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#or they do know he's a ghost and think red huntress is also a ghost
phantom-0-writer · 17 days
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The Justice League had finally given the go ahead to officially form the Young Justice. Not that any of them were going to stop regardless of having permission. Since the Justice League had opened up their slots for more than the original six earlier that year, Batman thought it would be a good opportunity to use the Young Justice to help reach out and recruit some other heroes without drawing too much attention by going themselves. With protégés of most of the originals in the roster it was a solid plan.
They had been told about their newest "assignment" (if you could even call it that) earlier that day and they would be leaving in the morning. They were supposed to go meet a duo in Illinois (it was their base of operation even though they'd worked in other place). Phantom has been in the vigilante/hero scene for almost 10 years now, and Red Huntress started a few months after him.
Their names were well known, Dick had known of them even before he became Robin. But despite their national (maybe even International fame) little was actually known about the duo and the rumored Team Phantom that alluded to there being more than just the two. Dick had been a big fan of Phantom, and modeled a lot of his moves off of the super-powered hero.
Batman told them that they had already reached out the Phantom (Red Huntress had deferred them to him, and refused to speak with them afterwords) and he agreed to meet the YJ team and mentor them for a designated amount of time. There had been rumors in certain forums that the JLA had reached out to Phantom to be one of the original members of the league but he had turned them down. When Kid Flash had brought it up during the meeting, Batman refused to confirm or deny (which was proof enough).
The plan was for the YJ would stay in Amity Park for 15 days and learn from them, they would check in after that to see weather their stay should be extended. Specifically citing that their legendary teamwork would be incredibly beneficial to learn from to strengthen them as a team. The other plan, and equally as important, was to warm them up to joining the JLA ranks since a direct invitation hadn't been received favorably.
All that was thrown in the window when, three days in, the YJ, Phantom and Red Huntress get portaled to an unknown destination, with strange and unknown life(?) forms, with no supplies, no working communicators, and worst of all, no way back.
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lordgrimoire · 3 months
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So, an Idea, or AU I had regarding the good ol DPxDC.
I’m not sure what sort of disaster Amity’s ghost problem would be classified as, but think of what would happen if the local EMS (Emergency Services like Fire Departments, Law Enforcement, Emergency Medical, etc.) pretty much started jumping over the Mayor from the get-go? What if hard proof of these hijinx, for a brief time, were able to get out of Amity?
Well the Governor would probably have someone take a look, and once nonsense is confirmed (especially of its weird nonsense that looks a little to close to supers) they send in the National Guard, at first to keep an eye on the situation.
Then comes the Ghost Investigation Ward, and things go from moderately worrying to “WTF” real quick. And things start looking less Small Town USA and more Stalins Town USSR, at the height of Stalins Purges.
Admittedly it’s not immediate, and during the time between being put on “Indefinite Alert” and actually being relived this unit (I’m thinking a Battalion Sized force so about 1,200 soldiers/guardsmen total) ends up befriending the locals, and much to the Mayor, and GIWs, frustration, Phantom, as well as Red Huntress.
This leads to a standoff, the GIW can really only do what they want because of the Governments permission for them to do so, but engaging National Guard, who had not been federalized, may cause an issue or two. So they bring up the issue with someone who they think will back them up, their new boss Lex Luthor.
Now Lex isn’t a fool, but he figures out how the Justice League isn’t being called is due to a jammer the GIW set up and figures he can take a look around incognito like, or more accurately get trusted members of The Goonion, who he had Federally given approval to, to go take a look around.
When Alex gets the full story, and not just the GIWs original story but also updated info from the Doctors Fenton, who are now VERY worried, because they were wrong about Ghosts in more ways than they originally thought they may have been. Suffice to say, when Lex manages to get a copy of "The History of The Infinite Realms" and finds that Krypton's Afterlife is GONE, as in they did something similar to what the GIW is planning, he starts hitting the "Abort" Button with fury. Only to be told "Too late we're underway, we're going through a tunnel, what? What?" And now Lex decides Enough is Enough. Lex does two things, first he sends the GO order for the National Guard Battalion in Amity Park, then he starts trying to get a hold of the Justice League because "Listen I know you dislike me but I am willing to drop it all if you HELP WITH THIS BS THAT I JUST INHERITED!" Meanwhile back in Amity Things go from 0 to 100 faster than an Flash, that being the National Guard heard "GO" and immediatly started blasting. The Townfolks: Confused The Ghosts: Confused Team Phantom: Confused and Afraid The Ghost Hunters who are now studying Ghost Culture and the like: Very Confused and sorta getting Arrested. The GIW: Full of Bullet Holes, Screaming, and On Fire Meanwhile, The National Guard are waiting around two hours later with Phantom for any "Federal" News to come through: So the New President decided the Anti-Ecto Acts are BS, unfortunately they haven't been overturned yet so we're all most likely going to be marked as traitors. Mind if we hide out somewhere our bosses can't find us? Also the Justice League never actually knew any of the BS we've been going through, GIW Had some Jammer set up.
Phantom, Tired of all the damage and killing the GIW has caused in Amity Park: I'll try, but I'm not sure how much good it will do if the League shows up.
TLDR: Amity Park during it's entire run has a Battalion of US National Guard camped out in the outskirts/abandoned parts of town and they figure out most of the situation regarding Phantom not being the Villain Mayor Masters and the GIW Claim him to be. Following this logic they turned around and at the first opportunity attacked the GIW and pushed them out of Amity Park.
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starry-bi-sky · 4 months
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More clone^2 snippets
Snippet 12: hands
Lancer: dear god, Mr. Fenton, what happened to your hands!?
Danny, had a run in with Damian’s katana and both of his hands have stitches: um… cooking… accident. I can’t use them that much currently
Lancer, pale: right, yes, of course. You may have one of your friends right you notes until they are properly healed
————
Snippet 13: more hands (and dash is a dick)
Dash: I bet Fenturd’s just faking his hand injury to get out of doing class work. Getting out of classwork is my thing! I’ll show him.
Danny, minding his own business:
Dash, yanks on his fingers harshly: Freak! Did you think you could copy me and het away with it?
Danny, his stitches torn from the way Dash grabbed him: you’re the last person I’d want to copy Dash, let go.
Dash: we all know you’re faking the hand injury, there’s no way you’d— you’d—
(Danny’s hands are bleeding, and starting to smear on Dash’s hands.)
Danny, (fake) calmly: you were saying, Dash?
Dash: I - uh—
Danny: thanks for opening them up, jerk.
—————
Snippet 14: Danny is Bruce’s Clone and Bruce Wayne has been hottest man alive for many consecutive years
The A-Lister Girls are at a sleepover
Star: Never have I ever had a crush on Danny Fenton
All girls (including Star): puts a finger down
A-List Girl: Paulina put your finger down
Paulina, begrudgingly putting a finger down: he shouldn’t count - he’s a loser!
A-List Girl: he’s still the cutest boy in our grade. Put your damn finger down.
—————
Snippet 15: unstoppable force vs immovable object
(In the Clone Danny Au, since Danny is not a ghost Valerie doesn’t see Phantom as the guy who ruined her life, but a very exhausted vigilante trying his best. They’re allies with conflicting ideologies on how to handle ghosts.)
Red Huntress: are you kidding me, Phantom? You dragged a kid in with you to fight ghosts? I thought you were better than that
Wraith, offended: *opening his mouth*
Phantom, tiredly putting a hand over Damian’s mouth: *in ASL + one hand* you don’t think I tried to stop him?
Red Huntress: he’s a child, Phantom, how hard could it be?
Phantom: looks down at Wraith
Wraith: looks up at Phantom with the eyes of a hundred enraged bulls
Phantom, kneeling down to Wraith and pulling his mask up to show his mouth: *whispering inaudibly*
Wraith: *takes off in the opposite direction*
Phantom, standing up to Red: *ASL* well? go get him
————
Snippet 16: identity
(Danny and Damian are sitting on a rooftop, in the middle of a break from patrol. Damian sits between Danny’s legs and Danny is slumped over Damian’s back.)
Damian, playing with Danny’s fingers:
Danny: who are you?
Damian: Damian.
Danny: who are you not?
Damian: Damian Wayne.
Danny: do you have to be?
Damian: no.
Danny: who do you have to be?
Damian: I just have to be me.
Danny: who are you?
Damian: I’m Damian.
Danny: good.
Damian:
Danny:
Damian: who are you?
Danny, smiling: Danny
—————
Snippet 17: long hair
(In the Clone Danny Au, Danny’s hair goes to his shoulders. I was in a GNC mood at the time the au was made and it passed on to Danny.)
Tucker: are you going to cut your hair, Danny? It’s getting long.
Danny, laying against the bed frame with Sam doing his hair: probably to get the dead ends cut off. I like it long.
Sam: I like it long too.
Tucker: you like it long because he lets you do whatever you want to it
Sam: it’s also a stand against the oppressive stereotype that men can’t have long hair and must always have it short in order to appear masculine! Danny’s showing individuality and sticking it to the patriarchy at the same time!
Danny: and because I let you do whatever you want to it.
Sam, making a punk hairdo for danny: yea that too
——————
Snippet 18: Danny is Bruce Wayne’s clone and Bruce——
Danny, getting stuff from his locker: my parents have a new ‘Fenton anti-ghost sticky bomb’ they’re working on and—
Student with a photography camera: Hey, Fenton!
Danny, looking over: what?
Student: *snaps a photo* thanks!
Student walks away
Danny:
Tucker:
Sam:
Danny: so… um…. Is that- is that another Wes? Should I be worried?
Sam: you should be angry! He just took your picture without your consent! That’s a violation of your bodily autonomy.
Danny: we can keep an eye on it, Sam, and if it becomes an issue then I’ll report it to a teacher.
Danny: and as I was saying, I can’t wait to have to make sure that that doesn’t hurt anyone.
Danny: i love having to stay up late sabotaging my parents’ inventions. Yay…
—————
Snippet 19: Danny is Bruce’s clone and—
Wes: ranting about how Phantom = Danny and how there’s proof and he has it and—
Random Student from his photography club: you wanna kiss him so bad it makes you look stupid.
Wes: I do nOT
Student: Its okay Wes, so does literally everyone else.
—————
Snippet 20: Lookalike
Danny: the only good thing about being Bruce Wayne’s clone is that my Brucie Wayne Impression is spot on
Damian: what??
Danny: my Brucie Wayne impression. It shouldn’t be as fun as it is doing it
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DP x PC prompt where Batclan ship “Pitch Pearl” or as they say, “We’ve connected the two dots”. 
Batclan has been watching the Phantom and the Fentons, especially their son. They were able to find some information but for some environmental reason the tracking devices are working in Amity Park with such terrible sound interference...it is difficult for them to understand a word.
~~~~
Fenton kid's Audiotape: I hate..Phantom..threat..destroy.
Original: I hate that my parents think that Phantom is a threat and want to destroy me.
~~~~
Audiotape of the Phantom: cause me trouble..Danny Fenton’s..guns..pointed at my back.
Original : Why everyone wants to cause me trouble? I don’t have time for Danny Fenton’s homework with all those guns pointed at my back.
~~~~
Batclan arrives personally and is going to offer to rescue the ghost from the Fenton child. But. There is a problem.
They see the Phantom calling a Ghost Girl, very much like him, a daughter. The next day the girl flies to the son of the Ghosthunters without fear, calls him father and turns into a human girl. And the teenager hugs her.
Batman thinks their situation is similar to Lex and Superman but unlike them they both really love their "Conner".
~~~~
Tucker hears this reasoning from the tracking device he planted on the Batman’s cloak.
Danny: Good news. They want to help Phantom and don’t think he’s a bad guy. They also fail to understand that Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom are the same person. Bad news.They think I, Fenton, am the villain. How can I dissuade them without revealing my identity?
Tucker: Well, you have a lair with weapons and instruments for diss and vivi in the basement.
Dani*feral half-ghost teen*: Say no more. I have an idea.
~~~~
The same evening, Batclan sees Tik Tok video from the Fenton lab.
*Miike Snow's Genghis Khan plays in the background*:
The Phantom is tied to the autopsy table and Bruce wants to ask the children to look away, but Dick stops him and says he knows the song, so they should see it.
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The video has a happy ending. The heroes like it and they go home with a calm soul.
~~~~
An hour after there’s a comment from DashHereForSlash: Cool cosplay, guys! I’m happy that someone knows about this ship! The equipment looks so real! Where to send a donat for a kiss in the next video?
GhoticPlant: Glad you liked it! Here’s a link.
~~~~
Three hours later, the Red Huntress shoots a duet:
~I get a little bit Genghis Khan
Don't want you to get it on
With nobody else but me.~
Yes, they used Fenton Ghost Catcher and Tucker, Sam and Jazz played henchmen.
~~~~
Tucker sits at the table with Fenton and Phantom.
Tucker: So, Danny, what’s more important..self-esteem or easy money?
Double Dannouble: Money
Tucker: All right, here’s your $50. It’s all fair. But next time you need to use a little more touch. And we change the platform to post the videos.
Danny: Suspicious..And I want $100. Double job means double salary.
Jazz: Danny, no more videos! You’re 15!
