#Actual Scientists Jack & Maddie AU

[mutable-manifestation]

Actual Scientists Jack & Maddie AU Part 3

Part 1 & 2

***

The lab is empty when they get to Fenton Works, his parents busy off helping the JLD wherever it was they were working from.

The journey the rest of the way to the Far Frozen passes relatively quickly under the weight of discussing how to reverse engineer the sarcophagus of forever sleep to make Naptime Box 2: Vlad Edition.

Could they probably just beat him up with the right plan and aid? Sure. But then they risk having to play royal hot potato (Danny doesn't want it and he doubts most of the allies he has would want the extra responsibility. Assuming there are responsibilities - Danny wouldn't know since there hasn't been a king, for all intents and purposes, since well before he became a halfa so who knows what the position even means in the context of the Zone).

Plus it would be way more satisfying to shove him in a box. Vlad gets a nice long nap and Danny gets to live the rest of his half-life without worrying about his Dad getting stabbed or something if Vlad starts feeling impatient.

It would also give Danny plenty of time to find some way to buy the Packers - not because he wants them, just because it would be really funny if Vlad eventually woke up to find that the only thing he wanted other than Maddie was now also very permanently out of reach.

The city of Green Bay could fold eventually, after all. But Danny? Danny would never yield, just to spite him, and Vlad would know that.

He probably won't actually do it, seeing as a) expensive and b) probably complicated.

But it would be really funny.

Their discussion on the ethics of using the Fenton Stockades as the base for the Box cut off as they land.

Without the distraction of their chat the adrenaline of panic comes rushing back, and he transforms as he steps out of the Speeder, nyooming to hover in front of Frostbite so quickly that the entire welcoming party - Frostbite somehow manages to have one arranged every time he drops by, and Danny is usually willing to at least try and indulge them since it seems to make them happy - jolts in surprise.

"Greetings!" Frostbite smiles wide, arms open in a grand welcoming, the only hint of lingering surprise the trails of slightly puffed up fur up his arms and the sides of his neck that has already mostly smoothed itself back out. "The Far Frozen welcomes the Great One and friends-"

"Hey Frostbite sorry for being abrupt but I'm kind of freaking out and you seemed like the best person - uh, ghost to go to because you always seem to know lots of things and I kind of need to know what's going on as soon as possible just in case it's a worst case scenario because the Justice League came to talk to my parents about some papers and I probably haven't mentioned them to you before because they're awful and I thought my parents made them but surprise I was wrong! Which is good! Except the League was mostly worried about them maybe causing the new ghost king to war with the human realm because apparently there's a supernatural branch of the Justice League and they think there's a new Ghost KingTM as in the Ghost King after Pariah Dark and I'm kind of freaking out because if there is a new ghost king there's actually a chance it's Vlad and oh ancients please tell me it's not Vlad or that the League heard wrong please."

Sam and Tucker had caught up by then, coming to stand on either side of him as Frostbite blinked.

"You are...asking me the identity of the current High King?" He asks, face scrunched in a bewildered expression.

"Oh my gosh Batman was right!?" He floats a bit higher at the news. "Please just tell me it's not Vlad! Uh, Plasmius."

"Plasmius?" Frostbite asks, eyebrows crawling higher. "Certainly not! What in the realms - do you truly not know?"

"Oh thank goodness," Danny sighs, sinking back to his usual level. "Not Vlad, okay, one less disastrous possibility. And whoever it is probably already knows they're the king and nothing bad has happened yet so it's probably fine, right?"

He looks back to meet Frostbite's eyes.

"Wait, nothing bad has happened yet, right? Like, is everything okay? I know Pariah caused you guys a lot of grief before; the new guy 's not going around causing trouble for you and you just haven't told me because you're worried about being a bother, right?" He frets, eyes flicking about, searching for fresh injuries on the various members of the welcoming party.

"...No, Great One," Frostbite answers, blinking away the surprised expression to be replaced by something soft. "Though I, and all the Far Frozen, are honored by your concern. While Pariah Dark is no longer the High King of the Infinite Realms, I can assure you, with utmost certainty, that you have nothing to fear from his successor. But I believe we have much more to discuss. Come, let us find somewhere more comfortable to talk - and get your human friends out of the cold."

***

It didn't take them long to reach a sitting room, and soon enough they were all settled into the enormous, fuzzy chairs in one of the warmer rooms available, Danny and Frostbite each with a cup of shaved ice tea while Sam and Tucker were offered beverages warm enough to steam in deference to their need for warmth.

Once everyone had taken a sip - or bite - Danny launched back into his questioning.

"So did Dark have a kid hidden away somewhere or did some kind of council finally decide on his replacement? Actually can ghosts even have - wait right Box Lunch, forgot about that on purpose but never mind. Or is there some fourth option that isn't those or trial by combat that we didn't think of?"

"Before I answer that, Great One, may I ask why you have already discounted trial by combat?" He returns curiously.

"Because if it was trial by combat it would be Vlad - er, Plasmius - and you already said it isn't him."

"Or it could be you," Tucker ribs, waggling his fingers at him.

"We already talked about why it couldn't be me, Tuck," Danny huffs, rolling his eyes and taking another bite of his... smoothie?

"Oh? And why do you think it would be Plasmius?" Frostbite asks.

"Because! I may have fought Pariah Dark, and sure I put him back in the sarcophagus, but I was running on fumes by that point, and he was still slamming around in there! Vlad, as much as I hate to admit it, is the one that turned the key and made sure he stayed locked away. It took almost everything I had to keep him pinned long enough. If...if he'd been even a few seconds later I probably would've died the rest of the way before he even had the time to break out a second time."

"But had you not put him there, no key would have mattered," Frostbite begins quietly. "Plasmius was no match for Pariah Dark; he was defeated in an instant the first time they clashed."

"Well, yeah, but so was I," he protests, not liking the direction the conversation is beginning to take.

"And yet, you alone went to face him a second time. You alone stood against the King of All Ghosts while your armies clashed."

"Our-!? I didn't have- you mean the ghosts that came to help me???" Danny sputtered, incredulous. "They weren't an army they were just-"

He pauses, searching for words that would not come.

"They were just a large group of ghosts who sided with you, who aided you in combat and kept the multitudes distracted while you went to face their leader alone. However you thought of them at the time, whatever they were to you up till then or are to you now, after, in that moment they were your army."

"Danny's totally the ghost king, isn't he?" Sam drawls after the brief silence that follows.

"Indeed," Frostbite answers her, but he looks Danny in the eyes as he does so. "You are the savior of the Ghost Zone, Pariah's Bane. And you are the High King of the Infinite Realms."

"I cheated!" Danny blurts out, shooting up to float above his chair.

"Cheated?" Frostbite's lips twitch as he fights down a smile.

"I had the Fenton Ecto-Skeleton! That's totally cheating! Don't combat trials have to be honorable or something?!" He begs.

Frostbite chuckles.

"I apologize, Great One, but I am afraid there is no such thing as an honorable war," he says, expression briefly turning solemn. "And even if it were, just as you had your "Ecto-Skeleton," did not Pariah have his ring and crown?

You issued a challenge and he answered, your armies clashed while the two of you stood against each other and each other alone; you alone put him back into the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep, and you alone held it shut long enough for Plasmius to turn the key.”

Danny drifts back down to his seat as Frostbite speaks, then continues slouching further with every word.

“I am given to understand that Plasmius likes to think of others as pawns on his own personal chessboard,” he says, “But at the time he was but another ghost, come to fight Pariah's army on your behalf - as a member of your army. A pawn, to paraphrase his own words, that you used to topple a king - not through any intentional manipulation, but through the sheer magnetic charisma of your willingness to stand against monsters like Pariah Dark and of your ability to do so. The confidence to stand alongside you that such strength inspires. 

He would not have approached if he did not believe you could win - would not risk endangering himself so. At best, you could consider him a referee, calling the match to a close once it was decisively in your favor.

Plasmius may think of existence as a game with himself as the only player, and he may have been acting in his own self-interest overall, but by every measure, in this instance, he was undeniably your piece.

The Zone itself acknowledges your right to rule by the way the crown of fire sits where you left it, unmoving on the floor of Pariah's keep until the day you finally choose to wear it, no matter how many hands may try to move it."

Frostbite's words are slow and measured, but as undeniable as the creeping of a glacier. And by the time they cease, Danny has sunk so far as to end up an undignified heap on the floor before his chair.

The trio remains silent as they absorb his words.

Minutes pass before Danny finally speaks.

"If the crown can't be taken, then how did I get it from Pariah?" He questions, a final hope that Frostbite may be mistaken.

"It will only remain unmoved until you first put it on. After that, it will be up to you whether it stays safe on your head."

Danny groans his despair, final bit of hope shattered.

"I must apologize again, Great One," he says solemnly. "Had I known you were unaware of your station, I would have informed you sooner."

He frowns heavily, looking into the distance thoughtfully.

"The Observants should have informed you long before now."

"Well, that explains it. The Observants hate Danny's guts," Tucker says.

"To neglect their duties for such a reason...," He trails off, his glower highlighting the inhuman nature of his visage. 

The trio fidget.

Danny coughs after a few seconds of tense silence.

“Uh, speaking of duties,” he begins, relaxing as Frostbite’s expression smooths back into something kind and polite as he listens, “What exactly does the Ghost King even do? Like. Pariah was locked away for… a long time? I guess. So does the Zone even need a King? Can’t I just, like, resign?”

“I suppose it might seem that way from a younger ghost’s perspective - Pariah has been locked away for millenia, after all, and the Zone is still in one piece.” 

Frostbite pauses, leaning back in his seat and taking another bite of his drink. 

“However. What you must understand, Great One, is that the problems caused by the absence of a king in the Infinite Realms are not the whirlwind that such a thing would be in the living realm - social order is affected, but the speed of bureaucracy is slower by orders of magnitude in the Realms, and there is not the same level of inter-reliance that the living tend to require - but rather, they are winds and waters sliding against a rock, chipping away at it bit by bit until it is either worn smooth… or the whole structure collapses under its own weight.”

“How does not having a king cause dimensional collapse!?” Tucker shrieks, clutching his cup like a lifeline.

“How long do we have before it collapses?” Sam asks urgently not a second later.

“Oh shit, how long do we have before it collapses???” he echoes, hunching over his cup enough that the steam adds a layer of fog to his glasses.

Danny sits bolt upright, whipping wide eyes away from his friends to join them in staring at Frostbite.

“Total collapse would take millenia more to truly begin,” he placates before taking a more grave expression. “This does not mean that there will not be issues before that point, however; the symptoms of the High King’s absence have begun to show this past millennium. But rest assured, there is time enough to heal the wounds that have been wrought. The only permanent damage would be the collapse itself, and that, as I said, is millenia away.”

“Is… is that why you never mentioned it to me before?” Danny asks, dropping back to the ground in relief. “Because it’s not urgent and you figured I’d just…get to it eventually? Actually, why did you think I knew if you knew that the crown was still in Pariah’s Keep?”

“It is the duty of the Observants to observe, but also, as you have experienced, to oversee - the timeline, trials, the general functioning of the zone. Without a king to report to, much of their ability to act is crippled, of course - their ability to interfere directly with the timeline has always been severely restricted, their options for sentencing are severely reduced, and there are some things the Realms require that only the High King can provide - but one duty remains unaffected: overseeing the ascension of new kings. 

Coronations have taken many forms in the past, from a quick swap in the battlefield to a formal ceremony to a celebration that lasted a decade. Given the dark era we are, at last, able to put behind us and the non-urgent nature of even the most severe problems that the Realms are currently affected by, I had assumed that the large delay was in preparation for that last form - the lead-up to a grand celebration.”

“Except instead it’s just them being petty,” Sam notes, sitting back up from her own relieved slouch. 

Danny groans, leaving his tea to float and covering his face with his hands.

“Why couldn’t it have just been as easy as shoving Vlad in a box,” he whines.

“I mean, we still can?” Tucker offers, prompting Sam to smack him over the head before pausing consideringly.

“OW!”

“He might be right, actually,” she says, ignoring his exclamation. “Given Vortex’s trial and sentencing, there’s clearly some kind of legal system in the Zone that isn’t just Walker on a power trip. No doubt he’s broken some kind of Actual Realms Law - I’d be surprised if breaking Pariah out like he did wasn’t some form of highly illegal - so you could probably send him to actual Ghost Jail. It’s certainly where he belongs, given all the….”

She makes a vague gesture with her hand in lieu of words.

“That doesn’t resolve the problem of I Don’t Wanna Be A King!” Danny exclaims, sitting back and throwing his hands in the air.

Then he turns to Frostbite, eyes pleading. 

“Can’t you be king?” he asks. 

Frostbite opens his mouth to reply, but Danny steamrolls over him.

“It makes sense! You already know how to lead people! And your people love you! You already know about all the king stuff too! You’ve beaten me in spars before! We’d just have to go to the keep, I put on the crown, you beat me, and problem solved!”

Frostbite’s smile is a mix of amused and pitying.

“I have only ever beaten you in training spars, Great One, and you and I both know that is largely because they were focused on improving your skill with ice and ice alone. Even if I could defeat you in a true all-out fight as you are, I believe you underestimate the boost granted by the crown of fire.”

“I can just put it on then take it off again before we fight! And we can stick to ice!”

“I’m afraid it is not so simple,” he shakes his head. “If you do not give it your all, the crown - the Realms - will not recognize the transition. The only way to “throw the match” successfully would require your opponent to fully End you: to crush your core and snuff your spirit from the very fabric of existence. I am unwilling to do such a thing, and I sincerely hope you would not ask it of me - or, indeed, of anyone.”

Danny paled enough that he nearly matched his human form in skin tone.

“Right. Let’s… let’s not do that, actually.”

“On the bright side, you can probably weasel ruling tips out of Aquaman in exchange for not declaring war on the Living Realm!” Tucker chirps, aiming to cheer him up.

“I’m not going to threaten the Justice League!” he yelps, scandalized.

“But you probably won’t have to threaten them,” Sam chimes in. “They’re already trying to summon you, you already know their goal is to avoid a war. As long as you don’t ask for anything unreasonable, they should be inclined to give you what you want in exchange for peace.”

“Once you offer peace, they will be invested in your successful rule of their own volition as a means of perpetuating said peace,” Frostbite corrects. “If you would like to set preconditions to an accord you should make them things that will not readily be given as a result of said accord. But before we discuss further, perhaps you can fill me in on why war was a concern in the first place? I believe you mentioned something about papers?”

[laxxarian]

Danny was confused

I mean, Vlad literally outright says his plans right at Jack's ears as clear as crystal but Jack somehow manages to wishy washy away from his head but when the Fentons had to go to a gala at Wayne's manor, Jack was all aware and perceptive around Bruce.

Turns out, they both were relatives and Jack didn't seem to like Bruce. Jack just could smell the "fakeness" around Bruce. But I guess it's because Vlad would actually slip his tongue and be honest, his voice and the way he acts, Jack didn't feel off when he is with Vlad.

But with Bruce? Naw.

Danny looks at Bruce and he seemed nice, a bit *weird* around here and there but he was still nice. But then again, he can't trust billionaires and just as Danny felt that untrusting vibe, he heard a disgusting voice coming from behind him.

"My, oh my, if it isn't the Little Badger?"

Danny narrowed his eyes, disgust was all over his face, "Vlad." he replied with venom.

And that's cue on Jack to wrap his arm around Vlad's neck and starts talking to him cheerfully just so he could get away from Bruce.

To Vlad's dismay, he went along with Jack. And to Danny's dismay, Bruce started a conversation with him. Then to Jazz's wondrous night, her and Maddie were outside to take a breather so Danny was all alone and unguarded and stuck with Bruce Wayne, introducing himself and his ward, [pick ur choice].

.......…

Btw, I also wanted for Clockwork to show up, saving Danny but that's just too much lelelelellel.

[anonymousangstmonster]

Idea #39

The Fentons were a family of merciless mer hunters.

But when Jack Fenton found a barely-a-year-old, white haired, black scaled, green eyed guppy washed up on their private beach, he couldn’t just leave the little guy to probably get eaten alive by seagulls. He’d always had a soft spot for kids.

He somehow convinced Maddie to let him keep it, as long as he was responsible for it. Jack had to feed it, clean it and it’s tank, train it, make sure it didn’t try to eat people, entertain it, the normal things you have to do to take care of a pet. Sure Maddie was the one that made sure it was fed most of the time since Jack forgot, but he did all the other things! He even gave him a name, Danny.

They actually got to learn a lot about merfolk biology taking care of him.

Over time the pair of scientists grew more and more attached to the little baby mer in their lab. He was practically a son to them. He was so sweet and cute, who wouldn’t love him instantly!

They taught him how to talk(he had such an adorable voice!), they taught him about the outside world(his eyes always sparkled with curiosity and wonder when listening to their stories).

When an old mer hunting friend came over to visit, he told them to be careful, that the creature could be using its siren powers to make them love it. They assured him that Danny’s powers(if he had any) were disabled by the small and unobtrusive cuff around his wrist.

They arranged for a little boy Danny’s age to come for a playdate, since he always seemed so lonely by himself in his artificial habitat. That young boy was named Tucker Foley, and the two hit it off instantly. Playing in the shallow area of Danny’s ‘exhibit’ with beach balls and plastic boats.

More time passed and Danny grew, his aquarium growing along with him.

Sometimes other hunter and scientist friends of the Fentons would come see the lab, and they would see a teenage merman in a comfortable environment and not on an examination table.

The parents wanted to see their boy free and happy, so they released him into the ocean. It wasn’t until later that they realized they never prepared him for the outside world, they never taught him how to hunt for himself, to avoid fishing nets, he might get seriously hurt or even die out there because they were ‘so eager to get rid of him’.

One of their worst fears were confirmed when they found him washed up on their beach bleeding from his tail, abdomen, and arm, unconscious.

