#Danny’s parents invention doesn’t work like they wanted

[minty364]

DPXDC Prompt #101

Danny and his parents were invited to Gotham so they could show one of their latest inventions to Tim and Bruce at Wayne industries. Of course this is the Fentons we’re talking about and something goes wrong during the demonstration. Danny and Tim swap bodies and chaos ensues. Danny finds out about Bruce’s and Tim’s identities after Bruce doesn’t realize they swapped at first and drives right into the bat cave. Danny tells Bruce they need to kidnap Tim since he doesn’t know how to control Danny’s powers and doesn’t want to risk him getting caught by his parents. Tim right before getting kidnapped by his own family figures out Danny is part ghost and is horrified that he lives with ghost hunter parents.

[luxaofhesperides]

Can I please have meet cute/weird with mistaken villain! Danny (but really just a engineer and or chem student) and the one being put on investigation cause Danny is a day villain(not really)! Duke

Technically, Danny Fenton is innocent. Technically. 

Duke wants to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially since he’s having so much trouble finding solid evidence that Danny is stealing from a wide variety of people, but he’s been burned before by trying to see people as better than they were. It doesn’t change the fact that Oracle’s cameras keep spotting Danny right before a building on the street is broken into and something stolen. He’s always just walking down the sidewalk; no one has spotted him entering or exiting a building, but he’s around far too often to be unconnected to these burglaries. 

It doesn’t help that strange, petty crimes have been on the rise since Danny first arrived in Gotham. 

So.

Danny Fenton is technically innocent.

Duke is trying to prove that he’s not. 

Maybe I’m looking too closely, he thinks, going over Danny’s sparse file in the Hatch. Maybe Danny’s only one person in a bigger operation.

He could just be the lookout, the runner, the information gatherer who marks which buildings to hit. He may even be the scapegoat, the sacrificial lamb; Danny has no support in Gotham, no family, no job. There would be no one to help him if he got arrested or injured in a fight. He’s a freshman college student from Illinois who should be unprepared for life in Gotham but is somehow managing to survive like a native. 

There’s a lot about Danny that doesn’t add up. 

Duke has seen plenty of different people since he first went out as the Signal. He’s tried to be kind and give people the benefit of the doubt, but it leads to his loved ones being put in danger. Some people are truly evil, some working on a malicious agenda, some are misguided in their beliefs, and some are desperate people who see no other way to move forward.

He’s not sure yet which on Danny is, but he’s hoping Danny is just desperate and needs a little help to get out of a life of crime.

Which leads to the next problem: Duke has no idea what Danny is steal, or why. He hits both rich and poor folks, civilians and members of the mob, and once, notably, stole something right out of Cobblepot’s office. Allegedly, at least, since no one saw him enter or exit the office, not even the security cameras. 

But added to the whispers going around about a new group in Gotham snatching people up from the streets, and some strange green substances found in warehouses often raided by police for the frequent drug labs that pop up in them… 

It doesn’t look good for Danny. Especially when a few of the items he stole were found where people either vanished or where that green substance has been found.

A week of analysis in the Batcave and they still don’t know what it is. 

Both Damian and Jason suspected Lazarus water, but the composition was completely different. By the look of the molecular structure, it shouldn’t have been in a liquid form at all. 

All these findings lead back to one person who may have answers: Danny Fenton.

According to Tim, who’s already broken into Danny’s dorm room and checked over all the labs he has classes in, Danny has some concerning items in his possession. Various inventions and little metal knick-knacks put together by a practiced hand. He was also the one to find all the information that went into Danny’s file when it was first being made: social media posts, school report cards, news articles about his parents… everything. 

And then he had an emergency mission to take with the Titans that swept him out of Gotham leaving Duke to tackle this investigation on his own. 

He doesn’t have Tim’s natural skill in stalking and invading privacy. He hates breaking into people’s spaces and following them around, but needs must and he has to force himself to work through the discomfort. 

It’s a good thing he did, too. Danny’s leaving his dorm after his last afternoon class, hood up to hide his face and something held in the front pocket of his hoodie. He ducks around people on the sidewalk easily, almost as if he’s gliding through the crowd instead of walking. 

Duke follows from above, bending the light around him to hide him from sight. 

He walks for some time, weaving through alleys and streets as if he’s been in Gotham his whole life, leaving behind the university campus to head towards Otisberg. There’s something strange about the way Danny walks, as if he’s moving around people who aren’t there, guided by something Duke can’t hear. Even using his meta abilities doesn’t do much beyond show him where Danny’s going to be in the next few seconds. 

He continues to follow Danny on the rooftops, walking along the edge to keep him in sight. 

Then Danny stops behind an apartment building and tilts his head back to look up at it. He tilts his head to the side, then nods and looks around the empty alley. Duke crouches down, keeping his eyes on Danny in the hopes of catching him in the act—

Danny disappears.

Duke curses under his breath and jumps down from the roof, putting more strength into his abilities as soon as his feet touch the ground. 

The space where Danny was has a faint outline, oddly enough. He’s never seen that before. From it is a semi-transparent trail, smoke-like and a pale green leading into the building. It goes straight into a wall, as if Danny walked through it.

He can’t go in and search the entire apartment, but he can grapple up and take a look into the hallways to see where Danny’s heading. If he was looking up, then that’s where he should be heading. 

It doesn’t take any effort to scale the building. There are ledges and windowsills and plenty of handholds for him to propel himself off of, and paired with his powers, Duke is able to find the correct floor in just under two minutes. 

The green smoke slowly dances through the air of the ninth floor, on the east side of the building. If he’s been counting the rooms correctly, then the target of tonight’s burglary has to be apartment 924. 

The curtains are drawn on the window he makes his way over to, and his abilities don’t show him anything helpful for the immediate future. He hates going in blind, especially to a civilian’s home, but capturing Danny takes priority. Duke picks the lock and slides the window up slowly, making sure it stays quiet, then slips into an empty bedroom. 

He makes his way out into the hallway on silent feet, keeping a wary eye on the thin smoke strands of green, curling along the walls. The rest of the apartment is empty as well, pale sunlight slanting across the floor through the blinds. 

Everything is still and silent. Danny’s nowhere to be found. 

Did he miss Danny leaving, somehow? Was this a misdirect to get him out of the way while Danny stole from another location? Did he know Duke was following him?

But no, his ears pick up on the faint sound of clothes rustling. 

Cautiously, Duke turns towards the front door, where the door to the coat closet is open. He focuses on what’s going to happen in the next twenty seconds and sees Danny panic, then disappear from sight again, but a transparent outline of his body is visible just enough to show him where he runs to. Best not to spook him; Duke pulls at the light around him and bends it to hide him from sight.

Then he moves along the wall, getting around the open door without bumping into anyone or anything. 

A figure in front of the coats, shoving them to the side roughly, flickers in and out of view, almost like a reflection in water, distorted by ripples on the surface. 

Danny pops back into visibility suddenly, scowling at the coats. “Are you sure it’s in here?” he asks the empty air. 

There is no answer, but Danny acts like there is. He rolls his eyes and says, “It’s a favor. That I’m doing for you. I can literally stop right now and you wouldn’t be able to stop me.” He shoves aside another heavy winter coat, then sighs. “Why don’t you look for it, and then tell me where it is.”

He steps back and bumps into Duke.

Danny whirls around, eyes wide, and blast of green light has Duke crashing back into the wall, trying to blink spots out of his eyes. 

“Wait!” he yells, grabbing for Danny before he can run off. “I just wanna talk!”

“Standing right behind me like a serial killer does not make you look like someone who wants to talk!” Danny yells back, slipping through his hands like mist. 

“I just have a few questions!”

“Well, I have a question: why?!”

“Will you hold still, we’re being too loud!”

Danny escapes to the other side of the apartment, next to a window looking fully prepared to fling himself out of it. But he does stop yelling, so Duke is counting it as a success.

“Why is the Signal coming after me?” Danny asks, glaring at him suspiciously.

“Dude,” Duke says, “You’ve been seen outside of every single building that’s had a burglary since you first arrived in Gotham. All the Bats are after you, they just sent me because I’m the only one active during the day.”

“All the Bats?” Danny repeats, losing what little color he had in his face.

He looks legitimately scared, pale enough to be concerning, and Duke drops his guard and tries to relax the tension in the apartment. “I’m not gonna turn you into the cops or anything. I just had questions and you seem like the most likely person to have answers. That’s it.”

Danny still looks wary, ready to run at a moment’s notice, but he doesn’t leave when Duke approached casually, leaning his weight against the couch. 

“So,” he begins, “What’s the deal with all the thievery? It’s rarely something super rare or expensive.”

There’s a long few minutes where Danny doesn’t answer, looking anywhere but at Duke. Then he twitches a bit and glares off to the side, and says, “I taking items that are contaminated with ectoplasm to help ghosts move through the veil and leave Gotham.”

That tells him nothing! That just gives Duke more questions! But at least it’s an answer, the first one any of them have got.

“I think you’re gonna have to explain a little more.”

“Ghosts are real, alright?”

“Yes.”

Danny stops. Squints at him. “What do you mean, ‘yes’?”

“Ghosts are real,” Duke repeats, “There are a few who help heroes or are heroes themselves, but that’s more on the magic side of things so I’m not super familiar with it.”

“Magic,” Danny says slowly. “Sure, alright. Um. Yes, ghosts are real. And there are a ton in Gotham who need help moving on, but they’re too weak to get past the veil. Something about Gotham has made the veil super strong, so they need a little boost to get through. Additional ectoplasm bonded helps with that.”

“And that’s why you’re stealing random things?”

“The ghosts I help can kind of sense ectoplasm-infused things, but they need me to grab them since they can’t hold anything without a physical body.”

Duke nods slowly. “Okay, that’s starting to answer some things. We have found those objects in the last places missing people were seen. Any idea what’s going on with that?”

“Yeah, those people were already dead.”

The way Danny says the most concerning answers as if they’re nothing is really throwing Duke off his game. He was expecting to be calm and serious to keep Danny from freaking out too much and look like a legitimate hero. But as soon as Danny started talking, all his nerves fell away and Duke is left grasping for composure. 

“They were…”

“They were ghosts, yeah. And they needed to get through the veil. But they were also able to possess their own bodies and didn’t realize they were dead until I had to break the news to them, which is why it looks like living people just up and disappeared.”

“Okay… What about the green stuff we’ve been finding?”

“Ectoplasm.” Danny holds up a hand and a neon green light surrounds it. Except it looks more solid than light, as if it can be touched, and it moves on its own like fire around Danny’s fingers. “It’s what ghosts are made of.”

Oh. If Danny has ectoplasm, does that mean…

“Are you dead?” Duke asks, heart dropping. 

Instead of looking upset about the question, or even disturbed by it, Danny just shrugs and waves his hand back and forth. “A little.”

“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Duke says, trying to resist the urge to rub his temples. It’s a habit he didn’t mean to pick up from Batman, and it would just look silly with his helmet in the way. “You’re just doing all this to help ghosts?”

“Yeah. Basically. They asked for help man, of course I was going to help them.”

Danny’s a good person. He’s just a good person to ghosts. But this is good news either way, and he can let the others know that Danny isn’t the next Catwoman and is entirely unconnected from any drug production. Everything that made him look like a criminal is just the fault of ghosts. 

“Speaking of,” Danny continues, “Looks like they found what they need, so I’m going to grab that real quick.” He pushes off of the wall and heads for the closet again, moving past Duke without any fear. Duke follows, keeping a few feet of distance between them so Danny doesn’t feel trapped, and watches as he shoves aside the coats again and pulls a shoebox out of the depths of the closet. From it, he takes a single intricate lace headband and holds it up.

It looks normal, if a little old, but when Danny sends ectoplasm through it, the lace lights up and holds the glow. 

He pulls some strange contraption out of his pocket and holds it up to the headband. It makes a few beeps, then Danny mutters, “7.4 millisieverts. That’s enough to get you through the veil.”

Another concern Duke can let go of: Danny’s not creating weapons like his parents have, he’s just measuring ectoplasm through his own inventions. 

Maybe he could talk to Bruce or Tim about getting Danny an internship at the R&D lab in Wayne Enterprises? That way they could keep a closer eye on him while seeing what he can create in some of the best laboratories in the country.

Well, it might take having them meet Danny before they trust him enough for that, but Duke is sure he can make it happen. 

“I better go see this through, then,” Danny says, shoving the contraption back into his hoodie pocket. He gives Duke a small awkward wave, then pops out of visibility. “I’ll see you around, I guess?” he disembodied voice hedges, and Duke smiles.

“I’m sure I’ll be able to find you again.”

“Cool. I gonna go now!” 

He doesn’t see any sign that Danny’s left, but he gets a feeling that he’s alone now, the apartment suddenly emptier than it was before. 

As strange and concerning as Danny and all his bizarre actions were, Duke is glad he was able to finally talk to him and get some answers. Knowing how Gotham pulls people him in, it’s only a matter of time before the other Bats are exposed to Danny’s kind of strange. He’s already looking forward to it. 

For now, though, he has a file to update in the Hatch; POTENTIAL THREAT will be removed and replaced with GHOST HELPER. 

If anyone goes snooping into his files and gets confused, then that’s their problem. Duke’s explained enough. And Danny can take care of the rest, once they go through the effort of tracking him down. Duke's done his part, he's ready for the rest of them to step up to his level.

He can’t wait to see what other kind of trouble Danny can get it into.

[fueioekjfisks]

Fenton tech + Hex tech ( Arcane Hexcore ) HEAR ME OUT

I absolutely need danny phantom to make some off the wall inventions, specifically weapons, and for all of it to be run on condensed ectoplasm.

Its like Vals huntress suit, but more handheld weapons, and all one needs to do is pop in this little chunk of ectoplasm and BOOM! now it doesn’t obey the laws of physics! Lets fuck up some ghosts!

He mostly makes it so his friends can be safer fighting ghosts. It also works as a general clean energy source and powers most of the fenton house.

Its pretty stable (not really, but it usually listens to him if its his own ectoplasm) and he doesn’t really plan on other people getting their hands on it because he doesnt trust people not to use it for evil (or for it not to blow up in everyones faces)

Its found out eventually, and people start wanting ones of there own.

But danny doesnt want people to harvest ghosts (specifically him) as a powersource and DEFINITELY doesnt want more people making portals to the ghost zone.

So when people start looking into his weapons he lies and says that he found them, and that he was trying to find a way for non magic people to use magic.

This gets a TON of attention. Some good, most bad. And lots of people want to monitor his work to make sure he doesnt accidentally end the world.

People are lecturing him about “human limitations” and hubris and “going too far”

and he just has to be like “look at me! Totally mortal human messing with powers beyond my comprehension! Wow i hope this doesnt go wrong!!! :)”

His friends are laughing at him. His parents think its incredible. And most people are trying to get him to stop.

People think hes SO LUCKY nothing horrible has happened yet

Them: “someone could have died!”

Danny, thinking of the portal incident: “…”

Danny: “oh noooo that would suuuuuckkkk…Wow i guess im just soooooo luckyyyyy”

Not sure where to go with this but i thought having danny phantom crossover weapons be similar to Arcane would be awesome.

I think people realizing that it has something to do with death and freaking out about it would be funny.

I ALSO think that people seeing danny accidentally reveal some ghost powers and being like “no! Its already infected him!! How do we save him! He might be too far gone! T^T” would be so funny.

This also applies to the fact that ghosts are visible and sometimes tangable in danny phantom. If people think “fenton tech” did that then people would FREAK

I need someone smarter than me to try to continue this because I have no idea what to do next

[q-gorgeous]

Not the Lab

fanfiction

ao3

word count: 7184

No one knows au except dash baxter @xscarletsakurax

warning: dissection, scalpels, its not a very graphic description tho

hehehehhehehe

Danny opened the door and was met with a broad chest. His eyes raised and he met Dash’s gaze. He was leaning against the door frame and was staring down at Danny.

“What do you want, Dash?”

“I’m here for my tutoring session with your sister. Let me in.”

Danny blocked Dash’s step forward. “She’s not even home.”

“Oh.” Dash looked away. “I guess I got the day wrong. Again.”

“Yeah.” Danny stared at him. 

Dash looked back up at Danny. “Do you care if I still come in and just work on my homework? Jazz is great at answering my questions when I don’t understand something but she’s also mostly there to redirect me when I lose focus. This place has good learning energy.” Dash gestured with his hands in a big circle.

Danny watched him for a few moments before sighing. “Fine. But if you start messing with anything in here you have to leave.”

Dash nodded. “I’ll just be in the kitchen like when I’m with Jazz.” He walked in and turned back to look at Danny before he walked into the kitchen. “Did you want to work on your homework with me too?”

Danny shrugged and followed behind him. “Might as well. I gotta keep an eye on you if you’re here. Let me just go get my backpack.”

He headed up the stairs and left Dash to walk into the kitchen by himself. He set himself up at his regular spot at the table and started pulling all of his materials out. When he was done he looked up and saw the door to the Fenton’s lab that stared at him every time he was here. 

Just as he was thinking about standing up, Danny walked back into the room with his backpack. 

“What are you starting with?” Danny asked as he rummaged inside his open backpack.

“Math.” Dash replied. “It’s my worst subject so I’d rather get that done first where the learning vibes are good.”

“I guess I’ll start with that too. Then we can ask each other questions if we need to.”

Dash nodded. “That makes sense.”

They sat there for an hour doing their homework and occasionally asking each other about one of the questions in their textbook. They finally finished the assignment and Dash slouched down and leaned his head over the back of the chair. 

“I hate math.”

“Me too.”

They sat in silence for a few more moments before Dash spoke again.

“Want to take a break?” 

He brought his head back up to see Danny staring at him. Danny’s cheeks flushed a little and he snorted. “What would we even do?”

Dash looked over Fenton’s shoulder at the lab again. 

“We could go take a look in your parent’s lab.”

“No!” Danny shouted. 

“Why not?” Dash leaned forward in his seat. “Are they secretly mad scientists experimenting on people down there?”

Danny leveled a stare at him. “No. Other people just aren’t allowed in there. It’s family only.”

Dash leaned back in his seat again and tapped his fingers against his arm. There was no way he’d be able to weasel his way in with that argument.

