#maybe the bats run into the Fenton parents and get suspicious

[tanglepelt]

Dc x dp idea 99

In a world where everyone is not so understanding. Sam and Tucker blame Danny for the portal coming on and letting the ghosts through. He is the one who turned the portal on after all. He brought the pain and sorrow to Amity.

Jazz has questioned other ghost who were caught by her parents. All of them only wanted to take over or destroy the world. Only ever cursing the human race. (Who could blame them when they were captured and likely poked and prodded by jack and Maddie)

Jack and Maddie don’t care phantom is their “son”. Those things don’t feel. Once he died he wasn’t Danny anymore. Only ecto scum.

Danny over heard them discussing handing him over to the GIW.

Danny didn’t have a choice. So he decides to leave amity at the ripe age of 15 before he ends up strapped down in a lab. He runs away.

No one reports him missing.

He runs away to Fawcett. Gotham would be too risky. Jack and Maddie discussed investigating the odd ectoplasm there. (Maybe the bats look into the Fentons. Maybe the realize there child hasn’t been reported dead or missing. That Danny was just gone)

Metropolis is out of the question. Jazz was looking into a university there.

Here he meets homeless billy batson. Only a year younger then him. Together they survive on the streets. Both learning more about each other. Danny revealing bits of his past as they go.

When Danny finds out about Shazam he reveals phantom. Danny actual wants to help billy. He’s even younger then him. Now the justice league assume Danny is Shazam sidekick (maybe son). Instead of Danny being the older of the two.

When the truth does come out. So does Danny’s past. So does the GIW.

[suppose-i-was-worm]

Like A Lamb

**Idea taken from @nerdpoe's post- What the hell is this "Infinite Realms"?**

John Constantine would never call himself a kind man, much less a good man, but the kid at the corner table of this fast food restaurant was making him want to be both.

Not that John’s kindness would really help the kid, in the long run.

He’d seen so many things in all the time he’d been alive- wondrous and horrific in equal measure, but this boy- this teenager, barely out of childhood, was probably the most heart-breaking.

John had known sacrifices- marked by both men and demons. He’d seen the crumpled bodies after the fact, and sometimes he’d been able to save them beforehand. None of them were like this boy. Marked like a sacrificial lamb down to his bones by the universe- an inevitable end.

The teen was the beginning and the end of worlds- his death would shake the foundations of all that was, could be, and is. Time would stutter to a stop before restarting with a different beat, and John could do nothing to delay or stop what was coming.

How in the world could this kid still smile and laugh with his friends? How could he not feel the weight of an entire reality on his shoulders? If John, sitting across a dining room from him, could feel the pressure, why wasn’t the boy buckling under it?

John’s phone alerted him to a text from Zatanna- he was needed by the JLD.

With a sigh, he fished out the strongest protection amulet he had on him. It wouldn’t save the teen, but maybe it would make the rest of his life a little easier.

The kid looked up at him as he approached, all smiles and young innocence. John Constantine thrust the amulet into his hand and then turned, stalking out of the Nasty Burger.

He needed to tell the Justice League. Amity Park needed protection- there was a kid there whose death would change the world.

~~~

Danny flipped the little charm around in his hands, trying to figure it out. The sad trenchcoat man had handed it to him before leaving, and he had no idea why.

“What do you think it is, Danny?”

He shrugged. For some reason he didn’t want to hand it over to Sam for her to inspect it.

“Dunno. It feels important, though. I might take it to Pandora- she’s been teaching me a bit of magic stuff, so she can probably parse it out.”

For some reason, Danny knew he would recognize that man again if he ever saw him, despite only having looked at him for a moment. Something in his core rumbled contently as he tucked the amulet carefully into the back of his phone case.

The next few weeks, Danny found himself having suspiciously good luck. The food at home didn’t come to life, ghosts didn’t attack as much, Dash wasn’t a problem at school, and even the Fentons hadn’t been as insistent on catching Phantom.

That was another weird thing- His brain didn’t seem to compute that Jack and Maddie were his mom and dad anymore. He knew he’d been creeping toward that ever since his death, but it was like a switch had been flipped overnight. The Fenton adults no longer registered as his parents.

Finally he had a chance to slip into the Realms and head for Pandora, who took one look at the amulet he held out to her and laughed.

“You have been adopted, young one, and your core accepted.”

“Adopted?”

“Your nature is to protect- it sings in your blood and guides your instincts. An adult offered you protection, a safe haven, and you took them up on it. Had someone your own age done the same, your relationship with them would be vastly different.”

Danny frowned at the charm, but he didn’t put it down- it didn’t even occur to him to get rid of it.

“Why did he- what made him do that?”

Pandora ruffled his hair.

“He saw someone who needed protecting, I assume, and acted as he ought.”

~~~

“Bats, I don’t know what the Infinite Realms are. Yes, I know they exist. I just don’t know when they started to exist, and when my knowledge of the afterlife became outdated.”

Batman glared, and John rolled his eyes at the other man.

“Magic shit happens all the time. Zatanna can tell you just as well as I can that the Realms didn’t exist a year ago- and also that they’ve existed for millenia.”

“I’ve found a summoning spell for the king of the realms, but it requires a magic user. Zatanna is off-planet, so you’re up.”

John looked over at the speaker, Red Robin, whose slight form and dark hair made him think of the boy he’d left to die.

He’d thought of the boy more often than not- any research into the kind of sacrifice that would have so much power came to a dead end, and John Constantine hated that there was really and truly nothing he could do for the kid.

Maybe this Infinite Realms person might know something?

“Fine. What are the details?”

Red Robin perked up and handed over a heavy tome.

“Batman and I already set up the ritual space in the conference room, and a few other heroes are there to help out if the king is hostile.”

“Of course you have. Let’s go, then.”

The two bats swept off down the hallway, and John followed behind, studying the spell he would need to cast. It was fairly simple, and luckily wouldn’t require blood. He hated the ones that required blood.

As he stood over the sigils and spoke the ritual spells, the floor inside the protective circle began to writhe and bubble a toxic neon green. It was all John could do to stand straight as a rush of air spilled from the portal into the wide room, bringing with it the heavy taste of caution.

The Justice League took a step back as the first clawed hand reached out from the green, white and stretched beyond humanity. It scrabbled for purchase before finding it and pulling.

The creature that exited the swirling mass was something John had never seen before. If the situation wasn’t so tense, he might describe the creature as catlike, with a black body and white legs, as well as piercing green eyes. The similarities stopped, however, when the inky body flickered and lit up from within with the pinpricks of millions of stars and endless void.

This was a baby god, filled with the dreams of deities long forgotten and fueled by the hope of those still clinging on to life.

Its green eyes swept over the gathered heroes before coming to rest on John, and for a moment he felt as if his tattered soul was being judged by the cosmos.

And then the creature folded in on itself, the tense air around it changing from bitter caution to sweet relief, and John found himself face to face with the teenager from Amity Park.

“Hi.”

The boy sounded winded, but happy, and he reached inside his shirt to pull out a small chain necklace. John’s amulet was hanging off it, obviously well treasured and cared for.

“Did you know that you’re technically my dad now?”

Something on John’s face must have told the boy- the god, the sacrifice both dead and alive- that he was unaware of this fact. The kid shuffled a little, looking sheepishly at the floor.

“You- uh. Unintentionally offered safe haven. And I accepted without realizing what was going on, and- it’s weird. I collected your soul for you! Didn’t bring it with me, but I’ve got the pieces you’re missing.”

“I think you both need to sit down and discuss this.”

Bless Diana.

“Can you leave the circle, young one?”

The teen beamed at Diana and stepped out of the protective circle, smudging the sigils as he did and closing the portal.

“I can, yeah. Pandora says hi, by the way.”

John watched as the boy chattered away about his ghost friends to Diana while she led him to a seat, and then sighed, moving to join them. If he needed help with being a new dad, surely Bats could help, right?

[nelkcats]

Fenton Street Food

"You know what's better than being a superhero? A street food vendor! Yes, superheroes can save the day, stop villains and receive hatred or admiration as the case may be, but a street vendor? They are at the heart of the action, fulfilling their dreams! They traveled the world feeding the masses, and even met superheroes, feeding them to keep them doing their duty, food carts are the centerpiece of keeping the heroes alive, they are the heroes..."

Maybe if Danny repeated it enough times he'd start to believe it, though seeing the monstrosity that was the Fenton food cart he highly doubted it. More so because it had fucking guns hidden next to the mutant and very alive Hot dogs (which by the way were not sellable, they were the mascots of the brand).

It all started when Jack Fenton talked about his dream of delivering his favorite food around the world, that fueled Maddie Fenton's idea, and since Jazz was in college and Danny was on vacation no one could stop them.

Soon Danny became a victim of his parents' eccentricities. Although the halfa had to admit that selling in Gotham was a lot of fun, thieves didn't think it was worth mugging him and the Rogues themselves bought his food of dubious origins.

