#i just imagine the bats meeting Danny and him eventually introducing them to his ���kid” and just producing this little gremlin

[dudethatsmyundeaduncle]

DP x DC AU

Danny's gonna adopt all the Halfas in Gotham whether he wants to or not, and it's gonna start with the little dead girl he found after crawling out of that portal in the league base.

Pt 2 here. My Au Art

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

There's a dead little girl sitting on the rug in front of Danny's coffee table curiously eating Cheetos.

Well, she's not all the way dead, only half, could even be a little less then that, Danny would know he's sort of the leading expert on being half dead.

Her skins blue, like comic book mystique blue, vibrant and impossible to miss. Shes got these big black eyes and a nasty split going straight through her upper lip to just under her right eye.

She's also missing her nose, it's just gone, no cartilage left over just the gaping nasal cavity like skulls have.

The little girl looks dead, she is dead, or she's at least as dead as Danny is which is almost exclusively in name only.

Her name is Curaré, Danny only knows it because it's been branded into the skin of the little girls neck, just under the curve of her bald skull.

Curaré is terribly thin, the little toddler sized T-shirt she has on hangs loose around her torso where baby fat should fill it out.

She's horrible to look at, a tiny nightmare, her corpse like coloring doing nothing to mitigate the appearance.

Curaré was neither a healthy nor normal little girl, there was no way Danny could have left that league facility without her.

Oh and she almost exclusively spoke in Spanish which made finding her dinner hard.

Not that Cheetos are really dinner, little kids need to eat more then that Danny was pretty sure, like 89% sure. Although they did have a lot of calories...

Danny tilts his head absently as he looks at her, the little demon being illuminated red and green by the glow of the TV. She's enraptured by the Scooby doo rerun Gotham's only spanish language channel is playing tonight.

As if she can feel his eyes she turns to him and tilts her head the same way.

Danny blinks at her, Curaré blinks back.

" Uh- " Danny starts, trying to remember anything from his Spanish elective from sophomore year. God, his teacher had been right he had needed to study more. " The Cheetos, you like them? They're uh...bueno? Oh! Son Buenos?"

He points his finger down at the snack sized bag in her grasp, her fingers are tiny , they must be so fragile, looking at the desperate grasp they have on the bag makes Danny's chest hurt. How could anyone be so small? Had Danny ever been that small?

Curaré blinks again, long and slow, processing Danny's words. She looks down at her Cheetos and back up at Danny then she carefully holds the bag out to him.

" Oh no that's ok they're for you kiddo" Danny insists.

Curaré shakes the bag at him, like enticing a stray cat with treats but he only shakes his head again.

She gives up after that, shrugging and turning back to her cartoons.

Inside her chest Danny can feel her ghost core vibrate placidly as Scooby and Shaggy run across the TV in a panic.

Danny's own core can't help but try to match it's frequency, a low contented humming echoes between them, safe it seems to say.

Curaré can't be older then 4, which means she was resurrected young and that she died even younger. Danny doesn't know how any of it happened, halfas aren't created easily, the amount of energy needed...

She's so small.

He hopes it was fast, whatever it was that did this to her, made her like him.

Danny also hopes that her injuries aren't permanent. Some ghosts keep the carnage of their corpses well into the after life but as a Halfa Curaré should heal, even if she got those injuries during her ressurction. For her sake it'll be much easier to find some sense of normalcy if she isn't always actively bleeding, even if the blood itself is just an ecto-echo of real blood.

Danny curls his knees up to his chest and hides his face for a moment just trying to breathe. He's too young to be taking care of a toddler, he's still six months away from turning 18 and hes got school on Monday. His eyes burn and his throat constricts as he tries to swallow.

No one else but Danny would know how to take care of Curaré, and she's got no family to try and stumble their way through it. Danny can't take her back to the league and he sure as hell isn't going to search for whoever put that brand on her neck.

Even if he dropped her off at the fire station Gotham only has one Meta focused orphanage, it's state run and all the kids in it have to wear little prison style jump suits. And the food sucks, Danny can personally vouch for that.

