#that he never had the ecto levels of a baby ghost | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

phantomphangphucker · 4 years ago

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Ectober Day 10: Ring - Heavy On The Heart, Light Upon The Head

Maddie worries over Danny plenty and he’s more than a little strange. But ghost royalty seems to be taking things a bit far. Yet somehow, it suits him.

Maddie knows something’s up with her son. Has been for a while. Two years at least. And she has a bad feeling ghosts have something to do with it.

He was stronger, bolder in personality and she knows his baggy clothing hides defined muscle. More muscle than either her or Jack have. She doesn’t know exactly how that happened. But the muscle she could understand to a level, same with the scarring she occasionally spots. Ghosts had plagued this town for nearly four years now. And the school was a hot spot. Self-defence was a required class now and everyone frequently had to run or even possibly fight. Every single person was stronger, Danny just seemed more so than others. She could maybe pass it off as genetics from Jack; who had always had an easy time putting on muscle... and fat.

What concerned her more was the mental changes. The increased confidence and boldness was one thing, not strange in the slightest for a teen nearing adulthood. But it was more than that. He had this wise air about him. Not smart, but wise. Something she once felt off of her grandmother. To get that from her son was strange and wrong. Not bad, just wrong. And that air about him felt powerful too, and commanding. It was as if an army commander had just walked into the room half the time. And the way he would look at people, soft and protective. Like he really was a soldier coming upon a group of sweet innocent children. Even relaxing or lounging around, it still seemed like power thrummed under his skin. And talking to him often made her feel like he knew things she didn’t and that he knew that she didn’t know what he did. But it wasn’t pompous. It was more like an adult protecting the innocent mind of a child. In Jack’s case, she could understand a little. Jack could be a little naive and oblivious. But her? Danny shouldn’t be able to make her feel that way so easily, and clearly unintentionally.

It was strange. It was off. And it didn’t make sense. Sometimes he didn’t even seem to resemble the boy he used to be.

As for why she thought ghosts might have something to do with why? Well looking at him at the supper table... It’s late October. The sun is setting. And the lights were broken this morning. Leaving the fading dark orange sunlight as the only thing lighting up the mess of noddles, her son, and her. Jack off fixing the lighting situation and Jazz off at Havard. And in this dark light, she notices that ring of his, the one he’s worn like it’s attached to him for the past year, is glowing. It’s green and it’s glowing. It’s faint, but it’s there. So that’s why she thinks he’s gotten involved with something ghostly; and that it’s changed him. Because that ring is absolutely ghostly in origin.

The first thought that enters her head as she pauses, spoon halfway to her open mouth, is: could that be possessing him? Or allowing a ghost to? The second is: did he steal that from some ghost? Those thoughts should be in the opposite order, but they’re not. Because something’s off with Danny.

Her eyes move from the ring to Danny, finishing the motions of putting the noodles in her mouth while he moves his left hand under the table. Obviously he noticed she noticed. Obviously he knew something was up with the ring and was hiding it. Obviously he didn’t want her commenting on it or being suspicious of it. Was that something to be concerned over? Or suspicious of? Did that mean there was, in fact, something nefarious surrounding the ring or why he wears it? She’s unsure, and other than moving his hand out of her line of sight, he doesn’t outwardly acknowledge her suspicions. He successfully made the motion look nonchalant. Normal. But she can’t let that make her feel better or trick her into thinking he didn’t actually notice her pause. Because she knows how good of a liar he is. How skilled of an actor he was. Could that be the doing of the ring? But that wouldn’t quite make sense, he’s been changing, changed, for a while. It’s just become more pronounced as of late.

She needs to think.

But in all honestly? Thinking hasn’t been doing her much good. All she’s done with Danny is think. Think on his changes. On if the ghost problem affected him. On if he really could ever become a hunter, take over FentonWorks. On a lot of things. And it had gotten her nowhere with him. It was like no matter how much she stared at the puzzle, she couldn’t put it together. Like too many pieces were missing or damaged to make any sense of the whole. And how is she supposed to figure out what those missing pieces were if she couldn’t even understand the whole? She couldn’t. So maybe she should try something different. Though Jack was always the more vocal and bold one, she could do that too. And sure, she could ask Jack to talk to him, but he didn’t put enough thought into things. Didn’t notice the finer details. And with Danny, those finer details were everything.

Like how he was eating just slightly faster. Clearly wanting out of this situation before she decided to speak up or maybe noticed something else. Saw a different glimpse of the mystery that was her son. If he even was her son.

She tries not to follow him with her eyes suspiciously as he gets up to put away his dishes. Choosing to speak up just before he actually crosses the threshold to the living-room, “your ring is glowing”. No beating around the bush, give him as little to work with as possible. And if he keeps walking now it would not only be very rude but also effectively an act of running away. No way would his pride allow for that. Whether that pride was from plain old confidence or ghostly in nature.

As she hoped and planned he pauses, stilling for a second before turning his head back to her; body only turned slightly to her, hiding his entire left side from her view. “Oh?”. Guess he was giving her as little to work with as possible too.

Maddie nods softly, better to not seem on the offensive, “yes it is. No the question is, why?”.

He’s silent for a bit before, “no reason, Halloween knick-knacks like copying ghosts. Especially around here”, shrugging, “glow-sticks are pretty popular after all”.

Maddie can’t help sighing at that. She could throw in the towel and just leave it at that. Just accept the blatant lie. Stay ignorant. The look Danny’s giving her is obviously encouraging her to do just that. It’s the kind of look given to children when they ask where babies come from when they’re honestly still too young. But with more... pity. Just the thing is, if she doesn’t ask now. Doesn’t grab the small thread that’s unraveled from his tightly woven cover before he snips it off. Then she’ll never know. And not just about the ring specifically, but Danny as a whole.

If she ignores this now, she’ll have to write him off as a lost cause. And based on that look on his face and the fact that he’s still standing there, waiting on her. Tells her that he knows that too. So to her that leaves her with no choice. He’s her son, or maybe was, and she won’t leave him behind. If this is some ghost possessing him or polluting him, then she’ll save him. And if it’s not, then she’ll go from there. “Danny, please. I know that’s a lie”.

Danny blinks at her, and he looks like he can’t decide between a smile and a frown. He catches her completely off guard though, “yeah. Yeah it was”, and chuckles. Lifting up his left hand and looking down at the glowing ring before looking back to her, “I’m surprised it took you so long to notice”, chuckling some more.

If it wasn’t for the clear humour behind his words she’d almost feel offended. Her, a ghost hunter, not noticing something ghostly. That was absolutely embarrassing. But Danny didn’t make it feel like she should be embarrassed about it. She’s oddly thankful over that. “If I scanned that, would it have an ecto-field”, there’s no point framing that as a question. The answer was obvious to both of them honestly.

Danny looks around, rubs his neck, and gives an oddly charming lopsided grin. Chuckling, “heh. Caught me?”.

Maddie blinks at that. Just like that? That... that didn’t even make sense. It usually took teeth-pulling to get Danny to be fully honest. And a ghost wouldn’t give up that easily; especially not around a ghost hunter. Getting up, “just like that? I mean, you know I’m not going to be happy you’ve got something ghostly on you. Ghostly of unknown origin at that”.

Danny shrugs, “no point really”, lifting up his left hand again and thumbing the ring to spin it around his finger. It was plain unnatural how smoothly and easily it spins around. Like it was slick and flawlessly fitted. “It’s kinda noticeable, and like you said, you are ghost hunters. I don’t think I genuinely could convince you it wasn’t ghostly”.

Maddie furrows her eyebrows at that, “picking your battles. Is that all it is”.

“Yes and no. Part of me was wondering if you ever would notice. And if you’d even be bothered to ask”.

Maddie can’t help but flinch at that. She knows she hasn’t been the most attentive mother. She knows that. She also knows she hasn’t given Danny all the support and help he probably needed when he was younger. Jazz thrived so much on her own, preferred that. In some ways she had just thought Danny would be the same. And sure, in some ways it does look like he’s thrived; is actively thriving. But he clearly wants her, needs her, in way Jazz never did and never would. But he’s always been so hard to read, to know. You could always tell what Jazz was thinking, how she felt; and if it wasn’t obvious then you bet she would make it obvious. While everything with Danny was just out of arms reach. Danny didn’t put the first foot forward with them the way Jazz did. Danny didn’t pounce on openings to make his thoughts and feelings known the way Jazz did. She needed to chase after him; but he always seemed to pull away more or throw up a wall. Maybe she just hadn’t tried hard enough? Or maybe he had just grown up. Maddie puts away her dishes, turning away from him, “sorry. I just never know what to do with you”, looking back to him, “you're just so...”.

Danny quirks an eyebrow, and finishes her thoughts for her, “strange?”.

Maddie sighs, a bit relived to hear him acknowledge that himself, and nods. Sitting back at the table, “yeah”, looking to his hand and the ring, “that ring. Can you take it off? Can I see it?”.

“That depends”, Danny actually smirks a little, “will you try to destroy it?”.

Maddie can’t help chuckling at that a little, that was blunt but he did have a point. She will absolutely admit to being a bit... rash when it comes to ghostly anything. But she knows Danny doesn’t like it when they get on about the evils of ghosts. And more than once that feeling of him knowing something has nagged at her during those rants. Jazz too, but Jazz always had an air of knowledge around her. And here and now, she’s positive that Danny will refuse outright if she even seems like she’ll damage this ring thing. So she shakes her head, “no”, thinking on it a little, “you’ve been wearing that for a while now. Constantly. Obviously there’s a reason or it’s important”, sighing, “I though it might be a gift from Valerie or even Vlad”. Danny becoming friendly with Vlad still threw her through a loop. Especially since it happened out of nowhere. And his girlfriend could honestly be downright intimidating. She could see either of them giving him a ring with a skull on it, even if the skull looked sad for some reason.

Danny laughs a bit loudly at that, “Vlad would let Jack punch him in the face before giving me this”. Maddie’s not sure what to make of that. “But in that case, then okay”, and walks over to the table, twisting the ring off and eyeing it for a bit before setting it down on the table; it making a loud click like it weighed a lot more than it seemed.

Maddie eyes it, making no move to grab it, “so Vlad knows what this is”, Danny was obviously implying as much. But honestly? Right now she’s just glad he can take the thing off. That means it’s not possessing him. Doesn’t eliminate influencing him though. And if this was something that belonged to a ghost overshadowing him then there’s no way It would hand it over to a ghost hunter. None.

Danny nods, “he never did lose interest in ghosts. He’s more into the mythology and history though, than biology and weaponry. More anthropologist than hunter”. Maddie looks up to him as he sits down across from her. Him nodding his head at the ring still sitting on the table, “that’s very old. In a way”, smirking and eyeing her a bit, “it’s not going to bite you know”.

Maddie gives him a look clearly saying with ghost things anything could possibly bite or harm. But she does pick it up, thumbing it and bringing it close to her face to inspect; though being a bit cautious about it, “if you say so”. Danny chuckles at that, “I do”. Which fine, does make her laugh a little.

Flipping the ring around, it really did just seem like a glowing ring. That’s it. Nothing seemed special about it. Of course she knew better. Ghostly things, and ghosts in general, could often be unassuming. So that didn’t really mean much. “What is it exactly?”.

Danny deadpans, “a ring”, making Maddie give him a ‘you know what I mean’ look, which he chuckles over, “you might understand a bit better if you scan it”, tilting his head, “slightly surprised you haven’t already done that”.

Maddie sighs, “I didn’t want to push it”.

“That’s fair”. Regardless, she does pull out one of her smaller scanners -not like something of this size would need anything more- and promptly scans the ring. Immediately stilling and just staring at the screen.

This thing... she could literally see waves of ectoplasmic energy being sucked into it. And the things glow was actually the reverse of normal. Instead of bleeding out ecto-energy it was creating a small field that pulled in ecto-energy. What in the world? What was this thing?

Pulling out a small vial of ectoplasm she had left in her pocket and holding it near the ring; never noticing the slight look of concentration on Danny’s face. Instead watching as all the ecto-energy is just... sapped out of the sample. What? Was this something that could literally remove ecto-energy from anything? What about a full-blown ghost? Or- blinking, or what about decontaminate someone. Danny had been badly contaminated ever since his accident and nothing seemed to permanently decontaminate him. Somehow the ectoplasmic energy would just restock itself. Could it be? Could he have found something that could constantly and consistently decontaminate him? And Vlad, he likely was ecto-contaminated in a similar fashion. His ecto-acne did return that one time after all. So that would explain him likely wanting this thing. Looking back to him, “have you been using this to control your contamination?”. If so, then this was something she should really be encouraging him to wear.

Danny blinks at her and looks slightly like he doesn’t understand how she came to that conclusion for a couple seconds. Which tells her she’s missed something here. He gives her a quizzical look, “mom... when was the last time you scanned me”, and seems almost worried for her. Like he found it concerning that she hadn’t been doing that frequently.

Maddie blinks and glances to the scanner then back to him, “you never seemed to like that, so we just... stopped”.

“Oh”. He sounds a bit apologetic.

Maddie nods, looks to the scanner, and bites her lip slightly. Looking back to him and holding it up a little, “can I?”. He nods and she nearly drops the scanner when she scans him. His contamination was worse. So much worse. He was practically bleeding ecto-energy. She can’t find anything to say and just watches him as he moves his hand over the ring. Her eyes widening at seeing energy move from the ring to his hand. Like it was feeding him. This wasn’t reducing or control his contamination, it was making it worse! And Danny knew. What the Hell?

She can’t help snatching the ring away from him, looking to him with worry, “why?”, there was so many questions in that one ‘why’. Why was this expelling ectoplasm into him. Why was he wearing this if he knew. Why was it even doing that. Why was it absorbing ectoplasm from everything but him. Why would he even want something like this. And better yet, glancing back down at the ring through the scanner and seeing that it is not feeding ectoplasm into her, why the heck was it only expelling ectoplasm into him specifically.

Looking back to Danny, who’s giving her a clear ‘you said you wouldn’t damage it’ look as he speaks, “I have my reasons”. Making it clear he wasn’t going to tell her unless she gave it back and trusted him. Which yes, was more difficult than it had any right to be.

She gives him back the ring.

She’s surprised though when he just leaves it on the table in front of him. She clues in though, that this is him saying the conversation isn’t over. That he’s open to explaining. Trust for trust. Danny nods, “thanks”. Maddie nodding back awkwardly, she honestly did not want to give it back. That thing shouldn’t be anywhere near him. But checking the scanner, it wasn’t feeding into him; obviously it wasn’t quite close enough. So clearly he was aware of her discomfort.

Maddie swallows, looking back to him, “so...”. Her question was still the same and she didn’t even know where to start on elaborating. He had a ring that sucked ecto-energy out of things and fed it into him, and wanted it. Could be like an addiction or something?

Danny nods and leans back in his chair, “alright. This ring, it’s part of a set. I have the other part, obviously”, nodding his head at the scanner, “that’s why it only does that to me. Not you”. Maddie looks at his other fingers, which he clearly notices, “the other part’s not a ring”.

Maddie nods and bites her lip slightly, “so, this... effect would happen to anyone if they had both parts. But that- why? Why would you want that?”.

Danny wiggles his hand in the air, “that would depend. Most would be destroyed if they did”. Maddie chokes at that. This thing could destroy someone??? What is her son thinking???? She doesn’t even have to ask though, Danny poking the ring and wiggling it back and forth on the table, “the set was modified specifically for me, so I’m fine. Don’t worry”.

Maddie barely feels relieved by that. Because honestly? That just raised even more questions. “Why? How even?”.

“That’s complicated”.

Maddie instantly recognises that as another ‘will she push or just accept it’. “Then explain it. I want to know, Danny. I want to know you”, sighing, “and I don’t. Haven’t for a while”. And Danny doesn’t even beat around the bush when he replies, “yeah”. Which hurts to hear. Sure she knew, but still.

Danny eyes the ring for a bit before nodding, looking up to her, “it makes more sense if you know the story of this thing. And before you worry too much, while the ring takes in energy, the other piece expels it”.

Maddie leans back at that, likely noticeably relieved, “that... I’m glad to hear it. Even if that doesn’t seem to make sense. What’s even the point of pulling in energy just to expel it?”, that made zero sense. None. But at least that meant it wasn’t actually making him worse.

Danny chuckles, “and that’s even more complicated. The backstory really will help”. Maddie sighs and nods, Danny was clearly directing this conversation. Which on one hand made her happy because he was trusting her; but that also meant he would only tell her what he wanted to, nothing more. Not like she could make him tell her more though.

Danny smirks slightly, “there were three before me. I honestly don’t know the name of the first. Or much about her for that matter. But the second was a guy named Laufiel who thought he was blessed by the gods and had some seriously speciesist opinions. Thought ghosts were some kind of ultimate beings. He also killed the first owner”. Maddie can’t help but shake her head and scoff a little at that, though she could see how someone could think ghosts were god-like; especially if this-these things were really incredibly old. “The third owner killed Laufiel and also had some weird opinions on ghosts. More like a hunter I guess. Thought ghosts needed to be contained, controlled, or obliterated. Also thought humans were inferior though. He thought he literally was a god. Ridiculous, I know”.

Maddie has to cut in, “so all these ‘previous owners’ had opinions on humans and ghosts, and clearly acted on them? And... killed the previous owner?”, that last bit carries an implication that she hopes he doesn’t miss. Because this trend... it implied Danny had killed someone. Danny gives her a look that makes her think she missed something again.

Danny purses his lips and hums, “hmmm. Okay. I guess that wasn’t all that helpful. Though it does have to do with them acting on their opinions”, rubbing his neck and seeming slightly embarrassed, “and the ‘killing the previous owner’ thing”. Which makes her gulp, he thankfully explains himself though, “it’ll be better if I explain who the previous owner was, and -to you at least- what he was”. Maddie’s eyebrows raise, was Danny implying that this previous owner was a ghost. Because yes, that did change things. Killing a ghost and killing a person weren’t the same thing. Though Danny was also obviously pointing out that it wasn’t all that different to him.

Danny shocks her out of her thoughts as he speaks up again, “he was Pariah. Yes, as in the ghost that transported Amity into the Ghost Zone a couple years back”, rubbing his neck again, “I might have... kinda... wound up ramming a sword through his Core”.

Maddie... Maddie has a lot of questions about that. How did that even happen? When was he even in a position to do that? Why’d he do that? She does feel a bit proud that he destroyed a ghost, but he clearly wouldn’t appreciate that pride. Which just makes her mentally emphasis the ‘why the heck would he do that’ question. And Pariah... that ghost was the most powerful they’ve ever seen. She knows Danny can be reckless but that was pushing it. “You know how powerful that ghost was, Danny? Why did you? How were you even? Is that why Vlad found you all beat up?”. She barely resists giving him a full scolding.

Danny rubs his neck some more and looking around, “yeah it was reckless and stupid. I know”, sighing and looking back to her, “but, he was effectively comatose when I did that. Down for the count. And if I didn’t, someone else would have”, fiddling with the ring again, “these two things, that have this kind of... aspect let’s say, that can tell if the wearer is ‘no longer worthy’ and needs to be passed on. Which happens if whoever loses to many battles or damages the Zone a ton. Pariah, he was sealed away by a bunch of pissed off ghosts a long time ago, and then when he was let loose Phantom went and beat him up. And so Pariah lost too much. So the ring and whatnot needed to be passed along”.

Maddie shakes her head a little, that practically explained nothing, “but that doesn’t explain why you did that? So what if someone else would have done that and got this ring? Why did you have to do that? Want to do that?”.

Danny sighs, “I have my reasons. A lot of them actually. There really wasn’t any one reason why I did it. Someone else possibly being able to do it was definitely a deciding factor for why I did it when I did. I personally would have preferred to wait ‘till I had graduated”, shrugging, “but I don’t mind. And the reduction in ghost attacks, and them not really attacking people is because of this”.

Maddie looks to the vial, which still was lacking any kind of glow. Could he? Could he destroy a ghost with just a touch? That... that would definitely encourage ghosts to be more restrained. She knows Danny’s a protective person. He is absolutely the type of person that would go to an abnormal extreme if it would protect a lot of people. But... protecting the town, humanity, from ghosts was a hunters job. Her and Jack’s job. And he was still young, and this sounded like something that was an ‘until death’ kind of thing. That.., that absolutely makes her feel guilty, “Danny, protecting the town isn’t your job”, she ignores the slight tense she almost misses, clearly saying that he did think it was his job, “why couldn't we have done this? Me or Jack?”.

Danny actually looks at her like she’s nuts. “Mom, that- you-“, shaking his head, “not just anyone can just take these things. There are prerequisites. And you two do not meet them”.

Maddie frowns, okay that makes sense but... “what... what are they? What could you have that we don’t?”. He was a minor for peat’s sake! And they were hunters.

Danny purses his lips, crosses his arms, and taps at his chin. Muttering, “how to explain this...”, and opens and closes his mouth a few times. Then sighing after a bit and meeting her eyes, “you’re going to hate Vlad for this”. Which immediately gives her an unpleasant ominous feeling. “Remember how I mentioned Vlad would never give these to me? Yeah he let Pariah out after finding the key to his keep. Vlad is at fault for that entire situation. And he did it to get these items and used Valerie as bait. Vlad didn’t ‘find me beat up’ he threw me at Pariah and watched me get beat up”, grumbling seemingly to himself, “if it wouldn’t have upset you, he might have left me to die”.

Maddie stares at him, feeling more than a little furious. “I’m going to kill that man”. Danny actually rolls his eyes, “you and half the Ghost Zone. Don’t bother”, shrugging, “besides, he’s better now. Still vaguely evil, but not actively maliciously evil. It’s something”.

Maddie blinks at him, “why the Zone are you even friendly to that scumbag. And I’m still going to kill him”, sighing and putting her head in her hands for a second before looking back to him, “but this still, still, doesn’t explain things. Vlad’s douchebaggery aside”.

Danny gives her another slightly pitying look, “our relationship is stupid complicated. I’m not sure I could even explain the mess between us. But ignoring him and his past villainy, because of that situation it was either me or him”, shaking his head with a slight chuckle, “and Vlad does stupid crazy things if you give him even a slight amount of power. The whole mayor thing is a stellar example”. Maddie cringes at that. That had been pretty bad. It did also effectively make his point though. And she knows Danny can be spiteful, even impulsive, when it came to Vlad. So that did explain things a little. Barely. But a little.

Danny pokes the ring, regaining her attention fully, “so there’s the backstory, and my part in it I guess. As for the rest of the background, it explains things more. Better”.

Maddie straightens up and gives him a strong nod. This is already a lot honestly. But, thinking on it, it was almost nothing too. All he had really explained was how he got this thing, or pair of things really. Heck, she doesn’t even know what the other thing was.

Danny rubs his neck and nods himself, “okay. So the pair, they’re artifacts of sovereignty. Yeah, you heard that right”, tapping the ring.

Maddie blinks, what? Is he using that word right? “What... what do you mean. ‘Sovereignty’, as in kings and queens and royalty, ‘sovereignty’. Are you trying to say you’re royalty now?”. What? No seriously, what?

Danny actually winces at that, “well... yeah. That’s what I’m doing”, Maddie just blinks at him which he obviously takes as a hint to keep going, “the items, their names and appearances change from owner to owner somewhat. But...”, he holds up the ring in front of his face, “the rings default name is The Ring Of Rulers”.

Maddie blinks at him more, mouth a bit dry. Swallowing and trying to put the sovereignty thing on the mental back-burner, “and the... other item?”.

Danny is clearly studying her, “I don’t really think you’re ready for that. I’m glad I can keep that one invisible”.

“...And you can’t do that with the ring”. Did Danny even realise he basically just said he had a ghost power!? Or maybe it only applied to these items. Shaking her head a little, “I want to know”.

Danny looks at the ring and shakes his head, looking back to her, “no I can’t. It’s because it sucks in instead of expels. Which I know hasn’t been explained yet”.

Maddie gives him a hard look, he was avoiding the question. Which means she would probably never know if she doesn’t push it, “no you haven’t, but I still want to know what the thing that expels is and everything. And the royalty thing”. Royalty over what? Where? How? Did just having these things make him royalty somehow? Biting her lip, “is that why you said you’d rather wait till after Highschool? Has this given you some kind of responsibility?”. What has Danny gotten himself into? What’s this ghostly thing done to him?

Danny sighs and seems to sag slightly against the chair, she can tell he’s clearly debating something. Him sighing again, “do you think you could wait a little? Explaining the expel/pull thing will kinda explain that, the royalty thing. But, yeah, that’s why I wanted to wait. Things can be a lot”, shrugging, “but I’m used to it at this point”.

Maddie has to force herself not to wince at that. No one wants to hear their kid say they’re used to things being difficult. Nodding while looking at the table instead, “okay. But I still want to know”.

“Fair”. Danny fiddles with the ring some before pointing to the scanner, “okay so, hear me out here”. Which only makes that nagging ominous feeling return full force for Maddie. “These items are obviously ghostly, right? And everything ghostly is connected to the Zone in some way, correct? Well, these two items are much more connected”, pointing to the vial, “you saw what happened there, when the ring was close. Now imagine what would happen in the Zone. Where not being close to ectoplasm is functionally impossible”.

Maddie furrows her eyebrows a bit, “well then it would just suck it all...”, eyes widening a bit, “in. It would suck everything in”. Oh god. Shaking her head, “but... but you’re here, not there?”.

Danny blinks at her, “um. Mom? Here and the Zone overlap, remember? Me being here doesn’t stop me, or the ring really, from pulling in energy from there. Like I said, more connected. Being here just slows it down”, pointing at the vial again, “normally sapping from that would have taken way longer, but I was making the ring focus on it so you would notice”, rubbing his neck, “since that helped my explanation”.

Maddie blinks, glancing at the ring quickly, “you can do that? Change it’s... effect?”, swallowing, “and, so you just perpetually absorb from the Zone? I- I don’t know what to say or ask about that”, shaking her head, “why?”.

Danny chuckles awkwardly, “I can alter the effect yeah, I can’t stop it though. And yeah, that’s what I do. Or the ring really. And the other piece sheds or expels all that energy back out to the Zone. So it doesn’t stay in me, it just moves through me. Kind of”, rubbing his neck and looking around a little before continuing, “-kind of like a filtrator. The ring pulls everything in, my body siphons out the bad and impurities, and the other piece feeds the cleaned ecto-energy back into the Zone. But also like a heart. Because you know that ‘contamination’ I have? Yeah that mixes in with the stuff I expel out, which makes the ecto-energy stronger”, he then starts gesturing with his hands a little, still not meeting her eyes, “which effectively sustains the Zone and the Zone takes the extra to repair or grow itself”.

Maddie has to cut in at that, “wait wait, so you are actively helping the Zone. Making it stronger. And, and what happens to the ‘bad’ your body’s taking? Is the Zone just using you to fed itself? I still- this doesn’t make sense and this sounds actively bad. And you can’t get out of this without someone killing you. This just makes me want to take that away from you. But I don’t know if that would even do anything”, she clamps her mouth shut to avoid rambling and possibly offending him. Sighing after a beat instead and hopes Danny speaks up before she winds up putting her foot in her mouth.

Danny quirks an eyebrow and actually chuckles slightly, at least she hadn’t offended him. “I’m sort of part of the Zone circulatory and respiratory system yeah. Which a body can’t exactly survive without”. Maddie can’t say she’s exactly bothered by that. She doesn’t want the Zone to ‘flourish’. Why would she! That would just make ghosts stronger. Why was- how was Danny okay with this? Obviously he can tell she’s not impressed. Him narrowing his eyes, “mom, have you ever thought about what the Zone is? Not in the literal ‘home of the ectoplasmic manifestations’, but in the ‘what is the Zone’s relation to Earth’ way”.

Maddie just purses her lips, the Zone was just an alternate dimension that Earth happened to be close to. Sure that dimension was part of the afterlife obviously, but that didn’t really mean anything. But clearly Danny was heavily implying it did mean something. Danny sighs and doesn’t give her a chance to say anything, him shaking his head seeming almost disappointed; which does sting a little. “It’s not some detached plane. It’s intrinsically interconnected”, motioning with his hands, “if you take a coin and flip it in the air, sometimes you’ll get heads and sometimes tails. But regardless of what side you see or what side you’re on, both are still there. And if you, say, try to blow up or dissolve or cut off one side you’ll wreck the whole coin. You can’t have one without the other. If one sides damaged, the whole thing is. If one side has a giant hole, then so does the other. The Zone isn’t just connected to earth either, but the whole universe. Mom, if the Zone goes, everything goes. And the Zone goes if there isn’t someone doing what I am”, tapping the ring again, “I’m a rechargeable battery for the Zone that’s perpetually being recharged, yes. But that isn’t a bad thing. It’s emphatically not”.

Maddie blinks a bit owlishly. That can’t be- but that’s not- how? Is he? How is he even? Maddie can’t help sputtering a bit, “b-but how, how, are you- how can you even be? Sure? H-how are you sure?”.

Danny’s stare is honestly a bit unnerving, “I can feel it just as I can my own body. The Zone is as much a part of my body as I am part of Its metaphorical body. It is effectively an extended part of myself. Every bit of ectoplasm, of ecto-energy, every ghost even; is technically part of me. And-”, Danny pauses before suddenly looking a bit calmer, “I’m overwhelming you, aren’t I?”, looking to the side, “and I didn’t even respond to what I do with the bad I siphon out, did I?”.

Maddie shakes her head a bit stiffly, “no.... but I honestly, forgot. And yeah, this is, a lot”. Danny winces at that before looking back to her.

The two sit in silence for a bit, Maddie’s not really sure where this conversation has gone or what of any of her questions has actually been answered at this point. But she can tell by the way he’s just staring off into space, though it doesn’t look unseeing, that he’s giving her time and that he probably won’t speak back up till she does. She can appreciate that. And he’s probably off... feeling this Zone? How does that even work or make sense?

That’s another thing about Danny, he’s gotten really good at being confusing.

Okay, take stalk of what she knows and the answers she’s gotten here. Danny has a ring that is indeed ghostly, that has to do with ruling/royalty and three other people -at least one being a ghost- had before him; oh and there’s some other item that is paired with it. He destroyed the previous owner, Pariah, but it was all because Vlad is an even worse person than she thought. Which she is now again a bit mad over. What else? Right, the whole ecto-energy of the Zone being filtered through his body thus cleansing it and strengthening the Zone. And the whole spiel he just went on that had something to do with the Zone being part of his body? Which didn’t make sense. And an analogy about coins that somehow means that destroying the Zone just destroys everything. Which, that makes some sense. It was obvious to even a fool the two places were connected, it wouldn’t take much of a leap to suggest that disconnecting them would be catastrophic. And didn’t he say that ghosts were part of him or something? What?

Maddie blinks and bites her cheek, she’s not going to guess how long it’s been now, “okay, so I think I get most of what you’ve said. Hopefully. And I could see how destroying the Zone wouldn’t be exactly good. But the.... you can feel it thing. I don’t- that doesn’t make sense. And how can it be part of your body?”, gesturing to him, “your body’s right here. You’re a solid being. A person”.

Danny looks to her and hums, “well let’s see”, tapping his chin before stilling for a second, then pointing a finger at the scanner, “if you look at me through that I might be able to make it make more sense”. Maddie nods, pulling it back up and looking at him through it. He really looked no different than anyone else who happened to have enough ecto on/in them to shed off energy. Danny hums, “I guess you need something to compare to, to realise what your looking at isn’t normal”. Maddie’s almost offended by that.

Watching him look at his hand for a second before shaking his head and sticking his hand under the table. Producing an actual glob of ectoplasm a second later. “Where did that come from”. No way that was just stuck under the table.

“No where particular”. Maddie squints at him and honestly can’t tell if he’s lying. Though he should know exactly where he got that, he grabbed it. He just points at it so she sighs a little bit directs the scanner to it. Managing to get Danny and the glob in frame and staring. It takes a few seconds to notice the difference. The energy shedding of Danny appeared solid rather than transparent. How hadn’t she noticed that? Muttering, “yours isn’t transparent”.

Danny nods, “exactly. But”, Maddie watches through the scanner as he moves his hand and actually plucks on one of the strands of ecto-energy, it bending with his finger like he was actually touching it. Which was utterly illogical. It was like how you couldn’t literally pluck a ray of sunlight. What he just did, was a literal impossibility. Whispering, “what?”. Which he apparently finds funny and promptly chuckles. Her watching a bit stunned as one of the strands moves and bends to spell ‘I can touch these as easily as hair. And move them as easily as fingers’. She was firmly gobsmacked. “That should be impossible”.

Danny chuckles some more, “you’d be surprised how often I hear that. Like I said all that energy is part of me as much as my fingers are. Though hair would be a slightly better comparison, except you don’t have feeling in your hair. This one-”, she watches him pluck a different strand of energy, it coils around his finger slightly, “-one of the branching off sections is connected to an area of the Zone where there’s a big battle of some kind. I can tell because of how they are moving through the ectoplasm, which is again connected to me. And through the ectoplasm in them, which is also connected to me. If I wanted, I could move that ectoplasm and make them unable to move in an instant”, he chuckles quietly, “but I’m not that mean. I’m kinda big on the bodily autonomy thing”. She’s pretty sure she hears him mutter, “that, and it’s pretty hard... and feels unnatural”.

All Maddie’s hearing is that her son can control ghosts and without even being near them. Immediately she wants to ask why he didn’t do that to all the ghosts that show in Amity, but considering the last bit he said; he’d be really against doing that. But... why? They’re ghosts and the Amity ones are attackers. Why wouldn’t he just stop them if he could? Blinking at him, “why?”.

He looks to her, “‘why’ what? Why I’m oddly impossible. Why siphoning the Zone makes all of it connect to me. Or-”, Danny then gets that hard dangerous look in his eyes, and just feels dangerous; but catching a glance of the scanner she finally knows how he does that, because all the strands and bits of ectoplasm coming off him are vibrating and even lashing. “-are you asking why I’m not ripping away any ghosts bodily autonomy”. Like usual when Danny does this, that entire sentence feels like a threat. She’s a bit grateful right now for having experienced this side of him before.

Maddie swallows, “stop that. And honestly? All of them”, feeling the need to explain herself when his eyes narrow, “it’s just, with all these ghosts that... attack Amity. Couldn’t you just... make them, leave”, swallowing a bit again, “or something”; because damnit, Danny’s intimidation tactics were really good at hitting that part of the brain that just screams at a person that whatever’s in front of or around them is absolutely dangerous. And while she’s proud of him getting bullies off his back, he shouldn’t be doing that to family and he knows that. Both her and Jazz have told him that multiple times, but sometimes it was genuinely an accident.

He stares at her a bit more, with her trying not to shrink in her seat, before looking away and huffing; the feeling alleviating almost instantly. And glancing at the screen, the ecto-energy was back to normal slow waving. Well, almost. For him to do that accidentally at all... it must just be like an instinctive natural response. Which supports Danny’s claim that all this was connected to him. Ectoplasm literally behaved ‘angrily’ if he was angry. That was... so strange but nearly undeniable proof in a way. Which means he absolutely knows what he’s talking about and isn’t just being fed baloney by some ghost. Danny runs a hand through his hair and mumbles a, “sorry”, before looking to her again, “and I guess you do have a point. Though like I said, ghosts are less aggressive towards humans now and that’s my fault. They aren’t generally stupid enough to cause serious genuine problems in the home of- my home”. Maddie absolutely picked up on him cutting himself off from saying something else. Did ghosts have a specific title for him? Though thinking of it, that’s probably rounded back to the ‘royalty’ thing. It was probably ‘king’, ‘prince’, ‘lord’, or something. What? Zone Lord? Dimensional Prince? Or- oh god.

Maddie looking to him a fair bit wide-eyed as he explains her previous sorta questions. “Which is actually partly just respect. Yes ghosts are capable of respect. But fine yeah, some it’s just because they know I can basically smite them”. That doesn’t make Maddie feel better about what she’s currently thinking. “I’m not going to straight-up control their bodies though mom, like I said that’s mean. That would be no better than controlling a human to me. Which, in the interest of honesty”, he points to her arm, looking almost sheepish. While her eyebrows raise as she watches her arm lift up and wave at her entirely out of her control. She can tell how though, she can feel the slight pressure the ecto-energy in the air is exerting on her arm to do this. So it was more like he was grabbing her with the invisible ecto-energy than actually controlling the limb. Danny continuing as her arm comes back entirely under her control, “so no, I’m not going to control ghosts”, shrugging, “I have my other reasons too. The Zone creates ghosts after all, which rather means I do. It’s not an active thing on my part but I can feel it. So in a way, ghosts are a bit like children”.

