#he was tinkering with some Fenton inventions

[bluerosefox]

Misunderstandings and Miscommunications

Back at it again with some

✨️ Shenanigans ✨️

Brain rot.

Here goes.

So Danny finally tells his parents the truth (Phantom Planet not happening in this AU) and due to his anxiety and fear takes their disbelief and horror and yelling (not mad or angry but like worried yelling) as rejecting him.

They had rejected Vlad a few weeks ago when he had been caught as Plasmius but they only rejected him because they had found out he had been trying to kill Jack in order to get to Maddie and had been hurting Danny behind their backs while also trying to get him to denounce Jack as his dad, it had nothing to do with him being part ghost.

They do love Danny and are just horrified their invention had killed their baby boy and that they had been trying to hurt him for a last few years because they didn't know he was Phantom (but the clues, oh the clues were staring at them in the face now, how blind they were to it oh.)

Due to Danny's panic he runs off into the Infinite Realms in order to hide with one of his ghost friends but.... he runs into some trouble (Skulker? Walker? idk pick any) and gets tossed in a random portal that had opened up.

And finds himself in the DC verse.

Danny accidentally falls into a huge battle as well and when he spots the heroes trying to protect the city he fell into from some huge evil villain he helps out despite his own emotions (it helps distract him from what he 'thinks' happened between him and his parents)

And once he's done helping he books it cause he need to process everything and doesn't stop when the hero he helped out called out to him, and phases out and turns invisible if the hero tries to stop him to talk. It isn't long until Danny is in a new city and finds some more people to help from villains and evil, and he starts using it to distract himself.

Basically Danny aimlessly wanders around and starts helping anyone to keep his mind off the thought of never being able to go home again.

Meanwhile his parents are PANICKING about not being to find Danny after he runs. They try calling his friends, but the moment they hear the Fenton's say they know about him being Phantom they too jump the gun and think Danny was rejected. They both yell, not letting the Fenton's say anything, and let slip Danny most likely is hiding in the Infinite Realms (aka the Zone) if hes not in Amity.

Tucker and Sam immediately hang up and call Jazz, whose at college, before the Fenton parents could and tell her what happened. And Jazz isn't happy.

Despite being so smart and willing to give their parents so many chances to change their views on Ghosts, she's not a child anymore and isn't going to let them hurt Danny (they don't want to). She starts making her way home to give her parents a piece of her mind.

But by the time she gets there, driving all night, her parents are missing and she finds a video message on the computer from Tucker explaining they had snuck into the house to go into the portal to try to find Danny only to see the Fenton parents suiting up and going into the zone with the Specter Speeder and Boo-o-rang keyed to Danny. "No doubt they're going to hunt Danny down, we're going to try to slow them down and find Danny before they do Jazz! We left an extra Boo-o-rang behind keyed on Danny's signature come help us when you get this message! Take Danny's Specter Bike I made sure the keylock is off!" (Let's pretend Tucker tinkered with the design of the Specter Speeder and made some bike versions, with Danny and funnily enough Johnny 13's help, it was fun bonding thing they all did)

Jazz is even more livid after that. Takes a few things and heads to the portal as well, hopefully to find Danny first before her parents.

By the time Jazz finds the portal that opens to the DC verse she's in Gotham, runs into Red Hood (and helps take down some gang goons but in the process her Boo-o-rang gets busted in the scuffle) and basically they talk. She asks if he's seen any runaway blue eyed black haired young teens around and Jason jokingly says "Nope but we better find him before the Big Bad Bat takes him and turns him into a Robin."

Jazz is very confused.

MEANWHILE

The Fenton parents are of course making a menace of themselves... They're driving around (which is a warning enough if Jack is behind the wheel) trying to find Danny to explain that they do love him and to come back home, and when they do find Danny he freaks out and starts booking it again (right as he actually stopped to talk enough with a hero too). The heroes of the DC verse whose meet Danny and those that heard about some young 'meta' teen whose been helping out and is very powerful, take note how scared and panicked he looked when facing the two and things get worse when they take note how... careless they are going after him (cause we know the Fenton's get a little extreme) and add the fact they look like mad scientists too (they haven't been sleeping well since Danny ran off)

So the DC heroes start assuming the worse for the young teen hero...

It gets even much WORSE when Tucker and Sam, who are hot on the Fenton's heels as well, show up and eventfully tell them what happened (or what they think happened) when they gain their trust.

Basically, a lot of miscommunication happens.

Danny thinks he needs to be on the run from his parents and is helping out in the DC verse to keep his mind off his own breaking heart from the rejection (if you wanna make it serious maybe have his actual core in danger from the rejection or something). And is nearly adopted by every hero who see's this sad ghost kid.

His parents are labeled mad scientists (kinda are) who are hunting Phantom down to end him or experiment on him but they actually DO love him and just want their son come back home. (due to being Fenton's they do kinda accidentally cause a lot of mayhem in their wake)

Tucker and Sam are trying to be amazing friends and stopping the Fenton's from hurting their best friend but much like Danny they are a bit too caught up in their emotions to realize the truth of what happened and may or may not alerted the JL and JLD why Danny is on the run in the first place. (when they had down time to find out where they were they found out about the meta protection laws and is kinda using that to get Danny help)

Jazz is in Gotham, has no way to track Danny down at the moment, is talking with Red Hood (coughAngerManagementcough) about finding her brother and saving him from her parents before they do anything to hurt him. Cue Red Hood (and maybe with the help of the Outlaws) helping Jazz go find her brother.

This can be serious but I mostly see it being silly with nothing but shenanigans and a lot of miscommunication.

[f4nd0m-fun]

So in a lot of these monster hunting fantasy webcomics, you have these things called monster cores. Imagine, if you will, an AU where the Justice League has always been in a world like this. Maybe an alternate earth, maybe the aliens are from different planes instead of planets, maybe you've got magic as the primary force and yet there's some who still manage to stick almost entirely to tech/magitech (like Bruce). These cores are essentially batteries, and the more powerful the monster the more energy you can draw. Also, I love the idea that, if you put it together right, you can technically recharge it.

Enter, the Phamily. Either they are from this world and the Fentons are monster hunters trying to find the origin place of the monsters, or this isn't their original world and they're trying to open a portal home.

Danny, Ellie, Dan, and Vlad if he's there, have cores. These can be considered batteries just looking at the way ectoplasm is used (imagine how much more potent the cores would be than the globs). Jazz, the parents, and Danny's friends if they're there too are liminal. This could mean that magic considers them part monster despite no cores, or maybe they're considered akin to warlocks or sorcerers, looked down upon but not actively hunted or something. Although the presence of the half monster kids and what seems to be a half monster dad... (yes this is probably a family breakfast ship, sue me if you dare) well, Vlad is gonna be determined to fight off the rumors with whatever he's got, there's no need for his darling Maddie to get worked up about idiots, aside from him and Jack of course. (I also love Vlad x Connie so this could either be Vlad is just an uncle or we get Connie in and call it Family Party or something - Party cause alcohol?)

Also not entirely sure on how I'm writing Bruce and Dick here, I want them to be able to access magic in some way, but sensing magic might be more of an Oracle/Barbara thing, I'm not sure, but also they can't do anything big or flashy with it, it's more tiny stuff which is why they rely on magitech. Also the idea that even if people can sense magic, usually they ignore changes aside from moving away from it if necessary cause usually it means a bunch of monsters are coming through a breach. Honestly, not sure how to run this but, eh.

The below segment is written with Native!JL and Isekai!DP in mind.

=====||=====||=====||======||=====||=====||=====

Bruce had been tinkering with his latest animaga, a monster core whose energy had been threaded through one if his favorite inventions, intended to allow him and his ward flight with the use of monster wings.

"B!"

He tensed but refuses to startle as his ward all but jumped on top of him. "Yes Dick?"

"The magic feels weird!"

Bruce paused, setting his tools down. He knew as a half elf, Richard was sensitive to magic, but wasn't nearly as strong with it as most full elves.

Of course, Bruce had always been considered... disabled in that regard, a full elf who could only feel the energy close to him, though it wasn't public knowledge that he knew of. "That's good to know, Chum, why don't you meditate on it and I'll investigate tonight?"

His ward seemed to understand the intent to leave him behind and started to protest.

"Chum, I was going out alone before you showed up, if the magic really has changed, it'll be safer for me to go out and use the radar."

Dick whined but didn't protest again.

Bruce hoped he wouldn't sneak out this time.

As night began to fall, a family of 9 was gutting a strange metallic ship. Well, the three elder ones were, while the younger ones worked together to scout out the area.

Bruce had just arrived to the location, but chose not to interfere just yet. Batman was the embodiment of night to many, a fearsome predator to others, and some even thought he was a monster himself. Reconnaissance was his strength, as was stealth.

"I don't know, Jazz, the energy here is weird. Muggy almost." His form gave off a soft glow, not unlike that of the whisps, though much larger in body.

The girl with red hair, Jazz he presumed, did not appear impressed. "Like you're the expert on energy. Maybe you should ask Sam when we get back to Mom and dad."

"And Vlad."

"Don't remind me."

The glowing one shuddered. "I know him and our parents have been buddy buddy again but why did he take you find along?"

"Because you're still in training, Daniel."

Both children shrieked.

"I see your core has accepted me into your Fraid."

Bruce froze a bit. Core? Thier energy was certainly strange but not entirely monstrous, hence his inactivity, but the presence of a core presented issues.

"Whatever, Fruitloop. Go back to camp."

"I don't think I will, you're being watched and I can't have my son or daughter being in harm's way."

"Give it a rest, Frootloop, we're not your kids." Despite their attitude, something about their reaction and stance suggested they were worried about being watched as well.

Bruce wondered how they knew about him, perhaps he should have asked Lucius for help with a dampening field to hide the energy of the animaga?

"Don't bother flying away, you'll be surrounded before you can think." Vlad placed a hand on Danny's shoulder.

Before Bruce could react, there was a flash of light that all but burned onto his retinas, but the light was all wrong, a deep black instead of a glowing hue. By the time he was back to his senses, Vlad was gone, and in his place was another strange Whisp. Batman didn't have to turn around to find there were identical ones behind him. Clearly, this was an opponent not to be underestimated.

[aph-mable]

My Uncle is a Nut.

by

Aph-mable

@thegatorsgoose

 Chapter 2

Lex stares down at his computer screen as he looks over the latest news about DALV Co.

Afterall, it's not that often that one of the guests at a Gala takes it upon themselves to save the day before any heroes show up.

Luthor was now interested in the very same young man that achieved this. Daniel Fenton, Vlad's Godson and the second youngest Co CEO next to Tim Drake-Wayne.

Even with a basic internet search on the boy there was plenty of information to find, both about his family and what connections they had.

Daniel's parents; Madeline and Jack Fenton. Doctors in both biology and engineering, working with the government, as well as the most well known pioneers in Ecto science, a very unique study.

They own a weapons workshop together and quite frankly put some of Gothams own mad scientists to shame with their inventions.

There is only one other child besides Daniel, who is quite a bright young lady named Jasmine Fenton, who’s currently working towards getting her degree in psychology.

Meanwhile Daniel Fenton has his own achievements that were not to be ignored. 

He was on the fast track to becoming an astronaut in his early teens, only to have that dream crushed after an accident that left him wheelchair bound and his grades to temporarily suffer, yet he continued to push forward.

There was news articles about how Daniel risked his life to save an endangered species of gorilla, he had been seen at many protests fighting for the rights of metas and the meta adjacent, and with him now as Co CEO of DALV co he was incharge over and currently the main inventor of the technology being made and sold. 

That last part is what caught Lex’s attention the most, especially since he was now a business partner with Vlad Master’s (much to his distaste), yet the man made very high quality technology that has proven him an asset for now.

So to find out it was the man’s Godson who was the one making the inventions provided something he desperately desired, a different person to make a deal with. 

Because in all honesty, Vlad Masters, both as a business partner and a villain in arms, was just horrible to deal with.

Vlad at the best of the times was attention seeking or grumbling about not getting his way, maybe bragging about his achievements as mayor. But at his worst? 

Luthar has seen that pompous dragon get very, very petty. somehow stealing others wealth, companies, even passion projects, just because he wanted to. And somehow, he always got away with it.

Yet at the last gala Lex got a glimpse into how much worse Masters could be. The entire night the man had been strangely territorial over his charge, much to the boy’s annoyance. Lex could have sworn he’d seen Vlad’s eyes go red when he was being held back from reaching his godson later into the night. His protectiveness was not like that of a parent’s, but rather a beast whose treasure was being messed with.

That in itself is worrisome, especially since it will affect Lex’s plans to become business partners with Daniel instead of his godfather. Add in the fact that Vlad is obviously a controlling narcissist… well, lex has always enjoyed a good challenge now and then. For now, all he has to do is schedule a meeting with the young Co CEO at a time Masters will be busy, and go from there.

Reaching for his phone Luthor dialed his secretary’s number as he smugly leaned back in his chair.

“Eve, can you get me Vlad Master’s schedule? I Have a meeting in mind.” 

__________________________________________________________________________

Danny was busy tinkering away at his work desk, music playing from a small speaker as he hyper focused on his latest invention. 

It was supposed to be an updated version of the phantom thermos, making it not just easier to capture ghosts, but allowing it much more space and durability as well as the ability to catch more than just ghosts.

He had long since retired the fenton thermos back to being a normal thermos for holding liquid, and maybe an emergency projectile if needed. He wanted a much more successful capture device and is slowly trying to move away from using Fenton works weapons all together.

By now all of team phantom made their own weapons and devices, both being much more ecto friendly as well as complementing their fighting style.

Danny still mostly used his powers and hand to hand combat to take down ghosts, but it’s still useful to have gadgets just in case he couldn't use his abilities.

Danny's mind starts to race with new ideas and possible upgrades to various inventions, including some exciting upgrades to his chair when a notification caught his eye, someone had entered the lab.

With a groan he puts his thermos away and dramatically flops further back into his chair just as whoever was planning to bother him approached….

Only to see a bald man in a suit raise an eyebrow as he kept a respectable distance.

Danny pulls his goggles up as he scans the man, he could have sworn he’d seen him before… oh right, the Gala Vlad dragged him to.

Turning his chair, Danny crosses his arms as he got a better view of the man, now remembering his name; Lex Luthor, one of Vlad’s newest business partners that was supposed to hash out plans with his Godfather. 

Mr. Luthor relaxed as Danny gave him his full attention, he even gave out a small chuckle under his breath as he read the boy's shirt that said ‘I’m not a mourning person’.

Not so subtly he switched his chuckle to a fake clearing of his throat as he offered out his hand.   

“You must be Daniel Fenton, I have to say you definitely made a name for yourself, especially after the previous Gala.” he kept a smug smile that he tried to hide as a genuine one. 

Danny took the guy's hand and shook it firmly as he was trying to figure out what, exactly, he wanted. 

“Yup that's me, though I prefer to be called Danny. Soo, who are you and what are you doing in my lab?”

“Straight to the point, I like it.” Mr. Luthor glanced over at Dann’s work bench before taking a much more relaxed slouched, “My name is Lex Luthor, and I’m here to offer a business partnership with you.” 

This made Danny freeze up in surprise, because who the hell is crazy enough to make a business deal with a teenager? Lex Luthor, Apparently! 

His face scrunched a bit as he leaned back in his chair, not fully believing that's what the man wanted, or at the very least it’s not as cut and dry as he’s making it sound. There has to be a catch here. 

“Why? Aren't you already Vlad’s business partner? You're already working with us.” 

Luthor nods as he walks around and explains his reasoning, “It’s true that i'm a partner of DALV co, but the details have yet to be fully hashed out, meaning I’m not quite a business partner with Mr. Master’s himself yet. And I’ll be honest here with you, I really don’t want to deal with him.” 

Once more Danny was surprised, yet he started to relax when he heard Lex wasn’t as friendly with Vlad as he first thought. 

“Really? That must be why he was trying suck up to you all night at the gala, I just assumed that was Vlad trying to flirt.” 

Danny couldn’t help but burst out laughing as he saw Lex’s face scrunch up in disgust after hearing that.

“Noted, and I really hope it’s not the case. I’m already thinking less of him as is, only to have that bar lowered to a tripwire is the reason why I’d rather not deal with him.  Hence why I wanted to come in and make a deal with you instead, since you're less of a.. What's the proper word here?”

“Narcissistic parasite?”

Lex snapped his fingers and grinned, “yes that! At the very least it’s obvious who here actually runs the show when it comes to the technological department. So what do you say, ready to make your first legit big deal in the business world?” once more he offers out a hand.

Danny rolls his eyes as he crosses his arms, raising an eyebrow and staring at the looming man. 

“Flattery will get you into many places, but I want to make a few things very clear; I don’t take deals unless I have control over the conditions. I’m not dumb enough to just say yes to someone who managed to get into my lab without Vlad trailing behind. So my rules or nothing.” 

“Very well, tell me your conditions, I’ll get my lawyer to write up a contract once we both agree.” Luthor mimics Danny’s cross-armed possession as the teen brainstormed.

Danny looked down at his lap in thought as his fingers tapped on his arm rests before he quickly shot back his answer. 

"If we are working together I want lab safety to be a top priority, meaning if I'm calling out something as unsafe you take it seriously. Next is schedules and restrictions.

 I'm still in online school and want to hang out with my friends and family, so no last minute meetings unless I can join in online or barring guests from seeing me, obviously you can look into them to be sure they aren't a security risk but beyond that they are welcomed. 

Lastly, as long as it's not in the lab I can eat whenever and wherever I want, I'm of course putting it on Vlad's tab if it's anything expensive.

Sound like a fair deal?" 

Lex humed for a moment as he tapped his chin before agreeing with a small nod.

"I'll agree to those terms if you agree to mine.

I'll go along with the lab safety protocol as long as you don't question what purpose we are collaborating on, well as long as it doesn't violate the rule of course.

Second is we have to work together at my labs in Matroplas, and I'm okay with meeting online if there is a time crunch or it's trivial, guests will need to be checked by security to be sure they aren't smuggling anything in or out.

Lastly for the budget, whenever we are collaborating it's a 50/50 split unless we agree on otherwise.

So what do you say, we got a deal?"

Lex holds out his hand for Danny to shake, which he does with no hesitation.

"Deal."

"Excellent! Now, how about we get some lunch while we work out travel plans" Luther claps his hands as he leads the way.

"Sure, as long as it's on yours or Vlad's dime I don't care." Danny follows after, placing the security protocol on as they leave.

As they ride the elevator down Danny thinks, Lex may be a nutty billionaire, but he’s not as bad as the fruitloop…

He’s a cheerio.

_______________________________

End of chapter 2 for now.

[emberdew]

Be More Ghost Chapter 18: The Pants Talk

Summary:

A Be More Chill AU where Danny gets a Super Quantum Intel Unit Processor (or Squip) to help him become cool and win over Valerie, but things don't really go as planned.

Masterpost | AO3 Link | Word Count: 1,654

Danny-boy is in big bad trouble right now.  It’s a trouble that he can’t see  so I gotta help him somehow.

The next day, Danny walked into the kitchen and saw his dad tinkering with an invention at the table.

“Where do you think you’re going, Danno?” Jack looked up and tilted his screwdriver at Danny.

“Um… Ghost Hunting Club…” Danny rubbed the back of his neck. He was on the fence about telling his parents about the ghost hunting club since he was pretty sure they would be embarrassingly over-enthusiastic about it. But this was the last club meeting, so he saw no harm in saying anything now.

“What! You’re in a ghost hunting club! That’s fantastic!” Jack jumped up and swooped Danny into a fierce hug. “I always knew you’d pick up the family business!”

“Yeah, anyways, I really gotta get going-” Danny tried to extricate himself from his dad’s grip but wasn’t very successful. Too bad it was too risky to use intangibility this close.

“Wait, I really gotta talk to you about something!” Jack leaned back to look Danny in the eyes but kept his hands on his son’s shoulders. “I know you broke curfew on Halloween. Did you go to that party that was on the news?”

Danny cringed. Of course his dad had noticed him missing on Halloween- that was just his luck! Danny looked around for his Squip for direction on how he should reply. Within seconds, it materialized next to Danny with its usual smug expression and sunglasses.

Disdainful denial.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Danny said as he looked back at his dad and rolled his eyes.

“I’m worried about you, son. You come and go all hours, doing who knows what, wearing these new clothes…” Jack’s brows furrowed in concern. “What is going on with you?”

Danny was honestly surprised his dad had noticed anything change about him since usually his parents were completely oblivious. But maybe his dad had more time to notice things with his mom still away at the conference? Whatever, there was no chance he would figure out what was actually going on with Danny. He looked to the Squip for advice again.

Tell him the truth.

Danny shot Squip-Phantom a confused glance before accepting that the Squip knew what it was doing and mentally shrugging.

“I took a pill-sized supercomputer called a Squip that’s in my brain, and it talks to me, and it’s made everything better!” Danny felt weird about being this honest to his dad. Ever since he’d become half-ghost he’d gotten used to lying pretty much constantly. 

Jack finally removed his hands from Danny’s shoulders to cross his arms. 

“If you’re not going to take me seriously-” 

“Why should I?” Danny snapped.

“Excuse me?”

“I’m supposed to believe you care? Look in the mirror! All you care about is ghost hunting and you can’t even wear pants like a normal person!” Danny’s jaw clenched. He had to try very hard to prevent his eyes from glowing.

“You know I’m allergic to any clothing other than jumpsuits!”

“I don’t care!” Danny frowned up at his dad for a moment before shaking his head. “Good talk.”

Danny stormed out of the kitchen and slammed the front door on his way out of the house.

___

Jack gave up on working on the Fenton Freezer 4.0 after he realized he hadn’t made any progress since Danny left. He got up from the kitchen table and went to sit on the couch in the living room. Maybe some relaxing needlepoint would help clear his mind.

“Danny’s in big trouble right now,” Jack sighed into his stitches, “but he can’t even see that he’s in trouble.”

Jack tried to focus on the needlepoint, but he kept messing it up when his mind wandered back to Danny. He threw the canvas down in frustration and leaned back against the couch.

“I gotta help him somehow.” Jack glared at the ceiling. Had that green stain always been there?

Jack shook his head and looked down. He drummed his fingers against the arm of the couch. An alarm started blaring outside, but it wasn’t a ghost alarm so he ignored it.

“I don’t know what he wants, but I know what he needs.” Jack heaved himself off the couch and stood up. “He’ll need a strong dad to help him not slip away.”

Danny was right, Jack had been so focused on ghost hunting he hadn't been there for his son for a long time. But that would change today. Because he loved his son, and he would do anything for him.

Even put on pants.

