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punkymonkeehat · 1 month ago

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Danny Phantom Cryptid AU

So, I'm back from the grave with this idea! This is Chapter One of the first investigation! I hope i can keep up with it... I'll spruce it up a little more before posting it on AO3!! ENJOY :)

The Case of The Chalk Pyramids Menace

Chapter 1-- "It's not a Fluke..."

A firm hand came crashing down on the alarm clock, shutting it up for the fifth time in a row that morning. Groggy eyes blinked wearily, and a groan of "why am I even awake right now" cascaded into the crisp early morning. He shivered, digging for the sweater next to his air mattress, and flung it on as quickly as possible. Arms hugged torso, warming up his body to the point of him willing to move. The sun wasn't even peaking over the horizon as he stared out the windows of the van.

Tucker blinked again, and he smacked his lips together to get the morning breath off his taste buds. It was too early for this, and why did he have to be the first one awake? It was cruel and unusual punishment. He was not a morning person in the slightest. Flinging off his covers, he slipped on his wool socks, followed by his mud crusted hiking boots. The back door swung open, and Tucker jumped out, taking a deep inhale of the cool air. He walked towards the front of the van, opened the passenger door and retrieved his laptop.

"There's that coffee mug..." it wasn't washed out from the last morning. He rolled his eyes. Danny never seemed to do any dishes. Laptop under arm, he took out a little of half a water bottle and swirled it in the cup, dumping out the contents onto the ground.

"Uhg, keep it down..." a growl mumbled from underneath piles of covers as he re-ented the back of the vehicle. "You're louder than my mom on a Sunday having brunch with the house wife brigade." A black pillow creased over the head of the amorphous blob. "It's too early."

"We have to be up, Sam, Danny's probably waiting for us." Tucker nudged her sleeping bag with his shoe end, barely moving away from the coffee maker. She grumbled in response, and a quick, purple stocking foot whipped out to kick him. "Hey!" He jumped back, rattling their only table with his movement. "Watch it!"

"You watch it."

"Stop being such a baby and get up already." Tucker scolded. Sam responded back with the same words, only in a snide mocking tone. He sighed. "You are hopeless."

"And you're annoying me."

"If you dont get up, well miss our chance to investigate; and then what will Danny say? He'll be more mopey than you, and we already have enough that around the van." He paused a moment, and his nose krinkled. "And stop making me the responsible one. That's your job."

"I don't give a damn, I'm cold and tired. Danny can deal with it himself, we might as well go back to the motel at this point"

"He's the only one with the motel key." After a brief pause, Sam sat up, rubbing her eyes. Smudges of black makeup lined her bottom eyelids, and her short cropped hair was tossed in various directions. The coffee had finally brewed, and Tucker passed her a cup then sweetened his own to his liking. The few sips of black coffee seemed to rejuvenate his companion, and once the clock hit four, Sam was up, dressed, and slightly more energetic than before.

The van puttered to life as the key turned. Tucker typed into his computer as Sam put the vehicle in gear.

"Where's the meeting spot again?" She asked, slowly moving them forward. She adjusted her side mirror and began to move a bit quicker.

"The chalk pyramids." Tucker said. "Take a left up there than go for another 7 miles. We're pretty close."

"This entity better be a big deal for us to be up this early."

"Reports have been pretty steady, and if people are certain, it's likely real... Probably a tangible entity."

"I'm not sure which one it could be... there aren't a ton of tangible entities in this state, mostly spectral creatures, really. There's Sinkhole Sam, but it lives in a lake." Tucker raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"Sinkhole Sam?" He asked. A noise came from him choking back a laugh.

"Yeah, it's my namesake," Sam said, deadpan. Tucker burst out laughing, and she grinned. She eased the van to the right and before them arose the chalk pyramids.

"Wow..." Tucker murmered in awe. "This is beautiful!" The headlights flashed, catching the stone with their rays ever so slightly. "Nice meeting spot. It's gotta be gorgeous in the daytime." He glanced around until he saw a figure sitting atop one of the rocks. "There he is," he pointed. Sam squinted towards the shadow figure.

"Whats he doing just sitting around? I thought this was a stake out..." She huffed and parked the van.

"It's a good vantage point." Tucker responded. "He could probably spit on a ghost without them knowing where it came from." Sam made a face and rose an eyebrow.

"Why'd that come to mind?" She asked, hopping out of the van. The other shrugged.

"It's what I would do."

"Weirdo."

"Look whose talking" Tucker shut his door and flung his gear bag on his back. They trudged towards the shadowy figure, Sam's flashlight helping them see in a the low light. The sun was still behind the horizon to see properly.

"Uhg, turn that flashlight off, it's too bright." Danny sprung from his roost and landed next to the two, covering his eyes. "Whyd you bring the floodlight out?"

"It's just a flashlight." Same waved it, light still on, to show its small size. "Your eyes are getting a bit more sensitive..."

"Well, we've been dealing with nighttime creatures for a while, I suppose it was bound to happen..."

