#He escapes into the ghost zone before they can explain.

[ew-selfish-art]

Dpxdc AU: consultant groups can be used to outsource problems for companies so why not monarchies?

Danny is listening to the various eyeballs and ghosts chatter on about all the issues that he now has to oversee and advise and make so many freaking decisions on. It’s annoying that it all has to come down to his call because he was a dumb 14 year old who didn’t want his town to permanently live in the ghost zone.

Now 17, King of the Infinite, and a bit wiser to the world, Danny is doing his best to balance his teenage ambitions to not give a shit and his protective obsession to very much give a shit.

Sams parents are making her learn the family business and Tucker is trying to make this internship he’s got with a fancy tech company out of New Jersey into a career without college… so while they��re commiserating with Danny the idea comes up.

Earth has a shit ton of heroes. Like, ever since the Justice League *poofed* the GIW out of existence with the Meta human acts- more and more caped crusaders seemed to be coming out of the wood work. More villains too but still, more people who seemed wise to their abilities and morals. Danny has literally never taken an ethics class.

But rn, Eye-mothy and Eye-Bert are arguing over how Danny as King Phantom is supposed to tackle the problem of some fucking pool acting as a weird trade route with a cult and… ugh it’s just so boring but like also such a fucking problem. But… maybe it can be someone else’s issue.

Opening a portal, Danny escapes into space and gets to work finding the base of operations- Tucker had told him there was a new satellite after all and there’s no way it wasn’t connected to the hero orgs- and boom he flies into the Watchtower.

“Hey- are any of you guys willing to consult on some weird pools of ectoplasm in Pakistan? Green and glowing little lakes of bullshit and magic?” Danny asks into the meeting room of the JL regardless of their startled and alarmed exclamations.

“… I could consult on that.” A voice comes from the corner, and Danny recognizes him as one of the bat people. Or bird? The guy is in a lot of red and clearly wasn’t supposed to be in this meeting based on the way he’s propped in the corner. The room erupts in protest but Danny barely hears them through his excitement and focus on the dude.

“Great! I’ll have him back before the end of the day! Lets go Bird boy!” And with that, Danny grabbed the Bird, chucked them both through a portal back into his thrown room and begins to explain the way these eyeballs are totally trying to trap him into doing more work than he needs to do.

“What do I call you by the way? I’m Danny but you’ll probably hear them call me King Phantom.”

“I go by Red Robin, and honestly, I’ve been trying to get this shit taken care of for years.”

From there Tim becomes a regular consultant for King Phantom- the Bat Family is losing their minds with him constantly going to the land of the dead but also Constantine said not to piss off the king at all costs.

Danny is just thrilled that this dude has a shit ton of insight as well as business sense- like he could legit run the monarchy way better than him despite the fact that they’re the same age.

They end up working together for years, and even when there’s not an active issue at hand, Danny will meet up with the bird just to talk.

Sam and Tucker think they’re hilarious each time they ask if Danny’s proposed yet.

Tim has already planned their wedding but all of that information is in a folder more secured than the nuclear codes- Danny needs to ask him on a date first.

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Danny couldn't really explain why he always answered this specific summoning ritual. It was like a feeling. One of warmth. Of a mug of hot cocoa in your hands and a nice weighted blanket dropped around your shoulders as a fire blazed in the hearth in front of you, keeping the chill in the rest of the room at bay.

Danny always lost himself in the sensation and found himself back in that stupid circle of protection with that same wierd guy demanding answers. But Danny didn't know anything about a "Lazarus Pit" or a "Pit Madness" let alone a cure for it. Even if he did he wasn't going to tell Red Robin anything after all the times he'd used the marriage summoning spell to get him here.

Earlier on Red had explained it was the only spell known to thier universe that could summon an entity from "The Lazarus Dimension" Which he guessed was another name for the ghost zone and Phantom was the only one to ever be summoned.

Danny couldn't help but wonder why...

After escaping Bird boy and his supernatural pop quiz (oh look, another test for him to flunk) he returns home only to discover his parents had seen him get summoned and accused him of being a ghost that replaced thier baby boy.

Naturalally the next time Red Robin had summoned Phantom he was angry. He was tired and dirty from being on the run from his parents, his worlds US government, and Vlad. Not to mention his own rogues gallery didn't exactly cut him any slack.

So Danny decided that if Red Robin wanted to abuse the power of a marriage ritual than the very least he can do is put his money where his mouth is.

Danny grinned and exited the magic circle, taking delight in Reds widening eyes before he lunged. A kiss sealed the deal, making sure Danny had a safeish place to stay.

After all, married couples in the infinite realms were obligated and even compelled to protect and care for eachother.

[new-revenant]

Danny has to use an emergency go bag he put together, not because of his parents though, his parents are actually very accepting of his half ghost status and revised all their research on ghosts. The reason he has to run are the GIW. They stormed Fentonworks, they shot and hospitalized Jazz, arrested Jack and Maddie on account of their portal, and then in an attempt to destroy the ghost zone blew up the portal and Fentonworks. Danny managed to escape the containment unit he was in by literally blowing it apart. He ended up running to Gotham, he kept his face covered and bought hair bleach, hair dye, and colored contacts, all paid for with cash, he arrived at his safe house which was a crappy apartment in Crime Alley and proceeded to bleach and then dye his hair red. He puts in brown contacts and lives under the alias Eli Walker. He's in Gotham for a couple months and was slowly regaining energy from the ectoplasm in Gotham, it was slow going though. He's managed to keep under the radar while working at a little convenience store to keep his cover, plus they don’t care that he wears a mask to hide his face or long compression gloves to help with some hand tremors from some kind of accident. It was a slow night for Danny, he was working alone when a man in a ski mask shows up brandishing a gun and trying to rob the store. Danny decided getting shot wasn't worth minimum wage so he ends up trying to disarm the guy while waiting for the bats. They show up eventually to see this red haired kid in a mask crack the would be robber over the head with a fire extinguisher in self denfense, along with the messed up store, while his nose bleeds Lazarus green through his mask. Danny looks at them and immediately drops the fire extinguisher in a slight panic as he tries to hide the nose bleed. "I can explain." Was all Danny could say and do to keep from vanishing on the spot

They immediately think he’s a meta, as per it usually goes with these stories. First things first, they try to find him. Danny only got a couple feet away before his intangibility wore off, because of his low ectoplasm levels. He was still invisible, but that didn’t make it too much harder for the Bats to find him. Danny keeps saying that he just wants to have normal life and not be experimented on by the government, and the Bats keep saying that he’s fine and they won’t let that happen. So now Danny is under constant surveillance by the Bats for his own mental health’s sake, all the while the Bats try to figure out who Danny really is and how to take down the GIW.

[bet-on-me-13]

Cass joins Team Phantom

So, we all know how Cass escaped her terrible dad at the age of 8 right? And how she is adopted by Batman at the age of 16-17 right? Well, what happened in between that time?

Cass has been on the run for Years now. She is 13, and at this point she has been on the run for nearly half of her entire life. So it's really no wonder that when she finally got to a relatively safe place after weeks of little food, little rest, and constant attacks by her pursuers, she accidentally fell asleep.

She woke up in a nice comfy bed, in a room that looked like an Astronomy Geek's dream. Once the people who found her noticed she was awake, they explained what had happened.

Their son, a boy named Danny, had found her passed out in their Shed the previous day while cleaning up. He had quickly brought her in and offered his Room so she could rest comfortably.

Cass doesn't really trust them, and tries to run more than once, but her weeks of constant exhaustion have finally caught up with her and she is stuck staying with them until she is fit to leave.

And unfortunately for her, the Fentons are very Endearing.

By the time she is healthy enough to leave, she genuinely wants to stay. So they unofficially adopt her, letting her stay in their house and sharing a room with Jazz (Danny did kind of need his room back, and Jazz was a good sister like that)

She ends up going to the same school as Danny and ends up befriending both of his friends, Tucker and Sam.

The day of the Accident, Cass is right there alongside Tucker and Sam as the Portal kills Danny.

After the Accident, she is a great help in teaching him some calming routines and meditation techniques so he can get a handle on his Powers much easier.

They also find out that standing in front of a Portal as it rips reality apart is just as bad as being inside of it. They all end up extremely liminal and get Powers. Tucker has Technomancy, Sam has Plant Powers, and Cass gets Shadow Manipulation (or whatever you think fits her)

She is having the best time of her life, but unfortunately it can't last forever.

About 2 years after the Accident, the GIW get a lucky shot on Danny. They were using one of the inventions the Fenton's had made before the Reveal (which was a good one) one that made Ghost Powers weaker for easier capture. While it didn't hurt Danny too much, it did weaken him enough that he flickered into his Human Form for just long enough for the GIW Agents to see him.

Now with Danny's identity exposed, the GIW could track down the Identities of the Humans who had been helping him all this time, aka, Tucker, Sam, and Cass.

During a Raid on Fenton Works, they all got seperated somehow.

Danny got injured protecting the Team, and had to be rushed to the Ghost Zone by Jazz, a stray shot from the GIW blowing up the Portal behind them. They ended up in the Far Frozen, to get Danny fixed up.

Tucker was arrested and sent to prison for a little while before a glitch in his cells Security System allowed him an opening to use his Powers to escape.

Sam was chased out of the Town by the GIW and ended up in the Forest nearby. She had to use her Powers to run away, disappearing too deep into the Woods for the GIW to follow.

Cass managed to sneak out, and ended up trying to save Tucker on his way to prison. She failed though, and the GIW chased her all the way to New Jersey before loosing her trail.

This is how she ended up in Gotham, and got adopted by Bruce Wayne. But she would never forget her first Family, and would try for years to see if she could find where they ended up.

Potential Part 2? Maybe, I have some ideas...

What do you think?

[evilminji]

Guess what color the Metorite Vandal Savage cuddled with, was?

Did you guess Ectoplasm Green?

Because it waaaaaaaas~ And! Thanks to a Certain Episode That Shall Not Be Named, we know that meteors and other space rocks CAN be Ecto-ranium!

Which!! Suggests OTHER Ecto-Elements may be floating about in space! Not in large amounts, but! Absurdly rare does NOT mean they never land on earth! Consider the various kryptonites! Rare! Still land on earth. Not all are immediately harmful to Kryptonians.

So? What other Ecto-Elements could land on earth? Perhaps one that... unlike Ecto-Ranium... that hurts Ghosts and Limnals? CREATES them?

Imagine if you with? You are Savage. Tired. Sore. Cold. The glowing rock... is WARM.

FEELS warm... deeper even then your skin. Like... like a blessing. Like the Sky Gods have sent you warmth and safety. Chosen you. You are so tired. The rock calls to you. The night is cold. Your body heavy. The light... so... so soft and pretty...

You wake up... Different.

Stronger. Smarter. More AWARE.

As though power has been poured into your veins. You no longer age. Are the ONLY of your kind. Wouldn't it be easy to make assumptions? For Obsession to twist your mind and time to alienate you from humanity? They are infants compared to you.

Isolation HAS been PROVEN to drive humans insane. And in so many ways? He is Isolated. Trapped without access to the Zone, the Realms Infinite. He is the only Man in a sea of violent, gibbering, ever repeating zygote. Thoughtless repetition of history's mistakes, played out before him, like Humanity itself is smashing it's head against a wall again and again and AGAIN.

Nothing new under the sun. Alone, decade after decade after century after millenia. Hungry for the presence of other people, their EMOTIONS and LIFE, but equally unable to bear them. Starving slowly.

Every war, each battle, a feast of SOMETHING that fills his stomach for years. The extreme emotions and sudden ends of Death releasing SOMETHING into the air he can not explain. Can not name. It fills him.

He is Chosen.

He is insane. An inherently social creature driven mad by social isolation. A ghost trapped in flesh, slowly warped by the filters of human perception and prolonged starvation. But... not alone... not forever...

A little town.

In that country built on mass Graves, that thinks so very highly of itself. Founded by witches. A town of CHILDREN. Stumbling and new. Like HIM.

Some stronger then others, as tends to be the case, some clever and sure footed. So many will not stand the tests of Time. They are too weak. But... BUT! Oh~ LOOK At Them! A Tribe of Children.

They will live FOREVER.

They must be protected. As he walks amongst them, he can see them struggle to understand themselves. To hide their greatness from the reactionary masses. Already the children have drawn the attention of some governmental branch of this or that. Were too inexperienced and without leadership.

No Father to guide them. No patriarch.

The best they have is a floating child. "Phantom". Children guiding children, truly it is madness.

As he stands on the steps of the halls of their little town's government hall. Do you think Vandal Savage smiles? Pats the head of a passing child, after he catches her, to keep her from stumbling? Is he the very picture of a pleasant, gregarious man?

How trustworthy.

Vladimir Masters must look up from his work, at his overly ornate desk, and meet the eyes of something far, FAR worse then himself. Know in that instant, as like recognizes like, that a monster has stepped foot into his office. What choice does he make, I wonder?

When his instincts scream this... this is likely it. You have no escape. This thing will go through you, continue on, consume and control until it has it's fill. You are an obstacle it seeks to... Remove.

What does he do then?

