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“A trip to Paris” 5

Notes:

Chapter: 5/12 Previous Next (First). Versión en Español

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Chapter 5: “From Amity to Paris”

That evening, Sam offered to help the Fentons with their hotel reservations, or rather, insisted she help them with the hotel booking. She wanted only the best for her boyfriend after all, even if she didn’t say it out loud. After several searches and comparing prices here and there, they finally decided on the ‘Le Grand Paris’ hotel. It was a bit fancier than the Fentons were used to, and maybe a bit overpriced… or, well, very overpriced, but that didn’t bother Sam, it was the best option for the family.

The hotel had two boarding options: suits and apartment-style rooms. The suits slept four people, while the apartment-style rooms could have up to six. As a family of four, the suit sounded perfect to the Fentons, that is, until they read some reviews. Everyone said the suit’s first bedroom was fine, but the second was so small and cramped that you could barely open the dresser and there was no place to put your suitcase. The apartment-style option would be better for them, even though it was an odd choice for four. It consisted of a main bedroom with a king-size bed and two smaller rooms that each came with either a queen-sized bed or two twins. That way Jazz and Danny could have their own rooms, rather than them having to share like when they were very, very little.

Sam took this as an opportunity to once again suggest that she go with them since there would be more than enough space for her too. She proposed that she could share a room with Danny, one of the ones with two twins, rather than a queen.

Jack and Maddie were hesitant to say ‘yes,’ they obviously didn’t mind the two teens sharing a room since they had invited her to stay the night, but they had already bought their plane tickets. And even though they had accepted Sam’s help with their hotel –for her insistence rather than something else– they weren’t sure if they could get a ticket for her on the same plane.

At that, Sam whipped out her phone, asked the Fentons for the flight information, and managed to use the power that came with being a Manson to not only get a ticket on the same flight, but sitting right next to them. She offered to upgrade all of their tickets to first class while she was at it, but the Fentons declined, they had saved up enough money for their travel expenses and didn’t want her to spend more –or rather, much more– than necessary.

After that, the Fentons simply allowed Sam to finish booking their hotel for the two weeks they planned to be in Paris. She respected their wishes and did as requested, only buying herself the plane ticket and making sure the family and herself were comfortable in one of the nicest hotels in Paris. After all, the idea was for them to have a relaxing and worry-free vacation, and that included not stressing over details that she would be more than happy to help with.

The Fentons and Sam had everything arranged for their trip to Paris, and Dani and Valerie were prepared to stay behind and protect Amity Park. Everyone was excited for the start of summer vacation, everyone except Tucker.

He loved his job as the Mayor of Amity Park, he really did! It was like that time he’d run for class representative, only better! But he missed spending time with his friends. He understood why he had a private tutor instead of going to school, but seriously, he was still a teenager! He never thought he would miss Casper High, but he was working on a way to attend classes there again next year, even if it was just part time. He wasn’t planning on running for the position again, so as soon as someone else was elected, he would be free to go back to being a full time student.

It was way too hard to lead, or even live in, a town overrun with ghosts, so both Tucker and the citizens of Amity were more than relieved when the news spread that the Fentons’ portal would be closed for two weeks. They were even more relieved when they heard that Jack Fenton would be out of the country and they could take a break from constantly checking their rear-view mirrors for that monstrosity they called an RV. It would be nice to have a break from the daily chaos, even if it was just temporary. After all, closing the portal forever wouldn't do any good in the long run. Ghosts from natural portals would still need a way to get back into the Ghost Zone. That was a main part of the case the Fentons presented to the FBI for why they should be allowed to repair their portal.

Students would be out of school soon, but a Mayor’s job was never done. Tucker needed a break too. When he heard the news that his friends were planning a trip to Paris, he started thinking of a way to travel there too. If he could come up with a good enough reason, he could use money from the budget to pay for it… Even though it was mainly an excuse to have a vacation, he had thought of actually doing something official while there, so it wouldn’t be seen as a complete abuse of power. He did have responsibilities after all.

The rest of the school year came and went. Danny’s time management plan was in full swing, and, although there were plenty of things that needed to be improved, it seemed to be working. He had help fighting the ghosts, and with Mr. Lancer doing his part as well, Danny managed to pass all of his classes. Now all that was left was the packing.

The day of their departure finally came, and Mr. Gray and Dani drove the Fentons to the airport.

When Damon learned about the little girl and what she was exactly, he almost couldn’t believe it until he met her and saw just how much like Danny she was. He was invited over to FentonWorks a couple of days before so Jack and Maddie could explain what to do if the portal accidently got activated or something else happened, as well as to get to know Dani a bit more.

The Fentons made sure that the filter got changed before they left, so that wouldn’t be a risk, but Dani knew what to do if that was the case anyway. Everything was taken care of, now the adventure was about to begin.

They were at the airport, pulling their suitcases out of the car. Danny made sure he unloaded the heaviest ones, as his powers helped them more than the others were going to accept, at least out loud.

“I can’t believe we’re actually here,” he said. ”You guys really closed the portal… I– I don’t know what to say… ”

“Well, believe it little brother. You’re actually going to get some rest now, like you need to,” said Jazz. It was time for Danny to take a break from using his powers, even if it was just the super strength that he used almost without even realising it these days. Jazz had noticed how he had taken the heaviest suitcases himself.

The group of travellers said their goodbyes to Dani and Damon, waving until they drove out of sight, then they headed inside. Jack and Maddie followed closely behind the three teenagers. It was strange to see them wearing ‘normal’ clothes, having left their jumpsuits behind, but they had promised a nice, non-ghost-hunting holiday. And even though it was a big change for them, they were true to their word.

“Exactly Danny–boy! We’re here, and everything is taken care of! It’s time to relax!” boomed Jack.

“Your father is right, Danny.” Maddie paused, “Jack dear, did we remember to thank Mr. Gray for driving us here? ” she asked. Even though they had, she had the feeling that they were forgetting something.

“I hope they remembered that Dani and Valerie made him promise to pick us up from the airport when we get back, too...” said Sam knowing that they had kind of forced him to make the offer, even though they would be arriving very late in the evening.

“I feel kinda bad about asking him to do so much for us, Dani and Valerie shouldn’t have… I mean, I could've flown us to and from the airport at least,” said Danny. He knew well enough that he was more than capable of carrying the family and their luggage without much of a problem.

They quickly dropped their suitcases off at the check-in counter and headed for security.

Jazz pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration, “For the last time, Danny, this is a holiday. That means you shouldn't be exerting yourself, you shouldn't be doing any heavy lifting. And before you say anything, just because you can doesn't mean you should.” She kept her voice low and made sure not to mention Danny’s powers as they were in public, but her firm tone of voice let him know that she would brook no argument.

“Yeah, I know, I know,” said Danny with a wave of his hand, “but— ”

“No. No buts, Danny.” Sam interrupted. “We already talked about it, didn’t we?” She was just as tired of trying to get Danny to stop using his powers all the time as Jazz was.

“Yes, I know...” Danny sighed, “You’re right.” He looked around for the number of the gate that they needed to go. There weren’t that many gates, but it was their first time there.

“This way!” Jazz pointed out their gate. It hadn’t taken her long to find the number that matched her boarding pass, it was a small airport, after all. ‘Amity Park Airport’ was fairly new, and probably one of the only good things that Vlad had done as mayor.

“Good eye, Jazz, dear,” said Maddie, heading in the direction Jazz had pointed.

In the waiting area by their gate, there was a large window that looked out over the runway and they were amazed by how many planes they could see and how busy and bustling it all was. Even though the Amity Park airport was small, it was still big enough for there to be several planes flying at the same time to different parts of the country. It was their first time travelling like this. Yes, they had flown before, but never in planes this big, let alone internationally. The seating on their first plane was divided into two sections of three seat rows on each side of the walkway. Danny, Sam, and Jazz sat together on a row while Jack and Maddie sat behind them next to a nice, young businessman. It was a short flight to Chicago and an easy layover at O’Hare before they were off again. Their second plane, the international one, was much bigger than the first. This one was divided into three sections, two on the sides with three seats to a row, and one in the middle with four. Just as with their first flight, the three teens sat together with their parents in the row behind them.

A bit longer than ten hours later, the Fenton family, plus Sam, landed in Paris at the ‘Charles de Gaulle Airport.’ They picked up their suitcases and exchanged some of their dollars for euros, just in case, though they planned to use their credit cards mostly since it was easier. Luckily for them, the currency exchange post employee did speak English well enough. They were also grateful that they had booked transport from the airport to the hotel in advance, because French wasn’t easy, especially after such a long flight.

When they arrived at the hotel, they checked in and then were guided to their rooms by a helpful bellhop. Once inside, they quickly set about exploring their apartment style suite, admiring just how big and luxurious it really was. Then they claimed their rooms and their beds, and did some light unpacking to settle in. Jack and Maddie obviously took the master bedroom, while Danny and Sam got the room with two twin beds and Jazz took the one with the queen. Just as they had agreed back home.

“Alright kids, let’s try to get some sleep,” Maddie looked at her watch, it was well past midnight in Paris, even though it didn’t feel like it.

“But I’m not tired,” Danny complained. “Can’t we stay up a little longer?”

Maddie levelled a motherly glare at him. “You’ll wish you’d gone to bed when morning comes and the jet lag hits,” she reminded them.

“She’s right, you know,” Jazz said. “It feels like it’s only five or six in the afternoon because that’s what time it is in Amity Park. But we aren’t in Amity Park anymore, and if we want to enjoy all the things Paris has to offer, we need to adjust our sleep schedules as soon as possible.”

They moaned and groaned and dragged their feet, even the adults, but eventually everyone was in bed. It took them some time to actually fall asleep, but the night came and went and before they realised it, it was the next day.

They woke up bright and early, much to the dismay of the teenagers and the family made their yawning, shuffling way downstairs for breakfast. The restaurant part of the hotel was on the first floor, or ground floor, as it was called here. They didn’t have much planned for the day other than getting used to being here and getting used to hearing everything in French rather than English.

Once they were sitting at the breakfast table, Sam admitted to learning some French thanks to her parents' insistence on having a “well-rounded and cultured daughter.” Of course, Sam had never liked the image that her parents tried to force on her, she just wanted to be herself. But despite her best efforts, she had still picked up a little bit of the language.

“Well this is going to be interesting...” Danny said as he picked up the breakfast menu, it looked like it was written in Latin or something.

“Here, Danny, try this one,” Sam handed him the international menu. Even though this one was in English, it was still several pages of food he could not pronounce, because, of course, anyone who could afford it ate there and they needed a fancy menu full of fancy food to satisfy all their fancy tastes.

“I should have known,” Maddie muttered, mostly to herself, as she looked at the menu, “The price was decent for the room but not the food...” She and Jack were thinking about ordering some large breakfast platters for the family to share.

They had found a pretty good deal on the hotel, it was well within their budget, but Sam still insisted on paying for it and well, how could they refuse?

“Hey, Sam, do you think we got such a good deal because of the French–American Friendship Week that happened recently?” asked Jazz. She had heard somewhere that it was going on, maybe she had read something about it… It sounded fun, but her family was never one for celebrations. Not even Christmas was correctly celebrated at her house, sadly.

“What?” Danny asked in confusion. “The what–what, now?” He thought about it for a moment, and maybe it sounded a little familiar, but hey, holidays weren't his forte.

“I’m sure you learned about it in school, Danny. The French–American Friendship Week is a celebration of our shared history, going back to the Revolutionary War when France was one of our first allies as a young nation. It happened just a couple of weeks ago, if I remember correctly. Just before, well, everything…” said Jazz, thinking back to what she saw when booking the hotel with her parents. The website had said to ‘book now’ before the ‘offer’ ended. “I think that this pretty hotel offered special discounts for Americans only… or something, lasting for the rest of the month...” They got lucky that the booking allowed them to have the cheaper prices for that extended time.

“I think so,” replied Sam. “I completely forgot about Friendship Week, it's not like they said anything about it at Casper. We live in Amity Park, and if it’s not about ghosts, it’s like nobody cares. As if history doesn’t even matter! But everyone should learn from history so things like wars won’t repeat again, you know?” she ranted, but without any real anger. She knew that they all shared similar ideas about the education in Amity Park.

Jazz hummed her agreement. Education was important, but well they were from Amity… What can you do, right? That’s why she did her best to help teach them some of the important things that they didn’t learn in school. She also did her best to keep up with the latest technology. Nobody said that their education was bad, just that there were definitely gaps. At least it met the government standard, but not by much. “All right kids, I think I got it!” Jack exclaimed after he and Maddie had spent a while reading over the menu options in silence. The small explanations beside the names of each dish were very helpful. French names were a challenge, but that wasn’t going to stop Jack Fenton.

“Got what?” asked Danny. “Oh right, breakfast! Um, how about, uh, French toast?” He didn’t even know what to get yet, or why he suggested that when he doesn’t even like toast. He may have forgotten that they were supposed to be deciding what to get. It was breakfast time after all, and, for the first time in a very long time, he was actually going to get to eat something that wouldn’t attack him.

“Really, Danny?” Jazz crossed her arms, unimpressed. “French toast?”

Danny simply shrugged in response. It was the only thing that he could think of at that second.

“Your father and I have been looking over the menu… and, well, there’s a family special that includes a variety of food,” Maddie explained, tapping the menu for emphasis as she spoke. “We were thinking of getting that. It comes with toast, Danny, so everyone should…”

Sam turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow. So far she wasn’t sure that they offer vegan options, so not everyone would be able to eat that, or that was what Sam was thinking.

Maddie blinked a couple of times at that expression, “Don’t worry, Sam dear, from what I can see, we can order it with part of it vegan and the other part not, and this one includes vegan options,” she finished saying. She was pretty sure the ‘V’ symbols on the menu must be for vegan options, right?

“Oh...” said Sam, who checked that section of the menu for herself to find that Maddie was correct. Fancy restaurants did have a tendency to be like that anyway. Whether here or in Amity, fancy also means ‘do whatever the client asks for.’ She’d never had a problem with that back home, so why should she here? And it was clear that the ‘V’ symbol was indeed for vegan options, and also that the platter had the option to make half of it vegan.

After they looked over the menu for a few minutes, a butler that introduced himself as ‘Armand’ appeared to take their order.

Even though he was usually on call for Miss Chloe, attending to her every whim, being a butler for the Bourgeois family meant that he was basically an employee for everything. He worked for Le Grand Paris, checking people in at the front desk, delivering room service, and sometimes he stepped in to help out the waiters in the restaurant or the hotel bar.

The Fentons did end up getting the family special, as well as some other vegan options to accommodate Sam. After breakfast, Jack and Maddie announced that they were going to explore the hotel, just to make sure it wasn’t haunted. One can never be too careful, they always said. The kids quickly piped up that they would rather walk around and explore the city. And after Danny promised not to transform and fly them around, invisible or not, they let them go.

