#grooveactuallywrites

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Excerpt from a current project I’m really excited about. Hopefully I can finish it before school starts stealing all my time again

~

Danny’s face flushed when everyone in his homeroom stared at him.

“Mr. Fenton, I see you’ve finally made it. I’m sure you must have an important reason for being late on the first day of class.”

Danny brought his hand up to nervously rub the back of his neck as he looked away. “Heh, yeah…”

Lancer squinted at him before continuing, “Nevertheless, I still think it’s important to hear what you have missed. Due to the growing student population at Casper High, this year students will have to share lockers with a partner in their homeroom. Considering your tardiness, I have no choice but to assign you with the only person left without a partner.”

At that moment, a red-haired boy bursted into the classroom. “I’m so sorry Mr. Lancer! I jus—”

“Settle down Mr. Weston. I’m sure you also have your reasons. I was just telling Daniel here about the new locker sharing policy we have this year. You both will be locker partners.”

Lancer just grew more annoyed hearing equal squawks of protest from the two boys. “I’m sorry, however, all locker partners must be in the same homeroom. Since everyone else has chosen their partner before you both had arrived, I have no choice but to pair you two together.”

“But…” Danny glanced over to his friends sitting near the back. They both were silently mouthing a “sorry”. “Can’t you pair me with Sam and Tucker? Wes can get his own locker!”

“Daniel, I’m afraid I can’t do that, unless you have a legitimate reason as to why you would not want to share your locker space with Wesley?” Mr. Lancer asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I…” Danny trailed off. He peered over to Wes beside him, meeting his hateful glare. Of all people…

“I guess it’s settled then. Please take a seat boys.”

READ CH 1 HERE

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Supper’s Ready

Word Count: 2,033

Summary: A couple of weeks have passed since Danny’s accident with the portal. Fortunately, so far, he hasn’t experienced any symptoms at all, not even ghostly ones. Until one day, he begins throwing up ectoplasm.

Or, my take on Portal!Danny

Warning: Includes depictions of nausea and vomiting so...read at your own discretion

Read on AO3 or under the cut

Danny awoke with a groan. He clutched his stomach and squeezed his eyes together as a wave of nausea hit him. If he could, he would’ve laid there forever, curled up in a ball fighting the sick feeling in his stomach. But it kept getting worse, and worse, until his instincts drove him to blindly stumble to his bathroom. Kneeling before his toilet, he held his mouth open, wishing for whatever he ate earlier to just come out already. It felt like an eternity before his dinner left him. Panting, he laid his cheek against the toilet seat as he felt the nausea starting to subside.

He doesn’t remember the last time he threw up. Probably when he was a kid. It couldn’t have been mom’s cooking, right? He recalled the glass of milk he had before bed. It did taste a bit funky.

He stood up, sparing a glance at his dinner once again. He was just about to flush it away until something caught his eye. A single translucent drop of something that glowed brightly green. Jazz probably did have a point about not keeping the ecto-weenies in the fridge.

A couple of weeks have passed since Danny’s accident with the portal. Unfortunately, the portal remained unfunctional since the brief moment when he had activated it. At first, Jazz and his friends were extremely concerned for him. After all, he was practically electrocuted. But seeing that there were no lasting effects, over time they’ve let go of the incident. Things resumed back to normal, save for Jazz becoming a lot more protective of her little brother.

Danny flushed and rinsed the foul taste from his mouth. He made a mental note to throw out the milk in the morning as he climbed back into his sheets.

~

A few days later, Danny was sitting at his desk in his bedroom, struggling to understand why he kept getting this one math question wrong. He swears he’s following the same steps in the textbook example. He was just about to give up and move onto the next question when his mouth suddenly felt dry. No, not again. 

Ever since that night he puked, Danny’s stomach really wasn’t having it. More and more often the sick feeling would return, except nothing came out of it. He rested his head on his homework, waiting for the nausea to pass. At this point he just wanted whatever bad food, stomach bug, or whatever to leave him already. Maybe he should ask his parents to take him to the doctor.

At that thought, his gut uncomfortably lurched and he barely grabbed his wastebasket in time. It’s a shame those tater tots from the cafeteria had to go to waste. Just when he thought he was finished, he felt a painful jolt in his abdomen and squeezed his eyes shut. He felt something, with an almost slimy-like texture pour out. The sensation of it running up his throat made him feel even sicker than he was.

He took a moment to breathe before opening his eyes again. He almost dropped the bin at what he saw. It was the same glowing green substance he saw that other night. Except this time, it took up three quarters of his wastebasket! He couldn’t even see his lunch from earlier.

Slightly panicked now, he quickly scrambled up from his desk chair to get rid of it. If Jazz saw him now, she’d never let him hear the end of it. 

After flushing it away, he turned to the sink to clean himself up. But, the sight of himself in the mirror made him freeze.

He saw that green fluid, staining his white shirt as it steadily dripped from his chin. He almost gagged when he still felt it present in his mouth. But what truly frightened him was his now green irises, glowing brightly in the same intensity as the fluid. 

What was wrong with him?

~

Ectoplasm. That’s what was inside him.

Over dinner, his dad was excitedly explaining how he had extracted the substance from a ghost. His mom joined in, explaining its scientific properties. And while Jazz expressed her disgust at bringing something like that to the dinner table, the whole conversation was lost to Danny’s ears. All he saw was the small vial his dad was showing off, containing the same substance he had been heaving out daily in the last week.

~

Danny was in the middle of an English test when he felt it. It wasn’t all that painful anymore, and he’s gotten used to holding it down just long enough until he could get to a washroom. Still, it always was very uncomfortable. And inconvenient, especially at times like now. He raised up his hand and cringed as Lancer stared at him suspiciously.

“Yes, Mr. Fenton?”

“Can I—uh...go to the bathroom?”

Lancer sighed as he glanced at the clock. “Fine. Please hurry back though, you only have 20 minutes left for the test.”

“Thanks Mr. Lancer,” Danny mumbled as he got up from his seat. He fought the feeling of Wes glaring a hole in the back of his head, along with the weird stares from some of his other classmates. Sam and Tucker worriedly watched as their friend left the classroom.

Alone, in the bathroom, Danny used his hands to brace himself against both sides of the stall, as he crouched in front of the toilet, wrinkling his nose at the smell. He hated doing this at school.

He counted to three and then let go, expelling the seemingly endless supply of ectoplasm within him. Every time he did this, there was always that little nagging voice at the back of his head, telling him that he really should tell someone about this. His parents should know what to do, right? But, every time he attempts to do so, he just...he can’t go through with it. Hearing them rant about their pure hatred for ghosts and the inventions they’ve created just to torture them makes his stomach lurch for a whole other reason. He knows they love him...but...what if they try to hurt him?

As for Jazz and his friends, he honestly can’t bring himself to burden them more after the portal accident. After all this time, he still occasionally sees the guilt in Sam’s eyes. Besides, who’s to say this won’t go away on its own...right?

He wiped his chin with the back of his hand after he felt nothing else coming up. However, he was greatly mistaken. 

The next moment, sheer agony shot through his abdomen, causing him to lose balance and hit his back against the stall’s door. It never hurt this bad before!

His body went rigid when he felt a frightening chill freeze his insides. A burning green—almost yellow light was all that he could see as he was overwhelmed by the brutal sensation of his insides being ripped apart. His mouth was forced open by an invisible force as something else crept up his painfully inflamed throat. It wasn’t ectoplasm this time.

Panting heavily, all Danny could do was lay there against the door as the blinding light and pain gradually faded away. The first thing he saw after regaining his vision was a spectral tail disappearing into the ceiling.

~

“Good morning, this is Tiffany Snow reporting Amity Park’s latest breaking news. Recently, we have received several reports of ghost sightings. Witnesses have expressed that these ghosts have been trespassing their homes, destroying property, and terrorizing civillians. The Amity Police Depar…”

“Those no good specters!”

“Jack, honey, do you know what this means?”

“Of course Maddie, the town needs us!”

“But the sudden increase in ghost activity, it must mean something…”

“What are you sayin’ Mads?”

“Where would these ghosts be coming from? Natural portals don’t stay open long enough for any significant entities to escape the Ghost Zone. Unless...maybe something is causing them to stay open longer?”

“You might be onto something, gosh Mads you’re so clever! Well, better get right to sealing up those portals for good. Oh, I got the perfect idea for an invention!” Jack exclaimed as ran downstairs into the lab.

“Danny?”

Danny just realized he’d been holding his breath throughout his parents’ conversation. At the sound of his mom’s voice directed at him, he dropped his spoon. “Y-yea mom?” he stuttered as he anxiously gazed at her.

She was holding a silver-gray thermos with metallic green details. “Today, I’m packing your lunch in the Fenton thermos. We’d be horrible parents let you kids go to school defenseless. Just remember to point and push, okay?”

“Um, okay. Thanks mom,” Danny mumbled. 

She kissed his head before he could protest and said, “I’m going to help your father out. Have a great day at school sweetie.” 

After his mom disappeared downstairs into the lab, Danny morosely glanced at his half-eaten cereal. He’s probably not gonna keep it down anyways. Fenton thermos in hand, he grabbed his backpack and left to catch the school bus.

~

Danny could almost say he’s gotten used to being nauseous all the time. Now when he threw up, more often than not an actual ghost would come up. But now, the guilt from causing all the recent ghost activity grew with each passing day. Yet, no matter how much he’d tried stopping himself, all he did was make the pain even more unbearable. Something was seriously wrong with him.

