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call-me-strega · 9 months

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Dc x Dp Prompt #4: Ghost Selkie

Disclaimer: references and facts about Selkies are based on Selkie folklore, true facts about seals, and stuff I just made up because it works well with the story

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Okay so Urban Fantasy inspired au where turns out there is some Selkie blood mixed up somewhere in the Fenton bloodline. As such Jazz and Danny exhibit a few Selkie-like traits but nothing too serious: a playful nature, a certain grace and agility, attraction to shiny things (stars and microscopes), a decent singing voice, being strong swimmers, and seeing in the dark better than the average person. After The Accident™️ and being more involved with the super natural world some of those aspects get a bit stronger for Danny but he just chalks it up to being a Halfa. That is until Skulker catches him on an off-day and manages to capture him by snagging the back of his jumpsuit. Phantom, in a moment of panic and desperation, decides to try and rip off his bodysuit to escape. The suit comes of alright but out tumbles Danny Fenton rather than a de-clothed Phantom. Skulker, in a moment of shock, drops the suit and Danny catches cradling it to his chest while every fiber of his being screams “MY COAT. MY PELT. MINE, DONT STEAL IT.” Skulked realizes what’s happened before Danny does and nopes out of there bc “ This is not what I meant when a said I would have your pelt whelp!” Danny is left sitting there feeling stunned. A quick round of experimentation leads him to figure out that he is now able to take off the suit in Phantom form, but it will de-transform him into Danny. Furthermore, the regular "going ghost" transition still works both with and without him physically holding the suit.

A quick consultation with Clockwork and Frostbite reveals the Fenton Selkie heritage and he goes back to report to Jazz and his friends. Due to Jazz’s instance the siblings get a crash course in Selkies through a community of Selkies and Part-Selkies in the Infinite Realms as well as having a younger ghost show them where to find the modern underground Selkie-Community. Which leads to them getting emotionally adopted by their (dead and alive) Selkie mentors. They learn about eating habits, behavior, culture and customs (including the in and outs of courtship and mating), and camflouge/blending into society.

Jazz learns to tap into her vocal magic/manipulation. Her voice has a deeply calming effect on others and they feel more compelled to listen to her. This comes in handy with some of her more rowdy patients at her internships and stuff. She’s also to taps into the physical aspects of her Selkie blood and gains enhanced dexterity, agility, balance and reflexes. She’s also working towards improving her strength and stamina. Needless to say her aim has definitely improved. Nothing too wild but as she gains more liminality, those aspects become stronger so she’s definitely a cut above the average human though not as crazy as Danny.

Danny on the other hand gets the ability to “shed his pelt” by being able to physically take of his suit and de-transform as well as how to disguise the suit as a jacket or something (maybe a romper or a cardigan?) so that he he can keep it on him for quick, more discreet transformations if he wants to. His ghostly form takes on more Selkie traits like fangs for a powerful bite and more muscle mass and fat in certain areas to improve his endurance and cold resistance. He also learns to manipulate his ectoplasm to be able to shapeshift into the seal version of a Selkie. He is able to practice and manipulate his Ghostly Wail and hone it into a Siren Song and Sonic Singing too.

So basically both the Fenton siblings get cool Selkie power-ups (and unbeknownst to the two, admittedly already quite attractive siblings, their looks take on an otherworldly allure too). As well as a new community eager to take them in and provide them with support. That's why when Danny decides he wants to get away from Amity for college (the ghosts have agreed to a truce as long as Danny pops in for a spar and some shenanigans every now and then. He acquiesces because playing and roughhousing is a part of building social relations for both ghosts and selkies) some of their Selkie contacts help him apply for the Wayne Scholarship at Gotham University and get him set up in Gotham.

Let’s switch gears for a moment here. Gotham has always been a weird place full of weirdos, magic, and cursed energy. Basically, overall chaotic, edgy, and somewhat rancid vibes. It also is entwined with the supernatural. Lady Gotham, the spirit of the city, has allowed many a supernatural community to remain well hidden in her realm including but not limited to fae, witches, gargoyles, vampires, and of course, selkies. There is a huge underground supernatural community in Gotham, part of which is the Selkie community. Most of the Selkies moved out of the harbor and onto land due to pollution. The luckier ones who managed to gain some quick wealth settled in the Upper East Side or Coventry while others ended up in Burnley, the Bowery, and Crime Alley. However, family is very important to Selkies, so there is little resentment between the areas. They try to help out each other and the other members of the supernatural community in Gotham whenever possible. The overall magical community is spread out over Gotham with a few hot spots like Old Gotham, Robinson Park, Crime Alley and the Bowery, and Chinatown.

Now enter: Jason Todd (or a different member of the batfam of your choosing but you’re on your own to figure out how that’ll change the story). Jason grew up around a large portion of Gotham’s supernatural community. There were plenty of fae, selkies, sirens, vamps, and various other magical beings within Crime Alley. He discovered the community early on when he found out that the abuela who used to feed him tamales was in fact a Bruja (witch). Her name was Señora Mariana Soliña and she swore him to secrecy and taught him some basic knowledge on how to recognize and avoid being screwed over by the supernatural.

When his mother died Señora Soliña revealed her surprisingly large amount of wealth to him. She chose to live in Crime Alley to be closer to magical friends and people who would seek out her services as a witch doctor (her cover bc the best lies have a hint of truth). She offered him a hot meal and some spare cash when she could but they weren’t able to run into each other as often as they liked. After getting adopted and becoming Robin Jason made periodic visits to her before his death.

Jason’s resurrection didn’t happen in a Lazarus pit but when he crawled out of his grave. It was due to the magical energy(read also high ecto-concentration) in Gotham he had been exposed to that he became a Revenant. He was able to develop a core through the latent energy and become a spirit/reanimated corpse that sought to avenge both his death and countless others at the hands of The Joker. His dip in the Pits (polluted ectoplasm) brought him out of his catatonic state but triggered his obsession and left him with Pit Rage. Yada yada yada, trains with the League of Assassins, yada yada yada, trains with All-Caste and gets the ability to wield the magical All-Blades, yada yada yada, returns to Gotham for revenge becomes a crime lord, etc., etc., you know the drill.

Fast forward to when he’s made up with the BatFam and is now an antihero. His pit rage has gotten more controllable as the natural ectoplasm and magic in Gotham is slowly filtering out the polluted ectoplasm in his system but it’s still a long process. The supernatural community, however, is happy to have him there. You see Red Hood is actually quite a popular vigilante within the supernatural community. Among his many monikers, they were the ones who gave him the nickname “Avenger of the Unavenged”, and nod to his nature as a Revenant, as well as the aura of the All-Blades (which are meant to defeat absolute evil) that most magical beings recognize.

Jason is fully aware of the presence of the supernatural community in Gotham, as well as members of it who live within his haunt. Once things reach a new “normal” for him he tracks down Señora Soliña only somewhat surprised to see her alive and kicking. He asks for her guidance in the supernatural past the basic knowledge she gave him as a kid. Señora Soliña recognizes his magical aura and status as a Revenant and agrees. (Note: Jason is aware that he has some magic in him, but he attributes it to the All-Blades. He is not fully aware of his status as a Revenant. Señora Soliña assumes he knows and thus does not inform him.) She teaches him and helps him start getting integrated into Gotham’s supernatural community. She offers to “adopt” him as her grandson "Jason “Pedro” Todd Soliña" so that he can take on a civilian identity and attend college. He agrees, eager to resume his education and take on a semi-"normal" life.

And thus we've reached the part of our story where two worlds collide. Jason and Danny first meet peripherally during orientation at Gotham U. They don't really have a direct interaction, just learning each other's names during the icebreakers and some eye contact during the tour. Danny is dorming and Jason commutes so the don't see each other much past running into each other on campus or in the dining hall. That is until they spot each other at an underground, supernatural beings-only, cafe called Xenia a few blocks away Robinson Park.

The two realize the other must have a supernatural connection and start up a conversation. The conversation is illuminating as they learn they're both fairly new to the supernatural community and mostly ghostly. Danny reveals himself as a halfa and of selkie descent and Jason uses his cover to introduce himself as the grandson of a bruja with magic, a brujo-in-training if you will. Upon being asked what a halfa is Danny realizes Jason doesn't know a ton about ghost culture and gives him a quick crash course leading them both to figure out that a) Jason is a Revenant and b) Danny could probably help the Pit Rage by giving him some ecto-supplements. Due to this newfound information Jason conveniently forgets that his new friend mentioned having Selkie blood.

The two meet up more after that, intentionally this time so that Danny can continue teaching Jason about ghost culture and just to hang out. (Note: Danny isn't teaching Jason about selkie culture as he assumes the grandson of a bruja would know that stuff already. Jason has been taught a bit about selkies but they haven't thoroughly covered the topic of courtship yet). As they hang out and develop a friendship with each other the seeds of romance are planted.

One day after they wrapped up lunch at Xenia, Danny left the cafe, accidentally leaving his pelt/jacket on his chair as he's still getting used to having to keep track of it. Jason not realizing the significance of his actions picks it up and takes it with him. Later that day Danny freaks out realizing he left it behind when he runs into Jason. Jason was actually looking for him to return the jacket. So he's like "Hey man you left this at the cafe so I took it and now you can have it back" assuming the redness on Danny's face is just embarrassment. Danny, while mortified, is also extremely flustered. Selkies typically only let close family and lovers have access to their pelts because it implies a deep and intimate bond built on trust that they'll give it back. For Jason, who should know about such Selkie customs, to not only take his pelt but then also return it so easily is some very straightforward flirting. But hey, Jason is good friend... and easy on the eyes too. He wouldn't mind if there was something more there. So Danny decides that he wouldn't mind courting/being courted by Jason.

Jason on the other hand has in fact caught feelings for his friend but hasn't realized he already initiated courting by doing this. He plans to do it the ghostly way engaging in some bonding through sparing and roughhousing and building up their feelings before asking him out. Unfortunately for him, there is a lot of overlap between Selkie courting and ghostly courting so Danny believes that Jason has been courting him for some time now. There are also some things that are specific to Selkie courting Jason unknowingly does, such as buying Danny a bracelet (shiny rocks as a courting gift), beating up a couple of guys trying to mug Danny (defending/showing off for your mate), and introducing Danny to his family/agreeing to meet Jazz (family is very important to Selkies).

That's why when they go out to dinner, and Jason embarrassedly corrects a waitress who thought they were on a date by saying "Oh we're just friends", Danny is understandably upset. He was under the impression that their courtship was getting rather serious since Jason had met Jazz and Danny had met Jason's family. When he asks Jason why he told the waitress they weren't dating he replies "Umm because we're not?" in an uncertain tone. Danny feeling hurt and upset takes his glass of water splashes it onto Jason's face and storms out of the restaurant. Jason is left there soaking, confused, and wondering what he did wrong.

That night Jason goes to visit Señora Soliña to see if he messed up some ghostly custom for Danny to get so upset. When he arrives one of the first things she asks him is how it's going with Danny. When he recounts what happened at dinner and explains his confusion, the bruja takes a deep sigh before smacking him upside the head. Jason is like “wtf abuela?!” And she just shakes her head at him and calls him an idiot. She then reminds him that Danny is part Selkie and explains all the ways Jason has been courting him during the past few months. Jason, realizing he screwed up grabs one of his leather jackets and goes off to track down Danny.

Danny has returned to his dorm to cry and eat ice cream in his pjs from the comfort of his own room. He’s about to watch some comfort tv when there is a pounding at his door. He gets to find a disheveled looking Jason standing at his door. Danny frowns and questions what he’s doing here. Jason’s like “Look I know you’re upset and understandably so but please let me in and I can explain”. Danny’s care for Jason wins out over his anger as he resigns himself to letting the other in. The first thing Jason does is apologize for hurting Danny, saying it was never his intention to do so. He then goes on to explain how he hadn't realized that he had been courting Danny in Selkie customs. Danny is understanding but still upset and voices his feelings to Jason. Jason allows the other to get his anger out and then continues to say that he was actually trying to court Danny through ghostly bonding, and he would still like to date him if he’s open to it. Jason then takes off the leather jacket that he brought with him and offers it to Danny, saying that he doesn’t have his own pelt to offer, but this is the next best thing. This gesture nearly brings Danny to tears and he throws himself to hug Jason, accepting the jacket. The pull back and look into each other's eyes before sharing a kiss and spending the rest of the night cuddling before Jason has to leave.

From then on Jason ramps up the courting to 12, determined not to mess it up again. He reasearches selkie and ghost courting customs in depth to properly woo Danny and personalizes dates to their personalities. Danny is happy to be lavished with the attention and returns the favor. The two of them also make an effort to make sure the have clear communication to avoid having misunderstandings again. A few months later Jason decides to re-introduce Danny to the batfam as his partner and brings Danny along to Wayne Family Dinner with a ring around his finger. It’s a promise ring not engagement ring, but what Bruce doesn’t know will surely give him a heart attack and Danny is happy to go along with it. Danny and Jason become the longest and most stable relationship in the batfam. Tim and Damian even come to them for advice when they try to romance their own partners.

The story kind of just finishes off with the two of them being happy with each other and leaves an open ending to add in small scenes that happened during a time skip or after the story (e.g gushing to siblings, an actual proposal, identity reaveals, batboys seeking advice, them engaging in pda, interaction with other supernatural beings, gossip surrounding their relationship, ect.)

[Edit: additional oc info now found here]

#dp x dc prompt #dc x dp #danny phantom #dead on main #jason todd x danny fenton #jason todd #danny fenton #selkies #urban fantasy #misunderstandings #long post #Ghost Selkie au #ghost selkie Danny Fenton #Strega’s dc x dp prompt

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eightsisterofmatariki · 2 months

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Danny Phantom Headcanons

Technically he's 114 because at some point he got blasted 100 years into the past and decided after a day of having no idea what's going on (and figuring out the date) he found a cave and fell asleep and his ghost half was like, I got this and then he woke up at at dark the night before the fight. He incorporeal-ed out of the (now buried) cave and spent the day fully waking himself up (y'know how ghosts are usually at least a hundred years old, well that's because they need sleep and time to adjust to the whole ghost aspect and fully change, the hundred years of sleep made him feel better than he had since about a week after getting his powers, they also gave him a few new powers)

He is paler than he is in human form because death and all

Also he is slightly eldritch and because he is so powerful sometimes he forgets what humans look like and accidentally changes how he looks, he keeps having to ask how many teeth people usually have, or where joints are supposed to be, most of the time he can remember where and how many eyes he's supposed to have.

Also a personal head cannon of mine is that he is truely really eldritch looking in ghost form and uses his powers to make it look more human. (Seperate post: So Tim just stares for a moment and Danny goes visible and reveals a really powerful and definitively not human creatures wrapped up in a blanket and NASA pyjamas. He looks really cute with his hair all messed up and only two out of his fours eyes are open because he's tired.)

His true ghost form is bigger than both his human and ghost forms. In his true ghost form: all of his teeth are sharp and sometimes they stick out form his mouth (his mouth is bigger than it should be on a human), he's limbs are longer, his hands and feet are closer to claws, he has four eyes with no irises and (sometimes) slit pupils, his hair is the same just floaty, he barely ever walks and chooses to float (although he has legs; when he goes into the more ghost like floating one it looks more like a tail of a snake but no scales, it is much longer than in his ghost form and he often finds himself invisible wrapping himself around things he likes.) Probably more I haven't mentioned, creepy and other vibes.

^^^I've changed this, it isn't his true ghost form, just one of his forms

He is much more protective of pretty much everything once he became a half ghost. He has to fight the urge to investigate new arrivals into amity park (HIS town, HIS haunt) and if his family gets hurt it's game over for the villain and he is far less forgiving than if they had simply hurt himself.

The other ghosts and non-humans seemt to realise that amity park is his haunt (esspecially once he becomes the ghost king) so yeah. Once a small fraid needed refugee and they brought him gifts and pormised not to cause trouble, he agreed because he knows it's the right thing to do and also he really loved the gifts.

He has a small haunt in the ghost zone, it is pretty much a small decaying room but he fixed most of it up and added beanbags. He has newspaper pages about himself and/or the fentons and powerful ghost items hes had to fight.

He also has a lot of space stuff because he does't get much time to fulfil that obsession, always busy with his human life or protecting someone

He likes it there and often goes there to deal with more ghostlike urges or to heal if he doesn't want to worry Sam and tucker and others.

^^this is a lair not a haunt, you only have one haunt

Ghosts purr like cats? Hell yeah they do. Danny did it without realising for almost a year before Sam and Tucker pointed it out. They have tid-bits from other animals too, Danny has to fight the urge to steal or buy any shiny and brightly coloured objects, he really loves jewls. He hisses sometimes. This shows especially with ghost speak, it can sound so many different ways, like the whispering around a cursed object in a horror game, or like birds chirping and clicking to one another, it changes.

To him violence is more of fun and game thing, he understands it isn't to regular humans so he avoids it but he find he doesn't harbour grudes where he perhaps should because the violence doesn't seem all that big to him (for example doesn't care too much about Dash, but he HATES Vlad because he is protective and Vlad messed with his family)

He has four ages. For example when he was 15:

As far as the humans around him know, he's 15

Biologically he's 115 because of the long nap

Because of time travel shenanigans with clockwork he has appeared all throughout time so history wise he is as old as time

He's only been a ghost for 1 year so you could say he's one year old

He died when he was 14 so he could be fourteen

The urge to bite to show affection, not like sexually or anything. But bite ankles, legs, arms, and sometimes neck or hands.

Very clingy when tired. (Totally not projecting)

Blushes green with star and planet and comet and ect freckles.

The way into his heart is gifts. He cannot handle grand gestures so this is mainly food and shiny things you'd find on the side of the road then clean. (Paulina and some other girls once found this out. It was shared lunch in school and they got thrown into the ghost zone, Danny found them but was hesitant on inviting them to his haunt because it's his, and so they offer him some of the food because not offering would be rude. Then one of the girls mentions she had some old jewellery where the jewels fell out and was she holds up this bag the sparkles and he says he'll take them and then decides that they can come to his haunt.)

Also psychical touch, head pats, arm holding. He is akin to a cat and cannot fight the instincts to curl up around you and purr.

Autistic. (Also trans)

You know how ghosts and ectoplasm are kinda non-solid and in some cases can be moulded? Well Danny is too. He finds this out because he was in the forests looking at this really pretty butterfly and suddenly the rings come, he freaks out because he wasn't trying to go back to human but then he sees his hand and realises he's still ghost? So he finds a pond and he has beautiful butterfly wings that are black and white and green (the green parts glow!) and antennae! And so he focuses and transforms back to ghost and so he does this a lot now (Danis favourite is this one spiky lizard she found, she had spikes that looked up through her hair, claws and a tail and thought it looked awesome! Dan however only did it once and secretly really like it, he saw a cool glowing mushroom and without realising parts of his human skin disappeared to reveal a soft green glow beneath them)

He loves scaring people but can only do it to assholes because moral compass (so asshole politicians coming home after partially cruel cases, people who are rude to staff at places Danny likes, ect.)

Dan doesn't have a new body. He worked on morals and slowly changed from evil ghost looking to just having really pale skin, white hair, fangs, and red eyes. He loves grey hoodies.

^^^Okay this has changed now that I've read AGIT so I'll update it soon. Pretty much his ghost forms and human forms mix quickly and he only has one form, but when he gets mad he looks like evil dan and if necessary he can manage to look human for a while.

Okay so he does have a human body, he has Dannys clone. But it feels wrong to him, eventually he mixes his two forms, he was white hair that doesn't fire which he keeps tied back in a pony tail but still has a puffy-over-his-face part like Dannys, you know what I mean. He was the build and body of a 30ish year old man who isn't strong, but still works out enough he's not weak. His skin is pale and slightly discoloured but enough to pass as human, this human illusion is absolutely destroyed when you look closer and realise his teeth are sharp (usually just fangs but sometimes all the teeth) and his eyes are red and glow slightly, not to mention the sense of other he radiates. If he gets mad or uses a lot of power he looks like how Dan did originally, buff, fire hair, red eyes, ect. If he absolutely has to look human he can, but it gives him headaches and it feels wrong.

VLAD. HAS. PINK. EYES. LIKE. HIS. POWERS.

Therefore Dans powers are red, not like Vlads pink ones or Dannys green ones, oh yeah and Danis powers are more of a nature green than a toxic green, this changes slowly over time as she begins to become her own person rather than just a clone.

Sams purple eyes (which GLOW sometimes) are the first sign of being ecto-contaminated she gets

Ghosts fight to show affection, Danny and Dani have scared so many people when they straight up stab eachother and arefighting like cats than laugh and hug and complement each other on their skills.

Danny Phantom is the Ancient of Space, Heros, and Protection (with protection and space also being his obsessions). He smells of Ozone and other space-like smells and no one quite understands how, he hums tunes that replicate stars exploding and/or dying, he is truely the embodiment of 'the longer you stare into the void the void stares back' because sometimes people see galaxies in his freckles, nebulas in his eyes, his body disintegrating and reforming in tiny portions, his skin shimmering like star dust, and the longer you stare the more you notice (his crown and regalia, more space stuff, ect).

Jazz is liminal and stronger than most of Amity Park (who are only Ecto-Contaminated in most cases), she can communicate feelings and things that words can't describe with Danny and other dead stronger than most of the other people in Amity as they are weak (compared to her at least) and she also figures out Ghost Speak. She also has constantly barely glowing eyes that go bright when she's really feeling strongly and she hovers a few inches above the ground sometimes on instinct but can't properly fly and while she can't go intangible she can do if it serious danger/full flight or flight response and adrenaline. Her life span will be about 50 years longer than normal and she will become a sentient ghost when she dies although only slightly above average on the power scale, her status as princess and under royal protection of the king himself (Danny) makes up for that.

Danny makes his own grave out of (I chnaged it from a star) ectoplasm which is near impossible to destory, also his rouges and many other ghosts defend it. It doesn't get broken ever because Clockwork also looks over it.

Danny can tell when people write about him and he can change it, nothing ghost writer level, but simple things like:

It's always white hair not grey

Sam and Tucker are always friends not minions or servents

No sacrifices

He doesn't even realise he's doing it, the cultists do though.

Danny just starts speaking in ghost speak. He's tired, it's exam season, there's a new ghost who's a real fruitloop, and it's getting harder to be human as he gets more tired.

He gives an entire speech in ghost speak, but it was on ghosts anyways so Mr Lancer was just impressed

On one of the nights he actually managed to get to sleep he got chased out of the house because he made a noise that no human should truely be able to when his parents tried to wake him up.

Being a ghost is in his nature now and it's getting harder to act normal, especially because he keeps forgetting about ghost empathy and that he really shouldn't know someone's feeling that way.

You know how todlers get teeth when they're two? Halfas do that with fangs (they can kinda of change what their fangs look like, mouth full of sharp teeth, vampire, normal human teeth, ect) but first they need to deal with all their teeth falling out and being replaced with sharp teeth and a jaw strong enough to cut almost every metal, it aches and aches and Danny is so sore.

Finds writing hard because those are solid words, ghost speak (which comes naturally and intuitively to him) is much closer to speaking with your emotions, if it could be called speaking. He had learnt engough english to be able to keep using it (even if he did start using older versions of english sometimes due to them being dead languages) but he had barely learnt to write before becoming a ghost, he can write he just can't really put what he's meaning to say in words.

Low spectrum autism

Has more than two forms but also can change in his seperate forms, for example he can function and look exactly like a normal human in a human form or he can also have fangs, or just a mouth of sharp teeth, and pointy ears.

Dan redemption arc becomes pyscopomp, souls meant to have died and in pain instead of dead he kills, takes a weeks break then uses clockwork to go to the start of the week and work for two weeks, then he has another break week and repeat.

When Danny gets strong emotions the floor freezes below his feet and he glows brighter (and some more stuff)

Green blush

Danny prefers the form of what you see in the cartoons because it's children friendly, and is basically his default form, but when exhausted he reverts to not his true form. The suit is a bit more chunky as there are layers made for radiation protection, it has a radioactive logo instead of his Danny Phantom logo (he chooses to change that normally) and one of the arms suit is blown off, his arm itself has lightning scars up it which to to his neck but thankfully not his face (they carry over to his human form sometimes, depends on his mood and a few other things) and the hand is blackened and charred with the bone showing around the wrist and on some of the fingers, he still feels pain in it and has to wear a compression glove sometimes, mostly in human form.

Danny, ice core, protectors core, space core, this mostly depends on your headcanons and/or the story you place him in.

Dani, water core (prefers fresh water and the life within it but can make and/or control water as saltly as her soul) she also has control of weather like Danny did for that one episode (loves making tropical rainstorms in the middle of the ocean). Dani gets droplets of water on her skin like condensation like how sometimes Dannys skin freezes over.

Dan, fire core, but cold fire, the type that burns because it's too cold, the type that makes you think your safe but is burning you, he also has a little control over lightning and storms, if he tries really hard he can make them go away but they also come naturally when he's mad or angry

Jazz not liminal enough to have a full core but her liminal-ness allows her to be able to understand ghost speak, hear and feel other people cores, ghost empathy (not to mention floating an inch of the ground sometimes, eyes flashing or glowing and reflecting light in ways humans shouldn't, too many teeth sometimes, just a little wrong)

Most strong emotions result in Dannys: eyes glowing brighter, body glowing brighter, starts speaking in ghost speak (either from emotions getting hold of him and him wanting to rant or English not being able to capture what he's saying right or being beside himself with rage or ect), floats off the ground a little, ground freezing around him and everything he touches,

Strong emotions like hopelessness and giving up result in: eyes going dim and being almost blue, the light he glows with flickering like a drowning torch, speaking in a mix of ghost speak and English but keeps tripping over his words (if he can talk at all, screaming, sobbing, speechless, ect), probably can't fly, frost and cold leaks out of him he can't control it his environment goes subzero and gives anyone who touches his ice gets echos of what he's feeling also the ice is dangerous instead of just cold dangerous

Ghost instincts

By the time Danny gets his apartment, he has labels all his foods, there are two major labels. If you look in his cupboards you will find half of his stuff is labeled norm which is written on white tape, and the other half have the word ecto on green tape, these are what 'species' the food is safe to eat for, norm meaning humans and ecto meaning ghosts (even though ghost can eat human food there's no need for the confusion of having ecto on all the human stuff, if ecto was a spice imagine this as levels of spice safe for different species, anyone can eat the bottom). There are a few smaller groups like Liminals need some ecto but can't have just straight ecto, so some containers have Liminal labels next to the ecto labels; there are also Contaminated labels people for ecto contaminated who can eat things a decently more contaminated than liminals can; those are all that really matter because halfas can eat just as much ecto as ghosts. There's also a white board in his room which he writes reminders on, there is a big sentence in the middle reminding everyone to eat both their daily needs of ecto and human food.

Ecto contaminated

People who've been around ecto, whether in a lab like Maddie and Jack or simply been around a lot of ghiost attacks like the entirety of Amity Park. There aren't really any side effects (none obvious ones anyways) apart from the fact that your used to ecto; eating some won't kill you even if it's not good, you don't get weirded out by ghosts, liminals, or death touched that aren't quite human anymore, and ghosts in general seem just a little more intuitive.

Liminal

Liminals are a step up from ecto contaminated, people who have contact with ecto often like Jazz, Maddie and Jack were wearing hazmat suits which were just enough to keep them from becoming liminal. Side effects of liminals are: eyes that relfect light like cats and sometimes glow, unconsciously floating a few inches above the ground, needing to have just a little ecto (one meal of ecto contaminated food every week works if they can't be in a place with enough ambient ecto), live longer and age slower, they have weak cores that can have their colours (Jazz is orange) but they can't have core types, pointy ears and sharp teeth occasionally. Ther are also personal side effects, you can have a lot or a little of these, Jazz gets ghost empathy for example as she wants to be a therapist.

Death touched (Sam and Tucker)

Death touched are like liminals, but closer to being a halfa than just a strange human. You can't be both a liminal and a death touched, it's one or the other. Death touched happen because they came close to death, this can happen in multiple ways, someone might kills thousands of people or be so surrounded by death (even if they didn't cause it) that they become a death touched. Death touched can also be created by coming close to death themselves, maybe they nearly die (or do die) but are miraculously saved or brought back, a stab victim somehow surviving, someone's heartbeat brought back at the last possible moment; they can also survive, an acrobat who hesitated and didn't grab the broken equipment, a rock climber who managed to grab another rock and stop themselves from falling to their death, things like that create a death touched. Sam and Tucker are Death Touched because of being so close to Danny and nearly getting killed so many times because of it, Sam decided Danny would go in the portal first, the events of Undergrowth and Freakshow and Dan. Death touched have powers, they can use basic ghost powers like intangibility, flight, invisibility, ectoblasts, but it takes a lot of effort and it's hard to train, they also have stronger personal powers which are normal ghost strength rather than weak (Sam can control plants, Tucker's a technopath and can summon sand because of the whole reincarnation thing), they have weak cores but their cores can have types and colours (Sams core is a dark purple plant core).