“What if I invited you to my next party? Would that be enough to let me go downstairs?”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Go to one party? Or not get grounded by my parents? That’s not a difficult decision.”

Dash squinted at Danny and stood up. He started making his way around the table and Danny stood up blocking Dash’s path. 

“You haven’t been able to take me in years.”

“I’ve been taking your shit everyday.”

Dash groaned.

“C’mon, Fentina! Just let me take a peek down in that so-called lab! I just want one little look.”

Danny placed himself between the basement door and Dash. “No. My parents would kill me if I let you down there.”

“What’s the fuss, anyways? You’ve said yourself that none of your parents' inventions even work because ghosts aren’t real. What’s the harm in just one little peek?” Dash bent down to look Danny in the eye. 

“Just because ghosts aren’t real doesn’t mean my parents don’t work with hazardous chemicals. I don’t want you touching something that could burn your skin off or, I don’t know, seal all the orifices in your body closed.” Danny crossed his arms. 

Dash snorted. “Yeah, like they have something like that.”

He tried to go around Danny but he moved so he was still in front of Dash and poked a finger into his chest.

“We’re not going down there.”

Dash grabbed the wrist on the hand that was pointing at him. 

“Don’t you want us to think you’re cool? I wanna see your parents' cool lab. We could even see if we could fix that new invention of theirs. It would make them super happy.”

Danny stared at him for a few moments, studying his face. “If they couldn’t get it to work properly, I don’t see how we’d be able to do it.”

“So does that mean you want to try?” Dash asked with a smile on his face. 

“If it means my parents will be happy afterwards, we can try.”

Finally, Danny turned around and opened the door. 

Dash could tell it was a heavy door. It was made of metal and creaked when it was pushed open. A cold waft of air gusted past them and Dash stared down the stairs over Danny’s shoulder. He flicked a lightswitch and the lights over the stairs flickered on. 

Danny started walking down the stairs and Dash was still for a moment before following behind him. 

“So what’s this new invention of theirs? Some kind of portal?” Dash asked as he studied the metal paneling on the wall.

“Yeah.” Danny responded over his shoulder. “It was supposed to be some kind of ghost portal but when they plugged it in it never turned on. They were really disappointed about it.”

“Do they really believe ghosts are real?” 

Danny shrugged. “They’ve got all these studies and measurements. I have no idea how they’ve gotten all this information but they believe ghosts are the cause of all of it.” 

They stepped down off the bottom step onto the clean, tiled floor. Dash looked around the basement, taking in all the science equipment they had laying around down there. It was very messy, which heavily contrasted what the rest of the house looked like. He figured the Fenton’s would be more neat than this, especially concerning the hazardous materials Danny was talking about before. He can see why Danny was worried about that. There were green splatters everywhere. On every counter and on the table in the center of the room and he even saw it on the door as Danny pushed it closed. 

“Why’s it so messy down here?” Dash asked as he walked further into the lab.

Danny walked over and stood next to him. “One of my chores is to clean the lab and I haven’t had time for it lately.”

Dash shot Danny a look. “Your parents make you clean up their lab?”

Danny shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah.”

“Why are they making you clean up hazardous material? That was an excuse you gave me for why I shouldn’t come down here.”

Danny waved him off. “It doesn’t matter. Besides, I know what I’m doing.”

“If you say so.” Dash went to go look at the mess of items on one of the counters. The green splatters were so vivid. They almost looked like they were glowing. Dash turned and caught a glimpse of what he assumed was the Fenton’s new invention.

“Hey.” Dash nodded his head at the hole in the wall. “What’s that?”

“That’s my parent’s attempt at building a working ghost portal. They don’t know what’s wrong with it.” Danny walked right up to the portal and peered inside. “They said they had an earlier version of this that worked a little better so they thought they had this one right. They’re not sure why it didn’t work.”

“Maybe we can figure it out.” Dash said. “Maybe they overlooked some small detail.” 

“Maybe.” Danny turned back around and walked to the opposite side of the room. He opened a cabinet and pulled out a jumpsuit that looked similar to what his parents always wore. 

“You have matching outfits with your parents?” Dash snickered.

Danny unzipped the zipper. “They’re supposed to help prevent ecto-contamination.”

“Ecto-contamination?”

“Yeah. It comes from ectoplasm.” Danny stuck his legs into the suit. “That’s what ghosts are made out of and produce. That’s what my parents use for their studies.”

“How do they get their ectoplasm?” Dash asked, studying the green splatters again.

Danny shrugged. “I’m not sure. I think they’ve said there’s just more than average residual ectoplasm in Amity Park or something.”

“Oh. Weird.”

“Yeah.”

Danny turned around and Dash held in a snort.

“Ha! What is that?” Dash laughed and pointed at Danny’s chest.

Danny looked down and groaned. He pulled his dad’s face off of his jumpsuit and threw it in the garbage. “Embarrassing.”

Danny walked up to the portal and stood just outside it, staring.

“What do you think is wrong with it?” Dash asked.

“I have no idea.” Danny replied. “I’m hoping it’ll be something fairly obvious though. If it’s too complicated I won’t be able to do much.”

He started walking inside and he looked all around the portal. Dash wasn’t sure what he was looking for, and he was sure Danny didn’t know either. The further in he walked, the darker he got. 

But then everything went wrong.

Dash watched as Danny tripped over something in the portal, and then he heard a soft click. Suddenly the inside of the portal was lighting up and Dash felt his heart fall to his stomach. 

This wasn’t good.

The humming got louder and louder and Dash started running forward.

“Danny!”

A moment later a green light so bright it looked white filled the room and Dash staggered back, shielding his eyes. Danny’s screams filled the room. They were so harrowing and pain filled and it had Dash covering his ears closed instead of covering his eyes. 

He didn’t know how long it lasted for, if it was moments or minutes, but when Dash finally heard something hit the ground, he risked peeking his eyes open. 

When he saw that the bright light was dying down, he opened his eyes the rest of the way and saw Danny laying on the floor in front of him. He looked strange though. 

His hair was now snow white and his jumpsuit had been inverted and was now mostly black. Danny looked like he had burns from the portal but somehow they seemed to be healing themselves back up, even the suit. Danny even looked like he was glowing.

Once the green light disappeared into a swirling vortex, Dash ran forward and dragged Danny away from it. Once he deemed them far enough away, he knelt on the ground and pulled Danny into his lap, his back resting against Dash’s legs.

“Danny.” He shook him. His white hair ruffled back and forth from the movement. “Danny. Wake up. Please.” 

After the last shake, Danny’s eyebrows furrowed and he groaned. He raised a hand to his forehead and pried his eyes open. He looked around for a few moments before his gaze drifted up to Dash.

“Oh, thank god.” Dash whispered. “I thought you were- I don’t even know if you really are- You look so-” Dash cut himself off as he choked up. 

“What do you mean? What happened?”

“You went into the portal in that hazmat suit. You tripped over something and fell into the wall and there must’ve been a button on it or something because everything started glowing this scary green color and then you were screaming. You were screaming so loud.”

Danny rubbed a spot on his hand, a vacant stare in his eyes. 

“Danny, are you okay? You look so different. What if you’re-”

Suddenly a bright ring appeared around Danny’s waist. They both jumped and watched as it split and traveled over his body. Dash thought he would’ve felt something, but it was like the ring wasn’t even touching him even with Danny’s proximity to him. 

When the ring passed over his head and disappeared Danny was left just how he had walked into the portal. 

“You’re-” Dashed started. “You’re back to normal.”

“What happened to me?” Danny whispered, still rubbing the spot on his hand. 

Dash’s heart rate picked up. His chest started rising and falling faster and the room spun a little.

“We have to go get your parents! We don’t even know what this thing did to you. They would-”

Danny sat up and turned. He covered Dash’s mouth with his hand. “We are not telling my parents. We’re not even supposed to be down here.”

He looked at Dash with wide, shaken looking eyes. “My parents would have killed me if they knew I brought you down here. But I don’t know what they’d do to me if they found out what their portal turned me into.”

Dash’s eyes widened and Danny slowly removed his hand from his mouth. 

“I killed you.” He whispered. 

Danny shook his. “Don’t say that.” He whispered back. “I’m not dead. I’m right here.”

Dash ran a hand through his hair. “You died! You stepped out of the portal all glowy and different colors! Then you magical girl transformed!”

“I died but I don’t think I’m dead.” Danny said. “I can still feel my heart beating.”

Dash stopped and looked back up at him. “Really?”

Danny nodded.

“Can I…?” Dash reached a hand out.

Danny nodded again. “It’ll probably help convince you I’m not actually still dead.”

Dash pressed his fingers against Danny’s neck and waited. Then he could feel the soft beats of his heart. He held his hand there for a few more moments before he lowered it.

“What even happened to you?” He whispered.

“I don’t know.”

“What do we do?” Dash asked.

Danny shook his head. “We can’t tell anyone. People would think I’m some sort of freak. And I don’t know what my parents would do.” He looked up at Dash. “This has to stay between us.”

Dash nodded. Who would they tell anyways? No one besides the Fenton’s could really help them. There was no one to turn to. 

Danny groaned. “Help me up.” 

Dash stood and grabbed Danny by the hands and pulled him up. Dash was about to let go when suddenly Danny started sinking through the floor. 

“What the fuck?” Danny shouted panickingly as his feet disappeared into the tiles below them.

Dash kept a tight grip on Danny’s hands. He didn’t want to know what would happen if he let go and Danny disappeared. He pulled Danny up and out of the ground and when Dash set him back down, Danny’s feet were once again solid. 

“Never seen that before.” Dash whispered.

Danny just stared at him. “Thanks Sherlock, me either.”

“How do we stop that from happening?” Dash asked. 

“I don’t know. Maybe-”

A beeping rang throughout the lab and Dash looked around in a panic. Was something about to blow up? Danny wasn’t nearly concerned enough for that. He did look a bit panicked though.

The beeping died down and Dash looked around him again. “What was that?”

“The ‘someone’s in the driveway alert.’ My parents are home.”

Anxiety spiked in Dash’s stomach and he turned to face the stairs. “Why do they-”

“It doesn’t matter. They can’t find us down here.”

Dash grabbed Danny’s hand and pulled him up the stairs. 

They were at the top of the steps when they heard the rattling of the front door knob through the door to the lab. Dash ran up the rest of the way as he pulled Danny behind him. Together they pushed the heavy door closed. They rushed back to their seats and sat down just in time for Danny’s parents to walk in. 

“Hi, Danny!” Maddie called. “How are you- Oh.”

Maddie paused as she walked into the kitchen, gaze landing on Dash. She looked between the two of them and smiled.

“Dash! It’s nice to see you again. I’m glad to see you two hanging out again after all this time.”

Danny’s gaze landed on Dash. “We’re not friends, Mom. He thought his tutoring session with Jazz was today and asked if he could stay and do homework here. He said the house has ‘good learning vibes.’”

“Oh.” Maddie’s smile fell a little and Dash wasn’t sure how to feel about that. “Well, I hope you two still had a good time.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “It’s just homework.”

“Nevertheless, if you two ever need to-”

“Danny-boy!” Jack bellowed as he walked into the kitchen, carrying three cartons of fudge. “They stocked up on your favorite peanut butter fudge!” He thrust them into Danny’s hands.

“Are all three of these one flavor?” Danny asked, flabbergasted. 

“You betcha.” He turned towards the basement door. “Your mother and I are going to start running diagnostics on the portal and try to figure out why it didn’t turn on.”

He opened the door and started walking down the stairs. 

“Wish us luck!” Maddie called to them before she followed behind him and closed the door. 

Dash stared at it for a moment. “How do you think they’d feel if they knew they just hadn’t actually turned it on.” 

“I’m sure it’s just a new addition on a long list of oversights.” Danny said. He stood up from the table and staggered, holding his head.

“Are you okay?” Dash asked. 

“I’ve got a killer headache. And my head feels like it’s spinning.”

“Will you be-”

Danny shook his head. “I’m sure I’ll be fine. You should go before my parents pull us back down into the lab to show us that the ghost portal miraculously started working.”

Danny’s screams rang in his head again. He wasn’t sure if he ever wanted to step foot down in that lab again.

“Yeah. I should be heading home anyways.”

Dash packed up his backpack and slung it onto his shoulder. Danny walked him to the door and opened it.

“See you tomorrow?” Dash asked.

“Yeah, sure. See you tomorrow.” Danny replied and closed it behind him once he walked out. 

Dash stared at the door for a moment before he turned around and walked down the stairs to the sidewalk. 

He took a deep breath and gripped his shaking hands onto his backpack straps. 

Danny died today. Danny died and they didn’t have any answers. Danny died and it was Dash’s fault for insisting they go into the basement. How could he ever face him again? 

The walk from Danny’s house to Dash’s felt way too short. Almost as if he blinked and suddenly he was home. 

Maybe if he went to sleep he’d wake up and find out this was all a bad dream. Maybe he could pretend that none of this actually happened. 

He quietly unlocked and opened his front door, closing it behind him. He quietly made his way up the stairs to his room and dropped his backpack on the floor before collapsing into bed. 