"Nocturnal vision, sick." Tucker nodded in approval. He threw down his bag and pulled out the Fenton Finder. The sonar device didn't make a single sound as he turned a knob to zoom in. "Did you see anything?" Danny tapped his finger on his chin.

"Well, I saw a few tumbleweeds, some geese, a couple of late night tourists..." his friends glanced at each other as he prodded on. "Oh! And a coyote and roadrunner." He grinned at their groans of annoyance.

"Danny..." Sam chided. He shrugged.

"Honest. There wasn't much last night. For such a Nocturnal creature it really didn't do much..."

"Theoretically nocturnal." Sam pointed out. "We don't know if it truly is. it's just based on sitings. We didn't see anything either. It was dead quiet."

"Except for Sam's snoring." Tucker laughed. He winced when she punched his arm.

"So a theoretically nocturnal creature that only attacks tourists to this area. Could be anything." Sam mused. "Could it be bigfoot?"

"You're kidding..." Tucker blinked at her. "Isn't bigfoot from the northwest?"

"That's a bit of a reach, isn't it Sam?" Danny asked. Her hands flew up in defense.

"It's a thought! There are legends about Bigfoot as far south as Texas, I mean, they have a whole group of people in the area that believe bigfoot, and the dogman duke it out once in a while." After there was no response and some concerned looks, she pressed. "I'm serious. Look it up. The cryptid hunter sphere is wild on the internet. The dogman is supposedly the bad guy."

"If bigfoot were here, though, wouldn't there be reports?" Tucker asked, fiddling some more with the Fenton Finder. "This state is flat, i doubt there are a lot of places a creature like that could hide out in."

"It's just a thought... I mean, the legend has spread everywhere at this point, anything could be bigfoot."

Danny began to walk towards one of the large structures of sandstone. "I'd imagine that maybe the tangible entity could by a flying creature. These rocks are pretty tall and that would explain why we haven't found any solid evidence on the ground yet."

"But wouldn't people have seen it? Wouldn't reports say it was in the sky?" Tucker asked, moving his gear with him as the three made their way to the rocks.

"Not unless it was under the cover of night..." Danny theorized. "But what could it be?" A jump of alert hit him when Sam called them over.

"Check this out!" She said as the two jogged over. "There's fossils!"

"Oh whoa!" Danny stared down at the etching in the ground. He dusted at them to see the impression clearer.

"Didn't the lady at the museum say this was a giant seabed millions of years ago?" Tucker asked. After a curt nod from his friend, he continued. "Pretty crazy to just see fossils just out!"

"With the erosion of the stone around here, there's no doubt we'd see some cool fossils." Sam responded, whipping out her pocket knife. She began scraping at the sides of the fossils until it was exposed enough to grab with her fingers. She tugged, but it didn't budge. "Oh well." She said, placing her knife in her pocket. "Guess mother earth doesn't want it coming with us."

The three fanned out, flashlights and night eyes dancing every which way for clues. Nothing seemed to stand out, and the sun began cascading over the horizon. It wouldn't be long before tourists started to show up in the area, and having three young adults investigating a cryptid in broad daylight would be a strange sight to see. They piled into the van to recollect as more coffee brewed. Sam whipped out her laptop, and Danny pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. Tucker fiddled with the Fenton Finder as they sat and pondered. He turned the knobs to send the sonar out further to find more blips. Nothing more than two small dots appeared on the Finder, and there was no activity on either. When compared to a map, the blips were too far away to be anything worthwhile. He scratched his chin in thought. How could something that's been reported on by so many people not be obvious on the Fenton Finder?

"Anything yet, Sam?" Danny asked as he wrote down their theories.

"Nothing. Literally not a single thing..." her stocking feet kicked up as she typed on the computer. She was lying on her stomach using her pillow to prop herself up as she surfed the web. Music blared out of the headphones wrapped around her neck. "No sources have talked about a flying nocturnal cryptid, and anything worth a look at is about 100 miles away. Unless it's a roaming entity, I've got nothing, not a clue..." Danny sighed and clicked his pen rapidly.

"This doesn't make any sense... could it just be a fluke?"

"Reports were consistent and every witness had a lie detector test and their stories were accurate with each other. Hard to say it's a fluke." Tucker responded. "Unless it's mass hysteria, which could be as big as a possibility of a flying bigfoot."

"I hope we haven't wasted our time..." Danny groaned. He fell back, his hands on his face in frustration. "The portal is too unstable to keep it open this long." He sighed and stared at the ceiling of the van. All of the people in Amity Park were relying on them, whether they knew it or not; and with Freakshow in the running while the monsters and ghosts caused havoc in the real world... he shook the thoughts out of his head. There was no way that this kind of thinking was going to help them. He had to be strong and confident and that will get them steady for the task ahead.

"Earth to Danny!" Sam called. He blinked and then sat up to see Sam leaning over Tuckers shoulder, looking at him with wide eyes while the other was staring at the Fenton Finder. A faint "beep" sounded from the machine, and it was getting faster with every second.

"I don't think it's a fluke..."

#danny phantom #phandom #sam manson #tucker foley #danny fenton #phantomcryptidau #danny phantom au

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