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gilbirda · 3 months

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Friendly neighborhood vigilante. Chapter 23

BatmanxDP crossover. JasonxJazz

[Read on AO3] [Read on FF.net]

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“Sorry about that,” Jazz was as chirpy and radiant as she usually was when she found them in the breakfast room. “Danny’s extra cranky. Probably haven't slept in a few weeks.”

“Everything okay?” Bruce had to ask.

Jazz's smile was bright as she sat down next to Jason, who was finishing his toast. “Yeah! I feel better than ever!”

Right. The vials.

“I meant your brother.” Bruce’s eyebrow twitched with the thousand questions he surely wanted to ask.

Jazz looked up from where she was reaching for the toast and some strawberry jam. “Yeah? He’s sleeping. He’ll be fine.”

Dick chuckled and leaned in. “What Bruce meant to say,” he side eyed his father, who breathed in relief and continued drinking his coffee, “is what was that about? Things seemed pretty heated between Danny and you.”

Jason gave him a warning look, but otherwise didn’t react.

On the other hand, Jazz snorted. “Ghosts’ love language is fighting.” She shook her head. “He wouldn’t actually hurt me.”

Jason’s eyebrows went to his hairline, and very wisely chose to bite back a few questions. Also Jazz’s personality was slowly starting to make sense. He was sure that once he knew everything he wouldn’t need to feel this confused.

“Could have fooled me.” Dick commented instead. “Danny really didn't like Jason.”

“He didn’t—” Jazz tensed. She finished chewing and forced her shoulders to relax. “Is not that— I mean. I think Danny will like him, it’s just—”

“Is this about your exes?” Her boyfriend asked softly, reaching for an apple and putting it on her plate. She quietly thanked him.

“Yes and no. I…” she blushed, “I don’t have the best track record.”

Bruce cleared his throat. “Did you— Uh.” He realized too late he could sound like he was interrogating her. “I apologize, but I need to ask. The report Danny mentioned—?”

“Yeah. That.” With a tired sigh, Jazz put her knife down. “David. He… Well.”

“That’s the one that cheated on you, right?”

She nodded at Jason. “I found out I was actually a side piece. It wasn’t fun.” She scrunched her nose.

“What happened?”

“Dick.” Jason warned.

“No, no. It’s okay. I took care of it.”

“Dislocated shoulder and shattered hand?” Cass spoke for the first time.

Jazz sighed again. “The dislocated shoulder was because he didn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘no’.” She made a face. “And the hand was because I didn’t realize how… soft humans actually are.”

At this point? They were getting used to Jazz — and her brother — being a different category in their heads. For Dick it was like the slight adjustment he had to make when he was with the Titans. He had been the only human, fully human, of the group and he had to get used to his best friends and then girlfriend making these types of comments regularly.

“I found out…” Jazz continued with a distant look in her eyes, “I found out because I came back to the living world sooner than I expected and decided to check out my favorite coffee place and he was there with another woman. I thought — ‘well, I’m not around much and I’m also not the most exciting person, of course I got cheated on’ but the more I listened the less it made sense.”

“You are not boring.” Jason scoffed, frowning a little at the self deprecating behavior and the story. How could that idiot not see what he had in front of him?

“Thanks,” her smile was small, but sincere, “but the story doesn’t end there.” She leaned in, her eyes narrowing as her smile twitched a little. “Things didn’t quite add up and I quickly realized it was me who was the ‘other woman’ and this poor person didn’t know. And him? He was abusing her.”

“What?”

Jazz nodded at Dick. “I followed them, listening in, trying to see any sign that he was not the same person he was with me that he was with her. Claudia — that’s her name — showed textbook behavior of abuse and I had to make sure.” She sighed, leaning back on her seat, looking tired. “Long story short I caught him threatening her and taking her phone and I decided to act. Waited until she was home safe and had a chat with David and told him very nicely that he shouldn’t do that and yes, I may have accidentally sent him to the hospital.”

She went back to her breakfast, choosing to take a bite of her toast and chew for a few moments.

“Claudia took the chance while he was recovering and broke up with him, moved apartments and found the help she needed. I would have preferred she reported him, but I can’t force her and if that was enough for her then it’s fine by me.” She shrugged. “I had to go back to the Realms shortly after so I couldn’t stay to check further, and then things got complicated and I just came back for college stuff and even then I had to be quick.”

Bruce took a sip of his coffee to hide the tiny smile.

Jazz was not a hero or a vigilante, but he could see why she fit in the family so much, and more importantly, why his son liked her so much.

“What happened to the guy?”

Jazz chuckled at Duke’s question. “As much as I'd like to report some type of karmic punishment, last time I saw him he was still frequenting the same coffee place. But he was alone. His hand was healed, though. I didn’t stay longer to check more. I couldn’t.” Her little frown and tense shoulders told them not to pry.

Conversation continued as they finished breakfast, mostly questions about her brother and what they saw almost go down in the kitchen. Jazz was very open about what she could tell, and shared a few stories about Danny and his “bad taste in women”. They noticed how earlier stories about Danny’s powers and Team Phantom adventures were easy for her to tell; but later ones, from about the time Danny graduated highschool, became a stream of “ummm”s and “uhhh”s and “and etcetera” that she used to dance around the truth.

Jason almost felt guilty for contributing to the general subtle questioning, but Jazz was happy enough to share stories and she even acknowledged that she was happy to share the whole thing at a later time.

Soon the timeline that Barbara had roughly put together was filled with tidbits of information — all those blank spots she found were the times the siblings (and their friends) were back in the Infinite Realms. Doing what exactly? That was the final piece of the puzzle.

She talked about training, about classes, about Frighty and Frostbite and Clockwork and a plethora of ghosts as if they were supposed to know who they were — classic Jazz — and with context they quickly understood that the names she repeated the most were some kind of guides or teachers on this mysterious part of her life.

It wasn't difficult to put together that Jazz, Danny and this… “Team Phantom” were somehow related to the High King of the Infinite Realms.

That still left a bunch of questions, like what were their exact roles, who was the king and what were her parents doing during those periods of time. They didn’t broach the subject but they knew from Babs’ research that they were working for the GIW, a sketchy organization that wanted them eliminated, during those times they were in the Infinite Realms.

If they knew about all of this, why haven’t they done something already? If their guesses were correct, they’ve been fighting and training for a bit less than a decade. It didn’t make sense that they had this kind of power, this kind of backup, and haven’t tried to bring down the GIW yet.

Or contacted the Justice League. Sure, they were angry and disappointed that the heroes never came to help, but Jazz insisted they had the situation back at her hometown under control. Technically, they could now ask for that support.

Glancing at Bruce and his calculating eyes, Jason decided he didn’t blame her for not reaching out. And he wasn’t sure what she would do after how bad Bruce had treated her.

“Oh Ancients,” Jazz jumped and put her orange juice back on the table. She glanced at Dick. “The class. Today. I forgot.”

The man chuckled. “I already called and said that I wouldn’t be able to attend today. The show you and your brother put on in the kitchen told me today was going to be interesting enough.”

She blushed. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. They are already used to me canceling at the last minute. Just Vigilante Things.” He winked.

“Don’t I know it.” A new voice answered from the door. Danny walked in dragging his feet, hair sticking outwards in every direction and eyes narrowed. “Good morning.”

“Hey you.” Jazz turned in her seat. “You look awful.”

“Is my natural charm.” Danny yawned and sat next to his sister. “Hi all. My name is Danny. Can I eat some food?”

Some at the table chuckled at his words. Bruce nodded, amused, and abandoned all pretense that he wasn’t analyzing the siblings.

“Slept okay?” He asked.

“Better than I have in weeks.” Danny shrugged, making quick work of what was left on the table. He wasn’t picky, and he didn’t complain about the food being cold. “Mostly because I haven’t slept in weeks more than a few naps under my desk.”

“I told you—”

“I know.” He cut off his sister. “I know. I just never find the time.”

Jazz looked like she wanted to argue but chose to let it go and helped Danny assemble the worst breakfast combination in the world. The rest watched in horror and fascination as the young man devoured everything at a fast pace, not caring about chewing or tasting the food.

Once he swallowed, he continued talking. “We have been using the system — you know, the one you created?” He rolled his eyes when Jazz smiled, pleased. “It has been working fine. It’s just,” he sighed, “after you left everything kept piling up. I didn’t know how much work you did — how much reading I would do.” Danny rubbed his face in despair.

“And that’s why Tucker was my back up for the—”

“And he has been doing a great job but I made the mistake of offering my help, you know, I thought ‘oh, I have some free time! I can help my loved ones’ — that was my first mistake.”

“Thinking?” Jazz arched an eyebrow, her smile mocking.

Danny didn’t find it amusing, but quiet and barely contained chuckles around the table disagreed with him.

“Now seriously, do you need me to come back?” She asked, pointedly ignoring the stares, especially her boyfriend’s.

Danny’s eyes opened wide. “No! No, please. You stay where you are.” He gestured widely with his hands. “We got this. You— You enjoy your vacation.”

Vacation? Jazz said she was in Arkham to learn skills for her work in the Realms.

“I told you I’m not—”

“Yes. You are. Vacation.” He grabbed her shoulders and shook her a little. “Stop worrying. We got this.”

“Good luck with getting her to relax.”

“Hey!” Jazz turned towards her boyfriend. “I thought you were supposed to be on my side?”

“And I am. On the side where you stop worrying.”

Danny finally smiled. “You are not that bad, Mr Boyfriend.”

“Jason.”

Danny’s smiles grew with mischief, and didn’t say anything else. Jazz sighed.

“Please behave.”

“I always do.”

“You know as well as I do that that’s a lie.” She narrowed her eyes at her brother. “I thought we agreed you’d behave when you visit.”

“Still thinking you are capable of ‘being normal’?” He did the air quotes and everything. “Jazz, I love you, but you know that—”

“I know.” She looked down at her hands on her lap. “Believe me I know.”

Something clicked in Danny’s mind, because his teasing smile melted from his face the moment her words were out of her mouth.

He glanced at Jason, who tensed at the look, and went back to his sister. “What happened?”

Everyone noticed the switch in the siblings. Danny’s tense shoulders and alert eyes immediately going around the room looking for something. He didn’t know the details but he knew something was up with Jasmine.

“The situation has changed.” She started, still looking down. “I… The—I mean, I will take care of it, I always do, but we need to talk.”

Jason didn’t miss Danny’s dangerous glint in his eye when he looked at him again. Or the green glow in the blue irises.

“You said so in your text.” He nodded. “So this isn’t just about Mr Muscles over there?”

Jazz's soft chuckle was almost able to break the tension in the room. Cass, Duke and Dick stopped breathing, knowing this was it. Damian, who had been ignoring everyone and had been texting John the whole time, finally put his phone down. Bruce and Jason shared a look. This was it.

“How about we move this important conversation to the drawing room? I feel like you will be more comfortable there.” Alfred as always knew when to walk in, and started picking up the dirty dishes without waiting for a reply.

With a few murmurs in agreement, the whole group stood up and moved towards the room they’d been in the previous night. The arrangement was similar, with Bruce in the loveseat and the siblings cramming themselves in the opposite couch to the one where Jason, Jazz and Danny sat down.

Jazz was holding on to her boyfriend’s hand for dear life, trying to calm down. She appreciated his words of encouragement as they walked with the group, and held her head high by the time she faced her brother again.

“Jason, and his family, they… they know.”

Danny lifted an eyebrow. “I have noticed.” He crossed his arms. “After this morning, I’d expect a few screams in horror, but nobody has reported us to the police yet, so…”

“No, no. Danny, they know.”

It took a moment for her words to settle in, but when they did he bared his teeth and stood up. “WHAT?” He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “What the hell, Jazz? It’s been what, a few months? And this guy,” he pointed at Jason, who didn’t, couldn't, look at him, “makes cute eyes at you so you spill MY secrets?”

“It wasn’t like that.”

“Oh yeah?” He threw his hands up. “Enlighten me. Tell me how it was, because I was mostly joking when I said you have terrible taste, but—”

“It wasn’t like that.” She growled, bristling. “Things happened and I really need you to trust me for this one.”

“Trust you?” Danny asked, incredulous. “Are you seriously asking me to trust you right now?”

She straightened her back. “Yes I am. When have I led you astray?”

Danny scoffed. “You want the list alphabetical?”

“Danny.”

The siblings glared at each other, face expressions and eyes telling more than what words could tell. Danny was furious but cautious, and the fact that he hadn’t ran away yet was taken as a good sign. Jazz was hurt and pleading, but firm even when both their eyes started turning green.

Bruce wanted to shrink into his seat in shame, but he couldn’t. He did this. Jazz was forced against her will to reveal information so he wouldn’t march her into the Justice League and trial her for crimes he thought she committed. And now she had the chance to pay back, to rightfully blame him and tell her brother how he kidnapped her and hurt her, and she wasn’t saying anything.

“Okay.” Danny finally said. “Okay,” he sighed, “when we are back home you bet your ass you are explaining.”

“Everything will make sense in time.”

“You are starting to talk like Clockwork.”

This made her smirk. “Good. It keeps you on your toes.”

Danny made a mocking face to his sister and turned to look at the others watching.

“I guess there’s nothing to lose.”

There was a flash of bright light and instead of the tired and burned out younger Fenton sibling, they saw a floating glowing figure dressed in black and white. It was still Danny, but hair was white and eyes were green; and all the ghostly physical traits they saw in the siblings — fangs, claws, pointed ears — were exaggerated in this form.

“My name is Danny Phantom. The one and only hero of Amity Park—” Jazz cleared her throat, “I mean,” he glared at her and crossed his legs in the air, still floating, “I am the only undead hero of Amity Park. I have helpers.”

“Very funny.” Jazz said. She turned towards Bruce, Jason and the others. “Guys, this is my brother. Danny, these are the Waynes. Jason’s family.”

Danny’s eyebrows arched. “You are Bruce Wayne?” The way he asked had zero amount of awe. He was familiar with the name and not in a good way.

“You know who I am?”

“Sam — my girlfriend — knows who you are. She’s been to a few of your fancy-schmancy galas. She said she hated every second of it.”

The older man found it funny. “They tend to be mind numbingly boring.”

“Hey Danny,” Jazz’s voice was careful, “is this place safe?”

This made the young man tense and unfold his legs, all playfulness gone. “What do you mean?”

“I— I did my own check, but I’d feel better if you did one too. I wouldn’t like for, hm, Vlad to—”

“Vlad is involved in this?” Nobody missed the growl in his chest.

“All will make sense, I promise.” Jazz pleaded, lifting her hands in a placating manner.

Jason glanced at Bruce. They knew Vlad Master was bad news, but this confirmed it.

“Okay. Trusting you. Whatever.” Danny breathed slowly and disappeared.

Immediately, Jazz explained: “He’s doing a sweep of the haunt.” Determined, she looked at Bruce and then at Jason. “Will it be okay if I tell him about you guys?”

Bruce looked conflicted for a second, but Jason didn’t hesitate. “Go ahead.” He glared at Bruce as if daring him to say otherwise. “We owe you at least that.”

By the time Danny was back Bruce had come to terms that he had to start being okay with a bunch of things really quick if he wanted his answers. Glancing at Jasmine and how her worried frown never left her, he considered it wasn’t that bad of a step towards properly apologizing to her. She had said a few days ago that his apology at Jason’s apartment wasn’t enough. He was starting to understand the dimensions of the situation he caused.

“Okay. Place is clean. There’s a lot of dead relatives but that’s expected from a haunt like this one.”

Bruce wanted so badly to ask him to elaborate on that. But kept his mouth shut.

“Alright.” Jazz breathed in slowly. “Danny,” she started, “remember you are trusting me, ok?”

“You are scaring me.” He tried to joke, but his sister didn’t even smile.

“Could you please show them the… the other thing?”

“What other—” realization dawned on him. “Jazz, you didn’t—!”

“I haven’t!”

“Then why—?”

“I asked you if this was safe, didn’t I?”

“Yes, but—”

“Then listen to me,” she insisted, standing up to approach her brother. “Trust me. Show them.” She took his hands in hers, the contrast of both the alive and dead sibling blurring the longer Jazz stood there. It was like their auras became visible and pulsed together, a low hum barely perceptible rumbling in the room. “Trust me.”

The rumbling stopped when their hands stopped touching. Danny floated back and let his body lower until his feet touched the floor. He threw a worried look at Jazz and nodded, all aggressiveness dissipating and leaving a vulnerable expression on his face.