Maddie blinks, when thinking about Danny that made a weird level of sense. He did seem oddly defensive about ghosts, quick to explain away their actions or claim they weren’t bad. A parent would do that. But... Shaking her head and staring down at the ring, “I wish the Zone wouldn’t make more. No offence. And I don’t know why you’d be okay ‘making them’”, swallowing and meeting his eyes, “but it’s more than that isn’t it”.

“Ghosts aren’t evil. I’ve pointed that out many times”. He continues when she gives a disbelieving huff. “Amity Park just sees more of the rotten eggs. Well okay, I wouldn’t call the Box Ghost a rotten egg. He’d just... stupid and has delusions of grandeur. Maybe a masochistic streak”. That Maddie can agree with. “But they’re all ghosts created under Pariah’s reign. And he was obviously a really bad dude”, fiddling with the ring, “you haven’t met any of the new ghosts”.

Maddie opens and closes her mouth a few times, because he had a point. If he was part of the ectoplasm in these ghosts, it would be logical to assume he had a level of effect on them. Like a parent's genetics when they have a kid or something. So she decides to give him something of a leap of faith, “I guess I’ll try to withhold judgment on the... new ghosts”, thinking on the words he used, “the ones made under your reign”. She can see the moment he realises his wording gave away more than he meant to. Or at least implied something he was likely skirting around. Avoiding. Because well... “Danny, answer me honestly, are you considered their king. The King Of Ghosts or the Zone”. She doesn’t bother making it sound like an actual question. Because she knows both of them know it’s not a question. More a statement of fact. One that she needs to hear him confirm. And if he denies it... then how?

Danny folds his hands in front of his mouth and stares off into space, humming contemplatively. Which he often does when he was acknowledging that she said or asked something but wasn’t choosing to make his opinion known. Which makes her worry he’s going to clamp up. That he’s not going to answer. And now that she thinks about it, didn’t that Pariah ghost have a crown?

Danny nods after a while and gives the simple blunt answer of, “yeah”.

She looks down to the table, “okay”. And doesn’t know what else to say about that. Because, even if she wrote off the ‘my children’ feeling or Danny’s ever-present odd tolerance of ghosts, that has been around way longer than the ring. Then ghosts would still be his subjects. His ‘people’. And a king is supposed to support and protect his people, whether he likes all of them or not. Hell, he could hate them and that still wouldn’t change his role. Sure part of her feels glad or impressed maybe over that since ghosts at the very least reasonably shouldn’t go after their king. Swallowing and speaking at the table, “is it just a... title, or do you have responsibilities. Do you actually rule them”.

“Yeah. I rule them. My word is effectively the highest level of law. The Kings Decrees. But again, I’m not a controlling person. And I don’t ask for much”, she can hear the shrugging in his voice, the forced nonchalance, “I stop wars sometimes. Resolve skirmishes. Hear requests or complaints. My birthday is a Zone wide holiday”. She’s not sure what to make of the weird emphasis on ‘birth’ there. “There’s balls and parties. I have knights and an... army”. She can feel that he hadn’t really wanted to keep talking but did probably because he feels she deserves to know at this point. She put her foot forward. She chased after him. She tried. Both to get to know him and to trust and believe him. Maybe that was all he needed to be open with them, open to a degree at least. And it had taken four years. No. Longer than that. Most of his life.

And how sad was that?

But... Armies and knights. Balls. This was a lot. And he didn’t just work like the Zone’s battery. Wasn’t just being used by it or part of it or however he felt about it. If anything, that was just an aspect of being their king. The real secret, the real revelation, the piece of the puzzle, here wasn’t the ring and what it does. Wasn’t him sucking in and expelling ectoplasm ‘like a filtrator’. It was what that ring represented. It was that her son was the ruler, the king, of the things she hunted and wanted to destroy and study. He fed them, nurtured them, supported them, socialised with them. And they respected and feared him. Maybe followed him. Her and her son's ideals and goals couldn’t be more opposing if they tried.

No wonder he never said anything. No wonder he had become so distant. Now wonder he would oppose or question their hunting and ethics. And no wonder he had the air of a commander and a sense of wisdom to him. He was a king for peat’s sake! That probably comes with the... position. A requirement or learned attribute. And he quite literally had power thrumming under his skin. His power was technically even in the air. It was an entire dimension and species. What is she supposed to do with this? Because this obviously isn’t something he can change. And it’s not even fair for her to even consider asking him for that. And to ask him to treat them like the monsters she considers them to be, would be plain wrong. In fact, wasn’t that what Danny said Pariah had done? And look how well that turned out.

But what did this mean for them? For them as a family? Because she was effectively a person belonging to an outside ‘kingdom’ and species. Who was an aggressor towards his ‘kingdom’. So where did that leave them? Or really, what’s more important to her? Her family or her career. Which was a stupid question with an obvious answer. But still, they were dangerous, they were monsters. Regardless of Danny being their king. Even if he didn’t agree on them being monsters. And maybe she actually genuinely can refrain from judging the ‘new ghosts’ or maybe Danny being ‘part of’ all the ghosts now would make them less dangerous. Maybe even give them a bit of humanity. Danny was human after all. So maybe.., maybe this was actually for the best. For both sides in the war on ghosts. She already knows what he’ll say if she’s brings that up though. He already thought ghosts were just like humans.

Maddie looks back to Danny, who’s just sitting there watching her quietly. Waiting for her to think and decide what to say. Obviously family mattered to him. He wouldn’t even be trying or doing this otherwise. But his ‘career’. He ultimately had to do it. He couldn’t drop it. Her and Jack arguably could. Danny couldn’t put them first. He had to put his ‘people’ first. That’s the job of a king. Even if it hurt or he hated it. Swallowing, “I’m sorry”.

Danny quirks an eyebrow and gives one of his charming lopsided smiles, “for what? You’ve got nothing to be sorry for”.

Maddie blinks at him, a bit dumbfounded, “we, me and your father, are hunters, Danny. We’re attacking and studying what’s effectively your subjects. And that’s not even mentioning that we never noticed all this till now”.

Danny cuts in, keeping her from saying anything else, “I’m going to stop you there”, leaning forward across the table and patting her hands, “mom, that’s fine. I hid it. If you’d noticed right away that would have been embarrassing. Even more so if you figured everything I just told you out on your own. And as for the hunting”, sighing and giving her hand another pat, “you guys are only going after ghosts that come here and are practically always aggressors. Why would that be a problem? Why would you need to apologise for that?”, Danny leans back while Maddie just blinks and gapes at him, “when you go to another country, you have to follow their laws or the cops will chase you down. It’s no different. If a ghost comes here, they expect to be hunted. Heck, coming to the human world and attacking humans is against Zone law. The Box Ghost is pretty much the only ghost that doesn’t get chucked in jail very frequently. And that’s because he’s viewed as pathetically pathetic there as he is here. And-”, Danny runs a hand through his hair, “-one of my decrees actively allows and supports ghost hunters. So long as it’s after aggressors in the human world anyway”, obviously making a point to give her a serious look, “now if you went into the Zone and started attacking, yeah we’d have ourselves an issue”.

Maddie feels ridiculously touched. He made laws, or just one, that supported her career? “Sweetie I, that- thank you. Are you... sure? That what we do is okay? Okay with you?”.

Danny chuckles and nods, “it’s fine. I might not agree with your opinions, or what you claim as fact, and you know I have sabotaged things before, but it is objectively fine. And personally, of course I support you guys doing what you love”.

Maddie reaches over and grabs his hands, smiling at him, “that means a lot, sweetie. I imagine the G.I.W. are different?”, that was a government organisation after all. Not general hunters.

Danny scowls, and feels a bit intimidating again, “considering they attempted to blow up the Zone, no. And the Anti-ecto acts are a host of issues”, and grumbles off to the side incoherently. Maddie doesn’t doubt that if she checked the scanner that the ecto-energy in the air would be lashing around again. At least it wasn’t being directed at her, reducing the effect.

Maddie blinks at him, leaning back and shaking her head, “wait, would that? Be trying to destroy you?”.

Danny tilts his head and chuckles, “yes and no. The Zone’s part of me, yes, again it’s like an extension of me”, putting a hand to his chest, “my body is more my body than the Zone is”. Maddie nods, glad to hear that. Watching him pat at the blob of ectoplasm that she honestly completely forgot about in lue of Danny being a king amongst other things. Humming at it before looking to her, “and thinking of the ghosts I create, would you like to met a Whisp one?”.

Maddie blinks, what? Well... Whisp weren’t exactly dangerous and sometimes they cropped up naturally even in Amity. But where? Could he just locate one and pull It here? Or more so would he even be willing to do that with the whole bodily autonomy thing? “From where?”, shaking her head a little, “I mean yes, but wouldn’t you have to make one come here?”.

“Ah, hmmm no. I was just going to make one. It doesn’t take much and it happens on accident a lot actually”, and pats the blob of ectoplasm again. Maddie eyeing it, so he could just make a ghost out of chuck of ectoplasm? Just like that? Wait... squinting at him a little, “is that why our samples seem to disappear so often? It’s not Jack?”.

Danny looks a little sheepish and rubs his neck, “yeah, well for the most part at least. Dad does just misplace it sometimes. But it has to do with me always expelling ecto-energy. If enough of that gets absorbed by ectoplasm it can become sentient. Blobs and Whisps generally. SignalShines once. Proper ghosts are a totally different matter though”.

Maddie shakes her head, absolutely a bit stunned. It did make sense though, if he really expelled so much; which he clearly must if he’s ‘the Zone’s heart’ in a way. All of it had to pass through him. Which was still a bit much to know. “Okay. What are SignalShines though?”. Danny chuckles a bit and pats the blob of ectoplasm again, her watching it start misting and leaning a bit over as it, It, twitches and uncurls from the ball into a more proper Whisp shape. Just like that. Watching It promptly wind around his hand and arm. Him lifting that hand up and letting It start nipping at his hair.

“SignalShines can’t survive out of water. There’s not exactly ecto-water in the human world”, chuckling, “I forgot a thing of Gatorade under my bed for a while. It wasn’t Gatorade anymore after a month or so, I can tell you that. There was around forty odd SignalShines in there. They’re very tiny”, moving his hand over to her, the ghost very clearly not willing to let go of him. Was It still feeding off the energy he was shedding? She can’t help chuckling a little at his story though, that did sound like a very Danny thing to do.

Poking the Whisp, It poking her with Its tail tip right back. “You know, this doesn’t really say much”.

Danny shrugs, both of them watching It push his fingers around to wind through them some, “I know. Whisps are practically just vaguely sentient air after all. But well, I figured you’d appreciate some proof. And don’t worry about them biting, little guy won’t with me here”.

Maddie nods and mumbles, “yeah”, while watching Danny’s face a little. She can easily read the soft fondness there. She knew he was ghost tolerant, had known that pretty much since ghosts were proven to the whole town as being real. She just never realised that it went so far beyond just tolerance or ‘getting along’. It was probably different with fully sentient ghosts, what with their pseudo-consciousness and pseudo-personality after all. Not that Danny considered it to be ‘pseudo’ anything. Deciding to do something of a leap of faith and pet the thing with a finger a little. Danny obviously appreciated the effort and Whisps were practically harmless. The most they’d do is nibble on your clothes or fingers.

Though thinking of It being ‘obedient’ and Danny maybe, possibly, giving ghosts a level of humanity. How and why were ghosts even willing to tolerate him being their king? ‘Bowing down’ and being controlled, being sustained/fed, by a human. Ghosts clearly thought they were better or ‘above’ humanity. So why? “Hey Danny?”. He hums at her so she continues, “you’re human, so why are ghosts, this one, willing to be so... submissive to you”. Heck, even with pointing weapons at the things her and Jack have never gotten even a Whisp to be this submissive and cooperative. It hadn’t even attempted to nibble her or screech or anything. Watching It squirm Its way under Danny’s wrist and just stay there.

Danny deadpans, “king”, but immediately chuckles, obviously knowing that’s not what she meant really. “For Whisps like this it comes down to a simple matter of being able to sense all the energy running through me, and how, exactly, it’s running through me. Ghosts can sense my status. They just know. Whisps, and blobs really, will be like this to anyone strong enough in ecto-energy. You two don’t have any due to your suits protecting you, so there’s no reason to be submissive to you. And me, well, I could destroy a Whisp like this as easily as I can make one. And they can tell”, shrugging, “so in a way, it’s a survival instinct. All ghosts are that way. Get something strong enough around them and they’ll bend the knee... or run away. The more sentient though, the less you’ll be able to tell”.

Maddie nods, huffing a little, “pride”. Which Danny does nod over. “That still doesn’t answer my question though. Having the whole Zones worth of ecto-energy or not, you’re still human”. Immediately finding herself on the receiving end of that feeling that Danny knew stuff that she didn’t.

Danny shakes his head a little, “I had a feeling that would be a hangup you’d have. I’ll admit there’s plenty who don’t exactly like me. And there’s some that don’t like or respect me in the slightest. They’re still not dumb enough to go against me though or ignore me if I actually demanded something. Okay, and there’s the Box Ghost, who’s is, well, him. But for the most part, my humanness doesn’t matter. Most don’t care”, chuckling faintly, “I’ve ran into one or two that find it novel actually. Though there are also some who think I should be forced to become a ghost”.

Maddie has to cut in at that, “you’re not and don’t, right?”. She absolutely would not tolerate him being forced to die or some ghost even attempting to kill him. Period.

Danny immediately shakes his head, obviously well aware how much of an issue she’d have with that; the Whisp winding up his arm as he talks, “no. Don’t worry. A couple, ah, older ones tried to push for it but my head knight, called a Dread Knight by the way, didn’t take to kindly to that”, chuckling, “basically swore to obliterate them if they even attempted to attempt it. So no, no ghost’s trying to get me offed, mom. Also-”, smirking slightly, “-trying to is illegal under the Kings Decrees anyway”.

Maddie nods strongly, “good”, she guesses she shouldn’t be to surprised he went and made it illegal to kill him. She’d do that herself in a heartbeat. “And your... Knight’s that loyal to you? Or obedient?”.

Danny purses his lips slightly, “he’s loyal to the crown, not me. He’ll obey whoever’s the ruler with absolute loyalty. It’s his Obsession”. Hearing that did actually make her feel better. A ghost wouldn’t go against their own Obsession. Often even at the risk of destruction. So this ghost being ‘loyal’ and thus ‘protective’ of her son was effectively a guarantee.

Eyeing the Whisp as It seems to be attempting to curl up over his heart, “well I'm glad you’re protected then. I still don’t get how so many could not care that you’re human though”.

Danny sighs, “they just don’t. It’s really not that important to them. Strength matters far more, as well as capability and fearsomeness. And that I have proper claim of course”. Maddie blinks a bit disbelievingly at that. She’s not sure how Danny had any of those first three. Particularly before he got this title. How could a teenager without any experience or training be capable as a king? People raised their whole lives to be royals were frequently terrible at it. And human strength just didn’t compare to ghosts; raw human strength anyway. And fearsomeness? Maddie’s pretty sure the only thing ‘fearsome’ about him is the intimidation thing he can pull, which is thanks to this connection to the ecto-energy that he has.

“No offence sweetie, but I think you’re rather lacking in those departments. Especially compared to ghosts. Also”, looking at the Whisp still snuggling his chest, “what’s that doing?”.

Danny glances down and chuckles, “oh they’re just curious over the heartbeat. No surprise really”, looking back to her, “and mom, I’ve been involved in more than a fair few ghost fights. Even before the king situation, in fact, I get in less now. I’ve never truly lost. Ever. Amity’s kinda crazy like that”.

Maddie shakes her head, “I didn’t realise the school hotspot was that bad”.

Danny shrugs, “I just have bad luck half the time. Wind up with a haunted locker or accidentally dating a ghost without realising it. Her boyfriend was pretty pissed about that. Other situations. And-”, looking her in the eyes, “-you’ve never actually seen scary Danny before. Or really angry Danny for that matter. Mad? Sure. But completely pissed off? No”. That’s honestly enough to make Maddie decide that maybe she’d rather not see that at all.

But still... “I don’t know, Danny. Ghosts following and respecting a human still seems so wrong. Like it shouldn’t be possible”.

Danny just shrugs at her, “well it is what it is. You can take it or leave it really”. Which was a clear sign she wasn’t going to get anything more out of him on the subject. Watching him move to scoop the Whisp off his chest, “you should go now. You’re getting greedy”. So that was a ‘yes’ on It feeding off his shedded energy. Gaping slightly when a small portal just swirls into existence and he sticks his hand through; depositing the ghost directly into the Ghost Zone.

Speaking up as he pulls his -now empty- hand back out and the portal swirls away, “just how many things can you do???”, it was actually a bit unnerving. He had powers. Like a ghosts. Though with all the ecto-energy in him/running through him should she really be surprised.

“Its just manipulating my ectoplasm. Nothing more. Just like when I moved your arm or made the Whisp. All ectoplasm is part of me, so I can do with it what I want”, and shrugs like this is no big deal.

“Could you cover the town in little ghosts like that?”.

“I could yes, but it would be pretty tiring and pointless”.

“What about turn the sky green?”.

“I’ve done that on accident”.

“Telekinetically move things by wrapping ecto-energy around them?”.

“How do you think I clean the lab so fast”.

“Clean things by ecto-radiating the surface? Ectoplasm does destroy pretty well everything after all”.

“I’ve... never actually tried that, but probably”.

“Could you-”, Maddie bites her lip a little, “-transport the town into the Zone like Pariah did?”.

“Yeah. With a little bit of concentration at least. Not that I would”.

Maddie shakes her head a bit to herself. So much power, and all from a title. She decides to be honest, “I’m not sure how I feel about all that”.

Danny shrugs, “that’s fine. I surprise myself sometimes”.

Maddie furrows her brows a little, “but it doesn’t scare you? All of it? The... abilities. Or filtering the Zone. Or the king thing. Or having to deal with ghosts a lot”.

Danny shakes his head and smiles fondly almost instantly, “hardly. I’m content. I’m okay. Don’t worry”. She’s not sure if she should smile back or sigh. Sure he said he was happy, okay, and it looks like he means it. But at the same time, this wasn’t really okay. He could never hope to have a normal human life. Of course it was never going to be normal normal, he was a Fenton after all, but it was never going to be Fenton normal either. And even though he didn’t really touch on it, had downplayed it, he had responsibilities. Probably lots of them. He wasn’t even out of school yet. A summer job was one thing, but what he was doing might be better comparable to the president. Just for ghosts. Which were a different species than him and existed in a different dimension. She’s not even sure how he manages that. And he probably can’t really get any help with it either. She hadn’t known this kind of position even existed before today. And it would be risky at best for him to talk about details, combined with him being on the paranoid side; he wouldn’t seek people out for advice either. Or at least probably not. Could he even have a regular human job really? Heck, being a hunter was absolutely out the window. Maybe she could find some way for him to be in the family business, but it was obvious this king thing came first. And not just because it was ‘more important’.

Danny wanted this. On some level or another.

Which is where the positives come in. He was arguably a better person now, and stronger too. He could clearly stand on his own two legs and was at the point where he probably didn’t need her and Jack as a child would. Which yes, was something to be proud of. And what he’s achieved was arguably impressive, grand, unprecedented. Was, when it came down to it, good. Especially if this made ghosts less violent and dangerous. He himself was clearly proud. In the end, wasn’t that the point? What any parent should want for their child? For them to be proud, successful, and respected? He had all three. Just in an explicitly non-human way.

Looking at him, he was looking off to the side silently. She’d normally guess he was just giving her time to think, which he probably was, but maybe he was feeling? something somewhere. In the Zone or Amity, Amity was pretty horribly contaminated. She couldn’t even blame him for that, there was probably ghosts here as often as some more scarce places in the Zone. Him and his cycling the Zone’s ectoplasm thing almost definitely made it worse though. Maybe she should scan his bedroom sometime? Shaking her head, she definitely wasn’t doing that right now. But eyeing him, she honestly can’t really find anything else to say. Just relaxing and not thinking for a bit might be a good idea.

After a while she glances to the doorway, speaking a bit absently, “sure is taking Jack a while”.

Danny hums and nods, “he’s asleep actually”. Maddie sighs fondly at that, because of course he was. Shouldn’t have let him have that second helping of fudge peanut brittle. Danny looks to her, “so, we’re good?”. Oh god, she’s glad he’s the one to broach that topic again.

Maddie looks him over, eyeing the ring on the table, and nods at him. Fairly easily deciding at this point that it was fine. It was okay. And he was absolutely family. Not that that had ever been genuinely up for debate. “Yes sweetie, of course. I still honestly don’t understand this and I can’t say I really like it. But it’s you, this can’t really be changed and it’s not really right for me to even want you to change this. So yes, we’re good”.

Danny grins and nods, “good”, and moves to grab up the ring off the table. Maddie tries not to feel a little bothered and weird over him slipping it back over his finger. Especially seeing the muscles in his arm and face tense up. Does... does this hurt him?

Danny looking to her as she speaks, “Danny... does that hurt you?”.

Danny chuckles, and it sounds a bit stiff, “I’m honestly surprised you didn’t ask that already”, shaking his head with a slight smile, “mom, an entire dimension follows through my body, that’s unpleasant to adjust to. But I am adjusted, it’s just slightly unpleasant to reconnect properly“.

Maddie blinks, “wait, so you need your two items? Was taking that off bad for you?”. And how did she not think of that sooner? Cluing in that that only made sense. He used the items, as a pair, to filter ecto-energy. It was logical he might actually need both of them on him to do part of his job. But still, she’s pretty sure that was a pained tensing.

Danny wiggles his hand in the air, “‘bad’? No. Just not pleasant and they’re pretty much part of me. More so than other ectoplasmic objects”, Danny tilts his head and smiles at her, “and at this point I think it’s probably obvious the other item is a crown”. Maddie nods, yeah that felt honestly obvious now. Danny gestures to his head, “do you want to see it? Not much point in not showing you”, and chuckles.

Maddie glances at his head, she knows this is a distraction tactic. But she thinks she’s okay taking the bait. She couldn’t change this or do anything about it. And thinking of the footage of Pariah, “is it the flaming green thing Pariah had?”. Danny chuckles more at that and nods. So Maddie makes a point to ruffle his hair, realising she’s probably going through it. Intangible and invisible. That was probably for the best. He couldn’t very well walk around town with a bright green crown on his head. The ring was less... conspicuous.

“Yeah I want to see it”.

Danny smirks a little, a green glowing flaming crown appearing with a bit a fire show. Which Maddie has a feeling he did intentionally, so she rolls her eyes a little at him while eyeing the crown. It was much more in your face and even a bit intimidating compared to the ring. Even if it seemed rather plain and simple if you ignored the fact that it was floating, glowing, and on fire. Green fire. Though squinting a bit, it looked like there might be crystals? or frost? coating it. “Is it... safe to touch?”. Danny nods and leans his head down towards her. Her poking it tentatively and feeling more than a bit surprised that it was ridiculously cold. Frost it was. Which seems as illogical as cold fire. “It’s... cold”.

Danny chuckles and stands up right, and again with the charming smile, “yup. It’s default name is the Crown Of Kings, surprising I know, but under me it’s the Crown Of Cold Fire”. Maddie thinks that’s a little on the nose. Danny lifting up his ring hand, “and the ring’s the Ring Of Suffering”. She’s not sure what to think about that, it was fairly concerning actually; especially considering how literal the crowns name is. Danny runs a hand through his hair, passing under the crown easily, “don’t worry about the names. Anyway, can I go to bed now? It’s a bit past midnight”.

Maddie has to laugh at that a bit, not that she wasn’t tired too, “I don’t think you need my permission, sweetie. And I’ll probably have more questions in the morning, if you want to answer them anyway”.

Danny shrugs, “maybe I will, maybe I won’t. Do try to get some sleep though”. Maddie just nods at that as she watches him head up the stairs, the crown blinking out of visibility as he enters his room and taking away that bright waving glow of its that had been lighting up everywhere around him. It really did change the way he looked, it made him feel almost like he was out of reach. Like she couldn’t really exist in the same space as him. In the metaphorical sense anyway. Which she guesses, is true.

Her looking back to the kitchen, it’s going to take a while to really understand this. And maybe saying something was up with Danny had been an understatement. Her son was a king and effectively a dimension... sorta. He took being weird and unique to a whole different level. A path that she couldn’t follow him down or guide him with. At least his personality made much more sense now. Especially how he seemed as if above people and like people were children to him. Or ghosts more specifically. Because in a way, that actually was the case for him. Though she feels both less and more worried about him now, in more than a few ways. But worrying about him was pointless, and maybe, just maybe, unneeded. It was a bit hard not to though, she was a mother and all; and Danny had gotten himself mixed up in something equal parts important and dangerous. Though she’s really glad to have gotten some honesty from him. Gotten to know him more genuinely. He was clearly still himself, just a different him than the little space crazed little boy he used to be. Which was okay, kids grew up; it was a fact of life. Hers just grew up running full tilt in a direction that should have logically been utterly impossible. He faced life and made himself the king of death. Which... honestly was rather funny and ironic now that she thinks about it. And knowing Danny... he absolutely got a kick out of it. Which makes her smile a little before shaking her head and heading up to be herself.

One thing’s for sure though, she’s so going to have to have a talk with Danny about telling Jack all that at some point.

End.

#ectober #ectober2020 #ectober 2020 #danny phantom #phandom #danny fenton #maddie fenton #reveal #ghost king danny #op danny #fan fic #phan phic #have a fic suck my dick #phantomphangphucker #my writing #late because of crappy internet

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mischiefandspirits · 4 years ago

Text

Doppelgänger (11/?)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just 14 when they took a look inside the portal Danny’s parents had built. From there, everything changed. They woke up with white hair, green skin, and powers they could learn to control. They were hybrids, halfas.

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Life Lessons, Part 3}

The two ghosts led Valerie through the Ghost Zone in a weaving path. They were going at a pace slower than she was used to when dealing with them, but still fast enough that Danny had to hold on to keep from falling off.

“You okay?” she asked when his grip tightened during a turn.

“Yeah, just not used to it.”

“Maybe I should take you flying with me some time,” she said, glancing back at him and was pleased to see his smile.

“Sounds fun.”

The trip was thankfully short and soon enough Valerie was following the ghosts through a swirling vortex, coming out in the Fentons’ lab.

“Last stop, home,” Danny joked as he hopped down.

“What was that?”

All four teens froze at the voice before the ghosts darted through the walls and Valerie retracted her suit. A moment later, Danny’s parents came running down the stairs.

“Danny!” his mom shrieked when she saw them and the two adults swooped in to hug him. “We’ve been so worried! Are you okay? Did that awful ghost hurt you?”

“I’m-Mom, I’m-I’m okay! I-Dad, I can’t breath!”

The two pulled away and his mom held him at arm’s length to look him over. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, mom. Really.”

She didn’t look convinced, but turned to the other teen. “Valerie Gray, right? Are you okay?”

“Uh, yes ma’am,” she said, blinking. “Um, how did you know…”

“Your boss saw you and Danny get attacked and called it in,” Mrs. Fenton explained. “We tried to track it, but we found out this morning that it managed to get back to the zone somehow without using our portal. We were just preparing the speeder so we could come find you.”

“But you managed to escape on your own,” Mr. Fenton said, slapping Danny on the back hard enough that he stumbled forward. “That’s our boy!”

“The ghost didn’t hurt you?” Mrs. Fenton asked, looking Valerie over as she’d done Danny.

“No. He was some sort of collector or something. He just stuck us in a cage, like zoo animals,” Danny said.

“Well, I suppose that’s better than the alternative. I still want to be sure, though. Jack, why don’t you call Damon and the police and tell them the kids are back.”

“Yes, dear.” Mr. Fenton ruffled Danny’s hair then ran upstairs.

Mrs. Fenton checked them both thoroughly for injuries then grabbed what she referred to as a first aid kit, but turned out to be a large toolbox full of medical equipment. She used it to check their eyes, lungs, and heart before measuring any ectoplasmic radiation they were giving off.

“A 0.3er,” she read off after scanning Valerie. When she saw the girl’s curious expression, she explained, “Lower than I would have thought, which is good. It’s a completely healthy reading. It also means the atmospheric ecto-rad level of the Ghost Zone might be lower than we were expecting.” She then turned to Danny and scanned him. “A 1.18er.”

“Is that bad?” Valerie asked, worried.

Danny shook his head. “I run hotter than most. My whole family does, really, but I got into an accident a few months back so I run even hotter. That’s not much higher than my usual.”

“We don’t start worrying until a person’s ecto-rad level reaches 1.5er,” Mrs. Fenton added. “That’s when ectoplasm starts to negatively affect a human’s body.”

“Mom, Mr. Gray is here,” Danny’s sister said, poking her head in. Her eyes widened. “Danny!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny gave a pleased sigh as he cuddled up between his partners.

“Sorry it took us so long to find you,” Sam said, squeezing him.

He kissed her cheek. “It’s not your fault. Besides, it was kind of fun tormenting Skulker. I think he was actually tempted to send us back towards the end there.”

“Only you would think annoying the crud out of the homicidal ghost keeping you prisoner was a good idea,” Tucker chuckled, nuzzling into his neck.

“That’s why you love me!” Danny nuzzled him back. “How did you guys find us?”

“Someone found video footage of Skulker going through that random portal on their CCTV camera and turned it over to the police,” Sam explained. “Jazz told us when they were bringing in your parents to see the video so we were able to come along invisibly.”

“Weird as it is, Jazz is probably the hero this time,” Tucker said. “She also got you and Val an A on your baby assignment.”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah, she came by that night and told us you were missing, then took both sacks with her. Said something about giving us time to process.”

“Which was good because we were up all night trying to find you.”

“Then the next morning after she gave us ours back she went to Tetslaff and explained what had happened. We don’t know what she said, but she turned in the sack and when Tetslaff handed out grades, she said you’d get As for trusting someone so responsible and mature to babysit for you.”

“Wow, score one for teacher’s pet Jazz. Maybe we should bring her in on the secret.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Sam snorted.

“She’s even more overprotective of you than you are of anyone. She’d never leave us alone,” Tucker huffed.

Danny’s nose scrunched up as he remembered how Jazz had hovered over him for two months after his parents had accidentally left him at the Christmas tree lot when he was six. “Yeah, okay, that’s fair. I’ll have to do something nice for Jazz, though. So how’d you guys do on the baby thing anyways?”

Sam smirked. “Well, I got an A.”

Tucker grumbled something and pressed further into Danny’s neck.

{The Million Dollar Ghost}

“Thanks for covering for me, Sam,” Danny said as he scrubbed ectoplasm off the lab’s floor. “There’s no way I’d have been able to get my chores done with all the extra work Lancer assigned me.”

“It’s fine. As long as we cover the next poetry night.”

“I will.”

“Did we charge the bazooka already?”

“Yes, Mom.”

“Did we change the ecto-filtrator?”

Danny paused then went to do just that.

“We’d be lost without us,” Sam chuckled. “Did we talk to our dad about showing up at school?”

“Jazz and Mom were taking care of it when -”

“GUYS!”

“Tuck?”

“Volume!”

“Did you hear?” Tucker said, thankfully quieter.

“Hear what?”

“Turn on the tv! Amity news!”

“We’re on patrol,” Sam said as Danny went to the lab’s tv.

“Switching to FaceTime.”

“-etent, non-Jack Fenton ghost hunters in Amity Park has never been more obvious,” the news anchor was saying while footage of his dad’s attack on Lancer played. It switched back to the anchor and she continued. “Luckily a mysterious benefactor has offered a million-dollar bounty on the head of Amity Park’s most famous ghost and invited the world’s best-known ghost hunters to track her down.”

Danny’s jaw dropped as a picture of Tucker in ghost form appeared onscreen. “What?”

“Who on earth would place a bounty on us?”

“Besides Valerie, but we know she doesn’t have that kind of money,” Tucker added.

“Valerie wants to hunt us down herself, same for my parents,” Danny said. Then laughed. “Oh man, my dad is going to go crazy when he hears about this.”

“Dude, this is serious.”

“Aren't we worried? These are the best-known ghost hunters in the world!”

“Sam, they’re the best-known, they’re not the best,” he scoffed. “Trust me, I grew up around these people so I have a pretty good idea who’s going to show up. It will be great.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“We’ll admit, they don’t look threatening,” the trio said, watching the gathering of ghost hunters from atop a nearby building. “It’s actually kind of sad.”

“Tell me about it.” The trio flinched and turned to Valerie as she landed next to them.

“Hey. Hi. You here for the bounty?”

“Lucky for you, no.” She sat down on the edge next to them. “I don’t trust this bounty thing. I’m here for the same reason as you, the show. Danny said his dad would be here to show up the out-of-towners.”

The four watched as the Fenton parents ran over a pair of ATVs.

“And that’s only half the show.”

“What do you mean?”

“SAVE DOPPELGÄNGER!”

The four turned to see a horde of teenagers marching into the Nasty Burger parking lot, all waving signs saying things like, “Protect the ghost boy!”, “Freedom for the ghost girl!”, and even just their name or picture. Paulina and Dash were at the head of the charge with fierce looks on their faces.

“I found out the popular kids at my school were organizing a protest against the bounty.”

“Well, don’t we feel special.”

“Apparently Paulina and Dash, the most popular sophomores, both have crushes on you.”

“Yikes. Wow. We don’t know if we should be flattered or creeped out.”

“You’re dead. It’s creepy.”

“Rude. Do they think we’re a guy or a girl?”

“Dash is adamant you’re a girl. Probably to soothe his poor straight heart. Paulina thought you were a guy, but I think my friend Star said something to her after I let it slip you might be non-binary because she’s been using they pronouns lately.”

“That’s… more forward-thinking than I assumed she could be. Given she’s the popular type.”

“She’s bi. As long as you weren’t femme, she would have been game.”

“Oh.”

“She’s still in the closet, so don’t say anything to anyone.”

“We won’t.”

Screams sounded over the arguing and the four looked back to the crowd to see a trio of bird ghosts dive-bombing the hunters.

“Those are Plasmius’s vultures. Should have known he was behind this whole thing.”

“Plasmius,” Valerie asked.

“A fruit loop of a ghost.”

“Let me guess, he hates you too?”

“Worse, he wants us as his kid. Tried to kill our dad and kidnapped our mom once.”

“Seriously?”

“Unfortunately. Do you mind taking care of this? The out-of-towners are idiots, but we’d rather not test the Fentons.”

She shrugged and climbed to her feet. They watched her drop down and start firing on the birds until a voice sounded behind them.

“Not going to lend your father a hand, Daniel?”

The trio turned to see Vlad floating behind them.

“Wow, you look even stupider than we sai-remember. You do realize the modern interpretation of vampires is a hot person, right?”

“I see you’ve been working on your duplication then,” he said with a scowl. “You do realize you don’t have to talk together, don’t you ?”

“You do realize there are better uses for your time than bothering a teenager, don’t you? Shouldn't you be getting home to the love of your life? Oh, that’s right! Our dad married the love of your life. We’re trying to watch the show, do you mind?”

Vlad scowled and fired on them.

“Should we really be teasing the older, stronger half-ghost? Well, we do outnumber him.”

Vlad split in three.

“Now we don’t.”

Sam raised a shield around her and Tucker while he grabbed onto the GAV’s controls and used it to fire on Vlad. Meanwhile, Danny put his speed to use diving around the three Vlad’s.

“You’ve gotten better,” one Vlad said as Danny curled around his blast, a bit of frustration leaking into his voice.

“And you’ve gotten worse,” they said.

Was it just Danny or were the Vlad’s slower and weaker than usual? Did duplication cut their power?

Interesting, and good to know for Sam.

A green blast flew by and Danny looked down to see they’d gotten the hunters’ attention.

Danny turned back to the Vlads and fired at the one closest to him. A pink blast joined his and the Vlad disappeared.

“Your stalker?” Valerie asked.

“Yup.”

“I believe that’s my cue to leave,” a Vlad said and they teleported away.

“And ours,” the trio said as a few more of the hunters’ blasts flew past them.

Valerie turned her blaster towards Danny, who raised his hands. “Thought you weren’t going for the bounty.”

“I’m not. This is for me.”

Sam and Tucker shot away as Danny flew down towards the crowd, distracting all the hunters and waving at their fans before he dove straight into the ground. He came up in an alley where his partners were waiting and all three transformed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I knew there was something sketchy about this mess,” Valerie said as she looked over her pistol. “I didn’t think a ghost would be the one placing the bounty though.”

