#(Despite the best efforts of Jazz and Danny)

[possibly-not-a-ghost]

Where the cookie is he made any good

✨No. ✨

Related to this post.

And let's not count Jazz out of the sheer horror of what came out of their toaster oven. It was a Fenton team effort! And Yes. It was made in a toaster oven because I figure the stove of their very cheap place wasn't working. Toaster ovens aren't bad replacements for ovens but you gotta have a Quality one and they did not have quality.

I'm talking unevenly baked batch on the wrong setting, attempted frosting designs by putting said frosting in a sandwich bag, maybe even a fruit bag. The frosting was too runny and the cookies too warm. They tried to draw on a pattern for a cheery bat face onto the cookies with a straight up marker. Flat, dry cookies because Jazz could not justify the usage of a whole cup and 1/4th of sugar in a batch. (Cause c'mon look at baking recipes and how much sugar they use it's ridiculous.) not to mention a slightly off taste that no one can figure out.

The best part of the cookies would have been their shapes because Danny used his ghost ice to make the cookie cutters. But the cookies spread out too much and Jazz had to gently break them apart again. They are truly Terrible Things they have created. The only one that Likes the cookies is Jason 'I died and walked it off' Todd and I'll give you one guess on to why that is.

[charlietheepicwriter7]

Despite Danny's best efforts, no matter how much time past, Amity Park refused to see Phantom as a hero.

Sure, there were pockets of support, particularly among teens, but most of the town blames Phantom for the property damage, saying if he didn't fight the ghosts then it wouldn't be so bad, to that time he got mind controlled by Freakshow and "attacked" the mayor. It wears him down. It wears Tucker and Sam down. Jazz can only try to support them all.

Then one day, a member of the Justice League visits. Someone minor, and kinda a jerk... maybe a Wonder Twin? Zan? Whatever. They don't investigate; they don't look deeper. They listen to the town folks and declare the ghost hunters, Red Huntress and the Fentons, to be the official heroes of the town.

Worse? Danny Phantom is officially considered a villain to the Justice League. Tuck hacks into the Watchtower and confirms that they have a file (a heavily inaccurate file) about how to defeat Phantom.

Danny doesn't think he can do this anymore.

A few weeks later, a young villain escapes into Amity and demands (begs) that Danny help them escape from the hero after them. No idea who, I can't find a lot of info on teen villains in DC, so let's fudge some ages and make it Kyd Wyckyd from the Teen Titans cartoon. Danny agrees, because to hell with the Justice Losers, and they defeat the hero, becoming friends in the process. Kyd confesses that they became a villain after being ostracized bc of how they look, and they've been trying to avoid villain organizations because HIVE was abusive, but it's really hard to be a villain alone bc of all the heroes.

Sam gets an idea. Tucker agrees with the idea. Jazz is just happy they'll end up making friends.

The next day, the Teen Villain Alliance is formed, ready to assist with any teenage illegal shenanigans their allies might get into.

Some notes:

It's created to be a healthier option for teen "villains" to connect with others and support each other.

It's more important that this is for Teens rather than Villains. They're tired of adult villains taking advantage of them. The TVA would rather ally with a teen vigilante than with an adult villain.

Again, no idea who the teen villains are, but Klarion is definitely here. He leaves the Light for the chaos of the TVA. Maybe Ember is there too?

Timeline wise, this is around when Tim is still Robin, but Damien has arrived at Wayne Manor.

This is because, when it comes time to try to infiltrate the TVA, they'll have a convenient child-assassin who has none of the monitors of a teen hero that Phantom immediately picks up on.

Damien, who at this point has been abandoned by his mother, dismissed and scolded by his father, and has had no success at carving his own place in the family, jumps at the chance. He is then surrounded by peers who don't insult him or try to change his behavior (too much; jazz is trying to help him find healthier methods of expressing himself). He... might not want to continue being a spy.

Danny, Sam, Tuck, and Jazz are the founding members.

Danny reinvents himself as the High Prince of the Infinite, Prince Phantom Dark. He got kingship from fighting Pariah Dark, but since he's still alive, he's only a prince. He steals the last name Dark as an intimidation tatic against those in the know; only Danny would have the balls to claim family with Pariah.

Sam works as a powerless villain, but she might no be powerless? Either way, Danny gives her a bunch of repurposed Fenton tech, and she buys the rest with her parents credit card. She does NOT care if that's traced back to the Mansons. She would choose something goth, maybe something spider related or even bat?

I love Pharaoh Tucker, so I think he should get magic powers? Since pharaohs of old were considered the balance between the real and the divine. He's still a tech guy, now he's a tech and magic guy.

Jazz isn't really a villain, more of a team mom who's planning on using everyone's psyche's as her thesis paper. You know what, that's her callsign, she's Psyche. Sometimes she flirts with Nightwing.

[flamingpudding]

Not my Circus

A/N: I hate my brain and it's suckish timing...

Danny was a circus kid. He knew that, and so did his parents. Well, the once that took him in when he was five. He knew he had a loving family before the Fentons. Yet he doesn't know himself why he never put in more effort to return to them. No, wait, he had an idea what his five years old mind could have been thinking.

If Freakshow and his mockery of a circus had never shown up in Amity. Then Danny might have pushed the thought of his original family to the side forever. He had been a foolish kid back then, reckless and tempramental, unlike his older brother. He had tried to follow into his parents' and brother's footsteps, but he wasn't as graceful or acrobatic as they were. It was irony really with how much he liked flying and doing tricks in the air now. But still he remembered having a lot of frustrated fights with his brother about his inability to be like them.

When he got reminded he started to do a bit of a more serious research again and when he found out about his originals parents death half a year after he was first declared missing from the circus as well as his older brothers having gotten adopted too, he had dropped it all again. Pushing all of that back into the deepest depths of his mind again. His older brother was doing well. There was no need for him, for Danny.

That went well until Jazz went to university in Gotham and convinced him to go there to collage too, when he sort of forcefully retired from being a teen hero. It went well for a couple of years until his mid twenties.

Because despite Gotham being a city way bigger than Amity, there were still chances of you running into certain people.

The moment he entered the coffee shop and saw the others face, everything he had pushed aside in his mind came right back to the forefront of his mind.

How he foolishly trained in acrobatics behind his families back after another fight while they were moving towns and fell off the wagon.

How he had felt like he enjoyed not feeling presured to be like them and didn't put too much effort into returning to them when he was with the Fenton as well as thinking that his elder brother was probably happier without a stubborn little brother.

How when he looked them up he dropped it just as fast when he learned about their deaths and his elder brothers adoption.

He blinked wide-eyed at the man that stood before him a teen next to him while he held two cups of coffees. He, too, was staring at Danny frozen.

Now Danny had several options of how to handle the situation. And he most likely didn't choose the best one at first as usual. Because what he did in response at seeing Richard 'Dick' Grayson was to turn tail and run even using is invisibility and intangiblity.

What Danny didn't know was that Dick's first, thought, was someone cloned him and not that his missing brother from his days before the Waynes was back.

Thus a game of mouse was started...

[obsessedwithstarwars]

Jazz is murdered in her Gotham apartment.

Red Hood is chasing the assailant and some bats come to help. Despite their best efforts, the assailant gets away. The bats have him cornered when he runs into the wall. Literally. He doesn’t come out the other side. They search everywhere but the assailant vanished without a trace.

Some weird government guys dressed in all white come and assess the scene. They are very official. Practically interrogating the officers on the scene and insisting on talking to the vigilantes who chased the assailant. After gathering all of the information they can, they tell their chief “The woman is dead. No, Phantom is not here. He was never here. No, she doesn’t appear to have become one of them.” They leave a card with GCPD to call in case anything changes. (Hood refers to them as “cryptic fuckers” or “dementor wannabes” from here on out)

Hood is pissed that the murderer got away, that secret government officials encroached on his territory, and that this woman seems to not be getting the justice she deserved. He knows how that feels. Not on his watch.

After Hood knows the autopsy has been completed, (he’s dealt with enough murder cases to gauge when it will be complete) he breaks into the morgue to take a look for himself. He opens the door to her slab, rolls her out and gets scared half to death when she thanks him for letting her out. She goes on to say she hasn’t figured out how to go intangible yet but Danny figured it out quick so it’s gotta be somewhat easy. Hood is trying his darnedest to not have a heart attack because she scared the crap outta him.

Meanwhile Danny’s wondering why he hasn’t heard from his sister in a few days.

[little-pondhead]

Wanted to hop in on the supervillain Danny au questions! Do we think Valerie would have any interest to get in on this? Between being a pawn for Vlad as Red Huntress and her "friends" ditching her as soon as she stopped being rich, I like the idea that evil billionare mastermind is her general vibe. Heck, maybe she and Tucker flip roles and she becomes the guy in the chair, not being a front line powerhouse and actually coming up with elaborate plans.

And on that note, do we think that if Vlad somehow found his way into this mess, he'd see the whole thing as a fun little game of "opposite world" and try his hand at being a hero? Because I for one think that would be hilarious, I actually don't have ideas for that because I can't imagine a heroic Vlad.

Amyway, that's all I got for now. Love your work!

You're one of the vertebrae creatures who keep hoarding all the brain wrinkles, aren't you??

---

[Okay, so I lost your ask, wrote this shit, then found it again so it's not exact but I'm trying here.]

Let's start with Valerie, or keeping up with the trend, Gray in the DC universe.

Valerie is so tired. It's a different kind of tiredness that has a grip on the others. Danny is tired of being a hero, Sam is tired of her parent's expectations, and Tucker is tired of being unable to protect his friends. Jazz is tired of being the bigger person, and Dani is tired of not having someone to rely on. The DC universe is their escape, and honestly, it's doing wonders for their mental health. Valerie notices. She has a shaky truce with Phantom and his crew, but she can't just let him get a leg up on her, can she? So Valerie follows them, through town, through the portal, through the new world they popped up in.

There, she stops. Phantom is now Fenton, and doesn't that make sense? Many things click into place and Valerie starts to understand as she watches the others from the shadows. She's surprised they haven't noticed her, but a little green sticky note on her visor says she had a little hand in her reconnaissance. So when she's done, she returns to her dimension. Back to Amity Park and back to her bed. Valerie lays there for a while, staring at the ceiling and fingering the sticky note, committing every detail to memory.

And you know what? Valerie gets pissed. How come Danny and his friends lovers? and family get to just visit other dimensions whenever they want a break and have no repercussions whatsoever? Just because hero work is hard?? She's a hero too, dammit!

Obviously, someone out there apparently agreed with her because, in a quick, dizzying moment, Valerie finds herself suddenly in the Ghost Zone, plopped down on a ratty blue couch with a very old ghost sitting across from her. He introduces himself as Clockwork, the ghost of time, the regent of the king, and Danny's guardian. Mentor? She wasn't sure; ghost speech always gave her a headache. Either way, Valerie found herself exceptionally calm and somehow struck a deal with the Ancient. To her chagrin, Clockwork informed her that Valerie was well and truly Liminal now, despite her best efforts. (What did she expect? Her suit was practically drenched in ectoplasm.) As part of the deal, Clockwork extended the same courtesy to her that he had to the others. Anytime she wanted, Valerie could have free reign and access to the DC universe and could do anything she liked with no bad consequences. And because of her liminality, he was able to grant her just enough power for her to create her own portals directly to the other realm.

[What did Clockwork get out of this deal? Well, that's up to someone else who's not me.]

So Valerie goes to this new universe. She switches her name to Gray, as if to mock Fenton, who had no idea she was there. She does not try to become a supervillain. And what's this? Outfit analysis time!!

In the show, I've always liked Valerie as a character, and whether it was intentional or not, her design seems to fit her attitude and actions. They were in high school in the early 2000s before her dad lost her job; Valerie was very popular, from what I remember. Her family had money. Other kids expected her to keep up with social norms, so her outfit looked more stylish than practical. She wears yellow, which is most commonly seen as a happy color. Her hair is slicked back so people can see her whole face. She has nothing to hide. She's confident and youthful, ready to lead, and overall enjoying her lot in life. Then ghosts start appearing, and we all know her backstory as Red Huntress. Her suit is tight to her skin, bright red, and overall she's armed to the teeth. Everything about that screams DANGER! Valerie is a threat now.

Her civilian outfit also never changes, which is understandable because this is a cartoon from 2004. But it's secretly genius because yellow is often considered a cautious color. It turns from being a happy color to a warning. Yellow is also associated with anxiety, betrayal, and even egotism, which is something both she and Danny experience during their interactions. She's uptight and constantly on edge. She feels like she has to provide for her family and is quick to anger.

Now for the opposite of that? Valerie is tired of being angry all the time. Rather than go apeshit on a bunch of poor heroes and villains-been there, done that-she treats this whole thing like an actual vacation. Gray wears a soft long sleeve, sweats, and fuzzy slippers. Her hair is relaxed and in a bun, with her bangs hiding half of her face. It takes some pressure off of constantly keeping her expressions in check. People also can't see how she's silently judging them. She lets the stress melt from her shoulders and lets herself curse like a sailor whenever she feels like it. Her clothes are dimmer colors, which don’t stand out or demand attention. She lets herself be not perfect.

Although, just because this is a vacation for her doesn't mean Gray can't just lounge around doing nothing. She has no money! So Gray, after shuffling through a couple decades of this world's history and discovering that Craigslist is universal, applies for the first work ad she sees. In short, Gray joins the Goonion. She ends up making a deal with the guy who hired her. And her new boss. And her new neighbor. And-

Gray very quickly becomes the John Constantine of the criminal underworld. She brushes up on her people skills and learns to talk rings around other people, getting people to owe her favors as much as she dishes them out. Balance is the key here, as she’s learned from Danny. Gray is never tied down by too many IOUs at a time, and her tight grip on her companions and team quickly earn her a questionable but reliable reputation. She presents a morally-gray character, if you will.

Gray’s quick climb to power-that was definitely sped along by Clockwork-earns her a powerful position in the Goonion. If she plays her cards right, Gray doesn’t have to do any work at all. She just leans back and enjoys being paid for wearing pajamas all day and occasionally signing some paperwork. She siphons away bits of her own paycheck to a dimensional bank account she threatened asked Technus to set up, and Gray is finally able to slip more than a few tens into her father’s wallet when it’s time for him to pay his rent. It’s a good life.

Now, Vlad? Oh, he's fucked. This can work for whatever redemption au you want. He can be exactly like he is in the show or working towards bettering himself as a person. I imagine him being halfway to a redemption plot, and in an effort to gain the Fenton's trust, he starts hanging around with the family more. Jack loves this. The others do not, but what can they do? Everyone is just trying to be civil to each other in an effort to make Jack happy. Since old habits die hard, Vlad very quickly notices Danny's improved state of mind and is attuned to the Zone enough to feel when Clockwork stops time on their end. He starts to purposefully rile up Danny and realizes that the time stops happen right after Danny leaves the room in a fit of anger. Then the boy comes back all smiles and sometimes doesn't even remember what Vlad had said to him in the first place.

So he puts his ear to the ground. Whispers are floating around about a new portal that's been opened near Phantom's Keep. A natural one. A permanent one. No one can investigate due to its location, but the young king and members of his fraid have been seen frequenting it more often than late. Not suspicious in the slightest, Danny would have protested. Vlad goes poking around. Entering the Keep uninvited felt like millions of bugs tugging at his skin, but turning human helped ease the sensation. It was laughably easy to slip between the cold stone walls of the Keep, avoiding Fright Knight's walking path and sticking to the shadows. The portal was in the courtyard, under the watchful gaze of two stone gargoyles leftover from Pariah's reign. Right before Vlad can investigate further stick his head in and see what happens the world warps, and suddenly the older halfa is sitting on his ass in front of a very old ghost.

Looks like Vlad fucked around and found out.

Basically, Clockwork yoinked Vlad to his side of existence right before he entered the portal. Even if all he wanted to do was relate to Danny in an effort to mend their relationship, The Master of Time wasn't okay with Vlad going off into the DC universe all willy-nilly. Oh no. Letting Vlad loose in this world would lead to bad things regardless of his intentions. Even if Vlad promised to play by all the rules and pretended to be human, he was bound to slip up and cause trouble.

