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little-pondhead · 2 years ago

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The Phantom And The Chimera

[TW: Bugs. Lots of bugs.

"Example" = verbal speech

"Example" = mind speech

"Example" = ghost speech

Example = thoughts/ASL

I don't know which version of the YJ this is; I'm just throwing things into the void and hoping they stick.]

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“CHIMERA! THE WEST SIDE NEEDS HELP!” Kid Flash screamed as he zoomed by, wielding the world’s largest butterfly net. Chimera, or Dani as she liked to be called, spat out a string of creative curses as the wind whipped her loose hair around, blinding her momentarily.

“I’M A LITTLE BUSY!” She screamed back, voice raw. Fire breath wasn’t one of her natural ghost abilities; it always took a noticeable toll on her when she used it. She was a little worried that soon, she wouldn’t be able to use it all. The battle was dragging on far too long, and soon Dani knew her teammates would start to fall. Ancients, why did she let them come on this mission?! Dani didn’t have room to fight, to grow. This whole thing could have been over by now if she had space to properly throw hands. But Danny had drilled it into her head not to go all out when humans were around. Not only did they find the supernatural instinctively creepy, but the destruction a halfa could cause was astronomical. It simply wasn’t safe, and Dani wasn’t strong enough to create shields like her original could. So this is what she gets for learning how to breathe fire, Dani guessed.

Sparks crackled at the back of her throat as Dani inhaled again. Despite not needing to breathe, oxygen was the key to creating fire, so she put her lungs to work regardless of the ash in the air. Something in her core shifted until she felt a little click in her jaw, and suddenly, a white flame was spilling past her lips. She pursed her lips to narrow the flame and aimed straight at the source of her frustration. The giant bullet ant clacking its mandibles at her, screamed and dissolved into a thick pile of fresh ash.

Shit, I’m going to fucking kill Undergrowth. Dani thought, panting. Even if the Ancient had nothing to do with the enlarged and exotic insects currently besieging half of Ohio, she wanted to slap him anyways. It was all hands on deck for this disaster, and really, Dani just wanted it to be done and over with. If only her template was here, then maybe it’d be over faster.

“STILL NEED HELP!” Wally zoomed by once more, his net filled to the brim with bright red butterflies that Dani instinctually knew were toxic as hell. She shivered, not bothering to reply to the teen since he was miles away by now. Instead, she cracked her neck, took one more breath, and promptly leaped hundreds of feet into the air, straight towards their group in the west. The sky was absolutely filled with flying bugs of all kinds. Butterflies, moths, hornets, bees, flies, and mosquitos were all buzzing around her in a frantic rage. It made Dani feel like she was stuck inside some sort of beehive. More than one thin feeler tried to grab her, but Dani let loose another mighty blast of fire, making herself a tunnel through the bugs so she could stick her landing.

Why didn’t she fly, you may ask? Using her ghost abilities in her human form was limiting. Sue her.

However, Dani still knew how to control her descent even without the aid of flight. She demonstrated this by twisting to the right and landing right on the head of another bullet ant with a resounding squish! Ant bits flew everywhere. Superboy, AKA Conner (her boyfriend), just glared at her as he wiped off goop from his face.

“You couldn’t have done that sooner?” He asked, deadpan. “We’re a little overrun here.”

Dani just giggled silently and signed, I’m here now, darling. Isn’t that enough?

Conner shook his head and helped her step out of the ant carcass. “Well, it’s not like anyone is seriously hurt yet. Is your voice okay?”

Yeah, I’m just tapped out on fire breath for now. We’ll have to commit arson the old-fashioned way.

“You mean the most romantic way?” Conner nudged Dani’s shoulder, chuckling at the renewed light in her eyes. Dani was all about showing affection whenever she could, even in the middle of a battle. And if Conner was turning this into a sudden date, she wouldn’t complain. So without another thought, Dani and Conner leaped back into the fray, trying to make up for the lack of numbers through sheer determination and torches fashioned from an ant’s leg and Dani’s hoodie sleeve. They danced around each other like they’d been fighting together for years, not a couple of months, covering the other’s blind spots and becoming a whirlwind of destruction. Dani pulled on her core more, firing thin ectoblasts with a scary accuracy and severing the heads off of ants and beetles. Conner kept the space above them clear and frequently met insects head-on in the air as they swooped toward the earth.