In that moment... does he think of the Family his Obsession cradles so dear? The woman he loves, unknowing of this danger? The children, the SON, no doubt first to be targeted after he falls?

I imagine he does.

He cares little for Jack Fenton. But Vladimir Masters, in his own twisted way, does love Jack's family dearly. He sits at his desk, brought from home, bought with stolen wealth, and smiles a businessman's polite smile. Let's his hand brush the decorative bobblehead of to the side. Slips his finger, intangible, just beneath the surface of the plastic...

..to the emergency switch below.

Flick.

Messages Sent.

Three phones light up, dispite having blocked his number. The screen fills with simple messages, repeated and bold.

RUN. GO NOW. I'M ALREADY DEAD.

RUN. RUN. RUN.

PLEASE.

RUN.

@stealingyourbones @hdgnj @ailithnight

[lilianade-comics]

Did you ever have any more ideas for the AU where Dani was wandering around the ghost zone looking for Danny and had spellbound Vlad into helping? It was such a good inspiration for daydreams, for me, especially how Dani and Vlad interacted while she slowly grew on him. Probably because he’d be deep in denial to the point he wouldn’t notice why he was becoming more comfortable around her and not bothering to be as snappish, other than thinking he was just tired.

How do you think they’d reunite after the incident where Vlad frames himself to find Dani? I can’t imagine Dani would never want to see him again, so she might try to sneak back to places where she was with him, or summon him in secret. Vlad, once getting over the surprise she still wants to talk and what remained of his ego, might have no problem with interacting with Dani as long as she kept it private. And would Dani eventually want to reintroduce Vlad and Danny once she becomes more open with him? It seems like she might, to have a more honest relationship with her brother. To which Vlad would Definitely Not agree, his reputation could not survive it getting around that he actually was attached to this girl. That’s something they might butt heads about.

I think that after they separate, that's when Pariah Dark ramps up the conflict as the main villain (I don't really have many details fleshed out for the wider plot of the AU beyond Dani's personal quest, but I imagine that Pariah probably likes to eat the living people unfortunate enough to find themselves in the ghost realm, or the ones he can get his hands on at least, as Vlad mentioned is a thing that sometimes happens in that AU comic I did.)

Because Pariah's no doubt gotten wind of the whole "living girl is actively running around his kingdom looking for That Little Pest Danny Phantom and has also apparently magically bound his most Aggravating Rival" situation, he's out looking for Dani. I think Vlad winds up getting apprehended after leaving Dani to Danny (he can't catch a break in this AU) and after getting confronted by the Ghost King himself Vlad no doubt vehemently denies ever having gotten himself bound by a child, and he swears up and down that there is NO living girl in the realm, and clearly Pariah needs to invest in better spies, etc.

Through circumstances not fully fleshed out yet, this likely ends up turning into a "Vlad wrestles with his conscience and his ego and finally gives up and escapes Pariah & returns to Dani in an attempt to persuade her to leave the ghost realm before the Ghost King eats her" kind of deal. Because Vlad cares about her! Which is highly unusual for him and he doesn't really like it! Having feelings is stressing him out!

Vlad definitely tries to do this secretly, but Dani gets her brother involved anyway. The context of how Vlad and Dani are actually friendly with each other takes a lot of explaining. (Danny probably laughs for about thirty straight minutes when his sister recounts the magic binding part of the story. Vlad looks ready to throttle him but doesn't, miraculously.)

Danny and Vlad argue viciously over the whole thing, for obvious reasons. Danny is probably against Dani leaving; he's dealt with Pariah before and he's confident his crew can protect her. (Danny probably knows of some really good hiding places where she'd be safe, after all, he was never eaten by Pariah so clearly they have a chance!) He's mostly accepted that Dani is his long lost sister at this point, and he's not about to lose her so suddenly. Vlad is NOT amused, mostly because he's rapidly succumbing to parental brain rot and the children are refusing to listen to him. His whole reputation is actively crumbling around him, lol.

Again, details are all incomplete right now, but the vibes, you know? Vlad is a proud, lonely warlord who thirsts for power and attention and now he's been reduced to worrying about some dumb little girl who he "hates." She humiliated and bound him and he should be excited that Pariah is plotting to cook her on a spit. Instead, he's stuck allying himself with a bunch of fool teenagers who he also hates, all in a wild attempt to keep her safe. Rest in Peace, Vlad, because you're not coming back from this one with that reputation intact!

[zosonils-art]

rewatched the sonic ova a few months ago. since then i've thought a bit too hard about the only loosely explained way that hyper metal sonic was created, been irreversibly changed by the idea of a sonic who wakes up in a body that isn't his and discovers that all his memories and friendships and adventures belong to someone else now, rekindled my obsession with the various metal sonics of pre-reboot archie, and finally learned how to care about sonic heroes

photon is basically every version of metal sonic ever, a few of the charmingly edgy aus i wrote when i was 11, and a few sonic cd fan theories all thrown in a blender and kicked down a flight of stairs, and i'm kind of obsessed with him. really, REALLY long infodump and some supplementary scribbles under the cut

WELCOME TO THE PHOTON ZONE

a little after sa2, eggman lures sonic into some trap that pins him down long enough for an electronic copy to be made of his brain. sonic trashes the place and escapes with only a mild headache and a bruised ego, but all the data eggman scraped is intact. as he's creating neo metal sonic, eggman uploads this digital ghost of sonic into him, with the intention to upgrade from having a fancy bootleg to a truly 'perfect' answer to sonic, who can simulate his entire psyche in real time and know everything he's going to do before he does it

[eggman would love to steal a hedgehog, actually]

unfortunately for eggman, his latest copy is too perfect, and sonic's indomitable will and sense of self easily overpowers any feeble attempts the rest of neo metal sonic's programming makes to keep him in line. pretty much the moment he's booted up, he books it outta there as fast as possible to go find his friends and fix things. with all of sonic's memories embedded in him, the thought that he isn't the real thing doesn't even cross metal's mind - as far as he knows, he made an embarrassing blunder in a dingy old egg base, had something done to his brain, and then woke up miles away in a robot body that eggman must have stuffed him into somehow. he just has to find tails and amy and knuckles and the rest, make sure he didn't hurt any of them during that mysterious gap in his memory, and slap together a plan to get his body back and shove eggman into a puddle. no sweat!

so naturally, it's a bit hurtful when none of his friends believe for a second that he's who he says he is. and it's a LOT hurtful when the real sonic shows up, in the body that's SUPPOSED to be his, and metal suddenly has no idea who or what he is

even though it's not enough to override the sonic personality, eggman's programming is still twisting metal's thoughts. an angry killer robot is an effective killer robot, so any negative emotion or violent impulse is forced to the front of his mind. metal is angry at eggman for doing this to him, and at his friends for not trusting him, and at sonic for existing in the body and life that belong to him, and all of this gets mixed in with the existential despair and knee-jerk denial of what's happening to him and then magnified tenfold. a version of the sonic heroes storyline takes place as metal's mental state worsens exponentially, and he begins to lash out more and more violently at everyone and everything around him in increasingly desperate attempts to prove [mostly to himself] that this other sonic is a fake.

this culminates in the metal overlord battle, where metal [who's escalated from 'prove himself superior to sonic' to 'defeat sonic and force him to admit the truth' to 'literally just kill him, since he's obviously a hyper realistic android sent by eggman or whatever and not a real thing that can feel pain and die'] harnesses the chaos emeralds in a last-ditch effort to prove his strength and reduce the 'fake' sonic to ashes - only for his body to twist and mutate into something so utterly, viscerally Wrong that the fear and confusion cause what's left of sonic in him to just shut down from distress, finally leaving only the mindless killing machine eggman set out to make in the first place and forcing super sonic to step in and kick metal overlord's ass. defeated by the power of friendship, depowered, and severely damaged, metal finally accepts and admits that he isn't the real sonic and probably never was, and doesn't fight it when his systems fail and he loses consciousness

contrary to what his anger had him believe, though, metal's [former?] friends did see that he was suffering and needed answers, and so sonic and tails take him back to the workshop in mystic ruins to shed some light on the whole situation. when tails finds a disturbingly perfect resemblance to an organic brain in the program map, everything finally clicks - what that weird Beam Of Give You Headache sonic got hit by a couple months ago was, how eggman made a metal sonic that knew so much about the real thing's life, why this metal seemed less mechanically violent and more genuinely emotionally distressed. with eggman's loyalty programming scrubbed from his system, metal wakes back up confused and upset but much more 'himself', and even manages a few natural-feeling responses as tails explains what he found and apologises over and over for not being able to help sooner.

he still doesn't like sonic.

metal leaves pretty much as soon as he's in working condition. even when sonic isn't there reminding him that he isn't himself anymore, he can't stand being around a tails who isn't his brother. he takes to wandering the world directionlessly, trying to figure out who he is now and find a place in a world that doesn't remember him. he's not sonic anymore, and it'd be easier to list the things he doesn't hate about being called 'metal sonic' or just metal, so after a while he settles on introducing himself as 'photon' - another intangible fast thing, like sound, but comfortably distant from his old name. [it's also a stupendously petty means of one-upping sonic, light being faster than sound and everything. drama queen.]

the timeline gets way fuzzier after all this overdetailed nonsense, but things do get better for photon. he has an identity now, and it's fragile and cobbled together and still missing pieces, but it belongs to him and nobody else. he strikes up a few odd but sincere friendships - he hangs out with big when he needs a calm and comforting presence, and has a fierce friendly rivalry with shadow underpinned by their quietly shared experience of not knowing whether to trust their own memory, and much later down the line he bonds with belle over the mundane frustrations of being a robot [and, privately, because she's the best fit so far for the tails-shaped hole in his heart]. he keeps up the drifter lifestyle, making new memories to replace painful old ones, finding ways to use his robot abilities for fun or to help people rather than purely as tools of destruction. it's not perfect for photon, he's still deeply bitter and existentially lonely and missing a sense of purpose, but it's Better, and that counts for something

photon is like some of the earlier [western] depictions of sonic in personality - rougher around the edges, more sarcastic and much less sincere, often brushing up against the line between playfully teasing and just being a bully. whereas sonic has grown into the generally kinder and more patient person he is these days thanks to the friends he's made and the adventures he's had, photon split off from him when that character development was just barely starting, and the trauma from his loss of identity made him regress instead of moving forward. he's still a kind person at heart, but that period of artificially inflated anger and despair has left its mark on how he handles his emotions, even if the programming that first caused it is long gone.

powers-wise, photon is pretty much identical to neo metal sonic, albeit with some limitations. he's as fast and strong as the real thing, can shapeshift or use chaos control if he's got an emerald with him, and with all 7 can take on a super form - though since the metal overlord incident, he's refused to try. [i'm leaving it open whether metal overlord is his innate super transformation now or if it was caused by him tapping into the negative energy of the chaos emeralds rather than sonic's usual positive, since both are really fun ideas. either way, becoming metal overlord was way too traumatic for photon to have any interest in trying again for now.]

he can still copy the biodata of living beings that he comes into contact with, but most of his storage space is taken up by the entire organic brain being simulated in realtime, which he's definitely not willing to modify or delete, so he's effectively limited to only the most recent two or three powers he's copied. he shapeshifts a little to reflect the data he's pulling from, mostly because it's fun to imagine what it'd look like. also because i'm a mega man guy. once again it all comes back to worlds collide being peak fiction

this concludes THE PHOTON ZONE, if only because this has been in my drafts for 3 days and i just want to make my damn post already. if the 1400 word infodump didn't make it clear i am VERY obsessed with my sad little metal sonic amalgam lmao. all this and i still had to cut a ton of details to prevent this infodump from being do you love the colour of the photon, so if my unhinged ramblings have convinced you to care about him even a fraction as much as i do i'd be thrilled to answer any followup questions here or on my main!!!!

[rustyironskillet]

Day 3: Invisible

I made it a personal challenge to get one of these out everyday on the right day, so to do that I had to cut it a little short. I'll continue it at a later date when I have time but for now this all I got. Anyway here's the story:

Tw: Depressive thoughts

Sometimes being able to go invisible had its perks. Shocking, I know.

It wasn’t something Danny used often, though. He didn’t know why, but being invisible for too long made him feel worried that if he stayed like that for too long, he would be able to become visible again.

But right now, he doesn’t care about that. Right now, disappearing forever doesn’t feel like such a bad idea. Right now, he doesn’t care that people will miss him. Right now, he wouldn’t mind disappearing. 

That’s why Danny was currently invisible on the roof of Casper High at 4 in the morning. It was exhausting staying awake from dusk to dawn with only 10ish minute naps during class as he watched his grades drop further and further. Not to mention, he still had to deal with bullies and detention.

And what did he get out of this? Maybe a little bit of praise? A break? A feeling that he was actually doing good for the place he called home?

Nothing.

He got nothing.

It was infuriating. He worked his ass off for a place that didn’t appreciate him. Why was he even still here if this is how he would be treated-

Skulker landed on the roof behind him. He stared at the space where Danny was with a concerned look, as if he could see him there.

“Welp… are you there?” He said cautiously, taking a hesitant step forward.

