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pokelolmc · 11 months ago

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The Ultimate Enemy is a Disappointment (and How I'd Fix It) (Part 2)

Here I am, back with Part 2 of my analysis on The Ultimate Enemy. If you haven't read part one, I suggest you check it out. But I suppose this one works in isolation, too. This time we're going into everything to do with our main villain/the episode's attempt at the "alternate villain self of the hero" trope. This one's a doozy, so be prepared! Unfortunately this post got too long, so this'll be the criticisms and the fixes will get their own post. But I have some interesting headcanons in mind, if that's any consolation!

I think I got a bit too heated with this one--I was running on frustration while trying to figure it out. Oops.

(Part 1), Part 2, (Part 2.5)

Part 2--The Problems with Dan’s character/story arc:

The writers minimised Danny’s moral responsibility in the events of Dan’s existence/creation.

So I noticed a pretty glaring pattern with this episode, but I don’t think it was intentional on the writers’ part, probably just subconscious:

Any time we see our hero doing supposedly bad things, which are supposed to lead to his own villain origin story, the writer’s minimise Danny’s responsibility as much as possible.

They insist that Danny’s going to become evil/turn into Dan, but the events that lead to Dan’s timeline (as far as we get to see them recur in the main timeline) essentially drag a very passive and reactive Danny behind them on a leash. It comes off as very hollow. Like they want to do an “alternate timeline villain self” superhero plot, but couldn’t actually commit to the bit when they wanted to show our Danny having the “seeds” of Dan’s immorality (or the events that lead to Dan’s timeline gradually coming to fruition because of Danny's actions, and risking Dan's creation again).

Exhibits A through C:

“Danny cheated on the CAT”! Except he didn't. The idea didn’t occur to him on his own, nor did he break his own moral code to steal the answers with his ghost powers. The fucking Master of Time just GAVE them to him! Danny just basically just accepted someone else’s offer (his own choice, but reactive and minor). He doesn't even think about cheating until Clockwork drops the answers in his lap. And we'll never know if he would have without them.

And after that, he never even actually GOT to cheat. He didn't get to finish opening the envelope (he was interrupted), and the one who actually cheated in his place to make the story happen was the main villain.

By the end of the episode, Danny had still never seen the answers! He could’ve sat the CAT right there at the very end, without handing the answers to Lancer, and it would’ve been totally legit!

(Keeping the answers with the intent to cheat was still a dishonest move…but a fourteen year old kid doing that, especially when he never got to actually go through with cheating, is extremely minor. That's not evil, ladies and gentlemen. It’s petty academic misconduct at best. Compared to Dan’s actual crimes, it’s laughable.)

Being a victim in the deaths of his loved ones was totally fair…but then we find out how Dan was born. Danny didn’t spend the next ten years spiralling into grief or madness and becoming a villain alone. Instead he had his ghost half fused with an already established villain and Vlad’s evil overwhelmed his mind.

In theory, the writing team had the freedom here to write it however they wanted. They really could’ve just written the “alternate villain self” trope straight—“Dan is literally just Danny, but he’s older and had a massive shift in his personality and moral compass for (insert reasons)”.

But instead, the writers gave us “Danny fused with an already-villainous character and absorbed their evil”. Seriously?

There could be plenty of alternatives—“Danny dealt terribly with his trauma and took it out by abusing his powers (starting small, but escalating) and got corrupted by them”. “He spiralled into madness and split himself in half to try end the pain, but his ghost half ended up with all his negative/toxic traits (or emotional pain) and no restraint (so it went evil on its own)”.

Heck, maybe you could even throw in a toxic relationship with Vlad, for good measure—becoming Danny’s “new father”, clinging to him as “the only person who could understand him”, isolating him, manipulating him, teaching Danny his own bad coping mechanisms and cutthroat philosophy (because Vlad also had trauma, don’t forget) and using Danny to carry out his errands as a gateway to villainous behaviour. Think Silco and Jinx’s relationship from Arcane.

Or, use the idea of fusion, but at least acknowledge Danny’s not the only person responsible for Dan’s creation and explore that in the story.

If they wanted to show Danny at risk of becoming evil, they should've actually shown him more actively making/resorting to immoral decisions instead of dragging him into those situations and calling it "evil".

2. Dan being a fusion of Danny and Vlad’s ghost halves means he can’t be the same person as Danny. He has to be either a mixture of both of them, or a new person born from them combining (they're basically the ingredients for somebody new).

We don’t know how halfa fusions work, but it wouldn’t make sense for a fusion to be the same person as only one of the components. Dan By the episode's logic, Dan was a "future version of Vlad" then, too. But the episode refused to acknowledge that. Dan only acknowledged his relation to Vlad from Danny’s point of view, as “his cheesehead archenemy”.

Physically, it’d be impossible for Dan to exist without Vlad. He was physically comprised of half-Plasmius. His physical design reflected a hybrid of both Danny and Vlad’s ghost halves (and in Vlad’s case, also his human half). His blue skin, ponytail, facial hair and cape (and likely also the red eyes) drew from Vlad/Plasmius. Dan, as he was, could not exist without both of them.

Vlad’s recollection of Dan’s backstory also implies that most of Dan’s “evil” came from him. And we know from Identity Crisis that separated halves aren’t just one or two pure emotions—they have some self-image, or level of awareness and personality. When Plasmius was separated from Vlad in TUE, he would’ve had some self-image or identity of his own to carry into the fusion. It wouldn’t just have been “Phantom’s identity plus Plasmius’s evil”. It would’ve been both of their identities mixing. If whatever constituted as Plasmius’s “evil” (rooted in his memories/backstory, emotions and personality traits) was able to “overwhelm” Phantom, it’d only make sense for his whole mind to win overall. But for some bizarre reason, Phantom is Dan’s dominant identity--and treated as his only one.

How could Plasmius overtake Phantom in the battle of wills enough to flood the latter with his malice, but somehow Danny’s identity or memories were dominant enough that THEY won?

Besides, in a mental battle between a mentally stronger, older man with more experience with his ghost powers, and the fourteen-year-old kid who was still too weak to beat him directly one-on-one, it’d make no sense for Danny to win. They were both in grief over losing the only people they truly "loved" (Maddie, for Vlad) and Vlad as twenty other years of built-up, unresolved pain to stew in first (not to mention his already strong maliciousness/selfishness). So Danny probably wouldn't win out on negative emotions alone.

Though, we are taking Vlad on his word here, which was rather dubious and vague in canon…but I personally trust him on that statement because he’d have little motivation to lie about this to Danny. That statement directly incriminated Vlad in Dan’s villainous nature to Danny, only giving a reason for the latter to further oppose him or be outraged. If he had any reason to lie, it’d be to make himself look better or avoid directly admitting fault. He already seemed to do that in previous parts of the same flashback.

We absolutely know the fusion happened, though—because Dan’s mixed design outside of the flashback was undeniable and alternate Vlad was in ruin without a ghost half.

And if we want to say that Danny still technically counts as "becoming Dan" because his and Vlad's ghost halves both became Dan together (assuming Dan is an active combination of both halves back-and-forth, rather than a new person just made from both of them) I don't believe it's fair to say that Danny's crimes were Dan's, or hold him (main!Danny) primarily responsible for Dan as a problem. This is because of the disconnection of identity and moral control between Danny Fenton and Dan.

It was never clear, not even in Identity Crisis, what happened to the original, whole halfa’s sense of self or consciousness when split into two. Danny obviously didn’t have much, if any, control over his halves in Identity Crisis—they had to cooperate like two separate people, and their personalities and behaviours were distinctly exaggerated and out of character for his whole self. Individual parts no longer controlled or regulated by the larger whole.

By that logic, Danny couldn’t be held fully morally responsible for the actions of his halves while separated, since they weren’t under his conscious control/he wasn’t of his full mind (similar to the reason insanity pleas exist in court, or you can't properly consent when under the influence of drugs/alcohol). His responsibility would be there somewhere, but unclear and debatable. It’s possible they could be separate identities from him entirely. The only thing fully his responsibility is the decision to split in the first place, which facilitated their actions (since he did that while still of his own sound mind).

That creates a degree of separation between Danny and his split halves before his ghost half even fuses with another person. Adding a literal separate individual into the mix would make Dan two degrees of separation away from the original Danny Fenton. Alternate!Danny could be held fully responsible for requesting/going along with Vlad's Ghost Gauntlets procedure (facilitating Dan in the first place), but after that, his moral responsibility is in doubt from the moment he's split apart. And considering that this hyperspecific method for Dan existing is relatively easy for our main Danny to avoid (as long as he's informed), I highly doubt it's even REMOTELY fair to accuse past/main timeline!Danny of everything Dan has done. The episode's repeated assertions of "this is what Danny will do...in time" when referring to what Dan did is just not correct.

3. The episode’s plot does so much telling the audience that Danny and Dan are the same person, and that Dan’s crimes are consequently Danny’s, mostly through character dialogue. Dan's backstory throws all of this into question, and the plot does NOTHING to explore or remedy the apparent complexity/contradiction.

While “Dan is Danny’s future self” could be “technically” true—in the sense that the Phantom half mixed into Dan is the only remnant of Danny in the future—it’s not true that he IS Danny as a person. He’s a fusion with an entirely separate individual, who was already villainous before the fusion. The question remains as to whether Phantom and Plasmius are both intact as identities inside of Phantom, or he's a new person entirely.

But the episode repeatedly had a handful of characters spell out that “Dan was Danny but evil”, mistake past/main timeline!Danny for Dan, or accuse Danny of what Dan's done. And even when characters have a reason to be wrong in-universe, the sheer repetition of their mistake in the script (out-of-universe) serves as a framing device for what the narrative wants us to believe.

Clockwork and Dan himself both have every reason to know of his origin as a fusion, and yet they still refer to him and Danny as if they’re the same person.

In the light of Dan's nature as a fusion, this rings hollow. The situation is more complex than anyone is letting on.

And when Vlad reveals Dan’s backstory, NOTHING is made of this information. Danny doesn’t even verbally react to it, to show that he’s processed it. It doesn’t change how he sees Dan or lead to him trying to figure out what Dan is. He doesn’t react to the “my evil overwhelmed you” comment from Vlad. He still goes into the final fight with Dan insisting “I won’t become you!”. The episode says nothing of it—the only thing Danny takes out of his encounter with Vlad is the Ghost Gauntlets.

#danny phantom #the ultimate enemy #danny fenton #dp rewrite #tue analysis #10 dp episodes with missed potential

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a-gil-rebel · 9 months ago

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Exposé didn't have to stick to one city for long. While his public image was that of a villain on the run after being beat a few too many times, whispers started to travel through young heroes. Was he a villain, or the strangest anti-hero they'd ever seen? None of his hostages were ever hurt thanks to his careful planning, but in a way no one could notice until after he fled. Some heroes ignored and doubted the rumors making their way through the grapevine, and they were the hardest to teach, but Exposé did anyway. Even switching up his fighting styles on occasion to keep them on their toes.

He learned a lot about this new world this way, too. About the Meta gene and the acts that protected them, the public image of Meta's that rose and dipped dependant on if a new Meta hero showed up, or a villain.

He had no real reason to show up in places like Superman's city, where the hero was never more than a moment away. He did test some of the surrounding areas and was glad to find some minor heroes and vigilantes that used Super as a template, making sure to show up fast, and call in bigger guns as needed. He spent some time with them working with the natural tech-blackout properties his ghost half granted him, showing them they could take bigger fights than they thought.

Eventually, he made his way to Gotham, but he knew better than to go in bat swinging the hornets nest like usual. Or... bringing a flashlight to a cave? But some of them were birds, not bats....

Regardless of the anamalia kingdom the heroes hailed from, he realized after a few days of flying around undetected that there wasn't much these guys weren't good at. Most of them seemed older, which helped, but there was definitely one child on the team, and two or three he suspected were young enough to be in high school or college. And yet, it seemed like at least two of his three concerns were out in full force every day. Signal at least have a daytime shift most of the time, so Danny gave him a pass. Maybe he had online classes. But with how often all of them were on patrol, he had to do Something.

He couldn't go in as Exposé though, this city was protected by "The World's Greatest Detective" who probably already tracked his path to have Gotham next on his list. The only question was, did the whispers reach Gotham's protector, or was he unaware of Exposé's underlying goals?

A good excuse arose when one of the first teams he fought had a transition of power; a new leader stepped into the light as another moved on. Gotham could wait a moment as Exposé came back to exact his revenge on a team already struggling with new dynamics. It didn't take long to get them settled in, though, after more experienced teammates convinced their new leader of his intentions. Three weeks later, he got himself cornered on a building overlooking an outlet to sea, and baited a hero into sending him sailing over the side. He felt a bit bad at the look in the teens face at what they'd done, so he retracted his mask a bit, enough to give them a wink, before falling the rest of the way to his "doom" during an unfortunately inconvenient blackout, so it took time for anyone to try and dredge up his body. They never found anything, of course. Danny had given a nice dramatic death but not dead excuse for himself as he tucked away one villain persona for another. It was time to take on Gotham.

By the time he arrived, it was nearing finals in the local colleges and standardized testing time in school, and he trailed the heroes for a few more days as they became frantic, trying to study on patrol. This was ridiculous! Batman had the largest team of heroes of any one city, even if many rotated out to other areas. Surely he could let some of his team members take a few days off for school.

This would take more planning than just a different type of rescue every few days. He would have to hit hard, from as many angles as possible. It was at this point he realized he may be testing Batman more than any of the younger vigilantes. If the Bat was in charge, he had to take accountability for his team, in and out of patrol.

So he tossed his villain-sona to the side, temporarily. He had to throw the Bat off after all, and instead started recruiting some low-level street thugs to help cause some chaos, and start whispers of someone new gathering power. He hit targets and committed crimes relevant to what he could overhear them studying on patrols.

A regular break-in at the Gotham Museum? Gotham PD can handle it. Just kidding, have this riddle on how to diffuse the bomb based off your history flashcards.

City wakes up to gas tanks mounted outside of the police building set to release with no way to diffuse? What a coincidence they're clearly labeled with what chemical is inside, and the vigilante just learned that misting them with regular H2O upon release will render it harmless!

Sudden challenges like these kept appearing, the team theorizing who was behind them. Riddler? Baffler? Cluemaster?

(Danny was embarrassed by the naming conventions the rogues took on in this city, and he used to fight people called The Lunch Lady.)

All the while, regular crime ramped up. Non-violent, as per Danny's anonymous request, but it put stress and surpise on the team. Which mundane crime report over the scanners would be a cover for something more sinister?

He decided to bring everything together two nights before Finals started (he had to give them at least one good night's sleep before testing started). He left clues and crimes all over the city, eventually getting the smallest Robin separated from the rest, even for a moment. The kid was exhausted even if his snappy attitude argued otherwise, and he kept muttering historical facts about notable scientists. He was easy for Danny to take out, even with the sword. (Who gave this kid a sword!?) He removed any trackers from his suit and set his earpiece by the ledge where he had snagged him from.

He didn't physically hurt the kid, just used a trick he learned from Nocturn that could temporarily put him to sleep. The kid needed it anyway. By the time he woke up, Danny was back in his Exposé costume and patiently explained his plan to the stab-happy Robin. He had him tied up and hanging over a piece of live, evil looking machinery in a warehouse. This city was weird.

He had left an extra line of a the puzzle to each crime he caused that night that would lead the kid's team straight to them, but without trackers on the kid, it may take some time for them to realize they were clues. So after showing Robin his portals and explaining he was in no danger, he went over some flashcards with the kid, thinking up a few mnemonic devices to help him remember arbitrary dates and personal facts.

Eventually, Danny felt someone step on the property and hid himself away. Hell, even Robin played along, starting to writhe and fight at the ropes, which quickly started fraying. Red Robin was first to burst into the room and reassure the young Robin, followed by the Bat himself. He had placed a few grunts around the site to make this convincing, so he assumed that's where the others were. As soon as Red Robin rushed to the platform to save their smaller counterpart, Danny started speaking. Keeping himself hidden in the shadows, he barked orders from the catwalk above.

"Ah-Ah Ah. Careful. That's not how this game goes tonight." Their attention shifted to him. "You break the rules, he gets dropped. You've played my game enough to find this place, so you best behave."

"You kidnapped one of our own, and yet still hide in the shadows. This game is over." Batman challenged him, so he pushed back a little bit. A push of the button on the control panel next to him lowered Robin toward the machine. Even if he somehow swung out of the way of the moving parts, the drop was too far for someone with no grapple hook or place to grab onto, and they were still too far from him to catch him. Robin stayed stock still as his rope slipped just a bit more off the hook at the moment, and Red Robin spoke up.

"Okay, we get it. What is your puzzle? Or should we say Riddle?"

"Hm? I suppose you could call them riddles, sure." He turned on a spotlight that hid himself more against the contrast, and illuminated three vats of chemicals. Each had a valve on the bottom to open onto the rope Robin hung from.

"Two of these are filled with very real, very caustic chemicals, that will burn through that rope before you can say 'Hero'. The third is a chemical that can't exist, and therefore empty. You choose which vat to open, and whether Robin lives, or dies." He gestured to the second control panel before them.

Batman immediately tried to use his tech to solve the compound equation written on each lever, only to find it fizzle out thanks to Danny's natural EMP properties, chanelled directly at them.

"Ah-ah. Thats cheating~" he taunted, lowering Robin a tad more, who gasped just audibly. Nice touch.

Red Robin stepped up next, running his fingers across the compounds. "How long do we have?"

"Hm?" Danny actually hadn't thought of that. "Oh, I suppose until I get bored. Does that help?" He inched Robin a tad closer to death, and Red quickly grabbed a nearby abandonded pad of paper and pen, scribbling out which compound could actually exist as written.

Danny yawned dramatically; other vigilantes had made it to the warehouse, but not inside yet.

"There!" Danny glanced down at the young hero who had solved the compound.

"Are you sure?" The vigilante's lips tightened, doubting himself only a moment. "Then pull the lever." Danny taunted, and a look passed between the two vigilantes as Red Robin gripped the lever corresponding closest to Robin. They still had no outside comms, no backup had found them. It was just down to this choice.

Red Robin pulled the lever, and an alarm sounded as the machine whirred to life, opening the valve.

Which promptly flodded their vision in bright green.

They both raced to try and reach Robin, but his screams were drowned by the rushing liquid following his dissent toward the machine below.

Danny, of course, opened up a small portal last minute, and just like he was told, Robin righted himself and went board-straight to fit through it. That wasn't what Batman and Red Robin saw, though. Danny carefully caught Robin as he came through the other side of the portal, setting him down while they were still distracted.

"Kinda feel bad." Danny started, leaning on the railing with the littlest bird, who really just seemed to be his age. "I mean, the kid was technically right."

Robin turned to him, waiting for his word to be able to move back to his team. "You rigged it? That is not as honorable as you claim to be." Danny just shrugged, making sure his Exposé mask was in place.

"Tomato Tomato." Exposé ducked as a batarang flew over his head. They were after him now that they couldn't find Robin. "Shall we?" He handed back the boy's grapple hook, who quickly rushed down to them, and the others who had finally made it up to the platform.

"Robin!" Batman rushed to his youngest vigilante, who assured him he was fine.

"How did you escape!?" Red Robin exclaimed.

"He did not."

All eyes turned to Danny as he flew down to meet them, touching down on the metal and taking a few steps to catch himself. Their weapons were drawn, but it didn't bother him.

"Robin fell because of your mistake, I simply didn't let him suffer for your actions."

"Why." Batman's voice was so deep he practically growled the word.

"Wait, I know you. You're-" Danny cut off Signal with a theatrical bow.

"Exposé, at your service. And you all have failed terribly this past week."

"You set all those traps, those bombs!?" Exposé nodded ad Red Robin. "Why!?"

"Because you are all great vigilantes. But your mentor has let you down by giving you all the wrong priorities."

Batman growled again. "What priorities, exactly?"

Danny threw his hands in the air comically. "Three of your team members are in school!!! They have finals coming up and they're still out on patrol! The little one was so tired I almost put him down for a nap waiting for you all!" Robin tutted at this, but Danny just put his hands on his hips at him.

The team was rightfully thrown off by his explanation.

"I go around, testing and pushing young and inexperienced vigilantes to know their limits, learn to work as a team, and get more people saved than killed. There's nothing along those lines I can teach you.

Batman though, you should be ashamed. Red Robin has been studying compounds during patrol for the last week and couldn't-"

"You were following us on patrol?" Signal asked incredulously, and Exposé sorta shrugged his shoulder noncommittally. Focusing his attention back on Batman, he jabbed a finger his direction.

"You should be ashamed. These kids are in school, they should not be beating people up on a weekday! And why does that one have a sword!"

The group looked to each other awkwardly at his little rant, some obviously agreeing through body language.

"You put the lives of Gotham at risk because of this? Those gas tanks-" Batman started

"Had such a strangely coincidental timer corresponding to that shoddy sprinkler on the corner." Red Robin blinked, and Danny saw something click in his head.

"The bomb, the museum would have lost-"

"Yeah, that wasn't even a real bomb. Did you even notice that? They were saran wrapped bricks of cream cheese. All of the officers on site were hired goons who lost the evidence the moment you left. And yet you let Robin deactivate it based off a question from his upcoming history test." That got a snicker out of Spoiler, and more than a few shot her a look.

