#like the fentons actually manage to capture the ghost and danny has to save them b4 they get dissected or sumn

[absolutely-esme]

Okay, I had some thoughts on this.

Trigger warning: mention of rape

It's only a brief reference to a canon event, and is not described in detail, but the mention is there, so it seemed important to give the warning.

The actual story ideas are under the break so people can make their judgement calls before they start reading. My reading style is direct-download, and I know it can be irritating to accidentally absorb enough of something to get hooked when I know I shouldn't read the whole thing for mental health reasons.

First off, Jazz and Danny don't get any noticeable powers from Starfire's genes. No flight or energy blasts without ghostly components. No superstrength (at least, not with Jack Bursts-through-walls-like-the-koolaid-man Fenton as the measure of normal). No enhanced durability (not Compared to Maddie Doesn't-notice-the-recoil-from-a-bazooka-half-her-size Fenton).

Now, I'm imagining Team Phantom goes through an entire high stakes story arc before Danny and Jazz's origins come to light.

Sam and Tucker develop powers as liminals.

Some threat crops up that is just too precisely tailored to Danny's weaknesses for him to manage on his own. He's captured. Things are dire.

Jazz recreates Danny's accident. Her friend, Spike, followed her out to where she built her portal because she's been acting off and he's worried as fuck. Spike arrives just in time to stand in front of the portal and watch as she turns it on from the inside. Spike is now in more or less the same boat as Sam and Tucker, albeit at an earlier point in his liminal development. He doesn't have powers right away but he will.

Jazz manages to save Danny (despite being newly dead and still clumsy with her powers), but the two of them together provide enough context for people to start drawing parallels between the Fenton siblings and the Phantom siblings. People are suddenly listening to Wes.

The GIW are going after everyone ghost-adjacent now that they know it's possible. Things are getting dangerous.

Jack and Maddie are on Team Phantom's side. They realize that they've been clinging to wrong-headed ideas. Painful as it might be to realize they poured so much into something they were wrong about, every scientist knows that you discard a hypothesis that's been disproven, and they will protect the kids no matter what. (They might be mad scientists with questionable morals and judgement, but they love their kids with all the ferocity of a hundred mama bears, and nothing will change that.)

Jack and Maddie, together with most of Amity Park, wage guerilla warfare against the GIW and anyone who sides with them. Unfortunately, the GIW have become more of a credible threat over time.

Things reach a tipping point when some of the GIW's agents manage to capture Dani at some truck stop somewhere and the resistance loses some ground getting her out.

Jack and Maddie go out in a blaze of glory buying time for the kids to equip themselves and make a run for it. They manage to direct the kids to a particular set of files before putting everything into a last stand to give the kids time to escape.

Danny, Sam, Tucker, Jazz, Spike, and Dani all flee into the night in the new and improved Specter Speeder.

It takes a while for anyone to look at the files. They have other concerns. They need to finish treating Dani's wounds beyond the slapdash patch job They managed on site. They also have to figure out shifts for flying the Specter Speeder and how sleeping arrangements are going to work in a moving vehicle until they can safely stop.

Eventually, someone looks into the files Jack and Maddie had insisted they take. Danny and Jazz take as much time to freak out as they can afford, then set Tucker to the task of researching their gene donors to see if they might have someone to turn to.

The Heroes' cyber security is good, but they aren't working with the kind of supernatural advantage Tucker has because their team doesn't have overlap between tech people and magic people which means they don't even recognize the possibility of some of what Tucker can do, let alone know how to defend against it. They likely notice the breach, but Tucker gets some info (though it may not be complete).

Red Hood is quickly ruled out because of the "duffel bag full of heads" incident, and also because the attack on Robin in Titans Tower showed willingness to harm kids (whether or not they know that he wasn't actually much older than Robin at the time, I'll leave up to you). I don't know if they had context for the bag of heads or not, but it doesn't matter either way. No amount of context would make the duffel bag full of heads not intimidating.

Starfire is also quickly ruled out because they found security footage showing an argument about what happened with Mirage. The argument brings up the shape-shifting and that Nightwing didn't know it was her. The kids don't bother looking for additional context because the victim-blaming aspect of calling a victim of assault a cheater is awful on its own and also bears an ugly resemblance to anti-ghost sentiment (they died, and so they are evil monsters). Even if they could be sure she wouldn't turn that attitude on them, they still couldn't stomach being around her. She's a trigger now. They can't look at her without hearing the GIW say "ghost scum."

Nightwing, fortunately, doesn't seem to turn up any Red Flags that they can find, so the kids set out for Bloodhaven.

I imagine there's a good deal of angst, fluff, and righteous violence against GIW agents going forward.

Nightwing quite suddenly has six kids. Only one is his biologically but they're a package deal and he can't just turn them away because apparently Armageddon might be happening?

At first it seems like a fairly standard "new family via mad science" scenario. It's sudden and weird, but it's happened enough in the cape community that that it's not completely uncharted territory. It's kind of wild watching his daughter play fight with her little brother in mid air once he finds a place and convinces them that it's safe to use their powers there.

Then the particulars of the case start coming to light.

Nightwing has mixed feelings about the mad scientists involved. They experimented with other people's DNA without consent and made two children. That's fairly clearcut supervillain behavior. Unlike most supervillains who tried their hand at cloning, they didn't use the kids for some kind of evil plot. They just raised them. They loved the kids so much they apparently fought to the death to give them the chance to escape.

Oh that's right, the government was apparently after the kids because ghosts are illegal now, and the kids are close enough to count despite clearly being alive, and they had to flee after some disastrous happening while rescuing the younger kid's clone.

That's right, not only did the original pair of mad scientists create clones/test tube babies (before they died fighting the forces of evil), but apparently some other mad scientist had cloned one of them because of course kids with his, Starfire's, and Jason's DNA became superheroes and attracted the attention that particular brand of crazy.

And of course he's dealing with this alone until he can convince the skittish flight risks to let him call someone because they don't want their other gene donors involved for some reason. (He can kind of understand in Jason's case, the bag of heads was very public and not his best moment)

Then Nightwing gets the reading material and it gets worse.

The kids have notebooks on their powers and files on their origins. Nightwing is going to have to read them. The files are easy enough to get through, he's dealt with enough mad scientists and these are pretty tame compared to some.

The notebooks are harder to deal with. He has to read the scrawlings of children discussing the particulars of two of their number being dead and how their deaths affect things. Page after page of power testing data interspersed with horrifying revelations casually dropped right next to light-hearted jokes and little doodles of cartoon ghosts.

I saw an idea called death echoes mentioned somewhere, that I thought was interesting but wanted to try a slightly different take, so just know that this next bit is neither an entirely original idea nor 100% faithful to the source.

The notebooks mention that powers related to a ghost's death tend to be "A Lot." What, precisely this means isn't specified. Dick is left trying to figure that out as he reads about how his daughter's younger brother has a sonic attack that he calls a "ghostly wail" because he died screaming and his daughter has something she calls "last stand" because she "stayed on her feet even when her heart stopped" and "didn't allow herself to scream so that she would have a different power that the enemy who captured her brother couldn't counter." They both have a power labeled "ghost zapper" because their bodies were flooded with electrically charged ectoplasm as they died (wtf does "not too intense, got used to it quickly" mean).

The first half of Jazz's notebook reads like a cross between a lab journal and a diary as she details the steps leading up to the death she planned out for herself with bits of her thoughts and feelings about the surrounding situation slipping through. The first few pages about her powers are written with enough pressure to leave grooves in the paper and covered in stray marks, as if the pen was falling out of her hand every time she relaxed.

Nightwing is beginning to see Hood's point about the merits of lethal force. Then the kids explain that in a town with a direct connection to the Gost Zone, killing someone just makes them more dangerous.

...

On another note, Jazz's ghost outfit looks a lot like Danny's. She didn't have time for anything fancy, so she just grabbed a plain white lab suit and drew an emblem on it with a pack of colored Sharpies. She drew an orange and yellow bird shape that turned blue and purple with the palette swap. Her hair is blue. She has a pair of lab goggles pushed upon top of her head in place of her usual headband. She calls herself Pheonix. The Amity Parks community decides that her name must be Phoenix Phantom because everyone recognizes the way siblings bicker.

Tucker's powers are a mix of minor technopathy (derived directly from ghostliness as a result of being liminal), and inventing a new branch of technology-based magic. Apparently the King Tuck incident left him with some memories of Duulaman doing some magic research/spellcrafting that would go on to become the basis for nearly every system of magic use now practiced and Tucker went "pft, I could do that," and went and revolutionized magic his own way.

Sam got a bit of a connection to nature as her liminal power and then used that as a springboard to create another entirely new system of magic use because she refused to be outdone. She calls hers wild magic.

Spike is the Punk-looking guy Jazz was talking to in the first episode. I've decided that they're friends because Jazz has a life outside of being Danny's sister.

Since Spike only appeared for a few seconds in that one episode, I get to decide what he's like here. I have decided that he's ride-or-die loyal, smart, usually fairly level-headed (though this is because he made a point to learn how to manage his temper after it got him in trouble a few to many times). He enjoys wood carving, leather working, and similar crafts. He made the armbands he wears.

His powers will likely be something related to handcrafts when he eventually develops them. Maybe small energy blades that can carve very precisely, maybe something about imbueing his creations with various properties. He doesn't currently have any plans to create a new branch of magic, but with the way things have been going it wouldn't be surprising if he did so by accident.

Spike is surprisingly good with Dani. No one knows how or why, but the semi-feral chaos gremlin will actually settle down around him.

Fenton Ethics and Test Tube Babies

In order to get the funding they need for their Ghost stuff, Jack and Maddie Fenton had to do some... rather illegal things when they left college.

One of them was testing alien DNA and seeing if it was compatible with human DNA.

However getting their hands on Superman's DNA or any of the main Leaguers would be far to hard for two up coming scientists and would run the risk of them being caught. Instead they set their sights on some of the younger aliens.

Such as Starfire, or rather Koriand'r.

They manage to get their hands on her DNA, and also her boyfriend (Nightwing) at the time and began to test it. They felt unsure with what they're doing but they needed the funding and in order to make themself feel better with what they're doing they decided if they were test her DNA with someone she was seeing it would be... better for their own conscience (it doesn't make what they're doing okay but they think so)

Eventually they succeeded in the testing! A baby can be made between a human and a alien.

HOWEVER because we know how the Fenton's get, they kind of go ahead of what they were only meant to do, which was just to TEST the compatibility of the DNA. Basically the paper's before the test phase.

With them getting tunnel vision on this project... They create said baby.

Then before they could show off that creating a new baby via test tubes actually works, they were told that the paperwork they were working on were going to be given to a new team, thank you for your work, here is the money for your ghost stuff, and have a good day.

The people who hired them then just leave.... Without knowing about the newly made baby.

Jack and Maddie name the baby Jasmine.

A few years later when little Jazz asks for a sibling... Well they bring out the old test tubes and papers.

And even though Starfire is no longer dating Nightwing, her new partner Red Hood would make a wonderful male donor for their future kid.

[evo-is-obsessed]

Fanfic prompt (or outline):

Danny wakes up to hear his parent's talking about a new, very dangerous to danny, weapon. Danny is at the end of his rope with never getting any good sleep because ghost keep attacking at night, flunking all his classes because, again, ghosts, and being hunted by the GIW, Drs Fenton and the Red Huntress. He's generally just not having a good time.

That's why, when a his ghost sense goes off in the middle of class, he doesn't move. He doesn't excuse himself to the bathroom and go to fight the big bad of the day. For just once, he doesn't go after the ghost because the Red Huntress or the Drs Fenton or maybe even the GIW SHOULD, be able to handle it. They all claim to be ghost hunters, so why should he have to shoulder all the responsibility? Maybe it's his turn to take time for hisself and let someone else handle it.

TLDR; Danny's ghost sense goes off during class and for once, he doesn't leave to fight.

[vala-dreams]

Franken-Core AU

What if Danny's core was only half a core?

I got this idea from the term "halfa" lol, but I think it would make sense if Danny's core was actually only half and the other half was a half of his actual human heart. It could be like a franken fused half core-half heart. In ghost form he doesn't have human internal organs, the only human thing is his franken core which has a heart half and while in human form, he doesn't have any ghost internal parts save for his franken heart which has a half core.

And as we all know, the core is the most important part of a ghost. Chop off a hand? No probs can reform it. Chop of a leg? That can be reformed too. Cut out the core? That ghost is now a soulless spirit, it's basically double dead. Dead^2 if you will.

But what about a core that's also a heart? Or a heart that's also a core? Well,,,cut out the whole franken heart-core and Danny's also dead^2. But that isn't all there is to it.

What if you cut out the heart part of his core? The GIW's about to find out.

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

Okay now a dp x dc version of this because I can't resist.

The GIW finally manages to capture Danny with the help of the Red huntress and Vlad may or may not have supplied some equipment to weaken and contain him with the intent of swooping in and "saving" him later. After the GIW gets some experimentation done for maximum hero effect.

Well, the GIW decided to go plus ultra and go for the core immediately. Which for a ghost is a really bad news. And for a half ghost, with a franken heart-core? Really bad news.

And then they dissect him and cut out his heart half.

So what exactly happens to halfas that dont have a heart? It turns into a constantly destabilizing, terrifying vengeful eldritch of course!

The GIW tries to contain him, but fail. Red Huntress and the Fentons team up too, but it doesn't matter cause Danny flattens them too. In the end, Jazz is the one who captures him via souping him in the thermos.

In front of everyone.

Everyone who wants the thermos so that they can continue experimenting on her little brother.

No way in hell she's going to let that happen.

And so Jazz hightails it to her car and drives until they can't find either of them anymore. She doesn't stop driving until she runs out of gas.

She runs out in Gotham City.

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

Meanwhile Batman sees a redheaded homeless girl while patrolling and is wondering why she's holding an unearthly glowing thermos.

[Okay this was very low effort will write a more high effort fic later thanks

-Vala]

[arashikitten]

Dark Danny Should’ve Come Back at Least Once

I think most of the Phandom can agree that The Ultimate Enemy was one of the best Danny Phantom episodes ever made, and for good reason. It was incredibly dark of a kid’s cartoon, especially one made by Bitch Hartman, and on top of that, it provided some very interesting lore and characters. We get to see Danny pushed to his absolute emotional limit in a way that I don’t think the show ever did before, save maybe for My Brother’s Keeper in season 1, and we get our first glimpse at Clockwork, who thanks to @five-rivers fanfic Mortified, has become one of my favorite DP characters. And of course, we get to see Dark Danny, or Dan.