He didn’t say anything else, but he didn’t have to. Gasps and one yelp in surprise filled the silence when green flames engulfed his body, from the bottom of his feet to the last strand of hair, and in its path, it revealed the same undead creature but not quite the same young man.

Danny looked like a completely different person with the dark metal armor over the suit. He looked taller, and bigger, and his presence commanded attention even if he wasn’t saying anything. He wore a cape dark as night, with millions of stars glowing on the inside, and that floated as if some kind of invisible breeze had entered the room.

The most impressive thing, though, was the black crown over his head. It floated a few inches over his hair, and the flames of his transformation seemed to concentrate in the mysterious metal, flowing and pulsating like a heartbeat.

“I am…” Even his voice sounded different. Heavier. He glanced at Jazz, who nodded. “I am Daniel James Phantom, the High King of the Infinite Realms.”

In the following moments, the Waynes felt like they were living in some kind of surrealistic alternate dimension. It was the moment at the maximum height of a jump, right before gravity did its thing and violently pulled you back down to Earth. Watching Danny, who just a few hours before had crashed into the house and looked more roadkill than person, was floating now in the middle of their drawing room wearing a full armor, a burning crown and a heavy presence that rivaled Batman on a bad day.

Dick broke the moment, acting like the gravity he loved to defy, and hollered a laugh coming from deep in his chest. “Eat shit, Stephanie!”

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#dpxdc #hardcover ship #jazz x jason #anger management ship #jazz/jason #dp x dc #dc x dp #batpham #friendly neighborhood vigilante #neighbors au

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im-totally-not-an-alien-2 · 2 years

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Halloween prompts no. 9

Desiree was going to get her butt kicked. An then she was going to spend two whole weeks in the thermos.

Danny wasn't sure who wished for what, only that he heard his wish granting ghost yell, "So you have wished it, so shall it be!" And then the whole city was in the sky above another city and now here he was strugging to hold up the entirety of Amity Park while people screamed in terror both above and below him. Parts of the newly formed giant island above him were beginning to break off and fall down to the people below, forcing Phantom to spend more energy to freeze the entire bottom to make it more structurally sound.

A few minutes passed with him slowly inching Amity Park away from the city below it before both a man and woman dressed in American flag-ish colors flew up to him and began helping him out. Phantom was relieved and all together they moved Amity out of the way and Phantom phased it promptly into the ground. By the time they were done the city looked like it had been there for decades. The people introduced themselves as Superman and Wonderwoman and they turned out to be very nice and offered him a place on a "team" of some kind.

Phantom thanked them for their compliments and rejected the offer, not bothering to hide his suspension and then seemingly vanished into thin air. He could take care of himself well enough and didn't need adults to cause him more trouble like they always inevitably did.

Sure. He missed his parents who were in Wisconsin at Vlads funeral. He wasn't sure how the fruitloop kicked the bucket but Clockwork confirmed he was fully dead and not a ghost so. Eh. His sister was seventeen now and could take care of him and Ellie well enough that the authorities wouldn't care. Just like she did all throughout his childhood.

Turns out the city they almost crashed into was called Gotham, a fact Sam loved, and they were in a totally new world/reality/dimension filled with superheros and supervillians. Danny was relieved when he found that the ghost portals no longer worked and thought he could finally go back to being a normal kid.

Nope.

Turns out villains from both Gotham and Bludhaven saw Amity as free real estate and Danny had to fight them off. Whats more is that Danny needed to find a new source of ecto energy to feed off of, which lead to him finding the Lazarus Pit under Gotham, purifying it, maintaining it with filters and whatnot from his parents lab and basically chilling there with Ellie in thier ghost forms.

Jazz, Danny, and Ellie were quick to dismantle all of thier parents stuff to both make thier house look totally normal and not suspicious at all and to get rid of any weapons or info that might harm Danny or Ellie. Of course it wasn't long before the bats and birds infiltrated Amity and Phantom fought them off, claiming this was his territory, thank you very much and now he was fighting off Villians AND heroes alike.

Danny was both glad and dismayed that the internet didn't come with them from thier world, forcing them to use this worlds information. Tucker only had to do minor things to protect Dannys identity and the people of Amity quickly got the memo of not telling anyone about the ghosts, especially Phantom.

Sam was worried about her parents finances do to them no longer being able to access thier bank accounts only to find out that her parent (grangran especially) kept a large chunk of thier fortune hidden away in thier giant mansion. So they were fine.

The Fenton kids (actually just Danny but whatever) were left everything in Vlads will so the mansion and everything in it was thiers. (Danny wanted to sell the mansion but got vetoed by the others who wanted to redecorate it since the place was practically a fortress armed to the teeth. Plus, being the dramatic idiot he was, Vlad had a crap-ton of jewels, cash and literal gold bars hidden throughout the place. Wild. Not to mention all the vehicles and stuff in there. Tucker swears this was the fifth room he entered that had a helicopter in it. Wth.

So they were fine.

The rest of Amity Park couldn't say the same. Many had jobs out of the city they couldn't get to anymore or worked in an office working for a company were the main branch was out of state and couldn't be contacted. Meaning no one could send them a paycheck. Many were forced to look for employment in Gotham and Bludhaven.

Everything was a wreck. Luckly Bruce Wayne and Tim Drake had a plan to help the people of Amity Park while also getting on the local heros good side.

#dp x dc #fanfiction prompts #prompts #danny phantom #danny fenton #batman #bruce wayne #amity park #tim drake #wonder woman #superman #the justice league #justice league #the young justice team might not accept danny just wanting to live a normal life #young justice #dani fenton #jazz fenton #halloween prompts

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raaorqtpbpdy · 1 year

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Dead on Arrival

Written for the Phic Phight Prompts: In some hospitals, CPR is done to a patient despite them being declared dead on arrival. This is a courtesy to the family. The doctor doesn't expect the scream when they lay down the defibrillator paddles on the boy's chest (from @eyesofcrows), Danny gets caught in the middle of a bank robbery. Can he diffuse the situation without revealing his powers? (@wingedflight), and For some reason someone uses defibrillators on Danny, the feeling is all too familiar to him (@phantomphangphucker)

AO3 Link

[Warnings for blood, injury, violence, flashbacks, minor dissociation, hospitals, and near-death experiences]

Daniel Fenton was dead on arrival. Everyone there when he was brought to Amity Park General Hospital knew that. No pulse, no breathing, already cool to the touch. But his parents were inconsolable, desperate. They demanded something be done. So the doctor called for a defibrillator and started chest compressions, just for the parents' peace of mind. They'd just lost their fourteen-year-old son. It was the least the doctors could do to extend them this courtesy.

When the nurse came in with the defibrillator, they cut away the boy's shirt to press the paddles to his bare skin, ignoring the slick blood covering every inch of skin. They all knew nothing would come of this, that it was more or less for show, but they did it anyway. The nurse set the charge.

"Clear," warned the doctor before administrating the shock.

None of them were expecting the corpse to scream. A visceral, bone-chilling scream. A scream that rattled the windows, that made the lights in the whole hospital flicker with the force of it. A scream like the auditory incarnation of pain itself.

The doctors and nurses all slammed their hands against their ears, desperately trying to block out the sound, to no avail. It was the most horrible thing they'd ever heard in their lives. But it meant one thing. Danny Fenton was alive after all.

—

It was rare for Danny to encounter trouble with humans. He was a ghost hero, after all, so he mostly dealt with ghosts causing trouble. There were a few exceptions, like Freakshow, and sometimes Vlad, but even the exceptions were at least ghost-adjacent. These guys weren't.

They were one hundred percent human, committing a one hundred percent human crime. Two in the bank lobby, two more cracking the safe. Danny had just been coming to cash a birthday check when they showed up waving guns around and demanded everybody get down on the floor. It wouldn't have been fair for Danny to go ghost to fight a bunch of bank robbers, but of course, they were pointing guns at civilians, and he wasn't about to let that slide, either.

"That's it, nobody's gotta be a hero," one of the robbers said, and that sounded like a cue if ever Danny had heard one, because there was no way he was about to let that happen.

"Excuse me," he said, standing up to get their attention entirely on him. Immediately both the robbers in the reception area had their guns trained on him. It was preferable to having those things aimed at regular humans, not to mention an unfortunately familiar position for Danny to be in, so he had no trouble remaining calm as he raised his arms to show them he couldn't fight back.

"Si'down, kid," barked one of the robbers.

"I was just wondering if this is really the best use of your time," Danny said casually, staying on his feet, keeping the robbers' focus all on him. "I mean, surely you have better things to do than rot in prison, right?"

"There'll be no prison, 'cause we won't get caught!" the other robber said.

"Sure you won't," Danny said sardonically. "Except, you're not wearing masks, and this place is full of cameras." Idiots. Danny's presence might've given them a fighting chance, that is, if every public building in Amity Park hadn't made the switch to Fenton Spook-Proof Security Cameras about a year ago. "So I have to wonder what exactly your plan is here? Are you gonna get radical plastic surgery with the money you steal?"

The one closest to Danny smirked. "Robbie hacked the cameras before we came in, ain't that right, Robbie?"

"Uh... I thought Nick was supposed to do that," said the one standing by the teller's desk.

"What?!" said the first guy. "That was your job!"

"I don't know how to hack cameras, Jack." Robbie responded.

"Jack, Nick, and Robbie, huh?" Danny repeated. "Robbie the robber? Who's your fourth guy, Steal?"

"Melvin," Robbie said, "but his last name is Steel. How'd you know that?"

"And what's your last name?" Danny asked.

"Johnson, but I don't see what that has to do with anyth—"

"Robbie you fuckin' moron!" Jack groaned. "Now he knows our names and our faces!"

"Oh, shoot!" Robbie lowered his gun to slap a hand over his mouth.

"That's not a bad idea," Jack said, putting on a wicked grin and leveling his gun at Danny, whose eyes widened. "He can't talk if he's dead."

"Wait!" Danny shouted, but he didn't have time to say anything else before Jack shot several rounds into his gut and he collapsed backwards onto the floor.

Dark red bloomed across Danny's shirt. It stung a little, but it wasn't so bad, actually. Not as bad as an ecto-blast, but worse than a paper cut, he decided. Although, that could've just been because his brain hadn't caught up with the injury yet. His extremities were already loosing feeling as blood pumped out of the holes in his abdomen and pooled around him. It was a shame. Danny really liked this shirt, and now it was completely ruined.

He knew he'd bleed out before the police arrived, even though the robbers had failed to prevent the teller from tripping the silent alarm. He'd probably be okay in the long run, but he'd pass out for a bit while his body healed. All Danny could do was hope these idiots didn't realize that everyone else in the bank had also heard their names, and could therefore identify them just as well as Danny could. As long as he was the only one who got shot, everything was okay. That was his last thought before he lost consciousness from the blood loss.

The next thing Danny knew, was the all too familiar sensation of electricity shooting through his heart. It wasn't as strong as the last time, but it reminded him of it, of the portal accident, and the memory alone made it feel much much worse. The phantom pains that tore through him as he recalled the worst experience of his life increased the pain a thousand fold.

A scream ripped from his throat.

Whatever was happening in that moment didn't exist to him.

He had no idea where he was, or how he'd been zapped, or what else, or who else was around him.

All he could see was green.

All he could feel was a burning pain lighting up every nerve in his body, ionizing his atoms, rearranging his molecules.

The smell of ozone and charred meat filled his nose.

The metallic taste of blood overtook his mouth as electricity arced between his teeth.

His screams would echo in his head for months to come, would haunt his dreams as long as he haunted the Earth, perhaps longer.

It was overwhelming.

He was overwhelmed.

After a lifetime and a moment, the pain started to fade; the sensations ebbed. Everything was still. Everything was quiet, but for the ringing in his ear drums.

Danny felt floaty and faraway. He fisted his hands, digging his nails into his palms to ground himself, and pushed himself into a sitting position. Gradually, he became more aware of his surroundings.

He was in a hospital room. It smelled like antiseptic and blood. The light was out. Shattered glass glinted on the countertop. The hospital bed was thin but soft under his hands. He took a deep, shuddering breath.

No one seemed to be there until Danny looked down. A doctor, two nurses, and Danny's parents were all unconscious on the floor, blood dripping slowly from their ears. Alarmed, Danny checked to see if they were alive, and sighed in relief when they were.

He'd done this.

It was all his fault.

#phic phight 2023 #phic phight #fic #things i wrote #dp #danny phantom #angst #danny fenton

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thebubblesareevil · 2 years

Text

Life on the farm pt9 dog sitting is not for the faint of heart pt 2

It had been two days. Conner and Clark have scoured parks, graves, subways, and even the harbor. There was no sign of the pup except the collar they found near the apartment. With the collar no longer disguising Cujo they were on the lookout for a small green dog. Clark had even gotten into costume and searched from the skys. On the third day Conner got their first lead.

He was visiting a grave yard, walking amongst the stones looking for even a hint of the glowing green pup. The grave keeper was across near a mausoleum talking to a visitor. For the most part Conner tries not to listen in to strangers’ conversation but he immediately tunes in when he hears him mention a glowing green dog roaming the graves at night. Conner immediately called Clark and the two of them started to plan.

————

~Later that night~

My idiots are strange. This has got to be the strangest game of tag he had ever played. First his big idiot was hiding in a tree while the child made his way through the name stones.

Cujo stopped to scratch behind his ear, the child tried to move closer. ‘Honestly if this is how they hunt they need all the help they can get’ the child slowly tried to sneak up behind him. Cujo jumps using the child’s head to leap forward and then through the waiting arms of his big idiot.

‘It’s a good thing Phantom and the chicken overlords take such good care of his idiots. They are not very skilled at hunting. The loud story teller has her work cut out for her’

and so the chase begins.

————

The man of steel, strongest man alive, faster than a speeding bullet… was utterly defeated by a dog. Conner and Clark collapse on a park bench, the two lost sight of the green pup once again.

“He makes it look so easy” Conner groans

“I suppose it helps that he’s part ghost himself.” Clark agrees. “Think it’s time for reinforcements? I’m sure Ellie-”

Conner immediately sits up “No!” Clark looks over in confusion. Conner gives a stifled cough “Uh, I mean… she’ll never let us live it down if she finds out we lost Cujo. Could you imagine? She’s be relentless.” Clark shuddered at the thought.

“Okay then we keep looking. Got any plans?” Conner slumped.

“Not unless you’re feeling up to loosing a hundred chickens throughout metropolis.” Clark snorted

“Imagine the headline. Superman heralds in an age of chickens.”

“Perilous poultry panic!” Conner counters with a laugh.

“That’s a good one! Ever thought about going into journalism?” Clark looked at Conner curiously, he just shrugged.

“Never really thought about it really, at first when I left CADMUS I just stayed with the team. School, missions, the league decided that.” Conner smirked “then Danny came charging in and threw everything I knew out the window” he paused looking over a Clark. “I wanted to be like you know.” Clark looked away awkwardly “I don’t mean… I didn’t want to BE you I just wanted to be LIKE you. I looked up to you.” Conner stood up from bench.

“When I was at CADMUS I was taught that I was made to replace you if you died and eliminate you if you went rouge. When the team came all I wanted was to meet you, but when I did… you wanted nothing to do with me.” Conner rubbed the back of his neck. Clark sighed.

“I was the last son of a dead planet my whole life, by all rights I should have been ecstatic to meet you, you may only be half kryptonian but that’s more than I ever hoped for.” Clark looked to the ground ashamed. “It was never really you I hade a problem with, I think… I just couldn’t manage to separate the… violation that came from being cloned, from having a piece of me taken without my consent and turned into a person. You became a visible reminder of that and I just… I didn’t know how to deal with that.” Clark stood up, looking directly in Conners eyes he said “I didn’t know how to handle what happened and you suffered because of it. I’m sorry.I know an apology will never be enough to make up for how I treated you but I promise I’m going to do all I can to make it up to you.” Conner smiled

“You’ve been talking to Danny haven’t you?” Clark laughed

“I’ll admit I had some help from Danny and Jazz figuring things out. To be fair he’s had more time to process the whole cloning thing than I have.”

“Hey, there’s an upside, at least I never shot you in the back.” The two burst into laughs for a moment before Conner calms down “Thank you, it might not be much but it’s a start, it means a lot that-”

Clark speeds over to Conner covering his mouth, he raised a single finger to his lips before pointing behind him. Conner slowly turned to see a little green dog laying on his back. Conner and Clark slowly, silently make their way over to Cujo, the two of them are prepared to pounce when Cujo jumps up, tackling Conner to the ground. He then proceeds to smother Conner in kisses.

