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#Immediately after Danny figures out what’s going on half of Amity Park knows Phantom has married Red Hood
goggles-mcgee · 2 years
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The Protective Town
Another Danny Phantom idea where everyone in the town separately, in groups, or somehow else collectively all figure out that Phantom is Danny Fenton. Of course they freak out, this is a kid. A kid who half-died without any of them knowing. A kid many had seen grow up along with his sister. Neighbors had often been worried for the Fenton children, they thought Jack and Maddie, thought the two loved their kids, were negligent, they watched poor Jazz mature well beyond her age because she had to. There were many times people wanted to report the Fentons for child abuse but they never did, maybe it was because they knew Jack and Maddie did love their children, maybe it was just easier not to start shit with the people who created all kinds of dangerous looking weapons and equipment. But they never thought....they never believed they would be so negligent, so...so caught up in their work that they would endanger their children with said work. They never thought they would be responsible for one of their children half-dying and becoming half of what they hunted. And oh God, they hunted their son like rabid animals....they...they had said many times how they wanted to capture Phantom to experiment on him.
The town slowly figures out that each other know too and it's then that they all decide they will protect Danny from his parents as Phantom whatever it takes. Some park purposefully bad to block them in to parking spaces, others will drive slower when they see the GAV on the streets, some will just plainly block them away from a ghost attack. They would make a human wall. The teachers are heartbroken but none more than Lance because they all gave Danny a hard time but they all make sure to work with him a lot more since they know how much of his time goes to protecting them. The students will make excuses for him to his parents and even the GIW if they have to. Dash still picks on him but it's more to make Danny think nothing has changed, he toned it down a lot and just said it was because Phantom was a role model and he wanted to do better. Dash is one of the first people to start the human wall. Valerie is pissed, confused, sad, you name it, but she feels just as protective as everyone else, maybe more and Danny definitely notices when Red Huntress stops going after him and she even starts to help out in fights.
The town realize that Sam, Tucker, and Jazz help Danny out and they are immediately added to the Must Protect list. Then they all remember Dani and shit that's another but they don't care, they're going to do whatever they can to keep those kids safe even if that means taking the Jazz and Danny from their parents because their house obviously is not a safe or healthy environment for either teen.
Then the town kind of sort of maybe adopts some of the ghosts Danny had fought because dammit some of them had been kids too and they don't like the way the Fentons look at them and hunt them either. So the town is now protective of them too and maybe the ghosts think humans may not be all bad.
Amity just becomes fiercely protective over their kids, ghost, human, or halfa.
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I posted 624 times in 2021
96 posts created (15%)
528 posts reblogged (85%)
For every post I created, I reblogged 5.5 posts.
I added 209 tags in 2021
#danny phantom - 40 posts
#reblog - 36 posts
#svsss - 30 posts
#dp - 28 posts
#ramblings - 17 posts
#mdzs - 15 posts
#tma - 14 posts
#tcf - 11 posts
#scum villain self saving system - 9 posts
#deltarune - 9 posts
Longest Tag: 87 characters
#dude's got the time and the dedication to collect howevermany pokemon they're up to now
My Top Posts in 2021
#5
honestly all of my favorite parings are:
a) half of the time not actual pairings but just friendships and
b) just whoever I think has solid Those Two Guys energy.  this does not necessitate them being guys, I just want, like, whatever Timone and Pumba had going on.  They would 100% be college roommates, and would fake date each other without hesitation but would also sell each other out for a single corn chip.  If I can successfully picture them being a pair of henchmen to some cheesy supervillain who constantly diss their boss then you are doing it right.
241 notes • Posted 2021-03-31 03:38:55 GMT
#4
Scum Villain soulmate au where you have the name of your destined enemy on one wrist & the name of your soulmate on the other.
Shen Yuan gets Luo Binghe and Shang Qinghua, and immediately panics that his soulmate must be SQH (since OG!SQQ had LBH & YQY).
It's only later they figure out that SQH is his destined enemy because his bad writing literally killed SY.
251 notes • Posted 2021-08-17 16:31:58 GMT
#3
7 deadly sins: webnovel edition
Greed: Sung Jin-Woo aka Greediest King(tm)
Envy: Kim Gongja (so envious he literally got a taunt s-class card for it & then made it fucking work)
Sloth: Cale Henituse (he's never gonna get that slacker life but by god does he try)
Lust: Su Lüxia (She's not technically from a web novel, but she's got the right vibes and quite frankly I didn't want to get into smut series with this)
Wrath: Seo Joo-Heon (Vengeance Time Traveler)
Pride: Kim Dokja (he has the Vibe for it idk)
Gluttony: Rimuru Tempest (they're skill lets them eat EVERYTHING)
333 notes • Posted 2021-08-23 18:29:52 GMT
#2
I recently (5 seconds ago) came up with an au that combines the real hazmat au (where Danny wore a full hazmat suit in the portal) with the No One Knows au (ghosts AND humans don't know Danny's secret) and the Ghost King au (speaks for itself).
So essentially this strange ghost just shows up in Amity Park one day and starts fighting off all of the other ghosts appearing. Some people think this is a good thing, others are suspicious of this mysterious ghost's motives.
It doesn't help that it has occasionally done things like steal jewelry or attack the towns people for unknown reasons. It seems to run on a set of rules that no one else knows or can understand, human or fellow ghost.
Then one day the town receives it's worst attack yet, by the king of ghosts himself, Pariah Dark. No one knows what to do, everyone regardless of living status is panicking.
And then the Fenton's mech suit, the one they made specifically to fight Pariah Dark...
goes.
missing.
It's only after the battle, when the mysterious Phantom is proclaimed victorious, that everyone sees the burnt husk of what is left of the suit.
The observants quickly decide to crown this new ghost King, as per tradition, not even giving the ghost enough time to stammer out a complaint.
After all, such a serious-looking ghost is just what they need on the throne right now! The ghost seems to have come into being a bit recently, but that's all the better for their purposes anyways.
Besides, if something were going to go wrong with this plan, wouldn't they have already seen it?
(Clockwork cackles in the distance while carefully muddying the future reveal juuuust enough that those lazy eye-balls won't want to put in the effort to look at them.)
Their new king, after a few moments of confusion, silently accepts the position with nervous applause coming from all around.
(Danny, who is 14 and just became the ruler of an entire mirror dimension, sweats nervously inside his suit and prays no one ask him why he's checking out every book on politics at the library later)
543 notes • Posted 2021-12-05 01:22:22 GMT
#1
The fentons are so funny when you compare them to real-life ghost hunters though. Imagine having a ghost hunter convention and everyone is discussing how descriminate actual cold spots from places with bad ventilation or what frequency spirit boxes should be on and then these two weirdos in jumpsuits with a FUCKING BAZOOKA walk in and try to explain that not only are ghosts a lot more solid then everyone thinks but they're also all evil and need to be hunted down.
And everyones just like
"Oh its the fentons. I wonder if they brought fudge again this year."
1426 notes • Posted 2021-04-19 16:38:23 GMT
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Character redesign references: Danny, Sam and Tucker .
(Art by the wonderful @gally-hin-phantom / @gally-hin ) click/tap image for higher resolution.
This is way overdue!! Sorry for the delay!
Danny
Full name: Daniel A.Jax Fenton
-Yes his middle name is A.jax and it's entirely bc of this post and this post .
-Danny is Trans, (note the cute bracelet!) having officially transitioned over the summer between middle school and his freshman year.
-Danny is still fourteen, and is the youngest, as well as the shortest out of the trio.
-12 ounces of whoop ass, snark and anxiety. Also puns. Dear God, the puns....
-hobbies include: Astronomy, astrology, D.O.O.M and horror movies.
-Astronmy is more of a hyperfixation tbh.
-Proficient in gymnastics, having taken classes from ages 6-12, and participated in jr. cheer-leading throughout some of middle school as a flyer. Actually used to be friends with dash and paulina.
-Favorite classes involve Science and Mathematics, he’s good at understanding difficult concepts when he can pay attention. Absolutely awful at reading comprehension.
-His style hasn't changed all that much; he absolutely lives in graphic tees, jeans and sneakers. He usually wears the hoodie to cover up the litchenburg figure scars he received from the accident.
-The Accident occurred roughly a week or so before the start of his freshman year at Casper High. 
-Much of how Danny got ghost powers remains in line with the established canon, with Sam urging him to investigate the ghost zone portal, and his getting caught and electrocuted within the frame after accidentally turning it on. 
-Sam didn't have to do very much convincing though, Danny's definitely a lot more interested in his parents work that in cannon, even if they can be super embarrassing about it a lot of the time.
-And this is the point where I break off from that canon: but I'm going to make a seperate post for detailing Danny's ghost half / Phantom.
Sam
Full name: Samantha Nicole Manson
-Sam isn't an Amity park native, she moves into town over the summer after getting expelled from a fancy private school and finishing the year out online/ at home.
-At 15 years old, She's the oldest out of the three of them- having gotten held back a school year at some point for "behavioral issues"
-Sam's personality is still very much in line with her cannon counter part, although while she may still be stubborn to a fault, she knows when to admit she's wrong.
-Her revised style is really more punk, than goth.
-Sam's family is still pretty well off, as her father is the Owner of "Manson refrigerators" which has had a long-standing partnership with Dairy-King Co.
-She doesn't have a great relationship with either of her parents- they view her as out of control while she feels that they're too controling. Her grandmother is a constant mediator between the three of them.
-she's a vegetarian, she won't eat meat, but ethically sourced eggs and dairy is fair game.
-Pan-romantic Asexual.
-hobbies include: Cooking, Gardening, urban exploration, social activism, Anime, horror films and novels, and D.O.OM.
-She meets Danny over the summer at the movie theater during a horror flick marathon. After talking with him for a while, she's intrigued when Danny explains what it is his parents do. Being equally shocked that she doesn't immediately dismiss their work and call him a freak, he invites her over to see the portal...
Tucker
Full name: Tucker Foley
-Meet Danny in kindergarten, and the two of them have been pretty much inseparable ever since. He's only older than Danny by about a month.
-Was the first person that Danny came out to.
-Bisexual
-Dated Danny VERY briefly (like, a week) in middle school, which, unfortunately leads to a lot of people assuming they're still a "thing" (it's annoying but I has absolutely gotten them out of a few sticky situations *cough* fake out make out *cough*
-Not really a fan of sam at first. Tuck Actually feels somewhat threatened by her in the beginning beacuse for the longest time it's been JUST him and Danny, the dynamic duo. He gets worried that Danny'll stop hanging out with him because Sam is just SO much cooler. (These worries are completely unfounded, of course.)
-Still a tech wiz, same as in cannon. Even though I've decided I'm going to set the rewrite in the early 2000's, there's gonna be more "modern" technology. (bc I love the fact that Jack, Vlad and Maddie were in college in the 80's and also don't feel like doing math to adjust the timeline) Tucker probably still has at least one PDA somewhere cause hey, vintage shits kinda cool! But it's definitely not gonna be his go to device anymore.
-Tucker has an issue with iron deficiency...hence, an increase of red meat in his diet. The "meat vs veggies" debate is absolutely a heated issue between him and sam, although after a while it settles into friendly banter rather than lengthy arguments that have Danny pulling out his hair at the lunch table.
-Tucker hates the horror genre, cause he's a freaking wuss, lmao. But he lets Sam and Danny drag him out to see movies anyway.
-Tucker's hobbies include tinkering, computer games, (including but not limited to D.O.O.M) coding and yarn crafts.
-His grandmother taught him to crochet when he would visit her in the hospital, Tucker Actually made his beanie himself.
-Danny's the only one who knows about that though because he doesn't want to be teased for liking something "girly"
-He still has a phobia of hospitals. Watching has grandma slowly deteriorating in one is what caused it.
I think I've covered everything, but odds are I'll be adding onto this at some point.
Next post will probably cover Danny's ghost half in depth!
(on a final side note, if anyone is interested in drawing character refs for this project, dm me! I can compensate with a fic based on prompt of your choice, or if you have set commission rates, $$$)
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five-rivers · 4 years
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Doctor
The final continuation of Science and Stuck!
.
.
.
Jack and Maddie had never been in the Ghost Zone before, and they watched with fascination as the camera they had attached to Phantom dipped and bobbed, weaving through a complex maze of impossible and decaying architecture. Really, this whole endeavor would be worth it just for this.
But they'd already learned so much more. The interaction between Phantom and the box-obsessed ghost had been enlightening, giving insight to why Phantom did not simply destroy weaker ghosts who trespassed on his territory. They hadn't believed that ghosts could make deals like that.
It put Phantom's fights in a very different perspective. He might be coordinating with the ghosts he 'fought' to make himself look good. After all, if he could bargain with that ghost, why not others?
Admittedly, that theory was a bit out there, but it was plausible.
They had also been interested to see that Phantom was aware of the camera and its function. They had designed it to bond with the ghost's body, to trick it into accepting it as part of itself. They had assumed that the ghost's mind (such as it was) would be similarly fooled. But, it wasn't. Phantom appeared to have understood the camera almost immediately and had attempted to remove it.
Phantom swooped around another twisted staircase. Maddie tapped on the glass screen.
"I wonder what he's trying to hide," she said.
"Well, we'll see it sooner or later," said Jack, cutting off a corner of his emergency fudge. "There's no way he'll be able to get the camera off." He snorted. "Even if there was a ghost intelligent enough, they don't have the equipment."
Maddie nodded. "I suppose it's just frustrating. All this time, trying to figure him out, and now we have to wait even longer." She sighed. "Him knowing it's a camera is going to skew our results, too. He'll be on his best behavior while people are watching. We already know that from his whole hero routine."
On the screen, Phantom turned a corner, and the Fentons were treated to a view of a vast, open expanse. Floating islands charted their own paths against a green and swirling sky. Clouds of ectoplasmic mist scudded along the not-horizon. Disembodied doors flew by without rhyme or reason.
The picture shifted from side to side as Phantom took in his surroundings. It stopped, lingering on an oddly skull-shaped island for several long seconds before Phantom turned away.
.
Danny had known the portal the Box Ghost had shown him was close to Skulker's island, but he hadn't quite realized how close. It was a good landmark, he knew exactly how to get to the Far Frozen from here, but he didn't really want to run into Skulker.
He didn't want to deal with any of the ghosts he usually fought with his parents watching, and maybe listening, through the camera. They might not actively try to expose him, but a number of them were too comfortable with shouting out things like-
"I'll wrap Ember's gifts with your pelt, halfa whelp!"
Ugh. Like that.
Danny twisted and froze a tracking missile, not watching as it began to arc to his left, caught in the orbit of the staircase maze Danny had just left. He sent a few blasts at Skulker.
"I think you should find something to put in the gifts first!" he shouted. "Unlike last year. I heard you were begging MP3 players off of Technus minutes-" he cut off to dodge a net. He hated nets. Why did Skulker even bother with them, when he was trying to kill Danny, anyway? "Minutes before the party!"
"Like you're one to talk! You completely destroyed the party!"
"Hey, blame Ghostwriter for that one!"
"And you don't understand! You don't even have a girlfriend!"
"Well, neither will you for much longer if you don't come up with better present ideas!"
The fight had wound down into the two ghosts just yelling at each other. For all the violence Skulker regularly subjected him to, Danny sometimes wondered if Skulker actually wanted to skin him, or mount his head on a wall, or any of the other threats he belted out, or if he just wanted the thrill of the chase.
"Can't you just give me a break for once? I don't have time for this!"
"Oh, please, you have all the time in the world, whelp!"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, what with you being a hal-"
Danny flew over and clamped a hand over Skulker's mouth. "Not another word," he hissed. "We're being watched."
"What do you-?"
Danny cut him off, pointing significantly at the camera. Skulker immediately started laughing.
"Oh, yeah, laugh it up. Wait 'til it happens to you."
"Ha! That is why I, with my modifications, am superior! Something as ridiculous as that could never happen to me!" He started laughing again.
"Whatever," grumbled Danny. "Are you going to keep attacking me, or can I go to the Far Frozen in peace?"
Skulker waved him off. "Consider it an early truce present!" he said. "But don't forget! I'll get your pelt eventually!"
"Sure," said Danny, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. He floated backwards for a ways before turning, wary of being stabbed in the back. Or shot in the back. Or blasted in the back. Or whatever having missiles or nets launched at him from behind would be called.
But, once again, he was on his way to the Far Frozen. With his luck, he'd only be interrupted a dozen more times before he actually got there.
He sighed, thinking of ways he could block the camera in an emergency. Ice, perhaps? He could always put his hand over it, too. Maybe he should have done that from the beginning, but a part of him, the part that had argued with them before, wanted to show them the truth about ghosts. Part of him wanted them to see.
So, even though he kept fiddling with the camera as he flew, even though he definitely wanted it off, and quickly, he couldn't quite bring himself to cover it.
"Hey! Phantom!"
Danny turned, trying to place the voice. "Sydney?" he asked, surprised, spotting the sepia-toned specter. "What's up?" He slowed so that the other ghost could catch up to him. Sydney didn't often leave his lair on his own.
"Wow! It's lucky you came out here! I thought I'd have to go through your portal to find you." Sydney shuddered. He caught up to Danny. "I'm throwing a truce party this year!" he said, happily. "I'm inviting everyone." He handed Danny a small envelope. "It's a bit early, because I wanted to make sure that it didn't overlap with anyone else's party."
"Thanks, Sydney," said Danny, both surprised and touched. "I don't know if I'll be able to make it, you know what my l- my afterlife is like." His smile turned into a grimace at the awkwardness of his phrasing.
"Afterlife? But you-"
"I have a camera strapped to my chest right now. I'm pretty sure it's broadcasting. I don't really want to talk about it."
Sydney blinked at him. "Your existence is very difficult, isn't it? I'm glad I didn't manage to steal it from you when we first met."
"That's both of us. The shades in your lair still behaving?"
"Oh, yes. It's all fine. Thanks for asking! I've got to go deliver the rest of these! Good luck with your camera situation!"
"Yeah, stay safe, okay, Sydney?" called Danny, as they sped away from each other.
"You betcha!"
Danny tucked the invitation into a pocket. He'd have to check out the details later, when he wouldn't have to hold it at a weird angle to keep the camera from seeing it.
Now, if there were no more interruptions, he could get to the Far Frozen before- He stopped. That forest had not been there before, and, usually, the floating islands didn't move like-
Not a floating island Undergrowth oh Ancients he looked mad run run run.
It was a good thing Danny was faster than Undergrowth. He didn't want to fight the plant ghost on his home turf... if there even was any turf underneath all those plants.
The chase (not to mention dodging and fighting off the seed bombs that Undergrowth had lobbed his way) had drained Danny, and he was flying significantly slower. The hope that he'd get back home before dawn looked distinctly forlorn. He sighed. That was just his life, though, wasn't it?
.
Maddie had filled half a notebook with questions.
Ghosts appeared to be much more complex than previously believed, even if it was clear that what rudimentary social structure they had was founded entirely on violence. The three encounters Phantom had had in the Ghost Zone thus far illustrated that perfectly.
The first, with Skulker, served as a sort of average. The ghosts had fought, demonstrated that they were more-or-less equals, and then parted, apparently not wanting a more definitive contest. The second had been with a smaller ghost who was obviously submissive towards Phantom. The third, with the plant ghost was more along the lines of what she and Jack had expected: Strong ghosts attempting to defeat and consume weaker ones.
"I wonder what this 'truce' they keep talking about is," said Maddie, tapping her pencil on her notebook.
"I wonder what that sound is," said Jack. "The microphone shouldn't be picking up this kind of interference."
"I think it's core noise," said Maddie. "We can analyze the sound later and compare it to his ectosignature, after we find out where he's going." She glanced at the clock. "And after we get some sleep. Everything is being recorded."
"I'll have to double check all the connections before we do this again. I bet it's a loose wire." Jack pouted.
Maddie nodded. "Where do you think he's going? You don't suppose he thinks he has some way to get it off?"
Jack shrugged. "His lair, maybe? The distance might be why he stays in Amity Park."
"Lairs are still pure speculation, though," said Maddie. "Although, one hypothesis is that they help ghosts reform and heal, so he might think it'll get rid of the camera."
Jack grunted in acknowledgement. "What do you think that white dot is?" he asked, pointing at the screen.
"I think it's one of those floating islands," she said. "It's a different color than the others."
They watched as it grew larger on the screen. "I think Phantom is heading towards it."
"Maybe it's his lair," she said. "He does have ice powers. Ice and snow could be what gives it its color."
"It does look like that could be," said Jack.
The island grew larger and larger, and eventually the picture showed that they had been right. The island was covered with snow and more.
"I think those are buildings," said Maddie, pointing out little mounds. "Crude, but still buildings. Perhaps Phantom is trying to replicate features of Amity Park in his lair?"
"You don't think it could be some kind of," Jack waved his hand vaguely, "rudimentary ghost settlement?"
Maddie wrinkled her nose. "What would they have to gain? Why would you say that?"
"Because I think I see some ghosts moving around down there."
Sure enough, Maddie could see movement where he pointed. The ghosts were white-furred, and difficult to see against the snow, but they were there. They looked fierce. Animal ghosts of some kind, Maddie assumed, but warped over the years.
"They all look so much alike," said Maddie, fascinated. "I wonder what could have caused that."
"Well, they say form follows function!" said Jack. "Or the 'native' theory could be correct, and they formed that way, without human consciousness involved!"
"Hm," said Maddie, making a note. "We'll have to look into that again."
Phantom's hand flashed in the camera's peripheral vision. "He's waving to them," said Jack.
"Great one!" shouted one of the ghosts on the island, voice made small by distance.
"Frostbite!" yelled Phantom in return, voice much louder. He swooped down, and was embraced by the other ghost, who was much, much larger.
The other white-furred ghosts cheered. Maddie frowned.
"If he has this sort of reception here, why come to Amity Park?" she asked. "If his Obsession is attention..."
"Maybe it's human attention he wants," said Jack, rubbing his chin. "Either way, they're... enthusiastic, aren't they?"
"I can't believe they've banded together like this," said Maddie. "It doesn't make sense. The structures... they don't make sense, either. Ghosts shouldn't need things like that, especially not in the Ghost Zone."
"Maybe they're a different species of ghost that does need things like this," said Jack, most of his attention on the ghosts greeting Phantom. "We've never seen any like them here. They might only be able to exist in cold. Or they could have Obsessions related to, uh... igloos?"
"They aren't really shaped like igloos, though," said Maddie. "I think there's stone under there."
"The ice could just be dirty."
"That wouldn't surprise me."
.
Getting to the Far Frozen was a relief. Danny felt a the tension he'd been carrying within him relax as soon as he spotted Frostbit.
It was replaced with embarrassment once everyone started fussing over him. Technically, this was in front of his parents. Still, he'd take embarrassment over what he was feeling earlier. His core was singing that he was safe safe safe among allies and friends, and the cold felt wonderful against his skin.
"What brings you to the Far Frozen today, great one?"
Danny chuckled nervously and reached back to rub his neck. The motion was stopped when he encountered the collar around his neck. "I'm actually here to see a doctor. I've got a bit of a medical problem. At least, I think it's a medical problem." Danny touched down on the surface of the snow, wilting slightly as he tugged fruitlessly on the collar. "I don't really know. Can you help?"
Frostbite's eyes went wide for a moment before shifting into pure concern. "Of course, great one. We'll take a look at you right away. Unless you need to rest? We know we are far from your home."
Danny shook his head. "I want to get this fixed right away," he said.
When Frostbite scooped Danny up and put him on his shoulder, it wasn't a surprise. Neither was the short flight to the Far Frozen's medical 'cave.'
Oh, to be sure, it was a cave, but Danny always felt like calling it something like that, something so crude, was a disservice. For one, the entrance chamber was gorgeous. A huge, underground atrium with an intricately grown and carved ice ceiling, geometric patterns spiraling down the walls; ghost writing above graceful arches, indicating what each space was used for. Shining, high-tech devices that made even Tucker salivate. Some people might judge them on what lay above ground in their village, but appearances were often deceiving in the Ghost Zone, and the Far Frozen was one of the most advanced societies around.
Only an idiot would mistake the tribe of the Far Frozen for savages.
Frostbite carried Danny into the diagnosis area, set him down in a chair, and began going through the routine of cleaning his hands and putting on medical equipment.
"Oh," said Danny, leaning forward, "Frostbite, you don't have to, I know you're busy."
"Nonsense, great one! You deserve the best of care, and I am here to provide." He sat down on a stool across from Danny. "So, what seems to be the problem?"
Danny began to explain.
.
Jack and Maddie weren't talking. This is because they were in shock.
The ruins at the beginning had been one thing... Those were expected, the ghosts of buildings, so to speak, ectoplasmic echos. But this place? This level of technology- It shouldn't be possible!
"I know," said Jack, and Maddie realized she had spoken out loud. "But... it's here, isn't it? We're seeing it."
"It could be a trick," said Maddie. "A facade. There's no way any of this is actually functional."
"But if it is... Jazz and Danny, they might be right," said Jack. He sounded troubled. "If ghosts can form societies, and create technology and art like this, even if the societies are based on violence, that indicates some form of sapience, of intelligence, even if it isn't human intelligence."
Maddie nodded. "I think we should withhold judgement until we actually see results," she said.