He hoped none of this would be real when he woke up. 

~~~~~~~~

Dash wanted to go back to bed.

Dash wasn’t sure he had even wanted to go to school today. His stomach was still roiling and he didn’t want to find out if Danny had actually died yesterday. Maybe he had just imagined the whole thing. Maybe Danny had actually died and was still lying fried on his basement floor right now. Maybe he survived the initial accident but died later that night. 

He stood on the sidewalk staring at the school as it towered in front of him. He was already here. He had to go in. 

He took a deep breath and was about to start walking when he saw a mop of black hair walking ahead of him. 

Danny yawned a big yawn and he looked tired but he was alive. 

“Danny!” Dash shouted, waving a hand in the air. Danny turned around to look at him. He looked around them as Dash walked up to him. 

“What do you want, Dash?”

Dash stopped short. “I came to see how you were doing. Glad to see you surviving was real.”

“Oh.” Danny shuffled awkwardly on his feet. “Yeah. Still alive. I think I ended up sinking through my bed into the living room last night, though. I woke up at like four in the morning on the living room floor.”

“Oh dang.”

“Yeah.” Danny said as he started walking toward the school. Dash followed after him. “The worst part though was when I tried lifting my arm up in front of my face and I couldn’t see it because somehow my body had turned itself invisible.” 

“I’m still wondering just what exactly that portal did to you.” Dash said, lowering his head and his voice closer to Danny. “Like, do you just have ghost powers now or something?”

Danny frowned. “I’m sure it’s more than that. But basically.” 

“Man, that’d be so cool.” Dash said. “If I had ghost powers, I’d-”

Dash was interrupted by someone clearing their throat behind them. They turned around and were met with Sam and Tucker looking at them.

“What’s going on here?” Sam asked, pointing between the two of them.

“What?” Danny asked, his voice rising in pitch. “There’s nothing going on here. We’re just two guys chatting.” 

Sam and Tucker shared a look and smirked at Danny.

“No! Not like that!” A blush rose on Danny’s cheeks and Dash looked between Danny and his friends a couple times before he processed what Danny meant. A blush rose to his own cheeks. 

“Well, what’s happening then?” Tucker asked. “Did you guys finally make up?”

Sam looked at him. “Make up?”

Tucker nodded. “Yeah. They used to be friends when we were kids. They had some fight when we were younger. I never really knew what it was about.” 

Dash looked at Danny to see him already staring at him. Danny studied him for a few moments before speaking. “Yeah, I guess you can say we finally made up.” 

“Cool.” Tucker said casually. 

“Cool? That’s it? No questions?” Sam asked him. “You’re not curious at all how they figured this thing out after years of conflict?” 

Tucker shrugged. “If they want to tell us they will.” 

Sam crossed her arms and huffed. “I guess you’re right.” 

They started walking towards the school and Dash and Danny followed behind them.

“Did you want to tell them?” Dash whispered.

Danny looked at him and then looked back at Sam and Tucker. “I… I don’t know. I don’t want them to think I’m weird or a freak.” 

“Okay. We can keep it between us for now.” Dash nodded. 

Danny gave one curt nod and then quickened his pace to catch up with Sam and Tucker. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Phantom is so cool.” Sam said as she finished swallowing a bite of her food. 

Danny spit out his drink and looked up at her. Dash sent him a look. “He is?” 

“Yeah. I mean, some vigilante ghost kid fighting to protect us even though no one trusts him? I’d say that’s pretty cool.”

“Do you trust him?” Danny asked, looking between Sam and Tucker.

Tucker shrugged. “He hasn’t really given us a reason not to trust him.” He placed a hand on his chin and started thinking about it. “Except for maybe that time he ruined Valerie’s life. Or when he kidnapped the mayor. He also stole all that stuff one time. Or-” 

Sam elbowed Tucker. “People have off days! I don’t think he did any of that stuff on purpose. Remember he broke out of that spell that Freakshow put him under? He saved me because he was able to break out of it.” 

“Also it was the dog that ruined Valerie’s life.” Dash corrected. “Not Phantom himself.” 

“Yeah!” Sam gestured at Dash. “All the ghosts seem to have it out for Phantom for some reason. How do we know it’s not just all orchestrated?”

“Is the property damage orchestrated?” Tucker asked her. 

“Haha.” Sam took another bite of her food. “But I’m serious. He just… He’s just a kid. Doing this all by himself. It’s messed up.” 

Tucker nodded. “He seems so familiar too. It makes me wonder if we knew him before he died.” 

Dash watched as Danny looked between the two of them, stunned. He opened his mouth.

“Guys, I have something to tell-” 

Danny was interrupted by something crashing outside. It sent the windows shattering and screams erupted around the cafeteria as everyone ducked down to cover their heads and faces. 

“What happened?” Sam looked out the windows, her breathing quick. A screech echoed around the schoolyard. 

Danny gasped out his ghost sense and Dash followed his gaze to where it stood. 

“There’s a ghost.” Dash pointed to it. 

It was digging around in the dirt like it was looking for something. Dash couldn’t tell what animal it was supposed to be. It was boney and skeletal, its hips jutting out from its body. 

Danny stood up and ran across the cafeteria, pushing open the door along the wall with the windows.

“Danny!” Sam and Tucker shouted as they stood up together. 

They went to run after Danny but Dash grabbed Sam’s wrist before she could go anywhere.

“What are you doing?” She asked him hysterically. “We have to go get him! He can’t just be running around outside like that while there’s a ghost attacking!”

“Yeah, dude. Are you mental?” Tucker asked Dash.

“Danny-”

“Needs our help!” Sam tore her wrist out of Dash’s hand and they ran across the room to the door. Dash shifted in his place, jittery. He finally followed after them. 

When he got outside they were already across the grass, but instead of looking for Danny they were looking up in the air at the fight. 

“Foley! Manson! Get over here!” Dash shouted at them from the building. “You’re not even looking for Danny! You need to-” 

The screech of tires signaled the Fenton’s arrival. They jumped out of their van and brandished their weapons. 

“You take that side, Jack! I’ll stay here!” 

“Aye, aye!” Jack ran away from her to the other side of the schoolyard. 

“Sam, Tucker! Get-”

The ghost looked up at Dash’s voice but its gaze landed on Sam and Tucker first. It hissed at them, the sound grating. It started charging at them and they both took a step back but it was moving too fast.

“No!” Danny shouted, flying towards them. 

He got to them just in time to grab them both and knock them out of the way. They tumbled across the ground and Dash could hear Sam and Tucker screaming from where he stood. Danny pulled himself back up and stood between them and the ghost. His fists clenched.

“You’re not getting through me, ghost!” 

Danny jumped back into the fight and it took only a couple more hits fueled by his rage before the fight was over and he caught it in his thermos. 

He turned to look at Sam and Tucker and he flew forward a couple steps before he was being shot square in the back. He hissed and looked behind him to see his mom still aiming her weapon at him.

“Wait!” Sam ran forward and put herself between Danny and Mrs. Fenton. 

“Sam!” Maddie shouted at her. “Get out of the way! We need to capture him!” 

“No, he just-”

“Jack, do you have a shot?” Maddie called, looking in his direction.

“No! The kids are in the way!” 

Maddie snarled. Dash watched Danny recoil. “If you don’t move-”

Danny started flying away. Maddie aimed her gun at him again but he turned invisible before she could take another shot. She shouted into the empty air and threw her gun down. She glared at Sam and Tucker. 

Maddie walked up to them. “Are you aiding the ghost kid?”

They looked between each other, shock on their faces. “No.” Sam said. “The ghost was going to attack us. Phantom was just trying-” 

“To win you over.” Maddie hissed out. “He’s nothing but a manipulator and an evil ghost. He doesn’t really care about whether or not you get hurt. He’s just doing it to fulfill his own needs.”

Sam took a step back at Maddie’s words. Tucker grabbed her hand and pulled her to him. Dash could tell that her words upset them. Unsettled them. He’d never seen Mrs. Fenton talk to someone like that before. Let alone Danny’s friends. 

Danny walked up behind him, his arm brushing against Dash’s. 

“We can’t tell them.”

Dash looked at Danny sharply. “What? I thought you were going to-” 

He shook his head. “It would be nice for them to know, but would it just put them in danger? All I did was push them out of the way of that attack and my mom’s accusing them of aiding and abetting me.” 

Dash looked back up at where Maddie was stomping away from Sam and Tucker. Their shocked expressions turned to look at Danny and Dash. 

“What would she do if they knew and they were really helping me?” Danny whispered. 

Dash shook his head. “I.. I don’t know.”

Danny turned his head to look up at Dash. “We can’t tell them.” 

“Okay. We won’t tell them.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Get back here, ghost scum!” 

Dash ran behind Danny’s parents as they chased him through the air. Of all the things to be giving them the most grief these days, it was Danny’s parents. 

Let’s tear him apart molecule by molecule.

We have to have some remains to examine. 

I wonder what his insides look like. 

Let’s tear him up and find out.

They were relentlessly hunting Danny every time another ghost attacked. They didn’t even bother with the other ghosts anymore either. They only had their sights set on Phantom. That was all they cared about.

He heard Maddie’s weapon go off again and Dash turned down an alley. He had to somehow get to their rendezvous point before them so that Danny could transform and they could get his parents off his trail. 

As he came out of the alley, he saw that Danny had turned around in the air. Dash waved up at him and when Danny caught sight of him Dash ran into the next alley. Dash had his back pressed up against the wall and hid on the other side of some garbage cans when Danny flew into the alley and came to stand next to Dash. 

Dash pulled Danny behind him and turned so he was blocking him from being seen from the entrance. 

“How close were they?” He whispered.

“Too close.” Danny breathed out heavily, calling on his transformation rings. “They-”

His parents ran around the corner of the alley right as Danny’s transformation finished passing. He had a panicked look on his face. Reaching up, he grabbed Dash’s cheeks and pulled his face down. 

Dash’s eyes widened.

“Freeze, ghost scum!” 

Understanding dawned on Dash and he wrapped an arm around Danny’s waist and deepened the kiss. Danny carded a few fingers through his hair and then jumped and pulled away, faking surprise as he looked over Dash’s shoulder. 

“Danny?” His mom called over in surprise. “Is that Dash?”

Dash tried to turn around sheepishly. “H-hey, Mrs. Fenton.” His voice shook and he hoped she couldn’t pick up on the fear that laced through it. 

Jack sniffled. “Maddie, our little boy is turning into a man. I think it’s time we gave him the talk.”

“No!” Danny lifted both hands from Dash and waved them vigorously over Dash’s shoulders. “No talk! I do not want to suffer through that.” 

“I didn’t know you two were-” Maddie scratched her chin. “When did you two start dating?”

They looked at each other.

“Today-”

“The beginning of September-”

Danny frowned at Dash and he chuckled. 

“Haha, yeah, the beginning of September.” 

Danny facepalmed. Maddie’s eyes opened wide.

“You’ve been dating that long already? Why didn’t the two of you say anything?” She gasped and held a hand up to her mouth. “Did you not feel safe talking to us about it? I’m so sorry, if we ever did anything to make you feel unsafe-”

“No, mom. It’s- it’s not that.” Danny stammered. “I’m just not ready to talk about it yet.” 

Dash looked between Danny and his parents. And the weapons that they were still holding in their hands. Maddie smiled at them. 

“That’s okay. We’ll be here when you’re ready.” She lifted her gun to brandish it in both hands again. “Did you two see where that ghost went off to? We were hot on his trail just a minute ago.” 

Danny shook his head. “No, sorry. We were, uh, busy.”

“Drat.” Jack snapped his fingers. “He got away again.”

“It’s okay, Jack. We’ll get him one of these days.” Maddie placed a hand on his arm. She turned her head to look back at Danny. “Be sure to be home for dinner. Bring Dash with you if he would like to join us.” 

They walked back out of the alley. Danny leaned his head forward and rested it on Dash’s chest, letting out a deep breath. 

“That was too close.” 

They sat there like that for a little bit. Dash’s hand was still on Danny’s waist. He started rubbing small circles there with his thumb. Danny took another deep breath and pulled away. Dash wilted at the loss of contact. 

“Let’s get back to the house.” Danny said quietly. “Unless you want to go home?”

Dash shook his head. “I’ll come back with you. Stay for dinner.” 

Danny nodded, relieved. Dash reached a hand up and squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. 

“Let’s go home.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So, Pariah.” 

“Yup.”

Danny was slumped in his seat at the kitchen table. His head hung over the back of it and he just stared up at the ceiling. 

“Almost died.”

“Yeah.” 

Dash played with his pencil that was sitting on the table next to his homework. “At least the ghosts seem to have more respect for you now. You put their terrifying king back into his coffin again.” 

Danny nodded. 

Dash frowned at him. “Are you okay, Danny?” 

Danny looked at him. “Yeah. I just- It’s a lot to process. Like, why did Vlad give Valerie her weapons? Why is he looking for all these artifacts? What is he planning? Why save me? He could’ve just left me there and I wouldn’t be in his hair anymore. He’d be able to kill my dad all he wanted.” 

He looked back up at the ceiling. “What does me defeating the king of the ghost zone really mean?”

Dash opened his mouth to respond but realized he didn’t have any input for that. He closed it again and reached a hand over to Danny but jumped, pulling it away when the basement door opened. 

“Hey, boys! How are you?” Maddie asked as she came up the stairs from the lab.

“We’re good, Mom. How’s the work going?” Danny looked up at her. 

“We’re making a lot of progress on our newest invention!” She walked over to the sink and grabbed a glass and started filling it with water. “We’ll surely get Phantom with this one! It neutralizes a ghost’s powers so it can no longer use them!” 

Dash tensed up and he turned his head to look at Danny. Danny’s eyes were wide as he stared at his mom. “Yeah? Wow.”

Maddie nodded. “We’ve got to get him somehow. I think this one will give us a fighting chance. We’re looking to get a more humanoid ghost to examine for our studies and see what makes them different from blob ghosts.” 

“What will you do when you get him?” Dash asked with a little shake to his voice. Maddie smiled at him. 

“We’re going to cut him open and see if there’s anything to examine inside him. We’re really curious about his core. A blob ghost’s core isn’t strong enough to sustain itself if it’s even slightly damaged, but Phantom’s would no doubt be much stronger. We could head down to the lab and take a look at-” 

 Dash suddenly stood up from the table, his heart racing at the mention of the lab.

“I have to get going. Curfew, you know?” Dash pointed over his shoulder and then tapped his wrist.

“It’s like five pm.” Danny deadpanned. 

Maddie frowned. “That’s too bad. Don’t be afraid to come over more often. We don’t bite. We could even give you a tour of the lab!” 

“Haha, that’s okay. I’ve been warned about all the hazards and wastes that are down there. I’m good hearing about it from up here.”

Maddie shrugged. “Suit yourself. But the offer still stands if you ever want to take us up on it one day.” She grabbed her glass of water and walked to the lab door. “Back to it!” 

She pulled the door closed behind her and after a minute Danny’s gaze shifted to Dash.

“Curfew?”

“I don’t know!” Dash groaned and covered his face. “It was the first thing I thought of.”

“Knowing your dad, my mom probably believed that he would move up your curfew to some insane time.” 

Dash shook his head and closed his eyes. He just… Couldn’t go down there. Even the thought of it brought Danny’s screams back into his mind. 

He felt a hand on his arm and opened his eyes. Danny was looking at him. 

“You don’t have to go in the lab if you don’t want to. Ever. Even if they’re begging on their hands and knees.”

Dash smiled and patted Danny’s hand. “Thanks. I do think I’m going to head out for the night though. Call me if any ghost stuff happens?”

Danny nodded and stood up to walk Dash to the door. “You know I always do.” 

He waved at Danny over his shoulder. 

“See you tomorrow.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dash hadn’t heard from Danny for two days. Before, that wouldn’t have been anything out of the ordinary. But ever since the accident with the portal Dash usually got at least one update from Danny on the whole ghost thing a day. 

He was on his way to Fentonworks now. He just… had a bad feeling. He couldn’t describe it. He knew that if he went to check on Danny and didn’t find him, that he could panic a little more reasonably. 

He walked up the steps to the Fenton’s front door. He went to knock, but when his fist made contact the first time the door opened slightly. Dash frowned.

Why would they just leave the front door open like that? Were they even home? 

Dash pushed the door open the rest of the way and walked inside. 

“Danny?” He called into the house. No one responded. 

He pushed the door closed behind him and headed towards the stairs. Hopefully Danny would just be sick in his room. He really hoped that was where he’d be. 

It was eerily quiet as he walked up the stairs. Fentonworks was always full of life and people any time Dash had been there before. It unnerved him how calm it was. 

Dash made his way to Danny’s door. He paused outside it for a moment before he raised his fist to knock.

He waited a second, two, three, but there was no response. 

“Danny? I’m coming in.” 

He opened the door and swung it open. His heart dropped when he saw that the room was empty. Danny wasn’t here.

He turned back around without closing the door. He walked down the hallway to Jazz’s room and banged on the door, more panicked now. 

Jazz must not have been home either because he waited and didn’t hear anything on the other side of the door. He turned around and headed back towards the stairs, pulling his phone out.

He didn’t think he had a choice. He had to tell Sam and Tucker. Maybe they knew something. Maybe Danny told them where he was. He’d start with that, if they’ve heard from Danny at all the past couple days. Then if he had to he’d tell them about Danny being a half ghost. Maybe they would be able to help.

He heard a noise. 

Dash’s head whipped towards the kitchen. He slowly walked into the room and turned his head.

Dash saw the open door to the lab. There was a light flickering down there and dread crawled up his throat. 

He never wanted to step foot in that lab again.

Dash gulped. 

He had to do this. He could go down there again. He had to see if Danny was down there. He had to find him. 

Dash walked through the kitchen and into the open doorway. He tiptoed his way down the stairs slowly. He could still turn around. He didn’t have to see what was happening down here. 

Dash took a deep breath and took the last step into the lab. 

Danny was there, surrounded by his parents. His insides exposed for Maddie to root around in. Dash felt nausea well up inside him. 

“What have you done?!” 

Jack and Maddie didn’t pay any mind to Dash’s outburst, but he could see Danny stir.

Danny locked eyes with Dash just as his parents touched the glowing orb that sat in his chest with a scalpel. 

An explosion erupted from it and Dash covered his face. It sent cracks up the walls and across the floor and the building was trembling. Everything was creaking and debris was raining down from the ceiling. 

Danny still lay on the table but his parents were on the floor. He couldn’t tell if they were still breathing or not, but right now he didn’t care.

He ran across the lab to where Danny lay on their dissection table. Danny’s insides were all laid bare to the air. How was Dash supposed to get him somewhere safe?

The house creaked above him and Dash decided that there was no choice. He’d just have to pick him up like this. 

Dash scooped Danny up into his arms. He was limp, but he was miraculously still breathing. He turned towards the stairs as the building gave another creak and they caved in. Panic spiked in Dash’s chest. What was he supposed to do? His only way out was blocked. How-

The green glow of the swirling portal caught his eye. He turned his head to look at it. He had no other choice. That was his only way out. 

Dash turned his body and started running towards the portal as the rest of the ceiling started collapsing. 

He clutched Danny to his chest and dove into the ghost portal. 

[alanaartdream]

Ok I’ve noticed with both fan ideas about Danny and Timmy Turner don’t seem to match how they are in Danny Phantom / fairly odd parents and nicktoons unite games

Like take Danny Phantom/fenton

His Cannon is he’s a goofy dork of a adorable teenager who got ghost powers while mucking with his parents ghost inventions with his friends