Clark let’s put a loud laugh “I guess we know who his favorite is huh?”

Conner picks Cujo up and holds him at arms length “you are in so much trouble little guy” Cujo gives a high pitched bark looking at Conner with his most efficient puppy dog eyes. Conner groans “that’s cheating, where have you been this whole time anyway?”

———

Meanwhile in the destroyed garden of a certain green eldritch horror.

“DAMN THAT MUTT TO PIECES!!!!”

——-

Cujo curled up on his bed proud of his work. The giant chicken man will think twice before messing with HIS phantom again. It has been nearly a day since he allowed the child to capture him. His big idiot was on the people box fighting a group of strange looking humans. His big idiot is clearly winning so he’s not worried as he climbs into the child’s lap to demand some much deserved attention. He sat in the child’s lap as he watched his big idiot. Everything was fine… until it wasn’t. A huge crash came from the box as the child leapt from his seat. Cujo shook his head and looked over to the box only to see his idiot on the ground, floating in the air above him was a loud thing. The loud thing laughed at his idiot, yelled sharp words at his idiot, HURTING HIS IDIOT!!!!! Cujo barks at the loud thing through the box but it does not hear him. He promised his Phantom he would keep his idiots safe. His big idiot is NOT SAFE!!! Cujo runs in a circle barking at the loud thing in the box one last time for good measure. The Child is trying to sooth him, but that is not his job. Cujo charges through the tree wall followed closely by the child. With the aid of his metal horse he chases Cujo through the streets barely keeping up. All Cujo knows now is he needs to help his big idiot. He needs to keep him Ṣ̵̨͕̭̼̜̣̻̗̰̞̍̿͂̓̍̏́͐͗̐̚ͅA̷̧̮͖̠̝̟͔̬͚̗̐̐̿͑͌̌̔F̸̛͎̘̘͔̼͎̝̯̲̯̦̳̿̔̈́̅̚̚͠͝Ę̵̢̖͙̦͙̼͂͆̆͐̒͆̎̒͝.

When he finds his big idiot the loud thing is making the ground shift and change under his feet, but that doesn’t stop Cujo as he lets out a warning bark to the loud thing. The loud thing laughs at him and calls out to something near by. A large cat jumps at Cujo, but he’s not worried. Snowball is much bigger than this creature and Cujo is much bigger than snowball…

——-

Conner frantically chases behind Cujo, he was NOT about to lose him twice in one week. He jumped on his bike and raced after him. As he drove the road started to get impossible to drive as klarion cast spell after spell at Superman. He grabbed his commutator and asked for an eta on the closest magic user with no luck. Dr. Fate is unreachable and Shazam is dealing with Black Adam. Conner abandons the bike and continues his chase. When he finally makes it to the epicenter of the fight Klarion is casting spell after spell at Superman, Conner tries to get to Cujo before Klarion notices him but he’s too slow. Cujo starts barking at Klarion, who immediately focuses on the pup.

“Well, well, what have we here? A dog? BOORing! Cats are much better don’t you think TEEKL!” Conner felt like the world was moving in slow motion as the familiar stalked towards the pup, growing with every step. Cujo, poor, sweet, tiny Cujo was growling at the massive cat trying to intimidate him. Teekl leapt, Conner yelled, Clark turned, Cujo GREW.

Before their very eyes the tiny pup that was laying on conners lap not even an hour before was fighting the lord of Chaos’ familiar with ease. His massive maw rapped around his neck as Cujo threw Teekl across the street easily. Klarion screamed.

“THAT’S CHEATING!!!!” He shouted as he tried to cast a spell to stop Cujo, but with his familiar injured, his only anchor to the mortal plane, he had no choice but to retreat with proclamations that this wasn’t over. Not that they could hear much over Cujo’s deafening barks. The moment Klarion retreated Cujo turned to Clark and slowly approached, giving him soft whines as his face covered half of his body.

Clark stared at the pup with wide eyes before smiling and patting him on the head “Good boy Cujo. You kept me safe.” The pup shrunk down to his normal size and Clark handed the pup over to Conner. “Get him back to the apartment before the press gets here.” Conner nods and the two take off.

——-

After everything with Klarion, Clark and Conner were more than happy to see the portal ripped in the air of the farm as Danny climbs out. He takes one look at the messy appearance of his brothers and laughs.

“Did you have fun with Cujo?” The two of them look at Danny like he was crazy.

“Is there something you want to tell us about Cujo?” Clark asked. Danny shrugged

“Not really, why? Did he get into something he wasn’t supposed to?” He asked tilting his head.

“Why don’t you take a look for yourself?” Danny turns on the direction that conner points too only to find Cujo covered in chickens. Danny bursts out laughing.

“My noble steed has betrayed me for chickens! Whatever shall I do?!” Cujo perks up at the sound of his voice and tackles Danny to the ground. Soon enough Ma and Pa join them.

“Did you guys know about this?” Clark asks, motioning to the massive form of the ghost dog.

Pa looks at Clark like he’s crazy “of course we did, Cujo pulls the plow when the tractors down.” Conner and Clark look at each other in despair, they were the only ones who didn’t know.

“Well at least this finally explains why other dogs get so nervous around him.” Conner shrugs.

Clark smirked “It certainly surprised Klarion.” The two laughed as Danny watched them with a smile on his face.

“Good job boy.” He says cuddling the hellhound who is simply happy to be reunited with his phantom.

#danny phantom #ghost king danny #dc x dp #brain vomit #au #big brother danny #little brother Danny #Ma kent #Pa Kent #Clark kent #Conner kent #Cujo #Klarion #teekl #best boy Cujo #COMMUNCATION

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five-rivers · 2 years

Text

Wishes on Your Mind

Any situation exposed to both ghosts and Danny’s parents immediately became unforgiveably stupid, no matter what it started out as. Vacation? Mental health crisis? Dinner out? PTA meeting? School dance? Political speech? Discussion on how to save the city from a ghost invasion? Chance encounter with a friend in the grocery story?

None of it could resist the sudden environmental drop in IQ.

If anyone asked, that was what Danny was going to blame the current situation on.

He crept around a display of soda cans (10% OFF!) while keeping one ear on the murmur of his mother’s conversation with Mrs. Foley. One of the new cashiers had just moved into town last week, and the grocery store was infested with wish-construct ghosts. Invisible wish-construct ghosts, because Desiree had convinced the poor ignorant, gullible cashier to wish them that way. None of the other shoppers had noticed.

On one hand, this was great. He finally knew where Desiree had been hiding out all week and what she’d been doing. On the other, it would be nice if he wasn’t the only one noticing the problem. Or if, at least, everyone was running away from the problem. Or if his mom didn’t know he was in the store.

Oh, to be a superhero in civilian identity creeping around a grocery store, trying not to break anything while fighting invisible nasties that were influencing the shopping habits of everyone who passed by. It sucked.

He sprinted, almost silently, after a thing that was animating grocery carts. He couldn’t blast it out while he was in human form - what if someone saw? - so he’d have to catch it when it moved between carts. This brought him back into range of the conversation.

“I just wish he’d say what he was thinking,” said Maddie.

Danny heard Desiree giggle and felt her magic settle over him like an enormous sticky cobweb. Oh, come on! That was just unfair! Not only did he have to hunt down Desiree and her minions, he’d have to do it while, what, having no brain mouth filter? Is that what? Was it too much to ask for a break?

His mother and Mrs. Foley turned to him with wide eyes.

“Oh, no, I said all that out loud, didn’t I? Gosh, I’m an idiot, and she’s definitely going to use this to make me think of wishing, make me think about wishing something, shut up, you idiot, you’re going to let something slip!” He backed away.

“Danny,” said his mother.

“No, no, no, absolutely not, she can’t know about Dani, or Cujo, or-- Desiree!”

Green mist curled between him and his mother, forming into the genie ghost. “You mentioned something about wishing for things? I can make that happen.”

Worst thing was, Danny did know, and it wasn’t like he’d never thought about things like that. Never thought to wish for-- Maybe this could be a way to get Desiree back into the Zone, he’d wished her way before, if he could only think of one-- Or allies, he could use some backup. Then again, he’d always wanted to-- He had to negate this wish if he wanted to get anything done--

Danny tripped and stumbled over words as thoughts flicked through his head, faster and faster. He bit his tongue several times. Desiree had started out looking amused, but now she seemed rather bored, even though she was dodging blaster shots from Maddie, who had taken cover behind a shelf of produce.

Honestly, Danny hated ghost fights. Especially ghost fights like these.

“Then why don’t you wish to stop?”

“Because obviously that would go against my--” He slammed his hand down over his mouth. It kept moving but the words were muffled. He had to come up with a way to keep this thing from making him do something that would reveal his secret! Wait! That was it! He removed his hand. “I wish I couldn’t do anything that would reveal my secret!”

In Danny’s defense, this situation involved both his parents and ghosts. He wasn’t immune from the idiocy either.

He felt the second wish settle over him, pulling some power from the first, but he also felt a great jolt, like getting hit with the Plasmius Maximus tear through him, and his awareness of ghost energy dropped to zero.

“Anything else you would like to wish for, dear? Perhaps some long held childhood dream? A present you never got for Christmas?”

About a dozen thoughts about ghosts and hunting and Phantom and his powers rattled through him, but since he couldn’t articulate any of those, what came out was, “I always wanted a puppy.”

Cujo poofed into Danny’s arms and gave him a big lick across his mouth. Bleh.

“Oh,” said Desiree, disappointed. “You know each other. I was hoping for a rampage.”

Ugh. Why couldn’t a nice ghost have Desiree’s powers? Like Cujo.

“What?” asked Desiree, alarmed.

“What?” asked Danny, confused. He was spewing so much nonsense he wasn’t entirely sure what he was saying. Were his thoughts always like this? It seemed really chaotic.

Then Desiree’s face softened into something almost… dopey? Her tongue lolled from her mouth and she… Licked him?

What?

“You aren’t eating my son, ghost!” shouted Maddie.

This was so embarrassing. Danny wished they were somewhere else right now. Which, considering that he said that out loud, caused space to warp around him, Desiree, and Cujo. They were deposited in the park. The blessedly empty park.

“Ha!” said Danny. “Your mistake! Now I can-- Oh, no, I can’t, can I crap, crap, crap, that was a stupid wish. I just had to say something that would--” Keep his ghost half out of reach. “I can’t even say it!”

Desiree barked at him. Danny froze.

“Wait. Cujo? Is that Cujo in there? Did my wish put you in Desiree’s body?”

“Idiot!” Danny jumped at Desiree’s voice emanating from Cujo’s body. “My powers are attached to my body! Of course the mutt is in there!”

“Ha!” said Danny. “Serves you right! Don’t go granting wishes all over the place like that if you don’t like it.”

“You think the dog is going to do any better? Wish me back!”

“No! You’ll just start trying to take over the town again, or turn my friends into ghosts, or erase my memory, or--”

Cujo, apparently deciding he wanted more of Danny’s attention, jumped him. When Cujo was a puppy, this was cute, a bit of a discipline issue, but cute. In the body of a fully grown and scantily clad ghost, however…

Suddenly, it was a lot less funny.

“Oh no, this is like Poindexter all over again. How do we fix this?” He wished Sam and Tucker were here. They always knew what to do about things.

Wait. Those were words coming out of his mouth and--

Sam and Tucker popped into place to either side of him with a puff of ectoplasmic smoke.

Sam pulled her toothbrush out of her mouth. “This had better be good,” she said.

“Nooooo,” said Tucker, dropping his game controller and falling to his knees. “My win streak!”

“It isn’t,” said Danny, “it’s horrible.” Cujo licked him. Again, as a dog, cute, as Desiree--

Sam dropped her toothbrush and activated her wrist ray, something dangerous in her eyes.

“Wait!” said Danny. “It isn’t what it looks like!”

“Then what is it?”

Danny spewed out the whole story, and then some. It took twice, maybe three times as long as it should have because not having a brain-mouth filter encouraged his brain to follow the weirdest tangents and it was also hard to explain some parts while not being able to talk about Phantom or being half ghost or any of their past fights with Desiree.

“Okay,” said Sam, as Danny continued narrating every stray thought that crossed his mind, which, unfortunately for him, included some thoughts about how Cujo-in-Desiree felt pushing against his arm, and, oh, that sure got him a glare. “I wish that all the wishes Danny made today were undone.”

Well, since Danny was still saying everything he was thinking, he was pretty sure it hadn’t worked.

“Of course it didn’t work! He’s a dog! You can’t make a wish that complex and expect him to understand.”

“Oh! I have an idea! What if I say, ‘I wish Desiree and Cujo would get their brains back in their heads.’ Do you think that would work? Oh, no, I said that out loud, too, I’m--”

There was a pop and more smoke - Desiree’s powers really had a lot of smoke effects, didn’t they? - and when it cleared, Desiree and Cujo had their heads back, sure, but they were also on the wrong bodies.

“Oh,” said Tucker. “That’s just messed up.”

“You will pay for this, Danny Phantom. Mark my words, you. Will. Pay.”

“That doesn’t sound like the words of someone who needs help, does it?” asked Sam, venomously.

“How about we get rid of Danny’s wishes before he makes things worse again, okay?”

Honestly, Danny didn’t know how he could make things worse. Unfortunately, his imagination was all too willing to supply some examples and in short order they were dealing with an earthquake, an alien invasion, and carnivorous daffodils.

“I wish Danny went back to normal!” screamed Tucker as he was beamed up into a spaceship.

‘Normal’ to Cujo evidently meant that Danny was in Phantom form, which was fine. He had control of his words again! He wasn’t stumbling over his thoughts because what he was saying distracted him! Victory!

The aliens were still there.

“I wish all the wishes Desiree and Cujo have granted in the last week went away without hurting anyone!”

When the smoke cleared, Danny, Sam, and Tucker were sitting in the middle of the park, Desiree looming angrily over them.

“You!” she said. “I am going to-- Why am I itchy? Why am I--? Oh my gosh, do I have fleas?”

“I wish you were back in the Ghost Zone!” said Sam, quickly, taking advantage of her distraction.

“For at least a week!” added Danny.

Desiree groaned. “Fine,” she said. “But this isn’t over, Phantom!” She melted into the air.

Cujo yipped happily and crawled into Danny’s lap.

“Let’s never speak of this again,” said Danny.

“Agreed,” said Sam. “But first we’re getting Cujo a flea collar. I know you let him sleep in your bed sometimes.”

#danny phantom #fic

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half-dead-ham · 1 year

Text

On the rise

Another one for the Shipweek! Wings Au! Lets go!

Here's: [Ao3]

“Heads up!”

Someone called just as a blinding blast of magic shot out from Danny's right. He dodged, with only inches between him and the orange energy. Shooting in that direction without looking to see if he hit, Danny dove for another cultist just as he was about to fire off a spell at Aqualad. He kicked out, his leg connecting with the guy's neck and throwing him to the ground, his head connecting with the concrete floor in a satisfying thwack.

One more cultist down, over two dozen left to go.

Did Danny ever mention that he hated cultists?

He went for another dive attack, swooping in with his fist and connecting somewhere on the guy’s upper body before launching himself back out of range of their close range spells. Dodging more blasts and providing arial support when needed, Danny groused to himself about how he had gotten into this. He wasn’t expecting cults when he was called in for this mission. He didn’t know what he was expecting exactly, but they had more magically inclined people as backup for the Team than him, so why was he here? Where was Zatanna when you needed her? Why couldn’t this just be a ghost he could take care of easily? Why him?

A blast glanced the back of his shoulder as he came out of a barrel roll, searing his suit and knocking him off course. He clutched at his shoulder in pain as he looked back to see which sorry sonuva bitch was about to get decked, only to see Robin was already taking care of them.

Good, let Robin handle that idiot.

Kid Flash and Superboy were playing keep-away with the books and artifacts the cult needed to perform whatever asinine ritual they were about to start before they dropped in while he, Robin, Artemis, and Aqualad were on round up. Miss Martian was making sure no one left or entered the area, just in case there were other cult members in other parts of the old hotel they found themselves in.

Seriously, why do cultists find only the creepiest, most abandoned places to do their summoning rituals? Why couldn’t they- Another blast of magic nearly blew through his tail, cutting his thoughts off. Danny growled and shot the guy that had tried shooting him. Not the time to get in your own head, Fenton, focus.

Artemis sent a volley of trick arrows from her perch on one of the rafters, downing more than a few of the remaining cultists.

Only a few more to go.