It was almost a shame to have to change cities because Batman was getting too suspicious but Metropolis was waiting for him. And he would be back eventually; some bats who had enjoyed his strange roving food stall had waved him off with handkerchiefs, wiping away fake tears. Danny appreciated it.

Besides, Red Robin affirmed to him that he would recommend him to Superboy, so he wouldn't run out of customers anytime soon. He wondered if he should stop by Central City, the Flash Family ate a lot didn't they?

[f4nd0m-fun]

DPxDC - Mafia Ties

Good parents Fenton and redeemed Vlad escaping to another universe with Danny, Jordan, Ellie, Jazz, Tucker, and Sam because of GIW chaos getting so bad they literally need to go to another world to get help, only for the portal to close, and they can't open it from this side. Jordan is Jazz's age maybe a year older and Ellie accidentally got deaged to her actual age give or take which is probably about a year and a half old. Yes it's the Family Breakfast ship.

@hallowsden

Cue Vlad doing his whole possession stuff to not only get them new identities but carefully accumulate a small amount of wealth, not enough to be suspicious in his opinion but still.

The Fenton parents start looking to see if/where this world has ectoplasm because the kids, and maybe Vlad, need it. Hel, maybe the parents accidentally need it too after all those years of exposure.

I know everyone chooses Gotham for this stuff, but also that's about the most I know about DC and it has a Lazarus pit underground so we're using it.

Vlad doesn't get back into the proper businessman profile, too many eyes for him to feel safe after the GIW disaster, but he does end up a Mafia boss, or at least tries. Also, Hood becomes a new 'son' obsession for him, yeah he has Danny and Jordan and Ellie but this kid is also ghosty and probably hungry or something, right?

Hood doesn't get what's up with this weird older man who always has a baby with him, let alone why he'd even bring a baby along to mafia stuff.

Vlad thinks it's safer to have Ellie in mafia meetings than be left with the Fentons during their research obsession periods because they will literally not pay attention to anything else unless it's an emergency, it's not their fault, they're learning to manage it though.

Speaking of Fentons, they work on clean energy manufacturing topside, but underground they deal with weapons. Mostly they supply them to Vlad's crew, since that's basically their testing grounds, but they also don't make anything that's actually lethal. Vlad isn't a fan of guns though but he isn't about to bring out his plasma blasts if there isn't a good reason. (He pretends anyone who sees him cackling like a maniac hit their head, he did say he hates using guns after all).

Jordan and Jazz are probably about 17/18 now. Jazz is going to college, while Jordan slips his way into the kid's mafia (yes he knows he's a kid now too, shut up, he used to be 24). This is half to annoy Vlad and half because he's curious. Jazz, of course, with a little help from both Vlad and Tucker in getting her grades moved between universes, is in college soon, and manages a full scholarship (not that Vlad wouldn't have paid if he still had his old money, in fact he might even be a little jealous that he wasn't the one to pay for her schooling).

Jordan looks a little more like Vlad than he does Jack, due to the way the ghost half fusion effects everything, but he also looks more like Jack than Maddie because Jack is what Danny would have grown into anyway.

Ellie of course just looks like a nearly carbon copy of Danny of course, just baby and female.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker are all going to Gotham Prep, if Vlad can't pay for Jazz's schooling then he's paying at just some for theirs (they might have partial scholarships but not full ride). Danny still sneaks out at night because he can't stand sitting still after a long time of being a vigilante and ends up running into the Bat. He promptly apologizes for invading his haunt and flees.

If any ships, I'm thinking Jazz/Jason and Jordan/Dick, but I'm a sucker for everlasting Trio and Tim also has a trio of his own.

Back to Ellie and Vlad. He of course is trying to keep any 'Meta' rumors on the downlow, but she's just a baby. The harness she's in is ghost proof mostly so she can't just phase out of it, but you try changing a baby's diaper and they just turn intangible, or put then down to nap when they start floating. Hel, imagine setting her down for two seconds, she accidentally makes a shield, and now she's crying because she wants to be held. Sure, Vlad and Danny both, Jordan and Ellie too, can go through shields in human form, but that doesn't mean it doesn't sting or something. Eventually it gets figured out though.

I wonder how long it takes Jason to figure out that this Jordan fellow is related to Vlad. 😂

I also wonder what it would take for Vlad to actually use his ghost form outright, what kind of threat he'd expose himself to for the sake of his family. Just, shoving the kids at Jack - "Darling your aim is iced tea, let Maddie and myself handle this" - and doing what he has to.

And, yes, even as a Mafia boss he refuses to actually swear. Also, he probably still goes by Plasmius, the way his other form looks does NOT help the vampire rumors. Let alone the- well, I read a post on here a while ago where Ellie Danny and Jordan were deaged and needed his ectoplasm to survive. Imagine being a Plasmius goon in a meeting while he's trying to rock his baby to sleep and she's just sucking on his hand. You don't think much of it until you see he's bleeding and, even though it's technically red, your pretty sure it's glowing green and you're not sure if you want to ask (you won't but still). Plus, he's not even reacting to what must be a fair bit of pain, right?

Honestly, there's probably a betting pool about the whole weird family.

And of course I'm bringing in my Alfred Clockwork storyline. Flashpoint Thomas is Frighty, dead Thomas is Pariah, and Gotham is Martha. The moment Vlad finds out that Jason's grandparents are some of the most powerful ghosts in the realms (or at least this side of them in Gotham's case) he's like "okay I won't interfere, but maybe he'd like a friend? He doesn't seem to know a lot of ghosts.' (he tries to figure out which kid would be a better fit and that's when he finds out Jordan's been working for Hood this whole time. "You didn't tell me?" "You didn't know?!") 😂

Basically, give me a Mafia family who's major story plot isn't even the bats outright, it's just trying to survive after fleeing a world that may as well be destroyed at this point. Sure, they interact with the bats, cross paths, maybe even a couple relationships, but, overall, the Fenton-Masters are just outsiders in Gotham, learning to adjust to this new life.

[animeredhead101]

DP x DC Long Fics (100,000 Above)

Complete

Secrets Lost by ArtemisMoore :

(Currently being edited) Danny knew that someday, somehow that something like this would happen. That his parents would discover his secret and react in one of two ways; a) they would be confused but accept him like they had in all of the other temporary cases they’d experienced, or b) they would stick to their guns (literally) and decide that their son was the enemy. Now, of course, he and his friends had been preparing for this day since the first Ghost Attack on Amity Park. They had bags packed, emergency supplies stashed around Amity Park and surrounding cities, emergency funds, and safe houses. They had plans, preparations, and procedures that all of “Team Phantom” had memorized. Even Valery, who had only been a part of “Team Phantom” for a week and still didn’t know his identity! But none of them could have imagined that “Operation Friend or Foe” would happen like this. When all of their preparations were hundreds of miles away, supplies were out of reach, and where all of his friends and allies couldn't help him. They had no idea… that everything would go this wrong. Word Count: 103,445 Completed

Batman, Meet Team Phantom by Sivan5733 :

Jason leaves Amity Park for Gotham, but an emergency call changes everything. The Fentons have discovered Danny's secret, and things are going horribly wrong. While Jazz, Sam, and Tucker save Danny from Jack and Maddie, the group is now on the run. Jason and his family pull all of their resources together to make things right.

An "Anger Management" Relationship Fic

Word Count: 118,359 Completed

Nothing But The Dead And Dying (back in my little town) by Umei_no_Mai :

Dan has just been rescued and is feeling a bit shorter than usual. Jason Todd has just been petitioned like he's a feudal warlord, which has never happened before but he could maybe get used to. They can probably make this work so long as Batman doesn't stick his nose in. Yeah, like that'll happen. Word Count: 123,925 Completed

Bitter, had the Heart by CastrianAmore :

Tim is the only one consistently watching. Thus he’s the first and only one to notice one more body following the streets like the bats do. A kid with all black hair and white motifs and an attitude problem that reminds him a tad too much of Jason. It was a shame Jason was adamant that he “didn’t know anything”, what a liar right?

But the streets of Gotham listened and the name on everyone’s lips playing like a discordant harmony was one word: Distortion. Not that Tim knew what it meant yet, but Danny would make sure he would. If Danny lived long enough for Tim to find out.