"Yeah," said Jack. "Just... I feel sort of like the bad guy in a sci-fi movie, you know? The one who insists the aliens or people with superpowers aren't really human."
"It isn't the same, Jack. These are ghosts."
"But what does that even mean anymore?"
Maddie sighed. "We'll have to change our theories," she said.
"Ah," said the ghost known as 'Frostbite' on the screen, scanning Phantom with some kind of unknown device, "yes. I see what the problem is. I'll take the camera out, now, and then we can work on the other bits."
The screen went blank.
.
Getting the collar removed was both easier and harder than Danny had expected. Easier, because all he had to do was take a drug and let Frostbite peel it off, harder because he had to come down off the drug before he went home, lest he get into a fight and wind up with semi-permanent injuries. At least he was able to send a message to Jazz to ask her to cover for his absence.
He didn't get home until four in the afternoon. Nothing remarkable happened on the way back, because the Far Frozen decided to send some warriors along with him to make sure he got back safely. He was a bit surprised, however, to find his parents passed out at their desks in the lab, apparently reviewing recordings from the camera they had stuck to him.
Recordings like that could be dangerous to him. Should he delete them?
No, he hadn't said anything incriminating, and they were unlikely to be able to use the footage to attack the Far Frozen. The floating islands moved, after all, and he had entered the Zone from a random portal. It should be fine to leave it like that.
He let himself turn human. The air down here was chilly. He should get them blankets or something and let Jazz know he was back, then he'd pass out himself.
While he was draping a quilt over Maddie's shoulders, he caught sight of her notebook and the last line she had written.
The kids are right. We'll have to revise our theories concerning Phantom and the other ghosts.
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ayamari-no-goshi · 3 years
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Verboten 2 | (T)
ff.net | AO3
Fandom: Danny Phantom (DP)
Summary:   AU. When Danny was five years old, he went missing for 2 weeks. In the years that follow, his family tried to make sense of what happened, only for the truth to be discovered years later.
Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, language. Be prepared for some very weird things
Parings: Danny/Sam
Notes: originally uploaded to Ff.net. Cross-posted to AO3 and tumblr. This fic is very heavily inspired by folklore surrounding mysterious wilderness disappearances
Chapter 2
“I’m honestly surprised your parents allowed you on this trip, Danny,” his friend Sam mentioned as they and their other friend, Tucker, packed their bags onto the bus.
The now seventeen year old Danny shrugged as he focused on trying to make sure his bag wouldn’t be squished in the luggage compartment of the bus during the trip. He brought a foldable telescope with him in case he had a chance to stargaze, and he didn’t want it to get broken.
His school, Casper High, had some sort of deal with one of the local National Parks. The school was allowed to camp at the park at a reduced rate as long as the students helped the Forest Rangers with some minor tasks. Both parties considered it a win-win situation as the Park Service received some extra hands, and the school was able to pride itself on the survival and conservational experiences its students received. Technically, the trip was voluntary for seniors, but the teachers indirectly pressured the students to participate.
“To be honest, I’m more surprised they convinced Tucker to go,” Danny eventually replied after he was satisfied with the location of his bag.
“You’re telling me!” Tucker whined as he waited for his two friends while he fiddled with his PDA. “My mother actually threatened to stop making her meatloaf for me if I didn’t go! They said, “It would be good for me”. Can you believe that?”
“I think a little bit of hiking do you some good.” Sam poked him in the stomach for emphasis.
As Tucker shouted in protest, Danny and Sam exchanged a glance. Tucker did not like the outdoors, and he was very vocal about it. His world primary consisted of technology, and while it was amazing what he could do with his handheld and twenty minutes, his physical prowess was lacking.
“But seriously, Danny,” Tucker injected after he finally fended off Sam, “how did you convince your parents to let you come?”
Danny shrugged as he headed towards the door of the bus. Shouts from the teachers made it clear they would be boarding soon. “It seems like the school board managed to somehow convince them. All I know is that they had a meeting with them to raise concerns and to tell them I wasn’t going to go, but they came back stating it was fine. It must have been one heck of a persuasive argument.”
“That’s because my mother was involved.” The boys glanced over to see Sam angrily kick a rock out of the way. Her parents were often a taboo topic. “I thought I told you she was on the school board. I don’t know the full details of it, but I know she was preparing counterarguments to objections.”
“I’m honestly surprised your parents are so gung ho about this trip. You’d think they’d consider camping beneath them.”
“It’s because of the prestige. They can brag that their daughter and their daughter’s school has ties to a government agency.”
While Danny raised an eyebrow, he admitted it seemed petty enough of a reason. Sam’s parents were very wealthy and liked to show off their wealth, much to their daughter’s dismay. They often argued with her regarding her appearance, music tastes, friends, after school activities, and other issues as they believed their daughter’s choices reflected poorly on them. However, they were usually fine with their daughter’s activism regarding conservation and animal rights as long as she didn’t go too far with it, such as the time she tried to stage a break out at the local zoo.
Their conversation ended as the boarding began. The three somehow managed to get the back of the bus, which allowed them to continue to talk without interruption. Most of the other students tended to avoid their group. They didn’t know why until one of the band members, Mikey, once asked Tucker how he put up with being so close to Danny. Confused, Tucker asked him to elaborate.
According to Mikey, a lot of the other students felt unnerved by Danny. As polite and quiet as he tended to be, there was something odd about him that no one was directly able to pinpoint. Mikey said he thought it could have been his eyes, citing how at times it almost seemed like Danny saw the world in a slightly different way than the rest of them. Tucker just laughed it off and explained that Danny had a traumatic event as a child so he often seemed unusually reserved. Mikey seemed to accept that answer, and afterwards, at least some of the students involved with the band were more open towards Danny.
The Fentons moved to Amity Park two years after Danny’s disappearance, so the majority of the student body was unaware of the event. If he was honest, Danny would never have told Sam and Tucker what happened, but his parents’ eccentricities forced the issue.
When his parent’s found out about Sam’s activism the first time she and Tucker visited their house, they made her swear she would not take their son into the woods with her. When he was finally allowed to take them to his room after Sam promised she wouldn’t, he hesitantly explained why they were so intense. His friends were very understanding, though they were just as puzzled about the entire thing as he was. Tucker even offered to hack into the old case file if Danny ever decided to look into it.
Sam did mention that it did help explain why they sometimes caught him staring off into space. She figured he was probably traumatized by something he couldn’t quite remember. Danny mentioned his sister once told him something similar, but he honestly didn’t remember anything that happened.
What he never admitted to his friends was that he knew why he sometimes seemed distant. Ever since his disappearance, he sometimes saw figures out of the corner of his periphery. Usually, he thought it was another person, but when he tried to check, whatever it was had disappeared. More recently, however, the figures seemed to let him glimpse them for a second or two. He could never make out anything other than the vague shape as a person. Since no one else seemed to notice them, he figured it was some weird sort of paranoia due to a repressed memory.
….
About a half hour after they left, Danny received a voicemail from his parents. He had forgotten he had put it on silent, but there was no way he could call them back while he was on the bus since Mr. Lancer was the chaperone for his bus, and that man was a stickler for the rules. Instead, he made a mental note to call them back as soon as he had permission as he clicked the play button.
His mother’s voice sounded absolutely frantic. “Daniel, you call me as soon as you get this! I don’t know what came over us, but we never should have let you go without some sort of protection. I should have never have let you go. If the teachers won’t let you call us, jest remember to never be the last or first in line, and never, under any circumstances, go anywhere alone. And, this is important Danny, if anyone you don’t know offers you food, don’t take it.” His dad could faintly be heard in the background talking about some sort of weaponry he made.
“And here I thought only my mom could sound like that. What was that about?” Sam asked. Her raised eyebrow told him she wasn’t going to let it drop until he had an answer.
“I think my parents finally realized I was going into the woods,” he replied as he put his phone away.
“I thought you said they were fine with you going,” Tucker chimed in while he rummaged through his back for a snack.
Danny didn’t immediately answer. He glanced away for a moment before finally he decided to open up about something which had been bugging him. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but my parents almost seemed like they were in a daze after that school meeting. They were so adamant I was not going to be allowed to go on that trip, and then they just changed their minds and stopped voicing their concerns. It was so weird that I actually called Jazz.”
It was true. He had called his sister at collage because of how out of character it was. While Jazz understood his concern, she reassured him one of the teachers or other parents managed to ease their concerns, and/or they realized some of their worries were silly and unfounded. He tried to tell her there was something more to it as she couldn’t physically see how off they were, but she just told him he was being paranoid and to enjoy himself.
Tucker whistled. “It must have been weird for you to do that.” Both Sam and Tucker knew full well how Jasmine “Jazz” Fenton tended to overanalyze almost everything. As a result, Danny often tried to avoid asking her questions regarding why a person would act in a certain way. The resulting explanation was often too lengthy to be interesting.
“As weird as that is, do you really think anyone in Amity would do something like drug or hypnotize your parents?” Sam argued.
“I… I don’t really know. Look, I never told you guys this,” Danny sighed as he steeled himself, “but, there has been a second incident prior to us moving. Our old house had a wooded area behind it. It wasn’t dense or anything, and you could see in it for like a half mile… but, according to my parents, and Jazz confirmed it, I went missing again for several hours in those woods. I don’t remember saying this, but they said I mentioned something about my playmate from the forest in Arkansas payed me a visit. There’s been an unspoken worry that this guy is following us for some reason.”
Neither of his friends said anything for a while until Sam spoke up. “That’s really messed up, but do you really think that’s the case? How would this person be able to find you? Do you even know what he or she looks like?”
He shook his head. “You know my parents are big names in fringe science. It’s possible he found us that way. I know that it’s really unlikely… It… It’s just… it was too weird, you know? With how my parents go on and on about other dimensions and being spirited away, them just suddenly changing their minds went against everything they believe.”
“Don’t worry, Danny. You’re with us and a bunch of other students. We’ll keep an eye on you.”
“And if something does happen, Sam can chase off the bad guy with those boots of hers. Ow!” Tucker glared at Sam as he rubbed his shin. “That was a compliment.”
She just snickered which caused the two to start bickering. The familiarity of it helped ease some of Danny’s worries. He knew he was just being paranoid, and that it was very unlikely anyone did something to his parents. It was just that he couldn’t shake off his uneasy feeling.
….
Their camp ground was in the Cuyahoga Valley region which was on the outskirts of the Allegheny plateau. The hills in the area were rolling due to the plateau and ancient glacial activity, but they were nowhere near as large as the ones found closer to the mountains in the next state over. Like many forests in the plateau, it was surprisingly old and dense.
Danny was unsettled by it. The hardwood trees blocked out a large percentage of the sun which cast permanent shadows on the area. Not only was it unlikely he would be able to stargaze, he kept thinking he saw something peek out from behind the trees. Chalking it up to paranoia, he decided to focus on the interior of the bus until they reached their destination. He didn’t need to freak out this early in the trip.
Due to the amount of students, the school split them into groups of about thirty and split them around the park. His group was sent to a series of cabins near one of the ranger stations. There were five or six assigned to each cabin. Thankfully for Danny, Tucker was also assigned to the same cabin.
After Mr. Lancer told them some general rules, they were told they had an hour to settle in before they would met up for lunch. The unpacking was fairly uneventful, though Danny was dismayed to learn some of the football players would be in his cabin. Most of them tended to leave him alone, but the one, Dash, liked to bully him. It was strange since he was the only person aside from Sam and Tucker who would come anywhere near him. Thankfully, other than a warning to keep his weirdness to himself, the football players decided to ignore him and Tucker.
He unpacked fairly quickly, so he decided he had enough time to try to contact his parents. Stepping outside, he tried to make a phone call. Someone picked up on the other end, but the signal must have been poor as the call was extremely choppy. After several minutes of trying to figure out what she was saying, he told her he would ask the Rangers if they had a land line he’d be able to use before he ended the call. He frowned as he checked the bars on his phone. There signal was strong enough that the call shouldn’t have been that choppy, but it was a cheaper phone since he had a bad habit of breaking them, so that could have been the reason.
They ate lunch at a mess hall in the camp complex. It was a fairly modest meal, but the beef and gravy was surprisingly good. Danny mused it was probably because his parents often experimented with cooking which often created strange results. He was also surprised that there was a vegetarian option available for Sam, but the school must have called ahead to let them know.
When they were finishing up, Mr. Lancer announced that one of the Rangers had an announcement. Danny glanced over to see a stern man, possibly in his late thirties, move towards the front of the room. He was fit and weathered, but every once in a while, there was a haunted look in his eyes.
The ranger, Rusty, gave the group a rundown of the general rules. He then paused for a moment before he spoke again. “This is unprecedented, but we are going to need your help for a search for a missing person.” Murmurs of excitement ran through the students. “This is a serious matter, and I request you pay attention. We have our search and rescue people and volunteers out right now looking for a twenty-two year old male. He is Caucasian and was last seen in a red jacket and blue jeans. He goes by Aiden.”
“Because you are not properly trained,” Rusty continued, “I only ask that you walk along the nearby trails for a couple hours in groups of two or more. Each group will be given a walkie-talkie. If you see or hear anything strange, call it into us. Don’t go off the trails. We don’t need more people getting lost today.” He fell silent and seemed to argue with himself for a moment before adding, “If you hear what sounds like screaming, particularly a woman screaming, call it in immediately. Large cats sometimes make that kind of sounds, and we definitely have Bobcats around. Luckily, they tend to avoid people, but we do like to know when we have signs of them.”
Twenty minutes later, the teens separated into their groups. Each group was provided a map, compass, and walkie-talkie. Rusty took them to a large map posted outside the Ranger station and explained a little about the area. The trails he wanted them to take circled the surrounding area and were well marked. Before he let them go, he again warned them to report anything off, but did try to reassure them by letting them know other rangers would be regularly sweeping the area.
“Well, isn’t this a reassuring start to our trip,” Tucker sarcastically mentioned as he tried to figure out the map.
“It can’t be helped,” Sam told him as she ripped the map out of his hands and corrected it before handing it back to him. “They must be desperate if they’re asking students to help.”
“Hey, I’m not used to replying on handheld maps.”
“You could try bringing it up on GPS,” Danny mentioned as they headed towards the one trail.
“That’s a great idea!” Tucker fiddled with his PDA for a moment before turning back to his friend. “Are you okay, dude? You sound a little off.”
“Oh, I guess this would hit a little too close to home,” Sam mentioned as she examined his expression.
Danny sighed as he glanced away from her. “Kind of. Even though I don’t remember it, I was in this exact same situation before. I hope they find the guy, at least for his family’s sake.”
The trio fell silent as they began their walk on one of the easy trails. They didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, though Tucker complained starting about halfway through the hike. Sam tried to distract them by identifying some of the local flora, but it only worked for so long.
By the time they made it back to camp, it was almost dinner time. Danny was glad to be back around the group. Although he never mentioned anything to his friends, he felt as if he was being watched the entire time. The trees seemed oppressive at times, and he was honestly surprised he didn’t have a panic attack while they were on the trail.
After dinner, he asked Rusty if there was a phone he would be able to use. Rusty told him that he would have to wait until the morning because they needed the line for the search. Danny understood and thanked the man.
Before he had a chance to head back to his cabin, Rusty called out to him, “While you’re here, make sure you never go off on your own.”
“I know. I mean, my parents drilled that into me for years,” Danny admitted with a shrug.
Rusty examined him closely before stepping closer and whispering, “You’ve witnessed something strange in the past. I can tell by the look in your eyes and how tense you are. In any heavily wooded area, the more open you are to the unusual, the more likely it might show up again.” He walked off without another word. Unnerved, Danny returned to his cabin and waited for his friend.
Tucker still wanted to complain about the amount of walking they did when he returned to the room, which prompted a discussion regarding how in the world Sam was able to enjoy things like that. Danny was about to bring up what the ranger told him when the football players burst into the room. Normally, Danny would just ignore them, but this time, he was intrigued by their excited whispers.
“Hey dweebs,” Dash addressed them, much to Danny and Tucker’s surprise, “did you hear what happened?” An evil grin appeared on his face when they told him they didn’t. “Kwan overheard the rangers talking earlier. You know that guy they were looking for?”
“Yeah,” Danny answered, “Did they find him?”
“Yeah, but he wasn’t alive.”
“Wait, what?”
“You heard me. They’re saying he’s dead.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of chapter notes :
The Cuyahoga (Ky-ah-HOE-ga) Valley is a real place. I chose it for some very specific reasons. 1) The forests in that area are extremely large 2) I’m fairly familiar with the landscape and weather as I grew up in another part of the Allegheny plateau 3) The parks in that area are a bit unusual as you have a mix of privately owned and government owned areas which I’m using to my design as there’s more leeway with what they can and can’t build in those areas 4) some old towns have been “swallowed” by the national park including one famous “helltown”
The Allegheny (Al-ah-gain-ie) plateau is one part of the Appalachian Mountains, which are said to be the oldest mountains in the world. You don’t really have the high peaks or rock terrain associated with other ranges since they’re so worn, but there are a lot of hills, valleys, creeks, and streams. There are also a lot of coal mines since it’s a coal rich area. What’s also very strange about the plateau is that you can be in a town or suburbs, but within 15-20 minutes, you can be on the outskirts of a deep forest. There are also some swamps and marshy areas within the plateau as well.
Also, a lot of the names for natural landmarks in the Allegheny plateau originate from the tribes who originally settled there. There are even some burial mounds in the Cuyahoga area.
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ladylynse · 3 years
Note
Prompt or musing for TAZ:A x DP crossover?
I went with a musing, Anon, but feel free to drop me a three sentence fic prompt if you like. For this crossover, I’d go one of two ways: Danny or Dani. 
Dani’s already off exploring on her own. It’s perfectly feasible she’d stop in at Amnesty Lodge at one point, with or without hearing anything coming out of the supposedly sleepy town of Kepler, and somehow find herself in the middle of things with people who are fast becoming like family to her. (I love the found family trope with Dani, okay? She needs it.) No one judges her for who she is now, and they’re not trying to pry into her past by asking a billion questions about her parents, and she doesn’t have to hide her ghost half from them, because they’re all like she is. Kinda. She might not be from Sylvain (she’s heard them talking and doesn’t think it’s part of the Ghost Zone, getting there through a portal or no, though she might be wrong as she certainly hasn’t explored every place within the Ghost Zone), but the questionable stability of her molecular structure means she can relate to their problems more than they know.
For Danny, well, Fenton family road trip to Kepler, of course. There have been stories coming out of that area for ages, and it’s ramped up recently. The kids are old enough that they can handle themselves in the field, even if they hate ghost hunting, so it’ll be all right to bring them along. Besides, they might be more eager to actually do ghost hunting with their parents if they aren’t in Amity Park, too.
With the Fentons being on (a working) vacation, they rent rooms in Amnesty Lodge. It’s, uh, no secret what the Fentons are, which makes some residents uncomfortable, but they keep their disguises on and steer clear of the ghost hunters, which is incredibly easy because of how loud Jack is. They’re used to keeping an extra guard up around the FBI; these new guests aren’t terribly different. In both cases, they can’t afford to be found out. 
(Said FBI agents aren’t impressed that stories are spreading enough that some amateur investigators are showing up, since that’s what they figure the Fentons are--though one of them may or may not know someone in the Guys in White and suggests that, if the Fentons really are experts in their field and someone’s playing ghost to murder other people, well, maybe it wouldn’t be completely unethical to let them find out what they can find out...and then go in and do a proper investigation before they mess anything up.)
Danny’s trying to come to terms with the fact that his ghost sense went off the moment they got near this place, meaning his parents were right about there actually being ghosts here. He’s on his guard because of that, knowing he has to find said ghost(s) as soon as possible, because if they’re friendly, he and Jazz need to convince them to leave town for a bit or figure out how to sabotage all the Fenton equipment without their parents realizing that’s what they’re up to and that any sabotage actually happened.
Jack and Maddie go off into town to investigate leads at the earliest opportunity, the kids pleading the excuse of settling in to stay behind, but when they hear about the Cryptonomica, they must all go. There’s no hope of arguing. Danny and Jazz get dragged along even though Danny would rather try to find the ghosts before his parents do. It’s clear enough to Danny and Jazz that the Cryptonomica is a giant tourist trap, but....
There’s an edge of truth in some of it that Danny finds distinctly unsettling. 
For instance, there’s a stuffed yeti that looks like the ghosts of the Far Frozen, and with the Ghost Zone being a mirror of the Real World, being connected....
Things start to spiral out of Danny’s control fairly quickly after that. His parents are trying to show them how to do some actual investigating to track down ghosts in case equipment fails, which involves questioning essentially everyone who will talk to them, and it becomes very clear very fast that weird near death brushes and attacks and murder are a current thing, not a happened at some point in the last fifty years thing, which makes it harder to convince their parents that it’s perfectly okay for the two of them to go off alone. They manage it, mostly thanks to the fact that Jack and Maddie trust Jazz’s judgement.
Naturally, Danny and Jazz aren’t acting like normal children, and Ned heard every word they were whispering to each other in the Cryptonomica, which immediately put them on the radar of the Pine Guard. (And, let’s face it, if Momma’s around, she pegs Danny very quickly.) A quick side investigation into the Fenton family is done to assess how much of a threat they are, and they connection between Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom is made almost before he shows up--but, really, Phantom making an appearance just clinched it. 
A botched investigation attempt on Danny and Jazz’s part ends with them realizing this place isn’t just haunted, that there are more than just ghosts lurking here, and if Danny hadn’t been able to turn the two of them intangible, they would probably both be ghosts. They get rescued and confronted, and contrary to how I usually draw out confrontations with ample misconceptions, there would be frank conversations. Danny and Jazz are kids, and the others are adults. If the kids are not going to sit this out as they should, they at least need to know enough about what’s going on to not get themselves killed--and, frankly, working together might prevent all of them getting killed, as that remains a very distinct possibility.
Jazz ultimately gets benched for her safety, which means it’s her job to find ways to distract her parents and the FBI and cover for Danny. Danny gets to help because, well, he was the reason he and Jazz survived their first encounter, and he can do things the rest of them can’t. He doesn’t meet the Mothman, but he can’t help but think of Clockwork when he hears stories. And the archway in the woods, well.... He’s got some experience with portals. Not good experience, and not necessarily useful experience, but maybe it wasn’t a total fluke that his parents picked this haunted town for their hunting trip.
(more like this)
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mischiefandspirits · 4 years
Text
The Third Path
Some new ghost hunters have come to town, but are they really ghost hunters, or something else?
When a human dies, there are three paths the freed soul can take. Most are sent straight to the After. However, some stay behind.
“Excuse me, dear girl, but may I have a moment of your time!”
Valerie frowned at the shout and turned her board around to see a Latina woman staring at her with a curious smile. She had knee-length black hair that, alongside her long white dress, swirled around her from her spot on the edge of a skyscraper’s roof.
The ghost hunter immediately dove down towards the woman, holding up her hands. “Woah, hey now. There’s no need for that. Come down from there and we can talk about this.”
The woman frowned, then smiled again as she climbed down and stepped back until there were a good five feet between her and the edge. “Apologies, I did not mean to frighten you. I simply wished to gain your attention. I did not anticipate you taking my position in such a way.”
“Right,” Valerie said slowly dropping down to the roof and banishing her board. “How can I help you?”
The woman hummed, staring at where her board had been before looking up at her.
A shiver went up Valerie’s spine at the neon blue color of the woman’s eyes, but it was washed away a second later by a wave of contentment that filled her.
“My name is Adelaida. I and my people have come to this town to assist with the demonic presence that plagues you.”
Valerie’s eyes widened. “Demonic? You mean the ghosts?”
“Yes, that is the term you use for them, isn’t it?”
“You’re ghost hunters?” she asked cautiously. More ghost hunters wasn’t exactly a bad thing, but only if they were actually helpful. Most of the ghost hunters Valerie has met were absolutely useless while the G.I.W. did more damage than the ghosts. The Fenton’s at least knew what they were doing, even if they tended to be a little trigger happy and often late to the party.
“In a sense. We hoped to gain information on the demons -- or ghosts -- that most commonly plague you. We have already sought out the matriarch and patriarch of the Fenton family as our research painted them as your town’s best hunters and they spoke well of you. As such, we wished to see if you would have any information that might assist us.”
Valerie straightened up with Pride. It was nice that some people appreciated her efforts. She’d never really spoken to the Fentons in her hunting persona -- too worried they’d recognize her -- and everyone else either opposed her because of her fights with Phantom or was Masters, and Masters was one wrong move away from a face full of ecto-ray.
“They did not inform us that you use demonic relics to fight with, however.”
She flinched. She wasn’t exactly happy to be using ghost-made weapons, but she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Her suit was far and away the best of the best and let her keep up with ghosts in ways no other human could. “Well, fight fire with fire and all that.”
“I suppose.”
She frowned at the disgust in Adelaida’s voice. “It’s not that different from the ecto-weapons the Fentons have created.”
“No, but those are distasteful as well.”
“Well, what do you use?” If Adelaida was another one of those people who thought you could fight ghosts with sage and horseshoes, Valerie was taking off without another word. Where did people even get ideas like that?
“My people have access to an energy that is the polar opposite of the energy used by demons, the matter to their antimatter so to speak. It can be quite painful to ghosts and does not burden us with using such horrific devices.”
