#Fire Core AU | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

shinyspooks · 11 months ago

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literally and non-literally

so. i'm literally obsessed with @zillychu 's fire core au. so i HAD to write this.

note: i imagine this happens sometime between danny actually starting to talk to them and them finding out about the halfa thing- so like, really early bonding/flirting stage?? you'll get what i mean

Warnings: blood mention, Danny kills a ghost off screen. + said ghost's arm gets torn off. this fic is comedy though i promise

Word Count: 1k

Read on AO3

This had been a bad idea.

That was all that Tucker could think, as he and Sam stood under the cover of a nearby half-destroyed building, watching as Phantom beat another ghost to a pulp.

Neither of them had seen the other ghost before, and it seemed that they likely never would again, if the way Phantom was tearing into them was any indication.

Literally, tearing into them, it seemed, as Phantom fiercly bit down on the other’s arm and ripped it clean off, blood splattering down to the pavement, followed by the ghost’s body, slamming down with such force that it made the ground tremble. When the dust settled, the ectoplasmic body didn’t so much as twitch.

“Wow.” Sam said, interrupting the unsettling silence, “That was kinda hot.”

Phantom, arm still in his mouth, turned around with a look filled with so much abject horror that if this was any other situation Tucker would’ve laughed.

Letting the arm drop from his mouth to fall to rest on top of it’s original body, Phantom joined Sam and Tucker on the ground. Well. Sorta on the ground. He got closer to the ground. But he remained floating, as usual.

“Ah-” Sam interrupted him before he could speak, “You’ve got a little-”

She reached forwards, towards Phantom’s face, and he instantly floated several feet back, letting out a hiss. Sam froze, before letting her arm drop to her side.

“Right, no touching.” She said, “But, uh, you’ve got some blood- or, ecto, on your face.”

Phantom almost seemed to hesitate for a second, before using his fist to try and wipe the ecto-blood off his cheek. He didn’t do much other than smear it a little, but both Sam and Tucker decided to not mention it. Phantom floated a bit closer again with a small sigh.

“I hope,” He started, “That when you said hot, before, thatit’s in reference to the literal heat, cause otherwise…”

“Otherwise…?” Sam tilted her head to the side with a smirk. Tucker silently shook his head at her, but she ignored him.

“Because otherwise, you’re a lot crazier than I thought.” Phantom said, crossing his arms with a huff. If anything, Sam’s smirk grew wider at that.

“Hi, I’m Sam, and I’m a lot crazier than you thought I was.” She said, linking her arm around Tucker’s and dragging him in closer to her. “This is Tucker, he’s also a lot crazier than you thought he was. May I know your name?”

“Don’t drag me into this.” Tucker muttered, and Sam lightly kicked his shin, making him sharply inhale. Phantom slow-blinked at them both. Truthfully, they didn’t really need him to tell them his name, they both had a pretty solid guess that he was, maybe, perhaps, the Phantom, but he didn’t need to know that. Besides, when it came to somewhat eldritch or fae-like beings, there were whole things around names, so it was best to give the matter some form of caution.

(And even if it wasn’t a fae-name kind of situation, the fact Phantom had not willingly gave them a name to call him by at this point did imply that they should treat the matter with some delicacy).

“…Nice try.” He said, “It’s not something you need to know, though.”

“Hm, maybe we should try giving you a name then…” Sam trailed off, thinking. Tucker let out a defeated sigh, immediately realizing that she was about to throw their previous caution and delicacy around Phantom’s name away entirely. Phantom looked almost confused, and slightly angry, like she hadn’t gotten his point, but couldn’t even say a word before she was speaking again. “Ah, I know. We’ll call you Casper.”

Phantom slow-blinked again, now very obviously confused.

“You’re choosing, of all things, to name me after the old high-school?” He asked. Now it was Sam and Tucker’s turn to look at him in confusion.

“No?? I- Oh, wait.” The realization seemed to hit them both at once. “You wouldn’t have seen that movie, would you?”

“Movie?”