Danny understood why his parents asked that of him, it made sense. Even if he wasn’t supposed to be taking it easy, they couldn’t risk anybody seeing Phantom in Paris and connecting it to the Fenton Family’s trip. He understood it, but that didn’t make it an easy rule to follow. During the flight here, he had been very tempted to fly below the plane for a while, just because he was desperate for a little bit of time to himself. Being crammed together in close quarters for several hours with a bunch of strangers was stressful, especially when one of those strangers was a very unhappy baby. His ghost powers had never seemed so appealing.

The kids headed for the door, calling out that they would keep in touch as they waved goodbye.

The Fentons had never travelled out of the country, and so they hadn’t considered that they would be leaving their cell phone network behind. Luckily for them, Paris had a pretty good wifi grid. They also had their Fenton Phones as backup. Danny had sheepishly confessed to bringing his on the plane, and then one after the other, the rest of the team admitted to doing so as well. Although they were designed specifically to work inside the Ghost Zone, in the human world they technically worked as phones without the need for a network or data for basic communication. They did have the drawback of only being able to be used for calls, not texting; for that they would need wifi. This trip was going as unexpectedly as they thought it could be. But even though it hadn't been planned, at least with the Fenton Phones they could communicate with each other if something happened.

Not far from their hotel, the three teens found a small park. They were drawn in by the beautiful landscaping and curiosity about the statue they could see in the middle of it. As they followed one of the many winding paths to the centre of the park, they felt oddly at home. Their city wasn’t named Amity Park for nothing, and even though they had only been gone a day, they already missed it.

A short walk later and they were examining the statue up close. It was obviously important for the city or it wouldn’t be here, but looked fairly new. It seemed to depict a pair of superheroes, or at least that's what it looked like to the three of them, what with the costumes and all. As they were wondering who the mystery heroes could be, Jazz pointed out a plaque at the base of the statue. They moved closer to read the inscription on it, and with the help of Sam’s limited French, they learned the pair were local heroes called 'Ladybug' and 'Chat Noir.'

"Are they for real?" Danny asked with a laugh. “That’s a bit on the nose, isn't it?”

Their costumes did look like a ladybug and a black cat. At least, he was pretty sure ‘chat’ meant ‘cat’ and ‘noir’ meant ‘black’ but he couldn't remember where he'd learned that. And ‘Ladybug’ was obvious, that was just English.

"Hey, you can't say anything, Mister…” Jazz quickly looked to see if anyone was near them, “Mister I'm-a-ghost-named-Phantom,” she whispered with a teasing smile.

"And just what's wrong with my name?" he feigned offence. “It's way better than the one the media gave me, I could have been 'Inviso-Bill’ for crying out loud! Phantom is so much cooler!”

"You went from one shameless pun to another, Danny,” his sister replied with a deadpan expression. “I mean, you could have picked anything, but that’s what you went with?”

"Hey! That’s a great pun! Took me weeks to come up with!” He crossed his arms with a sniff, “Who knows, maybe I'll find someone around here who actually has good taste. That'll show you.”

He stuck his tongue out at her and, after a moment, all three teens burst into laughter.

Once they calmed down again, Danny wondered aloud if there was a statue of him in Paris. It was a capital city, after all.

"You better not be thinking what I think you’re thinking." Sam warned. It would be easy for Danny to explore the city as Phantom without anybody knowing, at least not any Parisian, and try to find out what the locals thought about him. "You know if you go off by yourself and get lost, you won't be able to just ask for directions. We can't even do that now, when we're together. Which is exactly why we're not going too far from the hotel." Even if she did speak some French, that didn’t mean she was fluent.

"That's why I brought a notebook,” said Jazz, pointing to what was, indeed, a notebook in her hand. “And I'm writing down the names of all the roads we see, so at least we could point and try to ask for directions if we need to."

Danny sighed, "No, I wasn't thinking about that, really. I promised Dani, and, well, you guys and my parents, too… and even Valerie. For this trip I'm just plain old Danny Fenton. No superheroing. No ghost powers at any time." It had been hard to accept their terms, but a real holiday was sounding more and more tempting each time someone mentioned it.

"Good,” Sam took Danny’s hand with a smile and a blush, “We’re here to relax, remember?" Even after all this time dating, they still gave each other butterflies.

"All right, now where?" said Jazz, clearing her throat. Even though she was happy for Danny, it was a bit awkward seeing her little brother still blushing over something so simple. It had taken them such a long time to finally admit their feelings for each other, and she was happy for them, she really was, but she was starting to feel a bit like a third wheel.

"I don't know… the river?" he suggested, looking around and noticing that they weren't that far from it. "Wait, is that a school? Across from that bakery?" he asked, confused. It was a bit odd, if you asked him, to have a school, a bakery, and a park so close to what he assumed was the tourist area, their hotel wasn't that far after all.

Sam shrugged after noticing the school he was referring to, "Who knows, maybe this whole area isn't as touristy as we thought. I mean we’re still pretty far away from the eiffel tower or any of the museums."

“She’s right, you know,” added Jazz. She had looked up all the big tourist attractions on a map before they left the hotel, and nothing was in walking distance.

“I guess… so, the river?” Danny asked. He wasn’t going to overthink it. He was here to be a tourist, and tourists visited the river.

“The Seine.” Jazz interjected automatically.

“Whatever.” Danny rolled his eyes.

"I suppose the river could be nice…" replied Sam, just happy to be spending time with Danny. She would have preferred if it was just the two of them, but she didn’t mind Jazz tagging along.

They bid farewell to the statue and crossed the park in the direction of the bakery. From there, they would make their way to the stairs that went down along the river.

Just as they reached the bakery, the main door flew open and a girl with blue-black hair pulled into twin pigtails ran out of it. She was carrying a tower of boxes so tall she couldn’t see where she was going and nearly ran into Jazz. Thankfully, Danny reacted quickly, pulling her out of the girl's way just in time.

The girl nearly tripped over thin air when she noticed the three of them, stuttering something in rapid French.

They simply stared at her with confused faces.

“Uh, sorry, we’re not French,” Danny offered as he helped her balance the boxes that she was carrying.

“Oh!” the girl’s face lit up as she recognized the language, repeating her apology in English. “And thank you for your help!”

Danny gave her a friendly smile. “It’s okay, happy to be of assistance.”

“I’m Marinette,” the girl introduced herself. “And my family owns this bakery. I’d love to stay and chat, but I’m running really late with this order, so, um, goodbye!” She turned to run in the direction of the park and immediately tripped over her own feet, almost falling again.

“Woah, careful!” Sam called, helping Marinette with the boxes this time. She hadn’t thought it was possible for anyone to be this clumsy.

“Would you, uh, like some help?” offered Danny. He caught the topmost boxes before they could slide off their precarious tower. That was the third time in as many minutes they had helped her with them and he wondered if this was something she could normally do by herself.

“Oh!” said Marinette, noticing how much easier it was to move now that she didn't have so many. “Thank you! I should have waited for my friend to help me with these… but she had to babysit and they really do need to be delivered right away...” She sighed, “I’m so sorry to trouble you, but I would appreciate it if you could…I mean, you are helping me already… so, thank you.”

Marinette smiled at the kind strangers. She really did need the help. Her friend had offered to help her the day before, but had to cancel at the last minute because her parents needed her to watch the twins.

“I'm Danny,” said Danny, smiling back at her. If Marinette had introduced herself to them, it was only polite that he return the gesture, right?

“Sam,” said the girl next to him, inclining her head when Marinette looked at her.

“And my name is Jasmine, but you can call me ‘Jazz,’” said Jazz, when it was her turn.

“Sorry again for all of this. I normally take turns to do this many boxes, or ask my friend Alya to help,” she started walking and the three Americans followed her, “but like I said… well, it’s my fault really. I got distracted, and, well, I didn’t leave when I should and well…”

They wouldn’t know as the attack had happened before they arrived, but Ladybug and Chat Noir were out until late last night fighting an akuma. Because she had stayed up so late, Marinette had overslept this morning.

“Hey, it’s all right, you don’t have to explain yourself to us, you know. And I’m sure that whoever is waiting for these will understand you taking a bit longer, won’t they?” Jazz said gently, trying to calm Marinette down. The poor girl obviously had a lot on her mind and her distraction certainly wasn’t helping her coordination. She was already very clumsy, and when she wasn’t paying attention, the boxes began to tilt and fall because she wasn’t holding them up straight.

“Yeah, it’s okay Marinette, we don’t mind lending a hand. It’s not like we had anything else to do,” said Danny, still following Marinette with the boxes. Their only plans for the day were to get used to Paris and adjust to the time difference. They weren’t planning to visit the Eiffel Tower or any museums until later in the week. So all good in that department.

“Oh god! I’m so, so sorry!” Marinette started again. “I didn’t even ask… I just assumed that–”

“No, no, you’re okay there! We don’t mind,” Sam interrupted. “Just like Danny said, we don’t really have anything planned for today. For now we’re just getting used to everything, you know?” She rushed to reassure the Parisian, she was not about to hear another rant of apologies from a girl that they just met. She knew that would get annoying fast.

“Ah!” said Marinette, realising that they had probably just arrived in Paris. “Where are you from? If you don’t mind me asking. Maybe after dropping these off,” she hefted the boxes as if to point out the favour they were doing her, “I could help you guys find a guide or something? It’s the least I can do to thank you for helping out a complete stranger during what I assume are your holidays.” She felt a bit guilty for bothering tourists.

“Well, it looked like you needed a hand, and we were right there, so why not pitch in, you know?” Danny shrugged, the boxes in his hands bobbing up and down. “We’re from Amity Park, Illinois. You probably haven’t heard of–”

“Oh! I know that place!” Marinette interrupted excitedly, recognizing the name, “You are from that ghost town, right?”

Danny had forgotten that even though Amity isn’t really considered big, it was big news now.

“Well, not a ‘ghost town’ ghost town, but that is where that new hero is from, isn’t it? Is he really a ghost? Sorry, probably a silly question to ask...” Marinette murmured, feeling a bit dumb now that she had said it out loud, but she and Chat Noir had been very curious about him since they had put up the new statue.

“Don't be so hard on yourself Marinette, it’s only natural that you would be curious. When the ghosts started appearing, a lot of people in Amity didn't believe they were real either. I told my little brother here, that now that Amity Park has been in the news, people all over the world would be wondering the same things we did in the beginning,” said Jazz. Although she hadn’t really expected to find someone actually asking… Or even anyone who recognized the name of Amity Park so quickly.

“Thank you,” said Marinette. Jazz's words made her feel a bit better, but her cheeks still burned in embarrassment. Thankfully they had just arrived at their destination. “Well, we are here!”

Noticing that they had walked all the way back to their hotel, Danny had a sudden realisation, “Wait, are the baked goods here from your family's bakery?” he asked.

“Are you staying here?” asked Marinette, making a face. Only very rich and famous people stayed at ‘Le Grand Paris,’ so Marinette was a bit surprised that her new friends were staying there. They were nice, but didn't look particularly rich or famous.

“They had a deal running for French–American Friendship Week, so…” Sam shrugged as if that was very obvious. She didn’t know what was with her attitude all of a sudden.

“Oh, right...” Marinette replied. She had forgotten that for a whole month the hotel booked anyone from the United States for very, very cheap prices. She had been surprised when she heard about it, as it didn’t seem like a very good business decision, but then when she saw the extra publicity it gave the hotel, she understood. “Wait, I thought that promotion ended before the summer break… ” she added.

“We made our reservations during the promotional period, and the deal carried over,” Jazz explained. She knew the normal prices, and it seemed like Marinette did, too, so her reaction was understandable. It was a very expensive hotel, after all.

“And even if it hadn’t, Sam would have paid anyway,” Danny shrugged, not giving it any further thought.

“Danny!” admonished Jazz. It was rude to assume that Sam would simply pay for everything. She had offered, but still.

“I mean, yeah, I would have anyway. But it was still good to get the offer, just so your parents wouldn’t feel so bad about me spending money on you guys, you know? Don’t think that I didn’t notice them looking for alternatives. And I don’t blame them, I mean the normal prices at this place are ridiculously expensive,” Sam rolled her eyes.

“Tell me about it,” murmured Marinette. Although she personally hadn't checked their usual prices, she knew that the Bourgeois family wouldn’t normally allow such cheap prices. That’s why only internationally famous people came here. People like Jagged Stone or her great-uncle.

“Ah, what did you just say?” asked Danny. He thought he heard her say something, but wasn’t sure.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, surprised at being heard. “Well we should get inside...” she quickly changed the topic and shifted the boxes in her arms. She ran inside and made a beeline for the reception area, it was a good thing she was expected.

“Oh, right,” said Danny, following her into the hotel. He shrugged, he must have just been imagining things. They were still getting used to it all.

Jazz and Sam shared a look, rolling their eyes at the antics of the other two.

After Marinette and Danny dropped off the boxes, they all headed back to the bakery. She thanked them again for their help, even though it had mostly been Danny, and he waved off her thanks saying that it was nothing and he was happy to do it.

On their way back Jazz began plying Marinette with questions about all the typical, and not so typical, places that they could visit while they were in Paris. Marinette was more than happy to help them get around and launched into a detailed explanation of lesser known attractions and also how there is a direct bus line that goes from their hotel to the Eiffel Tower if they were interested in it. She then even talked about Ladybug and Chat Noir, the two local heroes, as well as how her best friend probably knew more because she runs the ‘Ladyblog,’ an online blog totally dedicated to the local heroes.

Danny was surprised that he was right when they were guessing what the statue was about, especially the part about obvious names.

Marinette agreed that the names were pretty obvious if you thought about it, but those were the names that the heroes gave to the public. She personally never thought about it, she may ask Chat what he thought about when she saw him as Ladybug.

When they got back to the bakery, Marinette offered them some pastries as a thank you for helping her. The three teens declined her offer, saying that her advice about what to visit and how to navigate the city was more than enough. Jazz of course had written down everything that Marinette told them. She had made sure to note down every single detail, after all she was in charge of it since it was her idea.

Just when they were about to say their goodbyes, Marinette’s parents joined them in the front of the bakery. They introduced themselves as Sabine and Tom, and thanked them for their help as well. They had noticed that their daughter was struggling with all the boxes and were about to take turns helping her when they saw the three of them step in. Normally they would need to start preparing a second batch of baked goods just in case the first one didn’t make it to the hotel, but they seemed like a responsible group of young people with decent balance and so they had gone back to tending the shop, sure that their daughter was in good hands.

Marinette’s cheeks turned a bright shade of pink as her parents explained how clumsy she was. Now these nice people would never want to be her friends! She groaned and buried her burning face in her hands.

