#Actual Scientists Jack & Maddie AU

[mutable-manifestation]

Actual Scientists Jack & Maddie AU Part 3

Part 1 & 2

***

The lab is empty when they get to Fenton Works, his parents busy off helping the JLD wherever it was they were working from.

The journey the rest of the way to the Far Frozen passes relatively quickly under the weight of discussing how to reverse engineer the sarcophagus of forever sleep to make Naptime Box 2: Vlad Edition.

Could they probably just beat him up with the right plan and aid? Sure. But then they risk having to play royal hot potato (Danny doesn't want it and he doubts most of the allies he has would want the extra responsibility. Assuming there are responsibilities - Danny wouldn't know since there hasn't been a king, for all intents and purposes, since well before he became a halfa so who knows what the position even means in the context of the Zone).

Plus it would be way more satisfying to shove him in a box. Vlad gets a nice long nap and Danny gets to live the rest of his half-life without worrying about his Dad getting stabbed or something if Vlad starts feeling impatient.

It would also give Danny plenty of time to find some way to buy the Packers - not because he wants them, just because it would be really funny if Vlad eventually woke up to find that the only thing he wanted other than Maddie was now also very permanently out of reach.

The city of Green Bay could fold eventually, after all. But Danny? Danny would never yield, just to spite him, and Vlad would know that.

He probably won't actually do it, seeing as a) expensive and b) probably complicated.

But it would be really funny.

Their discussion on the ethics of using the Fenton Stockades as the base for the Box cut off as they land.

Without the distraction of their chat the adrenaline of panic comes rushing back, and he transforms as he steps out of the Speeder, nyooming to hover in front of Frostbite so quickly that the entire welcoming party - Frostbite somehow manages to have one arranged every time he drops by, and Danny is usually willing to at least try and indulge them since it seems to make them happy - jolts in surprise.

"Greetings!" Frostbite smiles wide, arms open in a grand welcoming, the only hint of lingering surprise the trails of slightly puffed up fur up his arms and the sides of his neck that has already mostly smoothed itself back out. "The Far Frozen welcomes the Great One and friends-"

"Hey Frostbite sorry for being abrupt but I'm kind of freaking out and you seemed like the best person - uh, ghost to go to because you always seem to know lots of things and I kind of need to know what's going on as soon as possible just in case it's a worst case scenario because the Justice League came to talk to my parents about some papers and I probably haven't mentioned them to you before because they're awful and I thought my parents made them but surprise I was wrong! Which is good! Except the League was mostly worried about them maybe causing the new ghost king to war with the human realm because apparently there's a supernatural branch of the Justice League and they think there's a new Ghost KingTM as in the Ghost King after Pariah Dark and I'm kind of freaking out because if there is a new ghost king there's actually a chance it's Vlad and oh ancients please tell me it's not Vlad or that the League heard wrong please."

Sam and Tucker had caught up by then, coming to stand on either side of him as Frostbite blinked.

"You are...asking me the identity of the current High King?" He asks, face scrunched in a bewildered expression.

"Oh my gosh Batman was right!?" He floats a bit higher at the news. "Please just tell me it's not Vlad! Uh, Plasmius."

"Plasmius?" Frostbite asks, eyebrows crawling higher. "Certainly not! What in the realms - do you truly not know?"

"Oh thank goodness," Danny sighs, sinking back to his usual level. "Not Vlad, okay, one less disastrous possibility. And whoever it is probably already knows they're the king and nothing bad has happened yet so it's probably fine, right?"

He looks back to meet Frostbite's eyes.

"Wait, nothing bad has happened yet, right? Like, is everything okay? I know Pariah caused you guys a lot of grief before; the new guy 's not going around causing trouble for you and you just haven't told me because you're worried about being a bother, right?" He frets, eyes flicking about, searching for fresh injuries on the various members of the welcoming party.

"...No, Great One," Frostbite answers, blinking away the surprised expression to be replaced by something soft. "Though I, and all the Far Frozen, are honored by your concern. While Pariah Dark is no longer the High King of the Infinite Realms, I can assure you, with utmost certainty, that you have nothing to fear from his successor. But I believe we have much more to discuss. Come, let us find somewhere more comfortable to talk - and get your human friends out of the cold."

***

It didn't take them long to reach a sitting room, and soon enough they were all settled into the enormous, fuzzy chairs in one of the warmer rooms available, Danny and Frostbite each with a cup of shaved ice tea while Sam and Tucker were offered beverages warm enough to steam in deference to their need for warmth.

Once everyone had taken a sip - or bite - Danny launched back into his questioning.

"So did Dark have a kid hidden away somewhere or did some kind of council finally decide on his replacement? Actually can ghosts even have - wait right Box Lunch, forgot about that on purpose but never mind. Or is there some fourth option that isn't those or trial by combat that we didn't think of?"

"Before I answer that, Great One, may I ask why you have already discounted trial by combat?" He returns curiously.

"Because if it was trial by combat it would be Vlad - er, Plasmius - and you already said it isn't him."

"Or it could be you," Tucker ribs, waggling his fingers at him.

"We already talked about why it couldn't be me, Tuck," Danny huffs, rolling his eyes and taking another bite of his... smoothie?

"Oh? And why do you think it would be Plasmius?" Frostbite asks.

"Because! I may have fought Pariah Dark, and sure I put him back in the sarcophagus, but I was running on fumes by that point, and he was still slamming around in there! Vlad, as much as I hate to admit it, is the one that turned the key and made sure he stayed locked away. It took almost everything I had to keep him pinned long enough. If...if he'd been even a few seconds later I probably would've died the rest of the way before he even had the time to break out a second time."

"But had you not put him there, no key would have mattered," Frostbite begins quietly. "Plasmius was no match for Pariah Dark; he was defeated in an instant the first time they clashed."

"Well, yeah, but so was I," he protests, not liking the direction the conversation is beginning to take.

"And yet, you alone went to face him a second time. You alone stood against the King of All Ghosts while your armies clashed."

"Our-!? I didn't have- you mean the ghosts that came to help me???" Danny sputtered, incredulous. "They weren't an army they were just-"

He pauses, searching for words that would not come.

"They were just a large group of ghosts who sided with you, who aided you in combat and kept the multitudes distracted while you went to face their leader alone. However you thought of them at the time, whatever they were to you up till then or are to you now, after, in that moment they were your army."

"Danny's totally the ghost king, isn't he?" Sam drawls after the brief silence that follows.

"Indeed," Frostbite answers her, but he looks Danny in the eyes as he does so. "You are the savior of the Ghost Zone, Pariah's Bane. And you are the High King of the Infinite Realms."

"I cheated!" Danny blurts out, shooting up to float above his chair.

"Cheated?" Frostbite's lips twitch as he fights down a smile.

"I had the Fenton Ecto-Skeleton! That's totally cheating! Don't combat trials have to be honorable or something?!" He begs.

Frostbite chuckles.

"I apologize, Great One, but I am afraid there is no such thing as an honorable war," he says, expression briefly turning solemn. "And even if it were, just as you had your "Ecto-Skeleton," did not Pariah have his ring and crown?

You issued a challenge and he answered, your armies clashed while the two of you stood against each other and each other alone; you alone put him back into the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep, and you alone held it shut long enough for Plasmius to turn the key.”

Danny drifts back down to his seat as Frostbite speaks, then continues slouching further with every word.

“I am given to understand that Plasmius likes to think of others as pawns on his own personal chessboard,” he says, “But at the time he was but another ghost, come to fight Pariah's army on your behalf - as a member of your army. A pawn, to paraphrase his own words, that you used to topple a king - not through any intentional manipulation, but through the sheer magnetic charisma of your willingness to stand against monsters like Pariah Dark and of your ability to do so. The confidence to stand alongside you that such strength inspires. 

He would not have approached if he did not believe you could win - would not risk endangering himself so. At best, you could consider him a referee, calling the match to a close once it was decisively in your favor.

Plasmius may think of existence as a game with himself as the only player, and he may have been acting in his own self-interest overall, but by every measure, in this instance, he was undeniably your piece.

The Zone itself acknowledges your right to rule by the way the crown of fire sits where you left it, unmoving on the floor of Pariah's keep until the day you finally choose to wear it, no matter how many hands may try to move it."

Frostbite's words are slow and measured, but as undeniable as the creeping of a glacier. And by the time they cease, Danny has sunk so far as to end up an undignified heap on the floor before his chair.

The trio remains silent as they absorb his words.

Minutes pass before Danny finally speaks.

"If the crown can't be taken, then how did I get it from Pariah?" He questions, a final hope that Frostbite may be mistaken.

"It will only remain unmoved until you first put it on. After that, it will be up to you whether it stays safe on your head."

Danny groans his despair, final bit of hope shattered.

"I must apologize again, Great One," he says solemnly. "Had I known you were unaware of your station, I would have informed you sooner."

He frowns heavily, looking into the distance thoughtfully.

"The Observants should have informed you long before now."

"Well, that explains it. The Observants hate Danny's guts," Tucker says.

"To neglect their duties for such a reason...," He trails off, his glower highlighting the inhuman nature of his visage. 

The trio fidget.

Danny coughs after a few seconds of tense silence.

“Uh, speaking of duties,” he begins, relaxing as Frostbite’s expression smooths back into something kind and polite as he listens, “What exactly does the Ghost King even do? Like. Pariah was locked away for… a long time? I guess. So does the Zone even need a King? Can’t I just, like, resign?”

“I suppose it might seem that way from a younger ghost’s perspective - Pariah has been locked away for millenia, after all, and the Zone is still in one piece.” 

Frostbite pauses, leaning back in his seat and taking another bite of his drink. 

“However. What you must understand, Great One, is that the problems caused by the absence of a king in the Infinite Realms are not the whirlwind that such a thing would be in the living realm - social order is affected, but the speed of bureaucracy is slower by orders of magnitude in the Realms, and there is not the same level of inter-reliance that the living tend to require - but rather, they are winds and waters sliding against a rock, chipping away at it bit by bit until it is either worn smooth… or the whole structure collapses under its own weight.”

“How does not having a king cause dimensional collapse!?” Tucker shrieks, clutching his cup like a lifeline.

“How long do we have before it collapses?” Sam asks urgently not a second later.

“Oh shit, how long do we have before it collapses???” he echoes, hunching over his cup enough that the steam adds a layer of fog to his glasses.

Danny sits bolt upright, whipping wide eyes away from his friends to join them in staring at Frostbite.

“Total collapse would take millenia more to truly begin,” he placates before taking a more grave expression. “This does not mean that there will not be issues before that point, however; the symptoms of the High King’s absence have begun to show this past millennium. But rest assured, there is time enough to heal the wounds that have been wrought. The only permanent damage would be the collapse itself, and that, as I said, is millenia away.”

“Is… is that why you never mentioned it to me before?” Danny asks, dropping back to the ground in relief. “Because it’s not urgent and you figured I’d just…get to it eventually? Actually, why did you think I knew if you knew that the crown was still in Pariah’s Keep?”

“It is the duty of the Observants to observe, but also, as you have experienced, to oversee - the timeline, trials, the general functioning of the zone. Without a king to report to, much of their ability to act is crippled, of course - their ability to interfere directly with the timeline has always been severely restricted, their options for sentencing are severely reduced, and there are some things the Realms require that only the High King can provide - but one duty remains unaffected: overseeing the ascension of new kings. 

Coronations have taken many forms in the past, from a quick swap in the battlefield to a formal ceremony to a celebration that lasted a decade. Given the dark era we are, at last, able to put behind us and the non-urgent nature of even the most severe problems that the Realms are currently affected by, I had assumed that the large delay was in preparation for that last form - the lead-up to a grand celebration.”

“Except instead it’s just them being petty,” Sam notes, sitting back up from her own relieved slouch. 

Danny groans, leaving his tea to float and covering his face with his hands.

“Why couldn’t it have just been as easy as shoving Vlad in a box,” he whines.

“I mean, we still can?” Tucker offers, prompting Sam to smack him over the head before pausing consideringly.

“OW!”

“He might be right, actually,” she says, ignoring his exclamation. “Given Vortex’s trial and sentencing, there’s clearly some kind of legal system in the Zone that isn’t just Walker on a power trip. No doubt he’s broken some kind of Actual Realms Law - I’d be surprised if breaking Pariah out like he did wasn’t some form of highly illegal - so you could probably send him to actual Ghost Jail. It’s certainly where he belongs, given all the….”

