#Tucker with his sand powers

[r3ynah]

Married in the past, married in the present

To think that the Amity Trio would get dragged by their children (Dan and Dani) into another universe as a form of vacation and to escape the annoying palace councils, was not something to be expected in the Fenton-Nightangle-Foley-Manson family. it was due for a vacation anyways.

But here's the catch, They decided they should atleast take a two month break with each other so they can explore this universe more, but they did agree that every 2 weeks they'll pass the custody of their kids with each other.

It was very eventful to say the least,

Tucker, got adopted. by the one and only Bruce Wayne how?? he doesn't know either, the only thing he can remember was Bruce Wayne shoving a couple of adoption papers in his face, and now he was suddenly a Wayne, he certainly was not complaining he gets to use their advance technologies without it getting corrupted by his partner Danny(he loved the guy, but he needed his daily screen time too.)

He finds out about their secret identities two days in, was not completely surprised to find a cave downstairs, "Every billionare has one, you're not unique." was his words before he went on and explore the cave leaving a very confused batfam. he agreed to help them but if its only for hacking and stuff connected to technology, and to only join them if it's really a life changing scenario.

He was the second one to have Dan and Dani, so when they found out they're dad got adopted by a rich billionaire they were equally disappointed, Tucker tried to defend himself for his poor decision, to say the batfam was shocked once again was an understatement, imagine finding that their new brother had two children and two partners was lnot part of their new years plan. Dan and Dani only took a couple of hours for them to fit in.

Sam, went on and became a vigilante, under Harley Quinn and poison ivy's care, with almost the same powers as Ivy and same humor as Harley the three of them certainly became close friends.

Sam definitely had fun blowing up factories, and proceed to prank cops and officials, she had a run with the infamous batfam a couple of times, mostly Robin, the first time they've met they had a spar with their own weapons ofcourse,but at the same time all Sam could think was: 'the hell's a kid doing vigilante work?'. Eventually they have bonded over different weapons and fighting styles, Batman had atleast tried to recruit Sam who goes by Foliahàrà at some point, but was turned down quite harshly.

She was the first one to take care of their children, Ivy loved Dan's brutality and Harley adored Dani's chaotic self. so they became the fun cool aunts of the two children, they have somepoint asked one peaceful breakfast who the other parents are, But the only thing Sam had said was they'll meet them someday.

Danny becomes a villain, a mad scientist to be exact wondering what'll happen if he follows in his parents footsteps, he also works alongside with Mr.Freeze, and they discuss a cure together for Mr.Freeze's wife,.

He doesn't use his ghost powers in villainy his explanation? Phantom was for the good and peace. While Fenton-Nightangle was for the bad and destruction. it certainly was a shitshow when he first debuted, lets just say Gotham had an early snow day, about 20 meters of snow covered Gotham for a week. The worst part is that the snow doesn't melt. so the only thing they could've do was to sit and watch as only Fenton was able to melt the snow.

Danny was the last to get his kids, so as a responsible parent he let them go crazy, for the whole two weeks as long they keep their identities a secret and to be back at lunch, dinner, curfew and family night. which led to a bunch of rogues getting hunted and tied up by a pair of ghost kids. It was a peaceful quiet two weeks for Gotham.

'this is absolutely hilarious' Tucker known as Codelith mentally chuckled as his bat family including Foliahàrà who was sitting across him also tied up, he knew it was Sam the first moment he laid his eyes on her. no one does eyeliner as thick as Sam. Speaking of Sam she was glaring at him from across the room.

from different audiences it may have look like the two was going to kill eachother, but in reality its just their love language. The batfam looked at them confused.

"Codelit." Sam greeted in a annoyed tone.

"Foliahàrà." Tucker greeted in a more joyful tone.

"You two know eachother?" Duke questioned, as he eyed the two. very confused on why the two of them almost have the same green toxic light surrounding them.

"Ofcourse we do, we're ma-" Sam was cut off, by the sound of someone maniacally laughing. fate seemed to be a bitch because in strolled Joker himself holding a bloodied crowbar.

Tucker can feel Red hood relive his trauma, from where his sitting, he didn't really focused on the Jokers dramatic speech, because all he can think was the safety of his new family he grew comfortable with. thank fuck Dan and Dani aren't here.

"What's this a new birdie? Batman.. you sure like taking in a lot of children, how generous of you." this finally caught tucker's attention when as he saw joker walking towards him, his family stayed quiet but kept watching Joker's movements they looked constipated Tucker almost let out a snort but kept it in.

"Codelith wasn't it, Very unique I wonder why you picked it."Joker asked with a chuckle that made tucker want to puke. "Not talkative ey? well that's alright.

"I don't need you to talk." Joker playfully picked up his crowbar, then placed it on Tucker's shoulder dangerously close to his head."I just need you to scream."

He saw Sam trying to use her powers in the background, which unfortunately wasn't working because she's too used making exaggerated movements when using her plant powers, he remembers her saying that it makes it more easy to manipulate the greens around her, so she definitely had trouble controlling it while tied up, after all there was so little wrist movement to work with.

He sent a warning gaze to his Family and wife. to not make any sudden moves, which made Sam hesitantly stop, It was different with the batfam though they were really trying to be free from the ropes.

He returned his attention to joker, who was still waiting for an answer. "He's coming." was all he said, this only made joker grin, and the Bats confused. While Sam immediately got it.

Joker laughed fucking ugly laugh if Tucker said so himself, the rogue pointed at his new family's direction 'Who's he? can't you see new birdie they're all here no one's going to get you!"

And then Joker lifted his crowbar then struck down at Codelith's head, a awful sound resonated across the building, Fuck that's going to leave a nasty concussion. he felt blood dripping from his nose, as he heard the shouts and screams of the Bats and Sam. Oh Sam, I'm alright, Everything's okay, He can feel Foliahàrà's panic and anger from here.

Its okay, he's okay, because he's here.

Tucker grinned fucking grinned, like a villain type of grin. he looked up at Joker's direction and said:"He's here."

And then the wall blew up, making everyone in the warehouse startled, Here comes in the man itself. Fenton fucking Nightangle. with a smile plastered on his face he strutted in with full confidence, damn that's attractive Sam and Tucker agreed with each other.

"Joker." was all Fenton said, as he looked at the man with no emotion, his gaze landed on Sam then landed on Tucker who's blood was dripping on the floor, the only thing that Danny saw was green.

HURT?/PAIN?/IN DANGER.

"Mr. Fenton! are you also here to watch the show?"Joker grinned teeth showing and all. "It's such a pleasure for you to be her-"

Danny walked passed Joker, Never giving him a chance to finish, he focused his gaze infront of him and went towards Tucker and cupped his face making sure he wasn't hurt that much.

"Ah... ofcourse you would immediately go to them, so silly of me!"Joker laughed.

"What do you mean by that?" Batman asked suspicously, as he made sure the Fenton boy didn't hurt his new son.

"Don't tell me you don't know Batsy! gosh darn am I the one that'll say this so exciting." The irritating man chuckled. "Well if you didnt know Batman, Dr.Fenton, Foliahàrà, and Codelith are all married together!"

The Bats let out a gasp of surprise as they looked at the trio, who remained quiet.

"I know right! such a wonderful love story." Joker wiped a fake tear. "Too bad I have to kill you all, Dr. Fenton you might've taken the town in surprise by your so wonderful inventions, but you are nothing without your gadgets." Joker explained while twirling the crowbar in his hands.

Danny let out a chuckle, his back facing the green haired man. "I see that you've made some research about us Joker."

"Yes, you are quite right, I am married to Codelith and Foliahàrà, But there's something you've missed in your research." Fenton continued, he can hear Red robin in the background saying "I don't believe Codelith can pull two fine people." who was shushed by Nightwing.

"And what would that be? please entertain me Doctor." Joker grinned.

"My Hero name's Phantom." With that Danny made a slashing motion as he swiftly faced the Joker face to face, not even a second later half of the warehouse was engulfed by ice including Joker.

Hair white as now. skin pale as a paper, and eyes green as toxic radiation, he once again faced. The vigilantes with a smile and said:

"Well that was an eventful night, who wants Fudge?"

[proneterror204]

Return of the Pharaoh

Vandal Savage had a problem. He felt a magic oath of fealty he took long ago, to one of the few people he was ever truly loyal to. When he was "younger" he swore a magical oath of loyalty to one of the most powerful God-kings of Egypt, Pharaoh Duul-aman. He attempts to Scry the location of his ancient Pharaoh, but his attempts are blocked by the powers of Anubis, the powers of the dead.

Tucker jolted awake, he had fallen asleep at his computer again. Recently he had been suffer more sleep problems than Danny, Instead of dreaming of his lovely ladies he had been dreaming of egyptian sands and a hairy man he feels he should know. He felt the tingling of magic under his skin. Nope none of that, he's had power twice and both times he nearly killed his best friend and once he enslaved his class. Hes learned his lesson that he cannot handle power.

[that-weird-thing-in-the-woods]

Heyyyy, my gremlins of trees and seas! I��m back with something new for you now let’s go

🌊🪼Ancient Of The Sea Danny & Storm Dani and hurricane Dan🌊🪼

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Ok so the GIW ‘took care’ of the Fentons, Sam, Tucker and kidnapped Danny with Dani and Dan fast forward a few weeks Dani and Dan are injured badly enough that they go back into their cores but before the GIW could get the cores Danny grabs them and puts them into his body and flys though the portal and destroys it as he does so

And now Danny kinda just wandering around looking for a place to heal up and than he finds something he didn’t even think he had as a half-ghost. A Lair, Vlad mentioned it a few times saying that it was another thing that brought him and Danny closer together but Danny wasn’t really listening to him ( when does he ever ) but as he walks in ( well incubating Dani who has been renamed by Danny to dawn and Dan who has been renamed to Dusk )

He is met with the smell of the sea and the sounds of waves crashing against rocks and some rock pillers out further in the sea and the sound of the waves hitting the sand which is black {like from one of the black sand beaches they look neat} as Danny walk onto the sand he looks around that his Lair which was something Danny thought he would ever be able to say but he is quickly brought back to where he is when he sees a large black marble castle that is a bit overgrown on the outside

Ok so a few weeks later Dannys settled into the castle and his Lair the castle even has a room next to his ( which is the master bedroom ) for when the baby’s are ready but anyway it turns out that he is the new Ancient Of The Sea so that’s a thing now and the seas have all the ghosts of aquatic animals which is really interesting and now he apparently gives off nymph and ethereal vibes….And I don’t really have anything more to add on this part for now but I will add more later

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Ok now onto the DC part ok so this could go into two very different story’s regarding which plot you choose 

The FIRST way: So the JL need help with a new big bad ( could be Aliens or supernatural type stuff ) and need the Ancients power to help them so they have to convince them to help so they split off into teams and Tim’s team ( with Jon and Damian just cause ) and they have to convince The Ancient Of The Sea so they go to what appears to be a cave entrance that has small pounds around it that looks like an sea cave but it is the entrance to Danny’s lair and as they walk in they are hit with the smell of the sea and a few minutes of trying to find the Ancient they find them sitting on one of the rock mountains surrounding the black sand beach and that when Jon makes a very loud sound that gets the Ancients attention fast so they all walk over to them and they start trying to convince them to help and this is basically the reaction

The Team: trying to convince him and is doing what they can to keep his attention

Danny: who was going to help them the moment they said they needed help

And Danny just lets them go on without interrupting them and when their done he just nods and says “ I will help you” and the sigh of relief they all let out almost made him laugh

The SECOND way: The Zone holds a ball every 100,000 years and to be invited is an honor and the JL gets invited and any sidekicks they decide to bring with them and JLD have to explain how important this is and how they can NOT screw this up or their world is done for so they have a lot of pressure to not cause any problems whatsoever and it last for three days and on the first day Damian is walking down a hall until he comes across what looks like an Sea cave entrance and goes in and as he walk around he sees a beautiful person who looks around his age and goes up to them and a few hours later they become friends Damien even got to pet an shark who came up close and Damian comes back the second day two and on the third day ( the day of the ball ) Damien siblings notice the change in behavior and follow him and they go through the entrance after him and see him and Danny talking

And that’s all for this

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Now on to the details

Here’s what I’m thinking for Danny

Mixed with this

This is what I’m thinking for his outfit and for his hair

And just because here is a head ornament that I’m thinking he wears

Or at least something close to this

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And that’s it! Sorry if it’s a bit weird but I hope you gremlins like it byeeeee

[radiance1]

So you know that thing about Sam being a plant goddess? Where she was basically Te Fiti and was made of plants and was a giant woman?

Now imagine that, but Tucker. Except he's made of Sand. How did this come to be? Weeeeeeell, Tucker may or may not have absorbed the powers the Scarab Scepter.

And may or may not have also consumed Hotep Ra in a battle of wills where he managed to overpower him with a great surge of willpower.

Tucker became something more than human, his flesh literally turned into sand and everything he could've done with scepter he could do by himself since he, you know, absorbed it powers into himself. He also has the powers of Hotep Ra since he, well, consumed him too.

Except he can also summon Hotep Ra to be his true servant now. The ghost is now fully under his thumb and wouldn't be able to plot against him or anything of the like, you could basically say that he's bound to Tucker after Tucker consumed and basically claimed his soul.

So, Tucker gets thrown into the DC universe, most likely either an accident with his powers, a portal, or both. He doesn't exactly know where he is, so he does some research and finds out that this place has heroes, villains, extraterrestrial beings and even gods and demons!

So what does Tucker do when faced with all of this? He starts looking at all the technology, the companies, everything.

He also, hacks into various government buildings and leaves before anyone could trace his location. He hits a small snag when he encounters 'Oracle' and he had to retreat earlier than he had planned to after Oracle nearly managed to get an accurate handle on his location.

Hit an even bigger one when he tried to hack into Mount Justice and for some reason encountered Oracle again and he had to retreat. Except, that his location was found, and he had to leave right away.

He left Hotep behind to occupy them while he made his getaway.

Cut forward to a while later, where Tucker infiltrated a place to get his hands on a piece of tech and was currently hacking into it when said place was once again infiltrated by none other than the team of Young Justice. So, obviously the first thing Tucker decided to do was throw Hotep Ra at them while he continued trying to hack into the tech so he could take it for himself.