Jazz patted her comfortingly on the back and Danny said that they understood her pain all too well. After all, the Fenton parents were about as subtle as a flashing neon sign. Even Sam could relate, there was a reason she didn’t like her parents very much.

The Dupain–Chengs apologised to their daughter and repeated Marinette’s offer of baked goods as a thank you and wouldn’t take no for an answer. The family’s combined efforts finally convinced them to accept a box of treats, not like they had much of a choice. Mr. Dupain had just shoved the box of baked goods into Danny’s hands when a nearby explosion rattled the bakery.

To be continued :D :D

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eihwaz-y-d · 2 years

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So I'm currently hyperfixed on Danny Phantom and DC crossover and I really enjoyed reading Danny and Damian are twins Au. I read a lot fics and promps but they aren't enough ( there are never enough great fics in this world) and I got inspired and got this idea and it won't let go of me.... So I decided to get it out of my system so that I can concentrate on my exams but I also want people to read and tell me their thoughts about it. So I thought I share the "rough work" and later I will edit and post it on AO3 but yeah. (some infos before I do know nothing and do what I want)

Here my work in process :

Twin skeletons

Danny just wanted to go to the astronomy exhibition in Natural History museum of Gotham city, just for some peaceful hours there nothing bothers him, maybe even go to the apartly new planetarium. Being away from Amity Park, his ghost hunting parents with their obsession with ripping him apart molecule by molecule and the whole ghost attacks (he would be able to get a few more hours of sleep) was just a plus.

He was excited about the trip! His core was humming and he felt at ease, no ghost fighting and no one hunting him for a few days, just some peaceful days in the most crime ridden city in the United States. It would be like a vacation.

But Danny should have known better than to get his hopes up, nothing ever goes according to plan for him.

And let's be honest here, he really should have known better, his school trip goes to Gotham city of all places, the most dangerous city in the United States (one can never say it enough). Who in their right mind even though it was a good idea to take a few teenager, who only knows danger in form from ghost attacks and the driving skills of the Fenton family and have no sense of self protection, and take them to a big city overrun with guns and drugs and psychotic criminals and crime fighting vigilantes? The adults of Amity Park apartly. (maybe the adults have also lost every ounce of common sense they owned other the last two and a half years)

But that is beside the point, the point is Danny just wanted to see the astronomy exhibition, not held at gunpoint from a red helmet vigilante,with really strange vibes that made his ghost sense go harwire, after some criminal bombed the museum and held them hostage for whatever reason.

The first day started so promisingly well, they were supposed to get a tour through Wayne Enterprise. The tour through Wayne Enterprise went pretty well and was interesting, if not a little bit strange. Danny had the feeling everyone at the company was looking at him then he wasn't looking. It was probably nothing, it happens in Amity Park all the time(he just ignores the fact that he is not in Amity anymore and the usual reasons he is in the middle of the attention, his parents or the ghosts, are not here at the moment. And he is pretty sure he is Danny not Phantom).

The second day they had the Museum tour where they could room afterwards as much as they liked and Danny really, really wanted some time without Dash being the bully that he is. The tour was nice, and just as the nice lady wanted to finish the tour, somewhere in the building an explosion went off.

The lady shrieked, Danny's classmates are either looking curious for the source or talking about ghost attacks vs. Criminals, while Mr. Lancer tries and fails to get everyone to calm down so they could evacuate and Danny just curses his rotten luck.

The next thing they knew, there were masked criminals binding them with zip ties and taking them hostage because 'if we take hostages we have a better chance of getting away from the bats'. Their words, not Danny's.

Not fifteen minutes afterwards -Danny thought about the pros and cons about doing something against these criminals himself - a red helmeted, leather wearing hero comes gun shooting towards their rescue.

Hooray, lucky them.

And now, he has the gun pointed towards his face.

"What the fuck are you?!" Besides the electronic modulation, his growl was pretty impressive or a living human, although Danny was still not sure if the hero really was living.

"Okay, first of all, rude. Second, what is your problem? And third, could you take the gun out of my face? I really like my shirt and it would be a shame if it got ruined with blood and brain mass."

Red Hood did nothing for a long time but then he lowered his gun but did not put it away. Waving a hand behind himself in the vague direction of his class, grinning Danny speaks again.

" Are we free to go? I think my teacher is either having a stroke soon or he thinks about taking you on, it will probably be a lecture about treating kids. On a second thought. Please do shoot, I'm not keen on being lectured again, but don't ruin my shirt. I want to be buried in it. "

Red Hood's hand twitched and Danny grin grew even larger, showing his set of fangs. It's a shame Danny can't see the hero's face, it would be hilarious to read his reaction but the helm or the modified voice didn't give away a hint of his thoughts but Danny hoped he was at least a little bit irrational.

"Whatever kid."

Danny waved goodbye before going back to his classmates.

Red Hood just stayed long enough to see the boy looking towards his teacher with what looks like his best innocent face. "Mr. Lancer, I suppose we can't perhaps go back towards the astronomy exhibition?"

The teacher just signs and guides his snickering students out of the museum.

What the hell was wrong with the kid?!

Jason knew he needed to tell Bruce about the kid, he was nearly a carbon copy of the demon brat, and another Robin clone was never a good thing, especially now then something big is about to happen and there is yet not enough to say what.

He should really tell Bruce, Jason knew it but something tells him not to. The moment the kid stood behind Jason's back, he thought there was something dangerous, something absolutely terrifying, something that made the Lazarus water go crazy -and for a moment Jason thought he would go into the pit madness- but than it goes all quite, like the Lazarus water itself recognize the Apex predator and hides into the deep of Jason's soul. And it hadn't raised its head ever since. For the first time since his return his mind was quiet and peaceful.

He should really tell Bruce about this kid. If he really is a clone of Damian, then….. Jason does not know but it would only end apocalyptic bad. And if he is no clone then it wouldn't automatically be better.

Grinding his teeth, he dials Dick's number.

It didn't take long for the older man to answer. The surprise was clear in his voice.

" Hey Jason. Weren't you-"

But Jason didn't let him finish. "Dick listen, I-.... There…."

He doesn't know how to say it, or what to say first. Fortunately Dick just wait patiently for Jason to speak again, There must be something in his voice that makes him listen.

" I was at the museum when the hostage situation happened, there was a kid. There…. There was something about the kid. Something dangerous. I put a gun to his head and It frightened the Lazarus water. "

" What do you mean 'put a gun to his Head'?! Jason?! Wait-.... Did you say he 'frightened the Lazarus water'?"

" Yes, I don't know how else to describe it. The Kid made the pit gone quiet, it's not gone but it's feels like it's hiding and it is quiet and…. peaceful in my mind for the first time since…. Since I returned. Dick. My thoughts, my mind, my emotions, they are my own again without fighting this damned madness."

He took a deep breath but before he can continue Dick speaks first.

"Jason…"

" I'm not finished. That isn't the only thing about this kid. This kid, he could be a carbon copy of the demon brat, maybe it's another clone, maybe it's not but Dick… I have the feeling the kid isn't human, he is dangerous and if he stands against us…. I don't think we stand a chance. "

The older man is quite for a long time and then he speaks again, his tone is dead serious.

" We need to inform Bruce. "

With a deep Sigh, Jason answered. " I feared you would say that. "

Edit: Part 2

#danny phantom #batman #bat family #dp x dc crossover #dc x dp #dp x dc #jason tood #red hood #fanfic #work in process #batfam #fanfiction #twin skeletons

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ectoamerican · 2 years

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@rxtroskull liked for a starter.

It was a long way from here to home in Amity Park. And that’s why he agreed to go with his parents on their work related trip. Right now, they thought he was back at the hotel. He’d hung a do not disturb sign on his rooms doorknob and made a fuss to his parents about how tired he was. So hopefully, they wouldn’t barge in to check on him if they got back before him.

At the moment, he was Phantom and he was exploring the unfamiliar city. It was relaxing to be in a place that wasn’t overrun with ghosts, it meant there was nothing to worry about. At least nothing for him to worry about. Still, maybe he should check in on his parents. Just to see how close they were to being finished.

Phantom produced his phone from a hard to see pocket on his suit and pulled up the GPS. Thankfully he remembered to put the address to the location in before they left. It was some kind of high school from what he could tell. Maybe he could try to take care of the ghost issue while he was there too.

It didn’t take long for him to get to the school grounds the way he flew. And he could see his family’s ridiculous vehicle parked in the mostly empty parking lot. The other car likely belonging to the client. The school principal, if he recalled correctly? That meant they were still here at least. So Danny put his phone away and decided to take a look around for that ghost.

#ic II living?#v early days II stressed out #///set up for Randy!!!#not a small starter but dont worry abt matching up to the length x3 #rxtroskull

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redrobin-detective · 3 years

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Danny Fenton died in his parents’ basement due to a malfunctioning ghost portal. His friends and family wept, the town was appropriately shocked. What was left of his body was buried and time moved on. Then the ghosts started attacking Amity Park all except for one. The whole of Amity Park took one look at Phantom and knew he was young Danny Fenton come home. He wasn’t violent or mindless like the other ghosts instead doing his best to keep the attacks at bay. He hated ghosts while he lived but his death was filled with nothing but battles. Amity took it’s tragic, dead superhero to heart and did their best to honor him.

The Fenton’s had been under legal investigation for the accident by the time Phantom and the other ghosts were spotted. Jazz had already been removed from their custody and placed in a foster family across town. She refused to speak to them for a long, long time but eventually was able to come to a bitter, unhappy understanding about where it all went wrong. Jack and Maddie floated in a fugue in the weeks following the accident. They were forced back into action by the ghost attacks and Maddie almost passed out on the spot when she first noticed her son’s ghost. They wanted to quit the hunting but Amity was being overrun so they had no choice. They decided this was their penance for their obsession and ignorance, to see their baby so close and yet so out of reach. They start by avoiding him altogether but it simply wasn’t possible so they did their best to support him, helping with the ghosts and never, ever shooting at him.

Phantom did and didn’t remember his human life. Death via ectoplasmic electrocution made him a stable, powerful ghost but it helped preserve bits of himself too. Most of the time, he was a cocky, playful superhero but then in slow moments, he’d do something that was just so Danny that it break everyone’s hearts to see him. He turns to the name Danny, even if he doesn’t know why. When the married ghost hunters accidentally leveled their weapons at him, his nonexistent heart would squeeze. Sometimes he would freeze midbattle and ask himself what was happening, why wasn’t he in class? where were Sam and Tuck? His sister would kill him if she saw him out doing this. The moment would pass and he’d be Phantom once more.

The last person Dash beat up had been Fenton and he remained the last, he never laid a violent hand on another student again. Instead he focused on better anger management and giving the weaker kids someone to reach out to. Tucker threw himself into ghost research, learning everything and helping the Fenton’s tinker with their devices (not weapons, he never touched those) it made him feel like he was helping his friend. Sam was involved for a while too but the guilt of the accident and the stress of seeing Danny’s ghost eventually became too much, she had a mental break and the Manson’s left Amity Park for good. Jazz was the one who made an effort to get through to Danny, with some successes but it never lasted long and it caused her so much pain that once she graduated she also left Amity for a college far, far away from dead brothers who look at her like she’s stranger. Danny hadn’t been important before his death but his tragic loss and his perseverance in death inspired everyone in town to be better.

When things get really slow, more often during the Christmas Truce, Danny Fenton could be seen again. Sometimes he’s seen walking through the hallways of Casper High, looking for a locker that’s been long since reassigned. He’s spotted hanging outside the Nasty Burger, waiting for his best friends to show up and join him. He ghosts through his kitchen, looking for food he can’t eat like he’s just another teenager with the munchies. He never looks quite right, his features are ill-proportioned, his feet don’t always touch the ground and there’s a faint glow about him. The omnipresent feeling of death and chill alerts everyone that Danny Fenton is back, for a short time. But then, midmotion he’ll stop and the color will bleach from his hair and the hazmat suit he died in will come back into focus.

“What am I doing?” He’ll ask quietly, rare clarity in his tone, “I’m dead, I don’t belong here.” He’d fade away but never for long. Someone would spot Phantom grappling with some ghost, back to his obsession of keeping his town safe. But they never stop seeing the bright eyed boy in their ghostly hero and that makes it so much more sad. Great heroes are eulogized and remembered but it’s not Phantom’s name that is whispered with reverence over the years and decades. Its the quiet boy who wasn’t appreciated until it was too late.

#instead of a driving home from work hc this was a driving too work #so i got to mull over all day yesterday and get sad :(#I'm like 99% sure there's fic like this but idk just something i was thinking about #I dont think the Fenton/Phantom connection is that obvious in canon #but if Danny actually DIED and everyone knew it? oh yeah then everyone would put 2 & 2 together #and its just so tragic #that Danny is so similar so close to who hed been but also amnesiac and different #he IS a ghost with ghostly rules and triggers #he has moments of understanding before its lost under the weight of death and obsession #it really would devastate everyone who knew and loved him #Danny would exist for a long long time #and Amity would love and appreciate him #but the story of Danny Fenton #the ghost hunters son who'd died too young would be passed down #his name and his memory would not be forgotten #there's soemthing about Fenton being the one who's honored even if Phantom is the one saving him #just.... understanding that they got a hero but there was a cost #and they didnt even realize the cost bc Danny was so quiet and shy beforehand #danny phantom

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niorig · 2 years

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One of my headcanons for Danny Phantom is that, post Reign Storm, it's not only Amity Park that accepts proof that ghosts are real, but the world at large.

But that always brings up the question- what about all the ghosts outside Amity Park?

Are they angry that they can't troll as effectively anymore, since no one is going to doubt themselves? Annoyed that their haunt is now overrun with tourists demanding they appear? Do they take this as a 'wait, I don't have to keep our existence secret?' and then do whatever the hell they want around people?

I don't know, is Anne Boleyn coming up to every person to visit the Tower of London and complaining about Henry VIII? Are murder victims now coming out and telling who killed them in some sort of tell all true crime show? Are historical figures out there debunking the biographies written about them while going on daytime talk shows? Does some random ghost in like, Kansas, look at Amity Park and think 'hell yes, I can follow my dream of being a supervillain after all!'

There are so many worldbuilding concepts that are just so fascinating to explore. Someone who is not me should get on that lol.

#Danny Phantom

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murphy-kitt · 3 years

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Beyond The Grave - Chapter One

(Dannymay - Nature - Day Fifteen)

The memorial reminds him of something he never wants to remember.

Danny can barely see it, for the crowds that block his vision, but he knows exactly what reads on the memorial. There’s a warmth in his chest that likes this, seeing how much Amity Park and their appreciation for his ghost half. It makes him feel a little more accepted.

But there’s a little nagging in his chest that tells him this isn’t right. He’s not even dead, he shouldn’t be getting a memorial.

Or is he?