She doesn't have a home, she's just as out of place here in Gotham as Danny is. Danny really wishes, not for the first time, that he had an adult here. Like Jazz or hell even Mr. Fuckin Lancer.

Just anyone. Anyone who could tell Danny what to do about this. Who could help him out with the child he's suddenly acquired.

He wishes anyone else was here so it wouldn't just be him and Curaré. Two dead kids sitting on the floor of a studio apartment in the Bowery watching cartoons.

What a pair the two of them will make, oh God. Danny laughs as a few tears stain his jeans.

Curaré makes a curious little noise that has Danny forcing his head up. She's reached the inevitable end of her snack sized bag and she looks absolutely devastated. She turns to look at him, tilting the empty bag towards him as if to say ' can you believe this shit!'

Danny can't help but give her a watery smile, no more crying Fenton, and wipes his nose on the back of his hand.

" Okay, one thing at a time." Danny tells himself. " You finished your Cheetos and now it's time for dinner, right? Stop me if I'm wrong."

Curaré just looks at him.

Danny's not worried, they're gonna have all the time in the world to teach her to appreciate humour and also English.

" I'm going to take that as a yes. " Danny hops up off the floor and goes to find his phone, nobody does dinner like the local Batburger.

Little foot steps follow him into the hallway, he'll have to get used to that sound he's going to be hearing it a lot.

Food first, everything would be better after they ate.

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

For BG I imagine he's been living in Gotham for a few months and found Curaré while popping in and out of different portals in Gotham. (Who woulda guessed that some portal in Gotham leads right to the lazarus pit)

Note: if u wanna see cool art for this AU it's all in the Danny and the little dead girl au tag on my pg!

[vipower001]

DP & DC prompt 1:

Imagine danny meeting Martha and Thomas Wayne at one of Vlads Galla type things. Danny just gets dragged along to any Galla his parents are invited bc “You have to visit your uncle Vladie Danno”. So here he is, hanging out by the fruit bowl when this guy comes along and strikes up a conversation with him, and guess who it is…Alfred. So Danny gets talking to this guy bc it’s better than eating his weight at the snack table.

So their talking and then along comes a young Bruce Wayne after he to got bored of all the business talk (Bruce is like 3 years younger than he was when his parents got killed) and so he sees that Alfred has struck up a conversation with another fellow child (even if said child is older than him). So Bruce gets talking with them as well until the Galla is over. They say their goodbyes and think that this is the last time they see each other…surprise surprise it’s not!!!

Vlad actually hosts many parties every year so these three end up meeting a lot. Danny is introduced to the other Wayne’s and the Wayne’s are introduced to the Fentons. Danny actually becomes a close friend to Bruce and starts to see Alfred as a type of godfather/uncle. And Bruce’s and Danny’s parents become friends and have exchanged numbers.

After The Wayne’s are killed Danny doesn’t see Alfred and Bruce anymore. It’s when Bruce, now Batman, has a problem, a ghostly problem, at the manor that he remembers the Fentons. He thinks that Danny has probably forgotten about him and won’t remember him since it’s been so long, but when he calls the Fenton residence Danny picks up.

They then have this whole conversation about asking eachother how have they been and all that, eventually Bruce brings them back on track and asks what can be done about the ghosts and Danny goes “oh I can fix that for you, it’s a low level ghost so it won’t take long” and then says he’ll be there in a few days and then proceeds to hang up. Bruce is just standing there like ‘ok, guess we’ll be have our ghost problem fixed and an old family friend over’.

He tells Alfred and he is just happy that they will be reunited with someone from before Bruce becoming Batman and hopes the Danny can bring a more normal feel to the manor for as long as he is staying. He’s exited to introduce Danny to the bat kids bc he feels like he can hopefully become a part of the family as like an uncle of sorts that isn’t in the crime fighting profession (wishful thinking there Alfred).