Yes he has his share of troubles BUT he also has great friend and Family who love and support him and the only times he would go dark is if he lost them has his ghost half ripped out of him who then proceeds to rip the ghost half out of Vald to become this monster ghost who then kills off Danny’s human half but leaves the human vald half alone after ripping out his ghost half but thanks to time travel with time ghost he fixes it so he doesn’t well die and his ghost half doesn’t get ripped out of him (like what the heck was vald thinking? You don’t rip a person from their soul like that it will break a person and create a monster) so he gets to grown up and his powers evolve with him being as he’s still alive and he’s got a great network of friends & family to support him; he’s still a adorable goofy dork with ghost powers he’s not a dark depressed teenager yet some fans like to make him out as some forever stuck as a teenager ghost kid who’s always depressed hurt and is on his own with no support whatever when in his show and in the nicktoons unite games he HAS friends and family he can count on and isn’t depressed teenager who can’t grow up

And then we have Fairly odd parents Timmy Turner who’s being abused by his no good evil babysitter; his parents forget his birthday and to feed him and love to just run off and leave him to do all the work for them at times; teacher who doesn’t really care about teaching and rather just fail him to get fairies and on top of that gets bullied as well with no one coming to his aid at all to stop the bullying heck the only ones who care about his health safety and that he’s happy are Wanda Cosmo (and later baby peri/poof) and fairy world and the show aimps up that he’s 10 years old ( he’s TEN YEARS old having to deal with a bunch of selfish adults in his life and the only ones who cares about this are magical creatures witch are the Fairies) it’s no wonder he’s a little snarky/ sassy at times but disspiked all that he STILL try’s to be friendly to others and make friends with whoever wants to be his friend; he’s a sweet kid at heart just human adults in his life are failing him; he’s very misunderstood child (heck no adult could take on the amount of abuse/ neglect Timmy goes through and not snap at everyone as well the fact he’s ten years old on top of all he has to deal with is horrific) the fact is done in a sitcom funny like fashion and makes out the abuse/ neglect as if it’s funny ha ha joke means a lot people kinda ignore all the neglect & abuse Tommy goes through in his childhood in the show so SOME fans just assume he’s some spoiled evil brat when that’s not true

Kinda makes you wonder if we’re watching the same shows (playing the same games) here because SOME people image of Danny and Timmy not match their show’s / games counterparts at all

It can really throw you for a loop

[shower-phantom-ideas]

Got this idea while in the shower and an au where Jack and Maddie didn’t actually care about ghosts anymore. It was all a front. An act they put on to hide what they are really after.

They used to care back in collage but once they realised the government was getting on the bandwagon they decided they didn’t care anymore. (Gov probably asked for something from them that was just the worst).

Anyway this happens when Jazz and Danny are still pretty little. These kids couldnt get along for anything. Jazz a once only child now has to make way for Danny. Danny who doesn’t understand why Jazz doesn’t like him decided it’s only fair to be mean back and try to pull as much “im smaller than her” crap as he can. Their parents just don’t know what to do. And are at their wits end.

One day everything changes when the kids come home from school. Jack and Maddie are to busy being destraut over not getting as much government funding cause they just realised how crappy and insane their government is. They don’t notice that for the first time the kids didn’t come into the house bickering after the bus ride. The house is quite for a change so they can be lost in their heads imagining the worst the government has done with their inventions.

Anyway Jazz and Danny are in Jazzes room looking at a picture book and Jazz is reading to Danny when the parents finally realise something is up. Shell shocked (thats a good handsoap) they stand their frozen as Jazz patiently reads to Danny and even holds out the book to him for him to see the pictures. Turns out it’s a book about unicorns…. All thru dinner Jazz and Danny happily tell their parents about how amazing unicorns are. No fighting or anything. Not even talking over one another. They stare in awe at how Danny is smiling at his sister waiting for his chance to speak. Or how Jazz is helping Danny find some of his words by encouraging him in the conversation. It’s a miracle they think.

Then it hits them. This is what they can do. They will find a unicorn for their children. How hard can it be to hunt down another mythical creature. It will be a surprise for their kids too! Nothing too good for them after all. Wanting to keep it a secret they keep up the ghost hunting act. Making a few crappy inventions for the government here and there but all of them are for a different target. As the years go by they lean to much into the crazy ghost hunter act and even their kids think they are craY. Even making a ghost portal by mistake. It was supposed to be a window. Viewing the location of a unicorn smh. But all their ghost talk was hollow and even kinda fun. It was a great game for them. Hey dear how do you wanna look insane today. How long till someone cracked and actually tried to get them tried for insanity. I guess it was kinda like LARPing. Maybe it was too fun to just let loose and say some crazy shit ok. But no matter how much work they put into their ghost huntersonas they never lost soght of their true goal. A unicorn for their children.

Anyway it’s an au where jack and maddie just pretend to give a shit about ghosts but danny is in the back having the most stressful time possible for basically nothing. I mean with how often jack and maddie miss phantom when shooting it’s hard to believe they miss that much. Plus jack works with phantom. Imagine this reveal. Danny is probably so relieved hes crying and with how much tension just left his body I wouldnt be surprised if he doesn’t become a puddle on the floor. Jazz on the other hand is like “finally proof I was right. You fuckers are insane” who puts up that act that long and doesn’t tell their kids. Or even goes so far as to actually neglect their kids. (To be fair jack and maddie where still inventing just unicorn finding stuff)

[fangirlwriting-stories]

Game Night

Summary: No One Knows AU Part 13, Jazz decides to make things better in the best way she can think of.

...

So Danny fought Vlad without her, and Jazz is a little annoyed by it.  Sure, things have been a little awkward between them lately, but she knows for a fact that she never gave the impression that she’s done helping her brother.  She’ll never be done helping her brother.  When did she have to start trying to prove that?

Well, whatever.  Either way, she’s not letting Danny do this alone.  And if he’s not letting her help with fights and he’s not letting her help with his friends who are being real jerks, that leaves one area left Jazz can reasonably put some effort into.

“Hey, Mom?  Dad?”

Mom turns from the invention she’s tinkering with and gives Jazz a smile.  “Hi, sweetie!  Did you just get home?  How was school?”

Jazz nods in response to her question, then says, “School was good.  I was wondering if I could talk to you and Dad about something?”

“Sure Princess, what’s going on?” Dad says, moving over to stand next to Mom.

Jazz takes a breath, readying herself for how little Danny’s probably going to like this.

“Do you think we could start having a family game night?” she asks.

Both of her parents look surprised and a little caught off guard, and Jazz can’t blame them.  Her request probably sounds like it comes out of nowhere.  If Danny were here, he’d probably be staring at her like she’s crazy too.

“A family game night?” Mom asks, sounding confused but not against the idea, which is a good start.

“I’ve just noticed we’re all super busy most of the time,” Jazz says, keeping her tone casual.  “You guys are ghost hunting or working here in the lab, Danny and I have school and homework, we just haven’t seen much of each other recently.  I thought it would be nice to have something consistent we can all look forward to doing together.”

Mom brightens, and Jazz knows she’s succeeded.

“Oh sweetie, that’s a wonderful idea,” she says.  “Did you have a night in mind?”

“I was thinking Fridays,” Jazz says.  “That way Danny and I won’t have to worry about any homework right away, and it’ll be right before the weekend for you guys too.”  And Danny can stay up as late as he needs to for ghost fighting and sleep in the next day, Jazz adds on in her head.

“That sounds like a great plan Jazzo,” Dad calls happily.

“Do you want to pick out some games tomorrow?” Mom asks.  “I don’t know if we have many in the house.”

“I’ll pick some up after school,” Jazz says.  “I have a few ideas.”

“Thanks sweetie, that would be lovely.  I’m looking forward to it,” Mom says with a bright smile, and Jazz gives one back before heading back out of the lab and letting them get back to worth.

She glances at the oven clock in the kitchen as she passes and notes that she still has a couple hours before Danny comes home.  He apparently missed Nasty Burger with his friends yesterday, so they’re making it up today.  Jazz hasn’t had a chance to ask him what happened yet, but he seemed happier when he got home from school, so she can’t really object.

For now, she heads up to her room to do her homework as she runs over the plan again in her mind.  It’s not a short one, and it’s probably not going to run totally smoothly.  Especially if she doesn’t get a chance to talk to Danny about it first.

But she can do that either while they’re out patrolling tonight or in the car ride tomorrow, depending on how busy it is.  Figuring out when to do it is the easy part.  The hard part’s going to be convincing him.

…

“What?  No way,” Danny says, predictably.  He turns to look at her from his seat.  “Are you crazy?”

“It can’t go that badly,” Jazz says, giving him a quick glance before refocusing her attention on the road.

“Jazz.  Seriously.  Did you decide to tempt the fates today?  ‘It can’t go that badly?’  What are you talking about?  Of course it can go badly!”

“That’s not what I meant,” Jazz says.  “I mean there’s a limit to how bad it can go when we’re doing all the talking to them without you going ghost.  Without bringing Phantom into it at all.”

“Oh, so instead of hearing them talk about how they want to dissect me specifically, I can hear them talk about how they want to dissect ghosts in general!  That’s so much better!”

Jazz doesn’t say anything for a second.  Danny seems to get that she’s not done, though, and after a second he turns to her.  “What?”

“It’s not… fair,” Jazz says slowly.  “But I think it’s pretty clear at this point that they’re not going to change their minds on their own.  We’ve got to bring it up first.  Even if it’s uncomfortable.”

“And we have to do this now, why?”

Jazz doesn’t say anything again.  She’s pretty sure he’s not going to take “I want at least one part of your life to be not terrible” as an answer.

“You should really try it,” she says instead.  “I’ll do most of the talking.  Just give it a shot.”

She can feel Danny glare at her, even if she doesn’t look away from the road.  “Well considering you pitched it as a family bonding activity, I doubt Mom’s going to let me get out of it on pain of death, so I’m going to have to, aren’t I?”

Jazz sighs.  “I really think it’s a good idea,” she says.

“Oh, well, as long as you think so,” Danny says, turning to glare out the window.  He goes on to not say anything to her for the rest of the drive, and gets out of the car and heads immediately for the school as soon as Jazz stops and pulls into a spot in the parking lot.

Jazz sighs and turns the car off, then climbs out to head into school.

…

Danny seems a little less irritated by the idea on the drive home that afternoon, but Jazz can’t tell if that’s because she hasn’t brought it up yet, and she’d rather not tempt fate.  So instead, she asks if he has plans for the weekend now that he’s not grounded anymore.  And this is when Danny throws her a curveball.

“Actually, yeah,” he says.  “I’m going to the park with Valerie Gray.”

Jazz gives him a quick surprised glance before turning back to the road.  “Valerie Gray?” she asks.  The park part of that plan is more than a little confusing too, but less confusing than who he’s doing it with.  She hadn’t thought the two of them were even the tiniest bit aware of each other, aside from that time Danny accidentally ruined Valerie’s life.  (Which he still hasn’t let go of, to Jazz’s annoyance.)

“Yeah,” Danny says.  “We ran into each other totally by accident yesterday after the fight with Vlad, and then we just kind of… hung out together, by accident mostly.  But it was fun, so we’re doing it again.”

Jazz smiles.  So that’s what he did instead of the park.

“That’s great,” she says, keeping her gaze on the road but making sure Danny can see her smile.  “I didn’t realize that’s what you did instead of Nasty Burger.”

But then Danny goes quiet again, and Jazz knows she’s said the wrong thing.

“That’s not what I meant,” she says.  “I just meant, I’m glad to see you’re having fun with someone.”

Danny sighs.  “I know what you meant,” he mutters, and at least he doesn’t sound angry.

Jazz sighs and doesn’t say anything else.

Being this direct with Danny would definitely be a bad idea, but Sam and Tucker are pissing her off.  They don’t have to like Phantom, that’s fine.  (Mostly.  Not at all.  It’s not fine, but that’s not the point.)  From what little Danny says about Sam and Tucker these days, it seems to be all they talk about now.  And Jazz can tell it’s getting to her little brother.

Because of course it is.  His closest friends spend all of their time together angrily ranting about how much Danny sucks, of course it’s getting to him.

If it wouldn’t just make things much worse, Jazz would give the two a giant sister-sized smack upside the head.

Danny doesn’t say anything else until they arrive at home, and Jazz doesn’t try and fill the silence.  But for as much she doesn’t want him to constantly be thinking about Game Night, she doesn’t want him to forget it either.  So as they both walk into the house and Danny starts for the stairs, Jazz weighs her options, then calls out, “Don’t forget we’re having our first game night after dinner!”

Danny shoots her a glare, but it’s a little less angry than the ones she got this morning, so Jazz counts it as a win and heads over to look through the board game selection she picked up yesterday.

She’ll save the chessboard for her and Mom, as she doesn’t imagine Danny or Dad would take to it as well as the two of them would.  Danny and Dad would definitely like Battleships more than them, but it’s a two person game anyway, so she sets that aside too.  The games she bought that would work for four people are Uno, Sorry, and Yahtzee, and out of the three, the last one sounds like the one it’ll be easiest to have a conversation over.  So she sets the other two aside as backups and sets up Yahtzee on the coffee table.

Then she heads upstairs to finish her homework, knowing she has an hour or so before Mom will call her and Danny down for dinner.

She doesn’t need much time to finish her homework, but she’s already settled on a game plan, leaving her with not much to do for several hours.  So, even though she definitely won’t need them tonight, she starts piling through the evidence she’s been collecting on the consciousness and psychology of ghosts.

It’s slow going, especially considering most ghosts aren’t exactly the type to stop and chat about how their brains work, but Jazz is getting somewhere.  She’s seen enough from Danny to thoroughly discard the “ghosts are malicious monsters who somehow also have no consciousness and can’t feel pain” theories that her parents have been working under.  But she doesn’t have much in regards to an alternative theory, especially in scientific ways.  She’ll get laughed out of the room by her parents if she shows them what she has to disprove their theory with no idea what’s actually happening.

But she doesn’t want to start asking invasive questions to Danny about how his brain works.  He has enough going on.

So, she’ll move slowly.  Let her parents discover the flaws in the theory themselves.

Hopefully.

“Jazz, Danny, dinner’s ready!” Mom calls up the stairs, and Jazz drops her notebook, startled.

“Yep, be right there Mom!” she calls back.  She pulls open her desk drawer, jimmies up the fake bottom, and slips her notebook inside it, then heads out and towards the steps.

Danny’s leaving his room the same time she is, and he gives Jazz one last glare but follows her down the stairs.

Mom is setting stove-grilled burgers out on the table, and miracle of miracles, none of them are glowing green this time.  After that she goes back to get cups with ice water, and Dad is setting silverware by everyone’s place for the slightly burnt potatoes that were cooked with the burgers.  It looks like a surprisingly appetizing dinner, and Jazz can tell Danny thinks so too as he sits down next to her.

“I thought I should make something a little fancy for tonight to celebrate our first game night!” Mom says in explanation as she sits down at her place with the last cup.  “Thanks for the great idea, Jazz!”

Jazz gives a smile that hopefully doesn’t come off as nervous.  She told Danny she’ll do most of the talking, and she will, but that doesn’t mean she’s not nervous about it.

“Thanks Mom,” she says.  “It’ll be nice to have something to look forward to at the end of the week.”

“I think so too Jazzercise,” Dad says with a grin at her.  “Though I still think a family ghost hunt would have been more fun.”

“No,” Jazz and Danny both say at the same time.

“The kids are right dear,” Mom says, patting him on the shoulder.  “We shouldn’t bring work into fun times with them, even if work is fun.”

“Exactly, a good work life balance is very important,” Jazz says, gripping her hands together tightly under the table.  “But actually, on the subject of ghosts—”

She ignores Danny’s not-so-subtle glare at her as both of her parents turn to her.

“You guys were in that fight downtown last night, right?” Jazz asks.  “With that dog ghost?”

“That was us, sweetie, thanks for noticing!” Mom says.  “But luckily it didn’t hurt anyone.  Calmed right down once Phantom showed up.  But we’ll have to keep an eye out, who knows what he’s planning on making it do—”

“Yeah that’s great Mom,” Jazz cuts her off, before she can start going off on a tangent about Phantom’s evil plans.  “But why didn’t it hurt anyone, do you think?”

Jazz sees Danny roll his eyes in her peripheral, and ignores him again.

“Oh I haven’t the slightest idea sweetheart,” Mom says.  “But ghosts don’t think logically like you and me.  It could be anything really.”

“Yeah, as long as we manage to capture it, who cares what it’s thinking?” Dad says, taking off half of his burger with a bite.

Jazz sighs.  “But don’t you think—” she starts, and is interrupted by Danny pushing back from the table and muttering something about suddenly not feeling well.

“Are you okay, sweetie?” Mom calls after him.

“Fine!” Danny snaps, which is when Jazz knows she shouldn’t follow him just yet.

Instead, she turns back to Mom and Dad as soon as he’s vanished up the stairs.  “I think it wasn’t hurting people because it’s a dog,” she says plainly.  “A well trained one.  And it didn’t want to.”

“That’s a nice thought, Princess,” Dad says.  “But it’s still a ghost.  It’s dangerous.”

“So are normal dogs under the right circumstances,” Jazz says firmly.  “And didn’t you say it calmed down once Phantom showed up?  The same way a dog might if it saw its owner?”

“It’s still different from a human and a normal dog, sweetie,” Mom says.  “But I can see why you’d think that.”

“Can you think about it then?” Jazz asks.  “If you see where I’m coming from?  Can you consider it?”

Mom sighs, seeming a mix of amused and exasperated.  But then she says, “Alright sweetie, I’ll give it some thought.  But I still think you’re looking at this wrong.”

Jazz nods anyway.  Honestly, that’s probably about the best she could have expected.  “Thank you,” she says.

The rest of dinner is more lighthearted, and they talk about more basic stuff.  Jazz mentions the math test she aced last week, and Dad gives her a beaming smile and ruffles her hair just enough to be annoying.  Mom mentions the new invention she’s working on, and Jazz listens to the science while also making mental notes of any way it could hurt Danny.  The food is actually edible and surprisingly good for once, so Jazz can enjoy it.

But as the dinner starts to wrap up, Mom mentions that Danny still hasn’t come down, and stands up with a mention that she’ll go find him.

“I got him Mom!” Jazz calls.  She hops up immediately and heads off towards the stairs before Mom can protest.

She knocks on Danny’s door and calls out his name so he’ll know it’s her.  She waits a couple seconds, and Danny jerks the door open, though he doesn’t exactly look thrilled to see her.

He grabs her arm and pulls her inside, then slams the door shut behind them.

“Happy now?” he hisses, turning to face her.  And for all that he’s keeping his voice down, it does nothing to hide how angry he is.  “Are you satisfied?  Do you get yet that no one’s ever going to change their mind?”

“They said they’d think about it,” Jazz points out.

Danny blinks, seeming surprised for a second, then narrows his eyes.  “Because they see your point or because they’re humoring you?”

Jazz doesn’t say anything, and Danny rolls his eyes.  “That’s what I thought.”

“Danny, they’re not going to start by immediately accepting that they’re wrong,” Jazz says.  “That’s not how people change their minds.  Especially with things they believe in as strongly as our parents believe this stuff about ghosts.”

“Oh well that’s great, because I totally have the time and energy to put towards changing their minds slowly!” Danny snaps, before pausing and lowering his voice again.  “Let me just take a break from all the ghost fighting and homework I’m constantly drowning in and best friends who hate me and new Huntress sidekicks who want to kill me!  I’m sure I’ve got plenty of time in between all that!”