One day, he recovered quickly enough to see an octopus-like ghost escape into the school’s hallways. As he exited the washroom, he saw the ghost hurling textbooks at students and scaring anyone that got near. 

This was all his fault. He winced as he saw poor Mikey get his glasses knocked off his face by his own math textbook. He had to do something. Wait. Danny reached into his bag, finding the now empty Fenton thermos.

“Just point and push, right?” he muttered to himself as he took aim at the ectopus. A light blue beam shot out the thermos, enveloping the ghost and pulling it inside. Danny blinked as he noticed the small display on the flask read 25% CAPACITY.

“Huh, that was easy.”

~

Using the Fenton thermos to capture the ghosts really helped ease some of his guilt. However, all too soon the thermos had hit its capacity and Danny had no idea what to do with it.

He’d secretly borrowed another one from his parents and already that one was full too. He needed to figure out something quick.

“Hey dad?”

“What’s up Danno?”

“Uh...how do you get rid of ghosts?”

“Son, I’m so glad to see you taking an interest in the family business! Me and your mom are still finding out a way to get rid of those spooks for good. For now, we’ve got the Fenton Ghost Weasel and the Fenton thermos to catch them.”

“But, what if you run out of space to keep them?”

Danny’s dad scratched his head in thought. “Never really thought much about that. I guess when the time comes, we just gotta send those suckers back where they came from. Maybe by then, we’ll find those portals that are causing us all this trouble.”

Back where they came from? 

By now, Danny knows that the accident with his parents’ portal had to have something to do with his...condition. And considering that all the ghosts are coming from inside him...maybe the portal did end up working after all. Except, not in the way he’d expected. He tried not to think too much about it. How an opening to an entirely different dimension was...inside him.

But, he had a more immediate problem to worry about. And as much as the solution grossed him out, he had no choice. 

Currently sat on his bed, Danny stared at the two full flasks in front of him. His dad’s words rang in his ears as he unscrewed the cap off one. His stomach turned uncomfortably as he spared a glance at its contents.

Bringing up the thermos to his lips, he squeezed his eyes shut to brace himself for what he was going to do next.

Here goes nothing.

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Ectober Week Day 6: Glow Sticks/redruM

Read on AO3

~

“KYLE, ARE YOU FUCKING HIGH?”

“Lil bro, you know what? I think I am,” Kyle said before suddenly stopping to stare at a tree.

“You—you honestly can’t be serious,” Wes muttered.

“Hey, I’m pretty sure I am. Like, look at those leaves man. I fucking love autumn.”

“No, Kyle—there was a literal ghost in our class. You saw it with your own eyes!”

“Naw lil bro, ghosts aren’t real,” he answered, still admiring the tree. “Bro, remember when we made that art project when we were kids? With the leaves and glitter? What if w—”

“Kyle, if that wasn’t a ghost, then how the heck was it glowing?”

He took several seconds to actually ponder the question, before confidently answering, “Easy, glowsticks.”

Wes couldn’t help but stare dumbfounded at his brother. He seriously can’t be this dense, h—

“Dude I’m kinda hungry, let’s get home before Easton eats all the leftovers,” Kyle stated before he slowly started walking again.

Wes scoffed and followed after him. He stomped on a leaf, hearing the resolute crunch. The ghost was literally right there.

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Excerpt from something I’m working on (I cheated a bit but here’s the prompt)

@danphanwritingprompts

~

At some point, Wes stopped, noticing that Danny wasn’t tailing him anymore. “Jeez Fenton, what the heck are you doing?”

Danny paused, realizing how absurd he must look. “Just practicing for mime school, you know...just in case the whole astronaut thing doesn’t work out.”

Wes squinted, then suddenly understood. “The news said they placed your parents’ latest ghost shield around all of Amity…”

Danny groaned, for what felt like the hundredth time today. “Are you kidding me?” He prodded at the shield, only to get stung again.

At that, Wes began to chuckle. Which turned into an actual laugh, eventually becoming full-blown cackling. 

Danny scowled. Not calming down in the slightest, Wes continued to cackle as he walked off into the distance. 

Bastard.

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

My take on Wes Weston’s origin story

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Ectober Week Day 5: Orb/Reanimation

Read on AO3

Word Count: 354

(PLEASE note that my usage of orb in this does NOT reflect at all on my writing I SWEAR it's solely done for the prompt)

~

“Sam, do you see that?” asked Tucker.

“Yeah,” Sam responded, watching Danny’s window flash with different colours. “Since when did Danny buy a strobe light?”

Tucker shrugged. “Maybe that’s what he wanted to show us?”

They stepped off their scooters and headed into FentonWorks. Spotting Mr. Fenton tinkering with an invention on the living room couch, Danny’s friends shot a quick greeting then hastily made their way upstairs.

They already knew where Danny’s bedroom was, but the flashing light emanating underneath his door made it even more obvious.

Sam knocked. “Yo, it’s us!”

The flashing stopped. A moment later, a voice replied from inside. “Guys, come in!”

Sam stepped in first and smiled at Danny sitting on the edge of his bed. Tucker followed, intently scanning the room for a strobe light. 

“Hey guys,” Danny greeted.

Sam plopped into his beanbag. “Whatcha’ have to show us?”

Tucker, busy looking around the room, was about to fall back onto the beanbag as well until he noticed Sam there. He pouted and took the computer chair instead.

An excited grin grew on Danny’s face. “I discovered a new ability.”

His friends simultaneously gasped. 

“Dude, do you finally have the force?” Tucker exclaimed, on the verge of geeking out.

“Nah, it’s nothing big like that. I still think it’s pretty cool though.”

“Show us then!” Sam encouraged.

“Okay, um.” Danny closed his eyes for a few seconds. When he opened them, his orbs brightly glowed an ectoplasmic green, lighting up the entire room. They then switched to an icy blue colour.

“Danny...we already know your eyes can turn green and bl—“ Tucker stopped mid-sentence when Danny’s orbs switched to a deep purple, then a fiery red, an orange, yellow, green, blue, and repeat. Danny did not buy a strobe light. He was the strobe light.

~

Bonus:

“I can also make each eye a different colour,” he kept his right orb green and changed his left to red. “See?”

“Yeah, you can really show your true Christmas spirit that way,” Sam sniggered. 

Danny immediately dimmed his orbs and scowled, swearing to never try that colour combination again.

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Shielded Away (pt 1)

““Jeez Fenton, what the heck are you doing?”

Danny stopped. “Just practicing for mime school, you know...just in case the whole astronaut thing doesn’t work out.”

Wes squinted. “Wait a minute...the news said they placed your parents’ newest ghost shield around all of Amity…”

Danny groaned, for what felt like the hundredth time today. “Are you kidding me?” He prodded at the shield, only to get stung again.

At that, Wes began to chuckle, which turned into an actual laugh, eventually becoming full-blown cackling.

Danny scowled. Not calming down in the slightest, Wes continued to cackle as he walked off into the distance.”

Or, my take on this prompt posted by @danphanwritingprompts

Word Count: 5,183

Read on AO3 or under the cut

Danny glanced at himself in the mirror in the washroom. The dark circles under his eyes seemed to have doubled in size since he last saw them. Not that he cared. He was too exhausted to care. It wasn’t even lunchtime yet, but he’s already fought seven ghosts today. A thin cool mist expelled from his lips. And here comes the eighth.

Outside in the halls, a familiar voice boomed, “BEWARE, I AM THE BOX GHOST!” Danny watched himself as his eyes became a vibrant green on instinct. Transforming once again, he flew out the washroom, sighting the box-loving spirit throwing cardboard boxes at students. He zoomed towards him, grabbing his ankle, forced them both intangible, and dragged him down to the school’s basement.

“Hey! Can’t you see I was in the middle of something?” the Box Ghost whined.

“Yeah? Attempting to traumatize people once again with boxes? How many times do I gotta tell you it’s really not scary?”

“IS TOO!” The Box Ghost angrily hurled a dusty box at Danny, who then fired an ectoblast at it to defend himself.

“You know, I could think of a hundr—oof!” Somehow Danny didn’t notice every single storage box in the basement hovering right above his head, before it was too late. Man, he really needs sleep.

He faintly heard the ghost laughing above him. Of all the places in the school, he had to lead the Box Ghost here. He’s gotta remember to use the roof next time. But this time, he knows he’d hidden a Fenton thermos somewhere around here…

In an instant, he turned intangible and phased through all the boxes he was buried under. His eyes searched wildly around the basement. Where was it?

“LOOKING FOR THIS?” Danny’s head shot up, finally seeing the thermos. Well, crap. “LET’S SEE HOW YOU LIKE BEING STUCK IN THE CONFINES OF A CYLINDRICAL CONTAINER!” Hearing the beep of the thermos activating, Danny gasped as he was slowly sucked into it. Since when did the Box Ghost learn how to use it??

“HA HAH! HOW DOES IT FEEL NOW?” the ghost yelled into the container, painfully vibrating Danny’s condensed molecules. “Now if you will excuse me, I WILL HAVE MY CORRUGATED CARDBOARD VENGEANCE!” Next thing Danny knew, he felt a harsh CLUNK to his everything as the thermos fell to the hard floor.

Outsmarted by the Box Ghost, he really was having a bad day. Well, hopefully, Tucker and Sam will find him. Eventually. He could just imagine Sam berating him immediately after releasing him. “You should have called us first! Of all places, why would you bring the Box Ghost to the basement?” Tucker would be laughing his ass off. Honestly, he wouldn’t blame him.