When Danny arrives Bruce and Alfred were expecting someone in their like mid 30’s (I couldn’t find an exact age for Bruce when his parents are killed, just know he was between the ages 8-12) but when the open the door their is a guy who hardly looks like he is in his early 20’s. Danny’s half’s status didn’t make him immortal but it did slow his aging down. They eventually brush this off as him just having a baby face and thus making him look young. So Danny goes and says hello and all that and after a bit of reconnecting is alerted of the ghost with his ghost sense. He says he’ll go catch the ghost now and leaves. Not even 20 minutes later he is back and says he got all the ghosts. Alfred and Bruce are impressed but think nothing off it bc he was raised by ghost hunters.

Alfred then asks him to stay for dinner as he is about to leave and Danny accepts. He meets the bat kids and when Jason walks in he gets a sense that he is familiar. Danny doesn’t really act on it in the moment but he tells himself that he will get this kid (bc Danny called anyone younger than him kid) a nice cleansing bath to get rid of the rotten ectoplasm in him and replace it with clean and healthy ectoplasm.

That’s really it. Danny being a friend of the family and becoming the official “ non-hero related uncle”. Jason knows about his half’s status but doesn’t tell the rest of them. You can do whatever you want after the dinner. But yeah…that’s it.

[dannyphantom-justiceleauge]

Bruce wouldn't get his hopes up about it being jason. The similarities are there to be seen but jason hadn't died wearing a hazmat suit and theres no reason for him to habe a d on his chest. If bruce actually interacts with danny it would be instantly apparent that this ghost kid isn't jason. But he's a dead child who just want to help nonetheless so bruce can't bring himself to be cruel to harm the boy. Even though he isn't jason the resemblance is enough to be painful.

I imagine dick actually tried to fight danny at first for impersonating his brother. The fury and greif would be too fresh for him to be immediately reasonable even though it becomes apparent that danny has only a pssing knowledge of who robin is and wasn't trying to impersonate anyone. The moment dick brought out the electrified excrima, danny was out of there and crossed nightwing off of the list of heroes he'd hang out with. Danny probably sees him as similar to val. A good person with good intentions but misdirected anger and not sage to him specifically.

Dick will later regret how he treated danny.

The interesting thing would be tims reaction. Because depending either this is during the lead up or immediately after tim became the next robin. Either way i could see him looking at danny a superhero kid who's basically unkillable because he's already dead and thinking that could be a robin. Tim was never particularly confident in his ability to be robin and this new kid is already giving people hope even if he isn't jason. He could be a far better crutch for batman. He has superpowers, he won't die on bruce and further his greif. So... he's perfect. Tim just has to comvince danny to take the job.

Cue tim stalkong the ghost kid and inevitably figuring out Danny's secret identity and getting far more invested in danny than anyone else in gotham. Tim basically approching danny in his civilian form and pitching him becoming robin was probably wild and danny kinda thought he was being blackmailed at the time. But the pitch of helping batman through his depression wasn't terrible. Like danny would like to help anyway even if he doesn't think replacing robin would be the way to do it. So he kinda just goes with it but probably isn't going to let tim slip back into the background. Tim clearly is too involved to just stay a stalker.

So cue tim tracking down batman on patrol, ghostkid nehind him, (because tim isn't revealing batman is bruce) and introducing danny as a potential robin to look after gotham. Bruce rejecting it out of hand. But it turns out he didn't really have a choice because tim has bats patrol routes and danny just starts following him anyway. Tim also keeps following them to danny and Bruce's concern and eventually bruce just gives in and pulls tim into the cave to run comes and get training so he'll stop putting himself in danger. So tim is lowkey becoming a robin anyway.

Danny has said many concerning things about his past and homelife and bruce is concerned but also the kid is a ghost so while he could probably prosecute Danny's parents, full adoption isn't really an option and nothing he do will bring danny back from the dead.