But there’s one little thing about this episode that’s always bothered me: the very ending.

Because at the very end of TUE, we get a shot of the Fenton thermos that Dan is sealed away in rocking back and forth, before Dan’s face forms a massive dent in the side, his laughter echoing as the screen fades to the end credits.

You would think, with an ending like that, that Dan would come back in a later episode. That he would return in the series finale is this last big bad, this final demon for Danny to confront once and for all. 

But that’s not what happens. And it kinda pisses me off.

Dan should’ve come back. We should have gotten at least one more episode with this guy, exploring more of his character, more of his side of the story, anything at all. And you know what would be a great way to do this?

Vlad.

Imagine this, if you will.

Dan makes his escape from Clockwork’s lair, dead set on finishing what he started. Eventually, he discovers Vlad’s portal (let’s say that Vlad decided to rebuild his here) and, upon coming face to face with the man who made him like this in the first place, freaks out. Dan makes an attempt on Vlad’s life, and Vlad just barely manages to escape.

Once Vlad is sure this strange new ghost won’t find him so easily, he realizes that this new ghost had Danny’s insignia on his chest, and puts it together that Danny must be involved in this somehow. 

So Vlad makes his way to Amity Park to confront Danny about this new ghost. Danny assumes that Vlad is there to try to kill Jack or whatever, the two get into a massive fistfight, before Vlad finally tells Danny that he’s only here because a strange new ghost wearing Danny’s insignia popped out of his portal this morning attempting to kill him a second time.

And Danny freezes. He goes from snarky and flippant to sheer, raw terror that has Vlad actually worried. Danny demands to know what this new ghost looks like, and Vlad’s concern turns to fear when Danny’s face goes white with horror because this is the same kid who went up against Pariah Dark without a second thought, who has faced countless ghosts who’s powers could be considered godly with a fearless smile on his face, and Vlad may not have much respect for Danny but he knows what the kid lacks in intelligence he more than makes up for in bravery. 

Meaning that whoever this new ghost is must be incredibly powerful, incredibly horrific, and incredibly dangerous.

Danny tells Vlad to go to Danny’s house and tell them to put the ghost shields surrounding the town up, to not try anything funny, and don’t. Leave. The Shields. No matter what.

For once, Vlad decides to take Danny’s lead. He appears on the Fenton’s doorstep, Armani suit ruffled and hair disheveled, telling them that there is a very powerful ghost making it’s way toward Amity Park and they need to put the ghost shields up now, or risk a Pariah Dark-level threat again. 

Then Vlad makes his way toward the edge of town, because he still hasn’t gotten an answer from Danny as to who exactly that ghost was, and he’ll be damned if he can’t get an answer.

Meanwhile, Danny is just outside the ghost shields, waiting for Dan to arrive. He’s absolutely terrified, because what if Danny isn’t strong enough this time? What if he fails again, like he almost did before Clockwork turned back time? Would Clockwork do that for him again? Would he have to watch his future burn down this present that he’s taken so long to keep up?

Then Dan arrives. Right as Vlad makes it to the edge of the shield. 

And Vlad watches with awe as the two fight. He watches as Danny holds his own against this ghost that had almost decimated Vlad barely 2 hours prior, watches as Danny outmaneuvers, outsmarts this menace, watches as Danny fights tooth and nail in a way that Vlad is sure he’s never seen before, and he realizes that Danny has been holding back. Maybe not at first, maybe not during those first few months, but definitely for a while now, because Danny is holding his own now when Vlad couldn’t.

But then that leaves the question as to why? Why is Danny going all out now? Why was he so scared of this new ghost? More importantly, when did Danny encounter this guy? 

Because he had to have fought this ghost at least once before, to have had that reaction to Vlad’s description. 

And then, he hears the other ghost’s voice, one that sounds like a strange mixture of his and Danny’s, and he hears him say “It doesn’t matter what you do, Danny. You might’ve stopped that explosion, but there are still so many other things that lead to me. A car crash, an unlucky ghost attack, the ecto-filtrator, Vlad getting lucky, all of them could still happen. Your friends, your family, all gone, and you still turn into me.”

And suddenly, everything makes sense. That ghost that Danny’s fighting, that ghost that attacked Vlad, that is Danny, or it was, before something twisted him into an unrecognizable monster, and Vlad has a creeping suspicion that it has something to do with him.  And he realizes that Danny is so much more than he ever gave him credit for. He sees Danny, fighting his own future with a hope that Vlad would call naive if not for the fact that Danny had already thwarted whatever horrible future lead to this at least once before, and he understands that he was wrong about Danny.

Because this? Fighting against the personification of all the worst parts of yourself not once, but at least twice? It would require a maturity, a strength of will that Vlad knows he himself lacks, and he comes to the stunning realization that for all the childish quips and petty pranks, Danny is far more mature than Vlad ever was, far stronger than Vlad ever was.

And then, Danny does the ghostly wail.

And if Vlad was surprised before, then he's absolutely terrified now. That’s enough power to destroy an entire city, that single wail, and the sound is a bone-chilling scream that rubs the older halfa wrong in every way possible because that sound should not come from someone as young as Danny.

And now Vlad is caught between two realizations: that Danny is so much stronger than Vlad could ever be in every sense of the word, and that the only reason Danny is that strong is because he has to be, because he’s a child being forced to go against all manner of ghostly and cosmic horror all on his own, and Vlad suddenly feels intensely guilty because he should’ve been helping Danny, and instead he’s done nothing but make his life harder.

At that point, Jack and Maddie arrive. They freak out because Vlad is so close to Phantom and this other extremely powerful ghost, what the hell is he thinking!? And Vlad is trying desperately to get them to leave, because Danny looks exhausted and Vlad might be an ass, but he’s starting his redemption arc now and that means making sure Danny’s secret, and by extension Danny himself, is safe from his parents. Vlad knows what it’s like to be on an examination table, knows how terrifying it is to have doctors looming over you with knives and bright lights while you have no idea what’s going on, and he’ll be damned if he lets Danny (who he again reminds himself is very much still a child) go through that with his own parents.

But it’s too late. Danny detransforms right there on the street, in full view of Jack and Maddie and everyone else who’s gathered there (Dan’s been sucked back in the thermos at this point).

Danny turns around, covered in scratches and burns and bruises, blood in his mouth from where Dan punched him in the lip, left arm hanging in an unnatural angle, and he sees everyone: He sees Vlad, icy blue eyes so similar to Danny’s own filled with uncharacteristic worry.

He sees Sam and Tucker, both with wide, scared eyes, and he can just barely see the faint shimmer of tears gathering in their eyes.

He sees Jazz, face pale and her knuckles white as she grips the Fenton peeler with all her strength.

He sees Valerie, her helmet down and exposing a flurry of emotions ranging from shock to anger to horror to pain.

He sees his mom and dad, clinging to each other as they stare at Danny, at their son, and come to the realization that their son is dead, their son is a ghost and he has been for a while now and how did they never notice? How could they not notice that they had been shooting at their own son for at least a year now, that their boy had been putting his afterlife on the line for them while also trying to keep up with school, and evade capture by the GIW, all at the same time?

And Danny is scared, he’s so scared, because his parents look horrified of him and they think he’s a monster, and they hate him, because why else would they be looking at him like that?

He feels his fathers arms wrapping around him and he’s sure, he’s so sure that they’re about to haul him off to their lab to be pinned down and dissected by his own parents, because they saw Dan, they saw what he would become, they saw what he is now, they know now. But then his mom and dad start apologizing, because they never noticed, and they should’ve, they should’ve seen that Danny’s low grades and missed curfews and skipped classes were because he was putting his life on the line for everyone in this town over and over and over again. They apologize for not making him feel safe in his own house, because how many times did they rant about dissecting their own son right in front of him? How many times had Jack and Maddie shown Danny a dissected blob ghost and effectively told him that he was the next one on the list? How much hell did their own son have to go through on his own, because his own parents couldn’t see what was right there?

And Danny finally realizes that no, he’s not going to end up on a dissection table, that his parents do accept him as he is now. 

But there’s still this lingering fear because they don’t know. They don’t know what Danny might turn into, and he can’t keep that from them anymore, because Dan is a secret he can’t keep anymore.

Jack and Maddie are confused when their son pulls away, and for a moment they’re worried that Danny’s upset with them, that he’s angry at them, because why wouldn’t he be?

Then they see this nervousness, they see how he’s shaking and tense, and they might not always be able to read the room that well but they can tell that there’s something else going on here that Danny wants to tell them, even if he’s scared to.

So Jack and Maddie ask Danny if he wants to talk about whatever it is back at the house, and Danny says yes, but Vlad, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz should also be there, because Danny needs some level of support and he knows that Vlad won’t stop pestering him about Dan until he tells him.

Valerie steps in at this point, finally getting over her shock to demand to know what the hells going on, was Danny Phantom the whole time? Who was that other ghost? Why did that other ghost say that Danny would turn into him?

Sam and Tucker, who have been through the emotional wringer watching their best friend fight his evil future self, then reveal his identity to his parents, are kinda pissed at Valerie, because Danny’s already stressed out enough as is, she doesn’t need to be adding on to it. A fight almost breaks out between the three of them, which only stopped when Vlad of all people, steps in saying that while Valerie does have a right to know what’s going on, all of this yelling will do nothing but cause problems.

The three simmer down, and they all head over to the Fenton’s house, where Danny tells them everything: the portal, Pariah Dark (Vlad suddenly finds a particularly interesting spot on the floor), and Dan. He tells them about how Jack, Maddie, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker died in an explosion in that timeline, how that timeline’s Danny turned to Vlad to take him in, how Alt!Danny asked Vlad to remove his human half so he wouldn’t feel that pain anymore. How Alt!Phantom had been driven insane by the separation (he leaves out the part where Phantom fuses with Vlad’s ghost half: he’s not sure Vlad wants him to tell them about his halfa status), killing his human half before destroying most of humanity. How Danny had been forced to fight Dan a year ago, when he had attempted to blow up his friends in family in this timeline to ensure Dan’s recreation here.

When he’s finally done, about an hour and a half later, Danny looks around the room: at Valerie, at Vlad, at his best friends, at his sister, at his parents, and he sees not only acceptance, but respect. Pride. Because they saw that Danny was willing to look his fate in the eye, and say that he would change it no matter what. They saw him fight tooth and nail to protect them, they saw him defend them from his own demons with a bravery most grown adults don’t have, much less a 14 year old boy.

And they accept him.

[ecto-american]

If Found Please Return to Danny Phantom

Phic Phight Oneshot for @imperfection-at-itsfinest: When Jack manages to get his hands on Danny Phantom's ghost hunting logbook, an investigation reveals some information about ghosts and the infamous specter himself that a scientific study would never cover.

Read on FFN and AO3

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It would be wrong of him to read it. 

Jack kept staring at the book in his hands. It resembled a diary, the front design being colorless but a pressed design. The moon with stars, with no words, and the diary itself felt unusually thin. There was no lock, as if it was almost inviting him to just read it. Jack had, in fact, already opened to the first page, and the first words greeted him. In a standard font read: If Found, Please Return to: and the name scrawled, in surprisingly tidy handwriting, was the name Danny Phantom.

What an absolute find. It was pure dumb luck. He had seen Phantom drop it, but Jack had went looking for it in hopes that the ghost teen had dropped one of the stolen Fenton gadgets. Only to recover...this book that he had taken home and into the privacy of his lab for study.

The idea of Phantom keeping a diary was kinda funny. He never struck Jack as the type to write down his deepest darkest secrets or teenage embarrassments in a book. That would imply that the ghost had some kind of emotions. They didn’t. They were blobs of ectoplasmic energy.

So it should be okay for him to read, right? Why was he so hesitant? Well...it was an invasion of privacy. But it was fine. Phantom dropped it in the park. Phantom was a menace to society. There was likely evidence in this journal that could explain all of the ghost boy’s terrible deeds, that could prove that he truly was evil. This diary could change everything.

...Jack had children though, and he knew both were avidly creative. Scrapbooking, drawing, painting, writing. They were stress outlets for his girls, and he wouldn’t ever dare dream of invading their privacy like that. So he couldn’t. He shouldn’t. Phantom deserved privacy, right?

“Jack? Are you coming to dinner?” Maddie’s voice snapped him from his thought process. She hadn’t made a noise as she came down the stairs. But Maddie was a much better stealth hunter than him.

“Yes, yes! Sorry, I was distracted,” Jack apologized. He set the book down on the table. Maddie rose an eyebrow at him.

“Did you get a new ectobiology book?” she asked. His eyes glanced to the book, and he shook his head no. Maddie came over to him, studying the book cover. Of course, it didn’t resemble any of the scientific texts that they owned. 

“I don’t know how to explain it…” Jack said slowly. He held it out to her. Maddie accepted it.

“This looks like it belongs to the kids,” she stated. She opened the first page, and Jack saw her eyes widen. Her breath hitched, and she looked up to him “Jack...where did you...get this?”

“He dropped it during a fight,” he replied. “I thought it was Fenton tech, but…”

Her eyes sparkled, and she shut the book. A wide grin had appeared, and she threw her arms around her husband.

“Oh Jack! This could teach us so much! If this really is a journal or some kind of diary, then he may have recorded motivations! Thoughts! We can really get into how Phantom thinks and a raw, honest, firsthand account from Phantom himself! This changes everything!”

She was right. She was absolutely right, and he hugged her back. They were scientists first and foremost, and this journal could fill in so many missing blanks about ghosts. It was a starting off point. Jack’s mind raced with all the things they could possibly learn. Just from a simple peek of the book. That was worth more than the invasion of privacy of a ghost that caused so much havoc, destruction and pain. 

“We should look at it right now!” he exclaimed. Maddie pulled away with a small frown.

“After dinner,” she reminded him. “I finally got everybody corralled upstairs for a family dinner. It’s nearly impossible to get either of the girls at the same time.”

“Oh, right!” Jack nearly slapped his forehead. Yes, they were scientists first and foremost, but before even that, they were Mom and Dad. “First thing after dinner.”

“First thing after dinner,” she agreed with a smile. 

Upstairs, he saw that Jazz was already serving herself. Chicken, mashed potatoes and peas. His youngest was pouring iced tea into glasses for everybody. 

“Hey Ghost-kateers!” Jack greeted cheerfully with a grin. Both kids groaned in embarrassment. Perfect. 

