#“oh what if some amity parkers relocated to gotham because the giw got worse and everyone was liminal after pariah” i thought

[recycledraccoon]

Ghost King/No Man Land-esc Au where after everyone got dragged into the Realms, everyone is pretty darn liminal, and now a year later the GIW has drastically escalated. Essentially trapping the entire town, and the GIW maintains a border with...lethal force.

Tucker/Technus and other Amity Hackers manage to get news of Gotham being legally declared not part of the US (they can get outside news via relay in ghost zone, but cant send anything out, and the GIW has Amity Information Locked Down Tight).

This results in a fairly insane plan to just...move. Pariah Dark managed to move Amity after all, and DANNY'S technically the new Ghost King soooooo-

Anyway, the whole of Amity Park is Danny's haunt, and now he's got a significant power boost, so through a combination of Ghost Powers and Fenton Brand Science, they manage to bring the whole town BACK into the ghost zone, where preparations are being made rapidly to the city for self-sufficiency while calculations for reentry are being done, both for placing the city itself along the coast, and to deal with the water displacement.

During this time, thanks to Clockworks manipulation for this timeline, Dan is freed and started his reformation journey (ala GiT), tho unfortunately for Dan, Danny, and Dani, the Fenton Parents and Vlad have had it out with each other and somehow ended up in a polycule?? So there's that. Dan becomes Jordan, Dani switches to Ellie, and are officially brought into the full family fold.

As soon as they finish targeting their reentry, the ENTIRETY OF AMITY reappears as an island off the coast of Gotham, but still within the legal borders to be considered as in No Mans Land.

So now the Fenton Parents are busy leading the charge, turning all their energy away from Ghost Research (it's still a passion, tho they understand where they were wrong prior) to finishing Amity Park's ocean&ecto power generators and water filtration & supply.

Vlad meanwhile, takes his immense wealth (which, of course he had navigated safely away as to not have it seized by the US & GIW) to start making outreaches into Gotham. Luther is already laying ground work, but if Gotham ever rejoins the US this will all have been pointless so Vlad has to do what he can to stop that from happening, and it starts with providing resources to the people.

So now, not only does the Batfam have to deal with trying to protect Gotham following, essentially, it's destruction, but also an ENTIRE NEW CITY along it's coast, and whatever they're going to be bringing into the city. Batfam are confused and Very Very Stressed.

Fenton Parents work on Amity's energy and water sources, with the end goal of self sufficiency with enough excess to extend to Gotham. Jazz helps her parents, since everyone knows how the Fenton couple can get and having a 'translator' around helps with the delegation of work.

Vlad works on using his wealth to get outside resources into the hands of Gotham citizens, and Ellie helps him with delivery aspects. Once the Fenton's are done he'll be able to use those utilities in his dealings. He's hoping to find political allies, and the remains of the Wayne company would be immense if he could get that company, that FAMILY, on his side.

Jordan (Dan) keeps anyone stupid enough to try to get into Amity unauthorized and with bad intentions out. He's essentially the City's guard dog. (He won't let his family die again. The twerp can take care of himself, but Jazz and the Fentons are within Amity and he's keeping them safe by keeping the city safe.)

Danny as Phantom meanwhile, does his best to make himself busy with cleanup and temporary rebuilding. Unmeltable ghost ice as it turns out, is a great temp solution for putting buildings back together like weird jigsaw puzzles. (A few rogues do try to bother him, whom he fights when he has to, and redirects when he can. Mr. Freeze for instance, can be pacified by basically throwing him and his frozen wife at Frostbite and his healers in The Far Frozen.)

Tucker meanwhile, is connecting with Gotham hackers and eventually finds Oracle, and the two start working together on the cities communications, with occasional help from Technus. (Now that the Fenton couple aren't trying to catch ghosts, Technus is very interested in what they're doing with tech over in Amity. After all as long as he's not causing trouble and helping, Danny won't toss him back in the Zone.)

Sam finds out about Poison Ivy and is on a war path to get her to come to Amity to help with the cities new Green initiatives. Turning the whole dang city into a food forest will be much easier with a plant-based meta helping.

By time Lex Luther is trying to finalize bringing Gotham back into the US, they say no. Gotham has universal free power and water, great strides are being made in cleaning the pollution and trash from the city and surrounding waters. The City is being slowly being rebuilt with materials bought and smuggled in by Vlad and Ellie, and Danny has stabilized what can't be rebuilt yet with his ice. Oracle and Tucker's cooperation is eventually what gets the Batfam into talks with the Amity Parkers beyond rooftop interrogation attempts, and then brings the Wayne company into help the political moves Vlad is making to get a power structure in Gotham who can actually make treaties with Amity Park. Even more critically, the combined efforts helped Gotham reach out to other countries for things like trade and alliances, and thus getting outside political support as they announce Gotham&Amity becoming they're own small country.

Gotham's still crime filled and bat shit crazy since the city itself is cursed as all hell, and ghosts still come through the Fenton Portal from time to time to cause trouble/enjoy a fight with one of the Phantoms, but overall life is better for everyone except perhaps, the US Government and the GIW.