With one last push the last of the cultists were down. A quick check in with M’gann told them that she was all clear at her position, so they started to drag the unconscious bodies to zip tie them together for later pick up. They could finally relax.

Danny let out a breath as he floated down to the concrete floor, watching as Aqualad and Robin started dragging a few goons into a loose circle close to their nearly completed summoning sigil before picking a few of his own up to join them. KF came out of his red streak as he slowed down, not even out of breath, and Kon began hauling two of the cult members he had body checked away towards the growing circle of bodies.

“Well that was fun,” Danny commented out loud, trying to keep the communication to where he could hear it. While he did link up via telepathy for stealth, he didn’t really like others going through his head. It also made it easier for M’gann to focus when they were in a fight, something about his biology being harder to filter through. Thank the Ancients for that.

“Y’know, I don’t think Gar will be too sad he missed out on this mission,” KF commented as he flipped through the contents of the tome he was tasked to guard. “All we did was beat up some guys, there wasn't even a time crunch. We got here just before they started any of the fun stuff.”

Robin scoffed good naturedly, “So you’re saying you would rather come face to face with a terrifying being from beyond our understanding?”

“I mean, it would make things more interesting. It's been boring with no missions to go on, and I didn't even get warmed up from this."

"Careful KF," Danny smirked. "Or you're gonna start pouting from all this whining"

Kid Flash shot him a scandalized look, which only made his pout more prominent and sent everyone looking into a fit of laughter.

A soft hum took Danny out of his laughing fit earlier than the others, and he turned to see Connor inspecting the statue he was asked to guard. As he floated closer he could see the statuette in more detail; over six pairs of wings centered around the body of a bird, warped and elongated to fit its limbs, with a long neck ending in a goose head. It looked like something out of Greek mythology, but for all Pandora’s lessons on their culture, Danny couldn't place what it was.

“Whatcha looking at SB?” He asked as he floated over his shoulder to get a look at what Connor was looking at. The teen of steel startled, for once not hearing someone approach with his super hearing. He shot a glare at the ghost boy before going back to inspecting the base of the statuette.

“There are words on the bottom of this thing,” he explained, pointing to the etchings on the underside of the base. “They're faint, but I think I can make them out.”

Danny peered at where he pointed, indeed finding the faint markings. Curiously though, they weren’t in english. “Y’know these are in greek, right?”

Connor blushed faintly, keeping his eyes on the statuette in his hands. “I’ve been reading up in between your lessons,” he muttered.

Danny smiled, it had been a while since they had started their language lessons. In the beginning he had almost thought it was a ploy from the rest of the team to keep him around more often, but Connor had asked him to keep the lessons a secret from everyone else, saying he wanted to try something new on his own, without their help. He did surprisingly well with languages, as they came to learn, and were currently going through both ancient and modern Greek pretty quickly. It also helped Danny, as he found he was able to learn better when he taught.

Danny brushed his thoughts aside for the moment, looking back at the small statue in the clone’s hands. There was a name, along with a few other words that had long faded into the stone.

“An… Acan…” Danny figured out the name a second before Connor, but wasn’t fast enough to stop him from saying it. “Acanthus?”

A blinding light erupted from the statuette, flinging Danny back from Connor and blinding everyone else in the room. Danny could hear the surprised cries from the others from where he had impacted against the wall, but couldn’t move until the light died.

Ancients, please let nothing bad happen to Connor. He was just getting the courage up to ask him out.

As the light died and the spots cleared from Danny’s eyes, he could start to make out the silhouettes of the team, most of them had crouched or crumpled to the ground due to the sudden bright light, but Connor was still standing. There was something off about him though, and Danny had to squint and blink away the after images.

Danny quickly lunged forward as Connor flailed, the newfound weight on his back throwing off his center of gravity and tipping him backwards. He caught him just before the clone could hit the ground, grabbing him by the shoulders and putting him gently back on his feet.

“Woah,” Connor mumbled at the sudden elevation shifts and totally not at how easily Danny could sweep him off his feet. No, that was just Danny imagining things about him. He should really stop doing that.

The other members of the team had gotten back on their feet by now, cautiously approaching the clone and the ghost boy as Danny checked out the reason for Superboy’s new balancing issues.

‘Damn, these might be bigger than mine,’ he thought as he looked over the two large wings now sprouting from Connors back, just below his shoulder blades. They were large, ash grey on the outside and white mottled with more grey on the inside. Danny had to reposition how they were sitting on his back or the primary feathers would drag on the floor.

“Superboy, what the hell did you do‽” Robin shouted at the now feathered clone, who scowled at the approaching Boy Wonder.

“Nothing,” he replied sharply, crossing his arms defensively even as the blush of being practically held up by Danny was still present.

“Well clearly that's a lie,” Wally retorted. “Last time I checked SB, you didn’t have massive bird wings coming out of your back.”

Connor shot Wally a heated glare that quickly let into a surprised squawk as Danny lifted one wing to see how far it extended. He turned his head to look at the ghost boy stretching the new appendage, unable to turn fully with the wing still in the other's grip.

They watched as the ghost boy moved and tested the wing, pulling lightly at the primary feathers, moving to test the full range of the wing, then collapsing it as close to Connor’s body as it could go. When he looked done with his examination Robin spoke up. “Uhhhh, Phantom, what are you doing?”

Danny snapped to attention, before meeting the others curious gazes. “Ope, uh… Sorry,” He reached up to scratch the back of his neck, not realizing he had let go until he was almost hit by a flailing Connor and swiftly put his hands back. “I was just curious about them. You don’t see wings like this in the Realms often, so I wanted to see how they compared.”

“Curious?”

“Compare?”

“You've seen something similar to this, Phantom?” Kaldur asked the ghost boy.

“Uhh, yeah?” Danny went to scratch his neck again, this time making sure he kept one hand on Connor to help him balance. “Some ghosts in the Realms have them as like, physical manifestations of what they used to like?” He still hasn't told the team about Obsessions, so while he wasn’t lying it wasn’t the whole truth.

“So you know of some way to reverse this, then?” He pressed, to which Danny shook his head fervently.

“Nope, nu-uh. This isn’t ghost stuff, this is magic stuff. I wouldn’t be able to tell you the first thing about getting rid of these, just how to take care of them.”

The rest of the team looked between themselves, unsure of how to proceed. Even Connor was starting to look uncomfortable with the situation. Danny was sure there was some telepathic conversation he wasn’t in on happening, but right now he was just trying to keep the teen in his arms upright.

Finally, Robin sighed. “Do you have any idea on how this happened in the first place, at least?”

He nodded, motioning to the statuette on the floor as he spoke, “Nearest I can figure is that when Superboy spoke the name of the god on the statue it reacted like a word of power to the surrounding magic. It ended up invoking a portion of the gods' power and this happened.”

Robin nodded, crouching to pick the statuette up and store it in a side pouch. He then turned for the nearest exit. “C’mon, M’gann already has the bioship ready and waiting. We’ll figure out how to get superboy back to normal when we get back to the cave.”

~~~~~

“So how do you know how to take care of them?” Wally broke the silence of the bioship on their way back.

“Huh?” Danny turned in his seat, before looking back out the window. “Oh, right. It was a pain when I couldn’t hide mine when I first got them, so I had Frostbite introduce someone to help me take care of mine.”

A beat of silence, then the bioship erupted in questions.

~~~~~

By the time the team had gotten back to the cave, each of them had asked at least a dozen questions each, and Danny very much regretted answering Wally. He’d been able to stall for time in bringing out his wings by saying that there wasn't enough room in the bioship for two winged people, even though Robin pointed out how he could’ve just phased what couldn’t fit outside.

Danny didn’t want to freak the bioship out like that again, and he said as much.

As soon as the drop hatch lowered Wally ran into the common room, saying something about needing the others to see what was about to happen. Floating down, Danny almost wanted to disappear, were it not for Connor still needing help in balancing. Danny had told him the best way to manage the weight, but without visuals he was forgetting and accidentally tipping back as he walked, leaving Danny to catch him and reposition him as needed.

Seems even super strength couldn’t help with this kind of weight.

They made it to the common room where Danny managed to position Connor on the couch before Wally came rushing back, now changed out of his costume and with Garfield right behind him. Zatanna would be out for at least another day, leaving their main magic specialist indisposed.

Great.

“C’mon, Phantom! Show us those flappers already!” Wally cajoled, making Phantom flinch from where he was about to float off.

Danny dropped to the ground, sighing in his failed attempt at escape. Moving over to the more open section of room, Danny turned to face the couches, arms spread as he dropped the invisibility on his wings. A round of gasps came from the group as pitch black wings speckled with white spread out from behind the ghost, the white specks glowing even brighter than his usual glow making them look almost like stars in the night sky.

“Holy-”

“Beautiful!”

“How does that even work‽”

“Impressive.”

“Alright, you’ve seen them. Can I go now?” Danny asks the crowd, folding his wings in so the bend of the wings sat next to his shoulders, keeping his wingtips off the ground and crossing.

“You seem very used to them,” Robin pointed out from behind Danny, startling him to turn and glare at the Boy Wonder as he inspected his wings from behind. Did Danny detect a smidge of awe in those microexpressions?

Must be his imagination again.

“I mean, yeah,” Danny conceded with a half shrug, keeping the mini-bat in his field of view. “They formed a while ago, before I came on as auxiliary for the Team, so I’ve had time to get used to them.”

“And you never told us or showed them to us before, why?”

“Because they’re useless in combat and I don’t need them to fly? Even if I can use them, they’re really only a help for flight in the Zone, and since I’m an earthbound ghost…” He made a ‘there you go’ gesture, figuring the others could complete the statement themselves.

Robin sighed exasperatedly behind him, moving so Danny had to switch which shoulder he was looking at him over.

“Is there nothing you can't do?” The Boy Wonder asked as he crouched down.

Danny snorted, “Can’t pass a math exam to save my life,” he joked.

Gar piped up from his place on the couch, “But you’re dead?”

“Exactly,” Danny smirked, finger gunning at the shapeshifter. He was pleased to be met with one snicker and a resounding round of groans. They had finally got used to his dead jokes. Good.

Something light brushed against one of his feathers from where Robin had crouched and he hastily moved his wing out of reach, startled.

“The hell are you doing?” He asked shrilly, finally turning to face the detective.

The Boy Wonder stood, masked scrunched as he examined the clean slice on the tip of his glove. “Your wings, they’re sharp?”

“Very,” he backed up a step, making his wings intangible again just in case the bird brain went in again for another touch.

Which he did.

“What kind of bird has sharp wings?” Garfield piped up from behind him, tone ever curious.

“A ghost bird,” Danny rolled his eyes, quickly becoming gone with this conversation and being stared at like some sort of sideshow attraction. Unfortunately his little quip only got Gar more interested.

“There are ghost birds‽” The shapeshifter nearly shrieked with excitement, and Danny realized that any chance of him going home tonight just went out the window. Ancients, what did he do to deserve this?

With a droop of his shoulders he faced the young shapeshifter. “Yes? Sort of? It's hard to explain. Can I at least put my wings back?”

“No,” Connor stated from his place on the couch. “If I have to suffer, so do you. ‘Least yours look nice, mine look like I got covered in mud.” He let that last bit out with a grumble, almost incomprehensible if not for Danny's hearing. The insinuation that Connor liked his wings made his face frost over slightly with blush.

Hastily Danny cleared his throat and moved his legs to sit crossed-legged in the air, looking back to Gar and his expectant stare.

“So, y’know those old myths about things like unicorns and the Minotaur and all that?” A quick round of nods from the group on the couches. “Well they’re all actually real. Not really sure about the history of them, haven’t gotten that far in my history lessons, but the gist is that either monsters were mortal realm creatures that were all eventually hunted to extinction from the myths, or they were born ghosts that went to the mortal realm because the veil between worlds was much thinner back then.”

“And how does that tie into you having sharp wings?” Wally asks in between mouthfuls of chips. When did he get chips?

“We- that is, me and my friend-slash-doctor Frostbite- found that my wings have similar qualities to the myth of the Stymphalian birds, a greek legend about birds with wings, talons and beaks made of bronze that like to terrorize the villages around the swamp they were named after. It's pretty much the only relation, ‘cause the wing shapes are different, but myths have never been a hundred per-cent accurate to begin with.”

Robin rounded into Danny’s view, a ‘I must know more about this’ look on his face. ‘This is going to take a while,’ the ghost boy thought to himself as he got comfy where he was floating, taking questions about the ghost zone from the curious group of teens he’d found himself a part of. Eyes every so often trailing back to Connor, who was looking at him like he did during one of their private lessons.

That same look that always gave him blobs in his stomach and frosted his cheeks. He hoped Connor didn't notice his core metaphorically melting over it.

~~~~~

When ‘late’ finally became ‘too late’ and Danny had answered everyone's questions (To the best of his ability, some got a little too close to things he wasn’t ready to talk about yet) the team finally meandered off to their rooms for sleep, leaving just Danny and Connor in the living room. Danny because he didn’t really need to sleep (as far as they knew) and Connor because he couldn’t get off the couch by himself. Not that he seemed all that adamant about getting up, and Danny enjoyed the newfound silence.

Floating around on his stomach in the now dim light Danny found himself lazily using his wings to steer and row himself around, flipping to kick himself off walls when needed and half listening to what Connor had put on the TV to relax.

“Hey, Danny,” Connor called up to him just as he flip kicked off another wall. Angling for his descent he gave an acknowledging hum in response.

“Why are you still here?” The clone asked when they were back within regular talking distance.

“Why aren’t you going back to your room yet?” He responded, question for question.

Connor looked to his lap, stern expression softening ever so slightly and Danny could almost see him worrying his lip (though he could have been imagining it, probably. The light the Tv was casting was doing fun things to the shadows of those strong cheekbones). Seeing the gears turn in the other teens head, he decided to settle himself down on the loveseat and finally think a little.

First thought was about what kind of bird those wings could belong to. They were strong looking, but shorter than his own, so probably meant for shorter flying, but the range of flexibility was impressive. Some sort of raptor maybe? It would make sense for a bird of prey to need good reflexes to change the direction of flight while hunting.

Connor was definitely deadly enough to be a bird of prey- nope. No, bad Danny! We don’t think about things like that! We don’t even know if he likes you like that!

… But Ancients, the hugs he could give-

“I was wondering…” Danny snapped out of his daze, eyes shooting up from where they had rested so he could admire the other teens arms. Was it just the light, or was Connor blushing?

“Could you teach me to use these?” He finished the sentence slowly, like he was afraid Danny would ever say no to him. A smile crept onto his face as an idea popped into his head, something he couldn’t mess up if he tried and would (hopefully) keep him in the mood too much to try and back out.

“‘Course I can, Connor! You wanna start now?” The clone turned to meet his gaze with an incredulous look.

“Now?”

“Mmhm!”

They stared at each other, and for a second Danny was worried Con would say no. To his slight relief he got a shrug as the other teen turned the TV off. Danny was pretty sure his glow got twice as bright as he zipped over to grab the clone's hands and drag him off the couch.

Maybe he got a little too excited as he flew through the cave and through the nearest outer wall, feathered clone still in hand and no doubt restraining some sort of embarrassing noise.

~~~~~

“Phantom, this really isn’t what I meant by this!” Connor shouted over the wind as they soared over Happy Harbor’s coast. Danny looked down to see the mildly startled face of the clone in his hands with a grin that hinted he was about to do something stupid and/or dangerous.

“Extend your wings Connor!” Danny called back, untwisting his arms so he was now flying backwards and pulling the clone along with him, extending his own wings intangibly as demonstration.

Shakily, Connor did as demonstrated, and Danny felt the moment his wings caught the air with a sharp pull of their joined hands. Rather than keep hold like Connor probably hoped he would do, Danny instead phased out of the other steel grip, leaving Connor to flounder his arms about for purchase as his wings froze. Panic set in on his face as he thought he would fall, and screwed his eyes shut to wait for the impact to hit.

“Connor,” Danny coaxed gently, prompting the taller boy to open his eyes as they did not, in fact, start plummeting toward the beach below. The clone didn’t budge, keeping his eyes shut and his wings stiffly outstretched. With a sigh, Danny positioned himself underneath and facing his crush in the air, admiring the view of the Harbor below them and the way the wind tousled Connors wings as they flew and the strong shoulders those wings sprang from and the blue eyes looking back at him-

A chill bloomed across his face to the tips of his ears, unrelated to the cool air keeping the clone aloft above him as they held each other's gaze. This close Danny was sure the red that bloomed over Connors face wasn’t just a trich of the light, and his core gave a trill at the thought of all those other imagined times possibly not being just his imagination.