Word Count: 182,548 Completed

Wanted: Dead and Alive by Astereae :

“Hey, I do I... Do I know you?” Danny asks, a hand coming up to brush something off Tim’s cheek. “No,” Tim says. “We haven’t met.” “Oh, no, I do.” Danny says, and he smiles, teeth white and sharp. “You’re that guy who rearranged my guts!” Rearranged his- Tim glances at the knotted scars on the boy’s abdomen. He can see the shine and shadow of haphazard stitches that weren’t meant to hold forever, that tore and healed over. His- This- “WHAT!?” Nightwing shouts, equal parts confused and delighted. Tim’s fucked. OR Danny Fenton's been in GIW captivity for 4 months. Tim Drake gets kidnapped by the GIW one Tuesday evening in May. Considering how many of the Bats and the Birds have died and come back to life, it was only a matter of time for some people interested in the afterlife to come poking around. The detectives can't seem to uncover any information about the mysterious white vans, however. And they keep losing the mysterious boy who seems to be the one person in Gotham to know anything at all. Word Count: 121,281 Completed

Finding Valhalla by Phantom_Theif_1412 for Cielle_Noire :

When the local breakfast cereal invites Bruce Wayne and his family to Amity, Phantom and Valkyrie are suspicious and try to play it safe. But they have no idea what he's planning, and misguided plans can cause unintended consequences. Posting this cause I wrote it, and really hope everyone likes it. Please enjoy at your leisure. Word Count: 195,295 Completed

Anaktaomai: regain for oneself, recover by blobghost (handovertheblorbofics) :

Jason is trying to live his second chance at life to the fullest: protecting Gotham's streets as the Red Hood, going to college to get a degree, participating in Gotham's Renaissance Faire, getting a boyfriend, all of it. Sure, he's been daydreaming a lot more and it might be becoming a major problem and his boyfriend is apparently a meta who saved his kid brother after a mission gone wrong, but as far as he was concerned those were nothing to worry about. What he does need to worry about is homework and rogues attempting to kill him... right? Title is Greek transliteration of ἀνακτάομαι. (Fic fully written and chapters will be posted once a week) Word Count: 117,717 Completed

A Second Life by Die_Erlkonigin6083 :

He wakes up with no memories. He knows things, but he doesn’t know why. Who is he? And how did he get here? Word Count: 159,219 Completed

Ongoing

Kite Flies Over The Nightingale Nest by Th3Sp4rrow :

My prompt list is from ailesswhumptober on Tumblr :) Tw's are at the start of each chapter! When Jason Todd learns that Catherine Todd wasn't his biological mother- that his bio mom as well as his twin brother were still out there somewhere in the world- he'd almost left the matter alone. He already had Dick; he didn't need another brother. Although, he did miss his mom... He'd decided to try and find Sheila Haywood, the woman who had relinquished him to his father and had dropped his twin off somewhere along the way. Meanwhile, Daniel Fenton had been protecting his town of Amity Park for months. Now, with the Ghost Investigation Ward closing in, the stakes are higher than ever. After a night out gone horribly wrong, the Fentons' know his secret. He's Phantom, and he's half ghost. They chase him cross-country, meets some interesting characters, and sees the GIW attempting to kidnap a boy about his age. He takes action. He swoops in to save the boy and... fails. Instead of saving him, they both get shoved into the back of some shitty van. That was when they realized they knew the face staring back at them. Word Count: 139,347 On-going

lex luthor's ascent from supervillainy to fatherhood by halfgone(milkywxy) :

Based on this Tumblr prompt.

Lex Luthor has recently acquired a son. Weapon? Parole officer? ...Lex now has a teenaged god and he'll be damned if someone tries to take the kid away from him.

Word Count: 519,936 On-going

close enough to be whole again by hailsatancab :

“If you ever find yourself in danger, go to Bruce Wayne. He will help you.” His mother had loved him, in her own way. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have helped him escape. If she hadn’t, she would have dragged him back to the League of Assassins, to Grandfather. If she hadn’t, he’d be dead. She loved him, but she loved the League more. Jack and Maddie Fenton loved him too, they did, but they loved their work more. They loved their work more. -- After his parents react poorly to his reveal, Danny escapes to the only person he thinks can help him - Bruce Wayne. He doesn't know what to expect when he gets there, but it has to be better than where he is, surely? He certainly doesn't expect to be reunited with his long lost twin brother Damian. It's funny how things work out that way. Danny is 16 years old, not Phantom Planet compliant Word Count: 117,934 On-going

Imprint by Hashtag_DriveBy :

He screwed his eyes shut, held his breath, desperately wished that he was back in his safehouse, alone and blissfully unaware. But the weight in his hands remained, and when he opened his eyes, it was to the bean-shaped 'fuck you' the Lazarus Pit had kindly bestowed upon him, arms and legs folded up against his front beneath off-white muslin while tiny lips smacked softly.

What the fuck.

What the hell was Jason supposed to do now?

Word Count: 119,791 On-going

Phantoms and Foes by Zyleev :

Krypton was dying long before it exploded. After a lab accident at 14 gave Danny ice powers, he used them for good to try and stop crime as the first hero of Krypton. But when thousands of years of mining the core of Krypton finally caught up to the planet, General Zod evacuated Krypton to the Phantom Zone before it exploded. Little did Zod know he led the Kryptonians to a slaughter. Years later, Danny is the only Kryptonian left alive when Kal-El finds the Phantom Projector and brings him to Earth. Danny must now adjust to having new powers and life on a planet that is completely different than Krypton and the Phantom Zone. Word Count: 121,723 On-going

Press Heart to Subscribe by Die_Erlkonigin6083 :

Brown shows Damian a viral video of a twitch streamer, named UndeadNebula, passionately defending the current Robin from his critics. Intrigued, he begins watching the streamer.

UndeadNebula is smart, kind, funny, and Damian could listen to him talk for eternity.

The streamer might have wormed his way into Damian’s heart.

Word Count: 101,086 On-going

Danny Fenton: Dead and Loving It by HyperKid :

Danny and Jason meet by chance in a graveyard on Christmas Eve over a certain someone’s grave. Neither expect to ever see the other again, until they run into each other at a coffee shop less than a week later.And once they’re both thinking clearly, there’s obviously something wrong. Between working out what to tell their families, what’s actually going on, and just… well, being happy pains in the ass and proud of it, it turns out Team Batfam and Team Phantom all over are a match made in Heaven. Now all they have to do is persuade Bruce that Jason having new friends hasn’t hailed the apocalypse. Word Count: 275,002 On-going

Bus to Nowhere by foldingfacets :

Is it running from your problems if your problems consider you to be a dead imprint of consciousness that killed their son? Yes, but Danny tries not to think about how his nightmares of his parents trying to kill him came true when they found out he was Phantom. After being on the run from his parents and the government for a couple of months, moving from town to town, Danny ends up in Gotham City and decides to risk staying in Batman's territory. He'd take the wrath of Batman over live vivisection via beloved parents or being studied and torn apart by the government. Besides, he's not a meta. Being dead is a medical condition. Word Count: 108,870 On-going

Some Kind of Miraculous Bind by Saitrised :

Damian Wayne is the heir to the Bat, the Blood Son. Except, he wasn't always the only blood son. There was another, younger heir once, before Damian had left the league and his brother hadn't had the chance to join him. There was one alive heir to the Bat, and a second one, secret to all but him, that was gone. Danny Fenton is already tired of being the Ghost King. Not even six months into his reign, and he's having to deal with ectoplasmic leaking past Amity's borders and new, unknown threats against his people. And the fact that Gotham, the one city that he had mentally marked as off limits, seems to be where most of the problems are isn't helping. ---This is an upload of a heavily edited version of the previously posted chapter 14--- Word Count: 126,392 On-going

schrodinger's cat by Meetalotaku :

My extrapolated story from I'm building off flamingpuddings post on Tumblr. What if Selina Kyle was Danny bio mom. That she had with Batman. And she put him up for adoption to her distance relatives the fentons. I've also taken the liberty to set the phantom time line up a few years earlier. Danny had his accident in Jr high. At 11 in 6th grade. He meets Selina at not yet 14 teen. A ton of DC characters will make appearances eventually. But it's going to focus heavily on Gotham based characters first. And slowly sprinkle in more phantom characters and other dc characters from all media forms messed together. Word Count: 145,780 On-going

Wayne's Haunted Mansion by Tathartiel :

Something is wrong. Bruce notices it when he's not alone, but he feels like he is being watched. The bad part? He feels it both as Bruce Wayne and as Batman. Who is watching him? He's determined to find out. He regrets it when finds out that there is another child in his home, but one who is in desperate need of help. Word Count: 121,923 On-going

The Adventures of Big Talon and Little Talon. by Ispotteddumuss :

“Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowy perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your health, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word of them or they'll send the Talon for your head.” Jason would like a one Talon please. No, not the Other Talon. He wants the Little Talon. The one with yellow green eyes. The short one. You know the one that chirps. No, he's not turning into his Father, he swears. Little Talon doesn't know what he wants but he knows this new Big Talon is good. (It takes a bit to get to Big Talon and Little Talon part. It starts mostly just Little Talon. Like a while. We got there though but takes a bit.) Word Count: 167,257 On-going

Artificial Wingman by TheSleepyKitsune :

Prompt fill for im-totally-not-an-alien-2 on TumblrAfter finding a spell book in his aunt's attic, half ghost Danny Fenton decides to become a Disney Princess for a day in another dimension by using a love potion on the local wildlife. Fate has different plans, however, in the form of a Gotham Vigilante landing directly in said love potion.Now, with a love-struck Damian Wayne and no immediate way home, Danny must try to make a cure while dodging the cities best detectives.Meanwhile, a very concerned Batfam are trying to track down their missing member. Word Count: 106,859 On-going

If you Give a Bat a Burger by Cielle_Noire :

