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too-much-tma-stuff · 9 months ago

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Finally Getting Help (prt 8)

Masterpost

The next day was less chaotic but not by much. They had to go through everything they’d taken from the Fenton’s lab, and reluctantly accepted Danny and Jazz’s help with the task because they were familiar with the tech. That was surprisingly needed since all of their gadgets were extremely obtuse and looked like household appliances. It was honestly surprising how good Danny was with all of this stuff, he knew what everything was, how to take it apart and how to put it back together to show the heroes how it worked.

“They don’t all work for humans. Some have to be fueled with ectoplasm so they need to be constantly refueled. Dad used to wear a backpack full of the stuff ghost busters style but that’s really not practical so this one isn’t very useful to you. I can use it though,” Danny said as he screwed the last part back on the.. Whatever it was.

“Okay, but why does it look like a blender?” Tim asked, baffled and impressed.

“Oh that’s because that’s what it was built out of,” Danny said with a crooked smile. “We repurposed a lot of household items into tech. Give me a couple toasters and a microwave and I’ll have three specter deflectors ready for you before dinner time.” He said as he pressed his hand against one of the gins and it started glowing intently green.

“Here don’t drop it,” He said tossing it to Batman, who did manage to catch it. “I fueled it with three shots, just in case Vlad shows up or another ghosts threatens you. And actually even with your charms I would feel a lot better if you all had specter deflectors since you’re all involved with me now,” He sighed and rubbed his face.

“Well… we can get you toasters and a microwave but we can also get you more advanced parts if those will work better,” Bruce told Danny, gingerly holding the odd gun away from himself. It wasn’t a traditional gun so it wasn’t upsetting but he still didn’t like it.

Danny looked very tempted but he shook his head. “No I’d better do it with what I know, I can get it done faster that way and they work. I’d love to play with some of those more advanced parts though. I’m sure I can come with some fun stuff.”

Uh oh, Bruce didn’t like that look on Tim’s face, the last thing he needed was more encouragement! But Danny was the child of mad scientists, he would get along perfectly with Tim, Bruce was going to have to keep a close eye on them to make sure they didn’t accidentally make a death ray.

“You can join me in my lab later,” Tim offered hopefully and Danny glanced up at him with a borderline feral grin.

“That sounds great, I’m sure you have much better lab safety than my parents. Love engineering, would hate to die a second time.” He said it like a joke, just the way Jason tended to. Jazz laughed, but only to encourage her brother’s coping method, no one else did.

“Alright, we’ll go to the nearest home appliance store and get you some toasters and microwaves,” Bruce said.

“Hell ya, I should have been adopted by a rich family years ago,” Danny cackled. Oh dear, he’d been so traumatized yesterday Bruce hadn’t realized he was Feral. Why did this keep happening.

He informed Alfred of Danny’s request and by the time they finished going over the more confusing inventions and left for lunch the appliances were waiting for Danny in the lab that he and Tim would apparently now be sharing. Danny immediately dove on the machinery starting to take them apart with practiced hands. He seemed calm and in his element but Tim stayed to supervise, both just in case something went wrong, and because it was His lab and they hadn’t talked about rules of cohabitation yet.

Bruce left them to it. Alfred had informed him that Jason had arrived and headed straight to the kitchen without saying hello to anyone else. It wasn’t a surprise, he was closest to Alfred, he’s want to help with making dinner, and get the basic scoop from his most trusted family member before having to face anyone else. Bruce knew better than to intrude on that, but God did he want to.

Regardless of what his children thought Bruce cared deeply for all of them, and he hated that sometimes they doubted it. He wished he was better at telling and showing them, but he’d managed to convince himself it was too late for him to change so he didn’t have to face the years of mistakes and trauma he had endured and inflicted. No matter what what image he tried to project, he was still only human.

He went to his office, but he couldn’t settle to anything, he did a little bit of this, and little bit of that, and just ended up pacing the carpeted floor. He left them alone as long as he could before he gave in and went down to the kitchen.

“Sorry to interrupt, I just needed a cup of coffee,” He said as casually as he could. The looks Alfred and Jason gave him said neither of them actually believed his excuse, which was fair. “It’s good to see you Jaylad, thanks for coming.”

“Well I’m not going to miss out on a new brother am I? You gonna have this one running around in spandex too B?” He asked, raising an eyebrow, it made Bruce wince but it Was progress because he was acknowledging their familial ties.

“I’m almost two years too late to stop him,” Bruce said regretfully. “It’s been… a lot has happened. I’m sure Alfred caught you up on most of it, but I’d like to talk to you before you meet either of the siblings.”

“Trying to make sure I won’t be a bad influence?” Jason asked and Bruce couldn’t tell if he was joking or accusing.

“No, nothing like that,” Bruce said, holding up his hands. “I just want to talk.”

Jason hummed skeptically, scrutinizing Bruce before turning back towards Alfred. “What do you think Alfie, can you spare me?”

“I always appreciate your help master Jason, but I can manage on my own,” Alfred assured, sounding amused.

“Alright, to your office then?” Jason asked, turning back towards Bruce.

“Or the sitting room, whichever would be more comfortable.”

“Office,” Jason said firmly, this was the distance that he was keeping between them. They worked together now, and Jason cared for his siblings, but he kept them all at arms length. For everyone’s safety really, if they set him off he didn’t want to hurt them, and he didn’t want to be set off either. It always felt like shit. Jason followed Bruce to the office and sprawled in the soft chair across the desk from Bruce’s. He remembered being a kid, sitting properly and nervously in this chair across from Bruce hoping desperately for his approval. How times change.

“I just wanted to talk to you about the new kids” Bruce started and Jason waved him away.

“I’m really not going to corrupt them or anything, I Probably won’t be around enough to make a difference anyway.” Jason said dismissively.

Bruce took a deep breath, controlling his expression and folding his hands on the table. “That’s not it Jaylad, Alfred must have told you that the boy died and came back?”

Jason tensed and green swirled in his vision, it was the same thing that Bruce had seen in Danny when Zatana asked about Phantom. “Ya he did.” Defensive and insecure.

“It seems like he, and his sister who was sort of a caretaker to him, know a lot more than we do about the effect that that has on a person. To help us take care of Danny she gave us a presentation about it, it… makes a lot of sense. You should probably talk to her and Danny about it really but I just wanted to apologize.

“I’ve been trying to fix this, fix… you for a long time and I know I’ve been going about it wrong and I’ve been hurting you.”

“You got a new treatment plan in mind, old man?” Jason asked, his arms crossed and Bruce wished that mistrust wasn’t earned.

“No,” Bruce sighed looking down. “Really Jason I don’t, I know I was wrong. This is something I just didn’t know I didn’t know about,” He hated his own ignorance, he hated to admit it! He was Batman! The way he kept up with other superheroes was always being prepared for everything and knowing more than everyone around him, but he hadn’t even known there was something there to know!

“This isn’t about that, and it’s not about you staying away from the new kids. Exactly the opposite actually, since they know more about this, and Danny might be one of the few people who really understands what it’s like to die and come back like that, I was hoping you’d spend more time here, around them. I think it might help you both.”

“Huh,” Jason sounded, blinking rapidly because that was the most sincere apology he’d gotten from Bruce and he didn’t quite know how to react to it. “Maybe… maybe.” He hadn’t met the new siblings yet after all, maybe they’d hate each other.

“Can I meet them now?” He asked looking back up at Bruce curiously.

“Of course, the girl's name is Jasmine Fenton, called Jazz, the boy goes by Danny. Jazz is turning 18 soon, Danny is 16.”

Right Tim had mentioned that, so Danny was about 3 years younger than him then. That shouldn’t matter too much, and maybe Tim will be right about the sister and can tease Jason about it. He’d been single for a while and wouldn’t mind changing that.

“Of course, I think you should meet Jazz first, she’s protective of Danny and she hasn’t been very involved in all of this. I think she’d feel better being allowed to… vet you first for lack of a better word. Are you okay with that?” Bruce asked Jason politely.

“Sure, I don’t really care what order I meet them in and… Look Bruce I know I’m mad at you, and I was really hard on Timmy when everything was still raw. But I’m never going to knowingly hurt a kid, or make life harder for them. If I can help them I will,” Jason said sincerely.

“Jason, the girl is less than a year younger than you. You’re a kid too,” Bruce said sadly. Jason froze for a moment, Yes he was 19, his mind wasn’t fully developed yet or whatever the hell, but he hadn’t felt like a kid since his death. Even before that, the responsibility for his mother, and then the work as a hero. Bruce wanted soldiers, Jason had never gotten a chance to be a kid really.

“Whatever,” Jason scoffed, shoving his hands into his pockets and standing up, closing himself off from that sincerity. “Do you know where she is?”

“She’s in the library,” Bruce said, his lips twitching up in a smile. “She loves books almost as much as you did, though she seems to be more drawn to non-fiction.”

Jason hummed and nodded, heading towards the door since he knew his own damn way to the library, Bruce didn’t have to lead! He did follow through, he was clearly protective of these kids so of course he would want to be there when Jason met them.

When he entered the library he saw a young woman sitting at one of the tables with some sort of text book. Her back was straight and her legs tucked under the chair with her ankles crossed. It looked like she was self consciously trying to look put together. She looked up at them, blue green eyes looking him over critically, he could practically see her picking him apart in her mind and he tried not to fidget.

“Hey, it’s nice to meet you, I’m Jason Todd,” He said, walking over and offering her his hand to shake. She was very pretty, but he was surprised by his own complete lack of attraction, she just didn’t register that way, she seemed more… maternal almost.

“Ah, the dead son,” She chuckled, getting up from the table and reaching out to shake his hand, her grip was strong and her hands were soft and cool. “It’s nice to meet you, they mentioned you. Nothing bad,” She added when she saw her face. “And I don’t mean to be rude, I know some people are sensitive about their deaths being mentioned. Danny jokes about it all the time so… I just wanted to let you know that I know, and I accept you.” Jazz said with a warm smile.

Her easy acceptance caught him off guard and before he could help it he was baring his teeth at her in a snarl, defensive and probing, did she mean it? She grinned sharper bearing sharp fangs at him in a matching sign of… friendly aggression, something inside him settled. He chuckled and took a step back. “Well thanks, nice to meet someone who doesn’t look like they bit a lemon every time I make a death joke.”

“It’s your death, as long as it’s healthy you can own that however comes naturally to you,” Jazz promised, sitting back down at the desk. “I’d love to talk more and get to know you, but we can do that later. You really should meet Danny.”

“You don’t want to come with us,” Bruce broke in, sounding worried. Jason had almost forgotten he was there, he hadn’t realized how… all encompassing the short interaction had been.

“I’ll probably follow,” Jazz said with a shrug, her gaze turning stern as she looked at Bruce. “Remember what I said about never breaking up a fight,” She told him firmly.

Well if that didn’t make Jason nervous he didn’t know what did. Why would he fight with Danny? Would Danny fight with him? Why? “You really think it’s a good idea for us to meet? Why would we fight?” Jason asked her sharply.

“Of course,” she agreed, her eyes softening as she looked back at him, though her expression remained a little mischievous. “It’ll be good for both of you.”

#danny phantom #dc x dp #fanfiction #dc stands for disregard cannon #bruce wayne #jason todd #jazz fenton #alfred pennyworth #eventual dead on main #finally getting help au #trans!danny #Danny is pregnant #tim drake #Danny is feral #unedited #if you find errors let me know #comments welcome #long post #multi part fic

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anjanahalo · 4 months ago

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Potential DPxDC Fic 6

Guess it could be just DP. I just like DPxDC. It's a Bad Fenton Parents fic, but based on me reading about various new forms of child abuse to use. CW below for childhood neglect and stuff.

Danny is born into the Fenton family after Jack and Maddie lose their beloved Jasmine to The Stystem. Taken from their home and placed in foster care for small things like forgetting to get her lunch perfectly on time (or every day after a breakthrough) or getting behind on laundry for awhile (after spending a week backing up their research in case of a ghost or EMP strike. Its not like they managed time to bathe or change clothes, either!). They wouldn't make the same mistake as they would with their lovely daughter. Instead of announcing the pregnancy, they kept quiet. Maddie stayed home so the neighbors didn't see her growing belly. When the birth came, they delivered at home (a biology degree is good enough!), and vowed to home school him so he would stay and not be taken away. The homeschooling didn't...end up with the same results as traditional school. They were both still busy closing in on their portal, after all, so lessons were usually sporadic and centered around their work. Danny definitely had the Fenton Genius (TM) from how he picked up advanced physics, calculus, mechanical engineering and mathmatics. He still wasn't great at reading regular words or writing, but his numbers are neat and his calculations flawless, so things like English and History could sit on the side. It was sad, of course, how Danny was stuck in the home for the sake of the family, the curtains permanently drawn to avoid the nosy neighbors that tore apart their family before, but instead of moping or rebellion, he worked alongside them as soon as he could. Maddie framed his first hazmat suit, gifting him a new one with each growthspurt, always white ("We'll let you pick your own Fenton OSHA Approved Hazmat Color once you grow up, Danny."), and he stood with his parents as they tried to open the portal when he turned fourteen. And it failed. Dejected, all three left and ate the planned celebratory fudge with sullen expressions, the fudge itself feeling overly tacky with their depression. Danny, however, got up in the middle of the night and snuck into the basement, his steps smooth and confident even in the darkness of the house (he could get anywhere in the house with his eyes closed). He crept into the basement, an idea striking him. There was an auxillary power button inside the portal itself, meant as a backup or last resort override. However, Danny knew his dad installed the electrical system overnight one night in a fit of manic inspiration. What if it wasn't the auxillary power button anymore? He slipped on his hazmat suit. He walked into the portal, double checked the wiring, and looked up at the button, red and obvious in the wall. If he was correct, he thought as he raised his hand to the button, all he had to do was-

Jack and Maddie raced down the stairs as the lights flickered and a faint cry rose from below. In the basement they found Danny in his hazmat suit. He stared at them with frightful shock, his hair and left hand singed, then turned toward the humming that enraptured his parents as soon as the descended. The portal was working. It worked! Jack and Maddie and Danny were all elated, but Danny began to recede from their work. Stating he wanted to journal their portal research and development into a story, he began to hide in his room more and more. He ordered and read books on biology, psychology, even philosophy, because he knew what happened to him. The portal opened on him, and he died. He awoke in the basement as a ghost, barely transforming himself into something human looking before his parents arrived. However, what he thought he felt went against everything he knew about ghosts. Ghosts weren't sentient. They were emotions strongly imprinted on ectoplasm. Enough ectoplasm or emotions and an echo of those dead feelings rose, taking on an avatar and acting purely off the instinct of the moods that made them. Considering ectoplasm usually manifested with death, and the strongest emotions of the dying are usually fear and anger, most ghosts were destructive with no care for property or life, mindless monsters who'd tear apart the mortal world if left to their own devices in a vain attempt to soothe their undying emotions. But Danny still felt like Danny. He had thoughts, emotions, physical feeling, everything like when he was...when the portal wasn't open. Research, thankfully, taught him what happened. After all, signs were there that something changed for the worse in him. He felt afraid of his parents, and he'd begun lying to them daily when he could never remember telling a fib. On top of that were the strange new powers he couldn't control and shapeshifting abilities between himself and some ghostly manifestation of himself. The portal changed him. He wasn't Danny the Human anymore, but he wasn't a typical ghost, either. Danny was a Philosophical Zombie, and he had no idea how he's gonna tell his parents.

#dpxdc #danny phantom #it's mostly danny but can easily include Your Fave Hero

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long-live-astronerd-ghost-king · 1 year ago

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Ectoberhaunt 2023. Day 17. Blood and Flesh.

CW: TW! Recurrent pregnancy loss. TW!Abortion. TW!Bleeding

Maddie: Jack, we need to talk. I know this is gonna sound crazy but I think Phantom, the ghost boy, is actually our son. And I’m sure Danny and Jazz know about it too.

What if we bring down on the Fentons the knowledge that they have ghost children without revealing Phantom’s identity?

Text+Chat+Memes=Prompt:

Of course Maddie wanted to have children. But…Not in college. She felt it was too soon. The lack of stable earnings and time were not conditions for growing a new person. She had nothing to give this potential child. Maddie did not hesitate long before deciding to have an abortion.

And for years, neither Jack nor Maddie have thought about this unplanned pregnancy.

Ectoplasm is toxic, obviously. But since ectology was only recently recognized by the scientific community, no one has ever fully analysed the effects of ectoplasm on the body.

When Maddie and Jack had the misfortune to become one of those couples experiencing recurrent pregnancy loss, they immediately suspected that the ectoplasm in their lab contributed to their reproductive difficulty. Put simply, death didn’t go with life.

They may not always have followed the lab’s safety rules perfectly, but is that why one of their first works will be exposing a teratogenic effect of ectoplasm? What if they’ve lost their only chance to be biological parents?

What a cruel price to pay for the work of life. Jack and Maddie so dreamed of their little happiness. Do they have to forget about it?

No, the Fentons don’t give up that easily!

They may have to spend a few years doing only theoretical work, but they’ll try again.

~~~~~

Ectoplasm is toxic. Tests, hopes…and a few miscarriages too.

Jazz was a miracle. Fenton family literally didn’t get out of hospitals to look after her health.

Danny was an even bigger miracle, because they didn’t have any hope of having a second child. Maddie and Jack didn’t even plan this pregnancy. Danny was born premature, with signs of hypoxia... but alive. His potential twin was not so lucky. Single intrauterine fetal death (sIUFD).

Right. Death still followed them. Of course, parents didn’t tell Jazz and Danny that they might have had another brother. It was their grief. Children had no reason to know about it.

~~~~~

"You filthy ghost!" Maddie stopped to rest after a chase for elder Phantom.

"Exhausted?" Dan was flying at a safe distance from her. "Maybe it’s time to retire, Maddie? A little exercise never stopped you before." The ghost was clearly making fun of her.

"Not going to happen, I’ll do it until I die if Amity Park need it. And my son will be here to stop you instead of me after me or Jack."

The smile on Ghost’s face faded immediately. "I hope he die first." The ghost whispered in a hoarse voice."It's best for everyone."

"What did you say?" Maddie rose up in anger, pointing her weapon at it.

"Has any thought crossed your mind about what happens to your children if anything happens to you? Go out every day and yell like idiots, attracting all the ghosts around." An ectoblast is blowing right up against her temple and crashing into the wall. The ghost frowned and turned away. "Did you ever think that Danny wouldn’t want to live without you? Did you think that he would be hurt if he had to lose you? No! Is it always about your stupid desires and ambitions, Mom."

For a moment Maddie thought he it was looking at her like it had seen a ghost, which was obviously just ridiculous. Maddie wanted to laugh about it, but somehow she couldn’t. Why would the ghost trying to fake human emotion care to hide the tears that gather in the corners of its eyes?

Maddie tried to get it out of her head. Anyway, it’s not that important. Phantoms have always been atypical. She’ll come home, take a warm shower, and tell Danny how much she loves him.

~~~~~

Maddie: My son is a strong boy and Dan: He’s weak! He’s a freak! He can’t handle it, Mom!

Maddie had long pondered this theory since the day Jack admitted that Phantom had misspoke during the fight and called him his father but she had never experienced it before. Or maybe she wasn’t paying attention.

Maddie: Hey, Phantom, just a question, how old are you? Dan: Why are you changing the subject? Twenty-four, twenty-five… Hell, I don’t remember. Stopped counting after 17, nobody cares anyway. And her first months dating Jack were 24 years ago. Right. The eyebrows, the shape of eyes and the height is all from Jack. The waist and the side eye from her. Theoretically. Still need more proof.