“Ghost?” Danny said, coming back over with a now-empty thermos.

“Yeah, some enemy of the ghost kid. They said he wants them as his kid, but I don’t even know how that works for ghosts.”

“No clue. Maybe he’s just insane.”

“Probably.”

Valerie’s phone went off and she pulled it out. “There’s an attack downtown.”

He leaned in as she brought up a live feed.

A large, t-rex-looking ghost was stomping through the street. Sam and Tucker were already there, firing on its head. The hunters, Danny’s parents included, could be seen chasing them in the background.

“You going to join them?” Danny asked, pulling back and grabbing Valerie’s grenade launcher. His partners looked like they had it and they’d give him a call if they didn’t.

“And risk getting into another ghost discussion with those pathetic excuses for hunters? Pass.”

“You should see them at one of the conventions.”

The two worked in silence until Danny’s ghost sense went off and a device on the counter next to them started beeping.

“Ghost?” Danny grabbed it and checked it. “It shouldn’t be picking up the fight from here.”

Valerie loaded the cartridge back into her pistol while Danny grabbed the only other operational weapons on the table, the thermos and Fenton Ghost Gloves.

The vultures flew through the ceiling, then froze. “You should not be here.”

Valerie blasted all three in the face.

Danny grabbed one in one hand and sucked the second into the thermos with the other before they could recover. The third dodged around another blast from Valerie, only for the Jack o' Nine Tails to come shooting out of the stairs and wrap around it.

Jazz slammed it into the floor as she came into the lab. “You guys okay?”

“We’re fine,” Danny said, sucking the last two into the thermos. “You?”

“Fine. I was just heading into the kitchen to grab a snack and saw them flying by.” She watched as Danny went to empty the thermos, then turned to Valerie. “What are you guys doing down here?”

“Well now, isn’t this a surprise?”

The teens looked up to see Vlad hovering over the lab.

“Great, another uninvited guest,” Danny groaned.

The ghost turned to him in shock. “Daniel?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Do I know you?”

Valerie shot Vlad before he could do anything else.

Jazz tried to grab him with the nine tails, but he caught it out of the air and yanked it away from her. Danny used the distraction to punch him in the back. He smirked down at the gauntlets when the older halfa was sent into the wall.

Valerie slid up to his side as Jazz grabbed the Fenton Foamer off a table and blasted Vlad. “Trade you.”

Knowing from personal -- bruising -- experience that Valerie was better at hand-to-hand, Danny passed her the gauntlets and took the pistol.

The kids didn’t give Vlad a chance to breathe, switching quickly between Valerie beating him into the ground and the Fentons shooting him out of the air. Soon enough, Danny was opening the portal so Valerie could toss him through.

“And don’t come back!” he yelled before shutting it. He turned and smiled at Valerie before meeting Jazz’s eyes. “Mom and Dad never hear of this?”

“Agreed.”

#danny phantom #danny fenton #valerie gray #sam manson #tucker foley #Doppelgänger au

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bigowlenergy · 4 years ago

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heat + horror

next chapter of How to Raise the Dead!

Maddie stands at the door to the basement, hazmat tied down around her waist, staring into the green dark. To her left, the cicada scream en mass. The refrigerator hums at her back. The portal buzzes below. The cold air that swirls up the steps is incredible against the summer heatwave. Maddie. Wants to go down. Hesitates, still.

Danny is down there.

Maddie loves her son, but she loves her daughter, too, and knows better than to bother Jazz when she’s trying to finish a paper and watch the finale to her latest K-drama at the same time (again) and expect anything but getting snapped at and increasing her stress. The experience is just new, with Danny. He was always the relaxed one, but once it hit 80 degrees in the house, the basement became his domain, with the same low tolerance for interruption. With an extra edge of physical discomfort and medical concern. Maddie just doesn’t want to upset him further. It feels like she does that all too often, but Danny just won’t say anything when she does. It’s hard to understand him. She wants to, but he’s pulled so far away from them already...

“Hey, mom.” Jazz stands in the entryway, kicking her flip flops off, two bags of gas station ice slung over her shoulders. “He moved yet?” She asks.

“No, I don’t think so. I was just about to check,” Maddie offers, stepping in to take the second bag from Jazz. She’d stepped out to get some water. Hadn’t gone back. Condensation from the ice leaks down her shoulders, sticks her hair to her neck. Instant relief.

“Alright.” She says. “You coming down? It’s cold.”

And Maddie hesitates at the mouth of the threshold, for just a moment.

“Sounds nice,” She tells the stairs, hidden under the clanging of Jazz’s steps.

At the bottom, all she can see is the ring of lawnchairs and the little blow up kiddie pool that Jazz is dumping her bag of ice in. The clear vinyl tubing of the cheap outdoor furniture catches every refraction of green light from the open portal. An oversized alien dollhouse in Maddie’s lab. The smell of squeaky fresh plastic overwhelms the ectoplasm. The basement has always been climate controlled, and underground besides, so the downright frosty air that the open portal adds to the mix creates the strange atmosphere of a sauna in winter. Inverted.

But the chilliest thing by far is Danny.

Maddie finally gets a good look at him when Jazz collapses back into her own chair, sticking her feet into the pool with a great heaving sigh. Maddie appreciates her running to the store for them. It’s nearly 110 out. She goes to dump her part of the ice in and nearly fumbles to keep from pouring it straight over Danny’s head. He’s buried up to his chest, now. What she thought were odd shadows from the portal are actually his folded knees, the only other part not under ice. His eyes are glazed and dull, staring sightlessly into the green vortex, his head pillowed on the wet plastic rim of the pool. Soaked hair drawn back by one of Jazz’s headbands drips slowly onto the concrete floor. Maddie frowns at that. They specifically asked the kids to make sure nothing in the lab was exposed to water. Should have put a towel down.

She probably can’t blame Danny for lack of foresight. He doesn’t look good.

“Hi, sweetie,” Maddie whispers, tucking the ice in around his legs instead.

His blank expression doesn’t change as he belatedly mouths ‘hi’ back to her.

“Drink your slush,” Scolds Jazz, kicking at the ice idly. Danny’s buried hands slowly tip the half melted slushie toward his face. The straw rests in his mouth for a while, but Maddie’s fairly sure he doesn’t drink any. Her poor baby. Jazz had picked it up for him the first time she went to the store, nearly three hours ago.

Maddie pulls her hands from the ice and wipes them on her shirt. Goes to the monitoring station set up on the side of the portal. The nodes taped to Danny’s neck are probably the only things keeping him from fully submerging himself. His oxygen levels are lower than his usual terrifying baseline of 87%, hovering in the 84-86% range, and his heartrate is just short of clinical death. Most worryingly, his temperate is reading at nearly 80 - a deadly fever, considering his normal 71.3.

Maddie wishes they knew how to really help him. This feels strangely like a - not like a test, not really, but like something is being withheld from them. Like Danny knows what to do, but is still too scared to tell them. Like it’s something he doesn’t want them to know, another little secret on the pile. A tiny declaration of loss of trust.

Or he’s afraid of them knowing.

Not that he could tell them, right now. He’s been basically unresponsive to even the most drastic of stimuli since his internal temp hit 75 an hour ago. Jack had driven out for the lawn furniture around that time, helped wrangle Danny out of the bathtub and into the lab for better monitoring, then disappeared again a few minutes ago. Maddie has an inkling of what he’s up to, so she’ll just hold down the fort and see what happens.

But Danny. Looking at this array, she has the clinging idea that this would be easier for him if he was a ghost. But even now, he’s so hesitant about letting them see him. Has never, in word or deed, trusted them with that. It’s an open secret. What he is.

Who he is.

Jazz knows; Maddie knows she known for some time now. Maddie knows. Does Jack? Maddie knows. She tries to imagine that alien presence in this little family tableau. More green in the air. An extra buzz of static under the portal. White hair, dripping. Maddie knows, but it feels like she knows less than she did three weeks ago.

She’s seen Phantom with her own eyes. Seen him fly and fight and snarl like an animal. Seen him bounce and smile and joke. How does he do it? Maybe Maddie just isn’t ready for the perfect intersection of those things yet. Does - does Danny’s ghost leave his body?

Is Maddie really ready to face her sons’ corpse and his ghost at the same time?

Jazz splashes suddenly, feet shifting, head tipped back dramatically off the edge of her seat, hair in a huge bun, wearing her only pair of shorts. Little embroidered ghosts on the hem. Would he electrify the pool, if he changed?

Maddie sucks in a breath and drags her eyes back to the monitor. Maybe it would be better if he did. Actually. The shock might be what he needs to stabilize his heart. He’s obviously reliant on cold temperatures to facilitate stronger conductivity of his electrical impulse based neurology. Like any other ghost. He’s losing stability of consciousness. Unable to rely on the physical, chemical reaction based impulses of the li - of humans. Maddie’s trying not to think about it. She doesn’t want to think about it. The monitor won’t tell her anything else.

Danny, the ghost, Danny, her son, is suffering from mild destabilization and his human body is too close to brain dead to keep him from -

God, Maddie is glad she doesn’t know.

Jack, bless that man, saves her from her thoughts by clambering down the stairs.

“Icecream!” He calls, voice pitched less exuberantly loud than usual. In deference of the small lab space, empty of the usual noise of running machines, or in deference to Danny. Or her own nerves. Jack hands Jazz a pint of strawberry pistachio and a spoon, sets a bag near the pool and then appears at Maddie’s side. Kisses her cheek. Glances at the monitor.

“How’s he doing?” He asks, handing her her own pint and a fork. Pecan Caramel soymilk.

“Not much worse. But we don’t know beyond his baselines, so it could mean anything. Temperature’s been stable for the last twenty minutes.” Maddie digs out the first pecan she sees and keeps it in her mouth to cool her sensitive teeth. Offers nothing else. Jack can read the screen. If he arrives to the same conclusion, then they’ll talk about it upstairs. Away from the kids. Hopefully, Danny’s too busy barely existing to overhear, if it comes down to it.

Jack nods, bullshooter blue eyes sweeping over the monitor. One huge, extremely hot hand rests on her back, goes to rub soothingly, but Maddie shoos him with her fork.

“You’re cold!” He says delightedly, sticking his hands on the folds of her turned down hazmat. He spares her a smile, then snaps his attention back to the screen. Lingers on Danny’s oxygen levels. “Well,” Jack says, straightening up, “Let’s try to get his internal temperature down a bit, then. Come on, Danno!”

He unties the cloth bag and pulls out a full gallon of icecream. There is no room in the freezer for that.

“Okay, buddy, I got us a real treat, straight from the farmer’s market creamery, you know, the people with the ecto-infected cows we helped out last spring? Got us a discount! Anyway, it’s custom. Chocolate icecream, fudge pieces, cacao nibs, coconut shavings, sprinkles, cookie bits, and those little soft dough chunks -” He cuts off, leans in closer to the pool, watches Danny intensely for a few seconds. “Yep! Extra cookie pieces. Wanna try some?”

Jack sticks two spoons in the open gallon and sets it aside. Gently eases the mostly ignored red slushie out of Danny’s hands and passes it off to Jazz. She doesn’t hesitate to pour some of it over her icecream. Maddie shudders. Bites her pecan. Takes a seat.

Jack pulls a shop towel out of his shorts pocket and soaks it in the pool, then wipes his face with it before slinging it around his neck. Takes a tiny spoonful of the icecream and starts to set it in Danny’s direction.

“Just try a bit, Danno. I’ll let you drink dry ice again,” He cajoles. Maddie whips her head up to glare at him. Jazz shrieks with her mouth closed, prevented from yelling properly by a well timed frozen strawberry. Jack ignores them both. He’d better have a damn good reason and some damn good results.

He gets Danny to eat a little, at least. He’d refused dinner last night, and it’s almost 7 PM, now. After a while, Jack leans in again. All Maddie can hear from a bare few feet away is a quiet, wet little rasp.

Jack beams his most reassuring grin at their son. “Of course it’s got ectoplasm in it; it’s for you, Danny-boy!” He says. And. That might be the first time any of them have put it to words. Admitted it out loud. It should feel like a taboo broken, but somehow, it eases a little relief into the atmosphere. A confession they all share.

Then Jack frowns a bit. Eyebrows drawn down in concern when he says “Is it not enough?”

Danny shakes his head, a light tremble of motion. The wet plastic squeaks under his neck. Lies still. Jack sits back, looks up to Maddie. Jazz is leaned back in her seat, staring down at Danny with a sharp frown of disapproval on her face. A fierce set to her eyes that tells Maddie everything she needs to know.

“We’ll get you more, sweetie,” Maddie tests the waters carefully, kneeling down across from Jack, sets a hand on Danny’s drying hair, keeps Jazz in her sights. Danny closes his eyes and shakes his head again, turning further into her palm and sighing quietly. A low, tired sound of dismissal. Not for Maddie. Jazz looks away, guilt and worry plain on her face. Bites her lip. Lids her icecream and mumbles an excuse of a goodbye, looking a bit mutinous as she leaves.

Maddie has to wonder if she should step back from this. Let Jazz do whatever needs to be done that Danny is hiding from them. But she can’t. These are her children; they shouldn’t need to be providing something for themselves. It’s her duty to care for them.

But. She is also an ectobiologist. Knows damn well what ghosts need. Has done in-field observations on this sort of thing for at least a decade.

It’s not the amount of ectoplasm that matters. It’s the source.

They can’t provide what Danny needs from the lab.

Sure, they’ve never seen Phantom feeding, but he’s so rarely seen at all. Elusive. Non-normative behavior. Maybe -

An incomplete hypothesis has never sat well with her. Her son being miserably sick while she has the power to help him is not sitting any better.

“Danny,” She says firmly, gently taking his cold face in her hands and wincing at the mincing slowness of his pulse under his jaw. “Please, just tell us what’s wrong, honey.”

Something thumps upstairs. What is Jazz doing? Maddie had assumed she left the house. To get. Something. Bring something back? Get a ghost they know to help?

Maddie’s seen ghosts negotiate and willingly feed from each other. The statistically significant ratio of mutual encounter to violent attack was one of the things that tipped the scales for Maddie and Jack on whether ghosts have the capacity for civilized society or not.

If Danny has some sort of pact or agreement with a local ghost, then Maddie is intensely interested in learning every detail of it. As both his mother, and as an ectobiologist. Jazz probably has extensive notes.

Upstairs, something drags across the floor. Maddie jumps at the noise.

“I’ll go check,” Jack offers, glancing guiltily back to Danny before heading up the stairs.

Maddie turns her attention back to Danny and actually feels her heart skip a beat when she finds him staring up at her with dull, glazed eyes. His face too-still and eerie in the green light of the buzzing portal. It dyes him colors he shouldn’t be. She takes in a breath, and calms herself, confused by her own reaction. She’s been exposed to high levels of ectoplasm for nearly two decades. Maddie lost her innate terror-reaction to ectoentities years ago. This is completely unfamiliar to her.

But the way Danny’s too blank face flashes into guilt as he flinches and tries to pull away is not. It’s the same reaction as Jazz earlier.

Guilt. Something withheld. Upstairs, something drags against the wood floors again. Slow, deliberate.

“Danny -” She starts, concerned. He squeezes his eyes shut tight and turns away from her. Mouths something that she reads as sorry. A creak on the stairs. The lights flicker. Maddie jolts back in a crouch immediately, hand falling to where her weapons should be. One hand on Danny. Assuring his location. Her other hand closes on nothing. Of course not. Maddie doesn’t wear her weapons around Danny. Not any more. There’s nothing there. She forces herself into a more relaxed stance with some difficulty.

What could they have upstairs for this? Surely there’s not another ghost living in their house? Maddie would like to think that a second instance would be ridiculous. Maybe a hidden freezer of ectoplasmic samples? She looks down at the human ghost in her lab. Maybe he needs a rare type of ectoplasm, due to his unusual biology? His half human biology.

Half human. Needing ectoplasm and emotion, but also needing food. Maddie’s heart picks up uncomfortably, sits high in her throat. At the other end of the room is the wall safe with the Nightingale journals. The myths and accounts and legends of violent ghosts. Hunted for their danger to humanity. Their hunger. Maddie and Jack have long discounted or disproved those old folk tales.

But then again, they’d also disproved the existence of something like Danny.

“Danny -” She tries again, watching the way he’s turned away from her intently. Mouth pressed in a thin, unhappy line. Every ounce of him tense, entombed in ice.

Jack bounds down the stairs. Maddie jolts to her feet. He’s got the bulky old TV from the sitting room in his arms. Maddie’s heart is pounding, her mind blank.

“We’ve got the cure, Mads!” He cries. Jazz follows, carrying the DVD player and a stack of DVDs.

In the pool, Danny shudders strongly enough to stir the ice. Moans out “No,” loudly enough to be heard.

“Shut up, Danny.” Jazz says firmly. “You need this.”

Jack finishes plugging the makeshift entertainment center together. Jazz sets the DVDs down and sticks one in the player. Maddie’s seen every title on the pile, but doesn’t recognize them from anywhere in the house. All horror films, many classic. Monster movies. Slasher flicks. It’s so disingenuous from where her mind had been that she’s left frozen.

“They’re from Sam,” Jazz explains. “For when somebody runs out of juice.” She spares Danny an annoyed glare and hits play.

Oh. Oh. Maddie looks down at the miserable little ghost in the pool, her shadow cast long over his morose, guilty expression. He’s so pale. The colors from the TV flicker against the vinyl and ice and ectoplasm in surreal flashes. Some loud sound blares from the old speakers with more static than usual and Maddie jolts again. All her senses on high alert, an undercurrent of unnatural fear flooding her cerebellum. An artificially induced state of terror. The buzzing she’s been ignoring with all the ease of overexposure is Danny’s aura, set to 18 hz.

There hasn’t been a ghost attack in nearly a week. All the local specters retreating to the other side of the portal as the heat wave rages on theirs. Danny hasn’t been able to emphathically power himself in a week. Maybe longer.

Ghosts feed on fear.

He’s been overwhelmed with the heatwave, unable to patrol his territory, probably not physically fed in a while, and emotionally weakened. Of course he’s destabilizing.

Maddie lets out a breath of relief. This is something easily remedied, at least. She leans in and kisses Danny’s forehead. In apology. In absolution. Feels guilty for her distrust of him with such an irrational idea. Feels the rekindled instinctual hyperawareness of a ghost near to her vulnerable human throat. Ignores it. Helps Jack finish moving the chairs closer to the pool. Sets her icecream back on her lap. Settles in and lets herself overthink the timing of the next jumpscare. Watches her little ghost relax slowly as he draws strength from their shared, controlled fear. Wonders if he has a vomeronasal organ, with the way his mouth is a little open. If it helps with emphathic filtering, or if it’s psychosomatic. Wonders if he feels better. Fishes his hand out of the ice and holds it tight until he squeezes her back.

It’s been a while since they’ve had a family movie night.

#dannymay2020 #danny phantom #heat #fenton family fun times #maddie fenton #jack fenton #jazz fenton #danny fenton #heat and horror #fanfiction

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theaterkid821 · 6 years ago

Text

Gather ‘round peeps. It’s story time. (Spoilers for changes so don’t read if you’re seeing it soon in the future)

Pre-show

So the first thing I feel like I need to say is that if you are a purist for what they call BMC 1.0, you may not like this. There were a lot of changes to lyrics and lines. It was the same show we all love, but it was different. I loved most of the changes but I can see why some people wouldn’t.

In Will Roland’s bio, he says “actor/singer/human.” That’s not important to the show, but it was important to me that you know that.

Also something for my fellow plus size people, the seats are not the most accommodating. Hopefully that isn’t a deterrent, but it is something you should probably know.

They have a thing called squiptheline.com where you can preorder your merch and pick them up. I got poster, sticker pack, and lip balm (they are mountain dew and mountain dew red)

And then it begins...

They had the SQUIP do the intro and it was beautifully hysterical.

They lit up the dot on the “i” (which was a little pill) on the curtain-thing

The shelves behind Jeremy’s bed were full of nerd shit and it was beautiful.

Jeremy has glasses. Nerd level even higher

Jeremy’s dad comes on with unwashed bowls of cereal, old pizza boxes, and cartoons on. Really adds to his depressed aesthetic.

When he’s leaving, you see the mailbox full of mail.

He comes back on as the bus driver so quickly.... how?

During the dance bit, he runs into everyone and shouts “girls!” and then shouts “boys!”

Instead of “so Jenna Roland... I mean slutty” dialogue, they change it to “What are you staring at.... I’ve never even noticed him.”

Signup comes from up above. It’s awesome.

Christine comes on to catch her Eos chapstick (as someone who uses Eos chapstick, I can tell you this is 100% accurate) and then dramatic application

After second verse, before Michael’s entrance, they have Chloe talk dodge a question about her and Jake’s breakup and then Jenna says she saw him with someone. To which Chloe responded, “tell me everything” and then exited.

George Salazar is amazing and I love him.

Even from the beginning, with Michael you weren’t sure on the LGBTQ+ spectrum he was, but he DEFINITELY wasn’t straight.

(Headcannon #1 they used; Michael’s has 2 moms); when seeing the infamous “boyf” “riends,” he took out his phone to take a selfie and said “my mothers would be thrilled!”

Play thing came down from the sky again and Christine lay on the floor for a little bit so you could see her face underneath until it covered her

She did the chorus line dance!

The awkwardness of the scene before I Love Play Rehearsal. 10/10.

The popular kids knocked Christine and Jeremy off the chairs (my poor babies!)

Slightly after Jake impressing Christine: “Why are you guys doing the play anyways” “Brooke’s doing it because of Chloe, Chloe’s doing it because of me, and Rich is doing it because he’s my boy” “and why are you doing it” “well i’m doing it because of you”

Bathroom scene even had the florescent lights come down.

Rich flushes Jeremy’s head down the urinal (poor child I wanted to hug him)

They whispered “so its like... drugs?” “it’s better than drugs Jeremy”

ITS FROM JAPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN. ‘Nough said

The projection behind the backup was TERRIFYING. They projected people all in white behind them doing the movements.

The rolled the bed on stage for 2 Player Game

Screaming “The cafetorium!” and then having the quieter music as they sit and play the game, emotionless was beautiful.

“You’re like this bottle of Crystal Pepsi that expired in 1996″ “Is that safe for human consumption?” “Gets better with age”

They had a projection of the game in the background at the end.

They had fog in the shoebox as well as a blue light

“to activate take with mountain dew... not sure why.... and this is important, to deactivate-we’re sold out!”

And then never ended that thought...

“how do you feel?” “like...” singing to add to the dramatic moment and then... “a chump.”

“this guy is hooking me up with a case of ecto-something (i forget). It’s the ghostbusters drink they discontinued in the 90s!” “What does it taste like?” *whispered* “Ghosts!”

(Headcannon #2 they used; Jeremy being a furry); “my default mode you can also set me for... sexy anime female in cat suit with tail.”

They added an intro to Be More Chill

They cut out “i’m a super computer Jeremy, I’m made of math”

The SQUIP was sitting on the clothing rack for the clothing store part

Chloe broke a hanger after hearing he went with Madeline

For Do You Want a Ride, it started with Brooke began by slowly dragging the straw in and out of her soda can ;)

For the Reprise of Be More Chill, they had both the old lady in the track suit, and a lady in the scooter

her license plate said “bingo queen”

SQUIP comes back on in this weird jacket

New song here! Synched Up!

The SQUIP fixes his vision and he doesn’t need the glasses

It’s hard to describe the song, but it’s about friends being “synched” and how everyone is hiding something underneath.

You hear Michael a couple times, but you don’t see him

Talking about Mr. Reyes “his dreams are dead. That’s why he eats so many hot pockets” (hot pockets is sing-song)

When Jeremy says he was doing performance art, Christine has her own idea for a performance art piece. You don’t hear anything about the idea until then end when she’s squatting and shouts “and then I give birth to the bowling ball!”

You don’t hear it because the SQUIP is talking to Jeremy saying she’s unusual because she doesn’t seem to care what anyone else thinks.

During play rehearsal: “bring me patient zero!” “cough!” (she says cough). Then Brooke says her line in stressed iambic pentameter.

They had little hearts for Guy I’d Kinda Be Into

The SQUIP was all ready to point to Jeremy at the end and then was like “wtf” when she said Jake

They had bleachers for the football field for the scene before and during Upgrade

“She wants to make out with you” “Ive never made out with anyone in my life”

End of Brooke’s solo in the beginning, they changed. “So kiiiiiiiiiiiiss meeeeeeee.” *giant pause and then repeated melody* “like noooooooooooooooow”

They added dialogue after Jake and Christine which lead to this layering thing of them all singing “I’m tired of being the person that everyone thinks that I am”

Loser Geek Whatever is so much more emotional than even when i saw it off broadway.

The SQUIP came back out in a very elaborate dress/jacket thing. It was cool

They played a jazzy version of the Pants Song during intermission

Christine dressed as a sexy princess

They added more harmonies to Halloween

Chloe was wasted for Do You Wanna Hang

The SQUIP fell onto the bed after going into factory setting

They took out the

Michael In the Bathroom... if you have a chance to see George Salazar perform this live, I highly recommend

Christine and Jeremy communicating through sounds is beautiful and just... a mood.

There was a sparkly red bra behind them

Rich takes a pumpkin and sets the house on fire.

For Smartphone hour, the changed the first verse of the chorus to “Rich set a fire and he burned down Jake’s house” which helps me immensely (fun fact, someone once thought I was crazy because my friend once texted me “did Rich set his own house on fire, or Jake’s house?” and they saw it and thought my friends were arsonists. I mean, I am somewhat insane, but... not for that reason)

Michael and the dad’s female characters came down from the ceiling.

Michael had shark slippers, Rich had unicorn slippers, and Jeremy’s dad was in a onesie that said “naughty”

I have said this before and I will say this again, it takes real courage to be on stage in front of a few hundred people and sing whilst in your boxers

Michael was wearing weed socks and was smoking of course

Jeremy’s dad thought he was burning incense lol

Christine: “Everyone is hurting and I don’t know how to help. So I guess I’ll just do theatre.” got such a laugh

They basically rewrote all the lyrics for Pitiful Children

Robotic kick-line

Christine knows what a SQUIP is because someone in her theatre camp took one and is now in a mental hospital... coincidence?

The SQUIP comes down from the sky and his chest lights up

Michael breaks through the paper scenery for “MICHAEL MAKES AN ENTRANCE!”

Everyone in zombie costumes for the fight scene makes the parallels to the game so much better

Rich has the lisp!

(Headcannon #3 they use; Rich and Michael); “anti-social headphones kid... is he single?” *sees him* “oh hiiiiii.” “Hi Rich,” *very awkwardly* “Bye Rich!” If you don’t want it, you don’t have to see it. But if you do ship it... oh my god.

He puts on his glasses again!

(Headcannon #4 they use; calling the group the squad); they rewrote the verse for Chloe, Jake, Brooke, and Jenna. they say to Jeremy “we’re your squad” not exactly the SQUIP squad, but still

When asked what her SQUIP looked like, Christine said RBG

For the date, Jeremy suggests the performance art she said she wanted to do.

At the end, there’s a projection of the SQUIP in the background

I’m tagging people who liked the previous post or commented so... Tag list: @molly-wonder-queer @72748-blog @simranthefangirl

#Be More Chill #be more chill musical

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fairy-lights-and-blobs · 1 year ago

Text

"And you say...the little one is my son?" Phantom has floated down to be eye level with Damian, his legs dissipating into a tail made of galaxies and the void of space, looking remarkably like a snake as it coils into a sort of seat that leaves the ghost and the young boy at proper eye level.

Good, Damian would not have let the man look down on him, Ghost King or not. At least, in this regard, Phantom and Father are quite similar, although Batman cannot so freely adjust his height like this, especially considering his, as Todd would put it, "old man joints".

Phantom seems to be thinking deeply about how the situationhas come to be, so Damian squares his shoulders and moves on with the explanations (and prepares for rejection.)

(After all, the maternal side of his family has already taught him you can be related by blood and still not be "family" enough to be deserving of love or acceptance)

"Yes. It would seem that instead of Father's DNA being the paternal sample Mother used, yours was, in some way, added to the mix. We do not yet know how but..."

"The ectoplasm...it's-it's the only way it makes sense. You're what, 12? By that point in time I was pretty much stuck to the Throne, swamped with paperwork that Pariah Dark let pile up. I barely left to eat, nevermind have any relations with your Mother."

Phantom's chest rumbles like a glacier flowing down the side of a mountain as he thinks of his next words. The sound is...oddly comforting. Damian thinks that, if Alfred the cat were older and 20 times bigger, his purring might sound like this too.

"It would make sense. The Lazarus Pits are corrupted ectoplasm leaking from a natural tear in Reality, and so react to the changes in the Realms. It's possible that one of these leaks might've take origin in the Keep. The ambient ecto in there is steeped in my signature, so it would make sense that it also carries DNA..."

Phantom's tail straightened out from it's previous coiled state as the Ghost King rises, a hand on Damian's head. It felt...just like when Father tries to comfort him after something upsets him. Except Phantom was all emotion and ecto, so the gentle touch resonated with love-mine-suprise-family-tiny baby ghostling. And it had Damian a little amazed, that his other Father would so easily accept him, without even bothering to ask for a second paternity test.

"Batman, would you be interested in shared custody? I would like to get to know my son better, along with the family that has cared for him. Nor to mention little Ellie will be ecstatic to learn she has a new little brother!"

"But I thought you did not, as you put it, 'have time for relations'. How old is this new sister of mine?"

"Oh, she's my clone! You see, my former nemesis was Obsessed with my mom, and by proximity me as his son. When I wouldn't let him replace my dad, he got pissy and made several clones, hoping to replace me as well. Only one of them lived past the final stages of the cloning process." Phantom's tail settled over Damian's shoulders, and the Ghost's claws scratched lightly at his scalp as he lost himself in his memories for a bit.

"I'm not proud of the brutal beatdown I gave him for it, but I would do it again. He never even wanted to think of involving children in his schemes after that. And it gave me a daughter, so I don't regret it. Comparatively, your birth didn't have any impact other than the happy surprise of a new surprise son. You don't have to be so surprised I'd want to get to know you, kiddo." Ah right...ghosts were empaths...and Batman seemed less wary and more curious now, after Phantom seemed to slip and reveal such a personal detail.

Father valued children. Phantom cared so much that even clone children being hurt would send him into a protective fury the likes of which only bears and honey badgers could equal.

Now Damian is far less certain about letting Phantom be anywhere near his Father. Was the Kyle woman not enough for the himbo under the cowl?

What if instead of Bruce, Danny was Damian's father but only Ra's knows.

Like every thing goes according to canon but then around the time of Damian's creation Ra's finds out about the High King of the Infinite Realm and decides that an heir from him would be far superior (whether Ra's actually means Danny or mistakes him for Pariah Dark im unsure) and somehow manages to get some of his DNA

The problem is that Thalia is insistent on using her beloved.

Now, in order to keep his daughter's cooperation he simply switches the samples while she is unaware. (Or maybe he adds Danny's dna afterwards with or without Thalia's knowledge so Damian is both Bruce and Danny's son)

Now years later something happens causing Damian and the batfam to find out that he is, in fact, not the blood son.

Maybe its when he first gets there and Bruce runs a paternity test that turns up negative, poor baby Damian would be so shocked and confused and Bruce may not be the father but he's not just gonna kick this stabby 10 year old out onto the streets. He definitely wouldn't feel comfortable sending him back to the LoA, naybe they can help the kid find his real father

Or in the case that Bruce's DNA is also used maybe the batcomputer can only register Danny's side as Lazarus water so thing just pass as canon until something reveals Damian's connection to Danny.

IDK, maybe they meet somehow and ghost instincts recognize the familial bond. Maybe Danny occasionally works with or even joins the JL sometime after Damian shows up so now the Batcomputer has Danny's DNA on file to check against should the need to run Damian's blood come up again.

I imagine Danny's well into adulthood here, and there could be the potential for Spirit Halloween

(Im not likely to write this so imma just, @hdgnj @omnicrafts @nelkcats @nerdpoe @im-totally-not-an-alien-2 @ailithnight, any of you got additions or thoughts)

#dpxdc #danny phantom #batman #ghost king danny #Damian: ah yes i have TWO fathers #Batman: hmm...good person...very protective...good parent...big and strong #Damian: Father you already have Catwoman!!!!#Bruce+Selina: so...Phantom...we have a proposition for you #Danny is just going along and enjoying the attention and his new son #Damian is baby and thus gets away with anything if Phantom is the one supervising #Jason thought it was hilarious that the sneaky assassin was part Ghost #now it's less fun when he's at risk of MORE half-ghost siblings #Ellie comes to Wayne Manor and every Wayne hears boss music

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ecto-american · 5 years ago

Note

1 and 6 for the writer asks!

writer questions

1. Favorite place to write.

I basically always write in the sameplace. I have a desktop computer, so I'm almost always sitting at mydesk when I write.

6. Favorite character you ever created.

For this, I'm going to stick withstrictly phandom OCs, and so my answer for this is a close tiebetween my Vlad's son OC, Victor Masters, and another halfa Galileo“Leo” Simon. Because I really like keeping the idea of halfasbeing “rare and unique” I rarely make halfa OCs, and these twoare really my only two true halfa OCs. Both are natural halfas,meaning that they were born being half-ghost. I'll describe themunder the cut, and I will warn you that there's some mentions ofdeath and torture involving them.

Victor was basically born to Vlad and awoman named Alyssa, who was a nurse that cared for Vlad in thehospital as he recovered from ecto-acne. They got married, and shegot pregnant with Victor. Unfortunately, Victor's half-ghostnessbasically caused her to get deadly ecto-posioning while she waspregnant with him. She decided to go into labor early in hopes ofsaving him, but she died soon after he was born, and Victor was borntwo months early.

His entire life, Victor has been verychronically ill due to being half ghost and being born early. He hasasthma, chronic fatigue syndrome, narcolepsy, weakened immune system,and is prone to breaking out into hives and swelling. While intheory, he's powerful, he just cannot ever fully reach his true powerlevel. He cannot properly regenerate his own ecto-energy, and so hisghost half basically feeds on his human half for energy. This causeshis human half to view his ghost half as a virus/infection. Think ofit as having a transplanted organ your body constantly is rejecting.

Other than that, Victor was created tobe a better FOIL for Danny, as his age rests smack in between Dannyand Jazz at 15 when Danny is 14 and Jazz is 16. However, he's in thesame grade as Danny due to being held back a year as a result ofbeing sick. He does go to a fancy rich kid school, but is mostly athome being homeschooled by a private tutor (The Ghostwriter). Victoris meant to be one of Jazz's best friends, and he's also gay andcrushes on Danny. Whether or not Danny returns the feelings is storydependent. Victor's not really “evil” like his dad. He primarilyjust wants to exist and live his life. He has a white main coon UNITof a cat named Princess.

As for Leo, he was born to Dora and ahuman father in the early 80s. His dad was a nerdy computer scienceengineer who was absolutely fascinating to Dora. They quickly fell inlove and had Leo with no complications. His dad died, committingsuicide with the thought that he'd become a ghost. He did not. SinceLeo was a wedlock baby, Aragon did not allow Dora to keep him, and soshe basically gave him up for adoption to his dad's parents. Hisgrandparents had no clue about the truth to Dora, and they raised himas a normal kid in a very small town of like 200 people in the south.

Leo discovered that he had ghost powerswhen he was about 10, but he kept it a secret from his parents.Having no knowledge of ghosts, he assumed he was basically a mutantlike in comic books (Leo has no ghost form, only the powers). As hegrew older and bolder, he used his powers more openly. Nobody reallycared, as it was basic small town, and that was just Leo. He grew up,married his high school sweetheart, and he became a police officer.He openly used his powers on the job within the law to catch the badguys and bring them to justice.

Meanwhile, as he was growing up, Doranever abandoned him. She kept an eye on him and left him presents andnotes, but never told him the truth. If you've ever seen Futurama, toavoid spoilers, but it's exactly like that.

After a while, a knock on the door camefrom the Guys in White accusing him of being half ghost. Leo toldthem ghosts don't exist, and they prompted arrested him for beinghalf ghost. For the next twenty years, he and his wife were basicallyheld captive and forced to almost work as double agents to catchghosts. Leo was openly experimented on and dissected several times(he has a permanent Y shaped incision on his chest from it all). Heeventually gets the deal of a lifetime: we know Danny Phantom's halfghost. If you turn him into us and find out who he is, we'll let youand your wife walk free.