Halfa

We all know what halfas are, like any 'levels' of ghosts they can be more or less powerful, they also died in a ghost portal or somewhere else where they were blasted with ecto as they died (they can also just half die or be revived wrong, but portals are the main reason). The basic thing is: they have both human and ghost stuff equally, a liminal might need to have some ecto to be alright ad be able to mainly eat human food but a halfa would need a normal amount of both, or humans need to breath or have a pulse but they don't have too and can silence their cores (and therefore ecto signatures) to levels that would kill a ghost, they have both obsessions (a ghost need) and need to have social contact (a human thing), this can differ depending on your head canons/which au this is in and which halfa we're talking about but that's the basics.

Ghost (ember)

Write stuff here! Died and became a ghost, not much to it, more powerful ghost can leave the ghost zone, everyone becomes a ghost, a ghosts memory or their human life can range from none to every detail, etc.

Neverdeads (clockwork)

Write stuff here! Ghosts who never died and kinda just popped into existence or were born, never died but are ghosts.

While Danny died to electricity, he also had radiation and ectoplasm (all three of which killed him and then revived him (the electrify doing most of the killing the the ectoplasm most of the reviving)) and Danny did not in fact pass out, he was stuck in limbo for 5ish minutes then fell to the ground, arm charred and with Lichtenberg scars, while puking a mix of ectoplasm, blood, and the stuff he'd eaten and drank the last day.

True ghost form has black scalera (the white part of eye) and he changes it for kids to be lest scared

A haunt

A ghosts territory, theirs to protect/rule/dictate depending on the ghost. Like Danny and Amity Park.

A lair

A ghosts house, it might not necessarily be their haunt even though sometimes it is. Overall it's like a second haunt, but only for them, it's almost always in the ghost zone. Like Skulkers island or Clockworks tower, or Pariahs castle/keep (even if technically it's the high kings). Danny doesn't have one yet but I'd imagine he gets one shortly after accepting he's the ghost king.

A nest

Almost like a bed, either in a ghosts lair or their haunt. It's almost always just one room (often a bedroom), it's a place to be comfortable, to be theirs, where a ghost will feel the most safe. I can't think of an example for this.

Dannys fraid (ghost family)

#danny phantom

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avaritia-apotheosis · 10 months

Text

Phantom Children: Redux | I. In Lieu of Flowers

Starting off my crossposting journey with PC:R <3

There is no Clockwork there to rewind time after the Nasty Burger explosion. Danny Fenton, having witnessed his friends and family die a fiery death, struggles to cope with his loss and the looming future that awaits him. So when an unlikely source offers a hand to help, he takes it. Three years later, Batman is called upon to help solve a string of impossible murders in Gotham that end up entangling him to the mysteries of Amity Park. -- A Rewrite of Phantom Children ft. A shiny new plot, longer chapters, and stronger prose!

A DPxDC crossover // Read on [AO3} or [FFN.net]

MASTERPOST // Next Chapter →

Three Years Ago…

Danny Fenton was fourteen when his world ended for the third time.

And no, this wasn’t the product of teenage melodrama. Rather it’s the result of the universe’s spirited efforts in making Danny’s life a veritable punching bag for any deity to come over and fuck it up .

He certainly didn’t ask to half-die not once, but twice , and be responsible for this godforsaken town. That’s a thing heroes do. Or sidekicks that train under heroes. Not some dumb kid barely halfway through his first semester of high school and who was incapable of keeping his grades higher than a C .

But, well, this was what he got for playing hero, right? Dead parents, dead sister, and dead friends, all because he was too goddamn slow .

(The prerequisite to every hero: a tragic backstory. Guess it was finally his turn.)

The weather went from a light mist to a drizzle, raindrops falling in uneven staccato on the cluster of black umbrellas. He could barely hear the ceremony— not that he was able to pay much attention anyway. Danny tried to. He did. But his mind was a blue screen— had been for the past few weeks—and the preacher’s words were just going in one ear and out the other in loud static.

His fingers curled around the velvet pouch in his pocket, grounding himself. He’d dug it out from its lockbox in the depths of his closet for this exact reason.

In front of Danny was a single plot reserved for the Fenton family, the grass undisturbed except for the muddy dirt and drooping flowers around the erected marble obelisk that stood atop the plot. (Undisturbed because there wasn’t any need to dig up the ground for a coffin. You’d need bodies for that, and there were hardly any left after—) At the obelisk’s base was a bronze placard engraved with the names of three of the people who once comprised Danny's whole world, and an epitaph: Gone but Never Forgotten.

Vlad must have chosen it. The obelisk was his decision too; excessive and grand because he would provide nothing less for his greatest enemy, his greatest love, and their wonderful, genius, perfect daughter.

Danny looked away from the monument, his hair a damp curtain that shadowed his eyes. No mom left to brush it out of the way. No dad to ruffle it into something even messier. There’s a— a pressure at the back of his throat that nauseated him to the point of discomfort but not enough to actually vomit in the nearest shrubbery. He rubbed his scratchy throat with his free hand, letting it rest by his clavicle. Right above where his heart was being mercilessly squeezed by his own guilty conscience.

He should have been the one to plan his family’s funeral. The one to write their obituary. The one to choose the headstone. The flowers. The date. Everything. It was his responsibility. His duty to make all these decisions as the—

Danny bit the inside of his lip.

He should have been more responsible. Should have been— oh he didn't know— there when all the decisions were made instead of holing up in a corner of the Zone and letting Vlad take care of it all. God, what kind of son was he to have the audacity to get his family killed and foist off arranging the funeral to the guy who wanted to kill his dad .

But maybe that was better. Leaving the decision-making to someone else, that is. God knows that Danny makes all the wrong choices.

(If only he was faster he was stronger he saved his family before going after his evil future selfhe gave back the test answers sooner that boiler never overheated.)

The hand on his shoulder nearly made Danny jump out of his skin.

He shifted his umbrella to see his aunt Alicia looking down at him, concern and pity softening her usually stoic features. Vlad flew her in from Spittoon. When? Danny didn’t know, though somewhere in his foggy memories he might have recalled Vlad asking how to reach Danny’s relatives. It was only aunt Alicia who came in the end, though. His mom and aunt Alicia never liked to talk about their parents, and his dad was an only child who was far too estranged from his own.

“Ceremony’s over, kid. You okay?”

He’d scoff, but he didn’t want to tempt his nausea.

“I’ll live.” He winced, the words bitter on his tongue. “I’m fine, I mean.”

Aunt Alicia pressed her lips into a thin, flat line. “The rain’s getting a little worse. Do you want to head back home?”

Home? Where even was that anymore?

“I think I wanna stay out here for now.”

“Do you want me to stay with you?”

“No— I just…I want to be alone, I think.”

She sighed, giving a comforting squeeze to his shoulder before dropping her hand. “Alright. I’ll just be waiting for you in the car then.”

Danny nodded absentmindedly, gaze trained on the drooping white lilies by the placard. At the corner of his eye, he saw Vlad approach aunt Alicia, somber-faced but calculating as they headed to the car.

The future he tried to escape was already playing out. Pieces slotting into place like some jigsaw puzzle of doom.

In his quiet moments, holed up in the corner of his parents’ room, he’d ponder the what-ifs. The should-have, could-have, would-have-beens. He’d think of the future in all its terrible glory and wonder where else it could have all gone wrong. The trigger was—surprise, surprise— Vlad. Or, living with him, that is. If he wanted to put an ounce of trust in that sob story future-Vlad spun, then it was Danny’s own grief coupled with Vlad’s invention that sent the world spinning into its destruction.

(Future-Vlad might have helped him. Might have turned over a new leaf. But there was an entire decade that separated Future-Vlad from the present- Vlad. And Danny would rather cut off his own arm than trust present-Vlad with anything related to Danny’s well-being.)

Danny knew jack shit about the adoption process, but he was 80% sure most social workers would place Danny with his aunt as opposed to his parents’ old college buddy that they recently connected with. That Danny ended up living with Vlad meant that either Aunt Alicia didn’t pass whatever assessment the state required, or Vlad used his influence to tip the scales in his favor. Probably both.

So the law would never let him live with anyone but Vlad— the fruit loop would make sure of that. Danny’s only option left was to run away, then.

Hm. How long could one half-dead fourteen-year-old realistically outrun a half-dead crazy billionaire with enough connections in both the human world and the Ghost Zone?

Survey says—

Fuck .

“Our condolences, Daniel.”

Danny startled. Who the—

He tilted his head the other way, shifting his focus to the woman who just appeared next to him. Sure Danny found his own attention slipping into darker places more often than not these days, but he should have noticed if someone came near him.

No, wait. Aunt Alicia managed to sneak up on him earlier. Maybe Danny really was just out of it.

“The doctors Fenton did brilliant work, and your sister had such a bright future ahead of her. Their loss will be felt.”

“Thank you,” Danny answered. The words are still ash on his tongue but he didn’t stumble over them anymore. “I…appreciate your support.”

The woman was tall, with a wiry physique and cool tawny skin. She had an oval face, a straight nose, and sharp features, though much of it was slightly obscured by her hat, the black netting ending just past her nose. Her hands were tucked into the pockets of her long black coat.

The man—and Danny knew he’d seen him somewhere before, it was on the tip of his tongue—shared in the similar sharp characteristics, but his coloring was a lot lighter. He had long white hair that extended past his shoulders and a long horseshoe mustache that should have looked stupid, but somehow he managed to make it work. He held a single umbrella for both himself and the woman.

His mind clicked. Recognition alight on his face.

“Mr. Dusan?”

Dusan smiled. “I am pleased that you still remember me, Daniel.”

Mr. Dusan, if Danny remembered correctly, was his parents’ liaison with their benefactor. The CEO of some sort of big research company whose name Danny never really bothered to pay attention to. They had been funding his parents’ research since their university days, and it was because of them that the Fentons managed to get their hands on enough samples of ectoplasm to experiment and research on. Mr. Dusan would be sent every once in a while to observe his parents’ studies, much to the Fenton family’s stress and delight. His visits would be preceded with days of cleaning the house from top to bottom and Danny’s parents frantically getting their stuff organized. But a good visit from Mr. Dusan always ended with the family going out for a nice dinner the day after.

It was one of Danny’s favorite times, really.

“Just Danny, please.”

“Danny, then,” Dusan said. “May I introduce you to my sister, Talia al Ghul?”

Sister? Danny raised his hand for a handshake, deciding not to comment on the age difference. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m, uh, sorry it’s not during better circumstances.”

Talia shook his hand with a closed-lipped, but somber smile. “Our employer—your parents’ benefactor—actually sent us to give his condolences, and to extend a helping hand if you should ever need it.”

“What?”

“Your parents were pioneers, Danny. Their research changed the face of the world as we know it despite how much they were ridiculed for it. It would be remiss of their benefactor to simply leave their legacy, their only son, alone to the wolves.” Her voice was smooth and honey-sweet, and Danny felt compelled to listen. “If you need anything, anything at all, feel free to reach out to us.”

She handed him a business card. It was crisp, made from thick card stock. Blank except for a single number in the middle.

Danny turned it over in his hand. “Anything?”

“Anything.”

He tucked it into his pocket. “Thank you for your offer. I’ll keep it in mind.”

“We will be in town for the next few days,” Dusan said. “We hope to hear from you soon.”

◆◆◆

Later, aunt Alicia asked if Danny would rather stay with her at the hotel. She’d ask this every time they parted ways, and each time Danny would say no, thank you.

She didn’t push too much. Knew, probably, that it was only a matter of time that Danny would have to leave his house to live…wherever it was his social worker decided to stick him in.

Danny appreciated her concern— even if he would rather do without it.

He slipped off his black suit jacket, throwing it over the back of the couch as he walked past the living room. His mom would throw a fit at that. He scrambled down to the lab, taking the steps two at a time, hands wrenching the tie from around his neck—and god fuck why did his skin feel so hot. The tie ended up somewhere on the steps, the velvet bag safely stowed away in a drawer full of blueprints. He kicked off his stupid dress shoes. A safety hazard, his dad would say. The lab floor needed to be clear at all times to prevent an accident.

Too fucking late for that.

White rings passed through him with blinding fury as Danny burst through the portal between dimensions and into the silence of the Ghost Zone.

He floated. Aimless.

And breathed.

◆◆◆

Danny picked a direction. Eenie-meenie-minie-moe . It’s no use trying to logic out directions in the Ghost Zone. Not when the islands thought of physics as nothing more than a joke. He set off north-north-west of the portal and tried his luck there.

Tucker and Sam would call him stupid. There were probably a billion-and-one better ways to find Clockwork’s stupid tower than this.

Jazz would say he’s still stuck on the bargaining stage—

Jazz can’t say anything anymore.

None of them can.

◆◆◆

Jessica Andrews, his social worker, took him out to a quiet cafe to talk. She was a tall woman with a stocky frame, brown skin, and a soft rounded face. Her nails were painted a light green; it was to match her plants, she’d say. Once, she’d told him about how her husband would complain about all the plants she bought because he couldn’t figure out where the jungle stopped and the house began.

The cafe was far enough away from most schools and built below some bible store, its facade made from faded red brick with a charcoal gray awning. A few circular tables and chairs were laid out front, though they sat empty. The weather had been everything but gloomy for the past few days.

Jessica clasped her hands over the table, green nails tap-tap-tapping against her knuckles. “How have you been holding up, Danny?”

They’re seated by the giant window, though there wasn’t much to look at on the other side. Just the road and more old buildings on the other side.

“‘M fine.”

“That’s wonderful.” She could tell that he was lying; he’d bet on it. “How has your sleep been?”

Danny pointedly drank his coffee— brewed as dark as he could with as many espresso shots he could manage to order without the barista giving him a strange look. “Fine.”

She raised an eyebrow. “The black holes under your eyes beg to differ.”

“I’d rather skip all this small talk if that’s ok.”

“Alright, if that’s what you want.” She brushed a stray strand of hair away from her face. “I promised you early on that I’d keep you informed of how the courts are handling your case.”

He huffed, sinking into his chair. He already knew the outcome. “They decide where to stick me yet?”

“They’re still doing their due diligence and contacting as many of your adult relatives as possible in order to find a suitable guardian.”

“I’m sensing some sort of catch here.”

“The people looking over your case have considered your request to be placed with your aunt Alicia.”

“They said no.”

“They had some…concerns,” she said. “Your aunt’s residence is very isolated, which might prevent you from getting the proper help you need. There were also some concerns about how you would handle a sudden dramatic shift in lifestyles, what with being moved away from your school, your community, your peers, into someplace extremely unfamiliar.”

Danny leveled a look at her. “There’s something else, too, isn’t there.”

Jessica gave him a look of pity. “Your aunt also expressed some…hesitancy in taking you in when we talked with her.”

His breath caught. Teeth gnawed at the inside of his lip. Fuck. He rubbed the back of his neck, slowly inching it up to tug at the back of his hair, the other hand curling into a fist beneath the table. Fuck—

He knew he knew this would happen but he still—

—Can’t believe that he held onto that—

—What was he thinking?

“Danny?”

Fingernails dug crescents into the inside of his palm. He takes a deep breath. “Yeah, no, I’m fine. Don’t— I’m fine. It’s fine.”

He shivered.

Dan’s laughter echoed from the back of his skull, mocking him. It’s inevitable, Dan crowed. I am inevitable. You can’t stop the future any more than you could stop the sun from rising.

◆◆◆

Clockwork’s tower was nowhere to be found. Danny didn’t know why he kept on searching. Sheer stubbornness, maybe. Some foolish hope beyond all hope that if he begged hard enough, Clockwork would be willing to do him a favor and rewind time back to when everything made sense.

Sometimes Danny doesn’t even go to the Ghost Zone to find him.

Sometimes he’ll just find some patch of the Zone with enough floating rocks and scream. Scream until his voice is hoarse and he could no longer sustain his ghost form. Until the rocks are nothing but pebbles floating in the green void. Until all that’s left is the freezing cold inside of him.

The ghosts had been staying away from Amity Park.

Good.

He didn’t know what he would do if any of them showed up now.

Danny woke up with his skin freezing-on-fire-cold-too-cold-he-can’t-stop-sweating. He didn’t remember calling anyone, but he must have, considering that someone showed up in his room with a bowl of chicken soup and a glass of Gatorade.

He should’ve been more alarmed at this— there was a stranger in his house. But right now his head was begging to be smashed in with a hammer and he’s just glad that he was not alone.

“Do you think you could sit up and eat, Danny?” The figure sat down at the edge of his bed, one hand on top of the blanket cocoon he made for himself. A woman. An accent that was definitely not American. British, maybe? Either way, not aunt Alicia.

His stomach rumbled. At least this time it didn’t feel like throwing up everything. Danny pushed himself up with aching slowness, leaning back against the headboard. Bleariness blinked away from his eyes, he saw his caretaker’s features more clearly. It was—it started with a T. Tania? Tasnia? No, Talia was the name. Mr. Dusan’s sister.

“Ms. al Ghul? What are you doing here?”

“You don’t remember?” She sets the bowl down on his bedside table, in easy reach, and hands him the glass. “You called the number Dusan and I gave to you sounding delirious. We were worried but Dusan had some pressing business to attend to, so I came on my own.”

“Oh.” The drink was heaven to his parched throat. “How did you get inside?”

Her eyes—a unique shade of green—sparkled with mirth. “I have my ways.”

“Oh-kay .” He rubbed the back of his neck, sheepish. “Thank you. For coming all this way, I mean. You really shouldn’t have to come and take care of some kid you just met.”

“Nonsense, Danny. I could hardly leave you alone in such conditions, it would be against my instincts as a mother.”

“You have kids?”

“I have one,” she said, then paused as if contemplating something. “No, I had two.”

Danny bit the inside of his cheek, thumb wiping away the condensation on the surface of his now empty glass. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Talia let out a sad sort of chuckle. “Thank you, though it’s not needed. He’s— my eldest son—isn’t dead. Certain circumstances forced me into the position to give him up for adoption. He’s alive and well, hopefully, though he probably doesn’t know that I exist.”

Oh. Danny didn’t know what to say to that.

“You didn’t try to get into contact with him?”

“What would be the point? He has his own parents now, a life free of complications. The best I could hope for was that he kept the memento I gave him.”

“A memento?”

“A necklace.”

Danny stilled.

It was stupid. Foolish even, to think about it. There are like over seven billion people in the world.

“What kind of necklace, if you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

Talia smiled, eyes glazed as if in memory. “It was a present from his father. A beautiful work of art, it was. It was a sapphire necklace— with two rows of sapphires, to be exact, cut in perfect circles and polished to a shine.”

The velvet bag Danny had tucked beneath his pillow burned at the back of Danny’s mind. It can’t be. That was too much of a coincidence.

“Each sapphire was surrounded by gold, though there were small diamonds that surrounded the larger sapphires.”

Oh god, oh god. What was his life?

“Though beautiful, my favorite part of it had to be what was within the middle sapphire. It was possible to open it, you see. And engraved inside were the words—”

“‘ For the greatest happiness you have given me.’”

Talia looked at him, green eyes wide. “How did you know?”

Danny found himself unable to look at her. Gingerly, he set his glass bedside table, next to his cooling bowl of chicken soup, and retrieved the velvet pouch beneath his pillow. He held the bag to her, almost reluctantly, but relinquished it once it was in her grip.

Talia opened the bag and drew out a necklace. Two rows of sapphires inlaid in gold, with the largest ones surrounded by tiny diamonds. It was beautiful, though perhaps it no longer shone as it once did.

She beheld it in silence, fingers tracing the exquisite craftsmanship as if, at first, in disbelief, then in reverence. She stopped at the large sapphire on the bottom row.

After a moment, she opened it.

“My parents told me I was adopted when I was six,” Danny said, unable to take the silence any longer. He tangled his fingers together, clasping and unclasping them. “They gave me that necklace— said it was from my birth mother. They never knew who she was, and the orphanage they got me from had no information either.”

Tucker and Sam once asked him if he ever wanted to know who his birth mother was. Danny wasn’t sure what he wanted, really. Sometimes he wondered about it, but he was content with not knowing for the most part. His parents were his parents, blood relation or no, and he looked similar enough to Jack Fenton in coloring that most people didn’t question why his skin wasn’t as light as theirs, or why his features were a lot sharper than theirs.

(Tucker and Sam never knew about the necklace. It was hard to explain why he never told them considering he’d tell them just about anything else— but it was different. It was…something just for him. A cold comfort in knowing that, at one point, he was someone’s ‘greatest happiness.’)

He coughed into his elbow, a shiver racking his spine.

Warm arms enveloped him into a hug.

“ It’s you, ” Talia whispered. “ It’s you.”

Something inside Danny seemed to click back into place. His core thrummed gently, humming a litany of feelings and words he couldn’t translate. Some are apprehensive. Others are confused. But most of all it felt…happy.

Warm.

◆◆◆

“You know that I’m adopted, right?” Danny said to Mrs. Andrews when they met up again. It was a park this time; she was really adamant about getting him out of his house.

“I am aware, yes.”

“When you mentioned that all my relatives would be identified and informed… does my biological mother count too?”

Mrs. Andrews exhaled between her teeth. “I know what you’re asking about, but I’m afraid it isn’t an option. In adoption cases like yours, the biological parents usually relinquish all parental rights over the child. Even if we did find your biological mother, the court would never let her have custody over you again.”

He shivered, pulling his jacket closer around him, and wondered why he still put so much faith in the legal system.

◆◆◆

It was only a matter of time before Vlad came to visit him once again.

“What do you want, Vlad .”

The black bags beneath Vlad’s eyes were the only thing unkempt about his otherwise neat appearance. Mourning or not, his smile still made Danny’s fist itch to punch it. “Why, little badger, can I not see how the son of my oldest friends is doing?”

“I’m not living with you, you fruit loop.”

Vlad rolled his eyes. “Really, Daniel, this disinclination of yours is getting tiring. Just accept it and the moving process will be much, much easier.”

Danny glared at him, green eyes livid. His teeth bared and gnashing. “I’d rather die than live with you.”

“Well, you’re already halfway there. Need help finishing the job?”

He swung his fist at him, but Vlad caught it with ease. “Get out of my house!”

“There’s no use in being difficult, now. You know as well as I do that the courts will inevitably choose me .”

( Inevitable, Dan had said. Inevitable inevitable inevitable.)

“Shut up.” Danny seethed. “Shut up, shut up, shut up!”

As he tore his hand away from Vlad’s grip, a spark of power burst in between them in a blinding white light and bitter cold. Vlad threw up a shield, but Danny was too caught off guard. He was blasted back, knees hitting the armrest on the couch and nearly making him stumble. When the light cleared, Danny could see swathes of crystalline ice and frost embedded in the middle of the living room.

Frost had crept up Vlad’s shield, coating it in a thin wall of ice which broke the second Vlad released the barrier. Vlad looked down at the ice, face flashing between surprise, confusion, awe, before settling into a patronizing smile.

“Do you see now?” Vlad said, gesturing to the ice. “This is why I’m the only one suitable to be your guardian. I am the only one that can understand you. That knows your needs as a young half-ghost. That can guide you and teach you.”

A bitter cold shook Danny’s body to the core, frost seeping into his bones and the bite of winter in his lungs. A thin layer of frost coated his palms and fingertips. His face is flushed. He feels hot but the shivers won’t stop.

Vlad approached, arms opened wide like he’s approaching some scared animal. Like a little badger.

Danny hissed at him, scrambling to his feet to place the couch between them.

“Come on, Daniel, just let me take care of you.”

“Go to hell, Vlad!”

“Tch.” Vlad dropped his hands, fingers dragging through his hair in exasperation. “Fine. You know what, fine. Have it your way. Perhaps some time experiencing the mania will help you understand my meaning.” He went to the door with a frustrating degree of calm. His suit cleanly pressed, not a strand misplaced in his hair, a total contrast to Danny who felt seconds away from collapsing on the floor.

“Do try to keep a hold of yourself, though,” Vlad said over his shoulder. “Your parents might be dead, but they are hardly the only ghost hunters around.”

He slammed the door shut.

Danny sank to his knees, arms wrapped around himself as he vigorously tried to rub his skin warm. What was wrong with him?

Was his sickness a few days ago related to this? He thought he just caught some sort of bug, or, or it was the stress of it all affecting his body, but the ice—

This wasn’t a normal sickness.

Vlad called it a mania. What did that mean?

He shook his head, arm reaching for the back of the couch and hauling himself up. Figuring out Vlad’s words wasn’t his biggest concern; right now, Danny needed a way to get rid of this ice. Talia and Mr. Dusan were coming over soon to go over his parents’ research, he needed to—

They can’t figure out that he’s—

Danny stumbled down to the lab, frantically looking for any of his parents’ inventions that could help get rid of the ice.

No. No. Not that. Not that either.

His arm suddenly went intangible, slipping through the lab bench. The sudden momentum made him lose balance and he hit his head on the side of the bench. He staggered upright, rubbing his pounding head. What was wrong with his powers? They hadn’t been this out of whack since he’d first gotten them in the accident.

A violent shiver ran through him, his breath coming out in a cold mist. Frost had begun to creep outwards from the soles of his shoes.

Danny stepped back. The frost followed.

His eyes darted around the room, mind racing for a solution. His frenzied gaze landed on the ghost portal, the entrance sealed shut by the heavy metal doors. Tucker once said that he noticed that Danny seemed to recover energy faster when he was in the Ghost Zone. They’d tested it at one point by letting the Box Ghost loose on the town and seeing how much energy Danny could recover if he rested in the material world versus the Ghost Zone.

It was still a working theory. Tucker and Sam wanted to test it out some more later.

They never got a chance.

It was a long shot but it was better than nothing.

He ran to the front of the portal where the genetic locking mechanism lay. But as Danny went to push the button, ice sparked from his fingers, freezing the lock solid.

“What? No!” He slammed his fist onto the ice but the ice wouldn’t break. “Nononono, this can’t be happening right now.”

He shivered, eyes holding a manic glint as he looked at the portal. “I’m going ghost!” Bright rings of light enveloped him, and suddenly it became impossibly colder.

Floating in the air, Danny curled in on himself, teeth chattering as he tried to regain his composure. He flew to the portal, willing himself intangible as he tried to go through the doors, but slammed into cold metal instead. Either whatever materials his parents made the door out of completely negated his intangibility or his powers were in really bad shape.

He got up, hands pressed against the portal doors. He willed himself intangible once more, but instead of his arms passing through the doors, a thick sheet of ice sprouted from his hands and started crawling up the portal. “No!”

Danny tore his hands away from the door but the ice kept growing and growing and growing. Stretched across the doors until it covered the entire entrance to the portal. Its jagged ends stopped past the octagonal metal frame and clung to the walls.

Oh god, This can’t get any worse.

“Danny?”

And then it did.

He took a deep breath. Like a deer in headlights, he turned around to see Talia and Mr. Dusan at the foot of the basement stairs. Talia was in front, a hand braced against the wall, one foot on the floor and one still on the step. Dusan, ever the statuesque figure, was right behind, hands still clasped behind his back. Their eyes were, mouth slightly agape at the sight of him.

It was then that Danny registered what Talia said.

The words tumbled out of him, “You recognized me?”

He clamped his mouth shut. Idiot.

Talia took her hand off the wall and stepped completely into the lab. “Of course, I would. You’re my son.”

The words sent a brief spark of warmth through his core. Not even his own parents recognized him when he was Phantom.

“I wasn’t aware that you were a meta, Danny.” She gracefully stepped around the patches of ice on the ground. “How long has this been going on?”

“Um, uh. A few months.” At this point, there really was no point in lying. “Since the start of the semester.”

“A lab accident, I presume.”

“Yeah….uh, how did you know?”

The corners of her mouth quirked up. “No one on my side of the family has the meta gene, and while your father is quite impressive, I’m very certain he does not have it either. An accident of some sort would be the only other option.”

He felt himself start to relax, muscles starting to relax at the sound of Talia’s calm voice. The shivers were still present, but somehow they were a little more bearable.

“Now why don’t you explain to us what happened?”

“I don’t—” Danny swallowed a lump in his throat. “I don’t even know what’s going on, much less where to begin. All I know is that I’ve been feeling out of sorts for the past few weeks. I thought I was just sick but apparently, it’s way more than that, and I don’t know what to do, I barely even know what I am, much less what’s wrong with me and that fever must have done something because ever since then my powers have been on the fritz and there’s this stupid ice that won’t melt and I can’t keep it under control and if I can’t keep my powers under control how am I supposed to hide the fact that I’m a fucking ghost —”

“Slow down, slow down. You’re starting to panic. Now, I need you to take a few deep breaths for me,” she said, now a few feet away from Danny. “In for four…hold for seven…yes that’s it, you’re doing well…and out for eight.”