___

Tucker sat on the front steps of his house, a trash can filled with flickering flames in front of him. He had a pile of paper in a lot of different colors and sizes next to him. He grabbed two scraps from the top of the pile.

“Ticket stubs for the first Dead Teacher movie we went to together…” Tucker’s eyes glazed over for a moment before he tossed the small pieces of paper into the fire. “Burn it.”

Smoke rose up from the trash can and Tucker coughed. He grabbed the next paper from the pile.

“Blackmail I stole from Sam.” Tucker inspected the photo Sam had taken of him and Danny snuggling while they were both asleep. His heart lurched, but he quickly shook himself out of it and forcefully threw the picture away. “Super burn it.”

Tucker looked up when he heard thundering footsteps. He quickly spotted Mr. Fenton’s bright orange jumpsuit glowing against the dreary grays of the buildings in his neighborhood. 

“Tucker!” Jack boomed as he stopped next to Tucker’s house.

“Mr. Fenton, what are you doing here?” 

“We need to talk about Danny,” Jack said as he took a seat next to Tucker on the steps. Tucker was surprised at the serious tone since he didn’t hear that from Danny’s usually pretty goofy dad very often. 

Tucker looked back to the fire, where he could still see the photo of him and Danny burning at the bottom of the trash can.

“Sorry, Danny and I aren’t friends anymore-” 

“Do you love him?”

Tucker felt like he’d been slapped in the face. His cheeks started heating up as he desperately looked away from Jack’s piercing gaze.

“W-what?” Tucker finally stammered after way too long. How could Jack Fenton, one of the most oblivious adults alive, know about his crush on Danny? That just wasn’t fair.

“Sure, he messes up sometimes, we both know that,” Jack stood and gestured to the burning trash still crackling in front of them, “but that’s no excuse to sit around burning incense while he turns himself into a monster! It’s almost worse than if he somehow turned into a GHOST! I would know, since I’m Jack Fenton, and I-” 

“Yeah, I’m gonna go-” Tucker stood up too and turned to his front door but Jack moved surprisingly quickly to block his way. 

“I need you because I don’t have the tools to help with what he’s going through,” Jack sighed as he leaned against the door. It creaked under his weight.

“But I’m not what he wants…” Tucker looked down and scuffed the step with his shoe.

“But you’re just what he needs!” Jack put a hand on his shoulder and smiled when Tucker met his eyes. “I know it might be hard, but you gotta just suck it up and go.”  

Tucker had never seen Danny’s dad act so earnest. For as long as he’d known the man, Jack Fenton had only been focused on ghosts. Sure, the Fentons loved their kids, but their work tended to come before anything else. 

It was strange that Jack had noticed something was off about Danny now, when he hadn’t even noticed how much his son had changed after his accident. Tucker had come up with so many terrible lies for Danny that his parents hadn’t ever questioned and he knew Danny was even worse sometimes. Tucker wanted to not care anymore and keep burning the pile of ex-friendship memorabilia that was still on the steps but if even Jack Fenton had noticed something was wrong, this had to be serious.

“If a ghost fight gets bloody, you keep pushing through until the pain is gone! Because when you love somebody, you put your pants on for them!” Jack raised a determined fist in the air with his declaration. Tucker took a step back so Jack wouldn’t accidentally hit him.

“You’re here because you need… pants?” Tucker tilted his head. Jack might be pretty serious about helping Danny, but he was still Danny’s dad.

“Oh no, I need you to reach out to him," Jack rubbed the back of his neck, “Danny won’t listen to me, and I can’t blame him. But somebody has to watch his back.” 

“If I try harder to be his friend, you have to try harder to be his dad. You gotta stop wearing jumpsuits 24/7, dude!” Tucker gestured to Jack’s ever-present outfit.

“I can’t wear anything else! It chafes!” Jack whined. Tucker narrowed his eyes.

“I invented a cologne that smells different to everyone, so I bet I can make something that stops regular clothes from chafing so you can wear real pants for once.” 

He held out his hand and Jack shook it eagerly without a moment of hesitation. Tucker winced when he felt his arm nearly dislocate. 

“You got it! I can even help you!” Jack was practically vibrating with excitement and Tucker had to hold back a laugh. 

“Chill out, old man. But sure, why not.” Tucker opened his front door and gestured for Jack to come in. 

Tucker walked in after him with a bounce in his step. Jack was right- when you love somebody, you really do put your pants on for them. Sometimes even literally.

[three-times-is-the-charm-zany]

You know what, I'm going to tell you some of my headcanons and I will tell you right away, I like them. Nothing you say can change that, just as little as anything I've said changed your headcanons.

Some of which will appear in my story.

You believe the ghost catcher was underused? I tell you what was underused. The reality gauntlet! Seriously, that thing should have returned.

Since my story doesn't involve the comic, Danny will ask for Clockwork to let him use the reality gauntlet again to wipe out every bodies memories again. Why? Because Danny being worshipped is as a celebrity hero is idiotic as far as I'm concerned.

And if you say Clockwork wouldn't do that, what the hell would be the limits and standards of what he would and wouldn't do, it's arbitrary, and I will use that.

Talking about Clockwork. The whole master of time thing, that's not a single entity, it's a title. There were others before Clockwork and there will be ones after him. It's a job, a position. Just like death, life etc. But because the wielder of the title exists outside of linear time, they are always essentially eternal. When one is replaced the other ceases to exist.

I do change my claim about all ghosts being dead entities, but I will keep saying that the whole "created by the ghost zone" things is not a great idea as far as I'm concerned. I think there should be a variety. There should be things like psychogons or tulpas. Creatures consisting of energies taking shape. Like shapeless dust and gases forming stars and planets. You know, like the gashadokuro, summaries of thoughts and emotions.

Also, about the ghost world. I want to take the whole "infinite" thing as literal as can be. The ghost zone we see, the green void full of doors, is the space in between the different afterlives and otherworlds. It's also a connection between every universe. It's a bit like the wood between the world from Narnia. It's not just the afterlife, it's the memory of all existence itself, there are after images of long gone worlds and universes. Maybe also a bit like the Beyond realm from Marvel.

I also think Danny's parents should do something that really makes Danny question their morals, best in a setting that also forces him to protect them from a danger they created.

My idea for an episode would be as follows:

The Fentons go to a surprise holiday to test a new invention. Amity Park is allegedly in Illinois so lets say they travel to Missouri, that's close enough. So, you know they don't care when they hurt ghosts, but it's never stated if they actually know that ghosts are deceased people, so lets just say that they believe that only really bad people become ghosts.

So, they test an invention that is supposed to prevent people from becoming ghosts. They got permission to test their machine, I think it should be a choker, on a serial killer on death row.

So they do and Danny is really put off by that.

After the execution he takes a closer look at the corpse and finds out that the choker doesn't actually prevents people from becoming spirits, it just traps them paralysed in their corpses, unable to do anything.

While he thinks about what he should do, he accidentally causes the choker to malfunction and the killer's ghost gets free and is now on a rampage to kill Danny's parents, and now he has to protect them.

I'm still tinkering with that one, but I think there's some merit to it.

And I think Danny should have more powers specifically tied to live and death.

I think he should be capable of helping others with astral projecting by separating souls from bodies without killing them. He should have the power to essentially turn people into ghosts for a short time. And he should have the power to reunite souls and bodies even after death.

Just imagine ghosts that are still tied to their bodies or need their bodies like Hotep Ra getting their souls and bodies separated? That would come in handy! Same with other entities that are essentially dead but still need their bodies to function like vampires!

Plus I'm casually making him omnipotent he becomes the embodiment of the spirit world itself and is more powerful than all the gods put together.

And my OC Melinoe, with a mixture of the Fenton's technology and her own occult knowledge she creates a weapon, I think a ring is best, that make ghosts re-experience the pain of their deaths.

[sp00pygal]

Hot take: dc x dp, but with good parents Jack and Maddie fenton.

Yes, Danny is part of the batfam. Yes, Bruce has legally adopted Danny and would have adopted jazz (if she didn't insist she was too old to be adopted). Jack is still their loving father. Maddie is still their devoted mother. Both parents recognize that their children love the batkids and the batparents (Yes, this includes Alfred and Maybe Selena) as family, and as the family doesn't seem abnormal (by amity park standards) they let their kids develop healthy relationships with whoever they want.

Madie fenton is Bruce Wayne's science nemesis. She doesn't buy "Brucie" for a second. Millionaire playboy who? Every time she picks up her kids from his house as per the shared custody agreement, she finds him tinkering with some strange device and casually points out "yknow, you have something, but it could be better if you....". She's so used to correcting her husband's math errors and design flaws that the first time she catches Bruce with an unsafe device, reflexes kick in.

Jack, on the other hand, pulls an uno reverse on Bruce. Bruce thought he was adopting a black haired and blue eyed teen with angst issues. Nope! Jack now has a new reclusive rich best friend! They're family, practically brothers! You want to run for gotham mayor and end city crime? Anything you say B-man!

Jack and Maddie start showing up to batkids's civilian events for moral support. Cassandra has a ballet recital? They're in the front seat; cheering her on! Tim has a big presentation in front of the company board of directors? Yet again, Jack and Maddie somehow got past building security; and holy heck, why do they have a "support Tim Wayne" t-shirt cannon?!!? After the 5th cookie care basket with sugar snaps that tried to eat his stapler at the bludhaven police station, Dick now has to politely ask them to stop sending food. He appreciates the effort, but the gingerbread men caused a queen of fables scare and tried to eat a convict.

Jack and Maddie know Danny is phantom. The "threats" to shoot him? He's their son! They'd never! But they can't let him know that they know, so they keep up the act half heartedly. They realize their invention killed him. They realize everything they thought they knew about ghosts was wrong. But how do you say sorry to your kid if he isn't ready to forgive you? Especially if you've wronged him infathomably. You don't. You love him unconditionally; and you live each day with him as the gift it is. And you keep his secret, even from him. You fight infathomable and terrifying monsters each night, over and over, praying that once they're gone he can sleep safely. If he ever wants to forgive you, he'll tell you; when he's ready. And if he can't? You live with what you've done, regret and greif forever seered into your soul. You know he is loved and cared for. He is protected. To you, that's all that matters.

[ruby-static]

After all this time- I finally have a good ref for my Fallout New Vegas Courier 6: Riley Redmont Haddock. (But friends just call him "Red") AKA the nerdy human embodiment of anxiety.

+ some doodles of him with various companions I plan for him to have in my playthrough.

Riley is my timid, easily annoyed, anxiety-ridden mess of a wasteland wanderer. Dude has an affinity for robots, tinkering, inventing, repairing and general science nerdery. Poor guy is wrapped up in an absolute bullshit chain of events and is quietly losing his shit.

If you wanna know a little more about the dude, I'll leave more info under the cut. (I'd also be more than happy to answer any asks about the dude.)

Name: Riley Redmont Haddock

Age: Mid-30s

Pronouns: He/Him (Transmasc)

Sexuality: Gay/Ace

(Current) Voice Claim: Lin Manuel Miranda. Mainly just because of his voice as Fenton Crackshell Cabrera/Sheriff Marshall Cabrera from Ducktales 2017. That is, unless I find a better voice.

Personality: Timid and overwhelmingly anxious, and a bit easily irritated in the face of his new travels. Due to his affinity with tech, he tends to be more comfortable around robots than people. (At first, at least.) A bit near-sighted and stuck inside his own head, while still fiercely looks after people close to him. Over time in his adventures, he slowly develops into a more confident, collected, yet reckless person.

Bio:

Riley grew up being the child of a Mojave legend known as "The Scarlet Rider", a woman (named Ellie) famed as a masked vigilante who fought to help the people of the Mojave wastes as the stories would tell. But people rarely knew abot "Scarlet's little girl". (Riley had obviously not "cracked the egg" yet for a good while.) Growing up with a traveller and masked hero for a mother, he learned a lot of what formed him into the person he is. Being a decent shot, a skilled mechanic, and more.

But when in a tragic incident his mother disappears, presumed dead, Riley was then sought after and brought in by his estranged father. This man, however, wasn't exactly as noble as his mother. Him being a notorious crime boss of the Vegas area. Having to spend his teenage years as a pawn to a crime lord, certain events would lead to him running off at the age of 16.

Now with his father's men after him, and almost no one to turn to, Riley would travel across the Mojave wastes and other surrounding areas to find safety.

Young Riley ends up finding a group of travelling performers, who he spends his time with for some years. But after a tragic death in the group, the remaining members break apart- leaving Riley on his own again.

Riley starts further developing his skills in robotics where he finds his love for tinkering and repairs. His endless tinkering ends up in the creation of his closest companion, Buddy. A tiny companion robot made completely from scrap, but somehow harboring an endless rabid thirst for violence and wanton destruction. But due to his size, he's effectively harmless. And for a while, he's Riley's one close friend.

So over the years, he's gotten around the wasteland by keeping his head down and taking various jobs and roles. Scavenger, singer, mechanic, and many more.

To Riley, his position as a courier is just a temporary gig "to get me from here to there". He's never really been too attached to it. But with his latest gig, he didn't really have any idea what this seemingly insignificant job would be getting him into.

Because that fateful night with the poker chip and the man in the checkered suit- Well, it just changed everything to say the least.

After the shock from taking a nasty shot to the head wears off, Riley isn't looking for any petty revenge- but answers. Because he can tell something is deeply wrong. And he's just too damn curious to let it go.

Random Info:

Riley tends to be a bit of a "robot whisperer". He seems to become friendly with bots a lot easier than he does with other people. This is typically due to his repair skills, but he generally seems to socialize easier with robots. (Prior to the NV story at least.) For example, he tends to get along pretty well with Victor early in his journey. And the first real 'companion' he meets is ED-E.

As mentioned- prior to the events of the game, Riley has a connection/history with one of the companion characters. Raul Tejada was a close friend of Riley's mother Ellie. So as a kid, Riley grew with Raul as a sort of uncle-figure. After his mother disappearing and him being turned over to his father, they lost contact. After running away from his father, he would come across Raul again, but it wouldn't last for long before he would have to run again with his father's men searching for him. Sadly, they wouldn't meet again for many years until Riley comes across him imprisoned in Black Mountain.

Riley has no idea just how in high hell this happened, but he manages to form a decent relationship with The Kings. He can't explain why he's friends with them, it just... happened. And he's incredibly confused about the whole thing. The King lets him hang out with his adorable robo-dog, though, so he's not complaining.

He also tends to hang around the Followers of the Apocolypse on occasion after bringing ED-E to them. He just tends to chat around with the members- (Arcade in particular.) But he likes to fix any broken tech around, so nobody really complains.

Riley has a texan accent! He tends to hide it around people, but it tends to slip out when he's emotional. (Extremely angry, extremely happy/excited, you get the idea.) Or when he's around certain people, like close friends. As the story goes along, he tends to hide it less and less.

Riley has an interest in various pre-war topics. Specifically, pre-war fashion, pop culture, and music. He believes that if he was born before the war (or if the war never happened) he would be working in fashion. Namely, working in a bridal parlor.

With his additional background in music/performing, he knows a few instruments! Namely guitar, violin, and a little piano.

[is-this-even-relatable]

Some Ideas for this!

1. Danny’s ecto-radiation is able to cancel out the effects of the radiation from Kryptonite. Clark finds out when after being affected by Kryptonite, he notices that he feels better when he’s near this random guy. Two further ideas from this:

- Clark starts following Danny around as Clark Kent, which Danny obviously catches, and Clark has to explain why no, he’s not a stalker, and no he’s not a ghost? why would that be a question? and how danny’s presence just makes him feel physically well again. and it eventually leads to danny selling clark some of his radioactive blood (though he doesn’t tell clark that’s what it is) to carry around to make himself feel better, and also to stop following him. Cue Danny being Clark Kent’s sort-of dealer?

- Clark follows Danny around as Superman, and upon explaining to and asking the guy, starts paying him as if it’s a job, to be Superman’s bodyguard, of sorts. Superman pays him extremely well, and Danny just has to always be nearby when Superman is out protecting Metropolis, and take care of any Kryptonite during attacks.

2. Clark is at a scientific symposium for new inventions in Metropolis, reporting on it. He’s interviewing one group and getting statements from each of the people running the booths when he walks up to the Fenton’s booth. The two brightly-dressed scientists (for that’s what they must be, wearing hazmat suits like that) are excitedly talking about intangibility and its properties to some others in front of the booth. Clark also notes a boy in the back, notably not wearing a hazmat suit, moving things around and tinkering with something. Clark leaves one ear open, listening to their chatter, as he eyes their setup. They have a lot of cases lying around, both open and not, full of strange-looking weapons and things that Clark can only identify vaguely as “sci-fi”, along with various signs pasted on them that say WARNING, RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL. Clark, mildly alarmed, does a quick X-ray scan of the booth. Noting several cases that seem to be lead-lined, as he can’t see through them, he is about to turn to the Fentons to ask some questions when he doubles back. Did… did that kid have a THERMOS inside of him????? What-How—

3. The Kents are neighbors to Aunt Alicia. When the Fentons would visit Alicia, Clark and Danny would hang out, and were good friends growing up. At some point, Clark noticed that when he accidentally would slip up with his powers, it seems like Danny would in-fact, use just as much strength as him, or perform impossible feats without batting an eye. Clark thinks Danny is also an alien in hiding. Danny just never noticed Clark’s inhuman tendencies, even the floating, because he kinda forgets human limits and normal standards as he gets older. Their friendship grows stronger to adulthood as Clark feels very comfortable and natural without holding himself back around Danny. Danny enjoys hanging out with Clark, as it’s nice to have such a strong, lifelong friend that can keep up with him.

The turnout for the Batfamily post was incredible so here we go for a Superman Edition!

Write below a Superman meets Danny Fenton story but choose the wildest relationship that you can think of that isn’t adoption, romantic relationship, or clone hate

For instance:

- Clark casually using X-Ray vision while searching for a bomb a villain planted and noticing that one of the random civilians he scanned has absolutely zero organs. While x-rayed he just looks like green goo. Supes goes out of his way to chat with the new meta.

- Wonder Woman introduces a new hero to the Justice League: Superman startles because the new member is his Clark Kent’s noisy as hell upstairs neighbor.

- Danny is a Janitor at the Justice League Museum. Superman accidentally dropped his key to the Fortress of Solitude that is made from a dwarf star and weighs half a million pounds. Superman gets a tap on his shoulder,

“Hi! Sorry I think you dropped this.”

Kal-El turns to see a civilian holding the key he made specifically so no one could lift and break into the fortress.

- Danny works at the corner store next to the Daily Planet and Clark is one of his favorite customers. Clark managed to walk in mid robbery; Danny in the process of crumpling the robbers gun into a ball as the would be theif is crying lying against a wall with zip ties holding his hands behind his back.

[andydona-chan]

Seeing things under a different light

Read it at AO3!

Jack Fenton was a genius, one that was ahead of his time, he knew it. He thought that was why most people tended to disregard his inventions, or why they all thought anything ghost-related was not real and that he was crazy… that last part was a bit hurtful, but it didn’t really matter, they all will come to their senses one day, he had already made sure to prove them wrong about all that “ghost don’t exist” they seemed too convinced to believe.

That’s why with that in mind he and his wife had developed Fenton Works, always making sure there was something that could be used against spooks, to locate them, to stay safe, to incapacitate them, or to get rid of them. He had started with the first one, trying to locate and hear the ghosts in the area, after that he had started with the guns, mostly cause when the portal got open they had to defend themselves from any harm they could pose. After that he had started building into safety, he had two kids, Jazz and Danny, so they really needed to have something that they could use to prevent overshadowing or any other attack they might be vulnerable to.

However he only ever got to see Jazz using any of the items, Danny tended to carry a thermos in his schoolbag, but nothing else, but well, thinking about how most of their inventions tended to hurt Danny in some sort of way it wasn’t a surprise that the boy didn’t trust any of the other gadgets they had invented.

So, with that in mind, Jack was looking into their old blueprints, something that they had probably discarded with the potential to make something better from it, best if it come in handy for the teenage boy. So far he had discarded several guns and other ghost-catching artifacts, Jack at least was proud that Danny had managed to find the best option to capture a ghost, but he was still defenseless, and that wasn’t good. He was also a bit tired right now so thinking about a new device was sort of difficult, maybe because he had just looked through all those papers, so a short walk around the block could help him clear his mind, yeah, he hadn’t done that in some time… It was barely past eleven so he could go out without a problem.

He walked up the stairs from the basement to the kitchen, where he found his wife doing something very similar to what he had been doing; only she was tinkering on a device that she thought needed some adjustments to work in a better way. “Maddie“ He exclaimed getting the attention of his wife, years of living together preventing her from flinching and ruining whatever job she had already started, “wanna go out for a walk? I need a change of scenery to invite the muse for a new invention.”

“Sorry Jack, I’m almost done with this one, and I’m already tired so I might go to bed just after that, but don’t let me stop you, it’s a beautiful night if Danny wasn’t already asleep he could be walking with you just to see the stars.” Jack nodded, he would have loved for Maddie to accompany him, but she deserved to rest, so he left her to sort out the invention she was working on, grabbed his keys, and stepped out into the fresh of the night.

Jack usually drove when out and about, but tonight he wasn’t feeling like going too far, it was late and the streets were almost empty, so a short walk would do it, he was just looking to clear his mind, even after the walk, he wasn’t expecting to have an idea until early in the morning tomorrow. It was a very nice night, just by looking above him he knew that if it hadn’t been a school night Danny would have probably stayed up late with his telescope watching the stars, it was lucky too that there weren’t any ghosts in the area, he looked at his watch to make sure of it, he had a small device on his wrist, a few months ago he had tried making some adjustments to a smartwatch only to end up making it bigger and heavier so nobody else had wanted one and he had stuck with the device, it had now a ghost radar so he would know if there was a ghost nearby.

Jack walked down the street towards the nearby park; he could be out for a small walk but he wasn’t about to just walk through the boring street, in the park he would be able to see at least some trees and… stuff. It didn’t take long, just a few minutes and he was breathing in air that smelled like grass, petrichor and maybe flowers, it wasn’t his plan to know exactly what it was, he just, enjoyed the overall smell, while walking there looking every now and again to the sky to see the stars he noticed there was a man sitting on a bench a couple of meters away.

The man seemed to be a businessman, probably got out of work and just took a couple of minutes to rest before heading home, Jack smiled, it was a good time to greet a neighbor, he usually didn’t have the time to do that, so he approached the man with a smile and greeted him.

“Nice night to be out isn’t it?” he said nodding his head towards the man, who lifted his head and smiled.

“Yes, a very nice night sir. Care to sit with me for a while?” Jack stopped, looking at the man, he hadn’t planned to be invited, his greeting was just that, but the man seemed to have other ideas, still, it couldn’t hurt, so he smiled and sat down on the other side of the bench.