Valerie felt her annoyance with the woman’s haughtiness growing, but shoved it down in curiosity at the idea of some sort of anti-ectoplasm. “Really? How did you get your hands on something like that? Did your people develop it?”
“In a way. But that is not why I’m here. Tell me, what do you know of the demons that plague this town?”
She shrugged. “Too much to tell. There’s a ghost for every day of the year and they all show up at random. The short of it though is one ghost. Well, two, but Box Ghost is more a nuisance than a threat.”
Adelaida nodded. “The Fenton’s mentioned the box obsessed demon. I suppose the other you referenced is the one who refers to itself as Danny Phantom.”
“Yeah, him.” Valerie scowled. She still wasn’t sure how to feel about the ghost-boy. Every time she considered going back to hunting him, all she could think about was him pleading for her to let him save Dani and him holding out his hands after so she could capture him once more. She thought about the times they’d worked together and how he’d only ever betrayed her by telling her father her secret to keep her from what she knew was a suicide mission.
The woman must have misread her scowl as she said, “Yes, I understand your frustration. The Fenton’s told us much about the hero act the demon uses to gain favor in the town and we agree that its tie to this plane is likely its need for attention. Given its age, it was likely either an unwanted or neglected child or one who hoarded such attention in life, such as a prince or celebrity. It has clearly come to find that displays of kindness are its best bet to gain this attention and should the attention ever wane, it will undoubtedly return to its early acts of vandalism and violence to satisfy its obsession once more.”
Even though she nodded along, Valerie couldn’t help but disagree as she’d done before when she’d heard such things from the Fenton’s. Phantom didn’t like attention, he had run away from his phans and hidden from news copters enough for that to be obvious. Sure, he was a showboat, but he never stuck around after a fight. If Phantom had an obsession -- which Valerie didn’t buy -- it was probably fighting. Or maybe just Amity Park in general. He’d certainly claimed it as his territory, judging by the fact that a few of the ghosts that could be found skulking about often complained about how “Phantom said we could stay!” and would go cry to him if she tried to capture them.
“Is there anything else you could tell us?”
Valerie considered saying something about Masters, but she was hesitant to reveal the human-ghost hybrid. If someone discovered him, how long until they discovered Dani? She wouldn’t be the reason the girl was in danger again. “Careful with Phantom. He’s a lot more powerful than most of the ghosts we see around here and he’s got allies.”
“Allies?”
“Most don’t know it, but Phantom lets some ghosts stick around. He’ll protect them if we come after them, so I wouldn’t put it past them to return the favor if he needed it.”
“Vassals then,” Adelaida hummed. “That could be promising. The Fenton’s did not mention that. Thank you for your assistance. I will inform my people.” She gave a curtsey and turned to leave.
“Would you like some help?”
The woman looked back at her with a smile as she opened to the door to the rooftop entrance. “We have this under control, young one.”
With that, she was gone.
Valerie frowned as she took back to the air. She briefly wondered if she should reach out to Phantom about this before shoving the thought aside. Even if she wasn’t sure about hunting the ghost-boy, she wasn’t going to help him either. And the woman didn’t give her the same creeps as the G.I.W., so it was probably fine. In fact, the woman had felt warm and comforting.
Although it was admittedly kind of weird that she’d called Valerie young when Adelaida looked like she was maybe in her early twenties at best and the suit made people think Valerie was older than her actual sixteen years. Also, there’d been something off with her eyes. Valerie couldn’t place it, but they’d just felt… uncanny.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“It’s not funny,” Danny muttered, rubbing at his back and scowling at his laughing friend.
“How long until the paint wears off?” Sam chuckled.
“I don’t even know! Young-butt wouldn’t say.”
“What’s going on?” Tucker said, glancing between them as he joined them for their walk home.
“Apparently, Danny forgot to mention that he got ambushed on his way home from his weekend in Olympus,” Sam said, laughter still tinting her voice.
At Tucker’s worried look, Danny elaborated. “Youngblood decided we were going to have a water balloon fight.”
“But instead of water, he filled them with ectoplasmic paint. And now his ghost half is covered in the stuff, even if he transforms.”
“Only my face and hair. Thankfully I was wearing that ceremonial outfit Pandora gave me. I hope she doesn’t want it back before I can figure out how to get the stains out.”
“Ghost OxiClean,” Sam suggested over Tucker’s laughter.
“What color… are… you now?” Tucker asked between chortles.
“A dark purple,” Danny sighed.
Sam pat his head. “Could be worse. You could be red. We’d be forced to make Christmas jokes and then we’d be back to square one with you, Mr. Grinch.”
Danny rolled his eyes and knocked their shoulder together, only to hiss at the pain that shot up his back.
“You okay, dude?” Tucker asked, wiping away tears.
“Yeah, my back just started hurting last night. I thought I’d just pulled something in the fight, but it was even worse this morning. I took some of the pain meds Frostbite gave me, but they wore off.”
“Does your ghost form even have muscles to pull?” Tucker wondered.
“We can head to your house first so we can pick up your pills,” Sam suggested. “It really must be hurting if you actually took them instead of deciding to wait it out.”
It was. It felt like growing pains crossed with the ghost gauntlets, but worse. A throbbing ache that took his breath away with random spikes.
“Thanks.”
They were halfway to his house when Danny’s ghost sense went off and a grey-green arm shot out of an alleyway to drag him in. He braced for a fight, but relaxed slightly when he saw it was Kitty.
She looked rumpled, her hair messed up and her jacket singed with burns littering her skin.
“What’s wrong? Valerie again?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know who attacked us. I couldn’t see them, but I think they were after you. When they captured Johnny and Shadow in a net, I heard one of them say they’d gotten one of Phantom’s vassals, whatever that means.”
“A vassal is someone who is granted land by nobility in return for loyalty, respect, and wartime support,” Sam explained. “It kind of describes the deal you and the others have with Danny, in an archaic way.”
“If you ignore the fact Danny’s not nobility and substitute the loyalty stuff for you guys just not attacking people,” Tucker added.
Kitty’s nose scrunched up at the information, but otherwise ignored it. “Please, you have to help them! We weren’t even doing anything this time!”
Danny gave her an unimpressed look.
“Okay, maybe Johnny destroyed some guy’s car because he was checking me out, but can you blame him.”
“Yes,” Danny said, then sighed. “Fine, but you need to head back to the Ghost Zone as soon as I get your boyfriend out. Try to warn anyone you can on your way. Might be best for everyone to get clear until I figure out what these guys want.”
She agreed immediately and he turned to his friends.
“We’ll be right behind you,” Sam said and Tucker nodded.
“Alright, I’m going ghost!”
Kitty and Danny shot into the air, Danny holding onto Kitty since he was faster while she led him to where she’d last seen Johnny.
They found him on a side street, pinned beneath a net that glowed silver. It certainly didn’t look like anything he was used to. His parents’ tech was all green since it used pure ectoplasm straight from the ghost zone. Valerie’s was a reddish-pink thanks to Technus keeping her aesthetic the same as Vlad’s tech, which was powered by his own energy. The G.I.W.’s was blue due to the purification they did on all the ectoplasm they got their hands on.
Danny looked around as they got closer to the street, but didn’t see anyone. Knowing it was a trap, but with no other choice, they turned invisible and dropped down next to the net.
“Johnny,” Kitty whispered, kneeling next to him.
“Hey Kitten,” he groaned. He looked up at Danny and smirked. “What happened to your face?”
“Shut up.” Seeing the way the net was hurting Johnny, Danny reached out with his energy to pull it off him that way.
The net went flying. Thank you, Pandora! Telekinesis was the best!
“Thanks, kid,” Johnny huffed.
“You know, I’m the same age as you guys now,” Danny said as Kitty helped him stand and Shadow peeled off the ground, looking worse for wear.
“Sure, give or take a few decades,” Johnny snorted.
“Just get out of here befo-” Danny was cut off by a blast to the side that sent him flying. He shrieked as his back hit the asphalt.
“Kid!”
“Go!” he ordered, fighting through the pain to sit up.
Johnny looked conflicted for a moment, then summoned his bike.
As the two rode off, Danny turned to face the direction the blast had come from.
“So you are the one called Danny Phantom?” a man said as he walked out of the shadows.
Danny’s first impression was that the man didn’t look like a hunter. He was taller and thinner than Danny and probably in his late twenties. He wore a tank top and athletic shorts, but no shoes. His dark brown skin was offset by pale gold hair and silver eyes.
Glowing silver eyes.
“You’re a ghost,” Danny groaned. Great, just what he needed: Infighting.
The ghost laughed. “You date yourself, demon. If you can’t recognize me, you must be less than two hundred years.”
“Pretty sure the suit says the same thing, but go off I guess,” Danny snorted as he stood. “Wait, did you just call me a demon?”
The man raised his hand and Danny took to the air to dodge a blast of silver energy.
“What? Not even going to start in on your evil plan. What kind of villain doesn’t monologue?”
“The only evil villain here is you,” the ghost hissed as he shot blast after blast at the flying halfa. “We are here to cleanse this town of you and your demonic vassals.”
“First of all, they're not my vassals, I just don’t bother kicking them back to the Ghost Zone as long as they don’t cause trouble,” Danny said, creating a shield to absorb the blasts. “And second, what’s with all the dem-Wait, we?”
A blast hit him in the back and ANCIENTS! OW! THAT HURT! THAT VERY MUCH HURT!
He barely caught himself before he hit the ground and quickly summoned another shield, this time creating a sphere to wrap around him. He glanced back to take in his new opponent.
For half a second, he thought it was Dani. Then he realized the short, white-haired woman actually looked like she was in her mid-forties, had vivid yellow eyes, and was Asian.
He blamed the pain. The excruciating pain.
“Oh goody, two for one special, must be my lu-”
Something slammed into his shield from above just as the two’s blasts hit it and it shattered.
His back hit the pavement and he must have blacked out because the next thing he knows he’s being held aloft by an angel.
“Maybe next time you fall from heaven, get better aim,” he whimpered.
The black-haired, blue-eyed, winged ghost gave him an unimpressed look and opened her mouth, but was cut off by Goldilocks.
“Adelaida, humans.”
His captor glanced to the side and her raven-like wings turned invisible.
Danny turned to look as well and saw Sam and Tucker running up, looking nervous.
“Divya, take care of them.”
Oh hell no!
“Phantom!” Valerie snarled, flying in to hover over his friends.
Good, she’d protect them.
“Have you really moved on to attacking unarmed civilians?”
Or not.
“Unar-They’re ghosts!”
Valerie looked at her wrist. “My tracker says otherwise.”
“Your tracker doesn’t pick me up half the time!”
“You think they’re overshadowed?” Sam asked.
“They’re glowing!” Danny huffed, gesturing towards Adelaida.
“I don’t see it,” Tucker said.
“It’s alright,” the Asian woman — Divya supposedly — said, walking towards his friends.
To his surprise, all three humans started to relax.
“No.” The halfa scowled. “No. No, we are not having another mayor incident.” He raised his hand and fired.
Adelaida shrieked as he hit her wing and they flickered into visibility.
He kicked her away then fired at Goldilocks and Divya, revealing their pale gold and white wings respectively. “See, ghosts! Now get those two out of here.”
Valerie hesitated, then swooped down to grab Sam and Tucker.
“What? Hey!”
“Put me down!”
Danny turned to the ghosts to see them regrouping.
Adelaida looked furious as she stepped forward. “I am ending this.”
“Adelaida,” Goldilocks warned.
“The humans already know of us, Buhle. It is time to put the demon down.”
He nodded and stepped behind her, Divya following his lead.
Adelaida braced herself with her wings and feet and took a deep breath.
Danny only just had enough time to realize what was about to happen and throw up a shield before her ghostly wail hit. Hers looked much like his own, though neon blue instead of his own toxic green. It also didn’t seem as powerful as his considering he was still standing, even if cracks were quickly forming on his shield. He wasn’t sure if it was a power thing or just that she was holding back.
He hoped it was a power thing as he braced his feet. He let the shield fall just as his own wail rang out.
Green sonic waves clashed with blue, pressing back and forth against each other with the green slowly gaining ground. Then the blue faltered, a bit of shock lacing her voice, and the green waves steamrolled through.
Adelaida, Buhle, and Divya went flying and Danny cut off the wail. He fell to his hands and knees, using every bit of his willpower to hold onto his ghost form.
“Phantom!” Sam shouted.
“Well, that’s one way to remove ghost paint,” Tucker chuckled nervously.
Danny gave a panting laugh, spotting his once more white hair falling into his face.
He tried to look up at the ghosts, but he was exhausted and his back was hurting more than ever before as the adrenalin ran out. He was a sitting duck, just barely holding onto his ghost form.
Wonderful.
He felt something come near and Sam shouted, “Get away from him!”
A hand settled gently on his back and… Oh. Oh! Oh, that felt good. He looked up and was surprised to see Divya standing over him, her eyes glowing the same color as his own.
“So young,” she cooed.
“Impossible!” Adelaida gasped.
Danny turned to see Buhle supporting her, both staring at him with shock.
“None have been born in three hundred years,” the silver-eyed ghost said. “He does not even have his wings.”
“They’re growing in now,” Divya replied. “That is probably our fault. We invaded his territory.”
“He can not be,” Adelaida said, shaking her head. “He works with demons, allows them to harm humans.”
“I don’t let anyone hurt anyone,” Danny huffed. “The others are only allowed to stay if they behave themselves.”
“Demons are selfish creatures. They can not be trusted,” Divya said softly.
“Says you,” Danny huffed. “Johnny and Kitty are fine as long as they’re not fighting since only the tourists are stupid enough to flirt with one of them by this point. Ember likes playing open mic night, Youngblood just wants a playmate, the Casper High shades just like to get egg creams at the old-school diner, and Boxy is harmless usually. Seriously, you guys are ghosts, what’s with the delusional ghost hunter rhetoric?”
“Excuse me,” Valerie growled.
“It’s okay, I know you’ve got your reasons. I still love you,” he said cheekily, winking at her.
She and Sam pretended to gag.
“We are not demons.”
Danny turned to Buhle with a snort. “You glow and have wings.”
“Precisely,” he huffed, stretching out his wings.
“Humans don’t have wings.”
“We are not humans, but we are not demons.”
Divya rubbed the hand on his back up and down. “We are like you, hun.”
“I’m a ghost.” Half-ghost, but details.
Unless…
She shook her head. “Poor thing, so lost and confused.”
“Okay, time to go back to the fighting,” he groaned, but didn’t try to get up. Whatever she was doing to his back was worth the baby talk.
“We are not demons, ” Adelaida spat. “We are angels.”
Danny stared at her blankly. “And I’m an atheist.”
“We are the souls of those who have passed who remain tied to this world by selfless reasons,” Buhle said in a calm voice. “We are the equal and opposites of those who reside in the darker realm, who linger due to selfish desires. We work to protect life from such creatures and bring joy to the humans of this plane.”
“So… a good ghost.”
“There is no such thing as a good demon!” Adelaida snapped. “Are you always this frustrating?”
“Yeah.”
“Absolutely.”
“Constantly.”
“It’s a gift.”
She turned to Buhle. “He can not possibly be an angel.”
“I told you, I’m an atheist. Pretty sure Tu-my friend told me that’s a big no-no in heaven. Speaking of…” Danny turned to Sam. “S-Goth human, aren’t real angels supposed to be eldritch abominations? Six wings and seven heads or something? Constantly on fire? I swear someone once told me that.”
“That-that’s not entirely accurate,” Sam chuckled as Tucker laughed. “But you’ve got the right idea. They’re actually pretty terrifying. That’s why people tend to freak out when they see them in the stories. It’s awesome.”
“Cool.” He turned back to the two angel ghosts to see Adelaida pinching the bridge of her nose and Buhle looking very done. “So where’s the rest of your wings and heads.”
Divya laughed and patted his head. “You young ones are always so entertaining.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
This is based on an old story of mine. And by old, I mean really old. I don't think I was even on this site when I wrote it since I can’t find it on my blog. I started getting into some new Danny Phantom stuff and felt compelled to write something along the same lines. This is just a one-shot so I doubt I'll write more for this, but I've got a bunch of ideas for this world so I needed to get some of it out.
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summerssixecho · 4 years
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Cool Kids [Part 1 of 2]
August 2021 Update: Hi, everyone! I’ve decided to continue this story, so now it’s a two-shot :)
So, after the suggestion of AgentIanLegend, this first part was also edited to have a better flow while fixing a few mistakes in the process.
HUGE thanks to the amazing @agentianlegend for all the wonderful help as a beta for these two installments! I seriously have no words to express my gratitude 💚
Summary: Star notices something freaky about Fenton and now she's hyperconscious of the strange phenomenon. Feeling at her wits' end, she decides to raise some awareness on the situation. Starting with her friends. 
Originally for DannyMay 2020 - Week 2: Cold
Word count: 6K
Also available on FFN (Link) and AO3 (Link)
Cool Kids - Part 1
When extraordinary things happen every day, it's hard to pay attention to the little details. Amity Park's citizens seemed to pick up on the bizarre aspects of mundane situations only when they smacked them in the face; otherwise, those little things went at most into the subconscious file for the "ordinarily strange.”
The kids at Carper High were a prime example of the obliviousness surrounding the haunted town. They had almost gotten used to it, even when they didn't know what that 'it' was. But with so many attacks happening at the public school, it was only a matter of time before someone began noticing patterns all around.
And Star was all about patterns as she tried to pay extra attention to the who, what, when, and where to have something new to gossip about.
Being a cheerleader and Paulina's best friend had become her first credentials whenever her name came up, but many were forgetting the socialite’s life before joining the A-listers. For starters, she wasn't as dense as everyone thought. She had been a leader of the chess club at one point in her childhood, and she also loved reading in her reduced spare time, science fiction being relegated to a guilty pleasure once she became Paulina’s “bestie.” Said affectionate term was very fragile and didn’t hold whenever a popular kid struggled in terms of wealth, influence, or popularity. Star had learned that from close experience, after being able to join their ranks once Valerie had hit rock bottom financially. It was funny how the two girls found a more sincere friendship out of Paulina’s sight.
Of course, the pressure of being relevant to the elite meant she had to keep her moves calculated enough to avoid falling from grace, lest the previous mockery and name-calling return in full force against her. That's how she started keeping tabs on everything that happened around her, mostly everyday observations that could be turned into gossip fodder or teasing material. She often loved scribbling them in the back of her notebook, pointing out her findings with small phrases.
As Mrs. Neil droned on with that day's lesson, dishing out formulas and terminology with which the ‘satellite’ was already familiar, Star allowed herself to be distracted by her scribbles. She indulged at times in writing things about the cool kids as well, realizing blackmail could be the third purpose for her newfound hobby. ‘Pauly has a new pair of shoes,’ one note read. ‘Her feet look tiny in them…maybe they didn’t have her size?’
‘Ashley skipped lunch again. Someone’s trying to get into her homecoming dress.’
'Dash makes tons of Phantom doodles. Hero worship or secret crush?’
She went on listing the simple things around her, even from the loser trio at the bottom of the social ladder. Her notes included musings about Manson's fidgeting (no doubt caused by Fenton's absence in the middle of the school day), or Foley’s focus on his PDA (‘who knew he got bored during math class?’). But when the door slammed open, she noticed a significant change right away.
"Oh, sorry, Mrs. Neil," one slightly disheveled Danny Fenton said, cringing as he met the teacher's glare. "I...got chased by a ghost in the hall?"
The excuse gained snickers from several classmates. "Knowing you, it was probably a flying bed sheet," Dash exclaimed, followed by a high-five with Kwan.
In all honesty, Star was too distracted to even consider celebrating their antics. For some reason, the kid who had just missed half of the class brought with him a chilling sensation into the room. It was very hard to miss. She followed Fenton with her gaze once the teacher sent him to his desk (detention included) and realized the chill moved with him to the back of the classroom.
Maybe sitting against the wall at the very front was the only reason why she noticed the change, if their classmates’ obliviousness was any indication.
Interest piqued, the cheerleader decided to write it down: 'Freaky Fenton strikes again. Might as well be Jack Frost...’
Not that she could picture the freak like one of her favorite characters from Rise of the Guardians: white hair and frosty glare. He wasn't cool enough for that.
Now that she was aware of the coldness following the odd boy, Star couldn’t stop noticing the ever-present chill. Whenever Fenton was around, it suddenly felt like someone had turned on the AC. It happened no matter how crowded or warm the room was. She once caught Mikey shuddering when the two nerdy boys accidentally bumped shoulders in the hall, but the redhead acted as if it didn’t register in his consciousness. She knew the town was blind sometimes, but this was starting to get on her nerves.
It was Thursday; the English classroom began to fill with students, not even one of them missing the bell for the first time that week. Star had mentally prepared herself for the iciness that followed Fenton as he finally walked through the door. She wondered how long this had been going on unnoticed, and most importantly what was the cause behind it, when a terrifying idea struck her: What if this involved something... supernatural? What if there were ghosts following him everywhere? Could he be even possessed by one? His supposed fear of paranormal entities hadn't made any sense unless there was a strong reason for that. Like maybe being constantly haunted...
Not caring about Mr. Lancer's current lecture on The Odyssey, the girl began writing a list on a new page, full of her recent theories and observations. The teacher would probably think she was dutifully taking notes. Not that she needed to; Greek gods and their adventures were another guilty pleasure of hers, though she always preferred a good mystery. And she loved being one step ahead of things.
If a ghost were truly involved, maybe she would have to raise more awareness of the situation. But how? She had failed so far getting her friends to notice the bizarre temperature changes, often receiving offhanded replies to get a sweater. Or worse…a superficial comment on how climate change was so “uncool,” just to jump on the bandwagon of what their favorite celebrities thought was relevant.
So, how could she get them to notice? And how could she make sure there wasn’t a creepy spook floating invisibly in the classroom right now? The mere idea gave her the creeps.
Then, like some kind of epiphany, she figured out the obvious solution to the second question. Valerie Gray hated ghosts with an unrivaled passion, which meant she was probably paying close attention to them. Would she know how to detect possessed people?
Star couldn't wait to ask Val about it once her shift was over, which was when they usually had a chance to call each other to stay up to date. Now, she had to think of a way to make someone else notice the temperature thing, if only to not feel like she was going crazy.
As the blonde continued her notes, she idly listened to Mr. Lancer's analysis of Odysseus, the hero everyone thought was dead...
---------------------------
Being part of the A-list meant usually hanging out as a group to maintain membership benefits. It was stupid and part of the reason why Star would rarely have time for other kinds of activities. Between school, homework, cheerleading, her chores at home, and keeping up with the popular group, she felt rather swamped. So, listening to her friends chat about their plans for the weekend wasn’t as exciting as it would seem for aspiring A-listers, much less while they were gathered somewhere as mainstream as the Nasty Burger.
After a few minutes of dully listening to every detail about Paulina’s upcoming trip to New York, which she had already heard twice that day, Star felt the unusual chill she had discovered earlier that week. Sure enough, she spotted in her peripheral vision a familiar trio passing by to sit two booths away from them. She wondered if anyone else had perceived it.
Unless…
The blonde made a show of hugging her arms and shivering, making sure the setup was not loud enough to get the losers’ attention. “Brrr, did you guys notice that?”
While the two other boys in the booth stared quizzically, she could feel the Latina glaring daggers at her.
“Notice what?” Kwan was the first to speak, his voice almost concerned.
"Sorry, Pauly,” Star began with her most sugar-coated voice before the Queen Bee of Casper High felt the need to replace her for such audacity. “I didn’t want to interrupt, but I'm just so freaked out...”
Paulina’s menacing glare was immediately replaced with a look of stirred curiosity. “Freaked out? What about?”
Star cautiously glanced to make sure the trio of losers wasn’t paying attention to them (they weren’t) then leaned closer to the center of the table, prompting the others to do the same as it usually indicated some incoming juicy gossip. “Whenever Fenton enters a room, the temperature takes a nosedive,” she said in a low voice, getting no initial reaction from her companions. When no one spoke, she continued, “It’s super freaky. Really hard to miss once you pay attention to it. It’s like there’s some weird ghostly stuff going on.”
Dash snorted. “Oh, man, are we seriously going to use our valuable time to talk about that freak?” He released a hearty laugh, wiping away a tear. The amusement died down once he realized the others were mulling over the girl’s words. “Oh, c'mon,” the quarterback whined in annoyance and crossed his arms over his chest.
If anything, Kwan and Paulina had become pensive after Star’s words. This rattled the blonde girl. “What? Did you notice that too?” she asked, her eyes wide at the sudden revelation.
The Latina licked her lips and stared at her fingernails. “He has a ghost sense,” she finally replied, as if the words had some heavy meaning they should have already known. Her teal eyes glanced up to gauge their reactions. At the lack of recognition, Paulina sighed. “Remember when we had that ghost disease or whatever?” Three heads nodded back. “And remember I had that awful blue breath? The ghost boy told me more about it. Because it’s one of his powers, right? So, he said it helps sense when a ghost is close to you. And then one day I saw Danny had the exact same thing.”
Star crumpled her nose. “What? When did that happen?” Why didn’t you say anything? was the real question she wanted to ask, but no way would Paulina tolerate being questioned like that.