Calm began to seep back into Danny with each breath, his mind no longer racing a million miles an hour. “Thank you— thanks, I, um, I feel much better now.”

“That’s good. Now, what was that about ghosts?”

“Uh, that I am one? Sort of? It’s complicated.”

“I guess we can get the full story later. Does anyone else know about this?”

“No, no one.” He paused, then grimaced. “Well, there’s one other person. He’s sort of like me and, before you ask, I can’t tell you who he is. The only other people who knew about me are the other ghosts and…Sam and Tucker.”

“Not your parents?” Dusan, who had been a silent observer till now, stepped closer.

Danny shook his head. “No, I— I never got the chance to tell them. At first, I wanted to keep it a secret because I didn’t want them to know about the accident, but afterward, it just became harder and harder, what with their research and ghosts and the government and I just…” He sank back down to the floor, despondent. “I just didn’t want them to feel…guilty, I guess.”

He rubbed the back of his neck, letting out a self-deprecating laugh. “It doesn’t matter now, though. It’s too late to tell them either way.”

“Oh, Danny, habibi. My poor child.” Talia extended her arms out to embrace him, but Danny stepped back.

“I don’t— my powers they’re— I don’t want to hurt you.”

She smiled. “You won’t. Trust me.”

Danny…Danny found himself trusting her. He let the transformation fall, taking one step closer to Talia, his hand stretched out. Their hands touched, and Talia’s words rang true. The ice did not touch her, nor did the frost, and Danny breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Well, this would certainly complicate the matters of your guardianship,” Dusan said, now a few feet away from them. “If I am of the correct assumption that you have no wish for anyone to know of your status. What of the man you mentioned—the one who is like you—could he take you in?”

“No. Never. That man is not an option.”

Talia carded her fingers through Danny’s hair in a soothing motion. “It is a shame we could not make a strong enough case to take custody of you.” She paused, humming pensively. “Although…” Turning to Dusan, she continued. “Do you think father would…?”

Dusan considered it. “Well, he would certainly be delighted at the prospect of another grandchild, especially one like Danny. But you know how he is.”

Danny looked at them inquisitively. Talia turned her attention back to him. “Our father—your grandfather—is a very powerful man. But he is a very secretive man, and much of his influence is in secrets and shadows. Much of his machinations he prefers to keep in the dark. But if you were willing to prove yourself to him, then it is not beyond his power to craft you a new life.”

“You—you’re talking about a new identity.”

“Daniel Fenton could never be with us,” Dusan said. “But Danyal al Ghul on the other hand….”

“I…” Danny lowered his gaze to the floor. Well, he was prepared, on some level, to give up his name. He had plans to run away, and going by ‘Danny Fenton’ would just be putting a target on his back if Vlad decided to look for him.

“We could be a family, Danny,” Talia whispered. “Like we always should have been.”

Family. The words felt warm inside his chest. At the back of his mind, his core hummed eagerly at the prospect. Family-family-a-place-to-belong.

But to give up his name…to give up his life …would he really be willing to do that? But if he wasn’t, then being handed over to Vlad might as well be—

( Red eyes. A looming shadow. Screams unheard because of the explosion. A world in ruin. Inevitable. Inevitable.)

“ I’ll do it.” He steeled his resolve. There was no other choice. “I’ll go with you. What do I have to do?”

Talia grinned wide. Dusan’s eyes gleamed with approval.

“Simple,” he said. “We must kill Danny Fenton.”

#dpxdc #phantom children: redux #my writing

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phantomrose96 · 3 years

Text

For Pennies

Warm-up mini fic. Consider this a doodle.

....

The Fentons were selling their house for pennies.

The “For Sale” sign out front was easily missed against the ostentatious display of the op center, and the “FENTON” sign, and the Fenton RV. Or perhaps, all that made it more noticeable. It bolstered the weird and unsettling mundanity of a standard-issue For Sale sign dictating the fate of a house so indescribably odd.

It took only a few curious gossips to find the listing, and to spread the news further when the listing asked for hardly a fifth of standard asking price. Real estate agents weighed in on town facebook pages that, yes, this was abysmally low. Others rationalized it. “It’s only natural. Those house modifications have killed the resale value. The basement is uninhabitable according to the listing. They’re selling an extreme fixer-upper.”

And when the house did not sell in the first week, the price dipped again. And when rumors spread that the house owners were responsible for the town’s ghost blight, the price dipped once again. Then nearly overnight, the op-center vanished, and the FENTON sign disappeared from sight. The Fentons were, if nothing else, impressive engineers, capable of undoing a lifetime’s work in a weekend. Soon after, the listing sold.

The buyer, Peter, was looking for fixer-uppers to flip and rent. He knew about the Amity Park rumors, but if the renting market proved stale for the fear of ghosts, he knew the airbnb market would thrive with curious tourists, so the property was a safe bet regardless.

He met the family once, in the house, when he came to inspect it and sign paperwork if he was satisfied. The husband was perhaps the biggest man Peter had ever seen, portly yet rock solid, clad head to toe in neon orange. The wife matched him in jumpsuits, a powder blue one. Their daughter seemed normal, though she and Peter only exchanged a handful of words.

“Where are you folks headed once this place is sold?” Peter asked, cordially, eyes flitting between the contract before him and the couple seated across the table.

“Westward, a bit. Um, Maddie’s got a sister out there. We’re trying to be closer to family.”

Peter nodded. “Always good to have family around.” He glanced in the daughter’s direction. “Are you excited to be moving closer to your aunt?”

The daughter met his gaze, level. “I’m not going with them, actually.”

“Oh?” Peter asked. “Headed to college? That would make sense.”

“I’m a rising senior,” the girl answered.

“Jazz is—” the mother, Maddie, cut in. “It’s well, it’s about to be her senior year of high school. Hard time to switch schools, you know? She’s going to be renting a place nearby so she can finish school here.”

“Oh? First time living all on your own?” Peter asked, initialing a page of the contract.

“I’m 17. It’s not that weird.”

“Never said it was. I remember my first place pretty fondly. It’s an exciting milestone, don’t waste it!”

Peter initialed another page. He spun the document back to the Fentons to sign as well.

“Well, I really like the place, is what I’ve got to say. The newly redone flooring on this floor was a perk I wasn’t expecting, can’t have been cheap. You still managed to keep the price amazing though. Don’t worry about the dings and scratches – I’ve got the art of fixing up places down to a science. I’ll take a crack at the basement too.”

“We’d rather you didn’t,” Maddie answered.

Peter waved her off. “I know it was some kind of lab, yeah? You won’t be liable if I say, spill acid on myself or dunk myself in radiation or, whatever you had going on down there. We can go over that clause of the contract again if you want. Ghosts, right?”

“It’s dangerous—”

“If I can’t hack it, I’ll seal up the basement for good. But I won’t know until I try. Seriously, don’t worry.”

The Fentons signed the final page, and flipped the contract back around to Peter. He pulled an envelope from his coat – a check made out with the full amount. No loan needed. No mortgage. Their asking price was practically pocket change.

The daughter excused herself from the room.

…

The Fenton basement had fewer wonders than Peter was expecting.

He swung a flashlight around, as the bulb hanging overhead had been cut from the main power supply. Most everything had been cleared out, leaving a room hollowed out. His feet clicked across the metal floor. Walls of bolted steel rose high on all four sides. On the opposite wall, the scars of heavy bolting remained, along with the smoky stain of something huge, and geometric, no longer bolted to the wall.

He swung his beam wide, across every which wall beveling with bloated shadows, until he pinned the electrical panel.

“There you are.”

It took some tampering, and some patience, because something had physically demolished the box before him. Peter knew his way around basic house wiring, so it took only a few experimental adjustments until he threw the breaker, and the industrial light overhead clunked to life.

Peter turned, surveying the mouse cage of pure, uninterrupted steel sheeting, bolted together wall to wall, across the floor, across the ceiling. It was an impressive expanse of space, and under the proper flood lighting Peter could make out the deeper shadowy stains of where industrial cabinets used to be affixed to the floors, the walls. He was staring into the burnt out afterimage of what, he could only conjecture, had once been an impressive scientific facility.

It wasn’t above being carpeted and turned into a rec room.

Peter paused, his eyes training to the back corner near the octagonal imprint left in the wall. Something seemed amiss, something with color, popping bright against a display of pure ash and silver.

Peter stepped forward, flashlight still pointed though it served little use now. The space took shape – a rectangular impression on the floor, about as large as a twin bed, formed a negative image. The rectangle was spotlessly clean, silver and shiny, as though recently cleaned and polished and recleaned and repolished.

It was the edges of the rectangle, the spatters of space stretching beyond it, that held Peter’s attention.

Green, verging toward a rusty brown, splattered the floor. He stepped closer, and knelt, and stared at the pattern. Like a dropped vial of green chemicals that shattered and spattered the floors, the neighboring wall. Like radioactive spill left to eat into the floor. Peter thought back to his radioactive quip, and wondered if he should perhaps back away.

He set a nail to one of the stains and scratched at it. It would not lift. It would not budge. He swung the flashlight beam, and he found the stains glittered, and then dulled where they edged closer to rust.

And it was the rust that confused Peter the most. That copper color, like pennies, that morphed away from the green. It wasn’t uniform. It did not eat away symmetrically at the edges of the stains. Instead it spattered, and dragged, and molded from droplets to long streaks dragging across the floor like chalk dust on a blackboard.

Peter followed them. The streaking ended. Beyond that, he caught a single droplet speckled into the floor a foot away. Another, when he swung his beam. And another. He followed them, one by one, tracing them back to the basement stairs, up, up, up, up.

At the top of the stairs, the trail vanished. The brand new hardwood flooring that stretched through the whole first floor was immaculate.

#danny phantom #dp #dp fanfiction #implied character death

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biostris · 2 years

Text

:Fenton Crackshell carbrera x reader:

:Cybernetic checkup:

A/N: this is going to have a sequel! Where the reader finally meets Mama Cabrera!

:friends to lovers, loss of limb, medical check-up:

It had been months since the moon landers invaded, months since they had lost their right arm, and months since the hero Gizmoduck pulled (y/n) out of the rubble of a collapsed building. During those months after that fateful day a kind soul had reached out and had offered (y/n) a chance to get their mobility back, Dr. Fenton Crackshell-Carbrera had made the shattered soul a cybernetic arm using his degree in robotics and some help from Dr.Gearloose.

Gizmoduck had supposedly stopped by the office that night to air his grievances to Fenton which is how Fenton met (y/n), Gizmo’s connection to Fenton is what helped (y/n) keep a spark of hope in a dark time and for that they were forever in debt to both men. However since the prosthetic was still in a beta phase regular check ups were needed.

Today was one of those check up days, and it was a good day, it was sunny but not too hot. As (y/n) made their way to the underwater lab of McDuck industries they thought back on how far their relationship with Fenton had come. It felt like yesterday that (y/n) was crying tears of joy as they hugged a flustered Fenton with their new and shiny arm. And now the two of them regularly got lunch together!

“Afternoon (y/n).” Chimed Dr. Gearloose as he passed by (y/n) in the hall, “Dr.Intern is already waiting for you in the lab, I’ll be out getting some parts for another project but im on speed dial in case something goes wrong.”, (Y/n) paused and shook their head in a confused manner “in case something goes wrong?” They asked cautiously causing the scientist to pause “not that anything will.” He nonchalantly but quickly added to his statement before disappearing up the elevator shaft.

Worry persisted in (y/n)’s chest but it quickly faded as they assured themselves that everything will be fine, it always is. Fenton fumbled around with some tools as he got himself ready for his monthly check up with (y/n), Mama Carbera had caught wind of the appointment earlier that morning and now he was wearing a silly white blazer with a purple undershirt instead of his usual yellow button up and purple tie. It was a bit embarrassing when his Mama did things like these, sure he might have let it slip that he was developing something for his friend / patient but with his Mama’s plan he might scare (y/n) off.

Fenton sighed as he closed his eyes and leaned against a desk, it wasn’t long till the familiar swoosh and clunk of an opening airlock door caused his eyes to snap open and him to quickly fix his posture. “Hey Fenton!” Chimed (y/n) as they strolled in heading towards some sort of medical or examiner table, hopping up on the cold metallic surface and stripping themselves of any outer wear that might have gotten in the way of Fenton and their arm or cybernetic spinal cord.

“Hey!” Nervously replied Fenton as he rolled a cart with tools and a computer over to the table, “it’s been awhile, has there been any issues with the new software we installed last month?” He asked as he began to get to work. (Y/n) shook their head, a small smile on their beak / muzzle as they slightly extended their arm for Fenton to hook up a cord into it to check for any technical bugs “not that I’ve noticed at least, it’s mainly just been…” they paused as they zoned out for a bit, a pained and saddened look came across their face “phantom pains.”,

Fenton looked up to (y/n) sympathetically, his beak pressing into a thin line as the words failed to come to him. He typed away scanning the screen for bugs in the spinal code as he zoned out a bit. The room was now quiet, awkwardly quite, as (y/n) looked around at the lab and specifically out of the window to see the sea life that swirled around the metal lab.

Fenton coughed gaining the attention of (y/n), “well the good thing is that there are no code bugs which means your neural input and spinal code will move in sync with no reflex delays,” he unplugged the cord from the aux cord in (y/n)’s wrist and began to move towards the more physical check up. “Now to do the physical checks.”, (y/n) felt relief wash over them and once anything that was loose was retightened they began the reflex tests to truly set everything in stone.

Fenton gently grabbed their arm and began to help them move it “perfect, everything seems to be in order!” Chirped Fenton, (y/n) beamed happily “great! Thank you so much Fenton!”Fenton's face flushed as he found himself lost in (y/n)’s bright smile, his hand softly ghosting over (y/n)’s right arm. (Y/n) blinked as they also began to turn red, “uhm, Fenton..” they shyly cooed as they glanced somewhere else, a sheepish smile finding its way onto their face.

“Huh?” Asked fenton confused and dazed, until it hit him, “oh! I’m so sorry!” He began to stammer and stutter as he turned into a little tomato, (y/n) chuckled warmly “it’s okay! I didn’t mind to be honest..” they admitted as they began to twiddle with their thumbs, a sweet smile on their face as they glanced at tue ground. “R-really?” asked Fenton in a bit of shock, “yeah!” Admitted (y/n) as their (E/C) orbs gazed deeply into fentons. “W-well in that case..”.

Fenton gently took (y/n)’s hands into his own, causing (y/n) to glance up with wide doe like eyes. “(Y/n) there’s something I have to admit, and I get it if you don’t reciprocate it or if it freaks you out but I need to get it off my chest.” (Y/n) listened closely as fenton took a deep breath to help hype himself up, “ever since day one I have felt something for you, at first I didn’t know what it was, I honestly thought I had caught a cold!” He laughed dryly as he continued “it took me some time , and Mama pestering me about it, to figure out what I was feeling.”.

Fear began to race through fentons body, he didn’t want another Gandra situation, “but uhm..” he paused, taking a breath of courage before meeting (y/n)’s shimmering eyes. “I really, really like you and I was wondering if maybe you did too.” (Y/n) was red faced as their lips were slightly parted in awe , the fear inside of Fenton only grew with the science, sweet giggles and laughter echoed through the pristine white lab as (y/n) retracted a hand to hide their giddy smile.

Fenton was now confused “I do!” Admitted a cheery (y/n) as they re-met fenton's eyes, Fenton felt happiness and relief sweep over him as he used his free hand to also hide his face. “How is dinner this Friday night?” He asked without missing a beat, (y/n) smiled sweetly as they got down from the table “I’d like that Fenton.”, Fenton’s hand lingered a little bit longer on top of the now warmed metal of (y/n)’s right hand. “I’ll see you Friday then?” Asked (y/n) dreamily, “definitely!” Answered Fenton giddily as they slowly broke away from each other. (Y/n) went back to their apartment in the city, and so did Fenton, both giddy and daydreaming of the date to come.

#ducktales #ducktales 2017 #x reader #ducktales fenton #fenton ducktales #fenton crackshell cabrera #fenton Crackshell Cabrera x reader #Fenton x reader #ducktales17 #ducktales fanfiction #ducktales x reader

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mymadmedleyw · 3 years

Text

Corruption

(ao3), belongs under Certain Moment of Time, could be read independently, just as each for the days will be shorts, but all together forming a whole picture

TW: miscarriage, stillbirth

(I didn’t add here the slight clarification for the end, it could be reached by the ao3 link as the end note - not necessarily needed, just if you want)

---

The longer he stared at the small figure, the tiny lifeless body, the cruellest he felt it. If he really had to pay for the only thing he ever wanted in his life, then let be it, but not this way… this was- this was just much. He couldn't ask him to- to do what exactly? He wasn't told. And either he wasn't sure if he had to do something at all, but- just a minute ago, when he had appeared in the hallway – mistaking the wing and the corridor with the place where he had been – he just thought, he had been placed back to his hospital room, but- but then, as he had tried to walk away, shamelessly going back to his miserable life, he had caught a heart-breaking begging. The voice had been too familiar, even after all those years. Jack Fenton – that Jack Fenton, who had destroyed his life, and had cursed him to this life – had been crying, squeezing on a small child's hand next to him…

Then he put it together. He wasn't in the hospital, where he was kept under quarantine, no. Then the bright gaze had looked at him, right to him, like- like she could have asked him to do the impossible….

He couldn't tell, how he then had got into the other side of the door, how he had felt seeing Maddie with a child, how- how he had managed to stay motionless, when the devices beeped, alarming the doctors about something that didn't suppose to happen, then- then he was here now, staring at the boy – Jack Fenton's boy – laying unmoved for several minutes. His mind was blank, still processing the mourning of his, still so vividly seeing in his mind the picture of his Maddie: pale, hopeless, ruined. What was he supposed to do? What he had expected him to do?

This was just cruel, telling him, all could be done better, all could turn out better, because this just wasn't better at all. Maddie was alive, yes, resting, unaware yet of the loss, but- but this, once if she woke up, this would wreck her, just as- just as he was slowly was crushing her during the years…

Vlad swallowed, slightly surprised even in this so loathed ghost form he could take breaths… breaths, that someone couldn't. At least, not the child in front of him. He couldn't tell why the doctors hadn't already taken it somewhere else. Were they seriously waiting for the mother to wake up and inform her about the news?! Now, Vlad was disgusted. He didn't know how these things were going, but- but he couldn't let it happen. Hardly, he could ask him, or even assuming that it was nothing just a lecture, and then he would have been just placed back to the original state, to that damn hospital bed, hating his life and- and not saying out that request… no, it was what he deserved, but-

Suddenly, the view of Maddie appeared behind his closed eyelids, apologising to him for the other failure, and- no, that had been his fault. This, now, wasn't related to him at all. It was Maddie Fenton's life. Not his Maddie's. Why was he even still standing there? Staring at the boy, like- like it could give him any answers.

Vlad reached out to the tiny body, ruining his gloved invisible fingers on the lifeless face. It could have been his. But no, he reminded himself. It never could have been his. Maybe if he hadn't been touched by a strong unearthly contamination from another dimension that had effects on his biology, maybe then, but- to tell the truth, he had a very serious feeling – just as a joke – either over his state he couldn't have any. This was what others could have and- he just simply couldn't.

The hollow voice came back to his mind, as his Maddie was breathing out heartbroken over the loss, telling that even after she promised herself to not giving names to each, after the first few tries, she still named it. She so had thought it would survive this time… she had cried silently over it, gripping on his hands, and apologising – like this all would have been her fault…

"Daniel…" Vlad whispered ahead. His boy's name would have been Daniel… and now, there was another dead child, a yet unnamed one, a never alive one of Maddie and- he bit his lips hard, feeling acidic fluid leaking from it. No. No. Even if it wasn't his child, but- no. He couldn't watch again her face as broken as it would be always burned into his memories.

Vlad tried to shove away the slight little reminder that now it was Jack Fenton's son, and that the man didn't deserve it, didn't deserve another shiny star on his flawless, easy life, but- and, yes, Vlad hard forced the more and more shouting thoughts in his mind to just simply go away, let it be like that, but-

"No." he said out, feeling harder to breathe, but all the more determined to do something with it, even if his sanity was constantly coming up with a reason why he shouldn't. And he had believed the years in the hospital was his hardest time…

To be honest, he didn't have any slightest idea what he was doing, either if that would work at all, but- but it had to. There was no way, it wouldn't. The reached-out hand over the small body, almost entirely covered it, then he focused on the weird pulling in his chest Vlad had earlier been alienated from, fighting against what he was – like he could escape from it… then the child's white as snow skin brightened up along with his glowing fingers.

After each passed second, the note that he was doing this for Maddie became like a burn mark, never leaving him, until- until a clenched together tiny fingers twitched. It was only a wee bit movement, but he still recoiled, startled, like- like he would have seen a- ghost. (Yeah, right, what was scarier if someone was a matter of fact functioning as a partly ecto-entity…) Then a moment later the eyes of the infant snapped open, lit up neon, looking towards the only direction where someone was. The colour petrified Vlad, making him stepping back, recalling the swirling greenness of the Proto-Portal. The eyes a second later slipped back to a normal – human – bright blue, but-

He wasn't sure, the momentary sight shocked him or the realisation frozen him, unable to move from the spot while suddenly everything around him became alive again. Vlad couldn't tell either for how long he was standing there, hand stopped in the air, and what exactly made him move away, but for sure the first thing that got his attention was an echoing relieved laughing from the hallway.

Then who knew how many minutes – or hours – later, Vlad dared to take a look at his trembling hand, still in a way surrounded by a magenta halo. What he had done? He just- he just cursed a small boy, an infant, at the beginning of life, to the same fate as his was…

He couldn't even feel the walls, or the ceiling, as he phased out, out of this place, leaving this place behind, flying away as fast as he could and never looking back, not even- not even letting his mind bring back the picture of those eyes�� no, he hadn't been there, this all hadn't happened, this- this was just insane. The all was just a bad dream, a nightmare, and in truth, he had never left his bed, right? Because- because it just couldn't be the truth… that he- he had made the boy the monster he was…

#going angst week 2021 #going angst week #vlad masters #danny phantom

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firstfrostfall · 3 years

Text

A Cold Lament - Chapter Two

a tommy shelby fanfiction

In the winter of 1918, the Shelby brothers returned home from a war-torn France. In the winter of the following year, the middle brother, Tommy, recognizes an opportunity for his family to move up in the world, and it came in the shape of a misplaced crate of weapons.

In the meantime, per the request of his aunt, he gives a struggling young woman a job.

Little did he know, that like the smell of snow on the wind in late autumn, everything was going to change, and it wasn’t just because of some stolen guns.

Takes place during Season One.

Somehow, Anna had collected quite a bit of jewelry in her twenty-three years of living. She never necessarily went out of her way for it- it would just find its way to her. She was enamored by shiny things. You know, the things that glimmered when you held them in the sunlight the right way. Stones, sea glass, gems. Really whatever she could get her hands on. But she was especially fond of sea glass. She always loved sea glass.

It started off with small things at first, like sea glass, when she was a little girl. Because of this love, Magpie was the nickname her grandmother had given her.

Her grandmother would say things like, be careful, you’ll cut your hands on the sea glass, my little Magpie.

When she got older, more so into her teenage years, she would be gifted with various pieces of jewelry for her birthday or other special occasions. Each piece was beautiful, surely. She couldn’t deny the appeal that came with a pair of diamond earrings, those certainly caught in the light well, but she would’ve been just as happy with a particularly glossy stone from a rocky beach. Jewelry, or whatever stone it was, didn’t have to be expensive, she just liked how they glinted in the light. Like a magpie. She felt quite silly about it.

Nevertheless, she preferred sea glass to anything.

Growing up, she kept her entire collection in an ornately carved hope chest at the foot of her bed. There was no organization, no rhyme or reason for the placement of any of it. Of course, she kept the most expensive pieces tucked away in a separate gaudy jewelry box, nested in swaths of black velvet. The hope chest, on the other hand, was entirely in disarray. Anna liked it that way. It was her big box of things.

She brought the hope chest with her when she went to live with her aunt. It was a nightmare to travel with, surely, but it was hers. For the past year it remained at the foot of the bed she shared with her five other cousins. Living with her aunt and cousins under one tiny roof was an adjustment for her. It was different. The war changed a lot.

The war changed everything.

A family torn apart, and a girl sent packing off to her aunt’s home in an unfamiliar factory city hours from the only home she ever knew.

Anna remembered the day vividly. It was in the middle of summer, 1917, and the trip was dreadfully rainy. She traveled by train and cab to get to Birmingham.

When she eventually arrived at her aunt’s doorstep, she was soaked. The brim of her hat drooped under the weight of the rainwater. She knew her aunt was barely scraping by, she had so much on her plate already, she didn’t need the additional burden of a niece added to that roster. Her aunt had five children of her own, a husband away at war- but Anna had nowhere else to go.

So she stood there, surrounded by luggage and suitcases and trunks full of whatever she had left, waiting for her to answer her pleading knocks. When her aunt did open the door, she quickly ushered her niece in and helped her get settled with all of her belongings.

A few weeks later, word reached them that her uncle died in France. Her aunt was frantic after receiving the news, and understandably so. Not only had she lost her husband, but another source of income for the family. There was no one coming home to work in a factory.

Anna began selling whatever items she could to make extra money to cover the cost of a sixth mouth to feed. She sold dresses, silver hairpins, and combs, shoes, miscellaneous books. She sold almost anything and everything. Her belongings were finite, however, and soon enough, she had sold as much as she could.

Except for her jewelry, except for the hope chest.

She had accumulated enough valuables in the chest to scrounge up a few months rent for her own flat. A shabby little place, not too far from where her aunt lived. She even had a little extra money leftover to tuck away for her family, just enough to help them get by for a little while longer. There would be more space at her aunt’s house now that she was gone, too. More room for her cousins in their bed, one less mouth to feed, one less body to clothe.

It pained Anna to look at the chest. It pained her even more to open it. Almost everything she had collected was gone. Of course, she kept a few things, the items that were the most precious to her. An opal ring, a pair of diamond earrings, a golden bracelet, a jar full of sea glass. Each unrelated, but with their own meaning.

There was no point in moping around about it. She could spend another twenty-three years collecting more shiny things.

She was learning to make do with what she had.

Of course, now with her own expenses, she was also learning that her money was finite as well. This made her aunt worry for her terribly.

Finding a job had been difficult, to say the least. She spent hours reading through newspaper after newspaper, clipping away at any job advertisement that she thought she could even remotely qualify for. Most of the time, she wouldn’t receive an interview or would be flat-out rejected on the spot.

It was discouraging- but made sense to her. She really was just a girl, from a village barely anyone had ever heard of before, with a resume that was, to put it plainly, terrible. She never held a job before, and her only experience came from a few accounting courses from a couple of summers back. Truthfully, the courses were something to pass the time, to keep her from boredom while the days were long and hot. She never expected to actually need those skills.

One morning, however, there was a series of frantic knocks at her door. It was no one other than her aunt, giddy and exclaiming that she may have found her a steady job.

“I have a friend from church who can help you,” Her aunt said. “She set up an interview for tomorrow, three o’clock. You’ll be speaking with her nephew. She’ll pick you up from the house. She’s a good woman.”

Anna hugged her aunt tightly at the news, a wave of relief washing over her. Until, she realized, that she wasn’t sure what exactly she was interviewing for. That was when the panic started to settle in.

But alas, when fortune drops something valuable on your lap, it’s best not to question it.

That was where she found herself currently, a few days after the interview, staring at her reflection in the cracked bathroom mirror while she got ready for her first day. She was brushing through her hair, smoothing out the curls from the rollers she had slept in. The wan morning light made it a soft auburn that curled down past her collarbones.

She had been ready for work since dawn, and truthfully, even before then. She had a hard time sleeping and chalked it up to be a culmination of nerves for the day ahead of her, and the fact that her flat didn’t feel like a home just yet. In time, she hoped it would.

All throughout the night, the floors creaked, and the pipes hissed. She barely had any furniture, except for a wire bed frame and a hand-me-down mattress she had gotten a deal on. She was also pretty sure that the lock on the front door was broken, so she propped up a chair against the knob and hoped for the best.

Despite all of this, for better or worse, this place was her own. It eased the burden on her aunt.

Anna stood by the window while tucking her cream blouse into the waist of her maroon skirt. She spent the better part of her morning ironing out her clothes, desperately trying to ensure that the linen was fine and creaseless. Her iron was one of the things she couldn’t part with. At the very least, she could look her best with it. Or at least try to.

She glanced at the window one last time before slipping her shoes on by the front door, watching as tiny flurries of snow began to fall onto the city below. She smiled.

It was early this year.