~~~~~~

Dan: Is this all your frail human form can do?

Maddie walked past the Casper High playground when she saw a ghost flying around. It was one of the new ones. The Phantom’s full-grown specimen. More dangerous. And totally unpredictable. Maddie squeezed the gun harder. Her theories are just theories and she can’t have such a dangerous spirit near the school, near her children.

Danny: Shut up and give me my bottle of water, asshole.

This voice. Maddie stopped in shock. What’s her boy doing so close to a ghost? He’s always so terrified of them.

Dan: No pull-ups, no water. You need muscles. Without them you’re gonna look like a worm if you’re gonna grow up to be taller than Jack as I am.

Danny: Just so you know, you’re a terrible big brother and I hate you.

Dan: Well, that just means I’m doing a good job.

Danny: When Mom asks who destroyed the furniture in Vlad’s house I’m pointing at you. A little run around town will be good for you. And as they say, Older siblings are like your parents' personal science fair. They're a bunch of experiments.

Dan: ...Just so you know, it sounded completely insane. Terrible. Good job, but don’t go near Dani with those jokes. Jazz will kill us both for setting a bad example. Danny: Bad example? Since when has a good sense of humor become a bad example? Dan: Shut up. Drink water and go to the shower. Jazz is gonna kick my ass if you die of overheating.

Danny: Huh, afraid of one know-it-all? When dad chased you with a bazooka, you didn’t seem scared.

Dan: Сome on, dad has a lot of strengths, yeah, but the ability to aim isn't one of them. And not

Dani: driving a car?

Danny: Right. Wait, how long have you been eavesdropping? Dani: Long enough to blackmail you both. Сomputer’s mine for the rest of the week. Dan and Danny: Shit.

~~~~~

The Invisobill. or Phantom. Ha. Danny Fenton…Danny Phantom. Weston boy said crazy things. Yeah. But what if he was only partially wrong? Everything except the color of its eyes and hair is so much like Danny's. If this were typical manipulation from a ghost hoping to shake the desire of ghost hunters to chase a creature similar to their child, he would have had to give it up months ago. But phantom did not change his disguise. This is his true form. What about ghost girl and older ghost? They are also so young.

Maddie could not sleep. In her head struggled scientist and woman weighed down by feelings of guilt and shame. She was tormented by philosophical problems and religious issues. No, Maddie, not even a neural tube is formed at that time. It was just a collection of cells. It’s not a person. It doesn’t feel pain. And ghosts do not too. Right? Is it even acceptable to compare such things? Is it possible that a ghost is not the remnant of negative human emotions and memories? What is responsible for its formation then? What is the purpose of such a ghost? And more importantly, how long have these ghosts been near and they did not notice? Has the portal become a source of energy necessary for their existence in the physical plane? Or is it only they who have not seen them?

So painful. It’s so unpleasant to think about what monsters they look like to their dear Danny and Jazz. Ghosts or not, she threatened creatures who might have been part of their family in front of her babies. God, naive teens must think that three Phantoms are their siblings or something. Of course! That explains the disappearance of fenton thermos and the way the Phantoms sneak into the portal and Danny’s always somewhere in trouble and…Oh my God, they could be in so much danger! How long has this been going on? No, the real question is..Hm, if this is going on for so long, why haven’t the ghosts done anything…evil? If their nature is in the destruction then why didn’t anything happen? Jack and she would never have missed something that would hurt their children.

~~~~~~

The fight between the Skulker and Invisobill was particularly fierce this time. Maddie was unlucky to be in one of the damaged buildings. But who is she if not a scientist? She will find a way to benefit in such a situation.

Unnecessary risk, completely unprofessional. But… The debris of the wall does not lie on her very tightly and the weapon still with Maddie. Yeah. She has to test her theory. She has to. She can get up and leave if she needs to. Right? A little dizziness never killed anyone. She just feels cold and sounds are strange. Maddie: Help. Help! Someone! M-Maddie? An insecure voice with an echo sounds. Yes, it's near. Maddie: Help! I can’t.. I can’t get up. T-Hard to breathe. Danny: Mum! Mama, hold on, I’m coming.

Phantom checks her pupillary reflex. Who taught him that? Jazz? The touch of his hand, so cold and shaky. Now Maddie really doesn't feel so good. It’s good that the ghost is her boy. She doesn’t have to worry about anything happening to people around. Neither he nor Danny know how to lie. She can breathe. Just cover her eyes for a moment and… Just a few seconds. Phantom:Jazz, Jazz! Call an ambulance. I don’t know what to do. I..I can’t just make mum intangible. What if she has a crush syndrome and I make it worse or… Her boy. Why is Danny so scared? Danny: Tucker, she is bleeding and she’s not responding to me and… Sshh, my little star, is all right. Mom just needs to lie down and rest a little.

~~~~~~

Maddie could not believe that she had actually passed out. But the time spent in the hospital gave her enough time to think about everything.

Maddie: Jack, we need to talk. I know this is gonna sound crazy but I think Phantom, the ghost boy, is actually our son. And I’m sure Danny and Jazz know about it too.

Jack: Honey, are you sure we don’t need to double-check if you have a concussion?

~~~~~~

Maddie and Jack decide to watch surveillance videos for the first time. After all, it concerns the safety of their children, they have the right to know what happens in the house in their absence. Especially when the ghosts are nearby. Children *live in their own sitcom*:

They have seen enough. Maddie decides to check chats on Jazz’s phone. It’s for their safety, only. She’s a good mother but what if the ghosts are up to something?

The chat was so..Teenage? And Chaotic. Normal? No, definitely not. How many times have they punished Danny unfairly? Did Jazz learn to lie and they didn’t even notice? And what the hell, why were they joking about dissection. It’s just awful. They need to talk immediately. No, it will look suspicious. They need to try to make contact with ghosts. And then they’ll all be grounded. All five.

Oh, and she thought two kids were a lot of work. How are they gonna handle three more with the bizarre biology ectology? Do they have hobbies, interests? They are definitely more complicated than theblob-ghosts. Was she wrong? Do they have emotions, a need for socialization? Can she trust her emotions in this matter?

~~~~Bonus~~~~

"What the hell happened to freak’s neck?!"

Danny: Um, excuse me, ma'am, he’s been doing Hatha yoga in India for years. Practice opens up amazing flexibility in the joints! Right, brother?

Dan: Fuck off.

Ma'am: Don’t take me for an idiot! What about his skin color then? Jack: You have something against my son’s tan? Dan: I told you going shopping with me was a bad idea. Dani: If you didn’t scare everyone around, it wouldn’t be so bad.

Dan:...I didn’t even try to do it this time. Why is she meddling?!

~~~Bonus~~~~

Dan: Why am I only third? Dani: Because I have successfully stabbed Danny in the back when he did not expect it. With you he is always waiting for a trick. This makes me much more successful than you :)

#ectoberhaunt23 #ectoberhaunt 2023 #eh23 #ectoberhaunt #eh magic #eh science #day 17 #blood #flesh #danny phantom #danny fenton #dan phantom #dani phantom #dp prompt #dp memes #tw blood #tw abortion #tw recurrent pregnancy loss

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elizabethemerald · 2 years ago

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Gala Daze DPxDC

AO3

“What a great idea Vladdie!”

“I don’t know Jack…”

“Oh I assure you, my dear Maddie that Daniel will be perfectly safe with me. I won’t let him out of my sight for a moment.”

“Come on Maddie, it would be a perfect opportunity for our Danno to bump elbows with some rich bigwigs!”

“Well maybe he can talk to them about getting some funding for ghost extermination. Very well Vlad. You can take Danny to Gotham.”

Danny was disassociating. While not entirely a new state of being, a dissociative episode had never lasted this long for him. He had been fully checked out from his body ever since the flight from Amity Park to Gotham. He had been thinking about turning intangible and just letting the plane fly through him so he could go home, when Vlad had leaned over to him to whisper in his ear. Vlad said if Danny stepped even one toe out of line, or did anything to embarrass him, Vlad would overshadow as many people as it took to ensure that Jazz was turned down by every college she applied to. He would ruin her entire future if Danny did even one thing wrong.

Danny had started disassociating after that.

His parents had done a lot to hurt him and Jazz. Usually the harm the elder Fentons did to their children was either accidental or unknowing. Like when Jazz was sick for days after the Thanksgiving dinner where Dad tried to fry the turkey in ectoplasm or like when they shot Danny when he was out as Phantom.

However this time there was no excuse for them hurting their kids. If they ever listened to their children they would know that Danny hated Vlad and Jazz didn’t trust him. The kids had said over and over again for years that they didn’t like Vlad, but no! Uncle Vladdie could do no wrong! Danny and Jazz were just making things up for attention.

Ancients, Danny hoped that he could keep his nose clean for the trip, he didn’t want to be responsible for Jazz having to give up her dreams of getting into an Ivy League school. He had lost huge swaths of time. He barely remembered leaving the airport and the next time he was cognizant they were heading to the gala in the tailored suits Vlad had ordered.

Fortunately Vlad loved nothing more than the sound of his own voice, not even Danny or his mom. So he was more than happy to talk to the people around them about Danny and any time someone asked Danny a question he would be the one to answer instead. Vlad kept his hand either on Danny’s shoulder or on the back of his neck at all times so he couldn’t even slip away.

Now he was talking to some rich fruitloop who kept trying to engage Danny in conversation. Brucie? Wait? Bruce Wayne? Yeah the guy was rich but why would Vlad go out of his way to introduce Danny to this airhead?

“Well, yes, my son Damian does have many interests, but I can’t say that any of them have to do with NASA's latest satellite.” Mr. Wayne was saying in response to something Vlad had said. Ah. That made sense. Vlad wanted to brag, shove his superiority into Mr. Wayne’s face. Brucie turned to address Danny. “Tell me Daniel, what do you know about NASA's deep space satellite?”

“Uh, I prefer Danny actually, Mr. Wayne.” Danny said. Mr. Wayne’s eyebrows rose marginally considering those were his first words during this conversation. “And I-”

“Yes, Daniel really is attached to that childish nickname, isn’t he?” Vlad spoke up again. “Really Brucie, you would think children would grow up at some point. We should discuss this more over a game of golf next week…”

Danny let Vlad’s words wash over him again. The worst thing about Vlad was he really knew how to push Danny’s buttons. Of course he would bring up the new satellite only to show off to his rich rival, then not even let Danny talk about it. And then insulting him for his name! Prick!

He tried to avoid looking at Brucie’s concerned face. Obviously he was a socialite and knew all about the proper behavior for galas, and Vlad probably wasn’t meeting those social rules. There was a small part of Danny’s chaos-gremlin brain that wanted to say something seemingly innocuous but super sus if you thought about it. Nothing would make Danny happier than getting Vlad investigated for something stupid like tax fraud, but he couldn’t risk Jazz’s career just for spite. Or gremlin urges.

Vlad moved his hand from Danny’s shoulder down to his lower back. Danny did everything he could to keep the snarl he wanted to make at that action from coming out. He still couldn’t help the full body shudder that shook his frame for a fraction of a second. Vlad shot him a look filled with malice and promised pain so Danny reigned himself back in and put his attention firmly on the floor in front of him.

Danny clenched his fists, driving his nails into his own palms. He was sure he was bleeding, but he couldn’t stop. He couldn’t do anything. He hated feeling powerless. You would think that after the portal accident and him gaining actual real powers the feeling would be far more rare, except it happens far too often and he hated it. His hands were shaking with rage and suppressed desire to punch Vlad right in his smug, manipulative, fruit-loop face.

He chanced a glance up just in time to see a girl melt out of the shadows near the wall. If he didn’t know better he would say she was a ghost with how easily she was able to appear. But she definitely wasn’t a ghost. Perhaps a touch liminal, but not a ghost. And she was watching him.

Danny tilted his head slightly to get a better look at her and she tilted her head to match. Her eyes flicked to the two adults for only a fraction of a second to confirm they were still engaged in whatever conversation they were having, then her hand came up and she signed for letters in what Danny recognized as ASL.

“R U O K.”

She merely looked the question at him. He risked a peak at Vlad, but he was focused on trying to strong arm Brucie into meeting for a golf match and some private drinks. Other than his thumb rubbing circles into the small of Danny’s back he wasn’t paying any attention to him. Danny looked back at the girl who was watching him intently. He gave the smallest shake of his head he could, hoping that Vlad wouldn’t notice. The girl nodded and slipped effortlessly back into the shadows, all but disappearing from view.

Several more minutes went by of mindless conversation with Mr. Wayne seemingly had given up on trying to get Danny to answer questions. He let his mind drift again to his beloved stars as he began naming the stars in biggest constellations visible in the night sky.

For a while Danny thought that nothing would come of the mystery girl who had checked on him, until a crash echoed across the hall from the entrance of the gala hall. Vlad finally released Danny’s shoulder to whirl to face the noise. Then to his surprise, Mr. Wayne turned as well to put himself in between Danny and the crash, effectively hiding him from Vlad. At first he thought that was just serial adopter Brucie Wayne’s first gut instinct in a crisis, putting his body between a threat and the nearest black haired kid.

However, immediately after Mr. Wayne stepped in front of him, two kids appeared out of the crowd, grabbed Danny’s shoulders and started to drag him away. He recognized the asian girl who had signed to him, and the other was, even more surprisingly, Damian Freaking Wayne! That meant that the other girl must be Cassandra Wayne! Sam had made sure Danny knew all the Waynes before the topic of the gala had even come up. Apparently the Waynes were the only people who made the events her parents dragged her to worth it.

Damian and Cassandra maneuvered through the crowd so effortlessly Danny had to take a moment to check if they were using intangibility. The trio weaved through as the noise behind them got even louder until they pulled him into a back room of the hall where a very tired looking Timothy Drake-Wayne was already there on his laptop. He looked up at Danny in confusion for a second before returning his attention to the computer in front of him.

“Don’t worry, that noise was just the chandelier in the entrance hall falling. Apparently it couldn’t take Dick’s weight.” Timothy, actual real CEO of Wayne enterprises said. Tucker would be losing his mind right now.

Cassandra settled Danny into a chair while Damian marched up to Timothy. Danny could finally take a moment to look properly at the Waynes. All three of them wore elegant, likely name brand suits. Timothy was wearing a plain white shirt under his suit jacket while Cassandra and Damian wore black on black suits, though Damian’s did have some green highlights at the lapels and pockets. Timothy looked like his eye bags had eye bags, which Danny could relate to.

“Father ordered you not to work for the night of the Gala.” Damian snapped. When Timothy didn’t dignify that with a response the youngest Wayne turned back to face Danny. “Vladimir Masters escorted you to the gala tonight.”

Danny couldn’t help but snort.

“What a polite way of phrasing that.” He said with a dark chuckle.

“Would it be more accurate to call you his hostage?” Timothy asked from his chair, where he was still focusing on his computer screen and whatever it was he was working on.

That brought Danny up short. He tried to stutter out a denial, but Damian quickly spoke over him.

“Has he hurt you? Threatened you or someone you care about?” Damian demanded.

“N-no! He would never lay a finger on me!” Danny was quick to say, trying to project as much confidence as possible. Cassandra moved her flat hand in line across her face. Damian glanced at her and his eyes narrowed at Danny.

“You don’t have to lie to protect him. We can protect you, our family has resources.”

Danny shook his head over and over again.

“I can’t talk about it. I can’t talk about it. I can’t talk about it.” He had to repeat himself, the phrase trapping themselves in his mind as he kept saying it over and over again.

If he told them what Vlad had done to him, Vlad would ruin Jazz’s entire life. He already regularly tried to kill his father, but there was no telling what he would do to Jazz. Danny couldn’t tell them about being thrown into walls during his fights with Plasimus, or the clones Danny had watched melt in his arms under Vlad’s uncaring eye. He almost jumped out of his skin when a hand came to rest on his shoulder.

While he was panicking, Damian had withdrawn, visibly uncertain about how best to approach him. Cassandra and Timothy had come closer, Cassandra had her hand on his shoulder providing a calm, steadying presence. Timothy had closed his laptop and scooted forward his attention now fully on Danny. He made some motion to the others that seemed to symbolize that he was going to be taking point.

“You’re not from Gotham originally, is that right?” When Danny nodded he continued. “We have some heroes here in Gotham. Believe it or not, we Waynes get kidnapped a lot, get rescued a lot. We know some of the Bats, they could help you.”

Danny was already shaking his head again.

“No, no no! That’s even worse. The worst thing that can happen if you Waynes help me is Brucie gives Vlad WE for pennies on the dollar and Vlad gets even richer. But if you get Batman involved, then he could have a man inside the JL. He could turn them against the people, use them as a tool to take over whatever he wants. He could overthrow the Ghost King…”

Now Danny was really panicking. He had muttered the last bit, terror carving its way through him. It would be like the absolute worst of the fight with Pariah Dark and Dan all over again. Danny would have to fight, and maybe kill the Justice League to stop him. If he won, he would have to eradicate Earth’s heroes, and if he lost Vlad would become King of the Infinite Realms.

“You are talking about mind control.” Damian said, his eyes wide.

“No! Not mind control. Overshadowing. Humans call it possession.” Danny was rambling now. Desperately trying to convince these silly rich people not to get involved. Danny was a lost cause, he couldn’t be helped. All he could do was keep his head down long enough for Jazz to get into her college of choice. The Waynes glanced at each other nervously for a moment and Damian pulled his phone from his pocket.

“I think I need to make a call.”

Danny snapped his head up, his attention on the far wall as his breath came out in a foggy puff, like he had just walked into a freezer. He didn't know it but his eyes were blazing green at that moment.

“It’s too late now.”

The Waynes all step back or slouch against their chairs. Only a second later the door to their room snaps open, Vlad furious, his once spotless suit now covered in red wine and assorted finger foods. His eyes burned red with rage as he locked onto Danny. Timothy immediately stood to his feet.

“Ah, Mr. Masters.” Vlad pulled himself back from his rage with difficulty to acknowledge the young CEO. “We were just coming out to look for you. Your ward was grabbed by our security team. Small case of mistaken identity. It's standard procedure during these sorts of events to get my brothers and sister to safety in the event of another terrorist attack. Or worse a Joker attack. Thankfully it seems everything is under control. You may take your charge now.”

Timothy brushed past Vlad without another comment. Damian glared at him, but he glared at everyone, while Cassandra just stared at Vlad, unblinking, like some kind of demonic cat. Her complete lack of reaction obviously weirded Vlad out even more than Damian’s aggression.

“Oh I’ll do that.” He grabbed Danny’s arm hard enough to bruise. “Come Daniel. We’re leaving.”

Danny turned away from the Waynes as he was dragged out the door. He didn’t want to face their pity. At least he did a good enough job convincing them that they can’t help him. Now he just had to last long enough to get back home again. He let himself checkout, ignoring Vlad’s crushing grip on his arm as he dragged from the gala and back to the hotel.

When Danny next checked in with his body it was to Vlad screaming in his face and burning pain in his body. In Vlad’s furious race out of the Gala after his humiliation he had pulled Danny’s arm out of his socket. And to emphasize his points Vlad would hit him with ecto fire, each hit destroying more of his once nice suit and leaving burns on his body.

