#Danny was dropping by Sam's to give her some stuff before heading home

[bluerosefox]

Of Tiny Tots, Mistaken Identities, and Reunions

Seventeen year old Damian Wayne is dragged to a business deal outside of Gotham (along with his father and Drake), mostly to keep up appearances that the family does work outside of Gotham, networking, and because Damian does need to learn the ropes of the company, he decides to head outside the meeting with the Manson family to get a breather (mainly cause the Manson's were annoying him fully, it was like they were trying to suck up towards Damian and trying to push their daughter on him but at the same time he caught them almost insulting and hostile towards him before they would stop and correct themselves) when out of the blue a three year old toddler with black hair comes running over with a cheerful "Daddy!" and latches onto his leg.

Damian is stunned in place but feels frozen when he hears a voice, older and almost identical to his own but he can detect a familiarity in it, a voice he only hears in his dreams nowadays say.

"Ellie, no! That's not me Starlight! I'm so sorry dude-"

When Damian turned his head towards the voice he's meet with an near identical face, granted there were some minor differences, but very, very familiar pair of striking blue eyes staring at him. Eyes that were somehow full of life, which shouldn't be possible because the last time he saw those eyes they had been dim and milked over years ago. The speaker had become startled at the his sudden turn and the words that he had been saying had quickly died out when he too took in Damian's features.

"D...Damian?..." the name came out so soft and small that Damian almost didn't hear it but he did.

And before Damian could stop himself, he spoke a name he hadn't dared utter in years.

"Danyal."

His twin looked like he had just seen a ghost, and Damian was sure he looked the same. And given the last time they had last saw each other it was no wonder they both looked like death warmed over them for a moment.

After all... Damian had failed to protect his brother, Danyal al Ghul all those years ago on a botched mission.

His bother who... wasn't dead.

His brother who was looking like he wanted to run but was keeping himself rooted in his spot.

His brother whose eyes were glancing downwards and seemed so nervous.

His brother who knew the little girl, Ellie, still hugging his legs.

His brother who had... responded and corrected her mix up when she had called Damian 'Daddy.'

And oh, she's looking up at him and making grabby hands wanting to be picked up and she has Danyal's eyes and his nose and-

Oh... Damian.... Damian's an uncle it seems.

[3thansl4ndry]

Could I request oneshot where reader is stuck on the ladder instead of Anika and reader is mindy and Chad's cousin and reader is 13-15 years old and came to visit them during the ghostface stuff

motion sickness

pairing - platonic!Mindy Meeks-Martin x Meeks!Reader, platonic Chad Meeks-Martin x Meeks!Reader

summary - Chad and Mindy's younger cousin has an unforgettable halloween weekend in new york.

cw - violence, some angst, my shitty writing??

word count - 1k

a/n - okay, let me explain, scream two? didn't happen. the reader is Randy's daughter born years after the events of the second movie. Also again, I don't know if i love or hate this - let me know your thoughts!

Prior to tonight, you had been excited to spend the Halloween weekend in New York with your older cousins Chad and Mindy. You had spent the previous months begging your dad to be able to spend it with them since they had moved to the city, and Randy, being a pushover for his little girl, let you. Now, however, you wanted to be at home, watching some horror movie with your dad, laughing as he yelled at the oblivious characters in the film - it felt like now, you were living in your own, personal horror movie.

You knew about what had happened in Westerboro all those years before, the initial murders, Stu Macher and Billy Loomis' killing spree rocked the entire town, inspiring an entire film series, which your dad hated, he claimed that there were too many of them and he lost their effect - Randy also hated that he was a character in them, he never let you watch them, especially the one that depicted the attempt on his life. You never asked your dad about what had happened, you knew that he was perfectly happy with his new life, despite being a divorced single father, he wouldn't have had it any other way.

Which is why he made Chad and Mindy swear to take the best possible care of you - their oath now broken as you stood in your cousin's friends apartment, their friend, Quinn's dead body thrown into you. Before anyone could react, the masked figure who had thrown the girls body into you moved towards you, deflecting Mindy off with a slash to her arm, her friend Anika going to her side as she fell to the floor. Chad, convinced that Mindy would be able to protect you, grabbed his girlfriend, Tara's hand and ran out of the apartment. You held your hands out in front of you in a feeble attempt to defend yourself from the masked killer, but your attempts did nothing to stop them, and you screamed as they plunged their knife into your stomach, twisting the knife and dragging it up your torso. Sam, acting quickly, smashed a vase over the figures head, causing them to grunt and fall to the floor, and with it taking the knife out from your stomach. Mindy gently grabbed you, helping you into Quinn's room, where the 3 girls barricaded both the bathroom and the entrance to the room.

"Mindy, I don't feel good," You called out to your older cousin, who's heart dropped as she took in the extent of your injuries. "It hurts." You sobbed. Mindy sat on the bed beside you, trying to distract you as the ghostface banged on the door to try and get in - This wasn't fair, you were just a kid, and here you were, fighting for your life.

"I know, you're gonna be okay, I promise," She assured you, her tone soft yet firm.  "We'll get out of here and we can call your dad to come and pick you up, yeah?" You tearfully nodded, you just wanted your dad now. You and Mindy looked up as Sam stood at the window, yelling across the building with her boyfriend Danny, who put a ladder across the two buildings. "Y/N needs to go first." Mindy demanded, both Sam and Anika nodding in agreement.

"No, I-I'll just slow everyone down, you go first," You argued, your eyes filling with more tears as you saw the look on Mindy's face. "Please, I'll be fine." You tried to reason with her, but you knew that no one had much time to debate, the set of drawers pushed against the door was giving way, and the killer was going to get through. Mindy hugged you tightly before making her way across, Sam and Anika already having made their way across to Sam's boyfriend's building.

"When we're all over, you get your ass over those ladders as fast as you can, okay? No fucking around," She told you. You nodded in response and watched as she made her way across the ladder and to the other building, where Sam and Anika awaited her. Ignoring the searing pain coming from your stomach, you got out of Quinn's room and onto the ladder. The pain, however started to become too much for you, you also, made the critical mistake of looking down, your heart dropping at the height you found yourself out.

"I can't do it," You sobbed, shaking your head. Looking behind you, Mindy noticed that ghostface had gotten through their makeshift barricade, and now stood at the windowsill.

"No, Y/N come on! You can, come on!" She yelled, trying to encourage you to move the last couple crawl steps to the end. You were so close. "Please, Y/N!" Apparently, Mindy's all but gentle encouragement pushed you on, and you started to make the last, but albeit painful movements towards the end. The figure behind you, though, had other ideas, stabbing their knife, which still had your blood on it into the windowsill, placing both of their hands onto the edge of the ladder. Noticing that everyone had gone silent, you started to panic.

"What? Wh-what's wrong?"

"Y/N move! Come on!" Everyone started yelling at you, just as the figure started to shake the ladder, trying to throw you off of it. No. You weren't going to die. You wanted to see your dad again. Focusing on your movement, and your movement only, you got to the end of the ladder.

Just as you were thrown from the ladder.

Luckily for you, Sam's boyfriend, Danny, acted fast, and grabbed your hand. You screamed, your shoulder dislocating when he grabbed you. The girl's helped to pull you up into his apartment, and you fell into Mindy, who held you as you cried, she didn't care that you were bleeding onto her clothes, you were safe, but she knew your dad would be mad at her. But then again, she had helped to save your life.

If this gave her anything other than more trauma and nightmares, it was bragging rights over Chad when it came to who your favourite cousin was.

[asjjohnson]

Danny had no choice but to go to school today. He'd tried everything he could think of.

Unfortunately, he'd skipped school too many times in the past few months. With the number of absences he'd racked up, he was close to crossing the line into having to retake his freshmen year. Of course, he was still perfectly willing to stay home today, but this was important to mention.

Using invisibility to hide in his room didn't work—Jazz still had the Fenton Boo-merang. ...And the Fenton Fisher to tie him up with when he tried escaping to the park. She refused to listen to him at all, insisting that his education was more important.

Then, for some reason, Lancer turned on the school's new ghost shield right after Danny was inside. Usually, he would be able to pass right through it as a human, but today... well, it wasn't really working out.

He would've used his invisibility to hide inside the school until it was time to go home, except he couldn't get a moment alone. So far, none of his teachers would let him be excused to use the restroom, and he hasn't been able to duck into a broom closet or unoccupied restroom between classes. It was like there was something actively against him today.

His best friends were the only positive to the day. When Sam saw him just before first period, she handed him a pair of sunglasses. Then, partway through class, Tucker passed Danny his hat. In the hall before second period, Sam started giving away fake fangs to anyone who would take a pair, declaring it 'National Fake-Fangs Day'.

As Danny tiredly left the cafeteria's lunch line, with hat, sunglasses, and a lost-and-found long-sleeve shirt and pair of pants, he noticed Tucker selling elf-ear headbands, announcing that it was Vulcan Day.

Danny dropped his tray onto the table beside Tucker and put his head in his hands with a groan. "Now my ears are turning pointy, too?"

"No. I just happened to have all these Vulcan headbands, and thought I could make some cash." Then he shrugged, saying, "Besides, your ears might start growing points during next period."

Sam slapped Tucker as she sat down with her bagged lunch. "Danny, it'll be okay. We'll get through this."

"I hope so. Though, given the situation, 'going through things' could end up part of the problem."

Danny knew he should be back to normal by the next day, but it was this day he was worried about. If only he could've waited it out, rather than being in a school, surrounded by hundreds of people.

Fortunately, the last half of the school day went relatively well. (Besides the continual panic that his secret identity would get out any second.) The only other change that needed hiding was his legs turning into a ghostly tail and refusing to turn back. Another stop at the lost-and-found box gave him a long trench coat.

And a few comments about feeling really chilly today even stopped some of the stares.

Danny breathed a sigh of relief as the bell rang, announcing the end of the school day.

He'd actually made it through without anyone discovering his secret.

And the school's ghost shield switched off just as Danny got to the front doors, so he wouldn't need to wait another second to leave.

Or at least... he'd thought he could leave, until Dash grabbed him right outside the school.

Dash swung Danny up against the wall. "Hey, FenTrashbin, the closet wants its junk back."

"So... Are you implying I'm wearing stuff from a trashcan, or a closet? Because the mixed metaphors are a little confusing."

Dash made a face. "Shut up, Fenton." Then a grin came to his face as he wiggled his fingers in front of Danny's sunglasses. "Now, let's see what you're hiding under all this stuff. I'll bet it's a great big zit!"

Danny began to panic as Dash reached forward. "No wait— Dash!"

Just as Dash was about to reach the sunglasses, Danny's hold on his tangibility gave out, every real-world item he had on falling through him and clattering into a pile on the ground.

Danny's eyes widened—he was suddenly hovering before Dash in his jumpsuit.

Dash pulled his hand away—which had drifted through Danny's chest—and stumbled back a few steps, mouth dropping wide open. A tiny squeak came out.

"It's, uh, Dress Like Phantom Saturday?" Danny tried.

"Today's Wednesday! " Dash shrieked.

Dash brought his hands up, shaking, fingers clawed like he wanted to rip something apart. "It was you the whole time!" he shrieked. His face was sheet-white, his eyes wide. " With the window! And the mouse! And-and the ghost shoes! And my computer coming alive!" He continued to babble about different events. A lot of which took place while they'd worked together that one day, but also several other things that'd happened at different times.

Strangely enough, Danny's secret identity getting out no longer seemed like the end of the world.

Not in comparison to Dash having a complete meltdown in front of him.

It really put things into perspective.

Dash was having a much worse day than him.

[five-rivers]

Management

For @phandom-phriend

.

“I want to see your manager,” declared Karen.

The employees’ laughter cut off instantly. Ha. Served them right. These giggling teens didn’t know anything about her, didn’t know what her day had been like. Didn’t know what it was like to be her, with three screaming brats at home and only three days of vacation time.

This stop was supposed to be short. It was supposed to be a rest stop. A place to refuel and pick up her supplements. A ten-minute detour on the way to her spa retreat in the countryside.

But as soon as she’d driven into this town everything had gone wrong. Immediately. It was like the place was cursed. Nowhere more than this garbage hole mini mart. This mini mart which was both too large to easily transverse and too limited in selection.

“Ma’am,” said one of the teens, a girl with an incredibly unprofessional haircut and dye job. Not to mention her piercings. “You really don’t want us to do that.” She licked her lips and some of her cheap black lipstick came off.

Didn’t this store have any kind of dress code? Any kind of professional standard?

“You either get me your manager, or you get me what I asked for.” Drawing a line in the sand was the only way to get things done. The only way to keep people from walking all over you.

The teens exchanged nervous looks.

“Ma’am,” said the other, a boy. “We would, but we’re out.”

“Then you shouldn’t have advertised them,” said Karen, venomously.

“That was last week,” he protested. “It was a sale to make room for new products. We don’t—”

“Unless you’re treating me the way customers should be treated, I don’t want to hear it,” snapped Karen.

The teens exchanged a glance. “Fine,” said the girl. “I’ll get him.”

Karen huffed and crossed her arms, satisfied. About time.

She let her eyes rake over the dismal little store while she waited for the girl to come back. God, it was disgusting in here. She’d be glad to be back on her way.

Three employees, if she could call them that, in this tiny store and it still managed to get this bad. Not to mention the rest of this pothole-ridden town.

If her car didn’t have new tires by the time she got back, oh, there would be hell to pay.

The overhead lights flickered.

The girl jogged back. “He’s coming,” she said.

“Is he too busy to come with you?” asked Karen. Of all the inconsiderate things…

“He has health issues,” said the girl. The lights strobed again, the darkness lasting longer.

“Do you not pay your power bills or something?” asked Karen, annoyed. The flickering was giving her a headache.

“Look,” said the boy, “when your town’s been through as much as ours has, then you can complain.”

“Excuseme? Is that how you talk to a paying customer?”

“You haven’t paid for anything yet, lady—”

“You little—”

“Excuse me. Are you harassing my employees?”

Karen jumped. The young man had, somehow, managed to appear behind the teens while the lights were out. As the lights blinked again, he loomed above her and—

No. He was shorter than she was. About the same height as the teens, in fact. A trick of the light? Whatever. It didn’t matter.

What mattered was getting something to make up for the time she was wasting here. Honestly. This stupid town owed her.

Not that these children would be sympathetic to her plight. No, if life had taught her anything, it was that she had to fight for what she deserved.

So, she presented her case to the manager—And if he knew what was good for this place, he’d let her win. She could and would write an absolutely scathing review and she was in half a dozen Facebook groups that would support her in writing them, no questions asked. There was this one woman on the opposite coast who was practically a genius when it came to reviews.

“Are you listening?” she snapped halfway through, when the manager had failed to respond at all. Usually, by this point they’d tried some kind of spineless, stuttering appeasement.

“Yes,” he said, without any emotional inflection. “Please continue.”

Karen shivered. “Your AC is on too high, too.”

“This is how I like it,” said the manager, voice still flat. “This is how our customers like it.”

“What customers?” sneered Karen. “I’m the only one who’s been here for the past half an hour.”

The manager shrugged. “You should get your prescription checked.”

The lights flickered. The other two employees were gone, nowhere in sight. When had they left? Had they edged out of sight while she was discussing their abysmal performance with the manager.

“You should leave.”

“Excuse me?”

“You should leave. Ma’am.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Dead serious. You’re upsetting our customers. Also, I have real work to do.”

“You don’t have any customers.”

For a long moment, the manager simply stared at her. Then he grinned, the expression not reaching his eyes at all. His teeth… bothered Karen. It wasn’t that they weren’t clean… maybe they were too clean?

She felt herself taking a step back, sweat prickling the back of her neck.

“We don’t have any customers that you can see.”

The lights went out, this time for long enough for Karen’s eyes to adjust. Over a dozen pairs of glowing eyes stared back at her.

She jumped, and the first split second of a scream made it past her lips before she realized the prank being played on her. She scowled.

“I’ll be bringing you and your unprofessional conduct to the attention of your superiors, I’ll have you know,” she said.

“Good luck with that,” growled the manager, looking down at her. “I own this place.”

Growled. Looking down at her.

His eyes burned neon green, brighter and more real than any sticker or glowstick Karen had ever seen.

“Let me spell this out to you, Karen,” rumbled the thing in front of her. “You are not welcome here.”

She ran.

.

“That was kind of mean, Danny,” said Tucker, tone entirely judgement-free.

Danny, who was telekinetically reshelving the stuff the woman, a particularly annoying and non-perceptive out-of-towner, had knocked down in her haste to get away, shrugged. “She probably didn’t even pick up the details,” he said, sadly, shaking his head. “Some of my best work, gone unappreciated.”

“I think she appreciated it all right,” said Tucker, an edge of glee creeping into his voice. “Did you see how fast she ran?”

“Yep,” said Danny, inhaling deeply and drinking in the last lingering dregs of the woman’s fear. “Y’know, I think her name might have actually been Karen, considering her reaction.”

“Oof, that almost makes me feel bad.”

“Eh,” said Danny, shrugging. He stood on his tip toes to get a few extra inches over the shelves. “Hey, Sam, you good on the register?”

Sam shot him a thumbs up, not even looking away from the blob-like ghost she was currently ringing up. Danny dropped back to his heels.

“Okay, then, if you’re both good out here,” he said. “I’m going to go finish that negotiation for the ectoplasm cookies.”

“Good luck,” said Tucker.

“And if someone is like that again, call me right away, okay?”

“Got it, boss.”

“Gross. Don’t call me boss.”

“Boss. Boss man. Chief. Mr. Manager. Head honcho.”

“Okay, that’s worse. Seriously. You and Sam are on the deed, too.”

“Ah, but you’re the one our ghostly suppliers will negotiate with. Better get back to that, by the way.”

Danny sighed. “I’m promoting you.” He walked away.

“You- No, you can’t do that! Danny! Wait! You can’t promote me! Danny!”

[obsidiancreates]

News Travels Fast

(Connected to my fic Into The Arms Of The Enemy. Danny's parents killed Phantom and only after realized he was Danny, and now Danny is a full ghost. Skulker has basically adopted Danny, as Danny barely remembers his life before appearing in The Ghost Zone.)

(Danny has a bad chest injury from his death, it's not described in detail but it is mentioned so be warned.)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Danny phases through Sam's wall and turns visible. "Hey guys."

Sam runs up to Danny, immediately trapping him in a hug! Tucker is right behind, bringing all three of them down into a hug pile on the floor! Danny laughs. "Guys, it hasn't been that long!"

"For you!" Sam scolds, sitting up. "But we're still used to seeing you every day!"

"Yeah, two weeks is like an eternity!"

Danny tilts his head. "I thought humans can't comprehend eternity."

"It's an expression," Tucker says with a shrug. "You forgot that one, too?"

Danny rubs the back of his head. "I can't remember a lot of sayings. Or, stuff about how being human feels, all the way. Like um, gravity. I can't really remember what it feels like to experience gravity."

"Whoa." Tucker stares at Danny with wide eyes. "Do you remember, uh... what's some human stuff?"

"Um... being tired after gym?" Sam supplies.

Danny thinks. "I... think it feels kind of like using too much energy, right? Like having to stay invisible for too long?"

Sam and Tucker shrug.

"... Kinda hard to compare these things, I guess."

"You're the only one who ever could," Sam says.

Danny gives her a confused look. "I could?"

...

...

...

"Danny... um, do you remember The Accident?"

Danny thinks, hard. "I... got caught in something, right? And I got zapped pretty bad."

"Do you remember what happened after that?"

Danny sits there, so still he could be a non-possessed statue. "I, uh... um..."

"Oh, whoa." Tucker looks into Danny's eyes. "You really don't remember any of it?"

"I-I don't even remember what my childhood was like," Danny says, almost defensively. "I didn't remember my own name at first! I-I only remember stuff when something makes me remember! Like seeing you guys, or-or seeing... them." His gaze flickers nervously to the window. "The um, the dampener is working, right?"

"Your ecto-signature is totally Fenton-proof," Tucker assures. "But dude, I think we need to talk about what happened after that Accident, 'cause it's kinda important-"

"HEY FAIL-EY!"

Tucker startles. "How did he even find me here?!"

Danny peeks out from under the bed. He hadn't even realized he'd dove under there. "Why does that voice scare me? It's not a ghost hunter, right?"

"It's just Dash." Sam stalks over tot he window, opening it up. "Go away, Dash!"

Danny floats over, peeking out.

"THE GEEK OWES ME HOMEWORK! AND IT'S BEEN LONG ENOUGH NOW THAT I CAN PUNCH HIM IF HE DOESN'T HAVE IT!"

Danny's core pulses, a freezing-heat gripping him. Without thinking he leans out, right through the wall, and shakes his fist at Dash. "LEAVE TUCKER ALONE!"

All parties freeze. Danny's scowl drops into terror. Dash gapes at the half of the ghost boy sticking out of the home. Sam looks ready to both fight and flee.

"Holy- Phantom?!" Dash's shock breaks into a grin. "DUDE! WHERE YOU BEEN?!"

"Uh... huh?"

Dash takes a picture. "You look kinda different, dude!"

"Uh, I-I died."

Dash laughs. "Funny, dude. Alright, bam! Got your pic up, now everyone knows you're back!"

"No, wait-!"

A girl comes sprinting down the sidewalk. "IS IT TRUE?" She stops in front of Sam's house, looks up, and almost swoons. "Ghost Boy! You're back! I knew that eel-ghost-thing couldn't get rid of you!"

"I- what?" He looks at Sam. "Was I a ghost hunter too?"

"Uh, not exactly, I mean, kind of but not like your parents-"

"Hey, Phantom!" Another kids runs over. "Whoa, why're you blue now? I thought Dash just used a filter!"

Danny ducks back into the house. "Oh no. Oh no, no, no, they're going to come here,, I-I don't want them to-"

Tucker pulls Danny up so that he's stand- er, floating, tall. "They won't get you dude! I'll work on disabling their tech, you just get back to The Ghost Zone! The portal you used is still open, right?"

Danny shakes his head. "But Frostbite gave me this sort of copy Infini-Map, it can't pull me anywhere but it can show where portals are."

"Then use it!" Tucker pulls out his PDA. "Get home, man!"