"Face it Batsy, you've gotten irresponsible with your team. I pushed you all harder and harder and instead of letting them take the back seat because they have their own lives to take care of, you let them keep fighting to the point of exhaustion, which was the only way I was able to get Robin in the first place."

Batman was silent, but Danny didn't really care. He didn't mind if he didn't get a confession or apology. He'd be watching for changes anyway. But it was getting kinda awkward.

"So, do better." He patted his chest and gave them a peace sign before walking away, quickly getting a rope tangled around his wrist.

"Where do you think you're going? We aren't just going to let you walk away without facing justice."

Danny sighed at the bat, turning around.

"You are, actually. For several reasons." He walked toward them. "One, because I didn't hurt anybody. Two, because you let Robin fall. Three, because you can't touch me." He lifted his wrist and made it intangible, watching Batman's face as the metal rope fell through him to the ground.

"If you think being a Meta makes you untouchable in Gotham, you're wrong." Danny admittedly stumbled a bit when a collar clamped onto his neck, shot from one of the other teammembers who were slowly closing in.

"That would be true, if I was a Meta." Once again, he turned on his intangibility, this time for his whole body, and kept it.

"Do you want to know why I do what I do? Why I go around, antagonizing children who run around in spandex and call themselves heroes?" Danny stepped toward Batman again, and the others raised weapons, ready to strike at his word. Raising his hands to his mask, he slowly, dramatically, removed it, showing his sickly green skin, litchenberg scars creeping up his neck to his left temple.

"I do this because I was a hero, once. A child. And. I. Died. Not even you can arrest a ghost, Batman."

The horrified looks in the room gave him confidence that the message would be heard. Putting the mask back on, he walked straight through Batman before dissapearing from sight.

DP x DC Prompt

Danny was sent to the DC universe to save him from the GIW and the Fenton's by Clockwork

Doesn't know what to do here, but as an Experienced Vigilante:tm: he takes note of all the INexperienced vigilante's causing more danger than they realize.

Danny takes it upon himself to act as a low level villain so he can secretly train these vigilante's to be stronger. One day, a Bigger Villain decides to Fuck Around and Find Out.

All his "enemies" realize Danny could've folded them anytime he wanted when he effortlessly defeats the Big Bad.

#Danny is a dramatic little shit #i feel like after waiting for so long for everyone to show up that he'd become friends with Damien if given the chance #sure he didnt die Because he was a hero (more like he was a hero because he died) but semantics semantics #Duke Tim and Damien are banned from patrol the next two nights #danny's job here is done (for now) (hes going after Batmans emotional constipation)#alfred is pleased the children are focusing on their school so much lately #dpxdc #danny phantom

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lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks · 4 years ago

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Constantine: His Rogues Gallery includes Minor Gods! What is wrong with you people?! // Danny: What do you mean? I don't fight Minor Go- *(thinks about Undergrowth, Vortex, and Nocturne)* Okay so I see where you're coming from. But I'm sure you guys have dealt with the type before and tbh Undergrowth just can't handle the cold. So just get a Freeze Ray or get Superman to breathe on him and everything'll be good.

I actually haven't really thought much about the concept of his enemies being minor gods but like you right they are

even if only by legend, the ghost zone is full of natural portals that open up into different time periods, these ghosts may not even be as old as the legends about them are, they've just jumped through enough portals and wreaked enough havoc to make names for themselves among a variety of cultures, they may have even changed forms a few times (as we know ghosts can sometimes do) which gave people the impression that they were different gods

not to mention some of the ghosts were ripped directly out of mythology, Pandora for one, her legend is way different from the real thing, likely due to history's classic game of telephone fucking everything up

then there's the question of if they are actually literal gods or were just mistaken for them, ghosts born from the dead are different than ghosts born of the ghost zone

I like to adopt the concept of poltergeists, spirits created from an amalgamation of emotion verses the independent soul/spirit/personality of someone who died

so the Far Frozen in my eyes was a civilisation created by the collection of human curiosity, they are essentially knowledge spirits who have grown their own culture, there are many of them due to scholars and education systems often relying on the experiences of many, teaching each other and engaging in discussion in order to understand things better, there are likely many different yetis with different specific interests, new yetis coming into being when more humans discover new things, they could all be considered minor gods based on their individual interests, and many have likely travelled through portals in an opportunistic field trip to learn, and due to their appearance and seemingly omniscient knowledge, have been associated as a god of their particular field of study

Undergrowth I like to imagine is a new spirit, born only recently with the rise of general frustration and anger by current generations over the destruction of the planet's environment and ecosystems, he is an amalgamation of the energy that would be produced at climate rallies and protests

Nocturne is also born of a combined human experience, that of course being dreams, he is probably one of the oldest spirits in human existence, his journeys in and out of natural portals would have inspired legends like that of the sandman and the greek god Morpheus, his recent rise to power may have been caused by a gradual incline of insomnia among people, the more desperation for sleep feeding into Nocturne's drastic behaviour

Vortex was also likely to be an old god, born of a time when people believed the weather to be made by gods and not simply a natural event, he's one I like to think has changed appearance many times over the years, he has hopped back and forth through portals, and his personality changes like the weather (ha ha) depending on the people who would pray to him and give offerings for rain to water their crops, in which case he would come and bring rain because it's what people believe he will do, or when an extreme natural weather event happens and people believe the gods to be angry and vengeful, in which case he would become angry and vengeful, in his episode during the show, I believe he showed up destructive because there had been a recent natural disaster somewhere in the world where the culture believed their god to be responsible, it wouldn't matter which god, Vortex would always be the one to embody that belief, as long it was associated with the weather

so I think it would be apt to refer to these native born ghosts created by pieces of human consciousness as minor gods, as they cannot truly be destroyed unless humans as a whole stopped feeling or thinking or believing in whatever initially created them, Nocturne cannot be permanently destroyed because people will always dream, Undergrowth can't be destroyed as long as people still feel fury over the destruction of the environment, but his behaviour could be altered if humans became more sustainable in the future and the general frustration and anger over environmental destruction waned, Vortex may actually have lost much of his power over time as fewer and fewer people blamed gods or spirits for the weather, if that belief ever disappeared entirely, so would he

even regular human born ghosts could even reach minor god status if they become a known figure, Pandora may have been human once, but in death became famous from her legend (inaccurate though it has become), and as a result became quite powerful, I also think she represents more than one deity, I think she likely also is believed to be the goddess Soteria (greek goddess of protection and safety, due to her role as the guardian of the Box), and so that belief also fuels her power, despite humanity believing those two identities to be seperate beings, however I don't believe she would be susceptible to a change in personality like natural born deities are since she already had a personality and a sense of identity to begin with, but her abilities and the power she wields may be altered by public perception

and to leap off of THAT point, we reach the idea that Danny is a very famously known ghost that many people believe in, many people love him, like Pandora he is a protector and a guardian, and so his ability to protect is boosted by that, much like a deity who is powered by worship, he himself has inadvertently become a minor god

and he also happens to be close friends with a MAJOR God, a God with a capital G, one who has existed before humans, existed before earth, he gained a physical manifestation as humans began to understand time as a concept, this, of course, being Clockwork, who happens to be responsible for every minor god's interaction with the human world because he controls the time periods in which the natural portals open, hence why so many portals were opening in ancient greece, because Clockwork had determined that their mythology was important to the future for whatever reason, I mean greek myths are still well known by today's standards and that must have been important enough for Clockwork to ensure it happened that way

he puts a lot of focus on Danny's development because he will become something incredibly significant to history, which is why other superheroes reeeeaaaally need to step back and mind their own god damn business, I can just imagine Clockwork popping in on Constantine and stressing the absolute importance of Danny being left alone

and then Constantine has to go chew out the Justice League because THE LITERAL GOD OF TIME SAID YOU NEED TO S T O P

#op danny dc edition #asks #danny phantom #overpowered danny #clockwork #vortex #nocturne #undergrowth #constantine #justice league #I dunno how we just decided that DP takes place in the DC universe but I dunno it just fits better somehow

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j4gm · 3 years ago

Text

TOGETHER AGAIN SPOILERS

A thread of lore, Easter eggs, episode connections, and background details from Adventure Time: Distant Lands: Together Again! Let me know if I missed anything! This is adapted from my original Twitter thread.

Keep reading ⬇️⬇️⬇️

1. I was expecting them to perhaps do a classic style title sequence for this episode, but I wasn't expecting them to straight up use the original title sequence. The only difference is this final screen saying "Distant Lands".

2. The background of the title cards is also the hill from the title sequence.

3. The ice cream having "50 flavours" and having an image of an enlightened soul is an obvious reference to the 50th Dead World as we see it later in the episode.

4. Continuing with the metaphor, the dirt in the ice cream could be a parallel to the fact that Jake's Nirvana actually wasn't perfect, because his inaction was allowing for injustice to perpetuate.

5. This whole scene feels immediately slightly off. Finn has his Scarlet sword and is out on a classic Ice King adventure, but he speaks in his grown voice and all the slang feels much more forced than it did in the real season one. Turns out this was deliberate.

6. The snow golem speaks with a baby voice like it did in the pilot episode, even though in canon it has a deeper voice. This further hints that something is not quite right.

7. The first major break in continuity is these snow golems resembling Uncle Gumbald and Peace Master, who Finn didn't meet until later in his life.

8. LSP sitting on Finn's head like this is reminiscent of Pen Ward's piece for the 2018 Ble crew zine.

9. Finn being given the choice of helping somebody but ending up helping everybody reminds me of "Memories of Boom Boom Mountain". It's the kind of resolution that wouldn't happen so much in the late seasons of the show, which helps make this scene feel even further out of place.

10. Jake is half frozen by Ice King in pretty much the exact same way as he was in "Prisoners of Love", and even has a very similar line.

11. The Snail is seen here. The crew have said that the Snail has been deliberately left out of previous Distant Lands specials, so its placement here is another very deliberate hint that this whole sequence is "trying too hard" to be like the early seasons.

12. The book "Mind Games" appears a couple of times, as seen in several previous episodes of Adventure Time. The first is as Finn is approaching the library in his dream. It also appears as one of the items in Finn's backpack later.

13. Jake is hurt when Finn fist bumps him with his metal arm, revealing that this scene is not real. This is also a callback to the title sequences of "Islands" and "Elements".

14. A whole bunch of familiar skeletons are seen in the bird's nest: Dirt Beer Guy, Abracadaniel, Me-Mow, Lemongrab, Mr. Pig, and the Snail again. This doesn't necessarily mean that all these characters are dead, since this scene is just a hallucination.

15. Old Man Finn! He's still got the chest tattoo of Jake, and this time we know that Jake is dead, so the theory that Jake died before "Obsidian" seems pretty likely. He looks similar to his old man design from "Puhoy", with the same facial hair.

16. There are several cameos of familiar characters who apparently died at the same time as Finn. The first is this duck, who previously appeared in "Ocarina".

17. The second is Donny, from the episode... uh, "Donny".

18. This goblin guy is an unnamed background character from “The Silent King”.

19. This old lady first appeared in "The Enchiridion", way back in season one. Old ladies are a species in the Land of Ooo, so I guess she wasn't actually very old back then, given she just about outlived Finn.

20. This is the cobbler who first appears in "His Hero". Amazing that he lived so long given all the trouble he got into in that episode.

21. Land of the Dead! This place was first seen in season two's "Death in Bloom", and now we are finally learning its actual purpose. It's a sort of gateway and hub to all of the other dead worlds.

22. There are some more minor cameos at the gates: a house person from "Donny", a soft person from "Gut Grinder", and a wood person from "When Wedding Bells Thaw". And, of course, the gate guardian himself from “Death in Bloom”.

23. Finn completely ignores the gate guardian in the same way he did in Death in Bloom. This also has the convenient effect of not having to reveal how Finn died, leaving it up to the audience's imagination.

24. Mr. Fox! We already knew he would die at some point because BMO had his skull in the finale.

25. Finn has his design from the first Distant Lands poster in this scene. Turns out it's young Finn in old Finn's clothes. But they gave him a shirt in the poster so you wouldn't be able to see the tattoo.

26. The clapping that Finn does while he's looking for Jake is a callback to "James Baxter the Horse", when Jake tells Finn to listen for that same rhythm if they are killed and need to find each other in the afterlife.

27. Mr. Fox talks about a "past life quotient", suggesting that there might be some kind of limit to how many times somebody can reincarnate. Finn's reincarnations are also seen in this scene; a callback to "The Vault", and confirmation that reincarnations share the same soul.

28. Boobafina, the goose who Mr. Fox was in love with in his debut episode “Storytelling”, apparently reincarnated into a tugboat. We've already seen that objects can have souls in the episode "Ghost Fly".

29. Finn is initially assigned to the 37th Dead World, which is the same one that Jake went to when he died in "Sons of Mars". We can only guess at what the other numbers on the ticket mean ;)

30. Tiffany! Despite several lucky escapes throughout his life, Tiffany has finally died. I like the use of this imagery to express Finn's conflicted feelings about him.

31. The 50th Dead World has long been established as the "highest" dead world, and the one synonymous with Heaven within Adventure Time's universe. It was first mentioned in "Ghost Princess" back in season three.

32. It's unclear what happens to souls which are destroyed within the dead worlds. It is a similar question to asking what happened to the ghosts that were killed in "Ghost Fly".

33. Death doesn't speak at all in Together Again because his voice actor, Miguel Ferrer, passed away in 2017 long before production began.

34. Finn phases through New Death when he tries to attack him, just like what happened way back in "Death in Bloom".

35. The 30th Dead World contains Tree Trunks as well as many of her love interests; Mr. Pig, her alien husband from "High Strangeness", Danny and Randy who first appeared in "Apple Wedding", and several more who we don't recognise, including at least one who presents as a woman.

36. Literally yelled when these two showed up. Joshua calls Finn a crybaby, which is a callback to "Dad's Dungeon".

37. The wall of weapons in Joshua and Margaret's house includes the iconic Demon Blood Sword, which was broken in "Play Date", as well as Margaret's auto-loading crossbow from "Joshua & Margaret Investigations".

38. Jermaine is sidelined a few times through the episode, in reference to his attitude in "Jermaine" where he feels that Finn and Jake were always their parents' favourites. I would have hoped things would be a bit better by now.

39. Fern gets name dropped while Finn and Jake are reuniting. A shame he doesn't actually show up in the episode.

40. In this scene, Finn says "What time is it?" This is a very subtle reference to the 2010 cartoon "Adventure Time".

41. In a couple of shots during this fight scene it looks like Jake might have a tattoo. It seems like it only becomes visible when he stretches out his arm.

42. New Death's amulet in this scene resembles parts of the Lich's cape, foreshadowing his influence on New Death.

43. There are several more cameos in the 50th Dead World: Booshy from "High Strangeness", one of the Marshmallow Kids from "Scamps", and Ghost Princess and Clarence, who were seen ascending to the 50th Dead World in "Ghost Princess".

44. Finn didn't interact with Booshy in "High Strangeness", but it seems they must have met at some point before they both died because Finn knows his name.

45. It seems like people in the 1st Dead World are slowly melted away until they become part of the landscape. Nasty.

46. Lots more cameos in this scene: a gnome from "Power Animal", a gnome from "The Enchiridion", a Bath Boy from "The Vault", Blagertha from "Love Games", Maja the Sky Witch, a troll from "Dungeon", Chocoberry, Choose Goose, Wyatt, a spiky person from "Gut Grinder", and possibly more.

47. Tiffany's insults are consistently nonsensical and amazing, as they were in the original series.

48. The Candy Kingdom looks extremely different. Peppermint Butler is wearing the crown so he might be in charge now, which is supported by the kingdom's very magical-looking augmentations. It’s not clear whether Finn and Jake were expecting to find Princess Bubblegum or Peppermint Butler, since both have the initials “PB” and both could be going by the title of “Princess”. Perhaps Peps and Bubblegum share the princess duties now that PB is living with Marceline more of the time.

49. Peppermint Butler has a "Boss" mug, although it's not the same colour as the one from "Obsidian".

50. Jake's ghost has the same design as he did when BMO killed him in "Ghost Fly". I also absolutely love Finn's ghost. This scene establishes that ghosts are just visitors to the mortal plane from the dead worlds.

51. Life has only appeared in animated shorts before now. Namely, "The Gift That Reaps Giving" which establishes her relationship with Death, and "Frog Seasons: Winter". This episode gives her a concrete place within Adventure Time's pantheon: she is in charge of reincarnation.

52. A translation of Life’s angry French dialogue by Shado: “After all I did for that boy. After all I did for him. No, it's not possible. It's not possible no, that... that makes me so mad but it's not possible.”

53. We finally have in-universe confirmation that Shoko's tiger is a previous life of Jake. This was previously confirmed by one of the writers, but wasn't canon until now.

54. I feel like Finn pulled off Shoko's look even better than Shoko did. I wonder whether Finn has gained the memories of his past lives now that he’s dead.

55. No Easter egg here, just want to appreciate this image.

56. There is an elemental symbol on the wall here, as seen in "Jelly Beans Have Power".

57. Tiffany's dramatic internal monologue is a recurring gag, as is his habit of nearly dying from falling into holes.

58. The Jake suit makes a cameo in the fight against New Death. It was last seen in the episode "Reboot”.

59. Finn's backpack contains a few familiar items: the t-shirt with the pocket from "It Came from the Nightosphere", Finn's underwear from "Little Dude" and other episodes, and a copy of Mind Games as I've already mentioned.

60. The Lich's Hand is present in the background of Death's... death scene. This is probably the unseen "friend" who New Death keeps talking about.

61. The Lich's menacing monologues often begin with a single command. Previously they have included "Fall" and "Stop". This time, the command is "Burn".

62. Jake uses the word "boingloings", which is a callback all the way to "Hitman" in the third season.

63. Jake's blue shape-shifter form from "Abstract" appears very briefly during his fight with Finn.

64. Finn's lumpy space person form also makes an appearance. This design was last seen all the way back in the second episode of the entire show, "Trouble in Lumpy Space".

65. Jake steps on the Lich's hand in a very similar way to how he stepped on Ash in "Memory of a Memory", which is itself a Monty Python reference.

66. The credits include a dedication to a few AT cast and crew who have passed away. Polly Lou Livingston was the voice of Tree Trunks. Miguel Ferrer was the voice of Death. Michel Lyman and Maureen Mlynarczyk were both sheet timers on the original series. Rest in peace.

67. The message that Finn and Jake write out on the ouija board is "BUTT", which Peppermint Butler takes as a distress signal. This message is also used as a distress signal by the Hot Dog Knights in "The Limit".

68. Peppermint Butler's reversed dialogue from the scene where he makes contact with Finn and Jake is "Kee-Oth Rama Pancake", the spell from “Dad's Dungeon” for banishing demons.

69. That appears to be President Porpoise with all of Tree Trunks’ other lovers.

70. In this scene, Life is humming part of "Lonely Bones", the song which Death tried to record for her in her debut short "The Gift That Reaps Giving". It's hard to notice because it's so brief.

71. Finn and Jake's cover is blown while in the Land of the Dead because Jake loudly farts, which also happened in "Death in Bloom".

72. The place where Mr. Fox explains the perception mechanics of the afterlife is the exact same location as the River of Forgetfulness from "Death in Bloom", which, as it turns out, was imaginary.

These are sort of out of order at the end because I was adding stuff to the Twitter thread as it got discovered. That’s all for now!

#adventure time #together again #finn the human #jake the dog #lorepost

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pokelemony · 4 years ago

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Today is a good day

word count - 1083 words

Today is a good day.

And for once he wasn’t being sarcastic about it, it really was a great day! None of the ghosts were causing any trouble (well, except for minor ghosts like Ectopuses but those were no sweat), he did all his chores, finished all his homework, and he finally has the time to hang out with Sam and Tucker later!

He hummed a tune as he relaxed, floating in mid-air. Looking up at the sky, it was light blue in colour and free of clouds. The breeze brushed through his hair, giving a pleasant and comfortable feeling. If it weren’t for the wind it’d be sweltering hot today.

Danny stretched and popped his joints, yawning all the while. “Alright, that’s enough slacking off. Gotta get these Ectopuses right back to the ghost zone”

But just before he could fly off, the faint shouts of children could be heard. Are they calling him? "Oh no," he muttered to himself, preparing for any trouble as he dashed off to the source of the sound.

He was mentally prepared for anything. Skulker? Technus? Bring it on! It was becoming a bit too boring around here anyways.

What he didn’t expect was for a group of kids to be there, still yelling his name. Scratch that, he did expect civilians, who else would’ve shouted for his help? He just didn’t expect them to be, well, uninjured.

He checked each and every one of them to make sure they were all okay, then checked the surroundings for any signs of an attack or the remains of one. They all seem fine; some people were even walking their dog around the park and some were jogging. That’s weird, he could’ve sworn they were in danger.

He floated down slowly to the area where those kids were huddled around. Concerned, he wracked his brain for an explanation. Are they overshadowed? No, their eyes aren’t glowing red. Are they injured? No, he already checked them beforehand. Is one of their friends in danger? Oh Ancients, he hopes not. But then again, they don’t look worried too worried so maybe not.

Sighing, he shook his head. He was getting nowhere with this; he’ll just have to ask those kids himself.

Clearing his throat he landed soundlessly on the ground. The kids cheered, running closer to him. Rubbing the back of his neck and throwing a sheepish grin he looked down at the mass of grinning children, “Uh, hi there! What seems to be the problem?”