“I’m flying,” Connor commented, breaking both out of their trance. The frost on Danny's face flared as he finally looked away.

“Ah, uh-huh! Yup! Totally flying all on your own!” He stuttered, voice a smidge higher than he personally thought acceptable. Danny tried to clear his throat exaggeratedly, but his voice still betrayed him and came out slightly squeaky, “Though you might wanna relax yourself, you don’t want to get wing cramps.”

The teen above him kept his eyes on Danny, but did as told and relaxed his posture, unintentionally angling his feathers and banking softly back inland. Wind rushing past the two was the only sound beside the buzzing in his core that Danny could hear for what felt like ages, and as the silence stretched he could feel a cold sweat start at the back of his neck.

Ancients, this is awkward. How do normal people confess again? He doesn’t even remember if he was the one to ask Valerie out freshman year.

“It's beautiful up here,” Connor’s comment interrupted the panicked spiral his brain was about to go into, and he hummed in response. Twisting, Danny let himself face the ground again, letting go of his intangibility and let the wind catch, using his wings for flight instead of his ghost powers.

“It is.” With the lights of the city below them casting off the waves of the beach, and the cars traversing the streets so small they looked like toys, it really was pretty here. A perfect night for a first flight.

“Hey Connor,” Danny starts, the scenery below helping to calm his nerves and find his tongue. A soft hum from above him encourages him to continue. “About your lessons-”

“Are they too much for you?” Connor interjects suddenly, a hint of insecurity creeping into his voice.

“No, no, I love helping you learn!” And he really does, the moment Connor gets something right in their lessons and smiles lives in Danny's core, powering him like a battery. He has to cut that train of thought off ASAP, right now, so Connor isn’t getting the wrong idea. “I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out outside of our lessons, y’know, maybe come to Amity once in a while.”

A pregnant pause elongated itself with the sound of a car horn from the streets below, and Danny had to resist turning his heat to peek at the face of the clone behind him.

“Like a date?” Connor finally asked, tone hesitant and… hopeful?

This time Danny didn’t stop himself from looking back at the teen flying above him, meeting his eyes with a smile. “Yeah, Con, like a date.”

A small “oh” escaped his lips as the almost faded blush came back with a vengeance. It made Danny giggle, and Connor smiled at the sight.

“Well, do you?” Danny pressed, feeling much more hopeful about the answer than a few minutes ago.

With a small nod and a smile only slightly bigger, Connor replied, “Yeah, I think I’d like that.”

Danny couldn’t stop the almost inhuman grin that spread across his face any more than he could stop the whooping holler he gave as he brought in his wings and dove, leaving Conner as he picked up speed towards the ground. As his glow started to be matched by the glow of the streetlights he snapped his wings out, using the gained speed along with a few powerful wingbeats to soar back up and over his new boyfriend, spinning and rolling around him in excitement as he laughed.

“Okay, okay, you’re happy. I get it!” Connor laughed, smile smoothing over his usually stoic features. “Now can you teach me how to land? I’m pretty sure I’m getting cramps from keeping my wings out like this for so long.”

With an excited giggle and energetic hum in his chest, Danny showed his boyfriend how to turn, and eventually land when they got close enough to the mountain. Zatanna still wouldn’t be back for a few days, and Danny could see more than a few dates they could go on while Connor still had those big beautiful wings.

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daisybell-on-a-carousel · 7 days

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Hi hi hi, I would love to hear more of your Dan thoughts! I'm intrigued!!!

>:]!!!!!!!!!! >:D!!!!!!

Ok ok so I've never really tried to put my thoughts into words before so this might be a bit of a mess usually I'm just rotating him in my mind but yes yes yes I have Dan thoughts I want to share my Dan thoughts

I only focus on agit at the end so this is pretty spoiler free for that I think maybe. Thumbs up emoji

Dan is a fun character because despite only having one episode we can still tell alot about his personality and such, as he's rather bold with it and is a fusion of two characters we do see alot, and it really shows! I flip between saying Dan or more Danny than Vlad and saying that they're basically equal in the fusion, but I think a good way to describe it is that he takes different aspects from them, for his appearance and memories he very much takes after Danny, but his personality and how he acts n talks oozes Vlad. Yknow??? If I'm saying the right words here. Dan works so well as a fusion because he also manages to feel like his own character as well

Dan is made from the two's ghost halves, so I'm a fan of the theory/thought I do believe I've seen before that he's based on the ghost halves. Like. Vlad used his ghost form and powers for scheming, attacking, gaining power, and so on, I'd easily imagine he doesn't use it nearly as much as Danny. Danny had to use his ghost form mostly for fighting other ghosts, very frequently, and also used his powers for his own benefit as well, though not nearly as extreme as Vlad. As Danny was in his ghost form more, and as it was more connected to his ghost form (phantom just being an inverted Danny VS Vlad's completely different from himself ghost form, even down to body type) it makes sense why Dan would be more Danny focused, especially in terms of his relationship with others and memories. Vlad's things don't matter to him nearly as much. I mean, he seemingly couldn't find Vlad's new hideout that was under a Welcome to Wisconsin sign, and its ghost zone entrance behind a football

"The only remaining portal, the one my idiot cheesehead archenemy has? As soon as I find it that's going too."

He doesn't respect Vlad in the slightest or seem to care about him. Danny found Vlad's portal almost immediately. So either Dan simply couldn't remember things Vlad liked well enough to guess, and/or, he truly couldn't care less and didn't bother too hard with the search. Both makes sense, and since Vlad is fully human that very likely adds to the contempt and not seeing him as threat enough to find the portal quickly.

Something interesting, is the fact Dan knows Vlad had a portal at all, Dan partially destroyed Vlad's castle after being formed and its clearly in a different location now, unless that cave Vlad is in streaches all the way to his castle's basement Dan hasn't bothered checking? Which is. Unlikely. Which means Vlad had to make a new one. And Dan knew he did. Much to think about there I believe.

I do also think Dan actually doesn't remember his past terribly well. I know I know I just said he's focused on Danny's memories and life, and he is! But also. Its a bit separated from him, the episode itself actually points out him forgetting things about his family several times, it really does feel like they're trying to stress to you, really hammer it in that he's forgotten them some way. It's mentioned offhand like 2 or 3 times.

When Jazz confronts him and admits she knew about his ghost powers he says "You knew?" So??? Softly???? Like PLEASE listen to that line especially after hearing how he usually talks oh my GOSH??!?!!?!?!?! AUGH. slamming my hands on the floor I could make a whole separate thing just thinking of that interaction alone. God. He never knew she knew, it took him by genuine surprise for a moment. And just????? Augh??!???!?!!?!?! He had one family member always in his corner and secretly looking out for him, she believed in him and knew he was trying to do good and she had been waiting for him to reveal it to her in his own time but that time never came because she'd died and haiabsjahasguaaaai u ghjjfhdhfjshauhghhhhh

When Danny enters the future Valerie immediately thinks he Dan, she doesn't question it in the slightest, or question him saying "I have really bad feeling im the one responsible". Before attacking she says "You can't fool me this time Phantom". I take this as either meaning Dan has disguised himself as a young Phantom before, or Valerie is so used to his tricks and and finding new powers that him suddenly looking younger doesn't phase her in the slightest. I do like the idea him disguising as a young Phantom before more. It seems very probable considering he can be Danny Fenton. But this interaction also makes me wonder if Valerie knows, or ever learned that Fenton is Phantom, the trick from before easily could've been Fenton. "The explosion at the Nasty Burger, you, Tucker, Danny's family- and it was all your fault!" She's points her blaster at Phantom while saying that last bit. It makes me wonder if her saying "Danny's family" is showing how she doesn't know he's Danny. There's still other options like her knowing but not admitting he's Fenton, or her knowing he was Danny once but isn't anymore, hence saying "Danny's family" instead of something like "his family". Honestly, her knowing or not are both equally likely. As I said in my tags before, Dan seems to like to get a rise out of people, to get a reaction, he very easily could've told her in an attempt to anger or devastate her, and at the same time he simply could've not bothered at all. I think I prefer the option of her not knowing personally

I don't think I could describe Dan more concisely than I did before, he likes to get a rise out of people, revel in reactions. He twists the past to credit himself for the Nasty Burger explosion after he more than likely blamed himself for it as Danny. He likes to seem in control. He's dramatic. He hates being insulted. Hates losing. He's very casual about alot of things he does.

He caused destruction in both the human and ghost world, the first thing he did upon entering Amity was completely destroy the ghost portal, with plans to destroy Vlad's. I'm not sure what his plan in the end was, but after destroying both portals, I must point out that Dan has the power to summon his own ghost portal with ease, a power I believe is quite rare, I think other than Dan only Wulf has it, though do feel free to correct me on that. So he would've been one of the only people who could go in or out

He was actively trying to/did ruin the lives of the ghosts he knew

Powers. Ohhh boy powers. When I started my DP rewatch my initial plan was to actually take note of every power Danny uses to know what he can do, and by extension Dan. I didn't. Oopsies. So most I can focus on here are what Dan shows in the episode, other than the obvious

I do like thinking on ice powers, and what that means with Dan, obviously he's never shown to know them as they're not introduced until season 3, the writers themselves didn't know it'd happen lol. But in universe, that's something to chew on, Dan never met Frostbite, so if he ever unlocked this power he would've had to figure out the problem and train it on his own, and then there's the potential that Dan never learned, and the ability for ice powers eluded him due to fusion. The ghost sense is a result of his ice powers after all, and Dan's ghost sense isn't a breath of cold blue air, so that could be a sign of this power being one he doesn't have

But moving onto more straightforward powers

Dan destroyed Amity Park in a very short amount of time, all on his own, as while the Fright Knight had been there after the shield went down, he's simply never seen again after that, makes me think Dan just ordered Fright Knight to chase Valerie to Fentonworks and leave after

Related to Amity Park, while there are other destroyed buildings around, the land surrounding the ghost portal is a completely barren wasteland, no doubt from Dan's attempts at destroying the forcefield over the years, and simply scaring residents.

One could argue Dan was the reason lighting was striking around the forcefield, weather manipulation I wouldn't doubt is in his wheelhouse, especially since he's shown to have electrocution powers, at least it looks that way to me

Dan has fire powers, at least immunity to fire. Fire rises after he enters the lab through the cracks he put in the floor, and when he's thrown into truck it bursts into flame. Both instances of the fire happening I suppose you call coincidence, but his immunity to fire at least is undeniable

Dan can force Danny to detransform, and shorted out Danny's powers while holding onto him. This is also the moment where it seems like mild electrocution

Dan can suspend people in ectoplasm, Sam and Tucker also seem frozen completely for a scene, and in a later scene move their heads n such around

He can use a time medallion to enter the exact time and place he needs/where Sam and Tucker went

He specifically used the word fused to describe putting the amulet in Danny, which I find interesting. Entering something while intangible seems to be what causes fusion. Though more to it than that since ghosts can possess other ghosts (or was that a special case since the only example I know is Poindexter possessing a still half ghost Danny🤔)

Dan can form ropes of ectoplasm that can wrap around and trap people, as well as using ecto energy to cover people's mouths to stop talking

Dan is very resilient, I mean, he literally flys through a light pole non-intagabily and doesn't even react. He, while injured from it, did pretty much tank 1 ghostly wail, and still got up after the second, but was weak enough after to be sucked into the thermos

Dan seems to have minor technology powers, nothing major, but like, he does make himself appear on Valerie's watch so he can tell her about the ghostly wail

The ghostly wail of course, which is naturally much stronger than Danny's version. Can destroy nearly all glass in future Amity Park, destroys all the ghost shield towers one by one in a line, makes the Fentonworks building fall down when directly hit. Flips tanks and makes helicopters lose control. Destroyed Ember's vocal cords somehow

He can duplicate himself very easily, and become one again with the same ease. He turns into to a gas form to dodge Valerie's grenades

---

I don't have the time to focus on his behavior in AGiT rn, but it lines up with my thoughts. I do like the confirmation that Dan wanted Danny to suffer as he had/didn't think it fair for Danny to get a second chance to save his family. And it deeply trapped by his own emotions and just unwilling to admit it. I can still skim the book to think about powers. I put AGiT powers in this own little section to be skipped if you don't want spoilers

-He 100% has fire powers no doubt about it now

-I should've described his ability to suspend people in ectoplasm as telekinesis

-Can make shields, usually briefly and by swiping his arm

-When Dan emerges from the rubble, he briefly turns it into lava, and then water, I cannot be sure if this is because of having Clockwork's powers, or just his own at work

-His powers seem to turn blue rather than green, but its hard to tell for certain. But we do know his fire is blue so it's not completely out

---

In conclusion I'm very normal about him and have watched TUE a reasonable amount of times thank you amd goodnight <3 (lying voice)

#ask #danny phantom #dan phantom #sorry this is all just nothing i love just writing what happens down

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cursedzucchini · 1 year

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Dp x DC prompt #whatever

Guys this has been rotting in my brain for the past month and i think it has lots of potential.

So basically Danny & Damian childhood friends.

Somehow, someway (maybe after five years old Damian kills one too many instructors, which are irreplaceable, maybe his arrogance causes one too many failures) Talia convinces Ra's to put weekly 'play dates' with the other league's children. These play dates are supposed to show Damian his superiority over them, but also make him care for his future subjects.

What the two didn't account for, was, well... Children.

Damian wasn't the mildest child, not was he trying to be likeable. He didn't see the point. And when you add their parents repeating over and over again how important the new child is.. no wonder all of them were scared to even look at him.

The chosen child himself was quite happy with this development. He didn't want to be there in first place, especially because he was specifically forbidden from cutting down any annoyances. So it was a good thing none of them dared to come to 10 meters radius to him. He didn't mind the children immidietly bursting into tears, when they lock eyes. He didn't feel angry, because these weren't even children of any important people, with no obligations to be nice to him, and they didn't even dare to breath in his vicinity (seriously, a boy passed out because he didn't wish to breath when Damian was sitting few spaces next to him. It was ridiculous).

He didnt feel like an outsider, he felt like their leader. He didn't feel loneliness, he felt proud. He didn't, he did.

So.. when a child, always sitting in a corner staring at the sky, was cornered by several of the other children, he didn't do anything. He was someone they should follow, he did not owe them to solve their petty rivalries. (Even if they insulted the child for their expressionless face, for being unable to recognize their imaginery rules of some bigger game, for being different. Even when Damian started realizing with more and more terror, this would be him, if he wasn't All Ghul)

...

...maybe he should establish himself as a good leader, by helping them. This once at least.

Damian walked closer, only wanting to discuss whatever bullying problem was happening, but the moment the children saw him, they ran. Well, most of them at least.

Danyal was the child of some lower member of the league (maybe even someone who was under their protection, doesn't matter). He was a very quiet, some would even say antisocial. He would spend all his time staring at the stars and not mingling with his peers. He didn't often wore any sort of expression, but once Damian spend more time with him (unwillingly might he add, even if it was him who looked for the other boy, and maybe it wasn't unwillingly, but that's not something he wants to think about. Ever), he realized, Danyal was full of them. Every time he talked about the stars, mentioned the new book his parents gifted him, and as the time went, when Damian himself was mentioned, the demon's heir couldn't help but think the older boy would burst from them.

Damian still wasn't quite sure why he was hated by their his peers. He knew some people would find Danyal strange, but he didn't quite understood (wasn't he the same? Why was he brilliant perfect amazing but Danyal strange idiot weird?).

But what he did know for sure, was that Danyal was his. He was his subject, someone he took under his wing to protect, and in exchange, Danyal would look after him too. It might be helping him out with any assassination attempts, or telling him the stories of space, when the younger boy couldn't force his tongue to form words.

Or at least he had been.

The family Danyal was from was poor. So when one of the tougher times came, it wasn't strange one of their children had to go. And what choice it was, picking between healthy beautiful children and a 'ghost living in a body'.

Only Damian hated it. He didn't understand. While yes, Danyal was his subject, he had many of them. If he wanted to be a good leader, he can't just focus on one them. That would be unfair. He saw this choice being made so many times and he was never bothered by it, so why now—

In the end he never discovered the answer. He locked the question deep inside his chest, inside his heart, where nothing could ever reach. He was Al Ghul, he was too great to be caught of guard and be strucked in it.

So when years and years later, when he was already living with his father for some time, he saw a black haired, blue eyed teen with tan skin, and the same grin his friend subject had, of course it was natural he knocked him out and brought him into the manor.

Not because he missed Danyal or anything of course. He had to... Check if this was some sort of plot of his Mother. Naturally.