Fear strikes in his heart, and Danny shakes his head furiously, hands clumping in his hair.

No. No.

He’s tried so hard to forget, it can’t go to waste now. Not after all he’s been through, is it going to return like a storm surge because of a stupid memorial.

Sam and Tucker are further away in the crowd, but their glances are the same wary ones. They know exactly what he’s thinking about. Jazz has a smile on her face. She doesn’t know.

And Danny was happy for it to stay that way.

His parents know he’s half ghost now, they know about his powers, and they’re adjusting, slowly, but steadily. Maybe not ready to reveal that he’s Phantom, but they’re definitely more accepting. Danny swore he saw a bunch of purple hyacinths addressed to his ghost half from his parents on the memorial.

Danny edges away from the crowd slowly, it’s not as if anyone will notice him missing, he usually always is.

His footsteps pound the ground, panicked, and begin to increase as he runs down the road, averting eye contact with any strangers that pass his way with an alarmed gaze. He doesn’t care.

The teenager finds himself storming through in the direction of the woods, where he’d swore never to go again, but his feet are pressuring him to run here. Brambles and thistles overrun the area since he’s last been there.

It’s a small, shaded and overgrown part of the forest, one that no one would go unless they had a specific reason to. There’s no footpath or pebbled trail, and the teenagers legs are spiked by brambles.

Although, there’s an opening of brambles shrewdly trampled down, as if someone had been in a panic. His heart pounds in his chest, and Danny tries his best to stay calm.

“I never wanted to come back here.” He says, to no one but the silent air and birds twittering in the distance. His hands begin digging in the brambles — he’s here — and his feet won’t let him move.

Piercing bramble needles splinter the raven haired teens hands and make them bleed, but he doesn’t care. Furiously, blue eyes dart among the undergrowth, trying to find it.

“Where is it?!” He cries in desperation— maybe if he finds it, he can forget these stupid memories again and going back to being fine.

Flashbacks run through his head. It’s like that night all over again.

Racing head, pounding heartbeats, the crack and snap of brambles.

“Quick! In here”

“But someone might—“

“It doesn’t matter — no one will. No one goes down this track.”

“But what if they see the brambles trampled?!”

“They won’t! Just dig!”

Clawing at the soil with bare hands.

Body still rattling with electricity, head pounding.

Shock.

Dig. Keep digging.

Danny feels his legs collapse into the dirt, exhaustion claiming him, and tears freely falling down his face. How can he even begin to tell his parents about this?!

His eyes catch the dirt, ragged and disjointed, a trail of scratches along the floor.

The ones from that night, he realises. Rain hasn’t washed them away, nor have any animals disturbed this area. Scars of the desperation and blatant panic in that one night.

He pulls a thistle flower from a nearby bush, not caring at the spikes impaling his hands, that’s the least of Danny’s worries. Grabbing the solemn purple flower, he drops it on the ground, where a patch of darker soil lies.

It’s strange to think that no one knows of this presence but him, Sam and Tucker. Lurking beneath for months, simply, there, while tourists loiter around the area happily, unaware of what lies beneath the soil.

“God — what do I even say? Condolences?” He scoffs, and stares at the thistle flower, looking sad and forlorn. “This was your own fault, Fenton. Kind of a sick twisted way to remind me, isn’t it? A memorial to Phantom. Well, what can I say? They put it in the wrong place, that’s for one.”

“Not that I'd want it to be here, anyway.” The teenager looks up at the area surrounding him. To be fair, it had been their only choice in the midst of terror.

Somehow, Danny doesn’t seem as panicked anymore. Perhaps his dark sense of humour masks most of it.

“I wonder if they did find it, should it be moved next to the memorial?” Then shakes his head. No. No one would find it.

The idea of having that next to the memorial, in the town square, also seems too alarming. Huh, maybe he’s beginning to like the reclusive spot a little more now.

He knows his parents will find out about him being Phantom one day, that’s inevitable. But the context between the origin of how he became Phantom is one he doesn’t want to burden them with.

And learning that there’s this, also? He didn’t even want Jazz finding out.

It was just wrong. He was here, he was alive, wasn’t he? Partly.

Those fake death records Tucker had made were a punch in the gut to this, really. The memories had resurfaced, but not so bad that time.

Now, in the town centre, he had the equivalent of a grave. Equipped with dates and everything.

Little did anyone know where his true grave lay, a result of anguish and terror within the night of his death.

And Danny wasn’t ready to face it.

—

Another corpse au? Just maybe. This is the first part for a multi chapter fic, set in my fanfic series It’s Your Funeral and is the sequel of Grave Consequences. No more chapters added until I finish GC though.

Murphy

#dannymay2021 #dannymay #danny phantom #nature #angst #corpse au #yes another one #its probably confusing af but it’ll make sense

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lexiepiper · 3 years

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Unread

Dani visits the human world and notices some things that have changed since the last time she was there.

Phic Phight Prompt by @idiot-cheesehead-archenemy

Summary: What is there to say?

Dani slipped through the Fenton portal into the world of the living, and was immediately greeted by the feeling of cool air on her skin. She took a deep breath, hovering invisibly in the middle of the lab and slowly cherishing the sensation of fresh, living air filling her lungs.

The lab was… quiet. She frowned and spun on the spot, confirming that she was the only person there. The monitors lining the benches were dull, and there were no typical flashing lights or whirring electronics. The only illumination came from the portal. Dani didn’t know a lot about other people’s labs, but Vlad’s had always been full of soft noise, as machines hummed and blipped little tunes that had always soothed her back to sleep.

She pushed the memory away. Maybe the Fentons’ lab was just quiet when nobody was there? After all, it wasn’t like there were growing life forms that needed constant support and monitoring.

Still. It didn’t quite seem to fit the glimpses of this place that she’d had in the past, no matter how fleeting they’d been.

She phased through the ceiling, and the darkness was replaced by soft natural light that streamed through open windows. The glimpse of sunlight struck her with unexpected surprise, and Dani hissed in a sharp breath as her core hummed deep within her centre. She suddenly wanted nothing more than to fly out into the open sky, feeling the wind in her hair and the sun soaking into her skin for the first time in… wait, how long had it actually been?

She frowned, scrunching her face as she tried to track how long she’d been in the Ghost Zone. Surely it hadn’t been more than a few months, right?

Shaking her head to clear it, she glanced around the living room. Unease prickled down her spine, dampening her good mood, but Dani couldn’t quite place what was wrong. There was that same old couch and rug, a TV against one wall, and framed photos lining the mantelpiece.

She was surprised that Danny hadn’t appeared yet. Shouldn’t she have set off his ghost sense by now?

Dani’s heart pounded against her ribcage as she floated up again, phasing through the floor of Danny’s bedroom…

This was Danny’s room, right? No, she must have misjudged the layout of the home. It appeared to be a guest room, with a plain mattress devoid of blankets or sheets on the bed frame, and empty shelves lining the walls with a clear desk tucked in the corner. The curtains were drawn, but they were so threadbare that there was no problem seeing in the bright daylight that shone right through.

She phased through the wall, and ended up in a room with a decidedly teal colour scheme. The curtains were closed in here too but enough light filtered through to make out the details anyway. It was as neat as one of those pictures of perfect homes in magazines, and the framed high school diploma above the study alcove suggested that the room belonged to Jazz. Or… it had? The air felt stale and dusty, like nobody had been in here in a while. Dani drifted over to the dresser and ran her finger across the top, coming away with a fine layer of dust.

She pinched her lower lip between her teeth. Jazz had been pretty close to graduation when Dani had gone into the Ghost Zone, so maybe she was at university now?

Yeah. That made sense.

Unease settled more densely over her, and Dani phased through the wall again. She passed through the linen cupboard and a bathroom in desperate need of a good clean, and then found herself in what was obviously Danny’s parents’ room. This one finally appeared to be lived in, with the duvet crumpled and left unmade, and glasses of water on bedside tables. The curtains were open in here, and the air felt fresher and less dead.

Dani didn’t really want to poke around through Maddie and Jack’s stuff, so she phased back out into the hallway. She tilted her head, scowling as she counted the doors in the hallway.

There were exactly five — one for each bedroom, and one for the bathroom and the linen cupboard.

Dread dropped into her gut, like she’d suddenly swallowed a bowling ball, and Dani crept back into the first room. She pulled back the curtains, and dust motes swirled in the beams of sunlight as the room was fully illuminated. She stood in the middle of the carpet, turning in a slow circle and reaching out tentatively with her core.

There were slightly darker rectangles on the wall where there used to be posters of star charts and band tours, and when she tilted her head back, Dani could just make out the tiny silhouettes where glow in the dark stars had once been stuck to the ceiling and the white paint had faded around them.

She couldn’t sense any other ghosts beside herself. There wasn’t so much as a glimmer of residual spectral activity aside from the steady hum of the portal two floors beneath her.

“Where are you?” she whispered into the still emptiness.

Maybe… maybe she’d been gone longer than she’d thought. Maybe Danny had graduated and gone to college too. She didn’t think he’d have abandoned Amity Park, but maybe he’d moved out with Tucker, or finally gotten together with Sam or Valerie and was living with them? She didn’t really know much about his friends, but that seemed like the kind of thing they’d do, especially if Danny’s parents didn’t know his secret yet. He was probably just too far across town for her to sense.

Dani shot up through the ceiling and broke into the open air. The sunlight enveloped her with sudden life, and despite everything she smiled and gave a deep sigh. The Ghost Zone had been interesting, and it certainly helped to keep her core stable, but her human half delighted in the chance to soak in the energy of the mortal world once more.

Making sure that she stayed invisible, Dani floated above the town in a huge, lazy loop, feeling for any sign of Danny. There was a gentle breeze, and she revelled in the way it stirred her hair and brushed against her exposed skin.

By the time she’d returned to Fentonworks, the contentment of being in the human world had once again been overrun by anxiety.

Dani debated dropping by Valerie’s house, before realising that she didn’t actually know where it was. She scowled, but after a moment of thought began to fly across the town again, this time with a clear destination in mind.

She touched down in the parking lot behind the library, using invisibility to mask herself as she changed into her human form before walking through the front doors just like any normal kid. Nobody even glanced her way, and Dani sidled over to the row of thick computer screens that buzzed almost imperceptibly and played screensavers of what looked like photos of community events. She picked the screen furthest from the library desk, as far away from prying eyes as possible but when she nudged the mouse the screensaver was replaced with a screen prompting her to log in.

Dani frowned and looked toward the desk. She didn’t have a card, but she didn’t really want to sign up for one either. Didn’t you need ID for that kind of thing?

An older man sat down at a vacant computer close to hers, and Dani slid out of her seat and casually strolled to the bookshelf behind him. She pretended to be scanning the titles while he slowly used pointed index fingers to tap out his login details, and Dani carefully repeated the details in her mind as she grabbed a random book and headed back to her seat. Her screen had jumped back to the screensaver, and she doubted that she could log in while the man was already suing his account, so she surreptitiously turned to the back of her book and used a glowing fingertip to etch the man’s username and password into the bottom corner of the final page. She flipped back to the front cover again and raised an eyebrow at the yellow smiley face and the large self-help title in raised gold block letters.

Oh, well. Whatever.

Dani thumbed through her book, skimming through some of the tips in the organisational section while surreptitiously stealing glances at the man on the nearby computer. Her fingers almost itched with anticipation but she held herself steady.

It didn’t take him long to leave, and Dani could only hope that he hadn’t used up all of the allotted time on his account for the day. She flipped back to the details and typed them in, relief pulling a sigh from deep within her as the computer opened up to its main desktop page. The little timer in the top corner indicated that the account still had twenty minutes, so she pushed the book aside and opened the web browser straight away.

It only took a few seconds to log into Facebook, and Dani felt a twinge of guilt at the sheer amount of notifications. She was tempted to check them now, but the steady timer in the corner reminded her to focus and she clicked into the messenger webpage instead.

There were only two conversations — one from Danny, and the other from Valerie. Val’s were bolded and unread, but Danny’s…

Dani chewed her lip and brushed overlong bangs out of her face, trying to fight through the sudden heart-wrenching betrayal of abandonment.

Danny’s last message to her had been over a year ago, the day she left for the Ghost Zone.

She quickly opened the conversation, double checking that yes, he hadn’t messaged her since she’d left. It didn’t make sense. This was their only form of communication when she wasn’t in town! Did he really think so little of her, that he wouldn’t message her so that she’d have something to come back to? Was she really just a clone to him after all?

That last thought stopped her anger in its tracks. Danny would never think that.

She took a deep, grounding breath, and opened the unread messages from Valerie.

There wasn’t much there, but what Danielle did see turned her blood to ice.

How could I have known when neither of you ever told me?!

I’m sorry

Please, Danielle, I’m sorry!

I didn’t mean it

You have to know I didn’t mean it

I never would have done it if I’d just KNOWN!

I’m sorry

Dani swallowed, hard. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard but for a long moment she just stared at the screen.

She clicked back into her conversation with Danny. The last time he’d messaged her was only a few days before that frantic barrage from Valerie.

Just make sure you stay away from Skulker!

Frostbite will help you if you need it

Or Pandora

At the time, she was amused by his overprotectiveness. Yeah I know. See you later!

He’d responded cheerfully, but then had never messaged her again.

Okay

Stay safe!

I hope you have a blast

She read it again, and panic crept into her core. “No,” she breathed, and clicked back to Facebook’s main page, searching up Danny’s account.

The latest posts were birthday wishes from two months ago.

Dani scrolled down, numb horror cocooning her thoughts. The posts made by his friends and family all blurred together into a collage of soft wishes of peace and somber murmurs of sadness. Below his birthday wishes were a collection of posts from four months ago, and Dani’s hands trembled as she read every single one.

Sixteen months.

The ambient sounds of the library faded into static as she realised that Danny Fenton had been dead and buried for sixteen months.

She swallowed past the sudden tightness in her throat, and it was like fighting past hands that were clenched around her neck. Dani’s eyes burned and she dragged in a shallow breath, sharp with the strain of fighting back tears.

They slipped down her cheeks anyway, and she sniffed and took another strained breath, clicking into her messages once more.

She didn’t know what to say, but Dani knew she had to say something. It wasn’t right, to just leave him hanging like that.

Her hands clenched in her lap, and Dani rubbed the water off her face only to have more tears fall straight away. A sob clawed its way out of her throat and she pressed her fist over her mouth, muffling it as much as she could.

People were looking at her now, and she ducked her head and tried to hold everything in.

This wasn’t fair. How could she have let this happen? How could she have left him?

How could he have left her?

She clenched her teeth together. As tempting as it was to post on his page, she didn’t want to be public about it. What right did she have anyway, to freshly grieve him when he’d already been gone for so long? What right did she have to message his friends, who she barely knew, or his family, who she had never even met?! How could she drag them into her existence when it’d just dredge up the rawness all over again?!