“I was waiting for midnight to come, not very long from now,” said the man, while reclining back on the bench and looking up at the sky.

“Yeah, it’s already late, but why were you waiting here for that, couldn’t you do this at home?” asked Jack genuinely curious, maybe this man knew of something interesting that could give him some ideas.

“If I must be honest, I have a special device, it’s a lantern but it only works at night, I use it to repel ghosts, you see I have to walk through an alley on my way home that is usually very dark, and I’m afraid, ever since ghost showed up that doesn’t seem to be a safe place. However I’m waiting here cause I think last night it broke, it suddenly turned off when I was almost out of the alley and I want to check it here, see if I can fix it before I have to go, else I will have to look for other equipment”

Jack was about to tell him that he could offer him some options on ghost protection, but then the man pulled out of his bag a small lantern, it looked old cause it was one of those where you had to turn a small switch on the side turn it on and it used a big bulb that was probably just burnt.

“Can you tell me how it works?” asked Jack, thinking that the device was so simple it couldn’t really do anything against ghosts, it had to be some joke, maybe a story they told the man when he was young.

“Yeah, the light of this lantern can reveal ghosts, if one of them is caught in the light you would be able to see them, even if they’re invisible, in that alley, I don’t think those ghosts would do a lot of damage if attacking, because they don’t like to be seen, but I fear what they would try to do if I don’t have this to repel them”

Jack nodded, understanding the man’s concern, he was older than Jack and probably not too strong, and so dealing with ghosts, especially in that alley he had told him about it would make anyone nervous. He made a decision that wasn’t really hard at that moment and extended his hand, “I can try to fix it for you, and if you follow me I can also give you something to be safe against ghosts during the time I keep it, how does that sound?”

“You can…? But…”

“No, no buts, I am Jack Fenton an expert and inventor of the best world’s weapons in Amity Park, I can do this for you, and in exchange, I will try to fix your lantern and even update it, if you allow me.”

The man hesitated for a moment, then placed the lantern in his hand and stood up, Jack did the same and walked with the man back to Fenton Works, he then made sure the man had a specter deflector and a wrist ecto-gun, he also taught the man the basics and let him go, then he went down to the lab with the lantern, at this point any thoughts about making a defensive gadget for Danny had left his mind, he was now very curious about what the lantern could do and how, he looked at the watch and sighed, well it wasn’t the first time he had an all-nighter, he was just going to need some coffee and fudge!

~*~*~*~*~*

The next day found him asleep on the work table in the lab, he had managed to dismantle the lantern and then build it up again, he had also managed to get a new bulb for it to make it work and had started to develop some updates to make it possible to use with led lights while at the same time keeping the properties that the man had mentioned. While the lantern wasn’t really rocket science it did had some additional wiring and a small plaque that used some of the basics he and Maddie had developed for some of their inventions, it was just a matter of putting them together but he had fallen asleep before he was able to finish.

During the night however he had been able to make some tests, they had a couple of blob ghosts and ectopy specifically for this purpose, since these ghosts were really not a big menace they tended to use them for some of their basic procedures, like finding out if the guns had the desired effect or if the detectors or other tools would work.

The results he had managed to get were really good, they had managed to develop a system to get the ghosts to do what they needed, like turning intangible, invisible, or using ecto-energy; it had come in handy when using the lantern. He had made both the blob ghosts and ectopy turn invisible since the man had mentioned that it was the preferred use, and true to his word, when he had pointed the recently restored light of the lantern the ghost had been fully visible, the light hadn’t been the expected yellowish color of the bulb, instead, it had had a certain purple tone to it, like a black light, but it wasn’t supposed to, or at least he wasn’t able to understand why yet, the ghosts visibility also was not in the usual way, it was like seeing some sort of negative of the ghosts, the blob ghosts, for example, looked reddish, with black outlines, like some sort of cartoon, even their tiny eyes were white.

The ectopy had caught his attention a bit more, being more developed ghosts they had looked a bit more normal, if not for the inverted colors, fully black but their edges had a black shine to them when the light hit right and the spots they usually had were purple instead, both types of ghosts had tried to get away from the light as soon as it hit them, it had been quite interesting to see it happen even when they were not invisible, once finished his test with the ectopy Jack had turned the lantern to the blob ghost it had looked just the same, but it didn’t seem to notice until he had made a surprised exclamation.

It was really weird, cause when the light touched them they seemed to be afraid of it, or maybe hurt by it, but when unaware of it, it was as if nothing had happened, like maybe only those ghosts who were aware of you or trying to hurt you would be affected by the light, but if they were harmless or minding their own business then it didn’t really affect them.

Maddie had come down looking for him to get breakfast, and he had allowed himself to be dragged upstairs for some coffee, when he had been able to think straight again, the kids had already left for school, then Maddie had told him to go to bed for a couple of hours, then he could explain whatever he had been working on last night, so he did.

By the time he woke up, it was already past noon, so he went back to the lab to find his wife already working on her project from last night, she had also been testing it with the ghosts that he had left on the work table last night, so he walked in and went straight back to the lantern he had been working on, just now making sure that the old lantern was fully updated and the notes he had were complete in order to replicate it later.

“Jack, did you do something to the ghosts?” asked Maddie after finishing her test with the device she had developed and turned around to stand next to him while writing her final notes.

“Not much, why?” he asked trying the new switch he had added to the lamp, making sure it turned on and off correctly. Maddie hummed at his response, finishing a long sentence on the board she was writing on.

“Nothing, they were just different, they looked pale and I sense them being weaker, but if you did nothing to stressing maybe they just need some ectoplasm. He nodded, now looking Maddie in the eyes, “So, tell me, what were you working on last night?”

Jack brightened at that, knowing that his wife would be as interested as he had in this curious gadget, he informed her on the encounter he had last night and what it had let to, also how the lantern worked and the testing he had made. “It’s just great Madds, I’ll show it to the kids later, after dinner, I’m sure they’ll appreciate the light effects!”

“So, after that, you’re going to give it back?” Maddie seemed a bit disappointed at that, so Jack just patted her back “I have to, I just offered to fix it… buuut, I have already made notes about it and have to make sure we can reproduce it and probably improve it later!” Jack then showed her his notes and diagrams, and they discussed the similarities to their own investigation and possible purpose after that, they even wondered about the origin of the artifact…

Later that night just after dinner Jack ran to the lab before either Jazz or Danny could leave, he even heard Maddie tell them to wait for it, and he was really excited! So, he picked up the small ecto-proof ghost cage where they had the blob ghost and ectopy, he made sure to have the lantern with him and then ran upstairs. Once there he set the cage on the table along with the lantern.

“This is one of those lucky discoveries, we guess the person who made the lantern could have been doing something similar to us, trying to catch some spooks himself, but a few decades before, this is older than me or your mother, however, it seems like it works!” He said proudly. “Your mother and I will try to replicate it; it could come in handy when facing ghosts you can’t see, no longer vulnerable to being invisible! I’ll call it the Fenton Lantern!”

“Oh, no sweetie, the Jack-o-lantern!” proposed Maddie and he finger gunned her, something that made both Jazz and Danny groan.

“Dad, this old thing isn’t’ going to catch up the attention of any customer, they will think is antiquated” stated Jazz looking at the thing quizzically. Danny didn’t seem interested and just shrugged.

“Who gave you this thing again?” asked the boy looking at the lantern with no real interest.

“You won’t think that once you see what this baby does!” Jack then turned off the lights and turned the lantern on; it took a moment for their eyes to get used to the light; however this time it wasn’t the blog ghost the one catching everyone’s attention…

“Oh, no…” Jazz muttered with a hand to her mouth.

Neither Jack nor Maddie moved, both of them looking at their son, where there had been the regular features of the boy, the colors had changed, his skin had got a blue-ish tone and his eyes looked like the colors had inverted but not completely, the sclera of his eyes had been black and his eyes a toxic green, his hair had turned white and only his clothes kept the same colors. Danny who had been sitting next to Jazz and to Jack’s left looked at them with wide eyes for a moment before looking down at himself, gasping and running… or flying away. The three remaining people in the room just couldn’t speak…

~*~*~*~*~*

Out of the house the man that had given Jack the lantern walked by, he didn’t often let go of his lantern, especially not to people who were against ghosts, but it was time that Danny Fenton told his family about his secret, and if Clockwork wasn’t going to do it, he was the next on the line. The observants often looked for other ways, he was their last resource, someone that had been around for as long as he had wasn’t really the best option, especially cause he wasn’t really dead at all, Stingy Jack, Jack the Smith, Drunk Jack, he had several names, but that night he had only needed to contact his namesake to fulfill the request.

Now it was just a matter of time for the rest of their plan to develop, he had just taken the first step…

[q-gorgeous]

If You Go Out of This World Today

fanfiction

ao3

The Accident didn’t turn Danny into a half ghost, but instead allowed him to see, hear, and physically interact with the very real ghosts that are now pouring through the portal (Alternative: Danny’s always been clairvoyant, but after the accident he finally sees all of the ghosts he’d grown up talking to) prompt by @sapphireswimming

word count: 3358

yo another prompt hidey hey

Ember had been chasing Johnny and Kitty through the Ghost Zone when it happened. Suddenly she was tripping her way through a natural portal that had spontaneously formed in front of her and she tumbled straight into the human world. Before she could stand back up, the portal had closed already. 

Looking around, she could see that she was in a bedroom. The walls were painted blue with stars stuck to the ceiling. There was a night light plugged into the wall and as she looked around her gaze landed on a small boy who was sitting straight up in his bed. He had black hair and blue eyes and he was staring at his closet with wide eyes. 

“Hello?” He called. “Is someone there?”

Ember stays quiet, not ready to announce her presence. A few moments later though, a woman walks in through the door.

“Danny, are you alright?”

He points to his closet. “I thought I heard a weird noise. Can you look?”

She nods. She walks over to the closet and opens it, sticking her head inside. Looking back and forth, she calls back out to Danny.

“Nothing in here.”

“No ghosts?” Danny asks, lifting his blanket up to cover the bottom half of his face.

“No ghosts.” She confirms. “We’d know if there were ghosts in the house.”

Ember nearly snorts but holds the sound back. 

“Now, it's time for bed.” She walks over to the bed and starts tucking him back in. 

“Mommy! Can you sing me a song before I go back to sleep?” He begged. 

His mom smiled and sat down on the bed beside him, brushing his hair out of his face. Then she began to sing.

“If you go out of this world today

You’re sure of a big surprise

If you go out of this world today

You’d better go in disguise.”

Ember frowned. That’s not how she remembered this song going. 

“For every ghost that ever there was

Will gather there for certain, because

Today’s the day the wretched ghosts have their picnic.” 

Wretched ghosts?

“If you go out of this world today

You’d better not go alone

It’s pretty out of the world today

But safer to stay at home.

For every ghost that ever there was

Will gather there for certain, because

Today’s the day the wretched ghosts have their picnic.” 

Ember didn’t know what to make of this woman or her parody of this lullaby. Why was it about ghosts? Most people didn’t even believe in ghosts.

“Every wretched ghost, who’s been bad

Is sure of a treat today

There’s lots of wonderful things to do

And wonderful tests to try.”

Ember stared at the woman in horror. Did they study ghosts? Why did they hate ghosts so much?

“Beyond the clouds where nobody sees

They’ll hide and seek as long as they please

Today’s the day the wretched ghosts have their picnic.

Today’s the day the wretched ghosts have their picnic.”

Ember stood frozen to the spot where she stood. Realistically, she knew she should be escaping and trying to find a way back to the ghost zone right now. If this woman managed to find her and capture her, who knows what she’d plan on doing.

But on the other hand, what kind of mother sings about experimenting on ghosts to her kids? What if he’s in danger? The way his mother had sung that last verse had unnerved Ember, and while it seemed to have put the boy to sleep, it still left a sour taste in her mouth. 

Looking at the boy in the small bed, her resolve hardened. She’d stay and watch over him. Or at least stay long enough to figure out if he’d be okay. 

QQQQQ

It was a few days later when Ember first let something slip. Danny was watching cartoons in front of the tv downstairs and she laughed at something that happened in the show. Danny’s head had whipped to the side and looked in her general direction with wide eyes.

“Hello?”

Ember took in a sharp breath. Most humans couldn’t hear or see ghosts. She just happened to find one that could, but at least it didn’t seem like he could see her at all. She shouldn’t start talking to him but…

“Hi.”

His mouth dropped open. “Why can’t I see you?”

“Uh, well. Because I’m a ghost.”

“You’re a ghost?” He gaped at the empty air beside her head. “Mom-!”

“No! Shh sh!” Ember started waving her hands in a “no” motion even though he couldn’t see her. “Don’t tell them! If they found out I was here they’d try to trap me!” She had found the Fenton’s lab two days ago, and while it cemented the idea that this was a dangerous place for a toddler, it also scared the shit out of her.

“Trap you? How can they trap you if you’re a ghost?”

“Your parents are very smart people. They have all sorts of stuff that they’re building in the basement.”

“The basement? What’s in the basement?” He started climbing off the couch. 

“Nope, nope! You’re not going down to the basement. It’s too dangerous down there.” Ember stood to block his path even though, again, he couldn’t see her.

He let out a whine. “That’s what mommy and daddy always say. I’m a big boy now! When will I be able to go into the basement?”

Ember shook her head. “Not for a long time I’d hope.”

Danny groaned and climbed back onto the couch, laying face down on it instead of facing the tv to watch the show. “Why can’t I go down there when they’re down there all day?” He asked quietly.

Ember frowned at him sadly and sat down beside his head. “Even big boys like you need to be protected from dangerous things. But! How about we hang out together? We can be buddies, small fry.”

Danny scrambled up into a sitting position excitedly. “Like an imaginary friend? Except for real?”

She chuckled. “Sure. Like an imaginary friend. Let’s go with that.”

Danny cheered. “Come on! Let’s go play superhero in my room!”

He charged up the stairs and she followed slowly after him, chuckling. 

QQQQQ

“You’re doing what?” Johnny asked incredulously.

“Staying here.” Ember watched as Danny swung on the swings, his mother tinkering with an invention in her hands as she sat on the bench. 

“What’s the fun in that?” Kitty asked. “What’s the point in staying here if no one can see you? How are you going to scare any of them?”

Ember scoffed, her brows drawing down as she looked at them. “I’m not here to scare anyone.”

“Then why are you here?” Johnny asked.

Ember fidgeted where she stood, looking at Danny. “I tripped through a portal into that kids room when I got here. Everything seemed pretty normal until his mom started singing a song about experimenting on ghosts.”

“So what? He’s not a ghost.” Kitty said bluntly.

“No, but what kind of parents sing about torturing something to their kid? I looked around their house and they have a lab full of weapons and a dissection table and everything! I don’t think it matters that he’s not a ghost, that’s not a safe place to be in. Half the time his parents forget to come up and feed them and his older sister has to make something to eat for the two of them.” Ember sighed. “I know what it’s like to come from a shitty home situation. I just want to make sure he doesn’t get hurt.”

Johnny and Kitty shared a sad look. Kitty spoke up. “We get that too, but what about your safety? If they’re ghost hunters they probably pose more of a danger to you than they do to him.”

Ember snorted. “As if. I don’t know how they got to be where they are but they are probably the most air headed scientists ever. They think their tracking devices are locking onto Danny somehow instead of me. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Well, if you end up fading-” 

“What’s fading?” Danny asked suddenly. 

Johnny yelped as he was interrupted, not noticing the boy approaching them. Ember chuckled. 

“We can talk about that later. What are you doing over here, small fry?”

“I heard you talking to someone else. I wanted to come see who it was. It’s also boring playing by myself.” Danny pouted and kicked his foot in the woodchips. 

“Well you’re in luck, little dip! I’ve got two great friends here who would love to play with us!” 

“Wait-” Johnny said, waving his hands back and forth.

“What do you want to play?” Ember continued, ignoring him. 

“Oohh, we can play ice cream man!” Danny said excitedly. He started running towards a plastic counter thing that was built into the playground. “Ice cream! Get your ice cream!” He shouted.

“Why are you dragging us into this?” Johnny asked.

“Loosen up a little bit, he’s just a kid. It’s not like you guys have to stay. Hello Mr. Ice Cream Man!” Embered said cheerily as she walked up to where Danny stood at the counter.

“Hello! What can I get for you today?”

“Hm.” Ember looked above Danny’s head at a pretend menu. “How about a strawberry ice cream cone?”

“Coming right up!” Danny bent over and reappeared a few seconds later with a pile of woodchips that he poured all over the counter. “Order served!” 

“Thank you! Wow! Om nom nom, so delicious!” Ember said, pretending to eat her ice cream. 

Danny swept the woodchips off of the counter. “Next!”

Johnny rolled his eyes but Kitty pulled him forward. “Hi! Can we get an ice cream sundae for two? It’ll be so romantic.” She fluttered her eyes at Johnny and he made a face at her.

“Coming right up!” Once again, Danny bent over but this time when he dumped the woodchips on the counter, it was an even bigger pile. “Order served!” 

Kitty made pretend eating sounds and Ember was about to walk back up to the counter when she heard the voices of a couple of kids nearby. 

“Can we have some ice cream?”

Two kids about Danny’s age walked up to him. One had big glasses on his face and the other had her black hair done up in two pigtails. Danny stared at them for a few seconds before responding. “Right! Yes. What flavors would you two like?”

The kid with glasses whispered in the girl’s ear and she approached the counter. 

“Mint chocolate chip and chocolate chip cookie dough?”

“Coming right up!” Danny bent over once again and picked up two handfuls of woodchips, placing them on the counter. The girl stared at them for a few seconds. 

“Order served!”

She giggled and picked them up, bringing them close to her face. “Mmm, this is the most delicious ice cream I’ve ever had.” She nudged her friend beside her, who was staring sadly at the woodchips.

“Huh? Oh.” He picked up his own pile. “Om nom nom. So good.”

The girl laughed again. “I’m Sam. This is Tucker.” Tucker waved. “Did you want to come play in the sandbox with us?”

He stared at her again, eyes wide, before his face split into a grin. “Sure! What are you guys playing?”

Ember waved goodbye to Johnny and Kitty as they announced their goodbyes. She followed Danny and his new friends across the park to the sandbox. 

“We were just going to see how big of a hole we can dig.” Tucker says, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “I think we can get to China.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “We don’t have time for that Tucker. My mom wants me home by four, remember?”

His shoulders slumped. “Oh yeah.”

Ember chuckled at them. Having friends Danny’s age will probably be good for him. She hasn’t seen one kid come over in the couple weeks she’s been staying with him. 

“Wait what time is it now?” Danny asked. 

He only got two shrugs in return. 

“Come on, let’s go talk to my mom. Maybe we can convince her and whoever brought you guys to get us ice cream instead of playing in the sandbox.”

Sam and Tucker’s eyes lit up and they hurried after Danny as he ran to the bench where his mom sat, who had finally put her invention away and was reading a book instead. 

“Mom, Mom! What time is it?”

She checked a watch on her wrist. “3:15. We’ll be leaving soon though, so you better finish anything you still want to do.”

Ember silently laughed at the panic that appeared on Danny’s face. “Can we find Sam and Tucker’s parent and get ice cream instead of staying in the park? Please?” He clasped his hands together and started begging, Sam and Tucker following suit. 

“Who are-”

Maddie finally looked up at the three kids standing in front of her. “Oh! Why hello there! Danny! You made some friends!”

“Can we pleeeease get some ice cream?”

“Pleease?” Sam and Tucker chorused. 

Maddie chuckled. “I don’t see why not. We have to go find your guardian first and ask them if you two can have some though.” She stood up and started packing her book back into her bag and slung it over her shoulder. 

The three kids cheered and Sam and Tucker ran their way over to another bench on the other side of the playground. 

“Mom! Me and Sam made a new friend! We were wondering if we could all get ice cream together!” 

Tucker’s mom looked up and saw Danny standing shyly behind his mom, who waved.

“Hi, I’m Maddie and this is Danny.”

Danny waved. 

“Hi! I’m Angela.” She looked back at Sam and Tucker. “You guys made a new friend? I think that’s cause for celebration.”

“We can get ice cream?” Sam asked.

“Yes, we can get ice cream.” Angela said, smiling. 

All three kids cheered and started following their moms as they walked out of the park. Ember smiled. While she liked spending time playing with Danny, these were kids his age that he could actually see. She was happy for him. 

QQQQQ

“Ghosts aren’t real, man.”

“What do you mean?” Danny asked, a furrow in his brow. 

Ember looked away from a book she had finally learned how to pick up and turn invisible after years in the human world to see Danny and his friends looking at each other in frustration. 

“Ghosts aren’t real. There’s no scientific evidence of them.” Tucker said, looking back at the tv where their game was paused. 

“Well what about my parents' work? Their lifelong passion?”

Tucker shrugged. “There’s gotta be some explanation for whatever findings they have. It can’t be explained by ghosts. Have your parents ever seen a ghost?”

“No but not everyone can see ghosts.” 

“Huh?” 

“It’s called being clairvoyant.” Sam said. “It encompasses different kinds of things but it can apply to seeing the future or seeing ghosts and other things like that.”

“Do you believe me Sam?” Danny asked. 

She shrugged. “It’s something I’d like to believe because I think it’s interesting but I can’t, not without solid proof.”

“But I have solid proof!” 

“Okay what is it then?” Tucker asked, putting down his controller.

“I can hear ghosts. I’ve had one living with me for half my life. You know, Ember?”

Sam and Tucker shared a look. “You mean your imaginary friend?” Sam asked. 

He shot her a look. “No, she’s not my imaginary friend. She’s a ghost that accidentally fell through a portal from the ghost zone and she’s been my friend ever since.”

Tucker took a deep breath. “No offense, dude, but I think you’ve got whatever your parents have that makes them go off their rockers. It’s probably just all in your head.”

Danny bristled. “I’m not crazy.”

Tucker rolled his eyes. “And I’m the pharaoh Duul Aman. Your parents are crazy. Even Jazz believes that and she’s lived her whole life with them too. Just drop it already. We’re not kids anymore.”

Tucker unpaused the game and after a few moments Danny turned back to the screen stiffly and started playing again. 

After that Danny started talking to Ember less and less. She’d ask how his day went at school and she’d hear him mumble something about voices in his head and ghosts, but he didn’t respond to her. Which was fine. Teenagers did that. She was his friend but she could very well be another sort of mother figure to him, so it made sense. 

One day when she asked him about his homework he finally exploded on her.

“Stop! Just stop talking! I don’t know if you’re a ghost or not but that’s crazy! Everyone at school thinks my parents are crazy so it must be true. I’m crazy. I’ve let myself believe an imaginary friend that I hallucinate about has been real for too long. It’s time to grow up.”