Only for Oracle to once again pop up, cause him severe problems, and ultimately managed to stop him from hacking into the tech long enough for everything to be wiped clean and nothing left for him to claim.

He then turned quite a lot of things into sand from frustration, he had an admiration for Oracle yes, but they were being a pain. So he called back Hotep Ra to his side and turned into sand to leave the facility behind.

Only to be faced with the Justice League themselves.

[snaileer]

Dare to Live (Part 2/2)

DPxDC Part 1

It all started with a dare really. You’d think, after all these years, after having done at least a /bit/ of growing up, Danny would be able to refuse a dare from his best friend.

But here he was, about to drop through a mystic portal with full intentions to make Tucker eat his words.

And Sam too, for agreeing!

“Come on Danny, times a ticking, sands a wasting.” Tucker said in a sing song voice, floating behind the portal lazily.

“Yeah, Danny, we didn’t spend two days finding the perfect dimension just for you to chicken out,” Sam said, laying on her back in the air and pretending to inspect her nails.

Danny felt his eye twitch.

“I told you, Sam, he couldn’t be mysterious and mystical if he tried, even under pain of a double. Dog. Dare.” Tucker emphasized.

Danny whipped his head around, staring his best friend in the eyes, “You really think so Tucker? A double dog dare?”

Tucker smirked, leaning back with his arms crossed and a smug look, “I know so.”

“Then prepare to eat Lunch Lady’s hairnet, Tuck, you’re on!” Danny grinned and shot backwards through the portal.

He relished the way Tuckers face went green as he passed through. Well, greener.

Danny turned invisible the moment he felt the resistance of a dimensional barrier go past him, and boy was that the right decision, the whole place was in chaos.

Danny floated invisibly in the sky with a puzzled look on his face. Was that guy… flying? What in the-?

A laser beam passed through him, making Danny look down to see he was intangible, but why? Could he be tangible again? He focused, and yep, there he was, tangible and visible- visible?! Danny lost focus and disappeared again.

Hmm, okay so looks like his default state here is invisible and intangible but like even more so than back home, interesting.

Danny looked back at where the laser came from, surprised to see an entire ship behind him. And not like a pirate ship, oh no, not even a cruise liner, a big, bony looking alien ship.

Danny wanted to squeal! Aliens! This realm had aliens!

Calm down Danny, remember the dare, mysterious, mystical, think, what gives off big mystical vibes?

Ok, first off, royalty. Danny summoned his crown, ring, sword, and cape, ok good but what else?

Eldritch maybe?

Okay he’s already got fangs, and blue skin, he could probably let his hair be a little more free floaty, and he’s already a full grown adult with shoulders like his dad, that should be enough right?

Another laser shot through him.

Rude!

He looked back, surprised to see a group of people aiming weapons at the big alien ship. He looked closer.

Was the… was the alien ship trying to… to crush this city?

Were these…. bad aliens?

Noooooo, that meant he had to stop them! But he likes aliens!

Danny reluctantly reared up to punch the big ship, pausing when he saw how the other flying people were struggling against it.

Oh Idea?

Super-strength? Now there was mysterious and mystical.

He smirked, oh he had the perfect entrance!

Thank youuu Kingly strength.

Danny positioned himself in front above the ship then created a double actually touching the ship.

He let himself appear, keeping his double invisible as he held out a hand and then swiped it down, using the double to push the ship into the ground.

Luckily, as Danny had just noticed, the ship seemed to be floating just outside the main city area and most everything below it was already destroyed.

Err, well, it certainly was now.

He fought the urge to wince. Mystical powerful beings in the sky don’t wince, Danny.

Still, he looked around at all the destruction. He hadn’t been back in a human realm since his own life, and the destruction had been common place then too, in his own hometown at least.

This was… worse, much worse. He really had to hold back a grimace as he saw a couple ghosts start forming on the edges, he could feel that they were feeding off of his own ambient ectoplasm.

Yikes okay, maybe giving a source of brand new ectoplasm at the sight of a disaster was not the best idea but… he could fix this!

Danny held out his arms, calling the newly formed ghosts to him, letting them use him as a portal to the Zone.

And then he very quickly locked up his aura from releasing more. No one saw that right?

He stood there floating for a minute before he saw the blue and red flying man begin to approach him.

He smirked again, aw yeah time to see if it worked!

Danny lowered himself marginally to meet the man in the middle.

“I am Superman,” Weird name but okay, “Protector of Earth. Thank you for helping us. But…” Superman looked hesitant, “Who are you?”

Aw crap, okay think Danny, big dramatic name, do NOT blurt out your real one. Double dog dare, come on think of something, anything, you have been staring for way too long-

“I am High King Phantom of the Infinite Realms of the Eighth Dimension; The Great One, Feller of the Tyrant Pariah Dark, Tamer of Vortex, Conquerer of My Future Now Past, Keeper of Death and Life, Wielder of the Ring of Rage, Bearer of the Crown of Fire and The One True Balance.” Danny blinked slowly, hoping that was ‘mystical’ enough for Sam because ancients he was really running out of coronation titles there.

“You are well met Superman, Protector of… Earth.”

Hang on. Earth? He was on Earth? Not his Earth but really this was Earth? With Aliens?

He wanted this to be his Earth, dang it why did he have to get the boring ghost invested one?!!

The man looked like he wanted to back up by about thirty steps so.. it worked?

“And.. Your Majesty is here because…?”

Danny stopped his gentle float.

Uhhh. Uhh. Okay good reason, think of a good reason to be here. Visiting? No that’s dumb, it’s not a zoo. Uhh, curious, no that’s not mysterious enough! Okay mysterious, mysterious, think mysterious. OooOooooOo, MysTeRIouSssss.

Who does he know that’d be mysterious enough to pull this off?

…

Clockwork!

Okay, what would Clockwork say? Uhhhh

“You will find out all in due time, Superman of Earth,” Was that good? No that sounded threatening, “But for now, I am here simply to observe.” That was better right? Okay leave before he asks more questions.

Danny floated down to where the other colorfully dressed people stood in a semi-circle.

Well colorful and one in all black.

“Superman, who is this?” The one in all black said with a glare as he stepped forward.

Danny opened his mouth to recite the titles again, points for mystical-ness, when he was cut off.

“Batman, this is King Phantom of the Eighth dimension, he’s… visiting?”

‘Batman’ raised an eyebrow under his cowl, “Eighth dimension, is that at all related to your troubles with a certain fifth dimensional imp?”

Now Danny felt justified in being at least a little offended, “Watch your tongue, Man of Bats,” that was a sufficiently mystical naming right?, “Accuse me of being a fifth dimensional pest again and we shall see how long you last in no dimensions at all,” Danny paused, “Mortal.”

Ha, in your face Tucker, he was so good at this!

Tag list:

@blep-23 @theblackcatscratchpost @fylylowo @coruscateselene @breesperez139 @kataaitheskittle

[demonic0angel]

DP + Omegaverse (no NSFW)

This is just my thoughts on what the omegaverse dynamics would look like in the DP universe. If you have no idea what omegaverse is, I can answer questions if you’d like! (Please feel free to ask anything, I love yapping)

Danny: beta

- I debated with myself a lot on this and I decided to reach the conclusion of beta for many reasons. Let me first explain why I crossed out omega and alpha tho

- I thought of omega first because he just checked all of the boxes for a stereotypical omega in a fanfic: underdog, weak, somewhat trans-coded, twink. However, I disliked it bc I don’t think Danny himself fits as an omega with him being a ghost. It seemed a little too on-the-nose and I personally didn’t like it that much. I wanted Danny’s ghost form to be the reverse of Danny’s human side, so if he was an omega as a human, he would be an alpha as a ghost. However, I feel like Danny being an alpha when he is Phantom wouldn’t be that suitable with the headcanons I have, so I scrapped that.

- Moving onto alphas, he lowkey fit the idea of the “runt” alpha who becomes stronger later on. It would kinda work if his ghost self was the opposite of his alpha human self too, because he is death and “omega” is the last letter of the Greek alphabet, which could also mean the “end” or death. But thinking of the episode where he splits into two versions of himself, his ghost self doesn’t really give off omega vibes. It didn’t work in my head either.

- However, then I had the thought of ‘would a ghost even have pheromones?’ So therefore, he is a beta when he is human, and he is nothing when he is Phantom. I liked the idea of him being a beta bc betas are often overlooked and I think Danny being a beta would make sense when you think of the other characters in the series. With this, it also makes it easier for me to assign roles for the other two in the Everlasting Trio so they can be an alpha-beta-omega pack.

- His status as a beta means that he is often the mediator between Sam and Tucker. Being a beta makes Danny very neutral, meaning he is impartial when dealing with conflicts.

- Danny smells like mud, rain, dirt, and lightning (ozone). He has a very neutral scent that can be both uncomfortable (dirt and mud) and very relaxing (rain) as well as frightening (ozone). When he gets his ice powers, he probably gets a dash of mint in his scent too.

Sam: alpha and Tucker: omega

- I don’t really ship them together btw, unless it’s a throuple with Danny too

- I thought about the reverse (with Sam being the omega and Tucker being the alpha) and decided not to choose that due to Tucker. Sam would be fine and cool either way; if she was an omega, she would be strong and independent. If she was an alpha, she was cool and badass. If Tucker was an alpha tho, he’d just be more of a creep when you think about him and girls. Therefore, I made him an omega to soften him up.

- Making them both the same designation didn't seem right and I feel like the vibes would be iffy. It would also kind of exclude Danny in a way.

- When thinking about Tucker’s jealousy, it probably started because Danny found a way for him to get attention even tho he has a “boring” status like a beta. Perhaps he thought that he and Danny were in the same boat as being losers, but since Danny found Phantom, he grew jealous of the fact that Danny was able to change social statuses as a hero.

- When thinking of alpha as the beginning of the Greek alphabet and omega as the end, it also fits with both of Sam and Tucker’s themes, since Sam works with plants (life) and Tucker has Egyptian motifs (death, since the Egyptians honored death).

- Sam smells like flowers, plants, and herbs. A really spicy and thick scent, but also extremely calming. Tucker smells like sand, metal, and spices, specifically coriander, turmeric, and cardamom. He doesn’t have a soft scent like most omegas, so that’s partially why no girls will approach him. (Bro’s also got no rizz). At times, they also smell like mud or dirt.

Jazz: alpha

- This fits in perfectly with my hc that Jason is an omega lmao

- Usually, omegas are seen as very maternal. While I make Jazz really guardian-like and parental when dealing with her family, I don’t exactly see her as maternal, mostly because I see her as “sibling who steps in when the parents cannot”, rather than an actual parental figure that Danny looks up to. That is bc the maternal role involves a little more love and care (stereotypically, at least) and while I do believe that the Fentons were neglectful, I believe that Danny was still raised with some affection by his parents, so Jazz never had to step in that role. From what I’ve seen and interpreted, Danny’s main danger growing up was the ghosts and the death traps he was surrounded in. Jazz mainly stepped in to protect him when Maddie and Jack left him alone, so I believe that she would be an alpha, which embodies the role of the protector.

- Jazz is also often seen as the “perfect” daughter or student. Being an alpha would only emphasize that, so it also works out. It also works with her overprotectiveness.

- She smells like oceans/sea salt, sand, and vanilla. I’ve been headcanoning her scent to be this combo for way too long. Her scent is pretty strong, but also very calming. If Shadow was with her, she would also smell of mud and dirt.

Jack: alpha and Maddie: omega

- Debated whether or not to make Maddie an alpha as well, but Vlad held me back. I just felt like he wouldn’t be as obsessed with Maddie if she was an alpha, especially bc he’s so controlling and she would probably fight back (and she technically does, but I think you know what I mean?)

- Maddie being an omega would also make sense when you think of the fact that both Vlad and Jack are (one-sidedly) fighting over her.

- Jack and Maddie are the stereotypical couple, but also really non-stereotypical alphas and omegas.

- Jack smells like chocolate, garlic, metal, and motor oil. He has a really pungent scent and that affects how others see him as well. Maddie smells like flowers, peaches, and machinery, with a hint of honey when dealing with her kids.

Vlad: beta

- It makes him being jealous of Jack make sense a little more since he’s insecure of his own status and the fact that Maddie and Jack were “made for each other.”

- He is extremely insecure about being a beta bc he believes that it hindered him from doing a lot of things, one of them being the ability to mate with Maddie. However, he also has an inferiority complex that started with Jack and strengthened with Danny bc he seemed really secure in his own designation, unlike Vlad.

- He smells like blood and a mixture of tea. Ever since he became a halfa though, he smells like mud, dirt, and diet cola (💀).

Dan: nothing and Dani: beta

- Since Dan is 100% ghost, he technically has no scent. However, if he had a human form, he would be a beta.

- Dani smells like chemicals, rain, mud, and dirt. Her scent is mostly artificial, but she still has enough of a scent that she seems real. Dan would smell like blood, ash, smoke, and mud, an extremely overpowering and worrisome scent. When he’s with his sisters tho, the ash and smoke would wash away and he smells somewhat of a campfire and pine.

Valerie: omega

Paulina and Dash: alpha, Kwan and Star: beta

Wes: alpha

Extras:

- Mud and dirt is a tell-tale sign of liminality (because it represents the dirt around a grave). Of course, the smell of dirt and mud is different for everyone. Danny has a really strong scent of mud, but his is loamy and healthy, while Vlad’s scent is more clay-like and not very strong, since he isn’t a very healthy ghost (so no healthy soil) imo.

- All ghosts technically are nothing, since they lose their designation/secondary gender when they die. However, if strong enough, they can give off a “memory” of their old status and scare humans or other ghosts. Most ghosts powerful enough to do this are usually alphas or omegas.

- Ghosts are probably more terrifying than usual due to the fact that most people are really dependent on their sense of smell to find each other. So since ghosts have no scent, they’re creepier than usual.

- Danny used to only have a small pack that consisted of Sam and Tucker, but after becoming Phantom, his pack grew. They all smell a bit like loamy soil. Despite how he has alphas in his pack, he is considered the leader and they all listen to him.