Jazz blinks, caught off guard.  “New Huntress sidekicks?  When did that happen?”

“That’s not the point,” Danny snaps.  “Look, Mom and Dad are so far down on my list of priorities right now it’s ridiculous.  And I would love to not have to also deal with them bad mouthing Phantom even more than they already do!  I get enough of that from Sam and Tucker!”

Jazz sighs.  “Okay,” she agrees.  “You’re right, I’m sorry.”

Danny blinks.  “Huh?”

“You’re right, it’s not fair for you to have to deal with it.  I’ll talk to them on my own.”

Danny groans and drops his head into his hands.  “Ugh, no!   That’s not— I don’t want you to bother at all, Jazz!  It could just as easily make things worse!”

“It could also make things better,” Jazz says.  “I know what I’m doing, Danny.  I know how to talk to Mom and Dad.”

Danny scoffs and glares away, muttering something that sounds like “Why do I even bother.”

“Come on, no more ghost talk tonight.  Let’s go play a board game.”

Danny looks up at her incredulously.  “You were serious about that?”

“Yes,” Jazz says.  “It’s important for you to have some time where you can just relax and do things you enjoy.”

“Stop therapizing me,” Danny says.

“Good luck with that,” Jazz says plainly, and Danny groans.

“You gonna come play games with us?” Jazz asks.  “I actually think Mom and Dad are looking forward to it.  And I’m sure they’ll let you finish your dinner first.”

Danny glares at her, then mutters, “Fine.  But no ghosts, I mean it.”

“No ghosts,” Jazz agrees, holding up her hand.  “I swear.”

Danny sighs, sounding irritated and exhausted, but when Jazz heads out of the room a second later he follows her out, which is a start.

[foxesfantasys]

Double Trouble AU: Still a C student

Life after Danny’s portal accident was anything but normal, that being said there were no problems between Fenton and Phantom. Rather the trouble came with everyone else.

Sam and Tucker were pretty freaked for a while after. It got a bit better in time but Phantom can still see they feel more comfortable around Fenton than with him. As for Jazz and their parents? Well of course Danny decided that they couldn’t tell their parents about this development, Maddie and Jack being as ghost crazed as they are, and who knows how Jazz would react to the news that he technically died.

It was easy to keep Phantom hidden from their family with his invisibility but that doesn’t mean it’s all smooth sailing. Jazz is always more preoccupied with scolding their parents to really notice anything amiss with her little brothers brother, and so far their parents have been dismissing their tech reacting to their son as software bugs.

Despite all that, Fenton can’t help but pity his ghost every time they are unfortunate enough to witness a demonstration of their parents newest inventions. He and Phantom are separate, their experiences are their own unless they choose to share it with each other, but they are still one person, still Danny. It’s clear in the way that Fenton can feel prickles of terror not his own each time their parents talk about catching a ghost. Clear in the contented warmth that gathers in his chest when it’s just he and Phantom in their room after a long day. Even in the pangs of frustration and confusion that ripple in his head when they try to work through their homework.

Phantom is ok. It’s fine that their parents would possibly end him on sight, or worse. It’s fine. Really. He’s completely fine. He knows that Fenton wouldn’t let anything happen to him, that he’s safe from their parents so long as they stay close. Fenton always does his best to reassure him when their parents get a bit too close for comfort, always makes sure he knows he’s safe, he really appreciates that. And it’s not like it’s all bad staying in the Fenton household as a ghost!

Now that there’s two Danny’s their chores get done in half the time, they even split it evenly between the two of them. Phantom does the chores that his powers make significantly easier and Fenton does the chores that were already pretty simple and easy to do. The only exception to this is when it comes to lab-related chores, which Fenton absolutely refuses to let Phantom do.

“It’s not safe with all their junk laying around.” Fenton had reasoned when his ghost insisted he could help.

It made the ghost huff in offence and cross his arms like a petulant child as he float there. “Yeah that’s exactly why I should be the one to do it!” Phantom argued, “I’m already dead, it makes way more sense that I be the one to deal with the dangerous stuff!”

But the human boy wouldn’t relent, insisting that he handle anything involving the lab filled to the brim with ghost hunting equipment. It’s the closest the Danny’s have ever been to a fight, but fortunately it never reached that stage. Neither of them wanted to figure out how to explain something like that to Sam and Tucker when they inevitably noticed something was up with their friend. Both versions of him.

So with two Danny’s on the case chores became way easier, and so did most things. Education was not one of those things. You know that saying, two heads are better than one? Well Danny does and it turns out it’s a complete lie! Ok, maybe not a complete lie. But still very misleading!

Considering there was two of them, Fenton and Phantom thought for sure their grades would get way higher, after all there’s two of them now, double the focus! Literally two heads! Yeah, no. As it happens that is not how things went. If anything Fenton would argue that their focus is even worse now and they’re lucky that they are still getting Cs.

Sam seemed to find their dismay at the revelation quite amusing. In hindsight it does make more sense that splitting one person into two would half their attention span rather than double it, but the Danny’s agree to keep that between them. No way were they gonna give the goth girl the satisfaction of being right.

Even though it didn’t seem to make much difference either way Fenton and Phantom still worked together on every test and stack of homework that got sent their way. “It’s just more fun that way,” they had answered in unison when Tucker had asked.

“Even if it’s not improving my grades, it doesn’t suck as much when I’ve got a partner,” Fenton explained when they only received a confused expression in return.

Phantom nods along with his human half in full agreement. “Sometimes it’s even kinda fun!” He adds with glee.

Both their friends share a confused look but Danny doesn’t mind, his friends don’t get it but they don’t expect them to. He thinks maybe this is something you can only understand through experience.

Danny is still a C student, but who cares about a letter anyway? He has something far better.

So chores are way easier and school work still sucks. Being separated like they are might not be helping their grades, but it has provided an easy way to get back at a certain jock.

It wasn’t exactly a secret that Danny had been in an accident involving some of his parents tech, so naturally all of Casper High knew. Amity Park isn’t exactly a big place, news travels fast, especially when it involves the Fentons and a hospital trip. Most of the A-listers took some kind of pity on Fenton because of this, everyone in fact. Everyone except Dash.

The news of the Fenton accident didn’t deter the bully at all.

Everyday Dash would corner Fenton in one hallway or another and take out some frustrations on the boy, and usually this would be all, Danny helpless to stop the daily harassment and abuse without incurring further problems. But now he has Phantom with him.

So now every time Dash try’s to corner Fenton, malice and violence on his mind, his laces might mysteriously get tied together. He might trip and land on his face. He might be chased down the hall by the floating football he had been carrying only a moment before. He might suddenly need a belt.

The different ways Phantom drove away the bully always managed to get a chuckle from Fenton, and the decrease in bruising was very appreciated.

It also inspired Fenton and Phantom to try pranking, much to the displeasure of their victims. As it turned out having two people working on it, one being a ghost, made the whole pranking thing a bit too easy.

How do you avoid an invisible pie? Sure it’s suspicious that Danny suddenly wants you to show him some of your psychology books, but the door is locked so how could there be a bucket of water ready to be tipped over your head? Surely you’re just imagining that plant moving, you must’ve forgot to pick it up before, Danny isn’t close enough to have moved it and there’s nobody else around.

Needless to say nobody was pleased with Danny’s new found love for practical jokes. But boy did the two sets of giggles that their jokes always caused give them reason to tolerate it.

It seemed like there were no downsides to this situation! Fenton got to keep living his life, maybe even better than they did before, and Phantom got to keep being Danny, as well as taking some long overdue revenge when necessary.

Everything seemed so much better now. Danny was happy, both of them were happy.

They’re still a C student, but they’re happy and that’s what matters.

[fandom-reblog-central]

I wish there were more af x dp and af x dc content

Artemis is prime adoption material as a child genius with black hair and blue eyes, and the clone and time travel stuff with Danny would slay

Post TLG: “You… overshadowed your clone?” “He was empty.”

Tim may have figured out the Batfam’s identities as a wee lad, but Artemis discovered and finessed a fae government

Holly has to fight a rogue (from either dp or dc)

Danny meets another weird rich person who is at least a little evil and obsessed with something inhuman

Orion and the batkids become besties

Artemis is rich: there could be gala shenanigans

Artemis starts studying ghosts since he’s on better terms with the fairies and the Zone is confused by this pallid living boy and his tank of a Butler

There’s even a chance for reformed rogue nonsense since he was raised to be an unscrupulous figure

Everyone bonding over the massive responsibilities they have despite being children

Bonding over the lack of real recognition

Arty and Timber bond over their absent parents and batshit (heh) shenanigans

Perhaps even Artemis (post character development) bonding over being slightly annoyed about needing to protect and always be better (Danny or batfam tbh)

Liminal!/Halfa!Artemis since he’s died before

Butler and Alfred know each other

Bruce trained at Madame Ko’s for a stint and met Juliet or Domovoi

Danny brings a message from Root/informs the poor man about what Holly is up to with everyone’s least favorite Mud Boy (and maybe angst where they meet again??)

Would Orion be in the Zone?

Arty and Damian bond (first over scathing judgements of others, then over shared interests, or they fill in each other’s gaps of knowledge, and they both have issues with their parental figures that remain unresolved)

Damian bullies Artemis for being weak and having generally bad reflexes (he’s so stabbable)

Artemis helps Danny modify his parents’ inventions (and/or gets into a friendly competition with Foaly and/or Tim to do so, Mulch tries to steal it)

Mulch tries to rob Bruce Wayne and gets in over his head

Goblin in Gotham

Troll in Amity Park

Ghost in Fowl Manor

Constantine is desperately avoiding the LEP

Holly blows up the Nasty Burger in a mission gone wrong (why is the sauce so flammable???)

The Riddler just can’t get one over on Artemis Fowl II

Tucker and Artemis end up in a hack-off with Foaly as the ref (or any combo of that lol—maybe even toss the dc computer batkids in there)

The Batfam finds they can’t speak another language to avoid being understood by Holly

Damian giving into whimsy and trying to disguise it as a diplomatic/vigilante/“just curious” thing when asking Holly about elves

Foaly messes with the batfam or tucker (or even the fruit loop)

Arty and the Bats are allies, find Holly, and when they take her in, she says something like “reminds me of the time Artemis kidnapped me” (Cue concern and confusion from BatFam, or, alternatively, “yeah, that sounds right”)

Batsy adopts another emotionally constipated child with a moral compass that knows where North is most of the time, but doesn’t like facing that direction

Barbara powers through some interference trying to defeat a rogue and discovers the LEP

Portal issues lead to Arty and the gang in the Zone or Gotham

Lazarus is a portal to the demon world, explaining the hair change (and possibly rage)

Dick trains Artemis to get more flexible, Jason bullies him into lifting weights or working on his punches, Damian keeps him on his toes with the whole stabbing thing—

Danny is enlisted by the LEP to tail Mulch underground, finds BatCave

There��s so much that could happen

This was so fun and exciting to think of, but I can’t do any of them justice

I am not a fanfic writer but I want this so bad

If anyone has any more concepts or perhaps even a snippet, please tag me!!

[jessilynallendilla]

Danny Phantom Episode Breakdown

Part 1

Fucked Up Facts In Bold 

1 MYSTERY MEAT 

Danny states he wants to be an astronaut  

Sam thinks ghosts are mainstream like cellphones (this show aired in 2004 cellphones we’re common but not every teen had one but Sam is rich so unsure if she’s just playing being disinterested to throw Jack off or she’s genuine)   

First appearance of Danny’s ghost sense  

Ectopusses first appearance  

Jack is an expert in ghosts but has never seen one  

Fenton thermos first appearance  

Jack was born in a log cabin in the woods doesn’t remember where but as a child wanted a pony but had to eat horse meat during the war and had a problem with it (show aired in 2004 he was in college during the 80s so which war)  

His parents invent the Fenton Finder and when outed by it almost comes out 

The one-time Jazz drives Danny to school Jack immediately thinks she’s a ghost  

“Why can’t they accept me for who I am?!” first hint of Sam’s issues with her parents  

It’s been only a month since his accident he still can’t control his powers and thinks he should tell his parents  

He already wants to be normal and Sam gives him the unique is good speech  

Sam’s an ultra recyclo vegetarian Danny explains she doesn’t eat anything with a face on it (does this mean she’s just a vegan)  

Tucker has a heighted sense of smell when it comes to meat can tell what someone ate for dinner the night before  

Sam’s wore down the school to make a new lunch menu to entirely conform to her particular diet (which is grass on a slice of bread)  

Lunch Lady first appearance she was summoned because the menu was changed  

Jack built a new weapon to use on his daughter who he believes is a ghost with no proof and only Maddie is concerned he is wrong and could hurt her Jack says it can’t unless it gets into hair which it does and painfully rips all the hair off his head  

Lancer first appearance  

Tucker can sense the totally not real all steak buffet in the teacher’s lounge  

Dash first appearance and he’s angry his order of mud pies has mud blaming Sam calling her Danny’s girlfriend which they both deny  

Dash acknowledges these are his best years and after high school his life will suck  

Sam says the mud is actually topsoil (I think parents will have a problem with the school feeding their children dirt)  

Lunch Lady looks like Tucker’s grandmother  

Lunch Lady is angry the menu was changed after fifty years (so was she this school’s lunch lady did she make the menu has she been dead for at most fifty years)  

First appearance of “going ghost” catchphrase and on-screen transformation  

First appearance of ghost tail  

If superheroing doesn’t work out he can have an exciting career as bus boy  

Lunch Lady can control lunch and everything related to lunch  

First appearance of Danny turning others intangible and is excited it worked  

Lunch Lady makes a meat suit out of the actually real all steak buffet from the teacher's lounge leaving them only one bone  

First appearance of Lancer cursing in book titles “Paradise Lost”  

Danny depowers on accident  

Tucker was repeatedly in trouble for loitering by the girl’s locker room  

After 34 broken beakers Danny’s been banned from handling fragile school property  

Lancer is biased against students willing to exempt Dash from punishment because he’s a star football player  

Tucker’s meat sense is strong enough to scent out where the meat is in the school   

The school keeps boxes of meat in the basement with no refrigeration  

Danny has ghost powers but Tucker is the weird one  

Tucker just carries around a fork and knife (those better be plastic because real ones would get you into major trouble at school)  

First appearance of Danny able to stretch himself  

After his first fight Danny passes out from exhaustion and depowers  

As soon as Jazz walks through the door her parents throw a smoke grenade and attack her  

Danny sleeps as his friends carry him all the way home  

Maddie tells Jack Danny isn’t a ghost Jack doesn’t think he is but is still suspicious of Jazz and she tries to get the modified vacuum cleaner to let go of her hair  

Tucker freaks Danny out saying he was unconscious for days when it was only a few hours  

Tucker and Sam then leave having an argument on whose fault it was and about changing the menu   

Overnight Tucker arranged a meat fair/protest at the school and Sam a vegetarian protest and demand Danny take a side  

Sam says ultra recyclo vegetarians don’t have to waste time cooking their food (so ya’ll just eat raw veggies)  

The Lunch Lady attacks first appearance of Star and the two hug Danny so he can transform  

Jazz is attacked by her parents after she just told Spike if he opens up to his parents they won’t attack him (can we have Spike be Jazz’s only friend at school can we make him into his own character like we did Wes)  

Danny flew through a plane twice but he was invisible/intangible what were those people reacting to before Danny shouted thanks and stole that man’s water (it was in a glass didn’t planes already switch to bottles in 2004)  

Jazz got her father to have a change of heart and Jack even stated he was turning his back on ghosts  

First appearance of Danny using his foot as a scythe  

Danny depowers   

Jack says ghosts don’t exist throwing the thermos at Danny  

Those little meat gremlins threw Danny to the ground from that height they fully expected to kill him a human child   

Danny manages to transform and save himself and him saying thanks for the thermos was enough for Jack to feel vindicated ghosts are real and gloats in Jazz’s face  

Danny uses his ghost powers to operate the thermos (he changes human again off screen between that and capping the thermos)  

Danny decides not to tell his parents having decided fighting ghosts is what his powers are for  

Lancer blames this all on the trio and has them clean the school grounds until nightfall  

Danny being petty with his powers and crushing Dash under an avalanche of garbage dumpster meat 

2 PARENTAL BONDING 

First appearance of the Fenton Ghost Fisher  

There is a Fenton urinal  

Danny reels in Dorathea’s dragon form/first appearance of Dorathea 

Dorathea loses her cursed amulet as if falls into Danny’s bag changing her back to normal and she goes back into the ghost zone crying that her horrid mummy won’t let her go to the prince’s costume ball  

First appearance of Paulina and she’s so hot boys can’t take their eyes off of her to the point of tripping over themselves  

Sam says girls like her are a dime a dozen Tucker and Danny immediately start counting their pocket change  

Sam says you can’t judge a book by it’s cover (this will be the theme of the episode won’t it)  

Sam takes offense when Danny says he gets weak kneed when he talks to girls implying she’s not cute  

Sam pushes Danny to go shoot his shot but his uncontrolled powers cause his pants to fall down in front of Paulina  

“a gentleman usually tips his hat but I’ll give you points for originality” (I can’t tell if she was making fun of him or trying to lighten his embarrassment)  

Sam calls Paulina shallow which she takes offense to and as revenge will lure Danny away from her (she calls Sam a goth geek but to me she seems more like a poser)  

Dash pushes Danny into a locker to introduce himself to Paulina (does this mean they didn’t know each other before this)  

 Danny is petty with his powers again overshadowing Dash/first appearance of overshadowing and gets Dash to say embarrassing gross stuff (note eyes turn green when overshadowed by Danny)  

“Why do I suddenly feel like scrubbing my mom’s feet?” (so does this imply when overshadowed it can have aftereffects of the influence is it permanent how long does it last)  

Paulina finds the amulet and thinks it’s beautiful (it’s not) and Danny lies that he got it for her in case she said yes to go to the dance with him  

He manages to stop his pants from falling down this time  

Paulina says he’s cute and has great taste in underwear (I don’t know if she’s genuine or this is her manipulation ploy)  

Paulina puts on the amulet and immediately becomes influenced by it  

Since Paulina is interested he forgets about getting the amulet back to his mom or sister who he believes could own it then his pants fall down  

Lancer sees his pants fell down again saying it’s the third time that week calling it “dropping trow”/first appearance of him using dated slang and he wants to meet with Danny’s father to talk about it in the meantime gives Danny a belt to stay “outta trouble with the man”  

Jack is so frustrated with his fishing he’ll take out his rage on the first person that gives him bad news so Danny doesn’t tell him about the conference  

Danny overshadows his father for the conference about the incidents with Danny's pants   

Jack/Danny lies that Danny studies so hard he forgets to eat Lancer says that explains things  

Jack/Danny flatters Lancer that’s he’s Danny’s favorite teacher and the Fenton's consider teachers underpaid and underappreciated (well he’s not wrong)  

Lancer is impressed and has Jack chaperone Friday’s dance “catch you later G”  

When finding out Danny can control people and they don’t remember Tucker wants him to overshadow a girl for about two minutes but Danny refuses telling him he can get his own date like he did  