Things to do with Jack and Maddie without them being abusive

As someone who actually likes Jack and Maddie as characters (I'm a fervent shipper of Maddie/Jack/Vlad), it's a real bummer to see so many people out there deciding that for their DPxDC AUs that Jack and Maddie are abusive, when that really doesn't represent how they are in canon. Now I fully acknowledge that doing this can be a very useful tool for telling certain types of stories, and if you want to make a story about recovering from abuse and finding a new found family, all the more power to you for that! But for any other type of story where them being abusive isn't necessary for the backstory of the story you want to tell... It's just a bummer to do that, y'know? If you don't want to tell a story with Jack and Maddie in it, that's entirely fine! I'm not asking you to. But there are ways to get rid of them without making them abusive or dying. Of the two, I personally would prefer them dying (I just like the story potential of that, especially as far as Vlad is concerned). But there are plenty of easy things to do with them to keep them out of the story that don't require them being abusive or dead! So I'm here to give a list of things that can happen to them (that have precedent within either Danny Phantom itself or the DC universe) that keep them out of the story that don't require much explanation as well as some other ideas for what you can do with them if you have no idea what to do with them otherwise.

Lots of ideas under the cut! (Feel free to take what you want. As always, credit is appreciated, but not necessary. But I would love to see what you do with it!)

If you need them permanently absent so that Danny can get adopted

Fell into the Ghost Zone and cannot be found.

They are gone for whatever reason and Jazz is currently Danny's legal guardian (she's 18 or older and is therefore a legal adult).

While in the Ghost Zone, they accidentally traveled through time/got transported somewhere where they can't get home easily.

They got severely Joker gassed and are in medical care. (This is actually what happened to Duke's parents!)

They got severely Scarecrow gassed and are in medical care.

Went insane for some supervillain-related reason and are now missing/in medical care.

They were kidnapped by a villain for some reason.

They were kidnapped by a villain and are currently in a lotus-eaters simulation and therefore don't even know that they've gone missing.

Abducted by aliens.

They got wrapped up in some supervillain bullshit and now have amnesia and are unable to recognize Danny and Jazz.

They got magicked into something that can't take care of Danny and Jazz.

They were experimented on and are now incapable of taking care of Danny and Jazz.

Some cosmic entity did a whoopsie that effected Jack and Maddie and now they're in a condition/situation where they cannot take care of Danny and Jazz.

Got arrested and are in jail for some reason.

Were arrested and sent to jail for a long time. Have since joined Task Force X/the Suicide Squad for lienency.

Got hit by a stray Zeta-Beam and are now on some alien planet.

They got teleported somehow. We aren't certain about the details.

They fell into a hole to another world.

They no-clipped out of their normal reality.

Stranded with no way home.

They somehow ended up on a different planet. They are just hanging out with Space Cabbie now, who is just having a ROUGH day and can't find Earth for whatever reason.

Inducted into a Lantern Corps and are VERY busy because of it!

Coma.

Effected by a debilitating illness/disease/condition that makes them incapable of taking care of others.

They were forced to go undercover for some reason and therefore vanished. (Letting their kids know is optional)

They were forced to go undercover for some reason and were forced to fake their deaths.

They died, but came back to life. Danny has not been informed of this.

They got possessed by a superhero or supervillain who just wandered off with their bodies.

They got separated following a disaster and haven't been able to find each other again.

They've been retconned to hell and back again to the point where no one is entirely certain where they are, what they're doing, or even if they're alive anymore. Don't worry about it! Only mention them when it's relevant and the rest of the time we aren't going to bother explaining what's going on with them. If they are mentioned, accounts of where they are and what's going on with them are contradictory.

They're around, but will go unseen throughout this story

Any of the situations in the previous section, but it only happened to one of the parents, and the other is just too busy working and taking care of the kids by themselves.

The same as previous, but they also moved to Gotham.

Retcon things so that the events of Danny Phantom actually happened in Gotham City all along. (Maybe Amity Park is like... A suburb in the greater Gotham area.)

They went on vacation/were hired for a job that would take them away from home. They left Danny and Jazz to be taken care of by Vlad. Vlad is an asshole, so they ran away from him.

They went on vacation/were hired for a job that would take them away from home, but now that Jazz is over 18, she's been left in charge.

Put into Witness Protection by the government/the Guys in White.

Danny and friends have graduated from high school and are now legal adults, perhaps in college.

Danny's whole family moved to Gotham City. They're just at home/working during the events of this story.

Jack and Maddie have been hired to do some work with the Justice League and need to be away from home for an extended period of time. They have left a member of the Justice League to take care of Danny and Jazz in the meantime.

Fieldtrip/school trip to Gotham City.

Danny is old and responsible enough that Jack and Maddie trust Danny (and/or Jazz) to travel on their own. His parents are just a call away if he needs help.

Jack and Maddie are separated for whatever reason (one went missing/one is working abroad/they are divorced/one died) and the other moved to Gotham and is taking care of the kids in the meantime, but is busy and so will not appear.

Something happened to Fenton Works and the family needs to temporarily stay somewhere else while the problem with Fenton Works is sorted.