She makes a vague gesture with her hand in lieu of words.

“That doesn’t resolve the problem of I Don’t Wanna Be A King!” Danny exclaims, sitting back and throwing his hands in the air.

Then he turns to Frostbite, eyes pleading. 

“Can’t you be king?” he asks. 

Frostbite opens his mouth to reply, but Danny steamrolls over him.

“It makes sense! You already know how to lead people! And your people love you! You already know about all the king stuff too! You’ve beaten me in spars before! We’d just have to go to the keep, I put on the crown, you beat me, and problem solved!”

Frostbite’s smile is a mix of amused and pitying.

“I have only ever beaten you in training spars, Great One, and you and I both know that is largely because they were focused on improving your skill with ice and ice alone. Even if I could defeat you in a true all-out fight as you are, I believe you underestimate the boost granted by the crown of fire.”

“I can just put it on then take it off again before we fight! And we can stick to ice!”

“I’m afraid it is not so simple,” he shakes his head. “If you do not give it your all, the crown - the Realms - will not recognize the transition. The only way to “throw the match” successfully would require your opponent to fully End you: to crush your core and snuff your spirit from the very fabric of existence. I am unwilling to do such a thing, and I sincerely hope you would not ask it of me - or, indeed, of anyone.”

Danny paled enough that he nearly matched his human form in skin tone.

“Right. Let’s… let’s not do that, actually.”

“On the bright side, you can probably weasel ruling tips out of Aquaman in exchange for not declaring war on the Living Realm!” Tucker chirps, aiming to cheer him up.

“I’m not going to threaten the Justice League!” he yelps, scandalized.

“But you probably won’t have to threaten them,” Sam chimes in. “They’re already trying to summon you, you already know their goal is to avoid a war. As long as you don’t ask for anything unreasonable, they should be inclined to give you what you want in exchange for peace.”

“Once you offer peace, they will be invested in your successful rule of their own volition as a means of perpetuating said peace,” Frostbite corrects. “If you would like to set preconditions to an accord you should make them things that will not readily be given as a result of said accord. But before we discuss further, perhaps you can fill me in on why war was a concern in the first place? I believe you mentioned something about papers?”

[laxxarian]

Danny was confused

I mean, Vlad literally outright says his plans right at Jack's ears as clear as crystal but Jack somehow manages to wishy washy away from his head but when the Fentons had to go to a gala at Wayne's manor, Jack was all aware and perceptive around Bruce.

Turns out, they both were relatives and Jack didn't seem to like Bruce. Jack just could smell the "fakeness" around Bruce. But I guess it's because Vlad would actually slip his tongue and be honest, his voice and the way he acts, Jack didn't feel off when he is with Vlad.

But with Bruce? Naw.

Danny looks at Bruce and he seemed nice, a bit *weird* around here and there but he was still nice. But then again, he can't trust billionaires and just as Danny felt that untrusting vibe, he heard a disgusting voice coming from behind him.

"My, oh my, if it isn't the Little Badger?"

Danny narrowed his eyes, disgust was all over his face, "Vlad." he replied with venom.

And that's cue on Jack to wrap his arm around Vlad's neck and starts talking to him cheerfully just so he could get away from Bruce.

To Vlad's dismay, he went along with Jack. And to Danny's dismay, Bruce started a conversation with him. Then to Jazz's wondrous night, her and Maddie were outside to take a breather so Danny was all alone and unguarded and stuck with Bruce Wayne, introducing himself and his ward, [pick ur choice].

.......…

Btw, I also wanted for Clockwork to show up, saving Danny but that's just too much lelelelellel.

[mutable-manifestation]

Okay but

imagine it's pre-reveal

The Fenton parents don't know that Danny is Phantom

but they do know about ghosts

Because the Fentons are scientists. Ectobiologists. They study ghosts.

The reason they started going on and on about tearing ghosts apart/hunting them once the portal was open?

It's because in the month or so Danny was figuring out how not to sink through things, his parents were doing science. And figuring out that fighting is a natural part of ghost socialization (via observing animal ghost behaviors & maybe a few probes. Maybe they even visit the zone - you cannot tell me they made a whole entire Specter Speeder for traveling the Zone only to Never Use It).

So when Phantom shows up and deals with all of the other ghosts before they can get to him? That's exciting. Because it seems that he's trying to haunt all of Amity.

That's great. Because ghosts zipping over for a visit is one thing, but the chance to observe a ghost in a location they are actively haunting? Where they - well, not live - but where they dwell? 10/10. They are in science heaven.

Now if he would just stick around long enough to actually fight with them!

See, they don't know exactly how ghosts differentiate between friendly and unfriendly combat. There's a lot of nuance and they can sometimes parse it, but... it's hard to judge exactly how to go about things without more experience.

They figure it would be a slight to be seen as treating the ghost with kid gloves, but they don't want to risk coming across as a real threat just in case they make a misstep and come across as unfriednly - a weak unfriendly and Phantom might still interact with them some. But if they're perceived as strong and unfriendly they might never see him again.

For all that they could track him, Jack and Maddie have no illusions about the sheer infinity of the GZ. If Phantom disappears into it, they could track him, they could follow. But Phantom never has to rest, Jack and Maddie will eventually tire, will have to go home for resources. Better not to chase him off.

So instead, they crank their weapons to the lowest setting and they play up the goofy parts of their personalities and behaviors - things Phantom will hear about them from any other humans that might choose to talk about them. This will avoid their behavior being seen as manufactured, despite the exaggeration being exactly so.

And after one of their more dangerous-to-ghosts weapons (that was made only for emergencies) goes missing after they talk about it with their kids?

They start talking up other More Dangerous Weapons.

Just once, they glimpse the wisp of Phantoms tail disappearing through their lab ceiling with a weapon left behind.

They can hardly contain their glee at yet another point of contact. A race of make-dangerous-weapons vs dismantle-before-they-can-be-used-against-me is it's own type of fight, if more indirect than they'd expected (and, again, even more exciting).

They continue the trend, talking up Super Harsh Weapons and finding them taken apart.

This is great. Not only does it give them a glimpse into the ghosts mind by observing how it takes things apart, but the continued pattern should allow the ghost to build confidence. They continue to prove capable of strength with their designs, but they also prove thwartable with their lax security in addition to their "bumbling" act in public (though Jack will confess he is occasionally Actually That Distracted...)

And it works!

Instead of fleeing on sight, Phantom starts bantering with them!

Only a little, and it's not like they can hear more than a syllable, most of the time, but it's progress!

So on the one side you have ghost-focused Jack & Maddie completely unaware that their son is Phantom (they know he has an ecto sig, they just blame contamination)

And on the other side you have Danny, who is completely convinced that his parents genuinely want to frog-in-biology-class his ghost half, utterly unaware that most of the missed shots are intentional or that the guns have a setting higher than *okay-ish punch*

And then the JL show up. 

It happens like this: the first distress calls from Amity Park are properly addressed. A member of the JLD goes to investigate pretty much immediately, only to find a ghost protecting the place.

The ghost who's signature is all over the city deftly keeps the civilians from harm's way, drawing the aggressive one's attention to unpopulated areas and containing it in short order.

Amity Park already has a capable hero. The city goes on the low-priority list for deeper investigation, "Inviso-bill" goes on the list of potential recruits, and life goes on.

The attack of Pariah Dark, to the outside world, looks like the city domed itself off, then disappeared off of the face of the Earth for approximately five seconds. Time moves differently in the Zone, and the city was barely missed. When it returns, dome absent, the streets and some citizens are wounded but they're... partying?

Amity Park moves up the "further investigation" list, but the JL has bigger things going on than a city of alive and clearly pretty happy people at that point. They let the government handle investigating for the time being, the JL can follow up once their own disasters have been at least relatively managed. (Not long after "Inviso-bill" is updated to "Phantom" - a relief for Paperwork GuyTM, that first name was awful, honestly)

This incident and the following gov't investigation is, of course, what sparks the GIW into being.

The GIW are government run, but they're an off-the-books group. Meta protections are too broad, covering ghosts within their purview. They can be changed and tweaked to suit the new situation, but it will take time they are not willing to wait. Until then, if the GIW is called out on their actions, if they are taken to court, they will be charged as criminals acting of their own accord. Their funding will net additional charges in the form of theft from the government.

Luckily, they know how to work PR.

If they claim to be government run, that alone will decrease the odds of anyone acting. Fake badges, strict adherence to the uniform - they act like the supporting laws are already in place.

And they make use of Jack and Madeleine Fenton.

Anyone who hears them speak knows the two hate ghosts. Despite this, they claim to be scientist as well as hunters. The GIW take this and run, dedicating resources to drawing up papers on ghosts describing them as evil, non-sentient, incapable of pain or emotion, a danger to the public.

And they publish it all in the name of the Drs Fenton.

The couple seemed scatter-brained enough to forget publishing something, and even if they did notice the discrepancy they wouldn't know to trace it back to the GIW.

With science like that backing them, even the hardcore bleeding hearts likely wouldn't imagine that ghosts might be covered by the Meta Protection Acts.

It may have even worked, if the articles hadn't pinged the JL's systems so hard they called an emergency meeting.

Nothing pings the "something is horribly wrong" button like several supposedly scientific articles detailing how a specific species actually doesn't deserve rights whilst feeling the need to emphasize that they actually aren't sapient or even sentient. The paper doth protest too much and all that.

Things cascade from there.

A quick bit of research reveals a video of the Drs Fenton is a heavily modded vehicle chasing and shooting at a staticky blur while yelling about tearing it apart molecule by molecule.

Another quick search reveals some of their accomplishments - namely, a business website for Fenton Works showing the smiling couple and their two children posing by what looks like an upright Lazarus Pit, but is actually, Constantine assures them, just a portal to hell. (Okay, so he actually said "the afterlife" but part of that would be hell, so the Flash isn't very comforted by the semantics of it all)

To compare the JLD to a hornet's nest that's been used as the ball in a game of soccer would be generous.

News in the afterlife travels slowly, ever so slowly. By the time they find out that the High King of Infinite Realms has been replaced? That the evil but unquestionably absurdly powerful previous king had been defeated in single combat?

It's probably been a month, at least.

Probably.

Probably. Because the only way they can measure is judging by how many "heard it from XYZ's" Deadman lists before he actually tells them what he heard.

It's awful news, because the old king was locked into an eternal slumber for being too evil and powerful.

Meaning the new guy is both

Powerful enough to kick the old kings ass by himself, making him at least as strong as (but more likely stronger than) 7 ancients combined

Nuts enough to intentionally free Pariah Dark

So the JLD has spent their time since trying to learn more - which has been a nightmare since the new king is either New new, or the most reclusive mf in the damn Infinite Realms.

Or the inherently infinite nature of the realms is just working against their ability to information gather, but they're all very irritated by how many attempts at information have failed after how much effort they've put in for net zero returns in information.

And then they find out that a couple of randos in middle-of-nowhere Illinois ripped a hole into the guys' domain.

And then

And THEN! Promptly started trying to declare his whole species as less intelligent than a rock! And encouraging people to HUNT THEM!?

Even if the new king is peaceful - which is a Very Hopeful sort of "if" given how he got the title - that kind of behavior could be grounds for war.

And listen, if they thought Earth vs alien war might be bad? The US versus every single creature that has ever died would be infinitely worse (no that was not a pun and now Zatanna is looking at Flash like she wants to strangle him).

So the priorities now are: Make the Fentons Stop Doing THAT and prevent the new High King from deciding war with the US (or the whole Earth. Or the entirety of the living realm. Just. Depending on how he takes the slights being leveled against him. Ya know).

Which is how Batman, Superman, and Wonderwoman (each with possession-deterring stuff cast/carried on them courtesy their Dark members) end up at Fenton Works while the JLD themselves work on trying to summon the new king to meet/mitigate/appease depending on what he knows and how he behaves. (VERY HARD since the summoning circle changes depending on the king - there isn't just a "summon king" circle. Someone should really get on that, Constantine thinks, exhausted already - so they have to kind of try a few different things to see what sticks).