Danny as a civilian was living in a shitty appartment in crime ally until tim basixally adopted him. So now whenbhe isnt with batman hes haunting drake manor and lowkey becoming tim's brother as a human. Bruce is probably still to relu tant to get attatched to tim the human so he doesn't realize Tim's homelife is off or that the brother he keeps mentioning doesn't exist for an absurd amount of time. When he does eventually meet Tim's human brother danny bruce is struck by the fact that phantom could be Danny's twin. And that tim probably took them into his home because he didn't trust bruce to adopt them. Phantom nd danny were probably a package deal but bruce wasn't ready to be a father again so phantoms brother was left to be sidelined and live of the generosity of a boy who barely had parents himself. Guilt would hit rather hard.

Meanwhile danny, also a neglected kid. Hadnt questioned the absent parents as much as he should. Which is just a red flag in itself. Tim and danny have all the secrets. I feel danny probably just had to fly up through the batcave to get Bruce's identity, even if bruce wasn't initially open about it. So tim and damny know more about whats going on then any of the other bats do. Danny and tim probably decided bruce wasn't ready to know phantom was a half alive kid and the lies kinda grew from there. It's not that they want to lie, it's thay they're both properly paranoid. Danny especially, if we go the route of his parents chasigng him out of amity being the reason he's in gotham.

It'll all unravel eventually of course and im leaning toward it being when jason shows up.

Until then bruce is probably going to talk himself into adopting danny and tim out of guilt and tits going to make secret identities harder. 90% chance of alfred figuring them out. But if nothing else tim and danny have bonded hard over there shared secrets and help bruce not be a thug plan.

Phantom avoids nightwing still even on patrol, when nw offers to team up. Danny lost trust when he was atacked and phantom acts wary as a result. Something dick regrets. Dick however would 100% imprint on danny and tim and start big brothering the hell out of them. Danny the human lowkey becomes known as the normal one because he's not a vigilante as far as they know. Danny will inevitably also get trained to defend himself and it quickly becomes apparent that he already is trained (phantoms been training with the bats a year at this point). Dick gets suspicious and also recognized early that danny and tim had secrets so he’s investigating and will probably figure them out eventually but the fact that phantom avoids him does make it a step harder to come to the corect conclusion.

Some event does probably lead to tim going out as robin and hitting the streets regularly. People would recognize him as the 3rd robin and danny as the second which is oof. So that's what jason comes back to. Bruce with two new kids and two new robins. One who took his name, the other who claimed his past life. I imagine jason ironically puts together danny and phantom are the same person just from it being the msost obvious conclusion as an outsider who knows the main bats identities.

So jason comes to kick first tims ass in titans tower and has plans to get danny as fenton later but during the tower attack danny happened to fly by to check in with tim and had his ghost sense go off in a weird way.

So jason vs. Phantom. It's actually more even then one would expect because jason was trained by assasins and has worked with and fought heroes for years. But danny has been trained to be both a bat and a meta. Hes fought countless more powerful villains th jason and hes pissed because jason hurt tim. So the figh ultimately goes to him and danny maybe grasps something ghostly in jasons chest and pulls an awful parasite/mutated version of jason out.

And lets be real, thats around when jason peaced out and ran. There is a line and danny was already being extra eldritch because he was mad, jason seeing him seemingly pull his soul out would be enough to make anyone flee.

After he leaves though he notices the pit rage is gone though. His mental health is far from better. Hes still angry and scared and hurt. He still wants to kill the joker. But a lot of the irrational edges have been shaved off and he feels more in control. His eyes still flash green in the mirror though...

The revelation that jason is back from the dead and possibly a halfa leads to danny coming clean to batman. Bruce is upset about the lies and danny is prepared for it. Hes prepared to be straped to a table and dissected if thats what bruce wants. So long as they keep tim safe, he doesnt care. Halfas are dangerous and he doesn't think jason is going to just stop.

Bruce is broken from his anger by the dissection talk and turns back into a concerned parent. Everything feels like a mess and his emotions are scrambled with jason back and tim injured and danny still doesn't trust him after all this tim.