“You think you can just toy with me in front of these richest elite? I will make your life hell! I will make your sister’s life hell! She’ll be lucky to make a living on the street corners of a shit hole like this!” He gestured out to the window, which Danny belatedly realized was open. “I just don’t understand why you make me do this to you, Daniel. Little Badger, you are forcing my hand and I-”

He shrieked as a batarang whipped from the open window. The lights in the hotel room flickered for a second and Batman, Robin and Orphan were standing in the room when the lights returned. Vlad turned to them, furious that they would interrupt.

“Vladimir Masters. We have some questions for you.” Batman growled.

“No! I think you’ll find Batman, that I have some questions for you!” Vlad’s eyes flared red. Danny tried to stop him but he was backhanded away

Vlad floated into the air as his ghost transformation rolled over his body. He reached out to grab Batman but before he could several things happened at once. First and most shockingly, Robin drew a katana and cut off Plasmius’ hand at the wrist. Then several voices shouted out at once.

“Azarath Metrion Zinthos!”

“Dnib siht tirips ot sti ydob!”

“Puer iste spiritus maxime!”

Chains of gold, purple and blazing fire wrapped around Plasmius again and again. The chains dragged him down to the ground even as he snarled and swore at them. A man in a trench coat, a woman in a long black cloak and an actual stage magician appeared in the room, magic sparking at their fingertips. Cassandra had bypassed the battle completely to come to Danny's side, though she did still have her weapons in her hands. Batman turned to address him, ignoring Vlad’s continued vitriol in the middle of the arcane trap.

“You’re safe now Danny. You don’t have to worry about him hurting you ever again. This I swear.” Batman said, his voice just as serious as it ever was, and for the first time in his life, Danny felt like he could actually believe it when someone told him he was safe. He collapsed to his knees, shuddering sobs shaking his body. He was safe, Jazz was safe from Vlad’s machinations. Maybe this nightmare could finally be over.

#dp x dc #danny fenton #bruce wayne #vlad masters #vlad is a creepy pos #as per usual #cassandra cain

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q-gorgeous · 2 years ago

Text

They Had Been Afraid of Their Own Parents This Whole Time

fanfiction

ao3

word count: 1346

The Fenton Parents are the best parents in the world, but even they've noticed how much their kids have changed since the Portal activated. At first they think it's their logical fear of the ghosts that now attack Amity and they redouble their efforts to create weapons and defenses to keep their kids safe. But it only seems to make their kids grow more distant and Danny. Danny looks downright -terrified- at some of their weapons. It's not until one of their kids throws themselves between the Drs Fenton and a ghost that the Fentons realize--it's -them- their kids are scared of. @akela-nakamura

more fic wooooo

Jack and Maddie Fenton always prided themselves in being the best parents they could be.

They had always encouraged their kids' interests. They were well aware that their own interests seemed a bit eccentric to most people, so they wanted to give their own children undivided support when it came to the things they were interested in or wanted to do.

Jazz had always loved learning about how the mind worked. She’s been a bright young girl from an early age and once Jack and Maddie started noticing how many times Jazz would check out certain psychology textbooks from the public library, they eventually bought her her own copies.

And Danny. Danny had the brightest imagination. He was always reaching for the stars, quite literally. He wanted to be an astronaut someday. They bought anything space related that he wanted. Glow in the dark stars, model rockets, posters. He decorated his entire room with it all. It was what he dreamed of, to be able to be among the stars.

But something was different now. Danny didn’t seem to be as interested in becoming an astronaut, if his grades were anything to go by. Becoming an astronaut took a lot of knowledge and book smarts and it was something Danny seemed to lack these days. He was always skipping class, missing assignments. It was like he didn’t care anymore.

Ever since the portal turned on he was different. They knew he was down there for some reason when the portal miraculously turned on one day. It had given him quite the electric shock. They’d taken him to the hospital to make sure he was okay but the doctor said he was perfectly healthy. But still, something had changed with Danny that day. They just didn’t know what that was.

Then the ghosts appeared. With every ghost that came through the portal, Danny had a new excuse about why he couldn’t go with his parents to capture it, or why he didn’t want to be in the lab when they were doing experiments. He even avoided all mentions of ghosts that he could. There could only be one thing wrong.

Their son was afraid of ghosts. As he should be! Ghosts were very dangerous, especially to people who could be easily manipulated, like teenagers.

One prime example of a ghost coming to Amity Park that targeted teenagers was that Ember Mcclain girl. Danny was lucky to not have fallen for her ploy, but Jazz did. For all of Jazz’s smarts, she was still tricked by a ghost.

So Jack and Maddie had to protect them. They needed to do everything in their power to keep their kids safe from ghosts.

They spent day and night building new weapons and defenses. With the ever increasing ghost problem, it was necessary.

They’d take their new inventions up to the dinner table with them and proudly show them to Danny and Jazz. At first, Jazz would roll her eyes. She never believed in ghosts herself. Not until she had a close call with one at the school. Now, Jazz looked just as terrified as Danny. But they didn’t have to be afraid anymore. Not when Jack and Maddie could make whatever they needed to take down, capture, and defeat the ghosts.

That’s when the real fun would begin. Once they captured the ghosts, they had an extraordinary opportunity to study it. They planned on doing experiments, examinations, all sorts of things. This would be what would help spur their research on.

But no matter how much Jack and Maddie tried to comfort their kids, they still looked terrified. But that was okay. Being afraid of the ghosts would protect them.

Especially Phantom. He flew around and pretended to save the town, pretending that he was the good guy. But he caused just as much damage as the other ghosts and he had even committed crimes! He stole from a jewelry store and attacked the mayor! This ghost’s expert manipulation didn’t work on Jack and Maddie. His near perfect mimicry just made him the perfect ghost to capture and examine. They wanted to see his insides, what made him tick, how long he would keep up his charades.

Phantom was too good at tricking them. Even their kids, who were terrified of ghosts, were fans of Phantom. Jazz was even going as far as to start arguments with Jack and Maddie about him. Telling them that they just needed to give him a chance. They should have an actual conversation with a ghost, maybe they would learn something. She was so convinced that what he put on display for the town to see was genuine.

Not long after this, Danny and Jazz became more distant. They could tell that they were upset that they couldn’t sway their parents' views. They eventually stopped arguing, but they also stopped coming to breakfast and dinner. They’d make excuses for why they couldn’t eat at the table or why they wouldn’t be home that night.

It infuriated them. Phantom had put such a rift into their family. How? What could he have possibly done to convince Danny and Jazz that their parents were in the wrong?

It wasn’t until a day far after that that they finally understood.

Phantom was fighting a ghost in the middle of the football field. He’d been fighting for a while already when Jack and Maddie had arrived and they could tell he was getting tired. The ghost he was fighting hit him and it sent him flying through the air. He landed on the ground in front of Jack and Maddie. They trained their weapons on him, preparing to shoot.

This was their chance. They finally had him. They were going to tear him apart molecule by molecule and prove to their kids that there was no exception to ghosts being evil. Phantom was not some kind of good ghost. He was just playing a part.

They were ready to pull the trigger when they heard a shout.

Running from behind the bleachers was Jazz. She had a panicked look on her face. It was the most scared they’d ever seen her.

She ran and planted herself in front of Phantom, her arms splayed out wide to put as much of a barrier in between them as she could. What was she doing? Why was she protecting this dangerous ghost?

But then they saw the fear on her face. She was standing closer to Phantom than she was to them. She wasn’t afraid of Phantom. She felt the need to protect him. What was she afraid of?

Jazz’s eyes flicked down to their weapons and then back up to their eyes. It hit them like a train.

Jazz was afraid of them.

What had happened to make Jazz afraid of her own parents? Why was she afraid of them? Was this some new ghostly ability that Phantom had? The ability to manipulate their emotions?

But then Phantom groaned and placed a hand over his stomach where a wound was seeping ectoplasm. A bright ring appeared around his waist and they charged their weapons, the ecto-guns they held in their hands whining. This wasn’t something they’ve seen Phantom do before. What was happening? What was this new ability?

They could see as Phantom tried to hold it back. The rings kept splitting, merging back together, and disappearing over and over again. They watched as Phantom seemed to give up, the fight left his body. He leaned against the back of Jazz’s legs and it seemed like he passed out. The rings finally appeared again. They separated and passed over his body and Jack and Maddie were stunned to see what was left behind.

Their son sat bleeding out in the middle of the football field. Jazz still looked ready to hold her ground against them. Their weapons clattered to the ground.

Their son was a ghost. Danny was Phantom. Jazz and Danny hadn’t ever been afraid of ghosts. No.

They had been afraid of their own parents all this time.

#gorgi writes #danny phantom #phic phight 2023 #jack fenton #maddie fenton #danny fenton #jazz fenton #fanfiction

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raaorqtpbpdy · 1 year ago

Text

Phantom Boy (2)

When the Doctors Fenton lose their son in a lab accident involving a ghost portal, the distraught parents will do anything to get him back. Even if it means breaking the immutable laws of life and death. But that thing? That’s not their boy.

First/Previous Chapter

Chapter 2: First Flight (Read it on AO3)

[Warnings for violence and parental rejection]

There was something off about Danny after that, besides just his vaguely unsettling appearance. All of the sudden, he had trouble paying attention, and he'd gotten clumsy, and absent-minded. Throughout his life, Danny had always been a meticulous, dedicated, intelligent kid, and an excellent student, but since his parents brought him back from the dead, he didn't seem to care much about any of that. He was more interested in goofing off, or playing video games.

Jazz was glad to see him living his life for himself, rather than dedicating all his time and energy to trying to win their parents' love, but it was more than that. He hadn’t just picked up new hobbies. He hardly even seemed like himself at all. Things that used to fascinate him bored him now, and things he was passionate about he had only a casual interest in. His knowledge and memories were all perfectly intact, but his personality hadn’t survived the reanimation process unchanged.

Jack and Maddie tried to home-school him, wanting him to stay close after what happened, but Danny didn't want to cooperate. He was just as smart as before, but lacked any of his old motivation. After the first day of working out of his parents' old science textbooks, he insisted on going back to public school, to be with his friends.

When they relented, he was most excited to see his friends again. As soon as he entered the building, he sought them out, heedless of the wide-eyed shock on his classmates faces as he passed them by. He found his friends standing at Tucker’s locker and called out to them with a wide grin.

"Hey, Sam, Tucker, I'm finally back!"

Their heads turned so quickly he thought they might break their necks. Sam took a step back, and both of their mouths fell open in surprise, which prompted Danny’s smile to go from ecstatic to slightly puzzled. Surely they’d been told that he was out of the hospital, he thought, so why did they look so shocked?

"Danny?" Tucker was the first to speak. "But... how are you... we haven't seen you—"

"In more than a month, I know," Danny finished for him, shaking his head. "It's not like I could help being in a coma, but I'm back now, and it's great to see you guys again!"

"Uh, yeah... good to see you again, too..." Sam said. Surprise was one thing, but shouldn’t they at least be happy he was back instead of vaguely horrified?

Tucker and Sam exchanged confused looks. They hadn't heard anything about a coma. In fact, Jazz had told him that Danny was dead. They’d gone to his funeral, they’d mourned, cried, and spent weeks numb over his death before they finally started to be able to move on. Now he was back… and… they didn’t even know what they were feeling.

How did one categorize the emotion of seeing one’s best friend back from the dead and acting like nothing had even happened? Should they say something about it, or let him keep thinking nothing was wrong? Should they be angry about the hurt they’d felt? Overjoyed? Suspicious? Mostly they just felt confused. Not knowing what else to do, they let themselves be swept along.

As the day progressed, his two friends realized more and more that there was something wrong with him, that he'd changed somehow. He wasn't the same Danny as before.

"Man, this is so boring," Danny leaned over to whisper to Sam during science of all classes.

Sam looked at him as though he'd grown a second head.

"Uh... are you actually talking to me in the middle of a class lecture?" she asked. They were friends and all, but Danny was as straight-laced as they came during school hours.

"Since when do you care about talking during a lecture?" he asked, sounding mildly amused.

"I don't, but you do," she said. "What's going on with you?"

"What do you mean?"

Sam blinked, her face going slack, even more taken aback by the fact that he genuinely didn't seem to realize what the problem was.

"N-never mind," she stammered, unsure how to broach the topic, even if she wanted to. It was a wonder that Danny hadn't already heard the rumors going around school that day.

All the students at Casper High had heard what had happened to him, that he'd been involved in a lab accident at home, that he'd died, that there hadn't even been a body to recover. In the last month and a half since Danny's accident, there had been some ghost attacks, nothing too disastrous, and always quickly taken care of by the Fentons before they retreated back to their lab. There had been a lot of speculation that the ghosts were the result of the same accident that killed Danny.

It was that sort of speculation that fed the rumors that circulated upon Danny's return, whispered in the halls when he wasn’t around to hear them.

"He's a ghost, right? He's gotta be."

"Poor guy hasn't even realized it yet."

"Should... should we tell him?"

"No way! That's just too depressing."

Sam and Tucker didn't want to say it, but they agreed with those rumors more than they really wanted to. Danny had cared about school when he was alive, but if he was a ghost, he had no reason to anymore. Plus, Tucker was pretty sure he saw Danny's hand pass right through his desk in math class, and Sam could swear she'd seen his eyes glow for a moment.

There was really no denying it.

The Danny Fenton who came back was not the same one they'd lost, not even close. Tucker wanted so badly to have his best friend back that he was willing to shove his concerns down and go along with it. He even found a time to talk to Sam in private between third and fourth period, and convinced her not to say anything, although she remained anxious and unsure. She felt as though she was mourning him all over again every time he did or said something that he never would have before.

Despite Tucker’s begging, Sam did eventually cave a few days later, and asked Danny what had happened to him, unable to hold back her curiosity completely.

Danny couldn't really remember anything after going to check out his parents' non-functioning portal. He remembered going inside, and the next thing he remembered was his parents' faces, saying he was finally awake. They had told him he'd been shocked by the portal, and had been in a coma for over a month. They had said they were glad to finally have him back. In all his life, Danny couldn't remember ever seeing his parents so happy.

However, even he knew something was different.

Though he didn't think he was acting differently than usual, it was hard to ignore the stares he got at school, the pitying looks from his sister, and the perpetual confusion on his friends' faces, though they tried to hide it. His parents had been so loving and attentive, and even though he knew in his head that it was exactly what he’d been after his whole life, he only felt stifled and suffocated by their constant attention.

The powers clinched it. Something had definitely changed.

He didn't know how to explain it, or why it was happening, but it was like his body couldn't decide whether it was real or not. One moment, he'd be leaning his head on his hand during a boring lecture, and the next, his elbow would go straight through his desk and he’d face-plant on the wooden surface. It happened once in sixth period English, the only class he had without either Sam or Tucker.

"What the—" Danny pulled his arm out of his desk as his teacher scowled at him, not knowing how everyone could have missed that.

"Mr. Fenton, I know Shakespeare can be boring, but I would appreciate it if you could deign to pay attention anyway," Mr. Lancer said. "I'm sure you can make it through the last" — he glanced at the clock — "twelve minutes left of this period before school is over."

"Sorry Mr. Lancer, I didn't—huh?" Danny cut himself off when a blue mist curled off his lips. "What's...?"

A moment later, a pair of glowing green octopi with angry red eyes flew through the window.

"Ghosts!" somebody yelled, and Mr. Lancer urged everyone to quickly but calmly evacuate the classroom.

Danny wasn't really sure what came over him, but for some reason, he didn't run.

"I swear I sensed a ghost here," one of the octopuses said. "You feel it too, right?"

"Yeah but... why's that kid staring like he can understand us?" the second octopus said, lifting a slimy, translucent tentacle toward Danny.

When it opened its mouth, Danny could see rows of sharp teeth, dripping with greenish saliva. Both of the creatures’ voices had a strange, garbled, echoey quality, but somehow, Danny still understood them perfectly.

"What are you?" he asked, tilting his head and narrowing his eyes.

"Oh, I see," the second octopus said. "Poor kid hasn't realized he's one of us yet."

"Whelp," responded the first, "guess we'd better get him out of here, take him somewhere safe before the humans find him out."

Danny was too distracted wondering why he could understand them to react when it reached out wrapped one of its tentacles around him. That brought him back to his senses pretty quick, though. He shouted in alarm and struggled against the strange creature's cold, gooey grasp as it dragged him out the window, through the window without even opening it, and up.

The higher he went, the harder it was to breathe, but he didn’t think it had anything to do with the altitude. He’d just been nabbed by some sort of sky kraken, and he figured he could be forgiven for freaking out a little.

"Stop struggling, kid!" it told him, but he struggled anyway.

Finally, the tentacle loosened, and he was free. Free-falling.

He screamed as he plummeted toward the school's baseball diamond. His eyes squeezed shut, and he curled up into a ball, waiting for the splat.

It never came.

"Huh?" he opened his eyes and looked around.

He was floating, the ground still some distance below. White hair drifted into his eyes before floating up again, and when he looked at himself, he realized his clothes had changed, too.

"I can fly?" he breathed.

He turned a little, but overcorrected and flipped upside-down. His stomach swooped, but eventually, he managed to get himself upright and gained some altitude. He let out a laugh of astonishment that quickly turned to glee. This was absolutely amazing!

"I can fly!"

The octopi flew down to try to grab him again, but this time he fought back, punching and kicking. Sometimes, seemingly at random, his fists would glow green, and the octopi would flinch away even worse when he swung for them.

"Forget this," one of them said. "This kid's more trouble than he's worth. He's on his own."

"I'm with you!" agreed the other, and they flew off together.

Danny brushed off his hands as a satisfied grin split his face. That had actually gone pretty well. Whatever those things were, he'd gotten rid of them. Although... he did wonder what they had been talking about. He narrowed his eyes as their glowing forms disappeared into the distance, and decided it didn't really matter.

What mattered was that somehow, he had superpowers! He had to tell his family about this. His parents would be amazed. He soared through the sky, circling trees and tall buildings, doing loop-the-loops in the air. Wind roared past his ears and ruffled his hair as he shot through town like a rocket through the atmosphere. It felt incredible.

Almost too soon, he spotted the brightly lit Fenton Works sign. It was a little weird, seeing it from this angle, when he’d only ever looked up at it from below, or glared at it through his bedroom window when he was trying to sleep.

"Mom! Dad! Guess what!"

In his excitement, he flew too fast and couldn't slow himself to avoid slamming into the side of his house. He tensed and braced for the impact, but rather than slamming into the wall, he went right through it before he finally came to a stop in the kitchen.

Passing through the wall had felt like nothing and something all at once. A weird, gooey sensation that passed almost instantaneously. Danny couldn’t help but laugh again. "Cool!"

He slowly lowered himself to the ground. When his feet touched the carpet, a white light passed over his skin and his clothes and body went back to normal.

"I gotta tell mom and dad about this," he said to himself, heading right to the living room, but he stopped when he heard voices.

"You were right, we made a terrible mistake," his mother's voice said.

"We thought he would be the same, that he would be our son," his father's voice continued her sentiment, sounding defeated. "But he's not. He's just a synthesized pseudo-ghost with our son's face."

Danny's eyes widened and he gasped softly, pressing his back against the wall. All his excitement from before drained away, replaced with fear and confusion.

"You have to take responsibility for what you've done," Jazz said severely. "He didn't ask for any of this. Be patient with him."

"No, Jazz, you don't understand!" Maddie snapped. "He was supposed to be... he was supposed to be a perfect copy to... to replace the son we lost. His body was repaired with cloned genetic material, and his brain was perfectly reconstructed, but he's not the same."