They're hoping the reputation of the Big Three will shock-and-awe the Fentons enough to make them more receptive to what they have to say - very important given that what they have to say is "all of your research is wrong we need you to retract these paper and stop hunting ghosts" - ie throw away what is apparently their life's work)

They go as soon as the meeting is over, arriving in the early morning given that they pulled an overnighter to have the meeting.

Which is how they end up sucked into a whirlwind of hospitality on arrival, shuffled in between the Fenton children to have breakfast with the family while the adults regaled them with talk of their inventions.

The daughter - Jazz - tries to deter them with a "no weapons talk during meals" rule, but Jack waves it away with a "But it's Batman! How many times do you get a chance to talk tech with Batman, Jazzybear!"

The girl looks doubtful, but drops it. She and her brother - Danny - had greeted them with paper-thin enthusiasm.

More likely than not, Bruce guesses, they can tell that their visit isn't the good thing their parents seem to believe it is.

"I will not deny that your weapons are impressive," Batman starts after wiping his mouth. "However-" and the word is sharp, necessary to prevent the overly exuberant couple from delving into another longwinded aside before he can finish speaking "-that is not why we're here."

"We are here for several reasons," he begins again after a brief dramatic pause. "None of them pleasant."

The children tense as he pulls a stack of papers out of his cape and slides them across the table to their parents.

"But let's start with these."

He is expecting another exclamation of delight, for the children to be ushered out or for the three of them to be ushered to their lab to talk about their papers more in-depth.

He is not expecting them to hunch over the papers with furrow-browed confusion, followed by shock, followed then by a swiftly growing cascade of anger-outrage-fury.

"What..." Jack Fenton frowns, trailing off in a quiet way that leaves his, for the first time since their arrival, coming across as huge and threatening instead of the till-then golden retriever energy of it.

"We didn't write this!" Madeleine "Maddie" Fenton shrieks, flipping rapidly through the next few dozen pages before both of them freeze.

"NONSENTIENT!?" they bellow, both standing to lean closer over the pages, expressions scornful.

Batman clears his throat a few pages later, drawing their attention back to him.

"We didn't write this," Maddie repeats, voice calm despite the unchanged expression.

"We haven't even finished our first paper yet!" Jack chimes in, nodding sadly. "We're still gathering data!"

"...You haven't?"

Jazz Fenton's voice is small, but it cuts through the room like a knife.

Jack is the one to reply.

"Of course not, Jazzerincess! Science takes data, and the ghosts are so skiddish we can barely interact with them! Any real paper on the topic is going to take time; the portal's only been open for a few months!"

His face is earnest, voice back to nearly booming in his enthusiasm, dulled just slightly by concern.

"Where did you get an idea like that?" Maddie asks.

""Your" papers are all over the GIW web portal. Which everyone who doesn't want to be surprised by one of their "patrols" checks at least once a week," Danny chimes in for the first time all morning, discounting the half-conscious 'mornin' when they were first dragged to the table.

His voice is tight, expression hesitant. "Doesn't help that everything they say is pretty much the same stuff you usually yell at Phantom."

At this moment, the Fenton parents are stricken with horror as they realize that they never discussed their plans with their children. They've heard every threat to the ghosts and they've heard them talk about how their weapons work, but neither of them can recall ever sitting them down somewhere secure and explaining that they're trying to get Phantom to interact with them by seeming friendly.

Never explained to them that fighting is a play behavior for ghosts. And with the articles...

They don't have long to fret over what their children must think of them - ethically or academically - as Batman cuts in again.

"Phantom is another part of why we're here, actually," he says. "Whether you wrote the paper or not, that you've been seen hunting your city’s hero and declaring intentions to experiment on him is still a large issue."

"Ah." Maddie says. "Jack, sweetie, would you get the sweep shield?"

Batman tenses as he moves for the fridge.

"Just a precaution, so we can talk without risk of a ghost overhearing," she hurries to add. "We...probably should have talked about this before. With the kids. Maybe then this-" she brushes a hand through the pile of supposedly-fake articles "-wouldn't have gone so far."

The children exchange a look.

"Talked...about Phantom?" Jazz asks.

Just then a click emerges from where Jack is burried half into the refrigerator, a green energy sweeping out and out and out until it can only be seen out the window, just barely infringing on the sidewalks.

At least until they start closing up the curtains.

Then another button has steel shutters sliding down to close off the kitchen.

Superman taps his knee, a reassurance that he can see out just fine and break the barriers as needed, and Bruce allows himself to relax a smidge. But only a smidge.

For their part, the children are incredibly tense, even when their parents break out a whiteboard and projector, starting up a PowerPoint presentation.

What follows is a breakdown of everything they've learned about ghosts thus far. Every bit of what they know is learned from noninvasive observation, and the numerous slides on social behaviors - really, most of them - are what make him certain that they were telling the truth about the papers.

You don't do social analyses on the behaviors of a species if you don't believe they are capable of such behaviors.

"If you know that ghosts are people then what was all that about tearing Phantom apart molecule-by-molecule!?" Danny shouts, throwing up his hands in exasperation.

For her part, Jazz remains still, blinking rapidly in what looks a bit like shock.

"Didn't you see slides 41-147, Danno? Fighting is a social behavior for ghosts!" Jack exclaims. "Uh, sometimes."

"The exact nuance can be hard to pick up on," Maddie adds, "But our main goal since Phantom started showing up regularly has been to try and lure Phantom into social combat so that we can observe him more closely."

"Maybe he'll even talk to us!" Jack shouts, punching the air.

"Eventually," Maddie emphasizes, patting his arm. "And it's a very loose maybe. It's taken forever just to encourage him to dismantle some of our weapons. It is working, and he's been slightly more chatty with us before running away, but it's slow going."

"...Encouraging him to dismantle your weapons how?" Superman asks.

He regrets it, just a bit, when they pull out a new PowerPoint presentation. They've already been here for hours. The Fentons fed them all Lunch a little over halfway through the first one.

Still, the new one is mercifully brief.

They explain their suspicions about Phantom snooping on them, about finding a weapon dismantle and talking up more weapons. Finding more dismantled. They even charted out weapon type vs time they talked about it vs how long before it was taken apart vs which ones disappeared entirely.

One slide is a graph of how long Phantom has lingered after fights before running away from them over time. Another charts how many syllables he says before bolting over time.

Another about the kind of hits he's taken vs given in attempts to graph his physical strength and durability. Other attributes fill further slides.

One slides includes the rules of their experiment - talking like they hate the ghost, pretending to be aggressive, pretending to miss, keeping their guns on the lowest setting.

A baptized cat would have a less offended expression than Danny Fenton at that moment, Batman thinks.

One slide is dedicated to a brief essay on Phantom's complete and immediate avoidance of them for a solid week after they accidentally clipped him once.

"Why didn't you ever tell us any of this?" Jazz asks.

"Well at first we didn't want to risk Phantom overhearing and taking offense. By the time we had the sweep shield it just... slipped our minds. You and Danny were both so uninterested in ghosts by then and... I suppose it never occurred to us how things might've seemed from your perspectives," Maddie answered, leaning against Jack's side, both looking contrite.

"What, that our parents were genocidal maniacs hellbent on torturing and experimenting on people?"

Danny mutters it under his breath, but in the otherwise silent room it practically echoes.

The two look stricken, eyes tearing up. Maddie covers her mouth with a hand and clutches her husband with the other as he hugs her.

Jazz winces, but only nods, damningly, when they glance her way.

The litany apologies and hugs that follow leave the children a mixture of relieved, embarrassed, and resigned - though the last seems to be aimed at their parents’ assurance that they will “give them regular updates on their research goals and progress from now on.”

***

I have been simmering this plotline since the post went up like two days ago

Part 2 incoming tomorrow or the next day most likely, this is only a fraction of the extent to which my my has been triggered, but I got IRL Obligations (bleh) & I don't want to lose my place so I'm just posting this for now

So, I have a new headcanon where, after tailing Phantom for a while, Danny's parents have learned enough to realize that they were wrong. They still chase him though, but instead of chasing him to capture him and tear him apart, it's more a game at this point.

Like Phantom will get away and Jack would hop out of the RV and playfully shake his fist going, "Ah, you got us again, Ghost Boy!"

But other heroes confuse Phantom and the Fenton parents having fun for a Feb ton parents hunting him down for malicious reasons.

The Fenton's turn their blasters down so far that they only feel like a soft punch. Their tech looks the exact same as before but now it's akin to a lazer tag gun and not a bazooka.

[3motionally3xhausted]

Redesigning the Fentons!!

Hi yes this is for yet another Danny Phantom AU of mine it has nothing to do with the Apprenticeship AUs but unlike that batch I actually wanna turn this AU into a fic eventually once I get through a few other big projects I have *sobs*

Anyway individual files for each character under the cut along with my obligatory rambling about all the choices I made ;)

Jazz! Honestly, when I was a kid, I always thought she was 18 not 16 so it was kind of a shock when I started rewatching the show about a yr ago and heard that. Anyway, she's 17 in this AU but already moved out to college on a scholarship bc living in FentonWorks is kind of hell and she has that Older Sibling Guilt for leaving Danny there. For her clothes, I wanted it to be a mix of tactical and preppy.

Danny! (Fenton) The effects of FentonWorks hell is much more visible on Danny than Jazz because she got out of there as soon as she could. Because of that though, a lot of the chores in the lab got pushed onto Danny, without passing on many safety tips, like replacing the ecto-filtrator, cleaning contaminated tools, organizing ecto-weapons, etc. And because he doesn't know any better when it comes to safety, he has many symptoms of radiation poisoning: visually, this comes through in the discoloration/scarring on his skin (Jazz has some slight scarring on her face and hands as well), the cataract on his left eye, as well as burst blood vessels in that eye. For his clothes, I wanted them to look a bit ragged and worn through ripped seams, tears in the jeans, & duct tape around his shoe.

Danny! (Phantom) I don't actually have a lot to SAY about my choics, but I am really happy with it. There are still a few things. I wanted his hair as Fenton & Phantom to be different but still reminiscent of the simplistic rendering of the original show: Fenton is kind of timid so his hair falls over his face, & Phantom is more active/aggressive so his hair is pushed upward. The only other thing I want to comment on is his skin: it's kind of about how I usually stylize Phantom (and I mentioned this when I redesigned Dani a while back) but a "healthy" Phantom in my style would have more bright cyan skin and an unhealthy Phantom has a more dull/zombie green. And lastly, as a ghost, the radiation poisoning kind of cleans up into more neat scarring rather than the muddy/bleeding look as Fenton.

Maddie! Now, I'm gonna be honest, real vulnerable here,... I hate Maddie's canon haircut. It's ugly, I'm not sorry. But I can modify it, so it's fine: now it's curlier, a bit darker, and has a few grey streaks bc she's a genius and constantly pulling long working hours. And, it didn't come across as much as I wanted, but she's got some biceps, strong lady. Now, I'm not really sure why, but I wanted to shift the color of her and Jack's jumpsuit, making hers much more desaturated.

Jack! Big guy. I don't have many thoughts about him either, but I did give him glasses and some stubble for a little bit more dad energy (?) I mainly changed the color of his jumpsuit bc Orange is an extremely hard color for me to render for some reason, so now it's the classic Hazard Yellow. Finally, the most notable difference is the coat I put on him for a bit more scientist energy but my main reasoning for it is the potential visual of him being an absolute tank jumping from overhead with the ghost gauntlets and his coat flapping behind him. Also, I generally like the idea of him presenting himself as a big, dumb teddy-bear, always smiling, but completely unhinged below that facade: dropping the smile or not while towering over you in shadow. Wild imagery.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Do not count on any actual steps towards creating this fic in the near future, it's just on my mind right now, but I NEED to finish my other projects first 🙏🙏🙏 That said, I will (eventually) get around to a handful more character redesigns for this AU including: Vlad, Sam, Tucker, Valerie, Paulina, and maybe Lancer & Dash

[purple-goo-writes]

Guys guys guys MOON-MOON AU!! ACTUAL ALÌEN DANNY!

The Dr. Fentons are investigating readings in Metropolis of a possible weakness/portal location thanks to some scanner getting readings. Hoping to find a possible source of ectoplasm and possibly a good location for their new lab/home

Of course thy bring 4 year old Jazz with them. It's so hard to find baby sitters when you are a (mad) scientist.