- Everything else is the same as usual, like heats, ruts, bonding, mating, etc. However, most ghosts are extremely respectful about bonding and mates because it is considered important in life and they respect that. That means that when Danny is spending time with Sam or Tucker during their heat or rut, most ghosts will take that as time off too.

- Jazz and Sam lowkey butted heads due to their alpha statuses, but after they became friends, they bonded over shared issues like being female alphas and protecting Danny.

- Was looking through Tumblr for more DP x omegaverse posts to see if anyone else had the same thoughts I did and I found this post by halfagone that was definitely very interesting! I recommend reading it, since it’s not very long and it introduces fraids in a way

[iwaasfairy]

ETCHED IN RED | RUST Part 2

tw. dubcon, yandere, kidnapping, mention of murder, power imbalance wordcount. 1.5k

read part 1 here or see the valentine's masterlist

millions knives x reader

Everything else has an almost imperceptible coat of dust— it’s in the air, in the way the sand and dirt creeps through the crevices and lingers. You push yourself up from the warm bed to peer through the spaces between the rickety shack. Your sister still sleeps tight, with her pillow wrapped tight under her arms— and the soft snoring of your parents in the other room also stays steady. One split second you choose against better judgment not to wake her. Have you ever seen a God?

The blanket clings to you while you stir, but slips off when you get onto your knees. A small sliver of light whips around in the distance, quiet, as a hum fills the air. It flickers distractingly through the narrow windows, breaking through the cracks in the door.

It looks almost biblical.

The light that shines above the town, as the earth rattles beneath. You softly tiptoe around the sleeping person as you rub the sleep out of your eyes, open the door to the cold midnight air. Something’s in the distance. Vague and big, it coils in the darkness as if looking for something, and a heaviness settles into your stomach. Have you ever met a God? 

Without a single thought, you set off towards the tower, trying to quiet your steps so as not to attract attention. It’s not a stretch to guess that whatever it is, it’s here for your plant. One you, and all the people nearby, need. The heavy rattling, the drilling noise gets louder and louder, until you’re sure that it’s right upon the town.

You slip through the door and sprint up three steps at a time until you reach the platform, taking a single deep breath as you take in the faint glow. The plant’s tired, you know this. She’s uncurled herself just barely, face hidden within her hands— sometimes you try to reach out to her. You place your hands on the tank, press your head against the glass. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” you promise, and as if hearing you, understanding you; the beautiful leaves slowly seem to bloom a little more.

A frightening mechanic screech fills the night, and whoever wasn’t awake before, surely startles as the entire town shakes. The building with it. You stumble to your knees and turn, just in time to watch the metal roof being ripped off and the bladed, robotic arms to slither in. The man lands with no sound, and blue eyes zero in on you— as you stand to place yourself between him and the plant. The whirring appendages sprouting from his back drip in blood, and it’s only then that you can hear the screaming and crying from outside.

“You can’t take her- she’s sick,” you say, wrapping your arms around it as if in a desperate embrace. Your bottom lip wobbles in the silence, one you fill with a plea. “She’ll die if you take her.” Barely half of his face is visible from underneath the hood, but he towers, and his mouth corners flatten when you shake your head. “Please don’t hurt her.” Crying continues, as your palms heat up. As light gets brighter and brighter in the cold room, and your eyes widen.

You turn to see that the plant’s opened up, and her hands are pressed back against the glass in response to yours— heat surging through your body as you gasp. Though your body stands between him and his prize, he too drops his shoulders, and the mean snarl that was on his face vanishes. It doesn’t last long, before she tuckers out— but it’s enough for you to stare back at him in shock, mouth falling open at the stunning display. Small orbs of light still rain down around you. “The plant—” You don’t get to finish, before one of the arms wraps around you and yanks you towards him; not disemboweling you in the process. The other arms pick up the plant and pull you all out of the building, through the mess of shacks he’s destroyed.

“Wait, please! I-” you try to fight against the blades, but it’s no use. You only cut your skin open further, being dragged through the street kicking and screaming. “Stop, my family! Let me go!” Your arm is caught within a hand, as your sister hangs on with all her weight and almost pulls your hand clean off, planting her feet. She’s crying, and her eyes are bloodshot and frightened. You’re hurting. “Aw, aw!” You say her name, try to cling onto her fingers as hard as you can. Until you go blue. But it’s no fair fight— and as soon as sweat makes you slip, you’re out of her reach.

As you watch her wipe blood splatters off of her cheeks, crying out for you.

He’s moving too fast. The image of your destroyed town doesn’t stay for long enough for you to print it into your mind.

+

The furniture is cold when you touch them, dragging yourself around the room with a monotone sigh. Aside from that blue haired freak who glares, or the Doctor, Knives doesn’t get a lot of company. They rushed off in some state earlier, where Nai had barked at you to stay where you were— but you don’t doubt they’ll be back soon. You’ve seen what the blond can do. You’ve seen what’s left behind when someone tries to steal his precious plants. The camp is cold and metallic and clean, and you’ve learned that he doesn’t feel these things the way you do.

Instead you’re stuck in this room, and wait for the alarm to stop blaring soon. You place yourself on the well-kept leather seat, and softly press a few keys of the organ— jumping when the door slams open too violently. You cling onto the instrument as you turn, only to stare in confusion. Your mouth cracks open, and you frown. “Where’s master Knives? Are you here for the plants?”

He’s got almost the same face, but it’s not him. Hair too long, eyes too gentle. He’s got mechanical parts where Nai doesn’t— as he stands in the door disarmed. “I’m here for-”

“Vash, step aside.” The deep voice fills the room, and the golden blond aims his gun now at Nai. You can’t help it, you hurry over to his side. Knives at least, has shown that he doesn’t have the intent to harm you. This stranger however, keeps glancing between the two of you with frightening precision. Nai’s quick to pull you behind him out of direct reach, and tangles his hand with yours as you stare. They must be twins, your mind supplies. He squeezes your smaller, softer hand in his, then glances over at you. “Are you hurt?”

“N-no, I’m fine.” When you manage to get over your shock at the intrusion, you want to pout. It’s not like you trust him. He stole you, locked you up- you have every right to be angry. But still. He’s kept you from the Doctor’s experiments. And if Legato or any of the other ones had their way, you probably wouldn’t be so cared for. Dolled up. How should you understand this? You cling to his arm, as you peek your face from behind him. “What’s happening?”

The deep voice sounds again, and then the extra appendages come out gleaming in the low light, careful not to nick you in the process. “Vash is just leaving, pretty. Don’t worry.” He brushes a quick hand over your head, before pushing you down to the floor behind the couch. “Stay there.” They’re both back down the hall quicker than you can blink, leaving you behind in the otherwise empty room with only your heart thumping in your chest.

+

Your legs get yanked further down the bed, as almost luminescent eyes stare down at you. You wish you could say you were asleep, but Legato turned out to be right. Even master Knives has urges— that are now being inflicted upon your body as he nestles between your legs again. “Nai, promise me- I want you to go check on my family. I want to make sure they’re safe.” He’s ignoring you, circling your nipples with playful fingers before he leans down to kiss you all over. “Knives~”

After he sucks another hickey into you, he gets nose to nose with you, before dipping to kiss you there too- and biting your bottom lip as he groans. “You’re so whiny.”

“You promised. If I stayed with you… you’d take care of them. My sister and my parents will worry.”

His handsome face is always so awfully blank. In sharp contrast with the brightness of his eyes, and all that you can convince yourself to see in them. It’s so much easier to sacrifice yourself, when you know that you’re doing the right thing. You dig your nails into his shoulders, and pout. “You took the plant… All I want is for them to be okay.”

“They’re taken care of,” he mumbles robotically, before raising a brow. “I promise. Wouldn’t lie to you.” The hands instantly start roaming again, as his thighs push yours open to create more room for his hips, and the way he’s pushing inside you ever so slowly. The low groan he lets out is rumbly, cockhead stretching you around him so that your back arches. The wetness between your legs is hot, and ever since the first time, he’s wanted to be inside you as much as possible. The slick sounds fill the room as he sits back and watches his cock slide into you, squeezing your hips tight.

You cling onto him when he bottoms out, and forces another kiss onto your mouth. Whispers your name as he pulls out, and fucks back into you with a grunt. You can’t help but be grateful that master Knives isn’t all that bad.

All Rights Reserved © IWAASFAIRY 2024. Works are exclusive to this Tumblr.

[invis-o-william]

Day 7: Mind Control

With a start, Tucker woke up, the memory of sand and pyramids fresh in his mind. After looking around his darkened room for a moment, he sighed and settled back into his pillow.

Ever since his encounter with the staff of Duul Aman, he kept having odd dreams. Of Egypt, ancient temples, and strange foreign words he could almost decipher but kept escaping his grasp.

Turning, Tucker looked at his bedside clock. It was 3:35 A.M. and there was no way he would be able to fall asleep again after his dream. He knew from experience that if he did the dreams would only grow in intensity. So instead he flicked on the light and grabbed his PDA from its stand.

He opened its journal app, and after tapping for a new entry began typing out what he could remember from his dream. It wasn’t much this time; a river boat on the Nile, an image of the Great Pyramids, and a few odd hieroglyphs, but nevertheless he recorded all he could. The journal was full of these dream entries. Sometimes Tucker could manage to decipher the hieroglyphs he saw in his dreams, but most of the time there were too few to gain any real meaning from them.

From what he could learn though, most of them were from spells. Spells reserved for only the highest priests to perform, often in secret. Spells that Tucker couldn’t help but wonder if he could use. He had used ancient Egyptian magic before hadn’t he? While it had been when his mind was in the grips of Duul Aman, it was still his body, his abilities. But he was still nervous to try. To do so would mean using the staff, letting its power course through him again, and Tucker wasn’t sure he could handle it.

He had long accepted that he was somehow the reincarnation of Duul Aman, living once more in the modern age. While that was true though, he also wasn’t Duul Aman anymore. He wasn’t a tyrant bent on power and immortality through any means, and he valued his family and friends more than anything else. What bothered him though was that version of himself still existed, at least within the staff.

Whenever he held it, it was hard not to lose his mind to the power that it contained. The staff would so easily overtake him and make him into the man he didn’t ever want to be that he was nervous to go near it.

If these dreams kept up though, he might just have to try. They were growing in frequency and intensity and Tucker desperately wanted to understand what they meant. Mulling it over in his mind, he sent a text out in his group chat with Danny and Sam which was appropriately titled “Boo Buddies” before beginning his research on the hieroglyphs from this night's dream.

. . .

The next morning at school he ran into Sam first, which was typical. Danny usually either ran into a minor ghost on the way to school, or was otherwise held up by his parents’ insane inventions.

“What did you mean by past life dreams Tuck? And in the middle of the night?” she asked straight to the point. Tucker sighed, he had been hoping she would at least wait for Danny to get there.

“Well, it's Duul Aman. Ever since the whole staff thing I keep getting dreams about him, and I want to try something." He kept his wording intentionally vague, half worried about her response and half worried about getting to class on time. “I’ll tell both you guys more about it at lunch, we should get to class.”

Sam narrowed her eyes at him, but followed to homeroom regardless as she saw Danny rounding the corner.

. . .

“You want to try what?!” Danny’s yell was swallowed by the cacophony of sound produced by the cafeteria.

“Keep it down will ya?” Tucker hushed him, “It’s not that big of a deal!”

Danny ran a hand through his hair, “Not a big deal? Tucker we’re talking about messing with Duul Aman’s powers. You know, the guy who kinda turned you into a megalomaniac for a bit? I’d say that’s pretty big.”

Sam shrugged, “I don’t know, I think it might be worth a shot.”

Tucker huffed a laugh. Of course, leave it to the goth to be interested in spells.

“But what if he takes over Tucker’s mind again and goes all Pharaoh-ey!” Danny said, waving his hand in a mimicry of Tucker using the staff.

“That’s why you guys will be staying with me.” Tucker swallowed, “Just in case I can’t fight it off, I want you guys to knock me out before I start going nuts.”

Danny looked at Sam for help, but she shut him down.

“You know if we don’t help he’ll just end up trying it by himself.” she said, and Danny couldn’t help but agree that she had a point there.

“Fine,” he sighed, “but I still think this is a bad idea.”

. . .

They met that night in Jackson Park by the treeline, Sam and Tucker on foot and Danny in ghost form with the staff. Ever since the Duul Aman incident he had kept it stored in the Ghost Zone with Pandora since she seemed the type to know how to care for ancient cursed artifacts.

“Ok,” said Tucker, rubbing his hands together nervously. “Did you bring a book Sam?”

Sam replied by pulling out a black leather-bound journal from her coat.

“Good, good. Ok so now I just need…the staff.” he looked hesitantly at the scarab topped staff in Danny’s hand.

“Uh, what spells exactly are you going to try? Just in case something goes wrong.” Danny asked, well aware of how the staff thrummed with power when Tucker looked at it.

“Right, um well, first I’m going to try a book protection spell that I found. I figure that should be pretty safe. And then, uh, there’s this one spell that’s for ‘opening up the west’. I think that one is to make a temporary portal to the afterlife, so like, it'll lead to the Ghost Zone? At least that’s if I read everything right.” Tucker’s nerves were really starting to get to him, but he had to try to do this and see if he was right. See if he could actually do it.

“I figure if I can make a portal then I could use it to help you when you’re fighting ghosts?” he asked.

Danny considered this for a moment. “The first one, yeah I can understand. The Ghost Zone though? I don’t know, there’s a lot of things that could go wrong there.”

“Which is why you’re here just in case!” Tucker said with as confident a smile he could muster. “Just, let’s try the first one and go from there.” he reached his hand out for the staff which Danny reluctantly handed over.

As soon as it was in his hand Tucker felt a wave of energy wash over him. That was okay though, he was prepared for it this time. Pushing back mentally against the power he cleared his mind and reached for his PDA. “See, I’m alright. Now Sam, we should probably have the book on the ground. Just in case.”

Sam nodded, “Right. Be careful with it, that’s my favorite copy of Dracula.” and laid the book carefully on the grass.

Tucker breathed deeply, feeling the staff’s power flow through him, pulled up the ancient text from his phone, and began reciting the words.