#asks #ask nick #victor masters #leo simon #dp ocs #kinglazrus

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dannyphantom-justiceleauge · 7 years ago

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Danny Fenton is a cryptid

so i acknowledge that this idea is kinda covered in the whole Wes conspiracy theorist thing, but i kinda want the town to be self aware enough to acknowledge that Danny in human form is kinda spooky. like it’s never big things that they notice, but everyone has had at least one odd exchange with the Fenton boy and he’s starting to become a bit of a legend.

like for instance Danny is always in places you don’t expect him to be. places he has no means of getting to. if you look around after a ghost fight you’ll almost always see him. he just appears in the crowd or in a pile of ruble like he’s been there all along. sometimes you’ll open a closet door or a locked room with no windows and somehow he’ll just be their. sometimes you’ll see him get thrown in a locker only to arrive to class and have him sitting there even though he would have had to escaped the locker and run past you to get there before you. sometimes you’ll be completely alone, just walking down a hallway or having a quiet moment of peace and suddenly Fenton just appears behind you, often looking as puzzled and startled as you feel. he always apologizes, but you’re never sure what he’s apologizing for. sometimes he appears across town, when you know that minutes before he was at school and there’s no way he could have traveled that far.

and he’s always dirty and jumpy and odd. when you ask him a question he flinches and says something that sounds like a lie. almost every thing he says sounds like a lie, until he says something that’s the truth and it’s startlingly aware and profound. he seems to know things no one else knows. it shows in his weary suspicions of people like the school psychologist or the mayor. it shows when his eyes turn suddenly sharp and intelligent.

and that’s not to mention the bizarre little inhuman things about him. the way a mist sometimes escapes his mouth even though the room is perfectly warm. the way his skin is always cold to the touch. the way his eyes reflect like a cats in photos or how sometimes they flash green. or how sometimes you could swear you saw him walk right through something. he always knows when the ghosts are going to attack and he is almost always there when something weird or unexplainable happens.

and sometimes, if you catch him alone and relaxed, you’ll see someone very different from the shy dorky boy who can’t keep his pants up. sometimes you’ll see someone a lot older and more tried than natural for such a young man. sometimes you look into his eyes and see the eyes of a soldier. and then it’ll flicker and be gone.

Danny is definitely odd. but Wes’s conspiracy theories are a little too far out. there’s no way to be both dead and alive at the same time and even if they look alike, phantom and Fenton act like totally different people. Fenton couldn’t fake that level of confidence and charisma if he tried. he wouldn’t be able to hide that big of a lie from anyone let alone his ghost hunting parents. and if they were the same people than why wouldn’t Fenton stand up for himself more? not to mention the rare occasions where phantom and Fenton have been see in the same place.

no, it probably had something to do with his parents. they’re mad scientist after all. they’re overly eccentric and dangerous enough that it wouldn’t be surprising if some of the ecto goo they got lying around somehow mutated their baby into... whatever Danny is. if there’s something strange about the boy than it’s probably their fault. the bizarre exploits of wild man jack are legendary in themselves.

the great irony is that Danny Fenton is considered more of a cryptid and legend than phantom is. everyone knows ghosts are real and phantom exists. there’s nothing weird about their ghost hero. he just does his job and leaves. sure the puns are silly and the property damage gets bad but there’s nothing overly mysterious about him. he’s an open book, positive, kind and charismatic to a fault. sure his past is a mystery but that’s true of all the ghosts in town. phantom’s too honest and humble to really be a mystery or a cryptid. instead he’s an icon, a role model. a solid entity that can be explained and proven with some ghost equipment.

Danny Fenton is the real unexplainable creature - Hestia

#prompts #dpjl #Danny Phantom #hestiawrites

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boneswrappedinrags · 7 years ago

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Here’s a shit fic intro I wrote for Ryan because I felt like doing UnderRags at the time and only finished last night.

@sweetfox21 I love you and I’m sorry that I failed you like this.

It wasn't common to find Knight crashed on a pelt covered gurney, sweating and heaving like his rib cage was smashed in with a sledgehammer.

A whole day, wasted in his eye as soon as his head hit the soft rabbit fur that rubbed against his shattered skull. There was a whole evening that he could be arranging hunting patrols, helping the Nursery get the unruly chitlins into their cubbies, preparing broth for tomorrow's stew. But no, selfish, tuckered out Papyrus Knight Gaster had to go to bed.

He looked out to the makeshift hallway (still proud of all the clay he carved himself mind you) that lead to the arena-like main area of the Sugar Skull's base. From there he could see the spitting fire pit that roared and jump high enough to hit the roof of the massive under-underground cavern and warmed the place; Despite the -40 degree weather that consumed the forest above. Well not really kind of- the base was made under a huge tree too far for any undead monster to brave the coldest weather in Snowdin to reach. And that calmed him enough to close his eye socket...

Sleep...

Sleeeeeppp.....

"Bro?" His eye snapped open, the loud audible 'clink' of bone raising caused whoever to wake him from his sleep to jump back a few feet. And that was good idea considering the cat-like skeleton immediately jumped out of bed quite abrupt.

"SANS!" It was never a good thing that Knight spoke so loud first thing after waking. No matter how much sleep he got. And he could only growl as his sister. At least he can help out some more before really turning in...

And waking five minutes later as usual to start the next day.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?"

"We uh... Found someone."

"WHO???"

"A skeleton. Purebred.”

"IS HE PART OF ANOTHER PACK?"

"Nope."

"NOPE!?" Knight yelled, wiping his socket as it squeezed out some sleepy tears. Somehow this weird purebred skeleton that was found was more important than his sleep!? "SANSARITA MAIDEN GASTER, YOU WOKE ME UP JUST AS I CLOSED MY EYE TO TELL ME YOU FOUND SOMEONE?"

"He's kinda cute." Oh no. "And he's a really odd case. Dude's got a bunch of claw-y thingies floating all around him." No. "They slapped Palatino."

"WAS PALATINO FLIRTING WITH HIM?"

"Hella, big time." She let out her signature belly chuckle as everything seemed to quiet down. Both noticed the sudden eruption of flames that took a slight damper afterwards.

They gave one another a look of concern, knowing against the discovery of a possible new member of the pack- everyone would be wary of this newcomer.

Knight and Maiden scampered out into the wide balcony that casted over the majority of the cavern, setting upon them a smaller fire than before that was a large crevice that rested the rainbow, technicolor flames. Below them the main area prepared as a center of the cave. Skeletons of all types and sizes gossiped over new mates and watched over as the younger hybrids and purebreds were properly taught the ways of hunting aboveground. To the far right, on the ground level, was the gouge in the wall reserved for the deep tunnels leading into the Blaster dens. To the left was the stairwell the climbed up and swirled, hugging the wall for 60 floors. Each floor having 'bout 50 to 85 rooms. And next to the stairwell, was a large group of skeletons surrounding a rather small armless purebred skeleton.

Knight took in the sight of the guy, he was an average human height, a roughed up gray poncho and matching beanie rested atop his skull. His pants were Dump material, a faded blue denim jeans that had gone through enough rough hand washes to become a eerily blue-white. His face seemed to have some facial injury, as the top right of his skull had split open and trailed onto his right eye socket, his cheekbone, and ended a little over his chin. Luckily enough it didn't hinder the purebred's sight as two oval medium sized eye lights were skirting the hoard of skeletons for someone.

Someone like Maiden. She shoved and pushed past the crowd as anything softer would toss her back and lose her among the fray.

"Okay, alright, let the Deputy through. Gotta pull out the Welcome Wagon." Maiden tapped ones' skull as warning, and then pushed them a good couple inches away. "Heya bud. Like our big ol' happy family so far?"

"A-as if I w-wanted to-t-to be s-sur-rounded!" The gray clad skeleton seemed to of sink into his thick poncho collar as a couple of girls that surrounded his back giggled.

"So cute!" "So shy!”

"Then I guess we succeeded!" Maiden flashed a wide grin.

Without warning, she nabbed him by his waist and pulled him into her side. He looked all pissed off. All while Knight had pushed his way to the front of the crowd, having the easier ascend into the curious glow of several hundred skeletons because-

He was their leader.

"SANS..." a couple pack members leaned back at Knight's volume. They nervously laughed as realizing their pack leader was probably awakened just prior. "WHO IS THIS?"

"This is Ryan. I found him in the trash."

"WELL PUT HIM BACK." That resulted in some hissing, some booing, some 'aw'ing as Maiden frowned.

"We can't just put him back. The Royal guard would kill him." The glare shared among the two caused the crowd to grow quiet. "He needs a hand... or two."

"WAS THAT A PUN?"

"A r-rude on-one at th-th-t-that!" Ryan huffed, above his shoulders were hands that floated. Ghosting over some others and twitched and rubbed their phalanges in a titter. Ryan looked to Knight, attempting to look brave. "A-Are you Kn-Knight?"

"I AM PAPYRUS KNIGHT GASTER, YES. LEADER OF THE SUGAR SKULLS PACK. AND THIS PUN MOUTHED JACKALOPE OF A CORPSE IS MY SISTER SANSARITA."

"Just call me Maiden, baby." she gave Ryan a wink. Which resulted in Ryan scowling and Knight snickering at his sister's failed attempts of wooing.

"I GUESS WE'RE STUCK WITH HIM NOW, HUH?" Knight hoped to Toriel Maiden wasn't going to defy his orders-

"You'd have to pry him from my cold dusty fingers." FUCK.

The two were now at a midpoint, Knight had bent over shaking his head disapproval and Maiden released her new denmate.

"FINE. HE WILL WORK ALONG SIDE YOU UNTIL WE FIND A SUITABLE JOB FOR HIM."

"D-don'-n't I get a-a say in th-this!?" Ryan's looked even more scared than when the group dragged him down into this warm but arid cave.

"NOPE. FROM NOW ON YOUR PACK NAME WILL BE 'GONER'. WELCOME TO HELL."

"Oh yeah like that's gonna make him feel more at home."

The group whooped and hollered in celebration of their new member, it shocked Ryan a bit and only brought him out of the state when several skeletons began tugging at his poncho and leading him to the fire pit that begun spiraling high, reaching the roof with its excited glow.

For the rest of the night, Ryan was introduced to more skeletons. There was Broadway, a very passionate Nursery bard that helped distract the chitlins for a good hour or so with games and tiny plays reenacted with sock puppets. Bookman, the elderly alpacca skeleton that spent their days working along side others to clean and restore books found and brought to the Pack. Bodoni, a calm bear skeleton that promised to teach Ryan the fundamentals of hunting in such freezing weather. Felix, a purebred, had introduced Ryan to his first meal in the pack- a steaming bowl of rabbit stew that eagerly wanted to stuff the poor boy until he fell into a food coma. There was also Palatino, the lizard like skeleton that first flirted with him when they found him in the backwoods dump. Turns out he worked along side Maiden in the Gaster Blaster Dens and cared for the more animalistic skelly beasts.

It was weird for Ryan to be bombarded with all these new people, but the Gaster siblings hoped that Ryan'd be comfortable within the next few weeks. As much as Knight detested all the 'strays' his sister brought home, they all paid due in the pack and made him a little less cold to this newcomer.

"Sans..." Knight began crawling back to his cubby while Maiden followed a few steps before she bumped into her brother's butt. "I want him to work a day each in all jobs, give him a starting point and find him a mentor for each job. You are responsible for him until he earns his spot among us."

Maiden's eye lights grew bigger, glowing a pleasant blue pastel. "Okay bro. Get some sleep now." She heard her brother give a slight grunt as he continued to bed. "And sleep in this time!"

He grunted again, jokingly louder and left her chuckling as she went to the pack for her new partner.

She turned back to the dwindling group, watching those were tired and exhausted from a long day return to their cubbies or approach the entrance to take over the nightly vigil. Making her way down, she watched as Ryan bid the weapon blacksmith Blackadder a farewell and well rest. Waiting close by for him to catch her observing eyes and get up from the remaining few and bid them goodnight.

".. S-so where am I sleeping?" He seemed to be more calm than before.

"You're gonna stick in my room tonight, we'll get you a room tomorrow and get it fully furnished."

The two slept well. And by that I mean Maiden was a little late to the snoozing party as her naked form covered by a soft moose pelt resulted in her overnight, bed sharing roommate to illuminate the room for a good few minutes with a lime blush.

"Dude. It's just bones." She giggled, burying the side of her face in a loosely sewn together pillow. As Ryan fumbled with his boxers, leaving Maiden clueless of his other glowing parts.

"A-And you still have your ecto body showing." Ryan couldn't help darting his eyes back to her body, and he squeaked a little loud as Maiden set straight up, allowing her more dulled down blue ecto breasts to rest above her crossed arms. "P-Put those away?"

"What? You never summoned these?"

"WH-WHAT!? NO!" The whole room glowed a bright lime green, and Maiden covered her eyes as Ryan's arua proved too blinding.

"Then how about we switch?"

"W-What!?"

She lowered her arms, rapidly blinked her sockets to get used to the bright glow. Then looked down Ryan's covered form.

"I'll get a bright ass boner and you'll rock a banging rack on your ribs and then we'll both go to sleep afterwards, deal?" she smirked over Ryan panicky action to cover his 'boner' that shone too easily from underneath the thin pelt he chose. The boobs wisped off her chest and soon after a small lump pressed noticeably against the covers, which got Ryan even more on edge.

"A-Are you kidding me!?" Ryan pulled off her sheets, to his disappointment only revealed her mildly long tail to be the 'bump in the night'. While Maiden, now equally illuminating the room with a her blue cheekbones, bursted out laughing as Ryan's face drained of all color.

"Y-you- You actually wanted to see a dick on me, dude!?" her laughing caused him to retract his hand back and lay in his spot embarrassed and more nervous as when she climbed a top of him. "You're kinda of a freak aren't 'cha?"

He blushed again, avoiding Maiden's mischevious glare as he merely whimpered.

She dropped the subject as she watched all the nervousness Ryan cooped in inside himself faded away.

"I guess I am..." He sighed as his soul thrummed faintly in his rib cage.

It beat harder as he felt a soft pair of lips touch his cracked forehead and stayed there until a wave of calmness washed over his tired bones. It wasn't until Maiden ended her kiss that Ryan found his exhaustion dragging his vision into the darkness and felt the warm embrace of Maiden's wrapped around his chest. Never minding the semi-stiff erection they had pressed against their pelvises until the soft lime glow faded from the room, leaving them in complete darkness.

"Hey... baby... We're all freaks here." He let his starved body bring Maiden closer, breathing in her blueberry mint scented bones.

"There's no shame in the little things, alright? Just let me take care of you now.

The last of his consciousness focused on her low toned cooing as he fell under...

#Ryan #Sansarita #UnderRags #au

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balshumetsbaragouin · 8 years ago

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Bittersweet Future: Chapter Ten

Summary:

A fateful meeting...

If You’re Feeling Like Dorothy…

The dark-haired teen lay stark still from his position on the floor, gun pointed directly at his forehead. On the other end of the weapon was someone he was both glad and confused to see. “Jazz?” Danny repeated, still amazed that his sister was on the other end of the gun.

The red haired girl’s eyes narrowed, before she hoisted the gun slightly closer to his head. “How do you know my name?”

The shock of surprise, which had previously settled into a soft tingle, was now jumping back to lightning bolt strength as it coursed through his consciousness. How do I know your name? You’re my sister Jazz…aren’t you? “I…um-”

“We told him!”

Danny’s eyes shifted slightly from the gun pointed only inches from his nose to the boy who had spoken up in his defense.

“You did? Why would you tell a stranger, a ghost stranger something so important Nick?” Jasmine didn’t bother avoiding his name; she’d heard both of them tell the ghost in front of her their names earlier.

“I didn’t think it was a bad idea. He’s really nice Jasmine.”

“Yeah,” Nate started defensively, “he hasn’t attacked us or anything!”

That’s when Jasmine realized something and swung her full attention back to the ghost in front of her. “That’s really interesting, but you know what? Nate and Nick only ever call me ‘Jasmine.’ Never Jazz. But you know who does call me Jazz?” She stopped to flick the setting on her gun to full power. “Jack Fenton.” She smoothly switched targets to the middle of the ghost’s chest. “Did he send you here? Did he capture you and send you after us?” She leveled at the being in front of her, voice heavy with accusation.

“Wait what? Why would-”

“Nuh-uh,” Nick cut in this time, “he’s not even a ghost.”

“Yeah, we didn’t even sense anything, well except-”

“Yeah but that was-” Nick interrupted back.

“-have you seen Daniel around?” they both asked simultaneously.

Jasmine furrowed her eyebrows, trying to discern the boys’ point. She hated when they finished each other’s sentences or spoke at the same time. It made her feel like she was missing half of the conversation. “No why would I? The only ghost the scanner picked up was this one.” She explained with a wave of her free hand.

“Yeah but the scanner can’t tell the difference between ghosts in that mode, just that they are around-” Nate spoke in his most exasperated tone.

“-and,” Nick picked up where the other boy had left off, “we can. We totally sensed Daniel around here somewhere-”

-and we figured he’d be trying to bring us back home by now.” They both concluded as one.

“Well, I guess I can change the mode to look for a specific ghost signature, but that doesn’t explain where he came from.” Jasmine focused her attention back to the, now maybe, ghost in front of her.

“I-uh snuck inside. One of my friends dared me.”

“Don’t bullshit me! I know this,” she gestured once again with her free hand, the one with the gun never so much as wiggling away from its position over Danny’s heart,” is just some disguise. So why don’t you stop lying, because the scanner doesn’t.”

Before Danny could respond, Nate and Nick did it for him. “We already told you. The scanner picked up Daniel. This guy’s totally human.” They had resorted to speaking at once in frustration.

“Stop talking at the same time, you know I hate that, and if you did sense him, where is he then?” Jasmine huffed and set her left hand against her hip, getting more annoyed by the second with the boys’ tenacity.

“Well I don’t know-” Nick started only to have Nate complete the sentence for him.

“- but you have the scanner. So put down the stupid gun-”

“-and look for him already.” Nick finished the other boy’s sentence with a sighed whoosh of air.

“Like I’m going to-”

“Listen, I hate to interrupt, what with the gun pointed at me and everything, but could any of you tell me what you are talking about?”

Three pairs of eyes honed in on Danny’s position on the floor.

“I mean ghosts, scanners, insisting I’m like, a ghost or something. Did I fall into crazy land or what?” He asked while levering himself up onto his elbows.

Jasmine narrowed her eyes, and sent a warning shot next to the too human looking ghost. “I said stay still. Next time,” she slid the gun down a few inches and snapped it down a notch in power, “I’ll just blast off you ‘little friend’ so I’d suggest staying still.”

“Got it! Not even thinking about wiggling.” Geez! What has gotten into Jazz? She was never this aggressive. Danny felt the residual heat from the blast next to his skull. And she was never this good of a shot either. Well I’m glad that improved.

“Jasmine come on, let him up.” Nate implored, walking over to tug on the arm holding the gun.

“Yeah we’re wasting time. If we don’t have to leave right this second-”

“Then help us re-stock these boxes.” Nick finished for the both of them.

“Re-stock the boxes? You mean you came all the way out here by yourselves to fill up the reserve supplies?” Jasmine was more than a little exasperated at the thought. “You know it’s dangerous out here, and you aren’t supposed to go anywhere without me or Daniel, especially without telling anyone.” She spoke while sliding her eyes off of the humanoid ghost in front of her, keeping it only in her peripheral vision.

Nate looked visibly wilted. “Yeah well it was important. We might be coming back through here soon, and-”

“-If mother and father got here first, they would be sure to confiscate this.” A new voice interrupted from the shadows of the ruined living room on the other side of the kitchen entrance. He stepped into the room, a black device held dangling between thumb and index finger. “Is this what you two were searching for?”

“Uh-oh!” Nick and Nate said at the same time already backing from the room.

Danny couldn’t believe his eyes. It passed the Guys in White rejects, and Debbie, and the calls to his best friend’s houses. It even passed the ominous burnt out mansion he was currently kneeling on the floor of, sister threatening and cajoling him with deadly accurate aim. On the opposite side of the room, sporting his dark hair and blue eyes that were like his, but not, was his doppelganger. No. Nononononononono….this isn’t…that can’t be…I… Danny grappled mentally, unable to even think coherently at the sight a few feet from him.

“Daniel! When did you get here?” Jasmine lowered the sights on her ecto-weapon a notch; maybe the boys and this stranger were telling the truth.

“Oh about-”

“We told you! He got here like 15 minutes ago or something. But you never listen to-” the two of them started at once.

“Yeah that’s great,” Jasmine started while eying the strange boy on the floor. “You,” she started with a small wave of her gun towards Danny, “you aren’t a ghost are you.” It wasn’t a question, she was nearly completely sure of it now.

Danny was too shell shocked to catch the question. His heart was pounding; his limbs felt like jelly, and if everyone else in the room wasn’t referring to the newest member of it, Danny would be sure he was hallucinating from stress or fatigue. He managed to tear his eyes away from the person with the face that was his, but not, and gaped up at Jazz. “I…w-what?” He stuttered out.

Jasmine rolled her eyes and took the gun off of the teenager below her, thinking it was causing his nervous-like stuttering. “I said you aren’t a ghost, and you’re not. I guess the twins were telling the truth.” She slung the weapon onto the belt loop on her back pocket and sent a hand down towards the now pale looking teen. “Come on, get up. I promise no one is going to shoot at you or something.” The red-haired girl managed a small smile through her own growing sense of dread. We really shouldn’t be here right now.

Danny reached up and grasped the offered appendage with a tremor filled hand, using more of Jazz’s strength to get off of the ground than his own. His legs still felt like Jell-o in an earthquake. “I, um, yeah I’m not. I’ve been saying that for awhile now. Um, who’s that?” He asked while pointing over to the raven haired teen leaning against the wall, arms crossed.

“Oh yeah, I guess I should actually introduce myself. My name’s Jasmine,” she explained pointing to herself, “do not call me ‘Jazz’. Those two morons over there-”

“Hey!-”

“Are my younger brothers. Nickolas and Nathaniel. If you couldn’t tell before, my obnoxious baby brothers are twins.”

“We are not obnoxious!” They protested at the same time.

“No, you’re just disobedient and reckless.” The dark haired boy sniped from across the room. He sent a disconcertingly familiar smile Danny’s way. “My name is Daniel, and Jasmine’s my older sister. Now I believe it’s your turn for introductions.” He suggest before raising an eyebrow at Danny’s odd stare. “What?”

There was no way he could deny it now. The mannerisms, the speech patterns, hell after taking a good look at him, I can nearly see…Oh God, I refuse to even think it. “I um nothing. It’s just my name is Daniel too. Oh, but everyone calls me Danny.” The time traveling halfa slid a glance down towards the youngest members of the room, eyes roving as discreetly as possible over their faces. Oh Jesus, they have the same color eyes as…

“That’s totally cool. Hey, that means I can say Daniel and get both of your attention at once.” Nate blurted out with an excited grin. He’d never met someone his brother’s age who had introduced himself before, and he planned on exploiting it for some fun.

“Daniel’s a common name. Honestly, I would have preferred if father had just given me his name.” Daniel moved from against the door frame of the entrance to the kitchen and walked over to stand in front of the twins. “You two are in serious trouble. How many times have I told you not to wander off? It’s incredibly dangerous, and more importantly, mother is worried sick. You’re lucky father is too busy working on the systems for the RV to notice you slipping off, but we have maybe an hour before he does, and then we’ll all be in trouble, and I am not getting grounded over your hardheaded shortsightedness. We are leaving now, and yes I am the boss of you.” Daniel finished the speech by ensnaring both of the twins’ wrists in each of his hands and nearly dragging them bodily from the room. He stopped at the juncture between the kitchen and the living room next door before adding, “Jasmine are you coming or not?”

“Yeah, I’m coming, just give me a second. I just want to grab some batteries for the weapons; we are running low back at Camp.” She leaned over and looked through the boxes Nick and Nate had been rummaging through just minutes before, before grabbing a few medium size spheres. Jasmine stuffed them in her pockets before turning towards Danny. “Listen sorry about pointing that weird looking gun at you. Just forget about it. In fact, forget you ever met me, it’ll be for the best actually.” She turned and began for the door, before something nagging at her made her stop at the threshold. “Hey, how did you get in here? I mean is someone going to be looking for you or…” She trailed off as she noticed the pale drawn look on the other teen’s face.

“I, uh, well…I don’t…” Yeah real smooth Fenton. Get it together! Danny took a deep breath before starting again. “I sorta lied about being dared to come in here. To be honest, I don’t really know where I am. I woke up in the forest out there, and came towards the castle because I thought someone might be living here, but I guess I was wrong. Um, could you at least tell me what state I’m in?” Please don’t be able to tell I’m lying like you always can. He hurriedly prayed.

Jasmine felt a small shock of worry and surprise go through her system. How in the world did a kid his- She cut off her own mental question, suspicion immediately replacing her natural empathy. To call the story sketchy would be generous, and there was too much depending on her to make a mistake at the moment. “You don’t remember how you got here at all? Do you remember the date?” It was possible that the boy in front of her just had short term amnesia from a concussion. Just as well, the tale was far too convenient.

“Yeah it’s like April 23rd or something right?” That was the last day he had seen before going back into the future.

Jasmine barely contained her surprise this time at Danny’s last sentence. “No. It’s May 5th, 2005. You’re missing like a week of time. Did you hit your-”

“Jasmine!”

The bright red haired teen turned around at the sound of someone calling her name. “Hold on a second Daniel, I think this kid’s in real trouble.” She leaned over and grabbed the likely amnesiac boy next to her, and pulled him along with her into the next room with her brothers. “He doesn’t know where he is, and he’s missing a week of time. I think we should at least drop him off in the nearest town’s police station. I brought the Hercules Hover with me, so we can just take him in that.” She finished before ruthlessly shoving away the uncomfortable feeling crawling up her spine that they were taking too long.

Daniel narrowed his eyes as he gave the male stranger a once over. There was something disturbingly familiar about his face, and more importantly, he never trusted anyone. It was too dangerous to take someone they didn’t know with them, even an hour out of the way max to get them to civilization. We’ve been here too long already; we need to get back to Camp. “Listen I don’t know if you’re lying,” he continued on even after his sister and the other teen started to interrupt, “and I don’t really care because it doesn’t matter. We don’t have time to waste taking you even remotely close to the nearest town. You’re on your own Danny. Jasmine let’s go.” He sent his sister a particularly pointed meaningful look before glaring down at his sputtering brothers, still trapped by the wrists, daring them to contradict him.

“Daniel,” Jasmine started with her lips pursed, “I’m not leaving him here by himself, in a burnt out house, with no food, no idea where he is, and barely any sense of time. That’s absurd.” She watched as he younger brother rolled his eyes, and it sent a wave of irritation through her system. He was always acting like he knew better than her, and she was definitely the older out of the two of them.

“What’s absurd is your insistence that we take a stranger with us. You know as well as I the dangers of leaving camp and especially of trusting people we don’t know. You’d think you’d have learned by now, but maybe I’ve assigned too steep a learning curve to-”

“Damn it; do not start your high-browed insults on me right now. This kid probably has a concussion and is suffering from short term retrograde amnesia. We-”

“And don’t start your pathetic pseudo-psychological babble on me. He’s probably just faking it to gain some sympathy. Turn off the empathy meter for five seconds Jasmine a-”

“You are such an asshole Daniel! Why can’t we just-”

“Listen you insufferable prat, f-”

“Insufferable pr-! Daniel, I’m in charge here. Don’t tell me I’m not, because you know mom and dad will ground you into eternity if you disobey me. I’m telling you, I’m taking Danny and the twins with me in the Hercules Hover, but you are free to get back however you want.” Jasmine let go of Danny’s wrist long enough to cross her arms and stare her brother down. He was so damn paranoid sometimes, it was unbearable. And he had this smug superior manner about him whenever he argued or thought he was right. Condescending prick, sounds just like dad sometimes, no matter how much he says he doesn’t. The ginger teen concluded before walking towards Daniel to extricate her youngest brothers from his grasp.

“Um, yeah hey…” Danny started before his sister made it across the room to the rest of the group. He waited until the anger buzzed eyes of everyone else in the room locked onto his. “I’m sorry I started this argument, but can’t you at least drop me off in walking distance of the nearest town? I mean maybe like 10 miles away, that would be close enough.” He watched as his alternate version sneered over at him before rolling his eyes.

“Just where do you think you are exactly? The closest town is nearly 50 miles away, and I’m not sure they have even 1,000 people living there.” He steadfastly ignored the tugging his eldest sibling was doing at his wrists to get to the twins. She couldn’t break his hold if she wanted to; he was much stronger than she was.

“Oh he doesn’t know, because he doesn’t know where he is, like I already told you.” Jasmine stopped to give an especially big tug. “Let go.” She gritted out irritably.

Daniel easily resisted, not bothering to even pull back. “No.” He answered her demand by steadfastly resisting her even stronger attempts. “Jasmine we have to leave. We can’t stay outside of the shields this long, even with the suppressers on, I…” he stopped suddenly cognizant of the stranger in the room. “The way I got out here is going to get their attention. You know that.”

Danny frowned in concern as the incongruous piece of information was taken in, ignoring the debate of sorts going on in front of him. While Vlad did live out in the middle of nowhere, the surrounding area’s towns were famous for being technological centers of the state, if not the country. He realized with barely contained dismay that the reason for the towns’ economical and technological growth was likely the influence of Vlad’s companies on the Wisconsin area. “I, uh listen…I just need to get somewhere with internet or something. I’m actually looking for an old family friend.” Better just to get this over with now. “I’m sure I could look him up, but uh, not until I get into a town. So are you sure you couldn’t just-”

“Who are you looking for?” Daniel carefully shouldered his sister behind him loosening his grip on the twin’s wrists, his near innate sixth sense for danger kicking in.

“Oh well, his name is,” Here it goes, “Vlad Masters. The last plac-” Danny watched as the two younger boys were shuffled behind their older siblings, Jazz taking the ecto-weapon back out, and Da- , the person who wasn’t him, shifting into a fighting stance.

“How exactly do you know-”

“Stupid question Jasmine,” Daniel said interrupting already knowing where she was going with that sentence, “better one, when did you send the signal out to the GSU? Don’t lie or make me beat it out of you, I don’t have time for that.” He sent a polar chill level icy glare towards their enemy, already berating himself for not getting his family out of there sooner.

Jasmine ignored her younger sibling’s rude curt mannerism. He was always like that when he was worried, scared, or angry, and he was likely all three at the moment. She was too busy trying not to beat herself up over mistaking this obvious danger for a defenseless kid. “We don’t have time for that either Daniel, let’s just get into the Hover and haul ass. If we hurry we can still get out of here before anyone from the GSU gets remotely close. The nearest base is in Amity, and even if they take jets out to get to us, they’ll take 90 minutes or something. If I use the cloak-” Jasmine stopped her sentence when she heard a high pitched ominous sound coming from outside. The choppy whirl of something coming through the air towards their current position cut through the sudden silence of the room. In an instant, she knew they were in serious trouble. The only reason there’d be aircraft this far out… She started to think before shoving it away before focusing her mind onto the situation at hand.

At the same time, the twins jumped behind their older siblings, before trading a covert glance.

Wordlessly, Nick lifted a hand towards Daniel’s back pocket, reaching for the device he’d dangled in front of them when he first arrived. It was the reason he and his brother had come all this way. He looked down at the wrist reaching for the pocket, and suppressed a frown at the silver bracelet wrapped tightly around it. If he was lucky in a few seconds it wouldn’t matter.

Just then, Nate jumped to the side at the sound of a sonic boom overhead. He was nowhere near startled, but he needed his older brother distracted.

Nick took a deep breath at the same instant Nate jumped, and plucked up the device the moment Daniel was distracted. The amethyst eyed boy shoved it into his pocket before his older brother could notice and slunk over towards his twin.

Another boom sounded from above them, and this time no one had to fake shock. It didn’t sound like the rumbling boom of a jet flying over head. It was more like something slamming into the earth.

“Come on, they’re dropping off soldiers! We have to get out of here. Jasmine, take the twins around the back, and don’t let that GSU flunky out of your sight. I’m going to go talk to the welcome party.” Daniel strode away to the exit to the room, back towards the original entrance to the mansion.

Jasmine watched him go with a growing pit of apprehension swirling in her stomach. By the sounds of it, there was a practical army swarming outside waiting for them. If they didn’t get out of there right now they could be captured! But… There was just something about the raven haired teen in front of her. She couldn’t place a finger on it, and she didn’t have time to contemplate it at the moment, but the young man in front of her reminded her of something or someone. She narrowed her eyes in thought as her youngest brothers backed into the back of her legs. She didn’t trust him; she shouldn’t trust him, but the desperate naked fear in his eyes, contrasted greatly with the feeling of betrayal in her center. When she heard the opening explosions of battle, she made her decision. Danny was coming with her, after they searched him for bugs or tracers of course. The scarlet haired teen made a vague gesture with the hand holding the gun. “You, you’re coming with us. I honestly don’t know what’s gotten into me, but I don’t think you brought them here. It was probably one of the twins when they…came out here.” She stated carefully avoiding specific details. She didn’t know whose side the blue-eyed teen in front of her was on, but she didn’t want to give out any more information than necessary.

Danny was starting to panic. In between the gun pointed directly at his heart, again, the sounds of battle raging not 100 feet away from them outside of the castle, and the currently disappeared version of himself who went out to fight it, he felt like his world was breaking. He barely registered his sister moving the ecto-weapon pointed at him to gesture, but he did hear the command for him to come with the rest of the group. He silently thanked whatever god had decided to give him just the slightest bit of luck convincing his sister he wasn’t a threat, before slowly walking towards her.

Jasmine quickly snapped the ecto-weapon up to full power, in intimidation, when she saw the obsidian haired teen walk towards her. “Nuh-uh. You are going to stay over there. I’m going to point this gun at your back while you walk forward, and direct you from behind. If you so much as sneeze threateningly, I’ll blast a hole in your skull. Got it?” She finished her declaration by staring the boy across from her directly in the eyes. She couldn’t suppress a shudder at the deep hurt reflected back at her through his gaze. What she was more concerned about though was the resonating pain that flowed through her own system. Just who is this kid? She pondered before an especially loud explosion from outside made her jump. Time to go! The eldest teen in the room snapped the weapon down a few notches in power and made a motion towards one of the exits to the room. “You first.”

Danny shoved away the growing hole in his chest made by the cold and rough treatment his sister was giving him. If he ever needed a familiar face to trust him, it was now, but at the moment, the only person he knew either hated his guts or didn’t trust him farther than her gun sights. Neither option was really soothing to Danny’s mind. He glumly turned towards the doorway Jazz had indicated with her weapon. He started off slowly, partially because he was sulking and partially because he didn’t want to give her an excuse to shot at him.

“Come on, move your ass! We have to get out-” Jasmine was cut off by a several loud crashes echoing throughout the house before Daniel landed just a few scant feet in front of her, having been thrown through a wall.

“What the baklava are you all still doing here? Didn’t I tell you to high-tail it like five minutes ago?” Daniel shook off some of the dust from his clothing, now subtly glowing and color reversed from the last time he was in the room.

“Sorry, we were just leaving!” Jasmine spat out hastily, pushing her younger siblings along in front of her, before noticing Danny standing still. “Get going! Do you want to die?” She was nearly out of patience at this point. What was this kid’s deal?

Danny was shocked into stillness by the sight of Daniel flying into the room. He had obviously transformed, but he looked nothing like either he or Vlad. Other than the clothing he was wearing swapping colors, and the ghostly aura obviously surrounding his person, he looked nearly exactly the same. Well not exactly, his eyes are the same color red as Vlad’s, but why is his hair still black? Danny contemplated before realizing he was still standing at the edge of the room when they had a fight to escape. “Oh right, let’s get out of here.” He replied to Jazz absently dismissing the mystery that was his alternate self in favor of escaping the building. He followed his sister’s explicit and sometimes explicative filled instructions to the back of the mansion facing towards the southern side of the former Dairy King’s abode. It didn’t take long for him to identify the mode of transportation they were taking. What in the-“hell is that thing?” he asked voicing the tail end of his thoughts.

The Hercules Hover looked like a giant beetle made of bright white metal and silvery chrome and dark gray steel. It even had something that looked like pincers on the front.

“Do you like it? It’s a scaled up model of a Hercules Beetle, complete with energy scattering ecto-skeleton and strength built up to the car equivalent in size.” Nick gushed from behind Danny.

