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spectral-snippets-and-drabbles · 4 months

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Beware the Blob Mafia

Where Danny is younger (12-ish) wants to be an entomologist (Insect Scientist) instead of an astronaut and develops a different core as a result...an Insect core!

Also, I kind of headcanon that Blobs are animal ghosts and Zone-born ghosts while Shades are intelligent Sapient ghosts who crossed over the the Infinite Realms.

~•~ ~•~ ~•~ ~•~ ~•~

• It all started when a blob got caught in the middle of a fight with one of his rouges. The little blob remembered Danny when he released it and a small bundles of them from his parents' traps. Intially, they saw the boy as an unusually powerful newborn predator, so they tended to stay away to avoid being eaten by him up until they realize he was purposely freeing several dozens of them from the bad human scientists with no sinister intent.

- They decide to form a symbiotic relationship with Danny by becoming a loyal swarm in the hopes of staying close to him as protection, as they are lowest on the food chain. The young Halfa has no idea they imprinted on him, he thinks they're just being extra friendly.

Blobidious (as Danny named him) and his group bring refined ambient ectoplasm and human food to their protector to keep both sides of the Halfa nourished. They unintentionally stole from random restaurants, stores, and homes for a little while until Danny catches wind of food going missing from people's houses and has to teach them to not do that. Though, the occasional Nasty Burger wouldn't hurt anyone...a small fee in the shape of a combo meal for keeping Amity Park safe, if you will.

- Thankfully, Sam and Tucker help by having food stuff stashed away in their rooms at their houses for the little battalion to grab for him when he's hungry, as his own home is to dangerous.

• As time passes, Danny's new ghost core slowly evolves to become a living hive/den for blob ghosts to live in where they rest after a day of successfully working on collecting nourishment for their protecter. With the area around his core becoming a small pocket dimension that serves as the main nesting area for them, adorned with a honeycomb pattern over its surface.

- Danny's human body has also evolved to hide the ecto signature of the swarm and himself as a defense mechanism, making the Fenton household defenses unable to detect their ecto signatures, much to his surprise and relief. When he transforms for the first time after his body successfully completes its metamorphosis, he appeared more insect-like in the beginning.

(Think like Devorah from MK series.)

Due to the nature of having a bestial core, he can transform into a large variety of Insect/Human forms and utilize their abilities via his Obsession with bugs. Danny's already insane strength and skill set being amplified by using the powers of the most unique insects on the planet.

• Danny's naturally produced ectoplasm from his body combined with the refined ambient ectoplasm collected by the swarm creates a ghost jelly. As he uses it to revitalize himself for the first time, the effects are almost instant, with wounds healing themselves rapidly and finding himself full of energy that lasts for days with no need for sleeping or eating. Due to the energy crash, he uses it sparingly, which causes an overflow resulting in a leaky core and him puke up the excess amounts.

Not wanting to have it happen again, he lets his swarm have the excess as reward for everything they've been doing for him, completely unaware of the hell he was gonna unleash on everyone with this offering to his little buddies.

~•~ ~•~ ~•~ ~•~ ~•~

• They proceed to evolve rapidly and become much more powerful as a result of eating the jelly. They begin to specialize and diversify their roles to better aid their boss to help him succeed and survive in Amity's ghost-ridden madness. Their symbiosis has resulted in Danny learning a form telepathy only he and the Swarm can communicate with.

From the simple blob ghost, Collectors, Warriors, Hunters, Scouts, and Workers arise to fill new roles. What's more astounding thing is the fact that they aren't just stronger, but have a higher intellect and can think and behave with reason, picking up on Danny's thought process and following his lead.

- Collectors are tasked to seek out ambient ectoplasm and food for the Danny. They also evolved in a way to leech it from hostile ghosts and follow hunters/soldiers to aid in subjugation. They can even drain humans attackers of their stamina and emotions, stripping them of their will to fight and leaving them unable to act.

- Soldiers are responsible for accompanying Danny to fights and following his orders on the field. They are also tasked with protecting the civilians from other ghosts looking to cause harm and evacuate the nearby area. The townsfolk were intially terrified, seeing monstrous ghost bugs, but calmed down knowing that they were Phantom's " pets", ready to defend them all.

- Hunters specialized in stealth, ambush and hit-and-run tactics, purposely venturing out into Amity Park and seek out his rouges in packs and dragging them back after paralyzing the offenders to be souped with a few Collectors in tow to squeeze 'em dry.

- Scouts are the crew that watched over Danny when he sleeps or when he's unable to transform into Phantom at the time, patrolling Amity Park for ghostly activity. If they saw/sensed a nearby ghost, they would emite a pheromone to alert the horde.

- Workers kept their intial blob form and stay inside Danny to be on standby to strengthen his body via nurturing it and repair it from the inside, taking the non-combat role; focusing on healing his wounds and making his body much more durable and healthy by merely being the caretakers of their boss. Thanks to their continued efforts, it increases the space for small pocket dimension to carry things he would need and increase the capacity for the swarm's hive.

His body is at its peak and the definition of perfect health. Perfect sight, hearing, strength with a quick healing factor for a boy young as he!

• Danny was intially surprised when the Swarm first came out of their volition to fight and was worried for them. But after seeing them pull a Cujo and transforming into Insect monsters of various sizes to beat down the unsuspecting victim rouge (Box Ghost), he's relieved that they're safe and he's excited that he's no longer alone in the literal fights against ghosts and that his friends don't have to jeopardize themselves without proper backup.

• Meanwhile, Danny's rouges are having an awful time in the wake of his growing bond to his Swarm. They can't enter the living world without a literal army of blob ghosts waiting for them to pop out the portal.

- Skulker tried to hunt them down only resulting in him getting his suit torn to shreds by the Welp (Phantom/Danny) when one of his blobs got hurt by the hunter's stray shot.

- Ember tried to pull a Pied Piper and force them under her control, but it only resulted in her guitar getting badly damaged and her ectoplasm sucked out of her by the Collectors.

- Spectra and Bertrand developed a severe phobia of insects after they brought her scheme crashing down and nearly killed them both after she tried to manipulate Danny like in canon, reveling in his despair until it brought the full fury of the swarm to make the attempt to destroy her when she made him upset. The swarm would've succeeded if Danny didn't call them off and she hasn't returned from the Zone since.

- Technus kept having his machines melted by corrosive acid being spat at him and ripped apart with the insane bite force of the insects assaulting him.

- The only one who managed to get passed them was Cujo. The pup's obsession wasn't destructive in nature and took a liking to Phantom and his hundreds of friends, even going as far as to acknowledge Phantom and even listen to him, making him get a pass while the others were stuck in the Zone, totally not jealous.

• The ghost pup was able to be stopped by Danny and the Swarm before he could destroy Axion Labs, making Val see the infamous "Spectral Skitter" in a more positive light.

She was a little mad, but seeing Phantom laughing as he gave the ghost puppy his favorite toy gave her a somber reminder that they both, the puppy and the ghost boy, had died way too soon. Val would still become Red Huntress, but less out of revenge, but to find out more about Phantom, becoming the 4th person to know Danny's secret.

• Vlad is rather good in this au! The sting of Jack and Maddie's abandonment made him a recluse and he refused to try and find happiness out of fear of being abandoned again. Causing his once green ectoplasm to become a shade of violet, as it was his pent up love made manifest.

- But Vlad wouldn't let that stop him, nor would it hold him back in life! He came into his own in Wisconsin after starting a successful chain of brands revolving around dairy goods, using a small portion of the earned funding to research ghosts in his free time using actual methods of study and not the havoc he's heard regarding a certain set of ectobiologists. He honestly can't help but be worried about young Daniel and Jasmine. He can only imagine that whirlwind of a life the children must have, having his former friends as parents.

- After making enough progress, his therapist suggests Vlad getting back out there and try giving the socializing scene another shot, as the Halfa himself mentioned that he missed companionship during their last meeting. Being socially inept, he decides to transform and look around for potential associates while invisible. So lost in thought that he ended up in Illinois on accident when his ghost sense went off like a bomb.

- He jaw fell open when he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He saw giant ghost insectoids that were taking down several Ecto beasts being led by Skulker, who seemed to have tamed (intimidated) them to his side. Another group was taking the people far away from the fighting and standing guard over them. Despite his curiosity being peaked, Vlad couldn't help but groan loudly and facepalm. The tin can tried skinning the older halfa in the past, only for it to end with the said Halfa threatening to destroy the little nuisance's core if he kept it up. He hadn't had a problem since, but seeing the "Greatest Hunter" again made his eye twitch something fierce.

"When I get that welp's pelt I'll–"

"Prove to everyone that you're the greatest hunter ever and yada yada yada...Soup Time!"

Along with his defeated beasts, Skulker is absorbed into the Fenton Thermos and Phantom powers down back into his human form after hiding in a nearby alley...not even realizing that Vlad just saw him do that.

• Vlad immediately knows that this is Daniel Fenton, due to looking up the Fentonworks Website in the 'About Us' page and seeing the major similarities between the "two" boys". He also knows that Phantom is labeled as the "Ghost Menace"...who was constantly being hunted by Jack and Madeline, getting shot at like it's open season, causing needless destruction in their wake...like how they tried to hunt him a few years prior...

- Knowing Jack and Madeline, This makes poor Vlad's mood go from bad to infinitely worse because that meant that they had no idea that they've killed their own child (like him, oof) and have been hunting him since his first appearance in Amity. He immediately retreats back to his castle and has a severe panic attack.

• After calming down, Vlad will probably try to murder his old friends like in canon by inviting the family to his place, but it comes from a messed up sense of needing to protect Danny from his disastrous parents, seeing the younger as a victim of his parents recklessness. It takes a lot of convincing, but Danny is able to get him to stand down and explain that his parents aren't as dangerous as he says they are. Except Vlad had made very good counterarguments that made the younger Halfa question the doubts he had about his parents.

- It doesn't help that the original members of his swarm don't answer when he asks for a biased opinion in his favor. Surely his folks would still love him once he tells them what happened down in the lab...right? Danny makes the protocol "Friend or Foe" with Sam and Tucker and creates a guideline depending on which way the wind blows that fated day.

- Vlad gave him his number, a key, and a room for him to stay at the castle should he be inclined to take the offer should the worse come to pass. Telling the young badger that he had a place to retreat to in case things goes sideways and someone willing to train him as well.