~

Each minute in the thermos always felt like an eternity. His form was squished to the point where all he could really do is think. And he’s come to realize how much he actually depends on his friends. He doesn’t appreciate them enough.

Except, they should be here anytime now.

Anytime.

Any. Time.

Nothing.

Wait. There were footsteps. The next instant, he was being picked up. Finally, they found him. Come on now, press the button Tucker. What was taking him so long? A fair bit of fumbling continued until fingers found the right button and he was finally released. Danny groaned and stretched, feeling an ache from being compressed for so long.

“You’re lucky I found you Fenton.”

That. Wasn’t Tucker. Or Sam. His head shot up, seeing a red-haired pain in the ass holding a stupid grin, growing wider by the second. Wes.

“Were you stalking me again?”

“Just gathering evidence. You should be grateful, who knows how long you’d be stuck in there.”

Danny scowled. His friends would’ve eventually found him. “Fine, thanks. Now if you excuse me, I have a job to finish.” He flew up, phasing through the ceiling. Invisibly weaving through the corridors of his school, he noticed two things. One, his ghost sense seemed to be picking up nothing at all. Two, the hallways were deserted. He peeked into a random classroom, empty. Same for the one beside it. He zipped through the ceiling to the second floor, stopping in front of the English classroom he left behind. Empty. Save for his bag tucked under his chair. He really should stop doing that, the number of times he’d left class forgetting his bag was too embarrassing. Picking up his bag from the floor, he walked over to the window expecting a routine gathering for a ghost alarm. Nope, the fields were empty too. Weird. Maybe they’re at the front. He was just about to check, but something about the far off view of Amity’s city buildings struck him as odd. He pulled out his phone. Dead. Right, never got a chance to charge it last night.

“Everyone’s gone.” Wes suddenly spoke from the door, almost a tinge of fear in his voice. Funny, he’s never seen Wes scared before. This should be good.

“You sure?”

“I checked everywhere, even the teacher’s lounge.”

Huh. Danny glanced out the window again. “Parking lot’s completely empty.”

“The entire school couldn’t possibly abandon us—we were only down in the basement for an hour,”

“AN HOUR?”

“Yeah, I was busy collecting evidence.”

“Okay, first off, you need a new hobby. Second, why didn’t you let me go earlier if you were there the entire time?”

“Hey, be grateful. I was contemplating not letting you out at all.”

Wes could be such a...ugh. There were bigger things at hand. Like the disappearance of his entire school.

“Give me your phone.” Wes eyed him suspiciously. He stuffed his hand in his pocket and brought out a small device, slightly bigger than the palm of his hand. Danny approached closer. “Is that a freaking Nokia?”

“Can’t trust smartphones, government uses them to steal all your information.”

Of course. Danny grabbed the cell phone. It reminded him of a calculator. “Can you even text on this thing?”

“It’s not worth it. You can call though.”

Danny searched the deep recesses of his brain for his friends’ phone numbers. He dialed a number, half guessing the last four digits.

The dial tone rang...and rang, and rang once more…

A smooth automated female voice responded, “Hello, you’ve reached the voicemail of—” then there was a moment of silence. The automated voice picked back up, “Please leave your name and message after the tone.” BEEP.

He just hung up then. Sam never bothers checking her voicemail anyways. Dang, if only he remembered Tucker’s number.

“...should we just leave? Maybe everyone got sent home?” Wes hesitantly asked.

Something still didn’t sit quite well with Danny, but the idea of using the rest of the day to catch up on some sleep was too good to resist. He tossed Wes’ brick phone back to him and muttered, “Alright, see you around, I guess.” He didn’t waste any time in turning intangible and flying through the classroom window, heading straight for home.

On his journey back, it was oddly peaceful. Usually every time he flew in broad daylight at least one person would sight him and yell anything along the lines of “Hey, look! It’s Danny Phantom!” or “Screw you ghost boy!” He was still a very controversial figure in the town, even though the news seems to be taking his side now.

And well, Danny has given up on trying to woo those who still dislike him. No matter what he does, all they see is a ghost. Apparently it isn’t clear that his only intentions are protecting the town. It sucks that his parents are part of that special group. Their narrow-minded point of view almost killed him on several occasions (well...metaphorically, he’s already kinda dead).

Which is why he transformed back into human form as soon as he landed on his front step. The lights for the Fenton Works sign were off. Odd. His parents were adamant on keeping them on 24/7, despite constant complaints from all their neighbours. He dug for his key in his backpack and unlocked the front door. Stepping inside, he slipped off his shoes and shrugged his backpack to the floor.

“Mom? Dad?”

Nothing. He strode over to the kitchen and checked the basement entrance. Locked. They must be out. Sweet, nothing to distract him from his well-deserved nap. He grabbed a cookie from a jar and made his way upstairs. As he was halfway through that cookie, he passed by Jazz’s room. He failed to notice the absence of Bearbert Einstein from her bed.

He brushed off the crumbs off his hands and opened his bedroom door. Flopping onto his bed, Danny was just about to pass out until he remembered. He groaned and blindly reached for the end of his charger on his nightstand. Ugh where was it? Reluctantly peeking one eye open, he saw lying aimlessly on the floor. Ugh. Stretching to the point where half his body was off the bed (it would’ve been much easier if he just sat up), he finally grabbed the charger and plugged in his phone. Victory. Now, he could relax. He’ll deal with whatever happened later.

BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING

No, he swore he just closed his eyes a second ago. Just a few more minutes.

BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING

Please.

BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING

BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING

The vibrating stopped. Hallelujah. Now back to h—

BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING

The obnoxious buzzing continued once more. Several rounds later, Danny slowly blinked open his groggy eyes. He had to suppress the urge to hurl his phone at the wall when he finally grabbed it. Declining the call, he was just about to return to his slumber until he noticed his screen was full of notifications. 9 missed calls from his mom, 5 from his dad, 11 from Jazz, 17 from Sam...his stomach sunk. Danny almost dropped his phone on his face when it started ringing once more, this time his dad again. He didn’t waste a moment in answering it.

“Hello?”

“Danno where are you? Did you get to evacuate with your school? Sam and Tucker say they haven’t seen you!”

“Wha—what? Evacu—”

“Hang on your mom’s here,”

��Danny sweetie, where are you? You’re not in the Casper High group.”

“Mom what did dad mean by eva—”

“And our tracker says you’re home, but you know we can never trust it since it sometimes locks onto that menace Phanto—”

“Wait a tracker?”

“Yes honey, we need to always know where you kids are, especially at times like these. Now, which evacuation group did you leave with?”

“Uhh...I’m actually home.”

The line went silent for a few moments. Danny heard his mom’s barely contained anxiety as she spoke her next words. “That’s...how did you...that’s alright sweetie. Can yo—was anyone else left behind?”

“Yeah, uhm, Wes Weston?”

“Okay...okay. Can you find him...and leave the town right away?”

“Mom, what’s going on?”

“Danny, please.”

“...okay.”

“Call us once you’re out, okay?”

“Okay mom.”

“Love you sweetie.”

“Yea you too.” He hung up then, his earlier grogginess completely forgotten now. Right, okay, he just has to find Wes no—

BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING

A LOUD shrill noise accompanied the incessant buzzing on his phone. Danny’s stomach dropped even further.

“[11:00 AM] EMERGENCY ALERT: Due to the increasingly harmful and destructive occupation of extra-dimensional beings in the town of Amity Park, the state of Illinois in conjunction with the GiW has made the final decision to evacuate all residents. Please follow your nearest evacuation group and proceed to exit the town.”

It was 3:07 now. The entire town just left? While he was stuck in the thermos? And “increasingly harmful and destructive occupation of extra-dimensional beings”? Dammit he had it under control.

Just before Danny left the room, he made sure to grab his charger.

Grabbing his bag left on the floor by the front door, he nearly jumped when he saw Wes sitting on the living room couch.

“How did—”

“Chill Fenton, you left the door unlocked.”

“But wh...nevermind. Did you hear—”

“About the evacuation? Yeah let’s get outta here.”

He didn’t bother to look back to check if Wes was following. The annoying scruff of his sneakers on the sidewalk was enough to tell.

But twenty minutes later, he couldn’t help but wonder why Wes was left behind too. “So...why didn’t you leave?”

“You know nobody takes those ghost alarms seriously anymore, right? Oh wait, you do, cause you’re Ph—”

“What about the emergency alert?” Danny asked, cutting Wes off.

“What emergency alert?”

“You didn’t get it? On your phone?” Danny pulled out his phone and showed Wes the notification.

“Oh, heh, I don’t get those.”

“What do you mea—oh, right. Your dinosaur phone is too old to get them.”

“Hey, at least with my dinosaur phone, the government can’t spy on my every move. That seems like something you’d be interested in, Phantom.”

“If the government was spying on us, how did they manage to forget us when evacuating the town?”

“The government has bigger things they like to worry about.”

“Sure, like hiding Area 51 right?”

“Exactly!” Wes exclaimed enthusiastically. “Finally, someone gets me.”

“Dude, that was sarcasm.”

Wes deflated at that. “Screw you Fenton.”

“Yeah, I—” the next moment Danny slammed face-first into something that  stung. Quickly backing up, he saw Wes walking, perfectly unperturbed. Hesitantly, he took his index finger and slowly pushed forward, until he was blocked again. Ghost shield, great.