“Daaad!” his youngest complained, a whine hitching as she put the pitcher of ice tea back. “I told you, if I’m going to be some kind of ye olde soldier type, I wanna be a knight, like at the renaissance fair.” 

“Ah, but if you’re a ghost-kateer, you can get an anti-ghost musket!” Jack teased. As he walked past her to get his own food, he playfully ruffled her pixie-cut hair. She waved his hand away. 

“But as a ghost knight, I can get a cool sword!” she protested. Jack shook his head in fake disappointment. 

“Never bring to a ghost sword to a ghost musket fight, baby boo,” her dad replied.

“Can’t shoot what you can’t see!” she shot back with a grin. Jack had to hand it to her, and he just chuckled. 

“Can we please have a ghost free dinner?” Jazz scowled. 

“Yes, yes, let’s save ghosts for after dinner,” Maddie agreed. Jazz shot her a grateful look, and Jack focused on getting his serving of dinner from the stove. His youngest pushed her sleeves up, exhaling. Jack stole a look at her and frowned. She had some sweat collected on her forehead.

“Honey if you're hot, you can just take your sweatshirt off,” he told her. She shook her head no.

“No, I'm fine,” she insisted. Jack was skeptical.

“You sure?” he asked. 

“Mhm!” 

Jack shrugged a bit. She was always insisting on wearing a hoodie, no matter the weather. If she got hot enough, she’d take it off. No need to force it. He got his food and took his seat.

“How's school going?” Maddie questioned. Jazz lit up a bit, and her sister flinched. She raised a suspicious eyebrow at her youngest.

“I managed to get a B on my chemistry test,” the youngest spoke up with a forced smile.

“That’s excellent!” Maddie’s demeanor shifted as she smiled warmly. “Keep it up!” 

“Yeah!” The youngest seemed to visibly relax. “Sam’s been helping me study.”

“That’s good, I always studied better when V-man or your mom helped me,” Jack nodded at her as he cut up his chicken. 

“Oh it’s true, I used to help your father study for all of our shared classes,” Maddie confirmed. “Otherwise he’d get so distracted.”

“Yeah, Sam just explains it super well,” their daughter agreed. “Tucker’s been going over math with me a bit, which helps some.”

“Well if you need a tutor, just let us know, and we’ll help you arrange one,” Maddie smiled. “What about you, Jazz?”

“Pretty good,” she replied. “Mr. Lancer asked if I wanted to be his TA this summer, which I really do. It’ll look good on a college application, and I might even get paid!”

“Have you been narrowing down where you might wanna go?” Jack asked. Jazz eagerly nodded.

“Yeah! Oxford is my number one choice, but I also would love to go to Yale or Stanford. I’ve been talking with the college counselor about what else might look good on an application for them that I can do over the summer. I wrote them down in my planner notebook earlier-”

“Hey, that kinda reminds me,” her sister interrupted. “Have you guys seen one of my notebooks? I think I lost it,” she asked them. Jack stared at her. The reminder of the notebook he actually had found. Maddie seemed unbothered by the question. This wasn’t unusual, for the parents to have to play “where’s my stuff?” with the kids. 

“What notebook?” Jazz asked hesitantly. 

“My important one,” came the reply. Jazz frowned lightly. 

“Sorry, princess, haven’t seen any notebooks laying around,” Jack replied. He saw the briefest of a cringe cross his youngest’s features. “Did you leave it at school?” Her shoulders slumped.

“I don’t think so?” she said hesitantly. “I’ll have to check tomorrow. I was so sure I had it earlier…” Her voice trailed off before she forced a smile. “If you see it, let me know!” She picked up a forkful of chicken, only to freeze. The clattering made Jack glance up curiously as she was turning her attention to Maddie. “Can I be excused? I have some homework to get done.” 

Maddie let out a soft sigh. So much for family dinner.

“Of course, just make sure you come back down before you go to bed to get your chores done,” Maddie nodded at her. The young Fenton snapped to her feet with a thanks, fully abandoning her dinner as she went to the stairs. Jazz stared after her sister, craning her neck to track her movements before hurriedly shoveling more mashed potatoes in her mouth.

“Uh, I’m not that hungry, and I totally forgot to do this online assignment,” Jazz spoke, standing up, taking hers and her sister’s plate. She was already walking away before either parent could truly give permission. “I’ll put our plates up and clean up in a bit!”

“A-alright?” Jack hesitated, watching his other child put the plates on the counter before rushing up as well. Another child down. They seemed to grow up so fast. 

“Least they’re doing homework,” Maddie sighed lightly, shaking her head before taking a drink of her tea. “Oh well. Might as well take their lead and eat in the lab?” 

“Please,” Jack agreed. He stood up, taking his plate. “I’m dying to see what Phantom has to say.”

January 10

Skulker: 1; captured

Ectopuss: 1; captured

Box Ghost: 8; captured

Ember: Fought; got away

Fenton Thermos: half-full

Fenton Fisher: untangled

January 11

Vultures: 1; got away

Cujo: 1; played fetch and he went back to the GZ

Fenton Thermos: Full

Ghost Bazooka: overheated and doesn’t shoot anymore, take apart and fix it

January 12

Skulker: 2; got away

Box Ghost: 3; captured

Sidney: 2; got away

Fenton Fisher: tangled, untangle asap

January 13

Skulker: 1; captured

Box Ghost: 4; got away

Fenton Thermos: damaged, won’t suck up ghosts

I met a new ghost today named Desiree. She got away, but it allowed me to discover a new ghost power. Ghost ray.

Maddie furrowed her brow as she studied the words. She stood at the table, her dinner half-forgotten as she thought on the words.

“It sounds like a record,” Jack mused, and he ate another spoonful of peas. Maddie nodded in agreement.

“I think we found Phantom’s logbook,” she agreed. “I’m assuming these are the ghosts he’s fought. And he seems to be recording his powers too. This is huge, we can match up what we know about his powers and what he’s claiming.”

“And he’s recording the status of our equipment.” Jack frowned. “Why would he care?”

“Yeah, he made note that he was going to fix the Fenton Bazooka too,” Maddie pointed out. The scientist flipped through the pages, only to stop at a page, staring curiously. Maddie laid the journal on the table, pressing the spine so that the pages stayed open. She read the page aloud to Jack.

December 19

I hate my life. I hate this existence. I look in the mirror and wonder why it has to be this way. Why am I the one cursed to be this freak? Why is everything about me and my body wrong? For once, I wish something about me was normal, that somebody about me could be right. If Desiree wasn’t such an unreliable asshole with wishes, I’d give everything I have to wish that life could, for once, allow me to be a normal teenage boy. 

Jack listened to her in a stumped silence. This couldn’t have been a pre-death thought process of a moody teenager. It was written too recently, and the words hit a sorrowful chord to him. He didn’t intend to, but he quickly began to feel sorry for Phantom. He was very young. It couldn’t have been easy to lose everything at that age. His daughter was his age. Jack cleared his throat.

“It’s not just a log then?” Jack questioned. Maddie shook her head, flipping the pages back.

“No, I think it’s a mix. There’s still records of ghosts and FentonWorks equipment,” she replied. Using a leg, she pulled a wheeled chair to her to sit in. She leaned back, and she pulled the journal to her. After a moment of flipping through and scanning pages, she settled on a page about a third of the way through. “It seems like this is when he began to record things other than just ghosts.”

“What’s it say?” Jack wondered. Maddie read aloud the next few entries as Jack silently continued to eat. 

April 4

I only fought this shitty panther today, and he still got away. I’m such a fucking idiot. I can’t believe he got away. I was too slow. All I do is fuck up. There’s ghostly activity happening around the school, and I just can’t figure it out. I feel like I can’t stop them anymore. I don’t know what’s going on, why I suddenly suck so much. I honestly probably just always sucked, and now it’s starting to hit me. [scribbles] and [scribbles] were trying to make me feel better, but I fucked up. It was only one ghost today, and I couldn’t catch them. It destroyed an entire store, and it’s my fault.

April 8

No ghosts today, surprisingly. But [scribbles] has been acting weird lately. The other day she poked and prodded me at dinner. No clue what that’s about. She also tried to give me this speech that I can talk to her about anything, and that she’d love me no matter what. That makes me think she found my binder. I’m honestly kinda freaking out. I knew I shouldn’t have left it out like that. She’s such a nosy know it all.

“Phantom must keep more records than just this,” Maddie lightly mused. “He has an entire binder full of information that somebody discovered.”

“Maybe on other ghosts?” Jack theorized. “He’s recording his fights, he must be also recording information about them.” Maddie’s eyes lit up.

“That makes so much sense,” she agreed. “He probably keeps so many kinds of things written down and logged. I wonder where he’s keeping it? Obviously paper, which is a bit odd. I figured a teenager would move to the digital age…” Maddie paused.

“Maybe he’s older than we think he is?” Jack suggested. “He could have died fifty years ago, and just be more comfortable with writing things down.”

“Oh, that’s true,” Maddie mused. She put down the notebook to take a long sip of her drink. Jack picked it up to observe the page she read.

“Phantom has neat handwriting,” he noted. “He’s not fighting ghosts when he writes these.” Jack’s eyes scanned the words. “...I wonder who he’s scribbled out.”

“Allies?” Maddie shrugged. “He probably went back and blacked out some of the names. Privacy. Especially if this isn’t the first time he’s lost this.”

It made the most logical sense. Jack skipped the purely log entries to one that had more written, and he read it aloud to his wife.

April 10

She was feeding on us. Spectra, the Casper High “psychologist” was feeding on emotions, like some kind of emotional vampire but she’s a ghost. It’s so scary. I saw her do it. She asked [scribbles] and [scribbles] about their lives. What made them unhappy, and why. And when they left, I saw her absorb? I guess how I’d describe it? She absorbed the energy into her skin and it just seemed to instantly revive her, and it made her happy. When she did it to me, I could just look in her eyes and know that she enjoyed every minute of my misery. I managed to stop her, with [scribbles] helping me. It was weird. She didn’t seem afraid of me. I don’t know why. 

Spectra: 2; captured

“Ghosts can feed off of energy!” Maddie exclaimed. “Human energy! We always suspected it, but this is confirming something!” Jack glanced up at her excitedly. It was the first real, true ghostly discovery that Phantom was revealing to them. 

April 13

All I do is fuck up lately. Because of me, this ghost dog just absolutely has been causing havoc on this girl’s life. She blames me. And I don’t blame her. I ruined her entire life. She lost her house because of me. I didn’t mean to. I tried to stop the dog, but he just won’t respond to anything I say. I can’t capture him. I’ve been trying. I’ve been just calling the dog Cujo. After the Stephen King book, because damn is this dog giving me one fucking nightmare of a time.

Cujo: 3, got away

April 16

[scribbles] kissed me. It was to force me to change back, and it worked, but she kissed me. It was great. She smelled like lavender. I don’t think my heart’s ever beaten so fast. Afterwards she clarified to me that it was just a fake-out make-out. It didn’t feel like it. I don’t want it to be. But she’s my best friend, and I can’t lose her. So I agreed, and when I came home I cried. My dad caught me, and I pretended it was just girl problems, even though that excuse made me feel even worse. He got me some ice cream, and we watched Star Trek together. It didn’t really help that much, if I’m being honest. 

Anyway, apparently Cujo’s trained. He knows his commands. [scribbles] thinks it’s because he was a guard dog when he was alive for Axion Labs. For a guard dog, he’s such a playful puppy though, he loves his squeaky toy. And [scribbles] became a hunter specifically to kick my ass. It’s my lucky month. But I deserve it. Will there ever be a day where I actually can do more good than bad?

Skulker: 1; captured

[Scribbles]: 1 Red Huntress

Cujo: 1, got away

“Phantom has a family?” Maddie wondered. She chewed on her food as she thought. Jack shrugged, an odd, unsettled feeling hitting him as he put the book down for a moment. He used his spoon to push around his peas.

“I mean, we all do,” Jack reminded her. “Just...I didn’t think Phantom still talked to his family. After his death. Or did such...non-ghost things with them.” Watching Star Trek with his dad? Jack did that with his own kids all the time. It was his and his youngest daughter’s favorite show to watch together. Jazz typically preferred documentary series, and Maddie was too bothered by scientific inaccuracies to really enjoy science fiction. So it was always “their thing” and knowing that Phantom did it too was...too human. 

“Yeah, I didn’t...really expect him to still be haunting them,” Maddie said. Jack could tell that this was disturbing her a little. 

“But ghosts can retain their memories from life it seems,” Jack spoke up. Maddie stared at him. “The dog remembers commands from his life as a guard dog. What extent, I’m not sure.” Maddie hummed curiously.

Jack picked the book up again, skipping through more boring logs to other words. 

April 29

Ember: 2; captured

Fenton Thermos: full, empty

The past few weeks have been terrible. I have definitely come to the conclusion that I really am developing a crush on [scribbles]. Or maybe I always had one, I dunno. Is this really just an effect from Ember’s supposed spell? Does ghostly mind control really last? I think I always knew that I liked her though. I mean, ever since I told her that [scribbles], she’s been so supportive. She even cut my hair for me, which really pissed my parents off, but they ended up admitting that I looked better with my hair short anyway. Almost like it’s meant to be, huh? Ha. [scribbles] is also one of the only two people who know my deeper secret. She’s been so supportive through that too. She calls me Danny, and every time she refers to me as that, it makes my heart go crazy.

But would she even like me? Would she even wanna be with somebody like me? I don’t think I’d be her type. Some other friends I met at this local support group have complained about the struggles of dating. The stories are depressing, and it makes me worried that while [scribbles] will always love and accept me as a friend, that she’d never be able to love me as a boyfriend. I hate my life.

“Aw, Phantom has a little girlfriend,” Jack half-joked, only for goosebumps to raise and an odd chill run down his spine. He looked to Maddie for her opinion, and her face was scrunched up.

“That’s a bit creepy,” she commented. “He’s pretending to be human.”

“I dunno, Mads,” Jack shrugged. He re-read the ghostly teen’s internal conflicts. “Why would he pretend to be human in a journal that nobody’s meant to read?”

“He has to be sharing it with his allies,” she argued. “Those people he’s been scribbling out. Phantom has to be pretending for them. To keep them around. He even mentioned ghostly mind control.” 

She pushed her mostly-finished plate from herself, motioning for Jack to hand over the journal. He complied, and Maddie flipped through it. She stopped, and she set the journal down on the table once more. Leaning over, she studied the spine. A finger ran along the inner spine, and she frowned.

“Pages are missing,” she noticed. Jack pushed his plate out of the way to lean over as well.

