#while jazz's full name is jasmine fenton

[corkinavoid]

Case File: Jason’s Reading

She's sitting by the window, the faint light from it illuminating her red hair like halo. Jason watches her for a few moments longer — knitted sweater, tiny pearl earrings, a pen stuck in her bun like a hair pin. She looks softly pretty, charming in a subtle, unintended way.

A polar opposite from how Jason's seen her last time, in a tight dress, with her hair loose and her eyeliner smudged from laughing too much. And, also, blissfully tipsy as she professionally threw a guy over her shoulder and stole Jason’s heart on the spot. She didn't even sway — he'd thought performing judo on five inch heels would be more difficult than she made it look.

He steps towards the table she's sitting at and takes the chair opposite of her. She glances up from her book, giving him an absentminded nod of greeting — this is a Gotham U library, so the students try to be nice with each other. Who knows which one of them ends up as the new Rogue.

A moment later, the girl does a double-take.

Jason smiles. The redhead looks at him, longer this time, her eyes narrowing like she's debating if he is worth her time or if she wants to throw another guy over her shoulder. Then, she puts her book down, placing some kind of bookmark — a card with a flower drawing — in it. Seems like he's passed the quality check for now.

"Can I help you?" She raises her eyebrows politely.

"I was wondering if you like coffee," Jason decides to skip the awkward greetings and just get it over with. "Or tea, if that's your thing," he glances down to her bookmark. It kind of looks like something from an herbal tea package, even has berries on it.

"That's belladonna," the girl deadpans, picking the piece of paper up, "other known as deadly nightshade, a poisonous plant. If you're planning on adding it to your tea blend, then I'd have to say no."

"Oh, um," Jason fumbles, grimacing in embarrassment. He knows what belladonna is, thank you, he just didn't recognize it in a drawing, at first glance, upside down.

"Also, it's a tarot card," the redhead keeps going. If her goal was to make Jason feel five shades of shame in less than one minute, she succeeded flawlessly.

"You do tarot readings?" He asks, for the lack of anything better to say. The girl raises only one eyebrow this time, a faintly amused smile on her lips. Oh, now she's just having fun watching him struggle, isn't she? Jason takes in a breath and clasps his hands together on the table, leaning forward and looking her in the eyes. "Okay, listen. I didn't mean to assume, and I wasn't actually looking for you- Okay, alright, I was," he corrects himself when the redhead huffs, "but not in a stalker way, I just thought it'd be nice if I met you again. And I came here looking for Piperski's 'Language Construction', not for you. But then I saw you here and thought it was a nice coincidence, so if you'd like to have coffee with me, that's great, and if you don't, you can tell me to fuck off and I'll leave you to your reading."

The girl stays quiet for so long that Jason is considering retreat, her thoughtful gaze — she has oddly colored eyes, now that he sees them in natural light, blueish-green and kind of faded — locked on him. Then, she looks down to her book and hums.

"I don't really do tarot, the deck was a gift from a friend. But, since I have it on hand, how about this," she smiles, a tinge of mischief in her eyes, "I'll do a reading on you, and if the cards are good, we'll go out for coffee."

In Jason’s opinion, tarot is no different from flipping a coin: you let your fate be decided by sheer luck and an inanimate object. But, well, why not?

"Sure," he shrugs, and then, as the girl reaches down to her bag on the floor, adds, "Would you mind giving me your name, though, or is that also up to cards?"

"Jazz," she introduces with a quiet laugh, moving her book to the side with one hand and holding a stack of cards in the other. "And you are? I don't think I ever caught it back at the club."

"I believe we've had other priorities at the time," Jason chuckles. That's not an inaccurate description — they were too busy making out on the dance floor to ask each other's names. Jazz's cheeks turn adorably pink as she shuffles the deck without looking at him. "Peter," he offers, not because he doesn't trust her but because it's the name on his current ID, and explaining why it doesn't match would be a pain if Jazz ever sees his library pass or driver's license.

Yet, the girl pauses in her shuffling and gives him another glance over. "Sure," she agrees in a way that practically screams 'I know you're lying, but I'll play along for now'. Jason debates if he should ask, but, first, it's not like he can do that without admitting he's given her a fake name, and second, Jazz doesn't give him a chance to, already placing three cards on the table between them.

Leaves, pine cones, and flowers with knives.

"Aren't tarot cards supposed to have people on them? Or coins and cups and stuff?" Jason asks, slightly confused. Jazz merely shrugs at him, her attention focused on the cards on the table.

"Artists come up with all kinds of decks now. I've seen ones with Lovecraftian horrors and ones with pet pictures and toys, it really depends on what's easier for you to understand," she explains, and looks back up at Jason, her gaze unexpectedly piercing. It kind of makes him nervous — he didn't expect her to take it so seriously.

"What do they say?" He asks, looking between the cards and Jazz's face.

"They say you've been a cheerful ray of sunshine once, then you died and came back, and now you're trying to make your wrongs into rights," she answers, barely any emotion to her voice.

Jason feels his heart skip a beat, and his fingertips become numb.

Okay, so, maybe there's more to tarot readings than to flipping a coin.

He clears his throat. "Metaphorically, I hope?" He asks, trying for a teasing, lighthearted tone but not quite getting there.

Jazz waves her hand, the one that's still holding the rest of the deck, in the air. "It's a three card reading, which doesn't really provide much details, and I'm not a witch, so I'm not sure what part of it is a metaphor and what isn't. Tarot are simplified concepts structured into 78 pictures, you don't treat it as gospel truth."

As she speaks, another card falls out of the deck, landing on the table face down. Jazz looks down at it curiously, but, as she picks it up and reads it, her face changes.

Jason is nowhere near as good as Cass at reading people, but he still catches most of it — first surprise, then a fond sort of exasperation, and internal debate, and, finally, a reluctant acceptance.

"What is it?" Jason can admit he is insanely intrigued by that kind of reaction. Not to mention that, in the last five minutes, he's learned that tarot are, apparently, more knowledgeable than he thought, so he is kind of invested now.

"Cards that fall out of the deck are sometimes treated as additional parts of a reading, or as an advice," Jazz explains, placing the card down on the table.

Jason tilts his head slightly. That's jasmine flowers, he knows that much, but he has no idea of their symbolic meaning or whatever.

"This is Star," Jazz continues, "A Major Arcana that signifies hope, and healing, and, well, a generally positive future, simply speaking."

Jason doesn't say anything, reaching for the card and picking it up. He doesn't really believe in tarot readings — not that he is a skeptic, he is aware that magic exists and all. But this is the equivalent of the universe telling him it's going to be okay, isn't it?

He snorts, letting go of the card and watching it fall back on the table. Then, he smiles, looking back at the redhead, "Does that mean you'll say 'yes' to coffee?"

Jazz rolls her eyes, but she is laughing while picking all the cards back and reaching for her bag.

"Sure, let's go. But you're paying, and I have to warn you: just a coffee won't cut it. I'm starving."

Jason grins, standing up from his seat, "Good thing I know a great Italian place nearby, then."

–○–

This is a part of the 'Crime Scene Do Not Cross' fic and takes place in between chapters 2 and 3.

About tarot:

First, that is an actual tarot deck, BOTANICA tarot designed by Kevin Jay Stanton. It's a really niche, nerdy kind of deck since there are no titles on any of the cards, and the meanings are centered around flower language and symbolic representation of each plant in folklore. It's a work of art, really.

This deck was given to Jazz by Sam as a gift. Jazz is really the Jack of all trades in this family — she picked up a few ghost tricks from Danny and Dani, some random knowledge from Vlad, a couple shortcuts from Tucker, and a bunch of magic stuff from Sam. She likes to explore all kinds of things, and the rest don't mind sharing. Sam reads that deck like an open book, by the way, she knows all the flower meanings by heart because, no matter how many times she says otherwise, she is just as nerdy as both Danny and Tucker.

The reading that Jazz did was a simple 'past, present, future' spread. The first card is Page of Wands, upright (leaves of the tree under which the Buddha achieved enlightenment and the crown of Agni in the center): beginning, inspiration, a young person at the start of their journey. The second card is Death, upright (pine tree and pine cones): change, rebirth. The third card is Seven of Swords, reversed (pink foxglove): a shift from hidden motives to honesty.

[sunarryn]

DP X Marvel #20

Jazz Fenton was not supposed to become an urban legend, a media conspiracy theory, or a widely feared intern with multiple Tumblr fan accounts, but alas, here they were.

At 19 years old, Jasmine “Jazz” Fenton had moved to New York on a full scholarship to Columbia University, double majoring in psychology and business, with a minor in engineering just for fun. She wore blazers older than most Columbia freshmen, carried a briefcase instead of a backpack, and maintained a 4.0 GPA while ghost-proofing her dorm room using proprietary tech she’d built in high school. On the third day of orientation, she calmly tased a literal demon that crawled out of an upper-floor window of Butler Library and continued sipping her iced matcha like it was a Tuesday. Which, unfortunately, it was.

This act caught the attention of a lot of people, including—but not limited to—an NYPD exorcist division, a priest named Father Julio, two SHIELD interns on a coffee break, and Pepper Potts, who was in the city for a Stark Industries panel on sustainable weapons of mass deterrence.

“She tased a demon,” Pepper said slowly to her assistant.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“In broad daylight.”

“Correct.”

“And then she—what did she say again?”

The assistant glanced at their notes. “‘Don’t manifest on Ivy League property, it lowers our national rank.’”

Pepper stared into the distance. “Find her. And hire her.”

Within forty-eight hours, Jazz was sitting in a glass elevator ascending Stark Tower. She hadn’t applied for anything. She hadn’t submitted a résumé. But her phone pinged during a psych lecture with a Stark Industries-branded email that simply said, “Ms. Potts would like to speak to you,” followed by a GPS pin and a non-negotiable appointment time.

Tony, predictably, was not consulted.

“What do you MEAN she’s nineteen? What do you MEAN she’s your intern? Pepper, she built a plasma cannon in your office. In two hours. Using my old espresso machine.”

“It was broken,” Jazz added politely, scrolling through quantum schematics on her StarkPad. “And under OSHA, coffee-related injuries are still injuries. You’re welcome.”

Tony pointed a wrench at her like it was a gun. “You don’t scare me, you ginger menace.”

Jazz smiled faintly. “You should be scared. You tried to patent a neural override system with an open-ended quantum key. You’re lucky I fixed it before it broadcasted the location of every Stark tech asset on Earth.”

There was a pause.

Tony turned to Pepper. “She’s you. But worse. Why is she you but worse?”

“I don’t know,” Pepper murmured. “But I think I love her.”

The rumors started on week three.

At first, it was office gossip. Just little things. Intern was too tall. Too confident. Too quiet. You don’t trust the quiet ones. And then she reverse-engineered the Arc Reactor because she was bored on lunch break, and the quiet turned into fear.

“Is she—like—a clone or something?” asked one junior developer to another over ramen in the cafeteria.

“I heard she’s Tony’s secret daughter,” the other whispered. “Raised in a lab. Trained from birth. Like that kid in Kingsman but with algebra.”

One engineer swore they saw her casually deflect a pulse grenade using a file folder. Another caught her manually rebooting the Tower AI after it shorted out during a lightning storm—something that shouldn’t have been possible unless you had admin-level clearance, which Jazz absolutely did not have. In theory.

“Pepper,” Tony said slowly one morning, watching Jazz reprogram a malfunctioning security drone while also Skyping her Columbia psych professor, “do we have a bioengineered heir you forgot to tell me about?”

“No,” Pepper said, sipping coffee. “But if I die, she gets the company.”

Tony sputtered. “Excuse me?!”

Jazz didn’t look up. “I accept.”

The media got involved during Stark Industries’ spring gala.

Jazz, dressed in a midnight blue suit that cost more than her entire tuition, arrived at Pepper’s side like a storm. She was calm, composed, stunningly competent, and intercepted two would-be saboteurs in the first thirty minutes with nothing but a suspicious stare and a champagne flute.

“She’s Pepper’s daughter,” someone tweeted.

“She’s not old enough to be her daughter.”

“She’s her clone. Pepper 2.0. She even walks like her.”

“I would let her step on me.”

By the next morning, “#StarkHeir” was trending worldwide, and conspiracy theorists had posted side-by-side comparisons of Jazz and Pepper’s bone structures, speech patterns, and typing styles. Someone even made a Google doc of all their shared quirks. It had color-coded sections. There were charts.

Tony spent the entire week yelling.

“She’s NOT my kid! She’s not even related to Pepper!”

Pepper, annoyingly, did not help. “Technically, we don’t know she’s not.”

“Oh my god.”

Meanwhile, Jazz was unfazed.

“Should I post a clarification?” she asked.

“No,” said Pepper, texting casually. “Let them fear you.”

The Avengers had mixed feelings.

Steve was terrified of her. She reminded him too much of Natasha, if Natasha had spent her childhood in AP classes and the rest of her time inventing hover grenades. Sam and Rhodey liked her, mostly because she was polite and explained quantum mechanics in metaphors that involved pop tarts. Peter developed an immediate and debilitating crush, which she ignored with expert precision.

“Hi, Miss Fenton,” Peter said shyly one day, watching her reprogram a Stark drone mid-air while eating a bagel.

“Peter,” she said without looking up. “You have a calculus exam in twenty-two minutes and your spider-suit’s magnetic lock is uncalibrated.”

Peter turned pink. “Oh. Thanks. Wait—how did you—?”

She looked at him. “I am your god now.”

Peter nearly fainted.

Natasha liked her. Clint was afraid of her. Thor called her “Little Flame Witch” and offered to train her in Asgardian battle strategy, which she accepted, just to make Bruce nervous.

But it was Loki who said it first.

“She’s not of this world,” he muttered to Wanda during a conference meeting. “She carries too much silence for a mortal. Something follows her.”

He was right, of course.

Because sometimes, at night, the tower cameras would glitch. Alarms would blip off for three-point-two seconds. And if you reviewed the footage frame by frame, you’d catch a flicker of something—green light, spectral claws, shadows moving too fast.

Jazz never addressed it.

She just carried her ghost-hunting thermos in her tote bag and once drop-kicked a poltergeist out of the 35th floor without spilling her coffee. Pepper made her head of paranormal security the next day. Tony threw a chair.

“I HATE HER.”

“You’re jealous.”

“She made a hover-bomb out of printer ink and stale Red Vines. WHO DOES THAT.”

“She’s better than you, darling. Accept it.”

The Pentagon called.

Then SHIELD.

Then the President.

They all wanted meetings. Wanted the Stark Intern. Wanted the girl who built an anti-phasing grenade in her sleep and then used it to banish an interdimensional wraith that had haunted the UN for seventy years. She’d done it in kitten heels. While on speakerphone with Columbia discussing her thesis on behavioral disassociation and spectral trauma.

“Ms. Fenton,” said General Ross one day, sitting across from her in a secure Stark lab, “how old are you again?”

“Nineteen.”

He blinked. “And you… developed this ectoplasmic nullifier?”

“Yes.”

“From scratch?”

“I didn’t steal it, if that’s what you’re implying.”

Tony watched from the corner, snickering into a bag of popcorn.

“Careful, Ross,” he said. “She’s been known to vaporize military-grade egos.”

Jazz didn’t smile, but her eyes sparkled just a little.

The conspiracy peaked when a tabloid published an article titled “Pepper Potts’ Secret Daughter: Genius Intern or Bio-Engineered Successor?”

There were pie charts. Photos. A leaked voicemail from Tony yelling “SHE ISN’T MINE, YOU IMBECILES” that only made things worse.

One Tumblr post had over 800k notes and a list of reasons why Jazz was definitely a Potts-Stark hybrid, including, “built a laser harp,” “once told Elon Musk to ‘shut up before I make a better Tesla with a coffee maker and two forks,’” and “terrifying corporate aura.”

Jazz printed the post. Framed it. Hung it in her dorm.

Pepper just looked fond.

“I think you’ve officially surpassed me in public fear,” she said one afternoon as Jazz filed patents under twenty different shell companies.

Jazz shrugged. “You set the bar very high.”

“I’m proud of you.”

Tony sobbed in the background. “This is my nightmare.”

“Jazz,” said Pepper sweetly, “could you file a cease-and-desist against MIT for trying to recruit you illegally?”

“Already did. Also, I bought MIT using the company card.”

Tony screamed.

And through it all—ghost attacks, PR disasters, tech blackouts, alien entities, and one incident where Jazz weaponized her psych minor to dismantle a HYDRA agent’s entire worldview in a hallway—she remained completely, terrifyingly composed.

Because this was Jazz Fenton. The girl who survived Amity Park, ghost portals, mad science parents, and her half-dead little brother who punched death in the face on Tuesdays.

The Marvel universe had no idea what it had just unleashed.

But Pepper did.

She just smiled and handed Jazz her new badge: Chief Innovation Officer, Spectral Division.

“I think you’re ready for phase two.”

Jazz sipped her coffee. “Let’s haunt the world.”

[demonic0angel]

OWO, you take prompts? How about this?

Danny was born a premature and with a heart defect. The Fenton's try to make a clone so they can get his heart transplanted without fear of organ rejection. But they end up making a full on baby and don't have it in them to kill another version of their son just to save their original boy. Danny ends up pulling through and the clone gets filed as a twin that no one noticed was still in when Maddie was in the hospital. So Maddie "had him at home" and went back so he could be medically examined. The new parents feel ashamed of what they initially were going to do and give the child to a cousin who couldn't conceive.

Tim Drake doesn't know he's adopted until a DNA test reveals that the 'Meta' running around Gotham is his 'twin brother'. And the babies he has, that he does babysitting gigs with, are his twin's 'children'.

(I don’t exactly take prompts, but I don’t mind if you send them. Also, I’m going to assume that the twin’s “children” are Dan and Dani, since that seems to be what people prefer.)

“… are you serious?” Tim asked through the phone.

“Yep,” Dick said, sounding like a mixture of amusement and concern, “How do you feel about it?”

Tim thought about it and then responded, “I guess it makes sense why my parents neglected me so much, since I’m adopted.”

“Awww, baby bird…”

“I’m fine, Dick,” Tim said. He picked Dante and set him on a baby chair. Said child stared at him with electric blue eyes, scowling with his pudgy cheeks as if he wanted to tear Tim apart with his nonexistent teeth. Tim rubbed his chubby cheek with a finger before moving away, still holding the phone to his ear as he picked up the other baby.

Dick continued, “Yeah… also, Bruce says that he’s sorry that he checked your blood without telling you.”

Tim snorted, “No, he didn’t.” Bruce was never sorry for that kind of stuff.

Dick sighed. “Yeah, I lied. Sorry. But he did look guilty! He didn’t want to tell you at first, but Jason convinced him so I’m the one telling you right now.”

Tim hummed, picking up little Ella, who was stubbornly holding onto a small cardboard box. Tim let her hold it and placed her onto the baby chair next to her brother, who immediately reached out for her. It was kinda funny seeing how clingy he was compared to his sister.

“We have more information too. We tracked down the new meta and we’ve been looking into his routes. We suspect that he’s living around here, in Bristol,” Dick said. “We think he’s living in an apartment, at XXX on XXXX street, possibly with a roommate named Jazz.”

Tim paused, suddenly hyper aware of the fact that he was in the same building, babysitting a bunch of kids on the same street, who also lived with another woman named Jazz. “Uhh. What else?”

“We think he lives on the third floor and possibly also works at a pizza delivery place? Or maybe a fast food restaurant? He’s been flying back and forth between two places besides the apartment.”

Tim began to sweat. “Uh… anything else?”

“There’s a high chance that his name is Danny Nightingale, and Jasmine Nightingale is in on the fact that he’s a meta.”

Fuck.

Tim looked at his niece and nephew with a new light, eyes wide. Ella beamed at him, giggling while Dante just glared.

Welp. At least Bruce would be happy to be a grandfather now. Even if it was to Tim’s secret meta twin brother.

[caffeinatedvigilantewriter]

This is a mashup of various tropes. Don’t like don’t read. May include

- deaged danny

- Damian x Dani (serious chaos)

- dead Jazz

- dead Sam

- dead Tucker

- not-shit parent Vlad (kinda)

- the Waynes have a strength kink

So when Danny is 18 and have safely moved out, has financial security and can go no contact with his parents he decides to tell him that he’s Phantom.

It doesn’t go well.