So there were two courses of action Clockwork could take here. One, he could pull in a few favors and wipe Vlad's memory, sending him back to his own universe until he inevitably went sniffing around again, and this whole song and dance continued. Or second, he could equip Vlad with similar ghost artifacts Manson and Foley possessed and temporarily seal away Vlad's powers while he was gallivanting around the DC universe. He'd be on Clockwork's payroll, so to speak, and could only act on the older ghost's instructions. Clockwork presented these two choices to Vlad. The older halfa chose the second option after weighing the pros and cons. He didn't want to be controlled by Clockwork, but he also didn't want to lose his memories (over and over again, from how he worded it.)

This is how Vlad's hero persona is born. I'm unsure if he should stick with his last name, Masters, or take on something different to distance himself from Fenton and his family. Let's stick with Masters for now.

Clockwork has this drowning little rat man on a rehab program and uses some fancy ghost jewelry to inhibit his halfa abilities. He doesn't make Masters do much, just drops him in here and there when the DC timestream needs a little nudge. It's not like Clockwork will have Danny deal with it; the kid already helps out with every other timestream when asked. Masters can help out here. And since his halfa abilities are blocked, he gets to do everything as a human, which brings its own set of challenges. The idea is that by throwing Masters face-first into a new world filled with people who could end his existence and be forced to win every fight or else, he'll come to appreciate what Danny goes through on a daily basis.

The JL Dark becomes very familiar with the mysterious Masters, who doesn't seem to have any powers but still fights like he does. The man can be extraordinarily clumsy and short-tempered but still graceful and light on his feet when it matters the most. More than once has someone caught Masters muttering under his breath, cursing out gravity and a 'purple-cloak wearing bitch.' Masters always shows up out of the blue at the most random times. He is literally just there, and sometimes even Masters himself looks shocked about his sudden scene change. But he's always suited up and ready to go, so not many heroes question it. They usually need the help anyway.

In the DC universe, Masters is wearing four magic bands, each engraved with the words Dominion of Time on them. Several bands made from tungsten were buried deep with Clockwork's Tower in an old wooden box made from aspen and diamonds. Each band was a blank slate, glowing slightly from magic long past. Clockwork had simply selected the four he needed, engraved the spells needed in ghost speech, and handed them over. Vlad grumbled and tried to find a loophole in the artifacts, but ultimately accepted his fate and wore them whenever Masters was needed.

Vlad's new outfit for this outfit is similar to Valerie's; it's loose and uncomplicated. (Actually, there are a lot of parallels between these two.) In the show, Vlad always wears a tailored suit and dress shoes. He's well-groomed and his hair is slicked back. He always tries to show off his wealth and power by having full control over his appearance. In layman's terms, he's the walking cliché trope of a rich billionaire villain in every superhero media to ever exist. After all, in a kid's show with a teenage protagonist, what's more intimidating than an adult nemesis who has their life together?

As Masters, Vlad is forced to throw all that out the window.

The hero outfit he wears was literally picked up off the street. If glowing metal bands were not adorning his arms, some would assume that Masters was a homeless man. The top was dug out from a dumpster behind a costume store, and the sandals were given to him by a woman who couldn't wear them anymore. His arm sleeves were sewn together from some blackout curtains he found at an old housing demolition site, and the pants were just some sweatpants that were a tad too short. The mask was bought from the corner store, his belt salvaged from a junkyard, and his scarf was actually a gift from Jack-not that he'd wear it around the oaf. The only 'expensive' things Masters wore were the four magic bands, a handful of large glass beads hanging from his belt, and the sharp metal claws he wore on top of each finger. The claws were bought on a whim years ago when Vlad was building his fortune, and boy, was he glad for them now. They were the only real weapons Clockwork allowed him to carry for some reason.

In other words, Masters is exposed. With his loose hair and flowing clothes, Masters is forced to trust the others around him to have his back. He's humbled every time someone covers an obvious blind spot of his that he's not used to compensating for. He gets dirty and messy, fighting to survive against enemies he knows nothing about. His outfit symbolizes his efforts to change. Masters is re-learning what it's like to be truly vulnerable in a world you don't understand with no help whatsoever. Clockwork has no issue pitting him against demons and ghouls even John Constantine would hesitate at, and his narrow victories quickly earn him an invitation to the Watchtower.

The Justice League is puzzled by this walking lump of wet spaghetti. He disappears so easily into the background and doesn't stand out at all. Every once in a while his eyes scrunch up like he's confused about something, but he won't admit that he's lost the conversation. Masters will offhandedly say weird things and turn as if expecting someone to be there, then suddenly stop himself with a soft flinch. He refuses any form of payment. He can stare down Batman. His appearances are random and the man carries no form of contact. Masters often has an aura of resignation and regret around him, as if he didn't want to be there in the first place. He's awkward around kids but fiercely protective of a few teen heroes. (Mostly Conner.)

It finally starts to come together in the JL's mind when Masters becomes more widely known in the world of supers. One of the higher-ups in the Goonion hates him. Dani held a gun to his head. Manson screeched bloody murder when she saw him. Nightingale declared herself his official nemesis. The final piece was when, after a long and exhausting fight, Masters temporarily removed his mask to wipe away some blood around his mouth.

The Flash, who was sitting next to him, nearly let out a squeak.

Masters' blood was bright green.

Masters' teeth were shaped like a shark's.

Masters was another fucking Fenton, wasn't he?

[phantomtwitch]

Electric Core/No One Knows AU

I meant to post this for some event, but never got around to it. Since AO3 is functionally down at the moment, I figured I'd share it in case folks are looking for something to read. It's kind of similar to 'As the Ice Begins to Crack' in terms of vibes (or at least that's what I was aiming for - I want to write more AUs in that vein, and I might expand more on this at some point).

Enjoy!

Tucker knows it’s coming as soon as the air shifts. 

The differences are subtle at first. A faint whiff of ozone, a slight chill to the air as the wind picks up and sweeps the fall leaves into spirals over the ground, and then the hairs on his arms stand on end. Then comes the low-pitched hum, the hiss that sounds like electricity running through high-voltage cables, peppered with the occasional burst of static and awful whining as the air grows heavy and thick, the sky darkening even when moments ago the sun shone brightly above them.

Sam freezes next to him, her fingers clutching her milkshake tightly as her eyes dart from side to side, looking for somewhere to hide until they land on an abandoned house nearby. “Come on,” she insists, tugging at his hand.

“Sam, there’s no way that place is safe, it’s been condemned for years–”

“--and being out here with Phantom is?” she interrupts, and Tucker scowls, knowing that she’s right, but moving from one dangerous spot to another isn’t ideal. There’s nowhere else close enough to go, though, or at least not anywhere they won’t risk getting struck once the lightning starts, and he follows her with a groan and an eye roll. They’re on the porch when the first lightning bolt strikes the pavement nearby, making it explode and sending shrapnel flying that barely misses him and Sam, and thunder roars, painfully loud and close. He slaps his hands over his ears, trying to block out what noise he can, but his ears are still ringing when it stops.

Sam forces one of the windows open and climbs through, with Tucker following shortly after. The house is empty and covered in heavy dust that makes Tucker sneeze as they disturb it, the air almost as oppressive inside as it was out, and in the corner he can see signs of something rotting that he doesn’t dare approach. 

The two of them stand at the window even though they both know better. When a ghost that is more an embodiment of the storm than the kind of vague, intangible figure haunting ghost stories becomes a common fixture in town, endless safety lectures and drills become the norm. Knowing what to do in the event of a thunderstorm is the closest the teachers can get to explaining the safety precautions that are necessary when Phantom is about. 

He’s only actually seen Phantom once before, when Sam begged him and Danny to go on a ghost hunting trip back in freshman year on Halloween. Tucker wasn’t terribly interested in ghosts, but he was too old for trick-or-treating and not popular enough to score an invite to any parties, so he agreed. Danny did, too, but bailed at the last minute, claiming he felt too tired and sick to go with them. 

Tucker tries not to think about Danny too much. The three of them haven’t spoken in close to six months, at least, drifting further and further apart despite his and Sam’s best efforts to stay friends their first two years of high school together. Most days he’s barely in class anymore, and when he is Danny is constantly tucked away in a corner, curling in tightly on himself, careful to avoid getting too close to anyone. Dark circles constantly ring his eyes, his expression hollow and skin too pale. Sam asked Jazz once before she went off to college if Danny was seriously ill and she denied it, even as it was clear something about him had changed since high school started.

“Do you ever talk to Danny anymore?” he asks suddenly, and the shift in conversation as they peer out the window and wait for the elusive Phantom to make his appearance catches Sam off guard.

“No. Does anyone?” she says, her tone resigned as another loud peal of thunder echoes around them, and Tucker swears he sees the house shaking. They argued a few times about what to do and what else to try, never figuring out a way to reach him. 

“I guess not.” He turns back to look outside, rubbing his arms as a figure blinks into existence on the road. The features are hard to make out, as always, because of the bright green lightning that flickers across his form, making it nearly impossible to stare at Phantom for too long. His hair looks wispy and white, his eyes swirling pools of green amidst a heavily shadowed face, and his form is hazy and more like smoke or dark clouds in the vague shape of a person, yet there’s an odd solidity in the way that he moves at times, as if by far heavier and present than he ought to be in this inhuman state. 

The words that come out when Phantom speaks next aren’t any language humans can hope to imitate, but it’s clearly a form of communication, the ear piercing whine and buzzing reminding Tucker of standing beneath high-voltage wires even as it rises and lowers in pitch and the rhythms shift. There’s an echo to the words, a way it loops through the air as if constantly caught inside a tunnel no matter where Phantom appears, and his voice gets under Tucker’s skin, prickling like static beneath the surface and making him rub his arms more fiercely than before.

Another ghost roars back, his voice full of snarling and hissing, the sounds animalistic even as there’s a mechanical clicking that accompanies it, and Tucker recognizes it and winces as he spots the strange robotic ghost flying in mid-air, green flames cascading down his skull and back, completely unhampered by the rain that is now beginning to steadily fall. The Fentons call him Skulker. The hunter ghost is infamous, stalking his ‘prey’ throughout Amity Park, although what particular creature ends up being his prey in any given week is often impossible to know until it’s too late. Mostly what he hunts are other animals and ghosts, and for whatever reason, Phantom has long been one of his favored targets.

But the ghost stands little to no chance against Phantom.

“Maybe we should get away from the window,” suggests Tucker uneasily as a green blast extends from Phantom’s palm, swirling with crackling green lightning as it lashes out at Skulker, and sparking arcs of electricity dart from it, sparking against a stop sign and dancing across the pavement towards their hiding place. Though no one has ever seen Phantom directly attack a human before, his powers are wild and dangerous, the lightning barely controlled.

And Tucker’s all too aware that just because no one has ever witnessed Phantom attacking someone before doesn’t mean he wouldn’t do it.

“No, I want to watch,” whispers Sam stubbornly as she peers through the window, but her knuckles are white as she grips the window frame. Tucker barely suppresses a sigh as he remains firmly in place. The things he does for his best friend.

His only friend, a quiet voice whispers, but he ignores it. 

The fight is brutal, the ghosts barely visible as they attack each other, but the evidence of their fight is everywhere as green fire spirals, intertwining with the lightning amidst the rain. “It’s kind of beautiful, isn’t it?” says Sam, the lights and shadows dancing in front of them, and he nods despite himself. It’s terrifying, inhuman. The Fentons’ say that ghosts are nothing more than imprints, echoes of post-human consciousness, but as he watches them fight Tucker realizes he’s never truly understood exactly what that means, if they’re spirits or souls or just the fading echoes given some unnatural life at the very moment of someone’s death. 

“How do you think Phantom died?” he asks as Skulker slams into the pavement, the machinery smoking and his flames dwindling as the rain comes down harder, and Sam doesn’t answer, likely unable to hear him over the downpour and crackle of thunder. They watch as Phantom looms over Skulker, his indistinct form more monstrous than ever, and then he slams a fist into the machinery, his fingers sharp, black claws that spark as they dig through the metal frame and pull out a shimmering, shifting ghost, so tiny compared to the hulking frame encapsulating it. 

The rain begins to slow and Tucker wonders for a moment what Phantom will do, if he will destroy the squirming helpless thing in his hands, but then there’s a soft whisper, the sounds that come from Phantom no longer sending chills down his spine but inviting comfort instead, of an odd sort of warmth and gentleness. The ghost–is it Skulker? Tucker isn’t sure–responds in a mewling, annoyed tone, but stops fighting back as Phantom pulls an odd soup like container from . . . Tucker isn’t sure, actually, just where Phantom pulls it from, but he flicks the cap open with practiced ease and sucks the small ghost inside. 

“Isn’t that one of the Fentons’ inventions?” wonders Sam, and Tucker jolts as he realizes she’s right. He remembers seeing it once in one of the assemblies, but the device has rarely appeared in their arsenal since they created the portal guns to send the ghost back to their own dimension instead. “Think he stole it from them?”

“With the level of security they have around that place? Doubt it,” says Tucker. Though it’s been ages since he was last at the Fentons, their ghost security was aggressive enough that it would target sufficiently ecto contaminated humans by mistake, let alone a incredibly powerful ghost like Phantom. Tucker doubts they’ve downgraded their security since then, especially since the number of ghost attacks are only increasing. “Maybe he found it in the trash.”

“Maybe,” she hums, sounding doubtful, and it’s at that moment that the electric green eyes snap towards them, focusing intently, and although it’s too late both Sam and Tucker duck in a futile effort to hide. 

“Shit,” hisses Tucker, and Sam shushes him, putting a finger to her lips, but it’s too late as the air in front of them crackles and flickers as a bolt of electricity impossibly strikes the floor in front of them, Phantom appearing within it, his arms wrapped around the thermos. He and Sam flinch as they curl in towards each other, Sam’s hand grasping his own tightly now as the two of them tremble, and he can barely stand to look at Phantom, the electricity arcing along his body too bright. 

A hiss of static erupts, the same odd ghost speech as always, but this time Tucker understands it, hearing words within the noise even though that shouldn’t be possible. “You shouldn’t stay here,” says Phantom, the sparks around him diminishing, although now that Tucker can make out his features more clearly it’s almost worse as he opens his mouth to speak, sharp white fangs sparkling within. 

“Well where else were we supposed to go with you out there fighting?” grumbles Sam, and Tucker stares at her in horror, unable to believe she would dare to speak to any ghost, let alone Phantom, that way. But the ghost lets out an odd sound, of echoing loops and trills and whirring, and it takes Tucker a second to realize he’s laughing. 

“Fair. But this place is haunted,” he replies with a grin, “and the ghost that lives here doesn’t take kindly to intruders.”

“That’s–um–fine,” stutters Tucker, squeezing Sam’s hand tightly before she can utter another word as he forces himself to his feet. “We’ll, um, get going. And, um, thanks.”

The sparks stop running along his body, freezing at midpoints in a way that completely unnerves Tucker, as if the ghost is frozen in a photo instead of standing in front of them. “Thanks?” he repeats.

“For stopping the ghost?” he squeaks out. “And warning us about the, um, other ghost haunting this place?” His voice is so high that Tucker thinks he could sing soprano right now if Phantom asked. 

Phantom continues to stare at him, saying nothing and remaining so still Tucker would swear he’s a statue, and eventually Tucker swallows as he grabs Sam’s hand and tries to pull her through the window, but she refuses to budge. “Sam,” he hisses, tugging again. “Come on. Let’s go.”

“Not yet,” she insists. “Phantom . . . Are you . . . do you have a place to go?”

“I’m not a lost puppy,” he says, the unnatural stillness rolling off him with a wave of sparks. “And I can’t be near humans for long anyway. It’s hard to control the electricity, and dying from electrocution is a terrible way to go.” There’s a noise behind the words, an echo of long, awful scream that makes Tucker shiver and instinctively realize then that Phantom is speaking from experience, and for the first time it occurs to him that the noises that comprise each ghost’s individual speech aren’t half as random as he believed. 

It’s the sound of their death, echoing for eternity, never letting them or anyone else forget. “Is that . . .” asks Sam, wanting to confirm it.

“Yes,” he says simply, and then there’s the sound of something breaking upstairs, a window smashing and shattering, and static prickles against Tucker’s skin. “You should go.”