"He's not our boy," Jack agreed. "He's just a phantom boy, a painful reminder of what we've lost."

"So you're going to kill him again?" Jazz asked harshly.

Danny held his breath in the loaded pause before either of his parents spoke again.

"No, we couldn't do that," Maddie answered with a sigh. "We... I can't even stand to look at him."

"I can… hardly manage it either," Jack shamefully admitted. "No, we'll capture him and send him to the Ghost Zone with the rest of his kind."

"What?" Danny finally stepped out of the hallway and into the room. "What are you talking about?"

His parents' backs were to him. Their heads lifted and their shoulders tensed, and he could see Jazz looking back and forth between him and the pair of scientists.

"You're not a normal boy, Danny," Maddie told him, still not looking at him.

"I know." He took a few steps closer and tried to take her hand, but she flinched from his touch and stepped away. "I can fly! I can go through walls! I was just coming to tell you!"

"You're an experiment, Danny," his father said, a little more harshly than was strictly necessary, and Danny swallowed tensely. "The real Danny died in our lab, and we tried to bring him back using the breadth of our ectology knowledge, but instead… we just made you."

Danny felt his intestines twist up into knots and his throat tighten. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He didn’t want to believe it. Then again…. His whole body went ice cold with the realization that all this sounded just like something his parents would do. Create a new son with no thought for the consequences or side-effects. And it explained why things were so different now, even though Danny didn’t feel any different.

He was Frankenstein's monster.

And this was the part where he was turned away by his creators.

He took a slow step back, unsure if he was more afraid or disgusted.

"Jazz was right," his mother added. "We should never have tried. It's sick and wrong. It's against nature, what we did. You're not a boy or a ghost. You're just another man-made horror, beyond comprehension."

"Jazz?" Danny turned his gaze to his sister, betrayed and broken-hearted.

"That's not how I meant it," Jazz quickly defended. "There's nothing wrong with you. If anything, there's something wrong with them for spending all that time experimenting on you in secret. Mom, Dad, please, think about this a little more."

"No," Maddie said, reaching for the ecto-gun she always wore on her thigh.

"It's nothing personal, Danny," Jack said, his own hand closing around the Fenton Thermos clipped to his belt.

Danny watched it all, heart sinking into the pit of his stomach, deeper and deeper with every horrible word. He shook his head. This seriously couldn’t be happening.

"It's just... when an experiment fails and you don't want it around anymore," Maddie drew her gun and turned to train it directly at him, the red lenses of her safety goggles cold and emotionless, making her seem almost more inhuman than Danny himself was. "You dispose of it."

Oh God. This was happening.

"No!" Danny scrambled away, but he knew it was useless. His mother was an excellent shot.

The ecto-ray hit him in the back of his calf, knocking him down to his hands and knees. A searing pain tore deep through his leg and he gasped.

He looked desperately over his shoulder to see his father pointing the uncapped Fenton Thermos directly at him. Pale blue light flooded his vision, and his body changed again, on instinct. His fingers sank through the floor and he tried desperately to hold on as the energy from the ghost trap pulled like a tractor beam, sucking everything in him down to his feet as he held on for dear life.

It was useless. A horrible, cramped darkness surrounded him.

He curled up into a tight ball. It was all so much, so painful, to hear his parents say he was a failure, and they didn't want him. That they wanted to dispose of him.

Rejection wasn't a new experience for him, but it had never felt so awful before. He wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn't come, no matter how much his throat tightened and his chest ached.

So he just sat there, feeling utterly, overwhelmingly miserable, and waited for something to change.

Next Chapter

#dp #danny phantom #fic #things i wrote #invisobang 2023 #invisobang #dp au #angst #jazz fenton #danny fenton #phantom boy

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cromaka3666 · 2 years ago

Text

a rant/series of ideas

So I've posted these on SB before but to put it simply, the phandom is stagnant. The same ideas are repeated over and over again mixed up but too similar to tell apart. Over on ao3s dp crossover section I've noticed a ton of these stories are created after the author reads a prompt here so I figured I'd gather the posts I've made on SB and post them here in hopes those authors can see them. I'm just copy/pasting these so they will look weird as they were originally posted on SB and I can't be bothered to edit them.

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So yall know how d.c. crossovers are really common. Well I just had a small idea to add to the list of why heroes don't usually kill, batman especially. Obsessions can help make ghosts and few people are more obsessed than villains, the heroes know this and don't want to risk powering up their rogue gallery more, especially since hell is real and as we saw with deathstroke/slade it's easy to make deals and return. Just another angle to add for those crossovers. Last thing anyone wants is a ghost/demon empowered joker running around.

We have tons of danny phantom dc crossovers but not a single one has Cujo join the super pets for adventures. This is a crime that should be rectified immediately. Best pup should be allowed to play with Ace and Krypto and fight animal crimes.

What aren't there any stories where danny is in the marvels zombies storyline, or dceased, or blackest night, or even the new dc vs vampires storyline.

Why are almost all horror stories about him being tortured when there are perfectly good zombie apocalypses he can fight in. I'd love to see danny wield a black lantern ring and be in total control because he's already dead and as such doesn't need to eat hearts to gain power.

I'd love to see danny get bite by a vampire only for them to taste what's basically deadmans blood. We need less secret sibling, torture filled, betrayal fics and more danny pulling a doomslayer and fighting trigons armies when he invades.

Pariah Dark pulling amity into the gz would have gotten international attention just like cannon. Something that's brought up but never really explored are meta humans rights clashing with the anti ecto laws, I'd love to see the various magic users testifying in congress, debunking the fentons beliefs that ghosts aren't people and as such deserve the same rights as everyone else.

Also I'd love to see walker put in control of arkham, blackgate, or Belle reve. He'd have those places on lockdown, and the thought of the joker trying to escape only for walker to toss him back in his cell is hilarious to me.

All these DC crossovers but not one shows an alternate danny in the justice lords, injustice, or crime syndicate version of the league.

I'm tired of rereading the same stuff, let me read about an evil crime boss danny or one who rules over the GZ like how the justice lords rule earth, or one that sides with superman after metropolis gets nuked. So many alternate worlds, timelines, and dimensions to choose from and they always pick the same ones.

Forget JLU, YJ, or TT let me see danny in the justice league dark apocalypse war movie as a trigon possed Dan Phantom and have him fight Darksied

The infinite realms is so underutilized in the dc crossovers, and just the phandom in general.

You have an entire dimension that can take you any when and anywhere you want/don't want and you don't use it to let superman meet his parents before krypton blows up, or any other orphan superhero for that matter.

Hell you don't have to save his family, you can set up a stable time loop where this meeting is what convinced them to send him to earth rather then any of kryptons dying colonies.

Have Pandora meet wonder women, I don't think I've seen anything more then a passing reference about her in any dc stories to date. The 4 armed ghost of a Greek Goddess would absolutely be something the Amazon's would want to meet.

I'd love to see more stories exploring the factions in the gz like make up a rivalry between the far frozen and Atlantis before the yetis died out and less stories about Lazarus pits being ectoplasm, and Danny bring the lover/secret brother to the entire bat clan.

Give me poison ivy possed by Undergrowth or the joker being terrorized by the box ghost because joker gas doesn't work on the dead. Hell weather wizard/ any other weather villain teaming up with vortex would be fun. Or have technus hijack brainiac/amazo, now that be a good threat.

Let's see Danny put on the helmet of fate and fight klarion because he's not at the same level as the cosmic forces of order and chaos rather then the gz being some super dimension that John "I sold my soul to 30 devils, 10 gods, an angel and a fae" Constantine is too scared to touch. Pariah was powerful, but he ain't Darkseid, Trigon, Child, or Nekron powerful.

Let's see more, superheroes deal with ghostly shit rather then Danny runs away/moves to Gotham for the 30th time. Like lets say the flash has to deal with Kitty and Johnny joy riding in Central city but he can't touch them or freakshow stops in Gotham and kidnaps Jason since the phandom is obsessed with making him a halfa or halfa adjacent. So much potential and none of it explored!

So, yall know how the phandom likes to make ectoplasm an emotional conduit. Where ghosts either can feel / feed on emotions and ectoplasm can have emitions without being a ghost, usually when talking about the pit rage Jason has in the DC stories. Well, let's roll with that and add the Emotional Entities that the lantern corps use.

If ghosts feed on emotions then the lanterns are basically walking snacks, if they sense emotions then the lanterns are walking flash bangs, and if ectoplasm can have emotions then let's have some ghosts get lantern rings simply because they are emotions given physical forms.

Also, yall know how the Danny defeats pariah and becomes king stories are a whole thing, why doesn't that apply to Dan?

Rant/prompt ideas done for now but I have so many more. Let's bring some life back to this half dead phandom.

#danny phantom #dc fandome #danny fenton #ghost zone #marvel #fanfiction #archive of our own #story ideas #crossover #phandom #young justice #teen titans

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ghostboidanny · 3 years ago

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Dear child of mine

Summary: Maddie and Jack loved their children dearly. They just also loved their work just as much. Luckily, their children were also very interested in their work, especially their little darling Danny and for the first years of his life, Danny spent long swats of time in the lab with them. When Danny was four they completed their crown jewel, The Fenton portal, but it didn’t work. A curious Danny goes to explore the portal and activates it. Moments later, Clockwork finds a newly dead child crying outside their Lair.

Prompts used:

The Fentons, having only recently become parents, don't really know how to keep their curious kids away from their experiments yet. (PR237) by @library-of-cronos

Danny giving or receiving comfort from Clockwork. (PR314) by @kiinotasha

The process began in the womb.

Jack and Maddie Fenton were scientists, devoted to their work and research. Not even family could stop it for long. So when Maddie was pregnant for the second time, she grew careless. Jazz had turned out fine despite a few days in the lab at the beginning of her pregnancy. Surely this second child she carried would be fine too if she spent some time in the lab. Except, some time grew into a lot of time into all the time. And Maddie had always been bad at keeping ectoplasm away from her cooking. She had made an effort with Jazz. But it had slipped in once or twice and her baby girl was healthy as a horse. So when she was pregnant again, she was less careful and a few times of ecto contaminated food turned into a lot of times.

Then, Daniel James Fenton was born, perfectly healthy, if a bit small. He cried less than Jazz had done, instead staring up at them with huge, blue eyes. But he was very clingy, wanting to be with his mom at all hours of the day and night.

So, when Maddie recovered from labor and grew antsy to return to work, she brought her son with her down to the lab. And for the first few months of his life, he spent day in and day out with his parents while they worked on their crown jewel. The Fenton portal.

When Daniel got a bit older, Jazz would insist on watching over him for the most part. She was his Big Sister and took that role very seriously. And since the boy loved his sister very much, he was more than happy to stay with her instead. Therefore, Jazz was the only one present when the … side effects started to show. The occasional glimmer of green in his blue eyes. Moments his black tufts of hair seemed to move in an invisible wind. Occasions of a chill surrounding the small boy, making Jazz shiver. But she did not understand the signs for what they were and just loved and accepted her little brother, her little Danny, as he was.

For a while, the signs actually grew less frequent, as he spent less and less time down in the lab. But occasionally, he would become curious and stumble down the steps to the basement on tiny toddler legs, to see what his parents worked on. Jack and Maddie always loved when their little scientist came to help them in the lab. And while they tried to keep an eye on him, for the most part they got so swallowed up by their work (obsessed, some might even say), they forgot he was even present. Not to mention that Danny behaved himself so well, never making a ruckus.

As any experienced parent would tell you, though, nothing is more dangerous than a silent toddler. It meant their little eyes had settled on something interesting to grab in their little hands and examine. It was far too easy for Danny to get his hands on jars of ectoplasm or partially built ecto weapons. Far too easy to put some in his mouth. Jack and Maddie never noticed the reactions, the moments of flight or invisibility each mouthful of ectoplasm would earn Danny. The reactions only made Danny more eager to get his little hands on any ectoplasm he could find.

Then, when Danny was four years old, years of work finally came to fruition and the Portal was finished.

Except, when they plugged it in and tried to start it, nothing happened. Disappointed, Jack and Maddie gave up, leaving the basement to wallow in self-pity. Jazz, six years old and already far too mature for her age after years of having to watch over Danny and herself, immediately started to try to cheer them up.

Meanwhile, Danny snuck into the lab. He had watched from afar as his parents built the portal, as it was the one experiment they always kept him far away from. Now that it was finished, even if it didn’t work, his curiosity was so great he couldn’t help himself.

Toddling over to the portal, he stared into the great dark mouth, unafraid. For he was a child grown up around a lab, grown up around strange and curious things. And nothing had ever hurt him before.

With a laugh and eyes that shined green for a second, Danny walked into the portal. About halfway in he stumbled over a loose cable and fell over. Turning around to glare at the offending cable, he noticed another one right next to it that hadn’t been plugged into its socket. Staring at it, Danny’s four year old brain slowly came to an understanding. His parents were sad because the portal didn’t work. They would be happy again if it started working and he’d get to see the cool world his parents always talked about. He had watched his parents work many times and more than once their newest invention didn’t work because they had forgotten to plug in a wire. So, to make his parents happy, he should plug this wire in and start the portal.

He crawled over to the wire, taking it in one hand and the socket in the other. Then, he firmly pressed them together.

A green light appeared at the end of the tunnel and Danny watched in fascination as it grew stronger and stronger. It was the same color as ectoplasm, as his eyes sometimes flashed. It was pretty and he smiled at it. The light rushed at him in the blink of an eye and the moment it reached him, another light - white this time - jumped from the cable in his hand.

Pain.

The green and white lights tore through him, so burning hot he felt icy cold. It found every vein, every nerve in his body. It spread into his heart, stopping and restarting it over and over again. Fire, ice and acid tearing him apart molecule by molecule. And then rebuilding him molecule by molecule, over and over again.

💜💚

Clockwork was the Master of Time. Unless the Observants actively blocked their sight, they saw everything that had happened, was happening and could happen. Clockwork did not get surprised.

But they could admit to feeling something … similar, when the crises of a young child reached their ears through an open window of their Lair, Long Now. They looked up from the cookies they were baking, forehead creased in a frown. The only beings that ever came to their Lair were the Observants when they wanted something from them. Even the most desperate of ghosts would not dare to come close to the legendary Master of Time. Though once, long ago before they had been bound by the Observants, the other Ancients would at times visit them. The second thing that surprised them was that even as Clockwork tried to look back in time to see what would have brought someone to their Lair, they couldn't see anything.

Slowly, Clockwork put down the batch of cookie dough and floated over to the window to look out. On the lawn close to the entrance to their Lair, sat a young child. The boy couldn't have been older than five years old when he died and … and Clockwork’s core hitched in their chest, as they felt just how recently the boy had died. Only minutes ago. Though they had seen a lot of suffering during their long life, the death of children always managed to sadden them.

The boy was truly wailing, green tears falling from his eyes in cascades and his aura flashing hurt scared help. Clockwork’s core hitched again. They couldn’t just leave the boy like that.

Quickly, they floated over to the door and opened it. There, they froze, silently cursing. The Observants had forbidden them from ever leaving their Lair unless the continued existence of the Timeline absolutely required it, or they gave them express permission to leave. Despite how the crying of the boy might make them feel like the safety of the Timeline depended on them comforting him, it was not enough to allow them to leave.

They tried to use their future vision to find the best way to comfort the boy, but once again it seemed to slip off the boy, unable to clearly see him. A curious reaction they would need to explore further, but for now it was not important since they had to figure out how to help the boy without it. Thinking for a while, they decided on an approach.

They sat down at the threshold and after some deliberation decided to shift into their adult form - deducting that a ghost child this young would feel best with an adult ghost around to offer them comfort and protection. Then they softly cleared their throat and called out in a tone they hoped wouldn’t startle the child. “Hello there, little one. My name is Clockwork, what’s your name?”

The child froze when they started talking, curling in tighter on himself. “D-Danny”, he whispered in a broken voice.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Danny”, Clockwork said and smiled gently at the child. Carefully, they started to let their aura leach out into the air, projecting safety. As it reached Danny, he started to relax a little bit. “Why are you crying, little one?”

“I’m s-scared”, he said with a particularly pathetic sniff. “I w-want my mommy and my daddy. I want Jazzy.”

Clockwork frowned and tried to call on their abilities again. They caught glimpses of a woman and a man in blue and orange and of a young girl with orange hair, but nothing more concrete than that. Still, maybe with more time around Danny they would be able to see more. “I could help you find them.”

“R-really?” A green eye peered at him through white bangs. It was still filled with green tears, but at least the crying seemed to have slowed a bit. His aura was still filled with fear, though. They let their own aura flare a bit stronger.

“I promise to try”, they said, bowing their head. “And until we find them I promise that I will keep you safe.”

Danny sniffed and wiped his nose off on his sleeve. “O-okay.”

Clockwork smiled encouragingly and held a hand out to the boy. “I’m afraid you have to come over to me, as I can’t walk outside.”

Danny eyed the hand warily, his fear growing stronger again. Clockwork continued to project safety and as the seconds passed, their stronger aura started to take over. The instincts of any ghost child, even one as new as this one - especially one so new - would make him trust any adult ghost around him that expressed any amount of care. It laid in their nature to search out help and protection.

Eventually, Danny climbed onto unsteady feet and slowly walked over to them. He hesitated a few times, and each time Clockwork made their aura a little bit stronger. Once he stood right in front of Clockwork, he hesitated one last time before slowly reaching his hand out, placing it carefully in Clockwork’s own. Danny kept his head down, tears still dripping down his cheeks and one foot scuffing the dirt.

This close, Clockwork could feel the hurt buzzing in the child’s core. The hurt of recent death. And they had to swallow down the lump in their throat when they saw the Death scar on the boy’s small hand. A lichtenberg figure spreading from his hand up his bare arm, disappearing beneath the sleeve of his t-shirt. A truly gruesome death.

Clockwork made his core start buzzing in a comforting pattern, like the purring of a cat. They also filled their aura with comfort care protect. Slowly, Danny started to relax.

“It’s alright now, Danny”, they said gently and started pulling him into their Lair by the hand. Danny followed easily. “I will take care of you now, you’ll be okay. I promise.”

For the first time since his appearance, Danny looked up and met Clockwork’s eyes. If they still needed to breathe they would have stopped doing so at finally coming face to face with the boy. His cheeks were chubby and wet with tears, the face of a very young child. His hair was white and fluffy, floating around his head in defiance of gravity. Up the side of his neck and ending at his chin, there was a branch of his Death scar, making it impossible to look past his brutal death. But the thing that truly caught Clockwork’s attention and held it were the eyes.

Green as ectoplasm, as the Infinite Realms around them, and just as impossibly deep. And in those green depths, millions of stars, nebulae and galaxies twinkled. Oh, they thought, shocked. Clockwork’s core flooded their whole body with an intense mix of emotions, so strong they couldn’t feel anything else.

Child, child of mine, his core buzzed. Protect him, care for him, love him.

And in that instance, Clockwork’s life was forever changed.

#dp #danny fenton #danny phantom #jack fenton #maddie fenton #jazz fenton #clockwork #lost time #phic phight #phic phight 2022 #indrel writes

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haloburns · 2 years ago

Note

Oh i NEED to know more about the Floral Collab fic bruh

aha this is something we started out throwing back and forth like last september?? there was a plot, i think, but it was mostly high school shenanigans. it was before i settled in the ghost light au, so it's just a normal fic. i wrote out some forced reveal stuff for some reason, but i literally have no idea where i was going with it. i keep considering finishing it and posting it anyway

here's the little bit that i wrote!