Indeed, the top of the diary revealed that it was meant to be a normal, full diary. Now that Maddie pointed it out, it looked like well over a fourth of the diary had missing pages. Jack squinted, pulling his hood over his eyes. He used his googles to better examine.

“They weren’t ripped out, like in a ghost fight,” Jack told her. He pointed to what remained of a page, a barely noticeable strip. “It was carefully cut out.” Maddie narrowed her eyes to get a better look.

“You’re right,” she mused. “Phantom did this purposefully. Probably to hide stuff from his allies.”

“But why hide some stuff and not others?” Jack wondered aloud. “Clearly this girlfriend figure is an ally, but he can’t be...sharing this with her, right?” Maddie pulled back from the notebook to lean in her chair with a heavy sigh.

“...I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t think he would. But he’s also a ghost, they do weird things.” Jack didn’t know how to reply, and so he continued to read.

May 16

The past few days have been so full of drama. Walker ruined my life. He absolutely ruined it. He set out to make me the most hated person in Amity Park out of pure spite, and he succeeded. I’m public enemy number one. I can never win. For a while now, I had debated telling my parents, because I so desperately want their support, but they were part of the news coverage calling me a disgusting, evil ghost. I ended up crying yesterday. I don’t think they’ll ever truly love me if they knew. I also failed Wulf. Another failure on my plate. I’m just waiting for it to all crash down on me.

Walker: 1; sent to the GZ

Wulf: 1; sent to the GZ

Walker’s goons: at least 14, all captured

Fenton Thermos: overflowingly full

“Oh this is just becoming nonsense,” Maddie complained. “He’s lying. We were there, Jack! We saw him attack us.”

“I know, I know, he did, yeah, he did,” Jack tried to gather his thoughts. “But why would he lie in this? I don’t think anybody was meant to read this?” Jack flipped through the pages. The further he flipped through in, the more he could tell that some sections had more carefully cut out papers than others. Why was Phantom cutting out? What was he hiding? Why was he hiding it?

“He meant for somebody to read this,” Maddie lightly argued. 

“Yeah, it seems like it, but…,” Jack trailed off. He shook his head a bit, flipping back to where they had left off. “I dunno.”

“Hold on a second,” Maddie urged him, standing up. “Let me get something to write with, we should take some notes.”

“We can just use the scanner to make a copy of the journal afterwards, and we can further analyze it afterwards,” Jack suggested. Maddie thought on this, and she nodded, but she still reached for some scrap paper and a pen.

“Good idea, we should probably read through it fully first anyway,” she agreed. “But I still want to jot down some thoughts.”

“Of course, of course,” Jack replied. He knew that’s how she thought and processed information best, and it was always from her notes that he could visualize his own theories properly. He took a drink of tea before he continued reading the next true entry.

May 24

My entire relationship with my other crush (not [scribbles]) was a lie. She was being overshadowed by Kitty the entire time. This was my first real girlfriend, and it was all fake. I had assumed I was so lucky. I found a girl who knew and was okay with both of my biggest secrets. When I got home I ended up just going straight to my room. [scribbles] brought me dinner, but I didn’t feel like eating. Is this what life is going to be for me? I don’t want it to be like this. The only good thing is that [scribbles] doesn’t know either secret alongside our brief relationship.

Least Kitty and Johnny seem happy again. For now at least. I swear, they’re always breaking up and getting back together. 

Kitty: 1; sent back to the GZ

Johnny 13: 1; sent back to the GZ

Shadow: 1; sent back to the GZ

Jack could lightly hear Maddie taking notes on her scrap paper, the pen scratching at the surface. He didn’t comment on it, silently flipping to the next page, and he continued to read. 

August 19

I was forced to really face the reality of how much I fucked up [scribbles] life. I hate it. I’d do anything to take it back. It makes me wonder if I should just retire. Am I even really doing anything to help? Am I just a nuisance? Everybody thinks that. 

Rationally I know I can’t. I’m the only one who can properly deal with the ghosts, who has the power and abilities to fight back without getting killed. I have to do what I can, but I just wish I could do it without making so many mistakes. [scribbles] said that it’ll be okay, and that it gets better, but it sure doesn’t fucking feel like it.

Skulker: 3; finished

Red Huntress: 2; temporary truce?

“He’s so full of...emotion for a ghost,” Maddie finally spoke up. 

Jack glanced at the paper she had in front of her. There was some notes of what they had been learning so far, and there were emotions written in all caps with a line under, and a list of various emotions. Emotions Phantom seemed to be displaying. Guilty, despair, loneliness, self-hatred, self-doubt. Despite the few entries, it was already quite a list.

“It’s not just him either,” Maddie continued. Jack rose an eyebrow at her. She didn’t immediately reply, fingers on her lips as she stared down at the journal. “He’s giving emotions to other ghosts too.”

Jack stared down blankly at the journal in his hands. 

“Where?”

Maddie began to write, and as she wrote, it clicked. Spectra’s joy in hurting others. Kitty and Johnny’s relationship. Walker’s spite. Cujo being a playful puppy. According to Phantom, and against what they knew as scientists, ghosts were experiencing a wide variety of emotions and for different reasons. It was weird. 

Jack continued to read.

October 17

I don’t know what happened the past few days. It’s this weird blur. According to [scribbles] and [scribbles] I did a lot of bad things under Freakshow’s control. [scribbles] hugged me and told me that it was nothing that we couldn’t fix, but I doubt that. Why does this keep happening to me? I don’t want to hurt people. I want to be a good person, and I want to help Amity Park, but I don’t know what keeps happening. Everything’s a fog, and I’m exhausted. 

Freakshow: 1; arrested by APPD

Circus ghosts: freed from Freakshow’s control, went back to the GZ

Replace Fenton Anti-Creep Stick, print out another sticker to put on it

“Freakshow...that was the weird circus guy,” Jack interrupted himself. Maddie nodded.

“Yeah, and if Phantom’s right...he could control the ghosts,” she mused. “So there’s a way for humans to take control of ghosts...That’s something to look into. If we can control the ghosts into staying away, it’d be such a massive scientific breakthrough.”

“We should look into Freakshow more, and see if we can talk to him!” Jack agreed. “Maybe he’ll share something with us.” Maddie smiled softly.

“I doubt that,” she replied gently. “But there’s no harm in trying. What else does it say?”

November 8

I have to fight Pariah Dark. I’m terrified. I don’t think I’ll live through it. How can I live through fighting the actual ghost king? I may never see my family again, and I can’t even tell them what happened to me if I die. I’ve been debating telling [scribbles] that I like her, but I don’t think I could bring myself to do it. 

What happens if I die? I have no clue. I’m scared to find out. I can’t die now. I have to make it back. I’ll go missing, and I won’t even be declared dead as my parents’ son. Nobody will know who to really look for. I have to come back. Maybe if I succeed, and people like me again after this, I can tell my family everything.

November 10

I couldn’t tell them. My parents still despise part of me, despite what I’ve done. I know they love me, cause my mom’s already been fussing over me like crazy because of my injuries. [scribbles] said she cried when they couldn’t find me, and that my dad had gone out looking for me all over the city, even in the dangerous parts. They of course love me, but do they really love me unconditionally?

Jack felt his voice trailing off as he hit the end. He coughed lightly, and he took a long drink. Maddie stared off into nothing. The only thing he could think of was his own search for his baby girl. He wasn’t alone, bumping into several other parents desperately looking for their missing children, and several children who got separated from their parents. The entire day was somber and frightening, and Maddie had spent the entire day glued to the phone. In case she called them. 

It was all...too real, and Jack flipped past more logs. He couldn’t help but begin to take note of how every single day had a log of ghost fighting activities, even if Phantom didn’t write down his feelings every day. This was so much more than the ghost hunting duo ever expected, more attacks than they were recording.

His eyes rested only for a moment on December 19, and he decided to just skip it. They had already read it earlier. No need to refresh those memories. More logs, and more missing pages, and he came upon another one. 

March 26

I ripped out a lot of pages, more than I intended. I can’t risk anybody finding out what happened, but also other pages revealed too much, so I kept them tucked away where nobody could ever find them. I’d burn them, but I don’t want to lose the ghost hunting data. It’s okay now. I fixed the problem and assured that everything’s going to be fine. Possibly better. I made the right choice this time, and now I know that one day, I will grow a sick beard. 

I know somebody knows my secrets now. All of them. She had known for months but wanted me to tell her. She asked me if I had a name, and ever since I told her that it was Danny, she’s been calling me that whenever she can. It made me cry the first time. It’s so great to have her know everything now. She loves me no matter what. I couldn’t ask for a better person. Even though she found out because I’m an idiot. This entire thing also made me realize how important it is to keep those secrets, and how poorly I’ve been keeping them. 

I didn’t ever mean for this to turn into a diary. I wanted to keep track of ghost fights. But it honestly helps with both the dysphoria and the stresses of being a ghost. I just went back and scribbled out names. Just in case. In the future I need to be more vague. 

But this is also the end for one secret. If things go wrong then well. I don’t know. I’ll make it up as I go along. But I know that this is who I am, and that I’m hitting a point where I need help to just be me. 

Him: 1; captured for good

Skulker: 2; captured

Desiree: 1; captured

Ectopusses: 1; captured

Cujo: 1, sent back to the GZ

Fenton Thermos: full

Fenton Anti-Creep Stick: destroyed, get new bat and sticker to put on it

Also learned a new ghost power: Ghostly wail. A scream that can just absolutely fuck somebody’s day up. I have to use it sparingly though.

Jack closed the journal, and he set it flat on the table. His mind was blank, and he couldn’t read Maddie. She continued to stare at the closed book, hand in pen but almost unsure as to what to even jot down as a note. He leaned in his seat, finishing his drink. Maddie exhaled deeply, dropping her pen in favor of stretching.

Neither said a word. Jack knew that this journal was not any kind of trick. It was too raw and emotional to be anything more than the thoughts of a teenage ghost. He regretted reading it. It held some interesting information, and he was sure if he dug deeper, that he would find more. But as it stood, his own intense guilt was settling as he knew that he just took too personal a look into the private emotional afterlife of Phantom.

“This is a lot to take in,” Maddie finally spoke. Jack only nodded.

The basement door opened, and they heard dual pairs of footsteps hop downstairs. Jack instantly brightened, and he turned in his chair to smile as his kids soon came into view.

“Hey, is this a bad time?” Jazz asked. She glanced between them, and Jack immediately shook his head no. 

“No, no,” Maddie replied quickly. Jack saw her push the journal and her notes, along with her pen and a few spare lab tools, carelessly into a drawer to help assure the Fenton kids that they weren’t interrupting anything. “What’s up, sweetie?” 

“Well, I have something that I wanna talk about,” their youngest spoke slowly. Jack noticed that she had finally taken off her hoodie, and that while she wore her normal tomboy attire, that something was a bit off about her. He couldn’t place it. Jazz stood close to her, an arm full of books clutched to her chest, though he couldn’t make out any titles. “It’s something important, and I don’t really want to put it off any longer.”

“Is something wrong? Are you in trouble?” Jack asked. His daughter shook her head no. 

“Oh, no!” she said. “It’s just…” 

She took a deep breath, and soon, their son began to explain.

[cartoonsliveon]

More Sam Phantom AU Headcanons

Still thinking alot about this so....

1) Sam is still responsible for the sudden change to the school’s lunch menu. Ultra-recyclo vegetarians for the win at last! Danny and Tucker are still very angry about the change because neither of them want to be eating a slice of bread with grass on it. Or be forced to survive off of salads for the next four years. And Tucker is still the one to rat Sam out to the Lunch Lady ghost. 

But, instead of Danny having to constantly rescue Sam from the Lunch Lady while his best friends fight over the school menu, Sam is battling the Lunch Lady while also trying to defend the changes she coerced the school board into making. Tucker, being a meat eater, is just angry that he’s being told that he can’t eat the food that he loves so much. He’s just angry about the radical change. Danny joins in because, since they’re best friends with Sam, the bullying has gotten a million times worse from Dash and the other jocks. 

Unsurprisingly there’s a lot of tension, where Sam feels hurt that they don’t support her and her desire to make positive changes. But the boys feel that she’s going to far, thinking about what she wants and not what others also want, and that she isn’t considering how this is now impacting them. However, they do eventually make up in the end and, with more pushing to the irate school board, the new school menu is changed to include one main vegetarian meal and one of the tradition school meals. It doesn’t satisfy Lunch Lady but it satisfies Danny and Tucker.

2) Sam is the one being hunted down by Skulker in “One of a Kind”. Because of all the late night ghost hunting, and the fact that Tucker released all the ghosts they captured by accident, she barely manages a C plus on her biology test. Despite getting every question Danny had quizzed her on during the night correct, she’s too exhausted to focus and barely manages to stay awake during it. A C plus isn’t bad, it’s still passing. But knowing that her parents will freak out if they see it, and she doesn’t want it to tank her grades or draw any unwanted parental attention to her, Sam takes on an extra credit assignment about Samson the purple back gorilla. An easy assignment because Sam is already so invested with the idea of releasing Samson back into the wild.

Danny and Tucker still fall asleep on the floor, because they’re bored from watching a gorilla scratch their butt for hours on end. Sam leaves them (after getting her blackmail material for future use) and goes to Samson’s habitat. She does release Samson, because they’re freaking out about Skulker, and she battles the ghost bounty hunter down there. She also continues to be attacked in all of the same places as Danny was, including Fenton Works. This is mainly due to the fact that it’s the closest location to the ghost portal and, from all his time watching Sam and preparing for the hunt has learned that she spends more time at Danny’s house than at her own.

Her fight with Skulker in Danny’s room draws the attention of the Fenton’s and their guest. Jazz is livid. And Danny is trying his best with the equipment he had “borrowed” from the lab and hid in his room to help Sam while Tucker distracts the Fenton’s. Danny is left behind in his room when the two ghosts phase through the floor and Danny slams the door shut behind him as he rushes to go help Sam. Everyone gets a glimpse of his destroyed room, Jazz is angry at the attention he’s getting, she’s also a bit suspicious about the weird noises they all heard. 

3) Sam ends up with Locker 724 when a fight with the Box Ghost wrecked hers. Sam ends up switching places with Sidney Poindexter, a nerdy girl from the 1950s who was the favorite target of her own bullies (it would be weird if Sam and Sidney switched places if Sidney was not also a girl). Sidney sees Sam using her ghost powers against Paulina, for all the teasing that she’s getting from her failed assembly for saving the frogs (showing up dressed up in a dress from My Fair Lady completely undermined everything she had planned). And on Dash for all the grief he’s been giving them as well.  