They find the location of the possible portal only for a purple portal to open and a strange glowing pod pops out as it closes. Maybe screaming and explosions can be heard on the other side, perhaps a glowing woman who looks to be made of white and purple plasma in a vague human shape (aka the Maddie Fenton of that universe/world) pushes the pod into her counterparts arms while crying *Keep my son safe*

And when the pod opens, it reveals an adorable plasma being made of pink and purple looking plasma that seems to carry the stars under its translucent skin and in its eyes. The baby giggles happily up at Maddie, reaching for her and Jack. When they touch the infant there is a flash an now the baby looks like a perfect mix of them both.

The Fentons are sad that it wasn't Ghosts just Aliens, but happily accept thei new son. Though have no clue how to raise a alien baby.

Obvious answer is to hunt down Superman and ask for tips!

Proceed with shenanigans of Jack chasing Superman with the FentonNet

[anonymousangstmonster]

Idea #39

The Fentons were a family of merciless mer hunters.

But when Jack Fenton found a barely-a-year-old, white haired, black scaled, green eyed guppy washed up on their private beach, he couldn’t just leave the little guy to probably get eaten alive by seagulls. He’d always had a soft spot for kids.

He somehow convinced Maddie to let him keep it, as long as he was responsible for it. Jack had to feed it, clean it and it’s tank, train it, make sure it didn’t try to eat people, entertain it, the normal things you have to do to take care of a pet. Sure Maddie was the one that made sure it was fed most of the time since Jack forgot, but he did all the other things! He even gave him a name, Danny.

They actually got to learn a lot about merfolk biology taking care of him.

Over time the pair of scientists grew more and more attached to the little baby mer in their lab. He was practically a son to them. He was so sweet and cute, who wouldn’t love him instantly!

They taught him how to talk(he had such an adorable voice!), they taught him about the outside world(his eyes always sparkled with curiosity and wonder when listening to their stories).

When an old mer hunting friend came over to visit, he told them to be careful, that the creature could be using its siren powers to make them love it. They assured him that Danny’s powers(if he had any) were disabled by the small and unobtrusive cuff around his wrist.

They arranged for a little boy Danny’s age to come for a playdate, since he always seemed so lonely by himself in his artificial habitat. That young boy was named Tucker Foley, and the two hit it off instantly. Playing in the shallow area of Danny’s ‘exhibit’ with beach balls and plastic boats.

More time passed and Danny grew, his aquarium growing along with him.

Sometimes other hunter and scientist friends of the Fentons would come see the lab, and they would see a teenage merman in a comfortable environment and not on an examination table.

The parents wanted to see their boy free and happy, so they released him into the ocean. It wasn’t until later that they realized they never prepared him for the outside world, they never taught him how to hunt for himself, to avoid fishing nets, he might get seriously hurt or even die out there because they were ‘so eager to get rid of him’.

One of their worst fears were confirmed when they found him washed up on their beach bleeding from his tail, abdomen, and arm, unconscious.

Mer au combined with “Danny has always been lab rat” au, and wholesome up until the plot.

“I also just want Jack to invent a ghost(mer) treat and make Danny do tricks for it.” -that applies to this as well. Also I had the idea for that when eating a soft peppermint for the first time in forever.

ALSO GUYS THIS AU IS SHARED WITH @doiyi-yt! GO CHECK OUT HER STUFF UNDER THE #fish boy au TAG!

[bet-on-me-13]

Spy X Family AU

So! Jack Fenton is a Super Spy/Scientist who is working on a mission to investigate Amity Park. The Government has put an Information Blackout on the entire Town, so he has been assigned to infiltrate the town. When he discovers that the town is contaminated with Ectoplasm, he asks to stay there to study the Stuff.

Maddie Fenton is an Assasin who used to work for the League of Assasins, right under Talia, before she deserted the League and ran away. She ran to Amity Park because of how secluded it was, and began working as a Mercenary Assasin to make a living. She is also a Scientist who discovered Ectoplasm and wanted to study it because it reminded her of Lazarus.

They meet while studying Ectoplasm and use eachother to cement their Cover Stories (and get a new study partner).

Jazz in the child Jack adopted from a nearby Orphanage so he could blend in with a "Normal Father" Facade. She is a Liminal with Telepathic Abilities who knows everything about the other two, but keeps it a secret because she wants to psochoanalyze them. Her real parents are unknown, but that's what's fun about making your own AU, you can mess around with it.

Danny is the dog.

Just kidding, Danny is actually a Hybrid child between a Human and a Ghost who was left on Jack and Maddies doorstep as a Kid. They understood what he was immediately and took him in so he wouldn't be taken and experimented on by the GIW, pretending that he was a normal kid (and forgetting to tell him that he is a Ghost to begin with)

He doesn't even know he is a Hybrid for a while, until an accident in the Lab when he is 5 results in discovering his Ghost Form but thinking he just straight up died and brought himself back. Oh and he can see the Future sometimes, just to throw that in there.

I wonder who the Ghostly Father of this Hybrid child who can see into the future and is very powerful? Surely not the Ghost who deals with time and is also very powerful? Sure, absolutely impossible...

Anyways, thoughts on the AU?

(More context in the tags)

[charlietheepicwriter7]

Always a man, a city, and a lighthouse...

"Robin, Red Robin, stay back for a minute," Batman said as he dismissed everyone for patrol. "I have a new mission for you. Dozens of civilians have gone missing around the decommissioned Gotham City Lighthouse." A few clicks and the Batcomputer displayed a map of the Upper West Side, a highlight on the lighthouse. "I want you both to investigate the building. Everyone who's gone missing entered the lighthouse, but nothing has been found by the police. I suspect that the lighthouse is being used for gun smuggling, but we need more information.

"That's where you two come in."

Or, I've been reading too much of @virgamsysxvolumes 's Lucky Rush AU, and wanted a true Bioshock AU for dc x dp.

Underneath the city, in the vast and endless caverns beneith Gotham, lies the subterranean city of Amity. Amity was the pet project of the mad scientist couple, the Drs. Fenton, to investigate the effects of ectoplasm on humans, but with the help of their best friend, Vlad Masters, they transformed Amity into a Technocracy City filled with scientists, and completely lacking in morals.

Or at least, that's how it was ten years ago, before the creation of Plasm (the Adam replacement), a neon green goo that's basically meth that gives you superpowers. Everyone from the top scientists to the lower working class starting doping on Plasm, which gave people the ability to control fire, create hallucinogenic spores, summon bats, etc. Vlad, the mayor, was deposed in a cue let by the Fentons and the city descended into anarchy, with people from the surface getting lured down from the lighthouse so they can continue their experiments.

The Fentons are 100% not good people in this. Jack is in charge of all the technological advances in Amity, while Maddie has created human/ghost hybrids--the Little Sisters of the story--that can naturally harvest ectoplasm from dead bodies to use for experiments. Once everyone's hooked on Plasm, the Little Sisters are in danger from acting Splicers, so she creates Big Daddies to protect them.

Danny is the only Little Brother, and Jazz is the only Big Sister. Vlad turned them both into monsters as revenge against the Fentons for the cue, but the couple didn't really care, with Jack barely acknowledging he has children, and Maddie acting like they were never turned into monsters to begin with. Not sure about ages... Jazz is probably the same as her canon age, but if Danny is still 14, he looks 10, tiny and malnourished and pale.

Tim and Damian are trapped in Amity after an automatic system determines them as good test subjects. The AI filters out any cops, so that's why the police never found anything. The elavator brings them down into the city, showing a sweeping shot of neon in the darkness of the caves, and the boys figure out pretty quickly something is blocking their calls.

Tim gets super injured early on. I think, a Jack Fenton booby trap (that exclaims that it's a Jack Fenton Booby Trap moments before activating, which should be funny, but isn't when death lasers are being launched at him.). Damian gets captured, and that's when Tim is contacted by Vlad, who is our Atlas stand in for the game, only Tim immediately realizes that this man is sketchy af.

But unfortunately, in order to rescue Damian, Tim has to splice himself with Plasm. Maybe its for fire-wielding, or telekinesis but Tim can't get to wherever Damian is being held and, while torn, splices himself to save Damian.

Damian was kidnapped because his exposure to Lazirus Waters made a Big Daddy think he was a Little Sister, so it brought him back to the Casper Academy, which is where Little Sisters drop their harvests off in the care of William Lancer. Lancer looks after the girls because Maddie Fenton is too busy, but it's against his will despite him caring for them all. He's trapped in the building, can't leave or he dies. He's actually relieved to know that Vlad is still alive and trusts him, because to Lancer he was just a good mayor who was overthrown and the Fentons are the real bad guys, just look what they did to their kids!

This is where the batkids first learn about Danny and Jazz, although they don't meet them until a while after this. Danny actually ends up being the one leaving Plasm out for Tim every time he rescues a Little Sister. (Sidenote, they end up killing people while in Amity. While both do have death counts, the problem with Amity is that they have to use stronger and stronger levels of force to get people to go down, leading them to escalating and killing quite a few).

Lancer points them to communications to get their comms working again, and that area is run by Damon Grey.

At some point after comms are back on, the two learn that Red Hood actually came in after them after hours of no communication and has been captured by Maddie Fenton, who intends to turn him into a Big Daddy.

In late story, it's revealed that Jack Fenton was murdered before the cue even happened, and that the Jack Fenton they'd been communicating with the entire time was an AI assistant created by living Jack to keep his work going. The cue was actually retaliation from Maddie and the Jack AI for murdering Jack.

The story would eventually end with Tim, Damian, and Jason freeing all the Little Sisters along with Danny and Jazz.

[trainer-sean]

DCxDP Prompt: Vast Supernatural Au

What If, The Infinite Realms Was More Then Ectoplasm? What If The Fenton's Only Acknowledged Ectoplasm And Obsessively Denied The Existence Of All The Other Types Of Energy And Material In The 'Ghost Zone'? What If Danny Wasn't Just Exposed To Ectoplasm, But Mana, Yoki, Spiritual Energy, Etc. What If He Started Cycling Out The Ectoplasm, And The Other Energys Became More Dominant? What If.... Danny Became A Deity?

Basically this is just a Au where the Ghost zone, is really the Infinite Realms, which encompasses multiple dimensions, Cosmic Forces, and Energys. So Danny got Flooded with and Fused with Mana, Developing a Magical Core, Yoki, effectively becoming a Yokai, Spiritual energy, becoming effectively a Nature Spirit. Due to his actions and being a hero, people start looking up to him, much praise and gratitude is shown to him. Due to this, the Yoki and Mana in his body effectively pick it up and steadily start shifting him from a simple Yokai, to a Kami.

But of course, he lacks a Shrine, and therego, cant fully transition, which is a Irritating process..

The few Gods and Kami that sense Danny's developing Divinity and actually care that its happening. (Look, there are always new gods and deitys forming, both from the living who have passed away, and from the imaginations of the living and dead. The Shinto, Norse, and Greeks are prime examples due to having them be made up of populations of God's and goddesses, who have children with each other. The few that Due, come to see the situation, on why a Kami was developing in America, and find a human with Ectoplasm, Yoki, Mana, and Spiritual energy saturating his body, practically a Partially dead Hanyo whos possessed his own dead body. The Ectoplasm is deteriorating and the Yoki is becoming more dominant. He lacks a Shrine. There are a pair of human Scientists who are clearly his parents who seem to obsessively believe that not only is he a ghost, but that ghosts are emotionless and evil, yet dont seem to acknowledge that the one they are shooting at is their son. Kami from Japan reach out to Princess Diana to help with the situation, something Athena and Artemis also want.

Clockwork is Kronos, but he's left his mortal flesh. He tells Danny of what he truly is and what he's becoming, revealing that Ghosts are barely a 10th of what exists in the infinite realms. He tells Danny how he needs a Shrine to properly ascend to Kamihood, but also that he needn't worry about losing his Humanity when he does. Danny himself can't make the Shrine, but Sam and Tucker can!

His appearance as a 'ghost' has changed, his Hazmat suit has shifted to a somewhat Shinto outfit thats a mix with his previous Hazmat suit, and a deterorated Hagoromo on his shoulders, showing he's reaching the rank of Kami. People see his changes and do research, and learn of Shinto and Buddhism practices, and Spiritualism in general. This leads to a good few in the community of Amity to making Phantom a small Shinto style Shrine. Cujo, who isn't a ghost dog, but is a Inugami here, ends up taking Residence at the Shrine, which steadily makes him change into a Komainu. Also, multiple Cats start showing up and living at the Shrine, something Danny actually likes alot, to the point that he, as Phantom, starts building some cat houses around his Shrine.