“Right. And, um, bye, I guess?” says Tucker awkwardly, and finally Sam follows him out the window and back out onto the street. Despite the sounds upstairs, there’s no broken glass outside beneath any of the windows above them, and as he glances back he can see Phantom’s eyes watching, considering them carefully, before another bolt strikes and he vanishes in a clap of thunder, leaving Sam and Tucker alone once more. 

[glow-worms-are-believers]

Pride and Prejudice AU Anger Management (dp x dc)

Guess who just finished reading+watching Pride and Prejudice? And guess who’s now obsessed with making an Anger Management AU based on it? It’s me babyyyy (btw it's sorta more of a fusion than a proper AU I think?)

Casting: Jason as Elizabeth, his siblings as the bennet sisters. Alfred is mr bennet, Bruce is mrs. Bennet except they’re not silly they’re instead paranoid and emotionnaly stunted.

Jazz as Darcy, Danny as Georgiana. 

Kon as Bingley (with Tim being Jane looool)

Vlad is lady catherine and dani is cousin anne.

Wickham is both the Al Ghul (Talia and Ra's) they pretended to be nice to the Fenton before trying to enslave/exorcice Danny.

Plot (which is basically just P&P but like slightly modified so it works):

Jazz & Danny got spit out the pits. The Al Ghuls pretended to be kind and honorable and stuff, and Jazz was just so happy the dimension they ended up in had some nice (though weird and formal) people. Then, she ends up finding Danny tied up and Ra’s talking about what an interesting specimen he is, and how he’ll help them figure out how to be immortal and all that. Jazz goes full-on Beserk mode and destroys the base + burying pits.

Vlad and Dani end up there too a little later, but she doesn’t tell them the specifics just not to interact with the League of Assassins. Danny is hurt and Jazz is still a bit feral. They end up in Kansas where the Kents offer them a place to stay for a while. So they do stay, and Superman+family end up being really nice people. She doesn’t tell them about the Ra’s, just that the trip between dimension was rough. She also says nothing about Danny’s power and keeps that secret because he’s still hurt and she doesn’t want anyone trying to take advantage of him.

Magic users recognize her as Queen Regent of the Infinite Realms and like everyone who’s met her agrees she’s a fair and kind ruler, so they respect her a lot. So Captain Marvel, Zatanna and Wonder Woman (after they mention Pandora) all vouch for the Fentons and they’re generally just considered really powerful and benevolent.

Anyways danny is severely injured (plus his powers are really reduced) and Jazz is so stressed about it not to mention the queen regent thing (she has paperwork and correspondence with Frostbite, Pandora and Clockwork for all kind of stuff to do, including making sure there is no war after the future King was kidnapped by humans wanting to experiment on him again!!!) plus making a good impression on the league. So she comes off as a little bit stand-offish especially to the heroes she doesn’t know super well. She’s been burnt by the Al Ghul and is just so busy and stressed she has little energy for socialization. She accidentally snubs Dick which everyone in the batfam takes as an insult plus a lot of the younger generation heroes do too. General consensus is that she’s a bit stuck-up and only makes an effort for the big names (Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel). 

Jazz makes a comment about Jason after Kon teases her about him (like “I know his type, pretty bad boy with a list of issues a mile long, not to mention how shit at emotions the bats apparently are”) and he overhears and is like not like I would want to end up with such an arrogant snob no matter how handsome she looks.

So anyways, they end up going on a few missions together and Jazz gets to see that Jason is actually a really good person who does his best and wants to help everyone so bad. Also, he’s so good with kids and Jazz is 100% sure Danny would love him despite him hating most of her previous boyfriends.

Meanwhile, Jason sees how she keeps taking down the villains faster than him and even takes on some of his that he was handling thank you very much, and assumes she’s being condescending instead of trying to be helpful. 

She also talks about school that she’s started and how much she enjoys it because she heard he likes to read but he takes it at a dig at how he never completed his formal education which is a sore spot. She also sometimes completely disregard his suggestion when they go after supernaturals which fair but like super rude?! But it’s just Jazz being used to being in charge and having to wrangle a bunch of go in first, think of a plan later type of people.

(Talia has come by and fed the batfam an edited story of what happened with the pits, which makes Jazz look really shady.)

Danny sees Jazz is completely crushing on this dude and after hearing her talk about him for so long, he’s on board with Jason and also curious to get to know him. Danny tells her to go for it and ask him out. Meanwhile, they each agree to tell Vlad nothing, because he might not be as crazy as he used to be, but he’s still a complete ass.

So at some point, after a mission, she takes Jason aside and asks him out, while insulting his family accidentally (like makes a joke about reserving an extra table for his brothers to spy on them). She means it as a gentle tease, but Jason takes it as a giant insult, since it’s also super true so instead of just saying no, he goes for the snark.

“Thanks and all but I dont date future villains.”

Jazz is fucking insulted. “Ok wow. From what I heard everyone in your family has at least one alternate version of themselves whos a villain, so keep talking shit?!”

“Not even trying to hide your contempt for us now are you?”

“I don’t have contempt for you guys.”

“No? You told Kon he shouldn’t date Tim!”

“That is NOT true! I said to take it slowly while he deals with his identity issues as a clone first to make sure he doesn’t jump into something new while he’s not ready!”

“Yeah, sure. I’m sure it’s got nothing to do with how 'shit at emotions' my family is.”

“Well, it doesn’t help that you’re all emotionally stunted, no!”

“That’s your excuse for Tim, sure. But what about that nice little tale Talia told us?”

“Talia Al Ghul?”

“Yeah. Now why would a hero like yourself cause the complete collapse of a secret organization they should have no knowledge of considering they had arrived in the dimension less than a week ago? I mean, I know they’re assassins and all, but I thought you guys had landed in Smallville, Kansas. That’s a long way to go if you really didn’t have designs on the fucking pits. Did you or did you not burry the pits where no-one except someone who can go invisible and doesn’t need to breathe could access it?”

“I did.”

“And you want to tell me you’re not a villain? You may have everyone else fooled, but I know what you are.”

“Fine,” she says. “If that’s what you want to think. Sorry you had to endure my presence for so long.”

She leaves him a note still, because she knows at least some of the batfam have had contact with the pits. She knows he’s a good person and actually really trustworthy plus how much he cares about children, so she trusts him with Danny’s secret. She explains how Talia and Ra’s have plans with the pits and liminals, and to look out for himself. She tells him to verify with Zantanna if he wants because she’s the one who helped put up the wards to hide Danny’s presence while he recuperates.

Jason is like, ok so maybe she’s not a future villain. So he feels a little bad about his outburst plus dumb about trusting Talia about anything, she’s a liar that is well-known. But he still stands by turning Jazz down coz she is genuinely sort of a snob a lot of times.

After that they go on a few missions together and Jazz acts much better, she actually listens to his feedback even if most of the time she doesn’t need to when it’s supernatural beings. She also seems way less wound-up and doesn’t say a word about how emotionally constipated the bats are, which she used to do way more often. She’s being polite, kind and open to suggestion and Jason is like so maybe I judged a bit fast. He also starts to see how many responsibilities she actually shoulders (Queen Regent, her brother, Justice League stuff) and he’s a little humbled by how well she does it. At some point he meets a Realm Ghost who talks about what a great Queen she is and all that she’s done for them and Jason starts feeling some feelings.

They meet up again for a low-level mission with a supes, it’s like undercover/surveillance about white collar crimes or something, and the vibe between Jazz and Jason is super good until he gets a call. 

Damian/Cass end up captured on a mission by the Al Ghuls to experiment on. All the batfam is losing their minds and Jazz is like this is my fault they know about ectoplasm at all, because she trusted them and talked to much while Jason is like no I’m the one who should’ve told them. 

Jazz goes and rescue the batkid. In exchange she offers one vial of pure ectoplasm (ecto dejecto) which she was saving for emergency in case she gets injured. She tells the Al Ghuls this is worth all the test subjects “from which you’ll try and extract it and it probably won’t work. So do your crazy experiment on that and leave liminals alone.”

So yeah the designated batkid is rescued (tho they don’t realize by who cause they’re unconscious) and Jazz asks Superman to take the credit for it. Jason learns it was Jazz and feels so guilty and grateful. He bakes/cooks something and goes to thank her. He meets Danny who is super excited to meet him and doesn’t know about the messy rejection coz Jazz didn’t tell him because she thought she might have deserved it a little bit. 

So Jason sees how sweet Jazz is with Danny and how much more relaxed she is at home and he’s like ok, so maybe, maybeee I have a feeling about this. Meanwhile, Jazz is still completely gone on him (the man can cook!) and Danny approves. Jazz doesn’t really have the heart to tell him it’s not happening.

All the while, because of Jazz’s connection to the pits the batfam are super suspicious of her and keep making digs at her. Jason feels terrible about it (since she literally saved the batkid) but Jazz just takes it and answers back politely, cause she likes Jason still and doesn’t want to antagonize his family.

Meanwhile, Kon and Tim started dating and the whole batfam are like ‘finally!’ Kon defends Jazz anytime one of the batfam says something about her and they think he’s a little naive but they like him so they stop when he’s there.

Vlad ambushes Jason at some point and tells him he’s not allowed to date Jazz. And Jason is just like “fuck you I do what I want”. He eventually admits to Vlad he isn’t dating her, but when Vlad asks him promise he never will, Jason says “I’m not promising that, she and I can do what we want.” 

At some point Jason and Jazz meet together by coincidence, and it’s a little awkward. Jazz has not been able to forget about him, she just likes him a lot so she goes, “I heard Vlad came by.”

“Yeah, what a weirdo.”

“Yeah, Sorry about him.”

“Hey you have to deal with my crazy family, it’s only fair.”

They laugh

“Sorry if this makes you unfomfortable, say the word and I’ll never mention it again, but I can’t help but ask. I still like you a lot and I wanted to know, could you maybe might have changed your mind about a date?”

“Yes. Uh, I mean for the date, yes I’d like to go on one.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I, actually, Um. I like you a lot too?”

So they end up dating and they actually like each other a whole lot. Danny is over the moon, as is Dani. Vlad still thinks Jason isn’t good enough for Jazz. The whole batfam is like wtf, I thought you hated her. Dick is the first to be like gotta make an effort for Little Wing’s girlfriend and ends up thinking she’s actually pretty cool. The rest are slower to follow, and Bruce is snail-pace. Alfred just likes that Jason is happy so he’s all for it.

[jackdraw-spwrite]

By Storm, By Claw, By Sanguine Moon

Chapter 2

For Ectoberhaunt day 19 - Claw (originally for Phantasy Phest)

Words: 6729 Characters: Maddie Fenton, Jack Fenton Warnings: Body horror (of the skin breaking, bone cracking variety)

Once again, this fic is a collaboration between multiple authors! The others are: @akela-nakamura, @datawyrms, @seaglass-skies, and @five-rivers.

Read it on AO3 or below the readmore:

The rain didn’t let up.

All through the night it poured, and Maddie wondered if she should revise her estimate of the weather controller’s power or intelligence downward. Or both.

On the other hand, maybe this was a concerted effort to wear them out before the eclipse even happened.

The power at Fentonworks was still out, despite their best efforts and their nearest neighbors (who were admittedly further away than average - some people just couldn’t stand the slight inconveniences that came with advancing science) being just fine. The sunrise had also found Maddie with a rash at her joints. Some damp must have gotten past the waterproofing. Or maybe the sweat-wicking layer wasn’t up to snuff anymore. Once the power was back on, she’d have to wash the whole thing and check. As for Jack, he’d been complaining of a sore back off and on all morning.

“Try it now!” called Jack from where he’d wedged the upper half of his body into the electrical maintenance box that the city had installed between them and the power grid when– Well, it had hardly been their fault, but the city didn’t see it that way.

Maddie flipped the main power switch in the circuit box back and forth. “Nothing!” she called.

“Hey, Mom?” called Danny from near the door. “We’re going to Tucker’s, since they have power, okay?”

“Okay,” said Maddie, distracted, waving over her shoulder even though she knew he wouldn’t see her. “Have fun!”

“Okay, this time, I’ve got it!” said Jack. “Go ahead!”

Jack had not got it, and now Maddie could hear him grumbling. “Maybe we ought to switch,” she suggested.

“I’m going to the library!” yelled Jazz, not waiting for an answer before slamming the front door behind her.

Really. What were she and Jack supposed to do about that? Well. They’d have to talk eventually. During dinner, maybe?

“One more time, Maddie, one more time!”

Maddie flipped the switch again. This time, the power turned on, and she smiled with relief. At least something was going right this time.

“Great job, Jack! Now we can check the Fenton Devilry Detector readouts!”

They went down into the lab, where the machinery was still gradually humming to life. Monsters frequently had many natural defenses against observation, going far beyond mere camouflage, so Jack and Maddie had to be as clever about finding them as they were about catching them. Some monsters could only be detected by the oldest technology, others by the newest. Some required brand new inventions.

Jack and Maddie could hardly spend all their time monitoring all that equipment all around town, though, so they’d automated their detectors, and made machines to monitor their machines, and programs to collate the data. It was all very complicated, and sent their electricity bill through the roof. It was worth it, though, to know that even creatures that could only be photographed on archaic silver plate couldn’t evade notice because of it. Especially because the monsters like that had to be full of hubris that they’d never be caught. But they would, one day.

Because the Fentons were prepared.

However, it turned out that such a system didn’t hold up well against ordinary human vandalism, storms, or even time. For example, a machine that operated a polaroid on a timer, then took a picture of the resultant polaroid to send back to the Fentonwork’s servers had many points of failure. As such, Maddie wasn’t surprised to see that the main screen was covered in red OFFLINE notifications.

But visual monitoring wasn’t the only kind. They had others, as well. Things akin to seismometers but for certain kinds of magic. They had microphones and EMF readers but these were not what Maddie was looking for. Maddie was looking for something specific.

Through hard-fought trial and error, she and Jack had discovered something critical: Magic didn’t behave like light. It didn’t, precisely, behave as a gas either. But that analogy was closer.

Magic left traces. Magic built up, and magic lingered. They might not be able to watch everything across the city, but when they needed to look for evidence of foul play, they could compare readings in the local ambient magic.

It was this system, that Jack had named the Fenton Devilry Detector, in honor of his ancestor, whose writings had given them the foundation for its construction, that Maddie and Jack rebooted now.

There were no overnight readings logged, an unfortunate consequence of their lab being offline. But the system had been functional right up until the power outage, and what the graphs showed was unmistakable.

“It’s centered right on the house,” said Maddie, tracing the massive spike in detected magic with one finger. Although, calling it a spike might have been inaccurate. Magic levels around Fentonworks in particular, and even Amity Park in general, had always been high, and had been building gradually for months - no doubt due to the monsters that used it finally recognizing Jack and Maddie as a threat. This, though… This was far in excess of even that. This was a sudden, severe change that, if Maddie was reading this right, had pulsed in time with the storm overhead.

It could only be an attack.

An attack, not only on Jack and Maddie, but their family.

Maddie picked at her lower lip, already trying to determine the best way to safeguard her children. Keeping them both home until they figured everything out would be… Well, it would be ideal, but the government wouldn’t see it that way, and from historical evidence, neither would Jazz and Danny. (Especially, Jazz, right now. After last night’s fight, Maddie had no idea where she stood with her daughter.) And whoever had attacked had clearly known about Fentonworks, and had known how to get around at least some of their protections. Talismans might work, if they could get the kids to wear them… Capturing the monsters would be better, but despite Jack’s confidence, they couldn’t count on that yet.

She itched at her elbow.

At least the kids would be safe during the day.

Jack groaned loudly, and started vigorously scratching his stomach. “I don’t know about you, Maddie, but I think some water got into my suit. It’s definitely not sensitive skin safe anymore, oh boy!”

“I have noticed some itching this morning,” Maddie frowned. “I was hoping it was only my suit that had failed. If yours has too, it might be a materials issue. Why don’t we set these aside for testing?”

“Don’t have to ask me twice!” Jack said, cheerful despite still itching at his stomach. Maddie pulled out two new jumpsuits for them, checking to see when they’d last been inspected and had their various protections redone.

Jack pulled out several pieces of testing equipment. He had to pause a couple times to rub his back against the corner of the wall like a bear scratching on a tree. Maddie frowned and hurried to get Jack a new suit. She could feel the itch spreading as well, and had to stop herself from starting to scratch at her neck.