Danny turns intangible, but lingers for a second. "I'm sorry about ruini-"

"You just wanted to protect me dude, it's what you do! Now go!"

Danny zips out of the house, keeping up his invisibility as he flies out and tries to follow the map to the nearest natural portal. A crowd of people is gathered below Sam's window, her parents both posing for pictures and trying to get answers for the sudden attention.

Danny looks at the map, and then notices an approaching sound. He looks up, and screams! The news helicopter passes right through him, but the shock is enough to make his invisibility fail right after!

"Wait, Chuck! There he is!" The reporter shouts, pointing back at Danny.

Danny dives for the ground, right into a trashcan! Somehow, it feels like a saddeningly familiar place for him to be stuck.

He hears a crowd run by the alley. He turns intangible again, slipping out of the can and out into the street-

A dog slams into him, barking happily! Danny shouts, the impact making his invisibility fail again. Cujo goes wild with joy, licking Danny's face and yipping loudly!

"THERE HE IS!" The girl- Paul-something?- leads the crowd over! A reporter shoves through the gaggle of teens, sticking a microphone in Danny's face!

"Danny Phantom, I'm Cheryl Blon-"

"Leave me alone!" Danny grabs Cujo protectively. "You'll lead them right to me!"

"Lead who? Did you disappear because you're on the run? This just in, Danny Phantom is-"

"Who's Danny Phantom?!" Danny floats up, clutching Cujo to his chest. "My name isn't Phantom!"

"But you said it is!" The girl is staring at him with big, watery eyes, looking... betrayed?

"I don't remember that!" Danny feels trapped, his chest feels tight, and wet, oh god his Death Wound is leaking again-

"You have amnesia, then? Do you know what caused it?" The microphone is shoved into his face again.

"I died, leave me alone!" Danny tries to fly up and away, but someone pops out of their apartment window and takes a photo with an old-timey camera. Danny shouts as the flash blinds him for a moment, making him lose his focus and fall on the ground!

The crowd swarms, people hovering over him and asking questions and taking pictures and he can't focus leave him alone leave him alone-

Danny hears a deep growl, and screams! Suddenly he's being lifted up by his hoodie, and finds himself looking down on the crowd! Cujo, in his Largest Form, has picked Danny up by the bottom of his hoodie! Danny feels it starting to slide up, rub against his Death Wound-

"Phantom, please, just a few more questions! Do you know why the ghost attacks have decreased? Does it have something to do with The Fentons ramping up their-"

"NO!" Danny hugs his chest. "NO! NOT THEM!"

"Whoa, dude, they're like, totally stupid though," Dash yells from the back.

Danny feels tears welling up in his eyes. "LET ME GO HOME!"

"Just a few mo- oh-oh, my..."

The crowd falls silent.

Danny looks down.

The hoodie has slipped all the way up. His arms slipped up with it, just barely preventing the fabric from pressing on his neck.

His gaping chest wound is fully visible tot he whole crowd, including the live news cameras.

He squeezes his eyes shut, shaking. The tears freeze as they fall tot he ground, his Core pulsing with panic, and oh god can they see it? Can they see his Core through his ribs?

"Please let me leave," he sobs, not really fully aware of what was happening anymore, just scared. "Please, I-I don't want to die again, I don't want them to kill me again-"

"You didn't have that before." It's the girl... Paulina's? voice. It's soft. Danny doesn't think he's heard it that soft before, but he can't really remember enough to know.

"What did that?" Dash breathes. "Phantom, dude-"

"NY NAME ISN'T PHANTOM, STOP CALLING ME THAT!" Danny slaps his hands over his head. The name hurts, it makes his chest burn, it makes the echo of a Yell bounce around his skull. An angry, hateful yell, Got you now, Phantom!

"I'm not Phantom," he sobs, eyes squeezed shut, back in that construction site, pleading, holding his hands out. "I'm Fenton, I'm Fenton, please don't hurt me, please-"

He hugs himself, curling up. He whimpers. "Please."

...

...

...

"Fenton?"

"N-no way, he- Phantom's been around for... but..."

"They... did disappear... at the same..."

"Kwan, don't even-"

"Dash, dude. ... He's like, dead-dead now."

"But-but how did he-"

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Danny's eyes snap open. Skulker now hovers in front of the crowd, aiming a blaster at all of them. Danny Core pulses with that freezing-hot feeling again. "Don't shoot them!"

Skulker stiffens, and then relaxes. He lowers his arm, but doesn't retract the weapon. "Don't you morons know how disrespectful asking a ghost about their death is?!" he snaps at them all.

The crowd stares. There's a long pause of silence.

"... Are you guys like, allies now?" Dash calls out.

"Quiet, whelp!" Skulker turns around. The scowl lessens. "Are you alright?"

Danny shudders. "My chest. They-they all saw my-"

"It's okay." Skulker floats up to Cujo's mouth. The dog has been glaring and growling through the whole event, but reluctant to put Danny down to attack. Skulker holds up his hands, and moves to unhook Danny's hoodie from Cujo's mouth.

He holds Danny up while Danny takes deep breaths. "Why-why wouldn't I think, or-or get away-"

"Ghosts are made, mostly, from emotions," Skulker says solemnly. "For some, it affects their powers more than others. Strong emotion can either cause and overload and release... or a complete shutdown."

Danny hugs himself. "... I ruined the hoodie," he mumbles. "Jazz is gonna be so sad."

There's some gasps from the crowd, murmurs of Jazz, Fenton's sister? So it's true then? But how?

"I said quiet!" Skulker snaps at them. The crowd silences again. "He's a child!"

"You're one to talk!" Paulina shouts.

"Things are different now!"

The sound of screeching tires echoes through the street, and Skulker scowls. He sees the Fenton RV flying their way. He looks back at thee crowd.

"If you want to know what happened so badly, ask the killers," he spits. "They're almost here."

He grabs Danny's hand, and Cujo shrinks back down and hops into the hood of the hoodie. The little dog growls at the Fenton RV that's just a few feet away, visible to all.

Known to them as Danny's Accused Killers.

By the time the RV parks, the time Jack and Maddie jump out with their containment devices and weapons and blasters, things meant to maim and kill the already undead, the three ghosts are long gone.

But the crowd remains.

The reporter stalks up to them, not a trace of a smile on her face. "Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, how do you respond to allegations that your son and Phantom are one and the same, and that you were responsible for his death?"

She shoves the microphone into their faces.

The crowd waits. Angry.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I didn't mean to get caught, the-the blond one was threatening Tucker and I just felt a-"

"A need to step in?"

Danny nods.

"You seem to have an inability to not," Skulker sighs. "Something in you drives you to protect. It earns many enemies."

"... Did I have a lot of them when I was alive?"

Skulker nods.

"... Skulker... Sam and Tucker mentioned something about an accident. They talked about it like... I don't know. Like I died then, had ghost powers then. But I know I died recently. And those people... kept calling me Phantom. Is that..."

He looks at the logo on his hoodie, and traces it. "... What did they all mean?"

Skulker keeps looking ahead as they make their way to Danny's lair. "I'm not sure. But maybe it's best not to find out." He looks at Danny's chest. "It clearly hurts."

"But-"

"You should stay in the Zone for longer this time." Skulker stops them in front of Danny's Door. "So this can die down."

"But I want to know-"

"Danny." Skulker looks him in the eyes. "Sometimes, it's better not to knowing. Knowing can... change things. Drastically. And you've had enough of that for a while."

Danny hugs himself. "... So I should just... forget it all?"

Skulker doesn't break eye contact. "Yes. For now, forget about Phantom. It doesn't matter anymore."

[lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks]

fuck I still haven't done the rewrite of the Mutant Town AU that I specifically came off hiatus to write, like the Plant Witch Sam and Pharaoh Tucker posts were written to prep this au and I just got wildly distracted so uhhhh

yeah the concept is in the link but the gist is that the people and town becoming mutated by constant ectoplasmic contamination, we all know and love this concept right but I'm gonna expand on it

this is a direct result of the portal being opened, but they aren't getting infected from the portal, the issue is that creating a permanent opening into the ghost zone has weakened the veil between their worlds and Amity Park and the Ghost Zone sort of slip in and out of each other constantly

and because ectoplasm responds strongly to emotions (poltergeists being made from atmospheric emotions for example) it all tends to converge very heavily at the school full of hormonal teenagers

so Casper High becomes its own god damn cryptid, the teachers get so jaded about opening the door to a classroom and finding just a whole ass ghost zone on the other side that they just put a sign on the door telling kids to go to a different room, lockers swap contents with other lockers so kids have started putting their names on the inside so they know who's stuff they've just found

this also means the kids get super affected, like super affected, literally, they all get ghost powers, some are just physical mutations, some are just super abilities, or a general increase in natural ability, like a member of the track team getting super speed

it takes a while for Danny and co. to figure this out, Sam and Tucker should have been warning signs as they've spent the most time around ghosts and the ghost zone, but that's why the Witch Sam and Pharaoh Tucker posts are important

they have powers, but they thought they came exclusively from outside sources, they had no idea that their abilities were also strengthened and influenced by being highly contaminated by ectoplasm, which is why when one day Mikey sneezes and green acid shoots out of his nose and melts his desk, everyone is a little bit startled

the teachers have long since started using ghost detectors after the time Paulina spent a whole week overshadowed by Kitty, so Mikey gets a check over and other than the usual atmospheric reading Lancer gets nothing especially strong from him

there have been concerns about the gradually increasing ectoplasmic content in the air messing with ghost detector results, the devices have to be recalibrated constantly, so Lancer asks the one and only son of the local ghost hunters in the room if he has some other way to check

Danny's parents make him keep a few protective items in his schoolbag, so he tries some gear on him to see if anything comes flying out, but nothing does, Danny isn't too surprised seeing as he couldn't sense a ghost in the room anyway, but it definitely makes things a little concerning

even if it were a repeat of the Spectra incident and he wasn't being overshadowed, the Fenton's tech would have still gotten rid of whatever was causing this if it were an external influence

Mikey is sent home for the day and his parents are told to keep an eye on him

and then the next week, Star drops a pen off her desk and a strand of her hair whips out to grab it, she's also checked for ghost influence and sent home

a few weeks after that it happens again, a kid on the basketball team makes a leap to the net and stays in the air, they have to call in the cheerleaders to climb on top of each other to reach him and pull him down

Danny has been trying to figure out what's happening from the first moment with Mikey, and his parents have also been getting calls from worried parents who want to know if they can fix whatever's happening to their kids

over the next couple of months, every kid in the school has some kind of ability or mutation, Dash heals whoever he touches, which he discovers after punching Nathan in the face and curing his acne, Paulina turns invisible, which freaks her out at first until she realises it's great for eavesdropping, Wes can conjure fire (because I desperately needed him to have a polarising ability to Danny), Kwan becomes empathic and can feel and influence people's emotions

Valerie also had an early mutation that she didn't know about, when Technus gave her a new suit, her body pretty much just absorbed it as a part of her, Technus had not intended this to happen, and was pretty peeved about it, Valerie found out that she had stolen control over the suit when Technus had a big rant about it during a fight, and she put the pieces together once other kids started developing abilities

this whole thing causes a ton of chaos as kids are struggling to control what they can do, so Danny has to step in and help them out, he often has to run off to change into Phantom in order to protect everyone from an ability that's gone haywire, he ends up pretty much running ghost power training courses after school to help them control themselves

he's also gotten stuck in situations where he's had to step in and help someone without having the time to change forms, meaning he has to make up a cover story about having developed his own powers way before everyone else since he's been living on top of a portal for years, he only tells people about his ice powers

Jazz has always had a tendency to be able to reign in her emotions and keep a cool head, (the only ones who can really push her buttons are Danny and sometimes her parents, at school around other kids who look up to her she's often very in control) meaning she doesn't draw ectoplasm to herself all that much, and though Danny uses the excuse of having lived on top of a ghost portal to explain why he's already so familiar with using his power, it's actually not even remotely true, because the Fentons use specialised air purifiers to keep the atmospheric ectoplasm at a manageable level, the Fenton house ironically has the least atmospheric contamination compared to the rest of the town, that's how Maddie and Jack have had limited mutation to themselves (though they aren't wholly free, they've mostly just gotten physically stronger and tougher)

so even though Jazz develops her power a little earlier than everyone else's, it's not that far ahead, and she actually doesn't even realise she already has one until half the school has developed theirs

Jazz has the power to slow time in a little bubble around herself, she'd been using it without realising while studying, having gotten through hours of work in half that time, she always thought it was just her losing track of time or she was just getting faster at reading, she also spends a lot of time counselling other students and trying to help them sort out their problems, and they'd often comment that they felt like they'd been talking for so much longer than they had, again she just chalked it up to losing track of time

a lot of students had wondered why Danny developed a power early and Jazz hadn't, until someone walked in on Jazz helping a girl through a panic attack in the bathroom, and found them both talking extremely fast, a lot of her friends realised in hindsight that she'd been doing that unwittingly for quite a while, nobody had noticed because she always talked to people privately, so nobody outside her little time bubble had seen it happen

Sam and Tucker come clean about their abilities too, but they also don't give the full rundown, still keeping some things close to the chest to avoid standing out from everyone else

then there's the teachers

adults typically have a better time regulating emotions than teenagers, meaning much like Jazz they aren't drawing as much ectoplasm toward themselves, but this doesn't exempt them from developing something after a while, especially with the heightened stress of managing a school full of volatile super kids

Mr Lancer discovers that he can create shields, after an incident where he jumps in front of some students to protect them from another power gone awry

Tetslaff ends up with a sonic ability, able to project her voice like a megaphone (yes this is a Coach Boomer from Sky High reference don't @ me), Principal Ishiyama develops a physical mutation, growing to twice her size, she likes that she can tower over the students while delivering speeches, but she doesn't like having to stoop through doors all the time, she has the one to her office resized, along with her chair and desk

so as you can imagine, the town ends up erupting into chaos, a lot of kids very much misuse their abilities, Danny does his best as Phantom to teach people to be responsible, but sometimes he has to resort to literally kicking their asses to get them to straighten up

but for the most part, a ton of kids were already looking up to him, and are generally pretty happy to follow his example, especially the more popular kids, it's generally considered not very cool to get your ass kicked by Phantom, so weirdly enough a lot of kids get peer pressured into not causing any real damage or injury with their powers

this doesn't mean they don't absolutely misuse them, they're just more subtle about it

until a ghost shows up, a lot of the kids are more than happy to let loose to protect themselves and their friends, and Phantom for the most part is happy to let them, with some supervision of course, he still has to make sure nobody gets too hurt (including the ghosts)

the entire debacle makes Danny's life simultaneously a whole lot easier AND so much more fucking stressful

[sansxfuckyou]

Epilogue

"Ellie! Where the fuck are you!?" I shouted across the forest, hearing rustling of branches before Ellie dropped down like a bat beside me.

"Why do I care, dad?" She asked, I sighed.

"For the last time, I'm not your dad," I said with a sigh as I grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, immobilizing her like a cat. "You should care because Danny made beef stew." I snarled as I spread my wings, pumping them a few times before reaching a decent altitude, able to see all the trees below, living in a remote area with only a few neighbours is nice.

"Well you should've said Danny was making stew in the first place, I would've rushed back home if I knew a good chef was cooking." Ellie said smirking a bit, I growled at her, she was testing her luck and she knew damn well.

"I make a mean tuna melt." I said in my defense as I lowered to the ground, finding Danny sitting at a picnic table, chatting with Sam and Tucker over a pot of stew and punch, none of them can handle liquor.

"I know, just teasing." Ellie said before I landed and released my grip on the back of her neck, she stumbled a little bit before redirecting herself to the picnic table, I followed suit and sat next to Danny whose ears perked up a bit.

"Glad you found Ellie." Danny said through a mouthful of beef, and other meat, he had gotten better with using different palettes of flavor to create unique culinary experiences.

"She called me dad." I said as I served both me and Ellie a bowl of stew, sure she got a little bit of attention, but that's cause you can't just leave your potentially unstable clone to die, lucky me the only thing defective was her eyesight in her left eye, other than that she's fine.

"To be fair man, you do give her quite a bit of special treatment." Tucker said, grabbing a glass of punch.

"Tuck, she's my clone, and one of her eyes doesn't work right." I explained as I sat next to Danny and Ellie, wrapping my wings around both of them, a set of neon green feathers growing in as fringe for my second and primary remiges.

"Hard to argue with that." Tucker said as he took a small sip of punch.

"Is the food good?" Danny asked, he really could read a room, or, just an area I guess, I nuzzled up against him a bit.

"Yeah, you never fail to deliver when you make stew Danny." Sam said before going for seconds from the smaller pot of vegan stew Danny always made for her, he is a good guy, just jumpy.

"Thanks, next time I plan on using elk." Danny said with a smile, a look of shock spreading onto Sam's face.

"You put meat in the vegan stew?" Sam asked.

"I would never, I only use a miniscule amount of the fats from the meat while making the broth." Danny explained with a light chuckle, so that's how he get's so much flavor in the vegan stuff, I was wondering about that.

"I'm fine with that." Sam groaned as she banged her head on the table.

"You broke your veganism though." Tucker said.

"If the food is this good, I don't care." Sam said as she grabbed a fresh bowl and served some of the full meat stew.

"Welcome to a world of being carnivorous." Ellie said with a bit of sarcasm in her tone as she gnawed on a bone, I should've done a better job on deboning the cow.

"Tis a wild ride." Tucker added on for effect, fist bumping Ellie with a smirk.

"For once, slaving over something for months was worth doing." Danny said with a satisfied sigh, Ellie raised a brow.

"Months, slaving, worth doing?" Ellie asked, deliberately glancing back and forth between me and Danny, why does she do this.

"Takes a very long time to find the perfect piece of cow on the market, I went back every month in search of the best cow, took me months, and same for finding the best spices." Danny explained, I wish he was lying, so much livestock and processed meat at the market.

"Danny's right, I spent a long time finding the perfect pig once, and that pig reaped the most heavenly bacon ever." Tucker said, clearly reminiscing on the memories.

"Alright, I hear you," Ellie said. "Not my fault I know how far science has came in the recent years that me being your organic is possible." Everyone shuddered in disgust at the idea, except Ellie who only laughed a bit.

"Ellie, your gross."

"I know dad."

[goliath-de-senfina-sango]

Full Moon

Ectober 12,021 Human Era, ao3

Tucker sighed, capping his thermos and hissing in pain as the bruises from fighting off an amalgam of armadillo and manta ray that he was all but sure got away from Vlad made themselves known. “Man, if only Danny could spare some of that super healing of his. He’s not the only one with a pretty face to keep pretty.” Tucker sighed, moving away from the splatters of ectoplasm all over the place to look for a less toxic patch of grass to sit in. What he found was even better than that, though.

Growing in a patch of grass between the trees where the light of the full moon passed through was a handful of beautiful flowers that practically drew Tucker to them. He moved slowly to keep from worsening his bruises and sat in front of the flowers, plucking one gently. A rush of energy poured down his veins, and where the moonlight touched him, Tucker’s aches and pains faded away. Staring down at the now glowing flower, Tucker pulled out his phone to call Sam. “Tucker?”

“You got that book of magic plants and stuff? Particularly ones that affect you when you pick them?” A biting curse came through the line and Tucker winced. “Yeah, it started glowing after I picked it.”

“This is why you check before you touch, Foley. Describe it to me?”

“Black on the inside and dark blue from the middle out with like, gold-yellow dots all over the petals. I thought ‘hey, that looks like something Danny would love to have, cause it reminds me of space’ and now all the bruises from ghost fighting don’t hurt anymore.” Tucker frowned, and pulled up his shirt to check, whistling. “Make that ‘aren’t there anymore’. This isn’t some way of lulling a person into a venus flytrap but like, spiritual is it?”

For a long 11 seconds, all Tucker heard was the flipping of pages, the scurrying of small things in the grass, and the chirping of crickets. Then, Sam laughs in his ear and Tucker jumps a bit, dropping the flower to whip out his lipstick laser. “Dude, you scared my heart out of my chest!”

Sam cackled a bit more before clearing her throat. “I’m sorry, I just- you’re a furry, right?”

“Yes,” Tucker said shortly, putting his laser away to pick up the flower again. “Why?”

“Congrats, your dream has come true. That’s a Golden Mourner flower: it only grows where the blood of a god has been spilled-“

“Gotta get Danny to recognize that cult of his.”

“Only blooms three times in a month and the flower dies in 24 hours.”

“I can’t even give it to him, great.”

“And picking it gives you lycanthropy.”

Tucker paused, cocking his head to the side, and blinked a few times. “You’re fucking with me.”

“Nope. Says here there’s no effect on your actual personality or anything, unless you’ve got a god complex hidden away in there.”

“That was Desiree’s fault and you know it.”

“Uh huh. When you come over we can test out your cool new powers. For now, you should probably either come here or head home. Unless you wanna enjoy your new furry form.”

“And you held back on doing magic when you first found a book, right? I’ll see ya, Sam.” Tucker could hear the song of the Moon, much like how he'd described it when Nocturne opened his mind but words couldn't capture its beauty. He had to move.

[q-gorgeous]

Falling Out

fanfiction

ao3

Sam and Paulina are assigned as partners for a school project.

word count: 2581

for @phandom-phriend

heyo bro

“I don’t get what the big deal is.”

Sam stared at Paulina, who was standing in the middle of the hallway twirling her hair between her fingers. 

“You don’t get what the big deal is? Your boyfriend literally just beat someone up!”

Paulina scoffs. “He’s not my boyfriend! And that kid was a loser anyway. His family is just a bunch of freaks.”

Sam looked at Danny who was still laying on the floor, his breath wheezing from when it was knocked out of him. “He’s not a loser.” Sam mumbled.

“Excuse me?” Paulina looked over her nails.

“He’s not a loser!” Sam stomped up to Paulina, her face inches from the other girl’s. “He’s really nice and actually likes hearing about things I want to talk about! Unlike you.”

Tossing her hair over her shoulder, Paulina turned her nose up into the air. “That’s because all you like is that spooky ooky goth stuff. No one wants to listen to you talk about ghosts and spiders and witches.”

“He does.”