Dick and alfred are probably going to need to be leaned on and i could see dick hunting jason down to have a confrontation. Dick is also more aware afyer the danny reveal that his little brothers don't trust him so guilt complex. The confrontation with jason goes betrer than it probably should. Between the pit rage being gon and dick reminiscing about when jason was his replacement. Emotions get messy and jason is still defensive but he recognizes that dick wasn't really at fault for his death. Dick is a victim in this too.

So there's an uneasy truce there but i think Jason's goonna stay of the radar for the time being. He'll accept help from nightwing and barbara but it could not be clearer that he is actually slightly terrified of danny.

This may all culminate in a visit from vlad, who somehow heard about there being a new halfa about. And oh boy could that get messy because i kinda like the idea of him offering to help jason and jason not realizing hes bad news at first. Jason getting adopted by vlad and comparing all the ways vlad sucks as a loving gardian to bruce is juicy as hell. Vlad is also in support of hilling the joker and tries to turn jason against danny further because phantom won't let vlad take revenge against his own killer.

So its Jason's instincts vs Jason's anger. And it's a bit of a tug-of-war with himself while bruce and danny try to get him to turn against vlad. I see dick actually staying relatively neutral because he doesn't want to break the tentative trust theyve rebuilt and he doesn't want to force jason to return to bruce after everything. The evidence against vlad is pretty damning though and he'd try to get jason away from him and possibly gets kidnapped by vlad before he could warn him.

So things keep escalating from there and of cours tim is going to recklessly put himself in the middle of it. As far as hes concerned the whole 'replacement thing is his fault. He did become robin and he asked danny to help. He basically manipulated bruce into adopting them. So he felt it was his responsibility to explain to jason whats happened and show him all the evidence against vlad and all thats happened with the bats in the last year. It doesn't matter that the last time he faced jason he was put in the hospital, he has to save his family.

Jason is probably shocked enough by the audacity of tim to let him start talking and this is what Tim's good at so while jasons still not emotionally stable and hasn't forgiven bruce, he is now on board with this small reckless genius and the vlad is bad train.

Of course that's when vlad appears and starts going full fruitloop on them. The fight breaks out, tim gets possessed and used as emotional blackmailnagainst jason to comply. They all end up down in the lab and i imagine vlad is complaining about jason not being a powerful enough halfa and needing more ectoplasm to be worth his time. Turns out he been feeding jason ectoplasm in his meals this whole time, like poisoning him, to make him more ghostly. But it's not going fast enough for vlad so he gonna go a more direct and painful route.

Direct ectoplasm injections. Dangerous to humans who don't have built immunity to ectoplasm. But he'll probably be fine. (This was not a comforting statement) and if jason doesn't submit willingly to the injections, vlad will do them on tim and dick, which would be considerably more dangerous for them.

Of course by this poing bruce and danny have tracted their mssing birds down and neither are happy. It will become a whole fight. I imagine danny had the forethought to give bruce something to prevent possession. But dick and tim are still spooked put so its a family brawl. Beyween two experienced fighters and vlads superpowers, even with Jason's help it's a loing fight. Vlad and his ability to clone is making sure they're outnumbered and no one wants to seriously hurt tim and dick, so they're pulling punches there.

Then comes a point where batman is being held back and cornered by his two overshadowed sons and vlad has danny cornered against the wall by at least three clones and danny is clearly losing and vlad is giving an arrogant and creepy speech and jason is suddenly seening phantom as the kid he is and vlad as the asshole he is and in an act that is both reckless and badass, he uses the ectoplasm injection anyway to give him ghost powers so that he could be more effective at taking on vlad. So he can save danny.

He obviously has no control of his powers but the fit of raw strength and the destruction is enough for danny to get the upperhand and defeat vlad. Vlad flees with promises to return and dick and tim are freed from gis control.

So now jason is a full halfa, core properly charged with ectoplasm. All the secrets are out. And the family is back together and needing to talk. Hopefully they'll all be able to fo home and get some hot chocolate first though. Alfred is waiting for them

Things won't be settled perfectly. Jason still has issues. Danny still is wary of dick. Brice probably could communicate properly if he tried. And sooner or later damian is going to appear. But they can acknowledge that at the end of the day, they're a family.

