#DO HIGH SCHOOLS STILL USE CHROMEBOOKS IN THOSE WHEELY CHARGY CABINENTS ORRRR

[artistfingers]

do you already have a scenario of how danny fenton "officially" meets sam and tucker in the no one knows au?

[Undercover Phantom AU]

!! yes, I do!! i'm hoping to comic it once I'm done with part 4 of how they meet Phantom. here’s some rambles which turned kinda into a fic?? it got longer than intended (o゜▽゜)o☆

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interior: casper high. sometime in fall, but inching towards winter. danny's trudging the hall, half asleep, when a familiar voice snaps his head up. Who could be passing by, discussing their various theories on when and where Phantom lived, other than Sam and Tucker? Yeah. it’s Sam and Tucker.

Danny's a bit freaked seeing them here in his supposedly average, every-day life. somehow it never occurred to him they might attend the same school as him. Never mind the fact they all live in the same city and are the same age, and. it’s not like Casper’s the only school around here. right? At least it explains one thing—how quickly they saw through his shoddy Danien disguise. They’d seen Phantom at least seventy-six times at Casper during freshman year (yes, he’d counted). if they can recognize Phantom in a heartbeat when he’s Danien, they can probably do it again when he’s Fenton.

Oh, god. they’re practically five feet away from him. now three. He’s gotta duck into a classroom or something, no, a cleaning closet, wait should he risk turning invisible? —when his ghost sense goes off in the same split second the ceiling bursts open and the screaming begins. he reacts like he always does: adrenaline and ecto-energy pump through his veins and he’s off like a shot towards the threat. only this time a hand snags him by the hoodie and yanks him into the world history classroom before he can even break out a full sprint.

he freezes like a deer in the headlights. There’s a cluster of other kids and a teacher already in here. it was Sam who’d nearly choked him on his own hoodie, and she shoves him out of the doorway pretty fast. “Where do you think you’re going?” she hisses. “The ceiling collapsed.”

“I know, I have to, uh, my locker…”

“Dude, your locker’s the least of your concerns right now.” That’s Tucker. He’s sliding a classroom laptop out of one of those wheely charging cabinets and logging in at the speed of light. “Alright, Sam, I got eyes on the security footage! ...oof, this is gonna be a doozy.”

Sam peers over his shoulder. Danny edges towards the door. they both spear him with major glares before he can move more than half a step. danny’s seen those looks before. they’re usually reserved for when Phantom suggests something batshit insane for dealing with the monster of the week. he, instinctively, swallows whatever protests he was about to make.

when Sam and Tucker resume their surveillance (and oh my god are they making plans about how to fight this ghost?) Dash decides to make himself known.

“Oh, great,” he says with a showy guffaw. “The school’s falling to pieces and Geeky McGee thinks he can fight the threat with a chromebook.”

danny wishes he was anywhere but here right now. he should turn invisible. but... dash is glaring right at Sam and Tucker, who he’s standing right next to, and…

Tucker brushes dash off. dash keeps up his tirade, displeased and antagonistic, until Sam snaps at him; then everybody’s sent into a shaky truce of silence when the entire building rumbles, a few more walls somewhere else collapse into rubble, and a ghostly laugh echoes all around, calling for Phantom.

danny sweats. A lot.

and then sam pulls out a customized mini ecto-gun and darts towards the door.

“WHERE did you GET THAT,” danny yelps.

“Don’t worry about it,” sam says, preoccupied as she peers out into the hall.

Tucker leans over and whispers to him. “We made it.”

“YOU MADE IT?”

“Don’t worry, we tested it this time.”

“This time,” danny echoes faintly.

“Tucker, what’s our proximity?”

“We’re in the green for now.”

They’re effective. danny is both proud and horrified. he also really needs to leave. “I’m gonna—”

“Don’t you dare,” sam shuts him down.

“Can I just—”

“No.”

“The bathroom—”

“NO.” this time Tucker practically harmonizes with Sam.

Danny groans. Dash guffaws again. “Can’t even hold it during a ghost attack, Fenton?”

“maybe you should go to a doctor,” kwan suggests.

Danny groans slightly louder, then realizes both tucker and sam are now giving him more attention than before, as if he needed any more attention than they were just giving him.

“Fenton?” Sam asks slowly.

“Like Fentonworks Fenton?” Tucker asks. he is much more excited than Sam.

“No, like the other Fenton,” danny grumbles.

“Oh.” tucker deflates.

Danny groans for a third, and certainly not final, time. “Yes like Fentonworks Fenton!” then like the bolt of inspiration that never comes during algebra tests, he hurries to add, “you know, like the ghost hunters? Listen, I know a thing or two about ghosts. if you’re trying to do something about this ghost—” which, shit, danny didn’t even have time to figure out who’s gallivanting around or why “—then let me help.”

Sam and Tucker share a considering look. Tucker does a short gesture with one hand to his forehead and the other out. Sam returns with a different one. Danny watches them go back and forth for a long, confused moment, as their hands fly, before Sam seemingly loses their non-verbal argument with a huff.

“alright,” she says, turning a fully unwarranted glare on danny. “You can help. But it’s conditional. Start talking.”

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(9/8/21: there is now a follow up comic!)