“Casper, the Friendly Ghost.” Tucker elaborated. Phantom seemed to bristle.

“Ghosts are not friendly.” He said. Sam and Tucker both shared a look that made him glower at the both of them. “Seriously. Ghost’s aren’t friendl- wait, hold on. If you’re naming me- you think I’m friendly?!”

The silence that followed seemed to be response enough for him.

“I’m not friendly. I- you both aren’t just crazy. You’re insane.” Phantom said. Sam seemed to consider something for a moment.

“Hmm… You know, you’re pretty cute too, Casper.” She said, and Phantom sputtered, suddenly dropping to stand on the ground.

“Cute?!”

“Ah-” Tucker suddenly felt the need to maybe do some damage control. Phantom was already a threat enough without a damaged pride. “Of course, you’re very, uh, scary and powerful-”

“In a hot way though.” Sam interjected, “In a non-literal hot way.”

“Sam!” Tucker had to admit that she was objectively correct, but- “You can’t just say things like that-”

“You know I’m right. He’s hot. Both literally and non-literally.” As she said so, she gestured at Phantom, who had taken to staring very pointedly at the ground. Was it just Tucker’s imagination, or was his face turning a little green-

Phantom’s fists suddenly clenched, and when he looked up at them again, it was with a glare in his eyes, the edges of his hair slowly growing more smokey than its usual state.

“Get out of my town.” He hissed, eyes flashing a brighter shade of green. Ah. It seemed they had reached Phantom’s idiocy limit for the day.

Not wasting any time, Tucker flipped Sam’s grip on his arm so that he was the one holding on to her, turned, and started to drag her away at a rather speedy pace.

“Aw c’mon, I was only messing around!!” Sam complained, but still allowed herself to be dragged. From some distance behind them, Phantom tsked.

“Keep playing around like that and you’ll get burned.” He muttered, quietly, but not quietly enough for them to not overhear.

“Was that a pun? Wait- Tucker, the ghost knows puns-” Sam said, planting her feet into the ground. It was enough to give Tucker pause as well, turning around-

Phantom had already vanished.

“He knows puns, Tucker.” Sam continued, “Tucker. We’ve got to bring the joke book next time.”

#Danny Phantom #Fire Core AU #my writing #zillychu if you see this i need you to know i havent written in like 5 months #and this is the fic that finally got me writing again #so thank you for this incredible au #Everlasting Trio

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vigilant-insomniac · 8 months ago

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Ashes rain upon your scalded palms pt 1

Part 1/3 | Next Part | or read on AO3

@phicphight submission for @ecto-mochi's Prompt

Maddie is unexpectedly sent to an ashen future. She doesn't even get the chance to meet the mysterious man who sent her to this apocalyptic world - she's only given a single command, ringing over and over in her head: "Find Danny. Save him.

Also Very Much inspired by @zillychu's fire core AU because it has me in a chokehold.

Contains: Danny & Maddie bonding (?), Post apocalyptic vibes. NOT the ultimate enemy. A bucket full of angst.

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Chapter One

"Find Danny. Save him."

Maddie awoke with a start and immediately fell into a vicious coughing fit. Her lungs ached. The air was thick and polluted. She had to squint through irritated eyes once she had her handkerchief pressed to mouth and nose.

She registered heat around her, sweltering, like standing in front of a furnace rather than lounging out in the sun during a hot summer's day.

With half opened eyes, she took stock of what was going on. Fear and foreboding had consumed her mind by now and were only proven to be warranted. She had been half buried under ash coated rubble.

Her first thought was a house fire. Or the aftermath of which. But there was no ruin of a house, just the rubble that covered the area around her, and above her a dusty sky. Through the smog she could make out shapes that were vaguely shaped like the structures of houses in the distance, so she was certain she was in a town, probably even Amity Park. Had there been an earthquake?

Her hands pressed into a layer of ash, heat slowly sinking through her thick gloves, as she pushed herself upright. No pain registered as she stood. A small miracle. Not even her jumpsuit seemed damaged, only stained into a colorless gray.