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samgirl98 · 1 year

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Cain and Abel Wept 14/?

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Special thanks to Kuraichi on AO3 for letting me know of the phrase 'bitch the pot.'

A lot of exposition in this chapter, but don't worry; it comes with slides!

Bruce watched as all his children blearily entered the parlor. They all sat in their usual places. Bruce lingered half a second on Damian, Dick, and Tim. They didn’t seem to notice his scrutiny. Hmm, he would have to do a refresher course on situational awareness.

Bruce waited for the kids to get comfortable before talking, “Before I begin, is there anything anyone wants to confess?”

Tim and Dick squirmed a bit but said nothing. Surprisingly, Jason did.

“Don’t know if Danny mentioned this to you already, but I saw Talia earlier.”

Damian balled his fists at the mention of Talia, and the rest of his children tensed.

“Do you know what she wanted,” Stephanie asked.

“She wanted to know where Danny was in Gotham and why he was here. I didn’t tell her and called Danny as soon as I got a bit of distance away from her.”

Bruce thought for a moment, “Danny contacted me earlier about the situation. I’m already looking into it.”

Bruce let silence reign for a moment before talking again, “Anyone else?”

Everyone stayed silent. Bruce sighed in disappointment.

“Dick,” his eldest looked at him, surprised, “you want to explain what you were doing last night?”

Damian turned to look at Dick with a severe frown on his face, “Richard,” he barked out, “What did you do?”

“I just wanted to make sure they were safe!” Dick defended himself while putting his hands up in surrender, “How was I supposed to know she knew I was going to be there?”

“Grayson,” Dick flinched at Damian saying his surname, “how could you? What if you had jeopardized the little progress I had made?”

Damian frowned, “That’s what Danny meant when he said not to be too angry at them.

Damian’s frown deepened, “Wait, he said ‘them.’ Which other of you degenerates bothered my brother?”

Tim squirmed. Damian immediately zeroed in on the action, “Drake, I’m about to finish what I started when I first got here.”

“Okay, enough. No one is attacking anyone. Dick,” his eldest, “I expected better from you and Tim, don’t spy on people. Especially people I told you to leave alone because we are trying to gain their trust to enter the family.”

“Oh, leave me alone, B. You’re being a hypocrite; I learned to spy on people from you,” Tim yelled, defending himself. “Plus, I know for a fact that you spy on us and know where we are 24/7. Hell, you literally sow trackers into our suits and clothing!”

“Yeah, how come you can do those things to us, but we get yelled at for ensuring the safety of our newest family members!”

Damian punched Dick and Tim in their arms.

“Ow, what was that for, baby bat,” Dick asked, sounding betrayed. Tim grumbled as he rubbed his new bruise.

“Let me and Jason deal with my brother; you idiots stay out of it.”

Bruce sighed, “I know I haven’t exactly given the best example in respecting other people’s privacy,” all his children snorted.

“Yeah, we noticed,” Duke murmured. Bruce ignored the feeling of betrayal from having his newest child call him out.

“But this is different. We’re used to expressing our love by invading each other’s privacy, but Danny and the Fentons aren’t used to that and feel it’s an attack on them. They come from a different background that isn’t only from human culture but ghost culture.”

Bruce let his children digest what he said.

“I understand I am not the best person to lecture you, which is why I brought an expert.”

All his kids groaned.

“Don’t tell me it’s that British drunkard,” Damian asked.

“Trust me, I don’t want to be here either,” Constantine said as he walked in with a projector, “But I don’t want you nosy Bats to accidentally start a war with the Infinite Realms because you can’t keep your nose out of their business, so here I am.”

Alfred came in with snacks and tea (coffee for Tim). He turned to Constantine and looked at him with an expression of disapproval.

“Is there anything I can get for you, Mr. Constantine?”

“I don’t suppose you can get me some booze, now, Jeeves?”

Alfred frowned.

“Fine, in that case,” Constantine got a China cup, “bitch the pot for me, old chap, this is going to be a headache.”

Everyone gaped at Constantine, unbelieving that the man had the gall to curse toward Alfred. Alfred raised an eyebrow, “It’s been a while since I’ve heard that expression, sir.”

He poured the tea for Constantine, “May I remind you that you are in my house. Therefore, do not disrespect me.”

Constantine gulped at Alfred’s prolonged stare. Now he knew where Batman got his glare from.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good,” the butler stood in a corner as the other family members looked amused. Never mess with Alfred.

“Right, well, now that everyone’s settled, I’ll begin my presentation.”

Constantine took a sip of tea and then looked at the cup as if it had the secret of the universe.

“Damn, this is the best cuppa I’ve ever had, Alfred.”

“Thank you, sir. I suggest you continue with your presentation. I imagine you would rather not spend more time with us than you have to?”

Constantine knew when he was being chased out. Damn, was the butler scary.

“Yes, well,” Bruce had set up the projector and loaded the plainest-looking slides he had ever seen on the computer.

“Listen up, Batbrats, today, I’m going to teach you and Daddy Bats not to insult and possibly start an interdimensional war accidentally.”

The youngest bat took out a notebook from God knew where and was poised to take notes. Good to know that at least one of them will pay attention. (John noticed Bruce was typing away, too.)

Constantine clicked to the next slide.

“First most important rule: NEVER ask a ghost how they died. It’s like asking a person what underwear they’re wearing but worse.”

Everyone turned to look at Bruce. John sighed; of course, of course, they had broken the most sacred rule already. And it had to be from the father of all the Bats. Why did John even bother?

“Second most important rule: do not enter their territory, or haunt as they call it, without permission. They will fight you, and you’ll only have yourselves to blame if you get your asses handed to you.”

This time they all turned to look at the eldest sibling. Constantine felt a migraine developing. He wanted a cigarette, but the butler's glare made him rethink his decision.

“So, Dick,” one of the middle ones asked; he had a white streak and reeked of death, “did you get your ass handed to you?”

“No,” he answered defensively while crossing his arms. Ha, he had.

“It would serve him right if he did get defeated,” the youngest said while writing notes. Dick looked betrayed.

“Baby bat, how could you?”

Baby bat (?) (John should probably learn their names) glared at Dick and stared at Constantine as if giving him permission to continue.

“The next two go together, in a way. Do not start a fight with a ghost unless you’re confident you’re gonna win. They love to fight; it’s in their nature, especially since they’re dead they have few other options to settle arguments. If you start a fight with one or they start a fight with you, for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT HOLD BACK! They will think you’re insulting them, which can worsen things.”

“Do not go after their family members,” he was interrupted by one that looked as if he needed to sleep for a month and stank of coffee, “Why do you have that twice?”

“You’re a bat; I thought you bats were supposed to be smart.” The kid slumped in his seat while his siblings snickered.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet, but ghosts are very territorial. They will start fights over their obsessions, haunts, and their family. They go feral if they feel anyone of their kin is in danger, whether they are blood-related or not.”

“From what I could come up in the little notes I could find, many of these rules also bleed over to liminal people.”

The same kid asked, “What’s a liminal?”

“A person who has been touched by death. The more exposure to death, the more abilities they get. I don’t know the full extent, but it ranges from being able to see the dead, talk to them, super hearing, to other abilities like empathy and minor mind reading.”

“The fuck does ‘minor mind reading’ even mean,” a blond girl asked. She was ignored.

“You think Jazz is liminal, and that’s why she knew I was there,” Dick asked.

“Oh, most definitely,” John answered once more, wishing for a cigarette. All this exposition bullshit was getting to him. “I popped over to Amity, and everyone, and I mean everyone, has been touched by death. The whole town reeks of it.”

The bats were quiet as they digested that new tidbit.

“They said I was a revenant,” skunk head said, “what does that mean for me?”

“Aww, so that’s why you stink of death, skunk head.”

“Excuse me? My name is Jason, and I don’t stink!”

“The boy doth protest too much,” John murmured, “It means you died for a long period of time and were brought back, probably with some anger issues and stronger. Maybe you noticed you heal quicker. You’re part of the living dead. Congrats.”

“Wait—” John went to the next slide before the kid could ask another question.

If a ghost asks you to spar: say yes. It’s how they greet each other, and if you think you can’t fight with them, just let them know you are willing to compete with them some other way. Maybe a game or something; I don’t know.”

The youngest was furiously taking notes, and then he raised his hand. John sighed, “Yes?”

“Is it proper if I start a spar with him, or should I wait for them to start one with me?”

John was about to take a puff of a cigarette when he remembered he couldn’t smoke in the fancy mansion. He took a sip of tea instead; damn, but was that good.

“It depends if you’re in their haunt or not. If you’re in their haunt, wait for them to engage. If they’re in your haunt, it’s up to you if you want to spar or compete in some other way.”

More notes were taken down.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but many cultures are about offering food to the dead. There’s a reason for that; the dead love to eat. If you’re in their haunt, bring food. It makes them feel better.”

Skunk head Jason perked at that tidbit.

“If you spar with a ghost and they ask you to come back to spar again, take it as a compliment. That means they think you’re strong, and they enjoyed fighting with you.”

This time Dick straightened up, “Hey, Jazz said to come back if I ever wanted to spar with her. She just wanted some heads up. Does that mean I’m in?”

“Essentially,” John answered.

“Doesn’t mean I’m happy with you, Grayson.”

Dick pouted.

“Anyway, any more questions before I go to the next slide? No? Okay.

John clicked before anyone could ask another inane question. He couldn’t wait to leave. Maybe he should drink one more cuppa before he left….

“These are things that are normal for ghosts that aren’t for humans.”

“What’s an obsession,” Bruce asked, “You’ve mentioned that before.”

“It’s a ghost’s reason for being. Without an obsession to keep them anchored, they disappear. It’s unclear where they go, but it’s called a ‘permanent fading’ in their terms. Obsessions are a good thing for ghosts.”

John poured himself another cup of tea, drank it in one go, and then went to the last slide.

“Any questions? I sent all my notes to Batman. Leave me alone, sod off, and goodbye.”

John teleported out of the mansion before the bats asked any more questions. He was glad to be gone.

____

Danny woke up suddenly as he felt multiple people invading his temporary haunt. It wasn’t any of the bats; that much he could tell.

He left his room at the same time Jazz did. His parents were at the bottom of the stairs, weapons ready; their eyes almost, almost glowed.

Danny had been able to tell them about Talia, and he had a feeling they were about to see her.

His suspicions were confirmed when he saw his mother standing on the porch. She raised an eyebrow at him and ignored his very armed family. Rude.

“Hello, habibi. Is that any way to greet your mother?”

Fuck.

Link to the slides if you want to see them for some reason

I spent very little time on the slides, which I feel goes with Constantine's character. Not because I was lazy

Apparently, "bitch the pot" was a way to say to pour tea in Victorian times.

@spectralstardustandphantomnights @avelnfear @idfk-man10 @blackroserelina @candeartist422 @luer-mirin @mur-ururu @insufferablecrab @skulld3mort-1fan @meira-3919 @aethernorwood @mimilikey @marshmelloe @latheevening226 @ahyesanerd @lexdamo @chrysanthemum9484 @spooky-fm @gmkelz11 @jotaroslooseeyebrowhair @supershot73199 @starscreamlover @booberrylizard @pastalavistamf

#cain and abel wept #dc x dp fan fic #dc x dp #dp x dc

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flamingpudding · 7 months

Text

Fictober23 Prompt: 13 - "Come with me, hurry."

Fandom: DPxDC

Rating: T

Warnings: -

Duke didn't know what was happening anymore right now. All he knew was that it had started with simply wanting to help someone. Or rather even sooner, with having been forcefully paired up with the new transfer student that everyone for some reason avoided.

The new transfer student, Danny Nightingale, had joined his class around mid semester, he wore a lot of apparently customized -as he later learned- ghost themed accessories. Somehow he got away with it without constantly getting sent to the principal for violating school uniform guidelines. Partially Duke believes that the teachers just gave up after the first week.

Aside from that the first time Duke had even seen the guy, for a short moment he thought that he had looked directly into the sun but then a second later his vision was back to normal like nothing happened but the transfer was staring at him with an eyebrow raised. They had stared at each other for a long time and Duke was sure that right then and there they both had noticed each other's possible Meta status.

But nothing strange had happened after that for a little while, well major really. Minor things kept happing and Duke was convinced that the guy had to be a Meta. The strange little incidence of things going missing but reappearing the next day, utilize or tool appear in the others hand like out of nowhere, the guy suddenly leaving class without explanation, well sometimes at least asking to get excused but still leaving even if their teacher said no or the bouts of green light Duke occasionally caught around the guy.

This transfer student had to be a Meta. Duke had no problem with it, in fact he was kind of happy to find that one of his classmates was a Meta. He just didn't know how to bring it up to him. Considering that most Metas in Gotham lived in hiding and fear, he knew he couldn't just go, walk up to the guy and bluntly ask if he was a fellow Meta.

So after a little discussion with his siblings, Duke decided he would just keep an eye out for his classmate. Trying to complete the friendship route first before and hoping that this way Danny would open up to him. So for now he was making sure the other stayed safe and all that, Duke had even asked his siblings if he should tell Bruce about his Meta classmate just in case but they had told him that as long as nothing major happens to the kid it should be enough for them to keep an eye out.

The friendship route was going great in Duke opinion. Well that was until he got partnered up with him for a group project. Duke really wanted to say that working together with Danny on the project was making it so much easier to connect with the other aside from just joining him during lunch break or trying to strike up a conversation before classes. But the or their group was not making it easier, in fact, Duke got the feeling they tried to actively exclude Danny if it weren't from him.

The day when they all met in the library made it even more obvious. Danny hadn't even known they were meeting up to work on it until Duke texted him asking where he was. He gave the other the best Damian Glare impression he could muster up when he found out and then a Jason death glare impression when they found excuses to leave once he called Danny over when he saw him walking through the library doors.

"Duke, it's fine real. I always have been one of the odd ones out." Duke had definitely not been fine with it when Danny had played it off, especially when he offhandedly mentioned that he got bullied before. Well at least Danny was enjoying his time with Duke, plus Danny was a genius, especially in all the science and engineering subjects. If their idiot group mates wanted to pass up on an A+ with extra credits then it was solely their fault for being judgmental.

Duke had gotten to the point that Danny had even agreed to come with him to the Manor to hang out once, all he now needed to do was clear it with Bruce and make sure that his noisy siblings weren't going to freak Danny out.

He was just about to call Bruce up to see if it was fine when the doors of the library were kicked in by people dressed completely in white carrying deceives that looked like scanners. He was just about to comment to Danny what weird people they seemed to be when he noticed Danny had pulled up the hood of his jacket over his head and for the lack of better words looked frightened.

Duke had only locked once between Danny, and these weird guys before deciding what he needed to do. He shot a quick look towards Babs who was working the library counter and looked about ready to have them kicked out. Duke signaled her, while also shooting off a message into the group chat with the others.

"Danny." His newly made friend had his back turned to the door and looked like he was trying to find an escape route. Duke frowned at the way Danny flinched when he placed a hand on the other's shoulder. Whoever these guys were, Danny was afraid of them or had some sort of trauma and Duke would bet his entire comic collection on the fact that it has something to do with Danny being a Meta. "It's okay, trust me. They won't get you."

"What?" Glowing green eyes peeked at him from under Danny's hood, he clearly remembers them to be blue.

"They won't get you. I promise." Duke repeated, ignoring the color change for now. By now Barbara was trying to get these people out of her library but these people continued to yell something about ecto-entities and those some papers at her. They were advancing into the building and Duke could see that Danny's flight reflex was going to break out soon.

Duke made a brief eye contact with Barbara. She nodded.

"Come with me, hurry." Was the only warning he gave Danny before he grabbed the other's hand and dragged him to the back of the building, towards the hidden doors.

"What are you doing?!" Danny sounded so confused and Duke looked over his shoulder hoping he was giving the other a reassuring smile.

"Helping you!"

"But I am not-"

"These guys are after you right? Let's get away from them first and then talk!" Duke cut him off pushing Danny through a hidden way into an underground path.

"You don't even know me and-"

"I don't need to know you, to see when someone needs help."

He could see that Danny clearly wanted to say something, there was still fear in these still glowing green eyes and Duke wondered once more what these people must have done to Danny for the other Meta to be scared like this. Danny needed to know that they wouldn't get to him as long as Duke and his family were around. He was going to be protected and be able to live normally without fear of these people showing up to hunt him for his powers.