Dani realised that she’d tensed her body so much that she was trembling with the effort and had forgotten to breathe. She took a shaky breath, and her tight muscles snapped into a loud, hiccupping cry.

Gritting her teeth again, tears streaming down her cheeks and dripping into her mouth and off her chin, Dani typed three words into the private message chat box.

I’m so sorry.

She closed the browser, and the screen went black and flicked back to the login screen as the timer hit zero.

Grief crashed into her with the force of a tsunami and Dani pressed her palms over her eyes and wept. Huge, gasping sobs tore from her chest, making her gut ache as her pulse roared in her ears.

“Miss? Are you okay?”

It was probably the stupidest question she’d ever heard, and Dani shook her head mutely, keeping her hands over her eyes as the tears continued to flood through her fingers and snot began to drip from her nose.

Someone nudged her shoulder. “Here,” the same voice offered, and Dani peeked through her fingers to see a tissue box. She squinted up at the librarian, and the tears kept flowing like a tap that had been left running.

Dani pressed her lips together and nodded once, grabbing a handful of tissues and immediately burying her face in them as she was hit by a fresh wave of grief. She knew that eventually she’d have to move, she’d have to stop crying and take the next step, but for now all that mattered was the way her head throbbed with every sob and how her eyes burned hotter and hotter the more she cried. She couldn’t breathe deeper than short, shallow gasps, and every time she tried to think, all she could picture was Danny’s face and her world came crashing down again.

It took her a long time to stop crying, but when she did she was left staring at the pile of soaking tissues next to the keyboard as the bright halogen lights made her eyes sting.

She had no clue what to do now.

He was dead, and she didn’t even get to say goodbye.

#Danny Phantom #Phic Phight 2021 #Phic Phight #idiot-cheesehead-archenemy #lexiepiper #I should probably tag this as angst so yeah #angst #This fic was an emotional journey to write and maybe I'm being a bit transparent but I hope you enjoy it

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xreaderxo · 4 years

Text

batsis!reader x danny phantom

@itzagothamcitysiren

meeting the batfam:

ok so they all know of danny phantom

you had a crush on him lowkey but not a serious crush, more of a “wow he’s cute and a hero?? sick”

but yeah they all know him and his secret identity but besides them and the people told in amity park, nobody knows

like phantom planet didn’t happen bc i refuse to acknowledge it

but like?? bruce is batman he’s gonna know of every vigilante

so you & danny have been dating for a while

you met because jazz had an interview for an internship at wayne enterprises and the fentons went with her

and you two bumped into each other at starbucks

it was a cliche!! danny spilled coffee on your shirt like the dork he is

you were annoyed but then you looked up and you were like

holy shit that’s danny phantom

“holy shit you’re danny phantom,” you said

“what? no i’m not he isn’t even real,” danny panicked

you gave him your number

and it just went on from there

you told him about your identity about two months in

and then four months later, there were ghosts in gotham and they needed danny phantom

bruce is like “i’ll send clark to get him”

and you’re like “no i got it, i know him”

they’re like ???

you’re like “yeah we’re dating?? did i not tell you??”

so he comes to gotham

and these are how your brothers reacted

dick:

dick liked him right off the bat

they’re a lot alike in the way that they have hearts of good and ALSO

their love of WITTY BANTER

you know that episode of atla where sokka goes backstage with cue cards full of witty banter for the actor playing him to use?

dick and danny do that

“‘’prepare to be concerted??’ that’s genius!!”

“‘you and what toaster??’ that’s so good!!”

he’s also lowkey offended you didn’t tell him

“did you think i wouldnt approve??”

“i thought i was your favorite brother??”

jason:

immediately bonds over technically being dead

“it’s so cool how your boyfriend is a ghost like me, y/n”

makes danny and honorary member of the dead robins club

pulls danny aside and asks if there’s a possibility the lazarus pit could have the same thing that made danny a ghost in it

after all, the same shade of green? the fact it gave jason a white streak and danny has white hair in ghost form??

like he knows it’s not exactly the same but he’s curious if there’s any like overlap

danny and him decide to investigate it

also jason finds out about how dash bullies him

dash gets a visit from the public menace red hood one night

he never bothers danny again

his sneers turn into looks of terror because fenton is friends with red hood??

tim:

wants to pick his brain

not literally of course but like

they have barely any info on the ghost zone and danny‘s been in there countless times

so he’s instantly like “please tell me about it let me get my notebook”

he also recognizes the similarities between them

they both weren’t popular in school

they’re both constantly underestimated

so they quickly bond over that

when danny brings tucker and sam over one day tim and tucker become best friends

tim goes with you to amity park all the time

“why are you coming with me”

“i gotta see ol t-dawg”

“you call him t-dawg??”

duke:

here’s the thing

dick LOVES ghosts

his favorite show is buzzfeed unsolved supernatural

so when he finds out you’re dating THE danny phantom??

he screeches

“YOU’RE DATING DANNY PHANTOM AND YOU DIDNT TELL ME???”

when you introduce danny to him his jaw goes slack

star struck

and when i say he went all fanboy mode

he went HARD

“youredannyphantomimsuchahugefanifreakinglovethesupernaturalicanthelieveyoureboningmysister”

asks danny for his autograph

danny’s like ?? “you’re signaal i want YOUR autograph”

duke almost passes out

danny phantom knows who he is???

he tries to spend more time with danny than you

“duke leave my boyfriend alone”

“sorry y/n i think you mean *our* boyfriend”

damian:

see damian didn’t believe in ghosts

in a world with demigods, aliens, and resurrection, the boy someone didn’t believe in ghosts

so when gotham started being overrun by them he was shook

and then why you say you’re dating danny??

“that is not factual, he doesn’t even exist”

he doesn’t believe it until he sees danny transform

damian wayne never gets flustered but when he sees your boyfriend turn into a ghost??

speechless

then he also thinks danny’s too immature for you

does not approve

until he meets sam

they hit it off INSTANTLY

damian going with you and tim to amity park

he still doesn’t approve of you and danny but he tolerates it for sam manson

#danny phantom x reader #danny fenton x reader #danny phantom imagine #batfam imagine #damian wayne x reader #dick grayson x reader #duke thomas x reader #jason todd x reader #tim drake x reader

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five-rivers · 4 years

Text

Cloak/Plague

Zombies!

The night was dark beyond the fire, pitch and clinging, as if someone had dipped the world in black paint. Jacob stood at the edge of the light, on watch, one hand resting on his gun, the thumb of the other hooked around its shoulder strap. Behind him, either Sharktooth or Jade—He wasn’t sure which woman was which—tossed another log on the fire.

He was nervous. This was the largest group he’d been in for a while. Over fifty people. Little groups squished together by circumstance and the fact that scavenging only got harder as time went on. There was talk of finding a town somewhere, one that hadn’t been damaged too badly, and making a settlement. Something permanent. Something secure.

Jacob’s stomach turned over. He’d tried that before. The Coliseum. It hadn’t worked out well, even if that was where he had met Mack.

Some of them were talking about trying for Sacramento or Rock City or the Valley. There was civilization there, just a touch of it, according to radio waves one of the techies picked up on good days.

Jacob had tried that, too. Sacramento, at least. That hadn’t turned out well, either.

Of all the things to fear during a zombie apocalypse, other humans were definitely at the top of Jacob’s list. Heck, he was only here in the first place because of Mack and how much they needed information.

“So,” said one of the women, Jacob thought it was Sharktooth, languidly. “Who’s bored?”

Bored was probably the wrong word to describe anyone living through this mess. At the same time…

Well, Sharktooth got quite a response.

“We’re from all over, right? So, we’ve probably all got stories. Tales. Places we’ve seen or hear of. Might as well share while we’re here, right? Who knows when we’ll be around this many people again?”

“You’re not staying?” asked Jade, clearly taken aback.

“Haven’t decided yet,” said Sharktooth, shooting a glance at leader of the largest of the gathering’s constituent groups. “Maybe if there was a plan…” She shrugged. “But, hey. All of us are here, now, right? We might as well make the best of it.”

“Why don’t you start, then?” asked Mack, a little belligerently. So, yeah, that was definitely Sharktooth. She and Mack had been having a thing since Jacob and Mack joined the group. Not a romantic thing, Sharktooth had to be a decade older than Mack, but still a thing.

“Sure,” said Sharktooth. “Why not?” Jacob watched her crouch down next to the fire out of the corner of his eye. “Ever hear of the phantom city?”

There was muttering. “Everywhere’s a ghost town, now,” said someone, a little louder than the rest. “You don’t need to rub it in.”

“And we don’t need more nightmares,” added another.

“Nah, this isn’t a ghost story. Just a weird story. Well, the town was supposed to be haunted before, but I’m pretty sure that was just a tourist thing. Anyway, they’re a broadcaster. You know, radio spam. All that ‘Hey, here we are’ stuff. Like Sacremento.”

“Yeah?” prompted someone. “What’s the city called?”

“Amity Park. And if you’re in Illinois, you can probably catch their broadcast. But good luck finding it. There’s a reason it’s called the phantom city. When I was going up through Ohio, I met people who’d tried to find it. Never could.”

“Why were they in Ohio if they were looking for a city in Illinois?” asked Mack. “Seems kind of dumb.”

“Well, they’d given up,” said Sharktooth. “Couldn’t justify searching anymore. They were mad about it, too. They had maps, they had coordinates, radios to pick up the broadcast, everything. Heck, they said they had road signs. Exits off the highway marked with the name. But as soon as they got close…” She waved her hands dramatically. “Nothing. Even the broadcast went silent.”

“Hey, hold up, I think I’ve heard of that!” interjected a member of Sharktooth’s audience. “There was just a hole in the ground or something.”

“Yep. But when they got farther away, the broadcast started up again.”

“I thought you said it wasn’t a ghost story.”

Sharktooth shrugged. “Might not be ghosts,” she said. “Might be people trying to lure people in. A trap, or something. Or maybe they had some kind of automated broadcast set up, and it kept going after the town got wrecked. I don’t know.”

Jacob looked over his shoulder just in time to see a corner of Jade’s lip twitch up. “If you want to talk about ghost stories, why not the Phantom?”

Jacob groaned. He wasn’t the only one.

“Oh, come on!” said Mack, protesting. “Don’t be like that, he’s real!”

“Have you ever met anyone who actually said they met him?” asked Sharktooth, practically. “It’s all friend of a friend stuff.”

“So’s Amity Park,” muttered Jade.

“I’ve met him!” protested Mack.

“Wait, what, really?” asked Jade, sounding like she’d just been slapped.

“Yeah! It was before I met Jacob. I was traveling with…” He trailed off. “Some… People. We got jumped by a pack, and I thought I was going to die, but Phantom showed up and he fought them off with just a machete! It was super cool. And, like, I got bitten, but he injected me with that green stuff, just like in the stories, and I was fine! Well, not completely fine. I was kind of sick, after, but I didn’t turn, obviously. And then he brought me to Mastersoft Coliseum, because it was, you know, before it got wrecked. That’s where I met Jacob!”

“What did he look like?” asked one of the younger members of the group.

“Well, I never really got a good look at him, to be honest? He was sort of wearing, uh, layers. Not quite one of those, um, hazmat suit type deals, I don’t think, but he had a mask. And his eyes were super green! It was wild.” He shrugged. “Also, I was kind of out of it… Like I said, I was pretty sick. Barely remember what he said to me…”

“Cool story, bro.”

“Yeah, maybe if you told it better, we’d believe it!”

“Hey! I’ve got the scars to prove it!”

“Whoa, hey,” said Sharktooth, mercifully stopping Mack from stripping. “You don’t have to—"

“Hello the camp!”

Jacob cursed and brought up his gun, his action mirrored by the others on watch. That voice was far too close for comfort. Even in the dark, someone should have noticed something.

Why was this guy wandering around in the dark?

“I come in peace! I bring medical supplies and zucchini!”

“Show yourself!” barked Jacob.

“I’m just—Ah. I’m just right here.”

Finally, movement. Jacob thumbed on his flashlight (and tried very hard not to think about how soon he’d have to replace the batteries).

“Ow. Bright,” complained the teenager in front of him. Jacob stared. The kid was even younger than Mack.

Was Mack even a teenager anymore…? It had been years. They’d missed some birthdays.

Point being, there was no way this kid was out here on his own.

“Where are the rest of you?” demanded Jacob.

“Uh,” said the kid. “Nowhere? I’m out here on my own.” He waved his hands back and forth expressively but was careful to keep them in Jacob’s line of sight. His poncho flapped back and forth in the night breeze, concealing his figure.

The kid could be wearing anything under there. Guns, bombs, swords... anything.

“Poncho,” snapped Jacob. “Take it off.” He was aware that the whole camp was tense and awake behind him, searching for other enemies, bracing themselves to run at a moment’s notice.

“Okay,” said the kid. “I really am alone, you know. Sorry to startle you all.” He pulled the poncho off, revealing that, despite it being the least likely thing on Jacob’s very short list of possibilities, the kid was wearing a sword. No, he was wearing two of them.

“What are the swords for?”

“Uh,” said the kid, giving him a look like he was an idiot. “Killing zombies? I mean, what’s the gun for? Who walks around without a weapon, these days, right?”

Closer to the fire, the group’s illustrious de facto leader was giving orders to search for whoever the kid was with.

The kid rolled his eyes. “Do whatever you want to make yourselves feel better, but I am alone. I’m not bait, or whatever you’re thinking.”

“You’re, like, fourteen,” said Sharktooth. “You would have been, what, eleven when the plague hit? No way you’re on your own.”

“Excuse you, but I’m eighteen, thanks. I blame my permanent baby face on my parents. Speaking of, you don’t happen to have a Jack or Maddie Fenton anywhere in there, do you?”

“There’s no one out here!” shouted one of the searchers, voice echoing slightly.

The kid shrugged. “I told you. I mean, I get why you’re cautious and all, I’ve been jumped a couple times, but still.”

The group watched him uneasily.

“You’re looking for your parents?” asked Sharktooth, finally.

“Yep. For a while, now. They were away from home when, you know, everything went down.”

Alright. Now this was just getting awkward. And a little pathetic.

“Do you know where they were, at least?” asked Mack. Of course, Mack would sympathize. He had his own parental issues.

There was something odd about his tone, however. Something off.

“Yeah. Nevada. Specifically, Phoenix. But it’s been years, so they could be anywhere. Hence the searching. I’ve actually been to Nevada. It kind of sucks down there, to be honest, because, well, it’s a desert, but that also means there aren’t as many zombies, because apparently they get dehydrated, too, after a while. So. That’s interesting.”

“You’ve been to Nevada?” asked their wise leader.