Mer au combined with “Danny has always been lab rat” au, and wholesome up until the plot.

“I also just want Jack to invent a ghost(mer) treat and make Danny do tricks for it.” -that applies to this as well. Also I had the idea for that when eating a soft peppermint for the first time in forever.

ALSO GUYS THIS AU IS SHARED WITH @doiyi-yt! GO CHECK OUT HER STUFF UNDER THE #fish boy au TAG!

[charlietheepicwriter7]

Always a man, a city, and a lighthouse...

"Robin, Red Robin, stay back for a minute," Batman said as he dismissed everyone for patrol. "I have a new mission for you. Dozens of civilians have gone missing around the decommissioned Gotham City Lighthouse." A few clicks and the Batcomputer displayed a map of the Upper West Side, a highlight on the lighthouse. "I want you both to investigate the building. Everyone who's gone missing entered the lighthouse, but nothing has been found by the police. I suspect that the lighthouse is being used for gun smuggling, but we need more information.

"That's where you two come in."

Or, I've been reading too much of @virgamsysxvolumes 's Lucky Rush AU, and wanted a true Bioshock AU for dc x dp.

Underneath the city, in the vast and endless caverns beneith Gotham, lies the subterranean city of Amity. Amity was the pet project of the mad scientist couple, the Drs. Fenton, to investigate the effects of ectoplasm on humans, but with the help of their best friend, Vlad Masters, they transformed Amity into a Technocracy City filled with scientists, and completely lacking in morals.

Or at least, that's how it was ten years ago, before the creation of Plasm (the Adam replacement), a neon green goo that's basically meth that gives you superpowers. Everyone from the top scientists to the lower working class starting doping on Plasm, which gave people the ability to control fire, create hallucinogenic spores, summon bats, etc. Vlad, the mayor, was deposed in a cue let by the Fentons and the city descended into anarchy, with people from the surface getting lured down from the lighthouse so they can continue their experiments.

The Fentons are 100% not good people in this. Jack is in charge of all the technological advances in Amity, while Maddie has created human/ghost hybrids--the Little Sisters of the story--that can naturally harvest ectoplasm from dead bodies to use for experiments. Once everyone's hooked on Plasm, the Little Sisters are in danger from acting Splicers, so she creates Big Daddies to protect them.

Danny is the only Little Brother, and Jazz is the only Big Sister. Vlad turned them both into monsters as revenge against the Fentons for the cue, but the couple didn't really care, with Jack barely acknowledging he has children, and Maddie acting like they were never turned into monsters to begin with. Not sure about ages... Jazz is probably the same as her canon age, but if Danny is still 14, he looks 10, tiny and malnourished and pale.

Tim and Damian are trapped in Amity after an automatic system determines them as good test subjects. The AI filters out any cops, so that's why the police never found anything. The elavator brings them down into the city, showing a sweeping shot of neon in the darkness of the caves, and the boys figure out pretty quickly something is blocking their calls.

Tim gets super injured early on. I think, a Jack Fenton booby trap (that exclaims that it's a Jack Fenton Booby Trap moments before activating, which should be funny, but isn't when death lasers are being launched at him.). Damian gets captured, and that's when Tim is contacted by Vlad, who is our Atlas stand in for the game, only Tim immediately realizes that this man is sketchy af.

But unfortunately, in order to rescue Damian, Tim has to splice himself with Plasm. Maybe its for fire-wielding, or telekinesis but Tim can't get to wherever Damian is being held and, while torn, splices himself to save Damian.

Damian was kidnapped because his exposure to Lazirus Waters made a Big Daddy think he was a Little Sister, so it brought him back to the Casper Academy, which is where Little Sisters drop their harvests off in the care of William Lancer. Lancer looks after the girls because Maddie Fenton is too busy, but it's against his will despite him caring for them all. He's trapped in the building, can't leave or he dies. He's actually relieved to know that Vlad is still alive and trusts him, because to Lancer he was just a good mayor who was overthrown and the Fentons are the real bad guys, just look what they did to their kids!

This is where the batkids first learn about Danny and Jazz, although they don't meet them until a while after this. Danny actually ends up being the one leaving Plasm out for Tim every time he rescues a Little Sister. (Sidenote, they end up killing people while in Amity. While both do have death counts, the problem with Amity is that they have to use stronger and stronger levels of force to get people to go down, leading them to escalating and killing quite a few).

Lancer points them to communications to get their comms working again, and that area is run by Damon Grey.

At some point after comms are back on, the two learn that Red Hood actually came in after them after hours of no communication and has been captured by Maddie Fenton, who intends to turn him into a Big Daddy.

In late story, it's revealed that Jack Fenton was murdered before the cue even happened, and that the Jack Fenton they'd been communicating with the entire time was an AI assistant created by living Jack to keep his work going. The cue was actually retaliation from Maddie and the Jack AI for murdering Jack.

The story would eventually end with Tim, Damian, and Jason freeing all the Little Sisters along with Danny and Jazz.

[trainer-sean]

DCxDP Prompt: Vast Supernatural Au

What If, The Infinite Realms Was More Then Ectoplasm? What If The Fenton's Only Acknowledged Ectoplasm And Obsessively Denied The Existence Of All The Other Types Of Energy And Material In The 'Ghost Zone'? What If Danny Wasn't Just Exposed To Ectoplasm, But Mana, Yoki, Spiritual Energy, Etc. What If He Started Cycling Out The Ectoplasm, And The Other Energys Became More Dominant? What If.... Danny Became A Deity?

Basically this is just a Au where the Ghost zone, is really the Infinite Realms, which encompasses multiple dimensions, Cosmic Forces, and Energys. So Danny got Flooded with and Fused with Mana, Developing a Magical Core, Yoki, effectively becoming a Yokai, Spiritual energy, becoming effectively a Nature Spirit. Due to his actions and being a hero, people start looking up to him, much praise and gratitude is shown to him. Due to this, the Yoki and Mana in his body effectively pick it up and steadily start shifting him from a simple Yokai, to a Kami.

But of course, he lacks a Shrine, and therego, cant fully transition, which is a Irritating process..

The few Gods and Kami that sense Danny's developing Divinity and actually care that its happening. (Look, there are always new gods and deitys forming, both from the living who have passed away, and from the imaginations of the living and dead. The Shinto, Norse, and Greeks are prime examples due to having them be made up of populations of God's and goddesses, who have children with each other. The few that Due, come to see the situation, on why a Kami was developing in America, and find a human with Ectoplasm, Yoki, Mana, and Spiritual energy saturating his body, practically a Partially dead Hanyo whos possessed his own dead body. The Ectoplasm is deteriorating and the Yoki is becoming more dominant. He lacks a Shrine. There are a pair of human Scientists who are clearly his parents who seem to obsessively believe that not only is he a ghost, but that ghosts are emotionless and evil, yet dont seem to acknowledge that the one they are shooting at is their son. Kami from Japan reach out to Princess Diana to help with the situation, something Athena and Artemis also want.

Clockwork is Kronos, but he's left his mortal flesh. He tells Danny of what he truly is and what he's becoming, revealing that Ghosts are barely a 10th of what exists in the infinite realms. He tells Danny how he needs a Shrine to properly ascend to Kamihood, but also that he needn't worry about losing his Humanity when he does. Danny himself can't make the Shrine, but Sam and Tucker can!

His appearance as a 'ghost' has changed, his Hazmat suit has shifted to a somewhat Shinto outfit thats a mix with his previous Hazmat suit, and a deterorated Hagoromo on his shoulders, showing he's reaching the rank of Kami. People see his changes and do research, and learn of Shinto and Buddhism practices, and Spiritualism in general. This leads to a good few in the community of Amity to making Phantom a small Shinto style Shrine. Cujo, who isn't a ghost dog, but is a Inugami here, ends up taking Residence at the Shrine, which steadily makes him change into a Komainu. Also, multiple Cats start showing up and living at the Shrine, something Danny actually likes alot, to the point that he, as Phantom, starts building some cat houses around his Shrine.

Over time, as Jack and Maddie start struggling to figure out what Phantom is now, as before he showed up on their ghost equipment, but now he doesn't. Jack starts seeing the bigger picture, looking and analyzing the different energys in the Infinite Realms that he previously refused to believe were there. He realized, why were they trying to apply the rules of their dimension on a dimension clearly completely different from theirs? Why were they refusing to apply the theory that the interaction of two or more different realitys would require a completely foreign set of laws to try and analyze it all. Why were they trying to apply the laws of Physics to explain magic? And like that, his obsession was resolved, he didn't have the insane impulse to blame ghosts for odd things or to shoot at anything abnormal the second he saw it, suddenly, his issues were resolved in an instant. The ectoplasm, they were so contaminated in it that their obsessions had bound to it and formed into a core that made them impulsively driven by them. And with his Obsession resolved, the ectoplasm had dissolved. Jack could now clearly see the near identical appearance between Danny and Phantom, there voices and Mannerisms, the similar time frame from the incident with the Portal with Danny and the appearance of Phantom.

Danny has also been developing Cat-like traits from his act of building cat homes around his Shrine, effectively making the cats worship him.

The ghosts that originally appeared have slowly begun to stop, the few that still do being those that lived in Amity before they died.

Danny has a number of Divine Affinity due to how he formed. He is a Kami of Cats, Protection, kindness, winter, safety, and Star gazing.

When he properly becomes a Kami, its a rather public event, some ancient ghost attacks, sensing a Kami forming in America. The Fentons are scanning through out the fight, Jack actually switches on the scanners for the other typs of energy, which angers Maddie because she is still in Aggressive denial about them. Phantoms Ectoplasm Readings are fluctuating, as if trying to keep itself active as its being burned away. While Two of the other reading show spikes and growing while the Ancient talks down to him as it pummels him, things like 'YOU THINK YOU CAN PROTECT THEM?!' 'I'LL BE SURE TO MAKE THEM SUFFER AS WELL FOR MAKING YOU FORM!'. While everyone is watching helplessly, they pray and hope for him to win, to protect them. Suddenly, everything stops, and Phantom, Screams! In a burst of power, all Ectoplasm readings die on Phantom, while one of the others, rises and stabilizes, becoming the dominant energy. Hovering in a Crater, stands Phantom, now dressed in Traditional male Kimono, a Hagoromo proudly floating on his shoulders, at his feet, a pair of red painted wooden wheels with what appear to be clouds flowing from the axel holes. In his left hand, a Glave. His hair a foot longer, snowflakes gently appearing and falling around him.

He then pummels the ancient, and destroys it with ease. Maddie is having a panic attacks and is struggling to understand the situation. Phantom is standing there looking over himself, trying to understand himself what just happened. Maddie sees a chance, she grabs the Fenton Fermos, runs up on Phantom, opens it, activates it, and- doesn't suck up Phantom, only the remaining ectoplasm from the Ancient. It doesn't work of Phantom, he doesn't have ectoplasm anymore, hes not, in anyway, a ghost anymore.

@stealingyourbones @im-totally-not-an-alien-2

[helloilikepurple]

DC X DP - Merfolk AU

Maddie and Jack Fenton are ecto-biologists, except, ecto-beings aren't ghosts but rather mermaids.

Amity Park is a small island, a 3-hour boat ride away from the nearest coast. The ferry comes by 2 times a day, and only once on Sunday at noon.

Mermaids are believed to be a myth by most. This is because they are only visible to the human eye when they choose to be. Every mermaid seems to have the base powers;

Invisibility (can choose to be invisible to only humans or everything/everyone else - can also make themselves visible to humans but choose not to. Most tend to be in a constant state of not visible to people)

Intangibility (how they've avoided capture and such)

Strength much more impressive than a human's

Ability to communicate underwater (clicks and chirps and such produced from their core)

Fast healing

Some also have additional powers unique to them. Danny's ice, Ember's music (siren song).

Mermaids only look somewhat human. They share no biological similarities to humans.

Mermaids are an ancient species that have been around far longer than humans have been. They are immortal and only die when killed or if they get "sick". This immortality is largely thanks to their biological make-up. Mermaids don't breath. They don't have hearts that beat. They don't have vocal cords or gills or lungs.

They have a core, that produces and filters ectoplasm which is all they need. Ectoplasm is their life force and magical, to an extent. Ectoplasm exists everywhere, to various degrees, but is especially potent in all forms of water. It's such to a small degree, though, that it doesn't affect humans and/or magic users.

For mermaids, though, this ectoplasm is plenty. Their bodies can naturally pull it from their environment and use it to fuel themselves. Generally, they don't need it, because they produce their own, but it can make them stronger, which is why they stick to water where much of it can be found (by their standards).

This ectoplasm is a result of feelings. Water experiences a lot - life, death, birth and pain. People drown. People drink. Animals drink. Water goes through the cycle and it remembers. It keeps those emotions and over a long, long time, that magical energy evolved to become ectoplasm (vitality).

Which is why we need water to live.

Maddie and Jack are so curious about these creatures, and have managed to collect various samples over the years. With all their research to occupy them, they didn't have time for their daughter, Jazz.

They invented many things. A contraption that could filter ambient ectoplasm from the water, devices that could detect the unique ecto-signatures of mermaids, weapons that could hurt them. They produced the Speeder to allow them to go far deeper underwater than anyone else has ever achieved. They found ways to use ectoplasm as a power source.

They were brilliant scientists, but still they'd never managed to capture a live specimen. Their methods have always proved too lethal, and mermaid corpses have this infuriating habit of sort of melting quite quickly back into ectoplasm that, although useful, is "corrupt" and has to go through an extensive process in order to be purified and thus useful.

Frustrated by this, they decide to create their own specimen using the samples they've collected and some of their own DNA to fill out any remaining gaps in hopes of getting as close as possible to the real thing.

The result is Danny, a halfa, who breathes and has a beating heart, albeit one that's slower than it should be. He can live underwater, thanks to having a core on top of that, that produces what the human-half of his body needs to stay alive without actually breathing. Hypothetically, he could survive underwater for the rest of his life even if his heart was removed, but only manage to last a few hours above water (where ectoplasm is nowhere near as strong) without that heart before dying.

Normal mermaids die if left without any access to water ranging from a day to week depending on their age and strength. Otherwise, they can survive alright for (hypothetically) a few years with only the rare drink and will be reduced to a strength equal to or slightly above a human's.

(Maddie believes that there are mermaids powerful enough to exceed Superman's strength without any water at all. However, their civilizations are so well hidden she has yet to find any proof to back this up.)

Danny, however, can survive in both environments indefinitely. A truly fascinating result.

On top of that, he can turn his inhuman features for human ones while above water. Once submerged, the influx of ectoplasm will force a change back to "mermaid".

His many documented powers and their original owners are:

His wail (Ember)

The transformation (Amorpho)

Ice (one of the Yetis, like Frostbite)

Ectoblasts - the ability to shoot excess ectoplasm in the form of powered beams (Skulker)

Maddie and Jack don't treat Danny well. They keep him caged, away from all other life, and run various experiments on him. Seeing as he can produce his own ectoplasm, they also syphon it from him to power their inventions, as they can get a lot more from him faster than they can extract it from the water.

Once, they test how his body reacts to different stimuli. When they get to electricity, Jack misreads the voltage and the shock very nearly kills Danny. The scream he lets out then is the sound he makes when he wails as it's this experience that unlocks that power of his. From then on he's deathly afraid of being electrocuted.

Jazz is not close with her parents. She had to raise herself, and never paid their research much mind. For a long time, she was sure they were just crazy. And then she saw Danny.

She went down to their lab to ask them to sign a school form and saw young, maybe 5 year old Danny in a tank, tail on full display. From then on she became his self-appointed sister, sneaking him snacks and telling him stories and teaching him things her parents hadn't bothered to.

Danny shows a clear like for the stars. Having never seen the sky before, when Jazz manages to sneak him out (just into the next room to look out a window) for a quick peak one night, he's absolutely in love. Jazz helps him learn as much as he can about them, smuggling in astronomy books and the like for him to read.

As Jazz grows older, she starts to worry for Danny more and more. Maddie and Jack are growing more greedy - more obsessive. They're treating him increasingly poorly and she hates it. She wants to help but finds herself afraid of how her parents would react.

So she times it perfectly. Maddie and Jack are out buying various household appliances to disassemble for a project, and Jazz is to leave that day for college, never to come back. And she's not about to leave Danny.

So she sneaks him out. As a human, Jazz takes Danny on the ferry too. The moment they reach land they move. Jazz rushes them off straight onto a flight. She's gotten herself on a scholarship into Gotham U for psychology with the intention of one day working at Arkham. By tutoring and babysitting, Jazz has saved up over the years and already has an apartment at the ready for the 2 of them and she's gotten a job at the library waiting for her once she arrives.

Most of her stuff excluding essentials was already waiting for her at her apartment, and she had a backpack full of essentials for Danny ready too. She already had plans to go buy him more stuff, letting him choose, once they arrived.

She's already emancipated herself and renamed herself Jazz Nightingale (more than willing to drop the Fenton name). She had a birth certificate for Danny (now Daniel Nightingale), her younger brother made and there are only a few more legal processes to go through that require Danny to be physically present for that they need to go through before she can sign him up for school.

Yes, it's a lot for an 18 year old; to raise a 8 year old child while going to Uni, working and hiding from her crazy parents, but she's more than willing. She loves Danny. Has loved him since she saw him 3 years ago. She can manage.

Danny has never been around so many people before. It's overwhelming. He tries to stick close to Jazz, hiding and cowering behind while watching everything with awe filled eyes. The airplane ride was fun. They were in the sky! And Jazz let him sit by the window. It was nice.

Then they got off in Gotham and Danny and Jazz promptly got separated. An ill-timed Rogue attack had Danny losing sight of Jazz and thus running for someplace safe to hide until she found him. A goon notices him and grabs him by his bag so he slips it off and runs. The goon chases.

Then Danny sees the river that runs through Gotham and dives in, thinking he's found somewhere safe.

