Fanfic / Change in Management

Change in Management is a Danny Phantom and Batman crossover story by voidwriting on Archive of Our Own. The premise is that, while testing out a potential method of reliably navigating the Ghost Zone, Team Phantom stumbles onto a spectral version of Gotham City and Danny reacts to a cry for help from its Genius Loci Spirit, who then proceeds to try and consume him in a desperate attempt at restoring herself. Unfortunately for her, Danny manages to fend her off, and she's so weak that she collapses to ashes from Danny's relatively minor efforts, with her last words being to beg the young halfa to "help them". This results in him picking up her broach, the last part of her left, and inheriting her connection to a city in another dimension. And all of this is just in or before the first chapter. Now, Danny is responsible for two cities in two separate dimensions, with Team Phantom scouting out Gotham to try and figure out the best way to help it and avoid what happened to Gothi repeating with Danny, the Batfamily is all starting to gain powers due to their role as the Knights of Gotham when there's a healthy Spirit behind them, and Bruce starts to go up the wall due to how he can't track the teens down for answers.

There's also a sidestory called Change in Management Extras!, featuring canon scenes that the author couldn't fit into the main story but still wanted to share.

---

• Allegorical Character:
  • Spirit ! Batman, Spirit ! Robin, and Spirit ! Batwoman are a specific case. They are entities created through the filter of Gotham's inhabitants' collective feelings and the stories told about the real vigilantes. Just like their counterparts, they protect the ghostly Gotham. The story hints that they also represent more metaphorical concepts, like hope with Spirit ! Robin.
  • Mal-Ice, named by Danny, are the spritual counterparts in Ghost Gotham to when Mr. Freeze attacks the physical city and the terror this evokes.
• Blatant Lies:
  “You aren’t in trouble,” Batman assures. “We just want information on your connection to the City Spirit.”
  “City’s can have spirits? Wow! Crazy! The more you know!” Jazz asks loudly with very poorly feigned ignorance.
  Yeah… they know something, Batman thinks.
• Bookends: Chapter 6 starts with Duke having a mishap with his new Super-Strength. He accidentally destroys the pulley machine in gym glass by pulling too hard and smashing the weights through the top of the frame, sending them flying. Almost at the chapter's ending, Bruce accidentally cloaks his presence from everybody including Superman. Superman startles and jumps into the air, leaving a big dent in the ceiling, when Bruce reveals himself.
• Conspicuous Gloves: Mr. Freeze's goons wear winter gear in the middle of summer even outside because they're regularly working in freezing temperatures. This is one of the clues that help Duke realize that the rogue is responsible for the recent string of kidnappings of teenager boys, thanks to one of the henchman dropping a pair of gloves during one of said kidnappings. The victims all have black hair and blue eyes, resembling Danny who can create unmeltable ice. Ice that Mr. Freeze wants to use for his research on a cure for Nora.
• Creepy Cleanliness: GIW's head agent Alpha's office is white on white, with a meticulously polished chrome table. Said office is in a building complex with gleaming metal walls under harsh light, contrasting the screeching of their victims.
• Cross-Referenced Titles:
  • Chapter 4, 5, and 6's titles all refer to open mysteries, riddles, and the initial investigation related to Team Phantom. Chapter 4 is "A Mystery, Wrapped in an Enigma, Wrapped in a Riddle" - the Batfam's investigation into Team Phantom starts, but is regularly thwarted, and Team Phantom is taken hostage by Riddler's goons. Chapter 5 is "Double Jeopardy", where the hostages are in danger of being killed and Team Phantom collectively save everybody while the Batfam solves Riddler's hints to find them. Chapter 6 "More Questions Than Answers" is the mini-arc's denouement. Bruce is frantic with paranoia since he can't make sense of the hints he's found, while the family gain superpowers from an unknown source (Danny).