“That’s because he’s a loser.” Paulina poked a finger into Sam’s chest. “Why don’t you just drop him and this freaky goth phase and come hang out with your real friends.”

“You are not my friend.”

Paulina froze. “What?”

“I don’t know what bug crawled it’s way up your ass Paulina, but if this is how you’re going to treat people now I don’t want to be your friend anymore.”

She watched as Sam walked away from her and helped Danny off the ground. Sam whispered a few things to him and he nodded. They began to limp their way to the nurses office. 

Paulina clenched her fists together and her throat tightened. That’s fine. She didn’t need Sam. She had plenty of other friends. What did one falling out matter? She turned around and stomped her way in the opposite direction towards the cafeteria.

She didn’t need Sam Manson. 

QQQQQ

“But Mr. Lancer!” Paulina whined, her hands resting on the top of her desk as she stood up in protest. 

“I’m sorry Ms. Sanchez, but you and Ms. Manson will be partners for this project.”

Sam raised her hand. “I’d rather do my project on my own than work with her.”

Lancer pinched the bridge of his nose. “You two are partners for this project, end of discussion.”

“But-” Both girls chorused. 

“That’s enough! Ms. Sanchez, take your seat.”

Paulina huffed and crossed her arms as she sat down. Why did Lancer have to assign her and Sam to work together? Hasn’t he figured out that they hate each other yet?

Her gaze flicked over to where Sam was sitting. She was angrily scratching something into her notebook. She paused and her eyes met Paulina’s. They stared at each other for a moment before Paulina sneered in her direction and looked away. 

Paulina sat angrily stewing in her seat until the bell rang. She grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder, heading out of the classroom at a brisk pace. She was putting the combination into her locker and had just gotten it open when Sam walked up and pushed it closed. 

“What do you want, Manson?” Paulina snapped. 

Sam rolled her eyes. “We’re supposed to work on that project together, remember? When are we going to meet for it?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you just do it on your own and write my name on it.” Paulina twisted the dial on her locker again. 

“Nu uh. If we’re forced to be partners you’re gonna help with it.”

Paulina groaned and opened her locker again. “I guess we can start working on it today after school.”

“Great. I’ll meet you at your house when school is over then.”

“What?” Paulina squawked and turned towards Sam. “Why my house?”

“I don’t want my parents thinking we’re friends again.”

Paulina just stared at her but frowned when Sam pushed the locker closed again and started walking away. She clenched her fists. As if they would ever be friends again. 

The rest of the day passed by both too quick and slow at the same time. She dreaded having Sam come over and having to talk to her so much that even though the day dragged on and on, when she was at home and a knock sounded on the door it felt like she had just been standing at her locker. 

Paulina opened the front door, a bored look on her face when her eyes met Sam’s. They stood there for a moment before Paulina waved her in. Sam stepped in, looking around and Paulina closed the door behind her. 

“So what is this project we’re supposed to be doing anyways?” Paulina led the way to the kitchen where her backpack sat on the table.

Sam sighed. “You weren’t even paying attention when he went over it?”

“I was too busy being angry at Lancer.”

Rolling her eyes, Sam set her backpack on the table and pulled some papers out. “He wants us to find a screenplay to go over. We have to read it and analyze it like we would for a book in class but he wants us to perform part of it in class.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know Paulina!” Sam threw her hands up in the air. “Why do they make us do anything? Now pick one from this list.” She threw a piece of paper at Paulina. “This is a list of plays I thought we would both be interested in.”

Paulina stared at Sam, stunned that she’d even consider Paulina’s interests when they clearly hated each other. Slowly, she looked down at the paper, her eyes scanning over the list. One popped out to her.

“Isn’t this one a musical? Does that count?”

Sam peered around at the paper. “I would think so. They’re basically plays, just with songs. I can’t see why it wouldn’t count.”

“Hm.” Paulina pursed her lips. “If we do this one are we gonna perform a song or a different part of the musical?” She looked over at Sam. She had a dangerous, determined look on her face.

“Only if we want to blow everyone else out of the water.”

Paulina stared for a few seconds, her cheeks heating up. Then she coughed and looked back at the paper.

“Yeah, okay. Let’s do that one.”

QQQQQ

“Why are they all named Heather anyways?”

Sam shrugged as Paulina squinted at her copy of the script. 

They sat in the middle of the stage in the empty auditorium. The rest of their class was in the library, but Mr. Lancer had given them permission to go over their own project in the auditorium. 

“What I wanna know is why there’s always so much drama in musicals set in high schools.” Sam wrinkled her nose. “Like I know we have the A-Listers and everything but this in here is so excessive.”

“What, you don’t like drama?” Paulina rested her chin on her hand, shooting Sam a smile.

“I don’t like high schoolers killing other high schoolers.”

Paulina’s smile fell. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Sam looked down and away. She took a deep breath and stood up with her script in her hand. “Anyways. Let’s figure out which part we want to perform for the class.”

Paulina took a look at the list of songs they had. “What about Seventeen or Shine a Light? I listened to those a couple times and they both have different tones but they seem like they’d be fun to sing.”

Sam nodded. “And there’s not much about sex in either of those. That’s another thing, why do musicals about high schoolers talk so much about sex?” She faked a gag. “I think those are good choices because some of those songs would be so embarrassing to perform in front of the class.”

Paulina frowned. “If this one has stuff in it that makes you uncomfortable why’d you include it on the list?”

Sam shrugged. “I figured it’d make Lancer squirm. He didn’t actually give any specifications on what we could pick anyways. Now let’s get started. Which part do you want?”

“Oh oh! Can I have the lead part? That is, if you didn’t want it?” Paulina started standing up from where she sat on the floor.

Sam shook her head. “You can have it if you want. Want to practice Seventeen first?”

“Sure.”

The music started playing after Sam hit a button on her phone and it filled up the room.

Paulina took a deep breath. 

“Fine, we're damaged

Really damaged.

But that does not make us wise.

We're not special.

We're not different.

We don't choose who lives or dies.”

Paulina looked up at Sam as she sung the lyrics.

“Let’s be normal. See bad movies

Sneak a beer and watch TV.

We'll bake brownies, 

or go bowling --

Don't you want a life with me?

Can't we be seventeen?

That's all I want to do

If you could let me in.

I could be good with you.”

Paulina’s cheeks flushed but she continued singing.

“People hurt us.”

“Or they vanish…”

Goosebumps traveled over Paulina’s arms as Sam’s voice rang out towards her. 

“And you're right that really blows.

But we let go…”

Sam looked up and met Paulina’s eyes and it felt like Paulina was electrocuted. She pulled her eyes away and looked back down at her paper. They finished up the song and Paulina kept staring at her paper until Sam left out a breathless laugh.

“That was so cool! I’ve never really thought about doing theater or anything because it’s not very, you know, goth. But that was exhilarating!” 

Paulina watched as Sam laughed and smiled. She could feel herself falling in and laughed herself. 

QQQQQ

Paulina and Sam laughed as they walked out of the school together. Their project was due in two days and they were heading to Sam’s house to practice their song a bit more. 

“I can’t wait to see Lancer’s face when we discuss what the musical is about. Do you think he’ll-”

BOOM! 

Sam got cut off as something exploded ahead of them, sending both girls sprawling to the ground. 

Looking behind them from where she was on the ground, Paulina saw a giant animalistic ghost. It looked somewhere between a cross of a snake and a cat and it looked like it was about to shoot another blast off from it’s fangs. 

Just as the blast was launched towards Paulina, something crashed into the side of the ghost's head, sending the shot soaring into the sky instead. 

“Run! Get out of here!” Phantom shouted as he shot back at the ghost.

She stood up shakily but didn’t run away. She looked around the front of the school for Sam, where she saw the other girl in the middle of the sidewalk holding a...lipstick? With a determined look on her face. 

What was she planning to do with a tube of lipstick?

Paulina had begun inching her way over to Sam when a green blast came out of the lipstick she was holding onto. It shot into the ghost a couple of times, distracting it from Phantom’s attacks for a moment. 

It bared its teeth at Sam but Phantom punched it in the side of the head. Snarling, it batted Phantom away, sending it flying across the parking lot and it faced back towards Sam. 

Paulina felt like everything was happening in slow motion. When the ghost bared its teeth again, when another ball of ectoplasm started dripping from its fangs, when Paulina ran desperately across the parking lot and barreled Sam out of the way and onto the ground just before the blast created a crater in the ground where she stood a moment before. The ghost started snarling at them again.

“Hey ugly!” 

Phantom viciously threw another ectoblast at the ghost, stunning it before finally pulling it into his thermos. 

Paulina gasped and turned back to where Sam was still laying underneath her. 

“Sam! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m-” Sam paused, frowning and her face flushing before she spoke again, looking over Paulina’s shoulder. “Shut up.”

“What?” 

Sam groaned. “That dip is making faces over there.”

Paulina turned around to see Phantom making kissy faces at them. She raised an eyebrow at him and he paused to give her a grin.

“Okay well, my job is done. Have fun you two!”

And he jumped into the air and flew away. 

“Seriously though.” Paulina crawled off of Sam and helped her up. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Why’d you do that anyways?” Her brows furrowed. “I would’ve been okay. You didn’t have to do anything.”

Paulina gaped at her. “It was about to attack you! It tried! It left a crater in the ground where you were standing! Why wouldn’t I have done anything?”

Sam looked away. “I didn’t think you cared.” She said softly.

Paulina’s stomach plummeted. “I wouldn’t have two weeks ago.” She whispered. “But then we got paired up for this project, and I realized that you’re actually very cool and that I was just really dumb in middle school.”

Sam looked at her. 

“And I think I’ve always sort of missed you. But I decided to never stop being mad so I never figured that out.”

“I guess I did the same thing too.” Sam said. “I could’ve decided to talk to you on my own and talk things out after a while but I just didn’t want to.”

“But it was my fault. I was the one being a terrible person.”

“Are you going to continue being a terrible person though?”

Paulina’s mind went back to the first time Sam’s rage had been bestowed upon her, when one of Paulina’s friends beat up one of Sam’s friends. She didn’t want to be the cause of that again. 

“No.”

“Well.” Sam smiled. “That’s the important part. That you’re capable of change.” She picked up her bag from where she had dropped it during the attack. “Now come on, my mom was gonna make cookies when we got home.”

Paulina smiled back at her and held up her arm to the other girl. Sam looked at it and linked her own arm with Paulina’s. Together they walked away from the school.

QQQQQ

Sam and Paulina’s chests rose up and down as they held their arms up into the air after performing the piece they picked from their musical. The class clapped for them and they lowered their arms and bowed.

“Very nice, Ms. Sanchez and Ms. Manson. Though, I wish you had picked something more appropriate than.” He squinted at the sheet they handed him. “Heathers the musical.”

Sam snickered. “Of course, Mr. Lancer. We’ll try to keep that in mind next time.”

Lancer gave her a look. “Yes, be sure that you do. Alright up next we have-”

Sam and Paulina walked back to their desks and sat down. Paulina shot a look to where Sam was sitting with Danny and Tucker, who were both making kissy faces at her while she swatted at them. Sam’s gaze met hers and Paulina waved at her before blowing a kiss to her across the room.

Sam’s face turned the brightest shade of red Paulina had ever seen it and she opened a folder and stuck her face inside it. Danny and Tucker were both teasing her even more, seemingly losing their mind about it. Paulina giggled at them and turned her focus back to the front of the classroom.

[joshstambourine]

Greta Van Fleet as Dad's

Haven't been able to un-see this idea since it showed up on my dash and uggggh. I couldn't get over how cute all of this was.

For this imagine, I'm sort of picturing them with younger children, anywhere from 3-5 years old as they are all still crazy young hehe. Also. All of these imagines work with any gender of child. It's all sorta just what I imagine them having and being like in general 🖤

Taglist: @anditsmywholeheart

JOSH

Josh is such an interesting guy. He is both so deeply smart... but also at the same time he is the equivalent of a conversation between my last two brain cells.

The sheer amount of energy this man has means he'll not only keep up with a kid but also tire them tf out.

There would always be so much screaming and laughing in the house.

Lots of games of tag and the floor is lava

No matter what he has, son or daughter --- there will be so much dancing. Josh would be the kind of dad who loves to hold his kid and just dance around the house with them.

Not to mention all of the goofy songs they would be singing together.

I can see Josh conversing with his kids like adults even when they are little. Meaning there will be some very serious conversations about very silly things. Potato chips can make you a fly? On it. The floor is both lava and also the arctic? Josh is ready to hear all about how that's possible. There aren't mermaids but there are human sharks? Josh needs to know where he can find them asap.

I can very easily imagine him dressed up and sitting at a table that is far too small for him with his legs crossed.

His daughter would have started by putting one necklace on him and it soon escalated to a crown, sunglasses that didn't fit, and a set of fairy wings. Surrounded by many stuffed animals and dolls.

"Mmm, this is great tea! What kind is it?"

"Grape."

He'd look at his tiny tea cup filled with apple juice. "Huh I could have sworn it was Apple. Did you change it on me?"

She would shake her head, "No daddy! We already drank the apple tea!" She'd laugh.

"What?? You drank all the apple tea without me?!" He'd exclaim, "why did you drink all the apple tea with out me?"

Josh would inch over and begin to tickle her, just loving to hear her laugh really.

"Daddy! Daddy no! You can't tickle me, I'm the princess!!"

Jake

Jake immediately strikes me as such a chill laid back dad. The kind of cool dad you'd definitely want during your teenage years.

He'd be the kind of dad to sit and watch cartoons religiously with his kid, there's no way he'd be missing them. Doesn't matter if it's cool or comedy gold, if his little one loves it they're gonna watch it together.

I think Jake would really want to teach his kid how to play guitar. It's something he's so passionate about that I think it would bring him a lot of joy if his kid had at least the knowledge of techniques and things, even if they weren't a huge fan of playing themselves.

Jake as well strikes me as someone who would be psyched about making dad jokes, of course with a straight face.

That is just a long winded way of saying that as a very young child this kid would know more about music than I do now after 20 years of living on this planet.

"What did the Buffalo say to his little boy when he dropped him off at school?"

"Bison!"

For a gender of a kid I'm split right in the middle when it comes to Jake. I think either would be equally as adorable but for this imagine I'm going with a girl to keep things even.

With a little girl I can imagine him sitting quietly as he watches her tiny hands try their best to paint his nails cleanly.

There is pink nail polish everywhere. Everything is a mess. Everything smells of chemicals. But it's fine.

"After I do your nails can I braid your hair too?" She'd eagerly ask, not looking at his hands anymore but she is still trying to paint.

"But your show is going to be on soon...! I thought we were gonna cuddle?"

"....can I braid your hair and watch my show?"

Jake would look at her seriously before smiling, moving quickly to give her a small kiss on the cheek, "of course you can, only if you give me lots of cuddles after."

"Okay daddy!"

*insert a child who is only half heartedly braiding hair while fully enthralled in their show. Head tilted on a 45° angle to see the TV with half of Jake's hair in a frizzy mangled braid.*

Sam

I really think Sam would want his kids to listen to really good music from a young age.

I mean don't get me wrong I think all of the boys would be like this... but I see him being the kind of parent that buys into the "smarter babies listened to music in important development periods"

The ultimate "my kid is so smart" kind of parent that then shows you 20 drawings that don't look like anything, but clearly they look like something to him.

All those drawings get tucked away somewhere safe so he can go back and look at them proudly as his little one grows up.

"Maybe they'll be an artist?!"

He also strikes me as a parent who wants to be really involved in teaching his kid things. ABC's? Sam's baby has them locked and loaded. Numbers 1-20? Still has trouble remembering anything with a nine but we are working on it.

Ultimate joy is achieved when Sam gets to teach his little one how to ride a bike. He feeling like its a right of passage for every kid to have with their dad.

I pictured Sam sitting with his little boy at the kitchen table, puzzle pieces sprawled all over.

"Dad, I have a joke for you." He'd say as he fiddled with a piece.

"Oh yeah? Go for it buddy." Sam would reply as he connects another edge piece.

"Knock knock!"

"Whose there?"

"Banana!"

"Banana who?"

"The Banana man!" Snickering coming from across the table, hands banging on the table and nearly knocking several pieces off the table.

Sam would laugh a long, "Y'know I've never heard that version of that joke---"

"Dad I'm not done"

"Oh I'm sorry, continue." He'd say beginning to look for a few more pieces to go together.

"Knock knock!"

"Whose there?"

"Banana!"

"Banana who...?" Sam would respond slowly, prepared for the same poorly created joke.

"TWO BANANA MEN!"

Sam would have to lay on the table. It was such a freaking terrible joke but so funny to see the amount of joy it brought the little boys features. "You have to tell that one to mom, okay?"

Danny

Danny is such a loving guy in general, I feel like parenting for him would just be so easy. Not saying that there wouldn't be troubled times--- just that he's just one of those people that were born to parent.

The very dependable parent. Always going to make time for any small thing his little one needs.

Danny is going to encourage his kid to do whatever they love with all of his being.

"You like rocks? We should get a rock polisher."

"You're right these cookies are pretty good, maybe we should get the stuff we need to bake them together."

He is going to have a series or specific book he reads to his little one until they fall asleep. Its something he would refuse to miss, they have to do their chapter! Even if he's on tour somewhere he's going to call home to make sure they can read together.

Danny is over the moon to have a little golfing buddy. As soon as this kid could walk he bought them their own set of clubs so they could play along with him. He just couldn't wait to start teaching them.

Golf time is bonding time. They'd get to walk together and talk about anything and everything.

I've been crazy torn about whether to write about him with a son or a daughter, both are equally as cute. For the sake of evenness though I decided on a boy.

"Okay so for your driver buddy you need to hold your arms waaay out." Danny would tell his son holding his arms out.

"Like this?"

"A little more."

Little eyes look to Danny curiously as his arms become fully extended from his body.

"Perfect! Make sure you stand straight, and keep your eyes on the ball." He says with his hand on the middle of the boys back, "And then you just---"

"SWING!"

Danny nearly getting clocked in the head with a golf club but leans back just in time. The satisfying ting of the little one's club hitting the ball sounds,

"DID YOU SEE HOW FAR IT WENT DAD?!"

*Insert the face Danny made when he pretended Sam's margarita's were good*

~ If anyone wants a full fic written for one of these please let me know because I will 100% write out fluffy family fics without hesitation!! ~

[snackleggg]

City of splintering hopes: Chapter 2 "Cave of stars"

~~~

Ao3

~~~

Danny woke up Saturday morning feeling well rested and refreshed, so he was immediately suspicious about what the day would bring. The last time he had woken up feeling so well was before The accident so roughly 2 years of either nightmares, insomnia, or a ghost waking him had him jumpy at the prospect of a good night's sleep.

He did all his usual checks to make sure nothing was wrong but as he headed down for breakfast it seemed that everything was perfectly fine. Suspicious.

Danny just shrugged though as he ate his almost certainly ecto-contaminated cereal before leaving the house as quickly as possible to avoid helping his parents test any new inventions. Of course he always kept an eye on whatever they were creating, in case it was anything actually dangerous he would need to destroy but the day had started suspiciously well and he wanted to keep that good times streak going for as long as possible. Not getting hit in the head with the boo-merang was something he was eager to do.

He quickly met up with Tucker and Sam at the Nasty burger but as they talked about school and which ghosts they were betting on appearing today Danny felt weighed down as the events of yesterday found their way back to the forefront of his thoughts.

"Hey, earth to Danny" Sam said, snapping her fingers infront of his face. Oh, he must have spaced out.

"We know you wanna be an astronaut dude but don't you think it's a little early?" Tucker joked between stuffing his face full of fries.

Danny chuckled at his friends attempt at humor but it came out more forced than anything "Sorry, just thinking about some stuff. Can I get your guys opinion on something?" Danny asked and both Sam and Tucker gave him their full attention as he started explaining what had happened yesterday.

At the end of the recounting Tucker exclaimed "Yes! You should totally go!" Loud enough to get a few heads turned but he quieted himself down and soon everyone at the fast food joint was once again minding their own business.

"It does sound like a good opportunity. Plus it's not like anything bad is guaranteed to happen. My prediction is worst case scenario you come back with nothing new" Sam said with a shrug.

"Yeah, I guess your right. I mean it's just some old abandoned buildings and stuff they might've left behind, nothing that can hurt right?" Danny reasoned, finally he was starting to get over his slight paranoia.

"Exactly! But if you do find anything cool be sure to tell us about it" Tucker added and Danny nodded along. Of course he would tell his friends, they knew pretty much everything about eachother and would always come to eachother when they needed to talk to someone.

"Well if you want to go today then you should get going, the Far Frozen is a 2 hour flight and you don't know how long you'll need to travel from there to get to these ruins" Sam said. Danny had also explained to them his feelings on not wanting to wait too long if he did decide to go and she could tell that Danny's curiosity that he inherited from his parents wouldn't let him just walk away from this one.

"Oh, yeah you're right!" Danny shot up but before he could move he looked at his two friends with concern "You guys gonna be okay protecting Amity on your own?" Danny asked.

"It's all good. We have our thermos' and some Fenton anti-ghost weapons that actually work so we should be fine!" Tucker waved off Danny's concerns.

"But, if anything does happen that we can't handle well call you. That ease your worries?" Sam asked with a smirk and Danny rolled his eyes fondly before waving goodbye and heading home.

It was the same as what he did yesterday. Go through the portal invisibly, make the long fly to the Far Frozen and go see Frostbite. Of course now it was for different reasons than a check up or just the usual friendly visit.

Danny's thoughts had nearly spiralled three times on the flight over to the Far Frozen but he had been getting better at grounding himself so he managed to catch any worries or doubts that may have caused him to turn around.

Finally he landed in the freezing tundra and almost immediately was engulfed in a hug from the large Yeti. His white fur made him blend into the surroundings so well Danny hadn't spotted him initially.

"Great One!" Frostbite yelled happily as he put Danny back down. It didn't matter how many times or how often Danny visited Frostbite was always ecstatic to see him.

"Hey Frosty" Danny gave his old mentor a smile before awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, a nervous habit he had for as long as he could remember.