By the time Jazz Sam and Tucker find him he is deaged to around 6. The fentonworks lab explodes.

Dani, who is 16 and was on her way to visit, came just in time to sift through the rubble and find Danny, who has only had enough memory to recognize her as his sister. She also finds three dead bodies. Jack and Maddie survived.

Scared and mourning, she takes Danny and runs to Vlad, who realizes how terrible and obsessed Jack and Maddie were and gives Dani lots of money to hide somewhere where the Jack and Maddie wouldn’t dare to look- at least not for a little while.

Gotham.

So she takes Danny and changes their names.

Elliot ‘Elle’ Jasmine Nightingale and Daniel James Nightingale, brothers and sister duo.

Dani- now Elle- still holds a grudge on Vlad, coupled with the Fenton stubbornness, she insists that she can pay rent/bills/groceries/etc. she gets an apartment in crime alley.

Because Elle doesn’t want to leave a paper trail, she does a less-than-legal job.

She joins a fight rink under the name of Phantasm.

And she’s great at it.

Shes spend the money on education for Danny, ignoring her education for the moment until Danny is old enough to join school.

Damian and Bruce were having major arguments, mostly about his violence and Damian quits being Robin and becomes Nocturne. (Bc I love that name)

He undercover a fight rink and thinks if he busts the rink Bruce will trust him enough.

He does recon and quickly realizes that one of the fighters was incredible, winning fight after fight without causing major injures to her opponents. Her name was Phantasm.

He decides that in order to find out more about her, he has to join undercover. It was only to take down the fight rink and learn more about the beautiful fighter that could bend him in half and nothing more.

Damian joins under the name of Ghoul and swipes some DNA from Elle, learns her (fake) name her (fake) backstory (family died in an heated lab explosion) but doesn’t understand why a chunk of her DNA was unreadable (ghost part of her DNA)

After a bit of digging, realized she didn’t attend school and the next morning Elle waked up to a letter starting that her full-ride scholarship to Gotham Academy has be approved (GA offers a afterschool care for students with younger siblings)

Elle never applied and is confused but accepts after Vlad, Ember, and Kitty convinced her.

She coincidentally is put in the most of the same classes as Damian, who she eventually crushes on befriends because he’s hot she’s suspicious of his faint and funky ecto signature.

So shenanigans include (not in this order and are optional)

- GALA where Vald announces her as Vlad Co heiress and the are invited to the gala and get a bit sus of Elle bc Vlad is sus

- JASON AS ELLE’S NEIGHBOR is actively trying to set up/prevent Damian and Elle getting together (either one works, as long as the plans fail comically)

- PRINCESS ELLE OF YHE INFINITE RELAMS + SUMMONING

- TALIA ATTEMPTING TO KIDNAP DANNY because he looked like Bruce/she wants another son and Elle absolutely beating her 7 different ways to Sunday and Talia telling Damian that she approves of her

- ELLE DESTABILIZING/GETTING REALLY SICK and Danny calls Damian in a panic because he knows Elle trusts him even if she won’t admit it

- ELLE GETS SAVED BY NOCTURNE and Elle instantly clocks him as Damian bc of his ecto signature and rips him a new one because look how vigilantism turned out for Danny

- THE BATFAM THINKING DANNY IS THE CLONE OF ELLE and investigating Cadmus, who could have ties to the GIW somehow

- ELLE BECOMING A SORT OF SERIAL KILLER to protect Danny (check the comments @emerald-fox-93 linked it :)))

- DASH BECOMING A GCPD COP AND HAVING TO ARREST ELLE because she killed someone who tried to kidnap Danny. Damian picks her up from the station after she calls him.

- PAULINA BECAME A LAYWER FOR WE bc I saw a post like that and it was fire. She eventually fights for the removal of the AEA (anti ecto acts)

- THE OTHER BATS GENUINELY BECOMING CONCERNED and began to think that Elle is mind-controlling Damian because he keeps brushing them off to hang out with her

- DAN JOINING THE JLA and calling up Elle when he needs her help and Damian being there and being like ‘wtf??’

Jack and Maddie eventually find Danny and Elle and Elle vanishes. Danny- who Elle hid when the Fentons stormed the apartment- calls Damian sobbing and pleading for him to find Elle because the bad people are going to hurt her.

Damian, knowing little to nothing about her situation, basically goes ballistic trying to find her. The family, titans, and the League gets involved because one 15 year old doesn’t realize he has a massive crush on his classmate. He calls up that every favors he is owed (and some that is not) so now basically almost the entire LOA is after a 15 year old girl who was kidnapped by the two mad scientists who are committing around 16 wars crimes.

They find her after the ghosts she’s Still in contact with realize she hasn’t texted in a while and they’ll help Damian on his manhunt

And because Elle is the high princess, the entire ghost zone is ready to help Damian get their princess/queen/regent back

Jack and Maddie never stood a chance.

Any more ideas?? Please tag me and comment 🙏 :))

[cass-danny-weekend]

Cass/Danny Weekend - Fun Facts! Day 2

Today we will be looking at the basic history of the other half of our couple, Danny! Now this post may look a little different, since we don't know as much about Danny's life prior to his hero career, but we'll try to give you a pretty good picture.

Daniel "Danny" Fenton is the titular character of the early 2000s cartoon, Danny Phantom. The show was released in 2004 with its premier episode "Mystery Meat". And here is one fun fact: Danny does not canonically have a middle name! So if you read fanfiction and see names like "Danny James Fenton", or "Danny Jackson Fenton", or one memorable case of "Danny William Fenton", then these are just headcanons introduced by the author to give his name a little more flavor. We've all seen that dialogue where a character gets full-named by a disappointed parent.

He is the son of Jack and Madeline "Maddie" Fenton, and the younger brother to Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton. His parents are infamously known as ghost hunters, much to his sister's dismay. Jazz is older than him by two years, as indicated by "Mystery Meat". We first meet Danny as a fourteen-year-old, in his first year of high school. He has two close friends, Samantha "Sam" Manson and Tucker Foley. Otherwise, he is fiercely bullied and considered a social outcast.

When he is fourteen, his parents complete a project they've been working on since their college days, some twenty years ago, as we learn from "Bitter Reunions". It is a portal to another realm, nicknamed the "Ghost Zone". The first attempt to turn on the portal is met with failure; despondent, his parents abandon the project temporarily, which gives Danny the opportunity to explore the lab alongside his friends. He is first reluctant to explore, worried that his parents might catch them in the lab, but is egged on by Sam. After some quick convincing, Danny agrees to go inside the portal. While inside, he accidentally presses on a button on the wall, an "On" button, which turns the portal on. It miraculously works, but gives him no time to escape.

Since this is a television show geared for kids, we aren't told exactly what happened to him. But as you can guess from the screaming and the fact he comes back out of the portal burnt and smoking, it was not very pleasant.

Now here's where it gets messy. This depiction of Danny's "origin story", as you would, is shown through a flashback in the episode "Memory Blank". However, the show's theme song and accompanying graphics instead shows Danny in the lab alone.

Fun fact! In this episode, Danny is given his hero symbol, a flared D with a P nestled inside. For the whole first season, he does not have this symbol.

Over the next few weeks, Danny would begin to present powers like that of ghosts, such as intangibility, invisibility, and flight. He can also transform from a human form to a ghost form. It's not until a month later, when a ghost known as Lunch Lady attacks his school, Casper High, targeting his friend Sam that Danny realizes a higher purpose as a hero. In a subsequent episode "One of a Kind", a ghost named Skulker calls Danny a "half-ghost". You can call it one of our first true introductions to what Danny has since become after the accident with the portal. It is not until the episode "Splitting Images" that he's called a "halfa" by another ghost, Sidney Poindexter.

We've covered a lot of information in this post, so we'll leave you here with one last parting tidbit:

As we know, ghosts are the main antagonists in the show, and as far as we've been introduced the only form of the supernatural in this story's world. But the original pitch bible for the show tells another story. Unfortunately, that pitch bible has since disappeared from the wider web, but this post on Tumblr still provides some interesting commentary and notes about the document.

We hope you enjoy! We'll see you around for Day 3.

- Mod Halfa

[samgirl98]

Forgotten Demon Twin 5/?

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“Are you going to tell mom and dad?” Danny asked, effectively killing the silence in the car.

“I should,” Jazz said while tightening her hold on the steering wheel. She sighed, “but I’m not.”

Some of the tension melted from Danny’s body.

“You are going to tell me everything, though, right? Or at least the cliff notes version? Just so I can have some peace of mind.”

“Smooth, Jazz.”

“I’m serious, Danny. You told these people your secret identity. Before telling mom and dad!”

“I didn’t mean to! Skulker attacked, and I had to have access to my full powers to protect them!”

“You were reckless. Why didn’t you wake me up before leaving the house?”

Jazz’s voice was starting to rise higher.

“You could’ve been kidnapped!”

Danny snorted.

“I’m serious, Danny.”

“I’m fine, Jazz. I can take care of myself.”

Silence reigned in the car again. They made it back to Fenton’s Work, but neither sibling made any moves to get out.

“What I’m about to tell you can kill you, Jazz, so this is your only chance to back down.”

Jazz said nothing and folded her hands over her lap. Danny sighed.

“I was born high in the Himalayan Mountains in a hidden city called Nanda Parbat. I wasn’t born normally. I was made in an artificial womb; I wasn’t supposed to exist. My mother is the daughter of the leader of a cult called the League of Assassins.”

Jazz took an audible deep breath but kept quiet.

“My brother was supposed to be the only one born. The perfect heir to the Demon’s Head, Ibn Al Xu’ffasch. The Son of the Bat. I was named the Spare,” Danny said bitterly, “I could never measure up to my perfect older brother. I cried after I killed. I wasn’t good at fighting; I was too soft, too weak.”

“Damian was perfect. Why would they need the runt of the litter? I was exiled at seven. My grandfather is, was over 500 years old. We think. He lost track of his actual age. He used something called the Lazarus Pits; now I know it is ectoplasm. He bathed in them to keep himself alive.

“You’re using the past tense.”

Danny nodded, “Damian told me he’s dead.”

Danny took a deep breath and continued.

“Since I was a waste of space, he sent me away to see how scientists interact with the Lazarus Waters outside the League. He ordered me to kill the first three people I ended up with. I don’t know why he didn’t with you guys, but I’m glad.”

“You, mom, dad, are the only true family I’ve ever known. I sent ‘reports’ that were the most basic of basic. They can be found online. Eventually, after being here for three years, they stopped writing back. I was so relieved that they seemed to have forgotten me. I understand if you think I’m a monster. I’m a killer, Jazz.”

Jazz hugged Danny.

“You’re not a monster, Danny, and you’re not a waste of space. You’re my baby brother, and I would kill for you,” she declared, meaning it.

She noticed how Danny talked about himself compared to Damian. He believed himself lesser. She didn’t believe it. Her little brother had taken up the mantle of protector of Amity and had become the Ghost King after protecting their small city from the threat of Pariah Dark. He was a hero; he deserved to be treated as such.

“Thanks, Jazz,” he hugged his sister back, enjoying the warmth.

He let go after a while.

“There’s more. There’s a reason Damian is known as the Son of the Bat. His, our birth father, Bruce Wayne, is Batman.”

____

Damian didn’t sleep that night. He wanted it to be morning as quickly as possible so his father would call the Fentons.

How did he go from forgetting his brother to being impatient to see him? It didn’t help that he felt…something when he saw how easily Danyal followed Jasmine.

(How would it have been if he had been close to his brother? Would Danyal have looked at Damian the same way he looked at Jasmine?)

He wasn’t jealous. He wasn’t!

Damian walked into the sitting room. Father was already there, drinking a cup of coffee. He sat before his father and started chewing on some fruit.

They had gotten rooms in a themed hotel. Three guesses as to what the theme was. The whole damned city seemed obsessed with ghosts.

There was a picture of Phantom smiling into the camera.

Damian had done some research instead of sleeping. Apparently, Phantom was the main hero of Amity, though there was another heroine called the Red Huntress. There were mixed reviews of his brother. The younger generation viewed him as a hero (as they should.), while the older generation saw him as a menace.

There had been an article when Phantom had done a string of burglaries. Because of his red eyes, Damian had concluded his brother had most likely been mind-controlled. It happened. Even Superman has been mind-controlled.

“So, father, when will we be calling the Fentons.”

His father sighed and put down his coffee.

“Soon, Damian, but we must consider how we will approach this. Danny has already expressed his wishes. He doesn’t want to come with us.”

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I’ve read into the Fentons; they’re menaces. The father has news segments for when he’s on the road! The mother has gone on record stating that all ghosts should be studied and are evil. Their papers are heavily prejudiced, with no scientific evidence to back it up. It’s clear Danyal is in danger here.”

“Damian, he’s happy here. He has people who love him.”

Damian crossed his arms, “He’s being a hero without any adult backup. He’s here alone facing Justice League-level threats.”

Bruce sighed. Damian brought up good points, but Bruce knew his son wasn’t thinking about Danny. He was thinking about assuaging his guilt. A part of Bruce wanted to do the same thing.

He could take care of Danny; he had the money. He had years of experience in the vigilante/hero business and could get other heroes to mentor his youngest son (God, another son he had failed.), but he had to consider Danny’s needs.

Bruce took a deep breath, “I’ll get your siblings. It’s time to call the Fenton.”

____

Danny woke up with a twisted stomach. It was so bad he couldn’t even eat his cereal. But he couldn’t leave either. He wanted to be there when Bruce called. Jazz sat in front of him and gave him weak smiles. Her bags were almost as bad as Danny’s.

Both Fenton siblings jumped when the phone rang.

Neither elder Fenton noticed their children’s mood.

“Fenton household,” Maddie answered.

“Hello,” Bruce’s smooth voice came through the phone. Danny thanked his advanced hearing, “May I speak to either Madeline or Jack Fenton, please?”

“Maddie Fenton speaking,” his mom said, “to whom am I speaking?”

“My name is Bruce Wayne,” his mom cut Bruce off.

“Bruce Wayne, as in Wayne from Wayne Enterprises,” his mother asked excitedly. Jack Fenton got up and put his ear close to the phone. Danny’s stomach got heavier.

“Did you finally take a look at our inventions and want to have a meeting to sponsor us?”

Considering Danny had destroyed any message his parents had sent to Wayne Enterprises for the express purpose they would never meet, the answer was no.

“No,” Bruce said, “Well, it’s hard for me to say, but I recently learned from my youngest that he has a twin. I have another son.”

Maddie and Jack looked at each other, confused.

“Yes, what does that have to do with us?”

“I have reason to believe that Daniel Fenton is my biological son, and I wish to take a DNA test.”

Next up, the Fentons officially meet Bruce and Damian Wayne

[daylightseen]

༄ ˚ ➜ ( charlie rowe , cismale , twenty-four, he/him ) terret's cove is welcoming to all, and you might see daniel "danny" fenton around town. while they're a canon character in danny phantom, they've been making their home in maine for eleven months now. and, be careful, because it appears as though they do believe they have been in terret's cove, maine their whole lives.

full name : daniel fenton

age : twenty - four

occupation : retailer at comics and more

family : jasmine "jazz" fenton, older sister

ship status : taken, samantha "sam" manson

[hclyrevivals]

ღ * ➜ (  charlie rowe , cismale , twenty-four , he/him ) it seems like daniel fenton might be making a new home in mystic, connecticut. a canon character from danny phantom , danny was seen walking down main street. while they arrived eleven months ago , they believe they have been here their whole lives.

❀ ˚ ↬ full name : daniel "danny" fenton aka danny phantom

❀ ˚ ↬ relationships : jasmine "jazz" fenton, older sister

❀ ˚ ↬ sexuality : heterosexual

❀ ˚ ↬ shipping : closed, samantha "sam" manson

❀ ˚ ↬ occupation : comic book shop employee

[batpham-discord-highlights]

Jazz with a Prosthetic Arm

NOTE: Before you read this, I want to make something clear. There are, in fact, authors on this server. One of them is mentioned by name in this post. If you join the server and harass them for updates there will be consequences.

Source: #amity-park

Conversation inspired by this ask and art: link

E

Alright

Multiple options, gonna list ‘em as I know ‘em

Imp-y

kk

i just like the idea of her rocking a prosthetic limb and Danny being more worried about her but she ain’t having it >:O

E

I like that too <3

1) portal accident. In the episode where Johnny tries to save kitty from the portal, jazz loses her arm because kitty bonding to her body goes wrong, and she gets a prosthetic arm FMA style

2) Technus broke into axiom labs again (Mr. "Announces his plans" never learns) while jazz and her class were on a field trip there. Technus hijacked an experimental medical biomatter reprogrammer, and jazz jumped in the line of fire to save someone on the one day she'd told Danny to take off for himself

Imp-y

oof

Danny never takes a break again

E

Yeah, this AU is a bit more angsty I think

Imp-y

ooo Nasty burger (Or house) explosion happens but jazz lives~ she and Danny rebuild her an arm instead eoe

or Vlad does and Danny bribes Technus to fix the arm eoe so many ideas

H

I'm thinking motorcycle accident for the johnny bit

It would also be narratively interesting if it happened when spectra tried to blow her up with fireworks

Imp-y

man can see johnny freaking out because he knows phantom protective of his sister-

OOOOO I like that idea

H

Extra sad though because that failure would get in Danny’s head

Imp-y

aw yea

she wouldn’t get to see phantom unless she catches him in a different way

SS

What if it happened during the fight with Danny in the Secret Weapons episode?

Imp-y

like why is Phantom in my window

AK

Murder happy Danny lmao

Imp-y

while in hospital

               [What if it happened during the fight with Danny in the Secret Weapons episode?]

Ooo which one was that? idontremembernames of anything lol

H

Also irony of Johnny having more than one motor cycle accident. guilt might actually make johnny clean up his act faster especially because Danny would be mad

SS

The episode where she went to Vlad

Imp-y

ooof yes!

SS

They didn't get her out of the battle suit in time

E

Like Vlad used the nanites but they only got her arm?

Imp-y

               [Also irony of Johnny having more than one motor cycle accident…]

also, yes~ Johnny being a bit timid and skittish around phantom but maybe actually get the ball rolling into ghosts integrating with society instead of hindering

H

Or full body but she loses the rm somehow and the nanites rebuild it

Imp-y

ooo

I’m loving all of this

SS

No one ever followed up on the nanites in her bloodstream after that episode

H

Also part of me wants this to be a wheelchair Danny fic

God that makes the Fenton’s look bad though

SS

We can still have Johnny be the reason she's armn't and the nanobots rearming her was a surprise

H

Even though in this case Jazz’s accident is unrelated to them

I’m also tempted to have her Fenton made prosthetic give her mild ecto-contamination if it's made with ectoplasm in it

Imp-y

oo or maybe it was the Fenton’s fault and they quit ghost hunting because of the accident they saw happen to Jasmine... which you think would make Danny's life easier... but instead they find out it makes it worse.

Jazz and Danny's attempts at getting their parents back into it makes it worse too because reveal gone wrong… but as in it just solidifies their position on quitting ghost hunting... and now thinking about giving their kids to Vlad because they are too dangerous.

SS

Do Maddie and Jack move from visible weapon making into mobility devices?

H

Among other things but yeah. They could make bank with these

Imp-y

               [I’m also tempted to have her Fenton made prosthetic give her…]

yes! I love that~

H

Ecto-acne at first? Or will Danny bring in the cure

Oh man Vlad would be a nightmare if jazz got the acne though. He would definitely use it as a way to bring the kids to his side because history repeating itself

Imp-y

with Jazz I can see hers being different but that’s personal hc of ectoplasm effecting each person differently.. or that jazz already a little contaminated as it is

Imp-y

               [Oh man Vlad would be a nightmare if jazz got the acne…]

Oh definitely! LOL

H

He'd be biting off more than he can chew though. Danny is feral on his own. Danny and jazz together go extra feral because sibling arguments and protective instincts

Vlad targets Danny: Jazz foams at the mouth

Vlad defends himself: Danny gets mad at him for touching his sister

It's a vicious circle

SS

How long until he begs the parents to take their feral kids back?