Tucker*with printed photos of the kiss the next day*: Remember, don't let people manipulate you to do things you don’t want to do. But we’re doing it to better cover up a little dirty deadly secret, money’s just a bonus. And Danny is narcissistic enough to be happy that now Paulina has his pictures in frames.
Part 2
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stealingyourbones · 1 year
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Not sure if this has been suggested before but what do you think about a DP x DC Cross where the JL discover Amity because the "It's Not Gay if he's Dead" joke escapes containment into mainstream? Also I love your blog! You're awesome.
aaaaa thank you sm hun! I really appreciate that :D I'm glad you enjoy my funky lil blog!
And now, I threw this idea at a fellow who is simply me with prompts but even more unhinged and they wrote a thing. I present to you, This:
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Escaping containment implies that the content got leaked somehow. 
Maybe after so long with dealing with ghosts on their own, especially with ghosts that can control and use tech the people of Amity Park decide to self isolate. Phantom and Red Huntress are considered the only main heroes allowed in Amity, one out of pride and two out of concern of a ghost possessing an foreign hero. 
There was a fight and the tech isolation software glitched or a satellite picks up something on accident, letting a small leak occur. Nothing major, just a small joke. 
A blurry photo of a white haired teenager with a fancam like edit around him and the words "It's Not Gay if he's Dead." 
Which on its own wouldn't have taken off very much on the internet, but someone pointed out that the teenager was wearing what was very obviously a hero outfit. Leading to people wondering just who exactly this hero is or was. 
So they dig, and it turns out the “one” leak wasn't the only one to happen. 
The internet finds out there's not just one meme. There's hundreds of them. All originating from a single midwestern city and mostly focused around one person, the white haired teenager that is referred to as Phantom in most memes. 
Theres edits of a female musician with bright blue hair with text saying “that moment when a dead girl is your bisexual awakening” and “Its not a crush on a villian if shes not alive.” 
There's even photos of these slime-like creatures. With dozens of different memes referring to them. Varying from calling them green pigeons, to talking about tossing them like a sports ball.  
Theres even a photo of Dash and most of the football team are wearing group shirts that all say “It's Not Gay if he's Dead” with Phantoms logo on it, half as a joke and half because some of them would definitely date Phantom if they could. 
It's not even the Justice League that finds the jokes first, it's the younger generation of heroes. 
(It's how Tim asks Kon for a date. He sends a meme with Danny getting flunged in the worlds most tumbling superhero pose with the below text "It's not gay if he's dead." Tim immediately sends another text "But it is gay if he's an alien, 10pm picnic date?")
The different memes get passed around, none of them taking them that seriously, until it gets to Batman. One of the memes is sent in the bat group chat by one of the Bat kids to ask Jason about getting group Batburger later. “If your hero’s dead its not gay, it’s just hero worship, even if you want to meet him behind the Nasty Burger.” 
It's the hyper specific wording that gets Batman to look into it. He only finds the memes, nothing else. No town called Amity Park, no hero called Phantom, no trace outside of a reference to a defunct and wiped completely clean government branch and references to a nonexist law. 
This leads him to contact the Justice League, including the JL Dark, for a meeting. 
Surprisingly quite a few members recognize the teen outside of the memes. Flash, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, and some of the JLD. The Flash refuses to say anything due to timeline continuum dangers. Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter mention someone like him appearing in ancient texts, but nothing beyond that. The JLD that know are physically and contractually unable to say much beyond Phantom being a hero and very important. 
It’s Captain Marvel that genuinely knows anything about him. “That's Danny, he's pretty cool. He's even helped me out a few times!”
The rest of the JL are surprised, Marvel gets more questions and answers some of them. He doesn't share the knowledge that he's helped Billy at handling the whole secret child hero thing, and that he's welcome in Amity. Just enough information to make the League stop looking into Phantom, Ember, Cujo, all of Amity. 
It works, mostly. 
Batman has never been one to let sleeping dogs lie…
-From Bones’ GhostWriter, S.
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realititrip · 1 year
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my Red Error AU for @dpauzine :D You can also check out the full zine here
The story in this AU follows Valerie after getting suit upgrade from Technus. Of course it's more than that and things start getting out of hand pretty quickly.
First it was the little things, barely noticable, but still there like studying becoming easier or her reaction time to attacks being faster. Valerie brushed it off.
This was going on for around 2 weeks without change until Phantom approached her after a fight where they had to team up to take down a more dangerous ghost. "Um Red? Your eyes glowed red for a second there and i wanted to ask if you were okay?" he said but Val just snaped at him to better mind his own business or else he'll be the one in her thermos next time she sees him. Phantom flew away then but the worry she saw in his eyes was stuck in her brain.
Valerie spent the rest of that night staring at the mirror in her bathroom looking for the red glow but never found it. Until a few days later when she woke up with sore eyes. Went to the mirror and saw red around the edges. It's fine it's FINE don't panic you'll figure it out girl.
After some thinking she figured new suit must be the source of the problem. Since it was fused with her body Val couldn't take it off, but it wasn't causing harm to anyone so she probably overused it or something that's why the red showed up.
And oh honey, you couldn't be more wrong.
Her vision changed. Those are definitely NOT the same eyes she had last week. The iris looks more mechanical, like there's something moving and shifting in it, like a robot or cyborgs, she thought. Everything is clearer, in higher quality, she can even zoom in and out if she so desieres. When she puts the suit on there's just /more/ of everything. Around the edges of her vision Valerie can see health statistics, ghosts in the area and other important information she needs. The familiar green eyes are gone, replaced with red.
The next change was her hair. Problem was they didn't look like hair anymore. Thick and think cables, any kind, running down her back. This really started freaking her out. This is where it started becoming too much and the situation she's in started sinking in. She needed help. But who even could do anything about it? Her dad would just worry even more, Phantom isn't an option, the best tech guy in town doesn't know she's Red Huntress and she's not going to change that.
So Valerie made a plan to wait for Technus to show up and catch him before Phantom. It surprised her the ghost was actually useful and explained what he could. Of course there was the threat that she'll destroy Technus if he won't but. Details.
Apparently her "hair" could be used to connect with any sort of device. She needs camera footage to check out ghost fight details? done. Wes talking about his phone freaking out because of ghost pictures? she can get that easily. The cables act like another pair of arms and do exactly what she wants.
Technus has a theory that the reason behind all of this was because he used too much of his powers on her. Since it was more than a normal human body could handle thus the changes.
He warned that there's a possibility she'll develop something similar to a ghosts core, the thing that stores all her power, the source of it. Since she's still human, Valerie thought it wouldn't happen, but fate seems to hate her, so here we are, with a triangle on her forehead that seems to be slowly growing in size every day. Honestly, it's not so bad, pretty easy to hide. The worst part about it is that if the core got damaged she must go to Technus for help.
But other than that, she's fine, for real this time.
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sykloni · 10 months
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Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
This takes place right after Valerie has gotten her new suit. She and Danny have not yet broken up, but Valerie is questioning if she is putting him in danger.
Damon knows Valerie is the Red Huntress. He is afraid for her safety, but he already tried to stop her by confiscating her weapons and only thing that lead to was her putting herself in the middle of a fight where she didn't have her gear to protect herself.
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There are references to things that happened in the episode "Flirting with disaster", so here is a quick recap for anyone who needs it:
Valerie saw her old suit (controlled by Technus) go after Danny.
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She fought with the possessed suit without any of her weapons, but hid before Phantom showed up.
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Then she watched Phantom blast her old suit to pieces, without knowing that Phantom knew she wasn't in the suit.
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Later in the episode Technus made her a new suit (I don't think Valerie is aware it was made by Technus but she should at least suspect it might be ghostly origin).
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The comic takes place soon after this.
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I watched this episode multiple times while making the comic. It's honestly a really fun episode with Technus playing Matchmaker, Danny and Val getting to know each other and Damon being a good and attentive father, I recommended watching it :)
Also seeing "yourself" being blown up to pieces is quite dark and I think that's something that will haunt Valerie for a while. Just the realization that Phantom could have killed her. That was something he was capable of doing. Her old suit didn't have a chance against him. (And I think eventually she will see through her fear and hatred and realize that Phantom had been intentionally holding back and trying not to hurt her, but not yet. For now the incident is just making her distrust him and ghosts in general even more)
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a-closet-emo · 2 months
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Why Am I Like This?
4043 words, GrayGhost, written for @duchi-nesten's prompt for last year's phic phight that I never posted on here 😭. Welp, had to get it done before this year's phight. Enjoy!
“You know how there were rumors a while ago that I had a girlfriend?” he asked, and, Ancients, did his voice have to crack on that last word?
“No need to be so embarrassed, Danny-boy! We already know that you’re dating the Red Huntress!” his dad bellowed.
What.
“Yes,” his mom said curtly, “ we do.”
Or
Danny’s brain was short-circuiting.
How was he supposed to explain that he’s dating Valerie Gray, who was definitely not a vigilante ghost hunter, without giving away that he was definitely not a half-ghost vigilante ghost hunter, too?
He got a feeling that Clockwork was laughing at his pain.
Danny set his fork down carefully, grateful that tonight’s dinner wasn’t trying to kill him. He didn’t need that tonight, not when his plans were already going to be so stressful. 
“So,” he started, and immediately three pairs of eyes zeroed in on him. His parents were looking at him expectantly, like they’d just been waiting for him to speak up which was… not a good sign, but Jazz was giving him her encouraging-yet-I’ll-be-disappointed-if-you-don’t-do-it look, so he kinda had to follow through now. 
“You know how there were rumors a while ago that I had a girlfriend?” he asked, and, Ancients, did his voice have to crack on that last word? His parents were still waiting for him to get to the point.
“Yes, sweetie?” his mom prompted, her violet eyes shining with feigned nonchalance as she picked at her plate. At least she was pretending to be casual; his dad was openly staring at him again. He inwardly cringed, remembering the last time his dad thought he had a girlfriend.
He coughed and started rubbing the back of his neck. “Uh, well,” Why did it have to be so embarrassing to tell your parents about your love life! “There’s this girl, you know. And she’s super kickass and fiery but also determined and loyal and compassionate? Uh, sorry, you already know her–”
Suddenly his dad clapped him on the back with enough force, ghost-enhanced physique or not, to nearly make him faceplant into his mashed potatoes. “No need to be so embarrassed, Danny-boy! We already know that you’re dating the Red Huntress!” his dad bellowed.
What.
“Yes,” his mom said curtly, “we do.”
Danny sent a look Jazz’s way that was more a cry for help than anything else, but she was just as bewildered. Their mom sighed. 
“After ghost fights,” she said, “Jack and I still hang around the area just to collect extra samples or run a few numbers while the ectoplasm’s still fresh. But we also see you there, sweetie, talking with the Red Huntress or even riding around with her on her board going who-knows-where.”
Danny’s brain was short-circuiting. He was half tempted to check if dinner had been contaminated with ectoplasm, after all. 
The reason he was hanging around with Val after ghost fights was because he had fought alongside her during the fight. And somehow, instead of figuring out his identity, his parents… figured out his love life? Sort of? He wanted to think it was a stroke of good luck, or - more likely - another case of his bad luck to be added to the file. How was he supposed to explain that he’s dating Valerie Gray, who was definitely not a vigilante ghost hunter, without giving away that he was definitely not a half-ghost vigilante ghost hunter, too? He got a feeling that Clockwork was laughing at his pain.
“What?” he says a bit too cheerfully, “No -pfft- come on, I’m not dating some masked ghost hunter! I was just there after ghost fights because, uh…”
His dad guffawed before slapping him on the back again. “You’re a riot, son! Maddie and I once saw you exit a janitor’s closet in your school after a fight with ol’ Red, the both of you looking pretty flustered.” The big man was waggling his eyebrows at Danny. 
Danny wanted to phase through his chair and into the floor.
“Of course, we all know that proximity to ghosts and ghost fights is very dangerous,” his mom was all business. “If that girl is putting you at risk, sweetie, we’re going to need to have a very long talk with her. And you’ll need more combat lessons!” she added cheerfully. “I know you’re afraid of the ghosts, but if this relationship is turning your interests toward them, then…!”
And that was when Jazz intervened. “Mom, Dad! You’re embarrassing him, look!” She went on, “This is not the kind of conversation that is conducive to a healthy psyche, especially not when the subject is so touchy among boys his age. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wants to leave the scenario you’ve created.”
He so owed her. “Yep! I’ll be going now, bye.” And if he used a little of his ghostly speed to get out of the dining room and up the stairs faster, no one would know. Except for Clockwork. 
Clockwork was definitely laughing at him.
Danny started eavesdropping, invisible outside his parents’ door, in time to hear his dad sigh loudly with relief. 
“I told you he couldn’t be dating Valerie, Maddie! The girl’s way out of his league!”
Danny had to hold back a scoff. Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Dad. 
“And the Red Huntress isn’t?” his mom challenged. 
Danny pouted. Et tu, Mom? (Aha! A Shakespeare reference. He was so going to actually get higher than a passing grade this semester.) He was so tempted to barge in and loudly declare that he was, in fact, dating both of those girls. That girl. He sighed. There’s the problem. 