Like everything else in his life, it had started with an accident.One would think that after saving the planet, there would’ve been a grace period. A time where ghosts stayed in the Zone and let Danny simply exist for a few beautiful, quiet, peaceful moments. Not in Danny’s life! No sir, nothing is ever that easy for him. Which is how he ended up convulsing in agony on the floor in first period English.The day had started like normal. Danny woke up, grabbed a Pop-Tart on the way out the door and flew off to school, expertly avoiding his parents. Things hadn’t been easy, per se, since Jazz had left for college, so Danny did what he was good at: he avoided the problem until it would come back around and bite him in the ass. Once he arrived at school, he met up with Tucker and Sam at their normal meet-up tree, and they walked into the building together. Dash slammed him into a locker with some vague threat Danny tuned out, Kwan slapped his books out of his hand, and Star insulted his outfit. All in all, a normal Tuesday. The first hint that something was wrong should’ve been the ungodly sneeze. His face, hidden in his locker, stared open mouthed at the neon green ooze now covering his locker. He had never sneezed out ectoplasm since his accident. Not even slightly neon normal snot! His nose continued to itch, and Sam made an offhand comment about allergies, since it was the first warm week of the new year. Danny felt it was necessary to point out that he didn’t have allergies, before or after his half-death. It would be weird to develop them now. His friends just shrugged, out of suggestions for the weird sneeze. He sighed and Tucker helped him clean up the ectoplasm coating his locker with the Fenton Thermos. They set out for first period together, Tucker and Sam starting up an old argument from yesterday. The second hint that something was wrong should’ve been the sound of Paulina bragging. It never boded well for anyone.

“Aren’t these just gorgeous?” she asked her gaggle of friends, obviously fishing for compliments. “They’re flowers for Phantom, fresh from this flower stall I passed this morning!” See, Sam pointed out with one perfectly arched eyebrow at Danny. It must be those flowers, she said with only a look. (Danny later cursed Clockwork, the Ancients, and a few extra deities that Sam was right as often as she was.) For the first time in a long time, Danny showed up to first period on time. Early, even. If Lancer’s raised eyebrows were any indicator, he was also shocked. Danny slumped into his desk near the front of the room, letting Sam and Tucker’s arguing wash over him. He was rather enjoying the relative peace and quiet of his morning. But, of course, it couldn’t last because the universe had it out for Danny, he was sure.Right as the final bell rang, Paulina swept into the room in a more-dramatic-than-usual fashion. Initially, he didn’t see what was going on because he was staring at the ceiling tiles trying to figure out what he was going to do after school if everything remained quiet. Another sneeze crawled up his nose and panic quickly followed it because he couldn’t hide an ectoplasm sneeze in the open classroom. He dove for his backpack, hoping to at least contain it somewhat, when his eyes caught on the large bouquet in Paulina’s hands. What little color he had left in his face drained out. “These are so lovely,” she giggled as she swept over to her seat. “I can’t wait to give them to Phantom!” Sam was the first one to speak, her shock wearing off faster than her friends’.

“Are you trying to kill him?” “What do you mean?” she sneered as she turned around quickly. Danny gagged as the bouquet swept in his direction, causing pollen to fall off of them and blow in his direction. But, due to his shitty luck, Paulina had essentially trapped him. She stood to his left, flowers aimed at him, blocking the only normal way out of his seat so she could glare at Sam, one hand on her hip. “Those are blood blossoms, Paulina,” Sam said with a roll of her eyes. “They’re toxic to ghosts.” “How do you know that, freak?” “Class, it’s time to get started,” Lancer called from the front of the room. “Sam,” Danny warned in a tight voice. The longer he spent next to the blood blossoms, the more likely something bad was going to happen. “What’s wrong with you, Fenturd?” Dash asked as he gave him a disgusted look. “Allergies!” Tucker piped up. “Yeah, Danny’s super allergic to pollen.” “Of a ghost toxic plant?” Star asked, scoffing. “...Yeah, because of his ectocontamination,” Tucker supplied quickly. Everyone knew that Danny had a weird amount of ectoplasm in his system somehow, because of how crazy his parents were, and so that helped explain away most of his weird shit.That wasn’t going to work today. “Guys!” he gasped, gripping the edge of his desk so hard, his knuckles were as white as his gloves. “Paulina, MOVE!” Sam said, panic rising in her voice as she looked over at her best friend. She slipped in between the desks and shoved Paulina out of the way. Danny collapsed to the floor as he tried to scramble away, now that there was an opening. He was gasping for air and trying not to gag on every inhale. Paulina shrieked at Sam touching her, flailing like it was anything more than just a light shove. The class couldn’t decide where they wanted to look: the cat fight brewing between Sam and Paulina, a long time coming, or the weird Fenton kid that was having some kind of freakout on the floor. Three things happened all at once: 1) One of the flowers came loose from the bouquet and fell towards Danny. 2) Mr Lancer cried, “Flowers for Algernon, people, what is going on?!” 3) Danny watched his half-life flash before his eyes--no, wait. That was really a flash--the end

i mean i guess i could technically just post it like that... 🤔 hm. now i'm thinking about actually posting it on ao3

#my writing #my fics #ecto writes #ecto fics #danny phantom

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dp-marvel94 · 3 years ago

Text

Face to Face - Chapter 45

Summary: When Danny went through the ghost catcher, he expected to be cured of the ghostliness that had haunted him since the accident, not to wake up on the lab floor with his parents saying he’d been overshadowed but everything’s back to normal now. But why does Danny Fenton cry himself to sleep to then dream of flying? Why does Phantom, the ghost who was supposedly possessing Danny remember a life that wasn’t his? Most of all, why do both the human and the ghost feel that something vital is missing, in their very soul? Or: Trying to cure himself of his powers one month after the accident, Danny accidentally splits himself but neither his ghost nor his human half know that that is what they did

First -> Last -> Next

Word Count: 6,980

Also on AO3 and Fanfiction.net

Note: Another chapter! This one contains that flashback to the accident which I mentioned a few times on tumblr. It was a struggle to figure out but I'm happy with how it's turned out. Happy reading!

Right after lunch, Fenton got a strange feeling. There was a burst of happiness, contentment, amusement. Distantly, faintly, he could feel his parents’ arms around him. They were hugging Phantom. Whatever had just happened with them was good. The past few days had been great in general. After the training on Saturday… the boy sighed. He felt the most loved and accepted he had in a long time. And Phantom was feeling the same right now.

Then… a whisper of sadness, of wistful longing. The human lifted a hand to his heart, rubbing the spot. ‘I wish I was there too.’ He thought quietly; there was no point in telling his ghost half what both of them already knew.

There was a pause, the feelings from Phantom ebbing away. But… Fenton winced, a sudden heavy sadness clenching his heart. It was grieved and guilty and… the boy shivered. Something else had happened.

On impulse, the human Danny reached with his mind but stopped. Phantom wasn’t… afraid or even really anxious. There was pain but… whatever this was, it didn’t feel like something caused by his parents. It was heavy and important but… also determined and resolute.

Still…. Fenton was tempted to poke. He could ask and Phantom would tell him. He’d instantly know everything that just happened but… he looked down at his paper. He needed to be here, to be present. They’d deal with this when he got home; Phantom would be okay until then.

With that, human Danny sent a small measure of understanding, comfort, and something that might have even been affection.

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

When Fenton opened the front door a few hours later, he gave his ghost the customary wave and smile in greeting. He sat down beside his counterpart on the couch.

The ghost gave him a sad look. “We need to talk about something later, uh… after dinner.”

The human nodded sympathetically. He’d felt this coming. “Yeah. Okay. We will.” He took Phantom’s hand, giving it a squeeze. And… the accident, that was what they needed to talk about. The information was in his head, with the memory of that afternoon in the lab, every single detail. “So…” The corner of his lip turned up, teasing. “Snake boy.”

Phantom rolled his eyes, purposely flopping onto his back. He turned his legs into a tail, making a fittingly snakey hiss. The appendage flicked playfully, hitting Fenton lightly in the face. The human laughed, pushing the coiled limb away. The ghost took off his glove and threw it at his other half.

“Oh look, we’re shedding.” Fenton chuckled.

Phantom took off the other glove and hit him with it. “Oh shut up.” He quipped mildly.

Fenton grabbed the glove he was being battered with and pulled it out of Phantom’s hand, grinning.

The ghost gave a faux offended gasp. “Oh no, you didn’t.”

Human Danny slipped on the gloves, with a grin. And of course this time, there was no sense of wrongness. The pieces of ectoplasmic clothing fit perfectly.

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

Fenton eventually gave the gloves back, but not before the pair decided to trade clothes, earning vaguely confused and amused looks from the rest of the family at dinner.

The human unzipped the top part of the suit while his ghost pulled off his t-shirt and threw it in the dirty laundry hamper. Fenton handed over the outfit before dressing himself in pajamas. At the same time, Phantom donned the familiar black and white.

Now dressed, the pair squeezed onto the bed, sitting hip to hip. “So…” Fenton hazarded, tentatively. “The accident?”

His ghost nodded, biting his lip. “Yeah….” A pause, a breath. “How much do you remember?”

“Everything.” The human said quietly, looking down. The word weighed heavy on his heart.

Phantom put one arm around him and the human half did the same. Fenton closed his eyes and felt it out, everything that Phantom felt and remembered about the accident. He could see it, exactly the same as his recollection. Two copies of the same memory. Or rather… it was the same pool of memory, viewed from two, slightly different perspectives.

Fenton winced, his heart aching. It hurt, remembering what had happened to him. It hurt so much.

“We…we need to talk about it.” Phantom whispered. “We need to say it out loud. Not just… keep it all in here.” The ghost met his eyes, motioning vaguely to both of them, to their core and heart and their two heads.

Human Danny held the gaze for a long moment. His ghost half was right. Of course he was right. This, talking about the hard things had helped before. When they had that fight about re-fusing and Fenton realized how badly he’d hurt this new part of himself. When they went flying and promised to share the hurt and fear and try to forgive themself. After the ghost catcher blew up and they cried about what Mom had said, terrified that she still hated Phantom.

Fenton tightened the arm around his ghost slightly, turning the casual touch into a half-hug. “Yeah. Things have… things have been getting better. They’re actually… really good now but…”

“We need to keep going.” Phantom implored, green eyes softening.

“Yeah.” Fenton knew… he knew that he died in that portal. Phantom, the ghost he was staring at, was the part of him that had died. He was a representation of that death. The portal had changed him, made him into a halfa. And he was accepting that. But the specifics, the details, the…the fear, the pain….

Human Danny took in a deep, forceful breath. “Mom and Dad had finally finished their portal. They’d been talking about it for… months, I guess. And they were so excited to show me and Jazz….”

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

Danny sat on the bottom of the lab steps, a bored expression on his face. Jazz crossed her arms, frowning. In front of the teens, their parents buzzed excitedly around the room, shuffling through papers, fiddling with machinery.

The boy sighed loudly. “What did you just have to show us?”

The words were ignored, the parents too focused on their frantic work.

“What is it? I was working on my thesis, finally struck inspiration. But you just had to drag me down here.” No response. Jazz raised her arms. “If you’re not going to tell us, we’re going back upstairs.” She grabbed her brother’s arm and started pulling him to his feet. “Come on, Danny.”

“Jazzy-pants!” Dad exclaimed. “Danny-boy! Not yet! You’ve got to see this!” He waved them over.

The red-head still scowled while Danny shrugged, pulling himself to his feet and coming to stand beside his parents. Jazz followed, standing beside him.

“So, what’s this about?” The boy asked mildly, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He glanced up the stairs. Ugh, he hoped this would be done soon; he’d planned to meet Sam and Tucker in Doomed in twenty minutes.

“It’s done!” His father shouted.

“What?” Danny’s brow furrowed.

“The portal!” For once, Mom sounded almost as excited as Dad. “We finished the construction. We checked the calculations. It’s ready to be activated.”

The boy blinked, peering at the hole in the wall, the mess of wires and machinery. He frowned doubtfully. “It’s done? Are you sure?”

“Of course, Danno!” Dad patted him heavily on the back. “Took years but we’re finished! We’re gonna punch a hole right inta the Ghost Zone!”

“Ghost Zone.” Jazz rolled her eyes. “Ghosts aren’t real, Dad.”

“Jazz sweetie, I know you think that, but your father and I know what we’re talking about.” Mom said with total conviction. “The portal will open and you’ll see.”

“Everyone will see!” Dad held up his hands. “Everyone’ll see and we’ll finally have proof.”

“Real, solid proof.” The other adult vowed wistfully. “We’ll finally have ghosts to study, real subjects to experiment on.”

The teens looked at each other and Danny fought not to face palm. Oh, no, not again. He’d already heard this a million times and they were about to go off on another rant.

“We’ll be able to learn so much. Oh, Jack. Can you even imagine?” The woman sighed.

“And all those naysayers will see! We were right!” The man clapped.

“Mom, Dad.” Jazz interrupted. “You said it’s ready. Are you going to show it to us or not?”

“That’s the spirit!” Dad said proudly. “You ready to see history being made, kids?”

“Yeah…sure…” Danny said, placatingly. His eyes flickered to the stairs again. The sooner this was over with, the better.

“Put on your hazmat first.” Mom instructed seriously.

“Do we have to?” The boy whined.

The woman gave him a serious look and he sighed, turning around. Rolling his eyes, he walked to the closet and pulled out his custom hazmat suit. Jazz followed, grabbing one of Mom’s blue suits.

“It’s not even going to work.” The red-head muttered, hotly.

Danny said nothing, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. He zipped up his suit, turning back to the parents.

“Put on your goggles too.” Mom reminded and the boy did so. “Now come stand here.”

Danny stopped beside his mother, Jazz at his other side. The four huddled against the wall opposite the hole in the wall, as far away from it as possible. Dad pressed a button and glass partitions slid out of the floor.

The black-haired teen blinked, suddenly worried. “Uh… when did you install this?”

“Just a few days ago.” Dad placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “It’s for just in case, son…. Not like anything’s gonna blow up.” He muttered the last part.

That…. was not comforting at all.

“Jack.” Mom said, chastising but also a little worried. “It’s going to be alright. Kids, are we ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Jazz crossed her arms.

Dad gave a thumbs up, turning to grab two electrical plugs. He grinned, ready to smash them together but paused. “I feel like we need to say something first.”

Mom turned towards the machine, a thoughtful look on her face. “We’re at a threshold, a monumental moment in human history. When this portal opens, it will open a doorway to a whole new dimension, a world of possibilities. Possibilities that few have even considered, much less tried to grasp. So…”

“Here’s to new discoveries. New beginnings.” Dad finished, wistful.

Jazz rolled her eyes, visibly biting her lip. And Danny was tempted to do that same. The words sounded grandiose, even pompous. He should have scoffed at the empty phrases. Like Jazz said, ghosts weren’t real. No portal was about to open. But…

For some reason, the words feel heavy on Danny’s heart. “To new beginnings.” He echoed softly.

With that, Dad connected the two plugs. “Bonzi!”

Eyes shining, both adults looked at the machine expectantly. There was an electric hum, the whirl of machinery. Lightning sparked, leaping within the frame. “Yes! Yes!” “That’s it!” The adults cheered. For just a second, there was a chill, something… neon green. Then…

The electricity flickered out. The lab fell silent, gears grinding to a stop. The family just stared for one minute, two.

Dad looked down, eyes wide. “That should have worked…” He pulled the plugs apart. “Another go, Mads. Let’s…” He shoved the plugs together. “Bonzi.” He shouted, less enthusiastic.

Again, lightning danced in the frame before going out. Another pause. Dad pulled the plug apart and then back together. “The third try….”

“Jack…”

“Come on. Come on.” The man muttered.

More electricity sparked. “Jack, honey. Let me try.”

Mom took the wire, plugging and unplugging it. The crackle of lightning. Then… it fizzled out. “This was… This was supposed to work.”

“It’s gonna work. Anytime now. It’s gonna work.” Dad pleaded.

Frantic plugging and unplugging. Electricity flaring before going out. The parents’ expressions slowly fell.

“Jack, it’s not… it’s not working….”

“No. It’s gotta work. It’s gotta.”

“Honey, it’s not… let me see.” Mom roughly grabbed the plug. “It’s grounded. The plugs look fine. There’s no damage to the wires. It’s connecting.” She shook her head. “I don’t… I don’t understand. Everything’s perfect.”

“We must be missing something.” Dad insisted, yanking the plug back. “We’ll…we’ll double check and we’ll figure it out.”

The two teens looked between each other, a hint of worry on both their faces. Jazz huffed, exacerbated but didn’t say anything.

Danny sighed, looking at the stairs. “Well, that was… interesting. Can we go upstairs now?”

The adults didn’t register the words, engaged in frantic conversation.

His sister glared. “Danny and I are going upstairs.” She fiddled with the buttons on the control panel until the glass safety screen lowered. The kids walked to the closet. Danny pulled off the gloves and boots. He shimmed out of the body of the suit, roughly shoving it to the ground. Jazz did the same, grabbing the hazmat off the floor and shoving it onto the hanger. It fell off but she turned away, not caring. Danny frowned at the action, hanging up his own suit as well as her neglected suit.

His sister practically stomped up the stairs, without a look back. The boy followed. “I told them it wouldn’t work.” Jazz growled, once she was at the top of the stairs. “This obsession with ghosts. Of course, it didn’t work. And they pulled me away from my thesis for this? I was finally making progress but no, they just had to distract me. They know I only have another YEAR to finish this.” She went to her room, leaving Danny standing alone in the kitchen.

The boy frowned to himself, the hair on the back of his neck suddenly rising. A distant buzz hummed in his head. For just a moment, he looked back through the open lab door. In the tunnel of the portal, was there… He blinked, the strange feeling evaporating.

Frantic, desperate words drifted up the stairs. “There’s nothing wrong with these calculations. This is the twentieth time I’ve checked them. Jack, check the wiring.”

“It’s perfect! Everything’s connected. No loose wires! It’s plugged in! It should be working!”

“But it’s not working!” A hint of annoyance leaked into Mom’s voice

“I can see that, Maddie!” Dad yelled, just as annoyed. “Something’s gotta be wrong. Maybe the math…”

“I just checked it. Again. It’s not my calculations.” Mom cut in, more heated. “Maybe the engineering….”

“I know what I’m doing. There isn't a problem with my engineering.” The man bit back.

And… they were starting to argue. Danny turned away from the lab door, towards his room. No, nope. He wasn’t staying here and listening to them fight. He had a session with his friends to join. Besides, Mom and Dad would figure it out. They’d look through everything, find out what went wrong and fix it. Or they’d throw it out to work on something else; by the end of the day, they’d be rambling about their next embarrassing scheme. Back to normal, except…

Danny shivered. There was… something. A buzzing. Distant whispers. He shook his head.

“Years! We’ve been working on this for years, Maddie. It can’t… it can't just not work.” Dad’s voice trembled slightly.

“I don’t know Jack!” Mom sounded almost… dejected. “I’m looking at the same data you are. It’s just… I don’t know…”

The boy went up the stairs, the sounds of voices quieting as he got closer to his room. He entered and closed the door. Turning away, Danny logged onto his computer, opening Doomed.

He donned the head set. “Hey Sam. Hey Tuck.”