Jazz taking off the arm and using it as a bat to smack Vlad

Danny asking for a hand and Jazz throwing her arm at him like Buzz and Woody

H

Classic disabled humor there

Danny will run things over, sometimes intentionally

Boy is going to intentionally roll over Vlad’s toes with his chair

I also could see him riding over bearbert as a dumb brother move

SS

Jazz uses her arm to put stuff on the highest shelf

She forgets Danny can fly so she played herself

Now she can't reach it

H

You know the goal over giving her ecto-contamination is eventual halfa jazz

AK

               [Now she can't reach it]

The arm has a grappling hook extender

SS

But now she's hanging

If anyone asks she puns it

V: what are you doing?

J, stuck: just hanging out

H

Fuck yeah. There are so many dumb inventions in that thing. Like most of them are unnecessary and i also imagine it being really heavy

To the point where her doctor is gonna get mad

SS

It can burn Jack's face into things

Like toast

Or the Fenton works logo

H

Oh, invention shenanigans and accidents with her arm. Comparable to when Danny first gets his powers

Both for the burning logos thing

Oh man. The arm mechanisms getting tangled in Jazz’s hair. Short hair jazz for convenience

The arm can probably shoot some sorta goo

SS

Portable nets

it's a thermos

H

Physical therapy must suck for a while, especially if the prosthetic is heavy

SS

She sucks Danny in lmao

H

The ecto-contamination actually helps with the weight but begin period would be achy

And yes, Danny ends up on butt end of a lot of these malfunctions while she's still figuring the arm out

Imp-y

maybe it working on ectoplasm after a while feels more lightweight the longer she has it~

poor Danny

jazz feels bad about it but they both know it’s just to be expected

H

He'll zap her back sometimes

They definitely get in dumb little powered fights

Also is it just me or is it sad that all the Fenton kids are half dead, this is including Dani. But dang

SS

Jazz gives him time out in the arm thermos and Danny just sticks fridge magnets on her

[makiruz]

Okay here’s an idea:

A while back I found a Danny Phantom/RWBY crossover where Danny somehow ends up in Remnant and Jaune is his son. Now the actual story is not very good because the author is probably like 13, but I loved the idea; I mean Jaune wanting to be a hero to follow his father’s footsteps but not because of his secret superpowers, I dunno it got me.

Except I started overthinking it, and kinda realize that actually Jaune being his canon self but having a mysterious origin is more interesting to me, and eventually discarded Jaune being Danny’s son and had a better idea! Jaune is Jazz’s son.

So this is the idea I have now:

Jazz Fenton falls into a portal or something and lands on Remnant; she tries to find a way back home, but after a few years she accepts she might never returns to Earth and settles down with her kinda-boyfriend a scientist named Arc, the 2 were working together and fell in love, they still try though. Anyway, Jazz and Arc get married and have 8 children; Jazz mostly keeps her origins secret (her full name “Jasmine” fits the color rule, so it’s not even suspicious!) but her kids know, in fact they grew up with their mother’s stories of hunting ghosts and of their uncle Danny who is half-ghost!

I think we all know where this is going; eventually people from Earth create a permanent portal to Remnant and exchange and politics happen, you know stuff, and one of the people involved happen to be one Daniel Fenton, and the portal happens to open to Beacon Academy where one Jaune Arc is studying. So yeah, Danny meets Jaune and the two get along not knowing they’re related; Danny thinks Jaune is a great kid (and kinda reminds him of someone, but can’t place him) and Jaune thinks Danny is super cool.

There’s multiple ways Danny can find out where his missing sister went, like for example her showing up; but the one I want is that Jaune realizes who Danny is and tells him. It’s like this, eventually Danny is forced to transform and fight (he still has a secret identity because fuck season 3) and Remnanties are like “What the fuck?” and Earthlings are like “Yeah that’s Phantom, he’s a real life superhero!” and Ruby is geeking out so hard; but Jaune is different, Jaune knows what’s up and it’s in awe, he knows who Phantom really is and cannot believe it! So after danger passes Jaune goes to Danny in private and he’s like “You’re Phantom” Danny denies it badly, but Jaune is like “No, no you don’t understand! You’re Uncle Danny!” Danny is like “what?” and Jaune is like “My mom is Dr Jasmine Arc she’s from Earth and was stranded here 30 years ago. She told me all about her adventures fighting ghosts and her superhero brother, and that’s you! Which means you’re my uncle!” Danny is like “holy crap, Jazz is here?”

So Jaune sends his mom a message and next day, Jazz is here and reunites with her brother after decades of separation; it’s very emotional. Also all her daughters show up eventually and Danny’s like “how many kids do you have?” and everyone else is like “Jaune, how many sisters do you have?” (also they totally tease him, being the baby and all); and of course the daughters are also in awe of Danny and most definitively want to see his powers.

Now, this is Vol1-3, has Adrian being born yet? I mean, Saphron comes with Terra in tow, obviously, but do they have Adrian yet? It’d be cute if Danny finds his sister after so many years and she’s a grandma!

Also Danny should probably have kids no? I’m not so sure on what happened on Earth during the years Jazz was stuck on Remnant

[five-rivers]

Exile

Prompt by @halfaqueen. My goodness, this took forever to write. I have no idea how it got so long.

.

.

.

Danny hadn't realized that exile was still a thing, but when he and Jazz had gotten expelled, and their parents had been banned or barred from basically all public places, and all of them had gotten restraining orders of one sort or another, and dozens of lawsuits had been filed against Fentonworks... Well... Officially, it wasn't exile, but that was what Amity Park was clearly aiming for with this harassment campaign.

He watched his city, his haunt, disappear over the horizon from the back window of the GAV. It was all he could do not to cry out aloud. Leaving like this felt like tearing part of himself away.

"Don't worry, Danno!" said Jack, leaning over the back seat. He wasn't driving, as he had lost his license early on in the city's war against them. "Just give it a few weeks! They'll be begging for us to come back, what with all the ghost that'll attack!"

This did not make Danny feel better.

"Jack," said Maddie, drawing out her husband's name. As clear as day, her tone said, Don't get their hopes up.

"You betcha! Because nobody can catch a ghost better than the Fentons, that's for sure!"

Jack Fenton hadn't ever been good at reading things as abstract as tones.

"They think they can stop the ghosts by closing the portal? Please! If it was as easy as that, we'd have closed it ages ago!"

Danny cringed, and sunk lower in his seat. No. None of that made Danny feel better.

Amity Park had hired other ghost hunters, blatantly replacing the Fentons, but Danny didn't know how good they were. He didn't know how good he should hope they were, either. On one hand, he wanted them to be bad, so that Amity Park would drop the restraining orders and he could go home. On the other, he wanted them to be good, so that Amity Park would be safe, so that everyone would be safe and no one would be hurt. But, then, if they were good, and everything was fine, that meant that Amity Park didn't need him any more, that he wasn't helpful, and, even though it was selfish, part of him wanted to be needed.

But, worse, what if they were good enough to defeat the more common ghosts, but then someone powerful come through, someone big, and they couldn't handle it? What if the new hunters worked for the GIW and would send the ghosts they caught off to be experimented on?

Danny had warned away as many ghosts as he could about what was happening before they left, but it didn't seem to be enough. And what if that warning got to someone who would see it as an invitation? As an opportunity to strike, now that he, Phantom, was gone.

He'd been so worried, stressed, and paranoid that he'd made himself sick. He was probably going to make himself sick again before the day was out.

"Where are we going, anyway?" he mumbled.

"Didn't we tell you?" asked Maddie. Danny shrugged. "We're visiting some relatives of Jack's. They have an interest in the supernatural, and they offered to let us stay with them while we look for a more permanent solution."

"Yep!" said Jack. "My favorite cousin, Cory! She's not quite a ghost hunter, but she has that Fenton blood for sure!"

"Cordelia Nightingale," said Maddie. "I don't think that her branch of the family has been Fentons since the sixteen-hundreds."

Danny swallowed. He was not a fan of the name 'Nightingale,' all things considered. It reminded him too much of pain and Sam pushed up against a wooden stake.

He decided this, on top of everything else, was a bad omen. He bet that 'cousin Cordelia' was going to turn out to be a ghost or, somehow, something worse. Like a witch. Or she had something like Freakshows staff. Or she grew blood blossoms for fun. Or she was part of a cult.

Ugh, why did that sound like something that might happen? What was his life?

Half gone, that's what.

Jazz patted him on the knee. "Maybe it'll be nice?" she said, hopefully.

"Maybe," said Danny.

He didn't have high hopes.

.

Sam probably would have liked the house. Danny didn't. The Gothic architecture only accentuated his fears. He frowned up at the spikes on the railing and the darkly painted boards. No. He didn't like this house at all.

He wanted to go home.

But, at his mother's prodding, he bent and picked up his suitcase. Most of his things were still at home and, if this lasted longer than a week, would then be put into a storage locker along with the rest of the family's belongings, to await a time when they once again had a house of their own to live in.

Jack bounced up the steps and pressed the doorbell with his thumb. Almost at once, a thin woman with graying brown hair opened the door. She wore a black turtleneck and a dark, straight skirt that ended at her ankles. Somehow, she made the outfit look practically Victorian.

"Cory!" exclaimed Jack, giving her a trademark Jack Fenton hug.

Both Jazz and Danny cringed slightly. That felt a bit too familiar for someone who he hadn't seen for literally their entire lives. Danny just hoped this wouldn't be Vlad all over again.

But, to his surprise, Cordelia gave Jack a thin smile and hugged him back. She extracted herself and stepped away from the door, into the house.

"Please," she said, "come in. You must all be tired. Amity Park is hours away."

One by one, the Fentons passed through the door, Danny bringing up the suspicious and paranoid rear.

"You must be Jasmine and Daniel," said Cordelia, closing the door. It wasn't quite dark inside the house, but it did feel rather dim. It smelled sweet, but dusty. Like flowers. Old, dry flowers.

"Jazz and Danny, please, Ms. Nightingale," said Jazz.

"Call me Cordelia. We're family, after all."

Was that ominous, or was Danny just paranoid? Well, it wasn't paranoia if people really were out to get you, right?

His breath went cold in his mouth, and something moved out of the corner of his eye. He whirled, trying to trace it.

He couldn't see anything. His ghost sense hadn't gone off.

"Danny?" said Maddie. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just thought I saw something."

"Probably my cat," said Cordelia, calmly. "She's a shy little thing, but curious. Don't be surprised if you don't see her again."

"Right," said Danny, doubtful, but not wanting to press the point.

"Now, I've cleaned out rooms for you upstairs," she gestured, and began to lead the way.

Danny started to follow, but another shadow moved at the edge of his sight, this one distinctly humanoid. He turned again, trying to find what cast it. There was nothing. He hurried to catch up with the others.

"Do you live here all alone?" he asked as they climbed the stairs.

"Oh, no," said Cordelia. "This place is much too large for one person. I let out rooms to some nice young ladies who work in town. None of them are here right now, of course, but I'll introduce all of you at dinner."

Well, there went that theory. He glanced back down the stairs. There was definitely a chill in this house.

"You didn't have to give us this much space," said Maddie, snapping Danny's attention back to the conversation. "We should pay you."

"Nonsense. You're family, and those rooms weren't being used anyway. Here, this one has a king mattress, so you two will want this one, even if it is a bit tight, and Daniel, Jasmine, you two take the ones on either side."

Danny and Jazz shared a look. It was a lot easier for Jazz to cover for Danny, or for Danny to sneak into her room for help, when they were next to each other. But there was nothing to be done. They shrugged.

It didn't matter who took which room. Jazz went left. Danny went right.

The room was a lot like the rest of the house. Old-fashioned and dark. It was also meticulously clean and decorated like something out of an old movie. It looked like a set piece. It really did.

Then again, Cordelia did say she had just cleaned the rooms. It wasn't anything to get nervous about, even if it did make Danny feel like he was the main character in a horror film.

He put down his suitcase.

"The bathroom is just down at the end of the hall. The schedule is posted next to it, make sure you write down when you want to shower, so you don't disrupt anyone," said Cordelia, still talking to Jack and Maddie in the hall. "The kitchen is downstairs and in the back. If you take the last of something from the refrigerator, write it down on the shopping list. Otherwise, go ahead and make yourselves at home. Freshen up, take a nap. Dinner is at six."

"Do you want any help with that?" asked Maddie. "You're cooking for an awful lot of people."

"No, no, I'm more than used to it."

"Alright. Did you catch all that, kids?"

"Yes," said Jazz.

"Yeah," said Danny. He wanted to look for whatever was giving him this chill. He didn't like the idea of something supernatural sneaking up on him or his family while he slept.

.

He couldn't find it, and it was driving him crazy.

There was something in this house, even if Danny couldn't see it as anything but a shadow in his peripheral vision. Jazz couldn't see it at all, but she believed him after that whole thing with Youngblood.

Even if they couldn't find the thing, however, they found lots of other... things. Creepy things. Dead-eyed porcelain dolls. Dusty portraits. Bundles of dried herbs. Weird sculpture things. Light fixtures that should have been updated before Danny was born. A stuffed cat. A closet full of brooms.

"You know what I haven't seen?" asked Danny, as it turned five o'clock.

"No," said Jazz. "What? Ghosts?"

"A litter box," said Danny.

"That doesn't really mean anything," said Jazz. "It could be in one of the bedrooms, or there's a cat door and the cat goes outside."

"Maybe," said Danny. "Let's check out the yard."

This far from the nearest town, the yard was big and cut into a forest that loomed darkly over them even in the bright sunlight. The yard itself was full of flowering plants, but...

"I think these are all poisonous," he said. "At least, a lot of them are."

"Isn't that normal for decorative plants?" asked Jazz. "They weren't bred to eat."

"Yeah, I guess," said Danny, frowning. "But would you necessarily want a cat out here with all this?"

"Cats are carnivores. They wouldn't eat the plants. Can you see the neighbors?"

"No. Too many trees."

"How far away are we, I wonder?"

"It can't be that far," said Danny. "Not if her boarders commute to town."

"That's true. We're not in the wilderness." Jazz scanned up and down the height of the trees. "Not really."

"Maybe a little bit," said Danny. He could imagine some of those trees being hundreds of years old. The ground might not have been untrod by human feet, but... "Does everything here just sort of feel... off? Or is that just me?"

"I don't know," said Jazz.

Gravel crunched in the driveway, audible even from the other side of the house. Jazz and Danny walked to the corner of the house so that they could see around the corner and watch what was happening.

A small white car was pulling into the driveway. It stopped next to the GAV. As they watched, three young women stepped out. One of them had long, dark hair and wore a red sweater and skirt, reminiscent of Cordelia's. The second had pale blond, almost white, hair and wore a deep brown shirt and skirt. The third had red hair, and wore white. All of them had wicked looking boots and matching leather purses.

"Okay," whispered Jazz, pulling Danny back around the corner. "I... Maybe they just like to match?"

"I hate this so much," said Danny. "I want to go home."

"Maybe whatever is going on here is friendly?"

"We are literally never that lucky," said Danny. "I hope it's just a ghost. I can deal with ghosts. It's probably a ghost."

"Really?"

"No. Let's go in. We're going to have to meet them eventually."

.

"This is Sofia," said Cordelia, indicating the dark haired woman. "This is Alison." She put her hand on the blonde's shoulder. "And this is Morgan." She nodded at the redhead. "Girls, these are my cousins, Jack, Maddie, Jazz, and Danny."

Three sets of eyes moved sequentially from Jack, to Maddie, to Jazz, to Danny. They stayed on Danny.

"It's nice to meet you," said Sofia, still looking at Danny.

He tried to hide his discomfort. Could they tell he was half-ghost? He hoped not. That was his trump card if everything turned out as badly as he feared and he had to get his family out in a hurry.

What he wouldn't give for a piece of concrete evidence right now. Without it, his parents would never listen to him. They hadn't with Vlad.

They were still looking at him. Jazz slipped in front of him.

"So!" she said, brightly. "Dinner?"

Danny pushed back in front of Jazz. "Yeah! It's six, right?"

"Well, it sounds like the kids have inherited that good old Fenton appetite! Huh, Cory?" added Jack

"Yes, yes, come along. Girls, why don't you go ahead and get the table started. No, Maddie, the girls know how I like it, I'll show you later. You just sit down and relax." Cordelia disappeared into the kitchen.

The three younger women moved smoothly around the room, pulling plates and silverware- real silver silverware- from a china cabinet. They set the long table in the middle of the room with rigorous formality. There were more kinds of forks at each place setting than Danny had seen even when having dinner at Sam's. They topped it off with two candelabras.

Cordelia emerged with a casserole dish. Whatever was in it was thick, roughly cylindrical, and covered with a thick red sauce.

"Wow! Is that a roast?" asked Jack.

"Yes," said Cordelia. "I always make this when new guests arrive. The girls have all had it."

The 'girls' nodded as one, and retreated to the opposite side of the table. They almost moved in sync with one another.

Cordelia put the roast on the table, and went back to get side dishes. This gave the three women more time to stare at Danny.

On occasion, Danny did want attention, acknowledgement, what have you, but this scrutiny would have been a bit much even when he was at the height of his 'look at me' phase. He kept a tight hold on his core to keep himself from flickering invisible.

Cordelia came back with two serving dishes full of green... things. Possibly vegetables, but Danny didn't recognize them. She then started to, with excruciating slowness, carve the roast.

The slow exposure of the meat under all that sauce was enough to make Danny vaguely ill. It was too... wet. Too vibrant and too gray all at once. He swallowed against the smell.

"Wow!" said Jack, as Cordelia dropped a slab of meat on his plate. "This looks great, Cory! What kind of meat is it?" He was already sawing away at the flesh. It was all Danny could do to keep himself from slapping it away from him.

"Beef," said Cordelia, smiling at him as she carved. "Locally grown and harvested. It's an old family recipe, from before our branches split and we were all Nightingales."

"You mean Fentons!" said Jack around a mouthful of meat.

Cordelia's smile turned brittle. "However you would like to put it, Jack." She went around the table, serving herself last.

Danny made no move to pick up his utensils. The women on the other side of the table ate while watching him, barely looking at their food. Jazz was the only one who seemed to notice, and when Danny caught her eye and shook his head, she put down the bite of meat she had picked up, turning her focus to the vegetables.

"So," Jazz said, "what do you three do?"

Sofia's eyes flicked briefly to Jazz. "Graphic design," she said.

"That must be interesting."

"It's a job."

Danny didn't eat that night.

.

"I have some granola bars," said Jazz, grabbing his arm before he entered his guest room. Not that he intended to sleep there. Or anywhere.

"You keep them," he said. "I'm fine. You didn't eat much, either."

"You didn't eat anything," said Jazz.

"I'll be okay." Danny flared his eyes. "I've got an extra reserve, remember?"

"If you say so," said Jazz. She was frowning. "Danny... Let's share a room tonight."

"What?"

"I don't like how those three were looking at you," she said. "I can't believe Mom and Dad didn't notice..."

"They don't notice anything," said Danny. He pulled Jazz into the dubious safety of his room. He didn't want to have this conversation out in the hallway. "Wait," he said, eyes flicking over the room. "Where's my suitcase?"

Jazz shrugged. "Kind of reminds me," she said, not quite whispering. "I was thinking about barricading the door."

Danny hissed through his teeth. "I put my thermos up here when we went to eat. It's gone, too."

"If this were a horror movie, this would be when we yelled at the screen for the characters to leave."

"Think we can convince Mom and Dad?"

"Maybe together?"

Danny shrugged. "Let's give it a try."

They left the bedroom, and knocked on their parents' door. There was no answer.

Jazz frowned. "Maybe they have their earplugs in already," she said. "Can you, you know." She made a gesture where her arms crossed each other.

"Let's see," he said, going back to the bedroom. He waited until Jazz shut the door to turn invisible and phase through the wall.

Passing through the wall felt... odd. Like walking through layers of cobwebs. He shook his head as if to clear it and surveyed the room. Jack and Maddie were already in bed. He made a face and stepped back into the other room, becoming visible and tangible for Jazz.

"They're asleep," he said, shaking his head.

"First thing tomorrow morning, then," Jazz said, wringing her hands. "Maybe- Do you think we should sleep in the GAV? Put up the ghost shield?"

"I'm not even sure that this is a ghost," said Danny. He walked around the bed, part of him still looking for his missing suitcase. "But you have a point, I just..." He glanced at the wall his room shared with his parents'. If he and Jazz slept in the GAV, Jazz would be very safe, but their parents would be vulnerable. If he stayed here, and Jazz slept in the GAV, she'd be safer than sleeping alone in the house, and his parents would be safer, but if something happened to her, he wouldn't be able to react to it, he wouldn't be able to protect her. "I don't know."