“Danny-” She started.

“No!” He shouted. “You’re not real! I don’t want to talk to you anymore!”

Ember felt her heart drop into her stomach and she floated away from him. He looked around him, listening for her, before he took a deep breath and went back to his homework that he was working on. 

QQQQQ

Ember didn’t stick around at Danny’s house as often anymore. She’d go fly around town on her own more and sometimes went back to the ghost zone for a couple days before another portal opened back up. She had just floated through the walls into the living room for the first time in a week when she heard Danny and his friends talking in the lab. 

She felt prickles on her skin. Danny was fourteen now. She didn’t need to watch over him as much anymore. He was old enough to watch over himself now. But she had a bad feeling about the lab. His parents had recently finished building their ghost portal but it ended up not working. 

She slowly floated down the stairs, apprehensive about being down there with all the weapons again, but just as she hit the bottom step and looked up, she saw a bright flash of green and heard a scream that rattled her to her very core. 

Danny was in the portal, screaming and screaming as the portal turned on around him. Sam and Tucker were shouting his name from outside the portal, tears streaming down their faces. 

Ember flew across the lab quickly and was about to reach into the portal but the ectoplasm powering it began to burn her skin. She hissed and pulled her arms away. 

After a few more agonizing seconds, the swirling of the portal settled into a more gentle rhythm and when Ember reached out, the burning sensation was gone. She was about to reach in to find Danny when someone tumbled out and onto the floor.

Her heart dropped as she took in their appearance. It must’ve been Danny’s ghost. He was an inverted version of his human self, wearing the jumpsuit his parents had just finished for him two weeks ago. 

“Danny?”

Sam’s quiet, croaky voice filled the lab. Danny lay on the floor unmoving for a few moments before he groaned and opened his eyes. 

“Sam? Tucker? What happened?”

Sam’s bottom lip wobbled and Tucker stared at Danny with wide eyes. “Danny. I think- I think you-”

Tucker was interrupted as a bright flash of white light appeared and lit up the room. It traveled up and down Danny’s body, revealing a human boy. 

“Ugh.” Danny groaned. “That did not help my growing migraine. What was that?” 

Ember leaned further over him to get a look at the burns on his face when his eyes opened. He looked at Sam and Tucker first, and then his eyes kept traveling and met her own. His eyes widened and a shocked look appeared on his face, one she could feel mirrored on her own, as he looked straight up at her. 

He whispered, his voice small and shaky.

“Ember?”

[geekgirles]

Your Heart

Chapter 4 -- Stalemate Word Count: 8284

READ ON AO3

Waking up to the sound of her parents’ latest invention going awry was something she was sure she was never going to get used to. Never mind that she’d have an entire life to get accustomed to it or her newfound respect for what her family did for a living. 

As disciplined as Jasmine Fenton was, being awakened by an explosion was never going to be anything but annoying. 

Sighing resignedly, Jazz yanked her covers aside and got up, ready to start a new day. After showering and getting dressed with a long-sleeved, white dress shirt, a black ribbon tied tightly around its collar; a matching black, a-line skirt over thin grey tights; a teal blazer over her shirt, and brown ankle boots (which went well with her brown leather shoulder bag); she first made her way down the stairs to her parents’ lab. 

Absent-mindedly combing her pixie cut with her fingersーa decision she made after 18 years of rushed haircuts due to having been covered in some sort of unknown ectoplasmic goo after an invention explodedー, Jazz cut straight to the chase. “Let me guess, your latest invention just ‘malfunctioned’”, she air-quoted. 

As she expected, Jack and Maddie were hunched over a metallic device that had definitely seen better days, if the smoke coming off of it was any indication...What she wasn’t expecting though, although she should have, was her dad’s answer. “Actually, that was just the Fenton Toaster. We were about to start the day with a healthy, ghost-kicking breakfast, when she failed on us.” Had she been sixteen again or literally any other person in the world, Jazz might’ve actually been taken aback by the fact that her dad was tearing up over a toaster. Then again, she was Jazz Fenton and this sort of thing from her dad was as common as him yelling obscenities about ghosts. “Oh, dear friend. We hardly knew ye!” 

Rolling her eyes at his dad’s antics while her mum patted his shoulder in an effort to comfort him, Jazz muttered, “Dad, that toaster’s almost as old as Danny…” Who, by the way, was going to be ecstatic to learn the dreaded toast-drying machine from Hell had finally been vanquished. 

Speaking of her little brother, “Where’s Danny, anyway?”

Again, to any other family in the USA but the Fentons, that question would have seemed stupid. Danny was a college student who lived at his university’s dorms with his best friend, so the chances of him being around his childhood home during the school year were pretty slim. And, again, they were the Fentons, and her little brother had been going back and forth from his dorm, to Fenton Works, to the Ghost Zone (not like their parents knew, or even needed to know, about that one…) since he first got into APU. 

Maddie left her weeping husband’s side to pick a wrench up and start working on the toaster again ーpoor Danny; it seemed the evil, toast-drying machine from Hell was harder to get rid of than Vlad. “Sorry, sweetie. You missed him while you were doing your research. Your brother was here yesterday; he said he came Sunday night because he couldn’t find his dorms’ keys. But he’s back at college now.”

She suddenly stopped tinkering with the busted toaster’s inner workings, taking off her goggles from her face, a pensive expression plastered on her face. “Hm...I know Danny’s always been a little distracted, but he keeps losing his keys. At this rate he’s going to end up sleeping on the street just because he can’t get inside his own home!”

Recovering from his temporary loss of composure over the Fenton Toaster ー“I love you, guys, but it’s a miracle this family hasn’t been studied by professional psychiatrics already. Not like I didn’t give it my best shot…”, Jazz thought to herselfー, Jack was soon standing right beside his wife, towering over the pile of scrap metal with a matching pensive expression of his own. 

That couldn’t be good.

“Now that you mention it, sweetcakes,” he said, “you’re right. Danny’s always losing stuff!”

“Right?” Maddie insisted. “Don’t you remember, back in his first year of high school, when his English teacher, Mr. Lancer, called you over because Danny’s pants kept falling several times just that week?”

“Uh...the memory’s a bit blurry, Hon, but I know what you mean.” In truth, Jack didn’t remember any of that. All he knew was that he suddenly found himself chaperoning a homecoming dance. If only there was a way to get your memories back like those keychains that you attached to your clothes… And then it hit him. “I know, Maddie! Why don’t we make one of those keychains that you attach to your clothes so you won’t lose them for Danny?”

His wife beamed at that. For all his scatterbrained-ness, Jack truly was a talented inventor with a creative mind. Just a fuzzy head. “Oh, that sounds marvelous, honey! I’m sure Danny will love that!” She exclaimed before quickly pecking him on the lips.

Unbeknownst to her parents, Jazz grimaced in worry at the idea. Back when she was sixteen, or any other day, really; she’d have been overjoyed at the idea of her ghost-hunting parents creating something that was absolutely non-ghost-related, but since said idea would make it more difficult for Danny to keep his secret from them...She was just glad she was in town to look over him. Trying to appear supportive rather than dismayed, Jazz chirped, “Yeah, great idea, Dad...What are you going to call it? The Fenton Keychain?”

“‘The Fenton Keychain?’” Jack parroted before scoffing. “Of course not, Jazzy-pants! I was thinking something more along the lines of, ‘The Fenton Fermoir’!” He announced, striking a dramatic pose. 

The blue-eyed young woman started at that, taken aback. “Wait, ‘fermoir’? Isn’t that French?”

“Yes, it’s an adjective that means ‘that which closes.’” 

Gaping at her dad, Jazz blinked. And blinked again. And blinked a third time for good luck. “...you know French?”

This time, it was her mother who answered her, laughing her question off. “Oh, yes. There’s more to us than just ghost-hunting, you know?” Then she and her husband laughed together at her own joke. 

“Could’ve fooled me…” Jazz mumbled. 

“What was that?”

“Nothing! Um...oh, right. So Danny’s not here today, huh?” Her parents shook their heads. “That’s a shame, I wanted to ask him how things were going with...um...with, you know, school and all that. Oh, well! I’m sure he’ll tell me some other time.”

Jack and Maddie exchanged a glance. Ever since Danny started going to high school, their kids often acted weird. At first, they blamed it on adolescence, making them want to make an identity for themselves outside of their parents’ influence but not knowing exactly who they truly were, either. But the fact that their eldest child was 23, their youngest 21, and they still acted like that sometimes was a bit concerning. 

The wrench in her hand long forgotten, Maddie made her way to her daughter’s side. She draped an arm around her shoulders, not noticing that said arm was the one holding the aforementioned wrench and that she was unconsciously pointing at Jazz’s face with it. “Honey, is there something about Danny we should know about?”

Jazz panicked.

Yes.

Yes, there were so many things about Danny they should know about.

They should know their kid had gone through a terrible accident that changed his life forever at the tender age of fourteen. They should know he got ghost powers he spent agonising months trying to get control over. They should know he only ever wanted to protect innocents from ghosts and yet, he was labeled as a menace by the very same people he was trying to look after. They should know he’d not only been carrying the burden of being Amity Park’s unofficial protector since he was fourteen, but also became the king of an entire dimension and could count the people he could rely on with his hands. They should know he went through his very first serious heartbreak because the girl he liked hated his ghost half more than she liked him. They should know their college best friend was a fruitloop who wanted to kill Dad, take Mum from him, and either kill or adopt Danny; because, really, it all depended on the side of the bed Vlad woke up on.

They should know their only son was risking his life even more now because he’d made a deal with the Queen of the Witches of Amity Park who, judging by what Danny had told her, was the embodiment of a death sentence.

And he’d been carrying all those burdens and responsibilities, facing constant danger, making decisions not even full-fledged adults would find easy to make, and had been aimed at with ecto-blasters by his own parents since he was fourteen. Being Danny Phantom had stolen some of the best years of his life away from  Danny Fenton. 

And they had no idea of any of that. 

But how could they, when Danny refused to tell them the truth?

Every time Danny faced a bigger threat than dealing with ghosts of the same caliber as the Box Ghost, Jazz tried convincing him to come clean to their parents. Because, what if they never saw him again after that battle? What would she tell them, then? 

But Danny would not budge. And, Jazz remembered, she couldn’t blame him. With the entire town, barring a dedicated fan club, and a good chunk of the Ghost Zone against him, how could he risk losing one of the very few places he could call home? Just like she told him when he asked her why she never said anything about his secret, it was his secret. Only he could talk about it with Mum and Dad. 

“Jazz, honey? Is everything alright?”

Her mother’s voice broke her out of her stupor. She must’ve spaced out for a while, for her parents were looking at her worriedly. Flushing sheepishly, she cleared her throat. “Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry. And don’t worry about Danny either. He just…” What was that excuse he told her he’d use if anyone started asking questions again? Oh, right. “He’s just busy working on a paper to help me with my own thesis, that’s all.”

Okay. So not only was it a lie, but it wasn’t exactly what Danny told her to say, either. Her little brother decided to respond saying he was suddenly very interested in the occult because he was writing a paper on a seminar he’d signed himself up for, but since she went back to Amity Park to study the witches there, it was still a good excuse. 

Said excuse seemed to calm her parents down, before they fully registered her words and they seemed worried again. But, she knew, this time they were worried for her.

“Uh, Princess? Are you sure you want to focus that thesis of yours on...witches?” Jack asked warily, looking up from the remainers of the Fenton Toaster.

The redhead rolled her eyes in annoyance; there they went again. “Your father’s right, sweetie. While not necessarily a bad topic...erm...it’s not exactly the easiest one to research.” Her mother tried to discourage her gently. “For starters, most of the  records we have are nothing but speculations and hearsay… I mean, the Salem witch trials were mostly based on unfounded accusations!”

How two of the world leading experts in ectology, who defended the existence of ghosts long before their theories were proven correct, could be so convinced there was no such thing as witches was beyond her. Arbitrary scepticism, much?

Jazz had to admit, she understood her family’s surprise when she opted to focus her thesis for her Cryptology class on the legendary women. A psychology undergraduate, a woman convinced of the infallible nature of the scientific method since birth, and an aspiring psychologist since she was sixteen, it was understandable that her decision to minor in Cryptology would come as a surprise to...well, everyone. 

But protecting your half-ghost little brother from the shadows for the last seven years had a way of making you question everything you once thought you knew. 

After all, if such a thing as ghosts weren’t only real but had an entire dimension for themselves, then who was to say such a thing as magic-wielding women couldn’t exist?

The moment Danny told her and Tucker he planned on asking them for help at the beginning of Fall only cemented her decision. It was a real pity Danny refused to disclose the supposed location of the Amity Park clan for her safety. 

“Mum, Dad, I’ve told you already. It’s precisely because of all those myths that I want to study them. For all we know, all those potions that are always mentioned in folklore could just be really advanced medicine. Are we really going to turn our backs on the scientific community like that?”

“And that’s a great idea sweetie! But…” Maddie tried reasoning with her, but nothing came to mind. Awkwardly, she turned to her husband and whispered harshly, “Help me out here, will you?”

Jack didn’t need to be told twice. “What your mother’s trying to say, Jazz, is that, if there was evidence on the existence of witches, we’d already know. Don’t forget, your ancestor, John Fentonightingale, was a celebrated witch hunter during the time of the Salem trials. He was an admired and respected member of his village, but the only thing he ever did was send innocent people to be burned alive.

“When he eventually realised what he’d done, he spent the rest of his life lamenting his shortsightedness; rejecting the fame and glory his witch-hunting days had brought him. And even if he ultimately turned to ghost-huntingー”

“Goodbye, fame and respect.” Jazz mumbled.

“ーthe hole in his heart caused by his actions would never be filled again.” Jack finished his tale with a morose expression, hoping Jazz would understand what he was trying to say. 

She didn’t. “Okay, that was a very moving story with a valuable lesson on the dangers of letting fear and paranoia overtake us. But what does it have to do with me?”

Still standing by her daughter’s side, Maddie tried comfortingly rubbing her arms with the hand that wasn’t holding the wrench. “We’re just trying to warn you not to jump to conclusions, because you might regret it.”

Okay, that was it. Her parents were in no position to warn her against jumping to conclusions; they lost that right the day she finally understood they’d been unknowingly talking about ripping their own son apart ‘molecule by molecule’ ーright in front of him. Jerking away from her mother’s touch, she put her hands on her hips as she sent them her most meaningful look.

“For the last time! I’m not going to try and, I don’t know, rally up the entire town against the witches! I just want to study them. You know, learn about their culture, about the origins of their abilities, about the differences between fact and fiction...” she shot them a pointed look as she stressed that last part. “I just want to understand them!”

“But you don’t even know if they exist!” Jack protested as she made it to the stairs.

Hearing her dad’s comment, she turned to face them once more. Oh, she knew they existed alright, that much Danny had been able to clue her in. What she didn’t know was where to find them. But she couldn’t tell them that. “Well, that certainly didn’t stop you from building a ghost portal to another dimension you weren’t even sure existed! And it sure as Heck won’t stop me!” 

That last comment should be enough to get her parents off her back for at least a couple of days. But the conversation had put her in a bad mood, something that didn’t happen since she learned to appreciate her parents’ ghost-hunting abilities, or, when it was Danny who was being pursued by them, their lack thereof. Stomping out of the house and slamming the door closed behind her, Jazz angrily made her way to the usual starting point of her quest. 

The Amity Park Public Library. 

The large granite building was supposed to be completely white, but the decades since it was built had washed out the stones, making them look grey-ish instead. The several steps leading up to the entrance were flanked by two lead lion statues resting atop a block of stone each. The front of the building, on the other hand, was both decorated and supported by numerous columns, with two of them at either side of the wooden door. 

Despite the impressive sight, what truly mattered lay behind its doors. Walking inside, Jazz let herself be washed over by the smell of ink and paper so characteristic of the library. Wherever she looked, hundreds of books stood proudly on their shelves, some of them so high up that the only way to reach them was with the help of stairs. 

Scattered around the library were several tables and plastic chairs where the visitors could sit to read their latest acquisition or work on the projects that brought them to the library in the first place. 

Breathing the scent in, Jazz walked over to the little counter located right at the entrance of the library, where the librarian would usually be working on her computer. Whenever she wasn’t out and about organising books, that is. 

Jazz waved at her with a smile. After coming to the library to study for years, she was basically a regular by now. “Good morning, Wilhelmina!” Wincing at her unintentional high-pitched tone, she lowered her voice to barely a whisper. “How’s everything around here?”

Looking up from her computer, the pudgy woman smiled knowingly at Jazz before willing her chair to get closer to her. “Good morning, Jasmine. It’s been so long since I last saw you; when was it again, two days ago?” Wilhelmina joked as she leaned in closer to the redhead, intertwining her fingers as her elbows rested on her desk.

Jazz flushed slightly at the harmless jab. “What can I say? You won’t get rid of me so easily!”

“Don’t I know it…” There was something odd about the way the librarian said those words, but the redhead decided to let it go. It was probably nothing, either way. 

“I wanted to ask you if you could recommend a book onー?”

“On witches?” The auburn-haired lady finished for her. Seeing the young woman’s embarrassed hint of red on her cheeks, she chuckled. “Oh, don’t be so surprised, my dear. You’ve been asking for the same thing for almost a month now! It’s just nice seeing someone retain some sort of interest for this old place and its books. Nowadays, most people just come here to surf the net for free.”

“Well, you won’t have to worry about me for a while, then! So, the books?”

Leaning back on her chair, Wilhelmina pointed to a faraway aisle. “Try the History section. I’m sure there’ll be a journal or something to help you with your paper.”

Jazz flashed her a charming grin, “Thanks, Wilhelmina. You’re the best!” As she turned her back on the librarian, Jazz failed to notice the dark grin that made its way to her face. 

Once Jazz was out of earshot, Wilhelmina said, “Oh, you have no idea,” the twisted expression never leaving her face.

As she walked around the library’s endless halls, Jazz couldn’t help but be grateful for having Wilhelmina as the librarian. Any other person would have looked at her like she was crazy or a Satanist murderer in the making for researching the occult so much, but never Wilhelmina. The woman just smiled at her and tried helping her to the best of her abilities. If Jazz had been looking for information entirely on her own, she’d have stuck to a particular section of the library, but Wilhelmina was always recommending a broader search. And, Jazz couldn’t help but think, it was a smart choice. One never knew what they could find or learn if they listened to different experiences other than their own. 

Standing in front of the shelf where the history books were, the aqua-eyed woman began scanning for something that might help her clear up the fog surrounding the group of witches Danny might be facing from now on. If she could just find out where their hideout was supposed to be… Not only would she be able to study them, but she might even convince them to ally themselves with her brother for good!

Ever since she was a teenager and found out about her brother’s secret, Jazz was determined to focus her thesis on the effects such circumstances could have on him. But as time went by, she came to understand that would be impossible. Writing a thesis on Danny’s very unique circumstances would be akin to exposing him, and she couldn’t do that to him. 

Because he trusted her. 

Danny’s number of enemies increased tenfold by the day, while his allies followed a much more stagnant rhythm. Goodness, he couldn’t even get his girlfriend to give up ghost hunting for him! She and Tucker were the only two people in all of Amity Park he could rely on. 

And there was no way she’d ever betray that trust. 

Which, sure, was a very meaningful proof of the love and bond between them, but still left Jazz without a topic for her thesis. So when Danny revealed his discoveries on the existence of witches, of all things, she was ecstatic. 

The possibility of a magical species living in Amity Park was perfect on many levels. On the one hand, it would expand their knowledge of the paranormal, with the added bonus of finding potential alternatives for everyday problems. And on the other, it gave her the perfect excuse to stay close to Danny and make sure he was safe. With her in town, he wouldn’t have to make up excuses as to why he slept in Fenton Works when he already had a perfectly nice place to stay at APU. All he had to do was phase through her room to get to his. 

And, most importantly, that way he had somebody else he could talk to about his double life. He was going to need it if he’d indeed managed to establish a truce between the spellbinding women and ghosts. From what he’d told them, those sorceresses were vile. 

As she walked over a nearby table carrying a pile of books with both hands, Jazz couldn’t help but wonder how her little brother would handle the situation. 

.............

Danny was not handling the situation well.

Although, it wasn’t necessarily his fault. Lady Arcana’s own unwillingness to cooperate was a key factor in their stalemate. 

Even if they addressed each other formally and obvious jabs directed at their respective species were, thankfully, non-existent, the coldness between them that reigned during their first face-to-face interaction was now stronger than ever. 

Just like the last time, he’d sent Skulker to escort the queen and her entourageーwhich still consisted of the same two witches; talk about confidence…ー through the Ghost Zone up until they arrived at his lair’s throne room. They still pretended they were both honoured to be in each other’s presence even though Danny was sure the Witch Queen wished she could just spit at him as much as he did. 

And knowing Desiree, if she were near to grant her wish, a cascade of spit would rain down on him.

This time, however, Danny had ventured deeper inside his lair, with the witches close behind him. Figuring discussing over inter-dimensional safety in the middle of his throne room would be unwise, since one never knew who could be watching, he led his guests to the Council Room; where the Observants, Clockwork, and heーand occasionally Frostbite or any other ghost with a modicum of authorityーgathered to discuss political affairs regarding the Infinite Realms. 

Admittedly, he wanted to slap himself for not thinking about it sooner. 

Another thing that was different and he had failed to point out earlier was that, technically, the witches weren’t alone. No, there was nobody else besides the queen and her two...guards? ーcould he even call them guards?ー but they weren’t alone per se, either. 

The bespectacled, strawberry blonde one had a pet owl perched on her shoulder. The bird, Danny had to admit, was beautiful. Its plumage was predominantly white and cream. The white feathers were more noticeable in its belly and heart-shaped face, with most of its body and the top of its head looking rather creamy. The owl’s black orbs seemed not only capable of seeing in the dark, but also deep inside your soul. 

In other words, the girl’s pet was pretty, but creepy. And he had a feeling that would be a stable of these women. 

The Asian teenager seemed to prefer reptiles, and, yes, he based his hypothesis entirely on the fact that the girl had a bearded dragon around her neck as if she was wearing a scarf. Danny couldn’t tell what was creepier; the lizard’s naturally spiky, scale-covered body and its little tongue licking its eyeball, or the way the witch scratched her pet’s chin and cooed at it when she thought nobody was paying attention to her. 

“Well, it could be worse. She could buy herself a cat and name it after a married woman who will never love her back.” Danny had to physically restrain himself from shuddering at the thought. 