The family was driven out of town and they ran off to Gotham to escape the angry mob. (Or at least to wait until things cool down again.)

Jack or Maddie are able to work remotely and so they've moved to Gotham to do so. The kids came along/are visiting.

Jack and/or Maddie were hired for temporary work in Gotham and decided to bring the kids along.

One family member was taken to Arkham Asylum. They moved to Gotham to be closer.

Jazz went to Gotham for college. Danny is visiting.

Danny is sent to Gotham/Arkham for specialized health reasons.

Jack and Maddie have gotten in contact with a specialist that lives in Gotham and are visiting for work-related reasons.

They are on vacation in Gotham and brought the kids along. Danny and Jazz have been let off the leash to go where they want while Jack and Maddie do touristy stuff.

Visiting family/family friends living in Gotham.

They were passing through but are now unable to leave. (Bonus points if it's a No Man's Land situation.)

They were passing through, but were robbed. Jack and Maddie are dealing with the robbery stuff where Danny is off somewhere else.

They were just passing through, but Maddie and Jack got SEVERELY distracted by something and have run off to who knows where!

They are traveling with Vlad and expected Vlad to take care of and watch the kids!

Danny was abducted to Gotham.

Danny accidently ended up in Gotham somehow.

Danny somehow got transported/teleported to Gotham.

Doing an educational trip/apprenticeship/internship over in Gotham.

Danny ran away impulsively.

Some villain threatened Danny's family and forced him to run away from home.

Danny has revealed his secret to his parents, and while they might worry about Danny being a vigilante, believe in and trust Danny to do the right thing and allow him to do what he feels that he must to protect people.

The same as above, but Vlad also came out and is supervising.

They died.

I cannot understate the sheer JUICY storytelling potential that you can have by killing Jack and Maddie off! We already know how it might effect people and events from what we see in The Ultimate Enemy, but there really is limitless potential in terms of ways to twist, turn, and play with things to have different outcomes! Additionally, Jack and Maddie being genuinely good parents that die protecting Danny and Jazz offers lots of ways for Bruce to relate to Danny and Jazz! (He decided to become Batman so that no one would have to face what he did ever again... And he failed...) And the way that they die can offer some lovely different flavors of angst, coping mechanisms, motovations, and learning to deal with their loss. So here are some ideas for how to kill them off!

The universe exploded again, and when it was put back together, Jack and Maddie ceased to exist in current canon continuity. (This happens more often than you'd think.)

Vlad Wins.

They were killed in an apocalypse-level event.

They were killed in the crossfire of some superhero/supervillain fight.

They were taken by some villain. They were killed before the heroes could arrive.

They were killed in a random act of violence/crime. (Much like Batman's backstory. Do this to gain extra points from Bruce.)

Died in prison/after joining the Suicide Squad.

Gang violence.

Any of the previous but Gotham is just THAT dangerous!

Same as any gassing or supervillain plan, but they died instead of being missing or in medical care.

Got transported to a place where they died very far away from home.

They just died suddenly or because of an accident. It happens sometimes.

Things to note

Believe it or not, but your parents can still be in your life AND you can join the Batfamily AT THE SAME TIME! :D

Examples:

Barbra Gordon is very much in the Batfamily and both of her parents are alive and well. She's a very important part of the family, and in the comics, it is not uncommon to see her calling up her dad and talking to him! They'll even call each other if they need help with something. This does not take away from the fatherly role Bruce often has in her life. (She can have 2 dads and good for her for that!)

When Tim initially became Robin, his parents were alive and well. They would later die because comic writers are just like that, but being an orphan without loving parents in your life is not a prerequisite to being Robin.

Duke's parents are also alive! They are under the effects of Joker toxin, but they are alive, and if they ever find a cure for it, I imagine that they would be more than happy to have Duke back in their lives!

Terry from Batman Beyond is not an orphan and was taken under Bruce's wing to be the next Batman! Terry is even going to inherit a fair amount of Bruce's wealth for deciding to take on the responsibility of being Batman. But while his dad did die, his mom is still alive and well over the course of the series! And he has a little brother too! Terry may still be a teenager, but he is a bit of a breadwinner for his household while also still being an important part of Bruce's family. (He is often someone who helps Bruce take care of himself.)

But if the story you truly want to explore requires being adopted specifically... Well... You don't have to be a kid to be adopted! Jack and Maddie can still raise Danny and Jazz into adults and Bruce is able to adopt them later if he wants, once they have been well and established in his family! Hell, you don't even have to wait! As long as Bruce asks permission from Jack and Maddie, they can be alive AND he can adopt Danny! There is more than one way to be in a family, you know! And sometimes it takes a village! And really, would Jack and Maddie really object to Danny being adopted by billionaire Bruce Wayne, especially if Danny really is enjoying his time being a part of his family and if Bruce has been an absolutely lovely person to them whenever he visits?

So I hope that you're able to take some inspiration from all of this for your own stories! If you need some elaboration on what I mean with some of these, or want to ask who could be responsible for some of these and how, feel free to drop on by and send me an ask! I would be more than happy to go into some more detail about these! Happy writing!