As he read, Danny and Sam exchanged a look. Tucker’s eyes had begun to glow golden but neither wanted to break his concentration by noting it aloud. Soon though that disappeared as he finished the incantation.

“Ok then,” Tucker said shakily, “that was manageable. Also, I think it worked. Danny, you should try and open it.”

Danny nodded and bent down to pick up the book. It seemed normal to him, however when he went to open it the thing felt like it had been glued shut. Raising his eyebrows he handed it over to Sam who was able to easily open the cover.

Tucker smiled, “Cool right, now only Sam should be able to actually open it!”

Danny had to agree that it was pretty impressive, and something he might think about using for his journal of ghost attacks as well. While he had hidden it in his wall for safekeeping from his parents he still wanted some extra security, just in case.

“Do you think you’re okay to try the next one? It’s okay if you need a break.” Sam said, both awe and concern evident in her voice.

Tucker thought about it for a moment. While it was exhausting trying to hold the power back from overwhelming him, he also couldn’t resist seeing what else he could do with this power. “I’m going to give the portal a try.” he said, and before Danny could protest he began the incantation.

Danny was more apprehensive about this spell. The book one was cool and pretty useful, but conjuring a portal to the Ghost Zone? That seemed like a huge leap forward for Tucker. But he wanted to be a good friend and trust in his abilities, so he watched as his friend started the next spell.

Tucker felt confident. He could do this, the first spell was a success and he was sure this one would be as well. As he spoke the ancient words he felt the power emanating from the staff increase, and as it washed over him he felt his mind slip to the power of Duul Aman.

Well, at least he had his friends there to stop him from creating another sphinx.

[lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks]

I keep adding songs to my dp playlist for very specific amvs I construct in my head (as you do)

this is an old concept I built forever ago but this song drew it back out of me, and I want to revisit it

imagine if you will, Void Danny from Reverse Trio AU, in a timeline where the Phantom of his world (in this specific scenario it's Tucker) did not succeed and was killed by Nocturn

Nocturn at the height of his power is able to use his foot in the dream realm to clip through space, aka he can make portals, at first he just uses them to spread across the world, he teaches Danny to do the same

one day he lets slip that he can make portals to other alternate universes, and that when they are finished feeding on this world, they will move to another

at this point, with Nocturn growing overconfident and complacent, his grip on Danny's mind starts to slip, Danny starts to miss his friends, he starts to regret what they've done

in a moment of gathered willpower he decides to open a portal to a world where his friends are still alive, but midway through he hesitates, what will they think of him? he killed them after all, wouldn't they hate him? wouldn't they think he was a monster? he desperately wants to see them but he can't bare to have them see him this way

the portal opens, but it opens to a world of lush green leaves, a huge tree with a girl sitting beneath it, she has her hand on the trunk, she's crying

he recognises her

the portal had found a version of his friend who would not hate or judge him for what he had done, it found a version of his friend who was just like him

he speaks to this Sam and she tells him that he can't be here, that she killed him, his body was beneath this tree, Danny was her Phantom

he tells her where he is from, that he's escaped to find the friends he lost, he says she's not the Sam he knew, but she's clearly a Sam who regrets as he regrets, who wants what he wants, he reaches out his hand and asks her to come with him, they still have one friend left to find

she takes his hand

he opens another portal, this time to an Amity buried in sand, there's a boy holding a golden staff, he stares out over the buried ruins of the city, the grave of his friends and family, one he had dug himself with the whispers of Hotep Ra in his ear and the memories of an ancient king piloting his body, Sam was his Phantom

Danny and Sam reach out, they tell him to come with them, they'll find a new home together, in a world where none of them exist, a world that none of them have broken

he takes their hands

from here they can go anywhere, to any universe, to find a place for themselves where they are away from the influences that changed them, they are still monsters, in their own ways, with powers granted to them by those who changed them

Danny cannot survive without feeding off dreams, he roams through the dream realm every night, giving people pleasant dreams but leaving them tired and drained come morning

but he thinks perhaps if he feeds lightly, takes just enough energy from just enough people, if he makes sure to feed from different people every night, perhaps he won't need to cause anyone harm

Sam needs sunshine and soil to thrive, but she still has no sympathy for the humans who destroy nature, dragging anyone who threatens her into the ground with her roots

but maybe she can use her powers for something more, rejuvenate the land she walks on, find and connect with humans who want what she wants, they're out there, she knows, she used to be one of them

Tucker uses his magic to survive, to steal food and clothes and shelter for them all, he may have left his kingdom but he is still a king, why shouldn't he take whatever he wants? who are they to tell him no? he could crush them like bugs in his fist, they were only peasants

but does he need to kill them? can't he just take what he needs and make them forget? he has killed so many already, and for what? an empty desolate kingdom? he left that place for a reason

as the influence of their manipulators wanes, the people they once were slowly return to them, they will never be the same, they have been changed far too much, but they are together, and together they remember how to be people again, not quite the people they all once knew, but close enough to count

but eventually their guardians will notice they are missing, Nocturn will follow a trail through dimensions, he will meet others whose wards have disappeared, they will come looking for their disobedient runaway children, and they will destroy whatever lies in their path to get them back

[five-rivers]

Life's Great Lie 16

AO3

Sand swirled on the flight deck. 

“I thought I told you not to do that while I’m driving!” snapped Jazz.

“It’s an emergency.”

Jazz twisted to look at Tucker.  “What, did something go wrong with--?”

“No, that’s all fine.  This, though?”  He pointed at the alien-spewing portal.  “This is an emergency.  Backup’s still got a ways to go before they reach the portal.  I came to scout things out.”

“How long is ‘a ways?’” asked Sam. 

“I don’t know.  You know how distances can get in there.  Maybe fifteen minutes?  I can pull a couple of people over with me at a time, like with Thor here, but—”

“Thor came with you?” interrupted Jazz. 

“Yeah, he’s—What the heck, how did he do that?  He’s huge.”

“Never mind that,” said Sam.  “Are you okay to keep using the staff like that?”

“I’m fine.  I’ve been managing my jerkish urges by being low-key kind of a jerk to Valerie.”

“That doesn’t sound like managing them at all, actually.”

“I’m fine.”

He didn’t sound fine.  But then, who was?  Not Jazz. 

“How’s the shield setup going?” continued Tucker, not giving Jazz a chance to dispute his statement. 

“Not great,” said Sam.  “Romanov got ahold of one of those bikes and we’re trying to get the generators set up on nearby buildings, but—” She summarized the rest of the technical problems (explosions, enemy forces, skyscraper roofs being really far apart) with a shrug. 

It really was too bad that Loki’s portal was so far up, and that they didn’t dare bring the Ops Center closer.  Then, they could have tried to encircle the portal with the Ops Center shield. 

But the blimp was not a match for space whales.  Or whatever those things actually were.  And they were still unclear on what forces Loki had in the building. 

Apart from Danny, who, really, was more than capable of drilling a hole through an unshielded Ops Center.

“How can I—Oh, heck.  He isn’t.”

“Isn’t what?” asked Jazz, trying to see what Tucker was so upset about.  She leaned forward and flinched as a gust of hot, sandy air scraped along the back of her neck.  “I hate that.”

“There!” said Sam, pointing. 

There was someone new on the roof of Stark Tower.  Two someones.  Thor, and now Tucker. 

“Oh, no, they’re both idiots,” said Jazz.  Her dramatic, tension-filled reunion with a mind-controlled family member could wait.  Why couldn’t Thor’s?

One of the computer banks beeped.  “We have incoming,” said Sam.  “Ten o’clock.”

“I see them,” said Jazz, spotting the small formation.  But the Ops Center didn’t have any power to spare.  All it had was going into the portal and the shields. 

“Should I go out?” asked Sam. 

“No way,” said Jazz.

“I have a bazooka.  And a jetpack.”

“That’s not—”

Something small and narrow arced upward into the lead glider, then exploded.   

“Oh, yeah,” said Sam.  “I’d forgotten about arrow boy.”

.

“Loki!  Turn off the Tesseract or I’ll destroy it!”

“Brother!” exclaimed Loki.  “Come, drink with me!  For the dawn of a new and more balanced age!”

Danny did not like that emphasis on balanced.  It sounded like something out of someone else’s mouth.   And Loki had said it, or something like it, before, to Iron Man, hadn’t he?  But Danny had other concerns at the moment.  “Hey,” he said, by way of greeting.  “So, before we start, is he drunk enough to be actually impaired?  He keeps telling me Asgardians are different and all, but I’m not super clear if he’s actually an Asgardian, like, species-wise, culturally, obviously, I mean.  Is he drunk?”

“What?” asked Thor. 

“Look, I haven’t slept in…  I just haven’t.  So.  Words.  Forget them.”  He pointed at Loki.  “Drunk?”

“I’m not drunk,” said Loki.  “I am merely showing Thor some hospitality.”

Thor scowled at them and turned his hammer on the Tesseract.  Naturally, it bounced off the shield, and Thor flew backward several meters. 

“Should I have warned him?” asked Danny.  He was sort of annoyed that Thor hadn’t at least answered the question about alcohol. 

“It wouldn’t have made any difference,” said Loki, draining another shot of alcohol.  “He never listens to me when I tell him things, anyway.”

“That might be because you’re sort of unhinged.”

“Oh, yes, so unlike SHIELD and Fury, using an infant as a soldier.”

A gust of sand blew over the roof, revealing Tucker. 

“Oh, hi, Tuck!” said Danny, waving.  “Here all by yourself?”

Tucker looked up, red flashing behind his glasses as he wobbled.  “A son of Ra never walks alone.  Wadjet rests upon my brow, Nekhbet shelters me with her wings.”

Oh, that didn’t sound good. 

“Finally,” said Loki.  “Someone who can give me a decent fight.”  He threw the glass aside and walked forward, only to be stopped by Thor. 

“No, brother,” said Thor.  “If you fight, you fight with me.”

“Well, sounds like it’s just you and me, then,” said Danny, pleasantly unsure about his odds against Tucker given their respective current states.  Ice crackled under his feet even as the air grew dry and desert-like.  To their side, Loki and Thor fought with more traditional means. 

Captain America and Black Widow zoomed by the tower on a stolen chitauri glider.  Both Danny and Loki noticed at the same time and turned to fire – Danny hoping Tucker would take advantage of the distraction, Loki for who knew what, considering he was still in the middle of a rather nasty sibling brawl, complete with hair pulling on both ends.

Thor tackled Loki and the bolt from the scepter missed.  Danny’s ectoblast didn’t.

.

It was only a slight graze, one that barely made the chitauri bike shudder, but it must have gone through something important, because although they weren’t in freefall, Steve and Natasha soon found themselves in a steep spiral.

Steve prepared to grab Natasha and jump.  Bleeding off even a little momentum meant a lot in these situations. 

But before they got close enough to the ground to do so, sand blasted up, buoying them up with enough force for Natasha to get more control and set them on the street in one piece even as individual grains of sand scored lines in their protective gear and sometimes their skin.  The sandstorm died down, revealing a street full of enemies, Stark Tower looming high above them, and other bikes hurtling towards the ground and exploding into fireballs.  The sandstorm had, apparently, been too much for them.  The street itself was, and there was no good way to say this, brutally shredded.  Not a single window on the block still had glass in it.  Was that where all the sand had come from?

The portal disgorged another huge creature, flanked by fliers.  Steve could spot what looked like hundreds of soldiers on it, made tiny by distance. 

“Well, plan A is screwed,” said Natasha, as they prepared to fight.  “What now?”

Steve touched his communicator – the Fenton Phone – then turned to slam a chitauri soldier into the ground.  He tossed the weapon to Natasha.  “Fentons,” he said, “we’ve been shot down.  Can you make a shield around the portals with the generators we’ve already dropped?”

“No can do, Cap!” shouted Jack Fenton.  “Any shield we could make right now would miss it by a mile!  Geometry’s all wrong!”

Steve looked up the tower again, casually deflecting an energy blast from one of the Chitauri.

“What’re you thinking?” asked Natasha. 

“What if we got some of the generators up on top of Stark Tower?”

“That might work,” said Maddie Fenton.  “We’re going to have to do some very fast and dirty math to get everything working, but I think it might work…”

There were screams – civilians – down the street, and Steve’s whole body twitched towards them.

“Give me the generators,” said Natasha, acquiring another weapon as her first one seemed to run out of charge.  “You go.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.  Given how big Stark Tower is, and how many people Loki probably had, sneaking through that place is more my thing, anyway.”

“And I can give you some tips!” said Stark, who had, of course, been listening in.

“Alright,” said Steve, already planning on how best to organize a civilian retreat.  He tossed the pack of shield generators to Natasha, who caught them easily. 

“Don’t die!” she said. 

“Don’t plan on it!”

.

Tucker jerked his staff sideways with a gasp, and that was enough of an opening for Danny.  He stepped forward, smoothly, winter in his wake, sliding past the not-quite-real vulture and snake that had faded into being around Tucker. 

Duulaman had given Danny a lot of trouble the first time around, throwing constructs in his path and warping reality as he saw fit.  But there was a lot to be said about experience. 

He grabbed Tucker’s wrist and squeezed.  The snake sunk its teeth into Danny’s shoulder.  They all hissed.  Danny looked into Tucker’s red eyes, and wondered if the color of his eyes was just as jarring to Tucker. 

Then, the red flared brighter and Tucker—

Tucker dropped the scepter.  The red in his eyes vanished immediately. 

“No, no, no, I can’t do that,” said Tucker, whose skin had taken on a clammy, sickly cast.  “No, nope, not doing that, oh my gosh—”

Danny grabbed the scepter and tossed it over the edge of the building.  Which was… okay, that could have gone better.  

“Sorry,” said Danny.

“Crap,” said Tucker, but he wasn’t a threat any longer, so Danny let him go.  He had his orders. 

Protect Loki. 

“Loki!” shouted Thor, even as Danny pushed him away and called up a shield.  “Look at this! Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?”

“It’s too late,” said Loki, voice cracking.  “It’s too late to stop it.  Any of it.”

“The army isn’t ours,” reminded Danny, helpfully, looking back.  He could see the knife between Loki’s fingers. 