“Oook, that was the nerdiest thing I’ve ever heard come out of a kid your age’s mouth.” The time traveling teen responded.

“Psh, the ecto-skeleton isn’t nearly as cool as the heat seeking weapons or the hydraulic system that runs it.” Nate stated with a huff before continuing, “and it especially isn’t as cool as multi-person motion compensating targeting system, complete with multi-scopes and several scanning modes for optimum dam-” He’s technological speech was cut short when a loud explosion sounded from the front of castle.

“Never mind that the both of you, just get inside.” Jasmine walked from behind the teen she was basically holding hostage to open the side of the vehicle. With a whoosh and a small puff of steam, the side of the craft opened up to reveal the insides before she climbed inside. The elder teen calculated the odds of the battle raging out front from the sounds echoing back towards them. Not good, sounds like Daniel’s having trouble keeping them all occupied. We need to get airborne before they manage to get past him and back here. She watched as her brothers climbed in first, and was just about to motion to Danny to get in next when a swirling mist of red gathered in the cabin.

“Alright, let’s get out of here. I’ve got a duplicate keeping them busy out front, so if we leave south-west of here we’ll be able to escape with cover for the first hundred miles or so.” The ghost powered teen began pressing buttons to start up the machine before he noticed Danny standing a few feet from the vehicle. With a start and a set of narrowed eyes, he turned to face his older sister preparing to pilot them out of there next to him in the cockpit. “What in Hades is that waste of carbon atoms doing out here? You should’ve-”

“He’s coming with us.” Jasmine stated calmly, already nearly done with the start up sequence for the Hercules Hover. She wasn’t about to fight with him about this when they were in so much danger. He’d better just get over it, because Danny is coming with us.

“No hold on, could I ask you something?” He didn’t wait for her to answer, instead plowing right into answering his own question. “Did you leave the rest of your frontal lobe in Camp, because you know, I was just wondering if I could attribute your sudden loss of IQ points on something other than your blasted empathy.”

“Shut up Daniel. Fly home if you don’t want to look at him on the trip, but he’s coming.” At this point Jasmine was so upset, she didn’t care what Danny overheard. She wasn’t arguing with her bull-headed younger brother about it anymore.

Before Daniel could retort a resounding boom echoed from the front of the grounds. A bright collection of red rushed into the cabin and towards him before absorbed into his being. His eyes flashed a darker red for an instant, before he gasped and reached from the controls. “We have got to get out of here. You’re not going to-” Another large explosion cut off the rest of his sentence, and the oddly shaped craft shook on the ground as the remnants of the building behind them imploded.

The blast threw Danny against the still open side of the Hover knocking him nearly senseless. He groaned when he felt the vehicle he was leaning against move away and barely caught himself before he hit the ground. The sight that greeted him when the battered teen pried his eyes open was not a comforting one.

The mansion had caved in on itself, and plowing through the rubble were the troops of the GSU armed with various weapons and flanked and backed up by an assortment of assault vehicles including a few tanks. They fired a few shots, purposely aimed poorly, just to watch their cornered quarry dance.

Danny jumped to his feet to avoid the first of the ecto-weapon’s blasts. He managed to dodge the first several attacks, before realizing they were just playing with him. I’m dead. He thought before settling into a shaky fighting stance. Danny was more than outnumbered; he was out gunned, and had no way to escape. Just as he was about to transform and face the inevitable, a strong dark green blast carved a path in between the advancing troops and his person.

In the hovercraft above the ensuing battle Jasmine had just strapped herself into the pilot seat, after making sure the twins were buckled first. They’d had more than one experience with the cabin suddenly and explosively opening, so they all strapped in now-a-days. She was just about to demand Daniel go down and pick up the other teen, when he had suddenly jumped from the craft, phasing through the ecto-skeleton. She wasn’t sure what was going through his mind anymore. One minute her younger brother was insisting they leave the other boy to his fate, and the next he was jumping back into the fray, willing to protect him. If for five seconds you could make sense…

Truthfully, it was watching the other boy get fired upon, even if purposefully inaccurately, that had finally convinced Daniel to help. No way would they fire on one of their own like that. Their weapons are too dangerous. So, with barely a word to his sister back in the Hercules Hover, he’d jumped out of the craft and dived back towards the troops below. A carefully aimed blast cut the troops off from his target. The currently in ghost form youth maneuvered to a stop just in front of the designer clad kid in trouble. “Looks like you could use some help.” He said with the most apologetic voice he could muster under the circumstances.

“Could I ever. Do you think you could fly us out of here or something? I’d like to avoid ending up like the castle behind us.” Danny lifted up a hand towards the floating teen above him just as the fires from the ecto-attack died down. He felt his stomach drop as he was pulled into the air, and zipped towards the beetle shaped hovercraft. A few seconds later, he was dropped unceremoniously onto the cabin floor.

“Alright now let’s get out of here!” Daniel settled into the co-pilot seat next to his older sister and pointed towards the south-west. He began starting up some of the defense systems; there was no way they were getting out of there without a fight anymore.

“No problem.” Jasmine quickly agreed, before ‘punching it’. The hybrid bug-plane shot forward like a race horse out of the gate, zooming away from the quickly receding sounds of battle below. Just as they passed the edge of the forest surrounding the destroyed castle, the tanks behind them opened fire. With a few moves that looked like it came from an action movie, she quickly maneuvered them around the deadly weapon’s fire with ease.

The sounds of the blasts and the explosions of bright green grew softer and farther apart. Despite its nearly comical appearance the hovercraft was capable of moving well over 300 miles an hour.

Jasmine relaxed her grip slightly on the steering wheel of the flying beetle. The sounds of exploding ecto-weapon shells were miles behind them, far enough in the distance that she could calm down some.

Daniel narrowed his eyes and checked a few more scanning settings on the Hercules. There’s just no way it’s that easy. On the final channel he flipped to, he was rewarded with two flashing blips speeding towards their position. I hate it when I’m right. “Don’t let up Jasmine, we’ve got two boogies coming in hot.” With that, he flipped over the display onto the holographic read out floating in front of the windows in the beetle head shaped cockpit of the Hover.

“What are they?” The crimson locked teen asked punching a few buttons on the control console to narrow down the search area to just the planes coming towards their position.

“At this speed? I’d say fighter jets.” Daniel unbuckled himself and jumped towards the midsection of the craft. He’d likely need to intercept them himself; the Hover didn’t have the maneuverability to out-fly a couple of government issued jets.

“Oh great, because you know that’s just what we need, jets crawling up our six.” Jasmine huffed and started overriding the maximum velocity conditions on the craft, wanting to squeeze out all of the extra speed she could from the machine. She frowned when the jets over took the Hover’s position and banked back around obviously wanting an easy shot at the sides of the machine. “Daniel…”

“Yeah I’m on it.” He said before transforming and phasing out of the middle of the craft. He settled onto the nose of the Hover before creating a strong pink shield around the outside of the craft to block the incoming gun fire.

The planes strafed the outside of their target, firing large caliber rounds that were easily absorbed by half-ghost creating the ecto-shield. Even though their bullets were coated in ecto-uranium, like all of their equipment, and so especially effective against ghosts, hybrids were much more powerful than average, leaving the majority of their weapons ineffective. “Home base this is Flyer K, requesting approval to use heavy artillery.” The squadron leader sent back to their base in Amity. She spotted the rest of their group coming in from behind, slowed down by helping move supplies and ground troops back into the large air carrier. Should be here soon.

“Flyer K, this is home base, permission granted. Blast those mutant bastards out of the sky.”

The squadron leader smirked into her O2 mask before replying, “Roger that home base. Let’s see those freaks avoid these.” She flipped up the missile firing part of her weapons system with a nearly soundless click. The weapon’s display changed from the small caliber rounds and weapons to the serious ecto-energy seeking energy and ecto-signature specific missiles and attacks. She picked out a pair of her favorite missiles, the afterlife ender, and prepared to fire them while flagging her flying partner to do the same. Simultaneously, they sent off two pairs of missiles meant for the speeding bug-like craft now a few hundred yards in front of them.

“Daniel, we’ve got missiles baring down on us. You think your shield will hold?” Jasmine began steering the Hover in an erratic pattern trying to throw off the systems of the missiles.

The half-ghost teen sitting on the nose of the Hover narrowed his eyes as the missiles sped towards their position. “That’s a negative ghost rider. I’m going to have to make a copy to take care of it; I can’t drop the shield around the Hover, it would be too dangerous.” Daniel closed his eyes and concentrated. It was a drain on his powers to make a duplicate while holding the shield, after already having fought off the GSU troops earlier, but he didn’t have a choice at the moment. He grimaced when he felt his core ache in the distinctive way that signaled him running out of power. Not yet… With a deep breath, he forced the copy into existence and sent it outside of the shield to take care of the missiles.

The shield around the Hover flickered to bright green for a few seconds before changing back to a much softer nearly pastel colored pink as opposed to the deep nearly cherry pink from before.

“Hey, are you-” Jasmine started only to be cut off by her younger brother.

“I’m fine; we just need to end this fight quickly. If not, we’ll be in trouble.” He responded through grit teeth, pushing more energy into the cracking failing shield. It solidified under his efforts and he opened his eyes to watch the copy take off to intercept the missiles.

Danny was racked with indecision. Now would be a great time to transform and help out before they were all blasted into bloody chunks. On the other hand, he didn’t want to reveal he had ghost powers, in his recent experiences no time was a good time to reveal that, and with them already so suspicious they were contemplating leaving him to the GSU, he didn’t want to give them any excuse to do so. Plus I’m pretty sure just showing up with ghost powers when they think I’m a regular kid will get me at least tied down to a chair with a gun pointed at me. He mentally griped, feeling like a fish out of water sitting in the cabin instead of acting heroic.

The duplicate carefully flew between the first pair of missiles redirecting them back onto its tail instead of the Hover. It dodged around the second pair, making sure they were tailing as well before heading back towards the re-grouping squadron of fighter jets.

They were back in formation, all six of them, ready to deliver some punishing blows to the ghost hybrid boldly flying directly into their group. The leader radioed the rest of them to ready their large caliber bullets, wanting to rip the ghost in front of them into bloody chunks. To their surprise, the ghost didn’t even slow when they began pelting it with projectiles; it only created a shield, and continued flying right at them.

It sped towards the rightmost section of the formation, missiles still tailing and quickly closing the gap. The duplicate solidified the shield to full power, and poured on the speed. It zeroed in on the nose of the plane on the very right of the squadron, moving too fast for the pilot to avoid the collision course. The still shielded clone appeared out of the opposite side of the gutted split in half wreckage, just as the first of the missiles slammed into the debris.

Fire billowed out in all directions, causing the remaining planes to try and dodge around the raining fire filled destruction all around them. A large chunk of twisted and melting melted rammed into the wing of one of the fleeing planes, the one closest to the plane hit by the combination of the duplicate and the exploding missiles. It spun out of control, then caught fire, its engines exploding before the pilot could eject. The remaining four planes split off into groups of two, each flanking a side of the dying inferno in the sky.

Suddenly, out of the center of the blast, the duplicate appeared, with two of the missiles still hot on its trail. The energy clone shot diagonally away from the last of the falling wrecked plane, nearly straight down. It charged a pinkish blast in its hands, preparing to fire. Right when the attack was basketball sized, the duplicate flipped in mid-air, changing its orientation from head down to head up. It fired the blast just as it shot up and the missiles rapidly drew nearer. It transformed right after changing direction and using the momentum from its formerly powered flight to carry it away from the certain denotation of the ecto-energy seeking missiles.

Just as with Danny, the missiles followed past the energy clone in human form and straight into the light pink colored ecto-energy attack, igniting on contact. The blast rippled the air around it, creating distinctive concentric rings in the clouds around the area in the sky.

It flipped a few times head over heel, before regaining control over its flight after transforming back into ghost form. The duplicate used its position under the group of planes closest to it to its advantage, surging upwards into the wing of the closest plane. The wing rapidly sheared off, shredding under the combined assault of the stresses of flight and the energy clone plowing into it. It grasped the stub of the broken wing and twirled the plane, flinging it into the machine’s closest neighbor.

The combined flaming twisted metal ball, that at one time had been two planes, plummeted towards the earth’s surface, leaving sky choking smoke filled hole in the ground.

The energy clone stopped to admire its handiwork before looking around for the two remaining pilots. It suppressed a gasp as it located the planes flanking either side of it, guns primed and ready to riddle it with bullets. Unexpectedly, a nearly manic looking grin broke out across its face. “You’re never going to get a clearer shot.” It said while rapidly switching its eyes from the plane to its left to its right and back again. It held out its arms wide, leaving its torso very open.

“Die ghost scum.” The squadron leader spoke hitting the button for her machine gun.

The other pilot followed suit, and before long, there was a stream of bullets shooting towards the clone. He gasped when the hail of bullets disappeared into a cloud of red smoke. Just where did-He thought before an equally large cloud of red haze gathered around the outside of his cockpit.

“Here I am.” The cloud drawled while gathering into a humanoid shape. The duplicate sent an energy clothed fist through the reinforced glass of the cockpit window, before grasping the pilot inside the jet and flinging him out through the glass and back towards the rear of the jet, where he quickly caught fire before falling out of sight. It pressed down on the controls for the plane; rocketing the jet towards its compatriot at full speed.

Oh shit. She thought before slamming down on the button for the eject. She shot up and away from her plane just as the other jet barreled into hers. The flames from the resulting explosion ripped her parachute like tissue paper, and she fell back through the licking burning inferno of her jet, disappearing from sight.

The energy clone sighed into the smoky sky darkened by its destructive attacks before dissolving back into red energy.

Daniel sighed tiredly from the front seat next to Jasmine. He’d dropped the shield and phased back into the co-pilot’s seat seconds after his energy clone dissipated back into pure spectral energy. Well my powers are baked for the next few hours. “Well Danny, there’s a few things you need to know, since you are stuck with us for awhile. We aren’t exactly a normal family. Those guys shooting at us back there? They’re called the GSU, and they want to mount my family’s head on a pike like a medieval decoration. Also, we can’t tell you where we are going, because frankly I don’t trust you, and every second outside of the homemade safe zone is risking our very lives. They want us dead because, we’re part ghost, which, by the by, is why I can fly and bat missiles out of the air if you were wondering.” He turned around; wanting to see the shock filled gapping expression he was sure the other teen was making. When he was met with a blank stare, Daniel couldn’t help but raise an inquisitive brow.

“What?” Danny started upon seeing the look on the other boy’s face. “I don’t know what state I’m in, I’m missing a week of time from my life, the government was just trying to kill me, I’m being held hostage flying to God knows where, and you think the fact you have superpowers is the most concerning thing to me right now?”

“Good point.” Daniel settled deeper into the seat before starting the monologue back up, “In any case, once we are sure you aren’t working for the guys who are trying to kill us, which I still not all the convinced of, we’ll fly you to the nearest city and drop you off. The last thing we need is another mouth to feed anyway.”

“How in the world did they find us?” Jasmine grumbled, changing subjects, finally setting the Hercules Hover into auto-pilot mode. If would be a few hours more until they got back to Camp, even flying at maximum velocity, and there was no way she was holding the steering wheel the whole rest of the way.

Daniel visibly sagged into the co-pilot seat, more tired than ever now that they were no longer in danger. “It might have been me. I mean I was only in ghost form for a few seconds to teleport, but I had to take the bracelet off to do it, and they can track me with it off. Speaking of, hand back my bracelet you little louts.”

Nick and Nate shared a look before facing back around to look at their older brother. “Uh what do you mean?” They asked at once.

“Oh please, as if you being nervous wasn’t obvious, the device you were trying to pilfer is right here.” He stopped to dangle the completely black chain over his shoulder where his brothers could see it. “What you currently have, in your pocket Nick, is my bracelet. If you notice, it’s black and silver. Good try, but you need to take some more dots in stealth and street smarts.” Daniel chuckled before shoving the device back into his front pants pocket. “Now hand it over thing one and two.”

The two of them grimaced before tossing the bracelet over the top of the co-pilot chair. “You’re no fun Daniel.” They decided at the same time, before settling back into their chairs on the opposite side from Danny.

“Well I don’t think so.” Jasmine decided, picking up the conversation where Daniel had left off before talking about the bracelet. “I mean if they picked you up that quickly, how do you know it wasn’t the twins they found first? I mean they flew out there, so their signal was stronger for much longer. Hey! That reminds me, how exactly did you two fly out there? Neither of you have access to enough energy to transform, so how did you-…” Jasmine trailed off and fiddled with the cloaking device on the Hercules some more, changing it in response to the different type of radar their pursuers were using.

“Does it matter really? I mean we all got out ok so-”

“Sure if you think destroying a supply cache and nearly being blasted out of the sky is ok. Oh, and father’s going to turn me inside out for this mess. You two are dead meat anyway, I’ll just tell one of the parental units to clamp your suppressant levels tighter.” Daniel resisted the urge to smirk, knowing threatening to have the restraints increased would get them to talk. To his surprise neither of them offered up any further information, so with a shrug he dismissed the conversation onto the list of things to worry about once they got back to Camp. He glanced down at his own bare wrist and frowned. Even though he barely had any spectral energy at the moment, and what energy he had, he was consciously suppressing, the ghost powered teen knew he had to place the bracelet back on eventually. With a purely internal groan, Daniel wrapped the bracelet back around his form and snapped it in place with a click. A few seconds later, he felt it come fully online, and the rest of his powers slip out of his grasp. He leaned his head against the back of the seat, enjoying the sudden silence in the cabin.

“So whose idea was this…weird beetle thing?” Danny asked breaking what had been a comfortable lull in conversation. He had to admit, it was cooler than he first thought, what with the laser defense system and the outer shielding that could absorb missile damage through some sciencey energy thing, the twins had over-enthusiastically explained, but it still looked like a giant bug.

“It was mine.” The twins answered at the same time.

“Nuh-uh! I thought of it first!” Nate protested.

“No way, you didn’t even like entomology until I started studying it! You’re just a bandwagoner.” Nick objected back.

“Ento-what?” Danny tried to break up the ensuing argument.

“If you two recall, neither of you started studying entomology until after Jasmine said you could use it to identify the age of corpses, which, by the way, was after she suggested using an insect or arachnid as a model to make a tank-like flying vehicle. So she thought of it.” Daniel stopped and looked over at the interestingly similar looking to him teen opposite Nick. “Ignore them, they always fight like this.” He supplied. “So what’s your last name? You never did say.” Daniel leaned back into his seat, resisting the urge to sleep after the dog-fight with the jets earlier. He needed to stay alert-more of them could be back at any time.

“Oh er…Moley.” I’m back to this again already?

“Moley huh? That’s an awful alias. If you are going to lie to me about your last name you could at least pick something good, like Phoenix.”

“Or Gryphon.” Nate added from his position opposite Danny.

“No wait! My name is now Nickolas Cthulhu.”

Daniel chuckled from the front of the cabin. “Fantastic, where’s your tentacles elder god?”

“Foolish mortal! If I were to reveal my true form, it would splatter your consciousness among the cosmos.” Nick responded with exceptional bravado.

At that, the whole group, excluding Danny, broke out into a fit of giggles. “Um…who?” I hate sounding stupider than 10 year olds. He thought cursing his serious lack of book knowledge.

“You know, Call of Cthulhu.” Daniel supplied helpfully turning to face the group’s clueless member from the front seat. Upon seeing a blank state met his information he clarified further. “H.P Lovecraft, the…author. Do you even read man?”

“I read! I mean, not much outside of school assignments, usually just comic books.” Danny ended the sentence mostly in a mumble, realizing he didn’t read on the regular because of all of the ghost fighting, and certainly nothing classical in nature.

“Oh. Well, um, I a little bit of a literature lover-”

“And by that he means he’d marry a library if it were legal.” Jasmine interrupted.

“Would not! Though I might’ve married one of the Bronte sisters if it were possible.”

“I can’t believe you like the romantic drivel.” Nate and Nick complained at once.

“If you ask me, I much prefer Hemingway.” Nickolas added.

“Or Tim O’Brien, can’t beat war stories.” Nate countered.

“Yeah and Tim O’ Brien and Hemingway are fantastic marriage material.” Daniel’s tone managed to carry both sarcasm and mirth. He listened to his younger brothers’ sputter from the back of the Hover, a victorious smile firmly planted on his face.

“Uh so, what are you guys’ last names?” The conversation was veering into serious nerd-level territory, and unless Danny wanted more of his lack of book knowledge revealed, he needed to change the subject.

Jasmine scoffed and turned around towards the edge of her seat to look back at Danny. “How about we’ll tell you if you tell us your real one?”

“Um…I did already?” Even to Danny’s ears it sounded unsure and meek. Yeah great way to convince them you’re telling the truth. He crossed his arms and sent a light glare towards his sister-who-wasn’t. There was no way he was telling anyone anything about his actual life until he knew more about the crazy world he found himself in.

“Yeah right. No wait didn’t we tell you? Our last name is Moley too. Just what are the odds?” Daniel mocked while he unbuckled himself and headed for the back of the Hover.

“Daniel, quit being so sarcastic!” Jasmine frowned at him from his position standing near the weapon’s case in the back. She watched him fiddle with a couple weapons, carefully, unconsciously, she realized, eying the other male teen. He’s nervous. She didn’t blame him honestly. This kid shows up out of nowhere, and knows our dad’s name, and then the GSU shows up, but he can’t remember anything for a week, and won’t tell us anything about him. Yeah, I’m nervous too Daniel. She remembered before honing in on one of Danny’s admissions. “How do you know Vlad Masters anyway?” And he was going to explain that one, even if he wouldn’t tell them anything else.

“Like I said, he’s an old family friend.” Between the other boy fiddling with the weapons in the back and his sister needling him for answers in the front, Danny was beginning to feel like a caged animal.

“Listen, if you’re going to lie to us about your last name, you could at least be honest about that. Not many people would call him a family friend anymore. In fact, the list of people includes our mom, and Jack Fenton, and well he depends on the mood and the level of crazy.”

Danny was about to say something about calling his dad crazy, when he remembered he knew nothing about anything going on at the moment. So instead, he settled for a slightly stronger glare and a stonewalled face.

Jasmine rolled her eyes and leaned back into her seat. “Ok, don’t tell us, but until you do, we aren’t letting you out of Camp when we arrive.” She sighed shakily, hoping they weren’t bringing a Trojan horse back into their version of “Troy”. There was really nothing for it though. They couldn’t let him go, he was too dangerous, knew too much already, but…Bringing him with us has its own set of risks. I mean, we already had him scanned a million different ways for bugs or transmitters, but that doesn’t mean he can’t contact them some other way, and Camp is the only safe place left. Still, something stronger than her fear was pulling at her to let him stay, and it was something she couldn’t explain. The crimson haired girl glanced at the map tracking their position. Only an hour and a half left. They were close, and she was determined to get some info out of him before then. “Danny,” she sighed out before standing from her seat at the front of the Hover to walk back towards him.

Danny had receded back into himself, wanting to think over some of the reams of information he’d learned over the past 36 hours or so. It doesn’t make any sense. That was the only conclusion he’d been able to reach over the last few minutes, and it seemed to encompass everything about his last day and a half. Amity Park didn’t make any sense. The GSU didn’t make any sense. Vlad’s burnt out mansion didn’t make any sense. The kit and caboodle of the giant flying bug he was inside didn’t make any sense. If he was honest with himself, nothing had made sense since he had taken Clockwork’s Medallion and wished the bonds of time away. And what was with Jazz calling dad crazy? Or saying he had sent me after them? Admittedly, she thought I was a ghost at the time, but that doesn’t actually make it make…any more sense. Danny resisted the urge to massage the headache forming behind his eyes away. All the thinking in the world wasn’t going to make this any better. I have to ask the only person with answers, which means I need to avoid being thrown off this tub by its other worried passengers. He decided, before suddenly turning to face his sister who wasn’t. “What’s Camp?” The ghost powered teen asked, face a picture of calm attentiveness.

Jasmine was taken aback by the tenor of the question. She had been expecting him to ask where they were going, or perhaps how they knew Vlad Masters, but instead…She tilted her head as she processed through the way to answer the question. She almost jumped when Daniel answered for her.

“Camp is a safe haven, and no we aren’t telling you where it is exactly. It’s the one place on the planet where we can’t be found by the GSU, though of course I’m not going to tell you why either. That should answer any and all questions you have about the place, at least any we are willing to answer.” Daniel leaned against the rounded wall closest to the guns’ rack and eyed Danny suspiciously.

Danny groaned and let his head rest against the back of his seat. It was tired of dealing with people so unwilling to answer anything, but at this point he could understand some of their behavior. More annoyingly, he was getting a karmic taste of his own uncooperative medicine. “If I tell you how I know Vlad, will you at least tell me your last names?” Danny offered. It wasn’t as if he needed them to tell him, he knew the answer already. It was completely obvious. On the other hand, he needed them to trust him, and confiding in him was a good way to get that to happen.

Jasmine frowned from her seat next to their tag-a-long. It seemed like a genuine offer, and a reasonable trade. Chances were if Vlad was really an old family friend like the teenager next to her claimed, then telling him their last names wouldn’t do any damage. And since he had offered his information first, there was really nothing to lose. If he’s lying, I’ll know about it before we tell him anything. With that thought, she locked eyes with her brother at the back of the Hover. For a second she thought he wouldn’t agree, but she plunged ahead when she saw him shrug his shoulders. “Alright, so how do you know him?” Jasmine questioned again, a little more gently than the first time.

“I know I already said he’s an old family friend, um, but I didn’t say who knows him. It’s my mom actually. She knew him in college.” I hope this works. “My mom’s name is Harriet Chin, she used to be friends with Vlad Masters, and I think she was the roommate of a woman called Maddie, er, she was never really clear on her last name. I guess she thought it was obvious or something.” Danny muttered through the last of the sentence and closed his eyes. He really didn’t want to deal with the fallout if they didn’t believe him this time.

“Harriet Chin? She was my mother’s roommate in college, except…” Jasmine narrowed her eyes at the boy next to her, looking him over. “You don’t look much like her. I mean mom said she was Asian, and to be honest, you look whiter than snow.”

“Yeah well, she’s my step-mother.” I’ve developed a lot of step-parents on this little trip. Danny mused before continuing, “And she’s dead.” And a whole bunch of dead ones too. What? This is like the third parent I’ve killed off, as long as I don’t count the imaginary biological mom I killed to get related to Ms. Chin. Danny opened his eyes and stared as imploringly as he could manage at the girl sitting next to him. If he could communicate a single thought with his eyes alone, it’d be “please believe me.”

Jasmine was about to comment on how convenient it was for his step-mom to be dead as a door nail, when the look on his face froze her lips mid-word. There was enough raw pain on the other side of his stare to give her pause. At the very least, he was really hurt about something, and as far as she could tell, it wasn’t out of the question for it to be about his “dead” step-mom. She passed an unsure look to her brother behind Danny, wanting his unspoken second opinion about it. Even if she’d never admit it out loud, he had an almost prenatal sixth sense about people and their trustworthiness, and she trusted him to decide whether someone was safe to trust or not. Honestly, the only one better at it is dad.

Daniel couldn’t see the pained desperate look on their “house guest’s” face, but the emotions were coming off him in waves. The dark-haired teen wasn’t a trusting person by nature, at least not anymore, but his most basic instincts were screaming at him to have faith with a person he’d never laid eyes on before in his life. Even if he didn’t trust him with everything, his gut instinct had been demanding he let him in since he’d seen him back at the cache in Wisconsin, and it was driving him nuts. There was nothing about the other boy that lent itself to greater trust, and if he was honest with himself, there was every reason to not believe him. Everything from the story of his arrival at the cache, to his step-mom tale just a few seconds ago ranged from flimsy to absurd, yet here he was, fighting with logic against every base impulse. What is it about you that drives my trust so deeply? Daniel pondered before catching his sister’s eye on the other side of the teen they were practically interrogating. He saw the light of uncertainty reflected in her eyes, before deciding to give into the irrational, but strong, impulse to trust the boy in front of him implicitly. “Ok. So you’re step-mom is, forgive me, was Harriet Chin, who was a good friend of my mother, and at the very least an acquaintance of my father.” He quirked his mouth into a semi-balance of a worried thin line before continuing past his reticence, “If you haven’t guessed by now, my last name is ‘Masters’, and so is everyone else aboard this flying bug. That is except you.”

Danny had been excepting him to confirm his- what was it at this point? Worse nightmare or saving grace?- but the effect was greater than he’d thought. Instead of the vague tingle of surprise and the uneasy sensation of wrong, wrong, wrong, he’d expected, he was awash in an intense jolt of near painful vertigo. It was like the whole world had decided to turn upside-down but, regretfully, forgotten to inform him about it or even warn him in advance. Even if he could go through the mental gymnastics necessary to logic away his sister’s presence, the boy behind him turned the best of his rationalizations about how “not different” this world from his own into laser hole ridden tissue paper whose ashes had been rocketed into space. And it wasn’t as if he hadn’t known any of this before he heard it out loud, but there was a difference between just thinking about it, and having someone basically tell you the family you know and love doesn’t exist. Danny managed to avoid the thought of curling up into a ball and just giving in for a few hours until he could summon up some more emotional energy. It wouldn’t really help in this situation, and if anything, he needed to be fully alert from now on. There was no way to know how much this…reality differed from his own. Hell there’s no way of knowing whether Vlad will even be happy, or even ok seeing me. If he isn’t, it’ll just be a matter of time before the GSU find me, and then it’s bye bye Danny. He took a deep shuddering breath and settled his dismay and discomfort to the back of his mind.

“Hey guys, I think we are getting close. Well the map is beeping more, so I think that means we’re getting close.” Nate offered from his stolen seat in the pilot side of the cockpit.

“Yeah we’d know for sure if you guys ever let us touch anything up here, like ever.” Nick added before leaning over his twin’s shoulder to stare at the flashing map more intently.

Jasmine looked over at the shell-shocked teen in front of her a moment longer before heading back to the front of the Hover. There were a multitude of things to attribute his reaction to. Everything from relief of deep worry and stress to a high level of shock about the content of the revelation was up for grabs emotionally. So instead of questioning the raven-haired teen who looked so much like her brother, but not that it scared her, she decided to take a look at the radar. Sure enough, the twins were right. They were only a few minutes away from the Rockies, and from there it’d only be a five or six minute flight to the outer reaches of Camp. She melded into the pilot seat with a sigh, before buckling herself in. “Alright everyone, strap back into a seat, we’re pretty close now. It’ll be just a few minutes longer before we reach the mountains, and then after that, Danny,” she added just to make it known she was mentioning this just for him, “we’ll be back in Camp airspace.”

“So if you have any GSU transmitters, don’t expect them to work or anything.” Daniel suggested brushing past Danny to get back to the co-pilot seat at the front of the Hover.

“Yeah never dream of communicating with the people who were shooting at me a few hours ago.” He sniped back with a roll of his eyes. God is this guy paranoid. He mentally added before continuing, “And good thing we’re about to land too, ‘cause I was about to ask ‘are we there yet?’ and God knows how annoying that question is.” Danny joked before clicking his seat belt back into place. He watched as the older siblings cajoled the twins into complying with the barest of safety measures, before returning to their own seats at the front of the cabin. If there was ever a time he’d wished for a window seat, this was it. Other than knowing they were probably going south-west, because Daniel had mentioned it earlier, and being relatively sure they were in the Rockies, because what other mountains were there to the west, he was lost as a lab rat in a maze. Just as he felt the flying bug dip down out of the sky, a cool tingle raced up his spine. “What wa-” He heard the older siblings from the front of the cabin let out a whoosh of air.

“Well Danny, welcome to Camp airspace. We’ll be setting down in about five minutes, and you better bet our parents are going to have a lot to talk about with you. So you better have more answers for them than you did for us.” Jasmine warned before pressing forward on the controls for the Hercules Hover.

Yeah, I hope so too.

…then you might have stepped into your personal Oz.

#Danny Phantom #Danny Phantom Fanfiction #Phandom #Bittersweet Future #Balshumet's Fanfiction #Balshumet's Baragouin #Chapter Ten

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phantomphangphucker · 4 years ago

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Ectober Day 14: Haunt - No Vacancy

Danny’s a protective guy, and an especially protective ghost. There’s no way he’d let someone potentially genuinely dangerous stay in his town. His ghost side especially won’t.

Danny knows what he has to do with this situation, he doesn’t like it, but it has to be done. It’s his job and this is his home, so he’ll handle it. Sighing, steeling himself, and phasing through the classroom door. Watching the teacher grading papers for a small while, “why are you here?”.

She doesn’t look up to him, “I’m grading papers. No I haven’t gotten to yours yet”.

Danny narrows his eyes slightly, “that’s not what I mean, and I know you’re aware of that”. So far things haven’t gotten violent and she wasn’t yelling or freaking out, so he feels slightly justified in hoping this goes well.

She sighs and looks to him, “and why can’t I be here? What? Do you think you get to pick and chose who’s allowed to be here?”, and bares her teeth at him slightly. Well... there goes being completely non-confrontational.

Danny crosses his arms, “actually yeah, yeah I do. I don’t know if you remember this or not, but I protect this town. Have for years. And I definitely do not let anyone I think might be even slightly dangerous stay here. Visiting is one thing. Passing through. Tourism. But that’s clearly not what you’re doing here. Considering”, uncrossing his arms to point at the stack of homework and recrossing them. He’s not going to give her an inch, considering how easily taken advantage of doing that could make someone. And protecting his town, his lair, his haunt, isn’t something he’s about to compromise because someone else has issues with it. Ghost or human.

She stands up with a scowl, clearly attempting to make him feel small by looming over him. He just floats higher of course which makes her scowl deepen. He knows doing that makes it clear he isn’t intimidated or interested in backing down. “I am doing my job. What I’m meant to do-”.

Danny cuts her off, “then do it somewhere else. Someplace meant for you”, and hoping his meaning will clue her in, put ideas in her head and draw her away. Whatever it takes to get her gone without getting physical or violent.

She practically roars at him, “NO. This is my classroom and has been longer than you’ve been in this town, Phantom. How about you get out of my classroom”, and moves to swipe at him.

Danny sighs, uncrossing his arms to catch her wrist. Of course she was genuinely attached. She wasn’t just here out of familiarity. But still. “You’re weak. Newly formed. This isn’t a fight you can win. And this classroom is part of what’s mine, and has been long before you formed. You do not have claim, I do”, and pulls her wrist making her smack into the whiteboard; clearly she doesn’t have a grasp on her abilities yet. Expected but it does make this easier. Driving off the young was much easier. He does feel slightly bad, but his feelings change nothing. Turning in the air to look down at her, “look, I get it. But this’ll hurt less the sooner you leave. The Realms will form you a perfectly fine lair”.

She snarls at him, eyes flashing orange, “I don’t want that. I already have what’s mine. I already have my lair. Now get out!”, and lunges at him again; Danny simply going intangible and grabbing her back as she passes through him, pinning her to the ground.

Danny sits cross-legged on her back, her snarling and trying to scratch at him all the while, “you can’t form a lair in someone else’s. That’s not how things work. Especially not with me. If you were stronger maybe, but you're not. In this situation, I am a wolf and you are a little pinned baby rabbit. I am giving you the option to leave. I am being nice. Normally I’d just capture you-”, readjusting to avoid her arm as she clearly is starting to get a handle on body manipulation, “-but you haven’t connected to the Realms proper yet. You haven’t formed an actual lair there. You’ll be destroyed if I capture you. Even I have a lair there, it’s not so bad”.

She sneers and snarls at him, trying to push up off the ground but unable to, “then why don’t you screw off to the Realms and leave me alone!”.

“Because here’s my primary lair and I have no reason to leave it. Even if that wasn’t the case, I am the stronger older one here. And I have more claim to any section of the Mortal Realm than any other ghost”, sighing and adding off-handedly, trying to keep a handle on his aggression, “except Wisconsin, but if you want to fight with the ghost whose lair is there, be my guest. He won’t hesitate to destroy you. Eat you”. He wants her to get that that is a serious threat. She is not staying. He is not allowing that. She is nothing short of lucky that his halfa status gives him better control over his ghostly nature. Otherwise, he probably would have already torn her to shreds.

She turns her head around, “I am not moving my haunt, now get OFF!”, and tries biting his knee, he goes intangible but her teeth connect anyway. Her smug look disappears when he doesn’t so much as wince.