Anna promptly knocked on the door to The Garrison at nine o’clock that same morning. The snow was still falling, each flake thick enough to catch in her hair, a contrast of white on red, but soft enough that it would not stick to the ground, instead, it melted on contact with the muddy pavement. Harry, the barkeep, answered the door.

“Miss Caldwell, good morning.” He took a step to the side so she could enter. His face and nose were flushed red, he must’ve arrived not too long ago himself.

“And to you, Mr. Fenton.” She smiled, her breath turning into clouds as she spoke. “Quite the weather we’re having.”

“I’ll say,” He closed the door behind her and turned the lock. “Haven’t seen snow this early since I was a boy.”

“It’s good luck,” She replied while shrugging her coat off. “They say an early snow brings good fortune.”

“I’ll keep that in mind when my toes are freezing off in the morning,” He gave her a lopsided grin. “Follow me, you can leave your things in the back room.”

Once Anna was settled, she stood behind the bar with her own apron tied around her waist, (already stained, mind you) given to her by Harry. The remainder of the morning was another lesson in “making do” for her. The pub wouldn’t be officially open until noon, so this extra time beforehand was for her to get a feel for everything. To put it plainly, it was additional time to practice.

No matter how hard she tried to mask her nerves and keep her composure, it was like she had two left feet. Spilling drinks, forgetting the difference between vodka and gin, pouring a pint incorrectly, and causing the foam to rise over the rim of the glass.

Despite the extra time she had spent on her appearance, smoothing out any wrinkles on her skirt, curling her hair, and flashing a smile at all times- she couldn’t have felt any more out of place, and painfully unprepared. There was so much on the line for her. She had her own place and an aunt who needed financial help. She would keep trying, she didn’t have any other choice.

Harry was kind to her, and as patient as he could be, but it became quite obvious that she was a terrible bartender. Embarrassingly so. Terrible enough that he insisted that she just watch him for the rest of their shift, assuring her that it was for the best.

“It will be a slow night,” He said, wiping down the remnants of the third pint she had spilled. “A good way for you to learn the ropes. Nice and easy.”

Anna nodded, accepting her wounded pride. In the late afternoon and early evening, business was slow. It was quiet, a few patrons here and there ordering a drink or two. She was able to observe Harry interacting with the regulars and took mental notes of what people seemed to like. She thought it was quite pleasant.

Until it wasn’t a slow night.

Evidently, there was a football game earlier in the day, and all of the men came trailing in afterward. The pub became boisterous and loud. It was overwhelming, to say the least.

“Just work on collecting the empty glasses,” Harry motioned with his head to the cluttered tables from across the bar. “I’ll take care of everything up here.”

Anna nodded, typing the apron around her waist tighter. She weaved through the crowds, deftly trying to avoid any leering gazes or comments. Of course, she made quite a few spills, and mentally kicked herself for being so clumsy, for letting her composure waver. In the beginning, she was slow going back and forth from table to bar, but eventually, she was able to get into a rhythm.

She placed the last few glasses on the bartop, exhaling heavily. The pub was finally empty. She glanced down at her blouse. This morning, the linen was freshly pressed and the color of cream, but this evening, however, it was stained with splotches of beer and other liquors. She frowned.

It was late.

Harry wiped a forearm across his brow. “You did well.”

“You’re very kind,” Anna wiped her hands on her apron, shaking her head. “I did terribly.”

He laughed, quite loudly.

“I’ll finish cleaning up here,” He nodded. “You go catch a breath in the back.”

“No, no, let me help with the clean-up. I made most of the mess.”

“You had a long enough day today, and you’ll have a longer one tomorrow.” He smiled, waving her off with his hand. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Thank you.”

Anna walked into the back room and sighed, collapsing onto a chair. She held her face in her hands. Her body ached, her feet especially, and her head throbbed. But more than anything, she was embarrassed. She was tired and wanted to weep. It was silly. Her first day of work and she wanted to cry. She swallowed sharply and stood up, untying the apron from her waist and tossing it over the back of the chair.

There was no point in crying, she would make do.

When she stepped back into the main room, Harry wasn’t alone anymore. It was the man who she spoke to a few days before, Mr. Shelby, standing by the bar with a glass in front of him. A cigarette dangled between two fingers, the smoke curling in the hazy lights above the bar. He didn’t notice her at first, and if he did, he didn’t make it known.

It wasn’t until Harry cleared his throat, that he tilted his head toward her.

Anna glanced down at her beer-stained blouse and grimaced. She certainly felt like a mess, she could only imagine what she looked like. With a sheepish smile, she combed her fingers through her hair and smoothed it all over one shoulder.

“Miss Caldwell,” He nodded.

“Good evening, Mr. Shelby,” She smiled, folding her coat over her forearm.

“Heading home?” He turned away from her.

“Yes, just about.”

“Mrs. Gray instructed me to walk her home on these late nights,” Harry quickly interjected. She could've sworn Mr. Shelby scoffed at that.

“Ah, waiting on me then?” The other man raised an eyebrow.

“No, no, of course not Mr. Shelby.” Harry’s voice wavered. Anna noticed his eyes widening, like he was nervous, almost.

“I’m sure you’re both tired,” He finished the rest of his drink in one swig, and then fully turned to her. “First day, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” Anna could feel her face flushing. A disastrous first day, she thought. “Harry was an excellent teacher.” She could see Harry beaming at that comment.

“Ah,” Mr. Shelby nodded, stacking a few coins beside his empty glass. He placed his cap on his head and tipped the brim to the barkeep, “Goodnight.” He paused for a moment, and then he tilted his head toward Anna. “And to you, Miss Caldwell.”

“Goodnight, Mr. Shelby,” She smiled, her cheeks growing warm. “Thank you again, for this opportunity.”

He hummed in response, shrugging on his coat as he walked to the door.

By the time Harry and Anna had locked up the pub and were outside, Mr. Shelby was halfway down the street. She watched as he walked away, unable to tear her attention away from his retreating form.

As if on cue, it started snowing again. The little white flecks looked more like the ashes that spewed from the factory chimneys.

“This way, Miss.” Harry’s voice interrupted her musings. She blushed, feeling silly for mooning over a man she hardly knew.

Just as she was about to look away, she saw Mr. Shelby stop short. Anna’s heart skipped a beat when he turned around and looked at her from over his shoulder.

All was and quiet and cold.

#tommy shelby x oc #tommy shelby x reader #tommy shelby fanfic #peaky blinders fanfic

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flutteringdreams-matw · 3 years

Text

Out of Time (3/?)

Link to Ecto-Storm Series

First/Last

Summary: Paradoxes are tricky things - especially when it involves a 15 year old half ghost and his dark future living outside of the timeline. Danny is faced with impossible odds, out of control powers, haunting visions and three possible outcomes in his battle against his ultimate enemy. Sequel to Making to Grade - can be read as standalone. Updates on Sundays and the occasional Wednesday.

Sam rang the doorbell at Fentonworks three times, bouncing on her feet in anticipation. She glanced up at the green dome around the town, reflecting the sun that shone higher above. It had been up for a few hours now according to the news, but no word about why the shield was up in the first place. That included the lack of response from her half-ghost best friend.

"Sam!" Tucker called from behind. She turned to see the teen running up the sidewalk toward Fentonworks, waving to indicate his arrival.

"Any word?" She asked as he came to the steps.

"Not since Jazz texted," Tucker said, frowning.

The door swung open, revealing a tired looking Maddie Fenton to the teens. "Sorry kids, I was in the lab," she told them, ushering them inside. "It's been a long night."

"Where's Danny?" The question was out of Sam's mouth before the door even closed. "What happened?"

"Upstairs," Maddie replied, pursing her lips slightly as she looked up the stairs worriedly. "We'll explain in the kitchen."

The Fenton's kitchen looked like a war zone; various books and papers were scattered across the table with multiple broken inventions and cups of coffee filling whatever space they could. Jack was on the phone, talking loudly and pacing back and forth. Jazz sat staring at her laptop screen, glancing at the pile of weapons at her feet every so often. Sensing the newcomers, Jazz looked up. "Oh good, you're here," she said.

"What happened?" Sam repeated, looking at the chaos.

"Danny had another dream," Jazz explained, her expression turning dark. "Dad managed to wake him after a while, but he freaked out. He flew up to the Ops Center and put up the shield using one of his deeper energy levels. We've been up ever since making sure all our weapons are prepared."

"For what, exactly?" Tucker asked, eyebrow raised.

"Dan."

Sam gasped, exchanging worried looks with Tucker. "How long?" she probed.

"That, we're not sure about," Maddie said, leaning against the counter with a sigh. "Danny passed out after telling us about him."

Jack hung up the phone with a sigh, looking displeased. "Mads, Vladdy's going live at 9am; we're going to need to figure out what to say about the shield. He's going against it."

Maddie frowned at the mention of the mayor. "Jack, that's in 2 hours. We still don't know why he put it up in the first place!"

"You're sure it wasn't just a bad dream?" Tucker queried hopefully.

Jack nodded grimly. "There's no question. Whatever Danny saw, he believed it was real."

The group stood in silence as that sunk in. Sam frowned worriedly as she saw the toll of the night on the other Fentons. Realizing what was needed, she looked over at Jazz. "What can we do?"

Jazz looked at the girl gratefully. "I only met him briefly after Danny got stuck in the future," she said thoughtfully. "You guys saw more of what he can do. Other the peeler, what should we focus on in terms of weapons?"

"I think defense should be the top priority," Tucker rebutted, bringing his hand to his chin in thought. "Danny's not going to be able to keep the shield up and fight; getting a strong ghost shield could help buy some time. Something for the rest of the town too in case the shield goes down. Remember the Ghost King? Those creepy skeletons caused a lot of damage."

"If we recalibrate some of the bazookas for blasting use over transferring back to the Ghost Zone, that may also help," Sam added. "Dan's strong; we'll need things that will pack a punch."

Jack frowned. "Hold on - we're treating this like the Ghost King invasion? Isn't that overreacting a little bit?"

"No."

All five occupants of the kitchen turned to Danny's decisive response. He was dressed, but pale and clammy, leaning heavily against the door frame for support. In one arm he had a USB key, the other his backpack. He grimaced slightly as sparks of green ecto-energy appeared to move through his chest before he managed to suppress them and walk toward the table, silence following him.

"I didn't think you'd be up so soon," Jazz said with a frown, eying her brother worriedly.

Danny dropped into an open seat heavily, sighing. "Neither did I," he replied honestly. He turned to his attention to the information scattered in front of him. He sighed again, putting his elbows on the table and brought his thumbs to the bridge of his nose, holding his head up.

"You look awful," Tucker stated.

"Thanks Tuck, tell me more," Danny replied cynically. Maddie frowned in concern, walking over to the teen and knelt beside him.

"Danny, you really don't look well," Maddie told him softly. "How do you feel?"

"You mean other than holding up a shield above the entire town and dealing with the fact your worst enemy escaped?" he asked drily. Maddie didn't answer and waited until Danny exhaled. "I've been better," he admitted. "The shield is taking a lot out of me."

Maddie bit her lip, unsure if she should press him further on the topic. She looked over to Jack worriedly, who answered her unasked question by shaking his head. "What happened last night?" Maddie questioned instead.

Danny scrunched his eyes tightly as another set of sparks went through his chest. Once it subsided, he exhaled loudly. "I went into my mindscape again. We were in Clockwork's tower, but Clockwork wasn't there. The thermos Dan was trapped in was cracked and then it exploded, he escaped and then that set of dreams came back," he explained slowly. "Next thing I knew, Dad woke me up."

"And then you put up the shield," Sam surmised. Danny grunted in confirmation. "Are you sure what you saw was real?"

"Yeah," Danny breathed.

Sam sighed. "How long until he attacks Amity Park?"

Danny finally opened his eyes and sat up in the chair, looking at his family and friends around him. "I don't know," he said solemnly. "But that shield will buy us some time when he does show up. It's not letting anyone in."

"Wait… you're planning on keeping that shield up?" Sam asked him incredulously. "For how long?"

"As long as it takes," Danny said. Remembering the USB stick, he handed it to his Mother. "Here. It's my ghost file on Dan."

Maddie frowned at the offered storage device. "I thought we already had access to all your files?"

"Not this one," Danny replied darkly. "It has all the information that we need to figure out how to beat him." Danny glanced at the clock, frowning slightly. "We're going to be late," he announced, standing slowly.

"You're actually planning on going to school?!" Sam exclaimed angrily. "Danny, you just had electricity running through your body a minute ago. Don't you think you should take the day?"

Danny frowned, about to argue, before his left eye turned green and he faltered, more electricity flooding his body. With a cry of pain, he grabbed the chair he was just sitting on for support, vaguely hearing his name being called.

The green shield shone brilliantly, holding steady before he felt it shudder. Someone was attacking… from the inside? His vision shifted and he saw the white cape, blue skinned ghost attacking with various forms of pink energy. Vlad? Why was he attacking-

"Danny breathe!"

Danny was brought out of his vision, gasping for air, by his mother shaking his shoulders. As he readjusted, he realized he had fallen onto the floor. Sam was next to him, Tucker and Jazz were in front, all looking very worried. "What… happened?" he asked through gasps.

"Your eye changed colour," Sam told him. Maddie nodded to Sam and the girl moved closer to support her friend. "Then you lit up like Skulker's suit when it gets hacked and collapsed. You just sort of stared into space until your Mom got through to you."

"Did you see something?" Tucker queried. Danny nodded.

"Vlad," he said simply. "He's attacking the shield."

Maddie paused from where she was in the kitchen and turned to her son. "Are you sure?" she asked slowly. "Your father was just on the phone with him – he's doing a press conference about the shield this morning."

"Plasmius," Danny corrected quickly. Maddie pressed her lips together at the swift correction but said nothing. "I think he's trying to test the strength of it and whether he could bring it down."

"Here we go!" Jack boomed as he ran up the stairs from the lab; Danny hadn't even realized the man had left until now. In his hand, he held a small silver device with the shiny green Fenton logo on it. "The Fenton E-Scanner! Good thing we finished it yesterday."

Maddie took the device from her husband and walked over to her son, who eyed the device warily. "It's just an ecto-energy reader Danny," she assured, showing him the device. "Whatever you're doing is taking more energy than you realize." Once he nodded his consent, Maddie brought the scanner to his forehead. After a few seconds, it beeped and Maddie read the readings. She frowned slightly as she looked at the teens in front of her. "No school for you, young man," she told him. "The last thing you need is to have another episode like this. We'll call Ethelwulf after we deal with that press conference – that way we can create an excuse to stop anyone attacking the shield."

Danny frowned, but nodded his confirmation to Maddie. "Just don't tell the school a ghost stole my face again, would you?" Maddie scowled at the reminder of the flimsy excuse but nodded all the same. She looked at Jack, glanced at their son worriedly, before they headed down to the lab, leaving the four teens in the kitchen.

Jazz sighed. "You guys want a ride?" she asked Sam and Tucker, standing.

"Thanks Jazz!" Tucker exclaimed happily.

Jazz waved off his gratitude. "Least I can do for calling you over so early." She turned to her brother in fake annoyance. "Don't do anything stupid while we're gone okay?"

Danny made a face. "No promises."

She gave a pointed look at Tucker before leaving the kitchen. Danny felt the eyes of his friends move toward him and readied himself for the double attack.

"You're using raw energy with the shield, aren't you?" Tucker accused.

Danny, to his credit, didn't deny it. "More like a combination of core and raw energy."

"I know Frostbite said to trust your instincts, but don't you think this is a little much?"

"You saw what he could do," Danny argued. "If I'm able to block him out, even for a bit, then I'm going to risk it."

"And what happens when you face him?" Sam asked, anger starting to lace her voice. "Are you going to try and keep the shield up too? Cause I hate to tell you, but you're barely able to stand without looking like a malfunctioning toaster oven."

Danny let out a frustrated sigh. "I don't know okay?" he said. "I just wanted to make sure he couldn't get to Amity Park."

"Gee, if only you could ask world renowned ghost hunters to put up a ghost shield around the town," Tucker said sarcastically.

"Remember, the wail can go through shields," Danny told him, voice rising. "Managed to get through the one in the future at any rate. Besides, if I learned anything from Fear's little science experiment, I know that he'll have trouble with this shield."

"Right, the shield you put up when you had lost control of your powers," Sam reminded angrily. "The one where you were unconscious for almost a week after you defeated him. The one where you almost died after discovering those powers in order to save us."

Danny flinched at the unsaid accusation. Apologetic blue eyes found fearful violet ones before the boy sighed, all the fight draining from him. "I don't want to lose you," he admitted quietly.

Sensing her victory, Sam's face softened at the admission. "Well, we don't want to lose you," she said softly. "You're not alone. I'm here."

Danny realized how close Sam was to him in that moment, still holding him upright, vaguely understanding the weight of those words. He stared at her and she stared back, almost frozen with anticipation of who would say what next.

And then Tucker coughed, making both teens jump out of their thoughts. Sam let go of Danny and looked away, blushing, while Danny caught eyes with his other best friend. Tucker's smug smile made Danny's cheeks grow warmer as he cursed his friend's presence. "I'm here too, in case you're wondering," Tucker teased lightly. Danny glared half-heartedly before the dark skinned boy continued. "Your parents, Jazz, us – we have your back. Sam's right, this shield is going to take a lot of energy from you. If you want to defeat your older jerky self, you'll need to not have your raw energy powers in that shield."

Danny sighed as his sister came back into the kitchen, backpack in tow. He pushed himself upright, Sam hovering over him like a mother hen, as he sat back down at the table. He shot a grateful smile at the girl before frowning at the information in front of him. "I guess I'll go through this stuff," he said distastefully, gesturing toward the pile of weapons at the opposite end.

"Don't hurt yourself," Jazz warned, jingling her car keys toward their backdoor.

Danny smiled wryly. "That's the point, isn't it? The best weapons against him are the best weapons against me."

:-=-:

Dome Watch – Day Three

Three days since the mysterious shield went up around Amity Park and residents are wondering why here? Why now?

Word from City Hall yesterday confirmed that town hero Danny Phantom is responsible for the shield around the town. There is still no confirmation on what warranted the attack but it's brought many residents back to last year, where the town was taken hostage by the Ghost King and again in the summer when Phantom did this last. Unlike the previous domes, residents can leave the town, but require a more forceful approach before being allowed back in.

Resident ghost experts Jack and Maddie Fenton assured the public two days ago that the shield means no harm, but many of their critics, including Mayor Masters, have questioned their authority of the matter with the truce with Phantom being quite new.

More on page 7.

William Lancer frowned as the school bell rang, putting the paper down as he watched his English Class come into the classroom in various forms of enthusiasm – most of them low. This particular class had changed quite in the past year though he supposed the now constant ghost attacks contributed to most of it. Valerie Gray, for instance, sat herself in the front corner; away from everyone she once called her friend. She was a loner, keeping her head down, doing the work and working at least 3 jobs to start saving for college.

Dash Baxter and Kwan Wu's laughter brought the teacher's attention to the A-list of the grade. They were chatting openly about something, occasionally catching the attention of Paulina Sanchez. Lancer assumed they were either talking about the dome or about Phantom. Due to the look on the latter's face, he'd guess Phantom.

He scanned the room as the second bell rang, looking for any missing seats; Only one today. "No Mr. Fenton? Third day in a row," He mused out loud. His two friends at the back looked at each other worriedly. That got the man's attention.

Sam Manson's love of protests, nature, and veganism only amplified this year, but now that they moved onto subjects that peaked her interest, she was easily a top student. Tucker Foley seemed to buckle down a little more this year, getting in nowhere near as much trouble as he did last year and continued his A streak from the year before.

Daniel Fenton on the other hand? Almost two years in High School and he was still an enigma that Lancer still couldn't crack. The only clue the man had that something was going on with him was when his friends shared that look. The one where they knew more to whatever the Fentons claimed him to miss school. The excuses were rather ridiculous – sleeping in, stuck in the weapons vault, trapped in an alternate dimension. Lancer's personal favourite was when they claimed a ghost stole his face and went across town broadcasting him missing. Whether the Fentons knew what Danny was into, Lancer wasn't sure, but that exchange between Manson and Foley, the one of worry, concern and downright fear that they exchange when he's not in the room? There was definitely something going on with Danny Fenton.

"Pens out, desks clear," Mr. Lancer announced, brushing aside his thoughts for a moment. "Test time." The groans of teenage angst and lack of preparedness reach his ears. "Essay question is on the board people. Tell me if Macbeth's choices led to his downfall or if it was all fated to happen. You have the period."

The murmurings of the teens in front of him petered out as he passed out the test, and eventually the scratching of pens to paper greeted his ears. Once the group of sophomores were writing, Lancer sat back at his desk and absently looked down out at the paper once more. The truce between Phantom and the Fentons, however new it might be, seemed to help keep most of the attacks away from the school – it had done wonders for his curriculum delivery. Thankfully, there hadn't been a ghost attack since Phantom put up the shield, but there was no sign of the ghost in question since all of this began. Come to think of it, Lancer couldn't remember when he last saw the Fentons not on a news conference.

Looking up at the empty desk, Lancer sighed as his thoughts came back to his missing pupil. Danny's attendance was far from perfect, but the boy had made a large effort to be at school more often. His random disappearances were less frequent than the previous year, and his overall grades had improved. Even his general demeanour had improved; Danny's start to the school year seemed brighter than anytime the man had seen since the boy started at Casper. The weight he seemingly carried with him was still there, but wasn't as soul crushing as it appeared to be.

"Mr. Lancer?"

The teacher jumped out of his thoughts as Danny Fenton himself stood at his desk. "Mr. Fenton!" Lancer exclaimed, surprised. Right on cue, Manson and Foley's heads flew up from their tests, agape at the teen. "You startled me!"

"Sorry," Danny said sheepishly. Lancer frowned as he noticed the bags under his student's eyes and the paleness of his complexion. "My Mom told me to give this to you." He waved a piece of paper from his hand before he handed it to the teacher.

Lancer opened it and saw the neat handwriting of Maddie Fenton. "Please excuse Danny after first period due to illness." Lancer looked the teen over again; Danny did look very ill. "You know Mr. Fenton, I would've been happy to give you a makeup test once you felt better."

Danny smiled at the man, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Mom's overreacting," he said with a shrug. "Besides, I didn't want to miss anymore school. This was the compromise."

Doubting the boy's words, Lancer sighed. "Very well," he said, handing Danny the test. "Essay question's on the board."

With a small nod, Danny turned to get to his desk. Mr. Lancer watched his slow, staggered steps curiously. Danny moved liked he was injured, stiffly moving as if he favoured one side. Lancer glanced at his two best friends and almost gasped at their expression. Tucker looked almost exasperated but mostly concerned. However Sam… she had so many emotions on her face directed at the boy, Lancer wasn't sure how Danny could weather it. He must have given them some sort of gesture, because both teens softened their expressions slightly, but still looked extremely concerned as Danny took his seat.

Lancer glanced at the student once more as he started writing, before looking out the window. The shield illuminated the town in a sickly green, creating eerie shadows across the school. Lancer shuddered in remembrance of how the town looked during the Ghost King invasion.

About halfway through the period, Lancer started to walk through the aisles of desks, attracting wandering eyes back to their tests. Sure enough, his star students were already finished and just waiting for the end of class. As he got the final row, he sensed something was off. Sam was still writing, with the occasional glimpses toward Danny, whereas Tucker had completed the test and was staring directly at his friend, concerned. Frowning, Lancer moved to Fenton's desk.

Danny was writing, slowly, but his body was shaking. He was paler than before and ultimately looked like he might be sick. "Mr. Fenton?" Lancer asked quietly. The boy didn't answer. Some of the students looked up and toward the commotion in the back; Lancer could swear he hear Baxter snickering slightly. "Danny?" Lancer touched his shoulder and with a soft groan Danny fell sideways. "All the Bright Places!" Lancer exclaimed, quickly moving to catch the boy. His eyes were closed, breathing ragged as the teacher tried to rouse him. "Daniel! Are you alright!?" Lancer moved the boy back upright in his seat, holding him steady. Eventually, Danny opened his eyes, blinking a few times before his gaze settled on his teacher.

"Mr. Lancer?" he asked, confused. Whispers started around the classroom.

"Fenton fainted!" Dash exclaimed unhelpfully, earning laughter from a group of his peers in his direct vicinity.

"Thank you for that, Mr. Baxter," Lancer said curtly, still looking Danny over as the boy tried to regain his bearings. "Daniel, perhaps you should go to the Nurse's office." When the teen in front of him didn't register his voice, Lancer frowned; he doubted the boy would make it on his own.

"I'll go with him!" The teacher turned, eyebrows raised at the three voices. He had expected Manson and Foley, but Ms. Gray's outburst? She hadn't shown interest in her peers since last year.

Manson and Gray were glaring at each other from across the room, some sort of rivalry shining in both their eyes. The concern for the boy was evident, but Lancer could sense the anger, worry and concern that Sam felt for Danny ooze out of her body. Mr. Foley on the other hand? It was a testament to how dire the situation must be for the teen to volunteer to go to the nurse's office.

Glancing back toward the ill teen, Lancer sighed. They didn't have time for the teacher to be suspicious. "Alright Mr. Foley, as you've finished."

Tucker hastily got out of his seat, gathered Danny's items and helped the sick student upright. Danny faltered as he stood, but regained his balance and managed to get himself out of the room, Tucker following closely behind him. Mr. Lancer watched them go, frowning slightly. There was something nagging him about this situation, but he couldn't place it. Once the students were down the hall, the teacher sighed as he pushed aside his worry yet again.

"Back at it Sophomores. The more you dally, the lower the grade."

:-=-:

The world exploded as he finally escaped that foul prison. Dan stretched, moving his stiff limbs as he looked at his surroundings. "Finally," he said, looking around the burning lair around him. "Now, where is that infernal Time Ghost." Flying upwards in the tower, Dan started to launch ecto-blasts at various clocks, trying to goad Clockwork into appearing. "Clockwork!" He yelled dramatically as he continued to destroy the lair.

A large chime made Dan stopped suddenly, enveloped in the chaos surrounding him. His eyes drifted to Clockwork's time glass as various battles involving his younger self played back at him through the blue flames. Dan frowned. "Of course, new timeline." He floated in place, watching his past self grow stronger in the time he was detained. It couldn't have been more than a year. The flames cracked the orb, running directly through an image of Danny fighting what looked like a large plant ghost.

"Perhaps I should show him what it's like to have a blast from your past," he mused, a small smile appearing at his face. He chuckled darkly as his hands lit up with green energy and broke the time glass in front of him. "Or rather, his future." Dan Phantom flew up and out of the burning tower, leaving behind a fading image of fifteen year old Danny Phantom on Clockwork's broken time glass. A few seconds later, horrific sonic waves reverberated through the tower, enhancing the flames and making the tower itself rumble. With a final crash, Clockwork's Clock Tower imploded, engulfed in flames.

:-=-:

Danny stumbled into a series of lockers, gripping it tightly as he heard Tucker come up behind him. They were out of earshot from Lancer's class and halfway to the nurse's office.

"What the hell Danny!?" Tucker asked angrily, arms crossed and a dangerous glare on his face. Danny sighed as he turned to his friend. "You're lucky you only passed out in there!"

"We still haven't gotten a hold of Ethelwulf," Danny told him, standing up straighter. "It's been three days; the school would be looking for answers if I missed another one. I needed to make an appearance somehow."

Tucker sighed, the anger still not leaving his face. "Why'd you pass out this time? Someone trying to get into the shield or another vision?"

"Vision," Danny said, looking away.

Tucker frowned. "It's another of Dan escaping, isn't it?" Tucker accused. The teen in question stayed silent. Taking that as his answer, Tucker sighed again. "Danny, that's the sixth one since the shield began! Don't you think some of these are just dreams?"

"Maybe," he conceded, frowning slightly. "But it doesn't explain why I keep getting them, or why they're appearing at random."

The two teens stood silent, waiting for the other to make the first move. Tucker sighed, his shoulders sagging in defeat as he walked closer to his friend. "Danny, you need to take the shield down," Tucker told him quietly, staring out the large window of the Casper High Hallway to their football field. Danny also turned his vision to the outside world. He felt the shield hum through his powers, frowning as he considered his friend's plea. "It's taking way too much energy to sustain and for what? Just a hunch that the worst villain you ever faced might be coming back?"

"Isn't that a reason to keep it up?" Danny refuted, eyebrow raised.

"Not at the risk to yourself!" Tucker exclaimed exasperatedly. "Let's say you're right, and he attacks the town. How are you going defend yourself? How are you going to fight?"

"It affects me less as Phantom."

"Bull," Tucker said angrily. "We both know it affects you regardless. You're using raw energy remember? There's a balance between you overextending the amount of core energy, which makes you relive the portal accident, and your base powers." Tucker's anger lessened a bit, trying to get his friend to see reason. "At least take back some of your energy; if you feel something attacking the shield then go nuts. This is too dangerous and there's no point in draining yourself."