Jazz, meanwhile, is losing her mind. They just got there and she's lost him! The rogue situation is wrapped up quickly thanks to the Daylight hero Signal but she can't find him. When she finds his lone backpack during her search she despairs.

She puts in a missing person's report, knowing it will probably be forgotten since it's Gotham. She searches for a long time, until dark, at which point she's forced to head to her apartment. She stresses.

Danny stays missing for a long while. Jazz goes out looking every single day. She calls the police often for updates (for which there never are any). She even hunts down the vigilantes to ask them to look, handing them pictures, Red Hood being the first.

(He keeps an eye out, asks his people to search too. He also helps Jazz make it home safe when she stays out too late searching, and even enlists Barbara's help.)

Meanwhile, Jazz has to start going to work.

She tries to put it off, and even gets an extra week before she starts but she has to start, and Uni is only a month or so away from starting too. Barbara is sympathetic and lets her go easy, seeing clearly how stressed she is.

Jazz does not stop looking. She makes sure to wander by all water sources, and even calls her parents, saying she's getting settled in at Uni in order to see if they had someone managed to get Danny back. They haven't, which is only a mild relief.

---

The water is bad.

It smells horrid and makes his skin itch. Danny doesn't quite know how to describe it but it feels like something angry and sad and hurt. There's trash all over, and the channels are so filthy the water's brown and smelly. It's nothing like his tank was - there at least the water was clean and nice. Danny's scared, alone and lost and all the bad feelings in the water aren't helping.

He swims blindly, getting further and further from Jazz in search for somewhere safe. He'd thought, when he saw the water, that it would be his safe place to hide, but now that he's in it he doesn't feel safe at all. He lets out a whine from his core, the water around him reacting to the young halfa's fear, rippling wildly and that only serves to scare him more.

He scrambles for the surface, teary and wanting Jazz. He doesn't want to be alone.

Unknowingly, he'd been underwater for hours, swimming rapidly and erratically. The sun had set, Jazz had reluctantly headed home, and he'd left Gotham. He'd accidently gone all the way to Blüdhaven, and when he popped his head out of the water and saw nothing familiar and a dark, smoggy sky he felt worse.

He was near the docks and it was night so of course Nightwing was out and at the docks, taking out a drug operation that had started trying to set roots in his city after having been chased out of Gotham where they tried the same thing. Danny heard the commotion and cautiously approached.

He poked his head out of the water again from closer and watched as Nightwing beat up the bad guys. Danny recognised him, as Jazz had made sure he knew of all of Gotham's heroes before they left for Gotham. If Nightwing was a hero, then he should be able to help him find Jazz!

He watched as all the bad guys were caught and tied up with stars in his eyes. Heroes are so cool! Nightwing ended up outside when he jumped a bad guy that had tried to sneak away. He was using some kind of sticks to fight, but the bad guy managed to knock one out of his hand and it fell into the water.

Danny immediately dove for it. He didn't have very much stuff, but he hated it when Maddie and Jack found something that Jazz had given him and threw it away. Nightwing would probably be quite upset too so it only made sense for him to go and get it.

Nightwing knocked out the guy while Danny was underwater and was looking at the surface of the dark, murky water mourning the loss of his weapon. 

And then Danny pokes his head out.

Lazarus green eyes look at him, and Nightwing damn near has a heart attack, leaping back with a startled (not at all high-pitched) scream. Danny immediately ducks back under, also very startled. He fiddles with the stick, scales and skin itching the longer he stays still in the gross water.

He waits a bit, hoping the next time he peeks out Nightwing won't be looking at him anymore. After a few minutes, he cautiously pokes his head out, and immediately meets Nightwing's eyes, who'd been looking intently at the water torn between hoping that was a hallucination and hoping it wasn't, although river-monsters weren't much better.

Their eyes meet and Nightwing manages to catch a lot more details because he'd been staring so hard.

White, wispy hair, that floats like it's still underwater. Bright, green eyes, curious but afraid. Face dotted with scales, and weird, fin-like things where ears should be. Most of all though, whoever or whatever he's looking at, is young. They're gone back under just as fast as before, and Nightwing yells out for them to stay too late.

Danny's scared. He's not supposed to be seen like this. He promised Jazz. But he wants to give the stick back and he wants to find Jazz. Heroes help people, right? He steels himself and pokes his head back out. This time, he listens as Nightwing talks, gently reassuring him it's okay and he won't hurt him.

Slowly, Danny swims closer. Nightwing doesn't look angry or afraid or disgusted, so maybe he will help him even though he looks like this? Heroes help everyone after all.

Dick is losing his fucking mind.

There's a baby pit monster in the water - the filthy water that's probably more grime and oil than water at this point - with wide eyes that would be adorable if they didn't have him thinking of pit rage. But they aren't angry. Far from it.

Small, with scales on their face a top normal, albeit very pale, skin. They approach slowly, clearly anxious, and Dick waits, wondering what exactly he's supposed to do here. What even is the protocol for this situation? Is there a protocol? Knowing Batman, probably, but he can't remember it.

Danny carefully sticks one hand out of the water and passes Nightwing the stick, which he takes with a grateful smile and a thank you. Danny pokes his head out a little more so he can smile back.

The baby pit monster has fangs. Adorable, little fangs, but fangs. Okay. That's fine. This is fine.

Danny hesitates. He has to ask, but his voice won't come. So he does the next best thing.

They're chirping at him. The cute, baby monster is chirping at him. He gently says he doesn't understand and when they wilt, he asks yes and no questions. Like this, Nightwing slowly pieces together the child 1, needs help, 2, is lost, 3 has an older sister who's looking after him, and 4, is absolutely terrified of his parents.

Well, he's never been one to turn down a scared kid, no matter how inhuman.

(Everyone's going to make so much fun of him when they find out he took a baby pit-monster home with him. At least they don't have black hair and blue eyes.)

[britcision]

Alright listen

I’m not a particularly huge fan of “secret twin/sibling AU” cuz if not done right, it quickly becomes “and we only care cuz of blood relation”

The antithesis of Bruce Wayne

(And like you can’t say adopted families don’t count to the goddamn bat fam, it’s illegal and you go to double Arkham)

But

I have also noticed it’s kinda always Danny is the adopted secret twin

And… well

Large bulky men who break down walls

Who come back to life but kinda fucked up

BRUCE WAYNE NÉ FENTON, OLDER BROTHER OF JACK FENTON WHOSE PARENTS DIED BEFORE TELLING HIM THE TRUTH

I will also accept Bruce having known but not knowing how to introduce himself to his brother and just secretly helping fund their building a portal to hell

Cuz that’s like talking to people when you’re Batman, totally counts, Alfred definitely thinks they’ve exchanged Christmas cards

Jason is the other obvious option, maybe from when the Fentons were in college cuz gods know that man’s family tree is already a xylophone

Tim, also a great candidate, he was pretty much an afterthought for the Drakes and neglected so having picked him from a line up tracks

Just

More than half of the bat fam is already adopted

And they’re the cool side to have been adopted from

There’s some consolation for Danny from the Fentons not being his bioparents that kinda invalidates that it is Still Fucked Up That They Mistreat Him

Him not being theirs really doesn’t mitigate it but it keeps showing up

No

Tim Drake’s expression watching Jack Fenton scarf fudge knowing that’s his dad

Bruce realizing if he’d looked past the family Christmas cards he coulda saved his niece and nephew

Jason wondering how the fuck these crappy scientists could be his parents then Maddie bodies Bruce and yeah suddenly that tracks

(He will not be admitting that it made sense the second Jack took down a wall instead of the door a foot away from him, no, Maddie’s ninja skills are the genetic part)

Damian’s goddamn CHALLENGE being the Blood Son and super proud of being a Wayne only for Bruce to be like “well actually neither of us are blood Waynes, your brothers have exactly as much right to the name”

Damian fucking STRUGGLING cuz like his dad’s still Batman, even if he’s Bruce Fenton, blood matters to this kid that’s still his birth name and Damian wants to be proud of his heritage

But calling himself Fenton in a world with the Fenton Thermos?

Death is better

From personal experience

(This being the final straw that breaks Damian from his obsession with bloodlines? Extra juicy, cuz Bruce sure as shit would never stop calling himself a Wayne even if the Fenton stays silent)

[scarletsaphire]

Lightning Rod: Dannymay Day 8: Electric Core AU

There's a thunderstorm, and Danny is missing. Jazz goes looking for him. She does not expect the lightning strikes to show her where he is.

Danny was missing. That was. Well, it wasn’t fine, but it wasn’t surprising either. He had been a lot more distant since what he had been referring to as the “Accident,” where he got zapped by the portal a few weeks ago. Jazz was worried. She was always worried to some extent; it was the result of having to basically be the parent since she was old enough to reach the kitchen counters by herself. But recently, she was even more worried, specifically about Danny.

It wasn’t just that he was distant, and that he was avoiding talking about the “Accident” with anyone besides Sam and Tucker. Jazz understood that. He had ended up hurt, and in the hospital, and even if he hadn’t ended up hurt, the fact that the portal had opened with him standing right there was probably enough for trauma to set in all on its own. It had only been a few weeks since it happened, and if it was in fact trauma, he’d likely need more time to digest it, time that she couldn’t spend trying to pry into his thoughts and feelings without making the problems worse. What worried Jazz was what he did when he wasn’t distant.

He tried to keep quiet during the night, but she shared a wall with him. She could hear the whimpers and cries of a nightmare at 2 AM. She could hear his terrified gasps and panicked breathing, mumbled curses and late night calls to his friends. She could hear the sound of things being knocked over as he… she didn’t know what exactly he was doing, but she knew it wasn’t good. She had left him a note on his desk, when he was downstairs getting breakfast before school. She didn’t want to pry, but she also wanted him to know that she was there for him. The note served that purpose just fine, even if he never mentioned it.

Then there was everything with their parents. Neither of them had what would be considered a good relationship with either of their parents, but it definitely wasn’t abusive. Neglectful, yes. Jack and Maddie may try to be good, but they were, and always had been, scientists first and parents second. Or scientists first, ghost hunters second, and parents third. But they had never hit either her or Danny, or threatened them, or anything that would make Danny flinch away from Jack’s touch, or avoid looking into Maddie’s eyes when she talked to him over dinner, or keep to the outside of the room, as quiet as a mouse, whenever one or both of them were in the room. It could have been some kind of teenage thing, being uncomfortable around their parents, but then Danny should be uncomfortable around her as well. He was, in some ways. But the discomfort he showed around her definitely fit more into the embarrassed teenager with overbearing parents than whatever he was doing with their actual parents.

Whatever was bothering Danny, it had to do with their parents. Whatever it was was apparently enough for him to have not returned home from school during a fairly bad thunderstorm. She had called both Sam and Tucker. They had said that he was with them, which should have been a relief, if they hadn’t both said at their respective houses. So one, or both, of them were lying, and if only one of them was lying, then there wouldn’t be much of a reason to lie in the first place. They were covering for Danny.

That’s why Jazz had taken her mother’s car (not the GAV. Until an actual ghost threatened her with whatever weapons ghosts might have, she would not drive that monstrosity.) and was currently driving around Amity Park, windows rolled down, shouting Danny’s name into the rain. She didn’t expect for her to find him, honestly. Amity wasn’t a huge town, but it was big. Too big to find a single kid that didn’t want to be found.

What Jazz expected to find less was that every single strike of lightning always seemed to land in the exact same place. It had taken her nearly 20 minutes to notice. She hadn’t really been paying attention; why would she? But after the flash of lightning struck straight into an empty parking lot 5 different times in about as many minutes, she got curious. It was stupid. She knew it was stupid. But she was still Jack and Maddie’s daughter, even if she wasn’t quite as dedicated to science as they were. This was too odd, too weird, for her to just leave. Curiosity and the cat and all of that.

The wind whipped at her hair and the raincoat she had pulled over herself on the way out of the house. It really was a bad storm. Jazz shouldn’t be out in it at all. But there was a chance that Danny was, and if nothing else she would be able to use this as an opportunity to guilt Danny into not going out in horrible storms without telling anyone where he was going. Maybe not the ethical solution, but he was her brother. A little manipulation here and there was to be expected. She approached the center of the parking lot, where she could see a washed out lump. She couldn’t make out the color in the rain and the dark, or the shape, or much of anything about it.

Lightning struck again, hitting the thing directly. In the brief flash of light she could make out the colors. Red and white shirt. Blue jeans. Black hair. Jazz froze, her breath caught in her throat. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be Danny. He looked up and met her eyes. It was most certainly him. She would know his face anywhere, even if his eyes glowed a sickly green, their light piercing through the rain. Even if every movement caused sparks to dance across his skin. It was her brother.

He saw her and she saw him, and before Jazz could do anything, say anything, he panicked. He was on his feet and backing away from her before she could blink. No, he wasn’t on his feet at all. He was upright, no longer curled into a ball like he was before, but he wasn’t standing. He was floating.

Danny’s voice cut through the wind and rain in a way that it shouldn’t be able to. When Jazz had been calling for him, she had had to scream over the torrential rain just to hear her own voice. Danny’s was strained, but not with the effort to be heard, just with worry. “You can’t be here,” he said as he floated away. The words buzzed like static in Jazz’s head. She took a step forward. “It’s not safe, you need to leave.”

“Danny,” she said quietly, her words eaten by the wind. She tried again. “Danny, its not safe for you either!” She kept making her way towards him, the wind fighting her every step of the way. “I have mom’s car, we can get home safe, you just need-” She was cut off by another lightning bolt, striking Danny directly.

It was barely a split second. The light was blinding, but Jazz swore she saw Danny’s hair flash white. Saw his outfit change to one of the hazmat suits their parents had painstakingly made for both of them, only in different colors. And then the second ended, and it was just Danny. Just Danny, hovering in the air, green sparks flying between his fingertips and eyes that could shine through a storm. Jazz did not let herself be scared. Did not let herself be confused. “I don’t know what's happening, but I can’t just leave you here. It isn’t safe,” she called again. “I just want to help!”

Jazz felt like she was in a spotlight, as those glowing green eyes studied her. Finally, Danny nodded. He floated closer to her, still keeping a good ten feet distance as they both made their way to the car. “Not to home. Anywhere but there.” His voice felt like a whisper. She shouldn’t be able to hear it, but it seemed like the wind carried it to her. Jazz nodded, and got into the car. Danny did not join her. She had assumed he wouldn’t.

Jazz had questions. So, so many questions. She was scared, both for herself, and for Danny, and for whatever it was that was making this happen. But as she drove, watching as Danny, the Danny she had seen in that flash of lightning, flew behind her, barely visible in the falling rain, she knew that her questions could wait. Right now, her brother needed her, and he was more important than her curiosity.

[aikoiya]

DP - Phantom Twin AU - The Deal 2

The Fentons had been building a drone that could go invisible to try & track those Phantoms.

---

Maddie caught sight of the Ghost Girl being chased by the Wisconsin Ghost high above the buildings of Amity.

The drone pursued, but lost them. Luckily for the Fentons, the 2 ghosts in question seemed to do this often enough that they were able to try again fairly often. It took many, many attempts over the next few weeks to finally manage to stick with the pair long enough to find where they were going.

Finally, the Phantom stalled outside a balcony near the top of the abandoned clocktower, beckoning the other ghost to follow her.

This was extremely odd behavior for either of the Phantom Pair, so it certainly piqued the scientists' interests.

The Wisconsin Ghost seemed to grin rather creepily (to them at least) before quickly pursuing the other ghost & phasing through the door on the landing.

Unfortunately, the drone was unable to follow as it wasn't exactly built for breaking & entering.

They'd have to fix that.

---

The Fentons had given the Fenton Drone quite the upgrade.

The drone made after the pair once again as they ducked around corners, hid in shadows, & dodged every gaze but that of the drone's. All until they found their way back to the abandoned clocktower.

This time, when the ghosts entered, the drone hid in a crevice in the old building's architecture & a little door opened in it to let out a tiny fly.

It flew through a crack in the door.

The room was large & pretty clean, eclectically furnished, & very cozy.

Maddie: "It's cleaner than I was expecting."

Jack: "You think this is their lair, Mads?"

Maddie: "Possible. But why would the Phantom Girl let in someone who was apparently her enemy?"

Jack blinked, guiding the flybot through the room. It had an open area in the middle with a large & expensive-looking radio against a wall. (Probably stolen.)

Then, he saw something out of the corner of his eye that he didn't expect. "Because, I guess they're not enemies." He then guided the spyfly to look toward a cozy nook with a curtain separating the makeshift room from the rest of the building.

Maddie gasped at the sight just beyond the curtain. The Wisconsin Ghost sitting on what appeared to be a mattress full of pillows & blankets. In his lap sat the ghost girl who wore scandalous black & white lingerie as she stroked his cheek. His eyes were dazed & full of lust as he stared up into hers. The Ghost Girl then leaned forward & pulled her apparent beau into a passionate kiss as she rocked herself into him.

This, of course, went against everything the Fenton's thought they knew about ghosts. And everything else that they continued to witness between these 2 just kept doing so.

Maddie was flabbergasted as she watched the taller, blue ghost wrap his arms around the smaller, more feminine ghost & shower her with affection.

Despite their ingrained prejudices, this couldn't be fake or acting because what would be the point? There were no humans present. None that they knew of anyway.

Jack was understandably flabbergasted as his views on ghosts, though he insisted that they were based on science, had always actually been influenced by his hunter family's generations of anti-supernatural rhetoric.

Maddie, however, watched the ghostly coitus much like a wildlife investigator, already making several new hypotheses from this new information; intrigued as the more masculine ghost rutted up into his apparent mate gently, yet passionately.

Everything the Fentons knew of ghosts said that they should be, if not incapable of, then uninterested in copulating. It required too much investment in someone else for such self-serving, self-involved creatures. Yet here was evidence of otherwise.

The Fenton woman was beyond intrigued as this just further proved how different the Phantoms were from other ghosts. And apparently so was the Wisconsin Ghost for that matter!