"Jack?" She yelled through the cloth that she kept over her mouth against the worst of the pollution. It still sent her into another coughing fit. There was no response she could hear, even after her lungs had calmed down.

She needed a better vantage point then, if her voice wasn't strong enough to yell.

So she climbed the next biggest pile of broken stone and looked around in hopes of spotting a flash of orange or any other hints or signs of her family. But there were only broken buildings surrounding her and everything else was unrecognizable in its state of ash-covered debris.

What had happened here? She could still remember the last things she had done before waking up. She had sat in the living room writing a report on her last experiment.

Jack had been next to her, busy with his handcrafts. Jazz had been off with her fiancé and Danny-

"Find Danny. Save him."

Maddie almost fell off the pile of broken bricks. "Who's there?!" She yelled hoarsely.

But the world had gone quiet again. She hadn't noticed it before, with the pounding of her heart and the clattering of rubble as she scrambled around, but, if she held her breath and stood still, the world turned utterly soundless.

Not a scurrying of a rat or the yelling of someone in distress. No howling of wind or rustling of leaves. Time itself seemed to be depraved of sound- of Life.

Her breathing became short and shallow.

"Find Danny. Save him."

She flinched when the voice sounded again. So close it seemed to come from inside her head.

Was this her own panic sparking her into action?

Danny. Her son. She had to find him. But, didn't she have to find Jazz and Jack as well?

Or was this not her own thought? Maddie sank to her knees and forced herself to take in hot air. She wiped over her brow with her sleeve. The heat was getting to her, that was probably an onset of a heatstroke.

She had to find shelter, food, water…, find out where she was, find out what had happened between her last thought and this wasteland.

She had to find her family.

With new determination she looked up again and scanned her surroundings more carefully this time.

It was hard to make things out through the smoky fog. Everything turned into a monotone shade of grey, no further than a well tossed stone's throw away.

So she almost missed it, a glint far in the distance. Skeletal shadows stood blurrily, too washed out to really look like much, but they at least looked different from the rest of the ruins around her.

Mind made up, Maddie clambered down from her perch and headed towards it.

Her walk was a somber one. The heat seemed to be getting less bearable with every step and mirages distorted the ground and air ahead which made it hard to keep her turned towards the right direction.

Her breath through her makeshift mask hitched slightly whenever she tripped over hidden rubble and her clothes were quickly soaked. Ash mixed uncomfortably with her sweat. It clung to her whenever her steps disrupted the inch thick layer with every step and made billowing clouds of burned dust rise up like smoke from a fire.

Maddie frowned at that. She paused for a moment to look behind herself, and sure enough, a path was left behind. From where she had woken up, straight to where she was now. It wasn’t surprising that she’d left a track, but judging by the lack of any other footsteps she could spot, she might be the first person to have come through here in a while. She also wasn’t sure how long she must have been unconscious. She hadn’t felt all that dehydrated when she first woke up, but she had to have been lying there for a while for so much ash to settle.

Gooseflesh ran up her arms and Maddie rubbed fiercely at them. This was all pointing towards a direction she did not appreciate. Had she been spirited away? Had she been sent into some kind of Hell? The involvement of the Supernatural seemed the most likely explanation so far. More so than a house fire or an earthquake.

Her whole life though, she had dedicated to the science of the unknown. And she was getting close to the completion of the Portal. Her and Jack had been relentless recently.

So, while she should be ecstatic to maybe gather definite proof of the very thing she had been studying, she felt bothered by it… Her encounter with the Supernatural had been supposed to be caused by her scientific prowess. Not whatever was going on here. Completely unprompted hexing. Like this was all just a coincidence. A fluke or some kind of cosmic joke. She kicked a pebble.

“Oh you small woman want to play scientist and spend your life enduring the ridicule of people disallowing women the capacity to use their brains? Well none of that, my dear, let’s just throw all that hard work away and have the unnatural come to you, without the need to use that head of yours.” Maddie mumbled in a mocking voice. She was going insane. But still that thought irked.