“Yeah. A bunch of other places, too, like I said, I’ve been searching. I can do a story swap if you’d like. Also, I have zucchinis. Yesterday, I stayed at this one house and there were just. So many zucchinis. Like, the entire yard was overrun with zucchinis. Zucchinis are edible, and you can’t turn your nose up at fresh produce in this economy, but I have no idea how to prepare zucchinis, and they’re honestly a little, uh, bland? Let’s call it bland. To just eat raw. So, I’m willing to trade for, you know, not being shot.”

“You said you had medical supplies?” asked Jade.

“Yeah, a bit! Not, like, a huge amount, but it seemed like the thing to say. Is anyone hurt?”

Their heroic leader took a moment to consider this. “Not right now. But, alright. We can swap stories. What’s your name?”

“Danny. Danny Fenton.” The kid made a motion that might have been intended as a salute.

“Right. Jacob, you can stop it with your tough-guy act.”

Very reluctantly, Jacob lowered the gun. The kid, Danny or whatever, was way too cheerful for an eighteen-year-old walking through a zombie apocalypse on his own. Something was up.

Of course, that something might just be godawful coping mechanisms.

“Anyway, here are the zucchinis.” The boy held out a bag, a hopeful smile on his face. “So, uh, stories? Preferably about places where there’s a bunch of people, because that’s the kind of place they’d go.”

“Right, sure,” said the man who claimed leadership. “What are your parents, anyway?”

“Ah, they’re doctors!” said the boy. “I want to bring them home, so they can figure out a cure.”

Okay. So, the kid was delusional. Right. Well, it happened.

“I mean, we’ve had some success, but they’re specialists, you know? When I say ‘we’ I mean Amity Park as a whole, by the way. I’m the one who had the basic idea, I guess, but I didn’t have any way to follow through on my own. Observing a fact doesn’t mean you can take advantage of it, after all!”

“Amity Park?”

“Yep! That’s where I’m from.” Danny shot finger guns at Sharktooth. “We’ve got an environmental deterrent for zombies. Chemical in the air screws with the virus. Some get in every once in a while, but they usually die in a week, even if you leave them alone, which we don’t. It’s pretty safe, there. I can give you a map.”

“Is this a joke?” demanded the ‘leader.’

“Um, no? Why would it be a joke?”

“I met some people who tried to find your town, but it was a crater,” said Sharktooth.

“That’s still going on, huh?” Danny shook his head. “Yeah, we don’t really know why it does that, either. Or was that a couple years ago? We were trying to fix it…” He trailed off. “What?”

“You said you had medical supplies?” prompted the man trying very hard to stay in charge.

“Ah, right.” The kid reached into his bulkier bag and pulled out a large box. “Speaking of, I don’t suppose you’ve heard of anyone else trying to make a cure? Mom and Dad could be working with them, and if not,” he shrugged, then flipped up the lid of the box, “collaboration is always good.”

Half the box was full of various bottles, packets, and smaller boxes. Normal enough. The other half, though…

“Is that radioactive?” asked Jacob, unable to stop himself as he stared at the… God, were those epi-pens?

“Not in the sense you’re thinking of, but yes.”

“Oh my gosh,” said Mack. “I knew it! You’re Phantom!”

Danny looked up. “Um. I guess we’ve met?”

“Yeah, you took me to the Mastersoft Coliseum! That’s the stuff you injected me with!”

“Oh, you were the kid the Boom Box Raiders were dragging around!”

“Oh. Yeah,” said Mack, weakly. “That’s me.”

“Nice to see you’re still around. Anyway, to answer your next question, this is the prophylactic.” He picked up one of the glowing green injection pens. “At least, that’s what some of the doctors back home call it? If you get it within a minute of being bitten or scratched or whatever, preferably in the area near the wound, you have an eighty percent survival rate. Sometime more can help fighting off the disease, but if you’re not acclimated, you can go into shock with too much, and there’s really no way to get acclimated out here.”

“You’re willing to trade something like that?” asked Jade, dubiously.

“Why not? Like I said, it’s environmental where we live.”

“But you’re not there, now. You’re out here. Same as the rest of us.”

“That’s true. But I’ve got enough of this in my bloodstream to straight-up kill any zombie that wants to bite me. Really. I can show you the scars if you want.” He raised an eyebrow. Then he turned to their ever so brilliant leader with a sharp smile. “By the way, you should rethink robbing me. I am very willing to trade, but if you attack me, I have dozens of ways to kill you. Most of them don’t even involve my swords.”

“It’s true,” said Mack.

“You know what?” said Jacob, stepping a little closer to Danny, or Phantom, or whoever this kid was trying to be. “Why don’t you show us those scars. Then we can decide if we even want to trade with you.”

Phantom shrugged. “Fair enough.”

#danny phantom #ectober #ectober 2020 #ectober week #ectober week 2020 #day 7 #happy halloween!

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jackson-overland-frost · 5 years

Text

Day 5: Childhood Memories

It wasn’t often that the past came back to haunt Daniel Fenton. Or at least, not metaphorically. The past haunted Danny literally quite often, considering the only surviving remnants of his past were all at least partially ghost. It had been not quite a millennia since he became the way he is today, but it was getting there. Old as Danny was, he knew older.

He had long since settled his score with old rivals, befriending Vlad a few years after both his parents died, revealing himself to Valarie before he faked his own. Clockwork had taken him in for a few decades after that, but now it was easier to travel the human realm.

Before, he had visited their graves several times a year- on their birthdays, on christmas, on the day of the /incident/. That turned to annually, and to once every other year, and then to every five. When the stones wear down, he recarves their names so that wont forget them, the way he’s slowly forgotten their smiles, their faces, their voices.

It wasn’t often that the past came back to haunt Daniel Fenton, but it did today. His name was back on the telescreens in Amity Park- part of Chicago now, but it was still his hometown. And it was his old name too. Nobody but Clockwork had called him Phantom for years. During his apprenticeship it had been Hourglass, and lately everyone had just been calling him Danny. Even when he masqueraded as a human he used his old last name, Fenton. Danny Phantom being on the news really brought back childhood memories.

“Relics found in Chicago in what was the small ancient town of Amity Park,” The telescreen said. Danny buried himself in the crowd and did his best to listen above the chatter. “More proof of ghosts, specifically legendary hero, Danny Phantom, who supposedly saved the world from being overrun by ghosts.”

Danny sighed to himself. It had been easy for so many years to nab an ancient copy of some pixar movie and call up Dani to watch it with him in Technus’ basement. Not anymore. If the government was letting the public have this kind of information, they had almost definitely found traces of his ecto signature somewhere. The North American government was getting better at trying to track down ghosts, but not as fast as he was getting better at avoiding them. Nevertheless, he supposed it was time to say goodbye to the human realm for a while.

He should stop off at their graves before he goes. Something in Danny’s mind tells him he won’t be back for a while. Their names were getting duller, who knows when the next opportunity to carve their names out might be, and who knows if he might have forgotten them by then. He would reminisce a while, think back on a funny story Jazz had told him once, or do his best to remember what band it was that Sam liked.

It was time to get going. A boy in the crowd gathered around the telescreen vanished into thin air.

#danny phantom #phanniemay #phanniemay19 #Day 5: Childhood Memories #maybe some angst

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ladylynse · 6 years

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Snapshots: Phantom never changed, even though everything--everyone--else did. Even Dani. Especially Dani. Danny didn’t realize what that meant until later. AU [FF | AO3]

Based off this post featuring @ghostgabber’s AU where Danny’s human half ages but his ghost half doesn’t; for @faiasakura and Phanniemay 2018 Day 24. Eventual character death. (This was getting long, so I’m going to split it into two parts.)

It was a moment of time frozen forever, but Danny didn’t realize that at first.

The changes were gradual; though his parents joked about it, he really didn’t shoot up overnight, and it took time for him to fill out his scrawny frame. He couldn’t hear the changes in his voice, and it’s not like he tried to grow out his hair or grow a beard. (The less he looked like Vlad, the better.) His face eventually lost the boyishness of youth, and he was unmistakably a young man.

But Phantom never changed.

It was embarrassing at first, especially with Sam and Tucker and Jazz teasing him about it relentlessly. Geez, Danny, you could give the little match girl a run for her money. He’d thought his ghost form would change with him. You’re shorter than me and you know it; you’re my little brother. He’d seen the other ghosts change their forms over the years; why did his stay the same? Oh, man, you look so puny!

Look young though he did, his powers grew. He honed his skills, and any ghost who knew his reputation didn’t cross him. Some of them seemed to pop up and attack for old time’s sake—Skulker and the Box Ghost being the most frequent—but he became friends with most of them. Johnny 13 would let him help fix his motorcycle (Danny still wasn’t sure whether it had ever actually broken if it was just a peace offering, but he wasn’t complaining), and Ember actually invited him to one of the concerts she held in the Ghost Zone.

Danny’s grades had never been good enough for him to get into the space program, and despite his parents expressing their support for him to pursue whatever he wanted, he chose to stay in Amity Park after high school instead of applying to college. He’d wanted to assure himself that the town wouldn’t be overrun in his absence. Sam and Tucker had been reluctant to leave him on his own, but Tucker had been offered a great scholarship to MIT, and Sam wouldn’t have been happy staying under her parents’ roof any longer. Even Valerie left, though judging by her visits home, she monitored the news from her hometown closely.

So instead of seeking higher education, Danny officially took up the family business. With Jazz off at university, he could no longer depend on her to monitor their parents’ inventions. And by working more closely with them, he got a better idea of their views. They still had no love for Phantom, but they were eventually willing to (begrudgingly) admit that Phantom did a good job protecting the town.

It was a start.

It made him think he’d be able to tell them, eventually.

When it became clear that Phantom wasn’t physically changing to match Fenton, Danny used that to his advantage. They didn’t resemble each other as much as they once had, and the fact that they didn’t was seemingly further proof that there was no connection between them whatsoever. Not that anyone had really been looking. Not that he’d known of, at least. But if anyone had, now it could be laughed off as a strange coincidence, not used as potential evidence of what should be an impossibility.

If the Guys in White were still sniffing around, they hadn’t shown their faces in years. Danny rather hoped that their department’s funding had been cut and the program was now defunct, but he wasn’t going to get sloppy because of that assumption. He couldn’t afford to. It was better if next to no one knew his secret. It was still safer. For him. For his friends. For Dani.

The first time he realized the changes—or lack thereof—weren’t simply physical was during one of Dani’s visits, actually. He’d been twenty at the time and over at Sam’s to escape some of the Christmas-y-ness of his own house and to visit with her and Tucker while they were home for the holidays. Dani had dropped by with Youngblood to remind him where everyone was gathering for the Christmas Truce.

Sam and Tucker had thought she’d come alone.

No one had corrected them, and that had been the beginning.

“Maybe you just need to get out of this town,” Dani said as they flew over Amity Park. “Travel the world. Actually see something. Maybe that’ll jumpstart whatever’s not developing.”

Danny huffed. As Phantom, he still looked like he was fourteen. Dani, on the other hand, looked twice his age and barely resembled the scrappy twelve year old she’d once been, no matter what form she took.

It wasn’t fair.

She was a clone.

He shouldn’t have to be stuck looking like snot-nosed kid when he was in his thirties.

“I’m serious,” she said. “Tell your parents you want to see about expanding their company. Use Vlad as an excuse if you have to. I can hang around here for a while if that’ll make you feel better, but I doubt any of the ghosts are going to break your truce.”

She had a point. It had taken years of negotiations—begun, of course, during the Christmas Truce, when he could hold a decent conversation without trading shots—but he’d worked out a system, more or less. If the ghosts didn’t harm anyone when they came, he’d allow them to visit without interfering.

The Box Ghost still made a mess of things, but he was no more terrifying than usual. Johnny 13 and Kitty became regular visitors, along with Wulf and Dora and occasionally Youngblood and Klemper. Poindexter had even dropped by on occasion. Ember was limited to one concert in the Real World per tour, but Technus was free to scavenge for recycled or abandoned electronics as long as he did all his compilations in the Ghost Zone. (Danny was pretty sure he was still planning world domination, but a strategic comment regarding his skills had him competing with Skulker in a rivalry that kept both ghosts fairly busy.)

“I don’t think the fact that I haven’t travelled the world is the reason for this.”

Dani shrugged. “Suit yourself. But don’t rule it out till you try it, cuz. Travelling’s about the experience, not the destination. You’re not going to find out what a place is really like from a TV screen.”

Danny pulled up short, and Dani flew back to join him. “You think I’m wasting my life by staying here, don’t you? Dani, I’m protecting people.”

She crossed her arms. “You were protecting people,” she corrected, “and then you fixed it so that they don’t need you anymore. By staying here and claiming you’re protecting this town? You’re just trying to protect yourself.”

“Dani—”

“You have a family. And you can’t tell me you think they wouldn’t accept you after everything. So obviously that’s not why you’re not telling them. But maybe you think you’re trying to protect them now, instead in of yourself. Protecting them from the truth. You’re forgetting how much lies hurt, and you’re shortchanging them for thinking they can’t handle this.”

“That’s crazy!”

“Yeah, but it’s true. You’re not telling them because you don’t want to admit you’ve been lying to them.”

“I’m not—”

“You didn’t even try to pursue your dreams once you thought it was safe to do so. And, yeah, fine, so maybe it would’ve been hard to’ve become an astronaut, but there are other jobs out there relating to space that you definitely could’ve done. You’re smart, Danny. Intuitive, which is worth much more than book smarts. But even when your parents were willing to let you go, you stayed. If I’m dead wrong, then why are you still here?”

“I like what I do, Dani.” Normally, he’d give her points for the pun, but not now. “And Amity Park still needs Phantom, whatever you think. Pretty much every time I let my guard down, someone comes through and tries to destroy the world.”

“That hasn’t happened since your truce.”

“And you think I’m going to tempt fate with my luck?”

Dani shot him an exasperated look. “C’mon, cuz, you can concede my point. I mean…. I get if you don’t want to tell them about me. You’re my family. I don’t need anyone else.” Lies, judging by her face, and that made them more painful for it. “But you still need them. They’re your family. And this isn’t a good reason to push them away or just put up with them trying to kill you whenever you’re in ghost mode. They wouldn’t if they knew the truth. And I get it’s been easier to keep your secret from them because Phantom hasn’t changed, but…. Think about what you’re taking away from them by keeping this up.”

She wasn’t really wrong. He did think his parents would accept him if he finally told them, and he really didn’t want to admit that he’d been living a lie for years. If he told them about Dani, they’d probably accept her, too. But he just….

This was easier, in a way. Predictable. And he didn’t have to deal with Vlad hovering over him, demanding to know why he’d done what he had when the truth endangered his secret, too.