Over time, as Jack and Maddie start struggling to figure out what Phantom is now, as before he showed up on their ghost equipment, but now he doesn't. Jack starts seeing the bigger picture, looking and analyzing the different energys in the Infinite Realms that he previously refused to believe were there. He realized, why were they trying to apply the rules of their dimension on a dimension clearly completely different from theirs? Why were they refusing to apply the theory that the interaction of two or more different realitys would require a completely foreign set of laws to try and analyze it all. Why were they trying to apply the laws of Physics to explain magic? And like that, his obsession was resolved, he didn't have the insane impulse to blame ghosts for odd things or to shoot at anything abnormal the second he saw it, suddenly, his issues were resolved in an instant. The ectoplasm, they were so contaminated in it that their obsessions had bound to it and formed into a core that made them impulsively driven by them. And with his Obsession resolved, the ectoplasm had dissolved. Jack could now clearly see the near identical appearance between Danny and Phantom, there voices and Mannerisms, the similar time frame from the incident with the Portal with Danny and the appearance of Phantom.

Danny has also been developing Cat-like traits from his act of building cat homes around his Shrine, effectively making the cats worship him.

The ghosts that originally appeared have slowly begun to stop, the few that still do being those that lived in Amity before they died.

Danny has a number of Divine Affinity due to how he formed. He is a Kami of Cats, Protection, kindness, winter, safety, and Star gazing.

When he properly becomes a Kami, its a rather public event, some ancient ghost attacks, sensing a Kami forming in America. The Fentons are scanning through out the fight, Jack actually switches on the scanners for the other typs of energy, which angers Maddie because she is still in Aggressive denial about them. Phantoms Ectoplasm Readings are fluctuating, as if trying to keep itself active as its being burned away. While Two of the other reading show spikes and growing while the Ancient talks down to him as it pummels him, things like 'YOU THINK YOU CAN PROTECT THEM?!' 'I'LL BE SURE TO MAKE THEM SUFFER AS WELL FOR MAKING YOU FORM!'. While everyone is watching helplessly, they pray and hope for him to win, to protect them. Suddenly, everything stops, and Phantom, Screams! In a burst of power, all Ectoplasm readings die on Phantom, while one of the others, rises and stabilizes, becoming the dominant energy. Hovering in a Crater, stands Phantom, now dressed in Traditional male Kimono, a Hagoromo proudly floating on his shoulders, at his feet, a pair of red painted wooden wheels with what appear to be clouds flowing from the axel holes. In his left hand, a Glave. His hair a foot longer, snowflakes gently appearing and falling around him.

He then pummels the ancient, and destroys it with ease. Maddie is having a panic attacks and is struggling to understand the situation. Phantom is standing there looking over himself, trying to understand himself what just happened. Maddie sees a chance, she grabs the Fenton Fermos, runs up on Phantom, opens it, activates it, and- doesn't suck up Phantom, only the remaining ectoplasm from the Ancient. It doesn't work of Phantom, he doesn't have ectoplasm anymore, hes not, in anyway, a ghost anymore.

@stealingyourbones @im-totally-not-an-alien-2

[helloilikepurple]

DC X DP - Merfolk AU

Maddie and Jack Fenton are ecto-biologists, except, ecto-beings aren't ghosts but rather mermaids.

Amity Park is a small island, a 3-hour boat ride away from the nearest coast. The ferry comes by 2 times a day, and only once on Sunday at noon.

Mermaids are believed to be a myth by most. This is because they are only visible to the human eye when they choose to be. Every mermaid seems to have the base powers;

Invisibility (can choose to be invisible to only humans or everything/everyone else - can also make themselves visible to humans but choose not to. Most tend to be in a constant state of not visible to people)

Intangibility (how they've avoided capture and such)

Strength much more impressive than a human's

Ability to communicate underwater (clicks and chirps and such produced from their core)

Fast healing

Some also have additional powers unique to them. Danny's ice, Ember's music (siren song).

Mermaids only look somewhat human. They share no biological similarities to humans.

Mermaids are an ancient species that have been around far longer than humans have been. They are immortal and only die when killed or if they get "sick". This immortality is largely thanks to their biological make-up. Mermaids don't breath. They don't have hearts that beat. They don't have vocal cords or gills or lungs.

They have a core, that produces and filters ectoplasm which is all they need. Ectoplasm is their life force and magical, to an extent. Ectoplasm exists everywhere, to various degrees, but is especially potent in all forms of water. It's such to a small degree, though, that it doesn't affect humans and/or magic users.

For mermaids, though, this ectoplasm is plenty. Their bodies can naturally pull it from their environment and use it to fuel themselves. Generally, they don't need it, because they produce their own, but it can make them stronger, which is why they stick to water where much of it can be found (by their standards).

This ectoplasm is a result of feelings. Water experiences a lot - life, death, birth and pain. People drown. People drink. Animals drink. Water goes through the cycle and it remembers. It keeps those emotions and over a long, long time, that magical energy evolved to become ectoplasm (vitality).

Which is why we need water to live.

Maddie and Jack are so curious about these creatures, and have managed to collect various samples over the years. With all their research to occupy them, they didn't have time for their daughter, Jazz.

They invented many things. A contraption that could filter ambient ectoplasm from the water, devices that could detect the unique ecto-signatures of mermaids, weapons that could hurt them. They produced the Speeder to allow them to go far deeper underwater than anyone else has ever achieved. They found ways to use ectoplasm as a power source.

They were brilliant scientists, but still they'd never managed to capture a live specimen. Their methods have always proved too lethal, and mermaid corpses have this infuriating habit of sort of melting quite quickly back into ectoplasm that, although useful, is "corrupt" and has to go through an extensive process in order to be purified and thus useful.

Frustrated by this, they decide to create their own specimen using the samples they've collected and some of their own DNA to fill out any remaining gaps in hopes of getting as close as possible to the real thing.

The result is Danny, a halfa, who breathes and has a beating heart, albeit one that's slower than it should be. He can live underwater, thanks to having a core on top of that, that produces what the human-half of his body needs to stay alive without actually breathing. Hypothetically, he could survive underwater for the rest of his life even if his heart was removed, but only manage to last a few hours above water (where ectoplasm is nowhere near as strong) without that heart before dying.

Normal mermaids die if left without any access to water ranging from a day to week depending on their age and strength. Otherwise, they can survive alright for (hypothetically) a few years with only the rare drink and will be reduced to a strength equal to or slightly above a human's.

(Maddie believes that there are mermaids powerful enough to exceed Superman's strength without any water at all. However, their civilizations are so well hidden she has yet to find any proof to back this up.)

Danny, however, can survive in both environments indefinitely. A truly fascinating result.

On top of that, he can turn his inhuman features for human ones while above water. Once submerged, the influx of ectoplasm will force a change back to "mermaid".

His many documented powers and their original owners are:

His wail (Ember)

The transformation (Amorpho)

Ice (one of the Yetis, like Frostbite)

Ectoblasts - the ability to shoot excess ectoplasm in the form of powered beams (Skulker)

Maddie and Jack don't treat Danny well. They keep him caged, away from all other life, and run various experiments on him. Seeing as he can produce his own ectoplasm, they also syphon it from him to power their inventions, as they can get a lot more from him faster than they can extract it from the water.

Once, they test how his body reacts to different stimuli. When they get to electricity, Jack misreads the voltage and the shock very nearly kills Danny. The scream he lets out then is the sound he makes when he wails as it's this experience that unlocks that power of his. From then on he's deathly afraid of being electrocuted.

Jazz is not close with her parents. She had to raise herself, and never paid their research much mind. For a long time, she was sure they were just crazy. And then she saw Danny.

She went down to their lab to ask them to sign a school form and saw young, maybe 5 year old Danny in a tank, tail on full display. From then on she became his self-appointed sister, sneaking him snacks and telling him stories and teaching him things her parents hadn't bothered to.

Danny shows a clear like for the stars. Having never seen the sky before, when Jazz manages to sneak him out (just into the next room to look out a window) for a quick peak one night, he's absolutely in love. Jazz helps him learn as much as he can about them, smuggling in astronomy books and the like for him to read.

As Jazz grows older, she starts to worry for Danny more and more. Maddie and Jack are growing more greedy - more obsessive. They're treating him increasingly poorly and she hates it. She wants to help but finds herself afraid of how her parents would react.

So she times it perfectly. Maddie and Jack are out buying various household appliances to disassemble for a project, and Jazz is to leave that day for college, never to come back. And she's not about to leave Danny.

So she sneaks him out. As a human, Jazz takes Danny on the ferry too. The moment they reach land they move. Jazz rushes them off straight onto a flight. She's gotten herself on a scholarship into Gotham U for psychology with the intention of one day working at Arkham. By tutoring and babysitting, Jazz has saved up over the years and already has an apartment at the ready for the 2 of them and she's gotten a job at the library waiting for her once she arrives.

Most of her stuff excluding essentials was already waiting for her at her apartment, and she had a backpack full of essentials for Danny ready too. She already had plans to go buy him more stuff, letting him choose, once they arrived.

She's already emancipated herself and renamed herself Jazz Nightingale (more than willing to drop the Fenton name). She had a birth certificate for Danny (now Daniel Nightingale), her younger brother made and there are only a few more legal processes to go through that require Danny to be physically present for that they need to go through before she can sign him up for school.

Yes, it's a lot for an 18 year old; to raise a 8 year old child while going to Uni, working and hiding from her crazy parents, but she's more than willing. She loves Danny. Has loved him since she saw him 3 years ago. She can manage.

Danny has never been around so many people before. It's overwhelming. He tries to stick close to Jazz, hiding and cowering behind while watching everything with awe filled eyes. The airplane ride was fun. They were in the sky! And Jazz let him sit by the window. It was nice.

Then they got off in Gotham and Danny and Jazz promptly got separated. An ill-timed Rogue attack had Danny losing sight of Jazz and thus running for someplace safe to hide until she found him. A goon notices him and grabs him by his bag so he slips it off and runs. The goon chases.

Then Danny sees the river that runs through Gotham and dives in, thinking he's found somewhere safe.

Jazz, meanwhile, is losing her mind. They just got there and she's lost him! The rogue situation is wrapped up quickly thanks to the Daylight hero Signal but she can't find him. When she finds his lone backpack during her search she despairs.

She puts in a missing person's report, knowing it will probably be forgotten since it's Gotham. She searches for a long time, until dark, at which point she's forced to head to her apartment. She stresses.

Danny stays missing for a long while. Jazz goes out looking every single day. She calls the police often for updates (for which there never are any). She even hunts down the vigilantes to ask them to look, handing them pictures, Red Hood being the first.

(He keeps an eye out, asks his people to search too. He also helps Jazz make it home safe when she stays out too late searching, and even enlists Barbara's help.)

Meanwhile, Jazz has to start going to work.

She tries to put it off, and even gets an extra week before she starts but she has to start, and Uni is only a month or so away from starting too. Barbara is sympathetic and lets her go easy, seeing clearly how stressed she is.

Jazz does not stop looking. She makes sure to wander by all water sources, and even calls her parents, saying she's getting settled in at Uni in order to see if they had someone managed to get Danny back. They haven't, which is only a mild relief.

---

The water is bad.

It smells horrid and makes his skin itch. Danny doesn't quite know how to describe it but it feels like something angry and sad and hurt. There's trash all over, and the channels are so filthy the water's brown and smelly. It's nothing like his tank was - there at least the water was clean and nice. Danny's scared, alone and lost and all the bad feelings in the water aren't helping.

He swims blindly, getting further and further from Jazz in search for somewhere safe. He'd thought, when he saw the water, that it would be his safe place to hide, but now that he's in it he doesn't feel safe at all. He lets out a whine from his core, the water around him reacting to the young halfa's fear, rippling wildly and that only serves to scare him more.

He scrambles for the surface, teary and wanting Jazz. He doesn't want to be alone.