• Jack and Maddie are up to their usual activities, but they meet more resistance by both the ghosts and people of Amity Park.

- The blob ghosts they usually catch to turn their ectoplasm to power their weapons or experiment on have made an alliance with Ghost Boy, Phantom, who made them far more powerful and elusive than they previously were. It doesn't help that their failed attempts to grab one usually end up with some form of property/vehicle damage while Phantom and his monsters scatter and vanish as soon as they arrive.

- People are genuinely looking to the literal ghost child (Phantom) for protection and has been keeping the streets of Amity Park safe from ghosts more than the proclaimed "Ghost Experts". He even began rehabilitating most of his old enemies at this point and helped them find non harmful methods for them to fulfill their obsessions at this point of the timeline. They couldn't defeat him or his army, so they yielded and gave his methods a chance with good degrees of success.

When a curious person (Jazz, the daughter of the town ghost experts) "asked" about a ghost's obsessions and why they fight, Danny goes into extreme detail (thank you, Clockwork and Pandora!) about why it is a ghost would do the things they do, debunking many ectobiologists theories and scientific discoveries made by the field of study.

• It felt like a slap in face and all their hard work was being undermined.

- This causes a screaming match between Maddie and Phantom. Both who are refusing to back down and causing a crowd to form.

"You're kind are danger to humans!"

"Have you seen how you nutjobs drive!? There's a reason nobody parks their cars on your street! You're a living road hazard!"

"You ghosts have been terrorizing the town!"

"Excuse me!? We've been PROTECTING it from your mistakes! Maybe if you actually studied ghosts instead of labeling us non sentient and cutting us up and making them live ammunition, you'd get better results!"

• It just keeps going until something in Danny starts snapping. He's already past sobbing and red in the face with panic and anger, the swarm is practically going feral as they sense the distress rolling off of him in waves, waiting for these humans to dare to make a move. Snarling, hissing and growling could be heard from hundreds of creatures slowly manifesting in the sky, floating with eyes glowing blood red.

People begin to start to worry out as they never seen Phantom's pets like this before...but then again...holding guns up to a kid who died recently and protects them from both the ghosts and the Fenton's daily madness isn't exactly a good image.

"You may have fooled everyone else, but you haven't fooled us, Phantom Menace! If we let our guard down, your kind will exploit us and we'll all be paying for it!"

And just like that...the final thread self control snaps and Phantom explodes. His scream of anger is amplified by his swarm and takes out most of the devices powered by ectoplasm.

Pay for it...PAY FOR IT!? WHAT DO YOU NOW ABOUT "PAYING FOR IT" WHEN ALL THIS WAS ALL YOUR FAULT!? ALL BECAUSE YOU MADE A LITERAL PORTAL TO HELL! YOU'RE SO OBSESSED WITH GHOSTS YOU HAVEN'T EVEN NOTICED WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME..."

The silence that came after was deafening and as the "good doctors" try to object, they themselves are stunned into silence as well when a ring forms around Phantom's waist and reveals who he actually is. Gasps and shouts of surprise are heard as a teary eyed boy stares down at his parents from a roof, glaring icy daggers with tired eyes.

"You were always in the lab, for days on end, as Jazz and I grew up. She put up with it and accepted the fact that work took priority, but I didn't! I hated that stupid portal and I went into the damn thing trying to make it work so you could pay attention to us again...but it turned on with me inside because a "genius" put the power button inside...which I hit on accident...making me die alone!

My grades dropped off a cliff because I had to step up and take responsibility for YOUR obsession with ghosts! I lost so much sleep because there were threats almost every other day trying to cause problems for Amity Park! Jazz was almost murdered and I almost had to kill the ghost to stop her from harming my sister! I had to literally beat my rogue's gallery into submission so they could behave and to protect them from ghost hunters so I could get to live a semi-normal life again! My so-called evil "parasites" have been helping me out keeping everyone who saw me as some weird freak safe since we teamed up and I won't let you slander them or myself anymore!"

It made the people of Amity feel sick to know the truth. The small kid who likes bugs who was supposed to barely start high school was the same friendly ghost who constantly charged into battle to keep everyone safe. His friends and enemies alike were under his protection out of the kindness of his heart when he could've easily used his powers for mischief, or worse, evil. As the realization began to sink in, people began to whisper and mutter to each other.

"An actual kid was defending us the whole time!?"

"Bug-a-Boo was really just a kid..."

"Danny Fenton is the Spectral Skitter!?"

"THEY KILLED THERE OWN KID!?"

That's what made people turn on the Fentons with the looks of disdain and anger. People were forming a protective ring around Danny as they continued to bombard his family with accusations and throwing insults. "Hey, Jazz is innocent in all of this, so leave her out of the hate mob! My sister barely found out and has been taking care of me better than our own parents well before I died...was there for me when things were at their worst fighting back the ghost..."

As the two Fenton siblings looked at each with soft, reassuring smiles, the tender moment was ruined when a blast went off, screams were heard and Danny stumbled back in shock at the sudden pain and blood blooming in his chest. It didn't punch through him fully, but cracked his ribs and now he was on the ground in pain. The shooters fate was sealed when a soldier's stinger punched through the attacker's leg with an ecto blast before the swarm and began fighting men in white suits, the attackers being overrun quickly and being mangled savagely before stopping at Danny's order before fainting.

In their desperate attempt to get Danny to safety, the swarm grabbed his unconscious body and hurriedly went through the Ghost Portal before blowing it up, preventing the Guys in White from doing more damage. There, they were greeted by Danny's greatest ally, Clockwork, and Yeti named Frostbite who wished to help their Boss. With reluctance and cries of sadness, they gave him to the beastman and hoped for the best.

#danny phantom #danny phantom au #insect core au #Danny unintentionally became an apex predator/ghostly mob boss by being nice to blob ghosts #The GIW once again ruining people's lives #GIW wanted to hunt Phantom down but got Pariah Dark's fury instead #Danny stayed inside the Ghost Zone up until Pariah Dark was released.#They found the key to his sarcophagus as they rebuilt the portal from a cultist #Danny becomes the High King but kills Pariah Dark because he's too dangerous and absorbs his power.#Jack and Maddie are more open ended so they either learn from their mistake or not kts up to the reader

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darks-ink · 5 years

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Cacoethes

Prompt: Danny born human; Tucker and Sam born ghosts. Prompt by: @feministhotline Word count: 7,214

[AO3][FFnet][more Phic Phight fics]

Danny’s parents were ghost hunters. They had been since before he was born. Before Jazz was born, even. He knew quite a bit about ghosts. He definitely knew the rules his parents had made regarding them.

Ghosts were dangerous. They were threatening. You shouldn’t interact with them.

Definitely don’t speak with them.

He shouldn’t speak with them.

“Hi,” he said to the ghost in front of him, instead.

The ghost’s teal eyes opened further, and he stared back at Danny. After a long moment of silence, he replied, “Hi?”

Then, seeing that Danny wasn’t running away or anything like that, the boy quirked an eyebrow at him. “Are you not… scared of me?”

“What, because you’re a ghost? Nah.” Danny shrugged. He had seen all kinds of ghosts. Monstrous ones that kept hiding under his bed or inside his closet, mostly. Some formless ones his parents captured and studied. But none as human as the one in front of him.

The boy was dark skinned, with vibrant teal eyes. One could mistake him for human, if it wasn’t for the fact that his eyes were lit from inside or that he emitted a white glow.

Or the fact that he was floating.

“Oh,” the dark skinned ghost responded. Then he landed on the ground, his brown boots touching down soundlessly. He seemed genuinely baffled by the fact that Danny wasn’t scared of him. Was that so uncommon?

Deciding that the boy seemed lonely and in need of friend, Danny decided to volunteer himself. After all, he was new to the town and also needed friends. He offered his hand with a grin, finally remembering to introduce himself. “I’m Danny Fenton, by the way.”

The specter hesitated for a moment. Then he took Danny’s hand; his’ was cold and strangely squishy – but Danny remembered that ghosts didn’t have bones, which explained that. It was pretty normal otherwise. “Tucker Foley,” the ghost – Tucker – said.

He still seemed hesitant. Probably didn’t trust Danny to mean what he said, about not being afraid. Guess that he had to prove it.

“So Tucker, anything you like to do?”

Big teal eyes blinked again. “Uh.” The boy paused, apparently thrown off. “I like… video games? And, uh. Superhero movies?”

“Me too!” Danny smiled brightly, swinging an arm around Tucker’s shoulders. “Aren’t your ghost powers basically superpowers?”

The ghost paused, and Danny’s arm passed through him when he continued walking. “I… never thought about it like that.”

“Really?” It had been one of the first comparisons Danny’s parents had made. Ghosts were basically supervillains, or so they had said. Superpowered beings that caused pain and destruction.

“I- Yeah.” Now he frowned, the glow around his body flickering as he thought. “That’s… a nice way to think about them.”

“What kind of powers do you have?” Danny asked, interested. According to his parents, ghosts had all kinds of powers. They were usually somewhat linked to the theme the ghost chose, but Tucker looked like an ordinary kid. Besides the standard powers, would he have anything else? “Besides flight and intangibility, that is?”

Tucker frowned a little, catching up to where Danny was standing. “I’m working on telekinesis,” he admitted, straightening the red beret on his head. “And there’s invisibility too, of course.”

“Right.” Danny nodded. The two of them continued walking, heading through the gates of the park. “Hey Tucker, d’you wanna play a game?”

“Like what?” In the bright sun it was almost impossible to tell that Tucker was glowing. He really did look like a normal kid. Danny wondered what his parents would think of his new friend.

“What about hide and seek?”

Tucker grinned, his entire face brightening. And the rest of his body too, since his glow increased quite considerably in response to the emotion. “You sure about that?”

Danny, remembering Tucker’s invisibility, hesitated. But the boy seemed so genuinely pleased… “Only if you don’t use your invisibility. Gotta stay fair!”

“Right,” Tucker said, still smiling. “Of course.”

“Mom?”

Maddie looked up from the box she was unpacking in the living room. Her son was standing in the front door, pushing it closed behind him. There were leaves and sticks stuck to his clothes and hair – he had been to the park, she remembered.