Tucker and Danny catch on really quick that it isn’t actually Sam, because the moment Sidney took over, she was hanging with Paulina and the cheerleaders and completely abandoned her efforts to free the frogs. Giant red flags that neither Danny or Tucker could ignore. 

4) Knowing that there are ghosts after his dad, Danny manages to convince his parents to let him invite Sam along for the road trip. Danny doesn’t trust that the vultures just turn tail and left, that they might try to follow the family when they leave town. And he also knows how his parents are, it’ll be really hard protecting them and capturing the ghosts when he’s being sheltered like a little kid. Jack has, of course, no problem having another pair of ears to talk off. Maddie is uncertain at first (as she doesn’t want to make it awkward for Sam or for Vlad), but Danny reminds her that Sam’s parents are away on another business trip/social obligation and, although she loves her grand daughter, Grandma Izzy had plans with her elderly friends. Which would leave Sam alone at her house while Danny was in Wisconsin and Tucker was visiting family.

Sam is awoken in the middle of the night by the vultures, and has her fight with Vlad where she gets her halfa butt handed to her. Vlad is, admittably, surprised that Sam is the halfa and incredibly curious how she got her ghost powers. How did Jack Fenton screw up so badly a second time to give someone ghost powers but not get in any kind of trouble nearly killing a teen, especially one from such a wealthy family (being a billionaire, of course Vlad knows of the Mansons). Danny is admittably, incredibly confused when Sam tells him about the ghost she fought. But neither of them suspect Vlad at all until he reveals himself. 

When Sam threatens to expose them both to the Fenton’s and everyone else at the reunion, she says “Danny will always have my back and protect me. But once everyone realizes what you were trying to do, well, who’s going to protect you?” because they both know that by exposing Vlad’s plots in trying to dispose of Jack, he’ll lose both Jack and Maddie’s support and friendship.

5) Although Tucker and Danny don’t find out about Sam’s family being rich until the “Attack of the Killer Garage Sale”, when Danny gets invited to Dash’s party because he’s hitting on Jazz, Maddie has always sort of known. Jack does too, sort of, but he constantly forgets or the reality of how rich hasn’t quite hit him like it hit Tucker. Maddie knows, mainly because she wants to know what type of people Danny might be surrounding himself with, as children usually take after their parents. Maddie recognizes that Sam is nothing at all like her parents, and has never said anything because it isn’t really her secret or fact to share. Furthermore, neither Jack nor Maddie are super fond of the Manson’s, for their disapproval towards Danny (and their professions as ghost hunters). And Maddie hates it that they’re so blind to how great a child/teenager Sam is, wanting to pressure her to fit into their mold of a bubbly, carefree socialite heiress. 

6) Grandma Izzy discovered Sam’s powers very early on. Although neither of Sam’s parents see it, Grandma Izzy always notices when Sam’s powers act up. When her arms phase through the table or her feet hover above the ground by the slightest inch. When she checks up on Sam late at night when its just the two of them home, she’ll see her grand daughter either floating slightly above the bed of having gone invisible with the blankets obviously still on top of her. And also, unlike almost everyone else in Amity Park who knows Sam, Grandma Izzy recognizes her in her ghost form in a heart beat. 

[dp-marvel94]

Clone Wes Weston AU

So I was thinking about this story, Clones for Phanniemay18 Day Eight by @wastefulreverie

In that story, it is revealed that Wes Weston is a fully human clone of Danny who was created by Vlad to spy on and gather information about Danny. Wes didn't know about his origin until he gets kidnapped and brought to Vlad who plans to kill him because he outlived his usefulness. Danny was also captured by Vlad at the same time and managed to knock Vlad out and help Wes escape.

I love this story because first I love anything having to do with Danny's clones and second I love the potential implications for Danny and Wes's relationship. Most of the time their relationship is either pretty antagonistic with Wes being a general annoyance to Danny who in turn loves to mess with him, or it turns into Unidentified Flying Ship. There aren't a lot of stories where they become friends and it doesn't turn into a romantic relationship. This setup has great potential for going from enemies to friends to family since if Wes is Danny's 'clone' then THE TWO ARE SIBLINGS.

Just imagine after Wes escapes with Danny's help the two do stay in touch via email, maybe they get Wes a burner phone. Danny helps him find Danielle because he's been keeping in touch with her too. The two help each other survive on the streets, with Dani using her powers to get them food and keep them from getting caught by CPS and anyone working for Vlad and Wes just generally having more knowledge of the world and better people skills than her. think Wes would be wary of her at first but finds that it's nice not being alone and having someone who understands his situation. He obviously has a lot of issues dealing the fact that his past is fake, his 'father' Walter wasn't really his father, and he doesn't have the ghost powers he was supposed to. Being with Dani would help him feel more sure of himself and know that even though he came from a lab, he is still a real person and doesn't have to be who Vlad made him to be. The two would start to develop a brother-sister relationship as they start to care about and rely on each other more.

After some time, Danny either tells his parents about Phantom or gets discovered. This parents take that well and learn about Dani and Wes. The two come back to Amity Park and meet/ see again the Fenton parents and Jazz. It's pretty weird for Wes since he knew them before but was 'that conspiracy theorists kid from school who was always saying that Danny was Phantom.' Jazz would get put on 'Wes duty' before to try and keep him from following and recording Danny so she had hung out with him a little before and may be had tutored him. I think that the Fenton parents would enthusiastically accept him into their home, treating him as a part of the family. With that he actually realizes that the Fentons are biologically his parents and that Jazz and Danny are his siblings. That thought is really weird for both Wes and Danny because they hadn't really liked each other before but after the reveal with Vlad and Danny saving Wes's life and helping him when he was on the run, the two are warming up to each other. Their relationship is complicated but I think they would at least consider each other friends at this point. They grow closer though as they plan with the rest of the family how to deal with Vlad.

After weeks of careful planning, they manage to revel him leading to his arrest. Walter is also arrested for his involvement in Vlad's illegal activities. Dealing with Walter is hard for Wes because he did view him as his father once, but after discovering Walter knew Vlad planned to kill him and didn't do anything to stop him, Wes is pissed and doesn't really want to have anything to do with him.

Wes ends up living with the Fentons and going back to Casper High. He starts putting his investigation skills to use by writing for the school paper. He starts ghost hunting with Danny and the rest of the family (He's a Fenton it's unavoidable). Wes bonds with Jazz as she help him catch up on school work. And he and Dani remain close as Dani gets use to having a home. Wes and Danny both play the role of protective older brother to her and help her get used to and learn about Amity Park. Sharing a room forces Danny and Wes to get to know each other more. They bond over their shared love of video games and sci fi movies and find over time that they actually have a lot in common and enjoy each other's company. They do still get on each other's nerves sometimes and have a bit of a rivalry but they still love and would do anything for each other.

[phantomphangphucker]

Phango - Nip Trips Nips

(Ghost Nip + Trapped In The Fenton Thermos + Vengful Babes)

Ghost Nip, Cat Nip; same thing. Ghosts, cats; surprisingly much the same. And Valerie would never hurt Phantom just for being cuddly, right?

After the whole, into the Ghost Zone -multiple times might she add- Valerie decided that actually exploring and coming to have some grasp of the place was an absolute necessity. She refused to rely on Phantom, especially to save her...again. Sure she’ll admit he’s an...okay ghost maybe good, but a ghost’s still a ghost. And she will not be defenceless, not in Amity and not in enemy territory.

And that’s how she found herself in this situation, on a strange floating rock and covered in flower pollen; sparkling flower pollen. She can’t help but grumble with a bit of humour as she shakes her hands off, “Paulina would love this for shimmer highlighter”, then brushing off the rest of her suit as best she can and checking the time, “shit, it’s late. Dad’s gonna be pissed”. Shrugging a little before jumping in the air and clicking her feet together, summoning out her board.

Thankfully, she got back pretty quickly and checked in with her dad before a quick night patrol, then she’d go for date night. The one positive, she thinks, of her dad knowing about her ‘profession’ was not having to lie about it...much. And even if he didn’t exactly approve, she could tell he was a little proud. Shaking her head a little as she flies over the town, “pretty quiet, Phantom must have been out earl-”, cutting herself off at spotting a little three-eyed ghost cat and pointing a blaster at It before moving to creep up on It. But the thing springs at her face just as she rounds the corner, her charged up blast going off wild.

Batting at It to get It off just results in It winding around her waist looking blissed out. Pointing her thermos at It and catching It with ease, “okay? That was weird”. Over the past two years she’s learned that the animal and wisp ghosts were hardly problems...except that stupid dog. Most were easy to catch and not really worth wasting her blasters energy on.

Plus, looking to the side some and spotting a little hoard of the wisp ones, she’s pretty sure Amity is growing? creating? spawning? its own wisp ghosts. Like the ones that seemed to just appear in the Zone as part of the environment. Personally, she prefers to just avoid them, though she has absolutely spotted people -and Phantom- playing with them. But she goes wide-eyed as the wisps just stop bobbing around before practically launching at her. Her yelping a little and flying off, these ones never chased or attacked, the Hell? Them all basically slamming into her sends her spiralling in the air.

Looking down at herself after managing to right herself in the air. They were just seemingly rubbing themselves all over her suit and making humming and purring sounds. Muttering, “this is weird. Um, could you go away?”. Not really surprised when they don’t react at all. Not really getting a chance to be all that annoyed, when she sees a snake ghost looking to be sniffing the air towards her before also flying at her, she’d catch It but It’s not alone. Pretty well shouting as she flies away, being chased by a bunch of animal ghosts and more wisps, “WHY ARE THERE SO MANY!?!?!?”.

And that’s how she spends well over an hour just flying away from the collection of ghosts, occasionally blasting at and capturing them; date night forgotten in lieu of things being really weird. But it gives her enough time to notice a bit of a trend, common denominators, all the animal ones seemed to be sniffing at her and literally none of them had pupils. Sure, lack of pupils was common for ghosts -and people in Amity for some reason that she did not want to think about- but for none of them to have pupils was weird.

Danny was enjoying speed running through some levels of Doom when his ghost sense goes off in a concerningly large plume of cold mist. Quirking an eyebrow over the multiple different animal ecto-signatures, “what the? Is someone invading with animals or something?”, and promptly transforms and zips out the window.

Valerie’s a little too preoccupied with her current predicament to notice Phantom, until she speed flies past him and nearly slams into a wall. Course correcting and having to bat away a couple animal ghosts with her empty blaster, before stilling a little at catching Phantom sniffing at the air. Groaning while pretty well getting tackled by multiple animal ghosts and wisps, “oh damnit! NOT YOU TOO!”, when she sees Phantom snap his head around to her, his pupils contracting to pinpoints before disappearing all together.

She stills completely and leans her back against a wall, the ghosts basically rubbing and rolling all over her when Phantom is just suddenly in front of her; having not known he could move that fast. Lifting her arms up a bit as Phantom just starts winding himself around her waist, ghostly tail curling around her board. Though she chuckles a bit awkwardly at him snarling at the animal ghosts, making them back off. Anyones that keep trying to get close getting swiped at or bit at by Phantom. Valerie muttering, “um...thanks?”, at him when the animal ghosts just sort of float a safer distance away from the stronger ghost and ghost hunter.

Valerie turns her board and flies away from the hoard of animal ghosts as fast as she can, though Phantom and the wisp ghosts are making it kind of hard to steer; and the animal ghosts are following. Trying to not react at Phantom rolling around on her back before he bends over her shoulder and rubbing his head under her chin. But she definitely jerks and gapes a bit when Phantom winds around her more, his back basically pushing her chin up and he seemingly decides that these animal ghosts need to fuck off. Promptly making an honestly horrifying ghostly wailing sound at them and her glancing over her shoulder to see them all get knocked out. Just how strong was Phantom?

Deciding to not look a gift horse in the mouth and promptly flying away from all the downed ghosts. She’d already filled up one thermos, she’d rather save the other for real threats. Just in case a stronger ghost, that’s not Phantom,  decides to do whatever the Zone Phantom is. Muttering a quick, “thanks”, at him again when his body seems to vibrate aggressively resulting in all the wisps practically slingshotting themselves off of her and fleeing.

Deciding to land herself on one of the tall buildings on the outskirts of Amity, walking and sitting down a bit awkwardly with Phantom pretty well wound all over her and purring? so loud that she doubts she’d be able to hear anything else; able to feel his form vibrating with it.

Muttering, “fucking Zone Phantom”, as she pushes one of his arms out of her face and blushes a bit from him rubbing his face into her neck. And with how his ghostly tail was wiggling and wrapped around her legs, she doubts she’ll be able to go anywhere until whatever’s going on goes away. Though fine, the purring? is kind of nice. Weird, but nice. Though she blinks and mutters, “shit, date night”, sighing while Phantom seems to be rubbing his hands over her helmet. At least she had a reason, though her having to ditch was something she tried to avoid; still happened too often though.  

After a while, the behaviour is honestly way too cat-like for her to not pat at his head which is now snuggling her stomach a bit aggressively and he hums sounding very pleased, before muttering, “smell good, feel good”.

Valerie decides to attempt at getting answers out of him, though she’s got a feeling he’s high or something, “do you know why Phantom?”. Sighing as she only gets another hum and louder purring in response.

Trying for something else as the only times he seemed to take his attention off her or move away from her body some, was to ‘deal with’ the other ghosts, “why’d you chase off the other ghosts? They seemed content to, er, share me?”.

Him humming again before moving to be hugging her upper torso and wrapping his waist and base of his tail around her waist, making her wonder just how damn long his ghostly tail could be. While he mutters, “annoying”. Which she can’t help but snort and laugh a little at, “so you just wanted me, or whatever, to yourself then”, she knew ghosts to be territorial creatures and with the way Phantom chased other ghosts out he was clearly more territorial than most. Though usually he’d let the less harmful ghosts slide, especially animal and wisp ones.

“Annoying you”.

She blinks at the correction slightly. So it wasn’t him being territorial, instead it was him being a good guy ghost? Well, that tracks. “Why’d they actually back off though? Strength thing?”, obviously Phantom could easily beat the other ghosts up but whatever was going on seemed to be a little distracting. Normally the Amity wisps avoided all other ghosts except Phantom, animal ghosts included. So logically, right, the animal ghosts should have been more likely to chase off the wisps than Phantom.