A few kids squealed and one of them walked up to him and gave him the biggest smile he’s ever seen. “There’s no problem at all Mister Phantom, we just wanted to see you up close!”

Danny blinked owlishly at them, before doubling over in laughter. So that’s what got him all worried? Maybe Jazz was right, he was paranoid. He should’ve known better; he trusts the people of Amity to not deliberately put themselves in more danger than necessary. Maybe.

His chuckles faded away, but his grin was still bright on his face. “Well, I’m here now! Is there anything you all wanted to do in particular?”

His smile widened at the excited gasps they let out before simultaneously erupting into what could be called a shouting competition. Yelling out their suggestions louder than the others as if that’ll convince the rest that their idea is obviously the superior one.

“Can we play hide and seek?”

“No, that’s lame! He should show us all his powers!”

“But I wanna play games with him!”

“I want him to carry me in the air!”

“He can’t carry all of us!”

“Well, he’ll just carry me then!”

He chuckled before mediating the situation, “Alright, settle down you guys. We can decide on something we all like, okay?” It was amusing seeing all the kids quiet down and listen to him so eagerly.

He hummed and got thinking, “Hmm, well what were you guys playing before I got here?”

The kids brightened as one of them enthusiastically shouted “Football!” right as 2 of them immediately ran off presumably to get the balls.

A few of the kids looked a bit annoyed, one crossed his arms and huffed. “How many times do we have to tell you this? It’s called soccer, not football!”

Danny raised an amused eyebrow at that, sounds like a reoccurring argument. He let out a hearty laugh, they’re just like Sam and Tucker.

The kid that yelled out beforehand crossed their arm as well. “Is not! It’s called football for a reason!”

“Well-!”

“Guys, we’re back with the balls!” indeed they were, effectively shutting up the kids. They all ran towards the field, argument far forgotten.

He smiled, walking after them. Grin widening as he got close enough to hear them get into another argument, this time about himself. Man, these kids are full of energy.

“Phantom should join us! We’re the better team!”

“No way! You already have Nicolas and he’s the best player, let us have Phantom!”

“Phantom deserves to be on the winning team!”

“No! We already have a handicap”

Danny awkwardly chuckled, rubbing his neck. He’s not too good at diffusing arguments, his tries with Sam and Tucker never ended well. He thought about a role that would be fair for both teams.

He cut them off in the middle of their argument, hesitantly putting his two cents. “I could be the referee?”

“NO!”

Well, they could all agree on that one.

In the end, it was decided that Danny would take a turn on each team so that everyone got a chance to play with him. They played well into the sunset, and they all were getting noticeably tired.

They decided to call it a day, despite the multiple protests of “I can keep playing!” and “I’m not tired at all!”. Congratulating everyone on their skills and high-fiving each other.

Danny’s team won every match of course.

He promised them that they could all play again sometime, and by the time everyone’s parents picked them up and said their goodbyes it was almost time for his hangout with Sam and Tucker.

He rushed over to Sam’s house where they’re going to have a movie marathon, feeling giddy from today’s events. He couldn’t wait to spend time with them.

And as he snuggled into his space-themed blanket, Sam and Tucker at his side bickering on which movie to watch, he can’t help but smile contently.

Yeah, today’s a good day.

Another work on "Danny deserves love" or "Danny being appreciated" >:] while the concept of him being bad with kids is funny i will take danny being good with kids to the grave with me

#danny phantom #danny fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #phic #ficlet #third fic babey #we need more fluff and love in this phandom smh #the people of amity park loves phantom and anyone who doesn't will meet my fist #or any of the phans fist #i should make a summary

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going-dead · 4 years ago

Text

Phic Phight:Ghostly Inconvenience

Words:1672

@currentlylurking Team Human My First 2021 phic phight phic

Prompt from @Slyph-feather :Would love to see Danny dealing with some of the minor inconveniences/differences in being a ghost; slower heartbeat, sickly pallor, maybe not showing up correctly in photographs, etc... bonus points if this is like in the school setting (because I think that would be funny)

Danny thought he had all his ghost problems figured out, or at least was aware of all of them, at this point. Afterall he’s had his powers for almost a year now. He was wrong, oh was he wrong.

It was the first day of his sophomore year, no longer at the bottom of the high school food chain. He stood in line to get his picture taken for his school ID. Sam and Tucker had different classes for first period so they were off getting their pictures somewhere else. After a few minutes of board waiting it was his turn. Paulina skipped past him to get her ID and look at the picture she just took.

Danny told the photographer his name and she entered a few things into her computer before gesturing for him to stand in front of the camera. Danny tried to make a few last second adjustments to his hair. “Okay smile!” The camera woman called out as he was blinded by a flash of light.

Danny started walking over to the ID station but was stopped. “Oh hold on dear the photo came out pretty blurry I’ll have to retake it. It’s no big deal don’t worry you probably just moved too quickly after the flash went off, stay still after the picture is taken okay?”

Danny sighed but did what he was told. After another blinding flash and staying as still as possible Danny looked towards the woman. The camera woman bit her thumb staring at the computer in front of her. “Okay it still was blurry stay there I’m going to take a few at once one of them will turn out good.”

Danny was pretty sure at this point he was going to go blind as he blunk the spots out of his vision from the repeated flashes. Honestly this was getting pretty tiresome already. He walked up to the woman silently praying at least one picture turned out fine. She clicked through the photos face growing more and more confused with each one. “Uh is something wrong?” He asked.

She shook her head. “I’m not sure. Almost all of the photos turned out blurry and the ones that didn’t are weird.” She saw his questioning face. “You’ve heard of red eye right? What happens when you take a picture and sometimes the eyes of the people in the picture show up red? Well I can’t say I’ve seen this version of it in all my years of photography.” She turned the computer to face him more. On the screen it was a photo of him. The area around him was blurred, the only thing in focus was him, almost too in focus, and what really shocked him was his eyes in the photo. His eyes were glowing green in the picture, almost like when you took a picture of a cat in the dark.

Danny felt like a deer in headlights, what were the chances that she would make the connection of him not being human? The woman just shrugged. “Well it looks like we won’t be able to get a proper photo today. You can use your school photo from last year for your ID for now until retakes in a week.” He let out a sigh, it wasn’t too bad though he didn’t really look much different from the year before. At most he grew two inches. Though it was weird that it happened. He wondered if it was because of his ghostly half. He didn’t exactly take many or really any photos of himself. Danny walked over to the ID station to explain his situation and hoped that this wasn’t how the rest of the day would go.

During second period it was time for the sophomores to get their health checks done. Though most students were pretty sure it was mostly just an excuse for the local college’s medical students to get some more patient contact hours and hands on practice. This time he did share a class with his friends which was nice. Though it wasn't like they could go into an exam booth together. Calling them booths was a bit of a stretch though really they were just four curtains with equipment to take vitals and a chair inside. There were about a dozen or so lined up in the gym.

“Daniel Fenton come to booth five please.” A man called stepping out of one of the booths as he pulled a pair of gloves on.

Danny walked over to said booth and pulled the curtain shut behind him. The man motioned for him to sit down in the chair. Danny obliged and sat down he bounced his leg as he watched the man prepare the equipment. “Alright good morning Danny. I’m Josh, I'll be doing your check up today. It’s just a simple overview of your health no need to be nervous. All I’ll be doing is taking your vitals and checking your reflexes and the sort. Any questions?”

Danny shook his head. He was nervous though, he couldn’t help it. He had tried his best to avoid any type of medical setting ever since the accident. It would be the first time since then that someone actually took a close look at him. But it would probably be fine right? Not like he would be giving a blood sample here or anything.

It went fine at first as the man -Josh- checked his reflexes, checked his ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. He then affixed a blood pressure cuff to Danny’s arm and stuck a temperature probe in his mouth. Once the results appeared on the machines screen his head tilted a bit. “You usually run a bit cold? Hm your pulse is a bit slower than average than normal too.”

Danny silently cursed. “Uh yeah that's normal for me.”

“Well as long as it’s within your baseline there’s nothing really to worry about. I’m going to listen to your heart and lungs now okay? The stethoscope is a bit cold so be prepared.” Josh warned. When he started to listen to Danny’s heart he seemed at a loss again. “Give me one second okay? I’ll be right back.” He stood up and walked out through the curtain. Well that probably wasn't a good sign.

Josh returned a minute later with an older man in tow. “Danny, this is Dr. Bears he’s just going to double check something for me.”

Danny nodded his head giving the doctor an awkward smile. The doctor pulled out a stethoscope of his own and placed it over Danny’s chest. He seemed to listen for a few seconds before moving onto a different region. He gave a small grunt before motioning Josh over. “It’s faint but he does have a heartbeat.”

“Well I know that. He’s clearly alive, he's going to have a heartbeat Doc.”

Danny laughed awkwardly as he continued to watch the two interact. “Try listening again. You’ll probably have issues with the mitral and tricuspid regions though, even I could barely hear it.” The doctor motioned towards Danny before walking out of the booth.

A few minutes later a bunch of other medical students filled into the tent to try to listen to his heart beat. Danny wasn’t sure how he felt about being a case study for a bunch of med students but as long as they didn’t figure out his secret he wouldn’t worry about it too much.

By the time the bell rang to signal the end of the period half the college students there had listened to Danny’s chest. After emerging from the booth he was met with confused looks from his friends he waved them off promising to explain it to them later.

By the pattern that was emerging Danny was dreading third period. It was english with Mr. Lancer. After everyone took their seats Mr. Lancer stood in front of the class and clapped his hands to bring the classes attention to him. “Alright class I hope you all enjoyed your summer break. I have exciting news for this school year. Due to the grant given to our school we now have laptops for you all to use during class.”

The class broke out in whispers and Danny started to have a bit of hope for the rest of the day. Once the laptop cart was wheeled in and each was assigned and passed out to each student they were instructed to make accounts for them. The moment Danny turned the laptop on it gave him a shock. He let out a yelp and barely managed to restrain himself from knocking the thing off of his desk. He shook his hand trying to dispel the pain. He gave the laptop a hesitant poke, no shock. He started on his task of making an account, but was quickly interrupted by the screen glitching out. Danny groaned, occasionally electronics would bug out around him if he was in a particularly sour mood, of course it had to happen today. He waited for the screen to return to normal before trying to continue.

He just managed to get the account created when it gave him another shock. He yelled in shock once more. Immediately after the lights flickered and all the laptops in the room shut off and the one in front of him started to smoke. The whole class was staring at him and he shrunk under their gaze. They all had bigger problems though as his laptop caught fire and set off the fire alarms.

“Great Gatsby! Everyone out of the building now!” Mr. Lancer yelled ushering the teens out and leading them to the parking lot.

Once Mr. Lancer made sure they were all accounted for Sam elbowed Danny in the ribs. “Nice going Danny.” Danny just put his head in his hands and groaned while Tucker pat him on the back. Why couldn’t he just have a normal life? Or just a normal day for once in his half life.

#Phic Phight #phic phight 21 #danny phantom #team human

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burning-clutch · 4 years ago

Text

Headstrong With Headstones

cross posted on a03: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30588233

-.-.-.-.-.-

Ghosts are always around to ruin Danny’s day. Nothing new there, but what came of it when the Red huntress tackled him and sent them both through the ghost catcher? Well, this was new...

Warnings: descriptions of death-like trama, injuries

Prompt by: EchoGhost

Valerie, as the Red Huntress, is chasing Phantom and they end up both accidentally flying through the Fenton Ghost Catcher together. This causes Danny to end up with the hunter suit and Valerie to end up with ghost powers. (Optional: When Val goes ghost she still looks exactly like Phantom.)

Whoo boy, this one was a ride! Fun to write though but boy! Did it get away from me! it’s a long one! Anyway, enjoy! Unbetaed.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

“I am really hating these things!” Phantom called out as he flew about the area blasting another giant ant looking.

He had no idea where these things came from or why but suddenly Amity was overrun with ant and bug ghosts that were just… everywhere. They were large, as far as bugs go, that is, ranging from the size of a house cat to a large dog, and each seemed to be either possessing citizens or stealing food to bring back for their queen.

Why they needed physical food, Danny wasn’t sure, but he also wasn’t about to let them stick around to let them accomplish their goal to find out. He looked over his shoulder as Sam and Tucker wrestled with a thirty something woman who was howling in rage tied up in a Fenton fishing line before they tossed her through the Ghost Catcher to separate out the ghost bug from the woman.

That done they blasted the ant ghost causing it to explode. “At least these things aren’t hard to destroy,” Tucker said, a disgusted look on his face. At least they had managed to get the catcher down here to the epicentre of the ant outbreak. Ant-break? Eh….

ng ghost. The ectoplasmic drone exploded into goo making Danny wince. “Ugh nasty... “ The halfa complained “At least we’re finally getting through them... “ Sam sighed in agreement. Though she would rather they catch the ghosts overblowing them up into goo she couldn’t deny the effectiveness. It was faster and more efficient to do rather than catch them in the thermoses and given they were only ecto constructs she couldn’t feel too bad about the whole thing. They just really needed to find the queen ant ghost sooner rather than later given that these things would never stop coming otherwise.

“Come on Tuck there's more down here! I just saw, like, eight go down the alley,” Sam said to her current partner in ghost busting. Tucker groaned but readied his lipstick blaster nonetheless and followed closely behind the dark haired girl.

Phantom watched them go before turning his attention back to the task at hand shooting through a random old man to pull out a ghost and explode that removed one as well as a larger one sneaking up on him all with the same large ecto blast.

A call of triumph was soon changed into a call of pain as Phantom was suddenly shot in the back. "I don't know how you're involved in this but I know you are, ghost!" Came an all too familiar and rather unwelcome voice from behind the halfa.

"Can we not right now Red?" Phantom complained. That shot between his shoulder blades had hurt! And he had really hoped that one of the ant ghosts had just been stronger than the others. Wishful thinking…

"Don't wanna hear your 'hero' spiel, ghost! Once I take care of you these bugs will be gone!" The Red Huntress spat back angrily.

"Me being here, and those bugs are not connected!" Phantom called back in exasperation just barely dodging a blast from the hunter.

"Stay still and let me end you ghost!"

"Tempting offer but, no. Gonna have to pass on that." Phantom called, aiming a shot and knocking the gun from Red's hands before trying to flee from her all the while still trying to round up the ghost bugs he came across.

It didn't exactly bode well with Valerie. The huntress dove after her gun, catching it before it smashed to the ground below, and tearing after the monochromatic ghost. “Get back here you ectoplasmic skum!” She yowled punching the gas so to speak, as she tried to gain headway against Phantom’s much more agile form.

“Oh! Good one! Haven’t heard that one every day of my afterlife! You need new insults!” He taunted blasting an ant ghost before slipping underground hoping to shake the huntress.

Red growled and brought up the information she’d need to track the menace in her visor eager to try and pinpoint where that jerk would be coming out. Thankfully her instruments didn’t fail her and she was able to see where he was, and got into position to head him off at the pass.

When Phantom did reemerge he did so invisibly not that it made a difference to the hunter, her visor showing where he was rather accurately. She fired, landing the hit on Phantom forcing him to drop his invisibility and jump back into the normal visible spectrum.

The ghost blinked at her stupidly a moment before asking, “New upgrades?”

“Yes, All the better to take revenge on you!”

“You’re still on about that?! You know I’m the ghost in this relationship, right? I’m supposed to be the one with the obsession?” He called only to let out a yelp and dodge down out of the way of the incoming missiles barely a second later.

“The only relationship we have is hunter and prey!” Red called out in rage making Phantom grimace.

The ghost turned to shoot any of the tracking missiles that were still coming at him before telling the girl, “You know you sound like Skulker right?! Like ew!”

“Shut up! You have no idea what this is like!”

“I was alive once ya know” Phantom argued back dodging another volley of shots and ducking down weaving under a billboard. “If anything you’re the one who doesn’t understand! Not to mention the anger issues!”

“I’ll show you anger issues!” Red quipped back yelping as her gun was shot out of her hand and exploded into bits from a follow up shot from Phantom. She was nearly out of ammo for that one anyway…

Still, she gave pursuit, even if she was ill prepared, given how fast she booked it out and after that stupid spectre when he appeared on her radar she was a little light, not that it mattered. Still, she hated to admit but she was well aware that if these bug things were Phantom’s he wouldn’t just be destroying them… it didn’t fit his MO.

Then again this was a ghost they were looking at as if they had any rational thought or feelings whatsoever! She could almost laugh at the thought. A ghost with actual feelings. HA! No matter though this time, this time she’d have him… he was weak after fighting all those other ghosts after all those minor literal bugs that needed to be squashed. She would take care of Phantom first then finish the mess he undoubtedly created.

Red let out a growl of frustration as her shots went wide, her anger causing her to miss, she knew it was that but she found herself seeing, well, red. She yelped at the burn her hand and arm sustained as Phantom blasted at her gun again, sort of missing his target and causing the weapon to explode in her hand. Of course, that only served to make her madder.

Well, desperate times call for desperate measures.

While Phantom was gloating about his shot or some other such thing, no that sorry was sarcastic! How could it be anything else from a ghost?! She shot forward at top speed, the motor in her board whirring and whining in dismay as she punished it for all it had, slamming into Phantom and more or less tackling him with her board.

He yelped in surprise and she activated the stinger prod on the end of the board giving the stupid ghost a good amount of electricity.

Phantom screeched something fierce, a horrid sound that she had never heard before and his eyes widened in fear. GOOD! He finally knew to fear her! She shocked him again still moving forward to keep him on the end of her board.

In her delirium of finally getting something in on that stupid ghost she wasn’t exactly looking where she was steering, and well, to say she was shocked when she had passed through the Ghost catcher would be an understatement.

Pain, that’s all her mind knew, and that’s all Phantom’s knew as well as the ghostly energies and anti-energies hit the semi permeable film of the catcher. Valerie screeched, her own pitch seeming to match Phantom’s as they passed through.

She hears herself grunt, but it didn’t come from her own throat.

She felt herself groaning, but it sounded much too deep…

"What?" She heard her voice ask. "I- o-oh wait… Valerie!?"

The Huntress in question opened her eyes and blinked a few times staring at her own visor, and it took her a few seconds to realize what exactly she was looking at. Frantically she stands up or at least tries to, given she floated upwards towards the sky. Her robotic suit is now replaced with a black and white skin tight suit.

Phantom on the other hand had instantly felt heavy and hot. But when he saw a semi red tinted version of his own glowing green eyes staring back at him, the sparking ghost catcher in the background…

Well, his first thought was he separated from himself... but he still felt like himself and thought as he normally would… but then... hearing Valerie's voice come out of his own throat?

"Well shit" Danny managed to say smartly

Valerie screamed realizing she was looking at herself, her body, still in her Huntress suit. She waved her arms as she yelled obscenities, joining in Phantom’s own frantic flailing as the ghost boy tried to calm her down.

" Phantom what did you do? How dare you take over my body! Why am I stuck in your gross floaty one?!” The huntress turned ghost screeched.

“You think I planned this? I don’t wanna be a girl! This is your fault you’re the one who threw us through the catcher! You should know by now that m- The Fenton’s inventions do some whack stuff!” Danny argued hauling himself up to his feet properly and flailing his arms in circles to keep balance. He was both not used to being (fully) human as well as having a different centre of gravity, not to mention the suit covering his new form.

This wasn’t like possession at all. With that, it was like wearing a tight suit. It wasn’t too terrible overall but at the same time you instinctively knew how to move within one, this was a whole new experience, like being given stilts and set onto a tightrope and told to cross the canyon, all with an additional fifty pounds strapped to you.

“I can’t even begin to tell you how mad I am at this!” Valerie said as she grabbed onto a crack in the concrete to keep herself from floating away before face planting into the gravel and grunting. Phantom couldn’t help but smirk behind the visor despite himself. “Are you? Because the way I see it you’re the ghost, your anger isn’t real, your feelings are just remnants of what you remember anger to be.” He shot her condescending look that was hidden behind the helmet, but oh! It felt good to throw that back at her.

“What!? No! That is not how this works, ghost!” Valerie screeched out, reaching a rather impressive octave with his vocal cords.

“Actually it completely is. I’m not possessing you, otherwise, my “body”-” He held up his fingers to do the air quotes here “-wouldn’t still be here, and it definitely wouldn’t do this when I overshadow someone.”

“Why you!”

“Hey chill all we gotta do is go back through the-” Danny’s voice dropped off into silence as he stared up at the ghost catcher with a deepening frown. The center where the ethereal ‘thread’ of the catcher was had broken leaving a fancy looking bubble ring at best and a really bad eye of Sauron at worst.

“Okay, New plan we get that fixed and then we can get this whole thing straightened around,'' Phantom said with a firm nod to himself after flailing his hands back and forth to himself and… himself… oh his head was going to hurt.

Valerie yelped as her feet started to sink through the concrete, causing Phantom to snort. “Not so easy is it?” He retorted smugly doing his best impression of a bitchy prep, now that he had the vocal cords for it. Though when he realized that the slow descent into the concrete wasn’t stopping making the asphalt look more like quicksand than anything, Danny rushed forward to grab the ghostly upper arm.

He was glad for once that this suit had anti phase capabilities. Valerie on the other hand had a gambit of emotions cross her face. Confusion and fear were being the most prominent as well as anger.

And how could she not! That ghost had her body, and while he had made the mention of her emotions not being ‘real’ she knew that it was because her brain and whatever her consciousness was made up of was over here in Phantom. He was still the same evil conniving ghost as always and she wasn’t sure how he had planned this, but she just knew that this was a plot of some kind to make her life even more of a hell for her.