The sounds of battle seemed to swell.  The shadow of one of the huge space whales passed overhead. 

“Get me out of here,” whispered Loki.

“Got it,” said Danny, and he pulled them both off the side of the building. 

.

Tucker didn’t know how much more of this his heart could take.  First, Captain America and Black Widow going down, then the sudden fear that he’d killed them with that glass sandstorm, then Danny getting the scepter from him and tossing it off the roof, and now Danny and Loki were skydiving without parachutes.

Please let them not have pancaked on the ground.  He knew Danny could tap his flight a little, even in human form, but there was still that fear.

“Call back your staff!” called Thor.  “We must go!”

“Wh—I don’t know what you can do with your hammer, but I can’t just call back that thing,” said Tucker.  “It’s probably broken into a million pieces on the sidewalk by now!”  And good riddance, honestly.  He could still feel something in the back of his head.  Something nasty. 

“Have you ever tried?  Tools like that tend to return to their rightful owners,” said Thor, taking a few steps towards him.  “I do not pretend to know what you are going through with this ‘past life’ of yours, but you can control it.  Just as Banner controls his anger, or any mage of my people controls the power that flows through them.  And you must.  This city depends on us.”

“Oh, no pressure, then,” said Tucker. 

“Good man.”  Thor patted him on the shoulder and then jumped off the building.  Great!  Great.  It wasn’t like there was any other way for him to get off this roof, what with Loki’s other forces in the building.  He was stuck on the roof alone!

“Ughhhh.”

Or maybe not so alone.  He pulled his emergency lipstick out of his pocket.  Not the best weapon against humans – and he had no idea what it would do to aliens – but it was better than nothing.  And how arrogant had the staff made him, that he didn’t think to get something more robust from the Ops Center before leaving? 

Near the portal device, an old man was sitting up, holding his head.  “Ugh, oh, no.  Oh, no.”  He stared up at the portal in awe and horror. 

“Hey,” said Tucker. 

The man jumped.  “Who’re you?”

“Who’re you?”

They stared at each other for a moment. 

“… are you pointing a tube of lipstick at me?”

He had pretty good eyesight for such an old guy. 

“It’s a deadly laser,” said Tucker.  Well.  It was a laser, and it did have an association with death, via ghosts, so.  It wasn’t like he was lying.  “Are you one of Loki’s people?  Did you help make this?”

“I—Not of my own will.”  The man got to his feet shakily.  “I was—The scepter.  You can’t—You can’t protect against yourself.”

“I know the feeling,” said Tucker.  “You know any way to shut it off?”

The man nodded, slowly.  “Yes.  Yes, we did.”

“You and Danny?”

“All of us.  Loki…  There’s something very wrong with Loki.”

“Cool.  So.  How do we do it?”

“We need Loki’s staff.”

.

After they’d fallen a few stories, Danny flipped them into the building.  Whatever Tucker had done had taken out all the glass, leaving Stark Tower, with its ultra-modern design, missing much of its outer walls.  Loki landed easily, which maybe, maybe supported his position that he wasn’t drunk. 

Maybe. 

He also caught Danny by the arm when he stumbled.

“What’s wrong with you?” he snapped. 

“Uh.  Not sleeping in days.  What’s wrong with you?”

Loki scoffed.  “Hide us,” he ordered. 

Danny turned them invisible.

“So… What now?”

“I should be leading this army,” said Loki, looking out into the city, his eyes slightly unfocused even as Thor swooped down from the roof and back out into battle.  “I should be directing them—They should be hunting down these heroes, not wasting time with humans that aren’t even warriors.”

Danny swallowed.  Loki was right – right both ways, actually.  The way the chitauri were fighting was stupid, but it wasn’t stupid enough.  Fewer people would get hurt if they were focused on people who could take it.  Except…  “You do know it isn’t your army, right?  You do—What happens,” Danny tried, a bit desperately, “when your boss comes through that portal?”

Loki froze.  His breathing went shallow.  “No, no, no,” he said.  “That was not our bargain.  I will deliver the Tesseract and the scepter to him.  He has no reason… no reason…” 

“What did he do to you?” pushed Danny.  If he knew it was something bad, then maybe…

Loki shook his head.  “I need to take command.”  His voice was flat, lifeless. 

“Okay,” said Danny.  “Elevator or stairs?”

Green light flared from above, and they both strode to the edge of the floor to look up. 

.

“We’ve got increased energy influx, kiddos!” said Jack over the Ops Center intercom.  “Get ready to adjust for momentum bleed-off, Jazzypants!”

“Right, right, right,” said Jazz, making sure she had a good grip on the controls.  If this wound up being a thing where they had codenames printed in the newspaper, and hers wound up being Jazzypants, she’d be committing some crimes. 

“Wait, what does he mean momentum bleed-off?” asked Sam, who had noticed what controls Jazz had and was now buckling herself in. 

“Ever notice that you slow down when you go through a portal?”

“Sped up a few times, too.”

“Well, that energy goes somewhere, so—”

The Ops Center lurched, and Jazz steadied it in the air, running the engines just enough to keep them in place.  The anchor was all very well and good, but it had limits, too. 

A familiar figure, smaller than the space whales but, but still huge, with a weapon held in each of her four hands, emerged from the portal, trailing dozens of smaller glowing dots. 

“Yes!” shouted Sam.  “They made it!”

And then the shield cut out. 

“Uh, we might have underestimated the juice the portal would take when actively transmitting.  Just a bit.”

[imsociallyanxiousgetoverit]

Danny in the ATLA/TLOK world

How well would he manage as himself? Would he suddenly be considered a water bender? A fire bender? A new form of energy bending? A spirit bender? There’s so much possibility here!

I’m also a huge huge fan of overpowered Danny so perhaps he starts out that way with his typical powers but as people he encounters learn his starting style he begins to change as a result of learning bending styles of fighting, too!

This isn’t even mentioning if others have powers and show up!

Imagine Sam being a new type of earth bender primarily controlling plantlife!

Tucker with electricity- maybe even sand? -as his sole bending ablility!

If Jazz doesn’t just have weapons or the same as Danny then maybe she discovers her talent for blood bending! That sounds like a dream for badass angsty Jazz lovers!

And if they’re each halfas or liminal they’d all have a bunch of overpowered abilities at first!

[ghostboy-with-persona]

A video has been uploaded, watch?

[In a Swirl of Lydia's Tattoos Danny, Tucker and Sam lay collapsed at the feet of Freakshow in what looks like a random cornfield trapped in tight bonds of tattoos that the three helplessly struggle to escape

All three of them yell at Freakshow, questioning how they got there and asking about their parents before Freakshow tuts at them saying

"Now, now, just look behind me, but I didn't summon yo... what the hell are you wearing?" Freakshow asks Danny

"Just a little disguise I made after YOU REVEALED MY IDENTITY TO THE ENTIRE PLANET!" Danny yells the angry face he is making looking right at home on Goro's face

Freakshow rolls his eyes at that "... anyways, as I was saying, a little tattoo told me you have my gems. Give. them. to. me."

"How would we know if you would keep your end of the deal and let our families go." Sam points out

"Yeah, man, your outfit does not exactly scream honest," Tucker adds on

Danny rips his arms out of his bindings, gripping the thermos tightly, "we have the gems now let our par..." The tattoos come alive once more, stealing the thermos straight out of danny's hands while rebinding him

Freakshow, Giddy grabs the thermos from the tattoos, opening it up and pouring the gems into his hand. He places the gems one by one into the Reality Gauntlet. "Hehe," Freakshow laughs, "I have all three gems, and now thanks to you three, I now know the sequence in order to activate the entire gauntlet!"

"Let our families GO!" Sam yells venomously, struggling in her bindings even harder

But Freakshow ignores her as he activates the Reality Gauntlet. "With this, I'm now the ringmaster of all reality!" He exclaims, changing his outfit with a flourish.

"Now let our families go Freakshow keep to your deal," Danny states, seething in barely suppressed rage

"Ah, but the deal was if you want to see your families alive again. you will bring the gems to me in three days, and here they are alive, but I never said I would keep it that way. " Freakshow tuts with an evil, wicked grin.

Freakshow raises his hand with the gauntlet on it, releasing a wave of power that twists reality to Freakshow's whims, and suddenly, everyone except Danny and Freakshow are on this massive rollercoaster that just seems to have popped into existence from thin air.

It has a fire-breathing clown jack in the box designed to spray directly onto the tracks, two smashing hammers smashing each other, designed to crush the train on the tracks traveling between them, and the cherry on top of this rollercoaster from hell is the massive drop into a giant pool of acid.

As the coaster starts to roll down the tracks, Freakshow turns to Danny and removes his bonds, "I'll be fair about it though you can struggle to save them" Freakshow says with a laugh "go on give us a show"

Danny has a thoughtful look on his face as he goes ghost into what looks like Ghost Goro and spilts off two other Dannys, granted one is invisible, and the three of them Silently communicate before the visible clone danny joins beside real danny ready for a fight, while the invisible one sneaks closer to Freakshow.

Freakshow tuts annoyed. "Don't think summoning a second one of you will help, not even creating 20 will as the people in the coaster are bound to the seats."

"We may be bound to the seats, but we aren't helpless," Sam and Tucker say at once over the roar of the tracks, grabbing onto the shackles on their wrists. "PERSONA" echos out from both of their mouths as Duul Aman and Lady Nimuë come to their bonded ones call as they rip the shackles off.

"Dannys, focus on getting the Gauntlet from Freakshow. We'll be fine til the end," Tucker yells as his persona Duul Aman uses his powers to make a shield of sand.

"What the..." Freakshow turns the Danny enraged, fear gripping Danny's heart but he pushes though it will barely a wince, "It's no matter that the first two bits are deflected by whatever powers your friends can summon but can you claim the Gauntlet before your friends and families take a bath in acid?"

Danny stands firm beside his clone as both take a fighting stance, the invisible one inches ever closer to Freakshow unnoticed, and with a cheeky grin that definitely does not fit with his current face, "I can sure try."

But before a single punch could be thrown. Sam, with the help of her persona, blasts the jack in the box off its pedestal and has it crashing to the ground. Enraged at this show of power, Freakshow calls out. "you know what fuck a sporting chance your little friends cheated so how about I make you melt instead" he says gauntlet pointed towards Danny glowing ominously.

Unnoticed by both as Danny rushes to put a shield between himself and Freakshow. The clone that was previously showing the same grim determination as danny. its face blanks, losing all outward signs of emotion and shudders in place, arms falling like limp noodles, and an almost invisible bright blue flame flickers in and out of sight under the blue and black striped jumpsuit.

Danny himself is glowing that faint green of an activating Sukukaja spell as Freakshow's blast hits the shield which quickly melts and Danny himself looks a little wobbly on the edges, ecto dripping off his fingers to the ground far below, reminiscent of how his female clone Danielle tries to melt but just like his clone he is able to keep himself together and reverse the melting process. Danny then starts racing away, performing evasive maneuverse at three times the normal speed.

As this is going on, the flames on the Danny clone have only grown larger, face twisting into a mad grin as manic, echoing, ghostly laughter pours out of the clone, reminiscent of an engine room, on a ship, in someone's mind. Danny looks at the clone but can't look for long as he is forced to constantly be on the move to avoid being melted by the power of the gauntlet.

As Danny movement arc farther away from the clone and Freakshow turn his back on the clone as he yells. "Stay Still, it should only hurt a lot!"

As Danny yells back, "No thanks, I like being soild." The laughter and flames reach a crescendo engulfing the clone in a bright blue fire, laughter, never ceasing, and when the flames lift, it was no longer just a Danny clone, disguised as Goro Akechi if he was a ghost. No, the being standing there was Goro Akechi in full, as Hereward hovers over his changed shoulder.

It's the Black Mask in his last moments. Shackles on every wrist, ankle, and neck, chains dangling like cut puppet strings. Haunting orange eyes and cyan hair peek out from the broken mask on his face. Corpse pale skin barely distracts from the fresh open bullet wound on his chest. Is it bleeding ectoplasm or blood? it's impossible to tell.

And as Freakshow aims the gauntlet once more at Danny. Goro says in a haunted creeky voice, "Per... son... a..." while raising a hauntingly silent arm, even as the chains links visibly rub each other, clawed fingers dripping blood, to point at Freakshow's back. At the Silent command Hereward releases a blast of curse magic in the shape of an arrow which it's only due a lucky side step that it pierces Freakshow's stupidly long petticoat instead of his knee the persona originally aimed for.

At the sight of the unfamiliar persona magic, both Danny and Freakshow turn to look at Goro, Danny visibly becoming more excited, the force of the bond between the two stripping his disguise and revealing his true ghost form underneath, a single half broken shackle on his wrist. Which Danny grabs and rips off, as Freakshow stares in confusion at Goro, summoning the persona Sylph of the Temperance Arcana in the process who on Danny's command sends a minor blast of razor wind at Freakshow with a Garu spell.

Freakshow gets injured by the spell but heals himself with the Gauntlet as Danny floats over to the side of Goro, automatically falling into a two person party formation with Goro as both start hurling spells at Freakshow. Curse from Goro and Wind from Danny.

Freakshow suddenly on the defensive first tries to affect the spells directly. When that fails, he sticks to dodging and creating walls in front of himself to block the spells as even though both Goro and Danny weren't aiming for anything, immediately lethal, a spell to knee or another joint means he need to stop and heal leaving him wide open to another strike.

When a small break in the spell pattern appears, Freakshow takes aim at Goro, but this visibly pisses off Danny, who desummons Sylph in order to summon Lilim instead. Who blasts Freakshow with the far more dangerous spell Zio. Which, He barely dodges in time.

Now, all this time, the invisible clone has been growing closer to Freakshow and now only needs a big distraction in order to grab the Gauntlet as the coaster passes by the hammers protected by Duul Aman's sand shield.

Which Danny was happy to provide when he drops the persona leader identity to literally bite Freakshow in the arm. Making Freakshow yelp in pain and even distract him from the existence of the reality gauntlet for a bit while he tries to shake Danny off his arm. Though that only makes Danny bite harder, even drawing blood. Goro then telegraphs, striking at Freakshow's head with a sword to push him into the invisible clone when Freakshow quite understandablely dodges the blow.

