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Part One: There's a Ghost in the Bat Cave

Chapter Three: Rules Rules Rules

Even after Nightwing had gone home to Bludhaven, even after Damien had been sent to bed, Bruce sat at the computer in the bat cave going through the files on Danny. Dr. Thompkins had called Alfred back to let him know she had just gotten out of a surgery and wouldn't be able to come look at the kid till after she had gotten some sleep. She would be by at 6:00 am at the earliest.

Unfortunately, Damien hadn't managed to get everything from the lab's computers, only files opened in the last six months or so were downloaded before he was interrupted. However, there was one file that was particularly helpful. It appeared to be the lead scientist's journal, and the first entry was dated to just over a year ago. Unfortunately, some of the information was corrupted.

"May 14, XXXX The - - - child Daniel Fenton arrived today. Finally, after a year of trying to capture this -, we succeeded. Dead at the age of 14, this creature - unimaginable power, which we determine - exploit."

Bruce was able to learn a lot from this single passage, and there was still so much more of this journal to read. However, he paused for a moment, and looked up the name Daniel Fenton in several databases. He wasn't expecting much, but something came back almost immediately. His computer returned a death certificate for Daniel Fenton, age 15. He did a double take on that.

'15?' he thought to himself. Looking back at the journal, it said Danny had died when he was 14. And on top of that, Danny very clearly wasn't dead. Digging for a few more minutes brought up a newspaper article dated to just over a year ago. The headline read, "Whole Fenton Family Dead in Lab Accident." The article itself didn't give much useful information, just that all four members of the Fenton household, along with two other children who were friends of Danny, had perished in an unexpected explosion at the Fenton home. Preliminary examination showed that the most likely culprit of the explosion was a failed experiment in the basement lab of the Fentons, who were scientists by trade.

'Poor kid,' Bruce thought to himself. But still, if there was a death certificate for Danny, and the rest of his family, how did he end up in a government funded lab? And why were the ages of death listed differently? Reading further in the journal didn't give any hints, but Bruce read it anyway. The majority of the document, what wasn't corrupt, explained in gruesome detail the experiments they were running on the kid. An entry about a month after the first included a video file had been inserted into the text. Before watching it, Bruce read the entry.

"We've made a very interesting discovery -. It appears the ghost - a weakness to electricity. This may be very useful in getting it to cooperate - our experiments as it's stubbornness is proving difficult. This discovery was made as great scientific advances tend to be, by accident. While trying to get the ghost to turn invisible, a - modified taser was used, and the results - unexpected."

Bruce pressed play on the video. Danny was standing in a small cage, the walls made of a translucent green material. Bruce recognized it from the video Damien had shown him of Danny transforming. But Danny did not look anywhere near as beat up in this video. His cheeks were not as gaunt as they were now, and his skin still looked tanned and healthy, his hair a slick black. But there was hate and rage in his eyes. He stood with his arms crossed, glaring at someone off screen.

"Turn invisible now!" a man demanded.

"Screw you!" Danny spat vehemently.

"Do it now ghost!" the man yelled back.

Danny lifted a single finger in protest. In response, what looked like a cattle prod was pressed through the wall of the cage. Danny pressed himself against the wall but was unable to escape the device as it jammed into his ribs. The sound of agony that the child released turned Bruce's stomach. When the taser was removed, the boy collapsed to the floor, leaning against the side of the cage and panting for breath.

"Turn invisible!" the command was given again. Danny looked at someone to his right, and grit his teeth, a wild light in his eyes.

"Screw. You." he said slowly and deliberately.

"Turn it up," a female voice ordered. After a second, the taser was pressed back into the cage. This time, when Danny opened his mouth to scream, no noise came, his body convulsing. After just a second, his eyes rolled up in his head, but his body continued to convulse.

"Stop stop!" the woman's voice came again. The taser was removed and Danny remained slumped against the wall. "I told you to turn it up not fry him!" the woman accused.

"I only turned it up one notch," the man's voice replied. Someone in a lab coat stepped into frame behind the cage, their face obscured by a medical mask. With ease, they stuck their hand through the wall of the cage, and grabbed a fist full of Danny's hair. They pulled the boys head up, but not even that woke him. He was completely unconscious. With that the video ended.

'So he's weak to electricity,' Bruce pondered. That gave him one other weapon to use against him if that ever became necessary. The strange green ecto-uranium was the other. A small piece of the green substance was currently sitting in a device to analyze its make up, and determine if it was dangerous to humans at all. If everything came back clear, Bruce intended to make a few weapons out of it as well, just in case. He was also considering getting his nth metal out, but he had yet to determine if it would prove effective against the kid.

Bruce researched and planned till the sun rose, and someone came down into the cave.

"Long time no see Bruce," Dr. Leslie Thompkins greeted.

"Thanks for coming," Bruce said. He spun his chair around to greet her. He'd been looking at the rest of the videos Damien had gotten, and they were all gruesome.

"So, where's this kid I'm here to look at?" she asked, getting right to the point.

"In the medical room," Bruce replied as he walked with her across the cave.

"Anything I need to know about this kid?" she asked. "Alfred just said his knee is in bad shape and you couldn't take him to a hospital."

"That's correct," Bruce said, as they entered the room. Danny lay on the bed unconscious. He was hooked up to an IV that was pumping a heavy tranquilizer into his system, as well as several monitors. Even unconscious, they could tell he was in bad shape. Alfred had done his best to clean him up, but his hair was still filthy, and the bruising on his face looked painful. His neck and torso, as well as most of his arms were wrapped in bandages.

"He's a meta," Bruce explained as Dr. Thompkins took his pulse and examined him. "We believe he has a healing factor, which would explain how he survived for so long."

"Survived where?" she asked, pity in her voice.