The friends played for the next few hours. It was business as usual, taking down enemies and gathering loot while joking and laughing with each other.

Danny enjoyed himself, having forgotten about what happened in the lab earlier. “Oh. You guys! Did you see the new trailer for the Femalien movie?! It looked so awesome. There was this…” The boy trailed off at the sound of a door slamming downstairs and a familiar voice shouting.

“Maddie, you can’t be serious!” Dad yelled. “That is insane! We can’t just-”

“Are you listening to a word I said?!” Mom argued “I didn’t suggest that. I just think-”

“That we should just give up?!”

“I didn’t say that! We need to rethink our framework. Put this away and work on something else.”

“Put this… Put this away?! We’ve been working on it for years! We are so close to succeeding. This has been our dream, our life’s work since we were in college. Earlier in the lab, you said-”

“Maybe I was wrong!” Mom cut in. “Maybe-”

Danny didn’t hear the rest, distracted by his friends in his ears. “-anny? I think we lost him, Sam.”

“No, he’s still logged in. Maybe-”

“I’m still here.” Danny shook his head, turning his attention back to his friends. “Sorry. Got… distracted.”

“Oh? What was it?” Tucker asked.

Danny huffed. “Mom and Dad are fighting.” His brow furrowed when the volume below him increased.

“What?! Jack! I can not believe-”

The boy groaned, putting his head down on his desk. “They’re so loud.”

“That is it!” There was a bang, Mom’s words cutting off as Jazz threw her door open. “I’ve had writers’ block for the last four hours! Because you two interrupted me when I was finally making progress. And now you’re yelling?! About that stupid hole in the wall?!”

“Jazz. Sweetie.” Mom ground out, her gritted teeth audible.

“No! I’m not listening to this!” Jazz stomped down stairs. There was the sound of keys jingling. “I’m going to the library.” The front door slammed.

“And… Jazz just left.” Danny grumbled, annoyed.

“Man, I’m sorry. Parents fighting sucks.” Tucker said, sympathetically.

“Well…” Danny’s nose wrinkled as he tried to listen. “At least, they’re not yelling anymore.” True enough, the volume had lowered after Jazz stormed off. His parents’ voice still faintly buzzed up the stairs, though he couldn’t make out the words anymore. “I think there’s still arguing about their ghost portal downstairs though.”

“Portal?” Tucker asked.

“Yeah, Mom and Dad wanted to show me and Jazz their portal.” The boy explained. The hole in the wall, the wires. His parents’ excitement. Mom’s speech about breaching the gap into the Ghost Zone, a whole new world. “It was supposed to be ready. Dad plugged it in and… nothing happened.” He sighed. “I mean… it’s supposed to be a portal to the ‘Ghost Zone’.” The air quotes were audible in his voice. “I figured it wasn’t gonna work. It’s not like ghosts are real but.. They were so excited.” The boy trailed off, just a hit of worry breaking through the annoyance.

“That sucks. I’m sorry, Danny.” Tucker comforted.

“It’ll be okay. Maybe they’ll still get it to work” Sam added.

“Get it to work… Yeah right.” Danny mumbled, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, no offense Sam. But… how are they going to get it to work?” The technogeek asked skeptically. “It’s supposed to be a portal to the ghost dimension… and ghosts don’t exist.”

The boy could almost hear her eye-roll. “You don’t know that. Maybe ghosts actually are real.”

“Oh, don’t start with that occult BS.” Tucker complained. “Ghosts aren’t real. Any rational person knows that. It’s impossible.”

“It’s not impossible.” Sam huffed. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

There was a pause. Danny blinked, eyebrows wrinkling. Then…

“Did you just call me Horatio?” Tucker asked, sounding genuinely confused.

Something in the tone lifted the boy’s grouchy mood. He chuckled. “Sam, did you just quote Shakespeare? Gross.”

“Yes. And don’t give me that. Hamlet’s actually a really good play.” The goth snapped.

“But… Shakespeare’s so boring.” Tucker whined.

“Well, if they didn’t make us read it in class in a monotone voice…” Sam sassed back. “They’re plays and better yet, Tragedies. And not those stupid fatalistic greek tragedies. They’re supposed to be acted. You wouldn’t just quote Hamilton in a monotone voice.”

“Hamilton is a musical.” Tucker argued.

“It’s the same concept!” Sam grumbled, exacerbated. “They’re both supposed to be performed with actual emotion and-”

“Sam.” Danny interrupted. “What does this have to do with anything? And… why were you quoting Shakespeare at us?”

There was a pause. The girl took a breath. “I guess the point is, just because something seems impossible, it doesn’t mean it is. I mean… your parents have been passionate about ghosts since they were in college. There must be a reason for that.”

Earlier, Danny might have scoffed. He might have even said it was because they were crazy, the town crackpots. But… they’d both been so excited and so sure. “Yeah.” He agreed mildly.

“And just imagine if they’re right and there actually is a whole dimension of ghosts.” Sam continued, a measure of awe entering her voice. “What if someone actually could open up a portal to it? Just think about what that would mean.”

Danny’s brow furrowed, considering the question. Just think… well, he had. He used to believe in ghosts like his parents. He’d listened to the stories growing up. And ghosts were inhuman, dangerous, unpredictable. They were scary but… they were mysterious and intriguing too. Mom and Dad had talked about the Ghost Zone too. And he’d tried to imagine it. What did it look like? A dark and spooky forest? An overgrown and lonely graveyard? An old abandoned house? Or something else, something he couldn’t even imagine? Like his mom had said, there were so many possibilities. And… what if it was real?

The boy sighed, letting his shoulders relax. “Yeah, you’re right. Who knows what amazing things are on the other side of that portal? I mean…” He coughed, slightly embarrassed. “If portals or the Ghost Zone are real, that is.”

Across the line, Tucker chuckled. “Sam’s got a point. Man, if your parents could actually open a portal to another dimension, how awesome would that be? And the tech involved….” He gave a whistle. “You have to let me check it out some time.”

“Yeah. Later, once things quiet down.” Danny agreed.

His friends both gave affirming hums and the boy opened his mouth, about to suggest they keep playing the game. Then Sam let out a groan. “My mom’s calling me. I have to go.”

Danny frowned, disappointed. “Oh, okay. Bye S-”

“I’m coming! I’m coming.” Sam yelled, apparently to her mom off screen. “Bye, Tucker. Bye, Danny.” She logged off.

There was a pause. “And then there were two.” Danny quipped.

His friend gave him a laugh. “Come on. Let’s see if we can get past this gate without Sam.”

The boys tried but made little progress, despite the valiant effort.

“Shoot.” Danny hissed as one of the guards stabbed his character.

Tucker’s avatar swung, before being stabbed as well. “And we’re dead.” He sighed. “Well, that was fun. I’ve gotta go though. It’s my turn to help Mom with dinner.”

“Alright.” Danny frowned. “See ya, Tuck.”

“I’ll try to call you later. Bye, Danny.” With that, the technogeek logged off.

Danny exhaled loudly, pulling off his head set. Instantly, the sound of yelling grew louder. The boy rubbed his head. They must have gotten back at it while he’d been distracted with the game. Did they have to be so loud?! The boy grit his teeth. He didn’t want to have to listen to them yelling! Curse his sister; she had a car, she could just drive off and not have to deal with the head-ache inducing noise.

The anger flickered in him. He moved for his headphones, stuffing the buds in his ears and drowning out the sound. But….

Suddenly there was a crash, the sound of a door slamming. Danny sat up with a groan, throwing out his ear buds.

“Jack. Jack!” Mom called. “Let’s talk about this! I… Jack!” The sound of a vehicle starting and speeding away.

Danny’s eyes widened and he stood, quickly walking to the stairs. He peered down into the living room.

“He took the GAV. Seriously?!” Mom seethed. “He just drove off?! Why would he listen to me? Why?” Her voice rang out with sarcasm. “I just said we need to take a break, re-think things but no!” She shouted.

Danny walked down the stairs. “Mom?” He asked, tentatively.

The woman didn’t reply to him, glaring in the direction of the lab door. “Years of work for nothing!” She held up her hands. “We don’t have enough money to try again.” A humorless laugh. “ And try again?! What would be the point?” She stomped to one of the end tables, gapping her purse. “Unlike what some people think, not everything can be solved with enough ingenuity and positive thinking!” Mom shoved a pair of slip-on tennis shoes onto her feet.

The teen stopped, now five feet from her. “Where are you going?”

Her head whipped up, glaring eyes fixing on him. “Out.”

“But….” Danny’s eyes flickered to the clock. 5:30. “Dinner?” He whined.

“Pizza. In the freezer.” She turned away, grabbing her keys.

“But-” The boy started.

“Just follow the directions on the box.” The woman grouched, opening the door. “I’m sure you can handle that.”

Danny narrowed his eyes. “I’m not stupid! And that’s not-” The front door slammed and the boy ran forward to open it. “Where are you going?!”

“Out!” Mom climbed into her car, slammed the door, and drove off, leaving the boy standing in the doorway, mouth gaping.

She just.. Drove off. Both of his parents and his sister really just drove off?! Without telling him anything?! Danny turned around, slamming the door.

“Seriously?! They just left me?!” He stomped across the living room, into the kitchen. He threw open the freezer, pulling out the pizza box and slamming it onto the counter. “Just follow the directions on the box.” Danny mocked, waving his hands. “I’m sure you can handle that.” He flipped the box over. “350 for 23 to 25 minutes.”

The boy turned the oven onto the right temperature. After taking the pizza out of the box and the plastic wrapping, he put it on the round metal pan. “I’m putting it in the oven now!” Danny shouted, as if his mom could hear him from so far away. “You sure I can handle this?!”

He shut the oven door and set the timer. “Look! I’m operating the oven! I hope I don’t burn the house down!”

With a huff, the boy sat down at the kitchen to stew in his anger. Stupid sister who left him here alone to eat crummy grocery store pizza. Stupid parents who stormed off, didn’t even bother to say where they were going or when they’d be back. And stupid portal! Stupid hole in the wall that didn’t even work because ghosts weren’t real. Except…

He frowned, Sam’s words ringing in his head. What if they were real?

“Stupid Fenton. Stop that.” Danny growled, pushing the thought away. He pulled out his phone. He’d just scroll on it until the pizza was done. Maybe he’d watch a movie after.

The boy started down at the screen, chuckling at the occasional meme here, reblogging a post there. That was a cool idea. Oh! A neat picture! And… he face palmed. Not horse plinko again. This hell site….

Suddenly, Danny shivered, a feeling of cold washing over him. Something buzzed in the back of his head. What was… He looked up, eyes fixing on… the lab door. He scowled. Stupid lab.

After twenty-five minutes, the boy turned off the oven, pulled out the pizza and cut it. He grabbed half of the pizza- cut into two big slices-, squirted some ranch into his plate, and started towards his room. But… the hairs on the back of his neck rose. There was… something. The feeling of eyes watching him, whispers behind his head, a swirl of green. He pushed the strange sensations away.

Danny ate and after that watched a movie on his laptop. It was 6:00, 6:30, 7:00. None of his family had come back yet and he hadn’t heard anything. 7:30 and… his phone buzzed.

The boy picked up the device and glared. A text from Mom: I’m sorry I yelled at you. I just needed some time to cool off. I’ll be back late. Please check that the door to the lab is locked and the lights are off before you go to bed. Love you sweetie.

Danny huffed, annoyance flickering. At least she told him something. No such kindness from his dad or sister though. Well… at least this meant he had the house to himself for now.

Movie over, the boy went back downstairs for a soda and some cookies. A chill ran through him, the buzz in his head echoing stronger. His eyes went to the lab door before ripping them away. He practically ran back up the stairs with his treats.

8:00. He texted his friends. Both were busy with family stuff. Youtube it was then.

8:30. And… why was he watching a video about a movie he’d never watched? He rubbed his temples. Why was his head buzzing?

9:00. Ugh. This was boring. Danny flopped back in his chair. And he still hadn’t heard anything from his family. Wasn’t everything closed by now?

9:30. He texted Jazz, only to get left on read. The boy scowled, annoyed. But worry still flickered. Where were they? Danny rubbed his arms, feeling the hairs stand on end.

10:00. The sound of a car approaching. Danny stood, eyes widening eagerly. He shuffled to his window before his face fell. It was just one of the neighbors. His parents and sister weren’t home. Why not? Why weren’t they back yet? Worry wormed its way into his gut. Were they okay? Had.. had something happened?

The boy chastised himself. No, it was fine. They’d be back soon. Jazz probably went to the college library. The librarian there liked her and let her work and check out books, despite not being a student. It closed at 11 on the weekends and if Jazz got really absorbed, well… she’d stay until she got kicked out.

And Mom and Dad… they both needed time to cool off. Danny didn’t really know where either of them would have gone but after that fight, they needed time, like Mom said. They both were really upset because the portal didn’t work. Or maybe… didn’t work was the wrong phrasing, maybe…

Another flash of a car’s headlights pulled Danny out of his thoughts. He frowned. Not his parents or sister. Still weren’t home. But they’d be back soon. It would be fine, right? But still…. Danny fought to push down the worry.

By a quarter to eleven, the teen was losing the battle. Danny yawned, stretching in his seat. Man. Ositating between being bored and being anxious for the past hour was really tiring. He’d been planning on staying up until someone got home but maybe he’d just go to bed. He stood, grabbing his bed clothes and-

Wait. The boy froze. He should do one thing first. Danny walked out of his room and started towards the stairs. Mom had told him to check the lab door and the lights. He should probably make sure everything was locked anyway. Danny did so, checking that the front and the side doors were locked. He turned off the lights downstairs, until he came to… the lab door.

Danny paused, staring down into the basement. True enough, the lights were all on. He started down the stairs, to turn off the floodlights at the far side of the room and the bathroom light. A flip of a few switches and…

His eyes flickered to the frame in the wall. So much drama caused by this thing. Still… now that the annoyance had ebbed away, he actually admired it. Like Tucker said, it was a cool piece of tech. The corner of Danny’s mouth turned up. It was a bit of a mess, kinda chaotic but… it looked like something from a sci-fi movie. If he saw this on the big screen, he’d think it was a wormhole generator, a gateway to another planet. But… here it was, in his basement. The boy sighed. Too bad it didn’t work. Except…

Danny frowned, remembering something. That afternoon, it had kinda started to work. There was lightning, mechanical grinding sounds, and… something… green. The boy’s brow wrinkled, frown deepening. There’d been… something… neon green. In the tunnel. Something swirled. It had gotten colder. But…

The teen shook his head. No, that wasn’t right. Yeah, they’d been electricity because his dad had plugged the thing in. And the machines had tried to start, because well, his parents might have been eccentric but they were world class engineers. The generators and turbines should have worked individually. But together? Nothing else could have happened. A portal didn’t open because as tempting as it was to think, ghosts and the Ghost Zone weren’t real. They didn’t exist. He’d stopped believing in ghosts when he was eight and Dash made fun of him on the playground for believing in fairy tales. He knew none of that was real but…

What if it was? His mind flashed back to the conversation with Sam and Tuck. Just because something seemed impossible, it didn’t mean that it was. And what if it wasn’t impossible? What if ghosts, portals were real?

Something in Danny stirred at the thought, a buzzing itch in the back of his mind. Oh, it would be so cool. Who knew what kind of amazing things would be on the other side of that portal? Like his parents said, a world of possibilities, of new beginnings.

The boy didn’t notice himself moving, nor the subtle chill. So many incredible things were on the other side of that portal. He could almost see it. Swirling green clouds, floating islands, abandoned buildings, neon vivid plants. Soft whispers wafted around him, raising the hair on the back of his neck.

Danny blinked, suddenly aware, staring at his outstretched hand. He was… at the opening of the tunnel. The boy stumbled back, heart rate increasing. When had he gotten so close? He turned away, intending to leave. But…

The boy found himself standing in front of the closet, halfway into his hazmat suit. What was he doing? This was weird but… something was itching in his brain. He glanced at the frame. For just a second, a flash of green. He had to… he had to take a look. He just had to. He paused, looking down at the white and black material. It’s not like it could hurt, right? He’d just take a quick look inside and go up to bed before his parents got home. His weird curiosity would be sated and they’d never need to know.

Danny stuffed the hazmat over his clothes, nose wrinkling. Ugh. This thing was so clunky. He hated how it felt on his exposed neck. But… he looked in the mirror and couldn’t help but smile. White with black accents… It reminded him of a space suit. He could almost picture himself as an astronaut about to take humanity’s first steps into a new world.

Danny turned away from the mirror and towards the open tunnel. He walked. Just a few steps and he was over the threshold. He shivered, a chill running through him. Had it just gotten colder? And… it was so dark. He should have brought a flashlight; even his phone would do. Or… he shouldn’t have turned most of the lights off yet. The boy shrugged. Oh well.

He carefully stepped over the wires, running one hand along the wall for stability. He approached, closer and closer to the dark end of the tunnel. The humming, the buzzing around him, through him, in him was growing louder. The cold bit at his nose.

Danny stopped, reaching out to touch the smooth back wall. His fingers blushed the metal and static leapt from the wall to his hand, visible in the low light. He let out a surprised gasp at the electricity, the green electricity.

The boy jerked his hand away, rubbing it with the other. It hadn’t hurt, just static electricity, but his eyes still widened, fearfully. “Is this thing still plugged in?”

Danny whipped around. Yeah, no. He was getting out of here in a hurry if there was still live electricity running through this thing. The boy stumbled forward, still running one hand along the wall. Then… his foot caught on something. He tipped forward, arms pinwheeling to stay upright before both slammed onto the wall, steading him. Something depressed under his left hand with a click.

The boy looked up and-. “F-ck.”

The on button. He scrambled away. Around him, the machine whirled. Mist wafted out of his mouth and the buzzing crescendoed into a deafening static. Shit. Shit. He needed to get out of here. His parents put the on button on the inside. Green crowded the edge of his vision. One step. Two. He had to get awa-

Pain suddenly hit him. Pain! Lightning. His muscles locked up. Air froze in his lungs. Couldn't breathe. Green. Green. Too much green. Old Penies. And lime and… Burning, Freezing, Tearing. And… his heart… his heart spasmed. Was it… was it beating? Couldn’t beat. Couldn’t breathe. Was he dying? He was dying. Danny bit his tongue, mouth filling with copper.

Green. Green. It was all green. And it hurt. Hurt. hurt. He’s… he was torn apart. Couldn’t feel his arms, his legs, his head. Where was he? What- He…he was dying. But… but he didn’t… didn’t want to die. He was sewn back together. Torn apart. Sewn back together. He… He couldn’t die like this.

Danny stumbled out of the tunnel, head swimming. It was dark, the only light coming from the portal. The portal? And… His gloves? The boy looked down, brow furrowing in confusion. His gloves were… glowing? Glowing and white? That wasn’t… that wasn’t right. Blurrily, he pulled off the material. Underneath... His fingers… his fingers were almost green and… and glowing. Danny blinked, waving his hand. The light… the light around it trailed, blurring the image. That wasn’t… this wasn’t right.

The boy stumbled forward. Stumbled? No. That’s not… he couldn’t…. Couldn’t feel his legs moving. But…. He looked down. He was too high. He was floating? Danny blinked again, some clarity entering his thoughts. He… he must be seeing things. He was hallucinating. Or, or he’s dreaming. But…

The boy pinched himself. “Ow!”