Imagine if Danny ends up in Gotham and starts vigilante-ing. The bats let him, so they must know him, must approve of him in some way.

And, well, Danny is not shy to say he's a ghost or make death jokes. Kid seems to particularly dislike the Joker...

Rumors start going around. People connect dots (are they right though?) And well... A dead kid, who the bats help out, seems to really hate the Joker most of all, seems to be fixated on helping people...

They assume this new vigilante is just the ghost of Robin, who died not too long ago (iirc Jason stays dead for like a year. But like sliding timeline. It's confusing)

Now, the question is: do the bats also think this? If so, they probably don't mention Jason's name or call him Robin. Kids going around calling himself Phantom, least they can do is respect his wish. He doesn't seem to remember his life (because he wasn't the one who lives it but what do they know) so they try to not mention that either.

Jason comes back and is very confused when he hears about this new meta who people seem to be certain is the second Robin.

[threewaysdivided]

Idea for an Age-swap AU

We’ve recently seen some age-swap and role-swap AUs floating around the DP fandom.  The most common of these are the direct reversals, where Vlad is the teenage protagonist and Danny is the adult villain.   Now, I’m not the hugest fan of the straight-swap versions because it’s not particularly interesting or in-keeping with the canon characters.  If Danny becomes the amoral villain and Vlad the plucky protagonist then you basically just have the original Danny Phantom again, except with the characters wearing each other’s skins.

However, a version of the age-swap that keeps the characters closer to their canon personalities has great comedy potential.

Imagine this:

Young!Vlad is a disaffected but highly intelligent freshman whose ‘genius’ is seemingly unrecognised by everyone in town.  Pretty much everything sucks for him - he’s bored at home because his parents are always away on work, he’s bored in class because he finds the material too easy, the school’s head jock and posse make a policy of ruining his day, the student body president is ‘inept’, and - despite Vlad’s intelligence and apparent ability to analyse people - he never seems to make it into the spheres of the influential or popular classmates.    He’s aloof and vaguely disdainful towards everyone around him, except for his two best friends; the naive and eccentric but occasionally brilliant Young!Jack, and the beautiful and sharply intelligent Young!Maddie.  He hangs out with them partly due to their mutual interest in the paranormal, but also because Maddie is the only person in town he sees as an equal and he really wants to date her (too bad she’s always making eyes at Jack).   [If you’re looking for a reference he’s basically a cross between Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole and Velma Dinkley from Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated]

Like in the original series, the three of them attempt to build a proto-ghost portal as a step in their research.  This one goes even worse (after all, it was built by teenagers) and Jack rushing to activate it gets Vlad blasted with way more ectoplasm than in canon.  Just like the original it lands him in hospital for a bit - but in this case only a few months.  On coming back to school he is very resentful (mostly towards Jack though he’s a bit miffed that Maddie didn’t come to visit his room while he was awake) both for the accident and the Danny-like power-problems he’s experiencing.  Although in Vlad’s case he hides them from his friends and outwardly acts like everything’s been forgiven.

As he gains controls of his powers, Vlad decides to put them to use ‘correcting’ some of the ‘wrongs’ in his life; serving disproportionate comeuppance to the jocks, subtly embarrassing Jack in from of Maddie, scheming and manipulating his way through the school’s systems, and generally messing with people to alleviate his boredom.

It basically turns into a Deathnote-like moral situation, in which Vlad is a nominal ‘hero’ on the best days and an entitled, arrogant person at worst.  He may be the protagonist but he’s sure not the ‘good guy’ of this story. (He still makes himself a vampire-style suit and goes by Plasmius in ghost-mode because despite being highly intelligent he’s also a dumb 14-year-old who unironically thinks it looks cool.)

How does Danny get involved?