"Have you... thought about what I suggested?" Frostbite asked, immediately understanding why Danny was here. It was always easy to forget that Frostbite was alot smarter than he seemed, he had given Danny wise words of advice on more than one occasion and it was obvious when he was around his tribe how great his leadership skills were.

"Yeah I have and... do you think you could? Take me to the ruins? I want to know more about people like me and this might be the only way..." Danny rambled a little. He didn't know why he felt like he needed to justify himself to Frostbite. Frostbite knew why he was here already, he had suggested it, so why did Danny feel like this was something he needed an excuse for?

"Of course. I can't show you to the ruins themselves unfortunately but I can show you how to get to them" Frostbite said as he turned around and started walking away from Danny, making a 'follow me' gesture.

Danny was as stiff as a board as he followed Frostbite. Hypervigilant and examining all his surroundings closely like he expected something to jump out and attack him.

They walked down a path Danny hadn't seen before, it lead away from where Danny knew the Yeti tribe to be living, leading further and further into the tundra and up the ice mountains.

After maybe around an hour of walking in silence, only the wind and crunch of snow under their feet filling it, they came to a stop on the mountain side. Infront of them stood a large entrance to a very dark cave.

"Through here, on the other side are the ruins" Frostbite gestured and seemed to wait for Danny to go in but Danny hesitated.

"Why can't you lead me the rest of the way?" He asked.

"This cave leads to the hidden lands, as some call them, it is where the Halfas once lived. Only a Halfa or those given special permission to pass can make it through the labyrinth of the cave, I have tried but I always end up coming back out this side despite never remembering turning around" Frostbite explained and Danny just gulped nervously.

"If only a Halfa could get through then how did Pariah Dark attack the Halfas, shouldn't they have been safe in these 'Hidden lands'?" Danny asked nervously.

"I... do not know. Many of the allies of the Halfas thought the same thing. There was a legend- no, a rumour that a ghost that had the ability to track Halfas helped Pariah Dark but that's all that was, a rumour" Frostbite shrugged, a thoughtful look on his face.

Danny nerves weren't calming down but something in his core urged him to go through the cave. He didn't know what it was but ever since The accident Danny's instincts had always been trustworthy so he took a steadying breath before walking forward into the cave.

He heard Frostbite wish him good luck as he entered.

The cave was alot warmer than he was expecting. Of course thanks to his ice core he couldn't get cold necessarily but the change in temperature didn't go unnoticed by him. The light from the snow white tundra quickly disappeared the further in he went until he was engulfed in complete darkness, apart from the soft glow he himself was giving off. The sounds of the howling winds had faded until they could barely be heard anymore and Danny was really considering turning around and leaving because the idea of stumbling around in a dark labyrinth cave wasn't exactly the most appealing.

Then he blinked as he noticed something, a light.

Not really it was more like a dot, a small dot of light in the dark.

He decided to continue walking and the longer he walked the more of these small dots of the light appeared until there were so many it lit up the icy cave in a pale glow, the lights all reflecting off of the ice.

Danny stopped as he stared in wonder at the sight.

The first thing that came to Danny's mind were the stars, the night sky. It was beautiful how the small points of light work together to illuminate the dark cave.

Then Danny noticed something as he continued walking. The dots were disappearing behind him but appearing infront of him as he walked. Then he took a turn and the dots stopped appearing.

"Huh..." Danny backtracked and took the other turn. The dots started appearing again, lighting the way for the young Halfa.

"Cool" Danny whispered into the silence of the cave was he followed the direction of the dots of light. Finally Danny turned a corner and he saw the end of the cave, an end that even from the distance Danny could tell didn't lead out into the cold tundra of the Far Frozen. As he closed the distance he could see the green swirling clouds of ectoplasm only they were lighter? A much lighter green than that of the normal sky of the Ghost Zone.

Finally Danny exited the cave and found his core humming nicely at the sight before him.

A city.

A large and grand one, made of a pale sandy coloured stone that reminded Danny of the housing they had in Egypt. The city was still a distance away so Danny couldn't see the architecture too closely but he could see a path leading down the no longer snowy mountain side to a bridge between the city and the cliff drop of the mountain.

A strange thing Danny noticed was the fact that the city didn't rest on an island that was floating, suspended in mid air. Instead the island stretched downwards into the dark abyss of the Ghost Zone, as if connected to solid ground all the way down in it's depths.

Danny was ecstatic.

He quickly flew down to the bridge, and walked it's length up to the gates of the city.

Standing at the city's ground level made it all the more grand and imposing.

But it also made Danny now notice the ruins part of it. The gate, that Danny had no doubt was once grand and tall standing, was nothing but rubble and fallen stone.

Danny took a fortifying breath.

Up until then Danny hadn't really thought about what he was truly walking into. This wasn't just a museum or some natural history tour. These were ruins, this was the home of a slaughter people. This place wasn't just their home, it was probably their grave as well.

He needed to be careful.

He couldn't go walking into this like a naive child, he came here to understand and to understand he needed to treat this place with the respect it deserved.