Still, phasing through things she could do without. “You have to focus on staying solid as your body, er my body I guess, will naturally want to turn intangible. The same thing with flight, you have to will yourself to stay on the ground, your default is to float so if you want to stay in one spot you have to will yourself there…. It- It’s like have you ever had a lucid dream?”

Valerie blinked at the ghost, her? … at the words before they actually registered. Why would he bother trying to help her? Wouldn't it be easier to have her crippled under a new body and new powers and all the confusion that surrounds it?

“What?” She said after a moment of thought. He had to be tricking her somehow with this right? There’s no way… “As if I’d trust anything you have to say.”

“What?! Don’t be stupid that is my body! I spent long enough accidentally phasing through stuff that I learned how to will myself to work!” Phantom argued indignantly.

"Fine" she snapped out, relenting slightly, but only just. She figured that if, and that's an IF the size of a planet… if he really didn't somehow plan this She supposed it wouldn't hurt to try what he was saying. After all, if she didn't play nice, why knows what crimes he'll commit while inhabiting her body.

Valerie shuddered as a good number of thoughts entered her head about what Phantom could potentially do with her body. Make her look like a fool, ruin her reputation! … What could she do in Phantoms? How was this real? How did that… whatever of the Fentons make this happen? Thinking about this too much would undoubtedly make her head hurt.

Right focus, keep yourself solid. “It’s harder than it looks, you know. Like I said when I had that whole thing with Cujo I couldn’t control myself entirely and controlling him too, well….” Phantom piped up earning a glare from the huntress.

“Shut up!” Valerie roared earning a blast of sound from her jaws as she had the bar start of a ghostly wail.

Phantom squawked and covered his ears, thankful the helmet was still on given it blocked out a good amount of the sound. “Easy your emotions make you- my powers go haywire!”

“Valerie’s eyes widened as she stared at the small trail of destruction she had caused. It… it was that easy to flip over three cars and punch a hole in a building?! And phantom… Phantom held this kind of raw power? Well, now she did... This pure, unrestrained power that was so hard to control and if she focused she could feel it just below the surface in her chest, running outward and under her skin like an electric current, writhing through her veins like caterpillars.

She was disgusted by it… she was thrilled by it… she was genuinely afraid of it…

“Y-You can just…” She trailed off. She didn’t want to say what she had done, what she had just seen, or acknowledge what she was still seeing… that trail of rubble there, she didn’t want to talk about it… as about it, but she had to… and yet, she didn’t want it to be made real by her accepting it...

“Like I said it takes a while to learn control.” Phantom offered simply.

“Stay right where you are spook!” Jack Fenton’s voice was suddenly echoing down the street causing Danny to instinctively throw up his hands before giving an “Oh wait.” and looking to Val with a mix of emotions on his face.

“He’s talking to you” Phantom taunted knowingly. At least Jack was a bit of a ways off, though closing in fast… They had at least a minute for him to get into firing range.

“What no! You’re the ghost!”

“Not from where I’m standing.” Phantom shot back hotly, and he was right… technically… And Valerie really hated that he was right! “We gotta get you, me, US We gotta get outta here!” Phantom stammered out, grabbing the ghost’s arm before bolting down the nearest alleyway. Danny shoved Valerie in his body back deeper into the dark of the alley wincing as he realized she may need to transform. Then again… “How do I use your board?” Phantom half asked half yelled out at the huntress, grabbing her shoulders and forcing her to look into her own panicked eyes.

“Why should I tell you?!” She spat back indignantly. Thankfully, or rather unluckily depending on how you look at it, an ectoblast shot their way clipping an overhead fire escape and pinging off the metal. Phantom simply threw his arm up towards the scorch mark with a huff of his own. “You wanna feel what those are like?” He says eyes narrowing the visors glow seemed to enhance the effect.

“Ugh fine,” Though it was meant to sound like reluctant compliance, the hitch in the tone gave her worry away. “Just jump into the air and call it up like mentally.”

He huffed and jumped up, only to land back down a second later with a frown. Again he tried going higher in his jump and clicking his heels together, this time it spawned the board but he simply hovered there on it. “And to fly?” Phantom asked ducking out of pure instinct as another ecto shot flew their way.

“Like surfing, or skateboarding Lean the way you want to go, put the pressure on your front foot for up and back for down.” Came the semi-rushed answer. Phantom nodded, grabbed Valerie and shot up like a rocket. The ghost let out a yelp and ended up overcompensating, sending them into a barrel roll as they climbed up into the clouds. By the time he managed to regain control he felt like he was going to barf, but Valerie only looked mildly annoyed. “Electromagnetic boots?” He asked wobbling a bit as he tried to haul his counterpart onto the board.

“Yep,” Came the answer as Valerie settled on the edge of the board with a defeated sigh.

“Just so you know I’m still blaming you for this. The only reason I’m playing nice with you right now is because I know if I don’t you’ll mess up something in my body or my suit.” Valerie hissed after a moment’s silence.

“Right ‘cuz I was totally the one who tackled us through that catcher.” Came the bitter retort. “I wish just once you would listen to me! Those ants are not my fault!”

“Then why bother trying to do anything about it?! Ghosts only want to manipulate people and I know if you’re not responsible for this mess then you’re making hay in the sunshine and taking advantage so that you can force people to view you as a hero,” She spat out making a scrunched face that very much did not belong on Phantom’s features.

“What? No! If I could do that don’t you think I would have?”

“Maybe you’re just not strong enough yet, need more believers or something.”

“You saw what ‘power’ I actually have Valerie, hell you used some of it! And by accident!”

“Well,” She sputtered shifting uncomfortably unable to deny what she had seen, done… what she could still sort of make out from here.

“And what was with the electricity earlier? That is beyond cruel you know! Keeping that up as long as you did!” Phantom raged the cybernetics seeming to respond in kind, a small laser popping out of his shoulder which the former halfa growled at and physically pushed back down to get it to go away.

“You’re a ghost! You don’t feel pain in the same way humans do.” Valery shot back reciting the rote excuse he had heard far too often.

Phantom saw red, and not just because of the visor he was currently forced to wear. So he did the only thing that his brain could think of. He slapped himself in the face. “OW! What the hell Phant-?!”

“Oh shut up! The pain’s all in your head! It’s not real! You’re just imagining it! You’re simply an imprint of who you once were, you’re not a person anymore, and feelings aren’t real because you're not human!” Phantom ranted and raved. When he was done he found himself panting heavily the excursion much more mental but ANCIENTS did it feel good to finally do that and scream and not take out a city block.

“Do you remember your time as Valerie Grey?” he asked after a few moments of getting his breathing in check.

“W-What? Are you stupid of course I do!” Valerie responded instantly, creeped out that the ghost knew her full name and identity but given the display of raw anger she had just witnessed she smartly decided to not bother to hedge that issue just yet. “We only just had this mess happen…” She offered up not fully sure what more to say.

“So you can say you died at that moment, well congrats, you’re no longer the person you once were, you’re not Valerie any longer, you are an imprint of what that person was and your memories of being human mean nothing.” Phantom hissed out lowly. This time he wasn’t shouting, but his tone was the purest sour thing she had ever heard come out of any single person.

“Well, I’m you.” She stated dumbly. Even though she was looking at herself and it was sort of an uncanny valley sort of thing to be looking at she still saw Phantom, raw feral and angry… The fact that she was technically the more powerful of them right now didn’t even register.

“That doesn’t matter, you’re not me you’re a ghost. It doesn’t matter who you were before you’re a ghost now and that’s all they’ll ever see.” He was shaking in barely constrained anger now. Valerie at least had the wherewithal to know that if positions were reversed and she was feeling the fury that the other was putting out, she would have come at the subject of her ire guns blazing...

Valerie opened her mouth and closed it a few times realizing something. She could literally feel the rage and sadness flowing out of the ghost controlling her body. She wanted to believe it was simply that the ghost was in HER body that the emotions were prevalent, but they were far too strong to be imitations…

She knew why she could feel, could taste, the emotions coming out of the other, and how it seemed to give a small boost of energy. It was sort of like eating something really sugary, the small jolt she got with it wouldn’t last long and she knew it instinctively, but the fact it gave a boost at all… Ghosts couldn’t feed on other ghost’s emotions… it’s one of the reasons they attacked humans after all…

She wanted to retort to the spectre snap at him like she always would but she couldn’t find it in herself… she simply felt… deflated... And it wasn’t just because her arm had all but disappeared into a wisp of smoke either…

She swallowed thickly letting the stupid ghost arm do whatever it wanted (why did she have to control these body parts) and took in a deep sigh. “You said the shock was cruel… Why?” She wondered after a moment.

Phantom had somehow managed to figure out how to open and disappear the helmet while Valerie was staring down at her, his, gloved hands, so it was a shock to see the whirlwind of storm clouds behind her own eyes. Phantom was always expressive, but it seemed to hit her harder seeing it on her own face… it looked far too real, too convincing in her own dark eyes.

“Take off the glove, the right one.” He says simply, almost too softly for her to hear.

It confused her, she hadn’t thought a ghost’s clothing could be removed… but, she did. There was little she would have thought to have seen under the glove but this? This wasn’t anything she was prepared for.

The fingers on the hand were deathly pale, but with a green underlay that was especially noticeable in the fingernails. Not a surprise really there… but just before the third knuckles the back of the hand started to deepen looking almost like something you’d find on an eighty year old, or a bit of dried wood one would toss in a fire, before fading back out and becoming the tanned green colour at the wrist that Phantom sported on his face.

Litchendburg scars were obvious and prevalent along the back of the hand, worsening into an almost perfect circle on his palm, about the size of a quarter and indented just a little bit. Now that she was looking at it, it was like his hand was burned clean through on the palm…. And those lightning bolt shaped scars, well, she knew what that meant.

“Death marks,” Phantom says simply almost reading her mind as she stared at the palm. “It’s exactly what you think it was and the scars snake around my arm all the way to my chest…. Kinda figure the whole thing exploded my heart and that’s what actually killed me...”

“And… You remember it?” Valerie asked, eyes widening in realization. Somehow talking to the ghost boy like this with his words coming out of her mouth… it seemed to make this all the more validating to her like she was finally hearing him for the first time… She probably was, now that she’d thought about it…

“Yeah, I remember a lot of my life… not everything mind you but it’s like remembering a dream you had the morning after…” Phantom says softly. That much was true, despite his halfa status, everything from before he became a half ghost was kind of hazy at best and shrouded in a dream like fog at worst. There were some memories he had that if he didn’t see photo evidence for it, he would have chalked it up to a kind of lucid dream…

“Oh,” Valerie said. What could she say to that? “And the ghost powers..? They weren’t innate and instinctual like the Fenton’s say were they?”

“No, it has been a trial by fire since the first day I died…” Phantom responded solemnly

She felt like dirt, and she glared at her whispering body before scrunching up her face and willing herself solid. She couldn’t control what her body was doing, she had no idea how to work any of… this! How many times had Phantom told her it was an accident and she refused to believe him?!

It was only now was she seeing the ghost she had been actively and relentlessly hunting as simply a teen who got thrown in too deep too fast over his head and was trying to make the most of it. Though there was one thing she didn’t quite understand, and she had wondered about it since she had first laid eyes on the odd monochromatic ghost.

“Why do you attack other ghosts at all?” She asked simply giving into her wondering.

“Because I wanna protect the people I left behind…” He answered earnestly

Valerie thought about that, he had said it before sure, but somehow it felt different this time he’d said it. Maybe she was overthinking it now? Or this was the first time she had given it any thought at all?

She stared down at her, at Phantom’s ungloved hand with a frown. Maybe he wanted to protect people to save people because no one came to save him? Almost sounded like too noble a thought to be wasted on some dumb ghost…

She shook her head wanting to end that train and derail it before it even left the station. She knew damn well it was her own anger and brashness that got her into this whole freaky Friday thing, but she would never admit to it aloud...

“How do we fix this?” She asked after a few more beats of listening to the soft whirring of the hoverboard beneath her.

“The Fenton Catcher got us into this, the Fenton Catcher can get us out,” Danny said simply. “IT’s like I was saying earlier. The electricity you were hitting me with overloaded the catcher and made it go haywire but luckily there is a reverse side to the thing, we just gotta hope the Fentons either fix the one that got fried or we hope they have a spare.” Phantom replied candidly. With a hum, the ghost boy tapped a finger on his, her lip.

The action was so normal yet so bewildering to her as she watched herself perform it. It was clearly something unconscious he did, given the thousand yard stare he had going on there… Phantom makes her go crosseyed and she couldn’t help but snort.

Danny knew full well there was a duplicate, well, sort of, of The Catcher in the lab, but the problem was he didn’t know where exactly it was. Secondly, he needed to be sure if it was worth the risk to try and use the catcher 1.0 when it was the updated version that they had been messed up by... The one they also destroyed.

Well… today seemed to be a sharing and show and tell kind of day so, “Valerie, there's an inside pocket on that suit, the zipper is under the collar since you probably can’t phase through yourself with any sort of control… Um, in that pocket there's a cell phone. Can you grab it and hand it to me?”

“You have a cell phone?” She asked her, his, nose crinkling up giving a look that clearly thought he was a stalker or something.

“Yes, a friend got it for me…. And before you say anything... Yes, I have friends, NO they are not evil… mostly, and the cellphone is paid for by them.” Phantom preemptively rattled off holding out his hand expectantly.

Valerie grunted in acknowledgement before fumbling about under the collar of the suit and finding the zipper. “What kind of ghost needs a zipper?”

“Don’t judge, I didn’t get to choose what I died in, you know.” Phantom huffed out impatiently.

Valerie blinked and grimaced, sort of feeling bad about the complaint now, though it was instantly rectified by Phantom’s next comment. “Hey lighten up, just gotta laugh at my grave sense of humour.”

“I will smack you… ugh, I can’t believe I’m undressing a ghost… Here’s your damn phone.” Valerie grumbled pointedly averting her eyes away from the ghost’s bare chest, acting as though she didn’t want to see anything she shouldn’t, in reality, she just didn’t want to see any more scarring and see it as though they were on her body. As it was she’ll be surprised enough if she doesn’t have nightmares.

She was already imagining herself being in Phantom’s spot, burning as you’re being electrocuted. Feeling your heart sputter and stop before being reborn as a ghost confused and lost still remembering everything and knowing you’ve died? She shuddered, and could only hope she would never become a ghost. Having that loom over you every time you saw your reflection didn’t sound like fun at all...

Phantom takes his phone, a flip phone that thankfully, was only ever used for his Phantom needs, and only contained three contacts, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker. Sam paid the bill for him and was a good fail safe if his parents ever punished his human half by taking away his electronics or if he ever had to leave in a hurry he had a secured line that shouldn’t be tied to him really in any way.

And right now it would work to make sure Valerie doesn’t see a phone was the same as Fenton’s. He flipped open the device, the clamshell was indestructible (mostly) and cheap! By Sam’s standards anyhow, fifty bucks may be nothing to her on her allowance but Danny would have to save up a month to get there. HE shook his head from his musings to focus on the task at hand, sending out a message to the group text asking his friends to either convince his parents to fix the ghost catcher or to retrieve the 1.0 version and set it up somewhere for him to try and fix a problem. He left it vague, apart from telling them he wasn’t exactly himself at the moment, which prompted an instant slew of worried texts from the three people in the chat chain but, well, he could deal with that later, he wrangled the ’ghostkateers’ back in and set them on their way. He just had to hope that he could get through this with his alternative identity intact.

“What was all that about?” Valerie asked suspiciously.

Ah, there it was… “I have contact with the Fenton kids… They help me get some of their parents stuff when I need it…. Didn’t you wonder why that Fenton Ghost Catcher was even in the middle of town in the first place?” Phantom said with a raised brow.

Valerie blinked in thought. She honestly hadn’t put that much thought into it. The Fenton adults had said that Phantom stole their stuff all the time and she’d simply left it at that. Why would she have wasted brain power on it? Though the more she thought about it the more she frowned.

Phantom was a ghost so just how had he been stealing things from the ghost hunters when they clearly had made and marketed things that stop and keep out ghosts? Phantom needed someone who could actually grab the stuff he needed, to get through the shields… someone(s) who were on the inside, and given how Danny would sometimes meekly defend Phantom, or how Jazz would sometimes ‘trip up’ her parents when they were going after Phantom, well…

Yeah, she really was blinded by her own rage and prejudices… Star was right on that, she supposed… too pinpointed on the small things that were pissing her off the most to focus on the bigger picture going on around her…

She shook her head before burying it in her hands. Ugh, stupid ghost making her question herself.

Phantom sighed and handed the phone back to her instructing her to tuck it away again. Curious she flipped it open and stared at the passcode ask that popped up. She didn’t even think flip phones had passcodes but whatever. She tried to make it look like she was playing with the phone flipping it and closing it, rather than actually trying to snoop… though the scoff from Phantom told her the ruse was pointless. She sighed and put the phone back where she found it.

Phantom had started grumbling about something under his breath earning a look of confusion from Valerie, though it didn’t take long for her to see what it was he was upset about, as he was trying to get the board to go. Valerie knew she should probably help him but at the same time, she was all too content to simply sit here and sulk.

It was a scream from somewhere below that snapped her from her spiralling thoughts of self depreciation. She instantly noticed two things; firstly how low her glow had become around her arms when she found a particular interest in the stitching in the gloves Phantom wore… and secondly, the scream was almost like a beacon to her, calling her out of her thoughts and making her want to go.

She felt anxious and antsy all of a sudden like she had to go somewhere, but couldn't. Like when one has to pee really bad but it's during a test, that split if need to go need to stay...she didn't know how to get Phantom's flight to work for her, but she wanted to figure out what the screaming was about…

Her legs jostle and bounce as she tries to quell the nervous energy she feels building. Why was she suddenly feeling this way? She steals a glance at Phantom, snorting when she sees him trying to unstick himself from the board but another scream for help pulls her attention back to the ground below.

She could taste the frustration from Phantom and given his growls towards the board he was standing on it was obvious where that was from, but it sort of irked her that he had no urgency about him. Couldn't he hear the screams why weren't they helping!? She had to help! She knew she could so she should! She HAD to even if she didn't know how to help she HAD to… she was compelled to.

"What are you doing? There are people who need help!" She spat feeling her agitation and anxiety rise. Phantom looked to her dumbly before looking down to the ground and noticing the chaos. “Huh…” He said simply eyes lazily roaming the crowd.

“What do you mean ‘huh?’ This is serious!” Valerie didn’t know why but she felt so much like a caged cat right now wanting to get at some prey that was just beyond her reach. She was almost positive that if she could she would be pacing back and forth on that board.

Phantom watched her twitching, her glow brightening and dimming and her anxiousness that made her look like she was getting ready to jump off this board, damned be the consequences, and he slowly felt a smirk form on his face much to the agitation of the huntress currently in his body. “It’s interesting, I mean… I’m watching this and well, I’m doing what you’re doing… it’s almost a relief” He chuckled dryly. “Jeez, guess I’m really not as much of a hero as I thought I was…” He says almost sadly before running a hand through his, her, hair.

“Phantom now is not the time to be cryptic! There are people down there who need …. Help…” Her anger suddenly ebbed away as she realized just what Phantom was getting at. How many times had the ghost told her that he just wanted to help? He always had a desperate insanity to his voice when he was tied down by her or some other ghost and he frantically would do anything he could to get out there to HELP.

“That’s your obsession, isn’t it... “ She clutched at Phantom’s jumpsuit over the ache in her chest where she could feel the ghostly core vibrating violently demanding retribution. It physically hurt, made her want to throw up and she knew the only thing to stop that feeling was to help.

Perhaps that’s why he was always involved, it was exactly the reason he said it was... He literally had no choice but to help when he saw something he could do… Was that why he was often seen helping out with inane tasks? Carrying things for people rescuing people… hell even rescuing a balloon from a tree for a little kid… He was literally trapped in an endless cycle.

Perhaps her earlier ideas of Phantom wanting to help because he didn’t get help when he needed it most wasn’t so far off. But feeling this now, in his body… it was awful to think that if she had gotten herself killed while chasing Phantom or some other ghost, she would be trapped in a similar cycle, but be even less noble… not to say Phantom was noble but that her ‘quest’ was rather unnoble.

“Yeah… guess it is…” Phantom answered sourly as he stared down at the chaos. He wanted to be a hero, he thought he was, he was helping people, saving people, after all right? Though thinking about this revelation…? It seemed to sour the point of him being a hero. If he wasn’t making the choice to help and to save people but being forced to do it… Was he really a hero?

His shoulders slumped as he watched the ghosts attack below. Even still now, he could make the choice right? He may not have his usual repertoire of powers he was used to but Red still had her suit, the suit he was currently occupying.

And looking to the huntress in his body he couldn't help but smirk. At least she would finally be more focused on saving people than shooting him. "Like a skateboard ya said right?" He asked, suddenly earning a bewildered look from the huntress.

She caught on quickly though, the small smirk appeared on her lips though it looked more conniving on Danny's face. "Yeah, and you think about the guns you want to will them out of the cybernetics." She added.

"For Ectoblasts, do you feel that cold spot in your chest, my chest?" At her nod, he continues. "Force that out and down your arm, gather it in your palm and let it go." He explained eyes narrowing.