“Yes sweetie?”

“Can I borrow your goggles?” His eyes were big and hopefully. Regardless, she had to disappoint him.

“Danny… Our inventions aren’t toys.” She shook her head. “If you want to dress up, you can use your own goggles – they should be in your room.”

“It’s not for dressing up!” Danny protested, moving closer to her. “I was playing hide-and-seek with Tucker, but he keeps cheating by going invisible!”

Maddie froze, fingers digging into the pillow she was holding. Surely she had misheard…?

“Honey, what did you say?”

“I made a new friend,” Danny started explaining. “His name is Tucker. And he promised that he wouldn’t use his invisibility while we were playing hide-and-seek, but he totally was!”

Dropping the pillow back into the box, Maddie turned to her son. She crouched next to him, gently putting her hands on his shoulder. Crystalline blue eyes blinked back at her. Not overshadowed, then. But surely Danny knew better than to associate with a ghost? He had called them into his room to chase off ghosts, real and imagined, plenty often.

“Danny. What do we say about ghosts?”

The boy fidgeted under her hands, looking away from her. “That they’re bad.”

“And?”

“And… we shouldn’t spend time with them. If we see one, we should call you and Dad.”

“Good boy,” Maddie complimented, patting him on the shoulder. “Now, since you clearly know the rules and willfully ignored them, you’re grounded.”

“What! No!” Danny pushed her hands off of his shoulders, moving back towards the door. “I promised-”

Maddie frowned at him, and Danny fell quiet. “No talking with ghosts means no making promises to them either, sweetie.”

“But he looked so lonely,” Danny protested, voice feeble and wavering. He wilted under her glare. “He just needed a friend…”

She sighed. Danny was simply too kind, too naive. “Sweetheart, he was just pretending. You fell for his trick.”

“But-”

She laid a hand on his shoulder again, comfortingly. “Ghosts don’t feel emotion, Danny. They don’t get lonely.”

Then she started steering him towards the stairs. “Now get to your room. You’ll stay inside the house until Monday, okay?”

“Yes Mom,” he sighed, swiping the butt of his hand past his eyes.

She waited another few moments until Danny had reached the top of the stairs and turned left towards his room. Satisfied that he couldn’t sneak past her, she nodded to herself.

All she had to do was keep Danny away from that ghost for the next few days. The boy would come to his senses soon enough. And if not…

Well, maybe she and Jack should start working on a ghost scanner sooner rather than later.

The last few days had been unbearably long. At least his mom hadn’t taken away his entertainment, but still. Knowing that he had abandoned Tucker after promising he would be right back was haunting him.

It wasn’t his fault, of course, but that didn’t matter. The ghost was clearly lonely, and Danny had insisted on being the one person who wouldn’t abandon him. And then he did!

And he knew exactly how it felt. Because, in his old town, people had done it all the time to him. They would get along just fine, but then the moment they learned who his parents were, they gave some lame excuse and disappeared. And yes, sometimes it was the fault of the parents who kept the kids away, but still! He wasn’t going to let his parents stop him from making friends with Tucker.

School was even more of a drag than usual. Somehow, rumors about his parents had already spread before they had even gotten there. No one wanted to associate with him, the weird kid with the ghost-hunting parents.

And he had so hoped to leave behind that reputation.

The only good thing about the day was that his grounding was over. After the lessons ended he would be free to roam Amity Park. Then he could finally go back to Tucker and apologize.

Well, assuming that he could find the ghost. After all, if he didn’t want to be found, Danny had no way of tracking him down. And Tucker didn’t seem to have a permanent haunt anyway.

Danny had considered asking some of his classmates about the ghost, but with how bad the rumors were, decided against it. Even if ghosts were more common around here (the reason why his parents had moved here in the first place), they apparently weren’t well-received.

He understood Tucker’s surprise even more, now. How could they live in a city were ghosts were commonly spotted and still not believe in them?

After what felt like several centuries, the school bell finally rang. Danny launched himself out of his seat with reckless abandon, his backpack barely staying on his shoulders. He dodged around one of his new bullies – a blonde guy who growled out an insult as Danny passed him – and was out of the building before anyone could stop him.

He made it to the park in no time at all. And several days too late. But he wouldn’t think about it like that.

Wouldn’t think about the fact that Tucker might not even be here. That he might not want to talk with Danny, or listen to his excuses. His promise that he would do better now.

After all, what would a promise mean if he didn’t keep his last one either?

“Tucker?” he called out when he entered the park. It was quiet still – too early for older children and too late for the younger ones.

Danny started circling around the park, looking for any traces of the ghost. When he finally reached the spot where they had played a few days earlier, he yelled again, “Tucker?”

A soft rustle, like a breeze passing through the grass. But Danny felt no wind.

Assuming that Tucker was here and listening, he continued on, steadfast. “Tucker, I’m so sorry about Thursday. I know I promised to come back quickly, but Mom grounded me. I came as soon as I could, I promise!”

A scoff, faintly echoing. “Another promise you won’t keep?”

Tucker flickered back into visibility, his arms crossed and his brow creased. He looked angry, and Danny couldn’t blame him. He was all too familiar with people backing out of promises.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, throwing his hands out in front of him. “I just wanted to go fetch one of my parent’s inventions, but then Mom got angry and grounded me-”

“Wow, wait, hold on.” Tucker raised a hand, dropping the other by his side. “What do you mean, ‘inventions’?”

Danny blinked. He had forgotten that Tucker didn’t know about him or his family. It was so normal for people to just know.

“My… parents are inventors?” he tried, hesitantly. Then, “I wanted to grab a pair of Mom’s goggles so I could see you even when you were invisible, so you couldn’t cheat.”

“Hey!” Tucker cried out in offense, “I didn’t cheat!” Then he processed rest of the sentence and his eyes grew wide again. “Your parents invented something that could do that?” he asked. “That’s incredible!”

For once, Danny felt pride over his parents instead of shame. Most of their inventions were super cool, but… people were always so stupid about them. For some reason, no one believed that ghosts existed.

“They make all kinds of cool stuff!” Danny swung an arm around Tucker’s shoulders, throwing the other out in front of them as if he was showing off some incredible sight. “Goggles that can see invisible ghosts, shields that ghosts can’t phase through, and even ecto-guns!”

Tucker stiffened, and Danny let go of him again, turning to face the boy. “What’s wrong?”

The boy wrung his hands, avoiding Danny’s eyes. “Why are all their inventions designed to hurt ghosts?”

“Oh.” Danny rubbed the back of his neck, shuffling his feet. “They’re kind of… ghost hunters? That’s sort of why Mom grounded me, actually. She didn’t want me hanging out with a ghost.”

Tucker’s head snapped up, his wide eyes settling on Danny. “But-”

“But what?” Danny asked with a shrug. “Just because they say all ghosts are bad doesn’t mean that they’re right.”

But this apparently didn’t convince Tucker. He took off his beret, using his other hand to comb through his short black hair. “So you… you’re not trying to prove anything, or something? Your parents didn’t put you up to this?”

Danny scoffed. “Nah. Like I said, they want us to stay away from the ghosts, not befriend them.”

“So then why didn’t you?” Tucker skeptically asked. He put his hat back on, carefully straightening it.

“Because I could tell you needed a friend.” Danny lowered his eyes to the ground, kicking the dirt with his shoe. “I know the feeling.”

This seemed to surprise the ghost. “How so?”

Tucker’s brown boots appeared in Danny’s sight, and he looked up to meet Tucker’s eyes.

“Because no one wants to be friends with the kid who has ghost hunters for parents.” Danny rolled his eyes and scowled. “Even here, no one believes that ghosts are real!”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Tucker laughed humorlessly.

“And…” Danny rubbed the back of his neck, hesitant to admit what he was about to say. “And I guess that I know the feeling of people promising that they would be right back, and then never doing so. People… People did it to me all the time.”

Then he grabbed Tucker’s hand, surprising the ghost – and himself, a little. “And even though it wasn’t my fault, I felt so bad about it! And I’m so sorry Tucker. I really really am!” Then he let go of the ghost again, shoulders slumping down. “And I… understand if you don’t want to risk it again.”

A cold hand landed on his shoulder, and Danny glanced up at Tucker. “It’s fine, man. I…” He sniffled. “I really appreciate you coming back to apologize anyway. And coming to talk to me, even though your parents warned you against it.”

“Yeah, well.” Danny shrugged, grinning a little. “They grounded me for it already, so. What’s the worst they could do? Ground me again?”

“What do you mean I’m grounded?!”

His mom crossed her arms, staring him down impassively. “I said no interacting with ghosts, Danny.”

“But I didn’t! I haven’t seen Tucker since that time in the park!”

She tilted her head to indicate the TV she was standing next to. On its screen was a paused video game – the two-player split screen was still visible.

“I… was playing with Jazz?” Danny tried. Seeing his mom’s eyes narrow, he gave up on the attempt. “Alright, okay, fine. I was playing with Tucker. So what?”

Her stern exterior melted a little, her shoulders slumping with some emotion he couldn’t quite read. “Danny. That ghost is not your friend.”

“Of course he is!” Danny cried. “The only reason why he wouldn’t be is because you keep getting in the way!”

“Ghosts can’t have friends.” Her voice trembled a little, straining as she attempted to cover up her emotions. She was clearly trying to come across as factual – like Danny didn’t realize that her research didn’t hold up. “They don’t have emotions. They can only plot, and be manipulative. That is all Tucker,” she bit out the name like an insult, “is doing. He’s just playing pretend! He doesn’t – can’t – care, Danny!”

Danny’s eyes started tearing up. Then suddenly he shoved his mom away from him. “Shut up!” he yelled, pushing her again. “Shut up! Tucker is my friend! You’re wrong about ghosts, and about him!”

Maddie suddenly lurched forwards, gripping Danny by both his shoulders. He tried wrestling her away, but it was hopeless. Instead he glared at her, defiantly.

“Not overshadowed...” she muttered quietly. And suddenly Danny understood – and felt even angrier.

“What, you don’t think that I can have my own opinions!” He grabbed her wrists, now able to wrench them away from himself – his mom was no longer trying to pin him down. “You think that just because I’m defending a ghost – my friend – that he overshadowed me?!”