Danny forcibly phases his fingers through her teeth, easily overwhelming her energy that’s trying to fight him, and pries her mouth open and off him. She’s starting to get on his nerves and poking at his protectiveness; and his possessiveness, “lady, you are not staying here”, leaning his mouth closer to her ear and pressing her into the floor a bit harder, “you will leave. I do not care if you want to claim this school or even this single classroom as yours. It is not yours. It will never be yours. You are in my haunt, my lair, without my permission and you will get out or I will eat you”, pressing her down a little more and flaring his eyes, “let me reiterate. If you do not leave. If you do not go to the Realms. If you even try to stay here. In my lair. Around my humans. Within what I haunt. I. Will. Eat. YOU”, his pitch rising and reverberating enough to shake the walls.

He can feel and see her watching his teeth as he snarls at her, making sure every single one of his fangs is on display. “You are a child ghost, but that does not change that you are a threat to what’s mine. GET OUT”.

She claws at the ground a little before whimpering when his energy nips at hers for a little added encouragement. Though if he’s being honest with himself, he hadn’t done that entirely intentionally. Her glancing at the desk, “can I... finish marking first”, and whimpers again when he presses down on her again.

Him snarling, “NO. You lost that chance”. He immediately chomps on part of the ecto-energy that makes up her hair and tears it off when she starts up protesting him again, “but-“. So long as she hasn’t connected to the Realms proper she won’t be able to reform or replenish her ectoplasm and energy. And he knows on a primal level that she can sense that just the same as him. That makes her prey to him, and he twitches harshly from trying to not act on that predatory feeling.

“GET OUT. NOW”. Grabbing her head and roughly forcing her to look at him, her ectoplasm splattered and smeared on his face will hopefully be enough.

“I- okay”, her voice is a little shaky, “okay. I’ll- I’ll go. Just... get off me and- and don’t take anymore”, the last bit coming out almost pleading.

He frowns, teeth still bared. Shoving her head to get out a bit of aggression before pushing himself to sit up on her back again, watching her, “give me a second. But if you move, I will bite you again”. He needs to calm down, or he’s going to lunge at her the second she starts moving around.

“Okay”. He feels slightly bad but also unpleasantly pleased over how pathetic that sounded. He had asserted his dominance and ownership, and she had bent a knee.

She seems to regain a bit of her confidence while he’s sitting there breathing, “will the lair the Realms forms me be like... here”. He can feel the struggle there to avoid calling ‘here’ her lair; which he’s certain he would have harmed her for.

“It will be exactly as you need it to be. What will let you satisfy your Obsession perfectly. That’s how Ghost Realm lairs work. It may resemble here. May. But I make no guarantees”.

“Does... yours there have somewhere that resembles here”.

Danny sighs, he knows she’s not asking to move to his Ghost Realm lair. She’s asking if it looks like Amity, his Mortal Realm lair. “I am different. My lairs fulfill different needs. We aren’t comparable”.

She snaps at him, “why the Hell not”, which he pushes on her back for.

Snarling slightly, “because you’re a normal ghost. I am not. The one I have there was conquered from another ghost who was ultimately weaker than me and threatened my lair”, sighing and breathing, “unlike you, the Realms will not form me a lair. And Mortal Realm lairs do not reform, if it were not for my conquered one then if this one were to get destroyed then I would be without a lair. Hauntless. Understand?”. He knows that was part of the reason for his overprotectiveness, the fact that his Obsession was protection only exacerbated that.

She stares off into space a little before shivering, obviously picturing what it would be like to simply not have a haunt. “Oh”.

Danny snarks a little, feeling a little more like himself, “yeah. ‘Oh’”. Shifting a little before pushing himself to float up off her. Her eyeing his hand as he holds it out to her and she turns over to sit up, cautiously standing. He sighs at her paranoia, understandable as it was, “you’ve agreed to leave. So I’ll help you to do that. The way from here to there lies with ghost hunters. It’s not the safest trip”. Continuing when she glances at herself, she was a rather human-looking ghost, “they have equipment that can tell”.

Thankfully she takes his hand, him transferring over enough energy to her for her to float and to turn her invisible and intangible. Her looking mystified as he pulls them up through the ceiling. That manages to get a bit of a smile on his face as he flies them off to FentonWorks, child ghosts could be cute; especially newly formed ones.

Danny parks her on the roof, “stay. Or else”, flashing green stained fangs for emphasis, and phases inside to check that his parents are gone. He’s very thankful they are. He can’t deal with them right now.

Floating back up, pleased she’s stayed put instead of making a run for it. He must have given her a decent scare then. Her taking his hand again without prompting this time and them heading to the lab.

He leaves her standing in front of the portal as he goes to active it, the doors clanging open and bathing the room in a toxic green glow. She fiddles with her fingers and glances to him, “do I have to?”.

Danny glares and hisses slightly, “yes”, and licks off a bit of the ectoplasm from his face.

“Will it hurt?”. He softens at that and shakes his head, sticking his arm through, “no. Don’t worry. I and plenty others pass through here all the time. And you’re not the first newly formed I’ve had to give the boot”, Sam and Tucker had asked the same before their first trip.

She nods and swallows a little, still practicing the lingering habits she had as one of the living. “I... thanks for not eating me”.

“Don’t mention it. But you can repay me by leaving”. Thankfully that’s enough prompting for her to walk through on her own.

Danny sticks his head through purely to check on her after wiping of his mouth properly, grinning at the Ghost Realms ectoplasm wrapping around her and pulling on her, urging her towards the lair that was already forming. At least things go right and she can feel the pull properly, clearly wants to follow. Turning her head to him, “I think this time I actually mean it, but thanks”.

Danny chuckles, “expected. Ghosts aren’t supposed to have lairs amongst the living. It’s unnatural. A haunt maybe, but not a haunt that’s a genuine lair”.

“Then what’s so special about you?”.

“Ah that’s simple. I’m still alive”, and pulls his head back through the portal. She'll hear about halfas soon enough. For now, she’s got a lair to focus on and he’s got his to get back to guarding.

End.

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phantomphangphucker · 5 years ago

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Phango - Gifted? Or Dead?

(Crossover + Identity Reveal + Daul Obsession (Space) AU + Dissection)

Mutants around a ghost are sorely outmatched and Danny’s one of the strongest there is, even if he’s a slightly broken kid.

Katherine, also now to those around her as Kitty, nods as she drives past the Amity sign, she wasn’t quite sure how she was going to find this mutant Xavier suspected was here. Or more specifically how she was going to get a hold of him. Phantom was more than just often spotted but was notoriously impossible to capture. She’s honestly a little glad for that, who knows what would be done to him. Even more so as it seems this town was notorious for having ghosts hunters and they all believed Phantom was simply a ghost and thus ‘evil’. Xavier seemed to think that wasn’t the case, that the boy was a mutant of some kind. The way he had frowned slightly leads her to think Phantom might be an experiment. The fact that the town was very well hidden and blacklisted was definitely not a good sign. It took a lot to find any information apparently.

Checking in with the hotel and quirking an eyebrow over the waver the receptionist gives her. Said receptionist answering her expression with clearly practiced ease, “to stay here overnight requires wavers, if you really do decide to stay for your full weeks' reservation, you’ll have to acquire ghost insurance down at the station. This is due to the unusual dangers present in town and you, as an outsider, don’t know how to deal with them”.

Katherine shakes her head slightly, “so this whole ghost thing is quite real”.

“Yup. Here’s your key card”, Katherine takes it with a nod and heads to her room.

She doesn’t waste much time setting up before wandering around the town, hoping to either spot Phantom or find some kind of clues. Finding herself chuckling a little at the mall, the kids' symbol was everywhere, some things even having the ‘inviso-bill’ code name on them. Which was honestly horrible, even her first code name ‘Sprite’ would have made more sense. Shaking her head, if Phantom was a mutant, he was already pretty well established in the world of heroics. He even had tons of detractors already, whether that was because of what everyone thought he was or not.

Ending up at the library, hoping to learn anything about what’s being labelled as ‘ghosts’. Leaning over to the receptionist, “so what're the best option for me to look into on this whole ghost deal?”.

Getting a soft laugh in return before the lady shakes her head with a small smile, “if you’re genuinely curious dearie, FentonWorks, but those two could talk anyone’s ears off for days about ghosts. We have a few books if you just want more generalised or fictional reading”.

“Are ‘those two’ experts on ghosts?”.

The lady nods immediately, “top of the field they say. Built an inter-dimensional portal into the Ghost Zone they say. Are the best makers of ecto-weapons they say. People say a lot, they say even more. They’ve got kids too. One’s probably the smartest person on Earth and the others basically an enigma. All four are strange. Head down the road and to the right. Look for the house with a giant FentonWorks sign that should be a light pollution threat and with a ufo, that can turn into a blimp and a jet, on top”.

Katherine blinks and nods at that, certainly won’t be the strangest thing she’s seen but that’s pretty up there. Turning to head out after thanking the lady.

It really doesn’t take long to find the house, muttering to herself, “that is one obnoxious sign”, before knocking on the door. She can’t help but think that these two would look right at home with all the mutants, jumpsuits were a pretty common sight with them.

Maddie asking, “hello? Can we help you?”.

Katherine nods with a smile, “yes, I’m visiting town and I was wondering if you could tell me a little about the whole ‘ghosts’ thing?”. She makes a point not to react on instinct to the rather massive Jack practically dragging her inside with an almost disturbing level of excitement.

Jack pushes her at the kitchen table, “wait here! We have awesome inventions!”, before running off down stairs.

Maddie smiles at her and points to a kettle, “would you like some tea?”. At Katherine’s nod Maddie starts up the kettle before sitting down, “so what is it you want to know? Outside of the basics of course”.

Katherine nods with a slight smile, “that for sure”, laughing slightly, “anything important for safety and why there seems to be one that’s just...fighting the others”.

Maddie sighs and shakes her head, “ah yes, Phantom. That one’s strange and an anomaly”, smiling a bit, “what we wouldn’t give to get our hands on It and see how It really works!”. Katherine makes it a point to not react visibly to that. While Jack bounds up the stairs, “talking ‘bout Phantom? If we could only get this baby-”, holding up some weird looking Bazooka with a claw hand on it, “-on It, then we could open that ghostie up! Get right down to the molecules!”.

It’s then that the son walks in the front doors, looking honestly skittish, “I’m home!”. Katherine watches him look her over with extreme caution, he was clearly very mistrustful. While he looks to his mom, “mom, who’s this?”.

“Oh jut a curious traveller sweetie”.

Katherine notes how the kid flinches when Jack swings around the weapon thing, “she wants us to blabber about ghosts! And look! We finished the Fenton Ectoplasm Crusher!”.

The kid looks slightly like a deer in headlights, “that’s great dad. I’m just gonna not stay here. I’ll be in my room if you need me!”, the last bit comes out rushed as the weapon goes off and shoots off at Danny, slamming into the wall where he was standing as he bolts up the stairs; the invention electrocuting the wall.

Katherine looking to Jack, “do inventions often go after him like that? Is that safe?”.

Maddie waves her off, “it’s fine. Ecto-weapons can’t hurt humans. It can just be a little startling”, Katherine watch’s as the women shoots her own hand to prove a point. Only thing, for the kid to have any kind of ingrained fear response to said weapons, means they must affect him. At least a little.

Jack picks up, utterly unaware of Katherine’s slight mistrust of them, “so we’ve been in the field for years! And one thing we know is that ghosts are evil ectoplasmic manifestations of post-human consciousness! They’re dangerous creatures!”.

Maddie nods, “we try to catalogue and record as many of them as we can, their powers too. And how best to contain or defeat them. See, they’re not capable of human emotions or being good. Even that Phantom one”, she shakes her head, “just feeding off the attention people give It. Why so many feel the need to see It as anything but a monster we’ll never know”.

Katherine feels like she’s heard this all before. Deciding to ask something more basic, “are they actually dead though? Or just abnormal people?”.

Jack chuckles, “oh they’re dead all right! No bones, no blood, no organs. Entirely made of ectoplasm! Which is a great energy source actually! We fuel our weapons with it!”.

Maddie looks from her husband to Katherine, “yes it sure is. Some ghosts were once human, or dogs, others we aren’t quite sure what they used to be. There’s plenty of work to be done in the field. One thing we can all agree on, those of us in the profession, is that ghosts are simply the negative and obsessive remnants of their living self. Rarely remembering so much as their name. They come to our world to wreak havoc and hurt those that dare still have what they lost. Or they seek power”.

Jack lifts up a few different weapons, and a fishing pole? While he speaks, “most of our inventions are to counteract their powers! All ectoplasm has certain abilities, but the really tricky ghosts are the ones with unique powers!“.

Maddie nods with a sigh, “which is the problem with Phantom. It’s unlike any other ghost. Able to get past anti-ghost things somehow and get into our world so frequently”.

Katherine tilts her head, “our world?”.

Jack beams and nods, “yup! Ghosts come from and exist in an alternately dimension! The Ghost Zone! Our work started really picking up when we figured out how to access the place!”.

Maddie smiles and gets up to pour the tea, speaking as she does, “it’s a very dangerous place, filled with ecto-filth and their lairs. They plot and heal there, before coming here to cause issues”.

Katherine smiles and takes the offered tea, while the conversation continues.

She listens to them, not really sure what to make of it all other than that the two really hate ghosts and wanted to both harm and control them. But she finds herself paying more attention to the coming and goings of the two kids. The daughter eyes held intelligence that likely surpassed nearly everyone’s and something tells Katherine that the daughter is far more watchful and suspicious than she lets on. The boy, on the other hand, only seemed relaxed when his parents were not looking at or near him. Other wise he was jumpy, skittish. But he was making a point to still be around his parents, though clearly avoiding them as quickly as he can. She also notes how the two seem to be able to look after themselves entirely, how the sister puts herself between the parents and the boy, how the parents are absorbed in their work, and how there are anti-ghost things everywhere...even the toaster is anti-ghost.

She smiles at them as she leaves but frowns when she’s out of sight, if she wasn’t curious about the two kids before, she was now. Pausing as she sees the daughter sitting on a bench, just out of sight of the Fenton house, reading an advanced psychology text.

Katherine walking up and asking, “you’re the daughter, what do you think of all this ghost stuff”.

She giggles slightly and snaps the book shut, “it’s Jasmine or Jazz for short. And it’s very real, even if my parents are extreme about it...and wrong in many ways”, Katherine watches as Jazz squints at her slightly before nodding, “you see the bigotry in it. The human mind is a flawed thing, impressive but flawed. It’s far easier to take what we do not know, do not understand, what is different; and label it less than us. Whether to fight against them, research them, or simply hold onto the ideal that humans are some great alpha species. It’s silly, isn’t it?”.

Katherine blinks and nods with a slight smile, “yes, people can be silly like that. I’m guessing you don’t share their opinions?”.

Jazz shakes her head, “very few teens do. But they’re the adults, the experts. So certainly, they must be right. Funny how that works”.

Katherine smiles slightly and nods, “people with power, sometimes it’s good sometimes it’s bad. You’re a smart girl, you’ll do some good things I’m sure”, the two nod and Katherine keeps walking.

The next thing she does is send a message to Xavier for anyone he wants her focusing more on. And it doesn’t take long to get back said list on who to check out. Sighing a bit over all six being teens. Sam Manson, Elliot Revon, Tucker Foley, Todd Brentex, Valerie Gray, and Danny Fenton. She’s going to leave the Fenton child till last, for a lot of reasons.

Using the library to track down the different residencies and to figure out the kids social circles. Promptly moving Elliot and Todd near the bottom of the list at noticing that Sam, Tucker, and Danny were basically best friends and Valerie was also their friend, just seemingly less close. But she can see why Xavier focused in on these six. Everything about Jasmine was very public even if she was odd. She probably was a mutant to a level but only receiving heightened intellect. Hardly what they were looking for and not who needed their help.

Sam was extremely rich, which wasn’t odd really but she also seems to raise pet plants that bite people, eats exclusively plant matter including soil, and frequently disappeared just before or during ‘ghost attacks’

Elliot has impossibly natural white hair and there was video proof of him being chased and attacked by the government. He also changed personas every few weeks, she’s pretty sure he doesn’t know who he actually is anymore.

Tucker was another’s case of extreme intellect but also seemed to hit on everything with legs, had something dubbed a ‘meat sense’ and was romantically involved with his PDA. He also frequently disappeared just before or during ‘ghost attacks’.

Todd seems like a run of the mill asshole, if you exclude the fact that he snarls, bites and all around acts a bit inhuman and creepy. There is a lot of comments about him having abnormal shows of strength.

Valerie likely carries ecto-weapons with her due to the staggering amount of comments about her having them at some point or another. Has a serious and extreme hatred for ghosts that could very likely be intentional as a cover up. She also disappeared when ‘ghost attacks’ happened.

Daniel was notable because of how little there was to note. He loved space, a lot, his Facebook was near nothing but space facts. He was chronically skipping or leaving classes, sometimes lining up with ‘ghost attacks’ sometimes not. Was so severely clumsy he was banned from handling fragiles. Was severely terrified of ghosts, this could be a cover. And that’s it, nothing else.

Nodding and closing her little notes and deciding she’ll approach the techno-geek first.

Promptly running into an issue. Sam, Tucker and Danny were basically never alone. Either they were together, at home or with family. It was certainly strange. But this gives her time to observe them and Sam and Tucker are extremely protective of Danny. Even seeming so towards his parents. Which is a bit worrying. She also writes Todd off during this time as a guy who wants to be seen as weird and is quite literally acting a part. Valerie also seems like the overworked teen type, and she’s not all that involved with anyone else. Plus the ghost hating is not faked, catching her ranting about ghosts was honestly a bit disturbing.

Leaning against a wall in the mall and watching the three from afar when a floating Mecha bursts through a wall and sends tables and people flying, everyone else fleeing. Deciding to duck down and watch, maybe Phantom will come along and she’ll get lucky.

But the expressions on the trio catch her attention, sure they were running off but their eyes were hard and there was slight smiles playing on their faces. Danny even seemed to roll his eyes. Certainly different from everyone else.

Flickering her camouflage and intangibility on to sneak around and follow the trio enough to keep them in her sights. Maybe they had contact with Phantom. Blinking and smirking to herself of watching Danny’s -rather bright if she’s honest- little transformation sequence and catch phase. Ah teens, and yup, definitely a mutant of some kind. Somehow she doubts he’s a ghost that just can look human. Watching as the Mecha hits him with some hook thing and sends both of them intangibly through a wall.

Her jobs basically half done now so she’s content to just check in with Xavier before approaching the mutant.

Leaning back in a chair and speaking over the protected phones, “found your kid. But he might be a more sensitive case than normal”.

“Oh?”.

“His parents definitely do not know and they point blank said they wanted to very explicitly dissect him, Phantom anyway. The house is basically filled with things that hurt him if he actually is somehow a ghost”.

“Very well, I’ll fly down there”.

Nodding to herself and hanging up. It’s not like he’ll take long and she has to go fill out those insurance papers.

A few days later finds Katherine, Xavier, Scott Summer, and Jean Grey in-front of the Fenton house, waiting for an answer after they knew the Fenton parents would be gone for a while. If it took a bit longer simply to ensure the safety of a mutant then so be it.

Jazz is the one to open the door, Xavier smiles slightly at her not even looking surprised. “Hello Jasmine, I’m Charles Xavier”, gesturing to Scott, “this is Scott Summer”, gesturing to Jean, “this is Jean Grey”, gesturing to Katherine with a slight smile, “and I believe you’ve already met Katherine Pryde. Is Daniel around by chance?”.

Jazz steps to the side and lets the four in, hardly blinking at Jean telekinetically levitating Xavier’s wheelchair inside. Jazz commenting as she goes to make tea, “you’d think they’d create things more useful for everyday people, like stairs that can transform into ramps. Rather than hover cars and wormholes”.

Jean raises an eyebrow, “your parents have created such things?”. Jazz smiles and nods, Katherine nodding as well.

Jazz frowns slightly as she speaks, “now what do you want with my little brother?”.

Xavier holds up a hand, “relax, nothing bad, I can assure you. We merely want to talk, privately if that is possible”. None of them exactly want to assume who knows and who doesn’t about Danny. While Jazz squints slightly at them. Xavier speaks up again, reading that she was simply protective of her brother and very much knew, “I am better know to some as Professor Xavier or Professor X, I help people who are a bit different from the rest of humanity. Give them guidance, teach them”.

Jazz nods slightly, “so you are mutants then? I figured as much”, smirking slightly, “and I’m not one to be wrong”.

Scott frowns a bit more noticeably at that, “and you assumed why?”.

Jazz smirks as she pours teas and goes to walk up the stairs, “often those that see the bigotry towards people and creatures as being such, do so because they see and experience it themselves. Much the same has been said about mutants as ghosts”, turning to look at them with one foot up the stairs, “but make no mistake. Ghosts aren’t the same”.

Scott huffs as the girl walks up the stairs, not really believing this whole ghost nonsense. Much more likely were an unusual set of mutants, mutants with similar powers wasn’t unheard of and maybe this place simply resulted in such an occurrence.

All four turn to the stairs as a cautious looking Danny enters the kitchen, Scott and Jean honestly a bit surprised he’s actually alone. Katherine smiles at him, “hello again. Don’t worry, we’re the good guys”. Something about that makes the skittish boy chuckle as he sits down.

Danny mutters as he plays with the teacup, “everyone always thinks they’re the good guys”.

Xavier nods with a slight smile, “true. I have an old friend who always believed he was doing what was right, what was best. For those like us, for the world, for the future. He did not care who he had to hurt to achieve his idea of the perfect future”.

Danny squints a little, “‘people like us’? Are you including me in that ‘us’ thing?”.

Scott scoffs and crosses his arms, “we know you’re Phantom, kid. We’re mutants”. Scott groans slightly as Danny curls in on himself a little, clearly paranoid and skittish. Jean levitates a tea cup to herself and smiles softly, looking to make the kid feel more comfortable.

Danny watches them for a bit, “you're not with the government...are you?”.

All four shake their heads instantly. Xavier speaking, “we’re not looking to report you or hurt you or anything of the kind. I’m here to offer my help. You see, I run a school for gifted youngsters. Young mutants like yourself”, he steers his chair around the table to put himself in more full view of the skittish Daniel, “it’s a safe place, protected from any who would want to harm us. Where you could develop your gifts around others like you. And be free from the dangers posed to you”, Xavier nods towards one of the strange guns on the counter. “Mutants have been regarded with fear, hatred; as you’ve experienced yourself. There are some even who see us as a new species, but humanity has never been one to share. Our school has plenty to offer, the top classes in everything as well as training facilities that can be specialised to every mutants needs”.

Danny raises his hands and chuckles a bit awkwardly, “I’m, um, not a mutant. I mean, I guess that depends on whatever makes a mutant or whatever. But um, you really can’t tell anyone about me. I’d really rather not get dissected”.

Scott sighs, “kid, did you miss the protected part? The school’s a safe place and from what I’ve heard you can at least float and shoot energy rays, you’re a mutant”, Jean levitates up a pen and Scott lowers his visors quickly to shoot a little beam at it, destroying it. While Xavier explains, “mutants are people with a special gene, the X-gene, resulting in the mutant developing their gift around puberty. And I can assure you, no one is going to be experimenting on you”.

Danny scoffs and rolls his eyes, looking rather tired, “don’t promise things you can’t deliver. And I’m not a mutant then. I wasn’t born with some gene. Just got into an accident”, looking to and squinting at Scott, “um, what do you think ghosts are?”.

Scott shrugs, “collection of mutants probably”.

Xavier nods, Daniel wasn’t lying, “well sometimes traumatic events or emotional distress can cause the surfacing of a mutants gift. But even if you might not be a mutant, my school would and will accept you regardless. We are not ones to discriminate or turn away any gifted youths”.

Danny rubs his neck and shrugs a little, “could it awaken these genes or whatever in late twenties? Because if not, then I’m definitely not a mutant. But I guess thanks for not being discriminatory or whatever, nice change I guess”.

Jean frowns, goes to rub his shoulder reassuringly but pauses when he flinched away. He’s clearly been through a lot and doesn’t trust easily, “you have a place if you want it, and you will be accepted. Clearly this place isn’t safe for you”.

Danny scoffs and rolls his eyes again, fiddling with and looking down at his cup, “no place is really. And my folks don’t know, they don’t mean to hurt me. Even if they do shoot at me a lot, dad’s not that good of an aim though”, he smirks but it’s a little hallow. Looking to Scott, “ghosts are exactly what they sound like. The dead. I guess since you guys went and revealed yourselves, I’m a hybrid. Half dead”, chuckling and drinking the tea a little, “let me tell you, electrocution is a very painful way to go. Four billion volts, people don’t survive that. But hey, also having a ghost portal open up on me fixed the whole dying problem...partly anyway”.

Katherine breathes out, “well damn”, that was pretty awful. Looking to change the subject, “so what can you do? I can walk through things. Intangibility. And camouflage, it’s almost invisibility”, pointing at Scott, “laser eyes over here”, pointing at Jean, “empath, telekineses”, pointing at Xavier, “telepath in basically every-way”.

Danny jerks a little bit from hearing Xavier’s voice in his head saying ‘hello’ while Xavier smiles a bit playfully. Xavier speaking while Danny watches all of them, “I’m one of the strongest there is, I can manipulate any part of someone’s mind, shutting down their body functions even. But I don’t of course, won’t. I like to think humanity has good to them, at their core. That we can exist peacefully. I know you’re good, and that you fight the ghosts to protect people”, gesturing to the three mutants, “we do much the same, fighting less reputable mutants who want to harm”.

Danny eyeballs them and chuckles, “that’s pretty intense. Mind control really. I’ve been mind-controlled before, I broke it though. Kinda funny you came here with a bunch of people with similar abilities”, Danny levitates over the ectogun and pokes it to spin around in the air, “telekinesis, I don’t use it much though”, shooting a little ecto-beam at it, making the ecto-gun explode, “more laser fingers than eyes, can do that to though”, phasing his hand through the table before flickering invisible, “literally every. Single. Ghost. Can use intangibility, invisibility, and gravity nullification”.

Danny sighs and gets up, putting away his cup; three of the mutants a little surprised at the numerous powers. Xavier nods slightly, “you have more powers, don’t you”.

Danny scoffs and laughs a bit, “many. I don’t know if your school could make a training room actually able to handle me honestly. And I would bring danger with me. I’m wanted by the government, many ghosts want my hide -one very literally-, and there are the ghost hunters. Plus,” Danny sits on the counter and fiddles with the sink a little, letting the tap turn on but making ice shapes with the water, “I protect Amity, I guess some friends of mine could cover for me though”.

Scott scoffs, “don’t underestimate us kid, mutants always bring danger around with them; dealing with that is half the point of the school”.

Xavier nods, “we've seen everything from intolerant parents, to government-funded mad scientists. We’re well equipped”.

“Could I leave at any point to come back here in case?”.

Xavier nods, “of course, it’s not a prison. Though it is a school all the same, you will have classes you’re expected to attend”.

Danny mumbles, “course”, before getting up for some food. Opening the fridge and promptly getting spattered by green stuff, the fridge saying ‘anti-ghost fudge theft mode activated, eat hot ectoplasm Spook!’. While Danny yelps and shakes off his face and hands, Jean moves to help him wash off in the sink; everyone able to see him wincing and the nasty burns where the stuff had contacted him. Danny rubs at his face and looks a little beaten down, “yeah, okay, I’ll try your school thing out”. Jean and Katherine asking, “are you okay?”.

Danny shrugs and mumbles, “I heal fast”.

Jean shakes her head, “you shouldn’t have to be worrying about your own house attacking you”. Danny just shrugs again as he sits back at the table, throwing a slight glare at the fridge.

Xavier smiles anyway, this was certainly an environment he shouldn’t be in. If anything, it seemed Daniel was in more danger than most of the youngsters they collected, “how likely do you believe it is that your parents would allow you to go without any of us having to divulge too much about the school or the reasons behind your attendance?”.

Danny shakes his head, “none. They’ll want to know everything they can. They care, they’re just...not that good at it. But if you have, say, a space program of some sort then that would work for cover”. None of them miss how his eyes sparkle a little, clearly he was fond of space.

Xavier smiles, “we certainly could. Are you interested in space?”.

Danny grins and leans forward a bit, “I landed a spaceship once, been to space a few times. I could build an exact to-scale replica of the Mars rover, pretty well every model of spaceship, and any of the satellites, right now. My goal was NASA before the whole dying thing trashed my grades and being Phantom became more important”.

Jean smiles softly, “well, part of what we teach is managing lifestyles. I’m sure you could do both”.

Katherine giggles a little, “and at least you already have a code name, no one trying to give you unfortunate ones. Have your own designed suit too”, smiling slightly, “you’ve put a lot into this already. Most your age just play with their powers, show off. I was hardly better”.

Danny frowns a little and pats at is chest, “I didn’t design anything. That suit is what I died in but colour inverted, like my hair. It’s part of my body. Phantom though,” Danny smiles slightly, “that’s my fun little pun on Fenton”, sighing and frowning again, “and these mutant kids, they just have powers, I’m part of another dimension and species. So it’s different”.

Xavier nods, “all the same I’m sure we can accommodate you. Accommodating niches is one of our goals. Now the school is a boarding school, located in my mansion, our classes are small but they are specialised to needs. The dorms are comfortable and anything you need you can ask for, no matter how strange or hard to get. Power usage is both accepted and encouraged so long as you avoid intentional damages. The danger rooms are where you can really use any powers”.

Jean smiles and nods, the danger rooms were often what really got any teens exited, “they can be set up for any situation and unique to work against or towards your own skills. There’s no worry about really hurting anyone or thing, so it’s wonderful for testing limits. They get used most often by those looking to become X-Men”.

Scott looks Danny over, the kid was already doing the whole superhero thing, “no doubt you’ll be an X-Man, you’re nearly already doing the job”.

Xavier tilts his head, “with working in the space field as well of course”.

Danny shrugs, “with my vitals I highly doubt they’ll actually let me”.

Xavier grins at that, “oh we have our ways, that sort of thing can be waved”.

Danny goes a little wide-eyed and whispers, “really?”, everyone else nods and Danny grins like an idiot, “okay you are totally allowed to adopt me!”.

Xavier laughs, “not literally of course. But you are free to stay at the mansion as you please, so long as you enrol”.

Danny nods, clearly either more comfortable in their presence or more focused on space, than safety.

They leave after giving Danny the more nitty-gritty details of the school and its programs, giving him one of the schools hoodies, and after explaining what they can to his parents; they were more than a little excited about Danny going to a more specialised school where he will hopefully do better and get to be an astronaut like he always wanted.

Half a week later finds Katherine back at the Fenton door, waiting to pick up Danny. Smiling at him as he opens the door with his bags in tow, obviously already having had the whole farewell talk and hug fest with his family. “You good to go?”.

Danny nods, looking a little sad and nervous but otherwise just a fourteen-year-old kid, “yeah”. Both jumping when Jack sticks his head out the door and shoves a container of fudge at Danny before giving him a thumbs up and disappearing.

Katherine shakes her head, “you’re parents sure are something”.

“Heh heh, yeah”, Danny turns and eyeballs the sleek little car, “well, at least you didn’t show in something overly fancy”.

Katherine smiles as she gets in, speaking as Danny closes the door behind him, “discretion is part of how we maintain safety. We’ll be getting to the jet later”.

“I flew a jet once”.

Katherine shakes her head a little as she drives off, Danny really had clearly been through a lot of weird situations.

Danny looks around a little as they enter the mansion, he didn’t seem all that impressed but more so simply cautious and paranoid. Watching him eyeball possible exits, areas where someone could hide, anything that even slightly seemed like a threat. Katherine watches him eyeball a kid floating paper airplanes around above his hands, “huh, guess that is pretty normal here”.

Katherine nods, “yup, you have to do something very flashing, please don’t, to really get anyone to care. You seem pretty unfazed by the mansion itself. Most gawk more, I know I did”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “my archenemies is bigger, a lot bigger”.

“You really have an ‘archenemy’”.

Danny shrugs, “not much else to call the guy, other than a crazed up frootloop. He’s one of the richest people in the world, wealth acquired by control and manipulating other people. Wants to kill my dad, marry my mom, force me to be his son. He’s got a power and possession Obsession”.

Katherine is definitely a bit concerned by that, sounded like a mutant who was using their powers unethically. Not to mention rather creepy. The two walking into Xavier’s office while Danny grumbles about this archenemy more, “spy's on me with cameras, puts bounties on my head, the whole cloning incident, attempts to take over other times, made me fully dead in another timeline, more attempted murders than I can count”.

Xavier raises an eyebrow, “hello again. Who is this person we’re going to have to keep an eye out for?”.

Danny sighs and sits down in one of the armchairs, scanning his eyes cautiously around the room quickly before speaking, “one of the only others like me. The first Halfa. Vlad Masters, yes that Masters”, Danny shrugs and fiddles with he chairs fabric, “he went to college with my parents. They built a mini-ghost portal, half-killed him. Same as they built a full ghost portal and half-killed me”.

Both mutants blink at him, Katherine shaking her head, “your parents are hazards”. Danny just smirks slightly in response, still looking around the room a little.

Xavier nods, “so not a mutant either. And what of the others like you? Better company I would hope”.

Danny snaps his eyes to Xavier and bares his teeth a little, “touch her and I’ll cut you”, softening a little and seeming to be thinking a bit while Katherine blinks a bit caught off guard. This kid was quiet and skittish not aggressive. Whoever this ‘her’ is she must be special.

Xavier smiles slightly, hearing that Danny is considering bringing another Danny -the identical names was slightly confusing- here, if he felt it safe. Though Xavier’s not pleased she sounds to be on the run, “she’ll be quite safe here, though I’m sure you’ll decide that for yourself”.

Danny glares slightly but nods, “it would be nice for her to have a home. But if I have to blow up an entire mansion to protect her, I will. I’ve done it”.

Xavier nods, “of anyone, I can certainly understand protecting the gifted; mutants or otherwise. Many of the students here are runaways themselves, many more come to consider this place home. Even upon graduating, they tend to stay and become X-men and teachers. Always having a permanent place here, found family, and protection”, driving his chair around the desk and smiling kindly at Danny, “I can only hope you can come to feel fond of this place yourself, and of the gifted around you”.

Danny nods a little stiffly, Xavier doesn’t even have to read him to know he’s slightly overwhelmed. Changing to a topic more well-loved by teens and of some level of importance, “now follow me, I’ll take you to your room. Kitty has responsibilities to attend to”, starting to drive out of the room and looking back at Danny as he gets up, carrying/dragging his things, “feel free to levitate those, I encourage it actually”, speaking again as Danny smiles slightly and does just that before they start walking down the halls, “now one thing that is something of a right of passage, as I’ve heard many of the students say, is choosing code names. Of course yours is already set in stone for you I imagine. So the question will more be, what do you want to be called here? Do you wish to go by Danny still, or Phantom? Both perhaps”.

“The ghosts officially call me Danny Fenton Phantom, but most just say Phantom...or something insulting. But um, Phantom, Phantom’s what I’d like”.

Xavier smiles to himself at that, unlike the mutants that faced persecution Phantom did not hate his abilities, didn’t even dislike them truly. He merely seemed to dislike when they acted up and had learned a policy of absolute secrecy about them, over all he was proud. “What you would like is all that matters, Phantom”.

Phantom pauses in his walking for a beat before shaking his head with a slight smile and following again, “just like that huh? Guess that’s normal here”.

Xavier only nods slightly as they come to a stop before the room that’s meant for Phantom, “here’s where you’ll be staying. If you set up quickly, you’ll have time to make it for lunch. I quite recommend you do”.

Phantom raises an eyebrow but watches Xavier go for only a little while before heading into his room.

Anna is curious, she’s heard mutterings of there being a new student. Like always, that kind of news made everyone excited and buzz about. Curious what the newcomer could do, what their backstory was, if they looked unique. Certain people, glaring slightly towards Monique and her little gang, certainly were more interested on the looks than anything else. Todd, of course, was only going to care how strong the new kid was and if there’s be some kind of challenge to his place as ‘top bitch’. Sure, he said ‘alpha king’ but everyone else just said ‘top bitch’; largely to annoy the overpowered fire-starter. Fire-starter not just because of his power but also ‘cause he’s a prick that fights everything. Sighing as she walks through the lunchroom doors, though peeking up when she sees her good friend Lily and walks over. “So you heard the gossip too I guess?”.

They chuckle, “oh definitely, hard to miss that kind of gossip. Hopefully, they’re not a dick”.