Jack didn't like watching the recordings, as he felt like he was watching porn, but Maddie had a more clinical perspective. To her, it was like watching animals rut in the wild. But that just caused her to wonder what the point of it was. There had to be a reason behind it. Were these 2 just different?

What further reinforced Maddie's habits of seeing them as similar to animals was learning that the blue ghost had a knot.

---

Maddie decided to leave the fly there, but to bring the actual drone back for charging. She'd do this repeatedly, recording the 2 ghosts' interactions whenever they showed, until she finally decided to rebuild the drone with a more efficient inner battery. One that could charge the ectoplasm inside via her own personal more advanced solar power design. That way she wouldn't have to keep calling it home so often.

---

She realized something very quickly. There was a lot of sex between the 2 supposed enemies when they were alone, but there was also an equal amount of talking & simply doing things together. It was almost like they were... dating...

They would read, talk, & it even seemed like the Wisconsin Ghost was trying to teach the other ghost how to dance.

Maddie nearly had a conniption when she'd found them playing chess together one day. Ghosts shouldn't have the higher thought processes needed to do that at the level they were &, for a while, even tried to convince herself that they were just mimicking what they'd seen humans do. But, the more she watched, the more she became convinced that this wasn't the case.

---

Maddie realized that, despite how often the Phantom Twins fought the Wisconsin Ghost, he & the Ghost Girl seemed to interact very cordially even out in the field.

It made the woman wonder if the male Phantom even knew about his enemy & supposed sister's sexual interactions. If they were human, she'd say that it might be why the Ghost Boy was so territorial with the taller, more vampiric ghost.

Eventually, Maddie became curious about what they were saying to each other & installed a mic into the bug. It took her some time to get it small enough to fit though.

After that, the next time she observed them, she caught them in the middle of a very interesting conversation. So interesting, in fact, that she called her husband to come & listen.

---

Plasmius: "You called us 'Gatekeepers' before. What exactly did you mean by that?"

The Phantom started, shocked by his question.

Phantom: "How do you not know about what you are? You've been a ghost so much longer than me & my brother have. We've only been around 4 years & you've been like this for 2 decades longer!"

A confirmation of death date! Now that was interesting & they could even use it to discover the ghost kids' & Wisconsin Ghost's human lives!

While ghosts are mere imitations of a human consciousness, it could give them insight into their behavior.

The blue specter just looked at her, seeming to be frankly embarrassed.

Plasmius: "Well, I mean..."

He flushed magenta & looked away.

Plasmius: "After... well... the accident made me this way, the portal that did it was decommissioned. I later got the rights to it, but when I turned it back on, it was too small for me to go through it. It was only big enough for a cat to pass through. It actually wasn't until after I heard that the Fentons had finished their portal that I was able to use parts of the old one to build a new one."

This caught the Fentons by surprise & they seethed at having their tech stolen by yet another ghost.

The ghost girl was incredulous.

Phantom: "Are you telling me that you didn't have to fight ghosts on a daily basis like we have!?"

Plasmius recoiled, sheepish.

Plasmius: "I, well... No... I didn't..."

Phantom: "How the hell did you get so strong, then??"

Plasmius: "Well, it isn't like I didn't train myself! Many of my powers were very useful!"

The ghost girl quirked a brow at him, unimpressed.

Phantom: "For corporate espionage?"

Plasmius: "Exactly, my dear! You always were the smart one between you & your brother."

Still unimpressed by him, the female Phantom began to explain.

Phantom: "We are something called Gatekeeper Ghosts. Of course, being 'Hereafterers,' that is to say, ghosts made up of the ectoplasm of the Infinite Realms, we can have multiple classifications, whereas the 'Earthbound' can only have 1."

Infinite Realms?

Phantom: "These classifications sort of work like genetics; ya know, race & ethnicity? They are one of the things that contributes to the sort of powers & abilities a ghost can have. In fact, part of what determines classification is our genetics from when we were alive. For instance, Ember is a Banshee with sirenic capabilities & Spectra is a Wraith."

The Fentons paused, not having considered that Earthly classifications still had any hold on ghosts once they manifested in the GZ.

Phantom: "Anyway, Gatekeepers are one of those classifications, but what primarily determines if you are a Gatekeeper is your mode of death. Specifically, you have to have either died or become a ghost via death by portal. Most specifically in our cases, a ghost portal."

Plasmius: "So, that means there are likely more of us!"

Phantom: "If you mean Gatekeeper Ghosts, then yes, but if you're talking about halfas, then no."

Maddie made a note of the word 'Halfa' as they'd never come across that before.

Phantom: "Halfas aren't a classification. They are more in-line with a species. We are in the same family as ghosts, but not truly ghosts ourselves."

This very much intrigued the doctors & they began to make rapid speculations about what this could mean & if this 'Halfa species' were what made the 2 Phantoms & the Wisconsin Ghost so different to every other ghost they'd encountered.

Plasmius: "Then, what exactly is a Gatekeeper?"

Phantom: "You know, Gatekeepers!"

Plasmius just continued to stare.

Phantom: "The spirits that guard the doorways to other planes of existence?"

The blue specter seemed to contemplate the description she gave before shaking his head.

Phantom: "Gatekeepers are... the ghosts of those who've been sacrificed to open a permanent portal to another plane of existence. Ghosts that are tied to the portal they died in order to open. While portals to places other than the Infinite Realms don’t require sacrifices, sometimes mistakes happen at the point of opening or the ones who open the door simply want a built-in bouncer. Also, you can't open a permanent portal to the Ghost Zone, or anywhere else in the Infinite Realms for that matter, without a sacrifice because of the nature of the destination. That's what we are; sacrifices. Depending on where the portal leads to, the spirit or ghost created will gain powers from that place. Say the portal goes to, like, the Faewyld."

Vlad & the Fentons all lit up at the mention of DnD. Briefly recounting fond memories of games past in college.

Phantom: "The ghost would have access to fae magic. 'We' are specifically the ghosts tied to portals to the Infinite Realms, so we're ectoplasmic in nature rather than simple spirits like most others. Because we guard doorways to the Infinite Realms, a.k.a. the Hereafter or the afterlife, our subcategory is Psychopomp."

This immediately put the Fentons off, as their portal had opened & it hadn't required one of these 'sacrifices' & just assumed that the girl was lying.

Plasmius: "That can't be true. If it was, then how was I able to open the portal in my lab? It hadn't required a sacrifice."

Phantom: "You said that you used parts from the portal that created you."

Plasmius went silent, eyes wide in realization.

Phantom: "So, it's likely because the portal that created you was turned off & you used pieces of it to build your new one. It's not, technically, a different portal. Rather, it's the same one that killed you, just housed in a different frame."

The other ghost was silent for a while, processing her words before clenching his fists in anger. He ground out his next words between gritted teeth.

Plasmius: "Damn him! It wasn't enough that he turned me into a freak! The nitwit sacrificed me!"

Phantom: "You know he didn't mean to-"

He snapped.

Plasmius: "Do I?! Because all I know is that he sent me to my death, didn't once bother to visit me in the hospital in all the years I was there, didn't even write until he sent me an invitation to his wedding to the woman I loved! Worse, when we finally met again years later, he acts like nothing happened! Like he didn't abandon me in my hour of need & not once has he ever really apologized! Not that I'd have forgiven him, but it would've been nice for him to at least acknowledge that he'd ruined my life! How do you excuse that!?"

Jack: "Wow, whoever he's talking about was a jerk! Glad I'm not him!"

Maddie: "Jack! Do you realize what he'd just said??"

The mountain of a man paused & looked at his beautiful bride in confusion.

Maddie: "He remembers his life!"

Jack processed this, then became shocked.

Jack: "But, that can't be true. Most of the GZ ghosts we come across have lost most of their memories from being alive. It's part of our thesis that they're just cheap knockoffs of people with only impressions of their past life & Obsessions to guide them. Like, sure, they can have brief flashes of the person they're mimicing, but those aren't real memories, just imprints of false emotions on their ectoplasmic signitures."

Maddie: "Then, how does he remember with such clarity being betrayed?"

Jack thought for a moment before shaking his head, suddenly nervous.

Jack: "I dunno, Mads. I really don't know."

Maddie suddenly got a slightly manic look in her eye.

Maddie: "Then we better find out!"

Phantom sighed heavily.

Phantom: "I'm not going to excuse what my dad did, but keep in mind that my mom didn't visit you either & don't even try to claim that he kept her from you. You know as well as I do that he couldn't hold her back if she'd really wanted to contact you in any way. No one could've. She's not the type to let herself be bullied."

The vampiric ghost seemed to recoil, angry for a moment before deflating in despair.

This only further intrigued the scientists at the realization that the Phantom could also seemingly remember her life. Specifically, her parents & what horrible people they were. Did this mean that these ghosts knew each other in life? So much to learn!!

Maddie: "Perhaps there's something to this 'Halfa' thing afterall!"

Phantom: "... my sister seems to think that they're both neurodivergent in ways that cause them to have object permanence problems."

She turned to look off into space & huffed sadly, seeming to be remembering something.

Phantom: "So... they'll hyperfocus on something, mostly their work, & just... forget about anything that isn't right in front of them..."

The other ghost seemed to contemplate that, then suddenly realized something, turning to look at his lover.

Plasmius: "Oh..."

Because he knew exactly what having a neglectful parent felt like himself.

Phantom: "Yeah... They were so excited about their newest invention working that they didn't even notice that their twin children had just died in it..."

The Fentons sobered for a moment, thinking what horrible parents she'd had. It was interesting to think that the Phantoms might be children of neglect, but Maddie figured that this could explain their attention-seeking attitudes & seeming need to be seen as heroes. While they were still little more than ectoplasmic scum & were putting people in danger with their very existences, Maddie could start to see the method behind the madness.

The Wisconsin Ghost's pointed ears drooped, something neither Fenton had ever seen him do before.

He turned away.

Plasmius: "I see... I didn't realize..."

Phantom: "It's fine. I'm fine. We've survived this long. Sort of..."

They just sat in somber, contemplative silence after that.

---

The Wisconsin Ghost's curiosity about their apparent ecto-biology didn't end there & the next time he & the girl Phantom got together at the abandoned clocktower, he asked her, rather embarrassedly, about why she hadn't been surprised by his knot.

Phantom: "Because it's just part of Ecto-Organic reproduction."

This got the Drs. Fenton's attention.

Plasmius: "Ecto-Organic? Please clarify, my dear."

Phantom: "Things living in the IR that were never part of the living realms to begin with. Like the Behemoth. He's an Ecto-Organism."

Plasmius: "But I was a human once. What does this have to do with me?"

Phantom: "I'm getting to that."

Phantom: "Though we died like Ecto-Forms, that is to say, ectoplasmic entities that were once alive & lived in the Living Realms, then died & formed in the IR. However, because the other half of our biologies is actually made of living, organic matter, our ghost halves follow that physicality & are therefore more complex than a large number of Ecto-Forms could ever hope to be. Yeah, an Ecto-Form can become as physically complex as us, but that takes upwards to millennia to happen. As such, because our ghost halves formed this way from the very start, we have physiologies more in common with Ecto-Sapiens (sentient & sapient Ecto-Organisms) than other Ecto-Formic Ghosts. Because of that, we share a similar reproductive cycle to the IR natives, but it also mixes with the reproductivity of our other halves. We'll actually have an easier time of it because Ecto-Sapiens can only reproduce at certain times & with certain people & our other halves make it so we're always fertile to a degree."

The reference to them as being hybrids got Maddie thinking that that might be what the ghost girl had referred to before as them being 'Halfas.' The question was 'what were their other halves?' She'd need to keep looking into it. Though, the idea that anything ectoplasmic in nature could create anything was utter codswallop. Ghosts couldn't make anything. They could only destroy.

Maddie briefly recalled her family being tormented by a poltergeist when she was little. It'd been just after her father'd died & they'd had to move north to escape the violence of the KKK with her mother & 4 sisters. That'd really been what'd started her on her path to ectology.

Vlad: "So, we wont have any problems then?"

Maddie snapped back to attention at the realization that the Wisconsin Ghost had just told her outright the reason as to their odd behavior. So, he wanted children & the girl had offered to give him some. While it was a ludicrous concept, there had to be some merit in it somewhere. Or the ghost girl was lying to him as it seemed that while the blue ghost had been dead longer, it'd also been indicated that he'd been isolated from his own kind for a long time while the Phantoms had more knowledge of their own 'ecto-biology.' As such, she could be taking advantage of him to meet her own ends.

Which was more what Maddie was leaning towards believing.

The Phantom Phemme then proceeded to explain the basics of A/B/O dynamics. Alphas, Betas, Omegas, how they interact with each other, scents & their importance to interactions between dynamics, nests, knots, &, specifically, Alpha ruts & Omega heats.

The Fentons listened in with rapt fascination as the Phantom girl explained these 'dynamics' to the supposed elder, who was also mesmerized.

The scientists had never even considered the idea that there could've been creatures in the Ghost Zone besides ghosts of the dead & they were very dubious of the things she was saying, having never seen evidence of it.

But, to think that there could be actual biological creatures in there that evolved just like humans, but used ectoplasm instead of matter & could reproduce like living beings was incredible &, at least, worth investigating.

However, even if she was lying, it would still bring them insight into the Ghost Girl's mental state & if nothing else, that was interesting data to look over.

Plasmius: "So... it's normal?

Phantom: "As normal as can be in our crazy situation."

The Wisconsin Ghost ran his hand over the mattress beneath him.

Plasmius: "And, this is?"

Phantom: "A nest."

Plasmius: "So, what does that make me?"

Phantom: "Depends on whether you go into heat or rut."

Plasmius: "How do I find out?"

Phantom: "Well, ruts only happen 1-2 times a year while heats happen every month."

It seemed to register in his head what he might be with that information & he appeared to puff up with pride.

Plasmius: "So, I'm an Alpha..."

The girl poked him in the side.

Phantom: "Hang on, don't get a big head. Alpha is just your biological dynamic. There is also an extra dynamic based on your personality. When combined together, they create a more complex web of dynamics. For instance, I may be an Omega, but I have the countenance of an Alpha. This makes me an OA."

Plasmius: "Then... what is my second dynamic?"

Phantom: "Honestly? It takes time to find out. Of course, it's also affected by your preferences. So, if you're naturally a sub at most times, then that's an indication that you might be an AO. A switch can mean AB, but that isn't all there is to it. The initial A just indicates your instincts & being sentient means that we can defy our instincts if we want to badly enough."

The other ghost seemed to huff.

Plasmius: "Then, I can guarantee that I'll be AA."

Phantom: "Oh, we'll see, Hotshot."

The Wisconsin Ghost startled, his cheeks growing pink at the nickname she gave him that wasn't some variation of what Jack would call him. It felt more personal.

He pressed a balled fist to his mouth & coughed to clear his throat.

Plasmius: "And... these cycles... make it easier to reproduce?"

Phantom: "Well, since I'm an Omega & you're an Alpha, then yeah. I'm more likely to get pregnant at these times. Why? Do you need help with your ruts?"

Plasmius: "I... well... I suppose it does get a bit overwhelming..."

Phantom: "Then, next time your cycle begins, call me."

---

(2 1/2 Months Later)

Dina stared, blank-faced, at the little rod in front of her. Positive... She turned to look at the other 4 she'd used. Positive, positive, positive, &... positive... All positive...

This was really happening. I mean, she knew it was part of the deal, but she hadn't expected it so soon! She was still on the pill for goodness sakes! She'd have to stop taking it now.

They'd only been having sex for 3 months upon her turning 18! She didn't even know how far along she was! Just that it was between 10 days & a month. She guessed that was what she got for helping him with his rut... He'd been so cute all needy & clinging to her, humping desperately against her hip too... Not to mention the broken condoms.

Well, Vlad would be delighted at least. But, she still had 7 months of high school left! This was SO messed up! She hid her face in her hands.

She couldn't tell Vlad. Not yet at least. She'd only JUST sent in her college applications. If she wanted to get into college & maintain her independence, she couldn't tell him until she was accepted & everything was paid for. She wasn't about to let him pay for her college.

---

As soon as she got the chance, Dina set up a prenatal appointment at an underground free clinic that was known for its confidentiality.

When there, she met Dr. Rhinehart.

They talked about Dina's medical history, but when asked about the other parent’s medical history the female halfa was unable to answer.

Dr. Rhinehart, noting the age listed on her patient's file, she then asked if it was a one-night stand or rape, to which Dina answered 'no' to both. Stating that she & the father have been sexually active together since she turned 18 & that while she'd been on the pill & he'd used condoms, they'd frequently broken & she was against using plan b on principle.

When Dr. Rhinehart asked if she wanted an abortion, she answered 'no' again. That she wanted the baby & so would the father once she told him.

Rhinehart then reminded her that it was 'her body, her choice' & that if the father was pressuring her, they could call the authorities. That the father's opinion shouldn't even be a factor because it wasn't his body that the fetus was using to survive.

Rhinehart: "We literally have the equipment to perform the procedure right now if you wanted to."

Then, proceeded to give all these statistics about how the fetus is just a clump of cells & won't develop the necessary nervous system to feel pain until the 20-22 week benchmark. As such, it wouldn't feel anything. It'd be like it never even existed. Blah blah-blah blah-blah.

Dina looked at her in both disbelief & insult, then reiterated her one-word statement.

Dina: "Uh, no. What I learned in biology class was that at the moment of conception, a genetic code is created that is unique to all others before & all those that'll come after. That it's a blueprint for building a person. That's hair, skin, & eye color, hair texture, personality, proclivity for mental illness, tall or short, estigmatism or 20/20 vision. It's all right there, right now inside of me in the process of being built at this very moment."

Dina: "And frankly ma'am, even if I didn't want the baby, I'd still keep them & raise them. I'm Pro-Life & believe that every life should get the chance to live it."