“Yes, because you should know better!” Then she took a big, fortifying breath and stepped back. “Ghosts are dangerous Danny. I’m not doing this to hurt you, but to protect you.”

Danny balled his fists at her attitude. But almost immediately a cold hand brushed past his, curling around his fist. He calmed down a little.

Tucker was still here.

Tucker would know that Danny really meant everything he had said. That they were friends, despite one being a ghost and the other human. Even if his parents were ghost-hating hunters.

“It doesn’t feel that way,” he growled at his mom, clenching his fists even tighter. He had no plans to use them – his mom was a black belt and also like, an adult – but it made him feel better. “It feels like you’re just stopping me from making friends again.”

“Again?” his mom repeated, her anger broken by motherly concern. “What do you mean, again? How have we ever stopped you from making friends?”

“Are you really that blind?!” Maybe he was being a little too harsh, but he didn’t care. He had, for years upon years, known how his parents’ profession impacted his life – and Jazz’s, too. How could his parents not have seen it? He thought that they cared too much about their profession to be swayed by such things, but they didn’t even know? “How can you not know?! Have you two never seen how people react to you? To your profession?”

A second cold hand landed on his shoulder, but he angrily shrugged it off. The one wrapped around his balled fist stayed.

“I get bullied all the time because of it! Because of you! No one wants to be my friend!” Thick salty tears streamed down his face – when had he gone from tearing up to straight-up crying? “And even if they do, their parents stop them! Just like you made me do to Tucker!”

She shifted, uncomfortable by his outcry and accusations. “But sweetie-” she started to protest, before being cut off by the door to his room swinging open.

“What’s happening over here?” Jazz asked, voice a mixture of confusion and concern. “I heard yelling.”

Tucker’s fingers tightened around Danny’s hand. He squeezed back, comfortingly – a silent message that Jazz was okay, that he didn’t have to worry about her.

“Your brother has been tricked by a ghost,” his mom started explaining, getting it out while he was comforting Tucker. “It has fooled him by acting like a friend, playing into Danny’s own… troubles… with making friends.”

“Did you just call Tucker an it?” Danny hissed, wondering why it surprised him so much. His parents had always referred to ghosts as just ‘it’ – he just didn’t realize before that his mom had never referred to Tucker as such. “And he’s not manipulating me at all, he really is my friend!”

Jazz’s eyes shifted from their mother to him, then almost imperceptibly, to his hand. Or, more accurately, to his fingers – which were curled around Tucker’s. He wasn’t sure what she took from this, but it seemed to fortify her opinion regardless, because she turned back to their mom with a stern expression on her face.

“Mom,” she finally said, her voice not as harsh as her expression suggested. Instead it was flat, controlled. “You’re not seriously stopping Danny from making friends, are you?”

Now Maddie’s gaze swung from Danny to Jazz, eyes widening. “Jazz, surely you’re not encouraging this? You, of all people, should know better – ghosts can only be bad.”

“You don’t know that,” Jazz countered, crossing her arms. “Your research suggests it, but a good scientist should look into such things instead of disregarding them instantly. After all, you might’ve been wrong.”

A cold breath swept past Danny’s ear. “Dude,” Tucker whispered, so quietly that Danny could barely hear him. “Your sister is awesome.”

He grinned in response, silently agreeing. Jazz was often annoying – as siblings tend to be – but when she was on his side she was a force to be reckoned with, for sure.

Maddie spluttered in response to Jazz, then straightened herself out – pushing herself to her full grown-up height. “Our research is based on an uncountable number of sources. Just because one ghost appears to behave differently doesn’t mean that we’re wrong.” Then her expression softened a little. “I can’t risk that, Jazz.” Her eyes shifted back to Danny, pleading. “I can’t risk that you’re wrong about Tucker. If he hurts you…”

“He won’t!” Danny bit back, puffing out his chest to come across as more confident. “Tucker isn’t like that!”

“At least let him try.” Jazz stepped further into the room, drawing the attention back to her. “Your – and Dad’s – reputation is already stopping Danny from making human friends. At least let him try to make a ghostly one.”

This seemed to have done the trick. Maddie’s shoulders sunk down, her entire posture suggesting defeat. “Is it really so bad? Are our jobs… really making it so hard for you two to make friends that you have to settle for ghosts?”

Danny rolled his eyes at her scorn towards Tucker but… he was willing to play along if it meant that she would let Tucker stay. “Yeah,” he said, voice trembling a little. “I don’t have anybody but Tucker. Mom, please.”

Her purple eyes softened even further at his pleading, and she heaved a heavy sigh. “Alright. But if Tucker does anything to suggest that he means ill…” she trailed off, letting the threat linger.

“If he hurts Danny, he’ll have to fear an entire family of ghost hunters.” Jazz quirked an eyebrow at Maddie. “But you’re not gonna act unless he does anything real. Danny’s a kid, mom. Kids his age should get scuffed up while playing with friends.”

Their mom shifted a little, uncertain. Then she nodded. “Fine, alright.” She turned to face Danny, face once again stern. “But you better tell Tucker that if he dares to hurt you-”

“Yes Mom,” he interrupted her, knowing that Tucker could figure out the rest on his own. Besides, she had made the same threat barely a moment ago. “I’ll make sure he knows.” Jazz’s eyes shifted to his hand, and her lips quirked up a little as she noticed that he was still holding Tucker’s hand.

Maddie nodded again, then moved to the door. She stopped in the opening, looking back at him and Jazz. “I’ll tell your father too. But I’m serious, Danny. Don’t just trust him – and please tell us if he ever hurts you.”

“Yes Mom,” he droned, and finally she left.

Jazz chuckled a little, softly. “Did she really not know that he was here the entire time?”

“Do you think she would’ve acted like that if she knew?” He finally let go of Tucker’s hand, turning to face the direction where the boy presumably was. “You want to introduce yourself, Tuck?”

Tucker faded into visibility, looking like he always did. Yellow sweater, green cargo pants, brown boots. And, of course, the red beret. He floated an inch or two above the floor – barely high enough to be at Jazz’s eye level.

He raised a hand, grinned at her, and said, “Hi.”

Her eyes widened a little – apparently she hadn’t expected him to actually show himself. Or maybe she was just surprised by how human Tucker looked.

Or maybe she was still doing that thing where she didn’t believe that ghosts existed. But if that was the case, Danny really didn’t know why she had helped him against their mom.

“Hi,” she answered, feebly. Then, jarringly, she stuck out her hand. “I’m Jazz. Jazz Fenton.”

“I figured,” Tucker answered, accepting her hand. She squirmed a little, apparently more put-off by the feeling than Danny had been, and he let go fairly quickly. “Tucker Foley.”

Jazz’s brow creased a little, as her gaze swept from Tucker’s hand to his face. “Is that… the last name you had when you were alive?” Then she tensed up a little, grimacing. “Or is that a bad thing to ask a ghost?”

Tucker laughed, waving off her concern. “Depends on the ghost, really. But uh, I was never alive. Foley is the name my parents gave me, and I think it was theirs when they were alive, but I was born a ghost.”

“That’s possible?” Jazz spluttered. “But that doesn’t make sense! How can you be born already dead?”

Tucker shrugged. “Do I look like a scientist to you? I just know it’s possible, not how.”

“Besides,” Danny leaned on Tucker’s shoulder, smiling at his sister’s discomfort, “He doesn’t behave like he’s dead, does he?”

Jazz’s eyes swept over Tucker once more. Then she sighed. “No. No, I suppose he doesn’t.”

Then she yawned, rubbing in her eyes. “Anyway, as fun as this was, I need to go to bed. And so do you, Danny.” She glared at him, warning. “If you don’t want Mom and Dad to go back on this, you need to be on your best behavior. Anything less, they’ll blame Tucker for.”

“Really?” Tucker scowled. “That’s stupid.”

“Yeah,” Danny agreed. “Welcome to my world.”

The door creaked open, and immediately all eyes in the room settled on Danny.

Or, more likely, they settled on the boy next to Danny.

Danny bumped him comfortingly, then smiled at his parents – bright and definitely not faked. “Hey Mom, hey Dad. Tucker and I will be in my room, okay?”

Jazz smiled at them, but his parents didn’t share the joy. Instead their eyes narrowed, taking in the ghost behind him.

He decided to ignore them and their suspicions – they had already promised to leave Tucker be, and he doubted that they would try anything. Instead he started walking towards the stairs, Tucker following him. The ghost kept his eyes on the adult Fentons – not Danny could blame him.

Then Tucker paused, looking in the direction of Jack, but not at the man himself. Instead his gaze was set on something Jack was holding.

For a moment, Danny worried that it was a weapon. Then Tucker’s eyes widened, his face broke into something of a grin, and his aura visibly brightened. “Is that a ghost tracker?” he asked, surprisingly excited about the prospect.

“Uh.” Danny’s dad was apparently caught off-guard by the fact that he was addressed by the ghost. But then his usual exuberance over his inventions won out, and he grinned back. “It is!”

Tucker phased through the railing of the stairs, floating closer to Jack. The man jerked at the show of Tucker’s abilities, but lifted the invention for Tucker to see regardless. “It tracks ectoplasmic ab- beings,” he corrected himself forcibly, and more than a little awkwardly.

“That’s so cool!” Tucker grabbed the device from Jack’s hand, startling the man. He started looking it all over, eyes wide and shining with barely hidden enthusiasm. “I mean, Technus tried making something similar, but he never even succeeded. And he’s a ghost!”

Maddie scoffed. “Are you implying that ghosts are better than us?”

“Well, no.” Tucker took his eyes off of the invention for a moment to look at her. “But he’s got unlimited access to ghosts, ectoplasm, and research into those things. Just like you guys would be better at making things to track humans. You’ve got easier access to the knowledge necessary to make it.”

This seemed to satisfy Danny’s mom, as her glare softened a little. Jack made use of the distraction she had provided to scoop his invention out of Tucker’s hands. “Of course, it doesn’t quite work yet, but it’ll get there!”

Danny had crept closer, and could see that although there was only a single green dot displayed on its screen, it wasn’t located where Tucker was. He frowned. “What is it picking up on?”

Tucker, who had shifted closer to Danny now, looked out the windows. His brow creased in concentration. After a moment of silence, he shrugged. “Another ghost, I think. A more powerful one, with a stronger signature to read.”