Turning intangible, he disappeared into the ground and tried burrowing under the barrier, only to get blocked and stung again. Dammit, he shouldn’t have told his parents about ghosts being able to get past their old shields that way. Returning up, Danny began to feel his way around the shield, attempting to find a weak spot.

At some point, Wes stopped, noticing that Danny wasn’t tailing him anymore. “Jeez Fenton, what the heck are you doing?”

Danny stopped. “Just practicing for mime school, you know...just in case the whole astronaut thing doesn’t work out.”

Wes squinted. “Wait a minute...the news said they placed your parents’ newest ghost shield around all of Amity…”

Danny groaned, for what felt like the hundredth time today. “Are you kidding me?” He prodded at the shield, only to get stung again.

At that, Wes began to chuckle, which turned into an actual laugh, eventually becoming full-blown cackling.

Danny scowled. Not calming down in the slightest, Wes continued to cackle as he walked off into the distance.

Bastard.

After Danny could no longer see the flare of his annoying red-hair, he sighed and glanced upwards, turning around until he saw the tower at the centre of the town, blasting at full strength. His parents worked relentlessly for more than a year on that tower. After trial and error with various other ghost shields, they finally perfected the ultimate model. Danny tried his best to help too, ghost shields were becoming more vital to Team Phantom as the days passed on (mostly because it stopped people from complaining about property damage). Often that involved sneaking down to the basement while they were out purchasing supplies, testing it out, and subtly dropping recommendations during dinner time. With governmental aid on their side, they were able to expand it into a town-wide defense mechanism, resistant against all ectoplasmic entities, even halfas in their human form.

With all the good their work has done for Amity, they are no longer seen as the town’s local kooks. Jack and Maddie Fenton are now revered as the country’s leading scientists on ghosts. That tower was a stark symbol of his parents’ true dedication. Every time Danny saw that tower, he felt a swell of pride for his parents in his chest. Except for this time. Instead, he felt dread slowly trickling down into the pit of his stomach. Why must everything his parents invent come to bite him in the butt sooner or later?

Plunking down beside the shield, Danny laid down in the grass and pulled out his phone again. Ignoring the even bigger clusterfuck of notifications on his lock screen, he started up a video call with Tucker.

The instant the call picked up, Tucker shrilled into the speaker “DANNY, WHERE THE—” which was then combined with Sam exclaiming, “Is that Danny? You got him finall—WHAT THE HELL DANNY?”

Shit, he didn’t mean to make them so worried. “Hey guys, I-I’m fine,” he said, sheepishly looking away from the screen.

Sam’s expression quickly switched from angry to concerned. “We didn’t see you when the ghost alarm went off...” she trailed off.

“Yeah?”

“Figured you were taking care of it,” Tucker added. “We had no idea—”

“Tucker it’s okay.”

“Wait, really? You made it out?”

“Well...errr...”

Sam’s face took over the screen, expression serious. “Danny...are you still in Amity?”

“Uhh...yeah?”

A moment of silence passed, where Sam’s eyes widened and Tucker just walked off screen.

“B-but look, I’ll figure out a way out! I helped build the shield, I should be able to take it down, right?”

Tucker jumped back into the frame, “You were the one who helped make it indestructible, especially against yourself!”

“True but—” he was suddenly interrupted as his phone started buzzing again. “Shit, my parents are calling, what do I tell them?”

“Just say you’re on your way out?”

“But Wes already left!”

“Wes?”

“Yeah, Wes, no time to explain—what do I say??”

“Just answer it!”

“Um.”

“DANNY!” Tucker and Sam both yelled.

He jerked as he hung up and accepted his parents’ voice call. Hesitantly holding the phone to his ear, he stuttered out, “H-hello?”

His mom’s worried voice crackled through the speaker, “Sweetie, where are you now? Wesley just came out and told us you were coming…”

“Uh…” He had to think up something. NOW. “Uhh...ghost!”

“Danny wha—”

“Can’t talk now, ghost chasing me—bye!” He abruptly hung up and shut off his phone. Heart beating rapidly, he stared at the black screen. His parents are going to kill him for this.

Well, if not already for being Danny Phantom. Ha.

Lying back down on the grass (at what point did he start sitting up?), he registered just how quiet it was. No vehicles humming in the background, no people; just a soothing autumn breeze brushing against the leaves, accompanied by an occasional chirp from a bird nearby. A lone cloud floated off in the bright blue sky. With a bit of squinting, it looked like a hoagie. At that moment, his grumbling stomach decided to interrupt the serenity.

Searching his bag, he found the sandwich he packed for lunch, which was now disgustingly soggy. Ew. Did his parents leave any leftovers back in the fridge? Nah...wait. His eyes locked on a Nasty Burger in the distance. If people had to evacuate, then they must’ve left their orders behind, right? Yeah, he would be doing the world a service by not letting that greasy burger goodness go to waste. Tucker would back him up on this.

Five minutes later, he phased out of the fast food joint with a bag of untouched, barely warm Nasty burgers in one hand and a Nasty soda in the other.

Danny was going back home to figure out a way to get past the shield. Not at all because of his impending food coma. So what if he decided to take a quick power nap to regain his focus? He’d get nothing done anyways if he was too tired to think.

And so what if that quick nap turned into him knocking out for 13 hours?

Startling awake in his bed, he checked the clock. 8:00 AM. Shit! He’s late for school. Stumbling out his bed, he immediately tripped over his backpack, falling to the floor in a harsh thud.

“Ow.”

Rubbing his shoulder, everything came flooding back in his now clear mind. Fuck, how could he let the Box Ghost trap him in his own thermos?

Fuck, he has to get up. He has to find a way to get past that shield. Right now. His parents, his friends...they’re all waiting. Who knows what could be happening to them, they could be in danger, they’d need him. He has to before...before…

Before what?

Danny didn’t even realize he was doing his morning routine on autopilot until he was in the kitchen, halfway through a slice of toast. “Ergh!” he exclaimed as he spat out the almost cardboard-like excuse for breakfast onto his plate.

Why would they be in danger?

Glancing outside, he only saw a flock of living birds in the distance. Where did all the ghosts go?

Maybe because there’s no longer anyone to haunt. And as long as the shield remains, there’s no chance of even a blob ghost escaping.

Wait, there’s still Vlad in Wisconsin! No, he wouldn’t dare make a move while the Guys in White were watching. That’s one thing he knew for certain about the fruitloop.

So...what now? Danny leaned back in the kitchen chair as the realization slowly dawned on him. Everyone’s safe. A wave of relief came over him, washing away a suffocating feeling he didn’t even realize was always there. For the first time in months, he could breathe.

The next thing Danny does is turn his pathetic slices of toast into a triple decker PB & J sandwich. Another first in months.

Of course he had to be finding a way to get past the shield. His parents must be so worried. Jazz...he still hasn’t called her back. Staring at the black screen of his phone, he couldn’t bring himself to turn it on again. Talking to her would only worry her even more, right? Ancients forbid, if his parents called again...what could he even say this time?

Sam and Tucker could fill her in. They probably already did. He slid the inactive phone back in his pocket and got up to drop his empty plate in the sink.

Hours later, Danny was sticking his tongue out in concentration, trying to get past the Level 4 boss in Doomed. He honestly started up the old desktop in the basement fully intending to review his parents’ notes on the shield. After nearly nodding off on the eighth page, he decided that he deserved a little break.

Yet, that break was still going strong at 5:30am the next day. He was finally on the last level. So close...his bloodshot eyes locked on the final key, just within arm’s reach. Almost...there…

Except, a shot came out of nowhere, striking his player right in his chest, killing him instantly. And because he was on his last life, Danny stared in disbelief as the words “Game Over” appeared on the screen. He threw the computer mouse in frustration, unintentionally letting a bit of his ghostly strength through.

Well, crap. He needs a new mouse now.

Maybe he can stop by the store in the morning. Yawning heavily, his eyes wandered to the lab’s wall clock, widening as he read the time.

He...he should’ve been focusing on the shield! He groaned as he took another look at the broken mouse. There’s not even any store to stop by anymore! Screw this, he needs sleep. He’ll deal with this later.

~

Apparently later meant a week from then. He honestly doesn’t know how he got so distracted. He just knew the majority of the last week was spent binge-watching classic horror movies and emptying out his dad’s secret hidden stash of snacks. Jazz probably would be able to offer him some textbook explanation for this.

At some point, he’d managed to convince himself that everyone’s eventually coming back. Why else would he still have electricity? And his family left pretty much everything behind, except for a few ecto-weapons and the GAV. There’s no way this can be permanent. And why should it be? He still couldn’t find the true reason for the evacuation, news reports from earlier that week just cite the “increasingly harmful and destructive occupation of extra-dimensional beings.” Sure, Danny’s been busting his ass more recently, but it wasn’t like the town was about to be captured by Pariah Dark again. With that in mind, why should he expend any extra effort figuring out how to get past the shield? The shield he made sure worked against his very own biology?

Plus, he was happy to have a break from everything. At least that’s what he tells himself. He tries to ignore that nagging feeling in the back of his mind, telling him that he should turn his phone back on.

Anyways, his dad’s snacks have run out. Which is why he was standing right in front of the supermarket, currently in his ghost form. He’s just going to phase in, grab what he needs, and phase right back out. Easy. It’s fine, even if he sets off any security alarms, no one’s even here to stop him. Besides, a lot of that food’s probably gonna go bad anyways.

The first thing he noticed was all the flies. They seemed to be having a party in the (slightly smelly) produce section. Luckily for Danny, eating his veggies wasn’t really a top priority (sorry Sam). He grabbed a basket, floated over to the bread area, and tossed in a loaf. One of his greatest accomplishments in the last week was learning how to make a grilled cheese sandwich. That and the snacks are what have fueled him in the last week.