Danny sighed, taking inventory of his powers. Tucker was right; he felt exhausted. He opened his mouth to agree, but gasped instead, doubling over in pain. Something was wrong. His eyes went green, mouth agape at an unseen foe.

"Danny!" Tucker exclaimed worriedly. The half-ghost looked up at his friend, alarmed.

"Duck," he gritted out, before the world was drowned out by a deep wail. The ground beneath them shook as Danny, biting back a scream, held the shield up. The windows shattered, leaving glass scattered around the teens as Tucker tried to keep his friend upright. After what felt like hours, the wail stopped, sending both teens crashing to the floor. Tucker looked at Danny with concern, watching his friend pant from exertion as the shield shuddered above them. Dread pooled in the pit of Tucker's stomach as he realized what that attack meant.

"Danny…" Tucker trailed off, wide eyed. Danny didn't answer; once he reclaimed his breathing, he gave Tucker a long look, causing the dark skinned teen's eyes to widen further in alarm. "Danny wait!" Tucker exclaimed, reaching out to his friend. It was too late; Danny transformed, grunting slightly, and took off, leaving his best friend behind in the destroyed hallway.

Tucker stood, watching him fly off in the distance before cursing. "Sam's going to kill me," he muttered, jumping up and running down the halls toward Jazz's homeroom.

#cartoons #danny phantom #fanfiction #danny fenton #split!danny #Fenton bonding #action #adventure #cross posted on ao3 #friendship #no phantom planet #But his parents know #Tucker being a bro #Mr. Lancer appears #pls like and reblog #ecto storm series #Out of Time #whump incoming #multichapter

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five-rivers · 4 years

Text

Darkness/Poison

This is part of the ‘Doorways’ series (aka Danny is an eldritch abomination and Jack and Maddie have no normal friends so they decide to go on a road trip to make sure none of their friends from college have become semi-satanic soul-eating holes in reality AU).

AO3 link to series.

The Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle did not have the smoothest ride in the world, but Danny was used to it. Also, he had driven the Specter Speeder through the Carnivorous Canyon and ridden in Johnny 13’s sidecar.

Point being, if his parents didn’t want him to fall asleep, they should have told him. Or, at least, not dragged him out of bed at four thirty in the morning (both to get an early start and to avoid the reporters and other undesirables who had taken to circling Fentonworks like vultures).

Look. Danny might have been an unspeakable eldritch horror, a superhero, and one of the richest human beings on the face of the Earth, but he was also a teenager. Not to mention sleep deprived.

Besides, Mom and Dad had said their next Paranormal Research Club friend was miles and miles away. They wouldn’t reach his town until much later in the day. Danny had plenty of time to sleep safely.

Which is why he was so disgruntled when Dad shook him awake with a cheery “We’re here!”

“Where’s here?” asked Danny, rubbing his eyes and noting sadly how far away his portal back in Amity Park was.

“Breakfast,” said Jazz, voice heavy with sleep. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one trying to take advantage.

“’Kay,” said Danny, briefly wrestling with the seatbelt. He caught Mom staring as he opened the door. “What?” he asked frowning.

“Nothing,” she said, unconvincingly.

Whatever. Danny could figure it out later, when he was more awake. He jumped to the ground.

“I think you guys will really like it here!” said Dad, waving at the building. “The food’s great! An old friend owns the place. Your mom and I used to come here all the time before you were born, when we were commuting between Amity and Chicago.”

Danny nodded along, staring up at the neon sign that read ‘Red Flower Dinner.’ Then his brain caught up, and he slowly turned his head to look at Dad.

“’Old friend,’” he said. “What do you mean old friend?”

Dad blinked at him, uncomprehending. Jazz came to his rescue.

“Dad, we’re doing this whole trip because all of your old friends are lunatics,” she explained.

“They’re not!” said Dad, defensively. “Besides, Marianne was never part of our club. She didn’t even go to U of M.”

“She was a waitress at our favorite hangout,” explained Mom. “She got enough saved to buy this restaurant around the time we graduated. She’s few years older than us.”

“Saved? I thought a relative died, and she got an inheritance?” asked Dad.

Danny groaned. “Do you not see how suspicious that is?”

“Come on, Danno! We can have normal friends.”

“No, you can’t. If a normal thing ever interacts with our family in any way, it immediately becomes abnormal simply because of how unlikely it is for anything like that to happen.” He dug the heels of his hands into his eyes until he saw stars.

“He’s got a point,” said Jazz. “Maybe we could go to a different dinner?”

“But,” said Dad, “she makes the best breakfast. And she really is normal. She wasn’t involved in any ghost stuff.”

“Are you really telling me you never talked to her about ghost stuff at all?” asked Danny, suspiciously.

“Well, we did,” said Dad. “But we talk to everyone about ghost stuff.”

“Dad…”

Dad inhaled and heaved a huge sigh, shoulders sagging. “Alright, Danno. I get what you’re saying. We can go somewhere else… Even if it won’t be as good.”

Okay. Now Danny felt bad.

Unfair.

“Well,” he said. “I guess we could check and make sure she’s not, you know, haunted or anything. That’s why we’re doing this, I guess.”

Dad brightened immediately, and Danny had to grab the back of his shirt to keep him from running in.

“But remember, if I say we have to go, we have to go. That’s the deal.”

Dad nodded. Danny let go. He sighed as Dad disappeared into the building.

“Is the food really that good?” asked Danny.

“Marianne grows a lot of her own herbs,” offered Mom with a shrug. “Everything she makes is at least decent. But, well,” she grimaced as she held the door open for her children. “The reason we liked her so much was that she always seemed interested in our research. We liked talking to someone who took us seriously.”

“Wonderful,” deadpanned Jazz.

The décor inside the dinner was bright red and floral. The seats and benches were upholstered in shiny, dyed leather. A long glass counter displayed pies and other desserts under bright lights. The air was warm and smelled faintly of cherries. A radio station played quietly in the background, blurring the chatter of the other guests.

Danny rubbed his eyes again. Ugh. He was tired. Sleeping in a moving vehicle was a special kind of unrestful. Heh. Unrestful dead. More like unrested dead. That was him.

(Someday, he was going to track down the first person to say, ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead,’ and give them a stern talking to.)

“Marianne!” boomed Dad, waving at someone in the kitchen behind the order window.

There was a gasp. “Jack Fenton! Is that you?” A woman with greying brown curls leaned out, then ducked away briefly before reappearing through a door. “I haven’t seen you in years!” She threw her arms out, hugging first Dad and then Mom.

Danny bristled at the perceived threat to his parents but managed to control himself. This was nothing. Everything was fine. Just because every one of his parents’ friends so far had something weird and potentially fatal going on so far, it didn’t give him the right to police their every interaction with other human beings.

“Are these your kids?” asked Marianne, excitedly. “Oh, my goodness, you must be Jazz, and you’re Danny? I’ve only seen you in pictures, but you’ve grown so much. You’ll be as tall as your dad in no time.”

“Hope so,” said Danny, knowing there was no chance of that happening whatsoever.

Not with his human body, anyway.

“I hope we’ll get a chance to talk,” she continued, “but I have things on the stove. Why don’t you go ahead and find a seat? We’ll get to you soon.”

“Looking forward to it, Marianne!” said Dad, waving again.

“Is she alright?” asked Mom quietly as they slid into a corner booth.

Danny wound up in between Mom and Jazz, which was good, because Dad tended to elbow whoever he was sitting by. In this case, Mom, who could take it.

“I think so?” He rubbed his eyes. “But I can’t just sense everything. Don’t forget that.”

“Stop rubbing your eyes,” said Mom.

“They’re itchy,” said Danny. “I think I got some sleep sand in them or something.”

Mom’s expression softened. Danny blinked at it and wondered when he’d gotten so used to seeing an edge of suspicion on her face.

“It could be allergies,” she said. “It’s that time of year. Or it could be that you keep rubbing them.” She tugged his hands away from his face. “Either way, it isn’t healthy to keep touching your eyes, sweetie.”

It wasn’t that she didn’t have a point, but Danny wasn’t entirely sure he could get sick. Not anymore. Maybe if he was far enough away from Amity Park, spread thin enough between his two major physical manifestations… If his body was human enough… Maybe figuring that out could be a fun family bonding experience. Not.

He yawned. He wanted to go back to sleep. Being in here, with the warm scented air and not-quite-white background noise, only made slumber more inviting.

Still. His family’s ability to protect themselves was lacking. Danny at least had to stay conscious in case Marianne decided to channel the spirit of Locusta or something. Ancients, wouldn’t that be typical?

A waiter came, introduced themself, and handed out menus. Danny failed to process most of the waiter’s prepared speech, and his eyes drifted down to the menu.

It seemed… normal, for lack of a better word. Slightly worn, a couple stains on the paper behind the plastic protector. The pages had a border of blotchy red flowers. The items were all typical breakfast foods. Nothing jumped out at him.

He wasn’t even hungry. Actually, if he thought about it, he was a little nauseated. Sometimes that happened when he didn’t eat for a while, though, so maybe he was hungry, after all?

Why did bodies have to be so complicated?

“What are you getting?” asked Jazz, who was morally unable to make a food order until she’d taken a poll.

“I don’t know,” said Danny, folding his arms on the table and letting his head rest on them. “I’ll probably just get whatever you’re getting.”

Jazz frowned at him and repeated the question to their parents.

The waiter came back after a few minutes.

“I’ll have the Variety Breakfast!” said Dad, excitedly.

“The number five, please,” said Maddie. “Sausage links, not bacon.”

“Um,” said Jazz. “How about the Red Flower Special?”

“Excellent choice,” said the waiter, smiling. “Marianne grows all the seasonings for that herself, and the presentation is lovely.”

“I mean, it’s pancakes, right?” asked Jazz, nervously.

“It is, it is. What would you like for your side?” It took just a few seconds for the waiter to get the rest of Jazz’s order, then they turned to Danny. “And what are you having today?”

“Same as her,” said Danny, waving in Jazz’s general direction.

“Good choice, good choice,” said the waiter. “We’ll be back soon!”

“Thanks!” said Dad. He reached over Mom to pat Danny on the shoulder. “See? This is just a completely normal restaurant.”

“Mhm,” said Danny, dubiously. He’d believe it when he got out of here with his questionably mortal coil and squishy, murderable human family intact.

Okay. Maybe he was being a bit overdramatic, now. Was it because he was too far from the Amity portal? He’d been sure it wouldn’t significantly affect him, though. It wasn’t as if physical distance meant much in this context. ��Sure, he wasn’t on his home turf, but still…

Of course, he was a teenager. Teenagers were supposed to be overdramatic. At least, that’s what he’d heard. Being a teenager didn’t come with a manual any more than being a half-ghost superhero did, quirky TV shows about middle school notwithstanding.

Yeah. That sounded reasonable. He was a teenager who’d been woken early, and it was still early, and that meant the world was terrible. Excellent math.

He sipped at the water the waiter had left him, pleased with himself.

Which is when his and Jazz’s orders arrived. Danny caught a glimpse of red on him plate, abruptly recognized the prickling feeling in his eyes, expelled the water he was drinking from his nose, and propelled himself sideways across Mom and Dad and out of the booth.

“Ah!” he said, pointing at the red-tinted pancakes and the pretty little flowers on top.

The plating really was nice. Just like the waiter said.

The whole dinner was staring at him.

“He’s got allergies,” explained Jazz, her voice just a little too high pitched. “Just—Really horrible allergies. To flowers like this.”

“Blood blossoms,” said Danny. He was reasonably certain the things wouldn’t kill him, he wasn’t sure that anything short of something like Gula could kill him, but every encounter he had with them had been painful beyond belief, and he doubted that their being cooked would help very much with that.

“Right. Blood blossoms. The name always slips by me… Haha.”

“Oh my gosh,” said Marianne, rushing out of the kitchen. “I am so sorry. I didn’t know anyone was allergic to them! It’s just, you guys always talked about how they were lucky, and they got rid of bad spirits, so I thought I’d incorporate them, and they’re red, which is also lucky, and they taste so good—”

“Marianne,” said Mom, poking at one of the flowers, “where did you even get these? I thought they were extinct.”

“Oh,” said Marianne, “my uncle, the one who died, well I guess they’re all dead, now, but… The one who left me enough to buy the dinner? He worked in seed conservation. I got his personal collection.” She sniffed, apparently on the edge of tears.

“Ah,” said Mom, glancing at Danny. “That’s interesting. Um.” She slid out of the booth. “I’m really sorry, Marianne, but,” she gestured in Danny’s direction. “Food allergies.”

“He’s had breakouts just from being around them, before,” added Jazz, helpfully.

“Oh, no, no, I understand. Um. One second, let me give you my number, I don’t want to fall out of contact again, oh, dear. Tracy! Give me your notepad!”

It took several more minutes for all the Fentons to make their way back outside, most of which Danny spent staring into the dinner through the large front windows, keeping an eye on his family. Maybe he didn’t have ‘allergies’ in the typical sense but being around blood blossoms was making his skin itch and prickle unpleasantly.

Eventually, however, after Dad had shoved most of his order down his throat in a single go, they all got back into the GAV.

“Oh. My. Gosh,” said Jazz. “You two have no normal friends.”

#danny phantom #ectober week #ectober #ectober 2020 #ectober week 2020

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darks-ink · 4 years

Text

Antonym

Prompt: Danny is a ghost who became half-human after stumbling through a portal to the human world. Prompt by: @voidetrap Word count: 9,526

[AO3] [FFN] [more Phic Phight fics]

---

Tail trailing behind him like a comet’s, Phantom lazily twisted around a few floating chunks of rock. Around him, the ambient ectoplasm of the Ghost Zone ebbed and flowed as usual.

How could a world so centered around change, around what’s ever changing, be so boring? It felt like he’d been here for forever, that he’d seen every crummy corner of this existence. Oh, if only he could see the human world! He didn’t know what it was like—if he’d ever been human, he certainly didn’t have any memories of that time—but he’d heard stories! And what stories they were!

His favorites were the ones detailing the world away from humans, he was sure. The infinite reaches of space, an empty void much like the Ghost Zone except not. With planets and stars and life— life. With enormous balls of whatever that came into being, and then died, spectacularly! That changed whole eons with their coming and going!

And the best part, he thought, was that you didn’t actually have to go there to witness all that. You could stay on Earth, watch the ever-continuing bustle of Earth’s life, and still see space.

But there was no point in wistful thinking. Yes, portals to Earth were commonplace in the Ghost Zone, but the dimension was enormous. The chance of coming across one was practically nil.

Something in the atmosphere changed, suddenly, in a way that Phantom couldn’t describe, could only feel in his core. Could it really be…?

Unwilling to let this chance slip by, he raced towards the distortion. There was nothing visible, nothing to see or hear or smell, but he could feel it in his core. Where was it? He just had to find it!

A few moments of frantic flying and finally he found it. His core screamed, and suddenly Phantom felt overwhelmingly— overwhelmed. His euphoria at finding the spot was swept away in the sudden panic as his core went from screaming ‘purpose, purpose, here!’ to screaming ‘danger danger DANGER!’.

He paused, just a single second, to figure it out.

And his world flashed white, then black, and Phantom’s core quietened entirely.

---

When Phantom awoke again, it was… bright. Way brighter than he usually saw in the Ghost Zone, and he flinched. Shot up into a sitting position, his core jerking oddly in his chest.

“Oh!” a startled voice said, somewhere in the room. It was masculine, Phantom thought, but flat. The echo didn’t sound quite right. “Mads, he’s awake!”

Phantom wanted to look, wanted to know where he was and who was here with him, but his core still hadn’t settled down. It was thudding in his chest, a fast rhythmic thumping, like it was trying to break its way out of Phantom’s ectoplasm. None of the regular whirring or humming, and not even a hint of— of feeling to guide him.

“Hey,” the same voice as earlier said, softly, and suddenly next to him. “Are you okay, kid?”

His eyes snapped towards the source automatically, his core faltering for a brief moment. Big, was his first thought, followed by bright. Orange, though, not a color often seen in the Zone. Dark blue irises in white sclera, black hair, pink skin…

Pink skin?

Phantom ran his eyes over whoever was in front of him again. There was no mistaking it. No glow, not even the slightest hum of a core, and all soft and warm in coloration. This wasn’t a ghost at all! This was a human.

Holy shit, he really had gone through a portal to Earth!

“Jack, don’t scare him,” a second voice chastised, from his other side. Phantom turned to look at her, and yes, this one was definitely human as well. Smaller than the man, with auburn hair and violet irises, dressed in teal.

She crouched, one black-gloved hand hovering over Phantom’s shoulder, not quite touching. “Hi honey. This must all be very overwhelming. Do you… speak English?”

Why were they being all polite and stuff? He thought humans hated ghosts?

He opened his mouth to answer, but his tongue felt too heavy, and he couldn’t manage the words. Instead he grimaced, then nodded at her.

“Well, that’s convenient, at least.” She turned her head to look past Phantom and at the man. “Jack, can you go get him some water? He must be dehydrated.”

Phantom watched the man—Jack, apparently—get up and walk away. Now that he’d gotten used to the bright lights, he could finally look around.

They appeared to be inside, the room decently-sized but with no doors, only a staircase leading up. The entire thing was shiny and chrome-like. Metal plates, maybe? He didn’t know what humans used to construct their homes.

There were a bunch of tables in the room as well, made out of the same stuff as the walls. And, scattered just about everywhere, were parts. Bits that Phantom could never hope to put a name to, but that were clearly used for inventing. He’d seen Technus scavenge for them often enough to recognize the stuff.

Were these humans inventors, then? He wondered how common the occupation was for their kind.

He tried pulling his legs under him—the floor was getting hard and uncomfortable—but they were heavy. Heavy like his tongue, heavy like his core, heavy like… like every part of his body, really. Gravity was a thing, he knew, but he thought ghosts were more-or-less immune to its effects? And surely it wouldn’t weigh down his core, would it?

Resigning himself to having to adjust to it, he turned to look at what his leg was doing.

Uh.

Since when was his leg white? And his boots black?

His core did something weird again, and hop-skip that made Phantom feel very odd. He held out his hands for inspection.

Black gloves, white arms.

Phantom turned to look at the human woman next to him, who was frowning slightly—presumably at his sudden frantic behavior. “What—” His tongue still didn’t quite work, and it felt like he was talking through a straw, but he wanted, dammit, and he couldn’t be stopped that easily. “What color is my hair?”

Her frown deepened. “Black,” she said, cautiously.

Another skip-jump from his core, which Phantom was starting to fear wasn’t actually his core. He remembered, suddenly, the moment just before he’d blacked out. The moment his core had gone entirely silent.

With shaking hands, he reached for his left hand. Hooked a wavering finger underneath the edge of his glove, sliding it up further than he was supposed to be able to, until he found smooth skin at the wrist.

“Are the gloves bothering you?” the woman asked, and reached forward the grab his left glove as well. “Here, let me help, you’re shaking up a storm.”

And, before he could stop her, she tugged off the black glove entirely.

His hand was… was fleshy pink, a pale shade much like Jack and the woman. He clenched and unclenched it, hesitantly, watching it shift and pull with the movements. He felt sick, imagining the structures that laid underneath his skin that could be causing such things.

“Hey, shh, it’s okay,” the woman said, her voice soft and gentle. “What’s wrong? Can you tell me, so I can fix it?”

“I—” His throat felt dry, all of a sudden. Could it be dry?

“I’m human,” he said, but it sounded more like a question.

The woman blinked, seeming surprised. She pulled back a little, her hands lifting away from him. She had taken off his other glove, too. “Yes? What did you think you were?”

He opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly realized. The reason why these people were so nice, so polite… He swallowed, instead, around something big stuck in his throat.

Thudding footsteps echoed through the room, and Phantom snapped his head in the direction they were coming from.

Jack stepped off of the last step of the staircase, a glass with water in his massive black-gloved hand. “Sorry that it took a while. All our glasses were dirty.”

“All of them?” the woman asked skeptically. “Jack…”

The massive human laughed uncertainly, quickly coming over and handing the glass to Phantom. “Here you go, kiddo. Drink slowly.”

Phantom knew how to drink water, yes, thank you very much. Just because ghosts didn’t have to didn’t mean that they never drank anything.

But, he supposed, there might be a human anatomy thing going on here. Better take the advice, since it came from an expert on that sort of thing.

He took a sip, cautiously. The water was fresh, the taste almost empty, like something was absent from it. It felt cool in his throat, though, and felt great going down.

“Better?” the woman asked, still sitting next to him. He nodded, taking another sip.

“Can you tell us your name?” she asked, then.

“Um.” Another mouthful of cool water. Oh, he’d figured out what he was missing. Ectoplasm, of course! All water in the Zone was full of ectoplasm, just like, well. Everything. “Phantom?”

“Phantom?” Jack repeated, an odd tone to his voice. “Just Phantom?”

He shrugged, pushing down his initial spike of irritation. It was probably just a weird name for a human. Didn’t they have two names, anyway, like some of the more human-like ghosts insisted on doing as well? Like Ember and Spectra? Phantom had never really cared about that. He was fine with just being Phantom.

“I suppose that that works,” the woman said, but she was frowning at him anyway. She offered him one of her hands, his gloves in her lap. “My name is Maddie Fenton, and that’s Jack Fenton.”

Phantom stared at the hand for a moment, then took it. Maddie lifted and dropped their linked hands, and he repeated the motion.

“How long have you been in the Ghost Zone anyway, kid?” Jack had crouched on his other side again. “Do you remember how you got there?”

They seriously could not be asking that. Could they? He shrugged again. “I don’t know how I got there, or how long it’s been. Felt like forever.” He took another sip of the water. “I guess I must’ve died, though.”

“Nonsense,” Jack immediately denied, flapping a hand. “Portals between the human world and the Ghost Zone are plenty common, and can even be made with machinery!” They could? That was news to him.

Actually, wait. How did these guys know about the Ghost Zone, anyway? Wasn’t that some kind of secret? He thought most humans didn’t even believe in ghosts at all.

“So, like I was saying,” Jack continued, and Phantom realized he must’ve zoned out in the middle of man’s speech. “There are lots of explanations as to why a human teenager might’ve been in the Ghost Zone!”

“Yeah, I guess.” Phantom shrugged, loosely. “But I wasn’t a human teenager before I went through that portal just now. Or whatever it was, since I don’t think they normally turn ghosts into humans.”

“Phantom,” Maddie said with a scolding tone. “Young man, you do not get to joke about this.”

He stuck out his tongue at her, then paused to stare down at it. Ah, yes, a nice reddish pink, of course. He’d almost forgotten that humans were pink and red instead of green.

“If you were a ghost, though, why would you go through the portal?” Jack asked, apparently more willing to consider it than Maddie. “Why go to our world?”

“Because the Ghost Zone is boring,” Phantom exclaimed dramatically, throwing out his arms. “It’s just a lot of green and some purple and everything’s always the same. Out here you’ve got humans and they’re always changing and moving on and stuff.”

“Jack,” Maddie said, her voice strangely forced. “You can’t seriously think that he’s telling the truth about this? A ghost turned back into a human?”

Phantom rolled his eyes. “I never said anything about it turning me back into a human. I can’t remember ever being alive, and I know some ghosts just come into existence on their own, in the Zone. Although some of the others have told me that I looked pretty human, so I guess it’s possible that I was, at some point in the past, alive.”

“Jack,” Maddie said again.

“Mads,” Jack said back, and Phantom was wondering if they would notice if he left. “Whether he was a ghost or not, he’s human now, and he doesn’t remember anything. We can’t just leave him to his own devices, can we?”

She made a derisive noise. “Of course we can’t, honey. I’m not saying that. But I don’t know if it’s wise to play along with something like this.”

Ugh. They were talking about him like he wasn’t even there. Time to execute his brilliant plan.

He placed his glass onto the lab floor, then pushed himself up a little, supporting the weight of his upper body on his hands. And then, since neither human had noticed yet, slowly crept away.

“What harm can it do to listen to him?” Jack asked Maddie, apparently not noticing that their guest was leaving. “He’s been in the Ghost Zone for who knows how long. Even if he is just a confused boy, he must know tons about ghosts!”

That sounded reasonable, but also, why did they care? Why were these people so interested in ghosts and the Ghost Zone anyway? Weren’t they inventors? Or did humans just decorate their houses with scattered bits of inventions?

Something hard pressed against his back, and Phantom stopped crawling to look. Ah. The wall. A glance back towards Jack and Maddie revealed that they were too busy talking to notice his disappearance yet. That was…

Honestly, that was unbelievable. What was wrong with mankind?

Hm. Maybe he should stop thinking of them as humans and himself as a ghost, considering the circumstances.

Eh. Problem for future Phantom. What was the worst that could happen? He would die and become a ghost again?

Pressing his back against the metal wall, he pushed himself up onto his feet. Using his hands to brace himself—the metal cool underneath the bare skin and pink fingers—he even managed to stand properly. Ugh. His body was so heavy and, just, fleshy.

Another glance back towards the bickering humans to confirm that, yes, they were still bickering. Wild. They seemed satisfied to stick to words, though, which made sense based on how sluggish human bodies felt. And no powers, so they couldn’t just use ecto-blasts to circumvent that.

The staircase was set in another wall, but close to the corner where said wall met the one he was braced against. As long as those two didn’t look away from each other, Phantom was sure he could make it there.

Going up those stairs might be more challenging, but it looked like there might be a railing. Worst come to worst, he could always try pulling himself up the steps.

He stumbled—and almost fell—a couple of times, and tripped over his own heavy boots just before he had turned the corner. Hands lashing out, though, he managed to catch the railing and just barely stopped himself from face-planting into the floor. Embarrassing. Good thing no one saw that.

The stairs looked a lot more daunting from here, though. Phantom remembered how noisy it had been when Jack had gone down them, but… Jack was a lot bigger than him, and likely a lot heavier as well. That was an important thing with gravity, right?

Well, he’d come this far, so he wasn’t going to back out now. With one last glance backwards—and how were these people still talking about this?—Phantom confirmed that he was free to go. He grabbed hold of the railing with one hand, and planted the other against the opposing wall. Just, one step after another.

He kept his eyes turned downward the whole time, not wanting to see how far he still had to go. And, y’know, to make sure he didn’t trip on a step and fall down the stairs. That would be a stupid way to get caught.

So when the railing ended, suddenly, and his hand hit a metal surface instead… well, he was surprised!

Phantom looked up to see a door, marked with bright yellow and black stripes. A warning, he could guess, but for what?

He decided it didn’t really matter, reaching for the doorknob. It went down smoothly, and Phantom pushed open the door with surprising ease, following it into another room.

Unlike the one downstairs, this room was… almost homely? He wasn’t used to seeing such sights, but he thought that this space suited the word. Some sort of inventions or appliances lined the wall opposite of him, a big table in the space in-between. Four chairs surrounded it, one for each side of the table.

The wall on Phantom’s right contained a door and several windows, looking out into a large open space. A… yard? The outside, for sure, and oh. It must be day, the sky a pale blue, some white clouds decorating it.

He wrenched his eyes off of the sight, though, to continue his investigation. The wall on his left wasn’t actually a full wall, but was open in the middle, allowing him a glance into another room. It was darker there, it seemed, but that might be caused by the pale purple walls.

Phantom took a step out of the stairway, carefully closing the door behind him, but not releasing it. He didn’t trust his legs that much just yet.

What could such a room be used for, he wondered. It looked like a room for eating, with the table and the chairs, but it seemed too small for large gatherings. There were only four chairs! But, ah. Humans had to eat regularly, didn’t they? Having a room just for that purpose made sense with that context, he supposed.

Did that mean that he had to eat now, too? How often did humans eat, anyway? He’d heard people say that humans ate every day, but that seemed pretty extreme. Every week, maybe? He wondered where in the timeline he was starting. How could you tell that you had to eat again?

Too late, he realized that a noise was coming his way. He froze, instinctively trying to turn invisible, but without his core there was no point.

A human walked in from the open hallway on Phantom’s left. She was slight, slighter than Maddie even, but with long fiery hair. She made it almost two steps into the room before she noticed him and paused.

“Um,” she said, blinking at him. “Who— Where did you come from?”

He stuck a thumb over his shoulder, pointing back to the door he was still braced against.

Her expression grew flat and unimpressed. “Great. Brilliant.”

She sighed, and Phantom could almost feel the weariness in it. Then, suddenly, she walked towards him.

“Move,” she instructed him when she stopped in front of him. “I need to yell at my parents.”

Her parents…? Oh. The Fentons must be a married couple, then, and this their daughter.

Phantom nodded, moving his hand over to the wall before stepping aside. Whatever material these yellowish walls were made out of, it was nicer to touch than the other walls. Warmer, almost, a touch softer than metal.

The girl frowned at him for a moment, then shook her head to dismiss whatever thought she was having and reached for the door. Rather than go down the stairs like he’d expected, she just stood in the doorway and leaned forward.