  • Chapter 9 and 10 make a play on words related to cold weather. Chapter 9 is "A Cold Front Is Moving In" - building up to the confrontation with Mr. Freeze as he searches for Danny. And chapter 10 is "Cold Snap", where he starts an open attack to lure him out.
• Dark World: Spirit Gotham is a twisted reflection (mixed with Spirit World) of the Living Gotham and vice versa. They are as much physically as metaphysically linked and if you want to help one side, you have to help the other at the same time. Twisted doesn't mean 'evil'. Rather, some locations and issues are reflected metaphorically like rogue attacks, and time and space are much more fluid on the ghostly side.
• Didn't Think This Through: Danny impulsively takes the cryostasis pod Nora Fries is frozen in and carries it on his own into the Far Frozen, when he could have come back later with the Speeder to fetch everything. He also doesn't give a thought to what will happen when the disappearance is discovered.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Jason remarks that they might be dealing with ghosts when Danny, Tucker, and Sam vanish from Tim's pursuit. While the vigilantes acknowledge that this is a possibility, they have no idea how right they are regarding Danny.
  • Bruce calls his research for Danny "The Phantom Boy" case, which is a coincidence in-universe according to Word of God.
  • Danny as of chapter 10 thinks that the Bats don't have powers. He doesn't know yet that he's granted them boons as the new City Spirit and none of the vigilantes display them in front of him when they interact. Said boons also derive from his own powerset.
• Empowered Badass Normal:
  • Thanks to Danny becoming the new Spirit of Gotham, the Batfamily all gain superhuman abilities of some fashion due to their status as Gotham's Knights, which they didn't have before because Gothi was too weak to do it (much to the chagrin of the criminals in town). The story tags even directly compare them to warlocks, implied to work in the sense of Dungeons & Dragons. Duke (despite already being a meta with light and shadow powers) gains Super-Strength, Dick becomes able to fly, Jason gains Super-Toughness to the point of being Immune to Bullets and barely feeling a hit from a club that both broke it and his helmet (in addition, his Pit-derived rage seems easier to control), Tim can use Astral Projection when his body is asleep, Cass becomes a Shadow Walker, Barbara can move objects with telekinesis, Steph develops the ability to create a shield to protect herself, Kate develops the ability to duplicate herself at least twice, Damian can fire energy blasts similar to ghost rays, and Bruce gets the ability to hide himself from the senses of others to the point that Superman can't find him when it's active. Alfred gets immortality. Dick recently has shown super-healing after being shot through the shoulder, so they might gain more than one superpower.
  • Sam was already a skilled ghost fighter before it happened, but Undergrowth's control of her left the goth girl with a fledgling connection to the Green, and with Pamela's help she later starts purging the lingering corruption Undergrowth left in her and strengthening her nascent Green Thumb powers.
• Extremely Dusty Home: Victor and Nora Fries' former house has accumulated a thick layer of dust after being abandoned. The secret basement lab where Nora is hidden is startingly clearn and sterile.
• Genius Loci: The story starts when "Gothi", the Spirit for the city of Gotham, comes across Danny when he, Sam, and Tucker are exploring the Ghost Zone and end up in the spectral version of the city. Severely weak, she tries to consume Danny to regain her strength and help her city, but simply by defending himself he ends up accidentally reducing her to ashes save for her broach, and when Danny picks up the broach after her last request to help the people of Gotham, he inherits the role and gains a connection to Gotham and its people.
• How Do I Shot Web?: The position as Gotham's City Spirit has come without a manual. So Danny, as he's used to, is figuring out his new powers on the go.

Nightwing: Well... I didn’t know you could do that...
Danny: Honestly? Neither did I.