Paulina steepled her fingers in front of her, something she mostly did when she was nervous to stop herself from damaging her manicure, her cheerleading teammate mentally noted. “It was, like, two weeks ago at the mall. I was waiting behind Danny at the smoothie stand. I was going to convince him to let me go first, but then...it happened. He let out that misty air, ran away with some excuse, and then a ghost showed up.”
“Wait, hold on," the self-proclaimed king of Casper High interjected in a louder tone than necessary.
“Dash,” Star scolded, turning just enough to see if Fenton was listening to them, only to find him laughing with his friends and oblivious to the huddle. “Not so loud,” she hissed anyway.
The quarterback rolled his eyes and lowered his voice. “So, you’re saying he can sense ghosts? Puny, scared-shitless Fen-toenail can detect when there's something spooky going on?” He couldn’t hold his bubbling laughter any longer. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it’s just...” he noticed Star’s shushing gesture and he lowered his voice again, “that has to be the lamest use of a cool power. Figures he would find a way to sense when to run away, crying like a baby.”
“Actually,” Kwan started, his reflective state untouched by his best friend’s guffawing. “I’ve been thinking about it, too. Like, a lot.”
“Oh, no, not you, too,” Dash whined again, taking his hands to his hair in frustration.
Kwan frowned at the gesture but didn’t feel deterred by it. “So, like, remember when ‘Lina told us how Phantom always shows up when Fenton’s around?”
“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Paulina said as she rolled her eyes. “I even invited him and his two friends to my quinceañera, and they all stood me up!”
Star tried not to snort at the vivid memory. When Paulina had shared the party plans involving Fenton, they had all teased her for still not being over her ex. Sure, she always denied it. But no matter how much the head of the cheerleading squad pretended the brief relationship with the loser didn't happen, there would always be evidence for future blackmail.
Dash huffed. “Yeah, I didn’t believe it then, and I won’t believe that now.”
The Asian jock, patient as he was, only shrugged. “I did. And I started paying more attention. It’s just... think about it, man. Why would the son of ghost hunters run away from a ghost attack? Remember that time with the pirate ship? He taught us how to use all those weapons. And he fought those skeleton pirates with you guys.”
Now that she thought about it, Star couldn’t believe how it all fit together into the same strange picture, but it still felt like they were missing important pieces of information. Why or how did this happen? When did it start? Was there any real connection to Phantom? She thought he could be possessed or haunted. But what if it were worse than that? No... She didn’t dare finish that train of thought.
The only thing Star could be certain of was the terrifying realization that they had been messing with the wrong kid the whole time. Dash would be too stupid if he didn’t back off after this.
To his defense, the otherwise arrogant bully shifted uncomfortably in his seat as his bravado began to falter. “So? He later ditched us that one time. I see him running away, screaming and panicking all the time. It’s not something we made up to have even more reasons to wail on him.”
Paulina gave an exasperated sigh. “Soooo, it means he doesn’t run away from ghosts. He runs to get help from my ghost boy. Get it?”
Star felt there was more than that, and a part of her felt like running away from the boy in question, a newfound eeriness settling in the bottom of her stomach. She still couldn’t believe they were even having this conversation. It felt like they were uncovering something big. Big for what? Status? Blackmail? Making him join the A-listers again? She wouldn’t mind voting Dash out this time, however impossible it was.
“Guys, I think you’re missing the point,” the blonde began once an uncomfortable silence had settled. “If the temperature is dropping before a ghost shows up or his spooky sense acts up, I think there’s more to the story. What if he’s possessed or being followed around by a ghost?” Or...what if he were—
Nope. Not going there.
Paulina’s eyes widened with a hopeful glint. “My ghost boy? You mean...he’s right here?” The sparkle in her eyes only shone brighter as an idea struck her. “Wait, wait, wait... is that why he told me to wrap my mind around the idea of Paulina Fenton? Was that...a clue?”
The quarterback, not immediately dismissing their comments for once, frowned. “But that doesn’t make any sense. If anything, he would be hanging out with the cool kids, not some loser with lame ghost hunters as parents. That’s, like, suicide."
"But...what if he doesn't like the spotlight? I mean, what would be the least likely place you would go looking for him?" Star pointed out with more confidence.
Kwan's eyes widened, and he looked like his mind had just been blown. "You know what... It totally makes sense... That’s why he’s not so afraid of you, dude."
“Shut up,” Dash mumbled.
“No, no,” Star said. “What do you mean with ‘he’s not so afraid’?”
“Fenton doesn’t run, shrink, or even flinch when Dash is wailing on him. He just looks...tired when it happens. Dash thinks it’s because he’s losing his touch, but-”
Dash dropped his fist loudly on the table, interrupting the boy with the sudden clatter and the murderous look in his eyes. “I said shut up, Kwan!”
The outburst made everyone at the fast-food restaurant stop mid-conversation and turn to stare at the A-listers, some of the employees even doing so with disapproval. The group then saw the surprised and wide blue eyes of one Danny Fenton from his own table.
Fenton’s personal bully noticed, clenching his teeth and fists as he stared the boy down. “What the hell are you staring at, freak?” Dash barked loudly.
The teen in question lowered his eyebrows into an icy glare. Star could have sworn the temperature dropped again slightly, something both Kwan and Paulina reacted to as well, now that they were paying more attention to the eerie sensation.
Dash seemed taken aback for a moment, but instead of backing down, he matched the boy’s glare and stomped to his table.
The way Kwan described Fenton’s reactions to Dash didn’t even begin to cover the whole experience. True, the other boy didn’t cower in fear, despite the size and weight differences. But upon further inspection, he seemed to almost enjoy getting a rise out of the jock. Like it wasn't that big of a deal.
Now that Star thought about it, Fenton had been so strange since they started high school. Always missing assignments and classes, breaking material, starting food fights...like some poster boy for teenage delinquency. He was a desperate call for help.
But was that his goal? To get people to notice him?
It wouldn't be too much of a stretch if the Phantom theory turned out to be right. Who would want to be the constant target of ghost attacks and tiptoe around their parents, when they could just live like a regular kid? Maybe that was why Fenton didn’t mind getting in trouble, if it meant forcing Phantom to find a more overlooked civilian to shadow.
Great. Now she was psychoanalyzing Fenton, of all people.
Back to the confrontation, once Dash stood in front of the smaller boy, he grabbed his shirt, holding him up close to his face. “You wanna say something, Fenturd?”
The spooky kid gave Dash an innocent look. ”Nope. Seems to me Kwan already said enough for you to shoot him down like that.”
Before the jock’s growl could transform into the punch it threatened to become, a familiar face and voice intervened.
Valerie Gray, whose shift was still ongoing at the burger joint, appeared so fast next to the two boys it almost felt like watching a ninja. “Baxter,��� she began in a warning tone, her emerald eyes screaming murder. “You know we have a zero-tolerance policy on bullying, so you better start making peace with Danny before I personally kick you out.”
Fenton used the distraction of the public scolding to try to pry his shirt out of Dash’s hands. Something in that action startled the jock into dropping the fabric, but he was quick to school his features into his usual menacing scowl. Star knew better, though; she saw the bully’s subdued twitching.
“It’s ok, Val,” Fenton replied, sounding even friendly despite the circumstances. “Dash was just heading back to his table, right? We’re cool here.”
The two boys held a silent glaring contest, with only one of them genuinely seething. When the blond’s wavering frustration fully disappeared, he huffed before retreating towards his booth. “Whatever,” he muttered.
As the restaurant atmosphere returned to normal, Fenton and Val continued talking for a couple of more seconds, both blushing awkwardly when they waved their farewells. As Valerie returned to her place at the register, her eyes met Star’s knowing look and promptly darted away.
Oh, yeah, she would never let Val live that down, not after she declared so many times how she had “moved on.”
That inspired Star with another idea. Maybe she could try asking Val if she had noticed anything strange about Fenton during their time together. The cheerleader had to be careful, though. Val really hated Phantom, so the blonde couldn't just dump all the unconfirmed theories they had about her ex.
Star wasn’t that mean.
Her thoughts were once again put on pause when Dash slumped in the seat in front of her, his face paler than usual. He avoided his friends’ concerned looks; apparently, his milkshake was much more interesting.
Paulina was the first to break the silence. “What the hell were you thinking?” she scolded in a hushed tone. The Latina noticed a few curious onlookers staring at their table, so her scowl immediately switched into a dazzling smile to throw them off.
Dash wasn’t very eloquent, and he never admitted being wrong. So, they had to give him credit after all the guts it took for him to fumble with his next words. “I... I... I believe you, okay?”
Paulina’s eyebrows rose to match her piqued interest. “What happened? Was my ghost boy there?”
Star wanted to roll her eyes but instead focused her sight on the other blond in the group. The jock dared to look up, briefly glanced at Fenton’s table, then turned to his companions with nervously shifting eyes. “Could we, uh... bail or something?”
Dash never allowed himself to be vulnerable. That was a huge no-no in the Baxter household. Even getting him to share his real interests was like pulling teeth. This led to the unhealthy habit of bottling up his feelings and bullying others as an outlet. So when Star noticed how scared Dash Baxter looked in front of them, she knew something big was up. “You totally noticed something.”
Without waiting for a response to his previous plea, the boy stood up and headed outside, trying to keep his haunted expression hidden. His three companions shared looks and shortly followed suit, with Kwan taking only a moment to go back to leave a tip next to their forgotten meals.
Once the four of them were out of the restaurant, they followed Dash to the parking lot, where they had left his car. He took out his keys as they walked, but his trembling fingers couldn’t find the right one. Star was sure he had one of those keyless cars but decided not to say anything. The jock didn’t need any additional pressure.
Once they reached the vehicle, Dash kicked one of the tires and began to hyperventilate. “I am so dead. So fucking dead.”
“Dude,” Kwan said in a soothing voice, but still keeping a fair distance. “Calm down. C’mon, breathe.”
Star regarded him with hesitation. “What happened?”
Dash turned to look her in the eye for the first time. Then he turned to Kwan, as if he could find better moral support from his teammate. Not that she blamed him; the popular clique didn't have the best reputation when it came to taking care of each other.
“He... He touched my hand,” the blue-eyed jock spluttered, his voice just as haunted as he looked. A shiver ran visibly up his spine. “He was so freaking cold. I’ve felt it before, alright? I already knew he was like that. All those times wailing on him? I totally noticed, okay? But I... I never understood what it meant. And today I felt it again...and it felt like touching a ghost.”
His friends only gaped, unsure of what to say. Even Kwan, calm and collected as he had been trying to be from the very start, looked stumped by the sudden revelation. “You knew something was off? And you didn’t stop?!”
The blond, instead of replying, apparently remembered he didn't really need a key and slid into the driver’s seat as soon as he opened the door. He looked like a cornered animal, a sight no one would believe unless they had been there to witness it. Paulina was the first to open the door opposite to the driver, with the two remaining friends getting into the back seat soon after.
Dash continued dodging Kwan’s question and stared blankly at the steering wheel. “I can't get his smile out of my head,” he said after a moment of silence. “He’s been taunting me. He knows there’s a ghost somewhere close that can beat me into a pulp. It’s like he’s waiting for me to really mess up to get back at me. I am sooo dead...”
Star was startled by his words. Sure, they had all heard the worst-case scenarios when it came to bullying. From going too far and breaking the kids on the receiving end, to becoming the prime targets of some gruesome retaliation.
But...Fenton didn’t seem like that kind of guy.
“Ok, dude, you need to calm down,” Kwan tried to soothe Dash again. “We talked about this, remember? Fenton’s not planning his revenge. He’s... Ok, maybe he’s hard to read, but he’s not gonna kill you, dude. But you definitely need to stop messing with him.”
Paulina rolled her eyes. “Oh, wow, so reassuring,” she muttered. “Dash, honey... if my ghost boy's with Danny, he won't let anything hurt you, okay? Didn’t you say you had that cool team up with him when that shrink ray zapped you?”
Star almost groaned at the memory. Dash wouldn’t shut up about it for a whole week or two. But it seemed Paulina's reminder worked like a charm: the quarterback gave her a sheepish smile in return.
“Yeah, we were awesome. But... he didn’t like my idea of sticking Fenton’s face in the toilet.” He sighed and facepalmed. “It makes a whole lotta sense now.”
“See?” Paulina continued. “If he really wanted to, he could’ve vaporized you or whatever at any time.” At this, the boy paled even more. “But he hasn’t, silly! He’s a hero, get it? No matter what Fenton tells him to do or not to do, he’s gonna save people. Not the opposite.”
Star saw this as her cue to ease the jock's mounting paranoia. “Pauly’s right,” she said, gaining some brownie points with her bestie at the same time. “Plus, didn’t Fenton once apologize for pulling pranks on you? What kind of revenge-seeking nerd would do that?”
The words struck a chord in Dash, his face now contorted in utter confusion. “Hey, wait a minute... he’s totally been using ghostly help! Sometimes he just disappears or gets out of his locker way too easily. And those pranks! There’s no way he pulled them off on his own.”
Kwan cocked his head to the side. “Uh, wouldn’t that make him even, at least?”
Dash considered this for a moment, still a long way from being entirely comfortable. “Maybe...”
Now that a panic attack was no longer an immediate issue, the four friends sat in a contemplative kind of silence. Star was trying to reconcile her memories with what she had learned so far, so she figured the others were doing the same. In that sense, she felt a bit like an outsider since she hadn’t had close interaction with Fenton as Dash or Paulina.
Regardless, Star owed it to Valerie to watch her back and find out if something eerie had happened while they were dating. If Val had noticed anything, would that be why she really broke up with him?
Kwan cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. “So, uh... what now?”
That turned out to be the million-dollar question as they all took the following hours to debate the changes this new information would require.
--------------------
The next day started like any other Friday. Kids eager to start their weekend plans chattered in the halls of Casper High before the first bell. Friends met up as they grabbed books or exchanged last-minute adjustments to their homework, while the teachers chugged down as much coffee as possible to stay sane for the rest of the day.
Nothing seemed amiss so far, Star noted as she walked towards her locker. Her barely suppressed yawn reflected the previous night’s bursts of anxiety and insomnia. The girl was thankful for the advanced lessons in makeup she got from Paulina, which allowed her to successfully conceal the dark circles under her eyes. Small blessings... All in all, Star felt tired and a bit lost after realizing she had so many missing details from yesterday’s discovery. For all they knew, Fenton could just be using some of his parents’ inventions to make any of his weirdness possible, but the popular kids couldn’t take that kind of chance. She tried to write it all down anyway, just before going to bed, using code words in her newest entries in case her notebook reached the wrong hands. She would still be on the lookout for new clues but wasn’t sure how much more she was going to keep digging.
Star’s overloaded mind fought hard to remember what books she needed to pull out for this period, as her thoughts drifted between keeping an eye on the arrival of the other A-listers and trying to remember which locker belonged to Fenton. She almost jumped out of her skin when someone suddenly dropped their backpack on the floor next to her. Her jumpiness didn’t go unnoticed by the newcomer.
“Hey, Star,” Valerie Gray began slowly, frowning at the girl’s reaction to her sudden arrival. “Is everything ok?” she asked, not taking her concerned look off the cheerleader as she turned the dial on her neighboring locker.
The blonde tried to recover with a smile plastered on her face, but deep down she knew her friend would see right through it. “Hey, Val! Yeah, just tired. You?” she managed to ask.
Valerie eyed her even more critically now, which guaranteed she knew something was up. “Same. Sorry I didn’t call you last night. I had to work overtime, again.”
Star relaxed and appreciated not having to think of a starting topic. With everything she wanted to ask, she didn’t know where to begin or how to break the ice without sounding crazy. “Don’t worry about it,” she casually responded. “I had a busy afternoon, too.”
Before Val could ask about the previous day, the two girls noticed the arrival of the star quarterback in the overcrowded halls. While Dash’s general demeanor didn’t seem out of the ordinary, the determined look on his face revealed a man on a mission, apparently focused on just passing the invisible hurdles in front of his path to reach his locker, not even paying attention to the nerds retreating at the sight of their bully.
“Oh-kaaaay, that wasn’t out of character at all,” Val commented once the jock reached his destination.
If Star hadn’t participated or known anything about the agreements with the other A-listers the day before, this would have surely qualified as a comment in her notebook musings. As if to confirm the reason behind the boy’s strange behavior, a now-familiar chill seeped into the room as Fenton entered the hall, heading with his loser friends towards the line of lockers opposite to Dash. Val tensed, probably expecting some form of retaliation from the day before. On any other morning, the bully would have already insulted the smaller kid at the very least if not attacked him using the physical violence favored by the rather large bully.
But, today was a different story.
Dash Baxter simply took out what he needed from the metal case in front of him, met up with Kwan, and headed to their first class. All this while they ignored Fenton completely, even as they walked in front of the inseparable group of losers. Of course, no one would pay close attention to the stiffness in both jocks’ backs.
Following lots of discussion, Dash had agreed to obey his instincts and stop messing with the spooky kid, whatever his connections to ghosts were. His friends even convinced him to look for other healthier stress outlets and extend the amnesty to the rest of the nerds. After all, if Phantom was really hiding among them, he might not like others being wailed on either. The resulting strategy was very simple: ignore the other kids and focus on the little tasks he needed to do.
The change didn’t go unnoticed by the students gathered in the hall, some of which were left gawking at the scene. None of them, however, were more surprised than dumbstruck Danny Fenton himself, who then turned with a smile to talk with his friends. Maybe thanking his good luck, if Star had to guess.
Valerie gaped at the quiet turn of events and then faced Star questioningly. “What was that all about? I thought for sure he would get back at Danny!”
The blonde cheerleader sighed and tried to recall the cover story the A-listers had agreed on. “We talked after the whole incident,” all true so far. “And we realized maybe we had some growing up to do, you know?” A bit of a stretch there, but it would work. “Start playing nice. Or at least nicer.”
The dark-skinned girl snorted. “Yeah, right,” she said in an amused tone. “As if Paulina could ever play nice.”
Star shrugged. “What can I say? Just because we’re at the top of the social food chain, it doesn't mean we have to be, like, outright mean to people, right?”
Now that wasn't that much of a stretch. If they ever wanted to be anywhere close to Phantom or even just to his current messenger, all of them would have to make more than a few changes. Besides, they couldn't just start being lenient or nice to Danny Fenton and his friends without getting odd looks from everyone, especially from the spooky teen. So, they had to follow Dash's example and extend the same courtesy to everyone else. After all, they would still have their wealth, talent, and looks to retain their coveted popularity.
Before her friend could say anything else, Paulina called Star excitedly from across the hall, making no attempt to slow down in her walk towards the two girls. Val was about to save the blonde from giving any explanations by just retreating into the bathroom when the Latina greeted her by name as well. “Oh, Val, hey! Nice bracelet. Is it new?” she spoke quickly, which Star thought was due to a higher dose of caffeine than usual that morning.
The school’s Queen Bee didn't even give Val a chance to respond as she switched topics. "So, how do I look?" Paulina asked, turning around to show off her current outfit.
The Latina's quick succession of questions to both girls about her makeup, some accessories she just bought, and the change in hairstyle was hard to follow. Once she received their compliments (however reluctant in Val's case), Paulina excused herself and left to show off her looks elsewhere. Star knew this wasn’t part of the explicit plans they all agreed on last night, but nothing impeded Paulina from looking her absolute best for her ghostly crush, in case he really was around.
Star shook her head and picked the books she was looking for, hoping she didn’t forget anything in her half-awake state. As the small metal door closed, she settled her full attention back onto the girl standing next to her. “Uh, Val?”
Valerie’s face went through a whole journey as she seemed to process everything that had just happened. Star belatedly realized if there was someone who could call them out for their change of heart, it would be the former A-lister who knew the group well enough. A look of suspicion (and was that murderous anger?) colored Val’s features. “No way. They have to be possessed,” she finally declared.
Star exhaled, unsure if it was a sigh of exhaustion, defeat, or relief. “Val, I have soooo many questions about that...like you wouldn’t believe!”
[Link to Part 2]
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Text
Shielded Away (pt 1)
““Jeez Fenton, what the heck are you doing?”
Danny stopped. “Just practicing for mime school, you know...just in case the whole astronaut thing doesn’t work out.”
Wes squinted. “Wait a minute...the news said they placed your parents’ newest ghost shield around all of Amity…”
Danny groaned, for what felt like the hundredth time today. “Are you kidding me?” He prodded at the shield, only to get stung again.
At that, Wes began to chuckle, which turned into an actual laugh, eventually becoming full-blown cackling.
Danny scowled. Not calming down in the slightest, Wes continued to cackle as he walked off into the distance.”
Or, my take on this prompt posted by @danphanwritingprompts
Word Count: 5,183
Read on AO3 or under the cut
Danny glanced at himself in the mirror in the washroom. The dark circles under his eyes seemed to have doubled in size since he last saw them. Not that he cared. He was too exhausted to care. It wasn’t even lunchtime yet, but he’s already fought seven ghosts today. A thin cool mist expelled from his lips. And here comes the eighth.
Outside in the halls, a familiar voice boomed, “BEWARE, I AM THE BOX GHOST!” Danny watched himself as his eyes became a vibrant green on instinct. Transforming once again, he flew out the washroom, sighting the box-loving spirit throwing cardboard boxes at students. He zoomed towards him, grabbing his ankle, forced them both intangible, and dragged him down to the school’s basement.
“Hey! Can’t you see I was in the middle of something?” the Box Ghost whined.
“Yeah? Attempting to traumatize people once again with boxes? How many times do I gotta tell you it’s really not scary?”
“IS TOO!” The Box Ghost angrily hurled a dusty box at Danny, who then fired an ectoblast at it to defend himself.
“You know, I could think of a hundr—oof!” Somehow Danny didn’t notice every single storage box in the basement hovering right above his head, before it was too late. Man, he really needs sleep.
He faintly heard the ghost laughing above him. Of all the places in the school, he had to lead the Box Ghost here. He’s gotta remember to use the roof next time. But this time, he knows he’d hidden a Fenton thermos somewhere around here…
In an instant, he turned intangible and phased through all the boxes he was buried under. His eyes searched wildly around the basement. Where was it?
“LOOKING FOR THIS?” Danny’s head shot up, finally seeing the thermos. Well, crap. “LET’S SEE HOW YOU LIKE BEING STUCK IN THE CONFINES OF A CYLINDRICAL CONTAINER!” Hearing the beep of the thermos activating, Danny gasped as he was slowly sucked into it. Since when did the Box Ghost learn how to use it??
“HA HAH! HOW DOES IT FEEL NOW?” the ghost yelled into the container, painfully vibrating Danny’s condensed molecules. “Now if you will excuse me, I WILL HAVE MY CORRUGATED CARDBOARD VENGEANCE!” Next thing Danny knew, he felt a harsh CLUNK to his everything as the thermos fell to the hard floor.
Outsmarted by the Box Ghost, he really was having a bad day. Well, hopefully, Tucker and Sam will find him. Eventually. He could just imagine Sam berating him immediately after releasing him. “You should have called us first! Of all places, why would you bring the Box Ghost to the basement?” Tucker would be laughing his ass off. Honestly, he wouldn’t blame him.
~
Each minute in the thermos always felt like an eternity. His form was squished to the point where all he could really do is think. And he’s come to realize how much he actually depends on his friends. He doesn’t appreciate them enough.
Except, they should be here anytime now.
Anytime.
Any. Time.
Nothing.
Wait. There were footsteps. The next instant, he was being picked up. Finally, they found him. Come on now, press the button Tucker. What was taking him so long? A fair bit of fumbling continued until fingers found the right button and he was finally released. Danny groaned and stretched, feeling an ache from being compressed for so long.
“You’re lucky I found you Fenton.”
That. Wasn’t Tucker. Or Sam. His head shot up, seeing a red-haired pain in the ass holding a stupid grin, growing wider by the second. Wes.
“Were you stalking me again?”
“Just gathering evidence. You should be grateful, who knows how long you’d be stuck in there.”
Danny scowled. His friends would’ve eventually found him. “Fine, thanks. Now if you excuse me, I have a job to finish.” He flew up, phasing through the ceiling. Invisibly weaving through the corridors of his school, he noticed two things. One, his ghost sense seemed to be picking up nothing at all. Two, the hallways were deserted. He peeked into a random classroom, empty. Same for the one beside it. He zipped through the ceiling to the second floor, stopping in front of the English classroom he left behind. Empty. Save for his bag tucked under his chair. He really should stop doing that, the number of times he’d left class forgetting his bag was too embarrassing. Picking up his bag from the floor, he walked over to the window expecting a routine gathering for a ghost alarm. Nope, the fields were empty too. Weird. Maybe they’re at the front. He was just about to check, but something about the far off view of Amity’s city buildings struck him as odd. He pulled out his phone. Dead. Right, never got a chance to charge it last night.
“Everyone’s gone.” Wes suddenly spoke from the door, almost a tinge of fear in his voice. Funny, he’s never seen Wes scared before. This should be good.
“You sure?”
“I checked everywhere, even the teacher’s lounge.”
Huh. Danny glanced out the window again. “Parking lot’s completely empty.”
“The entire school couldn’t possibly abandon us—we were only down in the basement for an hour,”
“AN HOUR?”
“Yeah, I was busy collecting evidence.”
“Okay, first off, you need a new hobby. Second, why didn’t you let me go earlier if you were there the entire time?”