So he flew into the city, hopefully he could learn something from what was left behind.

~~~

First | Previous | Next

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I'll be tagging all content do to with this story with the tag City of splintering hopes so if guys want to you can follow the story easier. You can also use that tag for any questions or content you guys make of the story!

[avaritia-apotheosis]

Phantom Children [DP x Batman Crossover] Ch. 1

Disclaimer: It's been a while since I watched DP and the only Batman/DC stuff I've interacted with are B:TAS, the JL cartoons, and what I got from fandom osmosis so don't expect any sort of canon compliance.

In Which: the author takes advantage of the passage of time in Nanda Parbat being wonky and Danny doesn't give up, per se, but is sort of resigned to being stuck with the League of Assassins until further notice.

AO3 | Prologue | [ 1 ] | 2 |

CW for descriptions of non-consensual drug use (if there's anything you guys would like me to tag, please tell me)

-----

WHEN SOMETHING WENT WRONG WITH DANNY’S LIFE, it was usually because of one or two things: Ghosts or Vlad. And considering their truce and how even Vlad wouldn’t go this far (at least, Danny hoped), Danny was kidnapped because of ghosts. Or his association with ghosts.

Though how an organization of ninja-assassins got wind of his ‘unique’ circumstance was beyond him. The shackles they slapped on his wrists were more a formality than anything after the second time he tried to escape them with intangibility. The only reason they managed to get him contained the entire trip from Amity Park to wherever the fuck Nanda Parbat lay was because of the cocktail of drugs they pumped into his system spiked with blood blossoms.

Danny had to give it to them. The League of Assassins might not have any anti-ecto weaponry, but they did their homework.

He barely remembered the trip. He catches flashes—blurry figures and words he couldn’t comprehend. A warm hand holding his, a thumb rubbing smooth circles on the back of his palm and calloused fingers running through his hair.

When he awoke, it was in a room bigger than his bedroom. His ankle was shackled to a bedpost, and the only door leading out was locked. There was a separate room for the bathroom off to the side and a shelf stacked with books decorating the otherwise bare walls, but other than that there wasn’t much else. Not even windows.

Intangibility, he learned, wasn’t an option. The blood blossoms in his bloodstream were still in circulation, rendering his transformation useless. If his nose was right, his captors were pumping blood blossoms from the vents. The sickly sweet of the flower was faint in the cool air, but the slight red haze that persisted in the room was unmistakable.

He tried, regardless. The rings barely made it half-way before his knees buckled and he started retching all over the floor. At least his stomach was empty.

-------

Danny doesn’t know how long he’s been in Nanda Parbat. Time moved differently here. Faster, he thought. He doesn’t really understand how or why, though sometimes he wondered what Clockwork thought of all of this.

(There are times, in the darkness and solitude of his cell, when Danny would call for Clockwork to rescue him. Quietly, so quietly, it was barely even a whisper. But Clockwork would hear it—Danny was sure he would. Clockwork helped him out before, so this time shouldn’t be all that different. But at the end of the night, nothingness would answer him. And Danny had to learn over and over again that even the Ghost of Time had his own rules to follow.)

It had taken a few days and Talia nearly biting the head off of the League’s physician for them to realize that blood blossoms would be an awful way to contain him. Effective at immobilizing him, yes, but the flowers left him about as helpless as Superman in a kryptonite cave.

“It all works out in the end,” Talia would say. “The blossoms were never going to become a long-term solution; you might end up developing an immunity to them given enough exposure.”

Though knowing now what Talia’s ‘long-term plan’ was for making sure Danny didn’t slip through the walls of the headquarters and fly across the ocean, Danny would rather take his chances with the blood blossoms.

Danny might not have been as smart as Vlad, but he was tricky and creative when he needed to be. He knows he’s powerful. And sure, he might forget some of his own abilities every now and then, but that doesn’t mean he can’t use them. In the time he’s been stuck in the Leage’s lair (and coherent), Danny had thought of a dozen escape plans, each one with a high chance of success. If he made an attempt, he could guarantee the League wouldn’t notice until he was a quarter-way across the globe.

Escaping wasn’t the problem. That would be the easy part.

His core burned at the thought of it. And it hurt—as if his entire being was dunked in a vat of dry ice and left to freeze. He hated how he was here and everything that he was protecting was far. Away.

Danny wanted to go home. Wanted to read comic books in his bed, play Doom with Tucker and Sam, sleep in class and make fun of the Box Ghost. He wants to eat his mom’s food, even if there’s a fifty-fifty chance that it would come alive and try to eat him instead. He wants to listen to Jazz try to psychoanalyze his problems. Wants to go fishing with his dad and eat his famous chocolate fudge. Wants to fly above the skies of Amity Park and touch what little he can of the universe before he’s called down again.

Amity Park is his haunt. His Home. The soft hum of the Ghost Portal in the basement a lullaby he’s listened to for so long that sleeping without it was next to impossible. Every fiber of his being craved to go back because how is he supposed to protect Amity if he isn’t there?

But to go back meant sacrificing everyone.

Danny doesn’t risk it.

(The—the last time was an accident. If Danny isn’t—if he isn’t careful, this time it may be an assassination. He refused to have his family’s death on his hands again.)

He has faith in Sam, Tucker, and Jazz to hold down the fort until he could find a way to escape. They’re smart. Smarter than him. They’ll work something out and—in a worst-case scenario, they’ll find a way to shut down the Ghost Portal to stop the ghosts from coming through.

Logic meant nothing to his ghost core, though. The next best thing to do was to drown out his worries with the League’s rigorous education.

Hand-to-hand and weapons combat. Geography. History. Dozens of foreign languages. Poisons and herbology and basic first-aid. His days are packed with new things to learn and to repeat until it’s drilled into his skull so deep he could recite the information in his sleep. (Hyosycamus niger, aka Henbane. Every part is highly toxic and can cause dizziness, stupor, insanity, and eventual death. It’s medicinal uses range from--)

The League demanded perfection. The Demon’s Head demanded even more than that.

Talia oversaw his education. Sometimes, there would be another, older, man by her side, observing his regimen with cold calculation. Whenever that man arrived, Danny’s instructors were always stricter.

His teachers made little effort to interact with him outside of their set schedule, and during his lessons they only ever answer pertinent questions. He supposed there would be other students of the League in Nanda Parbat, but he’s seen neither hide nor hair of them. His rooms (a bedroom + bathroom combo that led out into a large indoor space for training) are separate from everything else.

Danny slept alone, ate alone, and trained alone. And for a boy who has had his two best friends stuck to his side like glue for as long as he could remember, it’s a terribly lonely experience.

His shadow guards don’t count. They might as well be another piece of furniture. Another stone in the wall.

-------

Talia was the only one that broke his new mundane routine, as much as she was the cause of it. She was his only source of companionship in this hell hole; the only one who would really speak to him. And yeah, he knew why that was. Jazz had rambled on enough about Stockholm syndrome to know that this ‘arrangement’ was Talia’s attempts at forging a bond between them. But godit’s just so hard to be stuck inside your own mind all day when. It made him think too much. Worry. (Whatifwhatifwhatifwhatif).

And then—

And then.

Danny had asked Talia a multitude of questions, but only two did she ever answer. Both asked when he was still trying to flush the drug cocktail and the blood blossoms from his system.

The first was when he asked, “Why am I here?” She answered that it was because Ra’s al Ghul, her father, wanted him. He had knowledge the Demon’s Head wanted; powers that Ra’s could only ever dream of. The man was curious—though Talia assured him over and over again that Danny wouldn’t be vivisected and studied for science.

The second answer came right after when Danny asked her “How could you be so sure?”

Talia smiled. Lacquered fingers coming up to brush away the dark strands that fell over his face. Her hands traced the curve of his jaw, cupping his cheeks to raise his eyes to hers. “Because you are my son,” she said, voice honey sweet.

He jerked from her hold.

Burned by it.

“You’re lying,” he spat. “I’m already someone else’s son. Try again.”

Talia let her hands drop to her sides. “You are my son.” She took a step closer towards him. Steady. Firm. “That is why you are here.”

“I don’t believe you.”

A pitying smile. “Be that as it may, you cannot change the truth.” She approached him, slowly backing him against the wall before she reached out to tilt his chin upwards. Some traitorous part of Danny’s mind catalogued her features. Made connections that shouldn’t exist. “I have carried you in my womb, Daniel. You were a part of me for so very long and I loved you more with each passing day. You are of my body and of my blood—not matter how much you may deny it.”

“No.” He pushed her hands away and raked his hands over his hair. “You’re lying.” She must be. They don’t look alike. Not at all. Everyone always said he was his dad’s—Jack Fenton’s—exact copy. Black haired and blue eyed and sharp-jawed. Awkward but well-meaning and with a heart of gold, his mother said. It was once of the facts of life; Danny took after his dad, and Jazz took after their mom. Simple as that.

(There is a memory resurfacing from his early childhood that Danny is desperately trying to repress again. Memories of kids teasing him on the playground, innocently cruel in the way only children can be as they tried to convince him he was adopted. That his skin looked nothing like his parents’. Dusky where his parents and sister were fair. He went home crying to his parents that same day, and they soothed away his worries with hushed words and a well-timed distraction.)

He asked no more questions after that. Talia was lying to him for some reason, and no answer she could give would be trustworthy anyways. What little of him he could see in her was only a figment of his own imagination. His mind playing cruel tricks.

Then his hopes were dashed aside when Talia showed him a picture of his father a day later.

The man in the photo looked like him. Black haired and eyes the same shade of too-bright blue. There were differences, of course. The man in the photograph was fairer, unlike Danny. He was taller and broader where Danny was lean and lanky. But despite this and all the other minute differences, this man who was supposed to be Danny’s biological father looked like him.

The same slant of the brow. The same shape of the eyes. The way the man held himself with this sense of gravitas and power that Danny couldn’t yet do in his awkward teenage years but had seen before. In a monster another man.

Danny’s future self was terrifying in its inhumanity, but it didn’t take that much of an imagination to know that he looked almost exactly like the man in the picture.

[dreamwraith]

Baking

Summary: In home economics, Tucker and Danny are told to bake a cake. The teachers should know better than to pair those two together when food is involved… Warning: Danny and Tucker are a bit sexist, but hopefully no worse than canon Pairings: Danny and Tucker being best friends. Implied DxS feelings, but nothing official

On Ao3

Danny drummed his fingers against the countertop, and the dull tap-tap-tap-tap created a steady rhythm to the Dumpty Humpty song he had stuck in his head. A tap-tip-tap soon joined his beat, adding a new dimension to the cadence. Danny glanced at his best friend and smiled when he saw Tucker tapping the countertop with his pencil. Tucker returned the expression, but he added a quirked eyebrow. Danny, not one to back down, answered the unspoken challenge by humming softly. As the two reached the chorus, Tucker used his other hand to beat against his leg.

Seconds away from reaching Jonathan's awesome guitar solo, a great SNAP destroyed their tempo and made the boys jump. Danny was so startled, his jump caused his chair to overbalance. Their classmates burst out laughing, and Danny blushed in embarrassment. He quickly climbed back into his seat, but the damage was already done to his reputation.

Their teacher lifted the yard stick from Danny's desk, smirking in satisfaction. "Serves you boys right," she said. "This is Home Economics, not music class. If I catch you goofing off again, I'll be forced to give you detention—and you and I would both hate it if we have to spend more than our allotted hour together."

The two boys blinked stupidly at her.

She glowered. "I'll make this simple. If I catch you two playing around in this classroom again, I'll have you lazy yokels scrubbing every inch of my kitchen!" She turned sharply on her heel and made her way to the front of the class again.

After she'd returned to her lecture and the class stopped paying attention to them, Tucker leaned toward Danny and whispered, "Dude, did she just call us 'lazy yokels'?"

Danny nodded dumbly. "I think she did. What are yokels?"

"No clue…"

"I bet Sam would know if she were here…"

"I bet she'd blame the word usage on Ms. Loretta's man-hating issues."

"If that's true and she hates us, how are we even passing?"

Tucker flashed Danny a wide, white smile. "Not even that witch can resist my charms, Danny!"

Danny smirked, and leaned his cheek against his propped up hand. "There are ten girls in this class, Tucker, and we're the only guys. If no girl can resist your charms, how come you haven't got a date yet?"

Tucker flinched before scowling and muttering something too quiet for Danny to hear.

"What?"

"I said, it's because you keep stealing all the girls!" he whispered.

Danny drew back, blinking in surprise. "What?" He frowned. "What are you talking about, Tucker? I haven't even talked to half these girls!"

"And yet they keep on falling for you!"

"They are not!"

"They are too!"

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

"Prove it!"

"I—"

"Fenton! Foley!"

Danny and Tucker jumped, recoiling away from their counter. But the sound of a large stick striking metal didn't reach their ears and they slowly opened their eyes. Three counters away, at the front of the class, their teacher raised an eyebrow at their odd behavior.

Danny smiled nervously. "Y-yes, Ms. Loretta?"

"Turn to page 324 in your Home Economics book. You and Mr. Foley are baking a cake today."

"Us?" Danny asked.

"Bake a cake?" Tucker added, equally incredulous.

"By ourselves?"

"That is what you are here for, isn't it?" Ms. Loretta demanded. "To learn how to bake?"

Half a classroom away, and Loretta's angered presence was still enough to make Danny and Tucker cringe away from her. "Yes, ma'am," they said.

"Good." She returned to calling out groups.

Danny and Tucker looked at each other, flinching in unison.

"I don't suppose you know how to bake a cake?" Danny asked his best friend.

"I know how to charm my mom into making me a cake…" Tucker answered. "You?"

"Jazz usually handles the normal necessities like suppers and birthday parties." Danny pulled his book toward him and opened to the directed page. "I guess we'll just have to follow the instructions."

"Easier said than done, dude." Tucker tapped his finger below the tsp. symbol. "What does that even mean?"

Danny scratched his head. "Um, I think it means tablespoon…"

Tucker groaned, and dropped his head onto the countertop. "It would be so much easier to get a date with a girl if Ms. Wichita actually paired us up with the opposite sex. I'm always stuck with you in this class!"

"Normally, I'd be insulted, but this time, I agree with you. How the heck does she expect us to bake a cake without a girl's knowledge?"

"It's a conspiracy! She knows why we signed up for this dumb class, Danny. She knows…"

"No, she knows why you signed up," Danny corrected. "I'm here because my best friend insisted he needed a wingman."

"Yeah, but you've turned out to be a terrible wingman. You're supposed to send the ladies my way, not gather your own entourage."

Danny rolled his eyes. "We're back to that? You're being ridiculous, Tuck. None of these girls like me."

"Oh yeah?" Tucker lifted his head, and searched the room. He pointed to Natasha, a geeky redhead with braces and a lot of freckles. "Go ask her for a cup of sugar."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "But…we have sugar, Tuck. Why would I—"

"Just go ask her, clueless!"

Danny pouted but snatched up a measuring cup. "I'm not clueless…" he muttered to himself, walking off towards Natasha's station. Tucker must have heard, because he chuckled and shook his head at his friend's obliviousness.

Natasha's partner, a brunet named Amanda, spotted Danny walking towards them, and she quickly elbowed her friend. Natasha looked at her, and Amanda answered her silent question by pointing at Danny. Natasha's eyes widened, but she smiled at Danny when he reached their counter.

Danny smiled back. "Uh, hey, Natasha. Hey, Amanda."

"Hey, Danny," they said.

"What brings you over here?" Natasha asked.

Danny held up his white measuring cup. "Tucker sent me over to get some sugar."

Natasha glanced over at his and Tucker's counter, frowning slightly. "Don't you have sugar?"

"Yeah, but something must be wrong with it, because Tucker was really insistent I get some from you guys—er, girls."

Amanda and Natasha shared a look, and then burst out in giggles.

Danny blinked. "What?"

Natasha took the cup from his hands, smiling oddly at him. "It's nothing, Danny. Just a cup right?"

"Yup. Oh, and what does t-s-p stand for?"

"Teaspoon."

"…Oh…" Danny blushed and rubbed his neck, thinking, Whew, that was close.

Natasha turned around to get the sugar, giggling softly. Amanda leaned toward Danny, staring eagerly, almost creepily into his eyes. "So has Goth Girl made her move yet?"

Danny leaned back, blinking. "What? What move?" His eyes widened. "Sam's moving? Why haven't I heard of this?"

"Easy there, Danny," Natasha said, turning back around. "Sam's not going anywhere. It's just an inside joke."

"Oh." Danny pointed at the full cup of sugar in her hands. "Is that my sugar?"

"Uh." Natasha blushed, and jerked the cup out to him, the motion sending some of the crystals over the edge. "Yes. Here."

Danny took the cup, and flashed the girls a grateful smile. "Thanks. See you later."

"Yeah…bye, Danny."

Danny waved his hand as he turned around and made his way back to his own station. He heard Amanda say something about brunets, but she spoke too quietly for him to hear. He shrugged. They were odd, but then, all girls except for Sam were a mystery to him.

Well, he amended, Sam is a mystery sometimes too, but she's like one of the guys! …If I said that to her face she'd probably kill me…

Tucker grinned at Danny once he reached their counter. "So…"

Danny raised an eyebrow. "So?"

"How did it go?"

Danny set the cup of sugar on the countertop. "I got the sugar. What was wrong with ours, by the way?"

Tucker frowned. "That's it? Just the sugar? You didn't get her phone number or anything?"

"No…" Danny said slowly. "Was I supposed to get her phone number for you? Is that what a wingman would do?"

Tucker face-palmed. "My gosh, Danny, you are clueless."

"Hey! I'm still new to this wingman stuff!"

"I don't mean that!" Tucker sighed, and looked up at the ceiling forlornly. "Where did I go wrong with him? I taught him everything I know, and yet he turned out like this…"

Danny wrinkled his nose, eyeing his best friend warily. "You're…acting weird, dude. …Are you being overshadowed?

"Of course not!"

"Then can we just bake the cake already?"

Tucker shrugged. "Might as well. Clearly nothing else is going to happen in this class…And it might be fun…"

Danny chuckled. "If Loretta heard you say that, she'd kick you out of her kitchen for suspicious behavior."

"Good thing she didn't hear it then."

"True." Danny pulled the cooking book towards him, and read a few of the instructions. "Alright. It says we first have to get a large mixing bowl."

Tucker bent down, and reached into the cupboard beneath their counter. He pulled out two bowls. "Red one or blue one?" "Does it matter?"

"I guess not." He put the blue one away, and placed the red one on the counter. "Next?"

"Um, 'pour in two cups of all purpose flour'," Danny read.

Tucker cocked his head to the side. "Is there another purpose for flour?"

"I once dumped a bag of flour over myself when I was eight," Danny said slowly. "Dad saw me, shouted GHOST, and brought out his prototype ecto-gun…Does that count?"

Tucker winced. He reached out a hand, and patted Danny's shoulder. "That's rough, dude."

His best friend shrugged; the present had numbed the pain from the past. Danny opened the flour container and measured out a cup. Tucker watched him pour the fluffy whiteness into the bowl with large, unblinking eyes. Danny repeated the process, and when he poured the last cup into the bowl, Tucker sighed in relief.

"This isn't so bad. We can totally do this!"

"Yeah," Danny agreed, smiling, "so far so good. Next is one, one half cup of sugar." He snatched the acquired cup of sugar off the counter, and dumped it into the bowl. He frowned questionably at Tucker "…Should I get a half cup from Natasha and Amanda, too?"

Tucker rolled his eyes. "No. Our sugar will do."

"If our sugar was fine, why did you make me get some from them?"

"A misguided attempt to help my friend overcome his issues," Tucker responded curtly. "Pour in another cup of sugar already."

"But the book says to only add another half cup."

"So? It's sugar!" Tucker waved his hands around. "How can sugar ruin anything?"

Danny grinned. "We'll have the sweetest cake in the class!"

"You bet!"

Danny dumped another cup of sugar into the bowl.

"'Half cup of shortening'," Tucker read. He frowned. "What the heck is shortening?"

"I don't know," Danny said. "Is it supposed to make you shrink?"

"Who wants that? Leave it out?"

"Leave it out."

"'Three and a half t-s-p of baking soda'…Are you sure that means tablespoons?"

Danny brows furrowed, thinking back. "Um, actually, I think Natasha said it was something else…"

"Like…?"

"…Uh, what's that other measuring spoon?"

"…I don't know!" Tucker threw up a hand. "Do I look like the kind of guy who would know? Why don't you go and ask a girl what it means?"

"Me?" Danny asked incredulously. "Why me?"

"Because the girls actually like you!"

"Don't start that again!"

"It's true!"

"It is not!"

"Problem, boys?"

Danny gasped, startled into another jump. His hand knocked against the bowl, and it would have fallen off the counter, if Tucker hadn't jumped forward and caught it. Both boys sighed in relief. They flashed each other triumphant grins, but Ms. Loretta, standing over them, frowned disapprovingly.

"Be careful!" she hissed.

"Sorry, Ms. Loretta," the boys said meekly.

"By the way, teach," Tucker said before Loretta could turn away. "What does t-s-p stand for?"

Loretta scowled. "You would already know the answer to that if you actually paid attention in my class." She walked away, leaving the boys to gape after her without an answer.

"Now that," Danny said slowly, "is one mean teacher…"

"Uh-huh…" Tucker agreed.

Danny rubbed his neck, and asked hesitantly, "What do we do now?"

"We'll use tablespoons," Tucker responded, like it was obvious. "As they say, you're first guess is your best guess…or something like that." He pulled a tablespoon out of the drawer and started measuring out the suspected amount of baking soda.

"I don't know, Tuck," Danny said hesitantly. "I have a bad feeling about this…"

Tucker scoffed, rolling his eyes. "We're baking a cake, Danny. What's the worst that can happen? Worst case scenario, the Lunch Lady makes an appearance and gets in a fight with Ms. Grouch…Actually, that'd be totally awesome!" Tucker laughed, imagining the fight. Danny smiled. "Now where's the vinegar? Mom's secret ingredient for everything is vinegar…"

------------------------------------------

"FENTON! FOLEY!"

Danny fought evil ghosts on a regular basis, but somehow Ms. Loretta's shouts always made him jump. It made no sense to him! And because the floor was covered in slippery foam, when he landed on his feet, he instantly lost his footing and fell on his butt with splash. Tucker managed to avoid Danny's fate by clinging desperately to the countertop, but his feet did a funny dance over the slick tiles.

Danny pointed a finger at his best friend. "He did it!"

"Lies!" Tucker shouted. He regained his balance, and pointed a finger of his own at Danny. "I'm innocent! Danny's the one who thought t-s-p meant tablespoons!"

"But Tucker was the one who wanted to add the vinegar!"

"And Danny didn't stop me!"

"That explains the foam," Ms. Loretta growled, her voice strained, "but not the flour or the eggs!"

Tucker grimaced as egg yolk slid down his face. "Danny threw eggs at me because he's in some serious denial."

"That's not true!" Danny objected. "I threw eggs at him, because Tucker dumped the flour over m-m-m—ACHOO!" Danny sneezed, and the force of the blast sent his head colliding with the bottom cabinets. The force made the white powder waft off Danny's hair and float around his head. "Ow…"

"But I only dumped the flour over him because I got frustrated with the cake and his cluelessness!"

"I'm not clueless!"

"Yes you are!"

"No I'm not!"

"If you're not clueless, then how come you haven't noticed all the moves Sam has made?"

"What moves?"

"You would know if you weren't so clueless!"

"I'm not clueless!"

"Yes you are! And you're a terrible wingman!"

"I never even wanted to be your wingman!"

"Good because you suck at it!"

"And you suck at baking!"

"Like you're any better!"

"I—"

"DETENTION!"

[phantomphangphucker]

Ectober Day 19: Shadow - Shadow Of Myself

Danny’s gotten himself hurt, but not to worry Valerie’s here. Now if only that stupid ghost Phantom wasn’t tagging along for the ride.

Valerie shifts her blaster in her arms, the metal creaking slightly, not sure what to do with the situation in front of her. Danny, human Danny, her friend and once love; was lying prone on the ground unconscious. And Phantom, that damn ghost ‘Danny’, archenemy and destroyer of lives; was practically cradling his torso and head, staring at her with a guarded ‘will you hurt me or help him’ look.

Valerie swallows, clicks her visor open and squints at him, but seeing the blood pooling on the ground makes her decision for her. Immediately dropping the weapon and rushing to kneel at Danny’s side. Snapping at Phantom and banking more than a little on him maintaining that ‘superhero’ facade he insisted on, “what happened”.

“Guys In White”.

That catches her off guard, “what?!?”, as she starts pulling out first aid while Phantom phases Danny’s sweater off. She doesn’t care or know why he burns it to ash. At least his freaky powers were useful for something, getting the top off with far less jarring than any human could manage. Him getting his damn shedding ecto-energy or whatever in Danny’s wound, or wounds, seriously doesn’t impress her though.

Phantom grumbles incoherently as he works practically seamlessly with her, using his intangibility to hold the skin over the large bullet hole apparently there closed without getting in her way of cleaning and sanitising. Using an ecto-flame to sanitise the needle to speed the process up. He does give her an actual answer though, probably trying to be a ‘distraction’, “they put a few things together”.

Valerie pushes the needle through and tries to ignore that she’s doing this to Danny’s body not hers, “put together what, Phantom”.

“Things”.

She makes her scowl very audible but doesn’t look away from her task. That’s enough to prompt him to explain further, good, “it’s not entirely my secret to tell, Val-”.

“Don’t call me that”.

She can hear the eye-roll in his voice, “Red. It’s his secret”.

Valerie scoffs, though keeps her hands working smoothly, pointedly ignoring the bits of blood getting smeared around, “like you have any problem spilling people's secrets”.

“That was to stop you from a suicide mission. Telling you his stuff won’t save his life”.

Fine. She’ll give him that one. That thing genuinely could have killed her. And Danny, this was bad but it wasn’t going to die here and now bad. If he was left alone then yes, he would... probably bleed out. And the only reason she was here was her scanner picking up on Phantom. Swallowing a little, “whatever. I would have been fine. But this whatever got him hurt. Even I know the G.I.W. don’t mess around and are extremists-”.

Phantom cuts her off, “coming from you that says a lot”. She pauses to glare at him very quickly before finishing up the stitching, “so we both know they absolutely would kill someone”. He doesn’t say anything as they move to sit Danny up, though his face ‘appears’ to be one of concerned concentration. Not that the ghost actually felt concern, it was just part of his stupid act. “Hold him”, he just nods as she moves to start wrapping Danny up. She’ll get the boy more genuine bandaging from her room, but he needs to be at least somewhat bandaged to get him there without risk. And as much as she’d like to get him the Hell away from the ghost, she’s not going to rush and risk his health just to do that.

