Alfred.

"You must understand, you had not slept in days and there was no camera footage of anything except for you acting erratically."

"I know, Alfie, I don't blame you. If I didn't see him myself I wouldn't have believed it either, to be honest. Anyway, we got off track. How sure are you that Cujo could find Frostbite?"

Danny thought for a bit. Cujo was there when Frostbite first came over. So he does know him. But the Far Frozen is a large place and Cujo isn't particularly the fondest of the freezing weather over there. "He probably wouldn't like it but if we get him his favorite treats after, pretty likely I think. But I have no idea how long he would be gone for. The Realms are endless and the territory Frostbite is in has pretty extreme weather so tracking a scent would be near impossible. But Cujo has done the impossible so many times now I'm starting to think he doesn't know what that word means."

"Well then, I shall prepare a list of important information I require. In the meantime, what would you like to eat?"

Danny actually quite liked Alfred. Coming over to the Manor wasn't as scary as he had first thought it would be. The Englishman treated him like he had always been part of the family and for that Danny was very grateful. The man also had the coolest war stories that Dick got him to tell.

Of course the only reason he brought it up was so he could ask Alfred to supervise their training and help with his combat skills. At least Dick didn't joke about his 'wet newspaper stance' this time around. It was pretty cool, though. It felt more like just playing around than actual training yet somehow, they just kept praising him for picking up things rather fast. Even more after Dick had helped take off the broken inhibitors from around his wrists and ankles. They were too damaged to really function anymore so the only thing they were good for was to restrict some of his range of motion.

Danny also didn't have the heart to tell them his reflexes were supposed to be faster than the average human. The praises felt too nice to ruin.

"You know," Dick mused out loud. "There is a combat training scheduled for tomorrow at Mount Justice that I would have to go to. You could come along and watch if you want." Dick idly played with a batarang like it was a fidget spinner, stealing a few side glances at Danny as he practiced his throws.

Danny threw another one, missing the center of the target by an inch. "I don't know, Dick. You saw how horrible patrol went yesterday, and I don't think they'll enjoy having an outsider sit in on something like that." He threw another one, old muscle memory from when Dick had first explained how it worked years ago kicking in. The warm fuzzy feeling of memories from a happier time filling his chest while his head was running a mile a minute keeping up with the insane things Dick kept trying to drag him into.

"Well, that was because a gun literally went off right next to you. It was one little mistake. You wouldn't even have to do anything, just observing would be enough. Then you can see different fighting styles too and see what feels better for you."

"I don't know, Dick. Last time I was near your friends I didn't really leave the best impression." Danny finally hit dead center again. His fingers twitched to keep throwing stuff as dopamine rushed through him at the success.

"See, you won't need to worry about that. You can just stay invisible and nobody would notice you're there!"

"You're not letting this go until I agree, are you?"

"Nope." Dick smiled lopsidedly as he popped the P. Danny dramatically rolled his eyes, silently cursing how stubborn Dick could be sometimes. But he did have to admit that attending a training session would be beneficial.

Sighing deeply he put down the batarangs he was holding. "Okay fine. Say I would agree, how are you even sneaking me in. I'm not in your fancy system." He pointed towards the Zeta teleporter. Silently he also hoped he would never have to use it. Just seeing it on standby like that was already bringing back horrible memories that he would much rather forget.

Dick seemed to have forgotten about that tiny detail as he stopped messing with his own throwables. "Oh, shoot, yeah. I can't give you access either without B noticing I messed with the coding again."

"Again?" There was a story, a juicy one judging from the look on Alfred's face.

Dick grinned wildly and pulled up some videos on the main screen of the BatComputer. "Last time I changed their codes to personalized music." He pulled up a few with various reactions by the affected leaguers.

The first one was of Captain Marvel. He seemed pretty stressed out when the song Live While We're Young by One Direction started playing. The poor man was trying to find out where it was coming from and accidentally got teleported away again in his attempts to silent the song.

The next poor soul was Flash. The man just started dancing around and vibing to the song when Stand by Lenny Kravitz came through the speakers.

The one after was a wider shot of the Zeta bay. Before Superman even fully materialized, Waiting For Superman by Daughtry already started playing. As if they had been waiting exactly for this moment, Flash and Green Arrow burst out laughing and sang the entire song while Superman looked like he wanted to die. He probably had to deal with a lot of jokes from his colleagues.

Not even Aquaman had been spared. The Atlantean stood in utter confusion as Atlantis by Dr Rude played. Of course, Flash and Green Arrow had been waiting for him too. Flash played with the light switches while Green Arrow waved around two flares to really add to the rave vibe.

But the best would have to be Batman's. Dick had set it up so The Imperial March would play through the entire building. Each room had its own line of code so it would guarantee the song could play in full while Batman tried to shut it down.

The twins ended up in a mess of giggles at the end of it all. "So as you can see," Dick said between breaths, "He has a good reason for still keeping a close eye on anybody messing with the main code after that."

"Really, I couldn't imagine why they don't want their own soundtrack."

"I could always just hack the hangar door again and get in that way, which we totally don't do all the time Alfie, totally not." Dick lost himself in another fit of giggles at the disapproving stare Alfred gave. "Okay, seriously though. I can get you in. It's the getting there that's the problem. Alfred, which one of the planes would B be least likely to miss?"

"If it is a simple matter of transportation, you may use mine." Alfred pulled out his keyring and removed one Dick recognized to belong to one of Batman's original designs for the Batplane. Alfred chuckled as he handed over the key to the stunned boy. "What, did you really think Master Bruce is the only one who got to keep fancy toys?"

Dick giddily jumped up and embraced the older man. "Alfie, you're the best!"