“Hey, be grateful. I was contemplating not letting you out at all.”
Wes could be such a...ugh. There were bigger things at hand. Like the disappearance of his entire school.
“Give me your phone.” Wes eyed him suspiciously. He stuffed his hand in his pocket and brought out a small device, slightly bigger than the palm of his hand. Danny approached closer. “Is that a freaking Nokia?”
“Can’t trust smartphones, government uses them to steal all your information.”
Of course. Danny grabbed the cell phone. It reminded him of a calculator. “Can you even text on this thing?”
“It’s not worth it. You can call though.”
Danny searched the deep recesses of his brain for his friends’ phone numbers. He dialed a number, half guessing the last four digits.
The dial tone rang...and rang, and rang once more…
A smooth automated female voice responded, “Hello, you’ve reached the voicemail of—” then there was a moment of silence. The automated voice picked back up, “Please leave your name and message after the tone.” BEEP.
He just hung up then. Sam never bothers checking her voicemail anyways. Dang, if only he remembered Tucker’s number.
“...should we just leave? Maybe everyone got sent home?” Wes hesitantly asked.
Something still didn’t sit quite well with Danny, but the idea of using the rest of the day to catch up on some sleep was too good to resist. He tossed Wes’ brick phone back to him and muttered, “Alright, see you around, I guess.” He didn’t waste any time in turning intangible and flying through the classroom window, heading straight for home.
On his journey back, it was oddly peaceful. Usually every time he flew in broad daylight at least one person would sight him and yell anything along the lines of “Hey, look! It’s Danny Phantom!” or “Screw you ghost boy!” He was still a very controversial figure in the town, even though the news seems to be taking his side now.
And well, Danny has given up on trying to woo those who still dislike him. No matter what he does, all they see is a ghost. Apparently it isn’t clear that his only intentions are protecting the town. It sucks that his parents are part of that special group. Their narrow-minded point of view almost killed him on several occasions (well...metaphorically, he’s already kinda dead).
Which is why he transformed back into human form as soon as he landed on his front step. The lights for the Fenton Works sign were off. Odd. His parents were adamant on keeping them on 24/7, despite constant complaints from all their neighbours. He dug for his key in his backpack and unlocked the front door. Stepping inside, he slipped off his shoes and shrugged his backpack to the floor.
“Mom? Dad?”
Nothing. He strode over to the kitchen and checked the basement entrance. Locked. They must be out. Sweet, nothing to distract him from his well-deserved nap. He grabbed a cookie from a jar and made his way upstairs. As he was halfway through that cookie, he passed by Jazz’s room. He failed to notice the absence of Bearbert Einstein from her bed.
He brushed off the crumbs off his hands and opened his bedroom door. Flopping onto his bed, Danny was just about to pass out until he remembered. He groaned and blindly reached for the end of his charger on his nightstand. Ugh where was it? Reluctantly peeking one eye open, he saw lying aimlessly on the floor. Ugh. Stretching to the point where half his body was off the bed (it would’ve been much easier if he just sat up), he finally grabbed the charger and plugged in his phone. Victory. Now, he could relax. He’ll deal with whatever happened later.
BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING
No, he swore he just closed his eyes a second ago. Just a few more minutes.
BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING
Please.
BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING
BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING
The vibrating stopped. Hallelujah. Now back to h—
BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING BRIIIIIIIIIING
The obnoxious buzzing continued once more. Several rounds later, Danny slowly blinked open his groggy eyes. He had to suppress the urge to hurl his phone at the wall when he finally grabbed it. Declining the call, he was just about to return to his slumber until he noticed his screen was full of notifications. 9 missed calls from his mom, 5 from his dad, 11 from Jazz, 17 from Sam...his stomach sunk. Danny almost dropped his phone on his face when it started ringing once more, this time his dad again. He didn’t waste a moment in answering it.
“Hello?”
“Danno where are you? Did you get to evacuate with your school? Sam and Tucker say they haven’t seen you!”
“Wha—what? Evacu—”
“Hang on your mom’s here,”
“Danny sweetie, where are you? You’re not in the Casper High group.”
“Mom what did dad mean by eva—”
“And our tracker says you’re home, but you know we can never trust it since it sometimes locks onto that menace Phanto—”
“Wait a tracker?”
“Yes honey, we need to always know where you kids are, especially at times like these. Now, which evacuation group did you leave with?”
“Uhh...I’m actually home.”
The line went silent for a few moments. Danny heard his mom’s barely contained anxiety as she spoke her next words. “That’s...how did you...that’s alright sweetie. Can yo—was anyone else left behind?”
“Yeah, uhm, Wes Weston?”
“Okay...okay. Can you find him...and leave the town right away?”
“Mom, what’s going on?”
“Danny, please.”
“...okay.”
“Call us once you’re out, okay?”
“Okay mom.”
“Love you sweetie.”
“Yea you too.” He hung up then, his earlier grogginess completely forgotten now. Right, okay, he just has to find Wes no—
BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING
A LOUD shrill noise accompanied the incessant buzzing on his phone. Danny’s stomach dropped even further.
“[11:00 AM] EMERGENCY ALERT: Due to the increasingly harmful and destructive occupation of extra-dimensional beings in the town of Amity Park, the state of Illinois in conjunction with the GiW has made the final decision to evacuate all residents. Please follow your nearest evacuation group and proceed to exit the town.”
It was 3:07 now. The entire town just left? While he was stuck in the thermos? And “increasingly harmful and destructive occupation of extra-dimensional beings”? Dammit he had it under control.
Just before Danny left the room, he made sure to grab his charger.
Grabbing his bag left on the floor by the front door, he nearly jumped when he saw Wes sitting on the living room couch.
“How did—”
“Chill Fenton, you left the door unlocked.”
“But wh...nevermind. Did you hear—”
“About the evacuation? Yeah let’s get outta here.”
He didn’t bother to look back to check if Wes was following. The annoying scruff of his sneakers on the sidewalk was enough to tell.
But twenty minutes later, he couldn’t help but wonder why Wes was left behind too. “So...why didn’t you leave?”
“You know nobody takes those ghost alarms seriously anymore, right? Oh wait, you do, cause you’re Ph—”
“What about the emergency alert?” Danny asked, cutting Wes off.
“What emergency alert?”
“You didn’t get it? On your phone?” Danny pulled out his phone and showed Wes the notification.
“Oh, heh, I don’t get those.”
“What do you mea—oh, right. Your dinosaur phone is too old to get them.”
“Hey, at least with my dinosaur phone, the government can’t spy on my every move. That seems like something you’d be interested in, Phantom.”
“If the government was spying on us, how did they manage to forget us when evacuating the town?”
“The government has bigger things they like to worry about.”
“Sure, like hiding Area 51 right?”
“Exactly!” Wes exclaimed enthusiastically. “Finally, someone gets me.”
“Dude, that was sarcasm.”
Wes deflated at that. “Screw you Fenton.”
“Yeah, I—” the next moment Danny slammed face-first into something that  stung. Quickly backing up, he saw Wes walking, perfectly unperturbed. Hesitantly, he took his index finger and slowly pushed forward, until he was blocked again. Ghost shield, great.
Turning intangible, he disappeared into the ground and tried burrowing under the barrier, only to get blocked and stung again. Dammit, he shouldn’t have told his parents about ghosts being able to get past their old shields that way. Returning up, Danny began to feel his way around the shield, attempting to find a weak spot.
At some point, Wes stopped, noticing that Danny wasn’t tailing him anymore. “Jeez Fenton, what the heck are you doing?”
Danny stopped. “Just practicing for mime school, you know...just in case the whole astronaut thing doesn’t work out.”
Wes squinted. “Wait a minute...the news said they placed your parents’ newest ghost shield around all of Amity…”
Danny groaned, for what felt like the hundredth time today. “Are you kidding me?” He prodded at the shield, only to get stung again.
At that, Wes began to chuckle, which turned into an actual laugh, eventually becoming full-blown cackling.
Danny scowled. Not calming down in the slightest, Wes continued to cackle as he walked off into the distance.
Bastard.
After Danny could no longer see the flare of his annoying red-hair, he sighed and glanced upwards, turning around until he saw the tower at the centre of the town, blasting at full strength. His parents worked relentlessly for more than a year on that tower. After trial and error with various other ghost shields, they finally perfected the ultimate model. Danny tried his best to help too, ghost shields were becoming more vital to Team Phantom as the days passed on (mostly because it stopped people from complaining about property damage). Often that involved sneaking down to the basement while they were out purchasing supplies, testing it out, and subtly dropping recommendations during dinner time. With governmental aid on their side, they were able to expand it into a town-wide defense mechanism, resistant against all ectoplasmic entities, even halfas in their human form.
With all the good their work has done for Amity, they are no longer seen as the town’s local kooks. Jack and Maddie Fenton are now revered as the country’s leading scientists on ghosts. That tower was a stark symbol of his parents’ true dedication. Every time Danny saw that tower, he felt a swell of pride for his parents in his chest. Except for this time. Instead, he felt dread slowly trickling down into the pit of his stomach. Why must everything his parents invent come to bite him in the butt sooner or later?
Plunking down beside the shield, Danny laid down in the grass and pulled out his phone again. Ignoring the even bigger clusterfuck of notifications on his lock screen, he started up a video call with Tucker.
The instant the call picked up, Tucker shrilled into the speaker “DANNY, WHERE THE—” which was then combined with Sam exclaiming, “Is that Danny? You got him finall—WHAT THE HELL DANNY?”
Shit, he didn’t mean to make them so worried. “Hey guys, I-I’m fine,” he said, sheepishly looking away from the screen.
Sam’s expression quickly switched from angry to concerned. “We didn’t see you when the ghost alarm went off...” she trailed off.
“Yeah?”
“Figured you were taking care of it,” Tucker added. “We had no idea—”
“Tucker it’s okay.”
“Wait, really? You made it out?”
“Well...errr...”
Sam’s face took over the screen, expression serious. “Danny...are you still in Amity?”
“Uhh...yeah?”
A moment of silence passed, where Sam’s eyes widened and Tucker just walked off screen.
“B-but look, I’ll figure out a way out! I helped build the shield, I should be able to take it down, right?”
Tucker jumped back into the frame, “You were the one who helped make it indestructible, especially against yourself!”
“True but—” he was suddenly interrupted as his phone started buzzing again. “Shit, my parents are calling, what do I tell them?”
“Just say you’re on your way out?”
“But Wes already left!”
“Wes?”
“Yeah, Wes, no time to explain—what do I say??”
“Just answer it!”
“Um.”
“DANNY!” Tucker and Sam both yelled.
He jerked as he hung up and accepted his parents’ voice call. Hesitantly holding the phone to his ear, he stuttered out, “H-hello?”
His mom’s worried voice crackled through the speaker, “Sweetie, where are you now? Wesley just came out and told us you were coming…”
“Uh…” He had to think up something. NOW. “Uhh...ghost!”
“Danny wha—”
“Can’t talk now, ghost chasing me—bye!” He abruptly hung up and shut off his phone. Heart beating rapidly, he stared at the black screen. His parents are going to kill him for this.
Well, if not already for being Danny Phantom. Ha.
Lying back down on the grass (at what point did he start sitting up?), he registered just how quiet it was. No vehicles humming in the background, no people; just a soothing autumn breeze brushing against the leaves, accompanied by an occasional chirp from a bird nearby. A lone cloud floated off in the bright blue sky. With a bit of squinting, it looked like a hoagie. At that moment, his grumbling stomach decided to interrupt the serenity.
Searching his bag, he found the sandwich he packed for lunch, which was now disgustingly soggy. Ew. Did his parents leave any leftovers back in the fridge? Nah...wait. His eyes locked on a Nasty Burger in the distance. If people had to evacuate, then they must’ve left their orders behind, right? Yeah, he would be doing the world a service by not letting that greasy burger goodness go to waste. Tucker would back him up on this.
Five minutes later, he phased out of the fast food joint with a bag of untouched, barely warm Nasty burgers in one hand and a Nasty soda in the other.
Danny was going back home to figure out a way to get past the shield. Not at all because of his impending food coma. So what if he decided to take a quick power nap to regain his focus? He’d get nothing done anyways if he was too tired to think.
And so what if that quick nap turned into him knocking out for 13 hours?
Startling awake in his bed, he checked the clock. 8:00 AM. Shit! He’s late for school. Stumbling out his bed, he immediately tripped over his backpack, falling to the floor in a harsh thud.
“Ow.”
Rubbing his shoulder, everything came flooding back in his now clear mind. Fuck, how could he let the Box Ghost trap him in his own thermos?
Fuck, he has to get up. He has to find a way to get past that shield. Right now. His parents, his friends...they’re all waiting. Who knows what could be happening to them, they could be in danger, they’d need him. He has to before...before…
Before what?
Danny didn’t even realize he was doing his morning routine on autopilot until he was in the kitchen, halfway through a slice of toast. “Ergh!” he exclaimed as he spat out the almost cardboard-like excuse for breakfast onto his plate.
Why would they be in danger?
Glancing outside, he only saw a flock of living birds in the distance. Where did all the ghosts go?
Maybe because there’s no longer anyone to haunt. And as long as the shield remains, there’s no chance of even a blob ghost escaping.
Wait, there’s still Vlad in Wisconsin! No, he wouldn’t dare make a move while the Guys in White were watching. That’s one thing he knew for certain about the fruitloop.
So...what now? Danny leaned back in the kitchen chair as the realization slowly dawned on him. Everyone’s safe. A wave of relief came over him, washing away a suffocating feeling he didn’t even realize was always there. For the first time in months, he could breathe.
The next thing Danny does is turn his pathetic slices of toast into a triple decker PB & J sandwich. Another first in months.
Of course he had to be finding a way to get past the shield. His parents must be so worried. Jazz...he still hasn’t called her back. Staring at the black screen of his phone, he couldn’t bring himself to turn it on again. Talking to her would only worry her even more, right? Ancients forbid, if his parents called again...what could he even say this time?
Sam and Tucker could fill her in. They probably already did. He slid the inactive phone back in his pocket and got up to drop his empty plate in the sink.
Hours later, Danny was sticking his tongue out in concentration, trying to get past the Level 4 boss in Doomed. He honestly started up the old desktop in the basement fully intending to review his parents’ notes on the shield. After nearly nodding off on the eighth page, he decided that he deserved a little break.
Yet, that break was still going strong at 5:30am the next day. He was finally on the last level. So close...his bloodshot eyes locked on the final key, just within arm’s reach. Almost...there…
Except, a shot came out of nowhere, striking his player right in his chest, killing him instantly. And because he was on his last life, Danny stared in disbelief as the words “Game Over” appeared on the screen. He threw the computer mouse in frustration, unintentionally letting a bit of his ghostly strength through.
Well, crap. He needs a new mouse now.
Maybe he can stop by the store in the morning. Yawning heavily, his eyes wandered to the lab’s wall clock, widening as he read the time.
He...he should’ve been focusing on the shield! He groaned as he took another look at the broken mouse. There’s not even any store to stop by anymore! Screw this, he needs sleep. He’ll deal with this later.
~
Apparently later meant a week from then. He honestly doesn’t know how he got so distracted. He just knew the majority of the last week was spent binge-watching classic horror movies and emptying out his dad’s secret hidden stash of snacks. Jazz probably would be able to offer him some textbook explanation for this.
At some point, he’d managed to convince himself that everyone’s eventually coming back. Why else would he still have electricity? And his family left pretty much everything behind, except for a few ecto-weapons and the GAV. There’s no way this can be permanent. And why should it be? He still couldn’t find the true reason for the evacuation, news reports from earlier that week just cite the “increasingly harmful and destructive occupation of extra-dimensional beings.” Sure, Danny’s been busting his ass more recently, but it wasn’t like the town was about to be captured by Pariah Dark again. With that in mind, why should he expend any extra effort figuring out how to get past the shield? The shield he made sure worked against his very own biology?
Plus, he was happy to have a break from everything. At least that’s what he tells himself. He tries to ignore that nagging feeling in the back of his mind, telling him that he should turn his phone back on.
Anyways, his dad’s snacks have run out. Which is why he was standing right in front of the supermarket, currently in his ghost form. He’s just going to phase in, grab what he needs, and phase right back out. Easy. It’s fine, even if he sets off any security alarms, no one’s even here to stop him. Besides, a lot of that food’s probably gonna go bad anyways.
The first thing he noticed was all the flies. They seemed to be having a party in the (slightly smelly) produce section. Luckily for Danny, eating his veggies wasn’t really a top priority (sorry Sam). He grabbed a basket, floated over to the bread area, and tossed in a loaf. One of his greatest accomplishments in the last week was learning how to make a grilled cheese sandwich. That and the snacks are what have fueled him in the last week.
It seemed like the owners still left everything on after abandoning the store. The meat section was thankfully cool and fly-free. Danny eyed his options, recalling all the times Tucker shared his favourite methods of cooking each meat. Guess that knowledge is finally being put to good use. Bacon? Yes. Steak? Yup. Drumsticks? Of course. Sausages? Can’t say no to that.
Danny floated further along, grabbing various other items, including a couple boxes of frozen dinners and plenty of snacks.
He almost forgot about the mouse. Luckily, he passed by the electronics store on the way home.
After packing away the groceries, Danny thought he deserved a nap. After, he’ll probably try making the sausages for dinner. And maybe give reading those shield notes another shot since he had the mouse now.
At least, that’s what he told himself. Instead, he finally beat Doomed. Holy shit. He instinctively reached for his phone to text Tucker. They’ve been playing that game since they were nine! He…
Faced with his still powered-off phone, Danny suddenly realized that it’s been a week since he last spoke to Tucker. And Sam.
He really should talk to them. He’s been an awful friend, he’s gotta at least reassure them that he’s alright. Yet Danny couldn’t bring himself to turn his phone back on.
Eventually, an imaginary light bulb lit up above his head, and he logged into his email on the computer. However, the moment he saw his inbox cluttered with emails from his parents, he logged the fuck outta there. Nope.
While watching The Birds later that night and seeing Melanie lock herself in a phone booth to protect herself from the violent seagulls, Danny suddenly got another idea.
~
It was a clear night, with the moon shining in all its glory, softly illuminating the dark sky. You couldn’t even tell that the shield was there. Almost would’ve been perfect for stargazing if it weren't for the useless city lights that were still on.
A family of raccoons was crossing the road a few blocks away. And a crow cawed from above on a lamp post. Otherwise, the street in front of his house was completely deserted.
He floated up until he had a view of the entire town. During his nightly patrols, it’d never been this quiet. It felt like he was almost intruding on something, being out here now.
Using his powers to enhance his vision in the dark, he searched around for a payphone. Yes, he’s seen them before, although he can’t say he’d ever used one. It's gotta be somewhere.
He passed by an electronics store with a TV playing the news in the display. He immediately halted and did a double-take. His face was splayed across the screen, with the headline underneath, “RESIDENT GHOST HUNTERS’ SON MISSING AFTER EVACUATION”.
Before he could fully process that, he was knocked to the ground. Panicking, he struggled to get back up, but was pinned under something. Hold on, this seems famili—
“What have you done with our son, ghost?” Maddie Fenton demanded, pure hostility lacing her words.
Danny stared wide-eyed at his mother through the net, standing over him and holding an ecto-gun to his forehead.
“I…uh...”
“Speak now. Otherwise, you’ll find out just how quickly a blast from this will obliterate your vile form,” she threatened, pressing the gun right to his head now.
“N-nothing I s-swear! He l-left, with everyone else,” Danny sputtered.
“Lies. You attacked him right before he was going to leave.”
Crap. In retrospect that wasn’t really a good choice for an excuse. “That wasn’t me!” he exclaimed.
In that moment Danny realized his father was also there, standing a few feet behind Maddie. “Scanner’s telling me that you’re the only ecto-entity in Amity Park. So, ‘fess up ghost boy,” Jack said, glaring at his son.
Danny looked between them. His heart dropped when he registered how stressed they both looked. His dad’s face was patchy in places, obviously left unshaven for days. The bags under his eyes only accentuated how bloodshot they were. Danny couldn’t see much of his mom due to her goggles, but she was visibly trembling. This was all because of him. That same nagging feeling he’d ignored for far too long was now threatening to boil over and strangle him. Choosing his next words carefully, he choked out, “Alright yeah, but he left. I swear.”
“No…” Maddie whispered.
“Maddie, maybe the tracker’s malfunctioning again,” Jack suggested.
She looked back at her husband for a few moments. Then, she lowered the gun. Danny didn’t even realize he was holding his breath.
“But...we’ve searched all the groups, and none of the nearby towns are reporting him. Where else can he be?” she pleaded.
“We just have to keep looking Mads,” Jack answered dejectedly.
As soon as his parents started up the GAV and turned at the block, Danny made an instantaneous decision. He transformed to human form, broke through his parents’ net, and ran after them, forgoing all consequences. The guilt was too much to bear. He ran as fast as his “barely passing P.E.” legs could take him. He passed several blocks, adrenaline fueling him to keep going. When he slammed into the shield once again, he looked up to see the GAV stopped far in the distance, with Maddie outside, sobbing into Jack’s shoulder while he held her. They were too far for his screams to reach.
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moipale · 4 years
Text
DP Side Hoes Week Day 6: Ember/Secrets
from whoever she’d been ; ao3 link
Death days were something Danny had learned about the hard way, after he’d effectively walked in on a Technus in mourning.
Most ghosts celebrate their death days; they view it as a rebirth of sorts, and honor the ‘powers that be’ that facilitated their formation. Some use the day to reflect on their life. These ghosts are the ones most prone to change and growth. Others, however, mourn: the ones who still cling to life, the ones with true, heart-wrenching regrets.
Not all ghosts who attack Amity Park mourn their deaths, but almost all mourners attack at some point. Jazz was the one who pointed it out to him—that those who mourn almost seem to seek retaliation, revenge; they try to take out the hurt they’d been dealt on a world they no longer belong to.
How sad, Jazz had said.
It’s customary to hole up in your lair when your death day comes around, so if Danny’s visiting someone and their door is shut tighter than it should be, he knows to let it alone. Not that he visits ghosts much, anyway, when so many of them would have his head.
So it’s a surprise when, on his way to visit Frostbite, Danny happens by an open door, from which oozes an aura that so densely reeks of mourning, he physically recoils.
He doesn’t know whose lair it is, but when he circles around to take a look at the front of the door, the symbol etched in its upper half gives him an idea: an electric guitar, on fire.
“Ember?” Danny calls, having circled back around to peer in the doorway. It’s dark, wherever it is, and he has to fight not to cringe away from the opening, for all the misery pouring through. “Is that you? Are you okay?” He waits a moment, but no answer comes. “I’m coming in, okay? Tell me now if you don’t want me to.”
Despite how little he suspects she’d want him in her lair, she doesn’t respond, and Danny’s quite certain there’s someone home. So, against his better judgement (and against his own instincts, which scream at him to distance himself, lest he be sucked into the mourning, too), Danny touches down on the threshold, and makes his way inside.
The darkness clears some as he passes through the doorway. Inside is what looks like the interior of a standard inner-city apartment: small living room, kitchen off to the side, one hallway, down which there are only three doors. A bedroom, a bathroom, and a closet, he’d guess. What windows Danny can see all show the same sight: the swirling green sky of the Ghost Zone.
Now that he’s inside, he can tell the aura has an epicenter. Standing just inside the door, it’s obvious he’s only ankle-deep in the shallows; the water gets deeper further into the apartment, and from what he can tell, it’s deepest around the door in the very back of the hallway.
“Ember?” he calls again. No response.
He really, really does not want to go further in. The misery is potent, clawing its way into him, and though it would normally spark pity, this concentrated it just repels him.
But Danny can’t help himself from saving those in need, and it’s this that forces that first foot forward, taking him trailing through the apartment, a specter in a home not his own. For a lair, the apartment looks so oddly like a TV set—carefully arranged, put together with some goal in mind. Subconsciously, Danny tries not to disturb even the dust.
It’s like wading through molasses, walking down the hallway, but he does it, and in the end he stands before that last door. It’s plain: dark wood with a metal handle. It’s just a door.
Even so, it’s a physical struggle for Danny to reach up and turn the handle, movements jerky, eyebrows knit. He braces himself as he pulls the door open, and as it does, the despair that washes over him is like a tsunami, breaking around his trembling form.
Inside is a girl, though if he didn’t know who she was, he probably wouldn’t be able to tell even that much.
As he’d suspected, it’s Ember. She doesn’t look the way he knows her. As all ghosts on their death day do, so too has her appearance reverted to that of the girl she’d died as, mere hints of her ghostliness seeping through.
He knows immediately it was a fire. Her skin is charred and her features unrecognizable; the only way he knows it’s her is her hair, blue, flickering eerily, stark against her blackened body. A few years earlier, he’d probably vomit at the sight. She wears no clothes. Her guitar is nowhere in sight.
“Ember?” Danny calls, and his voice is little more than a tremor.
She doesn’t respond, again. He doesn’t blame her. From the expression on her face—what little of it he can make out—she seems far away. She probably didn’t have presence of mind enough to shut her door, too caught up already in her own regrets.
Danny enters the room, shutting the door behind him. Now that he’s in the thick of it, it isn’t so hard to breathe, and pity for Ember worms its way in. Determined to keep her company, at least, if he can’t draw her out of her own head, he crosses the room and sits next to her where she’s curled up on the floor, back resting against the side of the bed.