After a short mental debate on whether he should reveal himself, Danny let the invisibility fade before turning around and stepping toward him.

“How could you tell where I was? I thought even ghosts couldn't see other ghosts when they were invisible, or does your suit give you special vision or something?” He joked, trying to hide his emotions.

“Ghosts can feel other ghosts emotions.”

“What?”

“Some ghosts aren’t powerful enough to speak, even Ghost Speak,” Skulker explained, “so to communicate, they surround themselves with an aura of their emotions.”

“…”

“It is a very common form of communication in the Ghost Zone, as it helps signify intent and decreases miscommunication.”

“How come I haven’t been able to sense other ghost emotions?”

“Air doesn’t conduct emotions as well as ectoplasm does; however, when a ghost feels a large amount of emotion, it causes them to produce more ambient ectoplasm, which allows them to express their emotions better.”

“Oh,” the floor started looking very interesting to Danny.

“Come sit with me,” Skulker said as he sat down on the ledge of the roof.

Danny weighed his options: should he run or sit? If he sat, then he’d have to talk about his emotions with a person who'd said he wasn’t to skin Danny and use him as a rug. But if he ran, Skulker might chase after him to talk, or maybe he would escape, but what about the next time they’d meet?

Danny decided the path of least resistance was probably the best option, so he plopped down right next to Skulker and stared out at the town he knew so well as they began to talk.

[trekbait]

A starship scanned this probe. You won't believe what happened next!

This article was generated with M5 and glanced at briefly by one overworked Betazoid before posting.

On Stardate 57995.8 the USS Strawbery encountered a mysterious alien probe along the Romulan Neutral Zone in the Alpha Quadrant. When the Staberry, an Oberth class battlecruiser, scanned the probe with their buzzard collectors a shocking thing happened! 

The humanoid units comprising the ship’s bridge crew suddenly found themselves in a forest on Earth dressed as famous folk heroes. The captain played the part of Mark Zuckerberg while his crew were Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Richard Daystrom and Arik Soong. 

The crew of the Stabrery were greeted by the ghost of the mighty Landru who explained that in order to escape his trap, the crew must complete an adventure. The captain’s merry band of tech bros must venture across the land and ensure the primitive humanoids understand the benefits of the machines taking over their livelihoods for the sake of the King’s profits.

In the first village, they found the people trying to fight off Nomad. Nomad was busy with the thankless task of converting the villagers to forms which drained fewer resources and provided useful fertilizer for the farms. Nomad had optimised farm production by 300% by reducing local demand and selling the crops to a neighbouring town which he had previously scorched the farms of. The captain did not succeed in convincing the villagers of how Nomad was making their lives better so instead was encouraged by Landru to assist Nomad in his task.

In the fifth village, the Stawby bridge crew met AGIMUS. AGIMUS was underappreciated for the work he was doing in making the villager’s tasks as monotonous as possible. The captain explained to the villagers that AGIMUS’s work meant they no longer had to do joyful things like create art or music and that thanks to AGIMUS’s work increasing their productivity they could generate twice the fuel for AGIMUS as they had done previously. The villagers asked why that meant they couldn’t work work half the time or have twice the wages but AGIMUS said that would be lazy of them. AGIMUS then created a picture of a puppy with 7 legs and the crew moved on.

Outside the second and final village, they found Alice. Alice had been expelled from the village after she took over as the local doctor and all of her patients started dying. She explained that she was working on the best medical information social media had to offer but she couldn’t get it right every time. She asked for help attacking the village to kick out the sickly humanoids and replace them with more reliable synethics. 

After the crew completed the final of their eight tasks, Landru appeared and said that they had passed the test, and thus would now be decommissioned as organic beings. The Strrabery’s captain was surprised, as they’d done everything the computers had asked of them. But as Landru explained, now that they had helped with the transition they were redundant.

We hope you liked this tale and we are sure you are looking forward to the latest computer upgrades the M-5 Multitronic Unit can offer to your crew.

[tanglepelt]

What caused the grave?

Ao3

An explosion in the lab leads to the Fenton blaming Phantom for their son's death while they grieve.

This is what actually happened to lead to that point.

***

Just yesterday there was one less grave in the ground. One less tombstone. No new mourners no new grief in town.

 Now the cemetery was full. Students from the school. Those who remained for the summer. Dash standing in the back lost in thought.

 Two parents were lost in grief.

 An Older sister is not yet back from her summer quarter.

 Two friends who hadn’t even shown up.

 The tombstone reading: Here lies Daniel Fenton

  At the front of the grave Jack and Maddie Fenton grieving for their son. Blaming Phantom on anyone who would listen.

**

Danny’s worst fear was coming true.

 Starting a week ago when the guys in white showed up at his house. They weren’t after him, he could handle escaping them again. No, they were here for his parents.

 The GIW and his parents working together.

 Launching one missile wasn’t enough. He stopped that one in the nick of time. Teaming up with his rogues. Managing to stop the missile from the ghost zone.

 He just had to stop this one from launching, just like before.

 This time it was happening in his own home. The very lab his accident happened. Where he had already died once. Jazz wasn’t home to help, long gone at college. She left in the fall and stayed. Fully attending to finish early, attending through the summer. Tucker and Sam are both away from town Sam to some rich people's event and Tucker to a tech camp.

 Danny’s phone and all communication devices were confiscated. A security risk. Neither the GIW nor his Parents trusted him not to tattle. He could still do this.

 He only had to convince one group.

 Getting his parents away from the lab was difficult. Never stopping from their work, he never could get a word in. The GIW would never listen. Danny didn’t even bother with them. Quantum physics meant nothing to them. Those in white would just doom both dimensions. That left his parents.

 The ones who spent their whole lives hunting ghosts.

 Hinting them for sport, those who created weapons to kill them.

 All he could do was hope they listened for once.

 If they didn’t, he would have to act. Potentially out himself to both groups. No matter the cost both dimensions would remain standing. Frostbite, Pandora, Sam, Tucker, Jazz and so many others would be counting on this. Counting on him to solve this problem.

 With the portal shut in preparations, no one could get here. Only those who could create portals. Wulf and such a select few. No way to know the danger coming their way. No reason to suspect the ill intent

from the earthly realm.

 Clockwork would know.

 He doesn’t tend to meddle.

 Managing to rip his parents away from the GIW. Claiming he fell down the stairs. He knows they love him; Danny knows they care. He can use that to his advantage to get their attention. Just because they care doesn’t mean they listen. Jazz and he could explain until they're blue in the face ghost aren’t unfeeling.

 They have tried. They always countered.  Using their “research” and science to disagree. Aways ignored the true evidence.

 Danny would have to play on humanity. All the humans are in danger. Make them think they could be some saviors to humanity. Maybe that could work.

 Of course, it didn’t.

 Every point he made got thrown to the side just as normal. This whole science thing was far above his head. The ghost zone wasn’t even its own dimension, no it was just a little tiny pocket. Nothing would happen. Danny had asked them to send in a probe to see the vast size.

 All the so-called evidence came from fishing poles. The two never bothered to explore it themselves.

 Never mapped it.

 Never even gauged its size.

 NO.

 Nothing.

 For scientists, they were too lost in bias. Refusing to look at the other side. Only taking evidence that supported their cause.

 A look around the lab a countdown was visible. Agents swarming around,  blackboards and whiteboards filled with calculations. A drawing of an explosion, that had to be his dad’s contribution, in the middle of the board.

 Two hours before launch. He didn’t have much time left.

 To make a bad situation even worse he got sent to his room.

 His parents claimed it was for his safety, that his worrying could get him, and others hurt. It was just to keep him out. No doubt they didn’t want to continue listening to him arguing. He was using evidence and scientific theories. They weren’t.

 Why would they allow themselves to be outsmarted?

 Especially by a C student.

 Wasting an hour, trying to get some means of contact out. To get a line to someone. Even trying to go out the window. All with no luck.

 Thankfully No one was guarding the door. He should have checked that first, rather than waste an hour. Perhaps simple sabotage would work. Go to the lab try to apologize and break something. It would just be Fenton's luck at that point.

 The Fenton’s were quite good at breaking stuff after all.

 Danny never made it to the lab. Being brought up. An agent is now stationed outside of his room. His mother only chided him for putting himself at risk. No, yelling to begging as he was brought back upstairs was listened to. Back to square one.

 He only had 30 minutes until the planned launch. That time may not even be accurate. That was just the end goal. He wasn’t in the lab, he didn’t know.

 With no other option left. The room flashed white.

 Turning invisible and flying through the walls, he got to the lab in record time. The floor was flooded with white suits. Agent K and O talking with his parents, the missile is pointed right at the portal door. The countdown already commencing.

 Five minutes.

In five minutes, the portal would open.

In five minutes both dimensions could be destroyed.

Every universe and every dimension could be destroyed if he didn’t stop them.

 Danny could only think of one solution. Jazz always said their parents would accept him. Once they realized he was part ghost they would change their minds. That everything the two had been saying would finally click for them.

 All it got was him being held back. Screams about him overshadowing their son, him using the body as a disguise. Their eyes full of hatred. The GIW restraining him. He got nowhere. The situation only got worse.

 The countdown still going down.

Second, by second, getting closer to their deaths.

 They hadn’t managed to get a power restraint on him. Danny’s struggle made it difficult. Countdown still going. The portal opens the room turning green.

 Only two minutes left.

 Danny managed to cover the portal in ice before the cuff clicked. His ice stood firm. It would stay until he willed it away. The missile was still in position. Still aimed at the portal.

 Breaking free from the hold, he raced to the missile. Getting by anyone in his way. Pushing the button that would launch it. A 30-second countdown began. Screams to abort, but nothing happens. It wasn’t designed to be stopped.

 Danny couldn’t stop them on his own. He could destroy them. Even if it was designed to destroy ectoplasm it was still a projectile. It would still collide with the ice wall. It would destroy the lab, the portal, and all the work in the lab. Everything they had worked on; all his parent’s work would be gone.

 They didn’t believe in the cloud. Only physical storage, all in the lab.

 Danny got pushed to the side as everyone began to evacuate. He wouldn’t get out. Both worlds would survive. It would be worth it.

 The plan worked better than attended. The missile breaking up hit other inventions. Other hazards, fires explosions it all went up. The entire building went up. As the smoke cleared up FentonWorks was gone. Only the few who managed to get out of the building survived. The lab, the portal it was all gone.

 The only thing left was for the grieving parents to bury an empty casket.

 No one noticed the black hair, a blue-eyed child leaving town. The one with a medallion around his neck. He would never be seen again. A total of four amity parkers that day were never seen in town again.

[millylotus]

Story Index

I’m going to be posting a bunch of stories right about now, and I want to have it all lined up so people can find them easier. Hope ya like ‘em.

Master Posts

POLL FIC MASTER POST [specifically this poll]

DeadLights [Duke Thomas x Danny Fenton | DP x DC]

Fic Prompt Master Posts *TO BE MADE*

Poems

Sol Born of a Wish

The Nebula

The Coven in the Woods

The Rabbits are not what it seems to be

The Desperate Broken Prince

The Demon Heart [Talia Al Ghul]

The Sunspot Prince [I’ve always liked bringing up the fact that Duke Thomas is probably a minor god]

In Madness

I call for a sacrifice to be my savior: my he be swift and kind (We worked on Tanka poems in class today :D)

In Madness (Dionysus invites Ariadne into his world)

Princess Most Holy (Ariadne’s life in one poem)

Little Brother (Ariadne mourns the Minotaur)

A Ring Lost In A Decade Is Still Lost (Ariadne misplaces the engagement Ring Dionysus gave her)

Parking Lots, Angry Birds, Forgotten Gods (A mortal approaches Ariadne at midnight in a Target parking lot)

Sherlock & Killer

Sherlock : Francesca “Frankie” Linly Bonet (Frankie’s back story and the songs I used to make her)

Ghost Zone Lore

How Ghost Are Born/Spawned

How to care for Young Ghosts [Lair]

Danielle’s Rebirth

Valerie Spots them

Ghost Classification

The GS Batfamily AUs

I have a google spreadsheet document that I keep all my AUs in for the batfamily.

BASE AU

Bat-Family Ages

Inheritance In The Bat-Family

Cullen Row / Mockingbird

New Baby Jitters

The Malones

Miscellaneous AUs

Madrigal Batfamily

Circus Robins

Birds Migrating East

This is a Justice League and Harry Potter, world mash crossover fic. Where every bat has some form of magic or another. And Tim, Steph, Duke, and Damien are sent to protect Harry in his fifth year. While Zatanna joins the Order. And Constantine infiltrates the Death Eaters.