“Mom, Dad!” she yelled down the staircase, “Did you really grow a kid in your lab?!”

“Oh!” a faint voice echoed back. Maddie’s, Phantom thought. “Oh, gosh, he must’ve wandered off while we were talking. Is he up there, Jazz?”

The girl groaned and, yeah, Phantom felt that. He was exhausted just dealing with them for the last few… however long it was. He couldn’t imagine growing up with them. “Mom,” she groaned back.

Footsteps sounded as the two adults moved around. When Maddie spoke again, her voice sounded louder. “Jazz, honey, it’s not what you think. We can explain.”

Wait, did these people really complain about him calling himself Phantom when their own kid was named Jazz? Hypocrites.

He glanced behind him to the door outside, considering his chances. Yes, he’d almost fallen several times while walking in the room downstairs, but! He was already feeling more confident with his human legs.

Just as he was turning around, though, a warm hand grabbed him by the arm. It felt odd; he could feel his suit rub against his skin underneath.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Jazz asked, scathingly. “You look like you’re three seconds away from falling down. Either stay there, or sit down on one of the chairs.”

“I’m fine,” he snipped back, pushing himself into a full stand.

She shot him an utterly unimpressed look. “Sit. I’m not having this conversation standing up, anyway.”

“Well, why couldn’t you just say that from the start?” He pushed himself off of the wall, using the boost to stumble towards the table. Jazz’ expression grew, almost impossibly, even less impressed.

He grabbed the back of one of the chairs, dragging it backwards, then dropped all of his weight onto it. Ah. That felt better already, as much he hated to admit it.

“Stubborn,” Jazz muttered with a shake of her head. He didn’t get a chance to reply, though, because the two adults suddenly came through the door from downstairs.

Maddie sent him a furious glare, and it was, admittedly, pretty scary. For a human, at least.

“Phantom,” she said, voice low and threatening. “What on Earth do you think you’re doing?”

“Sitting?” he offered, plastering a grin on his face.

The second round of glaring was swiftly cut off, however, by Jazz. “Mom,” she gritted. “What is going on here? I thought you two spent all this time working on your big special totally-not-fake ghost portal, not making test-tube babies!”

Woah, woah, hold on. They were making a ghost portal down there? That must’ve been the one he’d found in the Ghost Zone. And what had Jack said, earlier? Artificial, man-made ghost portals? It must’ve been weird, somehow, that’s why it made him human.

But, wow, what a screw-up that was. Turning a ghost into a human. Yikes.

“Jazz, that’s not what this is.” Maddie’s eyes softened, her voice calmer now. “We were working on the Portal. Your father turned it on, but something went wrong, and it spit out… well, him.” She gestured over at Phantom like anybody needed that clarification. “We turned it off immediately, but he was already down in the lab.”

“But… Phantom?” Jazz frowned.

“Yeah?” he countered, crossing his arms. “That’s my name, Jazz. Don’t be a hypocrite.”

Her unimpressed look was back. “It’s short for Jasmine, actually. What’s Phantom supposed to mean?”

“Well, I am a ghost,” he pointed out, before freezing. Oh. Right. “Or, well. I was when I picked it.”

“This is getting crazier by the minute.” Jazz sighed, heavily, her entire frame shaking with the force of it. “Mom, Dad, wherever he might’ve come from, you can’t just… keep him. You realize that, right?”

“We were going to look for his actual family, but someone,” Maddie shot Jack a heated glare, which he studiously ignored, “wanted to ask Phantom all about the Ghost Zone, first. We figured that he could stay here for now, at least, so we could be sure that he was okay. He must’ve been wandering around in that dimension for forever, if he thinks himself a ghost, and he claims he can’t remember his ‘human life’ anymore.”

“I can also hear you,” he pointed out, loudly. “And there’s no claiming about it! I really was a ghost!”

And he was so sick and so tired of them suggesting otherwise! Oh, if only he’d had his core still! He could just imagine it, whirring loudly at his anger. His glow brightening and ectoplasm sparking as energy poured out.

The humans gasped, and Phantom jerked back in his seat, startled. He could swear he could feel his core’s hum in his chest, still, like a—excuse the pun—phantom limb.

“What was that?” Jazz snapped, suddenly furious, whirling between him and her parents. “You two saw that, right?”

“Saw what?” he asked despite himself, his anger giving way to curiosity instantly. The imagined after-image of his core seemed to settle down as well, softening into an almost undetectable hum.

Almost undetectable, except that now that he was aware of it, it didn’t fade entirely. And maybe it was just… just that everything was becoming overwhelmingly much, but… but Phantom could swear that he could feel it, the hot-cold energy of his ectoplasmic core, settled right in the center of his chest.

He pressed a hand against where he thought it was. His body was hard, there, almost like rock. Humans had bone, didn’t they, to support their forms? To protect their vital insides? That must be what he was feeling.

Underneath the bone, he could feel the powerful pounding of that thing he kept confusing for his core. It wasn’t quite located right, though, a little off-center. And, layered just underneath it, its whir synced almost perfectly with the thudding, was his core.

“I still have it,” he whispered, then realized a silence had suddenly fallen. He’d been so occupied with the rediscovery of his core that he hadn’t realized that the three humans were talking.

“Have what?” Jazz asked, skeptically.

“My core.” He turned to look at them again, grinning despite himself. “I’m not fully human!”

All three humans set judgmental gazes upon him and, hey, rude! “Here, just look!”

Phantom thrust out his hand in front of him, reaching out to his core for an ecto-blast.

Nothing happened.

“Uh…” He shook his hand. Nothing. “Hm. This usually doesn’t happen.”

“Phantom…” Maddie said, gently. “There are many explanations for—”

Another prod to his core. Come on, man, just give him something. Don’t let him embarrass himself like this!

“—can’t imagine the severity of your ectoplasmic contamination— oh.”

“Ha! See?” He shook his hand again, or, more accurately, his arm. His hand had gone invisible, his wrist showing a gradual shift back to visibility. “So maybe it’s a little weakened, but it clearly works, still!”

“This is insane,” Jazz muttered. She reached out, suddenly, grabbing him by the arm. Her hand trailed along the limb until her fingers found his own, despite their invisibility. “This is… this is crazy. This isn’t happening.”

Story of his unlife, girl.

His fingers shifted back to visibility, and his core spluttered, exhausted. Oh, man, it was like he was newly formed all over again!

“Severe ectoplasmic contamination?” Maddie suggested, but when Phantom looked at her she was frowning like she didn’t quite believe it, either. “We definitely can’t let him leave before we’re sure he’s okay.”

“We need tests,” Jack agreed with a nod. “See the extent of this. Phantom, kiddo, why don’t you come back to the lab with us?”

The lab… That was downstairs, then? A lab? Who the hell were these people, ghost researchers? Was that a normal human occupation, or did he have the craziest luck imaginable?

“Mom, Dad, no.” Jazz’ hand grasped onto Phantom’s, like she could stop him from following that easily. “You can’t just use him as a test subject! Besides,” she glanced meaningfully at the clock nestled between some appliances, “it’s practically dinnertime.”

“Jazz, sweetie, we need to run some tests on him, at least.” Maddie folded her hands together, looking worried. “We’ve never seen such high levels of ecto-contamination before, and the only case close to it caused severe health issues. The poor guy spent years in the hospital.”

Jazz narrowed her eyes. “After dinner, then. Let him eat first.” She turned back to him. “Phantom, how long has it been since you’ve eaten anything?”

“Uhh.” He remembered his last meal in the Zone; Johnny, Kitty, Ember, and him had eaten some ectoplasmic fast food. But when was that? “I don’t really keep track of time in the Zone very well, but… I think it was a couple weeks ago?”

Apparently that was the wrong answer, because Jazz narrowed her eyes even further. Right. Eating was important for humans, and he was pretty human right now.

He shrugged at her. “I had a glass of water earlier?”

“That’s not a meal,” she snipped back before turning to her parents. “You haven’t offered him any food?!”

The two shared a guilty look.

“It’s fine, I’m not hungry.” Phantom paused to consider this. “Or maybe I am. How can I tell?”

“How can you tell?” Jazz repeated incredulously, looking back at him. “How can you— Because you feel hungry!”

He shot her a flat look. “I have literally no idea what my insides are supposed to feel like. How am I supposed to know if something is hunger or just normal?”

Maddie stepped further into the room, shaking her head. “I’ll order us some pizzas. Is that okay with you, Phantom?”

“Sure.” He shrugged. “Nothing is gonna taste like what I’m used to, anyway. No ectoplasm, y’know?”

“Right,” Maddie said, taking a small device out of its holder. “No preference for any kind, then?”

“Surprise me.”

His hand felt colder, suddenly, and he looked down to realize that Jazz had let go. Huh. He hadn’t even realized they’d been holding hands the whole time.

Jazz walked over to the cupboards, opening doors and pulling down dishes. Jack quickly joined her, helping her place down plates.

“Why are all the glasses dirty?” Jazz asked, stopping in front of the… something, and frowning down at it. She reached down, but stopped before she touched anything, making a face. “Eugh, Dad, did you use these for your experiments again?”

Jack’s silence was audibly guilty.

“Mom, we’re gonna need more glassware,” Jazz told Maddie, who was talking into the wall device. “There’s no way we’re getting the goop out of these.”

“Aw, Jazz, it’s not that bad.” Jack reached past her to grab a glass. Ectoplasm-like goo was slathered on the inside. “We can decontaminate this just fine.”

“Well, I am not drinking out of that.” She reached down. Phantom guessed she was moving stuff around, based on the sound—like glass knocking together. “Here, this one is just ordinarily dirty. Phantom, you had a glass, right?”

He jerked at being addressed. “Uh, yeah, I guess so? I left it on the floor downstairs.”

“Can you go get it?” She placed one hand on the handle of the thing in front of her, then paused, looking over her shoulder at him. “Or, um. You weren’t walking very well earlier…”

“I can get it,” he assured her, ignoring the doubt niggling in his mind. “I have to get used to my legs anyway, right?”

“Right,” she echoed, pulling up the handle. Water started pouring out. Convenient!

Phantom got up from the chair, wobbling for a moment.

“Careful, honey.” Maddie’s hand suddenly closed around his arm, and he started. “Where are you going, Phantom?”

“I was gonna go grab my glass,” he explained, jerking his thumb towards the staircase door. “Y’know, down?”

She made a face, but let go of his arm. “Are you sure you’re up for that?”

“There’s a railing on the stairs, I’m not gonna fall.” He rolled his eyes, then, very purposefully, stepped towards the door. “I’ll be fine.”

Maddie didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t stop him either, so. “Keep the door open, then, so we can hear if something happens.”

“Sure thing.” He pressed down the handle, swinging it open. “Be right back.”

One hand on the railing, the other pressed against the opposing wall, he made his way down the stairs again. Honestly, going down was easier than going up. Gravity, and all that.

Although he didn’t want to experience gravity too closely and tumble down the stairs, so. He gripped tight, and moved down slowly and with purpose.

The downstairs room—the lab—looked the same as earlier. Big open space, some tables, and, huh.

In the far wall, the one that had been behind Phantom’s back the whole time, was a strange invention. He didn’t really care, it wasn’t something that would normally interest him, but… but it tugged on him, somehow. Drew him in.

It was a big metal arch, though, with the recessed insides painted in yellow and black stripes, like the door upstairs. Maybe something was hidden behind it, like a door?

Oh, but of course. These people were working on an artificial ghost portal, weren’t they? That thing, whatever it was, seemed about the right proportions for that.

And that would explain why he was drawn towards, it, wouldn’t it? It had turned him human. Or part human, at least. He must have a connection to it, now.

He jerked his eyes off of the possible portal machine, searching for his glass. Ah, there it was. In the…

In the middle of the floor, of course, where there was nothing to hold on to. Rude.

Well, nothing for it. Besides, what he said to Jazz earlier was true. If he was going to be human now, or some kind of human/ghost mixture, he would have to learn to function like that.

And, if he learned how to blend in with humans properly, he could spend however long he wanted gazing up at space! Oh, that was a good thought. He would hang onto that for sure.

Braced with that good hope, Phantom pushed himself off of the wall, gently. His legs were slow and heavy, but he’d grown a little more used to them now, and he managed to walk himself over to the glass without falling.

Stumbling, yes. But as long as he didn’t fall, he was fine with that.

Sinking down into a crouch was easy enough, and he grabbed the glass. It was cool underneath his bare hand, and, oh yeah. He’d finally gotten used to seeing that fleshy pink instead of his usual black glove, too.

He stood up again, his jumpsuit creaking, shifting over his skin. See? He was adjusting just fine. Didn’t even shiver at that odd feeling—of his clothes being a layer over him, like a second skin.

And now… back to the stairs.

Another stumble, but hey, that was okay. He made it all the way without falling, twice over! That was pretty good!

Hm. With the glass in his hand he would have to settle for just the railing, though.

“Oh, Phantom!” Maddie said, her tone surprised but pleased, when he pushed the door open to enter the top room again. “The pizza shouldn’t be too long, now.”

“Did I take that long, or is pizza delivery just that quick?” he asked, moving back to the table. “Um. Do you guys have usual seats, or something?”

Jazz flapped a hand, taking the glass from his hand. “You can sit where you were earlier. Any preference for a drink? Water again?”

He made a face. “I’d like something else, if that’s okay. Water tastes… empty.”

“Empty?” Jazz repeated quizzically, but she moved over to one of the tall appliances, opening its door. “Oh, duh. You’re used to ecto-contaminated food?”

“It’s not really contaminated if it’s in the Zone, where everything is ectoplasm.” He sat down in the free chair, idly noticing that Jack wasn’t in the room anymore. “But, yeah, I guess. Everything tastes of ectoplasm, usually.”

She hummed, staring into the brightly-lit space behind the door. “Well, we’ve got contaminated milk that someone should’ve thrown out three days ago, if you want to give that a shot? Not sure how well your body would take that, though.”

“What’s the worst that could happen? I die again?” He huffed. “Big deal.”

“It’s a big deal if we end up with a corpse in our kitchen,” Jazz countered, but she pulled a carton out of the bright space anyway. Away from the light, Phantom could see that it glowed green, like practically everything in the Zone.

Oh, that felt like home.

“You’re weird.” She shook her head, then poured some of the milk into his glass. “But at least you don’t try hiding it.”

“Not much of a point to it, is there?” he countered, taking the glass when she offered it. “I don’t know anything about humans except for crazy fifth-hand stories. How well do you think I could blend in?”

“That’s like the opposite of ghost stories to us!” Jack exclaimed, suddenly appearing in the opening to the other room. He held a stack of pizza boxes in his hands.

“It makes sense, though.” Maddie sat down as Jack placed the stack down in the center of the table. “Humans rarely see ghosts, so most stories are based off of those few sightings. For ghosts, it must be the opposite. With a polar difference being, of course, that most ghosts cross portals on purpose, while most humans do it by accident.”

Jazz shot him a meaningful look. “What about you, then, Phantom? Did you come here on purpose too?”

“Yeah,” he easily acknowledged, waiting for Jack to take the last seat. “The Ghost Zone got boring. It’s all so similar, and it never changes. The human world, though. Wow!”

Her eyes softened a little. “So it’s just… what, admiration for the human ingenuity? How the world changes, constantly?”

“Well, I don’t know about human ingenuity.” He grinned at her while the two adults started sorting through the boxes. “You guys can hardly take credit for the constant changing of the world. Oh, and space.”

“You like space?” Maddie asked beside him, quirking a brow. “I wouldn’t have pegged you for the space enthusiast type.”

“It’s great,” he enthusiastically continued. “And it’s so, so large, that you can stay on Earth and see all the short-term changes, and watch all of the long-term changes out there, too.”

Jazz hummed, lifting up her plate so Jack could move a few slices of pizza onto it. “Isn’t it human ingenuity that allows you to watch all that, though? Inventions like telescopes and rockets to go into space?”

Phantom felt his core still for a moment, his not-core skipping a beat. “Humans have stuff to go into space?” he asked, quietly.

“You didn’t know?” Jazz quirked an eyebrow. “I mean, it’s been a few decades since mankind has first walked on the moon.”

“I take back every mean thing I’ve said about humans.”

Jack snorted next to him. “Kiddo, I haven’t heard you say a single mean thing about humans yet.” He paused. “I think.”

He hadn’t? Must’ve all been thoughts, then. “Oh. Huh. Well, it’s pretty cool, anyway, that humans made it that far.”

“Here, these are for you,” Maddie interrupted, handing him a full box of pizza. “Now, Phantom, I want you to eat slowly, alright? If you haven’t eaten greasy food in a while it can make you sick.”

“Like the water?” He took the box from her, placing it down in front of him. Took a deep breath to appreciate it’s smell. Huh. It actually smelled even better without the acidic tang of ectoplasm. “How do I know… What does sick feel like?”

Maddie made a face, then seemed to consider it carefully.

“There’s all kinds of sick,” Jazz explained before Maddie could. “In this case, it’ll be nausea, I think? That’s like… like your stomach flipping over, if that makes sense?”

“Sure,” he agreed easily. “Like the whole area, or…?”

“No, the organ.” She grimaced at his blank stare. “You know, the guts inside of your body?”

“Oh.” He paused for a moment, considering that. “Are all those things called organs, then?” He prodded the rhythmic one in his chest. “Is this one called the chest, then? Following that logic?”

“No, that’s your heart,” she corrected, a frown on her face. “Or your lungs, but those are on either side of your heart.”

His lungs? He took in a deep breath, thinking that over, and felt… “Oh. I hadn’t even noticed those.”

“You are in severe need of a lesson in anatomy.” Maddie clicked her tongue, then gestured at his pizza. “For now, please just eat. If you start feeling weird, let us know.”

“Okay,” he agreed, reaching for a slice of pizza. Organs, huh? And they all had their own functions? That seemed complicated. How were you supposed to know all that? Did humans just teach all their kids about all that stuff? What if a really young kid got sick?

He took a bite of the pizza, and, wow. It was warm and soft and mushy and, yeah, it tasted way better without the ectoplasm.

The humans watched him for a moment, but apparently seemed satisfied at his ability to eat without killing himself, because they started on their meal too. Silence fell as they all focused on their food.

“What’s your plan, anyway?” Jazz asked, partway through the meal. “You traveled through the portal because you thought the Earth was more interesting that the ghost world, sure, but,” she gestured at him with the slice of pizza, “obviously something happened to you. Whether you were already human and forgot, or you were a ghost and became alive, you’re human now. So what’s your plan?”

He shrugged. “Haven’t thought that far ahead. What does it matter, anyway?”

“You can’t just wander around all day, Phantom,” Jack pointed out, a frown on his face. “You’re a teenager—or you look like one, at least. Anyone under eighteen is supposed to be at school.”

“Not to mention your needs,” Maddie pointed out, her brow furrowing. “You need to eat and drink regularly, and sleep somewhere safe. You could hurt yourself easily out there, or get sick, and then what?”

Man, being human sounded like a lot of work. “Maybe I’ll just fly into space. Being on Earth sounds like a hassle.”

“Food and water,” Maddie reminded him, raising an eyebrow. “And oxygen, to breathe, which is only in Earth’s atmosphere.”

“Ugh.” He took a bite of his third slice. “At least your food is good, although I guess it would have to be if you need to eat it. How often is regularly, anyway?”

“Three big meals a day is normal, although most people snack in-between, too.” Jazz shot Jack a pointed look.

“Three meals a day?!” Phantom repeated, startled. “I thought those ghosts were crazy, when they said that humans had to eat daily. That’s insane. Don’t you waste your entire day doing that stuff?”

“You’ll spent more time sleeping,” Maddie said, her eyes soft but concern clear in them. “Eight hours of sleep a day is considered a healthy amount.”

He made a face. “Being human is starting to sound like a lot of work. Can’t I just go back to being a ghost?”

“Ghosts on Earth get chased down by ghost hunters, though,” Maddie pointed out.

“Like us!” Jack exclaimed. He was grinning at Phantom. “But you, you’re defying everything we thought we knew about ghosts! You got to tell us all about the Ghost Zone, Phantom!”

“I…” He blinked, processing the first part. “You’re ghost hunters? But I’m…”

“Showcasing ghost powers within a human body,” Maddie finished for him. “Your eyes changed color while using them, though, so it’s not a case of overshadowing, which would explain why you claim to be a ghost despite your human body.”

“It could be overshadowing but shared control,” Jack said breezily. “The eye color could signify who is in control, but you didn’t seem any different. And, following that logic, the human should be in control most of the time.”

Jazz, who’s eyes had been bouncing between the two as well, cleared her throat. “Do you guys have any scientific proof of any of that, though? Isn’t everything derived from stories and such?” She gestured at Phantom. “If our ghost stories are anything like his human stories, shouldn’t that tell us exactly why you can’t use those things as a basis for the truth?”

“She has a point,” he agreed. “I mean, I’m not experienced with overshadowing, since you can’t overshadow other ghosts, but I’m pretty sure there’s no such thing as shared control. And I can tell you, for sure, that there’s nobody else in here but me, and that I have full access to my own ghost core.”

“You still have your ghost core?” Maddie said, surprised, then shook her head. “No, of course you do, you’d need one for the ghostly abilities you showed earlier. Speculation isn’t working, we need to run some tests.”

“We’re finishing dinner first.” Jazz glared at Maddie until the woman lowered herself back into her seat. “And after that, you’re following Phantom’s wishes. You’ll explain everything you want to do to him, and he’ll get full say in what he does, or does not want, you to do.”

“Of course,” Jack agreed immediately. “He’s a human. We can’t just experiment willy-nilly on humans!”

Phantom made a face at Jazz, and she shot him an equally disturbed look back. “And what if he wasn’t human?” she asked her parents. “If your tests prove that he really is a ghost possessing a human, or whatever? You can’t deny that he’s intelligent, and that he can feel, can you?”

“No, I suppose not.” Maddie sighed, looking sideways at him. “If that were the case, though, the overshadowing is definitely involuntary, since he’s not aware of it. We would need to figure out some way to separate human and ghost without harming either.”

“The Fenton Ghost Catcher might work for that,” Jack pointed out. “We used it to filter ectoplasmic contaminants out of the air while we were preparing the Portal, remember, Mads? The netting should separate human and ghost.”

“If that’s what’s happening.” Phantom finished another slice, trying to judge how his stomach was feeling. Not the same as earlier—he realized now that that must’ve been hunger, that empty yawning void—but he thought he could fit in more still. He reached for his next slice.

“Are you taking another slice, Phantom?” Jazz asked. “Aren’t you full yet?”

“I don’t think so.” He took a bite, swallowed it, and tried to track how it felt in his stomach. “I don’t feel full yet.”

Maddie leaned back in her chair. “He might’ve been starving without realizing, sweetie. I’m sure he’ll know when he’s full.”

Permission thus granted, Phantom quickly worked his way through that slice.

“I think I’m good for now,” he decided. “Not all the way full, but I’m not feeling that empty feeling anymore.”

“I know teenage boys eat a ton, but that seems extreme even knowing that,” Jazz said. She shook her head. “Well, as long as he doesn’t get sick it’s fine, I guess.”

“To the lab, then?” Jack bounced off of his chair almost before he finished saying it. “I’ll go set some stuff up!”

“He’s deriving way too much fun from my suffering,” Phantom declared. “I don’t know how I feel about that.”

“If it helps, he’s that enthusiastic about anything even vaguely related to ghosts.” Jazz collected their plates, bringing them to the water-dispensing-thing. “Oh, I almost forgot about the dirty glasses.”

“Jack can do the dishes later.” Maddie got up as well, offering her arm to Phantom. “Here, you’re probably feeling sluggish from all the food.”

He rolled his eyes but took the arm anyway, letting her pull him up. He was, admittedly, feeling a little heavier. His core, on the other hand, seemed reinvigorated. It was still syncing up with the thump-thump of his heart, but it was definitely stronger. Not quite up to normal strength, but getting closer.

“Thanks,” he said to Maddie. “Let’s hear the verdict.”

Jazz opened the door for them, watched as he picked his way down the stairs again. Just as he reached the lower steps, though, he heard a third set of footsteps.

“Hold on,” she said, “I’m coming with.”

“I thought you had no interest in ghost stuff?” Maddie asked, stepping off of the last step so Jazz could enter the lab as well. “Did all this change your mind?”

Jazz made a face, stepping into the lab proper. “Kind of, yes. But mostly I just want someone to be here to keep an eye on Phantom. No offense, but you two tend to get caught up in the whole ghost business.”

“Right.” Maddie’s face did something complicated. “Of course. You’re always welcome in the lab, Jazz, you know that.”

The two humans led Phantom towards a nearby table, which had been cleared since the last time he was down here. He leaned against it, the metal cold and hard against his legs.

Jack bounded back over before he could ask what was happening next, his arms loaded with all kinds of gadgets and inventions.

“Why don’t we start with an x-ray?” he said, holding out a flat device. “It’s not a real x-ray, of course, but it scans ectoplasm. That way we can see your core, and how it interacts with the rest of your body.”

“It’s just a scan?” Phantom took the machine from Jack’s hand, looking it over. It looked like a black screen with a thick metal rim around it. “It doesn’t hurt, or draw in ectoplasm, or anything like that?”

“Just a scan,” Maddie assured him. She held out her hand, and he gave the device back to her. “But you’ll have to lie down on the table so we can stabilize it. We’ll just take a picture of your chest, that should tell us plenty.”

Phantom nodded, shoving himself backwards until he was sat on the table. He then grabbed his legs, heaving them onto the metal surface as well. “What, exactly, will it tell you, anyway?”

“It’ll show us all ectoplasm in your body,” Maddie explained as he laid down. “Your core, for example, but the rest of it too. If all the other ectoplasm is clustered around your core, or clearly shaped like a ghost, it’s a case of overshadowing.”

“And if it’s not?” he prodded, watching her draw legs out of the device’s rims and place it over his chest. “What if you can see my core, but the ectoplasm is spread all over the place?”

She bit her lip, looking over at Jack. “I… don’t know.”

Ah. That was encouraging. Glad he was in the hands of these experts.

“Alright. Hit me.”

Light flashed, and then Maddie was picking the device up again. “Wait, was that it?”

“Yes?” She paused to quirk an eyebrow at him. “Why? What were you expecting?”

“I dunno. Something I could feel, I guess.” He shrugged, pushing himself up into a sitting position. The table was cold under his bare hands, but his jumpsuit, at least, seemed to isolate pretty well. “This was literally just a picture.”

Maddie hummed, frowning at the device’s screen.

“Let me guess, it’s not overshadowing?” He figured not. His core was too faded out, clearly weakened, and synced up with the human body. This was some kind of blending.

Besides, overshadowing would’ve required a human body, and it clearly hadn’t come from this side of the portal, either.

“Look at this, Jack,” Maddie said, apparently ignoring Phantom. She raised the device so Jack could look at it. “What do you think?”

“It looks completely integrated,” Jack mumbled. “Like a perfect blend of human and ghost. But that’s not supposed to be possible…”

Phantom threw Jazz a look, and she cleared her throat meaningfully. “Guys? Can we stay focused on Phantom, please?”

“Oh, of course. Sorry, Phantom, it’s just…” Maddie gestured at the device, although it was held so high up that he couldn’t see the screen. “The… the ghostly part, the core and the ectoplasm, it is so well-integrated in the human body. I, quite frankly, can’t imagine a way that a ghost could’ve layered themselves so carefully over a human.”

“So you believe my story? That I was a ghost first, and became part human?” Phantom grinned a little. “That’s the only logical way it could’ve happened, right?”

“Well, I’m not sure.” Maddie hummed in thought. “As far as we knew, it wasn’t possible to combine human and ghost in one body. The ectoplasm would react too badly to the living tissue. But obviously, that’s not the case with you.”

“But it might still happen,” Jack added, looking grim. “You’re fine now, but it might get worse over time. Right now, it looks like you might be half and half. Half human, and half ghost. But that balance might get tipped over, and your body might react badly if that happens.”

“So what does that mean for me?” Phantom asked, grin falling. “Besides the fact that I’m a perfect split now, but might not stay that way, and that my body might collapse on me if that happens? What am I supposed to do now, since you guys so cleverly pointed out that humans can’t just wander around in the wild?”

The two adults shared a look.

“Well…” Maddie started, slowly, cautiously. “You could stay here, with us. We would have to go through the police, tackle a lot of paperwork, but since it’s easily proven that you’re ecto-contaminated, we could argue that we’re the best people to keep an eye on your health. Which would be the truth.”

“We could keep an eye on your health, both human and ghostly, and teach you everything you need to know to blend in with humans properly,” Jack continued. “If nothing worsens, we could even enroll you in school.”

Phantom stared at them. His heart thudded in his chest, his core whirring loudly underneath it. “And in return?”