"Let's at least go down and look. Maybe you left your suitcase in there, after all?"

"I don't think so," said Danny.

"We can get the weapons locker."

Danny blinked. "I almost forgot about that. Yeah. Let's go."

They were halfway down the stairs when Jazz grabbed his shoulder. "What?" whispered Danny.

"I can't hear anything."

"Huh?"

"This house is old. These stairs creaked when we were walking on it before. Why isn't it now?"

Danny bit his lip. "Let's keep going." He put his hand on Jazz's and made them both invisible.

"I can't see my feet," said Jazz.

"Just be careful," said Danny, continuing down the stairs. "I'm going to phase us through the front door, okay?"

"Fine."

It was still twilight when they stepped outside, the first stars just beginning to show. It wasn't hard for them to navigate, slipping around the white car, but when they did, and finally got a good look at the GAV, they froze.

Jazz said something very un-Jazz-like. Danny let his invisibility fade.

"What happened?" asked Jazz, in shock.

"It looks like someone beat it with a crowbar," said Danny, almost reverently, touching the crumpled metal. "A really big, really fast crowbar."

"Danny, this glass is supposed to be bulletproof."

"And ghost-proof," agreed Danny. "Let's go barricade your room. Think it can get through a dresser?"

.

The thing about being under high levels of stress for long periods of time was that it was tiring. Exhausting, even. So, even though Danny didn't intend to sleep, he did.

He woke up unable to move, something heavy weighing down his chest. His eyes fluttered open. Something huge and dark, the shadow he'd only glimpsed before, loomed over him, pressed down on him. He could see Jazz's bright hair hanging off of the bed above him. He tried to call out, to warn her, to get her to run, but he couldn't speak.

He couldn't breathe-

.

When his eyes opened again, light was weakly streaming through the thick glass of the windows, making the dust in the room sparkle gold. He sat straight up, breathing hard. He was still in Jazz's room, the dresser pulled across the doorway. Why do that and then leave him here? It didn't make sense.

"What's wrong?" asked Jazz, voice deep and crackled with sleep. She yawned.

Danny told her.

"That sounds like sleep paralysis."

"Like what now?"

"Sleep paralysis," said Jazz. She yawned again. "Some people get it. They wake up, but they're still asleep and they can't move. And also they hallucinate."

"That sounds fake."

"You sound fake."

"You know what? That's fair. That's actually fair. This whole situation sounds fake, so why not add sleep paralysis to the whole thing? It's better than an actual literal demon." He took a deep breath. "What do we do now?"

Jazz licked her lips and ran a hand through her hair.

"We tell them that the GAV has been trashed, that those women were staring at you like they wanted to eat you all dinner, and that your clothes were stolen. And then I'll spell it out for them, if I have to."

"What, that this place is probably haunted or possessed and Dad's cousin is a witch?"

"No," said Jazz, making a face. "That'll probably only make them want to stay even more. That those three are probably pedophiles who stole your clothing and wrecked the GAV so we couldn't leave, and that neither of us felt safe sleeping alone. Sorry. Then we'll make them call a cab."

"No, no, that's fine. That's a better explanation than I could come up with. Let's do that. I would honestly rather stay at Vlad's than here."

"Yeah," Jazz dragged her hand through her hair again, and grimaced. "Let me get dressed, first. Do you see my brush over there?"

"No," said Danny.

Jazz looked around the room. "Actually... Where is my suitcase?"

"It was-" Danny stopped. "It was in that corner when we came in, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," said Jazz. "Okay, forget getting dressed. We're talking to Mom and Dad now." She swung out of bed and made her way to the door.

Danny phased through her, so he would reach the dresser first and easily pushed it out of the way. He stuck his head out the door, looking both ways for Cordelia and the borders.

The door to the room next to Jazz's, their parent's room, was open.

"Shoot," said Danny. He walked over. "They're not here."

"Downstairs? Maybe they went to get breakfast." Jazz emerged from the room crossing her arms over her chest.

"Maybe," said Danny. He had a bad feeling about this.

Cautiously, they made their way down the stairs and peered into the kitchen. No one was there.

"Hello, children," said Cordelia, directly behind them.

They jumped, both trying to get away and spin at the same time. Jazz clipped her elbow on the doorway and almost fell. Danny caught her and pulled her back up.

"If you are looking for your parents, you just missed them."

"What do you mean?" asked Jazz, a little more sharply than she usually would.

"I mean, they just left," said Cordelia mildly. "They took that vehicle of yours to town to go shopping. Something about not eating me out of my house. It was very kind of them."

"But the GAV was wrecked..." said Jazz, even as Danny gave a tug on her arm.

"Was it?" asked Cordelia, smiling. "It seemed fine when they left. You should get dressed, though, Jasmine, and, Daniel, are those the clothes you were wearing yesterday?"

"Our clothes are gone," said Jazz.

"You left them in your car? Well, no wonder you're looking for your parents. I think I might have some old clothes that will fit you. Come along, now." She turned.

Possibilities tumbled through Danny's head. A large part of him wanted to just grab Jazz and fly away to find their parents in town, but he estimated that there was a pretty good chance that they weren't in town, but trapped here somewhere. Jazz had apparently made that same calculation, because she was giving him the 'don't you dare use your powers' head shake.

Fine. Okay. Play along it was, then.

Cordelia lead them into a dusty ground floor room full of chests. She opened one, knocking free a number of cobwebs. "These are a little old fashioned, I'm afraid, Daniel, but it has been a while since a boy your age lived here." She handed him a small, neat stack of clothing. "And these are for you, Jasmine. I wore them when I was about your age. I grew a few inches, after that."

"Right," said Jazz, already backing away. "We'll just go... change... then. Right Danny?"

"Yeah," said Danny.

Jazz didn't speak to him until they were back upstairs. "What now?"

"Now," said Danny, "I go ghost and see if Mom and Dad are trapped in a dungeon under the house or something. If not, I take you and get the heck out of here. If they are, I rescue them, we get the heck out of here. We'll steal Cordelia's car or something."

"Not much of a plan."

"Don't kid yourself. We never have a plan. Do you want to get dressed, first, or...?"

"Pass."

"I'll have to bring you with me. I don't want to leave you alone up here while I'm searching," warned Danny.

"I know. I don't want to be alone here, either."

Danny took a breath and-

Did not go ghost. He doubled over, gasping for breath, transformation rings flickering to nothing around him as the shadows pressed inward, suffocating him. The huge fingers around his chest- The almost-human silhouette-

"Danny?" asked Jazz, alarmed, shaking his shoulder. "What's wrong? What's happening?"

"Not," wheezed Danny, "sleep paralysis."

The shadows crept up over his eyes and everything went dark.

.

When he woke up, he was wearing different clothes. Very different clothes. They were all white and loose. He wasn't sure if he should call them robes, but they had that kind of feeling. His shoes were gone. He was in his guest room, on the bed. Jazz was nowhere to be seen.

Danny should have taken his family and run as soon as he saw that not-ghost shadow. He swallowed, shaking, and clenched his fists. It was still here, watching him. He could feel it, even if he couldn't see it.

Okay. First step, get out of here.

He swung his feet off the bed. As soon as they touched the floor, something twined around his ankle and rapidly climbed up his leg. He gasped and yanked himself back, trying to free his knee from the shadow twisted around it. It held fast, firmly squeezing his thigh.

Danny growled. This wasn't the first shadow he had fought. He gathered ectoplasm in his hand and poured energy into it until it burned brighter than magnesium. The shadow retreated, and Danny scrambled to stand on the middle of the bed, ectoblast still in his fist.

"Now, now, no need for any of that."

Cordelia stood in the doorway, not the least bit surprised to see Danny wielding supernatural powers.

"Where's my family?" demanded Danny.

"Safe," said Cordelia, neutrally, "and they will continue to remain so."

Danny shifted, and the bed springs squealed. "What do you want?" he asked.

"My heritage. Come along. I will explain as we go." She turned in the doorway and looked over her shoulder. "Our shadow will not trouble you, should you follow now."

Danny clenched his jaw at the threat but gingerly climbed down from the bed and followed Cordelia across the frigid floor.

"Our last common ancestor was Elizabeth Nightingale," said Cordelia. "She was married to James Fenton. They had two children, John Fenton-Nightingale and Mary Fenton-Nightingale." She paused. "Elizabeth was knowledgeable in what would have been called witchcraft, and she was very, very good at it."

They climbed down the stairs to the first floor. All of the lights were off.

"But, as these things happen, she died. A mistake with a summoning." Cordelia turned into a long hallway Danny had missed in his earlier explorations of the house. "John and Mary were divided on how to handle her legacy. John," the name was said with anger, "decided that Elizabeth's craft, her knowledge, was evil, and decided to destroy it. He burned generations of Nightingale knowledge in a single night. When Mary tried to stop him, to salvage her mother's legacy, he tried to burn her, too. He denounced her as a witch."

"I'm sorry about that," said Danny. "I really am." After all, he knew exactly what that felt like. "But I don't see what that has to do with us. That was hundreds of years ago. A bit late for revenge, don't you think?" A sufficiently disturbed ghost wouldn't, but Cordelia was, as far as Danny could tell, human.

"This isn't about revenge," said Cordelia. "Besides, it has everything to do with you. Of the two of us, you are the one who met the man, Phantom."

"What are you talking about?"

"There's no need for you to play coy with me, young man," said Cordelia. "Why else do you think I put so much time and effort into getting you here? The magics to turn your town against your parents weren't child's play, after all." She bent and seized the corner of a rug, pulling it up and back to reveal a trap door. "Neither was calling the shadow to keep you bound." She lifted the ring handle on the trap door, pulling it open. "After you."

Danny stared down the dark hole below. There was a metal ladder, but he couldn't tell where it ended. A very faint light from somewhere to the right reflected off of some of the rungs.

"Is this where you reveal you're a cannibal?" asked Danny, unimpressed. "Is that what horror movie this is?"

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Hardly. Although you and Jasmine refusing to eat with us last night made everything harder than it had to be."

That definitely wasn't Danny's stomach growling at the reminder that he hadn't eaten since lunchtime yesterday. "Drugged, was it?"

They stared at each other over the trap door.

"If you refuse to cooperate, we can always use Jack. Or Jasmine."

Danny's lips twitched as he held back a snarl. "Fine," he snapped, angrily climbing down, into the hole.

It turned out that the ladder wasn't terribly long after all. It descended into a basement of normal height.

That was, however, the only normal thing about the space. Far from simply being unfinished, the floor of the basement seemed to be stone. So were what little he could see of the walls. It was like the basement had been carved from one huge piece of bedrock, but that couldn't be possible. Danny didn't know, well, anything about geology, but he was pretty sure houses usually weren't built on stuff like this.

To the right, there was a small table with a single burning candle on it and two chairs, one on each side. Beyond that, Danny could make out a circle on the ground marked with chalk.

The cold feeling that had been plaguing Danny since yesterday was a hundred times stronger in this room. His core was alert, but the relief that his ghost sense usually brought just never came.

The strain was beginning to ache.

"Sit down," said Cordelia, indicating the chair closest to the chalk circle.

Danny complied, tense, and Cordelia moved the candle to one side, taking out a book and setting it on the table. The book was old and singed, the edges of the leather cover and several of the pages burnt and curled. Cordelia stroked it, reverently.

"This is all that Mary managed to salvage from the flames," she said. "Just this one book, out of so many. All that knowledge lost. Elizabeth was the last one to have it."

Danny heard movement in the dark corners of the room and turned his head to Sofia, Alison, and Morgan emerging, all of them in robes similar to his own, but in their own colors. They came close, and grabbed the back and arms of his chair.

"You asked me what I wanted. I want Elizabeth Nightingale."

A surprised laugh, almost a scoff, forced its way between Danny's lips. "Well, I'm sorry, but I don't exactly have her in my back pocket. Do these pants even have pockets?"

"You might not have her," said Cordelia, annoyance creeping into her otherwise level tone, "but you can get her. Bring her back from beyond."

"Uh, not sure what's in your book, but, contrary to popular belief, not all dead people know each other. She might not even be a ghost. She might have moved on."

"She hasn't," said Cordelia, almost smiling. "Not with the summoning she was doing. We are going to send you to her, and you are going to bring her back." She tilted her head to one side. "We could do this with any blood relative. The original plan was to use Jack, but your condition makes you so much more open to this kind of thing. Your chances of success are much higher."

Danny crossed his arms. "And if I don't succeed, you'll make Dad and Jazz try."

"That's right."

"Why don't you do it?" asked Danny. "You're a blood relative, aren't you?"

"Sadly, the ritual requires four people."

"Yeah, that's the only reason, huh?" said Danny, because he liked to antagonize people he couldn't strike back against in other ways, and also because he was an idiot.

"As I said, we can always use one of the others if you do not cooperate."

"And you'll let us all go if I do?"

"If you bring back Elizabeth, yes."

"Fine," said Danny. "What do I need to do?"

"Very little," said Cordelia. "Give me your hand. Your right hand."

Reluctantly, Danny held out his hand. Cordelia took it and wrapped a thin, white cord around it.

"That will lead you to her."

"I thought you were sending me to her," said Danny.

"You won't be in exactly the same spot," said Cordelia.

Then she whipped a knife out from under the table and sliced deeply into Danny's hand. He pushed back, away, holding his bleeding hand close to his chest. The only reason the chair didn't tip back was because the other three witches were holding on to it.

"Go stand in the circle," ordered Cordelia.

In a fit of pique, Danny phased backwards through the three women holding the chair, not bothering to wait for them to move away to let him go. The shadow pushed uncomfortably against his shoulders, but did not otherwise protest.

The circle was simple, no runes or symbols, just a single line of white chalk on the dark stone. Danny stared at it for a long moment, before stepping over it and standing at the center, his elbow dripping blood as it ran down his arm from his hand.

"Alright, girls, you know what we need to do," said Cordelia.

.

Danny stood in a field of washed-out red grass. Overhead, the sky billowed with rolling, boiling gray clouds. They seemed too close. The air smelled of smoke. The horizon was blurred and warped, as if Danny were looking at it through thick, wavy glass, or as if in a dream.

This wasn't the Ghost Zone.

He took a deep breath, the smoke washing through him. Okay. He was here. Now he needed to find Elizabeth Nightingale.

He looked down at his hand. The white cord had been turned red with his blood, and it had grown longer, reaching back over his shoulder.

"Eat your hear out, Ariadne," muttered Danny. He looked over his shoulder.

A forest was on fire.

The tall, straight, slender trees burned from their tops, like candles. Their trunks were bare, entirely free of leaves, needles, or branches. Danny should have felt the heat, even at this distance. He didn't.

The bloody cord led between the trees.

"Right," muttered Danny, "because nothing can be easy."

Resigned, he started walking towards the trees and discovered that the 'grass' on the ground actually consisted of thin-walled ceramic-like tubes. Fragile ceramic tubes. The ones he stepped on shattered and cut into his bare feet. He hissed, resisting the urge to hop around and get even more shards stuck into him. The bottoms of his feet felt wet and hot. He tried to phase the shards out and couldn't.

"Is this hell?" asked Danny, aloud. "This has to be hell. Ancients."

He couldn't feel the shadow near him anymore, but that didn't mean it wasn't there. Despite the 'grass,' he hesitated to try and go ghost to fly over it. He didn't want to pass out onto the tubes and break them even more. He didn't want those shards in his face or hands.

The squelching of his blood as he shifted his weight decided it for him. He couldn't walk over all of this.

He sent one last look around him for the shadow and summoned his rings. He was relieved when they flowed smoothly over him, transforming him into a ghost, into Phantom.

His normal hazmat suit did not appear, however. Instead, the white robes he had been dressed in turned black. Danny frowned at this. He was not a fan. He wanted his hazmat back.

Whatever. There were more important things to focus on. For example, both his blood and the cord had turned a lurid, ectoplasmic green. Much easier to see against the red-hued backdrop of this world.

He lifted up off the ground and flew on, occasionally pausing to pull shards out of his feet. His accelerated healing made the wounds scab over quickly. The cut on his hand, however, continued to bleed freely. This was beginning to concern him. He didn't have an infinite supply of blood. Or ectoplasm. Whatever.

As he approached the burning forest, he expected to start feeling heat, but even when he was right at the treeline, hovering midway up the impossibly tall, thin tree trunks, he couldn't feel anything. It wasn't hot. It wasn't cold. The smoke didn't smell any stronger.

Even so, he knew fire didn't have to be hot to burn. Fire was a chemical reaction, and Danny had no intention of being one of the reactants.

That was, if this place obeyed anything like normal physical laws. Since the trees hadn't actually burned down at all, the fire staying at the same height, he had to conclude that they didn't.

Still. He was going to stay away from the fire. Briefly, he considered flying over the forest, but the cord angled ever so slightly down, and he didn't know how the cord would fare trailing through the fire. Nothing the witches had said made him think it was indestructible.

He flew under the fires. It was bright underneath the trees, in a sort of inverse of a real forest. Bright, dry, and somehow brittle. Danny flew cautiously. This might nor be the Ghost Zone, but he didn't trust it not to have carnivorous landscape features, and even Earthly forests had their dangers. Lions and tigers and bears.

Oh my.

The angle on the cord began to point down more sharply. Danny was getting closer. The forest was also becoming stranger. The tree trunks bled, and glowing eight-legged flies licked at the ichor. Flowers of sickly fire bloomed from the ground in intricate geometric patterns.

Then, amid the burning brightness, Danny saw a house. A big house. A castle, even, its sides built into the burning trees, its pennants alight with flame, smaller fires moving, no, patrolling the battlements.

Danny quickly went invisible. He had a horrible suspicion that Elizabeth would be in the dungeons of that castle. The cord was going to make him hilariously easy to see, not to mention that he was still dripping blood. This was going to suck so much.

But as Danny approached, the fire creatures did not appear to have noticed the cord at all. Some of them even passed through it without slowing down.

Okay. So, as shocking as it was, Danny had actually caught a break.

Slowly, relying on the fire creatures to open the doors, Danny made his way through the castle and down. Down. Down.

The walls down here glowed, as if with heat, but it was a dull, old, tired glow. A rosy cherry color that burned Danny's eyes and made his head pound. Doors in the walls were made of wood that burned from the inside, veins of embers streaking their surface. The bars set in them glowed white-orange.

The green cord snaked across the floor and wove in between the bars of one of these doors.

Danny stopped. He was quite sure Elizabeth was behind that door. But...

Was freeing her the right thing to do? He had gotten the impression that she was dangerous. At least as dangerous as those witches. Even to save his family, should he set someone like that loose on the world?

But Danny had made this decision and all decisions like it the moment he died in the portal. That was the essence of an Obsession.

Besides. Elizabeth was family, too.

He held out his hands, letting frost form on his fingers and palms and pressed them against the door. Once again, he wondered why he couldn't feel any heat. He should. His ice should at least be registering the pressure, the power drain, of something trying to melt it. It didn't.

Ice spread over the door, extinguishing the light and making the metal creak. Feathery tendrils wound up the bars and encased the hinges. The wood began to fall into ash, as if the fire had been the only thing holding it together, and the bars clattered to the ground.

The inside of the cell was incandescent white. The only dark spot was a huddled, burnt black figure in the corner. The cord let straight to it.

Danny, very emphatically, did not want to go into that room. He hovered at the threshold.

"Elizabeth Nightingale?" he called, softly. If the falling bars hadn't alerted the fire creatures to his presence, he wasn't going to ruin that luck by speaking too loud. "Elizabeth?"

The figure abruptly lurched sideways and fell. Danny flinched. Bit by bit, the figure clawed their way towards the door, dragging itself onward.

Danny could hardly bring himself to watch. Part of him wanted to help. Part of him wanted to run far, far away and never come back.

But, at last, the ruined and horrible body made it to the threshold. It reached up with a claw-like hand and grasped Danny's ankle. He cringed at the feeling of the flaking burnt flesh, but didn't try to shake off the hand. He bent slightly, unsure if he should try to help the figure up.

"You," rasped the figure, ash falling from its jaw, "not from here."

"Um," said Danny. "No. I'm not."