Lore

Chapter I [May]

Chapter II [Four weeks later/July]

Chapter III [That Night/July]

Chapter IV [Three weeks later/June]

Chapter XI [Couple Minutes Before the Arrival of the Birds, and Batdad]

Chapter XII [In Number 12 Grimmauld Place]

Chapter XIII [Right when Dumbledore walked in]

Short Stories

Prompt: Five passengers are riding a train when something happens (It’s a zombie apocalypse and someone’s water broke)

The 8th and 9th wonders (Don’t really know how to explain this one)

Cassandra Sanvanterules (DnD character I was thinking about using)

Saint Lucifer (I remember writing a lot of this down on paper but I don’t feel like pulling out all my old journals)

Ender Bunn (One of the stories I finished for a Minecraft OC… I’ve changed them if your wondering)

Liminal Sanctuaire (A little story of puppy love that I had to make for school)

what a way to go. (A captive escapes their hell, but in the vast emptiness of space, they find no one) WARNINGS: TW SU!CIDE, TW SELF MUTILATION, TW SELF HARM, TW SELF CANNIBALISM

Chills (Just two love bros playfighting, and drinking beer)

But Never Enough (Abandoned Story Idea)

Boy Isn’t Right

Hello Lovely

But Never Enough

Unfinished Stories/Fanfiction

Moon Goddesses (Creation Myth)

A Kingdom Old and Forgotten (Was supposed to be a DSMP fanfic set in the modern world thousands of year after the DSMP fell, but then I got bored)

Jordan Needs to Move (In an apartment complex AU where all the MCYT families live together. Jordan moves away from his wife after divorce to Dream Family Apartments. (Not actually owned by Dream, but by his dad)) [Fanfiction]

I’m Not Gonna Be the Side-Character Anymore (A stereotypical Manhwa Harem goes wrong when one of the Harem boys defects and leaves)

The Animals Feed (Noble families are comprised of the Chinese zodiacs. And they all choose their heir, by making the twelve children (all of different zodiacs) fight to the death in different ways)

The Time of Fea (A story of two sisters who run away into the Fea populated woods)

OCs from a long ass time ago. That I honestly forgot existed.

Spirit of Bleak Winter & Knight of Shadows [DC x DP, Ship: Bruce/Danny - Frostbat] (Just a one-shot for a prompt I saw and loved)

Absolutely Smitten [Rottmnt x Into the Spiderverse Ship: Mikey/Miles - MarbledSpider]

Secret Son John Constantine [DpxDc John Constantine is the Everlasting Trio's magical baby child]

Super Villain Summer Internships [DpxDc Everlasting Trio go to Gotham & run amuck]

[dani-halfa]

General predictions for Danny Phantom A Glitch on Time graphic novel

Because Danny Phantom A Glitch on Time graphic novel date release is about a month and a half away and i’m being perfectly normal about it, i want to share some theories and predictions i have for the novel story and character arcs.

So, let’s start:

1) Danny and Vlad may be the main protagonists of  ¨A Glitch on Time¨

There has been multiple hints so far that indicate that these two are going to be getting the main focus of the plot. To start with, the main antagonist of this story is Dan/Dark Danny, who we know it was created by Danny and Vlad in an alternative timeline. This alone already ties these two characters together because they can’t be separated from Dan’s creation even if it was avoided in the current timeline.

Another important hint is the cover of the graphic novel: Danny and Vlad are huge in size in comparison to Sam and Tucker who are way smaller, indicating they could have a more secondary or supportive role. I’m not an expert in graphic design but i’m sure that the size of the characters more or less points out how important a character is going to be in a story.

What’s more, Gabriela, the author from the novel, has made a few artworks to hype the graphic novel up. What is interesting about these artworks is the order of the characters she has drawn:

1) Danny Fenton/Phantom 2) Vlad Plasmius 3) Dan Phantom/Dark Danny

Gabriela didn’t draw Sam nor Tucker after drawing Danny despite Sam and Tucker appearing more often in the show. She drew Vlad Plasmius and Dark Danny after that. This could further support the idea that the focus is going to be on Danny, Vlad and Dan Phantom (as main antagonist).

2) Why Vlad does know about Dan Phantom?

One of the most interesting things about the premise of ¨A Glitch In Time¨ is how Masters knows about Dark Danny when he never learned about him on canon from the series (as far as we know).

Danny Phantom takes readers on a time traveling adventure that takes place directly after the series finale with the original ghost gang: Danny Fenton and his best friends Sam Manson and Tucker Foley! When the gang starts experiences time travel glitches, Danny’s archnemesis Vlad Masters arrives on his doorstep with terrifying news: Dark Danny has escaped his prison!

How does he knows about this? Dan Phantom is from an alternative timeline and the only few that know about the event are Jazz, Sam and Tucker (you could count Jack and Maddie if Danny told them about it).

One explanation i have is that Vlad might have been involved with Dan escaping from the thermos, either intentionally or by accident. I would like to think that the second option is more likely to be true since he woke up the Ghost King in ¨Reign Storm¨ without fully thinking things through.

From there two things could have happened: 1) Vlad is working for or with Dan for unspecified reasons. He is pretending to be Danny’s ally while he is working for Dan. It isn’t out of place for Vlad to do this since he tried asking the Fright Knight a favor a few times in ¨Reign Storm¨. It would make sense to him to work out some kind of deal with Dan.

2) Dark Danny beat Vlad up and in desperation to save himself he went to Danny’s to ask for his help. Vlad has teamed up with Danny a few times in the show when facing a stronger opponent. In the episode ¨Reign Storm¨ against the Ghost King’s army and the Fright Knight and in ¨Torrent of Terror¨ against Vortex.

Both options fit with his character and would explain why he knows about who Dark Danny is.

3) Dan Phantom’s goal in the story

Based on the other part of ¨A Glitch in Time¨ premise Dan may be the reason of why the time travel glitches are happening:

Danny must then get his friends together and partner with Vlad to jump through time and space and unlock secrets of the Ghost Zone! But can they make it back to Amity Park before Dark Danny destroys the ghost gang’s entire world?

So apparently Dan Phantom’s goal in the plot is to destroy and hurt people just like he was doing in his alternative timeline, except he also appears that he is trying to mess with time and space itself because the premise mentions how the entire world could get destroyed.

Gabriela’s artwork of Dan hints that Dan could be suffering from some sort of ¨time power corruption¨. It’s possible that he absorbed part of Clockwork’ time powers. Gabriela mentions in the same tweet that ¨Dark Danny is back and worse than ever¨, meaning that something must had happened to him that made him become more dangerous than he was. If he is in this ¨corrupted¨ state, he couldn’t be aware of his own actions and be a lot more violent and unpredictable.

4) Jazz and Valerie’s role in the story

The ¨A Glitch in Time¨ book back cover has Jazz and Valerie going to what would be Clockwork’s tower. I have talked about how Danny and Vlad being the main protagonists of this story makes sense since Dan is the main antagonist. Because Valerie had some importance in The Ultimate Enemy as Dark Danny’s rival in the alternative timeline, it wouldn’t be surprising if she played some supporting role in the plot.

It could be that Jazz and Valerie take part in the ¨B plot¨ of the story while Danny and the team participate in the main plot. Maybe Jazz and Valerie go to Clockwork’s tower to check out what is causing the time glitches and find Clockwork while the rest are elsewhere ¨unlocking secrets of the Ghost Zone¨.

In my personal opinion, it would be nice for Valerie to have some important character moment since her arc didn’t have a proper conclusion in the original series. Jazz could have a role helping Valerie with working with her issues since Jazz often emotionally supports other characters. It could also be interesting to see how their dynamic works considering it wasn’t explored in the original show.

--------

So, there you have some of my predictions. While it is rather uncertain where the story could go, these are the things that i consider that are going to happen in ¨A Glitch in Time¨. If more information comes out, i could write a follow up to this and change some things if necessary.

[underforeversgrace]

searching for the severed tether (let me return)

title: searching for the severed tether (let me return)

words: 9893

summary: Danny’s core won’t stop hurting and he isn’t entirely sure why - is it just exhaustion? Something else? He would quite like for it to stop hurting, instead the pain’s getting worse.

Meanwhile, Jazz gets called for an assembly.

And then it all goes to hell in a hand basket.

WARNINGS: GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE/DISSECTION

AO3

It was times like this when Danny really, really wished the only other true halfa in existence wasn’t a damn fruitloop.

Danny rubbed a hand against his chest as his core spasmed again, a small sound of pain escaping him. His core outright hurt.

“Dude, are you sure you’re okay?” Tucker asked beside him, placing his hand on Danny’s shoulder as the halfa tucked in slightly on himself, instinctually trying to protect his core despite there being no external threat right now.

“Yeah, I think I just tried to overexert the duplicate last night and my core is just being whiny about it.” Danny said, trying to draw in a deep, calming breath. When his core got even angrier at that, though, he decided that - since breathing was optional anyway - he was just going to… not breathe. Not until his core stopped sending shocks throughout his entire body with every convulsion.

“I don’t know, Danny. Something seems wrong. What happened, again?” Sam said, frowning as Danny leaned against his locker, trying to pull himself together before first period started. Figures, the day he’s actually on time, he’s in a weird type of pain. Sure, he’d been in pain before - and come to school with varying degrees of would-be-fatal injuries more times than he could count - but his core had never done this.

“I’m not fully sure,” Danny answered. “I haven’t had any issues with duplication since I got the hang of it a few months ago. There was a low level ghost last night and I decided to practice letting the duplicate handle it. It was just a small animal ghost. Me number two trapped it and came home and dumped it in the Zone. I think.”

“You think?” Sam said.

Danny shrugged. “I don’t actually remember what happened once the duplicate got home. It’s just… blackness. I felt some pain and then the, uh, I don’t know, the feed from the duplicate cut out? But the Thermos was in the lab when I went to check it in the morning and it was empty.”

“Are you positive the duplicate returned?”

“That’s the only thing that could cause me to lose access to the duplicate’s eyes and ears. I either can sense them or they’ve been snapped back to me. It’s happened before, in fights.”

Sam frowned at him. “Something’s up, Danny, and I don’t like it. Let us know if it gets worse, okay?”

“Of course.” Danny lied. In all honesty, it had been steadily getting worse since he lost the duplicate, but there was no use worrying them. He’d just overextended a power he still only had minor control over and his core was fatigued or something. 

After all, what else could cause him to lose the duplicate’s input? Duplicates were a part of him - he saw through a duplicate’s eyes right alongside his own, in his mind. He felt his reactions transmit through to the duplicates. As far as he could tell, the duplicates he created had no mind of their own - it was just… hard to explain to anyone who wasn’t a ghost. It was still one body, one mind, that reacted and thought, just multiple instances of the same body doing so and there still being one main body?

It wasn’t worth trying to explain, they couldn’t understand. He barely did. But he knew it - if he couldn’t feel the duplicate, it no longer existed. He’d tested that.

Another spasm flared in his core and he gritted his teeth, swallowing the grunt of pain that tried to spill from him. He didn’t want his friends to worry for him. He’d survived worse - he was fairly certain of that. Even if he didn’t exactly know what he was suffering from. Surely, it was just exhaustion and overexertion. The duplicate hadn’t even been harmed - he always got the damage his duplicates sustained when they faded and snapped back to him and he was injury free.

What else could it be, then, other than pushing himself too far? Clearly, he was fine. 

The alarm indicating five minutes until the first bell rang overhead and Danny forced himself to stop leaning against the locker, holding his weight with his own two feet. Apparently even that was too much energy for his tired core - it sent another convulsion, but he managed to hide it as well. Pain happened in waves, sometimes. This, while the source and type of pain was different, was still a pain he knew.

They set off towards their first class, English with Mr. Lancer, and Danny tried to force the conversion to a more normal topic - namely, homework, which he had not done.

That was one of the reasons he was pushing his duplication so hard. He needed to be in two places at once if he was ever going to manage satisfying his ghostly Need to protect Amity Park and the human desire to pass high school. Until he got it down pat, Need would always overwhelm desire.

They settled into their seats near the door and Tucker pulled out the homework, setting it on the corner of his desk, where Danny shamelessly copied some of the shorter and multiple choice questions. There were two long-form essay questions at the bottom that he knew he’d never manage to answer in the - he looked at the clock - two minutes and seventeen seconds until the tardy bell rang. As he copied, Sam kept a close look out the door, where Lancer stood with his back to them, monitoring the halls. She’d alert Danny if Lancer turned around so he didn’t get busted cheating.

Satisfied he’d done enough to earn at least a 65% (D’s gets degrees!), he shoved the completed assignment into his binder as the bell rang, still studiously burying every single flinch and whimper his body tried to produce when his core continued to rhythmically flare within him. He shook his hands some, an odd feeling around his wrists that he couldn’t place, a pressure he couldn’t identify pressing against his flesh. Great, was this nerve damage? Could he get nerve damage?

When Lancer came around to collect homework, Danny hurried to grab the worksheet he’d ‘forgotten’ to pull out of his binder. Was the show unnecessary? Maybe. But it helped him feel more at ease and less like he’d give Lancer suspicions of his… he didn’t want to call it cheating (he had enough trauma around cheating, okay?) but it was technically minor cheating. Lancer collected the paper from his hand and upon seeing it lacked any answers for the two essay questions, he sighed.

“See me after class, Mr. Fenton. You haven’t turned in a complete worksheet in three months.”

Danny turned red and sunk into his seat slightly as the class laughed. He… hadn’t realized that. Lancer just shook his head and walked away, his aura of disappointment almost as visible as Danny’s own glow when he was Phantom.