It seemed like the owners still left everything on after abandoning the store. The meat section was thankfully cool and fly-free. Danny eyed his options, recalling all the times Tucker shared his favourite methods of cooking each meat. Guess that knowledge is finally being put to good use. Bacon? Yes. Steak? Yup. Drumsticks? Of course. Sausages? Can’t say no to that.

Danny floated further along, grabbing various other items, including a couple boxes of frozen dinners and plenty of snacks.

He almost forgot about the mouse. Luckily, he passed by the electronics store on the way home.

After packing away the groceries, Danny thought he deserved a nap. After, he’ll probably try making the sausages for dinner. And maybe give reading those shield notes another shot since he had the mouse now.

At least, that’s what he told himself. Instead, he finally beat Doomed. Holy shit. He instinctively reached for his phone to text Tucker. They’ve been playing that game since they were nine! He…

Faced with his still powered-off phone, Danny suddenly realized that it’s been a week since he last spoke to Tucker. And Sam.

He really should talk to them. He’s been an awful friend, he’s gotta at least reassure them that he’s alright. Yet Danny couldn’t bring himself to turn his phone back on.

Eventually, an imaginary light bulb lit up above his head, and he logged into his email on the computer. However, the moment he saw his inbox cluttered with emails from his parents, he logged the fuck outta there. Nope.

While watching The Birds later that night and seeing Melanie lock herself in a phone booth to protect herself from the violent seagulls, Danny suddenly got another idea.

~

It was a clear night, with the moon shining in all its glory, softly illuminating the dark sky. You couldn’t even tell that the shield was there. Almost would’ve been perfect for stargazing if it weren't for the useless city lights that were still on.

A family of raccoons was crossing the road a few blocks away. And a crow cawed from above on a lamp post. Otherwise, the street in front of his house was completely deserted.

He floated up until he had a view of the entire town. During his nightly patrols, it’d never been this quiet. It felt like he was almost intruding on something, being out here now.

Using his powers to enhance his vision in the dark, he searched around for a payphone. Yes, he’s seen them before, although he can’t say he’d ever used one. It's gotta be somewhere.

He passed by an electronics store with a TV playing the news in the display. He immediately halted and did a double-take. His face was splayed across the screen, with the headline underneath, “RESIDENT GHOST HUNTERS’ SON MISSING AFTER EVACUATION”.

Before he could fully process that, he was knocked to the ground. Panicking, he struggled to get back up, but was pinned under something. Hold on, this seems famili—

“What have you done with our son, ghost?” Maddie Fenton demanded, pure hostility lacing her words.

Danny stared wide-eyed at his mother through the net, standing over him and holding an ecto-gun to his forehead.

“I…uh...”

“Speak now. Otherwise, you’ll find out just how quickly a blast from this will obliterate your vile form,” she threatened, pressing the gun right to his head now.

“N-nothing I s-swear! He l-left, with everyone else,” Danny sputtered.

“Lies. You attacked him right before he was going to leave.”

Crap. In retrospect that wasn’t really a good choice for an excuse. “That wasn’t me!” he exclaimed.

In that moment Danny realized his father was also there, standing a few feet behind Maddie. “Scanner’s telling me that you’re the only ecto-entity in Amity Park. So, ‘fess up ghost boy,” Jack said, glaring at his son.

Danny looked between them. His heart dropped when he registered how stressed they both looked. His dad’s face was patchy in places, obviously left unshaven for days. The bags under his eyes only accentuated how bloodshot they were. Danny couldn’t see much of his mom due to her goggles, but she was visibly trembling. This was all because of him. That same nagging feeling he’d ignored for far too long was now threatening to boil over and strangle him. Choosing his next words carefully, he choked out, “Alright yeah, but he left. I swear.”

“No…” Maddie whispered.

“Maddie, maybe the tracker’s malfunctioning again,” Jack suggested.

She looked back at her husband for a few moments. Then, she lowered the gun. Danny didn’t even realize he was holding his breath.

“But...we’ve searched all the groups, and none of the nearby towns are reporting him. Where else can he be?” she pleaded.

“We just have to keep looking Mads,” Jack answered dejectedly.

As soon as his parents started up the GAV and turned at the block, Danny made an instantaneous decision. He transformed to human form, broke through his parents’ net, and ran after them, forgoing all consequences. The guilt was too much to bear. He ran as fast as his “barely passing P.E.” legs could take him. He passed several blocks, adrenaline fueling him to keep going. When he slammed into the shield once again, he looked up to see the GAV stopped far in the distance, with Maddie outside, sobbing into Jack’s shoulder while he held her. They were too far for his screams to reach.

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

“Jazz, have you seen my phone?”

“No?” she responded, quizzically staring at Danny in the living room who currently had his arm elbow-deep between the couch’s cusions. “Need me to call it?”

“No...wait—actually, let’s give it a shot.”

Jazz speeddialed Danny’s phone and watched her brother’s expression meld into worry when his sensitive hearing couldn’t pick up anything.

“I...I swear I had it when I left school...” But then his eyes widened; he may have dropped it on the flight home. Shit.

“Jazz, I gotta go. Tell mom and dad I’ll be back by dinner.”

“Danny wha—”

“I’M GOING GH—”

Just as the white rings expanded from his waist, sweet relief blessed his ears. He reached into his suit’s pocket and pulled out his ringing phone, along with several candy wrappers, a couple of receipts, The Ring of Rage, and his missing earbuds.

~

I couldn’t sleep until I wrote this. Headcanon that anything Danny keeps in his pockets in human form isn’t accessible in ghost form and vice versa. And cause he’s (part) human, he forgets to empty them sometimes

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Ectober Week Day 1: Fog/Splatter

Read on AO3

~

Danny flew through the skies of Amity Park, soaking in the sun’s warm orange rays as it gradually descended below the horizon. 

Scanning the city for threats, something suddenly made him halt mid-flight. A new building was put up. Normally, he didn’t pay mind to such things, he could hardly keep up with how much Amity has grown over the years. However, he vaguely remembered hovering in this very same place a year ago and watching as his home was demolished. 

It wasn’t so long ago that the school was also pulled down. And all the other places that went before.

He found that the tighter he clung to his memories of them, the foggier they became. Because it wasn’t the places that were significant to him, it was the people. The blurred faces that meant so much to him in a former life.

He didn’t want to admit that he didn’t remember.

Because in a way, they’ll always be there.

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Tug of War (Ch 1)

ch 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

Summary: Danny's senior year at Casper High just started and there's a brand new locker sharing policy. Of all people, his locker partner turns out to be the one and only Wes Weston.

Word Count: 2,903

Read on AO3 or under the cut

@monsterswithvibes​ @phoenixdellaverita​ @phantomfana​ hope I did not disappoint

It was the first day of school and Danny was already running late. Of all times for Skulker to have another go at hunting him, he had to pick today. Danny really had high hopes for this year. It was his last year of high school and he knew he had to buckle down now. Despite his grueling responsibilities as Danny Phantom, he’s gotten much better at balancing all his priorities in life since his awful freshman year. His improved grades were one indicator of that, which fuelled him with hope that his dreams of becoming an astronaut weren’t that impossible anymore. However, being late on the first day definitely isn’t a good sign.

He flew inside Casper High and located the washrooms. He quickly floated into a stall, transformed to human, and ran out into the halls, searching for his homeroom with Mr. Lancer. He nervously gulped as his watch told him he was twenty minutes late. Hopefully Lancer won’t be too hard on him.

Danny’s face flushed when everyone in his homeroom stared at him. 

“Mr. Fenton, I see you’ve finally made it. I’m sure you must have an important reason for being late on the first day of class.”

Danny nervously brought his hand up to rub the back of his neck as he looked away. “Heh, yeah…”

Lancer squinted at him before continuing, “Nevertheless, I still think it’s important to hear what you have missed. Due to the growing student population at Casper High, this year students will have to share lockers with a partner in their homeroom. Considering your tardiness, I have no choice but to assign you with the only person left without a partner.”

At that moment, a red-haired boy burst into the classroom. “I’m so sorry Mr. Lancer! I jus—”

“Settle down Mr. Weston. I’m sure you also have your reasons. I was just telling Daniel here about the new locker sharing policy we have this year. You both will be locker partners.”

Lancer just grew more annoyed hearing equal squawks of protest from the two boys. “I’m sorry, however, all locker partners must be in the same homeroom. Since everyone else has chosen their partners before you both had arrived, I have no choice but to pair you two together.”

“But…” Danny glanced over to his friends sitting near the back. They both were silently mouthing a ‘sorry’. “Can’t you pair me with Sam and Tucker? Wes can get his own locker!”

“Daniel, I’m afraid I can’t do that, unless you have a legitimate reason as to why you would not want to share your locker space with Wesley?” Mr. Lancer asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I…” Danny trailed off. He peered over to Wes beside him, meeting his hateful glare. Of all people…

“I guess it’s settled then. Please take a seat boys.”

~

“Dude, relax, our locker combo is 10-22-15. You don’t have to listen to Lancer,” Tucker assured him.

Danny spared his bland macaroni another glance before looking up at his two friends across the lunch table. “Are you guys sure?”

“The creep already is obsessed enough with collecting evidence on you. I’m sure he wouldn’t take the opportunity to snoop through your bag for granted,” Sam scoffed.