But the weirdest thing, of course, had to be Lady Arcana’s own companion. Which, again, he was sure was going to be a stable between them. At first he didn't even see her carrying anything, her form obscured by her cloak, but the moment they entered the Council Room ーalone; Lady Arcana had stationed her witches to guard the doors, just as he did the same with two of Walker’s goonsーand she made herself comfortable (or as comfortable as she’d ever be in enemy territory), he spotted it.

Had she really brought a potted plant with her all the way from the portal to his lair? And, now that he took a closer look, was that a carnivorous plant?

Scratch whatever he said about the teenager and her lizard. The way the plant nuzzled her face or wrapped itself around her forearm as she gently stroked its stem was ten times creepier. Although, a part of him couldn’t help but think she and Undergrowth would get along swimmingly. 

Two plant-loving psychos bonding with each other. Talk about a meet cute. 

But never mind their questionable taste for pets. They’d been discussing for over an hour and they were still at the starting point. Time was money and this woman was going to make him go bankrupt if they kept going like this. 

“Your Majesty, I understand the situation is quite...extraordinary, but I’m afraid we are still in need of a solution.” He tried for the umpteenth time that hour. 

The woman before him just sniffed in displeasure. It was a good thing they were separated by a rather large, rectangular table, otherwise, he might have leaned forward and wrung her little neck out of sheer exasperation. “I am perfectly aware of the situation, King Phantom. But, as I have informed you already, there is not much I can do if I do not know the cause of the portals opening.”

But that was precisely why he needed her help! Getting frustrated, Danny let out through gritted teeth, “Which I believe is precisely the reason why I need you here in the first place, my Lady. You are supposed to be able to discover the reason behind it.”

“Well, supposedly, these portals are a natural occurrence of the Ghost Zone. How is it possible that you do not know how to take care of the problem on your own?” She countered, matter-of-factly, and Danny would have given about anything to get her to shut up and do something useful instead. 

“Supposedly,” he echoed, “your people have the natural ability to surpass the laws that separate the Infinite Realms and Earth from each other, and hence, youーshouldーknowーhowーtoーcounterーit!” His voice raising in volume as he spoke, he made sure to punctuate that last part for emphasis. 

Narrowing her violet eyes at him in disdainーhow could he have ever thought they were beautiful?!ー, Lady Arcana spat. “Supposedly, that bond was tattered after your kind’s betrayal.”

If it weren’t for the audacity of her statement, he would’ve recoiled at the gravity and resentment etched into her words. Narrowing his own eyes at her, he leaned forward. “Trust me, your Majesty, you would be wise to keep your mouth shut; you are in no position to talk about betrayals.”

As her scowl deepened, teeth borne at him in anger, a low growl could be heard emanating from her throat. But Danny was not going to be intimidated that easily. Returning the intensity of her gaze, the two kept eye contact, initiating a staring contest born from frustration and distrust. 

Eventually, the Witch Queen averted her eyes, crossing her eyes in a huff as she leaned back on her chair. Her little plant reacted to her turmoil, for it hopped over to her ーwait, it hopped?!ーto get her attention. Noticing her weird-ass pet near her, the witch began to absent-mindedly caress its little, purple...head?

He was never eating a salad again in his life; he ought to let Tucker know he’d decided to join him in his carnivorous ways.

Leaning back against his own chair, Danny pinched the bridge of his nose, exhausted. They’d been at it for more than an hour and, rather than discuss a possible solution, all they’d done was argue. Sighing through his nose, he called out to her, an idea forming in his mind, “Hey.”

Taken aback by his sudden drop of formality, Sam looked over at him with a guarded expression. What was he up to? Rather than answering, she raised an interested eyebrow as a sign to go on. 

Danny took that raised eyebrow and her silence as permission to continue. “How about we drop the honorifics and formality for a while, huh? I don’t know about you, but I’m a rather laid-back person and having to address someone as if I was meeting the Queen of England tends to stress me out. And that by extension makes me much more prone to get defensive.”

Sam bit back her reply that she was, in fact, as much of a queen as the Queen of England, and that he should treat her as such.

“And let’s be real; getting defensive with each other is going to get us nowhere, don’t you agree? Besides, I’m already stressed out as it is due to a matter regarding a black hole forming, so I bet I’m not the most agreeable guy to be around right now.”

“No, you aren’t”, Sam was actually surprised Phantom shared her beliefs about formality and social distance. But that didn’t mean she was going to lower her guard around him. And his last words took her completely by surprise. “...did you just say ‘black hole’?”

“That’s not something you should concern yourself with.” He dismissed the question immediately.

Squinting her lavender eyes at him, her suspicions of any ulterior motives never quite going away, Sam gave in. “What are you getting at?”

At least she was listening to him. He was willing to count that as progress. Danny raised his palms up in mock surrender. “I’m just saying, we don’t know for how long we’re gonna have to work together. So how about we’re at least casual with each other? Because, I don’t know about you, but all this higher register of speech is giving me a headache.”

As if to prove his point, Danny rose up in the air until he was comfortably floating about three feet high. As he leaned back, his arms crossed behind his head and one leg over the other, nothing would’ve wiped the smug look on his face as he looked down on the Queen of the Witches of Amity Park, her own jaw hanging low in awe. 

Noticing the smugness radiating off of him in waves, the raven-haired girl forced her jaw shut. No way in Hell was she going to give him the satisfaction of amazing her. Even if she wasn’t going to say it aloud, Sam concurred with his point. Straightening her back, head held up high, she made sure to bruise his ego the same way he almost bruised hers. “Fine. Let’s drop the honorifics, I was tired of pretending I have any respect for you, anyway.”

Danny frowned at that. “Hey!”

“What? Do you seriously expect me to believe I’m not in immediate danger of being attacked by a ghost just for the mere fact of invading their turf? That you and your people actually respect mine?” Her voice was laced with cynicism as she scoffed. “Yeah, right.”

As much as Danny would’ve loved to contradict her, he knew he couldn’t. After all, he hadn’t just sent Skulker to escort them in fear they might get lost, the possibility of them being ambushed by vengeful ghosts was very real.

The raven-haired girl smiled triumphantly, knowing she had him right where she wanted him. “If it’s any consolation, if any of you so much as tried stepping foot, or ghostly tail, or whatever, into our territory, not a single one of us would hesitate to exorcise the Hell outta you.” Motioning to the door with her head, she added. “Susan in particular would have a blast.”

“Susan?”

“The teenager with the bearded dragon; Count Scalynton”

“‘Count Scalynton’?” Danny echoed in disbelief, before having to stifle a laugh with his gloved hand. Seeing the Witch Queen’s unamused stare, however, he sobered up. “And...uh...what about...the owl?”

“That’s Spooky.” Lady Arcana replied with a shrug of her shoulders. 

“And your little friend?” He asked hesitantly, pointing at the potted plant comfortably perched on its owner’s lap, but making sure his finger didn’t get too close; in fear of getting it bitten off. 

“Oh, this little guy?” Sam looked down at DeMilo with a fond smile. “His name’s DeMilo.”

“...are you serious?”

“You got a problem with that?”

“No! No, no. Of course not! DeMilo is...uh, a great name.” He quickly assured her, sheepishly. The last thing he needed was to invoke her wrath, again. Clearing his throat, Danny decided it’d be best to change topics. “So...No honorifics?”

“No honorifics.” Lady  Arcana nodded from her chair. 

“Right. So, instead of ‘your Majesty’, ‘my Lord’, or ‘King Phantom’, you can just call me ‘Phantom’ and Iー”

“You can just call me ‘Lady Arcana.’” The Witch Queen cut him off with a tone that left no room for discussion. 

The white-haired young man slouched slightly at that. Just when he thought they were making progress, she closed herself off completely all over again. But he couldn’t afford displeasing her further, so he’d have to play by her rules...For now. “Right. Got it. So...about those portals?”

As he asked that, Phantom leaned forward to her, changing his position mid-air so his torso was facing now upside down but his head remained straight. As the Ghost King lowered his body so his forearms were atop the wooden table, an intrigued gaze directed at her, Sam deposited DeMilo on the table, her own hands resting on it. Locking eyes, they had each other’s undivided attention. 

Understanding they were back to business, Sam sighed tiredly. “I wasn’t lying when I said I need to know the cause behind the portals’ strange behaviour. If this is something that can be solved through magic, then it is imperative that we know what’s causing it to figure out the best course of action to take. The wrong spell could lead to disastrous consequences.”

“Like?” Phantom raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

“Like sending the world to another dimension instead of closing a portal between dimensions.”

“I guess that makes sense. So how do we figure out the cause?”

“I can start by looking through this.” Sam offered as she, seemingly, got a book out of nowhere, Phantom’s eyes widening at the sight. The reddish-brown leathered book was the same one she used to open the portals to the Ghost Zone, which made it their safest bet for finding a solution. After all, if the book guarded almost forgotten knowledge on how to open inter-dimensional drifts, then it should have the answers to more mysteries, right?

...............

Outside the Council Room, on each side of the door, Stephanie and Susan were patiently waiting for their queen. Well, “patiently waiting” might have been an exaggeration. Stephanie was stiff as a board, while Susan looked like a furious guard dog, the murder in her eyes only cemented the picture. 

Both witches’ emotional state could only be attributed to one thing.

Ghosts. 

Or, to be more precise, the two police-dressed, green spirits they were forced to stand guard alongside because the Ghost King wasn’t about to be caught dead (pun not-intended) with three witches and no back-up.

As much as she hated it, Susan had to give the spook credit: he wasn’t nearly as stupid as she thought. 

The teenager kept stroking the length of Count Scalynton’s body, currently sprawled alongside her arm, as she pondered different ways to escape the Ghost King’s lair and his ectoplasmic, door-floating, bloodcurdling realm in case things went awry. 

Beside her, Stephanie was lovingly scratching Spooky’s beak in an attempt to calm  herself down. Looking over at the ghost-guard assigned to her, she squeaked and promptly looked away when the spectre, having felt her gaze on him, landed his blood-red, pupiless eyes on her. Gulping loudly, she whispered to Susan. “Do you think her Majesty will be frequently meeting Phantom from now on?”

Susan whispered back with a sneer. “I hope not! Miss Wilhelmina was right when she warned me against these putrid, soulless drones. We can’t lower our guards, especially not now that the queen needs us.”

Discreetly pointing with her head, the Asian girl guided her partner’s gaze to her hips. Lifting her red hoodie almost unnoticeably, the strawberry blonde’s eyes widened at the sight; two crossed, leather bandoliers were filled to the brims with an assemblage of jars containing colourful liquids. Stephanie’s jaw almost fell open in shock; the 17-year-old girl was armed to the teeth with potions!

Realising they weren’t alone and the dangers in their secret stash being found out, Stephanie tried to appear nonchalant. Pretending to be talking in general, she added. “I just hope her Majesty is safe.”

Susan gave her a wry smile. “Oh, trust me. Her Majesty will be fine even without our help.”

...............

As she skimmed the pages of the spellbook in search of more information on the portals, Sam kept looking over at Phantom, praying he hadn’t noticed anything unusual. 

As satisfying as it’d been seeing his bewildered face when she suddenly pulled the book off seemingly out of nowhere, the truth was she’d been carrying it with her under her skirt. But what she worried about was not him finding out about the book, but the other items her dress hid from plain sight. 

Strapped around her thigh was a black holster filled with potions. Unlike the arsenal Sam knew Susan had brought with her, which consisted of several offensive and highly corrosive concoctions, the queen’s own collection consisted mostly of Blinding Bombs. As the name indicated, it was a type of potion whose main purpose was to distract the opponent long enough to retreat or come up with a plan. If things went south, all Sam had to do was smash the jar against the ground and cover her eyes, for a small explosion of light would ensue and temporarily blind the spirits, giving her and her girls enough time to escape. 

As she leafed through the spellbook’s pages, she suddenly shivered, noticing a cold presence by her side sending shivers down her spine. What was even odder was the sudden smell of something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Dumbfounded, she turned her face to the side and growled at the sight. Snapping the book closed and bringing it close to her chest, she snarled at Phantom. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Taken aback by her sudden movements, Danny blinked. “Um, trying to help you?”

He had to be kidding her. “Come again?”

“I...uh...I just thought I could help you look for answers.” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “So I was trying to see if I could find anything useful in that book of yours.”

Oh, he definitely had to be kidding her. “No, thank you.” She turned him down, only thanking him out of politeness. She turned back to the book. “You’ll only drag us down, anyway.”

Danny was starting to get really frustrated with that all-knowing, condescending attitude of hers. Even his sister wasn’t as annoying despite her know-it-all tendencies. Hell, Skulker was easier to work with! Standing up in mid-air, using his leverage to stare her downーliterallyーhe folded his arms in front of his chest. “And how, pray tell, am I going to drag us down?”

He was surprised by the witch’s next action. Huffing loudly, she got up from her chair and shoved the book in his face quicker than he could blink. At first he had trouble registering what just happened (mostly because he was levitating a good three feet above her and she was still safely on the ground) until he took notice of the sparkly, purple mist surrounding theーfloatingーspellbook. He blinked in awe; so that’s how her magic looked like. Once the initial surprise had worn off, however, Danny had to admit, he was a little disappointed; he’d expected more than a floating book. 

Looking over the tome, he saw Lady Arcana staring intently at him. Instead of anger as he expected, however, an amused, knowing expression adorned her features. He might’ve thought she looked pretty hadn’t it been for the wickedness of her smile. 

“Read.” She instructed him. 

Danny did as he was told...only to furrow his brow in confusion. What the…? Reading over the pages he couldn’t make sense of anything written on them. The inked markings splattered all over couldn’t even be considered hieroglyphics! Squinting at the offending piece of paper, he tried reading aloud. “Spiral...lightning bolt...spork?...What kind of sick mind came up with this?!” 

Sam let out a hollow laugh. “You really think that if you were really able to read this book in the first place all by yourself, you’d even need to call for me?” She rolled her eyes at him, not knowing what to think; either this guy was messing with her head or he was an idiot. She motioned with her hand for the book to return to her “Limit yourself to keeping your subjects in line and let me handle this. Although, on second thought, I might actually be asking way too much of you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” The green-eyed ghost didn’t like where this was going. 

Still reading, Lady Arcana raised her palms up in mock surrender. “I’m just saying, for a ghost that’s supposed to be the undisputable ruler of an entire race after having defeated a tyrant, you sure have a lot of detractors defying your authority.”

“Oh, please! Like you know anything about my subjects or any possible detractors.” Was it true he was often fending off ghosts who didn’t care for his laws to stay clear of Amity Park? Saying he didn’t occasionally get his ass handed to him would be like saying his parents took kindly to people who disrespect their jumpsuits, but he didn’t have to tell her that.

“I know more than enough.” Sam countered.

“Oh, yeah? Name one ghost who doesn’t respect my rule and still causes trouble.” The halfa challenged. What was he trying to get out of this? At least ¾ of his enemies screamed their names and evil plots whenever they were freed from the Ghost Zone! In Ember’s case, she literally depended on people knowing and chanting her name. 

“That poacher ghost of yours...what’s his name?”

A poacher ghost? Who the fuck was she talking aboー? “You mean Skulker?”

Sam perked up at that. “Yes, that one! He so obviously doesn’t respect your authority. I mean, he literally hunts you, the Ghost King, for sport almost every two weeks!”

An undignified sound escaped the halfa’s throat, but that was the last of his concerns at the moment. “Okay, first of all,” he started, raising one gloved finger, “he so totally respects my authority. Whenever I need help, he’s always willing to put the whole hunting-the-most-unique-specimen-ever aside for the greater good. And second,” he sent her a pointed look, floating closer to her. He revelled in the way she uncomfortably shrunk away from him; served her right, “Skulker’s not a poacher, he’s a hunter!”

“Does he have a permit or a hunting license?” Lady Arcana asked, not missing a beat.

That actually gave him pause. “Well...no, butー!”

“If a hunter hunts with no permit, then he’s a poacher!” Seriously, how dense could this dude be?

“You seem to be forgetting that Skulker is a resident of the Ghost Zone; my domain. Whatever laws are followed on Earth or among your kind, do not necessarily apply to us.”

“That outta shut her up,” he thought triumphantly.

“So you’re saying you’re okay with innocent creatures dying solely for the purpose of flattering one ghost’s ego?”

Well, apparently not. Danny spluttered at that. Who was this woman anyway, Jane Goodall?! “Whaー? No, of course not!” He vehemently denied before changing topics. This woman was about to get a taste of her own medicine. “But what’s with all these pointing fingers anyway?! I bet some of your ‘loyal’ witches also commit their own atrocities right under your nose.”

Oh, she was going to blast him into next Thursday for that! Standing up from her chair, Sam slammed her hands against the table (careful not to hurt or startle DeMilo, though). “For your information,” she snarled at the ghost before her, “the only huntress in my clan is Diana. And not only is she formidable, sheーalsoーhasーaーpermit!”

Fed up with the ridiculous conversation and the even more ridiculous woman, Danny slammed his own hands down on the table, even if he was floating. “Again with the permit! What’s with you and permits?! What are you, a cop?!”

“I’m a queen!” Sam all but roared. “So, yes, it is my job to ensure certain jobs are only trusted to people with permits!”

Danny was about to continue ranting, but he stopped himself. All this pointless fighting was only making them waste time, and they couldn’t afford that. He didn’t understand how she wasn’t already exhausted from all the arguing. Rubbing his face with his hands, he let himself fall back on his chair. “Let’s...let’s just keep on investigating. Forget I said anything.”

Sam was about to retort when she took notice of the white-haired ghost’s tired eyes, her own fatigue finally kicking in. Slumping her shoulders as she, too, fell back on her chair once again, she continued reading. “Yeah, sure. That’ll be for the best.”

They stayed in silence for a while after that. Lady Arcana reading intently, and Danny praying to all things above him that he’d be able to survive the day. Eventually, the Witch Queen broke the silence, slamming her book shut. His head snapping up at the sound, Danny dared to hope. “Any luck?”

The queen sighed. “I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?”

His heart sank. “The bad news,” he moaned pitifully. 

“Bad news is, there’s nothing in this book about what could possibly be causing the Ghost Zone to create more portals than usual. The most it has is the spell I use to get here, but that’s about it.”

Danny was convinced his heart was now lost somewhere along his knees. “And the good news?”

“This isn’t the only book that might have information on the Ghost Zone. When our people parted ways for good after you-know-what,” the look of resentment was back on her face and Danny didn’t know what to do; he should be the one feeling offended! “most of our knowledge was forgotten, but not lost.”

“Meaning?” He prompted her to finish her statement. 

“Meaning, there’s still probably many more books on the topic.” She finished. 

“Which means…” Danny began, only for the two of them to groan in dismay. As nice as it was that not everything was lost just because that particular book didn’t have the answers, having to look for another spellbook or grimoire meant they would have to keep meeting with each other. For Lady Arcana would never leave a precious heirloom belonging to her people out of her sight and in the Ghost Zone, and Danny couldn’t afford to take his eyes off of her in case she and her kind double-crossed them.

In other words, they were stuck with each other until further notice...He was starting to regret not being fully killed by the accident the day he got his powers.

[bitch-i-migth-be]

Crash Course | Chapter 03: Ready?

Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman,  

Relationships: Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton,

Characters: Danny Fenton, Jazz Fenton, 

Words: 2′246

Tags: BAMF Danny, BAMF Jazz, Sibling bonding, Shenanigans, Swearing

Summary: He swore his sister was trying to make him go into cardiac arrest - considering his halfa status that was quite the accomplishment-

But there was no other explanation to his sister’s stubbornness, and if he knew her at all there was just no talking her down from interning at goddam Arkham.

A/N: I appreciate the comments, guys. :33  Let me know what u think.

CHAPTERS: 1, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7

Danny might not be the smartest person out there but he sure was crafty as fuck.

He had needed to be even before the ghost entered the picture. Then, after the portal was up and running the habit of thinking on his feet and the fine art of rolling with the punches had been added to his skill set.

So, Danny knew from experience that no matter how good you could get at improvisation, it was always better to prepare beforehand if you had the opportunity. Because if you let something to chance, it would probably come back later to fuck you over. Or some annoying ghost would get in the way out of goddamn nowhere. He could deal with them, but it was just a waste of everyone’s time. Better get going before someone interrupted him.

Normally one small thing or another would backfire anyway because of his salted luck, but he preferred not to poke sleeping dragons when he could.  

Taking into account all of that, he had decided the first order of business in the Fenton Crash Curse for Suicide Missions: Start packing all the shit they would need to take with them.

Because It’s never too early to pack for the road to hell.

Especially if you are already in a hell all of your own.

-.-.-.-

“What do you mean you are coming with me?” Jazz murmured from the threshold of Danny’s room, eyes wide open, as she watched her little brother try to pack all types of random things into suitcases.

Since she had announced at the Fenton Family Dinner her plans of going to Gotham University and accepting an internship at Arkham, Danny had been behaving like he was possessed, which considering the portal in their basement was not that far fetched; he had started carrying around a book-like-journal and would not stop murmuring about survival-of-the-fittest. Jazz was not going to lie, she appreciated the concern but that part was a little bit concerning. Not the survival in general, they had been playing that game since forever in this house, but they had never really needed to write anything down.

Until now, apparently.

It was kind of weird witnessing all this. Weird as in she wasn’t used to him fusing so much over her. A normal amount, yes. But most of the time it was the other way around, she was the big sister after all. Also,  with the ghosts around and him going all hero on their behinds her brother was in dire need of all the support she could dispatch. So, yes, she wasn’t expecting this reaction at all, and she was even less prepared for her brother declaring his intentions of joining her in Gotham.

She hadn’t asked how he was planning on dealing with the ghost problem yet, but considering he was already packing when she, they now, weren’t leaving until the end of the summer Jazz thought her brother must have had something in mind already.

She didn’t even know how they could need some of the things he was putting in there but it appeared like Danny was on a roll and she wasn’t going to be the one stopping such, umh, productivity.

“I said what I said”

Jazz frowned lightly.

“Are mom and dad aware-?”

“I told them I was going to be your assistant with the research; mostly the field part because I don’t think they trust me with the equipment after what happened the last time,” Danny answered while still hunting down for more essential items to put in bags, those things were handy as fuck. “also, get a job or something”

“A job?” jazz raised an eyebrow and leaned against the doorframe.

“It’s on the list,” Danny waved his journal/diary/thing in the air. Huh, so they were survival tips. “considering you are the only one with a scholarship and I´m not going to school anyway it seemed appropriate.”

“excuse me? you are not going to what?”

“May as well-” Seeing his sister’s expression he quickly backtracked, “but I mean, if you are really that opposed there is always online classes”

Danny tried to smile in her sister’s direction, but his nervousness made it come out more like a grimace. He kept trying. Jazz kept staring at him. Danny kept grimacing back.