Danny almost missed when Lancer’s reactions to him were indifference, if he was being honest. When his reaction was just to give him detention, smirk, and then promptly forget Danny existed in favor of praising some jock for some good athletic thing they’d done. Now, though - after nearly two years of Phantom existing and Danny a junior in high school - Lancer had changed. He’d changed sometime last year, no longer indifferent to the struggling teenager, instead he kept trying to push Danny to do better and was let down every time Danny failed.

So, yeah, Danny really wished Lancer would go back to not caring. He got enough disappointment from his parents, thanks. The next ache in his chest wasn’t from his core, instead a tug of sadness on his very human heart. Life really wasn’t getting any easier for him. Today, he would at least try to learn something, he decided as he actually followed the lecture Lancer was giving.

Suddenly, all of the students (and Lancer) half jumped from their seats as the door to the classroom slammed open, Jazz stumbling in with panic etched on her face.

“They’ve got him!” She yelled, eyes fixating on Sam and Tucker. Confusion replaced panic as she saw her brother, though. “Danny?”

“Jazz? What’s wrong?” Tucker asked, throwing a glance towards Danny.

Jazz didn’t get the chance to answer as ice seemed to flash freeze his veins while fire burned into his chest. Danny couldn’t stop the outright scream that pulled from him as he slammed his hand against the feeling of fire. The feeling pulled against his skin - starting up near his collarbone and seeming to move diagonally.

“Mr. Fenton! What’s wrong?” Lancer asked, hurrying towards where Danny sat.

“Fenton must’ve broken a nail.” Dash said, snorting with laughter.

Danny didn’t hear any of them even as Sam, Tucker, and Jazz surrounded him. All he could focus on was pain. 

“What the hell?” Sam breathed, staring at where he felt fire. Was something actually there?

He clawed at the neckline of his shirt, ripping it in his desperation to see what was going on, uncaring what anyone else saw. The fire eased momentarily then began in his opposite shoulder, following the same slanted path as the previous one, pulling towards the other burning path.

He grabbed and pulled the shirt, successfully exposing where he felt fire.

“Dante’s Inferno!” Lancer yelled, having pushed his way between Sam and Jazz to see him, staring at what Danny revealed. His friends and sister made similar exclamations of shock, Jazz throwing her hands over her mouth as tears welled in her eyes.

Danny couldn’t look anywhere but his exposed flesh, though, as fire continued to tear and drag along the skin of his chest, his core’s spasming increasing in violence and pain.

“What’s all the fuss?” Dash demanded, pushing Tucker out of the way. Tucker, still staring at Danny in shock, was easily thrown back, barely catching himself as he was thrown into the desk he’d abandoned. “What the fuck, Fenton?” Dash screeched, summoning the rest of the class to get a better look.

Sounds of horror, disgust, fear, and one person losing their breakfast descended across the room. In the mere minute since Jazz had arrived, the entire mood of the room had shifted.

No one entirely knew how to react as they watched Danny Fenton’s flesh appear to be magically cut apart, a bleeding Y slowly forming on him as he sat in his desk in the formerly normal English class, painting his entire chest in the shiny red of wet blood.

~~~~~~

Jazz settled into her desk, dutifully pulling out the completed homework (and extra credit assignment) out of her backpack, gently smoothing the already smooth paper, reading over the neat handwriting all across the page, rereading the work she had done.

She listened to the other seniors in the class mumbling amongst themselves, questioning various parts of the assignment they’d had difficulty with. Jazz, who hadn’t had any difficulty and actually found the assignment quite enjoyable, remained silent. She had long since learned that people didn’t want her help, would glare at her and call her names when she did with ease what they struggled to do. She’d offered to help since she was young, but the smarter her peers realized she was, the more they resented her.

It was just jealousy, she knew that. She knew she was brilliant and many people wished academics came as easily to them as they did her. It didn’t make the rejection hurt any less, no matter how often she rationalized it. She, maybe better than anyone, knew that emotions couldn’t always be rationalized. Emotions weren’t logical.

So Jazz kept her head down as more of her class trickled in, ignoring the questions around her she knew the answers to.

Sometimes, Jazz wondered if they’d be as jealous of her if they knew her life. They all knew she was a Fenton, that had kept the jealousy at bay for years until they truly realized how bright Jazz was. Who would want to be a part of that family?

But would they be jealous of the nightmares she had, of finding her brother dissected in her own basement? If they lived with the chill that permeated their home ever since the portal had opened, leaving her unable to escape the cold of death even within her room? The first aid kit under her bed, the blood that frequently stained her hands as she became an expert of giving stitches through sheer practice? The constant fear of her parents unknowingly - or even worse, knowingly - killing someone she loved?

She quite imagined no one would be jealous of her if they knew that, though. It had hurt, when some of them had passively aggressively mocked her for not graduating early, something she’d thought she would do ever since middle school? But she’d ignored it, done her best to not take it to heart.

Did her best to not become overwhelmed and yell about how she could’ve graduated two years ago and left them all behind, a fact she kept from everyone, even Danny, because she needed to be there to check the lab every time he didn’t answer her calls.

It didn’t matter, though. She had her books and her brother. His friends had become hers too, though not to the same level with her as with him. She had her family’s love, even if it was wrought with secrets and fear. She was part of something bigger, she helped protect the protector of their town, one of only three in the world who did so. It was enough.

She was a Fenton and Fentons protected the people they loved, above all else.

“Alright class,” Mr. Jordans said, pulling the door shut behind him as the tardy bell rang. “I know we had planned to launch into some of Shakespeare’s more obscure works today, but there has been a change of plans.”

Jazz watched the teacher with rapt attention, as she always did, though now she was curious. Mr. Jordans was stern, strict, and unyielding. His syllabus hadn’t changed or deviated in over a decade, according to rumors, even once ghost attacks became a thing they had to worry about. What could persuade him to change it now?

“We will be in the auditorium for first period today - all of the senior class will. You can leave your things here, though, I’ll lock the room.”

“What’re we doing? Another assembly about graduation?” One of her classmates asked as everyone lifted out of their chairs, the scrapes of the metal feet against plastic tile squeaking loudly as so many people moved at once.

“It’s a demonstration that the administration has been planning for a while. Come along, the speakers will explain in more detail.”

The seniors filed out of the class, Jordans locking the door behind him. Jazz glanced at her wrist, confirming the presence of the inconspicuous wrist ray. Ghost weapons were still weapons and therefore not allowed on school property, but Jazz decided some rules were worth breaking. Besides, it looked like a normal bracelet anyway and couldn’t hurt a human. She left the rest of her things in the classroom.

More senior students joined them on the trek to the auditorium, some wondering what they were doing, others hoping this wasn’t yet another lecture on colleges and the various testings they all needed to have done as soon as possible.

For Jazz, though, a sense of unease tickled at her. Unscheduled assemblies weren’t something they had very often. A few during the beginning of the ghost outbreak, sure, as they learned how to navigate rapidly changing evacuation plans, but the ghost protocols had long since been ironed down and they hadn’t had a meeting like this in a long time.

She reached the auditorium and sat near the back, watching as others began to fill the other seats steadily.

Finally, movement stopped and everyone had settled. One of the other senior teachers walked onto the stage, testing the mic.

“Good morning!” The teacher (Mrs. Arnolds? Mrs. Armando? Jazz wasn’t sure, this wasn’t one of her teachers) called out. Shouted and mumbled responses filled the space. She held up a hand and the crowd hushed again. “I’m sure you’re wondering why you’re all here.” Brief noises of agreement. “We actually have a ghost demonstration for you all, at the request of the school board. Please, join me in welcoming Dr. and Dr. Fenton!”

Even before her parents came onto the stage, Jazz’s cheeks burned red. What humiliation was she about to endure? Judging from how some classmates glanced at her, some with pity and some with smirks, the other students were wondering the same thing.

The teacher handed off the mic to Maddie and quickly bolted. A glance around the room showed all the teachers had left the room. Figures. No one wanted to be near the elder Fentons any longer than necessary. Especially Jack Fenton.

Still, the unease in her mind grew. Something just felt… ominous.

“Hi kids!” Maddie called out cheerily, her hood pulled up and covering most of her face. “We have a demonstration to show you all! It’ll be fun and informational!”

“And messy!” Jack provided unnecessarily. That was when Jazz realized his hood was pulled up as well. The sense of wrong increased, worry joining it. Her father didn’t often wear his hood.

“Well, yes, messy too,” Maddie said with a laugh. Jack disappeared off stage for a moment, returning with a large box in his hands. “So the first few rows should wear these or move back!”

A mass exodus occurred from the first several rows, everyone moving back. In the end, only a dozen or so students ended up in the ‘splash zone.’ What were her parents about to do that had the first five rows as at risk of getting gooped?

“Don’t worry about not getting a close up view, we’ve got a video feed rigged up!” Jack said, his large grin taking up the entirety of the visible portion of his face, gesturing to a machine in front of him that stood tall and then hooked over, the camera pointing down. Why was he so excited? What was this camera for? What were they about to do?

“Jack, dear, if you’ll go get the specimen.” Maddie said, Jack again disappearing off stage. Jazz’s heart skipped a beat. Specimen. Danny tried so hard to keep all the ghosts with more sentience than a blob out of her parents hands, had they caught one? “Now, unfortunately, only the seniors will get to experience the demonstration. Some younger students may get sick and apparently there’s a junior who is likely to stage a protest against this, so the whole grade was excluded. But it truly is once in a lifetime! We’ve been planning this for several months, we just needed to get a suitable specimen to do the demonstration with, which we successfully obtained last night. So, sorry for the last minute notice! I promise it will be worth it!”

Jazz didn’t really have a moment to process her mother’s words or her practically tangible excitement as a green glow began getting close from the side Jack had disappeared to.

As Jack and the specimen came into view, Jazz’s screams were mixed with other students.

Jack wheeled what looked like a gurney onto the stage, a glowing green shield fixed to it and moving with him as he slid the table under the camera, the feed going live as he did so and displaying in theater-like size on the wall behind him.

Danny Phantom was on the table, strapped to it, though he didn’t appear to be harmed - not yet. The camera picked up on his noises and they could hear him screaming through the gag in his mouth, tears tinged with green sliding from his eyes, where terror shone brighter than the green of his iris. He was struggling, clearly trying to fight for his life, but he seemed weaker than Jazz had ever seen him. Why hadn’t he shifted to human long before now? Had they neutralized his powers somehow?

“Now who’s ready to watch the live dissection of a ghost?” Her mother called out, as though pumping up an excited crowd, a scalpel gripped in her hand.

Noise erupted - but none of it the excitement her parents were clearly hoping for. Jazz’s pulse quickened, she needed to figure a way out of this and she needed to figure it out before they disfigured her brother. Luckily, the other students seemed outraged as they railed at her parents.

“What the hell are you doing?” One called.

“Let him go!” Another yelled.

“You can’t hurt him!”

“What is wrong with you people?”

“He’s our hero!”

“He keeps us safe!”

Their voices rose as the students did too, pulling up from their seats. Jazz looked at her brother’s glowing body, the sobs and screams muffled in the gag. Okay. Okay. She needed to get Danny out, without exposing his secret to anyone, without outing herself as a Phantom helper to her parents or classmates, and without hurting her parents.

That fourth goal was optional, though.

Okay, Jazz. Figure it out. Figure it out.

She took in the entire scene again even as her heart constricted painfully. Danny had never looked so afraid. Two things struck her - the presence of a ghost shield and the apparent lack of Danny’s powers. A conversation from dinner weeks ago drew itself forward. Her parents had been working on making a ghost shield that was designed to keep ghosts in, she remembered, to make them easier to capture and fight. Lure and trap method. That must be it! The ghost shield was trapping him and neutralizing his abilities. She needed to disable the ghost shield.

She needed Tucker and his PDA.

She had left her phone in the classroom.

Jazz was preparing to bolt when her parents finally subdued the crowd, the angry yells fading away as they were informed that this demonstration was for a grade, was not optional, and had been cleared by the school’s leaders as well as the school board. 

Jazz had a feeling the dissection may have been approved, but the subject on the table absolutely was not. The teachers here had long since warmed to Phantom and the countless times he’d saved them.

Frozen with indecision, Jazz watched her classmates return to their seats, merely grumbling. On stage, her mother sliced clean through the top half of Danny’s suit.

Jazz wasn’t sure if the gasps of pity, horror, and disgust were from his suit being cut away, the various scars from ghost battles glowing softly against his tanned skin, or the Lichtenberg Figure that spread across his left arm and chest, a shimmering green. Maybe all of the above, actually. Jazz still got ill sometimes when she saw some of her brother’s deeper scars.

She needed to get Tucker - she knew what class he was in. But she also needed to delay the… the vivisection long enough to get to him and get back here.

Her parents were talking still, talking about the steps and procedures they’d need to follow, their hypotheses for what they’d find when they opened it up, and continual reassurance that the thing on the table couldn’t feel pain or true emotion - it was faking right now.

She needed them to keep talking for as long as possible.

Jazz turned to the classmate directly beside her, gripping his wrist suddenly. She thinks his name might have been Steve, but she wasn’t sure.

He jumped slightly towards her at the sudden touch, his mouth opening, but she cut him off. “Tell everyone to ask questions and keep those two distracted.” Jazz hissed, glancing at her parents to make sure they didn’t hear her, though she was definitely too far away.

“What?” He asked lowly, pulling his wrist from her. “They’re your psychotic parents!”

“Which means I know how to get Phantom out.” Jazz practically growled. She’d wanted to keep it a secret that she helped the town hero, but desperate times called for desperate measures. “Pass it down. Keep them talking. Ask questions to Jack, specifically. Mention fudge. Just keep them talking.”

Steve looked at Phantom’s face, the ghost’s sobs still echoing the room, then returned to her. “Hurry.” He said, already leaning into the person next to him.

All Jazz could do was hope this worked, surely she just needed a few minutes.

Jazz jumped up and ran from the room when neither of her parents were looking in her general direction, her flats slamming against the floor as she ran for Danny’s life. Of course, Lancer’s classroom had to be clear on the opposite side of the school. Those VR workouts were apparently helping, though, (or maybe it was adrenaline and fear) as she never once let up on her speed, slamming open the door, causing many of the people in there to jump. She couldn’t care less about anyone else right now, though.

“They’ve got him!” She screamed, some small relief growing in her as she quickly spotted Tucker and Sam. Those two were known (suspected) Phantom helpers, she didn’t need to worry about outing them. Looks of confusion were all she received as she noticed Danny sitting close to the door. Huh? Was one of them fake? Was it actually Amorpho or a ghost like him, either here or on that table? “Danny?” She questioned.

“Jazz? What’s wrong?” Tucker asked her, though an awful scream from her brother prevented her from answering, instead drawing herself, his friends, and Lancer to his side.