Strange things are going on in Gotham: A series of crimes linked only by a sentence uttered. A drug that no one seems to be selling, but lots of people are taking. An old enemy reborn, or someone pretending to be him. Graffiti that can't be photographed by normal means. Bartenders disappearing without a trace. John Constantine is also there. Danny wants nothing to do with any of it. He just wants to sell burgers and survive. Actually, he'd like to go home again, but since that isn't possible, he'll stick with burgers. Gotham's vigilante's have other plans. This is why Danny doesn't do favors. Word Count: 248,148 On-going

regular boy: daniel wayne by diamond_rozie :

“Reporting live from Gotham City, here at the scene of the crime. Dr. Collin Kilye, renowned geneticist, has shot himself and has been declared dead by the paramedics. Dr. Kilye is suspected to be responsible for the purposeful switching of newborns between families under his care, where an known over 500 babies have been swapped in the last 20 years of his employment here. Based on the information provided to the Gotham PD by Nightwing and Batman, we are led to believe that Nightwing has been investigating this case after an anonymous tipoff. After a month and a half of investigating, Nightwing-” Dick had learned that people never know a situation as well as they assume they did. Dick had always assumed that he wouldn’t be one of those people. He was a detective, a Bat, the first Robin.The case file in front of him glared tauntingly. He should've known better to assume anything.Danny Fenton; Birth Parents: Bruce Wayne (father) and Clarissa King (mother). Status: Alive Word Count: 100,571 On-going

Like and Survive-Phantom's Guide to Young Hero Survival by robinasnyder :

When the world becomes aware of teenaged superheroes there is an immediate and fierce wave of backlash and controversy. That's where Phantom comes in. Phantom saved the world from a meteor fifteen years back; an impressive feat back in the day but now that meteors threatening all life on earth is such a common event that hardly anyone thinks about it. Phantom is considered an old timer who deals with a small city and nowhere else. When he begins uploading videos with advice for young heroes, he hopes a few new heroes might avoid some of the pain he went through. He's shocked at just how popular his advice suddenly becomes. Word Count: 306,940 On-going

If you find a vigilante in the dumpster by lunamugetsu :

The plan was simple, Jazz and her now de aged brother would go lay low in Gotham, act as a mother-son duo. Wait as Danny heals up by absorbing the ambient ectoplasm leaking from the city and Vlad gives the green light that he has a safe place they could stay. Plus with the blessing from the Ghost of Gotham and knowing that even the GIW wouldn't dare to encroach on Batman's territory, it was a pretty safe plan. That was until a certain vigilante just keeps on finding himself in their dumpster. / / It was a normal night of patrol for Jason. Beating up a bunch of criminals. Shooting them with bullets (they're rubber bullets Bruce! Calm down!) Get stabbed by them. Pass out from blood loss in the place he was taking refuge in Wake up in an apartment, his wounds bandaged and all. And to a black haired blue eyed kid staring at him. "I found you in the garbage!" Word Count: 120,002 On-going

Shoot Suspected Ghosts First, Ask Questions Never by yasstaghr :

Danny is in over his head and he knows it. He's feeling overwhelmed with trying to stop a war between the Realms and Earth, and he doesn't have a lot of good options. He makes a desperate attempt to keep as many people alive as he can, and it goes both horribly right and horribly wrong.

Word Count: 169,508 On-going

Robin's Egg by Calix :

While out on nightly patrol, Robin finds a very injured Danny Phantom who is about to be forced back into his core. Now that the ghost boy is entirely defenseless, how is Damien going to protect the core from others? And even harder… how is going to keep Phantom's existence unknown to his family? Word Count: 162,633 On-going

Friendly neighborhood vigilante by Elizabehta_Beilschmidt for Imp_y :

Meet Jasmine Fenton: Smart, resourceful, kind and the very proud sister of Amity Park's own undead superhero Danny Phantom. Therapist at your service. Intern at Arkham Asylum. Can kick your ass. Likes tea and long walks at the beach. Meet Jason Todd: Smart, resourceful, not-that-kind (if you say he's soft you may get knifed) and the very proud vigilante and protector of Crime Alley. Died for a while but got better. Holds grudges. Likes reading a nice book and the sound of the rain against the window. They are neighbors now. Word Count: 112,001 On-going

Broken Bonds by SleepingDead (PolarBearSeals) :

Severely injured, Danny escapes the GIW and latches onto the first ghost that called to him who offered protection and rest. Danny regrets it when he learns he's in the city of the brother who'd killed him. And it appears he can't leave. Word Count: 123,699 On-going

I Am A Retired Hero And My Love Interest Is A Former Crime Lored!? by ShyCrow :

Danny Fenton did the whole hero thing, all right? He fought bad guys, saved the world a couple of times, became enemies with a secret government faction. And it was fun. Really, he had no regrets! But now it's time for him to buckle down and focus on getting that degree. It's a good thing Gotham University gave him a full ride. But things are just now starting to get more and more complicated... It started as an accident that evolved into the Red Hood paying attention to Danny. And now ghosts are starting to lose objects that, if fallen into the wrong hands, can cause a lot of trouble for both Danny and the Ghost Zone. With the bats starting to take notice of him and the Zone's refusal to leave him alone, can he truly lead a normal life? And, more importantly, does he really want to? Word Count: 138,759 On-going

[phantomposting]

Time for another soupy 4am half asleep romps cause this idea is keeping me awake. Sorry in advance for grammatical and spelling errors.

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

So I've been stuck hyperfixated on twin aus lately cause I'm an absolute sucker for supportive found family stuff. However I've begun to run out of ideas to rotate in my brain and timeline out. This one popped in my head yesterday tho and it's been stuck in my noggin ever since.

Instead of just one twin going missing from the league on a mission both end up lost. Maybe the league assumes Damian and Danyal died and the bodies simply couldn't be recovered. Either way they stick together both ending up with the Fenton's in aminty Park Illinois.

Damian is still his prideful headstrong self. It takes him a long time to actually bond with Jazz due to his stand offish nature. But eventually they become close. Danny has just about the same character development but he is inseparable with Damian and Damian helps him become a little more self confident.

When it's time for the accident to occur both twins are caught in it. Both gain ghost powers and walk the fine live between dead and alive. Danny has a protection obsession and a minor space obsession, Damian has a protection obsession in the sense he must keep his family safe and his minor obsession is animals.

Danny takes up the alias Phantom and Damian takes up Ghoul. Together they make an unstoppable undead vigilante duo many of the ghost rouges refer to as the demon twins. Damian absolute retained more of his league training than Danny so Damian has an easier time at the whole ghostly hero biz than Danny. But he's very encouraging towards Danny in the hopes up helping him and his confidence. Probably has a bit that focuses mainly on that struggle with his confidence.

Phantom still has his white hair and green eyes and ice core and Ghoul has white hair and blue eyes and a shadow core. With this shadow core he can manipulate the shadows to give him the cover of darkness or make shadowy weapons. He uses this to take a more stealthy assassin approach to his heroing.

Eventually down the line the Fenton parents fond out Damian and Danny's secret. I like to think Danny couldn't stand to keep it a secret anymore but Damian didn't deem it safe enough to open up yet. As a result Danny opens up only about himself which leads to Jack and Maddie trying to "fix" him. Damian rescues him and they go on the run.

They end up on Gotham and the bats start getting suspicious of the two meta children going around fighting crime in their city. Don't they know there's a no metas rule?

Chaos ensues and Bruce finds out that these two homeless meta twins are actually his children and he has to slowly earn these kids trust so he can help them and bring them into the family. Lots of chaos, trauma, and happy moments later and the whole batclan welcomes the two with open arms :D

[menolly5600]

After Danny's human identity was accidentally revealed when he was exploding the GIW bases, the GIW knew who he was and were hunting him in both forms. Danny had been attacking the bases to force people outside Amity to investigate the GIW, and also making sure to free any captive ghosts. But with the GIW knowing that he's got a human form, they modified standard (criminal) meta suppression collars to suppress Ectoplasm circulation and energy activation (based off stolen Fenton tech). Then the GIW distributed the collars to federal and local authorities that were assisting in the manhunt for the meta terrorist. As a large metropolis with high ambient ectoplasm, Gotham received a collar.

Danny was hiding homeless in Gotham and maybe got onto the Bats' radar as a homeless kid. He ended up getting picked up by child services and doesn't want to reveal his powers while waiting for an opportunity to vanish. But someone at the office had clocked this homeless kid as the terrorist and called the cops to pick him up. When the cops took him into custody, he thought he could ghost them because he didn't want to hurt anyone. But they brought the collar and locked it on him when he was distracted. He didn't realize at first it was more than a typical meta gene suppressor.

But the Bats had already been on the lookout for the meta terrorist and were alerted he'd been captured in Gotham. But when they looked into it, they found out that the terrorist is a kid, and is the homeless kid some of them had met before. The cops planned to put him in Arkham until the GIW arrived to collect him.