Winning the fight when the clone removes the Gauntlet from Freakshow's hand and uses it to stop and save the people on the coaster. Goro fades away, and Danny stops biting Freakshow sad to see Goro go and gets spit in the face by Freakshow, who is being held up by Jack Fenton.

Danny is then handed the reality gauntlet by the clone who fades away as well. Which is promptly used to bring everything back to the way it is supposed to be with only his friends and family remembering his secret identity, themselves back in Amity Park with his Phone back, and Freakshow in Jail once more Danny even hailed his bite mark, with one exception, Valerie Gray, who will really like an explanation right now on why everybody forgot his identity and why time seems to have been rolled back to the first day of Summer again, also why didn't you tell me you were the ghostboy!!!!]

[cypherscript]

Pharaoh Tuck Ur

looking at one Tucker Foley, it would seem he was the most normal of any of his trio; he is not a teenaged superhero king of an entire dimension, he wasnt heir to a multimillion dollar fortune and adopted by one of the strongest ghosts in their rogues gallery. Doesn't matter if she refutes it, she was still touched by his power.

However once he even comes into contact with any ancient Egyptian artifact that 'normal' quality goes out the window as he gains incredible magical power. Cats love him regardless but sand begins to mysteriously appear around him as he uses his powers, getting into corners as his powers seem to grow the longer he holds onto it. He generally has access to atleast one artifact on his person but not touching him(just in case). He doesnt like using it due to the sour taste his first experience with it had on him and his friends.

Once cause Dr. Fate to have an episode upon meeting him once when Phantom brought him to the watchtower for a meeting, causing him to teleport away in an instant. Nabu remembers everyone hes ever worked with and no two people have ever look so closely identical that weren't identical twins than Foley and Pharaoh Duul Aman.

[imekitty]

Pink astronaut prompt: Spiderman and mj style kiss.

The sand felt so good, nice and cool squished between her toes. Paulina tilted her head back and closed her eyes, breathing deep and squeezing Danny’s hand as she walked alongside him.

“Coming to the lake was a great idea,” said Paulina. She looked across the water at the setting sun. “It’s so pretty.”

Danny also looked at the sun, large and orange as it neared the water on the horizon. He held Paulina’s high-heeled shoes slung over his shoulder. “It really is.”

Paulina playfully bumped him with her hip. “You’re not gonna say ‘yeah, you are’ this time?”

“Nah. I’m saving all my corny jokes for ghost fighting later tonight.”

Danny was looking straight ahead now. Paulina stared at his face in profile, so handsome, so perfect. She sighed, causing him to turn to her.

“What?” he asked.

“I just can’t believe that I’m really going out with the ghost boy,” said Paulina, lacing her fingers through his. “Danny Phantom is my boyfriend, that’s just so…incredible.”

Danny shook his head. “You’ve got it all wrong. What’s incredible is that I’m dating Paulina Sanchez, the hottest girl in school. The whole town, even.”

“Oh, stop.”

“People are shocked when I tell them you’re my girlfriend. They have no idea how a nerd like me could get a knockout babe like you.”

“You’re not a nerd. You’re way cooler than I am. I mean, what do I have, fashion sense?” Paulina chuckled and rolled her eyes. “You can turn invisible and walk through walls.”

“All ghosts can do that.” Danny shrugged. “It’s nothing special, really.”

“But not all humans can,” said Paulina. “Just you.”

Danny smiled, his cheeks looking rosy in the dimming twilight.

“Well, not just you, I guess,” said Paulina. “Mayor Masters can do it, too. And your female clone you were telling me about.” Paulina chortled. “You’ve actually been cloned. You really have done and seen it all, haven’t you?”

Danny’s smile faded. “Yeah, I’ve… I’ve had a lot of interesting experiences.” He paused. “Not all of them good.”

“Well, your life is definitely a lot more exciting than mine,” said Paulina. “I used to think choosing my outfit each morning was a do-or-die decision. But hearing about your adventures, it just makes me realize how silly my obsession with staying at the top of the social ladder was.”

“And yet, I still wanted to be popular,” said Danny. “More than ever after I got my ghost powers, honestly. I just thought I was a…a freak. But I thought if I could just be accepted by the cool kids, then I’d finally be happy.”

“A freak? Yeah, right,” said Paulina. “Everyone in the A-List thinks Danny Phantom is the coolest kid ever.”

“Well. I sure don’t feel like it,” said Danny, smiling weakly.

“You really don’t think your powers are cool?” Paulina scoffed. “Danny, baby, if I had your powers—oh, the things I would do.”

Danny’s smile turned mischievous. “Oh, yeah? What things?”

Paulina looked up at the darkening sky bejeweled with tiny stars just popping out. “Well, I could go out running in the morning without wearing any makeup at all, like I would just turn invisible and no one would ever know. Then I could sleep in an extra half hour.”

“But you already look stunning without makeup.”

“And I could walk through a big crowd without worrying about some perv pinching my ass. I would just turn intangible and march on through.”

“Okay, yeah, I’ve done that.”

“What? Gone intangible to prevent someone from pinching your ass?”

Danny laughed. “No, I mean I’ve gone intangible to get through a big crowd. Like I one time phased Sam, Tucker, and me to the very front of a big outdoor concert. It was awesome.”

“Sounds like it!” agreed Paulina. She looked up at the sky again and sighed. “And if I could fly, I would glide under the stars every night.”

“You can do that anyway.” Danny squeezed her hand. “With me.”

Paulina brought her gaze back down to find Danny’s eyes pulsating with a soft, otherworldly glow, more dazzling than any night sky as Paulina lost her breath staring into them.

“I do have you,” she murmured.

The glow in Danny’s eyes faded as he lifted her hand clasped in his and kissed her knuckles.

“I’m happy to use my powers to do anything you want,” he said, letting their hands fall again.

“Anything?” asked Paulina impishly.

“I mean, you know…” Danny caught her look and smiled. “As long as it’s legal.”

Paulina hummed. “Well, there is something I’ve always wanted to try ever since we started going out…”

“Oh, yeah? What is it?”

Paulina bit her lip and threaded her fingers through a lock of her hair.

“Come on.” Danny nudged her shoulder with his upper arm. “You can tell me.”

“Well, it’s, ah…kind of like…a fantasy.”

Danny’s eyes flashed with a quick glow again. “Oh, now I have to hear it.”

Paulina’s lashes lowered. “Promise you won’t make fun of me?”

“I would never,” said Danny. “I mean, I’ve told you some of my fantasies, so I’d really love to hear at least one of yours.”

Paulina’s steps slowed until they stopped altogether. Danny also stopped.

“Okay, um…” Paulina pushed her hair behind her ears. “You know Spider-Man, right?”

“Of course.”

“You know the movies? Like not the most recent ones, but the ones with Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst?”

“I sure do,” said Danny, smirking.

Paulina couldn’t stop a grin of her own. “Why do I feel like you already know what I’m going to say?”

“Because there’s a scene I’ve always wanted to recreate with someone, too.”

“Oh, yeah? What scene?”

“No, you first.” Danny kicked at the sand. “I don’t want to get my hopes up.”

“Well, maybe we can do both if we’re thinking of different scenes.”

“Just tell me already. The suspense is killing me.”

Paulina pressed her lips. “The upside-down kiss.” She hoped she didn’t have to say anything more than that.

To her relief, Danny did not laugh. He actually sighed. Dreamily, even.

“I’ve always wanted to try that, too,” he said.

Paulina beamed. “Really?”

“Yeah. Really.”

“I mean, doesn’t it just look so sexy?” Paulina clutched his arm. “So can we try it?”

“Of course,” said Danny, looking around. “We’ll just need to find a tree that you can hang upside down from—”

Paulina shook him. “Danny, not me!”

“Well, why not?”

“Maybe because I’m wearing a dress?”

“That sounds like the perfect reason why you should do it.”

“Danny!” Paulina lightly smacked his shoulder. “You’re the one with the ghost powers, silly.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know how sexy I’d look upside down.”

“You’d look so sexy.”

Danny sighed. “Well, you know I’d have to transform to hang that way, right?”

“I do know that. You can’t engage your antigravity abilities in human form.”

“So you don’t mind kissing me in ghost form?”

“Of course not,” Paulina purred. “I love kissing you in ghost form.”

“I just thought maybe my lips are too cold for you when I’m a ghost.”

“Mmm, they are cold, but I love the sensation.”

Danny scanned the area. “Should we go somewhere more private?”

Paulina also looked around. “I don’t see anyone around here. And a kiss by the lake is always so romantic.”

Danny smiled, looked around once more, and closed his eyes. Two rings of light formed around him, pulling apart and changing him, revealing her beautiful ghost boy with his icy hair and tight jumpsuit that drove Paulina absolutely crazy. He opened his eyes, glowing bright green now.

The sun had almost completely vanished, but Danny’s spectral glow provided plenty of light for them to see each other’s blushing faces, Paulina’s pink and Danny’s green.

“Okay, okay!” Paulina took her high heels out of Danny’s hand and held them between her clasped fingers, bouncing on her toes in the sand. “I’m ready!”

Danny ran his newly freed hand through his hair, the frosted locks pushing back before falling forward again. He then lifted into the air and hovered above the sand.

Paulina chewed her bottom lip in anticipation.

Danny floated a little higher before flipping himself over, aligning his face with Paulina’s.

“Does all the ectoplasm rush to your head when you’re upside down?” asked Paulina.

“No,” said Danny. “I’m in antigravity mode. I could stay like this for hours and hours.”

“Well, that’s good to know,” said Paulina with a coy smile while dropping her heels onto the sand. “Because I could certainly kiss you for hours and hours.”

Danny smiled, then closed his eyes, his lips drawing together. Paulina placed her hands on either side of his face and brought him near, closing her eyes as well.

Static passed between their lips before they met, his ghostly energy misting against her skin, a fluttery sensation that made her think of fluffy clouds in the night sky, clouds that she could actually touch and hold and play with.

Kissing him in ghost form was magical, like nothing that could ever normally exist on Earth.

And in this position, it was an even more peculiar feeling. With his nose out of the way, she was able to angle deeply into his mouth, her fingers tugging on his ears and then moving to his jaw, his neck. Paulina could feel him smiling as she drank him in, enjoying the feel of his top teeth flipped over, the underside of his tongue so easy to tickle.

His hands tangled in her hair, a wonderfully chilled sensation against her scalp.

When they finally released each other, the sun was completely gone. Nothing but milky moonlight and sparkling stars.

Still upside down, Danny pressed his nose to hers.

“Was that everything you hoped it would be?” he whispered.

Paulina hummed and kissed his nose. “So much more.”

She placed her hands over his ears, laying her cheek against his, feeling his cold breath on her neck.

She couldn’t possibly let him go now.

[raaorqtpbpdy]

In the Zone (6)

Based on the Phic Phight prompts: Danny and co. go sight seeing in the zone and get lost. Maybe they have to navigate weird ghost logic/physics/laws to make their way home (from @ventisettestars). And Sam and Tucker maybe getting Pharaoh + plant powers? ecto contamination for the win ig (from @corvidspectre).

Chapter 6: The Voyage Home

AO3 Link

[No Warnings Apply]

It was something like three days before Shadow and the other jackals returned, but they made good on their promise. When they came back, they were dragging the Specter Speeder behind them, a little dinged up, missing a few non-vital pieces, but still in good enough condition to get the trio home.

While Danny performed an inspection and a few minor repairs on the speeder, Tucker finished up his training with Soot. In just a few, short days, Tucker had learned to both create illusions himself, and to manipulate the illusions already in place in what was now his lair in the Zone. Soot also taught him how to control his coercion powers more effectively. That was almost certain to become a major nuisance some way or another, even if Sam and Danny could usually resist.

"Okay, I think the speeder is up to snuff now," Danny said, smearing a mix of ectoplasm and machine oil across his forehead as he wiped the sweat away. Thankfully, he'd remembered to lock it back in the city, and because of the anti-ecto coating, no ghosts could get inside, so nothing they left there had been removed or stolen. "It's still a little dinged up, but it'll definitely get us home. We have no idea how far we'll have to travel though, so we'd better get a move on."

"Finally! Let's get out of this sand trap!" Sam said, slinging her spider backpack on her shoulder. "I'm sick of eating nothing but dates, and the trees they come from are terrible conversationalists."

Tucker turned to Soot and bowed his head. The jackal returned to his fully animal form to bow back. "Do not bow to me, my lord," Soot insisted. "It is improper for a pharaoh to lover his head to a mere servant."

"I won't then," Tucker said, straightening up. Everyone had been bowing to him so much since he got there that it felt like the respectful thing to do. "I just want to thank you for helping me learn to use my powers."

"It was my duty and my pleasure to do so my lord," Soot said. "You were an excellent student, though your talk of holograms and virtual reality did confuse me."

"I have to go back to my world now, but while I'm gone, I'm putting you in charge. Don't let all that power go to your head, you hear?"

"I am honored, my lord." Soot bowed his head lower. "I promise I will be a just regent until your return."

"Good." Tucker nodded, satisfied, and with that, he grabbed his bag of things they'd got in the city and joined his friends in the speeder. "Take good care of the place!" he called over his shoulder as he climbed up into the vehicle.

"I will do my utmost, Pharaoh!" Soot called back.

Sam was already behind the wheel, and the second the door closed, she hit the accelerator. "Come on boys, it's time to go home!"

"Goodbye, socks full of sand!" Danny said laughingly. "No offense, Tuck, but I wouldn't want that to be my lair."

"I actually liked a lot of what was going on there, good bones and all that, but I think I'll modernize it over time," Tucker said. "Combining the wonders of Ancient Egypt with the wonders of sweet, modern technology will make that place the coolest lair in the Zone."

"Until Technus finds it," Sam scoffed.

"Technus is a wuss, and he's got nothing on me! I'll beat that old robot's ass any day of the week!"

"Pretty sure I'm the one who kicks ghosts' asses," Danny pointed out.

"We'll see how long that lasts now that Sam and e have ghost powers, you ghostly commoner!"

While the boy's squabbled, Sam watched the compass on the dashboard, keeping the red arrow pointing firmly ahead. They were flying directly toward the Fenton Portal, but who knew how long they'd be flying. They had to prepare for a very long trip.