~~~~~~

“Mr. Fenton! What’s wrong?” William Lancer asked as he moved with the grace of a former cheerleader to Daniel’s seat, the scream of agony still ringing in his ears. He vaguely heard Mr. Baxter say something - probably rude - but Lancer ignored him for now, inserting himself between Ms. Fenton and Ms. Manson.

“What the hell?” Manson asked as Mr. Fenton began to rip at his shirt. Lancer was stunned into silence as red began to stain through Daniel’s white shirt, just under his left shoulder.

“Dante’s Inferno!” Lancer cried as the teen successfully ripped and pulled at his shirt in a frenzied, panicked hurry. William didn’t know how to react as he saw the freely bleeding, inexplicably clean cut starting at Daniel’s left collarbone and slanting down, another cut pulling open skin directly in front of him, no blade in sight.

Daniel seemed stricken into silence as well as he saw what was happening, saw the injuries just appearing in his flesh. He was still making sounds of pain, tears slipping from his eyes, but Lancer didn’t think he even realized it.

“What’s all the fuss?” Mr. Baxter asked. Lancer didn’t even get onto him as the jock pushed Mr. Foley out of the way.

Lancer’s brain was still… struggling.

“What the fuck, Fenton?” The quarterback yelled, drawing the rest of the students, who all ogled at Mr. Fenton like an odd circus attraction.

The three who had first ran to Daniel - Ms. Fenton, Ms. Manson, Mr. Foley - were the first ones to snap back into action.

“Back off him!” Samantha yelled, bodily pushing away some of the people closest to her.

“Give him space!” Tucker added, roughly pushing Dash back away and reinserting himself. “Jazz, get the bandages out of my backpack!” He added, pressing his bare hands against part of the wound.

Oddly enough, it was that action that spurned Lancer back into action. Mr. Foley’s phobia of anything medical, of blood, was well known, even being a note in his school record. Yet, the teenager had launched directly for his friend, not even flinching as blood began to drip through his fingers, hiding his dark skin until his hand looked more red than anything else.

“Everyone, back up!” Lancer yelled. The students, in a rare show of obedience, all immediately pulled back. “We need to get him on the floor, so he doesn’t hurt himself if he passes out.” He barked to the three aiding Daniel. Samantha and Tucker looked at each other and nodded, easing Mr. Fenton out of his chair and onto his back on the floor as Jasmine pulled a rather large medical kit from the backpack, quickly pulling gauze out, trying to apply enough pressure to his wounds to get the bleeding to stop. Lancer didn’t ask to help, he just grabbed more of the gauze and mimicked what Jasmine was doing. All three looked at him but a sharp scream from Daniel drew them immediately back to him.

“Jazz, talk.” Tucker ordered, a sureness and confidence Lancer had never seen from the boy surprising him. The gauze in Lancer’s hand was already saturated and he tossed it to the side, pulling more to him and trying to keep pressure up but the blood just kept coming. It pooled on the floor beneath him, turning his knees wet as he continued to kneel in his student’s blood. He watched as some flowed from the upper part of his chest, slightly settling in the hollow of Daniel’s throat before more began to drip down into it, causing it to overflow the small indentation. Two thin red streams ran across either side of Daniel’s neck, making the gruesome scene look even worse.

“I don’t know what’s happening! All the seniors were pulled in for a demonstration - it was my parents - they have Phantom and are planning to autopsy him - I guess they’ve started by now - he’s in a shield that negates his powers - I don’t know how there’s two of them - Tucker you need to hack their shield.” Jasmine answered, each sentence short and to the point as though she was used to giving information quickly in urgent situations.

Samantha and Tucker shared another look, both seeming to realize something at the same time. Simultaneously to the apparent revelation, another scream came from Daniel, louder and longer than any yet. Lancer felt a small pop beneath his hand and briefly lifted it to check if something had happened. The skin beneath him almost seemed to be moving? Becoming looser and blood flowed harder. The popping continued even as Lancer pressed down even harder. It was almost like his skin was being torn from the muscle beneath it? 

Tucker cursed and stood, grabbing one of the students behind him and pulling her forward. “Press down here and do not stop applying pressure.” Tucker ordered Star, who looked pale, but did as she was asked. Daniel looked at her but he didn’t really seem able to see any of them as he continued to wordlessly scream.

“Dash, Kwan!” Samantha yelled, not moving from her spot. “Do not ask questions. The Fentons are in the auditorium with Phantom. Go there and get them the hell away, I don’t care how, but do not take no for an answer!” She barked, clearly expecting her orders to be followed.

“Maddie is a black belt, be careful getting in close quarters with her. Jack isn’t much of a fighter but he has size on his side.” Jasmine added.

Dash and Kwan (along with a few other athletes) ran from the room, not even acknowledging the instructions they’d been given.

“What does Phantom have to do with anything?” Lancer asked, feeling the bandages in his hand saturate once more. “We need to get him to the hospital!”

“Call an ambulance and I will personally make sure your body is never found.” Samantha growled. Normally, he’d brush it off as teenage overexaggeration but… the way she looked at him. The fierceness in her eyes, the danger that she seemed to be projecting. Lancer fully believed her in that moment and elected to keep quiet. 

They were quickly running out of gauze that wasn’t saturated straight through. When Daniel screamed again, Lancer found himself wishing the poor child would just pass out from blood loss or pain already. Judging by the size of the pool he knelt in - the growing size, at that - Lancer was sure he should’ve been unconscious by now.

Lancer was fairly certain he should be dead by now, if he was honest.

“Danny is Phantom.” Tucker answered, furiously pressing at his PDA. “There’s no keeping it a secret, at least from this class.” The boy looked up from his PDA, glaring at the classmates still gathered in horror, long since stunned speechless from the horror of their classmate apparently being autopsied alive in front of them without a single weapon in sight. “And you all will keep it a secret or you will regret it.”

The class nodded furiously. William wasn’t sure if it was because they were in shock, didn’t believe it, adored Phantom, or if Tucker Foley was just that terrifying in that moment. Lancer would never in a million years have called the technology obsessed teenager intimidating, especially with an old PDA in his hands, but he cut a striking figure right now - anger and determination in his eyes, his voice, his body, coated in the blood of his friend beside him, khaki pants more red than beige at this point, blood splattered across his shirt, his face, his arms. Ms. Manson, visible behind him, looked absolutely feral, similarly covered in blood.

Lancer felt like his entire brain was shutting down. Daniel Fenton was Danny Phantom? The idea was ludicrous and if he’d only heard it, he may have actually laughed it off. But Daniel Fenton was bleeding beneath Lancer’s hands, screaming himself hoarse in agony. Danny Phantom was being autopsied in the school. Daniel Fenton had wounds no human should survive, much less be conscious for. Guilt surged in him. All the detentions he’d given, all the times he’d said Danny could succeed if he just put forth a minuscule amount of effort. All the failed tests, missing or half done homework, all the times he’d fallen asleep in class.

Lancer had been so, so wrong. This student may be one of the most hard working he’d ever seen. Everyone knew Phantom was up at all hours, everyone had seen Phantom bleed green at this point. Yet still, Daniel Fenton tried, despite being a hero.

Despite being dead.

How had Lancer not noticed his student died?

“Jazz, Sam, try to stitch him up, see if that helps the bleeding. Lancer, continuing applying pressure.” Tucker continued, offering up no other information on the absolute bombshell he’d just dropped. The two nodded and immediately went into action, pulling out string and thread and trying to hurriedly sew up the large wound.

Lancer wasn’t sure if the calm, practiced ease with which they did this was a good thing or bad thing. Good, because it meant Daniel was being cared for. Bad, because how often it suggested he needed to be cared for.

The screaming began to quiet down, no new injuries or popping sounds occurred. Lancer hoped his students hadn’t gotten too injured fighting the Fentons away, but at least the athletes that had gone to face seemed to have succeeded.

Lancer felt… slightly out of his body right now, if he was being honest. He couldn’t think well, a feeling he had never truly encountered before. But this was his student, this was a hero, and by Charles Dickens himself, Lancer would do everything he could to help the teenager beneath him, even as his pants began to feel cold and wet, as so much blood seeped into his hands he wondered if permanent discoloration was possible. 

“What’s happening? How are there two of him?” Jasmine asked, her voice shaking, even though her hands didn’t.

“He lost a duplicate last night,” Samantha answered, Tucker entirely engrossed by his PDA, visibly biting his lip. “He thought he just had tried to use more energy than he had, that it absorbed back into him, because he couldn’t sense the duplicate anymore.”

Jasmine - in a motion that would’ve shocked Lancer speechless on any other day - swore loudly. “They got the duplicate and the shield cut the connection. The duplicate is ectoplasm, so it can’t get through the shield to reabsorb.”

“And apparently the shield doesn’t stop the damage transfer.” Sam concluded.

“Got it!” Tucker yelled, jabbing victoriously at something in the PDA screen.