Moving her arms around a bit as Phantom pulls his chest to rest over her shoulder, stretching his arms down her back before fully sliding down her back and winding around to rest his torso on her lap and legs, playing with her feet with his hands. She bats his tail tip out of her face but otherwise ignores it winding around her head. Glad when he finally responds to her, “Imma top bitch”.

Valerie rolls her eyes, “so it is a strength thing. Mr. Alpha ghost”. Phantom just hums loudly and bites her foot lightly. Valerie gapes down at his back, a little shocked, sounding a bit incredulous, “did you just bite me???”. Phantom hums and it sounds a bit like a giggle before biting her again. Valerie snapping with a bit of a laugh because this was just so weird, while twitching her foot away from him, “stop that”. More genuinely laughing when Phantom seemingly pounces his hands on her foot. Though she grabs the back of his jumpsuit collar and pulls him away from her feet and legs when he opens his mouth, clearly looking to bite her again. Blinking a bit down at him as he promptly goes back to snuggling into her stomach, her mind’s a little stuck on seeing Phantom’s fangs more up close and not in the heat of battle for the first time really. Zone those things were huge.

Jerking a bit from Phantom nipping her side, making her whack his head like a misbehaving dog, “none of the others were trying to bite me, why are you?”. It’s not like biting was something she ever actually saw him doing.

Catching a slight green blush to his cheeks, she was just learning all over the place today; purring, blushing, apparently ghosts could get high. “Teething”.

Valerie coughs at that, “um what?”. Watching him open his mouth and poke at the fangs with his tongue and hum instead of responding. Alright, the big fangs -she’s sure he had some before? or maybe not?- were new and thus uncomfortable. Shaking her head a little, “well, I’m not a chew toy and you’re not a baby. So stop that...even if it is a bit funny”.

Phantom hums again for a bit and starts playing with her feet with the tip of his tail, “was baby”.

Valerie blinks at the teenage looking ghost, she’d always assumed he was really old, seeing as she’d found evidence of him back in the time of pharaohs. Ghosts were weird though, especially Phantom, “um, how old are you?”. She coughs and chokes a little when he purrs a bit louder and sounds a bit proud when he says, “three!”.

Valerie squints at him and moves her arm around his head to get at her com system, “uhhh, good for you?”. Calling up her girlfriend aka this idiots cousin while he hugs her waist and mutters, “no more baby rights for me”.

Valerie sighs a bit happily when her girl picks up, “hey you, sorry for missing date night but I have your cus here and I am very confused”. Groaning a little when Phantom moves to basically crawl up her side and lay his stomach over her head, his hands rubbing down her left arm and purring so damn loud that she can’t hear jack shit. Grabbing at him with her free right hand and yanking him off to lay on her lap again, pushing around his tail so it stops fiddling with the helmet, “are you trying to hang up my call?”. Then whacking him again for biting her knee, “again with the biting!”.

Hearing Elle’s loud laughter over the com, “I know sharing’s caring but should I be worried!”.

“Like I said, I’m confused. I think he’s high or something and-”, Valerie cuts herself off and looks down at Phantom’s face, him practically giving her puppy-dog eyes with his tongue sticking out and halfway through licking her arm, “are you...licking me???”. Elle on the other end just laughs.

Phantom promptly resumes said licking but she pushes his face away a bit disgusted, which he seems to find funny and instead goes to lick at her stomach functionally knocking her onto her back and descending into a weird version of a wrestling match. “Fucking Zone Phantom!”, before laughing because this was weird, oddly familiar, and ridiculous. Elle’s wheezing echoing in her ears all the while.

Eventually ending up with her pinned on stomach against the rooftop, with Phantom snuggling and licking her back. Panting a little, “I’m okay. So here’s the deal, I’ve been chased, all over town, by every ghost in town, even wisps, all being cuddly and shit. Any ideas?”.

Elle wheezes and starts laughing, replying after a while, “oh man this is great!”, laughing again, “touched any sparkly pollen lately?”.

Valerie groans, so this was her fault, wonderful, “yeah, got covered in-”, cutting herself off and shivering a little from Phantom licking the back of her neck and helmet, “oh Zone this is weird. Stop that”. Phantom just purrs loudly and coils around her, but him doing that lets her sit back up so she’s not complaining. He wasn’t trying to be a weird aggressive prick, if anything he was probably being as ‘nice’ about this as he could. She firmly doesn’t want to know what someone like Skulker or Johnny would be doing right now. Well fine, they’d be in the thermos. She’s pretty damn tempted to shove Phantom in it.

Elle’s voice comes through the com again, “congrats! You’re covered in Ghost Nip! Think catnip but for ghosts! It’ll wear off. I’m guessing it’s just him pestering you now?”.

Valerie groans again while Phantom hums, nodding his head into her stomach; obviously he was agreeing, how he heard she’s not sure. Something tells her she has severely underestimated him in every single way. “Wonderful. And yeah, he chased the others off. Literally knocked a hoard out, just how strong is your cousin? And now that I think about, how old are you actually? ��Cause this idiot is claiming he’s three”. Phantom makes a huffing sound and pushes a hand agains her chin, biting her arm which she whacks him again for.

“Very strong and I’m honestly amazed you’ve never asked me? I’m literally one, doesn’t matter though. We age funny. You want me to let your dad know you got caught up with ghost issues? ‘Cause he’s gonna be a while”.

Valerie sighs as Phantom rolls around on his back against her torso, pushing his head under hers and purring a bit louder, “sure, and that just makes me want to stuff him in a thermos, then hope to everything I can get home without running into any ghosts”. Patting Phantom slightly as he makes some kind of mix between a whine and growl, “chill it spooky, you’re the one being aggressively touchy. The thing can’t suck that much”.

Elle laughs, “oh please do! Don’t you dare hang up though, I so want to hear you trying that!”.

Valerie doesn’t really need any more prompting but Phantom can give some serious puppy-dog eyes, just like Elle; damn Phantom genes or whatever ghosts have. Pointing her thermos at him anyway and sucking him in, honestly a bit surprised he didn’t even try to avoid it. “I’m not sure what you were expecting”.

Elle snickers, “wait for it. I hope you weren’t attached to that thermos”.

Valerie stops in her walk, having intended to go home, “um wha-”, getting cut off by the thermos shaking and promptly exploding. Gaping as Phantom practically tackles her, muttering, “mean”, while winding around her again; making her stagger a bit, not sure if she should be highly bothered or impressed by thermoses not working on him.

Elle apparently finds it funny as she starts laughing, “Vee babe, I’m sure as shit the thermoses you have are the ones he gave, aka threw at, you back when you first started. Meaning they’re old model, no way that’s going to hold him”.

Valerie sighs and pushes Phantom’s face away from her cheek, eyeballing him as he seems to settle in to just sniffing at her shoulder; at least she could walk if she wanted, his tail just coiled around her waist with the tip flicking around lazily. He looked more peaceful and sleepy rather than high and silly now. But looking around for his thermos -that has to be a strong one, right?- just makes her kind of confused. “Where the heck does he keep his?”.

Elle laughs loudly at this, “you’ve seen the weird way he dodges! The body horror! Where do you think? The safest closest spot possible, inside his back. I mean yes that would work. But good luck with that!”.

Valerie screws her face up, “oh my Zone Phantom. You have issues”, Phantom hums slightly but otherwise looks like he’s going to pass out. Deciding to take her chances and slightly take advantage of how out of it Phantom is, “hey Phantom, feel like giving me your thermos. Since you destroyed mine”.

Elle snorts, “oh now that’s just mean babe. How could he say no to you now”. Valerie just smirks to herself before pulling a face at Phantom, who just makes a hole through himself revealing the thermos. Zone it really is inside him, this is possibly the weirdest thing she’s ever discovered about him.

Shifting him around some before reaching through the hole for the thermos, muttering to Elle over the com, “you have the weirdest cousin, might as well let you go now though. Feel like trying date night tomorrow? ‘Cause as funny as it would be for you to get all high on this Ghost Nip stuff...”. Clicking her board out and looking over the thermos, which yes did look a little different still Fenton made though, before flying off slowly. Might be better to just fly home with him all wrapped around her so he can chase off any other ghosts.

Elle snickers, “aw come on, you saying you don’t want a cuddle fest with the cuter Phantom?”. Valerie blushes at that and Phantom snickers at her before pushing himself up her arm and wrapping his arms and face around her helmet, “cute ‘cause ‘o me”. Valerie can’t really disagree with that and she’s not going to try.

Elle laughs, “true. You be nice to my lady and Vee, be nice to my cus. Love ya”.

“Love ya too, you cute sorta Spook”. With that she hangs up and thankfully lands in her room without incident, shoving Phantom off her head to wrap more around her waist and legs as she sticks her head out of her door, “I’m fine dad, just the weird kind of time-consuming not the dangerous kind”.

Damon walks up the stairs and scrutinises her face before nodding, “good. Now get some rest, you’ve got school tomorrow”.

Valerie nods, “of course dad”, and quickly ducks back into her room. Holding up the thermos and looking down at Phantom, “thermos time for you, I actually need sleep and this-”, gesturing to how he’s coiled around her and purring softly, “-will make that super difficult”. He glares at her a bit but doesn’t really attempt at stopping her from sucking him in.

Valerie cautiously puts it on her nightstand, seriously hoping it doesn’t explode, before crawling into bed.

After a while Danny finds himself feeling a bit miffed, well, and a little blissed out. But he wants to roll around and snuggle stuff, good smelling stuff. And that stuffs not here, he wants it to be here; it was nice. Chuckling absentmindedly to himself and attempting to scratch his chest, clueing in a bit more consciously then that he’s liquid and vapour at the moment. Grumbling, “thermos...Val”. Oh that was awkward, so awkward. Least she didn’t try shooting him but did she really have to stuff him in here? Sure he’s not so aggressive or zonked out now, but he’d like out thank you very much. Or cuddles, that would work too. Letting his mind drift to the tingling feeling contacting whatever the shit was on her suit...Ghost Nip? Right, yeah. Humming a little to himself before sliding his ectoplasm around. He knew the insides of these things well, had to after Jazz, and it seemed like a good idea to know how to get out of one. Course his friends knew how to lock it in case of evil Danny situations. But Val didn’t.

Slipping around through some of the creases and little bits of wiring, the pressure felt nice but he’s not solid enough to really enjoy it, so not fair. Humming, pleased with himself and feeling sneaky, as he seeps out of the thermos. Solidifying in the air and sniffing around, humming some more but having enough of a mind to not pester the good smelling huntress...much. Coiling over top of her blankets and her, rubbing his head under her chin and inhaling deeply. The sweet scent on her suit sleeping through her veins and skin. So he’s content enough.

Valerie’s the one who’s miffed when she wakes up with Phantom seemingly sleeping on top of her. “Oh you have got to be kidding me. How???”. Turning her head to the -still closed? How?- thermos, before just shoving Phantom off the bed. Him grunting and rubbing his eyes before floating upright, Valerie just points at the window. Phantom points at his thermos and she puts her hands on her hips, “I think I’ve earned it”.

Phantom throws his hands out to the side, “not my fault you rolled in Ghost Nip, and can’t say that was particularly how I wanted to spend my night either”.

“You were high, you had the better experience”, rolling her eyes and sighing but glaring, “but thanks, I guess, for getting the rest to leave me alone”.

Phantom shrugs and rubs his neck before smirking, “you know how you could repay me? Giving my damn thermos”.

Valerie crosses her arms, grabs the thermos and sits on it, “no, go home. Where ever that is”.

“Did you really just sit on it?”.

“And you bit me, multiple times might I add, you don’t have the high ground here”. She decides to ignore how he blushes over that.

Danny huffs, technically she should have an upgraded thermos. Would be safer. He’ll just have to go through the hassle of stealing yet another one, then get to school late, get detention, utterly fail at finishing homework, yada yada. Groaning and tilting his head back, ignoring her slight smirk, “fine. You need a better one anyway”, pointing at her as he turns to leave, “plus you do take good care of my cus”.

Valerie blushes but rolls her eyes at him as he smirks and leaves. Her muttering, “damn spook”.

End.

[clubsheartsspades]

So since people have been asking about this, here's what she has so far, she has taken a deep dive into Pitch Pearl, so guess where this is heading:

Fenton and Phantom are two different people, Fenton is very much alive, while Phantom is a full ghost

Every time Phantom appears Danny is just conveniently away because he's knocked himself out, hiding behind something, locked in the bathroom, got a call and walked away, so it's always some different shit

"Danny doesn't know what the ghost boy looks like actually" - my wife

The Fentons are still ghost hunters, but Danny isn't really into any of that, like Jazz

Wes is though and he's 100% certain that Danny is Phantom and he has "evidence" and charts and pictures

Because Wes keeps annoying him, Danny gets curious about this ghost boy that looks exactly like him and he tries to get involved more with his parents' business

At the same time Phantom has never met Fenton, but he ran into Dash and Paulina multiple times (because he saved them and also hangs out around the school) and they have mentioned this Fenton guy also multiple times, so Phantom goes to hunt him down

"Like Phantom goes 'Huh how am I gonna find him?' Then sees the Fenton house 'Oh that was easy.'" - my wife

So Phantom sees Danny in the lab and he recognises the similarities between them, and drops his invisibility, which startles Danny So Badly he trips and knocks something down and also knocks himself out

Phantom then goes: "Oh right I have seen him before! Just didn't recognise him while he was still conscious."

When Danny comes back to himself Phantom is still there and Danny, very much scared of ghosts, backs away from him -- into the ghost portal

It ends with him in the ghost zone and Phantom going after him to save his human butt

Cue so much banter because they're still themselves

Danny afterwards convinces Phantom that he actually owes him something for getting him in trouble in the first place and Phantom agrees after some back and forth

From then on, after every fight, Phantom talks up Fenton like Danny often does

"Oh me? I'm not cool. Have you seen that Fenton kid? Now he's a real cool guy!"

[Cue Wes pulling out his hair.]

Phantom tries to improve Danny's image like that, but people come to the conclusion that actually? Phantom must really like Fenton, they must really be into each other, hey are they??? Dating??

And Danny has no clue, but also doesn't really like that rumour for obvious reasons

All the while Wes is still going on about his Fenton is Phantom theory and even manages to corner Danny at school to force him to reveal his secret identity

"Come on Fenton! I know you're actually Phantom! You guys look literally the same!" - "Me? And Phantom? Wes, Phantom is a Ghost, my parents are Ghost Hunters, don't you think they would notice? Besides, Phantom is taller than me, his eyes are green, and have you seen his hair? It's so soft and so well styled. He comes out of a ghost fight looking as amazing as he did going in! And he's so strong, too, like have you seen him lift that car yesterday? And - wait, what was I talking about?" [Please add Wes facepalming so hard]

As you can see, there will be pining

Sam and Tucker do pick up on the pining from Danny's side at least and they try to talk to him about his obvious crush on Phantom and about how that's not actually going to work because Phantom is a ghost

Danny, oblivious little Danny, doesn't appreciate their concerns and when he runs into Phantom that day after school, he tells him about his day and about how weird it is that people think he has a crush on him! Phantom of all people!