"Right. Robin found him in a lab. They've been running experiments on him, some of which where more torture than anything else."

Leslie moved to Danny's injured leg. As she felt it she asked, "Do you know what they did to his knee?"

"According to the videos and documents Robin got off their computer, I can confidently say they were repeatedly dislocating it." Bruce answered. Leslie grimace. "Can you do anything for it?" He asked.

"Yes, I can do my best. But even with that it won't heal completely," she said solemnly. "If his healing factor is fairly good, he should be able to walk again, but he will always limp. With a lot of physical therapy he may even be able to run for short distances. But this injury is forever going to slow him down."

"Do what you can."

Danny woke up staring at a white ceiling, and for a moment he didn't know where he was. His body felt strange, and his thoughts were jumbled. A constantly beeping lined up perfectly with the loud thrumming in his head. After what felt like forever, he slowly remember the events that brought him here.

'Right. I'm in the bat cave,' he thought to himself. Turning his head he found the arm of the medical bed, and on it, a small control panel. Slowly, he lifted his arm and pressed a button. The bed began to lift his head up and move him into a sitting position. From there, he was more able to take stock of his surroundings.

He noted that he wasn't really wearing anything except a pair of underwear that were too clean to be his. A huge mass of bandages obscured his knee and kept it from bending. Looking around the room, he saw pretty much what you would expect to find in a hospital, medical equipment that he had no idea the use of, a few stainless steel tables, and hanging in the corner, a camera.

Next to the bed on a side table was a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. Danny grabbed it and weighed it in his hand for a moment before chucking it at the camera. It hit the lens square on and jolted the camera so it was facing a little more to the right. The bottle fell onto a table holding a bunch of surgery equipment and caused a loud crash. Pleased with himself, Danny lay back against the pillow and waited.

It took less than a minute for Batman to open the door and glare at him. He was wearing the cowl, but his cape and armor was absent.

"Don't throw things at my cameras," he said as he crossed his arms.

"I was just trying to get your attention," Danny snarked back.

"Well you have it. What do you want?" Batman asked.

"How long have I been out?" Danny asked, the attitude leaving his voice. Batman narrowed his eyes.

"About 24 hours," he said.

"I'm guessing you drugged me then, because I can't sleep that long on my own."

"I did. I thought it best to keep you under until after your surgery."

"What surgery?" Danny asked.

"I had someone work on your knee. It's not going to be perfect, but at least you'll be able to walk on it eventually."

"Oh, thanks," Danny said simply. A loud growl sounded in the room.

"I imagine you're hungry," Batman said, and amused look crossing his face.

"You could say that," Danny grinned back, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. Batman pressed a finger to the side of his head.

"Agent A, will you prepare some food for our guest?"

Danny didn't hear the reply, but he could guess at it. Batman grabbed a chair that was leaning against the wall and set it next to the bed. Danny leaned away from him slightly as he sat down.

"While A is preparing your food, we need to talk."

"Okay, what about?" Danny asked, his expression cautious, but curious.

"If you are going to stay here, I need you to follow a few rules," Batman started. "Rule number one," Batman held up one finger, "don't touch anything. I don't want you messing with anything that I don't tell you is safe. There's all sorts of dangerous and sensitive equipment here."

"Fair enough," Danny said.

"Rule number two," he held up two fingers, "Don't leave the cave. Don't go up the elevator, don't go out through tunnels, don't phase through the walls. Those people who had you will still be looking for you, and if they get ahold of you, I can't guarantee I will find you again." 'That and you'll see the manor,' Bruce added to himself.

"Rule number three, no powers. Except maybe levitation, considering your leg. I definitely don't want you phasing through anything. And the most important rule of all, you will do exactly as I say exactly when I say it. If you can't follow these four rules, I will have no choice but to kick you out onto the street. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I understand. But why bother?" Danny added.

"What do you mean?" Batman said.

"I mean, why help me?"

"Do you not want my help?" Batman asked, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms.

"I mean, don't other people need your help more?"

Batman narrowed his eyes. "I'm helping you because I want to kid. And this organization that had you, I want to understand why and take them down if I can. They've already moved all their equipment, I sent a drone to check them out after we were sure you where fine, and the whole place was cleared out."

"That doesn't surprise me," Danny said. "The GIW has always been slippery."

"You've dealt with them before?" Batman asked. Danny's body tensed up, and Batman realized he'd found something the kid wasn't going to talk about easily. "It's okay kid." Batman reached out to rest a hand on Danny's, but he flinched away, and Batman pulled back. After an awkward silence, they were saved by Alfred entering with a tray of food.

"Am I interrupting something?" he asked politely.

"No, I was just on my way out," Batman stood and went to walk out the door. Danny saw him whisper something in the butler's ear, but didn't catch what it was. And then, Batman was gone.

"I assume you're hungry master Danny," Alfred asked.

"It's just Danny," he said.

"Very well master Danny," Alfred said with a gleam in his eye. Danny knew he wasn't going to win this battle, but he wasn't going down without a fight.

Alfred unfolded legs from the tray he was carrying, and set it down across Danny's lap. Immediately, his mouth started watering. The tray contained a bowl of what smelled like chicken noodle soup, and a slice of chocolate cake. There was also a tall glass of water, but it looked a little cloudy. Danny picked it up and examined it.

"It has vitamins dissolve in it," Alfred explained. "You are in desperate need of it."

Danny shrugged and downed it. Alfred was tempted to tell him to slow down, but knew it would be useless. Danny finished his food and Alfred took the tray away.

"Is there anything else I can get you Master Danny?" he asked.

"Uh, do you have any comic books?" he asked hesitantly. "And it really is just Danny."

Things should really start to get interesting in the next chapter, Danny will be causing a little mischief.