Bruised
is a Danny Phantom and Justice League crossover by DizzlyPuzzled, primarily focused on the Batman elements. In it, Jack and Maddie are recruited for a project by the G.I.W., sending Danny to Maddie's cousin for the few months it will last. Said cousin happens to be Bruce Wayne.
This work contains examples of:
- Adaptation Origin Connection: Lazarus Pits are tied to the Ghost Zone somehow, being key to the cycle of energy between realms.
- Arbitrary Scepticism: Justice League never helped Amity Park because they thought that the ghost attacks are hoaxes and nothing more.
- Asshole Victim: Some GIW's agents were killed by Kitty and injured by Danny (and even probably died) but after what they've done to Johnny 13, and knowing what they want to do, no one (character or readers) feels sorry for them.
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: In Chapter 13, Gotham crowns Danny as the new High King of All Ghosts with the Crown of Ice.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Danny calls both his parents out regarding how they continue to trust Vlad despite his behavior.
- In epilogue, Jazz chews Maddie out for her Fantastic Racism and believing Vlad.
- Crown of Power: As in canon, the crown of the Ghost Zone. When Danny is crowned, it becomes a Crown of Ice to fit Danny's powers.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Amanda Waller will do ruthless and even outright illegal things to support the United States, but even she thinks that the Guys in White are incompetent assholes that don't understand diplomacy and should have been shut down long ago.
- Jack and Maddie may not like ghosts coming to Earth and causing trouble, but they're against the GIW's plans to sever the realms from each other completely, in large part because there's no telling if it could work at all without destroying both worlds.
- Eviler than Thou: Ghosts and Amanda Waller openly state that the GIW are way worse than the former two parties are. And they're absolutely right!
- Frame-Up: After the GIW are disbanded by President Horne, they attack the White House and try to frame Phantom for it.
- Friendly Enemy: Danny's relationship with most of his enemies has evolved to this point over time.
- Genius Loci: The city of Gotham turns out to be sapient. Danny and Ember can feel it evaluating them when they arrive at the airport, and Danny can sense it empowering Bruce as Batman. When Ember learns that Danny was kidnapped after spending less than 24 hours in the city, she blames Gotham and gets the feeling that it's laughing at her. In the Ghost Zone's version of Gotham, the city can even take the form of a female ghost to interact with others. She is unable to sense everything going on in the city at once though, which is part of why she has protectors.
- God's Hands Are Tied: The spirit of Gotham genuinely wants what is best for her citizens, in both her Earth and Ghost Zone versions, but is limited in what she can do directly, particularly in the former where she is unable to physically manifest and can only affect things by means of Winds of Destiny, Change! (especially before the Bat-Family became a thing), and she's not omniscient either. For example, while she was able to stop the Court of Owls from killing the Wayne parents with a car accident, albeit causing Martha to miscarry, the Court later used Joe Chill as a patsy while the Owl representing them in the Ghost Zone attacked Gotham, distracting her long enough to do the deed. She's also unable to do much to help them when they're outside of Gotham, if anything.
- Hated by All: Anyone who has any idea of what the GIW are really like despises them. Even Jack and Maddie start to quickly lose any respect they have for the group after agreeing to work with them on a project that could have serious consequences for both worlds, and Waller shows nothing but disdain for them despite regularly doing morally questionable things to protect US interests herself.
- Hero with Bad Publicity:
- The people of Amity tend not to like the Justice League that much, since the League has written off the ghost attacks in the town as hoaxes.
- As in canon, Phantom has some of this. The GIW even try to frame him for their attack on the White House in order to stop the treaty between the president and the Ghost Zone.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Agent Z hoped that bringing the Fentons along for the meeting between the president and the Ghost King would send the latter into a tizzy, allowing him to make sure that the GIW and the Anti-Ecto Act would stay active. Instead, Maddie tells the president about how the only fatalities from ghost attacks were caused by GIW interference, causing the president to shut them down.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Danny calls Maddie out for believing Vlad that Phantom had killed him, given everything else that Vlad has done.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: When calling out Maddie for her biases against ghosts, Danny points out that it's not like there aren't humans that do terrible things either, like traffickers or rapists, even just from Gotham alone...
- Immortality Seeker: The GIW hope that they can sever the Ghost Zone from the normal universe entirely, and potentially gain immortality in the process.
- In Medias Res: The story begins with Danny awakening in a Lazarus Pit. We then go back and see how he ends up in it.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: The GIW and Vlad. First, the Guys in White are Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist and every good cause or polite moment is to continue their own agenda. Second, Vlad comforts Maddie only to manipiulate her and set her on Danny.