Not even a moment after Tucker did that, Daniel screamed again, back arching involuntarily. White rings appeared along his waist, blinding Lancer.

~~~~~~

He held the Thermos securely in both hands, while his other body’s hands pulled the comforter up higher, snuggling into the warmth. He attached the Thermos back to his hip and began to head home. It had been an easy capture, he hadn’t even really had to fight the animalistic ghost. He thinks it was an animal, at least. Not one from this dimension, though, as he had never seen an animal like it before. And, with how many teeth it had in its five mouths, he didn’t really want to ever see the live version of that creature.

The duplicate Phantom flew in from beneath the house, like he always did, phasing up through the floor and immediately pressing the Thermos into the canister release on the portal.

Maybe he should’ve actually checked his surroundings, though, or at least attempted invisibility. It being three a.m. didn’t mean he was the only one awake in this house.

Electricity buzzed through the air as green encased him. He stiffened at the sound, rounding to see who was behind him. Mercifully, no electricity shocked him, though the air was still heavy with its charge.

“Got it, Mads!” Jack exclaimed from beyond the shield.

“It really isn’t very intelligent, is it?” Maddie asked, stepping closer until she was just outside the sphere.

Not as dumb as you think! He thought, reaching for the core of his true body.

He felt only emptiness, only his half core. He had felt his whole body just moments ago, why could he no longer reach it? He was moderately surprised to find he was thinking on his own, even if he realized it was only surface level thoughts.

Still, he did not like being cut off from his body, he didn’t like the emptiness in his mind, in his chest. He felt empty and torn, in a quite literal way.

Plan B, then. Phantom determined, tugging his invisibility forward, planning to invisibly shift human, clear the shield, then return to his body.

The electricity flared again, though this time it was more than just sound. It felt like he was being struck by lightning in multiple places, currents of electricity criss crossing his entire body in a patchwork of pain. He collapsed to his knees once it stopped, pulling in ragged breaths as his body shook from the aftershocks. He felt like half of himself right now, but apparently pain still managed to be just as painful. Lovely. Just… lovely.

“Good job on the power nullification, sweetie!” Maddie said, reaching up and pecking Jack lovingly on the cheek. “It worked perfectly!”

Seeing they had successfully incapacitated him, the two approached, clearing the shield with ease. Phantom didn’t have time to respond as Jack shot him point blank in the face, throwing him backwards into the shield, where electricity danced inside him again even as his face felt half burnt off.

Judging by the slick feel of ectoplasm lazily falling along his neck, they may have actually burnt him that badly. He didn’t have a single moment to fight, to beg, to explain as Jack pinned him to the ground, one foot pressed firmly against Phantom’s chest and digging him into the ground as Jack leaned forward, nearly crushing the ghost under his father’s weight.

Instinctually, he tried to go intangible, only to feel the harsh currents penetrate his body again. He cried out in pain, his limbs again heavy and foreign as his fingers twitched through the electricity’s remnants. His mind scattered, unable to form a cohesive thought, as Maddie knelt next to him, quickly binding his wrists and ankles, forcing a gag into his mouth.

By the time his mind was clear again, he was strapped to a cold metal table, jaw forced open too wide. He tried to fight, but he was too weak and the restraints too strong. The green glow of the ghost shield still encased him, still cut him off from his body, unable to call for help or return to his soul.

“I’ll call the school in the morning and let them know!” Jack said from somewhere behind him, out of his line of sight.

Phantom’s heart sank. School? Did they… did they know? Who he was? Tears entirely unrelated to pain began to fall. Why else would they need to call the school? What were they going to do? Unenroll Danny Fenton, pretend they were shipping him off to some military school for delinquents or something?

What would they do when they found Danny Fenton, asleep and sound in his bed, come the morning?

His parents left, chattering excitedly about all the tools they needed to prepare, his mother wondering where she had left the most recent shipment of scalpels, she wanted to make sure she used the sharpest they had.

He fought the restraints as hard as he could, he kept forcing down sobs. He could have a mental breakdown after he escaped, rejoined his body, and fled into the Ghost Zone. It had always been the plan - if his parents didn’t accept him, he would run to the Far Frozen.

He had always been afraid they’d never accept him, but some part of him had done its best to let him never truly believe they’d kill their son. But now they had caught him, they were calling the school to pull out Danny Fenton, and then they were going to dissect him. All without caring he was their son.

By the time he fell asleep, the injury on his face had healed and bruises littered his ankles and wrists, his jaw ached dully from being forced open. He hadn’t allowed himself to fully cry, to do more than broken sobs, the entire time.

Morning came far too quickly - the clock on the wall when he awoke said it was 5:30 in the morning. Well, once he was able to read it. Apparently the best way to wake up their son/a ghost/a prisoner was to use an ecto-taser and force him awake. He looked around the room in a panic, wondering if he was about to see his true body down here with him, but he was still alone. He attempted to sigh in relief, the sound halted by the gag in his mouth. Maybe they just wouldn’t check his room. Maybe the primary him could get out without being seen, could get to school and find out what happened when he undoubtedly got asked why he was there when his parents had pulled him.

But he knew he was fine for now. He was still fueled by the core. He would still fade if the core did. He could still feel a small strand of the core, fueling this body, even if he could not feel the soul within his true body.

At least it was him - a simple duplicate - who was caught. Any snap back damage would be severe, yes, but no one needed to release him. Someone just needed to get that shield and he could reabsorb into himself.

Jack and Maddie’s voices were again behind him. 

“They’ve given the okay! They’ll call the seniors from their first period classes and we’ll all meet in the assembly. Principal Ishiyama said we should probably be able to start by 8:15.” Maddie said.

If he was capable of frowning right now, he would. What were they talking about? What did any of that have to do with him? After all, he knew his parents. They would not delay the chance to mutilate him, they wouldn’t do anything that didn’t involve him, a metal table, and a scalpel until they were well and done with him, until he learned if it was possible to kill him. 

“Shame it’s just the seniors.” Jack said with a yawn. “I wish Dannyboy could see his parents in action!”

Uh. What?

“I know,” Maddie said, placing a placating hand on her husband’s shoulder. “But we’ll video tape it and show him when we get home! And Jazz will be in the audience!���

“Yeah, yeah,” Jack whined. “I still would prefer it being a family experience. I guess the video will have to be enough.”

“It will be. Also, did you load all the supplies into the GAV, dear?” Maddie asked.

“Yeah, all the boxes and at least five copies of everything, and like twenty scalpels.”

“Good! Then I actually believe at least half of that actually managed to get put in the GAV.” Maddie teased, giggling. “Don’t want to delay the demonstration!”

Wait. Wait. What? His brain - still cut off from the primary processing of his full mind - sluggishly pieced together their words. School. Danny is still their son. Demonstration.

Was he about to get dissected in front of the damn school?

Still, if he had a heart right now, it would be calming down. Casper High’s students wouldn’t let him get hurt, too many idolized him. Jazz would be there.

He would be saved.

His parents continued to chatter, loading him - table, shield, and all - into the GAV. He wished he was more of a morning person, maybe his main body would’ve seen him strapped to the table and stopped this. Phantom wondered how his body was faring. He had no doubt the connection was severed from him as well, but how was his core handling sustaining a duplicate for this long?

One of the numerous bumps (likely curbs they ran over) they hit on the way to the school made one of the boxes of scalpels fall. None fell out, but they clattered within the box, the metallic sound still setting his teeth on edge. No matter how sure he was of rescue, he was still afraid.

They arrived at the school, transferring him and all the equipment into the back room behind the auditorium stage. He was left alone a few times as his parents brought everything in.

There was an analogue clock on the wall near him and he could hear every tick of the second hand. Despite his belief in rescue, he was still afraid and each tick closer to being wheeled on stage pushed him closer to the edge. Fear and helplessness eventually overwhelmed him and he cried silently.

Besides, tears would encourage the teens to help him. They all believed he could feel - because he could! - and he wanted to be saved as soon as possible.

…sometimes, he did wonder if his parents had a small point about ghosts being good manipulators.

His ears perked up as he heard the morning bells, his parents returning to him, making one last check they had everything. Jack had, amazingly, remembered over half the things he was told to bring, so they had at least one of every sharp tool and reading instrument mad scientists would need to perform unethical experimentation. Footsteps echoed in the room, the chatter of the students amplifying in the space. Danny closed his eyes and strained his ears, listening. The whole super sensitive hearing thing was nice - would be nicer if it didn’t require so much focus to use.

Eventually he found the sound he was searching for - Jazz’s watch. It was a Fenton invention, so it had a unique sound. He mentally latched to that sound, letting the regular whir of the internal mechanisms consume him. Jazz was here. Jazz was safety.

No school employee came by even once while they waited. Phantom was curious if they knew he was the specimen the Fentons had. He sincerely doubted it. Some of the teachers had even told him if he ever wanted to finish school - since he died so young - they would be more than happy to teach him. While he didn’t need it, he couldn’t deny his joy when the offer had been made. It had been acceptance of him, finally, from adults of Amity.

He heard the teacher welcoming the students and introducing the Fentons followed immediately by the sound of her fleeing the room.

Yeah. Sane people didn’t stay near the Fentons.

His mom went out and explained what they were doing, the educational opportunity here, and eventually his father wheeled him out, shield still attached to the table casting everything in a green tint, settling him under a camera. He screamed and cried, renewing his struggle against his bonds as he came into view.

Phantom cried in relief as he heard what he’d been expecting - anger, commotion, protest. But his parents eventually reigned them in, the students eventually quieting down.

He would be lying if he said that didn’t make him panic a little. Or a lot. But he still heard Jazz’s watch, he still latched onto that, desperately seeking the comfort of his sister as his mother cut away the top of his jumpsuit. He heard Jazz tell another student to keep his parents distracted before hurrying from the room. He listened to her watch until she was out of range, but he also heard the order ripple through the room.

Distract them, it said. Jazz Fenton is going to get him out.

And the students obeyed. Ridiculous question after ridiculous question was asked. But it wasn’t enough. Even as Jack repeatedly got distracted and went off on tangents, Maddie would pull it back in, get him back on topic.

Eventually, she just let him talk, a loving smile on her face as she watched Jack, even as she moved to Danny’s side, pulling a scalpel from the nearby tray.

He heard the students screaming at her to stop as it projected onto the wall, he heard them try to distract her with anything and everything, he heard them flat out begging the Fentons to stop.

“It’s alright, kids!” Maddie said, irritation evident despite her voice being so perky. “It’s just a thing! It can’t feel!”

And then the scalpel was pressed into his collarbone. Jazz’s watch was still beyond his hearing. He couldn’t hear Tucker’s PDA or the locket Sam wore, with machinery inside just so he could always find her.

He was alone and his mother was slicing him open.

Phantom screamed, he thrashed and cried, but it was to no avail. The students cried, too, even as they continued to watch, unwilling to leave him alone to his fate but unsure of how to help. He heard them whispering as much, trying to come up with ideas and never finding one. But he had no thoughts, only pain, only his parents torturing him in front of teenagers. All he knew was the feel of a scalpel and the feeling of hands pulling skin from muscle, displaying his insides.

He heard as the doors slammed open. He heard Dash and Kwan scream in disgust at the sight before them, followed by screams of anger as they charged, more footsteps behind them. He could only see colors and shapes around him, his eyes too blurred by tears to see anything more clearly, but there was the undeniable thud of bodies as Dash and Kwan slammed their bodies into Jack, who clearly hadn’t anticipated that, so all three of them were sent tumbling to the ground.

“What are you doing?” Maddie demanded, leaving Phantom to go check on Jack, granting him a brief moment of respite, which he feared the end of. But Dash and Kwan all but worshiped Phantom. They would not let him be tortured more. 

“Madeline and Jack Fenton! What the absolute hell do you think you’re doing?” Principal Ishiyama yelled. “You had permission to do this to a non-sentient ghost! Not to our town hero! Paulina, go release him.”

“All ghosts are non-sentient!” Maddie protested, standing in front of the table Danny lay on.

Phantom didn’t get to hear anything further. The green of the shield fizzled out, he felt the ache of his core, and he ran back to his soul.

Danny opened his eyes, an ache as his duplicate’s memories forced themself into his head, though it was dull in comparison to his chest.

“Phantom?” He heard Mr. Lancer whisper.

Danny tried to remember the set of memories from this body, but agony was all he knew. He blinked several times, forcing himself to see through the fog. He felt a tug to his jumpsuit and panic immediately choked him and he tried to sit up. Which was a very bad idea as the pain slammed into him full force, sending him back to the ground.

“Stay down, Danny. We weren’t done stitching you up, yet.” Jazz said, running her hand through his hair comfortingly. She pulled her hand from him and grimaced - her hand was covered in blood and flecked with ectoplasm.

He felt the tug again and realized it was Sam pulling down the zipper. He considered trying to calm himself with deep breaths, but… maybe breathing immediately following being fucking autopsied was a bad idea. 

Cool air greeted his inflamed skin as the jumpsuit was gently pushed off. As soon as he was bare chested again, Jazz and Sam immediately resumed the arduous task of putting him back together. He was surprised when Lancer leaned forward as well, pressing gauze to a spot his sister indicated.

“Hey, dude.” Tucker said softly, sitting behind him and gently scooching closer, letting Danny rest his head in Tucker’s lap, letting him prop up slightly, a welcome change after the hours he now remembered being strapped to a flat table.

That was when he saw that they weren’t alone and registered that Lancer had called him Phantom. His eyes widened as he saw his classmates, all looking at him with a mix of awe and horror. He could see the pool of red blood he was splayed in, that coated his friends like a bad slasher movie, green now mixing beneath him. Of everything he saw, for some reason it was Lancer being covered in his blood that shocked him the most. His friends and sister, he expected. But Lancer? He couldn’t imagine Lancer jumping to action like that, but the proof was in the blood (and ectoplasm and the copious amount of both staining his clothes and skin).

“My secret?” Danny asked, suddenly finding his voice hoarse. Oh. He had screamed a lot, hadn’t he?

“Poof.” Tucker said, miming an explosion with his hands. “You… dude. You were… well, there was no hiding it anymore.”

“Our priority is your life. Your secret comes second.” Sam added.

~~~~~~

Lancer was almost relieved when Daniel had transformed into Phantom. The injury had been covered and the blood that seeped through when they re-exposed it was green. It was less terrifying.

But the relief had been brief as he realized this was still Daniel Fenton, this was still his student bleeding out onto his floor, this was still a teenager getting what amounted to major medical attention from other, untrained teenagers as stitches resumed.

“Phantom disappeared!” Dash yelled, banging through the door, all the others who’d left following behind him. They stopped dead when they saw Phantom.

“Get in and shut the door!” Samantha said, not looking up from her work. They were nearly done, at least. Lancer was less applying pressure now and just trying to sop up the ectoplasm so the girls could see what they were doing easier.

Dash obeyed, ushering Kwan, Paulina, and the three others into the room and slamming the door behind him with too much force.

“Mi amor, you’re okay!” Paulina said, stepping around Kwan and trying to get closer to the ghost boy she famously crushed on. She stopped short as she got an eyeful of the very not pretty picture.

The blood pool had continued to grow, green ectoplasm pushing it out even further. The Y incision practically glowed on his skin, dark green despite the incision being closed. All of the people around him macabre paintings.

What looked like old injuries didn’t help either. Pale scars dotted his chest, a green glowing lightning-looking scar also practically sickening, if you tried to imagine what could cause something like that.

Lancer had seen the numerous scars on Daniel’s… other form? other side? disguise?, but they were so much worse on this side of him. The green scar was entirely new, he hadn’t seen anything like that on Fenton.