She didn’t like those things called Luck, Chance and Fate. They felt so antithetic to her exhaustingly hard work she had to put in. It made it feel less. Her mother never had seemed to understand her issue with that. Maddie hoped she never made Jazz, or Danny for that matter, feel like that. Like their Efforts were any less powerful than Fate.

She exhaled a long breath before turning back towards her destination. This time she kept on the lookout for any signs of disruption in the soft blanketing. Any signs that she wasn’t the only person around. She had to find Danny. She shook her head. “And Jazz. And Jack. All of them.” she spoke with emphasis.

What lay in the distance was hard to gauge, with how everything looked like just another shade of nothing. But she had been right. The structure she was getting close to was different from anything she had seen on her path. Even more so, it seemed to be the center of the whole area of sorts. The temperature had been climbing steadily and the landscape had become almost completely flattened. It reminded her of tales of bombs and explosions that the men would bring back from the front. Her father never had told her much, but on the rare nights when he had sat down with world weariness and a glint of injustice in his eyes, he would answer all her curious questions and tell her about the dark side of science. About things that were made to cause only destruction. The alcohol had surely helped in making his tongue loose, even if she had always found it decently ironic, that for someone who would be so insistent on rules, that he would so easily break them himself when it came to something like smuggling in whiskey.

But she could understand it, somewhat. If she was disturbed by the sight of her current hellscape, she didn’t want to imagine what it must be like to experience it littered with blood, guts and bodies. If she had to live through something like that, then a bottle would also seem appealing to her.

She could go for a drink now, if she was being frank with herself. Her legs shook both from exhaustion and heat, but when she finally got to the structure, it made her trip backwards with a start. Because it didn't take too much of a closer look to recognise it. And it startled her because It was familiar machinery. Intimately familiar. It was the Portal. Her Portal.

A skeletal frame was all that was left of it. Warped steel reached towards an uncaring sky. She could spot drops of molten copper that stuck to some of the carcass' innards.

Maddie didn’t even care to suppress the sob that built in her throat. Her eyes burned from more than the dusty air, and she only had half a mind to not rub them with her gritty gloves.

Her portal was dead. Imploded or exploded. It took everything with it in its final moments. She wondered if it had spared her, out of recognition. Her life's work might have.

The pain of seeing her own in such a state was overwhelming. And all the destruction.. the portal was meant to break a new frontier, not be the root of catastrophe.

Calming down was difficult, but she had to put her grief aside until she knew where the rest of her family was.

Her theory of being spirited away didn't fit her new evidence anymore.

She was …home. Except her home was devoid of her family and her greatest creation had destroyed everything in its wider vicinity. It might have even killed-

Anger flared up then. This wasn’t right. Her Portal hadn’t even been close enough to completion yet. It had been in its infancy at best. There had been no permanent connection to a generator either. Even the ones her and Jack used, wouldn’t have had enough voltage to do more than run a few basic connectivity checks.

There was not even the slightest chance that it would be able to level a city. Not yet. Their plans would involve more voltage, more fuel, more unstable elements eventually. It would have had the potential in the future. But not yet. Even if Jack and her had wanted it to be much further down their project timeline. Their issues had always started and ended with materials. It usually took them compromises for what parts they would need, or patience while they first had to develop what they'd need. A lot of their plans even hinged on hypothetical materials that might exist in another time. Finding substitutes for them...it did bear greater potential for accidents and malfunctions, but so far her and Jack had been very conservative with what they'd use.

So this mass destruction couldn't have been her Portal's fault…. Yet, it sat right there, at the center…

Though when she looked closer, even less things made sense. There were parts, melted and deformed as they were, built into place, even though they should still have been sitting on a workbench. Some parts, she had only just put the order in for.

So what was this? It definitely was the corpse of a portal. She’d even swear that it was her Portal specifically. She had walked around it once now, but there was only so much she could tell, so she did the thing she would always vehemently advise against when it came to unfamiliar or broken machinery. She stepped inside.

She half expected something to happen. But it was just more of the same mutilated metal.