• An Ice Person: Danny who has an ice ghostcore and controls ice, cold, and snow, on a range from small to the vast, and the ectoplasmic component of it means that it won’t melt unless Danny wills it to. Mr. Freeze alias Victor Fries whose body has been mutated that he can't survive temperatures above freezing and uses ice-based weapons, and predictably becomes rather interested in Danny’s ability.
• In Medias Res: The 1st chapter begins after Gothi and Danny's confrontation, right as he inherits her position. The Danny Phantom characters explain in the following chapters how they found Ghost Gotham and how the confrontation happened.
• Lame Pun Reaction: After Kate shows up with two duplicates:
  Down the hall, Dick chuckles. “Guess this means you have the power of dupli-Kate-ion, huh?”
  All three Kates groan in unison.
• Lampshade Hanging: How often Danny got new powers in Danny Phantom and how rarely he re-uses specific ones.

Tucker: How are you even going to talk to her? Isn’t she in an ice pod or something?
Danny: Same way I talked to you guys when Nocturne highjacked our dreams.
Tucker: Oh yeah. Forgot you could do that.
Danny: You’re not the only one. I forget like seventy percent of what all I can do.

• Light Is Not Good: The GIW, all clad in pristine white suits, work in a brightly lit complex where they torture their victims. They have retrieved the shards of the crystal from Showenhower alias Freakshow's staff, which can control ghosts.
• Love Makes You Evil: It's lampshaded more than once how Mr. Freeze's love and desire to save his wife, even though she'd accepted that she was going to die, has been twisted into something terrible.
• Mundane Utility: Several characters with super powers or magic use them for everyday doings, like help with cleaning the rafters without a ladder. How? If you can fly, of course.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Justified. Danny as Gotham's Spirit channels his powers into the Gotham vigilantes as his "knights" and it's (often) a power that helps or protects them in some way. When Dick falls from a high building, he stops in mid-air because he can fly now and later gains super-healing after a bullet shot through his shoulder. Jason becomes super resistant to physical damage - it stings when he's shot at, and he barely feels the massive club - that broke his helmet - swung at this head. Etc.
• Occult Blue Eyes: Danny's eyes glow blue when using his ice powers, which crosses over with Icy Blue Eyes. Even in his human form, Batman notes that the color almost rivals the intensity of Superman's, who's frequently noted to have "unearthly" blue eyes.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Before the start of the story, Team Phantom has managed to work things out with most of Danny's ghostly rogues gallery by redirecting their Obsessions into more constructive tasks, so the only current ghostly threats to Amity are mainly animal ghosts. In fact, the Guys in White are facing severe budget cuts as a result.
• Oh, Crap!: During the hostage situation with Riddler, one of his goons recaptures Vinny and threatens the boy with a gun pointed to his head to keep the other hostages docile. Danny unleashes his powers in a short, but intense burst: spreading ice that pierces up and through the gun, icy mist slipping from his lips, growling, and making the shadows around him writhe. When he tells the goon to run in a voice implied to be severely distorted, the man bolts in terror and the two other goons let the hostages go.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: They appear in two forms. Shades are the souls of the dead who couldn't move on for some reason. They lacked sufficient emotions and ectoplasm during formation to manifest powers. Ghosts had enough of either of these during formation, like the ghosts in the Danny Phantom universe.
• Our Spirits Are Different: There's a difference made between spirits and ghosts in the story. Spirits are either created out of concepts, by human beliefs, or are a Genius Loci like Gothi. Ghosts can become spirits, which is part of the story's premise.
• Outside-Context Problem: Team Phantom is an unknown entity in Gotham, because they originate from an universe independent from the DCU. Not even Dr. Fate knows who they are.
• Power Glows: Weapons powered by ectoplasm glow where the material was used. Weapons made of ectoplasm have strong, glowing colors like green or purple. Ectoplasm shots shine a bright green. Danny's eyes glow blue when he calls on his ice powers. And a yellow glow surrounds Spirit ! Robin, which gets stronger when he's in battle. All of these examples relate to ghosts and spirits.