His shoulder brushes hers, and all too suddenly she jerks, startled out of her state of shock.
“Brady?” she blurts out, a crushing hope in her voice, and when Danny meets her eyes he can see that she’s still far away.
“No, Ember. I’m not Brady,” Danny says, gently, and she sits back, disappointment dashing all hope from her eyes.
“Oh.” The atmosphere clears, just slightly, and she looks at him again, this time with recognition. “Babypop.”
“Hey,” he says, a sad sort of smile on his lips.
“Why are you here?”
“Your door was open.”
“Was it?” Ember says this distantly, looking past him to the bedroom door, closed, and her face scrunches as much as it physically can in confusion.
“Is there anything I can do for you right now?” Danny asks, and she looks away, down at the ground. Though she certainly catches sight of her own body, she doesn’t react to its charred state. She must have done this plenty enough to be used to it, by now. Danny still isn’t used to the sight of Lichtenberg scars trailing along his body, even four years later—how long has Ember been dead?
She’s silent for a while. “No,” she says eventually, and the miasma intensifies some. “Unless you can bring me Brady Holfinger, a match, and oil.” She says it with venom in her voice, but Danny can feel from the air around them that she doesn’t mean it, at least not with the intense anger she tries to imitate. She’s just sad. Mourning.
“What did he do to you?” Danny asks, against his better judgement.
She makes eye contact with him, and her face stretches into a gruesome grimace. “Stood me up for a date. I stayed up so late, waiting, but he never came.” She chuckles humorlessly. “I eventually couldn’t stay awake anymore. Because I was so tired, I didn’t wake up when a fire started. Then I was here.”
Her form shudders, sort of, and as Danny watches her, the Ember he knows bleeds a little back through. Her outfit wraps itself around her figure, and her guitar materializes beneath her waiting fingers. Her skin doesn’t clear completely, but the burns become minor enough that her features are more recognizable.
“He didn’t kill me,” she says bluntly, “but it’s easier to blame him, I think.”
She plucks a few notes, letting them ring out as the strings slowly still. Danny watches her do it: reestablish her comfort, her agency. He bears witness as Ember reemerges, from whoever she’d been.
“Get out, dipstick,” she says eventually, and Danny is all too happy to get to his feet and head for the door. Though she’s more conscious now, the mourning hasn’t cleared, and his very core has itched to leave. He stops at the door, though, when she speaks again. “And thanks.”
Danny turns back, meeting her eyes. “For what? Invading your privacy?” He smiles small, tentative. 
Ember grins back at him, shark-like. “Careful, Phantom.” He smiles wider.
When he leaves, the door to Ember’s lair swings shut of its own accord behind him, and he breaks out into clear, unharried air.
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ecto-american · 4 years
Note
Hello! If your taking prompts, could you do one where Danny both loses his memory about his family and friends and gets brainwashed by the guys in white that he's a full ghost, then released back into amity park with some faint idea of some connection, but not sure what. Thank you!
I take prompts within reason
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The dust began to fully settle, and the agent squinted through the mask. He tried to pick out that familiar form in the dust, that was trying to fly away as it always did. Escaping justice, but he saw nothing as smoke began to cloud the skies.
“There!” his partner cried out, and he pointed to a limp figure. The ghost they had been hunting, the town menace that began all of this, laid over a bit of rubble, motionless. 
The agent kicked up dust of his own, scrambling to get to the ghost. He could hear his partner following suit, and they rushed towards a ghost that made absolutely no movements. They both, nearly in unison, skidded to a halt right before they could touch him. A flash of light had interrupted their actions. Hearts racing, they watched as this light blinded both of them. By the time it faded, almost as quickly as it had come, they were left looking at...a boy. 
Neither made any movements to do anything, and Phantom (?) made no movements either. The agent hesitantly reached out to grab a handful of black hair that was slowly becoming caked in blood, so very different than the white hair of their target. He lifted his head up, bending over a bit to get a look at the face. The resemblance to Phantom was arguable. Paler, but if given a good hair bleaching, this could be Phantom.
Slowly, his other hand lightly patted the boy’s cheek. Bright green eyes opened halfway, staring up at him in confusion. Unmistakable green eyes that glowed like a ghost’s, like Phantom. They dropped closed, only to snap open once more. Bright blue eyes, looking more like a pair he’d see on a fellow agent, were now looking at him. Confused, scared, dazed. 
“Sir, did you see that?” his partner’s voice was audible. The boy’s eyes closed fully once more. The agent spared a glance at the other agent. He was nodding with one hand pressed to his headset, listening to what their boss was telling him. “Yes, sir...Right away, sir...No, sir...We’ll be there shortly, sir.” He gestured to the teenager. “Pack him up. The boss wants to bring him in for questioning.”
The agent carefully let go of the hair. The boy’s head hung still, and the only audible noise from him was pained, labored breathing. His partner had gone to fetch their vehicle while he stood guard. And before anybody seemed to notice, before most of Amity Park could truly recover from the attack, they had loaded up the mysterious teenager and were already gone.
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His name was Daniel James Fenton. A background check revealed that he was a seventeen year old student at Casper High. The youngest in a family of four, son of Madeline Anne Walker and Jack Harrison Fenton and a brother to Jasmine Elizabeth Fenton. 
He had no criminal record that they could find, though he reportedly got into trouble often at school. Minor things, mostly tardiness and poor grades. A few fights and one instance of pulling a fire alarm. Nothing comparable to the criminal rap sheet of Danny Phantom.
It was the longest rap sheet any agent had seen, literally pages and pages long. Thousands of charges for attempted murder, attempted arson, arson, attempted kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, and more. Their file on Phantom was surprisingly long, but it was a file that had been compiled over the years by the observant eyes of a select few agents who had studied footage and that elusive ghost for years. 
But that flash of light changed everything they thought they knew about Danny Phantom. An entire file that had blanks had odd answers that filled in. However, those answers couldn’t come from Phantom.
“So am I supposed to just believe that you happen to not remember anything about who you are?” Agent B voiced his skepticism to the teenager who had since been changed into a GIW prisoner’s uniform, a pure white loose jumpsuit accompanied by a standard anti-ghost collar around the neck and wrists. 
This teen, nobody knew what or how to refer to him at this point, just stared at him with wide, scared eyes. He shifted in his seat, leaning his elbows on the wooden table that separate them, moving his hands a bit as he spoke.
“I-I don’t know what you want from me?” he croaked. He sniffled a bit, and he almost looked like he might cry. Agent B had to admit that the kid seemed to be a good actor, but it was bullshit. He wasn’t fully sure of this situation, but Phantom was always a sly and manipulative ghost. Always one step ahead. Not this time. “I told you what I know.”
“No, you haven’t,” Agent B spoke harshly. “Who are you, and what are you doing in Amity Park?”
“I don’t know who I am!” the teen exclaimed. “I can barely remember what Amity Park is! I think I live there? Or...like family lives there? But I don’t know their names.”
“You’re lying to me,” Agent B accused him. The waterworks truly began, but that never worked on Agent B. It was hard to really feel sorry for a ghost that hurt so many people through selfish actions. 
“No, I’m not!” The teen put up a pathetic act. The tears were actually a good sign, in Agent B’s opinion. It meant that the ghost was possibly at their breaking point. “Don’t I get a phone call? I’m supposed to have the right to a lawyer too.”
Agent B stared coldly at him.
“No. Those rights don’t apply to ghosts.”
He stared at the agent, absolutely shocked at that statement. He said nothing, and Agent B stood up. 
“Take him back,” Agent B ordered. “Let’s give him another few days in solitary.”
The teen didn’t even utter a word as he was escorted out. Soon as he left, a woman slipped into the room. Unlike the other agents, she wasn’t in a suit, but rather a plan white t-shirt and white jeans, with black shoes and a white lab coat. 
“Anything?” she asked. Agent B shook his head. “You know, amnesia can last months, even years.” Agent B knew that look in her eye, exactly what she was leading up to asking him.
“If he doesn’t remember anything by Friday, you can have him Monday for experiments,” he promised her.
Her eyes shined happily.
“You have no idea what kind of scientific discoveries that boy has hidden in him,” she told him. Agent B simply shrugged. 
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“Release him?” the scientist looked crestfallen at the news. “But there’s so much more to discover, so many more experiments, he has so much information he could tell us!”
“We can’t afford to keep him in custody much longer,” Agent B told her firmly. “People are starting to question where Phantom is. Of course, Fenton too. It won’t take long before people become suspicious and begin to investigate.”
The scientist frowned. In the six months of captivity, she had learned so much. Phantom was this odd human-ghost hybrid. How this happened, she nor her team could determine, other than that this was a recent event and not a natural state for him. The ghost’s continued lack of memory could provide little clues. She had been hoping to spark his memory, in the pursuit of getting some possible hints or theories. But she’d only get a blank stare.
“He’ll say something,” she argued. “Reveal everything. I know, legally, we didn’t violate any laws or anything. He’s a ghost. But that town thinks he’s a hero. It’ll cause a media outrage.”
“I know,” Agent B replied with a sigh. “We may just put him down and keep a close eye on him to ensure his memory doesn’t return, but it also may not really matter. It’s very doubtful that he told anybody about this. He couldn’t have, especially his parents. Had his parents known, well...you know the Fentons. They’d have experimented on him themselves. Fenton will eventually be classified as a runaway. But Phantom’s too well known to disappear forever.”
“We can’t kill him,” she told him almost immediately. “I want to do more experiments later. Everything will change if he dies fully. There’s just too much more to learn.
And that look in her eye returned as she gave him a hopeful smile. Agent B raised an eyebrow at her. 
“What are you thinking?” he asked. 
“He’s already lost so much of his memory,” she began. “What if he...just simply forgot that he had a human half?”
The agent paused as he thought carefully.
“Let’s discuss it with the higher ups, and see how they feel,” he replied. 
Their request was granted. 
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Phantom stared nervously at the agents that watched him with suspicious eyes. He took a few cautious steps forward in fluffy snow. More was falling thickly, gathering quickly on the ground and on the trees of the woods that they had brought him too. The ghost glanced around, before turning to look at the agents. 
They didn’t stop him. They made no movements to draw their weapons. The pair just...watched.
He took this chance, and he shot off into the sky, as fast as he could. No sounds of blasters firing after him, no shouting, only silence and agents that blended into the snow. While his memories of his experience were limited, they were horrifying, and yet they simply let him...leave.
Whatever. He wasn’t going to question that much, but he was already asking himself where he was supposed to...go.
Phantom tried to grasp for his memories for anything of use. Anything that didn’t involve his time there, that could be a place he could go to, a person he could find. What he could remember was so shaky at best. 
He saw a town in the distance, the city lights glowing faintly despite the heavy snowfall. Perhaps figuring out where he was, what the date was, was a good start.
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There was something wrong with stealing, he absolutely knew that much. But he, of course as a ghost, had no money, and he also knew that he couldn’t walk anywhere without drawing attention. So with a heavy heart, he stole a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt and a beanie hat from a department store before walking along the streets.
Judging by all the signs of the city and what he could find, he was in a town called Lakewood, within Washington state. Phantom didn’t know how he knew, but he knew that this was not where he was from, and that he was very, very far from where he was meant to be. 
He now stood in a gas station, trying to figure out what candy he was going to, sadly, end up stealing. Phantom hated it, hated it, hated it. But maybe he just needed to eat something, to jog his memory, to understand what he had to do. There was something in his gut, telling him that he was missing something, something critical and important about him. 
His attention went to a display of free brochures, and he absentmindedly read through them. One caught his eye. 
Amity Park: America’s Most Haunted City! Visit Today!
The headline hit him in the gut. Despite ghosts not needing to breathe, he grabbed the brochure, ripping it open to immediately see his own face staring back at him. One of the town’s main attractions, the famous ghostly superhero Danny Phantom. 
Amity Park was his home. The memories of saving the town flooded him, and he began to openly cry. That was his purpose. Helping others. Protecting them. That town...that town was home.
“Uh, kid?” the clerk asked, obviously confused. “Are you alright?”
Phantom didn’t answer him. He phased out of his stolen attire, earning a surprised shriek from the worker and the other customers. He ignored them all, and he flew through the ceiling as fast as he could for Amity Park, Illinois.
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He arrived some time later, still clutching tightly onto that brochure. The second he was within the city limits, there was an instant sense of self. His memories were not failing him. This was home. This was where he was meant to be, and these were the people he had sworn to protect and care for.
Why? Phantom couldn’t tell you a true reason why. It just was what he knew he did. The paper in his hands proved it.
No sooner than he arrived was he able to get straight back to work, as there was a ghost attacking the city.
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(Open Rp, Nsfw rp) Romance, Autumn, Danny Phantom ultimate enemy Au , And Drama in "Ghost Angel and the Demon Beast"
(Warning: This Can contain Smut and R rated Rp, If your a Minor please Do not reply this open rp, Otherwise It Will be Trouble.. Viewer Disgression is Advised)
Long Time ago in Middleton, Saphira has been waiting for Her Sorry excuse Ex-boyfriends butt in her home after the night of the Prom and also the Public Humiliation where Ron and Kim Kissed Infront of Saphira and Didn't know...Until She hears The Limo Stopped to drop them off.. Saphira gets up and saw Ron and Kim Kissed again..Then She said,
Saphira: Ronald Stoppable!!!!
Ron: *looked at Saph fearfully* S-s-saph! It's not what it looks like
Saphira: oh really thats Good.. It Looks like my So-Called Boyfriend is Kissing My So called "Best friend!" as another Woman!
Kim: Look.. it's Not-
*Saphira Slapped Kim Harder*
Saphira: YOU! SLUT!! You Man Stealing Harlot! I thought you were my Best best but turns out to be the most Disgusting Human Being on the Entire Middleton! *turns to Ron* And YOU! You Man-whored Dog! Not Only You Cheated on me.. I Saw every Video of what you've done to me.. Your a Selfish, greedy, Abusive, and Murderous Boyfriend I have ever met!! You Murdered my Kids So you can Sleep with HER!?
Ron: Saph...Please.. I'm Sorry..
Saphira: Sorry!? SORRY!? Sorry Will not Cut it This time! You've gone too Far! Your a Thief that you and two other girls Stole my Money and my Possessions!
Kim: I gotta..go.. *She left fearfully*
Saphira: *looked at Ron Coldly*.. I Do Not give a Damn of What your Story is..... I Want your Sorry Ass Gone By Morning!.. I'm Kicking you Out.. and Your No Longer Welcomed to my Property! I Showed Every Video of what you've done in the internet..and When i'm through with you... You Lose everything!! Including me.. and my Children!.. So.. Pack your stuff and by Morning I want you gone when I'm Up..
Then next day Ron Was Kicked out..he lefted Empty handed by Saphira...Saphira Knew She had enough..and She's Embarassed enough..But Luckily...Months later, She graduated and Try to Bring her children back with magic but it went Wrong and Made her a Half Ghost..So..Saphira felt upset..until She knew she wanted to start a Fresh life.. So She packed her stuff and Moved out from Middleton to Amity Park..Where all the good People Live happily.. She began to Settled In the Nice and Luxurious Home..Also She became a Neighbor Of the Good and Weird Family Called "The Fentons"..Yep you know it.. Ghost hunting Buisness is their thing.. but As For Saphira, She Does a Sexy Modeling Buisness For a Special "Tokyo Time" Magazine and "Hot Fox" magazine as well...With a Help With her Photographist friend Name Sylvia..Months Came by and Heard about the Explosion of the Nasty Burger.. She gasp and feeling horrible For that 14 year old boy name Danny..Saphira heard that He's living With a Friend of the Fenton Family is None other than "Vlad Masters"..So She began to head to Wisconsin and saw His manor.. but until She pulls over.. She hears the screams as her eyes is widen and said "Holy Mother Of Goddess, What the Hell Is he Screaming about??" until her ghost sense is tingling, The Vlad Masters Manor got explode and destroyed and saw the ghost with a White flame hair and red eyes.. She cannot forget what it is.. But then She immediately Drives off faster back to the Amity park to Escape him..but Little Does She Know that This "Phantom" Is Following her and Mostly had a Special Keen Feelings on her....She went home and close the Door and Lock the windows and all..Try to protect herself.. then..10 years later,,,Her Modeling is a Big Hit and all.. but When she got the Phone call and she hears the Strange Male voice..and he said
????: Hello Saphira, I see your Modeling Buisness went well do you?
Saphira: Who is this?
????: You May not know me.. But I Know you "very" well, Your More Beautiful Since the day I saw you riding off with your Camaro of yours~
Saphira: Ookay your making me Uncomfortable...Who Is this right now!?
????: You'll see me Soon Enough, Saphira~
When the Phone Hung up as she gulps in fear, Not Knowing Who was this Stranger and what Did he want from her.. Until that Fatal day, Saphira hears the Ghostly wail as she screams.. the Glass is Shattering..She gasp and began to run down to her camaro and Drives out from this town But until the Earth Shaken and saw the Dark red eyes figure as she gasp.. She reconized him..She never forget his red eyes and white Flamed hair.. And it was none other Than "Dan Phantom"..Her body is Shaken as she Floorid and began to drive away from him..but then She sees the woods as she began to Drive there and then after She sees the Safe Big Cabin Lodge.. She park her car in the garage and Activate the ghost Shield.. and Then She sees Dan Phantom flown and made a Huge landed..then He saw her and made a sinister grinned and Said....
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darks-ink · 4 years
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Absurdism Chapter 10
Jazz has some patented half-ghost self-doubt, Maddie catches on to Vlad’s sliminess, and Danny has trouble with names.
Rating: Teen/K+ (a lil swearing, because teenagers, man) Warnings: - Genre: Family, Hurt/Comfort Additional Tags: Sibling Bonding, Family Bonding, Alternate Universe - Halfa Jazz AU, Jazz makes friends
[AO3] [FFN] [more Absurdism on Tumblr] First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
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Chapter 10: Maternal Instinct
“Jazz, honey?”
Jazz jerked awake—not that she’d been asleep, of course—and blinked blearily. It took her a moment to realize that her mom had yelled from downstairs.
“Yeah?” she called back, trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes. Ugh. Being half-ghost was seriously exhausting. Maybe she should ask Phantom if it’s normal for her powers to cost so much energy.
“Can you come down, sweetie?”
She pushed herself to her feet, walking to the top of the stairs. “Yeah, Mom?”
“Pack your bags! I got an invite to a mother-daughter science symposium in Florida! Doesn’t that sound fun?”
Jazz perked up further. “A mother-daughter science symposium? When is it?”
“This weekend. Don’t worry about homework—if you don’t have enough time to finish it, I’ll make sure to write a note for your teachers.”
“That sounds great, Mom.” Jazz grinned at her. Since she’d become half-ghost, she hadn’t spent much time around her family. Danny was always busy with Sam and Tucker, and her parents were so busy with all that ghost stuff… This was a great opportunity!
Her dad joined her mom, bumping her gently. Or, well. As gently as Jack Fenton could. “And, to make sure you’ll be protected from rogue ghost attacks on the road, I made this.” He held out an invention of some sort, a segmented metal belt with a lock in the front. “I’m calling it the Specter Deflector! It needs a little more work, but it’ll be ready before you leave. It’ll repel and weaken any ghost who comes in direct contact with you!”
Maddie took the belt, looking it over admiringly. “Ooh. Thanks, hon.” She pressed a kiss against his cheek. “You’re the best.”
“I’ll go pack my stuff!” Jazz shouted at them, already turning around. Look, she could fight ghosts all day, but watching her parents get all lovey-dovey? No thanks.
Besides, she could be sure they were distracted now. This was a perfect opportunity to go talk with Phantom, let him know that she would be gone for the weekend. Hopefully it wouldn’t be like last time, but, well. What were the chances that Vlad would ruin another family-bonding weekend trip for her?
She shifted to her ghost form with ease, turned herself invisible and intangible to fly the short distance to Phantom unnoticed. As usual, he was hiding on a rooftop nearby; it was still too early for him to patrol Amity.
“Hey Jazz,” he greeted her when she dropped her invisibility. “What’s up?”
“Mom got an invite for a mother-daughter symposium this weekend, so I was hoping you would be fine with covering the ghost attacks for me,” she explained. “I could really use some time to just… bond with my family.”
“Of course, always,” Phantom immediately assured her, before he frowned. “Wait. Mother-daughter symposium… Organized by DALV?”
“I… don’t know?” Her core thrummed with concern. “Why? What’s wrong with it?”
He shook his head dispassionately. “Try flipping the name around.”
“DALV… oh my god.” She groaned loudly. “Really, Vlad? God, I can’t believe I didn’t catch that. Is he going to attack Mom, or something?”
“Well, besides the fact that he’s going to crash your private plane conveniently near his mansion with no phone so he can woo Mom and convince you to join him?” Phantom shrugged, faux casual. “Nah, you two will be fine. But in my universe he used my absence to send vicious ghosts after Dad.”
“Oh.” She looked down, watched her feet shuffle uncertainly on the rooftop. “So you… won’t come with? Just to be sure Vlad won’t do anything?”
Phantom sighed, deep and pensive. “I… don’t think it would be a good idea. Dad made it through Vlad’s attack in my universe, but I’m not sure how. I just… I don’t want to risk it not panning out the same, y’know? Besides, you’re smarter than me, and more competent than me, and better trained than me. You’ll be fine. Trust yourself, Jazz.”
She made a face. Trust herself? She wasn’t half as competent a fighter as Phantom. There was no way she could stand up against Vlad, if push came to shove. “Yeah, alright,” she said anyway. “I get it. If I asked you to come along, and when we got back we discovered that… that.” She paused.
“Yeah, exactly,” Phantom said, clearly knowing what she was trying to say. “Look. I know that it’s… hard, to be half-ghost. Your only examples of other half-ghosts have years of experience over you, so you’ll always feel like you’re just… plodding along. That you’re not as good as them. I know. I remember what it was like. I’m pretty sure that, in my original universe, this was the weekend that I had planned to figure out duplication, because I felt so bad that Vlad could do it and I couldn’t. But trust me, Jazz, when I say you’re way better than I was.”
She scoffed disbelievingly.
“No, really.” He nudged her, gently. “Sam and Tucker and I were training, right? A general check-up on my powers, how good everything was, down in the lab. During the intangibility test I hit the wall at full speed, because I didn’t quite have a good enough grip on it yet. Forget making a decent shield. I know that it’s hard not to compare yourself to my current level, Jazz, but I’m still more than two years ahead of you. You’ll get there.”
He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. It was more comforting than it had any right to be. “Besides, strength isn’t everything. Your greatest advantage over me will always be your intelligence, Jazz, and don’t forget it. Not everything is about punching your way out of a bad situation.”
“Alright.” And she tried to let herself believe it, really. “You’ve convinced me. If it comes down to it, I’ll fight Vlad with my smarts.”
“There you go!” He grinned at her, his green eyes vibrant and sparkling. “And I know just where to start! Let me know when Dad finishes the Specter Deflector, will you? I know how to tweak its coding so it ignores certain ecto-signatures, so I can make sure it doesn’t work on us.”
She smiled back. “That sounds great. Thank you, Phantom.”
“Don’t mention it,” he said. His grin was almost completely genuine.
---
Jazz watched her Mom shear through some more plants with the machete she (apparently) had hidden in her boot. Phantom had said that they would be alright, but still… she wasn’t looking forward to whatever might come next.
Her mom gasped, and Jazz jerked her eyes back forward. In front of them laid a large building, ornate and grand.
Vlad’s mansion.
“Or maybe we could stay at this ritzy mountain chalet,” Maddie suggested, humor in her tone. “I’m open.”
Jazz opened her mouth to reply, but a horn honked and she shut her mouth. A golf cart pulled up, driven by no one else but…
“Vlad Masters?” Maddie gasped.
“Oh, what an amazing, unexpected, and totally unplanned surprise,” he purred back, leaning over the steering wheel. “Might I offer you two a stay in my luxurious chalet?”
Maddie laughed, climbing into the seat next to Vlad. “Well, if you insist…”
Looked like they were, in fact, doing this. Jazz rolled her eyes but climbed into the back of the golf cart, letting Vlad drive them back to the mansion. Even if Phantom was sure that Vlad wouldn’t harm her mom, she still intended to stay close and be sure. Although Maddie was wearing the Specter Deflector, so she would probably be fine. Assuming it worked, which, knowing her dad, wasn’t guaranteed.
Vlad led them into a large cozy room, with stupendously large chairs and hunting trophies all along the wall. Vlad was a hunter? Color her surprised.
“So, what brings you two to these parts?” Vlad asked, watching them wander around in the room. “Not that I am unhappy to see you two, of course, but we are quite far from Amity Park.”
Jazz watched her mom pull a book from a shelf, glancing through it. “You would never believe it,” Maddie said, not looking up. “We were on our way to this symposium, and our pilot forced us out of the plane right over your house.”
“Yes, what a rather convenient coincidence.” Jazz scoffed.
Vlad narrowed his eyes at her. “Yes, you two are certainly lucky to have landed so nearby. But…” He slid closer to Maddie, leaning on the bookshelf next to her. “Maddie, I’m so glad you’re here. It gives me the chance to apologize for Jack’s behavior at our college reunion.”