This is where he finds out that this is aaaaall Phantom's fault =)

"I went around telling everyone how cool you are! I thought your problems would stop, not grow!" - "Aww you think I'm cool? =) ...... Wait. Wait you told everyone WHAT??? That's why everyone thinks we're dating!"

A solution has to be found!

But no! Skulker comes in and captures Danny as a curiosity piece (A Human Who Talks To Ghosts) for his client The Collector

Phantom has to now save him again, but while he's fighting Skulker he's still talking to Danny more than he his bantering with Skulker

Skulker: Can you please Just Fight Me and Stop Talking To Your Boyfriend!!

Phantom and Fenton: He's not my boyfriend!!

That's a common occurrence from then on, if any ghost in any kind of way goes after Danny, Phantom will pay more attention to the human than the ghost

It goes so far that even the ghosts think they're actually a thing, while they're still denying everything

The Collector (*cough* Vlad *cough*) is now even more after Danny because he's the Boyfriend of a ghost and that would be a cool gift to give to your ghost obsessed crush right? (No.)

The whole "Fenton mysteriously dissappears just before Phantom appears" never stops btw, Wes is still collecting evidence

Now, with the ghosts thinking they're dating, they come and bother him about it

Johnny in particular asks for relationship advice without calling it that

"HEY punk! What do you usually do when you and your human get into a fight?" - "Uh well, first of all his name is Danny, and second, Danny really wants to be an astronaut, so I usually take him to see the stars." - "Huh, Kitty really likes jewellery, maybe I should get her some new stuff. Thanks for the relationship advice!" - "Wait what??" Johnny's gone already

And because Phantom's advice actually works like a charm, Johnny decides that "Hey, I should do him a favour and kill his boyfriend! So that they can be a ghost couple like me and Kitty!"

Great plan, right?

Well Phantom doesn't like it.

Johnny wants to stage Danny's death like an accident, so from Danny's point of view he just keeps getting into freaky accidents who nearly, but not actually kill him

"Don't you think hanging out with Phantom might be the reason for why you've nearly died like 6 times today?"

[Phantom fighting off Johnny in the background, both invisible]

Danny shrugs it off though

All the while Phantom tries to get Johnny off Danny's ass and he goes all in to emotional mode and tells Johnny that "No! I don't want him to die! I want him to live! He's the love of my life! Well, afterlife anyway."

This is a fanfiction, so Danny overhears them

Johnny, moved by Phantoms insistence (and maybe he also sees Danny listening in on them and it was his plan all along), leaves them alone (and Danny alive)

Danny now wants to tell Phantom how much he appreciates him, too, and that they definitely should try the whole ghost dating a human thing

Well that's the end so far, we'll see how much further it goes

My wife who watched Danny Phantom with me last week took a trip down the rabbit hole that is the phandom and she just outlined a very intricate fanfiction idea where Fenton and Phantom are two different entities, but Wes still thinks they're the same anyway because every time Phantom appears, Fenton coincidentally trips or knocks himself out or gets locked in the bathroom

[ladylynse]

The Trouble with Ghosts: Part VI

A Lancer-centric Danny Phantom fanfic 

Lancer hadn’t realized how closely young Mr. Fenton’s school troubles–and the secrets he surely wasn’t telling his parents–were tied to ghosts until after that encounter with Phantom. 

<<  <  Part VI > 

Danny had never intended to actually fall asleep.

Keep his eyes closed, yes. Doze, probably. Sleep about twelve hours? Definitely not.

He wasn’t complaining, per se—he couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept that long—but he wasn’t wholly happy about it, either.

Mainly because he still couldn’t do anything in ghost mode. His injuries looked considerably better, but his side was still raw and weeping, he had a pretty good goose egg on his head, and his various other scrapes and scratches and bruises were glaringly present. It kinda hurt to move, too, but that didn’t surprise him at this point. It just…worried him, a bit.

A good night’s sleep usually gave his body enough energy to heal up the small stuff completely and significantly reduce the bad stuff.

True, his injuries could be worse. By all means, they should be worse. He’d almost rather worse because then he could understand it. But not being normal (and therefore much better) or being worse (and therefore completely unaffected by his powers) meant something really weird was going on, and he could only assume it was from whatever Valerie had hit him with.

What was Vlad planning to do, snatch him when he was too weak to fight? He’d missed his best opportunity already. Unless he couldn’t find him? Or figure out how to grab him when he was with Mr. Lancer in a way that wouldn’t be suspicious?

There was a knock on the door, and Danny hastily threw the covers over his head and changed back into Phantom. He’d thought he was alone. The clock on the bedside table showed that it was past ten in the morning. Shouldn’t Lancer be at the school? It was Friday, for crying out loud!

What if he’d called Danny’s parents already and they were here? How was he going to get out of this? Staying in ghost mode was only going to buy him so much time if Lancer had—

“Phantom? Are you awake?”

Did you sleep? Danny knew that was the real question, since Mr. Lancer would be concerned over Danny’s dubious state of health whether or not Danny’s parents were with him. (He might be wondering about all the ways halfas were different from humans, too, but Danny figured his passing out in the car ride yesterday would’ve answered that question.) “Yes,” Danny called, swallowing back his fears and sitting up in bed again. Maybe Lancer was alone. Maybe he was jumping to conclusions. Maybe his secret was still a secret, at least where his parents were concerned. “You can come in if you want.”

Mr. Lancer—mercifully alone—walked in with a tray containing milk and cereal. “Not exactly the best breakfast in bed, but since you can eat and drink, it might provide some sustenance and help you recover faster.”

Danny had no idea if this was the case, even for him, but he was hungry, and he didn’t have to worry that this milk had been contaminated by something in the fridge. “Thanks, Mr. Lancer,” he said quietly, taking the tray. Lancer settled at the foot of the bed, probably because there wasn’t anywhere else to sit except the floor; there was a lone chair in the room, but it was filled with books that didn’t fit into the three bookshelves already in the room. Maybe he thought that was a better place to keep them than the dresser or the bedside table, since this was supposed to be a guest room. “But shouldn’t you be at school?”

“I was able to pull a few strings,” he said, “so I can stay here and take care of you.”

Danny wondered exactly what that would entail. “Um….”

“Eat up first, even if you aren’t hungry, and then we’ll change your dressings and see how everything looks.”

Danny ate. Mr. Lancer asked a few general questions to try to strike up a conversation—how did you sleep? Are you feeling any better this morning?—before moving on to more important things. “Have you tried using any of your powers this morning?”

Danny finished the last of the juice and—on the off-chance Lancer was right and food would miraculously help—tried to turn the glass intangible so the last few drops would fall into his mouth.

Judging by Mr. Lancer’s expression, invisibility didn’t happen, either.

“Nothing,” he said, “but I’m feeling better than I was. Not as exhausted and more achy and sore than burning, stabbing pains. I’m…. I think I’m better than a normal person would be, if not as good as I should be.”

Lancer might as well know that much. Slow or not, he had to still be healing faster than a normal human. Maybe his powers weren’t entirely gone. Maybe he could do things like invisibility and intangibility, just not on the scale that he was used to. What if, in trying to turn the glass intangible, he’d only affected one side of it? What if, instead of turning his entire body invisible, he’d only managed a finger or a toe and couldn’t spread that to his clothes, let alone the rest of his body? His ectoblasts could be too weak to be seen, let alone do any damage, and he wasn’t sure he’d notice a millimetre of flight if it only lasted a split second.

It made a sick sort of sense, considering Vlad had to be behind this. He could still transform, and he wasn’t going to die from his injuries, but he couldn’t fight back or get away. And Vlad, were he so inclined to track Danny down or send Valerie to do his dirty work, would be able to capture him and strap him into some kind of machine to try to get a mid-morph sample to stabilize his clones.

(Dani’s DNA had obviously mutated somewhat from his because she wasn’t a perfect clone. Her mid-morph sample wouldn’t do Vlad any more good than his own or he’d have used it already. Vlad still needed Danny’s. Which Danny was not going to give him. Even if this was Vlad’s latest attempt to get it.)

Terrible as this truth was, it made him feel a bit better; understanding this was the first step to doing something about it, and it beat the absolute bafflement he’d felt yesterday. Jazz was right; he did function better when he got a full night’s rest. But usually the Box Ghost or—

Danny’s eyes widened. “Were there any attacks last night?” he asked, overriding whatever Mr. Lancer was saying. His ghost sense hadn’t woken him up, but—

Lancer broke off, and then his expression softened. “Nothing the Red Huntress couldn’t handle,” he said. “You aren’t the only hero in this town, Phantom. It will be able to survive a few days without you while you recover.”

Danny wondered if Sam and Tucker had also been involved in whatever had gone down last night—unless it had just been the Box Ghost again—and, if so, whether or not they’d been able to pass the full thermos off to Jazz to empty it.

Jazz.

She was still covering for him.

What had she ended up telling their parents?

If she went with kidnapped by a ghost, he probably wouldn’t fare any better than when Sam and Tucker had tried a ghost has stolen my face. That is, his parents might buy it, especially if Jazz played up him being hurt, but he was going to face major consequences once things got back to normal.

Assuming Mr. Lancer would let them go back to normal.

Danny still wasn’t convinced he was going to keep this a secret.

Lancer had moved the tray to the top of the dresser and stood expectantly at the edge of the bed. “Let’s get a look at those wounds. If we soften the bandages with water to get them off, will your ectoplasm start flowing again?”

I have no idea. “Not usually,” Danny said slowly, “but it should be okay. I think I’ve healed enough.” I hope.

It was…awkward, letting Mr. Lancer clean him up and fuss over him. Danny expected it from Jazz and, to a certain degree, from Sam, although Sam’s version tended to involve more sharp remarks and arm punching. Even Tucker was always good when it came to pointing out what Danny had done wrong from a spot safely across the room and out of view of the blood. But Lancer?

It had felt more natural in the nurse’s office, back at the school where Lancer belonged, but in his own home? Where he was perched on the counter by the bathroom sink and Lancer was standing in front of him, pulling open various drawers or cabinets to collect the few medical supplies he had? It made Danny feel like an intruder. If Lancer didn’t already know his secret, it would make him feel like a liar. As it was, he was still lying to his parents, and Lancer had to know that, had to know why, but….

“It doesn’t look as good as I’d hoped, based on what you’d said,” Lancer admitted as he taped the fresh gauze over Danny’s side. “I know you’ve been through worse, Phantom, but this must certainly be slowing you down.” There was a pause. “I suppose this gives you a better idea of how your helpers must feel when they get injured.”

Danny groaned. He had wanted to keep Sam and Tucker out of this for as long as possible, but he should have known Mr. Lancer wouldn’t steer clear of the subject for long. He’d already admitted that they knew the truth, Jazz too, but he’d only said that because he was pretty sure Lancer had already figured it out.

“I know you try to protect them, but you cannot always be there. This whole incident must surely prove that.”

“They know the risks of doing this as well as I do,” Danny said quietly, even though he knew that argument wouldn’t get him anywhere, “and they want to help. And sometimes I need the help. My best isn’t always enough when I’m alone. Even the Red Huntress knows that, and that’s why we’ve worked together before, too.” No need to throw Valerie under the bus, tempting as that distraction was. “As much as I try not to need it, sometimes I do. And we’ve saved the town by working together. You can’t deny that.”

“You can’t deny that they sometimes get hurt, either.”

No, he couldn’t. He knew that and hated it, but he couldn’t.

“We can’t put this conversation off again, Phantom. It’s too important to ignore when people are getting hurt.”

He knew that, too. Mr. Lancer wasn’t about to let this go. Unfortunately, Danny wasn’t sure how long he’d be willing to keep this a secret for that very reason. All his enemies already knew his secret, so it’s not like hiding his identity was protecting his family. It was just protecting him.

From his family.

And chances were, Lancer wouldn’t understand that. And he should be right, Danny shouldn’t have to worry, but even if his parents did accept him, even if they didn’t experiment on him, things wouldn’t necessarily be better if they knew the truth. Because the truth wasn’t pretty. The truth meant he’d nearly died because of their experiments. The truth meant they’d tried to kill him routinely since this had started. The truth was that their best friend from their college years was a creepy old psycho who was more twisted than they’d ever understand, who took experimentation to a new level entirely and who wasn’t afraid who he hurt as he strove to get ahead.

The truth meant therapy would be inevitable, once it started to settle in. Therapy Jazz wouldn’t be able to give them by herself, try though she would. Because the truth didn’t just mean the end of lies. It meant guilt. It meant pain. It meant suffering. It meant broken friendships and new horrors whenever eyes were closed. It meant severed bonds and nightmarish truths, undeniable new realities and uncomfortable unknowns.

The Fentons had never really done normal, but this would rip up the few foundations the family had.

It would tear them apart.

Something so broken couldn’t always be fixed.

And that’s what Danny feared, really. He feared the losses that would come with the truth. What he had right now wasn’t perfect, and he knew it was fragile, but he wanted to protect it. He knew what it was. He understood it. If it shattered….

“It’s not just people,” he whispered, raising his eyes to meet Lancer’s. “It would be everything. It would be too much.”

Lancer’s expression softened. “I know it can be scary to tell a secret, especially when it is not your secret alone, but secrets aren’t meant to be kept when someone is getting hurt because of them.”

He couldn’t know about Vlad. Just because he’d finally realized that Danny Phantom was Danny Fenton, he hadn’t put together Plasmius and Masters, had he? But that was more likely than him knowing about Dani.

Danny felt a bit sick to his stomach, and not just because the smell of antiseptic still stung his nostrils. He tried to swallow back the feeling. Maybe Lancer just meant how things could blow back on Sam and Tucker for keeping his secret for so long. “What about when keeping secrets means saving lives?” Not just his, not just Vlad’s, not even just Dani’s. Because if the truth came out, his parents weren’t the only ones to worry about. Valerie….

Valerie would come around. Probably. Eventually. She’d called truces with Phantom before. If anything big came up in the future, she’d probably call a truce with him again. And, well, if it came down to a fight, no one smart would count her out. Whether in hand-to-hand combat or shooting at a moving target with her ecto-tech, she was good. She had the skills to fight. Someone like Paulina? She wouldn’t.