The figure began to pull itself up. As it did so, it sort of began to piece itself back together. Danny had seen similar things before, with ghosts returning to their base form, healing, after an unusually devastating attack. Usually, though, it was slower and usually-

Danny abruptly pulled away. Usually ghosts who were doing that were draining his energy to do it. He glared.

"One of mine?" asked the figure, that was now decidedly feminine. It finally drew itself to its knees. Her knees. "One of my," she coughed, "grandchildren?"

"I'm a descendant of yours, I guess," said Danny, cautiously. He wasn't quite pressed up against the far wall, but he was close.

"You came for me," she said. Her voice was still too rough and dry for Danny to detect any emotion in it.

"I was sent," said Danny, flatly. "If I pick you up, are you going to start draining me again?"

She didn't respond for a long time. "No," she said, finally.

"Great," said Danny. "Let's go."

Elizabeth wasn't hard to carry. She wasn't much larger than Jazz, and he flew her around all the time. The problem was, he couldn't seem to extend his invisibility to her. Any power he sent to cover her was simply absorbed.

"Okay," he said, finally. "We'll just have to be fast, then." Mentally, he began to map out the path he would have to take, and how many doors he would have to blow down. It made for a discouraging picture.

"They can't harm you," croaked Elizabeth.

"What?"

"Pure soul. They can't harm you." She reached up to trace his chin and cheek with her still-charred fingers. "You don't feel the heat. You can't. You can't be harmed."

"Uh. Yeah. I don't think that's how it works. I stepped on some sharp stuff when I first got here, and, let me tell you, it hurt."

"The fires can't burn you. Sending you was clever." Elizabeth seemed to have exhausted herself at that; her hand fell back into her lap.

Right. Well. Whatever. The fires hadn't burnt him yet, but he had stayed well away from them. He was going to continue to do so.

He took a deep breath and flew out of the dungeons as quickly as he could. As expected, the fire creatures spotted him quickly, and they began to shout and shriek in a language Danny couldn't even begin to understand.

They also threw fireballs. And fire spears. And fire chains. Just, a lot of things made out of fire.

It was a good thing Danny had ice powers. Otherwise he would have had a hard time combating all this. A few fireballs passed far too close to his head for comfort. His ice also seemed to be unusually effective on doors.

Finally, Danny was able to get above ground, and, no longer constrained to follow the cord around his wrist, he escaped through a window. He spiraled up, almost high enough to hit the underside of the flames licking at the trees, and then dove away.

"So," he said, "what now?"

"You don't know?" Elizabeth looked a lot better now. Almost human.

"I wasn't given a whole lot of information when they coerced me into doing this. They just said to follow the cord to you, and I did that." Speaking of which, what had happened to the cord? It had just vanished, without Danny even noticing. "I was half-expecting to just get zapped back the moment I found you."

"Coerced?"

"They said they'd make my dad or my sister do this, if I didn't, and they can't fly."

"They're alive."

"Yeah."

There was something like a frown on Elizabeth's face. "They shouldn't have done that."

"Yeah. You don't have to tell me that." More shrieks were approaching from the direction of the castle. "They did this with one of your books. Please tell me you know how to get out of here."

Elizabeth licked her lips. Her tongue was pink. "We go out where you came in," she said.

Danny looked at the trees around him. He only knew where the castle was because of the noises coming from that direction. Otherwise, everything looked the same in every direction. He was pretty sure that even if he went back to the castle, he wouldn't be able to tell which direction he had approached it from, and after that...

They were screwed.

"Follow the blood," said Elizabeth.

It was better than nothing, Danny supposed. His green blood did stand out against the red, but he's been high in the air when he shed it. Following that trail was going to suck, and it still required going back to the castle and avoiding all the fire creatures.

Some of this must have shown on his face, because Elizabeth said, "Not like that, boy, look." She pointed to the small puddle of ectoplasm that had dripped from his hand while they had been talking.

Flowers and vines were growing from it. Ghostly green and blue flowers and vines. As he watched, the vines grew longer, the flowers opened wider.

"Oh," Danny said. "I guess that makes things easier."

.

Easier was, of course, a relative term. Was following the trail left by ghostly plants growing out of Danny's blood easier than stumbling blindly around the burning forest? Yes. Was it easy? No. No it was not. Especially not with the fire creatures hunting them through the trees and how far apart the blood spatters could be.

Still. Danny was able to follow the trail for an hour before the fire creatures caught up to him.

When they did, they seemed almost, confused. They didn't attack. It was like they were waiting for something.

Danny would have run, but he was worried that he'd lose the trail if he tried to do that, and he didn't think he'd be able to find it again. He and the fire creatures stared each other down. Every few seconds, one of them would make a noise and another would answer.

Rapidly, Danny was becoming surrounded. He would have to make his move soon. He really didn't want to lose the trail, but he didn't think he could win this fight.

Too many enemies. Too much fire. Maybe if he flew straight up, he-

The fire creatures attacked. Danny ducked, wove, and conjured shields of ice and ectoenergy, but there was a limit to what he could do against this many attackers, especially while carrying Elizabeth.

He saw a ball of fire coming that he couldn't dodge and instinctively twisted to spare Elizabeth.

It splashed against him harmlessly.

Everything stopped. The fire creatures froze, even their flames going still, as though they were videos that had been paused. One began to wail, and then they all fled, disappearing into the brightness of the forest.

"A pure soul," said Elizabeth again. She patted his shoulder. Her skin was a burnt red, now. Her eyes were as blue as his were when he was human. Her frown was deeper, more obvious. "It was clever to send you... but they shouldn't have."

"Sure," said Danny, a little surprised. He scanned the trees, trying to see if any of the fire creatures were waiting in ambush. Seeing none, he continued.

.

They reached the field of tubes, and Danny followed his blood trail back to where he had lacerated his feet.

"Now what," he said.

"Land," said Elizabeth.

Danny grimaced, remembering what had happened to his feet the last time he had tried to walk here. He landed carefully on what looked like the thickest part of the vine growing from his blood-

-and was abruptly back in the chalk circle in Cordelia's basement.

The shadow pounced on him. Unprepared, Danny dropped Elizabeth and fell. Pain sparkled along his limbs as the shadow pulled at his ghost form. It was too much. The lack of sleep, the hunger, the stress, the energy he had spent finding Elizabeth and bringing her back, the blood loss and pain from the wound in his hand, his inability to protect his family, and now this attack. He curled up, trying to protect his head and hand, and abandoned his ghost form.

"Stop this at once!"

"Grandmother, I-"

"Call off this shadow."

A beat. "Very well." The shadow stopped its assault, and Danny stumbled up and out of the circle, scuffing the lines beyond all recognition. Cordelia and Elizabeth were the only women standing. The boarders were all kneeling, faces hidden.

"Grandmother, many times great grandmother, I greet you. I am Cordelia, the last descendant of your daughter, Mary, and I have labored long to bring you back to this world, so that your works will not be lost."

Elizabeth, Danny noted, was standing very straight, her skin sunburn-pink in all but a few places, her arms crossed over the burnt rags of what might have once been a shirt. She did not look pleased.

"So my works won't be lost," repeated Elizabeth.

"Your son betrayed you," said Cordelia. "He burned all your books, all your magics. This is all that survived." Cordelia held up the singed book.

Elizabeth pressed her eyelids together briefly. "And so, you forced your cousin, a child, into that place after me, rather than coming on your own?"

"There was no choice-"

"There is always a choice," said Elizabeth, cutting her off with a sharp gesture. "Better that book should have burned as well, and I was imprisoned forever. You were lucky in my captors. Others would have delighted in taking a pure soul as an ornament for their court, even if they couldn't have harmed him."

"You can't mean that-"

"I do. Is it true you have imprisoned the other members of this boy's family?"

"He would never have agreed, otherwise. Please, this is all we have left of our heritage. We need you. This was all necessary. I beg of you, teach us."

Danny began to back away, to the ladder. Maybe if he got out fast enough, he could trap them in the basement and look for Jazz and his parents.

"Do you know how I wound up there? In that place?" asked Elizabeth. "I went too far, and I ignored the rules. What's your name?"

"Cordelia."

"Cordelia. Cordelia Nightingale-Fenton?"

"Just Nightingale."

"I begin to see," said Elizabeth.

Danny was almost to the ladder. Maybe he could tap into his ghost powers a little bit and float up, quietly.

"If you had come to get me yourself, if you had even asked him-" Elizabeth gestured to where Danny had been. Both women did a double-take, and then their eyes traced up to where Danny currently was.

"What are you doing?" hissed Cordelia. This was the first time Danny had seen her visibly angry.

"Stop," said Elizabeth, grabbing Cordelia's shoulder. "What is your name, boy?"

"It's Daniel Fenton," said Cordelia, when Danny didn't answer.

Elizabeth considered Danny for a moment. "Go to your family, Daniel. Whatever curses or enchantments Cordelia cast on them should be lifted. Including that hate curse." She ran her fingers down Cordelia's arm. "Why on earth did you cast that?" Her eyes flicked back up. "Expect to receive my correspondence, Daniel Fenton."

.

Danny found Jazz and his parents in the attic. Their luggage was there, too, and Danny and Jazz's missing clothing. Maddie's cell phone was going off. Danny ignored it. He started shaking them. Slowly, they came awake.

"Danny?" said Jazz. She scrubbed at her eyes. "Ugh, what's that sound?"

"Mom's phone is going off."

"What?" said Maddie, groggily. "My phone?" She fumbled at her pocket. "Yes, what is it? Yes, this is Doctor Fenton. What? Well," this last word was a bit snide. "It's about time. We'll be there before the end of the day." She snapped the phone closed. "Jack, sweetheart, wake up, we're going back home. All the charges against us have been dropped, and they want us to look into a ghost attack. Apparently, Phantom didn't show up. As we knew he wouldn't."

"Huh? Ghost? Where?"

"In Amity Park, Jack."

"In Amity Park! Alright!" said Jack, jumping to his feet, and grabbing most of the luggage. "I knew they wouldn't last two days without us! Let's go, kids!"

He ran down the stairs. Maddie took a moment to look around, pursing her lips. "How did we get up here?" she asked. She shook her head, dismissing the question. "Do either of you kids know where Cordelia is?"

"She went out," said Danny. "To town. She won't be back 'til later."

"We'll have to leave a note, then. You two should get dressed before we go, or you'll have to try and do it in the GAV bathroom."

"So what really happened?" asked Jazz, after Maddie went down the stairs.

"Long story," said Danny, throwing on a pair of jeans, "and we really do need to leave. Fast." He took his luggage and rushed down the stairs.

.

Danny watched Cordelia's house shrink in the rear-view mirror of the GAV, right up until it shimmered out of existence like a mirage. He clenched his teeth. He had seen worse.

He turned in his seat and put his hands in his pockets, intending to brood over what had happened, but his hand encountered a stiff piece of paper that had definitely, absolutely, not been there before. Well. Elizabeth had said to expect her correspondence.

He pulled a crisp white envelope out of his pocket. On the front, in spidery cursive, was his name. He turned it over. On the back flap was written the name Elizabeth NF.

She was family. Distantly. He put his thumb under the back flap, and began to open the letter.

[goliath-de-senfina-sango]

Jazz was struggling to process the weird things going on in her life. While she was far more interested in psychology than parapsychology, she /did/ offer a ghost a bit of therapy now and then and he seemed to be doing better for it. That was all the ghostly interaction she really needed. the giant hornet in school apparently disagrees with her on that. It truly amazed Jazz what the mind could conjure up during stressful events. For instance, it occurred to her right this very second how odd it had been to cool even slightly down from the argument days before over ghosts with her parents only for the ghost of the infamous Sydney Poindexter to show up in the library seeking comfort and a safe person to vent to. The topic of Sydney’s guilt had been hard to stay objective about, but between his clear and honest regret, his admitted decades of hell in a replica of Casper in the Infinite Realms (and wow, she shouldn’t be surprised that ghosts had a name for the world they manifest in but there she was) and the fact that Danny had befriended him led her to feel Sydney was, while not at all justified in what he’d done, not as bad a person as he’d been making himself out to be. When she asked questions he responded much more clearly than when he spoke unprompted, she’d noted, and so she’d asked right away if there was even one person he could remember who didn’t hurt him. The green and sepia bleeding into his form nearly vanished as his older brother, his little sister, and the school nurse came to mind. His brother hardly cared about the things that he was being bullied over, doing his best to keep Sydney looking toward the future and making amazing things to lift his spirits. Apparently, he was a genius like Tucker and Danny, a compliment that made Jazz smile at the time. His little sister didn’t know enough to really understand it all but she was unerringly sweet and a source of sunshine that he never ever mentioned at school. The nurse, however, had been the brightest of those three lights in the dark for him, as the nurse wasn’t family and had no pre-established reason to be nice to and patch up the gross, nerdy queer kid that everyone else had shown nothing but contempt for. She did it anyway though, and he’d aspired to be a nurse like her one day. This aspiration led to more bullying, of course, but Jazz suggested he try learning how to heal people up the same way that nurse had him, and a look of realization and hope crossed his face before he hugged her, waved, and flew off. That had been a very good ghostly encounter. The giant hornet casting a sinister green glow over the hallways as a long, slimy black tongue curled around her entire skull and sharp mandibles the size of said skull extended to their most open was distinctly not. Jazz would never look at bugs the same way again. Before she could even manage to get a scream out of her though, the whining charge of one of her parents’ weapons filled her ears and the hornet jerked back with a sound that could’ve been pain, could’ve been fury, and mixed the kind of clicking hissing one expects from a bug with a very human voice. There was a burn mark on its center dripping ectoplasm that smelled awful , and it turned big black eyes to the same ghost boy she’d seen before. But now Jazz knew he was dangerous because that was a Fenton Plasma Rifle in his hands and his eyes were torches, hair flicking between cloudy wisps and crackling flames. “ Did someone call for an exterminator? “ “Oh, you think you’re funny!” The fucking hornet said, starling Jazz into motion - backing away slowly so as to not draw its attention. It flew like a blur at the boy, stinger cutting a gash in his suit and up his arm that leaked a thick green fluid and the rest of it’s lower half crashed into him with enough force to slam the boy into a few lockers with a bang. “Swat this , big boy.” “ Buzz off ,” the boy growled and the lights flared up brighter around them. He swung the rifle at the bug and the green ectoplasm shone a blinding white as it fired, burning a hole straight through the hornet and drilling it through the wall between the school and its yard. The boy flew after it and Jazz took a deep breath. There were ghosts fighting in her school, one with her parents’ weaponry. That one had saved her though and Jazz also had Fenton weaponry on her. She rushed outside to help, determined to keep her savior from being skewered by a hornet. Jazz poked her head out from the hole that the boy had made and froze. He was smacked out of the air by one of the long hairy legs of the hornet and into a tree and his head cracked loudly against bark. As he slid down his body was enveloped in light that retreated inward to his center and left behind Black hair, tan skin, a nyan cat hoodie- “Danny?” Her whisper went unnoticed in the face of a green ray piercing the hornet’s left wing. Bleeding ectoplasm in three places, it curled in on itself into a mass of green goop that dove into the ground and everything was still. Danny looked around with bright green eyes as he clutched his head, before growling and punching the tree. He stood up slowly, closed his eyes and grew difficult to look at, to even see as the light within a foot of him grew intense like a halo. He let out a breath and slumped against Tucker when the other boy made it to him, checking him over. Jazz stepped back away from the hole and took deep, shaky breaths. My brother is a ghost. That thought played over and over in her head even as a teacher gently guided her to her feet (when had she sat down among the debris?) and to the nurse’s office. It was only when Danny appeared in the nurse’s office, wrapping her up tight in a hug and rambling a mile a minute to ask if she was ok in every way he possibly could that her brain shifted focus even slightly. “Well, I didn’t get stung. Just licked by a dad sized hornet and saved by a ghostly teenager.” She hugged Danny back just as tightly, and tears began to flow as his argument to their parents before he blacked out in the hospital bed came back to mind. If the portal accident had killed me, would you have comforted your child or attacked the ghost in your lab? Danny’s arms went slack for a moment but Jazz clung tight to him. “I just. I just need a moment. Please?” Instead of pulling away and cracking jokes about gross sibling feelings her blessed baby brother hugged her back again and nodded into her neck. “Of course, Jazz.” “I swear to every star that listens,” Danny said behind his bedroom door where Jazz really shouldn’t be listening in. “Next I see of that smart-mouthed, rancid piece of protoplasmic filth I’m going to turn him into a smear and burn him.” That certainly sounded more like Dad than Danny. “At least save me a little bit to beat up,” Sam’s voice called through the speakers of his newly upgraded laptop. “I just commissioned your Mom for a ghost fighting melee weapon and Sydney’s healing me up pretty fast.” So Sydney knew about all of this. “There’ll be some of Spectra left to beat up with that once the Peeler has finished its work.” What?! “Probably. Maybe. It’s made to weaken the target not kill them.” The scoff she heard was definitely Tucker and definitely in the room. “Yeah, you’ll leave a scrap of shadow that none of us can distinguish from our own shadows, that’s something Sam can beat up.” Shadows? “I think the ectoplasm is enhancing your emotional response.” “You’re right Tuck, if someone threatened Jazz’s life normally I wouldn’t try to shoot them into a pile of goo. I’d only beat them up with the gun.” Jazz would normally admonish such a violent reaction, and aloud she might if she was in there and not eavesdropping. But truly, if someone hurt Danny they’d find out what a 1st degree blackbelt can do to them. “I think Sam will be good to go either tomorrow or the day after.” Sydney’s voice crackled over the speakers like static. “I think your healing powers mesh better with living beings than mine can since you’re halfa human.” Danny sighed and Jazz moved back into her room, sitting down to process. She pulled out her notebook and set it on her desk, mechanical pencil already in hand. “Organize all my thoughts and maybe it’ll make sense. What information do I have?” Danny was in an accident involving the ghost portal and it changed him. Danny was vehemently against their parents’ anti ghost genocide plan The ghost boy she’d seen at school the other day was clearly the one that had attacked the hornet thing when it attacked her Danny had all the access to the Fenton Armory as she did with their porta pockets, which was effectively full access. Danny was too smart to give any unknown entity their only model of plasma rifle Danny had directed Sydney Poindexter of all people to her Sydney knew Danny on a personal level that he wasn’t willing to fully disclose to her. Sydney had called Danny half-human and Danny hadn’t corrected him, nor had Tucker nor Sam. Jazz saw the mystery ghost boy transform in a flash of light into her brother, who proceeded to hug her and act much the same he had since the portal accident. Her conclusion? Danny had died in the portal when it turned on, and now he was a ghost, fighting off ghost robots and giant bugs with their parents’ weaponry. Sam and Tucker knew about it, and he had befriended at least one ghost. This was, of course, the most ridiculous thought to cross Jasmine Dana Fenton’s mind in her entire life. But then, her parents had opened a portal to the afterlife and she’d just been attacked by a giant glowing green hornet. “Ok, Danny is a ghost. He didn’t tell me that, but for obvious reasons,” she muttered to herself. “That must be what he was going to tell Mom and Dad before and now he doesn’t have the courage to try again. Oh god Danny died. ” Jazz picked up Bearbert Einstein and hugged him close, deciding right then that she was going to hug Danny a lot more from now on. Just to make sure he was still there. That was a silly thought, but she needed to be sure.

[phantomphangphucker]

Phango - Gifted? Or Dead?

(Crossover + Identity Reveal + Daul Obsession (Space) AU + Dissection)

Mutants around a ghost are sorely outmatched and Danny’s one of the strongest there is, even if he’s a slightly broken kid.

Katherine, also now to those around her as Kitty, nods as she drives past the Amity sign, she wasn’t quite sure how she was going to find this mutant Xavier suspected was here. Or more specifically how she was going to get a hold of him. Phantom was more than just often spotted but was notoriously impossible to capture. She’s honestly a little glad for that, who knows what would be done to him. Even more so as it seems this town was notorious for having ghosts hunters and they all believed Phantom was simply a ghost and thus ‘evil’. Xavier seemed to think that wasn’t the case, that the boy was a mutant of some kind. The way he had frowned slightly leads her to think Phantom might be an experiment. The fact that the town was very well hidden and blacklisted was definitely not a good sign. It took a lot to find any information apparently.