Dina: "The father didn't force me into anything, thank you very much & you're wrong. The father should absolutely get a say provided he didn't rape the mother. It was his seed that made it possible. It isn't like I just asexually reproduced or anything. Taking that away from him would be unfair. In the absence of the baby's own desires, the father's wants should be considered in unison with the mother's to act as a substitute."

Dina: "You can say all those things all you like, but I believe that as soon as they are conceived, your body isn't just your own anymore. It's also theirs. That they deserve just as many rights as we do."

Dina: "Not to mention, even disregarding religious belief as a factor, we are currently living in a town on the edge of life & death. Ghosts are real & we see them on an almost daily basis here. That means there's an afterlife & even if that doesn't 100% confirm the existence of souls in a way that scientists would accept, it lends credence to the idea."

Rhinehart: "But you're 18. This will make your life extremely difficult even with the father & your family involved. The world isn't kind to teen mothers."

Dina: "And I'll kick life in the teeth if it tries to mess with me or my baby. Regardless, I'm not about to send any child off to a possible eternity of misery before they even get the chance to live just because it isn't convenient for me. That'd be small-minded, irresponsible, & selfish of me. So, for the last time, 'no.'"

Dina then crossed her arms over her chest & stared pointedly at the woman in front of her.

Dina: "I respect your opinions as a professional & an individual, but I don't agree with them. Please, respect mine too & we can agree to disagree."

The doctor then conceded & never asked again.

The ghostly teen then proceeded to inform the doctor about her family's medical history, then they started on a complete check-up. Including a physical exam with blood & urine tests.

Before the blood test, Dina broke it to her that there might be some anomalies in her blood, explaining that she was a Fenton & had been exposed to ectoplasm since she was born.

The doctor made a note of that on her clipboard, then measured her height, weight, blood pressure, breathing, & pulse.

Next came a breast exam, a pelvic exam, a Pap test, & testing for sexually transmitted diseases. Though, Dina assured her there'd be none. The father was her first & he was very meticulous with himself.

They screened for diabetes, anemia, hepatitis B, & rubella.

Dr. Rhinehart talked with her about her diet & lifestyle. To which, Dina replied that she normally got a lot of exercise, but didn't go into too much detail into what kind beyond saying that she did gymnastics, danced a little as a hobby, & was a certified EMT & often helped out during ghost attacks, providing medical assistance & getting people to safety. As a result, she moved around a lot.

Dr. Rhinehart stated that the most important vitamin she could take was folic acid, which ideally, she should've started taking before she'd even gotten pregnant, but considering it wasn't planned, it wasn't likely that she had.

The doctor gave Dina advice about any changes she could make to have the healthiest pregnancy possible.

She then brought up that some types of medicines are dangerous to use during pregnancy.

Before the medical professional could begin to list them, the ghost girl then commented that that wouldn't be a problem as she didn't take anything to begin with besides vitamins.

---

(A Week Later; Winter Break)

Jazz was visiting back home for Christmas when she pieced together all the symptoms & confronted Dina, "Are you pregnant?"

Dina froze, but it just figured that it would be her sister who put it all together first.

When she didn't answer, Jazz freaked out. "Oh my God! You ARE!!"

Dina shushed her.

Jazz whispered, "Do Mom & Dad know?"

Dina whispered aggressively in return, "Of course not! You remember how they reacted when they learned you were dating Johnny that one time? Imagine how they'd react to this!"

Jazz: "Well, you can't hide it forever. You've got Mom's body type & her symptoms when she had you & Danny were very obvious. Not to mention how huge she got."

Dina: "We were twins. Of course, she got big!"

Jazz: "Twins are genetic."

That hadn't really hit her before, but her sister made a good point. She could have twins.

Jazz: "Do you know who the father is?"

So insulted by the insinuation that Dina didn't even really think about the consequences of her answer before replying. "Of course I know who the father is! I'm not like Paulina. I don't sleep around with every guy I see!"

Jazz: "Then, who is it?"

Dina: "I... can't tell you..."

Jazz: "He's not threatening you, is he? Blink twice if you're in danger."

Exasperated, Dina replied, "I'm not in danger! I just don't trust you to not tell our parents & inadvertently sic them on the poor guy. Not to mention Danny. God only knows how he'd react."

Jazz: "Is it someone they wouldn't approve of?"

Dina looked away.

Jazz's eyes widened. "Is it a delinquent? Or *gasp* an older man?!"

Dina glared at her sister, face red. "Jazz stop! I'm not telling you!"

"Not telling Jazz what?" Jack walked in with a big, curious grin on his face.

Dina stood up straight, "Nothing!" Then, just left.

---

(The Day Before Christmas)

Dina had warned them. She really did. She'd told them that she was tired of trying to squeeze out a decent holiday from Christmas while all they did was make she & her brother miserable.

So, she'd given them one last chance: Christmas, no arguing!

It only took til halfway through the second day before they were at it again.

So, Dina packed a suitcase & left for Polter Heights to spend the holiday with Vlad. She left a note saying that she was off to spend Christmas with a friend & she recommended that Danny do the same.

Of course, Vlad was surprised, but also delighted because his own Christmas had been horrible so far. Which was disappointing, because he used to love Christmas growing up. It'd been the one time a year when his father wasn't such a neglectful & condescending asshole & his mother actually enjoyed herself.

He welcomed Dina in, saying that he was just about to go out & catch dinner. So, he invited her to come along.

As they walked through the snow, Vlad hummed a carol to himself. However, he stopped when he noticed that it just seemed to sour the girl's already dour mood.

Vlad: "Did something happen?"

Dina growled.

Dina: "Something always happens! Every Christmas!"

She recounted her & her twin's many holiday misadventures throughout their life.

Vlad: "That's... I didn't expect Maddie to be so opposed to St. North."

Dina: "Wait, North? Are you telling me Santa is real??"

Vlad scoffed.

Vlad: "Of course he is! He's a Guardian of Childhood & the Spirit of Wonder. It's his duty to spread wonder through children's lives so they never forget all the things that make life special. Seems their fighting & Jack's attempts at catching him have managed to keep him from visiting your home. I admit, his tagline's a little corny, but well, that's just how Christmas is."

Dina: "So, you're telling me, he could've just let himself be captured just once so Mom would finally lay off & let us have a normal Christmas??"

Vlad: "Well. Not necessarily. Only children who believe in him, those with some sort of sensitivity to the spirits, & other spirits/ghosts can see him & his ilk."

Dina: "Of course..."

Vlad: "I'm sorry, котёнок. I wasn't intending to make things worse." (котёнок is pronounced 'ka-TYO-nak' & translates to 'kitten.')

Dina: "No, it's alright. I just..." *sigh* "Steamrolling past the bombshell that is learning that Santa Clause & possibly several other mythological & holiday icon is real! I've just never had a real Christmas like everyone else has. Like, I want to! I really do! And by all accounts, I should love Christmas! It's right up my alley with all the festivities & horribly obnoxious, but harmless clothes & giving gifts to those you love & morals about friendship & family & all around cheeriness. I mean, I should be all over that & I want to be! You're gonna tell me how you know Santa Clause later btw!"

He did not look forward to having to tell her that he only learned about him because he kept leaving coal in his stockings. Diana was his friend (with benefits), but they still messed with each other.

Dina: "But they just... I feel like my parents have spoiled what could've been something amazing with incredible, fond memories. Filling it up with their selfish bullshit!"

Dina: "Now, if I so much as hear a carol, I..."

Vlad: "Remember all the bad that you'd experienced with it."

Dina: "Yeah..."

The elder felt honestly terrible for her situation.

Vlad: "Why not pretend it isn't Christmas?"

Dubious, Dina furrowed her brow, glancing around at all the decorations.

Dina: "I'm not sure that'll work, Big Guy."

He hid his slightly redder cheeks behind his scarf & hoped she just figured it was the cold.

Vlad: "No, I'm serious. It's not Christmas. It's not even December anymore. They're just delayed on taking down decorations & everything's on sale. So, let's enjoy the after-Christmas sales!"

For her part, Dina's actually pretty touched. She blushes & joins him, trying to disassociate what she was doing from her previous Christmas experiences.

It took a bit, but Dina began to feel better & was better able to enjoy herself. They browsed shops, telling people that Vlad was her godfather (which he was &, I assure you, they are both aware of how screwed up that is). Talked with shopkeepers. Got dinner at one of Vlad's preferred restaurants in town. Bought a few things. Vlad mostly got baking supplies, which is how Dina learned that he loved to bake & it was a tradition he picked up from his mother to bake sweets from scratch for the holidays.

She became enthused, saying she liked to bake too. Vlad smiled at her.

Vlad: "Then, this will be our tradition too! I-if you want it to be, that is."

He was embarassed by his stutter, but Dina couldn't tell.

Dina smiled, touched that he was willing to share his tradition with her.

Dina: "Yeah, I... Thank you..."

At the end of the day, they go back to Vlad's & spend the night baking, making a mess, waging flour war on each other. For the first time since he'd live there, real laughter filled the halls & Vlad never wanted it to stop.

While they waited for the sweets to finish baking & cooling, they drank hot cocoa, munched on storebought Christmas cookies, & ripped on/criticized how cheesy & predictable Hallmark Christmas movies were.

---

When Christmas morning came, Dina nervously handed a clothing box to the father of her child. (Gosh, that was so strange to think about. She had to get on telling him about that.)

Vlad was surprised, but took it & upon opening it, he found a handknit green & gold Packers scarf folded on top of a long, brown, furr-lined winter coat with his monogram on both. The one on the coat was beneath the lapel. He could tell that they had been painstakingly handmade with love & care & the quality, while not Gucci, was very high.

Vlad just stared at them for a moment, face growing slowly more red before looking back up to the teen.

Vlad: "Did you... make these for me?"

She seemed bashful, smiling at him sweetly.

Dina: "Well... yeah. I did..."

Vlad blinked tears away rapidly, his heart warm with gratitude & thankfulness.

Vlad: "I... don't know what to say... Just, thank you."

He put them both on & found them to be a perfect fit. They were comfortable & if he knew anything about his Darling, the coat would be practical too.

Searching, he found several pockets both on the outside & inside with zippers to store things. Even a buttonable pouch to comfortably tuck a drink thermos so he doesn't have to carry it by hand. The thing was a wearable suitcase without looking frumpy or bulky & it was just so quirky, yet stylish in exactly the way he'd expect from his Diana & he loved it.

When it was time for Vlad to give a gift, he seemed embarrassed.

Vlad: "I tried to find something nice that I thought you'd like, but I know you're not expressly materialistic, so it was difficult to choose."

He pulled out a red box that fit into his hand, then sputtered at seeing her expression & realized what it must've looked like.

Vlad: "It isn't what you think it is. I actually found a small family-owned jewelers. I was surprised by the quality of their work, especially when considering their prices, & asked them if they could make something for my... girlfriend."

They both went silent for a moment & looked away awkwardly.

Vlad: "Well... here..."

He placed the box in Dina's hand & when she opened it, she found a pair of platinum backed, iris earrings with amethyst petals & pink tourmaline centers. They perfectly matched her grandma's locket.

Dina: "Oh, Vlad..."

She had tears in her eyes.

The millionaire seemed awkward, fiddling with the hem of his new coat nervously in a way that he wouldn't around anyone else but perhaps his mother.

Vlad: "They were actually very cheap considering the quality of the work. So, I didn't spend too much & I know you like to support local businesses & I... Dina, please say something."

Dina: "Oh, Vlad. I love them so much. You put so much thought into this. Thank you."

She began to put them in her ears.

Vlad flushed brighter, smiling at how she looked in them & how much happier she seemed now.

Vlad: "Merry Christmas?"

Dina: "Merry Christmas! <3"

She then leaned forward & gave him a chaste kiss on the lips.

He tinted red. It was only the second time she'd ever kissed him outside of sex. Something about this time felt different though.

Touching his lip, he decided that... he liked it.

---

These were Dina's first fond Christmas memories & she would cherish them forever.

Phantom Twins AU Masterlist

[sonxflight]

Might put some HCs for Ryou's yet another crossover AU as well (ft. me other gremlin aka @plxsmius and, again, @nerdynanny's feral scientists):

✧ The descendant of the man who had the name Katsuhiko as the crowned emperor, with a big part of his ancestor's biography remaining obscure. Unbeknownst to him, he's actually a reincarnation of this very same ancestor, while there are certain ghosts who are aware of this and what actually happened to Katsuhiko, namely Clockwork. In addition, Katsuhiko's katana sword is Sakai's family regalia which he was trained to wield since relatively early age.

✧ Spent a share of his childhood in Japan before travelling the world with his family and settling down in America. Is an incredibly talented physician who once attended the college with Jack, Maddie, Vlad and Ford.

✧ With Maddie insisting, willingly took the role of a godfather to Jasmine and Danny alongside with Ford and Vlad, and showed oneself being a reliable babysitter during siblings' childhood years. In addition, is an uncle-in-law to Dipper and Mabel.

✧ Due to the specifics of his mentality, is fully acceptant of otherworldly creatures being a natural part of the world. Treats ghosts with respect and prefers to reason with them when it's possible rather than throwing a punch basically this but for ghosts lmao.

✧ Was the first to discover the portal accident granted Vlad his ghost powers and has been keeping it a secret alongside with Ford. Found out about Danny becoming the second human/ghost hybrid earlier than Vlad, simply due to being attentive to his godson's and Phantom's at times way too similar mannerisms and behavior.

✧ Is often to have an argument with Vlad in regards to Danny. Supports their godson when it comes to the pursuing of his dreams and just wants Danny's life to be as peaceful as possible, while Vlad believes Danny needs to toughen up and show this teeth more frequently in order to become more withstanding of both the human world and the ghost zone's unpredictable environment.

✧ Is very much 🔪🔪🔪 alongside with Vlad when it comes to Bill and his attempts to get back at Ford. Despite any of their arguing and butting heads, him and Vlad make one hell of battle partners when it comes to protecting people they care deeply about.

[mutable-manifestation]

Actual Scientists Jack & Maddie AU Part 4

Part 1 & 2

Part 3

Explaining The Papers (™) to Frostbite takes a While (also ™).

Though with no more imminent threat of “Vlad maybe finding out he’s the ghost king and becoming Insufferable (also also ™) about it” Danny was feeling a lot less stressed - Sam and Tucker, too, if the fact that they were actually drinking their tea now instead of just barely sipping at it was any indication - or they could’ve only just cooled enough to actually drink, the FF did tend to overestimate the level of heat they could tolerate just a tad.

Not to say that he wasn’t still stressed, given the whole “the Justice League is trying to summon ME” thing. But like. They were reaching out hoping for peace, not hoping to skin/dissect/exterminate him. 

Plus they don’t know how to summon him; he figures he has time. Hopefully enough to get Frostbite’s advice.

And mostly to cool his own nerves, because now that he knows they did try to help and are helping the Justice League is Cool again! And they want to meet him! 

Well, they want to meet the ghost king, but they already watched him! They thought he was a capable hero! 

Danny isn’t really used to getting positive feedback, so being called “good hands” by Superman - Superman! The hero! The Alien hero! (well, one of them. Martian Manhunter is also amazing but he hasn’t complimented Danny in person yet so he doesn’t have any expectations for Danny to live up to. Maybe. Hypothetically). 

The JL is so cool and they think he’s cool! Or at least capable! Except now he has to impress them not just as a hero but as a king?

Yeah.

Suffice to say, Danny is now a little nervous.

(And also maybe redirecting his nerves intentionally to be about the JL so he doesn’t have to breathe into a bag about being probably the only thing between the Zone and eventual total dimensional collapse because Frostbite was very ‘this is normal and okay’ about it but it’s eventual total dimensional collapse [ALL OF THEM] and it is Danny’s problem. But no, he’s just nervous about meeting the JL. Totally.)

Reciting pretty much his whole life story - well, the basics of his parents’ work and then pretty much everything from the portal onward - gives him time to untense, and honestly, getting it all out to a mostly uninvolved third party - one he likes and trusts - really is a weight off his shoulders.

He’ll never tell Jazz; the amount of I-told-you-so-energy she’d leech into the air would be unbearable.

Sam and Tucker tag in here and there too, and mostly take over when they get to the part where the GIW bought Fenton Works for a short while to try and destroy the zone. Danny winces at the memory of his behavior back then.

The explanation runs for longer than it could have, given the aside they make when they get to his parents’ theories. 

Frostbite is quick to confirm the combat-as-a-positive-social-behavior thing, and it turns out Sam is right about how to tell the difference.

Of course, Danny thinks they were all trying to kill him the rest of the way, but then that’s not a concern most ghosts have, so Frostbite offers his own perspective.

Skulker wants to hang his pelt on a wall: clearly unfriendly.

Technus is just having fun - enjoying playing with new technology in the living realm and throwing Danny around/being thrown around. He’s a friend. The whole world domination idea isn’t malicious as far as he’s concerned, because damage to the living realm doesn’t mean much to ghosts. What do they care about the living? What is the value of a single world as collateral when weighed against the games of ghosts? 

If Danny wants him to stop that, Frostbite tells him, he can just propose a new game.

Ember genuinely just wanted a powerboost from the Earth that first time, but her returns since are a gesture of friendship.

Spectra definitely hates him though. Which is good. He wouldn’t know how to feel if Frostbite had said that that whole mess was an attempt at friendship.

As for the thing with his parents, Frostbite compares it to winning a tournament only to find out the other participants lost intentionally. You haven’t really won a competition if the competitors were not competing. 

Like going in for a handshake only to get a “too slow” - even more insulting if it’s the first “too slow” you’ve ever gotten - Tucker suggests.

Or like asking a parent to a hug and only getting a wave. Not even a high-five.

They each go through another three cups of tea before the story winds down, Frostbite doing adding little more than the occasional nod or noise of acknowledgement - barring the social combat explanation, of course. 

It’s nice, Danny thinks, to have an adult that actually listens. Even if said adult is a dead yeti.