Eventually, the pair stumbled across Miss Martian, who was on the verge of being overwhelmed, both mentally and physically.

“Chimera!” She cried when she spotted them, breaking down into thick tears. Dani darted forward to punch a giant ladybug, sending the damn thing flying back.

“It’s okay, M’gann!” Conner shouted, tackling a locust out of the way. “We’ll handle this!”

“They are all so angry.” M’gann sobbed, collapsing into Dani’s arms. “I just-”

“M’gann.” Dani focused hard on projecting her thoughts, and luckily, the telepath picked up on it and connected to her mind. “You’re going to be okay. Here, I got some extra earplugs. Take them for now.” She awkwardly used one hand to fish out the little yellow pack of disposable earplugs she always carried in her pocket and helped the martian put them in her ears. It didn’t help much with the mental noise, but it did help dampen the noise from the battle. Hopefully, it was enough for M’gann to regain control over herself. Dani heard a skittering noise from behind her, and without looking, she shot an ectoblast over her shoulder, demolishing whatever had tried to sneak up on them.

M’gann sniffed but did her best to calm herself quickly. “I’m sorry, everything just got to me for a moment.”

“It’s fine, girl. That’s why you have teammates, right?” M’gann gave Dani a shaky smile. “Now, while Conner is busy being our knight in shining bug guts, can you pinpoint the source of their anger? There must be a hivemind behind this mess.”

“I’ll try. Give me a moment.” Dani nodded and stood up, returning to punching ugly insect faces while M’gann focused.

“ ‘Knight in shining bug guts’? Really?” Conner gave her a nasty side-eye. He did, in fact, have bug guts smeared all over his body.

Dani gave him a shark-like smile and returned to crunching hard exoskeletons under her fist. Aqualad joined them at some point, informing the group that Robin had been pulled out by Batman due to injuries, and was instead directing their backup toward the battle.

Like it’s not already all over the news. Dani thought ruefully. She could hear the helicopters hovering just outside the bug zone, taking live videos for all the world to see.

After several moments, a ripple of something itched at the back of Dani’s brain, and she easily let M’gann into the surface of her mind to establish a larger mind link. “I’ve discovered the source of the hive.” The Martian informed the group.

“Fucking finally!” Wally cheered through the link. His faint voice indicated how far away he was, and sure enough, moments later everyone shivered as he left the range of the mind link and his presence disappeared with a twang!

“Report, Miss Martian.” Even in the mind link, Batman’s voice was gruff and dominating.

M’gann grunted as she scrambled upright, trying to stay with the group. The other three focused on creating a ring around her so she could relay information properly. “These are Earth-born insects, pushed to rage and enlarged using means I am not familiar with. The hivemind traces back to a small grove of trees just north of here. The trees themselves are controlling all these bugs and seem to be fueling this blind rage.”

Someone’s link stuttered in shock. “Trees?” Kauldr’ahm voiced what everyone was thinking. “How can trees be behind all of this?”

“What kind of trees are they?” Conner added on.

M’gann was quiet for a moment. “I am unable to attain that information. I’m too unfamiliar with Earth’s flora and fauna to figure out which one it is. The trees are semi-sentient, however. They just keep repeating a few words.”

“What are they?”

“Er…give me a moment. I’ll try to broadcast what they’re saying.”

A sick, slimy feeling over Dani as M’gann opened her senses even more. They didn’t connect to the trees directly since that might compromise the mind link and, by extension, the heroes themselves. But even with M’gann as a buffer, the absolute stench of rot rolling off the trees' minds was so horrific that Dani almost threw up. She was sure she would have if she was any closer to the grove and unprepared. She wanted to cut off the connection immediately, to burn the whole battlefield no matter what damage it did to her throat, and then scrub at her skin with boiling hot water until it was peeling. But Dani had more control than that. So she stayed quiet, silently gagging as the mind of the trees pressed against her own. It was like a creeping rot, trying to suck up all she had to offer.