“Huh.” Jack looked down at the invention, considering this. Then he looked back up, grinning at Tucker. “That’s a good suggestion, kid. Hadn’t considered that possibility.”

“Glad I could help.” Tucker shrugged, but his aura remained bright – a clear sign of his lingering happiness. “Danny mentioned your cool inventions before, so I’m glad I got an opportunity to see one of em.”

And this, all Fentons could tell you, was the way into Jack Fenton’s heart. Well, this, and asking about ghosts.

Jack’s smile widened even further, and he pushed himself off of the couch – to do what, no one knew. “Did he, now? Well, I’d be more than happy to show you some!”

But Maddie grabbed his arm before the man had a chance to storm off. “No you won’t. No unauthorized personnel in the lab, honey.”

She turned to face Tucker, looking a little apologetic. “Standard lab rules. Besides, there are sensitive experiments down there – and we don’t know how they would react to an increase in nearby ectoplasm.”

“Oh.” Tucker nodded, but looked a little saddened. “I get it. Wouldn’t want to break anything.”

Danny bumped the boy – he would’ve swung an arm around Tucker’s shoulders, but he was floating too high – and smiled warmly. “You can see them another time, okay? Why don’t we go and play some video games in my room, like we were going to do?”

“Yeah. Yeah, alright.” Tucker’s glow had dampened a little, flickering like a flame as he tried to get a grip on his emotions. He landed on the floor, nodding towards the stairs. “Guide me to your room then, dude.”

Tucker shoved him. The grin on his face told him it was as playful as the strength behind it suggested, so he smiled back.

“Dude, no,” the ghost said, a complaintive hint to his voice. “What am I even supposed to do with my life if you’re away for a week? I don’t have any other friends!”

Danny laughed. “Welcome to the club! Besides, you’ve managed before you met me, right? It’s only been a few weeks since then, so I’m sure you’ll survive another week.”

“No I won’t.” Tucker pressed a hand against his chest, dramatically. “I’ve never been alive but I’ll die if you leave me, Fenton.”

“Can’t lose what you don’t have,” Danny replied, still grinning. Then something in the alley on the other side of the street caught his eye, and he stopped.

Tucker continued for a few steps more before noticing. He glanced around, saw that the street was empty, and floated back. “Dude, why’d you stop?”

“Look at that ghost,” he replied, pointing at the alley. “Do you know who she is?”

Tucker scoffed, before grumpily answering him. “Danny, I don’t know every ghost. C’mon, I thought you knew better than that.”

But Danny ignored him, instead crossing the street. At the start of the alley he paused, observing the ghost for a moment.

She was humanoid, like Tucker. Black hair, which hung loose except for a small ponytail on the back of her head. Pale skin. A black shirt of some sort, and a skirt in the same color. The spectral tail that emerged from it was purple, however, breaking the theme.

She had her back turned to the street, but from this close Danny could tell that she was upset. Her shoulders were tense and her fists balled.

“Hey, do you need any help?”

The ghost started at his sudden question, and she whirled around to face him. Her eyes were big – and just as purple as her tail. She appeared to be similar in age to him and Tucker. When she saw who spoke, her expression darkened. “Why do you ask?”

Danny, thrown off by her sudden hostility, shrugged. “I just… wanted to know if I could help?”

A cold hand landed on his shoulder, and he glanced up at Tucker. “Dude,” he said, “What’s it with you and ghosts?”

“I just like to help people!” Danny protested, throwing out his hands. “What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing’s wrong with that,” the female ghost interjected, apparently soothed by the sight of another ghost. She offered her hand. “I’m Sam. Sam Manson.”

Danny took her hand, shaking it with a smile. “I’m Danny Fenton, and that is Tucker Foley.” He leaned closer to Sam, whispering conspiringly, “Don’t ask him what the TF stands for.”

She frowned, glancing from Danny to Tucker. “Why…”

But Tucker grabbed her hand, shaking it enthusiastically. “Tucker Foley, TF as in Too-”

“Alright, I get it!” Sam snapped before he finished his sentence, pulling her hand free from his’.

“Told you.” Danny grinned, smile widening when she shot him a brief glare. Then he sobered a little. “But seriously, Sam. Is there anything we could help you with?”

“We?” Tucker questioned, turning intangible to avoid Danny’s swiping hand. “I didn’t offer to help anyone, dude. Keep your hero complex to yourself.”

Sam rolled her eyes, then huffed out a breath. “I’m fine. It’s just… No one here seems to know about ghosts.”

“Oh yeah, no kidding,” Tucker agreed, dropping his intangibility again. “I was hanging out alone for, like, years. Kept startling the life out of anybody I tried to talk to.”

She cocked a brow at this, eyes shifting to Danny. The wordless question was more than clear.

“My parents are ghost hunters,” Danny said like it explained everything. Which it did, really.

“Yet you’re friends with a ghost?” Sam looked at the two of them with a rather unreadable expression, but she sounded almost impressed. “Dang, now that’s defying your parents.”

“They’re alright with it.” Danny shrugged.

“Dude, your mom grounded you twice.” Tucker crossed his arms. “And you got into a crazy shouting match because she thought I overshadowed you.”

“They’re alright with it now,” Danny corrected.

Sam smiled, wide and a little too toothy. “How would you feel about adding another ghost to your group of friends?”

The door creaked open, and Maddie immediately looked up from her work. Standing in the door opening was her son. And as usual, he was tailed by a ghost – Tucker.

Less usual was the female ghost on Danny’s other side. She looked… dark. Pale skin, but black hair and black clothes and heavy black boots. Definitely a less cheery companion than Tucker – and one Danny hadn’t mentioned before.

She sighed, exasperated. Of course her son wouldn’t settle for just one ghostly friend. Like Tucker hadn’t been enough. She and Jack had barely gotten used to that ghost. His enthusiasm for their inventions had, admittedly, helped.

“Danny, sweetie,” she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. She gestured towards the new ghost. “Who is this?”

The ghost narrowed her purple eyes, glaring at Maddie. “I am right here,” she bit. “You could’ve just asked me.”

Tucker raised his eyes upwards, looking like he was praying for strength. Were there religious ghosts? Did they have the same religions, or other ones?

“Sam, chill.” Her son laid a hand on the shoulder of the female specter. Then he turned back to face her. “Mom, this is Sam. Sam, this is my mom.”

‘Sam’ inclined her head in greeting. Maddie nodded in return. “Nice to meet you… Sam.”

Before they could get any further into the stilted conversation, however, her husband burst through the kitchen door. In his hand was a small invention – the Fenton Finder they had been working on.

“Danny-boy!” he boomed, swinging the machine into the direction of their son – and his two ghostly companions. “The Fenton Finder says that there are two ghosts! So where is the-”

He fell silent suddenly, apparently having noticed Sam’s presence. The girl in question blinked, surprised.

Then she scoffed. “Well, your parents sure are characters. The jumpsuits are pretty cool, though. A little bright for me, but definitely better than what my parents like to wear.”

Maddie perked up at the compliment – and the hint of information it came with. A ghost shouldn’t remember enough from their life to remember such details about their parents. Unless it was born a ghost, but they didn’t know enough about ghostly anatomy to know if such a thing was even possible.

She was still considering a careful way to broach the subject when Jack spoke. “Your parents? What are they like?”

“Eh.” Sam shrugged. “They’re real annoying, honestly. They care too much about what others think of them, and they’re all bright colors and cheery patterning and stuff. Disgusting.”

“How did you get into the human world anyway?” Tucker asked as he floated further into the room. No one paid attention to the fact that he phased through a wall to do so. “I know I stumbled through a natural portal, but that was years ago.”

“I did the same, honestly. Was just flying through the Zone, hoping to get a break from my parents, and then BAM! Right into a wall.” She grinned, surprisingly genuine. “And you and Danny stumbled into me not long after.”

“Won’t your parents be worried?” The voice was a new one, and everyone glanced up at the stairs, surprised. Jazz blushed under the sudden watchful eyes of three humans and two ghosts.

Sam shrugged again, seemingly unconcerned. “Not really? Time and age are weird for ghosts, so having me leave for several months or years isn’t that weird. Besides, we’re sturdy. Not much can happen to us.”

Tucker nodded along. “Yeah, what she said. My parents went into the thing a little more, since they were former humans, so they were still pretty familiar with how things go for the living. But they were alright with me leaving for days or weeks, or even months at a time.”

“But haven’t you been away for years?” Jazz asked, coming down the stairs to talk more easily. “Don’t you think they would be worried by now?”

“Maybe.” He huffed out a breath. “But it’s not like it makes a difference. Natural portals are too unpredictable – I’ve been looking for one back since I got here, and I didn’t even know that there had been another until Sam just mentioned it.”

Then he snaked an arm around Danny’s shoulders, pulling the boy closer to him. “Besides, I got a friend here. I… don’t want to lose him. If I run into a portal back home, there’s no way to guarantee that I can come back.”

“So you would have to chose between your friends and your parents?” Jazz gasped. “That’s horrible!”

Jack, who had apparently crept towards her while the kids had been talking, nudged her shoulder. Quietly, he whispered to her, “Do you remember our attempt at building a hand-made portal back in college?”

She nodded. How could she have forgotten? It had done horrible things to Vlad – to their former best friend. The man had never spoken with them again, and it had been more than a decade since. “You’re not suggesting…”

But it was a good suggestion, she had to admit. A stable, man-made portal would be hugely beneficial for Danny’s friends – and their own research. Tucker, and now Sam as well, had proven to be a valuable source of information. The two of them alone had disproven – and proven – a lot of things she and Jack could only speculate about, before.

And while the last one hadn’t gone well… They knew better now. They were older, more experienced. And they had more information to go on, provided by actual ghosts. Children, sure, but ghosts nonetheless.

She nodded again, this time in approval. “We should. But we’ll have to be careful. We can’t risk it going wrong again, not with children around.”

Jack grinned, and she smiled back. Then her husband turned to the four children. “Well kids, sounds like Mads and I know our next project.”

“You’re not seriously considering building a portal-making machine, are you?” Sam scowled, crossing her arms. “That’s not possible, not even for the most experienced ghosts.”

Smile growing even wider, Jack lifted up a single finger in protest. “But that’s where you’re wrong! Because we’ve done it before, in college.”