He hadn’t talked to Vlad in years except when he couldn’t help it, but he might have to. Dani was right about something else, too: whatever this was, it couldn’t be normal. Not when she was his clone and she wasn’t affected by…whatever this was. To Danny’s eye, Plasmius had never changed, but it’s not like Vlad had ever pulled out pictures from his days as a young halfa. So what if something was wrong? And if there was something wrong, who was affected? Him or Dani?

“Look, cuz, fun as this has been, I need to head out of state again. Valerie wants me to back her up while she checks something out. I’ll call you later. Just…please, think about what I said.”

She took off without waiting for a response.

Vlad raised his eyebrows. “You’re only asking me this now, little badger?”

Danny bristled. He still hated that nickname. And even though he was taller than Vlad in his human form, the other halfa hadn’t changed his ways. “Just tell me.”

Vlad shuffled the papers on his desk, playing for time and just trying to make Danny squirm. It didn’t improve his mood. But while Dani hadn’t brought it up again, Danny had been thinking about what she’d said that day—and, more to the point, what had been bothering him since he’d first realized that her ghost form was changing while his stubbornly stayed the same. That was why he was here, now, crashing at Vlad’s unannounced and demanding answers.

He hadn’t wanted to give Vlad warning, since the old fruit loop might use the time to prepare convenient answers that seemed to be the truth but were really just what Danny wanted to hear.

“Danielle is a clone, my dear boy, but she is not a perfect one. For obvious reasons.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Just spit it out.” Vlad never got straight to the point when he could go on and on. While he had more or less given up on the whole idea of getting Danny to turn on Jack and be the son Vlad had never had or of creating a reasonable facsimile, he still enjoyed the attention. And antagonizing Danny at every turn.

“How’s your biology?”

“Aside from what I need to know? Terrible.”

Vlad sighed. “Then suffice to say, little badger, that by her very nature, Danielle’s body will age faster than yours.”

Danny just stared at him.

“One of her imperfections is her instability. You may have stabilized her once, Daniel, but she is not exactly conservative in her actions, and such wear and tear is hardly the best thing for her fragile body. I must admit I cut quite a few corners accelerating her age to twelve years when I first started; it’s surprising that she does not appear older than her current age now.”

Danny opened his mouth, closed it, licked his lips, and tried again. “So, what, one of these days, she’ll destabilize again? Why didn’t you tell me this years ago? How can we stop it?”

“It’s not a process that can be stopped. There are simply too many mutations within her genome, and cytolysis seems to have been introduced with the accelerated aging—”

“And you haven’t figured out how to fix it?” Danny growled, knowing his eyes were burning green but hating that Vlad had kept this knowledge to himself, that he was content with letting Dani die so easily. “We have to save her!”

“There isn’t anything we can do.”

“But there has—”

“Daniel. Her aging isn’t normal. Surely you’ve realized that, considering that your own ghost form hasn’t changed.”

“That just makes me the abnormal one,” Danny bit out. “Other ghosts have changed and grown. It’s not just the shapeshifters.”

“The other ghosts are ghosts. Have you really not figured this out? It’s been years, Daniel. I had thought you at least a little cleverer than this.”

Danny was about to retort when Vlad’s words clicked. He’d made a distinction between ghosts and halfas and already made it fairly clear that Dani’s apparently normal growth was the furthest thing from it. Which meant…. “You’re not aging, either? In ghost mode, I mean?”

Vlad leaned back in his chair and changed into Plasmius. “Do I still look so old to your young eyes?”

Plasmius didn’t resemble Masters as much as Phantom resembled Danny’s human half, but— “No. You look…. Geez, you almost look younger than me.”

“I am. I was in my mid-twenties when your insufferable father caused the proto-portal to explode in my face. But this form has its advantages, little badger. It becomes more and more difficult to give up.”

“Uh huh.”

Vlad gave him a level look, a slight curve of his lip the only indication that he disapproved of Danny’s flat tone. “You’ll understand someday. Youth isn’t something to be scorned.”

“You can’t talk. Plasmius doesn’t look like a teenager. People don’t look at you in ghost mode and not respect you. I swear, the kids these days—”

Vlad cut him off with an amused chuckle. “And you call me old. But let an old man teach you a lesson you should have already learned: accept what you cannot change.”

“What, not be the change you want to see?”

“You were always good at changing things, Daniel, but you never quite got the hang of accepting them.”

“I handled the half ghost thing well enough,” Danny muttered. He wasn’t sure what Vlad was trying to do by giving him this so-called advice, but he was more concerned about everything else the other man had said. If he wasn’t lying about Dani…. “Did you really not figure out a way to stabilize your clones? I mean, you could’ve adapted your own mid-morph sample if you were messing with DNA anyway.”

Vlad frowned, though Danny didn’t know if that was because he was incorrect or just grossly oversimplifying things. “Is that really your biggest concern right now?”

“Yes!”

“Then you haven’t learned anything at all. Run along, little badger. Try to prove me wrong. But don’t be surprised when you fail.”

“So you still haven’t told her, huh?”

Danny phased his hand through the wall of his old bedroom to the empty space where he kept a vial of Dani’s ectoplasm. He’d had to beg it off Vlad, not wanting to tell Dani what he was doing until he found a way to fix this, so he was careful with it; he wouldn’t have the opportunity to get more. Fortunately, his parents weren’t home right now, which meant he had free reign of the lab—and it meant he could have Jazz on speakerphone. “There’s gotta be a way around it. C’mon, haven’t you come across anything?” As of last week, Tucker hadn’t had anything, either, and according to Sam’s text yesterday, her best attempt at a lead had fizzled.

“You’re the one working with Mom and Dad, not me. I haven’t been covered in ectoplasmic goo in years.” Danny opened his mouth, but Jazz continued before he had a chance to say anything. “I know, I know. I’m keeping an ear to the ground, but I don’t think I’m going to be much help. You should ask Mom.”

“That would require more explaining than I’m prepared to do,” Danny pointed out as he headed downstairs. Jazz was just trying to make the point again that he should tell them his secret, especially now that he’d finally—finally—gotten them to agree to work with Phantom more overtly than ever before. He knew they didn’t trust him much, but they were getting older, and they weren’t as quick or—at least in his mom’s case—as accurate a shot as they’d once been. He’d told them, as both Danny and as Phantom, to turn on Phantom if he ever went bad, but that was as much for their comfort as for his.

He didn’t want to be let loose on the world if, for some reason, he was being controlled or anything like that. Valerie knew that, too. She didn’t need to live in Amity Park or Elmerton to keep up on the news, and Phantom going rogue? She’d pay attention to that.

But he hadn’t told her his secret, either, even after she’d accepted Dani. Because that wasn’t the same. On that point, it did come down to cowardice. Like Dani had said, he didn’t want to admit to the years of lies. And, brief though the period had been, he had dated Valerie. She might take that as a betrayal of trust. Willing to work with her enemies though she might be, she could definitely hold a grudge.

Of course, mad at him as she might initially be, she would get over it. Eventually. And then he’d have someone else to help him solve this problem with Dani before it was too late. He was beyond pretending that he didn’t need help.

“And you tried talking to Vlad again?”

“He’s no help and you know it,” Danny said as he flicked on the lights in the lab. “He gave up on her a long time ago. As far as he’s concerned, he’s humouring me. Waiting for me to realize I can’t do anything. As if I’m going to abandon her.”

A sigh. “Danny, I know how much this means to you, but you need to talk to someone who knows more than we do. Sam and Tucker have their own lives now. They can’t drop everything to help you as easily anymore.”

“And neither can you,” Danny finished. “I know. I’m not asking you to do that. I’m just—” From Jazz’s end, someone leaned on a car horn. Danny winced. That was the downside of calling Jazz in the middle of the day; if she was somewhere she could talk to him, then she was in transit, fighting her way through what seemed to be constant traffic. She walked as much as she could, claiming it kept her fit, but Danny suspected the truth was one too many close calls with drivers little better than their father. “Someone got cut off?” he guessed.

“Patience is hard to come by in the big city,” was all Jazz said. “Sometimes it feels like you’re risking life and limb even venturing out onto the sidewalk.”

“But your patients thank you for it,” Danny said, grinning as he imagined Jazz’s eye roll. “And I’m grateful that you still put up with these phone calls from me. You’re a life saver, Jazz. Really.” He glanced at his watch. “You’ve got, what, ten minutes till you want to be there for your next appointment?”

“Yeah. It would be tight if I didn’t give myself a few extra minutes. But you didn’t call to talk about me. Was it really just to see if I’ve miraculously discovered something to help Dani?”

She knew it wasn’t; her tone made that perfectly clear.

She could still read him like a book.

“Dani was wrong. About me just needing to travel, I mean. Since Vlad confirmed that he’s the same as me…. The joke about me being half dead might not be as much of a joke as I thought. Phantom’s never going to change, Jazz. I could be ninety, and if I go ghost, then bam! Wimpy teenager. Again.”

Jazz snorted. “Phantom can’t exactly be described as wimpy, and I don’t think perpetually looking like a teenager is what you’re really worried about. You aren’t losing yourself whenever you change, little brother. Just because you look like your past self, it doesn’t mean you’re becoming him. You’ve grown a lot over the past couple of decades, even if you can’t see that growth on the outside. That face in the mirror is still yours, and you’re still you. Phantom might be almost unrecognizable alongside Fenton, but that dissociation isn’t—”

Jazz’s words ended in a shriek, difficult to distinguish over screaming tires and blaring horns. After a loud crackle, the line went dead.

Danny’s shouts went unheard.

A warm hand dropped onto his shoulder. “She’s gone, sweetie,” Maddie said quietly as she moved around to join him at her kitchen table. “We have to accept that.” He’d come over for a visit, found them both out, and sat there to drink some tea which had long since gone cold. He hadn’t heard them come back. He had also apparently missed the kettle boiling, as she held her own steaming mug as if she were going to attempt the same thing he had. He wondered if she’d be any more successful.

Nothing seemed to be successful lately, including getting some sleep, considering there hadn’t been any ghost attacks.

It had been three weeks.

Three weeks of numbness. Three weeks of anger. Three weeks of tears. Three weeks of being an emotional mess, swinging between feel nothing (dead inside) and feeling too much.

Three weeks of that unfinished conversation repeating itself whenever he closed his eyes, always ending the same way.

Maddie pushed the warm mug toward him and pulled his untouched one away. He stared at it dully for a moment before slowly curling his fingers around it in acceptance. The patterns of steam in the air were mesmerizing. “This is incredibly hard for all of us, honey,” his mother said. “You should consider talking to someone like Jack and I do. Jazz would have wanted that.”

You don’t know what she wanted. He couldn’t bring himself to voice those words, though; there was no reason for such venom. Had a ghost taken Jazz from them, no one in their family would have hesitated. They would have been able to spring into action and take down the ghost, stopping it from doing this to anyone else even if they weren’t in time to save Jazz.

But it hadn’t been a ghost.

It had been an ordinary human. Driving. Drowsy, maybe, or drunk or texting. Danny didn’t know for sure. All he did know was that the man had run onto the sidewalk and hadn’t been able to stop fast enough. He’d hit Jazz and a few other pedestrians. He’d died from his injuries after a few days in the hospital; the others had, as far as Danny knew, recovered.

Jazz hadn’t even made it to the hospital.

“This isn’t right,” Danny whispered. “Jazz has too much left to do.”

Maddie found his hand and squeezed it. “I know it hurts, sweetie. Your heart is aching with her absence. But she’s gone, and you have to accept that. We can’t change it.”

Her words made him remember the conversation he’d had with Vlad years ago. “You were always good at changing things, Daniel, but you never quite got the hang of accepting them.”

But did he have to accept this? Jazz’s death had been abrupt, senseless, and had come well before it should have. She was the definition of someone with unfinished business in this realm. Didn’t that mean there was a chance that she was out there somewhere? Lost in the Ghost Zone, trying to recollect her memories of her past self or trying to muster up the energy to move through the Ghost Zone, find their portal, and break through?

Danny let out a slow breath. “She might not be gone gone.” He tore his eyes away from the mug and looked at Maddie. “She might be out there. In the Ghost Zone. Mom, I might be able to find her.”

Maddie’s smile was small. Sympathetic. Saddened. “Jazz wouldn’t have wanted to come back as a ghost, sweetie.”

“That’s not necessarily a choice! And if she’s out there—”

“Even if something is out there that resembles her, Danny, it wouldn’t be her. You know that.”

“You’re wrong,” he insisted. “You know as well as I do that some of the ghosts in the Ghost Zone are people and animals who had once lived in our realm. They aren’t all just sentient ectoplasmic forms or whatever your latest term for it is. And the ones who aren’t, the ones who were once alive— There’s more of the people they once were in them than you think. Death doesn’t change everything. Jazz would still be Jazz, not just a ghost that looks like her.”

Maddie sighed. “I know it’s a comforting notion, Danny, but you can’t delude yourself with such falsehood.”

“It’s not—”

“Ghosts aren’t alive!” Maddie snapped. Danny blinked, not expecting her anger, and she took a few breaths before saying, “It’s dangerous to hope like that, Danny. You’re just setting yourself up for disappointment, and you know better.”

Danny swallowed. “I know more than you do. I know more than you think.”

Jazz had always wanted him to tell them.

“Danny—”

“Do you remember that accident I had in the lab when I was a kid? The one that sparked the portal? When you wanted me to go to the hospital but I insisted I was fine and Dad was so excited about the portal working that you didn’t push the point?”

Maddie’s lips thinned but she nodded.

“More happened then than I ever told you. I…. I don’t know how it works, exactly. Jazz always understood it better than I did. But my DNA…. Something changed. I think it was infused with ectoplasm.”

There was a frown on her face now, but at least she wasn’t interrupting him. He was surprised she’d let him get this far.

“The thing is….” Danny could still see the steam rising from the mug. He looked down at it and channelled some of his ice powers into his hands. The mug cooled, and the liquid within froze solid as ice painted the outside. He didn’t look up, even though Maddie’s gasp meant she’d seen it as he’d intended. “Everything changed then, Mom. I was just fourteen. I’d been in an accident that probably should have killed me—it was worse than I ever admitted—and…. I came out of it alive and with ghost powers. Which sounds crazy, like something that should be in a cartoon or comic books or something, but it’s not. It happened.” He glanced up and met wide violet eyes. “I can turn into a ghost.”

Silence.

“I’m Danny Phantom, Mom.”

Heartbeats passed.

Maddie let out a slow breath.

Danny waited.

Finally, a quiet, heart-wrenching, “Jazz knew?”

Not what he’d expected, but Danny treated the question as the lifesaver it was. “Not at first,” he admitted, “but she figured it out, and then she helped me. Sam and Tucker knew from the start. And Vlad….” He hesitated. “Vlad knows, too. Since that reunion you dragged us to. He, um, hadn’t entirely given up ghost hunting like you and Dad thought.” That was the safest way to put that. Let Vlad explain it for himself. “But my point is, Mom, I can go into the Ghost Zone and look for Jazz. I’ve been in there before. A lot. And I’ve got friends in there who can help me. We can find her.”