“Pando.” The trees whispered. “Rot. Help. Pain. Pando. Pain. Rot. Pando. Pando rots. The rot. No. Pando rots. No. Pando. Pain. Help. No. No. No. Help. Earth. Help. Undergrowth. Help. The rot. Help. No-”

Looks like Dani got to beat up Undergrowth after all.

M’gann suddenly flinched back from the mind of the trees as if burned. Physically, she was sweating from the effort and shaking worse than a leaf in a strong wind.

"Isn't Pando that giant super organism of aspens in Utah?" Conner asked, bewildered. "What is it doing all the way here in Ohio?"

A sudden new presence gently forced its way into the mind link, startling everyone before they could discuss anything more.

“Well, I'm not sure what super organism you're talking about, but I do know another one of those words.” Mused a very familiar voice. “Undergrowth is a huge nature freak of the highest order. I’m not surprised this is his doing.”

Batman let his displeasure be known. “Phantom, if you know-”

“DANNY?!” Dani screeched into the mind link, not minding the flinches of those around her.

There was a heavy pause, and then, “Holy shit, Dani? Is that you??”

“You bet your momma’s living fudge it’s me!”

“What the fuck. What are you doing here?? Where are you???”

“I’m with the west group right now. Why-” Danny suddenly left the mind link, making her blink. “Okay, damn. Guess he wanted to say hi in person.” That last part wasn’t meant for the others to hear, but of course, questions started pouring in like water through a sieve, so she disconnected too.

It was easy to find Danny’s core. Even as a human, Dani would always be able to find what was hers. Danny was hers, and she was Danny’s. They were the same, yet completely different people. Stretching out her senses after so long felt nice. Her core was already singing by the time it had connected with Danny’s, which greedily sang back. She hummed, deep and low in her chest, standing proud and tall as Danny came in, speeding like a rocket. She jumped last minute to meet him mid-air in a crushing hug.

“Moonshine!” Danny gushed, spinning her around with no regard for the bugs closing in on them. Ope, never mind. A glowing green dome appeared over the group, easily blocking the horde of insects from reaching them.

“Danny!” She trilled. Since her vocal cords were still damaged from her fire breathing, ghost speech was the most convenient way for her to talk. And now that a fellow ghost was here, why should she limit herself to human languages? Her original caught on immediately and started cooing back at her, sounding like a breaking glacier.

“Moonshine, what are you doing here? Are you okay?” Danny frantically tried checking her over with a concerned eye, but Dani just batted his hands away with a fierce blush.

“I’m fine, Danny! I just lost my voice for a bit. And didn’t I tell you I joined Young Justice?”

Danny shook his head. “What?! No! You only told me you got a crush and that you would try to get closer to him. You were pretty determined about it.”

Dani shrugged, pointing at a very confused Conner. “Ah, oops. That determination led me to join the YJ, and now I’m dating said crush. His name is Conner; he’s a clone, like me.”

Conner suddenly found himself under the very fierce gaze of one powerful Phantom, who seemed to know his girlfriend very well. All he could do was swallow and wave awkwardly, hoping the bug guts (still) on his face didn’t change the hero’s opinion of him. Conner was a smart guy. He knew his girlfriend was a clone of someone powerful, just like he was. He didn’t know exactly who she was a clone of, and he never bothered to ask. They’d only been dating a few months, after all. But seeing her right next to Phantom, the mysterious new Leaguer who could easily defeat Superman, Conner’s own template, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together. While Dani had pitch-black hair and stormy blue eyes and Phantom had snow-white hair and toxic green eyes, he could easily spot the resemblance between them. The same upturned nose, high cheekbones, and inhumanly large eyes all pointed toward Phantom being his girlfriend’s DNA donor. They even floated the same, with their knees slightly bent and arms ready to block at a moment’s notice. Now only if he could understand what they were saying.