Still she couldn’t help the gooseflesh that returned to her arms as she inspected the remains.

Her brows knitted together when she saw the texture of the surface of some of the support beams. There was corrosion.

She knelt down and dug around until she pulled out wires from under metal plating that was thick but loose enough for her to pry apart.

“Why do you look like this?” Maddie mumbled under her breath when she held partially intact wires in her hands. They looked wrong. Not just like they had been caught in an explosion, but as if they were plain old. Brittle insolation that had faded from their bright colors, to soft pastels. Oxidation that would not happen in even a month or two, now discolored the copper. Even the beams she had spotted were rusting and flaking. They looked off-

Maddie’s head snapped up at a sudden noise. After the silence she’d been in since waking up, the sound came unexpectedly.

Even more so, It was a hissing growl that cut through the quiet like a knife.

Maddie had grown up in the countryside, she would recognize almost any local wildlife by their noises, so she knew exactly that this was not one of them.

She crouched low and moved to a spot with a large enough gap between the metal to look through. The noise had come from a distance, yet its echo had betrayed its force. Maddie felt the gooseflesh again. A shiver that ran up and down her body and made her shudder even in this furnace of a place. Instincts. That’s what that must have been about all along.

Her breath caught in her throat when her eyes focused on what she could see through the makeshift viewport.

Ghost.

Ahead of her, far enough that it almost got swallowed by the smog, floated and growled a ghost. Its un-nature was given away by its glow to anyone who had eyes. Even through the curtain of impure air, the light it emitted was unmistakable. Its shape was harder to make out. It looked vaguely humanoid, but she would have to get closer to make out any kind of detail. But she wasn’t armed very well, she only had her standard tools in her coat pockets and she was in an unfamiliar environment and without Jack. She wasn't ready to fight, no matter how much her desire fought against her reason.

Luckily it didn’t seem to have spotted her yet anyways..

It looked to be facing away from her too and growling further into the void beyond the fog.

There must be another one, she concluded. This was bad though. Ghosts were theorized to be highly territorial. So if there were two, a fight was likely to break out, if the posturing and growling didn’t deter the challenger.

Maddie decided to follow her instincts and retreat. Getting caught up in this would not end well.

She was glad for the ashy blanket on the ground that muted her steps, even as she all but ran. She didn’t dare to look back and only stopped for breath, when the ruins became taller and more resembling buildings and the air became cooler. Her newer theory must have been correct. The Portal was the epicenter after all. She could also recognise landmarks now. It was hard to reconcile this disaster zone with her home, but those were undoubtedly the streets she's known for the last twenty years.

After catching her breath and reveling in the comparably low temperatures, she continued in the direction she’d been running towards.

She wanted answers. The further away she got from the epicenter, the more likely she was to find things that were left unmarred.

She walked until she found a building that was left whole. Its red bricks shone through in places, and the windows were intact in some of the floors.

“I’m sorry” she whispered as she broke into the home of a family she'd known in passing.

It was no matter, as there was no sign of anyone having been here in ages. This time dust coated the surfaces and furniture, opposed to the ash she had almost gotten used to.

This place was exactly what Maddie needed.

She walked carefully through the hall and towards the kitchen. She found the living room during her search and the bathroom. She ignored the living room for now, but tested out the faucet in the bathroom. Nothing. Well, she hadn’t expected it to work. The city’s water system wouldn’t have been able to take such an explosion anyways. The watertower would have been in the zone with medium destruction, but that would be enough to render the town without a drop.

She noted how the faucet had been stuck and took a fair amount of force to even budge.

She continued towards the kitchen.

There were signs that someone had rummaged around and then left in a hurry. Maddie hoped that meant that whoever had lived here, had gotten to evacuate.

Maddie opened all cupboards and shelves until she had a decent pile of conserves. There was no water, but some of the tins were filled with soup. The labels weren’t pristine like something freshly bought. But Maddie was not prepared for the smell that hit her when she opened the first can.

Almost all of them were spoiled. Some tins had rusted in places. It took her some courage to drink from the one broth that smelled the least nauseating.