“I guess...it’d be bad if he found the thermos like last time.”

Danny honestly wasn’t afraid of him revealing his secret anymore. After three years of Wes attempting and failing to convince the school that he’s Phantom, Danny was sure that even if he transformed right in front of everyone, they still wouldn’t believe Wes. 

Besides, his reputation wouldn���t allow it. The kids at Casper High would believe anything else before considering that the “loser” Danny Fenton was associated with their powerful hero. The fact that Wes still was dedicated to his pointless quest went beyond the trio.

Nonetheless, he was still annoying. One time he stole the thermos and tried using it as proof in another one of his lunchtime demonstrations. Unfortunately, he accidentally hit the eject button and released an angry swarm of ghost wasps upon all the poor students in the cafeteria.

Also, Danny was pretty sure he caught a glimpse of Wes taking photos of him again during his fight with Skulker this morning. That’s probably why he was also late.

“What’s your locker number again?”

“434. I think?” Tucker answered.

“That sounds about right,” Sam commented.

Danny shrugged on his backpack. “Alright, just gonna drop my new textbooks there. Be right back.”

~

Upon finding locker 434, Danny reached out for the lock, pausing when he drew a blank on the combination. Without another thought, he turned the lock intangible and phased it off.

All two backpack hooks were occupied and the top shelf was already full with an assortment of math, biology, chemistry, and physics textbooks. As for the second shelf, Danny shoved aside a can of Tucker’s homemade cologne Foley , a spare PDA, and a couple of other things to make some space. However, a small flat square object wrapped in bright plastic fell to the ground. He picked it up and inspected it. Something seemed so familiar about it. Oh .

He tossed the pad back into the locker as if it burned him. Right, Sam was a girl. No, a woman. Right. 

Right, back to what he was here for. He reached into his backpack and pulled out his new textbooks and a thermos currently hosting Skulker. There was barely enough space on the second shelf for just the thermos, but as he stooped to place his books at the bottom by Sam’s gym shoes, he gagged at the smell. He forgot how much her feet stunk sometimes.

With resignation, he stood up and put his books back in his bag. It’s fine, he’s Danny Phantom, he’d once lifted a car before. He could definitely handle carrying around a few heavy textbooks.

~

The back pain was unreal.

After one whole week of lugging his four textbooks around from class to class, Danny couldn’t take it anymore. His mom has already started lecturing him about his posture again. 

He couldn’t even leave some of them at home since he had the same classes every day. He also couldn’t bring himself to bug Sam and Tucker to more make space for him, their locker was practically overflowing with all the ghost hunting equipment he stores there now.

Therefore, he had no choice. He made his way to locker 824 and fished out a crumpled piece of paper from the bottom of his bag. He grumbled as the combination Lancer wrote down for him didn’t work and he tried again. And again. He scanned the lockers around him just to make sure he was at the correct one. However, he did a double-take when he noticed that every single other locker had a different lock than the one in front of him. Did he...?

Danny tried the combination one last time and failed. The jerk changed the lock!

Now thoroughly aggravated, Danny was about to just phase off the lock when he was interrupted by that same jerk.

“What the heck are you doing?”

Danny turned to glare angrily at Wes. “Why did you change the lock?”

“Why does it matter to you? I thought you were fine sharing with your little sidekicks?”

“They’re not my si—” Danny paused when he felt his ectoplasm burning colder beneath his skin. Get a grip Fenton. 

After taking a breath, he continued, “Lancer told us we have to share. Tell me the new combo, I just need to keep my textbooks.”

Wes stared incredulously at him before replying, “No way man, I’m not giving you free rein to snoop through my stuff.”

“Why on earth would I want to do that?”

“I dunno, why do you try to hide your true intentions through false heroism.”

“I don’t ha—Wes, just tell me the combo.”

“No.”

“C’mon, I won’t touch your stuff.”

“No.”

Danny scowled. “Fine. I guess I’ll just have to…”

Wes squawked when he saw Danny phase out the lock. “Hey! You can’t do that! I’m telli—”

“Mr. Lancer that you changed the lock on our locker so I can’t get in?”

Wes glowered silently while Danny placed his textbooks on the barren top shelf and hung his bag. His back screamed in relief.

Turning to Wes, Danny tossed the unopened lock to him. Caught off-guard, Wes fumbled with it, almost dropping it. Danny smirked and started heading to his next class.

~

A little more than a week later, Danny walked into his homeroom (he was actually early for once) and sat in the spot between his friends. Apparently he missed something, because they both had their arms crossed and were angrily looking away from each other.

“Uh, hey guys?” Danny said hesitantly. A week ago, they were bickering about keeping the can of Foley in their locker. And just yesterday, Sam blew up when Tucker complained about her smelly shoes. What could they possibly be arguing about today?

Sam spoke up first. “Danny, as the third occupant of our locker, will you please tell Tucker that we are not going to allow him to install a grill in our locker?”

“Wait wha—”

“Sam, let the dude make his own decisions. Danny, imagine all the things we can cook. Bacon, sausages, lamb chops...we won’t have to deal with crappy cafeteria food anymore!”

“Actu—”

“Tucker, don’t you realize how ridiculous you sound? No teacher is going to let you put a kitchen appliance in a locker! And I don’t want my stuff smelling like meat juice!”

“Sam, they aren’t gonna find out. If anything, we can just bribe them with bacon. Right Danny?”

“Um, I—”

“They’re not going to fall for your bribe when there’s a freaking fire hazard in there!”

“Oh, lighten up. I guess it’d be difficult getting you to understand the true power of bacon.”

Sam leaned back in her chair and scoffed. “Danny, can you believe this guy?”

Tucker gripped Danny’s shoulder and whispered excitedly, “Imagine, no more caf food!”

Looking between his friends, Danny sighed. “Guys, I don’t think I’m qualified enough to help you make this decision.”

“No, you are. You keep your stuff in there too,” Sam insisted, almost with a hint of desperation.

“Actually...it’s just the ghost hunting equipment. I’ve...I’ve started using my other locker.”

“What?!” his friends exclaimed in unison.

“Yea, it’s kinda crowded in your locker already. I’m just keeping my textbooks and backpack in there.”

“Danny, we can make more space for you man,” Tucker affirmed.

“Yeah, it might be tight but you don’t have to do this,” Sam agreed.

“Look guys, he barely keeps anything in there anyways. I haven’t even seen him near it for like a week. It’s okay.”

“Are you sure?” Sam asked worriedly.

“Ye—” Suddenly Lancer cleared his throat at the front of the classroom. 

Danny groaned when he saw “ Hamlet essay due tomorrow ” on the chalkboard.

~

“I c-can’t believe they’re f-forcing me to g-go with everyth-thing happening with s-school! C-couldn’t they have chosen Win-winter break? Thanksgiving w-week?” Sam complained, shivering from the late October chill.

“H-how long wi-will you be gone?” Tucker asked, also shivering.

“One week I-I think?”

Danny frowned when he noticed how cold his friends felt. He shouldn’t have just worn a t-shirt today. Ever since his ice core had “awakened”, he never had a problem with cold weather. In fact, sometimes he forgot to wear a coat when leaving his house in the dead of winter.

Too late to change his clothes now. But there is something else he can do. “Guys, come closer,” he said, placing his arms around his friends’ shoulders. He focused on heating up his energy and allowed it to seep through his skin. 

His cold friends sighed, feeling the warmth. After a moment, Sam peered at him quizzically. “Danny, you know the door’s right there.”

He ignored her remark. “How could you not be psyched that you’re getting an extra week off? In the Bahamas!”

“Yeah!” Tucker agreed. Danny retreated his arms to push open their school’s front doors.

“I’m not getting an extra week off though. I still gotta keep up with all my homework and assignments. And my parents don’t care at all, they seem to be under the delusion that they could bribe me into any college they want!” 

Approaching his locker, Danny grabbed his stuff for class and then turned his bag intangible, placing it inside his locker.

“I don’t think it’s a delusion, have you seen that article about all those rich parents who got involved in that huge college admissions scandal?” Tucker brought up as they continued towards their own locker.

“Exactly, now it’s all the more harder for them to do it. And that’s even if I allow them,” she asserted as she opened her locker with Tucker.

Danny stood back as his friends grabbed their things for class, mentally going over his notes for his physics test coming up in third period. He was so glad he got to study last night with zero interruptions. Still, that didn’t mean he was any less nervous. If he screws up this test, he’ll probably screw up the rest of his grade. He’ll honestly give it his best shot, but, regardless, he’d really just like to fast-forward right to lunch. Besides, he had his mom’s clam chowder from last night to look forward to then.

Tucker swung their locker closed. “Whatever Sam, they’re your parents.”

“Yeah, I know,” she grumbled.

~

Danny practically skipped to his locker after finishing his test. It was so easy!

He didn’t even need to look at the formula sheet once, he already remembered them from doing his homework. 

Opening the door, he grabbed his bag and stuck his hand inside it to fish for his lunch. Maybe his physics grade wouldn’t be so bad after all. Probably even good enough for college admissions. Danny allowed a bit of hope for his dreams to fill his heart.

He just needed good enough grades this year to get into any science college program. And then he’ll just complete his masters, do a bit of work in whatever he studies, and then the NASA physical test should be a piece of cake! He couldn’t contain the grin that appeared on his face. His future wasn’t hopeless.

With a renewed sense of vigor, he dug deeper for the thermos keeping his lunch. But then, he faltered when he couldn’t feel it. He dumped out everything in his bag, yet his lunch was missing. Weird. He huffed as he looked over the rest of the locker. It wasn’t there. 