Phantom sighs slightly after a while, “you do have a point”. Valerie huffs, at least he was willing to admit that. Snipping the bandaging and grabbing him under the armpits to move him onto her board after summoning it out.

Her actively scowling as Phantom floats up with her, even following after. Her snapping after a bit, “you’re like a damn shadow. I can’t shake you. Go away, ghost”.

Phantom giving a weirdly firm, “no”, immediately; which she glances at him for. The Zone was Phantom’s problem? Even with him insisting on his stupid false persona, he didn’t actively go out of his way to make sure people were fine outside of taking them to a hospital. She was perfectly capable of looking after Danny herself. Hell, she probably had better experience with anything ecto-related than the hospital did. “I don’t need your damn help, Phantom. And neither does he”.

Phantom scowls and rolls his eyes a little, “I know you won’t make him worse. You get along and won’t try sticking him in some anti-ecto bath or purifier dream catcher contraption like Jack and Maddie would”. Valerie has to blink those images out of her head, that was messed up and definitely something the  Fenton’s would do but she’s not about to let the Spook distract her, “then get lost. The only reason I’m not shooting you now is to avoid jostling him. That’s it. So go away, or else”.

Groaning over the stupid stubborn ghosts, “no”, as she flys through her bedroom window. Quickly moving to lay him out on her bed and immediately summoning out a small pistol, pointing it at the ghost, “give me one damn reason I shouldn’t pump you full of holes. I told you to get lost. I’ll be nice and let you leave, if you leave right now, for helping but seriously. Get”.  

Phantom stares at her for a bit, blinking once, “I... can’t”. Which fine, is enough to get her to pause.

Squinting at him, at him glancing from her to Danny and back. “And why the Hell not”. No point framing that accusation as a question.

The Spook squints at her right back, ghostly tail swishing in the air, “hinting at that answer is what the G.I.W. shot him over”. Now that’s enough to make her lower her weapon slightly. Only a little though.

Blinking and glaring at him, “so you really think I’d shoot him”. She almost feels insulted by that implication. Not to mention him still playing the stupid hero thing. ‘Protecting’ Danny.

He glances from her to Danny and back again for the second time, “that depends”.

Okay now she definitely is offended. Scowling meanly, “on?”. Did he have to be so stupidly elusive about everything and how dare he even claim she’d hurt Danny of all people.

“On how badly you want to ‘obliterate me out of existence’ versus ‘not get Danny hurt as collateral of your hunting’”, shrugging with obviously fake looseness, “or more specifically as collateral for your weirdly obsessive hatred for me”.

Her snapping, “it’s not obsessive when you destroyed my life, the town, and play this stupid hero crap to screw with the town and amass all your stupid ‘fans’”.

“That honestly sounds more like Ember than me”.

“Phantom”. Her pointing the pistol at him more genuinely again gets him to put up his hands in a surrendering motion, “hey hey now”.

“Well then start talking you damn ghost”, scowling a little at the raised eyebrow, “of course I care more about Danny than seeing you wiped off the face of this earth. Fucking duh, Phantom. Now explain”.

He stares like he’s judging her worth or some crap, like he’s anyone to judge that. “Have you ever compared us?”, adding when she just squints at him, “me and Danny, that is”.

She rolls her eyes though not taking her eyes off him, “why the Zone would I. And no, you having the same first name isn’t a reason to”.

Phantom scowls, “it was to them”.

She growls at him because this is getting annoying and she has a human Danny to look after, “stop beating around the damn bush and just spit it out already”. Him snapping right back at her, “because you won’t believe me”.

“Then why the fuck would the G.I.W. believe whatever!”.

“Because they don’t give a shit about him. Ancients, they tried to off a kid for having the same hair colour as me. Our similarities are way more suspicious!”.

Valerie smirks a little to herself at him looking like he hadn’t mean to say all that and seeming sheepish. Then frowning, “I don’t see a single damn similarity”.

“Personal bias due to personal relation. You don’t want to see the ghost you hate in the human you like, or the other way around. So you don’t. Same with the rest of the town. The G.I.W. aren’t blinded by that kind of bias”, him shrugging, “that’s what Jazz says anyway”.

That’s yet another thing that makes her pause and lower her weapon slightly, “you're... friendly with her”. What the Hell was that girl thinking?!? Dash or Paulina or even Sam she’d understand, but Jazz was a Fenton and freakishly smart.

“She knows things, yes. Figured it out on her own”, he sighs rubbing his eyes in obvious annoyance, “your suit has something that can tell a persons body measurements, right? Just use that”.

Valerie scowls, “I don’t take orders from you”, but does pop out the scanner while the ghost's tail solidifies into legs again and he plants himself on her floor dutifully. She scowls at him more for that. The nerve and ego, just entering a hunters home like that. At least this might make aiming at him easier, and locking onto him.

Turning the scanner on Danny though never taking her eyes off Phantom. Well until she pulls the scanner back over and glances at it. The thing read as reading the same body/person, the Hell? Scanning again, because was this thing malfunctioning. Audibly growling when the ghost chuckles at her. Stupid ghost found this funny. The results are the exact same. They had the exact same body shape, even hair shape. What the fuck. “Your bodies are the same”, he nods but frowns when she starts scowling at him, “what? Did you mould yourself after him or-”, scowl feeling and becoming genuinely angry, taking a step towards him, “are you Obsessed with him”, he immediately floats up waving his hands back and forth as she locks her pistol in on him, “that would explain why you constantly are ‘doing the job of a hunter’ and like puns so damn much! You just want to be near your fucking Obsession!”. Him successfully phasing through her floor to avoid the shot she fired off.

Him sticking his head over the window, at least the bastard was outside again, “what! No! That’s not it!”.

“Fucking bullshit!”, she immediately shoots at him again, “I’ve got no reason to believe a goddamn ghost!”.

“This is exactly what I was talking about!”, him phasing through the wall looking genuinely ticked off, “it doesn’t matter what I say or proof I give! You’re not going to believe me!”, and takes out her pistol with a small rock.

Her throwing the small crappy desk at him, all her furniture got an anti-ecto coating nowadays, “you’re a ghost!”.

He smashes the desk apart, “and you’re impossible!”.

Both of them jerking to a stop at a groan from the bed, snapping their heads over and both sighing when he doesn’t actually wake up. But it does knock a little sense into both of them. Valerie pinching the bridge of her nose and breathing. Looking back to Phantom, “get out. I don’t care what weird freaky ghost thing you’ve got for him. Leave. You don’t need to ‘protect’ him or whatever bullshit because I sure as shit ain’t harming him and I even more sure as shit ain’t going to let those G.I.W. asses anywhere near him. So get gone. Seriously. Fuck off”.

“Once again, I can’t”.

“Oh for fucks sake”. Scowling because she so doesn’t have time for this fucking bullshit, at least not until Danny is properly patched up. Moving as fast as she can and actually managing to catch the Spook by surprise with a hooked rope-like energy blast, pinning him to the wall and blocking out his powers. “Then just stay the fuck there and shut up. I don’t want to hear your crap”. Phantom rolls his eyes but thankfully doesn’t say shit, looks incredibly annoyed though; but what does she care. Instead focusing on getting the good bandaging and getting to work.

What does get her caught off guard again was that Danny’s wound didn’t look even slightly healed. Not a scab or nothing. She frowns, “why the Hell isn't he healing”, when she doesn’t get a response she looks to Phantom and scowls, “for the love of everything you pain in my ass. You can speak. Fuck I hate you. Happy?”.

Phantom smirks for a second, “yes. Very”, before frowning, “he’s not going to. Not like this anyway”.

Valerie grimaces at that, what the Hell did those men do to him? “Why?”.

Phantom opens and closes his mouth a couple times before watching her a little, “have you ever noticed that he doesn’t really seem... to heal like a normal person”.

Valerie rolls her eyes, everyone knew about Danny’s contamination problem and all the weird stupid complications of it. Like the clumsiness and just knowing when a ghost was about to show up. Then frowning a little, “so this has to do with his contamination”, that... that might be a problem. Danny’s contamination was unique even in the opinions of his parents. She barely knew the first thing in how to deal with that. No one did. Well, except Danny... and apparently his fucking ghost stalker.

Phantom sighs and looks around a little before looking to her face again, “he’s not contaminated. The ‘contamination’ is weird because he’s not ‘contaminated’”.

Valerie can’t help snapping at that, “then what the Hell is it and why do you know about it?!?”. Which he scowls at her over, “fucking complicated that’s what”, then shaking his head and seemingly calm in himself. Not that he should even be able to actually experience anger. “Ancients, do you have to be so difficult?”, sighing and mumbling something she doesn’t catch seemingly to himself before talking to her again, “I’m the ‘it’”.

“The fuck does that mean. The Hell did you do to him”, if she didn’t have him pinned she absolutely would be pulling another gun on him, she was tempted to as it was.

Phantom leans his head back, banging it on the wall, “ugh! Would you stop blaming me for everything?”.

Her snarking, “then stop being at fault”. He does chuckle a little at that but gives a weirdly hallow, “I hardly ever am”, and rights his head before she can comment on that, “okay look. Obviously not all us ghosties are the same, work the same-”.

She cuts him off, “a ghost’s still a ghost. Get to the point”.

He snaps at her a bit, “I’m bloody well tryin’, Ancients”. She waves for him to go on, effectively saying she maybe might not interrupt him. So long as he doesn’t say anything stupid. Which he will. He rolls his yes at her, “so as I was saying, we don’t all work the same. Surprise surprise, I’m a rare one”. Valerie muttering mostly to herself, “no fucking shit”, which he hears and chuckles at. Though she feels slightly more interested in this because no one had a damn clue why Phantom was fucking weird and this kinda sounded like she was about to find out. Though... apparently Danny was involved somehow. Which, she decidedly does not have a good feeling about.

“I’m what’s known as a Shadow, also called a half shade though. Only three of us exist”. Valerie actually whistles at that because damn. “Shade’s are what happen when the ghost's body was cremated or otherwise destroyed before they formed. Shade’s are... impressions rather than a whole”.

Okay that she has to butt in on, “but all ghosts are just ecto-impressions”.

Phantom looks at her like she’s stupid, “I thought you of all people wouldn’t believe that horse crap. If that were true born ghosts would be impossible, for one. For two, how the fuck would you get an emotional ectoplasmic impression of every fucking plant in the universe into one being? Or the time stream?”.

“There’s a time stream ghost”.

He rolls his eyes, “yes, but irrelevant. Basically none of Amity’s ghosts are Shade’s aka impressions. They are souls. Someone’s spirit. You know, that used to be in their body? Cremation and shit kinda wrecks the soul so you get an impression instead. Anyway-”. Valerie’s pretty sure he doesn’t realise how crazy and horrifying that is if it’s actually true. And sure there were plenty of people around Amity who tried to pitch the ‘ghosts are souls’ thing but literally every actual professional agreed that wasn’t the case. They were impressions not people. The ‘born a ghost’ and ‘timestream ghost’, if those were true at all, raised some questions though she guesses. Not pleasant ones, considering her job. But ghosts hurt people and were evil, not matter how the things were made. “-half Shade equals half impression. Duh”.

Valerie blinks at him, “so you’re half a typical ghost, that tells me nothing about Danny’s issue, Phantom. Though fine, nice to know why the heck things don’t damage you as much as they’re supposed to”, that was something that pissed her off to no end.

“I don’t have a corpse-”.

“Yeah no shit, you literally just said that ‘impressions’ don’t have those. Cremated or whatever. Still not the point”.

Phantom glares at her, “and you wonder why no one likes explaining crap to you”. She scowls at him for that while he continues, “as I was saying, I don’t have a corpse because I never had one. My bodies still walking around. Living. Breathing. Beating heart. You know, the works”. Valerie just stares at him because what the fuck was he trying to say here. That he was a dead of someone still alive? That makes zero fucking sense. “That makes no sense, idiot”.

Phantom actually snorts at that, “unnatural things don’t usually make sense. Hot tip, don’t stand inside a forming ghost portal. Electrocution’s also a pretty shit way to go. Well, half go”.

Valerie will admit to cringing at that, how ghosts died wasn’t really something she cared to think about or know. Especially since she’s sure most went in pretty nasty ways. “Congrats, that sounds.. awful”, tilting her head, “wait”, while Phantom mutters, “oh it was. Don’t recommend”.

Valerie squints at him, “Danny got electrocuted bad. His...”, frowning, “his parents said that gave him the... contamination”.

Phantom nods slowly, almost softly, “yeah”. While Valerie’s having just a slight freak out here. “Me forming was strange for everyone involved. But we hit it off immediately, got along. Makes sense being one and the same. Part of each other”, he does the closest to a shrug he can and she really doesn’t like where this is going, “it was ultimately him who chose my name you know. Danny Phantom for me, because it sounds like his. That, and it’s a pun”, chuckling and not even looking at her, like he was talking to himself at this point, “my suit, chosen by him. My symbol, designed by another human friendly. I am his pride and joy, I exist because of him. I’m his shadow”, looking to her, “Danny Fenton’s Shadow”.

Valerie just stares at him for a bit, “bullshit. You- no you are not part of him. No- what the fuck”, and scowls at him. The stupid thing is, it explained being identical. Stupid stupid stupid. She wanted nothing to do with it and didn’t want it to be happening. Holy fuck.

Phantom sighs and gives her a look that’s close to pitying, which she is absolutely having none of and promptly slaps him lightly; though he moves his head with it likely out of shock more than anything else. “Oooookaaaaay. I go baring my metaphorical soul to you and tell you my freaking death and you slap me? fucking seriously Val?”.

Valerie smacks him again but gentler, “don’t call me that!”.

“That an order to both me’s or just the dead one”. The bitter slightly snarky comment is more than enough to get Valerie’s mind back on track and force her to force herself to calm down. Valerie moving to sit against the bed leg and run a hand through her hair, sighing loudly. “Danny, living Danny, can call me whatever the Hell he wants. You call me Red, Phantom”, leaning her head back and sighing again, “this is really messed up”, sighing for the third time, “are you... are you seriously saying that you are part of Danny?”.

Phantom leans his head back, “intrinsically. Symbiotically eve-”. Valerie cutting him off with a snap, “explain”. That seems to get him upset again, him jerking his head up and eyes flaring green, “explain what!?! I already told you how this crap happened to us!”.

“That’s not what-”.

“Ancients fuck why did I think this was a good idea?!?!”.

“Phantom shut up”.

“No! Fuck you at this point! Ancients fuck!”.

Valerie blinks at him as he just bangs his head into the wall angrily. This didn’t seem faked. It really really didn’t. Maybe being half whatever changed things. Oh goddamnit. Her whispering, “you really actually do have emotions, don’t you”.

“Surprise surprise! All of us fucking do! It ain’t shit unique to me! Hunters are just a bunch of fucking bigots!”.

Valerie cringes at that. Curling up and tucking her knees under her chin, arms wrapped around her legs. “I fucked up”

“Oh you don’t say miss decides to hunt, maim and destroy an entire species because of a fucking dog wrecking some shit and labelling them all less than human things that deserve to be conquered into oblivion like some crappy ass Christopher Columbus”

“Okay that was just mean”.

“Fuck off. I think I’ve fucking earned being mean to you”.

Valerie blinks at him, she had never seen Phantom behave like this. Sure he got ‘mad’ sometimes but what the Hell. Was it because of her less than stellar reaction to him ‘baring his soul’? But how could the bastard blame her? He was telling her that he was an impression of one of her only friends! Someone she had -and still has if she’s honest with herself- a crush on! How the fuck was she supposed to react to that bullshit. Hell! She wouldn’t even consider it if it wasn’t for the identical crap and Danny not healing... Shaking her head, she shouldn’t be focused on some ghost when Danny needed help. Sighing, “ignoring everything. How the Hell do I or we or whatever, get him to heal”.

Phantom scowls audibly and loudly at the ceiling before huffing and looking down at her, “humph. Well I guess that’s one fucking way to make what you care about more obvious”, and huffs again, “well for bloody well starters you'd have to let me off this fucking wall”. Valerie glares at him because Hell no, she wasn’t freeing him so he can just run off or do who knows what. He scowls at her, “for once in your life could you maybe, maybe, believe I don’t have some stupid ulterior motives for crap?! And besides! If I was bloody well strong enough to do shit right now I wouldn’t even be stuck at all! Heck! You wouldn’t even be helping at all”.

Now that catches her off guard, “so they messed you up too”. So Phantom was ‘too weak’ to fix Danny himself, meaning the ghost actually intentionally lured her to them... and she can’t even be mad at that.

He scowls at her some more, before grumbling, “can’t genuinely harm one without the other”. Which makes her pale a little. That was why Phantom had been defensive and asked what she cared about more. To destroy him... she’d have to hurt Danny. Maybe even kill him. Swallowing thickly, “oh”. Phantom gives back the most sarcastic, “yeah”, she’s ever heard.

She shifts a bit uncomfortably, “so... what’s wrong with you? Will ‘fixing’ you ‘fix’ him?”, she can hardly believe she’s asking after a freaking ghosts well being. She absolutely doesn’t blame him for squinting mistrustfully and disbelievingly at her. Him leaning his head back and speaking after apparently deciding she was ‘being genuine’; whatever that meant to a ghost... or part ghost whatever. “Okay it’s easier to just fucking explain what they shot us with”.

“So they shot both of you with whatever”.

Phantom sighs, “they only shoot once. One bullet”. Which makes zero sense, “what? Did they just hit both of you at once? That’s stupid terrible luck even by Danny’s standards”, Danny did have truly awful luck; this ‘Shadow’ thing felt like proof of that.

Phantom shifts a little, “kinda”, moving his hands around as much as his bindings will allow as he explains, “the thing basically caused some heart/core attack bullshit, which made us fall out of sync and kicked me out. Gave me the boot very painfully might I add-”, glares at her, “-for both of us. Also effectively paralysed my Core, hence being stupid weak and not being able to replenish any ecto I spend. Can’t recover for shit”.

Valerie hums a little to herself, “so you can’t heal either”, which would make it brutally easy to destroy the ghost. No wonder the G.I.W. wanted to do this... but with Danny involved no way can she even consider that. Then squinting as that nagging ominous feeling returns, “what do you mean ‘kicked you out’”.

Phantom sighs and looks around awkwardly, “I told you. Symbiotic. Codependent. Coexisting. Cohabitating. Yada yada. Etcetera etcetera”, nodding his head in Danny’s direction, “I know you and everyone else wonder where the heck I constantly fuck off to all the time. When I’m not out showing some ghost what’s what, I pretty much stay asleep in Danny’s body”.

Valerie blinks and gapes at him, “so a weird fucked up overshadowing”. She’s trying not to be ticked off. She really is.

“What? No. There’s no ‘someone taking control over someone else’ going on and you sure as shit don’t share organs with any ghost overshadowing you”. That thought makes Valerie mentally shudder, the idea of a ghost invading her body was bad enough but also mixing in Its organs; Hell no. Her blinking a little though, “you... share organs? Like, the Core? And your ectoplasm which I guess is why everyone thinks he’s ecto-contaminated but it’s really just you being there?”, squinting at the air, “does he need your Core to heal or something”. That would be exactly Danny’s luck; and hers too honestly. Zone damn this stupid ghosts Core having a ‘helpful’ hero complex.

Phantom shrugs and looks around, apparently calmed down fast enough to nearly give her whiplash, “ectoplasm does the healing actually. So the paralysed Core thing doesn’t really matter there”, grumbling a little, “still a fucking pain in the ass, or Core, though”, sighing and nodding his head at Danny again, “but yeah, our Core and heart are basically intertwined”, scowling, “and I’ve never been awake and up and about this long before. Which apparently makes me cranky and emotional”, actually growling a little which pretty well confirmed him being moody, “which is making me deplete my energy even more. Which is annoying and making me more pissy”, grumbling at the floor, “fucking bullshit cycle of bullshit making a giant mound of awful smelly dragon shit and maybe someone threw in some diarrhea to really drive me up the walls in some desperate attempt to escape the literal sea of bullshit”.

Valerie blinks and snorts a little, “oh stop whining you ecto-baby”, then grimacing, “also, that’s seriously disgusting”. He scowls at her but chuckles a little. Her shuffling and standing up, being more serious, “if this keeps up with you, you’ll run yourself dry, right? Probably destroy yourself”, continuing at his annoyed nod, “and what? Will Danny just not heal then?”. That would be bad but if it wasn’t for the fact that he wasn’t waking up then he could arguably live fine. He’d just have to stay on top of the perpetually open wound and be more careful to avoid injuries. But... him healing would be better. Stupid Phantom having to be inside his freaking body or not.

Phantom rolls his eyes, “worse than ‘not heal’. I ‘die’, he dies. A person doesn’t get to exist as half a soul. Our odd crap pushes the boundaries of nature already as it is. Death and life has already had it up to here with us”, huffing, “and he’s not waking up because he’s effectively feeding me emotional energy through the air in an attempt to make up for my stupid lack of ecto-energy. Just the same I’m feeding him shedded ectoplasm to try to encourage healing. It’s enough to stop the bleeding but that’s it. Hence why I can’t leave. Both of us will fall apart. Well okay, he’d hemorrhage blood like a fountain, I’d dissolve into a puddle of ectoplasmic goop. Which would make your floor a very not pretty painting”.

Valerie looks down at him then to Danny, roughing her hair up which she absolutely catches Phantom mutter, “damnit, that’s hot”. Making her snap her head to him and screw her face up, “what???”, his cheeks are practically glowing green so he probably hadn’t meant to say that. But also, who the heck goes from graphic descriptions of death to ‘oh by the way you’re hot’.

He immediately gets all defensive, “we share everything! all right! Memories. Thoughts. Emotions. Feelings. Everything”. That just makes her screw up her face more, “so I basically dated you too. And wait a fucking second-”, going wide-eyed, “-does he know I’m Red then????”.

Phantom gives an impressively awkward, “I mean? Technically? Though yeah on the Red thing, fucking duh honestly”.

She’s not sure whether to be pissed, relieved, or scared. “I can’t fucking believe you... Believe you two”, scowling, “I would hit him if he wasn’t passed out”.

Phantom shrugs, “eh hitting me would achieve the same thing, but I’d rather you not. We’re getting kinda off track here and I’d really like to be home and he’d really like to not have a big hole in his chest”. Valerie scowls but glances at Danny, messing with her hair again though giving Phantom a weird look right after and pointedly stopping. “So is he... going to remember all this? See your memories?”.

“My memories are his memories”.

She absolutely groans over that, tilting her head back and glaring at the ceiling. He probably remembered her shooting at Phantom as if she were shooting at him, at the human Danny. Danny was even more reckless and stupid than she thought but... it made her feel kind of happy and warm.

“You’re blushing”.

She shakes her head and scowls at the stupid smirk on Phantom’s face, “shut up. He’s just stupid selfless that’s all”.

Phantom snorts and rolls his eyes, “I’m no different, you just don’t want to acknowledge that. Like I said”, then speaking in a singsong voice, “hunter bias and bigotry”. She hates that he has a point. She really really does. Stupid ghost. Stupid teenage boy.

She shakes her head, this is stupid, “I’ll freak out about that some other time. How do we fix this? Since I’m guessing you can’t”.

Phantom again gives her a look that clearly questions her intellect, “step one, release me”. She groans and glares at him but relinquishes and deactivates the device. Phantom standing up and brushing off his legs like they got dirty somehow, “fucking finally. Ancients you are difficult”.

“Apparently you’ve known that for a while and explicitly”.

“Shut up, I’m bitchy and moody”, him walking over to Danny, putting a hand on his forehead and frowning, “he’s starting to get a fever”.

Valerie groans, seriously? For fucks sake. “You've got to be kidding me. On top of everything else?”, glaring at the unconscious Danny a little, “you have the worst luck”.

“He can’t hear y-”.

“Shut up”.

Phantom chuckles before frowning again, “it’s because my Core’s ice. His body basically uses my Core to keep cool, regulate body temp. Core’s his own personal little ice pack and ac system. He can’t cool down without it”, grumbling, “not that I can cool him with a paralysed Core”. Valerie sighs, “we’ll deal with that later then. I don’t know how to un-paralyse a Core. How do we get you back in there to heal him with your ecto whatever”. She seriously can not believe she is trying to get a ghost inside someone. Even if that someone was apparently themselves or whatever the fuck. Half themselves? Ugh, this is ridiculous.

Phantom fidgets a bit, which fuck is ominous. “Okay step two, I need that pacifying basifier thingy of yours”.

Valerie quirks an eyebrow but hands it to him. Because at this point why the heck not give dangerous weapons to reckless dead guys that already use their fists like weapons of mass destruction. Fuck her life. “And if I wasn’t going to just give you my stuff?”.

Phantom smirks a bit as he sits down to tinker, “I’m not above mild petty theft”. She shoves his head for that one and grimaces over him ripping her gun apart and messing with stuff. While Phantom starts rambling, “I can’t merge with him all paralysed ‘cause my Core can’t connect and shit past all my ectoplasm. Hooray, a situation where my ecto is a real true pain in the ass, and I’ve been so good to it. That’s a lie, I’ve abused the shit out of it”, waving a hand around, “so need to be just my Core, not that I’ll be able to move like that. See I was just gonna knock you out or something. Sit on his chest, use this modified thingy, letting Core me just sorta fall on his chest and sink in”, doing small jazz hands, “tada”.

Valerie scowls, “fuck you too then”, though she does understand a little. And at least he had a plan.

“Desperate times, desperate measures”, tilting his head and chuckling a little, “in desperate times, desperate measures will be my pleasures”.

Valerie gives a very deadpan, “I hate you”, then sighs and crosses her arms, looking down at him, “well sitting on him probably won’t help his condition”.

Getting a cheery, “nope”, in response.

Valerie sighs again, choosing to ignore him being an idiot, “so what are you doing that doesn’t involve making the sick injured human more sick and injured”.

Phantom looks up at her and squints, “you could... pick me up and put me in him yourself”. Valerie can practically physically feel the cautiousness in that statement. Her swallowing, “and that won’t hurt anyone? Him, me, or, I guess, you?”.

Phantom grumbles, “it won’t feel all that pleasant for me. Our Cores are kinda sacred and sensitive to touch, you know. But no, it ain’t gonna hurt nobody”.