“You have given me much to think on Great One, Friends Sam and Tucker,” he says after the three of them finally run out of words, giving each of them a nod. “And soon, we shall have much more to discuss. First, however, it seems that I have a meeting to call. And you have living needs that require attending to yet. Eat, rest, and, if you would, return here… let’s say the day after tomorrow? Then we can begin to discuss the…issues. At hand.”

Back in the Specter Speeder, Tucker wonders aloud if “call a meeting” is code for yelling at the Observants.

Then he looks at his PDA and realizes how late it’s gotten - namely, past all of their curfews - and they promptly turn the conversation to getting their story straight (and three backups because they’re all feeling paranoid with how high-stakes everything suddenly became. Not that the occasional ghost looking to wreck earth wasn't already high-stakes, but the whole political aspect made it feel... different).

***

Danny is thankful it’s summer vacation at the moment, because the next morning is a Monday. 

He doesn’t know how he’d manage school with his mind miles away wondering about things like “how to king” and “how to maintain the fabric of reality” and other totally normal, non-stressful topics. 

Just normal high schooler things.

His parents are gone before he’s even up, leaving a note for him and Jazz on the kitchen table. 

They eat a quiet breakfast together.

The whole house is quiet. It’s unnatural, he thinks, and the small frown on Jazz’ face tells him she feels the same. 

They normally enjoy the brief lulls of quiet that their parents leave behind, but this is perhaps the first time they’ve ever missed breakfast - well, the first time they haven’t been in the house during breakfast at least. A welding torch, clanging metal, clinking glass, minor explosions, and excited shouting is the usual background noise of their morning meal - whether from the basement door or at the table itself.

This time, the silence is disquieting.

Even more so since it means that Danny could, at any time, be teleported somewhere. He really should have asked Frostbite about how that works before they left - they’d already missed curfew anyway.

After they’ve both finished eating, he takes the opportunity to fill Jazz in on the whole… everything.

She is, to put it lightly, Not Impressed.

“-s bad enough they let you fight Pariah Dark in the first place! You should never have been in that position! I know that you’re a capable fighter Danny, but you’re fourteen-”

“I’m almost fifteen,” he grumbles.

“You’re not yet fifteen,” she says, glaring into the distance, expression practically snarling. Danny thinks she might be imagining strangling an Observant, based on the… choice words she’d had for them earlier. “And they want you to be a king!”

Tucker chooses that moment to arrive, walking right into the path of where Jazz is glaring and freezing until Sam shoves him out of her way to close the door and drag him into the kitchen.

“Who spat in your cereal?” she asks, moving to sit and kicking the fourth chair out for Tucker.

“Whoever or whatever is responsible for deciding that a fourteen year old child should be king when there are no doubt numerous thousand-plus year old candidates who don’t have human lives they still need to attend to!” She bellows, throwing her hands up in frustration.

The trio exchange a glance while she takes a few calming breaths.

Danny kind of wants to point out that he isn’t a child, he’s a teenager. And she’s barely older than him.

But he does have some sense of self-preservation, even if there’s only so much self left to preserve. Heh.

Then she gasps.

“Danny! You’re still half alive!”

“Er, yes?”

“Maybe that’s why the Watching Wraiths didn’t say anything! Maybe you can’t be the Ghost King if you’re still partly alive!”

“But Frostbite said-” Tucker starts, only to be cut off by Jazz.

“Frostbite could be wrong.” She sniffs. “And even if he isn’t you there are millenia before it becomes a problem. The Zone can wait for you to graduate high school before it goes demanding things of you. Or longer.”

The words are decisive.

Still….

“The Justice League-”

“Can cope. They’ll be a little paranoid about retaliation, but a little paranoia won’t kill them. And maybe letting them stew a bit will teach them to be more active about taking down genocidal organizations before they hurt so many people.”

“That’s a great idea,” Sam says, tone saying the opposite, “except the part where they’re actively working on figuring out how to summon the ghost king - who is Danny - and are probably also going to try and make contact with Phantom at some point - who is also Danny.”

Jazz frowns.

“Well. You don’t have to be a king to talk to the Justice League. Just tell them you’re still too young - which is true - or that the coronation is going to take a long time to plan - which, according to Frostbite, would be a reasonable claim. And also true since you will not be taking the throne until you are at least 18 if the Fenton Peeler and I have anything to say about it.”

“Uh. I don’t know if the Peeler is the best idea. With your…aim.” Tucker cringes, shrinking back in his seat when her unhappy frown snaps to him.

Then she looks thoughtful.

“You know what. I’ll just use a specter deflector. You mentioned before how humans are ghosts in the ghosts zone; see if they still feel like making a child a king when they’ve got an unstrikable target punching their lights out about it.”

“Please don’t antagonize a bunch of ghosts who could try and attack you while you're sleeping,” Danny pleads.

“It’s bad enough that all this has impacted your sleep and grades and attendance records so much; I’m not going to let a bunch of ghost nobles - or whatever they’re called - mess things up for you even more. If they don’t like my proposals they can un-friendly fight me about it, and if you’re worried about retribution I can turn on the house defenses in my room when I sleep. But I am not letting this go.”

She stands.

“Since he didn’t give you a time, we’ll leave to visit Frostbite after breakfast tomorrow-”

“We?” the trio ask hesitantly.

“Of course. But for now, there’s something else we need to do, little brother.”

That said, she turns and heads for the basement.

Danny and Tucker blink at the abrupt departure, while Sam just frowns thoughtfully.

The three exchange one more meaningful glance, before sharing a shrug and moving to follow her.

They arrive in the basement to Fenton Fighting Ring rising out of the floor.

“Uh, Jazz?” Danny tries.

“We’re going to fight!”

In stark contrast to both her words and her furious demeanor upstairs, her tone and expression are bright and eager.

“Um. That’s. Nice, but you know that’s a ghost thing, right?” he offers hesitantly.

“I mean, I still fight with Dora,” Sam adds, the traitor.

“Thank you Sam,” Jazz starts. “But even without that example; you are part ghost, brother mine. That means fighting loved ones is a you thing. I love you, so of course I’m going to fight you.”

“Mom and Dad theorized - and Frostbite confirmed - that the fighting is a social behavior. Many social behaviors are also needs. Members of social species that are not allowed to socialize become stressed and their health worsens. Humans who don’t communicate with other humans for too long experience negative side effects, too little physical contact can lead to depressed mood and so forth,” she monologues as she moves into the ring.

“As you’re still half human, neglecting the social needs of your ghost half could negatively impact your wellbeing. Also. I’m your sister and I love you. If I could never hug you I’d be bummed. This is like the ghost equivalent of that. So. Square up, little brother.”

Danny is kind of touched, actually. 

Still.

“...Don’t you at least want an anti-creep stick?” he asks, gesturing at her general lack of ghost gear as he slips intangibly through the ropes around the ring.

“Nope!” She says cheerfully. “For this match we’ll be doing no powers and no weapons - just basic human strength and skill. We can try other kinds of fights later.”

Danny pales.

“No way! You’re a 4th degree black belt!”

“9th!” she corrects, still cheerfully - and she clearly means well, but for Danny that smile is beginning to look like an omen of ill fortune.

“That’s even worse!” he cries. “I’m only a blue belt! Barely!”

“I ~told~ you you should’ve stuck with mom’s training,” she sing-songs teasingly.

He cringes, but takes a stance.

“Now let's see how much you remember.”

That’s the only warning he gets before she’s in his face.

His strength, speed, stamina, endurance, and durability are all completely back to baseline in human form unless he actively uses his flight to compensate, but one thing he notes as the fight draws on is that his reaction speed is still the same.

Even so, it’s painfully obvious just how beyond him she is in terms of skill.

Without any powers to fall back on, Jazz runs circles around him like it’s nothing.

His reaction speed means that he sees everything she’s doing and that he has time to bring his arms up, but he keeps lagging trying to recall forms and getting shoved around for it, the defenses he manages too poor to be of any use. 

Other times he lags because he’s suppressing instinctual power usage.

And multiple times he accidentally, instinctively abandons proper stance all together, habitually falling into the stance of his usual “feral racoon” style of fighting - as Jazz had one called it - which isn’t much of a stance at all in a fight with no powers. Especially given how it's not made for someone fighting on the ground. She takes brutal advantage of every opening.

He’s on the back foot from the first second of the fight, and it’s obvious that it only lasted for longer than one because Jazz allowed it to, testing him.

It’s frustrating that he’s doing so poorly - he knows he’s doing poorly - but despite that, he really is having fun. 

It reminds him of the training spars at the Far Frozen - restrained skill set, fight with defined boundaries and win conditions-

Aaaaand evidently he let his mind wander too much. 

And Jazz noticed. 

And flipped him.

He’s thoroughly pinned in short order and he cannot for the life of him remember how to escape the hold short of cheating with intangibility.

“Uncle,” he calls.

Jazz pulls him to his feet and ruffles his hair.

He squawks indignantly, but she just chuckles.

"Good fight little brother," she calls as she slips between the ropes out of the ring.

"Our hero," Sam drawls as he follows.

Danny just pouts.

"That was just sad, man," Tucker ribs. "And I thought your early ghost fights were bad."

"I'd like to you do better against the 9th degree blackbelt," he grumbles.

"Don't fret, little brother. You'll improve with time," Jazz says as she rejoins them. "Though we'll have to do refreshers of all the previous levels first, given the amount of skill degradation I just saw. But with regular practice you'll back to your previous level and more in no time!"

"Uh. Refreshers?"

"Of course!"

"That seems a bit overkill just for sparring. Couldn't you just...wear a specter deflector or something? Then I can just not use karate."

Jazz, for the first time in a long time, levels him with a very serious look.

"You said that the reason Frostbite can't be the king instead is because he can't beat you in an all out fight. You told me the alternative."

She grabs him by the shoulders and stares into his eyes.

"Danny, Vlad already made a way to shut you away from your ghost powers. Frostbite may be unwilling to end you, and I don't think Vlad would. But you and I both know there are ghosts out there who would destroy you in a heartbeat for that power. And if Vlad has that kind of device, someone else could get one too. Ecto-weapons can give you a leg up if you get sealed away from your ghost powers, but you'll also need the skill to use them successfuly."

She lets go and steps back, tilting her head thoughtfully.

"Even with the ghost powers it's probably a good idea; the crown and ring might power you up but so did the exoskeleton. Clearly they aren’t the only power-ups out there so you can’t rely on strength alone. Skill could be the determining factor one day. And you already said you had fun," she smiles. "Come on little brother, give in to the karate side."

He grimaces.

"Didn't you say you were gonna make the royalty thing a non-issue for like three more years at least," he whines, slumping dramatically.

She raises a brow.

"A blackbelt isn't made in a day."

"Ugh, fine."

He's actually looking forward to it, but Jazz doesn't need to know that. He's duty-bound as a brother to be as annoyingly contrary about sibling bonding as possible, after all.

When Sam asks if they'll teach her and Tucker as well, Jazz is all too happy to include them - best not to have only one sparring partner, avoid forming bad habits and all that.

Both girls dutifully ignore Tucker's protests while they hash out a schedule. Danny pats his shoulder consolingly.

[impyssadobsessions]

Oh! Oh! I have an idea! Okay so some of the first things to go when Secret started sucking people into her death hole was the D.E.O. and A.P.E.S. groups- which were two government groups that had held and handled her (neither treated her well obviously.) D.E.O. stands for Department of Extranormal Operations, and is described as if the guy from x-files got a government branch to use for his theories. Saw a crossover fic put the G.I.W. down as a subset of this branch. A.P.E.S. stands for All-Purpose Enforcement Squad and was less evil, but definitely an antagonistic group at times. Okay so here's my pitch: timeline wise, the Fenton parents would probably already be scientists around this time (assuming we're setting Danny Phantom in current day DC canon). Though it is hard to say. Comics are vague about ages at the best times, but I'd put Tim's age around this era at maybe 14-15? Current day he's supposedly 17-maybe 18, despite being only two years younger than Jason, who we've seen in bars and is thus at least 21. You don't need me to tell you the math don't add up. Anyway I'd say Danny could be anywhere in the ballpark of maybe 7-12 depending on how it shakes out just comparing him and Tim's current canon ages and where Tim's age probably should be when compared to his brothers' (which on the lower end actually would technically put him in the age range for the Hugga Tugga Thuggies thing! Assuming he ages slowly out of kid's cartoons anyway. lmao imagine Danny getting mind controlled to murder his parents as a baby) So Anyway it's totally possible for Maddie and Jack to have ended up on Secret's hitlist either through their anti-ghost research or maybe a past internship in the D.E.O. AU where baby Danny and Jazz watched their parents get murdered by the Justice League's ghost they swore wasn't evil (and that their parents swore was). Like everyone she swallowed was spat up when Robin convinced her to surrender but man the ptsd wouldnt be so easily reversed. Can you imagine the repercussions that domino would have on the Danny Phantom timeline? Woah.

DAmn, yeah that would fuck with them so bad. Amg.. Danny be so crushed.. so much more when he finds out he's a ghost.. or any part of one. Just makes me think he would try to run away actually out of fear. Scared.. but ends up being brought home.. Danny lying as to why he ran away. Trying to go into denial stage.. but makes him even more like oh this is what my powers for when ghosts start coming out of the portal. Even more traumatize if/when Dan event happens because Danny has to acknowledge he IS that powerful and could be THAT evil. But also accepts himself... and stay true to his beliefs.. no matter how hard things are. Ooo can see it getting out eventually to the YJ and JL like leaked from the GIW systems that there is a ghost hero that arose in Amity. Or maybe Tim finds it on like internet/tiktok just late night surfing the web then sees phantom. Anyway that be cool addition to dp x dc lore. Can see his friends not adjusting well either, but they see Danny still being danny first. Before Danny can recognize it himself. Jazz understanding as usual when finding out. Danny even more wary of the justice league. Because in his head if he ends up following same line of events it could possibly end the same.. so its best he stays low. :T Because he doesn't know what personally happen but safe bet to avoid other heroes. LOL So this misunderstanding of events. XD

[thesoulspulse]

Danny Phantom Randomness (My Mom Is A SPY!?)

Not sure if anyone else has done this before but if not...let’s make it a thing! So, in my personal headcanon for Maddie since all we really know is she has an older sister I usually give their family a military/scientific background, as in her dad was a General or something and her mother was some sort of scientist.

Not to mention, something about this gif made me think “Wouldn’t it be super cool if Danny’s mom was a former Spy/Secret Agent?” I mean we do see her kind of act like a classic film noir spy once in the show actually! AS much as I despise this episode “Girl’s Night Out” (like most of season 3 like the rest of us phans) I think this supports my idea even if this was probably only meant to be a tip of the hat to those good 1950′s raincoats that were popular in a lot of spy movies.

I’m pretty sure I saw something that indicated Maddie went to college in 1985 with Vlad and Jack and if she’s 40ish in the show then...I think that means Maddie was born in the early 1960′s which is around the time the first James Bond film came out. She would have been too young to see them at the time but spy movies were pretty popular around then. Also, the fashion was pretty similar between the 1950-1960′s for the most part too. Oh and on that note, before you ask, yeah, I did make the gifs below since I couldn’t find any online of just these specific clips from “Girls Night Out.”

I think it goes without saying that Maddie’s already clearly has a lot of prior combat training too we see throughout the show, especially in the episode “Maternal Instinct.”  Her knowledge of gun safety, the fact that she’s almost always prepared to ‘rough it out in the woods’ with water activated sleeping bag the size of pills stashed in her satchel, it all SCREAMS spy. That said, how did she go from spy to ghost hunter? Well, one way or another she’s probably always believed in ghosts or maybe...while on a mission she had her first encounter with one and that’s what made Maddie want to make a serious career change...

Anyways, this is just an AU idea either way so do with it what you will. I’m just sharing it for the heck of it and am already quite happy with my Halfa Maddie AU since we don’t see much of College Maddie with ghost powers instead of College Vlad or Jack. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to try to cut a deal with Nocturne so he’ll finally let me sleep since I’ve been up all night with a sore neck since I must’ve strained it somehow or have been sleeping at a weird angle, idk.

Bonus Screenshot (because I thought it was funny):

[dp-marvel94]

Nightmare or Sweet Dream

Summary: “The GIW… the GIW said primate research.” Jack says quietly, too quietly “They didn’t… didn’t specify non-human primate.” The words fall heavy, sinking into Maddie’s heart like a knife. “It’s not a chimpanzee or rhesus monkey, is it?” For Ectober Day 24

Notes: Based on this post. @magicalmonsterhero submitted a post, asking about an au where Vlad‘s (and/or Danny’s) powers were not the result of a portal accident. I wrote a ficlet about "the happy version of Danny being an intentional experiment" but decided to make it into an actual story for Ectober 24, Prompt Nightmare/Sweet Dream 

Word count: 6,230

Also on A03 and Fanfiction.net

A young couple sits at their kitchen table, talking in hushed voices while their toddler daughter plays in the living room. 

“What are we going to do?” Maddie feels like crying, clutching the foreclosure notice in her hands. 

Her husband looks over at their little girl. He swallows. “We’ll...we’ll figure something out.”

The woman has rarely seen the man this somber, the distress barely below the surface. He’s trying to stay calm for her, for their child but…. Maddie knows he doesn’t believe it. She can feel it like the tiredness she’s felt in her bones for years, since both the best and the worst day of her life. She looks at the stack of medical bills and….

The blood. The doctor and nurses shouting. They’re pushing a crying Jack out of the room. And...where’s her baby girl?

It was a nightmare and this… This is a nightmare.

“We need a miracle.” Maddie says. And she doesn’t believe in miracles. But maybe... they can get regular jobs and save up money and…

The doorbell suddenly rings. Jack blinks, turning. “Who’s that?”

Maddie stands up, opening the door. And there are three men in white suits, standing across the threshold.