Danny sniffed and turned back towards his kid sister. “Isn’t he Supes’ kid?”

“Yeah.”

“I approve. This will piss off big blue so much. The only thing you could have done better was date one of Bat’s kids.”

“Ewww, no!” Dani threw a sluggish punch at Danny’s arm. “Not only does that entire family reek of rotten ectoplasm, but their dad is a creepy stalker who has beef with a clown. He’s weird. I bet he’s even hounding Miss Martian right now about what’s going on.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” Danny looked down and gave M’gann a thumbs up. “Tell Batsy we’ll handle this! I flew over the horde earlier, and most heavy hitters are concentrated in an abandoned field up north. So there should be plenty of room for us to go ham ‘n cheese on a few magic trees.”

“Oh, thank the Ancients.” Dani sighed. “I wouldn’t have been able to handle this without you. Too many squishy humans are around, and I can’t make shields like you can.”

“I’m sure you would have been fine, kiddo.” Danny chirped a few times and gave her a noogie, making Dani indignantly squawk. “Come on, do you want to go as that or change?”

“Mmmm.” Dani hummed, giving her teammates a quick appraising look. “I’ll change once we’re far enough away. You’ll have to carry me till then, I can’t fly very well like this.”

Danny obliged, allowing the little gremlin to climb on his back as he slowly expanded the barrier around them, ready to take off immediately. “Have you been staying in your human form this whole time? You might be out of practice.”

“I might be.” Dani sighed and laid her head against Danny’s back. They shot into the air, breaking the barrier and zooming through the swarm of bugs so fast their wind trail made insects tumble from the sky. “They know me as Chimera here. Since I have a lot of Vlad’s features, I can pass myself off as one when they ask about some of my abilities. I also had Dora teach me to fire breathing and-Oh! I gotta show you how good I am at ecto-blasts now! I can get them so small they can pass through the long end of a straw. It’s really fun. And-”

Danny smiled as his youngest sister rambled on about everything she wanted to show him. Despite their sparse virtual communication, it was easy to get lost in a conversation when they were together. Even in the middle of a battle! Just two ADHD halfas info dumping about their lives to each other before splitting and forgetting to text each other for six months. It was a system that worked for them, and he wouldn’t change it for the world.

“-Oh, and by the way.” Dani flicked his forehead to make sure he was paying attention.

“Hmm?”

“Why are you even here? It didn’t sound like you knew Undergrowth was involved until Miss Martian linked us to the trees.”

Danny blinked, coming to a slow stop. “I never told you? I joined the Justice League last month.”

“Ancients, Danny.” Groaning, Dani slipped off her brother’s back and transformed mid-air, giving him a sour scowl. The grove of trees they needed to nuke was a few dozen feet below, twisted and grasping at the air with sharp branches. The stench of rot was so pungent both halfas just simply had to stop breathing. Undergrowth knew they were there; Dani just rolled her eyes, ignoring the whipping branches. “You’re such a hypocrite!”

“Oops?”

---

[This is just a one-shot but if someone wants to add to where I left off, I would be most grateful. I'm just clearing out my drafts right now and don't have the energy to write an actual fight scene.]

Honestly, I think the funniest way to go about a dpxdc crossover with Danny and Dani is for Dani, during her wanderings around the world joins the Young Justice team. And then Danny is recruited to the Justice League. Neither of them have any clue the other has joined a superhero team until the Justice League and Young Justice happen to run into each other on a (very) chaotic mission, and as soon as Danny and Dani spot each other they start screaming something in an eldritch language in excitement at each other, hug, and then take down whatever Big Bad is threatening everyone in ten seconds flat. Then they refuse to explain how they know each other, because it’s funnier that way

#pondhead writes #danny phantom #danny phantom crossover #i am tired sue me #which version of the YJ is this?#lol idk #danielle fenton #danny fenton #dani and danny the disaster children #they are siblings here your honor #uhh what's conner and dani's ship name #found it :)#two nickels ship #dani x conner #dpxdc

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