"Listen, no matter how far we have to fly, we're not making any stops," Sam said. "We'll take turns sleeping, too, so there's always someone at the wheel."

"Whoahhh!" Danny said, looking out the window. The speeder was flying past a dark and spooky planetarium, with gargoyles on the roof and a laser light show on the walk. A sign in front advertised a scary night of astronomy, witchcraft, and technology at the haunted planetarium, anyone welcome. Danny and Tucker both turned to her with wide, pleading eyes. 

She sighed. It was hard to argue when she also really wanted to go. "Fine!" Sam relented. "But we're tying down the speeder with ghost-repelling ropes this time, because I do not want to have to ask for help from Tucker's jackals again!"

The boys both cheered.

By the time they finally got back to Amity Park, spring break was well over and they'd already missed a week of school, too. All three of them were grounded for putting their parents through so much worry, and Danny was doubly grounded for stealing the Specter Speeder and bringing it back damaged.

Ultimately, though, the trip had been a huge success. The trio all knew more about their powers, and the Ghost Zone. And the next time a ghost was foolish enough to attack Amity Park, it had three spectral superheroes to deal with.

First | Previous

[five-rivers]

Life's Great Lie Chapter 18

AO3

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Cujo circled.  He was a good boy.  He was the best boy – that was a fact, his person told him so – but even he had to look for things, and there were a lot of interesting smells in the air.  Well, there were always a lot of interesting smells, but the smells today were interesting-er.  Along with the flashes of light, the dust, the noise—

There was just a lot going on. 

But!  That was okay!  Cujo liked challenges!  Challenges were fun!  And he was going to get that stick.  He just had to sniff it out, first. 

Ah-hah!  There it was!  All shiny and straight with a rounder, shinier, pointier bit on top.  He snatched it up off the broken car it was on (Why was it broken?  Who cared?) (Cujo didn’t know this, because he was a dog, but over fifteen pounds of enchanted gold, bronze, and topaz, falling from over a hundred stories, made an impact.  Specifically, fifteen pounds impacting at close to two hundred and fifty miles per hour, imparting over six hundred pounds of force – more than enough, considering the narrow profile of the object, to put a significant dent in the roof of a sedan.) and flew up in a spiral pattern. 

His person was nearby, yes, but… Where?  Usually, it was easier for Cujo to sniff him out, but now… now, there was something obscuring his scent. 

Cujo circled the tall building restlessly.  Where was his person?  Where?  Where?  It should have been much easier to find his person than it was to find the stick!  That’s how things were supposed to go, wasn’t it?

Oh!  There!  On top of the tall building!  It was his person’s friend!  Maybe he could play with Cujo! 

He zoomed down and deposited the stick in his lap, tail wagging. 

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“Oh,” said Tucker, staring wide-eyed at the Scarab Scepter, covered, as it was, in green-tinted dog drool, “crap.”

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“Oh,” said Pharaoh Duulaman, taking a moment to reward the beast who had retrieved his scepter with a pat on the head, “wonderful.”

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Erik Selvig stumbled back into the penthouse, looking for a closet to hide himself in as burning sand from nowhere whipped itself into a storm.  He was, to be honest, in shock.  How many mind-controlling scepters could there possibly be?

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Sam landed lightly on top of the Ops Center, powering down her jet pack momentarily, and propping the bazooka against her shoulder.  She was good at using it – no false modesty here – but it required work and attention, and she didn’t want her attention to be split while she was in the air.

“Tucker, is that sandstorm you?  Did you get your scepter back, somehow?”  She paused.  “Tucker?”  No response.  “Hey, everyone sees that sandstorm, righ—”

There was a huge flash through one of the sand clouds, followed almost instantly by a deep, bone-shaking, ear-splitting rumble.  A space whale fell out of the sky, smoking.

“I love storms like this!  Keep up the good work, Tucker!”

Sam bit her lip.  “If no one is hearing from Tucker, either his phone got wrecked or Duulaman’s got him messed up.  So, uh.  Be aware of that.”  There was, of course, the option that he’d somehow gotten himself killed, and this storm was caused by his ghost somehow (in which case, wow, he’d formed fast), but she was kind of.  Not thinking about that option.  So. 

She frowned.  The sandstorm was expanding. 

.

Thor flew through the storm. 

He did not often have the opportunity to navigate sandstorms.  There were no deserts in Asgard, and that was where he had spent his time for most of his life.  But a storm was a storm, and a sandstorm – or a dust storm, for that matter – held lightning in it. 

Lightning, through Mjolnir, was his.  Storms were his. 

And his brother—

He made quick work of the next group of chitauri he encountered, although they had already been injured by the sheer force of the storm.  He was getting closer to Stark’s tower, and where the fight with Loki was, but he couldn’t just leave the battle.  There were too many enemies. 

Something metallic flashed among the sand, and Thor readied a blow, but no.  That was no chitauri.  But neither was the metal suit a creation of Stark’s.  The green fire that burned at its head, and the lights behind its eyes was that of the ghosts.’ 

“A human?  Flying?” asked the creature, its words almost whipped away by the wind.  “No.  You’re the Asgardian that Phantom’s human friend talked about.  Do you know where he is?”

“Phantom?” asked Thor, warily.  “Yes.  With Loki.”

The creature grinned.  “Then what are you waiting for?  Lead on!”

.

Valerie didn’t like this.  She didn’t like this at all. 

“He’s really not responding?  Can we still hear other people?”

“I can sure hear all of you,” said Hawkeye.  “It might not mean anything.  Storms can mess with comms, sometimes.  Focus on what’s in front of you.”

Yeah, but the Fenton’s super ultra ghost comms, or whatever they actually were? 

What was in front of them was a legion of aliens they were trying to keep more or less in the air.  It was like Galaga, but real.  And worse.  Because, you know, people were dying.  Her weapons weren’t the most effective (unfortunately, the chitauri were firmly alive) so she’d been ferrying people down from damaged buildings, but now she was racing towards Stark Tower.

By the time she’d gotten through the portal, Danny had already disappeared with Loki, but now that they knew where he was, well.  She was the only one other than the ghosts with real experience fighting Danny, as crazy as that seemed. 

She really did not like the look of that storm. 

Tucker was okay, right?  They weren’t, like, great friends or anything, but they had dated, sort of, and Valerie didn’t hate him, really. 

She dove down into the sandstorm, and the HUD in her visor lit up with red lines, giving her an overlay of where things were supposed to be, based on city plans pulled from the internet.  It was risky flying like this, like flying by instruments on a plane.  Records weren’t always right.  She knew that much from flying in Amity Park, and New York was probably worse, honestly. 

But there weren’t any buildings quite as tall as Stark Tower, so her chances of running into a building were slim.  Chitauri gliders and Iron Man, on the other hand… Well.  It’d probably be fine.  This far up, it’d take a while to hit the ground. 

Wire-traced lines splayed out below her, showing her an outline of the roof, and she carefully landed near the center, a good way away from the pillar of light that was the portal beam. 

“Tucker?” she called. 

A bubble of clear, but blisteringly hot air formed on the roof.  Her HUD helpfully informed her that the temperature was 101.49°F/38.61°C.  At the center stood Tucker in full Egyptian regalia.  His eyes were bright, solid red. 

“Hello, Valerie Gray.”

.

It wasn’t a guarantee that the pilots were HYDRA.  The chances weren’t even above fifty percent, as far as Coulson’s estimates went, which were, admittedly, based largely on hunches at this stage.  Even for him, the amount of research he could do under the present circumstances was… limited.  But the odds were still too high to let them sit in those planes. 

Especially when the council was ordering Fury to launch a nuke at New York. 

Yeah.  That wasn’t going to fly. 

(Literally.)

So far, both of the pilots had been compliant, but Coulson wasn’t going to relax.  He wasn’t missing an ‘until’ at the end of that sentence.  He just wasn’t going to relax. 

That didn’t mean he wouldn’t be happier when there were no longer two potential HYDRA agents walking behind him. 

He turned the corner.  At the other end of the hallway, Jasper Sitwell and six other agents also turned the corner.  He saw the flash of blue characteristic of Phase Two weaponry and his gun was in his hand before his conscious mind processed the connection. 

He got off two shots before he was hit.  Center of mass.  If it had been a conventional bullet, it would have bounced off the Kevlar vest he had on underneath his jacket, but it wasn’t designed to counter Phase Two weaponry.  Nothing was.  The pilot directly behind him got off one wild shot at Sitwell before the second pilot shot him in the back of his head. 

Lying on the ground, Coulson mentally apologized to him.  He hadn’t been HYDRA after all.  Not that it did either of them any good. 

But Coulson was down, not out.  He’d kept a grip on his gun, and now he aimed it at the pilot.  It was probably too much to hope he was the only HYDRA agent onboard who could fly a plane, but any delay—

He didn’t see if his bullet hit.  He’d been shot again. 

.

Loki didn’t seem at all interested in escaping. 

They could have escaped.  Definitely.  Absolutely.  It would have been easy to escape, at least temporarily.  But Loki was uninterested. 

And they kept going for the scepter. 

They definitely knew, which was something that had Danny’s heart racing.  Well.  Racing as much as it ever did. 

Unfortunately, the three of them weren’t quite good enough to take the scepter, and Loki’s obvious malingering aside, Danny couldn’t, like, talk to him about it.  Talk him into doing something about it, talk him out of doing something about it, whatever.  Partially because they were in the middle of a fight (duh), partially because of the influences still acting on him.  Boxing him in.  Forcing him to fight in the first place. 

Mind control sucked. 

Really, what he had to hope for at this point was that something would come along that was actually a threat.  The Hulk or something.  Danny wasn’t sure he could beat the Hulk as a human.  Escape him, sure, maybe even trap him, temporarily, but beat him?  That was a different thing altogether.  Oh!  Or maybe Pandora.  Pandora was really cool, and maybe mind control could be sucked into her evil-trapping box. 

Probably not, but a guy could dream. 

He pulled another piece of armor off of Tony Stark, who, mostly unarmed, seemed to decide that discretion was the better part of valor and booked it, sliding over one of the lab tables and disappearing behind a partition.  Good for him.  Discretion, valor, all that.

The mechanical arms on the ceiling began to move.  Danny, not expecting that, failed to dodge and was knocked over a table.  Iron Man #2 bore down on him, flinging a prototype Fenton Net with Utra-Grav Weights (patent pending) at him.  Unfortunately for Iron Man #2these things didn’t have the same level of protection against Danny as the other weapons.  Probably didn’t have time to modify it.  Just stuffed whatever could fit into the suit and hoped something would hit.  Danny drained its energy and tore it, easily. 

Loki, surprisingly, looked like he was having trouble with Black Widow and the mechanical arms.  He was probably just faking.  But the appearance was enough for Danny, and he grinned as he dropped Mr. Norse God of Mischief through the floor, then tore off his green-stained shirt and dropped through himself. 

“You,” said Loki, “are a menace.”

“Thank you,” said Danny.  “I try.”

Loki rolled his eyes and handed Danny his jacket.  “You look ridiculous without a shirt.  You have less muscle than an infant.”

“That’s completely untrue.  I’ve got a six pack.”  He did.  It wasn’t a super well defined six pack and existed more due to lack of body fat than muscle mass, but it did exist.  “Unless, like, alien babies are ridiculously ripped.”  Which was a possibility.  It wasn’t as if Loki had been super forthcoming about, well, anything.  Which was incredibly unfair of him.  Danny deserved to know more about aliens.  Particularly the space-related parts. 

A thump from above shook dust off the ceiling.  They both looked up.

“Stark does not seem like one to attempt to follow us directly through the floor,” observed Loki. 

Danny licked his lips.  “You know what it means that they want the scepter.”  He cast a sidelong look at Loki.  Loki looked… Well, his whole… everything looked really weird without the armored trench-coat-like… thing.  The jacket.  Whatever.  It probably had some kind of fancy Asgardian name that, once again, Danny was not privileged to know. 

He wasn’t upset about the relative lack of space-related knowledge he was receiving. 

But, to get back to the point, Loki looked awful.  Like, he hadn’t looked great before, but now he looked the way Danny felt.  Which was bad.  In case anyone was wondering.  And also reading his thoughts.  Which wasn’t super likely, but also not outside of the realm of possibility.  And, hey, maybe the part of him that was still sitting out the whole mind-control thing would appreciate the context if it didn’t already have it. 

“It means,” said Danny, probably unnecessarily, “that they know.”

There was another thump, a louder one, but now that Danny was paying attention, it didn’t quite seem like it was coming from above—

The next sound was distinctly more crash or explosion like. 

“Uh,” said Danny.

“Thor,” said Loki, baring his teeth in something that wasn’t a smile at all.  “Perhaps this time, my brother will do me the honor of fighting me in earnest!”

“I don’t think honor is really the right word for that,” said Danny. 

His ghost sense went off. 

Skulker phased through the ceiling shortly before Thor’s hammer turned it into rubble.  Danny managed to get Loki out of the way, but this?  This would be difficult.  He felt his lips stretching in an approximation of Loki’s expression.  Okay.  So.  He might empathize a little.

And then the sand blew in. 

Yep. 

Difficult.

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“What,” said Tony, “the hell is going on?”

“I think Tucker might have lost control,” said Jazz, “but it’s a little unclear right now.”

“Yeah, I think that might have to do with the sandstorm in my building.”  He’d slammed down the lab’s steel blast shields as soon as he realized that the sand was a) razor sharp and b) eating all the glassware in the room, and now he and Romanov were shut in one of the lab’s testing areas.  Never say he didn’t give his employees the best.  “JARVIS, can you navigate?”

“Yes,” said JARVIS, who was piloting the other suit.  The AI’s control over it wasn’t great.  They’d done tests – a bunch of tests, Tony had plans – but he hadn’t intended for JARVIS’s first foray into solo-piloting a suit to be such a trial-by-fire.  However, a mapped area like the tower, where JARVIS was completely aware of the floorplan, wasn’t the worst place to start.  In some ways it would’ve been better for JARVIS to take the Mk. VII, but Tony had known the kid would be able to take that one apart, and one of the two of them had an actual body outside of tech, so…  “One moment, Mr. Stark.”