The woman gapes for a long moment before collecting her wits. After a flash of a badge, she invites the agents inside.

“Mr. and Mrs. Fenton. We have a proposition for you.” One of the agents offers. 

After briefly excusing herself to take Jazz upstairs for a nap, Maddie returns. The scientists and agents talk and… Maddie’s eyes bulge. “You’re offering… that much money?”

She hands the paper to Jack. “Holy-”

“Yes. If you’ll accept the project. As my colleague explained, the head scientist withdrew his team at the last minute. We need your expertise to salvage this research.”

Maddie raises an eyebrow. “Which is?” 

“Classified.” The agent clams up, lip pursed in a thin line.

The scientists look at each other. Jack frowns. “Classified? Agents, we can’t sign on unless we know what we’re doing.”

“World changing research is what you’ll be doing.” The man to the left, the senior agent, argues. He leans forward. “I’ll be straight with you. Years of research and millions of dollars already invested are at stake if we don’t act quickly. The previous team really did us a disservice by dropping the project like this. You will be more than well compensated for your contribution. You’ll be making giant leaps forward in understanding ghosts and in human health. But we need your answer.”

Jack and Maddie are unsure, a silent conversation passing between the two. They argue back and forth with the agents, pressing for more until…

The head agent removes his glasses. “Alright. I really should not be telling you this before you sign the NDAs but… this research… we’ve been trying to achieve the hybridization of ectoplasm with living cells in primates.”

Maddie blinks, shocked. “Ectoplasm with…”

The man nods. “Yes, the combination of living tissue and ghostly powers. A hybrid organic being that will be able to produce and regulate its own ectoplasm. We’ll be able to study ghosts and their abilities in ways we haven’t even dreamed of but…” He tapped the paper. “We need you to sign tonight.”

Jack and Maddie look at each other, another silent conversation. “Just...give us five minutes?” The man asks.

The couple debate. “We need the money.” Jack sighs, eyes wide and desperate.

“But they’re not telling us something.” Maddie frowns, pointing.”

“It’s because of the NDAs. Right?” Her husband rubs his head.  “And do you blame them? If what he said is true...this will change the world.”

For just a moment, Maddie is starry eyed. “And to be a part of that….” The doubts remain. “But…”

“We always wanted to change the world. And…” Jack glances to the door. “With the medical bills and the foreclosure...we need the money or we’ll be on the street.”

“No we-” Maddie’s heart twists as the words die on her tongue. She wants to deny it but... Jazz. They need to be practical. They need...they need this money. Something in her still says this is a bad idea. But the mother bits her lip. “For Jazz?”

“For Jazz.” Jack agrees.

The couple sign NDAs and accept the project. Late that night, the agents bring in the equipment and... 

“What is that?” Maddie points at a metal and glass chamber, the inside swirling with ectoplasm and water.

“An artificial womb.” Answers one of the agents.

Jack blinks, stunned. “An artificial womb?”

The head agent nods and Maddie frowns, asking. “And what’s it for exactly?”

“Your job…” The agents glances from the incubator. “is to take care of the specimen and ensure it survives until it’s viable outside of the artificial womb.”

“The…. specimen?” The male Fenton asks. “And… until it’s viable? How long is that?”

“How many weeks of gestation is it at now?” The other scientist asks.

The agent remains straight faced as he hands them thick folders of papers. “All the necessary information is here.” He pulls a card out of his pocket, placing it in the folder. “Contact the agency if you require anything else.”

Without answering any more questions, the agents leave. Maddie’s stomach flops, filled with dread. Something about that was-

“Will you look at that?” Jack cut off her thought.

The woman turned to see him peering into the incubator and pointing at something. Maddie leans closer, looking. “Is that...the embryo?”

“I think so.” He replies. “It’s tiny.”

The woman hums in agreement, observing. There, implanted to the back wall of the incubator, is a pea-sized mass. Maddie squints as she tries to make out details. She can barely see but it’s C shaped, with visible neural tube and little nobs that should develop into the limbs.

“I wonder what week it’s at?” Jack questions.

Maddie checks the research notes and she frowns. “Jack, a lot of this is blacked out.” There are huge blocks of text that are missing or have been crossed out. She flips a page. “Six weeks, I think.” Her husband nods. “It’s going to take a while to sort this out. There’s so much missing.”

Jack gives her an encouraging patt on the back. “We can do it. We’ve got this, Madds.”

Maddie isn’t so sure. It’s...odd, the lack of information. And why did the GIW pick them? They aren’t experts in fetal development. Then again… this seemed to be a last minute placement. And they could learn but still...

Jack and Maddie do their jobs, checking the vitals, the nutrients, the ectoplasm levels. The two scientists take a crash course in primate fetal development. They watch and the embryo grows. It really is fascinating to see up close, Maddie thinks. But still…. Weeks pass, a month. The embryo is at 10 weeks and it’s almost six times larger than when the GIW delivered it. The nobs have developed into small limbs, tiny...legs and arms. It has eyes now, though closed. There are nostrils. And growing dread pools in the scientist’s gut. In the past weeks, they’ve looked at hundreds of pictures of embryos and fetuses, both those of various primates and of humans. The notes never specify what kind of primate this is and there’s far more research into human fetal development than the other options. The fetus in the incubator looks…strangely familiar. But…the GIW did say primate research so this must be some kind of monkey, not.... That. It couldn’t be-

Maddie cuts off the thought before she can let it take hold. But still, a pebble of anxiety is rooted in her insides.

The mother goes back upstairs to feed her daughter lunch and play with her. Jazz is adorable, sitting in her high chair. She makes a mess eating her lunch and Maddie has to clean her off. After, Jazzy plays with her baby doll in the living room. She mutters babble to it and Maddie smiles. But… something in her starts to ache.

“Here comes the space ship.” Maddie coes. She’s sitting at the kitchen table, a little boy with black hair and blue eyes in the high chair beside her.

The boy opens his mouth, taking a bite. For just a moment, his face screws up with displeasure. Then he blinks. “More!” He sticks out little hands.

Maddie chuckles. “You like it, don’t you?”

The toddler waves his arms. “More!”

The mother oligies, offering another spoonful of cereal.

The little boy makes a happy squeal, joking at his tray in his excitement. The bowl spills, thick white cereal spilling on his shirt. He looks down. “Uh oh.”

Maddie wipes his shirt with a napkin. She lifts the half full bowl from the tray.

“Mommy!” The toddler let out a cry of protest.

The woman’s heart swells with love. “I’m not taking it away, Danny. I’m just going to hold it. See?” She moves the bowl up and down in the air. “Now open up.”

Danny opens his mouth and his mother feeds him another bite, just as a clock chimes behind her.

Maddie wakes up from the sweet dream with tears pooling in her eyes. She wipes them away and gets up to wake up Jazz.

Jack and Maddie go down to the lab again. More watching the specimen, more notetaking, more research. And the scientists are getting attached. They’re invested. Maddie had always had a habitat of talking aloud when working and she still does, now addressing the incubator when her husband isn’t present. Jack plays music and rambles. It’s lively and exciting, watching and learning. The subject seems to be growing properly and it appears to be accepting the ectoplasm. It glows faintly in the dark. The scans show a mass of ectoplasm, concentrated in the center of the chest. That dream… the hybridization of a living creature and ectoplasm might in fact come to fruition.

But still dread grows. The specimen is at 12 weeks, three months development and still growing. Its neck is clearly defined, small digits visible. And it’s hard to tell but…

“It’s male.” Maddie comments, after comparing the view to the naked eye with the magnified pictures they’d managed to take.

Jack looks as well, agreeing with the assessment. For some reason, the knowledge makes Maddie’s heart clinched. It’s male. A boy, part of her says.

“No you don’t, little mister.” Maddie tries to sound stern but she chuckles as she scoops up the still damp toddler trying to run past her. “We still have to put your pjs on, silly. Then a bedtime story.”

The little boy blinks. Then he asks. “Spaceship pjs?”

“Yes.” His mother nods. “Let’s put those on.”

The woman closes the door and puts the child down. She pulls his clothes out of the drawers. 

Danny holds up his hands. “By myself.” He demands.

Maddie obliges. Her son gets about halfway through before he needs help. The woman finishes adjusting the bedshirt. “There.” She picks him up. “Let’s go see Daddy and Jazzy.”

The fetus continues growing. And by the time the specimen is at 3 and half months gestation… the tiny fingers and toes, the shape of the head, that surprisingly human face…. it’s obviously-

No. It can’t be… it’s obviously a rhesus monkey or a chimpanzee. Not-Maddie pushes the thoughts away but at the same time…

Maddie is sitting on a park bench, watching two kids on the playground. Something purple and starry hovers at the edge of her version but she doesn’t worry about it.

“Danny! Wait up!” A six year old Jazz calls after her brother. She tries to pick him up to put him on the baby swing but can’t lift high enough. “Mommy!”

Maddie stands up, going to push both her kids on the swings.

Again, Maddie wakes to tears. But she pushes that pain away, faced with other things. As the weeks pass, the fetus grows, tiny hairs appearing on its head. The form is much more obvious. The dreams continue.

At the beach. There’s Danny, playing at the edge of the surf. Sometimes his hair is black and sometimes it’s white.

The dread and fear grow, with the attachment. And… Maddie and Jack do more research on fetal development. 

Maddie is walking a five year old Danny to the bus stop. She looks down and… her heart stops. Her son is gone. “Danny!” She calls.

“Mommy!”

She whips around. He’s running up to her. His eyes flash green.

Jack and Maddie compare notes, reading every textbook and article they can get their hands on. And….

Something’s floating in their backyard. White hair, black suit, shining like a star. Neon green energy wafts around the hands. The head tilts towards the starry sky.

Maddie...should be scared. She should be startled but… “Sweetie! It’s time for bed.” She calls.

The figure turns around. The neon green eyes fix on her and he’s grinning. The ghost...the boy lowers in the air, just inches above the ground. His hands glow blue for a moment and… there’s a rose, made of ice. He holds it out to her. 

“For me?” Maddie smiles.

The boy nods. The mother blinks and he has black hair and blue eyes. He stands on his tip toes to give her a kiss on the check. “Goodnight, Mom.”

Maddie gives her son a goodnight kiss in return. “Goodnight, Danny.”

Maddie wakes up, breath heaving and tears on her face again. Her heart aches, still filled with love and warmth as the face flashes in her mind again. That smiling face from all those dreams or… are they nightmares? They’re sweet, so sweet. And that boy... Maddie loves him so much. So much that it hurts to wake up. It must be a nightmare. She must be damned, cursed with visions of what can’t be. This, having another child, a son, will never happen. After almost dying giving birth to Jazz, she physically can’t get pregnant again. She can’t have a little boy of her own flesh and blood. She and Jack had wanted two kids. They’d talked about adoption but with how expensive and time consuming it is, with everything else happening in their lives, it's impossible.

Back to the lab, to the small ghost hybrid. Something is tickling in Maddie’s mind as she watches. The fetus is about the size of a pear. The small arms move, fingers brushing the face. The tiny mouth opens. The glow flickers brighter for just a second and there's a flash of neon green as the eyes blink. Maddie drops what she’s doing and practically runs up the stairs, feeling queasy with guilt.

“What is it, Madds?” Jack asks, from where he’s feeding Jazz.

The woman’s eyes land on her daughter and shame swells in her insides. “We can talk about it later.” She says, not wanting to upset the little girl.

The man doesn’t argue, even as his eyes flicker to the door of the lab. A meaningful look passes over his face and… Maddie is sure they’re thinking the same thing.

But still, she tries not to think about it, about the possibility. When Jazz is napping, she digs through the research notes. There must be something! Something to disprove this cursed thought but… nothing. Nothing! Nothing.

Maddie is shaking when she and Jack go down to the lab after putting Jazz to bed. Both scientists are silent for a long time. Both turn, studying the incubator and its occupant. Their eyes meet again and the woman suddenly feels like throwing up, sickened by the realization.

“The GIW… the GIW said primate research.” Jack says quietly, too quietly “They didn’t… didn’t specify non-human primate.” The words fall heavy, sinking into Maddie’s heart like a knife. “It’s not a chimpanzee or rhesus monkey, is it?”

Maddie covers her mouth. “It’s…it’s a human.” She can barely force out the words. “That’s a human fetus.” She leans forward, feeling nauseous. “A human-ghost hybrid. We’re...we’ve been growing a human-ghost hybrid in our lab!”

Maddie feels disgusted with herself and she can see it on Jack’s face; he feels the same.

“We should have seen this earlier.” Jack curses. “All that secrecy. The agents wouldn’t answer our questions.”

“All those gaps in the research notes. The huge wad of money they pushed on us, if we’d hurry up and make a decision.” The woman’s face is red, anger and guilt warring. “Those f-king NDAs!”

There’s anger and screaming. Disgust at themselves, at the GIW for doing this. But...

“It’s... part ghost.” Maddie paces, rationalizing. “Ghosts are monsters. They can’t...they can’t feel or rationalize. They’re...less than animals.” She argues, the words sounding false on her tongue.

“It’s part human too.” Jack argues pointedly. “And we don’t experiment on humans, Maddie!” He balls his fist. “It’s wrong. This is wrong! If it was actually an animal, then maybe but…. This is a human! You don’t experiment on human beings!”

The wind is knocked out of the woman. She agrees. She agrees completely. You don’t experiment on humans. Period. But… “It’s...not a human being.” Maddie’s voice wavers, feeling tears collecting. “It’s..it’s just a fetus.” She’s flailing, grasping for a rationale. For empty words to justify what they’d been doing. “It’s just a fetus.”

“For now.” The man points out sharply.

For now…. The tears spill. For now, it’s a fetus but… But… it will grow. And months from now, they’ll be a baby. A human, at least partly, baby and-

“We need to pull out. We can’t be a part of this.” Jack interrupts.

“They’ll just give the project to someone else.” Maddie mumbles, looking down.

“So what?! We do nothing! I can’t… I won’t keep doing this.” He’s angry, more determined than Maddie’s ever seen him.

“I know!” The other scientist blurts out, her own anger flickering. “I know that! I don’t want to be a part of this either. But we can’t…. we can’t…. just give him..” She swallows, stumbling over the slip up. “…it to some other scientists.”

Maddie can’t help remembering when she’d been four and a half months pregnant with Jazz. That’s when they’d gotten a sonogram and figured out they were having a little girl. She remembers Jazz as a newborn, all pink cheeks and grasping hands and screaming her little lungs out. And Maddie imagines a baby boy, with little tufts of black hair and blue eyes, crying on their lab tables. A little boy, poked and prodded by needles. In cages. Experimented on. A part human lab rat.

“That…that wouldn’t be a life for anyone.” Maddie chokes on the words. Her heart aches, torn between two images. A human child and the flickering, ethereal form of a ghost. “Not…not even something that’s half ghost.” 

“We could….” Jack’s voice is so quiet, so pained. “We could make sure it doesn’t…survive long enough for that.”

Maddie looks up, blinking in surprise before her mind catches up with the meaning. Then she understands and….the man’s thoughts are absolutely clear. And she hates them.

“We can stage… an accident.” The other scientist continues. “Tell the GIW the subject unfortunately didn’t survive.”

Maddie hates it. She hates it so much. “They’ll just try again.” She tries to argue.

“But not with us.” Jack’s face is hard and she knows he’s right. The GIW wouldn’t involve them again. They’d get someone else and she and Jack wouldn’t have to be a part of this. But-

“Okay. We’ll…we’ll do it.” Maddie abhors herself for saying the words.

Jack and Maddie plan in secret. They’ll cut the power to the incubator. All it will take is a few minutes and the fetus will die without oxygen being delivered to the living cells. They’ll lie, make up a story about the backup generator failing. 

But Maddie’s guilt is still overwhelming. Earlier, she’d thought that almost dying in childbirth, that almost losing the house, that dreaming of having another child when it was impossible was a nightmare. But this. This is a nightmare. She wishes the GIW had never contacted them, that she and Jack had never agreed to this project. She wishes...she wishes they were still working in ignorance. 

The room is dark. There’s a clock ticking somewhere. Something’s glowing in the corner of the cage. Maddie approaches. It’s a ghost, obviously. The figure is black and wispy, with the lower body curled into a tail.

The woman’s heart pounds in her chest. There’s…. a sound. She shivers. Someone’s crying. Another step and…

The white-haired head whips up, teary green boring into her from the face of a young teenager. 

“Please, let...let me go.” A male voice begs.

Maddie is frozen, fear, dread, and sorrow creating an ugly mix in her heart.

The ghost floats forward, gripping the bars. “Please. I didn’t… I didn’t do anything wrong. Just...just let me go.”

The scientist trembles. That face...that voice, she recognizes-

“Please.” Tears run down his face. “I just wanna go home. I wanna see my Mom and Dad. Please!”

Maddie wakes up still shaking. The guilt is eating her alive. They need… they need to put a stop to this. They will put a stop to this. Because she can’t..she can’t keep going. She can’t face the product of their science. She can’t face the possibility of subjecting a thinking and feeling being to a life of pain and experimentation. If something that’s part ghost can even live.

The woman studders. Is that even a question? And does… does it matter? If there’s even a chance that a ghostly hybrid can think and feel like a human, that they can grow and learn and love and-

The possibilities are driving her mad. But they have to do this. They have to! (But will this even do anything? The GIW will just try again. They’ll get their hybrid and she and Jack will have just stood by, knowing that they were experimenting on people. They’ll just stand by as a different fetus, a different baby, a different child is brought into the world, just to suffer).

Maddie sleeps again, this time with neither nightmares, nor sweet dreams. Instead, her heart is heavy, at war with itself. The guilt and the grief. The weight of what they’ve done and what they could do, of what is and what might be. 

Jack and Maddie send Jazz to daycare for the day and they go down to the lab. They stand in front of the incubator, going over the plan one last time. Tentatively, with shaking hands, Maddie grabs the plug to the artificial womb. With one pull, one yank, she will end this. One small motion and this will be over, before it really begins.