While Vlad is still in the nominally-heroic part of the story (dishing out retributions to people who actually had it coming, chasing away some minor ghosts that were attracted by the portal explosion, manipulating outcomes that fix genuine problems etc.) he starts to notice an older person hanging around and following him. At first Vlad’s concerned - has someone caught on?  Is it an enemy ghost?  A rival trying to take out the competition? - until Phantom introduces himself.  Danny’s a lot of things but subtle is not one of them.

Older!Danny is in his early 30s.  His parents were some of the first modern ecto-scientists and successfully built a working portal (the source of the accident that gave him his powers) but because the hauntings stayed localised near the portal (never spreading beyond his own hometown) their ecto-research didn’t reach mainstream science beyond a few ‘professional ghost-hunters’, paranormal aficionados and an obscure branch of government that mostly just makes messes bigger in their attempts to ‘contain and study all unauthorised ectoplasmic entities’.

Despite his unease, Danny is honestly happy to meet another half-ghost. He might have reservations about actual teaching (“I’ve got an Engineering degree, not a Dip. Ed.”) but he genuinely wants to help this new kid through what he remembers being a tough period of power-adjustment and guide him to use his abilities productively.   Unfortunately, Vlad is having none of it - who is this condescending fool to tell him what to do?  In his eyes Phantom is either trying to recruit him so that he can use his power (after all, that’s what Vlad would do) or he’s an idiot for wasting such potential. Actually, he must be an idiot either way because who else would try to manipulate someone of Vlad’s intelligence?

Eventually this devolves into a cat-and-mouse game in which Young!Vlad uses his brains and abilities in attempts to manipulate his way into Maddie’s affections, positions of influence and possession of powerful items, with Phantom having to step in and ‘defeat Plasmius’ before someone gets hurt.  Unlike in canon, where Vlad mostly toys with Danny to demonstrate his superiority, Young!Vlad learning techniques from their fights is intentional on Older!Phantom’s part. Phantom really wants to give this kid a chance to turn things around, and figures that letting Plasmius experiment with his powers in a relatively safe space might help Vlad get under control and avoid the temptation to do something truly stupid.  Unfortunately, all this actually does is teach his accidental-arch-rival to be a more competent villain.

Shenanigans ensue:

Vlad deliberately creating dangerous situations so that he can impress Maddie by ‘dramatically rescuing’ her from the ‘evil Plasmius’.  What he forgets is that, under her pretty face, Maddie is a top-tier asskicker - at least a third of the time the love of his life hands his ecto-hide to him long before Phantom can intervene. He’d find it attractive if it wasn’t so humiliating.

Jack also proves disturbingly competent with his ‘anti-creep stick’.  It’s literally just a baseball bat with a cross-stitched handle and the club logo sprayed on the side but Vlad still makes a point of stealing and destroying them whenever Jack makes a new one.

Maddie concludes that Plasmius and Phantom are both evil and working together.  

Vlad: “Of course, but as the older and stronger, Phantom is clearly in charge.  If we get rid of him then surely Plasmius will leave.”

This results in Vlad doing a very careful dance whenever he and Danny are in ghost mode while Maddie and/or Jack can see them.

In attempt to ‘eliminate the competition’ Vlad considers alerting the Guys in White to Phantom’s status.

Danny: “Look, kid. Vlad. If you go to them with that intel they’re going to wonder how you got it.  I might survive - my company holds the patents for a lot of their tech - but you’re a high-schooler.  You really want to risk outing both of us?”

This is one of the few things they eventually agree on: Under no circumstances is anyone to intentionally involve the GIW.

Vlad tries to recruit other ghosts in attempt to keep Phantom distracted.

This mostly consists of him failing to intimidate Skulker with his scrawny teen stature, then flattering him into it because “surely as the first and strongest of his kind Phantom would be a much worthier prize for such a skilled hunter.”

He has more luck with the resentful Yiddish vultures, although they can’t do much beyond being a nuisance.

The Box Ghost offers his services.  Repeatedly.

Vlad travels to Amity Park in attempt to steal ecto-tech from Fentonworks.  On arrival he is horrified to see just how haunted the town is due to its permanently active portal.  He beats a fast retreat after getting cornered and resolves to come back with better plans.