Anna groans, “tell me about it, all five of the recent newbies have been total jerks. I’m almost tempted to think powers only come to the cocky and hotheaded”. The two snicker and eyeball Todd slightly, the unspoken joke needing no further context. Before both of them turn their heads to the side after sitting down with their food, hearing people start to whisper

“Look, it’s the new face”.

“Awww he looks so boring and plain”.

“Think he’s seen some shit? Looks kinda skittish”.

Anna sighs and shakes her head seeing a skinny slightly twitchy black-haired boy with intense crystal blue eyes. Muttering to Lily, “he’s going to get eaten alive”. Apparently he heard though and smirks at them slightly, before waking off to inspect the food. Promptly stuffing his face and clearly trying to ignore the staring, he seems used to it and that pings a little sad place in her.

Anna pokes Lily, “well, wanna see if the newbies an asshole? Seems tolerable so far”.

Lily looks around and shrugs, waving over their two other friends Jackson and Reverent.

Jackson asking, “what we doing?”.

Anna just smirks and points at the newbie. The three following after her as they approach. The kid is clearly eyeballing them cautiously as they sit down in front of him.

Reverent sticking his hand out and beaming a poster-worthy smile, “hiya! I’m Reverent, you’re new. Hopefully, your day’s not sucking. Moving here can be shit, so far away and all that. You seem nice though, I think I approve. I’m a photokenetic”.

Jackson shrugs, “I’m Jackson, ice boy. Please don’t say that’s cool”.

Lily waves slightly, “invisibility and levitation, I know two powers, lucky me. Name’s Lily”.

Everyone looks to Anna, who smiles slightly, “Anna, and my power’s pretty shit, so don’t worry if yours sucks. I can steal people’s life force”.

Lily rolls her eyes and elbows Anna, “and extend your own. That’s practically immortality girl”. Anna just shrugs before everyone looks to the new kid, who swallows harshly.

The kid eyes them a little then shakes his head slightly, “just out with it like that huh? Pretty different from what I’m used to”.

Reverent nods dramatically, “yeah people can be awful. But here’s better! Everyone can be themselves, I intend on being a teacher here one day. Help other kiddos you know?”.

Lily nods but snickers at Reverent a little, “you’re too nice not to get steamrolled by literally every student”, turning to the new kid, “so what’s your name”.

The kid clearly thinks for a bit before smiling a bit sheepishly, the other four deciding this kid's one of the decent types, while he speaks up, “it’s Phantom. And I’m a bag of confusing bullshit”, Phantom holds up a hand and creates a ball of green light, then forms a ice crystal floating above his hand, then turns said hand invisible and floats off his seat a little, “technically I can force a soul out of a body, but that’s not really stealing their life force. Plus, I’ve never done that to someone who was actually in their own body and not someone else’s”.

Anna blinks, Todd was going to hate this kid, even if Phantom’s control sucked or he had some kind of limit, tons of different powers could kick the ass of one. “Well, you hit the Jackpot, damn”.

Phantom rubs his neck, “oh I hit something that’s all right-”. Phantom gets cut off by Todd predictably slamming a hand on the table and saying with a sneer, “look at that, twig boys got himself a little arsenal. Well it’s nothing to this”, Todd dances flames off his fingertips into the kid's face.

Phantom just sighs, “um, good for you?”, he lifts up a palm and creates a ball of green fire floating above it.

Anna slaps the table and laughs, this was great. While Todd glares and covers his own hand in flames, clearly trying to be menacing.

Phantom sighs, seemingly more comfortable with confrontation than friendly interaction, “yes yes, you’re very fancy firebug. But don’t make moves to threaten me unless you’re going to follow through”.

Todd growls, “oh I’ll follow through”, before going to punch Phantom with his flaming fist. Phantom smirks a little to himself when the guy hits a green shield. Trying again results in him going through the intangible kid and flailing to the floor.

Phantom spins around on the bench and looks down at him, “I’m used to fighting actual villains. So I’m not going to actually hit you or something”.

That gets Maxi’s attention, as he walks over and looks down at Phantom, “wait, you’ve actually fought villains?”.

Phantom groans, “only every day of the week and weekend for that matter”, Phantom fiddles with his food, “I’m kind of already an established superhero. Xavier brought me here more so to help with schooling than powers I think. Other things too”, sighing and glancing down at Todd, “I’m going to give you a warning I guess, to be nice and all that. My perfectly normal friends back home could kick your ass. My enemies are all more or less indestructible, I don’t fight the breakable”.

Todd scoffs and walks off, glaring at everyone, while Reverent claps his hands together, “well alright then! On to something less dark! What're your favourite movies...”.

Phantom walks awkwardly into the medi-bay, grumbling something almost unintelligible under his breath about not knowing he signed up for scientific examinations. Xavier is instantly tipped off by the way he says that, and the images flickering through his mind are more than just unpleasant and concerning. The Fenton’s are very strange and aggressive about how they ‘treat’ things as simple as just a cold. The Manson parents seem pretty bad too. Speaking to him after sending a nod of greeting to Jean, “relax. The danger room can be rather stressful and it is always best to be cautious. Wouldn’t want you to get inadvertently hurt or traumatised. But I assure you, it’s nothing weird or extreme, certainly nothing with strange dream catchers or whatever that green bath was supposed to be”.

Phantom glances at him and chuckles a little, seeming both less and more on edge. Which is expected, many people would far prefer for him to stay out of their minds. Jean smiles at Phantom and gestures at the bench, “hello again. I hear you’ve chosen to go by Phantom officially. Good, you’re pretty fond of the way you are huh? Most of us are, when we’re older anyway. Now please have a seat, I’m just going to be doing basic things. Temperature, pulse, heart rate, lung capacity. It’s not to see if you fall in line with ‘normal’ though”, she ends with a slight wink.

Phantom sits down as some other guy also enters, raising an eyebrow at him. The guy grunting, “Logan. Or wolverine. Don’t care. So you’re the different mutant who’s already got some kind of culture following huh?”.

Phantom scoffs and rolls his eyes, but Xavier’s the one to speak up, “actually it would seem this one isn’t a mutant. But rather much more unique. He’s different even among those who are different, yet he’s a proud one. Don’t go causing him issues Logan”.

Logan scoffs and leans against a wall, “don’t intend to”, nodding his head a little at the kid, “I’m pretty out of the norm around the others too. Still a mutant though. But hey, I’m up for something interesting”.

Jean shakes her head and looks at the curious-looking Phantom, “he likes to stir up trouble, maybe he wants to see if you’ll choke me like he did”, Logan rolls his eyes, Jean points at Phantom‘s shirt before setting up everything she’ll need, “shirt off”.

Phantom looks down, seeming more than a little nervous, “uhh, rather not”.

Xavier smiles, “no need to worry, different appearances are rather normal around here. Even scars”.

Logan scoffs, “understatement for some of us, adds to the look if you ask me”.

Phantom fiddles with his sweater some and eyeballs the examination supplies, awkwardly muttering, “at least nothing’s green”, before sighing and pulling the sweater over his head. Everyone’s silent for a bit, he was seriously scarred up and no one needs to even guess what the Y shaped one came from. Logan mutters, “Jesus fuck. Alright then. Colour me surprised he doesn’t hate humans”.

While Jean studiously draws no attention to the marks as she busies herself with her tasks. Explaining medical jargon as she goes. Xavier, meanwhile, can’t help but frown over Phantom‘s memories. Frozen, unable to move, and under scalpels and bone-saws. With nothing but his own lab basement and his parents' goggle covered faces to look at. The fact that he’s not truly traumatised is impressive, Phantom‘s mental fortitude is more than a little impressive. If he hadn’t already decided that Phantom needed out of that house, his mind would be made up now.

Phantom, clearly catching the way Xavier’s looking at him, speaks while tracing the Y shape, “they're good people, just good scientists first. They wouldn’t have done it if they knew though. They’ve known about me a few times, but um, I undid that. I’d rather this”, poking at the centre of the Y, “than them getting hurt in the crosshairs because they wanted to ‘help’ or ‘protect’ me”.

Logan groans and walks in a little circle, looking up at the ceiling, “the self-sacrificial kind, lovely. Don’t go pulling that on us kid, we can look after ourselves. And I sure as shit wouldn’t be so okay with anyone involved with experimenting on me”.

Phantom raises an eyebrow while Jean works around him, “you were experimented on?”.

Logan unsheathes his claws and waves a fist around a little, “understatement kid”.

Phantom tilts his head but smiles, “at least you got something out of it”, Phantom pokes his chest, clearly ignoring the too slow beeping of the heart monitor, “I just got to find out my organs are green”, Phantom shakes his head and looks off to the distance.

Everyone deciding not to interrupt his mental musings, Xavier giving him some privacy with that.

By the end Phantom‘s revealed to have vitals that are definitely not something someone can actually live with, but that it’s his normal.

Xavier nods to him as they leave, “you’ve seen a lot in a small time, you’re a strong person. An old friend of mine was much the same, but he let it make him bitter, restful, full of hate. You’ve become more protective instead, the amount of caring I see in you is remarkable”.

Phantom shrugs as they head to the danger rooms, “it’s what’s right. It’s my Obsession too, one of them anyway”.

Xavier nods, a student having unusual needs was not actually unusual, “Kitty explained Obsessions as your parents told them. Are their theories accurate?”.

Phantom nods as they come to stand before a door, “yeah, it’s, um, less for me. Halfa means only half the things”.

Entering the room, which Phantom gaps around at, the place looked like a sprawling city in chaos devoid of any people or life. Phantom mutters, “well damn”. While Xavier chuckles lightly, “impressive, isn’t it? Don’t worry about damaging things. I’ll be watching”.

Phantom muttering, “ominous much” as Xavier leaves the room.

Logan and Katherine join Xavier in watching. Logan asking more or less rhetorically, “he’s strong, isn’t he? But if he’s not a mutant then what? And who the Hell beat him up?”.

Katherine smiles and elbows him, “you and your soft spot for damaged kids”.

Xavier smiles, giving Phantom a signal to go ahead, “if I recall Kitty, you were one such kid. And he exists on the cusp of life and death. Alive and dead. His existence is nearly unique, how it’s even possible I can’t even fathom. His mind seems to view himself as a glitch in the matrix so to speak. Created by accident and purpose. To say he has a hero complex would be a ridiculous understatement. He seeks and needs to protect others, holding himself to an ideal that only he can do it. He has deep-seeded fears and mental blocks around the idea that he could fail at that. And he has seen a world, the land of the dead, we could barely begin to imagine”.

Logan scoffs, “sounds like a bit of a god complex too”.

Katherine rolls her eyes, “oh and like you’re any better. Mr. Lone wolf”.

Xavier shakes his head, “those with god complexes do not hold a fear of themselves. He fears what his gifts could do, should they be used to harm or destroy. He fears anyone being hurt or him hurting someone. It’s not the shameful kind of fear as it is for most students, it’s more resolute and concrete. His fear of that, reinforces him to not be that, with pride and something like reckless abandon”.

Katherine smiles, he was clearly a good kid who had been through far too much.

The three watch as Phantom looks around awkwardly before seemingly steeling himself. Then a bright ring of light appears around his waist and suddenly it’s the Phantom seen in what little footage they could find floating in the air.

Logan grunts, “transformation huh? Guessing there’s more”.

Xavier grins, “oh yes”, not missing how Phantom instantly likes more bold and cocky. Phantom was a hero and he knew the role well, lived it. Watching him fly off and zip around. Blasting things to smithereens with a wide range of blasts/rays.

After a while of him phasing through stuff, blowing things up, flickering out of visibility, teleporting, tossing things around with his mind, and one point where Logan jerked slightly from the entire place getting coated in ice and forming hundreds of little ice weapons.

Katherine gapes slightly when there’s suddenly three Phantom’s though it’s clear this is a bit harder for him to do or maintain, “I think he’s just running through a list at this point”.

Xavier nods, “precisely”.

Logan shakes his head a bit as Phantom starts electrocuting things, “alright, so the kids overpowered. The others are going to love him...or hate him”.

Katherine tilts her head when Phantom turns and asks, “you sure this is all indestructible? Cause I’m not going to hold back then”.

Xavier raises an eyebrow, responding, “that’s its purpose. So please do”.

Phantom shrugs, “if I blow out your wall, it’s not my fault”. They watch as he sucks in a breath and releases a sonic wailing sound, massive blasts of green energy resonating from his mouth.

Logan covers his ears and snaps, “fucking Hell. Remind me not to pick a fight with this one for no reason”. Xavier’s eyebrows raise as the place shakes, before Phantom does indeed blow out the wall. Phantom points to them as he steps out, “you lied”.

Xavier waves off the damage, “everything can be repaired. The whole mansion and various compounds have been rebuilt many times over the years”.

Phantom shrugs and lands his feet on the ground, rubbing his neck, “still sorry though, and to think I only got up to thirty percent there”.

Logan blinks, “seriously glowstick?”.

Phantom chuckles with a wily smirk, making it very obvious he was more confident and brazen in this form, “yeah and that’s a new one. Usually, it’s ‘whelp’ or ‘dipstick’ or ‘babypop’ or ‘ghost child’ or ‘punk’ or ‘ectoplasmic scum’ or ‘ectoplasmic filth’ or ‘spook’ or ‘half creature’ or ‘bastardisation’ or most annoyingly, ‘little badger’. Though I guess there are positives to, like ‘great one’ and ‘saviour’. But if you call me ‘inviso-bill’ or ‘billy’ I will shot you”.

Logan snorts, “saviour? Really? And how is ‘litttle badger’ worse than ‘bastardisation’?”.

Phantom glares a little, “‘cause it comes out of the mouth of a pompous creepy cruel piece of shit prick. Nailed a dead badger to my door once for emphasis. And how many times have you saved the world, Claws?”.

Logan rolls his eyes, “original. Three or four”.

Phantom chuckles and starts floating off, “it’s been seven for me in the past year”.

Xavier nods to the two mutants as Phantom floats off back to his room, confirming that he’s being honest. Again, the things this kid has been through.

Anna, curious, sticks her head into Phantom’s room and looks around. Gapping a little at the strange glowing green star constellations on the roof. Phantom promptly dropping the pieces to a model spaceship from floating in the air, “oh it’s you”. She looks him up and down, it was still the same kid but glowy and white-haired and green-eyed and...in a spandex jumpsuit? Well alright then. “Hey, was wondering if you wanted to go hang out with me and the gang? Also, something tells me you’re going to keep being surprising”.

Phantom smirks, “oh you don’t even know the half of it”, floating over and landing his feet on the ground, “sure, why not. So long as it ain’t a dissection party or something”.

“Man are you ever morbid”.

“Well, I am dead. Life and death took a piss on me so I’ve earned the right”.

Anna coughs and is pretty sure the only reason he’s walking is not being used to others seeing his powers, “you're what now?”.

Phantom blinks and laughs with a loud echo, “oh yeah, guess I never mentioned that. See I’m the idiot who got himself offed in a portal and now...”

He ends up explaining some of his story as they walk, going to meet up with their friends outside the mansion.

End.

63 notes · View notes

phantomphangphucker · 6 years ago

Text

Fenton Is That Broken Character

If we’re honest, Danny is insanely OP

“What you up to dad?”, Jack looks up as his son walks in the front door. He still can’t help but marvel at how he’s turned out. Sure education and lifestyle wise he was definitely lacking, but he had a presence. Taller than Jack now and muscular, but still clearly a kind soul. Even if he seemed determined to never have a job or leave home at this point. But there could always be hunting in his future, pretty lucrative thing nowadays. Plus, Jack enjoyed still having him around and he did seem happy. Even if he was aloof and paranoid, but Jack knew that was partly because Amity warranted being cautious and his son was extremely unusual.

Tapping on some papers, “finishing up that ghost ordering system. Think I’ve finally got all the appropriate classes down pat. Care to give your old man a unique view?”. Danny chuckles as he nods. Jack’s glad his son has opened up more to theories, still clearly hates pretty much every invention for some reason though.

“The one through six classing is still pretty well the same but I’ve settled on the different related power levels. Though honestly, I hope no level thirties actually exist”, tapping on the paper.

Classes:

1: non-threat - ignorable (1-3)

2: pseudo-threat - should be captured but no hurry. (4, 5)

3: mild threat - capture immediately, potential danger. (6)

4: threat - break out the anti-ghost gear, deal with quickly. Engage with extreme caution. (7-15)

5: major threat - bring out specialty weapons and only engage if absolutely necessary. (16-19)

6: WARNING: apocalyptic threat - do not engage, run. (20+)

“Now I know the GIW rated Phantom at seven, six years ago, but I doubt he’s still a seven now. Blob ghosts are always three or less and I’ll be disappointed if the Box Ghost is higher than a 5”, Jack and Danny both snicker, clearly agreeing. Danny taps on class 6, “and I’d say Mr. Floaty face was 6 for sure”.

The two spend around an hour throwing out random ghosts and placing most of them. Jack chuckles, “honestly, not even going to really try to place Phantom for sure. We know for sure he was at least a four near when he first popped up. Clearly stronger than he used to be so I really wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a five now”. Danny nods and Jack’s quite pleased with himself over that. His son always seems to just know things when it comes to ghosts. Fenton genius he’s sure.

“I’d say at least five, likely close to six or a six. He’s stronger than he’s given credit for, I think. Basically a walking broken enigma”

“Part of me hopes you’re wrong but if I’d want any ghost to be so powerful, it’d be Phantom”, Jack really is glad for coming to a truce with the spook years ago. Smiling as he catches Danny’s soft smile and what almost seems like a blush? This is his favourite aspect of the Phantom truce, that it clearly makes his son very happy, which makes Jack happy. Even if he doesn’t get why his son can be so ghost friendly, even his opinion of flat out dangerous ghosts are somewhat fond, oddly.

Jack’s sitting at the table when he can’t help but ponder about how his son seems to set off ghost stuff all the time. Wondering if maybe, Danny might just have a self-sustaining ectoplasmic field, like a ghost, as a result of his accident; rather than just oddly prolonged ectoplasmic contamination. Because no way should he still be contaminated from the accident after six years. After all, he was pretty much shocked by the entirety of the zone, even if he clearly downplays it.

But Jack’s not really worried about this because if it caused Danny issues he would have said something, right? Plus, Jack is pretty much sure his son can sense ghosts, which he’s actually a little glad for and he’ll admit to feeling a little guilty over once or twice using him to tell if there was a ghost nearby, because of his sons' reaction. Yes, he noticed the fogging breath and how Danny would instantly start looking around for the ghost/becoming more aware. Kind of hard to not notice. So really his son is like a walking ghost senor, and how cool is that? Jack will never have to worry about some foul ecto-scum sneaking up on his son, and imagine how useful that’ll be when he becomes a hunter! He is a Fenton after all, ghost hunting is just what Fentons’ do.

So as Jack watched his son eat cereal, Jack covertly turns on the device he’s been fiddling with. He’s honestly surprised it’s taken him so long to sit down and build something to rank and class a particular ghosts power and threat levels. Not surprised in the slightest that it senses Danny as an ectoplasmic entity. So Jack selects his son on screen, fully expecting a reading of 1 or 2, and after a few seconds, the thing starts smoking and explodes.

Jack blinks only slightly shocked as Danny jumps a bit, from the explosion. Danny barely misses a beat before chuckling, “another prototype bites the dust huh?”. Jack’s not quite sure why his son blinks a bit and pulls a face before speaking again, “uh, so what’s this one supposed to do? Gots a weird vibe to it”.

Jack’s face lights up a bit, always eager to talk ghosts or explain some new invention, “Well son! It’s supposed to read ghosts power levels and how to best handle them! If we’ve finally settled on rankings, only makes sense to find a more definitive way to do the rankings”. Danny rubs his neck a bit sheepishly, but smiles playfully, “and let me guess, like usual, I set it off or something”. Jack taps on one of the burnt pieces that aren’t on the floor, “which is very strange son but yes. I wouldn’t worry though! Even though it definitely read you as having an ecto-field, looks like it was attempting to put out a reading too! I’m guessing that caused an error, malfunctioned. Seeing as you’re not actually a ghost”.

Jack watches his son chuckle heartily as he puts away his dishes, “well sorry about the tech dad, and yeah nothing to worry about. I may be weird, but I’m perfectly fine”. Jack can tell he means it as he watches his son head out the door.

Groaning a little and staring sadly at the burnt pieces as he starts cleaning up the mess. “Oh?”, Jack feels almost giddy when he finds the heavily smashed screen, as he sees that it actually did manage to get a reading on his son. Wiping it off, Jack’s face squints in confusion as he reads the results:

“PL: subdued: overload”

“Class: error”

“Title: ghost king”

“Okay? The subdued section is perfectly expected. After all Danny-boy isn’t a ghost so he wouldn’t have access to his ectoplasmic field. Even if he really shouldn’t have one at all”, shaking his head at the screen, “but overload? That makes no sense? He’d have to be over 15 and even for an actual ghost that is incredibly high”. Jack claps his hands together as an idea hits him, “maybe it’s because he’s not a ghost, so this little guy really can’t get a proper reading at all! Maybe Danny’s field doesn’t even follow normal rules at all! That explains the error class too! Only way to know is to rule out the other option!”.

Jack smiles knowing full well he’s going to spend the day building a better version, or at least one that can sense higher levels. Shaking his head at the screen again, “and I’m just dismissing this whole “ghost king” title, only ghosts actually have titles so that’s obviously a malfunction”.

As Jack tinkers away, he can’t help but feel more worried than curious at this point, “if the strange readings were really because of a malfunction than “subdued” should have appeared messed up as well. Heck! All of it should have showed error or overload”.

Frowning a little as he hears the front door open, no doubt that’s his son. With Jazz away and Maddie at home all day, there really isn’t another person it could be. Rubbing at the smooth metal of the device as he puts on some finishing touches. Smacking it lightly in triumph as it turns on, “now this baby will certainly at least go up to level 30! Too bad it actually has to be touching a ghost field to work though”. Glancing at the stairs and shrugging, “well I’ll just have to ask Danny-boy, I’m sure he’d be curious”.

Jack heads up slowly after he hears Maddie leave, he knows how skittish his son can be and he doesn’t want him to feel ganged up on. Sticking his head out the lab door just in time to catch Danny heading to his room, “afternoon! Could you come to the living room with me?”. Noticing Danny looking a bit on edge near instantly, “you’re not in trouble son. Just some worries and theories I want to bounce off you”. Jack’s glad that seems to ease his son up a fair bit, but as he sits down Jack notices him tense a bit at the device. That’s a thing about his son that worries him, it’s almost like he’s cautious or mistrustful of all inventions.

“It’s an improved version of the one from this morning”, Jack wiggles it a bit only barely catching that Danny looks more, not less, uncomfortable. Sighing and facing his son, “I found the readout screen from the one this morning after you left. Definitely malfunctioned, weird readings, error messages, the works. But you clearly have an ecto-field, son. And you really really shouldn’t, so I’d like to test you again”. Jack can’t help but lower his voice more and more while speaking, as he noticed Danny looking more and more uncomfortable.

“Er, Whatever happened to that ecto-contamination theory? Field seems more unlikely”, Jack can tell by how his son is curled up a bit and moving his eyes around a lot, that he’s looking for a way out of this. Jack really doesn’t get why his son wouldn’t want whatever information they could get, maybe even figure out what exactly the problem is.

“Ecto-contamination can’t last for six years, so that theory went out the window. That leaves either a field or something undiscovered... Are you really so put off by our stuff that you’d rather not know?”, Jack can’t help but wince as Danny looks legitimately hurt and guilty over that last statement. He hadn’t meant to guilt trip him, he’s just worried and curious; but mostly worried now, “son, I don’t mean to push. It’s just, I’m worried. This is more than weird, I know it’s clear you’re not actively being harmed by whatever this is. But how can I be sure it’s not doing something long term, if no one even has a clue what’s going on?”. Now Danny just looks more worried and that was not the goal, so Jack just keeps talking, “I’m not very good at this “worried parent so please confide in me or test something” thing, I know. I’m not worried because this is strange, i just want to know you’re ok and just how much this has affected you. I know it’s not just setting off our stuff”. Jack blinks, a bit thrown off at how his son stiffens and stares at him, eyes clearly filled with paranoia. So Jack aims for soothing or at least compliments or something, “honestly the ghost sensor thing is downright neat. No clue how you can tell but it’s still cool. And so long as it doesn’t hurt you, then it is for sure cool”.

Jack mentally cheers as Danny does indeed seem slightly more relaxed as he responds, “how long? How long have you known about that? And um, thanks?”. Jack chuckles softly, “few years now, your breath would fog up for no obvious reason and you’d start looking around or leave the area. Then a ghost would show, hard to ignore pattern there, Danny-boy”. Jack watches, a little amused as Danny rubs his neck sheepishly. Poking Danny’s other hand as he speaks up again, “the other thing I’ve noticed is your skin is always cold. Way colder than anyone’s really should be, but you never seem cold so I assume it’s fine. Plus I imagine it makes dealing with hot weather a breeze!”.

“Er, opposite really. Hot weather sucks, cold weathers nice. But I’m fine, honest”. Jack can tell he means it but, “well I’m glad you feel fine, son. But how can we really be sure? Any bit of information really would help”. Jack taps on the device, hoping to get a yes this time.

Jack watches Danny’s eyes flick from him, to the device, and back to him, “so me being... a bit ghost-like is...cool?”. Jack really hadn’t thought of it as ghost-like but he guesses his son has a point there. Ecto-field, ghost detection, being cold; yeah those could all be seen as ghostie things. Jack nods at his son, “so long as this strangeness isn’t harming you, I don’t see how it wouldn’t be cool”.

Jack is almost startled at how Danny seems to near instantly and completely relax, even grinning rather wide as he sits up straight, “well I guess I can’t deny cool discoveries then”. Jack can’t help but be giddy even as Danny shuffles awkwardly, “how exactly does it work though?”.

“This one needs to actually be touching an ecto-field to work, sadly. But! Just touching it should work the same for you!”

“Sounds kind of like you could only check the willing then. Which kind of sounds like you made it with me in mind”, Jack can feel the suspicion in his sons' voice. Jack grins goofily though, “well of course, after that other one gave such a weird reading. I needed to know, more out of worry son. If you have an ecto-field, it should be really small and should have been easy for the previous one to read. But since that one only went halfway up the scale, the only way to really rule out the field theory is to use one that could get a reading on even the strongest of fields”. Jack feels quite satisfied with his explanation, even if Danny seems, of all things, bashful. Danny rubs his neck as he responds, “so what if I just have, like a strong one, what then?”.

“Then I guess you just do. Just more information to have and every bit helps! And who knows! Maybe a strong field might be keeping some ghosties away! Though it really should be impossible”, Jack’s not sure what about that was funny but he’s not going to complain as Danny nods and holds out his hand.

It only takes the machine a few seconds to work, though Jack has a feeling that his son can actually feel it checking him or something. Based on the odd facial expressions anyway, more worried that it might actually be hurting his son than reading the results, “it’s not hurting you is it?”.

“No, no I’m fine. Weird not painful or anything. Kind of like something is sucking on my skin, if that makes any sense”, Jack chuckles a bit, glad to know he’s not inadvertently harming Danny. He really does wonder if some of their stuff does. Shaking his head, he checks out the results:

PL: subdued: 23

⚠️Class: 6

Title: ghost king

Jack’s a bit too confused to notice Danny having a mild freak out and staring at the title section, “wow son, freaky strong it is. Again that should be impossible but I guess not”. Jack laughs a little, “that could probably actually scare a lot of ghosts! Fearing a Fenton as it should be!”. Tapping at the screen, “the rest makes zero sense though, again. Error made more sense than class six, especially with being subdued? And again with the title?”.

“Well couldn’t, couldn’t that just because of the power level thing?”, Jack shakes his head. Looking at his clearly a bit startled son, “that’s the main factor yes but to get the highest class you’d have to have more than just a strong field. Apocalypse level is just for those with insanely destructive powers, are near impossible for any human or ghost to defeat and more than likely can’t be caught or destroyed”.

Danny glances back at the screen as he responds, “so ridiculously overpowered, like a broken video game character”. Jack can’t help but laugh at that, “yes son, that’s a pretty fair comparison”. Shaking his head, “you must have some insane untapped potential or you have an ability that is very dangerous. Both are a bit concerning. The only other option is that you’re already extremely powerful and have a dangerous power. Which is just confusing”. Shaking his head more, “then there’s this title. You’re not even a ghost, how could you possibly be their king?”.

“Could you imagine though?”, Danny’s tone is a bit cautious sounding but that’s pretty common for him. Jack prefers when he’s joking around or even slacking off honestly, “well, I would prefer for their king to be someone like you. You’re a good man, son. And that would be kind of cool, utterly impossible but cool”. Jack taps his chin a bit, “maybe, because of the accident you're guaranteed to become a ghost and for some reason the king? That still sounds ridiculous”. Jack shakes his head while Danny talks a bit quietly, “if that happened, me becoming a ghost. What would you guys do?”.

Jack blinks at his son slowly, getting what he’s asking and yeah no way he could ever, “we’d support you, see what you remember. We could never hunt you son. Families family. I can’t say I’d even know how to react if you hurt someone, especially with how kind and gentle you are now. So, don’t worry about that”. Jack pats him on on the back affectionately to prove a point and judging by Danny’s loose smile, the point was indeed made.

Danny’s looking down at the living room table, “good. I’m glad to hear it”. Jack’s a little confused but glad his son is glad. Danny shifts a bit, “but yeah I do...have a dangerous power. Pretty well just destroys; buildings, vehicles, ghosts, people. I guess you could say I’m that character that gets banned from tournaments and winds up on Watch Mojo lists for most broken characters and most broken character powers”.

“That is dangerous for sure, I guess that explains that and while I’m curious, I’m not asking for a demonstration. But that means you’ve got a sure fire way to defend yourself, so long as that’s why you’d use it then it’s cool too”, Jack chuckles weakly at Danny’s shock. Smiling a bit at him, “you’re way too nice to be using something like that irresponsibly. Though I find it hard to believe that you can have such a strong ability without it hurting you”.

Danny runs a hand through his hair, “well it does leave me feeling weak and tired but otherwise fine. And it has kind of like a strength dail, never really used it close to full strength and I’d prefer to keep it that way”. Jack’s honestly impressed at this level of honesty and really, pretty much all of this is cleared up. Very weird and still no clue if this is really safe for his son but much less impossible, “sounds like you know yourself pretty well. I’m not going to push to know all you can do but I do want to know. This sure is one way to whip out a surprise trump card on some ghost!”. Jack can tell by Danny snickering that he’s surprised more than one or two ghosts before, which only makes him pleased. Pushing Danny lightly on the shoulder, “still worried about you though”.

Jack can practically feel the mischief in his son, as he talks while walking up to bed, “maybe you could see what sort of reading Phantom gives. He’s a friendly enough fellow, and I think the entire town knows he’s a completely broken video game character. You guys get along now and something tells me he won’t say no”.

End.

#danny phantom #phandom #dannymay #dannymay19 #danny fenton #jack fenton #broken #overpowered #in case you're wonder a broken character is an overpowered or game breaking one #phantomphangphucker #have a fic suck my dick

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phantomphangphucker · 6 years ago

Text

He’s Shifting The Shape Of Possibility - DannyMay - Day 11 ShapeShift

Summary: Awareness of change is the most powerful change of all.

(Continuation of my fic Fenton Is That Broken Character)

“Phantom! Hey!...Phantom!”, Jack shouts and waves at what he’s just assuming to be the long black and white silhouette of Phantom, as he flies against the backdrop of the night sky. Waving his hands a bit more as the form loops around and stills in the air, floating in place for a bit before slowly flying down.

Jack watches with an eager grin as Phantom lazily wraps his ghostly tail on and around a tree branch. Resting his torso on the branch as he puts his chin on his hand, “please tell me there is not some other small fry ghost running around? And could you even tell that was me up there?”. Jack can feel the humour in the ghost's words even if Phantom looks a bit annoyed, “not a lot of ghosts are black and white you know! Besides! If it was some other ghost then I’d get to shoot it!”. Jack laughs a bit and Phantom laughs along but much quieter, “true, you are a Fenton after all. Not some groupie”. Jack nods strongly, “yup! Us Fenton’s are a tough bunch”. Digging in his pocket as he continues speaking, “developed some new tech actually! It’s not a harmful one or anything so was wondering if you’d feel up to playing test subject? Help advance the field of ghost hunting and all that”.

Jack can clearly see Phantom’s chuckling as he waves the, officially named, Fenton SpookSense in his direction. Phantom rests his cheek on the branch and replies with a smirk, “and now what does this one do? And just what sort of advancement could you mean? Pretty sure you hunters are advanced enough”.

“Nonsense! There are always improvements to be made! But this ones more for cataloging, you guys can be a bit tricky to keep track of and figure out how to deal with”, Jack taps on the device, “so this little baby just reads a ghosties ecto-field and tells us how strong you are. How much of a potential threat, not that you’re really a threat though”.

“Many of us are not, strength doesn’t determine if someone’s dangerous”, Jack can tell Phantom’s a bit unimpressed. Shrugging at the ghost, “honestly, Phantom. You really are the only friendly I know I’ve met. I’m sure there must be others but something tells me they don’t come out of the Ghost Zone to play, much. You really are an anomaly”. Phantom smirks down, words laced with sarcasm, “wow, you’re just great at convincing me to offer up my glow for testing aren’t you?”.

Jack grins goofily and rubs the back of his head, “well, you haven’t ran off so I must be doing something right! Plus, this is really more for knowing what kind of action to take if there actually is an issue. Needs touch ups of course”.

Tilting his head at the Spook as he realises Phantom really shouldn’t know that Jack pretty much needs permission to test this, “though, how’d you know I needed you to let me near your ecto-field to test it?”. Jack just barely catches Phantom looking a bit nervous before that emotion flickers away. Phantom rolls his eyes, “because the only way Jack Fenton would ask before testing something on me, is if it was either, harmful or needed a willing participant”. Jack would feel insulted if it wasn’t for the rather affectionate tone Phantom used. Jack sits down on the bench beneath the tree, leaning back to look up at Phantom, “you’re not wrong, Phantom. But you’re also not exactly the easiest to get a hold of to even ask. This little guy needs to actually be touching your ecto-field to scan you”. Phantom laughs loudly at this, “well that makes it pretty useless for any non-friendlies then! Sounds like it needs more than just some touch ups!”. Jack joins Phantom in laughing lightly, “well that’s only for the full strength one, still need to rebuild the little one. But I’m sure I’d need the full strength one to get a result off you. No point blowing up another mini!”.

Phantom snickers as he lowers himself down a bit, “what can’t handle all this raw power?”. Jack shakes his head amusedly, Phantom always has quite the sense of humour about him. Even at the expense of himself or in frighteningly dangerous situations, it’s admirable really, “no clue really, I know you were a seven years ago but no way you haven’t grown stronger. Besides this one’s already made and we get along now, right? So it’s feasible enough that you’d agree”. Jack’s not exactly sure why Phantom stares at him funny for a few seconds before responding, “I always got along with you and the rest of Amity. You just needed to get along with me back. Which, if I’m honest, took longer than it should have”.

Jack can’t help but feel a bit guilty, Phantom, from nearly day one, seemed to be making a point that he was the good guy. But it took him saving the entire town for anyone, well any adults at least, to see him as anything other than a menace. And Jack knew he and his wife were the worst for that, having only stopped hunting him in the past two years. Nodding up at Phantom, “yeah, yeah it did. You really were a case of the kids knowing better, my son especially. Just like you, he always seems to just know things. Both of you are little anomalies, maybe the “Danny” name is cursed or something”. Jack can’t help but laugh at the mixture of embarrassment, amusement, and out of place paranoia, on Phantoms’ face. Phantom rolls his eyes, crosses his arms and slides his tail out of the tree; before changing to his legs. Floating slightly above the seat of the bench, “you have no idea”. Phantom flicks a finger at the device, “so what in all does that thing tell you, exactly?”.

Jack turns the screen on and points out the fields, leaning a bit towards Phantom but making it clear he has no intention of getting the SpookSense in range to test him without permission. “PL for power level, which us hunter’s rank from one to thirty. Technically there’s a zero level but that’s just for plain ol’ ectoplasm. Though I doubt you don’t already know about power levels”, chuckling at Phantoms’ knowing smirk as he continues his explanation, “class is more something Fenton made. Tells me how much of a potential threat or danger you could be. It’s based on a bunch of things from power level to powers and age. The title section really only applies to ghosts given some specific duty by the Zone. Like being a Ghost Zone cop or the highest knight of some ghost kingdom”.