Valerie caught on and nodded. "I'll take the left side you take right?" She asked eagerly, wanting to help the people below, not caring that she would be working with Phantom to get it done.

He was making a choice this time. Even if it wasn't him who would be hailed as the hero, given his current attire and whatnot but he wasn't being forced to make this decision. That had to count for something right?

He grunted as he fumbled around his head trying to put the helmet back up over his head. It takes him a few moments but he was able to get it eventually. He gives a nod and after a few experimental wiggles, he manages to get the hoverboard to sputter forward. He manages to move a little smoother by the time he gets closer to the ground willing out a blaster, he was hoping for something with a little more oomph but well, a wrist blaster worked too he supposed. He sees an ant ghost and fires, following up with more and more taking care of all in his sightlines. He gives a small "sorry!" As he almost knocks someone over but otherwise he seemed to be getting somewhere.

Valerie on the other hand had stood up into a sort of half crouch and was frantically waving her arm around trying to build the power in her blast hoping she could manage at least one shot. With a growl, she manages to get her hand to glow a bit green, which was progress, but not enough to create an effective attack. She shook her hand again, smacking her wrist a bit as though it were a buggy flashlight, before she was able to send out something a little more decent.

“Heh got ya!” She called out grinning at her mitt of ectoplasm, She may have only burned a hole through a street sign but hey, she got a hit on something so she was still going to count it as a win. “Over here!” Danny perked up hearing Jazz call pointing to the ghost catcher 1.0. Suppose it was better than nothing. He hoped it would do to only have themselves go through the catcher again and not have to recreate the whole process because, ow. The ghost turned huntress pitched a bit sharply earning a growling reprimand from Valerie, though it was quickly rectified by him blasting an ant ghost that was getting ready to jump at them.

It let out a horrid caterwauling noise, something that made their ears ring from the sound, “Ugh that’s worse than your screaming.” Phantom commented wincing a bit behind the visor, sighing in relief when the noise went silent.

“Ugh, really?” Valerie shot back though she could just make out the playful smirk that was showing on his face. Valerie opened her mouth to retort only to yelp as they pitched a hard right turn and went skyward. She didn’t need to ask why as the large queen ant ghost emerged from the ground.

The thing was as tall as a small building and as long as a transport truck. And the thing let out a wail that sounded like a mix of a lion and a hog squealing. “Well… That’s bigger than I thought it would be... “ Phantom said with a frown. “I don’t know if I can beat this thing in your body… We gotta get to that catcher!” He called.

The ant queen let out another roar and sent a bit of... Acidic goo... Vomit... stuff towards them. Valerie didn’t want to think too hard on it. Honestly, it looked like ecto snot but came out of what she hoped was the and queens mouth… “Ugh nasty.” She complained watching as the wad of snot sailed over them and into a building, melting it a bit.

“Yeah, let’s not get hit by that…” Phantom agreed, watching the brick melt away. “I need shields and you need to get your guns back.” He said scanning the ground around the queen to search for where the Catcher had landed.

“There!” Valerie seemed to catch on to what he was looking for and pointed it out spotting it first. At least they were in agreement on the fact they needed to swap back sooner rather than later.

Phantom leaned forward urging the board on towards the catcher hoping they would manage it in one swoop. Alas, it was not to be as the queen jumped into the air up at them, let out a roar before massive wings sprouted from her back smacking Danny and Valerie off the board, the electromagnetic functions in the huntresses suit doing nothing against the force of that hit.

They plummet downwards and Phantom tries to call out to the board but it doesn’t come for him. “Valerie fly!” He tries desperately, staring down to the fastly approaching ground. “Will yourself to fly!”

Valerie gasped out herself grunting as Danny flailed her body about before managing to cling to her. “I’m trying!” She shoots back angrily. She lets out a whine and closes her eyes in concentration before the glow around the ghostly body flares and they level out and tip upwards, earning a whoop of delight from Phantom.

“Head for the Catcher!” Phantom tells her.

“Again I’m trying you ectoplasmic pice of-”

Whatever she was going to say was cut off as they, by some miracle, had managed to head straight through the catcher. The pairs’ screams mix together and they end up on a heap on the other side with Jazz blinking down at them. “Did it work?” The ginger teen asked.

“Ow... Jazz?” Danny grumbled out. He raised a hand to his head to rub at his forehead and gave a pained whooped when he was able to see the glowing glove at the end of his limb. He offers a half hearted smile up to his sister before glaring at the queen who was being distracted by Sam and Tucker from wherever they had found cover in the nearby broken buildings.

“I got better at aiming I guess?” Jazz offered to give a hand to help up her half ghost brother. “I moved the Catcher to um, Catch you. I’m glad you didn’t smash into the metal siding, that would have hurt…”

“Thanks, Jazz I owe ya one,” Phantom says with a nod. “Get anyone who’s not protected out of here!” And with that Phantom flew off to attack the Queen ant.

Valerie was quick to pick herself back up and tar off after Phantom. “This is a temporary truce I hope you know!” She calls as she catches her board and flies off after the ghost, though even as she said it lacked her usual vitreal.

Thankfully once they were back in their own skin they made short work of the queen ant ghost, and even managed to not cause too much more property damage.

As Danny caps the thermos, he side eyes the Red huntress next to him in the air and offers the teen a hesitant hand. “I’m not gonna ask you to forgive me again but… maybe hesitant colleagues?”

Red eyed the ghost before her, his hesitant but hopeful smile that didn’t quite hide the worry and fear behind his eyes struck her more than anything. She used to think he was simply good at mimicking emotions but now… having felt them being him, herself? Well… she supposed the saying is true that you really can’t understand someone until you walk a mile in their shoes. His emotions felt real, on both sides she could taste the ones he was putting through her body, She felt pain when she was slapped by him… And she was finally able to see him as just another teen that was in over his head…. Dog ruining her life or not, though looking back on it now she had to admit it was something she was thankful for in a way.

She would see Paulina and her A list brainless wonders and know she used to be one of them. Caring too much about the wrong things and ruled by money in a way… Now? She knew she had to work to get anywhere, people liked her for her, not just her status and well… She had a purpose she could be proud of now.

“Yeah, Colleagues sounds like a good start… But step even a toe outta line and I will smear your ectoplasmic innards all over town.” Valerie threatened though she was teasing Phantom still grimaced as she grasped his hand. “Eh, I think I’ll take that…” he replied somewhat nervously.

“Good. Also… Maybe since you have one, I should give you my cell number… Case you ever need more than just some inventions as a backup.”

Phantom visibly brightened at that his glow got brighter and he grinned. “Yeah, that’d be perfect actually! Maybe we can trade off patrol routes and stuff too? Give each other a night off once in a while? I know you work so… ya know…?”

Valerie snorted but she appreciated the gesture nonetheless. She looks around before pulling a random piece of paper from off of the ground and using some piece of charcoal from who knows what that exploded she managed to scribble down her number.

Phantom bit his tongue as he almost told her he had her number already, or that if he needed it he could easily get it with Tucker’s help but that wouldn’t do him any good now. He made it this far without blowing his secret, he wasn’t about to blow it on something stupid like this!

Though it did make him wonder why Valerie hadn’t changed back to Fanton at all accidentally. He sure as hell did constantly when he first started out, it was a nightmare and resulted in far more detentions than he would have liked… Well, maybe she just didn’t think it was a possibility? He didn’t want to think too hard on that right now honestly, it brought with it too many questions.

He took the paper from the huntress when she offered it and nodded to her in thanks. “See ya around ghost brat.” She said, almost endearingly before speeding off, no doubt to sleep.

Phantom watches her go a moment before heading off on his own way back towards where his friends were waiting for him. Oh they had angry looks didn’t they, fun…

He had a hell of an experience to tell, and some things he wanted to get advice on… he hated being the embodiment of an existential crisis all the time, but hey, at least it was interesting right?

He just hoped Val keeps her new attitude. He’d rather work with her than have to dodge her blasts all the time after all…. And a few nights off here and there sounded wonderful.

Only time will tell, he supposed.

-.-.-.-.-.-.- Complete

Total word count: 8875

#phic phight 2021 #Danny Phantom #danny fenton #valerie #red huntress #Switcheroo #Team Ghost

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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New X-Men Xtrospective Part 2: Germ Free Generation (Annual, #117-120)

Hello all you happy mutants! And welcome back to my look one of my faviorite runs of one of my faviorite super teams by one of my faviorite comic book writers!

For those of you just joining us.. it’s been a while. I did the first instalment of this retrospective back in early January as a present to my friend for christmas, as he had never read E is for Extinctoin and what with this run being vital to the current, utterly brilliant Krakoa era of X-Men. But with both Black History Month and Valentine’s day, February had no real room for this one and march ended up being just as crammed with me doing essentially the entire della arc of ducktales in one month. I didn’t mean for this retrospective to get pushed so far back, but since I gave up doing weekly coverage of Final Space I had some room on the schedule so this retrospective is back with a vengance with two entries this month and hopefully at least one a month afterword to keep it at a decent clip.

Last time I covered the background of this run and didn’t really find much for the issues after, so I won’t have to spend as much time on background.

So since i’ts been a few months, a refresher is probably in order

PREVIOUSLY, ON X-MEN: Our merry mutants enterted a marvelous new era. As Charles redidciated to the dream with new equipment and a new uniforms our hero encounter a new villian: The Mysterious Cassandra Nova, a powerful telepath who used an uwitting patsy from the trask family and a defucnt sentinel factory to slaughter the mutant nation of Genosha, killing 16 million mutants in the most horrific act of genocide against mutants ever known. And the fact there has been more than one genocide against mutant kind MIGHT, just MIGHT be the reason they blackmailed for peace with life saving drugs instead of helping willingly and freely in the current comics. Just maybe.

Cassandra was captured by the X-Men soon after but escaped and nearly got a hold of Cerebra only to be stopped thanks to a combination of former enemy, genoshan resident at the time of the genocide, and that bitch Emma Frost who snapped her neck and Charles himself who uncharacteristically shot Cassandra in the head. That night Charles took a bold step over that would change the X-Men forever and told the world on live tv:

While all of this was going on we got caught up on the team’s personal struggles, currently consisting of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast and Wolverine with Emma joining as of the issue we’re about to cover. Beast is grappling with a secondary mutation that makes him look like Aslan, the jesus of narnia and all lions. Meanwhile Scott and Jean are grappling with their non existant sex life as Cyclops possesion by Apocalypse shortly before this story has severely rattled him and caused him to close himself off emotionally.

So that’s where we pick up. Our heroes are now no longer hiden saftely in the shadows from a world that hates and fear them but are out front and center with the world watching. And we’ll see both how that helps their cause and how it puts them directly in the cross hairs under the cut. Content Warning: This review discusses Transphobia and a scene involving a school shooting. If either of these are a trigger for you or something you do not want to read about please skip this part of the retrospective for your own well being. Thank you and have a lovely day.

The Man From Room X:

We have three stories today: an annual that introduces our final team member and the main villians of our next arc, a one off that moves the main plot for the first 12 issues along, and a three part arc about said villains. Before we get into the Annual, I have to talk about it’s weird gimmick: The issue is entirely sideways. I don’t mean it’s bad though some parts are problematic I mean when bought it’d be on it’s side and in my trade I have to flip the whole thing over on it’s side to read it. It’s just a .. weird choice. Not the weirdest thing about this issue somehow but not unexpected from Grant as they like to play with the formula.

We open in said Room X, a location in China where a mutant named Xorn is kept and showed off to a mysterious group of dickweeds in suits representing “Mr. Sublime”. His jailer, General Aao Jun,, shows him off as most bad guys would : By undoing his helmet and thus disntegrating two innocent children just by looking at them. Sublime says they have a deal.

Meanwhile also in China the X-Men are there for a funeral and Emma and Scott trade insulting questions back in forth: She mocks him about his lack of sex with Jean lately and he brings up her criminal past. As for why Emma’s still with the x-men.. it’s out of pragmatisim. WIth Genosha gone, the x-men are the saftest faction to throw in with.

As for why the X-Men are in China, Charles has rapidly expanded his operations now he’s public by setting up X-Corps, a multinational humantarian aid organization dedicated to helping mutants in need wherever they sprout up. He’s set up offices in Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Mumbai and Melborne.

He’s also half assed it, at least for the Hong Kong office and only gave them two employees: Domino, who those of you not as familiar with the comics may remember from deadpool and Risque.. who I honestly had never heard of before New X-Men and frequently forget existed. I just looked her up for the first time and she’s a minor mutant who was an associate of X-Force and Warpath’s love intrest. She could compress matter causing it to implode. My assumption here is that Morrison simply picked a minor mutant at random for the job.

But yeah naturally with only two mutants charged with, according to domino “All of asia” went horribly and the x-men are there for Risque’s funeral and to find out what happened. Unsuprisingly it’s tied into our cold open: Risque had found evidence of a mutant trafficking operation and died fighting them off and Dom is naturally f eeling in over her head since said operation involves the chinese goverment, who according to her exccute most mutants at birth and John Sublime and his cult.

We soon see a press confrence from this asshole and find out what his deal is: Sublime is the head of the U-Men, a group that belivies they are a “third species” of mutants trapped in human bodies that deserve to have the surgery to make them into mutants, and thus wear weird suits until the world is pure and allows them to have surgery for it.

Yeahhhh this.. this is really fucking uncomfortable and is going to be present throughout today’s piece so let’s just go ahead and rip that band-aid off: The U-Men come off as HIGHLY transphobic. They use terms similar to trans people call themselves trans species and are trapped inside a body they don’t belong in. It’s VERY uncomfortable to read as a result and something that hadn’t really sunk into till thsi reading but once it had.. oh god does this not age well.

The one thing that keeps this from runing the run and Grant Morrison as a whole for me.. is that I do not think for one second it was intentional. Grant themself is genderqueer, nonbinary and a cross dresser. None of this means they CAN’T be prejudice, being Queer does not magically make you immune to being prejudiced. But before this Grant had the genderqueer sentient street Danny the Street over in doom patrol and a trans main character in his book the invisibles, Lord Fanny. And given New X-Men’s biggest flaw as a whole is clumsy early 2000′s unforutnate implications such as a good chunk of the things about Cyclops affair with Emma, we’ll get to that at the right time, Angel in the next arc and Dust, who was introduced as from afganastan wearing an outfit not seen in the country and speaking a language not spoken in the country. Grant didn’t make these mistakes TWICE, it’s why I still have respect for them, and this won’t be the first or last comic i’ve forgiven for being stupid for it’s time. But I will still call Grant out when I see it. Just because I respect an author just because they changed my life does not mean I won’t call them out when they fuck up. And if they prove to be truly vile, have harmed someone or what have you I will cut them the fuck out of my life. I’ve done it with JK Rowling, Warren Ellis, Brad Jones and Joss Whedon. I would do it with Grant if I truly belivied they were transphobic and instead didn’t just write something very stupid without thinking the metaphor through 20 years ago.

So anyway back to the comic book bollocks as Wolvie and Dominio prepare for an infiltration and flirt a bunch. We also find out Jun is a mutant himself with a power only Grant could dream up: his skin, hair and what have you that falls off him turns into a naked golem for a bit before expiring. And if you hadn’t read this issue before reading this review, yes that actually happened. While the first arc had a BIT of Grant’s trademark batshit insanity, the series REALLY starts to pick it up from here: This issue has a mutant with functioning star for a head, a poorly thought out bucnh of sci fi new age organ theives, and a general whose power is “makes naked clones out of his dandruff”. Oh and his fondest wish?

I just... I don’t know how to respond to that. I don’t know how you respond to an old man’s weird murder fetish that he tells a somehow even creepier cult leader while said cult leader is paying him to buy a star man, and their both surronded by the creepy old guy’s skin golems that weirdly look like mudokons. Look i’ve read Grant’s entire utterly bonkers run on doom patrol. I’ve seen a man who looks like a question mark use a bicycle that makes everyone high like their on LSD for president. And THIS is what breaks me.

So while.. THIS is going on, Dom and Wolverine plan to do it all night long on the professor’s credit card, no really he gives all his professors carte blanch to use school fun, and inflitrate, Dom through the elvator this horrorshow just took place in and Wolvie james bond style. Also I gotta say I REALLY love how Morrison writes Domino. She’s wittiy, entertaining and her power is as awesome as always, super luck if you didn’t know. It’s a real shame he didn’t add her to the team: She wasn’t on any other x-teams, with X-Force having been rebranded into X-Statix by this point. She would’ve been a fun addition to the cast.

Naturally wolverine is found out.. but that was the entire plan, for him to serve as a distraction then cut his way to domino while she steals something from the vault. As for the rest of the X-Men, Cyclops, Beast and Emma are all downstairs in the parking garage and find a secret entrance. Jean is not on this trip and that’s a major plot point for this run. This is where Risque died.. and it only get’s worse when Hank goes inside, finding a bug like child, basically htink a giant caterpillar but with tons of human arms inttead of legs with her wings cut off.

Thankfully as Logan and Dom escape above, the U-Men are dumb enough to storm down bellow.. and while they incapacitate beast with some launched tiny knives, designed to incapcicate but leave them in tact for harvest, Emma beats the shit out of them and get the info out as only she can....

Granted she could’ve just turned back to normal and used her telepathy.. but what fun would that be? Plus they have blockers and you know CUT UP A FUCKING CHILD. SO yeah fuck them, let emma have her fun.

Thanks to her they find out the U-Men are a front for illegal organ harvest, and while they can’t prove sublimes attached Emma suggests killing him. Good idea but Scott suggests the lighter approach and we find out what Dom stole, a key, something Emma can psychcially scan. She warns it might take her a bit to get something.. only to be flooded instantly and we find out who the man in the box was. Shen Xorn... i’ll let emma tell you more herself.

It’s stuff like this why, despite some serious flaws like the U-Men debacle and some stuff to come, some I mentioned above other that’s just with the plot that i love this run. Morrison just gets how to really tell an x-men story and the real tragedy of being a mutant. That just for being diffrent, you get shut out, or in this case thrown into a box when you could’ve and should’ve been something more. As emma turns herself to diamond to deal with the psychic backlash, Beast has some solemn words to share.

That night Scott rests in his bedroom while presumibly hearing some truly horrific and sexy things next door while talking to jean before clocking out.. only for Emma to head in in a sexy dress with champagne. What happened? Well we won’t know for sure for most of the run.

The next day the U-Men prepare to load and we get some scrap of what the idea was supposed to be: John talks to Ao Jun about his procedures. We see wings crudely sewen to his back and his throat implaants hurting “But one day I will fly”. THe IDEA is their supposed to be lunatics, people who envy mutantkind but don’t actually respect their culture or their sense of personhood. It’s not the worst idea and had Grant not used trans termnology for htis, it would’ve been a great one. I think he INTENDED for them to be coopting the idea of being trans and what not to maks their true intentions.. which is problematic due to debates like the ones on bathrooms where a lot of transphobic asshats make the bad faith argument a bunch of people are going to pretend to be trans to assault people.

We’re.. we;’re not even to the main storyarc yet.

But things soon go wrong as Xorn’s starhead starts to collapse into a black hole, with no solution as the x-men took the key to his helmet.. and assault the compound. Turns out the star collapse thing is Jun’s revenge on humanity for lockig him down here and he gets his neck snapped. Scott has a solution though.. and it’s stuff like this why I fucking love Scott Summers and get annoyed when people call him “boring”: He realizes Xorn is comitting sucicide.. so he’s going to talk him out of it. Not just for everyone else but he deserves to live. And while Emma points out only logan among htem knows chinese and she can’t get through to Xorns’ head due to the way his brain works, Scott has a simple workaround: Use the nearest chineses speaker to teach Scott chinese. So.. with that he talks to Xorn.

And that my friend is Scott Summers. A man who faced with powerful man whose given up, whose lost all hope... convinces him he can still go on. That living’s better than dying.. and that it does get better. The issue closes with Xorn basking in the sunlight for the first time in decades while Domino sweats having an extremley powerful unknown mutant out in the world. Scott’s already thought of that.. and signed him up with the x-men. Granted it won’t be until our next article that he actually fully joins the team, but w’ell get to that next time.

This issue is great... while the U-Men stuff is pretty bad and isn’t going to get better, the tale of xorn is excitiong, Aao Jun is an intresting antagonist and the sideways gimmick suprisingly works. So now we’ve finshed our apitizer let’s get on to the main course.

Danger Rooms:

We open in well.. the Danger Room with Beast training a new student.

This is Beak. Beak is my faviorite character Morrison came up with and one of my faviorite X-Characters. Beak is a bird like boy who can fly, it’s just a struggle and due to looking diffrent and not having the most impressive power has very low self esteem. It’s also part of something Morrison took a concerted effort to do: introduce more mutants with genuinely odd apperances and drawbacks. Like we saw with Ugly John last time and Aao Jun in the previous issue, Morriosn really likes adding weird mutants but he also uses it to give a genuine downside to being one. While this isn’t NEW to x-men, Morriosn upped the scale and number of characters like this with weird powers and apperances. We see a bunch of human passing ones too but the backgrounds just jammed with all sorts of unique designs and students. It’s also the point where the school became far more crowded like the movies, a good call on my part both to help those coming in from the movies, and to help sell the mutant baby boom going on. After all it wouldn’t make sense if the school was just about 5-7 students and a bunch of grown adults doing superhero stuff like usual would it.