“Wasn’t Dad possessed by a ghost?” Jazz asked, tone light. Her mom had barely even glanced at Vlad. “A filthy, putrid piece of ectoplasm?”
Vlad shot her another glare, his eyes briefly flaring red. He then turned back, snapping Maddie’s book shut and taking it out of her hand entirely. Rude.
“Well,” Vlad said laconically, “If he hadn’t been so weak, perhaps that never would have happened, hm?”
“Now, Vlad, Jack might be a bumbler, but he means well.” Maddie looked at him briefly, before turning back to the bookshelves.
Vlad rolled his eyes, sliding the book in his hands back into place. “I know, Maddie. And I’ve forgiven him for many things: causing the accident that ruined my life, stealing you, the backwash incident—”
“Whoa, back up.” Maddie jerked back to attention, her voice a little shrill. She was looking right at Vlad, now. “What was that?”
He blinked at her, innocently. “Causing the accident that ruined my life?”
Her eyes narrowed. “No, after that.”
“The… backwash incident?” he tried.
Maddie growled exasperatedly, gesturing with a hand. “No. In the middle!”
“Oh, the stealing you part?” Vlad’s eyes went big, like he’d been surprised, before leaning closer to Maddie. “Ah, you always could see right through me.”
Jazz was pleased to see her mom jerk backwards, looking rather uncomfortable. Unfortunately, Vlad didn’t leave it at that.
“Oh, Maddie, I’m just going to come right out with it. Please dump Jack and stay here. You and Jazz both can. What do you say?”
It was like her mom had been frozen solid. Her hands had balled into tight fists, her shoulders hard and tense. She looked a second away from punching Vlad.
“Jazz,” Maddie said, voice low and flat, “Come on, we’re leaving.”
And leave, she did. Maddie whirled around, stomping back towards the exit of the mansion. Jazz quickly followed after her, shooting a worried glance towards the windows. It had gone dark outside. They would have to rough it through the night anyway.
Hurried footsteps chased after them, but Vlad stopped in the doorway.
“Mark my words, Maddie!” he shouted after them, his voice loud in the quiet woods. “Nobody says no to Vlad Masters! You will rue the day that you spurned my affection!”
“What a creep,” Jazz muttered under her breath.
They wandered deeper into the woods, where her mom set up a camp with frightening efficiency. Before Jazz knew it, a wooden shelter had been set up, and a campfire roared in front of her.
Maddie sat down next to her, the light of the fire glinting off of her metal belt. “Jazz, this weekend certainly isn’t turning out like I planned. But we’re spending it together, and that just means the world to me.”
Carefully, she placed her hand on Jazz’. It tingled, slightly, a barely-there buzz. Jazz supposed that the Specter Deflector picked up on the ambient ectoplasm around her.
“I know,” she told her mom, smiling softly. “I’m glad that we’re out here together, too.”
“Let’s just get some sleep, and we’ll figure out what to do next tomorrow.” Maddie stood up, grabbing both sleeping bags and dragging them into the shelter.
Jazz followed her, taking her own sleeping bag and lying down. “Good night, Mom.”
“Good night, Jazz. I love you.”
She smiled, softly, her eyes closed. “Love you too.”
Of course, the peace didn’t last. Jazz had barely closed her eyes before her core stirred, her ghost sense misting out of her mouth.
She was just considering if she could get away with taking care of it without her mom noticing when a loud roar broke the quiet. Maddie jerked upright immediately, her head turning towards the entrance of the shelter. Jazz followed her gaze, and, oh.
In the opening of the shelter, she could see a short, curled leg, with enormous claws. It looked like a bear’s, except that this bear glowed and had bright green fur.
“Ghost,” her mom muttered unnecessarily. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Uh. Okay?” Jazz stayed hunkered down, watching her mom dig through her utility belt, before she pulled out a faintly glowing rope. “You have weapons in there?”
“Of course I do.” Maddie raised a questioning eyebrow. “But this is just phase-proof rope. I’ll tie it down and make sure there aren’t more.”
“Sounds good,” she said. And it did, she supposed. She just had to trust her mom to handle it. It would be fine, right? Maddie was an experienced ghost hunter. She could handle a single animal ghost.
Maddie jumped out of the shelter with the rope between her hands, tripping up the ghost in the same movement. For a brief moment, Jazz could see the whole animal. It really was a bear, except even bigger than regular bears, with six arms and bright red eyes.
Before she could consider jumping in and helping, her Mom had the animal pinned. The Specter Deflector buzzed loudly, sparks dancing over Maddie’s jumpsuit and into the bear. She tied it up with the ecto-rope like it was nothing.
Huh. Looked like the Specter Deflector worked fine. That was good to know.
Jazz crept out of the shelter as well, sidling up close to Maddie. “Mom, that was awesome!”
“Oh, Jazz, thank you.” Maddie smiled down at her, lit by the dying fire. For a moment, Jazz’ core felt full, rumbling pleasantly.
And then her ghost sense went off again, and she just barely held in the cold mist that formed.
Luckily—or was it?—she didn’t need to figure out a way to warn her mom, because another animal ghost pushed its way through the bushes, growling loudly. And another. And another. And, oh boy, another.
“That’s… a lot of them,” Maddie said, slowly. She reached down in her belt with one hand. “Jazz, are you ready to move?”
“Uh huh.” She shuffled a step or two back, away from the ghosts. They growled louder in response.
There was no way they could outrun a wolf, ghostly or not.
“Let’s go!” her mom shouted, sprinting away. Jazz waited a beat before following, tugging on her core and hoping this stupid plan would work. She hadn’t practiced using her powers in human form much, and by god did she regret it now. Definitely something to work on when she was back in Amity.
Her core churned loud in her chest. Behind her, the clearing grew brighter, like the fire had been stirred up, casting their immediate vicinity in golden light.
The ghost wolves behind them yelped as they ran into her shield, feeble as it was.
Jazz kept running.
Eventually they came to a stop, the clearing around them dark. Jazz looked around warily, but her core remained still. Even with her enhanced vision, it was hard to make out details.
“I think we got away from them,” she said, breathing heavily. “We need to figure out a way to call Dad. Or to leave, at least.”
“As much as I hate to say this,” Maddie admitted, “I think we should go back to Vlad’s.”
Jazz jerked, her eyes flying to her mom. “But— He said all those terrible things about Dad!”
“We both know he’s a creep. But he’s a creep with a phone and transportation.” Maddie sighed, then unlocked her Specter Deflector.
Before Jazz could stop her, the belt clicked closed around her own waist.
“Here. This will keep you safe if those ghosts come back.”
“Right. Um. Thanks, Mom.” She watched as the key was tucked back into Maddie’s utility belt. “Uh. Do you know which way Vlad’s mansion is?”
---
Danny’s ghost sense went off, and he immediately perked up. Several animal ghosts stormed over the streets towards FentonWorks.
“Looks like it’s showtime,” he grumbled, pushing himself to his feet. He shifted into Phantom mid-step, jumping off of the roof when he reached it.
The ghosts had made it before he could, so Danny turned himself invisible when he phased inside. And boy, was he glad he did, because Jack stood armed and ready. The entryway around him was splattered with ectoplasm, the remains of earlier ghosts.
Danny darted around him, figuring that Jack could handle the downstairs, and he would take upstairs. He turned the corner and dropped his invisibility, figuring he’d better preserve his energy.
Another ghost phased through one of the upper walls, rabbit-like. Y’know, if rabbits were bright green, the size of a dog, and armed with tusk-like teeth.
He charged an ecto-blast, hitting the animal square in the side. It thudded against the wall, immediately dissolving into ectoplasm. Ah, yes, that was right. Vlad’s little animal critters were incredibly unstable.
Man, this was bringing back some unfortunate memories.
Two boars phased through the ceiling, and Danny gladly blasted them, too. Their ectoplasm splattered onto the ceiling, and he grimaced. Whoops. Sorry to whoever would have to clean that up.
“What are you doing?”
He froze, then turned around, slowly. Plastered a sheepish grin onto his face. “Uh. Saving your dad?”
“Yeah?” Danny Fenton asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. “By splattering ectoplasm everywhere?”
He shrugged. “Kinda. Vlad sent a bunch of unstable animal ghosts here to kill Jack. I dunno how Dad survived them in my own universe, but I figured I would lend a hand here.”
“Vlad… Vlad Masters?” his alternate universe version asked, and oh yeah, he hadn’t mentioned that part before, had he? “Ugh, never mind. Where’s Dad?”
“Downstairs.” His core coiled, and he breathed out blue mist on his next exhale. “Oh, here they come again.”
Other Danny nodded, ducking past him and rushing towards the stairs. “You’re an idiot if you think Dad made it through a fight like this alone.”
“What? There was no one— oh. Duh.” Danny shook his head, turning to follow his human counterpart. “Jazz must’ve helped him.”
“If she could, so can I.” He didn’t even blink when Danny turned himself invisible again, rushing down the stairs and entryway.
They were just in time to watch two bird-like ghosts divebomb Jack, knocking the weapon out of his hands. Danny jerked upwards to avoid it, but human Danny jumped and caught it.
He glanced downwards at it, then back at the ghosts, a determined expression on his face. He put a finger on the button, then rushed towards the ghosts. Danny made a face but followed right behind, ready to blast away the ghosts if necessary.
His human counterpart pressed the button, revealing the invention to be the Jack-o’-Nine-Tails. He managed to tangle the ghosts in the cables, slamming them both against the floor. They destabilized in one hit, their ectoplasm splattering on the floor and walls.
“Wow!” Jack exclaimed, pushing himself to his feet. “Good job, Danno!”
Danny ignored the curdling in his stomach. It wasn’t his dad, and he wasn’t praising him.
“Thanks Dad,” Danny’s voice answered. “Here, take this back. You got an ectogun for me, or something?”
He didn’t want to stay close, but… he was the only half-ghost here. If anyone had to take any hits, or shield the others, it would be him.
Besides, he had kind of accidentally dragged this universe’s version of him into this. Jazz would end him if he got her brother killed.
Still, he could break from them while those two searched for weapons.
There were more ghosts upstairs, and Danny occupied himself for a while blasting those apart. A bear, oversized and six-armed, lunged for him, and Danny raised his arm to blast it away.
A green bolt of ectoplasm flew past him, hitting the animal before he could.
He froze, looking over his shoulder to find… ah, human Danny, of course. He’d swapped his clothes for a jumpsuit, close-fitting but bright orange. Not his own, then. In his arms, he held a large ectogun.
“I had it,” Danny grumbled at him, rolling his eyes.
“Sure you did,” his human counterpart said, lightly. “Let me get a few shots in too, will ya? Someone’s gotta have Jazz’ back when you leave.”
And, ugh. He had a point there.
“Alright, you take point, then.” Danny flew back, hovering over the ghost hunter. “I’ll shield you if necessary.”
“Sweet,” other Danny whistled, a grin on his face. His ectogun whined, then shot another brilliant green bolt, blasting apart the ghost that had just phased through the wall. “You got some way to track these guys?”
“Kinda. I can sense ghosts, and direction if I focus, but nothing really solid.”
“Good enough.” Human Danny heaved his gun onto his shoulder. “Let’s go back downstairs. Try to stay out of sight, will you?”
“Was already planning to.” He followed the other down the stairs, turning himself invisible. “I’m not jumping to get shot by your dad.”
To his credit, human Danny did try to avoid Jack; they mostly fought in separate rooms. And Danny didn’t have to interfere all that much, either. He blasted the occasional ghost, when it tried to attack the others from the back, but not much else.
Well, not until another enormous bear showed up. Danny had just blasted away a ghost from over the other’s shoulder, and thus hadn’t been watching their back.
The bear’s roar shook the walls, and they both whirled around towards it.
“Oh shit,” human Danny whispered, hauling his gun upwards. They both knew it was too close for the shot to fend it off, though.
Danny raised his hands, dropped his invisibility, and poured all his energy into his hands. The shield that formed might’ve been his fastest ever, and it was just barely fast enough.
The ghost thudded against it, claws scraping over the shield’s surface.
“Holy shit,” he heard whispered behind him, as he strained to hold the shield.
“Get ready to fire,” he snarled back, not turning to look. “I’ll push it away, but I can’t fire that soon.”
“Ready,” he heard, and then he shoved. His core spluttered, but the bear was knocked back into the wall. An enormous blast of ectoplasm followed it, hitting the bear right in the chest. It burst apart, coating the entire living room wall with ectoplasm.
Danny panted with the effort. His core churned, but it quickly recovered, ready for another bout of fighting.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine,” he assured the other Danny, flapping a dismissive hand. “I’m just… not used to making shields that quickly. And, to be honest, it’s been a while since my last endurance fight.”
The other watched him for a moment longer, a worried crease to his brow, before he nodded. “Alright, well. Let’s get back to it, then.”
They fought off several more ghosts, darting around Jack where necessary, before the quiet fell in FentonWorks. Danny watched as his human counterpart leaned against the kitchen table, panting, the gun loosely held in his hand. He looked up when his dad entered the kitchen, the man’s eyes settling on him.
Oh, uh, whoops. He must’ve dropped his invisibility somewhere along the line.
“Phantom,” the man boomed, and Danny flinched back, inadvertently hiding behind human Danny.
But Jack didn’t raise the Jack-o’-Nine-Tails he held in his hand. Just looked right at him.
“Uh, hey?” he finally said, realizing that his dad wasn’t going to say anything else.
Jack’s eyes slowly swept over him, then over the human he was hiding behind, and then back to Danny.
“Alone today?” Jack asked, and it took Danny a moment to realize what he was trying to ask.
“Uh, yeah.” He shrugged loosely, vaguely shocked at how civil this conversation was. “Specter is my sister, but we’re not, like, glued together.”
Jack nodded, seemingly pleased, and stepped forward. And then… put his weapon down on the kitchen table, too. Right in front of Danny.
“Um,” he said, before he could stop himself. “Are you sure you should be putting that down?”
“Planning on attacking me, Phantom?” Jack raised a questioning eyebrow.
“No, but there are probably more ghosts around.” He floated away from human Danny, cocking his head at Jack. “Why aren’t you… y’know?”
“You two are not nearly as subtle as you seem to think.” Jack’s eyes wandered back to his actual son. “I don’t trust you, Phantom, but I’ve seen you in here. Seen you shield my son, and watch his back. I know my Danny, and he’s not that good a ghost hunter.”
Said son huffed and rolled his eyes. “It’s not like I have any experience with it.”
“Oh,” Danny said, shuffling mid-air. “Well, um. Thanks, I guess?”
Quiet fell for a moment, before human Danny elbowed him in the side. “Not to disturb the peace or anything, but are we actually clear?”
“Uh, hold on.” Danny stirred his core up again, trying to cast out his ghost sense. He hadn’t had much practice with it, using his ghost sense as a radar of sorts, but it was a useful skill to have. He tasted the air, the pulse of cores. “No, not yet. There are a few still around.”
“Well, back to the grind we go.” The teen pushed himself away from the table, raising his gun back up. “Lead the way, Phantom.”
“Hold on,” Jack interrupted them. He grabbed his weapon as well, eyes settling on Danny. “You can track them?”
“Built-in ghost sense,” Danny explained with a shrug. “Usually it just warns me when other ghosts are close, but I can track ones that are close if I really try.”
Jack nodded, then gestured, a grin wide on his face. “Let’s go get them, boys.”
---
Maddie knocked on the door, and Jazz plastered on her most pleasant smile. Vlad opened the door with a startled expression, but quickly smoothed it over with a—frankly slimy—grin.
“Maddie, Jasmine! You have returned to me,” he greeted them, unnecessarily cheery.
He stepped aside to let them in, but Maddie pressed forward a little further than she normally would have. “Jazz, honey, why don’t you go somewhere else while the adults talk?”
“Sure thing,” she replied, creeping past the two of them, practically unnoticed. Vlad’s eyes had settled on Maddie, and only Maddie. “If you need me, I’ll be over there.” She gestured vaguely, but neither noticed.
She watched as her mom smiled coyly at Vlad, and grimaced as she ducked into a different hallway. She wanted to use the opportunity to search for a phone—her ghost powers would make it quicker than her mom could—but she didn’t know if the Specter Deflector would activate if she did.
Well, actually. Might as well go look on foot, right? She would just stick somewhat nearby, so she could check in if Maddie needed her to take over distraction duty.
Her search of Vlad’s mansion was quick, but bore little fruit. Vlad didn’t have a single phone in the whole building! There were several vehicles, though, which they might be able to borrow if Vlad wasn’t around.
She returned to the hallway she’d been hiding in earlier just in time to see her mom ducking around the corner.
“No phones anywhere, but there’s a bunch of different vehicles that we could maybe borrow,” Jazz whispered as she slid up to Maddie. “ATVs, cars, a helicopter… but no phone.”
Her mom made a face. “I want to take a look around, just to be sure. Why don’t we meet up at the helicopter in fifteen minutes, and we’ll use that if I can’t find anything better.”
“Alright. I’ll keep Vlad distracted for you.”
Maddie nodded, then headed off through the doorway. Jazz hung back for a moment, sorting through possible plans of approach.
There was no way that Vlad would just let them leave, so she had to take him out. There was no way she could take him in a fight, though. Not a fair fight, at least. But according to Phantom, he had beaten Vlad by using Vlad’s own invention, a taser which shorted out their powers. She just had to take it from him, and, well. Intangibility made for easy pick-pocketing, as much as she hated to admit it.
She turned around the corner, smoothing out her hair and returning her nice-girl smile to her face. “Hey, um, Uncle Vlad?”
Vlad was sitting on a couch in front of the fireplace, but he looked up from the book in his hands when she spoke up. “Oh, please, Jasmine, don’t try to butter me up. Mentor or not, you’re hardly a threat to me.”
“How can you say that?” She blinked large wet eyes at him, her tone as soft and innocent as she could make it. “You think my mom made the decision to come back on her own? We’re a family. We both talked about it, and I want to stay here with you too.”
Vlad visibly brightened up, his eyes turning suspiciously wet. “Really? You don’t mean…”
“Yes, I do.” She pushed down her roiling gut, the feeling she had to puke just for talking sweet to this man. She apologized internally to her dad for what she would have to say next. “Come on, give me a big hug, new Dad!”
The man grinned widely, immediately dropping the book and approaching for the hug. She wrapped her arms around him first, turning one hand intangible to dig through his pockets. Around her waist, the Specter Deflector buzzed louder and louder, the feeling of static dancing over her skin.
Vlad screamed, immediately letting her go. Electricity still darted over his skin, his suit scorched in places.
Jazz tucked the hand with the taser behind her back.
“You little rat!” Vlad snarled at her, his eyes flashing red. “You tricked me! But you’ve underestimated me! I don’t need to touch you to fight—”
He frowned, suddenly, hand patting at his empty pocket.
“Wow, were you really going to fight me as Plasmius?” she asked innocently, folding her hands behind her back. “Even though my mom might come back any moment?”
Vlad growled, stepping closer to her again. He raised a hand, glowing pink ectoplasm swirling around it. “You underestimate my power, little girl!”
She cocked her head, smirking at him. “Do I?”
Suddenly she darted forward, pressing the taser against Vlad’s side. She held down the button, watched as the ectoplasm around his fist fizzled out again.
“How about now?” she asked, pulling the taser out of his reach. “That shorted out your powers for three hours, didn’t it?”
Vlad blinked at her, frizzled and clearly surprised. “How do you know about— No, never mind. Because, Jasmine, you’ve forgotten about one more detail!”
He whistled, the sound loud and echoing. Jazz’ core stirred with her ghost sense as several animal ghosts phased through the floor, grouping around Vlad.
“Get her!” the man commanded, pointing at her.
“Me?” She pointed a finger at herself. “But why would they be mad at me? I’m not the one who made their pelts into wall art.”
She gestured at the hunting trophies on the wall, the bearskin on the floor.
The animal ghosts turned back to Vlad, growling and snarling at him.
“Go on, get him,” she encouraged them, and the mob of ghosts lunged at Vlad. The man swore, immediately racing for the door.
Maybe not the most polite way of handling this conflict, but, well. Sometimes you needed to use a little more force.
She glanced at the clock, made a face. Time to head up to the helicopter and get out.
Jazz met her mom on the helipad. “Any luck?”
“No. Looks like we’ll be borrowing Vlad’s helicopter. Where is he?”
“I asked him already. He’s alright with it.” She grinned innocently as they climbed into the chopper seats. “And, Mom? It was a little unconventional, and definitely not what we planned, but… I’m glad that we got to spend some time together.”
Maddie smiled back, soft and warm and genuine. “Oh, Jazz, that’s so sweet.”
The helicopter roared to life around them. Amity Park was waiting.
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Text
The Rescue
Vengeful Babes, Dissection, & Identity Reveal
AO3
Word Count: 3753
Dani wasn’t sure how she was going to explain this to Valerie. She was flying as fast as she could and it wasn’t fast enough but she also needed to think but she needed to focus to be able to think and couldn’t focus on that right now, no, because she didn’t need to crash into another jet and so she had to fly first and brainstorm second but there wouldn’t be time to brainstorm later so she needed to think now!
A bird squawked angrily off to her right, shocking Dani out of her thoughts and forcing her to slam to a halt. She glared at the bird as it gave her the stink eye before flying off. 
“I’m stopped anyway. I need to catch my breath. I’ll think of something right now,” she muttered to herself. “Alright. What do I know? Danny’s been caught. Danny needs my help. Sam and Tucker are out of town. Jazz is at college. None of the three of them know. Vlad’s minion contacted me to tell me. Because Vlad was caught too. The Fenton’s managed to catch them both. ” Dani took a moment to scream internally. She had thought she’d been free of Vlad, that he couldn’t ever find her. Danny had said he’d changed, that he was becoming more of a crazy uncle figure than a fruitloopy asshole, but Dani was loathe to trust the man. “Vlad knows how to find me. No, if he actually has changed, maybe he doesn’t but his minions do. Skulker definitely does. That’s probably it. Skulker’s always been able to find me, and now maybe this time it’s because Danny and Vlad need help and not because he wants to hunt me for sport.” She barked out a sharp laugh. “Why is my life so weird?”
With a quick inhale, Dani took off flying as hard as she could towards Amity Park. It was only a few more minutes away. She could feel the ectoplasm in the air grow thicker, and her speed increased accordingly.
“Danny and Vlad are caught by the Fenton’s and everyone who knows their secrets are out of town except Valerie. And Valerie doesn’t really like either of them, though maybe not as much.” Dani thought back to the last phone call she’d had with her girlfriend. Valerie had mentioned that she and Phantom had a truce, that they had started to work together more to stop the ghosts, and that, for the first time in the three years she had been the Red Huntress, she was getting enough sleep and finishing most of her homework. Though she hadn’t talked to Danny in a while, Dani was pretty sure the same could be said of him. It had taken too long for both of them to be willing to work with the other.
“But Valerie doesn’t know. She knows about me, but she doesn’t know about Danny or Vlad.” Dani slowed down as she entered the Amity Park airspace. The air was practically glowing with latent ectoplasm. “The less she knows about halfas the better, but also Danny should have told her forever ago and it would have made life so much easier for both of them. Agh! Why is he such an idiot?!” She veered off to the north and turned invisible. After a minute of scanning the identical apartments, she was pretty sure she had found Valerie’s. Lowering herself to the window, Dani knocked four times, paused, and knocked twice more.
The door inside slammed open. Valerie dashed across the floor, dove over her bed, and crashed into the wall with enough force to shake the ceiling lights. Throwing open the window, she whisper-shouted “Dannielle!”
Dani took that as her cue to re-enter the visible spectrum and slide through the open window. “Valerie! It’s so good to see-” She was cut off as Valerie smothered her in a hug. Dani melted in to Valerie’s arms and was very disappointed when the other girl pulled away. Disappointment was immediately replaced with a warm kiss. Valerie held Dani’s face, while Dani brought her hands up into Valerie’s hair and kissed back. It had been months since they’d seen each other in person and Dani never wanted this kiss to end.
And then she remember why she was back in Amity Park.
Dani pulled away from Valerie with a sharp inhale. Valerie tilted her head and gave her an odd look.
“What’s wrong, baby?” Valerie let go of Dani’s face and found her hands instead. “Something tells me you’re not back just to visit.” Dani shook her head miserably. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she forced herself to hold them in, at least until she could explain what was going on. Crying was so messy. It made life difficult when you had to worry about leaking eyes and hitching breaths, Dani decided.
“I need your help,” Dani whispered.
“Of course, Dani. You know I’m always here for you,” Valerie whispered back.
“It’s a, uh, it’s a ghost thing.”
Valerie’s eyes hardened into something dangerous. “Who’s ass do I need to kick?” Dani giggled once through the slow tears that were now streaking down her face.
“The Fentons’?” She tried to smile, but it was difficult.
“The Fentons? What did they do?”
“They got Phantom.” Dani could practically see the gears turning in Valerie’s head as she mouthed ‘The Fentons have Phantom’ a few times. “And, and Plasmius, but he’s not really my priority.”
“They have Plasmius too? The Fentons caught Vlad and Phantom?” Valerie quickly maneuvered to the other side of the room to close her door. It wouldn’t do well for her dad to get home and see her plotting with Phantom’s identical clone.