Phantom laughs and leans back, letting himself stop floating to come into proper contact with the bench, “well, for telling you only three things, that little guy will give you more information than you think”. Jack has no idea what to make of that, because how could this give any further information? And he fully expects Phantom to be strong so, “can’t say I know what you mean, ghost. I expect your PL to be high and since my son says he wouldn’t be surprised if you’re a class six, then neither would I. And even with the title section, you’re well known and who knows just how powerful of things you’ve faced and won. You also clearly have a sense of justice and protection, so I fully expect you’d be a cop or maybe even a knight”. Tapping at his chin, “maybe even a title related to Amity. Like Amity’s keeper or protector”.

“Wow, you’re opinion of me sure has changed. I’m pretty sure I’d have had a heart attack years ago if you even implied I was Amity’s protector”. Jack can’t help but smirk at that unusual Phantom humour poking its head up, though he can tell Phantom’s not really joking around here. He means what he said and Jack does feel a bit guilty at that, “yes well, I was wrong”, chuckling a bit, “though if you have a heart attack, none the less a heart, that is a flat out scientific marvel. An utter impossibility, since you’re a ghost”. Jack can’t help but feel more amused as Phantom tilts his head back and laughs heartily, “I am a totally impossible enigma!”. Jack is always impressed at how Phantoms’ smirks and smiles seem to fill his face, that’s ultimately what disproved the Fenton idea that ghost didn’t feel. No way anyone or thing could fake a smirk as playful and shit eating, as what Phantom was currently displaying, “and that is precisely why that little machine will give you answers you never expected. Even if they’re not the kind of answers that show up on screen”. Jack only grows more confused as Phantom says through a laugh, “you could say it might just shapeshift you perspective. Transform your known reality. Really change exactly how much of a little anomaly the local town enigma is”.

“Phantom...I'm not really sure you could be any more unusual”, Phantoms further laughter is both confusing and mood lifting to Jack. Jack can take being a bit confused, especially if he gets to see just how much of a powerhouse this Spook really is. “Oh I wouldn’t go writing me off just yet, Jack”, Jack’s a little startled as Phantom seems to instantly become more serious and looks him straight in the eyes. Jack’s glad Phantoms’ toxic green eyes carry friendliness at all times, otherwise it might be hard not to flinch back from his intense ghostly gaze, “but who needs all the answers, and you might find that some secrets are better left untold. A shift in the shape of your reality may not be ideal to you, in the end. I’d hope otherwise, but I make no claim to what the future holds”.

Jack clues in that what Phantom is getting at here is that somehow, the reading this machine gives him is going to reveal some mystery about this anomaly of a ghost. Which honestly excites him more than anything else, “when it comes to ghosts there’s nothing I don’t want to know!”. Poking at Phantom, “especially about you! You’ve been a constant anomaly, the odd one out in every piece of research, and somehow do things that ghosts shouldn’t be able to do. Heck! I’m pretty well positive that you somehow don’t even need to be in the Ghost Zone at all! And that doesn’t even get us started on how you become randomly immune to sensors and shields?!” Jack knows full well he’s rambling a bit but how could he not be excited at finding out even one little mystery of Phantom?

Grinning wide at Phantom, who’s eyeing him both amused and with something like pity, “even your ectoplasm samples mysteriously disappear. I’m a scientist Phantom, I want to know”.

“And what would you do? With this new found knowledge? Whether it’s something that only mildly shifts the shape of some theory; or utterly obliterates every idea, belief, and thing you thought you knew. Reinvents your world view”, Jack admits he’s close to worried now, just how massive of an oddity is Phantom? Or is Phantom just riling him up, like he so clearly loves to do to pretty well everyone. Even if it’s always good-naturedly, as Phantom continues speaking but in a more soft tone, “I know you carry some guilt over our past...interactions, which you understandably should; though you really don’t need to. I worry that, should you understand, truly understand, that guilt might elevate crushingly”.

Jack blinks a bit, thrown off by the genuine concern and worry. The kind he’d often steal away for only family, especially his strange son. Seeing this from Phantom is incredibly odd but somehow understandable, “you really do care for everyone in this town don’t you? But I’m certain, whatever your little, or more likely big, secret is; this Fenton can handle it”. Jack adjusts himself to face the, slightly taller than him, ghost. Even Jack gets that secrets often need to be kept, “I’m not going to tell though. Excluding us Fenton’s”.

Jack’s not sure why that makes Phantom smirk, “Oh I know you won’t. No, you might just protect what you know more fiercely than I do”. Jack has no clue what that means, but can tell there’s some deeper meaning as Phantom looks up to the starry sky, “protection of others is always stronger kept than self-preservation”.

“Pretty sure you’re talking mostly about yourself there, Phantom. But you’re also not wrong. I’d give anything to protect my family”, Jack follows Phantoms’ gaze, “and I guess I would protect you too. I think you’ve more than earned it. Starting to think you never even needed to earn it, that if something happened I’d help you, truce or not”.

Phantom nods and offers his hand/arm to Jack, “you’re right, I would know. It’s happened, after all, you just don’t remember”. Jack is blatantly shocked but decides not to question the strange ghost, who’s clearly thought of something rather funny in his sky focused musings.

As Jack is lifting up the device, Phantom chuckles, “ah ah ah, we’re doing this my way”. Phantom covers up the screen with his other hand as Jack is just plain confused, “you’ll get your results”, Phantom shrugs with a playful smirk, “just one at a time”. Jack’s confusion is cleared and he can’t help but laugh as Phantom makes his fingers invisible one at a time, revealing each section one by one.

“If that’s the game I have to play, then I’ll play it for science! And Fenton curiosity!”, now both of them are laughing, though Jack does notice that Phantom is slightly nervous; as he puts the device inside Phantoms’ glowing ecto-field.

Jack has to restrain himself from nagging at Phantom to reveal the first section, which Phantom is clearly snicking about baiting him with.

Laughing, “Fine Fine, behold and marvel at my stupidly over-powered butt”.

Jack definitely is marvelling, because holy cow, as he reads the screen.

PL: 25

“Wow! That is way over-powered! You would have busted the mini for sure!”, smirking at Phantom, because holy hell was he glad this ghost was a good guy. And thinking of all the ghost craziness in town, “Amity is pretty well lucky you’re so strong though! Who knows just what sort of nightmares you’ve protected us from! And consider me very glad that the old theory of ghost all being evil, being wrong. Especially about you”. Jack’s not sure what about that makes Phantom frown, “yes, well, you do not know how true that is. An evil Phantom would be your, and everyone else’s, worst nightmare”. Jack is not about to question the knowing and almost haunted look in Phantoms’ eyes, not wanting to sour the previous happy mood. Smiling at Phantom, “I’m doubting you even have a bad bone in you. If you had bones that is”.

“Pfft, that you know of”, while that makes no sense to Jack he’ll take it. Poking at Phantoms’ fingers, even if he’s positive on what his class reading will be. Because honestly, if his son, a human being, with a subdued rating of twenty-three, classed as a six, there’s no way a full-blown ghost with a level of twenty-five wouldn’t. Jack damn well knows Phantoms’ got some kind of super-powerful power, but whatever it is, he rarely or just doesn’t, use it.

Phantom chuckles, “well I doubt there’s any surprise here but...”. Phantom trails off as his finger becomes invisible, revealing, to no one surprise, his class.

⚠️ Class: 6

“Yup. Class six alright. Now the question is what crazy strong power you hiding. Cause you’re not exactly old, are you? Heck! You used to look like a teenager! Which really is another oddity about you. Ghosts don’t change so gradually”, that really is something that’s confused Jack for a while. It’s not like ghosts who look young are actually young or “grow up”. Heck, just look at that Youngblood ghost!

“Well, I was a teen! I just grew up”, Jack shakes his head at Phantoms’ smirk, clearly giving away that Phantom is not going to enlighten Jack as to how that’s even possible. “Like I said, Jack. I’m an enigma, an impossible enigma”.

Both of them are looking down at Phantoms’ fingers, covering the last section, “and know this is where things get interesting. So let me just say that however unusual, powerful and important; to you, Amity or the Ghost Zone; you think I am. I am drastically more so. If you do not understand what this means right now and wish to think on it, then feel free to seek me out when you do understand. If you really understand, you will know where to find me”.

As Jack is wondering just what kind of title Phantom could hold to be so enigmatic, Phantom removes his hands entirely; revealing the screen in its entirety.

Title: ghost king

Jack stares down at the screen dumbfounded and utterly confused. Here’s Phantom showing not only the, arguably, most powerful title a ghost should be able to hold but also the same one as his son? Jack was pretty much sure that his sons’ title must have been meaning that he’d become the ghost king upon his death, but this clearly proved that wasn’t the case.

Looking up from the screen to squint at Phantom, before looking back at the screen to make sure it still reads the same thing, “ghost king? How? Can...can there be more than one? Or place holders?... I’m confused”. He feels Phantom pat him on the back, “told you I was much more of a mystery. But to answer your questions. I gained the title by defeating the previous Ghost King, and there can only be one. I am the only one who bears that title unless someone defeats me as well”. While Jack’s pondering how that’s possible, because he has blatantly had two different people show up with that title, Phantom laughs lightly, “but since I’m no lair destroying power crazed madman, it’s doubtful any would try to usurp me from power. I’m pretty well liked, even by those who met me in fights”.

“So you, you think fondly of even those who are clearly a danger, an enemy? And they, of you?”

Jack listens and watches Phantom, a bit stunned as he hears the same words come from Phantoms’ echoy voice as have come from his son many times, “why wouldn’t I? Ghosts, like humans, are not wholly one thing or another. Every bad quality has a good to follow suit. Besides, fighting is just part of how ghosts socialise and come to understand each other”. Jack turns his head to look out across the park as Phantom watches the night sky. Jack’s not sure what he’s thinking but even the grass looks like it’s shifted under the weight of some profound world shifting secret.

“I think...I need to head home and talk to my son, Phantom”

Jack barely hears Phantoms’ reply as he walks off, noting how everything has a slight out of focus blur as he thinks, “yes, I think you do. Something tells me he’ll be up”.

Walking into his home, Jack easily spots his son shoving an overfilled fork of sauceless spaghetti into his mouth. Hearing the clink of his sons' teeth on the fork as he approaches, still a bit dazed.

Standing in the kitchen doorway, with Danny’s back to him, he glances down at the SpookSense’s screen, rereading Phantoms’ results before look back up to his sons’ sitting form. Something tells him, his son knows he’s there but is just waiting for him to speak, so he does, “you were right son, about Phantom”.

Jack can’t help but feel lighter and a bit amused as his son tilts his head backwards and speaks with the fork and noddles stuffed in his mouth, “hmm?”. Jack sits, places the SpookSense on the table and knits his fingers together as Danny’s face follows him with a raised eyebrow. Jack speaks as he taps the screen and looks to his son, “you...and Phantom. You read almost identical”. Images and words filter though Jack’s head, unfiltered, of all the behaviours and things said that are oh so similar of the two Danny’s. Blinking a bit as the lines between who said or did what blur and shift their shapes, “it’s not just that, it’s all identical”. Shaking his head a bit, “no, that’s not quite true. One reserved, one bold. One gentle, one strong. One fades to the background, one stands in front. Like...” Jack trails off not quite sure where his own mind is going, “like...”. Jack blinks and slowly goes wide-eyed as he speaks, while images of shift-shaping and blending blues and greens swirl in his mind, “like to sides of the same thing. The same...”, looking up and whispering at his son, “person”.

Jack’s mind has pretty well completely stalled as he watches a wide smile inch its way across his sons’ face. He can’t help but place the image of Phantoms’ face, from the tree, over top of the mirroring playfully bold smile now plastered on his sons’ face. Not a line of his face, hair or even the slight twinklings of amusement and embarrassment in his eyes; is out of place. Danny chuckles and rubs his neck, glancing away, “and so everything transforms now”.

“How?”, Jack’s not sure why his question earns him a smirk. “Everything transforms or shifts its shape in some way. Sometimes it’s just a bit more...literal”, Danny’s tone is soft, though Jack can sense there’s some nervousness there.

His heads still a fair bit muddled so he repeats himself, “how?”. Scrunching up his face, “you?... and Phantom?”, but then shaking his head a little, “are Phantom?”. Jack watches as Danny nods and rests his chin on his palm, again like Phantom in the tree. Mentally changing out black hair for white, Danny’s doesn’t move with gravity-defying floating but otherwise, “not two but one. One person...how?”. Now Danny looks a bit concerned and Jack realises he must have missed something here, as Danny sort of repeats himself softly, “think werewolves. Shapeshifting. But with ghosts”.

“So you can change into Phantom? How? You’re not a ghost?”, Jack mutters at the table, “is Phantom not ghost? What?”. He feels Danny poke him in the arm so he looks up at Danny’s equal parts amused and slightly worried face, “what are werewolves dad?”.

“Not real?”, Danny bursts out laughing at this. Jack’s glad to hear the laughing though far too confused as Danny wipes at his eyes a bit, “dad, obviously. What I mean is, what are they? What makes someone a werewolf in mythology”.

Jack’s not entirely sure where his son is going with this, “a person being half wolf?”. After a couple seconds though, something dawns on him as he repeats himself rather excitedly, “half ghost? Half ghost!”. Jack watches as his son struggles to hold in a laugh while nodding. While gears are turning in Jack’s head, no wonder his son sets off everything! It all senses ghosts! And he’s one! Sort of one? Part one? Exactly half? Or is it like all ghost and all human but able to switch? Somehow? Whispering at him both confused and excited but with some affection, “what are you?”.

Jack instantly regrets that though, as his son looks rather paranoid and cringes a little, “Danny, your son?”. Jack’s, again, confused by this response and not sure why Danny looks to be boring holes of worry and pleading? into Jack’s face. “Well, of course?”.

Danny facepalming was not the reaction Jack was expecting. Jack’s pretty sure his answer was an obvious one, of course his son is his son. Watching Danny rub his face and noticing that he’s actually blushing a bit, “um yeah, of course. The word’s halfa. Half human and...half ghost”. Jack can practically feel the caution in those last two words, but he’s a bit too excited to really dwell on that. Being a scientist faced with a brand new discovery, not only that but one that solves nearly every mystery he’s ever had about Phantom or, and?, his son. “Are there others?! Like a unique species?! Fusion?! Hybrid?! Could it be genetic?! Or...”, Jack trails off, losing his steam, as his son looks progressively more and more paranoid and stiff.

The two just stare at each other for a bit before Danny looks down and plays with what’s left of his food, with a frown, “I’m not an experiment and I’m not going to be”.

“What? Of course not! You’re family not a... oh.. OH”, Jack can see Danny cringe as Jack remembers how Danny is always avoidant of and off-put by the inventions. How Jack’s been suspicious that some hurt him. And...how he talks about ghosts around his son. Feeling extraordinarily guilty over all the very excitable times he’s gushed over experimenting on them, realising his son probably felt like that included him.

Judging by how his son is clearly looking around at exits and trying to make himself smaller, less of a...target. Jack’s positive he used the wrong words again, putting his hands on the table to hopefully ease his son up some, “you’re family, Danny. And if you’re Phantom then Phantom’s family all the same. Ghost or not”. Jack’s not sure why that makes Danny look more awkward that comforted, as Danny rubs his neck a bit, “yeah, I know. Always did. Glad to hear it though”. Jack decides to wait for his son to talk, but his son apparently has the same idea. As Danny finishes up his food while Jack runs his fingers across the SpookSense, he’s honestly a bit amazed at how right Phantom, his son, was. This little thing had pretty well solved two of the biggest mysteries in his entire life. The oddness of the Danny’s, which turned out to be just one Danny. He’s feeling a bit guilty again, having not noticed. How could he, one of the most ecto-knowledgable people in the world, not realise his own son was one? Half of one? And he hunted him, tried to kill his own son. Jack jerks his head up at Danny, as Danny interrupts his mental self-berating, “I don’t want you to feel bad about the past. It’s ok, it was expected. You never would have or could have done me real harm”. Jack frowns a bit knowing full well that he really had been trying to destroy Phantom, but he doesn’t get a chance to comment on that, as Danny keeps talking, “like I said, I know I’m family. And I know because you’ve found out before. You just don’t remember”.

Jack blinks at that, reminded of his conversation with his son, as Phantom, before, “you said that, earlier. Still confusing, how could I not remember? Heck! How are you even half ghost? you're not...dead?”. Jack’s not sure why that’s funny but he’s glad to have successfully fixed the mood. Even if he still feels guilty, while Danny tilts his head back and laughs, “my deadness is debatable. Half human and half ghost. Half alive and half dead. Sometimes I go with half dead, and other times I go with fully dead and fully alive but at the same time. For all accounts and purposes, my very existence is impossible. I go against the laws of nature. A little impossible enigma, like I said”. Danny shuffles a bit, “and as for the not remembering thing, time is a strange thing. And time travel makes it even weirder. You’ve found out at least three times, I made you and the rest of the world intentionally forget though. Kind of had to, for my own safety”.

This makes Jack clue in that his son has been up to some seriously dangerous stuff, deadly kind of dangerous. But at the same time, his scientific curiosity nags to throw safety out the window. “Ok first off, you shouldn’t be doing such dangerous things. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Phantom get impaled more than once”, Jack can’t really maintain the glaring as he gets a bit excited, though he kind of wants to keep glaring, as his son waves off his worry over his injuries, “second, are you sure about the half-dead thing, what about your organs? Heart? Breathing? If you exist, and are half dead, then clearly it’s possible. But yes it shouldn’t be, so how?”

“I’m durable dad, questionably so. And well no, not really possible. It’s considered factually impossible to be both dead and alive. Those two things are the most mutually exclusive things out there. And yet...”, Danny snickers a bunch to himself, “as for my organs and what not, most function to half the degree they should. My heart beats half as much and pluse is also half. My natural body temp is way below hypothermia. I have no clue if most of my organs even do anything anymore. My heart is pretty well the only organ that I haven’t lost at some point, so they’re all kind of useless. I breathe but I don’t really need to. My bones are just plain confusing, sometimes I have bones and sometimes I don’t”. Danny shrugs, “all very impossible. Not to mention illogical”.

Jack’s a bit shocked by the info dump, though he can’t help but find it amusing that his son obviously checked this stuff, and yeah, it makes pretty well no sense, “how the? How does your human body? Form? State?, maintain itself at all? And I’m still not happy you’re getting hurt so much”. Jack can tell Danny’s getting a good kick out of this now, obviously he finds humour in causing mild confusion. Watching Danny smirk as he responds, “I go with human form and by defying reality and all the known laws of nature? Being able to shape-shift into a ghost is already downright nutty, so makes sense that everything else is weird too”. Danny rubs at his neck and Jack can easily see the rather apologetic look on his face, “it’s really better to not try and figure out just how the hell my body can even function. The other, much older, halfa is a major scientist himself and he hardly knows how this all works. Though he gets the genetics of it to a scary degree”. Jack mutters, “so it is genetic”, before noticing Danny’s rather intense gaze. He can’t help but ponder on how differently Danny’s blue eyes convey an intense stare than his green ones, probably something to do with ghostly energy or maybe it’s because his green ones glow. As Danny is clearly trying to make a point, “don’t worry about the injuries. It’s part of the job, protecting people and Amity, the occasional bigger thing. I expect it, I know how to handle it and wounds aren’t the same for me. I heal from most things in minutes. There’s even a very good chance that I’m flat out indestructible”.

Jack’s not sure whether to find that worrying or to be happy. But he’s pretty sure his son’s exaggerating a bit, he doesn’t even have to say anything though. Since his son is clearly good at reading people, judging by how he comments on Jack’s mild disbelief, “my ghost protects my human and my human protects my ghost. The standing theory is that both sides of me would have to be instantly and simultaneously destroyed otherwise my sides would shield and heal each other in an unending loop. It would be like trying to count to the end of Pi”.

Jack’s surprised that actually makes sense, though still shouldn’t even be possible. Deciding to take his sons advice on not trying to figure it out though. “Wow, well I’d still you rather not get hurt. Speaking of jobs though”, Jack taps on title section of the screen, “do they just not care you’re part human? And something tells me your life is way more complicated than I thought”.

“Halfas are by our very nature stronger than regular ghosts. And ghosts respect strength, so the king being a halfa is actually a source of pride for many. I’m pretty much viewed by them, as a ghost who’s able to exist on the human plane. None really see me as a human, but rather a ghost who can shape-shift into a human”, Jack’s not sure why that’s funny to his son, because Jack finds it concerning. He’s glad his son’s respected but he’s more of a human than ghost, right? While Danny laughs, “just like how every human who knows, views me as a human with ghost powers. CW is really the only one, besides me, who truly sees me as equally both. Which is what I am. I’m not more ghost than human nor more human than ghost. Just like how a coin isn’t more heads than it is tails. It doesn’t matter what side you can see or what side was made first, they’re equal”.

“But you live a mostly human life, right? And you live here, not in the GZ”, Jack feels he doesn’t even need to mention that Danny’s family and friends are all humans. Though he’s certain Danny has ghost friends, which is rather weird.

“I spend most of my time in human form yeah, but what I do as Phantom takes precedence over everything. Phantom’s what I do in life, my purpose. The hero, the protector, the watchful eye, the saviour, the king. There’s not really anything human I could do that would ever be more important, so lifestyle wise; I’m more ghost than human”, he knows his sons’ got a point there, even if he doesn’t really like it. Danny was human first, had a human life first; this ghost stuff was just forced on him, wasn’t it? But he lets his son finish before commenting on that, “I guess while I view myself as equally both species, I don’t really hold them at equal weighing. I know if I had to choose, I’d choose ghost every time. I could begrudgingly tolerate being full ghost, but I couldn’t tolerate being full human again”. Jack can tell that Danny knew he wouldn’t be happy to hear that, even if he does like the rare honesty from his son. Jack really can’t grasp how anyone would rather be a ghost than human, even if they had powers. It makes him a bit worried that his son’s power-hungry or that his mind has been altered by all of this. Which now that he thinks about, of course his sons’ mind has been altered; it would actually be really weird if it hadn’t. “You like the power of it that much? Which I guess the ghost aspects of your mind would. I’m not sure how you couldn’t resent something forced on you though”, Danny looks a bit confused but apparently figured out whatever was confusing him, judging by the slightly embarrassed smile.

“Becoming half ghost was unintentional in the beginning yeah. But the accident that made me a halfa actually got reversed at one point and as soon as I found out I intentionally made it happen again. So I chose it ultimately. And while yes, I like the power, it is rather useful. It’s what I do with that power, that I wouldn’t be able to tolerate giving up. Fighting ghosts, protecting people, resolving ghost skirmishes, teaching and guiding new generations of either species, occasionally saving the world. It’s who I am, failing to be that would destroy me, not literally”.

Jack’s honestly a bit in awe at how mature his son is now. It’s pretty clear he’s thought about this too, Jack still doesn’t really like it though. Even if he’s glad his son is clearly proud and happy with it, “you could do that human, but...I guess you couldn’t do it the same. Could you?”. Danny shakes his head a little sadly, “no. I really do need my ghost everything. CW likes to say I’m an old soul who could only ever exist as a guardian. A guardian to both sides of the world and the world needs me that way. Though I wish it would stop reminding me of that”. Jack finds it a bit amazing how Danny makes this all sound so mundane, “so the “saving the world” thing, was pretty literal then. And I’m going to guess this “CW” is a friend? Ghost friend?”.

Danny’s knowing smirk makes it clear to Jack that he’s right, before Danny even opens his mouth, “you have no idea. One second GIW idiots are trying to blow up the entire Ghost Zone, which would also destroy the earth by the way. The next second some future jerk destroys almost all of humanity and ghosts. And then on Tuesday some moron releases a chemical weapon into the earth's core. Some times I swear, the world actively wants to be destroyed”. Even Jack can’t help but laugh, “well thanks then!”. Danny humorously stabs his finger on the table and chuckles, “I’ve got my licks in too though. Had to stop my future self from destroying everything no less than three times. And that’s why the Observants hate me, too much power they say. Which they’re not really wrong about, but I don’t like them either so”. Jack’s not really concerned by that, since it’s pretty obvious his son’s overpowered. Throwing in shapeshifting just makes him more so. Plus there’s no way his heart of gold son, would ever intentionally destroy the world. He’s practically still a kid, he’s going to mess up; even if his mess ups, apparently, have major consequences.

“And CW, or ClockWork as he's actually called, is more than a friend and more than some ghost. He’s my mentor, might as well be family really. He’s one of the only ghosts who can truly hold a candle to me power wise. He’s a guardian, so to speak, himself. He controls time itself and is responsible for making sure the time-stream doesn’t get damaged or destroyed. I watch over earth and zone, he watches over time, and the Observants watch over existence. We all do jobs for each other sometimes, though both me and CW make a point to annoy the hell out of the Observants if they ask us to do anything”. Jack’s not sure if he feels more impressed or worried about his son intentionally pissing off clearly powerful ghosts. But if his son sees this ClockWork guy as like family, then he wants to meet him. Though wait a second, “did you just imply you’re the most powerful ghost?”.

Now Danny just looks embarrassed, “technically, I am. But CW’s power is basically a real-life ultimate cheat code. There’s no real way to win against him in genuine, which is why he has restraints and rules pretty much binding him. He can’t act or interfere unless absolutely necessary for the sake of the time-stream, existence or reality. On top of that, he’s got a bit of a trump card on me as he’s actually responsible for me. He majorly cheated so I could exist and continue existing; if he wanted to, he could just erase me from existence”.

Jack doesn’t even get a chance to voice how much he does not like that and how he’s officially not so ok with this ClockWork guy. As Danny waves off his worry, “CW has a massive soft spot for me. And he can see every single possible future, the only way he’d erase me is if there was absolutely no possible future wherein I didn’t need to be. In which case, I’d fully agree with his choice and actions. And he knows that, so chances are he’d give me a heads up. Everyone calls me a self-sacrificial idiot for a reason”.

Jack’s still not impressed, at all, “there’s nothing you could say to make me ok with that son. And this guy has way too much power”.

“And I don’t? All power needs checks in place. CW’s restraints are his and CW is mine. I’ve seen what happens if I don’t have him and it’s majorly bad. Likewise, CW doesn’t do well alone. Two overpowered weirdos with odd senses of humour need a brother in arms. And if you think my death jokes are bad, listen to his time ones”, it’s kind of hard for Jack to be bothered now, what with Danny’s mischievous snickering, that looks to be verging on flat out laughter.

Blinking, Jack realises this is the most he’s seen his son laugh in months, maybe even years. Well, as a human anyway. Which is more than enough to make him decide that all of this was a good thing, that his son being this way is a good thing, and that ClockWork might really be good for him. Though he’s not sure he could handle being around two pun machines, “you’ve got a point there son. And I guess I can’t find this bad, since it clearly makes you happy. You never laugh or smile this much”.

Danny rubs his neck awkwardly, “well, a good chunk of my Fenton time is spent keeping things a secret and maintaining appearances. Plus I’ve made a bit of a show of Phantom being a jokester, I can’t have Fenton acting the same as Phantom. In just the same way, I overact the whole “hero” thing as Phantom. No one can see Phantom ever appearing weak, so I make sure they don’t”, gesturing to himself, “so only those who know what I am, really get to see who I really am as a person. Which I realise is kind of shitty but it’s out of necessity, not me being mean or anything. My sides have to be separate to the public and any who don’t know. But who I am as a person, is both. So I guess, you’re kind of meeting me, the real me, for the first time in a very long time. Uh, sorry?”.

Jack knows kids often hide part of themselves from family so he’s not really bothered by that. More bothered that his son is way too grown up and clearly has been for a while, “what even was your childhood?”.

Danny blinks, Jack’s guessing that was not the response Danny was expecting, “most kids wildest dream? I’m a literal superhero, that’s most kids greatest fantasy. Sure it’s serious and painful but I enjoy it. Always did. When I first changed, I pretty well hated being half ghost and I wanted to be normal again. But one real ghost fight and I was in love. Saying everything clicked into place is cliche, but very true”. Snickering now, “who knew hundreds of pounds of cooked meat would be what slapped destiny into my face. Well, that and the Fenton Thermos. Which literally slammed into my face”. Jack can’t help but laugh a bit himself, “that is ridiculous. Still though, kids are supposed to play around and goof off”.

“Sneaking into the girls bathroom, prank wars, jumping inside of video games, pelting the Box Ghost with styrofoam circles. I’ve goofed around plenty, still actively do. My mundane fun is just a bit more ghostly”, Danny pauses as Jack yawns, which is apparently funny to Danny, “my fun is also a lot more used to sleep deprivation”. Jack really doesn’t care that he’s tired, this is way better than sleeping. He’s tolerated lost sleep in the name of science plenty of times and he’s far more willing to do the same for family. “The biggest mystery of my life just got solved and you’re being, well, you! That’s worth some missed sleep Danny-boy”.

“I’m not going anywhere, dad. I’ll be here tomorrow for you to pepper questions at. And the day after that, and the next, and so on. Though everyone could use some reality-defying before bed”, Jack’s not really sure what Danny’s thinking or why he’s smirking like a devil. A face he’s all too used to seeing on Phantom, and yeah Danny’s right, if his sides or forms acted the same he’d get caught. His sons’ goofy grin and how he’s lazily resting his chin in his palm makes it seem more like he’s talking to Phantom. But that kind of makes Jack feel good, it means his son is happier than he used to think. He was just pushing his joking nature and silly side all onto Phantoms’ persona. Which leaves him wondering which persona is more accurate to the real Danny, he’s got a gut feeling that Phantom is closer.

“I’m not sure what’s got you grinning like that, but I’m glad to see the humour!”, Jack chuckles to make it clear, cause really he just wants a happy son. Even if he has to be the pretty well strangest thing in the world to be happy.

“I’m a funny man. A funny punny man. A shockingly shapeshifting one at that”, well at the very least, Phantoms’ humour is a real Danny thing. And yeah, Jack still finds it admirable, “I can see, now anyway. But I guess that means you really are ok. Though I hope to see a lot more of my son, the real one”. Jack’s almost a bit excited to know how much of Phantoms’ over the top personality is actually real, but he’s also a bit sad over missing out on it over the past years. Danny obvious is a bit guilty about that even if he clearly is still finding something quite amusing, “Oh you will, mind you, old habits die hard. Even if dying comes pretty naturally to me. I do it all the time and I’m damn flashy about it”. Jack squints at that, which prompts Danny to talk again, “Death jokes, lots of death jokes. My whole shapeshifting thing is basically dying on command, so how could I not?”. Jack has to admit his sons’ got a point there. Ghosts are dead and he literally becomes a ghost. Still weird to know his son is partly dead or only sometimes alive. However it works. Yawning again as Danny glances at him, clearly a bit nervous but also snickering, “so, care to see? Insult the laws of reality by bearing witness to a dose of half death before bed?”. Jack’s confused for only a few seconds before clueing, smacking the table and nodding excitedly. Danny runs a hand through his hair before drawing Jack’s attention to his waist by pointing. Jack quickly gets the “flashy” comment at the sight of the pretty darn bright rings. Instantly curious as to what the hell they're made of. Some kind of ghost energy? Ectoplasm? Or is there literally life or death energy? Human cells? Even more stunned as his son literally shape-shifts body parts as the rights spread over him, while looking like this is utterly natural and easy to do the whole time. Which Jack guesses, probably is easy and natural to his son now. Zone knows how many times he must do this in one day, let alone over the years!

Jack can’t help but chuckle a bit as Danny instantly starts floating, Danny rubs his neck, “yeah the floating is automatic, which is actually very convenient. And I can change the position or direction of my rings. Up and down, side to side, make mini ones over my limbs. Managed to change a couple times without the rings at all. And before you ask, they’re composed from my cores energy”.

“Core! Not a lot of ghosts have those! That’s like a whole new organ! Half ghost core? Half of a core?”, cores are a pretty unique thing, Jack really didn’t know a lot about them. He figured Phantom had one but there’s no real good way to check those out without dissection and no way is he even considering going there, not now. Danny pats at his chest, “all halfas have one, snuggled up next to our hearts; mine’s an ice core. Hence my cold body temperature and ice powers. A core has to be formed with a mixture of ghost and human DNA to be able to make the halfa rings. My core is complete and fully mature, so it’s not literally half of a core”.

“Why would every halfa have one? Does being part human make them easier to form? And I guess your core is a constant then? You’re always cold to the touch, not just as Phantom”, snapping his fingers, “that’s why your breath fogs up! A ghost being around makes your core act up!?”. Jack’s flat out proud that Danny looks impressed as he nods, “that’s exactly right, a chill passes through my entire body and yes, both my core and heart are there regardless of form. As for why all halfas have them, you’re pretty close. Halfas are more stable ghosts, have more stable ectoplasm, because of the support of our human side. Stable ectoplasm is what makes it possible for a core to develop”. Danny’s snickering again but Jack’s too curious to care why, “if I’m near seizure inducingly flashy, I can actually make my core visible while shapeshifting. Other ghosts find that mildly terrifying”. Jack hopes he doesn’t even have to mention he wants to see that, his son is clearly good at reading people, so him excitedly clapping Danny’s shoulders should be more than enough. Clearly, it was and his son wasn’t kidding, this is hard to look at. Like his son just became a black void with an intense light blue light in his chest. Blinking a bunch at his, human again, son, “wow that is bright. Not too mention big, how does that even fit in there?”. Danny laughs, “well some of the bright light is literally just energy coming off of my core, so it’s not that big. It’s around the same size as my heart and my heart sits a fair bit more to the left than a regular humans, to make room for my core. Like you saw, my core’s in the exact centre. And my lungs just move around it”. It’s pretty obvious to Jack that his son likes his core, as Danny pats his chest rather affectionately, “you know how you can feel your heartbeat or hear it if you pay attention? Well, cores have something like a humming and faint vibrating”. Jack tries his damnedest to stifle a yawn, full stop his son is probably the only way he’ll ever learn about cores. Clearly, he didn’t do a good enough job, as Danny puts his hands on his hips playfully, “if I let you hear it, will you go to bed?”. Jack’s way to excited to say no even if he would far prefer to keep talking through the night, “ok ok, yes. But you knew cores were something of a complete mystery to me didn’t you?”. Judging by Danny’s smirk, Jack’s right, not really surprised though.

“It was my get-dad-to-actually-sleep trump card, yes”, Jack gapes a bit incredulously as his son just phases a stethoscope out of the table. Realising Danny must have put that there before Jack even got home, “and I thought you were good at reading people before. Do you just hide stuff in things all over the house?”. Jack takes the stethoscope while Danny blushes, obviously, he has been doing that. “Lets just say, you should warn me if you ever hire someone to do major house Reno’s. Unless you want to really confuse and possibly scare them. Especially my room”, Jack’s laugh turns into a yawn as he waves the stethoscope a little. A bit caught off guard as his son changes again, “it’s more noticeable when I’m a ghost”.

That makes total sense to Jack so he puts it to his chest and yeah, no wonder Danny refuses doctor check-ups. The deep powerful hum, like being inside a massive cave with drum reverberations all around, is very noticeable. It’s honestly eerie and the occasional deep solid thump, which Jack is assuming is Danny’s deathly slow heartbeat, only makes it more creepy. Perfectly suiting for a strong ghost, really weird to hear from his own sons’ chest though. Pulling back, “that might just give a doctor a heart attack, sounds strong though. Which I’m assuming is a good thing?”.

Danny laughs a bit, “the school nurse hounds me because I never let her give me checkups ever. And yes that’s a good thing. Soft or quieter core means I’m hurt, bad. Just like a weak pulse”. Glancing at his sons’ hand, as Danny pokes him with a gloved glowing finger, “so now you sleep. With the sound of my impossible existence in your head”. Speaking of sound though, “people can hear their pulse and heartbeat hammering in their head when they really exert themselves! Your core?!”.

“Dad, bed. But yes, if I exert a bunch of ectoplasmic energy”, Jack was going to comment but Danny is clearly having none of that and uses a powerful commanding, and very Phantom, tone, “bed”.

Jack will admit it’s pretty hard to say no to him whenever he uses that tone on people, especially with the echoy power laced in his voice. So he nods and rubs the back of his head a bit embarrassed at his son pretty much playing the role of parent here, “alright, but that’s a heck of a voice you’ve got”. Danny chuckles as he follows Jack up the stairs, “you have no idea”.

End.

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