Sam asks if he has to take off his pants and act like a dweeb for it  

A discontinued fleecy tee is so trendy the sales lady tells Paulina without one she’ll have to languish as a toxic social outcast for five to sixteen weeks   

This enrages Paulina so much she turns into a dragon and burns the display table  

Sam says she’s glad she’s not going to the dance saves her from wearing the lame dress her parents bought her (by her tone you can tell she wanted to go)  

Tucker can tell no one’s asked her and Sam is bitter that if she was as pretty as Paulina Danny says being pretty isn’t a crime Sam tells him looks are deceiving (this will play into the theme of the episode)  

Paulina’s dragon form is knocked out causing the amulet to fall into a lady’s sales bag she transforms back having no memory of the fight she puts the amulet back on and thinks the tee in the bag is hers saying good things happen when you maintain a positive attitude  

First appearance of Valerie she states she won’t go out with Tucker unless something happens that makes her dateless Kwan then appears/first appearance of Kwan saying his first choice said yes so he’s ditching her Tucker takes the rebound date  

Jack has no memory of agreeing to chaperone it’s just a vague blur  

Jazz says she knows Danny’s sudden clumsy nervousness is because he has a girlfriend Danny panics denying he’s not a ghost  

Jazz warns he better warn his date his family is insane if she finds out after marriage that’s entrapment (I don’t think it is)  

Danny walks out of the doorless kitchen but it then cuts to him opening a door and walking down the stairs  

Sam being dateless facetimes the two with the dragon research she did but the first picture of the amulet of Aragon shows it on a thin chain when the whole time it’s thick and sectioned like a snake chain (is it because if the serpent theme also the picture is colored and the dragon depiction is accurate and it’s supposed to be from the medieval era is it an artist's rendition is Dorathea and her dragon form from actual history does this world have ghosts and cursed objects and the general populace is just unaware)  

Sam’s final remarks hoping they have a wonderful evening on the date with the dragon is a cue for Danny to see she really wants to go they’re her best friends they should have known  

Despite Tucker’s protests Danny overshadows him to ask Sam out (so Valerie is gonna think Tucker ditched her)  

After Danny leaves his body Tucker was about to tell Sam no until he saw how hot she was in her dress (Sam you said your parents bought you that dress but it’s so your style I doubt that were you just deflecting your hurt feelings)  

Paulina’s dad is the protective Papa bear type and basically gave Danny the shovel talk  

“Let’s get down with our bad selves” “Yo shake that thing” “Hey G you’re my dog” (Lancer going full how do you do fellow kids)  

Danny lies to Paulina that the amulet is actually Sam’s Paullina is pissed but not enough to turn full dragon  

As Lancer talks to Jack about their discussion about Danny Danny overshadows Jack again and Maddie notices he sounds strange  

When Jack/Danny goes up to Tucker and Sam Tucker is all too quick to throw Danny under the bus  

Paulina refuses to give back the amulet or Danny believing he’s Sam’s boyfriend  

Sam explains he’s her best friend and maybe that’s why she why so hard on her and says she didn’t mean to call her shallow (this could be a great character moment for them both)  

Paulina then confesses she only went out with Danny to steal him from her and is disappointed so she put the amulet on Sam calling it crummy and goes to dump Danny calling him dorky  

This enrages Sam calling her a shallow little witch (you know it this wasn’t rated 8+ on Nickelodeon that would be bitch)   

Paulina faints from the shock (I mean yeah) 

Sam’s dragon form breaks a giant hole in the school roof and no one notices  

Danny sees the dragon is holding Paulina so it’s Sam he’s fighting confirmed when Sam calls Paulina shallow  

Jack doesn’t recognize Lancer and demands to know why he’s talking to Maddie  

Danny overshadows Jack again and lies that he didn’t recognize him because the light made him look like George Clooney (was he popular in the early 2000s) 

Apparently Jack/Danny and Maddie’s dancing is so good the people on the dance floor cheer  

Danny tangles dragon Sam up in the Fenton Fisher fishing line and removes the amulet and tells Sam she had a roaring time at the dance   

Dash tries to flirt with an unimpressed Paulina  

Danny and Sam go off to dance  

As Tucker bemoans being dateless again Dorathea reappears wanting to go to the ball and Tucker freaks out   

3 ONE OF A KIND 

First appearance of the Box Ghost (they’re fighting in a warehouse does this imply Boxy is a dead warehouse worker)  

That address on the box is labeled for Arlington Heights Illinois (they're also at a shipping at a port so is Amity Park in Illinois)  

Danny thinks seals are canines (I don’t think he’ll be an astronaut)   

Tucker fumbles the thermos dropping it and releasing dozens of ghost businessmen and the Box Ghost and it’s only 9 PM  

First appearance of Skulker who states Danny being half human half ghost makes him one of a kind making him a fine addition to his collection  

Skulker threatened Boxy that if he touches the cage he’ll adorn his fireplace with his pelt (so ghosts can be skinned)  

Jazz considers her mom a genius and is happy Genius Magazine a magazine by women geniuses for women geniuses about women geniuses will answer her request to put her on that month’s cover  

Danny thinks it is the swimsuit issue and thinks it’s gross his mom will be in it  

Jazz sees it as an opportunity for the world to see her parents as normal and not ghost hunting freaks Danny denies they’re freaks  

Maddie considers Jack to also be a genius as besides every genius woman there’s a genius man and Jack also wants to be beside her on the cover the world deserves to know the Fenton's are a family of geniuses cuts to Danny getting a D on the test (which makes sense those answers he wrote are nonsense also throw back to when they taught cursive in school and made us write in it)  

Sam tells Danny he can to research on the endangered Purple Back Gorilla proving they deserve to be set free (Sam you have a fundamental misunderstanding on the importance and purpose of zoos)  

Even Danny says he doesn’t have time to deal with her agendas but Tucker (blaming Sam for making him let all the ghosts out) uses his PDA to manage Danny’s time  

First appearance of Mikey and when he continues screaming after Skulker webbed him to the wall and yells at him about being the world’s greatest hunter Skulker scolds him to be quiet in the library and gags him  

Dash and another football player come in and the football player says he didn't do it but can appreciate high quality bullying (so bullying is highly prevalent at Casper High)  

The trio spent 6 hours watching a gorilla scratch his butt  

Tucker and Danny fall asleep hugging and Sam takes a picture to use as blackmail (I haven't seen a polaroid camera in years after everything went digital to the cloud they’re only just now bringing them back)  

Sampson the gorilla freaks out when he hears Skulker fight a tiger he points and pulls on the door and Sam just lets him out of his enclosure (not only is the switch unlocked it’s also unguarded did this zoo just let three teens spend the night unsupervised)  

Skulker’s binoculars alert him to an attacking gorilla right before Sampson goes apeshit on him (so is it because animals can sense ghosts or can Sampson sense Skulker is a threat)  

Danny and Tucker sleep through the gorilla fight and Skulker crashing through the observatory tower window and most of the gorilla ghost fight round two  

They are startled awake by the noise startled that they’re hugging and startled for a third time by the loose gorilla  

Sampson freaks out and runs from Danny’s ghost form   

Danny cuts Sam off before she warns him of the ghost and when Tucker threatens to tell everyone at school she released a gorilla she threatens them with the photo so they keep it a secret  

Maddie sees Danny looking like crap and doesn’t like his overnight zoo research Danny says they just some kids at a zoo at night alone  

Danny has a large sign on his door that says “DANNY’S BEDROOM”  

Tucker gives him 13 minutes to sleep but Skulker was waiting calling him ghost child and captures him  

Skulker explains he’s a collector of the rare and unique and that’s what Danny is and more (Skulker’s hair is now blue instead of green is it because of the dramatic lighting)  

Jack and Maddie hear the loud noises from the fight and assume there's a ghost in the house (well they’re not wrong)   

Sam says the noise Danny is making is from him lifting weights Maddie says he doesn’t have any when Danny yells about Jazz’s computer Sam says he’s using that  

Danny crashes making a hole through the ceiling and falls into the kitchen shattering the table and Skulker kidnaps him Tucker plays off the damage as him doing karate  

The interviewer is more interested in talking to Danny and Maddie wants to know what he’s doing too  

Skulker has a device that can turn on the ghost portal  

Sam starts lecturing about cages like how Sampson's a beautiful animal and deserves to roam free telling Skulker he should be ashamed  

Skulker than takes Tucker’s PDA to Tucker’s complaint that he had three more payments on it (so technology is ghost compatible)  

Now Skulker’s suit has to abide by Danny's schedule  

Danny hurries and stops his family and the interviewer from seeing his destroyed room the interviewer takes his brooding messy and reclusiveness as a sign of a true genius but complains he’s not a woman  

Tucker has a backup PDA to track Danny and Skulker’s schedule  

Skulker hid a booby trap in a milk carton but is interrupted by the schedule now Danny realizes he could use it to his advantage   

Danny gets Dash to open his gym locker triggering him to be the booby trap's victim  

Even Skulker knows Dash will have an average life after high school  

Danny now decides to plan to use the schedule to trap Skulker  

Where did Sam and Tucker get that lifelike gorilla costume  

Tucker hacks Skulker's PDA to mess with him as Danny fights him not taking the opportunity to power hi down before Skulker destroys that one and Tucker bemoans it had four more payments (I just looked it up the average price for a PDA in 2004 was about $350)  

Skulker has had enough and plans to keep Danny’s pelt at the foot of his bed instead of having him live in a cage  

Danny uses gorilla habits to call Sampson to fight Skulker declaring it was easy to learn his language when all he does is scratch his butt  

Tucker wonders why a ghost would need a high-tech battle suit right when Sampson tears off Skulker's head to reveal a little frog sized ghost  

Bending down to pick up the tech Danny is low and close enough to see something shocking about Sampson  

The Genius Magazine publishes about Danny being the genius child of a genius woman discovering Sampson is actually a Delilah “Nobody at that zoo bothered to see if it was a boy or a girl?” (I know this was meant as a joke but it is possible to be mistaken recently a zoo discovered a male gorilla was a girl after she gave birth)  

Lancer acknowledges he was desperate enough risk being mauled by a gorilla so gives him a C for it telling him next time try the library to get his grade up  

Danny wants to take his misplaced aggression out on something then Boxy shows up he has five free minutes four more than he needs 

[woodland-gremlin]

The Beginning

Danny was tired. He was only 16 yet he was already world weary. It wasn’t enough for Fate to give him neglectful ghost hunting parents, Death and Life just had to fight over him like a toy before deciding to “share” him by basically cutting him in half. And as if that wasn’t enough he gets thrust into dealing with a whole other dimension. A whole ass realm that lives up to its name as infinite and is the glue of the multiverse. He was now stuck trying to protect two separate realms from hurting each other before he even finished going through puberty. He should be worried about his grades and impressing a cute girl or guy, yet here he was, trying to prevent war as ghost royalty. He wants a refund.

“Clockwork,” Danny groans from his place on the floor, “Why me?”

The Ancient being just huffed, switching from a decrepit old man to a baby.

“You know why Daniel. As the Right of Conquest states you are to be King. The only reason you haven’t already been given the crown is your age. No one expected a child, not even a decade dead, to Pariah Dark, let alone not to fall to someone else’s conquest. As such they see you as the rightful heir. You might not be called King yet, but you are still the Crown Prince and as such you have the right and duty to lead.” Clockwork stated.

“I’m barely passing my classes and they think I should lead? Besides Pariah was a fluke, anyone could have done it if they used the suit. If I really was that powerful as that then we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place. The GIW would be disbanded, the Anti-Ecto Acts overturned, and my par-the Fentons would . . . ,” Danny tapered off.

Clockwork’s expression softened.

“That wasn’t your fault Daniel,” the Master of Time said gently.

“I know that, it just doesn’t feel that way,” Danny muttered with his hand on his chest. “I mean I’m just me, not anyone special. Just some dumb kid who couldn’t even die right. Who couldn’t even make their parents see the truth. If I couldn’t make them realize something as obvious as me being their kid or ghosts being sentient how am I supposed to lead and protect an entire realm? For Ancients sake their own work contradicts itself with it saying ghosts are nothing but evil and scheming yet saying that they are non-sentient and can’t feel anything, all while making something that they say would be painful to said ghosts!”

“You can not force the willfully blind to see Daniel. You gave them a chance and they chose to ignore it,” Clockwork explained.

Danny bit his lip, “I know. I know. I just hoped that just this once they would have chosen me over their work. That they would prove that they loved me more than they hated ghosts. Should have known they wouldn’t.”

Bills piled up to the point where they lost electricity and water. Permission slips ignored in favor of inventions that would eventually either explode or target him. Chores in the lab with no safety guidelines by the time he could walk. Compared and discarded in favor of his older sister, being told a ‘true’ Fenton would do better. Camping trips being derailed in favor of ghost sightings. Fearing that the food would re-animate and attack them. Hatred of Christmas, filled with arguments. Forgotten birthdays, throw to the wayside in favor of that stupid portal. The very thing that killed him and brought him back in an endless loop of death before spitting him out. It really shouldn’t have come as a surprise that they would choose ghosts over him, after all they have been doing that for his whole life. Yet, he still hoped. Like a fool.

“The heart and the mind very rarely align. At one point they choose something different than the other. Another they may choose the same as the other,” Clockwork proclaimed, as cryptic as ever.

Danny huffed, rolling around the floor, uncaring of the dust he kicked up while doing so.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he grumbled.

“You are kind Daniel,” Clockwork declared, “It is part of the reason you will be a good King. You are not like Pariah punishing others for the slightest misdemeanor. You see the best in others even when it gets you in trouble or hurt. The problem is that you don’t value yourself, often putting yourself in danger to protect others, even when it isn’t necessary. Letting yourself get injured as long as no one else but you would get hurt. But what good is a King to their people if they can’t do anything because they are hurt? It is time that you learn to take care of yourself.”

With a smirk and a flick of Clockwork’s staff a portal appeared under the young prince, ready to drag him to a whole new dimension.

“May you learn to love yourself young Prince. Learn why we care for you and want you to be King. Why we proclaim our devotion to you. Learn your worth and how it is infinite as the realms you will one day rule.”

Danny’s eyes widened in horror. “Wait-”

But before he could continue the currents of the portal swept him down and closed, leaving behind only the Ancient of Time and the shadows in his lair.

“Goodluck my grandson.” Clockwork said softly. Shifting between forms before settling as a person in their prime, looking to the mass of shadows by one of the many clocks.

“My Knights will make it so he is cared for,” the shadows spoke.

“I know,” Clockwork smiled sadly, “but it doesn’t make saying goodbye any easier.”

To be continued . . .

Note: This is how I imagine Danny got in that dimension in the first place and it was so much fun to write! If I continue it I will put a link to the next part here but post it separately to avoid the post getting too long. And as always will credit the one the inspired the work!

DC X DP Master post

dc x dp prompt

So I just got into the dc x dp fandom very head strong and I’ve been reading dc x dp fics left and right, some of the fics containing a/b/o dynamics and I just had a thought what if Danny one day took a trip to the DC universe and this universe had the a/b/o dynamics

Danny: I am a traumatized teenager that is alone and is totally normal

Adopting orphans left and right Bruce Wayne: don’t worry pup I’ll take care of you, you’re obviously neglected due to you’re having no parental scent

Danny: STRANGER DANGER, There’s a child sniffing pervert on the loose protect your childern(runs away)

Bruce Wayne: ???

Bruce Wayne: was it something I said.

[luxaofhesperides]

You know how Spiderman has 'canon events'? And how Gwen would always die? How about in every universe Duke exists in, there would always be Danny. And every time they fall in love! But whenever Duke tells/hints at him being The Signal, Danny suffers an accident or dies.

Like let's say in the DC vs Vampires universe, Duke tells Danny he's Signal and then a few days later he gets turned into a vampire and Duke has no choice but to kill him.

Or something like that yknow?

Earth 26.

The undercity is full of life. People from above refuse to understand it, staunch in their beliefs that the undercity is full of crime and sickness, drugs and filth. But the people down there are more human than any of the ones Duke has met up top.

Though Bruce Wayne can try to bring Duke in all he likes, there’s no denying that Duke doesn’t belong. His heart will always be in the undercity, where he was born and grew up and lived and lost so much. 

The undercity is where Danny is.

Away from the blue skies filled with blimps, tucked beneath the towering buildings and clocktowers and elevated rails for trains leaving trails of smoke through the city, there in the cramped spaces and dark alleys, is Danny. 

He ducks through familiar alleys, cutting across perilously stacked homes and hopping over railings to get to the Fenton Lab faster. 

He’s been excited all day, heart thrumming with anticipation, as he returns to his roots and seeks out Danny. Today is the day he’s going to come clean, tell Danny everything: his feelings, his powers, his identity as The Signal, fighting crime in all parts of the city to keep Gotham safe. He’s sure Danny suspects something is going on with him, likely has already guessed at everything he wants to talk about, but Danny deserves the truth.

It is his inventions that help Duke save people, after all. 

Finding the front door of the Fenton lab is always a challenge. Metal scraps and materials stripped from vehicles litter the front of the building from people leaving all their unwanted things with the Fentons. Miscellaneous inventions and tools are left scattered around as well, creating a labyrinth that Duke has to traverse every time he wants to see Danny while he’s working with his parents.

It takes a few minutes, but Duke manages it, pushing open the door after a quick knock.

“Danny? Are you there?”

He can hear something from the lower floor, a strange, high pitched whirring noise. His powers kick in and suddenly he can see people rushing around the room, shouting in voices that he won’t be able to hear until the time comes. He can see himself, crying.

Duke’s heart drops.

“Danny? Danny!”

He runs down the stairs, suddenly terrified that he’s too late. Something is going to happen to Danny. It has to be Danny, because no one else is home with him; that’s why Duke asked to meet in the Lab, to have some privacy while the other Fentons were out.

The noise is louder, too loud to hear over, and Duke rushes into the Lab just in time to see some strange circle of metal spark with electricity. Danny stands right before, staring up at it.

“Danny!” Duke shouts as loud as he can, and Danny startles, then turns around.

Their eyes meet just as the machine finishes turning on, the metal circle ripping open with a thunderous noise, and Duke can do nothing but watch as it sends electricity and some other energy racing through Danny’s body.

It lasts just a brief moment, and then Danny is crumpling to the ground, eyes closed as the machine settles. The swirling pit of white and green stares out at him and Duke knows without a doubt that Danny is dead. . . .

Earth 41.

Duke’s been acting strange. Well, stranger than usual.

Danny’s not one to go around poking at people’s secrets, especially not his boyfriend’s, but he knows something big is going on. He’s not worried that Duke is cheating on him, but he can see the injuries he comes back with some days, citing all the unrest and the resurgence in crimes following Batman’s death.

He wonders if Duke is going out each night for street fighting, forcing all his emotions into his fists until they’re beaten bloody. Batman’s death hit him hard, and Danny has no idea what to do to help him.