Then she smiled back. A proper, full toothed smile. Oh fuuck

“I think I can do you one better” And with that, she turned on her heel and left.

Danny blinked two times. one after the other.  

“D-Do me one bet-? Jazz, wait!”

But it was already too late, his sister had another ball to start rolling.

-.-.-.-

Her brother was not stupid.

If her brother choice to appease her by taking online classes had been born merely of a strategic need, and hence the best course of action to take, Jazz wouldn’t have rebuked at all, there were, after all, some pretty good online options that her brother could take. But alas, that was not the real motive of his decision.  

It pained her and enraged her to see people belittle her little brother without even knowing him. See them think they had any right to decide whether he was worth something.

And it nagged at her than even knowing the basics of what was wrong with her brother’s low grades, she couldn’t help him more than she currently did. Not really. Unless she wanted him to end up in the hands of the G.I.W.

Fat chance of that.

But if there was a thing a Fenton was not it was a settler. And like hell she was going to let these people bring her brother down.

The first order of business would be to scout out the G.S.U. properly, some phone calls could prove useful, after all those who search shall find. 

-.-.-.-

When Jazz had retreated to her quarters earlier Dany had been left on his own with an uneasy feeling nagging at his gut. It felt a bit like foreboding.  

Like most things in life that inconvenienced him when it came to family issues he decided to ignore it until it came back to bite him, so he continued with his preparations and eventually took a seat among all the clutter that had become his room. After that, he didn’t have to wait long.

His sister had come back strolling decisively into the room, only pausing briefly to warily give the evil eye to the sheer number of things spread all over the room that appeared to have multiplied since she left the place.

She stopped right in front of her brother’s seated form and trusted her phone into the smallest Fenton’s unsuspecting hands.

“Look! There is still time to apply to a full-ride scholarship at Gotham Academy” Danny blinked up at her without a word, and at his sister’s insistence looked down at the phone to start reading, then he did a double-take and started re-reading.

Jazz had got to be kidding him.

“You want me to apply to some posh elite school?” He looked up incredulously at the redhead “Elite, Jazz? Me? With my grades and the amount of time I would get to study for an entrance exam I would be failing this just by applying.” grumbled the boy.

“That’s the best part.” Said the girl smiling like the Cheshire cat. “This particular exam is practical in engineering”

Danny froze. His eyes shot back to the phone.

“Practical you say?”

“Yes, lately there have been more scholarships granted for demonstrating a great gasp in the practical portions. Gotham is a little, umh, hard to handle, I suppose, and there have been situations in which people with the knowledge to accomplish great things have been turned down because of a lack of proper school background or support. So they decided to start implementing this.” She explained while her little brother continued scanning the document up and down.

Eventually, Danny shook himself back together.

“Ok, look, let’s say I had a shot at this.”

“Which you do-”

“Which I might.” The younger interrupted her, “This still requires to prepare at least three proposals for the faculty’s designated table of judges to evaluate and grade to get the green card, and this is like two weeks -two weeks!- from now, it doesn’t even specify what they are gonna have the applicants doing for the final test. How the fuck am I-?!”

The redhead decided to cut in before he could drive himself into a frenzy.

“Well if you are that sure about joining me then you won’t have a problem acing this, will you?” she smirked, then it softened into something more fond. “I know you can do this Danny, and so do you. And if you are that worried about the time, I can help you, we can start tag teaming together for ways to deal with the ghost from the get-go. It may not be permanent, but it will have to do.”

Her brother started biting his own lower lip and still looked somewhat unsure, so she decided to use the final big gun.

“Did I mention that Gotham Academy is right across the road from Arkham?”

Danny’s shoulder slumped.

“Ughh, fine!”

Jazz beamed down at him.

“I will leave you to it then!”

-.-.-.-

“Also, those things are not going to fit anywhere if you don’t organize them”

“Oh, ye of little faith.”

-.-.-.-

So. Jazz did have a good reason to believe her brother could get the G.A. scholarship.

The Fenton thermos technology was not only useful for capturing ghosts but could also store other things. That’s to say, more tangible things.

And her brother was the one who made it happen.

Danny has been tinkering with his parent’s things a lot more than some people would be comfortable with. The truth is, some of the things Jack and Maddie have invented could be fucking useful for everyday life if you took out most of the ghost shit or rearranged them a bit, it could have gained them a pretty penny, but like we all know the Fentons are not interested in anything if it’s not ectoplasmic.

Danny, on the other hand?

As much as he ends up believing all the bullshit others say about his sister being the only genius child of the family, he had never been afraid of dismantling and mounting up again some of his parents’ equipment. For him, it was not a question of whether or not he was qualified to do so, after growing up watching his parents tinker random machines all over the house he had inevitably started to pick up their ways almost as if via osmosis.

His parents, of course, had never fully noticed the fluffy-sweater clad toddler waddling after them from time to time watching them work, at first this happened when Jazz was otherwise occupied in extracurricular activities and couldn’t keep the boy successfully distracted somewhere else.

If at the time, Jazz had realized what was going on, she may have panicked and stopped her sweetly feral summer child of a brother from getting anywhere near their parents in the middle of a craze. As it was, she had not noticed in those first years, and by the time it had come to her attention even she had to concede that if her little brother had managed his recon missions without no one the wiser - Her brother was sneaky like that -, then he deserved the benefit of the doubt.

And, had that not been enough to convince the big sister, that had been the moment the sudden realization than her brother, unlike her, was more of a hands-on learner hit her full force, which would have been enough to make her relent. Learning was always good in her books.

Later, Danny would find most of the classes being imparted in Casper high boring as fuck. Not necessarily for the subject, but the way they were imparted. The youngest Fenton needed a good explanation along with a hands-on approach applied to something he found interesting to fully commit to something. At school, the most he could get were the theory and the occasional practical classes.

If the classes had been related to something interesting, say, rockets, stars, maybe NASA, it would have been easy to pay his full, unconditional attention to the teachers. But not one of the teachers had bothered to try and link the lessons to the interest of the alumni, not surprising, considering public school stuck to basics and had a timeline to complete and the classroom never seemed to learn things at the same rhythm so concessions had to be met.

It was still boring as fuck. But if he wanted to someday make it into NASA he would have to suck it up and force himself to survive with relatively good notes this torment.

Then the ghost fights had entered the picture and his motive to keep up the grades had all but vanished, and the little time left behind to work with was not enough to make, at least, an average grade. He didn’t have enough reasons to strive for more.

For this though? A new chance far from the ghost and he could keep protecting her sister?

He had the brains. He had the passion. And a good damn motive to drive him forward.

Once he was done, the luggage - and Loony town - wouldn’t even know what hit it.

-.-.-.-

NOTES:

 Also, the thing about Jack & Maddie not trusting Danny with the equipment was one of Danno’s secret tries at messing around with the things. Needless to say, that one time didn’t stay a secret.

Oh well, it was not like he asked for permission in the first place.

-.-.-.-

“fluffy-sweater clad toddler”

Not gonna lie, I made myself crave some cuddles from toddler danno, so. fucking. cute.

There he goeees just waddling like a little duckling asdfghjkl

-.-.-.-

If someone here is a fan of the Gotham Academy Comic I greatly regret -not really- to inform you I’m only taking hostage the place for my evil fanfic purposes. I don’t know if there is going to be references but that particular comic is not the focus of this story, SO. You have been forewarned.

[nitr0glycer1ne]

Ducktober/Duckvember Day 13 - Duckswap (Age Swap AU)

Hi! Ok so I have no idea what Duckswap is, so I went with the idea that it's an AU where the characters' ages are swapped? So here's my take on that, with more details:

- The triplets are around thirty. Huey is a marine biologist and also a Junior Woodchuck troop leader, Dewey is a stunt actor and hosts a weekly show on a local radio station, Louie works in marketing. They live together and they’re raising their nephew and niece, Donald and Della, who are eleven, as well as another nephew of theirs, Scrooge, who’s only two. - The three of them also take turns being Gizmoduck, Duckburg’s protector; nobody except for Webby knows of their secret. On top of that, everyone else thinks there’s only one Gizmoduck. - Webby is the triplets’ adopted sister; she’s a year older, and she’s an archaeologist as well as a novelist. - Launchpad is eight, he’s a big fan of Dewey and lives in the triplets’ neighbourhood. Dewey often babysits him and LP considers him his best friend. - Fenton is seven, and he’s in Huey’s JW troop. He has a huge imagination and wants to become a scientist AND a superhero. He’s also convinced Gyro’s his best friend. - Gyro is nine, he’s in Huey’s troop as well. He doesn’t get along well with his family or his peers, and prefers to read on his own or work on his many, many inventions. - This is the basis for this oneshort; if I do write more about it, more characters will be included, such as Lena, Drake, Violet, Mrs Beakley...

Enjoy!

“Do I really need to wear those?”

Dewey lifted his eyes from his current task, which consisted of tying the laces of Launchpad’s roller skates, to see his best friend’s face. The duckling looked unsure, holding the kneepads in front of him.

“I’m afraid so, buddy.” Dewey answered as he finished the tight knot on one of the laces. “Just in case of another crash.” “But you’re not wearing any protection!” Launchpad countered, his bright eyes looking right into Dewey’s. “True, but I’ve been doing that for like, forever.” the older duck grinned, ruffling the ginger strands coming from under Launchpad’s helmet. “It’s your first time, though.” “Okay, that makes sense!” the duckling finally gave in, carefully putting the pads on.

Launchpad wasn’t really rebellious; he just liked to ask a lot of questions, and to get to the bottom of things. If he was satisfied with the answers Dewey or other adults gave in, he had no issue doing what he was told.

“Are you ready?” Dewey asked, getting up after checking one last time that his best friend’s roller skates were securely fastened to his palms. “Yeah!” the boy roared, punching the duck’s fist and making an explosion noise afterwards. “Ooookay, let’s dew-it then!”

Dewey took Launchpad’s hands in his, facing the duckling. Launchpad struggled a bit to get up, and it took him a few moments to regain his balance after standing up, but he did a good job at keeping his balance when Dewey started slowly skating backwards, Launchpad following eagerly.

“You’re doing great!” Dewey beamed, proud of his disciple. “Think you can handle a little more speed, LP?” “Sure can!” Launchpad shouted, starting to mimic his friend’s movements instead of letting himself be dragged. “Okay!”

Dewey carefully let go one of Launchpad’s hands, moving elegantly so the two were skating side by side. Launchpad did have some trouble keeping his balance, and he was grateful Dewey was still holding his left hand, but he quickly understood how to move his legs and how to keep his equilibrium. Dewey was proud of his student; it seemed like Launchpad had a gift when it came to learning various skills that involved moving objects, like biking, skiing or even surfing. Sure, the duckling had a tendency to fall or crash into walls or people after going too fast and losing control, but he never got seriously injured and it never discouraged him from learning new skills.

Dewey feared the day when Launchpad would get interested in learning how to drive bigger things, like motorcycles or cars, but for now he couldn’t be a prouder teacher.

“Dewey!” Launchpad exclaimed, giddy. “I-I think I’ve got it!” “Awesome! Want me to let go?” “Yeah, I’m ready!” “Okay, LP! Three, two, one, go!!”

The older duck was true to his word, and Launchpad found himself skating on his own, his legs pushing on his roller skates and making him go faster. The duckling couldn’t help but laugh; he liked it even more than skateboarding, adjusting the pressure on his knees and on his ankles to put the small wheels in motion, going faster and faster, dodging irregularities on the road, avoiding the people crossing the street, laughing all the while.

“That’s it, LP, you’re doing amazing!” Dewey shouted, still skating, staying a bit behind LP to keep an eye on him. “THIS IS SO COOL!!” Launchpad yelled, going even faster, his gestures precise and sharp.

Dewey fondly watched his best friend speed down the road, but started to find that Launchpad was perhaps going a little too fast.

“LP, slow down!” he screamed, hoping the duckling would, for once, listen to him. “GO FASTER? OKAY!” “NO, SLOWER!”

Dewey started skating faster, trying to catch up with his disciple. He knew what happened when Launchpad was enjoying himself too much, especially when it involved going very fast down a very steep road. He only hoped that Launchpad would, for once, be aware of his own limits, or that in the worst case scenario, he would reach LP before the kid could wreak havoc.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!”

Well, so much for those plans.

-----

“Come on, please!” “I said no.”

Fenton pouted. He had been trying to convince Gyro to play with him for the last ten minutes - but the chicken hadn’t given in, staying on his favourite bench, underneath a tree. Gyro was reading a heavy tome Fenton had already seen him with, something about quantum physics. It was one of Gyro’s favourite subjects - Fenton preferred chemistry.

“Please, Gyro! And after, we can do whatever you want!” “Once again, no.” “But please! I can’t play Gizmoduck if there’s no villain to stop!” “Then I’ll be your villain, if you want!”

Fenton happily spun towards the duck who had just spoken - his favourite adult and the leader of his Junior Woodchuck group, Huey Duck. The marine biologist was smiling brightly at him, and the duckling threw himself around his waist.

“Hi Mr Huey!”

Fenton was one of the most polite children Huey had ever met. Even after being given the permission to call him by his first name, the duckling still had trouble letting go of the “Mr” in front of Huey’s name. “Hey, Fenton.” Huey ruffled the feathers on top of the small duck’s head, before looking at the other kid. “Hey, Gyro.” “Huey.” the chicken nodded, readjusting his glasses before returning to his book. “Mr Huey, look, look! I’ve made some adjustments to my suit!”

Fenton stepped away from the scientist, proudly showing his homemade armour to the duck. It was crafted out of cardboard, paint and markers, but the duckling had managed to make it look pretty amazing. Just like Gyro, Fenton was a perfectionist and had a gift to make remarkable creations out of mundane materials – the only difference being that Fenton’s inventions were mostly play-pretend, and Gyro’s were actual attempts at creating fully functional machines and gizmos.

“Let me see that.” Huey asked, kneeling down to the excited boy’s level. Huey took the time to admire every modification Fenton had made since the last time, which mainly laid in the freshly painted lines on the back, and in the small LEDs embedded in one of the arms’ control panel. “Great work, as always.” The scientist finally concluded, getting up and chuckling at the look of absolute joy on Fenton’s face. “No doubt you’ll scare the villains away before they even attack you!”

Despite having pretended he couldn’t care less about the younger boy’s latest improvements on a bunch of cardboard, Gyro was watching the two ducks interact from behind his book. He couldn’t help but feel like joining them; he loved tinkering with his own creations, and he liked reading in the park while enjoying the warm spring weather, but he also yearned to do more simple, basic things kids his age did, like playing pretend or playing soccer. But Gyro had his own ways of doing those activities, and other kids resented him for that; which was why he pretended not to be interested when one of them had the strange idea to invite him.

Thankfully, Huey seemed to sense his hidden dilemma, for the duck sat next to him and gently spoke:

“You know, I think Fenton would sincerely like to play with you.” “Yeah, I know.” the chicken scoffed. “But I’m not a baby, thanks.” “There’s nothing baby-ish about playing superheroes and villains at your age, Gyro.” There was no reproach in Huey’s tone; the scientist was simply speaking his mind to the kid. “You’re incredibly smart and mature for your age, and I know that can be tiring sometimes. No shame in unwinding a little, you know?”

Huey respected the pensive silence Gyro let linger between them, before getting up:

“Well, if you want to join in, we’ll stay nearby.” the scientist said, walking towards where Fenton was pretending to fly, a few meters away. “The battle between Gizmoduck and Dr. Abyssmos promises to be legendary.”

Gyro nodded with a small “hmpf” before getting back to his book. However, Huey’s words had planted a seed inside of him, one that urged him to forget acting like an adult for once, a voice that was growing stronger and stronger and that he had trouble ignoring. Rolling his eyes, Gyro put his book aside and got up with a heavy sigh.

--------

“No, get back here!”

Louie lifted up a very unhappy Scrooge from the sandbox. The duckling gave his guardian a dirty look, complete with a pout, which Louie scoffed at.

“Yeah, get mad if you want, but it’s time to go back home. I know you, and if you don’t get your nap, you’re all cranky.” “No nap!” the small duck protested as Louie put him in his stroller, making sure the restraints were fastened. “Not tired! Scrooge wants to play!” “You’ve played for over an hour, buddy.” the duck wearing a green plaid shirt countered, gathering the toddler’s toys that were scattered all over the sandbox. “You built lots of sand castles, dug a lot of holes and even found a treasure.”

The “treasure” in question was a coin Louie had hidden in the sand when Scrooge had been busy bickering with Goldie, another toddler they often met in the park. The coin was safely tucked in the front pocket of the toddler’s overalls, where Goldie couldn’t steal it easily.

“Okay, now, let’s go- HEY! Get back here!” Louie screamed.

Scrooge had taken advantage of the situation: since Louie had been busy checking the whole sandbox and turned his back to the duckling the whole time, the clever toddler had unclasped the stroller’s restraints and ran away. Thankfully, “running away” didn’t mean he had gotten far, since even though he was quick, Scrooge’s waddling was no match for Louie’s hurried steps.

“If you keep this up, no dessert for you tonight.” The adult warned when he scooped Scrooge up in his arms, making sure the duckling looked him in the eye. “And I’ll take your treasure.”

A shocked gasp left the duckling’s body as Scrooge protectively put his hands in front of his pocket. Louie made sure to give the kid his trademark Evil Smile for more effect.

“Good. Napping isn’t so bad! You don’t know how lucky you are. I wish I could still nap.” Louie sighed, putting Scrooge’s toys in his bag and seating the toddler in the stroller.

His days were rather exhausting: he had to balance between his day job, his two nights a week patrolling Duckburg and fighting crime and raising three kids. Louie knew his brothers had it just as bad – Huey especially, since his job required longer hours and on top of that he was a Junior Woodchuck troop leader-, but he still craved for a quieter life sometimes. He’d never, ever want to be separated from Donald, Della and Scrooge and even less to be separated from Huey and Dewey; but sometimes, he wished he could have a day, or even two, only to himself.

“Louie?” Scrooge asked, his brow furrowed in confusion. Louie couldn’t help but smile; after all, the kid was very perceptive for his age. “Is Louie okay?” “Yeah, yeah, don’t worry about it.” the duck promised, ruffling the feathers on top of his relative’s head. “Come on, let’s go home! If you want, we can play adventurers after your nap.”

An enthusiastic cry was his answer, and Louie started making his way towards the park’s exit, pushing the stroller in front of him.

--------

“Give it back!” “Come and get it!”

Della was running as fast as her body would carry her, her laughter echoing in the ears of her angry sibling. Donald was chasing her, screaming nonsense and drawing everyone’s attention on them.

“I said to give it back, Dumbella!” “Hey!”

Donald smirked when his sister, offended, turned around and started running towards him. That always did the trick when Della wouldn’t listen- he had called her that countless times, and it was still as efficient as the first time he had found the nickname.

“I told you not to call me like that!” Della screamed, charging towards him. “Then you shouldn’t have stolen my stuff!” “I stole your stuff because you wouldn’t listen to me!” “And I wouldn’t listen to you because you never leave me alone!”

Their increasingly loud shouting match drew everyone’s attention on them, but the twins didn’t care. They were used to it- they were a pair of hot headed ducks, and screaming came as natural as talking to them, especially to Donald. So they kept yelling at each other, the original reason of their argument long forgotten. Donald and Della were standing in the middle of one of the parks’ alleys, inches apart, ears ringing with the others’ deafening screams.

“STOOOOOPPPPP!”

The pair was immediately shut up by the one person who could out-scream them. They turned towards the source of the loud shriek, who was standing right next to them, looking both annoyed, disappointed and a bit sad. Webby’s arms were crossed, and although she was silent, the twins dreaded a bit what was to come. Their aunt was never violent towards them, but she had an impressive aura when she wanted to.

“Guys… why are you fighting?” Webby asked calmly after an awkward moment. “Della stole my journal!” Donald was quick to gather his spirits and accuse his sister, angrily pointing at her. Della scoffed, the incriminating volume coming out of her pocket. “Is that true?” “Yeah, but Donald ignored me! So I had to get his attention somehow, right?” “True, but taking his belongings-” “You’re really annoying, Dumbella! I don’t always want to talk to you! I have a life outside of you!” “Yeah, well, so do I! But that doesn’t mean you have to ignore me all the time!”

And the Duck twins started another round of screaming their heads out. Webby frowned; Donald and Della had a tendency to have small spats, but this was unusually violent by their standards. She had to get to the bottom of it. The two of them were suffering from the situation, she saw it in the way Della’s eyes were filled with tears and with how Donald was growing more and more unintelligible.

“Ok, OK! STOP!”

The archaeologist physically put herself between her nephew and her niece, taking one of them in each arm, hugging them.

“Guys, this isn’t like you. Is this really about Donald ignoring you? And is this really about your journal?”

Webby knew she was right when Donald stopped speaking and Della looked away, suddenly very interested in the ground. She wasn’t very patient, or patient at all really, but she knew better than to try and squeeze the truth out of them. Her patience was rewarded when Della spoke up:

“It’s just… stuff happened at school today, and I wanted to take Donny’s mind out of it.” “What happened?” Webby asked softly, noticing the subtle way Donald twitched a bit. “Is this another Beagle boy situation?” “Yeah.” Della sighed.

Webby wrapped her arms tighter around the twins, suddenly feeling very protective of them. The Beagle boys were a gang of bullies in the kids’ school. They targeted pretty much everyone, but lately they had latched at Donald in particular. They had tried to be nasty to Della, but she and Donald had kicked those tendencies out of them – Huey had been the only one to somewhat scold them for hitting other kids, and their three other guardians had congratulated them. So they had gone to Donald in retaliation – except that instead of trying to hit him, they had found an approach that was far more efficient, and that was to make fun of him and his speech impediment. Huey and Webby had discussed it with the bullies’ parents and the kids’ teacher, but that apparently hadn’t been enough.

“What did they do this time?” “I don’t wanna talk about it.” Donald mumbled. “But, Donny-” Della tried. “Della.” Webby gently interrupted her. “We’ll see about that at home, okay? I promise you both your uncles and I are not going to let those little hooligans keep doing that to you.”

Donald wiped his eyes with the cuff of his shirt, nodding silently. Della left Webby’s embrace to throw herself at her brother, giving him a tight hug that Webby joined in, soothingly petting Donald’s head. She knew how difficult it was for the duckling to properly express his emotions, even with the help of his therapist, and she didn’t want to make him even more uncomfortable by talking about his issues in the middle of the park.

“But first, how about some ice cream?” the archaeologist offered with a smile, taking a step back.