But we get to see that Hank is a good teacher, as he reminds the boy that he’s getting better and won’t be an x-man overnight, and worries about him to the professor, wanting the boy not to slip through the cracks, figuratively, and not to feel like an outcast.. especaily here. But Hank dosen’t feel blue for long, metaphorically he was blue long before he became the lion minus the witch and the wardrobe, as he has a date to night.. and so does Charles.

Or rather he did.. his girlfriend trish, a long time love intrest of his and a reporter.. breaks up with him. Over voice mail. While in washington. And the reasons she gives are not great

Yes Hank’s transformation is radical.. but not only was it not his choice... she’s being a coward, sending the message it’s okay to dump someone because hteir a mutant or because they happen tobe diffrent and that efffects your career. Again it’s moments like this that make the run soar over the more awkward bits.

Meanwhile Logan’s off doing logan stuff, i.e. gazing at a deer. Wow. Jean followed him. Both notice a space ship: Despite recently outing himself as a mutant, leading to an increased number of students and a bunch of rioting morons at the gates, Charles has decided NOW’S a good time to take a vacation to the Shiar empire. As for why Jean’s really out here, her marriage to Scott isn’t doing so good and while Logan encourages her to stay it’s just not that simple: Her telekenisis is coming back, stronger than ever. She feels the most alive she’s been while he’s shutting her out and feeling his deadest. She tries to turn to logan for comfort but he shuts her down. Just wait two decades jean... he’ll open up to a threesome. In all seriousness though having Jean try and come onto Logan .. will backfire slightly on later storylines. But we’ll get to that eventually.

In the basement Hank is studying Cassandra or rather a virtual version of her since her body is naturally in storage. And he’s found out something disturbing: She’s Charles Genetic Twin.. oh and it gets way worse. The Professor’s weird behavior? Barely staffing the hong kong office, leaving suddenly with rioters t the gates, outing himself? About that...

Cassandra tourtures Hank with the possiblity he’s devovling and then tries to mind controlli him into cleaning himself with his diploma when Beak enters. The good news is this allows hank to shake off her control and tackle her, showing off why hank mccoy is fucking awesome in the process.

That is the Hank McCoy I know, love.. and miss dearly. The one we’ll probably never get back sadly after what others did and what Percy’s had to do to reconclie with all they did.

Unfortunately beak being around means cassandra can force him to beat beast into a coma with his bat. She plans to tear Charles dream down around him and make him watch.. and cryptically says he tried to kill her. She then cheerfully leaves Jean in charge.. and talks about just how much damage one could do with an entire interstellar empire in the wrong hands....

This issue is also excellent and sets up the next two arcs nicely while giving us a nice peak in hank’s head. Great stuff. The artist also hid the word sex in a lot of the images see if you can find them.

Germ Free Generation Issue 1:

So now we get into our main story for today. This story and the one before it were drawn by Ethan Van Sciver whose a talented artist.. but also highly contrversial for being a conservative. I myself.. don’t know what he’s said or did, though calling himself “Canceld Superstar’ on twitter really isn’t a good sign. So I really can’t comment on it but I also know someone would mention it if I didn’t bring it up and if you know what he did please enlighten me.

So we open with a school shooter who also scooped out a guys eyes and is part of the U-Men. He get shot by the swat team while making his speech> it’s an effective opening but one that’s become more uncomfortable to read with each passing day due to school shootings going up and up in number. And mass shootings in general and I... I need a second. I need something to relax me

Thank you Stoopy. Your doing Odd’s Work.

So the news reports on this and we soon see how Jean watches the news.. by using Cerebra to read the minds of every person on the planet. Neat. Everyone’s talking about them. We also get a hint for later as we hear on the suicide of one martha johanson who wrote the note in her own blood. She’ll be important later.... and I mean that both in the context of this retrospective and for the fact she’ll go on to be part of x-men in perpetuity.

This is also where another great concept of Morrison’s pops up: Mutant culture. After all mutants are a minority, they should have their own culture. It’s something Hickman’s era has taken and ran with, but it’s a damn good idea and one that it shoudln’t of taken almost 20 years for someone else to use given Decimation was undone way back around 2012 in Avengers Vs X-Men, aka that event half hte articles on the mcu around the fox sale used as either their image for the article or asked about happneing. And yes that is a pet peeve of mine: while I do think like Civil War AVX could use a movie version to make it better, I don’t think it’s an event that could be done right away and would have to be almost entirely redone anyway given the context for AvX is entirely couched in decimation i.e. something NO ONE wants in any x-adaptation.

So it turns out while watching the news in a next level way Jean is also talking to Logan. “Stay out of my personal fantasies”. Yeah I .. I don’t think your ready for a hairy canadian dry humping a transformer.. specifically killbison. And yes.. that is an actual transformer and why yes, I have been waiting to bring him up.

And he is , and I am not making any of this up, part of a group of decpticons known as the breastforce. Your life is better for knowing that and you are welcome.

Anyway as you’d imagine a genocidal old woman in her brothers’ body leaving the X-Men to fend for themselves after having a teenager bludgeon one into a coma after publicly outing them with a rabid bunch of bigoted morons at the gates has not gone great. Henry is still out and despite the short staffing Jean needs logan to stay where he is as he’s close to an emerging mutant and within range to go get her.

Emma of course has never been so fucking irate in her whole life and is plotting various forms of psychic tourture with the help of her proteges the Stepford Cucokoo, 5 teenage mutants who functoin best as a unit and are easily some of MOrrison’s most prominent additions to the x-cast. Unlike a lot of the x-kids, they’ve been featured prominently in every era of x-men after this including the current one.

Jean decides for a less “Make them hate us even more” approach, but no less pissed off, opening the gates and going out directly to chew out the assembled bigoted morons, pointing out the ones carrying “Mutants Go Home!” signs are especailly dumb as this IS her home. And while she dosen’t point this part out, it’ the same for all of them: most of the mutants are either adults who choose to live here, teenagers who along with their parents choose to live here, or in the majority teens who have no where else to go due to either being abandoned by their families or it being way to dangerous for said families for them to stay due to bigoted assholes like the ones holding mutants go home signs.

A member of the press asks if she’s willing to talk to the media and she refutes most of his bullshit allegations: He asks if their building an army, she and Scott respond they are not and are simply educating mutants and protecting them. When he counters with the fact their living weapons and wearing uniforms... she counters with the fact she’s wearing them to protect herself, rightfully, from people like her, and the x-men are an aid orginzation going where needed to protect the world and while asshole points out no one apointed them.. jean shuts him down by pointing out there are no mutants in goverment and a genocide just happened, so someone has to do the job. Another random asshole tries to pipe up with “Genosha declared war on us” and Emma senses this is just going to go round and round and round and simply presses the assembled mob’s “bliss buttons” in their brains to knock them out. Non violent but honestly warranted: A dangerous part of bigoted assholes is they’l bring up racist bullshit to try and couch it like an actual conversation. None of these complaints really hold water if you looked at the x-men’s history for more than 5 minutes. Yes Charles is training them to fight and yes hte ingial class was an army but every class since has only been trained for self defense: they still got into adventures and what not, but it was usually by their own choice or because they were thrust into them by circumstance. Xaviers is exactly what jean said and endudgling these morons, while good on paper, only makes them seem legit.

Jean retreats to the infirmary where she’s on the verge of breaking down from the sheer weight of everything. Cyclops proves that despite not being the best husband right now... he still loves his wife, offering to go look into Sublime with Emma and hoping Hank wakes up. Turns out his mind for now is a big blank room.

So she can’t get any info off his skull, and neither of the two think what happened with Beak adds up. Something is up here. Their also coming down with colds which will be important later. And just as important.. Magneto is becoming a symbol among people and merch sales with his image are on the rise. We then get this.

So Jean is trying to be a supportive, honest wife, and while the questions incredibly insulting.. his answer is equally so. Spoilers, as mentioned we do get an answer long after this.. and they did not. So Jean is wrong to be suspcious, at this point, but is at least trying to be polite about it and gave him the benifit of the doubt.. and Scott basically said he slept with her without actually saying it despite not having to. You could’ve said “no we did not have sex, we simply talked all night”. It’s not ENTIRELY better given the horrible state of their relationship right now, but it’s still better than HEAVILY implying he rocked her body to the break of dawn for no damn reason.

So we meet our next major addition to the cast Angel Salvador, an abused teen who is a mutant.. and whose abusive and molesting step dad beats her and throws her out over this. The scene’s a bit overdone, coming off like an after school special.. but it’s what happens AFTER that’s truly heartwrenching.

A poor scared teenager clutching herself, finding herself homeless alone and desperatly wishing she wasn’t what she was. It’s just a striking image and shows how well Grant uses the mutant metaphor. I could easily see myself in that position had my parents not been good peopl and had I come out far sooner as bi. The idea of desperatly hoping your not what you are simply becaus eof what hell it brings, despite all the joy it can bring too. . it’s heartbreaking to hear.

Naturally though things don’t get much better as the next morning the U-Men have found her, calling her a freak and successfully kidnapping her.. if only because while she uses acid spit to escape, she flies into a power line.

We then get Sublimes meeting with Emma and Scott and a BETTER use of teh u-men as while Grant made the horrible mistake of calling them “transpecies”, seriously what the fuck were you thinking, the way sublime frames it here is a MUCH better, much less accidently bigoted concept.

The idea isn’t bad: A group of humans jealous of the mutants powers, blatantly ignoring the horrible downsides and mountain of persecution that comes with being one. Grant just made the mistake of couching in in Trans metaphors, clearly trying to have the U-Men steal from Trans People too as a way to make themselves seem legit. And I say if you want superpowers.. fine.. wanting to be a superhero or a mutant is fine, the issue with the U-Men is their copoting a culture, trying to be part of mutantkind without having any of the drawbacks and by actively butchering them. It’s why the concept HAS shown up elsewhere; it’s not TERRIBLE, Grant just made a bad creative choice that’s only gotten worse as Transphobia has ramped up further and further.

Sublime denies it when our heroes bring up Hong Kong.. but naturally he’s simply just keeping them talking long enough to bring out his trump cards, an army of u-men and a brain in a jar he uses to incapacitate them.. and announces his plan to use the school as an organ farm for his third species.

Meanwhile Logan finds the U-Men in their truck preparing to rip angel apart.. and given he snikit’s soon after.. i’ts very clear whose REALLY about to get ripped apart.

Germ Free Generation Part 2:

Part two begins wth Sublime monologoging about how Mutantkind are just cattle to them and reveals the brain is martha’s, her sucicide having been faked and her brain currently being controlled to use as a weapon.

So while Johnny monlogues we find out what happened with Wolverine last issue he didn’t cut up the guys yet as they fired their little flichete guns at him... it was about as useful and effective as you’d expect and the massacre you were expecting occurs. Though in a nice bit of reality the fact wolverine’s soaked in blood and just killed a bunch of blood shockingly does not make the already frighttend teen feel he’s safe and she spits acid on him. Logan pours some stuff on the acid, figuring rightly a black ops murder farmacy would have something to counteract it and tells her she’s safe now .. and tells the guy behind him not to try it. He’s stupid and does anyway and likely gets a claw to the head off panel.

They go to a diner to eat and find a local asshole who threatens them with a shot gun to leave once angel uses her power to digest and goes on a rant about how he snapped his own son’s neck to prevent him being born a freak. Just.. fucking hell this arc is not good for my depression. We get some more angst from Angel and whiel her dialouge is not the best, i’ts a too bit mark millar flavored edgelordy for my taste and if I wanted that i’d go read Ultimates or Ultimate X-Me, her pain is real and Logan helps her through it.

Back at the Mansion the U-Men are on their way to strike, whlie Jean unaware continues to buckle under the weight of all the shit she’s had to deal with, feeling SOMETHING is making them weak with the colds and something worse is going on and thus tries going to Beak’s mind instead and gently helps talk him through it, showing her grace and empathy.. and in return finding out Charles was the one responsible. The alarms flair up and Jean tries calling the police now that’s an option.. but it goes exactly how you’d expect.

Also a second artist took over for this issue and the next Igor Kordey. He’s fine, but not nearly as good as Quitely or Van Sciver and it shows. Meanwhile Beast awakens and heads for the body drawer with Cassandra’s body, and professor’s mind in it.

However Jean’s finally had enough and got her second wind. She’s outgunned, outmanned and left to her own devices. And she’s fucking fed up with it. She steels herself and assembles the students. This is obviously a last resort.. but some of them can defend themselves and their going to need to. But today they won’t be learning.. they’ll be teaching and as the U-Men call them defensless Jeans simply asks “Are you sure about that?”

Germ Free Generation Part 3:

So we come to the finale of this arc. Angel is once again an ungreatful brat to logan and he opts to just leave her there if sh’es going to be like that pointing out being a mutant sucks, it’s going to keep sucking.. and she needs to deal with it instead of lashing out at him and herself over it.

We get back to the U-Men, one of whom is utterly flabergasted they want to him to cut of Cyclops head... only for Emma to awaken.. and take back her regular form meaning she has her telepathy back. The only reason they were able to get her ealier is she was in diamond mode which is stronger but lacks that, a nice way to check and ballance her new powers. She quickly takes them out and disables Martha.

Back at the school we get one of Jean’s definting moments for me and a true chance to show how badass she can be. Before this while Morrison wrote her well, and his version’s still my favoirite, she didn’t really get to do much and was motly in the background. This arc has been her time in the limelight, having trouble grappling with all the stress of running this place by herself.. and emerging from it stronger, more capable and ready to kick some racist weirdo ass. She tries a few diffrent tactics first, having a mutant with a voice power project it to make them think their san invisible army and having the cuckoos fuck with their heads but when both fail, Jean REALLY gets to show off. Thier blade ammo gets turned into a cool looking 3 dimensioinal shape with her telekneisis, and in a cool moment and a wise use of something gross makes the only one of them with useable powers throw up, before issuing a badass boast, wreathed in flames all while she crumples their guns into uselessness. and tears open their suits.

Bad ass.. and logan and Angel arrive just in time for the cecendo as hte u-men flee in terror

The Phoenix has been Reborn. Jean Grey has risen from the ashes and returned to full power.

Meanwhile Sublime is pankcing.. and it gets worse when Emma shows up, fully enraged after all of this and has some words for him.

Iconic. Emma prepares to drop him out of a building but Scott rightly tries to get her to back off, pointing out the pr nightmare it’d create and the fact that they have enough evidence ot shut him down. Martha however has other ideas and gets him to let go of his own accord, falling to his death.. but given he’d aranged a stunt for the press apparently this gives our heroes deniability and Martha her revenge.

So we end this three parter as Jean revels in her new power, and Beast returns with an announcment:

Final Thoughts for Germ Free Generation: This arc is pretty good if forgetable. The struggle of Jean to run the school herself and her rising from the ashes of her own pain at the end with the power of the phoenix at the end is fantastic, finally both giving her a chance to shine.. and a worrying sign for her friends given what her phoenix force copy whose memories she has a copy of, long story, did is awesome. The other parts are okay and ehhhhhhhhh though. Scott and Emma’s investigation into the u-men while having a really good climax, is pretty standard x-men stuff, and Wolverin’es trek with angel is just okay with Angel being highly intolerable during this arc, with Morrison trying a bit TOO hard to make her a “realistic” teen instead coming off as horribly unplesant. She’s supposed to just be lashing out but comes off obnxious as a result. That said this arc does furhter a lot of Morrisons best idea and introduce more, and is a great setup for our next arc, which we’ll get to in two weeks. Soooo

Next Time On X-Men: We find out just what the hell Cassandra Nova is, what her plans are, and what happened with her and charles as our heroes come down with a cold as the might of the shiar empire bears down on them. It’s IMperial in two weeks.

Next Time ON This BLog: Speaking of long Delayed Projects, I finally return to The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck as a young Scrooge starts his prospecting career, learning the ins and outs from a rich new mentor, and finding the price tag striking it rich comes with. Raid a copper hill with me tommorow.

If you liked this review, subscirbe for more, join my patreon, and if there’s a comic you’d like me to cover suggest it in the comments or outright comission a review from me via ask. See you at the next rainbow

#new x-men #grant morrison #cassandra nova #shen xorn #beast #hank mccoy #jean grey #cyclops #scott summers #wolverine #logan howlett #angel salvadore #beak #barnell bohsk #the stepford cuckoos #the u-men #john sublime #marthan johanson #ethan van sciver

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paulo-pup · 4 years ago

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Task 5: Family

Describe your character’s biological family. Do they know their family? Were they raised by them?

Paulo is the middle child of Valentino (Val) and Isabella Martinez. He has an older brother, Valentino Jr (Tino) and a younger brother, Rafael. Tino and his wife, Hannah, have quintuplet teenagers--Valentina, Gabe, Angel, Maya, and Carlos. Paulo has an infant son, Paulo Jr, often affectionately called PJ. It is a large family, only made larger with many aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents still living in the Dominican Republic. Unfortunately, Paulo has never physically met any of them, though the power of video chatting has allowed him to finally get introduced. Largely, he’s only ever known his immediate family. He was raised by both of his parents, who are extremely loving and supportive of all of their children.

What was your character’s relationship like with their parents? Their siblings?

Paulo has a great relationship with his parents. They supported him completely growing up, often going to PTA meetings to fight anyone who had a problem, such as Paulo playing on the boys teams. When Paulo came out as trans, they were a little confused at first but open to learning. It didn’t take long for them to become Pride Parents, going to every pride event that followed. Individually, he is close to both of them but in different ways.

Looking at father and son, you’d be surprised to learn they were even related. While Paulo is extroverted and talkative, his father is quiet and thoughtful. In that regard, one might think they don’t get along but it is quite the opposite. Growing up, Val was Paulo’s safe space whenever he needed to get away or something was too overwhelming. He always gave him the ability to relax, unwind, and never pressured him to talk about what he was going through. Sometimes, they would just spend hours fixing up an old car and not even saying a word. Whenever he needs a moment to think, he always knows he can go to his Dad.

Meanwhile, it is very obvious that Paulo is the son of Isabella. She is where he inherited his joyfulness and zest for life. Get the two of them in a room together and it will be a non-stop whirlwind of barely intelligible Spanglish. Growing up, Isabella was always the one that Paulo went to if he needed advice. They would butt heads sometimes, as Paulo was a “tomboy” and his mother wished that he would’ve been more feminine, having no other daughters. She was the one who expressed the most disappointment at losing her “only girl”. But after some education and heartfelt exchanges, she came around completely and is now a proud mother of three wonderful sons.

There is a ten year age difference between Tino and Paulo, and a four year age difference between Paulo and Rafael. This uniquely shaped both of their relationships. In Paulo’s eyes, Tino was the perfect man. He was who he wanted to be when he grew up. In that regard, he was always following him around and bothering him, which a teenage Tino absolutely despised. Paulo was the definition of an annoying little brother and Tino wanted nothing to do with him for a long time. It wasn’t until he got to college and started growing up a little that he came to understand that Paulo only wanted his love, and so he gave it more freely. He was there for Paulo throughout all of his transition and encouraged him to do the things he loved, such as taking a history minor. In their adulthood, Tino has been Paulo’s rock, helping him every step of the way, especially now that he’s a father. Honestly, Paulo has no idea where he would be without his brother.

Out of all the children, Rafael is most like his father, introverted and shy. In that regard, Paulo was the one dragging Rafael around everywhere, helping him make friends and come out of his shell. Being closer in age, the two were more likely to have brotherly fights and sometimes had to be broken up. In the end, Paulo would always apologize (as he was usually the one who started it) and they’d make up in a jiffy. In their adulthood, they maintain a nice relationship. Rafael has accepted himself as a less outspoken being than his family members and is fine if he only sees and talks to them once or twice a week. Paulo loves to keep up with his life and catch up the few times they do get to talk.

Found family can be just as important, if not more important than a biological family. Describe your character’s found family, and what their found family means to them.

One might think that because Paulo has a large, close-knit, healthy biological family, that he would not need a found family. Not so! Paulo cherishes many people in his life and considers those who he loves his family.

First, there is the friend group that has been with him since the beginning. Michael, Donald, Godfrey, Minnie, Daisy, and Clara--these were the people he grew up with and know everything about him. He would do absolutely anything for any of them and although sometimes they are apart, their relationships never diminish. Michael especially is his closest friend, closer to him than his brothers and his lovers, with an intensity that he doesn’t fully understand yet.

Ollie is another who recently joined their found family. They have been a lifesaver in helping take care of PJ, and he genuinely loves having them around. More than that, though, he can tell how desperately they want a family and he wants to be able to provide that. He is always inviting them over to family events and has accidentally introduced them as his cousin several times.

Overall, how did the idea of family affect your character.

Family is everything to Paulo. It has been such a necessity in his life and is largely the reason he seems so well-adjusted compared to many other Redwood Hollow residents. Paulo feels genuine hurt for those who don’t have a family and will offer his own for those willing to be open to it. He thinks its so important for everyone to have a system of love and support and thus tries to provide that wherever he can.

Thinking about the future, do they want to make a family of their own? What would that look like to them?

Well, he already has his own family. He has PJ. And he would be perfectly fine if it was just him and PJ for the rest of his life. But secretly, he does wish he had a romantic partner. Specifically, he wishes that PJ’s biological father, Finn, would come back and help raise his son. At the current moment, he does not want to have anymore kids but if he was in a committed, lifelong relationship, he would definitely consider having more.