She passed Jack his new jumpsuit, and went to go change in the small decontamination chamber’s locker room. She took a bag in with her, and placed her defective suit inside. Whatever was wrong with it, they didn’t want it to get even more contaminated before they had a chance to analyze it, and they didn’t want whatever had caused it to break down to spread.

Also, they’d been up all night, and they needed to sleep. Leaving the damaged jumpsuits and trusting they’d just remember which ones they were was just tempting trouble.

Maddie inspected her skin. There was a slight rash, but nothing terribly alarming. Still, better to be safe than sorry. She picked up the Fenton Decontamination and Exfoliation Wash, a body wash she and Jack had developed that was designed to purge negative magical influences. It itself contained ‘magical’ substances, but, well, decontamination procedures were never perfect.

For more severe cases of contamination, for example, being struck directly by an effect, or ensnarement by one of the more infectious monsters they knew to exist, there were other measures. Some simple, if tedious, like smudging or ritual purification, others… more dangerous, if not less necessary.

It was important to plan for such things, in as dangerous a line of work as they had chosen.

She lathered it over the first the rash, and then the rest of her body. Something had gotten through the protections of the suit enough to irritate her skin at the joints. It was likely trace amounts had found their way elsewhere, and she just hadn’t reacted yet.

It was best to be thorough, with these things.

The wash stung as she rubbed it into the irritated skin, like aloe vera on sunburn.

She stepped out of the shower, patting her hair dry. Jack was still in, and she decided to wait for him. As tired as she was, she didn’t want to touch any of their more involved projects. This wasn’t the first time she’d pulled an all-nighter, but she and Jack hadn’t slept much lately. Preparations for the eclipse were taking longer than they’d expected. Tools disappeared or were misplaced. Plans were miscommunicated or derailed by distractions. Rather, that’s what seemed to be happening on the surface.

Not for the first time, she wondered if someone was interfering deliberately. Or rather, how many were, and who.

Some of the monsters they’d gotten ahold of had told them things in an effort to weasel out of what was coming. Nothing that could be trusted implicitly, of course. Every monster was a practiced liar, even the ones that couldn’t. Especially the ones that couldn’t.

(There were ways to lie, she knew, while technically telling the truth.)

But enough to wonder, especially about certain more active members of the infestation creeping in this town.

Like Phantom.

Her eyes wandered up to a poster she and Jack had pinned to the wall a few weeks ago. It had been part of a presentation they’d made hoping they could convince the children that monsters, especially fairies, especially that one that loitered around the school, no doubt hoping to find easy kidnapping victims, weren’t to be trusted.

The poster featured a mock up of what their research suggested fairies of that type really looked like under the glamours. The small monsters appeared pretty and harmless, but that appearance was much like the lure of an anglerfish, designed only to draw in victims.

Fairies were small, ugly, insectoid things. Their bodies were segmented, covered in hair-like filaments and exoskeletal plates. Their mouths were grotesqueries that fused canine-like teeth with oversized mandibles. Their wings, instead of being brightly patterned, were likely drab, tattered things, possibly even covered with oily, beetle-like wing cases. Instead of hands, they had long, scythe-like claws that lacked an opposable digit entirely. Even their large eyes, so good at conveying innocence, were in truth more like the bulging, compound eyes of a fly.

Without magic and humans to deceive with it, fairies would be no better than cockroaches. Small, useless things, scuttling in the dark.

But they did have magic, and they did use it to trick humans. Especially human children, which even so-called fairy tales agreed were their favorite prey.

The fairy in the poster was a fairy like that, drawn in detail by Jack and labeled lovingly by Maddie. Jazz and Danny had barely looked at it before dismissing it.

(Her kids had been so dismissive of their work, lately. Everything she and Jack did was met with disbelief. They were nearly scornful of it.)

Maddie sighed and turned away– Then froze. She’d thought– But, no, it had just been a warped reflection in the glass of one of the older computer monitors. They really needed to find a better place for that.

Before she could start to compile a list of better places, Jack came out of the shower, towel wrapped around his head. She smiled. She remembered when Vlad taught them how to do that, back in college.

“Man,” said Jack. “I’m beat. Makes you wish monsters knew what bedtime was, huh?”

“Now, now, Jack,” said Maddie playfully, “if they knew what bedtime was, they wouldn’t stay out where we could catch them half as often.” She patted his shoulder and hid a wince as her suit dragged painfully against the rash at her shoulder. “Let’s get to bed. We’ll be ready to take on all the monsters in the world when we get up.”

.

Maddie was not ready to take on all the monsters in the world when she woke up. She must have strained herself much more than she’d thought before bed. She hadn’t even run for all that long. But clearly, her muscles disagreed. They protested as she reached for her alarm clock, and she contemplated simply returning to sleep.

But that had never helped with muscle soreness in her experience, and she wanted to catch at least some of the remaining afternoon light, sodden as it was. The work was worth it, of course. But Maddie had never taken well to nocturnal hours on the occasions they’d been required. She’d always been more of an early bird than Jack, and daylight had always made her feel more balanced. She left both her earplugs and her sleeping husband in the bedroom and padded downstairs.

The bottom floor was deserted. The house was quiet with the door to their bedroom shut, and light filtered through the windows in the living room. The couch with its soft cushions was inviting, but Maddie went up the stairs to the roof. There, she settled on the damp edge of the cornice and took a sip, waiting for it to return life to her body.

The kids were probably still out. Maddie could see that Jazz’s car was gone, and Danny loved spending time with his friends.

Despite the stresses of the last day, Maddie smiled. That boy and his friends. They really were as thick as thieves, always out doing something or other. Or in. She couldn’t quite understand the appeal of shooting demons in a video game when you could be going out and doing it in the real world, but she more than approved of the sentiment.

She itched at the crook of her elbow, then pulled a face. Rubbing already irritated skin would only make it worse, even with the soft lining of her jumpsuit.

She finished her coffee, then did some stretches to help with the soreness before returning downstairs. She was hungry, and Jack would be too when he woke. Maybe she could order out Chinese?

She certainly didn't feel like cooking—she could admit, to herself, that she wasn't great at it. She idly opened the drawer with all the local menus, and started digging for the Chinese menu. Her fingers, she noted, ached slightly with the movement.

In fact, she was still pretty sore all over, the stretching having only helped for a short while.

Ah, well. It would fade. It always did. She shook some stiffness out of her joints and dialed the place.

A few minutes later, she went back upstairs to nudge Jack awake. It always took him a little bit to drag himself out of bed, and if he started now he might be downstairs by the time the food arrived.

Maddie didn’t bother saying his name as she pushed open the door; she’d never seen Jack wake to a sound for as long as they’d been married. Instead, she opened the blinds, pulled the blankets down, peeled his sleeping mask off, and–

…frowned.

There was a rash around his eyes. More, it didn’t look like any rash she’d ever seen.

She shook him.

“Bwuh,” Jack said, face screwed up as he grappled with wakefulness.

“Jack,” she said. “There’s something on your face.”

“Sleeping mask,” he said, and tried rolling over.

She didn’t let him. “Jack,” she repeated. “I think the rash is getting worse.”

"Feels worse," he said. "Think'm dying."

"Jack Fenton, you are not dying."

"How do you know," said Jack. "I hurt all over."

"So do I. We're sick, Jack. Not dying." She hoped.

"Brave woman. Steel will. S'no wonder I married you. Be a fool not to."

Maddie sighed in exasperation and fondness. That was Jack for you, still complimenting her while claiming to be on his deathbed.

"Flattery will get you nowhere," she said.

"It got me you."

"Jaaack," Maddie said. "Fine, you flatterer. What do you want?"

"Five more minutes?" he asked hopefully.

"I'm setting a timer." Maddie got up to leave, and paused in the doorway. "If you're not up by the time dinner gets here, I'm eating your orange chicken."

.

A few minutes later, Maddie heard the stairs creak under Jack's feet. A few moments later he appeared in the kitchen doorway, slumped dramatically against the frame.

"Maddie," he said. "I think we've been cursed."

Maddie put another glass away. "Why?" she asked.

"No illness could lay Jack Fenton low like this," he said, too strained to say it with his usual excitement.

"Except for the flu eight years ago," Maddie gently reminded him.

"That was pixies."

"Mmmm," said Maddie, unwilling to start that argument again while nursing a full body ache. She’d checked. Multiple times. It had been the flu, and not anything supernatural.

"And this feels too sudden. And so soon after the attack on our generator..."

"Mmmm," Maddie said again, but with a much different tone.

Jack had a point. On the other hand, running around in the rain at all hours was a much more mundane explanation. They weren’t as young as they used to be. And while their suits should have protected them from the cold and damp, they already knew the material had failed to protect them in at least one way.

"Maybe," she said at last. "Why don't we run those tests once the food gets here? The kids aren't home, so we could eat in the lab."

Jack laughed, but there was a pained edge to it. “Yeah, no Jazz to scold us, huh? Ah. Hah.”

Maddie pressed her lips into a thin line. “Hopefully, they’ll be back soon,” she said, rather than addressing what Jack was clearly thinking. With how upset Jazz was, it was more likely that she’d give them the cold shoulder than scold them.

Or maybe not. It was becoming apparent that she didn’t know her daughter as well as she’d thought. Either of her children, really, she reflected, thinking back on some of Danny’s… odder behavior, recently. She didn’t understand it at all.

They really needed to have that talk.

“Right!” said Jack, finally managing an exclamation point. “To the lab to figure out what felonious fairy is behind our feeble feelings!”

Oh, Jack. He always knew how to cheer Maddie up.

Down to the lab they went.

Usually, the lab felt welcoming. It was as familiar and lived-in to Maddie as the living room upstairs. Usually, the clean lighting, clutter, occult diagrams, and metal tables were just as much a comfort as the dozens of experiments plugging, percolating, or maturing away on the tables. It always felt like protection. It always felt like progress. Progress of knowledge, of their bulwark against the things that stalked the night.

But tonight Maddie felt all of the weight of dirt, concrete, and metal overhead, pressing down, as if to bury them alive.

Ominous and suffocating.

Like a coffin.

Maddie took a deep breath. She hated being sick.

“Ooh,” said Jack. “This is a bad curse. We’ve got to figure it out right away!”

"What makes you say that?" Maddie asked.

"Queasy," said Jack. "And I think my claustrophobia is kicking in. I forgot I had that, after that one time we had that abandoned mine dropped on us."

"I'm feeling that, too." Maddie frowned. But what would trigger those memories? Why would a curse give them a rash and a mild case of claustrophobia? Maybe the creature that cursed them just hadn’t been very strong. Or maybe the curse had been stronger, but their protections had deflected most of it.

Or it wasn't a curse. They hadn't confirmed it yet, after all. And there was more than one way for monsters to hurt humans.

They pulled the suits out of storage. Preparations were interrupted by the arrival of food, but shortly they had takeout boxes at one table, and their compromised suits on another.

(As Jack said, if those monsters thought they’d be stopped by this, they had another thing coming.)

Jack, eagerly following his theory, was assembling their collection of more occult and mystical devices. Most of them would have limited utility in examining the suits, but… Maddie sighed, fondly. Jack would get everything sorted out. From outside, his process might seem chaotic, but he always got fascinating results.

Maddie, for her part, had on her set of magnifying goggles and was going over the inside of her suit inch by inch, starting with the edges and seams. With gloves, of course. While she was assuming the cause of the rash was irritation due to water getting inside the suit lining, assumptions didn’t rule out other causes, like unexpected chemical reactions, or even the curse Jack was so sure of.

So far she hadn’t found any tears. If there weren’t any, she’d take samples of the inner lining to test for common skin irritants. That would be truly tedious work. There were enough chemical irritants in the world that it was quite possible that she’d never figure it out, and have to leave it as a mystery… Unless it also happened to another suit. That would be an unacceptable mystery, and a real danger to herself and Jack.

“Maddie!”

“Hm?” said Maddie, looking up. She experienced a moment of vertigo, and raised her hand to remove her magnifying goggles. “What is it?”

“Look!” He pointed, and Maddie traced his finger to the Fenton branded All-Things-Thaumaturgy Amplified Quantifier.

Maddie inhaled sharply. “Is that…?”

“That’s the reading for the suit,” said Jack, gesturing with the modified microphone attached to the Quantifier. He pointed it at himself, and the line on its graph leapt into the stratosphere. “And that’s me.”

Maddie cursed softly under her breath. “Let me take a look at my readings,” she said, rolling her chair over.

They were the same.

“You know what this means, don’t you?” asked Jack. “This isn’t an instant curse. This is something that’s stuck, and stuck hard.”

Maddie leaned back in her chair, musing over the readings. There was an urgency building in her, but she had to think. Curses were dangerous, wild things, governed by the will and wording of the one who cast it. Curses that didn’t show up immediately, that stuck and built, were especially dangerous—and unpredictable. They weren’t easy to get rid of, nor were they easy to understand.

They had to be methodical about this. They had to find out the nature of the curse, and who cast it. She steeled herself, and looked back at her husband.

”Alright,” said Maddie, “we can narrow down the kind of curse… or at least diagnose the symptoms. From there, we can cross-reference cures, loopholes, and probable perpetrators with our library.”

“Well, feeling awful is one,” said Jack. “Plus the claustrophobia.”

“Maybe a cave or tunnel based creature, then? Like with the mine?” Maddie shook her head. “That doesn’t line up with the storm. And I don’t know why something like that would give us rashes of all things.” She set her elbow on the work bench and leaned forward. “Speaking of which, I really don’t like the look of the rash around your eyes. If we can’t figure out the cause, soon, we might have to focus on stopping the spread.”

“Rash around my eyes?” repeated Jack. He walked over to one of the sinks, and peered into the mirror. “What rash around my eyes?”

He jolted a bit, when he looked into the mirror. The rash had spread, past the rounds of his goggles. It drifted down his cheekbones, climbed his forehead, and was thicker around his eyes themselves. Concern shot down Maddie’s spine—she hadn’t realized how bad it’d gotten. It still didn’t look like any rash she’d seen before. It wasn’t red or inflamed, but it was undeniably a rash. The fact that it had gotten worse, despite showers and new suits, was alarming.

“Oh,” Jack said, blinking in the mirror. He snapped on a new glove, and gently touched the rash. “This is not a good look! Is this a reaction from the curse’s magic with our suits?”

Maddie hummed, even as she grabbed a sterile swab, and a new set of gloves for herself. She stepped over to Jack, running the swab over the rash before putting it into the sterile test tube.

“Maybe,” she said finally. “Take a sample from your goggles, and let’s see if there’s an environmental factor—this rain has been relentless.”

Jack did so, with much less of his usual gusto. Maddie couldn’t blame him—she felt tired and weighed down. Despite having slept for so long, and barely doing anything in the lab, she felt she could easily take another nap.

She couldn’t. They couldn’t. With the eclipse coming, and a curse to solve, they didn’t have time for more sleep. If they couldn’t fix the curse by the time the eclipse arrived, everything they’d worked for would be lost. This was literally a once in a lifetime opportunity!

They had to keep moving, to figure this out.

“Some dastardly monster thinks they can stop us,” Jack muttered, not able to get his usual volume. “A curse has never stopped a Fenton, and it won’t now.”

Maddie smiled to herself, even as she ran tests on the sample she’d taken from Jack’s rash. They wouldn’t be stopped.

Whatever evil being had cursed them, they’d soon regret it!

.

The curse was harder to pin down than expected. Usually it was a place that was afflicted with these sorts of monsters- cursing actual people took much more power and nefarious intent.

Even so, curses generally exerted their power through something. Effigies. Inscriptions. Sound. Blood. Sometimes more than one. If they could find that part of the curse, destroy that part of the curse, then the curse would start to unravel.

But they hadn’t found anything. Not yet.

At least they had been able to rule out the whole family being a target. Much as Jazz and Danny did their best to duck lifesaving checks, they got enough readings to feel a weight lift from their hearts. It was bad enough that some foul beast was after them without it threatening their children.

Danny’s readings were still uncomfortably high, but not in a new way. Jazz almost seemed like she might also be a target, but her contamination levels plummeted while theirs crept higher. Neither child was struggling with itches or food going foul in their mouths, a huge relief. They could put their whole attention on solving the curse much faster when not at risk of endangering the kids further.

.

A few days later, Maddie sighed as she took the final step down into the lab, and immediately headed into the corner to peel her wet jumpsuit off.