Unknowingly, he'd been underwater for hours, swimming rapidly and erratically. The sun had set, Jazz had reluctantly headed home, and he'd left Gotham. He'd accidently gone all the way to Blüdhaven, and when he popped his head out of the water and saw nothing familiar and a dark, smoggy sky he felt worse.

He was near the docks and it was night so of course Nightwing was out and at the docks, taking out a drug operation that had started trying to set roots in his city after having been chased out of Gotham where they tried the same thing. Danny heard the commotion and cautiously approached.

He poked his head out of the water again from closer and watched as Nightwing beat up the bad guys. Danny recognised him, as Jazz had made sure he knew of all of Gotham's heroes before they left for Gotham. If Nightwing was a hero, then he should be able to help him find Jazz!

He watched as all the bad guys were caught and tied up with stars in his eyes. Heroes are so cool! Nightwing ended up outside when he jumped a bad guy that had tried to sneak away. He was using some kind of sticks to fight, but the bad guy managed to knock one out of his hand and it fell into the water.

Danny immediately dove for it. He didn't have very much stuff, but he hated it when Maddie and Jack found something that Jazz had given him and threw it away. Nightwing would probably be quite upset too so it only made sense for him to go and get it.

Nightwing knocked out the guy while Danny was underwater and was looking at the surface of the dark, murky water mourning the loss of his weapon. 

And then Danny pokes his head out.

Lazarus green eyes look at him, and Nightwing damn near has a heart attack, leaping back with a startled (not at all high-pitched) scream. Danny immediately ducks back under, also very startled. He fiddles with the stick, scales and skin itching the longer he stays still in the gross water.

He waits a bit, hoping the next time he peeks out Nightwing won't be looking at him anymore. After a few minutes, he cautiously pokes his head out, and immediately meets Nightwing's eyes, who'd been looking intently at the water torn between hoping that was a hallucination and hoping it wasn't, although river-monsters weren't much better.

Their eyes meet and Nightwing manages to catch a lot more details because he'd been staring so hard.

White, wispy hair, that floats like it's still underwater. Bright, green eyes, curious but afraid. Face dotted with scales, and weird, fin-like things where ears should be. Most of all though, whoever or whatever he's looking at, is young. They're gone back under just as fast as before, and Nightwing yells out for them to stay too late.

Danny's scared. He's not supposed to be seen like this. He promised Jazz. But he wants to give the stick back and he wants to find Jazz. Heroes help people, right? He steels himself and pokes his head back out. This time, he listens as Nightwing talks, gently reassuring him it's okay and he won't hurt him.

Slowly, Danny swims closer. Nightwing doesn't look angry or afraid or disgusted, so maybe he will help him even though he looks like this? Heroes help everyone after all.

Dick is losing his fucking mind.

There's a baby pit monster in the water - the filthy water that's probably more grime and oil than water at this point - with wide eyes that would be adorable if they didn't have him thinking of pit rage. But they aren't angry. Far from it.

Small, with scales on their face a top normal, albeit very pale, skin. They approach slowly, clearly anxious, and Dick waits, wondering what exactly he's supposed to do here. What even is the protocol for this situation? Is there a protocol? Knowing Batman, probably, but he can't remember it.

Danny carefully sticks one hand out of the water and passes Nightwing the stick, which he takes with a grateful smile and a thank you. Danny pokes his head out a little more so he can smile back.

The baby pit monster has fangs. Adorable, little fangs, but fangs. Okay. That's fine. This is fine.

Danny hesitates. He has to ask, but his voice won't come. So he does the next best thing.

They're chirping at him. The cute, baby monster is chirping at him. He gently says he doesn't understand and when they wilt, he asks yes and no questions. Like this, Nightwing slowly pieces together the child 1, needs help, 2, is lost, 3 has an older sister who's looking after him, and 4, is absolutely terrified of his parents.

Well, he's never been one to turn down a scared kid, no matter how inhuman.

(Everyone's going to make so much fun of him when they find out he took a baby pit-monster home with him. At least they don't have black hair and blue eyes.)

[qianqiancandyjar]

DP_the Secret Saturdays AU headcanons

Ghost Hunter Family Masterpost

Sorry, another abandoned comic. Like last one, I'm gonna squeeze something out of my brain at least.

However, I have no idea what to draw to explain the storyline at this point. So I made this long post of my headcanons about this AU.

I did try making new chapters yet I couldn't make a full one to even satisfy myself so I deleted all the drafts.

The Fentons–>The Saturdays

This au sets in the same world of The Secret Saturdays. The Fentons are part of the Secret Scientists, too, and good friends with the Saturdays. But they interact with each other only when they're not busy with their own mission.

Jack Fenton is in charge of all the inventions and equipments of the family, while Maddie is more focused on analyzing everything about ghosts.

Jack and Maddie are less obsessed with their works and focus more on the kids than in the canon. Especially Maddie, who educated Danny to use his power properly. Actually, she stressed the importance of human strength. That leads to Danny's less skilled in ghost powers. Is it a bad thing or good thing?

Danny is the reincarnation of the Ghost King, just like Zak and Kur. But he only possessed the crown part at the beginning. The ring part belongs to Vlad.

About Danny's commanding power: When he uses a specific voice to speak, the words can influence ghosts' mind and make them unintentionally obey. Of course such strong power won't come without a price. Every time he uses this ability, his throat will be severely damaged. The degree depends on how powerful the command is. (Resemblance? Jujutsu Kaisen, ahem)

Jazz is the reincarnation of the King Guardian, mirroring Fisk. She's a shapeshifter, and good at being a spy with her study on psychology. Her ghost abilities aren't as powerful as Danny's, but she thinks them enough to protect her younger brother.

Vlad Masters–>Argost

Before his departing, Vlad was a friend of Fentons. He's more professional on ghost language and culture than the Fentons, so he didn't tell them all what he had read on the asteroid, and then he left with all the secrets.

He knows he need to gather all the relics to fully awake the true power of the Ghost King. He's kinda pissed he only got the ring part. The main part is the crown, so Vlad doesn't have the power of commanding ghosts. Though, he'll try get the ghost army he wants some other way. And maybe one day, the crown will be his, too.

Vlad writes novels as a hobby, and his works happen to be Danny/Jazz's favorite, whoops. (They didn't know the author was Vlad. He uses pen-name)

Backgrounds:

The Ghost King was murdered by a human hero (Perhaps the ancestor of the Fentons) with a weapon made of blood blossoms. Both the worlds of life and death are free from his rule. Yet many years from then, the two worlds that had seperated from each other for so long, turn against each other out of fear and ignorance. The Fentons tried to maintain the balance by keeping the existence of ghosts away from most of the people in the world.

Since the fall of the king, the ghosts in the Ghost Zone had divided into many small groups. They often fight with each other for their own belief or desire. Some want to bring back the king, some want to take the throne, some want chaos and the rest just want peace.

Was bringing back the King the only solution for this mess? What if he doesn't even want to?

Other parallels:

The Red Huntress and the Guys In White–>Francis and the People

Sam Manson–>Wadi

Tucker Foley–>Ulraj

Frostbite–>Tsul 'Kalu

Frostbite is the guardian of Infinite Map, and one of the royal members of the Ghost King. He's been waiting for his return.

(Other additional headcanons to be added. You may add some if you're interested, too!)

[mutable-manifestation]

Actual Scientists Jack & Maddie AU Part 4

Part 1 & 2

Part 3

Explaining The Papers (™) to Frostbite takes a While (also ™).

Though with no more imminent threat of “Vlad maybe finding out he’s the ghost king and becoming Insufferable (also also ™) about it” Danny was feeling a lot less stressed - Sam and Tucker, too, if the fact that they were actually drinking their tea now instead of just barely sipping at it was any indication - or they could’ve only just cooled enough to actually drink, the FF did tend to overestimate the level of heat they could tolerate just a tad.

Not to say that he wasn’t still stressed, given the whole “the Justice League is trying to summon ME” thing. But like. They were reaching out hoping for peace, not hoping to skin/dissect/exterminate him. 

Plus they don’t know how to summon him; he figures he has time. Hopefully enough to get Frostbite’s advice.

And mostly to cool his own nerves, because now that he knows they did try to help and are helping the Justice League is Cool again! And they want to meet him! 

Well, they want to meet the ghost king, but they already watched him! They thought he was a capable hero! 

Danny isn’t really used to getting positive feedback, so being called “good hands” by Superman - Superman! The hero! The Alien hero! (well, one of them. Martian Manhunter is also amazing but he hasn’t complimented Danny in person yet so he doesn’t have any expectations for Danny to live up to. Maybe. Hypothetically). 

The JL is so cool and they think he’s cool! Or at least capable! Except now he has to impress them not just as a hero but as a king?

Yeah.

Suffice to say, Danny is now a little nervous.

(And also maybe redirecting his nerves intentionally to be about the JL so he doesn’t have to breathe into a bag about being probably the only thing between the Zone and eventual total dimensional collapse because Frostbite was very ‘this is normal and okay’ about it but it’s eventual total dimensional collapse [ALL OF THEM] and it is Danny’s problem. But no, he’s just nervous about meeting the JL. Totally.)

Reciting pretty much his whole life story - well, the basics of his parents’ work and then pretty much everything from the portal onward - gives him time to untense, and honestly, getting it all out to a mostly uninvolved third party - one he likes and trusts - really is a weight off his shoulders.

He’ll never tell Jazz; the amount of I-told-you-so-energy she’d leech into the air would be unbearable.

Sam and Tucker tag in here and there too, and mostly take over when they get to the part where the GIW bought Fenton Works for a short while to try and destroy the zone. Danny winces at the memory of his behavior back then.

The explanation runs for longer than it could have, given the aside they make when they get to his parents’ theories. 

Frostbite is quick to confirm the combat-as-a-positive-social-behavior thing, and it turns out Sam is right about how to tell the difference.

Of course, Danny thinks they were all trying to kill him the rest of the way, but then that’s not a concern most ghosts have, so Frostbite offers his own perspective.

Skulker wants to hang his pelt on a wall: clearly unfriendly.

Technus is just having fun - enjoying playing with new technology in the living realm and throwing Danny around/being thrown around. He’s a friend. The whole world domination idea isn’t malicious as far as he’s concerned, because damage to the living realm doesn’t mean much to ghosts. What do they care about the living? What is the value of a single world as collateral when weighed against the games of ghosts? 

If Danny wants him to stop that, Frostbite tells him, he can just propose a new game.

Ember genuinely just wanted a powerboost from the Earth that first time, but her returns since are a gesture of friendship.

Spectra definitely hates him though. Which is good. He wouldn’t know how to feel if Frostbite had said that that whole mess was an attempt at friendship.

As for the thing with his parents, Frostbite compares it to winning a tournament only to find out the other participants lost intentionally. You haven’t really won a competition if the competitors were not competing. 

Like going in for a handshake only to get a “too slow” - even more insulting if it’s the first “too slow” you’ve ever gotten - Tucker suggests.

Or like asking a parent to a hug and only getting a wave. Not even a high-five.

They each go through another three cups of tea before the story winds down, Frostbite doing adding little more than the occasional nod or noise of acknowledgement - barring the social combat explanation, of course. 

It’s nice, Danny thinks, to have an adult that actually listens. Even if said adult is a dead yeti.

“You have given me much to think on Great One, Friends Sam and Tucker,” he says after the three of them finally run out of words, giving each of them a nod. “And soon, we shall have much more to discuss. First, however, it seems that I have a meeting to call. And you have living needs that require attending to yet. Eat, rest, and, if you would, return here… let’s say the day after tomorrow? Then we can begin to discuss the…issues. At hand.”

Back in the Specter Speeder, Tucker wonders aloud if “call a meeting” is code for yelling at the Observants.

Then he looks at his PDA and realizes how late it’s gotten - namely, past all of their curfews - and they promptly turn the conversation to getting their story straight (and three backups because they’re all feeling paranoid with how high-stakes everything suddenly became. Not that the occasional ghost looking to wreck earth wasn't already high-stakes, but the whole political aspect made it feel... different).

***

Danny is thankful it’s summer vacation at the moment, because the next morning is a Monday. 

He doesn’t know how he’d manage school with his mind miles away wondering about things like “how to king” and “how to maintain the fabric of reality” and other totally normal, non-stressful topics. 

Just normal high schooler things.