But Bruce was able to arrange to foster him temporarily because he's a minor and hasn't actually been convicted of any crimes yet. In the national manhunt he's been a suspect and a person of interest, but he legally has rights still and there's been no trial even scheduled yet. Bruce got emergency custody and paid his bail on condition of keeping the collar on to prevent flight risk and to make sure he comes to interrogations and cooperates with the investigation. If he runs or the collar is removed, or he doesn't show for the investigation efforts, then custody will be revoked and he'll be handed over to the GIW to contain.

Danny did try to run at first, but the Bats brought him back. And once Bruce explained that if Danny keeps trying to run or the collar is removed, then the police will have to hand him to the GIW. Bruce explains he's trying to keep him safe while the investigation looks into the GIW and the explosions, because it's suspicious.

Danny doesn't actually know what long term power suppression will do to him. He knows even just the temporary Plasmius Maximus makes him feel weak and exhausted. But he doesn't know that permanently suppressing ectoplasm energy activation will kill him.

The longer he has the collar on, the more exhaustion drags at him. He tries telling the Waynes he needs it off because his powers are a part of him, and he's not actually a meta. He tries to explain he's half ghost, but the Waynes, and the child counselor and therapist they got him, are convinced it's delusions brought on by his victimization at the hands of his parents upbringing and the GIW persecution of him for having meta powers. Basically, everyone believes he's been conditioned to believe he's half inhuman and a monster.

The investigation is revealing that the GIW are violating the Meta Protection Acts and hunting and persecuting metas and nonhuman sentients (aliens) by labeling them as non-sentient ghosts. The attacks were born of his traumatic conditioning, fear for his life, and self-defense against violations of his rights and body. The fact that the GIW does intend to vivisect him as a specimen and are planning his eventual destruction only proves Danny was fighting and attacking them in self defense. Even the Justice League is getting involved in exposing the Anti-Ecto Control Acts as violations of Meta and Alien rights. They're well on the way to being repealed. The GIW is already being shut down and under scrutiny for human and alien rights violations, Geneva Convention violations, misappropriation of government resources, etc.

This guarantees Danny won't be handed to the GIW. But if Bruce can't keep custody then he'll be put in Arkham because of the delusions brought on by his conditioning. So the collar has to stay on. He's still a flight risk, and the child therapist believes him delusional still. Because while ghosts are real, they're not like the GIW reports claim or how Danny claims he's part ghost.

And this whole time, Danny gets weaker and more exhausted. Not even eating more is helping much. He's been trying to hide it, though. He's afraid of showing weakness.

It's bad enough nobody believes him about being a halfa, but it's understandable. Being Schrodinger's boy is hard to wrap your mind around, let alone being a sorta unliving undead being, like some eldritch thing Lovecraft dreamed up. His parents didn't understand. Not even Jazz and his friends really understood completely how his accident changed him on a fundamental level. Even Danny doesn't think too hard about it most of the time. It's easier to just think of himself as a boy with powers, sometimes.

So he hides how weak he's becoming, how ill he's starting to feel all the time. At first he thinks it's because he's adjusting to being without his powers and away from Amity Park, his haunt. He thinks it's feeling ill like he's going through withdrawals. He doesn't want the Waynes to decide he's too weird, too difficult, too creepy, too inhuman. Because he's getting attached, and he kind of thinks maybe they mean it that he's family now, that he's safe. He's kind of hoping they might actually be able to learn to love each other like a family.

But then he starts collapsing. He can't hide it anymore. Like a sickly fainting Victorian damsel, he keeps collapsing at random, fainting and blacking out. They already knew his vitals were off, lower heart rate and temperature. But now he's got arrhythmia and heart murmurs. He's starting to get fluid buildup in his lungs. He's unable to go ghost form, his human half still needs to breathe and have a pulse. His immune system is failing, he gets a cold that becomes pneumonia. Even after rigorous antibiotics and immuno boosters, even after he recovers from the pneumonia, he's still declining.

They did take him to the hospital, but the doctors couldn't find out what was wrong exactly. They did detect a buildup of strange chemicals all throughout his body cells. The chemicals had similarities to many of the chemicals found in GIW facilities. Also the Bats recognized some of the chemical markers Ra's used with his Lazarus water experiments. The best theory from the doctors is that exposure to the chemicals, from his parents' lab and the GIW facilities he attacked, was causing cellular poisoning. There was nothing they could do for him because it was so widespread and systemic.

Bruce insisted on taking Danny home. Even if all they could do was keep him comfortable, Bruce wanted his boy home. And maybe the Bats could find something from off world or esoteric that could save him. Besides, Danny was afraid every time he woke up in the hospital after blacking out again. If Danny had less than a year left to live, he wanted him to be comfortable, safe, and surrounded with family that had grown to love him.

The Waynes had always hated having to leave the collar on Danny. Especially Tim, because he was familiar with Impulse's dark future of control collars. But to keep him at home, even while he's slowly dying, they had to leave it on and being actively tracked as working by the federal government. Otherwise he'd be moved to Arkham for treatment and containment. They didn't want his last months to be in Arkham. The care there might just kill him faster.

Danny was in the manor at first. He was still mobile for a bit after coming back from the hospital. But then his legs started failing as his muscles atrophied and deteriorated. He was blacking out more, his short term memory failing. They helped him move around with a wheelchair for a bit, taking him to meals and to hang out around the manor with the family.

He was confused and sinking into a mental fog more often. He begged sometimes to take off the collar, or to let him go. Sometimes he begged them not to hurt him, begged them to understand that he's still Danny, still human. Sometimes he didn't know where he was and begged his parents not to tear him apart molecule by molecule.

As his digestive organs started failing, he couldn't eat so had to be hooked up to machines and IVs for fluids and nutrients. He was bed bound in his room, trying to make him comfortable. Someone was with him almost constantly, talking to him, taking care of him, comforting him as best they could.

But his mind wandered away more often, dissociating and catatonic. Soon he was rarely aware or lucid. As he wasted away, his organs began failing more and they moved him to the Batcave onto life support. They tried even more esoteric things to save him but nothing was working.

But waking up briefly lucid in the Batcave infirmary gave Danny a panic attack that nearly killed him before he passed out again. They reluctantly conceded having him in his room in the manor was safer. It took a bit of doing, but they got him set back up in his room with all the fancy cutting edge life support equipment. But it was a real chance Danny might die at any time. Despite all the life support equipment, necrosis was slowly setting in across his body, tissue dying while his body was forced to keep living.

After his skin started rotting in places, Bruce and the others could barely tear themselves away, out of fear he'd be gone by the time they came back. But then there was an Arkham breakout. They decided Bruce would stay with Danny so he wouldn't be alone, just in case he woke, just in case he died.

The Joker couldn't directly plant bombs in Wayne manor. Bruce's security system is too good to miss goons sneaking in to plant explosives. Instead he strapped explosives and Joker toxin canisters to house mice and released them onto Wayne property. And just in case they didn't find ways into the manor, he had a goon with a rocket launcher set up in the empty Drake manor next door.

The scattered explosions across Wayne manor were mice detonating in the walls. Some fires started, but the toxin was the most dangerous. The rocket launcher hit the upstairs and blew up Danny's bathroom and part of his bedroom and the hallway, and the room next to his. The concussive blast knocked Bruce unconscious. But he'd been shielding Danny already since the mice started exploding before the rocket hit.

When Jason rushed upstairs to the manor, he tried to rescue them both. But Bruce is a huge guy and Danny is fragile. He tried to drag Bruce half on his back while carrying Danny downstairs, but the toxin laced colored smoke and fire was too dangerous to expose them directly to. Bruce woke enough to slur at Jason to take Danny and save themselves. Obviously concussed, he told Jason not to die again. Jason went out the window with Danny.

He intended to go back for Bruce. Because he's determined to be better than Batman, so he's not going to leave him to die in an exploding building. And he's not going to give the Joker the satisfaction of killing another of them. And he's not going to lose Bruce just when they were starting to get somewhere better between them. But the outer wall under Danny's room is unstable and on fire after the rocket explosion. The fires and gas are so random throughout the building he can't find a safe route back to Bruce without his heavy vigilante gear.

He returned to Alfred who was watching over Danny. They couldn't take most of the life support equipment with Danny, but Alfred has portable oxygen and a defibrillator in case his heart stopped. The other Bats start arriving ahead of emergency services. Most of them split off as soon as they hear Bruce is trapped inside and concussed. Spreading out, they try to find a safe route to extract him. DickBats and Tim check on Jason, Alfred and especially Danny.

Red Robin asks if there are any routes from the Cave clear of toxin and fire. He mentions he doesn't know if the family can handle burying two family members at the same time. Danny's obviously doing worse away from the medical equipment.

Jason snaps that Danny's not going to die, Bruce told them to survive. And they're not going to give the clown the satisfaction.

DickBats determinedly declares Bruce isn't going to die.

This is when Danny's protection obsession is triggered and he jerkily sits up, scrabbling at his collar. He's begging to get it off, he needs to protect.

Jason snarls and goes to get the damned thing off.