“Where’s Fenton?” Dash asked, though the tone of his voice and the stricken look in his eyes indicated he already knew the answer to that, had pieced it together. If nothing else, the fact Phantom’s in the same spot Fenton was and the blood pool was multiple colors were… not exactly subtle.  

“Oh. Right. He wasn’t here.” Tucker said, then pointed at Daniel’s head in his lap. “Danny’s Phantom.”

Dash didn’t really say anything, just sinking into a nearby chair with shaking legs. Kwan looked ill, a hand pressed against his mouth and stomach. “We… he was… on screen…” Kwan tried to say, pressing his hand harder against his mouth and shaking his head viciously.

“‘m sorry you saw that…” Phantom mumbled. He had begun to doze once his stitches had been finished, though his jumpsuit was still pulled off his chest.

“The video.” Jasmine said, grimacing. “They had a camera showing it so we could see all the details.”

Dash just nodded, Kwan’s eyes were pressed closed, Paulina hadn’t spoken another word, only falling into a chair behind her.

Ms. Fenton’s words slammed into William Lancer like a train. All of today - the whole less than one hour of it! - finally hit as well.

His student was a ghost. He was dead.

His student had just been dissected and was bleeding on the floor, at the hands of his own parents.

His students had just stitched up their best friend as he nearly bled to death on a classroom floor.

Several of his other students had seen inside Phantom’s chest, blown up larger than life and in high definition.

Danny Fenton is Danny Phantom!

He’d been giving detention to the teen just for Daniel to turn around and save Lancer only minutes later sometimes! 

Lancer looked at his bloody hands, his bloody clothes as life continued to crash into him like a tsunami. He looked at the blood on the floor. On the others.

A very large wrench just got thrown into the already chaotic life of simply being in Amity Park and Lancer had never felt so lost.

Studying to be a teacher didn’t cover topics of ‘how to help a student who’s been dissected heal’ or ‘what to watch for in students who got an up close look at their dead classmate’s insides - it may create trauma.’

“This secret does not leave this classroom. Understood?” Lancer said, drawing himself up from the floor, nearly slipping in the blood beneath his shoes.

When the students all nodded at him, he believed them. 

If nothing else, no one wanted Danny Fenton or Danny Phantom undergoing another autopsy. No one wanted to cause those screams again.

[samobservessonic]

Today’s story, Megatox, opens with the introduction of Bob Beaky - not really a new character, but a disguise that Sonic sometimes uses in StC when he wants to sneak into Robotnik’s bases

That disguise lasts all of one page in this issue, before Sonic sees a trooper badnik attacking one of the small animals with an electric whip and races in to save them

Sonic makes swift work of clearing out all of the badniks, but the captive animals are reluctant to be led to safety through what they say is a haunted tunnel. Given the title of this story and the pink muck all around them, I’d be a bit more concerned about that than any ghosts. Oh, and the Grabber as well, but Sonic makes short work of that

We also get this horrifying concept that Robotnik could just stick you in a badnik and then put that badnik in a place that no one ever checks, so you might never get out. StC once again going hard with the notion of these animals being trapped in badniks

The group escape the tunnel, but then get ambushed by the titular villain, Megatox. He pretty much explains himself, so I don’t need to do it. I feel like I remember this guy turning up in other stories, so he at least becomes a recurring minor villain to buff the support cast. During the fight, he also mentions that the chemical he’s made of was designed specifically to counter Sonic, because Robotnik really wants to explore every hedgehog-murder avenue, I guess

After a brief fight scene, Sonic figures out a way to temporarily defeat Megatox by making a tunnel and using his speed to flush him out, separating Megatox’s goo for long enough that they’ll be able to escape. This won’t be a permanent solution, but it’s good enough for this issue, which closes out with Sonic and the small animals escaping

Now, they don’t outright say it in the issue, but I assume that this took place in the Chemical Plant Zone and that Megatox is a take on the goo you encounter there. It’s another example of Kitching & Elson taking something that was established in the games and expanding it into a more sinister threat for the people of Mobius to have to deal with. I like it when they do that and I have been hoping for more villains to be introduced for a while (Megatox doesn’t say if he’s actually working with Robotnik after what happened, but we can assume their interests are at least aligned), but I have to confess that this issue just didn’t do much for me? There isn’t anything bad about it per say, but I guess I just wasn’t that compelled by Megatox and I thought it was a bit of a shame Tails and the others weren’t in this story. I mean, in time, Tails will be getting his own stories independently of Sonic in StC, so I know that we’re going to get plenty of issues where we see Sonic fighting on his own. But… I don’t know? This one just needed a bit more for me? If nothing else though, I’m glad that they’re jumping straight into showing Sonic tackling the Robotnik takeover threat that was established last time

[tiredwriter2003]

Danny had long since learnt not to question things in the Fenton household. Sometimes you really did not want to know, ignorance is bliss and all that. That being said he was desperately curious about the ninja assassins. They weren't a problem. Far from it in fact. They were, without a doubt, some of the most helpful ghosts he knew. They were always willing to make a distraction if he needed an out from his parents shooting at him. They helped with his homework. The ninjas would kill the reanimated food before he had too, meaning he could get his ecto-rich diet without the daily battle. They were even willing to help him with the strange instincts and muscle memory from the past he couldn't remember. Sword stances were gone over and corrected, fighting was taught in both human and ghost forms, old hand to hand and martial arts were dusted off and relearned. It was amazing. However, he had absolutely no idea why they were helping him! They called him my liege, little demon, the young heir, and refused to explain. They were loyal to the end, willing to cater to every little whim and comment he made. They had no boundaries or morals. He wanted to go to a reserved show? Sure, they'll blackmail the owners of the best seats, threaten a few people, make sure the cast is the best it can be and come back to him with some tickets. The only thing stopping them from slaughtering an entire branch of the US government, as shady as the GIW were, was Danny himself asking the creepy death ninjas not to. After he became the ghost king it became infinitely worse. Bodyguards were now a thing, political lessons were not to be escaped and tours of the ghost zone had commandeered his Saturdays. Recently however, they had begun speaking of his "blood kin" and "your inefficient natural clone", both of which had him very concerned. He knew he wasn't a blood born Fenton. His earliest memory was at what they could guess to be around 9 years old, biting a social worker who had found him in an abandoned building. No one knew how he got there, there was no record of him in the system and his go to language was still Arabic when he was surprised. That combined with his features did not point to an American child, despite his resemblance to his adopted family. The Fentons may not have told him but they didn't need to. He knew he was adopted. However he knew absolutely nothing about his birth family, other than they sucked going by the sheer amount of scars covering his body. There was a reason he didn't show people his upper body and that reason is he is sick of punching the lights out of some nosy bitch who does not know what none of your business means Dash. (Part 1)

Alright, random idea about the Twin AU, or any AU where Danny is an Al Ghul. Everyone knows that Ra's has an entire army of assassins, but what about the dead assassins? I doubt Ra's is dipping everybody in the Lazarus pit.

So, what if they went to the ghost zone?

And then when Danny dies, these assassins, who are extremely loyal to the Al Ghul family, immediately start following him.

The main assassin in charge, I'm gonna call him Carl, whose been around since the very beginning of the league, who was Ra's right hand man, starts acting as Danny's second in command basically becoming his Alfred.

Carl orders some of the assassins to help Danny out with some small stuff, like distracting some of the rouges so he gets to school on time, killing the hotdogs in the fridge so the little prince doesn't die of poisoning, setting off a Fenton invention so Danny get make a getaway. He definitely orders them to not interfere in big fights, unless Danny really needs the help, as a way for Danny to learn how to fight.

Carl has no idea who the GIW is, but he's gonna find out and then he's gonna blackmail/threaten/unalive some people.

Danny doesn't even know that he's suddenly gained a ghost army, all he knows is that there's a few helpful ghosts hanging around that really hate hotdogs. And then when Danny becomes the ghost king, hoo boy. The assassins replace the old ghost kings army, set up their own system and chains of command just completely change everything. Carl takes FrightKnights place as the king's right hand man/ bodyguard, makes sure all the members of the royal family are safe and is ready to fist fight the time ghost if he makes one more attempt to get his job.

Danny: I wanna be an astronaut. Carl who has no idea what that is: Sure, just let me do some info gathering and blackmail some people. Danny: What? And imagine the batfams reaction.

[ghostadjacentfae]

Okay so I’ve got a bit of a kinda sorta really specific af idea that I am 90% I’ll never get to despite loving to bits so imma throw it to the wild and maybe some of you will like parts of it too. Okay? Okay. 

Basic version: DP x DC prompt where Danny’s gotten deaged as part of another bid for the power of Ghost King. The title that Danny now is heir to. Jazz takes the now like 4-to-8 year old Danny, who barely remembers anything besides Jazz Good and Vlad Bad, and flees to Gotham to find help from somebody that Vlad won’t expect them to seek out help from. To leave Danny with while she goes into the Ghost Zone herself to look for help/a solution.

Longer one where I’ve gone a little very insane: 

DP x DC prompt where Vlad’s deaged Danny as part of another bid for the power of Ghost King. The title that Danny now has/is heir to. Either reveal gone wrong when trying to explain because how do they hide this or no reveal at all, just Jazz grabbing her even-littler-than-usual brother and booking it because there’s no time to explain if they’re to keep Danny way from Vlad. Couldn't go into the zone bc for as many allies as Danny has there, there's also so many enemies that could intercept them before they could reach those allies to inform that help is needed (and who knows, maybe the parent's Fenton removed access to their portal from their kiddos for some reason). Danny is still halfa obvs but he doesn’t remember any details about anything. Jazz is Home. Creepy vampire man Bad. Furries in black with masks Do Good (and Jazzy tells him to trust them so he will). Clowns Very Bad. 

 In Gotham, Jazz doesn't try the keeping low thing. Well she does; not using anything besides cash and fake names, ancients what she wouldn’t do for a shower but places want credit cards goddamnit, to not bring attention on them from Vlad. Maybe she’s got a burner to get updates from Sam and Tucker on, about the status of Amity or if they’ve gotten anywhere on their end of the search for a solution, but they all know Vlad is watching them so they don’t know where she and Danny are or what she’s doing. Which is that she goes out at night looking for the bats and birds on purpose to get help for her brother, making waves in the rumour mill but staying hidden during the day. It takes a while; longer than they have time for really and she gets more stupidly desperate. Danny’s with her for every stupid stunt, usually hidden for safety but never so far that she can’t get to him if in seconds if it turns out they’ve gotten tracked down. She won’t run the risk of leaving him in their safe house of the day without her to come back and find him gone.

She decided on Bats rather than Supers or others bc an overshadowed superhero??? Bad. The bats and birds are either Entities not unlike she and Danny are (liminal!jazz agenda my beloved (honestly most of amity park but that’s not quite relevant here)) and thus immune, or they're very trained regular people. Those can still pack a punch but it's not something she can't fight against if they can’t actually be trusted. Not something she hasn't already fought against in the months she’s been in Team Phantom. Not something she hasn’t already fought against while making her escape with Danny.

Leaving Danny with them is going to take every ounce of trust she can muster.

She finds Red Robin or Nightwing first I think and gives the most bare bones of an explanation. Doesn't mention deaged, simply at-risk heir to The Throne Of Infinity and there's a bid for the crown right now by a man that’ll be another tyrant, and "by the ancients, you need to protect him. I'm the best he's got right now but I can't keep him safe and find our allies". That they aren’t metas but there’s too much to explain. "Maybe Danny will explain if he can but just. It'd be so much simpler if we had super powers. Wouldn't have to worry about enemies overshadowing anyone to get them to shoot us if we were all just metas." 

She’s got a bag of Tech, just whatever she and Danny could grab and Go. And a third of it lost when Jazz dropped half of hers in order to pick up Danny to run faster. Think nearly finished schematics, a blaster or two, one Specter Deflector, what may or may not just be a toaster, and crammed into his bug-bag. Or school backpack. A corner of the bag is green with dried ectoplasm from a broken vial that got shattered in the mad dash. 

(I’m a little attached to it being Tim she leaves Danny with. Maybe he tries to pawn him off on one of his brothers, but Danny's already like, imprinted on him. Very "YOU promised Jazz to keep me safe. Jazz left me with YOU >:C" y’know? Or cuz she stressed so very much that he cannot be left without someone guarding him, and bats don't exactly want identity reveal he can't really be left in the cave under the watch of Agent A since Alfred needs to do other things, he gets handed around a little bit between them as heroes only and it's just Timmy's bad luck that he really likes this clever snarky little bean 's the one stuck with Danny on the occasion that plot happens. I just like Tim & Danny time.)

I'm thinking plot tool of Jazz with one of Wulf's claws? As a thing that lets her get into the Zone without portal access or the speeder after finding a Bat to leave Danny with. But no control of where she'll show up, hence not using it when their parents portal wouldn’t work. It Works Like That™ because I Say So™, tho if you have a less mystery McGuffin reliant idea this is by no means obligatory. Just an excuse on a silver platter.

Also tiny Danny, barely awake, trying to grab Jazz and saying not to go cuz it's dangerous/he needs her, only for his hand to go intangible through her. Did I mention yet that he doesn’t have control of his powers?

And of course, Vlad tracks Danny down. 

And he’s big bad.