His parents are gone before he’s even up, leaving a note for him and Jazz on the kitchen table. 

They eat a quiet breakfast together.

The whole house is quiet. It’s unnatural, he thinks, and the small frown on Jazz’ face tells him she feels the same. 

They normally enjoy the brief lulls of quiet that their parents leave behind, but this is perhaps the first time they’ve ever missed breakfast - well, the first time they haven’t been in the house during breakfast at least. A welding torch, clanging metal, clinking glass, minor explosions, and excited shouting is the usual background noise of their morning meal - whether from the basement door or at the table itself.

This time, the silence is disquieting.

Even more so since it means that Danny could, at any time, be teleported somewhere. He really should have asked Frostbite about how that works before they left - they’d already missed curfew anyway.

After they’ve both finished eating, he takes the opportunity to fill Jazz in on the whole… everything.

She is, to put it lightly, Not Impressed.

“-s bad enough they let you fight Pariah Dark in the first place! You should never have been in that position! I know that you’re a capable fighter Danny, but you’re fourteen-”

“I’m almost fifteen,” he grumbles.

“You’re not yet fifteen,” she says, glaring into the distance, expression practically snarling. Danny thinks she might be imagining strangling an Observant, based on the… choice words she’d had for them earlier. “And they want you to be a king!”

Tucker chooses that moment to arrive, walking right into the path of where Jazz is glaring and freezing until Sam shoves him out of her way to close the door and drag him into the kitchen.

“Who spat in your cereal?” she asks, moving to sit and kicking the fourth chair out for Tucker.

“Whoever or whatever is responsible for deciding that a fourteen year old child should be king when there are no doubt numerous thousand-plus year old candidates who don’t have human lives they still need to attend to!” She bellows, throwing her hands up in frustration.

The trio exchange a glance while she takes a few calming breaths.

Danny kind of wants to point out that he isn’t a child, he’s a teenager. And she’s barely older than him.

But he does have some sense of self-preservation, even if there’s only so much self left to preserve. Heh.

Then she gasps.

“Danny! You’re still half alive!”

“Er, yes?”

“Maybe that’s why the Watching Wraiths didn’t say anything! Maybe you can’t be the Ghost King if you’re still partly alive!”

“But Frostbite said-” Tucker starts, only to be cut off by Jazz.

“Frostbite could be wrong.” She sniffs. “And even if he isn’t you there are millenia before it becomes a problem. The Zone can wait for you to graduate high school before it goes demanding things of you. Or longer.”

The words are decisive.

Still….

“The Justice League-”

“Can cope. They’ll be a little paranoid about retaliation, but a little paranoia won’t kill them. And maybe letting them stew a bit will teach them to be more active about taking down genocidal organizations before they hurt so many people.”

“That’s a great idea,” Sam says, tone saying the opposite, “except the part where they’re actively working on figuring out how to summon the ghost king - who is Danny - and are probably also going to try and make contact with Phantom at some point - who is also Danny.”

Jazz frowns.

“Well. You don’t have to be a king to talk to the Justice League. Just tell them you’re still too young - which is true - or that the coronation is going to take a long time to plan - which, according to Frostbite, would be a reasonable claim. And also true since you will not be taking the throne until you are at least 18 if the Fenton Peeler and I have anything to say about it.”

“Uh. I don’t know if the Peeler is the best idea. With your…aim.” Tucker cringes, shrinking back in his seat when her unhappy frown snaps to him.

Then she looks thoughtful.

“You know what. I’ll just use a specter deflector. You mentioned before how humans are ghosts in the ghosts zone; see if they still feel like making a child a king when they’ve got an unstrikable target punching their lights out about it.”

“Please don’t antagonize a bunch of ghosts who could try and attack you while you're sleeping,” Danny pleads.

“It’s bad enough that all this has impacted your sleep and grades and attendance records so much; I’m not going to let a bunch of ghost nobles - or whatever they’re called - mess things up for you even more. If they don’t like my proposals they can un-friendly fight me about it, and if you’re worried about retribution I can turn on the house defenses in my room when I sleep. But I am not letting this go.”

She stands.

“Since he didn’t give you a time, we’ll leave to visit Frostbite after breakfast tomorrow-”

“We?” the trio ask hesitantly.

“Of course. But for now, there’s something else we need to do, little brother.”

That said, she turns and heads for the basement.

Danny and Tucker blink at the abrupt departure, while Sam just frowns thoughtfully.

The three exchange one more meaningful glance, before sharing a shrug and moving to follow her.

They arrive in the basement to Fenton Fighting Ring rising out of the floor.

“Uh, Jazz?” Danny tries.

“We’re going to fight!”

In stark contrast to both her words and her furious demeanor upstairs, her tone and expression are bright and eager.

“Um. That’s. Nice, but you know that’s a ghost thing, right?” he offers hesitantly.

“I mean, I still fight with Dora,” Sam adds, the traitor.

“Thank you Sam,” Jazz starts. “But even without that example; you are part ghost, brother mine. That means fighting loved ones is a you thing. I love you, so of course I’m going to fight you.”

“Mom and Dad theorized - and Frostbite confirmed - that the fighting is a social behavior. Many social behaviors are also needs. Members of social species that are not allowed to socialize become stressed and their health worsens. Humans who don’t communicate with other humans for too long experience negative side effects, too little physical contact can lead to depressed mood and so forth,” she monologues as she moves into the ring.

“As you’re still half human, neglecting the social needs of your ghost half could negatively impact your wellbeing. Also. I’m your sister and I love you. If I could never hug you I’d be bummed. This is like the ghost equivalent of that. So. Square up, little brother.”

Danny is kind of touched, actually. 

Still.

“...Don’t you at least want an anti-creep stick?” he asks, gesturing at her general lack of ghost gear as he slips intangibly through the ropes around the ring.

“Nope!” She says cheerfully. “For this match we’ll be doing no powers and no weapons - just basic human strength and skill. We can try other kinds of fights later.”

Danny pales.

“No way! You’re a 4th degree black belt!”

“9th!” she corrects, still cheerfully - and she clearly means well, but for Danny that smile is beginning to look like an omen of ill fortune.

“That’s even worse!” he cries. “I’m only a blue belt! Barely!”

“I ~told~ you you should’ve stuck with mom’s training,” she sing-songs teasingly.

He cringes, but takes a stance.

“Now let's see how much you remember.”

That’s the only warning he gets before she’s in his face.

His strength, speed, stamina, endurance, and durability are all completely back to baseline in human form unless he actively uses his flight to compensate, but one thing he notes as the fight draws on is that his reaction speed is still the same.

Even so, it’s painfully obvious just how beyond him she is in terms of skill.

Without any powers to fall back on, Jazz runs circles around him like it’s nothing.

His reaction speed means that he sees everything she’s doing and that he has time to bring his arms up, but he keeps lagging trying to recall forms and getting shoved around for it, the defenses he manages too poor to be of any use. 

Other times he lags because he’s suppressing instinctual power usage.

And multiple times he accidentally, instinctively abandons proper stance all together, habitually falling into the stance of his usual “feral racoon” style of fighting - as Jazz had one called it - which isn’t much of a stance at all in a fight with no powers. Especially given how it's not made for someone fighting on the ground. She takes brutal advantage of every opening.

He’s on the back foot from the first second of the fight, and it’s obvious that it only lasted for longer than one because Jazz allowed it to, testing him.

It’s frustrating that he’s doing so poorly - he knows he’s doing poorly - but despite that, he really is having fun. 

It reminds him of the training spars at the Far Frozen - restrained skill set, fight with defined boundaries and win conditions-

Aaaaand evidently he let his mind wander too much. 

And Jazz noticed. 

And flipped him.

He’s thoroughly pinned in short order and he cannot for the life of him remember how to escape the hold short of cheating with intangibility.

“Uncle,” he calls.

Jazz pulls him to his feet and ruffles his hair.

He squawks indignantly, but she just chuckles.

"Good fight little brother," she calls as she slips between the ropes out of the ring.

"Our hero," Sam drawls as he follows.

Danny just pouts.

"That was just sad, man," Tucker ribs. "And I thought your early ghost fights were bad."

"I'd like to you do better against the 9th degree blackbelt," he grumbles.

"Don't fret, little brother. You'll improve with time," Jazz says as she rejoins them. "Though we'll have to do refreshers of all the previous levels first, given the amount of skill degradation I just saw. But with regular practice you'll back to your previous level and more in no time!"

"Uh. Refreshers?"

"Of course!"

"That seems a bit overkill just for sparring. Couldn't you just...wear a specter deflector or something? Then I can just not use karate."

Jazz, for the first time in a long time, levels him with a very serious look.

"You said that the reason Frostbite can't be the king instead is because he can't beat you in an all out fight. You told me the alternative."

She grabs him by the shoulders and stares into his eyes.

"Danny, Vlad already made a way to shut you away from your ghost powers. Frostbite may be unwilling to end you, and I don't think Vlad would. But you and I both know there are ghosts out there who would destroy you in a heartbeat for that power. And if Vlad has that kind of device, someone else could get one too. Ecto-weapons can give you a leg up if you get sealed away from your ghost powers, but you'll also need the skill to use them successfuly."

She lets go and steps back, tilting her head thoughtfully.

"Even with the ghost powers it's probably a good idea; the crown and ring might power you up but so did the exoskeleton. Clearly they aren’t the only power-ups out there so you can’t rely on strength alone. Skill could be the determining factor one day. And you already said you had fun," she smiles. "Come on little brother, give in to the karate side."

He grimaces.

"Didn't you say you were gonna make the royalty thing a non-issue for like three more years at least," he whines, slumping dramatically.

She raises a brow.

"A blackbelt isn't made in a day."

"Ugh, fine."

He's actually looking forward to it, but Jazz doesn't need to know that. He's duty-bound as a brother to be as annoyingly contrary about sibling bonding as possible, after all.

When Sam asks if they'll teach her and Tucker as well, Jazz is all too happy to include them - best not to have only one sparring partner, avoid forming bad habits and all that.

Both girls dutifully ignore Tucker's protests while they hash out a schedule. Danny pats his shoulder consolingly.

[britcision]

Alright listen

I’m not a particularly huge fan of “secret twin/sibling AU” cuz if not done right, it quickly becomes “and we only care cuz of blood relation”

The antithesis of Bruce Wayne

(And like you can’t say adopted families don’t count to the goddamn bat fam, it’s illegal and you go to double Arkham)

But

I have also noticed it’s kinda always Danny is the adopted secret twin

And… well

Large bulky men who break down walls

Who come back to life but kinda fucked up

BRUCE WAYNE NÉ FENTON, OLDER BROTHER OF JACK FENTON WHOSE PARENTS DIED BEFORE TELLING HIM THE TRUTH

I will also accept Bruce having known but not knowing how to introduce himself to his brother and just secretly helping fund their building a portal to hell

Cuz that’s like talking to people when you’re Batman, totally counts, Alfred definitely thinks they’ve exchanged Christmas cards

Jason is the other obvious option, maybe from when the Fentons were in college cuz gods know that man’s family tree is already a xylophone

Tim, also a great candidate, he was pretty much an afterthought for the Drakes and neglected so having picked him from a line up tracks

Just

More than half of the bat fam is already adopted

And they’re the cool side to have been adopted from

There’s some consolation for Danny from the Fentons not being his bioparents that kinda invalidates that it is Still Fucked Up That They Mistreat Him

Him not being theirs really doesn’t mitigate it but it keeps showing up

No

Tim Drake’s expression watching Jack Fenton scarf fudge knowing that’s his dad

Bruce realizing if he’d looked past the family Christmas cards he coulda saved his niece and nephew

Jason wondering how the fuck these crappy scientists could be his parents then Maddie bodies Bruce and yeah suddenly that tracks

(He will not be admitting that it made sense the second Jack took down a wall instead of the door a foot away from him, no, Maddie’s ninja skills are the genetic part)

Damian’s goddamn CHALLENGE being the Blood Son and super proud of being a Wayne only for Bruce to be like “well actually neither of us are blood Waynes, your brothers have exactly as much right to the name”

Damian fucking STRUGGLING cuz like his dad’s still Batman, even if he’s Bruce Fenton, blood matters to this kid that’s still his birth name and Damian wants to be proud of his heritage

But calling himself Fenton in a world with the Fenton Thermos?