“Even if she is his age - and so help me if she’s older - we’ve seen them meet up before and after ghost fights!” He could hear his mom’s light footsteps as she paced the length of the room. “What happens when ‘before’ or ‘after’ becomes ‘during’? You’ve seen how aggressive she is sometimes! She puts him in danger!”
Danny heard the creaking of a bed as his dad flopped down onto it with a sigh. “She’s probably swept him off his feet, too.” Okay, so maybe Val has rescued him a few times, even carried him bridal style once, but he’s saved her, too!
His dad continued, regardless of Danny’s wounded pride, “I know how hard it is to resist a force of a woman.” 
Danny’s thoughts came to a halt. What was with that tone…
He heard the shuffling of sheets. “Speaking from experience, are we?” his mom asked with a chuckle. 
“You’d know it, you were there,” his dad replied - and nope! That was about enough for Danny. He was glad his parents had a happy marriage but he did not need to hear how happy it was. 
He retreated to his room, head buzzing with the mess he and Val had gotten themselves into. 
Crud.
Danny had been trying for a week. 
He’d flunked his English paper (the assignment wasn’t about Caesar, go figure), and he’d been dodging Valerie all week. A few months ago, he would’ve meant dodging her blasts and hits, but now he meant trying to get out of hanging out with her or - Ancients forbid - having her come to his house. It also meant that by virtue of not wanting to make Valerie feel like she was being excluded, he couldn’t have Sam or Tucker over, either. He was starting to lose his mind all alone in the house. And no, he was not going to Jazz for help about it.
Look, it was an embarrassing problem, okay? His parents disapproved of the relationship they thought he had with the ghost-fighting alter ego of his girlfriend because they thought it was reckless and put him in danger. And they knew about it because they’d basically walked in on their more… private moments. Letting them actually meet with Red and lecturing her on how to properly protect him and save him like the damsel in distress they thought he was for being so afraid of ghosts this whole time was a total no-go - he’d never hear the end of from Val!
He was trying to figure out why this whole situation felt so familiar when Jazz walked in on him pacing the length of his room. She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off. “Can it. I don’t wanna hear it, Jazz.”
She pouted a little at that, then huffed. “If you’re not going to listen to my advice about healthy communication in all relationships in your life, just let me say that our parents are stubborn to a fault. If they latch onto an idea, they need solid proof to discount it.” She shot him A Look. “You know that better than anyone.”
She turned on her heel with a little ‘harrumph!’ and disappeared from his doorway, her orange hair swinging as she went. 
Danny sighed, and tried to get back into brainstorming convincing arguments against his parents. He’d tried to completely deny that anything had happened between him and the Red Huntress, claiming that in this freaky town, it could’ve been ghosts! (You know, the ol’ reliable). He’d told them that at most, the Red Huntress was just a friend. Then his dad started to ask him why he blushed whenever they brought it up and started to tease him and… he lost that argument pretty soon after. He went for a partial denial after that one. He wasn’t dating the Red Huntress, they’d just made out a couple of times. Sort of like a fakeout-makeout, even. That one made his parents angry. “Son,”  his dad had said with a distinct tone of fatherly disappointment, “I did not raise you to play with people’s feelings. If you’re not dating the Huntress, then–” “Just kidding! Haha, I meant that we weren’t dating at the time! Wait. I mean, we’re not dating!” Danny resisted the urge to put his head in his hands. That went well. He’d even considered outright telling them that he was dating Valerie and showing them proof, but he shut that idea down. What if they thought he was a two-timer (ugh.). What if they put two and two together for once and figured out that she was the Red Huntress? And he didn’t want to drag Valerie as proof over just to have her watch him either be very awkward with his parents or argue with them. Valerie had too much on her plate for her to be wasting her time in his family drama.
Wait, what was it that Jazz had said about ‘proof’? That his parents were stubborn and needed it to be convinced of something. Well, duh. They were scientists. Sure, though they had definitely dropped the idea a while ago, they used to be extremely biased against ghosts. They held onto the idea that all ghosts were evil so stubbornly that Danny was legit afraid to be around them in the beginning. At least they’d warmed up to Phantom lately. 
But what proof did his parents need? They actually had too much proof on their side, evidence that Danny couldn’t refute. 
Something green glinted in his peripheral vision, His head whipped around to look at it, and he found himself staring at his reflection in the mirror. In his stress, his eyes had turned that otherworldly green, a shade that seemed so out of place with his regular complexion and black hair. 
Oh, right. There was something else that his parents were being stubborn about. 
(Maybe it was related? Jazz could look into their family’s seemingly genetic stubbornness, but – she probably already has several papers on it.) 
He sighed. He didn’t need to convince his family that he was dating Valerie, not the Red Huntress (because, hey, they were right for once. Sort of. And he didn’t want to ask Val to fake-date him or something, it’d just be too complicated). He needed proof to convince them that dating her was not putting him at risk.
He ran a hand across his face, and in the reflection he could see that his eyes had smoothly transitioned from green back to blue. He sighed. He was going to need to ask his sister for advice on this one.
Danny waited until the last second to dodge a glowing green ghostly cube of doom, stepping nonchalantly to the side in midair and watching the Box Ghost’s frustrated reaction with smug satisfaction. But he’s not ignoring the guy just to mess with him. He was just focused on someone else.
“Red!” he hissed. Normally, he’d love to just watch her during combat, because in the fruitloop’s words, she really was good at this, but he needed to talk to her. They were flying higher than some of the buildings around, but his parents were directly beneath them and for all he knew, they’d made a Ghost-Whisper-Detector-Inator or something. 
“Oh, so now you wanna talk!” she replied, the distortion from her helmet making her voice sound more metallic and making her angry tone all the more sharp and unsettling. She grunted as she hefted one of her heavier canons onto her shoulder before taking a shot at the Box Ghost. Danny winced as the projectile hit its mark directly and the poor guy got launched a couple blocks down the road. The two of them sped toward where he’d crashed into a wall and blocked his exits, one of them on either side of him. It was way overkill and the Red Huntress was clearly fuming, but Danny couldn’t resist saying, “Guess you could say we boxed him in.”
He couldn’t tell if the groan that came from the Box Ghost was a result of his injuries or Danny’s pun. 
Red came closer, pressing a finger to his chest. “I’m about ready to box your hide–” 
Danny’s voice cracked as he interrupted her, “Yep! So, can we have this little lovers’ spat over there,” he pointed at a nearby rooftop that was just tall enough to give them some privacy from people on the street, “you know, where my parents won’t see?” He put his hands in the air as he floated away slowly, toward that rooftop. Behind him, he heard Red huff before the telltale humming of her board followed him there. 
As soon as they alighted on the roof, the Red Huntress stored her board away and took off her helmet. Valerie’s long, brown curls billowed in the wind and Danny tried not to stare. The whole Technus-enhanced suit she used to have was cool and all, but it was a little creepy, especially since Technus had been so… involved in their first relationship. He much preferred this suit, made by Tucker and the rest of the team using both Vladco and Fenton Works tech. She crossed her arms. “Start talking, Ghost-boy.”
Danny blinked. That took him back to the good ol’ days of when she was trying to kill him - was he sure Clockwork wasn’t messing with the timestream or something? 
“Right,” he started, “So, sorry for ghosting you this past week.” His eyes widened in alarm. “Pun not intended, pun not intended!” 
She just scoffed and muttered under her breath, “Yeah, right.” But some of the tension left her shoulders, and he could tell that she was holding back a smile. He took it as a sign to continue. He’d been trying to figure out the best way to explain the whole thing, but in the end he just said, “My parents think you and I are dating.”
She cocked an eyebrow at that. “And is that the problem?”
“Sort of.” He reached for her helmet. “You see, they think you,” he gestured to the red helmet in his hands, “are dating me,” he quickly transformed and gestured to his human self. “They think you’re putting me in danger,” he sighed, handing the helmet back to her.
Valerie took the helmet back and his words in slowly. Then she burst into laughter. “They think that I,” she said in between chuckles, “am putting Danny ‘Protector of Amity Park’ and ‘Heir to the Ghost Throne’ Phantom in danger?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Danny groaned. He knew it. He was never going to hear the end of this. She was going to tell the rest of the gang using the groupchat that he was definitely not a part of. 
“So that’s why they’ve been chasing me down all week, too,” she added, calming down.
“They’ve been what?” Danny felt a sudden wave of guilt wash over him. He’d been so caught up with trying to keep Valerie free from the stress that his family was causing him that he hadn’t even bothered to check in with her.
She shrugged. “Guess their shouts of ‘Something something my son!’ and ‘Stay away!’ make a lot more sense now. For a moment there, I thought they were tryna run me outta town.” She looked him in the eye. “Is that what it was like for you, y’know,” she said quietly, “before?”
Danny stepped closer to her, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Sorta.” He held her hands through her suit’s gloves and was happy to feel her give him a returning squeeze. “But that was before, and my parents have been harassing you all week. Are you okay?” “They’ve been harassing both of us all week and we just didn’t know it,” she chuckled. “What idiots. I just missed you, is all.”
He sighed. Jazz was right (Jazz was always right), if he’d just communicated with his relationships or something… “Sorry,” he said again. She just nodded. 
“So, what’s your plan?”
“You sure you’re okay with telling my parents?” “Oh, yeah, it’s totally fine.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s not like you already revealed my secret identity to my dad and got me in a lot of trouble.”
“Hey!” he protested. “It was one time…” he added guiltily, rubbing the back of his neck.
She grinned and punched his arm playfully. “I know, I know. Not like I didn’t deserve it.” 
He frowned a little. That was true, but he still felt like the action had crossed a line. If anyone knew the importance of a secret identity, it would be him. He reached for her hand and she accepted the gesture, holding his hand as they walked to the edge of the roof. “True,” he said. “You used to be pretty morally Gray.”
“You are lucky I love you, Fenton.”
He stopped just short of being visible to those on the ground and gaped at her. She was shorter than him, but she stood tall with all her confidence and an expectant smirk. There was a challenge in her eyes, even if maybe the effect was kinda thrown off by the blush on her cheeks.
“I love you, too,” he said, and she rolled her eyes as if to say ‘duh.’ “And I love that you won’t whoop my ass in front of my parents? Unless, uh, you wanna show me all fifty shades–”
Valerie pressed a quick kiss to his lips before he could finish that sentence. “I love you, but that won’t help you if I hear the end of that sentence.” Helmet back on, she pulled him by the scruff of his shirt and yanked him onto her board before launching them both off the edge toward his parents. 
“There she is, Maddie! And Danny-boy’s here, too?”
“Red Huntress! Be careful with my son!”
Red guided the board smoothly over until they arrived in front of his parents. 
“Don’t worry, sweetie,” his mom greeted him as soon as he and Valerie stepped onto the street, “we already dealt with the Box Ghost that Phantom just left for us.”
“Now, Maddie,” his dad interjected. “The Box Ghost is small fry! Phantom trusts us with that kind of thing.” “I suppose you’re right,” she conceded with a sigh. And– Danny knew that this truce was the longest one that had ever lasted between Phantom and his parents, and he knew that Jazz had beaten the anti-ghost bias out of them a long time ago, but hearing the way they were so quick to defend and accept his alter ego now was still jarring. In all this time, even if he didn’t realize it, he was already a lot more relaxed about his identity, not caring if he let something suspicious slip or sometimes even being careless on purpose. It’s just that his parents were too stubborn to see it.
“Speaking of the Ghost-boy,” his dad continued, “where’d he go?”
“We’ll deal with that in a sec,” Danny dismissed easily. He gestured to the Huntress behind him. She stepped forward as confident as ever, her hand outstretched for a handshake. “Mom, Dad, this is my girlfriend, the Red Huntress.” He watched as his mom accepted the gesture easily, though somewhat stiffly, while his dad’s handshake threatened to pull Red off her feet. “But you also know her from somewhere else.”
On cue, his girlfriend took off her helmet, and Danny continued despite his parents’ shocked gasps, “Val, these are my parents.”
His dad was the first to speak up. “Damon’s girl?” He chuckled with delight. “I knew you were out of Danny’s league!”
“Hey!” he started, but Valerie spoke up for him instead. “If anything, Mr. Fenton, your son’s too good for me,” she said, looking back at him with big, green eyes. He shook his head at her, and put a hand on her shoulder. 
“You can call him, Jack, dear,” his mom said. She’d taken off her hood and goggles and she was smiling softly at the two of them. “And I’m Maddie. It’s nice to really meet you.”
Danny and Valerie smiled at each other. “It’s good that I can tie a face that I trust to your girlfriend, Danny,” his mom said. “But! That doesn’t mean that she can take you around with her to ghost fights if we don’t set some ground rules first.” The older woman turned to Valerie. “I know you’re more than capable of taking care of yourself, but poor Danny’s been afraid of his own shadow since the ghost portal went up, you see.” Danny’s dad nodded. “Gotta make sure our boy is looked after!”
“Actually,” Danny butt in, “I can take care of myself.” His parents went quiet and looked at each other. His heart was pounding.