Family Template (in order of appearance, left -> right, top -> bottom)

Valentino Martinez (FC: Danny Pino) - Val was born in the Dominican Republic into a small, but loving family. He met the love of his life, Isabella, when he helped her with her broken car on the side of the road. It wasn’t long before the two were married. They stayed in the Dominican Republic long enough for Isabella to finish her studies before she got a job opportunity in the United States. They packed up their things and took the first flight to a small town called Redwood Hollow.

Val was always the more introverted of the two, only compounded by the fact that he was not very confident in his English. He got a job at the local auto shop and spent his life working there, in between raising his family as the couple began to have children. He is extremely devoted to his family, as he often feels isolated as an immigrant and doesn’t have many friends. He’s tried to teach his sons everything he knows, which according to himself, isn’t a lot. Very recently, he’s retired from his mechanic job and now spends his time with his two favorite hobbies: anime and guitar.

Isabella Martinez (FC: Karen Olivo) - Isabella was born in the Dominican Republic into a very large and boisterous family. She always had a hard time standing out and would thus overcompensate in order to get attention. She met the love of her life, Val, when he helped fix her broken car on the side of the road. She married him in between her university studies of history, where her professor used some connections in the States to get her a job offer. They packed up their things and took the first flight to a small town called Redwood Hollow.

Isabella was always the more extroverted of the two, going out of her way to talk to people and make friends. She got a job at as an administrative clerk at the Hill Family Factory, where she got close to many of the other workers. She was constantly inviting people over, throwing parties, and showing off her lovely children to anyone who would listen. Her fiery personality is a double edged sword, as she is quick to anger and very stubborn. You would want to be on her good side but you really would not want to be on her bad side. She is the matriarch of the Martinez clan and makes sure that everyone stays close, no matter where their lives take them. Every Sunday she hosts a family dinner, though it is open to anyone. One day, she dreams of retiring from her job and opening a doggie grooming boutique. There has never been a point in her life where she hasn’t had a dog, though she prefers smaller breeds.

Valentino Martinez Jr (FC: Carlos Penagava) - Tino is a born and bred Redwood Hollow citizen. He grew up thinking he was cooler than everyone else and spent far too much time trying to prove it. He felt he needed to get out of the Redwood Hollow dump and live in the big city. He went to college in Chicago, where his small town bubble burst and he started to see just how hard people’s lives could really be. He switched majors and joined his college’s medical school, where he trained to be a nurse. It was while he was in college that he met his future wife, Hannah Cooper. After they got married and graduated, the two decided they wanted to have a family and it was Tino who suggested they move back to Redwood Hollow to do so.

They got a little more than they bargained for. Expecting to have one child, maybe two, they instead found themselves with quintuplets. It was a good thing they returned to Redwood Hollow, as they needed the help of the full Martinez family to raise these kids. Tino used this time to reconnect with his family and was truly grateful for their help. Now that his kids are teenagers, he’s a little less frazzled trying to juggle his family and career. Still, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Rafael Martinez (FC: Carlos Valdes) - Rafael is a born and bred Redwood Hollow citizen. He grew up mostly keeping to himself, too shy to make more than a handful of friends. He was a bookworm through and through, and often could be found in the corner of his mother’s social gatherings, ignoring everyone else.

The people that he most connected to were children. He is naturally good with kids and they bring out a different side of him that not a lot of people get to see. This was a huge help when it came to watching his nieces and nephews. He went to college to get his bachelor’s in education and has gone back to get his master’s for teaching. He knows he could get a job without it but he wants to be the absolute best teacher he can be in order to help every child (also a bigger salary doesn’t hurt). Especially with the quintuplets growing up, he really only sees his family for Sunday dinners and he’s fine with that. The love never diminishes from any side.

Hannah Martinez-Cooper (FC: Yael Grobglas) - Hannah was born in Chicago, though moved around most of her life due to her parent’s work. Once it was time to go off on her own, she decided to revisit her roots and found a place in the windy city, where she went to beauty school. She met Tino, and the rest was history. At first, she was resistant to moving to her husband’s hometown, but she agreed it would be better to raise a child there than in the city. What she wasn’t expecting was five children at once. In the end, she was very glad to have her husband’s family there to help.

Hannah is, for lack of a better word, basic. She works as a hairdresser at the local salon and asks you how your kids are doing. She is the type of person who has wooden “Live, Laugh, Love” and “Bless this Mess” signs all over her house. She has a wine glass with “Wine O’ Clock” etched into it which she drinks out of every night. She shares minion memes on Facebook. Despite all of this, the Martinez family has claimed her as one of their own and love her very much.

Valentina Martinez (FC: Isabela Merced) - Valentina is the first born of the Martinez quintuplets. She works hard to be the perfect child--getting good grades, volunteering, extracurricular activities, and a goal of becoming valedictorian. Much like her father before her, she thinks she needs to get out of Redwood Hollow and make a name for herself. Doing what? Everything, of course.

Gabriel Martinez (FC: Brandon Arreaga) - Gabe is the second born of the Martinez quintuplets. He is the class clown of the siblings and has used it to his advantage, becoming a TikTok star. He’s always posting comedy videos and prank videos, especially of his other siblings. At any given time you can find him looking at his phone.

Angel Martinez (FC: Ariela Barer) - Angel is the third born of the Martinez quintuplets. In the last year, they came out as non-binary, empowered by their uncle Paulo. They are the president of the Redwood Hollow GSA and will take any opportunity to school you on issues of social justice. They are Extremely Online and spend their free time writing My Hero Academia fanfiction.

Maya Martinez (FC: Emily Tosta) - Maya is the fourth born of the Martinez quintuplets. Following in her Uncle Paulo’s footsteps, she is a hardcore jock. She has tried every sport under the sun, though her favorites are hockey, lacrosse, and field hockey. Unlike Paulo, she is fine to play on the girl’s teams, as she really likes girls.

Carlos Martinez (FC: Ricky Garcia) - Carlos is the fifth born of the Martinez quintuplets. As the youngest, Carlos has a hard time trying to stand out, especially with the eccentric personalities of his siblings. He tends to fade in the background, which makes excellent angst and muse for his budding music career. He’s taking guitar lessons from his grandfather.

Paulo Martinez Jr - PJ is the son of Paulo Martinez and Finn Fischer. As a one year old, he doesn’t have much history but he is developing quite the personality. He’s a bright and curious kid, always looking to explore and put anything he can in his mouth. While he can get fussy easily, he’s just as easy to calm down with a quick distraction. He’s very sociable, open to be held by anyone, but watch out because he will pull your hair. His favorite toy is a little dog plushie and his favorite game to play is “I throw my toy and you give it back to me”. He has yet to say his first word but he will certainly babble your ear off. He is the crown jewel of the Martinez family and is beloved by all. This will surely not lead to a big head with age.

#happiestplacetask #happiestplacetask5 #headcanon #no trigger warnings because the martinez family is wholesome lmao

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ladylynse · 4 years ago

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Part 9 [FF | AO3] of Whirlwind: Jake should be used to ominous predictions by now. Randy should know better than to blindly follow McFist. Adrien should think twice before sneaking away. And Danny should’ve expected something like this when he got that phone call.

Previous | Timeline Post

-|-

7:29 PM

This Rotwood fellow wasn’t like Viceroy. McFist figured out that much from the walk back to the gala. Much of the crowd had dispersed now—he and Marci hadn’t been the only ones to seek out sustenance—and the emergency vehicles were gone, barring the EMTs who’d been stationed at the event anyway. Still, he could see one or two reporters hanging around, doing a few interviews with those left behind, and there were plenty of curiosity seekers hoping for a glimpse of the dragon display.

McFist was really getting the impression that Rotwood was one of those people, especially when he not-so-subtly brought up the dragon.

But that was fine.

It gave McFist the perfect opportunity to bring up this town’s Ninja. They’d apparently missed the first sighting—Marci’s window shopping had turned into very real purchases that she’d insisted on dropping off in their hotel room—and McFist had kept his eyes peeled ever since. This Ninja’s abilities and mannerisms were so like the one back in Norrisville, he wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this one was a descendent of the Norisu Nine.

Viceroy hadn’t turned anything up on that front, though, and McFist would rather he put more time towards building that dragon WND anyway.

“The dragon wheeled off in that direction,” McFist said with a vague gesture towards a pair of tall buildings a few blocks over, “and the area was thoroughly searched. Not by me, of course. Marci and I stayed around here to see if we could spot the Ninja coming back.”

Rotwood paused, and McFist stopped and turned to face him. “Ninja?”

“A Ninja fought off the dragon.”

“A Ninja,” Rotwood repeated. “Not another dragon?”

Another dragon would’ve been something to see, but McFist was more interested in the fact that Rotwood sounded disappointed that it hadn’t been another dragon. “You think there’s another dragon?” he asked instead.

Rotwood sniffed. “Dragons are real. What you saw here tonight— It was a real dragon. It was not some show.”

McFist let out a humming noise and hoped Rotwood would take it either noncommittally or as agreement. Dragons were real, eh? That made things much easier for him. Viceroy’s Robo-Dragon—

“They are,” Rotwood hissed to him. Clearly, he’d taken the sound to mean that McFist was humouring him. “The people here, they are blind to the magical world! They do not know how to look for it! They do not even believe magic is real! They think it is all merely parlour tricks!”

The man was passionate. McFist could work with this. “I know magic is real,” he said. “I know a sorcerer.”

Rotwood narrowed his eyes. “You are just humouring me.”

McFist shook his head. “Look up the stories about Norrisville. I know the real reason behind all those strange happenings—and how much of a menace the supposed town hero is. But keep that just between us, if you don’t mind.” Viceroy might not approve, but McFist didn’t see any reason not to be honest right now. There wasn’t anyone Rotwood could tell the truth to who would both believe him and be capable of ruining McFist’s efforts to capture the Norrisville Ninja.

Rotwood cocked his head and considered McFist for a moment. “This supposed town hero. You wish to show the rest of the town what they truly are?”

McFist smiled. This was going better than he’d hoped. “If I can just capture him, I’ll be able to let everyone know the truth.”

“I have a similar goal,” Rotwood said slowly. “The people here, they are not as open-minded as you. They do not believe me when I tell them about all the magical creatures.” He hesitated, and when McFist let the silence stretch, Rotwood continued, “I know all manner of tricks when it comes to dealing with magical creatures. I could perhaps assist you with your problem if you help me with mine.”

“The hero in Norrisville is a Ninja, not necessarily a magical creature,” McFist said, though in truth he still wasn’t completely sure what the Ninja was. Viceroy was convinced he was a high school student, but that still didn’t explain the legend of the Ninja throughout the history of Norrisville, and the one time he’d tried to ask the Sorcerer for details, it had gone poorly. To put it mildly.

McFist hadn’t dared ask again.

“I have books. I can help with magic. I can craft traps. If you wish to capture this Ninja of Norrisville, I can help you.”

“I want to capture that Ninja,” McFist agreed, “and I want to know more about the one that came here. Tell you what, Hans—can I call you Hans?—you help me with my little Ninja problem, and I’ll help fund your research into getting solid proof that there are magical creatures in this city, too.”

Rotwood grinned as if he hadn’t been the one to follow exactly where McFist had wanted to lead him. As if the reverse were true instead. Perhaps it was, if they’d both had the same idea. Either way, Rotwood stuck out his hand. “You have a deal.”

-|-

7:30 PM

Every step was a fight, an exhaustive battle she was slowly losing. Susan stumbled to a sidewalk bench and sat down, hunching over and trying to catch her breath. She couldn’t remember when she’d grasped her necklace again, but it was cutting into her hand and she couldn’t force her fingers to release it.

She could feel magic raging within her, wanting release. It hummed in her blood, pushing against its confines, trying to sweep over her in a rush of a dragon’s fire and change skin to scales. It was a form she’d never thought she’d hold. It was…it was a form she still shouldn’t hold. It was supposed to be locked away, bound too tightly to ever be released. She’d forced the lock open, and now it wouldn’t stay closed, mixing with the other magic and roiling—

She had traded too much for its freedom, and she hadn’t paid the full price yet.

Susan blinked. The world sharpened, becoming more bright and vivid and detailed. Eyes of the Dragon. She jolted to her feet, looking for somewhere to hide. Fighting off the transformation was so tiring. Too tiring. She was beginning to give ground even when she didn’t want to, and whatever changed next might not be so innocuous.

She needed help, but she had to stay as far away from the person who should help her as possible.

She couldn’t involve the American Dragon.

She couldn’t involve any of her family.

People might not call them superheroes, not when magic and responsibility sang in harmony in their blood in a melody interwoven with a counterpoint of inevitability and expectations, but she wasn’t sure she’d be able to bite her tongue if Hawk Moth asked her about them. And if she went to them or they came to her, he would ask. She knew he would. She could feel his curiosity even now, far away from him as she must surely be.

As for the other condition of their bargain, she wasn’t yet sure who she’d doomed. She didn’t know who Chat Noir was, didn’t know anything about his ring, but she knew that knowledge would come. Right now, it was just out of her reach. If she stretched for it, she’d give in, and she couldn’t risk that. It would condemn too many people, and she doubted this Chat Noir deserved it any more than her son did.

Why had she agreed?

Why had she let the sudden consuming need to realize her childhood dream overshadow the acceptance she’d acquired long ago?

It would be so much harder to lose it now that she knew exactly what she’d have to give up. Having had a taste of what could have been—should have been—reality would become much more bitter. No amount of magical knowledge or tiny tricks of borrowed magic would satisfy her now. She might not even be able to smile when one of her elven staff cast a quiet spell to keep the flies from the food when their venue was outdoors, to keep the drinks cool while the air was warm, to—

Susan sobbed.

She…she didn’t want to give it up.

Why couldn’t she decide to just give it up when it would mean saving her family? Saving her friends?

She slipped into the tight space between buildings, trying not to gag as her overly-sensitive noise picked up the smell of rot, fetid water, dried blood—

No. She mustn’t think about all that. Her stomach was already rolling at the thought, and she couldn’t be sure there wouldn’t be fire within her, ready to burn, ready to cleanse.

She tried to scrape her hand over the rough brick of the wall beside her. A minor abrasion, that’s all she wanted, something to bring her back to reality without harming her later—

Claws dug into crumbling mortar instead, scales neatly protecting her from even minimal harm, and she tucked her left hand to her body. Her right was still soft, human flesh, its grasping fingers wrapped tightly around her necklace that pulsed with power even now.

She wasn’t winning.

Running away wouldn’t work.

She needed to confront what was inside of her. What had been released. She wasn’t in nearly as much control as she pretended, and that became clearer the longer she stayed away. She had to find the one who had done this to her and find out how he had done it to her.

It was easier to ignore him when the magic hadn’t consumed her, when she wasn’t transformed, but she was already slipping, and—

And she’d never find him if she didn’t go back.

If she didn’t risk running into her son.

If she didn’t risk her family’s secret.

Another wave of magic coursed through her, and she tentatively flexed her wings, relishing how good it felt to stretch them. How proper. How right.

She couldn’t fight this forever.

Susan took a slow, deep breath, held it for a moment, and then breathed out fire as she allowed herself to transform again.

-|-

7:31 PM

Danny had had no luck in his search and had joined them on the ground, collecting his cell phone from Randy and passing Haley the spare Fenton Phone. Jake grimaced, but he wouldn’t be able to get a new phone for Randy till this was over. For now, the Fenton Phones were going to have to be their main source of communication between each other.

Fu and Gramps kept checking in—mostly Fu, who was still better with all the technology than G—but they weren’t coming up with anything, either. Haley, for all that she’d insisted she wanted to help, was not. Jake was beginning to wonder why he’d ever asked for her to come in the first place. Or why he’d agreed to let her work directly with him instead of staying with Gramps.

The fact that Trixie and Spud had phoned him to say Rotwood had gotten away from them hadn’t improved Jake’s mood. It was Rotwood. And Trixie and Spud were good, which meant that it had been that much more unlikely that Rotwood would have succeeded in giving them the slip, and Jake had been counting on the fact that he wouldn’t. Sure, Trixie and Spud could’ve had an off night, and Jake really couldn’t blame them, especially considering how often they helped him out, but did it have to be tonight? Now? Did it have to be this crisis that was hanging over his head when Rotwood finally got the better of them? Couldn’t it have just been trolls in the sewers or something?

His mood might have improved if Chat Noir—Nino, as he’d told them to call him—had been able to give them a description of Hawk Moth, but apparently that guy also ran around in a mask.

“We don’t usually fight him in person,” cat boy had explained. “It’s mostly just the people he akumatizes—like your mother—and the monsters they create. He fights smart. He won’t face us directly unless he’s confident. Even before realizing I was here, he’d have holed up somewhere. He wouldn’t expose himself when he doesn’t know what he’s up against.”

“So that’s why she was just playing with me earlier?” Randy asked, giving a sidelong look at Haley. “You think this was his strategy, not hers?”

His response was a helpless shrug. “Hawk Moth couldn’t have known that I would be here. Like I said before, he must be looking for something or he wouldn’t be doing any of this.”

“Great,” Jake said flatly. “So chances are he’s actually after something I’m supposed to guard.” He glanced at Danny. “Which means everything I told you was right, except that Nino here isn’t the one behind it. Or working with the evil guy.” He grimaced, then added, “Sorry about all that.”

“I get it.” The response wasn’t forgiveness, not yet. Not that Jake actually expected that. “People don’t always realize that destruction can be a good thing.” Then, “If you’re right about Hawk Moth looking for something that you have, you can’t fight her.”

“What?” That was Haley. “But she’s our mom! We have to save her!”

“It’s not just about saving her. You also need to protect whatever you’re supposed to be protecting. The rest of us can save her for you.”

“Not that you don’t raise a good point,” Danny said slowly, “but, uh, Susan would already know about all of that stuff. They’re not going to lose anything by fighting her that they haven’t already lost. And, I mean, if it’s that bad, then she could be back at the shop right now stealing whatever Hawk Moth wants.”

“He doesn’t mind control people. I mean, he can give people the power to do that to other people, but the people who are akumatized aren’t under his total control. He can’t use their knowledge against them and make them do things they don’t want to do. He can just…. He can twist their thinking, make them see justice or vengeance in their wrong actions, but he doesn’t take away their free will. That’s why he can hurt them if they try to stray from their deal. He’ll find a way to force their hand or he’ll take away their power.”

“So he can’t just compel them to do something?” Jake asked. That was better. That was a lot better, actually. His mom wouldn’t—

“No, but he could convince them to do something they’d never ordinarily do. If he got me, I’d be willing to give up my Miraculous then and there. Your sister would use you as bait without blinking an eye. Your friend would be willing to kill you to harvest your energy in order to go back in time. Your—”

Or not.

“Okay, okay, I get it.” Jake held up his hands. “I just….” He let out another groan as he dropped his hands. “So we can’t find Hawk Moth, we can’t find Mom, and she might sneak back and give him everything he wants and expose what we are in the process.”

“That might already have happened.”

Jake jumped and spun, looking for the voice he didn’t recognize. Nino smiled weakly and pointed at his shoulder—or, more specifically, at the tiny cat-like creature poking its head out from his hood by his chin. “Nooroo would know that something was different, and if Hawk Moth knew enough to ask, Nooroo would answer.”

“That’s Plagg,” Danny said in a stage whisper, and Jake just tried to take a slow breath to calm his racing heart. Hadn’t he had enough surprises for one day? He wasn’t even sure what it was. Some kind of fey?

Whatever. That didn’t matter right now, as long as Jake was careful not to offend Plagg. “So you’re telling me that you think Hawk Moth already knows that we’re dragons.”

“He might not know you’re dragons, but he would know you’re magical. If he asked. Which he probably did. If he didn’t know how to control Nooroo, we’d have rescued him already.”

This day was not getting better.

Jake pulled out his phone and started texting Fu. “I think Marty lost the last poker match to Fu, so he can guard the shop. I know G’ll already have people watching it—they never leave it unattended—but we should have someone in the back if this is as big a risk as you say.”

Haley poked him in the side. He stopped texting long enough to glare at her before he took in the look on her face, and he let his expression soften. “What?”

“If you think Mom might betray us, even if she doesn’t mean to, I should get Sun to help, too. She must have seen the news. She’ll know something’s going on anyway.”

“Right. I forgot about her. Thanks.” Haley had a cell phone, but it was only for emergencies, so it was just the pay-as-you-go sort. He finished sending the message to Fu and then handed her his phone. “Use mine to call her.”

Haley nodded her thanks and walked a short distance away from the buzz of their conversation to make her call. Jake turned back to the others. “We need a plan.”

“When do you ever plan anything?” Danny asked. “I mean, even when you do, when it does it work?”

“Not as often as I’d like,” Jake acknowledged, which was a code for practically never, but he didn’t want to tell that to Randy and Nino, in case they had better luck than he ever did. “But, c’mon, you’ve gotta admit we can’t go into this blind.”

“We aren’t going into it blind,” Randy said. “Nino’s told us a lot, and we already know we need the necklace. We just need to find your mom first.”

“It’s not just a matter of needing her necklace,” Nino interjected. “It’s getting it, too. Jake’s right. We need a plan. She’s smart, and she’ll do everything she can to protect it. And…and we need to catch the akuma before it multiplies.”

“Before it what now?”

“If we don’t catch it, if I can’t get it back to Ladybug to purify it, then it’ll multiply and infect other people. And then you’ll have a city full of people who can turn into dragons, all searching for whatever you’re trying to protect.”