Valerie screws up her face a little, “that’s not meaning ‘sensitive’ in the sexual way is it?”, she doesn’t even want to know why her brain went that route. She emphatically doesn't. Phantom blinks and wheezes, starting to laugh hard enough that he has to stop tinkering, “what?!?!? No! I mean it can be but not like this or like that! Oh my Ancients! I can’t believe you asked that!”, then laughing some more, “that might have made my day!”, shaking his head and smirking at her, which she scowls at him for while he speaks, “don’t worry Red, it’s nothing like that. Haha”.

She huffs and shoves his head, “shut up, asshole”. He just snickers more so she crosses her arms. She’d turn her back on him but he’s still a damn ghost, even if she was apparently around him all the fucking time. He was apparently ‘asleep’ or whatever though, remembering whatever or not. So it’s a little different and that’s what she’s sticking to. Huffing a little while the ghost shakes his head.

Phantom eventually makes a stupid silly little cheer sound, “ah! Alright yeah, this should work”. The two of them kinda staring at each other for a bit, she could practically read caution and worry in his green eyes. This ‘emotional’ ghost thing was weird. But she sighs, she needs to look after Danny and this crap was basically all she had for options. So she takes the initiative, “I’m not gonna hurt your Core or whatever”, at him still staring, “or experiment on it”, getting more staring, “and I’ll put it, you, whatever, right in Danny’s chest. Happy?”.

He watches her for a bit before nodding, though not exactly looking pleased, “alright. But I, and Danny, am holding you to that”. Valerie gulps and nods, watching him stick the now disk-shaped ‘gun’ over his chest and push it to make a little pulse thing. The light’s a little blinding but she hears the orb? hit the ground with some static sounds following.

Blinking down at the pale blue glowing ball. Alright, so this is a Core. Fuck this is weird. “Alright self, time to pick up a freaking ghost organ. Fuck this is so messed up”. It makes some kind of bubble noise. Her shaking her head, “can you hear me or something”, it makes a hum sound that time.

Fuck it. She bends down and picks it up gingerly, hurting this thing would at the very least slow how quickly Danny could heal. Or make the fever worse. “That’s weird. This is weird. Fuck this entire day and the G.I.W. too for good measure”. It makes more bubbles, which she decidedly ignores.

Hold the thing oddly just felt like holding a ball, which probably wasn’t normal especially considering the whole ‘paralysed’ thing. Shaking her head and staring down at Danny some before going for it and simply placing the ball over his chest, near where the fucking gunshot wound was, and staring down as it seeps down through flesh and bone like it’s melting into him. After a bit, she elects to slump down tiredly in her shitty brown chair and just watch him. She’ll check the wounds and apparent fever every so often but there’s not much else she can really do. And that pisses her off just a little bit.

-

Valerie immediately bolts up and too Danny’s side when he groans, turns his head, and screws his eyes shut even more. “Danny?”. He just groans at her but does open an eye a little bit, “ugh”.

She sighs, at least he was awake, “first, how are you feeling? Second, I am so pissed with you”, she makes sure to add a bit of humour to that last bit.

Danny closes his eye, squeezes them and then opens both of them, “Val?”. She nods, “yeah. I’m here. Do you need anything?”. He exhales a bit heavily, “uh. Cold drink would be nice”. Which she kind of expected and thus had some ice water on hand, immediately passing it over to him, “thanks. So uh, all that, huh?”.

Valerie scoffs, sitting down on the floor leaning against the bed, hearing him turn over onto his side as she speaks, “yeah. Fucking bullshit. You’re bullshit. Phantom’s bullshit”, pausing and fiddling with her hair some, “the stuff he said, Phantom, was all that true?”, huffing, “I guess with remembering it the answer’s kinda obvious”. And fuck her over that. Because damn did this complicate stuff and raise so many moral questions about what she does. Because hasn’t she been effectively trying to destroy her friend, or part of him anyway, for years.

Danny chuckles sounding kinda tired, “yeah. But could we seriously not argue anymore. I kinda threw all my emotional energy at Phantom. Tired now... and hot. Oh and my chest feels like shit”.

Valerie shakes her head, “never can shut you up. And I’m not about to argue with you, Danny”, pulling herself up to sit on the bed next to him, hugging her knees, “but just how you are you? Like, where does Danny start and Phantom end? Is he literally just knocked out right now?”.

Danny sighs, “it’s complicated. We’re just two parts of the same person so there really isn’t an end or beginning. Though Phantom’s sleeping yeah, more like being dormant though“, shifting and looking her in the eyes, “appreciate being gentle with my Core though”.

“It’s stupid weird to hear you say ‘my Core’ especially since you’re talking about Phantom’s Core. Which is technically your Core”, and grumbling into her knees a bit incoherently.

Danny nods, “everything about my life, half-life, is stupid weird. Welcome to it I guess. Can I ask what you got all blushy about? After Phantom commented very stupidly -fuck I can’t believe he said that- on your hair fiddling thing”.

Valerie immediately heats up a little again, because this time it’s Danny not Phantom and that matters. Even if they’re kinda apparently the freaking same. “I... well, I never really stopped liking you. I just thought I was protecting you. Which now feels supremely stupid”. She had been trying to protect him from his fucking Ghostly body roommate. Heck! Danny was effectively protecting him.

He huffs a chuckle, “because it was stupid”, sighing, “though I could have been honest with you, but in a way I was protecting you. So it’s not really all on you. Though more we were protecting you, though when either of us says ‘I’ we usually mean we; same person and all that”. Danny adjusts and shoves the blankets around, probably seeking out a slightly cooler spot.

Valerie hums, staring forward, “stick to singulars honestly. Especially if Phantom’s just... you but a ghost. You constantly pointing out there’s a freaking ghost taking a nap in you is gonna freak me out right now. I’d really rather just make sure you’re alright”.

Danny pats her foot and smiles a little, though she can tell he’s got a fever now. He just looked overheated. “Sam and Tuck find it weird too but they like weird shit”.

She snorts at that, “you don’t say”. Though she’s kinda glad they know about Danny, Phantom, and his/their crap.

Danny smirks in a very stupid Phantom way, “I dare say. But I'm as fine as I can be really. I’m hot, tired both physically and emotionally, and in pain. But I’ve been worse. And there’s not much you can really do for me. I just need to heal and wait out the paralytic... and Phantom needs sleep, that’s kinda obvious though”. She snorts at that, muttering, “he sure turned into an emotional baby for a bit there”.

“Heh heh. Don’t remind me. That was embarrassing. Least it was just you. Though... he had a point. About you. You can be frustrating”.

She huffs at that, “It’s called being a strong woman with a strong personality”. He hums a bit, closing his eyes, “oh that’s fine. I like that. It’s the blindly believing bigotry thing and the hardcore hatred boner”.

“You did not just call it that. I’d hit you but I don’t want to give you a concussion on top of everything”, sighing, “and Phantom... likes me too then. The sharing feelings thing”.

Danny shifts around some more, which honestly makes her want to scold him; he’s gonna rip his stitching. “I’m pretty sure I can’t get concussions. Phantom definitely can’t. And yeah, obviously Phantom does. The trying to murder him thing kinda kills it a little. Makes him a little put off”.

“And you’re not?”.

Danny sighs, “we can tell whose memories are whose, Val. Ghosts don’t see or feel the world the way humans do. You can look like a completely different person through Phantom’s eyes. All the anger that rolls off you and lashes at the air. The... loneliness too. He likes when you get protective though”, he blushes a little though it could just be the fever, “you feel nice when you’re like that”.

Valerie doesn’t know what to do with that information really; so she stuffs it in a neat little box in her brain. Maybe that’ll encourage the Box Ghost to come running and give her something to shit-kick. Instead she just asks, “he can see emotions? That’s got to be a mind trip”, yawning a little and deciding to get up before she falls asleep or something. “It fine if I check that wound of yours? Before I pass the Hell out”. He chuckles and nods though doesn’t really seem to care, “yeah. I’m used to it. Go ahead, might look kinda green though”. Valerie only sighs as she gets to work unwrapping him carefully, and tries not to be totally weirded out by the pale green crusting and the fact that she can literally see ectoplasm bubbling, or something, around the stitching. Pointing as non-judging as possible, “is this normal?”. This was literally Phantom’s ectoplasm sloshing around Danny’s wound.

He hums, pokes at his chest, and nods. Sounding way to apathetic, “yeah pretty much. Dissolving the stitching a little. I have special stitches that don’t cause that”. All she has to do is frown for him to continue, “not a problem though. You can wrap me back up and let me nap now”. She chuckles a little but does as she’s asked, “I could use some sleep too”.

After finishing up she watches Danny a little as he gets comfortable in her bed, this was weird and a bit surreal. Turning to eye her chair, that would seriously not be comfortable. But sharing a bed was a bit much and Danny was injured. And the Phantom thing felt like a weird elephant in the room at the moment to her. Apparently, Danny can read minds now though, and starts scolding her, “no. Bad hunter. No sleeping in that ratty-ass chair. I can share”, tilting his head, “huh. That rhymed”. Valerie glares at the ceiling in fake exasperation though trying not to be weird about him just calling her a hunter, while Danny keeps going, “so long as you don’t mind the bed getting nippy or that Phantom might hop out for a bit to escape the heat”.

Valerie turns and blinks at him, “that fucker better not try shit then”. Fuck it though, that stupid chair will give her a serious kink in the neck. So she crawls into bed, though keeping a blanket between them, “and you keep your hands to yourself and mind your wounds”.

Danny chuckles and clearly goes out of his way to hug her some, “who do you take me for? Tuck?”, him chuckling almost awkwardly but it was more like he knew he should feel awkward but didn’t quite feel it; she’s blaming that on being emotionally drained. “Though I am a bit of a sleep cuddler. Sam’s gotten a lot of blackmail photos out of that”. Valerie absolutely snorts a laugh over that. Though that sounds like he absolutely sleeps cuddled with Tucker mostly. Which was kind of funny.

-

Danny speaks up again after a bit, with her being nearly asleep, “hey Val?”.

“Hmm?”.

“Where does this leave us?”.

Valerie shifts a bit, eyeing and playing with bits of her hair. She honestly didn’t know herself. Obvious she wasn’t going to off Phantom’s ectoplasmic ass, she is so not going to kill Danny. But friends with Phantom? Maybe. She still hates his damn guts and all the crap he pulls. But that barely aligns with her view of Danny, kind sweet funny Danny. And he was still cute. It was really fucking strange seeing him in Phantom and Phantom in him now. “We’ll see I think. I’m still gonna best Phantom’s stupid butt but I don’t want his ectoplasmic hide anymore. And you’re my friend still. More than that?... I don’t know”, yawning, “but I sure as shit ain’t dating Phantom”.

Danny snorts quietly, “Val. If you did, I think I’d have a heart attack. Ancients, the town would have a heart attack. But yeah, I could do without the second-hand murder attempts. Phantom would be bummed if you stopped picking fights with him entirely though”, chuckling, “he likes fighting and seeing you improve. But if we want to try things again, between us, then you guys need to at least be friends. Dating while you were fighting him all aggression and venom, was difficult”.

Valerie doesn’t have to question that one bit, “yeah”.

“Yeah”.

Valerie rolls her eyes and tries to snuggle into the blankets a bit more, “go to sleep Danny”. He just chuckles.

-

Valerie absolutely does wake up at one point during the night with Danny’s face smushed into her back and arms around her waist. But she had muttered a quiet, “seriously?”, over noticing Phantom sprawled out over top of everyone. At least there were blankets between all of them.

End.

[mischiefandspirits]

Doppelgänger (14/19)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just 14 when they took a look inside the portal Danny’s parents had built. From there, everything changed. They woke up with white hair, green skin, and powers they could learn to control. They were hybrids, halfas.

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Memory Blank, Part 2}

Something sunk into Danny’s stomach as the pieces started coming together. “And you were wearing this all night, up until school?”

“Yes, why? Do you know what’s wrong with me?”

“Not you, us.”

“Us?”

He waved his hands around, trying to encompass everything. “All of us. Everyone. This is supposed to protect you from ghostly powers. So if you think the entire world changed on you overnight, maybe it did! Maybe a ghost used some… some reality altering ability.”

Valerie’s eyes widened. “And since I was wearing that, I was unaffected.”

“Do you remember any ghosts that were about lately?”

“The last ghosts I saw were the circus ones and none of them were that strong. Oh, and Terminatra.”

“Termi-who?”

“The ghost in the park, the one that attacked Paulina. She looked just like the movie monster Terminatra.”

“Movie monster… Wait! Like that new movie coming out. The chick flick.”

“Chick flick?”

“The one with the three female monsters.”

“Trinity of Doom is not a chick flick,” she chuckled.

“It’s the closest Sam gets to chick flicks and she’s the only girl I hang out with.”

“I’ll give you that.” She shook her head in amusement. “Yeah, Terminatra is in Trinity of Doom.”

“And let me guess, one of the others is some green shark-alien thing.”

“Femalien?” Valerie pulled up a picture of the poster on her phone and showed it to him. “Yeah. Why?”

He pointed at Femalien. “That’s the ghost that attacked our class.”

“Why are movie monsters coming to life to attack people?”

“Not people, Paulina,” Danny corrected. “And I don’t know why, but I know it’s connected to Sam. Femalien said her name just before Phantom beat her and Sam really wanted to go see the movie, but Tucker and I wanted to go to Paulina’s party since she actually invited us for once.”

“Wow, she hates Paulina on the best day. She’d probably wish hell on her after you guys pulled that.”

Danny went pale. “Wish. Oh man, that explains everything.”

“What? What’d I say?”

“There’s a ghost -- Desiree -- she’s basically a genie. She grants any wish she hears, can make anything come true so long as someone wishes for it.”

“Such as bringing movie monsters to life or changing all of reality as we know it?” Valerie said, her eyes widening.

“Theoretically. I’ve never seen her grant such a big wish before though. What would someone even wish to change things so much?”

“I don’t know, but we need to fix it. Do you know how she was defeated last time?”

Danny snorted. “I wished she’d go into the thermos.”

“It was that easy?” she laughed.

“Like I said, she grants every wish she hears.”

“So we just need to find her then wish everything back to normal before she can grant any… more… wishes! The meteor shower!” Valerie said, grabbing Danny’s shoulders. “She’s going after the meteor shower!”

“Everyone will be making wishes,” Danny said as he caught on. “We need to find her, now.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What happened to you?” Tucker asked as Danny stumbled up to them, dreary-eyed.

“Was up all night. Finally figured out what was up with the ghosts and Sam,” Danny yawned.

“Still blaming me?” Sam asked, slamming her locker shut.

“I wasn’t -” Danny groaned and slumped against the lockers. “Look, it was Desiree, okay. She’s back and she messed up big. I need to stop her. I just wish I knew what idiot made a wish to warp the entire world and what they’d even wished for.”

“What are you talking about?” Sam asked.

He opened his mouth to explain and his breath fogged in front of him. “Wait, no,” he hissed as he realized his mistake. He spun around to see Desiree forming in front of him.

“Well, this is even better than I’d hoped,” she laughed. “You really are getting rid of all my problems, aren’t you?”

Danny took a step back as she pointed a glowing hand at him.

“So you have wished it, so shall it be!”

He dropped to the ground as pink mist washed over him.

“Danny!” Sam and Tucker shouted, running to his side as the ghost flew off. “Are you okay?”

He groaned as he opened his eyes. “What’s going on? Why are we at school?” he asked, sitting up. He looked at his partners, then flinched away. “Who are you? Where are Sam and Tucker?”

They both frowned. “We are Sam and Tucker.”

“Yeah, no you’re not. I’d recognize my partners anywhere.”

“Dude, what did Desiree do to you?” Tucker asked and Danny froze.

“Desiree? What about Desiree?”

“She just hit you with her magic and now you think we’re imposters,” Sam explained.

Danny got to his feet, looking around. “I-I don’t remember anything about Desiree. The last thing I remember was getting home from our pity party and going to bed.”

“Pity party?” Tucker asked.

“Yeah, where Sam and Tucker -- the real ones -- were cheering me up after Val and I… decided we couldn’t date.”

“Date!” the two shouted.

“You can’t date Valerie,” Tucker said.

“I’m aware,” he huffed.

“Seriously Danny, she’s trying to kill Phantom! Why would that even be an option?” Sam said and Danny gave her a confused look.

“Phantom?”

They shared a look and Tucker said, “Danny Phantom, your ghost form.”

“My ghost form. My, as in not yours.”

“Duh, you’re the half-ghost. Not us.”

Danny sucked in a breath. “Oh no. No, no, no. You guys said Desiree was here?”

“Yeah?”

The school bell rang.

“Crud,” Danny hissed. “Meet me after class. We really need to talk.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You realize how crazy this all sounds, right?” Sam said as she and Tucker watched Danny pace around his room.

“How do you think I feel?” he said, rubbing his neck. “No one remembers anything!”

“Danny, maybe this is just Desiree,” Tucker said.

“Of course it’s Desiree.”

“No, I meant she’s why you’re thinking these things. None of it happened, man.”

“It did though! I know it did!”

“But you only knew this stuff after she blasted you.”

Danny scowled and pinched his nose.

He missed his partners, which these two weren’t even if they were the real Sam and Tucker because these two were human and weren’t in a relationship with him so not only couldn’t they soothe him mentally, but he couldn’t even cuddle with them because the one time he’d mentioned it he’d gotten weird looks and Sam had flushed brighter than a stop sign. He also missed Valerie, but he couldn’t talk to her because they weren’t even friends in this backward world, let alone the messy whatever they were now that they’d admitted their feelings but couldn’t actually date back in his reasonably crazy world.

“I need a nap,” Danny groaned, laying down on his bed.

Then he wondered if he could even take a nap. He was the only halfa in this world. How much extra work did he have? Clearly enough that he screwed up a lot, judging by the stories his friends had told him.

“We don’t have time for that. We need to track down Desiree and fix you.”

Danny moaned and pulled his pillow over his head.

A knock sounded, but Danny ignored it. Who knows how weird his relationship was with Jazz. They’d gotten so much closer since the Spectra thing, he didn’t want to know how not having Sam and Tucker there to save him would have affected that.

“Uh, why is Valerie in her ghost hunter getup outside your window,” Tucker whispered just loud enough for Danny and Sam to hear.

Danny threw the pillow off. “Val?”

Sam scowled at his reaction, but he ignored her and ran to the window.

“Hey, Danny,” Valerie said as she opened it.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, trying to push down his excitement, this wasn’t his Valerie. This Valerie didn’t even like him.

“Checking in,” she said, climbing into his room. “I haven’t seen any sign of Desiree, have you?”

“How does she know about Desiree?” Sam asked.

“You didn’t tell them?” Valerie asked.

“My head’s been in two places lately,” he chuckled. “Were we, uh, working together or something?”

That didn’t make sense given what San and Tucker had said, but he kind of hoped it was true.

Valerie retracted her suit and gave him a worried look. “Yes, after I explained everything to you about Doppelgänger we figured out Desiree was behind it. Don’t you remember?”

“Thank god!” Danny cheered, pulling her into a hug. “You remember Doppelgänger. You don’t know how good it is to hear that, Val.”

“Of course I re-Wait, Val?” She pulled back so she could see his face. She studied it for a moment before smiling. “Danny?”

“Hey, cage buddy.”

She laughed and hugged him back. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again, Fenton.”

“Sorry.”

“Uh, hey, yeah, what’s going on?” Sam said, but the two ignored her.

“How did you get your memories back?”

“Heck if I know. All I know is Sam and Tucker said Desiree blasted me and when I woke up I could remember everything from our world. This one’s bananas by the way.”

“Tell me about it.”

“How do you remember everything?”

“Your Specter Deflector. It stopped me from being affected.”

“Go me.”

Suddenly a hand grabbed the back of Danny’s shirt and he was yanked away from his -- honestly, much needed as he hasn’t gone this long without cuddles in ages -- hug.

“Yeah, hi, still here,” Sam growled, sending Valerie a death glare.

She stared at Sam for a moment, then glanced at Danny. “Does Sam have a crush on you in this world?”

Danny shrugged as Sam sputtered and Tucker snickered.

“I don’t have a crush on Danny!”

“Right, back on topic. Desiree, any ideas,” Valerie said.

“Last time I met her, Tucker and I went to a W-ing fountain and W-ed for her to appear so we could capture her. We could try that again,” Danny offered.

“Good enough. Let’s go.”

“Hold on,” Sam said, yanking Danny back when he tried to follow Valerie to the window. In a low voice, she said, “What are you doing? You can’t go to a ghost fight with her. Your secret.”

“Calm down, Sam. We’re just going to W for her to fix everything then go in the thermos. No fighting involved. Besides, I’ve fought in human form plenty of times. I won’t give myself away.”

“No, you haven’t.”

“Yes, I have. You need to trust me.”

“You can’t go alone. You need to let us help you.”

Danny gave a sad smile and grabbed her hand off his arm. He squeezed it, saying, “Trust me, if this has taught me anything, it's that I need you guys at my side. But not this time. You guys don’t know what’s at stake. Besides, I’m not alone. Val’s got my back.”

“That’s worse than alone.”

Danny leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “I’ll be fine, promise.”

He pulled back and was surprised to see she looked floored and was cherry flushed.

Okay, Valerie might have been right about the crush. Weird.

Danny took that as his chance to follow Valerie to the window. He sent Tucker a smile, but the tech geek was too busy gaping at him and Sam.

“Let’s get out of this crazy world,” Danny said as he climbed onto the hoverboard.

“Agreed.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Home sweet home,” Danny sighed as he brushed against the mind link. His partners seemed confused, but affectionate and he quickly assured them he’d explain later.

He and Val were currently hovering over the park, sitting side by side on her board. Valerie had the thermos containing Desiree in hand, fiddling with it as they stared out at the sunset.

“I’m glad you were there to help.”

“It was the least I could do. The, uh, W was actually mine,” he admitted.

“Really? What had you been W-ing for?”

He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. It was a stupid one. I was just sad and frustrated and worried about Sam and Tucker.” He looked up at her. “And you.”

She smiled and took his hand. “About what we talked about?”

“Val -”

“I know what you said, but I don’t care if you have a secret.”

“I do,” he sighed, pulling his hand away. “I don’t want to have to lie to you.”

“Then don’t. If you can’t tell me something, then just tell me that.” She turned fully to Danny. “This whole mess has made me realize that I want to be with you, Danny. If that means you have secrets, then I can live with that. I,” she thought about Doppelgänger floating before her with blood-red eyes, “have my own secrets too. And it wouldn’t be fair for me to ask you to keep my secret, then be turned off by the fact you’re keeping someone else’s.”

“You’ll be mad I kept it from you when you find out,” he whispered.

“Then you can hit me over the head and remind me it’s my own fault.”

He snorted. “I don’t have a death wish, thanks.”

She reached up to cup his cheek. “I’m serious, Danny.”

“This is a bad idea,” he said, but he didn’t pull away.

“It will be fine.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I want this, and I know you do too.”

“I…” You deserve to be selfish sometimes. “I do. I’m just worried.”

She leaned forward and kissed him, soft and sweet.

When they pulled back, she said, “Don’t be.”

He smiled and squeezed her hand. “Sam, Tucker, and I were going to see a movie tomorrow, but do you want to come over after to watch the meteor shower together? The best time to watch is supposed to be one in the morning.”

“Can’t wait.”

[ecto-american]

If Found Please Return to Danny Phantom

Phic Phight Oneshot for @imperfection-at-itsfinest: When Jack manages to get his hands on Danny Phantom's ghost hunting logbook, an investigation reveals some information about ghosts and the infamous specter himself that a scientific study would never cover.

Read on FFN and AO3

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It would be wrong of him to read it. 

Jack kept staring at the book in his hands. It resembled a diary, the front design being colorless but a pressed design. The moon with stars, with no words, and the diary itself felt unusually thin. There was no lock, as if it was almost inviting him to just read it. Jack had, in fact, already opened to the first page, and the first words greeted him. In a standard font read: If Found, Please Return to: and the name scrawled, in surprisingly tidy handwriting, was the name Danny Phantom.

What an absolute find. It was pure dumb luck. He had seen Phantom drop it, but Jack had went looking for it in hopes that the ghost teen had dropped one of the stolen Fenton gadgets. Only to recover...this book that he had taken home and into the privacy of his lab for study.

The idea of Phantom keeping a diary was kinda funny. He never struck Jack as the type to write down his deepest darkest secrets or teenage embarrassments in a book. That would imply that the ghost had some kind of emotions. They didn’t. They were blobs of ectoplasmic energy.

So it should be okay for him to read, right? Why was he so hesitant? Well...it was an invasion of privacy. But it was fine. Phantom dropped it in the park. Phantom was a menace to society. There was likely evidence in this journal that could explain all of the ghost boy’s terrible deeds, that could prove that he truly was evil. This diary could change everything.

...Jack had children though, and he knew both were avidly creative. Scrapbooking, drawing, painting, writing. They were stress outlets for his girls, and he wouldn’t ever dare dream of invading their privacy like that. So he couldn’t. He shouldn’t. Phantom deserved privacy, right?

“Jack? Are you coming to dinner?” Maddie’s voice snapped him from his thought process. She hadn’t made a noise as she came down the stairs. But Maddie was a much better stealth hunter than him.

“Yes, yes! Sorry, I was distracted,” Jack apologized. He set the book down on the table. Maddie rose an eyebrow at him.

“Did you get a new ectobiology book?” she asked. His eyes glanced to the book, and he shook his head no. Maddie came over to him, studying the book cover. Of course, it didn’t resemble any of the scientific texts that they owned. 

“I don’t know how to explain it…” Jack said slowly. He held it out to her. Maddie accepted it.

“This looks like it belongs to the kids,” she stated. She opened the first page, and Jack saw her eyes widen. Her breath hitched, and she looked up to him “Jack...where did you...get this?”

“He dropped it during a fight,” he replied. “I thought it was Fenton tech, but…”

Her eyes sparkled, and she shut the book. A wide grin had appeared, and she threw her arms around her husband.

“Oh Jack! This could teach us so much! If this really is a journal or some kind of diary, then he may have recorded motivations! Thoughts! We can really get into how Phantom thinks and a raw, honest, firsthand account from Phantom himself! This changes everything!”

She was right. She was absolutely right, and he hugged her back. They were scientists first and foremost, and this journal could fill in so many missing blanks about ghosts. It was a starting off point. Jack’s mind raced with all the things they could possibly learn. Just from a simple peek of the book. That was worth more than the invasion of privacy of a ghost that caused so much havoc, destruction and pain. 