They’re both stressed, on edge and scared, but they don’t fight as much as he expected. Admittedly, it’s hard to fight where they’re always spending time apart. 

No longer. Tonight, Danny is determined to get to the bottom of things so he can help Duke with whatever he’s going through. He even texted Jazz to get some tips about communication and helping someone through grief. He’s as ready as he’ll ever be. 

Right at 3AM, the window slides open. 

“Welcome back, Duke,” Danny says, watching as Duke flinches, then sighs as he closes the window. 

“What are you doing here, Danny?”

“Well, it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other, I decided to hang out here and wait for you. But you’ve been gone for a long time.”

“Sorry, Danny, but I’m really tired. Can this wait?”

Anger bubbles in his gut and Danny takes a deep breath to force it down. “I’ve been waiting. If you keep pushing this conversation off, we’re never going to get anywhere.”

Duke slumps against the window, rubbing a hand against his face, looking exhausted. “Look, Danny, things have been getting real bad, and I don’t want you to get hurt because of it.”

“What’s going on, Duke? What are you so worried about?”

“It’s… The guy who killed Batman. His name is Karma, and I’ve been going after him.”

“You’ve been what?!” Danny shouts, shooting to his feet. “Duke, are you insane? Anyone who can kill Batman is bad news, there’s no way anyone short of like, Superman, can stop him! You’re going to get yourself killed!”

“Someone has to stop him! And I can do something to help, okay? I’ve been helping the other bats fight him. I can do this.”

Danny clenches his fists, feeling frost crack against his skin. “You could have told me,” he says. “You know I can help, too. You’re not the only one with powers.”

“I can’t endanger you like that, Danny.”

“So you leave me in the dark instead? You would have rather I wait for you forever while you never come back because you got yourself killed running into a situation you can’t get out of? You think I would have been any safer not knowing? Then clearly you haven’t been paying attention!” He’s shouting by the end of it, shaking with fear and rage and so many things it all becomes a tangled mess in his head. 

“I really think we should have this conversation in the morning,” Duke says, eyeing Danny warily. It’s probably just because he’s been out all night hunting Karma, so used to being attacked while he goes out to try to save a city that even Batman couldn’t lift from the darkness, but that doesn’t stop the stab of hurt from going through his heart. Danny has done his best to be safe for Duke, to be human and comforting and strong enough to protect him. 

And Duke is looking at him like he could be at threat.

“Whatever,” Danny mutters, shaking his head. “You’ll talk to me in the morning by saying nothing but how you need to do whatever this is and then you’ll leave and we’ll both be unhappy. Great. Can’t wait.”

“Danny—”

“Bye, Duke.”

Danny’s up and out of the apartment before Duke can take more than a few steps towards him. He zips up his jacket and pulls the hood over his head, taking the steps two at a time to get to street level. It’s dark and quiet outside, save for the distant police sirens, and Danny barely spares a glance around him before he’s making his own way home, sure that no one would still be out at that time.

He should have been more careful. More vigilant. Not so lost in his hurt feelings.

But there’s no time for that when he’s pulled into an alleyway, knife at his throat.

A man in a black helmet, face fully covered, stares down at him. “Well, well, well,” he purrs, digging the knife in a little deeper, “What’s the Signal’s little lover doing out so late at night?”

Signal?

…Duke. His boyfriend who always disappears in late hours, blows off dates when something big is going down in Gotham, who is trying to pick up the pieces following Batman’s death. 

And here is Karma, the very man Duke is searching for, pulling Danny away into the dark.

He only has a brief moment to regret storming off, for not being more patient with Duke, for not paying attention and avoiding Karma, before the knife is pulled away, tossed into the air, and the hilt comes down hard on his temple, and it is a long, long time before he is seen again.

The Signal does not find him alive. . . .

Earth 53.

The apocalypse isn’t kind even on the best of days. But today it might be coming close to something resembling kindness as Duke approaches the skeletal remains of Gotham. It’s been years since he’s been back here, moving with the Robins across the United States just trying to survive. They’d constantly been moving, searching for other survivors and food and shelter and any sign of hope they could get. 

There hadn’t been much anywhere, too much devastation across the country for anyone to even think of rebuilding. Even now, nature is just starting to recover, little green shoots pushing up through concrete rubble. 

This world isn’t one for superheroes anymore. Supervillains aren’t around either. Everyone is either dead or barely getting themselves through each day; but humanity is still around and wildlife is beginning to recover. 

Duke doesn’t know who’s left in Gotham these days. He suspects Oracle is still there, somewhere, helping reconnect telephone wires and setting up internet and electricity. Lights have been flickering on steadily as the Robins made their way into New Jersey and the sight lifted their spirits so much they decided to keep traveling through the night. 

No one in his group has a working phone any more, but the possibility of getting that piece of the old world back excites them all. 

By the time they reach the outskirts of the ruined city, the entire group is nearly buzzing with energy, speaking in hushes whispers that do nothing to hide the elation in their voices. Gotham was everyone’s home, once. They’re all happy to be back, regardless of what they’re walking into.

Duke volunteers to go scouting with a few others to find a good place to settle in for a bit as they reacquaint themselves with the city. Even before the end of the world, it was never a good idea to go blind into Gotham. 

Much of the city is still abandoned, and concrete rubble carry faded graffiti that show the remains of a gang long gone. The few people he see in the distance are quick to hide and disappear and Duke himself is too wary to approach them. But as he gets closer to the heart of Gotham, picking his way through destroyed streets, he sees more and more signs of life, people who don’t hide, weak lights in hastily constructed shelters.

No one attacks him as he wanders closer. In fact, a few exchange nervous glances then approach him, quietly asking if he’s coming from outside Gotham and what news he brings of the outside world.

Duke tells them about how Chicago is gone completely, unable to be saved at all, but there are settlements all along the shores of the Great Lakes. He tells them of the traveling groups he’s met who rotate through a few chosen states and are willing to take in new members. He tells them of someone who has an entire farm up and running again, full of chickens and cows and sheep and goat and horses, on top of all the crop they can grow. The location of the farm is kept secret and carefully protected, but they give away seeds and young animals for anyone wanting to raise their own.

The news gathers more and more people around Duke, eager to listen, and they’re more than happy to update Duke on what’s happened in Gotham. 

The Bats aren’t around as much anymore, but at least two of them are still in Gotham, helping people from the shadows. They’re fixing everything up as best they can, and most people live in or around Robinson Park where Ivy, who survived, grows food and shelter for everyone in exchange for protection and companionship. The Riddler turned from making death traps and taking hostages to creating new technology and inventions to make life a little easier, taking in a crew of assistants to learn from him.

That is to say nothing of the ghosts.

Gotham is full of them now, walking among the living as if they never died. They help people and stick with loved ones who lost them and fly through the air to deliver things with ease. It’s nothing that Duke has ever seen before, and he wonders how many people who died in the apocalypse chose to stay in such a ruined world. 

He begins to head back to the Robins, mind racing with everything he’s learned, when he sees Danny.

Danny, his friend once, who he loved dearly and didn’t quite realize it was deeper than friendship until after the world ended. Danny, who was always sleepy and soft and smiling, cracking bad jokes and lifting Duke’s spirits whenever he felt down. Danny, who was lively and dreamed of going to space to sit among the stars.

Danny, who is dead.

He never got the chance to tell Danny he was the Signal, but he thinks Danny knew anyways. He could ask now, put that lingering thought to rest, but it was one of the few things left unsaid between them, the only thing he had of Danny for all these years, and he doesn’t want to let go of it yet.

Danny hasn’t seen him yet. Duke could go to him, speak to his ghost, have some part of him back in his life.

But it wouldn’t be the same. It certainly wouldn’t be fair to tie Danny, who is free from the pain and misery of the living, to Duke, who is never going to stay in Gotham permanently. 

He misses Danny so much he feels hollowed out and empty, but he knows this is for the best.

Duke turns, pretending not to see him, and walks away. . . .

Earth 78.

Duke was…

Duke was important to him, Danny thinks. He can’t remember much, not after everything (electricity, screaming, pain pain pain, heavy darkness, a spark, hist chest cut open, where is ___? Why won’t he save—) but without any memory of what his life was like back then, his feelings are without context and easily ignored.

Wraith follows Shrike from a distance, watching as he drops into an alley to kill a rapist. Wraith feels nothing about this, for caring is not in his duties. He is instructed to simply keep Shrike alive and assist in his plans, whatever they may be. Wraith does not care about killing.

Danny, tucked away deep inside the mask, shivers and cries, wishing to hide away and say enough, please, that’s enough, just stop please stop stop stop stop—

Batman crosses the rooftops, a figure of darkness across the city’s skies. The Signal, his second oldest companion, travels through the shadows by his side until they land on the building Wraith stands on. 

The yellow of Signal’s armor is familiar and it feels safe but Wraith knows better. Talia and Ra’s have taught him to see past his emotions, to force away any sentiment and grapple with the cold hard truth. This is the truth: they are here to hurt him and Shrike, because they are dangerous killers and dangerous killers are dealt with swiftly and painfully in Gotham. 

They can do as they please to him. They will not take Shrike.

He engages Batman in battle first, easily slipping past his defense by going intangible, freezing his boots to the ground and icing his fists together. The Signal slips away at first, leaving Batman behind to try to get around Wraith, sending shadows towards Shrike who leaps away deftly, dodging them with ease as he leaves the beheaded body behind. 

Wraith grabs Signal before he can fully sink into a shadow and tosses him back, then flies to Shrike, picking him up and getting them away as quickly as possible.

“They found us faster than I thought,” Shrike says. His voice carries something in it that Wraith doesn’t recognize, but it makes his heart feel heavy. 

“We’re done for the night,” Wraith returns, voice low and hoarse. He died screaming and even the Lazarus Pits weren’t able to fix the damage done to his vocal chords. 

He lets his invisibility wash over them both, and they disappear into the night. The safehouse they set up, far away from the one Talia prepared for them, is small but comfortable. It’s secure, everything created and coded by Tim, which means Danny can relax inside the walls of the small apartment. 

Shrike helps him shed his gear, putting it away carefully. Wraith becomes Danny and he watches as Shrike becomes Tim. 

Gone is the ruthless efficiency, the quickness to cut down the scum of Gotham without remorse. Instead, he’s pale and tired, eyes still a faint green from the linger remains of the Lazarus Pit that brought him back from the dead, but there is no madness in him. Only a coldness that came long before his death, unwanted by Damian, the first of Batman’s vigilante partners, who refused to see him as part of the family or even as a hero at all. Duke had already gone to work with other teams since then and never met Tim properly for more than a few minutes.

But he knew Danny. They must have been close. If seeing The Signal sends such a sharp stab of pain in his heart, it must be for a reason. But the memories are long gone, and with them, any desire to be close to him again. 

They never do well after a run in with the Bats. Though they have won every fight they’ve had, Tim often retreats to bed in order to hide his tears and Danny is left alone, lost, and wishing he had stayed dead. 

Tonight is no different. Tim is making a difference as Shrike, striking fear in the hearts of Gotham’s criminals. Crime has gone down in Crime Alley, his chosen territory of the city, killing as many people as needed before they finally get the message to be better people. Tim is also still only eighteen and had spent three years with the League of Assassins before returning to Gotham and seeing that his place in the Bats is erased and forgotten and replaced by the well-loved Jason.

He only stays in Gotham to kill the people who sold him off to the Joker and laughed as he died slowly and painfully. Once the Joker is dead, he’ll leave Gotham and disappear for good. 

Danny will follow him. He has no life now and no other direction. And with Tim hiding under the covers, Danny can do nothing but feel his own skin crawl at the need to get away from everything that connects him to his life Before.

It’s a terrible idea, but he goes out again, heading into Otisberg, where he once lived. Only a raised hood conceals his face; the expressionless mask he usually wears is gone, and Wraith feels far away from him.

He hears the Signal land behind him some time later. It could be minutes or hours; time slips by Danny easily these days no matter how hard he tries to hold onto the minutes passing by. 

“Wraith,” Signal says, and his voice is hard. “Where’s Shrike? Out terrorizing the rest of Gotham?”

Danny doesn’t reply. He stares out into the city lights, a cold emptiness growing inside his chest. 

“Well, if you’re going to just sit there, then I suppose you don’t mind if I take you in to let Batman interrogate you. You’ve been causing a lot of trouble around here, and we don’t take kindly to murderous masks in Gotham.”

He doesn't resist as Signal grabs his wrists, hauling him up from where he was sitting on the ledge. Danny allows Signal to turn him around, shadows binding his wrists together and pulling down his hood.

The Signal sucks in a sharp breath, hands falling limp to his side. “Danny?”

Danny doesn’t respond.

“This better not be a joke, I swear to God. If you’re just wearing his face to fuck with me, I’m going to kill you, Batman’s rules be damned. Say something already!”

Danny looks up into the visor of Signal’s helmet. He opens his mouth and a hoarse whine slips out. “I knew you,” he manages to whispers. “I knew you. And then I died.”

The Signal flinches, then reaches up and pulls his helmet off. “Tell me something only we would know. Anything.”

“I don’t… remember. I wanted you to save me. I don’t think you did.”

“If this isn’t really you, Danny,” Duke says, voice thick with tears, “Then it’s a really fucked up joke.”

Danny looks at Duke, helpless. He doesn’t know what to do. What to say. Wraith only knows how to follow and protect and take orders. Danny doesn’t know how to live anymore. There is nothing he can do.

And then, as he stares as Duke, a memory slides into place, fuzzy but there.

“Arcade on eighth street,” he whispers, and Duke’s eyes go wide. “That was going to be our first date.”

“It was,” Duke says. There’s a light in his eyes now, something that looks like hope and the sight of it makes Danny sick to his stomach.

“I’m dead, Duke. Danny is dead. There is only Wraith now. Let the dead go, and stay away so we don’t have to kill you. I… want you to live.”

The shadows have loosened, still wrapped around his wrists but as a caress instead of a restraint. It doesn’t take any strength to pull out of them and drop off the roof, falling towards the ground. Danny lets gravity take hold of him for a few moments, then goes invisible and flies away just as Duke grapples down and searches for him desperately. 

He can hear Duke calling his name, then calling in Batman and Nightwing, but his voice fades away before Danny can make out what they’re saying.

Not that it matters. Whether tomorrow or further down the line, he and Tim will leave Gotham and disappear for good.

The dead cannot stay with the living, and so they will go.

There’s nothing left for them here, anyways. . . .

Earth 0.

Duke has had his fair share of strange dreams. It comes with the trauma and the powers, a terrible mix that leave him shaken and rattled when he wakes up, gasping for breath.

But instead of fear, his latest series of dreams leave him with a deep-seated feeling of grief. The details fade away quickly once he’s awake, but he can remember bits and pieces of worlds that looks so different from the one he lives in, and all of them have a single constant: Danny.

Danny, whose face he never remembers when he wakes. Danny, whose name is permanently etched into his mind. Danny, who he loves and loses every single night.

Danny, someone he’s never met.

Dick asks him if he’s alright the next time he’s in Gotham, eating breakfast in the manor with him and Tim. He considers lying, then tells him about the dreams and how frequent they are, snapshots of other lives where there is someone important to him that he can never save. Tim, who he thought was sleeping with his eyes half open, looks up and mumbles that it might be another universe.

After a few cups of coffee, Tim is awake enough to ramble on about the multiverse, pulling up reports from the Batcomputer on his phone to show Duke how many of them have had run ins with alternate universes. 

“So you’re saying that Danny might be here? In this world?”

Tim shrugs. “Well, maybe. If he’s the only constant, then I wouldn’t be surprised. If you’re here, so is he.”

“But he always dies!”

“Don’t worry, Duke,” Dick says, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, “If you do find him, then you’ve got all of his to help keep him safe.”

“Do you want me to find him? If you give me a description, I can probably narrow it down to a few people in the United States. One of them might be him.”

Duke considers it for a moment, then shakes his head. “Nah, thanks though. If we’re supposed to meet, then we will. No point in rushing it.”

“Alright. Let me know if you change your mind.”

And that had been that. Nothing to really worry about, but the dreams continue and Duke keeps waking up grieving and so love with Danny, carrying the feelings of his alternates over to his own reality. At some point, he wishes that he and Danny would never cross paths in this world, if only so he doesn’t have to lose him.

But he wants to meet him. The universe says Danny is important to him; why else would he be part of his life in every world?

The thought never leaves him. It’s always in the back of his mind as he goes about his life, going to school and fighting crime. He finds himself lingering in the streets, trying to see everyone’s faces, listening for that familiar voice.

It takes over a year before he hears someone say, “Danny!” as he’s patrolling as Signal. 

He bends the light around him, going invisible, and searches for the people shouting the name of the person he hadn’t been able to get out of his mind. It takes some time, but his eyes land on a tall, red haired woman fussing over a boy with black hair and blue eyes, leaning down some so she could reach his face.

He can’t hear what they say with the distance between them, but he knows with absolute clarity that he’s looking at Danny.

His Danny.

Duke takes a step forward, ready to drop his invisibility, letting the light escape his grasp, the pauses when he sees the bright smile on his face. 

This Danny is safe. He is alive and laughing and is with someone he cares about. 

This Danny has a life and a future and as much as Duke wants to know why his alternate selves love Danny so much, it isn’t worth Danny’s life.

Heart breaking, Duke steps back and watches as they walk away, disappearing into the crowded streets. 

He stares after them long after they’ve disappeared from sight, then grapples to a rooftop and releases his hold on the light. He sinks to his knees, trying to breathe through the grief that runs through him, and taps a pattern into his comms to signal that he’s ending his patrol early. 

It’s fine, he tells himself. This is for the best. This will keep Danny alive.

Danny always dies because of Duke. Someway, somehow, whenever they meet, the bell tolls and Danny’s death quickly approaches. It happens in every world, in the many, many dreams he’s had looking into a moment of their lives. 

But not this one.

In this one, Duke will save Danny by doing the only thing he can: making sure they never meet. 

It’s for the best. It has to be. . . .

[send me ghostlights prompts!]

[the-stove-is-on-fire]

Ghost (Cow)boy Danny master-post for your ghostly cowpoke needs.

(Stickers & Prints) (Ko-fi)

Full Cowboy au under the cut vvv (copy+pasted from my other post)

The Fentons run a classic little family farm that Jack inherited from his dad. He met Maddie at University and they decided to take over the farm’s operation when they graduated. FentonWorks is small and not heavily industrialized. They mainly harvest hay with a minor side hustle of beef & dairy. In the summer  Jack and Maddie have less time to actively go ghost hunting and work on their inventions b/c running a farm takes A LOT of work.  But hey, they've been at it for years and they're still fanatics who will stop at nothing (also they earn quite a bit of passive income from their ‘normal’ patents).