Okay. Not dreaming. But… something else. Something else was happening. Something…. Mounting dread. Something was… something was wrong.

Danny’s gaze flickered to something. Oh. Shiny metal lab tables. There was something weird, reflected off the surface. Green and white and black. He approached, hovering over the table. He recoiled, gasping fearfully. What was… what was that thing?

Danny whipped around. There’s… there was nothing there. Just him and the swirling green light and… He turned back around, reaching towards the surface. The thing, the image moved as well, in sync. And….

It hit Danny like a brick wall. And… he was shaking. That… that was his reflection. Green eyes. White hair. Sickly green skin. That was his reflection but… but that was not his face.

Terror flowed through him. “Shit. Shit. F-ck. What…what happened to me?”

Danny’s eyes widened. That…that wasn’t his voice. It… it was echoing. Why was his voice echoing? And… he was glowing and floating and his face looked all wrong and…

“This… this is wrong. Something… something’s wrong.” He muttered, hands shaking.

Of course, of course something was wrong. He felt off. Too light. Too cold. He sucked in a breath. Oh god, had he not been breathing?! He hadn’t been breathing. And…. Danny’s hand slammed onto his chest. There was… there was no heartbeat. His heart wasn’t beating.

The boy’s chest heaved, eyes starting to water. His… his heart wasn’t beating. And he was glowing. And his eyes and hair were the wrong color. And… he sucked in another breath. But… but it felt wrong. Like he… he didn’t actually have to breathe. But…

That wasn’t right. It wasn’t right. He… he went in his parents’ stupid portal and accidently hit the on button. And…. his eyes wiped to the machine. Green, neon green light hung in the frame. It swirled, just like… just like a portal. A portal. To the Ghost Zone. A portal. The portal opened. It actually opened and now this weird shit was happening to him so-

It hit Danny like a train, like a million volts burning and freezing and tearing through him. His world turned inside out, on its head. The tears brimming in his eyes overflowed.

“I’m… I’m a ghost. A ghost!” Just like… just like his parents said. Ghosts… ghosts were real. And he was one. And…. Danny blinked, hiccuping on a sob. “I’m dead. I died. I’m… I’m dead. I’m not… I can’t be dead! I’m not supposed to be dead. No. I can’t… I can’t be.” Tears streamed down his face. “I can’t… I can’t be a ghost. I can’t… I can’t be. I’m not… I’m not dead. No. I’m… I’m… not a ghost. I’m… I’m a human. I’m alive. I’m…”

Danny gasped, a warm feeling stirring in his chest. A painful beat wracked his torso. The glow coming off of him brightened and.. “Wha….”

A white ring of light passed over his head. Exhaustion and pain suddenly crashed into him. Danny’s eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out.

#Danny Phantom #Face to Face #my fic #Double Danny #Split Danny

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ruoshik0 · 1 month ago

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When both Maddie and Jack died, Vladimir Master felt emptier than he ever had in his life. Because for all that he hated Jack Fenton and loved Maddie Walker, back in they day, they were his two closest friends. The only ones who even spared a glance at him. Back then, his best friend was Jack and his little crush on Maddie was something small enough to ignore- a passing little thing- and did not affect the way he saw the woman.

Now, a grieving child who is this close to taking his anger out on the world- the only thing stopping him was his morals and a want to not become like Vlad- and a piece in his core missing, Vlad had finally come back from the insanity that was his obsession.

During those days- the days where he was abadoned in that hospital with no one to lean onto, slowly becoming a freak of nature- his little passing crush had grown to a horrifying transformation alongside his growing a grudge against Jack. At first, he felt betrayed, angry that the ones resposible hadn’t visited even once. Then his unreasonable ghostly side let itself be known and directed all the anger to Jack. Because he was technically the one resposible for it- his core reasoned.

Then his passing little crush grew tremendously. To a dangerous degree. Because she could do no wrong, it was all Jack’s fault- it reasoned yet again.

His complicated feelings transformed into simple ones. Of course, he battled those traitorous thoughts. Because Maddie and Jack were his friends- besties- first and foremost. His ghost;y core won out in the end, though- them not visiting didn’t help an ounce in this.

After getting out of the hospital with thousands of dollars in debt, he decided to just commit a morally dubious act of convincing others to give him money.

It was a one time thing that snowballed into becoming his go-to business strategy.

Now, both his obsessions dead and gone, back to being reasonable once more, he just wanted help the poor boy out.

So he asked if could help in anyway.

The response he got was-

“Get me rid of these feelings then, why don’t you.”

Vlad knew that was sarcasm. However, factually, ghosts are a physical outer layer of the physical form of one’s soul. Vlad would know that, he is a half-ghost himself. Theoretically, there were records of many humans living without their souls and could possibally live a perfectly normal life. Factually, souls and cores are directly connected to ones emotiones and heart. Not the anatomycal one humans need to live. The metaphorical one.

And Vlad- while not on Jack and Maddie’s level- was also a fair bit of a genuis himself. So, burying himself in work and his personal project for sometime, finally made a device which could separate the soul from the body.

It was a bold thing to try. But, he really wanted that child to get back on his feet. He really did. Vlad- the real Vlad. The one before his accident- really did care for the child. He was his unofficial uncle after all.

And it worked. Only he doesn’t have his ghostly evil side and said child now has a twin. A twin he had to figure out how to make a human looking vessel for. Good thing he had just started trying to make clones of his nephew before everything went down… (What was Vlad thinking?! Planning on making a clone…)

Further looking into the twins- who can now kill him because apparently they only had a moral compass when merged and one- said that they were nothing like the Daniel he knew.

The human side was a normal human as far as could tell. Except the child is an actual living and sentient human with no emotion and care to speak of. A pure logical being who couldn’t careless about anything and has no attachments to speak of. Original Daniel inhereted his parents’ genius- Vlad knew that because reasons. Shush- and only someone with any amount of moral compass can be trusted to not use said intellect in a bad way.

Now, when he said ‘no emotions and care’ he did not mean it literally. It seemed those were just suppressed, drained, and gone with the wind leaving little traces all over. The boy did care and have emotions, yes. Just very little. Which also meant Daniel was not above commiting crimes to get what he wanted. Which is not good because while the original Daniel was an airhead with a head for engineering, the current Daniel was an manipulating little shit too intelligent for his own good.

And then… the ghost side. Who is now lovingly named James because Daniel’s middle name is James and Vlad was bad with names.

The kid is emotional compared to his twin. But also had no moral compass to speak of like Daniel and instead of being a manipulating little shit, James is a sadistic menace to society. Who was overpowered as fuck.

Safe to say, Vlad struggled to take care of them. (He will not mention the pain of making James a real person in the eyes of the government let alone the pain he went through to make a dubiously human vessel for the ghost, thank you very much.)

Since they were kind of unfit to release back into society, he decided that homeschooling will have to do, along with ethics class.

Few months had passed like that. The twins have been 15 for a little over half a year and he had suffered with them longer than that.

Now, he had been invited to a Wayne gala. Free to take as many of his children with him. So naturally, he arrived there with the twins to finally start re-assimilating them back to society. He really hoped the ethics class helped.

What he didn’t hope for was getting attacked by rogues and dying. Maybe spending all those months- almost kinda a year had passed, god- relearning business, sitting, barely moving, or down in the lab working was a bad idea as he had lost some of his muscles. It cost him greatly. The last thing he saw was the twins looking back- looking for him- and their eyes widening upon meeting eyes Vlad’s glossy gaze. The last thing he did was smile in a way he hope was reassuring.

He died feeling guilty and heartbroken when he spotted them on the verge of tears.

After the whole ordeal was over, they did a death count.

The number came to 1.

Vladimir Masters, CEO of Dalvco, adoptive father of two. (One of dubious origin)

Bruce Wayne felt guilty that he couldn’t save that man in time. So when he had come to personally talk to the kids- silent and brooding almost- he didn’t mean to accidentilly eavesdrop. He just kind of… froze when he had a voice in fromt of him, suddenly too.

“-re we sure we aren’t cursed?” Said one the twins.

“There’s no use caring about that." Came the cold voice of the other.

"What are we gonna do now?”

"Become rogues? We are orphaned twins who are set to inheret quite the money. I doubt Vlad had wrote a will.”

"Ah, so we kill people?”

"What else? That or we get fostered by people that want to steal our money. Bringing terror to this city is better than that."

"That’s true-“

“I’m sorry, Am I interupting something?” Bruce decided he heard enough. He really did. He did NOT want two more added to his rogue gallery just because their caretaker had been killed in his gala. He was gonna take care of these kids and guide them to the right path before they ruined themselves behond repair.

“Yes. Get away." The two demanded in sync.

First, he will have to make them warm up to him. But before that, since these two blue eye, black haired, trauma filled murder children needed home and the first step of his adoption process was making them his wards.

more about og tue timeline twins danny and dan/jamie

very touchy with each other. you might even say. ccclingy. its to be expected, they're two halves of a whole after all and all they've got of each other. worryingly co-dependent. do not separate. ever.

Danny was really weak and sick after the initial separation, and was for a while after. Jamie knew internally that if Danny died, he'd take the whole world with it. He was the one sole caretaker for him while he got better -- not for lack of trying on Vlad's part, but without his ghost powers he was nothing more than a feeble (albeit handsomely rich) man, and James looked ready to bite his head off if he got within ten feet of either of them.

Vlad is intimately aware that James (or Danny, if he tried) could snap his spine in half like a twig, and is uncomfortably aware of his own lack of ghost half now. It makes him feel self-conscious and exposed, so he never fully returns back to "cocky and self-assured billionaire Vlad Masters". Making deals with other brands feels a lot harder now that he can no longer possess them anymore.

Speaking of, he very quickly has to come up with a cover story as to why there's now a James Daniel Fenton to the public, when no records whatsoever of him existing existed prior. Lots of forging false government documents on his end. James and Danny do not help because it's his fault this happened in the first place.

(Regardless of whether or not Danny actually willingly chose to rip out his ghost half/humanity in canon is true, or if that was Vlad Masters speaking out of his ass, a large part of the blame still falls on Masters.)

(As his primary caretaker and guardian, it's his responsibility to ensure the health and safety of his charge, and since Danny was in clear emotional duress at the time, it can be argued that he was not in the mental state to make such a decision. And, allegedly, couldn't do it on his own which is why he asked Vlad for help.)

I chose "James" as Dan's name since it's a popular fanon middle name for Danny, and since he's half of Danny, it felt like it just made sense lol. Also because of the ensuing comedy of the two of them introducing themselves as "James Daniel Fenton" and "Daniel James Fenton". It's got the same energy as "danny with a y" and "danny with an i" and it's the exact kind of name bullshit you expect parents to give their twins.

I don't have their exact personalities down, but something I am actively writing into this au's bible is that I think Danny should be the quiet and (ig technically) meaner one. There's a lot to go into about interpretations for ghosts, halfas, and the incident itself, but TL:DW; Danny is technically soulless, or at the very least missing half of his soul (altho Jamie is too just in a different direction).

Pair that with the trauma of losing his family in front of him + having his ghost half ripped out + all the trauma he would've sustained as a hero, and he's not doing too hot mentally! i think if the twins met good timeline!Danny, Danny would've mistaken Danny for Dan and Jamie for the original half.

He comes off to others as pretty apathetic and indifferent to a borderline terrifyingly calm degree. He doesn't go out of his way to insult people, but he also doesn't care enough to consider the other party's feelings so he doesn't filter himself, which makes him come off as rude. The only times he looks truly comfortable is when he's near Jamie or talking to him.

His standoffish, ice prince demeanor makes Jamie look like a saint in comparison. When really he's not all that much better? He's more outwardly emotional than Danny, whether that be positive or negative, but at the end of the day he doesn't trust or care about anyone else any more than Danny does, and he's got a bit of a sadistic streak. Danny reigns him in when he starts becoming too destructive.

(Which I think makes sense. Danny asked Vlad to rip out his ghost half specifically so he could stop feeling his human emotions. Dan, despite his monotone voice, does exhibit emotions. He's smug when he asks Valerie if he likes his ghostly wail, sardonic when he reunites with Sam and Tucker, annoyed, shocked at Danny's ghostly wail, etc. He enjoys wreaking destruction and chaos.)

(If Danny had survived his encounter with Dan and if Vlad was successful, then I imagine he'd be rather apathetic to his other half as a whole. That'd be interesting.)

Overall though they're both hurt, bitter, and distrustful of the world around them, with abandonment issues a mile wide. They can get better and they can heal, but it takes time and patience and proper support.

On the DPxDC side of things, they do genuinely hold some kind of respect or regard for Bruce. They also don't become vigilantes for a while. Neither of them are jumping at the bit to enter heroism again, not when it was heroism that killed their family in the first place.

In fact when they find out Bruce = Batman they think he's foolish for it. They think its a fool's errand, and they've been so spurned by their time as Phantom that for a few weeks, Jamie even refused to call Bruce anything but Sisyphus. Danny called him Tantalus, and the two of them had a faux-argument about which one was more accurate.

Bruce does, though, worm his way into both of their hearts, and that's like, the main reason they become vigilantes to join him. So that they could keep him safe and not because of any desire to return to the heroic life. Relearning to care and finding satisfaction in helping others was an unintentional side effect.

(Bruce is so very smug)

Essentially:

The Twins: this is our squishy and fragile adoptive father. If anything happened to him, we're becoming mass extinction events.

Bruce: Nnno.

#my take on this au #dp x dc #bruce wayne #dan phantom #danny fenton

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lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks · 3 years ago

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A fluorescent green gaze pierced through him from the rearview mirror. As much as the eye contact sent chills down Dale's spine, he didn't want to look away. Some primal part of his brain was much more comfortable keeping his eyes firmly planted on the predator in the back seat of the police car.

"Why won't he leave?" Dale whispered to his partner, the woman grit her teeth.

"I don't know, but I'm not the idiot who decided to fucking arrest him." spat Whitney.

"I didn't think it would work!" Dale hissed. They were trying to be quiet, but he was certain the ghost boy could hear them clear as day, especially with the quiet of the late night streets. "I was just following protocol. We're not supposed to ignore criminal activity."

"The protocol," Whitney's knuckles tightened on the steering wheel as she circled the block for the third time. "Is to not fuck with the ghosts Dale. Especially that one."

She jerked her head roughly to the boy in the back seat, he was looking around the car and humming to himself, he didn't appear to be paying attention, but that didn't mean he wasn't listening.

"Look I just... we need to at least keep up appearances. We can't just let people think we aren't even trying."

"Yes! Yes we can!" Whitney snapped her mouth shut as her volume started to rise with frustration, she glanced nervously into the mirror and took a deep breath before continuing in a low tone. "We aren't paid to deal with this kind of bullshit, we radio it in and let a Fenton or a Guy in White deal with it."

"Okay I get it!" Dale ran a hand through his thinning hair. "I just... I feel so pathetic doing nothing when ghosts are just running around destroying public property-"

"Oh yeah no that's fine Dale that's a great reason to go and put handcuffs on the most powerful ghost in the fucking city." Whitney took the next turn a little too sharply, Dale felt himself lurch sideways, but the boy in the back hardly moved. It wasn't especially surprising given his usual disregard for the laws of physics.

As well as all the other laws that Officer Dale was supposed to be enforcing.

"I told you I didn't think he would actually come willingly." Dale whispered harshly, his voice containing just the barest hint of hysteria. "I just wanted to show him that we aren't total pushovers, I didn't expect it to go this far."

They circled the block once more as Dale checked the rearview mirror again. Phantom was playing with his handcuffs, jiggling the chain and twisting his hands around them. It was almost like he was trying wriggle his way out of them, Dale knew perfectly well that they were just ordinary handcuffs, and he could phase through them at any moment. Phantom had to know that too.

Whitney flicked her eyes between the mirror and the road.

"Asshole," the word was barely audible, Dale would have missed it had he not seen her lips move. "He's just doing this to fuck with us."

"Of course he is." Dale rubbed at his face tiredly. "He's probably got nothing better to do, maybe he'll leave if another ghost shows up?"

"And exactly how long do you expect us to go around in circles waiting for that to happen?" Whitney asked through gritted teeth. "This is getting fucking embarrassing."

"Maybe we should just take him in," Dale sighed in defeat. Whitney took another corner way too hard, jostling him roughly in his seat.

"I am NOT taking Phantom back for processing. They will NEVER let us live this down, and I am NOT becoming the joke of the precinct because YOU decided to be a god damn moron and arrest a fucking ghost."

Another sharp turn and the entrance to the city park flew by their windows again, Dale had lost count how many times they'd circled the block, but somehow he was certain that Phantom hadn't.

The little shit was enjoying this, why couldn't he just sneak into a movie theatre to get his kicks like a normal teenager?

Whitney growled and pulled the car into a complete stop, the wheels screeched and Dale let out a loud WHUFF as the inertia jerked him hard against his seatbelt.

His partner violently wrenched the door open and pulled herself out of the car, slamming the door shut behind her with far more force than was necessary.

Dale followed suit and looked over the roof of the car as Whitney pulled open the back passenger door and whistled sharply, pointing up and out into the sky.

"Go on, get. Ride's over, you've had your fun."

"Awww come oooon," Phantom whined, "I didn't even get to hear you use the siren!"

"Don't care, we're the police, not baby sitters. Go find some ghost cops to bother."

"The ghost cops aren't as fun," Phantom moaned, but he did as he was told and stepped out of the car. "You know, you guys shouldn't swear so much around minors, you're corrupting the youth!"

"I'll corrupt my foot up your ass if you don't get going." said Whitney, flatly. She put her hand out and Phantom effortlessly dropped the cuffs from his wrists and tossed them at her.

He pulled a face at her as she fumbled with the handcuffs, sticking out a very green tongue.

"I saw that young man!" Dale pointed at him from the other side of the car. "Don't let us catch you disrespecting an officer of the law again! Next time you won't get off with just a warning-"

"Dale! For the love of all that is holy shut your damn fool mouth!"

Phantom hopped backwards from the irate woman, his last few steps landing on empty air. He floated gently upwards with a shit eating grin on his face.

"Well this has been fun but I gotta head off, but thanks for the company! We should do it again some time, see you around!" He waved a casual salute and swung around, legs stretching out into a long swirling tail as he sped off into the sky.

Dale felt his knees shaking as he slipped back into the car. Whitney settled into her seat, hands steady as a rock as she belted herself up and started the car.

"That was terrifying." He gasped.

"And yet you still had to keep playing bad cop."

"I'm sorry it just slipped out! He's no different to any of the other punks we deal with around here. A wiseass with no respect for authority." Dale huffed and folded his arms, crossly.

"...He probably wasn't any different, before he died." Whitney said, quietly.

Dale didn't respond, letting the statement sit heavily between them as the car pulled away from the curb.

"I forget that sometimes, you know." said Dale. "This is the first time I've ever seen him up close and he... he really does just look like some kid. How do you think he... how do you think it happened?"

Whitney let out a deep breath as they completed their final lap around the block and headed in toward the city centre.

"I have no idea, and I'm pretty sure that's the kinda thing you can't ask." she paused for a moment, before continuing with a quiet pain in her voice. "He's so young."

"I wonder if his parents know," Dale mused sombrely, "That he's, you know, still around?"

"Who knows."

A car cut them off suddenly at an intersection.

"That was a red light." Dale announced.

The police car's lights flashed as the siren echoed through the empty streets, and Whitney slammed her foot down to catch up with the offending vehicle.