“It’s good to be confident, Danno! But–”
“No ‘buts’, Dad. I haven’t been completely honest with you guys, and it’s not fair to ask Val to reveal her identity when my reveal is way overdue.” He looked down at the street, missing  the way his mother’s hand traveled to her mouth and his dad’s jaw was set with knowing determination. Valerie’s hand found his and squeezed it reassuringly. He took a deep breath. 
The rings of his transformation glided smoothly over his form. When he opened his eyes to look at his parents, he tensed for just a moment as his vision was filled with the sight of the two of them barrelling toward him. But then they both crushed him in a hug, and all the tension left his shoulders. Even Val was squished in here with him and he laughed wetly. “I guess you guys finally caught the Ghost-boy, huh? Guess you weren’t ex-specter that one!” Then everyone groaned. 
After a while, they all pulled away. 
“Don’t think we won’t be having talks about all of,” his mom gestured vaguely to him, then to themselves, “this.”
“Oh, sonny, there’ll be a lot of talking to do.” The man looked to his wife. “And I’m going to have to edit the ‘birds and the bees’ spiel a bit, eh? We gotta take into account all your ghostly biology, after all!” 
“My ghostly…” Danny turned as green as ectoplasm. Val was as red as her suit.
“Dad!” he whined, making his parents chuckle. 
It wasn’t perfect, but, eh. They’d figure it out.
“So, how did you end up thinking that Danny was dating the Red Huntress?” Valerie asked, and Danny choked on his mom’s mac and cheese. He glared at Jazz from across the table, and she tried her best to stifle a laugh. 
“Well…” his mom started, looking at her husband with a knowing smirk on her face. 
“Mom!” he said, accidentally flashing his eyes green. 
“No ghost powers at the table, sweetie,” she replied without missing a beat. He huffed and sat back in his seat. He met Valerie’s eye and she had one eyebrow up in an expression that felt like she thought she should be amused, but she didn’t know why yet. Oh, she was going to regret that fast.
His dad picked up the story, “You know the janitor’s closet on the third floor of Casper High?”
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raaorqtpbpdy · 27 days
Text
Valerie the Spy
When Danny started acting weird... well... weirder than normal, Valerie sought to find out why, and to do that, no matter how much she regretted it, she enlisted the help of school conspiracy theorist Wes Weston to get to the bottom of it.
Written for the prompts:
Danny slowly discovers he has space powers, which mainly means control over gravity. But we all know what his powers are like when they're fresh and he's still learning. What kind of angsty, scary or hilarious shenanigans ensue? [from Deathcomes4u], and Valerie, fed up with Danny's suspicious activity, reluctantly teams up with Wes to get to the bottom of whatever's really going on. Wes is just excited that someone's listening to his theories. [from @46-reasonable-hamsters]
Read also on AO3
[Warnings for stalking and invasions of privacy]
It was common knowledge at Casper High—maybe even throughout Amity Park, that Danny Fenton was something of a freak. He was banned from all sensitive lab equipment, he learned how to communicate with a gorilla for extra credit, his bladder could predict ghost attacks with greater accuracy than the ghost detectors his parents had installed all over the school.
He'd been that way since he started high school, if not longer, but now that he was a sophomore, and they'd all been going to school with him for a while, more people had taken notice. Still, no one cared much. That was just Fenton. He was like that, and everyone seemed content to accept that without any further explanation—with two exceptions.
Wes Weston, the school's resident conspiracy theorist; and Valerie Gray, former A-lister turned wallflower and secret vigilante ghost hunter extraordinaire. Wes had never been willing to accept Fenton's weirdness at face value, and had developed multiple theories attempting to provide an explanation for it. Valerie had been... until recently.
But recently, the local freak had been even freakier than usual. In the past two weeks, people who passed by him would trip and fall with startling regularity. There had been numerous scraped knees, and even a few broken noses. The other day, Valerie had seen him in the quad, hugging a tree with a dead-eyed expression while his goth friend laughed at him until she, too, face-planted on the grass.
Danny had always been weird, and for the most part, Valerie had been willing to roll with the punches of his slowly but steadily increasing weirdness, but this was the last straw. Clumsiness, savant-syndrome, and IBS not withstanding, Valerie couldn't think of anything that could explain away this latest uptick in weirdness, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.
Valerie was a lot of things, but patience wasn't her strongest suit. Her strongest suit was black and red and packed to the brim with the latest in anti-ecto technology. After two days of investigating Danny—or attempting to, at least—and finding zilch, her frustration was mounting beyond her tolerance for it. She'd didn't really have any idea how to research or investigate someone that she couldn't track with her ghost hunting gear.
She followed him after, but didn't see anything noteworthy, didn't know what to even look for. Then, when she got a ping on her ecto-radar watch, Danny disappeared in the moment she looked down to see what direction the ghost was coming from.
After two days and zero headway, Valerie knew it was time to employ some back-up. Although she could not stress enough how much she definitely did not want to, she simply didn't have the relevant skill-set to investigate a regular human on her own. And as it happened, there was someone at school who had already 'investigated' this particular human pretty thoroughly.
With the utmost reluctance, Valerie sought out one Wesley Weston to help her figure out the truth of what was really going on with Danny. She found him at lunch and dragged him out behind the cafeteria to enlist his services.
"Wow, the elusive Red Huntress wants my help?" he said sarcastically. "I'm honored."
"I-I'm not the Red Huntress!" Valerie balked. How could he possibly know that? Was it just a lucky guess?
Wes rolled his eyes. "Sure you're not," he agreed unconvincingly. "This is a prank, right? You ask me to help you investigate Fenton, and then I get all excited and your friends show up and make fun of me for thinking you were serious? I'm not dumb."
"I know you're not," Valerie said, trying to remain civil, which was no easy feat when faced with someone as insufferable as Wes. "This isn't a prank. Something's up with Danny, something different than his usual weirdness, and I want your help to figure out what and why."
Wes narrowed his eyes in suspicion and crossed his arms.
"Why me? I know you don't believe my theory about Fenton secretly being Danny Phantom."
"Yeah, because it's ridiculous," Valerie scoffed before she could stop herself. She tensed and tried to think up some way to save face before Wes blew her off for being rude to him. "Uh... I mean... I don't believe that, but I do believe that you've found a lot of evidence by investigating Danny. I don't think that evidence points to him being dead, but it does show that you can put in the legwork."
She hadn't recovered fast enough to prevent Wes from scowling at her, but he pursed his lips in consideration and slowly started to nod.
"Alright, I'll help," he agreed, and his lips split into a grin. "Maybe working with me will be just the push you need to realize I've been right all along."
Valerie smiled to hide the fact that she was gritting her teeth against a groan. She was already regretting this team-up, but as long as he did what she needed him to, that was all that mattered. She could do this. She could work with Wes Weston... hopefully without strangling him.
"I have basketball practice after school, and I know you're working today so—"
"How do you know that?!" Valerie asked, a little alarmed.
"I know everything," Wes replied with a sly smile and a lift of his eyebrows. "Anyway, meet me on the corner of Annabelle and Stine at 10pm."
"Why there and then?"
"It's an unsuspicious corner with a clear view of Fenton Works right at Danny's curfew," Wes explained. "We'll be able to see if he makes it home in time, and if he doesn't, it gives us the chance to figure out what held him up."
"You know... it's pretty creepy that you know all this, Weston."
"Yeah, I know," he acknowledged, cringing. "But hey, that's why you asked for my help, isn't it? You need me to be creepy so you can get the four-one-one on your little crush."
"I don't have a crush on Danny!"
Wes raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. "Right, sure you don't."
"Well... I don't anymore," she insisted, and no, she was not pouting about it. Wes didn't really know everything, no matter what he might claim.
"If you insist," he said. "Now if you'll excuse me, you dragged me out of the lunch line, and I would actually like to eat today." With that, he turned and headed back into the cafeteria.
As he walked away, Valerie thought that Wes had actually played it pretty cool, despite the fact that she was probably the first person who'd actually wanted to talk to him about this weird fixation of his. She'd halfway expected him to be bouncing off the walls when she asked for his help, but he hadn't.
She didn't see the giddy grin that rose on his face the moment she couldn't see it anymore.
The corner of Annabelle and Stine was the edge of the park. Just as Wes had said, there was a clear view of Fenton Works, but a handful of trees obscured them from being seen easily. Technically, the park closed at sundown, so when Valerie arrived at the meeting place, having gone there directly after work, she expected that she and Wes would be alone.
However, there was someone out for a late night walk with their dog, some kind of large, herding breed, Valerie guessed from the silhouette against the street lamps. They were a good ways away, and likely didn't even realize the two teenagers were there, though, so she wasn't worried about it.
Wes, of course, was already there and staring intently at the Fenton Works building, but she'd expected that. He'd probably been there watching for hours already by this point, since basketball practice ended around five—she knew because she'd briefly dated another guy on the basketball team. That relationship had only lasted a week, courtesy of the guy being a bit of a chauvinist who treated her like some kind of fragile flower, as if she wasn't a ninth degree black-belt who could dead-lift her body weight.
Man, what a jerk. She'd almost let herself forget about him completely. Maybe there were upsides to not being an A-lister anymore, like not being expected to date misogynist jocks.
Anyway, putting that aside for now, Valerie approached Wes, walking slowly and quietly in the hopes of startling him. She wasn't usually the type to play that kind of prank on people, but she couldn't pass up the opportunity. She got right up behind him, only inches away. And then—
"Hey Valerie," Wes greeted.
Valerie started. She was sure he hadn't seen her, and she could be pretty damn silent when she wanted to be, but even though she'd been trying to sneak up on him, he'd been the one to surprise her instead. Maybe Wes deserved more credit than she gave him... no, it was probably just a lucky guess. Wes didn't deserve that kind of credit.
"See anything so far?" she asked, rather than acknowledging her shock?
"It's 9:54 and no sign of Danny yet," Wes replied. "He usually cuts it pretty close, though, so that's no surprise."
Now that she was this close to him, in the darkness and the shadows of the trees, she could see that he wasn't just watching, he had a pair of binoculars held up to his face. And they looked like pretty high quality ones too, heavy-duty. Like cops and dedicated bird-watchers might use. She wondered if he'd bought them specifically to watch Danny or if he'd already had them for some reason, and where he'd even bought them in the first place.
"Hey, where did you get those?" she asked. "I've been thinking about getting a pair to keep an eye on... uh... I mean, for no reason."
"Shh!" Wes hissed. "I can see him coming." He did decide to answer her question though. "And I bought 'em online. They're 8 by 42 HD Vortex Diamondbacks, if you're curious, and they're great for keeping an eye on ghosts."
"Who said anything about ghosts?" she asked.
He merely sighed in exasperation and shook his head. "Danny's riding in on his scooter today, rather than flying."
"Flying?"
"As a ghost, obviously," Wes replied. "Sometimes, when he's coming in really close to the wire, he'll fly in as Phantom and transform in the bushes before going in."
"Riiight," Valerie said slowly. "But he's just on his scooter today, so is there anything to actually justify us being here watching him?"
"Sure is," Wes said. "Look at his leg, at the way he moves it."
Valerie took the binoculars and looked at whatever Wes was talking about. It didn't look like anything worth looking at for a moment, but when she paid attention, she was pretty sure she could see his foot stuttering a bit when it hit the pavement to propel him forward, and lift quickly. It wasn't very efficient and slowed him down, and she knew Danny rode his scooter enough that he would have known that.
"He's injured," Wes said. "You can tell, can't you? There's something wrong with his leg. I'm thinking twisted ankle, or broken toe, what do you think?"
"I think you're very observant—but how does this help us?"
"Everything can be evidence, you just have to compile it properly before you can see what it's evidence of," Wes told her. "Danny's not very athletic, doesn't do any sports or anything, right? So how did he get hurt?"
"Maybe his scooter hit a bump earlier and threw him," Valerie suggested, trying not to sigh in her annoyance. "People can twist their ankles just walking, that doesn't prove anything."
"Not on its own, but no single piece of evidence proves anything on its own, you have to look at the whole picture. You have to make a note of everything you see, because if you don't, you might miss the key detail that makes everything come together."
Valerie looked at him blankly and handed back his binoculars. Danny had already made it home while they were talking and gone inside, so he was no longer visible to them.
"Can we get back to what the benefit of meeting here was?" Valerie asked. "All we got to see was him going home. Not exactly groundbreaking."
"Sure, but now we know he's at home."
"So what?"
"So, all locations related to Danny besides his home are free game for us to search," Wes told her. "His locker, for example."
"You want us to break into the school at ten pm to go through Danny's locker?"
Valerie was unimpressed.
"Okay, so I was kind of hoping he would be flying home and I could show you that as proof he's Phantom, but since he didn't, yes, we're going to break into the school and go through his locker."
"Sounds like a stupid plan," Valerie said.
"A lot of plans seems stupid until they work."
Kinda like Valerie's own plan to enlist Wes' help sating her curiosity, she thought. Valerie groaned. She just couldn't hold it in anymore. This was so stupid, and such a waste of time. She could be out hunting ghosts right now instead of indulging Wes' fanaticism, but she'd made her bed and now she had to lie in it. God she wanted to be lying in bed right now. Still, she indulged.