Yet it was a relief to wash the taste of smoke off her tongue.

She didn’t waste time after that to explore the rest of the home. The homeowners must have been on the wealthy side, since they were equipped with all sorts of modern gadgets. They even had a vacuum cleaner. Not that she would consider that high tech by her own standards. She had tried to get her own version patented long before that stealing bastard snatched her idea and made his own “vision”. You could only suck up dust with his. How was that superior to her home defense version? But that would probably not be the last stolen patent that quack would sell as his own … at least she could turn his pile of junk into something she could use for her own situation in a bit.

The living room had also turned out to be useful for her. Books, letters, and most importantly, a newspaper were to be found.

That one made her pause the longest in her scavenger hunt.

The date on it was impossible. It was well of a year into the future. When she picked up the brittle and gilbed pages, it almost fell apart, so she carefully skimmed over the articles.

“I must be hallucinating.” she breathed out. There, on the third page of the Amity Times, her name stood out from the headline of a column.

The Fenton Portal, her portal, had been completed but a test run had been a failure. The article was mocking. But right now she barely noticed.

She put down the paper and let herself sink onto the couch, not caring about the dust that got stirred up.

She'd been running around and mentally cataloging her findings for a while now. There was probably enough now to come to some conclusions about this situation.

Examine the evidence. That's what she had to do next.

There was no mistaking it, she somehow ended in the future. The paper read it was August 22nd 1924. That was one year later than it should be, … but that was also only the date when the newspaper stopped.

The paper itself held some answers.

It looked like the old records she'd get from libraries for her research.

And she was a competent scientist, she could make an educated estimate on how old things were based on their state. And this newspaper? It looked old.

And not just the paper. The portal too. And the conserves. And even the furniture inside this house. It all consistently showed signs of aging.

She didn't want it to be true, but the evidence spoke for itself.

She was in the future. A far off one. Most of it pointed towards it being around a century or so from when she should be.

Maddie rested her head on the back of the couch and stared at the ceiling.

So she had been spirited away. Not locally, but temporally. To a time that seemed like the aftermath of an apocalypse. Or post judgement day, as her mother would surely call it.

And her Portal was supposed to be the cause of it?

That part she still couldn't agree with.

Even in the newspaper, and she assumed it had been of the day everything had gone to hell, it said the portal had been tested and failed. But that must've been a safe affair, since the news of it existed. If it had gone up during the test, then there would be no one left to report on it.

She knew herself well enough to know that she wouldn't just turn it on carelessly after a failed run.

She couldn't even imagine Jack being so careless as to just turn it on or short circuit it.

An accident…. Maybe.

But they still had a procedure they followed when turning the Portal on even for its, in her actual time, half completed state. That included powering it back down and disconnecting it from its power.

But there were more factors at play here anyways.

There was a ghost. Lingering around here like it was its haunt.

And there was a reason she had been sent here.

The order to "find Danny. Save him." Had not left her head. It was like a song she'd hear on the radio once that would keep playing over and over in her head, even hours later.

Danny might've been sent here as well. Maybe she even set out herself to go after her son, and just had amnesia from whatever invention of hers brought her here.

It would be a relief at least. If she was here out of her own volition and with a mission.

Then that would mean she held strings in her own hand, and wasn't just being pulled along. It would also mean that the rest of her family wasn't here.

This would only hold up as a theory. But for now she would accept it and act upon it.

So the last piece:

The ghost.

Her instinct back there at the portal had screamed at her to run. And instinct, her intuition even, were rarely something she wanted to dismiss.

And her intuition was telling her the ghost was the key to it all. To figure out the apocalyptic event that flattened the city with her Portal at the center, and what happened to Danny. She would find him. And she would save him.

#completed #danny phantom fanfiction #ao3 fanfic #dp clockwork #dp fic #fire core au #Maddie Fenton #danny fenton #phandom #myDannyPhantom #myWriting #originalwork #danny phantom #phic phight 24 #phic phight 2024 #phic phight

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