The rain was heavy today, coming down in fat, icy droplets that sank into the jumpsuit's cloth and stayed there, chilling the skin. By the time she'd finished setting up the battery of traps in the park woodlands, she'd felt icy herself and had been hard pressed to keep her hands steady against the cold.

The curse had made them allergic to the Fenton patented anti-moisture, sweat-wicking formula for sensitive skin, which wouldn't be a huge problem–except it was how they'd waterproofed all their jumpsuits. They'd had to switch to unfinished jumpsuits without the coating–and therefore, without the wet weather protection.

Needless to say, Maddie was looking forward to warming up.

A hot decontamination shower and a toweling later, she reached for a fresh jumpsuit–and froze.

The skin of her arm hadn't changed much from that morning. It was still the same scaly, angry red that covered most of her extremities. But there was something off about the movement of her forearm.

Slowly this time, Maddie repeated the action, making sure to watch her forearm as she did.

There.

It was smooth.

Not the skin. The skin was still rough from the rash. But beneath it–beneath it. Her forearm was smooth.

Maddie was a woman of science, but she was also a woman of action. She trained regularly, she kept herself fit enough to keep up with the human wrecking ball that was Jack. She fought using any number of weapons but liked staves especially, which gave her exceptional muscle development in her forearms.

She fluttered her fingers, and the back of her forearm remained motionless.

Maddie was a woman of action, and her forearm should have had enough muscle definition to see the individual muscles controlling the extension of each finger.

Should have. Usually, did have.

It did not.

.

Eyes could be fooled, especially while cursed. Instead of making assumptions, she let science find the truth.

The scanner showed dense plates of tissue forming beneath their skin.

.

They made a grocery run before the curse worsened. They didn't know how bad it would get, after all, and this way they wouldn't need to worry about food for a little while.

Jack was silent in the checkout line. Maddie felt stares prickle at her skin and pretended not to notice the way the cashier's eyes darted to the rash crawling up Maddie's cheek.

When they left, the rain was still coming down in a quiet rush. The sensation of droplets trailing down her face flared into burning when they made contact with the rash. With Jack unable to be as boisterous as he normally was, it felt like they’d lost the sun twice over. The burning pain was an unwelcome substitute in the gloom.

.

There was something watching them from reflections. It skittered in the corners of their vision, always careful, never quite slow enough to properly see. Or to shoot at.

Maddie saw the nebulous shadow of it in her peripheral vision as she soldered some final details on another set of traps, and pretended she had not.

Belatedly, she felt the hairs of her neck prickle.

She set the piece she was working on to the side, and reached for another, concentrating on the corners of her vision hard enough to make her eyes ache. After a moment, she eased her thumb off the on switch. She didn't need to stab herself with a fully heated soldering iron while trying to finally get a good look at the thing cursing them.

Quietly, she mimed continuing with her work, setting aside a few more pieces as she waited. It shouldn't have been convincing, but the shadow lingered. Apparently, it could be fooled. Good to know. She could make out more details, now. Too many appendages, too long. Huge, larger than she was.

A smear of red where the eyes would be. Similar, then, to Phantom's true form.

Maddie thought of her gun, holstered at her side.

Maddie thought of empathetic magic, and their research on how it might work. On how they thought that something projecting an image elsewhere might still be vulnerable to harm done to the reflection.

Finally, Maddie thought about the curse.

In one smooth blur she dropped the soldering iron, grabbed the gun, took aim, and fired at the thing cursing them–

And was left lightheaded from the sudden rush of adrenaline, arm out and gun pointed at–

At the charred divot in the sheet metal armoring the walls of the lab, directly in the center of her own head's reflection.

Nothing.

It was nothing.

.

But–if Phantom or something like it was channeling this magic through reflections, through their reflections, maybe that was something.

Maybe it could be disrupted.

They covered mirrors, painted the stainless steel of the laboratory walls, even hid glass.

It didn't work.

.

The first time it happened, they thought it was a fluke. A result of improper weapons safety due to their single minded focus on the curse. Jack had placed one of their newer weapons on the table, a thing of gleaming metal, automatic aim, salt and iron ammunition, and an alert function. It was as yet unnamed, but compact and efficient. It was a favorite of Maddie’s.

But Jack had placed it down, and Maddie had found herself catching a glimpse of a red laser, hearing the humming whine of the auto aim—and she ducked, just in time for the weapon to lose its target. Just in time for it not to fire.

Jack had been horrified. He’d checked the weapon over a dozen times, and nothing had seemed amiss.

They concluded it was either an accidental slip that had primed the weapon, and something possibly needing adjustment in its targeting code.

They moved on with their research on the curse.

.

The hair on Maddie’s head came off in chunks.

At least, the hair that didn't thicken and stiffen until she had a twin set of antennae emerging from her forehead.

.

They kept the blinds closed. When a package delivery came, Maddie signed for it with her hood up.

.

The second time it happened, it was something simple. She’d needed a break from their research, from the headache she genuinely couldn’t tell if it was from the curse or from the stress of it. She couldn’t think straight, and as much as it rankled, she knew she’d be useless in doing more research.

She’d pulled out some simple protections and a couple of small net projects. They needed nets of various sizes for the upcoming eclipse, and while Jack liked to show off with the large ones, Maddie did enjoy weaving together the smaller ones.

The net itself was itchy against her skin, but it was made of a new weave of fibers, embedded with near gossamer iron and silver. There was also a new mix of herbs she’d had some luck with, but she needed to mix up more to soak the net in.

With the net on her lap, and the various herbs around her, she’d begun to mix.

And had managed to spill some of the garlic, sage, St. John’s Wort, and yarrow mixture on her hands and down her arms.

It had taken her several moments of frustrated clean up for her to realize what was happening—and for the pain to kick in.

The mixture was burning her, and where she’d touched the net felt raw and prickly.

Her stomach sank as she moved robotically over to the sink.

Just how deep did this curse run?

.

Breaking mirrors was bad luck. Fortunately, it was unnecessary when you had a sandblaster. It even worked on steel.

.

The third time, Maddie clutched the toilet, thinking, thinking, trying to think of what she might have eaten, what she might have done to feel like this. They’d barely been out of the house. It had to be the curse again. Was this it? Had it been taking her through this horrible transformation only to kill her like a stomach bug? She hadn’t eaten anything she didn’t eat all the time.

The ingredients. Pasta, tomatoes, onions, garlic–

Garlic.

Like in the mixture that had burned her so badly only a few days ago.

.

Jack's hair was wiry, and too stiff. Too thick.

.

They had only two leads. What was happening to their reflections and what was happening to themselves. They didn’t want to let the curse run its course, didn’t want to see the form it ultimately took, so, when covering or defacing the mirrors didn’t work, they studied them.

When viewed straight on, their reflections seemed… not normal, not with what was happening to them, but not otherwise supernaturally altered. But from the corners of their eyes, they were more. More changed. More alien. More monstrous.

Maddie and Jack designed new machines, new tools for measurement, new methods. They compared the readings of mirrors that were reflecting them to mirrors that were not. They set cameras to record their reflections. They argued and built and tested and…

And all they knew for sure was that mirrors were involved somehow.

.

Entering the kitchen was like walking headfirst into a wall of acidic fumes. They had to throw out some of the herbs with tongs, and their eyes and noses burned for hours after.

.

Among all their tests, all their increasingly frantic research, the house became a minefield. Weapons began to track them with increasing frequency, alarms went off when they entered the house or the grounds. It felt like every fifteen minutes they got a new alert on their phones, on their equipment about monsters in their house.

No matter how many times they searched, or how well, they never found a thing.

No one but themselves.

Jazz was out of the house for hours at a time. Danny had become a shadow, fluttering in and out at odd times.

Maddie tried, several times, to talk to her daughter but it seemed something got in the way every time. A new alarm would go off, or a weapon would malfunction and start to aim, or Maddie would forget and reach for something and feel the burn of herbs or certain metals.

As the days went on and the curse worsened, so too did things around the house. Every protection they had built into the very walls of their home was now a weapon against them.

Maddie feared they were running out of time.

.

Maddie scratched absently at the rash covering most of their bodies, and felt skin slide.

Her hair didn't.

Her hair didn't, and through it she could feel the texture of the flesh sloughing off, suddenly too loud, too wet, too much too much too much.

.

When she emerged from the shower, her arms and hands were segmented. Behind her, the shower looked like a crime scene.

.

(After that, they had to shut down the internal alarms—they were nothing but a never ending shriek, and neither she nor Jack could figure out how to make it stop targeting them but still protect their home.)

.

They did research. Not the scientific kind of research that they liked best, but delving through old and unreliable secondary and tertiary sources, trying to pick out strands of truth from among the razor-wires of misunderstandings and outright fabrication. Some books, Maddie hadn’t picked up since Danny was born.

One had ‘good’ fairies. That other had humans inadvertently casting curses on their family members. The one she’d just discarded had talked about monsters that had once been human, when Maddie knew that was impossible. None of their data supported such a transformation.

But it didn’t matter what their data supported when this was happening to them. When their appearances were so warped that they’d resorted to communicating to their children solely through notes and text messages. When so many of the protective wards they’d built up around their more sensitive or more dangerous equipment made them shy away.

They were desperate. It showed.

They tried dozens of cutesy neopagan countercharms. They worked through purification rituals with limited or even singular attestation. They pulled out screwdrivers and hammers and systematically removed and broke every mirror in the house and the MAV, despite the years of bad luck common wisdom claimed they should get with each one.

It didn’t work. None of it worked.

.

When Jack's eyes began to bulge from his sockets, growing until they were the size of tennis balls, it was no longer a surprise but a horrible confirmation: Phantom had cursed them to become like him.

It was a foul, monstrous trick befitting a wolf in child’s clothing like Phantom. They knew they weren’t monsters, not ‘fae’, but whatever magic it had woven was enough to convince their own eyes and tools. In a home primed and ready to fight off all foul creatures of the shadows, that was no small danger. There were safeguards they could no longer safely disable.

At this rate, they’d be unable to even stay in their own home.

[sidewalk-cracks]

Ok but Danny getting captured or running off or somethin or other and Vlad going after him. Danny at some point feels like he's been struck by lightning as he thinks, my arch nemesis came looking for me but my parents didn't. Vlad took notice extremely quickly. He could tell something was up and practically dropped everything to go find him, meanwhile the Fentons... Danny knows his parents love him, they genuinely do, and he knows they're trying, but... they're still not the best parents despite whatever efforts they may give. They stay almost exclusively down in the basement for days at a time and this was another one of those stretches. Danny knows their work is important to them and he loves them back, but sometimes he wishes he and Jazz were their first priority, not ghost hunting.

Oh and also consider not just Vlad immediately chasing after him, but Vlad and Jazz going after him together. Maybe Danny's absence is related to ghosts and Jazz doesn't know who else to contact for help– their parents are out of the question and Sam and Tucker are teenagers too; they really shouldn't be getting into such dangerous stuff. Vlad's the other halfa and the only adult who could actually handle the situation. And Jazz is hesitant, because even though Vlad and Danny are on some sort of shaky truce, Vlad's still a sketchy dude, but when she goes to him and explains what's going on he agrees to help almost immediately. He doesn't even try to bargain anything, make it a deal. He just says sure. Let's go get Danny.

(this post was largely inspired by this excellent fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42124122)

[tanglepelt]

Run Ghost Run 11

A03 Prev next

Danny wakes up and the immediate problems with that

**

Everything hurt. Just like he had taken a beating from Skulker again or after when Vlad tried to steal his DNA. Danny’s eyes didn’t want to open, they were so heavy, and he was so tired. Waking up exhausted is never a grand time. He didn’t want to get up. Sleep just sounded better, just five more minutes wouldn’t hurt.

But something wasn’t right. This wasn’t his bed. It wasn’t even tuckers couch. No, it was too small. Too hard. It wasn’t even the floor at school.  He had never fallen asleep before.

Stiffening as the memories came flashing back. The war, Jack and Maddie, the scalpel hitting his skin, the cuffs holding him down. Gotham herself and then his latest kidnapping. His breathing was more rapid. He needed to calm down.

What if he was being watched? He needs to be calm. Calm his breaths, do something. He needed to act asleep. If he was lucky no one was around, he didn’t hear anything. That was a good sign. Danny needed to figure out a plan. Come up with something sensible. Unlike the last few days.

Never once had he thought he would end up around a crime lord. That just doesn’t happen, Amity doesn’t have any gangs, that was all stuff in action movies. Did Amity even have legit cops? He’s only ever seen the two. Danny just let himself be taken by a crime lord. Who knows what they could have done to him? They may both are hiding from the government but come on. When Jazz finds out he’s so screwed. There is no way she won’t. Jazz always seems to know everything.  

He should have fought more.

So, what if his powers just didn’t cooperate? It’s no excuse. Despite his best effort to get out of reds grip. The man was too strong. All his struggles went unnoticed he hadn’t seemed to even bat an eye. Waiting him out wouldn’t work. Not with his threat. Being found by the vigilantes was one of the worse outcomes. His powers had only managed to make the area colder. No ecto blast, no lasers, no intangibility he couldn’t even shapeshift. The more he pushed the worse he felt. It had become too painful to struggle, the more he tried to use his powers the more it spread.

His human side was still too injured that struggling itself had hurt him. Every attempted twist or turn sent waves of pain through him. Whether physical or magical it was a problem.

He had been stuck.

Take a chance with a crime lord and hopefully make it through the next day or be found by the vigilantes.

The vigilantes were too big a risk. They had worked with the police before. The police and government worked hand in hand, following the laws. They enforced them, batman and crew always turned them in. Getting their rogues arrested. By law, he was a criminal for existing. The ones ordering him to be handed over to the government. Experimentation or extermination. He’d be whisked back to a lab in no time.

After a single escape, he didn’t expect another chance. They get him and he is as good as gone.

Why did he have to pass out? He hadn’t even been trying to duplicate himself. He needed to dip. Get out of whatever basement he’s going to find himself in

He didn’t even want to open his eyes. What if they took his kidney? Tuckers talked about stories like that before. It’s happened in his horror movies.

It felt like all his organs were still there. He had experience now on what they felt like all messed around with. An experience he would like to never experience again.

Out of everywhere he went to why here. This place was a mess.

There are too many vigilantes here. Batman had worked with the government before. He couldn’t trust anyone here. He wouldn’t risk getting caught again. A crime lord already can’t be trusted. Movies made that much clear.

He had let his guard down before the mugging. Lost in the new space, he didn’t pay attention as he tried to find his way around. A mistake he wouldn’t make again. Red would have never found him if had just been more careful. Even if both parties hate the government he couldn’t be trusted. An enemy of your enemy only causes more problems.

Danny could do this. Scope out the hopefully not secret lab. Get his bag, he’d need the ectoplasm. Another boost. Get everything kickstarted all again. Then never come back.

Screw Gotham. Screw Lady Gotham. This was the final nail in the coffin. He wasn’t sticking around to end up in one.

Ignoring the pain. That was so much worse than just a day prior.

He opened his eyes and jolted up. Quickly scanning the room in search of anything to help.

His backpack wasn’t in sight. Looking in every direction it wasn’t in clear sight. That bag had everything he had with him. He wouldn’t leave it behind.

At least this place wasn’t a lab or basement.

It just appeared to be an old apartment. He was situated in a living room. A rundown-looking apartment, run-down couch, and rickety furniture. It looked like everything would creak or moan if he moved. Being sneaky was never his forte. Well unless he was invisible and intangible, he was great at it then. Another look and there were no pictures on the wall. No weapons in sight. While it was old furniture the place looked completely unlived in.

There were no bars on the windows. Or anything indicating locked doors. That doesn’t mean they weren’t locked. Could just be all on the outside of the doors. Vlad’s pulled a trick or two like that before.

Red wasn’t anywhere visible. Which was probably… maybe a good thing. One less problem to think about for now. He couldn’t even see out the window. It was one of those frosted ones, there was light. Either he’d barely been out, or it’d been a whole night. Hopefully the first, losing a whole night meant who knows what happened.

Okay… No way to know unless he figured out what was going on. Where he was and when. Maybe another shot of ectoplasm or two. Try and jumpstart his powers again, he has to do something. It was all getting more real.

Get up, get his bag, and get out.

That’s all he had to do. Super simple and easy. Right?