Almost without thinking, she turns to look one last time. The fetus is clearly visible, floating in the synthetic amniotic fluid-ectoplasm mix. Tiny legs kick. And Maddie’s mind flashes without her permission to Jazz’s sonogram pictures. Remembering the joy of feeling her little girl kick for the first time. In the incubator, just formed eyes drift open and…. they’re blue. A spark of ectoplasm flickers. And the eyes are green, an oh so familiar green and…

“I can’t… I can’t do this.” The plug drops out of Maddie’s trembling hands. “Jack. I…I can’t.”

There’s a pause. The woman can feel the man’s eyes on her. His gentle hand appears on her shoulder. “It’s alright, Mads. I’ll do it.” Jack bends, picking up the plug.

The other scientist’s eyes widen. “No! We can’t…we can’t do this!”

He looks at her, eyes sad and pitying. “We talked about this. We...we have to.”

Maddie shakes her head, tears welling. “No. We can’t...we can’t kill him.” Before she can even register, she confesses. “He can’t die. He can’t! I won’t kill him.”

“Maddie?”

She places her hand on the incubator. “I’ve been dreaming about him for weeks. He’s just a little boy. And we’re going to name him Danny. And he’ll have black hair and blue eyes but sometimes they’re green. And-”

“Madds, I don’t understand. What are you saying?”

Maddie is crying now. She doesn’t know what she’s saying either. She doesn’t understand. This is ridiculous. But- “Please. I… I can’t. I can’t lose him. I haven’t...I haven’t even held him yet.”

Jack looks gobsmacked and the woman feels that way too. Is she really saying this? And yet she is. She is and she means it. Every word and- 

She turns fully, putting both hands on the artificial womb. She looks, really looks and lets herself imagine. “I want him. I want him to be safe and healthy and happy. I want...I want him to be our little… our little boy, our baby.”

Maddie is crying and she can see it. Months from now. Holding a tiny pink, human-looking baby. His little fingers wrap around hers. She kisses his little nose and rocks him to sleep, just like she’d done with Jazz.

Jack grabs onto one of her arms and pulls her so she’ll look at him. “Maddie… what are you saying?”

She blinks back the tears, a determined look crossing her face. “I won’t kill him. And I won’t give him back to the GIW.”

His jaw drops. “We don’t have a choice here. They won’t let us keep him.”

Rage flashes in Maddie’s eyes as she grits her teeth. “I dare, I dare those f-king white suits to try and take away my baby!”

“Are you listening to yourself, woman?!” Jack puts up his hands.

The other scientist pokes him in the chest. “Are you listening to yourself?! You’re perfectly fine killing him! Or let’s just call the GIW and hand him over right now! Let’s just curse him to a life of torture and painful experiments and-”

“I’m not f-king okay with this!” Jack raises his voice. “I don’t want to do this! I don’t want to turn off that incubator. And I sure as hell don’t want to turn a baby over to the GIW so they can experiment on him! But we don’t have a choice! As soon as he can live outside that incubator, they’re going to take him away whether we like it or not. This is our only choice!” He grabs the plug again and...he’s crying too. “This is the only way. It’s...it’s this or… or a life of pain.”

The tears on her husband’s face finally snap Maddie out of her anger. She places her hands over his. “There has to be another way to stop this, a way to save him.”

“There isn’t.” His voice lowers, pained. “We can’t do anything and… they’ll never let us keep him.”

Maddie blinks, surprised. “Keep….”

Jack nods. He turns to the artificial womb, his face softening. “We’d wanted two kids. I’ve always wanted a son to take fishing. And….” He turns back to her. “Danny?”

“That's what I always call him, in my dreams. I...I don’t know how but.. It’s him. I keep dreaming about him.”

The other scientist’s brow furrows in thought. He pauses. “Black hair and blue eyes, you said? I think… I’ve dreamed about him too.”

Maddie’s mouth falls open. How? She wants to ask. But before she can, she blinks. And...they’re on the same page.

“So….” Jack turns back to the artificial womb. “We both want to keep him…” He sighs, the hopelessness audible in his voice. “What are we gonna do?”

 The woman swallows. “We won’t hand him over. We’ll...we’ll run.”

The man stiffens. “They’d find us and..we have Jazz. What kind of life would that be for them?”

“You’re right.” Maddie looks down, feeling ashamed for even thinking it. “We can’t...we can’t do that.”

Jack put his hand on his face, wiping away the tears. “How is this even happening? Oh god...I wish…I wish he was just a normal baby.” 

Maddie blinks and the world turns on its head. A sudden idea hits her. “What if….the GIW thinks he is?”

Jack’s eyes widen at the words. “What?”

“What if…they think he’s just a normal human?”

Her husband’s eyes widen even more. “Maddie….”

The woman starts pacing. “If the hybridization doesn’t work, if he’s just a normal human… we can convince them to let us keep him. This level of ecto contamination…. It’s never happened before. We can...we can use that. And…” She stops. “If they think that hybridization isn’t possible, then maybe they’ll stop. They won’t try again.” She hopes the words are true but she can’t dwell on the possibilities. Danny is who matters right now. “We can make this work. We can get them to let us keep him. It’ll… it’ll work.”

A little light enters Jack’s eyes; he seems encouraged by the words. “ But… how?” He asks tentatively.

“Here’s what we do…” Maddie starts, determined. Gradually, excitement and determination grow on Jack’s face as they discuss. They’ll make the GIW think the project failed. Through a combination of falsifying data and intentional sabotage, they’ll make sure the baby appears to be a completely normal human when he’s done.

Maddie goes to sleep that night feeling encouraged and excited. This will work. It has to work. It will.

“And what’s that constellation called?” Maddie asks, pointing at the starry sky.

“That’s Taurus, the bull. Did you know…” The woman looks down at a fourteen years old version of her son. Green stars glitter in his eyes and across his cheeks as he rambles.

The mother smiles, happy and heart full of love. There’s a clock ticking to the side and something glowing purple, curved like the horns of a ram.

“So you made your decision.” An ancient voice says, ringing like the great bells of a clocktower.

Maddie turns, startled. But she doesn’t speak.

“You still would have, without this push. But still…. This is the most favorable version of events.” The hooded figure continues.

“Why did you coerce me to help then?” Another being, stary and purple, grumbles.

The other figure doesn’t answer, still addressing Maddie. “You will not remember this when you wake up, not for many years. Until then, Madeline Fenton.”

In the morning, Maddie only remembers a dream of stargazing with her son. And it gives her the strength to enact their plan.

Jack and Maddie stage a malfunction with the ectoplasm circulation in the tube. They play at fixing it. Maddie’s body is tense with fear. What if it doesn’t work? And what if it does? What if the GIW realize what they are doing? But Jack and Maddie are determined. And they are careful, so careful. They contact the GIW and claim they are trying their best to fix the problem. But after the feed was cut off overnight, for twelve hours, the spectral energy in the fetus is already falling. It’s already dropped down to almost zero, the forming core unable to produce its own ectoplasm. At hearing this, the GIW are pissed. Jack and Maddie play at being apologetic and claim they’ll do everything they can to fix this.

The last few months pass. Danny grows, developing like normal. Jack and Maddie claim to be trying to reintroduce the ectoplasm but it won’t take. The fetus is rejecting it, each time the tiny heart threatening to stop. Hopefully the half-formed core will restart and it will be able to integrate the ectoplasm but it’s not working.

In truth, Jack and Maddie are watching and waiting with eager but nervous anticipation. There are many near catastrophes but they do in fact do everything they can to make sure Danny lives to see the outside of the incubator.

The mother put her hands on the glass. “Just a few more days, Danny. A few more days.” She hadn’t had any more dreams since the night she and Jack had made that decision but it doesn’t matter. A few more days and she’ll finally be able to hold her son.

The day arrives and the GIW agents and scientists are there when they take the boy out of the incubator. Jack washes him off, gentle but with a practiced neutral expression. Maddie has never had more struggle to act cold and professional in her whole life, as she takes a blood sample and her baby cries. 

She prepares a slide from the sample and looks at it under the microscope. “As we’ve said, there’s no signs of ectoplasm hybridization. Not even significant ecto-contamination.”

“Step aside.” The head agent demands. “I need to verify this.” He scowls and Maddie holds her breath, praying to a god she doesn’t believe in that he doesn’t find anything telling. The agent looks at the slide. He takes and prepares his own sample. He even scans Danny with his own ghost scanner. “You’re right.” He scowls. “The specimen is free of ectoplasmic contamination. Completely human.” He drops the scanner heavily. “What a waste! All that time and money!” He looks back at his fellow agents. “We need to discuss what to do with...this.” He turns up his nose at the sniffling baby.

The agents debate. “Waste of money. Take care of an infant, please.” A roll of the eyes.  “It’s illegal to experiment on a real human anyway.” “Let’s just destroy the records and get rid of the evidence.” Glances at Danny. “It doesn’t legally exist so….”

On the inside, Maddie is panicking but on the outside, she becomes the perfect image of a cold scientist. 

“Excuse me but, this is an extraordinary opportunity.” She argues. “This level of fetal ectoplasm exposure is unheard of. They need to collect data on this. This is a potential fountain of information on the effects  of long term exposure on the human body. There may never be an opportunity like this again.”

The agents look at each other. “She has a point.” One says.

The head agent rolls his eyes. “Maybe we can get something out of this, then.” The man tapped his chin. “We need scientists to carefully monitor this. We can’t just give this… subject to anyone.” He furrows his brow, turning to Jack and Maddie. “You’ve got a kid, right?”

The scientists both blink, surprised. “Well...yes.” Maddie answers.

“Congrats. You’ve got another one.” The agent says casually. “This is your problem now.” He motions to the baby. 

Jack and Maddie look at each other, still flabbergasted for a moment. And then… Maddie sees her husband’s expression shift. It’s not obvious on his face but he’s never been more relieved. 

The head agent is still talking, barely looking their way as he types on his phone. “We’ll arrange for a birth certificate to be assigned. And...a small stipend.” He looks up, giving them pointed glares. “You will say nothing and we’ll pay you to report any physical or mental deformities that develop.” He turns back to the phone. “This’ll end up being cheaper than holding that thing at the facility at least.”

The two scientists don’t argue and they don’t pretend to argue. Though Maddie’s stomach does flop. Deformities…. She hadn’t even thought about that. Jack glances at her. He takes her hand and Maddie knows it will be okay. If something happens, if Danny isn’t healthy, they’ll deal with it. And either way...he’ll still be perfect.

When the GIW finally take their equipment and leave, Jack and Maddie finally cry with relief. 

“Shh. Shh. It’s okay. Mommy’s here.” Maddie picks up Danny.

Jack stands beside her, one arm around her back. “We did it.” He says, awed. He gently reaches to touch the baby. Tiny fingers wrap around his pink. The man beams down. “Already got a strong grip, don’t you son?”

Son. The words warms Maddie’s heart, making her spirit sing. So. This is their son. Not their flesh and blood. But still their, always theirs. 

“You’re safe.” Maddie kisses the top of his head. “You’re safe, Danny.” The woman lets out a sigh of relief. They did the impossible, saving him from an agonizing fate as nothing more than an experiment, as a lab rat.  

“And we'll make sure you stay that way.” Jack vows. 

And Maddie agrees. They’ll do whatever they have to to keep it that way, to keep their boy free and safe.

“Come, Madds.” The man interrupts. “We need to introduce Jazz to her new baby brother.” Still being held by their mother, Jazz meets Danny and she instantly adores him. Maddie’s heart swells with love. 

Weeks become months become years. And Jack and Maddie both watch Danny grow into that little black haired boy that Maddie had dreamed about. And he’s surprisingly normal, completely human. His parents don’t tell him the truth, don’t even tell him he’s adopted. And they’re all so happy. Danny is happy and normal, a bright boy who loves life.

Years pass and Jack and Maddie keep working on their ghost research and raising their kids. Jazz is 16 and Danny is 14 when they successfully open their ghost portals and ghosts start invading the town. But still, Jack and Maddie are happy. They can almost forget where Danny came from.

Until when the mayor’s kidnapped, Maddie sees Phantom face to face for the first time.

[aesthetic-uni]

I like to lurk a lot in the Danny Phantom fandom, because it’s funny. But I do have to admit, I’m quite disappointed. They’ve put together so many storylines and filled so many plot holes, someone even made a full explanation to how ghosts work.

YET NO ONE MADE THE CONNECTION THE JACK AND MADDIE FENTON COULD BE WORKING FOR THE GUYS IN WHITE?! NOT EVEN LIKE AN AU?!

Like, it’s been a while since I’ve seen the show so I don’t remember what’s their reaction to them (only Danny’s), but they are full blown scientists, not just ghost hunters, that specializes in the the paranormal. They clearly have the funds to invent stuff that is not normally invented by independent people, and they don’t have any other job. There’s no way they could have gotten at least government funds UNLESS they were working in or with some actual government branch. Maybe a government branch that wears a lot of white.

Seriously? Not even at least independent contractors? Do you know the amount of angst this could bring?

Shame on y’all DP fandom. Shaaaameeee

(If this is not clear this is a joke. Also I’m absolutely sure people have talked about it, but fr why is it not a more discussed subject)

[whirligig-girl]

Danny Phantom Star Trek AU

Thinkin’ more about my Danny Phantom Star Trek AU. Tentative name: Ensign Phantom.

All of this is subject to change, so let me know what you think, what you’d do differently, or especially if there’s some way of expanding on the concept.

Ensign Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom in LD uniform, Danny Phantom in Prodigy Cadet Uniform, Danny Phantom in a white TNG uniform, Danny Phantom in his hazmat suit from the tv show, Danny Phantom in a LD space suit. That last one is the one I’m leaning towards the most.

Foley, Fenton, and Manson are all fresh out of the academy and aboard the Oberth Class U.S.S. as-yet-unnamed.

Not sure exactly how the chain of command works out, but the USS a-y-u is a science ship. It’s currently bringing notable and definitely not crackpot starfleet scientists Cmdr Maddie Fenton and Lt.Cmdr Jack Fenton to an alien artifact which was discovered by some TOS-era ship ages ago. Either Maddie Fenton is actually Captain, or there’s some uninteresting OC captain.

This au takes place starting in 2383, a couple years after Star Trek Lower Decks starts.

Like any good lower deck Starfleet crew, these fellas are some real weirdos.

* Ensign Tucker Foley. Age 22. Human. Tucker was assimilated by the Borg as a child or a teenager, but was recovered quickly enough that he could be rehabilitated. He then moved to Amity Park, North America, Earth, Sector 001, where he met Danny Fenton. He loves technology, tinkering, mathematics, and during his assimilation picked up an almost encyclopedic knowledge of all history, which he has no direct control over access of. Unlike most xBs, Foley has only ever increased the amount of implants since his rehabilitation. He seeks perfection and is secretly pretty sure everyone would just be better off if they could have an internet connection installed in their neck.

* Danny Fenton. Age 22. Human. Grew up in Amity Park, North America, Earth, Sector 001. Actually this one’s just a normal guy. Token normal guy who, unlike his friends, hasn’t technically died. Really not much to say about him. If he had purple hair he’d almost be as interesting as Brad Boimler. Who’s Brad Boimler, you ask? Never heard of him? Exactly... pay no attention to his parents, and pay no attention to their reputation for being Starfleet’s biggest crackpots.

* Manson Sam. Age 189 (or 23). Joined Trill. Sam’s previous host, i dunno, Irdon or something, was in his mid 20s when he was joined. The joining lead him to reconsider his life choices, and join Starfleet Academy to enter the Command division. Irdon was several years older than Fenton and Foley, but they got along well. The Sam symbiont has very bad luck. Of its previous three hosts, two had died young. So it was less of a surprise as much as a disappointment when Irdon Sam died on his first deep space assignment. Manson was a young botanist who received the Sam symbiont, and was able to continue Irdon’s Starfleet career, albeit in the Science division.

Not pictured:

* security officer and major pain in the ass Lt. Baxter. Seriously, who let him into Starfleet! He was one of Danny’s many bullies growing up, and Danny’s not convinced he’s that much better now.

* Counselor Jasmine Fenton. She was supposed to be a counselor on a beautiful long-range Andromeda class cruiser, but for SOME reason, her parents pulled some strings and had her assigned to this Oberth-class rust bucket.

Ensign Fenton is overjoyed to find that his friend Irdon is still alive, sorta. He almost immediately tries to pick up their friendship where they left it, to the point that he sometimes misses how different Manson is.

Anyway yeah I think it’d be funny if you had the same kinda dynamic of Danny seeing Sam as different than other girls and just one of the guys because she’s basically “Old Man.” But Sam doesn’t see herself that way--she retains a strong sense of Manson’s individuality--and Danny won’t see her that way forever.

At some point Danny has an accident. I’m not sure how this all goes down. I know I want to keep it related to “Danny, Sam, and Tucker are in a place they shouldn’t be, doing things they shouldn’t be doing, around technology that shouldn’t be messed with” but I think the portal will be some kind of alien ghost portal which the Fentons are studying.

Eventually the U.S.S. a-y-u ends up either stuck in the Ghost Zone, or stranded in a region of space where the boundary between the Ghost Zone and reality is weakest, and under constant attack by ghosts. And who are you going to call? Ghost-obsessed weirdos Jack and Maddie Fenton of course! (Pay no attention to the one ghost who keeps attacking the other ghosts. Or rather do, but pay attention with your phasers set to vaporize.)

Also perhaps Vlad is a Starfleet admiral who Jack and Maddie got half-killed in their experiments in their Academy days. He’s pulling the strings to get Jack and Maddie whatever they want so they can get themselves fully killed. Or something.

And Danni can be like, a Romulan clone. Yeah.

Having written this down, I am starting to wonder if a stationary setting, more like the show, might make more sense. Like if it were on a distant research outpost instead of a single ship. IDK.