Jake stared at him. “You’re kidding. Please tell me you’re kidding.”

Nino shook his head. “When we defeated the Critic,” he said, gesturing to Randy, “and the akuma was released, I chased after it to try to catch it. That’s when you found me.”

“I hate where this is going,” Jake muttered. “You didn’t catch it. I know you didn’t catch it. So you’re telling me that one would’ve multiplied, too? We’re gonna wind up with a whole bunch of people turning into this critic?”

“No,” Nino said, and some of Jake’s panic evaporated. Some. Not enough. “Hawk Moth only ever sends out one akuma at a time. He would have recalled that one before he akumatized your mother.”

Small mercies.

“How are you going to get the akuma back to Paris without it getting away?” Danny asked, and Jake almost wished he hadn’t. Why did he have to think about that?

“I don’t know,” Nino admitted, “but the only other way to make sure it doesn’t multiply is to purify it, and I can’t. Ladybug, my partner— She’s the one with that power, not me.”

Randy glanced at Jake. “If you have a shop full of magic stuff, would you have something he could use? To contain it or purify it or something?”

“Maybe? I don’t even know. I’ll have to talk to Gramps when Haley’s done. I haven’t exactly memorized our inventory. We don’t sell the magic stuff. It’s an electronics shop.”

“Oooh. So that’s why you didn’t feel bad about trashing my phone.”

“I’ll replace it,” Jake insisted. “I swear. I just…. After. Once we’ve dealt with this and I have time to think.”

“You’d have to be confident that whatever you gave me to use would work,” Nino said. “The akuma isn’t going to be slow. I’ll probably only have the one chance to catch it.”

Jake groaned. “Can’t you just destroy it? You have the power of destruction, don’t you?”

“Hitting it with Cataclysm would only disperse the corrupted magic,” Plagg said. “It won’t get rid of it.”

Danny looked at Randy. “You said you deal with something similar, right?”

“Stanking,” Randy said, “but the stank just returns to the Sorcerer when I release it. I don’t have to do anything to it. I don’t think I could even if I wanted to. Unless you have some kind of magical air purifier?”

He’d directed this last question to Jake, and Jake rolled his eyes. “What do you think?”

“I think it would be super bruce if you did and I’d want to borrow it.” He paused. “Can I borrow it?”

“I don’t think that exists.”

“But you could ask around, right? Since you broke my phone ‘n’ all. That was a shoob move. You kinda owe me.”

“Fine, okay, I will, later. Right now, we need to—” Jake broke off when he saw Randy stiffen. “What?”

“McFist is back,” Randy said, ducking behind Nino. “He’s gonna wonder if he sees me here.”

“Friend of yours?” Danny asked.

“Try enemy set on destroying me.”

“And he knows you personally? As Randy?”

“Well, he probably wouldn’t remember my name, but you never know. And he’ll know I’m from Norrisville even if he doesn’t know who I am. I’m wearing too much of his stuff.”

“You— what?” spluttered Danny. “Why?”

“Is he a fashion designer?” Nino asked, as if that were remotely relevant. “I’ve never heard of him.”

Like any of them could name a whole bunch of fashion designers. Jake couldn’t even remember who was supposed to be putting on this show, and he’d wound up trashing the place. Then again, maybe Nino had a point. This McFist might’ve come for the show, to check out the competition. Still, point or not, it wasn’t exactly relevant to their present situation.

“It’s not really fashion,” Randy said. “And it’s comfortable. But it’s more like… Merchandise, I guess. McMerch, to be specific. But he sells a lot of candy and stuff, too. McSquiddles are the cheese.”

“Cheese?” Plagg perked up, and Nino shushed him.

“You buy stuff from your enemy?” Danny asked incredulously. “Even though he’s trying to destroy you? Why the heck would you support him like that?”

“Because it’s comfy. And super bruce. He makes a lot of good stuff.”

“You’re crazy,” Jake said, and Danny nodded his emphatic agreement.

Randy shrugged. “Point is, he’ll wonder if he sees me. Especially if he saw me earlier as the Ninja.”

Jake sighed and turned to get a good look at this McFist, thinking he was probably the same man he’d overheard on the phone earlier. And then he blinked. “Aw, man.”

“What?” Danny asked, and then he looked, too. “Oh, crud.”

“Things are not going to stop getting worse for us,” Jake muttered, motioning for them all to join Haley just inside the mouth of the alley. To Nino and Randy, he said, “McFist is talking to Rotwood. Someone who wants to expose me as a dragon to the nonmagical world. Assuming anyone still doesn’t believe in dragons after Mom showed up. Because that’s another thing we have to figure out, by the way. How to make this look like the whole thing was a hoax. I can’t have it getting out that magic exists—really exists—to the general public. The Dragon Council would have my hide.”

“Hawk Moth attacks Paris all the time now,” Nino offered. “That will probably convince them that this dragon isn’t anything more than that.”

“Not with Rotwood around.”

“It might be a start, though,” Danny pointed out. “We’ll figure out the rest of that as we go. I’m good at thinking on my feet. Besides, at the rate we’re going, we’re not gonna have a fully formed plan anyway.”

Jake didn’t argue, even though he wanted to, because he knew Danny was right.

Improvising it was, then.

-|-

7:32 PM

Gabriel felt the moment Nooroo’s magic flared to life and took hold of Dracona again. Finally. Despite his best efforts, he hadn’t been sure he’d ever get through to her. Whatever sort of innate magic she had, it had fought against Nooroo’s. He still wasn’t sure if he’d won the fight or if she’d thrown it, but she was back, and he needed to speak with her.

He glanced across the room to Nathalie, catching her eye before giving a discreet nod. The others in the meeting room didn’t notice, too busy arguing about one thing or another. He’d barely been in this meeting for ten minutes, finally acquiescing to put in an appearance and giving his excuses for tardiness, and he’d regretted coming the moment he’d stepped into the room. He didn’t have time to deal with these children, squabbling over fault and insurance and deadlines and payments and alternate venues and vendors. Nathalie could handle this on his behalf; she’d already given him as much on Susan Long as he suspected she’d be able to find on such short notice, and he didn’t mind pulling her off of that to deal with this fully, at least now that Dracona was back.

Nathalie approached him and stood discretely at his side. “Sir,” she said, pitching her voice just loudly enough to be overheard by his neighbours despite the argument taking place, “I’m afraid your son is in urgent need of your attention.”

The nearest branches of the argument broke off, though those sitting farther away continued to talk over each other, oblivious.

“It appears he was inside when the fire began,” Nathalie added.

“Smoke inhalation?” the man seated on Gabriel’s right guessed, even as the one on his left snorted.

“Took them a damned long time to realize who he was and track you down. Go. Your son can’t wait for this mess to be over.”

“Thank you for your understanding,” Gabriel said smoothly as he rose to his feet. His glance at Nathalie’s tablet was perfunctory. The others would believe it provided him with all the information he needed, such as a brief idea of what had happened and where his son was, leaving him to find out the details when he arrived by Adrien’s side, and it would forestall any more questions they might try to throw at him or Nathalie right now. “Please make my apologies to the others. Nathalie will be my proxy; she’s more than qualified when it comes to handling company matters, and I trust her decisions completely.”

The truth was, Gabriel had no idea where Adrien was, but the boy should be in his room. It wasn’t Gabriel’s job to keep track of him; that fell to his security guard and, of course, Nathalie, though he knew she’d been juggling other jobs in the meantime. Whatever the case, Adrien was surely safe or he would have been alerted.

Assured in that knowledge, Gabriel put Adrien out of his mind and hastened back to his private suite without even pausing to knock on Adrien’s door.

Nooroo slipped out of his interior breast pocket the moment he’d locked the door behind him. “Master, we shouldn’t—”

He didn’t have time to listen to Nooroo’s worries. “Dark wings rise, Nooroo.”

The magic rushed back over him, consciousness of Dracona’s surroundings settling into the familiar place where it should be. She was flying high, winging above the skyscrapers. For all that she took too many slow, gliding turns, she was coming back, just as he’d hoped she would. “Dracona,” he said, “are you ready to uphold your end of our bargain?”

“I don’t want this anymore.”

There was desperation in her voice. She perhaps attempted to veil it, but if so, she did a poor job. She wasn’t only desperate to break this bargain; she was still desperate to keep it. Fighting with herself. No doubt, whatever innate magic she had that so unnerved Nooroo wasn’t strong enough to shut him out forever. Not when she still so longed for what she’d been given.

He could recall the akuma now, of course. Whatever Nooroo thought, it was that simple. He could simply let her transform back and fall from the sky. There was no Ladybug to set things right, and he’d find her family when they learned of what happened.

He didn’t like things to be so messy, though.

“You agreed,” he said mildly. “Surely you don’t want to break our agreement. Think of your son.”

He felt the shock jolt through her, far more effective than the pain he’d tried to send her earlier, back before she’d shut him out.

“What do you know of my son?”

The words were hissed, defensive. She hadn’t asked what he meant. She hadn’t wondered why he’d make such a threat. But what she had asked, now, that was curious. It implied that there was indeed something to know of her son. Perhaps he should not be surprised. Blood magic was blood magic, after all.

“He is a curiosity,” Gabriel hedged, and then he made a gamble. “Why don’t you tell me about him?”

Silence. Silence, but not a broken connection. He hadn’t pushed her to withdraw from him entirely again. Mulish though she was, if his growing suspicion was right, she’d tell him. She’d have to tell him or she’d lose everything. Whatever she tried to tell herself, whatever she’d tried to tell him, she wasn’t willing to give up the freedom she felt.

And it was so terribly easy for him to amplify that desire within her, the fear of losing what he’d gifted.

“He is still learning,” came her quiet answer, “but he has already bested those more fearsome than you.”

Doubt danced in her voice, and Gabriel smiled.

(see more fics | next)

#secret quartet #sq #rc9gn #adjl #miraculous ladybug #danny phantom #crossover #fanfiction #sq fanfiction #my writing #ladylynse #every once in a while I update a fic twice in a row....#snippets #crossover snippet #dp snippet #adjl snippet #ml snippet #rc9gn snippet

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fly-pow-bye · 4 years ago

Text

DuckTales 2017 - “The Fight for Castle McDuck!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Ben Siemon, Bob Snow

Written by: Madison Bateman

Storyboard by: Stephanie Gonzaga, Krystal Ureta, Brandon Warren, Hayley Foster

Directed by: Matthew Humphreys

A family feud!

This episode begins with Scrooge, the nephews, and Webby making another trip to Castle McDuck to meet Scrooge's parents. How are they able to visit this castle with that mist that only disappears every five years, as explained in the last episode that featured Scrooge's parents? Apparently, there's a fritz in the castle's mist, and Fergus, Scrooge's father, immediately blames Scrooge for giving them a lemon. As Webby narrates this clenched-teeth meeting of father and son into her tape recorder, Downy, Scrooge's mother, goes up and hugs the two.

Downy McDuck: Oh, let's just be thankful for this unexpected family visit! Group hug! (hugs Scrooge and Fergus, not really accepting of this)

Just in time for Thanksgiving weekend! Okay, it's not really a Thanksgiving special and it may be just a coincidence as there's no proof of Disney swapping the intended order of episodes this time, but it is an episode where someone is thankful for a family gathering that will involve some food; I've seen flimsier excuses to air episodes at certain times. Webby isn't the only one happy to see Scrooge's family again, as Huey, Dewey, and Louie are after yet another artifact: the Blessed Bagpipes of Clan McDuck. Yes, it's not just one of Scrooge's catchphrases, it's also an ancient artifact that was foretold to Huey by a druid somewhere between Mount Neverrest and that place where the Terrafirmians went after that one episode.

No, just kidding, it's yet another artifact in that journal that seems to be used to make filler episodes to feel more important. This is not to say this episode isn't necessary. These Blessed Bagpipes have a bit more potential than, say, the Sword of Swanstentine: the bagpipes are told to be able to bring life to the lifeless. Louie doesn't interpret this as zombies, but instead just hears is that this is a rare and potentially expensive artifact, and since they already dealt with this castle's traps before, it should be easy to get! As for Dewey, he's going to be important later.

Scrooge isn't really here for Thanksgiving or the bagpipes, though, he's here essentially as a magic castle repairman. Using his cane, he pokes the druid stones that usually power that mist that keeps his parents out of his sight, and he comes to the conclusion that it seems like the magic was sucked out of it. Even if we didn't see the cause right before the opening, which we do, this is a good enough hint to what could have possibly happened. Fergus doesn't believe him, and Scrooge replies with him asking why he even asked him to do this instead of getting one of his other children to do the dirty work. Short answer: he tried.

Meet Matilda McDuck, the youngest sister of Scrooge, who likes to start random businesses like emu farms. The very sight of a new McDuck neither she nor the audience has seen regresses Webby back to her Season 1 "McDuck fangirl" persona. Why wouldn't she still have that? Most of all, to her, there's no such thing as sibling rivalry in Clan McDuck, as McDucks always stay together! I'm assuming the sibling fights Huey Dewey and Louie sometimes get in are because they're merely Ducks.

McDucks, on the other hand, don't really do fights, as exemplified by Scrooge handing his sister a whole bill to invest in this empire of giant emu eggs. Wow, Scrooge must have been impressed: usually it's just a coin that's worth less than even if it was just one dollar! She immediately rejects the bill because she doesn't do family investments, unlike Scrooge and his Number One Dime. She then puts him in a headlock. Webby pays this no mind and talks about this sibling friendship, while Dewey just sits in the background and sarcastically says, "yeah, sure." No, being the stand-in for the audience isn't his important bit.

Huey and Louie get into a sibling rivalry of their own, as Huey plans to do this epic adventure to get the bagpipes, with plenty of strategies that Louie calls, and trademarks after a long yawn, "boring nerd stuff". Louie, on the other hand, decides to do the "ask really loudly to the great-great grandma where the magic bagpipes are" approach, and Great Great Grandma Downy just tells them that bagpipe must be in the junk room, and she'll even show them where it is.

Louie's faces during these scenes are top-notch; there's a fine line between "off-model to the point where it's disturbing" and "off-model enough to be funny", and the scenes are more in the latter. We might even see it with Huey, who seems to be desperately trying to keep that inner Duke of Making A Mess in control.

If one hasn't guessed yet, our villain of the week is none other than the Phantom Blot. We saw the Phantom Blot earlier in the episode, sucking up some castle magic with his magic-sucking gauntlet. He's joined by one of the Eggheads, a charismatic, overly happy sidekick named Pepper. The first time I watched this episode, I thought this was Matilda in a disguise, but then I noticed she didn't have those circles under her eyes. This is a totally different duck.

Blot didn't want any duck to be his partner, or any partner at all, but F.O.W.L. won't allow Missing Mystery taking alone. The Blot has his own vested interest in destroying anything magical, especially something as dangerous as a bagpipe that can turn something that's lifeless into living things. This is the second episode in a row where someone wants to take an artifact they feel is too dangerous, though it's done in a different way.

Unknowing of any kind of evil, Webby, Scrooge, Dewey, and Webby are going on a tour through the castle. Webby stops at a room full of statues, including one statue of Danny McDuck that happens to be holding a bagpipe with symbols on it. Webby is completely enamored by all of this, but Dewey questions which one of their ancestors is invisible. Matilda explains that this space was left blank until a worthy McDuck can be immortalized in this room with a statue. Webby talks about an obvious candidate for such an immortalization: Scrooge McDuck!

Matilda laughs at this nomination, saying that it would be more fitting for someone who actually takes care of the castle, while Scrooge fights back by saying not only has be built this castle, but he built the castle that gave her and their parents immortality. This is where Webby's main conflict in the episode lies: she can't believe two McDucks can talk to each other like that, and, despite being told that sibling rivalry happens all the time by Dewey, she vows to fix this.

Her first attempt at doing this? Let Scrooge look at an old family diary. This appears to work pretty well, as Scrooge is reminded of his first brother-sister mud pie business. Unfortunately for Webby's plan to let this feud end so early, one of the photos happens to be Whiskers, Scrooge's pet hairball, being around his sister, going against the story he was told that Whiskers ran away. Not only is Whiskers still around...

...Whiskers had a new fur dying session, too! The emu eventually biting it ends up being the last straw, causing him and her to get into a sibling quibble. It's funny to see these people acting like children, even yelling out to their mom to tell on each other. It's not so funny to Webby, who thinks that she's going to break her beloved Clan McDuck, though Dewey insists this is normal. It's good that Webby isn't perfect, but one knows she's going the wrong way here.

Meanwhile, in the junk room their great great grandma led them to, they see a whole bunch of bagpipes stacked onto each other. Once again, we see Huey trying to think of a good strategy to find out which one is the real bagpipe, and Louie just runs up and jumps on the pile. This massive bagpipe blowing this not only causes does cause a mystical bow and arrow to break a canister of tiny green flying lightbug beings that exclaim their freedom, but it also proves that all of these bagpipes are just ordinary bagpipes. That mystical bow and arrow also causes Huey to drop the book near a cardboard box that Pepper and the Blot were hiding in. Must have learned that from some snake.

This scene with Pepper and the Phantom Blot does show us one thing: she may seem like an incompetent sidekick, and the Blot sure treats her like one as he didn't want a sidekick to begin with, but she knows a clue when she sees one. She takes a picture of it with her smartphone, and deduces that the symbols that were drawn on it represent different rooms of Castle McDuck. This begins a slow bit of character development for the Phantom Blot, who was merely just "I hate magic and everyone" before this.

Meanwhile, as Webby is watching the family aggressively eat their dinner, she comes up with a plan. She even ropes Dewey into this for his big, important moment. Dewey gets to show his best talent...

...pretend he accidentally died while trying to make everyone happy by making two statues! See, it's a win-win situation for everyone: Matilda and Scrooge would believe they're both deserving of statues, and Scrooge basically confirms what Dewey always knew: that he was the favorite. Honestly, I'd say he's only saying that because he's supposedly dead, but don't tell Dewey that. By the way, Scrooge falls for this even though Scrooge did fake his death before in this series. I should also talk about how Webby would have to find a way to show that Dewey didn't actually die for potential future adventures, but she won't need to even think about that.

Huey and Louie end up in this room, too, and Dewey just couldn't resist telling them that Scrooge said he's the favorite. This leads to even more bickering amongst Clan McDuck. This ends up being a perfect distraction for the Phantom Blot and Pepper to sneak around the room, too. Webby doesn't notice those two, but she finally decides enough is enough, and outright calls out the family for their bickering, saying that it just isn't the Clan McDuck way. Scrooge decides to agree, and says Matilda is worthy of being the next Clan McDuck statue...

...because he's no longer going to be a member of Clan McDuck! This part feels like it should be in the trailers as a misleading line, as anyone would guess this would eventually be reversed, but even I'm not so sure if it was in the end. It really goes to show that Webby pretty much did what she feared she was going to do. It's going to take a miracle to fix up this family, and it has to be something blessed.

Remember that Danny McDuck statue with the bagpipe? Turns out, that's where the bagpipe was hiding all this time. Unfortunately, it wasn't any of the Ducks or McDucks that figured this out first, but it was Pepper. Admittedly, she had to smash through the bagpipe of the statue to find it, and I'm sure even with their bickering, degrading one of the statues would be a huge faux pas. The good news is that, while she may be able to figure out a mystery, she's still somewhat of a klutz, as she drops the bagpipe. Not only does this finally reveal the sinister villains behind what caused that fritz in the mist, we get to see that ability to give life to the lifeless that was foretold by that book.

No, not zombies, but the bagpipes give life to the lifeless statues! It seems like this episode was going to go to a rather predictable ending, showing the now separated family that Webby was right all along, and that Clan McDuck is all about being together. Just let those statues show what being a family is all about. This could very well be, but the bagpipes gave them the vocal cords of the people they're based on, too.

They immediately start fighting, starting with who stole the bagpipe, and Webby lets out an "oh, come on!". Not only does this lead to a big statue fight, this leads to a bunch of other fights. The statues are fighting, Clan McDuck are fighting, and even Huey, Dewey, and Louie are fighting. The last one seems a little tacked on, but it does add a little more power to the scene where Webby talks into her tape recorder about how, in her quest to strengthen Clan McDuck, she managed to ruin it. Even if I wasn't as big of a fan of Webby's antics in this episode, as I think she should absolutely know what she was trying to fix in the beginning was normal, it's still a powerful scene.

There's also a scene where The Phantom Blot and Pepper, hide behind a pillar, and Blot uses this opportunity to scold Pepper on nearly ruining the entire mission. It's nice to see the Phantom Blot actually getting a little development here.

Of course, in the end, they do make up. A lot of this is due to the situation that surrounds them, and Scrooge even uses that to get those ancestor statues to finally stop fighting and get these F.O.W.L. agents out of their hair. Because, and I'm sure people will see this line coming a mile away...

Agnes McDuck (the one in the royal dress): Nobody fights our family but US!

Heh, get it, because all they've been doing before this is bicker. Nonetheless, it's still a good lesson, and it's good to see Webby still learn lessons from Clan McDuck that she wouldn't have learned anywhere else. In the end, the villains get defeated, and the family does find some way to get together and do something, even if it is as simple as cleaning up the mess everyone did. Happy Thanksgiving...kind of.

How does it stack up?

Matilda is entertaining, and while I feel Webby is the weak point of the episode, her actions do lead to a good lesson in the end. Four Scrooges.

Next, ho ho ho, oh no no no.

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