If only it was that simple. Getting up was a chore. Having to push himself up from the couch, he didn’t have the energy. It was like trying to push a car off him. It took everything just to do a simple activity. Then of course as he stood up something creaked. Maybe the floorboard it doesn’t really matter what. Now all he could do is hope the crime lord didn’t hear it.

This was not going to be easy, but then again when was it ever?

No new bodies appeared, and no one stormed out of the room. No new weapons in his face, so maybe he got lucky. He could do this. If he could seal away Pariah, he could handle this. He just had to put one foot in front of the other and start. That was the key. It was going well until he tripped over his own feet falling to the ground.

Not a fun trip, the floor was not as exciting as the museum.  

Maybe he could just melt into the floor. It sounded better than getting up again. The fall must have been enough to draw attention.

When he rolled onto his back. The guy was right in Infront of him, looking down at him.

Great

 *

Jason had a kid passed out on his couch, a town functioning under a hidden martial law, confirmation a government agency was after the kid, and to top it off the kid was a confirmed ecto entity.  He knew he had been held in a lab. The same place Steph and Cass had been. The kid was injured.

Trying to keep home in the safe house was not going to be easy. The kid jumped off a roof to get away once. It was purely by chance he came across him. The fact he hadn’t left Gotham yet was a shock. Then the fact he got an acceptance of the situation was concerning.

He didn’t give the kid much of a choice, the kid only got two. Him or the others. The cards had been in his favor, not being involved with the government had its advantages. Red Hood also didn’t star in any searches for vigilantes.  If Danny didn’t wake up panicked there would be even more concern.

He choose this safe house for a reason. It’s not a nice one, it lacks anything personal, and it makes noise. His weapons were all stashed in the main bedroom, even the hidden ones. No pictures or anything that could link to Jason Todd. If there was and the kid saw pictures of anything related to his personal life it could go bad. Knowing the identity of a criminal was enough to get people killed.

He knows where to move to not make the floor creak and not let the door squeak.

If Danny used his powers, he couldn’t do much to stop him. Just follow him. There were a few trackers hidden away on him. Just in case.

Jason's running theory the powers were on the fritz was even more apparent based on some blood results. Danny had just left a bloody sweatshirt on a roof. The results showed more than just human DNA. That wasn’t a shock.

Something in his system had matching properties as the Lazarus pits. Not a direct hit, not quite the same but close. Somehow Danny’s DNA seemed to have two sets. A pure human side and the other. That part of the blood apparently was under attack. Even with the blood being dried whatever was going to attack that specific property. Danny was likely to need a proper doctor. One specializing in metas or something.

Couldn’t do much about it now.

Jason has to figure out how to convince the kid he is safe here. Everything else would follow.

Danny just stayed asleep through the night. It was only when the kid first showed signs of waking up, he moved out of the living room. His stiffening up was a sure sign he was realizing his situation. Letting him wake up alone in an open space hopefully will lessen his nerves. Nothing in his sight should be concerning. Nothing was locked up. Danny’s backpack was conveniently in another room.

Hopefully, that was enough of a deterrent to immediately bolt.

Jason would give him enough time to look around and not be crowded. When he heard the thud of a body hitting the floor he did head out. Danny clearly wasn’t ready to move. So out he went to offer his assistance.

The kid was face down on the ground. He had slowly rolled to be laying on his back. The movement seemed taxing and difficult.

Danny was then looking straight at him. Jason held his hand out to offer to help the kid up. Danny just got defensive. Saying he didn’t need anything but his bag from him. Trying to get up and failing. Refusing to take his hand and get up.

That was enough of a sign to back off. Forcing anything wasn’t going to go anywhere. Jason just sat down on the couch and grabbed his phone. There wasn’t anything new. Bruce was likely dealing with the justice league now.

“If you need help just let me know” in a simple disinterested tone.

Danny was stubborn he’d give him that. Seemingly accepting a new life lying down on the floor. About an hour passes and he finally caved. The kid re-situated on the couch he grabbed the bag and just threw it on the other side of the couch. It had a few new additions Danny didn’t need to know that. The kid just grabbed it and put it in his lap.

Now to figure out how to get a better check-up on the kid. Jason was pretty sure Danny did something new or something was acting up. Try as he might Danny wasn’t very good at keeping his breaths calm. It could just be nervous energy but add in the flashes in his eyes and with the fall it's likely both.

“You pull something in the fall.”

A silence that was kind of expected. No new movements just a glare in his direction.

“I’m pretty handy with my first aid if you hadn’t noticed” Danny definitely hadn’t. Only just now looking at his wrist.

“why”

“Rope burns are the worst. Always annoyed me” Keep it simple sweet and to the point. Nothing unnecessary or attempts to draw the conversation out. It had to come from him.

“No, why help me?”

“cause you were hurt. It’s obvious you’re not from around here, kids are off-limits here. No one is supposed to touch them. You’re in my territory now, couldn’t just let you stay on the street. You needed some help. Simple as that” Danny looked confused at that. Another bit of silence before Danny spoke again.

“Then I’ll leave and I won’t be your problem anymore”

Time to take a gamble. No way the kid makes it that far if he can even get off the couch.

“I'll make you a deal, you walk out of here on your own you can go. Walking without falling that is. If you don’t, you let me check properly for injuries and treat them. Then you stay another night”

With how quickly Danny agreed he was almost concerned he was gonna lose. He didn’t even get three steps hitting the ground.

“a deal is a deal. I can help you up and it will just be a quick checkup. Just to see if there is anything that needs to be done. Just need you to ditch the sweatshirt for a second.”

This time the kid did take his hand. He just kind of looked defeated and seemingly accepting his fate. Even actually cooperating by taking his sweatshirt off. He only got pushback once they both saw the red. The kid had to have done something. There was nothing around that could have cut his stomach.

Trying to assist he could handle it himself. That he could restitch it without him. After arguing back and forth for who knows how long he got somewhere.

“You can’t freak out”. There was so much dread and concern in that statement.

After several assurances he wouldn’t freak he finally got somewhere. Whatever he saw he had to keep his cool. The way he was reacting was not good. So, the bandages slowly came off. A y becoming apparent.

That wasn’t a from dissection.

He had clearly been fighting it.

Someone vivisected this kid.

[amethyst0cean]

Favourite episodes of DP Season 1: Bitter Reunions: I like that we meet Vlad Masters for the first time, and seeing how him and Danny find out each other's secrets this early in the show makes it intriguing for future interactions for the both of them.

My Brother's Keeper (overall favourite): I LOVE Danny and Jazz's sibling relationship in this one, how Jazz cares so much for Danny and will honour his secret until he is ready to tell her. I'm hoping we will see more sibling bonds between the two of them in future episodes because I didn't know how much I needed it until I watched this episode. Fanning the Flames: Ember's song will forever remain catchy in my brain until this day 🥹 Despite Danny getting a love-struck spell for Sam during the episode, I liked seeing the bits of how they feel for each other before that (even though they were super terrible at hiding it haha). I don't mind seeing more hints of that for the two of them in future episodes, I can easily seeing them being good for each other relationship-wise as much as they are being best friends 😊 Teacher of the Year: I really liked Danny and his teacher Mr. Lancer's interaction in this one. Mr. Lancer, while strict and harsh a lot of the time, genuinely cares about helping Danny improve his grade even when Danny has been slipping up lately. When Danny puts in the effort and tries his best he does really well on his exam, and him and Lancer have a good conversation as well prior to that. On a side note, Danny looks really cool in his video game outfit design.

Public Enemies: This was the episode where Danny gets seen as the public enemy for the first time, being tricked and lied to by Walker which in turn damages Danny's reputation. It's a terrible situation that happens to Danny, but it starts an interesting turn of where the series might be headed for future episodes. Maternal Instinct: I loved seeing the bond between Danny and Maddie in this one, I wished we got to see more of it 🥹 Maddie was also just an overall amazing character in this episode and completely badass ghost fighter as well. I also loved the bond between Jazz and Jack just as much. It was funny seeing Vlad thinking Maddie and Danny were 'wanting' to stay with him but we love him for it 🥲 Life Lessons: It was interesting seeing how Danny and Valerie had to work together on a flour-sack babysitting project, where responsibility was key when both of them don't get along well (and are also enemies on the ghost-fighting side). Seeing how they can work together when push comes to shove and how they were able to understand each other a little more was nice to see, and would love to see how their dynamic could change as the series goes on. Sam and Tucker also had a really fun parental dynamic in the episode. The Million Dollar Ghost: I liked seeing a Danny (Phantom) and Jack Fenton focused episode, with Danny trying to cheer up his dad when Jack is feeling blue about not being able to catch ghosts. Jack's ability shines more clearly though when his family is in danger and he shows he's more than capable to take down ghosts when he needs to. Danny telling his dad how proud he was at the end was really sweet as well. Control Freaks: An interesting episode that didn't involve a lot of Danny saving the day, but instead having his friends Sam and Tucker being the ones helping him break out of the hypnosis he was in while being controlled by the ringmaster Freakshow. The episode having more of a Sam focus to it as well was a nice change and something I would love to see more of in future episodes. This was an overall great finale to finish off this season.

[miscmonstro]

The Uno Reverse Adoption Saga

First: You are here

Next: Chapter 2

Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman (DC)

Specifically, Halfa!Trio Au crossover with Batman

Current Characters: Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Danny Fenton, Jason Todd

Summary: Forced to attend a gala by her parents as she is every year, Sam Manson was resigned to suffer through the stifling three-night gala until something pulled at her core. The something turned out to be a someone. Just who is Jason Todd and can the trio gain enough of his trust and help him before his struggling proto-core collapses?

👻 {Chapter 1 Below!)

Danny groaned within the confines of his mind, exasperation and irritation and just a bit of fear welling up in his chest. 

His disgruntlement did not go unacknowledged. Danny wasn’t alone, even in his mind, and he hadn’t been for quite some time. Somewhere in Amity Park Tucker sent a wave of comfort in return, and he too was uneasy of the trip Danny’s eccentric parents had forced him to accompany them on. 

Sam, on a plane to Gotham, had her own problems and replied with a simple vague sentiment akin to ‘what can you do’ with less words. Her weariness seeped into it, making it feel quite resigned. It was as though she was awaiting some awful fate she’d long accepted and… no, that's exactly what it was. 

Tucker broke the relative silence across the link with an unrepentant, “At least one of us is going to survive to Christmas.”

Danny responded with the impression of bashing his own head onto a wall and Sam began to seethe. Despite her best efforts, her mind circled back to the annual gala her parents demanded she attend alongside them. It was hosted by a different snob every year, and while the scenery might have been different, the atmosphere was always the same. Without fail it would be simmering with thinly concealed flaunting and heavy with thick lies pasted atop one another.

Sam wished she could tell her parents no. She wished she didn’t have to do this. She would never voice those complaints and misgivings about the Christmas gala ever again, and not just because of Desiree. 

Every year Sam wanted to scream and every year she smiled and let her parents pick her outfits and acted like the perfect daughter. She couldn’t afford to be anything less at the Christmas galas and it made her want to hurl at the plastic cutout she endured becoming for those horrid days. Hurl, or commit a murder.

“I’m doomed. You’ll have to break me out of jail,” Sam muttered in her mind as the second option grew in appeal. “I swear these rich assholes get dumber every year.”

“And my parents get more insane,” Danny added gloomily. 

There was a hint of something from Tucker that Sam could tell wasn’t thought out and she mentally kicked him before he could put his metaphorical foot in his unphysical mouth. Tucker swatted her in retaliation but understood, switching tracks.

“Uh… yeah. That sucks. But we’re halfway through our junior year and then one more year before we’re free from our parents!” Tucker tried to comfort. Danny’s gloom lightened ever so slightly. 

For a few minutes, Sam looked out the window and imagined that she was going anywhere else to do anything else. There was a growing serene calm shared across the link, the tinges of uncertainty ebbing away. She could hear keys clacking away as Tucker typed and she could feel affection for Jazz from Danny as he texted her. 

And then Mr. Fenton startled Danny and unveiled a new anti-ghost device and Danny’s mood plummeted like a twelve ton rock to the bottom of the ocean. 

Tucker winced and tried to think of any joke that wasn’t a pun to lighten the mood.

Sam sighed. It was going to be a long, long break.

👻 {Boo!)

All too soon the plane landed and Sam zoned out while her parents immediately fought over what she should wear like they hadn’t ordered whatever the clothes were weeks ago. Sam had mentally checked out for self preservation the moment she stepped foot off of the plane. This wasn’t her first rodeo and she had the act down pat. Giggle when she was supposed to as her parents showed her off and stand silently behind them when they weren’t. At the seamstress or at the hotel lobby chatting with other rich people, the script was the same. It wouldn’t change for the gala either.

At least the previous two years hadn’t been as horrible with Danny and Tucker a mere thought away. 

The days dragged like an ant crawling through molasses and then the dreaded day arrived. The first night of the gala. Wayne Manor was old, she noted as their limo drew nearer. She could appreciate the architecture at least, and maybe such an old house had a ghost. At least that would be interesting.

Danny pointed out that she didn’t have a thermos.

She quietly conceded his point and wished for something regardless while she smiled blankly as her parents greeted Bruce, the host of the gala this year. With a polite greeting of her own the Mansons departed from the entrance and swept into the manor.

Straight away her parents engaged in some conversation and Sam stood a step behind them. Allowing herself one sad, longing look towards the quiet corners of the room, Sam bitterly wondered why the Christmas galas made her parents fanatical every year. They let her get away with whatever she wanted within reason the rest of the year, but as soon as Christmas was involved they expected her to be a doll.

With that last break of character she let a calm wash over her, perfected from years of galas, and let her perfect daughter mask snap firmly into place. 

“At least they’re only like this once a year,” Tucker commented, trying to look at the positives. 

Sam agreed. If they were so controlling year round then she was sure she’d have run away from them.  

“And at least the fruitloop is a shut in,” Danny added. The three shuddered at the thought of Vlad at the gala, Sam in particular. She didn’t want to handle him alone. Even between the three of them it was tricky to drive him off sometimes, never mind one on one.  

The clock ticked on at an agonizing pace. Eventually her parents sent her off to dance with the son of some CEO they were chatting with and she used the opportunity to escape after the dance. So long as her parents didn’t see her doing anything “unseemly” then she’d be golden for the rest of the night. She made her way over to a relatively secluded corner and cursed at the dress limiting her movements. Just walking felt like a chore in the wretched thing. Sam might have come from a family with money but she rarely dressed it. 

“Mission accomplished for the night,” she told the boys. “If I have to dance in these heels one more time…”

“You’ve almost made it through,” Danny encouraged her.

“And now you can scope out the room! Are there any cute girls?” Tucker prodded cheekily.

Before Sam could mentally reply a strange sensation washed over her. It felt like a gentle tug at her chest, at her core. Her lips parted and a faint golden-yellow mist emerged. 

“Ghost. There’s a ghost here,” Sam said, head snapping up from her cup of stuff she technically shouldn’t have been drinking as she began scanning the room with a critical eye.

“Ask and you shall receive. You totally jinxed yourself Sam,” Danny said, though his concern belied the light comment.

“You can handle it,” Tucker added at her uneasiness. “You’re-“

“No, this is different. I- I feel something in my core,” Sam said with growing alarm as the feeling didn’t fade. “Guys…”

Now it wasn’t just Sam who felt alarmed but they knew by this point how to prevent a crippling spiral of positive feedback. Dread settled in her gut and Sam couldn’t even tell if it was hers. 

“I think it’s tugging me,” Sam noted after a moment of observation. She stepped toward the crowd, toward the pull, and Tucker recoiled. 

“Um, hello, reason here. Shouldn’t you not be heading toward it?” he said.

“But what if it’s hold on her core gets stronger? She needs to do something,” Danny pointed out. 

“It doesn’t feel malicious so I’m assuming the worst. I might need you guys to pull me out of a mind trap,” Sam relayed as she weaved between the other guests.

There were twin nonverbal agreements from Tucker and Danny. Being connected to two other people usually meant that items and people looking to ensnare the mind needed to nab all three of them for anything to take effect, and for that Sam was grateful. 

Sam paused as the pull led her to a wall. Wherever she was being led was outside of the main room. Glancing around, Sam spied a confectionery table and she ducked behind it. Without a thought she turned herself intangible and invisible and walked through the wall, following the pull. After several rooms, some occupied by guests and some not, Sam came across a balcony.