Red Robin stops Jason Todd-Wayne. Says if he does it, Danny could be taken away from the Waynes. But if Red Robin does it... The Waynes can't be held liable for vigilante actions. And it might be Danny's last request, the stress might be too much for him, and Tim isn't going to let his little brother die in a suppression collar.

It takes a moment after the collar comes off before power washes over Danny and he's changed. He flies into the manor and saves Bruce, ice putting out most of the fires.

But when he returns with Bruce, he changes back and collapses again. His human half is still suffering organ failure from cumulative damage. His regenerative healing isn't instant. His body had been devouring his energy reserves to survive and he had almost nothing left to devote to healing. He was starting to regenerate but it will take time he may not have.

Emergency services is arriving by then. Danny and Bruce are taken to the hospital for overnight observation. Bruce, Dick, and the Wayne lawyers have to argue down child services and get permission from the police commissioner to justify removing the collar. Red Robin adds in that the collar was restricting the boy's breathing so had to be removed on site. The doctors verify that the boy is dying and all that can be done is make him comfortable while he passes. He's slipped into a coma and the doctors doubt he'll wake. Arkham, and the hospital, aren't the best places for keeping him comfortable. Bruce, still concussed, pleads to let him take his foster son home so he can be with family when he goes. By late morning they're allowed to take Danny home to die in comfort, without the collar.

Danny's human half has been struggling to heal, but a lot of his tissues are dead and decomposed. He can't heal the dead tissue, even though he can replace the cells in time with his regeneration. He's in a healing coma state as his core gathers ambient ectoplasm and absorbs the strong emotions around him to convert to ectoplasm. His ghost side is storing up energy in preparation for massive regeneration.

Once his core has gathered energy, his human body starts sloughing off the dead tissue. His core forces a self-preservation shift to ghost form and drops all the dead and decaying flesh and organs from his human half. He doesn't need the tissue and organs in ghost form, and can focus all his energy on regenerating his human half while maintaining ghost form.

But during this state, his human brain is offline. It takes a lot of energy to have his brain operational. With his brain comatose and his core acting as a secondary brain and emotional center, it's like he's sleepwalking. He reacts to emotional stimuli rather than logic or reasoning in this state.

Meanwhile, the Waynes had set him up in the Batcave with more equipment. There was some desperate hope he might get better without the collar suppressing his meta powers. He'd been a little better and strong enough to save Bruce right after removing it. But he still hadn't woken up after hanging on for a few more days.

Then his vitals crashed as his brain activity flatlined. Then he changed again, like he had when he saved Bruce. Except this time when the strange energy form floated up above the bed, it left behind a rotting slurry of flesh, organs and crumbling bone.

The floating, translucent, color reversed version of him still looked like Danny. But they couldn't touch him. He didn't respond to their calls. Even when he opened his glowing green eyes, he was unresponsive to them. It was as if he wasn't registering seeing or hearing them. It was as if Danny had died, leaving behind a rotted body and an echo, a shade of a ghost that wasn't a ghost like Deadman is a ghost.

Danny was dead.

Danny's shade haunted the Cave, and later the manor once it was repaired. He haunted them, his gaze distant and unresponsive. The only times he seemed to respond to something was when someone was angry, distraught and grieving, or experiencing an intense emotion. Sometimes his shade would flee the area, sometimes vanishing completely for a while. Other times he'd be drawn to the person, hovering around them as if concerned, but without quite seeing them.

It usually made the grieving worse.

Danny's human mind was catatonic and unconscious. His ghost-brain core was dissociating and running on instincts. He fled from dangerous 'fight-anger' emotions to protect his human half while so weak and regenerating. He was drawn to his family-fraid being happy or (more often) sad. He wanted to soak up the happy emotions, though there wasn't much happiness in the manor these days after their newest brother died. And he wanted to comfort his family-fraid when sad and upset. Instinctively he used as little energy as possible so everything else could go towards healing his human half. So he barely glowed, didn't become tangible and was barely visible most of the time.

But Danny was slowly healing and his tissues and organs slowly being reconstructed while in his ghost form. His ghost form is entirely ectoplasm so it's easier to rebuild the organs and muscles out of ectoplasmic cells. When he's ready to transform back to human form and wake up his brain, the ectoplasmic cells will shift to living tissue cells along with the rest of his body.

But until then, Danny's mentally checked out. And the Waynes think he died, gruesomely decomposing rapidly, and is now haunting them for failing him.

Dp x Dc fic idea that wouldn't let me sleep:

"No, you don't understand! I need my powers. I'll die without them!" Danny pleaded with the officer in front of him.

"Sure, kid, and I need a burger. You'll be just fine without your flight or superstrength or whatever. Look, I see kids like you all the time nowadays. You think just because you have a few powers, you can become some kind of hero. You run away from home, cause trouble in the name of 'justice' or whatever. Then reality hits. You start stealing. What's a few stolen bucks or candy bars in the name of the greater good, right? It's a downward spiral from there. Seems you were pretty far down the spiral. Beating up government agents? Kid, there is no way in hell I'm letting you out of here without the meta power suppressant collar. You're lucky Mr. Wayne was so generous and decided to foster you until we find your parents. I would've sent your troublesome ass back to juvie."

I was thinking this was a bad timeline where the Fenton parents died and Danny ran away. The power suppressing collar does work on him somehow, and cuts him off from his ghost half, which stops the ectoplasm that was keeping him alive since the accident.

I pictured Bruce as the foster parent that decided to help the troubled teen, but it could be anyone. Imagine if Lex Luthor decided he wanted to "help" (read: manipulate the young meta into doing his bidding) Danny instead. Extra angst.

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Tug of War (Ch 2)

prev - next

Word Count: 1,756

A month has passed since Danny and Wes had served their detentions (unfortunately Mr. Lancer’s favouritism didn’t extend to Casper’s basketball players). However, like always in the past, the chowder incident didn’t deter Wes from trying to expose him. And like before, Danny just ignored the lunatic’s attempts. At least he hasn’t tried taking any more of his stuff from their shared locker since.

Read on AO3 or under the cut

Slamming his locker shut, Danny made his way to find Tucker. It was Tucker’s suggestion to go on patrol right after school since he had something planned later in the evening. However, no matter how many times Danny asked, he wouldn’t say what that something was. Too bad Sam was on vacation now. For sure she would’ve been able to squeeze the truth out of him.

When Danny approached his friend, he was kneeling, with his entire upper body swallowed up his locker.

“Uh, Tuck?”

Without budging from his position, Tucker responded, “Yo Danny, just give me a sec. I just need to finish with this wiring.”

Danny just stood there, observing in the various tools surrounding his friend before his eyes finally settled on an empty box for a George Foreman grill.

“Tuck...you didn’t...”

“Aha!” Tucker exclaimed enthusiastically. He backed out of the locker and admired his work. “Now let’s test this baby out.”

Danny watched wordlessly as he plugged something in a makeshift AC outlet inside the locker. A light beaconed from the top shelf, and there he spotted the grill.

Meanwhile, Tucker jumped up in glee. “Yeah baby! Can’t wait for lunch tomorrow!”

“But…” Danny paused as he noticed the stack of textbooks on the floor by his feet. “What about your textbooks?

Tucker motioned to the empty space at the bottom of the locker. “Thank god Sam took home her shoes, I’m just gonna dump ‘em all there.”

“And Sam?”

“Yeah?”

“She’s going to be furious.”

“Let her, I’m doing her a favour. I’m pretty sure you can grill vegetables too,” Tucker said as he began cleaning up. 

Danny stooped down to help him. “How did you even get the time to do this?”

He shrugged. “Just did it all in my spare.”

“Wait, you have a spare?”

“Yeah, last period. You didn’t know?”

Danny struggled to recall if Tucker ever told him this. His mind has been a whirl since school started. “I guess I forgot. Hold up, why don’t you go straight home then? You don’t have to wait for us.”

“Nah dude it’s okay, I actually get a lot more done studying at the library here than the entire evening at home,” Tucker assured as he placed the last tool in his backpack. He stood up and fished out his PDA from his pocket, checking off ‘Install grill’ from his to-do list.

“I see what you mean,” Danny understood, remembering how much of a distraction his parents were at home. Now that Jazz had left for Stanford, it seems that his parents have doubled their efforts to spend time with him. He gets it, they missed Jazz a lot. And in less than a year he’ll be gone off to college too (hopefully). Still, they were pretty distracting, especially when they had a new invention or discovery to show off. Thankfully he had a spare next semester.

“So Tuck, before we start, are you gonna tell me your ‘special plans’ later?” he inquired for the last time, trying to inject as much ‘Sam’ into his voice.

“Nope,” he replied, popping the ‘p’.

Danny pouted. Before he could say anything else, he gasped when an icy fog escaped his mouth.

“Guess we’re starting patrol at the school today,” Tucker stated nonchalantly as he activated the ghost radar on his PDA. 

Looking both ways down the hall and confirming no one else was around, Danny transformed. 

Meanwhile, peering around the corner of the hallway in his basketball uniform, Wes seethed as he witnessed Fenton’s transformation for the seventeenth time! And like always, he didn’t have his camera with him. Why did basketball tryouts have to be today?