During the walk he... enlightened her about another theory of his, about ghosts drawing power from emotions and obsessions. It sounded pretty ridiculous. It even seemed to imply that the Box Ghost became more powerful the more boxes he accrued, which almost made Valerie laugh. If that were the case, he'd be the most powerful ghost in Amity Park. But Wes' explanation was enthusiastic and passionate, so she just let him go. There was no real point shutting him down, and at least the theory was funny.
At least Fenton Works wasn't too far from the school, though it was farther than Valerie really wanted to walk when it was cold and dark and late. When they got there, Wes easily picked the lock to let them in.
"Where'd you learn how to do that?" she asked.
"Who wants to know?" he replied, handing her a spare flashlight to see by.
She just rolled her eyes in response and pushed past him to where she knew Danny's locker to be. The school was eerie at night. She knew the place by heart, and was sure she could navigate the linoleum halls in her sleep, but somehow, being there in darkness, with all the lights off and no one around except her and Wes... it sent a creeping feeling down her spine. She walked quickly and didn't delay as she made a beeline for Danny's locker.
It was, predictably, locked when they got to it, but that didn't even give Wes a moment's pause as he pressed his ear to the back of the combination lock and started twisting the dial.
"So what exactly are we supposed to be looking for in Danny's locker?" she asked.
"We'll know if we see it," he said. "Now shush, I gotta start over."
She huffed once, but otherwise waited in silence for him to finish.
With a click, the lock opened and the door swung wide. Wes turned to her with a triumphant smile.
"Congrats, you've unearthed a bunch of textbooks and crumpled up papers," she said sardonically.
"Crumpled papers are the best kinds of papers!" Wes declared. "You don't crumple papers if you want people to read them you know. Crumpled papers can hold all kinds of juicy secrets. I once found a crumpled paper where Star had doodled the name Mrs. Star Sanchez all over it with little hearts and flowers. Don't tell her I told you."
"No way."
"Yes way. Now let's get to snooping." Wes uncrumpled the first piece of paper. "Alright, failed history test, understandable but not what we're looking for."
Valerie uncrumpled the second one. "Unflattering doodles of... Mr. Lancer... I think? He's not much of an artist, is he?"
"Oh for two," Wes said, uncrumpling the third piece of paper. He grinned. "But it looks like third time's the charm!"
"What is it?" Wes handed her the paper and she shined her flashlight on it to see a list.
What's Happening? was written at the top in Danny's slanted chicken-scratch handwriting.
- floating randomly/uncontrolably - making people trip and/or fall - spontaneously crushing paper cups and soda cans - things randomly breaking - Tucker says he felt lighter - Sam says she felt heavier (Powers affecting weight??) - Also noticed some pebbles floating around my ankles earlier
Conclusion: gravity powers???
Is that even possible? Why would I have them and how did I get them? Also how am I supposed to get them under control when I don't know how I've been activating them in the first place?
"It's a creative writing project," Valerie said.
"It's Danny Phantom discovering a new power and trying to figure out what it is and how to use it," Wes disagreed. "People falling, feeling lighter, things getting spontaneously crushed or broken? You can't tell me that doesn't sound exactly like all the weird stuff that's been happening around Fenton lately! It's exactly the kind of thing you enlisted my help to look into!"
"It's not real proof! It's just a piece of crumpled up paper."
Wes stared at her silently for a long moment, looking betrayed.
"Why did you even ask for my help if you're just gonna dismiss everything I say?" he asked.
She didn't answer. She didn't really know.
"Come on, it's late," she said. "We should get out of here and head home."
"You go on ahead. I want a photo of this list, and then I've gotta lock everything back up. You can return that flashlight tomorrow."
At his behest, she left him behind in the school.
The next day, Wes pulled her aside after second period. Apparently her lack of faith in him couldn't keep him down for long.
"I found something else in the locker last night, after you left," he told her. "A scrap of notebook paper taped to the inside said 'Don't forget! Meet at Sam's for testing @4pm Fri.'"
"So?"
"So today's Friday, and I know where Sam Manson lives," Wes said. "We can go there and see what exactly it is they're testing, because I'm pretty sure they won't be drilling vocab. Whenever they meet at Manson's place it's almost always because she has the biggest backyard."
"Okay, first of all, why do you know where she lives?"
Wes shrugged. "I told you, I know everything."
Valerie sighed and shook her head. "Second of all, I have a shift at four. Sorry, but you'll have to go without me."
"You can't call in sick?" he asked. "Come on, if you don't come with, you'll never believe my report about what happened."
"I... well..." technically Valerie could call in sick. She'd never taken a sick day in the year she'd worked there, so it wouldn't do too much damage to her reliability—although she had cut out during work hours to fight ghosts a couple of times, she didn't usually get caught, though. "Alright, fine. I'm curious about it too. I know Danny's not usually big on tests."
"Great! Meet me after school by the auto shop, and I'll lead the way so we can get there without intercepting Danny and his friends."
Wes didn't wait for an answer before heading off to his next class.
"Casper High has an auto shop?" she wondered aloud.
Wow, she really didn't know anything about this school that didn't align with her own interests. Not that she really wanted or needed to. As soon as her four years were up, she'd be gone, and she couldn't wait to get out of here. Her ultimate goal would be to forget what her high school mascot even was before her class' ten year reunion. Jury was still out on whether she'd actually go. Maybe, if she was wildly successful by then, she'd deign to come back and rub it in everyone's face for the way they treated her when her family fell on hard times.
That wasn't important right now, though. She had the rest of the day to figure out where the auto shop was to meet Wes, which would be no problem, but also she didn't think she knew anyone who was taking auto shop, so maybe a little more difficult than she would have liked.
It was 3:30 pm when she finally found it. In the end, everyone she'd asked where the school auto shop was had had the same reaction as her.
"Casper High has an auto shop?"
Not a single person could even point her in the right direction.
At the end of the day, she'd just walked circles around the school until she caught sight of Weston's tell-tale red hair. Of course, he didn't have to know that.
"What took you so long?" he asked when she finally arrived.
"None of your business."
"Couldn't find it, huh?" he guessed.
She huffed. "Nobody I talked to even knew we had an auto shop, let alone where it was. Why does the school offer a class if, apparently, not one person takes it?"
"They don't." Wes laughed. "Casper High stopped offering auto shop when the last teacher died of a stroke six years ago. They never found a replacement, and enrollment in the the class was declining anyway, so they dropped it from the curriculum, but the classroom's still here 'cause they're a public school and couldn't afford to allot funds for it.
Valerie stared openly when Wes finished his explanation.
"You're making that up, aren't you?"
"No! What is up with nobody ever believing me about anything?" he complained. "What reason could I possibly have for making all that up?"
"Well what reason would you have for knowing it?" Valerie shot back.
"Like I keep telling you, I know everything," Wes insisted. "Look, it's simple. When I get curious about something, I get answers. I found the auto shop freshman year, and I wanted to know why it was there when there was no auto shop elective, so I did some digging, asked some of the teachers, and figured out why. It's really not that unbelievable."
"Okay, okay, chill," Valerie said. "Are we going or not?"
"Yeah, sure, whatever," Wes grumbled. "Come on."
He led the way down the side street that passed behind the school and along a very roundabout path to the area just south of Polter Heights. The walk was pretty quiet. It seemed Wes didn't feel like expounding on yet another of his inane theories after being made fun of for something so trivial as knowing where the auto shop was.
That was fine. It gave Valerie the time to mull some things over without his voice overlaying all her thoughts.
She'd written Wes off before, just like everyone else had. His claims that he knew everything were obviously pure arrogance, and his theories was completely absurd and impossible. But he knew where the auto shop was. He knew where Valerie worked, and what time her shift ended. He knew how to pick locks. And he knew where Sam Manson lived. Valerie didn't even know that, and she and Sam had been kinda-sorta friends for a while freshman year. There was no way to know everything, but... maybe Wes did know some things.
"We're here," he said, stopping in front of a huge, looming brick building with crown molded detailing and pillars in front.
"Sam lives in a mansion?" Valerie couldn't help gawking.
"Yup," Wes said. "The Manson's are stupid rich. Cellophane tipped toothpick empire, if you can believe it. Come on, we can't go in the front, but I know where we can get a good view of the backyard."
Valerie nodded silently, her mouth still agape as she stared up at the Manson house. But she followed Wes as he led her around the corner and through a narrow, wooded path behind the houses to a tall, white fence with hedges jutting over the top every few feet. There was a large boulder near the fence, and Wes climbed on top of it. Standing on it, he was just tall enough to look over the fence, his head above the nose clearing the top of it easily.
That was all well and good for a gangly basketball player, but Valerie was a good six to eight inches shorter than him, and there was no way she'd be able to see over.
"What are you waiting for," Wes whispered, fishing his binoculars out of his backpack. He gestured to the spot next to him. There was more than enough room for another person to stand on the boulder, but that wasn't the problem.
"I'm not as tall as you are," she whispered back.
"Oh..."
He stepped down off the boulder and looked around for something. A few minutes later he came back carrying a smaller rock—though it was still pretty large, his face was all red from the exertion of carrying it. He placed the smaller rock on top of the boulder, turned it until he felt it was secure, and gestured for her to climb on.
"That doesn't seem safe," she said.
"Do you want to see or not?"
She stood on top of the rock, and Wes stepped up after her, back into his initial place, and finally pulled out his binoculars. Valerie was going to ask if he really needed those just to see what was going on in one backyard, but then she actually looked over the fence and saw how expansive that backyard actually was. The Mansons were obviously way richer than Valerie's family had ever been. Probably even richer than Paulina's family.
"They usually work on that side of the yard," Wes told her, pointing discretely to the north fence. He checked his watch. "It's almost four. Remember to keep quiet and duck below the fence or behind the hedge if they look this way, got it?"
"Got it," Valerie said.
Normally, she would have resented being told what to do, but in this case, Wes was obviously much more experienced in the situation than she was. And, to be honest, she was kind of getting into all this sneaky detective-type stuff. It was actually pretty fun, like they were spies or something. Back when Valerie was little, she'd always thought it would be super cool to be a spy, like Jason Bourne, or Mata Hari. Since her dad worked in security, he would tell her all kinds of stories about spies and famous heists, and she always asked for the former. It was why she'd started taking karate.
But then she'd learned that most of what a spy does actually isn't intense action scenes and fighting bad guys, and more secret snooping to get information, and at the time, that part hadn't really appealed to her. Now that she was older, and actually doing some snooping of her own accord, she was beginning to rethink that. Maybe she would try to become a spy after all.
"Here they come," Wes said, pulling her from her thoughts.
She zoned back in the see the back door opening—the service entrance—and Sam, Tucker, and Danny all walked out into the backyard. From a distance, it was impossible to hear what they were saying, but Valerie could tell they were talking. They put their backpack's down in the grass. Tucker took out his PDA, and Danny started stretching. After a couple of minutes, Danny shouted, loud enough to be heard at the fence.
"I'm goin' ghost!"
Valerie gasped and nearly fell off the boulder in surprise as she saw Danny transform, his black hair turning shock white, his street clothes exchanged for a black and white jumpsuit, and his ice-blue eyes glowing green.
Danny Fenton... was... Danny Phantom.
"I told you so," Wes said smugly.
"Sh-shut up."
This changed everything. Suddenly, Valerie's entire world was shifting, her life's purpose, he understanding of life and death. She didn't know what to think, or how to feel. It was impossible. But... it explained so much. But there was no way it could be true. She knew Danny. She'd dated him for a little while. Longer than she'd dated that basketball player, but not as long as Dale from the football team. She'd held his hand and laid her head against his chest. She knew him.
"But... Danny's alive," she said breathlessly. "He breathes, he blinks, his heart beats, I've heard it."
"You have?" Wes asked excitedly. "How many beats per minute? Because I've never gotten close enough to test it, but I theorize that his heartbeat should be slower than average. What about his body temperature? Is it normal, or is his skin cool to the touch?"
"He just... has poor... circulation," Valerie said, the realization dawning on her. "Oh my god.... you're right. His skin is cold. His heart beat is slow. He's alive but he's...."
"He's only half alive," Wes confirmed. "I used to think he was just a regular ghost disguising himself as a human, but I've since amended my theory. He is alive, just like everyone so helpfully points out whenever I suggest he's Danny Phantom, but it's only halfway. He's somewhere between life and death."
"Like Masters," Valerie breathed. "Phantom is like Plasmius... and his cousin too. Oh my god how did I never see it?"
"I don't know, girl, it was obvious to me," Wes told her, with absolutely no sympathy for the existential crisis she was having. "Now shush, they're getting to the good part."
Valerie straitened sharply to look back over the fence. One of them had set out a line of empty soda cans on the patio near the north fence, Sam and Tucker had moved a safe distance away, into a position where Valerie and Wes would probably be able to hear them when they next spoke. And Danny... Phantom was holding his hand out as if trying to move them telepathically.
"It's not working!" Danny shouted to them, the ghostly tremble in his voice making it carry farther than it probably should.
"Rather than picturing a flat can, try focusing on the gravity aspect!" Sam called back. "You said that was your most likely theory, right?"
"How exactly am I supposed to visualize gravity increasing?"