Hunched over the railings was someone wearing a tux. Sam couldn’t see anything spectral about him and that put her on guard more than anything. The ones that were strong enough to appear perfectly human were the ones that always brought the most trouble. She stepped into the empty hall and dropped the ghostly aspects from her human form. 

“Are you alright?” she asked. That was usually a good way to start with nonviolent ghosts.

The person stiffened and whirled around. The first thing that Sam noticed was the tuft of white atop his head and the second thing-

A small cry for help. The tug increased and it almost felt like it wanted to yank her core out of her chest. She swallowed thickly and stood her ground. 

He narrowed his eyes at her ever so slightly. 

“Fine,” he replied curtly after a moment.

Sam scowled in return, a spark of temper rising. “Obviously not.” As much as she’d wished for a ghost earlier she didn’t want to deal with one so late at night, especially not one that could do whatever this was to her core-

“Deep breaths Sam,” instructed Tucker.

Sam inhaled deeply.

Danny prodded her and she refocused on the ghost. He hated when their attention was away from potential dangers for too long. 

“Sorry, I’m a bit short after dealing with,” Sam motioned in the direction of the main room, “all that. But seriously, what’s up?”

The ghost man scoffed and eyed her. “I’m not keen on spilling my guts to a stranger,” he said, voice barely above a hostile growl.

“Fair enough,” Sam said, appraising him. She was given the impression that he too found all the rich people business distasteful. Striding forward, she noted how he tensed as though he was ready to bolt at the drop of a hat. Thrusting her hand out in a very ill-bred manner and hoping it would put him at ease, she said, “I’m Manes.”

The man snorted. “Jason,” he said, accepting the handshake. 

Several things became apparent one after another.

Firstly, she could feel his core as it reached for her. This ghost’s core was so weak, so fragile that it wasn’t even really a core. It was a proto-core, meaning that it wasn’t formed from a death, and this ghost shouldn’t even be outside of the Ghost-Zone. He was basically an infant.

Secondly, the hand was warm. Warm as a human hand was, warm like it was alive.

And with how solid the man was and how fragile the proto-core was, there was no way that he was a ghost.

Sam tried not to stare at the very human man who was also a baby ghost. 

Jason raised a brow at her and she yanked her hand back like the contact burned when she realized that she’d been holding his hand for longer than what was polite.

Danny seemed to be coming to some conclusion as he turned the information around in his mind and Tucker was rooting through what they knew about ghost formation from some of his files. 

“Are you sick?” she blurted. It was the only thing she could think of. If Jason was slowly dying and had something he was passionate enough about to become an obsession then it might be possible that a core had started forming.  

Jason huffed out a puff of air that might have been a laugh. “No.” One of his hands made an aborted motion towards his side, like he was going to grab something and thought better of it. “I just got out here. Can’t I get even a moment to myself?” he complained. 

She snorted. She would’ve been more than happy to leave him to his own devices and would have if it wasn’t for the fact that he was a baby ghost. “Guess not,” she replied instead. 

“Is he a halfa?” Danny wondered.

Sam immediately refuted it, but Tucker wasn’t so sure. 

“It’s better to check,” insisted Danny.

“How can we tell? I have no equipment,” Sam reminded them as she shifted her gaze out over the snowy trees surrounding the manor. Aloud to Jason she said, “This is a pretty spot.” 

She was skeptical. They’d been told over and over how rare halfa were. Besides the three of them, Dani-with-an-i, and Vlad-the-supreme-fruitloop there were no others of their species. The common denominator, excluding Dani who had her own circumstances, was Fenton tech. Sam couldn’t fathom how Jason might have been exposed to a portal unless he was a clone. Turning, she looked him over again.

He was well built, likely had an active lifestyle, and had black hair and blue eyes. Sam found her own eyes drawn to the tuft of white on his head, and now that she thought about it, Vlad had a streak of white in both of his forms. Yet, Jason didn’t look like Vlad. 

Tucker added that he could’ve been a test tube baby and you didn’t have to have one person for that. 

“I don’t think he’s a Vlad experiment. Vlad would’ve never let him go, weak core or no,” Sam pondered.

“Unless he escaped,” Danny agreed.

“But then how’d he end up here?” asked Tucker. That was the most damning question, but life was stranger than fiction. However unlikely it was, they couldn’t discount it until they had proof.

There was a mental knock from Tucker and Sam let him in. He was seeing though her eyes, she could tell, and she made sure Tucker could see Jason’s face.

“Wait- that’s Jason Todd!” Tucker exclaimed with disbelief.

“Who?” Sam and Danny chorused.

“One of Bruce Wayne’s adopted sons. He supposedly died before he turned up alive. Or well, maybe he’s not so alive…”

Danny’s presence joined Tuckers in seeing through her eyes.

Sam was going to have to look into more Jason Todd later, but right now she was incredulous. “He might actually be like us?”

“Or maybe that’s just typical of resurrection?” Danny tentatively offered. “It’s not like we know if he really died or not. And we deal with the already dead. Have we ever even met a resurrected person? Can you really resurrect a person?”

“What do you mean, might be like us?” Jason asked. The hard edge to his voice was back.

“I’m going to tell him,” Sam decided. 

Tucker agreed enthusiastically and Danny cautiously. Jason had a core, however faint, and that meant the Anti-Ecto Acts applied to him.

Sam looked around. “There’s no one nearby, right?”

“No, there isn’t,” Jason replied guardedly.

Sam squinted at him but decided to get on with it. “Alright. Look. You have a core. A weak one, granted, but that’s enough to get you captured and vivisected.”

“What the hell?” Jason asked, rearing back with wide eyes. 

“I have your attention? Good,” Sam said, leaning toward him. “You really died, didn’t you? And when you came back you… well look. Ghosts are real, alright? And you are basically a baby ghost. It… your ghost part is basically screaming for help, that’s how I found you. But!” she said when he opened his mouth, likely to interject, “This means a set of laws called the Anti-Ecto Acts apply to you. By law you are not sentient, never mind other rights. If you get caught you’re toast.”

“Lady you’re insane,” Jason barked, stepping away from her. His core was agitated. 

“I’m trying to keep you after-alive,” she corrected. “The government has these floozies called the Ghost Investigation Ward, but everyone calls them the Guys in White since they wear white. If you see them, run, alright? They’re the ones who will capture and hurt any ghost, even if you’re just minding your own business.”    

Jason shook his head and inched into the hall. “How drunk are you?” he asked.

“Not at all. Listen, just be careful,” Sam sighed.   

Without a backwards glance, Jason left her on the snowy balcony with a snickering Tucker and a pensive Danny.

“Dude, you scared him off,” Tucker chortled.

“I needed to give him the important stuff in case we never meet again,” Sam replied dryly. “Ghosts are hard to accept outside of Amity.”

”I think I’m going to look into how he died and how he might have been brought back,” Tucker announced. Sam could tell he’d already connected with his PDA and was delving into the web for preliminary information, looking for promising leads. 

Danny was nervous but determined. “That’ll help us figure out what he is.”

“It is a new situation,” Sam thought to them as she peered down the hall. 

With a sigh, Danny mentally flopped onto a floor. “I guess I could ask Frostbite about coming back to life and baby ghosts when I get back.”

Sam’s initial, knee jerk reaction was to object and say that they should all go together, but Tucker was already in Amity so Danny wouldn’t be alone.

The two would be fine.

Oh who was she kidding? This was Team Phantom she was thinking about. Something was bound to go awry and she was in no position to help them when the inevitable other shoe dropped.

White, misty condensation swirled in the air as Sam exhaled noisily. She hated this time of year with a passion.

👻 {Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it.)

Next: Chapter 2

[dp-marvel94]

Flickering Soul

Summary:

The day the portal opened, Danny Fenton died and Danny Phantom lived.

"But in this in-between place… a recoil. Something small, flickering, and warm within. Somewhere, distantly, a dead heart resumes its beating. Greedy lungs gasp for arm, a body stumbling out of the newly open portal into a sterile metal lab. The tiny ghost inside knows no more."

Also on AO3

Note: Written in response to this an ask game. Original answer here. The question: 21. What is the one fic that got away? My answer for a story I've never written anything for and probably never will-

The idea started after reading "Simulacrum" by @bibliophilea with Danny Fenton dying in the portal and Danny Phantom being a ghost possessing his still living body. I was imagining the vibes are kinda like "Real Life" by @cordria and "Mother Knows Best" by MayAnny, at least at first. Ghosts are not dead people. They’re scary, inhuman monsters. Single-minded and selfish, only focused on feeding and defending their territory. Ghosts are attracted to human souls, feeding off of the emotions coming from them like mites eating dead skin. 

A tiny wisp of a ghost drifts through the Zone, numbly reaching out and searching. For food, a place to call its own, a territory to defend. A flicker of energy brushes its senses. A human soul. The ghost darts forward. 

A swirling green expanse floats in front of it, a screaming echoing from within. The ghost flies inside, hungry, curious. There’s a body, a dying human soul inside. The creature effortlessly possesses the body and reaches for the soul. The soul, flickering green and smelling of fresh pine, needs to hold on; it can't feed off an emotionless dead body. Insubstantial claws wrap around, pulling hold tight. The soul slips out of the grasp. No. The ghost would hiss if it was capable of speech. Still, the human inside the rift dies as his heart stops. 

But in this in-between place… a recoil. Something small, flickering, and warm within. Somewhere, distantly, a dead heart resumes its beating. Greedly lungs gasp for arm, a body stumbling out of the newly open portal into a sterile metal lab. The tiny ghost inside knows no more.

The being awakes with a gasp. Where is he? What happened? He looks down. Gloves hands, white instead of black. Pushing up to uncoordinated feet. A face in a mirror, familiar but… also not. And he? Something about that is wrong. This form is… is too large. His brain is swimming and… The being manages to stumble up to a bedroom, following memory within the muscles of this body.

After sleeping and waking, now warm and solid… human, the being manages to work out some things. He (not it, despite never before having any concept of gender, he is certainly a he) is a ghost possessing a human body. He remembers; the human is dead, his soul having left his body. And yet, the body is alive, heart beating, lungs pulling in air. The human, his name was Danny. The knowledge is there, within the brain. Others rise. This bedroom. Putting up the star stickers, assembling and painting the rocket. Two friends, Sam and Tucker. Two parents. A sister.

The ghost closes his eyes, shaking his head. He pushes down a feeling the brain tells him is nausea. This body's brain has vague memories, Danny’s memories. But he is not Danny. He is…. Phantom. The name, the title sounds good enough.

The newly named Phantom hides out in Danny's room for a while, adjusting. Jack and Maddie, Mom and Dad, bumble around the house, loud and excited. The portal is working. But Phantom avoids them. They’re ghost hunters, his brain helpfully supplies; they’ll hurt him if they discover the ghost possessing their son’s body. Jazz, the sister, is busy so he doesn't see much of her at first. But that doesn’t bother him. Feeling so uncoordinated and vulnerable, avoiding contact with the humans is advantageous. Like this, they could destroy him, exorcize him with little effort. But once he’s strong enough, more balanced, they’ll be an excellent food source. His mouth waters at the thought. So many humans with their wide, varying vibrant emotions. It’ll be a feast. He’ll have restraint of course; he’s an opportunist parasite, not a predator like only the strongest ghosts can be. He’ll need to keep the humans he feeds off of alive.  He really is lucky to have come through the portal, even if the heart constantly pounding in his ears, the body he can’t seem to escape no matter how hard he tries, are annoying.

A few days after the accident, the friends, Sam and Tucker, come to check on him. Ravenous, he grabs onto Sam's arm, easier to feed on her emotions. He drinks too deeply, the dark purple of her soul, only visible to ghosts like him, flickering erratically. The goth's eyes blow wide, arm frantically pulling away as her emotions flare with sharp fear. Phantom lets go and... it hits him, as odd flickering inside. He doesn't want her to be afraid, not off him. There's... an odd warmth in his chest once Sam calms down. She and Tucker ask about what's going on, eyes wide with concern. And…. a heavy, churning sensation settles in the body’s stomach; he doesn't want them to know what he actually is, that he isn't actually Danny.

The lying starts, pretending to be human. The strange memories help as Phantom learns quickly. Eating, sleeping, showering. These are normal parts of life now; he does need to care for this body if he’s to maintain the falsehood. He goes to school, even does the homework. Learning about the world will help him blend in and soon, a month after the portal, the other ghosts come and he protects his food source, his humans. His friends and family, a deeper part of him whispers.

The longer this goes on, the more strange Phantom feels. Odd feelings bubble below the surface, odd drives he doesn't understand. He wants to protect Sam and Tucker. When they get upset seeing his injuries from ghost fights, he wants to comfort them, make them feel better. They hang out, joke with each other and... Phantom’s mouth stretches wide, shoulder shaking with laughter.

The there's the Fenton parents. Living in the same house, encounters are unavoidable. They're not nearly as bad as he'd thought at first. They're loud, boisterous, excitable. In public, they call him and Jazz embarrassingly sweet pet names and insist on goodbye kisses. And.... Phantom blushes, like any other teenager. But secretly, somewhere deep inside, that warm feeling returns. When he says, "I love you too" like the good son he's pretending to be, it doesn't feel completely fake.

And then there's Jazz. The red-head watches him with furrowed brow, always worried. Something in him churns, almost... uneasy with the looks. But she also ruffles his hair. She asks him what's wrong, why he's been so tense since the accident. Something in him flickers, something that tastes like guilt. But... that warm feeling, the damned warm feeling.... He leans into the touch, shrugging and saying he just hasn’t been sleeping well.

Phantom can see human souls, as odd mixtures of color and smell. And sometimes, when he looks in the mirror, he sees a glimpse of something, swirling pine green, in his own blue eyes. Something that shouldn't be there, not if the soul this body belonged to is dead.

Things come to a head when Spectra shows up. Jazz confronts him, an ectogun in hand, tears in her eyes.

“You’re not my brother. Where is he?”

Despite himself, Phantom finds himself explaining. The accident, being called through the portal, the possession.

“Your brother’s dead. He has been since the portal.”

Jazz screams. She cries. She tries to shoot him. And Phantom's heart aches, the feelings almost bring him to his knees. It's so strong, a tidal wave crashing over him.

“I didn’t mean for this to happen. I was so weak at first. I didn't know what to do. And I was pretending but.. But… something’s different. Something’s been changing.”

Spectra, the shadowy predator that she is, pounces, feeding off of him. Somehow, impossibly, he's giving off emotions, human emotions, she can feed one. It doesn't make sense. It feels like he's being ripped apart. It hurts so much. But.. he knows. He's known for a while. Phantom is not really a ghost any more. He's... something else now. Something... almost human. Over the months, he's become more human as he's built on Danny’s soul fragment.

That's the flickering green, the shape of a soul he catches a glimpse of in his own eyes. That's the mysterious smoky scent that he's smelt in Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and the Fenton parents' souls. It’s the mark that his freaky, unnatural twisted soul-thing leaves when it touches his loved ones. His Loved Ones. Somehow, he loves them.

The thought is enough to get up and fight. Jazz intercedes, helping him stop Spectra. But she turns away without saying anything. 

Jazz won't talk to him after, not for months. For some reason, she doesn't tell anyone. Maybe she feels some pity. Maybe she doesn't want Danny's friends and their parents to have to face the knowledge that their friend and son is gone, that a monster is masquerading in his skin.

A monster.... that word rings in Phantom's head for the next few months. That guilt is there now, so much stronger now that he recognizes and acknowledges he feels it. It's horrible but also... it's almost good. He can feel. Now that knows his human side there, that the borrowed soul inside of him is real, he can almost feel it growing. And he lets it. He embraces it. It hurts. It hurts so much. But he can feel. He can love. And it's so much better than ghostly numbness. His previous existence really was cursed. And maybe this is why ghosts feed on human emotions. Maybe it’s all a futile attempt to fill that ache, an ache he hadn't even been aware of before.

So Phantom... Danny, a part of him whispers... lets himself become more human. He fights for his town. He protects. He hangs out with Sam and Tucker. He... thinks about telling them the truth, about confronting his sister. Except... no, Jazz isn't his sister. She's Danny's. He's just the creature that stole her brother's body.