Vlad returns to Amity Park in attempt to recruit more minions from the thronging masses. This is somewhat successful, but a few rogue ghosts follow him home - forcing him to try to contain the situation while hiding it from Maddie and Jack.

Youngblood starts messing with Vlad’s schoolmates (interfering with some of his social schemes in the process).  As an adult Danny is incapable of seeing him, and Maddie and Vlad’s tendency to act older than their age means that Jack is the only one with a real handle on the situation.  Eventually (to his intense horror) Vlad has to do things Jack’s way to solve the problem

Jack: “You know what V-Man, I’m glad to have you back.  You’ve been so serious these last few months, I was worried you’d forgotten how to have fun!”

Vlad: *audible teeth-grinding*

Vlad refuses to swear because he thinks it’s a sign of inferior intellect and therefore beneath him.  Danny doesn’t swear because he’s desperately trying not to teach this kid any more bad habits.

Vlad makes a deal with Technus to steal some software for use in a financial scheme. Too bad that they make this arrangement in the same week that local Information Technology rising-star Tucker Foley is invited to speak at the school’s career day.

Vlad’s plans failing because his ‘superior intellect’ leads him to over-engineer excessively complex schemes.

Danny: “You know you could just have done this, right?”

Plasmius later tries Phantom’s suggestion and Danny is kicking himself because darn it I was trying to get him to knock it off, not give him pointers.

Vlad attempting subtler social schemes (e.g. overshadowing staff and student council members to make changes).  These sometimes work but other times Jack messes up the plan with his overenthusiastic support for his ‘best friend’.

Danny eventually recruiting one of Vlad’s classmates Red-Huntress-style because look, I’m running my parents company, volunteering at the observatory and trying to keep the ghosts under control.  I can’t be constantly flying to another town to make sure Plasmius isn’t bringing on the ecto-apocalypse.

Out of respect for Vlad’s privacy Danny doesn’t reveal the secret identity thing. Instead he asks them to keep Plasmius under control and also look out for Vlad Masters because the ghost might be interested in him.

What Danny didn’t notice was that this kid really doesn’t like Masters and has a pretty big grudge against Plasmius after being on the receiving end of one of his schemes.  What should have been a simple recon job instead ends up with them aggressively pursuing an intense rivalry with both of Vlad’s halves.  They also get overzealous in their ecto-hunter task and start going after Phantom as well.  So now Danny has two problems.

Jazz Fenton (a qualified and practicing psychologist in this AU) takes a job as the school’s councillor.

While there she works to convince Vlad of the benefits of altruism, tries to wheedle him into confessing his connection to Plasmius (Danny told her everything) and attempts to foil his social manipulations.  The first two aren’t met with much success but she does get in the way of the third a few times.

For his part Vlad tries different schemes to get her fired or make her leave so that he can continue plotting without interference.

Vlad sneaks into the Ghost Zone in attempt to steal a powerful item (Ring of Rage, Pandora’s box, the Fright Knights Soul Shredder etc.).  This goes about as badly you’d expect.  Unlike in canon, where Vlad bails and makes Danny deal with it, Older!Phantom drags Young!Plasmius back by the ear because you made this mess so now you’re going to help clean it up.

Phantom: “So, did we learn anything today?”

Plasmius: “I should do more research before handling powerful objects.”

Phantom: *aggrieved sigh* “You know kid, I honestly thought you were smarter than this.”

Whether Young!Vlad eventually learns his lesson or keeps spiralling until he becomes a canon!Vlad level criminal chessmaster is something that could go either way.  

What I’m getting at is:  Can someone please do a version of the age-swap AU where Vlad Masters/Plasmius is an intellectually snobbish, overly theatrical, entitled adolescent ‘mastermind’ (who isn’t quite as bright as he thinks) and Danny Fenton/Phantom is the well-intentioned and experienced adult hero (but poor teacher) who really wants to give this kid a second chance but is getting more and more done with all the villainy nonsense.