Did he forget to pack it this morning? His mom left it on the table, did he take it? 

His expression melded into a frown, he probably did leave it at home.

“Crappy caf food it is,” he muttered, slamming his locker shut.

~

Wes was going off on another spiel about Phantom’s true identity in the centre of the cafeteria. Danny barely paid him any mind as he sat down with his lunch tray.

Tucker cautiously eyed his friend’s grumpy look. “Hey dude, how was the test?”

Danny suddenly perked up at that. “Surprisingly, it was really good.”

“Aw that’s good to hear man, I think I messed up on the rollercoaster question.”

“Oh that one? I think I used the centripetal acceleration formula,” Danny recalled as he brought up a spork full of dry salad.

“Why didn’t I thi—”

“Um guys, where did Wes get that from?” interrupted Sam.

Danny curiously spared a glimpse at the annoying red-haired boy standing up on a table several feet away. However, his look morphed into a furious glare when he caught what he was holding.

Tucker groaned, “Man, I hope there’s no ghost in there for him to accidentally release again.”

Danny’s friends startled when he abruptly stood up.

~

“Listen everyone! I have found this ghost containment device, that Phantom regularly uses, in our shared locker,” Wes yelled to the irritated students around him.

“Shut up Wes!” Kwan shouted.

“No, I won’t. Can you guys see? Why would h—”

“His parents invented them dumbass!” Valerie hollered.

“Which makes sense why Pha—”

Wes froze as the very ghost he was trying to expose suddenly stepped on his table and glowered right at him.

With barely restrained anger, Danny demanded, “Give me back my lunch, Wes.”

Wes looked between the thermos and him before bursting into laughter. “You—you think I’d fall for that?” he cried.

While Wes continued to laugh, Danny’s eyes began to burn a bright green. “I’m serious Wes.”

Ignoring his threat, Wes noticed his eyes and enthusiastically exclaimed, “Everyone look! His eyes are doing it again!”

Danny grunted as he attempted to swipe back his lunch. “You promised you wouldn’t go through my stuff!”

Jumping back, Wes cradled the thermos closer to him. “I promised nothing. You were the one who promised.”

Danny had to use so much restraint to stop himself from lunging at him.

“Anyways,” Wes continued, raising the thermos above his head, “if your lunch was in fact in here, then explain what happens when I press this!” 

All of the students in the cafeteria suddenly protested, all too well remembering the ghost wasp incident. Unfortunately, it was too late.

This time instead, a chunky cream-coloured liquid gushed out the thermos, drenching everyone surrounding the two boys.

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Ectober Week Day 7: Cloak/Plague

Read on AO3

Word Count: 236

~

Sam marveled at the smooth satin feel of the cloak, admiring the intricate skull embroidery pattern at the hem. “Tucker...it’s beautiful.”

Tucker beamed. “Glad you like it. ‘Course I couldn’t make it without that sewing machine you got me for my birthday.”

“Yeah, but you really didn’t need t—”

“Hush, I wanted to. Besides, it was good practice.”

Sam swallowed her reply and ran her hand through the fabric once more. “Thanks Tuck.”

~

The next morning, Sam was greeted by the sound of her mom’s shriek as she entered the kitchen.

“Sammykins! What are you wearing?”

Sam lowered the hood of the cloak and scowled. “I told you this a million times already, call me Sam.”

“Oh, why would you wear such a dreadful garment? What about the dress I bought you last week?”

“That frilly disaster?”

“Don’t say that Sammy, c’mon now, let’s find you something nice to wear.”

Sam pouted. She’s been through this a dozen times with her mom already. Guess we just have to continue the lies…

“Actually, it’s for school.”

“Pardon me? Why in sha—”

“It’s a play. In first period. So I need to wear it cause I won’t have any time to change.” She inched towards the door. “Anyways would you look at the time gotta go bye!”

She exhaled a sigh of relief as soon as she was outside. Guess it’s gonna be another morning without breakfast.

~~

This was supposed to be a lot longer :/ Unfortunately, my academic slump has also taken away my fic writing abilities.

Pretty much, it continues with Sam going to school with the cloak. A teacher called Ms. Ricketts (yes this is a callout to YOU Ms. Ricketts, my horrible third grade teacher) gives Sam detention for not "adhering to the dress code". Sam is really pissed about this. Then a reasonable sequence of events occurs which leads up to Ms. Ricketts getting fired. Sam happily continues wearing the cloak permanently. Also, insert scene where the Box Ghost thinks Sam is an Ancient because of the cloak and is Terrified.

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Ectober Week Day 4: Darkness/Poison

Read on AO3

Honestly, I just wanted to write something for this headcanon.

~

The first thing Tucker recognized was a low mumbling from the direction of his closet. Blearily blinking his eyes awake, he noticed that his room was brighter than usual (he’s gotten quite used to sleeping with all the LED lights from his devices). Turning to his closet, he jolted at the figure standing there, dressed in an old-fashioned military uniform.

“Hmm...where is it?” The figure rubbed his chin as he inspected the wardrobe. Spotting Tucker’s red beret hanging on the closet’s doorknob, he happily exclaimed, “There we go!” After placing the hat on his head, he walked over to Tucker’s mirror and let out a content hum.

Noticing how cold his room was, Tucker brought up his duvet and wrapped it around his shoulders as he cautiously watched the figure. The ghost seemed to stare at himself for a full minute until he turned to Tucker. 

“Thanks for keeping this safe for me boy, see ya around,” he spoke in a gracious voice, before phasing through the wall.

Tucker’s room was shrouded in semi-darkness once again. His mind whirled in time with his beating heart, as his eyes fixated on where his grandfather had stood.

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Ectober Week Day 2: Bones/Pulse

Read on AO3

Word Count: 468

(pls note that this is crack ok)

~

The entire city of Amity Park was under lockdown (once again) due to an outbreak of ecto-acne. Which meant a lot fewer people were out, hence a lot fewer people for them to terrorize. Which left a very bored Danny Fenton.

He knows he should be using this time to finally catch up on his homework. But, lying on his bed, the glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling were infinitely more interesting in this moment. (Yes, even at 2 o’clock in the afternoon with the sun’s brightness infiltrating his room).

He brought his hand in front of his face and turned it invisible and intangible. Blowing air at where his hand once was, a hint of a smirk appeared at his lips when he felt nothing. Even though this was his first ability, it still never ceases to amaze him.

Making his hand visible again, he focused on turning his pinky finger invisible only, then his thumb, index, until only his middle finger was left. He couldn’t hold back the snigger.

Returning his fingers to visibility, he stared at his hand for a few seconds as an idea festered in his mind.

Closing his eyes, he concentrated on recognizing all the parts of his hand that he really should’ve paid attention to in science class. When he was sure that he finally targeted what he wanted, he slowly opened his eyes.

He blinked at the skeletal hand in front of his face, feeling simultaneously sick and amazed. It actually worked!

He immediately grabbed his phone with his normal hand and started up a group video call with Sam and Tucker.

~

After fifteen minutes of struggling with his parents’ tripod, Danny beamed proudly after he finally got it to stand and hold a camera. Tucker shook his head in shame on Danny’s laptop screen.

They decided not to tell Sam about this. One, no harm can really come out of it, right? Also, it’s not like she’d allow herself to watch TikTok videos anyways. She’d never find out.

He paired his phone with a Bluetooth speaker and found the song on Spotify.

“You sure about this?”

“Absolutely. No one will be able to tell it’s you with that green screen I lent you,” Tucker answered confidently. He smirked as his friend turned completely invisible, except for his bones.

Skeleton-Danny hit play on “September” and started recording.

~

“Honey, did you order a skeleton from Amazon?“ Maddie curiosity asked her son over dinner.

“Uh—yea...um, ‘s for a science project.”

“Oh, okay then. I left it by the stairs.”

“Sweet!”

Later that evening as Maddie was heading upstairs after working, she halted when she recognized “Careless Whisper” blasting from his room. “Huh, I never knew he liked George Michael.” She made a mental note to show him Jack’s old Wham! records later.