Maddie took a shuddering breath. “Please don’t.”

“I—what?”

The tears that had been gathering in Maddie’s eyes began slow tracks down her cheeks, disturbed as she’d tried to blink them away. “I…. I don’t want to think that she’s a ghost.”

A lump that had nothing to do with grief and everything to do with an old terror filled Danny’s throat. He managed to choke out, “B-but…ghosts aren’t evil, mindless beings. That’s my point. I’m still your son, even though I’m a ghost, too.”

Maddie closed her eyes. “I know. And I….” This time, she was the one having trouble finding the right words. “I still love you, Danny, and so will your father. I don’t have to understand this to know that. But that’s different than what happened to Jazz.”

Relief flooded him, and he found himself smiling as he argued his point. “No, it’s not.” He almost felt like laughing. Jazz was right; he should have done this years ago. He’d have to tell her the good news. “I can go find her, and—”

“Jazz is gone, Danny,” Maddie repeated. “You can’t find her. There isn’t anything here—or in the Ghost Zone—for you to find.”

“But—”

“No. Please, just let your sister rest in peace. For all our sakes.”

Maddie stood and went down to the lab, presumably to find Jack. Danny just stared after her, dumbstruck. He’d thought…. He’d thought she’d be happy, knowing her daughter might not be lost forever.

He headed into the Ghost Zone the next morning anyway, determined to find Jazz.

Part II or see more fics

#danny phantom #phanfiction #phanniemay18 #phanniemay 2018 #dp fanfiction #danny fenton #dani phantom #fanfiction #au #dp au #my writing #ladylynse #dp snippet #snippets

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the-half-ghost-kid-hero-rp · 6 years

Note

💕

Danny had been trying to be better lately. He really had. For some reason, his human side had been pulling at him more than ever over the last few weeks. So he had listened. He had barely even switched forms at all. And slowly, ever so slowly, his mind had cleared. It was like a fog was lifted, allowing him to see clearly for the first time in what felt like forever.

Exhaustion was the first thing that had come for him. And it had done so in spades. What little energy he had had in the beginning was spent shifting from his bed to the couch and promptly falling into a restful sleep. After a few days, however, the tiredness in his bones started to ebb, his energy returning little by little.

What little vigor he had gathered, he had spent on cleaning. He could only manage menial tasks at first - straightening his first aid box, collecting dirty bandage wrappers, and taking out the trash - but by the third day he had graduated to vacuuming the living room and cracking the blinds in his room. It was nice, to feel the sun warm his cool skin. If allowed, he would curl up in a sunbeam and never leave.

It had taken a day or so for his appetite to return in full, and he had been forced to confront his empty kitchen. Preparing a frozen meal wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle, but his stomach had quickly yearned for more sustaining sustenance after the first few repeat dinners. He had even been keeping up with his dirty dishes, never leaving so much as a spoon behind before turning in for the evening.

After about a week, he had been starting to get into a rhythm. Wake, occupy himself by cleaning, organizing, or reading, then eating a healthy meal before heading to bed with a feeling of accomplishment warming his core. It had been nice, and he had been trying. He had been trying so hard.

Of course, most things couldn’t last. Routines simply weren’t allowed to someone not belonging to this - or any other - dimension. Just when he was beginning to get his footing in this dance of normality, he was brutally reminded that the closest he could get was a pale mockery.

His punishment had started right after a satisfying meal of mac n cheese and hot dogs. His favorite since childhood. A staple in American homes among American children. Something normal, concrete, and unchanging. And in a matter of minutes he was hunched over the upstairs toilet, retching undigested bits of noodles and uncultured meat into the recently cleaned bowl.

He didn’t clean the kitchen that night.

The next morning he woke unusually late and everything hurt. Sore abs were run of the mill after blowing chunks; he knew that. It was standard and something he was intimately familiar with. This, though, was a full body, bone deep ache he wasn’t used to. It hung over him all day, a heavy blanket draped across his sagging shoulders.

The few chores he could accomplish before tiring out were done slowly and with half-effort.

Days passed and his condition had only gotten worse. It was as if all of the progress he had made was for nothing. The kitchen was ripe with spoiled mac n cheese, trash cans were overrun with crumpled tissues, and his blinds were drawn tight. Worst of all, his restored energy had been so depleted he would have guessed he was in the negative percentile. At least he would have if he had been in the right mind to speculate.

The pain, like his insatiable exhaustion, stayed coiled tightly around him, its burning tendrils wrapped around his body. Even in most his relaxed state, the soreness in his limbs kept him from getting restful sleep. His short supply of energy was spent tossing and turning, which only tired him more. Constant stomach cramps and dry heaving ravaged the muscles that weren’t already in agony.

He was miserable and completely bewildered as to why.

It had been four days of this torture. Four days spent wearing a path between his bed and the couch and the toilet. Four days since he had managed to keep anything down, liquid or otherwise. Four days without an hour of decent sleep. Four days without being able to touch his ghost side or powers. They were locked away, out of his reach somewhere deep and dark and untouchable.

As he sat on the couch blearily contemplating his dilemma and wondering if he was ever going to get peace, a knock rapped on the front door. It was dark outside, well into the hours of the evening, so he knew the guests were from out of town; no one in Amity Park would dare bother the abandoned Fenton Works building on the corner.

Then there it was again, a pounding on his front door, more persistent this time.

He should check that.

He blinked slowly and suddenly found he was on his back, snuggled under a blanket, staring up at the vaulted ceiling of his living room. There were noises around him - heartbeats and words and movement. Time had passed, he could tell. It was later in the evening and for the first time in forever, he actually felt slightly rested. He was almost a brand new person having gotten his first bit of actual sleep in days.

Someone was in the kitchen, complaining of the mess - rude - and someone else was coming down the stairs. Danny frowned, tilting his head to glance upside down at the walkway. Since when were the inside lights on?

An all too familiar woman was descending the steps, haloed in brilliant crimson. She looked like an angel.

“I said, did you find anything!?” she yelled to someone other than him.

A grumpy angel.

Danny grinned quietly as he watched her turn toward the kitchen, her arms tense. Then he remembered the second voice and his grinned slipped into a suspicious frown.

“NO!” his angel’s companion answered back in a distinctly female voice. That definitely wasn’t the hell hound Tazaki usually traveled with. “Nothing short of some really gross dirty dishes,” the intruder continued and the young woman stomped her way into the doorway. She looked and sounded ages younger than Taz, though Danny would wager she was still older than him. “Would help if you told me what I was supposed to be looking for.”

Snuggling deeper into his cocoon, he glared at her over the hem of his blanket. She was loud. And short. He didn’t like her.

“I told you. Peppermint, ginger, or lemon. Herbs,” Taz replied. Growling, she rubbed her eyes. “There has to be something.”

“Just some frozen bean burritos,” the younger woman replied, holding up a frostbitten dinner. Danny’s glare intensified. Those were his frozen bean burritos.

Suddenly Taz’s green eyes were narrowed on him.

“Do you have any herbs or anything?”

He blinked at her.

“Hello? Herbs? Spices? Did your mom keep anything in stock? Didn’t you say she was naturalistic sometimes?”

“No.”

“No?” Apparently that wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear, because she sighed deeply, fingers massaging her eyes. “Of course not. I really did not want to go shopping today.”

Suddenly, Danny realized why she looked so angelic: instead of her usual torn jeans and leather jacket, she was dolled up in a black dress, a knee length skirt hugging her hips. Black fur was curled around her shoulders, intricate lace across her collarbones keeping it in place. Her red locks were pulled back into a high ponytail, bangs framing her face and the sparkling diamond earrings that dangled from her ears.

He had to be hallucinating.

Taz grumbled, swinging her weight to one hip. One hand she planted firmly on that hip as the other shielded her painted face. “I. Had. Plans tonight,” she sighed.

“I’ll go upstairs,” Danny muttered automatically. Sitting up, he slipped off the couch and shuffled to the stairs. The couch blanket was coming with him. Just in case anyone wanted to know.

Distracted, Taz frowned down to the young woman still clutching the frozen burritos. “And would you put those away!” she shouted, startling the poor girl.

“Oh come on!” her companion argued loudly. “I’m hungry! And you know there’s not gonna be any real food at the party! There never are. So we might as well eat up while we can.”

The red huntress loomed over her darkly, eye twitching and forehead vein throbbing. “I said: put those away!”

Danny’s wet sniff caught Taz’s attention as the younger woman ran sobbing into the kitchen. “Danny?” she wondered softly.

“‘m fine,” he slurred. A shoulder found its way to the wall and he figured that would be a nice place to rest his weight for the moment. “Jus’ tired.”

Upstairs, Danny was flopped onto his bed, curled on his side under his couch blanket. The same tired feeling that had been dragging down his eyelids clawed at them even now, but rest alluded his weary soul. His brain was too busy muddling over just what had happened downstairs, his musings getting stuck on random images and sounds like a broken record player as he tried to make sense of the strange events.

He could still hear the commotion coming from the kitchen, even in his room. That was something this old house had never been great with. The walls kept out ghosts, ghouls, and creeps, but his parents’ conversation about the newest anti-ghost disintegration weapon floated from room to room as if the walls weren’t even there. The muffled noise was a lullaby sweet with nostalgia and he slowly felt the tension leave his muscles.

Just then, footsteps thumped softly down the hall, avoiding all the noisy spots with practiced ease. His door creaked open after a soft knock, white light from the hallway piercing the musty darkness of his room.

“You okay?”

What did she want him to say? That he had had a fever for what felt like a week now? That the last time he managed to keep down any sort of food or drink was four days ago? Or maybe that he couldn’t touch his ghost core and was scared to death he’d never be able to get it back?

He shrugged.

“Do you need anything?” she asked. Apparently the stylish heels had come off at some point, he realized as she padded flat footed across his room.

He didn’t know what to say, so he kept still and silent.

Taz noted this with a worried glare. He looked so small, lazily curled up in the middle of his bed. His frail figure was swallowed by the sweaty blankets surrounding him. The room smelled of illness and it made her queasy.

“When was the last time you cleaned up? Or cracked a window?”

A frustrated growl told her everything she needed to know.

“Four days ago.”

“And when was the last time you ate something?”

His stomach rumbled loudly. “Four days ago,” he choked.

“Showered?”

“Four days ago.”

“Fought–”

“Four. Days. Ago. Everything either did or didn’t happen four days ago, get it?” he interrupted, sitting up and glaring at her. Black hair stuck up in all directions, matted and unwashed. His sunken cheeks were flushed against his pale skin.

Taz gasped quietly.

“Your eyes.”

They were tired and weary and sad and shockingly blue.

He turned away.

“…I know.”

“How long?”

Honestly, she deserved that glare.

“Four days ago,” the redhead concluded with a nod. She perched on the edge of the bed. Danny drew up his legs, wrapping his arms around them to give her space. Their hands accidentally brushed.

The redhead blinked.

“Your…”

“What?” he demanded shortly. This game of point out the obvious was getting real old real quick.

“Your hand. You really are burning up.” Reaching forward suddenly, the redhead grabbed his hand and pulled it forward, clasping it between hers. “She said you were hot but not like this--”

Danny hissed and pulled away.

“And you’re freezing,” he replied. They paused, staring at each other.

He broke it with another grumpy huff.

“So what? I’m a little warm. It happens,” he frowned, shrugging the blanket up over his arms, hiding them from her intrusive touch.

Tazaki sighed, long and deep. The next time she spoke, her voice was soft and warm and he could have cried it reminded him so much of his mom.

“Your body is unnaturally cold, right?” she asked. “On average around 85-90 degrees?”

He knew she knew the answer to that, so he debated for a long moment if he should even comment.

“Yeah,” he admitted finally. Sitting up this long was making him a little queasy.

“Blaine took your temperature while you were unconscious downstairs. You’re currently 99.4 degrees. That’s high for normal people. She was surprised you were still alive.”

Danny stared blankly at her for awhile. Math was never his strong suit, but he didn’t remember it ever making him nauseous.

“Bucket,” he gagged suddenly, throwing off the blanket. His small trash can was in his hands before his feet even touched the floor and he nestled it between his knees.

“Danny,” Taz mourned quietly, rubbing his sweaty back with her black fingernails. Dry heaving sucked. She would know better than most people, but when combined with a high fever and an internal system running on less than empty, it was almost unbearable.

It broke her heart to think he’d been suffering like this in silence for four days. Lucky for him she had happened to be passing by on an escort mission. It was even more fortunate she happened to bring along with her a world renown doctor and surgeon (even if she wasn’t even twenty years old).

Once the wave of sickness had passed, she reached out for him. “Come here,” she said softly. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders and trunk, she drew him close to her chest.

“No,” he mumbled, having only the strength to turn his head away.

“Yes. You’re burning up and need to cool down.”

The boy lifted his arms, trying with sluggish desperation to push her limbsoff. “No, don’t. I lied. You’re not freezing. You’re warm. Hot–boiling! Stop!”

“Warm or not, I’m cooler than you right now,” she determined, pinning his arms to his sides and pulling him closer.

He half-sobbed in desperation, resorting to leaning his entire weight forward. Apparently he would have rather face planted into his vomit bucket than lean against her. It was becoming annoying.

“What’s wrong with you?” she demanded, releasing her hold on him once she was sure he wasn’t actually going to eat carpet.

Folded over onto his thighs, arms wrapped around his middle, his face was effectively hidden from her judging gaze.

It took several long beats before his quiet voice floated into the air, riding on the back of a deep red blush.

“You……… you look really pretty,” he mumbled quietly.

Admittedly, it took Taz as second to register what he was saying. Then it was her turn to almost fall off the bed.

“You’re an idiot!” she blushed, punching his shoulder.

Somewhere hidden in the mess of mangled black hair and shrugged shoulders, he smirked.

It warmed her heart.

She sighed, smiling. “Thank you,” she breathed and opened her arms invitingly. “Now would you please come here so I can make sure you don’t die?”

Head still hung low enough to conceal his blush, he sat up and leaned against her, cheek pressed against her sternum.

“There we go,” she sighed contentedly, slipping them further onto the bed. Slowly and gently, she laid down on the sweaty comforter, guiding the young boy to nestle against her.

With a soft moan, he relaxed, melting into the comforting embrace. His breath was hot, too hot, against the exposed skin of her chest but she didn’t consider moving him.

How could she when, in a matter of seconds, his breath evened out and the forgotten ghost boy was fast asleep for the first time in four days.

He had tried. He had tried so hard. But now he didn’t need to try anymore.

Asked by @tazaki-theredknight-blog for the send 💕 to hug my muse and not let go… meme.

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#@ tazaki-theredknight-blog #danny phantom #@ answered prompts

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