Checking in with the hotel and quirking an eyebrow over the waver the receptionist gives her. Said receptionist answering her expression with clearly practiced ease, “to stay here overnight requires wavers, if you really do decide to stay for your full weeks' reservation, you’ll have to acquire ghost insurance down at the station. This is due to the unusual dangers present in town and you, as an outsider, don’t know how to deal with them”.

Katherine shakes her head slightly, “so this whole ghost thing is quite real”.

“Yup. Here’s your key card”, Katherine takes it with a nod and heads to her room.

She doesn’t waste much time setting up before wandering around the town, hoping to either spot Phantom or find some kind of clues. Finding herself chuckling a little at the mall, the kids' symbol was everywhere, some things even having the ‘inviso-bill’ code name on them. Which was honestly horrible, even her first code name ‘Sprite’ would have made more sense. Shaking her head, if Phantom was a mutant, he was already pretty well established in the world of heroics. He even had tons of detractors already, whether that was because of what everyone thought he was or not.

Ending up at the library, hoping to learn anything about what’s being labelled as ‘ghosts’. Leaning over to the receptionist, “so what're the best option for me to look into on this whole ghost deal?”.

Getting a soft laugh in return before the lady shakes her head with a small smile, “if you’re genuinely curious dearie, FentonWorks, but those two could talk anyone’s ears off for days about ghosts. We have a few books if you just want more generalised or fictional reading”.

“Are ‘those two’ experts on ghosts?”.

The lady nods immediately, “top of the field they say. Built an inter-dimensional portal into the Ghost Zone they say. Are the best makers of ecto-weapons they say. People say a lot, they say even more. They’ve got kids too. One’s probably the smartest person on Earth and the others basically an enigma. All four are strange. Head down the road and to the right. Look for the house with a giant FentonWorks sign that should be a light pollution threat and with a ufo, that can turn into a blimp and a jet, on top”.

Katherine blinks and nods at that, certainly won’t be the strangest thing she’s seen but that’s pretty up there. Turning to head out after thanking the lady.

It really doesn’t take long to find the house, muttering to herself, “that is one obnoxious sign”, before knocking on the door. She can’t help but think that these two would look right at home with all the mutants, jumpsuits were a pretty common sight with them.

Maddie asking, “hello? Can we help you?”.

Katherine nods with a smile, “yes, I’m visiting town and I was wondering if you could tell me a little about the whole ‘ghosts’ thing?”. She makes a point not to react on instinct to the rather massive Jack practically dragging her inside with an almost disturbing level of excitement.

Jack pushes her at the kitchen table, “wait here! We have awesome inventions!”, before running off down stairs.

Maddie smiles at her and points to a kettle, “would you like some tea?”. At Katherine’s nod Maddie starts up the kettle before sitting down, “so what is it you want to know? Outside of the basics of course”.

Katherine nods with a slight smile, “that for sure”, laughing slightly, “anything important for safety and why there seems to be one that’s just...fighting the others”.

Maddie sighs and shakes her head, “ah yes, Phantom. That one’s strange and an anomaly”, smiling a bit, “what we wouldn’t give to get our hands on It and see how It really works!”. Katherine makes it a point to not react visibly to that. While Jack bounds up the stairs, “talking ‘bout Phantom? If we could only get this baby-”, holding up some weird looking Bazooka with a claw hand on it, “-on It, then we could open that ghostie up! Get right down to the molecules!”.

It’s then that the son walks in the front doors, looking honestly skittish, “I’m home!”. Katherine watches him look her over with extreme caution, he was clearly very mistrustful. While he looks to his mom, “mom, who’s this?”.

“Oh jut a curious traveller sweetie”.

Katherine notes how the kid flinches when Jack swings around the weapon thing, “she wants us to blabber about ghosts! And look! We finished the Fenton Ectoplasm Crusher!”.

The kid looks slightly like a deer in headlights, “that’s great dad. I’m just gonna not stay here. I’ll be in my room if you need me!”, the last bit comes out rushed as the weapon goes off and shoots off at Danny, slamming into the wall where he was standing as he bolts up the stairs; the invention electrocuting the wall.

Katherine looking to Jack, “do inventions often go after him like that? Is that safe?”.

Maddie waves her off, “it’s fine. Ecto-weapons can’t hurt humans. It can just be a little startling”, Katherine watch’s as the women shoots her own hand to prove a point. Only thing, for the kid to have any kind of ingrained fear response to said weapons, means they must affect him. At least a little.

Jack picks up, utterly unaware of Katherine’s slight mistrust of them, “so we’ve been in the field for years! And one thing we know is that ghosts are evil ectoplasmic manifestations of post-human consciousness! They’re dangerous creatures!”.

Maddie nods, “we try to catalogue and record as many of them as we can, their powers too. And how best to contain or defeat them. See, they’re not capable of human emotions or being good. Even that Phantom one”, she shakes her head, “just feeding off the attention people give It. Why so many feel the need to see It as anything but a monster we’ll never know”.

Katherine feels like she’s heard this all before. Deciding to ask something more basic, “are they actually dead though? Or just abnormal people?”.

Jack chuckles, “oh they’re dead all right! No bones, no blood, no organs. Entirely made of ectoplasm! Which is a great energy source actually! We fuel our weapons with it!”.

Maddie looks from her husband to Katherine, “yes it sure is. Some ghosts were once human, or dogs, others we aren’t quite sure what they used to be. There’s plenty of work to be done in the field. One thing we can all agree on, those of us in the profession, is that ghosts are simply the negative and obsessive remnants of their living self. Rarely remembering so much as their name. They come to our world to wreak havoc and hurt those that dare still have what they lost. Or they seek power”.

Jack lifts up a few different weapons, and a fishing pole? While he speaks, “most of our inventions are to counteract their powers! All ectoplasm has certain abilities, but the really tricky ghosts are the ones with unique powers!“.

Maddie nods with a sigh, “which is the problem with Phantom. It’s unlike any other ghost. Able to get past anti-ghost things somehow and get into our world so frequently”.

Katherine tilts her head, “our world?”.

Jack beams and nods, “yup! Ghosts come from and exist in an alternately dimension! The Ghost Zone! Our work started really picking up when we figured out how to access the place!”.

Maddie smiles and gets up to pour the tea, speaking as she does, “it’s a very dangerous place, filled with ecto-filth and their lairs. They plot and heal there, before coming here to cause issues”.

Katherine smiles and takes the offered tea, while the conversation continues.

She listens to them, not really sure what to make of it all other than that the two really hate ghosts and wanted to both harm and control them. But she finds herself paying more attention to the coming and goings of the two kids. The daughter eyes held intelligence that likely surpassed nearly everyone’s and something tells Katherine that the daughter is far more watchful and suspicious than she lets on. The boy, on the other hand, only seemed relaxed when his parents were not looking at or near him. Other wise he was jumpy, skittish. But he was making a point to still be around his parents, though clearly avoiding them as quickly as he can. She also notes how the two seem to be able to look after themselves entirely, how the sister puts herself between the parents and the boy, how the parents are absorbed in their work, and how there are anti-ghost things everywhere...even the toaster is anti-ghost.

She smiles at them as she leaves but frowns when she’s out of sight, if she wasn’t curious about the two kids before, she was now. Pausing as she sees the daughter sitting on a bench, just out of sight of the Fenton house, reading an advanced psychology text.

Katherine walking up and asking, “you’re the daughter, what do you think of all this ghost stuff”.

She giggles slightly and snaps the book shut, “it’s Jasmine or Jazz for short. And it’s very real, even if my parents are extreme about it...and wrong in many ways”, Katherine watches as Jazz squints at her slightly before nodding, “you see the bigotry in it. The human mind is a flawed thing, impressive but flawed. It’s far easier to take what we do not know, do not understand, what is different; and label it less than us. Whether to fight against them, research them, or simply hold onto the ideal that humans are some great alpha species. It’s silly, isn’t it?”.

Katherine blinks and nods with a slight smile, “yes, people can be silly like that. I’m guessing you don’t share their opinions?”.

Jazz shakes her head, “very few teens do. But they’re the adults, the experts. So certainly, they must be right. Funny how that works”.

Katherine smiles slightly and nods, “people with power, sometimes it’s good sometimes it’s bad. You’re a smart girl, you’ll do some good things I’m sure”, the two nod and Katherine keeps walking.

The next thing she does is send a message to Xavier for anyone he wants her focusing more on. And it doesn’t take long to get back said list on who to check out. Sighing a bit over all six being teens. Sam Manson, Elliot Revon, Tucker Foley, Todd Brentex, Valerie Gray, and Danny Fenton. She’s going to leave the Fenton child till last, for a lot of reasons.

Using the library to track down the different residencies and to figure out the kids social circles. Promptly moving Elliot and Todd near the bottom of the list at noticing that Sam, Tucker, and Danny were basically best friends and Valerie was also their friend, just seemingly less close. But she can see why Xavier focused in on these six. Everything about Jasmine was very public even if she was odd. She probably was a mutant to a level but only receiving heightened intellect. Hardly what they were looking for and not who needed their help.

Sam was extremely rich, which wasn’t odd really but she also seems to raise pet plants that bite people, eats exclusively plant matter including soil, and frequently disappeared just before or during ‘ghost attacks’

Elliot has impossibly natural white hair and there was video proof of him being chased and attacked by the government. He also changed personas every few weeks, she’s pretty sure he doesn’t know who he actually is anymore.

Tucker was another’s case of extreme intellect but also seemed to hit on everything with legs, had something dubbed a ‘meat sense’ and was romantically involved with his PDA. He also frequently disappeared just before or during ‘ghost attacks’.

Todd seems like a run of the mill asshole, if you exclude the fact that he snarls, bites and all around acts a bit inhuman and creepy. There is a lot of comments about him having abnormal shows of strength.

Valerie likely carries ecto-weapons with her due to the staggering amount of comments about her having them at some point or another. Has a serious and extreme hatred for ghosts that could very likely be intentional as a cover up. She also disappeared when ‘ghost attacks’ happened.

Daniel was notable because of how little there was to note. He loved space, a lot, his Facebook was near nothing but space facts. He was chronically skipping or leaving classes, sometimes lining up with ‘ghost attacks’ sometimes not. Was so severely clumsy he was banned from handling fragiles. Was severely terrified of ghosts, this could be a cover. And that’s it, nothing else.  

Nodding and closing her little notes and deciding she’ll approach the techno-geek first.

Promptly running into an issue. Sam, Tucker and Danny were basically never alone. Either they were together, at home or with family. It was certainly strange. But this gives her time to observe them and Sam and Tucker are extremely protective of Danny. Even seeming so towards his parents. Which is a bit worrying. She also writes Todd off during this time as a guy who wants to be seen as weird and is quite literally acting a part. Valerie also seems like the overworked teen type, and she’s not all that involved with anyone else. Plus the ghost hating is not faked, catching her ranting about ghosts was honestly a bit disturbing.

Leaning against a wall in the mall and watching the three from afar when a floating Mecha bursts through a wall and sends tables and people flying, everyone else fleeing. Deciding to duck down and watch, maybe Phantom will come along and she’ll get lucky.

But the expressions on the trio catch her attention, sure they were running off but their eyes were hard and there was slight smiles playing on their faces. Danny even seemed to roll his eyes. Certainly different from everyone else.

Flickering her camouflage and intangibility on to sneak around and follow the trio enough to keep them in her sights. Maybe they had contact with Phantom. Blinking and smirking to herself of watching Danny’s -rather bright if she’s honest- little transformation sequence and catch phase. Ah teens, and yup, definitely a mutant of some kind. Somehow she doubts he’s a ghost that just can look human. Watching as the Mecha hits him with some hook thing and sends both of them intangibly through a wall.

Her jobs basically half done now so she’s content to just check in with Xavier before approaching the mutant.

Leaning back in a chair and speaking over the protected phones, “found your kid. But he might be a more sensitive case than normal”.

“Oh?”.

“His parents definitely do not know and they point blank said they wanted to very explicitly dissect him, Phantom anyway. The house is basically filled with things that hurt him if he actually is somehow a ghost”.

“Very well, I’ll fly down there”.

Nodding to herself and hanging up. It’s not like he’ll take long and she has to go fill out those insurance papers.

A few days later finds Katherine, Xavier, Scott Summer, and Jean Grey in-front of the Fenton house, waiting for an answer after they knew the Fenton parents would be gone for a while. If it took a bit longer simply to ensure the safety of a mutant then so be it.

Jazz is the one to open the door, Xavier smiles slightly at her not even looking surprised. “Hello Jasmine, I’m Charles Xavier”, gesturing to Scott, “this is Scott Summer”, gesturing to Jean, “this is Jean Grey”, gesturing to Katherine with a slight smile, “and I believe you’ve already met Katherine Pryde. Is Daniel around by chance?”.

Jazz steps to the side and lets the four in, hardly blinking at Jean telekinetically levitating Xavier’s wheelchair inside. Jazz commenting as she goes to make tea, “you’d think they’d create things more useful for everyday people, like stairs that can transform into ramps. Rather than hover cars and wormholes”.

Jean raises an eyebrow, “your parents have created such things?”. Jazz smiles and nods, Katherine nodding as well.

Jazz frowns slightly as she speaks, “now what do you want with my little brother?”.

Xavier holds up a hand, “relax, nothing bad, I can assure you. We merely want to talk, privately if that is possible”. None of them exactly want to assume who knows and who doesn’t about Danny. While Jazz squints slightly at them. Xavier speaks up again, reading that she was simply protective of her brother and very much knew, “I am better know to some as Professor Xavier or Professor X, I help people who are a bit different from the rest of humanity. Give them guidance, teach them”.

Jazz nods slightly, “so you are mutants then? I figured as much”, smirking slightly, “and I’m not one to be wrong”.

Scott frowns a bit more noticeably at that, “and you assumed why?”.

Jazz smirks as she pours teas and goes to walk up the stairs, “often those that see the bigotry towards people and creatures as being such, do so because they see and experience it themselves. Much the same has been said about mutants as ghosts”, turning to look at them with one foot up the stairs, “but make no mistake. Ghosts aren’t the same”.

Scott huffs as the girl walks up the stairs, not really believing this whole ghost nonsense. Much more likely were an unusual set of mutants, mutants with similar powers wasn’t unheard of and maybe this place simply resulted in such an occurrence.

All four turn to the stairs as a cautious looking Danny enters the kitchen, Scott and Jean honestly a bit surprised he’s actually alone. Katherine smiles at him, “hello again. Don’t worry, we’re the good guys”. Something about that makes the skittish boy chuckle as he sits down.

Danny mutters as he plays with the teacup, “everyone always thinks they’re the good guys”.

Xavier nods with a slight smile, “true. I have an old friend who always believed he was doing what was right, what was best. For those like us, for the world, for the future. He did not care who he had to hurt to achieve his idea of the perfect future”.

Danny squints a little, “‘people like us’? Are you including me in that ‘us’ thing?”.

Scott scoffs and crosses his arms, “we know you’re Phantom, kid. We’re mutants”. Scott groans slightly as Danny curls in on himself a little, clearly paranoid and skittish. Jean levitates a tea cup to herself and smiles softly, looking to make the kid feel more comfortable.

Danny watches them for a bit, “you're not with the government...are you?”.

All four shake their heads instantly. Xavier speaking, “we’re not looking to report you or hurt you or anything of the kind. I’m here to offer my help. You see, I run a school for gifted youngsters. Young mutants like yourself”, he steers his chair around the table to put himself in more full view of the skittish Daniel, “it’s a safe place, protected from any who would want to harm us. Where you could develop your gifts around others like you. And be free from the dangers posed to you”, Xavier nods towards one of the strange guns on the counter. “Mutants have been regarded with fear, hatred; as you’ve experienced yourself. There are some even who see us as a new species, but humanity has never been one to share. Our school has plenty to offer, the top classes in everything as well as training facilities that can be specialised to every mutants needs”.

Danny raises his hands and chuckles a bit awkwardly, “I’m, um, not a mutant. I mean, I guess that depends on whatever makes a mutant or whatever. But um, you really can’t tell anyone about me. I’d really rather not get dissected”.

Scott sighs, “kid, did you miss the protected part? The school’s a safe place and from what I’ve heard you can at least float and shoot energy rays, you’re a mutant”, Jean levitates up a pen and Scott lowers his visors quickly to shoot a little beam at it, destroying it. While Xavier explains, “mutants are people with a special gene, the X-gene, resulting in the mutant developing their gift around puberty. And I can assure you, no one is going to be experimenting on you”.

Danny scoffs and rolls his eyes, looking rather tired, “don’t promise things you can’t deliver. And I’m not a mutant then. I wasn’t born with some gene. Just got into an accident”, looking to and squinting at Scott, “um, what do you think ghosts are?”.

Scott shrugs, “collection of mutants probably”.

Xavier nods, Daniel wasn’t lying, “well sometimes traumatic events or emotional distress can cause the surfacing of a mutants gift. But even if you might not be a mutant, my school would and will accept you regardless. We are not ones to discriminate or turn away any gifted youths”.

Danny rubs his neck and shrugs a little, “could it awaken these genes or whatever in late twenties? Because if not, then I’m definitely not a mutant. But I guess thanks for not being discriminatory or whatever, nice change I guess”.

Jean frowns, goes to rub his shoulder reassuringly but pauses when he flinched away. He’s clearly been through a lot and doesn’t trust easily, “you have a place if you want it, and you will be accepted. Clearly this place isn’t safe for you”.

Danny scoffs and rolls his eyes again, fiddling with and looking down at his cup, “no place is really. And my folks don’t know, they don’t mean to hurt me. Even if they do shoot at me a lot, dad’s not that good of an aim though”, he smirks but it’s a little hallow. Looking to Scott, “ghosts are exactly what they sound like. The dead. I guess since you guys went and revealed yourselves, I’m a hybrid. Half dead”, chuckling and drinking the tea a little, “let me tell you, electrocution is a very painful way to go. Four billion volts, people don’t survive that. But hey, also having a ghost portal open up on me fixed the whole dying problem...partly anyway”.

Katherine breathes out, “well damn”, that was pretty awful. Looking to change the subject, “so what can you do? I can walk through things. Intangibility. And camouflage, it’s almost invisibility”, pointing at Scott, “laser eyes over here”, pointing at Jean, “empath, telekineses”, pointing at Xavier, “telepath in basically every-way”.

Danny jerks a little bit from hearing Xavier’s voice in his head saying ‘hello’ while Xavier smiles a bit playfully. Xavier speaking while Danny watches all of them, “I’m one of the strongest there is, I can manipulate any part of someone’s mind, shutting down their body functions even. But I don’t of course, won’t. I like to think humanity has good to them, at their core. That we can exist peacefully. I know you’re good, and that you fight the ghosts to protect people”, gesturing to the three mutants, “we do much the same, fighting less reputable mutants who want to harm”.

Danny eyeballs them and chuckles, “that’s pretty intense. Mind control really. I’ve been mind-controlled before, I broke it though. Kinda funny you came here with a bunch of people with similar abilities”, Danny levitates over the ectogun and pokes it to spin around in the air, “telekinesis, I don’t use it much though”, shooting a little ecto-beam at it, making the ecto-gun explode, “more laser fingers than eyes, can do that to though”, phasing his hand through the table before flickering invisible, “literally every. Single. Ghost. Can use intangibility, invisibility, and gravity nullification”.

Danny sighs and gets up, putting away his cup; three of the mutants a little surprised at the numerous powers. Xavier nods slightly, “you have more powers, don’t you”.

Danny scoffs and laughs a bit, “many. I don’t know if your school could make a training room actually able to handle me honestly. And I would bring danger with me. I’m wanted by the government, many ghosts want my hide -one very literally-, and there are the ghost hunters. Plus,” Danny sits on the counter and fiddles with the sink a little, letting the tap turn on but making ice shapes with the water, “I protect Amity, I guess some friends of mine could cover for me though”.

Scott scoffs, “don’t underestimate us kid, mutants always bring danger around with them; dealing with that is half the point of the school”.

Xavier nods, “we've seen everything from intolerant parents, to government-funded mad scientists. We’re well equipped”.

“Could I leave at any point to come back here in case?”.

Xavier nods, “of course, it’s not a prison. Though it is a school all the same, you will have classes you’re expected to attend”.