- Laser-Guided Karma: A distrustful Superman, not knowing that his human identity is the Fenton's son, tells the married ghost hunters that Phantom is a hybrid. Later, after the GIW attack on the White House is foiled, Batman tells Danny Superman's secret identity as payback.
- Many Spirits Inside of One: When Danny gets shoved into a Lazarus Pit, the ghosts trapped inside possess him so that he can return them to the Ghost Zone.
- Mistaken for Own Murderer: Vlad tells Maddie that Phantom killed Danny in an attempt to set her against Danny and Jack, who by this point knows the truth about his son's dual identities.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Jack and Maddie, especially Maddie, are rather horrified when they realize how wrong they were, and how they pushed Danny away with their flawed beliefs.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Superman bought on GIW's scam and only made things worse fighting GIW's decoy ghost. He also told the Fentons about Phantom being a Half-Human Hybrid, leading to Maddie becoming more fanatical in her desire to track him down and use him to sever the Earth and Ghost Zone from each other.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: The GIW want to sever the Earthly universe and the Ghost Zone from each other entirely, ostensibly to protect humans from ghosts forever. But besides the possible side-benefit of immortality they hope to gain, they repeatedly ignore Jack and Maddie's warnings that even attempting such an action without a lot more information is a colossally bad idea, showing that they care more about their hatred of ghosts (with their Van Helsing Hate Crimes attitude having already pushed things to the brink of war between the Earth and Ghost Zone) than the risks. Not to mention how they've actually caused fatalities by interfering in ghost attacks, and after the president disband them upon learning this they prove that they care more about hating ghosts than helping people by attacking the White House and attempting to frame Phantom, who is willing to work things out with the president peacefully, even trying to burn the drafts of the treaty the president and Phantom are working on to prevent aforementioned war.
- Related in the Adaptation: Bruce and Maddie are cousins in this universe.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: President Horne, who is willing to meet with the Ghost King to prevent a war between the two realms, and was unaware of their darker actions and plans. The minute Maddie tells him about how the only ghost attack fatalities were because of GIW interference, he immediately shuts the GIW down.
- Reed Richards Is Useless: In chapter 8, Danny and Sam tell the Bat Family that Fentons are brilliant scientists but they only tend to focus on hurting ghosts. Danny, Sam and Tucker try to avert this trope.
- Sealed Good in a Can: The ghosts trapped in the Lazarus Pit, sealed there by Pariah for defying him until Danny is shoved into it.
- Selective Obliviousness: Jack has to have it almost literally spelled out for him that Danny is Phantom. To be fair, everything going on has him rather distracted.
- Serious Business: Ghostly culture takes truces very seriously. Vlad doesn't seem to know this, and Danny speculates that he might seriously screw himself over as a result.
- The Shrink: Black Canary has this role for the League, and Bruce is planning on setting Danny up with some sessions with her.
- Stealing the Credit: Vlad claims that he and his Masters are responsible for reducing the ghost attacks, even though it's really because of the treaty that Danny and the President created. Needless to say, Lois Lane calls him out on it.
- Stupid Evil: The GIW want to sever the Ghost Zone from the normal universe entirely, even knowing it might destroy the human world and all its inhabitants (including them) would cease to exist too. Jack and Maddie have to repeatedly tell them that it's far too risky to even think about attempting without a lot more data, and even that isn't enough to fully dissuade them.
- The Man Behind the Man: The Court of Owls was behind Joe Chill's murder of the Waynes. Gotham's trial for Danny and company to claim the crown is to solve the murder and find out who in the Court ordered the hit.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Ghosts become kinder to Danny and just do practically harmless pranks on him and Amity Park now.
- Troll: Ember keeps teasing the Bat-Family with information Gotham gives her, like how Jason stole the tires off the Batmobile.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: The anti-ecto acts allow the GIW to attack any ghost, even if their only "crime" is simply existing. Obviously the ghosts don't like this one bit, and the GIW's actions have pushed things to the brink of war.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Batman chews Superman out for outing Phantom as a hybrid to the older Fentons, potentially putting Danny in danger. He even goes so far as to tell Danny Superman's secret identity as payback.
- Winds of Destiny, Change!: All the close calls the Bat-Family had while in Gotham? Those were due to Gotham manipulating things behind the scenes, protecting them while they protected the citizens of the city.
- With Catlike Tread: When sneaking into Fentonworks, Batman bemoans how Superman can't be "stealthy" if it killed him.