"I don't know, just imagine yourself and everything around you growing heavier!" Sam suggested.
"Imagine there's a black hole under the concrete and it's pulling you down!" Tucker added.
Sam turned to him and asked. "A black hole?"
Tucker shrugged. "I don't know, Danny's really into space stuff, maybe it'll help."
Right before Valerie's eyes, all ten of the empty soda cans were smashed flat against the patio simultaneously, without anyone or anything touching them.
"You did it!" Tucker cheered.
"Now you've just gotta work on doing it in a smaller area," Sam said. "You don't want to accidentally crush a bunch of bystanders when your just trying to pull a ghost to the ground or something."
"Heh, good note," Danny told them. "I'm gonna try reversing gravity next."
"We should go," Wes whispered.
"What? Why?" Valerie asked.
"If he couldn't control the range on increasing gravity, there's a chance when he tries reversing it, we'll both get dragged into the sky and exposed," he explained. "You wanted to know what was up with Danny, now you know. Let's not risk the restraining orders, okay? All the information in the world is no good if we go to jail for stalking."
"Right..." Valerie agreed absently. "Right, you're right. We should go."
They both hopped down off the rock and headed back down the wooded path that separated this neighborhood from Polter Heights.
"You were right the whole time," she told Wes.
"Yup."
"And if you were right about this... what else are you right about?"
"Literally everything," he said casually. "I'm right about everything. Fenton is Phantom, you're the Red Huntress, ghosts gain power from obsessions and emotions, Star has a crush on Paulina, Kwan secretly hates football and he wants to become an artist, Lancer goes to Chicago on long weekends to do drag performances, and Mayor Masters is in love with the Wisconsin Ghost."
"Ha! Maybe not everything," Valerie disputed. That one mistake actually made her feel a little less like the Earth had shattered. "Mayor Masters is the Wisconsin Ghost. He's like Danny, I saw him transform once."
"Really?" Wes asked, obviously more excited about the truth than he was disappointed about being wrong. "Oh awesome! That's one more source for researching half-ghosts. Thanks for the tip, Valerie!"
Valerie laughed. "Out of curiosity, what's your grade point average."
Wes blushed and looked away before mumbling a shy, "two point eight."
Valerie laughed louder.
28 notes · View notes
bongo-clash · 2 years
Text
Look, I love Vlad and Danny’s canonical throw-down-on-sight dynamic so much it’s amazing. However. An au where not only is this middle-aged billionaire’s sworn nemesis a fourteen year old, but the fourteen year old doesn’t even reciprocate would be. A Little Bit funny.
Like, Vlad’s got all these nefarious schemes and sure, he’s got to stop them, but he doesn’t care about Vlad at all. Vlad’s either ‘be my son’ or ‘I hate you I hate you I’ll destroy everything you care about’ with him but all Danny’s got is vague disdain and a disappointed exasperation whenever he shows up. Every episode with him in it would be cut pretty much in half because Danny just doesn’t engage with his schemes and monologuing in the same way- the majority of their interactions basically consist of Vlad trying so hard to be taken even slightly seriously and Danny either just being Kind Of Mean or vaguely threatening to snitch on him to his parents.
For example:
Vlad: -So the whole town will turn against you! You'll be alone in the world with no one to turn to! Except, perhaps, the only person who might understand. And who do you think that might be, Daniel?
Danny: That's great, man. Does my mom know that you consciously and unironically keep your hair like that?
Vlad: If you're trying to-
Danny, already pulling out the thermos: She won't hate you because you're a ghost she'll hate you because there is No excuse for going out like that in public.
-
Valerie is more important in this au because in my heart she is the Most important all of the time. The moment Danny finds out Vlad gave her the Red Huntress stuff and plans on pulling his Weird Billionaire Manipulation on her he sends her a video of Vlad monologuing (in human form) about how much he wants to kill Jack and marry Maddie and to top it all off he’s talking to a ghost about it. She still doesn’t know Danny’s Phantom or that Vlad’s Plasmius but her and Danny bond more and Vlad Refuses to go near Danny when he’s with her because they just tag-team him so naturally this means they hang out All The Time.
He eventually gets confident enough to mouth off to Red Huntress about him as Phantom as well and when they’ve built up a Solid Not-Actively-Shooting-Each-Other-Out-Of-The-Sky relationship he reveals he’s a halfa, and he allows maybe One Minute for them both to process this development before he follows it up with “Oh and this also means I get to tell you Vlad’s the Wisconsin ghost, so like. If you wanna start going at him for the fact that that outfit was a Conscious Choice with me then. You Know.”
Vlad sends an ominous text and Danny just replies with a picture of him and Valerie both doing the 😐 captioned ‘Damn bro you got the whole squad laughing’ followed by a picture of Jack and Maddie holding hands. Danny is a teenage hero who fully acts like a typical sweet teenage hero with the One Exception of Vlad, whose mental health and wellbeing he has No regard for. Vlad cries himself to sleep at night and Dany doesn’t even care.
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duchi-nesten · 10 months
Text
What’s This! The Consequences of My Actions!
Summary:
It was about damn time Danny did something irreversibly stupid and started dealing with the consequences.
Word Count: 2779 || AO3 Link
[First Part]
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH this fic ate my son. Anyway, this is a filler meant to connect Treats and Threats to a longer fic that I’ll hopefully start on soon, because of course this AU is now getting fanfic’ed >:3c
[Shared Cujostody AU Masterpost]
—-
Danny carefully looked out around the corner. The school hallway was as always full of other students making their way to the next period, but he was looking for one person in particular.
Sighing in relief when he confirmed Valerie was nowhere to be seen, he relaxed a bit and started walking towards his locker. Making sure to keep an eye out for her pretty dark curls just in case.
It was honestly a miracle he managed to avoid her for so long. He was sure she would hunt him down like an animal (or more like his ghost half) before the first period even started, but he hadn’t even seen her all day.
Was she even at school? A sudden guilt filled him. What if him knowing she’s the Red Huntress had stressed her out so much she was now laying in bed terrified that he told everyone at school?
Of course he would never. He knew exactly what it’s like to have a secret identity, but she didn’t know that.
(He also tried to ignore how the idea of her not trusting him kinda hurt. He had no right to feel that way, he was literally lying to her every time they spoke lately.)
He was focused on pulling out the right books for his third period when someone approached him from behind and put a hand on his shoulder. Yelping, he immediately spun around to be greeted with a sight of a laughing Tucker.
‘’I hate you.’’ Danny spat annoyed, turning back to his books.
‘’Is he still afraid of Valerie finding him?’’ he heard Sam ask as she approached the two of them.
‘’I’m not afraid.’’ he said at the same time as Tucker confirmed with a ‘’Yep.’’
‘’Honestly Danny, you did this to yourself.’’ Sam continued. He gave up with the books so he could look at her, but the moment he did, he saw a disapproving expression on her face. ‘’How many times did we tell you to be careful? You slipped up so many times already, it was about damn time you did something irreversibly stupid.’’
‘’Might as well fess up everything, you know.’’ Tucker butted in.
‘’What? No.’’ Danny glanced at him in disdain. ‘’Are you kidding? She would kill me.’’
‘’Isn’t she gonna do that the next time she sees you anyway? Either of you?’’
‘’No. I’ll charm my way out of it.’’
Sam made an unimpressed noise, while looking behind his back. ‘’Better start working that charm then, ‘cuz here she comes.’’ she pointed out.
Danny turned around in horror and yep. There she was. She just walked out of Lancer’s class and spotted him. He didn’t manage to even think of disappearing into thin air. Valerie’s eyes widened for a second before turning into an angry glare. She started making her way over to him.
He was in trouble alright.
‘’Good luck man. It was nice knowing you!’’ he heard Tucker say as he and Sam ditched him. Some friends they were.
Well he just had to act casual. Like nothing was wrong! Yeah! That sounded like a great plan!
When she was close enough he gave her an awkward wave. ‘’Uh…Hi Val! What’s up? Did you do that trig homework Lancer assigned us? It was horrible-’’
‘’We need to talk.’’ she interrupted and without stopping started dragging him somewhere by the collar of his shirt.
She didn’t even bother to make sure that no one sees them when she promptly shoved him into the janitor closet and locked the door behind them. The gossip girls were gonna have a field day today.
Thanks to his in-human sight he could clearly see her struggle to find the light switch. He kinda hoped she wouldn’t, just to prolong the inevitable butt kicking he was about to get, but she eventually turned on the weak light bulb hanging over their heads. Now he could see her green gaze peering into his more clearly.
His heart was beating out of his chest for more than one reason.
‘’Did he tell you?!’’ she whispered angrily.
That was not what he expected to hear.
‘’Did who tell me what?’’
‘’Did Phantom tell you?’’ she asked again, slower, more uncertain. She backed away a bit, her back leaning against the closed door. ‘’…Who I am…?’’
Of course she’d blame his alter ego first. He shouldn’t even be surprised at this point, but the question still caught him off guard.
‘’Who you are…? You’re Valerie Gray? We’re friends…? I don’t need a ghost to tell me that.’’ Yes. Play dumb, Fenton. Maybe she’ll buy it. Could he actually gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss his way out of this?
‘’Don’t try to gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss your way out of this, Danny.’’
Damn she knew him well. Kinda embarrassing for her to not have figured out his identity yet.
‘’He didn’t tell me. I…uh… figured it out on my own.’’ he tried again.
‘’How?’’
See, this was also why he wanted to prolong the inevitable. He still needed to come up with a good enough excuse for why he knew her secret identity in the first place. It was originally Sam who made the connection, but he couldn’t tell Valerie that. It was better to not involve Sam and Tucker into this mess he got himself into.
On the other hand putting the blame on his alter ego was also not the way to go. Valerie could barely stand Phantom, not to mention he already had a rain check on the ass kicking from yesterday. One wrong move and she might ignore the truce and blast him. Probably.
Sometimes it felt like the only reason she stopped trying to actively kill him was because of Cujo.
Who was he kidding? That was exactly the reason.
‘’Well?’’
He focused back on her. She didn’t look as angry anymore. Mostly stressed about her secret identity being on the line.
‘’I saw you put the suit on!’’ he blurted out.
That took her by surprise. She paused for a second, eyes wide before clutching his shoulders and shaking him desperately.‘’What?! When? Where?’’
‘’A while back.’’ he turned his gaze to the right. If he had to lie he could at least lie to a broom and not to Valerie’s face. ‘’Uh… It was behind the Nasty Burger…I didn’t mean to! I was just by the dumpsters and you didn’t see me!’’
She loosened her grip on his shoulders, but still kept her arms there. ‘’Why were you even there?’’
‘’...Looking for my dignity which I lost after becoming a tiktoker.’’
She just stared at him and he could feel the sweat rolling down his back. Which by the way was pressed hard against all the shelves with cleaning supplies. If he wasn’t cornered by a stressed out badass girl who could kick his ass at any wrong move, he would’ve complained.
Finally after what felt like hours, she let go of him with a sigh. ‘’Of course you of all people would be recording a tiktok by a dumpster.’’
He could swear her lips twitched into a small smile for just a millisecond.
‘’Yeah… you know me. I do stuff like that all the time!’’ he laughed nervously rubbing the back of his head.
She smiled a bit more at that, but her expression quickly changed back into a worried one as she looked to the side. ‘’You…didn’t tell anyone, right?’’ She turned her gaze back to him.
‘’Of course not, I can only imagine how stressful it is…to have a secret identity.’’ he could absolutely imagine it. Which now made him realize exactly just how stressful this entire situation must be for her.
Hell, if any of his classmates revealed that they knew he’s been Phantom all this time he would probably have a heart attack and die again on the spot.
She nodded her head solemnly. ‘’Yeah…and I’m scared you’ll be in danger now that you know.’’ she said.
Oh great she was worried for him now too.
‘’Val, it’s fine. I can take care of myself.’’ he gently took hold of her hands in hopes of calming her down a bit.
She sent him a doubtful look.
Okay. Rude. He absolutely could take care of himself.
‘’I’m literally the ghost hunters’ son???’’ he defended weakly.
She just shook her head a bit. ‘’With all due respect, Danny. Your parents aren’t very …uh… aware.’’
That was true. He couldn’t really deny it, so he just let her continue instead.
‘’You literally babysit Cujo and let Phantom hang out in your room, which, by the way. What the fuck Danny?’’
He shouldn’t have let her continue.
‘’Well I mean… I wouldn’t call it hanging out uh… I might or might not…sneak some Fenton tech to him. Sometimes.’’ he answered nervously. ‘’I can sneak some for you too if you want!’’
Yeah, try to buy her with guns. Girls love guns.
‘’Why would you do that?” she asked, totally ignoring the last part. “Is he threatening you? I swear if he dares to hurt you I will end his entire existence.’’
That made him feel real safe. ‘’Uh… Don’t you have a truce…or something?’’
‘’Doesn’t mean I trust him. He’s a ghost.’’
‘’So is Cujo.’’
‘’Cujo’s different.’’
‘’Sure.” he stated flatly. It was not the time to have this conversation. “I’m fine though, really. Please don’t worry about me.’’