"Meta's gotta stick together. Don't worry I will make sure you're safe!" This wasn't how he had hoped to open up this topic with Danny. He had wanted Danny to bring it up naturally once they had gotten to be really good friends. So that Duke could let him know he wasn't alone.

#fictober23 #danny fenton #danny phantom #dp x dc #dpxdc #crossover #dcxdp #duke thomas #barbara gordon #duke believes Danny is a Meta #He is determined to make sure Danny is safe #Metas gotta stick together #The Guys in White will have one hell of a time trying to get to Danny #They definitely won't get to him on Signals watch

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npcemi · 10 months

Text

The long road of how starting a fight with superman over clone parenting eventually lead to Danny Phantom become God Part 3: The history of the mirror born and self defense lessons for a teenage phantom

https://archiveofourown.org/works/47818321/chapters/121399486

Constantine turned to look at Superman who was being helped to his feet by Wonder Woman and Batman.

“Clark how the absolute fuck did you manage to piss off the King of the Infinite Realms before we even sent a delegation to smooth things over with him, you absolute wanker!”

The three made their way back to the table as Constantine took out another smoke and toasted it off with a single inhale and ground the butt under his heel.

“Constantine, I would prefer you didn't smoke in here.” Superman chided.

“And I would prefer if the king of the infinite realms didn’t have a bloody vendetta against you, why is that Clark?” Constantine snapped punctuating Superman's ‘real’ name since he seemed to want to hand that out to any entity that managed to appear before him. Honestly, the man was lucky he hadn’t encountered any fair folk or djinn. Constantine sighed because it seemed to be he was one of the only people who understood just how fucking screwed they all were.

“He mentioned something about Conner,” the man of steel said, shaking his head with disdain.

“Conner?”

“Just some Clone Lex created to destroy me. He’s with the young justice team for now, I’ll handle the situation with him when I get the time.” Constantine didn’t like the tone or the insinuation of Superman’s words. He pitched the bridge of his nose in frustration, took a drink from his flask, and magically re-arranged some slides on the presentation.

“This was meant to be a footnote, but since it seems to have been the second biggest reason the big blue idiot has pissed off the King of the Infinite realms.”

“King?” Superman questioned.

“The spectral entity who put you through a wall.”

“The kid? Look he just needs a firm guiding hand and…”

“Shut the fuck up!” Constantine sent a spell to seal the Man of Steel’s mouth.

“Let me start with the fact, spectral entities don’t always look their age. Now let's get a move on with the lesson. Starting with the mirror born or clones as we mortals may know them. Do not insult the mirror born in front of any ectoplasmic entity. Poltergeists, spirits created by magic, or even lesser spirits may not have a problem since they may not come from the realms. However, ectoplasmic entities are a different story. They come from the infinite realms and have different cultures. They are also significantly more powerful than the aforementioned types of spirits.

Ectoplasmic entities are always unique, no two are exactly alike, ever. There are only four ways ectoplasmic entities can reproduce. Someone or something dies in a state of high emotions amongst a high concentration of ectoplasm or they don’t make it to their assigned afterlife and end up residing in the realms. Two they are naturally formed within the realms. This is how the most powerful entities in the realms are formed.

They are called many things, never born being a common one. It’s a bit of a misnomer really, but I digress. Archdemons and some types of angels are known to have formed this way.

Then there are the Primordial beings, they represent concepts like death, time, space, connection, etc. The third way is better left undiscussed as it's not good for mortal ears and imaginations.” Constantine looked like he was going to vomit at the thought of two ghosts somehow physically having sex and he’s had some interesting partners in his surprisingly long life.

The third is the creation of a mirror born. For ectoplasmic entities mirror born are beyond rare and nearly impossible to create. Two of the same being are not supposed to exist. In fact, as I or Dr. Fate could find there have only been three known mirror-born ectoplasmic entities.

The first is known as Anu. They were created from one of the first ectoplasmic entities, Anki. Anki created Enlil, a being associated with storms by the time humans came around. They are the embodiment of energy, force, connection, and authority.

It is said that Enlil split Anki into Anu and Ki. The first Mirror Born was created. Anu would become the sky that held all things. They would become the realms themselves. Ki would go on to become the earth, the first realm to ever exist. Some say that Anu was the first king of the infinite realms, others say it’s Enlil. It all became muddied with time. However, that is how the first two Mirror Born were created. Perfect mirrors of each other and the being they came from.

As you can see, it makes sense why ectoplasmic entities hold mirror born, or clones as you put it, in such a high regard.

One of the other reasons is that the Crown Princess Danielle Phantom, daughter of High King Danny Phantom is a mirror born.” After his explanation, Constantine’s eyes began to narrow at Superman.

“So by insulting Conner and calling him a thing, you not only insulted the King’s daughter to his face and you insulted the realms themselves.” The blonde magician laughed as he continued.

“That’s not even the worst of it before you even basically spat in his face. You Clark, did the one thing you are never supposed to do with a spirit and asked how he died, I’m honestly surprised you're still here to listen to me berate your dumb ass!”

Back at Fenton Works, Danny snuck through his bedroom window glad his meeting with the JL was over. That did not go how he expected, sure he expected Superman to not understand things and be still warming up to the idea of having a clone. However, he did not expect the man to be such an obstinate dick about the whole thing.

“Danny, you’re back, how did it go?” Danny looked up to see his sister Jazz. She must have seen the look on his face because her next question stopped the halfa in his tracks.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She said her face softened with worry.

“Can I have the hug?” Danny’s voice was barely audible as Jazz sat on the bed next to him and pulled him into a soft embrace cradling his head in the crook of her neck as he began to sob.

“I’m sorry…”

“You have no reason to be.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Shh, it will be okay,”

“I didn’t mean to die…”

“I know,”

“I didn’t know I would, it hurt so much when I, it hurt so much, I didn’t, I’m sorry Jazz…”

“It’s okay now Danny, I’ve got you, you're safe…”Jazz held Danny for over an hour. It took over an hour for Danny’s pain and sorrow to abate. Jazz knew there was only one reason Danny would act like this, why she knew he fought against the instinct that would cause any other ghost to lash out violently. She knew someone had broken one of the major taboos. Someone had done the unforgivable. They hurt her brother, her Danny whom she had basically raised since their ‘parents’ had started working on the portal. How dare they do this to him.

After Danny had time to regain his composure, Jazz looked at her brother with a stone-cold bright green-eyed look that meant danger to anyone with a sense of self-preservation.

“Who?” Her voice was quiet, however, the growl came from the depths of her chest.

“Jazz it’s fine…”

“Danny!”

“Jazz, I promise it’s fine. I put him through a wall for asking.” Jazz knew her brother was being intentionally vague. Danny knew that she knew all of the contingencies they both created in case one of the major superheroes was possessed by one of Danny's enemies. The last thing the universe needed was a princess of the infinite realms to kill one of the world's most famous heroes in cold blood. Jazz didn’t care, if someone hurt her family, they forfeit mercy.

“hmmphf .” Jazz's curt response said she accepted Danny’s words, but would still act if she felt the need. Danny shrugged knowing he wouldn’t win this argument.

“Danny!” Danielle’s scream was heard as she floated through the ceiling and crashed into her father. Danny greeted her with a ruffle of her hair.

“How did it go with superman?” Dani asked

“I think he got the message.”

“Did you have to beat him up?” Dani air boxed with a wide smile to punctuate her point.

“Well, I threw him through a wall and gave him some time in the nightmare realm. I’m assuming he got the message.” Danny said to his daughter with a mischievous grin. What he didn’t see was Jazz’s eyes narrow at his words.

“What happens if Superman doesn’t get the message?” Jazz added in a suspiciously casual manner. Danny saw his daughter's face scrunched with worry.

“How about this, I’ll go to your next clone support meeting invisibly, and if Conner says there hasn’t been any improvement. I’ll go to Superman right afterward. How does that sound?” Danielle nodded her approval.

“King Phantom!” Everyone turned to see an observant floating in the room.

“What do you want?” Danny snarled.

“You called upon the power of the realms and the crown of fire today. It could be felt across the realms!” The sentient eyeball accused.

“I did not!” The eyeball pulled out a mirror and it started to play,

‘Danny then turned to look at Constantine, “It looks like you just started your lessons on dealing with ghosts.” There was a distinctive change in Danny, his eyes were the biggest change. The sclera was bright green and his pupils were the darkest black that Constantine had ever seen. It was like they had absorbed all light leaving nothing behind. Like endless black holes.

“John Thomas Constantine, ̸̢̪̉t̵͉̩͊̌é̴͚a̴͔̥͆̂c̸̪̳̔͝h̷̖̞̃̎ ̶̢͔̅͐ę̸̘̈́̕v̸̝͙̈̊e̷̗͚͋ṙ̴̞��y̸͕̤̒ỏ̸͕̔��n̸̯̄e̵̥̠̓͗ ̷̢̧̄h̸̟͗o̴̺̩̅w̷̝͌ ̵͚̈́́t̷̖̍̀o̵̠͝ ̴͖̍͠ͅp̸̡̞̎̌r̸̞̝͋͘o̶̎̎͜p̵̰̉ͅę̶̛̔r̸̦̻̂ļ̷̳̏ÿ̷̭̺́ ̵͚̗̅͘ŕ̶͎̇e̷̛̯͊s̸͔̃̄p̸͘ͅe̵̢̘̍ĉ̷̺̜̄ţ̷͗̕ͅ ̷̩͉͆t̸̥͔̔̐h̸̻̊e̴̝͘̕ ̸͉́͂ ̸͓̱͌́a̴̢̓n̶̺̺͂̋c̸̗͋͜ị̶̀̀ḛ̷̭̀͊n̷̳͍̾t̸͓̭͠s̷̩͆͛.

I suggest you start with etiquette.”

There was definitely another voice layered with Phantom’s, it was a feminine voice that was exactly a perfect fifth above Phantom’s own. Danny tilted his head and looked at the occultist with a grin that looked like a feral saber-toothed cat before disappearing. Constantine turned to look at Superman who was being helped to his feet by Wonder Woman and Batman.’

“You did the double voice thing!” Danielle giggled doing her signature spooky jazz hands.

“As you can see you did something so irresponsible, that could affect the entire realms!” The observant shouted as Danny held up a hand,

“First off I didn’t do that, and I don’t control what she does.”

“Are you saying you, the King, cannot do something as simple as control the crown of fire?” Danny was getting really frustrated with the eyeball. He wasn’t the only one. Everyone stopped to see Danny pause for a moment before he let out a small laugh.

“You and I both know no one controls the crown of fire,” Danny said before shrugging,

“Besides, you know for a fact that the Crown has less self-control than Danielle at that knock of taco bell in Colorado.” The observant made a noise that could only be described as a scowl. Danny turned to his daughter, “Do you still have your patented Fenton anti-creep spray?”

“Anti-creep spray?” The observant questioned as Danny began to line up Dani with the observant.

“It's a mix of pure capsaicin diluted in a 50/50 mix of ectoplasm and 99% isopropyl alcohol that is then put into a pressurized container.” Danny said as he guided Dani’s arm, “Remember what I said?” Dani nodded,

“Aim for the face, eyes, and move in a zigzag pattern.” Danny placed his hands on her shoulder.

“Good, now let her rip!” he said as Dani depressed the trigger on the can and the spray covered the entire observant’s eye.

The floating eyeball now bright red screamed running into the dresser, a chair, and several walls before disappearing.

#dpxdc #dpxdc au #Constantine wished he got paid but realized it would never be enough anyway #everyone should own a can of fenton anti creep spray #Danny gets a hug this chapter #danny fenton

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kuzann · 7 months

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Another little snippet from Paradigm Shift: Mending Fences chapter 8 because I'm on a roll and these two idiots are just so fun to write. 8.5k words so far!

They were in a part of the Ghost Zone that Danny didn’t recognize. He kept pace easily enough despite his low energy levels, but challenging Vlad again was out of the question today. He would have to use more indirect ways to interfere with the present scheme. Especially since Vlad was supposed to be taking care of him.

“Are we there yet?” Danny asked, specifically because this was the most annoying and stereotypical question he could possibly ask right now.

“I’ll tell you when we get there. We’re just getting to the final approach,” Vlad replied. If he wasn’t regretting his decision to bring Danny yet, Danny would make sure he did very soon.

In these parts the Ghost Zone had a more... Closed character about it. The swirling eddies of glowing green energy and black void were slower, crawling at such a glacial pace that they appeared solid. It gave the area an almost cave-like appearance.

Danny moved a little closer to Vlad—caves were creepy enough without the knowledge that there were countless probably-hostile ghosts even now lurking about—and looked over his shoulder at the set of written directions he’d made for himself. “Why are you using such a weird route?” he asked as he squinted at them; the directions specifically mentioned passing a particular landmark three times in different directions, which was downright nonsensical. “Can’t you just go right to the ghost’s door?”

Vlad tilted his head back with a loud sigh, as if he’d had to explain this too many times already. “Your friends told you how they got to Beatrice’s cottage, yes?”

“Yeah?” Danny said after a moment’s pause to recall. “Something about the route being like a spell...?”

“The area around her home is like that because of some dimensional spillover from the Ghost Zone. A lot of ghosts here have ‘addresses’ that require more specific routes to reach,” Vlad said. “Now be quiet, I need to concentrate.”

Danny silently and very deliberately invaded Vlad’s personal space by propping his elbow on the man’s shoulder and resting his chin in his hand.

Vlad scowled and pushed Danny away, then returned his attention to the directions. At last he turned his attention to a cluster of identical doors—red wood with purple stained glass set into the upper half—and flew toward them.

So if the route needed to be exact, what would happen if they strayed from it?

Danny waited for the fourth landmark before making his move. “Hey what’s that?” he asked, pointing at a reverse waterfall of electric blue ectoplasm. Without even a moment’s pause he flew toward it.

“Don’t just wander off!” Vlad darted after him and grabbed him by the upper arm. “Honestly, your attention span is just as bad as your father’s at ti—”

The transition washed over Danny’s awareness like a wave, and suddenly they were in the midst of a floating chain of islands. “Huh, so that’s what happens when you mess up the route,” Danny said as he looked around.

Vlad looked around at the islands and facepalmed so hard that Danny could hear the slap of his hand hitting his face.

Danny tried to cover his laugh, and failed. This was turning out to be much more fun than simply beating Vlad in a fight, and possibly more effective. Vlad wouldn’t be getting his hands on the artifact if he couldn’t even reach the place it was supposed to be.

“Do I have to put a child leash on you?” Vlad asked as he lowered his hand and gave Danny a glare.

“Hey, don’t get mad at me. You chose to bring me after I told you what I was gonna do,” Danny said, crossing his arms over his chest and giving Vlad a smug smile.

“The alternative was allowing you free reign to snoop around my house,” Vlad grumbled. “And if a ghost just happened to attack you during that time it would’ve been on me!”

“So you’re stuck with me,” Danny said with a shrug. “I’m sure the great Vlad Plasmius will figure things out,” he added, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

Rather than reply, Vlad led Danny back to the beginning of the route. Once he was sure they were in the right spot he grabbed the teen without so much as a glance and tucked him under one arm. “Stay put,” Vlad growled, waving a finger in Danny’s face.

Danny had half a mind to bite Vlad’s finger, but restrained himself. Instead he rolled his eyes and stared boredly at the span of the Ghost Zone that was immediately in front of him while Vlad started the route again. There would be plenty of other chances for sabotage in the near future, he was sure of it.

#Danny Phantom #Vlad Plasmius #Danny Fenton #Vlad Masters #Danny Phantom Paradigm Shift AU #DPPSMF Chapter Progress

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raaorqtpbpdy · 1 year

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Five-and-a-Half

Based on the Phic Phight prompt: Danny gets de-aged and Sam and Tucker have to take care of him til he's back to normal without anyone noticing. (from @yellow-rhymes-with-dna)

AO3 Link

[Warnings for mentions of past trauma]

Tucker had gotten used to a lot of strange things over the years, especially with a best friend like Danny. Giant robots controlled by a technologically controlled ghost he could deal with. A blob ghost hunter in a heavily armed mech suit was a piece of cake. An evil ghost king sucking their town into another dimension was more than Tucker alone could take care of, but he could at least keep his cool. Sam Manson showing up at their apartment with a five-year-old Danny was a bit much, even for him.

"Sam, I love you, but what the hell?"

"For the record, this was not my fault," Sam said immediately. "Danny was the one who pissed off Clockwork and got himself kidified. I told him to shut up twice, and we've both told him that the clock tower is not the place to hide from his royal duties."