“Yeah, a few hours ago. Skulker found me to tell me and- wait, I never said Vlad. I said Plasmius,” she said slowly. Valerie knew Dani wasn’t exactly a full ghost or a full human, and also that Dani was literally a clone of another being who happened to have a hodge-podge mix of memories from said being. Valerie did not know that Danny and Vlad were halfas, or really even about the existence of halfas. Unless-
“No, I know that’s what you said, baby. But, well, Vlad Masters is Plasmius and oh you already knew-” Valerie saw the look in Dani’s eyes and put it together faster than Dani would have expected. “He’s like you, isn’t he? Plasmius?”
“Sort of. He’s more human, and he’s not a clone. We’re called halfas, but Vlad is mostly just a human infected with ghostliness and I’m technically a clone of a halfa and not a full halfa.” Dani paused. This was getting closer to Danny’s secret than she would like. Unfortunately, Valerie was smart, and Dani knew she already had theories.
“I take it Phantom is a halfa?” Dani nodded. “And the Fenton’s have caught him. And they’re probably going to experiment on him.” Dani nodded, smaller this time. “So we need to rescue him. And Vlad,” Valerie added as an afterthought. “Do you have a plan?”
Dani took a deep breath before speaking. “Sort of. Maybe. I sneak into FentonWorks while you cause a big distraction somewhere, something that looks really dangerous. The problem is that, according to Skulker, there’s a ghost shield around the house that basically puts a full stop to anything ghostly inside. No powers.”
“Then I should be the one to sneak in to FentonWorks. It’ll be easier for me to escape, and I don’t want you to get caught too,” Valerie suggested. Dani shook her head.
“You’d be just as powerless as me. Your suit is powered by ectoplasmic energy, and is possibly psychically linked to you, though I’m mostly guessing on that one. You would be weaponless, and also, if they saw you, the Fenton’s would definitely recognize you. I at least have some anonymity. Plus, I can escape into the Ghost Zone easier. You’ve got a big target on your back in there.”
“Makes sense. So I need to make a distraction” Dani nodded. “Okay. I have an idea.”
Exactly six minutes later, Dani was crouched on a roof opposite FentonWorks in her human form. Valerie had split off towards the park with a quick kiss three blocks back to enact her part of the plan. Right now, she would be off launching flash grenades in the middle of the park, making a big light show with some loud noises, but little property damage. Dani was waiting for the Fenton’s to notice and leave. It was taking too long and it was stressing her out and they needed to go because her cousin was in there and she needed to get to Danny and-
“Let’s go Maddie! There’s a powerful ghost in the park! Phantom will be here when we get back, and we can get a third strong ghost.” Jack Fenton had slammed the front door open with enough force to crack the wood. Maddie Fenton was right behind him carrying three thermoses, a vacuum, and at least seven ectoguns ranging in size from finger-gun to military-grade rocket launchers.
“To the RV!” Maddie shouted with easily as much enthusiasm though likely twice as loud. Dani winced at the volume. The neighbors might wake up, which would cause problems. As it was, she appeared to be okay for now. 
Dani watched as the RV screeched down the street and turned the corner towards the park. She fired off a quick text to Valerie, JF and MF are on their way, be safe <3, before jumping down from the roof to land lightly on the empty street. It was almost two in the morning, so every other streetlight was off. She would have to make sure to thank Vlad for that later. It made it significantly easier to see the Fenton’s shield.
“And now I just walk through, make sure I’m not using any powers, no powers, all good…” She scrunched up her shoulders in anticipation of the sting that came with crossing a shield, and was through in half a second. “Alright, the door. Is it unlocked? Nope! Okay, so, um,” She didn’t bother searching for a key, preferring to aim the Fenton Wrist Ray Valerie made her wear at the look. It melted to nothing in a single shot and the door swung open. “Right then, now down to the lab!” She whispered with mock excitement.
Every single light on the first floor was turned on. Dani imagined that the Fenton’s hadn’t left the basement since they captured Danny, and so probably had no idea it had gotten so late. Danny would occasionally tell her about his parents, how obsessive they could be. 
She found the door to the basement laboratory easily. It was right next to the kitchen, which seemed like a potentially very dangerous idea, and was covered in bright yellow warnings about ectoplasm, radiation, and general danger. She quickly snuck down the stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible despite knowing she was alone in the house. If she got caught, well, from a purely selfish note, that would be very bad.
The stairs led into a large cluttered room that was surprisingly open. On the far wall, the closed portal sat menacingly. In the middle was a table. Lying on the table, limbs and head strapped down with glowing leather, was Phantom. His black suit with trademark logo was missing from the waist up, where a gaping hole showing his innards was instead. Thankfully, he appeared to be asleep. Dani almost threw up then and there. She settled for light gagging instead.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out to see Valerie’s reply.
The Fenton’s haven’t figured out it’s me yet. They’re still running around the park.
It buzzed again with a follow up.
You be safe too babe.
Dani almost smiled before remembering where she was and who else was in the room. She glanced up to find Danny staring at her over his open stomach and yelped, dropping her phone. It clattered to the floor with a distressing sound.
“Danny?”
“Hey cuz!” He was way too enthusiastic, Dani thought, given that he should be even more dead. “How are you?”
“Are- are you okay?” she whispered.
“Oh yeah, no I’m fine, I think. I mean, there’s this,” He glanced down at the dissection. “And whatever they strapped me down with is biting and I can’t phase through it, but other than that, I think I’m okay.” Dani bent over to pick up her phone. The screen wasn’t cracked, thankfully, but the case had a sizable dent in one corner.
“So, um, how do I get you out?” She looked back at Danny, pointedly ignoring the gaping wound.
“There’s a button on the side of the table. It’ll turn off the phase-proofing part, and I can get out from there.” Dani found the aforementioned button, and was distressed that it required a DNA sample.
“It, well, it needs DNA. I guess so other ghosts don’t come and break their cousins out.”
Danny laughed incredulously. His intestines jiggled. Dani swallowed bile.
“Everything in here is DNA coded to my parents, Jazz, and I. You’re the same DNA as me, so it should work.” Dani tried the button, and with a sharp prick of her finger to draw blood, it depressed. There was a generic powering down sound, and suddenly the leather stopped glowing.
Danny sat up as he phased his head and arms through their straps. After taking a second to rub his wrists and try and get the blood flowing, he reached into his chest and removed a few metal devices. He then took the clamps holding his skin open and released them, folding his chest back into shape. Once everything was starting to heal correctly, he hopped down off the table.
It had been at least six months since Dani had seen her “cousin” in person, and she was a bit shocked to see that he was now at least an inch and a half taller than her. She was tall by human standards, almost six feet, but Danny had shot up. He was going to be close to his dad’s height, she thought numbly, trying to ignore the green stains on Danny’s chest.
“...back soon, so we need to go,” Danny finished saying. Dani blinked as she realized he’d been talking. “Dani? Dannielle?”
“I’m here. I’m good. Um, can you repeat what you were saying?”
“We need to dash. My parents will be back soon. At least something we just did will have triggered an alarm. “
“Oh, yeah, that. Um, we could go out the front, but I don’t have my powers right now so that’s riskier. The best option is the portal.”
“Seeing as I’m a bit stuck as Phantom right now, you need to open the portal. Same DNA lock, that sort of thing. Shouldn’t be any harder than the Fenton Ghost Straps.”
“You’re stuck as Phantom?” Dani asked, maneuvering around the vast piles of who-knew-whats to get to the portal.
“Well, not really, but I heal a lot faster as Phantom and ectoplasm stains are significantly easier to get out of clothing. Also, if it comes up, I don’t want to have to explain blood stains. My parents ask more questions when it’s blood,” Danny said. He was poking at the Y-shaped incision on his chest that was now at least no longer flapping with each step. Dani looked away.
“How come you have your powers at all right now? The ghost shield is shutting me down pretty heavily.” Dani asked, keeping her back to her cousin, because god that was a disgusting sound and would he please just stop?
“Weird thing I discovered about shields. The more time you spend around them, the less the affect you. And it’s not just me. Dora, Johnny, Kitty, and Amorpho are all significantly less affected by shields now that I’ve been inviting them into town sometimes.”
“Huh. Weird,” Dani said. “So, which button is it?”
Danny came up next to her at a large control panel. “It’s this one here. Same thing as before, it’ll need a small blood sample, but you’re blood is identical to mine, so my parents won’t know.”
Dani pressed the button, and the portal slid open. Green energy shot out with a quiet roar as the basement turned the same shade as Danny’s organs. Dani was saved from this thought by her phone buzzing again, this time insistently.
“Give me a sec. Gotta take this,” she said over her shoulder. Danny nodded. She answered it.
“Dannielle? Are you there? Get out now!” Valerie’s voice was almost drowned out by the sounds of high winds. “The Fenton’s are coming back quickly. They’re like, two blocks out.”
Dani was proud that she didn’t panic. High stress situations were far too common in her young life, which, as disappointed as she was by this, helped in future high stress situations.
“On our way out. Phantom’s fine. We’re going through the portal. See you in a few minutes.”
“Sounds good. Love you.”
“Love you.” Dani smiled as she hung up. She turned back to Danny and was greeted with pleasant surprise. “I’ll tell you once we’re safe in the Ghost Zone.” Danny laughed.
“The Ghost Zone is never safe.” And he dove headfirst into the open portal. Dani heard the door upstairs slam open with no lock to impede the Fenton adults. Oh well. That’s what they get for kidnapping her cousin. She followed Danny through the portal without a glance back.
Immediately, she could feel her powers flow through her. She transformed giddily into her own ghost self and did a few loop-de-loops. Danny was waiting for her with a smile.
“So… you’re dating someone?” Dani groaned.
“Yeah, I am. We’ve been dating for almost a year now.”
“Do I get the honor of knowing how this person is?” The two halfas flew deeper into the Zone. 
“We’re about to meet up with her.” 
“Is she a ghost?” Danny did a barrel roll over top of Dani so he could fly sideways, on his stomach with his legs crossed in the air behind him and his chin resting on his hands. Dani rolled her eyes.
“No, she’s human.”
“So I take it she knows? About you? Does she know about me?” Danny rolled onto his back so he was looking at Dany upside down.
“Yes she knows about me. No she doesn’t know about you, but I think she suspects something.” Dani stopped and watched as her cousin went speeding by.
“And where exactly is she?” Danny asked, making his way back to Dani.
“In the human realm.” Dani reached her hands out into the air infront of her, and with less concentration needed than the last time she tried this, opened a rent in the fabric of reality.
The small portal, no larger than a bean bag, was swirling green and purple and smelled vaguely of cinnamon and apples. Danny whistled.
“You’ve gotten strong. I haven’t been able to do portals at all.”
“Well, I can’t hold them for long, so please do enter.” Danny flew through the hole in the fabric of the Ghost Zone. Dani took a deep breath and followed suit.
They emerged above Valerie’s apartment. Dani alighted on the gravel roof, and detransformed. Danny stayed hovering at her shoulder height. Within a minute, Dani could hear the whine of Valerie’s hover board, and soon spotted her girlfriend flying high above the city.
The Red Huntress circled the apartment once, before slowly lowering and retracting her hoverboard. She landed on both feet, and Dani lept forward to hug her. After far too short, Dani pulled away, because her cousin was spluttering behind her. She turned back to look at him, and was very releived to see that his jumpsuit had reformed. That’s good, she thought, because that was disgusting and I almost lost my lunch, and that would have gone badly for both of us.
“You’re dating Valerie?!” Danny practically shouted. Both Dani and Valerie shushed him equally as loudly. “Why didn’t you tell me? What? You’re dating Valerie?”
“Yes I am,” said Dani, at the same time that Valerie said “And just how do you know who I am?” They looked at each other and had a quick wordless conversation. It ended with Valerie retracting her full suit. Dani leaned in to kiss her cheek.
“You know who I am, Phantom.” It almost sounded like a question, but Danny had spent too much time around Valerie in the last four years of high school to mistake it as such. “You’ve known for a while now. And I suppose, I know who you are too.” Danny remained silent, so she continued. “I’ve known for a while, I just didn’t want to think about it.” Dani reached for Valerie’s hand and gave a light squeeze.
“I should have told you a while ago, Val. Sorry about that,” Danny muttered, landing lightly on the roof. “If I may ask, what gave it away?”
“You mean besides the name?” Danny nodded with a laugh. “How much Dani looks like you. Both sides of you. You guys do mention clone a fair amount, and even I’m not that blind.”
Danny let his transformation rings wash over him, and although she knew, Valerie was still a bit surprised to see Danny Fenton standing on her roof.
“So, then, now that all this is in the open, does anyone want food?” Danny asked, changing the subject. He stretched his arms up over his head. “Being dissected takes a lot of energy, and I am starving!” Dani smiled at her cousin. Valerie barked out a laugh.
“I guess, yeah.”
“Well then, to the Nasty Burger! Dinner is on me!” Danny transformed back and began to fly off. Dani and Valerie followed close behind.
“It’s four in the morning, Danny,” Dani yelled into the wind. “I think this counts as breakfast.”
“Time is irrelevant. Burgers normally means dinner, so dinner it shall be.” All three teenagers laughed.
“Are you guys just going to go in like this?” Valerie shouted.
“Wouldn’t be the first time, Val. Minimum wage workers tend not to ask too many questions about ghosts at ungodly hours.” 
They flew for a minute, trading light banter, before Valerie came to a screeching halt. Dani and Danny circled back around and hovered with her.
“Um, guys, did anyone get Vlad?”
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blacknight1230 · 5 years
Text
Stay - Danny Phantom Imagine
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Prompt(s): “Don’t scare me like that!”, “I had a nightmare, so I wanted to check up on you,” and “Please just stay with me. For one moment at least?”
Notebooks, textbooks, papers and pencils were strewn everywhere over the bed. Your hunched over figure aches as you continued your seemingly endless amount of homework. Most of it seemed to be from your English class, making you mentally cirse Mr. Lancer for his extremely high expectations for his students. The bed underneath this workload was very inviting and you wanted nothing more than to throw your schoolwork onto the floor, to gather the covers around you, and fall into a blissful sleep. But you couldn’t, no matter how much you wanted and needed to. I shouldn’t have waited to the last minute, you thought. 
Unfortunately, you had no other choice, having to help your friends Sam, Tucker, and Danny deal with the ghosts going rampid in Amity Park. Again, it seemed like you couldn’t get a break. Danny had it the worst, though, as he was the one getting beaten up by the countless malevolent ghosts causing havoc. Poor guy continuously fell asleep during class, specifically Mr. Lancers classes. 
Talking about sleeping, you were starting to doze off, your head bobbing up and down slightly as you tried to fight sleep. The sound of someone knocking on your window woke you up, causing you to jump slightly, and a couple of books and papers falling off your bed. You scrambled to your feet trying to see who was knocking on your window at this time of night. One glance at the white haired, green eyed boy in your window and you immediately knew it was Danny in his ghost form. You immediately opened the window and yelled, “Danny? Don't’ scare me like that!” “Sorry, (y/n). Can I come in?” the ghostly teenager asked, chuckling a bit. 
You moved away from the window, hoping back onto your bed, as Danny flew through the window. His ghostly tail disappeared as he shifted back into his human form. His blue eyes shifted around the room nervously, causing you to worry. “Danny, are you okay? You should be at sleeping. If you fall asleep during Lancer’s class tomorrow, you’ll lose a letter grade!” “I know. Mr. Lancer is such a fruitloop he can’t tell he’s the reason why we’ve falling asleep in his class in the first place,” Danny grumbled. 
A yawn broke out from between his lips as soon as he was done complaining. Along with the dark circles under his eyes, you concluded that the fourteen year old was behind on his schedule. “Have you even laid down to rest yet? You look terrible,” you worried. “Luckily, I was actually able to go on bed on time. But ...” Danny trailed off. Embarrassment and nervousness radiated off of him, clueing you in that this was serious to Danny, but was probably considered trivial to everyone else. “What’s the matter, Invisa-Bill? You can tell me,” you coached, jokingly calling him the name all the inhabitants of Amity Park mistakenly called his heroic ghost form. A little smile broke out on Danny’s face, which you were hoping for. “Okay, okay, just don’t make fun if me. I had a nightmare, so I wanted to check up on you,” he mumbled, avoiding looking you in the eye. “Danny,” you said in a soft voice. 
Since first meeting Danny, the both of you have been the closest out of your small group of friends. You trusted each other with everything and cared for each other in such a way it bordered on not being platonic. Paulina actually made it a habit to call you Danny’s girlfriend, alongside Sam. Many times Danny has gotten himself burt trying to defend you from either ghosts or bullies like Paulina and Dash. You’ve sacrificed sleep, food, and your grades to help Danny, in a way hurting yourself for him, but just not physically. Him having a nightmare about you wasn’t shocking because of this. 
You beckoned the dark-haired male over to your bed, wanting him to lay on it. Danny shuffled towards your bed, his tiredness clearly affecting this. How the hell did he even fly here? you thought as he almost fell over a couple of pencils and books in his way. The boy made it to your bed, flopping dramatically onto the comforter as soon as you pushed your school work off of it. You laid down next to Danny, facing himas you positioned yourself on your side. 
“What was the nightmare about?” you gently asked, reaching out to move his black locks out of his eyes. “I was fighting one of my many ghostly enemies. Skulker, I think it was. He had you in his ghost realm and he was using you to get to me,” Danny said, his voice muffled since his face was buried in a pillow. “And - and ... I couldn’t get to you in time. Your screams ... they were ...” 
You didn’t let him say anymore, cuddling into his side as you tried to comfort him. Danny turned towards you and buried his head into your chest, wrapping his arms around your middle. You shushed the teen, your hands gently stroking his hair. Danny didn’t cry, but took deep breaths to calm himself down as you absentmindedly hummed a random tune. Eventually, Danny’s body relaxed, as did his breathing, meaning he was asleep. You sighed, saying to yourself, “You are going to work yourself to death someday.” You kissed his exposed forehead, Danny’s yes fluttering at the contact of your lips to his skin. 
You tried to untangle yourself from the sleeping boy, wanting to leave him alone to sleep in peace. You were just about to walk away from the bed, when Danny suddenly grabbed your arm. You quickly turned towards him, about to say something, when Danny beat you to it. “Please stay with me. For one moment at least?” he said in his sleepy voice. Your heart panged at the sight, his hair messed up, eyes sleepy, his body wrapped in blankets. How could you say no to a face like that? 
You got back into the bed, Danny moved his head onto your chest, one leg and an arm thrown over you as soon as your back hit the bed. You just wrapped your arms around the teen as his breathing got deeper as he started to fall asleep. “Goodnight, Danny,” you said as your eyes started to close, sleep taking you along with Danny. “Goodnight, (y/n). I love you,” Danny replied in a mumble. Your half-asleep brain did not fully recognize what he said, so you fell into a much needed and blissful sleep. 
Your morning alarm violently woke you up at six in the morning. You shot up from your bed and slammed the button on your (clock/phone) to turn the blasted thing off. Unfortunately, you forgot someone was laying on top of you, causing said person to fall off the bed when you suddenly moved. Danny’s scream reminded you that he came over the night before and you flinched when you heard him hit the hard ground. 
“Ow, what the hell?” he grumbled as he sat up, rubbing his head. “Sorry, Danny! Are you okay?” you worried. “Yeah. Just had a rude awakening,” Danny replied as he moved to lay back on the bed. 
As your brain slowly woke up, you remembered what Danny said to you before he fell asleep. Immediately, your cheeks turned (red/pink). “What’s the matter, (y/n)?” Danny asked, when you realized you were blushing. “Do remember anything from last night?” you asked. Danny looked confused, but answered you anyway. “Kind of. I remember coming here to check on you after a nightmare and passing out with you on the bed. Why? Did I do something wrong that I don’t know of?” 
He doesn’t remember, you thought, meaning you had to tell him that he said he loved you, causing you to inwardly scream. “You really don’t remember? You don’t remember what you said to me before you fell asleep?” “No. What? What did I say?” “Oh dear, how do I say this? Um, you admitted you have feeling for me,” you mumbled, avoiding eye contact with Danny. Danny’s blue eyes widened when he remembered his confession from last night. He groaned and buried his face in his hands. “You’ve got to be kidding me! I can’t believe I confessed like that! And I didn’t even remember doing it!” he exclaimed. “I’m sorry,” you said, still trying to control the blush on your cheeks. “Why are you apologizing? I’m the idiot who confessed. And not very well might I add,” Danny said. 
Awkward silence filled the air, neither one of you knowing what to say. Danny groaning and falling back onto your bed sheets broke the silence. “Why did I have to confess like that? Now I ruined our friendship!” he complained. “How did you ruin our friendship? I don’t feel like you did,” you asked, confused. “Of course I did. I know you don’t feel the same way and you won’t be able to look at me the same after this. What a disaster!” Danny explained. “What if I feel the same way,” you said/ Danny’s head snapped up to look at you, his eyes wide. “Are you serious? You’re not just joking around are you?” he said, bewildered. You just nodded your head, failing to find any words.
A smile broke out on his face, it reaching his ears and his eyes shinning with happiness. “This is ... This is great!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. You shushed him and whispered, “Quiet down! My parents don’t know you’re here, remember!” Danny quickly covered his mouth and quieted down. “Sorry,” he whispered, a smile still on his face. “It’s just I’ve never had a girl I like like me back.” “I’ve never had a guy like me ack before,” you admitted. 
The two of you drew closer, staring into each other's eyes, lovestruck smiles on your faces. “(Y/n),” Danny quietly said. “Can I kiss you?” With a blush on your cheers, you agreed with a slight nod. Danny took his chance, capturing your lips with his own, in a sweet, innocent kiss. You relaxed into the kiss your hand coming to rest on the ghostly teen’s chest as he cupped your cheek. Sparks flyed and your heart seemed to beat in synch with Danny’s. You never loved Danny more than this magical moment. 
Your bedroom door slamming open made you two separate, practically jumping apart from the sudden moment. “What the hell is going on here?” your father shouted, eyes red with rage, looking like he wanted to kill Danny. “Oh shit,” Danny and you both mumbled. “Um, hi, Mr. (l/n). This ... this isn’t what it looks like,” Danny said, trying to make the situation better. Your father just grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him out of your room. You could hear Danny shouting as your father pulled him down the stairs, and threw him out the front door. “Dad!” you shouted, worried for your best friend. “You, missy, are in big trouble,” your father said when he turned to you, giving you a cold glare. We’re screwed. 
THE END
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going-dead · 5 years
Text
Uncle Vlad AU Ideas
Based off of this post. Just some small ideas for a larger phicc i’m planing to write.
He secludes himself from the Fenton’s after his accident at first. Always giving excuses as to why he can’t get together with them.
But eventually he gets lonely, he has a huge house but it’’s just him inside it. The stupid idea to kill Jack doesn’t ever take hold. I doubt Maddie would want to get into a new relationship after her husbands death, especially if he died via ghost.  She’d probably be more focused on revenge.
Maddie and Jack still think of Vlad as a good friend so when they find out that Maddie is pregnant Vlad is the first person they call to ask about being the godfather.
Vlad realizes this is the next best thing to having a family himself. Which do to being part ghost he isn’t even sure if he could have kids. He immediately calls them back telling them that he’ll do it. 
At the baby shower Vlad gets a mobile with little ghosts and two custom figures of the Fenton parents in ghost hunter gear. They love it and it goes right above what will be Jazz’s crib.
Vlad doesn’t help them with ghost hunting stuff for obvious reasons, not wanting to be outed as a half ghost. He uses the excuse of what happened in college with the proto-portal for why he doesn’t like working with ecto things.
Once Jazz is born and he holds her for the first time he swears to himself, on his life and afterlife, that nothing will hurt her. And once Danny is born he swears the same.
He doesn’t spoil the kids as much as one would expect, at least not with expensive things. He does make a lot of treats for them though, and takes them out to parks for walks.
He still hosts the school reunion, only because he was asked though. The Fentons still stay over as well, which is not uncommon but the first time they have since Danny got his powers.
Danny and Vlad still fight as ghosts but only because Vlad was ghosting around in his own lab and Danny’s ghost sense went off. Once he finds out that it was Danny he doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He reveals himself to Danny and starts teaching him about being a halfa. 
Shenanigans of the Fenton inventions working on both halfas ensue. 
Dan still happens but it stems from both Danny’s an Vlad’s grief.
Vlad still tries to become mayor of Amity Park, but he doesn’t overshadow people for votes. The people of Amity Park know Vlad by this point he’s been around since before Jazz was born. He wins the election fairly. 
When he hears what Spectra was going to do to Jazz and what she did to Danny, well Vlad isn’t as morally ‘pure’ as Danny.
Obviously the whole clone thing doesn’t happen, sorry Dani.
Vlad still gives Valerie the Red Huntress suit, for the purpose of helping Danny out, not hunting him.
“Hello little badger”
“Hello little badger I am a ghost fear me.”
“Hi uncle Vlad.”
“Hi uncle Vlad, I am a ghost fear me.” 
Cue laughter.
Jazz finds out about Danny the same way as she does in the show. When she finds out about Vlad she starts questioning her existence. Who else that she loves is a half ghost?
Tucker wonders who else is hiding a rich relative. Sam rolls he eyes, Danny points out that he’s not technically related to Vlad. 
And as always:
Phantom Planet isn’t canon.
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