“It didn’t last,” Maddie admitted, trying to calm the moods again. “And building a stable one – one that won’t explode like the last one – might take years.”

Tucker and Sam exchanged a look, then shrugged simultaneously. “Can’t take much longer than waiting for a natural one,” the boy said. “And that way I can always come back, too.”

Danny swung his arms around both his friends, pulling them closer to himself. “And I get to keep my friends!”

The metal arch of the Portal stood, looming. The tunnel behind it tapered into darkness, its mechanical guts hidden from view. It was by far the most impressive invention his parents had ever put together, worthy of the years of effort that had gone into it.

Except that it didn’t work.

When, with much ado and show, they had finally plugged it in… It hadn’t worked. Not a single spark or flare of energy, ectoplasmic or otherwise.

And he just stood here. Still clad in his skintight jumpsuit – which his parents had made mandatory for any human entering the lab – with Sam and Tucker by his side. Looking at the enormous invention which had taken so much time and effort.

“Well, what were we expecting?” Sam said, not expecting an answer. She sounded somber, not that anyone beyond him and Tucker would’ve been able to tell. “It’s not like it really could’ve worked.”

“Yeah.” Tucker nodded along. “It was just… just a pipe dream. It was too good to be true.”

But Danny frowned, walking closer to the empty frame of the Portal. His hand trailed over the edge of it, his black gloves squeaking from the friction. He turned to look over his shoulder at his friends. “Come on, are we really giving up so easily? You’ve been waiting on this for years!”

Tucker shuffled his feet, uncertainly. “Yeah, I… Yeah.” He looked Danny in the eye, more certain now. “Yeah, you’re right. We shouldn’t give up so quickly. Maybe there’s just a small problem, or something.”

Sam, too, seemed to be assured by Danny’s confidence. “It would be really cool to get it working…”

The two of them joined Danny at the edge of the Portal. They shared glances. Lingered for a few long, silent moments.

Then Danny asked, “So… Who is going in to check it out?”

#phic phight #phic phight 19 #danny phantom #dp fanfic #dp fanfiction #phanfiction #phanfic #danny fenton #tucker foley #sam manson #maddie fenton #dark writes #i had... ideas for more #but i ended up cutting it for a bunch of reasons #so Sam ended up getting the short end of the scene stick #she would've gotten a really cool scene where she chews out Dash for bullying ppl but alas #also i'm starting to see a theme with my Phight entries

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pokelolmc · 7 years

Text

A Danny Phantom/Avatar: The Last Airbender crossover AU

where the ATLA spirit world is a cousin to the Ghost Zone, and after the Ghost Zone protoportal fails and zaps Vlad, Jack and Maddie end up accidentally creating a portal to the ATLA spirit world instead:

The FentonBendersAU

They meet some of the last Lion Turtles (who now also exist in the spirit world) after getting lost in the spirit world (as seen in LoK, you can gain or use bending in the spirit world if you enter it through an existing spirit portal, rather than through meditation and leaving your physical body behind in the real world); the Lion Turtles see the difficulty in the danger of ghost attacks that will be drawn to Earth, even through natural ghost portals, and grant Maddie and Jack bending to protect the world from ghosts in their line of work, as well as (unknown to them at the time) the spiritual power to pass the other remaining bending arts down a bloodline to cover all four elements (though, the energy is condensed to not cause a spiritual strain and Maddie is only a carrier of it, meaning that she is still only a bender of one element)

Jack gets Earthbending, being less mindful but certainly capable of straightforward force; he eventually becomes more skilled/tuned-in/focused and sensitive of detail enough to bend metal, but only later into character development after he is taught how to be more thoughtful and aware by Jazz

Maddie gets Firebending, being capable in more offence-based martial arts and aggressive in combat, but also possessing a burning passion for protection and is giver of life with her dreams of starting a family; through her keen analysis of other fighting styles in order to figure out bending, she learns the nature of Waterbending, and applies it to herself to figure out lightning-bending, from Danny

Because of the spiritual power bestowed upon Maddie in particular, Danny and Jazz surprise them by being born as benders of the remaining two elements, making the Fenton Family a balanced force of all four elements

Jazz gets Airbending, being the calmer, more collected one of the family who chooses to think from many different angles, and the one most open to introspection and spirituality due to her interest in the human condition

Danny gets Waterbending, as a cause for the ice ghost core he will later get as a halfa (but his ice powers become a completely separate power to bending with different advantages and disadvantages, as he can only use bending in his human form; as in canon, ghosts are affected by aspects of the human world, including its elements and physical matter, unless they go intangible – therefore, they can be hit with bending, but the possession of bending is not compatible with ghosts) being only able to bend in human form makes his human form slightly less helpless, while avoiding making his ghost form a little too powerful (when his bending is added to his existing list of ghost powers from canon); in fact, it adds an aspect of struggle and complications to the canonically easy gain of most of his ghost powers, as he struggles to master some of his ectoplasmic-based abilities and Ghost Ice Powers because they are so different in style to the waterbending he’d been used to since childhood, and he must learn to differentiate the two; through bending, he learns to be more intuitive and use counteroffensive tactics in fighting (not just the less thoughtful, straightforward “superhero-like” offence combat in canon)

The Fentons grow up in an abnormal/unusual family life because of their bending powers, which they hide from everyone in town, including extended family and friends. Danny tells his parents of his ghost powers after the portal accident, because the shared “supernatural” secret of their bending makes the family more open about accepting strange supernatural powers and occurrences, even if they hunt ghosts. It is Sam and Tucker’s keeping of his ghostly secret that Danny uses to convince his parents he can trust his friends with the secret of the family’s bending.

Even though Jazz is used to strange spiritual things because of her Airbending, (so she doesn’t start out a ghost sceptic in this AU), she still starts out annoyed with her parents’ obsession with ghosts - like in canon. Except instead of thinking her parents are crazy for beliving in ghosts, because she believes their fixation has reached an irrational extremity, become a psychological obsession and gets in the way of proper parenting (Danny learns to use his bending for cooking because his parents still turn their dinners into ectoplasmic monstrosities). However, her opinion starts to waver (and she hops aboard Team Phantom) after My Brother’s Keeper because Danny is already aware she knows his secret, and she finds out that he actually puts himself in danger fighting ghosts, and wants to help him. Danny doesn’t tell his parents that he’s using his ghost form to hunt ghosts (since he feels they would consider it too dangerous for him, or that it would impact his school performance, and stop him from doing it), so they don’t find out until Danny is confronted by Walker in the AU equivalent of Public Enemies.

Basically, life goes on in Amity Park as the Fentons learn to master their bending and hide it from others, Danny Phantom rises to fight the ghosts with Sam and Tucker by his side (and his family on the occasional mission) and the whole family gets involved in fighting ghosts after the ghost attacks get too intense in season 2-3, working as a four-person-team equivalent of the Avatar with their own secret identities.

Kind of like it follows the general plot events/outline of canon DP, but with divergences in character plots and the events of episodes, depending on how the Fentons having bending would change how they play out.

Other ideas:

As a kid, Jazz always liked flying a homemade glider at the park in disguise, and Danny would always ask her to take him flying but she wouldn’t, making Danny jealous that he couldn’t fly too; after getting his ghost form as a teenager, the first thing he does is excitedly tell his family that he can fly now and tease Jazz about it – who complains, miffed, that SHE is the Airbender of the family and flying is HER thing

Dash tries to bully Danny at school, before Sam and Tucker find out about Danny’s bending, and Danny gets back by causing a water fountain to squirt Dash in the face; Sam and Tucker are too busy laughing to realise that Danny did it

Bitter Reunions: Vlad takes on Danny as his arch nemesis for the rest of the series, while completely unaware of the Fenton family’s bending powers – or that Danny has already ignored Vlad’s threat to expose him to his parents, and told Jack and Maddie about Vlad’s halfa identity because Jack and Maddie already know of Danny’s ghost half. As far as Vlad knows, the Little Badger is just an annoying halfa boy with ghost hunter parents who don’t know their own son is a ghost – or that their best friend from college is one, either. Boy, will he get a nasty surprise later.

Shades of Gray: Valerie still comes to hate Danny Phantom, but still ends up befriending Danny Fenton after Flirting with Disaster. After the latter, she accidentally finds out about Danny’s bending and agrees to keep it a secret. She gets closer to him than in canon, and Danny gets even more royally screwed.

Maternal Instinct: The night spent in Vlad’s house is a full moon; Maddie and Danny both fight their way through the woods with their bending before they bump into Vlad, helping them learn from each other’s elements; instead of confronting Vlad after the Plasmius Maximus wears off, both Maddie and Danny are forced to engage him while the latter’s ghost powers are still inactive and their only weapon is Maddie’s fire; there’s no Spector Deflector anywhere near him to use because Maddie doesn’t want it to hurt him because of his ghost half; as a last resort, Danny is forced to use bloodbending on Vlad to defeat him, much to his own and Maddie’s horror; a confused Vlad is left behind wondering how on earth the Fentons have such strange powers and investigate further

Torrent of Terror: The stupid OOC nonsense of Danny’s emotions being tied to the weather either doesn’t happen or wears off extremely quickly (before the second battle against Vortex); upon losing against Vortex the first time and discussing it with his family, Danny realises that although the weather is being manipulated by ghost power, it still consists of physical water, meaning it can be influenced by his bending; he decides that he must not fight Vortex as a ghost, but as a bender; after Jazz reminds him that the weather is also wind and decides to fight too, the whole family puts on disguises and fights Vortex together with their bending, attack Vortex with his own wind, rain and lightning. The fight is caught on the local news channel’s Ghost Watch; the news anchor wonders aloud on live television about the absence of Danny Phantom in the fight, and the mysterious group of four with apparent superhuman power over the elements; after the conflict is solved, the enigmatic “Elemental Four” become the talk of Amity Park

Vlad can’t get any of his bugs or cameras into the Fenton household later on in the plot because Jack keeps sensing their metal bodies and crushing them, mistaking them for household pests

#danny phantom #avatar the last airbender #crossover #crossover au #fentonbendersau #danny fenton #jazz fenton #jack fenton #maddie fenton #benders

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madelyn-michelle-blog · 7 years

Photo

Basic Information

Name: Madelyn Michelle Pronunciation: Ma-da-lin Mih-shell Nickname(s) or Alias: Wudai Warrior of Martial Arts (Previous) Gender: Female Species: Human Age: 18+ Birthday: December 29th Sexuality: Heterosexual Nationality: American Religion: Christian (Methodist) (Is afraid to believe in anything else due to her parents’ harsh influence on her religion and lifestyle. However, she is very open minded.) City or town of birth: Atlanta, Georgia Currently lives: Chase Young’s Lair Languages spoken: English Native language: English

Physical Appearance

Height: 5'7" Weight: 123lbs Figure/build: Maddi is somewhat curved due to being 18, average build Hair color: White; Was originally a light brown color but she grayed rather early (which is possible). In order to hide it better, she went to a much lighter color. Hairstyle: Her hair is usually worn down and is cut rather choppily. Facial Hairstyle: She has bangs to either side a fringe going down from the left side of her forehead to the right bang. Eye color: Pastel blue Skin/fur/etc color: Slightly pale Preferred style of clothing: Breathable clothing Frequently worn jewelry/accessories: She wears dragon eye pendant that was given to her by Chase as a sign of partnership. It holds partial power similar to Chase's own that allows her to have the ability to change from cat to human at will otherwise being stuck as one or the other without it. This makes it easy to control her form if she disappoints him later on. Outfit descriptions:

1st Outfit - Xiaolin Monk Female Uniform. She received this from Master Fung when she arrived at the temple along with the others.