Two pairs of eyes shone back at her, and two eager ducklings nodded their approval. Each of them took one of her hands, and the trio made their way towards’ the park’s food kiosk, near the entrance. Webby ordered for the twins and for herself: she knew their tastes by heart, and once again got it right, if the large smiles they gave her when she handed her their respective frozen treats was any indication.

“A triple chocolate sundae for Della, and a sea-salt parfait for Donald, there you go!” “Thank you, aunt Webby!” the twins said in unison.

They were about to bite into their desserts when they heard a loud scream, followed by a second, higher one. Startled, the three ducks turned their attention towards the source of the noise.

A small duck, mounted on roller skaters, was coming at them extremely fast, flailing his arms as if to slow down. Another one, covered in cardboard, was running after him and yelling him to stop; he was followed by a young chicken who was screaming what seemed to be instructions. Webby had barely noticed that Dewey and Huey were also running towards them, trying to catch up with the poor duckling, when all of a sudden-

CRASH!

Della was the fastest to react, hastily putting her sundae on a nearby table and making her way to where the skating duck, which had turned out to be their neighbours’ son Launchpad, had crashed, which was in another table, with Donald having been between them. The result was a mess: the table was broken and missed a leg, Launchpad was sitting on the ground and looking dizzy, and Donald was lying near the other duckling, his eyes closed and ice cream splattered all over his shirt.

“Donny!” she yelled, relieved, when her twin opened his eyes and waved at her before finding himself nearly strangled by the strength of Della’s sudden hug. “Are you okay?” “I can’t breathe-” “Are any of you injured?” the duck covered in cardboard asked, waddling towards Launchpad and helping him get on his feet. “Gizmoduck will-” “What is going on here?!”

Webby had been walking towards her nephew, but she turned around and faced a very surprised Louie. Huey and Dewey had reached her as well, both out of breath. Scrooge, comfortably sitting in his stroller, was also looking at the remnants of Launchpad’s crash, apparently very intrigued.

“I tried to teach LP how to roller skate.” Dewey sighed. “Didn’t turn out well.” “It never turns out well.” Louie winced, looking at Donald. Della was thoroughly inspecting him, and he looked very annoyed about it - which meant he was probably fine. “It’s a wonder he never injures himself.” Huey added. “Fenton and Gyro tried to stop him when he passed by us, but Gyro’s instructions were probably too complicated and Fenton was just screaming “halt, citizen, in the name of the law!”, so that might have panicked him even more.”

Gyro had taken a small pouch of his pocket and was looking at LP’s roller skates, either making sure they weren’t faulty or trying to improve them somehow, speaking to himself and sometimes giving a skating tip to Launchpad, who nodded at every single one of his tips. Della and Donald had sat down on a table, and were both digging into Della’s sundae, the girl looking fondly at her twin and sometimes glaring at Launchpad. Louie had taken Scrooge out of his stroller and handed him to Fenton: the kid loved toddlers and babies, and was very good at handling them, and Scrooge was very intrigued by the duckling’s homemade Gizmoduck armour.

Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby couldn’t help but smile fondly at the kids. They were a handful, they were hard to understand and sometimes hard to talk to, but they brought so much joy in their lives that they would never have it any other way.

-----------------------

Ahhhh this was so fun to write! Let me know if I should write more of this AU! hmu on twitter @ sarahnitr0 !!

[luxpurplishgreen]

It's funnier if it's Tucker who is stuck.

He was just tinkering with some Fenton inventions plus some stuff he got from Technus.

Then he suddenly got sucked into cyber space.

He didn't even know his liminal abilities included rudimentary technopathy!

He keeps trying to ping Phantom's Chirper account, but his friends are out fighting ghosts rampaging through downtown Amity and can't answer.

(Of course Danny made a Chirper account where he could shitpost weird stuff as Phantom. Duh. It's a popular account, known for its sarcasm and morbid deadpan humor paired with pure randomness. No one outside Amity takes the ghost thing serious, but thinks "Phantom" is hilarious anyway.)

Tucker's messages gets more and more frustrated since Phantom doesn't answer.

Then Tucker apparently get eyes through a traffic cam in Amity and spots the ongoing ghost attack. Which makes him stop complaining about his friends/team being shit for ignoring him, and instead rants about badly timed ghost attacks.

Now some people (including Oracle and Red Robin) follows the trail through Phantom's Chirper and the live videoclips of a ghost attack Tucker is sharing - only to realize that wow, this might not be a joke after all.

Lots of people gets exited - because here's a superhero they knew nothing about!

The Bats gets upset - because how could they completely miss the fact that a small Midwestern city is regularly attacked by some kind of glowing monsters?!

Most of Phantom's Chirper followers have something of a crisis - because now they realize that they might have spent months exchanging stupid memes with a dead teenager!

Meanwhile Tucker gets more and more frustrated and exasperated. Because: Hello! He is still stuck in the internet! Could someone perhaps help him get unstuck today!? Seriously? Why can't they focus on what's important? Phantom being a ghost is old news!! Tucker is stuck - right - frigging - now!

The outrage and excitement keeps building. So may people starts digging, and the information blackout around Amity Park is finally breached. The GIW's firewalls were never meant to defend against a trending hashtag plus the best hackers among the Bats straining them all at once.

Unfortunately Tucker's situation gets sort of swept to the side in the frenzy for information...

(Danny will owe him soooo much groveling once Tucker is out again, and if he even breaths anything about "Bad Luck Tuck" then Tucker is going to frigging Soup him, best friend or not!)

-.-.-.-.-

Tags: @starmee-lodurrson @passivedecept @thegatorsgoose @coruscateselene @imma-friggin-duck @attentionzero @amercurio @satanicrutialspecialist @whathehe11 @stargirl1331 @overtherose @skulld3mort-1fan @lazy-bouqet @writer-extraodinaire @screamingtofillthevoid @basilf1res @mimilikey @treepainting @seraphinedemort @bathildaburp @nappinginhell @anon-ymous22 @silverheartlugia2000

Nightwing giggled at the post he found. He wasn't sure if it was real, but seeing as they live in a world of metas, gods and aliens surely anything was possible, right?

Still, a post on Chirper stating:

"Superpower mishap. My consciousness is stuck in cyberspace, please send help"

was kinda hilarious, even before he edited it to add:

"Not Batman. Do not send Batman."

And of course everyone on the internet is a troll which is why not only was Batman @'d a few million times but other members of the batfam were as well.

Baby bird was still trying to figure out how someone could get thier consciousness of all things stuck in cyberspace while Oracle was doing the digital equivalent of poking the poor data guy with a stick. Interesting times indeed.

[wastefulreverie]

Phanniemay19 Day 11: Redesign

Word Count: 1414

Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Family

"Hey son, you got a minute?" Jack asked. The large man was seated at the end of the kitchen table, surrounded by half-broken gadgets, various screwdrivers, and Maddie's crisp new iPad. Jack seemed to have little regard to the fragility of the tablet and was switching between tampering with the wiring on his latest ghost detector device and typing in notes. "I've - uh, been meaning to talk you about this."

At his Dad's voice, Danny cringed. He had almost done it, escaped confrontation today; but his attempts were made futile as Jack heralded him over. Things had been tense since the reveal last week, and even though Jazz was encouraging communication, Danny was still fighting nail and tooth to avoid talking to his parents about Phantom.

He turned from where he had been about to flee up the stairs and trudged back into the kitchen. "What is it, Dad?" he asked with false flippancy. He was reluctant to take a seat beside Jack and stood a good foot away from the table. Even six days after Jack learned that Danny was a ghost, he was back to invention more ghost technology - Danny knew that it was Jack's coping mechanism, but it did little to reassure him that Jack understood how uncomfortable some of his inventions made him.

"Take a seat," Jack gestured, motioning with his left hand and continuing to tinker with his right. "I've had a few ideas that I think you'd like to hear about."

Uh oh. Ideas were never good. Especially from someone who was waving around dysfunctional ghost technology.

Danny took a seat beside Jack and carefully eyed a hunk of tech that had been torn open so that its wires spilled outwards onto the table like guts. Jack stayed ignorant to Danny's discomfort and hummed to himself as he finished whatever adjustment he was making to the invention in his hand. With a sloppy flourish, Jack set the invention back on the table next to the others.

"So… what ideas?" Danny found it hard to keep his voice steady, but managed to do so.

"Oh, just some little things!" Jack said. He jerked his arm out and patted Danny's shoulder. Danny fought the itching urge to go intangible - to get out of this man's (his Dad's) grip - and only managed to stay corporeal by digging his fingers into the tablecloth. "Stuff to help you with your ghost fighting. Some, er - redesigns to help you with your public image!"

His blood ran cold. "Dad, I don't really know if I feel like talking abou-"

"Here! Look at this!" Jack enthusiastically slid Maddie's iPad in front of Danny. On the screen there was one of those outdated 'one does not simply…' memes. Danny was compelled to roll his eyes but resisted making a witty remark on Jack's behalf.

"Funny," Danny's voice dripped with lackluster mirth. Danny hoped that Jack would pick up on his tone and realize that he wasn't in the mood for this.

Swiftly, Jack glanced between Danny and the screen and laughed. "Oh, sorry! That's the wrong picture. I saw that on the Facebook a while ago and saved it!" He took back the iPad, swiping through the camera roll until he found the correct picture. "This is what I wanted to show you!"

It was a sketch from one of those generic drawing apps. Jack wasn't the worst artist, certainly not the best, but the drawing was clear enough that Danny could tell what it actually depicted (which was much better than any of Jazz's art, but he never said that).

The drawing was of a slim ghost hunter in an orange HAZMAT suit and white boots. Like his parents' suits, the figure had a hood with red goggles that obscured his face. Clipped to his belt there was a Fenton Thermos and one of his parents' more recognizable ectogun prototypes. Danny had to zoom in on the picture, but drawn on the figure's chest was… his symbol.

Danny noted with revulsion that Jack had drawn a picture of Phantom but had taken away every indication (save his logo) that the person in his drawing was supposed to be him. Jack had thought of some 'redesigns' to help his public image, but from what Danny could see, he had stripped away everything that made Phantom look like a ghost. Jack had hidden Phantom's hair and eyes under a hood, given him brighter colors, and provided him with a human ghost hunting weapon instead. In short, Jack had basically drawn his ideal human ghost hunter and given it Phantom's symbol.

Because Jack still wanted Danny - Phantom - to be human, not a ghost.

That… was a lot to unpack. Danny wasn't sure how he should react. He was too afraid to directly address what Jack was hinting at - he'd rather stretch out this ignorance between him and his parents. Because Danny wasn't ready to face their honesty, for them to tell him how much they disliked his ghostly nature.

"What do you think?" Jack asked. "It's just something that I've been playing with. I haven't even shown your Mom yet, I wanted to gauge your opinion first."

"I uh… don't know how I feel about it?" Danny started with a white lie. "I don't know, it just doesn't feel like me."

"Yeah…" Jack conceded, "it is a bit different from what you currently had, but everything I changed I did so with good reason!"

Danny sighed. Even though he was scared, he should just speak his mind. "I'm not sure. To me it just feels like you're trying to humanize Phantom too much. Phantom isn't… I'm not… supposed to be human?" The look on Jack's face was unclear, so Danny quickly clarified, "I mean, that's sort of my gimmick? That I'm the good ghost that fights the bad ghosts?"

"I wasn't even thinking of it like that," Jack chuckled. "I was just making changes on what seemed like the most practical to me. I hid your face to hide your identity better, gave you an extra gun for protection, and well… the color change was more self-indulgent than anything. That, and I think Jazz's color psychology thing said that bright colors are more trustworthy! That's what I meant by the public image thing - everybody likes the trustworthy hero, right?"

Danny gulped, "So you didn't make me look like a human ghost hunter because you don't like my… uh, ghostliness?"

"Wha- no! Of course not, Danno. That never came to mind, I'm sorry if I made you feel like that. These past few days… I've just been doing my best to wrap my mind around it. I just figured… that I'd just… ahh, forget it," he cut himself off.

"That you'd just what?" Danny probed. He hadn't expected such solemness from his Dad. His ghost hunting Dad.

"Well, it's not every day you find out your son is an actual superhero. I just wanted to give the whole design thing a shot. Speaking of, I've been meaning to ask how you got that logo onto your suit. I know that the suit is from the accident, but you said that you can't really change outfits, right?"

Danny laughed nervously, "Well… it's kind of a long story." He gave him a vague summary of the events that happened when he lost his memories and Sam recreated the accident.

"Wow!" Jack whistled. "You sure have had a lot of adventures in these past few years, haven't you?"

"It feels like a lot, yeah," Danny agreed.

"I wish I'd known sooner…" Jack lamented, "that way I would've been able to fight at your side! Keep my boy safe from all those ghosts!"

Danny scoffed, "Pft, you called me the superhero. You still think I'm the one that needs saving?"

Dad ruffled his hair playfully, "If you need saving from anything it's from all those worried thoughts you have. I love you the way you are, you know that, right?"

"I do," Danny replied, "I just don't think that it had sunken in until now, though…."

"Well, I'm glad we moved past that then!" Dad declared. "If you feel like it, you and I can come up with a new design for your costume together? I know you like what you have, but trust me, I have plenty of ideas that we can use to make your job lots easier!"

"You know what?" Danny grinned, "I may just take you up on that offer."

[ladylynse]

Together: [FF | AO3] “We’ll always be together,” Maddie had promised, but then there was the accident, and they weren’t. Until she came back. Warning: Character death.

Written for the 2019 Phic Phight! Largely based off a prompt by @hauntedjoanns (After a freak lab accident, the Fentons bury Maddie. But she comes back.) but also incorporating one of @quishaphantom‘s prompts (Start and end the fic with the same sentence, the first time it's positive and happy. The second time it's chilling and foreboding.). This is about 6.7 K and is set after The Fright Before Christmas.

Now with some awesome fanart by @dannyphandump!

“We’ll always be together. We’re a family, and we’re Fentons. A silly little feud like this isn’t going to break us apart.” Maddie sat down on the foot of Danny’s bed and smiled at him. “You know that, right, sweetie?”

She thought he didn’t want to talk about what had happened at Christmas, when in reality he’d spent half his time with his friends and the rest in the Ghost Zone celebrating the Christmas Truce—and, on a more personal level, the end of the Ghost Writer’s infernal rhymes. Had he been in his room when she’d first knocked and begun talking to him outside of his door, soothing him, trying to coax him into opening it, she might not have this impression. She’d believed his apology when he’d come back with the presents, but considering she and Jack had run out fairly soon afterwards…. Maybe she thought they’d ruined it for him again, since he’d disappeared for so much of the evening.

He wondered how late it actually was.

He probably should’ve come back sooner, spent more of his Christmas with them, but once he’d gone, the food in the Ghost Zone had been unexpectedly good. It had been real, fresh, and surprisingly not contaminated, unlike everything in the Fenton household. But he could make it up to them tomorrow; he was off school for another week and a half, and all he had to do was find out from Jazz which weapons it was safe to pretend to be interested in. Once he asked about those, maybe agreed to go on a quick patrol with his parents and take down an ectopus or something, they’d believe the truth when he told it: that he really didn’t harbour any hard feelings about how they’d acted all these years, not anymore.

“I know, Mom,” he answered dutifully.

“Sometimes we fight; every family does. And, sometimes, things escalate. And sometimes our dinner is contaminated and gains sentience.” Her lips quirked into another smile, and he smiled, too. There had been too many disasters in the past for them to ignore that. “But we’ll handle each problem as it comes, honey. I promise you; nothing like that will ever separate us. You and Jazz are more precious to us than anything else in this world or the Ghost Zone. We love you both. I don’t want you to think anything is going to get in the way of that, or of our love for each other.”

He just nodded. It wasn’t like he could tell her the truth about why he’d run away—well, the whole truth, anyway—or how he’d come to be surrounded by formerly-possessed Christmas trees or where he’d gotten the presents he’d given to them in the end. It was easier if she believed his behaviour was due to the Christmas feud, of how she and Jack had carried on, of how they’d run out in pursuit of ghosts. Honestly, it was rather sweet that she’d come to reassure him. He just didn’t need the reassurance.

“You can talk to us, honey. About anything.”

She suspected there was more to this. If he brushed her off now, she’d find a way to bring it up again. Danny untangled himself from the covers so he could give his mom a proper hug. “I know,” he repeated, “and I love you guys, too. Like I said before, I overreacted earlier, and I’m sorry. It’s not that I didn’t want to talk to you when you came up tonight; I just fell asleep early. I didn’t hear you right away.” The lie fell easily from his lips, and he forced a laugh as he finished with the truth. “It was a long day.”

“I’ll let you get back to sleep, then.” She kissed his cheek before he had a chance to contemplate escape. “Good night, Danny. I love you.”

“Night, Mom. Love you, too.”

XXXXX

Danny woke to wailing alarms, sleepiness falling away as adrenaline filled him. He transformed—

—and four ecto-energy seeking weapons sprang out of the walls to focus on him. He groaned and changed back before they could fire. Who had activated the Fenton Anti-Creep Mode? His ghost sense had never gone off, so it wasn’t like someone had breached the Fenton Ghost Portal again. He grabbed his ecto-gun off the shelf with his model rockets (he refused to sleep with it under his pillow, despite what his parents wanted) but didn’t even bother shoving his feet into slippers before running into the hallway.

His parents’ bedroom door was open. So was Jazz’s. A quick peek inside both rooms proved that they were empty, as was the bathroom, so Danny started down the stairs. He saw Jack pushing Jazz towards the front door, but before he could open his mouth to ask, one of Jack’s hands had grabbed his and was tugging him down the last of the steps.

“What happened?” Danny asked, twisting to look behind him.

His father’s face was unusually grim. “Outside, you two. Mads and I will deal with this.”

“Deal with what? What’s going on?”

“Wait for us across the street,” Jack said, and then he slammed the door in their faces, leaving them standing on the stoop in their pajamas.

Danny looked at Jazz, who shrugged and rubbed her arms. “Ghost?”

He shook his head. “My ghost sense never woke me up.”

“And it always does?”

“Kinda hard to sleep through a sudden freezing sensation.” Truth was, though, he didn’t know that his ghost sense always woke him up. How could he? He’d still be asleep.

“Maybe it’s a drill, then.” But the alarm was still ringing inside, and Jazz didn’t look convinced. Every other family drill they’d had had come with reminders—never trust a ghost, always remember technology may have been infected, never back yourself into a corner, always keep at least one weapon within arm’s reach, that kind of thing—and it seemed unlikely that they’d stop now.

They’d never had a ghost drill in the middle of the night before, either, for all that his parents had threatened it. He watched some of the lights flick on in the neighbouring houses and realized why. More than one disgruntled face looked out the window before turning away and disappearing into darkness, realizing it was just the Fentons. Again.

“This is probably to keep us on our toes,” Jazz said lightly. She took his ecto-gun from him and shoved it into a pocket in her housecoat—hers was already in the other pocket, judging by the bulge—before crouching in front of him. “Come on; climb on. You’re barefoot, and powers or not, I don’t want to find out if you can lose any toes to frostbite.”

Neither did he, so Danny climbed on her back. She hadn’t given him a piggyback ride in years, but she shuffled across the street and waited under the streetlight. As the wind picked up, bringing with it a few flakes of snow, he could feel her shivering beneath her thin housecoat. He wished there was something he could do to help, but with the possible exception of a ghost shield—

“Cold wind,” Jazz commented after a moment, but her voice was high, wrong, and Danny suddenly realized that she wasn’t shivering; she was shaking.

He clutched her tighter, turning them both intangible except for the soles of her feet and slippers, as if it would help them escape from the chest-constricting feeling that was settling over them.

Something was wrong.

Something he couldn’t stop.

Something she couldn’t fix.

“We have to go back in,” Danny whispered. He didn’t know how long it had been. Too long. It must have already been too long. Their parents should have come out to get them ages ago. They should have—

The alarms finally cut off. He flew them both back across the street, past caring that someone might see. If they did, they’d just explain it away, like they explained away everything else. It was just the Fentons, after all. Just the Fentons, steeped in their paranormal studies again, inventing strange things and talking about it to anyone close enough to listen.

Danny didn’t drop their intangibility until they were safely inside. Jazz was running for the basement lab before his feet even hit the kitchen floor, but he wasn’t far behind her.

The door to the lab wasn’t closed like it usually was, like it was supposed to be, but he took the stairs two at a time without stopping to wonder why. The Christmas Truce was no longer in effect, but the ghosts weren’t that cruel; they wouldn’t have planned something for the moment the Truce ended.

And his ghost sense had never gone off.

“Dad?”

Jazz’s voice sounded strangled, as if she had to force herself to speak. As if she were trying not to cry. Danny caught up to her at the bottom of the stairs and finally let himself look around. The emergency lighting was on, softer lights lining the walls and disappearing up the emergency exit tunnel to the backyard, but he didn’t need the usual harsh fluorescence of the lab to know that something had happened here. Broken glass, splattered ecto-samples, scorch marks along the far wall.

A lingering smell of burnt something, acrid and plasticky and maybe a bit acidic.

“What happened?”

There was definitely panic in Jazz’s voice now.

Danny followed her gaze and swallowed as he recognized the black boots sticking out from behind the examination table. The rest was hidden by his father’s hulking form, but—

“Dad.” Jazz’s voice cracked. “How’s Mom?”

Jack’s shoulders shook, and something inside of Danny twisted.

A choked sob was Jazz’s only answer.

Danny couldn’t swallow the lump in his throat back again as the world blurred.

XXXXXXXX

Jack explained it to them later, as much as he could explain it. Maddie had gone down to the lab to tinker with something. A surprise, she’d called it. Wouldn’t tell him the details, but he had a few guesses, none of which mattered now. Something shorted out. Something got knocked off the shelf. The order of events wasn’t entirely clear, but some of their ecto-samples had been released, and not just the standard ectoplasm ones. Danny was pretty sure Jack had mentioned a suspected hallucinogen, though he wasn’t sure which ghost was supposed to be involved in that. Maybe it wasn’t a ghost at all. He hadn’t realized his parents had ever done a scouting mission into the Ghost Zone, let alone collected some of the native flora, but maybe they had. Or maybe that had been part of his mother’s surprise.

Whatever the exact circumstances, Jack hadn’t been able to save her in the end. Something had gone wrong, something Danny couldn’t stop, something Jazz couldn’t fix, and now—

Jazz put a cup of hot chocolate in front of him.

He hadn’t realized she’d gotten up to make something. Hadn’t noticed her leave her spot at the table, hadn’t heard the kettle’s shrill whistle or the clink of the spoon against the cup. She’d made one for each of them.

She’d made three.

It wasn’t enough.

Danny wrapped his hands around his mug, lifting it to his face to breathe in the steam, but it couldn’t warm him, and his stomach twisted after the first sip.