“You could teach us about ghosts.” Jack gestured at the large metal arch on the far side of the room. “We built the Portal for that reason. Even if this wasn’t the way we had envisioned, well, it still works!”

“Learning directly from the source would be better, from a scientific point of view,” Maddie added. She sighed. “We wouldn’t force you to do anything, Phantom, but please consider it. For better or worse, you’re a human/ghost hybrid now. We don’t know anything about those, but apparently, neither do you. For all we know, dying a human death might permanently destroy your core, too. Maybe hybrids won’t become ghosts. We want you to be safe, Phantom.”

He shuffled, uncertainly. Let his eyes wander over to Jazz. If he did take up on this offer, she would have to deal with him, too.

Jazz pressed her lips together. “As much as I hate to agree with them, my parents probably are your best shot at finding ghost experts around here. You might draw in ghost hunters if you make too much of a scene, but…” She sighed, slumping in on herself a little. “Most ghost hunters are hard, and cold, and uncaring. They won’t see you as human, as someone capable of thought and feelings. You might be able to change their minds like you changed Mom and Dad’s, but do you really want to risk that?”

She clicked her tongue. “I would appreciate it if I’m asked, next time, how I feel about us adopting a half-ghost teenager. Just putting that out there.”

“Well, if you all insist so badly…” Phantom felt his heart—and his core—stutter in his chest. “I… I wouldn’t be opposed to sticking around.”

“Great!” Jack clapped a hand on Phantom’s shoulder with such force that he almost collapsed. “First order of business, kiddo, is a first name!”

“What’s wrong with Phantom?” he asked, furrowing his brow. “It’s been my name for forever, I don’t want to change it.”

“You can keep it as a last name,” Maddie assured him. “But it’s not much of a first name, I’m afraid. Is there anything you like?”

He shook his head. “Not… really? I’ve always been fine as just Phantom.”

“How about Daniel?” She looked at Jack, then Jazz, then him again. “It’s… It was the name we agreed on for our son, but then life got in the way, and we never had one.”

Phantom frowned at the two adults. “How could you be sure that you were going to have a son if didn’t actually get that far?”

“It’s a standard pattern with our family!” Jack exclaimed, grinning at him. “All Fentons first have a daughter, then a son.”

“That’s ridiculous. That can’t actually work that way.” He shook his head, then refocused on the earlier part of the conversation. “What did you suggest again? Daniel?”

He tasted the name on his tongue. Frowned. “Can it be… shortened? Like Jazz did with her name?”

“Danny?” Maddie suggested, and Phantom felt his core hum.

“Yeah.” His core chirped in delight. “Yeah, I like that. Danny. Danny Phantom.”

All three humans grinned at him.

“Welcome to the family, Danny Phantom,” Jack said, his smile so bright it almost glowed.

“Welcome, little brother,” Jazz tagged on.

And in his chest, Danny’s core purred.

#phic phight #phic phight 20 #danny phantom #phanfic #dp fanfic #danny fenton #jack fenton #maddie fenton #jazz fenton #dark writes #phic phight fics #tumblr hates it when i do outgoing links and i do not want these to get eaten so #ill drop in outgoing links at some later point in time

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b0sscrew · 4 years

Text

Pokemon au!

Another Ducktales AU! Shocker!

Welcome to the inevitable crossover! There are three versions of this (trainers, human trainers, and reverse gejinka) but we'll just focus on the human trainers first because I'm not comfortable with showing my Ducktales drawings yet! This is just for fun and not definitive. I'm going to be doing this like a real adventure! We'll be following the triplets as they travel the region of... Americaw... Sure, we'll go with that for now.

I want this to be a story in many parts. I also want all their adventures from the cannon to be here as well, except it's just the kids facing them most times. Like let's say all the battles are monsters and baddies they've actually fought in cannon. That would be fun!

Oh, let's bring characters into the mix. Let's say that Webby is the boys' rival and best friend. Violet is also their rival but on a slightly lesser scale(mostly to Huey). Boyd also becomes a rival of sort later on(mostly for Louie). So that only leaves Dewey, and to be honest, I'm not sure. I think Webby would be his biggest rival but he doesn't have a secondary rival. I might just make my own rival for him too be honest, but I wish I knew who to put that's around his age. (Also, I realize Boyd is Huey's best friend but Violet is literally his rival in an episode.) I already have an idea for Lena so I can't add her to the rival crew anyways.

Let's talk about the Duck family.

So I decided it would make the most sense if Della and Donald shared custody of the boys. Donald is still Uncle Donald, don't worry. But since Della is always busy with the league they decided it would be easier to just have them both raise the boys. Donald is basically a stay at home dad while Della is constantly working as one of the core members of the elite four. Della is a flying type expert and Scrooge's favorite relative.

Feathery is an amazing boy! He's constantly working with the elite four as the Regions main professor. He's so excited about all pokemon, but his favorite are water types, because they make him giggle like a little kid. He's Huey's favorite uncle and the only adult he can truly relate to. Feathery is still the biggest sweetheart but now everyone takes him seriously and hang on his every word, even if he doesn't realize it.

Gladstone is one of the sole reasons the champion is still the champion. Because of his luck no one has gotten past him and his grass types. If he didn't have his luck people wouldn't have this issue, but he's cursed with it so he literally can't lose. Of course every Pokemon he has ever caught has been a shiny because they seem to gravitate towards him. The only time he can't find one is when he wants to give one to his family. I guess that's just his luck.

Scrooge McDuck, the richest duck in the world. Despite being part of the elite four, he doesn't really have to do anything. Since he's challenged after Gladstone his battles are few and far between. So he began running his company's full time. Although he does have to leave his work to protect the region at least once every two week. He is the most loved of the elite four and also the most hated, with all his enemies. Good thing he's the best of the league.

Region time!

So, Americaw is based off the world of Ducktales and all the places they've been to by the time of the season three hiatus. I also decided you can find any pokemon in this region (even if characters share pokemon sO MaNY TIMES!), and some come earlier than we're used to. Most of the region is mostly forests with ruins but later on is more of the places we know and love, victory road and the league is even one of my favorite places in the entire series.

Gym leaders, baby.

Gym leaders are characters that are associated with the McDuck clan, mostly working for them in some way. I also tried to put a twist on everything and some of the gyms are ones you wouldn't expect for that character. Let's go over them real quick, shall we?

Owlson, the Normal type gym leader. I thought she was perfect for this because she does technically work for Scrooge now. There's nothing too special about her except that she really wants things to go right and she doesn't have room for silly things. I thought she would be fun as a first gym so the kids could get a taste of the adventure ahead of them. She uses a Hoothoot (to harken to her being an owl) named Natasha, and she has a Porygon (to harken to her being a buisness woman) named Charity.

Ludwig Von Drake, the Poison gym leader! As goofy as the man is he is very competitive. He works with Gyro and Fenton on many projects but has his own lab away from them. I think he works the best for poison because than he could be more of a chemist than the other two scientists. He's also the gym leader we see the least of. He's always in a rush to finish his project just to get on the next one thats probably even more dangerous. He uses a Grimmer (chemicals) named Paul, and a Toxel (science in general) named Corey. He also has a Rotom, named Walker, that just helps around the lab.

Fenton, the Steel gym leader. Since fenton is a superhero I thought he could take his typing from Gizmoduck. He's the main one out of the three scientists that makes weapons and items for the police force. The military forces also thank him very frequently. But since he has so many idea's there's no way for him to do them all. He usually overworks himself because of this and it's obvious to anyone who so much as looks at him. Even so he is the most optimistic of the gym leaders and goes nowhere without a smile. He uses a Pawniard (Gizmoduck) named Hero, an Aron (Robots) named named Titanium, and a Scizor (Gizmoduck strength) named Bromine.

Gyro, the electric gym leader. I thought Gyro fit best with electric because of presumably obvious reasons. Gyro is the wildcard of the three scientists and will do anything for science. He can't count how many times he's almost accidentally killed himself with an experiment. He might seem like he's the only one that slows down out of the three scientists, but you're dead wrong. He probably works the hardest and has the most unhealthy habits out of all of them. He's the best scientist in the region and refuses to give the spot up for anything. He's currently trying to find a way to turn his blood into coffee. He's as brutally honest as ever, and still full of himself, but will admit defeat. He uses a Magneton (robots) named Maggie, a Rotom (Lil' Bulb) named Tom, and a Vicavolt (robots) named Vic.

Duckworth, the ghost gym leader. He might be a ghost but that just makes him better at his job. He's extremely neat and gets annoyed if a picture is tilted. He doesn't hesitate to greet challengers with a smile and even give them tips during battle. When he looses he still acts like a gentleman. He loves his work and refuses to leave life without "good reason". He uses a Gengar (his demon form) named Káge, a Banette (being able to poses things) named Mary, a Polteageist (because he's fancy) named Green, and a Mismagius (just because he's a ghost) named Lady.

Lena, the psychic gym leader. I told you she had a job. But I also know this typing might not seem like it fits. But trust me, it does. Her magic is what I imagine when a pokemon is Psychic type, so I thought it was perfect. She's rough around the edges when you first meet her but she grows on you once you get to know her. She's loyal to her friend's and already knows the kids once they get to her gym. I believe she is the only one that doesn't work for Scrooge in the cannon. She's basically the same she was in the show. She uses a Hypno (dreams) named Dreamcatcher, a Hatterene (being trapped by magica) named Princess, an Espeon (her necklace) named Garnet, and a Lunatone (the eclipse) named Lunar.

Launchpad, the dragon gym leader. Plot twist! Let me explain before you start yelling at me. I wanted Della to be the flying type specialist, so I had to do something else for Launchpad. It took me forever to figure out what to give him, I even considered the option of repeating flying, before I finally remembered dragon. It hit me that it was perfect! The dragon type embodies everything he loves. Flying? Boom, dragons fly! Superheros? There's a dragon that looks like it was made for a superhero. Airplanes? There's plenty of those. Acting like a child? How about one that looks like a child's imaginary friend! The list goes on! The dragon type was perfect because it's so loose. Anyways, back on track. He uses an Altaria (clouds) named Fluff, a Salamance (superheros) named Comic, a Noivern (DW) named DW, a Flapple (childish) named Flapper, a Drakloak (Sunchaser/Cloudslayer) named Sunchaser, and a Duraludon (vehicals) named Crash.

Ms. Beakly, the dark gym leader. She's a freaking spy, of course she's dark type. She's the hardest gym to beat, even for final gyms. She's tactical and knows (almost) every trick in the book. She'll point out what you're doing wrong and still beat you if you do everything right. She doesn't go easy on anyone so you better be prepared. Despite all of this she is one of the kindest people you will ever meet. When you loose to her she has a plate of cookies for you to take with you when you leave, and if you beat her she gives you an item that'll help you the most with the league, plus cookies for your travels. She loves Webby so much, enough to teach her almost all of her tricks. She's a good woman. She uses a Tyranitar (strength) named Tyrone, a Pangoro (capabilities) named Gordy, a Grimmsnarl (I just thought it fit) named Grimm, a Malamar (that expression) named Mal, and a Honchkrow (spy) named Krow.

I love this idea and can't wait to expand apon it. I alread have so many ideas that it's hard to not spoil any plans I have. I just hope I don't overdue it. I want it to kinda be like a little more serious version of the pokemon anime. Not too serious, but I want it to be like what you'd find in ducktales (just maybe a tiny bit less kid friendly).

Well I hope you enjoy my idea and have fun with it. Well anyways, have a great day!

Also, here's a picture of the HDLW designs.

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ray-the-fanatic · 4 years

Text

Normal was never an option

A/N: I just have a lot of feelings about Darkwing and Gizmo. one shot. Slight Drakepad stuff but focus is on the hero ducks.

__________

Once again Gizmo swept in on a Saint Canard problem and once it was wrapped up he flew off into the sky. Everyone in the crowd cheering for him full of excitement and praise. To the dismay of the Darkwing Duck, as he mocked the cheers from the crowd. When looking back he happened to catch sight of Gizmo landing up on a nearby building's roof. Darkwing smiled fiendishly and headed there right away, ready to tell off that bucket head for getting involved in his town. Darkwing wasted no time heading to the same building Gizmo stopped over at ready to climb up the fire escape of it. When he found himself anchored by his partner, Launchpad. Who was holding on to his wrist. Even if he tried to pull away he knew Launchpad’s strength outmatched his own it was better to not physically move out from his hold.

"Launchpad let me go I'm going to give him a talking to so he stays out of my territory"

Launchpad seemed to be holding his words back, as carefully worded his reply. "Can't you let it slide this time? He didn't seem like his usual self."

"What? no, I can not" Darkwing said pulling away from Launchpads hold a bit aggravated with the suggestion. But, then he softened when seeing the look on Launchpad’s face. As he was staring up at the building Gizmo seemed to take a rest on.

Launchpad was too caring he was a very empathetic person and as much as Drake wanted to insist he just couldn't so he sighed a bit and rolled his eyes. "Look for you I'll be a little bit nice," he told Launchpad well holding up his fingers to demonstrate how small that amount would be.

It was enough for Launchpad though as he smiled back at Darkwing. "Aw, thanks DW I knew you cared," he said placing his hands over his heart egging on how touched he was. "No one's as caring as my DW."

"I know what you are doing, and I won’t fall for it. After all, I'm still telling him to leave stay here ill be quick and then we can head back to the hideout." he tossed over his shoulder.

Darkwing scaled up the building from the fire escape as he mentally planned out what to say smiling at the good insults he thought up as well. Launchpad would probably tell him there's room for two heroes and he was just overreacting. But, he worked hard to take care of Saint Carnad and Gizmo already had Duckburge why couldn't he just stays there. Did it annoy him that villains were actually scared to try things around Gizmo? Yes. Was it irritating how loved Gizmo was compared to him? Yes. Did it make him boil knowing anything he did that night would go unnoticed simply because Gizmo happens to show at the last few seconds of the fight and will come out as the hero? Definitely!

Drake jumped up to the roof his blood on fire as he let his frustrations ride out through him. He quickly adjusted his hat and stared down Gizmoduck making his voice project so to get his attention. Those acting classes paying off still.

"Look it here bud, you may be the little darling of Duckburge but." Drake trailed off once actually taking in Gizmos current position.

He was hanging his head in his hands and hunched over staring down over the edge of the building seemed lost to the world. It was almost a surreal scene to Darkwing, for one the armored hero looked like any other person on a rough day. Gizmo lifted his head and looked over his shoulder at Darkwing. And two Darkwing seemed to be able to tell the look that was on his face under his visor.

"Oh hi" Gizmo simply said as he dropped his head back down Barely taking acknowledgment of Darkwing, he wasn’t in the mood for another Darkwing Duck debate.

Darkwing took some enjoyment out of it, but Drake could tell what was really going on. He'd been in the same place mind full of thoughts but nowhere to voice them. He wanted to just walk away leave Gizmo there as he was and he would have if he hadn't heard Gizmo let out a heavy sigh.

"Don't do it don’t do it" he said under his breath to himself only to find himself walking over and stand off to the side of Gizmo."What's wrong." Darkwing asked through bared gritted teeth slightly blaming Launchpad under his breath.

Gizmo looked up at him with a mix of confusion and curiosity about the behavior he knew Drakwing didn't care for him to say nicely at least. So why was he asking, Fenton thought for a moment Darkwing was like him, someone who answered calls of danger. Even Darkwing Duck must have a life outside of the crime-fighting gig. so maybe he would get it? He just couldn't seem to say it looking at him though as he dropped his gaze back down to the city.

"You ever wished you were normal?" Gizmo finally spoke.

Drawing raised an eyebrow and repeated back the word normal internally as he took a moment to reflect on himself. Drake was a theater kid, that used to dress up like Darkwing duck at school. Was the high school's self-proclaimed detective. Who would dedicate most of his adult life to a fan club. Only to one day fight the same man that fan club was for. Then started living in a tower of Audubon Bay bridge. So he could dress up for crime-fighting. Darkwing just shrugged his shoulders after making his mental list. "I don't think that was ever an option for me." He finally replied when coming to the realization. “I’m far to mmm eccentric yeah.”

Gizmo shook his head and gestured to the streets below. "Not like that, I mean like them!" He said a bit frustrated but slowly took it back since it was with himself he felt that way towards. "Living a daily life and not being a clown" he looked at the people walking below imagining the mundane lives they were all living out. Worrying about the next workday, or what they wanted to eat or even debating grocery shopping during the week or braving the weekend to do so "Don't you ever tire of the act? Wish that you could be like them?...or even wish they could see you as not just, well Darkwing Duck in your case I guess"

Gizmo looked up to Darkwing seeing he was thinking. He didn’t know the duck well but he was very expressive for sure. "Don't you have a life outside of this?" Gizmo pressed.

Darkwing awkwardly rubbed at his arm with that "we'll?" Was all he could say in response. Drake himself felt his life never really started until he donned the mask and cape.

Gizmo seeing Darkwing fall silent continued. "Wouldn't it be nice if you didn’t have to be the one to run out into danger and instead run from it. Or just explore a different life where you're not always looking over your shoulder and to pursue a normal job." Gizmo sighed a bit "for the real you to have value and not some shiny suit."

Drake thought about everything Gizmo was saying he's been there before all that doubt that filled your head. Leaving you in a darkness you can’t escape from. As that darkness slowly closed in and you found yourself unable to breathe. Drake knew that all too well but now when he was in that space, there was something to hold onto that made it easy for him to brave that dark pit of his mind. Darkwing silently moved closer to the edge of the building and took a seat next to Gizmo. He was dead silent the whole time, having closed his eyes as he furrowed his brow into a tight knot. Gizmo watched as Darkwing seemed to sit in silence the expression on his face was hard to read this time. Darkwing opened his eyes slowly then simply removed his hat and set it down it seemed less formal to do so. Gizmo felt a tad nervous almost thinking he got Darkwing to be mad with what he was saying. That was when Darkwing did finally speak Gizmo almost missed it.

"Why did you decide to become a hero?" He firmly asked.

Gizmo looked at him wondering what he had gone through his mind. Then almost froze when Darkwing turned to him with a smile full of determination something burning in his eyes that made Fenton almost feel shame for thinking of saying he was thinking of quitting it all.

"There was a reason right?" Darkwing followed up with then looked up to the sky with that unbreaking gaze. "There was something deep inside you that you couldn't fight anymore." Darkwing held his hands up like he could take on the stars in a match. "You live in a world full of people who want to destroy it or take it over. Or commit crimes that they just get away with." His tone softened a bit "the world isn't perfect and somewhere in you feels that can change. And even think that you can be the one to change it" Drake said his own feelings spilling out a bit as he spoke.

"Yeah that's true but there's guys like Scrooge Mc. Duck around for that. I should know he fills my paycheck." Gizmo spat.

"You work for him?!" Darkwing said feeling envious then shook his head and pushed it down. "I mean that's not the same thing." He exclaimed "money bags travel around to expand his wealth and if danger doesn't affect him directly he turns a blind eye " he then turned to face Gizmo letting his expression soften a bit. Something Gizmo thought he would never see.

Drake clenched and unclenched his hands a few times before he went to speak again. It was odd to talk about this to anyone, let alone his rival "Did you ever look up to someone that inspired you when you felt lost?" He asked Drake Mallard speaking as he thought about when he watched Darkwing Duck as a kid. Jim Starling was that for Drake it was why he stood up to a bully as a kid. When his parents forced him to stop wearing the costume saying he was too old to be doing so. He just carried a Darkwing Duck notebook around instead. When they stopped giving him allowance because he spent his money on trash, he kept his Darkwing Duck findings hidden under his bed with the money he earned raking leaves for neighbors. When they told him pursuing an acting career was unrealistic he bought Jim’s book all about being an actor. And would tape old interviews Jim did only to watch over and over again. When he got tired of it all and left home he watched Darkwing Duck episodes every night in his tiny leaky apartment. He went home to a growing collection of merchandise and fanart after working tirelessly for jobs to make it through. Just waiting for the big break he knew would come someday. Though when finally meeting Jim, he did everything he could to well simply put kill Drake.

"Or did you ever meet someone who encouraged you to transform yourself to become the hero they see inside you?" Launchpad came to mind when he handed Drake his hat and said he could be Darkwing for real. Drake’s heart feeling light as he thought of him, he might not have wanted Drake to play Darkwing for the movie but now? He looked at Drake with such admiration that alone was the motivation he needed sometimes. When he saw Drake get dressed each time he always smiled if things were getting well dangerous Launchpad always had his back be it watching it during fights or patching him up or even a prompt prep talk when Drake was feeling low himself.

Gizmo silently sat there listening to Darkwing talk. The first time he heard him sound like that just so full of passion he seemed to be smiling fondly may be thinking of the one who inspired him. Darkwing fraying his hands around as he spoke his thoughts hidden but obviously on what inspired him and set him down this path he was on now. Fenton took a moment to reflect on those questions himself. Who was the one he idolized? That was easy his mom. He remembered watching her come home late from work tried but always had a smile. It was just them and she did everything she could for her son. Waking up to get him ready for school no matter how bad she wished for sleep. Listening to Fenton blab on and on about anything. Never mattered what really she always gave him her attention since she was the only one around. His mother is probably the one who installed a sense of justice in him from his younger days. Watching her suite up before her shifts, a living example of selflessness.

He thought back to when Mark wanted to market Gizmoduck as a personal assistant. Fenton at first agreed because he thought it was the chance he had been waiting for only to later be a tool and not a hero at all. Then there was Huey who insist he could be more. Huey was the first to call him a hero and didn’t need some software to get the job done. Fenton smiled his own determination reigniting as he nodded "well, yes of course."

Darkwing couldn't help but smile back seeing that grin he knew too well. He took up his hat placing it back on his head and rose up to his feet. "We're the ones who go for the small scale saves the ones that don't lead to treasure" Darkwing smiled down at the streets below remember something he was told. "Playing hero is one thing being a hero is a different thing entirely. It's giving up normal to be a clown in costume." He stated but said it with pride.

Gizmo stared at him quietly and almost jumped when feeling Darkwing place a hand on his shoulder. "Normal was never an option for guys like us. You can’t tell me deep down when your face to face with danger it just seems like what you were meant to do" He quickly took his hand away having got caught up in the moment and awkwardly coughed.

"You know you're right." Gizmo got up almost feeling like he could bounce with joy. Darkwing always seemed like a weirdo as the papers called him didn't even have a suite that could do what Gizmo could but right there he saw it. Darkwing had a drive in him that made Gizmo feel a bit envious unknowing that the masked duck himself was like him. Gizmo turned to smile down at Darkwing only to be met with the usual disapproving stare he associated Darkwing with.

"Now stay out of my city you glory-seeking bucket head." Darkwing delivered after holding it back for so long.

"Uh?" Was all Gizmo could say in return but shrugged it off with a smile. He wasn't so bad after all. So Gizmo, just took it in stride activating the small helicopter propeller from his helmet. As he just simply waved to Darkwing, feeling a bit of kinship with him now. Knowing it wasn’t likely returned but he would take more care not to overstep Darkwing in the future.

Darkwing turned around on heels quickly as he happily walked to the fire escape and jumped down smiling to himself only to nearly jump out of his skin when hearing a voice suddenly on his side.

"See you can be nice" Launchpads usual cheery tone met him as he turned around slightly grasping at his chest to check his heartbeat.

"What did you hear?" Drake slightly squeaked out in a panic he didn’t want Launchpad to think he was getting soft.

"Oh, nothing but Gizmo seems to be in high spirits again." Launchpad pointed out as he gestured to the sky where they could see Gizmo flying off.

Darkwing scowled at the sight but then found himself slightly smile when seeing Gizmo move around more lively in the air. His smiled dropped the moment he felt Launchpad’s eyes back on him. "What?" He asked a bit defensively when returning attention to his partner.

"You like him don't you?" Launchpad quizzes with his patented smile.

"What I do not, I can't stand him just needed him to get going was all." He retorted crossing his arms over his chest. Quickly looking away from that grin Launchpad wouldn't drop. "Wasn't even a big deal just a small pep talk to get that gloom out of my sight." Launchpad didn't stop smiling.

so Darkwing dip his hat down a bit so he wouldn't have to look at him, he wasn’t going to confess that he at least felt some liking for GizmoDuck. Not like he was going to suddenly welcome the guy around or be his friend. Darkwing just now saw him as a person too someone who falls into the same troubles he was all too familiar with "Would have kicked him off if you didn't tell me to be nice." Expect Drake had something the metalhead didn’t.

Launchpad leaned down a bit so to be at eye level. Gently he took off Darkwings hat removing the only thing that could shield his face from Launchpad’s view. "Uh-huh sure, you would have.” Launchpad smiled knowing then hummed a bit. “ So by the way, who was the one who were you thinking of when you talked about people that inspired you, anyone, I know?" Launchpad asks his flirting tone being clear.

Drake smiled back “Yeah you teamed up with him to get rid of me” unable to hold back his own flirtatious tone as he snatched his hat back.

Launchpad just shrugged a bit “Well I don’t remember Jim saying you were a hero.”

"Thought you didn't hear anything." Drake counter with as he placed his hat back on well making his way back down the fire escape.

“Well, maybe I eavesdropped a little bit,” Launchpad confessed following closely behind.

Darkwing slightly laughing a bit already knowing that, as he glanced out to the sky once more. Darkwing used to hate being called weird but that is why he was Darkwing now. Gizmo was too and maybe that made him not so bad, he still needed to stay out of his way though. Darkwing Duck was clearly better he even helped him after all. Sharing a trait wasn’t too bad though.

#ducktales2017 #Darkwing duck 2018 #slight #Drakepad #drake mallard #launchpad mcquack #fenton cabrera #fenton crackshell cabrera #gizmoduck #still trying out this writing thing #my writing #raysketchitrambles

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goliath-de-senfina-sango · 5 years

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Local Teen Unaware of how Weird Family is, Local Goth Decides To Go All In and Learn Magick, Exhausted Teens Do Fun Dumb Teen Stuff

It was the day after they’d taken down Skulker, and Tucker had to collect up the armor. Danny helped him, of course, and he flew home with some help from his favorite ghost boy. They landed in Tucker’s room, and Tucker gave Danny a hug as soon as the suit was set down. Danny returned to his warmer flesh and blood self and hugged him back before they got to work searching for a port to plug Tucker’s laptop into. Thankfully even the dead respected the U in USB and they manage to connect. Before long, however, Tucker’s mind wanders from his code-breaking program that’s now hard at work with Skulker’s head and to his situation with Sam. And considering what all he’d learned about Danny’s family so far, he might as well ask. “Danny do you have access to transparent solar panels?”

“Yeah, all the windows at Fenton Works are solar panels - I think they run at uh 50% efficiency. Why?”

“Danny, that’s like, the exact last piece I need for my solar-powered car design.” Tucker was tempted to inform Danny of how amazing that fact was, but he knew Danny wasn’t a fan of being extraordinary, so he’d let it slide for now. “Now I just need some way of building it.”

“Well, you have the design itself saved right?”

“Yes…” Tucker wasn’t sure where this was going, but he was hopeful that it’d be a place he liked.

“We can just print out the design at my house?” Danny shrugged, as though that was obvious and the most simple thing in the world. “We have like, a pretty big 3D printer, it’s uh modular, and we use scrapped metal from junkyards that we liquified as filament. We can print a car pretty quickly.”

Danny was going to say something that made Tucker fall completely in love with him one of these days, the idiot. “Danny I need you to take me to this 3D printer. Now.” Skulker’s head was left where they’d put it on his desk, the rest of the suit stuffed in Tucker’s closet, and the pair flew off to Danny’s house.

When they arrived at Fentonworks, they turned to one of the other buildings on the block and set down there, Danny taking the time to unlock the door and everything. “So this 3D printer you guys have…”

“Well, Dad calls it the Fenton Fabricator. See, there's a theory that went around a while ago when 3D printers and fabricators first started, it was the Recursive Loop Theory. It goes like this. You buy a 3D printer. Mid-range, sorta useful, but with enough detail and strength that you like it. But then you need something a bit more detailed. So you look online and you find a set of 3D models for a second printer. This one you can build on your machine, and with only some minor parts you can make the more detailed printer for a tiny fraction of what it would cost.”

Danny took them to a set of stairs and Tucker was so focused on his friend he nearly missed all the art Danny’s ever done hanging all over the walls.

“So, you can make more detailed parts. And you find designs for a bigger printer. It's modular and sorta rough, but it needs those detailed parts. So you can then build massive somewhat detailed pieces… and so you do. And now, with your 3 printers, you find designs to a fourth. Bigger, better, more detailed, it's another generation, and you can print it off your current designs. Boom, bam, rinse and repeat. Eventually, your diminishing returns drop till you can’t make a more detailed printer, but at that point, you have one hell of a machine, particularly if you have a couple of crazy hackers building your final design as a custom project. Course, it’s not quite that easy. We had to fabricate a lot of weird and unique bits for them in other ways - well, my folks and their friends in the Secret Scientists did anyway."