Danny mumbles, “course”, before getting up for some food. Opening the fridge and promptly getting spattered by green stuff, the fridge saying ‘anti-ghost fudge theft mode activated, eat hot ectoplasm Spook!’. While Danny yelps and shakes off his face and hands, Jean moves to help him wash off in the sink; everyone able to see him wincing and the nasty burns where the stuff had contacted him. Danny rubs at his face and looks a little beaten down, “yeah, okay, I’ll try your school thing out”. Jean and Katherine asking, “are you okay?”.

Danny shrugs and mumbles, “I heal fast”.

Jean shakes her head, “you shouldn’t have to be worrying about your own house attacking you”. Danny just shrugs again as he sits back at the table, throwing a slight glare at the fridge.

Xavier smiles anyway, this was certainly an environment he shouldn’t be in. If anything, it seemed Daniel was in more danger than most of the youngsters they collected, “how likely do you believe it is that your parents would allow you to go without any of us having to divulge too much about the school or the reasons behind your attendance?”.  

Danny shakes his head, “none. They’ll want to know everything they can. They care, they’re just...not that good at it. But if you have, say, a space program of some sort then that would work for cover”. None of them miss how his eyes sparkle a little, clearly he was fond of space.

Xavier smiles, “we certainly could. Are you interested in space?”.

Danny grins and leans forward a bit, “I landed a spaceship once, been to space a few times. I could build an exact to-scale replica of the Mars rover, pretty well every model of spaceship, and any of the satellites, right now. My goal was NASA before the whole dying thing trashed my grades and being Phantom became more important”.

Jean smiles softly, “well, part of what we teach is managing lifestyles. I’m sure you could do both”.

Katherine giggles a little, “and at least you already have a code name, no one trying to give you unfortunate ones. Have your own designed suit too”, smiling slightly, “you’ve put a lot into this already. Most your age just play with their powers, show off. I was hardly better”.

Danny frowns a little and pats at is chest, “I didn’t design anything. That suit is what I died in but colour inverted, like my hair. It’s part of my body. Phantom though,” Danny smiles slightly, “that’s my fun little pun on Fenton”, sighing and frowning again, “and these mutant kids, they just have powers, I’m part of another dimension and species. So it’s different”.

Xavier nods, “all the same I’m sure we can accommodate you. Accommodating niches is one of our goals. Now the school is a boarding school, located in my mansion, our classes are small but they are specialised to needs. The dorms are comfortable and anything you need you can ask for, no matter how strange or hard to get. Power usage is both accepted and encouraged so long as you avoid intentional damages. The danger rooms are where you can really use any powers”.

Jean smiles and nods, the danger rooms were often what really got any teens exited, “they can be set up for any situation and unique to work against or towards your own skills. There’s no worry about really hurting anyone or thing, so it’s wonderful for testing limits. They get used most often by those looking to become X-Men”.

Scott looks Danny over, the kid was already doing the whole superhero thing, “no doubt you’ll be an X-Man, you’re nearly already doing the job”.

Xavier tilts his head, “with working in the space field as well of course”.

Danny shrugs, “with my vitals I highly doubt they’ll actually let me”.

Xavier grins at that, “oh we have our ways, that sort of thing can be waved”.

Danny goes a little wide-eyed and whispers, “really?”, everyone else nods and Danny grins like an idiot, “okay you are totally allowed to adopt me!”.

Xavier laughs, “not literally of course. But you are free to stay at the mansion as you please, so long as you enrol”.

Danny nods, clearly either more comfortable in their presence or more focused on space, than safety.

They leave after giving Danny the more nitty-gritty details of the school and its programs, giving him one of the schools hoodies, and after explaining what they can to his parents; they were more than a little excited about Danny going to a more specialised school where he will hopefully do better and get to be an astronaut like he always wanted.

Half a week later finds Katherine back at the Fenton door, waiting to pick up Danny. Smiling at him as he opens the door with his bags in tow, obviously already having had the whole farewell talk and hug fest with his family. “You good to go?”.

Danny nods, looking a little sad and nervous but otherwise just a fourteen-year-old kid, “yeah”. Both jumping when Jack sticks his head out the door and shoves a container of fudge at Danny before giving him a thumbs up and disappearing.

Katherine shakes her head, “you’re parents sure are something”.

“Heh heh, yeah”, Danny turns and eyeballs the sleek little car, “well, at least you didn’t show in something overly fancy”.

Katherine smiles as she gets in, speaking as Danny closes the door behind him, “discretion is part of how we maintain safety. We’ll be getting to the jet later”.

“I flew a jet once”.

Katherine shakes her head a little as she drives off, Danny really had clearly been through a lot of weird situations.

Danny looks around a little as they enter the mansion, he didn’t seem all that impressed but more so simply cautious and paranoid. Watching him eyeball possible exits, areas where someone could hide, anything that even slightly seemed like a threat. Katherine watches him eyeball a kid floating paper airplanes around above his hands, “huh, guess that is pretty normal here”.

Katherine nods, “yup, you have to do something very flashing, please don’t, to really get anyone to care. You seem pretty unfazed by the mansion itself. Most gawk more, I know I did”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “my archenemies is bigger, a lot bigger”.

“You really have an ‘archenemy’”.

Danny shrugs, “not much else to call the guy, other than a crazed up frootloop. He’s one of the richest people in the world, wealth acquired by control and manipulating other people. Wants to kill my dad, marry my mom, force me to be his son. He’s got a power and possession Obsession”.

Katherine is definitely a bit concerned by that, sounded like a mutant who was using their powers unethically. Not to mention rather creepy. The two walking into Xavier’s office while Danny grumbles about this archenemy more, “spy's on me with cameras, puts bounties on my head, the whole cloning incident, attempts to take over other times, made me fully dead in another timeline, more attempted murders than I can count”.

Xavier raises an eyebrow, “hello again. Who is this person we’re going to have to keep an eye out for?”.

Danny sighs and sits down in one of the armchairs, scanning his eyes cautiously around the room quickly before speaking, “one of the only others like me. The first Halfa. Vlad Masters, yes that Masters”, Danny shrugs and fiddles with he chairs fabric, “he went to college with my parents. They built a mini-ghost portal, half-killed him. Same as they built a full ghost portal and half-killed me”.

Both mutants blink at him, Katherine shaking her head, “your parents are hazards”. Danny just smirks slightly in response, still looking around the room a little.

Xavier nods, “so not a mutant either. And what of the others like you? Better company I would hope”.

Danny snaps his eyes to Xavier and bares his teeth a little, “touch her and I’ll cut you”, softening a little and seeming to be thinking a bit while Katherine blinks a bit caught off guard. This kid was quiet and skittish not aggressive. Whoever this ‘her’ is she must be special.

Xavier smiles slightly, hearing that Danny is considering bringing another Danny -the identical names was slightly confusing- here, if he felt it safe. Though Xavier’s not pleased she sounds to be on the run, “she’ll be quite safe here, though I’m sure you’ll decide that for yourself”.

Danny glares slightly but nods, “it would be nice for her to have a home. But if I have to blow up an entire mansion to protect her, I will. I’ve done it”.

Xavier nods, “of anyone, I can certainly understand protecting the gifted; mutants or otherwise. Many of the students here are runaways themselves, many more come to consider this place home. Even upon graduating, they tend to stay and become X-men and teachers. Always having a permanent place here, found family, and protection”, driving his chair around the desk and smiling kindly at Danny, “I can only hope you can come to feel fond of this place yourself, and of the gifted around you”.

Danny nods a little stiffly, Xavier doesn’t even have to read him to know he’s slightly overwhelmed. Changing to a topic more well-loved by teens and of some level of importance, “now follow me, I’ll take you to your room. Kitty has responsibilities to attend to”, starting to drive out of the room and looking back at Danny as he gets up, carrying/dragging his things, “feel free to levitate those, I encourage it actually”, speaking again as Danny smiles slightly and does just that before they start walking down the halls, “now one thing that is something of a right of passage, as I’ve heard many of the students say, is choosing code names. Of course yours is already set in stone for you I imagine. So the question will more be, what do you want to be called here? Do you wish to go by Danny still, or Phantom? Both perhaps”.

“The ghosts officially call me Danny Fenton Phantom, but most just say Phantom...or something insulting. But um, Phantom, Phantom’s what I’d like”.

Xavier smiles to himself at that, unlike the mutants that faced persecution Phantom did not hate his abilities, didn’t even dislike them truly. He merely seemed to dislike when they acted up and had learned a policy of absolute secrecy about them, over all he was proud. “What you would like is all that matters, Phantom”.

Phantom pauses in his walking for a beat before shaking his head with a slight smile and following again, “just like that huh? Guess that’s normal here”.

Xavier only nods slightly as they come to a stop before the room that’s meant for Phantom, “here’s where you’ll be staying. If you set up quickly, you’ll have time to make it for lunch. I quite recommend you do”.

Phantom raises an eyebrow but watches Xavier go for only a little while before heading into his room.

Anna is curious, she’s heard mutterings of there being a new student. Like always, that kind of news made everyone excited and buzz about. Curious what the newcomer could do, what their backstory was, if they looked unique. Certain people, glaring slightly towards Monique and her little gang, certainly were more interested on the looks than anything else. Todd, of course, was only going to care how strong the new kid was and if there’s be some kind of challenge to his place as ‘top bitch’. Sure, he said ‘alpha king’ but everyone else just said ‘top bitch’; largely to annoy the overpowered fire-starter. Fire-starter not just because of his power but also ‘cause he’s a prick that fights everything. Sighing as she walks through the lunchroom doors, though peeking up when she sees her good friend Lily and walks over. “So you heard the gossip too I guess?”.

They chuckle, “oh definitely, hard to miss that kind of gossip. Hopefully, they’re not a dick”.

Anna groans, “tell me about it, all five of the recent newbies have been total jerks. I’m almost tempted to think powers only come to the cocky and hotheaded”. The two snicker and eyeball Todd slightly, the unspoken joke needing no further context. Before both of them turn their heads to the side after sitting down with their food, hearing people start to whisper

“Look, it’s the new face”.

“Awww he looks so boring and plain”.

“Think he’s seen some shit? Looks kinda skittish”.

Anna sighs and shakes her head seeing a skinny slightly twitchy black-haired boy with intense crystal blue eyes. Muttering to Lily, “he’s going to get eaten alive”. Apparently he heard though and smirks at them slightly, before waking off to inspect the food. Promptly stuffing his face and clearly trying to ignore the staring, he seems used to it and that pings a little sad place in her.

Anna pokes Lily, “well, wanna see if the newbies an asshole? Seems tolerable so far”.

Lily looks around and shrugs, waving over their two other friends Jackson and Reverent.

Jackson asking, “what we doing?”.

Anna just smirks and points at the newbie. The three following after her as they approach. The kid is clearly eyeballing them cautiously as they sit down in front of him.

Reverent sticking his hand out and beaming a poster-worthy smile, “hiya! I’m Reverent, you’re new. Hopefully, your day’s not sucking. Moving here can be shit, so far away and all that. You seem nice though, I think I approve. I’m a photokenetic”.

Jackson shrugs, “I’m Jackson, ice boy. Please don’t say that’s cool”.

Lily waves slightly, “invisibility and levitation, I know two powers, lucky me. Name’s Lily”.  

Everyone looks to Anna, who smiles slightly, “Anna, and my power’s pretty shit, so don’t worry if yours sucks. I can steal people’s life force”.

Lily rolls her eyes and elbows Anna, “and extend your own. That’s practically immortality girl”. Anna just shrugs before everyone looks to the new kid, who swallows harshly.

The kid eyes them a little then shakes his head slightly, “just out with it like that huh? Pretty different from what I’m used to”.

Reverent nods dramatically, “yeah people can be awful. But here’s better! Everyone can be themselves, I intend on being a teacher here one day. Help other kiddos you know?”.

Lily nods but snickers at Reverent a little, “you’re too nice not to get steamrolled by literally every student”, turning to the new kid, “so what’s your name”.

The kid clearly thinks for a bit before smiling a bit sheepishly, the other four deciding this kid's one of the decent types, while he speaks up, “it’s Phantom. And I’m a bag of confusing bullshit”, Phantom holds up a hand and creates a ball of green light, then forms a ice crystal floating above his hand, then turns said hand invisible and floats off his seat a little, “technically I can force a soul out of a body, but that’s not really stealing their life force. Plus, I’ve never done that to someone who was actually in their own body and not someone else’s”.

Anna blinks, Todd was going to hate this kid, even if Phantom’s control sucked or he had some kind of limit, tons of different powers could kick the ass of one. “Well, you hit the Jackpot, damn”.

Phantom rubs his neck, “oh I hit something that’s all right-”. Phantom gets cut off by Todd predictably slamming a hand on the table and saying with a sneer, “look at that, twig boys got himself a little arsenal. Well it’s nothing to this”, Todd dances flames off his fingertips into the kid's face.

Phantom just sighs, “um, good for you?”, he lifts up a palm and creates a ball of green fire floating above it.

Anna slaps the table and laughs, this was great. While Todd glares and covers his own hand in flames, clearly trying to be menacing.

Phantom sighs, seemingly more comfortable with confrontation than friendly interaction, “yes yes, you’re very fancy firebug. But don’t make moves to threaten me unless you’re going to follow through”.

Todd growls, “oh I’ll follow through”, before going to punch Phantom with his flaming fist. Phantom smirks a little to himself when the guy hits a green shield. Trying again results in him going through the intangible kid and flailing to the floor.

Phantom spins around on the bench and looks down at him, “I’m used to fighting actual villains. So I’m not going to actually hit you or something”.

That gets Maxi’s attention, as he walks over and looks down at Phantom, “wait, you’ve actually fought villains?”.

Phantom groans, “only every day of the week and weekend for that matter”, Phantom fiddles with his food, “I’m kind of already an established superhero. Xavier brought me here more so to help with schooling than powers I think. Other things too”, sighing and glancing down at Todd, “I’m going to give you a warning I guess, to be nice and all that. My perfectly normal friends back home could kick your ass. My enemies are all more or less indestructible, I don’t fight the breakable”.

Todd scoffs and walks off, glaring at everyone, while Reverent claps his hands together, “well alright then! On to something less dark! What're your favourite movies...”.

Phantom walks awkwardly into the medi-bay, grumbling something almost unintelligible under his breath about not knowing he signed up for scientific examinations. Xavier is instantly tipped off by the way he says that, and the images flickering through his mind are more than just unpleasant and concerning. The Fenton’s are very strange and aggressive about how they ‘treat’ things as simple as just a cold. The Manson parents seem pretty bad too. Speaking to him after sending a nod of greeting to Jean, “relax. The danger room can be rather stressful and it is always best to be cautious. Wouldn’t want you to get inadvertently hurt or traumatised. But I assure you, it’s nothing weird or extreme, certainly nothing with strange dream catchers or whatever that green bath was supposed to be”.

Phantom glances at him and chuckles a little, seeming both less and more on edge. Which is expected, many people would far prefer for him to stay out of their minds. Jean smiles at Phantom and gestures at the bench, “hello again. I hear you’ve chosen to go by Phantom officially. Good, you’re pretty fond of the way you are huh? Most of us are, when we’re older anyway. Now please have a seat, I’m just going to be doing basic things. Temperature, pulse, heart rate, lung capacity. It’s not to see if you fall in line with ‘normal’ though”, she ends with a slight wink.

Phantom sits down as some other guy also enters, raising an eyebrow at him. The guy grunting, “Logan. Or wolverine. Don’t care. So you’re the different mutant who’s already got some kind of culture following huh?”.

Phantom scoffs and rolls his eyes, but Xavier’s the one to speak up, “actually it would seem this one isn’t a mutant. But rather much more unique. He’s different even among those who are different, yet he’s a proud one. Don’t go causing him issues Logan”.

Logan scoffs and leans against a wall, “don’t intend to”, nodding his head a little at the kid, “I’m pretty out of the norm around the others too. Still a mutant though. But hey, I’m up for something interesting”.

Jean shakes her head and looks at the curious-looking Phantom, “he likes to stir up trouble, maybe he wants to see if you’ll choke me like he did”, Logan rolls his eyes, Jean points at Phantom‘s shirt before setting up everything she’ll need, “shirt off”.

Phantom looks down, seeming more than a little nervous, “uhh, rather not”.

Xavier smiles, “no need to worry, different appearances are rather normal around here. Even scars”.

Logan scoffs, “understatement for some of us, adds to the look if you ask me”.

Phantom fiddles with his sweater some and eyeballs the examination supplies, awkwardly muttering, “at least nothing’s green”, before sighing and pulling the sweater over his head. Everyone’s silent for a bit, he was seriously scarred up and no one needs to even guess what the Y shaped one came from. Logan mutters, “Jesus fuck. Alright then. Colour me surprised he doesn’t hate humans”.

While Jean studiously draws no attention to the marks as she busies herself with her tasks. Explaining medical jargon as she goes. Xavier, meanwhile, can’t help but frown over Phantom‘s memories. Frozen, unable to move, and under scalpels and bone-saws. With nothing but his own lab basement and his parents' goggle covered faces to look at. The fact that he’s not truly traumatised is impressive, Phantom‘s mental fortitude is more than a little impressive. If he hadn’t already decided that Phantom needed out of that house, his mind would be made up now.

Phantom, clearly catching the way Xavier’s looking at him, speaks while tracing the Y shape, “they're good people, just good scientists first. They wouldn’t have done it if they knew though. They’ve known about me a few times, but um, I undid that. I’d rather this”, poking at the centre of the Y, “than them getting hurt in the crosshairs because they wanted to ‘help’ or ‘protect’ me”.

Logan groans and walks in a little circle, looking up at the ceiling, “the self-sacrificial kind, lovely. Don’t go pulling that on us kid, we can look after ourselves. And I sure as shit wouldn’t be so okay with anyone involved with experimenting on me”.

Phantom raises an eyebrow while Jean works around him, “you were experimented on?”.

Logan unsheathes his claws and waves a fist around a little, “understatement kid”.

Phantom tilts his head but smiles, “at least you got something out of it”, Phantom pokes his chest, clearly ignoring the too slow beeping of the heart monitor, “I just got to find out my organs are green”, Phantom shakes his head and looks off to the distance.

Everyone deciding not to interrupt his mental musings, Xavier giving him some privacy with that.

By the end Phantom‘s revealed to have vitals that are definitely not something someone can actually live with, but that it’s his normal.

Xavier nods to him as they leave, “you’ve seen a lot in a small time, you’re a strong person. An old friend of mine was much the same, but he let it make him bitter, restful, full of hate. You’ve become more protective instead, the amount of caring I see in you is remarkable”.

Phantom shrugs as they head to the danger rooms, “it’s what’s right. It’s my Obsession too, one of them anyway”.

Xavier nods, a student having unusual needs was not actually unusual, “Kitty explained Obsessions as your parents told them. Are their theories accurate?”.

Phantom nods as they come to stand before a door, “yeah, it’s, um, less for me. Halfa means only half the things”.

Entering the room, which Phantom gaps around at, the place looked like a sprawling city in chaos devoid of any people or life. Phantom mutters, “well damn”. While Xavier chuckles lightly, “impressive, isn’t it? Don’t worry about damaging things. I’ll be watching”.

Phantom muttering, “ominous much” as Xavier leaves the room.

Logan and Katherine join Xavier in watching. Logan asking more or less rhetorically, “he’s strong, isn’t he? But if he’s not a mutant then what? And who the Hell beat him up?”.

Katherine smiles and elbows him, “you and your soft spot for damaged kids”.

Xavier smiles, giving Phantom a signal to go ahead, “if I recall Kitty, you were one such kid. And he exists on the cusp of life and death. Alive and dead. His existence is nearly unique, how it’s even possible I can’t even fathom. His mind seems to view himself as a glitch in the matrix so to speak. Created by accident and purpose. To say he has a hero complex would be a ridiculous understatement. He seeks and needs to protect others, holding himself to an ideal that only he can do it. He has deep-seeded fears and mental blocks around the idea that he could fail at that. And he has seen a world, the land of the dead, we could barely begin to imagine”.

Logan scoffs, “sounds like a bit of a god complex too”.

Katherine rolls her eyes, “oh and like you’re any better. Mr. Lone wolf”.

Xavier shakes his head, “those with god complexes do not hold a fear of themselves. He fears what his gifts could do, should they be used to harm or destroy. He fears anyone being hurt or him hurting someone. It’s not the shameful kind of fear as it is for most students, it’s more resolute and concrete. His fear of that, reinforces him to not be that, with pride and something like reckless abandon”.