• Power Incontinence:
  • Danny can't shut down his new Psychic Link and regularly gets information overload about Gotham.
  • Bruce fades out of visible spectrum when he's distracted.
• Psychic Link: Whenever Danny and one of the bats look into each other's eyes, the Bats get a glimpse into his current feelings while Danny gets snippets of their personal history.
• Pun-Based Title:
  • "Change in Management" usually refers to a long-term change in a business' leadership and management style. Danny has not only inherited the spiritual protection of both Gothams. But also because he's stronger than Gothi ever was, he can act grant boons to the Batfamily and manifest in the physical city.
  • Chapter 4 "A Mystery, Wrapped in an Enigma, Wrapped in a Riddle": Team Phantom is the mystery and enigma that the Batfam, but mostly Bruce is trying to figure out as a riddle. And the Riddler's goons, civilian name E. Nygma, kidnap Danny, Tucker, and Sam along with some Gotham civilians.
  • Chapter 5 "Double Jeopardy". This refers to two things: 1) Jeopardy, the game format the Riddler references and uses the buzzers from. 2) Jeopardy as in "risk, danger", which Riddler puts the hostages in if they answer too many incorrect questions.
  • Chapter 9 and 10. See the Cross-Referenced Titles entry.
• Running Gag: The Batfam believes that Bruce will adopt Danny and make fun of him for it.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: One of Riddler's goons flees the scene after some of Danny's ghostly traits slip out during the confrontation when the goon threatened a kid.
• Stating the Simple Solution: When Danny is nervous about approaching Bruce, at least one or two people simply tell him to talk to the guy, including the ghosts of their parents when he's working out a plan for the Shades of Gotham to help spy on the Rogues.
• Stealthy Teleportation: When Danny teleports, he and others he might be taking along simply disappear and appear without any tell.
• Take a Third Option: Danny won't surrender to Freeze and help him in his plans, but he also can't let him continue his attacks on Gotham. His idea? Contact Nora Fries in her dreams and ask her if she wants to become a halfa, which would enable her to live and talk with her husband, which will hopefully stop him.
• Teleporters and Transporters: As Gotham's new Spirit, one of the benefits that Danny gets is that he's able to teleport himself and others around the city. He can conjure up portals between Gotham and its Ghost Zone counterpart in places where the barrier is naturally weak.
• Too Much Information: Selina used to talk a lot about her time when she as Catwoman kissed Batman, disgusting Pamela. This prompts Danny's psychic link to try to show him some "unsolicited adult content".
• Tragic Dream: Victor Fries' attempts at curing his terminally-ill wife Nora are doomed to failure, but he'll not give up. So he'll keep terrorizing Gotham in his attempts to find the cure. Danny intends to stop the problem at the source: talk to Nora and ask her what she wants.
• Vice City: It used to be worse before Bruce, his family, and various allies started to make things better. The corruption of those in power, gang wars, human trafficking, and more unchecked crime still make Gotham a horrible place to live in. Even worse, this is all being driven, at least in part, by a dark supernatural force that has latched onto the city.
• Villainous Breakdown: Riddler's composure rapidly fractures when Sam, a random civilian in his eyes, easily answers all of his riddles and ridicules him on live broadcast. The fact that she doesn't show any fear while she's trapped on a pressure-activated bomb adds to his breakdown.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Predictably, Mr. Freeze becomes very intrigued by Danny and his ability to create ice that doesn't melt. Unfortunately, he goes about trying to find him by kidnapping boys that look like him, and then sending Gotham into a deep freeze when that doesn't work.
• Weird Trade Union: Sam has suggested a few times to the henchmen of Gotham that they unionize, which they've started to seriously consider.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: The story starts with a Passing the Torch variant. When Gothi attacks Danny in the hopes of consuming him and restoring herself so she can better help her city, she's so weak that just by defending himself she's reduced to ashes, with her last act being to beg him to help the people of Gotham. Upon finding her broach in the ashes, he inherits her role as Gotham's Spirit, gaining a connection to the city and its people, especially the Batfamily.

---