“We should look at it right now!” he exclaimed. Maddie pulled away with a small frown.

“After dinner,” she reminded him. “I finally got everybody corralled upstairs for a family dinner. It’s nearly impossible to get either of the girls at the same time.”

“Oh, right!” Jack nearly slapped his forehead. Yes, they were scientists first and foremost, but before even that, they were Mom and Dad. “First thing after dinner.”

“First thing after dinner,” she agreed with a smile. 

Upstairs, he saw that Jazz was already serving herself. Chicken, mashed potatoes and peas. His youngest was pouring iced tea into glasses for everybody. 

“Hey Ghost-kateers!” Jack greeted cheerfully with a grin. Both kids groaned in embarrassment. Perfect. 

“Daaad!” his youngest complained, a whine hitching as she put the pitcher of ice tea back. “I told you, if I’m going to be some kind of ye olde soldier type, I wanna be a knight, like at the renaissance fair.” 

“Ah, but if you’re a ghost-kateer, you can get an anti-ghost musket!” Jack teased. As he walked past her to get his own food, he playfully ruffled her pixie-cut hair. She waved his hand away. 

“But as a ghost knight, I can get a cool sword!” she protested. Jack shook his head in fake disappointment. 

“Never bring to a ghost sword to a ghost musket fight, baby boo,” her dad replied.

“Can’t shoot what you can’t see!” she shot back with a grin. Jack had to hand it to her, and he just chuckled. 

“Can we please have a ghost free dinner?” Jazz scowled. 

“Yes, yes, let’s save ghosts for after dinner,” Maddie agreed. Jazz shot her a grateful look, and Jack focused on getting his serving of dinner from the stove. His youngest pushed her sleeves up, exhaling. Jack stole a look at her and frowned. She had some sweat collected on her forehead.

“Honey if you're hot, you can just take your sweatshirt off,” he told her. She shook her head no.

“No, I'm fine,” she insisted. Jack was skeptical.

“You sure?” he asked. 

“Mhm!” 

Jack shrugged a bit. She was always insisting on wearing a hoodie, no matter the weather. If she got hot enough, she’d take it off. No need to force it. He got his food and took his seat.

“How's school going?” Maddie questioned. Jazz lit up a bit, and her sister flinched. She raised a suspicious eyebrow at her youngest.

“I managed to get a B on my chemistry test,” the youngest spoke up with a forced smile.

“That’s excellent!” Maddie’s demeanor shifted as she smiled warmly. “Keep it up!” 

“Yeah!” The youngest seemed to visibly relax. “Sam’s been helping me study.”

“That’s good, I always studied better when V-man or your mom helped me,” Jack nodded at her as he cut up his chicken. 

“Oh it’s true, I used to help your father study for all of our shared classes,” Maddie confirmed. “Otherwise he’d get so distracted.”

“Yeah, Sam just explains it super well,” their daughter agreed. “Tucker’s been going over math with me a bit, which helps some.”

“Well if you need a tutor, just let us know, and we’ll help you arrange one,” Maddie smiled. “What about you, Jazz?”

“Pretty good,” she replied. “Mr. Lancer asked if I wanted to be his TA this summer, which I really do. It’ll look good on a college application, and I might even get paid!”

“Have you been narrowing down where you might wanna go?” Jack asked. Jazz eagerly nodded.

“Yeah! Oxford is my number one choice, but I also would love to go to Yale or Stanford. I’ve been talking with the college counselor about what else might look good on an application for them that I can do over the summer. I wrote them down in my planner notebook earlier-”

“Hey, that kinda reminds me,” her sister interrupted. “Have you guys seen one of my notebooks? I think I lost it,” she asked them. Jack stared at her. The reminder of the notebook he actually had found. Maddie seemed unbothered by the question. This wasn’t unusual, for the parents to have to play “where’s my stuff?” with the kids. 

“What notebook?” Jazz asked hesitantly. 

“My important one,” came the reply. Jazz frowned lightly. 

“Sorry, princess, haven’t seen any notebooks laying around,” Jack replied. He saw the briefest of a cringe cross his youngest’s features. “Did you leave it at school?” Her shoulders slumped.

“I don’t think so?” she said hesitantly. “I’ll have to check tomorrow. I was so sure I had it earlier…” Her voice trailed off before she forced a smile. “If you see it, let me know!” She picked up a forkful of chicken, only to freeze. The clattering made Jack glance up curiously as she was turning her attention to Maddie. “Can I be excused? I have some homework to get done.” 

Maddie let out a soft sigh. So much for family dinner.

“Of course, just make sure you come back down before you go to bed to get your chores done,” Maddie nodded at her. The young Fenton snapped to her feet with a thanks, fully abandoning her dinner as she went to the stairs. Jazz stared after her sister, craning her neck to track her movements before hurriedly shoveling more mashed potatoes in her mouth.

“Uh, I’m not that hungry, and I totally forgot to do this online assignment,” Jazz spoke, standing up, taking hers and her sister’s plate. She was already walking away before either parent could truly give permission. “I’ll put our plates up and clean up in a bit!”

“A-alright?” Jack hesitated, watching his other child put the plates on the counter before rushing up as well. Another child down. They seemed to grow up so fast. 

“Least they’re doing homework,” Maddie sighed lightly, shaking her head before taking a drink of her tea. “Oh well. Might as well take their lead and eat in the lab?” 

“Please,” Jack agreed. He stood up, taking his plate. “I’m dying to see what Phantom has to say.”

January 10

Skulker: 1; captured

Ectopuss: 1; captured

Box Ghost: 8; captured

Ember: Fought; got away

Fenton Thermos: half-full

Fenton Fisher: untangled

January 11

Vultures: 1; got away

Cujo: 1; played fetch and he went back to the GZ

Fenton Thermos: Full

Ghost Bazooka: overheated and doesn’t shoot anymore, take apart and fix it

January 12

Skulker: 2; got away

Box Ghost: 3; captured

Sidney: 2; got away

Fenton Fisher: tangled, untangle asap

January 13

Skulker: 1; captured

Box Ghost: 4; got away

Fenton Thermos: damaged, won’t suck up ghosts

I met a new ghost today named Desiree. She got away, but it allowed me to discover a new ghost power. Ghost ray.

Maddie furrowed her brow as she studied the words. She stood at the table, her dinner half-forgotten as she thought on the words.

“It sounds like a record,” Jack mused, and he ate another spoonful of peas. Maddie nodded in agreement.

“I think we found Phantom’s logbook,” she agreed. “I’m assuming these are the ghosts he’s fought. And he seems to be recording his powers too. This is huge, we can match up what we know about his powers and what he’s claiming.”

“And he’s recording the status of our equipment.” Jack frowned. “Why would he care?”

“Yeah, he made note that he was going to fix the Fenton Bazooka too,” Maddie pointed out. The scientist flipped through the pages, only to stop at a page, staring curiously. Maddie laid the journal on the table, pressing the spine so that the pages stayed open. She read the page aloud to Jack.

December 19

I hate my life. I hate this existence. I look in the mirror and wonder why it has to be this way. Why am I the one cursed to be this freak? Why is everything about me and my body wrong? For once, I wish something about me was normal, that somebody about me could be right. If Desiree wasn’t such an unreliable asshole with wishes, I’d give everything I have to wish that life could, for once, allow me to be a normal teenage boy. 

Jack listened to her in a stumped silence. This couldn’t have been a pre-death thought process of a moody teenager. It was written too recently, and the words hit a sorrowful chord to him. He didn’t intend to, but he quickly began to feel sorry for Phantom. He was very young. It couldn’t have been easy to lose everything at that age. His daughter was his age. Jack cleared his throat.

“It’s not just a log then?” Jack questioned. Maddie shook her head, flipping the pages back.

“No, I think it’s a mix. There’s still records of ghosts and FentonWorks equipment,” she replied. Using a leg, she pulled a wheeled chair to her to sit in. She leaned back, and she pulled the journal to her. After a moment of flipping through and scanning pages, she settled on a page about a third of the way through. “It seems like this is when he began to record things other than just ghosts.”

“What’s it say?” Jack wondered. Maddie read aloud the next few entries as Jack silently continued to eat. 

April 4

I only fought this shitty panther today, and he still got away. I’m such a fucking idiot. I can’t believe he got away. I was too slow. All I do is fuck up. There’s ghostly activity happening around the school, and I just can’t figure it out. I feel like I can’t stop them anymore. I don’t know what’s going on, why I suddenly suck so much. I honestly probably just always sucked, and now it’s starting to hit me. [scribbles] and [scribbles] were trying to make me feel better, but I fucked up. It was only one ghost today, and I couldn’t catch them. It destroyed an entire store, and it’s my fault.

April 8

No ghosts today, surprisingly. But [scribbles] has been acting weird lately. The other day she poked and prodded me at dinner. No clue what that’s about. She also tried to give me this speech that I can talk to her about anything, and that she’d love me no matter what. That makes me think she found my binder. I’m honestly kinda freaking out. I knew I shouldn’t have left it out like that. She’s such a nosy know it all.

“Phantom must keep more records than just this,” Maddie lightly mused. “He has an entire binder full of information that somebody discovered.”

“Maybe on other ghosts?” Jack theorized. “He’s recording his fights, he must be also recording information about them.” Maddie’s eyes lit up.

“That makes so much sense,” she agreed. “He probably keeps so many kinds of things written down and logged. I wonder where he’s keeping it? Obviously paper, which is a bit odd. I figured a teenager would move to the digital age…” Maddie paused.

“Maybe he’s older than we think he is?” Jack suggested. “He could have died fifty years ago, and just be more comfortable with writing things down.”

“Oh, that’s true,” Maddie mused. She put down the notebook to take a long sip of her drink. Jack picked it up to observe the page she read.

“Phantom has neat handwriting,” he noted. “He’s not fighting ghosts when he writes these.” Jack’s eyes scanned the words. “...I wonder who he’s scribbled out.”

“Allies?” Maddie shrugged. “He probably went back and blacked out some of the names. Privacy. Especially if this isn’t the first time he’s lost this.”

It made the most logical sense. Jack skipped the purely log entries to one that had more written, and he read it aloud to his wife.

April 10

She was feeding on us. Spectra, the Casper High “psychologist” was feeding on emotions, like some kind of emotional vampire but she’s a ghost. It’s so scary. I saw her do it. She asked [scribbles] and [scribbles] about their lives. What made them unhappy, and why. And when they left, I saw her absorb? I guess how I’d describe it? She absorbed the energy into her skin and it just seemed to instantly revive her, and it made her happy. When she did it to me, I could just look in her eyes and know that she enjoyed every minute of my misery. I managed to stop her, with [scribbles] helping me. It was weird. She didn’t seem afraid of me. I don’t know why. 

Spectra: 2; captured

“Ghosts can feed off of energy!” Maddie exclaimed. “Human energy! We always suspected it, but this is confirming something!” Jack glanced up at her excitedly. It was the first real, true ghostly discovery that Phantom was revealing to them. 

April 13

All I do is fuck up lately. Because of me, this ghost dog just absolutely has been causing havoc on this girl’s life. She blames me. And I don’t blame her. I ruined her entire life. She lost her house because of me. I didn’t mean to. I tried to stop the dog, but he just won’t respond to anything I say. I can’t capture him. I’ve been trying. I’ve been just calling the dog Cujo. After the Stephen King book, because damn is this dog giving me one fucking nightmare of a time.

Cujo: 3, got away

April 16

[scribbles] kissed me. It was to force me to change back, and it worked, but she kissed me. It was great. She smelled like lavender. I don’t think my heart’s ever beaten so fast. Afterwards she clarified to me that it was just a fake-out make-out. It didn’t feel like it. I don’t want it to be. But she’s my best friend, and I can’t lose her. So I agreed, and when I came home I cried. My dad caught me, and I pretended it was just girl problems, even though that excuse made me feel even worse. He got me some ice cream, and we watched Star Trek together. It didn’t really help that much, if I’m being honest. 

Anyway, apparently Cujo’s trained. He knows his commands. [scribbles] thinks it’s because he was a guard dog when he was alive for Axion Labs. For a guard dog, he’s such a playful puppy though, he loves his squeaky toy. And [scribbles] became a hunter specifically to kick my ass. It’s my lucky month. But I deserve it. Will there ever be a day where I actually can do more good than bad?

Skulker: 1; captured

[Scribbles]: 1 Red Huntress

Cujo: 1, got away

“Phantom has a family?” Maddie wondered. She chewed on her food as she thought. Jack shrugged, an odd, unsettled feeling hitting him as he put the book down for a moment. He used his spoon to push around his peas.

“I mean, we all do,” Jack reminded her. “Just...I didn’t think Phantom still talked to his family. After his death. Or did such...non-ghost things with them.” Watching Star Trek with his dad? Jack did that with his own kids all the time. It was his and his youngest daughter’s favorite show to watch together. Jazz typically preferred documentary series, and Maddie was too bothered by scientific inaccuracies to really enjoy science fiction. So it was always “their thing” and knowing that Phantom did it too was...too human. 

“Yeah, I didn’t...really expect him to still be haunting them,” Maddie said. Jack could tell that this was disturbing her a little. 

“But ghosts can retain their memories from life it seems,” Jack spoke up. Maddie stared at him. “The dog remembers commands from his life as a guard dog. What extent, I’m not sure.” Maddie hummed curiously.

Jack picked the book up again, skipping through more boring logs to other words. 

April 29

Ember: 2; captured

Fenton Thermos: full, empty

The past few weeks have been terrible. I have definitely come to the conclusion that I really am developing a crush on [scribbles]. Or maybe I always had one, I dunno. Is this really just an effect from Ember’s supposed spell? Does ghostly mind control really last? I think I always knew that I liked her though. I mean, ever since I told her that [scribbles], she’s been so supportive. She even cut my hair for me, which really pissed my parents off, but they ended up admitting that I looked better with my hair short anyway. Almost like it’s meant to be, huh? Ha. [scribbles] is also one of the only two people who know my deeper secret. She’s been so supportive through that too. She calls me Danny, and every time she refers to me as that, it makes my heart go crazy.

But would she even like me? Would she even wanna be with somebody like me? I don’t think I’d be her type. Some other friends I met at this local support group have complained about the struggles of dating. The stories are depressing, and it makes me worried that while [scribbles] will always love and accept me as a friend, that she’d never be able to love me as a boyfriend. I hate my life.

“Aw, Phantom has a little girlfriend,” Jack half-joked, only for goosebumps to raise and an odd chill run down his spine. He looked to Maddie for her opinion, and her face was scrunched up.

“That’s a bit creepy,” she commented. “He’s pretending to be human.”

“I dunno, Mads,” Jack shrugged. He re-read the ghostly teen’s internal conflicts. “Why would he pretend to be human in a journal that nobody’s meant to read?”

“He has to be sharing it with his allies,” she argued. “Those people he’s been scribbling out. Phantom has to be pretending for them. To keep them around. He even mentioned ghostly mind control.” 

She pushed her mostly-finished plate from herself, motioning for Jack to hand over the journal. He complied, and Maddie flipped through it. She stopped, and she set the journal down on the table once more. Leaning over, she studied the spine. A finger ran along the inner spine, and she frowned.

“Pages are missing,” she noticed. Jack pushed his plate out of the way to lean over as well.

Indeed, the top of the diary revealed that it was meant to be a normal, full diary. Now that Maddie pointed it out, it looked like well over a fourth of the diary had missing pages. Jack squinted, pulling his hood over his eyes. He used his googles to better examine.

“They weren’t ripped out, like in a ghost fight,” Jack told her. He pointed to what remained of a page, a barely noticeable strip. “It was carefully cut out.” Maddie narrowed her eyes to get a better look.

“You’re right,” she mused. “Phantom did this purposefully. Probably to hide stuff from his allies.”

“But why hide some stuff and not others?” Jack wondered aloud. “Clearly this girlfriend figure is an ally, but he can’t be...sharing this with her, right?” Maddie pulled back from the notebook to lean in her chair with a heavy sigh.

“...I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t think he would. But he’s also a ghost, they do weird things.” Jack didn’t know how to reply, and so he continued to read.

May 16

The past few days have been so full of drama. Walker ruined my life. He absolutely ruined it. He set out to make me the most hated person in Amity Park out of pure spite, and he succeeded. I’m public enemy number one. I can never win. For a while now, I had debated telling my parents, because I so desperately want their support, but they were part of the news coverage calling me a disgusting, evil ghost. I ended up crying yesterday. I don’t think they’ll ever truly love me if they knew. I also failed Wulf. Another failure on my plate. I’m just waiting for it to all crash down on me.

Walker: 1; sent to the GZ

Wulf: 1; sent to the GZ

Walker’s goons: at least 14, all captured

Fenton Thermos: overflowingly full

“Oh this is just becoming nonsense,” Maddie complained. “He’s lying. We were there, Jack! We saw him attack us.”

“I know, I know, he did, yeah, he did,” Jack tried to gather his thoughts. “But why would he lie in this? I don’t think anybody was meant to read this?” Jack flipped through the pages. The further he flipped through in, the more he could tell that some sections had more carefully cut out papers than others. Why was Phantom cutting out? What was he hiding? Why was he hiding it?

“He meant for somebody to read this,” Maddie lightly argued. 

“Yeah, it seems like it, but…,” Jack trailed off. He shook his head a bit, flipping back to where they had left off. “I dunno.”

“Hold on a second,” Maddie urged him, standing up. “Let me get something to write with, we should take some notes.”

“We can just use the scanner to make a copy of the journal afterwards, and we can further analyze it afterwards,” Jack suggested. Maddie thought on this, and she nodded, but she still reached for some scrap paper and a pen.

“Good idea, we should probably read through it fully first anyway,” she agreed. “But I still want to jot down some thoughts.”

“Of course, of course,” Jack replied. He knew that’s how she thought and processed information best, and it was always from her notes that he could visualize his own theories properly. He took a drink of tea before he continued reading the next true entry.

May 24

My entire relationship with my other crush (not [scribbles]) was a lie. She was being overshadowed by Kitty the entire time. This was my first real girlfriend, and it was all fake. I had assumed I was so lucky. I found a girl who knew and was okay with both of my biggest secrets. When I got home I ended up just going straight to my room. [scribbles] brought me dinner, but I didn’t feel like eating. Is this what life is going to be for me? I don’t want it to be like this. The only good thing is that [scribbles] doesn’t know either secret alongside our brief relationship.

Least Kitty and Johnny seem happy again. For now at least. I swear, they’re always breaking up and getting back together. 

Kitty: 1; sent back to the GZ

Johnny 13: 1; sent back to the GZ

Shadow: 1; sent back to the GZ

Jack could lightly hear Maddie taking notes on her scrap paper, the pen scratching at the surface. He didn’t comment on it, silently flipping to the next page, and he continued to read. 

August 19

I was forced to really face the reality of how much I fucked up [scribbles] life. I hate it. I’d do anything to take it back. It makes me wonder if I should just retire. Am I even really doing anything to help? Am I just a nuisance? Everybody thinks that. 

Rationally I know I can’t. I’m the only one who can properly deal with the ghosts, who has the power and abilities to fight back without getting killed. I have to do what I can, but I just wish I could do it without making so many mistakes. [scribbles] said that it’ll be okay, and that it gets better, but it sure doesn’t fucking feel like it.

Skulker: 3; finished

Red Huntress: 2; temporary truce?

“He’s so full of...emotion for a ghost,” Maddie finally spoke up. 

Jack glanced at the paper she had in front of her. There was some notes of what they had been learning so far, and there were emotions written in all caps with a line under, and a list of various emotions. Emotions Phantom seemed to be displaying. Guilty, despair, loneliness, self-hatred, self-doubt. Despite the few entries, it was already quite a list.

“It’s not just him either,” Maddie continued. Jack rose an eyebrow at her. She didn’t immediately reply, fingers on her lips as she stared down at the journal. “He’s giving emotions to other ghosts too.”

Jack stared down blankly at the journal in his hands. 

“Where?”

Maddie began to write, and as she wrote, it clicked. Spectra’s joy in hurting others. Kitty and Johnny’s relationship. Walker’s spite. Cujo being a playful puppy. According to Phantom, and against what they knew as scientists, ghosts were experiencing a wide variety of emotions and for different reasons. It was weird. 

Jack continued to read.

October 17

I don’t know what happened the past few days. It’s this weird blur. According to [scribbles] and [scribbles] I did a lot of bad things under Freakshow’s control. [scribbles] hugged me and told me that it was nothing that we couldn’t fix, but I doubt that. Why does this keep happening to me? I don’t want to hurt people. I want to be a good person, and I want to help Amity Park, but I don’t know what keeps happening. Everything’s a fog, and I’m exhausted. 

Freakshow: 1; arrested by APPD

Circus ghosts: freed from Freakshow’s control, went back to the GZ

Replace Fenton Anti-Creep Stick, print out another sticker to put on it

“Freakshow...that was the weird circus guy,” Jack interrupted himself. Maddie nodded.

“Yeah, and if Phantom’s right...he could control the ghosts,” she mused. “So there’s a way for humans to take control of ghosts...That’s something to look into. If we can control the ghosts into staying away, it’d be such a massive scientific breakthrough.”

“We should look into Freakshow more, and see if we can talk to him!” Jack agreed. “Maybe he’ll share something with us.” Maddie smiled softly.

“I doubt that,” she replied gently. “But there’s no harm in trying. What else does it say?”

November 8

I have to fight Pariah Dark. I’m terrified. I don’t think I’ll live through it. How can I live through fighting the actual ghost king? I may never see my family again, and I can’t even tell them what happened to me if I die. I’ve been debating telling [scribbles] that I like her, but I don’t think I could bring myself to do it. 

What happens if I die? I have no clue. I’m scared to find out. I can’t die now. I have to make it back. I’ll go missing, and I won’t even be declared dead as my parents’ son. Nobody will know who to really look for. I have to come back. Maybe if I succeed, and people like me again after this, I can tell my family everything.

November 10

I couldn’t tell them. My parents still despise part of me, despite what I’ve done. I know they love me, cause my mom’s already been fussing over me like crazy because of my injuries. [scribbles] said she cried when they couldn’t find me, and that my dad had gone out looking for me all over the city, even in the dangerous parts. They of course love me, but do they really love me unconditionally?

Jack felt his voice trailing off as he hit the end. He coughed lightly, and he took a long drink. Maddie stared off into nothing. The only thing he could think of was his own search for his baby girl. He wasn’t alone, bumping into several other parents desperately looking for their missing children, and several children who got separated from their parents. The entire day was somber and frightening, and Maddie had spent the entire day glued to the phone. In case she called them. 

It was all...too real, and Jack flipped past more logs. He couldn’t help but begin to take note of how every single day had a log of ghost fighting activities, even if Phantom didn’t write down his feelings every day. This was so much more than the ghost hunting duo ever expected, more attacks than they were recording.

His eyes rested only for a moment on December 19, and he decided to just skip it. They had already read it earlier. No need to refresh those memories. More logs, and more missing pages, and he came upon another one. 

March 26

I ripped out a lot of pages, more than I intended. I can’t risk anybody finding out what happened, but also other pages revealed too much, so I kept them tucked away where nobody could ever find them. I’d burn them, but I don’t want to lose the ghost hunting data. It’s okay now. I fixed the problem and assured that everything’s going to be fine. Possibly better. I made the right choice this time, and now I know that one day, I will grow a sick beard. 

I know somebody knows my secrets now. All of them. She had known for months but wanted me to tell her. She asked me if I had a name, and ever since I told her that it was Danny, she’s been calling me that whenever she can. It made me cry the first time. It’s so great to have her know everything now. She loves me no matter what. I couldn’t ask for a better person. Even though she found out because I’m an idiot. This entire thing also made me realize how important it is to keep those secrets, and how poorly I’ve been keeping them. 

I didn’t ever mean for this to turn into a diary. I wanted to keep track of ghost fights. But it honestly helps with both the dysphoria and the stresses of being a ghost. I just went back and scribbled out names. Just in case. In the future I need to be more vague. 

But this is also the end for one secret. If things go wrong then well. I don’t know. I’ll make it up as I go along. But I know that this is who I am, and that I’m hitting a point where I need help to just be me. 

Him: 1; captured for good

Skulker: 2; captured

Desiree: 1; captured

Ectopusses: 1; captured

Cujo: 1, sent back to the GZ

Fenton Thermos: full

Fenton Anti-Creep Stick: destroyed, get new bat and sticker to put on it

Also learned a new ghost power: Ghostly wail. A scream that can just absolutely fuck somebody’s day up. I have to use it sparingly though.

Jack closed the journal, and he set it flat on the table. His mind was blank, and he couldn’t read Maddie. She continued to stare at the closed book, hand in pen but almost unsure as to what to even jot down as a note. He leaned in his seat, finishing his drink. Maddie exhaled deeply, dropping her pen in favor of stretching.

Neither said a word. Jack knew that this journal was not any kind of trick. It was too raw and emotional to be anything more than the thoughts of a teenage ghost. He regretted reading it. It held some interesting information, and he was sure if he dug deeper, that he would find more. But as it stood, his own intense guilt was settling as he knew that he just took too personal a look into the private emotional afterlife of Phantom.

“This is a lot to take in,” Maddie finally spoke. Jack only nodded.

The basement door opened, and they heard dual pairs of footsteps hop downstairs. Jack instantly brightened, and he turned in his chair to smile as his kids soon came into view.

“Hey, is this a bad time?” Jazz asked. She glanced between them, and Jack immediately shook his head no. 

“No, no,” Maddie replied quickly. Jack saw her push the journal and her notes, along with her pen and a few spare lab tools, carelessly into a drawer to help assure the Fenton kids that they weren’t interrupting anything. “What’s up, sweetie?” 

“Well, I have something that I wanna talk about,” their youngest spoke slowly. Jack noticed that she had finally taken off her hoodie, and that while she wore her normal tomboy attire, that something was a bit off about her. He couldn’t place it. Jazz stood close to her, an arm full of books clutched to her chest, though he couldn’t make out any titles. “It’s something important, and I don’t really want to put it off any longer.”

“Is something wrong? Are you in trouble?” Jack asked. His daughter shook her head no. 

“Oh, no!” she said. “It’s just…” 

She took a deep breath, and soon, their son began to explain.