Katherine smiles, he was clearly a good kid who had been through far too much.

The three watch as Phantom looks around awkwardly before seemingly steeling himself. Then a bright ring of light appears around his waist and suddenly it’s the Phantom seen in what little footage they could find floating in the air.

Logan grunts, “transformation huh? Guessing there’s more”.

Xavier grins, “oh yes”, not missing how Phantom instantly likes more bold and cocky. Phantom was a hero and he knew the role well, lived it. Watching him fly off and zip around. Blasting things to smithereens with a wide range of blasts/rays.

After a while of him phasing through stuff, blowing things up, flickering out of visibility, teleporting, tossing things around with his mind, and one point where Logan jerked slightly from the entire place getting coated in ice and forming hundreds of little ice weapons.

Katherine gapes slightly when there’s suddenly three Phantom’s though it’s clear this is a bit harder for him to do or maintain, “I think he’s just running through a list at this point”.

Xavier nods, “precisely”.

Logan shakes his head a bit as Phantom starts electrocuting things, “alright, so the kids overpowered. The others are going to love him...or hate him”.

Katherine tilts her head when Phantom turns and asks, “you sure this is all indestructible? Cause I’m not going to hold back then”.

Xavier raises an eyebrow, responding, “that’s its purpose. So please do”.

Phantom shrugs, “if I blow out your wall, it’s not my fault”. They watch as he sucks in a breath and releases a sonic wailing sound, massive blasts of green energy resonating from his mouth.

Logan covers his ears and snaps, “fucking Hell. Remind me not to pick a fight with this one for no reason”. Xavier’s eyebrows raise as the place shakes, before Phantom does indeed blow out the wall. Phantom points to them as he steps out, “you lied”.

Xavier waves off the damage, “everything can be repaired. The whole mansion and various compounds have been rebuilt many times over the years”.

Phantom shrugs and lands his feet on the ground, rubbing his neck, “still sorry though, and to think I only got up to thirty percent there”.

Logan blinks, “seriously glowstick?”.

Phantom chuckles with a wily smirk, making it very obvious he was more confident and brazen in this form, “yeah and that’s a new one. Usually, it’s ‘whelp’ or ‘dipstick’ or ‘babypop’ or ‘ghost child’ or ‘punk’ or ‘ectoplasmic scum’ or ‘ectoplasmic filth’ or ‘spook’ or ‘half creature’ or ‘bastardisation’ or most annoyingly, ‘little badger’. Though I guess there are positives to, like ‘great one’ and ‘saviour’. But if you call me ‘inviso-bill’ or ‘billy’ I will shot you”.

Logan snorts, “saviour? Really? And how is ‘litttle badger’ worse than ‘bastardisation’?”.

Phantom glares a little, “‘cause it comes out of the mouth of a pompous creepy cruel piece of shit prick. Nailed a dead badger to my door once for emphasis. And how many times have you saved the world, Claws?”.

Logan rolls his eyes, “original. Three or four”.

Phantom chuckles and starts floating off, “it’s been seven for me in the past year”.

Xavier nods to the two mutants as Phantom floats off back to his room, confirming that he’s being honest. Again, the things this kid has been through.

Anna, curious, sticks her head into Phantom’s room and looks around. Gapping a little at the strange glowing green star constellations on the roof. Phantom promptly dropping the pieces to a model spaceship from floating in the air, “oh it’s you”. She looks him up and down, it was still the same kid but glowy and white-haired and green-eyed and...in a spandex jumpsuit? Well alright then. “Hey, was wondering if you wanted to go hang out with me and the gang? Also, something tells me you’re going to keep being surprising”.

Phantom smirks, “oh you don’t even know the half of it”, floating over and landing his feet on the ground, “sure, why not. So long as it ain’t a dissection party or something”.

“Man are you ever morbid”.

“Well, I am dead. Life and death took a piss on me so I’ve earned the right”.

Anna coughs and is pretty sure the only reason he’s walking is not being used to others seeing his powers, “you're what now?”.

Phantom blinks and laughs with a loud echo, “oh yeah, guess I never mentioned that. See I’m the idiot who got himself offed in a portal and now...”

He ends up explaining some of his story as they walk, going to meet up with their friends outside the mansion.

End.

[asexualtuckerfoley]

who wants to hear the crackiest fic i’ve come up with yet?

too late you’re gonna hear it now

Okay, so it’s a Superman Returns/Smallville/Krypton and Danny Phantom crossover and the Fentons go to the Daily Planet one day to get interviewed about the ghosts in their town (two years after Danny first gets his powers). While they’re there, Lex Luthor attacks with a piece of kryptonite and is able to force Clark to reveal his secret identity. Danny’s about to reveal his, too, just to stop Lex, but Jazz steps up with the Infimap (why does she have it? idk fam) and grabs Lex and tells it to get them away from there. The map takes them to parts unknown.

Everyone is freaking tf out because what just happened, but none more so than Jack and Maddie, whose daughter has just gone missing. Danny tries to reassure them everything’s going to be okay, that Jazz just used poor wording and needs to tell the map to bring them back. Naturally, his parents are wondering how he knows that about a magical map.

Just as Danny’s about to explain, Lex and Jazz, a few years older, appear with a third man. The most obvious factor in knowing it’s been a while is that Jazz is pregnant and in labor.

Cue freaking out and lots of screaming and Lex trying to explain what happened to the Fentons, Superman, and the man that came with him and Jazz. Jazz, meanwhile, is asking the other man if he got him on the ship because they didn’t know how much time they had, and the man assures her that yes, their son is safe.

Jazz is a little busy being in labor and doesn’t realize she’s back on Earth until she’s got a baby in her arms and the adrenaline comes down. By this time, everyone’s figured out that Jazz and this mystery man are married, even though they’re speaking a different language.

Lex takes a crystal out of his pocket like the ones in Superman Returns and “unlocks” it. Clark, Lois, and Richard, who have all seen the crystals and know they can turn into freaking continents when put in water, start freaking out, but Lex kind of just rolls his eyes and takes some medical equipment out of it then gives it to Clark, who had no idea they could do that. Lex stitches Jazz up while Jazz talks to her husband and cries over how she’s not going to get to see their children grow up.

Eventually, Jack and Maddie get over their shock and start talking to Jazz, and it clicks that she’s back on Earth. Cue wave two of sadness because she’s not going to get to see her son grow up and why did the stupid map finally send her back after five years and hormones. So Lex has to explain.

Sixty seconds for Earth was five years for him and Jazz, and eventually they gave up on getting the map to take them back and settled into their new lives, accepting they only had five years to live. Everyone’s like “hey why five years?” and Lex says “because we were on Krypton, in the past.”

He apologizes to Superman and says he was wrong and knowing his parents, if he was anything like them, he really was being a hero for the right reasons (the only way this fic works is if Lex thinks Superman is in it for worship or going to turn on them and enslave them or something don’t look at the plot holes). Clark’s a little flabbergasted trying to process everything and asks how Lex knows his parents.

Lex hesitates and says, for one, he’s his step-grandfather. He kind of tears up talking about his wife Nyssa and says he was great friends with Seg and Lyta (who’s Lyta? Clark asks. I’ll get to that later.) and he can’t believe the map brought them back at that moment instead of letting them die with the planet in a few days.

Danny, who’s a bit more knowledgeable about the Infimap and has been checking it out half this time, asks what the time and date were when they left. Lex tells him, and Danny explains the planet exploded before Jazz would have given birth to the second baby and the calculations were wrong.

Jazz and her mystery husband are both so happy but so sad throughout this entire thing, and Jazz can’t stop herself from looking to Clark every so often, and when she does, her melancholy grows.

Lex asks Jazz if she wants him to explain, and she nods, unable to get any words out without bursting into (even more) tears. Lex explains that the plant jasmine had a different name on Krypton, and Jazz just rolled with it and went by that word: Lara.

It clicks for Clark, and he nearly goes into a full-blown panic attack as he realizes Jazz and her husband are his parents, and the baby they managed to get on a ship before Jazz gave birth to its twin was him.

There’s a super weird family reunion on both sides as Jazz is reunited with her parents and Clark is reunited with his and gets to meet his twin-baby sister to boot. They name her Lyssa, a combination of Lyta and Nyssa, just like Kal was a combination of Kem and Val.

Thus concludes the crack.

[dp-pastandpresent]

Past and Present: Chapter 14

'Fenton. He's a Fenton! Why didn't I see that one coming?'

As if Sam's head wasn't full enough for the day, finding out Danny's family origins just about topped it off.

Although, really, she should have pieced it together sooner. Danny was the only one who could open the portal. The Fentons were obsessed with ghosts for some reason. And honestly, Jack and Danny had some small similarities.

'I wonder if they know…'

She had to tell them, alert them to the fact that they had family flying around Amity Park. But she also knew it wasn't her place, and despite her efforts, it would probably bite her in the butt.

'If Danny hasn't approached them yet, it must be for a good reason. After all, that's why he held off with my Grandma…'

So now she found herself at the cemetery in the middle of the night, having left Tucker's with little explanation.

Flowers in hand, she approached where she knew that section would be, keeping ever-silent in her endeavors.

Several of the FE's had flowers on them, mostly recent, as Sam began to search for the one she wanted.

She took in a chilled breath when she found it, an elaborately ornate stone sticking up from the ground, with swirls and clouds carved into the front.

Daniel "Danny" Fenton. We will always remember your smile, your drive, and your love of the world. Forever in our memories Mom, Dad, and Jazz.

There were flowers there, which, now that she thought about it, made sense. After all, Jack and Maddie had to be some sort of relative of his.

She laid hers down next to theirs, feeling a bit weird since she actually knew the person—erm, ghost, that she was leaving them for.

Another small tear appeared in her eye as she tried to comprehend why she had come and what this meant to her.

'He's dead, there's proof right here. But he's also alive. I've held his cold hand. Flown in his cold arms. Kissed his cold lips.'

But in her heart, no matter how much she wanted to forgive him, she knew that things could never be real with them. Even if he no longer had feelings for Sarah, the fact that he had lied about it would be permanently branded on their relationship.

Sam stepped away, no longer wanting to see that name on the stone.

'It hurts too much.'

She looked around to see if there were any other Fentons in the graveyard, full knowing that his parents and sister were likely nearby.

And she was right. The stone next to his, while not as ornate, yet still decorated with flowers, read:

Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton Beloved daughter and mother. We will always remember your life and dedication. "Mom: you are the most powerful woman I have ever known. Your legacy will not be forgotten" – Jack Fenton

Sam's mouth went wide. Of course Jack was related, but to know that he was the son of Danny's sister? That put a lot of things in perspective, and she began to piece together what her next move needed to be.

She ran out of the cemetery so fast, she didn't even feel the ghostly chill that had come over the air moments before.

--

After viewing the photos and catching sight of himself in the computer screen, Danny had left the lab and wandered over to the cemetery. Obviously it had been important enough for the Fentons to put an alert on their computer about it, so maybe that was where his answers lay.

Despite the amount of time he had spent in this world since his resurrection, he had yet to visit his grave, in part due to the weirdness that would come from seeing it, and in part due to just not thinking about it. But now seemed like a good time, and he hoped maybe this could clear his head.

Flying over, he wondered if he'd find anything important. Flowers? Notes? More memories?

What he didn't expect to find was Sam, laying a bouquet of flowers next to the ones that were already there. He held in a breath, hoping she wouldn't notice the slight chill he seemed to always bring to the air.

It wasn't until she turned away to look at the other graves that he decided to approach, staying invisible all the while.

He was examining his own grave, the messages, the flowers, when he heard a gasp and turned to see the girl quickly running from the cemetery.

'Why?' he wondered, and then realized that the grave she had been at was his sister's.

'She knows. The relationship. Jazz. Jack. ME.'

From the looks of things, Danny would be doing even more explaining if and when Sam decided she wanted to talk.

He tried to get the girl out of his head for the millionth time that day and went back over to his own grave, turning visible as he did so.

"So, if this is my grave, but they never found my body, what's buried here?"

He had heard stories of people's bodies never being found, so instead mementos would be buried in a box. He had a feeling that was what was under this stone. Still, it was pretty elaborate considering that it was just a box of memories buried beneath.

The flowers that he had seen Sam leaving were a gorgeous violet color, adorned with little bits of yellow and green.

'Considering how mad she was, she sure seemed to put a lot of thought into the flowers.'

He looked down at the other flowers next to hers, obviously older, as they were already drooping a bit. These flowers were also violet, but a different shade and variety. Trying to remember the name, he looked closer, only to see a small note attached.

For Danny. One day, we will learn the truth.

-Jack and Maddie Fenton

So his hunches were right and their visit earlier had been for him. Which meant they were still looking, even though they had never had a chance to meet him.

'And here I am, floating around in your lab…'

He hadn't had a chance to reveal himself to the Fentons, and honestly, he didn't know when he would. Or why he should. But the fact that they were still remembering him made him feel ashamed for having not done so yet.

'Then again, they've got the photos, you'd think they'd figure out the ghost on TV is me.'

He couldn't take it, staring at a grave that didn't even contain his body, but adorned with flowers from all those he loved.

Without even realizing, small tears had begun to form in his eyes. They fell down onto the hard ground, watering the flowers below.

'Walk away…'

But he couldn't. His eyes were glued to the words on the headstone as more tears appeared, still trying to comprehend his existence and wondering, for the second time today, why he had to be the one that Clockwork had brought back, and more importantly, why Clockwork had done so little explaining.

He kicked the flowers, wishing that his 'family' didn't care so much. Wishing they had moved on. Wishing they had normal lives.

But it was in kicking the flowers that he noticed something hiding behind one: a small carving, not much bigger than a handprint.

He bent down and let a small ball of ectoplasm form in his hands, creating the perfect flashlight.

There is was, ornately scratched into the bottom of the stone:

S X D forever.

Inside a heart.

--

"Daniel. "

"I'm sorry. These memories I'm sending you. They're painful for me to even watch."

The figure floated in front of a giant screen, holding his staff up to it and aiming a green beam at the image of the young ghost

"I really should have explained more when we first met."

He quickly changed into an older version of himself before disappearing into the Ghost Zone.

[absolute-art-attack]

It had been a week since Danny had run away. Jazz has been looking for him since the night that his powers short circuited in front of the entire town. Now, 7 and a half days later, Jazz found Danny on a floating island, with a dark castle with a night sky full of stars and a bright moon.

Danny changed a lot in the week that he was missing. A purple and black gale you replaced his hair, a slight wave to it. His usual t-shirt and jeans were missing, instead he had an almost royal appearance. Dark purple dress pants, a dark blue long sleeve button up shirt, and a pair of black vans. His complexion was brighter and the bags under his eyes were almost gone. His arms and stomach seemed fuller, like he was properly eating. All in all, he seemed almost like a different person.

“Danny?” Were the first words that were uttered from the mouth when her brother came into view. Shock passed through his face, and a shaky smile followed. “You look different. Healthy! And,” she took a slow spin around the castle they were in. “This is amazing.”

His smile softened, as he gently chuckled.

“Thanks. I guess this is sort of my layer, now. Everything just grew around me, anything I could imagine happen, right before my eyes.”

Jazz started to make her was up the stone steps, continue to talk to her brother.

“I’m sorry about what happened in Amity, Danny. You didn’t deserve what happened, if I would have stopped-”

Danny had raised his hands, almost to defend himself, and began to back away.

“No, it’s fine, really. It’s not your fault. You should start heading home. Really.” He had his hands awkwardly around in his pockets, an unsure look on his face. Jazz stopped walking, surprise in her voice.

“But I just found you.” Another step. Danny looked more nervous.

“But you don’t belong with ghosts. You belong with humans, in Amity.” Jazz's eyebrows furrowed. What did he mean by that.

“What are you talking about, so do you. You’re not-” She had stared up the steps again, set on getting to her brother.

“No, I belong here. In a place where I can live my life without endangering the people I love.” Danny looked directly into Jazz’s eyes at those words. A thought occurred to Jazz, something that she had been wondering about for a while.

“Danny,” another step forward, another step backward. “Danny, we were so close before everything. Why are we not anymore?” A frown rested on Danny’s lips, answer lost on him. Jazz crept talking. “We don’t have to be this was anymore. We can have the same relationship as when we were kids.”

Behind Danny’s eyes, scenes played like a projector. The moment where he almost killed his older sister. ‘Catch me!’ ‘Hold on!’ ‘JAZZ!’

“No.” Danny wrapped his arms around himself protectively. “We can’t. Goodbye Jasmine.” Danny began to walk upstairs. Jazz stood shocked for a moment. Danny never used her full name.

Jazz started up the, calling after him.

“Danny, wait!” Danny grabbed himself tighter.

“No, I’m just protecting you.” Jazz was running up the steps, Danny much faster.

[Jazz:]You don't have to protect me I'm not afraid

Please don't shut me out again,

Please don't slam the door

You don't have to keep your distance anymore

'Cause for the first time in forever

I finally understand

For the first time in forever

We can fix this hand in hand

We can head back to town together

You don't have to live in fear

'Cause for the first time in forever,

I will be right here

They were upstairs now, a large room with a balcony. It had a perfect view of all of the stars, and the bright moon. He turned around to meet Jazz’s gaze when she got up the steps.

[Danny:]Jazz,

Please go back home, your life awaits

Go enjoy the sun and pursue your fate

[Jazz:]Yeah, but -

Danny put his hands up in defense again, backing away to the door, turning around to open it.

[Danny:]I know

You mean well, but leave me be

Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free

Just stay away and you'll be safe from me

Pale light hitting his face made Danny close his eyes. Jazz walked up behind him, as Danny continued. When she got to him, he backed away more and walked be into the room.

[Jazz:]Actually we're not

That got Danny’s attention. He turned around, eyebrows scrunched.

[Danny:]What do you mean you're not?

[Jazz:]I get the feeling you don't know

[Danny:]What do I not know?

Jazz wring her hands in each other, nervous of his reaction.

[Jazz:]Amity’s being invaded by… ghosts

[Danny:]What?

Shock was present on his face. He didn’t mean for that to happen. Danny didn’t even know he could do that.

[Jazz:]You've kind of created little void demons… everywhere.

[Danny:]Everywhere?

[Jazz:]It's okay, you can just stop them

[Danny:]No, I can't, I - I don't know how!

Danny was getting flustered, and every time that happened, something bad happened. Jazz needs to leave, it just get away from him. Why didn’t she understand, why does she keep following him?

[Jazz:]Sure you can! I know you can!'Cause for the first time in forever,

[Danny:]Oh I'm such a fool, I can't be free!

Darkness was starting to creep up on Danny, slowly suffocating him. Around the Fenton siblings, it was starting to get darker, harder to see and think. There was a mass of darkness starting to condense around Danny, almost like a twister of black.

[Jazz:]You don't have to be afraid

[Danny:]No escape from the storm inside of me!

He was looking down at his hands. It was there flat that he was in this position in the first place.

[Jazz:]We can work this out together

[Danny:]I can't control the curse!

Controls your emotions. Controls you powers. Don’t feel them. Don’t feel them.

[Jazz:]We'll reverse the storm you've made

[Danny:]Ohhhh, Jazz, please, you'll only make it worse!

He was rubbing on his sleeves, rubbing his hands together, and doing anything to keep calm. It was so hard, though. This was what he was afraid of.

[Jazz:]Don't panic

[Danny:]There's so much fear!

Tears were sliding down his face, but he didn’t feel then. He could only feel the pressure in his chest, in his core. She was never going to understand, why was she trying so hard to?

[Jazz:]We'll make the sun shine bright

[Danny:]You're not safe here!

Get away from her before you hurt her. Get away before she ends up like before.

[Jazz:]We can face this thing together

[Danny:]Oh!

[Jazz:]We can change this dark teather

[Danny:]AHHHHH…

The dark was getting to be too much on Danny. He was going to explode. He needed to do something, or it was going to start eating him from the inside.

[Jazz:]And everything will be alright...

[Danny:]I CAN'T!

A mass of black magic ricocheted from his body, hitting everything in the vicinity. Jazz was struck, and felt the immediate sensation of fear starting to grip at her heart, causing her to gasp out.

Danny had a small sigh of relief, a pressure lifted off of his core, ever so lightly. He heard Jazz gasp out behind him, and turned his head to see her gripping her chest, her heart, and curling in on herself.

“Jazz?”