‘’You’re important to me, I don't want you to get hurt.’’ she said, squeezing his hands softly. Right, they were still holding hands. He blushed looking down at them as she continued talking. ‘’The sole reason I broke up with you was because I wanted to protect you.’’
This made Danny instantly raise his head back up to meet her eyes. ‘’I thought you broke up with me to have more time to hunt ghosts?’’
‘’No! I mean, kinda! I mean- UGH.’’ she sputtered. Pausing for just a second she closed her eyes and took a small breath. ‘’I was very close to giving up ghost hunting for you, but then I realized I’m way too deep in. Someone needs to protect this town and if I don’t do it then who will? I just didn’t want you to get caught in the crossfire.’’
A silence. She sounded so sad saying that.
He knew she considered giving up ghost hunting for him, he heard her say it. But then the thing with her new suit happened and he assumed she just decided kicking his ass was the real priority. Yet it looked like she apparently didn’t want to drag him into a mess he was already a part of anyway.
‘’Val…‘’ he started softly.
‘’I’m sorry.’’ she interrupted, finally letting go of his hands. ‘’It’s just been a lot to deal with and…a lot of hard decisions…I’ve never really talked about it with anyone before.’’
He furrowed his brows. ‘’That must feel pretty lonely?’’
Valerie looked at him sadly.
The guilt that overcame him in that moment was unbearable. This entire situation was his fault. He was too busy being self centered, only ever caring about keeping his secret in tact. Never in his wildest dreams did he even consider how lonely Valerie must have felt all this time.
They weren’t so different after all, both of them wasting their teenage years doing some vigilante bullshit, but he always had Sam and Tucker (and then also Jazz) to support and help him out with ghost hunting. Meanwhile the only people who knew about Valerie were her dad, who disapproved of the entire thing and someone she considered her sworn enemy.
He should’ve come clean the moment she agreed to a truce. Maybe then she’d actually believe he wanted to support her. Instead he ended up weaving this web of lies, so intricate he barely could keep track of it anymore.
Heck, they were having this conversation only because he messed up yesterday. He put so much unneeded stress on her shoulders. This wasn’t fair to her in the slightest.
The only thing he could do now was be there for her as someone she doesn’t entirely hate yet.
‘’Well. Now you have me.’’ he said, forcing a soft smile on his face. ‘’I’ll always be here for you if you want to talk about…this.’’
And meanwhile I’ll just keep lying to you. He thought cringing inwardly.
Unaware of the crisis he was going through in his head, Valerie returned his smile with one of her own.
‘’Maybe it’s a bit egoistic, but…I guess I’m kind of happy someone knows. And of all the people who could’ve found out, I’m happy it’s you.’’ she made a point to look him in the eyes as she added ‘’I trust you. Just please make sure to not get into trouble.’’
He stared at her for a moment.
How could he do this to her? She trusted him! She just said so herself! He felt like the biggest jerk alive (or half-alive).
It’s not like he could just come clean though. Especially not at this moment. Revealing his identity would be an entirely different kind of betrayal. She would be absolutely furious. The kind of furious that even Cujo wouldn’t be able to save him from. That wouldn’t help her.
Sam was right though. He did this to himself. He should’ve listened to his friends from the start and stayed away from her as Phantom. Let her live her own life. Instead it was almost as if he craved any kind of interaction with her, even in the form of being shot.
And then Cujo came around. He somehow managed to make her listen to him as he explained what really happened with the dog. Slowly she started warming up to the puppy and that made Danny believe that maybe she’d warm up to him too, so he started pushing himself into her life more.
For fuck’s sake he got a second phone only to text with her. (She only answered messages involving Cujo and started conversations only when she suspected he did something wrong, but still.)
And okay, he did like annoying her with the family jokes a bit too much, sue him. He loved getting a reaction out of her and she always got so exasperated. (And maybe it was also a self indulgence. Taking care of Cujo has been their little thing. Only for them!)
He did feel a slight guilt when he messed up the first time and Danny Fenton got accidentally roped into ‘’babysitting’’ Cujo, but he ignored it for the most part. She actually bought into that flimsy excuse and he got to relax more when recording his tiktoks, not having to worry about whether Cujo came into view or not.
This though? This made him feel awful. Like he was finally truly breaking her trust. He was an awful person and a coward.
Suddenly his silly little game of house wasn’t so fun anymore.
‘’Trust me you’re the farthest thing from egoistic right now.’’ he said, forcing another pained smile on his face.
She sent him the cutest smile back. ‘’Thanks Danny. You’re really sweet.’’
Fucking hell. If only she knew the truth, she wouldn’t think that.
Before he managed to say anything else (which would probably be a lie anyway) the bell rang.
Valerie looked at the still closed door and moved to open it. ‘’I better get to my next class. Don’t wanna get detention. I’ll see you around?’’
‘’Yeah.’’ he mumbled just loud enough for her to hear before she turned around and left. Leaving the door slightly ajar.
Danny stood there for a second more. Trying to process what exactly just happened. He slid down to a sitting position and hit his head repeatedly against the cleaning supplies shelves.
Later during lunch, he joined his best friends at their usual spot and put his head in his hands on the table.
“Guys I fucked up so bad.”
“I told you so.” Sam answered unimpressed. Tucker just straight up laughed.
Some friends he had.
‘’It’s not funny, Tucker.’’ Danny groaned, raising his head to glare at the other boy.
‘’Yes it is.’’ Tucker answered, wiping away a non-existent tear.
Sam rolled her eyes at the both of them. ‘’The question is; what are you gonna do now?’’
Danny stared at the table in thought. There was only one thing he should do at this point, though it wasn’t going to be easy.
‘’I don’t know how yet…’’ he started looking up to meet his friends’ curious stares. ‘’…I’m gonna tell her the truth.’’
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mellodragneel · 9 months
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JL with Red huntress and Shade prompt
(First time posting something, i think this count as a prompt, if someone wants to write about this, please do)
Imagine Valery before meeting Danni, so she still hates Phantom, but recently a ghost escaped Amity (Phantom was struggling to manage his live at that point, and after another fight with her and his parents, and the GIW... F, he decides to quit "and go back to the ghost zone" in reality he is coming back to live as just Danny), so she pursues the ghost to some superheroe's city, and the ghost causes chaos, you know, and the hero of that place can't touch the ghost.
And then Red Huntress appears and save the day (don't know if she eliminated the ghost, or the ghost escaped).
After that the JL tries to recruit her due to being able to fight "this new threat" and get some counseling regarding ghosts (JLD was overworked with other things, so they didn't know about all this).
She has to bear with her multiple jobs and deal with ghosts alone now that Phantom retired, so she declines the offer, but if the problem is with ghosts she will deal with that.
Time passes and Batman is irked that he doesn't know her identity yet due to the voice modulator in the whole body technological suit, and recently there has been reports that Amanda Waller is investigating multiple destroyed buildings from an organization she is secretly in charge.
The only hint they had regarding this situation, is that they were research oriented, and the culprit has blue eyes, wore a black ninja suit with silver details and has an incredible ability to disappear.
Danny was annoyed at Valery and the JL, and knowing that more ghosts were getting captured by the government, decided to become a hero, but not like Phantom, in order to keep suspicions and problems from the ghosts to the minimun, he decided to go by Shade, an incredible agile human with a misteryous past and that, for some reason he sides with ghosts, but sometimes during alien invasions or robot attacks, he also helps with something like a magic glowing sword, so the JL doesn't know what to think of him.
Some day, the JL decides to recruit him, (or just talk), and Red Huntress gets in a debate with Shade while the others are observing on the sidelines and rethinking a little what they know about ghosts.
After that fallout, the JL starts to make a more throught investigation and suddenly Shazam is the first to come back from whatever task was ocuping the JLD and he is like: remember that i mention that i was chosen by a wizard to be the champion of magic?
Some people: Aha... yes...
Others: wtf?
Shazam: well, he died after chosing me, but his ghost is still teaching me... so... he seems pretty sentient, and he is helping me in order to protect people...
Red Huntress: So, what?!? He could be trying to manipulate you in to thinking that until he deems right to reveal his true colors, it wouldn't be the first time a ghost has wanted to make people believe that it is a protector while causing damage to those around!.
Shade: *inhale... exhale* He was trying his best to protect the town even if everyone blame him for things that weren't under his control!
And most of the colateral damage that people fault him for, was due to other ghosts or ghost hunters attacking him, all he wanted was to keep everyone safe!!!
Even if that lead him to being shooted and criticized by almost everyone until the day he snapped and decided to retire!!
Flash to someone else (probably green lantern): Who are they talking about?
Green lantern: no idea.
And from there i don't know what to write, so i leave it to the imagination of whoever wants to continue or change parts of this.
Sorry for any grammatical errors i didn't catch, this is my second language 💗
Also, maybe the story could be like different povs and all that 💗
I didn't know what to put as a title, so that's the only thing that came to my mind at the moment XD
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britcision · 1 year
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Alright I think I’ve seen a couple smaller versions of this in bits and pieces so if you have them please share, but I figured that as someone familiar with neither show initially I’m in a good position to do a DPxDC onboarding post!
Since neither source material is particularly helpful in understanding the madness we have created, here is what I consider important to know for each (please add in with anything I miss!)
Danny Phantom (DP)
Main Characters
Danny Fenton - is a Phantom. Died as a teenager by accidentally activating his parents’ portal to the Ghost Zone/Infinite Realms but was also revived, becoming a half ghost half human (halfa)
Is the only superhero in Amity Park, fighting ghosts and sometimes ghost hunters to keep humans safe from ghosts and ghosts safe from humans
Has beaten the Ghost King in single combat, and is therefore sometimes considered to be the new Ghost King
Jazz (Jasmine) Fenton - Danny’s older sister, basically his parent, very into psychology and very against the influence their actual parents have had on Danny due to their obsession with ghosts
May/may not know about Phantom, usually considered the Mom Friend of Team Phantom whether she knows or not
Jack Fenton - Danny’s dad, 6’9 koolaid man, loves ham and fudge and breaking through walls instead of the door beside him. A very bad shot but extremely enthusiastic in that 90s dad cartoon way
Prone to believe absolutely anybody but Danny is a ghost, especially when Danny does ghost things in proximity
Extremely intent on the destruction of all ghosts, convinced they do not have actual feelings and should be destroyed pre Phantom reveal. Afterwards, can be either accepting or homicidal towards Danny
Maddie Fenton - Danny’s mom, ridiculous kung fu warrior and engineer, madly in love with Jack and they are sickeningly cute all times except Christmas
Sometimes notices they have kids that need caring for, sometimes curbs Jack’s wilder impulses, she’s the brains of the team
Same ghost views as Jack, but she’s more perceptive and intelligent, which can be used for good or evil
Tucker Foley - Danny’s best friend, likes meat and technology and arguing with Sam
A Black young man with a signature red beret and PDA in the OG show, usually acknowledged to be on par with the bats’ technical skills as he’s an incredible hacker
Danny’s Guy In The Chair, but he will get out of his chair and throw down as needed
Sam Manson - Danny’s Obligatory 90s Cartoon Love Interest, goth and ultra-recyclo-vegetarian child of millionaires who will not be stopped in her crusade for justice
She’s the one who dared Danny to go into the portal that killed him, the guilt she carries for this varies
She is in combat as much as her humanity allows, but also in a support role most of the time
Dash Baxter - Danny’s Obligatory 90s Cartoon Bully, the usual blond beefy jock. Can be surprisingly sensitive and intelligent, probably from being tutored by Jazz
[ETA] Valerie Gray - former antihero with a grudge against ghosts (her dad lost his job because of Cujo), she was given an anti ghost suit by Vlad and worked for him to fight ghosts until learning he is a half ghost
Canon never names her alter ego but we call her Red Huntress, she’s hot headed and impulsive and absolutely dated Danny while trying to murder Phantom - Danny knew the whole time but she did not
She is also Black
Wes Weston - Does Not Exist In Canon. We made him up because Danny had a bracelet that was supposed to say Sam but was shown backwards all episodes so it just says Wes
Knows that Danny is Phantom, INTENT on telling absolutely everyone, and is never believed
Vlad Masters/Plasmius - the only older halfa in the show, and one of Danny’s main villains. A billionaire who went to college with the Fenton parents and was slowly killed after exposure to the first trial portal
Blames Jack for his exposure and is obsessed with stealing Maddie from him and marrying her himself as he believes should have always happened
Her opinion does not factor into this, and she largely treats him with disdain but tempered for her husband, who adores Vlad unequivocally
Dani/Ellie Masters - a girl clone of Danny made by Vlad, the only clone who survived melting into goo. Vlad raised her to try and kill Danny so he could perfect a different boy clone, and kept her isolated
Now that she’s met Danny and been stabilised by him, they are siblings/cousins/besties but she can’t stay in one place, because she wants to experience the whole world
Frostbite - King of the Far Frozen, which is part of the Ghost Zone full of ice. He’s a yeti, and has the zone’s only functional medical facility
Reveres Danny as the Great One, Saviour of the Ghost Zone, and taught him how to use his ice powers