"Who's this, Miss Sam?" Danny asked, looking up at the goth girl with wide, curious blue eyes. He was so small now that he had to reach his arm almost above his head in order to hold her hand.

"God, your cute," Sam said through gritted teeth, then sighed. "This is Tucker. You remember him, don't you?"

"Tucker?" Danny looked back at his oldest friend, shock written all over his baby-face. The two of them had met in preschool when they were three, and had been together ever since, first as best friends, and now in their little triad with Sam, So even de-aged as he was, Danny should know Tucker. "No way! He's way too big to be Tucker! He's old!"

"I'm not old! I'm only eighteen!"

"That's so old!"

"How come he calls you 'Miss Sam', all polite like, and he calls me old?" Tucker demanded with a pout.

"Can you let us in already?" Sam said, rolling her eyes at the question as she pushed past Tucker into the apartment the three of them got together when they started at the local community college. Sam and Danny had both desperately wanted to move out of their parents' houses, and Tucker wasn't about to be left out.

Danny had been so understanding and kind, insisting that they not hold themselves back just because he had to stay near the portal after high school. Of course, Sam and Tucker had completely ignored him and applied to Amity Park community anyway, even though either of them could've gone to a much better college.

"I take it he doesn't have his memories?" Tucker asked, closing the door behind them and going to sit on the couch.

"Nope," Sam confirmed. "He doesn't have his powers either. His body and mind have been completely reverted to his five-year-old self."

"I'm five-and-a-half!" Danny piped up.

"Right," Sam obliged, "his five-and-a-half-year-old self. I figure we'll wait for Clockwork to cool off, finish whatever work Danny interrupted, and then bring him a gift basket of time-pieces or something to butter him up and ask him to put Danny back to normal."

"I'm normal!" little Danny insisted. "I'm totally normal! My sister says so!"

"Of course you are Danny," Tucker agreed. "She didn't mean it like that."

"Until then, we have to make sure nobody sees him like this," Sam continued, "which means we have to keep him here and watch over him, at least for a few hours."

"Do you have any crayons?" Danny asked. "I wanna draw."

"Uh... I think Sam has some markers she might let you use if you ask really nicely," Tucker said, and Sam immediately gave him that look she gave him when she wanted to punch him but wouldn't because she loved him even if he was an idiot.

"Miss Sam, can I pretty please use your markers to draw?" Danny asked, very sweetly, batting his eyelashes the way Jazz used to to get whatever she wanted from grown ups when she was a kid. Sam clenched her fists and her jaw, but, much to Tucker's amusement, she seemed incapable of saying no.

"How did you live like this?" she shouted. Her combat boots pounded on the floor as she trudged to the studio/lab they'd converted the spare bedroom into. "Thank the Ancients I didn't meet him until we were in middle school. He's too damn cute—it's unbearable!"

"Is Miss Sam always such a pushover?" Danny whispered to Tucker.

"Believe it or not, she's usually pretty strict and bossy," Tucker whispered back. "She's just soft on little kids."

"Oh." Danny looked up at him, blue eyes strangely piercing, as if looking right through him.

It was strange. These days, Danny had gotten very good at masking his expressions to hide how he was really fearing. It was a skill he'd learned to hide his fear, to reassure civilians, and to show his enemies he wasn't intimidated, no matter the danger. But over time, that mask had edged into his personal life too. Danny put on a brave face, a reassuring smile, a too-wide grin, but his partners could never be certain what he was truly feeling. It sent a pang through Tucker's heart to see Danny's feelings so openly in his expression.

"Are you really Tucker?" the kid asked. "My best friend Tucker?"

"Yeah," Tucker confirmed. "Actually, I'm your boyfriend Tucker, and Sam's your girlfriend. A few hours ago, you were the same age as us, and then you got turned into a little kid."

"So I get a girlfriend and a boyfriend when I grow up?" Danny asked excitedly. "That's so cool! I must be pretty awesome to get both of them!"

"Tucker!" Sam chided as she came back into the room with her box of expensive, artsy markers. "Don't tell him that!"

"Why not?" Tucker asked. "What's it gonna hurt? It's not like this is his past self, it's his age regressed present self. I'm not changing the past, and if we lie, he'll be upset at us when he turns back." Sam's lips pressed together in a thin line as she considered his argument.

"Fine, I guess it won't do any harm," she relented after a moment. She put a stack of papers on the coffee table, but before she put down the markers she knelt down to look Danny sternly in the eyes. "Now Danny, these are very expensive, and very special markers, and they were a gift from my grandmother. You have to be careful with them and use them gently so you don't mess up the tips because if you do, I'll be sad. Do you understand?"

Danny nodded, brows set in determination. "I got it, Miss Sam! I'll be very careful with your special markers so I don't make you sad, I promise!"

Tucker could almost see Sam biting her tongue to stop from cooing as she put the box of markers on the coffee table and opened it up. She plopped down in front of the couch while Danny knelt next to the coffee table and uncapped a blue marker. "He's... such an earnest kid," she muttered as she leaned into Tucker's side. "It's different."

"Yeah," Tucker agreed softly. "He used to wear his heart on his sleeve. I never thought about it much, but it sucks that he can't really do that anymore."

"We've been by his side for so long, sometimes I forget how much more he's been through than we have." Her brows pulled together in a frown. "Why does he always go where we can't follow?"

For a long moment, Tucker didn't respond. He felt the same way she did. As much as they'd all gone through together, as much as they tried to stay by Danny's side, there always came a point where Danny had to forge ahead without them. "Because somebody has to."

Sam sighed and slipped a little further into Tucker's body, letting him wrap an arm around her. She was undoubtedly thinking of something melancholy that she'd eventually share at a goth poetry slam, but didn't want to talk about with him. Aside from physical reassurance, there wasn't much he could to about it, but he could do that much, and maybe offer a distraction.

"What are you drawing, Danny?" he asked the kid.

"I'm drawing a rocket ship!" Danny chirped, turning his head to grin at Tucker. Then he scrunched up his face. "You can't look yet! It's not done!"

"A rocket ship, huh?" Tucker asked. "Are you gonna draw yourself on the rocket ship?"

"Duh! I'm gonna be an astronaut!" Sam and Tucker wore the same sad smiles when he said that, both remembering the time they had to console him in the aftermath of his first physical exam after the portal accident. He'd discovered that because of his altered physiology, he would never be accepted into any space program, and he'd been utterly distraught. Now he was studying engineering, because he said if he couldn't go to space, at least something he'd built could.

"Can me and Sam be on the space ship with you?" Tucker asked.

"Sure!" Danny agreed cheerfully, his expression back to that beaming smile. "You guys can come with me!"

Tucker's heart ached. How many times had they heard Danny say, "You guys can't come with me. It's too dangerous for you." A dozen times? A hundred? Easily too many to bear, but they bore it anyway.

"Where are we going?" Sam asked. "Is the rocket going to the moon?"

"Nuh-uh," Danny shook his head. "We're going to 51 Pegasi b! They just discovered it a little while ago and it was super exciting! I read in my mom's science magazine that the guys who discovered it got nominated for a Nobel Prize because it's the first planet anyone's found orbiting a star like our sun! Its orbit is just four days long, and they think it might be the core of a decomposed star!"

"That's so interesting, Danny, tell me more," Sam encouraged, and Danny gasped in excitement at the invitation. He hunched over his drawing as he continued enthusiastically babbling about the planet his imaginary rocket was going to. Sam lifted her head to ask quietly in Tucker's ear, "Did he do this a lot as a kid?"

"Yeah," Tucker confirmed. "It's kinda why we got along so well. He would talk a lot about space, and I would talk a lot about computers, and we would go back and forth like it was a conversation, except we were just taking turns talking about completely different topics. Children of STEM parents with highly specific interests gotta stick together, y'know."

After a while, Danny interrupted his rant about space to show them that he'd finished his drawing. Despite being drawn by the unsteady hands of a five-year-old, they could tell clearly enough what it was. The rocket was gray, and each one of their faces smiled out from one of the three round windows.

"Look, that's me at the front because I'm the one flying the rocket, and Tucker in the middle, and Miss Sam in the back!" he said.

"Wow, Danny, that looks great!" Sam complimented.

"Yeah, I think this one goes up on the fridge," Tucker suggested, eyeing Sam with a devious look. "What do you think, Sam?" She looked back at him with a matching expression.

"Oh definitely," she agreed. Danny was going to be so embarrassed when he was back to normal, and the two of them could practically see their boyfriend's tomato-red face already. Danny grinned and let Sam take the picture from him to stick up on their fridge with one of the little ghost-shaped magnets Sam had bought for them. "Since we're in the kitchen, are you hungry, Danny?"

"I'm hungry!" Tucker said.

"How about some sandwiches," Sam suggested. "What kind do you want, Danny?" She already knew Tucker's favorite sandwich, Turkey, roast beef, and Swiss on rye bread. Since they'd all started dating, she'd even coaxed him into liking some vegetables, though she'd given up on convincing him or Danny to go vegan like her. Her own preferred sandwich was all vegetables, of course. Tucker liked to call it a salad on toast.

"Peanut butter and blackberry jam please!" he asked.

It was kind of funny. The Danny they now knew was so different from the five-year-old awkwardly climbing up onto one of the kitchen stools, but despite all that he'd been through and all that he'd changed, he still liked space and blackberry jam.

"Do you want the crusts cut off?"

"Yes, please!"

Tucker handed her three plates and cleared his half-finished homework off the kitchen island for them to eat at. He'd been working on it when Sam knocked—she'd forgotten her key and Danny couldn't phase them through the door—and then the situation with Danny had distracted him from going back to it. It was just calculus; he'd finish it later.

Sitting around the island, eating sandwiches, Danny asked them questions about his future.

"Are you guys astronauts?"

"No," Tucker said. "We're in college now. We'd have to finish to become astronauts. I'm studying computer programming."

"That makes sense." Danny nodded. "I remember you like computers and stuff. I'm studying to be an astronaut, right? What's Miss Sam studying?"

"Actually, you're studying engineering," Sam corrected, but when she saw the confusion on Danny's face she backtracked, not wanting to tell the child that he'd never achieve his dream. Once was more than enough. "But engineering is one path to becoming an astronaut." It wasn't a lie, even though she wasn't telling the whole truth. She changed the subject. "I'm studying ecology, with a minor in political science."

"And we all go to the same school?" Danny asked.

"Yup!" Tucker said. "We go to Amity Park Community College."

"A community college?" Danny frowned. He'd heard enough about college from his parents to know that a community college was not as good as a university, even if he didn't know the difference between the two. "We couldn't get into a University? Mom and Dad went to University of Wisconsin."

"It's not that we couldn't get it," Sam assured him. "We could have gone to much more prestigious—er fancy schools, but we wanted to stay in Amity Park. We have obligations here, at least for the time being."

"What kind of obligations?"

"We hunt ghosts," Sam said, trying to make it sound exciting instead of annoying. Tucker made a cutting motion to stop her from saying it, but it was too late. Danny's expression immediately fell into disappointment and he looked moments away from crying.

"But... but I don't wanna fight ghosts," he said. "Ghosts are stupid!" Sam blinked in surprise and looked to Tucker, only then seeing in his expression that she shouldn't have said that.

"Uh..." she cringed, visibly trying to find a way out of this. She liked kids, but she had no idea how to handle a crying child. Thankfully, Tucker chose that moment to step in.

"Danny, you have to know, that even though we hunt ghosts, none of us are anything like your parents, okay?" Tucker promised, his voice very gentle and earnest, in contrast to his usual sarcasm, a tone which all three of them shared. "Sometimes it's scary, but we would never hurt the ghosts, and we would never try to experiment on them. If they cause trouble, we make them stop, and send them home, safe and sound, okay?"

Danny started to cry, and reached out for Tucker, who picked him up and held him close to his chest, rubbing soothing circles into his back. "I d-don't like ghosts! I d-don't ever w-want to see a ghost!" Danny bawled.

"It's okay, Danny, you're not gonna see any ghosts," Tucker said. "We'll keep you far away from them."

"Y-you promise?"

"I promise."

Slowly, the tears subsided. Danny had tuckered himself out from crying and drawing, and fallen asleep.

"I'm sorry, I thought he'd think it was cool," Sam whispered, so as not to wake the sleeping child in Tucker's arms. "Why'd he react like that?"

"His parents have always been overzealous about ghosts," Tucker responded. "When he was really little, his parents rants scared him a lot. They talked about finding ghosts and running tests, and experiments. Most of their science talk didn't get to him, and he even thought it was cool, but something about ghosts got under his skin, even back then, you know?"

"I wonder why?" Sam said thoughtfully.

"I dunno," Tucker said. He started to shrug, but aborted the action when Danny hummed and shifted in his sleep. "Do you think Clockwork's calmed down yet?"

"It's been two hours for us," Sam said, looking at the clock on the wall. "So probably a year-and-a-half for him? Yeah, probably. The trick is getting him through the Fenton Portal into the Realms without his parents seeing."

"Yeah, and we don't have his invisibility and intangibility to help us out like we usually do," Tucker said. "So what? False tip?"

"Already on it." Sam's phone was already in her hand and she hit the contact for Fenton Works. When she spoke into the phone it was with a low, nasally voice that sounded nothing at all like her own. "Hello, am I speaking to the Fentons, the ghost hunters? Yes, this is Audrey Goldberg, and I have a ghost problem I hoped you could help me with. It's haunting my bathroom. Twelve-nineteen Pine Road. Yes, come as quickly as possible. Thank you." She hung up. "You got Danny?"

"Yup," Tucker confirmed. "Don't forget the key to Fenton Works."

"Right." They headed downstairs and out of their apartment building, walking to Fenton Works since Sam insisted none of them needed to get a car. It wasn't far, even carrying a kid. All the ghost fighting they did had eventually whipped even Tucker into shape. When he first realized he was getting some actual muscle, Tucker had worn sleeveless shirts for weeks. Neither of his partners said anything positive about it, but he knew they secretly love his muscles.

The GAV was long gone when they got there and Fenton Works was empty, allowing them to go in without any resistance. With Danny fully human, thanks to being de-aged, they didn't even set off the ghost sensors. They headed down to the lab and borrowed the Specter Speeder to go to the clock tower.

Navigating the Ghost Zone was a tricky thing, especially since everything within it was constantly in motion, but they'd figured it out, more or less. To be perfectly honest, even they didn't know exactly how they did it, but as long as they got where they needed to go, it didn't matter.

The door to the clock tower swung open when Sam knocked on it and they climbed up to the top, where Clockwork would be.

"Clockwork, buddy, how've you been?" Sam greeted.

"Samantha, Tucker," Clockwork said blandly. "I assume you've come to ask that I revert young Daniel back to his proper age."

"Yes please," Tucker requested. "I don't know exactly what he did to piss you off, but we really can't have our boyfriend as a five-and-a-half-year-old anymore. Humans have laws about that kind of thing."

"Very well, I suppose the Infinite Realms can't have a king so young either, or so human." Clockwork waved his staff and Danny rapidly aged back to his nineteen-year-old self. Tucker's knees buckled under the sudden increase in weight and the pair of them collapsed onto the ground. Danny woke up to sore knees and Sam hunched over laughing at them.

"Thanks so much," Tucker grumbled, trying and failing to sound sincere. "Now that we've got our boyfriend back, we'll get out of your beard."

"From now on, perhaps you'll think twice before coming to bother me just because you're bored, won't you Daniel?" Clockwork asked pointedly.

Danny blushed, and put a hand over his mouth before nodding. "Yeah, yup! Lesson learned."

"You're ears are steaming," Sam teased, even as she offered a hand to help each of the boys up.

"Shut up!" Danny said as she pulled him to his feet before helping Tucker. "Bye, Clockwork. Thanks for not making me go through puberty again."

"And if you don't disturb my work, I never will," the old ghost warned.

The trio headed back down the stairs and to the Specter Speeder. "You guys are gonna take that awful drawing off the fridge, right?" Danny asked.

"Not a chance in all the Realms," Sam said.

"Yeah, no," Tucker agreed. "If you even try to get rid of it, we'll make you regret it." Danny groaned and buried his face in his hand.

"I can't believe I did all that," he mumbled. "I cried like a baby and then fell asleep."

"In fairness, you were five," Sam said.

"I was five-and-a-half!" Danny snapped, put his face in his hands again. "Why did I say that?" His partners just laughed as they climbed into the speeder and flew home.

#phic phight 2023 #phic phight #fic #things i wrote #everlasting trio #dp #danny phantom #danny fenton #tucker foley #sam manson #de aging #dp clockwork

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