But Paulina might still fight for Phantom, even if she found out he was just Fenton. Dash, too. And everyone else.

But the Guys in White? They wouldn’t care that Phantom was Fenton. They’d just see Phantom. See a ghost. Or an aberration. Abomination. Some kind of corruption of humanity.

His parents might not experiment on him, but the Guys in White would have no such compunctions, and his parents might not be able to protect him from them.

While the ghosts who invaded Amity Park might know enough to leave his family alone, might respect that boundary even when it wasn’t the Christmas Truce—usually, anyway. He hadn’t forgotten the stunt Johnny 13 and Kitty had pulled with Jazz, nor what Youngblood and Ember had tried to do to all the adults in town, nor anything else like that. But still. The Guys in White wouldn’t hesitate. They wouldn’t stop. They wouldn’t see people, they’d see pawns. Something to be used to manipulate him. To make him give up, turn himself in. And he would, if it really meant saving them.

And if Mr. Lancer got involved instead of just pretending he didn’t know any better, he’d be targeted, too. Danny had no illusions about that. His evil future self had picked on him, and Lancer had barely been involved back then.

Sometimes telling secrets saved people, sure.

But sometimes it doomed them.

“It’s not simple. I’ll grant you that, Phantom. But this situation isn’t as grey as you seem to think it is. If this continues as it does, someone will end up more injured than this. Hospitals can’t fix everything, especially when time isn’t on their side. Your friends are human. While their actions are admirable, they simply aren’t as resilient as you.”

Danny took a slow breath. “Even if I…. Even if I stop working with them, that won’t necessarily save them.”

Lancer finished putting the rest of his medical supplies back in the drawer by the sink and stood, offering a hand to Danny. Danny took it, and as Lancer helped him down, he replied, “No, it won’t. But it might mean they’ll be less likely to need saving, and that’s something, isn’t it?”

“I guess so,” Danny muttered, trailing after Lancer as he led the way to the kitchen. “But I can’t promise they’ll stop, either.”

“I can speak with them. You can decide if you believe it’ll be simpler to do that individually or all at once.”

Danny wasn’t too keen on taking Sam on individually, but somehow that seemed better than when she’d have Tucker and Jazz as backup. “That probably won’t make a difference.”

“It would be a start,” Lancer pointed out as he filled the kettle. Setting it boiling, he added, “Take a seat, Phantom.”

Reluctantly, Danny dropped into one of the chairs at the kitchen table. There were four, but only one spot at the table was clear of books. His strategic choice was the place where those books were nearly piled to his chin.

“Look, Mr. Lancer, if I…. Say we do convince them to stop helping me. Will you at least keep this a secret then? It’s too dangerous to have everyone know. Please, you have to understand that.”

Lancer looked over at Danny. “Do you really think they will stop? Or do you think they’ll simply pretend to stop and take more foolish risks in an effort to conceal their activities from me in the future?”

Danny winced. “Point taken.”

“This is a delicate situation. Believe it or not, I do understand that. I’m just not convinced you understand it as well as you think you do.”

“Huh?”

Lancer set a single teacup on the table, the string of the teabag dangling by the handle. “The stakes aren’t trivial, Phantom. Not everyone who dies becomes a ghost like you did. Your friends won’t be stronger if they’re ever caught in the crossfire. They’ll be gone. And at that point, it would not simply be the fault of whomever fired the shot; it would be your fault and mine for letting them continue to engage in such reckless behaviour. Are you truly prepared for that?”

No. “That won’t—”

Lancer briefly closed his eyes. “Oh, for The Lovely Bones, Phantom, please don’t argue with me. It remains a very real possibility as long as this behaviour continues. Are you prepared for that?”

He couldn’t find his voice to answer.

Lancer fetched the kettle and poured hot water into his cup. Danny watched it swirl, turning a darker brown by incremental degrees. Lancer finally sat at the table, but he didn’t say anything else. He was still waiting.

Even when the teacup disappeared, Danny couldn’t bring himself to raise his eyes. “I won’t let it come to that.”

There was a loud clank of the cup hitting the saucer. “Why are you still under the illusion that you’ll have the choice when you know you can be reduced to this?”

Danny swallowed. “Because….” He couldn’t tell Lancer the truth. The truth was tied to Valerie, to Vlad. It wasn’t his truth to tell. It wasn’t his secret alone.

But Mr. Lancer might not buy a lie, now that he knew for certain how to spot it.

Danny licked his lips. “What happened yesterday. It…. It’s not something that’s exactly going to be frequent.”

“Do you know more, then, than you first thought you did?”

Danny didn’t answer.

Lancer didn’t need him to. “Very well. Then answer me this, Phantom: who are you thinking of asking to help you fight this next battle, to ensure that this doesn’t happen again?”

Danny was staring at the book in front of him now, but he couldn’t even make out its title.

“Which child are you willing to risk?”

Danny closed his eyes. Lancer’s voice was harsh, and not without good reason. “They’re not involved in this,” he insisted. “I swear, they aren’t. I’m the only one who’s going to be targeted. It doesn’t make sense to go after anyone else. I’m the only one he needs.”

“The only one who needs?”

Danny just shook his head.

“Phantom.”

Danny slowly looked up. Lancer didn’t look angry; he looked determined. And as uncompromising as he had been the time he’d forced Danny to retake that English test, which didn’t exactly bode well.

“You told me yesterday that the Red Huntress hit you with something you weren’t expecting, and now you tell me that you’re the only one he needs.” Lancer knit his fingers together and leaned forward. “So tell me: who is she working for and why does he need you?”

The silence stretched. “I can’t,” Danny finally whispered. “I just…. I can’t.”

“I will help you, Phantom, but you need to fill me in. If it comes down to me or my students, I would rather be the one put in danger. So please, tell me.”

Danny shook his head slowly. “It’s not my secret—”

“That doesn’t matter if telling me will save people by saving you.”

“It wouldn’t save people.” Danny shivered and pushed his chair back from the table. “It would condemn you.” He stood. “I’m going back to bed. I’m still tired.”

It was a lie.

They both knew it.

Lancer let him go anyway.

Next

(see more fics)

[phantomphangphucker]

What Qualifies As A Few Too Many Word’s? One - PhannieMay - Day 26 Ghost Speak

Summary: He’s well aware you’re confused, but he’s a little tied up right now

Mr. Dex jolts up out of his chair as a rather pissed off looking red skinned ghosts slams down onto his desk, cracking and splintering the desk in the process. With all the students jumping out of their seats as well, a fair amount of them drawing ectoweapons and pointing them at the ghost.

It really shows how used to this ghost crap everyone is, that no one shoots when it lunges on and pins down Mr. Dex.

Danny’s not sure what to make of this, he's never seen this ghost before and he can read the confusion on his face as everyone is yelling or snapping at him. Danny was one of the few people not pointing a weapon of some kind at him. Not being one to carry ectoweapons since that shit just hurt him. Plus, it would make him look weak to any ghosts. Relying on ghost hunter weapons instead of his ghost abilities, was flat-out insulting to some ghost. It was different if it was something he made himself or just some capture device.

Danny can tell the ghost being confused is just making him angrier, quickly realising why he’s confused as he talks, in ghost speak, “ŵhęrę įß Phæñtöm, ñëëd Phæñtöm”. Clueing in that this guy clearly doesn’t know English, maybe doesn’t know any human language. It’s not like that was exactly uncommon. Especially with the Ghost Zone native ghost species, which most of the more animalistic types were. Watching as he snaps around his snouted head and his tail thrashes more and more aggressively.

Glimpsing that a few of his more trigger happy classmates look on the verge of shooting, and it’s obvious to Danny this ghost will not react well to violence. Likely fighting back aggressively, there was something desperate about his demeanour and desperate always meant willing to do whatever. Mentally groaning, as it’s clear he’s got a job to do.

Pretty well the entire class gapes, confused, as Danny skilfully slips in front of everyone. Waving behind him for everyone to pause or stand down; which makes zero sense to them as this ghost is clearly dangerous and Danny wasn’t even armed. Not to mention, since when did he take charge of any situation really? Well, ok he has done it before with ghost stuff. This was just different somehow.

Watching as the ghost squints its eyes at Danny and bares its teeth, before Danny confuses the class even more, speaking in some weird scratchy sounding language, “dœ ñōt çüt thę hûmæñ. Ŵhÿ dœ ÿœû ñëëd Phæñtöm¿”.

The ghost loosens his hold on Mr. Dex, likely a bit out of shock, enough for the teacher to scoot away. No one else’s moves though, as the two have a bit of a conversation. A highly confusing one to everyone else.

“Ÿœû ßpëåk ghœßt, çhįłd?”, shaking his head, “ñø mættęr, ŵhęrę įß Phæñtöm? Mŷ pęœpłę ñëëd hęłp, GÏŴ, pœįšœñ”. Danny’s officially not impressed, anything with the GIW was bad and poisoning is exactly the kind of thing they’d do. Standing up straight, “Ï æm hë, įñ hûmæñ førm”, Danny flicks his eyes to his classmates, “thęÿ dœ ñõt kñœŵ”. Flicking his eyes back to the, now a bit startled, ghost. But he quickly accepts this knowledge and shows it with a sharp nod.

Danny looks up a bit at the tall ghost as he stands nearly upright, Danny maintains his own calm but wary stance as his classmates shuffle nervously and side-eye him. The ghost speaks, accenting his words with one hand as he does so, “ßpræÿęd ßœmęthįñg œñ öûr łæñd, łæñd æñd çrøpß męłtęd. Öûr ėçtöpłåßm įßñ’t prøçęßßįñg ñütrįęñtß rįght”. Now Danny’s just plain worried, that could be deadly, “æńÿ fædęd¿ Fædīñg¿”.

The rest of the class is just getting progressively more confused, as Danny looks like he’s sad or something. His tones changed to be more like soft static than fast scratching. The other ghost also seems almost cautious and sad, “fædīñg, ÿęß. Ŵë dœ ñōt kñœŵ ŵhåt thę pœįšœñ įß”. Whatever that response was, Danny’s clearly not happy with it. And Star has had enough of the weirdness, “Danny what’s going on? What language even is this?”.

Danny gets their confusion but he can’t really deal with that right now, waving her off as he continues talking to the ghost, “dïd ÿœû ßëë thę ßpræÿ¿”. The ghost nods rapidly and draws the symbol for cold to emphasise how cold it was, “pūrpłë, çøłd, ßhįmmęręd”. Danny’s ran into something like that from them before, minus the shimmering. But, knowing his parents to sell to the GIW sometimes. Could likely explain that, they’d made stuff that was like pixie dust but the “sparkles” were more like tiny sharp needles. Slivers of blood blossom thorns mixed with ecto-rejecto. And unlike their ecto-dejecto, this stuff worked. Frowning, “Ï æm fæmįłär. Ŵîłł ñëëd tœ fętçh ßûppłįęß. Høŵ’d ÿœû gēt hërë¿”.

Danny feels a bit bad about Star throwing up her hands, and most of the class glaring at him now. But he’s more interested in this issue and the ghost holding out a charm, somewhat similar to ClockWork’s time medallions but instead like like two spirals intertwined and going in opposite directions.

The ghost tosses one to him as he talks, “łœçætïœń mėdäłłïœńß, gët ŵhęrę ÿœû ñëëd tœ bę”. Danny gets the implications of that, the thing must already be set to wherever this guy’s from. Nodding strongly at the ghost, who pushes the spirals together to be touching, before leaving though a strange purple portal.

Danny, muttering to himself, “ŵęłł thęñ”. Before turning to his class, “çæñ’t ęxpłäįñ-”, shaking his head and clearing his throat, “got places to be, so save it”. Waving his hand at them before booking it out of the room. Fully catching Kwan mutter, “what the fuck just happened?”.

Danny’s thankful the whole ordeal actually didn’t take that long, sure, he’d have been pretty well fucked if he didn’t already have a bunch of anti-agents made up for pretty well all his parents, The GIW’s, Red’s, and Vlad’s, shit. But the Revlex’s where pretty well tickled pink at the quick efficient help. They weren’t about to start calling him saviour or great one, but guardian was pretty damn close, not to mention less embarrassing. Most ghosts and humans called him that anyway.

Managing to get back before class even finished, rubbing at his neck awkwardly as he slinks inside. “I wouldn’t even bother sitting back down, Fenton”, Mr. Dex’s soft tone is far more appreciated than Star’s practically pissed one, “yeah, you better spill what all that was”.

Sighing, “yeah saw that coming. You, uh, all know how the GIW are trash, yeah?”. Danny still gets a good laugh at how people would actively chase those guys out of town. They really were more extreme than his parents and more open about it, which earned them the scorn of the whole damn town. Excluding his parents, anyway.

Watching all the nodding heads, “well they were extra trash recently. Went and poisoned a random ghost clan. That ghost was just looking for help”. Kwan shakes his head, “got a funny way of asking for it”. Danny shrugs, ghosts were just violent things by nature. And attacking was a pretty damn quick way to get Phantoms attention, plus that crap had to be messing with the guys head some.

“Speaking of asking, I’ll ask again, since you so rudely shoved me off last time. What the hell was that language?”, Star is flat-out glaring daggers at him. He gets it, really, he confused the hell out of them; but being a confusing mess was practically a requirement for him, being the little walking impossibility that he was. Shrugging, “does it matter? Just words. My family’s been around some, you pick things up when you travel”.

Pretty well the whole class is glaring at him now, cause he’s not giving them what they want. But that’s just too bad for them, their curiosity just really wasn’t that important.

Chuckling some as the bell goes off, his next period is a free one so he’s really in no rush. Perfectly content to just watch them all scuttle off to their next classes so they can’t really hound him.

Mr. Dex walks up, “thanks for what you did back there. You could have stayed out of it, let things play out. Would have saved you the current hassle”. Danny waves off the appreciation, “think nothing of it. No really, if you want to do me a favour in return or whatever, then just forget this ever happened”.

“You really are a mystery, even to me; and I’m supposed to be the teacher here”, Danny can read that his teacher’s not really happy about that. So Danny makes a show of being amused, chuckling some, “then I’m exactly what I need to be”. No one ever really understood a hero, that was half the point. Otherwise, people would get too involved, your secrets in the open to be used against you, it would make you predictable too; a deadly combination for the hero or anyone around them.

So he’ll stick to being an enigma, even if they resent Fenton for it.

End.