“What do we do now?” asked Romanov. 

“Try to see what other systems I can access from here,” said Tony, impatiently tapping through the interface for the mechanical arms.  It was the only computer currently installed.  “Hope the sandstorm gets taken care of soon.  Hope rip-off green and silver me is worth something in a fight and that Thor doesn’t get tricked again.  Lots of hope.”

“But not much doing,” pointed out Romanov. 

“Maybe one of you can take over as mission control,” said Jazz.  “Because we’re going to be hit with the storm soon, and then I’ll be focused on keeping us steady.”

.

The pilot was relieved when he saw the man he replaced returning.  Sure, Agent Coulson had told him not to leave without direct orders from him or Fury, personally, but Coulson wasn’t the one with the World Security Council breathing down his neck.  And the conversation with the WSC was getting… progressively more unsettling.  If he could call it a conversation.  They’d brought up his family several times in what might have been a vaguely threatening way, but, luckily, he hated his family, so he didn’t care if they got their taxes audited or shipped to a black site or whatever conclusion he was supposed to draw from what they were saying. 

Point being, he got out as soon as the other man knocked on the cockpit glass.  Yes, he’d probably be reprimanded, but he could handle that better than the WSC.  Plus, it looked like his usual plane was being loaded up to go fight those aliens, and he was always happier when his bird wasn’t carrying a nuke. 

He waved to the pilot in the plane next to him as he went, one of the other replacements.  He’d taken his helmet off for some reason, and he looked terrible.  Completely white-faced.  Must be the kid’s first time sitting on a nuke.  Well, hopefully the guy he replaced would be back, soon, too.

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“Once I remove these armies, this city shall make a fine capital,” said Duulaman.  “Pandora and Frostbite I shall reward handsomely, of course.  I invited them.  But the others…  These insects.”  Duulaman paced on the edge of the rooftop.  “The sheer insult cannot be borne.  I will allow these ‘police’ to live, should they swear allegiance to me.”

Valerie watched him, and the ghost dog padding along next to him, warily.  “The police aren’t an army.  Technically.”  Not that they weren’t full of crap more than half the time, but they weren’t actually an army. 

Duulaman waved a hand at her, lazily.  “Anything that has to be appended with technically is a lie.  Everything will be much better after I fix it.  Some of these buildings…” 

He pointed, and a nearby skyscraper shimmered into a pyramid, like a mirage.  It shimmered back after a second, but the sight still made Valerie’s breath catch in her throat.  That was definitely enough of that. 

“Tucker,” she said, voice tight.  “You’ve got to snap out of it, this isn’t you.”

“I have snapped out of it,” said Duulaman.  “This is what I was before.  This is what I was always meant to be.  And would the people of Earth not prefer a native son to rule in place of a dictator from beyond Great Ra’s furthest reach?”  He spread his arms.  “I will return to this world the glories of Kemet, that even in ruin and decay are celebrated thousands of years on.  I would think you would understand, Valerie Gray.  After all, you, too, have wished to return to what you once were.”

“Okay, yeah, I’ve maybe thought about that once or twice,” admitted Valerie, “and what you’re saying does sound cool, but can you do it without the megalomania and the sandstorm of death?”

“You want me to cease my efforts against the invaders?”

“No?” said Valerie.  She did not know what the right answer was here.  “But, look, I might’ve wanted to go back to the way things were before my dad lost his job, but I’m not that person anymore, obviously.  Can you really say you’re the same person you were, what, a thousand years ago?”

Duulaman rolled his eyes.  “The next thing to reform will obviously be the educational system.”

.

The sand was the worst.  So was Skulker.  And Thor.  And Iron Man #2.  And Loki, while he was at it.  It was all the worst. 

But then, that was a good thing.  Sort of. 

Lightning crackled through the sand cloud as Thor swung at another fake Loki.  The resultant impact with the floor sent cracks through the tile and concrete.  Danny didn’t have time to pay attention to that, though, because between Skulker and Iron Man #2, there was a lot of stuff flying through the air.  Missiles, bullets, knives, those weird repulsor ray things, ectoblasts, more nets, the works. 

.

“What did you say that tin can is using on the teenager?” asked Tony, appalled. 

“You shot missiles at him, too,” pointed out Romanov.

Tony stared at her, wide-eyed.  “Full of the equivalent of paint, yeah.  Aren’t you bothered by this?  At all?”

She shrugged.  “I started younger.”

“Of course you did.”

.

All in all, a normal day for Danny.  If he’d been in ghost form and not trying to protect Loki at the same time. 

He was getting closer to his limit. 

The whole fight went through a pair of walls, and Danny hoped that they weren’t breaking anything structural, because to the best of his knowledge, Black Widow and Tony Stark were still up there on the other floor, with minimal protection. 

They stopped just short of the next wall, a pane of frosted glass—except the glass wasn’t supposed to be frosted, apparently, and a second after they’d gotten there, even more sand blasted in.  The wind sucked at them, creating a sort of vacuum pulling them out.  Danny didn’t particularly feel like fighting three people who could fly while falling through the sky, so he anchored himself to the floor with ice.  Iron Man #2 (seriously, who was that guy?) promptly tumbled out into the sand and vanished. 

He was probably fine.  He could fly. 

.

“Sir,” said JARVIS, “I appear to have collided with one of our neighbors.”

“Please tell me you mean a building and not a person who will sue me.”

“I am quite certain people will sue you for this regardless.”

The terrible thing was, JARVIS was probably right. 

.

Thor and Loki grappled momentarily, hammer to scepter, and then Loki twisted, the hammer sliding down, into the floor, with a huge bang that echoed despite the howling of the wind.  At the edge of Danny’s ice, the floor fractured, then began to tip outward.  Danny took the opportunity to throw Skulker at Thor, who mostly phased through except for when he ran into the hammer, which knocked both of them off balance and half into Loki. 

Who promptly fell out of the building. 

Danny lunged after him, but Thor caught him by the heel.  Danny thanked him by kicking his chin as hard as he could.  He’d have to apologize later. 

For now… 

For now, Loki was way too far down for Danny to catch with the powers he had available in human form, and he had no idea what kind of a height would kill an Asgardian. 

(Or whatever Loki was.  He was still unclear on that.)

(And, yes, he was still resentful of his lack of alien knowledge.)

(He was never going to let it go.  He was going to get a t-shirt that said ‘I spent three days mind controlled by an alien and all I got was this lousy t-shirt and sleep deprivation.’)

(He was pretty sure it was three days, anyway.)

Anyway, point was, his orders were to protect Loki, and the only way to do that right now was to go ghost. 

Finally.

.

Okay.  So.  Valerie had tried reasoning with her mind-controlled kinda-sorta friend, but the sandstorm was getting bigger, and he was talking about conquering Syria (yikes), Mitanni (where?), and New Jersey (meh), and also making her one of his chief advisors, which was flattering but not really something she wanted, so she was pretty sure now was the time to try something more physical.   

She braced herself to move fast, and pulled up the biggest gun she could safely use on a human. 

Duulaman countered it easily, batting the blast away with the scepter.  He sighed.  “Of course.  I will have to take care of things here first.”

Next to him, the dog perked up, as if hearing something, then jumped for the scepter. 

“Argh!” said Duulaman.  “What are you doing?”

Well, Valerie wasn’t a fan of that stupid dog, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth or an ally in a fight in a motivation.  She charged her blasters. 

.

Cujo had just sensed his person!  His person was here!  And since his person’s friend wasn’t playing fetch after all, it was time to get his stick back!  Or play keep away!  That would be good, too! 

Cujo was having a great time, and he was being the best boy!

.

Danny’s transformation burned through his body like fire through flash paper, a brilliant flare of energy kept contained for too long.  The bonds on his mind, designed to control something of this world, something alive, shredded themselves on the crystalline, ethereal geometries that were Phantom as the pieces of himself that were kept separate came back together.  Whole again.  Free again.  Able to choose. 

He caught Loki and landed them in an alley that was, at least, somewhat protected from the howling storm.  Loki stumbled away from him. 

“You caught me,” he said, as if he couldn’t believe it. 

“Well, yeah,” said Danny.  “I wasn’t about to let you fall to your death.”  He held out his hand.  His white glove gleamed moon-bright in the shadows of the alleyway.  “You’ve made your point.  They’ve come together.”

“Half a dozen men does not an army make,” said Loki, his body between Danny and the staff, “and I—"

“I think there was at least one woman with them.  Also, my friends.  Tucker.  Jazz.  Sam.  Tucker actually sort of beat you up a little bit, there—”

“Don’t be obtuse, child,” snapped Loki, moving a little further away.  There was a glimmer of magic on his skin, and Danny knew they’d be more evenly matched in a fight than either of them would like… at least, without Danny resorting to the kinds of attacks he’d use against his stronger enemies.

“What do you want them to do,” asked Danny, throwing up his hands, “materialize an army out of nowhere in under a week?  Well, they did!”  Danny jabbed his finger up, where the green line of the ghost portal was still barely visible. 

It chose that moment to flicker out into nothing.

.

The Ops Center had already been struggling, but the moment the sandstorm hit it, everything but emergency controls and communication went down.  The wind pushed them sideways, and Jazz struggled to keep the airship upright.  By the time she managed something like stability, the ghost portal was long gone.  

Sam staggered onto the bridge.  She’d stayed out until the last minute. 

“The portal?” she asked, managing to get to the copilot’s seat. 

“Gone,” said Jazz.  She tapped comms.  “I’m going to have to set us down, we can’t maintain our position in this.”  An alarm – something for envelope integrity – started to go off.  “Hawkeye, if you aren’t already off the roof, you need to go now.  I won’t be able to see you.”  And even if she didn’t like the guy very much, she didn’t want to squish him with the Ops Center.

“Got it,” said Hawkeye.  “I’m headed down, now.  Hopefully things will be clearer closer to street level.”

Jazz inhaled slowly, and carefully started down.

.

Loki raised an eyebrow. 

“Come on, you want the chitauri here as much as I do.”  Which was to say, not at all.  “Give me the staff so we can end this.”

“It is my destiny to rule this place.  My… my glorious purpose.”

“I don’t believe in destiny,” said Danny, moving closer.  After all, if destiny was really a thing, his family and friends would all be dead along with a big chunk of the population of the US.  “It sucks and it’s also really uncool.”

“And you think that makes you free of it?”

“Well, yeah.  That is how that works, actually.  You’re free to choose what to do.”

Loki laughed.  “There is no choice.  Freedom is life’s great lie.”

“Well, maybe the bigger lie is that you don’t have a choice?  Have you thought of that, huh?”  Danny gestured emphatically, aware that he was not delivering this argument as eloquently as he could be, but since Loki was regurgitating lines from the night he’d popped out of the Tesseract, he felt like he was winning.  “Like, that’d be the real trick, wouldn’t it?  A really great lie.  Because there’s always a choice.  I mean, like, right now, you can choose to keep doing this, and then we’ll fight, and, no offense, but if you haven’t managed to run away under my nose or something, I’m definitely going to beat you up, I have experience with this, or you can choose to stop this and give me the staff.  Obviously, I’d prefer you to give me the staff, but, like.  It’s a choice.”

Loki stared at him.  “Do you always talk this much?”

“Only when I’m sleep deprived, so, really, this is your fault.”

A sigh came from behind him, and he twisted to see Loki fade out of invisibility.  “Now you sound like my father.”

He held out the staff.  Danny took it.  It felt cold, heavy, and unpleasantly alive in his hand. 

“Uh,” he said, lifting off the ground.  The portal device was, after all, on the top of the tower.  “My condolences about your dad, I guess.”

“He’s still alive,” shouted Loki after him.

“Yeah?  So?” Danny shouted back.  He didn’t get an answer. 

He flew up, faster, faster, as fast as he could go, now, and braked in the middle of a firefight between Tucker and Valerie… and Cujo?  Or Duulaman and Valerie.  He recognized those red eyes.  (And Cujo.)

(Cujo was the best boy, trying to get the staff away from Tucker.  So smart!  Danny made a mental note to give him lots of treats and pets when this was over.)

Duulaman smiled and tilted the scarab scepter just so.  “Hello, Danny.”

“Nope!”  Danny zoomed past Tucker/Duulaman in a burst of speed.  “I’ve already fulfilled my mind control quota for the year, thanks!”  He used shields to push away the sand and flew directly towards the portal device.  He would’ve liked to free Tucker on the way, but the portal spewing an alien army had to come first.  Every minute it stayed open, more people would die. 

(He wondered how many people had died while he talked Loki into giving up the scepter.  He wondered how many would have died if they fought, Danny tearing through illusions and Loki running for his chitauri ‘allies.’  He wondered which number would have been bigger.)

He plunged the scepter into the heart of the device, smacking the Tesseract off-center.  The device, naturally, didn’t like that, and some whirring part inside it kicked up into a high-pitched scream before the device shut down altogether. 

Danny grinned, then turned to face Tucker.  That was one problem down.  Now he just needed to knock some sense into Tucker and help with the chitauri that were still in the city.

Heh.  Just.  That really went to show what his week had been like.  Thank goodness it was almost over. 

.

“Hill, have you seen Coulson?” asked Fury.  Coulson hadn’t been answering his comms, which, given the HYDRA situation, might very well mean that he was dead, but Fury couldn’t just start sending people out to look for him.  On the other hand, it was possible Coulson was utilizing alternate methods of communication. 

“No,” said Hill.  “I—”  She cut herself off, fingers flying over her keyboards.  “Sir, we have a bird in motion! Anyone on the deck, we have a rogue bird! We need to shut it down! Repeat! Take off is not authorized!”

Fury didn’t waste his breath swearing.  He took the emergency route – the one also stocked with emergency weapons – up to the deck. 

He didn’t like shooting at his own people, but the fact was, whoever was in that plane wasn’t one of his.  He raised the RPG to his shoulder and fired.  It hit, sending the plane spinning across the deck, just in time for the second plane to shoot off past Fury. 

Reflexively, he drew his gun, but there was nothing a little handgun could do against a fighter jet that was already hundreds of feet away. 

There was only one more thing he could do.