The guilt starts eating him alive now. For a while, the emotions were a bliss but they've grown. He's grown. Within weeks... he's a fake. An imposter. This isn't his life, his body. It's not even his soul. This gift, this humanity is stolen. It doesn't belong to him. He doesn't deserve it.

Maybe Spectra was right, maybe he's just a ghost pretending to be human.

The Ghost King comes and Phantom fights. He takes the suit and reseals Pariah. He doesn't care if he dies (if he can even die). He doesn't care if this destroys him. As long as his loved ones are safe. As long as they're okay, this will be worth it. And maybe.... maybe his destruction will make up for the life he's stolen.

The suit does almost destroy him. As the percentage ticks down, Phantom has peace. He succeeded. They're safe. Everything fades to black.

Phantom blinks awake darkness, speckled with stars surrounding him. In the distance, a figure approaches. Closer.... it's a boy. Black hair, blue eyes.

A wave. "There you are. I've been waiting."

"Where am I? Who are you?"

"Well, there's no easy way to put this but... you're in limbo."

"Limbo...." Dread. Fear. "Like...."

The boy, the familiar boy, shakes his head. "You're not actually dead. Just having a near death experience."

That hits Phantom like a truck. A near death experience.... the dread deepens because.... "Who are you?" The question is painfully quiet.

The boy smiles teasingly. "Come on, you know the answer to that."

"Danny." His mouth is dry. "You're... you're the real Danny."

The boy, Danny, frowns. "I wouldn't say the real Danny. It's not like I'm any more real than you are."

"Why are you here?"

Danny shrugs, still frowning. "It's customary for a family member to meet you on the way to the afterlife. Grandma Fenton wanted to come but I begged for it to be me."

"Why?" Phantom trembles, dread and disbelief an ugly, paralyzing mess.

"Why?" Danny holds up his hands. "I wanted to meet you."

The ghost feels like crying. "But.. but why? Why would you... would you want to meet me? I... I took everything from you."

"No, you didn't. I was already dead" Danny shakes his head. "Besides, why wouldn't I want to meet my baby brother?"

Phantom actually does cry as Danny reassures him. "I've been watching and... and I'm so proud of you, of what you've been doing with your life."

"But... but it's your life. I... I took it. I'm just... just a ghost possessing your corpse."

"No, you're not." A wave of a hand and mirror appears. "You're not really a ghost at all." Phantom and Danny side by side.  "Don't you see? You're not in your body. You're just your soul right now. And this is what you look like."

In the mirror is Danny Fenton's face. Blue eyes, black hair, freckles, the familiar scar by his ear.

"And look deeper." Danny, the original, says.

Phantom does. Two swirling masses of glittering green.

"We're twin souls." Danny motioned. "See." The wispy clouds of soul ripple. The colors, the movement.... so similar, so familiar. "We're not completely the same." And Phantom catches the whiff of smell. Smoke and pine. Flowers and fudge and books. Apples and steak. The trace of all his... their loved ones mix together, in different combinations. "But we're made of the same parts, the same structure. The same love, the same drive to make up for our mistakes, the same desire to do good."

Phantom can see it. He can feel it. Something in him loosens.

"So you didn't take anything you weren't allowed to have. Really, I'm happy you were there. If you hadn't been, well.... Danny Fenton would just be gone. But he's not."

"But... you're Danny Fenton." Phantom's brow furrows.

"I was." A shrug. "But now you are. It's your life now."

The two talk for what felt like hours. There are reassurances, stories, hugs.

They laugh, they smile. And... it feels like they'd known each other forever. Like they're old friends. Phantom's heart swells with love, with brotherly affection. He has so many thoughts, so many questions.

There are so many stories. So many jokes. So many promises: to tell Sam and Tucker the truth, to tell Jazz her brother loves her.

Slowly, light seeps in.

"You'll be waking up soon."

Phantom's shoulders fall, eyes downcast. "Oh. I guess this is goodbye then." His eyes are watering. "I'll miss you."

"You'll see me again." Danny puts an arm around him.

Phantom's eyes widen. "Really?"

The other boy nods. "Yep. It'll be sooner than you think. Just a blink really, when you're looking at forever. But," He turns, placing his hands on his counterpart's shoulder. "You are going to live a long and happy life. You'll graduate, go to college, travel, live your dreams. You'll do so much good. And when it's your time, when you're done.... I'll be here, waiting. And you can tell me all about it."

"O... okay. I will." Crying, Phantom practically crushes Danny in a hug. "I'll see you again."

"Yes. You will. Bye, Danny. Have a good life."

With that, Danny fades away.

And Danny wakes up.

There are tears on his face. Beeping near his head, an oxygen mask over his mouth.

He blinks, fumbling to move it.

"Danny!" "You're awake."

Mom and Dad. They hover in his vision, hugging each other and crying.

"Doctor! Get the doctor!" "Our boy's awake!"

In a flurry of action, doctors and nurses check him. Lights are shone in his eyes, vitals checked. A battery of tests.

"He's completely fine." "It's a miraculous recovery!"

The parents hover over him. So many worried, loving words. But Jazz hangs back, quiet but... face just as wet.

The two trade knowing looks. Eventually... "You two should get food. You haven't eaten all day." Jazz insists. "I'll stay with him."

The parents left, leaving the two siblings alone.

There's awkward silence for a long moment. Then....

Jazz practically rushes forward, throwing her arms around him. "We were so worried! You just disappeared with the suit. And Mom and Dad... they found you outside the shield. You were... you were almost dead. We thought...." She hiccups on a sob. "We thought you wouldn't make it. You looked... so pale and I thought.... I kept thinking. I couldn't.... I couldn't lose you again. I... I can't. I can't lose you again."

Phantom, Danny, froze, mind spinning. What was she... she saying? She couldn't be.... The thoughts crash in his head and before he can really process.... "I saw him, the... the real Danny."

Jazz steps back, eyes wide. "What?"

"I saw him, when I was... was unconscious. Your... your real brother." Real... the word isn't quite right, not anymore. His, Phantom, is Danny Fenton. He is Jazz's brother. But in her mind, that's not true, is it?

The girl's brow furrows, confusion deepening. "How?"

Danny explains. His near death experience, his conversation with his passed-on counterpart. "He wanted me to tell you he loves and misses you."

Jazz's eyes well with tears. "He did?"

"Yeah. He really loves you." The boy shrugs, looking down guiltily. "I... I'm sorry that I'm here and he's not."

There's silence for a long time. Then.... Jazz's hand on his arm. "That's not your fault." She whips her face. "I'm happy... I'm so happy you're okay."

Phantom looks up, blinking, disbelieving. She... she'd hugged him earlier. She... she'd said she didn't want to lose him. His lip trembles. "Do you... do you mean that?"

Jazz nods, whispering. "I thought I was going to lose you."

The words speak volumes and her eyes.... round and wet, shining with... with something Danny can't hope is really there. But...

Phantom stiffens, catching a whiff. She's touching him and her emotions flicker at the edge of his awareness. But that can't... that can't be what he's sensing. That can't be...

"I... I'm so sorry. I'd been so mad, so angry at you for so long. But... but none of this is your fault. The accident wasn't your fault. It's not your fault he's... he's gone."

The boy looks down, guilt flaring. But Jazz continues.

"It's not your fault. But I was blaming you and pushing you away. And... and I could have lost you. I could have lost you without telling you..." Danny gasps, the weight of her emotion washing over him. "I love you. I love you so much little brother."

The half ghost shakes, cries, trembles. She... she loves him.

"You're not the Danny I grew up with but you are my brother. I love you. I love you so much.”

He hugs her tighter. Jazz loves him. She loves him. And it's all he can think.

(XD And you got me to write it as a fic... kinda? I wrote this instead of working on Face to Face, so I hope ya'll are happy. 😂😅)

[necesito-mas-cafe]

It's not my skin, it's not my flesh

Ao3 Spanish ver.

Rating: Mature

Archive Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings,Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death

His parents had dedicated his life to that piece of metal and technology.

They forgot to eat, they forgot to sleep, and above all, they forgot their children. As soon as they crossed the door to the laboratory it was as if that portal were the most important thing in the world.

And when his project failed, it was as if everything had finished for them.

They went from reclining in the laboratory to be reclived in their room, and despite the best attempts at Jazz, they just did not come out.

Before they made an effort to stay alive and have the energy to continue building the portal. Now nor that came..

Danny waved his head and stopped his thoughts there, his gaze directed towards the portal, the large metal duct was darkened by leftovers, swallowing dry, and gathering all its value, ventured into the tunnel.

Guiding with a hand resting on the wall, trembling with nerves, he barely felt when something sank under his palm.

The portal immediately collection, illuminated with a strong green light that blinded him. 

He was not prepared for what 

He was not able to form a single coherent thought, too busy trying somehow not to die.

It hurt

Hurts

Hurts

Hurts

Hurts

Hurts

Hurts

As soon as the electricity released it, he fell out of the door off, trembling. He could feel the spasms that were still going through his body.

His parents opened the laboratory door with a strong rumble, attracted by the cry of his son, and hurried him.

He could not see them well through the tears that overshadowed his vision, but they seemed... worried.

He released a sob of relief, and waited for his mother to embrace him, or that his father will comfort him.

They passed from he.

Jazz low, behind his parents, and knelt in front of his little brother, without knowing if it was safe to touch it.

His sister began to shout behind him. The sound echoed in his ears and rushed him in his head.

The green came back black when his vision darkened.

###

He spent a week a week at the hospital after that.

His parents had convinced the doctors in some way to a miraculously that he would be better at home.

Even in some way convinced them not to call social services.

What a joy

Even if he was terribly pale and trembled at a small breeze of air. His muscles felt rigid, and still had spasms, he felt frankly horrible. He left the hospital in a wheelchair.

They barely returned their parents were submerged in the laboratory again, and they left Danny to take care of jazz without addressing him another word.

They had lost too much time in the hospital.

A waste of time.

If he did not hurt him so much, he maybe he would throw things through the room, or maybe he would cry on the floor.

But he could not.

Jazz helped him climb the stairs.

His knees creaked and protested before the movement.

It hurts

Unfortunately, Jazz could not take care of him all the time.

Danny scratched the palm of his hand anxiously.

Jazz was not much older than him. And yet it was independent and very intelligent, she did not need to waste time on someone like him.

The feeling of tingling on his skin increased.

Jazz was doing what he could to take the family forward.

God, he had so much itching.

He had made her neighbors to ask for food when the refrigerator was busy with radioactive green samples.

Continue scratching. The dry and crude sound was replaced by a more sticky and humid sound.

Jazz had not yet returned, why did it take so long?

His whole body was numb.

He looked through the window of his room, between shadows and blurry figures, Jazz was not in sight, where could he be?

His muscles hurt and creaked, and itching turned ardor.

Everything hurt a lot lately

His skin began to burn, it was as if he were dying again.

It hurts

His skin began to burn, it was as if he was dying again.

Hurts

He does not want to go through this again.

Hurts so much

He can feel his heart beat. He can feel the blood stream in his veins.

Danny began to scratch his chest.

His hands tremble terribly.

He need to release the pressure. He need to make it stop hurting. He continued scratching.

The palpitating pain was rolled on his chest, scratched and pulled the skin and muscles, breaking his ribs.

Now without major obstacles, Danny was able to see the familiar brightness emanating from her interior.

His vision was flooded in green, and the blood began to drip through his nose.

He needs to be released. 

He continue to fit in your chest, letting go strong moans of pain.

Steps

Someone was climbing the stairs.

Take the bright thing in a fist and throw it across the room, splashing green everywhere.

And then everything vanished into darkness.

A blink after, he felt relief. It did not hurt anymore.

He felt comfortable on his own body for the first time since the accident. He felt floating drift.

The door of his room was opened hard in a kind of Déjà vu.

His parents looked at something behind him with horror.

They have in their hands a small machine that did not stop bite and summarize. Danny tilted his head without understanding.

Not even in front of them, his parents looked at him. He do not ask to avoid growling while turning to see what his parents had so stirred.

Ah

A great puddle of blood was driving on old wood, touching his shoes and making a sticky crunch in when he came over.

In the center was he.

Or rather what was once.

His body was full of bouncled and bloody hives, his skin was cracked and fell to pieces. Black and putrid spots stretched for what was left.

In his chest there was an irregular hole, his heart was exposed, completely made pieces aside.

A trembling voice pulled away from everyone's corpse.

-Danny!?

Jazz had returned.

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Family Bonding and other Perilous Pursuits

by Shynnohwen

It started with Casper High failing to fail, resulting in winning the Thomas & Martha Wayne contest despite their best efforts not to, causing them to spend the summer as interns in Gotham.

According to Danny, the miserable expirence ended after he spent the whole summer getting kidnapped because the average Gothomite was blind and couldn't tell apart a sixteen from a thirteen year old which went to it's logical extreme of him putting the Joker on life support after the clown stabbed Damian Wayne and his whole class nearly getting adopted by the Red Hood after they somehow took out the Russian mafia.

According to the birth certificate Bruce found, this was still very much the beginning and why oh why did he always get surprise relationships?! And no he was not panicking, shut up dear children.

The only one not freaking out is Damian who is eager to finally have a blood family member(s?) he doesn't have to worry about trying to kill him or usurp his place as the blood son.

Words: 3203, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman - All Media Types

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Other

Characters: Danny Fenton, Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Mr. Lancer (Danny Phantom), Maddie Fenton, Jack Fenton, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Jazz Fenton, Danielle "Dani" Phantom, Tim Drake, Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, Duke Thomas, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Kate Kane (DCU)

Relationships: Jack Fenton/Maddie Fenton, Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne

Additional Tags: Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Good Parent Maddie Fenton, Good Parent Jack Fenton, Lancer needs a raise, Chaotic Casper High Students, Liminal Amity Parkers, Surprise Relations, Feral Danny Fenton, Feral Damian Wayne, Dr Yorick Quack - Freeform, Mostly just humor, no serious plot

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/44797690

[the-witchhunter]

Phantom fic Idea

Vlad hates Jack with an intensity of an ex-boyfriend.

The way he plays nice to Jack’s face while resenting the fact the man has a relationship and family while Vlad doesn’t just reeks of jealous ex. I’m surprised I don’t see people play around with this concept more. Hell, the way Jack is blind to Vlad’s faults even works as him still being sweet on his ex-boyfriend.

I just feel like there’s a Lovers-to-one-sided-enemies-to-friends-to-lovers arc in there.

Like, if they dated, it was clearly back in their college days. Jack probably broke things off for reasons, thinking it was a lot more mutual than it really was. They’re clearly doing the whole “we’ll still be friends thing” and maybe just as Vlad is starting to get over the breakup and starting to flirt with Maddie, the accident happens. 

Which would bring us to the modern day Vlad, a man that has been unintentionally hurt, not once, not twice, but three times by Jack Fenton. 

So, what if Vlad is put in a situation where he is stuck with Jack and attempted murder is not an option? They were friends at one point, and despite everything Jack is still trying, so what if Vlad remembers why they had become friends in the first place? He finds that, despite everything, he actually enjoyed his time with Jack, so when Jack invites him to do something, he finds himself accepting. They become actual friends again, and then something more is between them.

Jack is obviously fond of Vlad already, so it’s not a stretch for him to fall in love with him. What complicates things is the fact he’s married with two kids, and he still very much loves his wife. He’s now dealing with that, and while he’d never cheat on Maddie he can’t deny the fact he has feelings for Vlad. The obvious solution is polyamory but it might take them a bit to figure that out.

All the while Danny is just trying to discover Vlad’s “Evil Scheme” and antagonizing the man, just going full gremlin mode. Jazz occasionally popping in trying to get a read on the situation and having a clearer picture than Danny does, and occasionally saying something insightful to Vlad. 

Idk, it just feels like this could be something. Making amends with Jack opens up the possibility of a Vlad that’s trying to do better, trying to be better. Now that this hate that consumed him for years is gone, he can see just how much he’s actually hurt people and make an effort to patch things up.

It would have to be pre-season 3 where he went full cartoon villain mode. I’d say after season 2 “Masters of All Time” would be the best place to put it, but before “Kindred Spirits.” As much as we love Dani, the cloning thing would be hard to come back from. 

Maybe I’ll get around to writing this but I’m just going to afflict y’all with this idea that’s been rattling around in my skull