It's been a long time since they've worked on the Portal Project, which they keep out in the old barn. The kids used to be banned from the old barn (because of chemicals and big equipment of course). Now as a teen Danny A.) Doesn't care about the rule anymore, and B.) Is old enough to "not get himself killed in a dumb old barn."

TAKE A WILD GUESS WHAT HE DOES NEXT.

He's in there with Sam and Tucker trying to find some “old stuff” when he moves a pile of junk and reveals the half finished portal. It's big and hollow like a secret passageway built right into the wall. His parents never could get it to work but it still looks cool as heck. Sadly they never covered Interdimensional Portals in Farm Safety at school 😔.  So the obvious answer is to step inside and well, you know what they say about curiosity and cats....

RIP Danny’s normal human existence. 👻🤠

Miscellaneous Bits:

Amity Park is located in Iowa or Kansas. Something with those spooky Midwest vibes idk American geography.

Team Phantom are 16-17-ish.

After Danny’s accident most of the farm animals treat him differently. The cats are having none of it, the cows don't care, the horses were skittish and skeptical at first but have since stopped caring. And for some reason the chickens like him more now?? Then again, chickens are just like that. They can sense power...

Tucker is a town kid. He and Danny spend a ton of time at Danny’s place running around outside and getting into all kinds of trouble together. Danny likes hanging out at Tucker’s house in town and enjoys the novelty of walking around town just to get snacks. Tucker loves the Fenton’s horses to death but the chickens do not respect him at all.  

Sam is still a rich kid but the thing her family is famous for inventing is more agriculturally based. She’s really into sustainability, sourcing locally, and encouraging native plant species. Big into using glass and wood over plastics. Danny and Tucker help her refurbish and sell old tools and furniture. She wants to turn it into a business one day. (This is why they were poking around in the Fenton’s barn the day of the accident.)

They may live in the “bible belt” in this au but Sam is still Jewish. I feel the need to specify b/c I’ve seen fics that give Sam “Strict Christian Parents” and Western aus often have that stereotype.

Jack and Maddie have one hard ghost hunting rule and that's they only  fuck with settler ghosts. Native ghosts and spirits are off limits.  (The canon ghost “dream catcher” can go not exist please. The Ghost Catcher in this au is based on a butterfly net or fly swatter.)

Danny’s main focus is small, local hauntings and helping people move on or find their way into the Zone, rather than big extravagant fights. Less ‘Superhero’ and more ‘Paranormal Slice-of-Life’. But when he does get into a tussle some poor farmer is going to be very confused as to how their field got ripped shreds overnight.

Danny kind of gets a reputation for being a Medium/Psychic since he helps with hauntings, missing people, cold cases and finding old graves whenever he can (<- I saw this in a fic recently and I really enjoyed the idea so I’m including it. Shout out to  Seasilver‘s A Proper Home )

Vlad?? Exists??? Yeah. He more or less follows the same path as canon but with a western twist. He’s either an oil baron or decided to branch DALVco out into agriculture and owns a few mega farms.  

Maddie and Jack wear coveralls instead of hazmats. Same colours tho.

Things that go bump in the night are not limited to just ghosts 👀  And Danny is definitely not at the top of the supernatural food chain (though he is up there).

If anyone wants to take these ideas a write something feel free to do so!

Respect nature, and if you can, source your food locally!

[phantoms-lair]

58

Batfam AU Go!

Existing AU: Taking Flight!

"I thought of calling it something like my parents would, like the Ectoplasm Metaosmosis Circulatory Purification Vat, but without the name Fenton attached because I'm not a Fenton anymore and that would show it. Then I decided that was still allowing them to influence what I do, even out of spite. So I'm calling it the Zombie Spa."

Jason looked at the retrofitted jacuzzi filled with bubbling green fluid that looked far too close to the Lazarus pit for his liking. "You want to run me through this?"

"So what you guys call the Lazarus Pits are kind of like...cesspool runoff from the Infinite Realms." Danny began.

Jason felt immediately torn between amusement at the thought of Ra’s's precious Pits being interdimensional cesspools and disgust at the thought that he'd been dropped in one.

"And ectoplasm is metaphysically sticky. Once it's in something, even if it's not enough to have much of an effect, it does not let go. So when you absorbed all that corrupted ectoplasm when the pits did whatever it did to you, well, it's still there."

And disgust it was. Jason had the strong urge to go shower under scalding hot water, and not go for a dip in a hot tub filled with what looked like the exact same stuff.

"So getting the ectoplasm out of your system is one thing, and would likely have horrific side effects, but purifying it is a whole lot easier. This works through osmosis -which is not mitosis and I did not almost name this incorrectly because I confused the two terms- basically the contamination would diffuse through the ectoplasm in the Zombie Spa until it reached equilibrium with the contamination inside you. However, the ectofiltrators will be filtering it out, so the tub will quickly return to being corruption free, until there’s no more corruption in you.” Danny looked proud. Jason was still unsure though. “Just to err on the side of informed consent, what kind of horrific consequences are we talking about?” “Well, ectoplasm is a bit unpredictable,” Danny hedged. “But the two most likely scenarios are either parts of your personality and psyche get ripped out too, or it undoes what the pit did in the first place, which if I understand everything correctly, would leave you as a broken corpse.”

Yep, that qualified as horrific. “And how do you know this will work as intended?” Danny brightened and pulled out a plastic baggy with a green tinged sponge in it. “I got some of those ‘real sea sponge’ loofahs from the fancy bathroom place because absorbent organic material. Which is really kind of morbid? Scrub yourself clean with this animal’s corpse?”

“Most of those are from the cucumber gourd.” Jason explained. “Not at this place. Anyhow, I soaked some of the ‘natural sea sponge’ in the runoff that creates the Lazarus pits. Thankfully it didn’t come back to life because to tell you the truth, I have no idea how I would have dealt with that. If there’s one thing the ocean doesn’t need, it’s more ghosts.” Jason had several questions, none of them he was inclined to ask. Danny upended the bag into the Zombie Spa. Though the ectoplasm clinging to the sponge was initially the same color, upon contact with the purified ectoplasm it turned a much darker shade of green. The darkness spread in a tiny ring around it and the little devices on the outside of the spa clicked on. “Thankfully Ecto Filtrators are one of my parents' inventions I know inside and out.” Danny commented. “I mean, I don’t really understand the science of it, but I know the mechanics.” “You’re trusting one of your parent’s inventions?” Jason raised an eyebrow. Danny shrugged. ”This one, yeah. So for most ectoplasmic beings, ectoplasm is basically water. Our bodies are made up of it. It’s rarely in pure dihydrogen monoxide form, there’s at least minerals and stuff mixed in. Sure there’s nasty contamination you don’t want to touch, but for the most part it doesn’t matter if it’s not ‘pure’. For the portal, it matters. A lot. Like, any impurities whatsoever and it WILL explode. Absolutely take out the building, most of the block, at worst a few miles radius.”

Jason starred. “And when I started slacking on my chores due to superheroing, they put me in charge of changing the ecto-filtrator, so I got real familiar with it.”

“Back up.” Green seeped into Jason’s eyes. “They decided the best way to teach you responsibility was to put you in a situation where if you made one mistake, untold destruction and people's lives would be on your shoulders?”

Danny shrunk a little. “It’s not like they were the only ones.”

Right. Clockwork. But Jason couldn’t shoot Clockwork. And very few people in Gotham would blame him for shooting the Fentons.

“Anyways, see how the color’s equalized.” Danny drew Jason’s attention back to the Zombie Spa in a blatant attempt to change the topic. “The corruption's been drawn out and all contaminants in the filters. And no damage to the sponge, see?” He reached in and pulled out the sea sponge, which looked cleaner but showed no signs of damage. “We tested it a bunch of times too. Not just with sea sponges, I even tried it myself.” Danny was giving him a  look and it puzzled Jason a bit. If it looked like he was trying to be reassuring, or pleading with Jason to trust his work that would have made sense. But it looked more like Danny was hoping for approval. Why would he…

Oh he was definitely going to shoot Jack and Maddie Fenton. Danny was desperate for Jason to see that he had tested it, that he’d made sure it would be safe for Jason, in short that he was nothing like his parents, who’d been more than willing to gamble with Danny’s life rather than do any kind of small scale test run.

“Looks good kid.” Jason didn’t know if this would remove the Pit’s influence from him, but at this point he was willing to take the plunge if only to reassure the kid he trusted him. Undead bros had to stick together, after all.

[elithemiar-blog]

I’ve had an idea of how to connect Sam and/or Tucker to Bruce. It’s implementing it that’s a bit of a problem.

My first thought was Sam actually being a child of Bruce, however due to Grandma Ida, that dropped. But maybe Ida dyed her hair like Sam. Her parents are blonde, or she just happened to get black hair from Grandma Ida. Sam wears contacts, not sure if that’s a common HC within DP, but I’m going with it.

There were a couple of other thoughts, like the Masons pulled a Bruce, and adopted Sam. They still love her like their own, but they want a respectful princess out of her, instead of the rebellion that they got.

Maybe Bruce Wayne is Sam’s pseudo-uncle. I’m unsure of timeline wise, but maybe Dick and Jason vaguely remember her when she was a sweet innocent little girl, maybe Tim met her for a short time (a bit of a shock, when they meet again).

So, Jeremy and Pamela are tired of Sam rebelling, and sending her to Bruce Wayne, hoping her pseudo-uncle will help. Like Danny isn’t the only one having problems with curfew and homework, she doesn’t get caught as much, considering that Danny can usually get them home in time of their own curfews. 

(FW: A very long post. Not kidding, got a little out of hand. Oops.)

The ghosts have gotten worse, and truly the primary defense is a couple of teenagers. Sam has been researching some kind of mystery that has the normal rouges more powerful than before, which has caused her grades to drop and even longer nights of her not coming home on time.

Anyway, for a short while (1-3months [summer?]) Sam is sent to live with the Wayne’s as a way to sort out her rebellion. Through-out the entire time she’s trying to figure out the reason behind the ghosts’ power increase. Still, despite being all the way from Amity Park, she’s still part of Team Phantom, and she has her mind set on figuring it out. This decision also makes a bad impression on the Wayne family.

Everything is going great until the power increase isn’t limited to Amity, but everywhere, including Gotham. And all she has brought with her is a thermos and a basic ecto-blaster (not like Gotham is Amity, but better safe than sorry).

That’s really all I had going through my head for Sam. Her plant power from Undergrowth’s corruption may have been spotted by one of the family. Maybe the ecto-weapons got picked up from another. Like each member of the family figures out something from Sam, but it never really gets put together until Sam comes forward.

Sam knows the Wayne family is in some way connected to the Batclan, she’s just not entirely sure on how. She’s trying to make sure that the batfam don’t find out about Amity through the Wayne family.

---

Tucker was a little more difficult to figure out. First thought, relation to Duke, but then that was a stretch (as in less coincidence, and more natural relation [does that make sense?]). Instead, he’s got family working WE, so he gets more WE tech, and maybe that helps him code better for the ghost tech. A certain component is necessary for Danny working on his parent’s inventions, and so he’s gotta make an honest trade. Just a visit. The component necessary is still under testing and isn’t quite up for public sale.

When Tucker does end up visiting his relative, both of them get caught by Tim before the component can leave the tower. Thanks to Tucker improving it in some fashion, Tim approves taking it to his friend, he just really wants to know what the invention is.

---

My brain stopped here for a moment, and then the thought of the trio reuniting in Gotham hit hard.

Maybe a convention, not a ghost convention, maybe a space convention, which gives Danny an opportunity. They should hit Gotham anyway since Amity is too off and getting a weaker ecto-input as a baseline may help figure out the mystery. Which a space convention can be the alibi that Danny needs to use. Jazz goes with to watch out for her little brother, and since they keep contact with Sam and Tucker who are already in Gotham, they bring more weapons. Thinking ahead, Danny does bring the invention that used the component, so Tucker can show Tim.

Not sure where to go from here. As for the mystery, maybe it’s just a section of time. Like every thousand years or so, there’s an increase in power for the dead/undead, that takes a few months to resettle. It’s not a major thing. For some of the ghosts of Gotham, they just get a little too much for the vigilantes can handle without the appropriate technologies.

Other cities aren’t as bad, Gotham is just covered in death, that some ghosts just got a little extra. 

Either Team Phantom gets away with what they need to do, without the Batfam’s knowledge, or they absolutely shatter their secret. Danny’s secret was actually the very first thing they figured out, he ain’t so sneaky as he thinks. The situation with Amity Park on the other hand...

[apinklion01]

So a few weeks ago I had a thought about who in the show was the best parent overall.

Sure, Jack and Maddie had their moments, but neither were there for Danny all the time, either too focused on catching ghosts or inventing. We even see how this affects the family dynamic with Jazz trying to grow into an adult figure even though she’s not entirely ready for that responsibility.

Then I realized that there was one parent on the show who was attentive to the needs of their child the most, and even the needs of other: Damon Gray, aka, Valerie’s dad.

And in case you can’t tell, this is indeed an essay. Well, kind of, if you push away any grammatical errors, but I don’t have time for that so we’re diving right into this.

Damon only appears in six episodes in the show, and only speaks lines in five of them. Therefore I’ll be eliminating D-Stabilize, as well as Phantom Planet as he doesn’t do anything there.

We first get to know about Damon in the episode Shades of Gray, which not only shows Valerie with the voice we hear for the rest of the show, but the start of her ghost hunting and subsequent interactions with Danny Phantom. Valerie mentions her dad right away in this shot, where she states "$579 and worth every one of my dad's pennies.”

We’re made aware of not only Valerie’s status as an A-Lister, but the fact that Damon makes enough money to be able to buy her expensive clothes as well as the home that they live in which shows up later in the same episode.

Which makes sense as he designed the state of the art security system at Axion Lab, at least shortly before it’s revealed to not be ghost-proof.

Things go south for the Grays really quick. With Damon fired from his position, they’re unable to afford their home and selling everything they own in a yard sale before they move out to Elmerton.

Man I hate that name, but back on track.

Damon’s given a single chance to go back to the research lab and guard the remains. It’s also revealed he was in charge of several employees before his very large demotion to a security guard. Which means he’s also dealing with the change in living spaces as much as Valerie. But ultimately, he takes the job to provide a place for him and his daughter.

He doesn’t show up till the very end, but he’s able to recognize Valerie’s voice while she’s fighting Danny in her ghost hunting suit. He doesn’t learn her identity as Tucker creates a distraction, but I never noticed this detail until the re-watch of the episode.

The next episode where we see Damon is in Reign Storm, the two-part special episode that fuels all Ghost King AU fics. He’s among the adults watching the TV as the Ghost Emergency Broadcasting System takes over the feed, and hears the warning to all parents to pick up any of their kids attending Casper High before the ghosts get close to the area. Hearing this, Damon heads straight to the school to get Valerie.

Also here’s a nice shot of a photograph with both of them on Damon’s desk in Axion Lab. It’s real touching that he placed it there right near his computer, which is offscreen.

Okay back to the essay.

The moment he arrives at Casper High, he asks “where’s Valerie?” This father wants to make sure his daughter’s safe and sound. Unfortunately, he and Maddie come across an unconscious and bruised Valerie with Danny standing nearby.

Understandably both of them are suspicious of Danny before he states “She was like that when I got here.” Neither are aware of the circumstances that lead to Valerie’s injuries. At least not yet anyways.

Later Damon is working alongside the Fentons to keep the ghost shield stabilized and to protect the city. His experience in the technical aspects of security as well as a need to understand ghosts in order to ghost-proof Axion Lab makes him more than eligible to help them out. From what Damon can guess, Valerie was harmed by ghosts, which means he has to make sure nobody else, much less her, gets hurt.

Then he shows up right after every adult in Amity Park somehow karate-chops each other unconscious and he spots Phantom and Valerie, who’s in her ghost hunting suit. Except this time, Phantom reveals her identity to her father, who immediately holds her up away from the ghost. The moment they’re alone in the room, he gives a small talk to Valerie.

“You’ve been fighting ghosts? All this time?”

“Are you okay?”

He could’ve ask any other questions. “How long have you been doing this?” “Is this why you’ve been coming home late at night?” “Why didn’t you tell me?” He could’ve said anything else.

But Damon’s never been that person. Time and time he’s proven to make decisions to ensure Valerie’s wellbeing, and he asks the single question he can to a daughter who’s already injured from a previous ghost fight:

“Are you okay?”

And only after Damon hears Valerie saying “I’m fine” does he put her down and says “Then you are in so much trouble!” At first glance the line’s delivered a bit harsh, but given he just put the pieces of how his daughter got injured in the first place and also was willing to try and use the suit which could literally kill her, I’d say it was justified.

Damon’s last line in the episode is “Valerie? Was that the ecto-gun?” Which means he’ll be keeping a sharper eye on his daughter now that he’s made aware of her being a ghost hunter.

Which means it’s time for an awkward cutaway to “The Ultimate Enemy,” another two-part special episode, and the third episode that Damon appears in. Kind of.

It’s ten years into the future, and Amity Park remains the only city unharmed by Dan Phantom, an alternate future version of Danny with an urge to kill the remaining humans on earth. 

Damon and Valerie are still alive, albeit Damon is missing an eye and a limb. But both work together to protect the city, with Valerie as their protector and Damon as the one who manages the technology behind the advanced ghost shields. At the beginning they’re doing a routine check up on the generators, with Damon appearing on her watch for a moment.

He doesn’t say many lines, but Valerie makes one thing clear as Dan begins to damage the city: she has to make sure her dad’s safe as he did so many times for her in the past. 

It’s bittersweet as we’re reminded that most likely everyone that Valerie grew up with at Casper High is likely dead from all the years of Dan attacking the city. Damon’s all that’s left of those times before then, and Valerie can’t afford to loose him too.

With that episode out of the way, we’re onto the last appearance of Damon in Flirting With Disaster. Being Valerie’s dad, he allows the class to go on a field trip to tour Axion Labs. I think it’s pretty darn nice of him to allow the students this opportunity.

Damon pulls Danny aside and asks him “Are you okay? You seem nervous, son.” He knows that Valerie likes Danny, and he wants to make sure the teen’s aware that he’s fine with this. He also instructs Danny to keep any talk about his parent’s ghost hunting business away from Valerie. Damon doesn’t want Valerie to end up as badly injured as during the events of Reign Storm, and perhaps he’s also worried her new hobby might cause conflict between her and Danny relationship wise.

Also I have the need to point out how Damon makes every teen look very smol.

This guy is tall. Not as tall as Jack, but probably close.

Anyways in conclusion, Damon Gray is a great dad and an overall better parental figure than pretty much every parent in the show. He’s shown to make decisions to protect Valerie, is very knowledgeable in security systems, kind, and considerate. I think I can say with confidence that Valerie’s lucky to have a dad like that.