“So the Fenton Fabricator?”

“Is a massive, customized high detail 3D fabricator that can even print metal and glass, yes.” Danny turned on the lights as they entered a large underground workspace. Tucker saw the fabricator and felt he might’ve gone to heaven. It was a massive aquarium tank, easily twenty feet from corner to corner and at least eight feet tall. Above it, hanging like a mechanical spider on segmented green and red limbs with shiny metal joints and points, was a motorcycle sized 3D printing extruder. Tucker could see a set of lasers for dust printing, a pair of high-heat high-speed extruders for wires, several dozen smaller legs with colors and specific grades of wire, all of which fed up and around the room to spools of plastic and cylinders of dusted metal.

“There are hidden parts in the walls with directed gravity manipulators and some arms kept out of the way until needed for assembly-based stuff. I think Mom and Dad built a car or something down here recently. The canisters are all refilled completely.” Danny shrugged, moving around the lab and grabbing up papers - notes about what feeds to use, hints for setting things up. “I can help you connect up and plug in your stuff - though you’ll have to leave it here so that the thing can print. If you’re legit making a car here, it’ll take about 2 days to finish printing it out at all, let alone assemble.”

“Danny, after I finish with that, we are so using this place for other projects together, do you understand me?” Tucker saw doors that likely lead off to other rooms in the lab and wondered just how Much of Fentonworks there was. “This is too amazing.”

“If you say so, bro. Here, let’s get started. I can help with setting up the print file.”

Sam had to say, going through the bs of school was beyond irritating when both of her friends were barred from the school until they could get around the weapons the Fentons were installing. Paulina’s gratingly loud personality was especially difficult to tune out that day, and Sam found herself feeling proud of her self control in not throwing something at the shallow cheerleading idiot when she started going on and on about the upcoming spirit week.

Once school was out, Sam grabbed the board that Danny apparently made for her after he finished Tucker’s, though she wasn’t sure how, and put on her helmet. New, magnetic boots planted firmly on the board, Sam pulled out her phone, put in the address of the Skulk and Lurk, and activated the Nav AI that Tucker had managed to make an app for to download. “One of these days Tucker is going to overwork himself into an early grave.” Shaking her head Sam took off into the sky, and no amount of gothic reputation could keep the smile off her face or prevent her from cheering. “Woooohoooo!” Who could possibly blame her? She was flying . There was nothing more awesome than this that she knew of.

When she arrived, Sam had her board hover itself up to the roof, where it was less likely to get snatched by someone who thought it’d be cool to snag a hoverboard. Walking into the store, Sam took off her helmet and grinned. The Skulk n Lurk was one part book store, one part poetry reading area, and one part coffee shop. It had the gothic, occult theme down pat with black, blue, and shades of purple being the only colors to be found around the store. Heading straight into the books section, Sam managed to flag down an employee and nudged him in the arm. “Nice mohawk, Chris, I see you’re branching out.”

Chris turned around, hair dyed a brilliant blue and his clothes all pastel shades of purple and grey with a bat-shaped nametag pinned on his chest. He smiled and elbowed her right back. “Yeah, just got it done the other day. How’re you holdin up, Sam? Parents still trying to push you into being a prep?”

“Such is my curse.” Sam sighed and leaned heavily on Chris while he laughed. “But, that’s not what I’m here for today. Think you can help me find some books on magick?”

“Cursing people is wrong, and will always go wrong for you, I hope you know that.”

Sam rolled her eyes, standing up straight. “It’s not for cursing anyone, Chris, it’s for something else.”

“Hitting that cheerleader with a love spell is not the way to go about getting over your crush on her.” Chris smirked and turned away from her, walking steadily while Sam scoffed and scowled at him.

“That’s gross on two fronts. A love spell sounds ridiculously creepy, and I don’t have a crush on Paulina of all people.” Sam made a gagging noise and Chris laughed yet again.

Ludicrous notions about cheerleaders aside, Chris lead Sam to a section about magick and left to go help another customer while Sam browsed. She held her hand up, letting her fingers brush over the spines of the books as she read their titles and stilled. There was a vibration, warm and far more humid than any bookstore should be and humming so much like Danny and Agatha and even that piece of trash Grovsner did when she was close. It was a feeling that she hadn’t really noticed until now that all of the ghosts she’d encountered shared, however few of those there were. The tiny hairs all over her arms and the back of her neck stood on end and Sam grabbed the book.

Roots, stems, rain, warmth, leaves, petals, heat, crushing cold, withering emptiness, life granting rain and growth . Sam dropped the book and just barely bit off a loud swear, staring at the cover. Magick: The Life Blood of the Earth. “Well. Danny can see weird shit, I guess I can feel it. Being that close to the portal must’ve done something to me.” Picking up the book slowly, Sam waited for any weird feelings to hit her again. When none did, she grinned slowly. “Let’s see what I can do with that.”

Danny takes some of the time after fighting Skulker to relax at home, get his schoolwork done that was emailed to him, and figure out a plan for working around the school's new anti-ghost security system. It had been two days already and he was coming up blank. Of course, it's at dinner that Danny thinks to ask his parents. "Hey Mom, you said the Fenton Finder works by keeping track of a ghost's ectosignature, right? What is that, exactly?" Jazz, as she standardly did when Danny instigated ghost-themed rants, looked as offended as one might have had their mother been described with every cuss word in the dictionary. She stabbed her chicken alfredo while holding this look for 5 continuous seconds without blinking.

Mom smiled wide and ecstatic. "Well you see, Danny, an ectosignature is the frequency of electrical signals running throughout a ghost's body, shaping its form and directing its actions."

"Like brainwaves?"

“Exactly, hon!” Mom reached into her pocket and pulled out a macaroon, which Danny devoured immediately. “When a ghost manifests outside of the Ghost Zone, its ecto signature is a signal being broadcast from the Ghost Zone into our reality. Since ghosts are 4-dimensional constructs made of exotic matter that of which exists beyond our standard perceptive abilities, a ghost can receive this ectosignature from just about anywhere on Earth or beyond. Like the best cellular reception in the universe.”

“Like any signal though, an ectosignature can be tracked! And that signal can be disrupted and blocked!” Dad only spoke in exclamation points Danny realized some time ago. He waved his fork around in presentation at the blueprint that his mind had likely superimposed on the air next to him. “The Fenton Thermos™ uses charged ectoplasm and what I’ve coined as Fentonite to isolate any ectoplasmic mass contained inside of it from its corresponding ectosignature by creating a four-dimensional enclosure! The filthy ghost is still charged with the ectosignature though, there’s a centralized network of energy that allows the ghost to immediately take on its form after it’s released.”

“So the ghost is conscious within the thermos?”

Mom shrugged. “As conscious as a ghost can be, sweety. It’s not an actual person or anything, just a static imprint of what used to be a person’s thoughts. Like an A.I.”

“The Fenton Finder™ used scanners specially made to detect ectosignatures that are on our satellites up in space! It’s also how our security system works, though that works off of scanners here in the house!”

"So is there a way to track down ghosts by their specific ecto signatures? If you can track the general signals maybe you can create a way to lock into a specific one."

"Mm, I suppose we could! That'd be useful for tracking down that scum that attacked you and friends! We've got the blueprints for the ecto signature scanner down in the lab somewhere if you wanna try the idea out, son!"

"Will do, Dad. I'll tell ya how it goes." Danny grinned around his chicken and pasta. He had a game plan now.

After dinner, Danny raced downstairs to print out the blueprint from the computer - his father stacked the blueprints in an infuriatingly chaotic way that Danny hadn't the patience to sort through - and then ran through the door on the left. Behind it was a hallway into a tunnel, one that lead Danny to the alternative lab under the building right next to the house. Hopping into his wheely chair, Danny slid over the linoleum floor to his work table and laid down the blueprint.

"Alright, I can work with this. A signal can be tracked, and it can be isolated. Which means that My signal can be isolated and tracked specifically." A smirk crossed his face. "Which means the scanners can be set to ignore my signal. Perfect!"

Danny slid over to the laptop connected to a second Fenton Fabricator, glad that his parents were always thorough enough to make a back up of everything they did. "This should be done in no time. Then Sam can help me test it and Tuck can- speak of the devil." Danny whipped out his phone and hummed, tilting his head at the simple message his best friend had sent him.

FriarTuck: Hey Dan, almost fin breaking the security in Sklkr's suit. Bout to crack this badboi open n make it mine. Muahahahaha! Hyd?

"Ugh, stars, I don't wanna think about that asshole." Danny shot back a quick reply and set his phone down, finding a notebook he typically kept around. Writing in a code only he, Tucker and Sam knew, Danny got everything down that he could. "Skulker has been a major set back in my plan to prove not all ghosts are evil to Mom and Dad, and a few other weird developments made themselves known. I can now see everything in the lower intensity ultraviolet spectrum 24/7 instead of having to concentrate, as well as the electrical currents running through everything; I can somehow see my emotional connections with people I'm close with and use those connections to influence their emotions as well as read them clearer than other aurae." He stopped, taking a breath and looking over what he'd just written. " Mierda , ain't that creepy?" Danny pulled on his hair a bit while he wrote.

"Joining that on the list of creepy-ass things about Danny: I can reach across that link to everyone and pull on their love and affection and all that and use it to heal myself. Stars, that's such a gross way to look at everyone's care for me. Just a fucking- a bandaid? A free trip to the nurse in a minute?"

Turning back to the parts being made, Danny huffed and dragged his nails against his scalp a touch too roughly. "Physiological changes in my ghost occur when Tucker and Sam are in danger; Canines grow into fangs and according to Sam my voice starts to echo as though it's coming from everywhere. Thankfully a check in Tucker's mirror proves that the changes are temporary. Reaction to my temperament? On that note: being a psychoreactive exotic material, the ectoplasm that makes up my ghostly body reasonably reacts instantaneously to my emotions, but it seems to be enhancing them as well. It's either that or maybe puberty, but I have a feeling puberty doesn't make you violently angry at the slightest provocation and likely to turn any ghost you see into a splatter on the ground." Danny groaned, closing his notebook. "I fucking Executed Skulker. What the fuck? Why didn’t I just suck him into the thermos?"

A ding from his phone and Danny snorted.

GardeningClaws: Hey Star boy, don't go angsting without us there to hug you. We will know and you will pay the price.

"And what price is that, being buried in a pillow fort?"

GardeningClaws: do you know how many pillows I have in this house?? Do you think, like a fool, that I won't use them against you?

Danny laughed, sending a quick 'fair point' before heading to the door opposite the one into the house lab. Behind it was a room with rows of lockers, each holding three sets of suits. Danny didn't need them though. At the far end, there was a large octagonal metal rim, blast doors sealed shut within.

Opening it up to just the right coordinates, Danny watched the doors pull back and felt the building charge of the portal's startup. For a fraction of a second, Danny was filled with a bone-deep fear that gripped his entire body and held him stock still. With a thunderous crack, the fabric of space-time was folded around and torn, and Danny relaxed, staring out at an expanse of white and grey. Opening the blast door, he let the void fill him up and spread outward to chill his bones and freeze his veins. Skin blue, eyes and freckles green and his fluffy hair snow-white, Danny flew past the event horizon and gasped silently at the sight before him.

The moon is so much more beautiful when you can look with your own eyes instead of through the lens of a helmet visor.

Sam, smartest of the group that she was, called Danny and Tucker both to head to her house for a horror movie marathon. “After what we’ve been through, none of these B rate movies are gonna scare us.” It was so close to inarguably true that the boys both shrugged at their phones and headed on over. Danny came down from the sky in that space where everything was heat and impossible colors, everything around him highlighted in a panorama view that almost made him dizzy. Landing in an alleyway, Danny checked to make sure he didn’t see anyone around him and took a deep breath. He folded himself up, cold edges practically trapped within him tugged and bent until the brilliant moonlight that bled from his form retreated into the center of his chest, light and freezing cold as it hummed in an offbeat pulse next to his heart.

Pulling the hood of his jacket over his head, Danny jogged out of the alleyway and down the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets. He looked around the neighborhood properly and hummed, wondering how he never put together that Sam was rich when the address she’d given them ages ago was very obviously in the rich part of town. “Stars, we’re really just that oblivious aren’t we?” The stars in mind, Danny cast his gaze up and smiled at the full moon that greeted him, counting the tiny dots of the stars around it while he walked. Thankfully, his odd kaleidoscopic vision seemed to extend to his human form a bit and his foot froze mid-step as a car drove past him at an intersection. “Sweet mother of the gods, why can rich people not drive right?”

When he got to the gates of Manson Manor, Tucker was there typing away at his phone. When he looked up Danny waved and grinned, pointing a thumb at the huge mansion behind the gate. “This is ridiculous.”

“It’s just so much . Why does anyone need that much space? How do they keep it clean?”

“If I meet some butler named Alfred I’m going to eat your hat.”

“Are you sure you wanna make that bet, Danny? This is looking Batman-ish.”

The gate opened up before Danny could respond to that and instead, he nudged Tucker’s side before jogging toward the door. Sam was there, opening it before Danny could trip on nothing and faceplant into the mahogany or whatever expensive wood the door was probably made from, and he instead landed on a soft carpet. Tucker nudged his foot with his shoe and Danny groaned, resigned to simply laying there for the rest of his life. Two pairs of hands lifted him up from the ground however and Danny laughed, getting up properly.

“You can’t just let me wallow in my shame in peace, can you?”

“Of course not,” Sam scoffed. “If you’re going to be ashamed, I have to be there to make sure it’s appropriate. Now, c’mon!” Sam dragged Danny down a few halls, and up some stairs, followed closely by Tucker.

“I need to make a map of this place so we don’t get lost the next time we come to visit,” Tucker muttered, and Danny nodded. When Sam opened the door she was headed for she let Danny go and grinned at them like a cat that’d eaten the canary. Walking in, Danny felt his jaw drop and took a moment to soak in what he was seeing. “You have an entire movie theater in your house?”

“I know, it’s grossly excessive and we absolutely don’t need it, but-”

“Sam, what the heck are you talking about?” Danny waved a hand in the goth’s face and snorted when she swatted at him. “This is awesome! We can marathon every Dead Teacher movie here and it’ll be like when we went to see it in the actual theaters but better !” Danny pulled down his hood and hopped over one of the chairs - of which there were two whole rows - and plopped himself into the soft cushioned seat with a laugh. “The only thing that could make this room better would be if you had movie snacks.”

“Well, good thing I have a popcorn machine right back there full of fresh popcorn, a cotton candy machine, and ordered us pizzas.” Sam grinned, sitting next to Danny with a bowl in hand full of greasy buttery popcorn, and Tucker sat on his right. “What should we watch first?”

Halfway into Dr. Sleep, the pizza arrived and three laughing teens had to pause the movie and pull themselves together from the heap of giggles that they’d become. “Oh, oh stars, that hurt , laughing so much hurts!” Danny leaned on Tucker while Sam leaned on him, the bowl of popcorn practically forgotten next to Tucker. After a few minutes, Danny took a deep breath and patted his friends on the back. “I can grab the pizza - I can fly, so unlike you two I can actually go and be back before the things are cold.” Before either friend could protest, Danny let the shimmering void of silvery dark cold spread out from the center of his chest to every hair on his body in a flash of light. He slipped through Sam and Tucker like water through the air and flew off toward the red aura of the pizza guy, diving to transform behind the front door when he appeared outside. In just a moment he was back inside and setting three pizza boxes down on the snack table. “I see we got ourselves a meat-lovers for Tuck, a veggie everything for Sam, and-” Danny gasped. “A dragon’s tongue pizza for me! Aww, Sam~”

“Oh stuff it you goof,” Sam said as she and Tucker grabbed slices and plates. “I just knew that you’d complain your pizza isn’t spicy enough unless it has ghost peppers, reaper peppers and every other kind of spice known to man and dolphin on it.”

Tucker rolled his eyes, already scarfing down his first slice. “Dolphin? Really?”

“Dolphins are the closest animals to humans in behavior and observed intellect, Tucker.” Danny took the time to go through three slices of pizza while Sam ranted about how dolphins might as well be classified as non-human people before pointing accusatorily at her.

“There is nothing wrong with my sense of taste, thank you. Anyone with a strong enough tongue can handle this pizza, Sam.” Danny took a bite to emphasize his point and smirked when he was flipped off. “I’ve just got the strongest stomach here.”

“ Excuse you? ”

“Unlike you, I can eat veggies without my stomach declaring a mutiny.”

“Um, go fuck yourself? That was the lowest of all low blows, I am utterly betrayed !” Tucker covered his forehead with the back of his arm and half fell backward. “Truly, my trust has been shattered by mine own brother, how could you? And I’ll have you know that the amount of capsaicin you consume is well beyond what any human being should have in their body.”

“Funny, I’m pretty sure I’m not human.” Danny paused mid-chew, ignoring the look of disgust on Sam’s face over the two of them talking around their food. “I wonder… what smaller changes like that might be going on because of my ghost? Like, regular puberty is already horrible enough but now I’ve got like, ghost puberty to deal with.”

“First of all, ghost wise, you’re baby.” Danny pouted at Tucker, feeling mildly offended. “You haven’t even been half-dead for a whole year yet, you’re baby.”

“Tucker, can you be reasonable for one moment?” Danny nodded, gesturing to Sam, who was clearly the only one with her head on straight between them. “Danny is always baby, not just because of his ghost.”

Crossing his arms over his chest, Danny rose up in front of the movie screen, less crossed in the air as he frowned down at his friends. “I am offended, I am revolted, I dedicate my life to our lord and savior Jesus Christ and this is the thanks I get?”

“I wonder,” Sam said loudly as she walked toward his pizza box. “What it would taste like if I put cotton candy on your pizza?” Danny dove for his pizza box, nearly crashing into Sam as he grabbed it up and flew toward the ceiling. He flipped upside down and stood with his feet to the ceiling, grinning down at his friends. Carefully opening his box he took out a slice and stopped.

“Sammy that is a wonderful question!” Gravity shifted, reasserted itself in the correct direction, and Danny flipped with it, landing in front of the cotton candy machine. He dipped his pizza slice into it and smirked at the despaired wail of his friend while he ran away from her, munching away at his unholy pizza slice. “This is so sad, Alexa-”

“You don’t think I’d have Alexa in my home, do you? First you defile my cotton candy, now you insult my common sense? Do me a favor and parish.”

“Been there, done that.”

“As amazing as all that is, I was wondering something about you, Danny.” Danny flew over to Tucker, landing on his shoulders with a snicker. “So like, can you do that thing from the movie? Like, turn your head all the way around like an owl?”

A wide grin spread over Danny’s face and he set his food down on the table, before pulling the void up and out and around himself. Bright silver light illuminated Tucker and cast odd shadows on his face. To think about later. Danny turned his head slowly, cautious of being wrong, and almost stopped when he heard the pop of the joints in his neck. Still, he kept going until he was looking at Sam’s gaping face right behind him. He raised a hand to give her a thumbs up and winced at the sound of more popping joints - though, fascinatingly enough… “None of this hurts at all.”

“Well now I gotta see you spider-walk up the walls, that’s just the natural result of you showing off like this, Danno.” Turning his head the rest of the way around, Danny saw Tucker’s phone pointed at him and snorted. “Dude this is wicked !”

“Oh my gods, we have to time you, hold on.” And like that, Danny was doing laps around the walls and ceiling, reversed on all fours while Sam timed him and Tucker recorded. When he dropped back down to the two rows of seats, Danny crossed his legs behind him with a hum.

“Anything else y’all wanna test?” Tucker raised his hand and Danny let his gaze slide from Tucker himself to the brilliant yellow-gold-grek air around him. “I’m going to regret hearing out this question, aren’t I?” Tucker nodded, his grin widening and the grek in his aura growing brighter. Danny sighed and pointed at his brother.

“Can you possess people? Cause that would be pretty fuckin cool.” Tucker T posed as if that would help Danny with the wave of discomfort that crashed over him at the idea. “How would you know? Go ahead, try me. See if you can like, take me over.”

Danny drew the darkness back into his chest, warmth and the beat of his heart and the weight of gravity tugging relentlessly against him like countless invisible chains made themselves known to him. Digging in his pocket, Danny pulled out a coin, looking at Tucker with as much seriousness on his face as possible. “Heads I tell you to yeet your PDA into the cotton candy, tails I try to possess you.” Danny flipped the quarter and caught it in his open palm. He took in a deep breath through his nose, and let it out the same way. “Shut.”

Slipping back into the void, Danny stared at his Tposing best friend and considered just how he was supposed to do what he had asked. The only thing that made any sense, of course, was to slide even deeper into the void. Light and sound and even the air circulating through the room all faded away and the world shifted like a gradient scale from Xtreme Indigo to a deep dark blue sprinkled with green that lit up the empty world in bands, rivers, and threads that Danny could’ve stared at for the rest of his life and probably never grown tired of. The only constants were the gold and green aurae at the ends of silver threads that shone like solid moonlight. Danny dove for the golden light and dipped a hand in where he guessed Tucker’s head was. The silver thread practically yanked him in, and Danny sank into a desert of yellow and glittering light.

In the next instant, he was blinking unfamiliar eyes, falling out of a dumb pose he hadn’t taken, stumbling on legs longer than he was used to and warmer than he’d been in months. “Holy shit.” Danny held out his - Tucker’s hands and turning them over each other again and again. He took a few testing steps forward and back, turning and stretching every way he’d ever seen Tucker move, and felt a laugh bubble out of hi-Tuck’s mouth. “Sam holy shit!”

Sam was staring at Tucker-Danny like he was the most out of this world thing she’d ever laid eyes on and she wasn’t sure how to react to him. The cheer of figuring out yet another ability dimmed at the sight of her expression and what might’ve been horror was building itself up in his chest. Then Sam schooled her expression and pointed at him. “You sound the way you do when the two of you are speaking in unison.”

“I feel like I’m wearing a costume that doesn’t fit right, I’ll be honest about that. Stars, Tucker’s vision is horrible.”

“Alright, that voice thing is actually getting annoying, can you like, leave him now?” A moment of silence passed, the room growing incredibly small and Sam stepped closer. “Danny, you can leave Tucker’s body now, right?”

“Gimme a second, Sam, I didn’t know I could go into him in the first place.” Danny huffed and closed his eyes. He focused on what was different and wrong about being in Tucker’s body instead of his own, thought about floating upward to the surface of a large body of water, the moon coming to his mind’s eye and he reached for it. There was a solid kick at the edge of his shadows, golden sands rising up and filling the empty space to push him up and out toward the moonlight and-

Danny flopped onto the ground face first, sensing a trend of him faceplanting on Sam’s floor, and Tucker let out a loud gasp. “Holy balls, that was weird as fuck !” Danny flipped around onto his back, letting his own familiar warmth and heartbeat fill his senses before he looked up at Tucker and found him wiggling his fingers and toes. “It was like blacking out or something. I had the weirdest dream where I was like, I dunno, made of fire or something?”

“It was a lot of weird, hard to describe feelings on my end but mostly like a suit that doesn’t fit right. Like, I know what my body feels like and that wasn’t mine, ya know?” Sam and Tucker nodded and while Danny knew they had absolutely no idea what he meant, it was relieving all the same. Standing up, Danny reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the scanner he’d printed earlier. “By the way, I made something that’ll help me get back into school.”

Tucker, without missing a beat, said, “That sounds like a horrible evil device.” Sam snorted and Danny nodded. “What does it do?”

Danny launched into an explanation of what he’d learned about ectosignatures and his idea for tricking the security system at school. “Also,” Danny added when it came to mind, “the car should be done printing in my basement by now.”

“Wait, you not only finished designing it but also started making it?” Sam looked between them with narrowed eyes. “What do you mean printing?”

“The Fenton Fabricator™ is a giant, modular, high detail 3D printer that can make complex metal technologies - like our hoverboards. The first 3D printed car took a couple of days and it wasn’t as complicated as this so I guessed about 48 hours.” Danny shrugged. “Probably done by now.”

“Isn’t that cool?” Tucker practically had stars in his eyes. “We can build anything in there, Sam!”

“Before that, we gotta get this ecto signature of Danny’s recorded." Sam held up the scanner and Danny nodded. Things had to happen in the right order or things would go wrong.

Danny reached inside of himself and pulled the dark, endless space between space that rested within him out to wrap around him like a cool, relaxing blanket. The extreme indigo of the world rose to an even more brilliant blue and purple that blended together and unwove from each other and wrapped around everything. Tucker shone from within with gold that glittered like desert sands and Sam was wreathed in the viridian green of the forests. The threads between them were silver and thick as though woven from many. "I never need to take drugs cause all I need to do to get a trip is go ghost. I swear."

"Yeah, well, I think I have the reading on you right here. Tucker, can you make any sense of this?" Tucker rolled over and stared at the data on the Fenton Finder remake. After a moment of silence, Tuck started tapping away at his PDA ferociously. "I'm gonna guess that means yes."

"I can record this signal and have a filter to keep the school's system from recognizing you as a threat by tonight. Think we can break in and do it then?"

"Probably," Danny shrugged, flipping a few times in the air. "Ishiyama probably had them set the security system to an activation button or lever or verbal input. They wouldn't want them to make something automatic in case a ghost was too close to a student."

"Fair. Tomorrow night then?" Tucker grinned as Danny tucked that blanket of not so empty empty space back into the very center of his everything and flopped onto his seat.

"Sooner I can tell my family we beat Skulker the better. I don't like worrying them like this." Ever since his Spirit Vision or whatever got turned permanently on, Danny could feel the undercurrent of anxiety that ran through his family. It made his skin crawl with the itch to make them all feel better and left a bitter taste on his tongue.

"Agreed, I can only keep this info from my parents for so long." Sam sighed, rolling her eyes. With a grin she handed the scanner fully over to Tucker and ran a hand through Danny's hair, messing it up as much as she could.

Danny swatted away Sam's hand after a moment and sank further into the soft cushiony seat. "Your chair is eating me, Sammy."

"You've been getting a healthier amount of meat on you, so yeah it might be." Tucker was steadily getting engrossed in his task and Danny knew they had precious few seconds before he was completely lost to them so he decided now was a good time to be a dick.

“So like, when the first hoverboard exploded and I put up a forcefield on a reflex we completely skipped over that cause of hyper-focus but like. Should we talk about that?"

"You have protective instincts," Tucker mumbled, "and ghost stuff reacts to the deeper parts of your mind right? So it's just you defending someone you care about."

"Which reminds me." Sam poked Danny in the sides until he was squirming and giggling to get away. "You're keeping like, a journal of all the things you can do right?"

"Mostly notes on what I learned about ghosts in general, like a bullet point list of the stuff that happened with Agatha and Skulker, and stuff but yeah. I need to add ‘owl neck’ and ‘possession’ to my list of Things I Can Do."

“And what, pray tell, is on that list?”

"I can turn intangible or invisible, defy- no, actually, with what happened at the zoo I guess I can influence gravity, I can see all the radiation in the world, which is a trip lemme tell ya, I can apparently make a wall of ectoplasm?" Tucker and Sam were staring at him for a long beat of silence before both were tackling Danny and pulling him into a big group hug. “I know, I’m awesome, but so are you guys and you should celebrate it.”

“Yeah, I am pretty awesome,” Tucker said with a grin. “You guys are lucky to know me. I feel I deserve a reward for the amazingness I bring to this group.” Tucker was promptly dropped by Sam onto the floor and Danny laughed.

“Another cool thing you can do is heal yourself and other people.” Sam poked Danny in the side until he was squirming away from her in that unreal state of being, slipping through her fingers like the space between air and flopped onto Tucker’s lap before solidity came back to him. “That’s probably one of the coolest powers you have.”

“One day, Tucker is going to copy everything I can do, but with technology.” Danny poked Tucker a couple of times and got his hand swatted away for his trouble. “He’s already copied my language-”

“Spanish doesn't belong to you just because your dad is Mexican, Danny, try again.”

“And now he’s tryna say what’s mine isn’t even mine, can you believe this guy?” Danny didn’t even try to hold in his laughter now, waving a hand emphatically in Tucker’s face. “Next he’ll say I’m not the greatest ghost fighter in the world-”

“Your Mom.”

“Or the first boy to step foot on the moon-”

“Neil Armstrong - also, did you just say you walked on the m-”

“Or the unthinkable, like I’m not the very first Fenton that’s gonna be built like a brick house.”

“No no, you can’t just talk your way out of this one, Danny, you were on the moon? ” Ah, Danny loved riling up his friends.

#Danny Phantom #Danny Fenton #Tucker Foley #Sam Manson #OCs #Maddie Fenton #Jack Fenton #Jazz Fenton #Fanfiction #Phanfiction #fanPhiction #Phanphiction #fanfic #phanfic #fanphc #Phanphic #MCS #Monstrous Chosen Spellslingers #Rexy Writes

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