“Dammit!” he exclaimed, angrily stomping back to the gym.

How many times does he have to watch Fenton expose himself before the school finally takes a hint? Why are they so damn oblivious? Three years have passed and he still has yet to open anyone’s eyes to the truth! And Fenton has been masquerading as the town’s hero the entire time!

He doesn’t have much time left. Once he leaves for college, he’ll lose his chance. Sure, he could continue posting on his blog, but the seven visitors he gets every month either think it’s a joke or never heard of Danny Phantom. And who knows where Fenton’s heading after high school. He’d probably be stuck relying on his old evidence. Which isn’t even that effective, considering all the convincing it’s done so far. 

Time is running out. He refuses to let all these years go to waste. He’s dedicated his whole being to this. He cannot fail, he needs them to believe him. Otherwise, what has been his purpose all this time?

He can’t—they have to eventually believe him, right? He cannot go down that path again; the world needs him to prove this. 

He’s the only person who can. 

But what else he could do? He’s come to realize that Mr. Lancer gifted him the perfect opportunity to get close without faking being friends. Yet, except for the thermos that one day, Fenton hasn’t stored anything suspicious in their locker. Fenton must be keeping his weapons in his stupid sidekicks’ locker. That doesn’t help him at all!

There must some advantage to this sharing lockers thing. Some way...the memory of Fenton’s furious green eyes flashed through his mind. 

That’s right! Fenton’s temper brings out the ghost in him. And Wes has the perfect opportunity to get under his skin. Once the ghost loses control in front of everyone…

Then he’ll finally fulfill his purpose.

~

A yawn escaped from Danny as he trudged into school the next day. On autopilot, he grabbed his supplies from his bag and went to phase it into his locker. Except, when he leaned closer and his arm was halfway through the door, he stopped and sniffed. Something reeked.

Scrunching up his nose, he cautiously opened the door and cringed as the stench hit him full force. His eyes darted around the locker until they settled on the source of the offensive smell.

Wes’ basketball uniform. It was innocently lying crumpled at the bottom of the locker, but the stink it was emanating was criminal. He suddenly felt the urge to hurl. 

Didn’t Wes ever hear of deodorant? He didn’t know whether to feel disgusted or concerned. 

He was tempted to toss it into the trash bin in the hallway, but that would mean touching the smelly jersey and shorts.

Unable to stand it any longer, he kicked his locker shut and quickly retreated to his homeroom, backpack still on him. 

~

“Yo, Danny, you okay?” Tucker asked worriedly, noticing the sick look on his face when he sat down beside him.

Danny shook his head as he placed his books on the desk. “No. I…” he began, pausing when he saw his locker partner enter the classroom. “I need to talk to Wes,” he finished before abruptly standing up and striding towards him.

“What do you want, Fenton?” Wes coldly demanded. 

“You left your gym clothes in the locker.”

“Yeah, so? I’ll need them again for practice tomorrow.”

“Wes, they stink.”

“Yeah, right,” he scoffed before crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. “It’s not that bad. You should feel lucky you’re not sharing with any of the other jocks.”

“You’re hardly a jock.”

“At least I’m something. Something real. You—you parade around this false loser facade, but I know who you really are Phantom,” he declared, poking him right in the chest. “And one day I’ll expose your true colours to the whole world.”

Danny really wasn’t in the mood this morning. Batting away Wes’ accusing finger, he cut straight to the chase, “Look, please just don’t keep your bas—”

“No.”

The two boys met each other’s eyes in a glaring contest. Neither side wanted to back down. After a moment, Danny continued, “Why not?”

“I’m just as entitled to keep whatever I want in there as you are. You don’t hear me complaining about your ghost hunting equipment.”

He was truly starting to lose his patience now. “No. Instead, you take my lunch and get us detention for spraying it on everyone.”

“Any other day I could’ve exp—”

BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING

The two boys jolted as the bell rang.

“We’re not finished here,” Danny grunted before heading back to his seat. Why didn’t he just get rid of that horrible stench right then and there? One ectoblast would’ve surely turned those clothes to ashes.

~

“Sausage?” Tucker offered when Danny sat at their lunch table.

Danny eyed the smoke swirling from the meat. “Did you just make those?”

“Yup, here, try one,” he said while picking up one with a pair of tongs.

Before accepting it, Danny muttered, “Sam is going to be so mad.”

“I know. Anyways, what went down between you and Wes this morning?”

Danny swallowed a mouthful of sausage before he started, “He left his clothes from basketball practice in our locker.”

“And...?”

“Tuck, they stink.”

“My dude...” He pulled out a can of Foley and pushed it across the table. “You’re lucky that we’re friends. I’ll let you borrow it, free of charge.”

Danny scrunched up his nose from an overly musky smell coming from the so-called cologne. “Tuck, this will just make it worse.”

Smirking, he smoothly replied, “Precisely. How do you figure I got Sam to take her shoes home?”

“Oh,” he realized, matching Tucker’s smirk with his own.

~

“FENTON, WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY CLOTHES?” Wes shrieked when he stomped over to his desk the next morning.

Feigning innocence, Danny raised an eyebrow and responded, “What are you talking about?”

“My uniform, you—YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN’T TOUCH MY STUFF!”

“And I didn’t.”

“Liar.”

Technically, he wasn’t lying. He just sprayed a little Foley at a certain spot in their locker. Okay, maybe not a little.

“I didn’t touch anything. It’s not my fault you’re just realizing how much your clothes stink,” he shrugged indifferently.

“I’ll...I’ll get you back for this Fenton!” Wes promised before stomping back to his seat.

Danny turned to an amused-looking Tucker and they both began to snigger.

[bibbumblebee]

Ectober19: In Which Sam Falls Apart at a Halloween Party

My first ever fic for anything before. Not perfect, but it was a lot of fun to write! Also it’s 22 minutes late shhh don’t tell anybody.

Prompt: Fangs/Shatter

Sam’s fangs were really starting to bother her.

They poked at the inside of her bottom lip, and if she wasn’t careful, she found herself sticking them into her tongue or the soft gums behind her bottom row of teeth. She wondered how on earth some of the ghosts Danny fought back to the Ghost Zone could stand having such deadly teeth. All the time. Her fake ones were about to drive her crazy.

Just a few more hours, Manson, she told herself. She took a drink of punch, wishing it was spiked, to soothe the sores forming along her lip and the bristly, nervous anger that had lodged itself in the back of her throat. Gothika, Vampire Queen, doesn’t take her fangs out. Not even for boring parties.

She had come with Tucker and Danny, had actually come at their insistence. Tucker begged her the moment he found an invitation to Paulina’s party in his locker. She’d declined and declined, in varying shades of no, until Danny asked her one day after class. He’d held his invitation in his hands like a secret the two of them could share and looked at her shyly.

“Be more fun with you there,” he said.

Those eyes. Bluer than springtime. That little half-smile that, had she not known him since grade school, she wouldn’t have noticed. Would have thought was sadness. The slight quiver in his voice, like he wasn’t sure he should be saying anything. Afraid he might mess it up. Afraid she might say no. But how could she say no to that? To him?

She realized now she probably should have.

***

Danny had decided to dress up as Phantom for Halloween, saying that it was the only time during the year he could be himself and no one would be suspicious of it. “People love Phantom,” he told her when he announced his plan. “Maybe I can use tonight to get people to like Fenton, too.”

“Dude,” Tucker said, scrolling on his PDA for lists of popular Halloween costume ideas, “Phantom’s public enemy number one. They don’t love you.”

“Yeah, well, they love the idea of me.”

Sam knew how much it hurt Danny that the world feared Phantom as much as they hated Fenton. She’d been so certain that using his ghostly half to save the city from other ghosts would work. Would make him a hero. Would make him realize people loved him. She never suspected Amity Park would turn on him. And judging by how Danny’s face fell every time he saw Phantom on the news, every time Tucker reminded him that Amity Park wanted him dead for real, every time his parents invented another doomsday device, Sam got the feeling that Danny never suspected the hate, either.

***

She sipped some more punch, eyeing her black lipstick stain on the cup. She’d have to reapply soon. Maybe go and find Tucker, trying to pick up girls with his sexy professor costume. Sam tried to tell him that sexy professor was not the costume he thought it was, but his heart was set. He’d come in tight pants that highlighted his (admittedly) nice calves and a shirt he only buttoned up halfway.

Just as Sam figured they would, most of the popular kids assumed he was trying to be a sexy Mr. Lancer. Sam would have felt bad if she didn’t think Tucker needed to learn his lesson.

Still. She could use a dance.

Sam set down her empty cup and adjusted her black gloves where they had slid down her arms. She was going to go and find Tucker when she saw a flash of green from across the courtyard.

Paulina’s Most Perfect Halloween Party was held at the country club, like all her other parties, and the outdoor garden and courtyard had been decorated in purple streamers and smiling Jack-o’lanterns. Candles with artificial flames had been rigged on wires, suspended above their heads. It cast everything into a warm haze, everyone’s costumes cloaked and flickering between shadow and light.