Death is better

From personal experience

(This being the final straw that breaks Damian from his obsession with bloodlines? Extra juicy, cuz Bruce sure as shit would never stop calling himself a Wayne even if the Fenton stays silent)

[kimerawrt]

Dannymay 2024, now with kitty paws!

Prompts from my AU, also in AO3

Day 3: Invisible

Danny was hiding. He was crouching under a table invisible, and the ecto-scanner built in the walls could not detect his ecto-signature. He was virtually invisible to all of the inventions in his house as well. It was a good thing Tucker was so good modifying his parents’ creations, otherwise he would have been in trouble long ago.

Danny was currently spying on his parents while they worked, and also ignoring his homework. That was a normal occurrence ever since they started to create dangerous weapons that could end a ghost if used correctly. Gathering information was a matter of survival and that was more important than homework.

The halfa boy in the form of a gray lynx observed the ghost hunters move around the lab. He had heard his parents babbling at the breakfast table about how their new invention would drain a ghost of their energy until there was nothing but ectoplasmic goo left behind. Danny was not going to let his parents destroy any ghosts with that weapon.

He knew most ghosts that came to the living realm were annoyances, but he didn't want any of them to be ended and their remains studied by scientists.

“It's finally done! I, Jack Fenton, had created the Fenton-Absorber!” Jack said in a loud voice as soon as he was finished.

“Well done darling” Maddie kissed Jack’s cheek as a reward.

“Now we just have to test it on any ghost we see!” Jack looked very excited to test the new weapon.

“We will honey. It would be great if we could get one of those cat ghosts that always chase the other ghosts away” Maddie sighed in annoyance. All the possible new experiment subjects were always chased off or disappeared if one ghost cat was around.

Of course, Maddie didn’t know that it was Danny beating up the ghosts and Sam or Tucker capturing them in a Fenton Thermos. Not multiple ghost cats fighting for territory.

“Oh! We can make a cat-ghost repellent next!” Jack was excited. He could make sure those ghosts didn’t get in their way!

“Great idea honey” Maddie smiled. That would actually give them a chance.

Then a loud and animalistic growl was heard in the lab.

It was Jack’s stomach.

“We can't invent without fudge!” Jack ran upstairs in search of fudge. The best food to energize him and let him hunt ghosts.

“Jack, wait! There is no fudge in the house” Maddie said while running after her husband. They still have to buy more ingredients and Maddie didn’t want her dear husband to make fudge with their ectoplasm samples again.

Danny waited in silence for some minutes before moving. Still invisible he took the new weapon and other random stuff before running away through the walls. He was going to give this things to Tucker and see if they could make something more useful. Last time they could reconstruct a laser beam into a machine to heat up food. It was like a cooler version of a microwave.

The invisible lynx ran towards his friend’s house with an unseen smirk.

[scarletsaphire]

Lightning Rod: Dannymay Day 8: Electric Core AU

There's a thunderstorm, and Danny is missing. Jazz goes looking for him. She does not expect the lightning strikes to show her where he is.

Danny was missing. That was. Well, it wasn’t fine, but it wasn’t surprising either. He had been a lot more distant since what he had been referring to as the “Accident,” where he got zapped by the portal a few weeks ago. Jazz was worried. She was always worried to some extent; it was the result of having to basically be the parent since she was old enough to reach the kitchen counters by herself. But recently, she was even more worried, specifically about Danny.

It wasn’t just that he was distant, and that he was avoiding talking about the “Accident” with anyone besides Sam and Tucker. Jazz understood that. He had ended up hurt, and in the hospital, and even if he hadn’t ended up hurt, the fact that the portal had opened with him standing right there was probably enough for trauma to set in all on its own. It had only been a few weeks since it happened, and if it was in fact trauma, he’d likely need more time to digest it, time that she couldn’t spend trying to pry into his thoughts and feelings without making the problems worse. What worried Jazz was what he did when he wasn’t distant.

He tried to keep quiet during the night, but she shared a wall with him. She could hear the whimpers and cries of a nightmare at 2 AM. She could hear his terrified gasps and panicked breathing, mumbled curses and late night calls to his friends. She could hear the sound of things being knocked over as he… she didn’t know what exactly he was doing, but she knew it wasn’t good. She had left him a note on his desk, when he was downstairs getting breakfast before school. She didn’t want to pry, but she also wanted him to know that she was there for him. The note served that purpose just fine, even if he never mentioned it.

Then there was everything with their parents. Neither of them had what would be considered a good relationship with either of their parents, but it definitely wasn’t abusive. Neglectful, yes. Jack and Maddie may try to be good, but they were, and always had been, scientists first and parents second. Or scientists first, ghost hunters second, and parents third. But they had never hit either her or Danny, or threatened them, or anything that would make Danny flinch away from Jack’s touch, or avoid looking into Maddie’s eyes when she talked to him over dinner, or keep to the outside of the room, as quiet as a mouse, whenever one or both of them were in the room. It could have been some kind of teenage thing, being uncomfortable around their parents, but then Danny should be uncomfortable around her as well. He was, in some ways. But the discomfort he showed around her definitely fit more into the embarrassed teenager with overbearing parents than whatever he was doing with their actual parents.

Whatever was bothering Danny, it had to do with their parents. Whatever it was was apparently enough for him to have not returned home from school during a fairly bad thunderstorm. She had called both Sam and Tucker. They had said that he was with them, which should have been a relief, if they hadn’t both said at their respective houses. So one, or both, of them were lying, and if only one of them was lying, then there wouldn’t be much of a reason to lie in the first place. They were covering for Danny.

That’s why Jazz had taken her mother’s car (not the GAV. Until an actual ghost threatened her with whatever weapons ghosts might have, she would not drive that monstrosity.) and was currently driving around Amity Park, windows rolled down, shouting Danny’s name into the rain. She didn’t expect for her to find him, honestly. Amity wasn’t a huge town, but it was big. Too big to find a single kid that didn’t want to be found.

What Jazz expected to find less was that every single strike of lightning always seemed to land in the exact same place. It had taken her nearly 20 minutes to notice. She hadn’t really been paying attention; why would she? But after the flash of lightning struck straight into an empty parking lot 5 different times in about as many minutes, she got curious. It was stupid. She knew it was stupid. But she was still Jack and Maddie’s daughter, even if she wasn’t quite as dedicated to science as they were. This was too odd, too weird, for her to just leave. Curiosity and the cat and all of that.

The wind whipped at her hair and the raincoat she had pulled over herself on the way out of the house. It really was a bad storm. Jazz shouldn’t be out in it at all. But there was a chance that Danny was, and if nothing else she would be able to use this as an opportunity to guilt Danny into not going out in horrible storms without telling anyone where he was going. Maybe not the ethical solution, but he was her brother. A little manipulation here and there was to be expected. She approached the center of the parking lot, where she could see a washed out lump. She couldn’t make out the color in the rain and the dark, or the shape, or much of anything about it.

Lightning struck again, hitting the thing directly. In the brief flash of light she could make out the colors. Red and white shirt. Blue jeans. Black hair. Jazz froze, her breath caught in her throat. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be Danny. He looked up and met her eyes. It was most certainly him. She would know his face anywhere, even if his eyes glowed a sickly green, their light piercing through the rain. Even if every movement caused sparks to dance across his skin. It was her brother.

He saw her and she saw him, and before Jazz could do anything, say anything, he panicked. He was on his feet and backing away from her before she could blink. No, he wasn’t on his feet at all. He was upright, no longer curled into a ball like he was before, but he wasn’t standing. He was floating.

Danny’s voice cut through the wind and rain in a way that it shouldn’t be able to. When Jazz had been calling for him, she had had to scream over the torrential rain just to hear her own voice. Danny’s was strained, but not with the effort to be heard, just with worry. “You can’t be here,” he said as he floated away. The words buzzed like static in Jazz’s head. She took a step forward. “It’s not safe, you need to leave.”

“Danny,” she said quietly, her words eaten by the wind. She tried again. “Danny, its not safe for you either!” She kept making her way towards him, the wind fighting her every step of the way. “I have mom’s car, we can get home safe, you just need-” She was cut off by another lightning bolt, striking Danny directly.

It was barely a split second. The light was blinding, but Jazz swore she saw Danny’s hair flash white. Saw his outfit change to one of the hazmat suits their parents had painstakingly made for both of them, only in different colors. And then the second ended, and it was just Danny. Just Danny, hovering in the air, green sparks flying between his fingertips and eyes that could shine through a storm. Jazz did not let herself be scared. Did not let herself be confused. “I don’t know what's happening, but I can’t just leave you here. It isn’t safe,” she called again. “I just want to help!”

Jazz felt like she was in a spotlight, as those glowing green eyes studied her. Finally, Danny nodded. He floated closer to her, still keeping a good ten feet distance as they both made their way to the car. “Not to home. Anywhere but there.” His voice felt like a whisper. She shouldn’t be able to hear it, but it seemed like the wind carried it to her. Jazz nodded, and got into the car. Danny did not join her. She had assumed he wouldn’t.

Jazz had questions. So, so many questions. She was scared, both for herself, and for Danny, and for whatever it was that was making this happen. But as she drove, watching as Danny, the Danny she had seen in that flash of lightning, flew behind her, barely visible in the falling rain, she knew that her questions could wait. Right now, her brother needed her, and he was more important than her curiosity.

[impyssadobsessions]

Oh! Oh! I have an idea! Okay so some of the first things to go when Secret started sucking people into her death hole was the D.E.O. and A.P.E.S. groups- which were two government groups that had held and handled her (neither treated her well obviously.) D.E.O. stands for Department of Extranormal Operations, and is described as if the guy from x-files got a government branch to use for his theories. Saw a crossover fic put the G.I.W. down as a subset of this branch. A.P.E.S. stands for All-Purpose Enforcement Squad and was less evil, but definitely an antagonistic group at times. Okay so here's my pitch: timeline wise, the Fenton parents would probably already be scientists around this time (assuming we're setting Danny Phantom in current day DC canon). Though it is hard to say. Comics are vague about ages at the best times, but I'd put Tim's age around this era at maybe 14-15? Current day he's supposedly 17-maybe 18, despite being only two years younger than Jason, who we've seen in bars and is thus at least 21. You don't need me to tell you the math don't add up. Anyway I'd say Danny could be anywhere in the ballpark of maybe 7-12 depending on how it shakes out just comparing him and Tim's current canon ages and where Tim's age probably should be when compared to his brothers' (which on the lower end actually would technically put him in the age range for the Hugga Tugga Thuggies thing! Assuming he ages slowly out of kid's cartoons anyway. lmao imagine Danny getting mind controlled to murder his parents as a baby) So Anyway it's totally possible for Maddie and Jack to have ended up on Secret's hitlist either through their anti-ghost research or maybe a past internship in the D.E.O. AU where baby Danny and Jazz watched their parents get murdered by the Justice League's ghost they swore wasn't evil (and that their parents swore was). Like everyone she swallowed was spat up when Robin convinced her to surrender but man the ptsd wouldnt be so easily reversed. Can you imagine the repercussions that domino would have on the Danny Phantom timeline? Woah.

DAmn, yeah that would fuck with them so bad. Amg.. Danny be so crushed.. so much more when he finds out he's a ghost.. or any part of one. Just makes me think he would try to run away actually out of fear. Scared.. but ends up being brought home.. Danny lying as to why he ran away. Trying to go into denial stage.. but makes him even more like oh this is what my powers for when ghosts start coming out of the portal. Even more traumatize if/when Dan event happens because Danny has to acknowledge he IS that powerful and could be THAT evil. But also accepts himself... and stay true to his beliefs.. no matter how hard things are. Ooo can see it getting out eventually to the YJ and JL like leaked from the GIW systems that there is a ghost hero that arose in Amity. Or maybe Tim finds it on like internet/tiktok just late night surfing the web then sees phantom. Anyway that be cool addition to dp x dc lore. Can see his friends not adjusting well either, but they see Danny still being danny first. Before Danny can recognize it himself. Jazz understanding as usual when finding out. Danny even more wary of the justice league. Because in his head if he ends up following same line of events it could possibly end the same.. so its best he stays low. :T Because he doesn't know what personally happen but safe bet to avoid other heroes. LOL So this misunderstanding of events. XD