2nd Outfit - Chase's partner uniform/training attire - One of her regular attires used to seem intimidating. She organized this uniform with Chase's influence on the project.

3rd Outfit - Flexible, breathable desert attire - This is just a personal preference of hers. She enjoys desert countries like Egypt and took inspiration. Basically, it's a loose and comfortable outfit scrounged up by Madelyn herself. She took inspiration from the desert culture and how breathable the fabric can be in desert countries. The wrappings were added for added effect.

4th Outfit - Kimiko's Gift - This was a gift given to her back at the temple by Kimiko. Even though she's left the monks behind, this was a precious gift that became her favorite thing to wear casually and takes good care of it. She even stitches tears in the fabric and it very careful when wearing it in combat. No matter how hard she tried, it became too much of a guilty pleasure for her of the old days at the temple.

Cat Form - This is a form she can switch in and out of willingly due to the dragon's eye pendant Chase had gifted her as a sign of partnership. In order to keep her his partner, she needed to become immortal like him and the easiest way was to give her a cat form like his immortal warriors but with more freedom as deserved from her hard work and success. If the dragon's eye pendant is taken from her, she will be stuck in whichever form she was in last before it was removed. This was taken into consideration for punishment if it was necessary or if Chase got bored of her which has yet to happen.

Health

Addictions: None Allergies: Hay Any physical ailments/illnesses/disabilities: She has ADHD. This kept her from focusing as a child but as she got older she learned to work on her behavior and has found ways to focus better. Chase Young and Master Fung had excellent ways to teach her focus that worked best for her. This disorder is still present in her cat form where she focuses on little else but shiny things and things that move or peek her interest specifically. This is the only time Chase allows her to do as she pleases where she doesn’t have to actively focus on controlling her condition. Any medication that is regularly taken: No

Personality

Personality: Madelyn is a mysterious type of girl who is often portrayed as passive yet has the ability to let her self-doubt and aggressiveness towards her opponents control her. She tends to be soft-spoken when she talks and comes across as very “off” or distrusting of the monks the more problems that came about due to her powers growing to Dragon level before she plummeted due to further self-doubt. The incidents and arguments growing among the monks and herself brought her to distance herself from her new friends. However, she grows fond of Omi and shows a kind, gentle, and caring side to Omi, Master Fung, and Dojo, but becomes corrupted enough in her desire for more power that she follows in Chase’s footsteps and after she unwillingly falls as a Wudai warrior, she's left with little else than to become Chase’s apprentice as Chase had planned. Because of her lack of heart and self-doubt, her mental state affecting her chi's balance, she's always been prevented her from being able to wield Shen Gong Wu. Though it took time, this ended up making her rise to Wudai all the more praiseworthy without any need for Wu at all which was the point of. It was also a much more difficult task to complete as a result and she was the last to achieve dragon status in the group. It was very difficult to be considered a Xiaolin Monk if she couldn’t wager and use Wu in Xiaolin Showdowns which diminished her belief that she needed the others to go on. She soon came to develop and display the same type of evil Chase had. She once still had good in her and felt empathy and sympathy for others and disliked leaving Omi, Master Fung, and Dojo, but it was obvious where her desires lied and over time her kindness came to a complete close. In her more evil state, her personality has changed quite a bit. She has no empathy unless it's towards someone she has connected with well, which was with very few people. She looks down on those who use elements and Shen-Gong Wu to overpower their enemies and cannot stand to lose to a Shen-Gong Wu user. She likes the suffering of others to a point where she will relish in toying with her enemy till they are in pain to the point they can no longer move and find it amusing the harder they struggle even when they can't move at all. She enjoys when her opponent squirms and tries to outdo her which gives her a love of challenges and respects those who can make her think on her feet rather than use pure instinct based on her knowledge of Tai Chi and chi disruption. She has overcome the remainder of her most petty fears as Chase has pitted her against them and cat warriors who represented them.

Likes: Cats, Butterflies, Hamsters, crows Dislikes: Her weaker self, lack of self-confidence, Wu-Ya, Cat Nappe, Collecting Shen-Gong Wu and the use of them in general Fears/phobias: Harsh thunderstorms, Drowning - Her more petty fears were taken from her due to Chase's training and being harsh with her to the extent she had to become unafraid to do her best work. Favorite color: Blue Hobbies: Meditating, Training, Napping during free time Taste in music: Pop, Country, Chinese Traditional

Skills

Talents: Martial arts & tai chi (first-degree black belt)

Eating Habits

Omnivore/Carnivore/Herbivore (Vegetarian): Omnivore Favorite food(s): Soups, Oriental, Lobster Favorite drink(s): Hot Tea, Sweet Tea/Iced Tea, Water Disliked food(s): Spaghetti, Pizza, Papayas Disliked drink(s): Lemonade, Limeade, Coffee/Iced Coffee

Combat

Peaceful or aggressive attitude?: Aggressive but becomes less aggressive due to Chase's teachings. Fighting skills/techniques: She can use many tai chi techniques taught to her first by Master Fung and was further taught in this field by Chase Young. She has excellent speed, good reflexes, and excellent acrobatic capabilities along with the ability to disrupt chi where Shen-Gong Wu become useless or backfires on her opponent. Special skills/magical powers/etc: Chi disruption. Weapon of choice (if any): None Weaknesses in combat: She fails in distant combat and distant elemental combat, she dislikes using weapons so when fighting against someone who uses one it becomes difficult to work her techniques around the weapon to strike her opponent. This causes a lack of efficiency in her technique and she must take more time to find ways to directly hit her opponent. She lacks adaptation unless it's instinctual adaptation. She lacks control when under stress, especially when angered. She works to correct this while training with Chase. At one point her past relations with Omi and the others prevented her from performing well or confronting the monks to focus on training. This was later resolved when her feelings of which she rids herself of once she becomes filled with Heylin power. Strengths in combat: Tai Chi, maneuverability, speed, and chi disruption

Family, Friends, & Foes

Parents names: Madison and Coleen Are parents alive or dead?: Alive Is the character still in contact with their parents?: No Siblings? Relationship with siblings?: Big Sister Other Important Relatives: N/A Partner/Spouse: None Children: None Best Friend: Omi (formerly) Other Important Friends: Master Fung and Dojo (formerly) Acquaintances: Jack Spicer & Wu-Ya (occasionally) Pets: A cat named Cally

Enemies? Why are they, enemies?:

Xiaolin Dragons/Monks - Due to differences, she felt left out and unwanted before relying on them too much to make her happy which didn’t work. She was worried she would never be able to fully master the height of her abilities while being around her friends of whom she often heard talking about her in a negative light every time she was overly aggressive even though they still tried to show they cared. When something would go wrong involving her, usually making the same mistake twice, they often believed her aggressiveness needed to be fixed which was difficult for her to do when she had a particular hate for her enemies and hated them all equally while she was a monk. This was also caused by her dislike of losing and attempted to do anything she could to overpower her enemy. She believed going to Chase Young would be the better option as she held somewhat of a passive grudge against the monks except for Omi, Master Fung, and Dojo. When Omi fights with his friends to defeat Chase and get him back, she willingly denies playing and insisted it would be better if Chase proved himself to Omi without her help while she truly didn’t want to face the only monk she truly found to be her friend nor harm his friends.

Katnappe/Ashley - She finds Katnappe to be rather annoying and regardless of her abilities, she was unable to defeat Madelyn in order to further her place as Chase’s apprentice and Jack took Katnappe’s place after proving himself useful. She dislikes her obsession for cats and dislikes tolerating her very self-entitled, cocky, mocking, and girly behavior. Jack Spicer - Jack tends to be an annoyance of hers like Cat Nappe. His screams are shrill and girly, he tends to screw up his job, he’s too dependent on his robots and crafting skills rather than focusing on his physical capabilities. He relies too much on his robots and using his gadgets, and depending on Shen Gong Wu to fight in which he should be learning to fight without them—in her opinion. Jack is considered to not be very capable and on the occasion, they are on the same side, she tends to be more patient with him than he deserves which brings him to appreciate her “kindness”. She truly does not hate Jack as she does Cat Nappe, and somewhat sees him as a younger brother in certain occasions when they’ve been forced to work together. Hannibal Bean - When Hannibal bean comes into the picture and she becomes aware of how Chase became what he was. Bean never suited right with her and he often claimed how he saw the evil that dwells within herself that released her true desires. She was filled with greed, hate, an untapped Heylin power, and a desire for true power which she��d yet to achieve. He insisted that if she ever wanted to surpass her own master, he would gladly offer her the Lao Mang Long soup as long if she did his bidding from then on. When the villains teamed up to fight good, Madelyn joined but refused to work together with Bean when she had the chance and used her own skills to fight with Chase as her main partner. Wu Ya- Wu Ya is of great threat to her and Chase if she were to regain her true powers and body back. She convinced Chase to not return Wu Ya’s powers when he desired to give her her body back so Wu Ya wouldn’t pose any possible threat to which he agreed. Wu Ya was vain and narcissistic which Madelyn detested the most.