The conversation was over, but neither cop forgot about the incident, and neither could look at their city's hero and menace quite the same. Dale had gotten quite good at seeing ghosts as merely 'creatures', or 'monsters', things that were entirely Strange and Other. Being up close and personal with one had been a much needed reminder of what a ghost truly was.

And that ghost, the one messing around in the back of his car, was a boy. Just a boy. A boy who had a family, a boy who had a life, a boy who had died.

When Dale got home in the early hours of the morning, he hovered by his kids' bedroom, carefully easing the door open to look at their little sleeping faces. Just to make sure they were still there, right where he left them. Still breathing, still alive.

He knew there was a family out there somewhere, parents who had looked through their son's bedroom door and seen only cold, empty sheets.

Dale stepped very carefully over the spilt lego pieces on the floor, and gave his girls both a long, heartfelt kiss on their little heads, before going back to his own room to lay by his sleeping wife's side.

No, no he truly couldn't look at Phantom quite the same way, not anymore.

#danny phantom #lula's fanfics #danny phantom fanfiction

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kinglazrus · 4 years ago

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Dead Man Walking

Phic Phight | AO3 | FFN

Submitted by @syrren: Instead of making him half-dead, the portal accident makes Danny unable to die. This....changes things.

(or: how canon changes if the accident leaves Danny with deadpool-style regeneration abilities to make for a horrifyingly self-sacrificing vigilante, or with some kind of reset ability every time he dies to equally horrifying implications)

Summary: The accident changes Danny in ways he never thought possible. Sam and Tucker watch him fall from the portal dead and burnt beyond recognition, but he doesn't stay dead for long. He never stays dead. Of all the things Danny expected to happen when he walked into that portal, getting unlimited regeneration wasn't one of them, but now that he has it, he's going to put it to good use. Deadpool AU.

Word count: 3606

The first time Danny dies, his friends bear witness. They will never forget the ominous whirr of the portal as it turned on, the warning crackle of electricity, the final throat-tearing scream of their best friend. There are other things, too, that burned into their minds that day. How his body hit the floor of the lab with a thud, burnt beyond recognition, burnt so bad there wasn't any blood. How it smelled, to their horror, not so different from charred barbecue.

They like to pretend that part never happened. It's easy when all they need to do is call his phone and hear his voice, unaffected by the savage electrical heat that brought him to ruin that day. When he doesn't stay dead, it's not hard to pretend he never died at all. It took minutes for his body to fix itself, blackened skin overtaken by fresh pink muscle, which then sprouted new skin, perfectly unblemished.

Even the scar he got when he was fell off his bike at six years old disappeared.

"I liked that scar," Danny says, pouting when he finally notices its absence three days later.

"I don't think that's the right thing to get hung up," Sam says.

"But it looked like a spaceship!"

"I always thought it looked like an upside-down nine," Tucker muses.

"Or six," Sam says.

"Upside down nine is more fun."

They proceed like this for three weeks, mentioning the accident only in the lightest of terms, joking about their new, shared trauma. They are content to move on with their lives, forget it happened, go on as normal high schoolers. Until Danny dies again.

—

"What do you mean you don't want to hunt ghosts?" Jack exclaims. He gapes down at the trio, wholeheartedly baffled by this confession.

"I'll stick with tech, thanks," Tucker says, holding up his phone.

"Ghosts just aren't cool anymore," Sam says.

"Can I go back upstairs now?" Danny asks. At his question, Sam and Tucker fall silent. None of them make eye contact, and neither do they look toward the portal innocently humming only a few feet away. Danny is very aware that this is his first time in the lab since the accident. The same thought runs through Sam and Tucker's minds.

Jack doesn't notice the sudden change in mood. "Nonsense, Danno! You love ghosts. Why, I remember when you were just a tyke, you wanted to be a ghost when you grew up." He clenches his fist. "It was unacceptable. But that's okay! You can hunt them instead!"

He turns his back on Danny and his friends, eagerly going over the array of tools laid out on the counter. Ghost detectors, ecto-guns, protective shield, and an empty space where a thermos should be. "I forgot the best part! Wait right here, kids." Jack charges upstairs, leaving the kids alone.

Danny glances at the portal, unable to suppress a shiver. "You think he'd notice if I snuck away?"

"Nuh-uh, if you go, we go, too," Tucker says.

No one gets to go. Two sets of slimy green tentacles poke through the portal, probing the empty air. Their soft bodies soon follow, revealing a pair of ghostly octopuses.

"Holy shit ghosts are real." That is all Tucker has time to say before the ghosts attack. They launch themselves forward, shrieking in excitement. One goes for Sam and the other charges Tucker. They try to jump out of the way, but the ghosts are faster. The ectopuses tentacles wrap around them, pinning their arms down.

"Danny!" Sam shouts.

In retrospect, a smarter person would have gone for the ecto-gun lying on the table, freshly loaded and ready for a demonstration. Or, they might have shouted for his father, a ghost hunter who has trained his entire life for this scenario. But Danny acts faster than he thinks. He dives toward Tucker, the closest of the two, and digs his fingers into the ghost's tentacles. It screams as Danny's nails dig into its flesh.

The ghost's body goes translucent. Tucker slips out of its grasp, dropping to the floor in a heap, but Danny's hold stays firm. The ectopus panics, thrashing and tugging, its flailing limbs cutting through Tucker over and over without harming him. No matter what the ectopus does, it can't shake Danny loose, and his nails are starting to cut.

"Dude, you're doing it!" Tucker says, too soon.

As it flails, one of the ectopus' tentacles smacks Danny in the face, making his head snap back. At that moment, he and the ghost have the same realization. If he can touch it, it can hurt him back. The ectopus gives another shriek and its remaining seven tentacles surge forward. They wrap around Danny's arms, his chest, curling so tight his bones ache. The last one closes around Danny's throat.

His throat, weak like the ghost's flesh, crumples in an instant. His air disappears. No sound leaves his mouth, not even a wheeze, and his eyes bulge as panic sets in.

"Danny!" Sam and Tucker scream. Sam struggles against her captor kicking and gnashing her teeth, but her boots can't reach its body. Tucker grabs Danny, tries to pull him away, to bat off the ghost’s grip, but it is no use. The ghost is too strong, and Tucker can't touch it in this state.

Danny loses focus of them, then. His brain goes fuzzy, everything blurring around him while his face grows hot. All he can feel is the burn, the ache, the need to breathe, breathe, breathe damn it! The haze of the ghost looming over him fills his vision, slowly overtaken by red, then black spots.

As everything goes dark, Danny's last thought is this:

I guess I'm dead after all.

—

He hears the sobbing first. It starts off quiet and distant, but quickly grows louder, great hiccupping coughs scattered between heart-wrenching cries.

"Mr. Fenton!" someone screams. It happens fast, after that. Thundering steps, a deep cry of shock and pain that cuts him to his core. A piercing whine followed by two quick blasts.

The ectopuses' retreating shriek cuts through Danny loud and clear. His eyes snap open and air rushes into his lungs, a hoarse, wheezing breath that he holds for a moment. Then he takes another, and another, and he's breathing again, and he's not anymore.

Sam and Tucker, kneeling at his side, cry out as one. They throw themselves on him, blubbering messes the both of them. Danny's father, facing the portal, turns disbelieving eyes on him.

Danny's gaze drops to his father's hand and the ecto-gun clutched in it. "Oh, right." The word scrapes against his throat. He swallows, twice, until speaking doesn't hurt and says, "I forgot we had the gun.

"Danny!" Jack dashes toward them, dropping to his knees beside Danny. Sam and Tucker scramble back, giving him room. "Are you alright? What happened? You looked..."

Dead.

Because he was. Again.

"I'm fine," Danny assures him. "Lost consciousness, that's all.

"Danny, your face was blu—" Tucker yelps when Sam punches him in the shoulder, cutting him off mid-sentence. He rubs the spot, shooting her an offended look, but Sam's eyes are only on Danny.

Danny nods, just enough that she can see, a silent thanks.

"I think you kids should go upstairs now." Jack's voice trembles. He raises his hand, about to run it through his hair, but stops when he sees the gun he's still holding. "I'll take care of things down here. Call your parents and all that."

For the first time, Danny notices the green splotches littering the floor and the wall. Probably from the ectopuses.

Sam loops an arm around Danny's shoulders, hoisting him up. He stumbles when he gets to his feet, bracing himself against her as the room spins. It settles after a few seconds, but he still feels a bit lightheaded. A side effect of choking, maybe?

Tucker helps from Danny's other side. They go up to Danny's room in silence, their steps thumping up the stairs. Only once they're safely behind his closed door, and Danny is lying on the bed, does Sam speak.

"You died again," she says.

Danny touches his throat. "Yeah." Pressing gently, he feels is no lingering pain. Just like before, he healed without a trace. "Can I just not die now?"

"More like you can't stay dead," Tucker says.

"Tucker!" Sam hisses.

"What? It's true! Sorry that I'm not handling seeing my friend die twice very well!"

"Be quiet!"

Danny cuts in before they can devolve into shouting. "Let's just leave it at two, okay?"

Sam and Tucker share a glance over Danny's prone form and nod. The weight of that action is lost on Danny, whose only thought is that he wants to sleep for a very long time.

—

The knives don't kill him. They hurt like hell, but they don't kill him. He sees them flying toward him and leaps out of the way. Something strikes him in the gut, a solid punch that blows the air from his lungs and knocks him back into the walls. He thinks one of the frozen steaks got him, but when he looks down, he sees the handle of a kitchen knife sticking out of his stomach.

He stares at it, stunned, not feeling anything at first. Then, his body jolts, like a shock of electricity is running through him, and his nerves scream, heat building, until every little twitch sends a jolt of pain so deep coursing through him that he can hardly breathe.

"Danny, look out!" Tucker, or Sam, he can't tell which, so lost in his pain, cry out a warning. Danny doesn't move in time and two more knives bury themselves in his body, another in his stomach, and the other through his chest. The Lunch Lady cackles with glee as Danny gurgles. The last knife got his lung, and he can feel it slowly filling.

The pound of Sam's boots on the tiles reaches his ears. She shouts something, but he doesn't hear it. Trembling, Danny grips the handle of the knife in his lungs. In first-aid, they tell you to leave whatever object stabbing you in. It keeps the wound plugged, stops you from bleeding out. But Danny's instincts cry out against everything he was ever taught.

Take them out! Take them out!

He braces himself, then yanks. It hurts so much worse coming out, now that he's aware of the pain, the sharp edge searing as it rips the wound wider. He drops the knife and goes for the next one. All three fall to the floor beside him with a clatter, their blades shiny and red. Danny can't breathe, can barely think through the pain. He presses a hand against his chest, feeling the wound beneath his shirt.

It stitches itself together beneath his fingers. The searing pain retreats, replaced by a dull ache. By the time Sam reaches him and rips his shirt open to see his wound, his chest is healed.

"Technically, I didn't die," Danny croaks.

Sam sobs, covering her mouth with her hand. There's relief in her eyes, beneath the horror, and she makes a noise that might be a laugh, choked and garbled as it is.

Danny dives back into the fight with renewed vigour. Twenty minutes and one Fenton Thermos later, the ghost is gone, but not before half the student body saw some bloody idiot fighting it bare-handed.

"Did you see who it was?" Dash whispers to his friends.

Danny, clean of blood and wearing his gym t-shirt, slumps against the wall nearby, listening. Someone called the police when meat started flying through the hallways, and they apparently called Danny's parents. Ghosts are real and everyone knows it now, but Danny doesn't care about that at the moment.

"No, man. I wasn't close enough," Kwan answers Dash.

"Whoever that was, he totally just saved us all," Paulina says. She clasps her hands together and leans against Star. "He's such a hero."

Hero. The word resonates with Danny. He can't explain it, but it pulls at him. A hero. The school is in chaos, the yard covered in raw meat, the hallways hacked and slashed, but everyone is safe and unharmed thanks to Danny.

"More like a dumbass," Sam mutters from Danny's left.

"Semantics," Tucker says.

Between them, Danny only grins.

—

Jack paces in front of the portal, a tub of fudge cradled in the crook of his arm. Every few steps, he grabs a square and pops it in his mouth, chewing furiously. Between bites, he mutters.

"I'm telling you, Mads. He must have been some kind of ghost," he says.

"I don't know, Jack." Maddie, staring at the computer screen, tilts her head. They managed to grab a few stills from the school's security footage of the figure who fought off the ghost, but they didn't come out right. The surroundings are a little grainy, but no more than a standard security camera, so they know there's nothing wrong with the film itself. The ghost, who called herself the Lunch Lady if Maddie remembers correctly, is little more than a green haze in the image. They expected this. Ghosts don't interact with most technology well, not unless it is designed to interact with them.

But the smaller figure is distorted, a twisted shadow obscuring their form. Not ghostly, but not human either.

She clicks to the next image, getting the same results.

"Are you saying it's a human?" Jack asks without breaking stride.

"It's humanoid, but I don't think it's human, either. Yet it bled, so it's not a ghost. And look at this." She closes the files, revealing a folder full of pictures, all of them taken over the past couple of weeks as ghost sightings increased. "They show up at most fights and leave lots of bodily fluids behind." Jiggling the mouse, she circles a series of four images with the courser, all pictures of significant blood splatters. "But the samples..."

As one, she and Jack turn to the sample tray sitting on the far counter. Where the blood is deep red in the pictures, the samples they took have slowly turned to a dark, murky brown, like thick mud. The oldest sample from the first sighting is black.

Jack grabs a handful of fudge and shoves it in his mouth. "Not to mention," he speaks around the chewy squares, "what does it do with the ghosts?"

The lab door squeaks as it opens. Maddie and Jack fall silent, gazes turning toward the stairs. A pair of red sneakers appears on the top step, creeping down, until the wearer slowly reveals themself. Their son, Danny, with what looks like a thermos clutched in his hand.

"Sweetie, are you only just getting home?" Maddie asks.

Danny yelps in surprise. He jerks the thermos behind his back and swivels to face his parents, freezing on the step. "Oh, hey. I didn't think you guys would be here..."

Maddie narrows her eyes. "What did you do, young man? You were supposed to be home from school an hour ago."

"Nothing! I just got held up." Danny tugs the collar of his jacket.

That's odd. Maddie doesn't remember him leaving with a jacket this morning. The sleeves drape over his hands, down to his knuckles, and he has the collar turned up to cover his neck. It must be cold outside, even though September is only just ending. "What held you up?"

"Uh, that's kind of why I thought you guys wouldn't be here? There was another ghost fight. It got pretty bad." He shifts, pressing his arm against his side. Is his jacket darker there, against his ribs?

"Another ghost?" Jack exclaims. He slaps the fudge down on the closest surface, rattling the test tube samples. "Mads, we gotta go! There might still be some evidence!"

Maddie's eyes widen. "Oh, shoot. You're right! We need fresh samples." They race to grab their equipment, snatching up sample gathering packs from their desks, and charge up the stairs.

Danny presses himself against the wall, offering them a nervous smile as they go. "Stay safe!" he calls. The front door slams as Maddie and Jack make their exit, leaving the house in silence. Still, Danny doesn't relax until he hears the rev of the Fenton RV and the familiar squeal of its tires against the pavement. His shoulders slump and he breathes a sigh of relief.

"That was close." Taking his hand out from behind his back, he looks down at the Fenton Thermos. "Now let's get you taken care of."

As he empties the thermos back into the Ghost Zone, his gaze wanders to the computer screen, still open to the photo evidence. Danny reads the title of the folder. "Challenger?" He snorts. "That's lame." As he skims the photos, a couple jump out at him. In most, he can barely make out the shape of his own body—something he tries not to think about—but in one or two, he can recognize the colours of his clothes beneath the distorting shadow.

Danny slaps the cap back onto the empty thermos before moving closer to the computer, frowning at the screen. "That might be a problem."

—

Danny stands in front of his friends, fists resting on his hips, and shows off his new look. "Well? What do you think?"

Tucker looks him up and down, body shaking as he suppresses his laughter. "Is that a paper superhero mask? Did you spray paint your hair white?"

Danny's hands rise to his head. "It's a spray-on dye! I thought it was cool!"

"Ten bucks says it's super crispy."

"Don't be mean," Sam admonishes Tucker. "I think he looks pretty good. For a discount Jack Frost."

Tucker snaps his fingers. "Emo Jack Frost! The real one would never wear this much black."

"We are no longer friends," Danny says, turning away from them.

"Come on, don’t be a spoilsport."

"Nope, too late. I'm already dead to you."

Sam and Tucker share a confused glance. "Don't you mean we're dead to—" Before Sam can finish the sentence, Danny turns and throws himself out his bedroom window. "Danny!" They scramble after him, falling against the sill as they lean outside, peering down to the alley below.

Danny lies face-first on the pavement.

"Are you dead?" Tucker asks.

Danny raises his arm and gives them a thumbs up.

—

Valerie holds back a startled shout when the metal suit crashes onto the sidewalk next to her. She is not scared, but anyone would be surprised if two tons of metal suddenly fell from the sky. A scream, rapidly increasing in volume, drawings her gaze upwards just in time for a black-clad figure to plummet inches from her nose and land with a sharp crack on top of the suit.

This time Valerie cries out because holy shit, is he dead? Her panic sputters out when she peeks at the possible corpse and gets a good look at exactly who, or what, came falling after. A human figure dressed in all black with poorly coloured hair. It looks crispy as hell.

Valerie sneers. What kind of cheap dye did they use?

She recognizes the Challenger on sight. By now, more than half of Amity Park can, although Valerie can't account for the sudden style change. Maybe they realized how lame their regular t-shirt and jeans are and decided to switch things up. This isn't much better, though. Black hoodie, black pants, black boots, no style.

No one knows their name, but the moniker the Fentons gave them seems to have stuck. Valerie thinks it's a little on the nose, though.

Something wriggles in the corner of her eye and she looks to the Challenger's fist. It clutches a bright green blob, with stubby limbs and a wide mouth.

"Let go of me!" The blob beats its penny-sized fists against the Challenger's thumb. "You are my prey!"

The Challenger groans. "Can you shut up for a second? I think my neck broke." They squeeze the blob until it squeaks.

"Hey. Watch where you're throwing this stuff around." Valerie kicks the arm of the metal suit. "You nearly crushed me!"

The Challenger jolts. Their head whips up, accompanied by a loud crack, and they lurch to their feet. A mask covers their eyes—cheap like the hair dye, probably from a costume stored—but judging by the way their eyebrows shoot up, they look at Valerie with wide eyes.

"Uh, hey, Va—citizen." Their voice drops a solid octave. "Sorry about that! I'll watch out next time." They are about to say something else when a loud squeal interrupts up, the signature sound of the Fentons' approach. The Challenger pales. "Sorry, gotta go!"

They dash into the nearest alley before Valerie can get another word in, leaving her with the empty metal husk and the sound of the Fentons from two streets away. She gapes after them, unsure what to make of the brief exchange.

"Actually, wait a second." The Challenger pops back around the corner, leaping over the ghost's suit to reach Valerie. They grab her shoulders in a cold grip. "Are people really using that dumb name for me?"

At a loss for words, Valerie nods.

"Ugh." The Challenger groans and lets her go in favour of rubbing a hand down their face. "Stop that. It's so boring. Just call me... Phantom. Okay? See ya!" They spin away, too fast, and trip over the metal suit.

Wow, Valerie thinks as Phantom scrambles around the corner once more. We have the lamest superhero ever.

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