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Superheroes Aren’t Real

A VERY short thing I wrote to get a feel for Wes and his motivations. I’m still not entirely happy with it, but I’ve been driving myself up the wall revising it over the past week. Might as well just post it into the void...

~~~

Wes used to adore comic books. As a kid, he considered Superman, Spider-Man, and Batman as his friends. His best friends. No one else he knew had awesome powers like they did. And the best part: they used their powers for good. That was why he wanted to become a superhero when he grew up, just like them. Other kids at school wanted to be lame and become a doctor or firefighter, and while yeah, they do save people, heroes save much more people. Plus they were cooler.

Now, Wes had absolutely no recollection of these aspirations. His best friends were long gone, burned in a backyard fire while his father yelled at him for being so unrealistic. Nor did Wes remember how he cried for weeks after that that. 

The day he discovered Phantom, he didn’t know how to feel. Seeing him time and time again on the news, saving people...it’s gotta be a sham. It’s just not realistic. How could someon–no. How could some ghost be so freakin’ altruistic? 

Nonetheless, when Wes moved here, Amity Park loved Phantom. Still, that didn’t change his sentiments. Wes cringed every time he saw Phantom’s pictures plastered all over Paulina’s locker, or when Dash would turn into a complete fanboy with the slightest mention of him. Can’t they see what was so wrong about all this?

Eventually, he concluded that Phantom was just a ghost hiding a secret agenda. Superheroes belonged in fiction, no one could have such good pure intentions for the world. Years of reading about various conspiracies taught him that powerful people are always hiding something.

The day he discovered that Phantom was nothing more than that Fenton kid, he was furious.

From then on, every time he noticed ordinary Danny Fenton at school, all he saw was a lie. A facade. And everyone believed it so easily! Couldn’t they see that he looked exactly like Phantom, save for the eyes, hair, and clothes? At school sometimes even his eyes glowed! Dammit, even their names were almost exactly the same!

Perhaps the infuriating aspect of it all was at one point, Wes also bought into Fenton’s faked up loser persona at school. Every time some jock pummelled Fenton into a locker, Wes couldn’t help but pity him. He painted such a believable pathetic image of himself. That bastard was making a mockery of the entire school!

Wes has to do something, it has to stop before it’s too late. This isn’t the government hiding aliens in Area 51 or the New World Order orchestrating another worldwide catastrophe. He was smart enough to realize that those problems were way too big for him. Society trusts the government too deeply to realize how corrupt they are. But their trust in Phantom is still fresh, if Wes exposed him...it might actually work. People might actually listen to him this time. There’s still a chance.

From that day forth, publicizing the truth about Danny became the most important endeavour of his life. Because ultimately, superheroes aren’t real.

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Danny ponders about his lonely future.

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Tug of War (Ch 5)

ch 1 - prev

Word Count: 1,574

“Hey Tuck, you busy tomorrow?” Danny asked as the trio walked through the halls after school.

“Um, yea, I’ve got plans,” Tucker replied reluctantly.

His friends both turned to him in surprise. 

“No way, you actually landed a date on Valentine’s Day?” Sam exclaimed incredulously.

Read on AO3 or under the cut

“Wait n—of course I have a date!”

“Who is it?” Danny and Sam simultaneously demanded. 

Tucker began to nervously play with his beret. “Heh heh, um...you don’t know them.” 

Danny seemed to easily accept his response. “Oh, okay then. Have fun Tuck.”

However, Sam was scrutinizing him. He definitely was hiding something. “Tucker, you know you could tell us anything, right?”

“What? Sam, I do!”

“Yeah, right.”

“I’m not hiding anything!”

Sam didn’t reply. Instead, her gaze bore right into Tucker. Within a few seconds, his resolve crumbled away.

“Alright, fine! But you guys gotta promise to not tell anyone this, okay?”

Danny raised an eyebrow at Sam. Honestly, he’ll never get how she does it.

Meanwhile Sam smirked. “We promise. What’s going on?”

“Okay, so you know how I’m trying to get into cybersecurity after college?”

His friends nodded, having a slight idea what it was after hearing him talk about it so much.

“Well, I’m working with this group, and...errr...we’re trying to...help? Some companies?”

“What do you mean by help?” Danny questioned.

Sam added on, “And which companies are you ‘helping’?”

“Just, um...companies like Chase and Capital One. We’re just...I guess you could say we’re testing their security?” Tucker hesitantly answered.

“Aren’t those credit card companies?” asked Sam suspiciously.

“That’s so cool man. I don’t get why you had to hide it from us though,” Danny told him right as he opened his locker.

Sam knew there was more to it, but dropped it when all three of them spotted an expensive camera simply hanging by the strap off one of the locker hooks.

“No way, is a Nikon D80?” Tucker exclaimed gleefully before carefully grabbing the camera to admire it.

Meanwhile, Danny was confused. Wes hardly keeps anything in their locker.

“Hold up. Tucker, turn it on,” Sam said.

He eagerly pressed the power button. “Dude, you didn’t have to ask me first.”

Danny pushed aside a nagging feeling when he saw the menu appear on the screen.

“Whoa, there’s over a thousand photos in here!” Tucker blurted out. “And...they’re all of you, Danny.”

Sam scoffed, “This must be what the creep uses to take those pictures he sells.”

As the trio flipped through the undoubtedly high quality pictures, Danny was suddenly struck by a genius idea. His friends grinned mischievously after he shared what he had in mind.

~

Wes was exhausted. The last game of the season was coming up and Ms. Tetslaff was really pushing them to their limits.

He lumbered to his locker, already feeling an ache from the intense practice he just had. Opening his locker, he gasped when he saw his camera hanging in plain sight. Crap!

He quickly retrieved the protective pouch from his backpack and delicately placed the camera inside. How could he be so careless? Practice must be really getting to him. He’s so damn lucky that Fenton didn’t take it.

He’s actually not that lucky at all.

Later that night as he was going to back up his recent pictures, his stomach dropped when he discovered they were all gone. Instead, there was one new video.

Wes hesitantly double-clicked to open the video on his computer.

“Hey everybody! Danny Phantom here,” Danny greeted in the video as he was floating against the backdrop of Casper High’s distinguishable brick wall. Listening real closely, you could hear two other people sniggering in the background. “I’m here to finally come clean about the truth.” 

Wes’ heartbeat picked up. Was he finally going to...?

Danny continued in the video, “If you go to Casper High, I’m sure you all have heard about the rumours. How Danny Fenton is actually me in disguise. That’s...that’s actually not that far from the truth; my true identity is none other than a Casper High student. I’m tired of hiding it. People of Amity Park, I am actually Wes Weston.” The video abruptly cut out.

When Wes’ dad heard a loud crash from his son’s room and came up to check on him, the boy could only growl in response.

~

To say that Wes was pissed the next day was an understatement. It turns out, that video was also posted online. All of his hard work over the years, just gone, right down the toilet. 

People wouldn’t stop interrupting him in the halls, bugging him to turn invisible or shoot an ectoblast. No matter how much he tried to debunk that video, they continued to wholeheartedly believe that he’s Phantom.

In history class, Paulina slapped him for charging her for pictures of “himself”. After that, he honestly didn’t want to find out how much worse Dash’s reaction would be. He should probably ditch class until this whole thing blew over.

As he pried open his locker to get his stuff, he glowered at the sight of Fenton’s first aid kit. Last week, when he showed off the expensive kit as evidence, no one even batted an eye. Are the kids at this school that stupid, that they’d believe a single video of Phantom speaking than years of proof?

He was about to leave until he noticed a pamphlet sticking out of Fenton’s bag. 

Instantly recognizing the logo on it, his frustration melted away and he couldn’t keep himself from chuckling as he flipped through its pages.

As he made his way to exit the school, he spotted Fenton walking by himself in the halls. He smirked to himself. Maybe he’ll be able to rile him up enough this time to expose him and get everyone to forget that video. That’ll be the perfect payback.

“NASA? You want to work for them?”

Danny jolted out of his thoughts at the sound of Wes’ voice. Surprisingly, he didn’t sound mad at all. Regarding him suspiciously, Danny replied, “Um...yeah?”

“Wow. I should’ve pegged you as the type to enjoy fabricating hoaxes for a living. We know you already love doing that in your everyday life.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh Fenton, you know exactly what I’m talking about—NASA, the corporation whose whole aim is generating lies about outer space to deceive the public?”

“Right, I forgot you were a total conspiracy nut. Listen, I don’t have time for this, I—”

“I’m betting you’re more than eager to join in on the next fake moon landing. You’d just love the extra attention, wouldn’t you?”

“We—”

“Even if it’s for your measly human disguise. But why go through all this work when you could just possess the next ‘astronaut’?”

“Dude, that is so wrong!”

“Really? I wouldn’t put it past you.”

A moment of silence passed, while Danny’s defiant look faltered.

“Honestly, screw you Wes,” he muttered before walking off.

Wes could only stare after the now despondent boy, wondering what the heck was wrong with him. It wasn’t like him to just leave, this was supposed to rile him up even more!

Dammit.

~

Weeks later, the buzz around the whole “Wes being Phantom” thing finally died down. Eventually, the inevitable situation came where Phantom and Wes were spotted both being in the same place at the same time. Some people still had their doubts, considering Phantom’s duplication ability was well-known by now. But for the most part, Wes’ life eventually turned back to normal.

He sighed in relief as the buzzer rang, signaling the end of the final game for Casper’s basketball team. The Elmerton Owls beat them brutally with a score of 78-36. Ms. Tetslaff was shaking her head in anguish.

He actually wasn’t bothered at all. After all, it was a losing game from the start. Anderson, the best player of the team, broke his leg last weekend in a skiing accident. Wes was just happy that the embarrassing game was over. 

As he fist bumped his team members after finishing up in the change room, he left for his locker. Since the game occurred after school, the halls were completely empty.

When he turned the corner, what he saw stopped him dead in his tracks.

There, sitting and leaning back beside his locker was none other than Danny Phantom, covered in glowing green ectoplasm and clutching a large gash in his stomach as it threatened to spill more onto the floor.

Wes could only stand there frozen, taking in Danny’s unmoving form as the pool of ectoplasm inched closer to his white sneakers. 

Suddenly, Danny registered that someone was watching him. Sam? Tucker? Didn’t they already head home? He weakly raised his head to see who it was, only to grimace when he recognized the red-haired creep.

“What do you want Wes?” he barely managed to croak out.

Never in Wes’ life had he imagined seeing him in this position. The worse he thought was watching Phantom’s bravado crumble when the world discovered who he truly was. But this...all of it was already gone in this moment. And as the ectoplasm stained his shoes, he began to question himself.

Wes gulped. He didn’t consider himself to be a caring person. But as Danny sat there, bleeding out before him, he couldn’t…

After sending him one last look, Wes opened their locker, grabbed the first aid kit at the bottom, and got to work.

~end~