He didn’t drink the rest. Jack never touched his. By the time Jazz finished hers, it must have been ice cold.

They sat in silence, trying to come to terms with everything, until the phone rang. Jazz jumped up to get it, and Jack shot her a grateful look, and then there was too much to do to sit in silence. There was too much to do to think. Contacting all their relatives, breaking the news to Vlad, talking to the funeral home and getting all those preparations in order, writing the obituary and getting it in the paper, picking up Aunt Alicia from the airport, talking to the florist, the bank, the accountant, the lawyer, the insurance company, finding out who needed to know what and by when and which places needed a death certificate and—

None of them were sleeping.

It was a good thing he didn’t need much sleep anyway.

People kept stopping by to bring them food and their condolences, which was just as well, because Danny didn’t think they could eat any of the food in their house anyway. Not that any of them were hungry. They were too tired to be hungry, stuck in cycles of shock and grief as reality started to sink in. But they did try to eat, since it was there.

The ghosts stayed away, though.

Danny thought he might have Vlad to thank for that, but he didn’t ask.

XXXXXX

A lot of people turned up for the funeral.

Danny didn’t know half of them, but they knew him, and they shook his hand or hugged him or touched his shoulder. In hindsight, it made sense; everyone in town knew the Fentons. But it was weird, seeing all these people show up, all these people being sad for someone he wasn’t sure they’d really known. Sometimes people cried instead of trying to talk to him, and he always got tears in his eyes, too. If he let himself think about it, he cried. He tried to distance himself, tried to distract himself, just to get through it.

He couldn’t remember anything anyone said to him at the funeral.

He had a vague recollection of being at the cemetery, of the cold seeping into his bones, of the wisps of snow skittering across the ground at their feet, of the way the artificial turf didn’t quite cover the mound of dirt that had been displaced. He remembered looking up at one point and seeing Valerie standing there with her dad, and he remembered thinking that she knew what this felt like. Unlike Sam and Tucker, she knew.

He remembered wondering if he could ask her how long the pain would last, but he hadn’t known how to ask the question, and there had been too many people at the reception, anyway.

He’d nibbled at the food on the plate Sam had brought for him, but even when she and Tucker had sat with him at a table, talking more to each other than to him, it hadn’t been enough.

Was any of this his fault, even partially? Had she been doing something in response to how he’d been acting? Had she been hoping to surprise him? Had it really been a freak accident or had it been a targeted attack on her because he was Phantom? Would things have been different if she’d known the truth? His mom had always taken more safety precautions in the lab than his dad, and he knew theirs wasn’t exactly the safest profession to begin with, but—

At least he’d told her he loved her. At least he had that. But he hadn’t spent…. He’d left them, left them all, when he shouldn’t have, and she’d thought…. She’d…. If only he’d….

Danny cried himself to sleep that night.

Again.

XXXXXX

When Danny woke, it took him a few seconds to orient himself. He was in his room, of course, in bed, but he couldn’t remember falling asleep. It had been after three in the morning when he’d last looked at the clock and sworn to himself that he wouldn’t look at it again, and—

Bright red numbers informed him that it was half past six. It was still dark outside. The house was quiet. He couldn’t remember dreaming. He wondered dumbly what had woken him.

And then a shiver ran through him, and he coughed, and he realized his grace period was over.

He wasn’t ready for normal, wasn’t ready for any semblance of normal, but the ghosts weren’t going to wait any longer.

Danny grabbed the ecto-gun off the shelf, picked up the thermos he’d started storing next to it, and shuffled his slippers onto his feet.

He didn’t want to fight.

But he didn’t want to lose anyone else, either.

And maybe it would just be the Box Ghost, and Danny could give him some cereal boxes and send him over to Vlad’s to look for more and be done with it. He shouldn’t, considering Vlad had agreed to put up Aunt Alicia and take her back to the airport in the morning, but Vlad would just call Valerie anyway. Frankly, Danny was happy to leave the ghost hunting to Valerie for a while.

Something fell. Shattered, from the sound of it. Maybe it was the Box Ghost after all. Or Technus after the toaster again. Or the Lunch Lady, stocking up on semi-sentient meat. Danny headed downstairs and walked towards the kitchen. He didn’t want to do this, but Jack and Jazz hadn’t been sleeping well, either, and if he could deal with this before either of them woke up—

He crossed over the threshold of the kitchen, blinked, and froze.

It was a cloudy night. Some light from the streetlamps spilled inside, but he didn’t need that to be sure of what he was seeing. Ghosts always had their own glow, however subtle, and it was his ghost sense which had woken him up. Even running on very little sleep, Danny knew there was no mistaking what he saw.

Maddie stood over the shards of her glass mixing bowl, and when she looked up at him, she smiled. “Hi, sweetie,” she called softly.

He took a step back.

“Did I wake you? I just wanted to make some cookies.”

He took another step back.

“Did you want some water? Let me get you some water.”

She glided smoothly over broken glass to the cupboard by the sink, and after a moment’s concentration, she had a glass in her hand and was fighting to grasp the tap, to turn it on and fill a glass of water for him.

He was halfway up the stairs when he heard running water, and he didn’t look back.

XXXXXXX

They didn’t talk about it. There was no screaming, no crying, no denials. No one drew any weapons, either.

Not even Jack.

She’d made sure they didn’t have any weapons left to draw.

None of them had ventured into the lab until her return, but she had, probably that first night. As far as Danny could tell, what she couldn’t destroy, she’d simply tossed into the Ghost Zone. Whether the genetic lock recognized her or whether she simply used her knowledge of it to get around all the protocols, he didn’t know. He did know that she’d deactivated the Fenton Anti-Creep Mode, probably at the same time she’d stolen his dad’s arsenal and swiped his sister’s ecto-gun and thermos.

She hadn’t found his yet, despite watching him carefully behind a too-sharp smile.

She didn’t know he’d hidden them in his bedroom wall that first night.

She still didn’t know he could.

She must have never talked to any of the other ghosts. Not that he thought they’d talk to her, except maybe Plasmius, but Vlad didn’t know or he’d be here. He’d probably come even knowing this wasn’t really Maddie anymore; he’d just be desperate to see her one last time. But he wouldn’t come without knowing, and as far as Danny could tell, the other ghosts were still avoiding the Real World—or at least avoiding his little corner of it.

He’d even tried calling Cujo, to no avail. Either Cujo hadn’t heard him or he couldn’t get through whatever Maddie had reconfigured to keep other ghosts out. There was definitely something. Danny kept hitting a barrier, presumably the Fenton Ghost Shield, every time he tried to phase all the way through an outside wall. Trying to phase through the ground didn’t work, either; whatever it was passed through the earth, too, which might be what was messing with Cujo’s ability to create portals if he had heard Danny’s call.

Intentional trap or not, it meant Danny couldn’t sneak messages out that way. Or any way, really, considering Maddie had destroyed their computer, their phones, and everything else she thought they might ultimately use against her. Since their routines had been so disrupted, no one was going to question this. Even Sam and Tucker had been trying to give him space, sending only the occasional message to check up on him with assurances that he didn’t have to answer right away and promises that they’d be there if he ever wanted to do something, whether that involved talking about what had happened or avoiding the subject at all costs. Not hearing from him for a few days would have been weird before, but not now.

It was…strange. They were all walking on eggshells, trying to adjust, trying to figure out the boundaries without pushing too far. They didn’t know what the consequences would be, not yet, but they still feared them. Feared this. Feared what Maddie had become.

Danny was finally beginning to appreciate some of his parents’ theories on ghosts.

Then again, ghosts were as much a culmination of people’s beliefs around the afterlife, around ghosts, as they were people’s spirits and echoes of their lives.

And Maddie had believed ghosts had obsessions.

She had believed they didn’t feel pain.

She had believed they had no true emotions, merely masks, and that they were expert manipulators.

She had believed they couldn’t be trusted.

Some of that certainly held true now, but he didn’t yet know how much.

Danny lay in his bed with his eyes closed. Not pretending to sleep—she wouldn’t believe that—but content to use it as an excuse to think. She was watching him. He knew that. She was watching him the most closely of all, probably because she’d come to realize she could trust him the least.

Danny wasn’t sure, if it came down to it, if Jack would be able to fight her. She was a ghost, but she was his wife. That might change things, just as knowing he was Phantom might change things, if he ever gave it the chance. It wasn’t quite the same—she was dead, a proper ghost; she had no body, no human side to embrace, not anymore—but for every fear he’d ever had about them finding out, he now found himself thinking that the opposite would happen here. They wouldn’t have attacked him for being Phantom, and Jack wouldn’t attack Maddie now.

Even if he had the opportunity, even knowing what he did, he’d hesitate.

She’d know what to say to make him hesitate.

And then she’d act before he could, and the opportunity would be lost.

Jazz wouldn’t be any better. He could pass a weapon to her without explaining how he still had it, but she was trying to get through to their mom. To talk to her. Remind her of who she really was, not this façade, this shadow. Jazz wouldn’t want to attack until she was convinced it was too late, and if he talked to her about this, she’d just ask for him to give her time.

He wasn’t concerned about keeping his secret from his dad anymore; he just wanted to keep it a secret from his mom. It was the only advantage they had. Telling Jack anything now just ran the risk of Maddie finding out, especially since Jack wasn’t great at subtle.

It would be different if Maddie hadn’t changed. But for all that the ghost of his mother smiled at them and baked batch after batch of cookies, the ghost wasn’t his mom. Not really.

There was a thump across the hall. Jazz. Danny opened his eyes, climbed out of bed, and met her in the hallway. Her eyebrows rose a fraction, and he gave his head a minute shake. It wasn’t safe to talk. Maddie was listening.

Jazz risked reaching for the front door handle, but Danny wasn’t surprised when her hand fell away and she kept pace with him into the living room. The doors in the house weren’t locked, per se, but they wouldn’t open, either. Neither did the windows. No doubt the Fenton Ops Centre was locked down as tightly as the Fenton Ghost Portal—and, presumably, the emergency exit to the backyard.

Jack looked up from his needlework. “You kids all right?” The stitches Danny could see were tiny, tight, but he wasn’t much farther along than he had been last time Danny had looked. Likely as not, he kept picking them out.

“We’re great, Dad,” Jazz chirped, but her eyes told the real story.

They were a family of ghost hunters trapped in their own home by a ghost who had been one of them, who knew their usual tricks. Jazz hadn’t been making any progress with her psychology, Jack seemed at a loss for what to do, Danny wasn’t sure of the best plan of attack and couldn’t discuss it with either of them, and she was afraid.

“Isn’t this wonderful?” Maddie asked, materializing as Danny and Jazz sat down on the sofa. “We need to spend more time together, as a family. We’re better this way.”

It didn’t even sound like her anymore.

Danny had thought, if there were a change, that it would be gradual. Time deteriorated all things, even memories. But this was…. She’d never seemed like herself since she’d come back. Maybe not all of her had come back.

“It’s nice to have quality family time,” Jazz agreed carefully. “Too many people have trouble keeping their lives balanced.”

The smile that had been fixed on Maddie’s face faltered. “Oh, sweetie, don’t worry. We’ll make up for lost time. I promise.”

Jazz swallowed and glanced at Danny. He pretended not to see.

“We’re making do,” Jack said. “We…we still have food we can eat.”

As opposed to food they couldn’t eat, like the Christmas oranges the cookies had infected yesterday. Danny had nearly had to reveal himself then and there, until Jazz had fished the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick out of her closet and, between that and Jack’s golf clubs, they’d turned the oranges into pulp and trapped the remains in jars.

Maddie had been suspiciously absent for the entire incident.

“You haven’t finished my cookies.” Maddie’s tone was light, but she was watching their reactions, frowning slightly at every grimace. Danny wasn’t sure if she was intentionally contaminating every batch or not. He hadn’t figured out what she wanted.

Aside from trapping them all inside, she hadn’t given them a lot of clues. Revenge for what had happened to her? As far as he knew, it had been a freak accident—not even the sort carelessness could cause, like not cleaning the ecto-filter on the portal. Unfinished business? Maybe, except ghost hunting had been the family business, and destroying their weapons so they couldn’t be used against her, while beneficial to her continued existence in the Real World, wasn’t conducive to achieving that goal and moving on. He hoped she didn’t want him and Jazz to take up ghost hunting more wholeheartedly than either of them had, but if that was her goal and the reason she was trying to keep them here….

“Just don’t have much of a sweet tooth lately,” Jazz murmured. None of them had tried their hand at cooking a meal yet, but Danny knew they were running out of gifted casseroles—albeit more because they kept getting contaminated than because they were being eaten. Maddie wasn’t exactly careful in the kitchen anymore, but he knew how hard it could be to learn to control new powers. He doubted it was much easier for her than it had been for him, especially since she was spending all her time in the Real World.

Still, they’d have to act soon. Three days of being a prisoner in his own home, and his skin was constantly crawling.

Cold flooded through him, and Danny shivered. “You’re being awfully quiet, sweetie,” his mother said.

“I was just thinking,” he muttered, not meeting her eyes.

“Aren’t you happy? We’re a family again.”

Danny’s head shot up. Was that all it was? Was that what this was? He wished he could discuss it with Jazz—she’d know in a heartbeat; she probably already had a guess—but all he could do now was search Maddie’s face. She was smiling again, and it was more than her usual mask. Cruelness twisted on the edge of it, and her eyes…. He hadn’t seen them look so cold when she’d been alive, even when she’d been cheerfully informing them that ghosts didn’t feel pain.

Maddie stepped back, but the cold didn’t diminish, some combination of her presence and his ghost sense and who knew what else. “You don’t think we’re a family,” she concluded, and her gaze focused on Jack and Jazz. “Do any of you think we’re still a family?”

Even Danny knew their pause was too long, their assurances too late.

Shadows danced across the drawn curtains as the light in the room pulled away and dimmed. Jazz didn’t even look at him, knowing full well he wasn’t the cause. Her gaze was fixed on Maddie. This was the first time she’d openly displayed any of her new powers, and which ones she had would give them the best clues as to what had happened.

“I’ll just have to prove it to you, then,” she said, and Danny heard a thump from the kitchen. He jumped to his feet, and Jazz screamed, and Jack was looking around for something to use as a weapon—

There was something in here with them, something besides Maddie, but he couldn’t spot it, and he was so cold now that he wasn’t sure he’d have noticed his ghost sense going off. Could Maddie really control light and shadows or was there some sort of mutual agreement between her and a shadow ghost, not unlike what Johnny 13 and Shadow had? But when would she have made one—when could she have made one—and who would make such a deal with her without even telling her who he really was? If they’d planned to double cross her—

“Look out!” Jazz shrieked, and she tackled him. Something exploded overhead, showering them with sparks, and then he could smell smoke, and burning cloth, burning hair, and fire crackled and heat swelled and his eyes were smarting, and Jack was yelling at them to get to the door—

And then there was nothing.

“This is what I’m protecting you from,” Maddie said as Jazz rolled off his back and climbed tentatively to her feet. He sat up but stayed on the floor. His eyes were watering. Smoke and ash still stung his nostrils and hung on his tongue. But the heat was gone, and the earlier cold, and he was more convinced than ever that his ghost sense hadn’t gone off.

Not for someone besides his mother, anyway.

He thought he knew what this was now. He’d met enough ghosts that worked with illusions, or near enough, and if Jack was right about what he thought had happened….

“It’s not safe outside,” she continued. “Not anymore. When I broke through, when I came back…. They followed me. They got out, and now they’re trying to get all of you. I won’t let that happen.”

“I’ll fight—”

“You can’t,” Maddie interrupted, cutting off Jack before he could begin his argument. “Not these ghosts. You’re a terrible shot, honey.”

“Not when it comes to protecting my family,” he replied, lifting his head.

“That’s all I’m doing,” she answered. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. And now I can do it properly. You’ll all stay here, and you’ll stay safe. Now, I’ll bring in those cookies in case anyone decides their sweet tooth is back.”

Danny caught Jazz’s eye as Maddie left the room and risked a tiny nod. He didn’t have a plan, not really, but she’d follow his lead, and Jack would catch on soon enough. They needed to move before things got worse, before Maddie got stronger.

While she was preoccupied in the kitchen, Danny slipped upstairs.

XXXXXX

Danny didn’t know if Maddie had any sort of ghost sense. If she knew of his ghost powers, she certainly hadn’t let on. Then again, he’d barely used his ghost powers since her return. Until now.

He wasn’t as good as Vlad when it came to duplicating himself—he couldn’t hold a duplicate very long in ghost mode, let alone in human form—and he risked giving the game away faster if he tried sending one downstairs as a stand-in. He didn’t need it disappearing mid-sentence. Instead, he’d let Jazz cover for him, like she always had before.

Danny turned invisible the moment he was out of sight, though he stayed tangible until he needed to grab the weapons he’d stowed away. He stayed this way as he flew back to the living room and pressed the thermos into Jazz’s hands. She shifted, subtly pointing to the pillow resting against the arm of the couch, and he slipped it behind that instead as Maddie returned with a plate of chocolate chip cookies that emitted a faint green glow.

Danny steered clear of her as he edged toward Jack, but he needn’t have worried. Maddie stopped in her tracks when she noticed his absence. The room grew colder again.

“Danny just ran to the washroom,” Jazz offered before Maddie asked. Maddie looked in the direction of the upstairs bathroom, frowning slightly. Danny shivered even though he was certain she didn’t know—yet—that he wasn’t actually up there.

Maddie’s lips thinned, and Jazz glanced at Jack before snagging Maddie’s attention again. Danny took the opening for what it was. “Trust me,” he murmured in Jack’s ear as he slipped the ecto-gun into one of the side pockets of his dad’s suit. To Jack’s credit, he jerked but didn’t say anything—maybe because he recognized the familiar weight of what had become forbidden weaponry.

Danny sneaked back upstairs, flushing the toilet and running the tap for good measure, before joining the others in the living room again. Maddie didn’t smile when she saw him. Whether or not she knew the truth, she didn’t believe the lie. She’d be expecting something.

“Are you feeling okay, sweetie?” she asked, half turning towards him.

Danny opened his mouth to repeat his usual lie—I’m fine—when he saw Jack draw the ecto-gun and flip off the safety. Maddie was turning back to him even before it finished powering up, but she surely wasn’t expecting the pillow Jazz threw at her or she’d have phased through it.

The distraction was enough for the ecto-gun’s whine to reach its climax. Jack fired. Danny ducked and shot off an ectoblast for good measure. Maddie had also managed to avoid Jack’s blast, but she hadn’t been anticipating his when she’d thought him unarmed. It caught her in the side and threw her across the room. He rolled and transformed, figuring he’d withstand anything she retaliated with better in ghost mode and not wanting to be in the same spot by the time she recovered enough to send something at him. Just because he hadn’t seen her use a ghost ray, didn’t mean she couldn’t.

When Danny came back up in a crouch, the world was thick with smoke. Turning intangible helped—it was easier to breathe, the smoke didn’t sting anymore, and he couldn’t feel any heat from the flames which had sprung up—but it didn’t give him his sight lines back. Jazz and Jack were lost in choking darkness, and Maddie was far enough away that he couldn’t spot her, either. He knew this couldn’t be real, but he also had no idea how he was supposed to see through an illusion like this.

There wasn’t fire, just as there wasn’t really smoke, so trying to do anything to fight it wouldn’t get him anywhere. He’d do more harm than good. But she could have easily removed herself from view in a world spun of her own illusions, and if he didn’t do something—

The world filled with blinding light, and then everything was dark.

XXXX

Reality snapped back into place when the thermos left Jazz’s hands. “Wh…what…?”

“It seems someone’s been keeping secrets,” Maddie said, tucking the thermos under her arm. Jazz’s eyes darted around the room, her heart sinking when she couldn’t spot her little brother. True, there was a chance he was hiding again and biding his time, but….

But that didn’t seem likely, given that Maddie held the thermos and the ecto-gun Jack had used was in pieces on the carpet. Jack was staring blankly at the remains, and Jazz didn’t know if he was shocked to find out he’d spent the last few days living with two ghosts or if he was still lost in Maddie’s illusions.

That’s what it had to be. It was rare for a ghost not to have some power related to either the means of their death or their obsession, particularly a ghost who could keep their form and interact with the Real World for as long as Maddie had. She didn’t have Spectra’s years of practice, and Jazz doubted she’d opened the Fenton Ghost Portal since coming through it from the other side. It was too risky for her to leave such an obvious hole in their defenses, even if she hadn’t known of Danny’s dual nature or Vlad’s personal portal.

Jazz had tried overriding the security system of the Ops Centre last night. She’d tried crawling out through a vent the night before, thinking it a less obvious choice. But while the air could get through, she could not. And Danny couldn’t have had any luck with anything he had tried, either, or he’d have let her know. Somehow.

And Jack….

Jazz swallowed.

Jack hadn’t hesitated before taking a shot at Maddie at the first opportunity.

She hoped he hadn’t merely been acting on old instincts. If this was an indication that he might not accept Danny—

“We’re supposed to be a family,” Maddie said. Jazz flinched at her sharp tone, but Jack looked over, and Jazz edged closer to her father. She’d have to figure out how to get the thermos back later. She’d have to— “Do you not want to be a family, now that things have changed?”

Jazz knew better than to answer that question. Jack frowned, but he kept quiet, too.

“I’ll admit this was a surprise—” here Maddie tapped her finger on the thermos’s lid “—but it works in our favour, really. Danny will come over sooner or later. I’ll just keep him safe in here until you two have come over to my side.”

“To your side?” Jack growled. “You can’t pretend we’re a family when this is what you do.”

Maddie’s smile was all wrong. “You know exactly which side I mean, honey.”

Jazz’s breath hitched. Maddie might not be able to cut off their air supply, but it wouldn’t be difficult for her to contaminate the rest of their food. She might be able to taint their water, too. She might—

“You’ll see things from my perspective soon enough,” Maddie continued. Her tone made it clear that she didn’t intend to give them a choice. Jazz tried to remember if she still had a Fenton Lipstick sewn into Bearbert or if she’d forgotten to replace it the last time half his stuffing had been ripped out. She’d have to check.

Providing she ever had the opportunity.

With Maddie’s apparent control of illusion, with her ability to bend their perspective of reality, Jazz couldn’t even be sure this much was real.

“We’re family, after all, and I’m going to do what’s best for you. For all of you.” Maddie stroked the thermos before looking up at the two of them. Her eyes held no love for them; they were filled instead with possessiveness, with obsession. Their hardness kept Jazz rooted in place, terrified of what a misstep might mean now that Danny was trapped. “We can be a family of ghosts instead of a family of ghost hunters. I’ll do whatever’s needed to make that happen. Don’t worry. We’ll always be together.”

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