Everyone’s except Danny’s.

He lit up like a star, a star with its own gravity, pulling everyone at the party to him. It was that natural magnetism Sam noticed he had while he was Phantom. Smiling, making jokes, puffing his chest out boldly. Confident. In control. With that smile, and that mop of silvery white hair, it wasn’t difficult to see why people were drawn to him. Why they feared him.

“Oooh, Ghost Boy,” said Paulina. She grabbed his arm. “How do you make your eyes light up like that?”

“Ghost Boy?” Dash said. Sam noticed him lurking behind the two of them, his face painted green like Frakenstein’s monster. Big, hulking, mindless mistake, Sam thought. Fitting.

“If that’s really the Ghost Boy,” said Kwan, appearing next to Dash as if summoned, “then we gotta report him.”

“It- it’s not Ghost Boy,” Danny said, and Sam heard the panic in his voice. “It’s just me. Danny Fenton.”

“Yeah right,” Kwan said. “Don’t lie.”

“Why would Ghost Boy lie about being Fentwerp?” Dash’s voice carried across the courtyard as if he was standing next to Sam at the punch bowl, making conversation. “He wouldn’t stoop that low.”

“Yeah,” Paulina said. Sam noticed her back away from Danny. She tried not to notice Danny’s face as it fell. “Ghost Boy wouldn’t lie about being a loser. No offense.”

“Yeah…” Danny said. “I guess not.”

“But still…” Paulina said, “You do have a pretty sweet costume, Danny. How does it glow like that?”

“My parents’ ghost hunting tech,” Danny said. His voice, which had lost a significant portion of its confidence, strengthened a little.

He and Tucker had rehearsed answers on the walk from Sam’s house. She’d tried to pretend to be focused on gluing her fangs over her real canines, but really she was trying not to turn around and stick the fake teeth through Tucker’s cheek. Asking questions like If Paulina wants to dance with you, what do you say? and If she wants you to turn invisible, will you? and Yo, man, I never thought. Can you turn just clothes invisible?

Sam stopped listening after that.

***

She only came tonight because Danny wanted her to. “Be more fun with you there,” he’d told her. But he hadn’t been with her the entire evening. She’d stood, her back to the garden wall, following his spectral glow around the party, trying not to think about the way he smiled when someone said his name. The way he fidgeted with his hands, more than likely trying to fight the urge to show off too much.

“You can’t shoot ectoblasts, you know,” Tucker told him. “Unless you lie and say you rigged one of your parents’ guns into your suit.”

They were in Sam’s room, waiting on her to finish applying her makeup. She’d decided on a darker, more dramatic look than the one she usually wore, replacing her purple eyeshadow for gray, opting for fake eyelashes over her natural.

Danny hovered behind her, watching her glue her eyelashes on. She felt his t-shirt brush against her shoulder. Caught the smell of laundry detergent and winter air and electricity—something he’d had since the accident. A permanent, static chill where there should have been body heat. Even while alive, he carried the chill of the dead.

“Why are you covering up your lashes?” he asked, watching her in the mirror.

She turned and batted them at him, laughing at the expression on his face. “For dramatic effect.”

“I’d say it worked,” Tucker said, sitting on Sam’s bed to tie his sexy loafers. “Earth to Danny? You in there?”

A second too late, Danny turned away, and Sam noticed the flush along his pale cheeks.

***

“Remember,” Tucker said. “You’re not Danny Phantom tonight. You’re Danny Fenton dressed up as Danny Phantom.”

“I know.” Danny watched Tucker unbutton and rebutton his dress shirt, making what he probably thought were sexy faces in the mirror. “I want them to like me. They already like Phantom.”

“And possibly want to kill him.”

Danny blanched. “Yeah. That too.”

After Sam finished her makeup, she encouraged Danny to sit down so she could cover his face with some powder, too.

Danny was sporting a black eye, only just starting to fade, from his most recent run-in with Dash’s fists. He’d been in worse shape from other fights, but Sam didn’t want Danny to be embarrassed by the bruise. She knew, too, that he carried marks far worse than the black eye, but it was the least she could do for the party.

Though neither of them would say so, Sam had seen the scars. She hadn’t meant to. It had been an accident, walking into his room without knocking. He’d been quick, but she’d seen his side where Valerie shot him. The long burned scar along his ribs. She couldn’t imagine it didn’t hurt, even now nearly a month later. She’d seen the smaller scars along his back, random collections from his fights over the last year and a half. The wings of a purpling bruise along his shoulders—more than likely from his fight with Skulker that ended with Danny’s back buried in ten inches of brick.

And it was all her fault. Because she couldn’t say no. She couldn’t say No, don’t go into the portal. She couldn’t say No, it’s okay. You don’t have to prove anything to me. No, she’d taken one look at those big blue eyes, that mess of black hair, the suit he’d slipped on, highlighting his narrow waist and lean arms. The curve of his back. Of course she wouldn’t tell him no.

And he’d died because of it.

He died a little more every day because of it.

It had taken Sam a few moments of convincing, but she managed to seat Danny at her vanity and powder his face to cover the worst of the bruising.

He fluttered his eyes shut so she didn’t get any powder stuck in them, and she occupied herself with blending over the purple and black blossom around his eye. She tried not to think of his hair, tickling her cheek, or of his cold breath on her hand. Just a brush and powder and a fresh bruise that, if she pressed too quickly, caused him to wince with phantom pain.

***

She didn’t notice she’d been lingering next to the punch table, her cup empty in her hand, her eyes focused on a spot just next to the DJ’s table on the dance floor.

“Sam?”

She looked up to see Danny standing next to her, his eyes glowing like will-o-the-wisps waiting to lure her away. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said.

His eyes searched her face. Sam wondered what he found there. Anger? Sadness? That oh-so carefully practiced apathy?

“Paulina and the others are actually talking to me. Me,” he said. “Not Phantom. Fenton.”

Sam tried to appear happy at the news, but she’d known that would be what happened. She chewed her bottom lip, no longer caring about the sharp fangs still glued in her mouth.

“I mean, all they want to talk about is my parents’ gear and my costume, but still.” When he stepped closer, a chill fell over Sam and she shivered. It was as if she had decided to step into a bucket of ice water. “They actually seem interested.”

The way his voice swooped up with hope. It was enough to make Sam regret coming, regret hearing that joy in Danny’s voice and know it wasn’t because of her. Sure, she was happy for him. Being accepted is all he ever wanted, Phantom and Fenton. He was obsessed with saving people, protecting people. Being loved.

She wondered if he knew.

“I know,” he said.

Sam froze. About how she felt? She wasn’t sure she knew how she felt. She just knew that guilt that followed her wherever she went, that feeling of walking on ice every time she felt Danny near her. The way the chill traveled up her spine and froze the bones under her skin. And when he touched her...a wayward brush, an intentional hold on her wrist, a thoughtless clasp of her hand...it shattered her. Broke her into a million pieces inside. Thin ice under a heavy weight—gone.

And yet, in amongst those pieces lay a stronger, scarier feeling. The feeling of the life she’d nearly destroyed, the life fighting through the death, the patient blue of his eyes. The slight pout lingering behind every smile. His spidery fingers. His birdlike bone structure.

She had been the death of him.

She wished he’d return the favor.

“I know they’re only going to like me for tonight.”

Oh.

Oh.

Right. Of course. The popular kids. The costumes. The party.

“Well you know you’ve always got me,” she said. After a moment, she added, “And Tuck.”

There it was. That sad, shy smile. “I know.”

“I know you do.”

“The fangs,” he said, glancing toward her mouth. “When did you put those in?”

“Put them in? I’ve always had them.” She tried to lift her voice, dangle it on a thread of humor. She failed.

“I mean,” Danny said, “I guess Gothika, Vampire Queen, wouldn’t be a very good vampire without fangs.”

“You remember Gothika?” She hadn’t talked about her in weeks, and she never believed Danny had really been listening to her.

“I remember,” he said. He looked up at the popular kids, who were clustered on the dance floor, not dancing, just talking. Taking selfies. Checking their friends’ profiles. Even Tucker was out there, Sam noticed, trying to talk to a very harassed-looking Valerie.

“I invited you tonight,” he said.

“Yeah?” Sam knew she was the only person at Casper High to not get an invite from Paulina. It stopped bothering her well over a year ago.

Danny turned and looked at her mouth again. “Stop chewing on your lips,” he said. “You’re going to put a hole through them.”

She tucked her fangs inside her mouth, licking her teeth along them, tasting the sour glue holding them in place. “Nervous habit.”

They shared a silence for a moment, Danny’s eyes flicking away from her face, looking up to the candles above their heads. Sam watched the light bounce around his features, casting his eyes and the hollows of his cheeks into shadow. Be more fun with you there.

She forced her eyes away before he caught her staring.

“I’d love to dance,” he said, answering her unasked question. He turned and gave her his sad half-smile.

“With me?”

“With you.”

He took her hand, and she shattered at the touch.