Clockwork - Master of Time, tends to show up in a purple hooded robe with a clock around his neck and rapidly cycle through ages and speak in riddles
Sometimes communicates by leaving green stick notes on things, but never with a direct answer. Considered Danny’s mentor and sends Danny on adventures through time to preserve the time stream
Notably involved in the whole Dan Phantom fiasco
Dan Phantom - an older version of Danny from the future where Danny’s ghost half was removed from his human half, stole Vlad’s ghost half, and destroyed the world because Danny’s whole family and friends were killed in front of him
They were all together to be killed as part of an intervention when Danny was caught cheating on a test. This gives Danny understandable issues about how easily he could go bad and destroy the world
Skulker - an early recurring baddie who is a Kraven the Hunter knockoff, considers himself the Ghost Zone’s best hunter and wants Danny’s pelt for his wall
Actually a tiny little guy inside the helmet of a big mechanised suit, rarely a serious threat
Ember - a young ghost musician who can hypnotise people with her music, craves an audience and another early recurring villain
Dates Skulker I guess
Johnny 13 and Shadow - ghost biker boy and his sentient shadow familiar, dated Danny at some point, but in a permanent ongoing relationship with Kitty
They usually only cause trouble when they fight, break up, wreak havoc, and then eventually get back together
Kitty - once Overshadowed Paulina the generic Pretty Girl to date Danny to get back at Johnny for their break up
She wanted to be a lawyer before she and Johnny were killed in a wreck, sometimes implied to have been caused on purpose by her father
She and Johnny are often Danny’s allies, against other ghosts if necessary
[ETA] Cujo - ghost puppy, very playful and usually about beagle size, but he can grow or shrink at will into a terrifying house sized attack dog. He can make portals so no, you are never safe from Cujo
[ETA] Wulf - werewolf ghost and friend of Danny’s who can also create his own natural portals. He wears pants
Important Terms
Core - a small glowing orb that houses all a ghost’s memories, thoughts, emotions, and vital organs. Can correspond to an element, granting elemental powers after some intense ghost puberty
Requires ectoplasm to form and be maintained but does not exist in canon
Obsession - ghosts are powered by their emotions at death and an Obsession, usually what makes them become a ghost instead of passing on in the first place - does not exist in canon
Danny’s Obsession is usually Protection, Space, or both
Vlad’s Obsession is Maddie, and acquiring Danny as a son once he learns Danny is a halfa too
Dani’s Obsession is Travel
Halfa - half a ghost, half a human, with the ability to transform between human and ghost forms (usually characterised as a colour inversion of hair and clothes)
Powers are basically Everything That Would Be Funny, because it’s a Saturday morning cartoon
Vlad’s specifically include electrocution, duplicating up to thousands of himself, invisibility, intangibility, hand lasers, super strength, healing, and mind control
Danny’s include ice, strength, bendy noodle body, put self in video game, hand lasers, heat vision, ghostly wail (big ol sonic scream, bad for the throat), duplication, teleportation, and literally anything else that was fun for the episode in question
All ghosts seem to get invisibility, intangibility, flight, telekinesis, and ectobeams (lasers from various body parts)
Overshadowing - similar to possession, when a ghost takes over someone else’s body, gaining access to core memories if they look
Sometimes different from possession specifically and considered less invasive, but still invasive. Danny does not like doing this
[ETA] Anti Ecto Acts - a series of laws signed into existence to declare all ectoplasmic entities as nonsentient creatures, able to be experimented on or destroyed at will
Referenced literally once in canon in a single line that basically says “you are under arrest for being a ghost” - after Danny is outed as a halfa, we have obviously extrapolated it into the worst thing possible
Canon calls them Anti-Ecto Control Acts
[ETA] GIW - Guys in White or the Ghost Investigation Ward, they’re literally a colour reversed Men in Black joke to have a government agency that focuses on ghosts
They don’t care about collateral damage and will blow anyone up on their way ghost hunting
DC (Disregard Canon apparently)
Main Characters
Listen I’m not doing all of them so HOEDOWN STYLE I GUESS
Alfred Pennyworth - best Batman character, super butler, makes the best cookies
Bruce Wayne - Batman, may/may not be good batdad
Dick Grayson - Robin 1, responsible for pantsless Robin and excessive flips, grows up to be Nightwing
Jason Todd - fandom woobie, Robin 2, tried to steal the tires off the Batmobile and hit Bruce with a tire iron, killed by Joker, came back evil and thicc as Red Hood and nearly killed Robin 3
Has the Bad Juice in him cuz of being brought back from the dead so he has Pit Rage, which most people apparently only get for a little bit and then either die or go permanently insane
Tim Drake - Robin 3, abandoned rich kid who blackmailed Bruce into letting him be Robin after Jason died, because Jason was his hero and Tim thinks Batman needs a Robin to stay sane. He’s right, but was Robin-fired basically as soon as Damian showed up, is Red Robin now
Never sleeps, overcaffeinated at all times, a better detective than Bruce and a supervillain in basically every AU
Used to be bi but is legally gay now apparently
Stephanie Brown - girl Robin, far superior as Spoiler and Bat Girl, sassy bitch who tells Bruce to fuck off the most of all the Robins ever and this is an Achievement she must fight for constantly but always wins
Cassandra Cain - assassin baby of Lady Shiva, not taught to talk by her dad cuz he sucks, semi- or nonverbal and deadass supernaturally good at reading people
Decided that killing was bad actually the first time she did it so fuck assassins she’s Black Bat/Batgirl/Orphan now and she does not have mouth holes in her mask (possibly because she is not white, depending on why you think Batman always has his)
Damian Wayne - Consequences from Bruce’s playboy slut days, he knocked up supervillain Talia Al Ghul and thus this bab was raised by assassins and thinks stabbing siblings is an acceptable greeting
Likes the animals and is secretly soft but will fucking kill you before he admits it
Duke Thomas - Criminally Underused, older than Damian but babiest bat as the Signal, Gotham’s only daytime hero and only meta hero. Second Black hero cuz Lucius Fox exists and so does his son
Never a Bruce-appointed Robin but was trained by 4 previous Robins (no idea where Steph was for this) simultaneously, swears as much as Jason but has living parents sometimes so that’s wild
Kate Kane - Batwoman, definitely fucks
Luke Fox - I think he is Lucius’ son, Lucius made all the bat tech but Luke is going to punch bad guys directly, has a hero name probably that might be fox related
Diana Prince - Wonder Woman, an Amazonian warrior who fucks with Cronos I guess
Donna Troy - I have never fucking seen her in dpxdc but she is Wonder Girl I think and she also fucks
Clark Kent - Superman but also a nerd, treats his clone badly and will never be forgiven
Connor Kent/Kon El - said clone, made by Lex Luthor from Superman’s and Luthor’s DNA because what says hate like making a baby! Mistreating that baby and reminding him he’s meant to be a weapon
Deserves all the love and sometimes his powers don’t work because cloning is hard
Jon Kent - Superman’s son with Lois Lane, got all his dad’s powers but apparently not his mom’s cuz he is still a himbo
Lois Lane - the world’s scariest reporter who will make all corrupt officials quail because you can’t fucking threaten her, she will tell you to go fuck yourself and if you try and shoot her Superman catches the bullet
Barry Allen - the Flash, does not believe in ghosts even though he can run so fast he travels in time so he’s clearly the arbiter of what makes sense
But I guess you can’t catch him to tell him he’s wrong so
Hal Jordan - Green Lantern, Space Ho
Lex Luthor - surprising dad energy for a bald supervillain who hates aliens (blame halfagone)
John Constantine - super thot and mage, will sell his soul to anyone who offers to gain immortality because no one can decide who gets to keep his soul so they just spite reviving him
Has the actual worst luck and finds out just slightly more than he fucks around but he hasn’t died yet so it’s working
Zatanna - magic lady who does spells by saying words backwards, the competent adult
Boston - Deadman, an Actual Fucking Ghost Member Of The Justice League, What The Fuck Flash This Is Workplace Harassment
Cannot be seen or heard without magical assistance, so way less of a problem than Danny Phantom ghosts
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spookberry · 2 years
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Does everyone know the Red Huntress is human? I mean... she glows and using tech to fly isnt out of bounds i mean Skulker is just a robot suit he doesnt fly like a normal ghost either. Like?? Do the townsfolk think she is also a ghost and much like phantom happens to not like other ghosts much
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stealingyourbones · 1 year
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Concerning the dcxdp universe; I think there's an interesting side which is often scratched upon, but never fully discussed - the hero's apparent entitlement to information.
One fic which paints a clear image of this, imo, is "Vertical Limit", where the JL is not only hostile in some situations, but then also expects every one of their questions to be answered to their liking, offering nothing in return.
I think this idea could be interesting to explore, as Danny would already deal with this on a daily basis. The hunters in his opposition, the Red Huntress, the Fentons and the GIW, act as if they know everything about ghosts. They don't listen and they don't ask. The town's people also seem to show some bias, albeit not to the same extent as the hunters.
I just think it would be interesting to see Danny, especially in case of Ghost King!Danny, to go "No. You are not entitled to information regarding me/ my kind, you are not entitled to the business of another dimension and you may not research further against my will, unless you wanna fuck around and find out" when being interrogated by a bat, or when finding out he's being tailed by one. Or any of the JL members.
It enrages me on his behalf in many of the fics I read, so I just want to spell it out one time
Ya know, I prefer the Justice League being on the good side and genuinely doing stuff for the greater good but ya know with this interpretation of the characters I understand what you're going for. (Also check out Vertical Limits if you havent. It's an incredible fic.) I will say that if you're ever confused and don't know how to characterize superman or batman: If you can't imagine that version of the character consoling a crying child, you're not writing the comic versions of the characters... and if you can't imagine them doing so, Villainize them as much as humanly possible.
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kawaiijohn · 1 year
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Prompts you say? 👀 How about some GrayGhost? 🥺👉👈
Reveal fic to get my brain back in the fanfic game. Let's go
Danny and Valerie have graduated and are dating. Identity reveal!
"So, how long have you known?"
"A while. You're not the most subtle person, and we both know it."
"What gave it away?"
"You keep gear in your backpack. You run off when ghosts show up. You're always looking for exits." A swallow. "There's more but we'd be here all day if I rambled it all off."
"And? What of it?! Ghosts attack every single day- who wouldn't have an ecto gun in their backpack at this poi- nevermind. Fine. You caught me," a sigh, "what are you going to do about it then? Rat me out? Make it so I never have a day of peace in my life ever again? Blackmail me??"
"No! Why would I- Ancients you need better friends if that's where you'd think I'd go with this... What would it accomplish if everyone else knew?"
"Dunno, I can't tell what you're thinking half the time, and we've been dating for two years," a glare, "You're also keeping secrets... but I know better than to pry into it, unlike someone else."
Ouch
"That's part of why I'm talking to you about it! I wanted to air it out between us- you know, like a healthy relationship? How many lies have we told each other because of our secrets? How many times have we bullshitted where we were going or who we were with? Neither of us have clean hands in this, Val."
Valerie finally looks Danny in the eye, her Huntress gear gently folded on the bed with a note placed gently on top-
'I know, talk to you after work. ❤️ Danny'
They'd been together for two years. Moved into the same apartment after graduation to get away from their parents and strike out on their own. Neither wanted to continue their education, not when the books are too expensive and they both had obligations to Amity Park they couldn't leave behind.
"Fenton, what on earth could you possibly tell me that's even remotely similar to my Huntress persona? You aren't cheating on me, right?" Her raises a single brow in question. He wouldn't dare, but if that's the case she knows how to hide a body.
"What?! No!!!" Danny starts laughing hysterically. "I could barely even get a date after knowing you for years! Who in their right mind would want this level of space case unless they already know me?"
"Alright you have a point-"
"Hey! You're my girlfriend you're supposed to be supportive!"
"Not when you've admitted to lying to my face, Fenton! So spill! If it's not cheating, but still involves lying through your damn teeth all the time, then what the hell is it? What is it that you are doing that could possibly even be on a similar level to me being Red Huntress?" She snaps, frustrated tears leaking from her eyes. She was tired and didn't want to dance around the point with him anymore.
"Alright, fine," he sighs nervously. "But you have to promise me you won't freak out or try to beat me to death with your bare hands first."
She's about to roll her eyes in response with a retort but sees how serious he's being.
"Alright. I won't kill you, but not promises on not freaking out." Valerie crosses her arms and sits on the bed to stare at her boyfriend.
"Alright cool." Danny rolls his shoulders in a stretch. "Ancients, I've literally never told anyone this on purpose, it's always been against my will that people see it."
Danny begins to pace through their shared bedroom with a somewhat panicked expression.
"Okay so then don't tell me- show me." Valerie responds. "If the words are too hard, actions speak louder."
Danny stares at her for a moment before swallowing nervously. He gives her a nod and then-
"I'm goin' ghost!"
A flash.
Everything just changes.
She opens her eyes wide in shock, her body tense.
"Uhhhh surprise??" Phantom says with the same awkward smile Danny has when he gives her a gift.
"I can explain..."
And oh how lucky Danny was to have hidden all the ecto weaponry beforehand.
Not because Valerie hated Phantom, but because her boyfriend was such an idiot to keep a secret this important from her for so long.
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