Backstory

Describe their childhood (newborn - age 10): She was always a giggly baby and enjoyed soft things such as blankets and pillows. She was always obedient and grew up very happy and excitable by the age of 10. She enjoyed exploring her surroundings before being put into a martial arts class. She became slowly obsessed with being the best in her class and became violent when angered which got her kicked out. She began closing herself off from human contact except with her big sister and her parents, as well as, her cat. As this went on, she came to face a new side of her parents after she began to fear them and their teaching of Christianity which made her never acquire a new religion or lack of one when she got older. No matter what she encountered.

Describe their teenage years (11 - 19):

During Elementary to High School, she was very quiet and reluctant to communicate with anyone except teachers when she had to. She chose activities that didn’t involve excessive conversation and took on Chorus due to being forced to by her mother and became an exceptional singer by the end of High School. She loved sports but became too competitive and came to dislike herself the more she noticed people avoiding her even when she occasionally tried to make kind gestures when desiring to communicate. This continues as she grew older in which she went back into her shell. At the age of 17, she discovered her true abilities as a martial artist. When she was 18 she applied to be a Xiaolin Monk to which her abilities matched what Master Fung needed and sensed she had potential upon meeting her even if she couldn't use any element. Teaching the other monks that skill can also make one excel was her duty which didn't go well due to her aggression. Sadly her resolve as a Xiaolin Dragon of Martial Arts diminished the more she became argumentative with her fellow monks, distanced herself, and finally gave into desiring more power and control. She becomes evil and switches to the Heylin side and joins forces with Chase Young when he decided it might be interesting to take her on as an apprentice in case Omi never did come to apprentice with him. She first meets Chase Young personally after the group is introduced to him as a villain. He becomes aware of Maddi's desire for power deep within and the feeling of greed he often sensed from her. When he heard from Jack that she couldn't use Wu, this brought him to develop a curiosity for her as a possible apprentice. Especially because she gained her ranking without the use of Shen-Gong Wu - what he believes is a crutch. The more the group fought him and Madelyn had chances set up by Chase to have a showdown with her, he noticed bitterness from her and how aggressive and competitive she was.

After some time, Chase decides to have a tiger of his spy on her before making its presence known for her to chase the tiger in an attempt to keep it away from Temple grounds. The cat goes to Chase where Maddi meets him face to face under a full moon where she questions his motives. He replies that he sensed her unhappiness for some time now. In order to get her on his side, he decides to plant the seeds of deceit in her mind and manipulates her upon saying, "I know you seek power and control. The power you seek can be achieved through my guidance and tutelage. It would be rather simple for you to grasp my techniques without you being distracted by Shen-Gong Wu." She refused and his reply was given, "Whenever you get tired of putting up with the attitude you are receiving from the other monks, constantly telling you that you're too aggressive and how you are willing to do anything to win... Come find me."

The more conflict that arises between her and her friends the more tempting Chase's offer becomes before he puts in place a plan to set up total doubt and betrayal from her fellow monks. When they try to follow her after deeply upsetting her upon her losing a Wu to Jack, she runs till she's exhausted and roughly bumps into Chase who held her and stroked her hair, appearing to be consoling her. Madelyn was too tired and upset to fight back against this "care". The monks immediately believed she'd betrayed them and returned to the temple. Once she returned after Chase kept her company the rest of the night to gain her trust, they wouldn't let her back into the temple. She then follows a Tiger Chase left to lead her to his cave and she follows through becoming his apprentice.

After turning to the Heylin side, she remains focused and confident which Chase likes to see as he dislikes weakness from his apprentices. She becomes a more prized possession over time with her lack of forgiveness of others and her desire for power was so strong he could sense her greed very clearly when she fought him or through her Chi alone. She becomes very manipulative towards the monks to toy with their emotions but mostly never bothering to fight them, except on certain occasions when she was told to accompany Jack while they were allied. Chase Young, after Omi’s departure and winning back his freedom, becomes dependent on himself and Madelyn. He begins to drawback from Omi and focuses all his extra time in training with Madelyn and making her become everything she had worked hard to become until her empathy, care, and sympathy for others, as well as her previous care for Omi, Master Fung, and Dojo diminishes and she becomes pure evil like her new master. After her desire for power brought her to just the right skill level, Chase gave her an offer that would enable her to obtain Heylin magic in which she took a month to ponder before accepting. This power he offered her to give her Heylin magic was not the Lao Mang Long soup but instead was him giving her a portion of his power by making her into one of his cat warriors with added benefits to be able to change form at will and become immortal alongside him. This also increased her martial arts significantly.

After the Series:

She was often too focused on her training to get involved with Chase’s affairs with the group otherwise unless Chase needed her to weaken the monks resolve by reminding them of how they outcast her. She never returned to the monks and became close to Chase Young’s equal over the many years that have passed. Madelyn is now capable of far more than she used to be, including her martial arts being nearly equal to Chase’s as well as her need for power has been quenched to the point where she can flourish with her newfound abilities given to her by Chase’s Heylin magic being partially given to her.

Chase has grown very fond of her and her evil ways to the point he wishes not to lose her from his side. There is no visible relationship between the two except the beginnings of a relationship based on mutual power and desire to remain together as partners which may be why Chase offered her a form of immortality as the animal they both admire.

Description of Chase and Madelyn’s Partnership

Chase saw potential in Madelyn to be able to surpass her current power and by taking her he takes a source of power from the monks and uses her to his own advantage. His expectations were low overall, however, he could easily use her against the Monks to stop them in their tracks. When Chase begins training her, his expectations become low due to her early and consistent mistakes but takes the time and the patience to improve her since he had given his word to treat her the way he would a valued apprentice. As time goes on he becomes impressed with the gradually quickened overcoming of her aggressiveness. With that being taken into consideration after putting her under the right set of training, her ADHD becomes more manageable where she has been able to fully concentrate under manipulated settings to best suit her experience and needs. She was then able to keep herself still through rigorous mental training and self-diligence to prove herself better than the monks AND Chase had expected of her. She already began sensing Chase's doubt in her and sought out the earn the respect she believed she deserved by doubling her effort and exceeding all expectations anyone had of her. She over exceeded Chase's initial expectations and he became fond of her and her talent based on what she's made possible for him to mold her into while keeping herself under control and in a mindset where she can succeed with hard work and extensive effort. Four years of training go by. Chase is nearly overwhelmed by her while sparring, still showing he could easily set her straight with his dragon form without much effort. As time goes on further, his dragon form takes a bit more effort to subdue her until her progression comes to a stable halt that could only be improved if she accepted the Lao Mang Long soup which she did not want even if Chase offered it to her. During that training, she was often able to express her true self to him and even bring out a more greedy and evil part of herself that Chase grew to enjoy. Since they spent a lot of time together, the two were slowly establishing a field of trust between one another that would come to the surface later. Madelyn, after some time, was able to have conversations with him he acknowledged and conversed with her to keep each other interested. In time, he allowed them to have time to themselves to make sure neither would get bored of the other. Some quirks in their relationship were how Madelyn often hated Chase waking her up from her naps. He found her agitation amusing along with her anger afterward which got her fired up in order to train before showing her skill to its fullest extent. After the 2nd year, she was able to sit down with Chase where he believed it was time for him to explain his reasons for choosing her to be his apprentice and why becoming evil was his end result. This showed how he found common ground with her due to his needs not being met as a Xiaolin Monk while Madelyn found herself with her needs also not being met which halted the powers they could unlock under the right circumstances. If they had switched places, perhaps not much would have been different. One other example of their bond was based on how she was capable to overcome all obstacles without his element which he became unable to use his own after he drank the Lao Mang Long soup. Her hatred of Shen-Gong Wu also reflected his ideas of how they were simply a crutch and he only used them for the sake of his agenda to get Omi's power for himself.

Regardless of her growing evil within her heart, she still retained empathy towards certain animals and people. Chase was one of them. Madelyn has even seen Chase under severe mental exhaustion and distress on very rare occasions and tended to keep him company, albeit silently. Without knowing much of how to comfort him, the best she could come up with was to sit with her back against his and meditate alongside him until she felt his muscles relax and his breathing calm to show her loyalty and care for Chase and to show her gratitude. In his own way, he appreciated this and soon gave her an immortal form as a cat and a dragon's eye pendant that allowed her to change form from cat to human and the reverse at will. He trusted her enough that he believed he wouldn't need to deprive her of her freedom yet kept a close eye on her as he let her branch out and train on her own without his guidance. When she went to fight the monks for her own amusement, he tagged along secretly to watch over her as he was growing possessive and didn't wish for the monks to try and take her back even though that wasn't likely during those long years of building trust with him while gaining distrust from the monks along with their disappointment. She was able to take care of herself but he was having trouble letting this prodigy go. He came to terms that, while his power alone may be great, he knew all too well that as a team, they were greater still. This gradually brought out an, even more, passive-aggressive type of possessive nature during those four years where he forms a desire to keep what he sought to create, which came to a full success, close to him as she seemed like the perfect asset for his current needs. With his possessiveness over his creation, he was willing to even protect her on a few occasions when she was truly outdone from exhaustion. One example was while she was doing extreme training with multiple of his cat warriors in their human forms. Originally, both sides were told to hold nothing back, but when she honestly had fought to what he believed was more than acceptable, formidable, skill, he stepped in the way when the cats wouldn't let down. He even protected her from other threats over time during constant bouts with the monks where he rarely had to step into stopping her from being taken down. Overall, she is still considered replaceable, but his pride prevents him from letting her go that easily. This, in turn, was allowing him to give off a very possessive and protective nature which is unlike him based his past relations with others not being as complex after Dashi and Monk Guan died. The others before her were more easily disposable. As of now, he had realized this behavior came from the fact he had not spent so much of his valuable time with them as he had with this girl to the point her life somewhat mattered. Due to this fact, he values her more than many he's fought alongside after turning to the Heylin side and intends to keep her around as long as possible which was, in truth, the secondary reason, over control of her, that he'd granted her immortality and a flexible form.

#xiaolin showdown #chase young #xiaolin showdown oc #oc rp #open for rp

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